On January 2 Lauren and I hopped on a plane and headed back to Philadelphia. It was a nice surprise that all of my siblings wanted to accompany my dad as he drove me to the airport around 4 in the morning. Together, Lauren and I had more luggage on our way back to Philadelphia than what we started with. I underestimated the amount of Christmas presents I would receive and to begin with, I packed way too many clothes for only a three week trip. I guess what they say is true, being Back Home Ballers is a real thing and I'm not complaining! Thank goodness both of my checked bags met the weight restriction of fifty pounds. One bag was around forty-three pounds, and the other was exactly fifty!
As much as I love California way more than any other state (I'm a big fan of nice weather and the suburbs), I was looking forward to getting back into my own routine. Like my mom says, I can be a bit obsessive when it comes to my personal things. I missed having my own kitchen with all of my familiar foods and cookware. I like being able to cook whatever and whenever I want without having to worry about who else is going to be there at the same time, and I enjoy having my own refrigerator and filling it up exactly as I please. I guess I do share all of these things with Lauren in our apartment, but in most instances our personalities are so similar that it's basically like we're the same person, and so we don't really have issues about large disagreements which makes sharing a space a lot easier. So even though I knew I would miss the comforts of home and family, I was happy to be going back to my "normal".
Just like flying out West, we had a layover in Phoenix again. Nothing truly memorable happened during our flights though. However, once we landed in Philadelphia we managed to fit all of luggage in a little taxi and hitched a ride back to our apartment. Lesson learned, the $36 we spent on taxi fare was completely worth it and definitely the only way to travel to and from the airport with checked bags.
I was so happy to see that there wasn't any damage or changes done to our apartment while we were gone. Marissa scared me by saying that one of her friends (who also lives in a cold area) came back to school after Winter break to find that his water pipes burst because they froze, or something like that. It was so relieving to see our apartment, just the way we left it. We had the bright idea to clean before we bounced in December. Coming back to a clean place and not being disgusted with the state of your living arrangement is very rewarding. Lauren wanted to unpack all of our stuff right away and get that task out of the way. I agreed and so we spent probably two hours emptying out numerous suitcases until my hunger started making me grumpy as I was getting into my "window period".
Since we hadn't gone grocery shopping yet, we jumped at the completely necessary chance of eating out. We collectively decided on Sweet Greens. I felt like I ate so much junk and sugar while home and so I was actually pretty excited to have a hearty salad for dinner. This was our second time going here (we also went when we first moved in September), and so I pretty much knew exactly what I wanted. I ordered a custom salad with spinach, spicy broccoli, carrots, chickpeas, corn, tofu, onions, and tomatoes with their spicy cashew dressing. I also tried the curry lentil soup. The salad was amazing, just as I remembered it. The soup was okay. It was a nice addition to my meal, but there wasn't anything special about it. I'll probably just stick to the salad next time.
That's pretty much how we spent our entire Friday, flying from one coast to another. I wouldn't say I was jet legged, but I definitely had a difficult time falling asleep the first couple of nights being back in Philadelphia.
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