The Best Cure for the January Blues…

…is a road trip!

I don’t know about you, but I’m glad that January is nearly over. It is my least favorite month of the year (no offense to all of you January-enthusiasts out there). It’s not really January’s fault, coming off of the tail-end of Christmas and having no special commercial holidays and the worst weather of the year. No one ever dreamed of a “white January.” Once Christmas is over, people begin hating the snow, and waiting for spring to arrive.

When I get to this time of the year, I can’t help but reminisce about the most epic January I ever had–the one that we spent traveling southeast Asia (Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, mainland China) and celebrating Spring Festival. It’s a little sad to think that we will probably NEVER have another January quite as exciting as that one. So I’ll try not to think about it. ::sniff::

If you feel like reminiscing too, you can look back at our Chinese New Year adventure here: https://lostonplanetchina.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/happy-chinese-new-year/

Though we didn’t get to go on a tour of southeast Asia this January, we did get to go to one of my favorite places–Tallahassee, Florida! Our friends Joel and Jiaxin got married, and we were just a couple of the lucky few who got to attend their small wedding! (Incidentally, since we were just speaking of China…we actually hung out with Joel quite a bit in China. Joel lived in China for about a year longer than we did, and he studied Mandarin there and taught a college English course like we did. While we were there, we met up with him in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Joel’s new wife, Jiaxin, is actually from Guangzhou, but he met her while she was doing graduate work in Tallahassee at Florida State).

Throwback to Justin and Joel together in Beijing. (Doing Kung-Fu poses in Tiananmen Square)

 

Justin and Joel at the wedding reception (check out the Chinese lanterns hanging from the ceiling! So cute!)

I was so nice to get to hang out with our Tallahassee friends for a weekend! My favorite part was getting to go to church on Sunday morning and see everyone’s new babies! They are all growing up so fast!

Jake and I with my former college roommate, Ashley (and her son Davy). He’s already three years old–I can’t believe it!

I was also really enjoying the weather while we were there. Where else can you have an outdoor wedding in January? Joel and Jiaxin were married in a beautiful park called Lichgate that I’d never been to before. There was a huge, ancient Oak tree with limbs that spread at least twenty feet in each direction, decorated with that Spanish moss that I love. There was even a little fairytale cottage on the grounds (which Jiaxin used to get dressed before the ceremony) that had a sign out front explaining how to find the woodland fairies. (I love stuff like that!)

Picture I snagged from Jiaxin’s Facebook page. I love their height difference! So cute! (And she was wearing heels, haha!)

Justin and Jake under the giant tree

We sat down on the bride’s side before the wedding started, since we are friends with both the bride and the groom (and we assumed that Joel’s side would have more people than Jiaxin’s side). Much to our surprise, right before the ceremony we had to move a few rows back because Jiaxin’s extended family all started filing in, and they took up just about every chair! It seemed like all of her aunts, uncles, cousins, and maybe even some friends had come, all the way from Guangzhou! Talk about a destination wedding!

Their reception was in the antique car museum, which was great because we were able to look around at the old cars while we waiting for Joel and Jiaxin to finish their pictures. We even found a car that was Jake’s size!

My official new favorite picture of Jake. I want to blow it up and frame it!

Late on Saturday night, I made a quick run (with my former roommate Ashley, pictured above) to the grocery store because I realized that I was running low on formula. The closest store was “Club Publix,” a store affectionately nicknamed for its close proximity to campus and its late-night shoppers dressed in dance club attire. I had to chuckle at myself being there, as I had been so many times before while I was in school–with my former roommate, no less!–buying a giant canister of powdered formula as the other shoppers in line with me were buying their late-night snacks and bottles of alcohol. But it reminded me of the reason that Justin and I left Tallahassee in the first place. We have so many friends there, but living there after college was over just never felt the same. Spontaneous, late-night house parties gave way to infrequent dinners, because our friends were too busy to get together at the last minute and too tired to stay up so late. We all started growing up and our lifestyles began changing, and it just felt strange to stay in a town that we felt we had outgrown, even though it was full of good memories.

Standing in line at Club Publix with a can of powdered formula reminded me that we made the right choice to move on and move away. But that doesn’t mean we don’t love to come back and visit! It keeps Tallahassee feeling special. 🙂 And we did enjoy showing Jake our alma mater his future college!

The little man

“I’m ready for class, Mama!”

Do you have a special place that you like to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there?

Do you get the January blues just like me?