We spent my birthday evening at Arnold’s Park on Lake Okoboj, as previously reported. I bought this magnet and the old white man I purchased it from held it up to his face, squinted, and said, “This is missing something. Ahh! It’s missing TRUMP sitting there!”

Pal, only if he was buried head first in the sand would I want that. Gimme my fucking magnet.

We had just been observing that day too how nice it was that we weren’t bombarded with TRUMP paraphernalia throughout Iowa like we had been in Missouri. Not even a single Trump yard sign or billboard – it was so cleansing on the eyeballs.

And then that happened. I actually wasn’t even sure if that was what he said initially because I had let my guard down the whole time we were in Iowa. Branson? Would not have been fazed. But I was very taken aback and actually wish I had walked out without the magnet but I already paid for the fucking thing. Of course, this morning we went back to the Okoboji Welcome Center and I found a much better magnet so maybe I’ll “write a picture” of an expired Trump on this one, cankles jutting out of the sand.

Today is my birthday and out of everything that happened today, here is my absolute favorite:

At Arnold’s Park earlier tonight, we were sitting down at a table, eating. Chooch had cheese fries and Henry and I both had small personal pan pizzas, in a box. I was bitching because no one brought over napkins so Henry got up to fetch some, obedient dog he is. Literally AS SOON as he walked away, Chooch swept his arm out and accidentally knocked over Henry’s TALL cup of Diet Coke, which had NO LID.

Coke flooded all into his pizza box, completely drenching his slices – and mind you this was AFTER Chooch helped himself to one and Henry hadn’t had ANY yet. I was initially mad because I thought it got on my shoes (they’re new Vans!!) but once I realized it was fine, I started cracking up and then Chooch started cracking up and then Henry came back to the table, saw what happened, and was…decidedly NOT cracking up lol. Chooch goes, “I’m sorry. But it’s your fault for not putting the lid on! Here, I’ll eat the one they got the most Coke on it” so now Henry was left with only two slices of pizza and nothing to drink.

LOL

Flash forward to about three hours later. We’re at our hotel (Okoboji Inn) and there is drama because our room is a king with a sofa bed. Chooch is too big for the sofa bed so the nice woman at the front desk brought up a roll-away bed for him.

Of course, this one was also problematic for our little Princess and the Pea. He was jostling all around on it, squeaking the springs and bitching up a storm.

“I’d rather just sleep on the floor at this point!” he cried, so Henry suggested that he move the mattress to the sofa bed since it was the bed frame that was causing his discomfort. Henry of course had to set down the can of beer he treated himself to at the gas station after we left Arnold’s Park and help him because Chooch is my son and we contribute the bare minimum to these things. In the process of this hectic maneuvering, Henry turned around and yelled, “Aw goddammit my beer spilled!”

I honestly almost peed my pants, and then Chooch was cracking up too which made me laugh harder, back and forth. We feed off each other’s giddiness!

“You have literally spilled everything I had today!” Henry cried from the bathroom, like calm down bro let’s not be hyperbolic here.

I guess when you have had 46 birthdays, dumb things like this become highlights.

ETA: I was just reliving this moment with Chooch and he said, “His beer didn’t just accidentally spill. It spilled because I threw a pillow at him.” EVEN BETTER.

Hello from a new-to-us state! I don’t know why but going to Iowa was one of the  things I was most excited about when planning this trip. Just because, why Iowa, you know? Like, who goes to Iowa for vacation. But it just so happens that there are some cool amusement parks here!

Anyway, we spent most of the day at World of Fun in Kansas City, Missouri after checking out the NOT-Victorian in Branson. It was another hotter than Hell day. 95 degrees I think but the “feels like” was 108. It felt every bit that hot too.

We left there around 5:30, (they closed at 7:00 but we had already done everything we needed to do, plus get re-rides our faves) and stopped at ZOMBIE BURGER in Des Moines. We made it there around 8:15 and I’ll be so for real here, it wasn’t all that – just a gimmicky place capitalizing off of horror by decorating with zombie art and naming the food after horror movies. But I buy into that shit, PLUS they had a veg section. I had homed in the Negan burger, which was the Zombie Burger’s own veggie nut burger and that sounded fantastic plus, NEGAN.

“I hope they actually have it, or I’ll cry,” I said, because, tragically, “Sorry, we don’t have that anymore” follows me from restaurant to restaurant.

“HOW?” Chooch dead-panned. “Do you even have anything left? You’ve been crying all day.”

Wow. He is such a good son. The best boy.

Anyway, YES THEY DID HAVE IT.

Henry got a beer and I had some sips. It was a WarPigs Foggy Geezer IPA. I created a monster with him and IPAs. Bro, branch out a little.

The Negan! It was good – my favorite part was actually the bun. It was very soft and fluffy and I enjoyed it very much, thank you for asking, omg you’re too kind but no I don’t think I’ll be starting a bun-reviewing periodical at this time.

Bathroom graffiti.

Decor was really on point.

Oddly, a baseball game was on the TVs at the bar – if I’m going to a zombie-themed eatery, I’m expecting zombie classics playing on a loop. But cook on with your baseball game, I guess.

Afterwards, I didn’t want to immediately go to the hotel. We’ve  never been in Des Moines before and I wanted to see some of it! Henry signed and drove toward the river at my command. There was parking along the bridge! So we did that and Henry thought I was just going to get out and take a quick picture but turned into, “Let’s just walk to the edge of the bridge and back” which then bled into, “I want to just walk a block down there and get a picture of that sign.”

“The TRAVELERS SIGN?” Chooch scoffed in a who cares tone.

“Yeah, I like it,” I shouted back. LET. ME. LIVE.

We saw whatever the fuck this is on the way, and the CASEYS CENTER – a venue named after Henry’s new favorite gas station that he has stopped at a hundred times on this trip so far. Also, there was a baseball stadium with a game happening and Chooch found out it was their minor league team, Cubs. I wanted it to be the Cornstalks.

Come on, it was a cool sign!

I didn’t look to see what this is, I assume an art museum or something.

After walking back on the other side of the bridge, I determined I was satisfied and that we could go. But then I saw what HAD to have been the Capitol Building peeking out in the distance. I SCREAMED when Henry got onto the highway because I thought he understood by my cries of childlike wonder that I wanted to get CLOSER to the Capitol. So, he muttered under his breath and veered off onto a ramp back into the downtown area. Yayayayayayay!

Oh, and I should mention that there was a wicked lightning storm happening, which got way worse and has since turned into a storm-storm as I sit here in the hotel writing this.

I just really thought this was so beautiful and am so happy that we got to see it at night!

This is the Iowa Soldiers and Sailors Monument a/k/a “Iowa’s Most Scandalous Statue”:

LOL – this is on Roadside America so I was stoked to get to mark another idiotic thing as “been there.”

So, that part of the night was very nice – I like when we get a chance to actually see parts of the cities we visit for roller coasters, especially because I can’t foresee any other reason that would have brought me there. And from what I saw, Des Moines is beautiful!

Then the night took a turn when we drive the 15 minutes to Altoona Iowa to check into our hotel, which ended up being a Best Western directly across from Adventureland with a ton of truckers parked in the lot and the area was just bad vibes all around. When Chooch and I  were waiting for the elevator, one of the aforementioned truckers  walked past and mumbled, “Welcome to the shit hole” to us. WTF.

Then we got to our floor and some weird child-thing came slithering out of its room at the same time as someone from the floor above took off running back and forth and then as soon as we opened the door to our room, there was maniacal pounding from the room above.

“Nope,” I said and walked right on out. Henry was in the hallway at this point and I said, “I’m not staying here,” as I walked past him to the elevator. Just felt it in my gut. The trucker’s ominous non-greeting, the stampeding, the blah room. I couldn’t do it. Not on the eve of my birthday. This of course resulted in a big argument in the car, but now we are ready for bed in a nice, clean, reputable Hilton:

Sory. But sometimes I need to be fucking spoiled, and I don’t care. I wasn’t sleeping in that other place. And for as much as we harped on Henry over the Branson hotel, that one was clean and quiet at least. No frills at all but we slept well and it legit felt like we were the only ones there. Not a peep from the other rooms.

I don’t know what the plan is for tomorrow. The weather looks iffy – storms and rain. Not sure if the park will even be open. If it’s still lightning the way it is tonight, I don’t know what we will end up doing. :/

Shit, son, am I getting too old for this or what? We’re only on Day 3 and I am so depleted lol. Granted it’s been 95 degrees every day and we have been at amusement parks aka pavement tundras. Today was Silver Dollar City and it was a long ass motherfucking day. Mostly good but there were some low lights as to be expected with long and humid days navigating crowds (actually wasn’t crowded though) and hunger. A ton of memorable moments though that will probably become long-lasting inside jokes of course – I laughed so hard at one point that it felt like I damaged something internally.

One of the last things we did before calling it a night was have Chooch take pictures of us in front of VICTOR THE BULL, downtown Branson.

You’re welcome ;)

Bonus: here’s a picture before we went to SDC, from a “scenic outlook” which was anything but?!

Random jean skirt?!

Meanwhile, we were joking that even at the scenic overview, there was a huge billboard for Dolly Parton’s Stampede. It is legit everywhere you look around here.

Even the elevator door at our dumb hotel that chooch and I hate but Henry loves. We’re annoyed because there is a really beautiful hotel called HOTEL VICTORIAN at the top of the hill but Henry was too cheap to let us stay there. So Chooch’s response to everything is, “I bet THE VICTORIAN has [insert something our hotel doesn’t have].”

Last night, we walked up the road to get to the main drag so Chooch could get some stupid +1 coaster cred at one of the many family fun zones here. It’s a pretty steep grade and Chooch huffed, “We wouldn’t have to walk up a hill if we stayed at the VICTORIAN.”

Then this morning, he said, “I’m opening the window so everyone at the VICTORIAN can look down on us.”

Dude you guys were fucking delirious at this point, lol.

We just stopped at the Arch on our way to Six Flags – the first time I saw it IRL was at night when we drove past it en route to Silver Dollar City. Even then it was horrifying to me. Being up close at its base was even scarier!

Please enjoy these pictures. We didn’t do the tour because we don’t have enough time but being there was enough for me, tbh!

9:17am: we’re almost to Ohio, just stopped at Sheetz in WV for breakfast foods and Henry is mad because I always get a fruit cup and then pick around the fruit I don’t like and try to pass it onto him while he’s driving because I can never get the lid back on and he screamed IF WE END UP IN THE HOSPITAL ONE DAY ITS GOING TO BE BECAUSE OF THIS!!! and angrily shook the fruit cup then passed it off to Chooch in the backseat. “You do this! I can’t do this while driving 70mph!” And then Chooch was crying about “why can’t she do it??!!” Meanwhile I was laughing so hard I almost choked.

Then Chooch was bitching about Henry leaving trash (specifically candy wrappers) in the side of car door. Then Henry turned around and put his breakfast trash in the empty Sheetz bag next to Chooch, which made Chooch deadpan, “wow. I’m surprised you didn’t shove that into the car door. Muscle memory” and I lost it.

You guys, these road trips are chaos but I freaking treasure them lol.

Oh also we were listening to the Kpop Demon Hunter soundtrack and I burst into tears. “This song makes me cry,” I shakily laughed, dabbing my eyes with a napkin lol ugh.

9:42am: I’m mad that Henry doesn’t have a military ID thing because he could be getting mad discounts at parks but he is now mansplaining this to me. He legit just said “I’m pretty sure they took that from me when I left” and I said, “I believe the word is CONFISCATED. They CONFISCATED your ID because you went AWOL and had a dishonorable discharge.”

He’s done talking about this now, suddenly.

Chooch, telling me, “you’re so annoying! You’re actually so annoying!”

Oh yeah I forgot he was also bitching as soon as we left this morning because I always have to get a full birthday week when everyone else gets a day. Well, when you’re forced to take birthday matters into your own hands because no one else cares, you too can drag it out for a week. More if you want! Go hog wild, honey bear.

11:02am: LETS JUST STOP, DROP EVERYTHING because Henry just admitted that the classic 2005 Chiodos track “Baby, You Wouldn’t Last a Minute on the Creek” is ICONIC.

12:46pm: KENTUCKY!

1:05pm: I just had the most satisfying pee of my life at a rest stop after chugging a liter of water. Ahhh. Henry and Chooch were grateful for this update so I thought you might also appreciate it, Blog.

1:41pm: Just left Love’s and Henry is being a big bitch baby because we apparently “rushed” him out so he didn’t get any food for himself and is being a huge martyr about it like look at Henry, willing to STARVE in order to get his family to the amusement park faster. Get over yourself! It’s not like I’m dining on a lavish lunch – I got a protein bar and a Cracker Barrel cheese and cracker thing. Thanks, Loves.

Also I wanted everyone in that place to get the fuck away from me. Welcome to Kentucky.

Lol Henry gets to buy the old person ticket at Beech Bend, love this for him.

3:02om: Just left RaceTrac whatever that is where Chooch made Henry buy an air freshener for the car so now there is strong stench of vanilla wafting through this bitch.

Anyway, obligatory bathroom selfie:

And an extravagant froyo section:

3:17pm: Lots of bickering later, we made it to Bowling Green! 12 minutes to Beech Bend Park from here.

3:52pm We’re in line for our second coaster! Will probably do a full recap tomorrow but here’s us!

I highkey love it here already.

6:15pm: Just left! They close at 7 but we got to do everything we wanted. I forgot that we’re in Central time so we actually got here at 3:30. We didn’t fight at all! It was delightful and I will definitely be posting about it separately probably tomorrow.

The downside is that it’s about 90 degrees and blazing sun – there was very little shade there.

We’re at Farm Boy in Morgantown KY after pulling into the lot of KUNTRY KITCHEN and leaving bc it looked sketch but now I wish we had stayed because this place is creepy but at least our waitress is super nice. We tried to order breakfast though and she got the ALAMO TOUR GUIDE tone real quick when she said they stop serving breakfast after 11 on weekends.

Chooch and I had to order grilled cheese from the kids and senior menu.

7:11pm: Chooch literally has no idea what parks we’re going to and just realized we’re going to be gone for a week and probably didn’t pack enough. He’s so annoyed lol.

Also the waitress seemed like she was trying to suppress her “taken aback-ness” at my request for tomato on my grilled cheese. Is that not common in Kentucky?!

7:28pm: Ugh one of the reasons we left KUNTry Kitchen was because some creepy old guy was slithering through the parking lot and I said, “oh hell no I don’t want to eat with that guy” and Chooch was like, “you’re so judgmental” but seriously ugh.

Then Henry just started laughing and I was like WHAT and he was like “look at who is sitting over my the door” and ITS HIM ugh. Chooch was cracking up – he has actually sort of letting himself laugh these days lol.

7:36pm:

Omg now he’s sitting outside talking to himself lol.

8:27pm: Some bridge over the Ohio River, now we’re in Indiana I guess.

Ugh:

Indiana Michigan Power apparently.

10:25pm: In bed at whatever Super 8 this is in Evansville IL apparently. I don’t understand geography so I don’t know how Illinois factors in.

The lady at the front desk told me she liked my shirt and turns out she likes Pierce the Veil. “I like my music angry so I don’t have to be” so said and then just kept going with the bit and it was starting to get unhinged.

Then the key didn’t work while Henry was out in the car so I thought he gave me the wrong room # and I kept calling him repeatedly and the dumb fuck wouldn’t answer so then Chooch and I just stood in the hallway listening to the screechy sounds of our temporary neighbors and I am not happy right now.

(Yes it was the right room and miraculously the key worked as soon as Henry got off the elevator and joined us. Ugh.)

Good night!!!

The best part about going to a concert for a group that isn’t one of my ults is that I only feel pure excitement. I don’t know what it is about seeing groups like NCT Dream and GOD FORBID G-DRAGON but I get so sick to my stomach from the stress of it all!

With Stray Kids, I like them A LOT to where I know all of their names, some of the lore, pretty much all of the songs. But I don’t hard stan them. I’m not sure why this is but Henry and I don’t really watch much of their content which is actually a damn shame, and we should correct this soonly. We saw them back in 2022 on their Maniac tour but that was on a whim after I checked Ticketmaster a good while after the tickets went on sale and saw that there were some decent seats still available for NORMAL PRICES. I will never forget this day because for some reason, Henry had to drive his WORK VAN to Erie for some work-related thing – he was making a delivery of Everfresh or something? – and he asked if I wanted to ride up with him just to get out of the house. Much to his chagrin, this turned into me saying, “I have FOMO about not getting Stray Kids tickets” as one of their songs played on Spotify, and then seeing that ticket prices were reasonable, and ending with Henry saying, “UGH WHATEVER YOU WANT TO DO, ERIN.”

YAY!

I’m actually ended up wearing the same shirt I wore to that concert. I had brought my Maniac tour shirt with me on this trip, but AFTER I PUT IT ON THAT AFTERNOON I NOTICED IT HAD COFFEE STAINS ON IT!!! Henry tried to get them out with a Tide stick I miraculously had in my travel bag (I definitely didn’t buy that, had to have been Henry’s forethought), but it only made it worse. I was rull upset about this for a few minutes but then shrugged it off because who cares. I’m 45.

We drove to the Pioneer Village subway station, which has a large parking lot. The Rogers Stadium, which has just been built and Stray Kids is the christening event, is apparently only going to be in use for 5 years??? I don’t fully understand what is happening here and also don’t care enough to do further research, but this is what Henry told me. It was built on an old runway near the airport, with a subway station about a 10 minute walk away and little to no parking from what I gleaned after reading all of the complaints, uproar and panic. Lol.

I can see where this would be super inconvenient, but for people who traveled to Toronto specifically for this and weren’t planning on driving anyway if we could avoid it, this was perfectly fine for us. It was a quick subway ride fill of other Stays. There were three middle school-aged Stays who looked at me in wide-eyed wonder when they saw that I was wearing a SKZ shirt and probably also going to the concert – actually, I felt like they were making fun of me but Henry said they weren’t, so we’ll go with what Henry said for once.

Yo, the lines were staggering! Everyone spilled out of the subway station and while some people milled about, most of us immediately got into a line. There was one that was very long, and then several others that were shorter and seemed to be moving faster so we crossed our fingers and got into one of those ones. There was legit no signage or instructions anywhere. We did determine eventually that a second super long, barely moving line was for a merch booth that was set up outside of the gates. I was like, “Surely there are more inside though??” I just wanted to get in so we skipped that shit.

For as daunting as the line seemed (you can see it snaking it well beyond that YZD sign up there) it actually moved pretty steadily. It wasn’t so bad either because people were handing out freebies and I am so much better at holding my handout in these situations now, even going so far as to follow someone for a freebie. I always use the self-deprecating line of, “I’m old so everyone always skips over me, HAHAHAHA” so cringey. Chooch would hate to hear that.

Han is my bias <3

I refused to wear black. It was only about 80 that day but with nary a cloud in the sky so that sun was straight BAKING us like STAY bread.

I’d say within 20 minutes, we had made it to the stadium! You can see to the right on the other side of the fence is the MERCH LINE.

We sailed right through the gates and got our FLOOR wristband, no issues!

I wasn’t expecting this but the ground of the stadium are pretty big, with some grassy areas too, so people were free to mill about, drink, eat, ride a ferris wheel, rather than wait in a line for the actual “doors” to open. We spent most of our time in the merch line which was a cluster. There was one very long line, and then three much shorter lines. We got into the long line because it was the closest one to the entrance where we came in, but immediately clocked the shorter lines. There was a mom and her 20’ish year old daughter in front of us who said someone else in our line had gone up to investigate and reported back that the other lines were for food.

Henry cried bullshit on this because here is what it looked like – I’m doing this at work with low energy so please excuse the artistic crudeness:

The booth was split up into four long windows, each had at least 3-4 people working. Pretend the first line has about 200 people in it lol because it legit probably did – it was so long that a staff member had to come over and make it turn so that it wasn’t impeding the general walk area. The other three lines probably had about 50 each. Henry was like I AM GOING TO GET IN ANOTHER LINE, JUST STAY THERE.

Kpop Dad has no time for this kind of bullshit. He hates it when people can’t understand that there is more than one line. He must have gotten yelled at for not lining up properly in the SERVICE and now he’s extremely triggered.

Meanwhile, I had struck up a nice conversation with the mom in front of me. She was so cute! This was her first Kpop concert – she traveled to Toronto with her daughter for it and I didn’t quiet catch where they had come from but I think it was somewhere else in Canada because they were referencing Canadian things to me like I should know and helped me pronounce Mississauga, which is the city we were staying at outside of Toronto. She asked me if we took the GO Train there and I said, “……yes?”

Henry told me later that NO, we did NOT. The GO Train is not the same as the subway, which I forget what the call there, lol. I tried! This is what happens when Henry leaves me alone to field adult questions! I sink.

Anyway, the mom was so cute, as previously mentioned, with her bedazzled Bang Chan jersey. “I got this on Amazon and jazzed it up!” she said, after we marveled over how creative some of the concert outfits were. She said she had primarily come there to accompany her daughter and I told her I was there for me, lol. I felt super comfortable talking to her and before I knew it, I was telling her all about how we got married in Korea last year.

Meanwhile, Henry was giving me a play-by-play from his line so I told my new friend that he was up there scoping it out. Eventually, he told me that it was definitely moving faster than my line and to come up. “Tell him you made new friends and ask him if we can come too!” the mom laughed, but I was already doing that exact thing! In the end, the mom said she would stay in our OG line, and her daughter would join me and Henry. There were only like 10 people ahead of Henry as opposed to the 100 still ahead of us in our line! Eventually, Henry was like, “I’m going to get a beer.”

“I dismissed him,” I said to the daughter, whose name I finally learned was Chloe and her mom was Holly. “He did the Lord’s work!”

I thought it would be awkward, standing in line with my fake daughter, but she was so sweet and easy to chat with! We basically just talked about kpop in general and she was genuinely interested in my origin story, which was crazy because it seems like just yesterday when I was at my first KCON in 2017 and felt like such a n00b. I guess I’m finally legit now!

We truly couldn’t understand why the lines were moving so slow because there were at least 4 people working in each section of the merch booth, as previously noted in my shitty Snag-It drawing. I knew exactly what I wanted, so when Chloe insisted that I go ahead of her as a thank you for saving her from the long-ass OG line, it took me less than 30 seconds to tell the super personable guy what shirt and size I wanted and tap my card. Bam, done.

I wished Chloe the best time and then wandered off to find Henry. Of course, I had remorse that I didn’t ask to connect with her on IG at the very least but would that have been weird since I was basically her mom’s age??? Oh well. Forever alone, lol.

I found Henry, stole his beer, and sent him off to get me a grilled cheese from a truck called CHEEZHEADZ. Ofc after he already ordered, he told me that the tater tot truck next to it had “TOTBOKKI.” AND A BIBIMBAP TACO. UGH.

Whatever, it was nice chilling on this grassy knoll, watching girls film SKZ dance challenges, zone out to the ferris wheel, and just genuinely bask in the beautiful day and fucking good vibes, man. It felt like Riot Fest, or Warped Tour. I’d say even Coachella but  my experience there was so miserable and this was not that.

I got two Han and one Hyunjin bracelets <3

OK,  this grilled cheese took forever but it was VERY classic-tasting, familiar, comforting. Nothing crazy added to it. And the fries were MY STYLE. THE GOOD KINDS! Ask Henry and he will tell you that after 24 years, he still can’t tell what that means.

By this time, it was about 6:45 so we decided to enter the stadium! PART 2 COMING SOON.

I was so excited when I woke up on Sunday! OK, I was probably still being a Sunday Morning Brat, because that’s my m.o., but internally I was freaking out about seeing Stray Kids that night! We planned on getting to the venue around 4ish, because everything we had read had made it sound like this was going to be a logistical nightmare as far as transportation / parking goes because they built this brand new, state of the art venue WITH NO PARKING. More on that later!

To start the day, we stopped at Coffee Culture Cafe near our hotel (I can’t remember if I mentioned but we stayed at some Hilton in Mississauga) and ofc Henry had to be soooo embarrassing. I ordered first and asked if they had almond milk.

“No, just oat milk right now, sorry,” the barista said, and actually looked like she was sorry too, good ol’ Canada.

Then Henry ordered an iced coffee.

“Do you have almond milk?” he asked, and the barista and I made darting eye contact before she slowly repeated, “No, just oat milk right now, sorry.”

I SERIOUSLY WAS SO DISGUSTED. I glared at him and said, “She literally just told us that,” while he mumbled some lame excuse of not knowing why he asked that. Mmmmm!!!!!

Then he asked some other stoop question and this girl, I gotta give her credit. She was so patient with his frustrating ass!!

When we sat down, I hissed, “You make everything so embarrassing and awkward!! People probably think we’re aliens from another planet, ordering THAT HOT BROWN FLUID, MEEP MEEP, PUT IT IN VESSEL WITH FROZEN WATER SQUARES, BLOOP BLOOP for the first time.”

I went with the fresh fruit bowl and it was a good choice. Filling, nutritious, took a long time to eat which I have found is the kind of meals I need to lean into because I eat too fast and then I feel unsatisfied and starved.

Overall, a decent place to get a small breakfast without feeling like shit after.

From here, we drove to the nearest GO Train station and took the train to Bloor St. because there is a vegan Japanese bakery that I have been wanting to try the last several times we were in town BUT it was still so early so Henry suggested the dreaded, “We can just walk around” which always ends up with us trudging through a concrete jungle until I’m on the precipice of hanger. I don’t mind “just walking around” if there are cool shops, or parks, or actual things to see. But this street was kind of boring, at least the part we were on. But then Henry was like, “WAIT, WE CAN JUST WALK TO KOREATOWN!” and I was like, “OK that’s great but if you recall from all the other times we have been here, there is not much open this early in Koreatown!?!?”

Eventually, we decided that we would take the subway to Kensington Market because I was determined to get me another nanaimo bar this time since we didn’t get one when we were last there! And I wanted to bring one home for Chooch.

In case you don’t know, Bunner’s is a vegan bakery and we had our first (and only!) nanaimo bar there during the winter of 2023 and it was just divine, unlike anything I have ever eaten before and I had become lowkey obsessed with it.

“The Nanaimo bar is a no-bake dessert named after Nanaimo, a Canadian city in British Columbia. It consists of three layers: a coconut crumb base, a custard filling, and a chocolate ganache topping.”

Hilariously, we ended up walking all the way to Koreatown anyway to get to the next subway station. It’s crazy how “familiar” this area is to me now yest I still have no idea where it is on a map of Toronto, lol.

I will say that the walk here was rife with Henry-shaped insults. He was getting on my nerves so bad! Then we had an argument because I accused him of not thinking I’m funny and he was like, “I DO THINK YOU ARE FUNNY” and I said, “YOU NEVER LAUGH AT MY JOKES” and then he got defensive and also mad at me for being mad at him and that is my biggest pet peeve when it comes to him! DO NOT APPROPRIATE MY ANGER!!!

Anyway, this wasn’t actually a fight, just me being snippy and Henry brushing it off because nothing ever upsets him and it’s so annoying.

We had to take two subways! Henry didn’t make me aware of this. Luckily, it was an easy transfer. I get nervous about these things.

It wasn’t a far walk at all to Kensington Market once we got off the subway. Nanaimo bars and some other treats acquired! I thought I took a picture of the display case too but I guess not so instead just feast your eyes on all that exciting coffee machinery and bakery boxes!

I love this area so much! I wish we had spent more time here but Henry had me totally panicked about getting to Rogers Stadium later and I couldn’t shake his annoying clock-watching presence. I did duck into a vintage clothing shop but he was making me feel rushed and uncomfy which is not atypical, honestly.

Next time, we will spend more time here. I wanted to shop for art!

It was still kind of early to be thinking about lunch so Henry gave me the option to either take public transportation to Little Italy, which is where the Japanese bakery is, or walk. I said we could just walk because I was in a better mood now that we walked through the contagiously uplifting Kensington Market.

We stopped in a shop called Red Pegasus because I saw these cute cement confetti earrings in the window display and I like to get one of my friends earrings from various cities we travel to for her birthday, which is in a month, so now I feel relieved that I have one less thing looming over me! There was a really cute dog helping us peruse the shop, lol. And the ladies working there were very helpful when I asked if the earrings were locally-made and went out of their way to look it up for me (Manitoba, not Toronto, but that works!).

In Little Italy, we stumbled upon a sidewalk of Italian stars, all of which were clean as a whistle EXCEPT FOR MY BELOVED GINO VANELLI’S!! Gino, they really did you dirty – literally!

We made it to Tsuchi Cafe :)

By this point, I was definitely ready to eat again. Henry was really annoying here too, btw.

Everything looked so delectable! I got the katsu sando and Henry got the karepan, and I immediately wished I had also gotten that because he gave me a bite (ok, several, lol) and it was incredible. SO BEEFY AND GRAVY-Y!

I also got an iced hojicha latte and it was perfect.

Ew, what is he side-eyeing??

I had to pee so bad and 1. pretty sure I didn’t lock the door correctly so I peed in fear; 2. couldn’t figure out how to turn on the lights until after I was done washing my hands.

I sent Henry back up for a hojicha cookie to split afterward and it tasted like a Nature’s Valley granola bar but softer and decadent. This place was such a cute little gem!

Then it was time to walk back to the train station. I was somehow still grumpy but we made it back without me having a full-throttle meltdown at least. I love walking, you guys know I love walking, but for some reason I was SO OVER WALKING on this day!!

Look how fucking dumb-looking I am. Oh well.

But great news! We had the whole train car thing to ourselves!!

I saw this ad for Annie and laughed because I WAS JUST TALKING ABOUT ANNIE THE NIGHT BEFORE. If you read Saturday’s live blog, mayhaps you remember.

Oh! It was embarrassing because we didn’t realize we had chosen the handicapped car so when we were exiting, the train guy had to put down a portable plank for us to walk across. We apologized profusely since we were THE ONLY PEOPLE LEAVING THAT CAR, but he was like, “Eh, I’m Canadian, I’m not bothered.”

I mean, he didn’t say that out loud, but it was implied.

Got back to the hotel around 3PM and started to get ready for the Stray Kids concert! I’m so excited to start recapping that. It was A GOOD TIME.

P.S. OMG I remembered why I was in a bad mood!!! Because there is this tourist site called Casa Loma (a legit castle) that I have been wanting to visit ever since the first time we came to Toronto in 2017 but we never have time. So, after all of Henry’s hullaballoo about GOTTA LEAVE FOR THE STADIUM BEFORE THERE IS NO PARKING LEFT, he had the motherfucking audacity to say to me after we got off the GO train at the Bloor St station, “We can get on the subway right here – it goes straight to that castle place, look” and tried to shove his phone under my nose but I f l i p p e d.

“Why would you even tell me that after saying we couldn’t go? Now suddenly we can go?” I cried, and he backpedaled and said THAT WAS NOT WHY HE WAS SHOWING ME? Oh, I’m sorry, this was just a conversation starter then? A “look how easily we could get to the Canadian place of your dreams if only I cared enough about you” slap to the face???

So, great job, Henry. Way to set me off AS SOON AS WE STEPPED OFF THE TRAIN.

Oh you guys, when Onew announced his US solo tour, I was gagged. And this was legit right after seeing Taemin too!! Onew is lowkey my favorite member of SHINee – yes I love Taemin so much but there is something so magical about Onew’s vocals. I was so anxious about getting decent tickets for this that I opened a CITI credit card so that I could do the CITI Ticketmaster presale like a freaking unhinged kpopper. If I was going alone, I would have had better luck but I still managed to snag Henry and myself two seats in the second row of the balcony so I was content with that. After being on the floor for Taemin’s theater show, I was set on getting balcony seats for this one!

Doors had opened by the time we found our way to back of the line, but there was only one entrance I guess so only small groups were being let in at a time. The people around us in line were so nice though so it was a pleasant wait. The girl in front of us was handing out banners and pouches that held a little flashing LED ball with instructions to remove the little plastic tag during Onew’s performance of “Winner.” She was farther up in line passing them out and her mom, who was standing two people ahead of us, could sense my manic “OH PLZ, ME ME ME” anxiety so she nodded toward me and her daughter came over and banner’d me up :)

Henry declined as usual. Ugh. Not much of a Jjinggu.

(Onew’s fan name! I actually wasn’t sure if he had one but when Megan decided she wanted to stan him, she asked me and I was like, “………you know, I’m not sure!” Then I saw it mentioned on Reddit and almost died because it’s such a cute name. Onew’s real name is Jinki, and the word for “friends” in Korean is CHINGU which you would KNOW of you pay attention to my free teachings here on OH HONESTLY, ERIN DOT COM. A double j is the equivalent of the “ch” sound so…Jjinggus is a mash-up of his name and chingu – Jinki’s friends!)

Henry was commenting on the fact that it was a “strange crowd” meaning notsomuch that it was a collection of strange people, but moreso that there were a LOT of people in line who wouldn’t necessarily be pegged as a Kpop stan. Lots of older (and I mean like even older than Henry) people but it makes sense because SHINee is second gen, so they do have lots of senior fans at this point.

I just had a really good feeling about this, is all I mean to say.

!!!!!!!

OK, Fillmore! I want to say right off the bat that the staff was exceptional and the theater itself was a dream. I was so excited for Onew – while he definitely performs in much larger venues throughout Asia, I really knew he would shine here at the Fillmore.

We were in our seats by 6:30ish, I’d say, which was great until I noticed that the show didn’t start until 7:30. People-watching time! There were mostly older women in the row in front of us – one of them looked to be in her early 70s and she was fucking SHAKING IT throughout nearly the whole show so props to her, living her best golden age! There is just something so inspiring about seeing people of an older generation lose their minds at a concert. I hate to admit this, but younger Erin would have FOR SURE mocked this display and then ran home to post all catty-like about it in her offensive and problematic LiveJournal, but adult Erin understands the true rarity of this type of joy and hopes that she too still experiences this kind of music-related happiness in her elder years.

I guess that is GROWING UP.

Henry tries so hard to be like me so he had to run and grab an IPA before the show started. I had had ENOUGH beer (like, the equivalent of two throughout the entire day!) but I was happy to steal some sips from his can. I am definitely not the type of person who needs to drink at a concert.

MANSPREADING. I took this and sent it to Chooch, who was sick in Philly that weekend but not sick enough to care to live vicariously through us.

And then at 7:30PM, it was Onew Time! He apologized for not having a band or dancers, but yo – if anyone can and SHOULD own a stage on his own, it’s Onew. His stage presence and vocals were beyond, next level, on point, divo coded. Pick one! The vibes were immaculate, as they say.

I knew immediately that this was going to be a night I’ll never forget. When I first REALLY started paying attention to Kpop, I remember looking to see if any of the groups ever toured here because please remember that prior to this, I was an emo girlie, a Sad Boy Music groupie, going to cheap shows at tiny venues so I had NO idea if this stuff was popular here in the States. It was apparently still pretty niche back then but JUST popular enough that some of the bigger groups in Korea were selling out arenas here in the States. I remember getting excited when I saw that SHINee was coming here soon (I feel like this was winter of 2017) so I looked it up and saw that none of the shows were near Pgh and they were all sold-out anyway, lol. That was the last time SHINee was in the States. At the end of that year, Jonghyun took his life, leaving them as a 4-member group and they never came back to the US again.

I am still so scarred by this, still cry over Jonghyun, still think of him heavily on the anniversary of his passing, still keep a framed picture of him on my bedroom wall in reverie.

Kpop may seem like “tone deaf bubblegum bullshit” to some, but it is so special to me and some of these singers have my whole heart. Onew is one of them. So, being a Shawol and missing the chance to see SHINee in their prime, I feel very grateful that I was able to see Taemin AND Onew in the same year!

Sorry, these pictures are basically screenshots from my videos so they are shitty quality, but I need to always remember how precious he looked on this night!

OK, I try not to record too much, but I recorded this full song because it’s one of my favorites and it’s also the exact song that got Megan to stan him so I wanted to send it to her. His vocals are so angelic!! He was so perfect all night. Even Henry said he wasn’t bored during the ballads and that’s usually where singers lose his attention. I kept sneaking peeks at him and he seemed to be focused the whole time!  I mean, he wasn’t moving or emoting, but his eyes were opened and directed at the stage. That’s a big deal.

And “Beat Drum”!!

And “Yay”!

For his encore, he came out with a basket of balls and was sad that he his aim wasn’t powerful enough to get them up to the balcony from the stage (I understood this without having to rely on the translator he had with him! My contextual Korean is semi-decent as long as no one asks me to repeat it back word for word) so he came down off the stage and walked closer to the balcony – I was so nervous that someone was going to fall over because people were clotheslining themselves along the edge, trying to get closer so they could catch one of his balls. I’m not sure what was inside but NCT127 does this too at their concerts – the last one I went to, someone at the end of my row, like 3 people down from me, caught one.

So, that was entertaining.

I think the ONLY annoying thing of the whole night was the girl in front of me who appeared to be anywhere from 15 to 20, I truly couldn’t tell, who was with some broad that looked much older but not her mother? I didn’t get mother-daughter vibes from these two, but the older one had opera glasses with her and the younger one kept leaning back into my sightline so that she could record the older one dancing or singing or fake-crying, I have no idea what was going on but I was like, “CAN YOU HAVE SOME SPATIAL AWARENESS PLEASE, STAY IN YOUR BOUNDARIES.” It only happened a view times but it was so annoying because every time, she blocked my whole view with her idiot head.

The two girls next to me were both singles. The one right next to me recorded the whole entire show, no stopping. Henry’s big oaf body ruined her video though because he got up once in between songs when Onew was talking because he wanted to grab a shirt for me rather than waiting in line after the show. I admit that I do break my “only short clips” rule depending on the concert and will sometimes record the entire song if it’s a BIG FAVE of mine, like something that goes on the perpetual playlist, but I can’t fathom having the endurance or lack of self-consciousness to blatantly hold up my phone through an entire concert. She didn’t seem to be blocking anyone’s view so…cool I guess.

SETLIST:

1. Focus
2. Shape of My Heart
3. O (Circle)
4. Boy
5. Dice
6. Beat Drum
7. Graduation
8. Love Phobia
9. All Day
10. Always
11. Illusion
12. MAD
13. Starry Night (acapella snippet where he said that in Korea, this is the song on the setlist where the fans sing with him but he took it off the US set list. He was like, “Do you want to try to sing some of it together?” and then it all fell apart because only some of the crowd could sing the Korean parts so Onew laughed and said, “Yeah, I think it was a good idea that I took  this off the list” and it was so genuinely funny I love him so fucking much)
14. In the Whale – !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVES AND I DID NOT THINK WE WOULD BE HEARING THIS THAT NIGHT!!!!!!
15. Maestro
16. Yay
17. Winner

ENCORE

1. Hola!
2. Conversation
3. Promise You

Oh, what a beautiful night. Even Henry taking this terrible picture of me couldn’t ruin the vibe.

Then we stopped at a gas station for snacks and bev – Henry the Beer Monster got ANOTHER beer to take back to the hotel and then later saw a WARNING NOTICE that Michigan Law prohibits alcohol from being brought into a hotel, for some reason? “Oh well,” he shrugged, and continued drinking it as the ubiquitous “Friends” reruns played on the TV in the background. Wow, what a fucking rebel.

Anyway, this is a mirror selfie from the lobby of the hotel.

The show was over pretty early (by 9:30!) I guess because since it was just Onew and he didn’t have wardrobe changes, there was no need for the typical VCRs that happen at other Kpop concerts, where the artists leave the stage and you watch some recorded content until they return in new outfits and the stage set is swapped out. This was just Onew churning out song after song on his own and it was EXCEPTIONAL.

On the drive home the next day, I blurted out, “I have to admit something to you and it’s something that I have been thinking about heavily.” Henry looked v. concerned.

“I think I liked Onew’s concert better than Taemin’s,” I said all in one quick mashed-up sentence.

Henry considered this and then said, “Yeah, I can see that.”

Look. Brenda, listen to me before you start running your mouth, OK? It’s just that Taemin is A PERFORMER. He’s a DANCER. He brings dancers with him and has costume changes and elaborate stages. But in America, he performed at small theaters where he was contained to tiny stages and it just really stifled him. Yes, of course he was still fabulous and of course I was ecstatic to have gotten tickets to see him. But it’s just that I know he does HUGE concerts in Asia and this just felt like it did him no justice.

But Onew is a SINGER. He is known for his distinct vocals and incredible singing ability. He performs in musicals, he acts, he singer opera. This man does not need bell and whistles – just a stage, a mic, and his voice. He was incredible and kept me captivated to the end. I felt absolutely OBSESSED by the time we walked out of the theater, and we listened to him the whole way home the next day in the car. I mean, I obviously already loved him so much that I named our car after him (“You did?” Henry recently said, and I was like THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN, I EVEN BLOGGED ABOUT IT THE DAY WE BROUGHT THE CAR HOME?!??“) but it’s on another level now.

Oh, I also want to add that a few years ago, Onew went on a suspicious “hiatus” right after SHINee had a comeback, so they did all of their music show performances and concerts as a three-piece. He looked REALLY gaunt and unhealthy, and then just kind of went off the grid for about a year to the point where I was like, “HENRY CALL SM ENTERTAINMENT AND TELL THEM THAT YOU’RE A CONCERNED KPOP DAD AND DEMAND TO KNOW IF HE’S OK?!” and Henry was like, “Yeah, I’ll get right on that.” But in all seriousness, it was so concerning and handled very poorly by SM (not shocking). Eventually, he made a vague post on IG and we were all so relieved that he was still alive. Shortly after, it was announced that he (and soon after, Taemin) had decided to not renew his contract with SM and signed with Griffin, who has been taking such great care of him. He has been releasing SO MUCH music and then got to come to the US for a tour! Same with Taemin. SM would never send them here. Onew looks so happy and healthy, and as a true fan, that is what you love to see.

Stan Onew!!

I’m a big advocate of post-meal walk-abouts, constitutionals, digestive jaunts – whatever you want to call it. I like to walk after eating. Especially after having been in the car for 4 hours. So, after our so-so Batch Brewing lunch, Henry suggested the Detroit River Walk, as if I would ever say no to that. Right away, we saw a carousel, but it was closed. :(

I begged him to please wear the BooSeokSoon hat that I got him for Christmas, which he has worn NOT ONCE, and he was a big baby about it because he’s ashamed of his Kpop heritage, I guess. Finally, he agreed but said the moment I started being mean to him, it was going in the river. LOL ok, sure, Captain M.T.Threat.  I love this hat so much! I specifically got in a color other than black because ALL OF HIS HATS ARE BLACK, so now he uses the “it doesn’t match anything” excuse. Looks pretty complementary against his burnt orange shirt, if you ask me.

In case you care, BooSeokSoon (a/k/a BSS, a/k/a the gag trio) is a sub-unit of the Kpop group Seventeen. They actually started out as a joke but the fans loved the combo so much that they’re a legit sub-unit now with albums and music videos, and we love them in this house.

Boo = Boo Seungkwan

Seok = Lee Seokmin (his Seventeen stage name is Dokyeom / DK)

Soon = Kwon Soonyoung (his Seventeen stage name is Hoshi)

Here’s a compilation of clips from when they got to hang out with THE LEGENDARY G-DRAGON recently, and it made my Carat/VIP heart swell to abnormal, undocumented sizes.

OK now that I got that out of my system, here are more pictures of the RIVER WALK which is right across from Canada! (Windsor, I believe? I think that is what Jessi told us the next at breakfast.)

Some buildings.

Some mural.

For as many times as we have been to Michigan in general, visiting Bill & Jessi, going to concerts, etc., this was the most amount of time we have spent *in* Detroit. I really want to spend more time there sometime and maybe GO ON THIS BOAT??? It looked so cool. I love river stuff.

Henry is so annoying. BUT ALSO DOESN’T THAT HAT MATCH WELL WITH HIS SHIRT??? I am a big color theory expert.

Then we joined that pro-Canada, Fuck Trump rally that I previously posted about from our hotel room last Saturday night. 

I don’t know what this pose is and I look like trash, but I’m leaving it here though because of Canada <3 looming behind me like the big, beautiful sovereign country it is.

After this, we drove about 20 minutes out of the city to check into our hotel, a Hampton Inn near the Detroit airport, specifically in Romulus. The first time we stayed in this area, I made a joke about how maybe the next time, we could stay in Remus, but it bombed, as Biblical jokes usually do.

This particular Hampton was actually a pretty decent hotel, good job, Henry. It was nearly 4PM by this point, and doors opened at 6PM for the Onew concert so I was in a big hurry to get back downtown and find real food before that, since our lunch was more of a snack than anything else. I didn’t want to be Big Hungry after the concert and needed to eat something sustainable. When you’re an old person, you start pre-planning the types of meals you need to have based on the events you’ll be attending later. Love this for me.

I started screaming when we came up on the Fillmore!!

Little did we know that not only was a baseball game JUST letting out, but it was a double-header so it was a chaotic flux of crowds coming and going. Luckily, we pre-paid for a parking spot in a lot right between the baseball stadium and the Fillmore, so we had that going for us. However, it made it miserable trying to find a place to eat because all of the people leaving the game had teh same idea. I am now super-familiar with three or four blocks of downtown Detroit and it’s much nicer than Pittsburgh, BTW – so lively and lots of cool & fancy shops. Pittsburgh could never. Detroit definitely does not live up to the bad rap it gets.

The original place we were going to eat was Detroit Beer Co. but there was a wait of course, so we kept walking in circles, with no back-up plan, me getting hangrier and hangrier. AND it was kind of chilly and I didn’t have a jacket so I was Mrs. Miz about that too. Then I got very mad because some older man walked by us and he was also complaining about the cold, so his wife goes, “Oh, it’s not that cold. Look, THAT guy is wearing shorts!” and gestured bigly toward Henry. Henry of course gloated about this and that did NOTHING to boost my morale.

We were going to go this fast-food looking place called Mister Dips in a super trendy alley. We were actually standing in line to order when my stomach started to preemptively cramp up on me – the thought of eating an Impossible Burger and then going to a (seated!) concert was making me have hives. In the end, I decided to leave and find something else, but I am keeping this place in mind for the next visit because it looked totally my style!

At the very least, I want one of their shakes!

I thought I did a pretty good job not “throwing a fit,” but I was definitely grumpy. We even went back to the parking lot and sat in the car for a bit before deciding to try Eminem’s Mom’s Spaghetti which is right next to the Fillmore. There’s a walk-up window so we were going to do that and just eat in the car like a pair of hungry, de-homed rats, until we realized that the line we thought was for the Onew concert was actually for the walk-up window. (Oh don’t worry, the Onew line was also long, but it was on the OTHER side of the Fillmore.)

We ended up roaming around again and this time, the Detroit Beer Co has no one waiting in the entrance! We got a table almost immediately and I silently thanked the good Onew for sprinkling the town with his Jinki magic dust.

I was so happy and content. I ordered vegan pasta which was light and just the right amount of filling. And I had this seriously delicious IPA from actually some other brewery, not Detroit Beer haha. It was M-43 N.E. from Old Nation Brewing Co. and now I would like to go visit their establishment sometime!

I really liked the vibe of this place. We were seated by a busboy who reminded me of a younger, nerdier version of Henry’s son Robbie. He was really nice and I felt so bad for him when these two SPORTS DUDES came in, sat at the table behind me, and asked him to PUT THE BASKETBALL GAME ON. The remote / cable / TV in general was really giving this kid a tough time and I sat there helplessly watching him. The TV was right behind Henry, who was in the bathroom, so it was just me and this kid locked into an awkward scene together while the SPORTS GUYS sat behind me and talked SUPER LOUDLY about their SPORTS KNOWLEDGE even though we were the only two tables in this corner – there was no one even remotely within ear shot for them to be trying to impress. I hate white men so much, truly I do. I glanced over my shoulder a few times and they looked just as I had imagined – a few years out of college but still hanging on to the glory years, bearded, big outdoor voices for no reason. The one – the loudest – kept  talking about when he was in Turkey.

WHEN I WAS IN TURKEY.

MY TURKISH FRIEND IN TURKEY.

I know, everyone reading this is like, “OK Erin but replace TURKEY with KOREA—” but I would just like to note here that at least I use my indoor voice when I am constantly reminding everyone around me that HEY GUYS REMEMBER HOW I WENT TO KOREA.

Been a while since we were treated to a COLESLAW MASTICATION shot. I wish I had more of these so I could make a “60 Photos of Henry Slawin’ Down” commemorative book for his upcoming 60th birthday. :(

Henry also ordered a beer as an afterthought, and it took our server (who was great if not slightly flustered) an extremely long time to bring it, and I was doing the big foot-tapping song & dance because it was almost 6PM and I wanted to leave and get in line for the concert. She finally brought it over around 5:50 and I was trying to make him chug it.

“This is not chuggable!” he borked, so I tried it and it immediately burnt the tip of my tongue which is probably a good indication that Henry had the right call there. I went back for another sip and I actually liked it so I kept stealing more sips to “help him.”

Overall, a decent place for pre-concert food and drinks! The pasta was very light and flavorful (and it had artichokes, which I love in pasta when it’s done right) and did not lay in my belly like a load of bricks so I was able to comfortably enjoy Onew and his heavenly vocals. (That will of course be another post!)

It’s currently 9:18pm and the electricity in large swathes of Pgh has been out since around 5pm when some tornado-esque storm blew through and I am sitting here in candlelight bemoaning my new pioneer woman status while blogging from my phone. I’m also dying a little because when we were cleaning out my pappap’s house in 2016 I found an old transistor radio in a kitchen cabinet and brought it home – sometimes I turn it on in the 1980s dream kitchen for the lofi vibes but now Henry has it on because we literally need SOUND in this house right now. Ugh, knock knock electric company. Let’s gooooo.

I dunno is that what a transistor radio is?

In the meantime, here are some pictures of our brewery lunch in Detroit on Saturday! I was really excited for this but it was kind of a let down. The beers were ok but the vibes were off, fam. Unlit, just like my house right now.

Apropos of nothing, I was wearing my SHINee Obama pin on Saturday in honor of Onew <3

Lil baby pours. I think we got all IPAs and a Pilsner. Everything was just fine but nothing made me slam my fists on the table and feel inspired to, I dunno, lift my shirt up.

The fuck, Henry…

I hate ordering from QR codes. All of the “veg” options for the tacos were “out of stock” so I ended up with a side salad and mushroom soup. I didn’t finish either. The soup was really good for the first two spoonfuls then I started to hyper focus on the taste.

Henry got cauliflower wings and I usually love me some cauli-wings but these had a…taste. I can’t explain it but my tongue was like no thank YOU.

The beers, in case I need to reference them at some point in the future. You never know.

A tasteful Untappd snap.

Yeah I don’t know. I probably wouldn’t return here but it wasn’t AWFUL. We did up end up getting a soft pretzel to share and THAT was good.

Well on that note I better go and conserve my phone battery because who knows how much longer we’ll be in the dark over here. Cries in pitch black.

We had the best weekend in Detroit seeing one of my absolute faves, Onew from SHINee. There is so much to unpack but I want to just say for now that our good friends Bill & Jessi (two more of my absolute faves!) made time to meet us for breakfast this morning before we headed back to Pittsburgh. We met at the Red Apple, a local joint that they first took us to probably the first time we visited them I think?! We’ve gone back several times with them since and it’s just a whole vibe – cozy and frozen in time, the perfect backdrop for breakfast and good convo.

I just love how we only see each other once a year but it always feels like we pick right back up. I told Henry on the way up yesterday that I couldn’t wait to tell them about Janna falling into the grave (look in my head it happened, ok??) because I knew they’d appreciate it AND THEY DID.

It was sad not having Chooch with us. His presence was missed big time. Bill & Jessi have always been THOSE family friends to him, you know? He has such a great relationship with them and I attribute a lot of who has grown into to the good quality friends of ours who have been there for him all these years, and Bill & Jessi are definitely that. And we’re all at that age now where we find ourselves openly marveling over how long we’ve been friends, every time we meet up! God bless, LiveJournal.

It’s not that I haven’t always appreciated my friends but you know how weird I have been lately! Every day feels like one big ‘ment’ anymore. (For you non-kpop fans, ments are when kpop artists talk during the concerts about how special the night is, etc. literally “sentiments.”) And I always feel like I’m in a safe space with them. I talked/cried about Drew and didn’t feel judged or that they were uncomfortable by my crying. I guess I didn’t realize how badly I needed to talk about it.

Anyway, enough blathering! It was just really the perfect end cap for a fantastic weekend and I am super full of gratitude. (I know, WHO AM I.)

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

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

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

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

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

OK, theirs. LOL.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We started to make our way over to the Allstate Arena around 6:30 so I could pass out my freebies to people in line. The arena has a plethora of hotels around it so usually when we go to a concert there it’s just a short walk across the street which is so convenient. Especially afterward when all you want to do is go lay down (maybe that’s just us elders) without the struggle of trying to fight your way out of the parking lot. We had to actually drive there from a hotel near the airport when we saw Seventeen because all the close hotels were sold out and I will tell you that it was very annoying.

I ended up having way more NCT freebies than I did for the Taemin concert and it took me so much longer to pass these out which quickly drained my social battery!

Here’s a small selection of what they looked like ^^^

It was fun though hearing people squeal when they saw which member they got! And the lady behind me in line traded me two Haechan pocas after I gave her a pin! She was there with her husband/boyfriend and I did notice that there were guys there than usual. It was funny because I would always tentatively hand a pin to the guys while asking, “Do you want one too?” and they ALWAYS said yes with a quickness except for one dad who was there with his daughter, lol.

I’m dying, imagining going to this kind of a concert with my dad back when I was a teenager.

It was one of the speediest concert entrances I’ve ever experienced since getting into Kpop. Doors opened on time and the lines moved efficiently. No hold ups whatsoever. We had a good hour to kill though once we got inside so we walked around, Henry got a beer, I tried to decide which shirt I wanted – all the merch lines were crazy long but Henry said he would get in line during one of the VCRs.

Anyway, this was the first time I noticed that Robert Smith is on this wall! He caught my eye when we were walking past and I had to circle back against foot traffic to get a picture.

Also, I needed a picture of Henry’s beer for Untappd. It was OK. I didn’t love it so much that I desired a full can for myself. A few sips of his was fine.

First, we went to find Henry’s seat and I was cracking up because he purposely bought a ticket for the very last row of the upper section and even lucked out with an aisle seat. I was all the way down below, three rows back from the floor to the left of the extended stage, similar to where I was for NCT Dream too – same section but I was first row for that one :(

Henry said he actually STOOD UP at some points! He NEVER stands at concerts but I guess there were some songs that he really wanted to see not just hear for NCT127. I’m shook.

This was my view, not too bad at all. I was surround by super unobtrusive and inoffensive NCTzens. I had no trouble seeing even when the rows in front of me filled up and everyone stood. No one was being an asshole. Levels of screaming were normal. Small talk was friendly. There was a single girl to my left and she loved my Haechan shirt and had me take picture of her before the show started. The girl to my right gave me this funny picture of Haechan:

Then the girl was RIGHT next to me was there with her mom and was also very chill. It was just a great experience overall, crowd-wise!

And then the concert started and let me just tell you, I guess enough time had passed between NCT127 concerts because I fucking forget how much they bring the noise for real. They MIGHT be the loudest groups I have ever seen, between the chaos of their music and choreo and the guttural roars of the crowd – there were legit times when I couldn’t tell what song was starting because the droning cacophony of the fans around me were drowning it out. It gets THAT loud for NCT127! I will never forget the first time Chooch and I saw them at KCON 2017 – it sounded like the roof of the Prudential Center was going to collapse from the intensity of the bass during Cherry Bomb. Chooch was just like, “GOOD LORD” and talked about it for days.

I almost didn’t get tickets for this show. Usually I’m waiting on Ticketmaster for the moment tickets go on sale but for NCT127, I tried to reason that I just saw them in 2022, it would mean going back to Chicago two weeks after seeing Taemin, and Taeyong and Jaehyun (my 127 bias!) are in the military.

But you know what, I realized that last bit was exactly WHY I needed to go, because between military enlistments and one member allegedly being a rapist (hasn’t been officially charged yet but it does seem pretty damning), the remaining members need our support. What kind of fair-weathered NCTzen would I be if I skipped this?

Plus, it is very hard for me to rationalize passing the opportunity to see my ult NCT bias, Haechan. I just REALLY adore him!! His voice is so unique and I love watching him dance.

You don’t care but: Johnny, Haechan, Mark, Yuta, Jungwoo, Doyoung.

Previously, Henry’s bias was Yuta but after this concert, he has officially added MARK to the list of not just NCT127 biases, but TOP 5 BIASES ACROSS ALL GROUPS! He really put a lot of thought into it too:

1. G-Dragon
2. Mark
3. Yuta
4. Hoshi
5. Taemin

COMING OUT CASKET FRESH.

My favorite moments of the night were finally seeing Walk, the inclusion of a recording and video of Jaehyun during Lemonade and Touch, WHIPLASH!!!!!!!!!!, and the fucking powerhouse vocals during No Longer. I was screaming, literally – my throat was HURT.

And Chain!!!!

I am so glad that we went to the Chicago stop because it’s Johnny’s hometown and that just made it feel more special, like when we saw NCT Dream in Long Island and Mark had actually spent a good portion of his childhood living there.

I felt that the ending ments were very emotional, particularly Mark, Haechan, and Johnny. Haechan seemed to be alluding to the fact that he or maybe others might be performing with injuries or their bodies just not in the best condition, Mark seemed to be hard on himself and worried that his voice didn’t sound good, and Johnny – who is now 30 years old and I can’t accept this – was very sentimental and focused on time passing so quickly and the panic about remembering the important moments. It was….so relatable. The fact that this group was less than a year into their debut when I first saw them in 2017 – Jungwoo wasn’t even a member yet – and now two of them are in the military…it makes me feel old too.

Time is so scary. Mortality is depressing.

But, as long as I have music in my life, and concerts to look forward to, and comebacks adding fanatical excitement to my days, I will stay young at heart. People say they don’t understand this and I feel sorry for those people. It doesn’t have to be Kpop, it could be classic rock, it could be metal, it could be Broadway shows or sports or beer. As long as we have that one thing that inspires joy, who needs the validation of people who don’t understand it.

SETLIST

1. Gas
2. Faster
3. Bring the Noize
4. 2 Baddiess
5. Skyscraperr
6. Chain
7. Designerr
8. Orange Seoull
9. TOUCHH
10. No Cluee
11. Pricey
12. Regular (English version)
13. Sticker
14. Whiplash
15. Lemonade
16. Rain Drop
17. Can’t Help Myself
18. Gold Dust
19. No Longer
20. Far
21. Kick It
22. Fact Check

Encore:

1. Intro: Wall to Wall
2. Walk
3. Meaning of Love
4. Dreams Come True
5. Promise You

As always, I’m so grateful that I was able to go to this, that Henry is also a fan so that we could dish about it the entire drive home the next day, and that moments of happiness like this still exist in a world that is in flames.

We had a few hours to kill before the NCT127 concert so like true homebodies we went to a nearby beer store and got some IPAs to drink in our hotel room while eating HMart snacks and I walked back and forth forever to get steps after sitting in the car all day.

What extravagant lives we lead.

In all honesty though, I still get pre-concert gut gurgles even at this old and wizened age. You’d think I was the one going on stage.

If Henry is sitting with me, there’s much less anxiety but we typically DON’T sit anywhere near each other at Kpop concerts because I like to get the best seat as possible within reason and it’s just too much $$$ for us to get two tickets together. So, Henry will usually wait until the day-of and get the cheapest seat he can find which always puts him way in the back row of the upper level. He’s fine with that but I always have to get myself pumped up knowing that I’m going to be sitting alone and may need to make small talk with those around me.

This is part of the exorbitant price I pay to see my Kpop faves though. Worth it.

Anyway, we stayed at an Extended Stay near the Allstate Arena and it was OK. The room was outdated but clean. I hated the people in the room next to us who kept banging into the wall but Henry, in my interpretation of his non-action, was like YOU ARE OVERREACTING. OK, cool, whatever. I did feel guilty for a second because what if it was other NCTzens next door, but the thumping was still going strong when we came back that night too so I don’t think they were there for the concert.

Also, the fact that I am sitting here a week later, at 7:56am, typing furiously about a faint and sporadic thumping that bothered me really illustrates how neurotic and unreasonable I am.

Ugh. Moving on, here’s what I wore to NCT127: The Movement!

1. I am so happy that my Neobong has gotten so much use over the years! I know lightsticks can seem like a ridiculous splurge and my collection is growing to an embarrassing size, but it really is such a huge part of the concert culture! Shout out to my king, G-Dragon, for starting the trend.
2. I decided to go Haechan-biased this time. For NCT Dream, I lean toward Renjun, but Haechan is my overall bias across the whole NCT universe. I was so stoked to see him again that night! Twice in 2024 with Dream, and now this year with 127? Fuck yeah.
3. Also, this was the 4th NCT concert I got to wear my DIY NCT shoes to! And THE FIRST TIME someone complimented them, thank you for noticing, person in line to get into the arena!
4. Henry is getting better at taking pictures of me ever since I sent him a tutorial on Instagram where some young photographer was like, “Watch me teach my dad how to take photos of me.” I sent it to Henry and now he remembers to take the appropriate steps so that I don’t look like a mongoloid.
5. I wore my homemade Haechan pendant which is super outdated (look at baby Haechan!!) but I love it still. The other NCT necklace was made by my friend Danielle from The Idol Collective and it is the perfect neo-accessory.
6. The shirt features Haechan from the “Favorite” comeback special “The Vampire House” and this one of my favorite comeback cycles.

I’m sure I have posted so many versions of this in the past but this is one of my top NCT songs ever and it reminds me of fall 2021 which was a really nice time in my life as opposed to now which feels like life is flipped on its head but that’s ok, we’ll get through it one Kpop concert at a time, haha.