Big enough for a

I had to travel to the South again. This time I flew solo.

Got ma'amed a lot.

Drove slow.

Beheld a great big sky.

I guest lectured in a couple journalism classes.

I was nervous, but the adrenaline kicked in.

I loved seeing the students taken by surprise.

Loved seeing their eyes widen, their proverbial seatbelts clicking, wondering if it was safe to hop on this ride.

Being far from the babes pretty much gutted me, though.

I looked enviously at other families in the airport.

Nearly asked some if I could borrow their babies for a quick sniff of the neck rolls.

Call it a sour milk contact high.

But I tried to make the most of my little junket.

Squinted my eyes, tried to imagine what our lives would be like...

We'd have a trampoline, I decided.

That would be the first thing we would do with all that land, under that great big cascading sky.

Then, because I wouldn't see my babies for another 24 hours, I practiced living in the South.

I practiced living how we would live, if we had a big old plot of Southern land.

Big enough for a trampoline.