Chapter 1: Life at Home

It was Christmas Break time and I’d only just gotten home the day before from school after an exhausting week of finals. Although it had only been a couple of weeks since I was home for Thanksgiving, I was still thrilled to be back.

As a college junior I was now dealing with the separations from home so much better than I had in my first two years. Even so, as the saying goes ... there’s no place like home! My dad and I got things started off right the night I got back and the next morning I was thrilled when I learned he hadn’t forgotten about my traditional “wakeup call”. Unfortunately, like most Saturdays, he had to go to work so after he left I threw on a short robe and had breakfast with mom. Afterwards I drove over to my Aunt Linda’s to visit with her and my younger cousin Kristen who was also back home for her first winter break (as they called it at her public college). as It was just a brief visit though I couldn’t stay long because my dad’s office Christmas party was that night and I had to get home to get ready.

My dad’s a corporate lawyer - the boring kind, not like the guys on Boston Legal - a show he absolutely abhors by the way! It may be excruciatingly boring to me but people pay him a lot of money for what he does which means I get to attend an expensive private Christian college so I guess I shouldn’t complain about the long hours he works.

Meanwhile my mom’s an RN who moved into a management position early in her career at the hospital which meant she also spends a great deal of time away from home. Being an only child, that left me alone much of the time as I was growing up which is probably part of why I became such a computer geek. Actually, I don’t know much at all about computers but I’ve used one a lot doing school work as well as chatting and e-mail.