Point of Origin

Ah, Madison. It’s where I was born and where I spent the first 23 years of my life. My whole family lives in or around the city, and I have so many good memories here. In all honesty, it’s pretty much my perfect city… at least in the summer. You know, when it’s not depressingly cold for 7 months straight

We arrived in Madison over a week ago with a long list of all the things we wanted to accomplish while here. Instead of tackling the list, I promptly plopped in front of the TV and made up for 3 months without TV.

It hasn’t all been laziness, though. I’ve been making an effort to go for a run every other day, we eventually got through most of the items in our to-do list, and I’ve been spending time catching up with friends and family.

Since I doubt anyone wants to read a play-by-play account of what has been a rather standard family visit, here are the highlights:

• I enjoyed my first ever visit to a spa, where I discovered just how quickly one can spend hundreds of dollars. It was a blast, but more so for the fun company – my sister and her friends – than the location.

• While showing our van off to my sister and brother-in-law, a man walking by stopped to admire it. Five minutes later, he came back with a HUGE wad of cash (at least a few thousand dollars) and asked to buy it, saying that he wanted to “put 10 b*****s” in it. Needless to say, we declined.

• In honor of National Mustard Day, there was a Mustard Festival that had everything from mustard tastings to mustard flavored ice cream and mustard themed activities. Serves me right after mocking the small-town festivities in South Dakota.

• A group visited from Guadeloupe, and we joined them on a tour of Epic, the medical software company that would most likely be where I would work if I were to move back to Madison. Their campus looks more like a children’s museum than a workplace, which is fun for visitors, but seems a little excessive for a company. Each building has a different theme, like the Wild West, medieval times, or space, and there’s even an indoor slide that takes riders down a floor.

• My parents hosted a pair of ladies from El Salvador for dinner, and we ended up in lively conversations ranging from world politics to Harry Potter.

• We hosted a wine tasting night, where my dad put together five wines to try, while I helped come up with foods to pair with each one.

• Since John and I are only in town every once in a while, my parents capitalized on it by getting family pictures with the capitol in the distance. I even managed to get my 6’3” tall brother on my shoulders for a few pictures (that being said, my knees aren’t what they used to be so he had to climb a tree first).

• We biked to Concert of the Square, a weekly summer event where a fairly significant percentage of Madison’s population gather around the capitol to listen to live classical music.