Greetings! Thank you for joining me this Saturday, please come in and join me for a quick chat.
Yesterday was another one of those days I look forward to each quarter – the quarterly team-building activity.
The activity for this quarter is Mystery Escape Room. I may be good at solving puzzles but Mystery Escape Room is totally another beast. Before we dived into the escape room, we must fuel up. Being someone who doesn’t get many opportunities to try diverse foods, I’m always up to try anything.
Yesterday was no exception. We went to a Mexican restaurant where the menu items were in Spanish. I know a few words in Spanish but not enough to understand the items on the menu. It was time to seek help from Google Translate, which led me to decide of grilled shrimp quesadillas and it was absolutely delicious.
The escape room ended up being a total blast. Although I didn’t crack any of the clues by myself, I’d like to think I provided help to my co-workers.
I’m not sure whether you’ve read yesterday’s post but I’m planning a road trip for Christmas. It’s currently a 5-day road trip (quickly becoming a 6-day trip) to Monument Valley, Horseshoe Bend, Flagstaff, and Sedona – places mom would never go nor probably allow me to go.
While I’ve been spending the last few days booking for my trip, I’ve also been helping mom book her trip as well (like always) and you know the part that truly suck? She still treats me like a child – attempting to arrange my meals during her absence, like I have no idea how to take care of myself. It’s like she had forgotten all the times she had left me for the pursuit of money. Who took care of me then? Oh yeah, me.
Now that the hotels and car rental have been booked for my trip though, I’m having second thoughts about the trip. What if I encounter bad weather? What if something bad happens? I’m worried about snowing or raining on the day I leave and the day I return since I do need to cross back into Utah and head north. Good Grief!
As I wrote in the post, the only people in real life who knows about this trip are my co-workers.
In a way, I feel like a jailbird getting a temporary parole and with 2 weeks free of mom, I want to go to all places and do all the things mom won’t let me do. I want to re-visit places like Ice Castle while visit the amazing light show that’s Luminaria, which I’ve always wanted to see.
I feel like a normal person should look forward to travel, not dreading the kind of bad things that might happen along the way. Why can’t I be that person?
#weekendcoffeeshare is hosted by Natalie of Natalie the Explorer. I appreciate you stopping by. Until next we chat. 🙂
This is Another Story 
Nothing bad will happen. You are more than capable of dealing with everything. And when all else fails, ask for help. Be brave. Please take your trip. I pay protection over you and your car. Angels before you. Angels behind you. Angels beside you. They are great helpers. Start testing them now so you will feel more confident as time goes by.
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I really hope nothing bad will happen. The last time I went anywhere without telling my mom or anyone, I got in car accident. I felt like that was my punishment for not telling my mom where I was going but at the same time, I wondered, “would she approve of my trip?” The answer’s no. She’d rather I be a good little girl and remain in my cage.
For this trip, though, I’m more worried about the weather more than anything and it doesn’t look like a place people would travel to during Christmas. Maybe that’s a good thing? Maybe this means less people?
I am, unfortunately, not good at asking for help due to the negative responses I’ve gotten from my mom whenever I asked her for help. Therefore, it’s become my fear. Perhaps, I just need to, like you said, be brave.
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Be brave but do take care also. Brave doesn’t mean reckless. Check weather before going. If weather is bad in one direction go in another. Even a small getaway is still a great getaway. I have no experience with snow. In Africa we only get snow in far away mountains. Anyway I pray blessings for safety and blessings for freedom and blessings for being brave. I pray protection for your car and your body. In Jesus name. Amen.
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Of course, checking the weather is on my list of essentials when I go anywhere. Thank you for the prayer. 🙂
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I’ve just seen weather warnings on CNN …. Take care.
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It’s been a rainy weekend. Hopefully, it will be good when I go on the trip.
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Hi YingLan,
You know, one way to look at your trip is to anticipate that something can change because it either has to (terrible weather) or you own each day of it and wake up one day and decide that whatever was planned suddenly doesn’t sound as good as sitting by the pool or down at some quaint coffee shop with a good book.
I’ve been known to walk through towns looking for open doors to walk through. Once I walked into one and up some stairs then into a large room where there were a dozen people playing chess. I was promptly met, welcomed, sat at a board with some guy who just wanted to play a round with a stranger and, of course, he kicked my butt in less than 3 minutes with strategies I’d never seen.
But it made a memory, was unexpected, safe, free and fun, in a twisted kind of way.
I hope you make some fun discoveries and make some great memories.
You’re a big girl now and get to be an unfettered adult for a few days on your own.
I think it’s marvelous and highly recommend that you do this more often.
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Hi Gary,
I have no doubt I will make memories on trips like these, of course, they might not be as fun as yours 😀 but still. The last time I took a multi-day trip was in 2018 and I remember being anxious the whole time like I was bracing for the scolding that’s coming my way because I got lectured by everyone earlier that year when I went off on my own while in China.
I think the reason I’m having second thoughts now is because I haven’t been this free and unfettered in quite some time. I don’t want to tell any family member about the trip because someone will want to come with despite I booked all the rooms with only one bed. It was what happened when I tried to planned my first trip to Japan in 2017, which I ended up not going because suddenly, everyone in the family wants to go on my dime.
It’s weird for me to think about what I want as opposed to “what would mom want?” I mean, I might as well be a prisoner who’s been granted a temporary parole, wondering what I can do in such a short time. I want to experience what I’ve been missing – that freedom and trying new things, which I have no doubt I will experience on this trip.
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Go! Enjoy yourself.
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I’ll try.
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