I'm Out Wandering Around

I always loved it that that phrase forms an acronym for "Iowa" where I lived for a little over three years.

I-O-W-A also can stand for "I Oughta Went Around" as my friend TF always used to say.

I left a drug problem and three of the hardest, loveliest, most lost years in Iowa City in December 2003 and I have not been back yet.

But I've decided that that's where I'm going next weekend when my students are on the shortest Spring Break ever. RMC is notable for being in session 50 out of 52 weeks a year. They're almost as bad as my day job, where there are only 6 paid holiday DAYS OFF all year, and none of them are between New Years' Day and Memorial Day.

I've wanted to go back to Iowa, but just couldn't. But now I'm so excited. There are some much-loved dear and cherished friends still there and I need to see them again. Plus, spring is coming to the Midwest. Stormy, intense, and powerful, Spring is what reminds Midwesterners they are still actually alive.

It's early yet. Spring only gets more and more intense until it settles into hot, hazy summer around the middle of June. But I'll go back to Iowa City, roam downtown, spend long lazy hours in conversation. The Lion will shed the winter and prepare for all the storms and changes to come.