Shifting back to cafes from breweries was such a good move. There is just something that’s so much more fulfilling about stopping into a cafe for a drink and a sweet treat, and then walking around the neighborhood. And Sunday was the perfect day for this – the heatwave had finally broken and it was so perfectly summer. I was able to walk full blocks without my face glazing over with a protective oil sheath.

We initially planned on only going to Sidecar in Oakland. It was a good pick – the barista was so friendly and even though the place was kind of crowded (this usually deters me, I’m so averse to crowds in small spaces, I mean, what sane person wouldn’t be) but he made me feel relaxed and not rushed. I got an iced maple latte and it was perfecto, but the scene stealer of the day was the slice of vinegar pie that Henry and I shared.

Holy shit, why didn’t we each get our own slice?! Ugh, it was so good but I wanted it all for myself. The top crust was so sweet and crispy, like a brittle.

I took one with my phone too because I wanted to have a back-up in case the Charmera version was shit. (It’s hard to tell in the little screen!)

After I ordered this for us, I noticed that there was an entire case of other baked goods and pies that we could have chosen from UGH. Oh well, just another reason to go back!

I don’t know why he looks at me like this—he’s the one who bought me this camera! HE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN IT WOULD BE JUST ANOTHER ANNOYING ACCESSORY TO MY ALREADY ANNOYING PERSON.

The Charmera is very fickle. You have to take the picture and then hold the camera still for an additional second or else you get the above result. I know this too but when I’m taking pictures that have people in it, I get into super stealth mode by default and end up rushing it.

Another comparison between iPhone and the Charmera. The Charmera is definitely not for perfectionists! You have to go into this understanding that the shots you get are going to look like you used a webcam from 1995.

Afterward, we walked around a little while I, FULL DISCLOSURE, cried and whined about wanting to see The Home Team but the problem is that when their tour lands in Pittsburgh, we will be in Chicago for Riot Fest. At first, I was mature about it and said to myself, “Erin, it’s OK. You’re an adult. This is not something to be upset over. You can see them another time.”

LOL yeah right.

Instead, I ended up making myself go from “casual fan” to “SUPER FUCKING SASAENG” (OK, we’re not quite at sasaeng levels, I only know the name of the singer and nothing else!) which turned into coming up with the genius solution of just picking a different tour date to see them. I settled on Columbus, which is smack in the middle of the week in September, right after we come back from seeing BIGBANG in New Jersey, and right before we leave for Chicago for Riot Fest.

Henry was like, “Yeah, that’s going to be a big fat no. Sorry.”

But was he sorry? Was he really?

Anyway, then we drove to Shadyside because I wanted to go to Kawaii Gifts for stationary stuff for my journal lol.

Pissed that this came out blurry but it’s Henry surrounded by Kpop albums at Kawaii Gifts. Two things here:

• they were doing a V8 (Vernon + The 8 from Seventeen!) pop-up event on 7/3 and 7/5 but completely sold out on 7/3 and I was sad because I had planned on going on Sunday since my Friday in the boiling tundra of downtown left me completely zapped of energy!
• now I can’t remember what the second thing was going to be.

Then we went to Kards Unlimited – Henry’s suggestion, probably because he was stalling the inevitable chores that awaited him at home. Walking around Walnut Street brought back a surge of bad memories though, out of nowhere, totally kapchugi, about the time way back in probably 2002 or 2003 when I thought I was positively rolling in the dough with those tightwads at Weiss Meats gave me a Christmas bonus. It was probably like $150, maybe $200 and I stupidly thought this was good. Anyway, I remember going to Walnut Street with Henry that December so I could get my friends “nice presents.” I got my ex-friend Keri some really nice soap and lotion from L’Occitane–it was $$$ for a measly office manager in the early 2000s—and her response was to comment on how she didn’t like how it smelled.

Anyway, L’Occitane is still there as a brick and mortar and obviously people like it because everything is still $$$ so fuck off.

< insert more pouty lips and whining about wanting to see The Home Team in Columbus >

Oh, yeah. Kards Unlimited. Great store as always but there was a group of the most annoying young 20s people (I can’t keep up with the generation names) in there acting like it was their fucking house and they were the only motherfuckers in the joint. I was extremely annoyed. By this point, we had been out in public for over 2 hours and my threshold is usually less than that. I turned down another aisle and there were more loud assholes screaming like banshees at each other even though they were standing RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER and by this point, I was morphing into one of those middle-aged hags that mutters obscenities and threats toward people who are within earshot. Finally I was like, just get me out of here.

Later, we passed BOTH GROUPS on the sidewalk–they had reconvened outside of the store to merge into one large dominating glob of ignorance and I said loudly to Henry, “Oh, I should have GUESSED they were all together.” My inner curmudgeon comes out if I’m not kept well hydrated and fed. I should have had my own slice of pie.

Since we were there, we stopped into Heat Check, which is affiliated sort of with one of the cafes I went to on Friday (The Boredom Set). It’s a vintage + local artisan shop that also has their own cafe powered by The Boredom Set.

“Be prepared to feel out of place and surrounded by Blakes,” I told Henry as we walked up the steps to the second floor. This means nothing to you but the only way I could explain The Boredom Set to Henry was that, after perusing their Insta and seeing the guy who runs it, it just seemed like it was made for the “Blake demographic.” Like, hipster adjacents who wear Carhartt and like sad boi music. I can’t explain it and I’m getting worse at generalizing and categorizing people as I age, I have noticed. But when we walked in, Henry was like, “Oh.” And I think that meant he understood.

All of their denim jackets were like $90 but I wanted one, ugh.

Henry seemed not too annoyed by this place, and then some REALLY LAME OLD PEOPLE came in and suddenly we weren’t the outliers like I had anticipated.

LOL L’Occitane!

I got a cold brew with cornbread cold foam and Henry got the iced banana milk latte. I tried his and can confirm that the matcha version I had on Friday was much more delectable. Banana and matcha just somehow really works.

We looked to see if they had any vintage Seahawks shirts for Chooch with no success.

Then we walked to Jitters because Henry wanted a snickerdoodle but they were all out so he turned and left without asking me if I wanted a cookie?! I mean, there were other cookies in the case! I actually didn’t need a cookie but it felt like a prime opportunity to transform my already pouty attitude into a full-blown tantrum. Then it started raining on us as we walked back to the car so that was very apropos.

(J/K, I didn’t really fully tantrum but I was definitely getting hangry and needed real food not more sugar.)

I did cry about The Home Team the whole way home, though.

But bro, seriously, this song broke me:

Overall, a good Sunday!

Here’s a photo of one of my Buddys from over the weekend. My current favorite thing lately is how Penelope and Buddy will eat “together” in the mornings – Buddy sits on the windowsill eating his walnuts and I put Penelope’s food on the clown buffet, where she can be found most mornings protecting the house from the birds. Anyway, it’s the sweetest thing and it’s actually encouraging her to eat more too, when she sees Buddy eating.

Today, Buddy was impatiently trying to get my attention because he needed a refill so he was climbing up on the window screen and hanging there, looking in the house for me. Penelope sniffed his foot through the screen!

Anyway. This is one of the little joys I have in life right now.

Also #TeamBelgium!!

This is so pathetic but I logged off work today and felt so excited because I have the day off tomorrow and Henry doesn’t so you know what I decided to do?? I’m taking myself on a solo date downtown tomorrow! We’re going to two cafes, taking some pics with the Charmeras (YES PLURAL BECAUSE I HAVE TWO NOW REMEMBER), reading a book, maybe journaling!? I’ll bring it just in case. I am so obsessed with my journal but also very particular about what goes in it.

For instance, I didn’t have any ephemera from Kennywood last week so I was going to just not do a page for that but then I was like NO I WILL DRAW A GOLDEN NUGGET CONE:

Bro, I’m so obsessed with my journal that I even brought it to therapy to show my only friend I mean my therapist. (I am trying to 86 the self-deprecation but this was bred into me so you’ll understand that I am having a hard time kicking the habit. Quitting cigarettes was easier.)

I think I spent so much of my life thinking that I needed BIG EVENTS to look forward to, like big vacations or whatever, but in my older age I am really leaning into the small things and it is really helping to mellow me out I think. I’m stoked to just go see a movie now.

And in that same vein, I’ve been having fun finding fun things to fill my calendar with! For instance, Henry and I are going back to Glitterbox on Tuesday to see some clown from Philly? I don’t really know what it is but I saw “clown” and bought tickets.

We also have two concerts next week: the Summer School tour with HONEY REVENGE (so amped to see them again!) and then the next night is Armor For Sleep! I haven’t seen them since they did their 10 year anniversary tour for What To Do When You Are Dead (I saw that in Philly – two Philly mentions, one post! – with Terri. Really miss her). I had tickets to see them in 2020 and it was canceled obviously and then I couldn’t go to the rescheduled show so I am DUE to see them.

So far in August, we only have one concert (Royal Coda) but September is stacked with BIGBANG, Riot Fest, Four Chord, and OH YEAH THE BLACK QUEEN IS DOING A SECOND HALF OF THEIR FEVER DAYDREAM TOUR AND PITTSBURGH WAS INCLUDED! So, had to do it!

I’m excited to get a second chance to see them where I can be more calm and relaxed!!

But back to this un-holiday weekend, I don’t know what else is planned other than I NEED TO GET ICE CREAM AT SOME POINT. Just a casual reminder that it’s been in the high 90s this week and we don’t have central air in our shanty. Thank god for the A/C in the bedrooms but second casual reminder that I work from the dining room which is basically like sitting in front of an open oven turned on high.

I’m trying to get Henry to build an inground swimming pool for the squirrels. If he doesn’t then I’m just going to use one of his mixing bowls or something from his overflowing kitchen supplies as an above-ground pool for them.

They were like “dafuq this bitch up to NOW” when I popped out the front door aiming my Charmera at them.

OH! Speaking of Charmera, I watched a video on modding them with phone lenses and I am about to order a lens kit and do that shit! FUCK I love these idiot bitch cameras.

Can’t stand Kelly Clarkson (has nothing to do with her singing but I HATE THE WAY SHE INTERVIEWS PEOPLE AND FUCKING CUTS THEM OFF CONSTANTLY LIKE SHUT YOUR FUCKING BORING ASS MOUTH FOR A SECOND, GOOD LORD) but this ATEEZ performance is SO GOOD. I really love this comeback a lot.

In other Kpop news, someone on Threads mentioned that there is a V8 pop-up in Pgh tomorrow and I was like HELLO WHERE so hopefully they answer me because I want to go. I miss Seventeen so much.

Also, Anthrocon is happening this weekend so hopefully I have some pure run-ins with some furries during my walk tomorrow! I don’t ALWAYS miss working in the office but I do miss being downtown for this every year. Sometimes Pittsburgh is pretty cool.

Well guys, my you could bake muffins on my skin right now, I am radiating so much heat just by sitting here. So, I’m going to go lay in my air-conditioned room and stare at the ceiling until I pass out.  Anyway, let’s all collectively put our best most positive thoughts in the PLEASE LET 4TH OF THE JULY BE THE DAY OF THE GREATEST OBITUARY pot. I will fucking hang up an American flag outside my house for the first time ever.

It’s been two years today since Drew died. JFC I really miss her so much. Time is not doing too much to make this hurt less.

8:03am: Just left to return Professor Pout to Philly :( He’s mad because there’s too much weight in the back of the car so we can’t take his bike back with us or something, whatever lame excuse Henry gave him in order to not have to deal with it.

He has literal boxes of DVDs that my mom gave him that he’s taking back with him because he collects DVDs now I guess. Here is a picture of him scanning them all last night – he made some QR code scanner thing so he could scan each one straight into an Excel spreadsheet that can be imported into Letterboxd. Or something. As soon as he started talking about code I shut down.

This week went by so fast. :(

Here’s another picture from yesterday. We had lunch at Mintt and made fun of Henry the whole time. A little slice of normalcy :(

(Or “Borlaug” which js what my phone kept trying to turn “normalcy” into.)

9:11am:

Minecraft pillow from the Children’s Hospital charity walk lol.

9:38am: Kpop Dad Observation: “they have enough songs about ice cream and lemonade.”

11:18am: Listening to Downtown Battle Mountain and feeling some type of way. :( Henry said it makes him feel nothing. No surprise there!!

12:35pm: if Henry didn’t have to stop at EVERY REST STOP TO PEE we would probably be there by now. He forced Chooch to get gas while he goes inside to pee and Chooch is so irritated.

1:52pm: after a weird subway ride, we made it to Silk City and then some old bitch swiped our booth so now we’re waiting. She and her husband said they were going to sit at the counter so the hostess gave them menus to take into the diner part of the place after checking to make sure there was a booth for us, and then when she came back out to get us, that old bitch took the only empty booth AND was bitching to her husband about how she said she didn’t want the drink menus “BUT SHE STILL GAVE THEN TO US,” she spat. What a miserable cow.

The hostess was like, “oh…” when she realized what happened. I don’t mind waiting bc we had a reservation for 2pm anyway and I don’t want to sit outside because it’s hot!

Anyway, here’s a picture from the last time I was here in 1998!

And today!

The bitch is behind him!!

2:54pm: Silk City photo dump!

My vegan breakfast sandwich was really good! Chooch had bananas foster French toast and Happy Father’s Day Man had birria hash.

Special shout out to the hostess there who really went beyond to make sure we were seated quickly and where we wanted to be sat. She was really nice and Henry said he wished he could have tipped her instead of our server but I was like HEY NOW because she was awesome too!!

The bathroom mirror made me feel like I was in a Deeelite video. Also, the floor had a healthy layer of still water on it.

3:07pm: now we’re back on dumb Septa going to Milk jawn and Chooch is being a baby because HE DOESNT WANT ICE CREAM.

Here’s Henry on the way to Spring Garden station after lunch:

LOL. Pretzel Man

Septa fun.

I loved these neon pillar things!

3:53pm: Made it to Milk Jawn!

Vegan earl Grey honeycomb photo series.

Henry got strawberry rhubarb or something, I don’t know. And then Mr. My Parents Force Me To Get Ice Cream got himself a whole pint of vegan mint stracciatella which meant we couldn’t walk back to Drexel like I wanted to because his stupid pint would melt!!

4:38pm: we’re sitting outside of Chooch’s place now waiting for him to answer us because he left his mustard and Carrot Crocs in the car and apparently HE DOESNT WANT THEM.

OMG we just a skateboarding crew and one of them almost fell down the subway steps but caught himself as his skateboard went all the way down. All his friends were like o.O and he was nervously laughing and saying “hoo!!! Hoo!!” You had to be there I guess.

5:00pm: Thoughts on the day: it was a lot of fun traveling around Philly and we were all in a good mood (well, Chooch was neutral) so I feel really happy right now but also sad because we won’t see Chooch until the end of July :(

Also, I took a lot of pictures with my Kodak Charmera so I’m excited to get home and put them on my laptop to see how they turned out. I love that idiot camera. I told Henry today that it’s the best thing he’s ever bought me and he was like “wow.”

8:11pm: bro, Henry made me drive for an hour and he was sleeping so soundly (an anomaly) that I was panicking, trying to feel his stomach moving and eventually resorting to sticker my hand under his nose to feel his breath. I was SCARED. (He’s alive and driving again, fear not.)

Aside from that, I felt really happy today.

9:37pm: just so you know, when I was driving, this was our ETA. Then Henry took over and now our ETA is 10. We could be home right now.

Anyway, I’m signing off.

I was going to finally recap the Dance Gavin Dance show tonight but, for the SECOND THURSDAY IN A ROW, our electricity was out. This time from 1:30 – 6:30 and it was because a utility pole was on fire (thanks CrimeRadar app). I had to work from my phone’s hotspot and I hate that, hate working from just that tiny work laptop but whatever. I was in a mood most of the afternoon and evening.

At 7pm, I had a Zoom check in with my dietician Amanda. Right away she goes to me, “Are….you wearing a Dance Gavin Dance shirt?!”

I said, “YES?! YOU KNOW THEM??”

And she said they’re her favorite band!! I was like OMG GIRL and that totally derailed any nutrition talk for a good fifteen minutes. We talked about Jonny, Kurt, how Tillian became our favorite but goddamn him for what he did, she asked how Andrew was and I was like, “Fine,” delivered on a sigh.

I told her about seeing Kurt at a house show and she told me she went to the 2018 warped tour just for DGD (same!!) and we were just so shocked that we were having this conversation. “No one knows DGD outside of my friend group!” she cried to which I said “well none of my friends like them so this is the most I’ve gotten to talk about them maybe ever!”

Just so crazy. The two ppl in my life I have the most in common with are people I pay to talk to. What even is my life.

This week with Chooch feels like it has been slipping through my fingers and I hate it :( We haven’t done anything super major, just hanging out and getting on each others nerves so it feels like everything is back to normal, even if it’s short-lived.

Monday night, he went to the movies alone (he is a true cinephile, you guys, it’s crazy but also very cool) and saw the AMC “Screen Unseen” which was some army movie that I have never heard of and he hated it. Then his friends Isai and Zakk came over to play board games in the attic and that felt like old times too but HOW ARE THESE KIDS TWENTY YEARS OLD NOW. Sickening!!!

Last night, Chooch and I watched Bugonia at home and that was fun to get to watch something with him since he’s Mr. Movie.

Speaking of!! When Henry and I were at one of the antique shops on Memorial Day, I saw a bunch of laser discs and out of curiosity, looked up The Lost Boys laser discs on eBay. I found a Japanese import and was like, “Well, I guess I collect laser discs now.” It arrived yesterday and I love it so much! I specifically went with the Japanese import because the cover image is different than the US one and I wanted it.

I don’t know what to do with it just yet but I’ll figure something out!

In other non-movie news, I had therapy yesterday which was good because I have been very fired up about my white trash neighbor fighting with his ex in the front yard on Monday. Henry and I went for a walk later that night and my chest was TIGHT from all stress and anger I was feeling, and I just kept doing that cyclical I HATE MEN rant I do every time I witness an injustice toward the female kind, which is exactly what was happening that day. I hate this man SO MUCH. Henry was like, “There are two sides—” and I was like, “Imma stop you right there, cis white male…” because I watched that piece of shit come at her from the back and push her hard enough that he knocked her headphones off her head.

The way I was so ready to come tearing through the screen of the front door like the Kool-Aid Man, but Erin-shaped and way less jolly and sweet!!!! Henry grabbed my arm (gently, he’s not a brute like that WHITE TRASH SON OF SLUMLORD) and quietly said, “Let it go, don’t get involved.”

And I know that was the right thing to do because just yesterday morning, I glanced at the kitchen Echo and saw the headline “Man shot downtown trying to stop a dispute.” It’s always the third party. I did journal a little bit that night though and I will tell you — there really is something very therapeutic about the sound of scissors on paper and using a glue stick. I was sitting here with all my journaling accoutrement spread out around me when Chooch came home from the movie and rolled his eyes at me. :)

Anyway, as I was saying, it was good that I had therapy the very next day because we spent almost the entire session talking about it, how it triggered my manager parts (I think — I get the “parts” mixed up ALL THE TIME but I will tell you that we named one of my parts “The Brat” and another “Noonchi” lol) and took me right back. to when I was dating Psycho Mike and being abused in a plethora of creative ways that didn’t leave physical marks but have stuck with me for 30 years.

She asked, “Did it make you feel like it was happening to you?” and I was like, “You know what? Yes. That’s exactly how I was feeling, like I was watching it happen to myself all over again and I wanted to save her.”

Man, yesterday was a great reminder that it’s never too late to start therapy, even if you think you’re “over” the trauma from childhood, teenage years, your first real job.

It was also fun because I had just gone to see Dance Gavin Dance and just a reminder that my therapist is also a Warped Tour girlie so she knows about all of this stuff and we usually spend a chunk of time fan-girding over music, so when she was like, “I know DGD but not very much about their past” so I was like, “OK WELL THEY STARTED OUT WITH JONNY CRAIG—-” and boiii let me tell you how satisfying it is to pretend like I’m a Professor of Post-Hardcore with someone who willingly signed up for my class.

Except I’m paying her.

LOL.

“I just saw something about Craig Owens and Jonny Craig talking about getting a band back together or something…” she said, and I practically screamed, “ISLES AND GLACIERS! I don’t think it’s really going to happen though because they’d need to get Vic Fuentes to sign on and Pierce the Veil has gotten way too successful for him to risk associating with Jonny Craig again.”

Breathe, Erin, breathe.

Well, that’s my mid-week check-in. I still need to recap the DGD show from Sunday—I have big feeling about that and need to collect my thoughts. Now I think I’m going to go and watch Scream because I just finished reading some behind the scenes book about the Scream franchise and I am feeling very inspired to rewatch them all. (I actually have only seen 1-3 and 6 if you can believe that!!)

Yay yay yay! We picked Chooch up from the train station around 9:45PM on Saturday. Of course, he was like, “Cool mm” as soon as he got in the car and then threw a bag at me.

He was super pissed because he said it was in pristine condition the entire way, and then as soon as he went to get off the train, he crushed it with his suitcase. IT’S THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS THOUGH! I’m going to cut them out and put it in my journal <3

Please excuse the messy table. Penelope is going through a weird eating phase and prefers her treats to be placed on this emo activity book. At least she remembered Chooch though! Even with his long, floppy hair helmet. (It’s getting cut tomorrow! He refuses to find a barber in Philly and only gets his hair cut at home, even though he is never happy with his haircuts from home.)

Sunday morning, Chooch and Henry went to the flea market. Chooch is super into collecting DVDs now and I had a list of items for Henry involving several house projects. He came home with NONE of those, but Chooch got a fuckton of DVDs and this SUPER DISGUSTING SHIRT which he put on without even washing (at least he has a shirt underneath BUT STILL), and they brought me back this surprise:

Apparently, Henry the Stoop had to ASK CHOOCH if he thought I would want it and Chooch was like “um duh.”

Later that afternoon, Henry and I wanted to Uptown Coffee for, I don’t know, fika I guess. I heard that sometimes Mochi’s Donuts sends their goods to this cafe, and I was desperate for another go at the apple fritter. The donuts were OK but that fritter has been nestled beside G-Dragon in my mind every since I beasted one on Mother’s Day. It was really that good and here I never considered myself to be a fritter bitch but sometimes we just get our calling late in life.

Sadly, they didn’t have anything from Mochi’s but we did get a snickerdoodle to split (they have really good cookies at Uptown!) and a vegan orange oil cake that Henry thought tasted familiar and, around a mouthful of MOIST CRUMBS, “Yeah, like Zenith’s bundt cakes.”

So now we need to get our asses to Zenith soon because it’s been a minute.

Later, a cop rolled up to the house! He went over to SON OF SLUMLORD’S house and I was desperately trying to neb but our stupid street is too busy. Thank god for CRIME RADAR:

First of all…this woman is way out of his league and everything is his fault. I just know it. I need to know her side of the story. I’ve been mostly home all day (aside from going on my daily walks like it’s my nervous tick) and she hasn’t come back.

HOLY SHIT NEVER MIND SHE’S HERE RIGHT NOW AND HE’S BEING SUCH A DICK TO HER SHE’S TRYING TO GET HER STUFF AND HE STARTED MOUTHING OFF TO HER AND SHE WAS LIKE WHY ARE YOU ANTAGONIZING ME I JUST WANT MY STUFF SO THEN SHE PUT HER HEADPHONES ON. I’m Team This Girl all the way.

WELL – she was getting the last of her stuff and he strode the across the yard and pushed her and made her headphones fall off and then threw an empty can at her so I’m ready for my police interview.

Oh, and in addition to this – he has a new mysterious baby that came out of nowhere? I mean, I assume it came out of a birth canal but whose, I’m not sure. Henry asked HNC about it recently and he was just like, “It’s his, but I don’t know who the mom is.” Well, it definitely wasn’t this girl! There apparently was someone in the house when all of this was going on and I heard her yell, “FUCK YOU LAUREN, YOU METH HEAD” so maybe whoever LAUREN THE METH HEAD is, that’s the mom!? I’m so fucking confused. I have a lot of investigating to do.

Guys we just had to evacuate Jergel’s because someone smelled smoke or something!! This is the first time I ever had to evacuate a venue before a concert. (WE’RE HERE FOR COLD BTW!!!)

I guess it wasn’t bad because they let us back in after about 10 minutes but now I feel like I have a headache, my vision feels cloudy and my eyes are kind of burning, and I have a miner’s cough now.

Bonus! Here is what Henry’s hair looked like after he woke up from his pre-concert nap:

Bro I have a major concert hangover, the worst one I’ve had in a long time. Yesterday was IMPECCABLE. So many great things happened and it made me feel so alive. Tons more words later but here’s a collection of Kodak keychain shots to commemorate the daytrip.

Because you need to know what shoes I was wearing.

Happy Dog 🐶

The non alc beers I’ve been having actually slap!

Mercury Lounge bathroom selfie. That venue also slaps.

Barricade for The Black Queen 👑

We just came back from seeing Mother Mary at the Hollywood Theater.

I can’t remember the last time I had such an unenjoyable time at the movies. I hated every second of that movie except for the 5 minutes FKA Twigs was in.

Anne Hathaway does nothing for me (more like ANNE GOAWAY amirite guyz? Guyz??), the story itself was SO BAD, the writing had me cringing to the point of pain. My decade + long streak of loving every single A24 movie I’ve watched has officially come to an end.

Also???? Not a knock to the movie but there is a scene where they show fans in the crowd and some are wearing these sharp ass protruding crowns and I swear if any kpop group adopts a religious theme and fans start wearing elaborate eye-pokers to concerts I’m going to be so pissed.

Just like I’m pissed that we paid to see that big screen slop.

Well anyway what a grand end to an annoying day. Happy to be cuddling with Penelope now.

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

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

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

Exercise.

Go for a walk.

Watch kpop content on YouTube.

Watch an episode of whatever show we’re currently watching – tonight it was an episode of the Pitt and I am realizing that my enjoyment of this show was a flash in the pan because my interest wanes more and more with every episode and I am experiencing intense hate for almost every character at this point.

Relax with this cutie:

Plan one or two things to do over the weekend so I have something to look forward to!

If it was a VERY rough day, I might require a sugary treat.

Ok I guess I am officially in that older person stage of life because I am fucking SPENT today. Henry and I went to Columbus yesterday for a concert and got home around 2:00AM. We’re both super feeling it today and slept until 9 which RARELY happens unless one of us is sick. It was absolutely worth it because we had the best time – I feel like so much happened in the short time we were in Columbus and the amount of small talk I engaged in probably is adding to my overall exhaustion today.

I have lots I want to recap but for today, I’m content just going on slow walks, watching YouTube and admiring the way the faux stained glass makes our bathroom look. It’s so peaceful and I need that!

I have to go to bed early tonight (should NOT be a problem) so that I can wake up at 1:30AM and watch the livestream of BIGBANG’s Coachella weekend 2 performance so everyone should just avoid me tomorrow lol.

Anyway, that has been my weekend update.

We have been doing a pretty good job keeping busy these days and I have definitely noticed an improvement in my mental standing! I’m starting to think of my therapist as more a life coach at this point because she has been clutch in helping me reinvent myself in this confusing season of life.

Here are some things from the last week!

We went to see The Drama at the Hollywood Wednesday night. So far, we have gone there at least once a month since December so I think we’re doing a pretty good being supportive patrons. I love the new rainbow lighting they put in since we were last there!

The Drama was fantastic, though! It was highly recommended by our son the movie critic. Aside from the kids shows she did back in the day, I haven’t really experienced Zendaya in “grown up” roles and she was pretty impressive. Also, I love how much Robert Pattinson has evolved since his Edward Cullen days. He’s incredible, and they both made this movie super engaging. (Also, it was not what I was expecting at all.)

Penelope could not care less.

I accidentally started watching vlogs on YouTube about people journaling and I felt so inspired to do more in my vacation and haunted house journals, especially when the one woman was printing out photo stickers from her phone – I cried, “I NEED ONE OF THOSE PRINTERS!!!” This was on Easter. By Monday, I had my own Canon mini printer because the Easter bunny heard me. 

I started using it immediately!  Here’s a picture of Tallin, Estonia that I printed out for this Finland/Estonia page of my old vacation journal. This is going to be so good for my haunted house journal too, I’m really stoked!

But these random, serendipitous vlogs also got me extra inspired to start sketching again too. Honestly, I don’t know what I did to get these things to start appearing in my YouTube feed but I’m not mad about it because I have been craving a new creative outlet and I think reviving something that I used to do as a teen/young adult definitely counts! I need to get a nice, compact sketch book ASAP.

Meanwhile, Henry was in Chooch’s room trying to gather things that can be donated when he called me over. “You will NEVER need to buy pens or pencils of any sort for your sketching,” he said with mild exasperation, Vanna White’ing his hands over Chooch’s HUGE stash of pens, markers, pastels, colored pencils, watercolor pens, regular pencils…most have never even been touched. This is something that we marvel over quite often: what is the catalyst behind Chooch’s secret hoarding of writing apparati? What is the origin story?? I will tell you that this has been happening for many years – he must take a pen from everywhere he goes, like a compulsion. Henry tried to get him take a box of them back to Philly the last time but Chooch left them here so it doesn’t seem like he is…ATTACHED to these things in any way. Maybe it’s more of the act of the acquisition than the actual “having.” He gets ’em and forgets ’em.

(You can imagine how much he wilded out at the college fairs in high school! PENS GALORE!)

Still crying over Mark Lee, not gonna lie. Using my Book MARK to honor him, LOL.

This weekend so far has been pretty fucking great. We spent almost all of Saturday with our friends Shawn and Jess (more on that in a separate post) and it made me realize how much time I spend alone because I talked SO MUCH that I barely had a voice left by the time we parted ways, and then I woke up in the middle of the night with a sore throat! (I’m not sick – it was just mad at me for talking so much!)

Anyway, here’s an eagle (so says Henry) that we saw while waiting for Shawn and Jess to meet us at the Bayernhof Museum.

We ended Saturday at home watching the Coachella livestream of Taemin’s set. He has officially become the first Korean male solo artist to perform at Coachella and he fucking crushed it.

There aren’t any full videos available yet from what I can see but here’s a clip of one of my favorite songs of his – Guilty.

Today was a more chill day. The weather is amazing so we got some iced match from Meccha Matcha and went for a walk at Homewood Cemetery. Again, I have to be a grumpy old person and complain about how cemeteries have been hot spots for walkers ever since the general masses “discovered” them during the pandemic. I miss the days when could go to the cemetery for a walk and be the only people there – NEVER HAPPENS NOW. Especially at Homewood. Call me a boneyard hipster, I don’t give a shit, but I have gone to cemeteries to walk since I was a teenager in the 90s and I hate that it’s no longer a quiet escape.

I sound like my neighbor, the most miserable woman in the world BUT I SAID WHAT I SAID.

And now I’m preparing to watch the Pens game on HBO, maybe look online for a sketchbook, feed the squirrels (one of the little boy Buddys let me touch his tail the other day, I love him so much), who knows where the rest of Sunday will take me!

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