Let's Hear it for Babies!

For those of you who are too young to remember the glory days of burned-out hippies teaching children to love themselves, my title is a reference to the wondrous film "Free to Be You and Me." It's also a reference to the fact that last week I became an aunt! My oldest sister had a son on Thursday so I was out partying 'til the wee hours of the morn instead of hangin' out in Admissions. Actually, I had a class engagement Thursday night but I wish that I would have been out celebrating my new nephew instead.

This week will be a short one thanks to the national holiday coming up on Thursday. I will be heading home on Wednesday, which is sooo exciting! I can't wait to see my family again and especially my nephew. My parents and sister headed up to St. Paul on Saturday to visit him and sent me pictures on Sunday. He is so cute and I cannot wait to hold him and love him up!

Thursday night I had to attend a flash fiction reading for my creative writing class. For the uninitiated, flash fiction is stories that are 500 words or less. The theme this year was dinosaurs so everyone had to write a short story about dinosaurs. My class had to provide food and drink for the event and we were all required to read aloud to the assembled group. It was actually more fun than I thought it would be. A lot of people read and the majority of the stories were really entertaining. I dedicated my story to my nephew and my professor complimented me on it after the reading, which was nice. The reading took place at Gallery ABBA in downtown Beloit which is a student-run art gallery that features pieces done by students and faculty. One of my friends actually sells earrings down there. It was a popular reading despite being off campus--there wasn't a single spare chair in the room. Some students played music at the beginning to set the mood and it was generally an enjoyable time.