Dreary October Weekend

It has rained pretty much all weekend with no reprieve. And it’s really cold on top of that too.

I’m not complaining though because it kind of forced me to relax (a little). And I guess I hadn’t realized how badly I needed to just sit the fuck down.

We still did some stuff though, such as attend a Halloween parade with our friends Patty and Tim in their neighborhood. Did I mention that after over a year, Patty is finally home from the nursing facility? Exciting times! It was great to be able to hang out with her outside of that place, though it was also kind of sad not getting to see all the familiar faces in the activity room.

Patty’s friends Kaitlin and Steve joined us. We weren’t sure if the parade was still going to happen since it was raining, but Munhall goes hard, y’all. They don’t let a little rain deter them. It was really cold and dreary out there, but it was worth it to see Patty enjoying herself, and to see all the kids in their costumes. Chooch wasn’t in costume (he’s in 6th grade now and not as motivated to dress up), but when we saw that people were hanging out treat bags to everyone in the parade, regardless of costume, we all coaxed Chooch to jump into the parade so he could get a bag. He did it begrudgingly, and when he was handed a bag, he shot us a glare that said, “The things I do for you people.”

Then he befriended some older woman, and they joined forces to get the most candy from the firefighters. They were even trading with each other at one point. This kid will talk to anyone and it’s all once charming and alarming.

There were a bunch of young kids standing near us and their parents wouldn’t let them run into the street to collect the strewn candy, but savage son gave no fucks about getting close to firetruck wheels, so he would go out and collect it all and then pass it out to the kids on the sidewalk. He was a hero, you guys, a real Halloween hero.

Trump would never do that.

CHOOCH FOR PRESIDENT.

Then Chooch and I stood in this outrageous line snaking out of the firehouse because there was free pizza and cake to be had and I wanted free cake in a bad way. We got stuck behind this huge family of dunces who were not as IN A HURRY as I was and would just stand there in a daze every time the line would move. I was getting so angry! But then I reminded myself that I was line for FREE FOOD and I shouldn’t complain but still—WAKE THE FUCK UP AND MOVE, DUMMIES! Oh my Lord, they were awful. At one point I said to Chooch, “What is the protocol here for line-jumping when the people in front of you clearly don’t give a shit about being in line?” and he was just like, “Chill out, we’re almost there” because my 11-year-old is more rational than me.

The cake wasn’t worth it. I gave it to Henry, who was so angry that we ran off to get free food and left the rest of them standing in the rain. SORRY BUT PATTY SAID IT WAS OK!?

Then I found out after the fact that the pizza was from Italian Village and I wish I had known that because I like Italian Village a lot and would have chosen that over cake, ugh. #freefoodremorse

After the parade, we said goodbye to Patty and Tim because we had big plans of going to the craft store and then spending the rest of the night binge-watching the new season of Stranger Things. I’m not a big binge-watcher of things (unless it’s Korean You Tube vlogs, lol) but the cold, dreary weather was really inspiring.

First though we had to wait for Chooch to finish the first season, after which he cried, “Why did I ever stop watching this with you last year?!” Because you have no attention span? I don’t know. And then we had to go eat dinner first too. We went to Frank & Shirley’s because it’s close and fast, and I wanted a grilled cheese.

Chooch brought his colored pencils with him because he wanted to draw on the placemats but there were no placemats, so he actually asked the waitress for a placemat, and she was like, “We don’t have any…?” He was visibly distraught over this and when she realized why he was asking, she said, “Do you want a coloring book instead?”

She barely finished her sentence before he was practically panting like a dog, and saying yes. She brought over a whole stack for him to choose from and he immediately grabbed, and I do mean snatched, the first one he saw because it had bunnies on the cover.

He’s very sensitive to animals, you guys.

“Are you sure you don’t want to look at the others?” she asked, fanning them out.

“Nope,” he said, but then out of the corner of his eye, he saw something that made him say, “WAIT!” She fanned out the coloring books again and he grabbed, and I do mean snatched, a Disney one of the stack. He flipped it open right to the page with the Bambi spread, squealed, and then ripped open his box of colored pencils.

His Bambi obsession is so weird, but also completely adorable. Please don’t grow up, Chooch.

Henry hated our waitress because she never refilled his iced tea, but I think she will forever go down as Chooch’s favorite.

On the way home, we were making fun of Henry as usual to the point where Chooch started puking out the back window because I made him laugh too hard. I love when that happens!

When we came home, Chooch and I were so ready to start watching Stranger Things but Henry was all, “I have to go to the store” and we were like, “Are you fucking kidding” because dude is like always going to “the store” and Henry got all defensive and cried, “I haven’t been to the store in four days!” Chooch and I kept repeating “Four days!!!” over and over until Henry stormed out while muttering under his breath about how we’re fucking assholes or something, wow, how rude.

Chooch and I went for a walk in the rain to kill time while he was AT THE STORE and somehow we started talking about what if Henry was a prostitute or a stripper at Blush and I can’t explain it, other than to say maybe you had to be there, but we were laughing so fucking hard that our hyena-cackles were doing somersaults down Pioneer Avenue, making dogs bark and passers-by do double-takes. We’re kind of loud, I guess.

When we got home, Chooch exclaimed, “Eight o’clock! Made it just in time.”

“For what?”  I asked.

“…eight o’clock,” he said with a shrug, like duh, why didn’t I know that.

Henry came home and we finally watched the first several episodes of Stranger Things. It was the perfect October Saturday night.

Today, I was home alone while Henry and Chooch were at piano lessons, so I decided to try and paint something. It’s been about a year since I painted anything, and I have been turning down custom requests because I just haven’t been feeling it. It’s not depression, because I don’t feel unhappy or tired, but kind of the opposite. I have all of this manic energy and I just can’t sit still long enough to seriously focus on painting.

But I just recently finished a creative project for work and I had some leftover inspiration. (Not to mention a ton of leftover canvas!) So I made myself sit down at my desk for a bit and gave it a go.

It was a struggle. I felt rusty, had no confidence, and even felt a little scared to make mistakes. It was sad. But I was determined to finish a painting for once instead of adding to the collection in the canvas graveyard. So I chose my favorite picture of G-Dragon and went for it.

I only spent about an hour on it because I just wanted to finish and not obsess over every minor detail (Henry and Chooch are probably laughing at this without mirth because I was so dramatic this afternoon about how bad I suck). But G-Dragon is the most perfect human being in the world and I didn’t want to desecrate his image in any way.

I’m sorry, Jiyong. :(

But then Henry made me kimbap and I was happy again, even though at first I screamed, “THERE’S NO DAIKON IN THIS!” and then Henry realized he gave me Chooch’s bland version instead of the good roll.

And now we’re just waiting for The Walking Dead to come on. Life is pretty OK, you guys, rain and all.