Friday, June 28, 2013

U.S. Road Trip Day 8 - 14: Destination Orange County


This whole week was all about visiting friends and family in the OC area. Not much of a traveling blog here so you can ignore this entry if you’d like. First, I met up with my college roommate, Brian, in West Covina. Brian and I lived together my second year in undergrad; I actually lived with 3 boys. We each had our own private bathroom in our bedrooms. The only thing we shared was the living room, kitchen and laundry room. The good times we had in that apartment. The flood was the best memory.

The following day I meet up with Susie, my favorite roommate! I am sorry Brian, James and Jerry, but Susie cleaned up after herself and she was my gossip buddy. Susie and I lived together our last 2 years in undergrad. She and I caught up with each other in Clairemont. We grabbed brunch and headed over to a boutique where Susie ended up cursing at me for taking her in there; she bought a dress and told me it was all my fault. I love Susie.

The next day, I went to visit my niece Amy. Amy lives in Irvine, but she works near her parent’s in Westminister. In the Vietnamese culture we don’t use the phrase “second cousins” to address the offspring of our first cousin. In my family we use the term niece/nephew.  SO, Amy is the offspring of my first cousin, therefore she is my niece. She is as old as I am and her father is as almost as old as my dad. My cousin’s dad is almost 18 years older than my dad. And my dad is second to youngest in his family.

Amy just had a baby 5 months ago and I haven’t seen the new addition to the family. I drove up to my cousin’s house and met my cousin’s wife out in the yard. I greeted her and told her I was moving to Florida. She was surprised, like everyone, that I was engaged and, like everyone, happy for me. She told me Amy was inside with Penelope (her newborn) and she warned me that Penelope does not like strangers. I am used to this, Elisa and Penny were the same way when they were babies. I entered the house and found Amy on the floor with Penelope in her lap. I walked over to them and said hi to the newborn. She is a pretty baby with bright wondering eyes and a very cute smile. I reached out to Penelope and she went straight into my arms; such a cute baby. Amy was just as surprised as I was. Maybe Penelope thought I was Amy’s sister?

Friday evening I met up with cousin Steven for frozen yogurt, my favorite dessert. It was in the high 90s that evening and I thought grabbing dessert would be more beneficial than grabbing lunch or dinner. Steven suggested a few things for me to focus on during my transition in Florida. One of those is to wait for at least 1 year before visiting California again. He is right because I need to get used to Florida and not feel homesick.

Saturday is the final farewell party so nothing will be blogged for this week. The fiancé is flying in on Saturday and we will be driving out the following morning.

No comments:

Post a Comment