long overdue visitation

Sunday was a beautiful day, bright and sunny for October. We finally made it to Somerset to see Brandon. I'll have to look at the blog and see if I can find the date the last time we were there. It was months, but I'm not sure how many. We had planned to go two weeks ago and I got sick. Then last week Dave had work he had to do for Monday. That's the life of a business owner. (I checked-June 30th).

So, anyway, we went. Oh, I need to insert a related story aside here-of course, going to the prison means getting change for vending machines. That's one of the biggest treats an inmate can enjoy. And every time I anticipated a trip out West, I got 25-30 one dollar bills in my return cash from the bank. Well, I went to the drive-through teller and asked for "thirty, one dollar bills". The teller who assisted me said, "I'm sorry, ma'am...we don't have thirty-one dollar bills". I had to go through the shpiel twice, and finally I said, "I need one dollar bills, thirty of them". It never occurred to me that I would be so misunderstood, and I'm not sure which of us felt stupider after that conversation.

Anyhoo, the day was good. Once again I did not recognize my son. He's lost a total of 75 pounds, and easily 30-40 between our last visit and this one. He's doing well, and it was evident that it had been too long between visits. We didn't stop talking for a minute it seemed like! I realize even more than I ever did, I want him home. I accepted the need for him to be away from this town, to pay his debt to society and to grow up apart from us, but I see the work being done and I'm ready for this to be over. Sincerely. I guess he's planning a belated birthday surprise for me, and I had to become involved because it requires finding one particular photograph of myself and Bran when he was under a year old. I remember when the pain of looking at those early photos just made me put albums away and out of sight. Well, now I'm ripping through them looking for that one particular shot-I'll be heartsick if I can't find it. I think the work that needed to be done is done. (I scanned a copy Bran sent-above)! My little guy.