I was born in Calumet county (just to the right of Lake Winnebago and just below Brown/Green Bay), but grew up almost entirely in Grant (where Wisconsin river feeds into Mississippi). Then four years in Dane at the U of Wisconsin. Met spouse there, cooking at a restaurant where she was waitress (Frankie and Johnny were sweethearts ...).
Then 6 years in Massachussets (Harvard), then a year in Maryland (West Baltimore, aka "The Wire").
Then seven years in northern VA (Fairfax county). Two babies born.
Then seven years on Aquidneck Island in Rhode Island. One baby born, and one adopted (China).
And now 8 years done in Indiana (Johnson County - just below Marion/Indianapolis). Two sisters adopted (Ethiopia).
Today I secured a home in Madison Wisconsin. Son had gotten in for next year, and wife successful transferred into grad school there (going for her second masters after a BA there in journalism).
We're even going back to the parish where Vonne and I were married.
All very nostalgic.
I don't expect leave Wisconsin again, but my history with Vonne says otherwise. I do want to learn the Greak Lakes like the back of my hand.
And see lotsa more Packer games than my usual Gold Package duo.
But frankly, I'm personally going - by far - to escape the allergies here in Indiana. On average, I am sick (by anyone's kind definition) about 300 days a year here. Anywhere else I go in this world, I feel instantly better, but here, every morning is like the worst hangover from college (and I don't hardly drink any more!).
So I am hoping for a great life improvement.
This morning in Madison I awoke after 7 hours of sleep two minutes before the alarm. Until 2005, this was my life - like clockwork. I look forward to regaining that lifestyle and health - and that extra hour of sleep in the CST (my theory for crabby Easterners).
I can't wait to get back out in a canoe on Wisconsin's many fine rivers. I will paddle them all.
My non-too-secret plan: get filthy rich, become Wisconsin's most beloved philanthropist, forcing Green Bay Packers to name me to the Exec Committee, and then kiss my Super Bowl ring just before I close my eyes the last time - dying anywhere but on this planet.
Not sure I can talk Vonne into that last bit, but I have a plan for that too (two words . . . interplanetary adoption).