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.

Before I start: My journal pages for last Friday’s and Saturday’s back-to-back concerts make me so happy. I’m so glad that I started this!

Anyway. Last Saturday was the Armor for Sleep show at Preserving Underground. My love for AFS goes way back to my LiveJournal, pre-Chooch days. Sometimes I can’t believe it’s been that long and it makes me feel sick because I can’t think of this time in my life without thinking about Christina, who, if I haven’t mentioned, has ghosted me for the billionth time in our 20+ year “friendship” because they are married to some new broad that came out of nowhere conveniently after Christina and Katie broke off their engagement. I LOVED KATIE. I thought she was cute, funny, interesting – a real match for Christina who tends to date down. So, I was there for Christina during the breakup, then they met this new broad and VERY QUICKLY AND I DO MEAN QUICKLY, they perpetuate the lesbian “U-Haul” stereotype like you would not believe, they got engaged and that’s when suddenly Christina stopped calling and texting. So, that makes me feel amazing about myself to know that I am so easily discarded time and time again!!

But you know what, I’m not going to let go of these old bands that we loved together because fuck that. I knew it would make me emotional to see AFS but I wanted to go see them so Henry bought us tickets and fuck that dumb bitch, amirite.

Now that we got that out of the way (oh,  one more thing – #TeamKatie 100%, I wish I was still in contact with her but she blocked me after they broke up and I get it, she probably thought I was going to side with Christina but that’s a NO), we got to New Kensington a little too early last Saturday because Henry thought doors were at 6pm, so when we walked into the place, there was a small group of people lined up along the steps AND THEN BEN JORGENSON (AFS singer) walked over and I swear to god, we made eye contact and I almost died. But anyway, it turned out that this was the VIP meet and greet so that was awkward. We did the whole “whistle at the ceiling” thing while everyone followed Ben down the steps into the bowels of the church to do, I don’t, meetin’ and greetin’ line dances and whatever, and then we tried to play it off like we meant to do that by continuing up the steps into the record store portion of the venue.

You already know this part. I bought the horror movie record that Goblin scored and guess what I found out afterward? GOBLIN DIDN’T ACTUALLY WRITE THAT MUSIC FOR THAT MOVIE!!! It was something that they had already recorded and released and the….movie people….were like, “Yes, we will be stealing this for our nunsploitation flick, grazie*.”

*(Because it was an Italian movie, you see.)

Then we still had time to kill so we walked down the street to VooDoo to have a pre-show half-pour and the Norway-England game was on. WE WERE THERE WHEN NORWAY SCORED THE SECOND GOAL THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE GAME WINNER BUT FIFA IS CORRUPT AND STUPID. It was fun while it lasted though because the whole room erupted in cheers and everyone who had been sitting outside came running in. I was SO INVESTED. I get caught up in sports with my whole-ass heart and like the rest of the world, I was enamored with Erling Haaland. Yeah, I’m basic when it comes to these things and I’m not too proud to admit it either. Who wouldn’t love a GREEN FLAG VIKING. Honestly

We each got two 5 ounce beers. My first one was some brown ale which was annoying to me because I was rooting against England while sitting there drinking an old man English beer (it was so good though, I like brown ales!) and then I got the alcoholic version of Jackworth’s ginger beer which was just OK. Henry thought it was too strong and reacted super dramatically to it and I was like, “Calm down, pussy, go drink your little summer wheat ale you sissy bitch.”

God, Henry.

After about 30 minutes of squatting in Voodoo, we walked back to Preserving and doors were now open—yay! Fun fact, since I have spent the last 10 years primarily going to Kpop concerts, this was our FIRST TIME at this venue! I was aware of its existence, and had been to the record store portion of it, but since I was so out of the loop with bands of my old life, it wasn’t hard on my radar. I was excited that Armor for Sleep was playing here AND even better is that Preserving recently opened a second record shop down the street from us (actually, on the same street as the Hollywood Theater), and they sell FEE-FREE tickets to their shows there! So, on Henry’s own birthday last month, he walked there and bought us tickets to AFS and Royal Coda which is in a few weeks.

For as much as I love to slander him, Henry is actually pretty obedient sweet.

Chooch and I used to compete to see who could keep their wristbands on the longest and since we were always going to concerts AND amusement parks, we typically had at least one wristband rotting on our wrists at any given time. I was stoked to have accumulated two in one weekend, especially now that I have a journal to paste them into!

The show didn’t start until 7:30 so we were able to chill on a church pew and people-watch for a bit. I immediately imprinted on this venue. It was giving what Mr. Smalls THINKS it is. For as often as I went to Smalls, I never felt comfortable there, probably because it was always changing. We’re actually returning there next Friday for the first time since before the pandemic so I’m interested to see how terrible it is now because I heard it got even worse.

All of that is to say that I felt at home here immediately. Staff was great. Space was superb. Ambiance was immaculate. I was ready for a religious experience.

As soon as the first band was about to come on, I said SEE-YA to Henry and made my way to the stage. I always have it in the back of my mind that maybe I will go to a show and just sit and relax through the whole thing but then the music starts and I’m all, get me closer to the stage, lest I am consumed by FOMO.

Flycatcher was the opener and they were having some indeterminate issue/drama/crisis with one of the guitarists who was unable to make it so their merch guy / photographer was filling in on some songs after scrambling to learn them.  

Guy in the middle was the guitar sub—he did a great job!

And then they had Ben come out for one of the songs toward the end and I was screaming like I hadn’t just seen him in the hallway 2 hours prior to this. But honestly, BEN JORGENSON. Even when I got into Kpop, I still followed him on Insta.

Actually! We had tickets to see their 15-year anniversary tour for What To Do When You’re Dead but it was in….spring of 2020. So, that of course got canceled and was rescheduled for the next year—for some reason, we couldn’t make it to the rescheduled Pgh date though, so actually the last time I saw them was in 2015 at the Trocadero in Philly. That is a long-ass time ago even though it doesn’t feel like it! I saw them with this girl Terri who I was good friends with at the time and now she doesn’t talk to me anymore either so it’s either me or Armor For Sleep, who is the problem here?!

After this set, I went back to sit down to Henry. There was also a woman sitting there as well, so I had to squeeze in between them.  Her young teen son came over to check in with her and I asked if he wanted to take my seat. They both said no and thanked me though, and then he flitted back off to the crowd. The mom started chatting with me after this about how she takes her son to any concert he wants to go, even if she doesn’t like the bands, because music is so important, and last year the went to 30-some concerts in 7 different states. Relatable! I loved hearing this from another mom because I really truly believe that going to concerts is such an important part of life. I didn’t go to very many when I was in high school because I just wasn’t friends with anyone who went to shows. That is INSANE to think about now, looking back at my friend group because they were so concert-coded from the outside that you’d think they’d be at local punk and alt-rock shows every weekend. And then when I dated Psycho Mike, he never “let” me go to concerts with him. To THIS DAY I am so pissed that he saw motherfucking Radiohead at Metropol.

What I’m getting at is that I made sure Chooch had concert experiences. Now he does have friends that go to shows and anytime he sends me an ad for an upcoming concert, I sign up for the presale and get him the ticket. Or the vinyl. Or the band shirt. He knows that these are the three things I will never say no to.

So, it was really nice to hear these sentiments from another mom, but I did have to laugh because it was oftentimes Henry and Chooch sitting under a tree at Warped Tour or Bled Fest while I was in front of a stage somewhere getting sweat and spit on.

Oh. Spanish Love Songs. Holy shit. Speaking of Bled Fest, hearing this band put me right back in that headspace. This is my kind of band, you guys. I’m already waiting for them to come back because I NEED to see them again. Also, they slipped in a FUCK ICE lyric to one of their songs and WE LOVE A BAND THAT FIGHTS THE GOOD FIGHT. I love that these bands create such safe spaces while we’re all internally combusting along with the country.

Loved them!

Then it was Armor For Sleep, and I actually got Henry to stand with me! Well, he lasted for half and then took some giant steps back away from the stage and wallflower’d it for the rest of the set. But I didn’t care, no offense Henry, but he could have fully left and sat in the car and I wouldn’t have noticed because I was in another world. And that world was 2005.

Of course, I love all of their songs but the ones from the album What To Do When You’re Dead are the ones that really punch me in the gut. First of all, that was a concept album about death. It was also the album that Christina and I obsessed over together. But now, some of those songs, hearing them for the first time in years, made me think of Drew. And it didn’t help when Ben dedicated one of their songs to, “anyone who has recently lost a pet.”

Some might say that “2 years ago” is not “recent” but my heart has not healed yet, people. It is still gaping and raw. And I am still a mess 9 out of 10 times when I think about Drew. I can at least (mostly) look at pictures of her now without collapsing into choke-hazard sobs, but I am still not well.

Oh god, this song, my heart was in my throat:

I don’t know what else to say aside from that it felt so cathartic and also like absolute torture all at once. This band is so important to me, they were a big part of the soundtrack of a very shaky time in my life where I didn’t know who I was, what I wanted, where I belonged. It was also around the time I became a mom, so throw that into my basket of already crazy emotions.

FML.

Yes, it hurt hearing some of these songs again (Basement Ghost Singing had tears streaming down my face and my throat burning, thanks for the emotional support, Henry, wherever you were LOL) but I am so glad that we went. Like Cold, it’s kind of weird when you fall out of the loop with a band that you once loved so much and you feel kind of out of place at first, but then suddenly, you’re right back there again without even realizing it. That’s how it felt that night. Great crowd, great venue, and most of all, great bands.

I didn’t record much that night, but here’s some clips from Flycatcher (with Ben), Spanish Love Songs, and then Armor For Sleep:

I was in a haze for the rest of the weekend after this, in a good way though. And it helped that I had therapy that week because my therapist also likes Armor For Sleep so it was nice to be able to talk about the night and my feelings with someone who knew what I was talking about.

There was a part of me that almost told Henry to forget it when he went to buy the tickets because I was admittedly scared of seeing them again. But I’m glad that I did it. I’m glad I went and got to not only confront that stupid part of my past (a person who doesn’t even deserve a single thought from me yet here I am letting them get to me) and most importantly I’m happy that I got to support a band that was once such a big part of my life by showing up for them and buying merch.

Go to the shows! Support the bands you love. As I get older, I realize more and more what limited time we have, so don’t do the whole, “I’ll go see them next time” or “I already saw them once, I’m good” excuse because you’d rather just stay home. I GET THAT! Sometimes I’m like, “Should I just blow this off” but then I go and I’m always glad I did.  Aging really has me so hyper-aware of everything these days. And I am SCRAMBLING.

Anyway, the set list wasn’t posted for Pittsburgh, but it seems like it didn’t vary between cities and this looks accurate to me:

• Dream to Make Believe
• Remember to Feel Real
• The Outer Ring
• My Town
• Stay on the Ground
• In this Nightmare Together
• Chemicals
• Slip Like Space
• Williamsburg
• Hold the Door
• In Another Dream
• Awkward Last Words
• Basement Ghost Singing
• Being Your Walls
• The More You Talk, The Less I Hear
• The Truth About Heaven
• Car Underwater

And on that note, I urge anyone reading this to PLEASE listen to the album What To Do When You Are Dead non-shuffled. It is actually such a perfect album in my opinion. A masterpiece.

The other day, the rumor that Fun Spot America is closing was confirmed as true. I have been quietly sitting with my feelings on this one. We had such a fun time visiting this place three summers ago to ride ArieForce One and I am so worried about what will happen to this coaster now. Please please please let someone buy it and relocate it — this coaster is too majestic, too elite, TOO YOUNG to be scrapped.

We were just out with our friends Jess and Shawn and I was telling them about this because their nephew has recently gotten into coasters. I was like, “TELL HIS PARENTS THAT THEY NEED TO GET HIM HERE BEFORE AUGUST 3RD!!” I realized while talking about it that I had a lump in my throat. I think I’m starting to really comprehend that it’s not fully about the roller coasters, it’s about the fact that this has been something that me, Henry and Chooch have bonded over for the last 10+ years. We have had so much fun and made so many memories traveling the world for coaster credits and this one coaster was so highly ranked by all of us.

Ugh. Sometimes I wish I wasn’t so emotionally connected to every little fucking thing!

Anyway, I’m bringing this old blog post back in honor of FunSpot and ArieForce One. If you’ve ridden it, you get it.

July 2023

I know sometimes it sounds like my brilliant ideas are born from late nights rolling in a kiddy pool of cocaine, but I swear to BETTY FUCKING WHITE that my “It’s so easy” plan of driving a billion miles from Pgh to Atlanta to ride one goddamn rollercoaster actually ended up being something that was enjoyed in equal parts by ALL.

(OK, maybe more like 50% me, 25% each to Henry and Chooch – they don’t get excited about shit.)

By now, you know (and still don’t care) that my favorite roller coaster manufacturer is ROCKY MOUNTAIN CONSTRUCTION (RMC). When it was announced that they were building a brand new ground-up coaster (they are mostly renown for taking already-standing wooden coasters and making them insane feats of engineering) at this tiny family entertainment center outside of Atlanta called Fun Spot America, the coaster community went wild with confusion, speculation, and of course excitement falling in clumps out of cargo-pockets.

In America, RMCs generally only go to the big name parks, the Cedar Fairs, the Six Flags. This particular Fun Spot (there are two others in Florida) is essentially an arcade with some go-kart tracks and flat rides in an old, repurposed parking lot. The only coasters they already had was a janky jumble of track called Hurricane (the kind of coaster you’d expect to see in a traveling parking lot carnival, actually) and a standard kiddy coaster.

And now, a fucking beast of an RMC called ArieForce One, which just opened last March. I know we’re going on this big trip in a month, but I was like, “HENRY WE HAVE TO RIDE THIS THING BEFORE THE TRIP BECAUSE ALL THOSE THOOSIES ARE GOING TO TALK ABOUT IT AND I WANT TO BE IN THE KNOW!!!” Henry tried to talk me out of it, but in the end, I won.

Oh, and “Arie” is not a typo. It’s an homage to the surname of the family that bought this park several years ago, Arie. LEGEND HAS IT (it’s not a legend, it’s right there on FunSpot’s website), the patriarch of the Arie family was/is very into airplanes or whatever. Love it or hate it, RMC built a BEAUTIFUL ride to go along with the theme of flight and when you see this bad boy looming along the side of the road before the full park comes into view, how do you NOT gasp?? I mean, I imagine even if I wasn’t an enthusiast, if I knew NOTHING about this hunk of red and blue track, I would at least be inspired to look up WTF it was and probably start nagging Henry to pull over so we could ride it.

Obviously, we went straight to ArieForce One upon arrival. IT WAS A STATION WAIT. Actually, it could have been a walk-on if we weren’t trying to get either the front or back row, and even then, we barely had to wait because they were running two trains and we were next!

AHHHH!!!!

Chooch was like, “Oh boy, here we go with the station selfies. I am so excited. Yay me.” I ended up ditching Chooch and running up to the front to ride with Henry because otherwise, we’d have had to wait more cycle. So Chooch ended up riding with the single rider / enthusiast that was in front of us in the backrow.

Dude. I don’t know what to say other than IS THIS MY NEW FAVORITE RMC?!?! Holy shit, the things this coaster does seems illegal, honestly. There is this one part where you do a zero G roll / barrel roll over the arcade and it nearly gave me whiplash every time. It was my favorite moment but holy shit, the way you twirl between the structures, talk about head/limbs/everything chopper. Hoo boy!

DO YOU SEE HOW EMPTY THIS TRAIN IS?? It was like this all night! Walking onto an RMC is unheard of at any other park. I mean, for Christ’s sake, we’re lucky if we can get ONE RIDE on Steel Vengeance every time we go to Cedar Point because the line is usually consistently at 90+ minutes. (When it’s not breaking down.)

But on this day, it was us, maybe about 5 or 6 thoosies, and a handful of GP who caught on to the sheer majesty of this ride and knew that it was worth the multiple re-rides. The ride attendants were so great too!! The one guy asked us at one point how many rides we had gotten in so far and I honestly had lost count. I mean, we would ride 3-4x in a row, walk around and do some other things, and then go right back.

I will say that this coaster is tough to marathon though because the very ending has a quadruple double-down that is VIOLENT. And then it just slams you into the breakrun. Parts of my thighs had red marks on them from the sheer force of the restraints crushing into me every single time we reached that element. VERY EXTREME. I think this could be a one and done for the casual rider. You have to be a psycho to beg the attendants to let you stay on when you come back to the station and see no one is waiting for the row you’re sitting in. They allowed it every time!!

We got really lucky too because the weather forecast was calling for storms all evening. And actually, after we had gotten in our first two rides (front and back –  I think I actually preferred the front because it hurt less, lol), we had pissed around a but, checked out the arcade, rode some other rides, when we overheard the ride attendant for the janky coaster, Hurricane, get a call that said some of the rides needed to stop operations because lightning was spotted.

I was literally screaming, “Nooooooo!!!” thinking that we were only going to get those 2 rides on Arie, and were probably going to have to leave the park altogether if it started storming. This was only about an hour after we arrived too! I was big sad.

But then I was like, “Well, let’s just walk toward Arie just in case, you never know,” and right as we were walking that way, we passed someone who looked like he was In Charge as he was telling another park employee, “All clear of lightning” so then I was like “LET’S GOOOOOOOOOOO!!” and yep, just as we ran up the steps to the Arie station, they were just about to start sending trains again!

On one of our many rides, Chooch told me, “As we go over the hill, don’t look down, just look straight ahead. It makes it better,” and I thought this was just some dumb thing he had made up to see if I’d fall for it, but I did it and it made the butterfly sensation amplified by a lot, which made me crack up uncontrollably and then spit all over myself. So, then I was laughing even harder, which resulted in me being in tears by the time we careened into the brake run.

At one point, Henry and Chooch wanted to ride go-karts and I said, “OK, I guess I will just go walk around while you’re doing that” and walk around is exactly what I did – straight to ArieForce One!! I rode in the back by myself and one of the loner thoosies was in front of me, so we started talking on the brake run (ops were kind of slow so every time a train came back, it would idle on the brake run for a few minutes while the train in the station was loading). He was really cool but I’m not used to talking to people who actually care about this stuff so WORDS WERE JUST SOMERSAULTING out of my mouth at a pace which made me gasp for breath like an asthmatic. Honestly, I need to come up with a way to tap out of conversations, like putting a paper grocery bag over my head, askin a bee to sting my tongue, or just you know, saying, “Excuse me bye” and walking away.

As it was, we somehow ended up walking out of the station together, super awkwardly, and when he asked what my favorite park is, I BLANKED AND THEN SAID CEDAR POINT??? Cedar Point is NOT my favorite park!??! I feel like if I hadn’t been short-circuiting, I probably would have said Universal / Islands of Adventure or Busch Gardens Williamsburg?!?! And then I was telling him that Kennywood is my homepark and he said he had never heard of it so I was like, “Yeah, you should go sometime and ride Phantoms Revenge, it’s amazing” and he goes, “Who is the manufacturer?” and this is the part that you won’t care about if you don’t like coasters, but I was now in the position where I said to say, “Arrow….and then it was reworked by Morgan” and I could hear myself saying these words while watching the look of skepticism befall his face.

“Oh, OK,” he said.

“Yeah….you should look it up. Well, enjoy the rest of your night!” and then it’s a wonder I didn’t trip and fall into a garbage can in my haste to exit this conversation.

(Arrow is notorious in the coaster community for making pretty shitty, rough coasters and is now defunct. And Morgan is just whatever. So to try and sell the merits of a coaster manufactured by these two companies is pretty insane, but Phantom’s Revenge is the exception, ISTG. LOOK IT UP – COASTER ENTHUSIASTS COME TO KENNYWOOD FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD TO RIDE IT. IT’S CONSIDERED AN ELITE COASTER AND MOST THOOSIES HAVE IT IN THEIR TOP 25-50 LISTS. SO THERE.)

The night rides on this were masterful. CHEF’S KISS, BITCHES.

That ride attendant there in the front was my favorite!!! He never stapled us, he let us pull down the restraints ourselves and then only (GENTLY) pushed until the light on the screen turned green. Bless your heart, sir.

CAUGHT A CHOOCH SMILE. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT.

I love that you can see the ferris wheel from the back of the station!

That other ride attendant over there on the other side of the track is the one who kept permitting us to stay on for re-rides. I loved everyone associated with this ride, you guys. It was an EXCEPTIONAL experience.

Family selfie that only I will forever cherish!

Anyway, I will do a full FunSpot recap another time, but we all were in agreement that as usual, I have the best ideas and that this was 100% worth the 11 hour drive.

I think this was Chooch’s and my 11th RMC, and Henry’s 10th?

1. Lightning Rod
2. Storm Chaser
3. Steel Vengeance
4. Twister Timber
5. Outlaw Run (the one Henry doesn’t have because his back hurt, but we still made him drive us to Missouri lol)
6. Wicked Cyclone
7. Twisted Cyclone
8. Iron Gwazi (ugh this one MIGHT still be my fave??)
9. Goliath
10. Jersey Devil
11. ArieForce One

There are two more that we will potentially add to this list this year: Wildfire in Sweden next month, and hopefully at some point before the end of the year, I’d like to make it back out to Hershey to ride the brand new Wildcat’s Revenge but we’ll see how destitute we are upon return from this August trip hahaha ugh.

Present Day Erin here with an updated RMC list!

1. Lightning Rod
2. Storm Chaser
3. Steel Vengeance
4. Twister Timber
5. Outlaw Run (Henry now has this credit since we went back to Silver Dollar City last summer)
6. Wicked Cyclone
7. Twisted Cyclone
8. Iron Gwazi (ugh this one MIGHT still be my fave??)
9. Goliath
10. Jersey Devil
11. ArieForce One
12. Wildfire
13. Wildcat’s Revenge (Chooch’s fave)
14. Fire Runner

Bro when I say that I feel like a brand new person straight out of an isolation chamber ever since I got BIGBANG tickets….I mean, it’s really pathetic that concert-goers need to feel this level of anxiety when a band they love (especially if it’s Kpop) announces a tour. It just shouldn’t be like this, we have enough stress on a daily basis thanks to this fucking orange rapist and his gang of degenerates putting us in the crosshairs and obliterating basic human rights, let us at the very least have a normal, non-panic-inducing experience when purchasing tickets to a concert that we deserve to attend in order to restore our sanity and give us a small moment of joy before we head back into the reality of this corrupt world.

YOU KNOW WHAT I’M SAYING?

Here are some more little moments of joy that I have curated over the last week or so.

For the last year or so, I’ve used this photo app called Minutiae where you get a notification at a different time each day and you only have 5 seconds to open the app and snap a picture of what’s in front of you. Most of the time, I miss the notification. Most of the times when I DON’T miss it, I’m sitting at my work desk so my pictures are always of my house, depending on how fast I swivel to capture a new corner, lol. It happened when I was at DGD last week so I was really excited to have a picture that illustrated me actually having a life outside of the house.

ANYWAY!! While Chooch was home last week, I got a notification right as he walked out the front door to go see his friends. I screamed CHOOCH WAIT and took this through the screen door, lol.

Also, if you read my Waldameer post, the lady who was forcing her kid to ride Chaos WAS WEARING THIS SAME SHIRT which inspired Chooch to wear his the next day. I can’t believe he still wears it. He got it in some dorky gamer subscription box years ago, I think!?

Earlier that day, I made Chooch go for a walk around Brookline with me because I was bored. Here are some pictures I took with my Charmera, much to Chooch’s chagrin:

Lemonade we bought from two siblings on the corner of our street (I don’t know where they came from). The brother was the one we made the transaction with and there was not a lick of enthusiasm to be found on him.

It was $1 each so Chooch slid him a dollar bill and 4 quarters (we had to go back into the house to get cash when we saw the stand right at the start of our walk, and the two kids stood shoulder to shoulder, holding their lemonade sign, glowering at us like the Shining twins as we walked back down the sidewalk to get the money, it was scary).

“I don’t have change,” the kid said dourly, scooping out the lemonade with a ladle.

“Uh…that’s OK we don’t need it,” Chooch said, like BOY DO BETTER AT MATH CLASS. Sheesh.

“Do you want ice?” he asked in a monotone.

We did not.

The lemonade was actually pretty bad but we still sipped on it as we walked away. “That was an interesting serving technique,” Chooch laughed and I mean, really! It took him forever to scoop two small cups’ worth of liquid out of the pitcher.

I couldn’t believe how many people were actually PULLING OVER to support this local business. I’ll tell you why – BECAUSE THEY WERE WHITE KIDS.

The Teen Center’s lemonade was so much better (and the operation was diverse!).

This also made me think about how shocking it is in hindsight that Chooch never got into the lemonade slinging trade, but that’s probably because he was too busy diabolically banning people on the Minecraft servers he was in charge of.

The Moonlite Cafe redid its facade and it’s super cute. I have lived in Brookline since 1999 (!!!) and somehow have only eaten here twice and have no recollection of liking it or not.

Back on our block, the kids were still doing the lemonade thing. “Hi again,” the boy said to us like we were regulars.

I haven’t mentioned this much because the process has been so slow since we haven’t been home much for Henry to work on it, but we’ve reached the “accoutrements” portion of the record player buffet that we’ve (“we” lol) been refurbing. It’s exactly the same style cabinet as the one we clownified for the living room, but this one is purple and green. The doors will (hopefully) be a mosaic made from CD shards, with halved toy dinosaurs attached. The sides, which is what we’re currently working on, will be made from old cassettes and 8-tracks. (The theme here is prehistoric media, if you haven’t noticed.)

I’ve had these 8-tracks in a box in the basement for over 20 years. Freaking JOE gave them to me back when I worked at Weiss’s. I don’t even know why I took them, I did not have an 8-track player nor did I have any intention of purchasing one on eBay in order to listen to Lawrence Welk and Elvis albums. But, because Henry tends to just push things into the dark recesses of the basement, he found them a few weeks ago when he was looking for something else, and said, “Hey, can you think of anything to use those old 8-tracks for?” Well, it turns out, just using the cassettes won’t work, dimension-wise, but alternating between cassettes AND 8-tracks makes for a better fit on the sides of the cabinet!

So, here is a picture of Henry cleaning them the other night while we watched FROM.

Also, it’s super annoying because they wrote “WEISS” on a bunch of them like a mom tagging her kids’ underroos, so some of them can’t be used. (Sorry, it’s already bad enough that I have tangible evidence of this family’s existence in my house, I don’t need to see their names as well — this cabinet is already going to be haunted since we’re using these!)

Here’s the journal page from Father’s Day in Philly. Henry was not pleased with my depiction of him (mostly because I was using a picture of him as reference and he was insulted that I can’t draw him from memory, like bro calm down, I can barely draw a stick figure from memory anymore).

I fucking love my journal so much!!

All of these things have been keeping me afloat lately. Once I finally admitted that my life needed to shift, even if just the slightest, everything sort of fell into place and every day gets a little better. It’s not perfect, I still have sad days (ok, sad moments every day), I am still stressed, I’m still worried about Penelope constantly, I still have panic attacks reading the news. But these little things are my liferaft!

(+ HOLY SHIT I’M GOING TO SEE BIGBANG, BREATHE ERIN.)

I haven’t seen Dance Gavin Dance in A MINUTE. Probably not since before the pandemic, if I’m remembering correctly without looking it up on the blog because I’m too lazy. I was still keeping up with them on the periphery, enough to know that Tilian was kicked out for SA accusations, allowed back in when the accusations were allegedly disproved. I always default to siding with the accuser/victim and this one was extra weird so I thought it was kind of strange when everything was “cleared” and swept under the rug.  Anyway, then he left (whether on his own or by force, I don’t know) again in 2024.

Tilian had actually become their most stable singer, lasting longer than Jonny and Kurt’s years combined. (Probably—I’m just doing that amazing blog-journalist thing I do where I’m making sweeping speculations without bothering to research but as someone who has been a fan of DGD since 2007, this seems like it’s plausible.) I remember when Tilian replaced Jonny (after his second reign as DGD vocal king)–fans were skeptical at best. I knew Tilian from Tides of Man so I was happy about the decision and he quickly won me over. In fact, even though Downtown Battle Mountain with Jonny Craig remains my favorite DGD album, Tilian actually became my favorite frontman.

The new singer is Andrew Wells, formerly of Eidola, but he had already been in DGD for 10+ years, even the last time I saw them live, he was there as the touring guitarist. So, it makes sense that DGD would be like, “OK Andrew, you’re up” rather than going through the process of bringing in a new singer from the outside again.

I listened to some of the newer stuff with him doing vocals and actually kind of thought he SORT OF sounds similar to Tilian. It’s not a jarring change. And when I saw that they’re currently touring with a Pittsburgh stop, I felt inspired to get tickets. I mean, I have seen them with every singer up until now so I have to keep the streak going, right?

Henry in the merch line, lol

Show was at Stage AE. I haven’t been there in a long time and it felt completely foreign to me. Chooch dropped us off and door hadn’t opened yet so we had to stand in a long-ish line that had snaked around the building. People-watching was interesting—a mix of old and young fans. It kind of felt like standing in line for Warped Tour again so that felt nice, but there was also something making me feel awkward, like I was a n00b. I guess I have just been away from the scene a long time at this point.

Meanwhile, I knew the answers to questions that were being asked in two different conversations around me and had to step on my toes to keep from being a Mrs. Buttinski, Paging Mrs. Buttinski.

Anyway, the guy right behind me was SNORFLING BIGLY and I was so anguished by this, like how was this happening to me at two back-to-back events?! Luckily, once we got inside, we were nowhere near him again.

Let’s go through the rest bulletpoint-style because I’m going to get too wordy/weird/emotional and no one has time for that.

• I was standing at the railing on the main level above the pit. I’ve been to enough DGD shows to not need to do barricade or risk getting elbowed in the head
• The two women next to me were…OK. The one didn’t speak to me even once but her friend was relatively cool. It was almost the perfect spot until some broad arrived with her idiot bitch 6-year-old. Apparently it was his bday and DGD is his favorite band, so she asked the other two women if he could slide in next to them and get a spot at the railing. I was NOT going to let this bump me from my spot, so now I had to stand sideways in the corner of the railed area. It was really uncomfortable and then MOM wanted to chat with the women the whole time and as soon as they all started talking about how much they love Falling In Reverse, I knew all I needed to know.

• The opening band was Novelists from France. HOLY. SHIT. Yes to this. Yes to the dress. Yes to all of it. Camille is a breath of fresh air! Beautiful vocals and then seamlessly dips right into monstrous growling. I loved it. New fan alert.

• Wolf and Bear was next. I liked them a lot too! I did know who they were prior to this though. Women next to me chatted liberally (have a feeling they’re not liberals though) through the whole set.
• After this, Henry went to check out the food sitch and was gone for an eternity. I kept looking back for him like A WEAK WOMAN LOST W/O HER MAN (j/k I was just getting pissed because he claimed he was going to get a pretzel and I wanted some), Anyway, then I noticed that he was talking to Mychael from Sugarspell Scoops! I had to laugh because it’s been about a year since the last time we ran into Mychael at a show (the Anthony Green / Kurt Travis / Geoff Rickley show at Jergel’s last summer). He gave Henry the scoop (OH, A PUN) related to the future of Sugarspell (it’s looking bright!) and then told him that he has actually never seen DGD but was there because he booked the next band’s (Horse the Band) first show in Pgh 20 years ago! It was a house show in Castle Shannon. Then he invited Henry (hopefully me too but people usually only remember Henry’s existence and not mine) to a show he and one of his bands are doing next week at the Shred Shed. I asked Henry if he said we’d go and he said he didn’t commit to anything but I would totally go.
• Then Henry came back with a DGD poster :) I also got TWO shirts because I’m spoiled.

• Horse the Band was crazy and I loved it. They have a hype man in booty shorts who plays the triangle and does the actual most with what God has given him. That man was in the crowd almost constantly!  He ran past us twice but I missed him on video both times—he was just too fast.

• And then DGD. Sigh. Thoughts:
  • I wasn’t AS emotional as expected but I did get choked up with they did some DBM throwbacks and at one point I turned to Henry for emotional support and he was nowhere to be found. He told me later that he was leaning against a wall and “wasn’t that far” from me OK GREAT but the point is that he wasn’t where I needed him to be!??!?!
  • I still love Jon Mess with my whole fucking heart.
  • Matt Mingus is still one of the most underrated drummers in the world.
  • Will Swan <3
  • Andrew is…good. He can perform the old stuff well. But, something was missing. Charisma? He kind of felt game show host-y to me?  Is this a sign that my DGD days are over?
  • There was some short bitch behind me with the most blood-curdling scream and look, I HAVE BEEN TO MANY KPOP SHOWS. This bitch gave some of those vocal cords a run for their money. I wanted to hit her—literally kept visualizing it in my mind.
  • I have actually never had a bad experience with fans at DGD shows before but something about that night was off-putting to me. Between feeling like it was a brand new scene, like I got left behind, and the unfamiliarity of Andrew Wells on vocals, I just felt WEIRD. I was actually like 0.O when they came back out for encore and said they had 3 more songs because I kind of….just wanted it to be over. Do you know how nuts it is for me to say that? ME?? STRAWBERRY GIRL?! It’s interesting, because I was out of the loop for Cold even longer and yet, I don’t feel like this with that band, those fans. It kind of feels like it’s still 2001, in the very best way. I guess things change and you either adapt or move on. Sigh.

Ugh, this was one of my favorite songs of 2008, but with Kurt Travis and Nic Newsham* singing it, obviously.

*(Gatsby’s American Dream reunited and ofc aren’t coming to Pgh.)

• OMG Camille came out to sing Inspire the Liars and killed it. That’s one of my absolute favorite DGD songs. LET’S START A RELIGION.

I love that Henry immediately frames my posters when he get home from concerts.

So yeah, that was my first time seeing DGD in at least 7 years. I feel so strange. Obviously it always conjures recessive Christina sadness too since she was the only friend I had who loved DGD with me and I associate so much Jonny Craig stuff with her dumb ass. I hate that I let this get to me.

I was opening up to Chooch about this in the car on the drive home from Waldameer last night, how I had talked to my therapist about the weird combination of emotions I felt while watching DGD, like one part of me was the gatekeeper, looking around and wondering, “Yeah, but were these people at the 2008 show at Mr. Smalls?” (NOT EVEN THEIR FIRST SHOW, FYI!! Just the first one I ever went to in Pgh, so STFU Erin). Meanwhile, another part of me felt like I didn’t belong there anymore, like I was a poser. Of course, my therapist was like, “No, you’re not a poser! If anything, you have been a fan longer than most of the people there, most likely!”

Meanwhile, my blunt, “supportive” son goes, “Well yeah, you can’t just, like, come back in like that after being away for so long.”

WOW.

THANKS FOR ALWAYS REAFFIRMING MY FEELINGS OF INADEQUACY, DEAR SON.

Made it to Thursday and I have tomorrow off so I’m in a super chill mood today! Even though it started with the hot water not turning off in the kitchen sink and Henry having to come home from work at 7:30AM to fix it, but you’ll have that when you’re renting a shanty in Brookline, I guess.

Before I get into anything else that’s on my mind, the Riot Fest lineup was released today and because I’m a cat that wishes to be killed I guess, I went and peeked. I had every intention of being like, “Cool story but I’m good.” I mean, we’ll be seeing PTV the next weekend here in PGH so there’s that. But I called Henry anyway because I got excited when I saw Sugar and Public Image Ltd. I even prefaced the call with, “Now I’m not saying I want to go to Riot Fest, but…” and then I read him the list of bands I was interested in, which happened to double upon second glance.

A third scrutinization has me 99.9% sold and adding tickets to the cart “just to see.”

What’s crazy is that before I even said I wanted to go, Henry was already acting like it was possibly in the cards and keeps saying, “We’ll talk when I get home.”

So, I guess I’m in the “negotiations” stage of Riot Fest planning. That was a whirlwind! From “not interested, but” to “I mean yeah, I do kind of want to” in 10 minutes.

(Also LOL @ Daisy Grenade—I can’t escape them! But that’s fine because I don’t want to!)

What else! Oh yeah, I never fully talked about our day on Monday because of the suicide on my street. But we did have a decent afternoon doing some antiquing after the god awful Memorial Day parade that slithers past our house every year, upsetting all of the animals and leaving trash and horse poop on the street. Thanks for that, parade organizers!!! Here’s Henry, “Oh, they’ll send someone back to clean that up.” LOL OK in what world? Because the shit remained in huge clumps all day, getting ground more and more into the asphalt as each car cruised over it, and then eventually sluicing away in a shit stream after it eventually rained.

Both antique shops were in Ambridge. The first one was mid and I felt that it had unreasonable prices.

I snapped this picture with my baby Kodak because I am getting into journaling again, but real journaling, and wanted to start adding sketches. So I used this one for my Memorial Day page! I’m still in the beginning “work with what you’ve got” phase a/k/a I have limited supplies and am just kind of scribbling to shake the rust off the creative side of my brain that has become stale and moldy from unuse over this last decade. Very low stakes! Here’s how it turned out, I spent approx. 10 minutes on this because I don’t have the time to be churning out “masterpieces” these days lol:

Bro I legit thought I spelled antiquing wrong and that would be the only thing that would bother me, to be honest!

There’s a vintage Hoover in there somewhere.

I didn’t buy anything from this place BUT there was a shelf of laserdiscs all the way in the back and I was excited because Amadeus was one. But then it got me thinking: Why have I never looked into laserdiscs as a collector item for my favorite movies?? So I went to eBay and not only did I find one for The Lost Boys, but I FOUND A JAPANESE IMPORT! The cover was so cool so I BOUGHT IT.

The second antique place was more my style – multiple rooms that were loosely themed, and the guy running the place was SUPER CHATTY and offered his shoppers popcorn and candy. OK, pal, I’ll stay! Say less!

I ended up buying a tin noise maker with clown faces on it (you know the things, they’re a dime a dozen at antique shops) and this folk art crucifix which is now hanging in the bathroom:

On the way home, we stopped at Rockin’ Cat Cafe for matcha, which Henry said they didn’t have (how did he know??) but they had a huge sign out front that literally said WE HAVE MATCHA or something. God he’s so annoying sometimes.

Just weird to think that while we were doing this, all the drama up the street was either about to unfold or already unfolding. Still feel sick over that!

Back to journaling though, I even got out one of my old vacation journals because I found a cup sleeve from the Ryan Cafe in Korea and I recently figured out that I can glue those in such a way to my journal pages that they become pockets! I’m sure there are millions of tutorials out there for that but I swear to god this is something that just occured to me when I found a cup sleeve I was keeping from one of our last trips to Philly and was about to paste into on a page when I thought: WAIT! JUST DO THREE EDGES AND THEN STICK THINGS IN THERE! This is in the back of my “everyday” journal:

Thank god I never throw things like this away, I’m such a sentimental pack rat!

I did, however, get inspo from a YouTube video recently where someone used a postcard as a page insert in her travel journal and I wanted to try it because this is GENIUS. I always end up with extra postcards because I forget that I don’t have a lot of friends to send them too (lol, #sadsackentersthechat).

In my old vacation journal, I had a postcard from Busan that I never ended up sending, so I taped it into the front to act as a page, and then printed out some pictures of us from Gamcheon Culture Village on the blank side. Then I sent it to Chooch because I have to giddily share all of my “journaling era” updates with him, like he gives even a shred of a shit. He did say “That’s cool” though, and then “Peenlop jump scare” so at least I know he watched the whole 8 seconds.

I usually don’t bring my vacation journal with me when we do small road trips but now I’m really stoked to bring it on the short, 3-day trip we’re doing over my birthday weekend (WITH CHOOCH) and he was like, “Great, can’t wait.” I even have a little carrying case for all of my journaling tools and accessories, LOL. I am definitely more focused on the actual writing portion of journaling though so this will be a fun exercise for me to maybe rely less on words and more on sketches and ephemera (tickets stubs, etc) that I accumulate. I was already doing that in my haunted house journals and my last two vacation journals but it was contained more to the front and back filler pages and less woven into the narrative, if that makes sense?

For example:

I’m just happy to have something to be excited about again!

What else….we finally started watching the show “From” after several friends hyped it to us. Will probs finish the first season tonight – I like it so far!

Meanwhile, I am still obsessing over “Obsession” and am dying for someone other than Henry and Chooch  to watch it so I can talk about it. I think I ruined Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie for Chooch because I became so hyper-fixated on it and texted him to death over it so I am trying not to also ruin Obsession for him because he is super stoked on it still. I just cannot stress how masterful this fucking movie was. I know horror movies tend to get shafted when it comes to awards because god forbid the horror genre is “lesser than,” but this film needs its damn flowers. If Amy Madigan was able to collect trophies for “Weapons” (liked that movie and she was cool in it but….huh? I was genuinely confused) then Inde Navarrette better be MORE than just nominated.

OK, I think I have successfully emptied my brain of all that it needed to transmit onto her. Ciao for now you juicy little steamed bao!

(I ALWAYS SAY THIS BUT SHOULD THAT BE MY SIGNATURE SIGN OFF???)

Mono no aware (物の哀れ) is a Japanese phrase that loosely translates to “a sense of nostalgic wistfulness and the awareness that nothing lasts forever.” This is also the motto of the synthwave band The Midnight and it perfectly explains how I feel when listening to them and this whole genre of music.

I was trying to remember how this new generation of synth found me, and I think it was over the summer of 2020 when we were in the midst of Project 1980s Dream Kitchen. We were constantly soundtracked by 80s music that summer for inspo, primarily YACHT ROCK. I think YouTube picked up on that algorithm and started to slip in some “retrowave” playlists into the mix. I had no idea there was this new evolution of synthpop / synthwave / futurewave / retrowave /whatever wave as long as it’s backed by synth going on! I was hooked. It became something that comforted me during the pandemic and continued to provide happiness even afterward while I adjusted to the new norm of working from home.

I am constantly nostalgic for the 80s, I loved my childhood, I loved being with my Pappap, at his house, swimming in the pool, eating grilled cheese in the kitchen or at the Blue Flame. I loved going on errands with my mom in her old Pontiac Grand Am, Rick Astley or Michael Jackson on the radio, her yelling at me for spilling McD’s sweet and sour sauce on the car seat. LOL. The 80s were the best. And this music touches on that sweet spot in a way that I cannot get enough of! Get me an abandoned department store to roller skate through in the middle of night, STAT.

The Midnight is arguably one of the pioneers and heavy hitters of this synth renaissance so when they announced their tour last November, I bought two tickets ASAP. April 25th finally arrived (Chooch’s birthday, no less!) and I had butterflies in my stomach all day—I WAS SO STOKED FOR THIS! So far, Ollie Wride has been the only synthwave artist I’ve seen live. I guess because I got into this through YouTube playlists, and there aren’t official videos showing the bands/artists, it never occurred to me that these were touring musicians, if that makes sense? Like, it has always been my comfort background music during the day, and every time I turn around, the TV is usually showing an illustration of a 1980s Ferrari cruising into the Miami sunset. You know the ubiquitous retro 80s scene.

The Ollie Wride show was very small, at the Crafthouse, well under 500 people I would say. And the crowd was mostly older and pretty much what I would expect.

The Midnight is on another level though, which I had NO IDEA because again – I have been appreciating this music in my own little bubble and had no idea what the scene was like, or that there even WAS a scene. Well, there is. Enough of a scene that The Midnight sold out the Roxian. And the crowd was very diverse. Way more dude-bros than I would have thought, but we’ll leave that for the next post! This one is just to appreciate the Midnight and the whole scene they represent because it is a breath of fresh air. The perfect balance of throw-back and current.

But first – New Constellations!

They’re from Portland, OR and immediately proved to be the perfect complement to the Midnight. Harlee Case can SANG. For just two people, they were super high energy and got us all going immediately – I loved them! I always give the opening bands my full attention but even if I wasn’t one of those people, I don’t see how anyone there could have ignored them. They were so good!

But OMG, the Midnight. It was SURREAL seeing them in person, on a stage, right in front of me! The Midnight is technically just two people—Atlanta-based singer-songwriter Tyler Lyle and Portland–based Danish producer, songwriter, and singer Tim McEwan. Did I straight up copy that from Wiki because I am a tired Elder working from home with a cat on my lap while having a tough time stringing together full sentences without typos? Affirmative.

But they have a full touring band that includes Justin Klunk on sax (my FAVORITE member of the Midnight’s touring band!). He was AMAZE AMAZE AMAZE. (Sorry, this show came one day after we say Project Hail Mary and three days after I read it, so…lol.)

There was a cluster of sax fans in the pit and every time there was a sax solo, they would thrust these mini blow-up saxes into the air – it was fucking PRECIOUS. And at one point, Justin jumped off the stage into the crowd and I thought he was just going to go over to his fan club, but then he ended up continuing around the floor and walked past where I was standing too!

And OBLYVN on synths!!

She has this nasty keytar when she performs with the Midnight and I was obsessed.

Harlee came out to sing on “Jason”! Henry, who wasn’t standing near me, but was all the way against the wall to the left side of the stage, was tasked with video duty for me. I found out later that he had three beers (he was standing right next to the bar) and it shows in some of the videos he took, LOL!

My all-time favorite song of theirs’ is Sunset and that was the last song they performed – everyone went feral over it! That song IS SO GOOD. It makes me feel so alive while also missing Drew so much—she was always with me in the beginning stages of my retrowave phase so I can’t help but associate this music with her. In fact, there is one song by Kalax that I 100% cannot listen to at all anymore because it makes me crippled with hysterical, messy sobs thinking of her.

But this song, though, it screams 1980s summer vacation to me.

I loved that they began and ended with this background which is so similar to the images used in the retrowave playlists on YouTube IYKYK.

SETLIST:

1. Sanctuary / Love Is an Ocean
2. Friction
3. Gloria
4. Lost Boy
5. Deep Blue / River of Darkness
6. Energy Never Dies, It Just Transforms / The Comeback Kid
7. Shadows
8. Jason
9. The Right Way / Explorers
10. Heartbeat
11. Change Your Heart or Die
12. Heart Worth Breaking
13. Los Angeles
14. River of Forgetfulness (Medley) / Endless Summer / Lonely City / Synthetic / Crockett’s Revenge / Kick Drums & Red Wine / Crystalline
15. First Night In Paris
16. Good in Red
17. Vampires
18. Days of Thunder

ENCORE:

1. Summer’s Ending Soon
2. Sunset

I was so sweaty by the time it was over! What a workout.

Reunited with Henry, lol.

Some quick afterthoughts:

• I hate the Roxian for real
• Henry actually really enjoyed it and said he knew a lot of the songs (I mean, he lives in a house where this stuff is played on a loop, how could he not)
• I saw someone here that was so hilarious to me, it warrants a separate post
• There was such a random convergence of demographics in the crowd that it’s made me uber curious how others discovered the Midnight / the genre
• What a fun way to celebrate the anniversary of my C-Section incision!

I’m pretty sure I have shared these photos countless times over the years, but this little cartoon baby turned T W E N T Y yesterday and I need to put them in your faces again.

I feel so old and panicked over this latest birthday but also proud because he is just so cool and genuinely a good person. Henry and I can’t take all the credit for that – he was raised around some of the best people we know and their presence and influence definitely helped shaped him into the independent person he is today (you all know who you are and thank you for being part of his life and hanging out with him like he was just another one of the grownups!).

We’re currently on the way home after spending some time with him today in Philly and I miss him already. ;(

Ah! When I saw that Past Self was going on tour with Clan of Xymox, I legit yelped a little bit! I have been following them for about a year or so on Instagram, since my algorithm gives me all of the Korean stuff, it was thoughtful enough to be like, “Here is a Korean goth band for your consideration.”

It’s not a secret or even a fun fact really, but I did have a pretty extensive Goth phase in my late teens/early 20s thanks to accidentally discovering a Goth chatroom called Darkchat on WEBTV in my mom’s basement, LOL. I was so obsessed with it that I would go to her house constantly to use it until she finally bought me my own WebTV console thingie. (I was living in my first apartment at the time and didn’t have a PC or a laptop yet.)

I made so many friends on that damn website, many with whom I’ll still in touch to this day, and this was also the source of much drama and crazy meet-ups as well. I had already liked the Cure at the time, and even Robert will eschew any attempts at Goth pigeon-holing, but this was when I actually started to learn about GOTH-GOTH music.

And I LIKED it.

However, I never looked or dressed the part, and that’s not an easy scene to be a part of if you’re not skulking around white face powder and black lipstick. I always looked too bubblegum and while I had a lot of Internet Goth friends, I would tend to get sneered at when out and about at Goth functions, like the infamous Dracula’s Ball, LOL. God, they hated me there.

So, I eventually fell out of that scene and, aside from The Cure and peripheral Goth bands like Gary Numan, I haven’t had any recent exposure. But Clan of Xymox is an old band (formed in the early 80s) so I figured the majority of the crowd would be people my age and older and less likely to judge me and my blond hair and Vans.

I was right.

We got in line around 6:30PM and almost immediately, the woman in front of me said, “OK, I’m obsessed with your bracelet” and so I gave her the Etsy shop where it’s from and we started chatting a little bit about how cool the jewelry is (Martha Rotten, you make the best conversation starters!). I was excited because this woman was in a legit Goth gown and her husband even had a Gothic print button-down shirt, so I felt seen. Like, I belonged there too!

There were some younger people in line, like a couple of cyber goths a few people ahead of us. That brought back BIG nostalgia, seeing the coiled extensions in the one girl’s hair and the super high platform boots. If you’ve never seen Goths dance, it can be pretty stompy, so the boots are an essential piece of the wardrobe.

In general, it was one of the most peaceful lines I’ve stood in before a show. Everyone was polite. It was fun to see what everyone was wearing. It was exciting to know every band that was being name-dropped around me because it turns out, the scene hasn’t changed too much since I last paid attention! Lots of Skinny Puppy and Depeche Mode references. It definitely appeared that everyone was there for Clan of Xymox so I was curious how well-received Past Self would be.

Oh, one more thing – the guy in charge of checking IDs of everyone in line was so nice. Great first impression of the Rumba Cafe!

We were finally let in a bit after 7PM and I had to run straight to the bathroom because theater at Ramble House or whatever that bluegrass bar was called had gone right through me plus MY PERIOD WAS IN TOWN. (Henry reminded me last week of how I used to call my period “Maude.” I literally forgot all about that!)

Anyway, while I was in the bathroom, someone started trying to force the door open from the other side and I was in PANIC MODE. That is the worst feeling ever. First of all, bathrooms in small clubs like that usually have the dinkiest lock on the door so I was PRAYING to the Goddess Hela (I don’t know, what goddesses do the Goth girlies pray to these days?) that the lock would not give out and expose me in a full-on tampon insertion pose. I quickly finished up and when I opened the door to leave, an entire crowd had formed outside, JFC. Thank god I was the first one to make it back there, because I was not in any position to stand in another line.

We secured a spot at the corner of the bar and it ended up being mostly fine.

I liked the lady who was sitting next to me on a stool, and her husband was wearing a cool Goth tophat and pointed out my bracelet to her. I’m telling you, that fucking bracelet stole the show that day.

In case you were wondering what it looks like, there are pictures in this post:

Bangles & bengals & Bingle Bangle

I’ll try to keep this short and sweet, but Past Self came out and was exactly what I wanted. Dark synth is a motherfucking drug to me, I was IN A ZONE instantly. Their stage presence was haunting without being try-hard. The singer’s voice had that signature deep tone that I came to know and love during my Goth years.

They’re from Las Vegas and the singer is Korean American, so the lyrics are a blend of Korean and English. I was so stoked when I caught Korean words here and there that I knew!

Props to Henry for getting pictures for me since I am too short. (No one was behind us but the bar so he was able to freely hold his arms up, knowing that he wasn’t being THAT PERSON who was blocking the view of everyone behind him.)

Here’s one of their videos, please watch and enjoy. (DO IT. The song means “rusty knife” and I will cut you with one if you don’t watch!!!!)

(J/K.)

After their set, we moved to the back of the venue so I could get merch. I like Clan of Xymox but didn’t feel the need to be super close for them, so this seemed like a good spot. And it happened to be where my friends from the line were!

Clan of Xymox came out with a bang, ISTG. The whole room just exploded with energy and I was caught up in it immediately. Henry, not so much. He ended up ditching me and going to stand by himself near the door after awhile and I didn’t even notice at first, LOL Everything was fine until some young guy came out of nowhere and wedged himself in between me and the girl next to me. Turns out she was his friend and he then proceeded to have a full-blown conversation with her the entire time, with very little silence. It was absolutely annoying and rude. She seemed to have been enjoying the show before he arrived, too, so I’m not sure how she felt about Chatty Chad stealing the show, but I know how I felt. I kept glaring at him and he was NOT picking up on it. Had to have been in his early 20s, no couch, 눈치 없어.

READ THE FUCKING ROOM! Why why why do people go to concerts to talk?! Go to, I don’t know, fucking Denny’s! Get a fucking coffee and Grand Slam and talk until your lips chap. DO NOT DO THIS AT A CONCERT. It got to the point where my ears refused to hook onto anything but this guy’s whiny voice.

I had planned on only staying for part of Clan of Xymox’s set anyway since we had to drive 3+ hours home, and it was 10:30PM at that point so I figured that was my cue to call it. I wasn’t trying to get into verbal fisticuffs and ruin a perfectly good day. Because it really was a perfectly good day, all around.

This wasn’t from the Columbus show but I wanted to share it anyway because this is also how our Columbus show started and I was obsessed with laser gloves!!!!

And then this one was from our show:

On the drive home, I made Henry briefly listen to the Black Bible goth compilation (I have the physical copy as well and it’s out on display in the Cure corner of the living room – a nice conversation piece lol) until he was like, “OK I’ve had enough of this now, thanks.” It can get very funeral dirge-y, as you can imagine.

And then we arrived home a little after 2AM. It was exhausting but SO MUCH FUN. I’m glad that Henry still agrees to do these things with me. We definitely have some interesting adventures!

My fragile VIP heart is so full today! My ultimate favorites BIGBANG finally had their time to shine last night at Coachella. They were supposed to headline in 2020 and well, we all know what happened in 2020! Then they lost two members and between all of the scandals and backlash, G-Dragon’s hiatus, etc., it seemed like the possibility of a BIGBANG comeback was never going to happen. But it’s their 20th anniversary this year and they made their official comeback at COACHELLA.

IN AMERICA.

The last act to perform on the Outdoor Theater at 10:30PM on a Sunday, not headliners anymore, and still pulled THIS CROWD:

YouTube livestreamed it and I thought for sure my old lady ass was going to have to miss it, but I decided to go to bed early and then Henry woke me up at 1:25AM, saying, “Hey….five minutes.”

My eyelids shot open and I sat up like I was on a string. Grabbed my glasses and went downstairs to wait on the couch for it to start and when I say my heart was RACING.

I of course REALLY got into Kpop toward the end of 2016, and this was essentially the end of BIGBANG’s golden reign. They all began enlisting in the military shortly after. Then T.O.P. had his “scandal” which almost killed him. Then Seungri revealed his true colors with an ACTUAL scandal.

I long ago gave up hope of ever seeing them live. Whether as a 4 person group or 3 at this point, it was seeming less and less likely.

But this! It simultaneously made me feel unwell while also being healed?! I watched the whole hour and fifteen minutes with my hand on my heart, trying not to pass out. Henry watched the whole thing too – we both sat there quietly, no commentary. Then I just started sobbing, lol.

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This morning, it was the first thing I thought of when I woke up.  I immediately started scrolling through IG and Threads and was so happy to see how much praise they have been getting. The Kings of KPOP are back. They did that.

“Haru Haru” made me nostalgic for a time in Korea I didn’t actually live through. It BROKE me. Especially without T.O.P. Respect his wishes but jfc I really hope that one day he changes his mind and comes back.

Taeyang and G-Dragon performing “Good Boy”? Stop.

Daesung BRINGING KOREAN TROT TO FUCKING COACHELLA? He did that shit.

I have been so stoked all day (OK, while also slipping into sporadic sob sessions too!) and for the first time in years, I feel that old joy I used to get listening to their songs. Being a VIP is not for the weak, you guys. It’s been a rough 10 years. In fact, several years when Henry and I were in line to see Kang Daniel in Toronto, the girl in front of me asked me who my ult group is. I said “BIGBANG” on the broken wings of a sigh.

“I’m sorry,” she answered somberly.

It’s like that.

But today, I woke up feeling like this is the start of a new era! I poured my coffee in my BIGBANG coffee cup and put on a BIGBANG playlist while sitting down to work. I smiled like a goof while doing my boring work.

BIGBANG FOREVER.

Welp, I had therapy today and wasn’t planning on mentioning it, but I ultimately shared with my therapist the agonizing “what even is this feeling??” that has overcome me since hearing about Mark Lee’s departure from NCT last Friday. She helped me understand that it’s not weird or dumb, this emotion that I can’t pinpoint, but it really does signify the end of a golden era in my life and that it makes sense that I am feeling this grief-but-not-grief because no one died unless you count a past version of myself.

Please indulge me here, but I thought it would help to go back through the pictures Henry took of me at every NCT / Super M / KCON concert where I literally felt like my best, most happiest, purest self. NCT has been with me for years now and I really feel like while all the members were growing up, I was growing up in a way too by putting more even space between the Erin of Now with the Erin of Then, which wasn’t a good Erin.

KCON 2017!

Not me wearing a Pierce the Veil shirt to my first Kpop concert lol. June 2017!

That’s NCT127 in the red.

KCON 2018!

Saw them again at KCON 2018!

This was back when Winwin was still with them. </3

SUPER M 2019!

20     

NCT 217 in Newark 10/22!

Mark Lee on a bus stop ad </3

I spent so much $$$ on my ticket that Henry had to wait until the day of and get a nosebleed seat for himself. This was the selfie he sent me from his literal last row seat haha.

We stayed afterward too and waited for their vans to leave the venue just to get a split-second glance of them through the tinted windows, it was so much fun.

This was when I had FULLY accepted that in addition to VIP and SHAWOL (KPOP fandom names, don’t try to understand) I was now an NCTzen.

NCT DREAM 2023 in Chicago

This was the one that really sent me. NCT 127 had been to the States numerous times but the Dreamies never had. Until spring of 2023. Again, I threw down some serious cash on my ticket and I will live the rest of my life having not even a single regret. This was one of the best concerts and nights of my life. I bonded with the other NCTzens around me. I saw my bias Renjun for the first time ever. I cried so hard but also smiled so big and screamed so loud that I gave myself a headache.

That’s  me on the screen, smiling a genuine smile which doesn’t happen very often (I’m the President of the Fake Smile Club).

This was one of the happiest days for me and I think about it a lot.

This was when I escorted Henry to his seat, lol.

NCT EXHIBITION IN SEOUL 2024!!

OK this doesn’t really count as “seeing them live,” but there was an NCT127 exhibition happening at the DDP when we were in Korea for our “marriage mission.” Chooch was off Pokemon Go’ing so I made Henry go to it with me and I loved every fucking second of it.

I got this delightful mug in the gift shop at the end. They had one for every member and I got Haechan’s of course because he’s my ult NCT bias (tied with Ten who btw also just announced his departure from SM although he is allegedly still going to participate in team activities with NCT and WayV – we’ll see) but I wanted to get one of each, honestly.

Another fun fact is that we were in Korea for NCT Dream’s comeback, so I got to buy their new album from the SM Store and watch their video FROM SEOUL. Short of actually seeing an NCT concert in Korea, that was next level for me. (Although Chooch and I did see one of the Dreamies in 2019 – Jeno – when he was hosting The Show and we attended a live taping of it!)

NCT DREAM 2024 – LONG ISLAND

They didn’t have Renjun with them for this tour and that made me sad but I was still grateful to see them again!

There’s this inside joke within the Kpop fandom that no matter what the concert is, you are guaranteed to see at least one neobong (NCT lightstick) in the crowd and I have definitely found this to be true! It’s funny because now it’s crossing boundaries into non-kpop territory too.

Henry sits alone – again LOL.

JINGLE BALL 2024 DETROIT!

One of my work friends tried to talk me out of buying tickets for this since I had just seen NCT Dream 2 mths prior BUT THERE WAS A CHANCE THAT RENJUN WOULD BE THERE.

AND HE WAS.

Henry got to sit with me this time. I used my Capital One card for the presale and got really great seats.

This was on TV as well and some of my friends were like THAT GROUP YOU LIKE IS ON MY TV RIGHT NOW. YEAH BOY!

I was so grateful to get to see Renjun again but now, in hindsight, this would be the last time I’d see NCT Dream with all 7 members. JFC that stings.

NCT 127 3/25 CHICAGO!

I ALMOST DID NOT GET TICKETS FOR THIS TOUR. Some of the members were in the military. One was kicked out and we do not speak of him. I almost said, “Well, I have already seen 127 three times, I can pass on this one.” But then I was like, “Hello, what kind of shit talk is that for an NCTzen!?” So, I got the tickets. AND THIS WOULD END UP BEING THE LAST TIME I SEE MARK, MAYBE AT ALL.

Henry sits alone again LOL.

We made a bunch of pins to give out as freebies.  This is just a few – there were at least 100! <3

MARK.

Literally. The end of an era. I’m really sad.

So, I woke up at the crack of dawn this morning to the news of Mark Lee leaving SM and halting all NCT activities. First, I saw it from his own Instagram – you know it’s not going to be good when the post is a picture of a handwritten letter. I still didn’t fully understand the context – what was he apologizing for? Was there a scandal? Did he get hurt?

But then right after, I saw SM’s statement confirming that they had mutually decided to part ways after 10 years. Mark Lee! Literally carried 4 teams on his back at one time. The backbone of NCT. Haechan’s bestie.

It’s no wonder why there were so many videos of the NCT Dream members straight up sobbing during the finale of their Dream Show run in Seoul – we all thought they were just sad because that era had ended, but no, they knew. They knew it was their last time performing with Mark. Ughhhhh.

Sorry to be MELODRAMATIC, the man isn’t dead, but yo…NCT has been my antidepressant for YEARS. They were also at the first Kpop concert I ever went to – KCON 2017! I feel blessed that I got to see Mark so many times with NCT127, NCT Dream, and even – gloriously – Super M. I will support him no matter what, especially since it sounds like he made this decision for himself and he has admitted that he is scared of what’s to come.

FUN FACT, back when Chooch was a Kpop stan with me, Mark was his bias.

This is true with bands of any genre because aging is aging no matter how you slice it, but there is something especially jarring about watching Kpop groups grow up. There is little in life that makes me feel as old and panicked about time & mortality as going through an entire life cycle of a Kpop group and realizing that you’re reaching the inevitable expiration date. I hate it so much. I fear that NCT won’t survive this and their current & future military enlistments. I mean, I thought that all of the viral “NCT Dream crying” videos from this week were because they knew Haechan was due to enlist soon. Not this. (BTW, Mark is Canadian and exempt from military enlistment in Korea so Henry and I are always talking about how with NCT Dream, at least they would still have him, Renjun and Chenle (both Chinese), and NCT127 would have him, Johnny (American) and Yuta (Japanese), but I guess that is not going to be the case after all.

This is making me spiral out for so many strange, personal, possibly neurotic reasons. I have attachment issues (bigly). I take everything so hard. And it’s such a weird thing to be like, “Hi, I’m upset, can I talk to you about it?” to anyone other than Henry, who has been bracing for the fall out and of course it happens when he leaves to go to Lowe’s and I’m here alone, thinking about all of my favorite NCT memories, how I never got my NCT Dream tattoo (but really need to), and just how they have always been my cozy/comfort listen. Tears incoming.

This will always be one of my favorites:

And before I end this: A BIG FUCK YOU TO SM. I know it’s been said that this was a genuinely respectful departure and not the typical LEGAL NOTICE that these agencies are also putting out in these situations, I just feel like they could treat their artists better. They worked this man to the fucking bone for 10 years.

ETA: I just heard someone say that Mark chose himself and you know, TRUE. That takes away some of the hurt knowing that Mark is going to be able to do what HE wants to do now (hopefully starting with a vacation and lots of rest!!).

Thursday was our 2 year wedding anniversary! And it just so happened that the next Lolev beer pairing event was that day—yay, anniversary plans were basically made for us! This pairing was with Umber – a local woman-owned artisanal chocolate shop. Amani told us about this at the last Lolev event we attended so I had my eyes peeled for the event sign-up to go live!

I really love Lolev so much. Not only is the beer the best I’ve had in this city, but the ambiance is on point and the people there are so friendly and inclusive. The same bartender has been there every time we’ve gone – he’s the one who put me on to the Pgh Beer stamp book thingie – and his laugh so boisterously contagious. Plus, Amani is so upbeat and talkative, it brings even this near-recluse out of her shell.

When we were at the Self-Reliant Seitan pairing last month, Amani and I got into a conversation about Lolev’s match lager which they said wasn’t going to make a reappearance this year, so Amani had started a petition to show the brewers that there was a vested interest in this naturally-green beer perfect for that famously green March holiday. It was actually last March when I had it at our inaugural visit to Lolev. Anyway, Amani’s plan worked because a few weeks ago, Lolev announced on Insta that Iroh was making its much anticipated return! I was worried that it wouldn’t still be available if we waited for the Umber event, so Henry and I actually went to the Zelienople location the day it debuted.

And it was good that we did, because Amani said they actually didn’t have any left, except for one keg that she asked to be saved for the brunch event that she had planned to celebrate its return. I think she said it’s this weekend, actually, but she sneaked out two tiny samplers for us on the downlow – SHE IS THE BEST!! Henry doesn’t like matcha so he took a sip and then when she left the room he slid his glass over to me. Yessssss.

THE DEETS!

Would you look at these gorgeous chocolate drops of art?? Almost too pretty to eat. ALMOST. You better trust that I was choking on my saliva as soon as Veronica, the cocoa virtuoso behind the Umber brand, set down the box in front of me. I wanted to take Henry’s box too.

Veronica recommended taking a sip of the beer first, then a bite of the chocolate, separately. Then finishing the chocolate with another sip of beer at the same time. This was a good suggestion because it forced to slow down when my basic instinct was to essentially swallow each piece whole.

UGH EACH CHOCOLATE WAS SO GOOD. If I was forced to choose a favorite though, it would be the matcha. It was the perfect balance of matcha and white chocolate.

Oh! And we learned stuff that night too because when Veronica came over to sit and chat with us, she told us that white chocolate is actually only 2% less cocoa than milk chocolate?!? I truly do love white chocolate (I’m one of “those people”) and was never one to bitch if I got a white chocolate Jesus in my Easter basket as a kid, and sometimes I actually crave white chocolate over regular, but I always thought it wasn’t actually chocolate??!

I really love orange + chocolate.

This may have been my favorite pairing. It was my favorite beer of the night and the Mexican hot chocolate was subtly spicy and tasted JUST LIKE MEXICAN HOT CHOCOLATE in solid form.

I mean, would you look at the detail on these though??

Zeus was my favorite beer from the last pairing we went to and I was so stoked to try this Zeus-infused chocolate at the end. I could really taste it, too! Incredible. Amani said they are talking about doing the reverse now, where Umber chocolate is infused in a Lolev beer. Even if it’s a stout or porter, I will be down to try that. I feel like where Penn Brewery failed spectacularly with their Sarris Chocolate collab, Lolev will get it right.

I am such a simp for Lolev.

That’s how Henry always looks at me, btw.

What a fine way to spend an anniversary! And the best part is that Chooch is still home for spring break so one of his friends dropped him off at Lolev after they were done playing football at CMU, so he could be our DD! To thank him, we took up Umber’s offer of 10% off if we re-filled our boxes with chocolate at the end of the night (twist our arm) – Henry and I got one to share, and we gave the other to Chooch.

I can’t believe two years ago, we were in Korea. Bambi was alive. Chooch hadn’t yet committed to a college. It feels so long ago and like just yesterday, all at once.

I can’t explain fully what my deal is with Mama Steve’s, but I just really super love it so much. I was actually more excited about going here than Busch Gardens, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the food. It is all about the outdated ambiance for me. Please do not ever renovate, Mama Steve and Fam.

I was positively shaking with giddy anticipation. It was just as I had remembered!

Henry and Chooch were not even a fraction as stoked as I was. They’d have preferred the free hotel breakfast, I’m sure.

I’m not even going to pretend like this is the best food ever (although I’m the wrong person to ask since I’m very limited to what I can eat from this menu) but it’s just the fact that I truly get such frivolous joy from eating while swathed in a palette of baby blue. I mentioned this in my first ever Mama Steve’s blog post from…2021?? But it reminds me so much of my Pappap’s living room and dining room, color-wise. I feel instantly comforted every time I’m there!

Chooch was so over it before we were even seated, me taking pictures of everything like it was my first time there. But I was just so excited about everything in that moment! Chooch was back with us AND we were at Mama Steve’s!? Both of these things happening at once?!

I’m fairly certain that I took this exact picture the last time we were there but oh well. I love the coffee cups and I love the table tops and that’s that.

I became outrageously incensed because Henry’s meat-fists ruined this picture and you better believe I cried openly about it.

“Oh no,” Chooch said drily. “It’s too bad that nothing you wanted a picture of is still there. Like the tables. And that wall. Gone.”

NIRVANNA THE BAND THE SHOW THE MOVIE!!!!!!!!! Chooch said that I actually made him hate it with my zealous enthusiasm and wow, no one could have predicted that.

Anyway, in mock-excitement, Chooch blurted out, “Wow, 10 silver dollar pancakes?! Maybe that’s what I’ll get.” And then, “How big do you think they are?”

“Uh, silver dollar-sized??” Henry answered, incredulity pooling in the corners of his mouth. It was a whole thing. You had to be there.

That’s our server back there! Her name was either Lemon or Lenora. But she truly seemed to get a kick out of us and left our table chuckling to herself every time. When she took Chooch’s order and he hit her with the swerve of “vegetarian omelet,” she acted REALLY SHOCKED and goes, “OK! Vegetarian omelet….I thought you were gonna get the pancakes!” and then as she walked away, she said out loud, “I heard him say ‘10 silver dollar pancakes!‘” and then she chuckled so hard to herself. It was the cutest.

I don’t know what was going on behind my pancakes, but Henry clearly must have had the gall to ask Chooch to pass him the pepper and Chooch can’t complete any task without mouthing off in one way or another.

Anyway! I asked Henry if he would eat some pancakes if I ordered them because 4 p-cakes is too much for me. He said sure so I got a stack of blueberry and then immediately doused it with blueberry (or “blueberp” as it appeared on the carafe thing) syrup. “Wow, first you get my least favorite pancakes – blueberry – and then cover it with more blueberry,” Henry sighed. I almost peed my pants laughing because WHY WON’T MY BRAIN RETAIN THE FACT THAT HENRY HATES BLUEBERRY?!

Every time we go, we are usually only one of 2 or 3 tables. Lemon even told us not to hurry when she brought our check because, “as you can see, I don’t have any other tables,” she said with her patented chuckle. But then the hostess said, “The bus hasn’t come yet,” and Lemon chuckled some more so we weren’t sure if there really was a tour bus on the way or what? I mean, it’s freaking Williamsburg so I have to imagine that Mama Steve’s must get waves of crowds. I think every time we’ve been there, it’s been a weekday morning.

I look exhausted and my hair was wet. But I was so happy to be there! Henry looks like my prisoner.

And now for a series of pictures taken by Chooch which is always scary.

This was after Lemon busted us posing for pictures and did her “Pee Wee-watching-the-movie-about-himself-at-the-end-of-Pee Wee’s Big Adventure” chuckle.

Genuinely happy with a bellyful of blueberry pancakes from Mama Steve’s very own kitchen. Why does Henry look like he’s in the middle of psychological break, though. Like someone just put him out to pasture and told him to look at the flowers.

Oh! Speaking of the kitchen, we were desperately trying to figure out what they were listening to back there. It just sounded like the same several notes over and over. Chooch said it sounded like Nine Inch Nails because, “all I can hear is screeching and that’s what it sounds like.” I could see where he was coming from, but the cooks in the kitchen were a middle-aged black man and an old white lady. I mean, who I am to judge but they didn’t seem like the demographic for NIN.

My guess was that it was some sinister classical piece, something that would be used in an old horror movie. It was actually chilling. Henry even walked past the kitchen on purpose on his way to the restroom to try to get a better listen, but he said it only sounded worse the closer he got. We shouldn’t have sent the one person in our party who is hard of hearing.

(I actually really want it to have been NIN though because it just makes no sense, similar to my love for Mama Steve’s.)

Chooch always does this thing where he ultra-zooms on Henry when he’s supposed to be taking pictures of us, so I have a whole-ass collection of horrifying Henry close-ups on my phone. I sent this one to Alyson because it also happened to be her BIRTHDAY! She was excited because it was the live version of it, so she got to see Henry hee-hawing in motion.

And then we started our 6 hour drive home (well, first we had to stop at the Goodwill down the street from Mama Steve’s because Chooch’s latest obsession is starting a DVD collection). This was Henry whenever he was relocated to the backseat when it was Chooch’s turn to drive:

Wow. The end.

P.S. The last time we were at Mama Steve’s!

Williamsburg to Orlando: A Live Blog

I don’t usually care about these WordPress writing prompts, but this one was intriguing to me because I did not have the answer. I actually had to text my mom and ask her if there is any significance to my middle name. It’s the one part of me that I have always really liked. I like how it feels to say it and I like that it’s just unique enough that it’s not a name you hear very often without sounding ridiculously forced and make believe. 

I also like that there is a story behind it, BECAUSE YOU SEE for the first several years of my life, it was spelled “Rachele.” I even had this darling (lol) silver cup that had my name engraved onto it: Erin Rachele. When I learned how to write my full name, this is how I would spell it. But then at some point, and I’m going to say it probably had to do with the time my step-dad decided to adopt me which was in either 1st or 2nd grade, my mom was looking at my birth certificate and realized that she had misspelled my middle name as Rachelle. So, then I had to train myself to start writing it the legally correct way even though it was the incorrect way, and this is something that is so on brand with my life in general, so I really actually love it, without a hint of sarcasm.

But now I know that it stemmed from my Pappap’s suggestion of “Rachel.” My mom said that at the time, Rachel felt too popular, so she added the extra “e” to the end to fancy it up a bit. Knowing that my Pappap was a part of the naming process makes me love it so much more. 

Me, probably before I knew – or cared – that my current middle name was wrong LOL. <3

This post is brought to you by the same person who also had a completely made-up, imaginary birthdate put onto her wedding certificate.