Today on a spontaneous visit to Detroit’s River Walk, we stumbled upon a pro-Canada, anti-Trump rally and I said, “WE ARE JOINING!” Sadly, it was already on the tail end but we did get to spend about 15 minutes standing in solidarity listening to speakers and showing support for the Canadians directly across the river. I really hope the outcome of their upcoming election is a positive one!

A woman was passing out small Canadian flags and if there is one thing I learned from standing in line at kpop concerts, it’s that if you want a freebie, ya gotta go and get that freebie. She was so sweet and even asked to take a picture of my panda necklace for her daughter who is an artist. It was such a pure interaction. Henry didn’t stick around for it.

Of course I got really upset which is basically just my current mood these days anyway so who cares. Also, extreme anger that wracks my body. But this still felt energizing in a way. Solidarity in numbers. Being a part of the right (but not RIGHT) side of history.

I wish I had it in me to pick up a speakerphone and intelligently articulate my thoughts to a crowd but…I’m all swears and feet-stamping when it comes to Frump and fElon.

I bought these pins there too and am especially excited about the Jasmine Fan Club one!

But yeah, just in case anyone didn’t already know where I stand.

Hi while I’m sitting here before bed in a “refreshing red bean pore mask” from Beauty of Joseon, I figured I’d post some pics of Henry and me at Homewood Cem from after lunch. It was such a beautiful day.

Also, I found this sweater in my closet a few weeks ago and was glad it was just chilly enough to get away with wearing it today. Honestly though my closet needs a professional to come in and shape it up.

The other parts of today were just super chill and nice. Read some of my book, watched an episode of Home Economics which started to auto-play after I watched the most recent ep of Abbott Elementary. I had no idea that this was on for three seasons I guess?! Literally never heard of it until Hulu was like “no don’t go.” Two eps in and I don’t know if I like it.

Also, this Canadian/Korean couple I love on YouTube posted a new video where the wife’s brother visited them in Korea for the first time she’s been living there (12 or 14 years I think?!) and I literally started crying really hard like I have any personal connection to this AT ALL and then that feeling carried over during our walk in the Cem so I cried there too and then also cried about Bambi so I’m doing well, lol. No seriously I think I am ok just, when it hits it hits, you know.

After dinner we walked to CVS to get Chooch some stuff for his Easter basket and on the way back, a super intoxicated man was shambling bigly on the other side of the street and I was just about to call 9/11 because he had stepped out really far into the street a few times and I already saw one maybe-dead person in the last 30 days, please let’s not add to it. But then he turned onto a side street that only has like 5 houses so I can only hope one was his.

(“U SHOULD HAVE FOLLOWED HIM AND MADE SURE HE GOT HOME SAFELY” someone is probably judging right now and ok fine I have no excuse other than I’m fucking tired of it.)

Then I made Henry do a Paul Eugene workout with me and we finished the night by watching YouTube videos of people going to NK for the first time in 5 years under the guise of running a marathon and that’s a nope for me. We all know where my allegiance lay.

On that note, I have a recap coming up soon about seeing my once-fave band for the first time in 15 years but my heart isn’t ready for that yet lol. Peace out, weekend warriors. :(

Henry and I went to Freeport on Sunday afternoon just for something to do because it was kind of bleak and boring. There is a cafe there called 1883 or something, it’s a number and I don’t feel like looking it up because I’m so blasé about blogging these days. But we went there once last spring and I liked the vibe so I started following them on Instagram and their spring menu just came out. It looked pretty fire so I said let’s go and Henry said only of you’re driving lol j/k.

I got the almond rose torte latte I think and Henry got the chocolate chip cold brew and there was confusion amongst the young baristas because he ordered it with almond milk but it comes with cold foam and that is made with MILK. He was like I DON’T CARE and they seemed confused like he was being a fake ass vegan or something but he only orders almond milk because he likes the taste.

Now that you know Henry’s coffee milk preference…

I bought some local’s debut novel while waiting for our drinks, because there was a little stack on display and a Venmo QR code. His name is HAWK STEVENSON and he wrote and edited the book while chilling in the cafe and I thought that was kind of cool. I haven’t started reading it yet but I will be SURE to let you know, cyber crew.

After this, we strolled around Freeport and it was mid. There is not much to see or do there. Vivian’s Bakery or whatever the fuck had literally closed the second we walked out of the cafe, so that was off the table. I considering knocking on the door to see if they would sell us the remaining scraps of the day but Henry was like I DON’T THINK SO.

Sounds like the assurance of someone who has tried this before.

We walked to some gazebo and looked at the ugly river. That was boring. Then I wanted a sugar and pouted so Henry went back to the cafe to procure a sugar while I waited at the car because the vibe there was off today. He came out with two cookies and a banana nut muffin for us to share, and said that while he was waiting, a lady asked the young and personality-void baristas if espresso has caffeine in it and THEY SAID NO?

OK.

We drove to a nearby park called Harrison Hills or something and I can’t hear “Harrison” without thinking of Dexter’s son but that’s ok. So we go to this park and it’s still ugly and cold out but at least the park was kind of nice? There was some stupid overlook thing by a playground so we walked out onto it and I was like, “OK, so we can see across the ugly river, cool.”

Then we took the above picture to send to Chooch as a reminder that we exist, and he said “Wow.”

And you know what, that was pretty much it for Sunday.

My attention has been monopolized by G-Dragon and his recent comeback concerts in Seoul last weekend. Oh my Christ what I would have given be in attendance, especially day 2 where Daesung and Taeyang made guest appearances.

I’ve just been so thrilled that he is back in the public eye as an entertainer because it really seemed so hip in the air there for a while, but he’s back and has proven once again that he is more than just a “kpop idol” in Korea. He really is so much more than that, literally Korea’s treasure.

Anyway, I was inspired to do something with this picture of the first outfit he appeared in at his concerts, crown and all because he is THE KING AND KNOWS IT. I sent the picture to my friend Lyda at work – I was FIXIN’ to dish about it but have no one around me who cares so I have to force this upon people sometimes lol. I told her I was obsessing over his concert looks and she admitted to googling him and then was like, “Now I’m obsessed with G-Dragon.”

THAT’S RIGHT GIRL JOIN ME.

I needed to DO SOMETHING with this picture of him so I made a background of his signature daisies and then Henry’s Crafty made it into a pin for me, complete with black velvet backing.

The picture in the background was given to us by GD’s uncle the day we checked out of Dolce Bita in Pocheon and his uncle drove us back to the Ildong bus station while blasting GD’s music, literally one of the wildest and most memorable moments of my life, that actually had me saying, “Did that really happen??” to Henry and Chooch for approx. a year.

I love this so much and wore it out yesterday like a shiny badge of honor when we met friends for lunch (more on that separately!).

Jesus. Much like Robert Smith and Scooter Ward before him, I don’t think I can ever fully explain how much I admire and idolize this man. He is such a genius. There is no one to compare him to either – he is one of a kind. Ughhhhhh I love you, Jiyong.

8:09am: we just left to drive Chooch back to Philly :( Running behind schedule because

1. He wasn’t fully packed
2. He “lost” his wallet (it was on his bed but he didn’t realize he didn’t have it until we were getting in the car

Anyway, I didn’t plan this but my nail polish perfectly matches my windbreaker so then I had to swap out my shoes and purse to complete the coordination. Not seen – pendant that also got the memo.

8:40am: Sheetz update! Henry is bitching because we spent over $40 like we just went to a restaurant for breakfast. Then Henry thought he was a hero because he held the door open for a man exiting with a case of Mountain Dew but I ALSO HELD A DOOR OPEN FOR HIM?! Then right as Henry was getting ready to start the car, the Mountain Dew guy pulled up alongside of us in his white stallion truck to signal that Henry’s DRINK WAS ON THE ROOF OF THE CAR. It was a real wholesome moment like a scene out of Donna Reed or some shit. Henry did the “another mans is talkin’ to me” hyuk hyuk, his standard response.

9:52am: CHOOCH IS/WAS READING A BOOK. Apparently I disrupted him by telling Henry I need to pee so that drew attention to him at which point I started bombarding him with questions and then Henry was like HE IS READING A BOOK! and I almost broke neck trying to turn around to see. It’s a Brandon Sanderson book and I said “I want to read his books but they’re like 800 pages.”

“I know,” Chooch grunted.

“That doesn’t look like it’s 800 pages,” Henry said.

“That’s because it broke and the other part is in my dorm,” Chooch said. Sounds about right. It’s also not his book but his friend Ben’s in case anyone needs to note that in the log.

10:13am: First rest stop of the drive in Bedford and Chooch realized that he forgot something.

“My Rubik’s Cube!” he cried. Oh to the well.

Then it took him forever to decide what snack he wanted from 7-seven and Henry was so annoyed and ughhhh I’m going to miss this. :(

12:57pm: In traffic outside of Philly. Chooch and I slept most of the ride haha. But now he and Henry are arguing because chooch put the window down. “THE AC IS ON!” Henry bellowed. And chooch mouthed off back and then Henry angrily twisted the AC knob to OFF and is pouting now. Welcome us, Philly! We’re here!

Also this was happening during the Jennie / Dua Lipa “Handlebars” song and I yelled at them for ruining it for me.

“I DONT EVEN KNOW WHAT THIS IS!” chooch yelled. Wowowowow.

I can’t remember if it was our flight to Korea but on some recent long-haul flight I listened to a Dua Lipa playlist on the inflight entertainment thing for nearly the whole flight while playing some number game and Chooch was disgusted.

1:27pm:

1:51pm: We’re here! First Henry to go back to get his phone in the garage because he’s an idiot so Chooch and I ditched him because we had to pee.

In that building back there! There are also bunnies roaming the grounds everywhere over there which is cute but weird.

College bathroom selfie!

Now we’re waiting for gross SEPTA to take us downtown.

2:25pm: well no one was paying attention and we passed the stop (to be fair no one told me where we were going) so we ended up having to walk a bit which was a big Lost in Korea mood with Henry and Chooch bickering. It warmed my heart.

But anyway we had to put our name in at Bae Bombon so we came next door to Black Turtle Coffee where the most agitated girl waited on us but whatever. We have iced drinks and are sitting peacefully in wait.

5:56pm: Henry and I are on our way home now. :( Another lackluster goodbye from our son lol.

We did finally eating at Bar Bombon and it was good but S H E E S H getting a table was an ordeal and I said no less than 17 times that I wanted to just go elsewhere. We did attempt to go to a place across the street called The Love or something but they had just closed for the between brunch / dinner time.

I got really mad because it appeared that the hostess gave our table to some old bitches who came straight from yoga, rolled mats and all, but Henry the White Knight of Hostesses because it reminds him of the packaged baked goods mmm Ho Hos, insisted that they were ahead of us on Open Table. Ok Henry. You know everything.

Then they tried to give us the lone table in the front right smack in the busy sidewalk after saying that they would seat us inside and I was like NO THANK YOU.

They promised Henry if we could wait a few more minutes they’d have a table for us inside. Overall our 30 minute wait in the beginning turned into over an hour and I was very displeased about that because it was after 3pm and none of us had eaten since around 9 and I especially was getting hangry. Ok I had bypassed hangry and was firmly planted in much mad starving zone.

Henry was all THANK YOU THANK YOU when the hostess finally summoned us and it was so annoying.

But we had the best seat in the place at all – corner table just the way I like it.

I will say this: ambiance was great. Our server was wonderful. The hearts of palm “fish” tacos I ordered were incredible.

However! We also ordered two starters but our tacos came first (and actually surprisingly fast) and we were told like 3x that our starters would be out soon, then our server was like “let me go check on those starters.” Approx 15 minutes after we finished our tacos, the starters came and Henry joked that they were finishers now but Chooch and I didn’t laugh because that was dumb so you better not have laughed either.

We got some kind of yuca sticks on a pool of nacho (?) sauce which was really good but now what I was expecting. I thought the yuca would be like fries and crispy but they were soft.

And a plate of sweet plantains. I love plantains so much.

Overall it ended up being a good meal but kind of not worth the wait and probably won’t be going back.

We opted to walk back to Drexel after that because I always like to walk after eating a big (to me) meal. MAYBE THAT IS JUST ME. And it’s a really nice walk too. Flat, scenic, and only about 20 minutes.

7:01pm: Checking in to say I’m on my biannual Danity Kane nostalgia tour. This time it’s because Henry said that one of Jennie’s new songs reminds him of a Danity Kane song and I said WILD BC JISOO’S EARTHQUAKE REMINDS ME OF DANITY KANE. (Jennie and Jisoo are both from Blackpink for any anti-kpop person who might themselves reading this).

So now we’re listening to Danity Kane. Fuck you, Diddy. Truly.

Anyway back to Philly – here are some pics from the walk:

I sent this to Corey and he asked me if I wrote that? I mean I’m a Stay but I don’t like them THAT much lol.

The sidewalk was closed at one point and Henry and Chooch were arguing about this. I thought I heard Henry say something about having to go underground so I screamed “we get to go understand?”

Chooch said to him, “Great, now you have her saying that.”

LOL wow.

But seriously I kept asking “when are we going underground though?” And they’d yell in tandem, “We’re not!!”

Then we split up so Henry could go back to the garage to get the car while Chooch and I continued on to his dorm. We were sitting outside when he causally said that I might be able to meet his ROMANIAN friend Bianca!!! She had just made it back to Philly. “Actually there she is right there” and then I fucking spazzed out. “WHAT SHOULD I SAY TO HER??!”

“Oh my god please don’t make this weird. I shouldn’t have said anything,” he groaned as she was quickly approaching.

Turns out it didn’t matter because she came over and they briefly chatted about who else was back and then she went inside.

“Wow she didn’t even look at you,” Chooch laughed.

“Yeah thanks for introducing me!” I cried.

“Maybe she thought you were just another student,” he shrugged.

“OMG REALLY!” I squealed, mood instantly brightened. I mean, we really weren’t sitting that close and I was swinging my legs like a kid on a playground with my telephone purse on my lap. Just ignore my gray hairs and crows feet lol.

Then Henry came back and we had to take Chooch’s shit up to his room and he yelled at Henry repeatedly for stepping on his purple shag carpet which is remarkably clean I must say.

Before we left, I wanted to see the place he’ll be living next year. We couldn’t do much other than go on in the lobby but it’s this tall bitchin’ building behind him:

the final stop was the 7-Eleven near his dorm because he spent all week talking about how they have the best croissants – this location specifically. I mean I’m sure the entire country of France would like to weigh in on that but OK. I wanted to try for myself.

I mean, it was better than the one I had that morning but that was from Sheetz, so. For $1-ish (and for a convenience store) it was decent?

Anyway, it is. Ow 9:46pm and we have another hour left in this drive. Ugh. Signing off.

Quickly, let’s run down the rest of the Mattress Factory without turning this into a 62196492374 word odyssey.

The second building had the coolest Raggedy Ann-themed display going on called Deep, Deep Woods. It was 100% my jam. Things were really continuing to look up.

Some of the sketches on the wall were Greer Lankton pieces – I didn’t know it for sure at first but thought to myself that it looked like her style and then felt SO SMUG when we were about to leave this floor and I read the description on the wall. There is a permanent Greer Lankton installation in the main building and it remains one of my favorite parts of the Mattress Factory to this day. Chooch and I were there several years when there was a much larger collection of her work on display – lots of pencil sketches of anatomy so Chooch was probably thinking, “This is awesome that my mother actually paid for me to see this.” Hey art is important!

THIS ROOM! INTERIOR DESIGN INSPO.

That tall red is where I work lol.

The top floor was whatever, TBH. We were kind of like, “What is this?” and I feel bad because, much like most art, it has a very strong message that went over my head until later when I read about it. And the other two rooms up there are permanent installations that we have all seen numerous times so we decided to leave and head to the main building while THE COUPLES were pretending like they understood the top floor.

I was determined to go to the floor with the Kusama infinity room first so we could take idiotic pictures of ourselves before THE COUPLES caught up. We had some elevator issues which lost of us some time but we finally made it to the correct floor and there were only two other people there but they were messing around with another installation.

Chooch and Corey got distracted by these skeletal arcade games first and I had to drag them away. WE WERE RUNNING OUT OF TIME. I’ll tell you something I just realized about myself. When I was VERY YOUNG and lived on SYLVANIA DR in South Park, I used to play with these older kids across the street – Ben and Adele. They were kind of “bad” I guess but that’s neither here nor there. One of the made up games we would play was called THE VILLAGERS and we would run around their backyard usually at dusk pretending to be chased by these invisible people called, you know, THE VILLAGERS, obviously. It was so fucking scary to me back then, hiding behind their above-ground pool, literally thinking that someone was after me with a pitchfork, I don’t even know. Anyway, I truly believe that this is why to this day I am always in a hurry, it’s always a race, I’m forever trying to outrun the Villagers.

And that’s what was happening on this day at the Mattress Factory.

But Corey and Chooch grew up playing regular games I guess and don’t speedwalk through life throwing furtive glances over their shoulders. Heart racing. Underarms sweating. Etc.

We made it though! FIRST.

We did “Blair Witch” poses here too. No one has ever done this before We are trailblazers. Tremendous work.

Visiting Trudy’s family.

On the way out of this area, THE COUPLES were putting the booties over their shoes (you have to either do that or take your shoes off before going in).

“Be glad you didn’t walk in on us being creepy in THAT room,” I stage-whispered to the girl couples and they were like, “OMG” and laughed.

I could NOT get that thing to play

The basement is always hit or miss. It was a miss for me this time.

I think that was pretty much all of the highlights from this visit. Not all of the installations grabbed me this time and sadly one of the rooms was closed while a new installation was being constructed so that was sad. Of course I read somewhere afterward that the MF will often give free tickets to come back when the new installation opens but this was not offered to us and truthfully I was NOT a fan of the girl working at the front desk that day.

Spent some time in the gift shop. No one bought anything but Chooch was happy to collect a free sticker for taking an online survey. Also, Chooch said that his favorite part was the darkroom / attic in the first building. I agree with that. It was also the area we spent the most time in.

Since leaving the nest, Chooch has apparently developed an interest in art, which is annoying because HELLO remember when his mother used to make fake art?! Where was his interest then?? (OK to be fair when he was little, he liked a Jeffrey Dahmer portrait I painted on wood and asked to keep it – it’s actually still in his bedroom so maybe I should ask him why he hasn’t taken it back to Philly?? IS HE EMBARRASSED OF IT?)

Anyway, a few weeks ago, he was sending me pictures of art that he thought I would like at some gallery in Philly (aw, I bet he doesn’t send Henry pictures of…what? Beverage he thinks he would like?) so I suggested that we go to the Mattress Factory when he’s home for spring break because it’s been a while since he was last there with me. He actually AGREED and then I said we should invite Corey too because Corey wanted to hang out with him when he’s home and Corey also likes the Mattress Factory. So…boom. Look at me, so good at organizing. Wish I could apply those skills to my head.

Corey picked us up around 11 even though I wanted to BE THERE BY 11 because I am so rigid when it comes to these. They open at  11 and I wanted to “beat the crowds” and also “get a spot in the parking lot.” I have ALWAYS been like this.

Then Chooch was pissed because I was nagging him for days about not forgetting to bring his student ID so that he could get the STUDENT DISCOUNT and he was like “I HAVE MY FUCKING ID, IT’S IN MY WALLET. YES, I HAVE MY WALLET! OMG!”

OK, I can see where I could be a little overbearing and annoying.

Then we got there and the bored broad at the desk didn’t even ask for his ID and he was extra-pissed, lol.

(I should note that I had never heard of the Mattress Factory until I was a Pitt student and looking for free things and discounts that my Pitt ID could get me and the Mattress Factory was listed. The first time I ever went, I was pregnant with Chooch!)

Bored Broad “recommended” that we start our day at the Sampsonia annex which was whatever – fine, we’ll do it, but we won’t necessarily LIKE it. I was annoyed because there were only two other cars in the lot when we got there and OFC as soon as we entered the annex, four people were immediately in the first room. Look, I don’t even pretend to not be a curmudgeon, OK? I know I am. And I am one of Those PPL who hate being in museums etc with other people because it makes me feel rushed and/or self-conscious.

I couldn’t tell if the two couples were together, but there was a girl couple and a man/woman couple. They were all kind of whatever but one of the women from the girl couple STOPPED AND READ EVERY SINGLE ARTIFACT on the wall. I’m not even going to front –  I did not like the first two floors of this exhibit, which was largely about pollution and the Clean Air Act. Lots of pictures of trains, smokestacks, old local newspaper articles, etc. Chooch texted me, “I hate these people. They’re making me feel like I should be studying everything.” I was like 100% agreed, sonny.

Anyway, this whole building was Luke Stettner’s State of the Sky. The description on the Mattress Factory’s website really explains it well so you should give that a read if you care.

Then the one couple was looking at something and giggling and the other couple joined them and also giggled. We waited for them to head on up to the second floor and then tried to figure out what was so funny about what they were looking at but I have no fucking idea.

Studying.

Yo, I liked this part. It was on the second floor and these windchimes / pipes dropped down through the ceiling. I assume you were supposed to fuck around with it to make it sing, so that is just what I did after everyone else just glanced at it with “hmmm” expressions.

There was also a little nook in a corner where several old-ass televisions were stacked and playing creepy b&w images. “It reminds me of the Ring,” I said and everyone agreed with me because my observations rule. 

But then it was time for the upstairs, the ominous red lighting on the steps gave us a preview of what was to come.

It was a dark room motif! WE SPENT SO MUCH TIME UP HERE BEING DUMBOS.

This floor had another TV set up but it was showing nightvision footage of a field / weeds and I said, “This reminds me of Blair Witch,” and Corey took this and ran with it.

“Take a picture of me doing Blair Witch!” he squealed and plastered himself into a corner.

I had to make Chooch it too and then OFC I WANTED ONE OF ME.

I don’t know why this was but Corey tried twice and both times it came out blurry maybe because I AM the Blair Witch. But when he was on attempt #2,  THOSE COUPLES came back into the room, presumably exhausting every single text on display for their eyeballs to absorb in the other rooms, and while I was facing the wall, I heard one of the women gasp and say, “OK, give me a heart attack!” and the Corey’s bombastic laugh filled the floor.

“We’re doing Blair Witch!” I muffled into the asbestos (probably) filled wall.

“I applaud your commitment to the performance,” one of the women said as I continued to stand stalk still into the corner, and I gave myself a silent FUCK YEAH head pat. I will take praise and attention anywhere I can get it. After that, I decided I didn’t hate them so much anymore. The guy part of the guy/girl couple was still mid though. I was glad that those two missed my show.

Chooch took my Blair Witch picture at the top of the steps after everyone else left out of the fire escape exit and we had free reign.

I love these so much, lol. I posted them on Instagram and someone said that they looked like horror movie posters (specifically Corey’s) and that made me so happy.

Third floor of the Sampsonia annex slapped. Totally made up for the other two floors of what came off like someone’s high school research project plastered onto a wall. I mean, don’t get me wrong, environmental activism FTW. But it was just a lot, and we were definitely ready to head out to the Monterey annex.

NCTshoes on the fire escape.

You guys! Chooch came home Thursday night and all feels right in the world (ok I’m gonna walk back on that one and just go with “in our house”).

First! During my lunch break on Friday, we walked to 802 Coffee where I, as per uje, ordered poorly and hated my latte but chooch’s was delightful (it was their dumb March leprechaun menu).

Then we stopped at the library specifically so he could say hi to Robert the Security Guard who always asks me how he is doing and just told me the other day that he keeps him I. His prayers. Get you a library security guard friend, you guys. Robert is such a gem and one of the few good things that came out of the pandemic because I only started talking to him during the very strict book pickups during the early part of COVID.

After work, Janna & Kara came over for pizza and to pepper Chooch with questions about college. So far, the first thing he tells everyone, including Robert, is that he has been playing Spikeball. (Shout out to Corey who got him this for Xmas and Chooch has said repeatedly that it’s one of the best presents he has ever got ok wow, RIP the memory of me presenting him with Hamilton tickets the first time it came to Pgh.)

It was a really chill night and also I liked this beer a lot even though I poured it wrong apparently.

Oh btw when Chooch came home Thursday night, he opened the fridge and yelled in disgust, “There is only beer in here!!!”

TO BE FAIR – we still have a lot of beer left from Chingumas. I put a moratorium on the weekend Duffy’s runs for build-your-own six packs because I was afraid of becoming an alcoholic. Now I will only drink in social situations like before. You heard it here first.

Smirking because approx. three of us asked him who he was texting and if it was this girl that I have latched on to because he let her name slip several times. They’re going to see The Weeknd with two or three other ppl and she bought all the tickets so I had to Venmo her money for him because I’m Mommy Dearest and also because concerts is the one thing I will never deprive him of.

(well, food and love too I guess lol.)

Anyway, it was such a wholesome night of reminiscing about psychos I attracted during the LJ years, game nights of yesteryear, and when Chooch was a baby with a giant head. It was the perfect start to the weekend!

Penelope has been ‘specially adorbs lately so I wanted to document some or that cuteness for internet prosperity.

Henry bought her cat grass and she is a big fan.

This was when Henry had the audacity to try to say something in Korean last night. She whipped her head back with a quickness and glared at him. As you do.

Same, goyorl.

She is always with us on the couch in the eve. She loves watching Going Seventeen, in case you were wondering. (Please just pretend that you were.)

Such snug!!

The back porch is her daily hangout once it’s warm enough to keep the door open.

Has a güd nite.

Last weekend this weekend! This might not even need its own post in hindsight because last weekend (the first of March, right?? I could have looked at a calendar in the amount of time it took me to type this sentence, oh well) wasn’t really that exciting, but I opened WordPress and now I’m committed.

If memory serves, Henry spent most of Saturday working on the NCT127 pins for the concert we went to on Friday – he was on a roll after making the Taemin ones so I took advantage of his craftiness and put some NCT faces on his plate. He is such a good Kpop Dad!

I let him take a break in the afternoon and we went to Mango Mango for some Hong Kong-inspired desserts. It was SO FUCKING COLD that day and I was not dressed for it. I for some reason didn’t anticipate that we’d have to walk to the place because to be frank, I actually had no idea where this place was, but Henry knew so he preemptively parked on another street knowing that it would be tough to find something closer, and I was such a little baby on the walk  there. I was cold and not dressed for it!!

But that didn’t stop me from getting a cold dessert, lol. I got the mango pomelo sago bowl with mango ice cream – it was perfect: refreshing and not overly sweet!

Henry’s had red bean and lychee jelly and was also really good. I want to go back and get one of the hot desserts which look porridge-y and similar to what I had at the tea house in Gyeongju, maybe?!?

Then we went to our fave Asian market in the Strip for some produce and I was on the hunt for more Korean candy to include with the NCT freebies. There were a lot of white people doing the whole “grocery tourism” bit and look, I know I too am a white person, but it was annoying and I didn’t the people working there to lump me in with those rubber-neckers.

I am also notorious for my gatekeeping, which Chooch loves to point out. :)

Came home, ate dinner, watched G-Dragon reaction videos, and this is where I want to give Henry a shout out because he truly gets it. It is so much fun to have something to obsess over together – yes, he actually is excited that G-Dragon is back; yes, he actually truly likes G-Dragon; yes, he actually looks forward to the new content that G-Dragon has been gifting to VIPs. And no, he doesn’t say anything judgey when I pay for GD fan club membership, panic over getting tickets for the upcoming world tour, or openly weep about how much I love him. Henry apparently had even quietly looked into going to Korea for one of the concerts there, but they sold out within minutes. And they’re also less than a month away, so that would logistically be a headache with requesting time off, etc.

Henry has even said that G-Dragon’s 2017 concert was one of the best ones he’s ever been to, and THE best one in the Kpop category. And he’s watched G-Dragon’s 2024 MAMA comeback performance video like 88 times since it came out.

THE POWER OF G-DRAGON.

Penelope, exhausting from us fangirling over G-Dragon and BIGBANG all weekend!

On Sunday, I met Janna for lunch at the new Blue Flame. You might remember that the original Blue Flame closed last year right around the time we went to Korea to get married, and I found out when my brother sent me an alarming and cryptic text which was totally uncalled for!

It has new owners now and was rebranded as the Steel 51 Grill or something generic. They didn’t really change a thing inside  – it still has that old Blue Flame stench when you walk in and the one section off to the side was still closed off as usual. So weird. The menu wasn’t much different except that now inexplicably have shrimp tempura as an appetizer and avocado toast for the millennials, I guess. I got the avo toast, lol.

Negatives: it felt very much like being in enemy territory IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN. Lots of men that looked like they stopped there on their way home from hunting, some old men who looked like they have certainly said the words, “women belong in the kitchen” more than once in their lives and definitely hate they/them pronouns, and some brassy-haired moms who looked like they have pictures of Majorie Taylor Greene as the background on their phones.

You know, if you know what I mean.

So, we had very hushed conversations about the crumbing state of the country. I mean, all I truly wanted to do was talk about G-Dragon but I understand that not everyone gives a shit about these things, so bashing President Musk and his puppet Trump it was!

Positives: I really liked our server. She was very friendly and just gave good vibes. She also complimented my Seventeen credit card, LOL. My avo toast was really good and the fruit cup it came with was full of fruit that was actually edible! They also have a full coffee bar now which was cool. I got a cinnamon latte and it was good!

Then I was trying to total my bill but couldn’t remember what 5+7 was so I had to ask Janna for assistance lol.

Then Henry and I went for a quick walk in some really small and uninteresting cemetery in the North Hills before hitting up another Asian market out that way because I struck out on the candy tip at the one on Saturday.

Then then then.

We came home. Ate dinner. Watched more G-Dragon stuff. Sometimes that’s all I really need for a weekend to be good – G-Dragon back in my life!

On our way back to Chicago for another concert! NCT127 this time and I am so excited – their last time in the US was 2022 and even though they’re down 2 members due to military enlistment and 1 due to being a garbage human, I gotta go and support the rest of them.

1. Corey Haim 2.0

G-Dragon’s return has made me feel alive again. The pure joy and excitement I have felt this past week after his new album dropped is reminding me of…well, what it used to feel like to be me before 2024 came and terrorized my soul. But with this has also come the ADMITTEDLY DELULU dream of GD being my soulmate (lol I can’t even type this without cracking up at how much of an asshole I am). Since Henry is my best friend, I told him that I have two fantasy scenarios in which I meet GD and he falls in love with me:

• 1. We meet TOTALLY BY RANDOM at the Warhol Museum where I pretend to not know him and we instantly imprint on each other probably in the cloud balloon room if that’s even still there after making eye contact in a balloon’s reflection and then we both smile at each other and for some reason he really likes my Sloth face. Then he comes to my house because he’s hiding from sasaeng fans and I have to run around hiding all of my kpop stuff when he’s not looking and then everything is going fine until he sees the pictures of Korea on the wall (I do tell him that I’ve been to Korea but not bc of Kpop) and he’s really impressed and happy that I admire his country’s culture but then he’s like “why do you have a picture with my dad.“

• 2. Pretend that I do know him but I’m very respectful and address him as Jiyong-ssi and speak to him in my jilted Korean and even though I’m a fan he can tell I’m NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS and we imprint on each other and then Dispatch announces on January 1 of the next year that G-Dragon has been secretly dating AN AMERICAN WHITE GIRL who is also kind of fat but love is blind to quote a classic GD track. Then we get married and Taeyang performs at our reception. I guess somewhere along the way I divorce Henry (I think we actually have to go back to Korea if we ever need to get divorced haha).

I mean to be fair this COULD happen because I have been sporadically commenting “Come to Pittsburgh – we have the Warhol Museum” on his IG posts since 2017.

(In case you didn’t know, GD is a big art enthusiast. Duh.)

I was just telling Henry that I haven’t felt this crazy maniacal desperate obsessed with a celeb since I was a kid and only had eyes and room in my head for thoughts about Corey Haim. I had it BAD and that is what this is. This is Corey Haim Syndrome, Adult Years.

And then:

“Wow, GD likes so many posts he’s tagged in on IG. Maybe that’s how I can bait him. What should I post a picture of though?

“You at the Warhol,” Henry mumbled.

2. Priestley Pillow

Piggybacking off the Corey Haim reference, when 90210 first came out I obviously was all about it. I mean, I was in middle school, come on. My dad INSISTED that I “had the hots” for Jason Priestley?! This boiled my blood because hello, Luke Perry?!

One day, of my idiot parents came home with a fucking heart-shaped pillow with Jason Priestley’s face on it and they would take turns whaling it at me.

It was so annoying to me BECAUSE I LOVED LUKE PERRY so I eventually gave the pillow to our German shepherd Rama who did his thang with that effer.

3. PARKING DRAMA REVISITED

There’s always some element of parking drama going on in my neighborhood but last year, the Catholic church across the street brought us all together by becoming our common enemy when they pounded a sign into the ground like a crucifix warning that NO OVERNIGHT PARKING WAS ALLOWED AND ALL VIOLATORS WILL BE TOWED.

I thought I had bitched about that on here when it happened last winter but I guess not – all you need to know is that it threw a lot of in a tailspin because we live in duplexes with garages that are old and narrow so no one actually parks in them, and street parking is not recommended on our block because our street is basically a speedway and accidents happen A LOT.

So we had to work with our neighbors to basically Tetris our cars into one shared driveway. It was fine in the end but annoying.

Eventually, everyone started ignoring the sign and parking over there again with no consequences lol. What are they doing to do, sic God on us.

Anyway!!!! Last Friday I went out for my morning walk and noticed all the cars (mind you, there are only a handful of people who park over there and also the employees from the behavioral health house on our block and the lot is HUGE) had bright orange notices on the windshields. I threw ours out but it said something about NEW MANAGEMENT and NO PARKING WITHOUT A PERMIT IS ALLOWED.

Ok so now no parking AT ALL?! I will tell you right now that I do not like pulling our car down the driveway and parking next to the house because I’m so afraid I’m going to scrape it. One of my many issues.

HNC’s wife was like I WILL GET TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS because we all decided that if there was an option to just pay for a permit, that would be preferable. I mean not that I want to be giving money to CHURCH but I’d rather that than have my car sideswiped if I park on the street. Plus, it alleviates the future feuds that are bound to materialize with the neighbors while trying to share space.

Guess what the church said?? THAT THEY HAD NO IDEA WHAT SHE WAS TALKING ABOUT.

Turns out, it was the SMALLER EPISCOPAL CHURCH NEXT DOOR!! And it’s not their lot, it’s the Catholics’!!! They lease part of it to them I guess?! So the Catholic Church was like we don’t care if you park there, we’ll get the bottom of it. So now we created a religious turf war! This is so exciting. I wonder if they will stand in the parking lot and shout holy spells at each other.

Fucking Episcopalians. Also you can see the ignored “no parking” sign in the bottom left lol.

Hopefully when G-Dragon takes me back to Korea with him, I’ll never have to worry about these dumb things again.

4. When Henry Found Out Our Car’s Name

We were just talking about how we have to come back out this way again next month because I bought us tickets to see Onew (from SHINee) in Detroit.

“Do you even like Onew?” I asked Henry because I don’t think I ever actually asked him this before??!!

“I guess I do now,” he mumbled and I didn’t like his lack of enthusiasm.

“Well, I like him a lot!” I huffed. “I mean, our car is even named after him.”

“….it is?” Henry asked in a mumble deep fried in confusion.

“Um hello? Yes? I named the car Jinki the day we bought it?!” (Jinki is Onew’s real Korean name.)

So then I had to look up the blog post where the nomenclature was so declared along with a picture of an Onew poca with the car in the background. God!!!

Anyway, a little while later I put on an Onew song and Henry knew it was him so there’s that at least.

________________________________________

INTERLUDE: we’re discussing the upcoming G-Dragon tour and how it’s going to be scary trying to get tickets etc and for some reason Henry used the word “minuscule.”

“WOW, that’s a big word for you. Did you just learn it from one of your lame podcasts?” I instigated.

“I learned the word ‘cunt’ a long time ago and I’m fixin’ to use it,” Henry muttered. LOL WOW SLOW DOWN BUD.

________________________________________

5. ROADTRIP OREO SUCCESS

Our group chat at work yesterday was named after National Oreos Day and someone shared a picture of some new limited edition Post Malone flavor which sparked debate over classic v. Seasonal flavs. Now, I’m no Posty fan by any stretch of the imagination but when I saw that these are salted caramel & shortbread, I decided I could forget the Post Malone part.

My review that I sent to Nate to pass on to group chat:

I’m glad we didn’t have to buy a full pack. They’re not TERRIBLE but the salted caramel creme is an overwhelmingly powerful flavor and the smell of it was almost off-putting when I opened the package. One cookie is OG chocolate, the other side is shortbread. Worth trying once, will never buy again.

So, that’s that!

Also while we were at the rest stop, we were in line at Dunkin and two moms and their daughters got in line behind us and were practically hanging off my back they were so close AND LOUD. I even sidestepped around Henry to get away from them while saying “Jesus Christ those people are so close” – turns out they were DANCE MOMS with their teenaged DANCERS. Figures. I was like “Can you please not??!!” as they jostled me around in an effort to touch and manhandle every bejeweled coffee tumbler on display next to us.

Ok that concludes this edition of Friday Five.

We had a regrouping today for last month’s process mapping session at work and this time the theme was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We all got bandannas and had to choose a ninja name – it was ridiculous but totally cute and right up my alley because I’m a child who is also super serious about her job. When these things marry, count me in!

Also, everyone was given a sheet from a TMNT coloring book to work on when our brains needed a rest and you know I was on board with that.

I want to send this to Chooch in a role reversal type deal, like now it’s his turn to hang MY elementary school art on HIS fridge, right?

Anyway, that is all I got. I woke up at 6am because there was a G-Dragon fan club exclusive beanie I wanted to buy but I DID THE TIME MATH INCORRECTLY and it was actually on sale at 4am so ofc it was sold out by the time I arose at 6. F M L.

All of this is to say between an early wake up call and a full day of a meeting where I also had to present at one point (it’s fine – therapy has really helped me with my confidence and I am conquering my inferiority complex!), I am so fucking drained. It’s only 8:30pm but I might be going to bed super early tonight. Sheesh.

Hey it’s Sunday. I feel OK. Henry just brought back a chocolate chip cookie and a chocolate cupcake to share from Potomac Station and that has perked me up. Sometimes, the body just really wants sugar, you know?

In other weekend news, I was supposed to have brunch at Lola’s with Mar, Debby, Megan, and Jill yesterday but when I got there the hostess said, to my utter non-shock, that it would be an hour wait. I get why some places don’t take reservations (I guess?) but it’s still annoying. When I walked back out, Marlene had just arrived so she honked and I jumped in her car to tell her the bad news. Then Debby arrived and got in the backseat while we decided on a backup plan – I suggested just going down the street to the Abbey but then we had to get a hold of Jill and Megan and I don’t know why but this was so stupidly hilarious to me. Jill ended up texting me at that exact moment to say she was running late and I was like Oh thank god because I only had her work email!?

Anyway, Mar left her car behind and rode with me down to the Abbey while Debby waited behind for Megan who was en route in an Uber. It’s a good thing that Mar rode with me though because once we walked inside the Abbey she was like, “Hmmm, maybe I haven’t been here before?!” and then the more she kept talking about the place she thought we were going, I said, “Mar, are you thinking of Church Brew Works?” and yes, yes she was. That’s exactly where she would have been headed if she hadn’t come with me, lol.

I was happy to sit inside. The last several times I have been to the Abbey, I’ve been with people who wanted to sit outside and look, the Abbey is an old funeral home – you want to be sitting INSIDE. All the vibes are INDOORS. But, I digress.

It was a nice time. I still feel like a shell of myself when I’m with a group of people and didn’t talk much, and then I felt like when I was talking, I was just being annoying, but that’s a me problem and we’re working on it. I just really didn’t want to talk about work and it always ends up going there.

I’m always so happy and excited to be meeting up with friends but then I focus on the tiniest things and flip them into something negative. And then I have myself convinced that some people don’t like me and I will spend days and nights dwelling on that. It is one of my toxic traits, of which I have many.

Like for instance, when we were ready to order, I asked the server if we could have separate checks and I felt immediately tacky for making the request especially based on the server’s and some others’ reactions and I tried to explain that we were recently out with Pam and her friend Greg and didn’t ask for separate checks until the end and the server literally yelled at us and I have been scarred ever since but no one was listening to me at that point because I never have anything valuable to say so I just shut up, lol. Story of my life.

But this is a thing that no one else probably thought about again after leaving yet here I am, a day later, crying about it on my bitch baby blog. I think one of the reasons that I have been feeling like I can’t be myself is that whenever I *am* myself, I am hyper-aware of how immature/weird/obnoxious I am coming across so I am trying to subconsciously not be like that by walling myself up? How am I middle-aged and still having these idiotic struggles? I really can’t stand myself. When is therapy going to fix me lol.

Then I came home and Henry, the One Man Kpop Street Team Operation, was hard at work on the NCT pins we’re making for the upcoming concert and that made me happy.

<3

Then we went for a walk at Jefferson Memorial where I once again started nagging him about getting our burial plots bought.

Then I had this B I G S A L A D for dinner and it was so good!

We spent the rest of the evening watching Seventeen vlogs and drinking BEER even though I am getting so fat due to my new beer hobby. (I usually only drink the equivalent of 1.5 beers on the weekend nights but I am such a lightweight that it feels like so much more!)

And then I saved one of my old Gmail addresses from being deleted, whew. I might need to use this one day!!

Well, that’s all for me. Nothing exciting has happened today aside from squirrel visits. But we are meeting up with Shawn and Jess tonight at the Crafthouse for a show so I’m really stoked for that because I haven’t seen them since last June!!

I am still collecting my thoughts on the Taemin concert so I can spew them all over this page like pea soup from Regan’s mouth but I wanted to post this picture that Henry took of me pre-concert in our hotel room with the Chicago Theater behind me because I never want to forget how I felt in that moment: the pre-concert jitters but also pure happiness and that has been such a rare feeling for me lately. I mean, look at all the whining I do here weekly – you know!

But sheesh – not only did it feel so good to be out and about after being sick, but I just FELT good too. I wasn’t worried about how I looked. I wasn’t depriving myself of food that day. I had some beer! I was..living. To put it bluntly. Living.

It was so cold that night in Chicago but I felt sincerely warm.

I still can’t believe we saw THEE 이 태민. Grateful for the opportunity and privilege to make the trek to Chicago for this beautiful, special, majestic night under the same roof as the most ethereal dancer and angelic singer I have ever known in my lifetime

7:03am: Wow hopefully my first non-whiny woe is me blog post in quite some time will be playing out today because we are officially on our way to Chicago to see Taemin!! I am sitting upright, in a car, outside of the house! I’m wearing makeup! My hair is done!

SHE’S ALIVE.

I did bring a mask to wear tonight though because I still have a slight cough and I really don’t want to chance spreading this amongst my fellow Taemates.

Anyway, on Friday at work Sue sent me that picture of Taemin and I thought it was so sweet of her, it made me giggle because 45 year old women can still giggle stop trying to suppress our joy. God.

7:44am: I just ate a tropical fruit cup from Sheetz, and a protein bar. This is the most nurishment I’ve had in a week. I feel so powerful. It was also super weird walking into a store after being a sick person shut-in for a week and a half.

Super M bag full of Taemin freebies! I’m so excited to pass these out! Been going to kpop concerts once 2017 but this is baby’s first freebie participation event.

9:42am: somewhere in Ohio, gross:

Not much is going on. Listening to Taemin and reading “The Trunk” a Korean novel. It was adapted into a kdrama on Netflix and I wanted to read the book first before watching it.

11:20am: we are STILL in Ohio because the snowstorm had us doing a steady 40MPH so we’ve made no progress. But it’s given me lots of time to reminisce about my years as a Taemin fan and one of my favorite/dumbest memories is from when we landed in Korea in 2019 and my literal first order of business was to find the Taemin birthday billboard in the Hongdae subway (hats off to my friend Jiyong for finding out its general vicinity for us beforehand!). We were all jet lagged and exhausted but I was like NO MUST KEEP LOOKING until we finally found it and then I made Chooch stand in front of it which pissed him off because “girls were walking by” lol.

12:34pm: Chooch waited until just now to ask me if I have any recent pictures of him he can use for LinkedIn “wearing business casual or something”. Um excuse me would he like me to photoshop him into a sweater or something because why would I have a picture of him like that when he refuses to wear anything nice?

I asked him if we could just take some shots when he comes home next month for spring break and he goes ITS DUE TODAY LOL.

Jesus Christ. I told him to just borrow a button down from a friend and get a girl to take his picture because I cannot help him when I’m in a car in Indiana. (Are we in Indiana yet???)

1:11pm: I always guess the same person first on Spotle everyday and today it was finally that person so I got it in one guess and Chooch, surly in Philly, said, “wow ur so cool.”

1:46pm: Ugh we just stopped at some disgusting 7-Eleven that had next to no veg options, got disgusting cornbread as a confession and immediately passed it off to Henry because NOT WORTH IT. The biscuit from whatever “Roost” is was disgusting too. The guy working there had to go in the. Ack to get me butter and when he came out the swinging door hit him in the stomach and he was soooo dramatic about it, leaning against the counter, hugging himself, repeating “the door hit my stomach ow” several times and I said, “oh no, aw” to him and then whispered to Henry, “does he want me to rub it for him or what??!”

Anyways fuck American 7/11 honestly. It’s such a great example of how LESSER THAN America is to other countries just based on convenience stores alone. I could have dined heartily if this was a Korean or Japanese 7-Eleven but go off with your nasty ass taquitos, US 7-Eleven. Barfarama.

I even started to loudly complain about how IF U DONT EAT MEAT, YOURE LESSER THAN and Henry was like, “Well yeah, in Indiana at least.”

Ugh don’t defend 7-Eleven, CarnivorHank.

2:49pm: Just left HMart with food and beer praise be. Checking into our hotel in a few minutes and mukbangging our faces off.

3;31pm: WE CAN SEE IT FROM THE HOTEL WINDOW.

Adding candy!

You guys. This place is adorable.

Free cookie during “pineapple hours!”

Also here’s the beer lineup we procured at HMart. I’m obsessed with the Gumiho IPA ever since we got some for Chingumas and was so happy to see them at this HMart!

You guys I am sooo ready. Also excited to go downstairs in a bit and get our free beers because Henry is a VIP somehow.

4:39pm: I had this when we were in Chicago for Riot Fest in 2023 and FUCKING HATED IT. I guess my palate has been conditioned because now I find it to be quite delightful.

Also!

5:08pm: there are people behind us at a table not from America talking about how fucked America is and I want to go sit with them and ask them to take me home with them.

7:08pm: Hey I’m posting this now because we’re inside the theater and it starts in like 29 minutes so ciao ciao for now now.