I didn’t have the best night’s sleep. I slept at a Love’s truck stop, which I’ve done numerous times, but at this one a woman kept making announcements on some loud speaker so that kept waking me up. I also parked underneath a tree and anytime a leaf fell on my car, I could hear it and it would wake me up. It’s so odd that I can sleep through purring truck engines and trucks braking at the nearby stop sign and the bustling highway, but will wake up to a measly leaf hitting my car.🤷♀️
The temperature was nice last night at least—about 55 degrees, which is great car sleeping weather with a down comforter. I woke up at 5:30am because I knew I had a long drive ahead of me. My route home happened to pass through Cincinnati so of course I let my in-laws know (they live in Cincinnati) and we were all excited to see each other in a physically distant way. I asked if I could sleep in my sister-in-law’s (her name is Meredith) driveway and she (and my mother-in-law, Marina) tried offering me a hotel stay, which was super duper generous, but I insisted that if it were OK with Meredith that I would just sleep in her driveway so I can leave early in the AM. Covid times make life interesting right? Like, when did I ever think I’d be sleeping in my sister-in-law’s driveway in my car?🤣
I arrived to Meredith’s house and her kiddos were waving me in. Kai, my nephew immediately showed me his mushroom collection (we totally bond over this!) And he made me these cute mushroom figurines to take home:
Nick, my other nephew greeted me on his hover board and of course he got his Aunt Erika to try hover boarding for the first time🤣. Hover boarding takes LOTS of practice to get down, y’all.
It was sooooooooooo nice to see my in-laws and I am incredibly grateful to be so loved by them and part of their family. I seriously won the in-law jackpot. Marina (mother-in-law) brought me a homemade apple bread to bring home, and Meredith and her husband made us dinner and we sat outside very physically distant with masks on at all times until we ate, and ate turkey burgers and sweet potato fries near a bon fire. I am sad we won’t be spending Thanksgiving together this year, but I am so grateful I got to see all of them.
And of course I got to have some of my mother-in-law’s amazing cookies🤤. She is the queen of chocolate chip cookie baking.
I drove A LOT today (almost 12 hours with traffic) but the prize at the end of the day was spending time with my family💙.
I’m heading home to CLE tomorrow and am SO excited to see my husband and our puppers 🐶 🐶!!
Oh, total side note: my brother Bucky also became a daddy today!!!!! I am SOOOOOO thrilled for him and his wife, Max, and I can’t wait to meet (when it’s safe) my new little nephew!! 👶
today's memoir 