A Family Reunion

Six months.

I remember how long the three-month gap between visits home felt while I was in college, but six months can feel like a century.

When I traveled home for a week during Christmas, I was a nervous wreck. It was my first time flying alone (last time I had been 8 years old), so I was quite worked up about the whole ordeal. This time, however, I didn’t give it much thought until 8:30 the night before when I tossed some clothes in my suitcase.

I was still worried about long security lines due to the recent horror stories I had heard about the airports in Chicago, so I opted to get to Newark about 3 hours ahead of take-off. Big mistake. I breezed through security even faster than I had a week before Christmas, and had to spend 3 hours in the very crowded Terminal A killing time. The highlight of my wait was the random pigeon casually walking under everyone’s chairs.

My flight (on one of the smallest planes I’ve ever seen), thankfully arrived in Cleveland without a hitch. Even though it’s been so long since I’ve seen both of my parents in person, it always feels like not a day has gone by when we reunite. It immediately feels like home with them.

I can’t say the same about the two newest furry additions to the family. I had mentioned back in December that both of the cats my parents had brought into the house since I moved out decided to avoid me like the plague during most of my visit. It wasn’t until my last day that we had a bit of a breakthrough.

Things were just as complicated this time around. Dobby actually felt comfortable enough to spend much of his time around me in the evenings, and even let me play with him. Physical contact was off limits, of course. Winky hid under the bed all day, yet let me pet her in the evenings. Are we making progress? Maybe by 2018 I’ll be able to pet both of them in the daylight…

June 24

Living in an apartment by myself means I never have anyone with whom to play board games, so I was ecstatic that the three of us could enjoy it on my first night home. Unfortunately, I was so delirious and tired that I felt like I was playing a game written in Japanese. It was still a fun time though, and how could it not be with a game called Flea Marketeers?

June 25

A trip to the Cleveland Zoo is usually an annual tradition for us, but we missed out last year when I moved to NJ in May. It’s usually the same old stuff, but this year the zoo opened a brand new tiger exhibit. It was much improved from the old one, and I couldn’t have cared less that the tigers were sleeping (as all cats do). One was nearly laying next to the glass!

The weather was nearly perfect. There’s nothing worse than trying to enjoy the day when humidity and the temperature are weighing you down, but we were blessed. In fact, we got through the entire zoo in probably record time thanks to the comfortable temps. Some of the animals were even more active than we expected, which was a nice surprise.

June 26

Meteorologists had said it was supposed to be in the mid-90’s that day and rain the next, so we decided to brave the heat for a walk and cook-out at a park. Two summers ago we spent almost ever summer exploring a new metropark in the Northeast Ohio region, so I figured we had seen everything in the vicinity. Yet we had previously never set foot at the one I chose for our visit that day (despite being only 30 minutes or so away). It was right along the Chagrin River, which made for some gorgeous views!

By the end of our hike (both in a scorching field and the humid woods), we were all quite sweaty and tired. As luck would have it, all of the picnic tables in the area were occupied, so we were forced to drive to another park entrance to eat. It all worked out for the best though; we were surprised by a shy doe passing right by our table.

June 27

We ended the long weekend with a relaxing day at the movies to see Finding Dory. Even though it was a Monday afternoon, I was still expecting the theater to be full of rowdy kids. I was pleasantly surprised that nearly everyone who came to see the movie was respectful. Bonus: The theater upgraded to the “fancy” plush chairs since my last visit!

And what better way to end the day with another evening of board games? (Okay, I guess winning one of the games would have been nice…)

June 28

I was a bit nervous about my returning flight when I read the night before that there was a chance of thunderstorms in the NJ/NY area. In fact, the flight to Newark right before mine was delayed about 20 minutes or so. When my flight was cleared to board on schedule, I figured everything would be fine. However, we ended up sitting in the plane for about 20 minutes before take-off and had to circle for a while when it was reported that Newark had temporarily closed to all arrivals. Talk about a lot of stress for an hour-long flight! Luckily we landed safely, and that’s all that matters.

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Needless to say, the “long” weekend was over in the blink of an eye. It was so nice to not only see my parents in person again, but enjoy some of our favorite summer activities together. If I had the time and money, I’d certainly make more frequent visits.

Even better: When will apparition become possible?

*I’ve decided to make this my final blog. As someone who kept a private journal for nearly 10 years, I didn’t want to completely give up the process of  writing about my personal experiences, even if it was for an audience. Although this was a great way to recap a year with so many changes, I feel I’m ready to simply capture and share my memories with photos.

Thank you for reading!