I don’t want to be the skunk at the garden party here, so I am going to do my best to scrounge up some positive things to blog about today while news alerts bombard my phone with casualty numbers in the war that Barron Trump is “too tall” to fight in.

• We’re at the point where all the stuff is being re-hung in the bathroom after Henry dragged out a simple wall-painting project into a month-long affair. I ordered a new plate thingie for the outlet today, and last night I added paint to the old Last Supper portrait I bought years ago at a flea market*, which actually kick-started the whole religious theme in the bathroom if I remember correctly. At one of my parties, my friend Amanda (Glenn’s wife) came downstairs after using the bathroom and said that as a person who was raised Catholic, my bathroom made her feel a certain type of way lol. I was listening to the Pens game while painting this and it was stressful and also I was sitting on the floor in a hunchback position and when I went to stand up, I was immediately reminded of my age.
  • *the pictures are missing from this post and I’m too tired/sick of this piece of shit blog to care but here’s what it looked like originally and what it looks like now (ignore the dusty frame – I’m going to paint that too before it gets rehung):

• I am so tempted to go see Nirvanna: The Band The Show The Movie again  –  I am still so obsessed! I watched the web series and am (not so) patiently waiting for the TV episodes to be brought back somewhere, and I have watch Blackberry, Matt Johnson’s docudrama about the creation of the Blackberry, which I used to have before I switched to iPhone and boy howdy did I feel guilty sitting there watching it with an iPhone in my lap. Basically, I only want to watch things that Matt Johnson is either in or affiliated with. He is my new favorite person, second only to G-Dragon (my forever #1). I was watching one of the episodes of the web series last week with Henry when I legit started laughing so hard that I peed a little and had to go change but first I paused it and said through tearful wheezes, “HENRY I HAVE A CONFESSION I ONLY LAUGH THIS HARD WHEN I AM READING OLD BLOG POSTS THAT I HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT YOU.” Henry frowned. Not sure if it was because of that egomaniacal admission or the fact that I openly announced that I peed my pants, or a little of both. But all of this is to say that it’s the only sliver of joy that’s been cutting through the doom and gloom of American news these days so THANK YOU Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol.
• I can’t remember if I mentioned this already but I co-signed the lease for Chooch’s new apartment. He’ll be moving in next September with two of his current roommates / friends. It’s his first non-campus residence so I’m super happy for him but depressed for me.  I also was given approx. 1 day’s notice to scramble together a $$$$ security deposit together see also: bye bye tax refund.
• Still going strong with Duolingo but I’m annoyed because this streak should be even greater and I will never ever forget losing TWO STREAKS in 2018 and 2019 when – IRONICALLY – traveling to Korea because of the DUMB TIME CHANGE. Both of those times, I had over a year streak. So if you want to get technically, and I do, my streak is probably closer to 3,000 days!!! U G H.

• Henry and I went to Duffy’s on Saturday to peruse the beers and saw Chris’s (Kara’s husband) collab with East End Brewing out in the wild so that was fun! Plus, I got two Mister Softee collabs with…I forget the brewery now. I tried one already – an IPA – and it was OK but you better believe I kept the label! Speaking of, I’ve been just slapping beer can labels that speak to me in an artistic sense into the back of a random notebook but now I’m wondering – SHOULD I GET A BLANK JOURNAL TO USE JUST FOR THIS? I mean, why not add ANOTHER journal to the mix, right?

• One of my favorite non-Kpop bands announced a rare tour and I am so stoked that, after loving The Black Queen and their amazing album Fever Daydream, I am finally going to see them live in May! Chooch said he doesn’t know a single one of their songs and I truly don’t know how that could be because he was living at home for most of my obsession with them and they provide THE SOUNDTRACK to “driving to haunted houses” every fall, so wtf, dear son?? I made Margie listen to one of their songs at work AND SHE LIKED IT. I take any win I can get these days as a washed-up trend setter, lol. Anyway, Henry is prepared for me to sob through this whole show.

• Todd asked me the other day what Henry’s last name is and then started calling me Erin Robbins. I was like, “WHOA, NO. I DID NOT TAKE HIS NAME!”  I told Todd that if I were to go through the rigmarole of legally changing my last name (and risk losing my right to vote?! no thanks), I’d change it to Appledale because years ago, and I mean years ago, we were on our way to Lakemont Park I believe and passed a sign for “Appledale Farms” and I have used that as my last name on social media ever since (even had a photography shop on Etsy called Appledale!). Todd said that at one time, that might have been a surprising insight into my life but knowing me as long as he has at this point, he’s like, “that makes sense.”
  • This made me recall a time when I won free tickets to a concert at Mr. Smalls on Instagram and when I went to the will call window, they were like, “Yeah, nice try but we don’t have an Erin Kelly on the list” and I was panicking but then when I pulled up the DM to prove that I was a winner, it occurred to me that they had me down as Erin Appledale and yes, yes they did. Crisis averted!
• Still waiting for BIGBANG to announce their comeback tour….I have NO KPOP CONCERTS lined up for 2026 and this feels so strange and unusual. I’m glad I have other concerts to look forward to but…Kpop concerts bring me so much joy and my heart feels so empty without it.

My life hasn’t felt boring at all lately until I sit down to write in this dumb thing and then I’m just like, OK all I want to do is go on and on about Nirvanna the Band the Show like I’m getting paid to endorse them, like Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol are the official sponsors of this piece of shit blog, like my blog posts have their movie trailers embedded in the middle. Another thing for people to complain about!

Well, on that note, I’m out. Henry is rehanging more stuff in the bathroom and I need to go and supervise. Penelope, grab my hardhat.