something about me I don't know

What happened today? I finally cooked. First time since I came back from Ocean City. I've been surviving on left over Indian food, spicy and so good. Of course, I made the easiest thing - lentils and rice. Been spending too much money on grocery shopping, so from now on I'm limiting myself to once a week. I think going in and out for quick trips prevents me from realizing how much I'm spending.

Labor Day weekend plans are just to go home so I can visit my grandmother who had a stroke two weeks ago and is now in a rehab facility. She's the one who tells me the same story of the first time she saw me every year on my birthday. And how as a toddler I'd eat the bread I was supposed to feed to the ducks. No one else is going to tell me that. It's too hard, living without people.

Went to the autopart store to buy a bulb because I realized the day time running light on the driver's side is out, but the girl there told me that was a dealer part. Really? It's a bulb. Is it the same as a headlight? I only noticed this morning when I was at a red light checking out my car's reflection in the bumper of the car in front of me and I could only see the one light. I don't want to be one-eyed sally.

Feeling sad the past few days. One day I did nothing after work but sleep, then watch an hour of BBT reruns, then sleep again. I am doing better at waking up though. The horrible traffic and the school zone that comes on just after 7:30 motivated me. I've had to start eating breakfast at work, and I still get in traffic, but I'm on time so I can leave at 4:30. Leaving after is the horror. I don't know why I'm not used to it by now. It's happening right now!

S stopped talking to me, which is what I wanted. But still isn't a good feeling. What is it with me picking immature people who just stop talking to me? Okay, it was only twice, but still. Not a pattern I'd like to repeat. Is there something about me that I don't know? Probably.

This dude is supposed to be a guest judge on ANTM at some point.

His nickname is Beaky, but he has a fabulous voice (okay his real name is Lee Soo-hyuk). He was in the classic White Christmas where was depressed. Honestly, he looks depressed so it probably wasn't much of a stretch for him to play that role. But then more recently he was the second lead in High School King of Savvy, which I was obsessed with. His voice is wonderful and he cracked me up. Apparently he hangs out with the YG people in real life, so he must be even cooler than I thought.

there's serenity

Does 20/30-something US vacation culture = drunk culture? How are people able to do that without gaining weight? My body likes to hold onto the weight and let go only when I pry it from grasping fingers; I can't participate in consuming empty alcohol calories.

Meditation on Thursday night at Seacrets and Friday night at 2 bar/clubs near me. I get that people go to clubs to dance with strangers, and with whatever friends they go with. From TV, you'd think people went primarily for random hookups, but that can't be the reality. For girls, it may just be so random guys tell you you're pretty and you get free drinks. I can never enjoy those drinks because they come with strings attached. So may strings there's a net woven to the ends of them. I'd rather save us both the trouble.

This isn't to say that I didn't have fun at Seacrets because I did. I really like that place. You walk around in sand. There are 3 different bands, so there's something to suit everyone's taste. I'd never been to a dance floor where they regularly drop confetti on you. I had fun jumping around to the music blasted by the cover band. Most people around me were drinking and trying to flirt with the frat boys who blocked my view by being tall and standing directly in front of me. The frat boy look is such a direct turnoff for me.  Except if Dave Franco is doing it.

Yeah, I said it!

Anyway, do I have anything special to say about drunk culture? Only that it's physically exhausting. I don't like being tired. It was a nice change of pace to go out a couple nights in a row and stay out past 1am. It's not really my thing, but I can't know what my thing is if I don't try a bunch of different things.

Also discovered that standing by the ocean or walking in the deep woods are equally as calming. There's serenity.

oc recap 2014

I'm back!

JGL waves hi.

Had a lot of fun on my Ocean City trip! No need to read all of below. Just writing so that I remember this later.

Day One:
That was my first time crossing the Bay Bridge. Super impressive bridge, I have to say. I drove. We stopped at a Walmart for beach chairs and when I went to try out the chair I missed it and sat down on the ground instead. It shocked an old lady to whom I swore I was fine. We stayed at a Best Western, which smelled funny at first, but they said it was because of the cleaning chemicals and they must have been right because the smell was gone after the first couple hours. My friend doesn't like to walk far, but I do, even in flip flops. We put our feet in the water, then took the $3 bus to the boardwalk and walked up until we stopped at an Italian place where I had a crab quesadilla. The cheese taste overpowered the crab, but it was still good. We were going to go out, but were really exhausted by 9:30, so we accidentally fell asleep instead.

Day Two:
Continental breakfast, followed by a 45 minute workout, and the beach! I wore a bikini to the beach for the first time since I was a kid! (That week of arm training YouTube videos really helped because there's a picture of CS and I at Seacrets and my arms look not flabby. Still going to keep up with the arm workouts b/c they're a nice challenge.) We had beach snacks and ate a late lunch/dinner at Macky's. I had an awesome beach cover up dress on that I'd bought at Target for $7.48 the day before. I think I can wear it in the winter with layers. We ate outside in the sand with some palm trees. Then we went to Seacrets, where everyone and their momma told me I had to go, and drank fruity drinks and danced. Would have stayed until 2am but CS couldn't hang! Drinks were constantly splashing my legs, so I guess it was time to go. Always flattering to have people offer to buy you drinks though.

Day Three:
Continental breakfast. Checkout. Return of the one-piece bathing suit. Parked at 30th St dune crossing and hit up the beach until it rained a little and everyone left super fast. Walked to cute shops. Ate outside on a dock with palm trees at a restaurant called Blu. Had yummy fish tacos and stretched out. Super windy. Got my picture taken on top of a turtle. Saltwater taffy quest. Postcard quest. A little boardwalk. A meditative farewell to the ocean. Drove back to MD. On the drive a big rig trucker flirted with CS instead of concentrating on his driving. Downpour. Plastic sounds near my left wheels, but I checked the car and it seems fine. Went out to Looney's Pub and Nottinghams. The first was live music but no one really dancing. The second was in an office park and a little too street.

Today:
Slept in. Saw CS off. Laundry time. Korean drama catch-up time.

OC bound, no not orange county

About to set off for the coast. It's a warm sunny day here, so a good start to vacation! Hoping it doesn't rain like predicted. Either way, I'll enjoy not working for a few days.

Meanwhile, I need to get my act together. I pulled out all the clothes that I'm packing but have yet to put them in the suitcase. My friend is going to be here any time and will be all... whaaat?

vacation's all i ever wanted

I just watched the last episode of King of High School Savvy again. I don't have a problem.

Tomorrow is my Friday. Why am I so last minute? Haven't packed (or even though of what I should pack) or done my hair. At least the apt is clean for when CS comes the night before. Sadly, it's supposed to rain for one of the days that we're there. Hope I remember an umbrella.

Last night I discovered All About That Bass. I'm a size 6 in pants, 8/10 in tops, but I'll never be a size 2 either, so this song applies. She reminds me of my middle sister's friend, although the friend is British and a lot closer to a size 2 than I am.

matches

Yesterday I went thrift shopping with one of my sisters, my cousin, and my uncle. They came especially from PA for this. I bought two scarves to wear in my hair at the beach this week, and then a little end table that is proudly sitting next to my love seat this very minute. Success! And my cousin got a bunch of clothes and 2 lamps. My uncle got clothes too. He was skeptical at first - "Are you sure you want to buy all of these used things?" And then by the time we were done in the 2nd (and much cozier/cheaper) store, he was a thrift shopping convert. He found a suit for $25 and then got a 25% military discount. "Why should I pay so much for this suit new when it's never been worn and I can buy it used?" He said whenever he drives through here for for, he's going to stop at that store. :-) My cousin is the coolest high-schooler. There's no way I was cool enough to know how to find good things from the thrift store when I was going into 11th grade. My mom had 4 kids to dress, so she took us to the outlets in Lancaster and also Walmart (Walmart clothes weren't so cheaply made back then).

SC is back with a vengeance. I really don't expect to ever meet him in person again. He keeps doing that thing people do when they're testing the waters to see if someone is still available - you know, randomly texting them. But he's all talk usually. Haven't seen him for like 8 months. Anyway, he's talking about going on a hike and then a movie. We'll see if that actually happens. I doubt it. These days the dating prospects are low - I just use the hinge app. I get matches, who then never say anything to me, so I'll just collect the matches I guess.

A mosquito just bit me 3 times in 30 seconds. I killed him though.

number one drama of 2014

Officially obsessed with High School King of Savvy - just finished the last episode. It's my number one drama of the year: It had humor, writing, acting, plot, whimsy, bromance, romance, secrets, subterfuge, office hijinks, fashion, music, family, love.

let's go to the beach! each!

Real quick. I realized that I have less than one week until I'll be at the beach, so on Sunday I started doing a bunch of youtube fitness exercises. I like the cardio one that gets you to burn 150 calories in 8 minutes. I discovered I have really weak arms. I already knew that, but now it's painfully obvious and embarrassing because its not like I have twig arms. I have arms that look like they have muscle but are lying to the world. The kind of arms that turn into wings when you get old if you don't stay on top of them. Thanks a lot genetics.

I have yet to find a good bikini and a good hat for the beach. I'm sure that CS won't make me wear the bikini all through the beach vacation, aka after we've eaten. I'll just tell her to plan to get up super early and we can take the pics. And then eat and change into one-pieces, haha.

Still in love with Seo In-guk because I'm dragging out my joy of King of High School Savvy. I only have 2 episodes left. Tears of sadness. Can I meet someone like his character in real life? He's awesome! I laugh every single episode.

I also started watching Miss Korea, which came out last winter, mostly because The Voice is in it and I heard it wasn't bad. And it's not bad. Pillar is also in it, although he doesn't get to shine with this character. The guy who played the older brother in The King Two Hearts is a gangster in it and I still like him. I like this drama because whenever there's a character who deserves to get their hair pulled or smacked, the characters actually do it. This woman took off her heels and went running down a hallway just to give a smackdown to a woman who was using the Miss Korea contestants to seduce men. And when this girl was being super bitchy, I was telling the main character that she has to retaliate, and SHE DID. I love it!

Clip from Miss Korea. In the US this means a drug dealer is around, but apparently not in SK.

SC popped up again and texted me some crap about I miss you. And I was basically bitchy through text, but it wasn't even fun because he pulled the victim card and asked me why I was so mean. I miss RA if only for the fact that he just texted right back. He was way more entertaining! Even if he did snore so loud I swore I'd never sleep and he hogged the covers.

battery

This morning I popped awake at 7:25am. That was entirely uncalled for, body. I stopped at the Amish Market for banana nut bread and some rolls. Even though it was 9:30am, the parking lot was already so crowded that I parked at the Home Depot and walked over, like everybody else was doing. Walking back to my car, I swear I ran into the same fast-talking little kid trying to sell $8 crackers that I ran into last week when Mary and I went to Sardi's for dinner after work. The kid is supposedly trying to sell crackers for some foundation, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was fake. He talks so fast you can't understand what he's saying, he doesn't make eye contact, and never actually says what organization it's for (forgive my dangling participles). I didn't want any of the unappealing crackers, so I just cut him off and gave him $4 because that was the cash that I had. There, I did my civic duty.  Someone needs to teach that kid how to sell. He comes across as so shifty that he doesn't even have cute appeal, which is how the Girl Scouts get everyone with their blah cookies. 

Then I went to the Sears Auto Center because I needed to buy a new car battery. Lucky for me, that Sears is connected to the Columbia Mall because it took almost 2 hours before the car was done. That was only because they felt the need to examine the whole car instead of just giving me the new fricking battery like I asked. Now I know to specify. I did get to talk with MC on the phone for a good 45 minutes though. Friends!