Boom Boom

This is were I want to be... Alaska and camping. I actually enjoy camping and doing stuff outdoors. Getting to have a disconnect from everyday life. These two photos above are my brothers. He took these when he was doing the NOLS Alaska course. NOLS stands for National Outdoors Leadership School. I've been trying to convince my parents to let me go do this. They are not going for it. If I got to go, I would want to go to Alaska or Patagonia. Three months or so of being back to basics so to say. I was talking to somebody about it and he thought I was crazy for wanting to pay to go through this. His train of thought was if you want to see this stuff get a nice hotel and go out during the day to see what you want then get to shower. There are times when I like doing those things... get a hotel and get to see sites during the day but what you get to see and do at NOLS you don't get to do or see in little day excursions @ hotels. This was all a day dream while sitting in my class. 

I began my last undergrad class. The Blue and the Gray, history class on the Civil War. I've been wanting to take it for the longest time but every time i tried to sign up for it; it was always full. Took me two years to finally get into the class. I wanted a certain professor but he ended up not doing it this summer in Oxford, so I'm commuting to Tupelo. I'm glad that it is only meeting three days a week, don't know how much I would like driving to and from Tupelo Monday through Friday.  I know my dad does it but then again my dad is Superman. I say this b/c I'm the 3rd of 4 kids. My brother is the oldest at 29, my older sister is only 15.5 months older than me, then my little sister is six years younger than me. Back to my dad, while growing up, I can only think of a few things that he could not make it to. He was at my sporting events when I was younger. In middle school and high school he went to the football games on Friday nights that I cheered, then later mascoted, at, then would be at my cross country or track meets early Saturday mornings. He would even make it to my soccer games on weeknights or on the weekends. He even suffered through the dreaded cheerleader competitions. You have to keep in mind there were three others who were just as involved with extracurriculars. To this day I do not know how my dad did all that he has done. 

But being one of 4 kept life interesting to say the least. Last night at dinner, we were all telling stories. When this happens, you have to be prepared to sit for at least another 20 minutes. My mom went into how she would go to any length NOT to take us to the grocery store. She wants to know what the person was thinking when they came up with the mini grocery buggies. My mom had to put up with the three of us, my little sister wasn't in the picture just yet. We would cut up and get into more trouble than any mom would want their kids to be getting into. We all turned out pretty well I would have to say. No criminal records or serious jail time. Other families in Oxford still talk about some things that we got into together but didn't get into serious trouble, mainly because we were getting a lecture from the cops our families were friends with.  When you saw three teenagers like this:

What are you going to say? We all say that we keep my parents young, and we do. How many people say that their mom and dad would do the "jump on it" dance without hesitation if they heard it come on? That is a whole other story that I could tell, but I don't think I should at this time. Tonight should be another night of goofing off. We are all going down to Jackson tomorrow for a wedding. A cousin is getting married and so just imagine. Friday night we are getting dinner at a restaurant with a close family friends of ours. There will be 15-20 of us. My mom asked the lady on the phone if there were any of the private rooms open, and there are not. So my mom gave them warning that we all might get a little loud and want to kick us out, but the lady on the other end assured her that we should be fine. We shall see.