For a brief update from the Heartland. (Also known as “how San looks busy while waiting for the Twitter API to come back online so she can finish mining tweets.”)

February is really the cruelest month – it has the fewest days but they are potentially the hardest to get through.  I have been sitting watching the weather reports over the last few weeks thinking “Thank goodness I didn’t get a job at the Boston Fed!”  What a winter they are having in my childhood home!  And people thought we were crazy for moving to the midwest – “how will you stand the winters?” they asked.  Now we can answer: quite easily actually.  I have run outside in shorts more times (4) than I have shoveled my driveway (0). I have probably doomed the state to massive March ice storms with that statement but there you go.

The other thing that has been occupying my time is trying to budget for all the shows and concerts that are coming to town.  And to think there was some question at some point about what we might do for fun?  Granted, I am an old lady with old lady taste in entertainment but right now we either have (or are planning to purchase) tickets for:

• John Mellencamp
• Rush
• Billy Joel
• Weird Al
• Mark Knopfler
• Carmen (yes, the opera)
• Book of Mormon
• Camelot

Plus a couple of symphony performances. And it’s only February!  Most of the summer concerts haven’t even been announced yet! And then there’s baseball season – could it be that I have finally become a big enough fan to buy tickets to more than one game? Shock! The other wonderful thing is that we live so close to all the venues that it doesn’t require an entire evening to just get to a show.  Now I have to figure out not just how to pay for the tickets but how to make sure that travel doesn’t get in the way.

And not just my work travel – although there has been, and will continue to be, plenty of that.  Another of the joy of being empty nesters is that we can take off whenever we like – or whenever we don’t have tickets to some event!  In fact, the last time Southwest had a fare sale, we decided to go away for my birthday weekend.  We picked the warmest place we could go without changing planes (or spending stupid money) so for my Big Birthday, we’re headed to the Big Easy!  Yup, flying to New Orleans for the weekend.  Because we can.  Of course, as always my birthday is during Lent so I need to be very careful about how I plan my 40 days of “simple living, prayer, and fasting.”  I’m hoping God continues to be understanding when I decide to give up [fill in the blank] “except for my birthday, of course.” 🙂

Even as we are halfway through winter (no matter what some overhyped rodent says), I can’t help but think that time is again ticking more quickly.  In just a few short months, another school year will have passed and although Frank no longer gauges his time by that calendar, the adult kids do.  One will stop doing so upon graduating in May; the other one is trying desperately to not spend the summer in KC with her parents.  (We understand – we know we aren’t that much fun.) And then we will mark one year since our new adventure began.  It seems like it’s far away – as does the end of February for those with 60+ inches of snow – but it’s really right around the corner!

And now, feel free to return to your favorite midwinter activity.  You really don’t have that much longer to do it.