Oh Pennsylvania...

After a crazy last few days in California, it was finally time to pack it all up and leave. I don't know what I would've done without Ethan, David and Diane. They really got me moving (literally) when I just couldn't get going. Ethan and David practically packed up my entire apartment for me and Diane put on all the finishing touches. On my last night there, we all went out to Owen's Bistro, my favorite Chino restaurant. We grabbed all my bags and I headed up to Pasadena to stay at John and Megan's. John drove me to the airport on Thursday morning. He's always driven me to the airport so he wanted that to be his job. I received a flurry of text messages as I was leaving, all too emotional for me to respond to. I had a lot of luggage so moving it all through LAX the day before a holiday weekend was, well, challenging. I'll have to re-think that packing system before I leave again. Finally, sitting on the plane, I as able to take a deep breath. After being so constantly busy for the past few weeks, it was finally done. Diane was finishing up the apartment stuff with Christopher so I didn't have to worry about that. Car sale went through, a little too easily...but I was grateful nonetheless. (Props to Car Max. Those guys are true pros!) I slept most of the way and when I landed, Mom and Aunt Barbara were there to great me. The first time, incidentally, I have ever been met at the airport. Since I always fly into the bigger airports, I wind up taking ground transportation into the Poconos. But they were there, the weather was hot and sticky and I was exhausted and starving. Mom volunteered me to drive out of Philadelphia which was fine as I was the only one who was really used to the bumper to bumper traffic. It took us quite a while, nearly 2 hours just to get out of the city. Finally we got on the Pennsylvania Turnpike and headed North. We stopped at a rest stop so I could get a Philly Cheesesteak (yum!) but Leroy (my stepdad) called to warn of us a storm front so we didn't stay too long. When we got back on the road, Mom drove; and the storm hit. Boy did it hit. Pouring rain, thunder and lightning, and wind so bad it was pushing our car into the other lane. Since we were on the Turnpike, we couldn't pull over. Turnpikes in PA aren't like in CA where there are exits every mile. There is one exit every 20 miles and barely a shoulder on the side of the road to pull over on to so we just had to drive; slowly and carefully. We did finally arrive home, 5.5 hours after I landed (it's usually a 2.5 hour drive). There was no power anywhere in town so I just went right to bed. 
The next day, my sister's kids came up since they still didn't have power (ours had returned in the middle of the night) so they came up to use the internet and have lunch. Jill came up later in the afternoon and we headed out to dinner and a movie. On Saturday, we had made plans to meet up with our Italian family at the family restaurant. Our cousins are crazy but so much fun. It was a fantastic evening of great food. On Sunday, Mom had the whole family up for a barbecue. It was really nice to hang out with everybody and it was a beautiful night. On Memorial Day, Mom and I went downtown and watched the parade since it was the last time my nephew, Matt, would be leading the band since he is graduating next week. From there we grabbed 2 nieces and headed over to do some last minute shopping. I got tons of things I needed and Mom advanced me on a couple years of Christmas and birthday gifts. Today I woke up and Mom and I went downtown for breakfast. When we came home, it was hot already so she said "why don't you sleep for a while" and I slept all freaking day. 2 months of non-stop going and I just crashed for the day. It felt so great just sleeping here in the air conditioning. I knew it would be one of my last chances to just veg out so I took it and was really grateful. Only one week left and I head out. Still a lot to get done but I feel way more on top of things now. 
So now, I'm off to bed...yeah...still tired...