good deeds

the year i graduated high school, the population of joplin, missouri was roughly forty thousand. it was slightly larger than my hometown.

(it's way down there on the left, near the corner, even with the green line dividing oklahoma and kansas.)

it takes about ten hours to get to nevada from conroe. once you've left texas, the drive's not as pretty. especially in the spring, mostly because the ground in oklahoma and missouri is still a dry, disheartening brown. seriously. the moment you get to plano, it's as though you've warped or something. one minute everything is green and lush. the next it's not.

(nevada's on the western edge, about halfway between joplin and kansas city.)

i was always happy to see joplin when i made my trek to and from college. happy, because if i were driving to nevada, it meant i only had another hour or so of being cooped up in the car. happy, because if i were going home, it meant i was just that much closer to getting out of missouri, just that much closer to my state's line. to home.

home.

some fifty thousand call joplin home now.

and it looks like this:

yesterday, while browsing a belle, a bean and a chicago dog,  i learned that a group of bloggers are raising money for joplin by selling advertising space on their pages. if you're interested in joining in the fundraising efforts, click here for more details.

and now for something completely different:



picky's got a giveaway in the works. click here.