Hard at work? Don't forget to "treat yo self"

Half of the semester has already come and gone, so this is the time to remind ourselves that we must TREAT OURSELVES.

Got above the average? Treat yo self. Got through 2 midterms in one day? Treat yo self. It’s your birthday? Treat yo self! And for mine, that was exactly what I did.

A few weeks ago I was welcomed into my second decade of life with the beautiful gift of my parents and 2 nieces coming down for the weekend. They were scheduled to come on Saturday in the afternoon, which cost me a Friday night filled with re-runs of How I Met Your Mother and sleeping in late Saturday morning before I did my homework. By the time I got the “what’s your address?” text from my family I had barely scratched the surface of what I had to get done, but I stood by the “Treat yo self” motto.

Once we were all huddled up in my small apartment, it was as if I was home again. My dad set up an airbed in the living room, my mom took pictures after pictures only to immediately upload them to Facebook, my oldest niece retold the story of why she was sent to the principal’s office again, and my youngest niece played with Princess Sofia. After the fifth time of my mother asking if anyone was hungry we all decided to go to IHOP.

Now, I know we had a lot of options like the Cheesecake Factory and UNOS and anything else around or near the Inner Harbor, but back home IHOP is always our spot (a couple cold pancakes and a gooey steak later, let’s just say the IHOP we went to was definitely not our spot here).

After a trip to Giant and a few loudly sung pop songs, we were all lounging at my place again. Soon after, my parents were knocked out and it was just the two little ones and my roommate and I. Ahava made a point to thoroughly read the preteen magazine four times before squeezing in my bed with my mother, and Alejandra threw around her ball till 12 in the morning and only stopped to watch Adventure Time.

The next morning was nice since my mom got up to make breakfast, and it wouldn’t be breakfast if Ahava didn’t point out that there was a long blonde hair with dark hair at the top in her egg sandwich that had to have been mine.

It also wouldn’t have been breakfast if Alejandra didn’t yell at Ahava to “get out of here!” or if my father hadn’t reminded my mother that it was a long drive back home. With the time constraint, we briefly roamed the Inner Harbor while my parents told me stories about when I was younger.

Their favorite story is when I drew a graphic image of people shooting people in the pre-K and the teachers called them in for a meeting. Hey, they let me watch too much cable.

In the end I was happy that they came, since I needed a break, and I was happy when they left, because I still had stuff to do. But yes, October was cold and full of midterms but November is short and full of more. In the midst of studying and trying to get a passing grade, remember to make time for some good food and fun.