*I can only type in Pittsburghese

In a continuing effort to not be old people rotting on the couch, Henry and I went downtown after work last night to see “Nirvanna: The Band, The Show, The Movie” which comes highly recommended by the imitable, hard-to-impress Chooch. The weather wasn’t too bad so we opted to just take the T downtown, and it was a very uneventful ride. However, we did NARROWLY miss having a bunch of Disney on Ice attendees jamming onto the same T as us – they came unprepared and were n00bs at the fare booth so they had to wait for the next one. See ya, suckers!

Dumb Henry thought the movie started at 7PM, so we got there around 6:30PM and the Harris Theater people were confused, and all like, “Yes? Can we help you?” and that is how we found out that it didn’t start until 7:30. We ended up walking to Market Square to kill time at The Space Bar.

It was OK. Gimmicky and Instagrammable, nice bartender, but I wasn’t really WOW’d by it, possibly because as usual I had order remorse.

OK what the actual fuck with this picture though?? I swear when I took it last night, it was a normal picture. Then I looked at it later and it had morphed into Foreigner’s Double Vision. Sadly, I HADN’T EVEN HAD A SIP OF IT YET, LITERALLY NO LIQUOR WAS IN MY SYSTEM when I snapped what looked like the 5th cocktail of a Thursday night bender.

But yeah, it was the Yogo Zogo and served legitimately like a boba, in a sealed plastic cup and all. It was good (I mean, it had yogurt soju which is one of my favorite soju flavors) but I dunno, for $15 I should have got something more Space Bar-ish I guess.

It did the trick though because I was fully buzzed.

The…bathMOON.

Sufficiently inebriated, we made our way back to the Harris where I proceeded to ask the concession stand person, “WHERE DO WE GO” like it would have been so hard to figure out but sometimes when I’m in public, it’s like I’m an alien here on secondment. I truly should not be allowed to leave the house, in all honesty.

I would like to add here that I didn’t watch the trailer for this. I just looked up a short synopsis and thought, “This is probably not something I’d go see on my own volition” but Chooch’s enthusiasm was very convincing.

The theater gradually filled up a good bit for a Thursday night in a downtown that generally has little after-6PM activity. I have to say, this may have been the most fun I have had in a theater, laughing with strangers?! The audience really elevated an already hilarious movie and I am so glad that I listened to Chooch and went to see it in the theater because it was exponentially more fun than watching it at home. I’m just saying, when your college-aged kid deigns to give you their recommendations, TAKE IT.

There was one part where I was simultaneously laughing and crying to the point that I started to shake and I was concerned I was having a nervous breakdown; it was so alarming. Maybe I just had that much stress built up and all the laughing was cleansing my head, I don’t know but I felt GREAT when we left!

Also, what a great little theater. I am ashamed to say that, even working downtown in the office for 10 years, I have only been to this theater ONE TIME and it was WHEN I WAS PREGNANT, so…2005 or 2006? Janna and I had gone there to see a Neil Gaiman movie (MirrorMask–I remember NOTHING about this except that Janna and I got on the wrong T coming home so Henry had to pick us up at one of the stations and then I accidentally slammed Janna’s hand in the car door when we got back to my house). The amount of times I’d look at the flyers in the window and say, “Oh, I should see that after work…” and THEN NEVER DID IT is actually so annoying.

Then we had to wait for-fucking-ever for the T to come (as usual, fuck you Pgh) and then the same fucking Disney on Ice families that missed the inbound T earlier WERE ON THE SAME ONE AS US ON THE WAY BACK AND IT WAS ABSOLUTE HELL. Yinzers would never survive in other countries that have SUBWAY SILENCE etiquette. Also, the cast of The Pitt could have really done some bigly accent studying on that T, Jesus Christ.

Overall, though? I AM SO GLAD WE WENT! And I’m even more glad that Chooch thinks I’m cool enough to give movie recommendations to.

Plus! We got to be serenaded on the walk home from the T.

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We were watching something where people were at a BBQ place in Buffalo and they got an order of hush puppies so I cried out in victory, “Hush puppies! I could get hush puppies if we ever went where.” Because you, vegetarians don’t typically fare well at bbq joints.

And just like that, a hidden memory was unlocked about the time in 1998 or 1999 when my then-friend Cinn and I went to some business in Forest Hills for a job interview (we both got it and on the day we were about to start, I was like, “Surprise! I quit” before even leaving the house hahahah, oh my lady of leisure days). On our way out of Forest Hills afterward, we stopped at a Long John Silvers because we both wanted hush puppies. I had no money on me but Cinn had a handful of Susan B Anthony coins for some fucking reason and that is how we paid for our hush puppies.

I told Henry this story and his only takeaway was, “Where was there a Long John Silvers out that way?” and even though I explicitly painted its location onto the imaginary map I was drawing in the air with my finger, he refused to take my word for it and had to do his own mental mapping before arriving at the same point as me, a full 10 minutes later.

Anyway, then we took the hush puppies back to my apartment and don’t quote me but I’m pretty sure it was the same day we took this dumb picture and I also have a vague memory of Cinn teasing my beloved cat Marcy with a hush puppy.

By the way has a hush puppy ever gotten so many shout outs in one blog post??

Checking in from a Thursday after Henry and I went out and did a social thing and both actually talked to people and I feel really drunk but also nice right now and also here is my cat Penelope stressing out because all of my library requests came in at once and what should we read first!! (There are also two I pictured books plus two audio books I’m drowning but I’m the best literary lake.)

(Image from Yahoo!Sports on Threads, dunno who else to credit hopefully not fucking AI)

Hey you guys – reporting from the other side of the Superbowl, the first one that I actually kept on my TV for its entirety! I truly tried to watch the actual football part out of solidarity for Chooch, who LOVES the Seahawks, but I admittedly lost interest repeatedly and returned to the book I was reading instead.

I have really nothing to say about the actual footballing except that:

• yay, Chooch’s team won!
• that one guy on the other team was #0 – how? I texted Chooch and he said, “because he asked for it nicely.”
• I still only know #11 from the Seahawks but they all seem like nice boys (I hope).
• I thought that someone could run after a bouncing ball, grab it, keep running. This is not so.
• Henry is very patient with me and my questions, even when I say, “never mind, I’m bored” in the middle of his explanations.

But yeah, like other normal, non-racist Americans who understand that this country is not exclusively for Caucasians, I came for Benito Bowl. I wouldn’t go as far as to say I’m a Bad Bunny fan, but I at least knew who he was well before this and have heard his music before and also think he is a pretty entertaining guy. Choosing him for the halftime show was such a strong statement, how could I not support that? I needed to be a part of that ratings tally, lol. Also, the whole “But it won’t be in English?!” argument does not work with me because:

• I started listening to Korean music (+ Jpop!) in the early 00s, again in 2015 and then almost exclusively since 2017
• Before that, I listened to screamo which was actually English but never had any idea what was actually being…scrummed. (Not to mention the lyrics for the screaming part of Dance Gavin Dance’s songs are in English but MAKE NO SENSE.)
• When Chooch was a baby, I used to buy these Putumayo Kids World Music compilation CDs because I wanted him to know non-English music and also this is how I became accidentally obsessed with Haiti.
• Lately, I have been listening to a lot of Romanian and Afrobeat playlists and realized that wow, I barely listen to any American music.

So, all of this is to say – the words don’t matter much to me as long as the music makes me feel something. It’s one thing if you’re annoyed because you’re a lyrics-driven music fan – OK, I get that – but if you’re bitching about the Halftime Show being in Spanish BECAUSE THIS IS ‘MURICA SPEAK ENGLISH then honestly, go touch grass, preferably a patch that a dog just pissed on. Imagine being served a vibrant 13 minute celebration of Puerto Rican culture orbiting an intelligent political statement yet opting to watch….KID ROCK? Lol, OK. These are the same motherfuckers who have no problem slithering their white trash asses on a cruise ship to Puerto Rico. And the same racist shits who openly hate Black people but love football – a sport with many Black athletes. MAKE. IT. MAKE. SENSE.

Bad Bunny’s performance gave so many of us a reason to be happy.  This was a cultural masterpiece, a part of history.

Between this and the eloquent statements put out by several Team USA Olympians, this weekend truly felt like being wrapped up in a warm blanket knit from sane voices, respect for other cultures, and the reminder that the US was always meant to be a melting pot. There are still so many normal people out there, you guys, we’re still out there!!

P.S. Chooch and I were texting about this today and I said that I cried. “Yeah, I knew you would lol,” he replied. Wow.

Hello, it’s Saturday. Here’s some things.

Earlier today, Henry and I went to see the Stray Kids’ DominATE concert film at the theater. I love love love that a lot of Kpop groups do this because it’s so fun to relive the shows, especially on an otherwise blah winter afternoon. And especially with no Kpop concerts on the horizon :( C’mon BIGBANG, don’t let me down!

Han is still 100% my bias but I unexpectedly walked out with a new bias wrecker – Changbin. That one came out of left field for me.

It feels like it was so long ago when we went to the Toronto stop of that tour!

Stray Kids DominATE, Part2

Enhypen’s concert film is coming out next month and you best believe I will be stuffing my ass into a theater seat for that one too.

In real life concert updates, I bought us tickets to see Clan of Xymox with Past Self in Columbus this April. I have been wanting to see Past Self for a good bit now, and annoyingly – Clan of Xymox will be in Pgh the next night but WITHOUT Past Self. So, road trip it is. Also, I have never see Clan of Xymox but used to enjoy them when I was in my goth phase from 1997-2000 so my old Darkchat persona, Ruby Red, is very much looking forward to this!

Henry is like, “Wait, what now?” LOL. He’ll be fine.

Speaking of Henry, here is a super zoom of him renewing our Coaster Crew memberships which is a good sign because I have been begging him to agree to register us (+Chooch) for their big 2027 trip. I even said that I will shelve my hopeful 2026 Korea trip for this one so…we’ll see, lol. He is constantly reminding me that we are not rich people. BUT WHY CAN’T WE PRETEND LIKE IT. YOLO, FOMO, etc.

Cozy Olympics Time.

This was all I cared about, lol. Hey speaking of Enhypen, one of their songs is being used as Korea’s cheer song for the winter Olympics and Sunghoon was one of the torchbearers. I’m a proud ENGENE <3

I like to send Chooch pictures every night of Penelope sitting with me just to stoke the rage within him.

A beer I had the other night that I really liked! I’m mostly over the beer phase (some of my phases just don’t stick, it’s OK – if ever there is one that I don’t want to stick, this would be one) but we do have that event on Thursday at Lolev and I’m even more excited for it now because Kara and Chris are going too! The first time Kara and I did a vegetarian food and beer pairing together, I was very adamantly anti-beer and now the main reason why I got tickets to this one is because I LOVE Lolev’s beer!

(Um excuse me while I gag myself but I just realized that the aforementioned veg/beer thing was NINETEEN YEARS AGO???)

 Additional thoughts:

This season of Bridgerton is my favorite

Ever since we went to that dumb WWE thing in December and I had to redownload the Penguins app to access the tickets, I started getting live notifications during the Pens games and immediately became obsessed with hockey again and they have a player who is younger than Chooch – I had to really let one sink in

I’m typing this during a particularly gruesome moment of Bring Her Back so I don’t have to look

Well, other than crying all weekend over the fascist state of America, ugh’ing at the gross amount of snow we got here on Sunday and waking up to a stomach virus at 5am yesterday (twice in three mths, how does one get so lucky?!) I have nothing to share today expect for this picture of Buddy braving the snowstorm for some walnuts – the Oh Honestly Bistro is open 24/7.

And as always, FUCK ICE.

Something interesting happened. I dragged Henry to the Hollywood Theater last night to see Hamnet. Yes, I know! Crazy – Henry willingly going to see to an historical fiction book adaption. But that’s not the interesting thing.

I read this book a few years ago and got really excited when I saw that there was a film adaption because in my head, this was a 5-star read. That’s how I sold Henry on it. “No really, I read the book and it was so good, you’ll love it.”

But then the night before, I checked Goodreads and I actually gave it 3 stars (lol) which is FINE, that doesn’t mean I hated it by any means, but it made me start to remember things, like it was “too descriptive” (god forbid! I’m in a hurry!) and “too Shakespeare-y” (LOL, obviduh?). But all of that said, I do remember that it made me cry and that is how I know that on a certain level, even for my eclectic / maybe pedantic taste, it was a good book.

We get there. STILL NOT SERVING BEER. But they say next week, they should have their renewed license. I don’t know if it’s a good thing or bad thing that I didn’t have a beer to nurse during what would become the most emotionally fraught 2.5 hours of my most recent years.

Not a spoiler as this is LITERALLY the premise of the book/movie, but when Hamnet convulses and dies in Agnes’ arms, my tear ducts nearly blew out. I was crying so violently that I had to cover my mouth and nose with a popcorn buttered napkin in an attempt to stiff back the audible wails that were threatening to burst out of me.

I sobbed as hard as I did the day Drew died because I felt like I was watching Drew’s death on the big screen. Drew was Hamnet. I was Agnes. I was shattered.

I have dreamt of Drew here and there since she died but she has appeared more frequently over the last few weeks, in such visceral and vivid vignettes that I wake up forgetting that she’s not here anymore. In my dreams, I can touch her. I’m carrying her. (That’s how I know it’s a dream because in real life she never let me pick her up lol.)

And then I remember she’s gone and I’m losing her all over again in real time. My Bambi. My Ursula’s Shoulder Pad. My Suez.

The trauma part isn’t as prevalent anymore – therapy did help with that – but I can’t help but wonder if the recent dreams culminating with last night was supposed to happen, like I’ve been “stuck” in a grief whirlpool and this pulled the plug. Because, I’ll tell you – when the final scene happened, where Agnes goes to London with her brother and sees that William has written a play about their son, and at first she’s like this is blasphemous but then she gets it, she really sees it and understands that it was William healing through writing and acting and it helps her get closure too and for the first time since Hamnet died, shes able to smile and laugh at the memory of him.

(I am so wrecked writing this.)

And I’m wondering, does Henry need to write a play about Drew? Is this what my takeaway was meant to be?! Just kidding, That would not be a good play, lol. Everyone would be talking in one word grunts. Like if a stick figure drawing was adapted to a script.

But honestly, for as emotionally spent I feel today, I think I needed that to happen. I think I needed to let myself cry THAT HARD again because I stupidly had myself convinced that I should be “over it” by now and “shouldn’t be” crying “that hard” anymore. No.

I’m still not over it. But last night made me realize that one day it really will hurt less and I will finally be able to look at pictures of her and smile and laugh, because brother I will tell you, that is not yet the case.

My therapist and I have some things to talk about next week, clearly.

But yeah, comparing the death of William Shakespeare’s son to the death of my cat and then opening the door when grief came knocking for the second time – that was an interesting thing that happened on a relatively normal Wednesday night.

—————-

Also, before I go, Jacobi Jupe MADE this character. JFC, he wasn’t even in HALF of the movie yet his performance ran circles around Timothee Chalomet in Marty Supreme. It felt like he was actually dying and I was like NO MAYBE IT WILL SWERVE FROM THE BOOK AND HE WILL LIVE PLZ DONT LET HIM DIE I CANT DO THIS AGAIN.

ugh.

Fantastic movie. Absolutely moving performances. (Jessie Buckley was possessed AF in this role.) Stunning cinematography. I’m glad I saw it. I hope it wins more awards. I will never watch it again.

We’re en route to Philly (BIG SAD FACE) and I need to record this for posterity: before we left this morning, OUR HOUSE BY MADNESS was playing on the radio in our bedroom. Ughhhhhh. (If you read my NYE post, then you know!)

It’s 9:54am and Henry just ate a full Tastykakes pack like there was no tomorrow. Probably didn’t even chew.

Lololol.

12:11pm: An hour left – I finished this book in the meantime which is why I have neglected this boring-ass live blog.

Here are some pictures from our late lunch at Tillie’s yesterday! Chooch requested that we go there and we never say no to a Tillie’s request.

During lunch, chooch made a comment about how Henry “always” leaves leftovers at the restaurant which is hyperbolic but he has definitely done this on occasion! More like leftovers-adjacent but there was this time where we METICULOUSLY curated a bag of taffy from the candy shop at Holiday World only for Henry the Stoop to leave it in the hotel room after we checked out the next morning. (He had put it in the mini fridge, making it out of sight, out of mind!)

And wouldn’t you know it, we were nearly out of McKeesport when Chooch goes, “did you bring the food?” NOPE. NO HE DID NOT. Henry decided to go back and I was like there is no way they kept it, that shits been trashed, but Henry insisted that since it had only been 10 minutes it would likely still be there?! Like there is some “10 minute” guarantee on left behind leftovers?!

No. It was gone. LOL. My friend Chris commented on my IG post and said leaving behind Tillie’s leftovers is a mortal sin – AGREED. You’re the worst, Henry.

12:18pm: Chooch doesn’t have his backpack. His laptop is in his backpack. Awesome!

1:38pm: on our way to a cafe and I think this is the best subway experience we’ve had in Philly ever.

Also some guy was playing Luther Vandross’ “here & now” on his saxophone while we were waiting and I originally thought it was Vanessa Williams’ “Save the Best for Last” – I think something is actually deteriorating (not dethroning like autocorrect assumed) in my brain. :(

2:13pm: Henry said it looks like he’s praying to get away from us wow.

Anyway we made it to Grindcore House!

Satisfying!

Chooch is being so annoying BTW.

3:11pm: made it back to whatever station this is.

Chooch is still being annoying. (Look at his hostage smile?!!) And Henry is complaining. I just look old and tired.

3:42pm: Chooch is looking for his wallet in the car before we drop him off because I can imagine that being another pertinent item he left at home. Henry said something about him being a dick. “Can you please not swear in front of him,” Chooch said before causally saying, “oh there’s my gum!”

Anyway he things his wallet is in his backpack in his room in Pgh lololol ugh.

3:51pm: We just dropped him off and he said “cool bye I’ll see you in Korea I guess.” Wow bye love you too.

oh here are pictures of the Grindcore House bathroom:

And now for the long drive home.

What a nice time with Chooch though, getting to revive our fake rivalry over who Penelope loves most, jokingly telling him to can it every time we fake bicker, watching Season 5 of Stranger Things over Thanksgiving and Christmas and seeing the finale together at the theater. That dumb WWE thing. Seeing Marty Supreme with him at the Hollywood Theater on Friday (such a fantastic but stressful film!!) and sharing Stranger Things memes and theories. I really love that kid. :(

5:06pm: Now we’re listening to the Pens game on iHeartRadio lol. I had to redownload the Pens app to access the WWE tickets from work and in doing so I started getting game notifications again and just like that, sucked back in. I haven’t actively watched since 2017 or so because we got rid of cable and I had no way to watch after that and considered it a blessing for my health because as you may know, hockey was such a blood pressure jacker for me. I have no idea who even anyone is on this team now aside from the mainstays.

5:39pm: Pens made it to overtime with like 14 seconds left!

Henry keeps asking me all these Pens questions and I’m like bro I haven’t paid attention to hockey for the same amount of time as you so how would I know?! Apparently he just wants me to google all of this for him for free. (I didn’t even know who their new coach was!!)

5:43pm: YOOOO PENS WIN IN OT! CROSBY! On that note I’m ending this live blog. 2 hours and 42 minutes left.

7:06pm: Remember when I mentioned I won suite tickets to a WWE event that I wasn’t trying to win tickets for? Well, that night has arrived.

I’m here with Henry, Chooch and three of Chooch’s friends who were way less annoyed about attending this thing than I was.

Will they come out of here with as much pyrotechnics as EriKa KirK???

All my work friends told me to at least come and take advantage of the free food. This is all I can eat. The meatless pierogies have kielbasa and bacon bits all over them. :(

YOU GUYS I TAKE IT ALL BACK THIS BROAD JUST ANNOUNCED WHO’S GOING TO BE HERE TONIGHT AND SHE SAID THE MIZ??

IM SUDDENLY EXCITED.

MY MTV REAL WORLD / ROAD RULES CHALLENGE HEART JUST SWELLED.

7:18pm: I’ve just learned that The MIZ is a villain. I’m rooting for him.

7:34pm:

Whoever this guy is. DONT POINT AT ME.

I like this guy though:

I think everyone else hates him though. He just left the ring like a baby.

7:44pm OK my guy lost. I hate wrestling.

7:56pm: I had to just ask Henry if the bad guys ever win because this feels RIGGED.

Fraxiom is dumb.

8:00pm: LETS GOOOOOOO

I think he’s going to lose. People are freaking out over this other guy.

Chooch just texted me “Carmelo is winning” stfu boy.

You guys I just cheered alone in a sea of boos lol.

OH MAN and he just derobed to reveal a Cleveland Browns jersey?!? I extra love him lol. Everyone here HATES HIM bigly.

OMG this other guy just did 6 7 and someone behind me said “I want him to lose now.” LOL.

R I G G E D

Now I don’t have to pay attention to the rest of this.

8:30pm I’m clearly not in the know.

Ok what wow:

What in the Hills Have Eyes is this.

8:38pm: I just took a bathroom break because I don’t care about anything now that The MIZ has lost.

Henry is just happy that I won’t be buying merch lol.

8:46pm: wow what a shocker the guys everyone wanted to win won.

That thing in the dress did nothing btw.

8:51pm: intermission. They just announced the main event or whatever and it’s some guy who is a champion. Never heard of him.

Apparently the Chex mix is the Pgh Penguins snack mix.

OMFG I just said that the MIZ should go back to doing The Challenge and Henry frowned and said, “His body is too beat up. He moves so slow.” W O W.

Dude the amount of times I’ve said, “this has got to be almost over, right?”

9:08pm: THERE ARE TWO MORE TITLES ON THE LINE.

Chooch and all his friends are recording this guy. I guess he is someone.

Wait everyone likes this guy more.

OMG:

Wait I think those guys are on a team never mind.

9:31pm: yay finally people I wanted to win won so I got to clap. Also WWE has lots of inside jokes I’m not privy to but they seem stupid so I don’t care.

I yelled THAT MEANS CRAZY IN KOREAN and Henry was like ok sure but then I googled her and that’s why her name is Michin so STFU to everyone who doesn’t listen to me.

questions:

Do ppl ever actually get for real hurt doing this?

And if so, how would anyone know it wasn’t part of the act?

Omg Henry is sending videos to his work friend.

THIS REF SUCKS.

9:46pm: THE MAIN EVENT IS STARTING. chooch and all of his friends have their phones up, recording lol.

The one guy is McIntyre. Never heard of him. I guess he will be wrestling the top guy whom I have also never heard of but Henry informs me I know his dad.

This McIntyre guy is like 50.

who???

Holy shit is hair plastic??? Is he from LAZYTOWN??

All the sadistic fans in the crowd wanted the table and now they got the table.

10:35pm: welp, waiting for the T with a bunch of unruly WWE fans. What a weird night.
Henry is bragging to Chooch about going to THREE OR FOUR WWF events as a child bc Judy knew someone and one time – HE GOT TO SIT IN THE FRONT ROW. Chooch and I both said “wow” in an our monotoned surly teen voice at the same time.

ETA: Home now – I just asked chooch if his friends had fun and he said, “yeah I’m pretty sure the only person who didn’t have fun was you.”

W O W. OK first of all, I was fine?? I just wanted more of THE MIZ. I thought at the end, they’d all come out for a goodbye parade like the idols do at KCON and other Korean music events and award shows but I guess not?? It just ended with that winning guy with the plastic Ken hair?!

Also one of the guys in the suite next to ours was so hostile but in a very PG way and kept screaming YOU STINK! and WE WANT THE TABLE!

I’m so ready for bed.

*******

ETA Part 2: It’s the next morning and I have had time to collect some sober, unstimulated thoughts. Here we go:

• I neither liked nor disliked the evening. The MIZ was fun, I was bored numerous times, it didn’t hold my attention but I also didn’t feel anger being there. So that’s something!
• I LOVED WWF as a kid in the 80s. There wasn’t a single wrestler there last night that gave me nostalgic vibes. In fact, I have already forgotten every single one of their names except for the Miz of course and MICHIN!
• That son of Rhodes guy is GENUINELY the best they’ve got??? That’s pa-THET-ic. That guy was so fucking lame and boring??!
• WWE by far has WAY more diversity than I remember WWF having back in the day so I will give them snaps for that for sure. (But also, how is TRUMP able to support this??!! lol)
• I liked that they gave love to the kids with disabilities down by the…rink? No, ring.
• I’m just happy that Henry, Chooch and his friends had fun. I can’t remember the last time I saw Henry laugh so much (????) and I kept looking across the aisle at Chooch & Co and they were taking pictures, cheering, and actually paying attention which was wild because I was way on the other side of the attention span, dangling, holding on with three fingers.

I started calling her Splenny Looharrian at some point last year and Chooch has big rejected it.

Henry accidentally called her Splenny the other night and he was so mad about it hahah. I live with such haters.

Henry and I are en route to Chicago and I just got an IG ad for plasma donation.

“You should sell your plasma so I can pay off my G-Dragon debt,” I cried, lightbulbs popping off in my head. “You can get up to $750 and you can do it several times a week!”

Henry asked if there was an age limit so I had to go to the FAQs where my eyes accidentally grazed upon the section that talks about the actual process and I started violently gagging and tenderly rubbing my arms which were phantomically (it’s a word now) going through the procedure. (Barb told me once that she thought I was an empath because of how I feel things like this and then I referenced it once later and she was like, “YOU? An EMPATH?? I never said that.” LOL wow!)

Anyway, once I told him the process takes 1.5-3 hours, his interest piqued. “That’s like a dream day for you,” I said. “Just sitting there scrolling through IG reels and sleeping….”

“And not being bothered by you. That sounds amazing, actually,” Henry finished. You guys, I still owe over $3000 in GD debt so he better get started.

This reminded me of how Christina used to sell her plasma back in the day to afford Greyhound tickets to visit me in Pittsburgh from Cinci. This was no secret, I used to talk about it at the job I had back then and then one day someone brought it up because they were asking about the process and another co-worker goes, “oh THAT plasma?? I was going to say, how does your friend continuously have so many TVs to sell?!”

That’s all. 22 minutes away from Chicago! Seeing Key from SHINee tonight!

I started to wake up from a fairly deep sleep around 1:30AM when I heard Chooch talking loudly on the phone and barreling down the steps. I assumed he was on a call with his friends and possibly leaving the house? But then he texted me this:

Apparently, he was on the phone with 911!!! I don’t know how Henry and I didn’t wake up when this happened, but Chooch was still awake and heard it as soon as it happened and, being the SON OF HENRY, he jumped to action. He said the 911 person was very unhelpful but it was OK because there were people down the street who had also called 911. Chooch said when he peered into the car, the driver was just sitting there staring into space – YEAH, I BET?! That looks like a CRAZY accident!

We think what happened was that the driver (it turned out to be a young woman) was speeding DOWN our street (these things usually happen the other direction) and hit the front of the Jeep parked on the side of the street, spun out and the car flipped over on its side facing back UP the street??

The only good news here is that there did not appear to be any injuries, somehow. The owner of the Jeep is a woman who works at that behavioral health house up the street from us, so she was out there too. We missed the part where they got the driver out, but we did see her spectacularly fail the “walk the line” test and into the cop car she went.

I was watching all of this from the bedroom window and here’s way – she was a lone woman out there with a bunch of male cops. Someone needed to keep an eye on things. Isn’t that sad? That we can’t trust the people who take a pledge to protect us? What a world.

During my vigil at the window, I watched THIS COP CIRCLED UP THERE toss something into the yard of the church across the street and walk off toward his cop mobile that was parked in front of my house.

“THAT PIG JUST LITTERED!” I cried to Henry, blood pressure rising. “I’M GOING OUT THERE TO SAY SOMETHING!” Henry didn’t even try to stop me. I’m sorry, but littering is one of my all-time biggest pet peeves and I cannot fucking stand to see it. Most of my confrontations in life have been me calling someone out for littering (this was my 4th confrontation, where the fuck is my GIRL SCOUTS badge for this shit??).

So, there I went, flying out my front door like the Kool-Aid Man in their Aunt Sharon’s oversized Bon Jovi tour shirt from the 80s, no bra, joggers, and no socks, arms protectively covering their chest. That was me. That’s what I’m trying to say,

“Excuse me, excuse me!” I yelled, as the littering cop was now getting back out of his copmobile, having moved it off the road and into my driveway (OH OK, BE MY GUEST). Now I need to preface this real quick by saying that I would not have went out there if anyone was transported away in the ambulance. No one was. The only carnage out there was the car on its side.

First of all, the cop – a big white bald-headed gap-toothed white man who probably is also a wife beater – called me ma’am but I sensed a SARCASTIC tone.

“Did you just litter back there?” I asked sternly.

He just started at me like he needed me to define the word “litter.” So, I told him I SAW him throw something into the church’s yard. I won’t lie, in my head I was like, “This is stupid, you’re going to end up in that backseat with the drunk girl, Erin” but now there was no turning back. I’ll just make a donation to a charity today to counteract my Hulking out over litter last night.

He took a step toward me, AN INTIMIDATION TACTIC, and oh Yolanda, if you could have heard the SHIT EATING TONE he applied to his voice when he said, “You mean THE HEAT PACK from when I was assisting in the blabblahblah procedure?”

UM, SO HEAT PACKS AREN’T LITTER? Are heat packs BIODEGRADABLE?

Also, “assisting” in what now, sir? Because from my post at the Bedroom Watch Tower, all I saw him doing was meander about like an NPC, doing fuck all.

“I don’t care what it was, I hate litter,” I said, and I know my face was BEYOND resting bitch face. I was now Real Fugly Karen Just Rolled Out of Bed in the Middle of the Night.

“I hate litter too,” he said. OK THEN WHY DID YOU LITTER WHEN YOU WERE LITERALLY WALKING BACK TO YOUR CAR, YOU COULD HAVE JUST BROUGHT THAT SHIT WITH YOU???

I honestly can’t remember what happened after this but he was seriously getting too close to me and my anger was making metallic crashes in my ears so I just shittily said, “HAPPY THANKSGIVING” and then stomped back into the house, yelling FUCKING DICK as I slammed the door shut. Then I noticed Chooch was there watching the whole thing with his patented, “Ladies and gentlemen, my SOCIAL JUSTICE WARRIOR mother” smirk on his face.

“Feel better?” he asked sardonically.

NO ACTUALLY I DIDN’T because now the adrenaline was cruising through my nervous system.

“I did it,” I said to Henry, who was still watching from the bedroom. He said he knew, and played back our security camera footage where you can hear me yelling EXCUSE ME lol.

The last words I said before I fell back asleep was, “I bet he’s also an ICE sympathizer.”

I GUESS THIS ONLY APPLIES TO CIVILIANS.

ETA: I just replied to Janna’s comment about how I can have the shittiest service at a restaurant and I will be like, “Eh, the server might be having a bad day” but a man in authority DARES TO EVEN GLANCE AT ME and I am like OH BUDDY, CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

“So I’m not a Karen,” I defended myself to Henry. “What does that make me though?”

“A psycho,” Henry said WITH NO HESITATION, WOW.

Also, “welcome home, Chooch!” He must seriously miss this action sometimes. Henry said he came out of his room when he heard me fly out the front door and asked, “Where did she go?”

“To jail,” Henry sighed.

Quick life update:

We should have been in Toronto this weekend for the Wonho concert, but his whole North American tour was canceled due to Visa issues (I believe) so that’s super sad, but we still had a full weekend here in Pgh. It was nice to just spend most of Sunday evening chilling on the couch with Penelope.

Chooch is coming home on Friday for Thanksgiving break and I am REALLY looking forward to that! We’re doing a Romanian menu and had to go to one of the European markets yesterday for some ingredients so that was fun (only because I bought some candy and frozen treats, I don’t care about the actual groceries Henry had to buy haha).

I went into the office on Thursday for the Service Recognition lunch – this is my 15th year at the law firm which feels so short but also somehow so long simultaneously? It’s also Nate’s 15th year – we’re the last of the 2010 babies from our department, sadly. It was nice to see some of my friends and I also won suite tickets to some WWE thing which I didn’t enter yet knew I was going to win because it’s the most un-Erin thing they were raffling off so look forward to THAT blog post I guess lol. I do truly still like my job after all these years, even though so much has changed.

I have so many more Romania recaps to share and I’m sorry if it’s been annoying. :/ I even tried to not spam Instagram too much but I’m just still so excited to talk about our time there!

(Don’t worry – I’m back on my “when are we going back to Korea?” agenda now but Romania has a space in my heart too.)

We decided a while back that Chingumas is taking a break for 2025 because we just don’t have the time to plan anything and honestly, last year’s party cost us A LOT of money and we just can’t this year. Plus, we have the Key concert in Chicago one of those weekends and I just want to enjoy December without the added stress. (It’s worth it because you know I love having parties but these last several mths have been so chaotic, I just want to end the year on a quiet note!)

That being said, maybe 2026 has a pie party in its future?! CHINGUWEEN?! Only time will tell!

We had a concert to go to in Columbus last Wednesday night so we made it into a little day trip because we don’t usually get to spend much time in Columbus – we’re either just passing through onto other destinations or we’re there just for a concert so we get there with an hour or two to spare.

Still, we didn’t get in until around 1:30 but still managed to pack in a good bit before needing to get in line at Skully’s later that evening. Here is what we did because this is a fake travel blog!

Our first stop was Koffee Paradise, a Filipino cafe which is actually right outside of Columbus. If there’s ube on the menu, ubet my ass is gonna be there.

However, I done fucked up by getting the coffee flight instead of the twinzilla which is a split cup so you can get TWO different drinks! But I saw coffee flight and got excited so I ordered that and when asked if I wanted hot or iced, I said hot which was actually untrue but sometimes my mouth just moves on its own, like am I possessed by the most docile prankster entity or what?

I didn’t realize that the flight was actually the equivalent of a full sized coffee cup. That was a lot of caffeine even for me, considering I had beasted an XL Dunkin’ hot coffee on the way there. (I mean, I dragged it over the span of three hours but still.)

So, I had four decent-sized hot lattes to imbibe instead of getting the iced ube and frozen matcha in the clever split cup. I struggled. They were all delicious (ube was god tier out of the 4) but I ended up begging Henry to take the tiramisu one because it was too rich and I thought my stomach was going to split.

Ube crinkle cookies were bus. I wish we had ordered more than two even though I had so many lattes to slam.

This place was such a calming vibe and the staff were so sweet. I’m definitely keeping it on my list so that I can go back for twinzilla redemption! Also two younger people came in wearing PTV shirts and I wanted to say that I liked PTV too but I was afraid they’d think I was invading their safe space. Like “ew that mom likes our music, so lame.” (I’m an OG fan but whatever.)

While we were there, the lady in the background of the picture of my coffee flight from Koffee Paradise walked by outside and these places were nowhere near each other so I was screaming!

This bowl was everything I wanted in that moment. I was obsessed with this place. The music was super intense house beats and I approved of that too even though it didn’t really match the vibe?!

Our server liked my ring (an old one from the Culture Shop way back in the day) and we made smiling eye contact with each other while Henry struggled to pay the bill at the table. Like, “please excuse grandpa, he’s used to paying by check at the register.”

He actually said “cash or charge” today and I was like ok 1980s charge card.

Henry got the house veggie burger and really liked it. In case you were wondering, no it wasn’t a vegan restaurant but Henry likes to rub it in my face that he gets veg options so that I can try it. Like this excuses that it took him 23 years to marry me. ;)

After lunch, we still had a lot of time left so we parked in the area of the concert venue and walked around for an hour which is my favorite thing to do after eating. It was really windy that day, I feel compelled to tell the blog that for historical factors. You never know.

We walked past this brewery called Elevator and it looked so cool but Henry was like I CANNOT DRINK BEER I HAVE TO DRIVE HOME TONIGHT – like OK, six hours??

We stopped in Magnolia Thunderpussy to buy Chooch a record and I sent him this picture – it’s the counter he was standing on when he met Chiodos as a baby 🥹.

Then!!! Get this!!! Henry goes, “let’s go to BrewDog.” It was right across the street from the venue and I was like “are you kidding me, you said you didn’t want to drink when I wanted to go to Elevator but OK SURE let’s go to this place that isn’t even local to Columbus!”

I was so annoyed that I couldn’t even enjoy anything we got in this flight (which we shared because Henry was being responsible and I was still full from our late lunch).

(OK fine the beers were good but that didn’t stop me from referencing Elevator in a manner generally reserved for when one partner is constantly reminding the other of their infidelity. “Remember when we could have went to Elevator which looked so much cooler than this place but you said I don’t want to drink beer today like a little bitch?”)

Those were all the pictures I took for Untappd. You’re welcome.

There were only 2 other people there (2 men at the bar) and the bartender was very nice. Especially considering Henry acted like it was his first time at a bar ordering a flight and I was getting pre-show nervous irritation so I started snapping at him and rolling my eyes which as you know is my most shining quality. Everyone says so. It was especially annoying when I was standing RIGHT NEXT TO HIM and he turned around to yell something at me because he thought I was at a table, and i said, “hello I’m right here” with so much derision that it could have passed for a sound effect for evisceration. The bartender light-heartedly said, “surprise!” but was probably nervously thinking, “yeah these people are gonna be the subject of a future true crime podcast.”

We stayed there for at least an hour, nursing the beers, bitching about the govt, and crying actual tears over missing Korea (me).

And we STILL had time to kill after this, not wanting to get in line yet, so we walked down the street to Insomnia Cookies and got some sugary carbs to soak up the beer.

There went our healthy lunch!

(Ok now I’m mad all over again about Elevator and just tried to start a fight with Henry about it as he’s getting ready for bed LOLOLOL.

“We could have made such great memories at Elevator. It could have rejuvenated our love,” I argued.

“You don’t know that,” he mumbled.

“Wait, is that even what it was called? Elevator?” I questioned.

He’s over this lol.)

We are having legitimately a great time in Romania, I am actually shocked (sorry Henry) because I thought for sure we’d be fighting and breaking up a thousand times a day AND DON’T GET ME WRONG there are moments but they pass quickly because I am not letting Henry’s appalling inability to take a decent picture of me ruin my day, and I am like NOT TODAY, HANGER every time I start to act like a brat because I missed a feeding.

We are currently in Sighișoara, a medieval town north of Bucharest and famous for being the hometown of Vlad the Impaler aka Dracula. It is fucking beautiful here for real but it’s the off season so I can only imagine how crowded it must get in the summer – that’s what the front desk guy at our hotel said, that we’re lucky to be here when it’s quiet.

All of our accommodations so far have been soooooo cute except for the one last night – because Henry booked that one on his own since it was just something we needed out of necessity in between stops. It was nice though don’t get me wrong! A pension in a small town called Beclean and we actually had the whole entire place to ourselves – the owner left after checking us in. I liked that but also for some reason it creeped me out and i was scared to go to sleep lol.

My camera roll is sagging under the weight of all the pictures and video I have taken since we left last Thursday but I just can’t stop. Every time I think, “OK nothing can top this view,” we turn a corner and Romania is like, “lol u thought.” I fear I’m going to be really annoying (more than usual) with recaps when we get home! To anyone who still reads this, apologies in advance.

I will leave you with my new favorite song, which is apparently the #1 song in Romania right now at least according to whatever pop station we had on in the car on Saturday. Apparently the singer is Moldovan though, not Romanian.

P.S. the first song we heard when we got in our rental car at 2:30AM last Friday/Saturday was Huntr/x “Golden.” Kpop Demon Hunters is truly a global sensation lol.