At the beginning of the month I was lucky enough to have both a holiday at work and an extra vacation day for a long weekend. With only four days off, I thought about visiting friends in London, but when I found a cheap ticket home to Columbus, I knew a family trip was in order.
Kay was in the army and couldn’t come, so I wanted to use the opportunity to try and pack up the rest of the things in my mother’s basement that I wanted to move to Switzerland. After moving all my possessions out at 17, it was a little depressing to move a lot of things back to her house at 21 with no idea how long they would sit there in that basement. Do you know it had already been 7 years since I moved them down to her basement in preparation for my move to be an au pair in Switzerland?
With such a short weekend, my mother and sister planned a family party so that I could see almost all my siblings in one go, and it was such a lovely party. Any time with my last Grandma below is priceless.
I was happy for the extra time I got with my siblings who picked me up from the airport on Saturday night and also really thankful that I got to see all but one at the party the next day.
With eight siblings, it’s really not easy to visit with all of them, but we made it work and I saw seven of them and their wives, girlfriends, husbands, and my nephews. The Hickey family adds up fast!
I was also happy to see this pair below who were recently engaged the week before I arrived. What nice timing to congratulate them! 🙂
On labor day we visited Ohio University’s campus to see my little sister who couldn’t make it to the Sunday party.
The weather was gorgeous in Ohio that weekend. A nice humid 31ºC. Our temps have already dropped to 15-20 in Zurich already, so I welcomed the summer again.
Here we were visiting the old asylum at OU. Pretty creepy!
Athens is a very pretty little town. The blue skies and fluffy clouds made it all the more picturesque. 
Back at my parent’s house, I enjoyed the last evening and morning with another visit to Grandma before heading home.
I was all worried about packing before I arrived because I come to Columbus only once every year or two, and it’s really easy to forget how many things I have in my mom’s basement. This time it had already been a year and a half since I was home for my brother’s wedding.
I brought four suitcases with me, expecting tons, but this time there were only a few boxes and a trunk full of books to pack up. I’d really overestimated! I could have squeezed it into two suitcases if I’d jam-packed my carry-on, but I paid for the third checked bag and used the extra weight allotment in the last suitcase for maple syrup for Kay.
I can’t describe the relief I feel that allll my earthly possessions (that I want) are now with me in Switzerland. Now, whenever I visit Columbus, I can just focus on visiting family… and maybe outlet shopping. Let’s be honest here…
On the way back through Philly, I managed to squeeze a trip to Wendy’s in, because unfortunately the Wendy’s in Port Columbus turned into a Burger King and we have those in Zurich and I’m just, well, not impressed.
How long did it take you to finally move out of your parents’ house?
The Glacial bag is my first backpacking backpack. I bought it for $435 (ouch!) back in 2010 and it’s been going strong for five years already. It’s not perfect for me, but the carrying system of Mystery Ranch bags is phenomenal and you probably won’t find a more comfortable pack for long hikes anywhere else.
Still, I was not happy that I waited the whole summer and several weeks of icky roots to fix my hair professionally, only to have my scalp suffering through bleach again. It wasn’t terrible, but as they were washing it out, it really started burning on my lower scalp and the next day I noticed scabbing again like when I burned my scalp.
I was also not a happy camper because I’d slept on my neck wrong, and it actually was really painful to turn my head left or right or look upward, which made getting my head in and out of the washing basin a bitch.
I sent the picture to Kay and he made some Joker references. I had tried to warn him that if my hair didn’t turn out well, I would have to cut most or all of it away. It was that damaged. But he was crossing his fingers that this would not be the case.
After all the dying, we surveyed the damage. Some of the hair was so damaged that even the orange layer didn’t help it take the dye. It was too porous and wash washing out.
We had agreed that she would cut my hair to part it on the other side, but she got a little snip happy. While I’d said I want the long part to come down to my nose, she cut an extra 6cm off, and now when I part on the other side, it will only come down to my eyebrows, which is quite short for me!
The hairdresser also loved how “cool” I was. She kept saying how surprised she was with how calm and relaxed I was while she hacked my hair off. Other people would gasp or cry she said, but nothing fazed me. Go dark, go short. It’s just hair… and if she’s a little scissor happy, there’s nothing I can do once she cuts a section off.