3rd Wheel

    Do I write cool? After all these years, Mr. Chicken told me recently that he had become enamored with my writing, before we grouped up. It was such a sweet sentiment that made me feel kinda neato. Makes me think that I had like.... some neat affect on him the way Cyrano's writing had on Roxanne. This is my delusion and we're friendly here.
Remember how Cyrano wrote love letters to her (because he was in love with her), but his friend took credit for it because he begged Cyrano to help him gain Roxanne's attention/love through his talent? And then like, Roxanne fell in love with the letters, and when a time came for the friend to be alone with Roxanne he looked like an idiot because she was like talk to me like you do in your letters and he was like THE SUN IS HOT AND SO ARE YOU and she was like GROSS GET OUT and then by the end she learned the letters were written by Cyrano the whole time?

My point is, husband was (is?) enamored by my idiot ramblings. Cyrano's situation is so much more tragic, but uh... it's all I got.

Anywho, HI. Happy Lunar New Year! Or what's left of it. Which is like, a day. I think. And belated Valentine's Day! It's been a good month so far. Busy, but good. Mostly.

The "mostly" part being COVID and the results of drinking alcohol on an empty stomach. Potions were too strong, and I overzealous. But I digress.

Mama Chicken, sister and I went window shopping, enjoyed lunch and get boba ^_^.

I didn't know the boba place we went to was doing a collab with that teddy bear character guy. It was cute!! And they had omikuji! They're usually at shinto temples. But... a boba shop is kind of a temple. Soooo. Yeah. Clearly.

Basically, shake the container holding the sticks to mix everything up, then pick one. Take it out, read the number you got. Then find the matching number on the omikuji drawers to obtain your fortune.

Albeit somewhat confusing, mine were yay. TLDR: You're loved. Treat yourself better.

In my last post, I promised myself I'd start on my next cosplay. And I did.
I hated every moment of it. But at least I got the hood started lmao.

I only hate it because I'm too impatient to clear out space for the sewing machine. And I don't like setting up the sewing machine. I also don't like to measure. It's just a bad ... everything LOL. I don't like it. BUT I STILL DO IT I don't know why I do this to myself. I enjoy cosplay, that's why lol. Ugh. You know what, honestly... I tried to buy this cosplay a while back, but the vendor was like oops sorry it's actually out of stock. And I was like WHY DO I EVEN TRY- so dramatic. So, angrily I dragged Sister out with me to buy fabric, and several months later, I finally hand sewed the hood. As you can see, Ophelia helped.

Sigh. I have to use the machine for it, but I really don't want to T_T. I ended up buying the rest of the materials I needed to basically finish it, I'm just... being a brat. Watch, I'll finish it and never wear it ever again lmao.

I mean... who knows though. I angrily made my Angie doll for my Donna Beneviento cosplay, so... maybe it's good that I get annoyed. It's literally the source of my craft. If you ever come over, she's lovingly looking over the lounge area. You can't miss her. I can't believe I brought her to work LOL. It was for a Halloween thing but still.

Speaking of work, it's been great!!!

I'm so happi. My left wrist isn't, but here's hoping that I get ripped soon and that fixes it. My coworkers invited me to join them for gym sessions. I'm at a crossroads with this so, I don't know. I'm a homebody at heart, what can I say. We do have some gym equipment at home, but we redid stuff and bought new furniture. Still trying to figure out where to set up all the gym stuff. We'll see what the future brings.

Whatever, Elden Ring DLC is coming out in June, so.

Cristal put this on my station at work. It's so cute. We had so much fun that day. We met up with Lifa, his bro and their friends in DTLA after spending time with the girls in Little Tokyo. Good times. Also look at my peeties! My PPE gown and apron come all the way down to my ankles! It's good coverage I guess, haha. Waddling everywhere feels powerful, it's fine.

Am really happy though. And feel extra fortunate, because my mom has taken an interest in funeral rites and everything that goes into funeral service. We talk every day, and she'll tell me everything she learned. It's my pride and joy. Perhaps this is a way she can understand it and dissect the negative views that death has attached to it. For many, it's an end to suffering, as is likely to happen to some of our family members. For many others, it's a cruel twist of fate. Death is many things, but what it is not is loveless, and I think meeting death with the empowerment of knowledge, coupled with love, diffuses the inevitable sting of its ripple in each of our rivers of time.
But I'm so lucky. I'm curious what videos she's watching, but I can guess. I asked her if she wanted me to send her anything but she declined saying she's been looking herself and found a lot of stuff to keep her busy.

Onward!

Ah, I was talking to Mr. Chicken about challah bread a little while back. I can't remember exactly why, but when I worked at a Jewish bakery, they'd have fresh challah bread out every Friday and it smelled amaaaaaaaaaaazing. And anything that didn't sell, they'd let us take home at the end of the night. I remember thinking that challah bread is like... delicious.

That's when Mr. Chicken said there's a Jewish bakery by Blizz! And they have challah bread! SO HE GOT SOME! It was just as yummy as I remember it. I have to control myself because during lock-down when the Panettones came out, I would eat nothing but that all day, shredding into a box at my desk and that's how I got the amazing thighs I have today.

If you're by there and haven't had challah bread before, give it a shot.

We had a celebration recently at Lifa's crib. His free spirit finally decided to settle on a homier space. We had to break it in with a proper housewarming.

Some of us broke more than others.
But look at these hot sauuuucies! Haunt Sauce Co, they're handmade by Thad's friend. He brought some over for everyone to try. I bought them the next day. They're SO good. My favorite is the green one.

Mr. Chicken bought Lifa a bottle of Lagavulin as a gift. We also got Dragon's Milk. You know, for Year of the Dragon.

Dragon's lactate, surely.

I am an affectionate, happy drunkard with an arsenal of likely off-putting, anachronistic information no one asked for. It is my greatest weakness.

I'm SO sorry. ilu.

Guys, we were assembling furniture all morning. I was ecstatic for the renovating we were doing at home, but that excitement made me WEAK.

Gamers go too hard

Me, drunk: passionately talks about everything in the universe
Friends that can't escape it:

Note: EVO is gonna be feral.
Like.
Just.
I don't even wanna say why but it is and I cannot WAIT omg.

I'm so glad that Thad and Brudda Lifa joined us that day. It was so much fun having them there. Man, those sauces changed my life lol

Fabulous, dahling.

Frans

nnnnnnnnnnn000000000b

I think he was asking for help.
Idk, do you ever just bite your person? Cuz you love them so much?
There's this weird thing where I'm just like, *bite* and I can't explain it. Too many happies, I say. Only relief is bite. Hmph.

WUBS

HNNGG

He tried on my lipstick

WHAT A RADIANT BRO

Ooh, la la!

Mpf, yisss



Bellissimo! 

We needed food by this point. Thankfully, we were within walking distance to a pub, where someone ordered clams roflmao.

I don't remember who, but if I had to guess, it was Lifa lolol.

The burger was good. Overpriced, but good. Or maybe I was just hungry lol. I got a cosmopolitan, and that was my last drink for the night.

After that, I've no memory of the rest of the night. To say the least, Homdray and I took the most damage, but I also did the most. I was too low level. Too many stacking debuffs. Admittedly, taking the amount of shots I did, plus the Dragon's Milk, on an empty stomach was a bad move for sure. I'm not sure why I thought I was high enough level to clear the night. Felt bad. Thankfully I was with friends who are and always have been amazing, and everyone got home safe. But I still don't like how much damage I took.

Lesson learned.

It's been a few weeks but I still feel bad. I told Mr. Chicken that I'm gonna carry rice with me to eat even for just beer or something. Omg... Challah bread!!! Lmao, I'll carry a loaf with me everywhere we go to buff up. Or I could just not drink that damn whisky again. Whichever sounds better to me. I told my coworkers about some of it and they all nodded in comiseration. I feel a little less weird, but our friends learned a lot about the arterial system that night that they could've gone without.

SLUMBER PARTY

Lifa came over for slumbies. Very important. We had a busy day coming up.

Also Ophelia's been laying like this lately. It's cute lol, but haven't seen her lay this way before. She looks like she has little chicken wings, haha.

Anyway,

DISNEYLAND :D

Being blinded by the sun while in Disneyland hits different. Hurts just as much, but magically.

We had a brunch reservation at River Belle Terrace. Got there early, it was a nice morning!

The breakfast at this place was epic.

We weren't prepared. I mean, we were, but they don't mess around. I got the loaded fries and got handed this big boy.

This was ONE fry. It was delicious. As was the rest of the plate. I struggled to eat it all. We all took Food Coma dmg.

We had to get our blood going after that, so we wandered around the area and decided to check out Tom Sawyer's Island. 

This was exciting! In all the years I've been visiting the Disneyland parks, I've never been there. I had a completely different idea of what it was. I thought it was just a building with a bathroom and people just hang out there for 30 minutes and then come back. But WOW was I wrong! And so glad of it!

Caaaaaaaaaaaves! Caves everywhere!!!

ADVENTURE !

LOOT

What dropped?
FRIENDSHIP
:D

Mr. Chimkin was brave, for he has mild claustrophobia. It's probably a good thing because it kept him from doing stupid, reckless things during his adolescence, like climbing down a chimney and getting stuck.

No one wanted to wear ears :(
But at least Mr. Chicken wore his Oswald hoodie.
Lifa is in the market for some Goofy swag.

We will find it.

Tom Sawyer's Island is much larger than I realized.

I can't say how large, but we spent a significant amount of time there just wandering and trying to see everything.

Yarr, cap'n. Enemies abound!

FIRE CANONS

We crossed the most dangerous bridge in the entire galaxy.

We were taken hostage by headhunters, clearly.

But we escaped and braved the highest peaks of a tree and stuff

We faced a mighty winged descendant of the most ravenous raptors, its sleek feathers darker than the void itself

We sat outside the tavern to regen health after that epic battle with the beast.

And finally saw some booty.

It was time to hit up California Adventure
Becauuuuuse

Lunar New Year was in full swing! And of course I had to get me a Sip & Savor pass this time :D
it was a little different this year. Instead of 8 tabs, the passes now had 6. It was also less expensive! That's always a plus. We were satisfied by this point though because the last few times were there during LNY event, we tried pretty much everything there was. But still! I just wanted to eat lol.

This drink was a must, again. It was like, pinapple yuzu coconut milk taro something I can't remember but it was my favorite and so refreshing. 1 tab down. 5 to go.

Something I wanted to do this year was to hang my wish.

We all did ^_^

I also saw that there was a calligraphy booth this year. I wanted one.

There were multiple we could pick from. I chose blessing. I forget what the other choices were lol

Rabbits represent! We're also Cats. Depending where you're at in the world. Kinda dope. I'm cool with either.

Mr. Chicken loves the chimoy stuff.
Something I'll never understand or can enjoy is the spicy powder stuff on fruits. So weird. Different strokes for different folks.

Gerald does his best. Just like the rest of us.
This is probably the best photo op spot in the entire park, if I'm being honest.

The trash babies, omg

ilu, Becky.

After we were done, other people started posing in from of this sign and it made me happy lol. Normally guests just walk by it.

Headed to the boardwalk at the pier for some afternoon noms

These "Proesperity BBQ Pork Bao" were pretty good, but the ginger was too powerful for me. Lots of flavor though!

Aaand this birria egg roll was really good. The little orange mango mousse cake thingie is yummy and rich. We had it last year, was happy to see it again.

Such a good afternoon. We were getting sleepy from too many happy hormones.

I'm the third wheel, look at these bros.

Lychee makgeoli so yummy! I nursed this for a good minute.

And Lifa wanted to try this bulgogi pizza. It was good!! We were so full by this point lol.

They got drinkies at Avenger's Campus.

Happiness is seeing your spouse and friend laughing together

The churros near the guardians ride were yummy. We wanted to the try the matcha strawberry ones last time, but a cast member blocked us from walking towards the cart. This upset Mr. Chicken because the parade hadn't even begun, but they were blocking off the street and access to .... crossing the street. She was unnecessarily stern with us. Her cavil demeanor stayed with Mr. Chicken, so he was determined to get the matcha churro this visit. And he did!

Aaaand we got the dragonfruit one again lol.

So cuuuute! Mr. Chicken asked me if I wanted it and that he'd get it right then and there. I almost screeched, but I couldn't justify spending that much for a drawing at that moment. It was fine, but nah.

He got his vietnamese taro iced coffee and Mr. Chicken got the char siu turkey leg

I passed and got the birria ramen again

Now a little more energized, off to Cars Land!

It's always nice walking around there at night and looking at the shops.

Don't even have to buy anything. It's just nice.

The end of the night was approaching, so we ran over to Guardians and jumped in line.

I look possessed. Mr. Chicken looks like his soul is trying to re-enter his body and he's afraid of it

And Lifa loved it lol

That called it a night in California Adventure. We walked over to Disneyland to peep since we spent most of the day in DCA. There's a shop by the entrance with an art gallery.

Many, many beautiful pieces on display. I had no idea. There were several rooms full of art pieces and collections of all kinds. I want that Mim painting lol.

And going a little further into the gallery, there was official concept art from various projects on display.

Even a 1:1 Dumbo! So sweet!

There was also a special showing of a short film celebrating all of the beloved Disney characters over the last 100 years. It's called Disney's Once Upon a Studio. We couldn't turn away. My chest tightened up rewatching it just now, on the verge of shedding a tear. Disney really is magic.

I don't even care about Disney stuff really. I just like how the old movies and the parks make me feel.
We were tired by that point. We had spent the entire day at the park.

We're breaking Lifa in for many more adventures to the parks in the future, now that he has a Magic Key.

Of course, we don't have to the spend the entire day there each trip, but this was just a preview of how easy it is to chill there and get the honk shoo honk shoos. So peaceful.

Good day.

Aaaand I'm going again tomorrow lol. But it's just going to be meeeeee. They have work, I GUESS. Jk. I've been missing the parks, sooooo Imma wander around tomorrow. Don't know when or what time, but I know Fantasyland is calling my name. Need me some of that Grey Stuff. It's delicious.

I wanna do a Disneybound but IDK what. Was thinking Wall-E and Eva, maybe. I have stuff for Mim, but I lowkey hate her outfit lol. Idk, we'll see.

When we got home, we exchanged Valentine's Day gifts.

I set the mood before he came into the room to open his gifts, lol.
This ended up being so silly but also really cool. We got each other the same kind of gift lmao.

I got him two vinyls, and he got me 2 vinyls LOL.
I also got him a box full of beef jerky for extra happy buffs while he's in the office.

He got me special edition vinyls with really pretty details on them. The Disney Haunted House vinyl had a cool smoked effect on the record. And the Nightmare Before Christmas record had animation reels all over it. It's so cool!

I love that we synced up this way. It was so funny.

For actual Valentine's Day, I was at work.

And after work, my coworker and I went on a girl date ^_^

We were just here, YAAAAY
It was fun. We click so much. She year of the pig. We're supposed to be like, super well matched or something. She's also quiet and picks up on my ... radar of distress signals, lol. I can't describe it but she just knows. And she speaks so deliberately. I like that about her a lot. There's little to no filler, and it's just easy. Considering we work long hours together, I'd say we hit the jackpot as colleagues! In fact, I'd say that about my entire team. They're all so cool.

Selfiiiieee wooou

I did that thing where you tie your hair in a pony tail on your forehead and just cut it. It makes for like, a layering effect? But am waiting for my long bangs and eyebrows to grow on me.

ahaaa.

Ghostiiiieee

It's stupid because I know that once it gets beyond a threshold, I'm just gonna cut my bangs again. But ah well.

Over the weekend, I got to see my morti ladiiiieeess. We gathered up finally after too long!

Catching up felt really nice. Granted, Cristal and I see each other at work, but Val and Hannah work elsewhere. And they graduated in December! They're done with school, finally. The comraderie in that is strong lol.

Skeleton bbies! Grabbed the last 3. Cristal got one, I got 2. I'm a little ashamed at how much these cost but was it worth it? Find out.

Girlies, meow meow ^_^

Very important, we had to unbox our lil skellies. Cristal wanted either Hello Kitty or My Melody. And I wanted Kuromi or Cinnaroll.

BOOM.

Cristal actually got Kuromi and I got Cinnamoroll and Hello Kitty, so we traded!

So cuuuute. I loved doing this lol. Just sitting there having dessert and opening blind boxes of our cute babies. Could do this all day.

And funny enough, Hannah's mentor showed up out of nowhere! They got to reconnect and talk for a while, it was sweet.
So Cristal and I took piccies :B

Bleb.

This was cute. I should get a red baret.

:D

Val kept taking cute photos of our little photo booth piccies. So cute. I love how she stages stuff. Ahh, I miss her already. She big mom vibes.

It was a good day. Since it was a Saturday, it was kinda crazy already. We all split around 3:30ish before it got even busier.

Also Cristal brings her little Sonny baby with her and takes photos of it, lol. So.... when you see these little guys in photos... it's Cristal's fault LOL.

So, I was craving wagyu last week. So we went to eat wagyu hot pot.

I brought one of my babies lmao.
This my favorite Skull Panda bb. She kinda lewkie like mee.
:B

This trip was wild. The place was having a Lunar New Year thing where the tables would have scratchers, and a lucky table would either get a discount, a free food item, or a year membership. Or nothing! This was so exciting!

Unfortunately, our scratcher was nothing. It just said Happy New Year of the Dragon, womp womp. But look at this view, huh? Who doesn't enjoy a melting bear in their brother?

We went a little crazy. A teeny bit. They had a chef's thing with a whole package and stuff. Couldn't say nooooouu.

It was the best day that week. If... there was another day.... in the same week, it would not have been as good as this day. Because this day... there was just none like it.

Beef tongue mmpf.
They ended up giving us another scratcher because we spent a certain amount on dinner.

Ugggghhh so gooooood

AND IT WAS A FREE ONE YEAR MEMBERSHIP
AAAHHHH!!!!!!!!

I couldn't believe it T_T. We have a membership for another wagyu place (that we need to soon revisit) but I like hot pot more and this was just the cherry on top of an already dope day.

On the left is the wagyu sashimi. It's my faaaavorite uuggggh. So yommyyy. And I think on the right is the rib eye. Bwuh. Soooup. Mmmm.

SHE'S BEAUTIFUL.
We left really full and happy. No regrets. I can't believe we got a free membership lmao. I'm about to pop my head in there next week just for the wagyu fried rice and sashimi lolol. The other place is kbbq style wagyu that Mr. Chicken likes. He feels the flavors of the wagyu translate better over flame rather than the broth. He's probably right. I can see that. And it was good! I'm just a soup goblin.


I kept meaning to post last week, but it had to wait while we finished remodeling everything.

Ophelia helped.

She takes no prisoners. Just hands.

Remodeling means finally making room for my embalming machine near my desk. And decorating it with cute photos of my girlies.

My colleague, I'll call her Peetie, and I matched one day. It was dumb but cute lol. We're petite, strongk, and wear crocs. Super Peeties.

And finally, the squirrels have finally discovered our bird feeder.
First, it was Madame Chubbs. The feeder was closer to the mesh screen. At the crack of dawn, we were awoken to loud thuds on the window.

She knocked it off one of the anchors LOL.
And today, another squirrel, and Mr. Chad, has repeated wrecked our mesh screen to jump onto the feeder. Mr. Chicken moved it further away, but they know now.

Ophelia is excited. She loves chirping at the squirrels. Now she can lose her shit every morning as they launch themselves at our window for seeds. Lookit the peeties.

This went way longer than I intended. It's late. Am kinda tiyerrrrrr. Gonna get ready for tomorrow's smooth brain wandering. Grey Stuff. Mmmm. And the strawberry shortcake dolewhip thing... mmmm. Ahkay.

A thousand times good night!

[Exit above]

Audience

     Not the best start to February for Mr. Chicken and I. Health-wise, we're adjusting, but recovering. Might have to postpone some plans until we're 100%, but at least we have a new couch coming in. This only means that I may be more inclined to commit a little longer to Bloodborne instead of defaulting back to my station.

Life in New Vegas has been a little more exciting as of late.

Love it.

Seeing as Lunar New Year is coming up amidst many transitions, I hope to put my little wishes out there next time we go to the parks. Perhaps the magic there will give them a boost. Some people believe one thing, I believe in a little faith in the self and Disney magic. Woof, and I seriously just gotta work on my fortitude to get my shit together. Like, I'm trying to organize achieving my wants.

There are so many things I want to do, but then get too engulfed with gaming that the rest becomes overshadowed. I have books I'm so excited to finish, clay projects, and a cosplay I absolutely adore and want to get started on... but looking at the sewing machine gives me the most terribad feeling. I have everything (almost) to make it, just hate the geometry that goes into the foundations of crafting a garment. I have to wonder how the hell I was even able to put my Doujun cosplay together lol.

...Hmm, I think it's because that was burlap, and being messy was forgivable. But for this one I'm using nice fabric and have to actually try, haha. I could just buy it, but that somehow feels worse. I guess hand sewing wouldn't be awful, would just take forever. I need to physically jot this down in a journal step by step, see it, and like, plan it or something instead of just telling myself to do it. Feels more achievable if it's tangible.

I love this character, and think she'd be fun to bring to conventions. If people get it, they get it. God, why do sewing projects have to involve geometry and measuring T_T. Sigh, I just nagged and guilted myself into starting it. Cool. K, I have to work on her this weekend. Will take my mind off being lepers, as I like to call it.

State of Play thingie was okay, I guess.

Umm, multiplayer stuff... I'm not the audience. It's fine.
Season battle pass stuff... I'm not the audience. It's fine.
Interactive movies... I'm not the audience. It's fine.
Remakes have a less than stellar track record... I've no opinion.

Mr. Chicken was excited about Death Stranding 2. He's replaying the first one. I'm glad he's enjoying himself. Am just trying to understand the appeal of what Kojima's doing with the whole interactive movie thing. Or movie-game. Whichever applies. I don't know. I'm not the audience. It's fine.

Man, that should be tattooed on me somewhere lmao. Like, I'm just not. And it just isn't. It doesn't. It can't. And it won't. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


There isn't much going on, just my growing backlog of games. Many of which are symbolically staring at me this very moment by proxy of their respective icons across my desktop. I still need to get through System Shock. I'm low key kinda grudge-y since I haven't received my tshirt from backing them. It's been 2+ years lol.

Finished Dredge. I really enjoyed it. I like the sandbox-y element of it. Got back into Sakuna of Rice and Ruin. Grindy, so it's a palette cleanser, but cute enough to not be uninstalled. I need to finish Nioh lmao. And Dark Souls III. But I'm in a good place right now with Fallout New Vegas. Oh god, I forgot about Starfield.

Oh, Pentiment! Finished it. AMAZING. And I've had Oxygen Not Included for a while, started it and was immediately turned off. I'm not sure why. I need to reassess.

My desire for Yakuza games died after that Anime Expo panel LOL. I can't unhear or unsee him and his garish personality being tied to one of the most beautifully humble characters to have ever existed. It just... killed it for me LOLOL. Isn't that sad!?!? LOL. I'm not even upset. It's just... I don't even care anymore. Womp womp. I will eventually get back to Ishin, but it's whatever. Watch me eat my words after I finish it, lol.

Anywho, I'm hungry. Ramblings of a gremlin. I wish I could just eat up everything that's presented to me. I don't think it'd make me happier, but it would certainly make me broke. So I guess in that sense, my reservations are a positive.

Please enjoy these heartwarming encounters from my travels

:3