Rose of Damascus

Following up after my friend’s birthday party on Friday, my mom wanted to go to a flamenco performance that Saturday.  I had a migraine all day and it never went away.  I was getting burnt out by work and having to go to one thing after another.  I knew how much this meant to my mom since she personally knew people who would be performing.  I made a promise to myself not to get caught up with too many social activities.  It wasn’t fun anymore and I missed my time alone at my apartment.  Constantly having to turn on the switch of getting ready, catching up with different people and having the same conversation was getting to me.  I felt bad because I knew I wasn’t “myself”.  I did not want my friends to think they had done something wrong because I was always in a bad mood.  The worst part about all of this was that me and my mom had a bad argument leading up to this day in particular.  In the past, we’ve handled our differences by ignoring the issue and continuing on with our day, but sometimes that is hard for me because my blood is boiling.  It’s not easy for me to keep intense emotions bottled up.  But this is the dynamics of my family, and for her, I buried them once again to make her happy.  She wanted to see this and wanted me to go with her.  I could not object.

Back to the migraine.  It never went away.  And that day in particular the temperature was in the teens.  It was super cold.  We decided to meet up at Division street right off the Blue Line so we could have dinner nearby.  Because my mom was stressed with the flood issues in her apartment and dealing with her landlord, she moved back to her place but was still settling in.  She barely ate, but did manage to enjoy her meal. 

I ended up forgetting something that was SUPER IMPORTANT.  I knew I had screwed up big time.  I couldn’t go to the show just yet, but my mom insisted to ride with me back to my place to make sure everything was ok.  I ordered an uber and in no time, we both jumped in and headed back home.  Luckily, everything was fine so I ordered another uber and we headed back to the theater.  We made it right on time!!  My mom is a freak about time, so I know she was nervous we were going to miss some of the show.  Since we barely got to our seats, we managed to take some pictures before the show started.  It was beautiful!  We were hypnotized by the flamenco dancers and their beautiful dresses!  It was a lovely storyline about how flamenco was formed by migrants from various neighboring countries.  In the end, the message was loud and clear:  Love knows no borders…

La Vie Sociale

I did it!!  I FINALLY caught up on my blog!!  This usually is a rare thing for me, but I’m proud to say I don’t mind being behind on my posts.  For one, it means I’m living my life and not wondering what’s going on with social media.  I do not want to be one of those people who are constantly posting away to “keep in the moment”.  I rather LIVE in the moment and reminisce later.  It’s a blessing to be able to look back and remember these sweet memories I have shared with my family and friends.  They mean the world to me!

With my trip coming up, I don’t have too much planned out.  This will be a first for me as well, but it’s mostly because I’ve been there before and saw most of my interests the first time around.  I’m hoping I get a chance to see other sides of Europe that I might have missed beforehand.  So much has changed in the world since I last was there and I’m curious how that will play out for me.

Over the weekend I got my seasonal haircut Friday after work, but I felt a migraine coming on.  Can you believe I had this migraine all weekend???  It woke me up early Saturday morning so I took something and proceeded to do my chores around the house.  I mostly did laundry and started packing once I ironed out my clothes.  I had a birthday dinner to attend to at 6:30pm, so I managed to squeeze in a workout.  At the gym is when my migraine resurfaced again.  I managed to finish my workout but had to rush home to get ready.  Unfortunately I never took anything that evening, but with all of the festivities going on, I tried to ignore it the best I could.

At the dinner at Emilio’s Tapas I caught up with friends and we were enjoying our night.  We ended up walking down the street to the Marriot Hotel so we could have some birthday cupcakes for dessert.  Of course, we didn’t want to go home yet.  We walked over to Broken Shaker for cocktails.  The waitress suggested we tried their punch bowl and we were glad that we did!  It satisfied all of us and we even had seconds!

Now that the party was JUST GETTING STARTED, we decided to go to our favorite club, Disco.  I was surprised that we walked over to that one too, but by the time we got in the club, my feet were beginning to hurt.  We managed to get at table to rest up but we couldn’t stop dancing!  The dj was playing oldies like New Order and Depeche Mode and we were having a blast.

I couldn’t believe we closed the club down.  Not to mention, it was Daylight Savings Weekend, so it was later than I thought.  It hit me then that I was done for the night.  The birthday girl had fun and I finally had enough.  I couldn’t wait to go home.

I really wanted to go to church in the morning, and I did.  But sure enough, my migraine was still lingering.  I took some Tylenol at home twice that day, and to my surprise, woke up with a huge migraine Monday morning.  I was a mess.  I did not feel well for the most part.  Today I’m mostly exhausted because I feel I never truly rested this past weekend.  Now that my trip is in a few days, my anxiety will kick in.  I think that’s why I’m glad I don’t have too much planned ahead.  I’m more concerned about my health if anything.

See ya when I come back!  The rest of this week I’m going to lay low by cleaning up my apartment and trying to squeeze as many workouts that I can.  Until next time!!

A Moment of Thanks...

Back in November, so many things popped up here and there, I didn't realize I was in social overload.  The holidays can be a non-stop party train that leads up to New Year's Eve.  Luckily, Thanksgiving helps keep you centered with family.  I'm realizing now, how much these holidays bring those you don't see very often together in one place.  This year, we were doing things differently in my household.
My aunt usually hosts Thanksgiving dinner at her house.  It's big and allows more people to sit more comfortably.  But this year my family were all doing their own thing.  My mom's husband was diagnosed with a terminal illness earlier in the year, and has been in hospice care for months.  My mom did not want to leave him alone to be with family on Thanksgiving, so she opted not to go to my aunt's.  I couldn't bear the thought of the two of them hosting their own little dinner, so I invited myself over to join them.  Hey, sometimes you have to push your way into people's hearts to let them know you're there for them.  That move made my two brothers follow as well, and our step brother joined us, too.  We all had Thanksgiving dinner together.  A smaller and more intimate group, but bitter sweet for all of us.  Luckily, after dinner, the rest of my family made pit stops to my mom's to wish us happy Thanksgiving, and to participate in our annual Christmas grab bag.  Every year we add our names to a bag and each randomly pick a name out of a family member to splurge on for a gift.  It has helped us save money and the hassle out of figuring out what to get everyone.  I am blessed we managed to see one another in the end.     

 LOVE my mom's cooking...

Me and my cousin...

 Just us enjoying our time together...

Me and my brother.  He's my rock...