Quick trip

Last week was kind of crazy because we had no school on Monday and then I took Friday off!  So I "only" worked three days, and I feel like I haven't worked in ages.

That's because on Friday I took off for a little jaunt to New Orleans to visit my brother and his family.  The original plans were blown up both on their side and on mine, since DD was supposed to come with me, but then she came down with the flu: no flying for her! 

I had a great time visiting my brother and his family and all their adorable cats.  They fed me all kinds of delicious food and drink and it was just nice to have time to hang out and be together.  The best thing is that now most of them will be coming to see us at Thanksgiving!  I am beyond excited about it.  When I texted DH the news he deadpanned, "Great!  I'll start cleaning now."  (The house is really not that bad! Really!)

Part of the reason I feel like I've been away a long time is because I read a novel loaned to me by my dear mother-in-law, The Lilac Girls,  about the "Ravensbruck Rabbits", girls and young women who were the subjects of gruesome medical experiments in the only Nazi concentration camp that was exclusively for women.  Most of the women were Polish Catholics, and from Lublin, which is a place I know my mother visited several times.  I think I still have cousins there.  It was meticulously researched and only slightly over-written in that "first novel, name-dropping" style, but I was thoroughly engrossed nonetheless. 

I arrived home after two entirely matter-of-fact flights in the early afternoon.  From there it was grocery shopping, mass, and then dinner prep, as usual.  And now I have to prepare myself to plunge back into the work world, and I just want to dive back into another book instead!

This is why I shouldn't read unless I have an actual school holiday.  I always want to read more, more, more. I am an insatiable reader, I just manage to keep it under control most of the time.  Still, it was a lovely weekend and I do feel refreshed.