SATURDAY

YAY!!! VACATION! WHAT AM I GONNA DO ALL DAY?

WORK!!!

Haha. I want to get a bunch of ebay things photographed and listed for tonight and Monday night. So that’s the day’s plan.

But TONIGHT, at 10:30, I am watching the online streaming of BTS’ last concert in Las Vegas.

I will leave the building to get an egg sandwich, but that’s it.

SUNDAY

It Was a Good Day

I always WANT to do things, even if I’m by myself. I don’t MIND doing things by myself, but sometimes when the time comes and I’m faced with actually leaving to go OUT THERE alone…I think…OR…I could just stay home (cuz I ALWAYS like that). But today I was like GET OUT THERE! DO THE THINGS! GO TO THE PLACES!

And I did. I had a lovely stroll at Brooklyn Botanic Garden…I always enjoy the Japanese Garden…and I was optimistic about the cherry tree esplanade, but…alas…I was about a week too early for that. So I sat by the row of trees that were not quite ready to bloom…and people watched. You know that’s one of my favorite things. Sadly, it was a little windy to sit still comfortably for too long, so…I walked around some other “already blooming” areas before heading out.

I made a trip to Dunwell Doughnuts in Williamsburg, which are my very very favorite doughnuts. I so rarely get there – it’s certainly been well over two years. They don’t have indoor seating yet but you can buy things to take out.

Little-bit-funny story, when it was my turn, I said “I’d like a lemon lavender, an almondine, and a butter rosemary,” and the young woman behind me in line goes, “Oh! I’m getting the exact same thing!” Which I thought was very random. I said, “we’re doughnut sisters,” we smiled, and I left. That was pretty much the extent of my human interaction for the day. Just the right amount 🙂

It’s been my life’s dream to have a JUG of Kikkoman soy sauce. I use soy sauce like NOBODY’S BUSINESS and go through the large grocery store size in about two weeks.

On my way home from Brooklyn, I FINALLY stopped at the giant Asian “H-Mart,” which I’ve been meaning to go to For Years.

So. Me and grocery stores. I like going to one store, the same store, all the time. I know where everything is, I’m familiar with the brands, etc. Going to a NEW grocery store is…pretty awkward for me. It’s like walking into a GIANT party, and everyone else knows the rules to the party games, where the bar is, who the people are to avoid. I don’t know any of those things. So, new HUGE store, I don’t know where anything is and EVERYTHING is unfamiliar.

The FOODS are unfamiliar. That part was fascinating. What is THAT? What are THOSE?! What would you do with THEM??

I can read some of the Korean labeling (didn’t always know what it MEANT, but I could READ it), but there was also a lot of Japanese and some Chinese (which also could have been Taiwanese, the line between those two languages can be a little fuzzy to me). So I wandered around a lot. I tried to find things on a list I’ve had, just waiting to get to this store. Some of the things I found (Kewpie Mayonnaise! Pork belly!), some I could not find. Some I found but there were 10,000 options and how would I know?? You know how the cereal and snack aisles have just gotten OUT OF HAND in the grocery stores? It was similar there, but it was like an entire aisle of dried fish type things. SEVERAL aisles of all different kinds and brands of tofu.

There was So Much Fish! Fresh fish, dried fish, frozen fish, fish sauces and oils, fish, fish, and more fish.

I didn’t even really go into the produce section, cuz anything I recognized I could just get at my own store…and anything I didn’t recognize, well…what was I gonna do with it??

There was a Korean ice cream section…I don’t even know what that means. Is it different?? TONS of canned coffee beverages. I couldn’t pass up a BTS coffee drink 🙂

A big mistake I made was not having my seeing glasses. I’d walked in with my sunglasses on. So being blind on top of all the unfamiliarity didn’t help.

Besides myself and one other family, everyone else was Asian – east and south.

Welcome to my future.

And it was all families and couples. I feel like I see mostly single (not SINGLE as in unmarried, but just…one person) people at the market usually. Not all, but better than 50% for sure.

Anyway, I got my couple of things – some from my list, some spur-of-the-moment. It was a trip. And I’ll be back. With my seeing glasses…and some research on brands and meat cuts.

Then today I just saw ANOTHER huge Asian market just opened this weekend on Long Island…of course neither one is anywhere near me, but still. I’ll have to check that one out as well.

And next time I’ll get something in the food court. Things looked yummy but it was PACKED (all those families and couples) and I was starting to blood sugar spiral and needed to get home and eat something besides a lemon lavender doughnut (which was lovely, by the way).

When I got home I ate half the sushi I’d gotten at the market…then headed to the sofa to read in the late afternoon sun…and when it was too dark for reading, I watched the first two episodes of a new show…then went to bed.

It was a good day.

MONDAY

That cleaning stuff MAY OR MAY NOT have been sitting out there like that for five days. Cuz I’m a starter not a finisher.

TODAY was like vacation. I stayed in bed til noon, just looking at things on my phone. I had to drop off some ebay things at the post office and figured I’d grab a deli sandwich while I was out, so dressing was mandatory. Ugh. Wrote up some more ebay listings in the late afternoon/early evening. Not an exciting day, but a much-needed low-key day.

TUESDAY

How you can tell when the landscaper’s been here. Sigh.

This was STUDY day. I’ve fallen behind in my TEFL course since starting Bangtan Academy. A) Learning Korean is WAY more fun than re-learning English. With Korean there’s a lot more “oh! yay! I understand/can say that now! Go Me!” – in TEFL there’s more, “oh. I should know this, I’ve been speaking English for 60 years, am I just a big dummy?” B) Bangtan Academy has firm deadlines on assignments and homework…and if you fail to turn things in on time or attend a class, you’re OUT. Which seems harsh, but 1) that’s good for me personally, as I tend to put things off, and this structure forces me to keep up with the work, and 2) there’s SO many people trying to get in to the program, they really need to weed out people who aren’t really serious about being there and learning Korean. So TEFL has taken a bit of a backseat to BA because I still have til July 1 to finish the course. But I figured I could crash-course it this week while I had extra time and get caught up, so…that’s Tuesday/Wednesday’s focus this week.

I don’t think I left the building. I haven’t been doing OOTD shots cuz really…it’s just nightgown or sweats most days.

I did some very minor straightening up.

WEDNESDAY

Study morning. Ebay afternoon.

Isn’t vacation fun??

THURSDAY

I had a work thing to go to. It started at 7pm. To me, that means it was ALL DAY.

FRIDAY

Met up with a work friend at the beach for breakfast and coffee. And by breakfast I mean, she made banana muffins and brought bagels and lox and cocktails in a can. I just showed up, ha ha. Anyway, this was a BIG DAY as we’ve been talking about meeting up outside of work for probably more than 10 years, ha ha.

It was windy but mild and so nice to just sit in a chair in the…uhm…air.

When I got home I was very productive and got all my ebay listings written up and scheduled a day early.

WHO EVEN AM I??

This is sort of a sad ebay era for me as I’m listing all my beloved transferware. It took me years to acquire a really nice collection. I mean, I have to do it, but…it’s sad to see it go.

Then from 10pm-1am I watched the re-play of BTS’ Las Vegas concert. I always see a little something different every time I watch these. I think they’re due back in the states for the Billboard Music Awards (BBMAs) in May. In their usual record-breaking fashion, they’ve received seven nominations, which is the most of any group or duo. #notshocked

SATURDAY

Since Saturday has become ebay day…and since I got all my ebay work done yesterday, I gave myself the day off (more or less). I slept in, listened to podcasts in bed, had deli sandwich for breakfast at 1pm…and…are you ready for my BIG NEWS?!?!

I MADE AN ARMY FRIEND!!! Whee! So fun! We meet on Bangtan Academy and she’s my age and we did a lot of “blah blah blah,” “ME TOO!” Ha, so a BTS match made in heaven, ha ha. It was SO NICE to have someone to chat with about BTS, etc. Maybe I won’t need to torture you guys with All Things Korean as much anymore….

HA HA HA HA HA HA just kidding. I will continue to torture EVERYONE with my Korean and BTS excitement 🙂

I did a little studying, a little reading, a little straightening up (the apartment is out of control right now) and just had a low-key day.

I can’t believe vacation is almost over. So sad. And my office partner leaves this week, so…Much Uncertainty Ahead.

SUNDAY

Lookit me, with two Sunday Fundays in a row! I’m living large now, baby!

Went out east to a favorite museum in Southampton…then to a nearby garden…then to lunch.

Now I’m home to pack ebay things that sold this weekend, do another Korean unit, my next TEFL assignment…and TRY to go to bed relatively early (although I know perfectly well I will watch three episodes of a kdrama and I will not get to bed before 1am SIGH).

WHAT I’M READING

Or, maybe more importantly, I’M READING. Ha. Even with everything else going on, I’m trying Really Hard to get reading time in. It does get easier as it stays light later.

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. This is one of THOSE books. A “did I not like because I didn’t understand it” book. Like Little Vic in the 4th grade when the teacher asked if I liked it and I said no and she said oh you probably just didn’t UNDERSTAND it. I UNDERSTOOD it. I just did not LIKE it. Grrr. Anyway.

I can appreciate the well-crafted use of words and language…especially given that the author is not a native English speaker. He could really write a clever phrase…and play on words. Parts were poetic.

But. It felt like the “fancy words” were at the expense of the STORY. And I’m first and foremost a story girl. This story…or grouping of stories…was sort of all over the place…I don’t mind a time jump forward and back but this was forward back right left inside-out whoa. There were bits when he’d settle in one spot for a bit and I’d be like, okay, this is good, this is a good story, and then BAM. He was off in left field in a different country different era. Which may well have been…representative of HIM – of how he felt coming to America from Vietnam. But. It’s just not my cup of tea.

3/5

Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. Yeah, technically this is a YA book. I guess? So what? Ha. It’s the sequel to Stargirl, that I read a couple years back. And it’s equally as quirky and charming as its predecessor. And after OEWBG (see above), it was a welcome STRAIGHT LINE from beginning to end. Sometimes I just need something SIMPLE. So the timing on this one was perfect, coming right after the other one. It’s a quick read and very sweet. But you need to read Stargirl first. 3.75/5

WHAT I’M LISTENING TO

Okay, I haven’t tortured you guys with my music in a pretty long time, so…here is a new favorite – The Dreamer’s Dream by Lee Seung Gi. It’s melancholy sad soulful and lovely. Yes, it’s Korean. I’m finding I’ve landed more firmly in the Korean indie/ballad territory than k-pop. Which is my long-term music comfort zone anyway, so it makes sense. I do like a good serotonin song here and there but my main diet is more like…sad, pretty songs.

The End 🙂