Flew back to VA

8:57 AM (of Tuesday, September 10th 2024)

Today is Sunday, November 8th 2024 and we flew back to Virginia today.

Throughout the entire morning and afternoon until around 2 PM, I worked and completed some last minute tasks. There were only a handful of things I was supposed to even do, but I guess I was distracted through it all as it took me that entire time to complete the few small tasks I was doing. Yeah I did work on these tasks the entire time, and it took me like 5 hours to do them when I thought it would only take me an hour or two at the most. I was distracted, eating, walking around, watching videos, while working at the same time.

My dad did some last day cleaning and mopping, and also disassembled this inversion table that I literally only used like once or twice, and for less than 2 minutes total probably.

Then we went to the airport and we brought along this air fryer I got as a gift from Lia a few years ago. I already had one so this one was left unopened the whole time. We brought that to the airport, thinking that my dad would be able to bring it on for free as a carry-on, but it exceeded the size for carry-ons. I paid for it to be checked, and we got into some argument about how I was paying for everything, because it is true.

My expenses are pretty sizeable because I have a lot to take care of, including my parents. I don't know anyone else my age or younger, having to pay their parent's mortgage or give them any money, I don't even live with my parents and I'm paying for their rent/mortgage. I also have to help them with their debts, I have given them a decent amount, more than six figures without even counting paying for their mortgage. I am tired and frustrated, I pay for our airplane tickets, I pay for the food, I gave my dad my old new car for free, I purchased laptops for both of them, and so on. I could go on for a while. This measly $40 cost to check-in this item pissed me off and my dad was the one who was upset and angry, he said he would never ride with me to PR again or anywhere else.

It is frustrating because I do have to take care of my parents, and no one else I know near my age has to do this, and I've done this for a long time already. Everyone else complains about how hard their life is, everyone else has a pretty peaceful and serene life in comparison to mine. I was also born and raised in a third world country, the Philippines, and came from poverty. I am fortunate to be where I am today, and of course I am grateful. I have never taken any government assistance programs, nor gotten any help or money from anyone else. No one else has ever helped me in my entire life, and no one ever will, I am expected to take care of myself and others, while getting absolutely no help at all.

Maybe I need to stop reading posts from Gen Z and millennials, who whine and complain about their life, while torturing and killing animals to eat. I also need to stop comparing myself to friends and cousins who have a far easier life than me, some living with their parents for more than a decade, living without any expenses, still being taken care of by their parents in their 30s. Some of my cousins have been given cars and homes for free, I have never gotten that (actually I did get a $5k car for free from my parents when I was close to graduating high school, and they struggled for years to pay this off).

I think I read too many posts from "struggling" millennials and Gen Z on Twitter and Reddit. They don't even have parents to take care of, they torture and kill animals needlessly to eat, and they complain about their life problems. What life problems? Compared to the tortured factory farmed animal who's life they needlessly took away for a five minute meal, all their life struggles are nothing.

The funny thing is, even in today's more expensive inflation society, living vegan is always the cheapest way to live. There are over 100 videos on YouTube on how to live on $20 a week vegan. The staples of white rice, brown rice, potatoes, beans, lentils, bananas, sweet potatoes, and so on, are still so cheap and affordable. A pound of lentils is still just around $1, and has 1400 calories and 120g of protein, for $1 in today's September 2024 prices. I bought a bunch of bananas for around $1 the other day in August 2024, at Harris Teeter, which is an upper-end Whole Foods-like grocery store. People are fooled into thinking they need to kill and eat any animals at all, most people are fooled into doing this three times a day, when we don't have to at all, I haven't purchased nor eaten meat nor any animal products in 11 years.

Anyway, we got into that argument, and my dad was pissed off and angry the whole time, through the security line, through waiting at terminal, though probably not at the terminal because he did Facetime with my mom while waiting, and I talked to my mom too, and he wasn't upset then. Since he was the one upset, I was the one trying to appease him, even though I was the one that should be upset. In every vacation and travel, anywhere, I foot the bill for myself and my dad, and occasionally my mom.

I should be more like my parents. They both have good eyesight and they rarely eat. I have terrible eyesight, I had glasses since elementary school, and I have had extremely terrible vision since middle school. My parents rarely eat, they eat plant based as well, and they eat very little. In comparison, I'm eating 3000+ calories pretty much most days. This sounds unbelievable, but I may go through a bag or two or four of chips with 600 calories each, a day, or eat a lot of rice and veggies and protein powders. I eat for no reason when I'm not even hungry at all. I need to stop.

Anyway, we got on the plane and flew back to VA. I watched Kung Fu Panda 4 on the airplane and that was a good movie. I like the whole Kung Fu Panda series in general, I think it's the best series made by Dreamworks. They also made The Road to El Dorado which I really liked, and same with Chicken Run, Madagascar, and Megamind. I didn't like Shrek all that much, it was some revolutionary animated 3d film when it first came out, and even back then I didn't like it that much. The years really do go by fast, I remember when Shrek first came out, I was still in the Philippines, and it was a big deal at the time. How ephemeral everything is.

Then we got an Uber back home, another $50 or so expense, and yeah I paid for the Uber as well. I brought this up while my dad and I were waiting for the Uber, and he got pissed. He said angrily and sternly that this would be the last time he went with my mom and I anywhere. Anyway when we got home I would hug him and apologize and he forgave me. It is so conflicting because I am pissed off my expenses are so huge and that I am taking care of my parents, and at the same time I love them and they would struggle and their situation would be infinitely worse without me taking care of them. It's a mixed bag.

At home I ate too much for no reason again. I don't even think I was hungry, but I ate like 1000 calories of food for basically no reason. Then I went to sleep shortly afterwards.

Anyway, that was Sunday, September 8th 2024.