Sappiness doesn’t usually good on me and we all know I’m that vain bitch, but I gotta be real here and tell you that this past Christmas was anticlimactic, quiet, and — absolutely perfect. All I wanted was for it to be just us three, no expectations, no obligations. And it was just that.

Against all odds, Chooch has grown up to be someone who doesn’t care about the amount of Christmas gifts under the treeTrudy. He was content with all the things we got him, like a jersey from some guy from the Seahawks, a Gulf of Mexico shirt (FDT), other assorted clothes items, Dr. Squatch, a really cool diffuser that Henry and I have become obsessed with and are planning on buying our own, lol.

We did also get him and his friend Zakk tickets to a Steelers game the week before, I gave him my credit card on Black Friday so he could buy himself clothes and an Eddie Bauer (he loves Eddie Bauer??) jacket at the outlets, and we let him roadtrip to Cleveland today for another Steelers game with two of his friends. So, he is happy!

As for me? HIM HO (that’s what Drew :( and Penelope call Santa) got me G-DRAGON’S PEACEMINUSONE NIKE PARANOISE AIR FORCE 1s!!! This was the most recent version released earlier in the year that I didn’t even attempt to buy because it’s a bloodbath and no one can compete with sneakerheads PLUS G-Dragon fans. But then I found my size on eBay and sent it to Henry as a HINT.

(

Oh! And as usual, half the fun on Christmas is watching Chooch roll his eyes at who all of his gifts are from. This year:

• Truman
• Lady on the sidewalk, dead
• Pam’s Eagle tattoo (our coaster friend loves the Eagles and is always showing off her Eagles tattoo lol but Chooch hates the Eagles)
• Splenny Claus (I inexplicably call Penelope “Splenny”)
• Wolfman’s Nards (obviously a nod to Monster Squad)
• Truman again, I guess I’m losing it
• 마크 (Mark Lee from NCT – when Chooch cared about Kpop, Mark was his bias)
• Johnnie Gilbert in his Never Shout Never phase (Chooch hates that I love Johnnie)
• Tara Yummy’s dog, Sugar (Chooch hates that I watch this certain group of YouTubers and know random things about their lives like the name of their dogs)
• “Welcome to the shithole!” guy in Iowa (literally one line in this entire blog post good luck finding it)

Let’s look at my shoes again!!!!

OMG my dream is to wear to these to a BIGBANG concert in 2026.

Excuse me, who is this adult.

Penelope, checking to see if they’re G-Dragon scented.

Later that day, we went to Pink Box for our annual Christmas buns. I got a taro mochi. I don’t know what the others got, just that they were annoyed that I wouldn’t let them eat them until we got our family pictures done in the cemetery.

The day started out so ugly and wet – just in general, the air was so cold and damp. But on the way to Pink Box, the sun came out and then the skies were a beautiful blue at the cemetery! It was also just warm enough to comfortably take off our jackets (hilariously Mr. Anti-Coat kept his on???).

There was only bad sour moment of the whole day and it was when I got into a big argument with the tri-pod and then pouted in the car for only approx. 30 seconds – BABY’S GROWING UP.

I ALMOST FORGOT TO TAKE PARTY!PARTY! PICTURES! Chooch was like, “Oh GREAT, you’re still using that app?!” when I screamed, “WAIT! PARTY! PARTY!”

Location change! And bun debut!

Anyway, as usual, these turned out like the usual Erin and Her Background Standers snaps that everyone is used to. There were actually quite a few people walking around the cemetery at this time (it’s usually dead, pun intended, but ever since Covid it’s like people realized that cemeteries are great places to take a stroll, ugh, go away) and I felt like we were getting stares but fuck you people, this is our TRADISHAWN.

Then, to cap off a perfect Christmas, we gathered on the couch at 8PM to watch all three new episodes of Stranger Things, and Penelope even joined us here and there. It was the coziest end to a wonderful day with my two faves and the only bad thing is that it’s going to make it so much harder to say goodbye to Chooch next weekend. :(

This just REALLY made it feel like Christmas to me.

OMG he went thrifting his friend last week and got this blanket gown thing that he has worn every day since and he’s so annoying about it.

Splenny <3

This has been a rough for most people I know and I just hope that everyone found some peace with their family / friends / furry kids during this holiday season.

I finally sat down and started going through more of the DSLR pictures we took in Romania. Here are the salvageable ones from the Merry Cemetery + some blurry/unfocused Henry gems because they capture the true disdain that shows on my face when he is doing something I don’t approve of, in this case, using  my camera lol:

Classic Erin, annoyed AF.

After we checked into our guest house, I was like LET’S GO, BRUH! I could not WAIT to go full tourist lookie-loo on this place. Just going through these pictures is bringing me so much joy.

Sighisoara is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in case you care about that stuff.

For instance, what you see in front of you here is the actual house that Vlad Tepes lived in as a child! It’s now a gift shop, restaurant, and HAUNTED HOUSE (well, kind of) but that part of it is sadly closed on Tuesdays. As soon as I walked into the gift shop though, I spotted THE THING. You know, that ONE THING that you find on vacation that completely speaks to your soul? The one thing that you were holding out for without even knowing yet what it was, and then convince yourself that it costs $$$$ but YOU WILL SPARE NO EXPENSE?

Yeah, I found that thing here and Henry was all, “NOT RIGHT NOW, I’M CARRYING THAT AROUND. WE’LL COME BACK” and I was like, “Hooooo, you listen, motherfucker – if we come back and it’s GONE*, I will channel Vlad himself and go full vamp on your ass.”

*(OK, there was a wall of THE THING but there was one in particular that had called to me, so apologies Henry if I was frantic about purchasing THIS THING. We’ll talk about that later!)

It’s actually embarrassing how many times I went into this gift shop. The girl running it was exhausted by me after a point, I think.

It was completely uncrowded in Sighisoara when we were there. The hotel guy told Henry that it is super crowded in the summer and I can only imagine. This was also the scene of public executions back in the medieval times. Things were much less barbaric when we were there (well, until it was Henry’s feeding time).

The Clock Tower being a pretty princess in the background. More on that later!

The colors of the buildings, ugh.

The first “tourist” thing we did was walk up the famous Scholar’s Steps. I knew that these were built way back in the day (1642 if you’re a history dork) for the kids to get to the school at the top of the hill.

OMG are we scholars now.

That’s the toy camera I used to take these pictures, by the way!

At the top!

The Scholar’s Stairs is one of the oldest covered wooden steps in the world!

In addition to the church and school, the Sighisoara Saxon Cemetery is also located at the top of the hill. The story is that when the Pied Piper lead the kids out of Germany, he brought them to Romania and they are now buried here, I guess? This is a pretty interesting read.

It was so quiet and tranquil here. A few people were walking around here and there, but it definitely did not feel like a tourist attraction.

When Henry says, “Do something.” My instinct is to pretend my bones have melted. Limp Vogue, I think is what they call it in the ballroom scene.

Romania, you guys.

My feet on Romanian ground!

As we made our way back to the Scholar’s Stairs to find a spot for lunch, an actual school was letting out for the day and we got to walk down the steps with REAL LIFE SIGHISOARAN HIGH SCHOOL KIDS!!! I was so giddy about this, especially when we happened to be behind these three girls who I just KNOW are the popular girls, it was so obvious. I have a short video that I recorded on the way down, which made Henry shake his head in disappointment.

I don’t think I had one bad moment in Sighisoara, if I’m being honest. I might not have even yelled at Henry at all??

Random picture of a cemetery that I took from the car window early on Monday morning, 10/13/25. We left our beautiful and quirky guest house in Cluj (farewell to my husband the massage chair, I think I still have bruises on my ankles) super early in the AM. I believe it was around 6AM. We wanted to get an early start because our first stop in the Maramures region was about 4 hours from Cluj.

OH, WTF IS A MARAMURES, you ask? It’s a region in the northern part of Romania (and parts of Western Ukraine) known for its rural majesty and cultural goodness. I know, how has Condè Nast not hired me.

Originally, I only wanted to the Merry Cemetery which was one of the first things I ever discovered about Romanian years ago when I became dead set on visiting one day and googled Romanian cemeteries, as one does when exploring options for a then-imaginary itinerary. But then when planning this trip, I started looking more into the Maramures and decided to add more  to that day’s itinerary rather than immediately driving to the next stop.

Henry and I are in rare agreeance over this – the Maramures was our favorite day in Romania. We ended up being in the car for most of it but it was the best scenery of the whole trip. The mountains!! The rolling fields!! The gas station where I discovered my period was starting and I bought a FOREST FRUIT danish for breakfast!

You don’t care about those details.

The entrance to the Maramures!

Some of the scenery we saw upon entering the Maramures, which is Romania’s “most traditional” county according to some. I believe it!

I loved these…township markers?

In the mountains! I have so much video footage from the car, it’s actually pathetic and annoying. Please look forward to that.

Anyway, I wanted to just focus on the Merry Cemetery in Sapanta for this post. I took so many pictures and I want to share them all. Someone might ask the Internet one day for pictures of the Merry Cemetery and then maybe my blog will come up and they’ll discover their long lost relative was buried there thanks to Oh Honestly Erin.

Yooooo, immediately it’s popping off. The colors!!

We did have to pay to enter. There is a little ticket booth at the entrance and we happily paid the equivalent of $2.29 to enter.

The draw of this cemetery, in addition to the cheerful palette, is that the man who started it wanted to bring some humor into the tombstones so each one has a quirky, sometimes super dark, little epitaph describing either the person’s life or how they met their demise. Obviously, we don’t read Romanian but there are translations online and I encourage you to check them out!

I just could not believe we were here!

I love that you can see the mountains in the background.

I also want to point out that it was supposed to be cloudy and rainy when we were there, but the skies were like, “They lied.” It couldn’t have been a more magical morning! Also, aside from some men working along the periphery, we were the only people there until a group a three people arrived after us and it was crazy how un-touristy this place felt.

Also, in the Maramures, most of the older women actually do dress in traditional attire I love it. And I love the apples on this tombstone.

The first tombstone was handmade by Stan Ioan Pătraș in 1935 and grew into what is now known as one of the Seven Wonders of Romania.

The detail on the exterior of this church though!!

We had this whole joint to ourselves! My eyes were drunk off these colors. It was my style!! Mentally shelving inspo for interior projects YOU NEVER KNOW goldleaf might be in my (Henry’s) future.

I’m trying to write this recap but every time I scroll to the next picture, I have to stop and stare dreamily at it like it’s 1992 and I’m at the ice skating rink lusting over some guy from another school that I took private tennis lessons with but in all honesty I realized he wasn’t even that cute one day when he lifted his hat so it wasn’t covering most of his face  –  wait, what were we talking about.

I asked Henry if he liked the church and he said, “YESITHOUGHTITWASVERYINTERESTING” just like that, like someone gave him a cue card and he was in a hurry to spit it out. But then he followed up with, “I liked the cemetery too, I thought it was cool.” Wow, an ad lib! HE CAN DO THAT???

I miss this place. I miss the whole area! Even though Henry was being super annoying because he kept taking really bad pictures of me (woof), I enjoyed the time we spent in the cemetery. Oh!! And we went to the little gift shop where I of course bought magnets but also a small wooden reproduction of one of the tombstones, two crosses for the bathroom, and a rope bracelet in the Romanian colors which I proceeded to wear every day after that.

After this, we decided to look for somewhere to eat right across from the cemetery. I will say that the village of Sapanta seems to make the most of the cemetery and they gently lean into tourism but setting up their wares alongside the road and doing the most to lure people into their food establishments. For instance, when we were looking at menu, some woman came over and VERY CHEERFULLY moved us down to another place, which looked to be a stand that was selling placinta (cheese pies) which I actually really wanted and started to excitedly approach the counter to order, but then some other woman popped out of a doorway and it turned out that the first woman was sending us to HER not the placinta place and I was like, “Oh maybe it’s just the inside though” so we followed her through the door but no, it was an entirely separate place and the only thing on the menu that wasn’t meat was fries so that’s what I ended up ordering because the LADY WAS SO NICE AND IT WAS SUCH AN ORDEAL getting us there, these three women all helping each other out to make sure they were dividing the business up amongst themselves, so I was happily obliged to just stay there and eat the fries.

Henry got his first ever mici (meech) and really liked it!

Those fries were seriously super good so I wasn’t mad about it. And the lady (the owner I guess?) was soooo concerned about us and I appreciated that.

OMG OMG OMG after this we went into one of the little shops and I found THE THING. You know, that ONE THING that you spend the rest of your life showing to people and saying I GOT THIS IN < wherever >.

LOL! I love that the girl looks half-decapitated.

Anyway, an elderly woman was running the joint (she actually had left the place unmanned which could never happen in America) and even though we couldn’t speak each others’ languages, she was pantomiming that she liked my shirt (I mean, I think so – she might have been telling me I wasn’t pulling it off very well) and then gave me the magnet that I picked out for free.

“Souvenir!” she said, closing my fingers around it.

I LOVED SAPANTA.

(Henry won’t contribute anything else because I called him out for being annoying – he was mindlessly rubbing his arms while watching TV next to me and the sound of RUBBING SKIN was about to make me launch off the couch and through the roof – so now he’s pouting and being mad at me. The honeymoon is LITERALLY over haha.)

Once again, I was compelled by the power of G-Dragon. For the longest time, I have wanted to get some type of Seoul 1988 Olympics memorabilia because G-Dragon, born in 1988, has made Seoul 1988 Olympics kind of his thing. He can very often be seen wearing Seoul 88 hats. I’m not a hat-wearing, so I went on eBay in search of anything else and I found this jacket at a super reasonable price!

It is honestly SO GOOD. Yes, it stunk like someone’s basement closet from 1988 for sure, but with a bit of airing out it’s fine now! It’s the perfect fall jacket too, I love it so much.

The Mister Softee shirt I wish I had been wearing in Philly last weekend! Also, my Vans match it perfectly which really tickled me.

Also? Eat Flem.

Blair Witch shot.

Oh I look so friendly here but I am actually berating Henry through this fake-ass smile. “Can you please just take the picture without fucking it up, thanks.”

We won’t talk about how frustrating Henry was being in his photographer role. I mean, we got through it but Chooch would have done it better!

I liked this tree.

Also, you can’t tell here but the front has “Leon” embroidered on it which is EVEN BETTER because one of the things I learned on our first trip to Korea in 2018 is that Leon: The Professional has something a bit bigger than a cult following there?? There was Leon merch everywhere – phone cases, socks, etc. I don’t exactly know the lore behind it but it’s a real thing, Leon is big in Korea. So this jacket is even that much more of a chef’s kiss!

Anyway, that’s all from Sunday. I’m tired.

LOLOLOL.

On Saturday, I made Chooch join us for some Pink Box buns and a stroll through our fave cem. It was, after all, our last full weekend with him but really just Saturday because his Sunday was filled with going to the Steelers game (DON’T WORRY, he likes the team they were playing – Seahawks – not the gross Steelers) with his friends, Chipotle with his friends, PICKLEBALL with his friends (gross!!!) and then a haunted house with his friends. It’s OK. I just stayed home and cried. (He did let two of the friends come in the house with him & awkwardly interact with me in between Steelers game and Chipotle so that was something.)

I really don’t want to take him back to Philly this weekend. :(

This is what he did when I asked him to stand with me for a picture :( He is my biggest troll.

I wanted Henry to take a picture of me in my BIGBANG shirt that Veronica sent me years and years ago! Speaking of, they will be at Coachella next year and you know I am super ugh about Coachella when not even BIGBANG can get me to go again. I’m sorry but can my first time seeing BIGBANG *not* be at Coachella with a bunch of drunk influencers??

(Although it would be worth it to see Jake and Johnnie and the Alexanders, lol. A sentence that Chooch would be very disappointed to read.)

WHAT WAS I POINTING AT. This was only three days and already I’ve forgotten.

Then I asked Chooch to take a picture of Henry and me and the following is what I received:

???? I’m going to frame this one for his apartment.

Plus a selection of random close-ups of Henry. My camera roll always needs to be cleaned up after Chooch has my phone.

And then he finally took OK ones.

Afterward, we came home and didn’t see him again until around 8PM when he decided to go to Walmart and buy a blue shirt and fabric paint so that he could make his own DIY Seahawks t-shirt since it was going to be too hot to wear his Seahawks hoodie to the game on Sunday. I had a lot of fun making fun of him for this while Mr. He’s Crafty was salivating on the sidelines, waiting to be tagged in.

Basically, nothing major happened on Saturday yet I remember laughing a lot. I feel like when we’re all together we’re always laughing a lot (mostly at Henry’s expense). I’m going to miss this. :(

Last fall was so tough and I really hope this time the separation anxiety isn’t as bad. I just REALLY loved having him home, even when he was mostly in his lair or running past us to grab the car keys while calling out over his shoulder where he was going. My workdays are going to be so depressing again.

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.

Two weekends ago, Henry and I were having a conversation about the new Pope and I got super in my feelings about my Catholic past. I was VERY into it (not like, in culty way) and I actually enjoyed going to CCD every Sunday because to me, learning the Bible stories felt like history. It was entertaining, and also there were donuts in the basement afterward. When we got to the level of Sunday School where tests became a thing, I fucking aced them all. I’m telling you, I ate that shit up like Eve with apple juice dripping down her chin.

And even as a TEENAGER, I looked forward to going to church on Saturday evenings with my Pappap. I mean, 1. I was with my favorite person in the whole world, and 2. we would always go out to dinner afterward haha. My BFF (& Chooch’s godmother) Christy’s family also went to the same church so sometimes Christy would join us for dinner afterward and then sleep over my house and we’d completely unravel all of the church’ing by watching R RATED MOVIES OMG. My favorite was when we would go this Italian restaurant that was called ‘something di Napoli” but we all affectionally called it Naples and my Pappap of course was friends with the owner and the best servers so we got special treatment but the reason I liked it was because I had a HUGE CRUSH on one of the bus boys lol.

ANYWAY! This trip down a dirt lane in my mind’s Jerusalem resulted in me fondly telling Henry about my favorite priest at that Church – Father Salberg. He was AMAZING. He made church interesting and fun, and his sense of humor was incredible. Like a toned-down Robin Williams, if Robin Williams looked like GOD because he is totally how I pictured God to look – barrel-chested, an avuncularly booming voice, huuuuuge beard. This guy was a life-sized hug standing on the altar every week and I looked forward to Communion and then standing in line to shake his hand after mass.

I was surprised to find myself tearing up while I was telling Henry my Father Salberg mems. I started to Google him and, sadly, found his Obituary from 2018. I started to cry (???) but also was kind of shocked to see that my church wasn’t even referenced in any of the bios I found online about him. I remember vividly that he was also a priest at a state pen, and the years he did that overlapped the years he would have been a priest at my church. I think that he must have been doing both at once, and now that I realllly think about it, he may have actually just been an interim priest at my church because I do remember having other priests there and none of them came even close to matching his charisma. This actually is even more telling now that I realize he wasn’t there for more than a year or two, but still had such an impact on me. I will tell you right now, had he still been the acting priest at Nativity when my Pappap died, maybe things would have been different for me. Maybe I’d have actually had someone to talk to. Maybe I wouldn’t have found myself going down a very dark path.

When I saw that Father Salberg is buried in a cemetery about an hour outside of Pittsburgh, I wanted to go. So that is what we did on Sunday, drove to Butler and had actually a nice afternoon at a brewery (more on that later!) and then a walk through Father Salberg’s cemetery.

“This is going to be like finding a needle in a haystack,” Henry said when we got out of the car. I was just about to say that I didn’t necessarily need to find his grave, just wanted to be there, when Henry said, “Wait—-is that it??” Literally 15 seconds into our walk, Henry spotted it! We actually kept walking through because a man was tending to a nearby grave, but then on the way back he was still there, planting flowers. So, I figured I’d just snap a quick photo for my memories and right as I did so, the man’s dog started barking so then it looked like I was taking a picture of him and his dog and I mean, I typically always feel like a creep, but even more so in this moment, haha.

This man was top notch. Remembering all of this almost made me feel inspired to go back to church but I don’t feel like trying them all on to find the one that fits. I have shit to do, etc.

We had a nice little stroll. I made Henry take pictures of me in my new Johnnie Guilbert shirt to send to Chooch who was like, “What.” And then “Ugh.”

I got new Vans! My therapist suggested buying myself something new, like cute shoes or something, to make myself feel better because my self-esteem and vanity have been taking blows lately. I was like immediately *buying shoes, doctor’s orders, it’s prescribed*

It was a beautiful cemetery (Calvary/Northside Cem in Butler) and an even more beautiful day.

We also listened to Johnnie Guilbert and Pierce the Veil exclusively on this day trip and it was crazy nostalgic. I will say that the day didn’t start off great, I was being me (read: difficult/pouty/volatile) but everything turned out ok in the end.  It did make me miss my Pappap an awful lot though.

I’M WRITING THIS ON CHOOCH’S 19TH BIRTHDAY, BTW!!! It feels so strange not getting to celebrate with him in person, and knowing him, none of his Drexel friends even know it’s his birthday. My work group chat wants to pool monies and hire a skywriter to fly over Drexel, lol. “HBD CHOOCH A/K/A RILEY, MOMMY LOVES YOU.”

I did buy him tickets to the Men I Trust concert this September, which as you know, I will always associate with the maybe-dead-body we saw upon leaving the Mattress Factory. :/

Anyway, in lieu of having real time birthday stuff to share on here, here’s some pictures from the second half our day in Philly last Saturday.

I have wanted to check out Laurel Hill Cemetery since years before Chooch started going to college in Philly and it finally happened last weekend! Lucky for Chooch, HENRY left the DSLR at home so the Easter photoshoot I had in my hopes and dreams was dashed – however, Chooch was also sick with a cold so I likely would have let him off the hook anyway. Instead, we just took some casual photos which was still annoying to Chooch.

But come on, dude. Moms need pics of their kids, no matter the age!

I loved this classic hearse! I had to send pictures to my dad who has always been a classic car aficionado. He responded right away with his guess of year – “Neat – looks about a 1948” he replied.

Dude, this donut bag pops up in every picture, I swear. It was even sitting on a wall later on when Chooch was taking pictures of me and Henry “running,” and I had to crop it out. (THAT WAS YESTERDAY’S POST IN CASE YOU MISSED IT.)

If this was Korea, we would have had to wait in line to get these pictures. Trees are famous in Korea! And the ones here in Laurel Hill were poppin’ off this spring. The juxtaposition of decrepit tombstones and bright florals was so my vibe.

FYI – Chooch got that shirt last fall when he won dodgeball or something.

Honestly, I didn’t even know he was sick until halfway during our cemetery walk when was like, “Leave me alone, I’m sick” and I was like, “Wait, you are?” and he was like, “Hello, have you not seen me coughing this entire time??”

All the moms are momming.

Then there’s me.

Me taking dumb selfies and apparently ignoring the symphony of sickn emanating from my child.

Mwah. Chef’s kiss. This place probably looks impeccably macabre on a rainy day, too.

Maybe this is where we’ll take Chooch’s college graduation portraits?!

I love a cem with layers.

Like a cake.

But old and rotted.

I am really so deep in my feelings over this birthday. 19!! This whole past year has made me question life and time every single time. Who am I? What is my purpose now? Just lots of panic and sadness. And confusion.

You can take tours here but we didn’t have enough time. I do know that the Rittenhouse guy is buried here (there is a Rittenhouse building thing in Philly so that’s my only knowledge of him) and the broad who petitioned the government to recognize Thanksgiving as a federal holiday.

I learned this by watching “Philly cemetery” vids on YouTube, which is also how I found a news clip of a recent incident at a local Philly cem where the pallbearers FELL INTO THE BURIAL HOLE and there was a video of it happening which, OK THIS IS NOT TRULY FUNNY, but that sick and dark part of me started cracking up and I sent it to Corey and said, “I AM PICTURING JANNA FALLING INTO AN OPEN GRAVE NOW AND US MAKING HER DO IT OVER SO WE CAN RECORD IT” and he was like, “OMG YES!”

Quick, someone ask Janna to be a pallbearer!!

Chooch in the middle of criticizing / judging / mocking me. Normalcy!

And me in the process of making sure he’s being in an active participant in our MOMMY / SON photo sesh.

Donut bags.

None of us have seen this movie, but maybe you have so this could be interesting to you.

(Who are you?)

This is in the “Millionaires” section.

I Wiki’d this guy for you:

An English American industrialist who founded the Keystone Saw Works in 1840 and developed the surrounding Tacony neighborhood of Philadelphia to build housing for his workers. His company became the Disston Saw Works and was the top manufacturer of hand saws in the United States during the late 19th-century and early 20th century.

Boring.

SERIOUSLY, GO OFF QUEEN!!!

I feel bad that these are in the worst part, butted up against a chainlink fence along a busy road, but here’s some Rocky stuff for you. Chooch mumbled, “I guess I’ll take a picture too, ugh.” LOL.

After this, Chooch got to drive for the first time in Philly. He asked “an undisclosed friend” for some cafe recs and we ended up at Greek from Greece around the corner from his dorm. I got a butterfly pea latte and it was very refreshing! If we hadn’t had donuts, I’d have definitely gotten something from the dessert display there. They had orange pie! Next time. Next time.

I didn’t think so, but thank you, Mirror.

And that concludes another visit with Chooch!

WHO BTW JUST SENT ME THESE PICTURES AFTER I BEGGED HIM TO MAKE PICTURES OF JANNA FALLING INTO A GRAVE!!!!!

She looks so happy! “Wheeee!” Also, the way her torso and legs are facing opposite directions is sending me!

Philly is not exactly considered a “day trip” for most Pittsburghers, as it takes a good 4.5 – 5 hours by car. Yet somehow, we have done this approx. 5 times in the last 6 months. It is effing exhausting but worth it to get a few hours of quality time with Chooch. (If you ask him, he will likely drop the ‘quality’ and just call it ‘time’ haha, annoying parents.) Ideally, we would have liked to have spent the whole weekend there, but we are going away to Detroit this weekend and:

• $$$
• hate leaving Penelope overnight for two weekends in a row

So, a quick Saturday trip it was! The drive there was relatively uneventful. Sheetz stop for breakfast where I flipped out and cried, “EVERY TIME I TURN AROUND THERE ARE MEN IN MY WAY! MEN ARE EVERYWHERE I NEED TO BE!” and Henry was about to say “calm down,” I could tell. But he thought better of it and instead said, “What do you need, I’ll get it for you” – NICE TRY! This just made me even more angry and I shouted, “I CAN DO IT MYSELF!”

In case you were wondering, I needed coffee in a bigly way but there were MEN at the coffee area, stinking it up with waves of toxic masculinity, and then every time I turned a corner – MORE FUCKING MEN.

I really wanted to rip my skin off. Or theirs.

OK, theirs. LOL.

Then Waze was like, “Hi, here is a new way for you to try, apropos of nothing” and it ended up taking us through some park with lots of lollygagging drivers, but we finally arrived at Chooch’s dorm around 1:00!

I was so excited because ever since the first time we went to Drexel for a visit last April, I have been obsessed with this cute breakfast/lunch spot called SABRINA’S. I guess there are numerous locations around town but the one on Drexel’s campus is by far the most aesthetic because of the sweet ass Victorian house in which the millennial brunch classics are whipped up.

We had about a 20 minute wait so Chooch took us around the corner to some campus market thing that he goes to a lot, just a convenience store thing where he can use his Dragon dollars (OMG this just gave me a flashback to when I went to Pitt as a non-trad student and begged my mom to add cash to my Panther card so I could use it in the vending machines and she was like, “ha ha” but I was serious). Anyway, the older woman cashier was all, “HEY BABY!” to Chooch and then she chuckled and said, “I KNOW I’LL SEE YOU LATER” because he evidently is a REGULAR there and also, I am aware that the way I wrote this makes it sound like she is predatory but she was sincerely just a very jovial woman.

I loved how everywhere we went around campus, people knew Chooch. He’s branching out, you guys. I love that for him!

Then we were sitting outside of Sabrina’s waiting for our table and a group of old ladies walked past, but one stopped dead in her tracks and exclaimed, “OH I LOVE YOUR SHOES!” but it was DIRECTED AT CHOOCH, NOT ME. Chooch gets all the attention in Philly!!! I am just the shadow in the background there. It’s fine, I’m OK with that.

(Am I though? Currently plotting my outfit/accessories for our next visit. Must upstage him.)

THAT LOOK OF DISDAIN, DO YOU THINK HE MISSED ME?

I loved everything about Sabrina’s. It’s small and our table right in the flight path of the servers, but it still somehow felt cozy and delightful. Every staff member we interacted with was beyond friendly. And the menu is so veg/vegan friendly! I had the hardest time choosing what I wanted. I thought for sure it was going to be the banh mi because I had studied the menu online prior to our visit and even sent Chooch a screenshot of it.

“That looks good,” he replied, and I was shocked because it was one of those rare moments where he was acting like an adult and not a kid who is perpetually annoyed and embarrassed of his parent.

But then we got there and the actual menu seemed larger than the one online, so my options began to expand until I finally settled on the OG Vegan bowl with tofu, boy-o.

Henry got the Korean bowl (it came with chicken and didn’t have sub options like some of the other menu items so I didn’t want to be difficult by asking) and POLENTA FRIES, and Chooch got some kind of omelet. We were all content.

After lunch, we drove to Dottie’s Donuts – we went to a different location YEARS ago and I’m happy that they’re still around. I know none of us our vegan but when the options are there, I will take it so I always like to look for vegan spots when we’re on road trips. While we were at lunch, Dottie’s most recent post came up in my IG feed and it was a table-thumping moment for me.

“The special donut this weekend at Dottie’s is BAKLAVA.”

“I guess we’re going to Dottie’s,” Henry sighed as though he wasn’t secretly getting hot for donuts.

Dude, this fucker was bussin’. I was sad that once again I made poor choices and said I would share this with Henry. What an unbelievable life fail. We took our bounty to the Laurel Hill Cemetery (separate post to come!) and Henry is so lucky that I was feeling a modicum of love for him at the time because he immediately walked over to the office to use the bathroom, leaving me alone with this bad boy which I could have easily inhaled in three bites, but I somehow managed to stop myself at the halfway mark.

(This is also mostly because I have been feeling super down on myself re: old lady weight gain this past year, and actually much less to do with any spousal love haha.)

Anyway, we also got a Thai tea donut to share, and Chooch got two of his own – also a Thai tea and a vanilla frosted I think. Excellent, chewy donuts in a beautiful setting in perfect spring weather with my favorite people back together again.  I couldn’t have been happier.

Hi while I’m sitting here before bed in a “refreshing red bean pore mask” from Beauty of Joseon, I figured I’d post some pics of Henry and me at Homewood Cem from after lunch. It was such a beautiful day.

Also, I found this sweater in my closet a few weeks ago and was glad it was just chilly enough to get away with wearing it today. Honestly though my closet needs a professional to come in and shape it up.

The other parts of today were just super chill and nice. Read some of my book, watched an episode of Home Economics which started to auto-play after I watched the most recent ep of Abbott Elementary. I had no idea that this was on for three seasons I guess?! Literally never heard of it until Hulu was like “no don’t go.” Two eps in and I don’t know if I like it.

Also, this Canadian/Korean couple I love on YouTube posted a new video where the wife’s brother visited them in Korea for the first time she’s been living there (12 or 14 years I think?!) and I literally started crying really hard like I have any personal connection to this AT ALL and then that feeling carried over during our walk in the Cem so I cried there too and then also cried about Bambi so I’m doing well, lol. No seriously I think I am ok just, when it hits it hits, you know.

After dinner we walked to CVS to get Chooch some stuff for his Easter basket and on the way back, a super intoxicated man was shambling bigly on the other side of the street and I was just about to call 9/11 because he had stepped out really far into the street a few times and I already saw one maybe-dead person in the last 30 days, please let’s not add to it. But then he turned onto a side street that only has like 5 houses so I can only hope one was his.

(“U SHOULD HAVE FOLLOWED HIM AND MADE SURE HE GOT HOME SAFELY” someone is probably judging right now and ok fine I have no excuse other than I’m fucking tired of it.)

Then I made Henry do a Paul Eugene workout with me and we finished the night by watching YouTube videos of people going to NK for the first time in 5 years under the guise of running a marathon and that’s a nope for me. We all know where my allegiance lay.

On that note, I have a recap coming up soon about seeing my once-fave band for the first time in 15 years but my heart isn’t ready for that yet lol. Peace out, weekend warriors. :(

I splurged in December and bought myself this precious coat from Unlogical Poem (one of my favorite online clothing shops if you just know) but because I’m a loser, I have only worn it out of the house once but it was just to Corey’s house for Christmas Eve and I can promise you not a soul there commented on the rustic beauty of this coat’s design.

My hair looked ok today (my face, eh, that’s another story, thanks Saturday afternoon beer fest) so when Henry and I decided to go for a walk* I said, “OK don’t panic but I want to wear my chicken coat and you can take pictures of me.” Henry was not a fan of this plan but I recently made him watch a tutorial on how to get dad’s ok at taking pictures and he followed it to a T!

* (the temperature was deceptive!!! It was so much colder than 36 degrees, I was crying at one point but then feared my tears would freeze to my contacts so I reeled it in

We went to Calvary Cem which is usually lacking foot traffic but of-fucking-course everyone and their mail carrier was out and about. Even bicyclists. So annoying.

You guys though this coat is my everything.

And I think it looks cute with my pink Vans!

“Now take one of me pretending to be cold even though I’m not pretending.” Honestly my hands were pinker than my shoes by the time we got back to the car, it was so bad. And for some reason, for as many times as we come to this particular cemetery, we always end up on the path that takes us the farthest away from the car so the walk back was brutal.

At the time I bought this, it was the only one of the site and then it was immediately marked “sold out.” I know I have seen other pieces of clothing on their site using this fabric but I think this particular coat was OOAK which makes even special-er.

(I WONDER IF G-DRAGON WOULD LIKE THIS.)

But yeah, if there are two things to note about me it’s that I love having cool coats and immature purses (some purchased from the kids section of Target, no shame in my purse game).

We I needed to get the fuck out of the house – January is so suffocating. I can’t breathe. Cold. Gray. Wet. Ugh.

So we picked up some buns at Pink Box and then did a quick walking tour at the cemetery before the gates closed.

“TAKE PICTURES OF ME,” I demanded. “I HAVE NO BLOG CONTENT.” Seriously, what am I supposed to be recapping? Every day is the same. Work was annoying and stressful. I got mad about something. Made a shitty lunch. Drank too much coffee. Exercised. Ate soup. Watched k-content. Bed.

Snooze alert.

No commentary or captions other than: it’s us at the cemetery. The end.

Yo, what a nice weekend. Henry and I spent a nice amount of time outside, which is always GOOD FOR THE SOUL or whatever someone with a collection of Rae Dunn cups would say. Saturday was decent enough but it was hot off the heels of some pretty heavy raining, and we admittedly picked a dumb locale for a walk that afternoon – Schenley Park, which has sand-like trails so we were dodging puddles left and right. ANYWAY, I wouldn’t have included this in here at all except that as we were walking, we found car keys on the trail by the soccer field. Henry scooped them up, I guess because he figured it would be safer than leaving them on the ground and also because he thought they probably belonged to one of the joggers who had splattered past us in the mud.

Sure enough, some lady who was actually parked in front of us eventually started jogging over to us and panted, “You didn’t happen to see car—” and Henry held the key up for her to take.

“Oh my god!” she cried. “I said to myself, ‘I’m gonna ask these ppl over there’ and thank god I did!” and we were like, “<good natured lip service>” but really in my head I was like WOW MUST BE NICE TO LOSE SOMETHING AND THEN GET IT BACK.

So then I whined about my missing ring for pretty much the rest of our walk. Picked up Chooch from his game design class at Pitt, stopped at Grim Wizard for a chai but then ended up getting a Vlad the Impaler latte instead and it was OK but had a bit too much strong flavors swirling up in it.

Not too much else happened on Saturday. Oh, we went to Kohl’s which has become one of my least favorite places in the world but I needed to find a top to wear with a skirt I got for my not-wedding and it ended up OK but I just truly hate shopping, I think.

The weather on Sunday was much more beautiful than Saturday though and I was rearin’ to go. This time I chose Monongahela Cemetery because it’s been a few years since I was last there with Chooch the day we went out without a chaperone to geocache. 

We stopped at a Sheetz down the street first so I could pee and I found a pair of sunglasses hanging in the stall! SO I TURNED THEM IN TO SOMEONE AT THE CHECK-OUT.

WHY COULDN’T SOMEONE TURN MY RING IN??

(Ugh I honestly spent all weekend reliving that night.)

(Yeah-yeah that’s me, linking back to one post ago like a loser.)

Anway. Ugh. What a nice day.

Ew, you can see Henry BANDAID in this picture. He started to tell me what the cause of his injury was but it had something to do with a car seat of a truck and it fell on his arm and UGH I started screaming because I think I was picturing this to be way worse in my mind because Henry was doing a poor job explaining it so I had to fill in the gaps with my mental Play-Doh Factory of worst case scenarios.

Of course, we mainly talked about K<3REA.

AND THEN I

SAID THAT’S

THE ONE THING WE’VE GOT

(Hate that song, actually, so I’m thrilled for myself that it popped in my head just now.)

You guys! I couldn’t tell if this raccoon was dead or just sleeping!?! Henry said it was definitely sleeping but I couldn’t see that he was breathing and I was so freaked out.

That was a nice hour of sunshine and acting like morons.

Then we drove a few towns over to CHARLEROI and had lunch at some place called Perked Up cafe. The vibe of the place was decent – I mean, we were so far removed from ThE bIg CiTy that this wasn’t a magnet for Instagram Influedouchers.

I was sad though because I must have been looking at old menu and the AVOCADO TOMATO sandwich I was eyeballing wasn’t on the actual menu board there :( The cashier suggested just getting the avocado toast with tomato but I had it in my head that the retired sandwich was meant* to be actual slices of avocado and tomato on a sandwich, son. Not smashed avocado. :( So instead I got the spinach & artichoke on marbled rye and let me just tell you that the bread was the best part because the stuff between the slices was scant and lacked absolutely all flavor. And for $10!!!! Jesus Christ. I abhor making sandwiches but you better trust that even I would have made this better.

*(I had a friend who moved away from Pgh many many many years ago and she would always say “meant” instead of “supposed,” for example: “You were meant to turn there.” I would get angry and scoff, ”Stop talking like you’re British!” So, good job triggering yourself, Erin.)

I mean, I still ate it though because I was fucking hunggggy.

Henry kept raving about his cold brew and I was like, “Calm down, guy, it’s not that special.” For instance, I got a French Toast latte it tasted like neither French nor toast nor French toast. I didn’t hate it, and I somehow didn’t hate the place in general. But I was still fucking hunggggy when we left.

LOL you’re welcome.

Saturday afternoon was pretty mild for February so Henry and I went to Highwood Cemetery in Northside after my Zenith lunch with Kara. I really liked the sweater I was wearing (it’s from Lala!) so I was like, “Take pictures of me doing stuff and don’t fuck it up.” Henry said, “OH BOY, MAY I??” because nothing makes us fight with more fiery fervor than photo assignments.

This day wasn’t TOO bad, though.

I usually just direct myself.

“What should I do? This?” I ask, noodling my limbs.

“Sure, Erin,” Henry mumbles with a Science teacher sigh.

“Let’s take a picture of our mustaches,” I cried, grabbing my phone from him.

“Wha–” Henry never has any idea what is going on.

Guys, in case you were ever curious where Henry’s infamous TED TALK about MOSS took place, it was at this cemetery, so long ago that Chooch didn’t even exist yet.

Moss is bad, just leave it at that!

The filter I used on this makes it look like I have on some sick lipstick. Also: “What should I do with my hands? This?”

“Sure, Erin.”

Literally SO SCARED the moment I jumped from the third step. THE THIRD STEP. Loves roller coasters, yet constantly being afraid of the most non-heights imaginable. I know this stems from being abandoned in a treehouse as a child!!!!

Anyway, I over-compensated in anticipation of a hard landing and somehow hurt my shoulder?!

I feel like my hair was v. similar to this when I was a high school year, too. Well, minus the grays lol.

“I can only hope you fall,” Henry said, forever jealous of my SICK balancing tricks.

“Do I look precious??” I asked through my fake smile.

“Mmm,” Henry grunted, managing to pack in a family-sized carton of disgust into that half syllable. Then he lost his balance and almost face-planted from a squat position. I WISH HE WOULD HAVE.

(I may have played a part in him losing balance.)

Anyway, here’s a 20 second collection of some of these live pictures, where you can see me, in real time, realizing the moment I jumped off the steps that it could have been the fast track to a broken ankle, tweaked back, etc.

We had a really nice weekend together so when absolutely nothing happens on Valentine’s Day, I’ll try to let this be a consolation. (LOL you already know that’s untrue – THIS BITCH IS GONNA THROW A FIT.)