When I leave on Friday and don't show up again until Wednesday, it's because I'm having a really good time doing whatever I'm doing. Usually whatever I'm doing is drinking wine, hanging out with my dog, cooking with my mom, eating with friends, laughing, sitting on my parents' dock, watching movies with my dad, and did I say drinking wine already?

First stop: my brother's apartment at Longwood. He has a guitar-shaped spoon holder in his kitchen. So very Sean.

The second stop was Hampden-Sydney for Homecoming festivities.

Then we all ventured to Roanoke for the rest of the long weekend. Fall Break and Smith Mountain Lake, I love you both.

There's my mom, working on dinner for eleven people. 

It was my sweet dad's birthday on Sunday. And Shawna's was on Friday. They both got to blow out the candles.

"The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family." 

--Thomas Jefferson

A delicious fall haze on the lake, a very sleepy brother, plates and plates of wonderful food, a few perfect glasses of wine, my mom's apple pie, the cutest pup that ever lived, a cozy night's sleep, a morning walk around the neighborhood and a homemade café au lait before heading back to the real world. All is well in Flynn Land and I can't wait to be back.

I don't recall a single care,

Just greenery and humid air.

Then Labor Day came and went,

And we shed what was left of our summer skin.

--Death Cab for Cutie

Happy Labor Day

Come on, Fall.