We spent my birthday evening at Arnold’s Park on Lake Okoboj, as previously reported. I bought this magnet and the old white man I purchased it from held it up to his face, squinted, and said, “This is missing something. Ahh! It’s missing TRUMP sitting there!”

Pal, only if he was buried head first in the sand would I want that. Gimme my fucking magnet.

We had just been observing that day too how nice it was that we weren’t bombarded with TRUMP paraphernalia throughout Iowa like we had been in Missouri. Not even a single Trump yard sign or billboard – it was so cleansing on the eyeballs.

And then that happened. I actually wasn’t even sure if that was what he said initially because I had let my guard down the whole time we were in Iowa. Branson? Would not have been fazed. But I was very taken aback and actually wish I had walked out without the magnet but I already paid for the fucking thing. Of course, this morning we went back to the Okoboji Welcome Center and I found a much better magnet so maybe I’ll “write a picture” of an expired Trump on this one, cankles jutting out of the sand.

Today is my birthday and out of everything that happened today, here is my absolute favorite:

At Arnold’s Park earlier tonight, we were sitting down at a table, eating. Chooch had cheese fries and Henry and I both had small personal pan pizzas, in a box. I was bitching because no one brought over napkins so Henry got up to fetch some, obedient dog he is. Literally AS SOON as he walked away, Chooch swept his arm out and accidentally knocked over Henry’s TALL cup of Diet Coke, which had NO LID.

Coke flooded all into his pizza box, completely drenching his slices – and mind you this was AFTER Chooch helped himself to one and Henry hadn’t had ANY yet. I was initially mad because I thought it got on my shoes (they’re new Vans!!) but once I realized it was fine, I started cracking up and then Chooch started cracking up and then Henry came back to the table, saw what happened, and was…decidedly NOT cracking up lol. Chooch goes, “I’m sorry. But it’s your fault for not putting the lid on! Here, I’ll eat the one they got the most Coke on it” so now Henry was left with only two slices of pizza and nothing to drink.

LOL

Flash forward to about three hours later. We’re at our hotel (Okoboji Inn) and there is drama because our room is a king with a sofa bed. Chooch is too big for the sofa bed so the nice woman at the front desk brought up a roll-away bed for him.

Of course, this one was also problematic for our little Princess and the Pea. He was jostling all around on it, squeaking the springs and bitching up a storm.

“I’d rather just sleep on the floor at this point!” he cried, so Henry suggested that he move the mattress to the sofa bed since it was the bed frame that was causing his discomfort. Henry of course had to set down the can of beer he treated himself to at the gas station after we left Arnold’s Park and help him because Chooch is my son and we contribute the bare minimum to these things. In the process of this hectic maneuvering, Henry turned around and yelled, “Aw goddammit my beer spilled!”

I honestly almost peed my pants, and then Chooch was cracking up too which made me laugh harder, back and forth. We feed off each other’s giddiness!

“You have literally spilled everything I had today!” Henry cried from the bathroom, like calm down bro let’s not be hyperbolic here.

I guess when you have had 46 birthdays, dumb things like this become highlights.

ETA: I was just reliving this moment with Chooch and he said, “His beer didn’t just accidentally spill. It spilled because I threw a pillow at him.” EVEN BETTER.

Hello from a new-to-us state! I don’t know why but going to Iowa was one of the  things I was most excited about when planning this trip. Just because, why Iowa, you know? Like, who goes to Iowa for vacation. But it just so happens that there are some cool amusement parks here!

Anyway, we spent most of the day at World of Fun in Kansas City, Missouri after checking out the NOT-Victorian in Branson. It was another hotter than Hell day. 95 degrees I think but the “feels like” was 108. It felt every bit that hot too.

We left there around 5:30, (they closed at 7:00 but we had already done everything we needed to do, plus get re-rides our faves) and stopped at ZOMBIE BURGER in Des Moines. We made it there around 8:15 and I’ll be so for real here, it wasn’t all that – just a gimmicky place capitalizing off of horror by decorating with zombie art and naming the food after horror movies. But I buy into that shit, PLUS they had a veg section. I had homed in the Negan burger, which was the Zombie Burger’s own veggie nut burger and that sounded fantastic plus, NEGAN.

“I hope they actually have it, or I’ll cry,” I said, because, tragically, “Sorry, we don’t have that anymore” follows me from restaurant to restaurant.

“HOW?” Chooch dead-panned. “Do you even have anything left? You’ve been crying all day.”

Wow. He is such a good son. The best boy.

Anyway, YES THEY DID HAVE IT.

Henry got a beer and I had some sips. It was a WarPigs Foggy Geezer IPA. I created a monster with him and IPAs. Bro, branch out a little.

The Negan! It was good – my favorite part was actually the bun. It was very soft and fluffy and I enjoyed it very much, thank you for asking, omg you’re too kind but no I don’t think I’ll be starting a bun-reviewing periodical at this time.

Bathroom graffiti.

Decor was really on point.

Oddly, a baseball game was on the TVs at the bar – if I’m going to a zombie-themed eatery, I’m expecting zombie classics playing on a loop. But cook on with your baseball game, I guess.

Afterwards, I didn’t want to immediately go to the hotel. We’ve  never been in Des Moines before and I wanted to see some of it! Henry signed and drove toward the river at my command. There was parking along the bridge! So we did that and Henry thought I was just going to get out and take a quick picture but turned into, “Let’s just walk to the edge of the bridge and back” which then bled into, “I want to just walk a block down there and get a picture of that sign.”

“The TRAVELERS SIGN?” Chooch scoffed in a who cares tone.

“Yeah, I like it,” I shouted back. LET. ME. LIVE.

We saw whatever the fuck this is on the way, and the CASEYS CENTER – a venue named after Henry’s new favorite gas station that he has stopped at a hundred times on this trip so far. Also, there was a baseball stadium with a game happening and Chooch found out it was their minor league team, Cubs. I wanted it to be the Cornstalks.

Come on, it was a cool sign!

I didn’t look to see what this is, I assume an art museum or something.

After walking back on the other side of the bridge, I determined I was satisfied and that we could go. But then I saw what HAD to have been the Capitol Building peeking out in the distance. I SCREAMED when Henry got onto the highway because I thought he understood by my cries of childlike wonder that I wanted to get CLOSER to the Capitol. So, he muttered under his breath and veered off onto a ramp back into the downtown area. Yayayayayayay!

Oh, and I should mention that there was a wicked lightning storm happening, which got way worse and has since turned into a storm-storm as I sit here in the hotel writing this.

I just really thought this was so beautiful and am so happy that we got to see it at night!

This is the Iowa Soldiers and Sailors Monument a/k/a “Iowa’s Most Scandalous Statue”:

LOL – this is on Roadside America so I was stoked to get to mark another idiotic thing as “been there.”

So, that part of the night was very nice – I like when we get a chance to actually see parts of the cities we visit for roller coasters, especially because I can’t foresee any other reason that would have brought me there. And from what I saw, Des Moines is beautiful!

Then the night took a turn when we drive the 15 minutes to Altoona Iowa to check into our hotel, which ended up being a Best Western directly across from Adventureland with a ton of truckers parked in the lot and the area was just bad vibes all around. When Chooch and I  were waiting for the elevator, one of the aforementioned truckers  walked past and mumbled, “Welcome to the shit hole” to us. WTF.

Then we got to our floor and some weird child-thing came slithering out of its room at the same time as someone from the floor above took off running back and forth and then as soon as we opened the door to our room, there was maniacal pounding from the room above.

“Nope,” I said and walked right on out. Henry was in the hallway at this point and I said, “I’m not staying here,” as I walked past him to the elevator. Just felt it in my gut. The trucker’s ominous non-greeting, the stampeding, the blah room. I couldn’t do it. Not on the eve of my birthday. This of course resulted in a big argument in the car, but now we are ready for bed in a nice, clean, reputable Hilton:

Sory. But sometimes I need to be fucking spoiled, and I don’t care. I wasn’t sleeping in that other place. And for as much as we harped on Henry over the Branson hotel, that one was clean and quiet at least. No frills at all but we slept well and it legit felt like we were the only ones there. Not a peep from the other rooms.

I don’t know what the plan is for tomorrow. The weather looks iffy – storms and rain. Not sure if the park will even be open. If it’s still lightning the way it is tonight, I don’t know what we will end up doing. :/

Shit, son, am I getting too old for this or what? We’re only on Day 3 and I am so depleted lol. Granted it’s been 95 degrees every day and we have been at amusement parks aka pavement tundras. Today was Silver Dollar City and it was a long ass motherfucking day. Mostly good but there were some low lights as to be expected with long and humid days navigating crowds (actually wasn’t crowded though) and hunger. A ton of memorable moments though that will probably become long-lasting inside jokes of course – I laughed so hard at one point that it felt like I damaged something internally.

One of the last things we did before calling it a night was have Chooch take pictures of us in front of VICTOR THE BULL, downtown Branson.

You’re welcome ;)

Bonus: here’s a picture before we went to SDC, from a “scenic outlook” which was anything but?!

Random jean skirt?!

Meanwhile, we were joking that even at the scenic overview, there was a huge billboard for Dolly Parton’s Stampede. It is legit everywhere you look around here.

Even the elevator door at our dumb hotel that chooch and I hate but Henry loves. We’re annoyed because there is a really beautiful hotel called HOTEL VICTORIAN at the top of the hill but Henry was too cheap to let us stay there. So Chooch’s response to everything is, “I bet THE VICTORIAN has [insert something our hotel doesn’t have].”

Last night, we walked up the road to get to the main drag so Chooch could get some stupid +1 coaster cred at one of the many family fun zones here. It’s a pretty steep grade and Chooch huffed, “We wouldn’t have to walk up a hill if we stayed at the VICTORIAN.”

Then this morning, he said, “I’m opening the window so everyone at the VICTORIAN can look down on us.”

Dude you guys were fucking delirious at this point, lol.

We just stopped at the Arch on our way to Six Flags – the first time I saw it IRL was at night when we drove past it en route to Silver Dollar City. Even then it was horrifying to me. Being up close at its base was even scarier!

Please enjoy these pictures. We didn’t do the tour because we don’t have enough time but being there was enough for me, tbh!

I feel like everyone has been asking me lately if I’ve watched Kpop Demon Hunters and the answer was always a polite no. Honestly, it’s not because of the hype and I’m being a K-hipster or whatever, but I just genuinely don’t care for animated movies. I think the last one I gave my full undivided attention to was probably CARS.

CARS!!

That was a long-ass time ago.

And it’s not even the “it’s for kids” reasoning because you all know how much I loved Degrassi and iCarly as a full adult, lol.

I had listened to some of the songs though because of Twice, and a lot of my fave idols were all up in my IG feed doing the Soda Pop challenge, so I definitely knew some of what was up.

Then on Saturday evening, Henry and Chooch blew me off for a night at Blake’s (I wasn’t invited and yes we talked about my hurt feelings in therapy today LOL) so as they were walking out of the house, I said, “That’s fine, Penelope and I wanted to watch Kpop Demon Hunters anyway, so I guess that’s what we’ll do tonight.”

Chooch mumbled, “Thank god,” because he’s such a hater and refuses to be around me when I’m consuming any kind of media that he deems “lame” or “overrated.”

So, that’s just what Penelope and I did! We drank some Lolev beers (OK, I only let Penelope have a few whiffs) and we quickly becamse ENGROSSED in this movie.

Like, immediately obsessed.

Screaming over the kimbap and cartoon versions of recognizable places in Seoul, LIKE THIS PLACE – the Seoul Fortress Wall / Naksan Park where we visited on our first and last trips to Korea and when I tell you that I felt an ache in my heart, like a full-on PULLING and TUGGING, I am not exaggerating.

OK, heartstrings. I feel you. You exist.

Ow ow ow.

And Namsam Tower was so prominently featured too, I was in tears.

This movie!

The music!

The Korean culture!

It was beautiful, and by the pivotal scene at the end, I was in fucking tears.

I get it now, you guys! I understand why this movie is trending – it is beautiful, funny, original, and has the BEST songs. But oh, did it make me feel achingly homesick for a place that isn’t even my home. We have been talking about this lately, about how I have wanted to go to Romania for more than half of my life and am finally (God willing, etc etc) going this year, and I was wondering if this will replace Korea in my heart. Henry and I just looked at each and both said, “Nah” at the same time. I can’t explain it but Korea feels like somewhere I’ve lived before, in another time, and each time we visit it hasn’t felt like a vacation, or even your traditional “trip,” but something so much more nostalgic. And for a cartoon to play on those feelings – I was in deep!

It was not the worst way to spend a Saturday night after being ditched by your family, LOL.

The best part though is that apparently, this is Blake’s kids’ favorite movie at the mo’ and it was on at his house so Chooch was unable to escape it after all. He was so surly when he came home, LOL!

Anyway, I made Henry watch it last night. I said, “You can watch this while I look up stuff for our trip,” but then I ended up sitting here and fully watching the whole thing again. I hate myself haha.

Kurt Travis time!

On the way there, I had made some outlandish statement about how I’d be fine “just sitting at the bar” during this show since I’m so far-removed from this scene now, etc. But then as Kurt and his band (Zac Garron was there as his guitarist!! Love him) were about to start, I said, “Byeeee!” to Henry and ran out to the floor, getting a cozy spot at the side of the stage. It’s a pull, you guys. Like magnets. I can’t fight it.

Dude, what can I say that I haven’t already said a thousand times over the years about Kurt Travis? This show really brought me back, man. He is so incredible! He could go on a “Kurt Travis Sings the Alphabet Song” tour and I would be waiting for the presale.

We had a good 30 minutes to wait before it was Anthony Green time so we people-watched and I guess chatted, what do Henry and I even chat about. He wasn’t even sitting next to me at our table, but catty-corner!

“Do you think Anthony’s going to be chaotic?” I asked Henry, trying to make CONVERSATION.

Henry just gave me the “now THAT’S a stupid question” smirk in response.

Then it was Anthony Green time! Dang, I am so so so far-removed from this scene but it still felt like no time had passed since I last saw him. I think it’s been quite a while since I last saw Circa Survive, but I’ve seen him with Saosin, LS Dunes, the Sounds of Animals Fighting, and solo myriad times in the last decade at least. I’m fairly positive that every time we’ve gone to Riot Fest, he’s been there in some capacity. (The last time we went in 2023, LS Dunes and Thursday were both there!)

I know I’ve written about it a million times on here, but Circa Survive SPECIFICALLY was such a big part of my life. Juturna got me through my pregnancy to the point where I wouldn’t be surprised if Chooch was partially triggered by the opening notes of any song on that album.

And the first time we saw Circa was the summer of 2005 at the Grog Shop in Cleveland, which was my first time there, actually! And I patiently stood outside that night with a bunch of fanboys, literally the only girl  there, waiting for my chance to tell Anthony how much he means to me and could he please sign my CD. I was wearing my mom’s old Jacki Sorenson aerobics shirt from 1984 – that is the ONE THING that is seared into my mind.

That, and the guy I was standing with telling me that Anthony literally stopped him from killing himself. He had told the guy to reach out to him if he needed to, and he took him up on that and Anthony talked him down. I will never ever forget that. Anthony has always been a genuine person, through all of his own demons and struggles he has always cared about the people who love his music and that comes across so strong at all of his shows. No matter which band he’s with.

So, hearing him sing his solo work on top of some Saosin and Circa that night was so cathartic. It definitely put me in a weird headspace, but overall, it was healing. A merging of my past and present, in a way – a reminder that I can still hold on to pieces, the healthy parts, of my old self without it stunting my personal growth. Does that make sense? Because it made me realize how far I’ve come since those old days of seeing Circa at the Grog Shop, Warped Tour, Mr. Smalls — still loving music with my whole stupid heart but also being so much more stable now. And it’s nice to be able to go into it without feeling SICK TO MY STOMACH like I would get back then, that hyper-nausea of preparing to see a band that made me feel like I had just cut my wrists because I loved them on such a psycho-emotional level. Now, I can just chill out with Henry and enjoy it for what it is, feeling the feelings without it crippling me.

I don’t know what started this exploration of my past (oh yeah, therapy lol) but it feels like it’s doing good things for me.

Then this happened and FML honestly lol:

IT’S A SURPRISE YOU HAVEN’T CAUGHT ON YET IT’S NOTHING PERSONAL YOU’RE AN EMBARRASSMENT.

Ugh, I used to cry and sing that part out loud while walking in the cemetery in 2005.

We lingered a bit after the show because I was hemming and hawing about getting Kurt to sign  the vinyl I bought, and also because we were 99.9% percent certain that one of our Sugar Spell Scoops friends was in attendance and we wanted to say hello to him.

Yo, why am I such a baby when faced when speaking to bands?? Literally Kurt was standing there totally unbothered and I was still so weird about asking him for a minute of his time?? I walked up  to him, holding the vinyl against my chest like a 1950s school girl clutching onto her poety notebook with dear life, and asked, “Hi, will you sign this?” in SUCH A FAKE BABY VOICE WHAT IS MY ISSUE.

He was happy to do so and while that was happening, I said, “I saw you in Pittsburgh 10 years ago exactly playing a house show at some kid’s house. You thought you were the oldest person there, but nope! It was me.”

I feel like HE REALLY LOOKED AT ME at this point, maybe trying to remember, and whether he did or not, who cares because he said, “Damn, if that was 10 years ago, then I’m even OLDER now! And look at us both, we’re still out here!”

I loved that sentiment because, yeah really! Look at us! In our mid-40s and out late on a Tuesday night for the sake of amazing music.

Kurt then gave me an abbreviated version of what he’s been up to personally, including buying a house in N.California with his girlfriend and dog. “It has 4 acres!” he said, and I was genuinely so happy for him, for getting himself to a good, safe and happy place. For still making music.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to stop making music,” he said after I told him I’m so glad that he’s still out there doing his thing. It was just a really good and super real moment. I already love his music so much, but this really added a special sheen to that.

We ended the night by chatting with our Sugar Spell friend (Mychael – I hate myself if that is spelled wrong) at the bar about the future of Pittsburgh vegan ice cream (please come back soon Sugar Spell!) and I was laughing because we all recognized each other earlier in the night but, seeing each other out of context of an ice cream shop and out in the wild really threw us all off. He said he had texted Amanda at one point like, “I really think it’s them!”

Anyway, he was at the bar with Zac Garron! I guess they are friends! I didn’t want to be a creep and ask, lol.

I didn’t talk to Zac because he was mid-convo with another couple but what a small world.

Yeah, so that was a super action-packed night! I felt like my social battery was crazy-depleted as we walked through the parking lot but it was so worth it, even getting home way past my bedtime and being embarrassingly hung over the next day – AND I HAD A VIDEO CALL. Oh well.

_____________________

On the way home, I was musing about the night. “I can’t believe I’m at the age where musicians I have loved for years are now talking to me about how much acreage they have.”

Sigh.

OK OK OK this was such a fantastic night and probably I’m blowing this up in my head but I feel like so much happened that night that I am preemptively tired just thinking about recapping it so I’m splitting it up into two parts. Because it’s my blog, and that’s just what we’re going to do, OK.

When Henry told me a few mths ago that this show was happening, I wavered on getting tickets for some reason – complacency, laziness, etc. But then I got into Kurt Travis SO HARD again recently and I was like, “OK sold. Lessgo.”

I was so stoked all day at work about this and my pal Lyda from our Seattle office let me go off on Teams about my history with all three singers – Anthony Green, Kurt Travis, and Geoff Rickly. It was so much fun sharing music with her while also getting to retell some of my favorite stories, like the time I dragged Janna, who could give a shit about the bands I like lol, to some frat kids’ basement in Oakland for a Kurt Travis house show 10 years ago!

Anyway, the show as at Jergel’s in Warrendale, and at first I was annoyed that it was a bit of a drive outside of Pittsburgh when I should have just been grateful that this didn’t require us to leave the state as EVERY KPOP CONCERT does.

This is what I was wearing. Ignore my old-ass fugly face.

Idiot Henry.

We arrived a good hour or so before the show started so we had plenty of time to grab a table, get some drinks, and order food. I had a really good wheat beer from Troegs and Henry had who cares. Our food was mid, but our server was an actual delight – so attentive and friendly without being overhearing and her smile never seemed fake – EVEN AROUND HENRY. It was just good vibes.

Meanwhile, Henry had checked out all of the merch booths on his way to the bathroom and reported that not only was Geoff Rickly’s book available at his merch table—it’s been on my TBR list for a few years—but Geoff himself was up there selling his merch.

“Go talk to him,” Henry urged.

“And say what?” I sighed. “‘Your sweat got on me when I saw you play at Smiling Moose with United Nations and it was one of the greatest concert moments of my life’?” And then, “DO YOU REMEMBER THAT??”

“Yes, Erin,” Henry said. “How could I forget.”

Then I joked that I could ask him if he’s still friends with Robert Smith (Henry rolled his eyes) because FUN FACT/STORY TIME:

The first time I saw Geoff’s band Thursday was in 2004 at Coachella. Yes, back when Coachella was only moderately despicable and schmoozy. Influencers didn’t exist yet, after all. I really liked Thursday a lot back then so it was a bonus that they were going to be there, as we were there FIRST AND FOREMOST to see The Cure.

Henry was much less open-minded about 99% of the bands I enjoyed back in the 2000s and I remember he was very “……….” about Thursday so he does not remember this AT ALL but it was like 113 degrees that weekend in the desert if I remember correctly, and Geoff ended up passing out on stage. I was so scared and screamed when it happened! Clearly he ended up being OK but that always stands out in my mind.

Anyway, they were playing on the same stage that The Cure would be headlining on later on that weekend.

That summer, The Cure put together something called the Curiosa festival and toured around the US with it. Thursday was one of the bands they brought with them and when we went to the Cleveland stop, I’ll never forget Robert Smith telling the crowd that he loved Thursday so much when he saw them at Coachella and had become friends with Geoff, and personally invited them onto the Curiosa festival.

It was something that really stuck with me, all these years later. It was such a heartwarming moment because at the time, Thursday was still an up-and-coming band and to be taken under the wing by the actual Robert Smith? What a dream!

Anyway! Geoff went on first that night. Just him and his guitar.

He told us so many great stories, starting with that when Anthony told him about this tour, he thought Anthony meant that this was just a solo singer thing, so he was kind of surprised when he showed up alone and saw that Kurt and Anthony brought their bands with them. Just his deliver made this so funny YOU HAD TO BE THERE OK.

More Geoff anecdotes:

• He said when he was asked if he wanted to go on tour with “the singer from Dance Gavin Dance,” he hesitated and asked, “That depends….which one?” and everyone in the crowd laughed so hard. IYKYK! And when he found out that it was Kurt, he said, “Fuck yeah, best one!”
• Geoff said that while he is now clean, he used to NOT be and told us about how one time years ago when he was on tour with Anthony Green, he was so drunk at the airport that he couldn’t scan his boarding pass so the staff at the gate said that they wouldn’t be able to allow him on the flight, so Anthony stepped in and said, “It’s ok. I’m his dad.” And they let him on the plane. This even made Henry laugh – Anthony and Geoff are around the same age. WHY was this so funny to me?? I was thinking about it the next morning and laughing all over again!

Also, Geoff not only resembles Wendy’s husband (mostly just from afar because I have bad eyes) but their laughs sound nearly identical!

His set was phenomenal and already I was patting myself on the back for not skipping this show just because it was on a school night.

While Kurt’s band was setting up, I went over to buy Geoff’s book “Someone Who Isn’t Me.” While I was standing in line, I was watching the people before me showing him their Thursday tattoos and otherwise proving the longevity of their fandom by having him sign old concert tickets and setlists. I’ve always just been a more casual fan (although I was PISSED at the last Riot Fest we attended in 2023 because the gates didn’t open until late due to rain so as we were waiting to get in, Thursday started their set and we had to be content with just hearing it from a Chicago sidewalk, le sigh) so I wasn’t sure what, if anything, I was going to say when it was my turn.

I started by shyly asking if he had any books left and then after he retrieved a stack from a bag, I proceeded to ask—still in my shy voice—if he would sign it for me.

As he was signing, I said, COMPLETELY OFF THE CUFF I WAS SO PROUD OF MYSELF FOR NOT LETTING MY SOCIAL IDIOCY TAMPER WITH MY WORDS, “I love your music, but I could listen to you talk all day. Your stories are so great.”

“Thanks!” he said. “Then hopefully you’ll like the book, too.”

And then something dumb came over me, and I stage-whispered (CHOOCH HATES WHEN I DO THIS BECAUSE I HOLD MY HAND UP TO THE SIDE OF THE MOUTH AND EVERYTHING FOR THE FULL EFFECT), “Can I ask you something weird?”

Geoff, still signing my book, glanced up. “Sure!” he said, doing a great job not letting hesitancy show in his voice.

“Are you and Robert Smith still friends?!?!?” I blurted out in such a dork-alert manner that even my shadow was trying to disassociate itself from me.

He definitely seemed a little caught off guard by this question, I don’t know what he was expecting, lol. But he said, “I mean, we exchange little notes here and there.”

I then felt compelled to explain why I was asking, briefly mentioning the Coachella / Curiosa 2004 thing and maybe my hyper-awareness was making me blow this out of proportion, but he did seem to relax after learning why I was asking and TOLD ME A STORY ABOUT THE CURIOSA TOUR!

“I don’t know if you remember this, but the NY Times wrote a review about Curiosa at the time,” he started. He said that his mom had come to one of the shows and met Robert. “She was very goth then, looked very goth, too,” Geoff said. So when the NY Times was looking for a picture of Robert to use, they somehow found a picture that Robert had taken with Geoff’s mom and wrote, “Robert Smith and his wife” in the caption!

Geoff said he was like OMG and apologized to Robert who said, and here Geoff did an impeccable impersonation of Robert’s accent, “I should be so lucky, your mother is a lovely lady!”

LOVED THAT STORY SO MUCH!!!

By the time I returned to our table, I had been gone for quite a while and Henry was like *eyeball emoji*

“I was chatting with Geoff,” I shrugged in a douchey “no big deal” manner. “I asked him if he was still friends with Robert!” I squealed.

“Omg,” Henry mumbled.

This was just the first part of the evening! So memorable and heartwarming, revisiting these old days with Henry. (Who is way more accepting of all of the music, new and old FYI. I wore him down, guys.)

So many good comebacks have been happening lately! LIKE NCT DREAM, JESUS CHRIST. I’m going to a non-Kpop concert tonight after work but here are some k-goodies I have been loving lately!

Jesus, Wonho:

My Czennie heart is so full right now – 2 new MVs from the Dreamies plus an album! My favorite from it is actually this song, but there was no official video for it so let’s watch this one together instead.

This video makes me wish I had friends to frolic around with in the summer lol:

My fave Kang Daniel <3:

ONEW! He also dropped another new one today actually but this one fits the summer vibe more:

And last but not least, is it even summer without a new Hyolyn song?? No, the answer is no. She makes me want to drop everything and go to the beach and I am not even remotely close to being a beach person.

OK I’m out.

I’m going to try and zoom through this recap because as usual – it was a vibe, hard to describe, amazing, awesome, beautiful, etc. I have no complaints.

This was my first time going to a concert of this magnitude, as a stand-alone and not in a Coachella / big music festival setting. So, it was very overstimulating! For this reason, it being a first, I wanted to get seats on the floor. Having already seen SKZ and not being a huge stan, I wasn’t willing to Big Splurge on this so I got us reasonably-priced seats in section D:

The stage was still super far away but it was fine. This place was HUGE.

One thing I will note about Stray Kids is that there were men in attendance than any other Kpop show I’ve attended. The crowd in general was very diverse but that’s generally the case with most Kpop shows. You get people of all walks of life, just not many men!

The show was delayed by about 10 or 15 minutes, and the intro might have been the longest intro of any Kpop group I have seen thus far. It was super dramatic, and I was like OK PLEASE COME OUT NOW! I swear to god though, Kpop concert intros never fail to excite me.

This guy was a huge inflatable that came out just for one song!

Not my video but this is one of my all-time favorite SKZ songs, and usually the one I send to people when I’m like YOU MIGHT LIKE STRAY KIDS???

I can’t put into words how hyped up this entire concert made me – Stray Kids have such a powerful catalogue of music! I was about to say that it must be impossible to be there and not move but then I remembered that Henry was seated and still the entire time LOL. And he actually does like them! He is a very stoic concert attendee. But you know what they say – everyone enjoys music their own way. For me personable, I bounce up and down with no rhythm like I have to pee. That’s my go-to move.

The girl next to me was very tall and stood with her arms crossed the whole time. Never clapped, cheered, screamed, moved. But the fact that she was standing made me feel like she wanted to be there at least? Maybe she was enjoying it in the same way Henry was.

My bias Han with my bias-wrecker, Felix.

FYI when I film snippets at concerts, I never hold my phone over my head. I am so careful and aware of not impeding upon someone else’s view and I just wish everyone had that same consideration. Some of those phones NEVER WENT DOWN ONCE. If everyone had kept their phones down, we would have had a clear view of the stage. I know I am guilty of recording parts of concerts but PLEASE KNOW that it is because I like to have little memories on my phone to go back and rewatch (and yes, I do, years later) BUT I AM NOT ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE.

You have no idea how much I have wanted to see a Kpop group use the cart! THIS ALWAYS HAPPENS AT THE ASIAN CONCERTS BUT NEVER AMERICA! WE FINALLY GOT THE CART!! I WAS SQUEALING AND HOPPING UP AND DOWN WITH MY LIGHTSTICK GRIPPED IN MY HANDS LIKE A ROSARY AT MY FIRST HOLY COMMUNION.

OMG this whole night felt like a huge party. It was so festive! So uplifting! With the exception of the grandma in front of me who held her phone up and recorded entire songs until she got too tired and finally sat down for the rest of the concert, everyone around us was wonderful, polite, stoked to be there (even Henry although he never shows it). My favorite “non-song” part of the night was when Bang Chan had us split into 4 groups to have a screaming contest, and then said he wanted to wait for a plane to fly over so we could try to get our screams to reach it – he was being half facetious since he had made numerous comments throughout the night about how weird it was to be performing in the middle of nowhere with planes flying so low overhead since we were next to an airport. But then literally right after he said it, a low-flying plane appeared and we went ballistic. It was so funny and endearing! I did see later that someone had posted an aerial view of the Rogers Stadium from a plane they were on, flying back to Toronto from Vegas, saying, “Looks like the new Rogers Stadium is having a concert.” It wasn’t the plane we were screaming at but it was still funny to see that circulating!

In lieu of listing out the set list like I normally do, here’s the SKZ pages from the concert journal that Megan got me which I recently realized is the perfect way to keep all of my freebies and wristbands, etc! I highlighted my fave songs – I FORGOT HOW FUCKING HYPE “MIROH” IS LIVE!!!!

Another highlight – SEEING HAN IN PERSON. I love him so much. His banter is so precious and hilarious!

I don’t think they did this in 2022, but they faked us out with a surprise encore – a bunch of people (including us) were already starting to leave, when we heard, “WE’RE BAAAAACK!” and then this is when all Hell broke loose because a bunch of them left the stage so everyone just rushed forward – INCLUDING ME because I get really caught up in these things, lol. Henry was just like, “You do you, I’ll be waiting RIGHT HERE by our seats.” So I went up to the front of the section we were in and couldn’t really see any better but it was still fun! Security just kind of gave up.

I didn’t see this until days later, but Bang Chan ran the entire circumference of the floor, barely being noticed, and then security almost didn’t let him back on stage LOL. He was like, “This is my concert” and then then they were like, “OMG” when they realized and opened the gate for him, lol. He was also going over to handicap areas and I love that so much.

After the show ended for real, 50,000 people all made their way out at the same time. It seemed like most people were headed in the direction of the subway station. We were still technically on the grounds of the stadium when the crowd in front of us came to a dead stop. I could see red lights ahead but couldn’t tell what was going on. Then I realized that security was up ahead, cutting off the crowd in waves to alleviate stress and overcrowding on the subway. We got stopped in twice, and the second time we were about 2 rows back from the line of security and I need to give them a special shout out here because if  this was in America, it would have been so aggro and negative, they would have been screaming at us to stop, people would have pushed back out of defiance. But here in Canada, they were SO NICE. And everyone LISTENED. One of them, an amazing man named Kyle, took the lead and was asking us all if we had a good time, who our favorite member was (people tried to teach him that the correct term is bias, lol), and then he said he wanted to be our favorite member from this part of the night and had us all chanting, “Kyle! Kyle!” It made me so giddy and now I’m tearing up at the memory because I love Canada so much and it was such a special way to end the night!

A few minutes later, our group was allowed to continue on and yes, there was a big crowd but it was moving safely, no one was pushing, everyone was calmly taking their time entering the station and walking down to the platform. We got lucky because since we were heading away from Toronto, less people were lining up on the side we were on, so we were able to get on the first train that arrived and it was nearly empty.

Two or three stops later, we were back at the lot where we parked. Probably took about 45 minutes in total to get back to the car after the concert let up. So our personal experience was quite smooth and positive, but I have seen a lot of negative feedback from other people who were apparently stuck in the stadium for up to 2 hours. We must have been in one of the first waves of people to leave so it hadn’t bottlenecked yet.

Hilariously, as we were walking back to the car, the tall girl who had been seated next to me at the concert and her friend walked past us! Henry and I both looked at her and then at each other, like, “Out of 50,000 people….” They had been walking out when we thought the concert first ended, before the gotcha encore, so we definitely did not leave at the same time as them where we would have been on the same subway. Yet there they were, in the same parking lot as us!

I will be rewatching videos from this show for a long time, I think. It was just such a great night, especially once the sun went down and it cooled off – it was so nice to be outside for this. I sincerely didn’t want it to be over. And Henry and I got along the whole time! And even the whole way home the next day!

(I cry every time I watch this one LOL):

A bad month of books, chosen very poorly by me. I am really going to keep this one short n’ sweet.

1. The Wife’s Silence by Amanda McKinney

The fact that I don’t even remember reading this is all you need to know.

2. Long Time Gone by Charlie Donlea

A mid but mildly entertaining thriller.

3. Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams

If you don’t already hate Facebook, you will after you read this memoir about Sarah’s stint working closely with Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg (who is a FUCKING WEIRDO, btw). There is a lot of intricate detailing about government and political policies that made me want to start snoozing but overall, it was a dish-y peek into the high-level happenings within FB. And it made me fucking sick. 8 years off Facebook and still no regertz!

Also, Mark and Co. really didn’t want this book to see the light of day, which is all the more reason for everyone to read it and give it a good rating! Boost this shit up!

4. The Secrets We Buried by Becca Day

2 stars. Boring. Hoopla almost always lets me down when I’m looking for an “in-between” audio book to keep me company on my walks. This was so lame and forgettable.

5. The Perfect Divorce (Perfect, #2) by Jeneva Rose

I love Jeneva Rose as a person – her Instagram content is so funny and real! And while I loved  The Perfect Marriage, it truly didn’t need this sequel. Also, I could barely remember how the first one ended! This was skippable.

6. The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager

Apparently, this was the only Sager backlog that I hadn’t read so I figured I owed it to myself even though I am so love/hate with his books. This was an older one and actually not too bad. A godo summertime read, with its summer camp setting. It didn’t blow me away, but I was entertained.

7. Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata

My least favorite Murata book so far :( I’m usually so ready for her to fuck me up – and oh boy, did she ever – but this one didn’t have the fun, rompy element to it that I was craving. I…legitimately don’t know how to rate this. That ending…she really went there. And like, way worse than in the DeGrassi sense, lol.

There are so many trigger warnings – I would suggest looking them up.

8. The Manor of Dreams by Christina Li

A gothic horror with a Chinese flair. Very atmospheric. Haunted house. Feuding families. It wasn’t scary, but it did make me sad. Should I write book reviews professionally or what.

9. When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy

Disgusting. Legitimately scary. LAUGH OUT LOUD FUNNY. Sad. Nat Cassidy is a master of modern horror and I am obsessed with him. This was the one solid, 5 star, loved it to death book that I read all month. It was like going on an adventure. And good lord, another phenomenal afterword. DO NOT SKIP HIS AFTERWORDS!! Nat Cassidy is a treasure.

10. #CrimeTime by Jeneva Rose

OK THIS is the Jeneva Rose I love. This was so much fun! An audio original, written with her husband, with a full cast. Super entertaining. Fast-paced. I adored this. I hope they do more of these! (It got VERY mixed reviews on Goodreads though.)

The best part about going to a concert for a group that isn’t one of my ults is that I only feel pure excitement. I don’t know what it is about seeing groups like NCT Dream and GOD FORBID G-DRAGON but I get so sick to my stomach from the stress of it all!

With Stray Kids, I like them A LOT to where I know all of their names, some of the lore, pretty much all of the songs. But I don’t hard stan them. I’m not sure why this is but Henry and I don’t really watch much of their content which is actually a damn shame, and we should correct this soonly. We saw them back in 2022 on their Maniac tour but that was on a whim after I checked Ticketmaster a good while after the tickets went on sale and saw that there were some decent seats still available for NORMAL PRICES. I will never forget this day because for some reason, Henry had to drive his WORK VAN to Erie for some work-related thing – he was making a delivery of Everfresh or something? – and he asked if I wanted to ride up with him just to get out of the house. Much to his chagrin, this turned into me saying, “I have FOMO about not getting Stray Kids tickets” as one of their songs played on Spotify, and then seeing that ticket prices were reasonable, and ending with Henry saying, “UGH WHATEVER YOU WANT TO DO, ERIN.”

YAY!

I’m actually ended up wearing the same shirt I wore to that concert. I had brought my Maniac tour shirt with me on this trip, but AFTER I PUT IT ON THAT AFTERNOON I NOTICED IT HAD COFFEE STAINS ON IT!!! Henry tried to get them out with a Tide stick I miraculously had in my travel bag (I definitely didn’t buy that, had to have been Henry’s forethought), but it only made it worse. I was rull upset about this for a few minutes but then shrugged it off because who cares. I’m 45.

We drove to the Pioneer Village subway station, which has a large parking lot. The Rogers Stadium, which has just been built and Stray Kids is the christening event, is apparently only going to be in use for 5 years??? I don’t fully understand what is happening here and also don’t care enough to do further research, but this is what Henry told me. It was built on an old runway near the airport, with a subway station about a 10 minute walk away and little to no parking from what I gleaned after reading all of the complaints, uproar and panic. Lol.

I can see where this would be super inconvenient, but for people who traveled to Toronto specifically for this and weren’t planning on driving anyway if we could avoid it, this was perfectly fine for us. It was a quick subway ride fill of other Stays. There were three middle school-aged Stays who looked at me in wide-eyed wonder when they saw that I was wearing a SKZ shirt and probably also going to the concert – actually, I felt like they were making fun of me but Henry said they weren’t, so we’ll go with what Henry said for once.

Yo, the lines were staggering! Everyone spilled out of the subway station and while some people milled about, most of us immediately got into a line. There was one that was very long, and then several others that were shorter and seemed to be moving faster so we crossed our fingers and got into one of those ones. There was legit no signage or instructions anywhere. We did determine eventually that a second super long, barely moving line was for a merch booth that was set up outside of the gates. I was like, “Surely there are more inside though??” I just wanted to get in so we skipped that shit.

For as daunting as the line seemed (you can see it snaking it well beyond that YZD sign up there) it actually moved pretty steadily. It wasn’t so bad either because people were handing out freebies and I am so much better at holding my handout in these situations now, even going so far as to follow someone for a freebie. I always use the self-deprecating line of, “I’m old so everyone always skips over me, HAHAHAHA” so cringey. Chooch would hate to hear that.

Han is my bias <3

I refused to wear black. It was only about 80 that day but with nary a cloud in the sky so that sun was straight BAKING us like STAY bread.

I’d say within 20 minutes, we had made it to the stadium! You can see to the right on the other side of the fence is the MERCH LINE.

We sailed right through the gates and got our FLOOR wristband, no issues!

I wasn’t expecting this but the ground of the stadium are pretty big, with some grassy areas too, so people were free to mill about, drink, eat, ride a ferris wheel, rather than wait in a line for the actual “doors” to open. We spent most of our time in the merch line which was a cluster. There was one very long line, and then three much shorter lines. We got into the long line because it was the closest one to the entrance where we came in, but immediately clocked the shorter lines. There was a mom and her 20’ish year old daughter in front of us who said someone else in our line had gone up to investigate and reported back that the other lines were for food.

Henry cried bullshit on this because here is what it looked like – I’m doing this at work with low energy so please excuse the artistic crudeness:

The booth was split up into four long windows, each had at least 3-4 people working. Pretend the first line has about 200 people in it lol because it legit probably did – it was so long that a staff member had to come over and make it turn so that it wasn’t impeding the general walk area. The other three lines probably had about 50 each. Henry was like I AM GOING TO GET IN ANOTHER LINE, JUST STAY THERE.

Kpop Dad has no time for this kind of bullshit. He hates it when people can’t understand that there is more than one line. He must have gotten yelled at for not lining up properly in the SERVICE and now he’s extremely triggered.

Meanwhile, I had struck up a nice conversation with the mom in front of me. She was so cute! This was her first Kpop concert – she traveled to Toronto with her daughter for it and I didn’t quiet catch where they had come from but I think it was somewhere else in Canada because they were referencing Canadian things to me like I should know and helped me pronounce Mississauga, which is the city we were staying at outside of Toronto. She asked me if we took the GO Train there and I said, “……yes?”

Henry told me later that NO, we did NOT. The GO Train is not the same as the subway, which I forget what the call there, lol. I tried! This is what happens when Henry leaves me alone to field adult questions! I sink.

Anyway, the mom was so cute, as previously mentioned, with her bedazzled Bang Chan jersey. “I got this on Amazon and jazzed it up!” she said, after we marveled over how creative some of the concert outfits were. She said she had primarily come there to accompany her daughter and I told her I was there for me, lol. I felt super comfortable talking to her and before I knew it, I was telling her all about how we got married in Korea last year.

Meanwhile, Henry was giving me a play-by-play from his line so I told my new friend that he was up there scoping it out. Eventually, he told me that it was definitely moving faster than my line and to come up. “Tell him you made new friends and ask him if we can come too!” the mom laughed, but I was already doing that exact thing! In the end, the mom said she would stay in our OG line, and her daughter would join me and Henry. There were only like 10 people ahead of Henry as opposed to the 100 still ahead of us in our line! Eventually, Henry was like, “I’m going to get a beer.”

“I dismissed him,” I said to the daughter, whose name I finally learned was Chloe and her mom was Holly. “He did the Lord’s work!”

I thought it would be awkward, standing in line with my fake daughter, but she was so sweet and easy to chat with! We basically just talked about kpop in general and she was genuinely interested in my origin story, which was crazy because it seems like just yesterday when I was at my first KCON in 2017 and felt like such a n00b. I guess I’m finally legit now!

We truly couldn’t understand why the lines were moving so slow because there were at least 4 people working in each section of the merch booth, as previously noted in my shitty Snag-It drawing. I knew exactly what I wanted, so when Chloe insisted that I go ahead of her as a thank you for saving her from the long-ass OG line, it took me less than 30 seconds to tell the super personable guy what shirt and size I wanted and tap my card. Bam, done.

I wished Chloe the best time and then wandered off to find Henry. Of course, I had remorse that I didn’t ask to connect with her on IG at the very least but would that have been weird since I was basically her mom’s age??? Oh well. Forever alone, lol.

I found Henry, stole his beer, and sent him off to get me a grilled cheese from a truck called CHEEZHEADZ. Ofc after he already ordered, he told me that the tater tot truck next to it had “TOTBOKKI.” AND A BIBIMBAP TACO. UGH.

Whatever, it was nice chilling on this grassy knoll, watching girls film SKZ dance challenges, zone out to the ferris wheel, and just genuinely bask in the beautiful day and fucking good vibes, man. It felt like Riot Fest, or Warped Tour. I’d say even Coachella but  my experience there was so miserable and this was not that.

I got two Han and one Hyunjin bracelets <3

OK,  this grilled cheese took forever but it was VERY classic-tasting, familiar, comforting. Nothing crazy added to it. And the fries were MY STYLE. THE GOOD KINDS! Ask Henry and he will tell you that after 24 years, he still can’t tell what that means.

By this time, it was about 6:45 so we decided to enter the stadium! PART 2 COMING SOON.

Well, like at least half of the country, we weren’t exactly donning our red white & blue attire and firing up the grill in honor of America. I know that you can hate the president and love the country at the same time, and that is WHY we hate Trump (among a full-ass tome of other reasons), but being celebratory when inhumane ICE raids and “Alligator Alcatraz” and the big ugly bill are also happening just feels gross.

So instead, I spent the morning having a good, long convo with Corey over iced berry cobbler lattes from Reginald’s, where the super cool and college-aged barista told me that she loved my outfit. “The butterflies over the Gemini shirt – it’s such a vibe!” and I was like, “WHY IS CHOOCH NOT HERE TO WITNESS THIS.” He would have been even more annoyed because my card got slightly stuck in the reader and the barista said, “Oh no, I’m sorry – that’s never happened before!” After I yanked my Visa out, I said, “Oh it’s not your fault, it’s because I have this overlay on the card,” flashing my custom Seventeen credit card at her. Chooch would have been mortified, lol.

Later that afternoon, I wanted to go for a walk and surprise, surprise – look who came with us!

We stopped at Pink Box first, as per tradition, and this was the first time that the owner was there! She chatted with us at length and wow – what a sweet woman! It made me appreciate Pink Box so much more. We have been popping in there for years, and it’s even become our treat of choice to take to the cemetery with us for our traditional Christmas “picnic.”  They have some new buns at Pink Box and she was explaining to us how they are made. Every time she would say goodbye, she would remember something else though and the conversation would start up again – it was hilarious. Then as we were walking out, she yelled out that she thought my purse was cute! INYERFACE Chooch!

LOL, I didn’t know Chooch took this but I’m keeping it because I look like I’m scanning the horizon for danger. My face is so serious! But really it’s just because I was squinting into the sun and being mad at two cars that were practically drag racing through the cemetery.

But yeah, here’s my “vibe-y” OOTD, lol. That Gemini shirt is honestly one of my favorite shirts ever. I wish whoever designed it would do one for Phantom’s Revenge because those shirts consistently suck.

This was a whole ordeal to take these since we didn’t have a tripod and had to rely on a flat tombstone. But surprisingly, no one fought! Chooch acted like it was the worst day of his life, though.

G-Dragon member’s only mini-lightstick, check. Haechan T-Money card, check. Limited edition Korean Vans, check. Stray Kids bracelet received at last week’s concert, check.

And then we spent a good 20 minutes walking the perimeter of the pond, talking to the bullfrogs, turtles, and geese. There is always so much action in this pond in the summer!

Other than that, 7/4 was a laid back day. And that was just fine! Hopefully some day soon it will feel like a holiday again.

I was so excited when I woke up on Sunday! OK, I was probably still being a Sunday Morning Brat, because that’s my m.o., but internally I was freaking out about seeing Stray Kids that night! We planned on getting to the venue around 4ish, because everything we had read had made it sound like this was going to be a logistical nightmare as far as transportation / parking goes because they built this brand new, state of the art venue WITH NO PARKING. More on that later!

To start the day, we stopped at Coffee Culture Cafe near our hotel (I can’t remember if I mentioned but we stayed at some Hilton in Mississauga) and ofc Henry had to be soooo embarrassing. I ordered first and asked if they had almond milk.

“No, just oat milk right now, sorry,” the barista said, and actually looked like she was sorry too, good ol’ Canada.

Then Henry ordered an iced coffee.

“Do you have almond milk?” he asked, and the barista and I made darting eye contact before she slowly repeated, “No, just oat milk right now, sorry.”

I SERIOUSLY WAS SO DISGUSTED. I glared at him and said, “She literally just told us that,” while he mumbled some lame excuse of not knowing why he asked that. Mmmmm!!!!!

Then he asked some other stoop question and this girl, I gotta give her credit. She was so patient with his frustrating ass!!

When we sat down, I hissed, “You make everything so embarrassing and awkward!! People probably think we’re aliens from another planet, ordering THAT HOT BROWN FLUID, MEEP MEEP, PUT IT IN VESSEL WITH FROZEN WATER SQUARES, BLOOP BLOOP for the first time.”

I went with the fresh fruit bowl and it was a good choice. Filling, nutritious, took a long time to eat which I have found is the kind of meals I need to lean into because I eat too fast and then I feel unsatisfied and starved.

Overall, a decent place to get a small breakfast without feeling like shit after.

From here, we drove to the nearest GO Train station and took the train to Bloor St. because there is a vegan Japanese bakery that I have been wanting to try the last several times we were in town BUT it was still so early so Henry suggested the dreaded, “We can just walk around” which always ends up with us trudging through a concrete jungle until I’m on the precipice of hanger. I don’t mind “just walking around” if there are cool shops, or parks, or actual things to see. But this street was kind of boring, at least the part we were on. But then Henry was like, “WAIT, WE CAN JUST WALK TO KOREATOWN!” and I was like, “OK that’s great but if you recall from all the other times we have been here, there is not much open this early in Koreatown!?!?”

Eventually, we decided that we would take the subway to Kensington Market because I was determined to get me another nanaimo bar this time since we didn’t get one when we were last there! And I wanted to bring one home for Chooch.

In case you don’t know, Bunner’s is a vegan bakery and we had our first (and only!) nanaimo bar there during the winter of 2023 and it was just divine, unlike anything I have ever eaten before and I had become lowkey obsessed with it.

“The Nanaimo bar is a no-bake dessert named after Nanaimo, a Canadian city in British Columbia. It consists of three layers: a coconut crumb base, a custard filling, and a chocolate ganache topping.”

Hilariously, we ended up walking all the way to Koreatown anyway to get to the next subway station. It’s crazy how “familiar” this area is to me now yest I still have no idea where it is on a map of Toronto, lol.

I will say that the walk here was rife with Henry-shaped insults. He was getting on my nerves so bad! Then we had an argument because I accused him of not thinking I’m funny and he was like, “I DO THINK YOU ARE FUNNY” and I said, “YOU NEVER LAUGH AT MY JOKES” and then he got defensive and also mad at me for being mad at him and that is my biggest pet peeve when it comes to him! DO NOT APPROPRIATE MY ANGER!!!

Anyway, this wasn’t actually a fight, just me being snippy and Henry brushing it off because nothing ever upsets him and it’s so annoying.

We had to take two subways! Henry didn’t make me aware of this. Luckily, it was an easy transfer. I get nervous about these things.

It wasn’t a far walk at all to Kensington Market once we got off the subway. Nanaimo bars and some other treats acquired! I thought I took a picture of the display case too but I guess not so instead just feast your eyes on all that exciting coffee machinery and bakery boxes!

I love this area so much! I wish we had spent more time here but Henry had me totally panicked about getting to Rogers Stadium later and I couldn’t shake his annoying clock-watching presence. I did duck into a vintage clothing shop but he was making me feel rushed and uncomfy which is not atypical, honestly.

Next time, we will spend more time here. I wanted to shop for art!

It was still kind of early to be thinking about lunch so Henry gave me the option to either take public transportation to Little Italy, which is where the Japanese bakery is, or walk. I said we could just walk because I was in a better mood now that we walked through the contagiously uplifting Kensington Market.

We stopped in a shop called Red Pegasus because I saw these cute cement confetti earrings in the window display and I like to get one of my friends earrings from various cities we travel to for her birthday, which is in a month, so now I feel relieved that I have one less thing looming over me! There was a really cute dog helping us peruse the shop, lol. And the ladies working there were very helpful when I asked if the earrings were locally-made and went out of their way to look it up for me (Manitoba, not Toronto, but that works!).

In Little Italy, we stumbled upon a sidewalk of Italian stars, all of which were clean as a whistle EXCEPT FOR MY BELOVED GINO VANELLI’S!! Gino, they really did you dirty – literally!

We made it to Tsuchi Cafe :)

By this point, I was definitely ready to eat again. Henry was really annoying here too, btw.

Everything looked so delectable! I got the katsu sando and Henry got the karepan, and I immediately wished I had also gotten that because he gave me a bite (ok, several, lol) and it was incredible. SO BEEFY AND GRAVY-Y!

I also got an iced hojicha latte and it was perfect.

Ew, what is he side-eyeing??

I had to pee so bad and 1. pretty sure I didn’t lock the door correctly so I peed in fear; 2. couldn’t figure out how to turn on the lights until after I was done washing my hands.

I sent Henry back up for a hojicha cookie to split afterward and it tasted like a Nature’s Valley granola bar but softer and decadent. This place was such a cute little gem!

Then it was time to walk back to the train station. I was somehow still grumpy but we made it back without me having a full-throttle meltdown at least. I love walking, you guys know I love walking, but for some reason I was SO OVER WALKING on this day!!

Look how fucking dumb-looking I am. Oh well.

But great news! We had the whole train car thing to ourselves!!

I saw this ad for Annie and laughed because I WAS JUST TALKING ABOUT ANNIE THE NIGHT BEFORE. If you read Saturday’s live blog, mayhaps you remember.

Oh! It was embarrassing because we didn’t realize we had chosen the handicapped car so when we were exiting, the train guy had to put down a portable plank for us to walk across. We apologized profusely since we were THE ONLY PEOPLE LEAVING THAT CAR, but he was like, “Eh, I’m Canadian, I’m not bothered.”

I mean, he didn’t say that out loud, but it was implied.

Got back to the hotel around 3PM and started to get ready for the Stray Kids concert! I’m so excited to start recapping that. It was A GOOD TIME.

P.S. OMG I remembered why I was in a bad mood!!! Because there is this tourist site called Casa Loma (a legit castle) that I have been wanting to visit ever since the first time we came to Toronto in 2017 but we never have time. So, after all of Henry’s hullaballoo about GOTTA LEAVE FOR THE STADIUM BEFORE THERE IS NO PARKING LEFT, he had the motherfucking audacity to say to me after we got off the GO train at the Bloor St station, “We can get on the subway right here – it goes straight to that castle place, look” and tried to shove his phone under my nose but I f l i p p e d.

“Why would you even tell me that after saying we couldn’t go? Now suddenly we can go?” I cried, and he backpedaled and said THAT WAS NOT WHY HE WAS SHOWING ME? Oh, I’m sorry, this was just a conversation starter then? A “look how easily we could get to the Canadian place of your dreams if only I cared enough about you” slap to the face???

So, great job, Henry. Way to set me off AS SOON AS WE STEPPED OFF THE TRAIN.

I promised the spirit of Drew that I would not collapse into a crippling depression today. I’m trying! I really am trying! I woke up to a nice, supportive message from Henry reminding me to think of the good memories today; I had a good, long cry in the shower; and I had therapy, so I got to have the best kind of support there is on a day like this, right? I really, truly love my therapist. She is so easy to talk to and as soon as I said, “Well, today is….” she was like OMG!!!

The weirdest part for me was that as I getting ready for therapy, I looked outside and saw that HNC was blocking the driveway. I texted him like, HI PLZ CAN U MOVE THX. When he didn’t respond right away, I started to go over there and all I could think of was that this is exactly what happened one year ago – Drew dying in front of me and me having to bang on HNC’s door for a ride to the vet. I did not want to knock on that door again today, exactly one year later.

Luckily, he came opened the door right as I was walking up his porch steps and was like, “I’M SORRY! DON’T KILL ME!”  That was actually a much-needed comedic break.

I have been dreaming of her so often lately and it breaks my heart all over again when I wake up. I don’t know if my mind has been subconsciously anticipating this dreaded anniversary or what.

Last summer, I had a Drew Beringer tribute shirt made and haven’t been able to wear it  yet. Maybe I will challenge myself to wear it one day this month in her honor. (Crying just thinking about it, but it’s OK!)

So, this is where we are. Still mourning and missing her every single day but trying to still live life which is slowly getting more manageable.  (The whole “time heals” mantra isn’t really working with this one.)

P.S. Sometimes I still barge into the house, calling out, “GUYS! I’M HOME!” only to instantly remember that it’s no longer plural. :( I freaking micro-manage Penelope’s every movement, even worse than I have always done with my cats, and she is like, “OMG I LEGIT JUST SNEEZED, I AM FINE, PLEASE STOP MONITORING ME.”