Leaving on a Jet Plane...

This afternoon I flew back to Madison for a long weekend. A friend is getting married on Saturday, and I took a few extra days to spend time with family. I'm hoping to get some of the interviews of the family done so that I can further my family history project along a little bit.

I arrived to Madison a bit early, about 4:15pm. The direct flight was nice, and well worth it. It was a bit hard coming in to the Madison airport, as the last time I flew in and out of the Madison airport it was when my dad died, and also around the same time of year. I flew by myself today too, Felipe is joining tomorrow, and that brought up enough memories as well. It was hard to walk through the airport and not think "This is the spot where I learned my dad died"... Difficult too knowing that no matter what I won't get to see him while I'm here. It's not all bad though (I don't want you thinking I'm super depressed!), my aunt Miriam came to pick me up, and I'll be staying with her while I'm in town. I like that I now get all of this quality time with her when I am in Madison.

After she picked me up, the two of us went to the Alliant Center for the Porchlight annual recognition dinner with my uncle Paul (uncle Marsh and my cousin Kathy were there too). He's worked/volunteered with the organization for quite some time. Porchlight is a pretty amazing organization in Dane County that helps provide services to homeless individuals and families, and has special services as well for mentally ill homeless individuals. They have a very large campaign right now to raise money to provide more housing for mentally ill homeless called Madison Cares. They've raised $2.8 million dollars and are just a few hundred thousand away from their goal of $3.5 million. I hope they get there, because it's such a valuable and tremendous service. I recommend taking a look at their website - donate too!

As for the rest of the trip, I have some family time planned out, and of course the wedding on Saturday. Other than that it is really play it by ear. My last visit to Madison was super ultra planned out, and I think felipe felt like we were going to meetings instead of hanging out with friends. Maybe I did go over the top in creating a schedule. So this time it's much more relax. My main priority is family and working on this history project. But I do hope to see friends a little bit...I'm just playing it by ear though ;) Feel free to let me know if you are available and in town!