Circus Xtreme Worcester, MA - A Visit Home, A Quiet Week

After a good night's sleep at my parent's house, I woke up and had breakfast with my Mom on Monday morning. I was able to book a detailing service to clean my car (let's be real, a college-age man has had it for several years and it needs a good cleaning!). The next door neighbor was kind enough to take me to drop the car off. After that some of Mom's friends came over to play cards. We had a good time (though my team lost!) and enjoyed a nice lunch together. One of the ladies took me to pick my car up. I got it right at closing time, and unfortunately didn't notice that there was now a giant brown stain on the backseat that hadn't been there when I dropped it off :( I was disappointed, but the company was very responsive and offered to fix it for me the next day.

The rest of the day was great, I went to Bible study with my parents and we had dinner together at the Turkey Hill Brewery. I received the leasing paperwork and official application acceptance from the apartment in Kansas City, so now I have a place to live. Yay!

On Tuesday I got up early for a meeting with my bank, then returned to the detailing place to see if they'd be able to remove the stain from my backseat. They were able to improve it a great deal, and I was happy with that. Then we met my sister Kate for brunch and had a good time socializing and catching up with each other. We went to see Beauty and the Beast, and all agreed that it was quite good. Animation has gotten SO amazing!!! And the plot was deeper and more "adult" than the cartoon version. There were even elements from the original French fairy tale, which hadn't been present in Disney's original version. We really enjoyed it. After that we ran a few errands, and I set up my utilities for the new apartment. When my Dad got home we went to dinner at a nice Italian place in a neighboring town with Kate and her husband Pat. We had a great time and enjoyed each others' company.

On Wednesday my Aunt Nicole invited my Mom, Kate and I to brunch! I was glad to see her as we don't get to visit often. She gave me a present: a HQ image of my newspaper article in the Press Enterprise! She even offered to have it framed, but I've declined for now. After our meal I said goodbye to Kate and my aunt, promising to see them again "soon"...whatever that will mean! Hopefully at least over the holidays!!

Back home I made sure the car was packed, then hugged my Mom goodbye. Dad was at work so I'd said goodbye to him the night before. I felt bad for having so little time to spend with my family, and for leaving somewhat earlier than totally necessary. But there is just so much to do. Anyway, I'm grateful that I got a chance to see much of my immediate family before moving to Kansas City.

It took longer than expected to reach the train thanks to bad timing (I hit rush hour traffic in CT), but I made it there all the same. There is a Walmart nearby and I stopped there first to grab dinner and some groceries.

The next morning I woke early to take my car to a Toyota dealership. It was due for many recalls, and on top of that when I got it back from my brother I had immediately noticed a knocking sound coming from one of the wheel wells. It turned out to be the right front axle :( An expensive repair, but this is the first major repair I've had to do on my car after putting over 100,000 miles on it, so I won't complain! While waiting for the repairs I hung out in the dealership waiting room, walked to a grocery and a thrift store, and chatted with Jameson. Repairs were finished late afternoon, at which point I had a quick interview with a BBC reporter. Then I was supposed to go over my complicated taxes with my preparer, but didn't make it back to the train in time, so will have to reschedule that. Grand. I spent the rest of the evening doing laundry and enjoying some down time.

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