06.05.2023: the beginning of summer

You guys. Things are happening!!!

Firstly, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY- my best friend since high school, Maria Hogan and her son, Elio, are visiting home this! I cannot convey how excited I am to see them both. For those of you who don’t know, Maria currently lives in a small beach town on the coast of Nicaragua with her partner and father for her child, Hami. It’s there that they are raising their son, who is now a toddler.

The last time I saw M in the flesh, Elio hadn’t yet been born- she was late in her second trimester, and we were in the middle of the Covid shut down. It’s been a little less than three years since then and feels like a lifetime has happened since now and then. We’ve kept up through facetime calls and social media, but I can’t wait to catch up IRL. I have two Christmases and birthdays to repay to Elio, I’m nervous and excited to me him. I’ve been following along his life and have watched him grow from a far, but he knows nothing about me other than the “Auntie Tiff” he’s met through the phone. I hope he can sense that I’ve been loving him since before he was earthside.

They land in Des Moines mid-afternoon tomorrow; June 5th and I’ll be there waiting alongside Maria’s father to greet them and welcome them home! I am giddy with anticipation.

A little back story on Maria and I’s relationship; we met our freshman year of high school in our first seminar ever (our school’s version of study hall) which was really just a chance encounter because Maria ended up having been in the wrong seminar that day. But basically, ever since that day we were friends, I ended up joining her little group of friends and the group morphed and reshaped itself enough times that we had formed our merry band of mentally ill troops.

High school was tough for a lot of reasons, and our relationship had its hills and valleys during those years. Despite huge falling outs and both of us being our bitchiest selves to each other, we’ve always been able to reconcile and keep in touch. We’ve fought and hated each other like sisters do, and now that we’ve both matured, we’ve fallen into an evenly paced friendship.

It’s safe to say I am incredibly excited, and while I know I am going to have to share her time with her family, I am preemptively cherishing every second I get with her and Elio. I hope she still thinks I’m cool, lol.

Outside of my impatience for M&E, there are a few other things that I am excited for. One, the arrival of my new (to me) car. I am now a proud owner of a Subaru Outback!

I have been dreaming of having an Outback since forever, I think. My first dream car was a Subaru Baja, a car truck that I was obsessed with, and I almost got one, but it was sold out from under me. It’s pretty station wagon-y, but I love that about her. (From here on dubbed Subie Roo).

I am incredibly grateful for the help given to me from my parents, Erika and Shawn, and my grandmother, Omi, for all of the financial and emotional support I’ve received after Shawnee was murdered. I’ll know that I am successful enough when I can provide for my children and grandchildren the way they can for me and my cousins.

That’s all I had for you guys in my personal life. Outside of that, I’ve been OFF my reading game recently. I think part of the problem was that I wasn’t really getting into any of the books I was reading, unfortunately but expectedly, ‘The Things We Hide from the Light’ by Lucy Score did not hit, nor did I finish it either.

Right now, I am jumping headfirst back into reading. I’m currently working through ‘The Nightingale’ by Kristin Hannah (a month behind on book club), and ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ and they are both good, thank God.

There’s something about the beginning of summer that seems so full of promise. I know that summer gives me a new social battery. Suddenly I don't have to put all of my energy into just surviving the cold and dark, and I miss my friends more than I miss our bed.

I'm personally looking forward to every, hot and sticky weekend ahead of me, I can already feel the sunshine baking my skin. Matt and I were talking about what our goals are for this summer, and we declared this will be our most “outside” summer yet. I’ve been doing some research on some hikes in Iowa so that we could bring Finn to “rough it” for an overnight hike and stay. Hopefully some fresh air and time in nature will be good for my disposition.

I’ve been working on putting together a more organized posting schedule, and I promise it’s on my never ending To Do list. Until I get my shit together though, thanks for reading, and thanks for supporting. Until the next post!

Sending love,