There are many aspects of my life that are changing. Many things I am doing now I would have never imagined doing 20 months ago. This weekend I was able to experience the world from a new viewpoint with my adult child, Michaela!
This last week, Michaela returned home from Luther to celebrate her spring break. I felt bad for her in that she came home to a broken family and when she is able to see her siblings it has become clearer to her that she and they are presently at different life stages with many dissimilar interests. Michaela had her very noble family-oriented ideas of what she would like to do with her precious time with her siblings, yet they had their own personal agendas that incorporated friends, ipods, and other external distractions. It is hard sometimes to find a happy medium that suits the entire family. Also, Emily was not on spring break and still had school obligations which took her out of the equation for many of the planned activities. Add to this changing dynamic, the fact that we got record snow and ice and the resultant impossible task of plowing a muddy drive making a normal outing away from home a serious challenge.
I got the plow and truck stuck twice and Michaela got the van stuck trying to get to a simple hair appointment. If it wasn’t for a wonderful grandmother coming to the rescue, I don’t know what we would have done….certainly Michaela would have had frayed ends heading back to Luther. To add to the stress, a family friend and partner of my grandmother’s died last week necessitating an unplanned trip back to Iowa for a funeral this weekend.
This, however, created an opportunity for Michaela and I to spend some time together as I could drive her all the way back to Luther instead of just to Madison to pick up a shuttle. I decided to break up the trip and take advantage of some live music in Madison on Saturday night since the dorms wouldn’t open until 8:00 AM on Sunday and I needed a jumpstart on my trip back to central Iowa. We found a local Madison bar that featured live music and to Michaela’s delight we were able to see Indie Rap star Sims play live. Being a KWLC DJ now, Michaela recognized this artist and his Doomtree Collective featuring alternative rap and hip hop musicians from around the country. I, on the other hand, had no idea what she was even talking about. Before the show Michaela sat in our hotel room and patiently explained the artist and music and shared with me the following video prior to our night out on the town. I was hooked!
After the show, I was able to get a picture of Michaela with Sims at the High Noon Saloon in Madison! It was a great ending to a long day! By the way, check out Michaela’s radio show on Saturdays at 4:00 PM on the KWLC website.
