PYHO: Feeling Lucky

This week, I am on Spring Break. I have been counting down to this week for like, uh ever. School is stressful and super busy so I seriously covet anything with the word break in it (at least in the context that means I get a break from school).

Spring Break is an interesting concept in college. I suppose I am expected to be on some beach somewhere with hundreds of other college students who I just met (plus of course friends who I came with) and drinking a lot of alcohol and partying the week away only to return to school exhausted and hung over.

Yeah, well... I am at a beach. Except, instead of being with other college students I'm with my parents in an area in Florida where I'm pretty sure the average age is somewhere around 5 (with little or no other college students in sight). This is partially by choice. And partially because I wasn't invited on the big spring break trip that my friends planned and went on (or anywhere else for that matter).

This took along time to accept and I can't say I have fully accepted it because it hurts. It hurts like a slap in the face, like a big old F**K YOU. That's how I feel.

Because of this said slap in the face, I was left to make my own plans. My parents so generously offered to help me with this plans, they rented a loft in Florida for us and even told me to invite a friend or two (I did but it didn't work out.) My sister was invited to go to Florida with some of her friends, so it ended up just being me and my parents staying here Monday-Friday.

I will admit I had some hesitations about answering the inevitable "what are your plans for spring break" question with "I'm going on vacation with my parents." I kind of felt like a loser, at first; like I have such a non-existent social life that I have go on spring break with my parents." My parents are great, and I would even go so far as to describe them as "cool", so it wasn't them that was bothering me. It was more that I didn't have any other options.

But, I came, I saw and I have to admit, I am having a good time. The other night as I was eating a delicious meal with my parents, I thought about what I would be doing if I had gone on the "big" spring break trip with my friends. And you know what? I honestly wouldn't have it any other way. The more I thought about it, the more I considered myself lucky. Lucky that I have such great parents that I can spend a week with them without going absolutely crazy, Lucky that my parents would go to all of this trouble to plan a vacation just for the three of us. Lucky that I get to eat delicious food and spend time with my parents who I don't see that often. Lucky that my spring break is just that; a break. A chance to just sit on the beach and read if that's what I want to do. A chance to sleep in until noon if I want to. A chance to just relax.

After all is said and done, I am definitely counting my lucky stars this week and considering myself a lucky girl.

Collage of our vacation thus far. I apologize to my mother that she is not in this.
The one picture she and I have together is BAD (of me).

I'm linking up at Shell's for Pour Your Heart today. Happy 1 year anniversary, PYHO!

Spring Break Wrap-Up!

For Spring Break last week, I was able to go home to Dallas and see my family for awhile. Of course, as is the trend with all things home lately, it was not your average visit or your average Spring Break.

It started out pretty bittersweet; of course I was glad to be home and to see my family for the first time in months, but it wasn't exactly the visit home that you dream about. After I got in Friday night, my first stop was the hospital, where my sister was receiving chemo. Like I said, not exactly the average visit home. I hated that my first stop in Dallas was the hospital, and that we had to go to the hospital at all. As a result of the chemo and everything, my sister was not exactly jumping up and down to see me, in fact she wasn't even awake. To see my sister for the first time in months, and to see her in her hospital bed, hooked up to IV's and everything is not exactly the way I wanted to see her.

Coming home and going straight to the hospital got me thinking about how different my experiences going home this year have been. They have all been bittersweet. The first time I went home was Thanksgiving, when we got the worst kind of news. Then after that was Christmas break, and while it was nice to be home for so long, that was a very hard time as it was the beginning of all these awful treatments and adjusting to hospital stays and this "new normal". And now, a few months later, it all comes back to me.

It's not that I forget about my sister and what she's going through when I'm away at school, but it's almost like it's not as bad. You let yourself believe that it's not that bad, and that she's doing okay. And even though, that might be true sometimes, it was definitely a reality check to see her laying in that hospital bed. I had to choke back tears at one point, and I kept thinking "I want my sister back!" I want my outgoing, crazy, fun-loving sister back. Not this sister who feels like crap and can barely manage to hug me when I come in town! It definitely made the visit a little bittersweet at first.

Luckily later in the week, I got that sister back, and we got to do a lot of fun things! We spent 2 nights at The W Hotel in downtown Dallas (my mom, my sister & I and 3 of Anna's best friends), we went to Dallas Mavericks games, did some shopping, and just spent time together. It was great to bond with her for awhile and great to spend time with her while she was feeling good. It was definitely the part of the week that was all sweet and not bitter at all!

Overall, it was a great week and I am so glad I got to spend the week at home! Just in true Basso family style as of late, it just wasn't your average spring break. But average is over rated anyway!