Oh, hello there. How are you? I’m enjoying my Labor Day weekend by not laboring at all. Unless, you count binge-watching the last two seasons of The Good Wife laboring. In which case, I’ve been working SO HARD, YOU GUYS. Also, can I please have all of Julianna Margulies’ suit jackets in my size, please? I don’t care that I haven’t worn a suit since I left Japan, I still WANT THEM ALL.
Ahem.
Let’s talk random stuff, shall we?
1. I spent last weekend on my final solo-camping trip of the summer in Bay City, located right smack-dab in thumb-crotch region of Michigan. (I’m sorry. I know that doesn’t sound nice. But it’s really the best way I can describe it.)
Bay City was a quirky little surprise of a town packed full of antique shops and hipstery restaurants. The main reason why I was there was to take a cruise on a tall ship. Despite having lived on a sailboat for a month in Malaysia (long story), I’d never actually sailed on a sailboat before. It was super fun. They even let us help raise up the sails.
Raising the sails
Not that I did that. I was too busy taking pictures. I mean, this is me we’re talking about. Why be helpful when that might interfere with my ability to Instagram?
2. At least twice last weekend, I found myself being congratulated by strangers for doing stuff on my own. And, while I know people were just trying to be nice and encouraging, I find this, well, patronizing. You know?
First of all, the things I was being congratulated for doing on my own weren’t particularly difficult. I mean, I was going on a three-hour sailboat cruise with thirty other people. I wasn’t single-handedly sailing the boat across the Atlantic or anything.
Plus, I don’t go around congratulating people for doing stuff with their spouses/children/friends. And, frankly, I’ve seen some of their spouses/children/friends. Someone should probably congratulate them for hanging out with those monsters.
Also, I feel like nobody would ever congratulate a man for doing stuff on his own. Unless he was doing something really spectacular — like, say, single-handedly sailing a boat across the Atlantic.
(Am I being too much of a touchy crankypants about this? PLEASE TELL ME I’M NOT BEING A TOUCHY CRANKYPANTS ABOUT THIS.)
3. On my way to Bay City, I stopped in Jackson, where I went to Cell Block 7, a prison museum inside an actual working prison. It was pretty intense. At one point, I was reading an exhibit and I could hear the inmates playing handball on the other side of the wall.
As it is a working prison, I wasn’t allowed to take any photos. In fact, I’ll probably be arrested for taking the photo below from the parking lot. Which is a real shame because, you guys, I do not look good in orange.
Unfortunately, my lack of photos means I will probably never write a blog post about it because I basically can’t remember anything if I don’t take a million pictures of it. And, sure, I could have just taken notes, but, GAH, that sounds like hard work.
4. I can’t believe I have to start teaching again this week! Aaahhhhhh, where did my summer break go??? SERIOUSLY. I’ve already been back at work a little bit this week — helping with orientation, prepping for this upcoming week and leading some activities for a group of Japanese students.
And it’s been EXHAUSTING. I don’t know how I’m going to get through actual classes with actual students who want me to do actual work, like teach them stuff and grade stuff.
(I know that you people who have had to work all summer feel absolutely no sympathy for me. But this will not stop me from whining for the next two weeks and acting like I deserve some kind of medal for waking up before ten. Consider yourself warned.)
5. Since it’s September, I’ve decided it’s high time I dust off my fall bucket list from last year and get cracking on it. Yes, I do realize it’s eighty degrees outside, but my biological clock is telling me it’s time for cider and donuts.
Cider and donut time!
A few things I’d like to add to my fall bucket list this year: go on a fall color tour via old-timey steam engine, spend a night staring at the stars in Headlands International Dark Sky Park and visit Manistee’s ghost ship. (Although I won’t be able to do that last one alone because I will die. So one of you has to go with me. Any takers? Anyone???)
6. You guys, BIG NEWS! I bought a new purse!
You see, for the past few years, I’ve had a separate travel and work purse. It was basically like I was living a double life. But, my travel purse was too small and beat-up for work. And my work purse was too bulky for travel and didn’t have one of those over-the-body-strap things. This meant I would have to switch between the two purses, and then I would always leave something super important, like my lip gloss, in the purse I wasn’t using.
Well, this week I finally bit the bullet and bought this purse which is technically a travel purse but is also cute enough to be a work purse. I love it. And, hopefully, the days of me leaving my lip gloss behind are over because you don’t even want to know me when I’m experiencing chapped lips, you guys.
7. I’m currently obsessed with this recipe for sesame peanut noodle salad. It’s the perfect meal to make when your kitchen is about a billion degrees and you have no intention of turning on your stove. Plus, it’s just so pretty.
Although, to be honest, I mostly just use the recipe for the sauce, and then just add whatever I happen to have in my fridge to the salad because who has bean sprouts on hand and what the heck is mangetout?
8. Umm, have you guys heard that Target wants to let customers drink while they shop. MY BANK ACCOUNT IS SO DOOMED, YOU GUYS.
9. Oh man, I felt for this girl, who confessed in her article to being an unskinny Asian. It was hard enough for me to be a (very) unskinny non-Asian in Asia, where people are more than happy to point out that you’re fat (and will even use hand gestures to reinforce the fact, in case, you know, they think you didn’t understand what they were saying). But, at the same time, I never felt like anyone really expected me to be skinny. I mean, I am American, after all.
10. Umm, you guys, how super excited are we for the new Muppets show? Umm, like SO EXCITED.
P.S. I know everyone’s upset about Miss Piggy and Kermit breaking up, but I always felt like Miss Piggy could do better. YES. I SAID IT.
How was your week? I hope it was full of lots of unlaboring and, possibly, some cider and donuts. (DON’T TELL ME IT’S TOO SOON. IT’S NEVER TOO SOON FOR CIDER AND DONUTS.)
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