Weekend Review {11/25}

FRIDAY

Friday was the last day of class before Thanksgiving break started and it was a struggle.  I managed, but Lawd, I did NOT want to be in my dungeon.  As soon as class was finished, I headed to work to fight with the instant pot (which is no way instant (as it claims to be)).  Because we don't have a stove at work, I figured I could make the pasta in the instant pot and it wouldn't take that long, because instant pot, and then just melt in the velveeta and cream like normal.

Fun fact, when you put 2 pounds of pasta and 12 cups of water in the instant pot, what is normally a tedious process of building pressure becomes a lifelong process of building pressure.  In case you also think that cooking pasta in the instant pot could be a good idea, I would recommend sticking with 1 box of pasta as 2 boxes + the water took almost 40 minutes to come to pressure.  The pasta only had to cook for 3 minutes... Then there was the process of depressurizing, which also took a LONG time since 12 cups of water.

Here's how instant pot deficient I am: I had to have someone else turn it on to start the process for me.  He is a regular instant pot user, so that helped, but even he was shocked at how long it was taking.  Soooo, take my advice, if you want to "instantly" cook your pasta, it is NOT instant. 

Several people came in the kitchen while it was cooking and we had the "Do you recommend the instant pot?" conversation.  Spoiler alert: I 110% DO NOT RECOMMEND the instant pot.  It is a liar.  NOTHING is instant.  It takes just as much time to build pressure as it does to cook something on the stove (unless it's frozen, in which case, the instant pot is superior, but not better than throwing that frozen thing in the crockpot in the AM and coming home to a cooked meal). 

Anyways, despite my loathing of the instant pot, it worked for me in this situation.  Mac and cheese was made, not nearly enough of it was consumed because we had so.much.food.  I left it all at work though, knowing it would get eaten and knowing that I'm making mac and cheese again this week for Thanksgiving.

I was so hungry I took a half-eaten-plate photo. /shrug

After eating and cleaning up, I left the office for a massage appointment I had scheduled late the in the week.  I know that I just had a massage on Halloween, but I was a mess and I was struggling mightily last week with being in school without a break since the September Hurrication.  So it was part treat yo self, part necessity as my body was rebelling against me.

At some point during my massage, I realized I had left the week behind.  I wasn't focused on all the school things that constantly bombard me and it was such a relief.  If I would have had the time, I would have written a pretty feely post about end of semester strife, but I didn't...  because Thursday I was put on a new project and tasked with writing documentation for a project I know ZERO things about, oh yeah and they need it by next Friday.. but really Wednesday since holiday week.  Fun!  Not.

Wednesday, I texted Teh Bestie and said I needed a pep talk because I was run down and struggling.  She called right away and reminded me that it was only 2 more days until the break and really only one since there was no class on Thursday.  But the bigger part, more than the pep talk she gave me, was that I reached out instead of struggling on my own.  Usually, I struggle quietly until I manage to pull myself up by my bootstraps or whatever.

Anyways, after my massage, I headed home to work and wait on Teh Advising Sister to arrive.  She arrived around 7 and soon after, we headed out for dinner. We went to Pearlz in Avondale.  I hadn't been there, so fun adventures!  After dinner, we went to Kaminsky's for adult beverages.  We were pretty tired after drinks, so we headed home and had some couch time, judging dating app matches for Teh Advising Sister. 

Way later than anticipated, we finally headed to bed.

SATURDAY

Saturday was a slow start.  We had plans to go day drinking to celebrate Teh PT Husband's birthday.  We managed to meet with the gang, late, and proceeded to hang out for many hours. 

We started at Ghost Monkey Brewing, but due to a church group with A LOT of children, we headed out pretty quickly and went to Two Blokes Brewing.

We spent several hours at Two Blokes, then headed to Dog and Duck for dinner.  There had been plans to go Westbrook Brewing, but since they closed at 6, the group headed to Commonhouse instead.  We actually ended up going home after Dog and Duck because the dogs needed to be fed and I was over day drinking.

Here's the (selfish) thing.  I don't drink beer, so day drinking at breweries isn't my jam.  I go to be a good sport and hang out with my friends, but it's not got the same appeal for me as it does to the majority of the people we hang out with, so I try not to be overly sassy about it.  Additionally, it was a birthday celebration, so it wasn't my call.  We've discussed day drinking at distilleries, but that has yet to happen.

Teh German opted to come home instead of being dropped off at Commonhouse and then he proceeded to be upset after he realized he had "missed out" by not going.  Siiiigh.  Whatever.  I was able to get in my TV time for the week.  We watched Noah Trever's and Iliza Shlesinger's standup comedies.  We were in bed by 11.  It was fantastic.

SUNDAY

Sunday, the guys scheduled a brunch event, gasp!  It was called "Beards and Brunch" and there was absolutely NO information about the brunch part of the event, which was my priority.  It was a Rusty Bull Brewing, where I'd seen food trucks before, so no info on the food situation made me skeptical about the situation and I was very adamant if there were not solid brunch options, I would go somewhere else.  After being at breweries for the majority of the day before, I had no problem going somewhere I could also drink something besides water.

Fortunately, Rusty Bull has a kitchen (which I was not aware of, and no one told me about) and the brunch options were pretty good and I didn't feel the need to relocate.  Teh German and Teh PT Husband signed up for the beard competition and didn't officially win, but they were the real winners in my book.

Eventually, Teh Advising Sister said she wanted to do ax throwing, which is connected with the brewery.  We were all down.  It was $26 for an hour of throwing time and we almost finished one game, but after about 15 minutes of trying to score and play the game correctly, we gave up the fight and just spent the rest of the time throwing without keeping score.

Fun fact: I'm actually kinda good at ax throwing.

That was one of my legit throws.
BOOM!  BULLSEYE BABY!

After our time ended, we all headed home.  After walking the dogs and feeding them dinner, we headed over to Teh PT House for socializing.  We hung out until about 7:15, when Teh German and Teh Advising Sister agreed on Japanese for dinner and we headed out to Sushi 101 for dinner.

After dinner, we headed home and it was bedtime soon after since Monday was a normal work day for us.

______________________________________________

A fantastic weekend with Teh Advising Sister!  I love when we have company and she's always down for whatever (i.e. day drinking with people she sees maybe once a year and some strangers).  We went to several new-to-me places and I can now say I've done ax throwing annnddd that I'm fairly good at it.

This week includes NO SCHOOL, kinda.  I should say no class, since I still need to work on some homework things, but I'm not overly motivated to do those things.  In addition to these docs that I'm working on for work, doing homework is even less appealing.  Friday is more tattoo and I have no idea what I want.  Originally, I wanted geometric pattern as the background, but now IDK and decisions are hard.

Thursday is Thanksgiving.  In the AM, Teh PT Wife and I are running a 5k, then we will go home and do cooking things.  Socializing and food in the afternoon.  Maybe if I'm super productive this week I can pound out those docs AND get a Friday post up?  Bahahahah, let's not get overly excited, Gentle Readers.

Happy Thanksgiving if that's your thing.
Happy normal week if it's not.

Five on Friday #217

EINS - Random Shit

Matilda's peer pressure skillz are undeniable... and now I'm signed up for the Kiawah Half.  Although, really it's Teh Bestie's fault since she texted us the the photo of the medal and expressed sadness over not getting it.  Then Matilda was like, I'll come to Charleston for that.  And I was like, if you come to Charleston, I'll commit.  And that's how I ended up signing up for a race I wasn't planning on doing again and how I ended up running 9 miles that afternoon.

Ok, I actually ran 9 miles because I meant to run 8 and then I was too far from home and it ended up being 9.  It was a fantastic run, despite tripping over a silk fence trying to get to the dirt access road I use for extra miles now that the main road is open and there are no side walks.

________________________________________

I finally fired my shitty cleaner.  Gentle Readers, I feel such relief at having fired her.  Especially after finding this the day she came to clean.

If you can't see it, that's orange mold around the faucet.  In fact, there's so much, it's drooping and starting to fall off.  When I told her she didn't need to come back, she expressed how hard she had worked and how hard she had tried to please me and how she never cleaned anyone's house for as cheap as she did ours.  Of course not, most of your houses are families with kids.  Whatever.  It's done.  Soooo.fucking.happy.

In addition to the faucet mold, I also happened to take a looksie at the downstairs toilet bowl and noticed that the holes where the water comes out for flushing had huge black rings around them.  RRRAAAGGEEE.. It was simple enough to scrub off with a toilet brush (which I did), but that's what I was paying her to do.  #Validation

I already hired a new lady.  She cleans for Teh PT Wife and her mom.  Can.NOT.wait.

________________________________________

I was having a crisis about the word ax after my Tuesday post.  I learned that ax can be spelled with or without the 'e'.  With an 'e' upsets Chrome, which is actually why I spelled it without an 'e' in the post.  I typed out axe, but thought I had over-assimilated to axe body spray or something.

________________________________________

To the fuck face who thought sports bras with a zipper were a good idea,
FUCK YOU.
-Runner with chafing from your fucking "good idea"

________________________________________

I'm 100% not interested in a career in cybersecurity, but I 100% want to go to this Women in Cybersecurity conference next year, so I'm faking it.  I've applied for 2 scholarships to go to the conference and I've also got someone at work on the mission.

The real reason I want to go?
It's in Denver in March and it means missing 2/3 days of school prior to spring break starting and then we'd spend my spring break in CO... because I'm already there and Teh German would fly out because... DUH, Colorado.  As if he would turn down the opportunity to be in CO.

________________________________________

I've scoped out some Black Friday things and I need nothing (*praise hand emojis*) and can't find things I even want.  Soooo, money saved????

________________________________________

Girl, Stop Apologizing was not what Girl, Wash Your Face was to me.  I wanted it to be, but it fell flat because I couldn't related to too much of the book (mom, business owner, etc).  There were a few solid one-liners that she said that hit home, but not enough to make me want to buy the hard copy to mark up.  I will admit that the conference addition at the end of the audiobook was more moving to me than the entire book.

One of my favorite quotes:

You don't have to give any justification, because as long as you're not asking anyone [for] approval, you don't need anyone to give you permission. 

~Rachel Hollis (Girl, Stop Apologizing)

________________________________________

PM: These docs are just checks in the box.  No one is going to read them.
Me: Uhh, ok.
...
..later...
...
Me: Do we have this?
PM: It should be in the doc.
Me: Yes, the one I'm writing.
PM says random shit that doesn't help me solve the problem in anyway.

TL;DR: The documents I'm working on literally just slinging shit at the wall and seeing what sticks.  DO NOT LIKE.

________________________________________

I forgot to hit publish on this post.. so you're getting it late.  #EndoftheSemesterProblems

ZWEI - Money Shit

-Food/beverage things.
-Groceries
-Gas
-Spotify
-Audible
-Massage
-More dog pjs (this time for Pax)
-

DREI - From My Phone Shit

If ever there was an accurate analogy for my life.
At least the warning light turned off...

There were people who actually said to me, "When would you ever need a charger than is longer than 6 feet?"
I present to you, "When I want to take a relaxing bath and play on phone/read a book and my phone is dead."

Looks suspicious.
Like something in my house with fur was not pleased with how I made the bed and.or was cold.

Looking at Black Friday deals and seeing a 5TB external hard drive for only $90 makes me feel ancient.
I paid $300 for a 256GB external hard drive in 2006.  It had to be plugged into the wall.

VIER - From the Internet Shit

You are not any less important than the people you look up to.
-MHN

#TechWriterProblems

You will not be able to be everything to everyone today and that is ok.
MHN

She continued to give her best,
even when her "best" looked different from one season to the next.
-MHN

I hope you can give yourself a little more credit.
I hope you can remember this road has not been easy for you.
I hope you can see where you are as progress even though so much is still unknown.
MHN

🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌

My daily challenge

FÜNF - Things that made me happy this week

1. Getting to spend time with Teh Advising Sister.  
2. NO CLASS.  161 days.
3. Work tasking.
4. Applying for "scholarships" as an excuse to get a free/cheap trip to Denver.
5. FOOD.

Happy Friday, Gentle Readers.

Pack Up + Go: Chicago! {Review}

For our anniversary this year, we opted to do a Pack Up + Go trip.  Friends of ours went on a trip and they highly recommended it, so I was like, why not?  Teh German was like, here's why not: you pay someone to plan your trip for you.. and I'm like, "EXACTLY."  Then he said, "We could just plan it ourselves."  And I laughed and laughed and caught my breath and laughed some more and finally choked out, "You mean, I could plan it."  He glared, my point was made, and then we filled out the form to start the process.

Our friends had explained the process and said that if they did another trip through Pack Up + Go, they would opt to fly somewhere instead of drive.  Makes sense, as we live in Charleston, SC and there's very few places worth visiting within driving distance.  So, we chose to fly.  This increased our budget.

Ultimately, we decided on a budget of $750 per person, which is $1500 for 2 people.  That's a lot more than I wanted to spend on a weekend, but I didn't have to plan it and adventures and shit, so fine.

If you're less interested in the process and more interested in the things we did, check out this link:

Weekend review of the activities we opted to do.

The process goes like this:

Pick your category.

Set your number of travelers and budget per person.

Fill out the info form.

Then you wait... for like, half your life or something to pass until it's a week before your trip.  And you tell everyone you know about this awesome trip you are taking, but you don't know where you're going and everyone is like DAFUQ?  Then you explain that's part of the appeal, but mostly the fact that you don't have to plan anything.

A week prior to your trip, you will receive an email with generalized information about your destination and your anxiety and excitement will start to build.

Honestly, I didn't bother to pack until the night prior because I wanted to wait for the updated forecast before making life choices.

There might be marital strife regarding the opening of the envelope.. or at least there was in our case.  I was chomping at the bit to open the envelope.  I wanted to wait, but I didn't.  We finally settled on opening the envelope the morning of the trip.  Teh German got pissed when I brought the envelope upstairs to potentially open it before we even went downstairs.  Siiiigh.  We ended up opening it right before we left, after I made the argument that I wanted to know where we were going so that way if we hadn't packed properly, we'd be able to grab stuff we needed.  Teh German struggles to argue with logic, so it was agreed.

Then I let Teh German open the envelope, poor life choice, because he took his time and I ripped his head off when he couldn't get the cardstock apart to see the destination page and I said, "JUST OPEN THE FOLDER ALREADY!"  Patience is not my strong suit, ok?  The envelope had been in our house for a week, to watch him stand there with the answer to the question we had been asked for an entire month right there and not just DO IT was physically painful for me.  I probably even grabbed at the stuff to do it myself.  I'm probably the worst.  Maybe.  Maybe not.  IDK.

Some of the contents of our folder:

Satisfied that I had packed everything for our location, we headed to the airport.  Once we got checked in and made it to our gate, we sorted through the folder.

We had:
-hotel reservation information
-tickets for a show
-a dinner reservation info sheet
-a few pages of facts about Chicago
-transportation info card
-3 pages of suggested things to do
-some other etc stuff

I knew that not all of our time would be planned, but I guess I expected more of our time to be planned.

From the suggested things to do, it didn't seem to be taken into account that it was a whopping ~35°F outside, which really eliminated a lot of "go check out this park" or "walk to ____".  Don't get me wrong, I said in the questionnaire that we liked the cold, but like, not to just be outside for extended periods of time without having an activity or purpose.  There's literally only so much cold a body can handle while the winds are whipping off the lake.

I also said that we were interested in breweries, cocktail bars, and eating.  Many places were suggested for us, but we cannot literally eat and drink all day.  We ended up doing breakfast most days, but not lunch, and then only kinda being hungry by dinner time.  If we stopped for drinks during the day, we ended up pushing dinner back because we weren't hungry.  It was weird and as people who thrive on a schedule, it was kinda difficult.  That's the downside about good food places, I want to eat all the things, and I cannot.  By the last day, we ended up sharing a meal because we were so full from eating other things.

I was disappointed that most of the suggested activities were food/beverage things.  I know that seems ironic since I had said we were interested in food/beverage, but we couldn't take advantage of most of the suggestions because we took a few of the suggestions and ended up being too full to take more of the suggestions.

Of the few non-food/beverage suggestions there were (music/comedy shows/museums/visit parks/boat tour), they provided tickets for a comedy show and we did the Chicago touristy things (Millennium Park/Navy Pier) and went to a suggested museum (which was an absolute blast) and did the boat tour (very interesting, although it was a bit chilly, which we tolerated without complaint until all the bridges kept dripping melting snow/ice on us as we passed under).  The only activities we did that weren't suggestions were the Gangsters and Ghosts tour (win) and going to the Maxwell Street Market (flop).

My goal had been to just go along with the suggested plans, but it was impossible because it was SO MUCH FOOD/BEVERAGE.  Truly.  Click on those photos and zoom in to read the sheets.  I spent at least an hour Saturday morning going through the provided suggestions and on my phone Googling things to do in Chicago that weren't food/beverage.  By Sunday afternoon, we had run out of things we really wanted to do.  We ended up spending hours at a brewery utilizing their free wifi and splitting a burger for dinner until it was time for us to head to the airport.  There were a few reasons for this.

We went to the planetarium and it didn't take nearly as long as we expected it to, so we had a lot more time to kill than we anticipated.  We didn't want to get to the airport too early since the beer options were better (and cheaper) by our hotel.  Additionally, we were tired.  It's exhausting packing as much as possible into 3 days.  Our schedule was wonky because our eating schedule was off and sleeping in beds that are not Teh Cloud is difficult.  I know that sounds "princess-y", but I'm just being honest.

So my overall opinion?

I would recommend Pack Up + Go to someone who wants a surprise, but personally, this was a once and done type of thing for me.  I had to plan more than I wanted to.  I wanted a few days worth of suggested agendas laid out.. but I guess I should caveat that with, reasonable agendas.  There's only so much food/beverage this human can consume.

We ended up spending a LOT on Lyft rides (~$160) because public transportation is overwhelming for me and Husband didn't want to figure it out either, I guess, because he never suggested taking the L for anything.  Our hotel was over a mile away from the touristy areas of downtown Chicago and I've watched enough Shameless to know that I'm not walking around Chicago in the dark.  Also, places like the Museum of Science and Industry and planetarium aren't close to the touristy areas NOR was it close to our hotel.

I did try to arrange our schedule so that things we did were kinda close to each other to minimize on Lyft costs, but by Sunday, we were having to debate on what to do in relation to having to pay for a Lyft to a destination/back vs not do anything and that's when I knew I was over it.  Having a rental car wouldn't have solved the problem because 1) traffic was horrible, 2) parking costs would have probably been about the same as the Lyft rides.

Was it worth it for the experience?
Yes.

Would I do it again?
No.

Total Money Spent:

Cost	Activity
$1500	hotel, plane tickets, comedy show tickets
$160	Lyft
$50	Friday breakfast
$60	Architecture boat tour
$25	Afternoon brewery stop
$75	Friday dinner
$20	Pre-comedy show drinks
$15	Comedy show beverages
$40	Saturday brunch
$40	Museum of Science and Industry
$50	Lou Malnati's pizza
$60	Gangsters and Ghosts tour
$65	Breakfast in bed at the hotel
$32	Navy Pier Ferris Wheel
$45	Navy Pier time killing snacks/noms
$40	Planetarium tickets
$45	Afternoon brewery/dinner stop
$30	Airport beverages
$~2350	Total $$ Spent (+/-)

So yeah, it was A LOT of money for a weekend.  We had a good time though, so it was a worthy anniversary trip.  I can say that I would have never picked that hotel, so that was a pro and a con.  I am a Yelp Elite, so I am always using Yelp to determine our places to eat, I even do it in Charleston, so I probably would have ended up at a few of the places they suggested anyways.

I think the next time I want to go on a surprise trip, I'm going to trade planning services with a friend that knows us and our preferences.  I can still be surprised, the cost will be less, and they will know us personally to know that we can't eat all.day.long.


FYI: I was in no way compensated for this review, but I mean, if someone wanted to compensate me with free travels, I wouldn't say no.

Sausage, Potato, and Corn Chowder

Eckrich* sausage is a staple in this house.  It initially started with their kielbasa, but at this point, whenever it's on sale, I grab multiples of all the varieties and throw them in the freezer until I want to use them.  I live with a German, sausage is NEVER a bad idea, based on my experience.

Anyways, I ordered some in our Walmart* Grocery order, which meant that later, when I search for "sausage recipes", ads for Eckrich came up and I saw something about a sausage corn chowder recipe and I took the bait.  I'm not sorry.

Ingredients:

-Sausage.  Obviously, I prefer Eckrich because it doesn't have a tough casing on the outside and it tastes delicious.  You can probably also use crumbly sausage, but it would need to be cooked first and I hate having to cook shit before I put it in the crockpot.

-Potatoes

-1 can of corn

-1 can of creamed corn

(you could also use 2 cans of creamed corn or 2 cans of plain corn, I'm all about flexibility)

-(optional) 1 can of beans (I used Navy beans because they were on hand)

-1ish cup of heavy cream/1 can of evaporated milk

-Broth (your flavor of choice)/substitute

-Corn starch

Side ingredients:
-1 box of Jiffy* corn muffin mix + required ingredients.

Directions:

-Dice sausage.  I usually halve along the length of the entire sausage, then cut along the sausage to make half moon shapes.
-Clean and peel potatoes.  I don't actually fully peel my potatoes.  I kinda cut off at least half of the peel, then just dice the potatoes with some peel on, because we like it that way.
-Add sausage, potatoes, and cans (with the liquid) into the crockpot.
-Mix together broth/substitute with heavy cream and corn starch.  Once well combined, add to crockpot.
-Stir items in crockpot to mix well, then cover and cook on low for 8 hours (truthfully, this is the only setting I ever use to cook anything in my crockpot.  When I've tried to do anything on high for less time, it never worked out, so it's always low for 8 hours.  The most important item to be cooked in this recipe is the potatoes, so when you can stick a fork through the potatoes, the soup is ready to eat).

Cover and cook!

When you're about 30 minutes from eating time, make corn muffins via the instructions on the box.  I used almond milk because that's all we had on hand and all the tops broke off.  I mean, Starbucks sells just muffin tops, so I considered myself a winner that I had done this unintentionally.  So it's better to use fatty milk.. I probably could have used the heavy cream, but didn't know how it would work and wasn't feeling up for the challenge, so almond milk it was.

After the muffins are done cooking, serve soup with muffins!  I broke up my corn muffins and added them directly to my soup.  I was NOT disappointed.

Final product!

*I don't receive any compensation from these companies, but if they were interested, I totally am also.

Weekend Review {11/11}

FRIDAY

EVERYTHING passed sooo slowly on Friday.  EVERYTHING.  It work and school day. 

After completing a HUGE work task, I had to motivate myself to do homework.
There were 3 parts and after each part, I got a reward.

THEN.. ~3, TEH BESTIE ARRIVED!!!!!!  YAY!  I was so excited that I, not only, forgot to take a selfie, but I also forgot to pick up the Sam's order.. soooo yeah.  After picking up Bestie, we headed home.  Meri was SO excited to see Bestie that she couldn't decide if she wanted to go outside (her absolute favorite thing when it's not raining) or if she wanted lovins from her Other Momma.  She went back to her Other Momma twice before finally going outside.  It was adorable. 

Shortly after 5, we headed downtown with Teh PT Wife for ladies night at Halls.  BISON FILET MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!  WOOOOOO!!!

It was delicious, as always and I had ZERO regrets.  After getting home, we headed over to Teh PT House for a bit more socializing.  By 10, we were all yawns and it was time to go home.

SATURDAY

An agreement for Bestie Weekend was that we'd relax and plan things by ear.  AKA, no obligations.  It was kinda hard not to plan a run, but I managed..

I got up with the beasts to accomplish some homework in the AM.  For lunch, we went to Bad Daddy's Burgers in Summerville.  We've been to other locations before (Raleigh, Denver), so we knew what we were getting into.  The food was delicious, even if we had to wait.  I'm always so surprised at how small they make new restaurants here.  Maybe it will make more sense after the newness wears off?  But IDK, based on this location.

After lunch, we headed to Sam's to pick up the forgotten grocery order.  Bestie and I ran into Walmart while Teh German went into Sam's to pick up the order.  We got everything loaded into the car and headed back home.

Teh Bestie and I had tossed around the idea of going to the Elizabeth Warren town hall that was being held nearby and after getting the groceries put away, we headed to the high school where it was being held.  We weren't really sold on the idea of getting there at 2:45 for a 4:15 event, buttt when we pulled up at 2:47, the parking lot was almost full and there was a line at the door... Soooo, glad we listened. 

When we were filing in, I got to speak with my German teacher from last spring and I explained how I wanted to be there, but with 5 computer science classes, I just couldn't swing it.  She did say I was missed, which made me happy.

Bestie and I made a new friend, RJ, while we waited for the event to start.  RJ was a recent transplant to CHS from Orlando and is also a runner.  Despite the age gap (RJ is 22?), we had a grand time.  It was nice to speak to a youth (ha) that had intelligent things to say and was interested in what is going on.. and, ya know, shares some of my beliefs.

Senator Warren's talk was good, she hit home with a lot of things and explained the 2 cent tax on individuals who make more than 50 million dollars (2 cents is deducted from every dollar after 50 million).  I thought her tongue-in-cheek attitude was amusing, but did not detract from the seriousness of her topics and things that are happening.  The fact that she seems to have a plan for everything doesn't hurt my feelings, although getting plans pushed through is always the problem in American government.

We pinky promised.

I know that I will probably vote for Elizabeth Warren if she is the democratic nominee.  While I really appreciate Andrew Yang's views on technology, I'm not sold on the idea of giving everyone $1000 a month, despite how much I crush on him for his stance on technology and data security.  He's the ONLY dem candidate that seems to understand tech and that IS important... it's VERY important.. and we currently live in the dark regarding these issues.

After standing from 2:47-6:47.. we were EXHAUSTED and headed home.  We had cereal for dinner and we introduced Teh Bestie to Big Mouth.  #NotSorry.  Unfortunately, she got an emergency call from Teh Chief Smartass and decisions had to be made and now little Zo-Zo is no longer with us.  She's been ailing in her old age, so it wasn't unexpected, but it always is.. and having to make the decision while you're not even there is even more difficult.  Thankfully, it's 2019 and Teh Bestie got to FaceTime with Teh Chief Smartass and Zoey while they were at the vet. 

Finally, around 0100, we all headed to bed, mentally and physically exhausted.

SUNDAY

Sunday morning was a slow start.  Teh German got up with the beasts and we had brunch reservations at Acme Lowcountry Kitchen in Isle of Palms at 11.  Brunch was deeeeelicious.  I'd totally recommend Acme if you're a bruncher.  I would also recommend a reservation since the place was WAY busier than I had expected it would be.  Also, there's only a single women's bathroom and a single men's bathroom, so that's less good, but whatever.

After brunch, we came home for laziness. 

I ended up resting my eyes while Monkey-Doodle used me as her personal body pillow.

Before dropping off Bestie at the airport, we went to Bath and Body Works and spent some dollas.  I made sure to send my sadness selfie after dropping Bestie off.

It was a quiet evening.  I worked on homework, or attempted to, and Teh German did some scrolling/YouTubing.  It was sammiches for dinner and we were finally in the bed by 10:30, because I kept forgetting and remembering things (like to place the stupid Walmart grocery order).

BUTTONS!

______________________________________________

Today is Veteran's Day and I've been quiet about it this year.  IDK.  My 0900 and 1000 classes were cancelled today and since there was no quiz in my 0800 class and a guest speaker in my 1300 class, I decided that it was a non-Citadel day.  I had planned on going into the office, but when I woke up this morning I was still exhausted.  In fact, it's almost 1 and I'm STILL exhausted and my head is hurting, so I suspect this might be some PMS.  So rather than go into the office, I teleworked today, which is no different than any other Monday, so NBD. 

What it really meant is that I got EXTRA snuggles with BOTH dogs this morning and I'm not in any way disappointed about that.  When it gets chilly, Meri is extra snuggly and I just lurve it.

Today I've been rather productive, I ate breakfast and scooped poop (since it hadn't been done in at least a month based on the overflowing bucket of poop I gathered), then went to the computer for the things I do.  I also managed to migrate the photos I store on Dropbox to my external HD, so YAY, finally!  This is always a difficult chore for me since I often want the photos that I just moved to my HD but I've already deleted them from Dropbox so I don't duplicate them on my HD later.  #TechnologyWoes

This week is mostly quiet.  The dogs have an appointment to get their toes cut off on Thursday, praise Allah, since the clicking is driving me batshit crazy.

12 days until Thanksgiving break.
179 days until Graduation.

Five on Friday #216

EINS - Random Shit

If someone walks in the communal Kurig room before you and sets down their k-cup and is rinsing their cup and you come in and start making coffee in the Kurig, you are a fucking shitwad and I hope your coffee scalds all your taste buds off.

Did this happen to me?  Yes.  Yes, it did.
I think it was actually a professor but I don't know this person so I don't know what their role is.. other than fucking shitwad human.

Later that same day, this same individual came into the lounge to microwave their lunch and then left.. and finally someone in the microwave line took that person's food out of the microwave since it had been several minutes since completion and set it to the side.  Shitwad's apology was meager at best.  Lack of consideration for others should be punishable... especially when it comes to communal spaces.

________________________________________

Teh German has strong feelings about clothes.. and well, his poor soul married me and I do NOT have strong feelings about clothes, much to the disapproval of Teh Bestie and Teh German.  In fact, I am probably somewhere in "The People of Walmart" because I will 100% wear my pajama pants in public with zero fucks to give.  If I'm out alone and I've come from home, there is an 80% chance I will be wearing something with a stretchy waist*, be that yoga pants or athletic shorts.. I try not to be in jeans when I can help it.

That said, because martial bliss harmony is a priority for my mental well-being, I try to make an effort when I am going out in public for 2 of my favorite people.  I think I mentioned a few weeks ago that Teh German shamed me into changing clothes with a mere disapproving glance at my outfit.  If I didn't, yeah, that happened.  It's fine.  My feelings weren't overly hurt.  I put on jeans instead of workout pants and didn't die but a little.  It was acknowledge that I only changed because Teh German judged me.  We laughed, moved on..  except now, this has become a thing....

Just to be clear, on that occasion, I would have been changing out of dinosaur pajama pants, made by Teh Sister, into workout pants.... and I was kinda reluctant about agreeing to go because I really didn't want to change out of my dinosaur pants, but would because #marriage.  But I also figure that workout pants are my trade-off and I have to play my cards right.. because there will come a day when I go out in my silly pajama pants with Teh German and he will say it's alright, but it will, in fact, NOT be alright.  PROMISE.  His "it's alright" is the same as my "it's fine"... it is definitely NOT alright and it is definitely NOT fine.

And let me clarify something quick like.. by workout pants I mean cotton pants that are a solid color, usually grey or black, with pockets.  They do not have holes, they are not tattered.  Photos of me in these pants are usually me after a run, because that's mostly what I wear them for... unless I go to Walmart on the weekend, by myself..

*My linen pants do not count, because I wear those for work, even though they are stretchy waist.

________________________________________

I always grab 2 packets of oatmeal and make them.. and about halfway through eating it, I realize, again, that I should have only made 1 packet.  This happens EVERY TIME.

________________________________________

Life Lesson: NEVER use a package that was shipped to you that could possibly have your address on it in multiple places to contain something you sell on Facebook Marketplace.  I was confident I had removed most of the identifying information from the package, but the buyer stated my address was on the box that I had given him, after he'd expressed dissatisfaction with the item he bought, claiming it was a fake.  In the messages, I said the city I lived, which could be seen on the box, so that didn't alarm me, but I am now paranoid I didn't get the enough of the street address off (I know I removed the house number).  Thankfully, my name on Facebook isn't my real name and I peeled off the majority of the name info (except the last few letters).  The buyer claims "also capture in a photo the sticker of your car" which I think means they have a photo of my license plate (the buyer was Hispanic and had poor English skills), which does concern me a bit.

________________________________________

Since it was cold this week, a Cadet in one of my classes voiced that he wished he had some hot chocolate.  I suggested the secretary might have some and he said that she only had coffee.  On occasion, I "donate" things to the department secretary since she provides treats to the Cadets who come to her office for snacks or coffee (usually computer science and math Cadets, so my people), so I purchased 2 boxes (of 50 packets) of hot chocolate for the secretary's office.  See, I'm not always a horrible person.

________________________________________

It makes me extremely stabby when I bring my car in for service to the dealership and when I get back in my car all my radio stations are reset.  It's 2019, how are we not more advanced than this?!

Also.. WHYYYY?  WTF are you doing that my battery needs to be disconnected causing my radio to reset?  #HATEHATEHATE

________________________________________

Last year, in my Circuits class, I had a super annoying partner for my class project.  Well, he's a computer science major and now we're friends, because that's how I roll, and we are partners for almost all the class projects that we can do together.  Anyways, he accidentally knocked up his GF, now fiance, and I want to adopt them for Christmas and help them get set up for their new life post-graduation and WITH a baby.

He is the absolute worst at accepting help in anyway, so this is going to be difficult.

________________________________________

I found out Monday that my very first ever boss passed away due to a battle with cancer and I won't lie, it really put me in the feels.  I didn't acknowledge veteran's day in anyway, which doesn't overly matter, but is out of my norm.  2 of my classes were cancelled and since we had no quiz in my 0800 or 1300 class, and a guest speaker in my 1300 class, I skipped class.  I had a headache, but I considered it a mental health day.  Since I don't normally go into the office on Mon/Wed, I just teleworked.  I did end up going to campus to work on the software engineering group project with my group and then I stopped by Walmart to pick up the grocery order that I kept forgetting to put in.

Anyways, back to my original point, this person is probably the first nonrelative that I was close with who died from cancer.  I had spoken with her in the last year and we'd met in Charleston when she came to do reenactment events at Magnolia Plantation.  I was able to visit her at Fort Defiance during our visits to home, home.  I didn't know she was that sick though.  I knew she was fighting cancer, but from the Facebook posts, I didn't realize she was THAT sick.  I'm just sad in my heart because she was a pillar of my life.

She taught me what hard work looked like and doing things right the first time was worth it.  She also ALWAYS noticed when I'd be extra diligent tasks she'd give me, which made me feel validated that I had put in the extra effort.  She LOVED telling people about our favorite moment, which went something like this:
She was talking with another volunteer and said something about giving a kid a spanking.
I said, "You know what the Chinese say?"
Her, "No, what?"
Me, "Beat your child once a day, even if you don't know why, they do."

She loved that.  She claimed me as a daughter and she always made me feel at home.  She will be missed, dearly.

________________________________________

Stress is the fucking worst:

Wednesday appearance.

I messaged my primary care person on the VA portal for some herpaderp meds (since I forgot to get them at my Sept appt), but apparently that can take up to 3 days.  FML.

Friday: Residence established. FML

________________________________________

Weds evening, I didn't have homework to do, I didn't have house things to do.. I didn't know what to do with myself.  We walked the dogs, we ate dinner, and I ended up watching Caps play while Husband provided applicable sound effects.

Least favorite thing: The dog sitter we used while we were in Chicago used the downstairs TV like I asked him NOT to do, and now the settings are fucked up and Alexa will no longer mute the tv and it makes me stabby.  Maybe there was a software update, but I'm blaming the dog sitter because I did ask him NOT to use the downstairs TV since it's a complicated setup and I didn't want him to mess it up....

________________________________________

I have to tell you a secret, Gentle Readers.  IDGAF about Disney+.  In fact, it's hard for me to give a fuck about anything that comes through a TV screen.

Teh German admitted that he wasn't really into Friday Night Lights, as I suspected, and I reminded him that we had seasons of Modern Family to watch and we've both been LOLing at the few episodes that we've managed to watch this week, and that brings me joy.  It's really difficult for us to find new shows to watch, so I wasn't sad about Modern Family being there for us.

Anyways, Disney+.  I'm not a Star Wars fan, I'm not really a Marvel fan, and despite the fact that it's a Herculean task to get me into a movie theater to watch a movie (which hasn't happened in several years) so I've missed all the new live action releases, I'm not motivated to watch the live-action films, even though I've heard they are good (holy run-on sentence).  I guess I'll just miss out.  Or I'll do a puzzle and listen to my audiobook.  Ya know, something NOT in front of a screen.

________________________________________

I bought a "Toasted Marshmallow Mocha" pack of k-cups.  They are gross.  Makes me sad.

ZWEI - Money Shit

-Gas
-Bojangles
-Hot chocolate for Cadets
-Sam's Club subscription
-Bath and Body Works x2 (Wallflowers and lotions)
-groceries
-bully sticks
-expensive ass headphones.
-Halls Chophouse ladies dinner
-Willow doctor appointment (regular maintenance)

DREI - From My Phone Shit

I just want to show off my buttons again.
Books/reading and "Nevertheless she persisted" and German.
I feel like my bag is pretty Megan representative.

The beasts in their jammies bring me ALL THE JOY.

MERRY FUCKING HOLIDAYS YA FLITHY ANIMALS!

Now, I don't hear anything I don't want to.
#NotSorry
#OnSale, #ElCheapo

Snuggles with my Monkey-Doodle are one of the things I live for.
She just brings me so much peace when I'm stressed and uncertain or even when I'm doing ok.

This perforated garbage never actually opens when I try to "insert thumb" to open.. EVER.
Filed under: shit that makes me stabby.

We are the worst at eating ALL the breads.
That USED to be a potato hamburger bun..
and now it's a science experiment that went out with the garbage.

VIER - From the Internet Shit

And perhaps what made her beautiful was not her appearance or what she achieved,
but in her love,
and in her courage,
and her audacity to believe:
no matter the shadows around her,
light ran wild within her,
and that was the way she came alive and it showed up in everything.
-Morgan Harper Nichols

May this be a season of believing beyond what you see.
Trusting that even though you have no felt brave, you have still managed to be.
You have still managed to trust that you can carry on, despite your uncertainty.
You can choose to believe the future can be beautiful, even when it doesn't seem that way.
Remember the little things and let your have gratitude for them.
Let them remind that amidst all that of the uncertainty, there is still so much to see and take delight in.
There is so much ahead of you, and there is so much around you.
Slow down.
Take it in.
Let gratitude remind you that you are coming forth like gold, from within.
MHN

FÜNF - Things that made me happy this week

1. Getting in the giving spirit.  Doing small things, like buying hot chocolate for the Cadets, brings me so much joy.
2. Not having endless homework this week.  It's exhausting.
3. COLD WEATHER IN CHARLESTON.  Like legitimately cold.  Like, setting record lows, cold.
4. Snowflakes and Cashmere scent from Bath and Body Works.  I would buy ONLY it for the rest of my life.  I lurve it that much.  
5. Walking the beasts with Husband.
6. The general uplifted feeling/cheer that people tend to get into as we enter the holiday season.
7. RAIN.  Everyone is grumbly about it.  Not me.
8. Plans to get shit done.  See also: Seeing the end of my assignments/homework to-do list on the tracker I use.  The end of the semester is near, Gentle Readers!  IT.IS.NEAR!
9. Work provided lunch on Thursday.. WITH SWEET TEA.
10. Date night tonight. <3 

Happy Friday, Gentle Readers.