So everyone read about our recent trip to San Diego, but a few days after Mark flew back to Chicago I flew down to Texas to spend time with my parents and sister. I was excited to deal with triple-digit weather, but it never broke 90 when I was there. Oh well, maybe next time?
One thing I certainly was not going to miss out on was some Mexican/Tex-Mex food. Javier's and Rusty Taco do not exist in Chicago, sadly (but if you know of some great Mexican restaurants, let me know!). On a summer day there's nothing quite like an insanely spicy taco paired with a margarita or Mexican Coke.
Now my visit wasn't all about eating food and wishing for oppressive heat. I also spent a lot of time relaxing and talking with my little sister, who just started her senior year of high school. When we were younger we weren't the closest of sisters. A twelve-year-old girl and a seven-year-old girl don't always want to talk about or do the same things as each other. When she was born, I was old enough to "help out" with the baby instead of just being a jealous, crying being, which I'm sure mom appreciated. While I always felt like a protective, helpful big sister, it was difficult for me to relate to Angela. I wanted to play games with her that she was too young to comprehend. She would want to watch TV shows that I dismissed as being meant for babies. However, once she got into high school we became much closer. Unfortunately our age gap meant that as she started high school, I had already moved away for college. Even though we are at completely different places in life, we have become the best of friends. I mean, I may be a married PhD student, but senior year of high school and my college days are not that far behind me. I can hardly contain my excitement for her to experience all of the fun that comes along with this time in life. Senior year is crazy and university is even better. Spending some quality time with her was one of the best parts of my trip. I want to say that she has grown up so much, but I also feel like that is something that only old people say, so I won't say it because I am not old.
One thing I noticed while in Texas is the difference between living with mostly women versus by oneself or with Mark. I've spent most of my life living with women. At home I had my sister and mom and in college I had my roommates (all women, of course). While I was visiting, my mom, sister, and I spent a lot of time talking and doing our makeup and hair together while dad attempted to patiently wait for us to finally be ready to go. It reminded me of all the things we love doing together. We shop and talk and eat and complain and trade stories about our lives. We try on each other's clothes and laugh about our fashion missteps. We trade everything from clothes and accessories we no longer want to makeup that never looked quite right on our skin (we each have wildly different skin tones, so if it doesn't work for me, it will probably work for my sister or mom and so on). We curl up on the sofa and watch movies with glasses of wine, popcorn, and obscene amounts of candy on hand. We eat decadent Sprinkles cupcakes with ice-cold glasses of milk while simultaneously talking about how much we need to go workout/eat more spinach. Some of these things I can also do with Mark, but others, well...can you really see us trying on each other's clothes? I kind of miss having a majority of women in the house, but I am lucky to have a supportive and fun group of girlfriends out in Chicago and others that I keep in contact with who are living in faraway lands like Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas (thank goodness for FaceTime, texting, and, of course, snail mail).
I didn't get a ton of work done while in Texas, but I got to spend a lot of time with my family. My sister hadn't started classes yet and was already finished with all of her college applications, so I wanted to spend as much time with her as possible. My mom got promoted a little while ago and her hours during the week are crazy, so time with her was usually late at night (once Angie had retired to her bedroom to talk with her boyfriend) or on the weekend. My dad has been crazy busy starting up Inkler, which is a new social networking site exclusively for the unemployed and hiring managers/recruiters (check it out and tell your unemployed friends as well as those you know in a position to hire or recommend people for jobs...it's completely free!), so most of our time together was spent working on that. There were definitely times like dinner at Javier's or nights when dad didn't have work to do on Inkler and mom got home a little early that we could all sit together, but I don't at all regret putting my work aside to spend morning, noon, and night with my family.
In light of the scary-as-all-get-out comprehensive exam I have coming up, one might wonder why I didn't particularly mind taking an entire week off of work. Honestly, with our wedding and the move this year, I didn't think I would be able to see my parents and sister until November or December. I am beyond grateful for and humbled by the generosity of a family member for making this trip possible. I wasn't going to lose a moment of the precious, unexpected time that I got to enjoy with my parents and sister just to prepare for an exam that I can re-take if need be. There are more important things in life.
And, of course, what's a post without a few photos?
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| Mom and Coco being silly |
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| Angie and I ready for Javier's |
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| We took a lot of photos together before eating |
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| Mom and dad's photo was unfortunately taken in the dim light at Javier's, sorry y'all! |
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