Will I Realistically Make It To My Mom’s This Fall? What Are The Alternatives?
I haven’t been back to California in almost six years and I’ve had plans change so often
My original plan was to park our tiny home in either a long-term parking spot at the airport or keep it in short-term storage as we had our truck in previously when we lived in Erie before we got it working. We were going to do this so we could fly or take a train to California where we both were born and where we originally met.
Now that we are on the Western end of Genessee County in Western New York currently, we are positioned about a half hour east of the city of Buffalo. We are thinking about flying out of Buffalo International Airport and seeing my mom and brother and also some of my partner’s family while we’re back in our hometown of Sacramento, California. The flight would be a cross-country flight and would include at least one or two layovers and take at minimum about 9 hours.
We would certainly have jet lag from the flight. We would also have to readjust for the time zones on both ends of the round trip. I’ve been looking at the cost of this flight carefully before we get more money and the cost seems to be prohibitively expensive for our budget. I really miss my family and my mom is now in her 70s. I really want to see her soon.
Right now might just not be the time to try and do that. I wish she would come over to me. It’s so much easier for her financially and logistically but she thinks that anywhere outside of California and the Philippines is too cold for her. Sure, I can see where she’s coming from. It’s in the 80s in Sacramento right now and in the 40s and 50s in this area this week but I’d still like to be able to see my mom at some point.
I’d obviously hop on the first plane to see her regardless of the conditions if I had enough money. I’m not saying that I think that my mom is being selfish to not even consider the option of flying out to see me but it’s definitely not a huge priority for her at this point. Another option is that we could both meet each other somewhere in the middle. Dallas? Chicago?
Those are both large cities in the middle of the country. I’m pretty sure that my mom would probably favor Dallas because much of my dad’s family lives there and also it would be a warmer climate in November. I could only imagine my mom trying to navigate Chicago in November and thinking that 40 degrees Fahrenheit is cold. And hearing her older companion complain all the way through the whole trip. I would imagine that he wouldn’t even let us enjoy getting to see each other for the first time in six years.
I guess another option is to just try and save more money and wait a little longer. We could always wait until 2023 to come to visit or have her come visit us. It’s not a must that she comes to see us or we visit next month. I was just hoping to do it because the opportunity seemed like a golden one.
Either way, I really miss my family and I spent much of my first year back in 2017 crying uncontrollably when I thought about how homesick I got, especially when I was occupying our apartment alone in Chicago when Mike left to live with his dad in Erie for a few months back then.
Now that we pretty much spend every waking moment together, I just want to mix it up and do something meaningful with him and I’m sure he’d also be happy to see his sister and brother. I would also get a chance to see my nieces if we went directly to Sacramento. They’re getting so big and I haven’t been there in the last six years so it’d be nice to be there now, if only for a brief moment.
