Ugh Saturday started out horribly. Ok that’s hyperbolic, it was just boring and mildly frustrating because it was snowing hard. Henry and I were going to go to lunch at Blue Flame but then Responsible Son texted from work and said that he OF FUCKING COURSE didn’t have his house key so we had to turn around (granted we were still close to home but everyone was crawling because of the snow) to unlock the door for him – so safe.

THEN it took us forever to even get onto the main road because a car was broken down so traffic was all backed up and it was nearly 1PM by now and like nearly EVERY RESTAURANT IN PGH Blue Flame closes as 2PM so we decided to just go to Frank and Shirley’s which is much closer to home anyway but when walked in, the bus boy was all, GET THIS, “oh yeah we’re closed bc of the weather.”

THERE WERE PPL EATING AND THE “WEATHER” WASN’T BAD BUT OK. Cook on. Or, don’t, I guess, BC OF THE WEATHER.

Idiots.

So basically it took us exactly an hour to drive in a circle 10 minutes away from our house only to come back and eat lunch at home.

Ew, I was fuming.

Chooch slept over a friend’s house that night, so Henry had a soju & makgeolli party and watched the new Exorcist which I thought was just OK and definitely didn’t scare as much as some other possession movies (my favorite type of horror, BTW).

I had a lot of things to say throughout it and I think Henry welcomed my commentary because it distracted him from the matter at hand: THAT WE WERE WATCHING A MOVIE ABOUT POSSESSION and very much the opposite of me, Henry hates horror movies that have religious themes to them because HE IS A BIG WUSS.

At one point, I felt inspired to text Chooch and tell him that if ever became possessed, I would leave. Literally could call my mom and ask if I could move back home or better yet, send Chooch there.

Which reminded me….

“When I was in high school, I desperately wanted to be possessed by the devil. Desperately,” I confessed to Henry, burping up soju probably.

“That…doesn’t surprise me one bit,” Henry mumbled.

Today, Henry and I had our lunch do-over but this time decided to go to Deer Creek Diner in Russellton, wherever that is. I don’t know what I was doing when I took this picture but judging by the last month or so of my blurry picture-taking, I think it’s safe to say that I have crossed over to Elderly Person Taking Photos with Kindle territory.

This place was fine! As soon as we sat down, the elderly couple (who probably have an entire camera roll of blurry pictures) on the other side of the little wall thing next to us said hello and it made me feel uncomfortable, like they were breaking some sort of third wall, restaurant edition, and then when the man sneezed at one point, I had a mental breakdown trying to decide if saying BLESS YOU was appropriate but then too much time passed while I was debating so instead I just pretended like I hadn’t noticed even though we made eye contact.

Oblig coleslaw-in-the-maw action shot! This coleslaw was totally my style, btw.

I got a grilled cheese with tomato, and fries. Forgot to take a picture. The grilled cheese was basic, but the fries were ALMOST the “Good Kinds” that I love so much. Almost!

I had to come back into the bathroom after already being in there once to actually pee, because I made the fatal mistake of not bringing my phone (I mean, it’s weird to walk into a public bathroom with your phone in your hand; I usually only bring it in if I’m wearing a jacket and it’s in the pocket) only to be met with this HIDEOUS mural!!!

I made sure that all of the diners who were there when I went in the first time were already gone, lest they think I have some bladder disorder or a hand-washing compulsion, etc. Because EVERYONE CARES WHAT I DO, OBVIOUSLY.

Anyway, I had only been in there for 20 seconds and was getting ready to leave when someone started knocking on the door. That pissed me off. Excuse me, but if the door is locked, then clearly someone is in there? You really have to knock?? So, I washed my hands for no reason and then left, having to slide past the OFFENDER who OF COURSE happened to be a lady sitting behind us who had left and then apparently come back just to use the bathroom so now she knew that I had used it twice in 15 minutes, UGH.

(Again, no one cares. But this is one of those things that I will think about for at least the next 7 years.)

The men’s room had deer! Henry took these without me even asking!

You have no idea how long I waited to get this shot, because the table at the end was occupied almost the whole time and one of the people, some middle-aged woman, freaking locked eyes with me every time I turned to see if the coast was clear.

The worst part of the lunch was when Marble Mouth Henry whispered to the waitress, “Can we get dessert?” Um first of all, we’re paying customers, so fuck yeah, we can get dessert, why is he asking for permission?? We are hardworking adults who have more than earned a piece of freaking pie. Anyway, she of course couldn’t hear him because he was mumbling, and this was right after she gave us the check, so she goes, “What’s that? Oh, you can pay up front” and he goes, “No” and then re-mumbles the dessert question, and she goes, “Oh! You want me to turn up the TV?”

Oh good lord, I couldn’t sit back and watch this any longer so I jumped in and asked with CLEAR ANUNCIATION, “Do you have coconut cream pie? I see it’s on one sign, but not on the daily special board, so I wasn’t sure…” and she seemed relieved to have an excuse to remove herself from this excruciating episode. “Let me check!” she said, and jogged away.

“YOU ARE SO EMBARRASSING!” I hissed, and Henry just laughed and shrugged, because he probably didn’t hear what I said anyway.

They did NOT have coconut cream pie, so we got a slice of Italian cream cake to share, and it was super rich and waaaay too much but I still did more than my share in its demolition.

The last notable thing of the weekend, and certainly a perk, was that Chooch and I got to have a Zoom call with our friend Kristen and it was sooooo nice to see her face, hear her voice, and chat about Chooch’s college applications and such. It definitely put me at ease! I can’t believe how long it’s been since we last saw her IRL, so I hope 2024 is the year that breaks that streak!

Remember when I was all, “Yay! I finished recapping our coaster trip before 2024 begins!”? Well, joke’s on me (and you) because I realized I had some photos from The Good Camera that hadn’t been edited yet. These are all from our day in Tallinn. Look or don’t look, I’ll never know!

Booksbooksbooksbooks *drool*

We ate breakfast here and it was nice. 

On the way to tour the tower thing. Is this some gang sign that I don’t know about? A signal for help that Henry and Chooch created for times when my dictatorship becomes too much to bear?

This was taken inside the tower thing. You know, that thing. It’s a tower.

On one of the tower walkway things. My favorite part about the tower portion of our day is that I was using a lens on the camera that was fully-dirty/smudged and had no idea because my eyes are so jacked. So pretty much every picture I took inside that wasn’t taken on my phone is trash. I am so profesh! Hire me.

No Korean. </3

Henry captured my mid-allergy attack inside a cafe, thanks.

Obsessed with the architecture here.

St. Olaf’s Church, center, has a 400 foot high spire, one of the tallest in the world.

Highly recommend this viewing area – Kohtuotsa viewing platform.

“Steven Seagull” apparently has his own Instagram page, but I think this was just a random seagull that happened to be hanging out there.

Danzig.

UGH COME ON THIS IS SO BEAUTIFUL.

I think I would like to get some of these printed and framed but you know, I have zero room left on my walls so I guess I will have to figure something out. (Henry, can you build a floating wall or something?!)

Well, New Years Eve was alright! We never ever ever plan anything. I don’t even ask people to come over, honestly, because I’m so paranoid of DUIs/accidents/etc. I just want everyone to stay safe! So, we stay in every year, and it’s always cozy and regular-egular*.

*(Ew. I have never said that before. 2024 is off to a wild start!)

Now that I think about it, was this the last time we had a NYE guest??? Good lord that was a fun night. *promptly texts Christina the link*

Earlier that day, Henry brought his mom over. She was supposed to come over Christmas Day, but IN CASE YOU MISSED THE MEMO, I WAS PUKING.

Some things to note:

• Chooch works early on weekends, comes home and immediately naps like an old man (see also: Henry). He tried to stay awake while Judy was here but she and Henry were talking about People From Before Our Time so he was easily lulled to sleep.
• That saucer on the floor is what I feed the cats their treats on and it pisses off Henry and Chooch so much because there are two of them that they constantly kick around the house (saucers, not cats; they wouldn’t be living here any longer if they were kicking cats, FYI).
  • WAIT, YOU CAN SEE BOTH IN THIS PICTURE, LOL.

Per Judy’s request, Henry made kimbap. A few days later, my mom texted me like, “What are these pinwheels things with spinach that Judy is talking about??” LOL. That makes them sound so American.

Almost immediately upon arriving, Judy retold (unbeknownst to her) the heavily-fictionalized story of Henry climbing a tree, and the time she and my mom met some guy at McDonald’s and then my mom suddenly suggested that they follow him which, knowing my mom, TRACKS. My mom, however, aggressively disputes this memory. The two of them went out together today and when my mom texted me to tell me that she just dropped Judy off and they had a good time, I asked, “Did you pick up any guys??”

She chose to ignore that.

Judy and Trudy! (And Chooch.)

Hold please while I post the most unflattering picture of Henry, LOLOLOL:

Later that night, Chooch actually graced us with his presence for several rounds of this 80s and 90s humming game that I am SO FUCKING GOOD AT and Henry “I Was In Chorus” Robbins is embarrassingly bad at. Chooch also is really good and we can usually guess each others’ humming because we’re savants.

Anyway, on one of my turns, I got to choose any option from the card I had, so I chose Kate Bush’s “Running up that Hill” knowing Chooch would get it because of Stranger Things. He did (Henry did not) and I said, “It was between that and Tiffany” because he also loves “I Think We’re Alone Now” because of Umbrella Academy, and he goes, “Kate Bush and Tiffany are basically the same person.”

Mmm….are they though? Are they?

Also, I just realized that those are both from two shows that I always relate to each other so that’s a wild realization, come into my mind, it’s a fucking rave up in here.

Party cats.

Yeah, so that was a night. It was ok! I thought that I had drunk so much when I stood up and stumbled, but Henry pointed out that I only had one beer, LOLOL.

The next day, Chooch worked and Henry slept for HOURS because big baby was soooo tired boo hoo. Please. So I spent almost all day alone :( But then the idiot woke up and we went to Carnegie Coffee because I wanted matcha. It was pretty good. We also shared a cinnamon roll cake but I should have gotten my own because it was fucking good, man.

But yeah, mostly it was just a really boring and dreary day. Henry made soondubu jjigae for dinner, so that was a nice cozy New Years dinner. Then we just watched Korea cafe vlogs all evening and I cried about missing Korea. Typical.

I’ll tell you what though, I’m ready for HOLIDAY SEASON to be in the past. I still have my decorations up, but they will come down this weekend OK don’t judge me. Christ.

Well, here we are, like anything is different but the GOSH DARN date.

(I’m trying to swear less in 2024.)

(Sike.)

(I’m bringing “sike” back in 2024.)

I don’t have any resolutions per se, like, things I want to quit, etc. But as with every year, I want to be more present in my friends’ lives and I feel like it never works as well as I hope. As much as I’m glad to be off of Facebook, it does make me the odd one out when it comes to missing big announcements and seeing my friends’ kids grow up, etc. I know back in the old days, we would just call each other with news or send an email god forbid, but I can’t expect everyone to be like, “Oh yeah, Erin!” and then send me a special text or email about life events. So…I need to be better at checking in, and that’s that!

What else…

Always up for making new friends. I got to finally meet Lindsey (twice!) last year and I hope there’s more fun lunches to come! I need to dust off* some of my older friendships too and actually make hangouts happen rather than just going through the motions. Like, sending a text with, “We need to catch up. Here are some dates and places to eat. Pick one of each. Alternatively, come to my house for pizza and to be served by Henry.”

I CAN BE MILITANT WHEN I NEED TO BE so I better get a solid, confident response after the initial text, none of this wishy-washy bullshit.

*(I did reconnect with someone from my childhood though and that was a really special thing that happened in 2023!)

More game nights? We only had ONE last year and it was impromptu.

More weekend day trips? We have lots of time now that Chooch doesn’t care about us. I asked Henry where we could and he was like, “You have lived in Pgh all of your life,  you know what is close” and yeah OK but I want him to tell me?? I like to find sickening-looking donut places and/or artery-clogging vegan fast food places to travel to. And I really want to go to CALL YOUR MOTHER deli!

(Am I ever going to come back to this post for reference, or am I typing just to type while waiting for dinner?)

We don’t have any amusement park trips planned yet, but I’m sure we will go to some. I did unilaterally decide that we should just make Dollywood our Thanksgiving tradition. I told Chooch and he was like, “What makes you think I’m going to vacation with you losers when I’m 18 and in college?” Wow OK. Cool.

I just want 2024 to be fulfilling and less stressful if possible than 2023, where I ended the year having what I believe were actual, clinical panic attacks throughout the month of December (starting the day and evening of Chingumas, actually) where my heart was fluttering out of control and I actually thought perhaps I was having a heart attack. I have never had anxiety/stress/panic that bad probably since 2016 aka The Year of the House / 116 Gillcrest. I was actually so scared one day last week while I was working that I called Henry and considered going to the hospital, but I truly think I was panicking.

So yeah, hopefully none of that in 2024. Maybe more quiet time would be nice, if I can actually get myself to do nothing?!!? How do you do nothing?! I was supposed to go to brunch with some friends on Saturday (it was ultimately postponed) and there was the option to go to a nearby spa first. Three of them were like “LET’S DO ITTTTT” and I was like, “LOL no thanks.” Like, me? Sitting/laying still and having a relaxing experience? No sir.

Well, one thing I can promise is that this blog will probably either stay at its current level of useless, or dip even deeper into worthless territory.

Bye!

We had our cemetery Christmas “picnic” (hasn’t been a full picnic in YEARS but whatever) on Saturday since, OMG did you know I was sick on Christmas? I can’t remember if I mentioned it on here 5x or 50x. Sorry I’m annoying. I’m pretty salty though because from what I hear (I didn’t look out the window once), Xmas Day was exceptionally balmy and beautiful. My friends were like, “GREAT DAY FOR YOUR CEMTERY THING!!” and I was like, “Oh….was it?”

Our Do-Over Day was decidedly not balmy nor beautiful, but our options were the same for each day of this three-day weekend so I was like, “Fuck it, let’s just get this family photo-op over with” LOL j/k, I was like, “Let’s take our time and enjoy each other’s company like the tight-knit family unit we are.”

Right?

We picked Chooch up from work at Chipotle and drove straight to Sumi’s (usually we got to Pink Box but Sumi’s across the street was open since it wasn’t Christmas Day and as much as I love Pink Box’s array of Chinese buns, I love Korean baked goods even more), got some red bean donuts and I think Chooch got some mocha cream bread, then headed down the street to our face Christmas Cem: Homewood.

Thankfully, you can’t see it in these pictures but his pants had guac stains all over them and he just stunk of Chipotle in general but that’s the price we paid for not allowing him to come home first.

(Chooch was like “Get off me, don’t touch me” lol.)

It was fucking cold AF and the air was damp, the ground soggy and sploogy, but it was still nice to laugh while trying to capture some Party Party photos (Henry and Chooch constantly doing the bare minimum with those).

Some live action bullshit:

And to officially close the chapter on Christmas, here’s some pictures of my NCT swag <3

Chooch got me a Haechan bookmark and it was apparently Baby’s First Etsy Purchase. He didn’t realize it was almost Christmas that the seller had been sending him Convos because he didn’t leave a name with his address and also he didn’t speficy which member he wanted the free stickers to be of, and he didn’t know this was happening because he, of course, immediately locked himself out of his account after purchasing it. So on actual Christmas, he gave me a candle from Target and explained the sitch to me. Then a few days later, an envelope arrived addressed to “Etsy Seller.” It was my bookmark LOL.

Can you believe he asked for the candle back after the bookmark came?? Yeah, you probably can. “I actually bought that candle for myself, so….”

Then as he was inspecting the bookmark later, he made sure to throw in the fact that it cost an extra $1.50 to add the tassel. “It was basically the most expensive version they offered,” he said. LOL ok wow big spender.

Henry got me an NCT Dream sweatshirt! I mean, I sent him the link and the size, so it was the least he could do, honestly.

He also got me two Renjun shirts (<33333) and my mom got me a Haechan shirt after I told her, “Oh please, don’t get me anything! But I mean, IF YOU REALLY WANT TO, I’LL HAVE THIS HAECHAN SHIRT, THANKS.” She was like, “OK” and then on Xmas Eve I made her watch a “Haechan Being Haechan” compilation on YouTube so she would know who he is.

I looked over at one point and I think she was actually looking ABOVE the TV. Her eyes looked glazed-over.

Cool, goodbye Christmas 2023! I’ll leave you with this beautiful live performance of Like We Just Met from one of the recent year-end music shows in Korea. I love NCT Dream so much!! (Also, Janna sent me a screenshot with Haechan highlighted – she got it on her first try!!)