The first bite of crispy bacon. A cold shower in the middle of summer. An old song that you loved when you were younger suddenly playing on the radio. These feelings pretty much embody what spring break was for me.
Sure, my friends and I hit up Myrtle Beach packed with clothes unfit for the breezy weather. Yeah, we may have walked our fair share of miles to any semblance of a fun center. Even with all of that, we still swam in the heated pool everyday, and rode in a helicopter. Ultimately our travels brought us to New York, giving me the chance to check in with my family.
Like any good aunt, I couldn’t wait to see my nieces and nephews, so right from JFK I made my way to Alphabet City to pick up my oldest niece from school.
Now for some background info: this was not my first time picking her up from school but after all I went through, it very well could have been.
First things first, I left my bags outside with my best friend and went inside. The security guard directed me to go downstairs to the cafeteria, so I went. When I got down there, there were only very small kids waiting for their parents.
At this point I double-checked the time to see if I was early - it was 5:25pm and she got out at 5:30pm. My impatience wouldn’t let me stay still since I still wanted to pick up my other niece so I walked up to random teachers asking where fifth graders would be and, lo and behold, no one knew. Finding them useless, I asked some older kids hanging out in the gym but no one knew Ahava. At this point it was 5:35pm and I was agitated.
After calling my sister, and finding out about Ahava’s new phone and its number, I tried calling Ahava. This little girl has the nerve to say, “Titi Manda, why are you calling me?” After I put her in check to let her know I’m in the building just trying to surprise her, her tone changed: “What?! I’ll be right down, I was talking to people!” What would she need to be talking about? Why would anyone want to stay longer in school?
By the time we left, all my hopes of picking up her siblings were dashed, since my sister swept in and was already headed to the Bronx. While I did finally try the infamous crack pie from Momofuku’s Milk Bar, went to see Divergent, and ate macaroni and cheese with bacon from Max Brenner’s, it didn’t stand up to chilling with the always sassy Ahava Lava.
And, by the way, if you haven’t done the first three things, I highly recommend you do.
