Terrible Haute:

The Disgusta of the North.

I spent the week before last in Indiana visiting some dear friends and attending the annual med. illustrator's conference. I flew out on Saturday afternoon (the 12th) after a quick 12 mile run that morning (fun times). My friends Aunnee and Heath picked me up at the airport in Indy and drove me an hour back to their little parsonage in Terre Haute. Heath is a vicar (not the "Joey decked out in hockey gear" kind - the "going to be a pastor" kind) at a church there and Aunnee does substitute teaching for the school district. It was so good to see them! They're getting ready to move to Latvia for a year to do mission work - exciting!

It was kind of weirding me out, though - Terre Haute reminds me SO much of Augusta. Everywhere we went things just kept jumping out and saying "hey, remember Augusta?" (not literally. that would be weird. and creepy.) The city has lots of trees and vines and things. It's a little ghetto-y. They have a paper factory that smells like death. The buildings look similar. There are many mulleted people there. The list goes on...

I spent the rest of the week and weekend in Indianapolis for the conference. I saw lots of old friends and met lots of new people, which was fun. I won another award this year, and I was not in the bathroom this time (yay!). I ran 15 miles with the Indianapolis Team in Training group (ohhhh the humidity. blech.). And I went to lots of really interesting lectures and presentations. All in all it was a pretty great week in the great state of Indiana.

And Emma is still adorable. I'm going to meet her over Labor Day weekend. :)