Friday, January 12th – Happy Hour & Arrival
The time was 4:30 in the afternoon. I ran around my house picking up the last minute things I needed before I left for the weekend. Packing to travel in the winter is difficult; you want to bring things that will keep you warm, but your bag is now stuffed to the top of thick sweaters, fuzzy socks, and pajamas. Losing track of time, I leave to meet up with my partner, Obie, at his job in Carroll Gardens. Since it felt like a Spring day in April as opposed to a winter one in January, I met up with him sweating and covered in rain. I met up with Obie and walked me to the bar him and his co-worker were drinking during lunch hour. I join them and have myself two slices of pizza and a glass of white wine like a truly classy and “boujee” woman. By the time we left the bar in the area, the time was 7:15 in the evening. Our train to Poughkeepsie was departing Grand Central at 8:29pm. After getting off of the train at Times Square to catch the 7 train, Obie and I began to feel the after-effects of happy hour, more so Obie because he had drunk a concession stand size glass of beer. We arrive at the platform for the 7 train and accidentally got out of the one already there, thinking it was going the other way. We were wrong and we had 20 minutes left to arrive at Grand Central, get our tickets, run to our track, and aboard the train. Somehow we got to Grand Central, got our tickets, I began running to the literal last track in Grand Central station, Obie caught up to me and we boarded the train at 8:26pm. We always catch that train on time. We found some seats together and we began to get comfortable; it was going to be a long ride to Poughkeepsie. Obie fell asleep on my shoulder and I fell asleep resting on his head. I’m guaranteed the young ladies sitting in front of us got a couple of shots of us sleeping like that.
At 10:15pm, we arrive in Poughkeepsie. As tired as we were, we hiked up the hill to go to the infamous store of Poughkeepsie to gather our snacks for the weekend. After what felt like 20 minutes being in the store, we hiked back down the hill to go to where we were staying. When we finally got there, we were greeted by some of Obie’s family. I really enjoy being around the company of Obie’s family; they don’t treat me like an outsider or look at me any differently than they do to each other. In other words, I always feel like a part of the family when I’m with them. Although it was 11 o’clock at night already, we partied like it was only 8 o’clock. During the festivities, we played games, cracked a few jokes and laughed, and drank. We all decided to take one shot and Obie dedicated this shot in celebration of my 24th birthday. I totally forgot that one of the reasons we went up there was for my 24th birthday, so I was kinda confused at first. We all turned up until about 3:30 in the morning, which was absolutely crazy. Needless to say, we had a great and adventurous first night.
Saturday, January 13th – Movies, Music, and Much More
Everyone woke up around the same time of 10am. Me and Obie’s bodies were twisted all on the couch in the living room. One of Obie’s family members decided to cook breakfast for the entire household, which this weekend we ranked a good 9 of us. After everyone did what they had to do to recover from the previous night and its festivities, we all decided to spend some of the afternoon watching a movie. Tanasia and Shameeka, two of Obie’s family, suggested watching a suspenseful film entitled The Belko Experiment. LOng story short, it was described to be something like the Saw movies where an anonymous voice decides the fate of the hostages by putting them through difficult tasks. We watched the movie and my face was mostly buried behind Obie’s shoulder. It was suspenseful, it was gruesome, and it showed viewers that anyone is capable of doing anything when there are circumstances and consequences involved. Literally, one of the rounds in this game was that 30 people had to be dead within the two hour time span and if they failed, 60 people will end up dead. Even after watching it hours, even a day later, Obie and I are still talking about that movie. It was good, and I totally recommend seeing it if you like movies like that.
For most of the daytime, many of us did our own thing. Obie’s family went to run some errands, the kids played amongst themselves, and Obie and I stayed in and relaxed. BY the time everyone came back in the house, we were all getting ready to begin the Saturday night turn-up, which was deemed to be even crazier than the night before. More company came over and the music began blasting through the stereo in the living room. for most of the night, I was relaxing with Obie while everyone else relaxed with each other. After a while, we cleaned up the kitchen table to begin a game of Spades. Knowing Shameeka for a while now, I remember how well she played Spades when she used to play back in NYC in my partner’s apartment. I had recently learned how to play Spades back in July during my first trip to Poughkeepsie and discovered just how good I was. Before Saturday, that was my last time playing it, so I was a little rusty and I kept making minor (and major) mistakes that cost me and Obie the game. With Shameeka’s partner practically yelling in my air to intimidate me (and it worked for the most part), to them taking celebratory shots, we had to quit playing the second game because Shameeka had a bit too much to drink and got sick quickly after. It was a fun night, but best to believe Obie has me in-training for the next time we play Spades with someone. By the time she got sick, we all decided that it was time to go call it a night and go to bed. So we all did, and we did so quickly. It was a really fun night, nevertheless.
Sunday, January 14th – The Early Departure & Bae Time
We all woke up around 10am, still half asleep and feeling the effects of last night’s festivities. Because most of us were feeling extremely tired and my partner was starting to come down with a cold, we decided that we were going to have breakfast together and then leave around 12:30pm. We gathered our stuff and said our goodbyes, and those who were headed back to Brooklyn all went to the train station to catch the train. Side note: I never understand how we manage to make it within minutes of the departure. By myself, I could never. #AnxietyAttack. Anyway, we all boarded the 12:46pm train back to the city. Most of us slept through the train ride home, while Obie and I looked out at the view and spoke about everything and anything. The train arrived at Grand Central 30 minutes earlier than it was scheduled to do so, so we all separated and went our own ways. My partner and I ran a couple of errands in the area, grabbed some dinner and went back to his place for a little bit just to get absolute alone time with each other. He put me in an Uber around 9:30 at night, and I got back to my place around 10.
I spent the remaining hours of my night reflecting on the amazing weekend I had in Poughkeepsie. Last night, I was the happiest I’ve been in a very long time. I felt an immense amount of love this past weekend and for once, I felt like I celebrated myself and everything I was grateful for having. I am immensely blessed to have a man that treats me like a princess and makes sure that with whatever bad I am going through in my life, he will make sure that with him, it’s nothing but good and positive vibes. Another thing I kept thinking about was that this is the second travel diary I’ve written in January. This is how I want 2018 to look like: nothing but travel stories of going to places, whether they are far or near. I want to travel more. I want to be able to travel to different places and say that I’ve seen it. I want to see the world with my partner. I want 2018 to be the year that I begin getting a taste of traveling so by the time I am out of school and making money out in the real world, I am able to travel to bigger and better places. Trips like Poughkeepsie and Lacawaxen give me this want of traveling that I never really did have until just recently. Maybe its because I am getting older, or maybe it’s just the fact that I know life is way too short to wait around for things to happen. You gotta make them happen.
Overall, my time in Poughkeepsie is one I am always going to remember, and I can’t wait to make more memories like this.
-Liz. (:
Letters From Liz. 