Friday 5: “Nine Times?” “Nine Times!”

1. If you were to play hooky on your next regular work day with no negative consequences, and if you could only spend the day by yourself, what out-of-the-house fun activities would you pursue? I’d probably start with an iced coffee and pastry at my favorite coffee shop in town, in part because my husband’s is like 6’5″ and complains that a little muffin for breakfast doesn’t cut it for him and only goes with me on Sundays because I like to go, which is kind of sweet. But I’d definitely take advantage of the opportunity to go without him…come to think of it, I’m off Monday, so maybe that’s what I’ll do. Anyway. Then I’d probably shop, either at the outlets or in the South Hills because again, not activities the husband enjoys. I’d consider a movie, but it would depend–I generally prefer to go to movies with somebody, but if there’s something I want to see that he’s not into, fine. Except I’d probably tap a friend from a horror movie. I’d go do cardio at the gym because I save weight lifting for when I go with him because I need supervision. I realize to most people, this sounds like a kind of mundane day, but I think it sounds pretty nice!
2. In the same situation, what stay-home fun activities would you pursue? This I do plenty–Internet, write, read, and Netflix. My husband and I have our shows and then I have some of my own that he’s not really interested in, so I’d tackle those.
3. If you played hooky specifically because someone else needed the time off, who in your life would be your accomplice and what would be first on the agenda? My husband because, you know, husband, but also because I’m way more likely to take a day off here and there than he is, but I think it would benefit him more. I also have more vacation time than he does because I’ve been with my company longer, so it’s easier for me and I don’t have to be as careful with my days as he does. He ate up a lot during the moving process last month. So I’d make him take a day and get out of the office and do something. First on the agenda would be sleeping in, then a breakfast buffet so he could eat as much as he wanted, then a trip to the mountains. If we didn’t spend the whole day there–and it’s likely we would–we’d go to a movie, then either the park or the gym.
4. When did you last visit a museum, and what item on exhibit impressed you? It’s been a while, maybe getting close to a year ago now, but we did one of those themed, adults-only, After Dark museum events at the art and history museum in Pittsburgh. I wasn’t too impressed by any exhibits specifically just because I’ve been there so many times, but one of the events on the schedule was a guided tour of some of the museum’s most interesting items. So that was really cool to hear more about what the museum has, how they got it, and what makes it stand out in the collection and why the curators love it.
5. What’s something you’ve recently gotten away with? Nothing interesting. Speeding. Having opinions.

As always, from Friday 5.

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Friday 5: Just Wing It

1. What’s something for which you are waiting your tern? More like waiting for my turn to end–in-house rotation at work. Now that almost all of the seasoned employees are working from home, we still need some people in-house for high-profile projects and things, and because the transition over to working remote came when I was in the middle of moving, they put me down for the first in-house rotation in case things at the new house weren’t ready. I was only working from home for about three weeks when my turn came, but man, this last week has dragged. So I’m very ready to be back working remote Tuesday.
2. What have you lately gone cuckoo for? Makeup sales. Labor Day weekend is a dangerous time.
3. What’s got you feeling down? We had a little miscommunication with the Humane Society about when we can pick up our new cat–we could’ve gotten her this past week, but we thought they meant next week. So now we have to wait until Wednesday to get her, and we were already impatient enough. We’re bummed.
4. What’s something you acquired that was unexpectedly cheep? It wasn’t cheap, but related to the makeup sales, Sephora had a sale this weekend for their frequent shoppers. For those unfamiliar, it’s kind of a tiered program, and I was in the middle, where I’d get 15% off. So I went in to get a few things I use a lot to save some money on them, but as it turns out, the money I spent put me over the threshold to the top tier, which got me 20% off instead, plus a free gift.
5. What’s that fowl smell? The garbage. It’s not that bad, really, but it’s definitely time to put it in the can in the garage until garbage day, which unfortunately won’t be until Thursday now.

As always, from Friday 5.

Friday 5: Repeat

1. What’s something you are repeatedly asked to prove? I can’t think of anything, really.
2. What’s an album you can listen to on endless repeat? Ooh, this is tough, because I really, really don’t like repetition, so even with albums I really love, I’d never do this. Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours is a solid one, though.
3. What’s a story you’ve told several times? I can’t think of specific ones, but I know I have my go-tos. Everyone does. A lot of my mother-in-law stories get repeated, particularly ones about wedding planning.
4. What’s something you always order at a certain restaurant? I am notorious for finding a dish I love and rarely, if ever, straying from it, while also always talking about how I need to try something new. At Mad Mex, a local Tex-Mex chain, I always get the tofu tacos, although the last time I was there, I did branch out and get a wrap. It was good, but I ended up kind of wishing I’d gotten my tacos. And then at Green Mango, my favorite Thai place, I always get the pad thai. In fact, I almost always order pad thai in any restaurant that serves it. I always get the same sushi, too, although that’s also because I’m a vegetarian and the options are limited.
5. In what way do you hope this weekend will be exactly like last? The downtime. It was our last weekend to empty the apartment, which took a lot longer than planned, but we did have some time to chill. We made our Sunday trip to the coffee shop in town, I went to the movies with my mom, we had dinner, all that fun stuff. So more good times, please! At least I know I won’t be cleaning out the apartment, so the odds are in my favor on this one.

As always, from Friday 5.

Friday 5: Acromony

1. When were you recently SOL? Probably cleaning out the apartment. We still have over a week to finish doing it, but my father-in-law came over with one of my husband’s brothers today to move furniture and I hadn’t made nearly as much progress cleaning and hauling shit out as I’d hoped.
2. What was a recent SNAFU? My first day working from home, which was last Friday, I made a few pretty dumb mistakes on a show. I chalk it up to being distracted by getting thrown on a rush job in the middle of it and just not being super attentive to it.
3. From what social gathering were you most recently AWOL? A couple–my best friend’s brother and his wife did a brunch at a coffee shop in Pittsburgh, which I always enjoy going to, but it was moving day. We did have time to make it out there, but we were exhausted. The other is the family reunion, which we missed for like the third year in a row. This year was potentially moving day and that ended up not being the case, but a friend of my mom’s wanted to get together for lunch, so she opted to do that instead and so the rest of us didn’t go either. And last year, we were deep in wedding planning, and the year before that, we were deep in planning my brother’s wedding.
4. When has someone reminded you to MYOB? Not recently! Look, I’m nosy as fuck–where I come from, we call it nebby–but I’m not obvious about it. Although one time, my best friend did call me a “neb shit.”
5. What might get in your way this weekend as you TCB? My body. I completely wore myself out at the apartment last night–my whole lower body aches, and I’m not sure if it was the cleaner I was using in the bathroom or kicking up dust in the whole place or both, but I was sneezing and sniffling a ton. It happens sometimes and normally is fine a little bit later, but I haven’t slept it off yet. It doesn’t feel like it’s turning into a bigger problem, fortunately, just one that’s not going away, and with bad timing–tomorrow is my company picnic at Kennywood, followed by an Erasure concert. At least I took Monday off.

As always, from Friday 5.

Friday 5: Happy ASLIRT

1. What are your favorite and least favorite nuts? Favorite is peanut. I’m not sure that I have a least favorite, but I also don’t really eat a lot of nuts. I tend to stick to peanuts, and when they’re in food, walnuts and almonds.
2. What are your favorite and least favorite berries? Favorite is raspberry, by far. Least favorite is probably blueberry. I don’t dislike them, I just…don’t really care.
3. What are your favorite and least favorite tropical fruits? My favorite is…all of them? I love mango and pineapple–like, they’re my go-tos if they’re on any menu. Least favorite might be papaya, but like blueberries, it’s not so much dislike as it is indifference.
4. What are your favorite and least favorite varieties of M&Ms? Peanut is my go-to, although strangely, I think I like the crispy ones better. At this point, plain might be my least favorite.
5. What are your favorite and least favorite raisin-containing foods? I like oatmeal-raisin cookies. I can’t think of a least favorite, mostly because I don’t come across raisins in a lot of things, but I will tell you that I recently heard putting raisins in potato salad is a thing and I find this deeply offensive.

As always, from Friday 5.

Fridy 5: Korea Guidance

1. What would be a better name for the color of goldenrod-colored paper? I don’t know that I have any better ideas!
2. Where did you get your silverware? I think I bought it at Target, and then my husband brought me when he moved in with me.
3. It is a weird tradition in America (and possibly elsewhere) for parents to have their children’s baby shoes bronzed.  What artifact from this past week would you have bronzed as a keepsake and heirloom? Our sales contract for our house!
4. What was the most recent ceremony you attended? Church, for Christmas.
5. What east Asian cuisine is good for your Seoul? Man, practically all of it? But my go-tos are sushi, particularly cucumber rolls, and basically any noodles.

As always, from Friday 5.

Paul and I decided to go out for dinner Friday night, and while we were finishing up dinner, he was getting weird texts from one of his sisters, who seemed to be in the middle of a panic attack. So we decided to drive out to her. She calming down when we got there, and after a little while of dicking around, she was hungry and felt up to going out, so we took her to Chipotle. Since Paul and I were still full of sushi, we skipped eating there but did decide to get milkshakes across the street.

We’d intended to run a few errands after dinner, so they got pushed to Saturday–mostly all hair-related. I wanted some dye to spruce up my pink until I can go get it professionally re-done and Paul needed a haircut, so we tackled those and went to Mardi Gras with my parents and some extended family for the night. It was a real good time. Much good food and dancing. We went a few years ago but didn’t really like the food, and they opted for a buffet this time, so we decided that was worth another shot. Definite improvement from the last time we went.

Rather than drive the hour back home, we decided to just spend the night at my parents’ house, which meant a lot of lounging and Seger time. My cousin Adam stopped by with his wife to drop off tax stuff for my mom and had their baby with them, so we got some time hanging out with them. From there, we swung by Paul’s parents’ place, especially biggest his youngest brother’s 16th birthday was the next day, and had dinner and ice-cream cake. It was a good visit, too, with his mom doing really well.