I took these last night, post-haunted house hopping, with my Kodak Charmera during a “Crystal Lake” commercial break. She likes to sit on my lap and watch “kinda scary” TV.

LET ME SHOW YOU MY AUTUMN TREES. 

I’m such a big believer in superstitions and “jinxing” that I always hesitate to say things like this, but our October so far has been really, really nice and my outlook on life in general has improved so much recently, but I’m also over here lowkey waiting for the other shoe to fall (what does that even mean!??! I mean, I know what it means, but WHY? Google is my friend, I know, but I’m too tired for research on this fine Monday morning).

Anyway, I have so much to say as always! But for now, because it’s Monday and my brain is like, “Ew plz, don’t make me think,” I’ll just post some pictures from our day yesterday because it was so autumnal and sunshiney out!

We got properly caffeinated at Spigolo before attempting another disastrous photo shoot. I had a hot fig and sage latte—it was divine. I wish we had a place like this in Brookline and not shitty 802 Coffee (I HATE WHEN BUSINESSES NAME THEMSELVES AFTER THEIR STREET ADDRESS), I’d be walking there daily.

I wrote a little bit in my haunted house while we were there and Henry was like, “Oh, you brought that with you. Yay.”

This place is sincerely precious. And I had a really good strawberry rugelach from Pigeon Bagels that they were selling there. Impeccable pairing!

Afterward, we went to Homewood Cemetery because I have three cameras with film that I’m trying to use up here sooner rather than later (actually 4!!! but I only brought 3 of them). I thought the cem would be a good place to snap some shots especially with all the beautiful fall foliage. But then I had the audacity to ask Henry to do some SENIOR PORTRAIT type shit for me and of course this started a huge fight because — look, I know I am homely — but this man somehow makes me look like I belong in a dumpster behind an abandoned motel full of squatters and meth heads.

Dead or alive – picture that as you’d like.

This is what happens when Henry says, “OK, do something.”

We went to see Movements last week – I still have to recap that on here but rest assured it was a fantastic show! This is re: my shirt, btw.

“TAKE A PICTURE OF ME DOING THE SAME THING AS THAT STONE BITCH!”

Henry’s composition skills are lacking. You’d think he’d have learned a thing or two by now, having such a mouthy and brutally honest subject.

Anyway…

It was a perfect cemetery day. And then later we went to a haunted house two-ish hours away in West Virginia and there is just something so romantic and “early relationship stage” about driving home from a haunted house in the dark, I can’t explain it but it’s my most favorite romantic vibe ever. I can’t believe another October is almost over already, UGH.

P.S. Fun fact: Did you know that in the beginning, Henry and I were trying to keep our relationship on the DL because we worked together. My dear office mom Carol was the only one who knew. THEN!! One night, we were at a redlight on the West End, en route to a haunted house in Coraopolis, holding hands and all that NEW LOVE bullshit, when I looked out of the passenger side window and saw someone in the car next to us, waving with a GOTCHA smile on his face. Totally some asshole butcher we worked with who also happened to be a HUGE kiss ass to the bosses. So by the following Monday, every-fucking-body knew.

Sigh.

Fuck you forever, Jimmy Landis.

Is October sincerely half-way over already?! I’m in tears. “Time’s flying by,” said Henry, who is sat across from me making serial killer cards while we listen to the Greet Death record that he dedicated a half hour of everyone’s time to getting signed. Ugh. But this album is so fucking good.

Anyway!! Here is a backlog of pictures from my Charmera, which has really gotten around this month so far, starting with Rich’s Fright Farm on October 1.

This is the long walk to the entrance. Once, Chooch and I hid from Janna behind those trees on the right and she would have peed her pants if she hadn’t already peed in a porta-potty.

They have a machine that blows out smoke-filled bubbles and popping them is almost as fun for me as pounding on beach balls at music festivals.

They have this cool lighting package on their stage which is negated by the fact that they play the shittiest West Virginia firehall wedding reception music which then causes people to dance like they’re at a West Virginia firehall wedding reception.

THE HOUSE.

THE EXIT.

Groove Coffee with Wendy! This place had a really cool vibe. My matcha was OK but I would definitely go back and try something else out.

Later that night, we went to Portals of Fear and I got this spooky cookie. It was OK.

The cutie salt and pepper shaker holder at Fredo’s where we had lunch that Sunday.

This cookie at Kinder Being was better than the Portals of Fear cookie plus it was vegan!

Smashing Pumpkins crowd!

Lolev last Friday!

GREET DEATH!!!!

GREET DEATH!!! Ugh this show was so good I can’t stress it enough. Please go listen to them.

AJJ from the back of Spirit while eating pizza.

The pizza!

Dumbo Henry at Spirit.

Last Saturday, we went to Tambellini’s for lunch. They opened a sandwich shop recently on the Blvd where the old Greek restaurant was. I got butterfly pea lemonade and it was SO REFRESHING.

Probably trying to figure out one of my many witty retorts that soar over his head.

Cute little place with AMAZING SANDWICHES. I legit was in love with my Banker’s Sandwich and the eggplant cutlet on Henry’s sandwich was chef’s kiss. It’s not often that I get all worked up over a sandwich but I have been thinking about this all week and need to go back soon.

I have  more to say about last weekend! I’m off again tomorrow so perhaps I will finally get myself caught up with blogging and journaling and everything else that has been slacking in my life, ugh. I am caught up with my haunted house journal though and actually will be starting a brand new one after we go to one tomorrow night! MY LIFE IS SO EXCITING CAN YOU STAND IT.

Sunday was off to a great start until we got to the park and Riot Fest put out an update that there was a gate opening delay—2PM instead of 11AM ugh. I’ll get into those deets when I do a proper update but it was annoying since we parked 1.1 miles away and couldn’t leave and come back, so we had to take the train to…somewhere. Anywhere. To kill time.

View from the pink line.

Now it was starting to rain. AND BASICALLY IT NEVER STOPPED.

Here we are off the train and I had no idea where we were going but Henry evidently did? He was taking us to the same bar we went to the last time we were at Riot Fest when there was THE SAME DELAY – literally 11am opening moved to 2pm. This was in 2023, also day 3. Boy, we have the best luck!

But yeah, I was like, “No, we’re not going to the same place, dum dum.” So we went across the street to some bar called Vintage instead.

The girl in the shorts back there was our server, Reeve, and she was HOLDING IT DOWN. Loved her.

Henry got some IPA and I liked the glass it came in.

Me looking cooked while posing with Henry’s beer. Legit was so exhausted but having the best time somehow???

Back at Douglass Park, in line!

Arm’s Length while we could stand without sinking.

They were hanging these out for free and were really refreshing! I loved the nectarine taste.

Had to get some Dark Matter because I was dragging.

Pretty Girls Make Graves while eating vegan nachos from Meet Stop (I REALLY miss those nachos).

It was raining very steadily and my Charmera is not about that soggy life.

So, Jejune was my last Charmera snap of Riot Fest. You held in there so strong, little buddy!

Here is a collection of Riot Fest Day 2 Kodak snaps all up in your face. Today is the last day and I’m hoping I finally catch another Charmera user in the act!

Saturday morning arrival! I love being at Riot Fest before the masses get there later!

Henry’s first pick of the day was Aim High on the Radical Stage. “You’ll like them,” he said, reading their description on his phone with his glasses raised up like he was reading the warning label on a prescription bottle and not a pop-punk band’s bio. Anyway, they’re a local Chicago band and he was right—they were fantastic and the perfect start to another Riot day. I hope they come to Pittsburgh because I would definitely go see them again!

Excuse me sir, I heard Asana start playing from clear across the field while Henry was going into the Riot Fest General Store to get a package of Tylenol ($6 for two pills LOL that’ll teach him to leave his stash in the console of the car) and I yelled, “I’LL BE AT THE MAIN STAGE.” I figured I would just linger toward the back so Henry could find me but this band was DRAWING ME TO THEM LIKE A MOTH TO A FLAME THIS IS THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE THAT I HAVE BEEN ABLE TO CONFIDENTLY USE THIS PHRASE. So Henry ended up having to search for me near the front of the crowd LOL.

BUT DID I JUST IMPRINT ON THIS MAN OR WHAT.

JFC.

The Yard Act was next on the Roots Stage. Very British and high energy!

Ew.

Excuse me MELT BANANA.

PUBLIC IMAGE LTD!

SUGAR!!!!!!

I LOVE YOU BOB MOULD.

Preparing for Vana!

Vana! Also want to add that some guy not only took a picture using some old ass digital camera BUT ALSO USED HIS NINTENDO SWITCH!!!! Truly around my people.

I think this was Gogol Bordello.

Ew Part 2

This was Henry trying to take a selfie with the Charmera.

I’m pretty sure he was saying, “WHICH BUTTON DO I PUSH?” here.

I took it back and actually got a semi-decent selfie. It’s tough to figure out where to aim the Charmera!!

Waiting for Nas who was 40 minutes late and Riot Fest was supposed to end at 7PM that day per an ordinance from the City because of impending storms so most people left only to find out that Nas eventually came out and Riot Fest let him play UGH we literally left at like 6:55.

Then we went to Chinatown in a torrential downpour for night snacks. We went to a bakery and then to this tea place called….China Tea, I think. Not very original but our teas were good! I got a milk tea with boba and cheese foam and Henry got a mango latte that he put lychee chunks in because he puts that in everything no matter what and it doesn’t always work but he won’t accept that he makes poor combination choices.

P.S. This is also how I learned that Phoenix Cookies have chicken in them, WARNING TO MY FELLOW VEGHEADS OUT THERE. I chewed chicken and then cried about it so you don’t have to.

LOL I ended the post about helping Chooch move and forgot that Henry and I had the audacity to go out to dinner afterward without him hahaha. He was like, “W O W” when he found out, lol.

To be fair, we didn’t eat until we got to Harrisburg and it was just at the Capitol Diner which is not that great but sometimes you have to take what you can get.

Immediately Henry had to chase after the hostess after she dumped us at a table — the whole dining room was full of empty tables and she sat us right next to the only other occupied table where we were practically pressing into each other, it was so uncomfortable. But on the way there, we passed a veritable Backrooms of empty booths so Henry asked if we could just sit at one of those. She said yes (I would have left otherwise, I am SERIOUS about where I sit in a restaurant!!! It takes very little to make me overcome with uncomfortable feelings) so then I was happy.

Big baby mood.

We had a wonderful server who immediately liked my phone case so I knew that moving sections was, well, the move.

I ordered the HEART HEALTHY omelet which came with cottage cheese. Can I just say that I am so smug about cottage cheese having its moment? Everyone is fucking with cottage cheese now when I have been made fun of my whole life for enjoying a side of those creamy curds. I remember one time I ordered a fruit salad that came served on a mound of cottage cheese and the person I was with said it looked like I was eating rot. :(

(I hope melba toast has a renaissance next.)

I only ordered the diet breakfast platter so I could beast a slice of coconut cream pie without guilt.

The lady in the booth behind me was so fucking annoying the whole time. She was running our server ragged and just being so high maintenance. I don’t know what dessert she ordered—-I think it was some cheese cake variation—-but she asked the server, “Do you put whipped cream on the side?”

The server said yes, and I was thinking she was requesting the whipped cream on the side, but FIRMLY said, “Please don’t.” She then launched into this boring explanation about COMMERCIAL WHIPPED CREAM and it would be different if they make their own whipped cream in house, but she cannot “do” COMMERCIAL WHIPPED CREAM.

Until I got my own pie placed in front of me, I was so confused about this question, like who just asks out of the blue, “Do you put whipped cream on the side?” but then I saw that both Henry’s and my plate had a small dollop of whipped cream on the side. More of a decorative plating choice than anything else, I imagine, but then made me think she has probably been there before and knew that they did this so that made more sense but also—just don’t eat it? It was legit just a small squirt.

Both she and her dumb man companion were extremely annoying and talked about the most boring things (setting up a trust, for instance, zzzzzzzz). It made me realize that Henry actually isn’t the worst conversationalist after all.

Crazy!!

Here are some Charmera snaps!

Ew, I used the bathroom before we left and the woman in the stall next to me flushed and walked RIGHT OUT OF THE BATHROOM WITHOUT WASHING HER HANDS. I mean, that’s her choice I guess BUT I COULDN’T HELP BUT NOTICE THAT SHE WAS WEARING BLACK SHOES AKIN TO THOSE WORN IN THE SERVICE INDUSTRY, WAS SHE ONE OF THE SERVERS?!?!

Henry was hulking around by the hostess area when I came out and I hurried over to ask him if he saw who came out before me and of course he was being Captain Obtuse and gave me approx. 3 different answers like, brother this ain’t multiple choice.

He said it “could” have been one of the servers (“Not ours!”) he said, but he’s not entirely sure if that’s who he saw come out before me because there were two women in there when I walked in.

What a lame mystery.

Well, that’s about all the highlights—titillating, I know. We didn’t make it home until almost midnight. These same-day trips are so tiring but worth it even just to see BEST SON (lol) for a few hours.

Plus, we got to listen to a ton of BIGBANG and Romanian popcorn music, lol. And we had “good talks.” Communication, y’all.

I bought myself a plastic 35mm camera from Lomography earlier this summer and took it for a spin on our recent trip to Coney Island—oh you didn’t know we went to Coney Island based on all of the stupid ass posts on here over the last two weeks? Must be nice!

Anyway, a ton of the pictures didn’t turn out because I legit forgot that I was using a cheap film camera and was stupidly using it at night without a flash before I realized what I was doing so I wasn’t surprised when I got a bunch of black scans back. Anyway, here are the best ones. Please do enjoy yourself and don’t slam the door too hard on your way out.

Ew why is Henry standing so worm-y!?

This was a house on the street where we ate breakfast at Milk & Honey.

I don’t recall giving Henry permission to use my camera.

This one is my favorite. This camera was definitely made for gritty city photography.

On the Wonder Wheel! Wearing my Johnnie Guilbert shirt that Chooch hates!

Bored on the tea cups.

My stupidly taking a picture of fireworks from the teacups and expecting it to turn out, LOL.

OK that’s all. This was just using the pre-loaded film that came with the camera so I’m going to play around with different / better films. I have a Mr. Negative roll sitting here that I will probably try next and ONLY shoot in daylight unless I’m inside shooting someone in the face with the flash on.

(Maybe this will be good for Riot Fest?!)

I can’t believe this happened, but I somehow failed to bring either of my two Charmera cameras with me on Friday so this will just be a Saturday and Sunday Chameradump I guess. :(

Saturday’s coffee break led us to Redstart in the East End. I didn’t realize until we pulled into the lot but in 2019 when Jiyong and I used to meet up every Saturday, we came here but it was called something else at the time. All I could remember was that it shared a space with Schoolhouse (the lighting company) but when I googled it, “The Bureau” is what came up, which didn’t seem correct AT ALL.

So I consulted my blog, and yeah, it was the same place. I remember very well being INSIDE but the name rings not even the tiniest bell buried in the recesses of my corroded mind. I did have fun reading the blog post that mentioned it though, which has us meeting Tommy and Jessy for lunch somewhere in Butler that also rings zero bells in my mind but Chooch’s sick burn near the end of the blog post had me gagged. I sent him a screenshot yesterday and he said, “Lol wow, got him.”

(RIP Jessy though for real, ugh.)

Anyway! This place had the most quiet vibes. It was mostly people there alone to either read a book or work so this is the atmosphere I was looking for on my Baby Girl Goes to the City Alone day earlier this month. (God, it was still July yet it feels like that months ago at this point. How is this summer going by so fast but then these weird time lags are also happening!?)

I got the coconut latte and Henry got pandan but then I made him swap with me after I tried his. We also split a vegan sea salt chocolate chip cookie. Overall, great lattes and the cookie would have been better if it wasn’t shared. The barista was also a super nice guy who didn’t make us feel like we were encroaching on holy grounds. (OH COME ON YOU KNOW HOW SOME OF THEM CAN BE!!)

I would go back. Good job, Redstart.

Before we went home, we stopped at Bodega Film Lab to pick up some film for our little mini trip coming up later this week.

The guy who helped us was super nice and also didn’t act like an elitist so I was happy about that. I love photography but I love it on my terms and by that I mean I know zero of the technical aspects of it so please do not ask me what kind of ISO I’m looking for and if you even START to say aperature, just know I’m already tuning you out on the first syllable.

Later that night, we watched the Italian horror movie Torso, and it was excellent.

Sunday (today!) I met Sandy and Nate at Palm Palm for brunch! I haven’t seen them since February so it was a nice little catch-up sesh. They brought me a birthday bouquet :)

We were all smitten with the water carafe that looked like a volcano.

Not Charmera, but I got the coconut pancakes with yuzu marmalade and the most delicious whipped topping which ended up being my brunch AND dinner:

It was so good but I am excited to eat something savory today, lol.

And here’s a better picture of Sandy and Nate too:

It was such a great brunch! And I loved Palm Palm (they even have matchbooks which to me is such a great touch) and already can’t wait to go back.

Later in the afternoon, Henry and I went to my mom’s because she is moving out slowly and I wanted to not only poke around and see what things of mine are still there, but we also needed to send Chooch some pictures of my brother Ryan’s old bedroom set because he (Chooch) is moving into a new place this September and has no furniture. I asked him if he liked it and he was like, “Well, I have nothing so I’m relying on Val’s donation here.” LOL I guess that’s a yes.

Meanwhile, I found some really good old shit—LIKE MY FIRST PUBLIC DIARY FROM FIFTH GRADE!!! So, I was pretty happy about that but overall felt kind of weird. I haven’t been in my mom’s house in probably over 15 years if we’re being honest here, and it made me sort of sad to see my old room which used to be so cool, I’m not getting, it was so fucking cozy and ambiant, but after I moved out one of my brothers took over and killed the vibe.

But, I digress. It’s just really weird that both my childhood home and my grandparent’s house on the same street are basically just…done.

So after we left there, we stopped at a local pizza shop / brewery called Truss to have a “we were just sweating in an attic” beer.

I had a red ale and it was SO GOOD, but not only that, we chatted with the owner and he is so cool and down to earth. He was encouraging us to sample everything but once I tried the red ale, I was like, “No need, this is the one.”

Henry got the CAR WASH COMING SOON summer wheat which is based on an inside joke with the community because there are so many car washes on one small strip of highway that runs through, that every time a new one pops up, people get so triggered. Anyway, one guy took it to the next level but having a giant “car wash coming soon” sign printed and then he hung it at Chick-fil-a on a Sunday so the community Facebook page popped of with, “ARE YOU KIDDING ME, CHICK-FIL-A IS TURNING INTO A CAR WASH???”

Anyway, long story still long, that guy is friends/friendly with the Truss owner, and when the Truss guy went on vacation, the CAR WASH COMING SOON sign ended up in front of the brewery, lol. He told us that he came back from his trip to Mexico with his inbox full of concerned messages about Truss closing. So, the car wash beer was born. IT IS SO GOOD, TOO! I stole some sips :)

Then I read aloud from my 5th grade public diary and Henry was like FML. SHOULD THIS BE MY FUTURE CLOWN ACT!?!? Just, me in face paint sitting on a stool and reading pages from my journals??

Hilariously in the same vein, Henry was digging around on some old computer drives and found an audio recording of the time I read an entire haunted house review for LiveJournal. (It was the infamous IGOR’S FRIGHT SHACK review!!!)

Well, that pretty much sums up the weekend, minus Friday which will be a separate post. CIAO FOR NOW.

We had two concerts to go to this weekend – Friday and Saturday – and my Kodak Charmera came with me to both. I have to laugh that while normal people are buying better and better phones and cameras for concerts and I’m over here with m y $30 digital keychain purposely taking shitty 1990s quality shots.

The first concert was Friday night at the Roxian – the Summer School tour! I’ll have another post with all those pertinent deets at another time (your bitch is fucking tired and on this Lord’s Day I plan on RELAXING).

Carmella Donna’s Creatures.

Henry hating his life (this show had 6 bands and his limit is 2). Also! I was so excited because some guy in the pit also had his Charmera with him!!! CHARMERA TWINS!

Then I forgot that I had my Charmera with me and missed the next two bands but here’s South Arcade from Oxford, England. Obsessed with them.

Games We Play (my least favorite of the night).

HONEY REVENGE!!!

It was such a great night! I still hate the Roxian as a venue though.

Yesterday’s show was at Preserving Underground. We perused records beforehand and I left with a Goblin-scored horror movie soundtrack for The Other Hell:

Hand dryer reflection.

Back at Preserving Underground for Armor For Sleep!

Henry was happy because he could sit on a church pew the entire time. I sat with him in between bands, like a child returning to their parent.

Ben came out as a guest guitarist for the opening band, Flycatcher. I was so happy to see him again after all these years.

Spanish Love Songs!

That guy in the blue was wearing an old school The Academy Is….shirt and it made me so nostalgic for that specific moment in the scene when everything was bright neon with over the top cartoon monster designs. Ugh. Now everything is black. Concert and band shirts used to be so much fun!!

OMG. AFS still make me feel exactly the same as they did in 2005: gutted.

Such a great weekend so far and I am happy that my Charmera captured such fun moments! You know what the best part is? You can hold this thing up to take pictures and bother absolutely NO ONE because it’s so fucking tiny. And there’s no adjusting or trying to frame it perfectly because that viewfinder is impossibly small and you have no choice but to just point and shoot and hope for the best, lol.

Imagine Chooch’s excitement when I produced my Charmera from my purse as soon as we walked into Waldameer :) At least Zakk was a good sport!

Obviously, this camera isn’t meant to take award-winning photographs so you have to expect extremely low-quality, but I learned on this day that the Charmera doesn’t seem to like sunny days.

Entrance of the Whacky Shack!

This babe.

Comet is such a cute and smooth woodie. This is the perfect first coaster for little kids, honestly.

He’s smiling genuinely here because he didn’t know I was taking his picture WITH MY TINY BABY CHARMERA.

In case you were wondering, I engaged in no hand gesture activity because my hands will white knuckling the safety bar the whole time. Ravine Flyer was HAULING ASS.

And here’s an ear-splitting video:

You’re welcome.

These are in absolutely no logical order, just like my brain. Let’s goooo.

I made Chooch hold up the menu for me so I could get it in this shot and he was so annoyed until he realized that he didn’t have to actually be in the picture, then he was suddenly amenable to my request.

Mirror selfie in Chooch’s dorm room!

View from Chooch’s window. He won’t get this view next year but his new place is on a really quaint and historic street + more room so I think that’s a good trade-off.   

LOL that effing Minecraft pillow.

Obligatory subway shoe shot.  

Bro, I love how 90s alternative, riot grrrl album cover this looks! This was a mirror selfie in the Silk City bathroom.

Vegan foods.

Ew.

Artistic coffee.

Diner still life.

(Imagine how annoying I am with this camera.)

Silk City bar! I don’t remember if they had a full bar like this when I was there in 1998. I feel like it was just a diner back then? OMG I JUST REMEMBERED that this was the place where I had A FUCKING EGG CREAM for the first time and it was deeee-sgusting.

Silk City, baby. I would definitely go back. The vibes were soooo good. Henry was happy that this lunch was cheaper than the lunch we had at Mintt the day before. He is probably still quietly fuming about that experience. (The food was fine but we felt like the price of the food compared to what we actually got was NOT aligned. It’s also concerning when you go to a restaurant specializing in any kind of Indian or Asian cuisine and the only other diners in the place are white.)

I think I accidentally took. this when we were walking into Silk City lol.

This is the garden section of Silk City! It had Pee Wee’s Playhouse aesthetics.

Hustler.

(Chooch knew this place was on the corner and started eagerly pointing it out a block away. We love to point out adult shops, strip clubs, and lingerie shops to Henry. It’s kind of our thing, you wouldn’t understand.)

Pretzel Man.

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LOL Happy Father’s Day, Pretzel Man.

BUNS.

Chooch was legit begging. me to not take pictures on the subway using this camera. It’s so tiny, no one even noticed!

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Oh shit, this was Henry and Chooch literally arguing over directions and Chooch knew I was going to try and snap a picture so HE MOVED. Ugh, this is my favorite FATHER-SON thing to photograph.

There are always food trucks parked outside of Chooch’s building, including one that has acai bowls but we always have lunch plans when we’re there so I never get one :(

View from the elevator bank on Chooch’s floor (the 20th!).

Chooch in his hallway! Jesus, he acts like he’s in witness protection.

The shared space in Chooch’s apartment dorm thing. Chooch got that Eagles guy cut-out from Wawa last year and then decided he was going to start collecting cut-outs but hasn’t gotten any more because he thinks they’re going to just fall in lap. How naive! Where does he get this from!? (Me and wheelchairs.)

More views from Chooch’s place.

Mirror selfie! Look how happy he is! 

Mirror selfie, car edition! MY NAIL POLISH MATCHES MY CAMERA!

Managed to get Chooch in this one!

Car reads.  

OK so basically, these pictures are in order from end of the day to beginning. LOL, oops.

Anyway,  this camera is so much fun. It inspires to me to try and get back into film photography as well. But the convenience of this one can’t be beat!

I’m still out here having a grand ol’ time with this tiny Kodak digital camera. It was one of the best surprise gifts Henry has ever given me! IT’S SO STUPID AND SIMPLE BUT SLAPS.

I bought it with me to the Cold concert on Thursday at Jergel’s and now I will show you the pictures I took with it even though I have not officially recapped the actual show yet (that will be coming soon—rest assured it was simply magical).

I already posted about this IN REAL TIME on Thursday (actually fun fact it was NOT in real time because I ended up having no service inside Jergel’s so I couldn’t get the post to publish. I tried connecting to Henry’s hotspot but that didn’t work. Then our waitress was supposed to give us the card with the Jergel’s wifi password but never did probably because she got distracted by the guy who looked like an actual child sitting next to me ordering his 7th Moscow mule (probably not 7th but he was throwing them back like water and he and his gf were getting giddier and giddier as the night went on—cute at first but OMG who was gong to drive home?! Horrifying…). Then Henry was tired of me crying about it so he went and asked the lady at the door for the password so then I was able to finally publish it.

Don’t worry—all of this was transpiring before the show started. I’m not THAT pyscho about blogging.

But you better go back and read that if you haven’t already, knowing now the trial and tribs behind posting it!!

Anyway, please also enjoy this short video from the evac.

I’m still getting the hang of where to aim the camera when taking selfies so I always end up looking like I’m concentrating bigly.

Jergel’s is the epitome of older person venue. You can pay extra for early entry in order to snag a table and eat a mediocre dinner pre-concert. That’s what we did. You can even bring your knitting gear. That’s what the lady in the gray shirt at the table on the right did.

I actually wish I had brought a book—there was so much time to kill before the first band came on.

My non-alcoholic beer, lol. Not that we were ever big drinkers at concerts but when you’re specifically NOT drinking it makes it so much more apparent how much everyone else IS drinking and it’s horrifying. Especially at these older shows.

COLD!! I loved that this camera makes it look like I took this picture in 2001 when I was basically a part-time groupie for this band. (If you ignore the fact that Scooter is the only original member left.)

It is stupid how much I love this dumb little camera.

Henry surprised me the other day with a Kodak blindbox and this cutie keychain camera came out of it! I love love love using cheap cameras, toy cameras, film cameras. Anything where you don’t really know what the output will be because it takes the pressure away when you expect imperfection. It puts the fun back into taking pictures! I already tested it out at a concert Tuesday night (more to come on that!) and yesterday I took it with us to Cedar Point! I figured, I have so many of the same pictures from Cedar Point, why not get a new perspective?

I’ll have a more comprehensive run-down of our day at CP (god forbid I skip an amusement park recap!) but I wanted to put the Kodak pictures here by themself because they’re fun! Also, it was hilarious how many times passers-by would give me a double-take and ask amongst themselves, “is that a CAMERA?” It is TINY so that’s a valid question! You can barely see out of the viewfinder, TBH, so a lot of these were shot with a hope and a prayer.

Top Thrill 2.

In line for Gatekeeper.

Leaving Siren’s Curse.

Intentional hand shot, lol.

Baby geese!

The Boardwalk is my favorite area of Cedar Point. The vibes are always vibing, even on overcast days in May with a “feels like” temp of 40 degrees.

SteVe <333333

In case you ever want to know what the ground looks like in Cedar Point.

Experimenting with camera-placement for selfies, lol – this was a fail.

Better, except for my face.

CALYPSO IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE RIDES!

Intentional shoe shot.

Dreading Calypso, lol.

On Sunday, we went to Freeport to grab some sweet treats from Vivian’s Bakery and then headed to Kittanning for a walk. Remember a few weeks ago when we were going to do this but I threw a fit without even getting out of the car because Kittanning looked stupid and then I pouted the whole hour drive home even a little bit after Henry stopped at Yinz Coffee and got me a lovely spring-flavored drink*? Well, we actually got out of the car and walked this time and it was kind of lame but at least we were out in the sunshine walking off our devoured sweet treats.

*(I think it was the cherry blossom chai and fun fact for anyone compiling a list of things I like so that you’re not ever on the same shit list as Henry, Yinz Coffee is one of the only places in Pgh that makes chai the way I like it.)

On the way there though, we stopped at a Sheetz and this fucking cowboy was next door looming over a defunct restaurant called Cadet’s or something so I had to stroll into private property land and take some pictures because these are some of my favorite roadside attractions, the Muffler Man and the rest of his ilk. Many years ago, I took a picture of an actual Muffler Man out in Uniontown with one of my toy cameras and titled it “Coming Down to Cut You Open” which is a line from a song I loved at the time and for the life of me cannot remember – was it Matthew Good Band?! Ugh. My memory. Hold please while I investigate.

Wrong, I’m confusing it with “They’ve brought someone in to shut you up.”

It was Longwave:

Interestingly:

• I don’t remember ever listening to Longwave
• I don’t remember this song AT ALL
• it must be the one though because I found a blog post from 2008 where I posted the photo and I apparently named him Farfel Longwave and the “cut you open” part was in the description.

I can’t even remember my own shit anymore.

(comingdowntocutyouopen would have been a great crabcore band name in the 00s, honestly.)

Slowly getting to through the camera photos from our Romania trip. I simultaneously am so relieved to almost be wrapping up these recaps but also – so sad. It really was one of the best times of my life and I will never forget it! (How can I with a vacation journal, 1000 pictures, and approximately 75 blog posts about it? Yes, I know – I’m exhausting. Try being me!!)

Anyway, these are the only pictures from Sighisoara we took with the camera, mostly just of the cemetery and the cafe where I got the best pie of my freaking life!

<3 you, Sighisoara!

We were just watching some travel YouTuber’s video the other night of the best/cheapest places to travel in Europe in 2026 and Sighisoara was on his list. I was happy but also like bro, don’t tell everyone the secret!

This was right outside the entrance to the cemetery.

The Scholar’s Steps from above! I loved those steps.

Cemeteries are basically my whole personality.

OK back to listening to the Pens game on my phone!