I worked both Friday and yesterday, so little clean up time was available until today.

But, Friday was a great day, even if I considered calling my ark building peeps up. I was at work, helping a bunch of demanding kids get stuff to sove in their maws when my phone starts ringing. I, in my haste to answer before it went to voicemail, failed to check the caller. So, I answer the phone and it's my stepmom. She says, "Hi, hon. How are you?" and I respond with the usual, saying that I'm well and working. I was a little confused as to why she would be calling, making me worry that someone has died, when she asks, "So, how would you feel about having a visitor tonight?"

I freak. Squealing, "you're in the area? Oh my God!" and the like. She says she's in Rockford on business and she took a peek at how far from me that is, deciding that it wasn't at all far and she wanted to see me. So, she said she'd call her travel agent to change her flight, arrange a hotel near me, and we'd do something. I bolted out of work (luckily Luke was already on hand) and barrelled home through the torrent. We met her in the lobby of her hotel at 7:06 with a baby bundt cake and a 1/2 pound of Peruvian coffee.

She met my in-laws, Nigel, and GC, spent some time gabbing with them, and to dinner we went. It poured pretty much the entire time, so we braved it and went to dinner at Bellini, a lovely Italian restaurant in an old church and had everything from appetizer to dessert. We talked the whole time and when we left, we found even more water than we had when we went in. With sodden shoes, we got back in the car and headed to Woodman's.

See, there is a cereal that is very much like Cap'n Crunch called Quisp. Quisp, doesn't shred the roof of your mouth quite so badly, though, and it seems that it is only available in places where the archaic go to die. Like mullets, sweatpants in public, and large artificial cows, Quisp still lives here in the Midwest. Sarah remembered Quisp from her childhood and wanted some to take home. But, we chose the wrong Woodman's to go to and they had none, so I told Sarah that I would get her some and mail it home to her.

The entire time, because it was raining, she kept asking me if it was always that rainy here, and if it was, why had I never mentioned it. I said that no, we didn't ordinarily have monsoon season and that such a thing was highly uncharacteristic. She told me that she had checked the area forecast prior to departure and, seeing that it was supposed to be 75 and sunny the entire time, had packed only sandals. It was in these sandals that she made a dash for the car, leaving Luke and I under the awning at the grocery store. We saw her take off, and I immediately told Luke that we could have made it there faster. In the time it took for me to look away from her and speak to him, she had lost a sandal, gone back for it, and taken off again with lost sandal in hand. When she picked us up, no wetter than we had begun, she commented on how she had almost not wanted to go back to get the darned shoe, and her skirt was soaked through, a small puddle forming in the fold between her knees.

The drive home took a long time, traveling at 40 miles an hour, but I was happy for it. I secretly wished that her flight would be delayed or cancelled the following day so that I could spend more time with her. We said our goodbyes in her rental in the hotel parking lot. I missed her immediately.

At least it will only be a scant three months before I get to see not just her, but everybody...a very short haul compared to the nearly three years previous.