Home from Iowa

Home again after a short but packed-full trip.

Highlights:
--The sheer happiness of Randy and Shelley. God bless them both.
--New fodder for the Mennonite-wedding novel. The best man will be sick with a stomach flu and will have to slip out during the service to throw up--yes this really happened; Justin is a trooper--then the nice girl that he never noticed before but who has liked him for a long time will help him out...I thought she would get him some Sprite and Amy thought she would clean up the barf (ewww) and suddenly he will realize Wow, she is Really Something--no, this part didn't really happen, to my knowledge at least. . .Justin, feel free to fill me in here.
--Seeing my Uncle Mahlon again, and seeing him perk up and recognize me. At least I like to think that's why he smiled like that.
--Time with relatives at the home of my amazing cousin Anna Fern and her husband John.
--Introducing the girls to a bit of my past. "Right there where that house is was Friendship School where your Grandpa Yoder taught." They said, "Hmmm, cool." And then we went to a little Amish store and they giggled in the corners and put on an Amish hat and said, "Vee bisht??" in a low, manly voice. Oh how nice it is to have daughters with this great love for their heritage.
--Catching up with my cousin Katie who is Amish but, as I was told, not really Amish.
--Time with Emily whom I hadn't seen for over a month.

Being sick put a big damper on all the fun and by the time I came home I had a fever of over 103. The less we say about that the happier we will all be. I went to bed, Amy brought me tea and Vicks, and today the outlook is brighter.

A story:

After I flew to Ohio last month I told Emily how I always look at what people are reading in airports and on planes because I have this little deep-down dream of someday seeing someone reading one of my books there. Why airports/planes exactly? I don't know; I just know it would make me very happy.

I took half a dozen of my books along to Iowa and then gave them to Emily to take back to Colorado because she wants to have some on hand there since she and I are committed to promoting each other's books. When I gave them to her she said, "You know, I guess I should read these, since I never have." [Yes, every author ought to have teenagers to keep them humble.]

We were all flying out of Chicago/Midway, Emily an hour after the rest of us, so we all sat together in the waiting area. Emily pulled out "Upstairs the Peasants are Revolting," in a rather exaggerated fashion and began reading it. I thought hmmm, how nice.

You know, I am very very slow to catch on to things. Emily finally ran out of patience and gave me a verbal prod, and then I finally finally caught on: AAAAHHHHHH! My dream come true at last!!

SOMEONE WAS READING MY BOOK IN AN AIRPORT!!!!!!!

And it made me very happy.

Quote of the Day:
"It's too bad I don't write a column for the newspaper."
--Rachel D., who kept Jenny while we were gone. Not sure I want to know all the implications of this.