I had 2 weeks in the heartland to get myself organised and recover from the stress of the last 2 months. Jet lag was not kind to me this time around and I took a good 4-5 days to get adjusted. After a great weekend with Aunt Monica, McKenzie and Grandma visiting it was time for a new set of lists - and panicking. I decided to buy a netbook on somewhat of a whim, which may or may not prove to be a good idea as I get used to lugging stuff around the globe. It's only another kilo to carry...

Of course part of the reason for timing my departure in March is so that I could spend some time in the US during NCAA March Madness. Unfortunately I managed to fill out my bracket a few hours into a chat with my sister over a bottle of wine, which I do not recommend (despite having led the competition after day 1).

Had a great side trip to St Louis to visit Jen and Christine - Jen being a dear friend from uni that I'd lost touch with until the invention of facebook. We walked through the Botanic Gardens of St Louis (2 weeks too early for the spring blooms unfortunately) and compared lives for the past decade. Turns out they were remarkably similar in many respects! It also gave Christine the opportunity to confirm her previous hypothesis that, indeed, Wellesley women 'self-select' and, hard as we might fight it, we do have common characteristics!

I had lunch with an old high school friend Tim before heading out that afternoon. Unfortunately I got the time wrong and our opportunity to catch up was truncated by 30 minutes. But, it still afforded us the chance to catch up and for me to meet his daughter Isabelle (who wasn't quite as interested in meeting me).

My sister Amy drove us back from St Louis, but I'm still quite bitter with her for not stopping at the Iowa/Missouri border petrol station which sold, clearly from the name of the station, SMOKES FIREWORKS WHISKY & WORMS.

And the last 2 days of rushing around began...