Chowda Head in Training Part 3

Friday July 3 continued-
We got back to his house, chatted with his mom and dad for a bit, packed our overnight bags and got in the car to drive about 45 minutes down to Brockton, another suburb about 45 minutes from Lynn. Zay's best friend since high school, Brandon, lives there with his girlfriend Amanda and his kids Josiah and Olivia. Josiah is 4, and Olivia is 3 months. Zay was actually home when Olivia was born in April and he hasn't seen them since. Brandon and Amanda were hosting a 4th of July BBQ the next day, so we went early to help them out. If there was anyone non-family who I needed to win over, it was Brandon. He's like Isaiah's brother and his opinion matters more than anyone's. There was no issue there though, because we all hit it off right away. We had a great time hanging out in the livingroom chatting and getting to know them. Josiah is hilarious, he couldn't say Isaiah when he was younger so he calls him Uncle JoJo.

Saturday July 4-
We got up and helped Amanda and Brandon get ready for the BBQ. The other people coming were Brandon's mom and dad, and they guys' buddies from high school Cliff, Ian and his girlfriend Dung, and Ian's brother Kurt. The guys grilled and played basketball all afternoon while I chatted with the girls and watched the baby. It was really low key but very nice to get to know his friends. You know how sometimes you can tell a lot about a person by the friends they have? This group of guys are very close knit and supportive, and they have been friends since they were about 13 or 14. I could tell that if any of them needed anything, they all would be there. Kind of like the Ya Ya Sisterhood, hahaha. They're all really good people, and if we ever end up living somwhere near Boston, I am looking forward to seeing a lot more of them.

We left Brandon and Amanda's around 6. We would have stayed longer but Zay needed to pack up after living at home for three weeks, and we wanted to spend some time with the baby and his family on his last night home. I had bought him two of his favorite movies on BluRay, Slumdog Millionaire and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, for his birthday. He hooked up the playstation 3 to his parent's hd tv and we watched Slumdog. It looked beautiful in the high def! His sister came home with her fiance and the baby around 9:30 but the baby was conked out! They woke her up long enough for Isaiah to say goodbye and then they left to put her to bed. We didn't see any fireworks because the town had done theirs the night before, but we did see some of the fireworks from downtown on tv. We decided that next year it might be a really fun experience to spend the day downtown and see the concert and fireworks on the river.

Sunday July 5-
Our last day. We got up and got ready to go to mass. Isaiah's family has gone to the same church for years and years, and he was excited to introduce me to Father and some of the other community members. It is a really pretty church and there are a couple of different services, some in English and some in Spanish. Father is bilingual and does all of them and all the other parish responsibilities. After mass we packed up the car and left Lynn around 11:15 a.m. We only stopped twice to use the bathroom, get gas, and to eat. We ran into a little traffic on the Mass Pike, but still made the drive in under 8 hours. We got back around 6:30 p.m. and hadn't killed each other! At least it's good to know we can take long car trips together, especially since we're going to Portland, Maine on vacation in two weeks!

This was a really great trip, and a pretty important one for us. Meeting as many family and friends as I did could have gone terribly, but it definitely went very well. I was actually reluctant to leave, but Isaiah had had his fill of being home. We'll be stopping through for a day or two on our way back from Maine, so hopefully the baby will be awake at that time! I really liked Boston and the city, and the suburbs weren't like ones I am used to like Pittsford or Amherst. They're urban and suburban at the same time. Lynn looks a little like Cheektowaga and North Buffalo mixed together. I love the diversity of the city as well. No one looked at us weird in any way there, and it was great to never be the only interracial couple within five miles. Plus you can get any kind of food you want anywhere you go, the cultures and ethnicities are so mixed. The city of Boston itself is great as well, too bad those beautiful brownstones have an outrageous price! There's still no way to know where we're going to end up once we leave Geneseo, but at least I can say that going to Boston is my number one pick.