from cox arboretum

After eating lunch on the Mezzanine at D.L.M. (the salad bar is delicious), my friends and I went to Cox Arboretum, only about fifteen minutes from my house. I love Cox. I really do. The ponds are crystal-clear and the turtles will swim right up to you! In early spring it's absolutely beautiful as all the flowers go into bloom. Mandy was there snapping pictures left and right, none of which are yet available (I took a few myself but nothing great). Jessie and Rae were there, too, and Mandy's sister Onaleasha, and we walked the paths and waded into the shallow creeks and went to a butterfly house. The heat became unbearable and two of us started feeling sick, so we sat in the air conditioning of the Welcome Center for a while and then grabbed some 1$ slushies from Burger King and relaxed at the house for a while. It is the last time "the gang" will be together for a while, and my mind is resplendent with memories over the past year, especially centered around the Lehman House, when we would all hang out and laugh and tell stories and go on adventures. Nostalgia can be a better thing, and nostalgia itself is bred in warped perceptions of reality; those days may seem better than the current ones, but the mind focuses upon the good memories and regresses the bad ones (a matter of psychology which is well-documented). Nevertheless, it is sad that now I am in Dayton and Mandy is in Cincinnati and Jessie (and Rae, too) will be in Illinois on August 5. I'll have to go visit my best friend as much as possible, despite it being a 4-5 hour drive. Now I'm going to go to bed. I work nine hours tomorrow morning starting at 5 A.M., but tomorrow afternoon I'll throw up the last post in my "Hell House" series. It should be good.