Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Iowa Adventure! Addendum


So I neglected to talk about the wonderful flooding experience that happened while I was in Iowa. I arrived in Ames Wednesday afternoon and spent the evening with friends. That night it stormed for a bit but I was still able to sleep well. When I awoke the next morning I looked outside and there was water covering Iowa State Center or our basket coliseum, theaters, convention center and football stadium. I was lucky that the water never hindered my visit. The whole city of Ames was under a boil and water conservation alert until Sunday. So it was bottled water and careful tap water use. Thursday, Cathy and I decided to go to Des Moines and see a movie. Since all of the major roads were closed we had to take a back route. When we were ready to head back to Ames, we found out that the highways had been opened. In short I am very glad that I didn't have any of my belongings destroyed or had to leave early. It was quite an adventure!

May peace be with you until next time!

Monday, August 16, 2010

Iowa Adventure!

For the last two weeks I have been in the magnificent state of Iowa and it has been an adventure. The first week was spent in Cedar Rapids, the city of my birth, with my mom's family. My grandparent have now moved into a assisted living and nursing care center and my mom and her sisters are working to clean out their house so they can sell it. It's a sad thing but it was definitely nessecary. Now my grandparents have a better quality of life and my aunts are less stressed. In the cleaning and sales I have been able to relive some great memories and collect some priceless items. I come from a very Italian family on my mom's side and love (and I mean LOVE!) the smell of cooking tomatoes. My mom has a tomato strainer to make tomato sauce and I have always wanted one. I now have two! I can't wait to have a garden and make my own tomato sauce. I was also able to find some facinating books. My aunt found me an older copy of the Quran (it was spelled with a K though). Since I am interested in all religions, I can't wait to sit down and tuck in. The other books that I collected include an animal art book, Les Miserable and a large complete collection of Shakespear (all plays and some sonnets). When we were digging through the garage we found a huge pile of my great uncle's art. He was a trained artist that studied in Chicago. His art work tends to be more abstract and he has a lot of nudes but he was quite good. I'm thinking that my artsy abilities might have come from my mom's side of the family. Not only did we find sketches and drawings but he had some copper etchings as well. I have been told that I will get at least one piece of his art work. I just have to wait for my aunts to go through them. Besides having to deal with silly family disputes the week was very exciting!



This past week was spent in Ames, the home of my alma mater Iowa State University. I mostly came back to attend the wedding of my friends, Kimberly and Sam. I was able to stay with my friend Cathy. I haven't seen Cathy in a good 8 months (she studied abroad last spring). It was great to see her again and spend time with her. We watched a lot of movies and I even got to teach her how to crochet. But back to the beautiful wedding; the whole event was absolutely wonderful. There couldn't be two people more perfect for each other than the bride and groom. It makes me extremely happy to know that there are amazing people in the world and that this world is going to change for the better. I do have to say that I cried a little but they were definitely happy tears. I now have no clue what else to say about it but that is was beyond belief. Today I fly back to Tennessee and have to prepare for two interviews this week. I hoping that one of them will work out.

May peace be with you until we meet again!