ATX

21 hours of driving, 859 country songs, 5 gas station fill-ups, 3 food stops, and 1 questionable hotel later, we are safely in Austin, Texas. We drove till midnight the day of my Public Land final (I saw "we", but JP drove the whole way), got up at 7:30am and got to Houston at 4pm just in time for my baby brother's graduation party. We got to see most of my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents, so that was lots of fun. The graduation was long (950+ students), but I'm glad we were able to be there. I can't believe the little guy is all grown up and heading out into the world. My dad is having a tough time with it- the two of them are so close that we all ache for my him a bit. It's like his best friend is moving away. BB (baby brother) is really athletic and just naturally shares a lot of my dad's interests- fixing cars, building stuff, fishing, golfing, boating, etc. He has lots of friends and is quite the popular guy, but he's always had time for his dad. Looking at the two of them at his graduation party, I hoped that JP and I are able to have that kind of relationship with our kids- actually being "friends" while still very much being the parent.

We drove up to Austin yesterday- I didn't realize how much I missed it. JP practically teared up when we saw the Tower. His old teammate is putting me up in his guest room (a fantastic guy I'm going to arbitrarily name "Steve" so that I can protect his privacy while not constantly typing out "JP's old teammate"). His home is beautiful, it's very close to the Firm's office, and he won't let me pay rent. He also happens to love gourmet cooking and is preparing a delicious-smelling Bolognese sauce right now. As I sit here on the couch with JP, listening to Steve play guitar, and waiting for a bunch of the other guys from the UT team to come over for dinner, Chicago and finals seem so far away. It really is wonderful to be back in ATX.