Oh Honestly, Erin

I took the day off today. I have a dentist appointment late this afternoon and was originally just going to ask to leave early for it, but then my internal Mental Health spokesperson was like, “Yo, you need a day off. Take the whole day.” So I did. Before I fucking blow a gasket. I also have a day off next week too but that’s because I have a hair appointment for the first time in forever since I have to actually go into the office occasionally starting in April. This mountain lady mop on my head needs help, Cindy.

• Speaking of Cindy, when I was a senior in high school I used to go to this place called Cindy’s Curl Up and Dye which I thought was the best name ever and I loved my stylist but I have no idea what ever happened to her or what her name even was, but I can picture her vividly and I used to tell her about how shitty Psycho Mike was to me and she never judged me which I appreciated even though sometimes we really need someone to just fucking say it to our faces, you know? Mike used to get so angry when I had a hair appointment because it took so long and he would get so fucking weird about it.
• Speaking of Mike, when Henry and I were in the attic last weekend, I found another crate of old journals (I have SO MANY JOURNALS, Alan). I grabbed one of the old Composition book ones and the first page I flipped to was from Thanksgiving Eve of 1997 when Janna and I were home alone with my brother Corey and Mike came over because he was pissed that I couldn’t go out and we had a huge fight because as usual he was accusing me of cheating on him and this was the infamous night when we were in the middle of my street fighting (well, he was fighting and I was crying and begging him to calm down because I was a completely different person around him and not the strong-willed bitch that I’ve been with every other guy I’ve dated, but we all have our weaknesses, and clearly he was mine and I still have a pocketful of disgust for myself over this). I will never forget this moment, when he was choking me in the middle of my street, as he was wont to do (the choking part, the location varied), and he screamed that he was going to gouge out my eyes and shove them up my vagina, so that was really cool and then we brought the fight back to my house. I threw a rock at his car and then he chased me in the house and I screamed “RUN” to Janna and Corey, who followed me upstairs to my bedroom and I locked the door, and then Mike went back downstairs and grabbed my cherished VHS tape of “Twice Upon a Time” and ran it over in my driveway.
  • Literally the same day after re-living that moment through my journal, my mom texted me and asked, “What was the name of that cartoon movie you were obsessed with about the dreams? Twice Upon a Time or something?” WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.
  • I actually re-bought that movie on VHS soon after and it is actually in my kitchen as part of the decor. Talk about a movie that packs a lot of history.

• In lighter news, I was getting into bed the other night and noticed this strange rabbit head craft thingie laying there. Henry mumbled, “Chooch bought it from some old man, I dunno…” I got the full story the next day: Chooch was waiting for the bus at South Hills Junction and some old man was walking around with his bag of craft supplies because he just had his craft group session at Joann’s or something, and was trying to sell two of these rabbits so Chooch bought one for 50 cents and you have to know that I am obsessed with it and have named it a new family heirloom. It’s actually sitting next to me on my computer desk because I’m still trying to decide where I want to hang it….

• I am a week away from completing Jillian Michael’s Body Revolution workout program for the….5th time? I dunno, but I do this program about twice a year (it’s a 90 day program) because it is the only thing that I have found that actually works for me as far as toning and strength-building goes. Like, it gives me legit definition in my arms and legs and even though I have always been fairly muscular, you could never tell because of all the fat surrounding it lol. Anyway, I have felt very good during this go-around which makes me happy because I can for sure tell you that I am more fit and capable at 42 than I was at 22 or 32, but I am definitely getting a little worried about how much time I left to exercise this hard, you know? My back hurts every day and my knees have been sporadically doing weird shiver-things so that’s something to think about. You know I love my walking workouts but I have always done more maniac-level cardio/HIIT workouts alongside those step-counting sessions, so I’m hoping my endurance doesn’t start to wane anytime soon!
  • Me, yesterday: *gloating because I can do backbend push-ups at age 42* See also me this morning: *barely able to get out of bed because I was doing backbend push-ups yesterday at age 42*
• Did I tell you that Chooch and Henry bought a 3D printer together? Chooch has been doing this mentorship at the Carnegie Science Center’s Fab Lab since October, and one of the things they use is a 3D printer. He was given a laptop loaded with all the programs they use to design shit, so he decided he wanted his own printer. At first, I wanted no parts of this because it seemed dumb, until I started to think about my Etsy shops and began asking questions like, “Could you make kpop things? Like, keychains?” So now I’m OK with this new addition to the house, especially since it lives in Chooch’s room so it’s not in my way. However, I always know when he’s using it because it makes the dining room lights flicker?? It’s also kind of annoying because he and Henry do not work well together at all so there’s been a lot of bickering and Henry keeps yelling shit like, “YOU ARE JUST LIKE YOUR MOTHER” which is like the highest compliment you could give Chooch, really. Anyway, he’s already printed me a cute squirrel puzzle and is currently working on a topographical model of South Korea for me.
• I meant to write about this when it first came up several months ago but I was so mad about it that I didn’t have the energy, but the new priest at the church across the street put up a sign prohibiting people from parking in the lot overnight, else they be towed. Half of the people on my block have always parked over there because the old priest didn’t give a shit and our street is dangerous to park on. We do have a shared driveway but Hot Naybor Chris totally monopolizes it with his fleet of broken vans, etc. Literally, he was three vehicles back there that he doesn’t drive.  So it of course turned into this whole fucking THING where we have to strategically park our cars in the driveway and it’s just worth going into any more detail here, so I will leave it at that. But the whole reason I brought it up is because now if anyone parks at the top of the driveway (*cough*Haley*cough*) they block in us and Chris’s wife. That being said, HNC texted Henry the other night was a “call me if you can” which Henry just loves, as you can imagine. So Henry is like, “Oh god, what now Chris” and calls him. Apparently, HNC’s friend, who is a fisherman and masseuse, was on his way over and would it be OK if he parked in the driveway? I mean, at least he had the courtesy of asking, considering his autobody graveyard is the reason we have to play the Parking Lot game in the first place. Henry was like, “Sure, I don’t care…” and hadn’t even hung up yet and the FISHERMAN MASSEUSE was already pulling into the driveway like was just laying in wait for Chris to give him the thumbs up. “Chris really wanted me to know that his friend is a fisherman and also a masseuse,” Henry said after the call ended. I ran over to see what the guy looks like just in time to see him getting his MASSAGE TABLE out of the car!!! Now I was really cracking up because HNC’s wife had just left, so this massage was all for HNC! It was big enough news that I had to text Alyson, an avid HNC enthusiast, and also Corey, who is equally invested in the happenings on Pioneer Ave.
• I keep telling Henry that we need to get our death arrangments ironed out (i.e. burial plots, etc). We spend a lot of time walking in cemeteries so it’s always on the forefront of my mind because I don’t want our deaths to be burdensome on Chooch someday. “If it was left up to him, he’d just chop us up and dump us in a casket that he 3D-printed,” Henry muttered and this is actually very accurate.
• Chooch, who is never happy with anything provided to him, was bitching about how he doesn’t have enough room in his dresser. Henry calmly stated: That’s because you went to Erin’s School of Clothes Folding. Touché, motherfucker.
• In more HNC news, this text exchange happened the other night:

1. It really sounded like the knock on the door happened on Blake and Haley’s door, not HNC’s, but OK.
2. Henry came off as pretty rude to me!? He was like, “Well, I don’t know what else he wanted me to say, so…”
3. I love their weird neighbor-friendship.

Well, I want to go and try to enjoy my day off (you know how hard that is for me to do!) so I guess I will end this here. Pray that my dentist appointment goes well *cries*.

I used to talk on the phone with friends all the time and now no one calls each other and if they do, we’re put in panic mode because a PHONE CALL is never good. I hate that. And like right now I have all of this nervous WWIII????? energy and back in the day, I’d remedy that by chatting on the phone and smoking 1/2 a pack of Camel Wides, like you do. But instead I will turn up the Kpop really loud to block out Those Fucking Child Monsters next door (SCREAM SCREAM YELL CRY SCREAM ALL THE LIVELONG DAY) and pretend that instead of typing on a shitty blog like a loner, I’m talking to YOU directly. That will be especially awkward if YOU are a sworn enemy who is hate-reading this lllololollllllololool ugh.

• After we got home from Columbus Saturday night, Precious Son actually CHOSE TO HANG OUT WITH US. I mean, not for more than hour but that’s still a good chunk of a teenager’s time, you know. He was teaching Henry how to play some card game while I refused to participate and opted instead to scream stuff about kpop. It was really nice having Family Time until Chooch started being mean, like when I showed him the picture of Robert Smith & Mary that was hanging above our booth at Seitan’s Realm and he deadpanned, “Who’s that, Pee Wee Herman?”
• Later, when Chooch was being interviewed for the fake documentary about our lives, he bitched about how he wanted to take advantage of us being gone all day by actually using the TV in the living room to watch YouTube except that the whole thing was “clogged” with NCT videos (“Haechan being whipped for Renjun for 9 minutes,” for example). “I tried to watch YouTube on the TV and it was literally all NCT stuff. I had to switch to my account to be able to do ANYTHING.” LOL OK Chooch, cry about it. Then he admitted that he actually does think the whole NCT universe is good but not good enough for him to share with his friends, ugh. OR ARE THEY TOO GOOD FOR HIM TO SHARE WITH HIS FRIENDS.
• I got to see some work friends on Sunday for the first time in 2 years and the emotions were off the charts. First of all, it was under sad circumstances so there was that. Then it was disorienting but all at once comfortable too and I was completely overwhelmed.  I am definitely ready for the official “return to office” in April even if it’s just a handful of days a month.

• I found this shop on Etsy that makes the most beautiful NCT-inspired shirts so I snagged this NCT Dream one. It came today and immediately made me happy and calm. I felt like I was ensconced in a warm hug when I put it on. I love that it has illustrated depictions of several of their music videos. LIKE: WE GO UP! This was their comeback that made me truly like them – prior to this, I was strictly an NCT127 stan. But Renjun’s “I need you right here” at 2:24 and Haechan’s “jeonjeonhi” right before that really gave me chills and still does! I can’t believe this came out in 2018, it’s been that long already. Time, man.

Sorry, being an old lady fangirl is all that’s helping me keep my shit together these days, OK. It’s either Kpop or defenestration.

• Henry, looking for a garbage can in a parking lot: I don’t see one, do you? Me: Yes. Henry, spinning all around: Where?? Me: UP YOUR BUTT. (He falls for this shit every time and it never gets old and neither do I!!)

Why tho???

Why tho?? Part 2

• One thing I hate about weekends is that Henry is always in the background, oafing around, peering over my shoulder while I’m TRYING to cook the only thing I can handle – scrambled egg beaters and toast – and hollering like a drunk hillbilly about HOW I AM GOING TO RUIN THE PAN. Literally, STFU Hank. And he wonders why I have absolutely zero desire to develop any semblance of a cooking skill! So we had this big quarrel (LOL I hate that word) in the kitchen about this and I was like how about I RUIN THE PAN AND YOUR ASS AT THE SAME TIME BY SHOVING ONE INTO THE OTHER. Yeah, how about that you dumb bitch. That’s what I thought. He left me alone long enough to eat 2/3 of my boring, tired breakfast in peace before stamping over in his ogre cadence to shout, “OH YOU WERE RUINING MY PAN 17 YEARS AGO TOO ACCORDING TO MY PHOTO MEMORY FROM 17 YEARS AGO” and then shoved his phone in my face to show me this picture of the “dessert” I concocted out of desperation for something sweet. It was made with sliced bananas, sugar, blackberry jam, oil, and whatever speck of ingenuity I could find within myself. Henry was like, “THIS IS NOT GOING TO TASTE GOOD” and I was like, “DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT SWEETHEART” and then he was like, “YOU ARE GOING TO BURN YOURS—” as I shoved a sizzling banana bit into my stubborn maw, burning my lips and tongue in the process. My teeth were basically shellacked with a crystalline blackberry shell for the rest of the night. I eventually got Henry to try one and he slapped himself in the face and because it hurt his teeth so badly, and said, “That was absolutely disgusting.” And if you’re like, “WOW ERIN IT IS AMAZING HOW YOU REMEMBER THINGS VERATIM” I am here to crush your assumptions by telling you that I totally looked up my old LiveJournal post about this “dish” and paraphrased for nostalgia’s sake.

• Remember when I was on a Ronnie Milsap kick last week after hearing one of his songs at THE BONFIRE RESTAURANT? Well, I somehow (lol somehow) found myself trolling comments on his YouTube videos. I was going to reply to ROBERT SMITH II’s comment and say, ‘I wish you were real and had meaning,” but then I saw Clem Fandango’s reply and literally laughed so hard that it turned into straight up wheezing and then I was crying which turned into full-blown MANIC EPISODE SOBBING. I even it to my brother who was like, “haha” but was probably really like, “OK so..?” and Henry was like, “OK, TIME TO CALM DOWN.”

BUT GET IT?? ROBERT SMITH?? THE CURE? ROBERT SMITH II??

OK it’s not that funny the second time around. I concur.

OK I got nothing else. If we’re staying true to the ON THE PHONE theme, I’ll pretend like you’re Henry and end the call the way I do with him, which is *dial tone*.

Annyeong. I have been so scattered lately. Like, I’m running on nervous energy and Kombucha, mostly. Every time I sit down to one thing, I’m on to something else within minutes. I can’t tell if this is adult ADD or a manic bipolar upswing or just, well, Erin being Erin.

So today we’re free-forming it because I’ll be honest, the last several blog posts have been torturous for me to write because I cannot stay focused. I know what you’re thinking: But Erin, this piece is always a mess. And you’re right, it really is. So, never mind.

We’ll start with a picture of THIS BLOG’S AUTHOR in her Dance Gavin Dance Cocaine Cringefest sweatshirt. Jingle, jingle, who’s ready to mingle? No one. Thanks, OMICRON.

I’ll just walk around the city telling chickens that I’m pretty and I’d love for them to meet my wife.

FOOD, PART 1

First, let’s talk about food. I had some good foods lately, starting with my night out with Carrie and Megan at The Forge.

We started off with this CHEESE PLATTER and a round of BARTENDER’S CHOICE drinks. I told the waiter, who was killing me all night with his familiar face, that I liked floral notes, and he said, “Wow it just so happens that we make our own lavender syrup in house” and I was like, “Yes, that will do.” So I got a purple drink with vodka and lavender, which was a true delight and it was all I could do not to slurp that bitch down like a basic juice box.

Also, I do not drink much anymore so this went straight to my head and I ended up spending most of the dinner just silently nodding along with everything Carrie and Megan were saying because I was afraid I’d start scream-speaking because vodka.

Anyway, it was so nice to see these broads!! In case you don’t know, we are part of the same team at work and used to sit in a row with each other back in Normal Times, so it was fucking awesome to see them in real life after nearly two years (though I did see Megan last October when we did that shitty volunteering thing through work ugh).

I hate this picture of me SO MUCH because of my GLASSES but when I got someone else to take another one, that one ended up being WORSE because I was BLINKING and somehow the “live” option was turned off in my settings! I never turn that shit off!!

But the other gals look great so I am posting this.

Also, I’m wearing glasses almost exclusively until I can get an eye appointment because my contacts are just wrong. So very, very wrong.

Also x2, Henry drove Megan and I to the Forge that night for two reasons:

• we had taken the good car into the shop to get fixed (it’s back now, btw! you can’t even tell that “Henry” wrecked it! Also, the owner of the auto body place liked our car so much so that she went out and bought an identical one lol. Hyundai Kona FTW!) and I hate the old car because it shakes so if it breaks down, at least Henry is there lol;
• I literally cannot drive at night with glasses. I mean, I can barely do anything with glasses, so.

I yelled at Henry after we dropped Megan off because he was being rude and he was like, “I wasn’t being rude. You guys were talking so I just let you talk.” YES THAT’S BEING RUDE.

Anyway, I realized in the middle of the night that I didn’t actually know the waiter, he just looked like Ted from Schitt’s Creek.

Oh! I also had the vegan shawarma which was DIVINE.

FOOD, PART 2

Onion Maiden had limited quantities of their Seitanic Ritual platter: fried seitan cutlet that tasted like how I remember veal to taste, or was it pork, I can’t remember meats; corn; mashed ube & vegan gravy.

It was, in a word: DIVINE. Like, had me speaking in “backwards record,” it was so good. So good, that I’m trying to get Henry to make mashed ube for Christmas. We’ll see how that pans out. Lol.

Yeah, and then this effing vegan cheesecake that I stupidly agreed to “share” with Henry, ugh. That was a bad decision.

FOOD, PART 3

A Christmas pint pick-up from Sugar Spell!

Every single flavor is bangin’ as usual. The Yule Log one is probably my favorite, if you’re going to make me pick one, because there is just something so indulgent about Sugar Spell’s chocolate base. You would never believe it was vegan!!

Anyway, after we taste-tested every flavor, I realized that we didn’t get the PB&J one. I looked up the order to make sure I had it on there, and I did but I guess they accidentally gave me gingerbread instead. Which was fine! We weren’t shorted and I was just as happy with the gingerbread, but Mr. Warehouse Manager was like, “You need to tell them.” And I was like, “Yeah but it’s not an issue – they didn’t overcharge us or anything and it’s not like we can ‘return’ the gingerbread since we already ate some?” and he was like “BUT YOU NEED TO TELL THEM FOR INVENTORY PURPOSES!” God, leave it to Henry to even make ice cream boring.

(Yes! I told them! God!)

CHOOCH THINGS

Wow, parenthood has been RULL exciting over in these parts lately.

Let’s start with the fact that Chooch came home one night last week and casually said, “Oh yeah, my Spanish teacher was talking about this study abroad program and I want to do it. Thanks bye.”

But then also Chooch: I lost my student ID again. Have you seen my wallet? I can’t find my credit card. I missed the T. I forgot my face mask. I broke my Rubik’s Cube, can I return it? Can I have money, I spent all mine on Pokémon cards. Where is my work visor?

So…you tell me, am I stupid for entertaining this idea? The organization has been around since the 40s and they have a great Covid policy (all applicants & host families must provide proof of vaccination, for instance), it’s also fully-refundable if the trips need to be cancelled or postponded based on pandemic travel concerns. He can get a merit scholarship for it, and they’re also very generous with financial aid. So, I told him to go ahead and try for it. The trip he’s trying for is to Yucatan and it’s for 4 weeks next July. He can also get 4 college credits out of the deal and it’s something that will look nice and pretty on college applications, and he needs as much application padding as possible.

My favorite part of all of this was finding out how little Chooch knows about me, as evidenced when he texted me from school while filling out the application. “What is your occupation again? Stock broker?”

UM, NO??? I have no idea what would have EVER given him that idea? I have worked in the conflicts department of the same international law firm for nearly 12 years, but OK cook on with your stock broker fantasies, boy. He’s gonna wish I was brokering stocks when it comes time to pay for this shit and we can’t afford it lol.

I joined some Zoom meeting for this program the other night to get more information, and this is what happened in the chat:

Fuckin’ Army.

Meanwhile, there are several essays that need to be written in order to apply for financial aid. I was proofreading one of them and THANK GOD I did because this was an actual line from one of them: “I used to not care about people at all, but working at McDonald’s has taught me to be kinder to strangers.”

UM HELLO SOCIOPATH. And also, McDonald’s taught him that? Not his parents? OH OK.

I definitely rewrote that for him because ain’t no one trying to send an apathetic loner boy (which he isn’t!!) on an international trip with other students. For Christ’s sake. Cant wait until he starts his volunteer work!

Then Corey and I had this text exchange right after, lol:

#HollyJollyHenry

Here is a photo I took of Henry last weekend when we were Christmas shopping, ugh. He was so mad because this was set up right by the food court and although you can’t really tell,  there were a lot of people milling about so Henry was like TAKE THE PICTURE, OMG JUST TAKE IT. A few days later, the actual mall liked it on Instagram, lololololololol.

ME WITH GLASSES

Um, here I am with glasses. I probably haven’t worn these since Korea 2019, when I had The Eye Injury. I do not know what this face is but I know that I make it a lot.

THINGS I HAVE BEEN WATCHING

I have been watching the new season of Emily in Paris because sometimes a bitch just needs simple to watch while jogging in place on an imaginary treadmill, and Bonus Family which is a Swedish dramedy, plus about 7 other shows that I started and lost interest in pretty quickly. (See above re: adult ADD.) I randomly put on the first episode of The Originals the other day and I did not remember a single thing about it, so now I’m questioning if I even watched that show back when it was on because I thought I did?!?!

MY SUPERVISOR SMOTHERS ME

Making sure I’m getting all my stock things brokered. Also, that plate on the floor is a tea cup saucer, which I use to serve the cats their treats and then the plates stay on the floor for Henry and Chooch to accidentally kick like flat, breakable soccer balls.

IN OTHER NEWS…

• Henry finally hung this beautiful poster from the time Corey and I saw the Cure in Philly in 2008. Actually, I think I found this online and made Christina buy it for me LOL. The Cure corner is really coming along and it makes my heart swell every time I go upstairs!
• I’ve been rotating through “Alexa play [random country] pop music” every day in order to block out the sounds of the TERRORDOME next door. I swear to god those kids are devil dogs. It’s just incessant screaming and crying all day, every day. One day it sounded like they were actually burrowing inside the walls and I felt legit frightened.
• Emily was working on a marketing campaign for leeks on Emily In Paris and it made me want leeks so I texted Henry and told him I want leeks incorporated into our Xmas dinner menu and he was like, “I can do that” and for some reason that came off sounding super cocky, like OK CHEF BOYARDICK, calm down. Now I don’t even know if I want leeks anymore.
• We drove past some Irish club thing over the weekend called Daughters of Erin or something stupid like that and I said, “Imagine if I had daughters” and Henry very quickly said, “No.” Wow.
• One of my coworkers, Marlene, retired earlier this year but we have been emailing here and there. I got an email from her today telling me that I better take umbrellas for my Christmas pilgrimage to the Dead Zone, and it just made me simultaneously crack up and cry because I miss the office so much and since covid, two of my coworkers have retired and two more will be retiring at the end of the month. It just sucks that we can’t even give them a proper send-off, but have to make due with waving goodbye via an awkward video call where you can’t get a word in edgewise. But back to Marlene, she is always fascinated with the way I choose to spend my holidays, especially Christmas, so her email really made me laugh.  But yes, I miss the Before Times when we’d be in the office right now, giddy and slacking off, mowing down a line of Christmas cookies and having drinks in the old travel office. Working from home is awesome, but these are things I really miss.

I think I’m tapped out. Hopefully I will be back tomorrow with a SPECIAL GUEST POST but only time will tell.

Yo yo yo. I’m feeling bullet-y today. Let’s do this thing. I’ll even sweeten the pot with some CAT PICS.

• My Squirrel-whispering (or, “whistling” as it were) ability is getting even more skilled. Over the weekend, one of my Buddies was in the neighbor’s yard (the one who hates squirrels!) so I whistled for him to come over to my porch. As he started flouncing his way over, another Buddy popped up from the backyard in between two of the neighbors’ houses and stood on his hind legs. I was like, “Ok you can come too” so he started to make his way over but then the first Buddy was like NO! and chased him away. Meanwhile, I was still whistling and ANOTHER BUDDY came running over from the across the street, stood up on the sidewalk and looked in my direction with his paw on his chest, as if to say, “Who, me?” In the end, I lured three over but only one fully took me up on my offer to be handfed walnuts. (Or, as the squirrels call them: wallnoots.) I’m practically that bitch with the gorillas now.
  • Squirrels in the Fog.
• I was in a meeting recently where the buzzword du jour was “egregious” and it was actually making me cringe which was bad because it was a video meeting and also, I was struggling real hard not to continuously yawn.

• Henry was getting really nervous around me the other night and I wasn’t even doing anything. He eventually blurted out, “What’s in your hand??” like I was palming an invisible grenade or something. “POWER,” I said as I punched him.
• Chooch and I were on a nighttime stroll last week (I wanted to drop off a library book and didn’t want to walk alone lol) when we were accosted by a super friendly cat that we have seen here and there around the ‘hood recently. Super docile and definitely doesn’t look malnourished so I assume this an outdoor cat that also has a home? I HOPE?? Chooch scrolled through some local LOST PET facebook group that he belongs to and didn’t see anything listed for this cat, but it wouldn’t stop following us. I didn’t want to lure it all the way to busy Brookline Boulevard so I had Chooch stay with the cat while I went to the library drop-off box on my own which completely defeated the purpose of my dragging Chooch out of the house in the first place, YES I KNOW MARY. When I came back, Chooch had already started to retreat back to our house but the cat was still happily jogging alongside him. We figured at the very least, if he came back to our house we could put some food out for him. We had just made it to our block when suddenly (KAPCHUGI!) the cat decided to CLIMB A TREE FOR NO REASON. And or course it was a tree along the side of the road too so we didn’t want to just leave him there. “WILL WE HAVE TO CALL THE FIREMEN??” I cried and just then, out of the darkness, a very modern day Spiccolli rolled up on one of those dumb electric city scooters that are strewn all over Brookline and so annoying. “You guys need some help there?” he asked and we were like, “OH YES MISTER PLZ” so he was able to coax the cat out of the tree and I was so smug because we had previously called Henry to come assist us since it was on our block and IGNORED MY CALL but now a STRANGE MAN was playing the hero role, so that’ll show him. Anyway, as soon as he got the cat out of the tree, the cat immediately ran into the road and almost got hit by a car but luckily the car was driving slow probably trying to figure out what this trio of hooligans was doing cavorting on the curb. The scooter Samaritan was able to shepherd the cat down a quiet side street. That’s all. That’s the whole story. Just another chapter in the book of Chooch & Erin: Animal Rescuers.
  • SEE ALSO: COCO WHERE’D YOU GOGO and MOTH ON THE BLVD.

• One night last week, around 10PM, some strange number showed up on my phone. I blindly answered it, thinking it was going to be some fun, automated spam shit but instead, someone was saying, “Hello, Kelly?” I almost said NO WRONG NUMBER but then I realized – was this is a WORK CALL? The only time I’m ever called KELLY is at work from people outside the department (and sometimes INSIDE, too ugh), so I hesitantly said, “This is Erin Kelly…” and then the person was blurting out questions about a file opening and I was like OMG THIS IS A CALL FROM OUR HONG KONG OFFICE WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME. I was so caught off guard and knew there was no way I could say, “Hello it is 10PM here in Pittsburgh, I will handle this tomorrow morning” and also because I am a push-over when it comes to our Asian offices so I then proceeded to LOG ON and Henry was like WHAT IS HAPPENING WHY ARE TALKING EVEN MORE AWKWARDLY THAN USUAL and I’m frantically motioning for him to turn down the TV but he’s an idiot so I had to go back into the living room and do it myself while saying platitudes like, “Gee everything is running so slow” and “just one more moment” when I’m not even at the computer. It was a hot mess express. I will never not remember to un-forward my work calls from my cell phone ever again after that.

• ^^^The look Drew gave me when I said, “Do you want to invite Buddy into your house and share your toys with him?”

“KITTY KAT PLAYGROUND: SQUIRRELS NOT ALLOWED.” Rude.

• Chooch is suddenly into Pokemon cards again and I honestly could not be more annoyed. There’s some dumb comic book shop on the blvd that is doing some dumb promotion where if you download some nerd app and go to their store you can get a free pack of Pokemon cards and Chooch keeps wanting us to do this for him while he is at work and we absolutely will not because obviously we don’t love our son. But he was off last night and asked me to walk there with him because HE IS SCARED OF THE DARK and afterward, as we were walking down the sidewalk along the blvd, we ran into Chooch’s former piano teacher who moved back to Pittsburgh last spring/summer and is actually living in our ‘hood! It was so good to see her, but I think I also scared her too because for some reason, when I said her name, instead of coming off as friendly with a questioning lilt (“Cheryl?”), I for some reason bark-shouted it like she was wanted for a crime and I was the beat cop who tracked her down (“CHERYL!“) I mean, I might as well have just yelled, “HEY, YOU! STOP RIGHT THERE!”

• I watched Love Hard one day last week and surprisingly really enjoyed it even though it was totally predictable and basically a tale as old as time, but I thought Nina Dobrev and Jimmy Yang were FUCKING ADORABLE together and it was actually funny too. I think it was kind of what I needed without realizing it was what I needed??
• LOL I have some YouTube video about Gilmore Girls playing in the background and the narrator just said “egregious” because I guess I’m being haunted by office vocab now.

• Instead of saying that I was crying, Chooch said that I “got cried” the other night and then Henry couldn’t remember the word for “lies” and called them “not trues” instead and all of this is in addition to my everyday brand of Typo’splosions and Grammar Fuckery; I honestly think that it’s from all the spray-painting Henry does in the basement. Our minds are atrophying. We’re like, half-high all of the time.

On that note, I’m going to peace out! Tomorrow is Thanksgiving! Then we’re going to Six Flags Over Georgia and hopefully I get to ride the RMC that’s there! But it’s Six Flags so I’m not getting my hopes up!

!!!!

I know it’s only September 1st and still very summer (although today it’s rainy and with just enough chill in the air that I can comfortably wear SWEATPANTS, yessir thank you very much) but I am already getting the tickley sensation in my belly thinking about upcoming FALL stuff. I’m not a super holistic person but keeping a tidy stack of things to look forward to in the near future is something that has been helping me cope with depression, burn-out, and just general life malaise. It’s not a fail-safe of course and this is not me  telling you to flush your anti-depressants and fire your therapist. But this is something that has been helpful for me for a long time now, even though I do have set-backs and sanity slips just like everyone else.

OK anyway, The Doctor is Out. Entertainment Director is In.

• The third season of YOU is dropping on Netflix is October and I am so fucking ready. I haven’t been having much luck with TV shows lately but I know that another season of YOU is going to deliver the creepy goods. Who knew Dan Humphrey from Gossip Girl would be so perfect in a role like this??

• Who knows where we will be with covid this fall, thanks to all the SELFISH ASSHOLES in this country. But if haunted houses are safe to attend, I am so ready. It was very sad for me to sit out last season. Yes, some of them were open, but without a vaccine back then, I couldn’t fathom how safe it could possibly be to run through cramped spaces with people screaming all around you. I feel moderately better about it now that we are all vaccinated (bring us the booster though plz we’re ready, stick us good) and will happily wear a mask. I’m hoping to at least go back to Rich’s Fright Farm this October, maybe with Corey and Janna too?? Here’s a blog post I wrote several years ago about my love affair with haunted houses!

Haunted House History

• I had toyed with the idea of reinstating the PIE PARTY this October, but that was back when everyone was skipping around in a dream-state after getting vaccinated. Now I just don’t think it would be a good idea. I don’t have the balls to be like SHOW ME YOUR VACCINATION CARD OR A NEGATIVE COVID TEST before allowing my friends to enter the park pavilion. And I know, it’s outdoors and it’s not like the pie parties have THAT many attendees, but…would you really feel comfortable helping yourself to a buffet of pies being loomed over by dozens of people who might be strangers to you and even if they’re not, just because they’re your friend or cousin or priest, doesn’t mean you want to eat pie that they breathed on!! So, this pie’s going on the back burner. BUT! That doesn’t mean that Henry still can’t bake ME a pie. Maybe something like THIS FRESH FIG AND LEMON CREAM TART or THIS KOREAN COTTAGE PIE WHICH COULD EASILY BE MADE VEGETARIAN??
• I haven’t been to the MOVIES since February of 2020 when Janna and I went to see Jojo Rabbit but the Hollywood Theater down the street from me is showing the new Candyman remake and I am considering going to see this, as the Hollywood NEVER is crowded.
• Looking forward to nice, crisp-weathered cemetery walks where I can listen to audiobooks without having sweat stinging my eyes. Also NATURE-Y HIKES WITH HENRY which always feels like a great idea until we get to the NATURE and then Henry starts identifying birds and giving me facts about TICKS and I become fearful of getting shot at by HUNTERS. Maybe sometime in November I would like to explore some West Virginia shit. Who knows.
• Speaking of November, I am excited for THANKSGIVING and I am going to ask/tell Henry that we should host a small family dinner here with his mom and my family? SHOULD WE DO THIS? Maybe? All I know is that I am pressed to go to Dollywood that weekend like we did in 2018 and ISTFG that was the best weekend ever, we had so much family fun that it was actually kind of gross??
• I’m not knocking pumpkin because I do like it even though sometimes I think we get a lillllllllll overboard with the PSL screaming, but what I’m really excited for this season is apple-flavored drinks! I’m not a Starbucks fan by any means but Henry and I had the apple macchiato (their macchiatos are not real though and I will scream this from my self-constructed mountain top until the day that I die!) and it was OK! But the real apple hero is the seasonal chai latte that Black Forge is currently touting, called Hexen. It has cinnamon, honey, violet, and apple in it and it’s SO FUCKING GOOD. It’s so hard to find a good chai latte in Pittsburgh but Black Forge gets it right and I hope that they have a good fall chai latte….brewing. OH!
• Amusement parks during spooky season are so much fun! We don’t even really do the haunt stuff that they have going on but it’s such an atmospheric boost to walk around theme parks decked out for Halloween.

King’s Dominion Weekend!

• Oh! I’m looking forward to putting pumpkins on the porch and then watching them rot when Indian Summer’s second wind kicks in!
• I guess I’m looking forward to trick-or-treating? It’s kind of sad now that Chooch is grown and doesn’t want to participate in this shit anymore and also because we live on a street that doubles as a busy thoroughfare so most kids skip us in favor of the streets more embedded in the bowels of Brookline so we don’t get very many kids AT ALL. But I guess I will still put on the spooky music and prop Trudy-in-a-pig-mask near the door.

Halloween 2019: Highs & Lows But Mostly Lows

Welp, now that I’m looking back on this list, I guess I have a lot to look forward to, and I hope you do too! And you! And you and you and you. Maybe not you, though.