Today’s word: calm.

Yesterday, we were up at 4:30 AM to make the drive to Iowa City so our daughter could see what “being a Hawkeye” was all about. We ran around campus, did all the stuff, and even had a chance to visit my brother at the VA Hospital (he’s a big wig with the physical therapy department).

Then, we came to my wife’s Aunt Sharon’s house.

If you look up, calm, in the dictionary, you’ll find a picture of this place, in a quiet neighborhood in Iowa City. It’s what calm looks like in it’s physical form. No rushing around, no bills to be paid, no dishes to be done, just a time to relax, recharge, and just be.

My wife and I have talked many times about how we can shed that skin we have to wear around at home and just enjoy being a little bit. Last night, Sharon insisted we go downtown and take part in a gallery walk that was being held by local artists. Well, if you insist! 🙂 So we did! It was chilly and we saw some awful art, but yet, we held hands, stopped at a bar for a drink, and just enjoyed the time together without the pressure of everything else around us. Today, we’ll go back downtown, maybe buy a book at Prairie Lights, an awesome independent bookstore downtown, get some shoes, then head out to the mall and enjoy the crush of people. I love doing that because it’s just so different than where we live.

Tomorrow is a long way away, so we won’t worry about the fact we need to get home quite yet. We’ll just continue to enjoy our new skin, just for a little while longer, before real life comes back to us.

Do you have that place where you cannot help but just relax, to shrug out of the “home skin” and just feel renewed?