Well, my two-week vacation is about half over and I haven’t really done shit this trip.

Why?

I’ve been sick.

I’m still a little sick.

My body is still tired. My nose is still sniffly.

I hate being sick.

Being sick as an adult takes forever to get over. You are fucking knocked out for days on out. I don’t have youth on my side anymore, able to bounce back after a day or two.

It’s now a week long affair.

Ahhh, something to get use to, I guess.

But yes, vacation is about half over and I haven’t done anything.

I think in a way, it is a good thing because that means I’m resting, or resting as best as I can because the biggest part of my trip is coming up tomorrow.

Banff.

That’ll be the next four days and I guess I’ll need to rest up for the drive and the hikes.

I sure don’t want to be sick for that. I can be sick and dead after, because I don’t want to miss it.

So, what have I been doing with my downtime up here?

Well, for the most part, the beginning of it was mostly family. I had the wedding and then aunts over at the house, so I just chilled with them and my mom for a bit.

I went out a little bit with my bro for a food truck festival in downtown Tacoma. But then, on Monday, I got sick.

I was fighting it. My throat was hurting. My eyes were tired. My body ache. Classic signs of a cold.

I had to rest. I needed sleep.

I think I got it from 5th Auntie. She was sick the first night that I got here. Booo.

But all in all, it was great seeing family again.

As always with any trip I do up here, it’ll always be a family affair.

Besides being with family, the rest of the time was just sleeping. I needed it.

I napped. Woke up and walked Pickles and then napped again and just laid on the couch and watch tv.

I kept it simple.

* * *

On Wednesday night I hung out with the kids, Cloud and Sinh. We went to a local dive bar in Downtown Tacoma. Zodiac Supper Club.

I didn’t know what to expect. Going by the pictures, I thought it was like a restaurant type thing, because they do a weird thing where you cook your own protein. Whether it is a steak or a burger or whatever, they give you all the fixings and your raw protein and you cook it on the grill at the front of the bar.

So, when I went in, it was half empty, but just like six people at the bar and a group of early twenties outside the bar and it was a no frills whatever bar. Divey. My kind of bar. Music was blasting on the jukebox and it wasn’t bad.

I got my Jameson neat, found a table and just chilled, going through the news feed on my phone and waited for the kids. I showed up about 40 minutes early because I just wanted some alone time to unwind and build myself for socializing and to just people watch and just to have a peaceful time alone, not with Pickles and not with my bro.

Overall, it was nice.

It was just good getting drinks with the kids, my second time with Cloud and first time with Sinh. It was just great catching up on their lives and just getting to know them better and just talk.

We talked about life, about Cloud’s QLC and millennial entitlement and paying your dues.

Sinh seems to get it, but let’s see how it goes when he gets out of college. I’m very curious.

We’ll probably going to do it again before I leave, once Sinh gets back from Cali. Gonna go to a brewery and do some beer tasting. I think it is more of a time to get Sinh use to beer and other types of alcohol. He’s still young. He likes the light lagers, the blondes.

I do have to say, I was good with my alcohol this time. I took my time, sipping and I had water with it too. I was proud of myself. It’s really time to adult when it comes to certain things.

Adulting is life.

I’m looking forward to it, hanging out with the kids again. It’s funny that out of everyone in my family, especially with all my cousins that I grew up with, it’s these new kids that I grow to have a good relationship with.

Maybe in a way, I’m a little envious of them, having that type of freedom at such a young age. I never had that type of freedom at that age. Maybe it’s because they are able to embrace their American freedom at such a young age and I was too tied into my Chineseness. Who knows, but just a little envious.

Just a little.

* * *

Yesterday was the first day that I felt well enough to leave the house and to venture out and explore. I didn’t do much of anything new. I went down to Ruston Way and just walked the waterfront with Pickles, hitting pokestops along the way, loading up on pokeballs. I’m out.

I got a lot of different Pokémons though, that’s a good thing, but it was great getting out of the house. Get some fresh air and I’m sure Pickles appreciated it also, but man, does he look old and tired.

Ahhh, such an old dog. I love him so much.

He still tests my patience though, but he’s such a great dog none the less.

Then we just drove around Tacoma and got lost. I had no fucking idea where I was going. I thought I remember, but seriously, 15 years is a long time to be away from the city you grew up with. So much has changed in these years, that it is tough to remember much of anything when so much has changed and developed.

Tacoma gets more and more unrecognizable each time I visit and explore.

Time.

Time’s a bitch, constant change with each ticking second.

That’s growth and I guess it applies to destruction too.

I guess it all depends, but things sure look different.

Very different.