So this past week, we found ourselves back in Jersey for a week of relaxation, visiting with family, and a lot of cooking and/or eating. We took the time to have our grandparents come over, visit my mom’s cousins, go to a 50th birthday bash, have friends from Texas over, do a little shopping, get some yard work done, and fill up on all of the foods that taste the best at the beginning of summer: ripe blueberries ($1.99 per box! I lurrve it.), peaches, strawberries, locally made hot dogs (the beeest), and watermelon (I like the least sweet part that’s closest to the rind. Yes, I am weird.).
But, alas, all this revelry only lasted for a week (and only two weekends for poor me since I had to work during the week -_____-), and before we knew it, we were getting ready to part ways:
My mom was going to stay with my grandparents for a few days in Queens before heading back to Beijing, my dad was jetting off to Finland to be in time for work on Monday, I was getting ready to bus it back to Philadelphia, and Sarah was bracing herself for more of the suburban single life.
After having a week of waking up in our own rooms at our old Jersey stomping grounds, it was pretty depressing getting ready to spread out to our respective locations. The morning of the day we were all orchestrating our various departures, the house felt a bit like a hotel with all of us running around trying to get our stuff together and check out on time:
Dad: “Where’s my passport?”
Me: “Maaaaa, is this my iPhone charger?”
Mom: “Saaarah, does Jake have water?”
Sarah: “Hey that’s my charger!”
Dad: “Phone, wallet, keys…phone, wallet, keys……”
On days like that, we really remember how strange our lives have become. When I was still in middle school, the four of us would sit around the kitchen table after dinner, and my mom would joke (“joke”) that one day she and my dad would move to China. Sarah and I always kind of just nervously hemmed and hawed, thinking it would never really happen. But it actually has—and it’s pretty crazy.
