Sorry to my poor neglected blog. Work has been crazy busy and outside of work life has been very stressful over the past few weeks about things I’m not going to get into here both because I don’t want to and because it certainly is not something that was making me happy, which is what I’m supposed to be sticking to write about here.

Something that did make me happy recently was a trip to Tucson to see my family. I was just out there for Christmas, and I wish that the timing had worked out slightly differently, but I went back again for an extended long Martin Luther King weekend. In the past when my grandmother was still alive and my parents still lived in Florida we went there for Christmas every year and Uncle Dan (my dad’s brother) and my great-aunt Ann (my grandmother’s sister) would always come as well. They both have family where they live, so now that it is less convenient and my grandma is no longer there it makes sense that they stay home for Christmas. It means though that I haven’t seen my great-aunt since my grandma’s funeral 2 years ago.

She and my uncle planned a trip out to Tucson to spend a few weeks in January with my parents and sister who live out there now. Aside from the fact that it would have been nice to space out my trips to Arizona a little more since I don’t get to see my family very often and that January is not a great time for me to take off work because it’s the beginning of the semester, I decided I really wanted to go. I knew that if I didn’t and just heard about all my family together hanging out without me I would be sad.

Traveling to Tucson from Baltimore is a big pain. It’s pretty much an all day affair. It’s a five and half hour flight out there followed by an almost 2 hour drive from Phoenix airport to Tucson. Actually flying into Tucson involves a layover and is usually hundreds of dollars more expensive, and the Tucson airport is still about 45 minutes from where they live. This trip was about as good as I could ask for though as my flight into Phoenix arrived 45 minutes early and my flight home arrived 20 minutes early.

It was really great to see everyone. There was lots of card playing as is the custom with my family. I didn’t keep good track, but I’m pretty sure I came home with a few extra dollars in my pocket from that. My dad was sick for the last 3 days of my trip, so I didn’t get to spend much time with him while I was there, which was unfortunate.

It was also of course great to spend time with my nieces, who are growing up to fast, and who I don’t get to see nearly enough.

We went to the zoo on MLK Day. The Tucson zoo is pretty small, and I’m not the biggest fan of zoos, but it’s perfect for them. We got to see the baby elephant, feed giraffes, and ride a camel.

After the zoo we went to lunch at Chick-fil-A, which was insane. I’m pretty sure everyone in Tucson was trying to eat lunch in that Chick-fil-A. I have never been in a fast food restaurant that was that insane. The line snaked through the restaurant the entire time we were there.

Now that our trip together to San Diego in June is not going to happen, I’m not sure when I’ll get to see them again. Sadly, probably next Christmas. A year is way too long when they’re that young. I wish they lived closer so I could see them more often.