I’m happy to say I’m totally getting into the swing of doing NOTHING. Ha ha. My energy level is rapidly plummeting, the floor is getting further and further away every day, and if the kids would let me, I think I could sleep 24 hours straight multiple times a week.

Life is good.

MONDAY, JULY 31

Three weeks to D-Day! I spent the morning trying to sort things out that are left on my To Do list and both my laptop and the internet are fighting me every step of the way. I finally just had to step away and go take a nap – ha ha, RETIREMENT DOES NOT SUCK.

It was a quiet day, I never left the house, never got dressed, snacked all day. It was glorious 🙂

However, I heard the sad news that Paul Reubens, aka Pee Wee Herman, had passed away. As silly as this may sound from a grown adult, he really played a memorable role in my 20s and 30s and even Katie’s babyhood. I loved watching Pee Wee’s Playhouse on Saturday mornings (yes, as an adult), and when I first moved out of my mother’s house and into an apartment with my then best friend (I wonder if she thought of me when she heard this news), every Saturday morning she would make a giant breakfast: pound of bacon, cake, ice cream…and we’d eat while watching Pee Wee. Good times. Then when Katie was born and wriggly on the changing table, the one thing that could captivate her and keep her still was my talking Pee Wee Herman doll…so I’d prop him on the end of her crib so he was looking down at her and she looking up at him, and pull the string…and his silly face and and voice would keep her still long enough for me to get her diaper changed. Thanks for being my mother’s helper, Pee Wee!

But to bring it to the present, his movie, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, was the inspiration for the new blog title, “Bettye’s Big Adventure.” So, here’s to Pee Wee – I KNOW YOU ARE, BUT WHAT AM I???

TUESDAY, AUGUST 1

Is it Tuesday? Wednesday? I’m losing track of the days. To give you an idea of how the days are going now, Katie asked me (while still in my nightgown around 4pm) if I’d ever changed out of my nightgown yesterday. Nope. Why dirty clean clothes and underwear if I’m not leaving the house??

I’m slowly working my way down my To Do list. I bested the laptop AND the internet today and accomplished a couple things that had been sticking points.

I ordered four totes that I’m hoping will be ideal for travel and carrying to school. I got them from Amazon Try Before You Buy, so you pay zip unless you decide to keep any of them. You have a week to “try” before you “buy.” I’ll share them with y’all when I get them.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 2

(argh, wrote the whole day’s post, it was brilliant, then it disappeared and this will be its sad replacement)

The days are taking on sort of a routine. Sleep til I can’t sleep no more (for the moment), breakfast with Katie, tackle my To Do list (how does it keep getting LONGER instead of SHORTER??) while she works (from home), lunch, maybe a quick walk at the park with the dogs or some errand, back to my room where I try to read but usually fall asleep, some more time at the computer: To Do listing, working on blog posts, writing to people I left behind…then dinner, either with Katie or alone if she’s going out with The Boy. If she stays home I try to watch whatever she’s watching on tv for a bit, but mostly I come back to my room to watch my own things. And if she goes out, then I get to watch my current k-drama on the big tv in the living room til I’m falling asleep around 11pm.

Lather Rinse Repeat.

She leaves in a week for a week away, and while she’s gone I’ll go through all my tubs and bags and reduce everything to an appropriate Korea amount…maybe leaving one medium-sized tub of things for her to send me when 1) I get into an actual apartment, and 2) the weather turns cold (coats, sweaters, etc).

THURSDAY, AUGUST 3

In a shocking turn of events, whatever evil forces had been holding me back from completing 99.75% of my tasks, vanished…and today I was highly successful in gettin’er done. Got a ton of things crossed off the To Do list, so soon I will have things like money, insurance, international driving permit, etc. Still haven’t pulled the trigger on the temporary studio (it’s not a comparing apples to apples situation, plus I can’t reach anyone via email and I’ve been reluctant to try the phone call cuz…I just know THAT’S not going to go well) and I need to commit to something already…and I haven’t been able to reach the realtor that was recommended to me about my #1 apartment choice.

“Reaching People” is not my strong suit. I don’t really WANT to, so….

Katie had agreed to watch one complete kdrama with me while I was here. I gave her four options (three I’d never seen but seemed palatable to a kdrama newbie of her age, and the one that started it all, Chocolate). She selected Link: Eat Love Kill and she was pretty hooked partway through episode 1. We watched three episodes til like 1am and she was ready to go for the fourth but we were trying to get up early for beach sunrise, so…we controlled ourselves. I’m happy to see her enjoying it.

FRIDAY, AUG 4

We got up bright and early to try and make sunrise at the beach but we were just a wee bit late. The good news is there’s another sunrise Monday and we’ll try again. Even sans dramatic sky views, it was still a nice beach walk: the water was delightful and the dogs had fun.

After the early morning activity the rest of the day was low-key, I gave myself a break from the To Do list; I’d been so productive Thursday and many things were waiting for the printer to arrive so I could print out forms, etc. before I could take next steps. So, there was a lot readnapping and moving from bed to desk chair to sofa. Just a quiet day.

Katie went out in the evening so the dogs and I finished up the kdrama I started a few days ago. Not the one Katie and I are watching. I typically have a minimum of four shows going at any one time. The main evening drama, watched on the tv in the living room. For the past year I’ve been watching the main drama with a friend in Arizona via text, but…we’re going to lose that when I move to Korea as we’ll be 15 hours apart. Then there’s the shorter, usually Japanese or Thai, lighter drama that I watch when I go to bed. A palate cleanser, if you will ;-). There’s the lunchtime show, also lighter and shorter – 25 minutes worked perfectly for my 45 minute work lunch. And then a weekend breakfast show, usually a reality show – right now I’m on Season 2 of His Man, which is a Korean gay dating reality show and it’s really sweet ans funny. I laughcry and talk to the telly a lot during that. I’m hopeful for a season 3!

SATURDAY, AUG 5

We had many variations on plans for the day: ferry to an island to sit on a secluded beach for the day, local beach, farmer’s market…but settled on staying in and watching IG reel tutorials on making cinematic videos 🙂  I’ve mastered (well, by MY standards, probably not by a Korean or Japanese person’s standards, but…) making sticky rice, so I made rice and Katie made orange chicken and we had a nice lunch while we pored over videos. She’s going on a weeklong California trip next week, and with me going to Korea (and more!), we’re both really wanting to up our iphone photography and video game. So we whiled away the afternoon on the sofa, sharing TikTok and IG videos with one another, how to do this and how to do that, re cinematic smart phone videography and editing. It was lovely.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 6

The book I’m reading right now, Plum Wine, is centered around two characters who were survivors of the August 6, 1945 bombing of Hiroshima. Purely coincidental that that is what I’m reading right now. I haven’t honestly known that much about it. The history around it, etc. As in so much of history, it can be hard to pick out the “facts” from the “facts.” Or to even know that you’re being given all the facts. All that aside, it certainly was a horrendous and devastating loss of life. I can’t even imagine.

🙁

We’re just taking it easy again today (as though this is all that different than any other day, ha ha). We’re going to go out by the pool in a bit and maybe barbecue out back for dinner…then watch more of our kdrama together tonight.

I’ve been up since around 4am cuz Yoongi’s (BTS) final concert of his 4-month world tour was last night in Seoul. I hadn’t had the presence of mind to purchase the live stream of it (boo), but my friend was texting me play-by-plays and I was watching the deluge of video on TikTok and Instagram. And sobbing. Ha. I went to the first concert of the tour back on April 26, in NY. And I’m just so proud of him for doing this on his own and doing it so well…and HE was all emotional…and the two BTS members who are currently in the military were able to be there in the audience…and another got up and performed on stage with Yoongi. And this is probably his last performance before he enlists.

We’re not supposed to have favorites. But he’s my favorite. Don’t tell anybody.

They just make me emotional, cuz they were such an impetus of change in my life. It was like the seeds were there and they just watered them 🙂 And now in two weeks and two days, I’m leaving for their country.  Their enlistments really messed up my plans of running into them on the street one day and becoming BFFs with them, but still, HA HA HA.

See ya next time!