I originally published this as a “Life Lately” post, then realized that it was more of a travel diary, so I renamed it.
Hello, lovelies! I am coming to you in real-time today. So many of my posts in January were scheduled in advance, which is why I decided to write this. All the posts I have planned this month are super structured, which is why I want to spend some time rambling about what has gone on this past week without worrying about it being SEO friendly or long. Maybe I’ll do more of these in the future or maybe I won’t. We’ll see what happens.
Anyway, we drove back from Tampa after the cruise on December 30th, so we had one full day to chill before driving up north. I spent the last day of the decade finishing two books to complete my 100 books in a year goal, then started season 2 of You. We didn’t even watch the ball drop together because we knew we’d have to wake up early the next morning. My dad literally passed me on the way to the kitchen and said “Happy New Year,” and I said “it’s new year’s already?” and went on T.V. to rewind the three minutes to watch the ball drop. Then I packed my suitcase (like the last-minute packer I am) and went to sleep.
We all woke up the next morning on January 1st and drove up to Kentucky. Instead of doing the whole drive to Michigan in a day, we decided to split it so that my dad could work at the hotel. We arrived in Kentucky at around 4:00. I edited and scheduled three blog posts I had written in December then watched a new show called Party of Five. It’s about five siblings whose parents were deported to Mexico and how they manage their lives without them. The deportation scene made me feel very emotional. I’m excited about the show. It’s a reboot of an old show about kids whose parents died in a car crash, but they’re putting a modern spin on it. (Watch the clip below)
The next morning, we ate breakfast at the hotel then drove up to Ann Arbor. We were going there for a wedding and my cousin Orinta was there. She was basically the little sister I never had growing up, and she lives in Bangladesh now. I’d have flown up by myself if my family couldn’t go to the wedding to see her. After getting to the hotel, my mom dropped us off at the bride’s house, where she was staying at. The bride is Orin’s cousin, not my cousin, but we’re basically family. She’s kind of like a kindred spirit because her younger brother has low-functioning autism like my brother. She was working at a hospital till midnight, so I couldn’t see her.
Orin, Zidan, and I hung out for a few hours and played Clue, which I haven’t played in forever. Zee had never played it before and didn’t realize why we were writing notes down until we were at least five accusations in. Orin won, then her parents and brother came back to the house. We hugged them then hung out upstairs and played Guess Who. Later on, more family friends came over, and Orin, a close friend of ours Ramisa, and I made wedding decorations (I still have hot glue gun burns on my hands).
Ramisa’s family was actually staying in the same hotel as us and were on the same floor. Every night for three days, we’d sit in the lobby, which had a nice seating area and drank multiple cups of coffee till 2 AM hanging out and talking. My mom said that it was more fun than the actual wedding.
On January 3rd, we drove up to Windsor, Canada to visit two of my cousins. They’ve just moved there recently for a Masters Program. I was excited to see them since I hadn’t seen them in two years. It was nice to catch up, even if it was just for a little bit.
My family had managed to go from Mexico to Canada in the span of one week without taking a plane. My dad told me that only 4% of Americans have visited both those countries. That seemed like too small of a percentage, but I was surprised to find out he was right when I Googled it. As a U.S. citizen, I have the ability and extreme privilege of traveling to so many countries without needing a visa. It’s sad to think that so many can’t take advantage of that due to finances and PTO. There are a million other reasons related to why, but sometimes I think about how there are people in the midwest who have never seen the ocean. I didn’t leave the country or even get on a plane till I was 20, so I’m glad my family, both immediate and extended, has shown me that it’s completely possible to travel even when you don’t have a lot of money or are in a situation where travel is difficult. We traveled a lot around the U.S. despite my brother’s autism, and I appreciate what that’s taught me.
The next day, we drove up to Detroit to visit my aunt (mom’s brother’s sister-in-law). I met her and her family when I first went to Bangladesh, so it wasn’t like I was meeting a stranger. We ate food and spent time together, then we drove back to Ann Arbor for the wedding. I got ready in Ramisa’s room with her and her older sister, who had arrived from Atlanta the night before. They’re the only reason I looked that good at the wedding because I don’t know shit about hair and makeup.
The wedding was beautiful. The best part was when the bride walked down the aisle with her parents and her brother was there. No one thought he would be able to come since bright lights and lots of people bother him, but he was able to last minute and was so good for the time he was there. Literally everyone was crying because of it. Her brother couldn’t stay long, but the fact that he was there at all was a huge deal.
We went back to the hotel at around 10:30. Orinta was able to come with us and we all stayed up till 3:00 AM in the lobby and in our hotel room (there were noise complaints).
The next morning, we woke up and drove straight back to Atlanta. It took less than 12 hours, which was good timing. Zidan and Mysoon had school the next day, but my mom let Mysoon stay home from school. He and I slept in, and I started the process of packing for school, but honestly didn’t feel like driving back.
Mysoon was also very sad and clingy since he understood I had to go back to college. I ended up just staying the night at home and driving back Tuesday morning since I didn’t have class till 12:30 PM.
That’s pretty much where I’m at now. I met my new roommate yesterday and met with my advisor to check in about a class I needed to graduate. The credit from my first college was approved, so I was able to drop the class. The majority of the classes I’m taking are fun and shouldn’t take too much time away from applying to jobs. I’m starting that process this week. I hung out with my friend Cindy for two hours last night and went out to coffee with my friend Ida today. She discovered my blog through Pinterest over the break, which is its own kind of embarrassing (Hey, Ida!).
I didn’t read at all the first week of the year, but I started the audiobook for Red Queen yesterday, which was automatically checked out to my library app. I haven’t heard amazing things about it. I just remember it being really big a few years ago. I’m about halfway through it now and am having fun listening to it. It’ll likely be the first book I finish this year.
That’s pretty much where I’m at right now. I expect this semester to be very fun and very stressful. I had assumed this update would only be around 500 words, but I’ve surpassed 1,000 by quite a bit, so I’ll leave you all now. There’s another post scheduled for tomorrow, so it’s okay if this wasn’t your cup of tea.
Written January 8, 2020
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