After the Warhol exhibit, we went to a French restaurant called La Chatelaine to pick up some sort of late lunch. I had a croque-monsieur sandwich, Kacey got some soup or something, there were quiches involved, you don't care about these details. You are here for the babbling nonsense. Or the pictures. Or you're not here and I'm deluding myself into thinking anyone cares. Sorry, it's getting late. Anyways, La Chatelaine holds some ambiguous significance in my head because one time I bought authentic French bread there for a potluck-type meal in French class, and because I met there with my high school French teacher, Mme. Matticola (rencontrer, methinks), on a few occasions after I graduated to catch up, share pictures from the French exchange trip my senior year, reminisce about how I should have worked harder. etc. And I got a chocolate croissant because they are awesome. I keep telling myself that soon, I'm going to read one of the three French novels I own. I am hoping that once things settle down with the new job and I adjust to the night schedule, I can make some time to do it. Maybe I will start taking the bus and will read then. It's not like I have a ridiculous tendency to sleep during automobile rides, after all.
Becky, Kacey and I picked up Brandon and Kierstin right after school in Columbus and headed off toward a farm/pumpkin patch about 40 minutes away. We were a few minutes ahead of my parents and brother in a second car, and we stopped by my high school, Fort Hayes, for an incredibly quick drive-through visit so Kacey could see what sort of facility creates the monsters that are Havreberg children. The campus has something like 8.4 billion buildings and was used as a military base around the Civil War. Somewhat interestingly, the Presidio, where I'll be working in San Francisco, also used to be a military base and is also populated with quite a few old renovated brick buildings. Although the Letterman Digital Arts Center is only a few years old. This seems like an appropriate time to give another teacher shout-out to both my computer graphics/art teacher Mr. Walton and my math teacher Mr. Smeltz, who in many ways laid a foundation for me getting this job, taking this trip, writing these words, etc. Um and other teachers probably did cool stuff as well.
Anyways, once we got to the farm, we started the pumpkin patch experience by playing in the fun barn, which was their term for "ridiculous amounts of hay, plus slides." It lived up to its name and you can check out some fun pictures like this one:
After the fun barn, we waited in the fun line for the fun hayride to the fun pumpkin patch. I planned this whole thing... well, I asked my mom to, because I wanted to ensure Kacey had an authentic pumpkin patch experience. Not like in Florida where they just truck a bunch of pumpkins onto some lawn in front of a church and you walk around hating your life and regret ever moving there. This was the real deal. We got little prepackaged apple juices afterwards.
Brandon is that little silver huddled mass between my mom and Erik. He is kind of like an armadillo.
After the pumpkin patch we dropped the kids off at home and went to dinner with my cousin Amanda and her husband Aaron. She grew up in Minnesota and we usually only saw each other every 2 or 3 years. Now she's in grad school at Ohio State, and I've seen her a little more frequently in the past few years. I don't know how being in San Francisco will affect that recent trend.
This was our last night in Ohio. My mom conveniently had several days off while we were there, but she had to get up early the next morning to return to work, so we woke up at 5am to say goodbye to her and Becky. A few hours later, Kacey and I packed up the car and had a small breakfast with my grandma before we set off toward St. Louis. Now I'm all sad. Stupid blog.Ohio Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kcjane84/sets/72157608619717876/
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