Family Reunion

It was the kind of weekend that raises the bar for "weekends away". We scurried out of town on Friday afternoon. On my way out of the office, I literally ran back into the office 4 times with additional "key information" to impart to my troops before taking off for a 3.5 day getaway to Cambridge Wisconsin for the annual family reunion at "The Lake".

Bella was queen bee among 5 boy cousins ranging from 3 months to 7 years. She also got lots of attention from Auntie Carrie, Freddie the Dog, and of course Grandma and The Big Guy. In fact, I was in heavy "decompression mode", and truth be told I don't remember much about Saturday other than being on a boat a couple of times, someone keeping beverages coming, and a truly enjoyable Sci Fi novel.

Saturday was about me realizing that I've been a crazy superball of stress from my new position, and that I REALLY need to take steps to chill out on a more regular basis.

By Sunday, I was ready to engage with the world a bit better, and I was much more of an active player in the activities. My proudest achievement was waterskiing: I have not been able to successfully ski since College, and poorly even then. Yet this weekend, somehow, I just popped right up, and did two lengths of the lake on choppy water, before calmly releasing the rope and sinking contentedly into the water. I feel the only thing I can attribute it to is this: I am actually finally STRONG enough to pull myself out of the water. Working out is the reason. HOORAY!

Today was ridiculously idyllic: Jen and Harman were our hosts - they live in a big house out in the country (so far in the country, they don't even have High Speed Internet... GASP!). Today we had a leisurely breakfast, the kids played, I spent an hour with the kids helping/watching them ride trikes and bigwheels. We walked to the neighbor's and around a lake... with the sun shining and a cool breeze.

What amazes me about the country is how big the sky is. I don't know why it is, but the sky is just massive out there. I spent a lot of time just appreciating it.

So I'm back and it's crazy already at work (I've done over an hour of emails already), but I think that I can focus on this feeling of tranquility, and when I stress out, I think I'll just think about that enormous sky up there. It's big.