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.

Yesterday was a long and eventful (kind of) day and I’m really feeling it today – driving to and from Philly in one day is exhausting. Even as a passenger!

But it was worth it to see Chooch, even for less than 2 hours. Here’s a closet mirror selfie of us in his room yesterday. He really seems to be loving his new living situation this year so far and I hope that doesn’t change and that he has a great sophomore year experience!

More tomorrow. The rest of today is for reading and relaxing. Byyyye.

Flipping through my vacation journal and found Chooch’s rules that he made for Henry when we were in Korea the last time and it made me laugh but also burst into tears because what if that was the last time we ever will be in Korea together as a family?!

I definitely felt abandoned a little bit when we took him back to school last weekend because as SOON as he was back on campus, it was like he completely forgot that Henry and I were there. And I get it – he has his own life there and we’re not part of that but it just hit different this time since he’s living with three friends and not just some random roommate so he was really rearin’ to catch up, hang out, forget about Pittsburgh, etc.

(STOP CRYING ERIN STOP IT NOW!!)

He’s still texting me every day – usually just his Wordle and Connections results, and a “wow” in response to my droll life updates. And we will see him on Saturday since we have to bring him more stuff. But – it feels more permanent this time I guess? Since he won’t be back for summers anymore. That is the part I’m struggling with. And time is just moving so much more faster now, it feels like.

The other thing that’s been on my mind is that in three weeks, Henry and I are going on our first ever real vacation just the two of us and I am oddly nervous about that. No Chooch acting as a buffer (though, he could often act as a catalyst too…). Even pre-Chooch, we never went away for more than 2 or 3 days at a time because we were so poor lol. I think Coachella was probably the longest trip we took together and that was only because we hadn’t fallen into the Pit of Destitution yet – that would come soon after once we were living off one income lol.

Ugh.

Anyway, hopefully we don’t come back separated!

*aka Chooch Moves Back to Philly Day :(

8:58am: Waiting for Henry to come back with the rental SUV – he hilariously thought that renting a larger car would mean only one trip but after seeing all of Chooch’s shit in the living room, it’s become quite clear that Henry and I will still be taking that second trip next weekend lol. How do other people do this without renting a Uhaul (Drexel says no Uhauls!)??

10:03am: We’re leaving :( Chooch was saying goodbye to Penelope and I started crying. This sucks and feels worse than last year somehow.

But hey some good news! So the whole draw of Drexel is that they have co-ops so graduates will already have 1 to 1.5 years of work experience in their field when they graduate. This is why Chooch chose Drexel over Pitt (and because he didn’t want to stay in Pgh). Anyway, they had three rounds of co-op applications or whatever starting in June. He got no interviews for the first round. Second round he had one and then didn’t get it. Third round JUST happened 2 weeks ago and brother when I say I have been stressed to the point of sickness this summer – basically if he didn’t get a co-op he’d have to take classes this quarter which means we’d have to take out another last minute loan, etc. just a lot of financial stress when we have been kind of doing ok.

All week we’ve been preparing for that. He had some calls with his advisor and it seemed like that’s what was going to have to happen. Then! He had an interview yesterday at noon and by 2::30 they offered him a position! Not trying to doxx my kid here but it’s at a museum (!!!) and he will be doing meta-data and archival work whatever that means. The weight that melted off my shoulders when he sent me a screenshot of the job offer (he was actually at our neighbor’s house cutting grass – the guy on the street behind us with the Corgi!) – I knew I had been carrying a lot of stress this summer but didn’t realize just how much until I read that email.

You guys I even prayed sort of in my own way over this! It was awkward but I did it.

10:40am: Pulled into a Sheetz. Chooch is bitching because he realized he brought one of the reusable straws in his Dunkin and doesn’t know what to do with it now that his drink is empty so he told Henry to throw it away and I piped up, “no!! It’s reusable! That’s the whole point of reusable straws so that you don’t throw it out!” And everyone is annoyed with me but you’re welcome, Straw, for living to be sucked on another day.

11:10am:

Here is Son, having backseat bitch fest because he doesn’t like the food at Sheetz but was forced to get something since Henry starved him all morning.

OMG HUGE FIGHT ALERT: when we were at Sheetz I tried to get a fork but got pissed bc people kept crashing into me. So I gave up and said to Chooch, “go get me a fork” so he walked over to the food pick up area while Henry and I went out to the car.

“I guarantee he doesn’t get me a fork,” I said as we got into the car.

Just now I turned around because I was ready to eat my watermelon snack. I made “fork” motions to chooch who got real annoyed and yelled “I don’t know what that means.” I kept trying to say fork but I was laughing because of how mad he was so that was making him even more mad until he finally understood me and said, “why would I have a fork??”

“Because I told you to get me a fork!”

“NO, you did NOT!” he yelled haughtily. “You told me to go get my food!”

“I said to get me a fork!!!!” I cried.

“Why wouldn’t you just get your own fork?? You were halfway there!” he yelled.

“Because people kept crashing into me!!” I screamed, feeling my eyes bulging at this juncture of the argument. The crux, if you will. The climax.

Henry was doing a silent laugh through this whole exchange, practically crying over it, while I’m yelling, “HOW WILL I EAT MY WATERMELON???”

“Use the stupid reusable straw!!” Chooch yelled and we all lost it at that point.

I’ll miss our car fights :(

2:57pm: at IKEA somewhere because chooch needs cups?? Henry called the two of us a “little bitch clique” bc we were whispering about him decomposing in a trunk. You had to be there.

1. Now that I have been to the bathroom in the Pgh IKEA and whatever IKEA this is, and the one in Denmark, I can safely say that the US IKEA bathrooms are far inferior.

2. HOWEVER!! The plant ball meal here was way better than the strange concoction they served up in the Danish IKEA 100%. I actually hated that meal so much but this one was nice.

I also split a rainbow cake with Henry but there’s no picture because he carved into it immediately and had it all in his beard ugh.

4:03pm: hello back in the car and I’m seriously about to puke my stomach hurts so bad from eating at IKEA ugh. Anyway we’re 40 minutes outside of Philly. I’m so sad even though Chooch has been mean to me all day. (Nothing unusual!)

4:43pm: we just pulled up and asked the move-in crew if this was where he needed to be for his apartment move in and she looked back and forth between me and Chooch and asked if he was the student, DID SHE THINK IT COULD HAVE BEEN ME LOL.

6:02pm: wow what an actual cluster moving him in but here is his view from the 20th floor:

Oh and excuse me look at what he tried to take????

I made him pose here and he did it haha. Also we had to walk up 20 flights up steps with his computer monitors and TV because we didn’t wait for the elevator again since the line is out the door with move-in activity. I’m cooked.

6:58pm: I feel sad. :( We will see him again next weekend to bring the rest of his stuff but still. This is a part of parenting that I was not prepared for.

7:37pm: ugh why is every experience at Wawa so mid. I got a gross fajita veggie bowl and the avocado I paid extra for was the tiniest squirt of guac. So underwhelming. Meanwhile Henry bought a pretzel and realized in the car that it was opened with a piece taken out of it and he was sure it wasn’t like that when he scanned it at the self-checkout but refuses to eat it now because he can’t remember opening it. I have no idea what’s going on but I’m pissed bc while I was hate-eating my bowl the only consolation I had was that I was going to eat some of Henry’s pretzel like the pigeon I am. Ugh.

8:40pm: here we are an hour later at a rest stop and Henry is still pondering the pretzel puzzle:

“It’s not hard though, you’d think it was opened before I bought it, it would be hard….”

9:39pm: did I mention that Henry rented a GMC SUV? He thinks it’s a Terrain? Never heard of it. It feels like something MAGA would drive and I actually hate it so much. Every 5 minutes I’m finding new things about it to hate but mostly it’s that I can picture these on Texan highways with LET’S GO BRANDON stickers on the back window. I always forget that GMC exists and prefer to keep it that way, which is particularly difficult when I’m sitting in one.

10:03pm: we saw the prettiest stray (?) cat at the last rest stop but Henry wouldn’t let me take her :( When we were leaving, there were workers from the rest stop food places outside feeding her so Henry thinks she’s a regular and “will be fine.” Well, he can sleep outside tonight too. I’m sure he will also be fine.

When we were walking back to the car, I was complaining about my distended stomach and said that I actually look pregnant so I started rubbing my belly while saying, “it’s ok baby, we’re almost back to the car.”

“Wow! I’m telling Chooch. You never talked to HIM like that,” Henry said in mock offense. I mean, kind of true. I never called him “baby.” Lol.

Ok I’m posting this now. I miss Chooch. Bye.

10:53pm: I lied. I’m back. We just stopped at this rest stop that has something called TRAILHEAD and Henry said it has something to do with the bike trail that goes to DC or whatever. I needed to get the rest of my steps for the day so we walked over to look at the pavilion that was built and apparently just opened today???-

I guess this is supposed to have a 3D effect but ok.

Oh! When I was in the bathroom, one of the girls working at Baskin was at the sink with me and she said she liked my shoes (just Vans) so of course I had to run back to Henry and tell him because it’s always news worthy when I get a compliment since I am attention starved, always. He didn’t care.

Anyway, this whole time I have been crying over my stomach pains which I have had ever since eating at fucking IKEA. My stomach is so bloated and distended that I could pass for a pregnant lady.

Henry was annoyed that he had to accompany me on my rest stop walk but I was like I DONT WANT SOME TRUCKER TO BE LIKE OOH LOOK AT THIS LATE-IN-LIFE PREGNANT BROAD WHILE LICKING HIS LIPS.

Henry thought this was hilarious and I was like THERE ARE MEN OUT THERE THAT I WOULD APPEAL TO YOU WILL BE SORRY WHEN I GET TAKEN.

Then I started spiraling out. “What if when they check CCTV to get the last known footage of me being seen alive they see me walking through that last rest stop parking lot when I was caressing my fake pregnant stomach and then the APB really does say I’m a late in life pregnant lady???” Henry was like, “omg plz stop.” But then he said that’s probably why the Baskin girl said she liked my shoes, she felt sorry for me being “old and pregnant” and I snapped, “I never said OLD I said LATE IN LIFE but thanks for speaking your truth.”

Then we argued over Trailhead some more because THE HEAD OF THE TRAIL CANNOT EVEN BE ACCESSED AT THIS REST STOP?! Henry said it’s like a mile and a half away. I am so irritated by this.

I mean….wow. Every day I start a new post to rant about this piece of shit admin and then I never post it because what’s the point. And you know, we have talked about the possibilities of one day being marked based on our party affiliation / voting history and I was even nervous about the two short trips we took to Canada over the summer. But now…I feel like we’re under the DARE TO DREAM admin except their DREAMS are our NIGHTMARES and everything is becoming a reality so there is no “waking up from a night terror” reprieve anymore.

Just wanted to say, if anyone is reading this who feels the same way, I’m with you. Trying to stay positive but Jesus Christ, all I do is rage-cry and shake with stress and anger these days. What even is 2025.

Remember when we thought he was dead?

ETA: ok that was depressing so I came back to add some things that cheered me up this week:

1. Jake Webber announced his new roommate and it’s BARRY I LOVE BARRY SO MUCH.
2. I ordered some cutie skirts for vacation and they arrived yesterday – I love them!
3. The Wordle from yesterday was TEETH and I guessed it while IN THE DENTIST’S WAITING ROOM. I excitedly told the hygienist after she called me back and she was like “ok.” This was the same one who asked me if I CHEW TOBACCO btw.
4. Haechan’s LONG-AWAITED solo album dropped recently and it did NOT disappoint. My favorite is Camera Lights:

This absolute cutie was chilling in the backyard the other day which was nice but also terrible because I have lots of backyard friends that could be considered FOOD for this owl so we had to have a conversation. Henry took this picture from the backporch window as I was trying to sternly reason with it to go somewhere else while being met with an “ok Karen” look. 😂 At least it acknowledged me though; the HAWKS just pointedly ignore me although Chooch said one day one one them is going to be like “this bitch” and attack me.

(Seriously though one of my bunny friends was in the driveway RIGHT BEHIND the owl so I had to run out back like a maniac until it hopped under a car. I’m always on backyard patrol, sigh.)

“I was going to write about G-Dragon Day 2 but I don’t want to write about G-Dragon while I’m so fucking pissed,” I said to Henry, on the tail end of yet another nightly rant about TRUMP AND THIS FUCKING COUNTRY, FUCK YOU MAGA!!!! “So, I’ll just write about you and Chooch instead.”

“Wow, thanks,” Henry muttered.

On Memorial Day of this year, Henry and I spent the day at Twin Lakes, a really pretty park about an hour outside of Pittsburgh. We had such a nice day but I was bummed that Chooch wasn’t with us, especially because he was ignoring all of my texts that day because he was playing football which is way less important than responding to Mother, but OK.

That day, I vowed to come back here while Chooch was home for the summer. I ALMOST forgot about it but he goes back to Philly in two weeks and I am scrambling to spend all of the time with him, so I decided that we would take a family day trip here on Sunday, and bring food for a PICNIC.

“Mmm, great,” Chooch sighed when I told him to block off time on Sunday for FAMILY. Like it was a threat??

We stopped at Sheetz and got sandwiches to bring with us. Not a very fancy or well-planned picnic but it’s us, The Oh Honestlys. We are known for half-assing these things.

Henry brought a small bag of pretzels – the nugget ones – and Chooch and I cried out in disgust when he started eating them. Chooch tried to make him move to a far away picnic table while I likened his pretzel-mastication to the sound of gravel being chewed.

Ugh.

Then it was walking-around-the-lake time! It’s so beautiful there. I was actually surprised that it wasn’t more crowded because it was an absolutely perfect day. Sunny and low 60s. We love to see it. Turns out there were some geocaches there so Chooch was mollified, at least while he was searching for said geocaches. But in between those times, I was annoying him with G-Dragon gushing (he actually lectured me recently on being irresponsible when it comes to blindly throwing money at fandoms like who is the parent here??) and requests for picture-posing.

He was acting completely put-upon because he had to carry the reusable straw with him for the whole walk after he threw away his Dunkin’. SORRY FOR CARING ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT.

Chooch lurking like Michael Myers over there.

Chooch is wearing a Men I Trust shirt, having just gone to see them last week, but I am always going to relate them to THE DEAD LADY ON THE SIDEWALK, UGH.

(My sweatshirt is DANCE GAVIN DANCE in case you care. The battle of the bands, via shirts.)

“Wait why do you have BLUES CLUES SHORTS?” Chooch cried.

“Uh, because I bought them last summer?” I shrugged.

“Why didn’t you get me any???” Chooch bitched.

“I dunno, because it’s not always about you??”

“You two fight over the dumbest shit,” Henry mumbled.

Geocaching.

“HOW MANY PICTURES DO WE REALLY NEED???” Chooch cried when I made them sit at a picnic table for this one.

“As many as it takes before I get one that I like,” I answered calmly, taking a second one with my sunglasses pushed up. (This one was the keeper though.)

It was a fun day of Chooch criticizing my every action. I’M GOING TO MISS HIM. :(

I love this place. And I love my dumb-dumb family.

After a solid hour-long stroll around the lake, we went to The Meadows for custard – I got peanut butter explosion which felt just like regular custard with some mini-Reese’s pieces sprinkled on top but both Henry and Chooch tasted it and said that the custard was very blatantly peanut butter too but it tasted like just vanilla to me, am I dying??

Ugh, what a good day. I am clinging on to these moments.

I’m an emotional dumpster fire post-GD concerts and trying to distract myself from that on the drive home today so let’s talk about what we did Saturday!

We planned on spending some time in Jersey City but first we went to the Prudential Center for early merch. Got there right before it opened at 10am and still spent a good 45 minutes waiting but it was worth it to avoid having to wait in the massive lines after doors opened later that night.

I’m embarrassed to say how much I spent on merch but we’ll just say that I could have bought another concert ticket for that price ugh G-Dragon makes me lose all common sense. But I got the US version of tour shirt & hoodie, a hat for Henry and a scarf for my lightstick lol.

In Jersey City, we stopped at Gregory’s Coffee (I think?) because I required caffeine after that merch throwdown. I got a prickly pear matcha which was super refreshing but the overall experience at the cafe was frustrating because the two baristas were fucking off behind the counter, chatting etc and the orders were piling up even though only one person was ahead of us (he had multiple drinks). So that was annoying plus the barista mixed my drink before handing it to me so it lost ALL AESTHETIC VALUE. J/k I was only marginally annoyed by that – it tasted great and that’s all I cared about.

Then we walked along the Hudson and it was such a beautiful day even though Henry took a series of pictures of me that accentuated my mongoloid affliction.

(I deleted those with a flourish, don’t worry.)

This statue was horrifying. Even Henry was like “yikes he should have went AWOL like me.”

I guess this is a thing that tourists are required to photograph so I did my duty.

There was a lot of really cool artwork on display around the walkway and I really enjoyed that.

If you can believe this, Henry and I did not fight once this whole weekend. I mean sure I got annoyed with him at times like when he wandered off with my bag of freebies as I was handing them out and I had to run after him like a stoop. But other than that it was such an all-around perfect weekend – that’s the Power of G-Dragon.

After an hour stroll around the river walk, we drove to Busy Bee’s Organics which started out kind of bad when some broad snatched a seat away from me as I was walking over to put our table number sign on it – the only available seats in the place were three stools at the window. She and her boyfriend hadn’t even ordered yet and GOT TAKE-OUT ON TOP OF THAT so they didn’t even need seats?! Luckily, two ladies were leaving right then so we were able to get their table. Not the biggest deal but sometimes the unawareness of others really baffles me. Like read the room.

Not worth fighting over but I did say in a regular volume voice, “Ok I guess I’m not sitting there, wow.” Like, while looking at her. I sincerely don’t even think she realized??? Total vacancy behind her eyes. So, I moved on with life.

I got a Buddha bowl which I had been craving and this one was perfection. I knew I probably wouldn’t be eating dinner because we had to be in VIP line at 4:30 and I was going to be passing out freebies before that, so I needed something sustainable that also wasn’t going to bother my stomach because EVERYTHING BOTHERS MY STOMACH NOW BEING AN ELDER IS SO FUN. Henry got a pulled mushroom burger and let me try it and it was an effing flavor explosion but had I order that for myself I would have been in a world of hurt during the concert. And my stomach was already gurgling nervously at the thought of seeing G-Dragon even closer that night!!

We got there around 1:30 and after we sat down, that place really started popping off. It’s very small inside and it seems like most ppl just order take out. I would definitely go there again!

After that, we made our way back to Newark and were back at the Prudential Center for night 2 of GD magic!