Excerpts From Traveling to the Heartland.

1/3/06 7:24 a.m. Central Time

We are rolling into Hastings, NE, and the sun is just now rising. Hastings seems bigger than I would have imagined, but still familiar, local, and rural. The stop here for the train is brief and on our way out of town we pass a pharmacy and cafe that look like they could have been a still frame from the '70's. It made me smile for some reason like a piece of life frozen in time. We ride past early morning traffic cruising along side of the train, trying to avoid the chill of the frozen dew that is covering everything here in Nebraska this morning.
As the sun rises it reveals fog and haze covering crops and fields that stretch out flat for miles on end. The sky has a grey orange tint to it that makes it look ominous if it wasn’t for the florescent pink and orange clouds scattering the horizon.
If a person could tell how the day would go from sunrises, most days would be heart-breakingly beautiful. They would be days that unfold and envelope with colors that seem new and rare, and will happen only this once just for you, a day that holds nothing but hope and promise. A sky like this one with its brush stroke colors of yellow, pink, orange, and red; trailed across an indescribable blue with wisps of a grey-purple could offer you the world and you would take it without questions or reasons. But unfortunately as the sky slowly fades into the background of dead silhouetted rows of trees, I remember that this is just another day, and I remember where I am headed and why I am on this train.
But maybe we should let the sky foretell our day. After all who would know better how the days is going to go besides the force that brings your days around.



Well the sun rose with so many colors
It nearly broke my heart
And worked me over like a work of art
And I was a part of all that

So go ahead, push your luck
Say what it is you've got to say to me
We will push on into that mystery
And it'll push right back
And there are worse things than that

'Cause for every price
And every penance that I could think of
It's better to have fallen in love
Than never to have fallen at all

'Cause when you live in a world
Well it gets in to who you thought you'd be
And now I laugh at how the world changed me
I think life chose me after all
- Dar Williams, After All

WOOOO!!! CLASSES!!!

I have now gone to all of my classes except one which only meets Thursday evenings. I may be the biggest dork in the world for saying this but I am so excited to be back in school. My theater classes are going to be awesome, you know it is going to be a good class when the teacher lectures that his goal for the semester is to offend everyone in the class at least once. My history professor is sort of monotone, so Ainsley, Jessi, and myself have promised to poke each other in class to make sure we are not elsewhere. English eventhough it is at 8:10 in the morning should be good, the teacher is seems really good, and hopefully my grammer and writing technique will improve greatly. Hopefully my Women Studies course is not to overwhelming on Thursday.

As you probably figured since have been to my classes I made it back from Chicago. I made it back all in one piece, but the FAFSA still isn't signed. All of the information has been filled out and sent in, but instead of printing out the signature paper and mailing it in, they sent out for a PIN and now have to wait until that comes back in the mail. We will see how that goes.
Wicked was amazing. I can't even begin to describe the play. The energy from the time I stepped into the theater, was a full buzz of excitment from everyone there. While standing outside the theater in line, a guy came up to me and asked if I would be able to take a picture of him and his friends. Of course I said yes, took the picture and went back to standing in line, and the next thing I know is the same guy is walking back to me. He just gives me a hug and goes back inside. Random hugs are great.

Three Years...too short...or too long?

My train leaves Unoin Station in Denver for Chicago in about 7 hrs and 10 minutes. I am all packed, have my outfit for Wicked, I thought about taking my suit to wear but decided that might not be the best idea or way to handle the situation. My train survival kit from Ainsley and Lauren has been rearranged into my backpack. I am having to remind myself to breathe. I am terrified to see my mom again because a part of me still wants her love and acceptance, I know its almost not worth it but she is still my mom. I realized today that I haven't seen her in three years.