Home at last after being away and on tour for almost three months! Meg and I made the long move from Salt Lake City, to Florida. It was only a 40-hour drive...no big deal. Meg and I packed up all our belongings in our two cars. It's kind of funny to see what one will pack in such a small compact space, and what one will throw away or give away. We ended up leaving behind our blankets and pillows, (except mom's special blanket from Korea), microwave, pots and pans, designer table, and decorative golden fruit. I stored my birthday cards and school notes preciously in my cookie jar. I took my old shoes, old jeans that had holes in them everywhere, pictures, paintings from 9th grade, old records, jewelry cases, stuffed animals, and baby blanket. It looked like a car full of junk!

Meg took her amp, which pretty much took up all the space, so two of her guitars ended up coming with me in my car. It was an OK drive, full of Cracker Barrels and grocery store stops. Meg's tire kept going flat, and it must have been an amazing sight if anyone would have been there to watch us try to fix it. Anyways, home at last! I don't want to get in another car for as long as I live... (Funny I should say that).

Nick kept texting us on the drive home, "You there yet? You there yet?" He's always been such an odd fatherly figure for us in the band... Now that I'm home, I've been cooking non-stop, mostly homemade snicker doodles and peanut butter cookies. I've been playing with my Australian Shepherd, Jemmy. And have been watching my share of "New Release" movies that I wanted to see when I had left, that are no longer...really new.

It's been so nice to be with my family as well. The moment I walked in the door, my mom started crying, and my little siblings crowded around me. They're adorable. They keep asking me if I have any contacts in the animation world and If I know anyone who does Japanese anime, because, according to them, they're going to be famous manga anime cartoon artists, make a "gazillion" dollars, and hang out in their mansions all the time. Reminds me of when I was young. "I'm gonna be a super star, with a million dollars, and have a house on the beach, and have a trillion hit songs, and be known by everyone." It seemed realistic then. But boy, oh boy, are little kids dreams funny. Now...I wouldn't want music the way I did when I was a child. Usually it's the other way around... Kids are supposed to want the innocent fun things and then realize that it's all business. When I was nine, I realized it was all business and management, and now that I'm older, I've realized...it's about the music. (And I say that as non-corny and genuine as a sentence like that can sound...which isn't very likely) Life is full of surprises.

- Dia