Planes, Graduation, and Automobiles...

I missed my flight home on Friday. Actually, I lied - the flight was indirectly home with a side journey on the way. You see, I have just finished up my second year of college in Arizona and planned to fly to Michigan for my older sister's (badly timed) college graduation. This, as you might have guessed, made for a much worse situation than if I had no obligations post-finals. After her graduation we would drive home 8+ hours to New York, thus concluding my cross-country trek with 3 overweight suitcases and 2 carry-ons, as well as making me the most exhausted person in the family.

Spoiler alert: the first half of that plan didn't go super smoothly.

Like most college students, I am an avid procrastinator. This meant that come Thursday night at 6 PM I looked around my apartment thinking "oh shit, I need to be moved out of here in less than 10 hours". I know you might be thinking, "that can't be that bad". Guys. Trust me when I say this - I own more random stuff than you could even believe to be possible as you can see in the tiny portion that I included below.

So, I determined a swift plan of action: eat dinner and then drink (another) Panera charged lemonade (~350 mg of caffeine and not for the faint of heart).

With only one break to split a thin crust Dominos pizza and garlic bites with my sister (let's call her G), I admittedly spent the ENTIRE night packing up my sophomore year into 6 XL Home Depot boxes and the aforementioned suitcases/carry-ons.

I also had promised myself that I would have time to spackle and paint over any ~imperfections~ that I may or may not have caused. I did not end up doing that.

Once I had achieved the massive feat of physically leaving my apartment (which might have included me dumping a load of clean clothes from the dryer directly into my suitcase and many, many dumpster trips), G and I piled into a Lyft to the airport pre-exhausted for our travels. This feeling turned into frustration after we waited in a line that took the equivalent amount of time as almost 2 full episodes of Scandal and were told by a brazen employee that we would not be making our flights for the day and to essentially F off.

To make a long story longer, G and I put ourselves on standby and waited hours and hours in the luxurious Tucson, Arizona airport until a gate agent called the two of us up. We walked up together full of relief that we might actually end our day in Michigan as planned, but not before she looked between us and said "I have one seat on this plane".

So I decided to buy peanut butter M&Ms and make myself comfortable again while my sister flew to Dallas. Three hours later, I found myself sprinting through the Dallas airport to make my connection to Detroit with G. Which we both did.

At 11 PM that night, G and I arrived at our family's AirBnB bed and breakfast to find out that it was one of the most fascinating places I've ever stayed in - and we stayed at a haunted castle in Ireland for fun one time. Please take some time to look at the picture below of one of the common rooms AKA "The Jungle Room" (no relation to Elvis).

With the house itself came a quirky older married couple who were absolutely fascinated by myself and my five siblings - I don't blame them, I would probably be too. They made us breakfast the two mornings that we were there and commented many, many times on how they were surprised how we all acted so respectful and civil towards one another. It honestly kind of seemed that they wanted us to have a blown Kardashian-style fight, but alas we remained a calm, wholesome family over the course of the weekend.

Here are some more photos of the eccentric, fun property which included a sculpture garden and a woodworking studio:

After the trek to Michigan came the car ride home. We piled into a big, black Nissan van and immediately everyone put their headphones on and clicked to their respective streaming services. I, however, fell asleep almost immediately because my exhaustion from the packing, the travels, the graduation party, and the socializing finally caught up to me.

When I woke up, we were practically home and I have never felt more like I time traveled in my life. Because of that, I'm not quite sure I learned my lesson, but I do know that I wrote myself an angry note to read if I decide to procrastinate on my packing in the future (which I anticipate will be happening in a short two weeks).

I am home. I am alive. I have reunited with my family and with my dog.

Feeling super thankful, be well - Caroline out