OK OK OK this was such a fantastic night and probably I’m blowing this up in my head but I feel like so much happened that night that I am preemptively tired just thinking about recapping it so I’m splitting it up into two parts. Because it’s my blog, and that’s just what we’re going to do, OK.

When Henry told me a few mths ago that this show was happening, I wavered on getting tickets for some reason – complacency, laziness, etc. But then I got into Kurt Travis SO HARD again recently and I was like, “OK sold. Lessgo.”

I was so stoked all day at work about this and my pal Lyda from our Seattle office let me go off on Teams about my history with all three singers – Anthony Green, Kurt Travis, and Geoff Rickly. It was so much fun sharing music with her while also getting to retell some of my favorite stories, like the time I dragged Janna, who could give a shit about the bands I like lol, to some frat kids’ basement in Oakland for a Kurt Travis house show 10 years ago!

Anyway, the show as at Jergel’s in Warrendale, and at first I was annoyed that it was a bit of a drive outside of Pittsburgh when I should have just been grateful that this didn’t require us to leave the state as EVERY KPOP CONCERT does.

This is what I was wearing. Ignore my old-ass fugly face.

Idiot Henry.

We arrived a good hour or so before the show started so we had plenty of time to grab a table, get some drinks, and order food. I had a really good wheat beer from Troegs and Henry had who cares. Our food was mid, but our server was an actual delight – so attentive and friendly without being overhearing and her smile never seemed fake – EVEN AROUND HENRY. It was just good vibes.

Meanwhile, Henry had checked out all of the merch booths on his way to the bathroom and reported that not only was Geoff Rickly’s book available at his merch table—it’s been on my TBR list for a few years—but Geoff himself was up there selling his merch.

“Go talk to him,” Henry urged.

“And say what?” I sighed. “‘Your sweat got on me when I saw you play at Smiling Moose with United Nations and it was one of the greatest concert moments of my life’?” And then, “DO YOU REMEMBER THAT??”

“Yes, Erin,” Henry said. “How could I forget.”

Then I joked that I could ask him if he’s still friends with Robert Smith (Henry rolled his eyes) because FUN FACT/STORY TIME:

The first time I saw Geoff’s band Thursday was in 2004 at Coachella. Yes, back when Coachella was only moderately despicable and schmoozy. Influencers didn’t exist yet, after all. I really liked Thursday a lot back then so it was a bonus that they were going to be there, as we were there FIRST AND FOREMOST to see The Cure.

Henry was much less open-minded about 99% of the bands I enjoyed back in the 2000s and I remember he was very “……….” about Thursday so he does not remember this AT ALL but it was like 113 degrees that weekend in the desert if I remember correctly, and Geoff ended up passing out on stage. I was so scared and screamed when it happened! Clearly he ended up being OK but that always stands out in my mind.

Anyway, they were playing on the same stage that The Cure would be headlining on later on that weekend.

That summer, The Cure put together something called the Curiosa festival and toured around the US with it. Thursday was one of the bands they brought with them and when we went to the Cleveland stop, I’ll never forget Robert Smith telling the crowd that he loved Thursday so much when he saw them at Coachella and had become friends with Geoff, and personally invited them onto the Curiosa festival.

It was something that really stuck with me, all these years later. It was such a heartwarming moment because at the time, Thursday was still an up-and-coming band and to be taken under the wing by the actual Robert Smith? What a dream!

Anyway! Geoff went on first that night. Just him and his guitar.

He told us so many great stories, starting with that when Anthony told him about this tour, he thought Anthony meant that this was just a solo singer thing, so he was kind of surprised when he showed up alone and saw that Kurt and Anthony brought their bands with them. Just his deliver made this so funny YOU HAD TO BE THERE OK.

More Geoff anecdotes:

• He said when he was asked if he wanted to go on tour with “the singer from Dance Gavin Dance,” he hesitated and asked, “That depends….which one?” and everyone in the crowd laughed so hard. IYKYK! And when he found out that it was Kurt, he said, “Fuck yeah, best one!”
• Geoff said that while he is now clean, he used to NOT be and told us about how one time years ago when he was on tour with Anthony Green, he was so drunk at the airport that he couldn’t scan his boarding pass so the staff at the gate said that they wouldn’t be able to allow him on the flight, so Anthony stepped in and said, “It’s ok. I’m his dad.” And they let him on the plane. This even made Henry laugh – Anthony and Geoff are around the same age. WHY was this so funny to me?? I was thinking about it the next morning and laughing all over again!

Also, Geoff not only resembles Wendy’s husband (mostly just from afar because I have bad eyes) but their laughs sound nearly identical!

His set was phenomenal and already I was patting myself on the back for not skipping this show just because it was on a school night.

While Kurt’s band was setting up, I went over to buy Geoff’s book “Someone Who Isn’t Me.” While I was standing in line, I was watching the people before me showing him their Thursday tattoos and otherwise proving the longevity of their fandom by having him sign old concert tickets and setlists. I’ve always just been a more casual fan (although I was PISSED at the last Riot Fest we attended in 2023 because the gates didn’t open until late due to rain so as we were waiting to get in, Thursday started their set and we had to be content with just hearing it from a Chicago sidewalk, le sigh) so I wasn’t sure what, if anything, I was going to say when it was my turn.

I started by shyly asking if he had any books left and then after he retrieved a stack from a bag, I proceeded to ask—still in my shy voice—if he would sign it for me.

As he was signing, I said, COMPLETELY OFF THE CUFF I WAS SO PROUD OF MYSELF FOR NOT LETTING MY SOCIAL IDIOCY TAMPER WITH MY WORDS, “I love your music, but I could listen to you talk all day. Your stories are so great.”

“Thanks!” he said. “Then hopefully you’ll like the book, too.”

And then something dumb came over me, and I stage-whispered (CHOOCH HATES WHEN I DO THIS BECAUSE I HOLD MY HAND UP TO THE SIDE OF THE MOUTH AND EVERYTHING FOR THE FULL EFFECT), “Can I ask you something weird?”

Geoff, still signing my book, glanced up. “Sure!” he said, doing a great job not letting hesitancy show in his voice.

“Are you and Robert Smith still friends?!?!?” I blurted out in such a dork-alert manner that even my shadow was trying to disassociate itself from me.

He definitely seemed a little caught off guard by this question, I don’t know what he was expecting, lol. But he said, “I mean, we exchange little notes here and there.”

I then felt compelled to explain why I was asking, briefly mentioning the Coachella / Curiosa 2004 thing and maybe my hyper-awareness was making me blow this out of proportion, but he did seem to relax after learning why I was asking and TOLD ME A STORY ABOUT THE CURIOSA TOUR!

“I don’t know if you remember this, but the NY Times wrote a review about Curiosa at the time,” he started. He said that his mom had come to one of the shows and met Robert. “She was very goth then, looked very goth, too,” Geoff said. So when the NY Times was looking for a picture of Robert to use, they somehow found a picture that Robert had taken with Geoff’s mom and wrote, “Robert Smith and his wife” in the caption!

Geoff said he was like OMG and apologized to Robert who said, and here Geoff did an impeccable impersonation of Robert’s accent, “I should be so lucky, your mother is a lovely lady!”

LOVED THAT STORY SO MUCH!!!

By the time I returned to our table, I had been gone for quite a while and Henry was like *eyeball emoji*

“I was chatting with Geoff,” I shrugged in a douchey “no big deal” manner. “I asked him if he was still friends with Robert!” I squealed.

“Omg,” Henry mumbled.

This was just the first part of the evening! So memorable and heartwarming, revisiting these old days with Henry. (Who is way more accepting of all of the music, new and old FYI. I wore him down, guys.)

This past weekend was pretty chill. Another hot one though, that’s for sure! Henry has finally started on the fabric-portion of the bedroom dresser refurb which required him to dust off his sewing machine and “practice” on scraps of fabric, lol. He is such a little Henrietta Homemaker.

I let him take a break in the afternoon and we went to Duffy’s for some Saturday night beers. I think I am mostly over IPAs now, and actually not really excited about beer in general anymore (I’m so hot and cold, anyone will tell you that!!) but we did get two varieties from the local brewery Lolev. We went there over the winter with Amy and Dick and it’s kind of become the benchmark for me as far as local breweries because we had such a great experience there. I’m just going to go on record here and say something that is probably considered contentious by Yinzers, but I think Lolev is a million times better than the overhyped Spoonwood. I SAID WHAT I SAID. I won’t be going back to Spoonwood unless Chronica have another large gathering and that’s the venue. Then I will go. But I will probably just drink water!

This was absolutely delightful.

The next day, I went to Sally Ann’s for brunch with Sandy, Lauren, and Amber. Always nice to chat with them! I miss Lauren and Sandy a lot – and even though I still chat with Amber weekly at work, I miss seeing her IRL!

Brunch was really nice but PICKLESBURGH was gearing up right as we were leaving so downtown was turning into pickled pandemonium. I guess this was the 10th anniversary of Picklesburgh so the city went all out and expanded it to various bridges and streets. I only went to the first one, which was contained to one bridge and even then it was way too much for me. Chooch and I had only gone to see our friend Bethany and her band Balloon Ride Fantasy perform at the end of the bridge and I distinctly remember that this older woman from the mail room, BETTY, was there and I was like, “OMG Betty sighting in the wild!” She was a crazy character, but very beloved by people in the firm.

Anyway, I was hoping to check out the little vendors’ square near Heinz Hall to see if there was anything fun to get my friend Lyda from our Seattle office as a housewarming gift. Amber and Sandy accompanied me and Amber said, “Lyda’s really taken a liking to you,” and I said, “I know.” Super smug, as usual :) I’ve been training Lyda at work and we had already had a good rapport before that but now we chat even more frequently and my absolute favorite thing is that she will come to me for song recs to listen to during her afternoon “strut.” She said that she likes asking me for music because I’m so passionate about it and always give her back stories and I said, “Yo, THANK YOU” because it genuinely seems like most people find this to be on the long list of my most annoying traits! On Tuesday, I introduced her to  the Dance Gavin Dance lore and she was all in. (She’s Team Kurt Travis, in case you were wondering.)

(You weren’t.)

I was extremely disappointed in the pickle wares on display so I parted ways with Amber and Sandy and continued out of the boundaries of Picklesburgh to a cute little shop called Love, Pgh. I go here often when I’m looking for Pgh-centric gifts for friends. It’s so cute and the people working are always extremely friendly. On this day, the cashier immediately said she loved my kimoni-esque coverup when I walked in, and then when I was paying she said she loved my purse too and I was like, “I know.”

No, I’m kidding, I’m not that cunty lol. I just shyly said thanks.

But yeah, I should have just come there first because it had so many things that made great options for a housewarming gift.

I mean, I had to walk there with a sketchy older gentleman panhandler who I could NOT shake until he dropped his plastic cup of donations at which point I said the classic, “Op!” paused for a second to show concern, then swiftly walked on.

I can only be so people-y before I get burnt out.

Later that afternoon, Henry and I walked to Potomac Station because I wanted to try this new Cherry Coke espresso drink they have?? Apparently, they have buddied up with local influencers (ugh) and let some of them create new drinks for them. The first 30 people to get this one after it debuted on Saturday got it served in a cherry tumbler. Well, I guess they overestimated the hype for it because we went a full day later and I got it in the tumbler too. It was just OK.

The smoothie bowl Henry made me for dinner later on was definitely more write-home-about-able.

Jeez guys, I think that was all I have to say about the weekend! I did stuff but it was just very mid overall. There is some action on the calendar for the coming weeks so I should be appreciative of slower weekends – they can’t all be amazingly memorable! Nice to see my friends on Sunday though!

P.S. I just realized that every picture in this post is a drink + a drink in a bowl. What a fascinating weekend recap, you are so very welcome.

Just a quick post to share Chooch’s OOTD from one day last week and to share an exchange we had today that literally made my heart feel so full after missing him this past year while he was at school:

He came downstairs around 1:00pm or so and went into the kitchen to make lunch. That was my signal to also go into the kitchen and make some protein coffee.

“Really? Every time I’m in the kitchen you suddenly also need to be in the kitchen. Ugh you’re so annoying! You literally had all day to do whatever it is that you suddenly need to do now!”

Then when he was trying to get something out of the fridge and when he turned around I was waiting all up in his face and said, “oh good get my creamer while you’re in there”

I love torturing him and invading his space so much. It’s like the sole reason I was put on this earth. <3

So many good comebacks have been happening lately! LIKE NCT DREAM, JESUS CHRIST. I’m going to a non-Kpop concert tonight after work but here are some k-goodies I have been loving lately!

Jesus, Wonho:

My Czennie heart is so full right now – 2 new MVs from the Dreamies plus an album! My favorite from it is actually this song, but there was no official video for it so let’s watch this one together instead.

This video makes me wish I had friends to frolic around with in the summer lol:

My fave Kang Daniel <3:

ONEW! He also dropped another new one today actually but this one fits the summer vibe more:

And last but not least, is it even summer without a new Hyolyn song?? No, the answer is no. She makes me want to drop everything and go to the beach and I am not even remotely close to being a beach person.

OK I’m out.

I was going through my camera roll and found some shit that I never documented because June really got away from me. Let’s go through them, shall we?

First of all, DO NOT EVEN GET ME STARTED. I FUCKING KNEW THIS WAS GOING TO HAPPEN:

TO PURCHASE THE WHOLE SET OF 8?? Oh, go fuck yourselves, Penn Brewery.

Meanwhile, in our front yard this shit was developing:

Henry asked me if an animal threw up there, since he apparently thinks I am posted at the front door 24:7 on wildlife patrol (OK, I really am though for a good portion of the day). But after he hosed it off, IT GREW BACK EVEN BIGGER?? So, he did some RESEARCH and found out it’s a fungus called Dog Vomit?! We have never had this growing in our yard before so now I’m super fascinated and also wildly disgusted.

Megan and I met up with Debby and Mar two weeks ago at Fish Nor Fowl for an extremely overpriced dinner. Megan and I were trying to get out of it because we are not foodies and can’t get behind paying nearly $40 for a mushroom pasta but we gave up in the end and while it was actually good food, I was very pissed that my vegetarian version of the same dish Debby ordered was actually a much smaller portion (like, comically smaller) and still cost the same!?!?!

But, our server was very handsome and the focaccia (NOT COMPLIMENTARY, AND BTW WE EVEN PAID FOR THE FUCKING WATER) was honestly some of the best bread I have ever eaten. Would I go back there though? No, unless it was my birthday and someone else was paying.

Oh, also this was during a heatwave (over 90 degrees for like a week and my house has no AC downstairs) and they sat us in the loft which was so stifling I wanted to scream. I had been looking forward to leaving my house for an air-conditioned restaurant that whole day!

But in the end, all that mattered was that we got to catch up with Debby and Mar so it was still worth it. This was also the same day I bought G-Dragon tickets so I was extra focused on prices LOL.

OH HELLO how fucking accurate. Good one, Duolingo!

OK, you’re dismissed.

Our dear friends Chronica have just moved to Spain for three months (maybe permanently – this is a trial run for them!) and we went to their send-off gathering at Spoonwood on Sunday. First, let me get this out of the way – I have been clearly exposed as a beer poser because everyone, and I do mean EVERYONE, in this damn city Qtips their dickhole over this place. Previously, we had only been there once in the past and coincidentally, it was also for a Chronica gathering – Monica’s 40th birthday! I must have had either cider or wine at that event because I know I sure as shit was not drinking a beer then.

Well….aside from the beer pictured above which was a “Brown” something, I didn’t like ANYTHING I tried. I kept getting tasters and sliding them right down to Henry. There was one that everyone was fanning themselves over. I had tried it before anyone got there and immediately gave it to Henry, but now I was getting caught up in the enthusiasm for this spicy brew and peer-pressured myself into getting another taster of it.

AND I STILL HATED IT.

Nate was also there and blamed himself for this because he was sitting next to me raving about it. BLAME NATE!

“Didn’t you already try this and hated it?” Henry asked when I slid it down to him.

“Yes.”

“THEN WHY WOULD YOU GET ANOTHER???” he cried.

(Chooch was sitting in between us so Henry was not privy to the events that led up to this moment.)

“And then the baby I helped birth during the Great Twizzlers Shortage of 2010 was this big,” probably is what Chris was saying. Chooch seems skeptical.

I also want to add that the Spoonwood people handled this low-key event very poorly. At first, our server was borderline annoyed that we didn’t know how many people were going to be joining us. We had just sat down at a 4-top inside to get drinks and then when she came back to take our food order, we said we needed to wait until the people of the hour arrived because we would likely have to move tables. She was like I WILL GET YOUR CHECK THEN and it was crazy watching how fast her demeanor changed.

Eventually, Chronica arrived, explained the sitch to the hostess, and we were given an area outside on the patio in the 90 degree heat. Sweat started to trickle down my back immediately, even in the shade.

As more people arrived, Chronica asked if they could pull more tables over and the server, the same one we had inside and who was back to being OK again, was like, “Yes, you can.” But then the manager came out and was a big bitch about it because, and I do understand why this was not great, they were pulling tables from other servers’ areas and I actually heard her say at one point, “If you had called and given us a heads up—-” to which Monica quickly and politely interrupted with, “I tried that weeks ago and was told we couldn’t make reservations for this and had to just show up.”

Get it together, Spoonwood!! I will not be going back there unless Chronica have another event there someday.

Chooch got asked a lot of “How’s college?” questions and he mumbled the same blurb each time like a telemarketer.

Beer and management and sweltering heat aside, I was happy to be there because I love Chronica a lot and am so excited for them to be embarking on this new adventure! Spain is to Chris what Korea is to me, but even deeper because she studied abroad there and lived there in her younger years and has been back a bunch of times. I really hope this works out for them because this country is trash and I do not blame them one bit for leaving!

Also, I want to add that I got to see Chris’s cousin Amber for the first time since our White Elephant party years and years ago – she sat across from us and started talking to us like she had just seen us last week and I loved that so much. I always feel like no one remembers us but she was like, “Wow Chooch, I can’t believe how grown you are!” and I was like, “O M G SHE KNOWS US!” I really like her a lot – she has actually become good friends with my brother Corey after they also met at the same White Elephant party and then reconnected years later when he helped her buy a house, so I was like “Next time you hang out with Corey, LET ME KNOW!!” I want to be a part of this club too lol.

And I met Sarah, their friend from WV who apparently used to do both of their hair but is no longer a hair stylist? I knew of her though and it was cool to meet her in person and she is WONDERFUL. So easy and casual to talk to and you know what it made me realize? You can tell how amazing your friends are by how amazing THEIR friends are. She was so fucking cool! (You can see her and her tattoos in the background of my first picture up there!)

We were there for about 3 hours and I felt like a dog dying in a desert by the time we left. I was so glad that I had brought a kimono-type coverup thing with me because otherwise, I would have put my soaking wet back and butt on full display when I finally peeled myself off the chair. It was so disgusting – sweat everywhere. Ugh.

We had planned on going to Kennywood that evening so Henry could use the rest of his Bites and Pints card since that was the last day for it, but I ended up feeling so sick and delirious that I hung back. Henry and Chooch went for about 90 minutes – long enough to get the rest of their food samples and ride Phantom:

LOL WTF????

Then Henry sent me a picture of a lady in front of them when we were leaving because she was wearing the Stray Kids DominATE tour shirt!!! I was like, “ASK HER WHICH ONE SHE WENT TO!!” and he said, “No I will not, that’s weird.” Ugh, I would have if I had been there.

I was so fucking wiped out from the heat that I ended up passing out in bed early. The next morning, I woke up, laid there blinking for about a minute before reality hit me and I texted Henry, “Wait, did you really book our flight to Romania last night???” and he was like, “Yes, we are going to Romania.” I was so out of it Sunday night that I couldn’t even remember if that was real or a sunstroke-induced hallucination, but it was true! We are going to Romania for 9 days in October for our belated honeymoon!

We’re doing a Transylvanian road trip! I have been trying to get here for actual decades but could never find anyone who was interested in accompanying me, and Henry and I couldn’t afford to both go back then. I can’t believe that this is almost a reality now.   I hope I’m not jinxing myself!

I’m going to try and zoom through this recap because as usual – it was a vibe, hard to describe, amazing, awesome, beautiful, etc. I have no complaints.

This was my first time going to a concert of this magnitude, as a stand-alone and not in a Coachella / big music festival setting. So, it was very overstimulating! For this reason, it being a first, I wanted to get seats on the floor. Having already seen SKZ and not being a huge stan, I wasn’t willing to Big Splurge on this so I got us reasonably-priced seats in section D:

The stage was still super far away but it was fine. This place was HUGE.

One thing I will note about Stray Kids is that there were men in attendance than any other Kpop show I’ve attended. The crowd in general was very diverse but that’s generally the case with most Kpop shows. You get people of all walks of life, just not many men!

The show was delayed by about 10 or 15 minutes, and the intro might have been the longest intro of any Kpop group I have seen thus far. It was super dramatic, and I was like OK PLEASE COME OUT NOW! I swear to god though, Kpop concert intros never fail to excite me.

This guy was a huge inflatable that came out just for one song!

Not my video but this is one of my all-time favorite SKZ songs, and usually the one I send to people when I’m like YOU MIGHT LIKE STRAY KIDS???

I can’t put into words how hyped up this entire concert made me – Stray Kids have such a powerful catalogue of music! I was about to say that it must be impossible to be there and not move but then I remembered that Henry was seated and still the entire time LOL. And he actually does like them! He is a very stoic concert attendee. But you know what they say – everyone enjoys music their own way. For me personable, I bounce up and down with no rhythm like I have to pee. That’s my go-to move.

The girl next to me was very tall and stood with her arms crossed the whole time. Never clapped, cheered, screamed, moved. But the fact that she was standing made me feel like she wanted to be there at least? Maybe she was enjoying it in the same way Henry was.

My bias Han with my bias-wrecker, Felix.

FYI when I film snippets at concerts, I never hold my phone over my head. I am so careful and aware of not impeding upon someone else’s view and I just wish everyone had that same consideration. Some of those phones NEVER WENT DOWN ONCE. If everyone had kept their phones down, we would have had a clear view of the stage. I know I am guilty of recording parts of concerts but PLEASE KNOW that it is because I like to have little memories on my phone to go back and rewatch (and yes, I do, years later) BUT I AM NOT ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE.

You have no idea how much I have wanted to see a Kpop group use the cart! THIS ALWAYS HAPPENS AT THE ASIAN CONCERTS BUT NEVER AMERICA! WE FINALLY GOT THE CART!! I WAS SQUEALING AND HOPPING UP AND DOWN WITH MY LIGHTSTICK GRIPPED IN MY HANDS LIKE A ROSARY AT MY FIRST HOLY COMMUNION.

OMG this whole night felt like a huge party. It was so festive! So uplifting! With the exception of the grandma in front of me who held her phone up and recorded entire songs until she got too tired and finally sat down for the rest of the concert, everyone around us was wonderful, polite, stoked to be there (even Henry although he never shows it). My favorite “non-song” part of the night was when Bang Chan had us split into 4 groups to have a screaming contest, and then said he wanted to wait for a plane to fly over so we could try to get our screams to reach it – he was being half facetious since he had made numerous comments throughout the night about how weird it was to be performing in the middle of nowhere with planes flying so low overhead since we were next to an airport. But then literally right after he said it, a low-flying plane appeared and we went ballistic. It was so funny and endearing! I did see later that someone had posted an aerial view of the Rogers Stadium from a plane they were on, flying back to Toronto from Vegas, saying, “Looks like the new Rogers Stadium is having a concert.” It wasn’t the plane we were screaming at but it was still funny to see that circulating!

In lieu of listing out the set list like I normally do, here’s the SKZ pages from the concert journal that Megan got me which I recently realized is the perfect way to keep all of my freebies and wristbands, etc! I highlighted my fave songs – I FORGOT HOW FUCKING HYPE “MIROH” IS LIVE!!!!

Another highlight – SEEING HAN IN PERSON. I love him so much. His banter is so precious and hilarious!

I don’t think they did this in 2022, but they faked us out with a surprise encore – a bunch of people (including us) were already starting to leave, when we heard, “WE’RE BAAAAACK!” and then this is when all Hell broke loose because a bunch of them left the stage so everyone just rushed forward – INCLUDING ME because I get really caught up in these things, lol. Henry was just like, “You do you, I’ll be waiting RIGHT HERE by our seats.” So I went up to the front of the section we were in and couldn’t really see any better but it was still fun! Security just kind of gave up.

I didn’t see this until days later, but Bang Chan ran the entire circumference of the floor, barely being noticed, and then security almost didn’t let him back on stage LOL. He was like, “This is my concert” and then then they were like, “OMG” when they realized and opened the gate for him, lol. He was also going over to handicap areas and I love that so much.

After the show ended for real, 50,000 people all made their way out at the same time. It seemed like most people were headed in the direction of the subway station. We were still technically on the grounds of the stadium when the crowd in front of us came to a dead stop. I could see red lights ahead but couldn’t tell what was going on. Then I realized that security was up ahead, cutting off the crowd in waves to alleviate stress and overcrowding on the subway. We got stopped in twice, and the second time we were about 2 rows back from the line of security and I need to give them a special shout out here because if  this was in America, it would have been so aggro and negative, they would have been screaming at us to stop, people would have pushed back out of defiance. But here in Canada, they were SO NICE. And everyone LISTENED. One of them, an amazing man named Kyle, took the lead and was asking us all if we had a good time, who our favorite member was (people tried to teach him that the correct term is bias, lol), and then he said he wanted to be our favorite member from this part of the night and had us all chanting, “Kyle! Kyle!” It made me so giddy and now I’m tearing up at the memory because I love Canada so much and it was such a special way to end the night!

A few minutes later, our group was allowed to continue on and yes, there was a big crowd but it was moving safely, no one was pushing, everyone was calmly taking their time entering the station and walking down to the platform. We got lucky because since we were heading away from Toronto, less people were lining up on the side we were on, so we were able to get on the first train that arrived and it was nearly empty.

Two or three stops later, we were back at the lot where we parked. Probably took about 45 minutes in total to get back to the car after the concert let up. So our personal experience was quite smooth and positive, but I have seen a lot of negative feedback from other people who were apparently stuck in the stadium for up to 2 hours. We must have been in one of the first waves of people to leave so it hadn’t bottlenecked yet.

Hilariously, as we were walking back to the car, the tall girl who had been seated next to me at the concert and her friend walked past us! Henry and I both looked at her and then at each other, like, “Out of 50,000 people….” They had been walking out when we thought the concert first ended, before the gotcha encore, so we definitely did not leave at the same time as them where we would have been on the same subway. Yet there they were, in the same parking lot as us!

I will be rewatching videos from this show for a long time, I think. It was just such a great night, especially once the sun went down and it cooled off – it was so nice to be outside for this. I sincerely didn’t want it to be over. And Henry and I got along the whole time! And even the whole way home the next day!

(I cry every time I watch this one LOL):

A bad month of books, chosen very poorly by me. I am really going to keep this one short n’ sweet.

1. The Wife’s Silence by Amanda McKinney

The fact that I don’t even remember reading this is all you need to know.

2. Long Time Gone by Charlie Donlea

A mid but mildly entertaining thriller.

3. Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams

If you don’t already hate Facebook, you will after you read this memoir about Sarah’s stint working closely with Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg (who is a FUCKING WEIRDO, btw). There is a lot of intricate detailing about government and political policies that made me want to start snoozing but overall, it was a dish-y peek into the high-level happenings within FB. And it made me fucking sick. 8 years off Facebook and still no regertz!

Also, Mark and Co. really didn’t want this book to see the light of day, which is all the more reason for everyone to read it and give it a good rating! Boost this shit up!

4. The Secrets We Buried by Becca Day

2 stars. Boring. Hoopla almost always lets me down when I’m looking for an “in-between” audio book to keep me company on my walks. This was so lame and forgettable.

5. The Perfect Divorce (Perfect, #2) by Jeneva Rose

I love Jeneva Rose as a person – her Instagram content is so funny and real! And while I loved  The Perfect Marriage, it truly didn’t need this sequel. Also, I could barely remember how the first one ended! This was skippable.

6. The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager

Apparently, this was the only Sager backlog that I hadn’t read so I figured I owed it to myself even though I am so love/hate with his books. This was an older one and actually not too bad. A godo summertime read, with its summer camp setting. It didn’t blow me away, but I was entertained.

7. Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata

My least favorite Murata book so far :( I’m usually so ready for her to fuck me up – and oh boy, did she ever – but this one didn’t have the fun, rompy element to it that I was craving. I…legitimately don’t know how to rate this. That ending…she really went there. And like, way worse than in the DeGrassi sense, lol.

There are so many trigger warnings – I would suggest looking them up.

8. The Manor of Dreams by Christina Li

A gothic horror with a Chinese flair. Very atmospheric. Haunted house. Feuding families. It wasn’t scary, but it did make me sad. Should I write book reviews professionally or what.

9. When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy

Disgusting. Legitimately scary. LAUGH OUT LOUD FUNNY. Sad. Nat Cassidy is a master of modern horror and I am obsessed with him. This was the one solid, 5 star, loved it to death book that I read all month. It was like going on an adventure. And good lord, another phenomenal afterword. DO NOT SKIP HIS AFTERWORDS!! Nat Cassidy is a treasure.

10. #CrimeTime by Jeneva Rose

OK THIS is the Jeneva Rose I love. This was so much fun! An audio original, written with her husband, with a full cast. Super entertaining. Fast-paced. I adored this. I hope they do more of these! (It got VERY mixed reviews on Goodreads though.)

Henry’s birthday / Father’s Days gift finally arrived! It’s always a crapshoot ordering something from an Instagram ad, but I saw these fun things and immediately knew that it was yet another reason to resurface THE BIG DOPPELGANGER PICTURE. And “1212” likes because our least favorite cashier at CVS said our total was “twelve twelve” once in like….2019 and for some reason I was already recording her on the sly to send to Chooch who also dislikes her, and the way she said TWELVE TWELVE killed me on such a deep, personal inside joke with myself level that I have been referencing it ever since.  Henry didn’t even realize why I was doing it for a long time and finally broke down and asked me what it meant. Way to be present in my life, Henry.

OMG and this was from a cafe in Jeonju in 2019 where Henry and I shared bingsu and Chooch and I made fun of something that Henry did/said/looked like/who knows but whatever it was we kept mocking him and Henry lost his temper and said something like, “OK  YOU DON’T HAVE TO SAY IT TWICE THREE FOUR TIMES!!!!!!”

So then that became the thing that we said TWICE THREE FOUR times and he was so pissed.

Jeonju: Final Thoughts & Pictures 7/28/19

Anyway, he just looked at it when I gave this one to him and I said, “You know, the origin of TWICE THREE FOUR times” and he sighed, “Yes, I know.”

I love when his gifts are really gifts for me, lol.

The best part about going to a concert for a group that isn’t one of my ults is that I only feel pure excitement. I don’t know what it is about seeing groups like NCT Dream and GOD FORBID G-DRAGON but I get so sick to my stomach from the stress of it all!

With Stray Kids, I like them A LOT to where I know all of their names, some of the lore, pretty much all of the songs. But I don’t hard stan them. I’m not sure why this is but Henry and I don’t really watch much of their content which is actually a damn shame, and we should correct this soonly. We saw them back in 2022 on their Maniac tour but that was on a whim after I checked Ticketmaster a good while after the tickets went on sale and saw that there were some decent seats still available for NORMAL PRICES. I will never forget this day because for some reason, Henry had to drive his WORK VAN to Erie for some work-related thing – he was making a delivery of Everfresh or something? – and he asked if I wanted to ride up with him just to get out of the house. Much to his chagrin, this turned into me saying, “I have FOMO about not getting Stray Kids tickets” as one of their songs played on Spotify, and then seeing that ticket prices were reasonable, and ending with Henry saying, “UGH WHATEVER YOU WANT TO DO, ERIN.”

YAY!

I’m actually ended up wearing the same shirt I wore to that concert. I had brought my Maniac tour shirt with me on this trip, but AFTER I PUT IT ON THAT AFTERNOON I NOTICED IT HAD COFFEE STAINS ON IT!!! Henry tried to get them out with a Tide stick I miraculously had in my travel bag (I definitely didn’t buy that, had to have been Henry’s forethought), but it only made it worse. I was rull upset about this for a few minutes but then shrugged it off because who cares. I’m 45.

We drove to the Pioneer Village subway station, which has a large parking lot. The Rogers Stadium, which has just been built and Stray Kids is the christening event, is apparently only going to be in use for 5 years??? I don’t fully understand what is happening here and also don’t care enough to do further research, but this is what Henry told me. It was built on an old runway near the airport, with a subway station about a 10 minute walk away and little to no parking from what I gleaned after reading all of the complaints, uproar and panic. Lol.

I can see where this would be super inconvenient, but for people who traveled to Toronto specifically for this and weren’t planning on driving anyway if we could avoid it, this was perfectly fine for us. It was a quick subway ride fill of other Stays. There were three middle school-aged Stays who looked at me in wide-eyed wonder when they saw that I was wearing a SKZ shirt and probably also going to the concert – actually, I felt like they were making fun of me but Henry said they weren’t, so we’ll go with what Henry said for once.

Yo, the lines were staggering! Everyone spilled out of the subway station and while some people milled about, most of us immediately got into a line. There was one that was very long, and then several others that were shorter and seemed to be moving faster so we crossed our fingers and got into one of those ones. There was legit no signage or instructions anywhere. We did determine eventually that a second super long, barely moving line was for a merch booth that was set up outside of the gates. I was like, “Surely there are more inside though??” I just wanted to get in so we skipped that shit.

For as daunting as the line seemed (you can see it snaking it well beyond that YZD sign up there) it actually moved pretty steadily. It wasn’t so bad either because people were handing out freebies and I am so much better at holding my handout in these situations now, even going so far as to follow someone for a freebie. I always use the self-deprecating line of, “I’m old so everyone always skips over me, HAHAHAHA” so cringey. Chooch would hate to hear that.

Han is my bias <3

I refused to wear black. It was only about 80 that day but with nary a cloud in the sky so that sun was straight BAKING us like STAY bread.

I’d say within 20 minutes, we had made it to the stadium! You can see to the right on the other side of the fence is the MERCH LINE.

We sailed right through the gates and got our FLOOR wristband, no issues!

I wasn’t expecting this but the ground of the stadium are pretty big, with some grassy areas too, so people were free to mill about, drink, eat, ride a ferris wheel, rather than wait in a line for the actual “doors” to open. We spent most of our time in the merch line which was a cluster. There was one very long line, and then three much shorter lines. We got into the long line because it was the closest one to the entrance where we came in, but immediately clocked the shorter lines. There was a mom and her 20’ish year old daughter in front of us who said someone else in our line had gone up to investigate and reported back that the other lines were for food.

Henry cried bullshit on this because here is what it looked like – I’m doing this at work with low energy so please excuse the artistic crudeness:

The booth was split up into four long windows, each had at least 3-4 people working. Pretend the first line has about 200 people in it lol because it legit probably did – it was so long that a staff member had to come over and make it turn so that it wasn’t impeding the general walk area. The other three lines probably had about 50 each. Henry was like I AM GOING TO GET IN ANOTHER LINE, JUST STAY THERE.

Kpop Dad has no time for this kind of bullshit. He hates it when people can’t understand that there is more than one line. He must have gotten yelled at for not lining up properly in the SERVICE and now he’s extremely triggered.

Meanwhile, I had struck up a nice conversation with the mom in front of me. She was so cute! This was her first Kpop concert – she traveled to Toronto with her daughter for it and I didn’t quiet catch where they had come from but I think it was somewhere else in Canada because they were referencing Canadian things to me like I should know and helped me pronounce Mississauga, which is the city we were staying at outside of Toronto. She asked me if we took the GO Train there and I said, “……yes?”

Henry told me later that NO, we did NOT. The GO Train is not the same as the subway, which I forget what the call there, lol. I tried! This is what happens when Henry leaves me alone to field adult questions! I sink.

Anyway, the mom was so cute, as previously mentioned, with her bedazzled Bang Chan jersey. “I got this on Amazon and jazzed it up!” she said, after we marveled over how creative some of the concert outfits were. She said she had primarily come there to accompany her daughter and I told her I was there for me, lol. I felt super comfortable talking to her and before I knew it, I was telling her all about how we got married in Korea last year.

Meanwhile, Henry was giving me a play-by-play from his line so I told my new friend that he was up there scoping it out. Eventually, he told me that it was definitely moving faster than my line and to come up. “Tell him you made new friends and ask him if we can come too!” the mom laughed, but I was already doing that exact thing! In the end, the mom said she would stay in our OG line, and her daughter would join me and Henry. There were only like 10 people ahead of Henry as opposed to the 100 still ahead of us in our line! Eventually, Henry was like, “I’m going to get a beer.”

“I dismissed him,” I said to the daughter, whose name I finally learned was Chloe and her mom was Holly. “He did the Lord’s work!”

I thought it would be awkward, standing in line with my fake daughter, but she was so sweet and easy to chat with! We basically just talked about kpop in general and she was genuinely interested in my origin story, which was crazy because it seems like just yesterday when I was at my first KCON in 2017 and felt like such a n00b. I guess I’m finally legit now!

We truly couldn’t understand why the lines were moving so slow because there were at least 4 people working in each section of the merch booth, as previously noted in my shitty Snag-It drawing. I knew exactly what I wanted, so when Chloe insisted that I go ahead of her as a thank you for saving her from the long-ass OG line, it took me less than 30 seconds to tell the super personable guy what shirt and size I wanted and tap my card. Bam, done.

I wished Chloe the best time and then wandered off to find Henry. Of course, I had remorse that I didn’t ask to connect with her on IG at the very least but would that have been weird since I was basically her mom’s age??? Oh well. Forever alone, lol.

I found Henry, stole his beer, and sent him off to get me a grilled cheese from a truck called CHEEZHEADZ. Ofc after he already ordered, he told me that the tater tot truck next to it had “TOTBOKKI.” AND A BIBIMBAP TACO. UGH.

Whatever, it was nice chilling on this grassy knoll, watching girls film SKZ dance challenges, zone out to the ferris wheel, and just genuinely bask in the beautiful day and fucking good vibes, man. It felt like Riot Fest, or Warped Tour. I’d say even Coachella but  my experience there was so miserable and this was not that.

I got two Han and one Hyunjin bracelets <3

OK,  this grilled cheese took forever but it was VERY classic-tasting, familiar, comforting. Nothing crazy added to it. And the fries were MY STYLE. THE GOOD KINDS! Ask Henry and he will tell you that after 24 years, he still can’t tell what that means.

By this time, it was about 6:45 so we decided to enter the stadium! PART 2 COMING SOON.

Henry and I went to another 50501 event downtown, this one was pro-immigrants anti-ICE. I definitely didn’t want to miss this because it was organized with Case San Jose and their speaker at the No Kings protest last month (Jaime) was so powerful that I needed to hear him speak again.

It was mostly a peaceful – yet angry – gathering. There was one asshole who screamed YES THEY ARE when one of the speakers was talking about how pro-Palestine college students protesting on campuses are being labeled as terrorist organizations by this evil administration. It started to escalate a bit when the speaker engaged him but other protestors quickly surrounded the douchebag and pushed him back until the police intervened. He eventually stormed off like the sad sack that he is.

Anyway, here are some pictures. I feel so fired up and ready to sign up to join an ICE rapid response team even though I don’t know that I can handle these two duties: being a peacekeeper and helping to de-escalate. Henry was like “You can’t do that” and Chooch was like “good luck.”

FUCK ICE. FUCK TRUMP. FUCK ALLIGATOR AUSCHWITZ.

Well, like at least half of the country, we weren’t exactly donning our red white & blue attire and firing up the grill in honor of America. I know that you can hate the president and love the country at the same time, and that is WHY we hate Trump (among a full-ass tome of other reasons), but being celebratory when inhumane ICE raids and “Alligator Alcatraz” and the big ugly bill are also happening just feels gross.

So instead, I spent the morning having a good, long convo with Corey over iced berry cobbler lattes from Reginald’s, where the super cool and college-aged barista told me that she loved my outfit. “The butterflies over the Gemini shirt – it’s such a vibe!” and I was like, “WHY IS CHOOCH NOT HERE TO WITNESS THIS.” He would have been even more annoyed because my card got slightly stuck in the reader and the barista said, “Oh no, I’m sorry – that’s never happened before!” After I yanked my Visa out, I said, “Oh it’s not your fault, it’s because I have this overlay on the card,” flashing my custom Seventeen credit card at her. Chooch would have been mortified, lol.

Later that afternoon, I wanted to go for a walk and surprise, surprise – look who came with us!

We stopped at Pink Box first, as per tradition, and this was the first time that the owner was there! She chatted with us at length and wow – what a sweet woman! It made me appreciate Pink Box so much more. We have been popping in there for years, and it’s even become our treat of choice to take to the cemetery with us for our traditional Christmas “picnic.”  They have some new buns at Pink Box and she was explaining to us how they are made. Every time she would say goodbye, she would remember something else though and the conversation would start up again – it was hilarious. Then as we were walking out, she yelled out that she thought my purse was cute! INYERFACE Chooch!

LOL, I didn’t know Chooch took this but I’m keeping it because I look like I’m scanning the horizon for danger. My face is so serious! But really it’s just because I was squinting into the sun and being mad at two cars that were practically drag racing through the cemetery.

But yeah, here’s my “vibe-y” OOTD, lol. That Gemini shirt is honestly one of my favorite shirts ever. I wish whoever designed it would do one for Phantom’s Revenge because those shirts consistently suck.

This was a whole ordeal to take these since we didn’t have a tripod and had to rely on a flat tombstone. But surprisingly, no one fought! Chooch acted like it was the worst day of his life, though.

G-Dragon member’s only mini-lightstick, check. Haechan T-Money card, check. Limited edition Korean Vans, check. Stray Kids bracelet received at last week’s concert, check.

And then we spent a good 20 minutes walking the perimeter of the pond, talking to the bullfrogs, turtles, and geese. There is always so much action in this pond in the summer!

Other than that, 7/4 was a laid back day. And that was just fine! Hopefully some day soon it will feel like a holiday again.

I was so excited when I woke up on Sunday! OK, I was probably still being a Sunday Morning Brat, because that’s my m.o., but internally I was freaking out about seeing Stray Kids that night! We planned on getting to the venue around 4ish, because everything we had read had made it sound like this was going to be a logistical nightmare as far as transportation / parking goes because they built this brand new, state of the art venue WITH NO PARKING. More on that later!

To start the day, we stopped at Coffee Culture Cafe near our hotel (I can’t remember if I mentioned but we stayed at some Hilton in Mississauga) and ofc Henry had to be soooo embarrassing. I ordered first and asked if they had almond milk.

“No, just oat milk right now, sorry,” the barista said, and actually looked like she was sorry too, good ol’ Canada.

Then Henry ordered an iced coffee.

“Do you have almond milk?” he asked, and the barista and I made darting eye contact before she slowly repeated, “No, just oat milk right now, sorry.”

I SERIOUSLY WAS SO DISGUSTED. I glared at him and said, “She literally just told us that,” while he mumbled some lame excuse of not knowing why he asked that. Mmmmm!!!!!

Then he asked some other stoop question and this girl, I gotta give her credit. She was so patient with his frustrating ass!!

When we sat down, I hissed, “You make everything so embarrassing and awkward!! People probably think we’re aliens from another planet, ordering THAT HOT BROWN FLUID, MEEP MEEP, PUT IT IN VESSEL WITH FROZEN WATER SQUARES, BLOOP BLOOP for the first time.”

I went with the fresh fruit bowl and it was a good choice. Filling, nutritious, took a long time to eat which I have found is the kind of meals I need to lean into because I eat too fast and then I feel unsatisfied and starved.

Overall, a decent place to get a small breakfast without feeling like shit after.

From here, we drove to the nearest GO Train station and took the train to Bloor St. because there is a vegan Japanese bakery that I have been wanting to try the last several times we were in town BUT it was still so early so Henry suggested the dreaded, “We can just walk around” which always ends up with us trudging through a concrete jungle until I’m on the precipice of hanger. I don’t mind “just walking around” if there are cool shops, or parks, or actual things to see. But this street was kind of boring, at least the part we were on. But then Henry was like, “WAIT, WE CAN JUST WALK TO KOREATOWN!” and I was like, “OK that’s great but if you recall from all the other times we have been here, there is not much open this early in Koreatown!?!?”

Eventually, we decided that we would take the subway to Kensington Market because I was determined to get me another nanaimo bar this time since we didn’t get one when we were last there! And I wanted to bring one home for Chooch.

In case you don’t know, Bunner’s is a vegan bakery and we had our first (and only!) nanaimo bar there during the winter of 2023 and it was just divine, unlike anything I have ever eaten before and I had become lowkey obsessed with it.

“The Nanaimo bar is a no-bake dessert named after Nanaimo, a Canadian city in British Columbia. It consists of three layers: a coconut crumb base, a custard filling, and a chocolate ganache topping.”

Hilariously, we ended up walking all the way to Koreatown anyway to get to the next subway station. It’s crazy how “familiar” this area is to me now yest I still have no idea where it is on a map of Toronto, lol.

I will say that the walk here was rife with Henry-shaped insults. He was getting on my nerves so bad! Then we had an argument because I accused him of not thinking I’m funny and he was like, “I DO THINK YOU ARE FUNNY” and I said, “YOU NEVER LAUGH AT MY JOKES” and then he got defensive and also mad at me for being mad at him and that is my biggest pet peeve when it comes to him! DO NOT APPROPRIATE MY ANGER!!!

Anyway, this wasn’t actually a fight, just me being snippy and Henry brushing it off because nothing ever upsets him and it’s so annoying.

We had to take two subways! Henry didn’t make me aware of this. Luckily, it was an easy transfer. I get nervous about these things.

It wasn’t a far walk at all to Kensington Market once we got off the subway. Nanaimo bars and some other treats acquired! I thought I took a picture of the display case too but I guess not so instead just feast your eyes on all that exciting coffee machinery and bakery boxes!

I love this area so much! I wish we had spent more time here but Henry had me totally panicked about getting to Rogers Stadium later and I couldn’t shake his annoying clock-watching presence. I did duck into a vintage clothing shop but he was making me feel rushed and uncomfy which is not atypical, honestly.

Next time, we will spend more time here. I wanted to shop for art!

It was still kind of early to be thinking about lunch so Henry gave me the option to either take public transportation to Little Italy, which is where the Japanese bakery is, or walk. I said we could just walk because I was in a better mood now that we walked through the contagiously uplifting Kensington Market.

We stopped in a shop called Red Pegasus because I saw these cute cement confetti earrings in the window display and I like to get one of my friends earrings from various cities we travel to for her birthday, which is in a month, so now I feel relieved that I have one less thing looming over me! There was a really cute dog helping us peruse the shop, lol. And the ladies working there were very helpful when I asked if the earrings were locally-made and went out of their way to look it up for me (Manitoba, not Toronto, but that works!).

In Little Italy, we stumbled upon a sidewalk of Italian stars, all of which were clean as a whistle EXCEPT FOR MY BELOVED GINO VANELLI’S!! Gino, they really did you dirty – literally!

We made it to Tsuchi Cafe :)

By this point, I was definitely ready to eat again. Henry was really annoying here too, btw.

Everything looked so delectable! I got the katsu sando and Henry got the karepan, and I immediately wished I had also gotten that because he gave me a bite (ok, several, lol) and it was incredible. SO BEEFY AND GRAVY-Y!

I also got an iced hojicha latte and it was perfect.

Ew, what is he side-eyeing??

I had to pee so bad and 1. pretty sure I didn’t lock the door correctly so I peed in fear; 2. couldn’t figure out how to turn on the lights until after I was done washing my hands.

I sent Henry back up for a hojicha cookie to split afterward and it tasted like a Nature’s Valley granola bar but softer and decadent. This place was such a cute little gem!

Then it was time to walk back to the train station. I was somehow still grumpy but we made it back without me having a full-throttle meltdown at least. I love walking, you guys know I love walking, but for some reason I was SO OVER WALKING on this day!!

Look how fucking dumb-looking I am. Oh well.

But great news! We had the whole train car thing to ourselves!!

I saw this ad for Annie and laughed because I WAS JUST TALKING ABOUT ANNIE THE NIGHT BEFORE. If you read Saturday’s live blog, mayhaps you remember.

Oh! It was embarrassing because we didn’t realize we had chosen the handicapped car so when we were exiting, the train guy had to put down a portable plank for us to walk across. We apologized profusely since we were THE ONLY PEOPLE LEAVING THAT CAR, but he was like, “Eh, I’m Canadian, I’m not bothered.”

I mean, he didn’t say that out loud, but it was implied.

Got back to the hotel around 3PM and started to get ready for the Stray Kids concert! I’m so excited to start recapping that. It was A GOOD TIME.

P.S. OMG I remembered why I was in a bad mood!!! Because there is this tourist site called Casa Loma (a legit castle) that I have been wanting to visit ever since the first time we came to Toronto in 2017 but we never have time. So, after all of Henry’s hullaballoo about GOTTA LEAVE FOR THE STADIUM BEFORE THERE IS NO PARKING LEFT, he had the motherfucking audacity to say to me after we got off the GO train at the Bloor St station, “We can get on the subway right here – it goes straight to that castle place, look” and tried to shove his phone under my nose but I f l i p p e d.

“Why would you even tell me that after saying we couldn’t go? Now suddenly we can go?” I cried, and he backpedaled and said THAT WAS NOT WHY HE WAS SHOWING ME? Oh, I’m sorry, this was just a conversation starter then? A “look how easily we could get to the Canadian place of your dreams if only I cared enough about you” slap to the face???

So, great job, Henry. Way to set me off AS SOON AS WE STEPPED OFF THE TRAIN.

I promised the spirit of Drew that I would not collapse into a crippling depression today. I’m trying! I really am trying! I woke up to a nice, supportive message from Henry reminding me to think of the good memories today; I had a good, long cry in the shower; and I had therapy, so I got to have the best kind of support there is on a day like this, right? I really, truly love my therapist. She is so easy to talk to and as soon as I said, “Well, today is….” she was like OMG!!!

The weirdest part for me was that as I getting ready for therapy, I looked outside and saw that HNC was blocking the driveway. I texted him like, HI PLZ CAN U MOVE THX. When he didn’t respond right away, I started to go over there and all I could think of was that this is exactly what happened one year ago – Drew dying in front of me and me having to bang on HNC’s door for a ride to the vet. I did not want to knock on that door again today, exactly one year later.

Luckily, he came opened the door right as I was walking up his porch steps and was like, “I’M SORRY! DON’T KILL ME!”  That was actually a much-needed comedic break.

I have been dreaming of her so often lately and it breaks my heart all over again when I wake up. I don’t know if my mind has been subconsciously anticipating this dreaded anniversary or what.

Last summer, I had a Drew Beringer tribute shirt made and haven’t been able to wear it  yet. Maybe I will challenge myself to wear it one day this month in her honor. (Crying just thinking about it, but it’s OK!)

So, this is where we are. Still mourning and missing her every single day but trying to still live life which is slowly getting more manageable.  (The whole “time heals” mantra isn’t really working with this one.)

P.S. Sometimes I still barge into the house, calling out, “GUYS! I’M HOME!” only to instantly remember that it’s no longer plural. :( I freaking micro-manage Penelope’s every movement, even worse than I have always done with my cats, and she is like, “OMG I LEGIT JUST SNEEZED, I AM FINE, PLEASE STOP MONITORING ME.”

8:14am: getting ready to leave. I am feeling ok emotionally this morning! So happy that we got to see SKZ last night. It was phenomenal – aside from Coachella and Riot Fest, I have never seen a concert of that scale before and it was insane and amazing. I did feel like we had just spent the day at a legit music festival by the time we crawled into bed last night / this morning. It was a rough day but the pay off was worth it!

10:08am: At the border. We came through Niagara Falls this time to avoid truck traffic. Made it through in 30 seconds literally lol. The guy was like “Lol not even gonna try” when Henry said “Stray Kids concert.” Handed us back the passports and said “OK man have a nice day.”

Also stopped in the duty free shop and got chooch some maple shit. The bathroom had a Dyson hand dryer and they never work for me so I had to walk around with wet hands.

Also got a drink at Tim Horton’s just because I wanted the fun straw. “So what’s the deal with the straw?” Henry asked. “Nothing it’s just paper but everyone we walked past all weekend had their Tim Hortons drinks and I thought to myself ‘I want to drink out of that straw too,'” I saw matter-of-factly.

“Omg,” Henry muttered.

12:42pm: Just stopped at Sheetz in Erie for “lunch” – I always just get half of a veggie sub or a wrap, pretty fucking simple if you ask me, but they always find a way to screw it up! This time NO TOMATOES. Instead they tucked in some rock-hard jalapeño twig that probably would have broken a tooth had I bit down hard on it but I felt it with my tongue before any damage could be wreaked!!

Ugh!!

Meanwhile some older man was standing there trying so hard to figure out my shirt (wearing my SKZ tour shirt obv!!).

2:13pm: This is a dumb liveblog. We should be home in about 30 minutes and I’m so excited to tell Chooch all about the Stray Kids concert that he sincerely doesn’t care about. It was just so good!!

Other than dissecting our favorite parts of last night, we’ve been ranting about tRump as usual. Nothing new there.

Oh!! I just realized we were a part of two history-making events this month! The No Kings 6/14 protest and the inaugural event at the brand new Rogers Stadium! I didn’t even know until after I bought those tickets that it was going to be in a stadium that wasn’t even finished being built at the time.

OK BYE.