Where my thought's escaping, Where my music's playin', where my...love lies waiting...silently...for...me...?

Not so much that last one. But yes, I'm home. We left at 6 am on the 31st, and got home between 1 and 2 am on the eighth. I didn't blog on the 30th because I forgot, and I didn't blog on the 8th because I was exhausted. I cried and was mopey for no good reason yesterday. I was able to control myself most of the day, but then my brother's girlfriend put coffee in my CUPPS mug and was going to take it with her down to Bloomington, and I flipped out and told my mom and ran upstairs and bawled my eyes out. It was really pathetic. Luckily my mom had her thinking cap on and simply told Claire that it was mine and not open for the taking, and everything worked out fine. And I got a fair amount of sleep last night, so all is well today.

As for last week, I will give as brief a synopsis as possible.

The [16-hour] drive to Idalia, CO was uneventful, but more brutal than usual. It was Annabelle's first long trip, and she didn't much enjoy being cooped up in the car that whole time. But by 9:00, we were at my aunt and uncle's house in Idalia, eating pizza with Jimmy, Kathy, and Jordan. RC, Annabelle, my mom, and I all left in our van around noon, following Jordan in his car to Denver to pick up his sister from her apartment, get Starbuck's and pick up some things from Target. Then we caravanned the rest of the way into the mountains, to a place near Twin Lakes, CO called Lakeview Campground. My cousin Heather, her husband, Eben, and my aunt and uncle Jon and Diane were already stationed there, and Dennis, Patrick, and Remy showed up pretty quickly.

It was raining pretty heavily. Wasn't a great time to set up tents...but what can you do?

Monday, my aunt Margie arrived, as well as Jimmy and Kathy. We played Gin, Tenlum, Rummy, Bananagrams, etc all day. Some of the menfolk went fishing. We had an amazing Chicken Braai (South African barbecue) as well as some Bathsheba (it has a real South African name...but I don't remember it now, since we called it Bathsheba all week, and I couldn't spell it anyhow) all courtesy of Eben and Heather. Katri and I roasted marshmallows periodically throughout the day. Needless to say, I took myself off my sugar-free restrictions for the week.

Tuesday, my cousins Kaleb, Joby, and Erin, as well as Erin's children, Charlie and Robert, and Kaleb's girlfriend Kathleen arrived. More fishing, more gaming, we added Monopoly to the mix this day. Katri got whooped by Dennis and Jordan (well, it was one of those things where Jordan was really sucking, but Dennis was pulling him along, making deals with him to get his monopolies) and then we all got whooped by Jordan in a later game. Baggo and Horseshoes were also played by all. For dinner, we had Jimmy's world famous Chili and Kathy's squash casserole.

Wednesday it rained a lot. We played more Monopoly, (Katri won this time, and so was in a much better mood) and more Gin and more Tenlum and more stuff etc etc. We had brats and chili for dinner.

Thursday, Margie and Joby went home. We had steaks for lunch, cooked by Patrick and Eben. Fantastico. Roast corn as well. Mmm...so good. We all took turns chopped wood. I owned. It was great.

Friday, we left around noon. Jimmy, Kathy, Jordan, Dennis, Patrick, RC, Annabelle, my mom, and I all caravanned back to Idalia and arrived around 5, ate leftovers for dinner, and showered. Ahh, sweet showers. We reminisced for a little while, then hit the hay.

Patrick and Dennis left at 12:30 in the morning. Heaven only knows why.

RC, Annabelle, my mom and I didn't leave until 9:30 or 10:00. I drove about half-way, RC drove the rest, and my mom and RC took turns keeping Annabelle occupied. She didn't really like me. We listened to HP 2, which I happened to have on my iPod. So good. We had listened to some of Playing the Enemy on the ride up. I want to hear the rest; it was really interesting. We unpacked yesterday, vegged out, celebrated Denny's birthday, had a good time.

And now it's over.

Today, I babysat for my old English teacher, Mr. Schaefer. His son, Dylan, is adorable, if a bit drooly.

Also, today, I set up a tumblr for NaNoWriMo 2010! A little early, I know, but I want to get a lot of pre-season work done this year, since my schedule's bound to be packed, and I want to make the writing as smooth as possible, so I can both win and sleep. Check out the blog. It's kind of cool; you can add stuff if you want. I really want your input, whoever you are. I've got some ideas, but they're very rough, and I'm not sure if they go together.

Well, I'm off to...find something else to do. I'll probably elaborate on some of the past week's festivities at some later date.

<3 spadeALLcross