...Shoos the homesickness away

This past weekend, I decided to go home to see my family. It was a beautiful day, and as I turned on to our road, I had all the windows opened and was inhaling the fresh country air. Getting a strong whiff of cow manure is always an indication that I'm home! My nose has experienced many different smells living in Cedar Rapids,  The City of Five Smells, yet surprisingly, I miss the smell of cow manure. Wow. Never thought I would say that.

My weekend at home was spent the way most weekends at the Orton household went. Friday nights where my dad falls asleep in the living room recliner, my brother comes home late, and we scavenge the house for food, and finally settle on chicken strips. Saturdays where Mom and I run to town because we "need just a couple things", then return 4 hours later with a car load of bags and groceries. Then we order pizza because we are too tired to cook. Sundays where Dad and my brother tinker outside. However, the weather was so beautiful on Sunday, my mom and I decided to take a walk.

Living out in the country, the only walking 'path' we have is along the road. So we decided to head into town to walk the trail at Rodeo Park. It was a beautiful day, and there were many people out and about disk golfing, walking the trails, and playing on the jungle gyms. 

Rodeo Park Trail in Fort Madison, Iowa

                                           

My favorite part about Mom and I's walk together, was as we were walking up a hill, I yelled, "Wow, this hill has a twist at the top." My mom misunderstood me and thought I said, "Wow, this hill has a Twix at the top." She was hopelessly disappointed when we reached the top of the hill and there was no Twix candy bar in sight. We joked and laughed about that the rest of our walk together.  

Moving away from home has really helped me appreciate my home, my family, and where I came from. I love my small corner of the world that is Southeast Iowa, and I am proud of my upbringing and where I was raised. Visiting home invigorated me and was just the treatment I needed to head back to school refreshed and ready to start another week! 

Leaving to go back to MMU was hard that day, but looking back on that weekend, a smile a day shoos the homesickness away!  

FUN FACT: My middle name is 'Lee' after the county I'm from. You can take the girl out of Lee County, but you can't take the Lee County out of the girl!

...Keeps the nosebleed seats away!

This past weekend, I was lucky enough to attend a Twenty One Pilots concert in Sioux Falls with my boyfriend and a group of our friends! (If you haven't heard of Twenty One Pilots, check them out at in the video below!) As excited as I was to finally experience their live show, I was afraid I would need binoculars to even see them. We were in the nosebleed sections. Aka, the 'poor college student' seats.

 


However, after traipsing up to our seats, there were people sitting in what was supposed to be our seats. After trying to straighten the situation out, which they were being ever so difficult by the way, we finally decided to find an usher to help us out. We ran into not an usher, but the supervisor! The supervisor was really apologetic and offered us different seats, not promising them to be any closer to the stage; But at this point, could we really get any farther away? No. The answer was no. We graciously accepted the new tickets and hurried to take our new seats.

So as it turns out, our new seats were not just better than our old seats. THEY WERE AMAZINGLY BETTER. We went from section 312 in our nosebleed seats, to section 7!

                                                          View from our new seats!

I enjoyed every second of the three and a half hour concert. Granted, I would have enjoyed the concert from our nosebleed seats, but being so close made the experience so much better. (Added bonus: We didn't have to pay extra for the seat switch!) Plus, I didn't need to pull out the binoculars! So thankful for our good fortune that made the Twenty One Pilots concert a night I won't easily forget, and left me grinning from ear to ear the rest of the weekend.

A smile a day keeps the nosebleed seats away!