Smoothbrain

    Demeter weeps as Persephone is reunited with her beloved Hades once again, marking the Autum Equinox. Cozy romance and Fall is officially here. HOORAY :D !

Just gotta throw out there how huge of an impact it is to have so many colleagues be so supportive. It personally comes down to like, despite knowing I'm capable of certain things, they'll jump in and just know to help. They also encourage me to ask for help with a conviction that keeps my ego in check. I appreciate them more than I can express. I hope they know this.

On the flip side, a part of me dreams of leaving it all behind to buy a huge plot of land with an old clunky house + barn in New England for Mr. Chicken and I to live out our days in. He could work remotely, I could work at the local funeral home. We'd have Ophelia with us, and all the chickens, ducks, goats, dogs, squirrels, gremlins, and... etc. And a pond. And crunch in the leaves during Autumn. And snuggle up during winter on those silent, snow day mornings. Rainy Spring evenings also sound dreamy.

These fantasies are always strongest in Autumn. At work, I'll often have oldies on, and when Billie Holiday's "Autumn in New York" comes on, my mind travels to Central Park (when it was safe and nice), and it's this whole, romantic scenario;
I'm wearing a pea coat and gloves and I can see my breath, and the tip of my nose is red, and I'm holding a hot chocolate while eating a croissant, similar to Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's. But I'm walking out of the Plaza Hotel and crossing the street. And like, there's so much more, but the general vibe is there.

So, going into cozy-ish vibes, here's just one of the contributions to that, which was also one of the wonderful gifts I got for my birthday!

Sister Chicken's fiance picked this out! We had like, less than 2 ounces left lol. Now I can make yummy espresso martinis! Or just yummier espresso drinks sans booze. These beans are gold. When you come through our home, this will be on the cafe menu ^_^

Inspired by someone online, I used this Trader Joe's "pumpkin butter" as a base for lattes. It was alright. If you're going for something more subtle and literally pumpkin pie compote, that's gonna be your go-to. While I personally enjoy pumpkin spice flavored stuff, actual pumpkin pie filling doesn't taste great to me. But if you love it, this is a great coffee friend!

Mr. Chicken also got us some fun stuff for the season.

Ophelia tried it out to make sure everything works.

The art on both of these is so cool. September is a little wild right now, but I'm excited to host evenings and stuff so we can play these. Or take them to Homdray's for chill Autumn hangsies.

I also took myself out for lunch a little bit ago just because. There were some food items I still wanted to try before it got nutso.

Good, but they didn't leave a lasting impression on me. Pictured from left to right:
Pumpkin Cheesecake Taverne Cold Brew: Caramel, vanilla and cinnamon cold brew with pumpkin cheesecake topper. 2/5 (bitter, other flavors didn't really come through)
Boo-gogi Toasted Sandwich with Corn Cheese Soup: Marinated beef, grilled onion, mozzarella, and kimchi aioli on sourdough served with corn cheese soup. 3/5 (a little bland, but not unsavory. enjoyable)
Autumnal Harvest Flatbread: Roasted butternut squash puree, roasted mushrooms, plant-based feta and roasted diced butternut squash topped with garlic miso sauce and fried sage. 4/5 (lots of flavors packed in, savory, large portion)

My favorite drink now

Red Rose Lemonade: Strawberry lemonade with a touch of rosewater, garnished with rose petal and strawberry chonks. 5/5 I hyucking love this drink. It's perfect. I wanna drink 5 gallons of it right now.

My lunch time there was nice though, despite how gross it was outside. I put in a mobile order for my boo-gogi off Main Street, grabbed it and headed to Red Rose Tavern in Fantasyland to pick up the rest of my food. Found a table, sat down and chilled.
I can't imagine what some folks were thinking. This only bears mentioning because I kept catching glances of being stared at. Especially by one particular silver haired lady some feet away at another table to my left. She just, for some reason, couldn't look away.

I hate it, and am used to it, but this is uncomfortable at best, lol. Probably forever. When kids stare though, that's different. They're just curious, it's sweet. And more often than not, they return my smile. But when it's adults it's always kinda uncomfortable lol.

I also wanna make the point that I wasn't dressed in anything stark or deliberately eye-catching. It was just a long jersey dress and boot sandals, sunglasses and my hair down. That's it lol. So I don't wanna hear that "dress for attention" BS. I'm tired. I don't do that shit.

The table to my immediate right had a group of people that I can only infer were on vacation. It was impossible to not eavesdrop, despite my excellent ability to tune the entire world out. The flamboyant person barking out the days itinerary ordering confirmation from the party was too commanding to ignore. And that's when it calmed down. An introduction was given to someone else at the table, who had some words to share with the group.
He got down on one knee in front of the women sitting next to him, and proclaimed his devotion and love to her, asking to her to be his eternal beloved. He even quoted some stuff from Beauty and the Beast. Onlookers applauded. Despite the heat and my body temperature probably close to fever levels, my heart was full and warm at the sight. I smiled and applauded along, elated to have witnessed another sweet exchange of beauty and joy utterly radiating off of these two hopeful strangers.
Cliche? Sure.
Doesn't matter. They found one another. :)

I'm in my Be Happy for People era. Been in it. And if folks wanna be bitter, go ahead stay bitter I love that for you! Hope it brings you the same amount of joy they have! I'm not gonna be bitter with you but you do you. You're upset, CHEERS !

I wasn't aware there was a marathon going on that day. It also happened to be one of the hottest days we've had, coming in at a stupid 109 degrees by noon. The photon violation was just... rude.

I didn't last 2 hours there. That was probably a record for fastest trip to the parks by far. Actually, it was just the one park. I went in, I ate, I didn't even wanna check out California Adventure after that. It was too hot.

Girl thank you, bye T_T

Another thing Mr. Chicken got us is the new Nightmare Before Christmas Lego set!

Am beyond excited to assemble this baby. It's gorgeous! I'm not sure if I'll wait til Christmas or do it sooner. Last year, we just spent Christmas day assembling Legos with yummy drinks and movies. It was so nice. He also has a new Lego set I got him for his bday. Perhaps we will wait?

Cristal got me cute stuff for my Disney excursions. The cutest little Oswald ear hat head band! It's the whole hat with the ears, but on a head band, and it's smaller. It just looks cuter overall. And she got me some Disney Halloween socks lol. COOOZZZYYY!!

 

Spam musubi is the only redeeming thing about hot weather. These are perfect snacks on a hot summer day.


Did anyone else catch the moon thingie? 
I was at work

But we somehow had a telescope and ran out to look through it

Choose your fighter

Was pretty cool! The moon is so pretty! Random telescope was funny and exciting. We weren't expecting that, lol. 10/10, would peep again.

Oh. Would madam desire to sit?
Get fucked. I'm trading WoW pins.

There's been a lot of excitement and busy business lately. A lot of games that came out recently that I wanna get on, too. But damn, it's hard to commit. I'm still trying to get through Withering Rooms. It's hard T_T

Then there's Hollow Body. Black Myth: Wukong. And most recently, Enotria: The Last Song was high on my list, but the general consensus has been "game is pretty but runs janky." This only puts me off from getting it right now. The devs have communicated that several patches will be released over the course of several months, into March of next year. That'sss... well. I'm leaning more on waiting to buy it once it's done. Not a fan of Early Access models with Release price tags.

In the mean time...

It's cozy time. This morning, I had a queue for drinks! Mr. Chicken got us some more yummy syrups. One of them being the oh-so-delicious Apple Brown Sugar flavor. It tastes like a delicious apple cider/streudel thing. It's great hot or iced. Pair that with blonde espresso? Mmpf! 

Please forgive the ugly wall and cables, it's a work in progress. That whole area needs a desperate remodel, but we'll get there lol.  

And I started a puzzle that Ponies got me for my bday. I forgot how relaxing these are. I have to transfer it over to the bigger table.

Aaaaand I completely forgot I was supposed to go on an excusion today with a coworker. My headphones went on and I tuned everything out. I feel so bad omg. T_T

My goldfish brain has become even more goldfish lately, if that's possible. It's hilarious when I catch myself, but awful when it involves other people. I didn't even notice her text from this morning til like 3 hours later. I responded, set the phone down and went back to doing whatever, and then 2 hours passed by, and I go to check my phone to see she had responded 2 hours ago lol. 
I'm not an advocate of phone calls, but I'm learning to see the value in them when your brain is smoothing out over time.

It's way too hot to think. Doesn't help that our computers are both in the same room and they're like space heaters. I need cold mornings, cold evenings, and for it to be dark at 3PM like, yesterday. 

I hope the evening brings in a cool breeze and comfort in this dumb heat. Imma go eat another popsicle and ... try to etch wrinkles back into my brain. Surely, it works like that. 

Ah crap, I gotta pack too. BAI-YEEEEE :D