The last time we went to Philly, a week after Chooch’s move-in, was to bring him the rest of his stuff. We had a big ass laundry bag of clothes in the car, on which he did his signature dismissive half-assed once-over and determined there was “nothing in there” that he “needed.”

Flash forward a few weeks later, I’m in Romania getting agitated texts from him declaring that he has “no hoodies.” International borders and boundaries don’t exist between children and parents, you guys. Who cares that darling mother and father are on their fake honeymoon, child has needs!!

Henry’s head nearly exploded over this. “THAT WHOLE BAG HE SAID HE DIDNT NEED WAS FULL OF HOODIES!!!”

(Can we pause here to ponder the fact that this is coming from the kid who is “never cold” and wears T-shirts and shorts through December? College has changed him.)

And this is how we found ourselves waking up at 6am on Saturday and driving to Philly.

Fun fact: it’s about the same driving time from Pgh to Philly as it is from Bucharest to Sibiu but waaaaaay less interesting and feels so  much longer. But it’s worth it to SEE OUR PRECIOUS CHOOCH.

First, we walked to this food hall on the Penn campus because I wanted a Goldie tehina shake. They are magical. I also got a falafel pita. We all ordered from somewhere different – Chooch got a forage burgers at Gouldburgers and Henry got chicken at some place that took forever and he kept walking over to decode what was going on behind the counter.

“They’re all just standing there!” he reported back 3x but Chooch and I didn’t care because we had our food and were content, lol.

Then we had to drive to Giant so Chooch could get groceries, legit my least favorite thing to do and I am so vocal about how much I dislike it. I was no help as usual. Just stood in everyone’s way. I did help Chooch choose bags of frozen fruit for smoothies though because smoothies are one thing I excel at even though I haven’t made one for myself since that fateful July morning that Drew died and will probably never again make my own smoothie, we’ll see, but the trauma has affected strange parts of my once-daily rituals.

So fucking boring. Although I was happy when Chooch said that he needed to start eating more fruits and vegetables. Yay! Someone else’s parent probably convinced him of that, who knows.

Back on campus, I demanded that he take us up to the top floor because I wanted to see it. He actually hadn’t been there yet himself?!!? It’s only 3 floors up from his room but I needed to see the views. It’s a really nice space up there – it has a kitchen and a really nice lounge area. I feel like I would be hanging out there a lot if I lived there, but that’s just me.

There were two girls up there doing work so we were mindful of that and kept our weird family squabbles to a whisper.

Then it was picture time, Chooch’s favorite! We got him that Frank Ocean shirt in Bucharest from some streetwear rack at a sidewalk market type thing that we stumbled upon by happy accident. Chooch seemed to actually like it so I was stoked! The Frank Ocean head is separate piece of puffy fabric attached to the shirt and the tag says that the fabric is made in Romania. So I had to get it.

I feel like the only time I look genuine in pictures is when someone is taking a picture of me with Chooch. THAT IS MY REAL SMILE/FACE YOU GUYS. I love him so much and miss him.

The vibe is very different with these two lol. Also would like to point out how much better I am at making sure dumb things aren’t in the picture when I’m the one behind the camera. Henry is the worst at that!

I think this is when I was interrogating him, things like, “If your dad and I got divorced, whose side would you pick?”

“Penelope’s,” he said with no hesitation.

Then I asked him if he’s ever surprised that we haven’t gotten divorced by now and he said, “You literally have only been married for like a year.” He’s giving us a lot of credit!

Then Chooch started saying he was bored which means he was ready for us to leave so he could go play Spikeball or whatever it is he does there on the weekends. I was just so happy to get to spend a few hours with him though! And we booked his flight home for Thanksgiving so I have that to look forward to, as well. I think I’m OK. Things are OK. He seems happy and that is all I need to know.

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