Chicago, Illinois, May 2014~

Howdy from Chi-Town!

This is your friend, Mieczystaw A. W. Czechstaw, writing ... yeah, the guy with the funny, unpronouncable, difficult-to-spell name.  I hope you are doing well; I am doing great!

School still keeps me grounded; I am in my junior year now.  I graduate next spring.  I am still working towards a degree in journalism with a minor in music.  School is going well.

My sister, Annika, who is 17, is a sophomore in high school; she is very popular there and has many friends.  My brother, Jan, Jr., 20, is in the Air Force; he is stationed in Germany.  He loves it.  He is planning to make the military his chosen career.

Mom is doing well, considering we lost Dad around Christmas.  His health worsened and there was nothing doctors could do, so maybe it was for the best that he died.  I still miss him though, and with Father's Day coming up, it's going to be very tough on all of us.  I pray we get through the day without falling apart at the seams.

I am still playing music: I play the pedal steel guitar.  I play in a local country band on weekends if I don't have any homework; our band is called "Country Unleashed", and I am the designated pedal steel guitarist.  We play mainly at festivals or at local country music nightclubs or bars; it's fun.  There's five of us in the band: me, Ricky (drums), Talia (lead singer/rhythm guitar), Trinity (fiddle and Cajun accordion), and Scott (keyboards).

I still keep in contact with my friends back home in Nashville, Tennessee, which is where I lived until a few years back.  Ronee' and Johnny both have kids now (both have a set of twins: Ronee' has two boys and Johnny and his wife, two girls), and Cindi has two boys as well.  My baseball buddies are either going to school, working, or joining up with the military. 

The weather here has been stormy: it seems like we have been having round after round after ROUND of severe storms; last night's storms blew my fence down and I had a mess to clean up when I got upu this morning.  It was really bamming and booming this morning; it was hard to sleep.  So I think that today, once I get out of school, a nap may be in order.

Sounds like a good plan to me.

Well, I hate to go, but it's time for me to get back to my last class for the day and then head home; I'll then probably crash at my pad and sleep for a million years.  I am so tired it's not funny.  Take care and may God bless you all!  I will write in here again soon; stay tuned!

~Mieczystaw.  :)