Bermuda: Ending My Summer with a BANG!

I took a 6 night cruise to Bermuda and had the time of my life. We cruised with Royal Caribbean on the Grandeur of the Seas. It was my first time on a cruise and I believe Justyn and I will be going on another. It was plenty of older people and it made me realize that they're the smart ones, because clearly cruises are the ish. Each morning we had a newsletter placed on our bed with the next day's activities/itinerary. There was an array of things to do every hour on the hour. We ended up developing a routine while on the ship: first, I wake up and head to the gym, then Justyn follows behind about 40 mins later, come back to the room and shower (if time permits) or head straight to the buffet breakfast and hop in the omelet line for an egg white veggie omelette made by Kayode from Trinidad and Tobago. LOL! All the workers wore a name badge with their country of origin underneath their name. After a big breakfast, it was nap time before the day's festivities. Let me just say this one thing, Bermuda takes Labor Day super seriously, all the stores in the major city were closed except the bars, whereas back in the states I'm sure there were some good sales going on in the mall. Craziness. The food was pretty darn good on the ship too, we didn't even find any little authentic places to eat and I didn't mind because it was just that good.

Cons: On a cruise ship, you have to buy a drink package if you want to drink all you want and for our 6-night cruise it would have came to $330/pp throughout the duration of our vacation. That's absolutely insane to me, one I'm not that big of a drinker where I need a drink every day, even on vacation, so I passed on that option. I don't drink soda either, but you have to pay for a soda package too. I really only drink water except for the occasional cup of juice every now and then, so I drank water and about 2-3 cups of green tea every day (for the flat belly effects since I was eating so much). They did have what was called "The Drink of the Day" daily which was $6.95 and you got to keep the special light up cup which was cute. They also had an event called "Martini Madness" about 3 days while we were on the ship, $12 for 2. I learned on the first day of drinking these cocktails that martinis are my new fave drink. My word, they were strong yet delicious. Also, there were about 3 dining options included in the price you pay for the trip, then 3 other speciality restaurants. Next time, I would like to try the speciality restaurants, but I was cool with what was included for the time spent on the ship. 

Some things to consider is the gratuity, for us it was $12/pp/day and also you get these hotel-like key cards which you use for all your onboard expenses because it's a cashless system onboard. It's slightly annoying to have to always carry around the card, but it's pretty cool that you use it for everything from the bar to entering your room. I would like to see them initiate some type of bracelet system that can be scanned. 

Because I'm very empathic, it was somewhat difficult enjoying my time on the ship when I realized the workers were away from their home country and families for 7 months out of the year. The countries of origin ranged from China to Jamaica to Trinidad and Colombia. When you think about the fact that the person who collects the plates off of your table, while you just leave it there to enjoy your vacation, is away from their families and working 12 hour days, it's pretty sad. I can't get this young Chinese guy's face out of my brain as I type this. I think he was the saddest to me because he worked by the indoor pool and late-night eatery, where everyone went while drunk and after big events. He would be there in the morning and also late until they closed at 2:00am. But overall, I was able to tune out my empathy and enjoy my vacation, so here's some pictures...

Day 1 of Happiness, pulling up to the port of Baltimore.

Same Day. View from our room's window, while pulling out.



Night 1: The first formal dinner. This was my 1st course, lobster bisque. Yummy. I've had lobster bisque twice now each time on a ship. I had it on the Odyssey, DC dinner cruise a few years ago.



Duck, purple cabbage, and random fried potatoes. The duck and cabbage were good, I took one bite of the patties and realized they didn't belong.

Creme Brûlée. Since it was included in the meal, I decided to go ahead and give it a whirl, not my thing though, it was too sweet.



This strawberry cheesecake however was the bomb. The best cheesecake I've ever eaten, it was a perfect balance of salt from the cheese and sweet from the strawberry. UGH! I want more. I may go to cheesecake factory sometime soon...just to be disappointed.



Rock climbing wall. I made it to the top, but I'm sparing you all from my other pics because my right butt cheek was hanging out the whole time. There was plenty of people around to see it too. LOL! The wall was on the ship and if the camera panned over to the right you would see the water. It was pretty dope.



Justyn made it to the top too. I'm just realizing that even in this pic I can see how flat footed he is. LOL! 



Roof Roof. Another cool thing is, the room attendant was our attendant for the duration of our trip. That's one of the newsletters on the right.



When we finally got to Bermuda there was a light rain for about an hour.

They actually had a track on the top of the ship. Deck 11. Imagine that, running around a track while in the middle of the ocean. I was too much a punk, the wind was blowing too crazy for me to run up there, so I stuck with the treadmills indoors. I did however walk around it. 

Another ship was there when we arrived. Norwegian Cruiseline, they came out of Boston.



Dockyard in Bermuda.

Martini Madness. Deliciousness.

The mall near the dockyard.

Rudeness on the shuttle.

Again...deliciousness :) 

Our ship at night. We did a glass bottom boat tour of the Bermuda Triangle the night we arrived.

It started raining which made the trip a little scary at least for me. Not to mention all the drunk people on the boat. I was OD anxious. I didn't want to die on the triangle.

Some of the coral through the glass bottom. Apparently, the coral has wrecked many ships. I had no idea it was that tough.

A wrecked ship in the triangle. It's been there for over 100 years. 



While on the ferry to Hamilton.



Hamilton, Bermuda.

Franchises are outlawed in Bermuda, however KFC was already established in the country prior to this law, so they were able to stay. Otherwise, no other familiar store names are out there. 



Climbed a really tall rock, borderline a small mountain on Horseshoe Bay Beach. This beach has pink sand. 



That would be Justyn up there.

A shrimp and lobster (or crab, I don't remember) bisque. Again, tasty.

There was plenty of line dancing on the boat.

The wobble. 



SaDDerday. Leaving Bermuda.

They had a belly flop competition, which was hilarious.

Goat mole. MY goodness! This was the first time I had ever had goat and it was so good, they had plantains in it too. It was a bit greasy, you can see the oil, but it was still good. Mole is usually used when talking about some type of Spanish sauce. There's different renditions of mole. 

Lobster and shrimp with steamed veggies on the 2nd formal night.

Quest. The best adult game ever.

Oh looked! Mirrors on the ceiling of the elevator.

The last show on the last night of the cruise. tear

Battle of the Sexes. I went up for the females during the family Feud type portion of the game.

After the 70s party on the last night we got to take pics with the cruise entertainment staff. The director, Ricky, was super amazing and funny. I could tell that he loved his job and that made it that much more enjoyable.  

And to close out this post, I'm ending it with a quote this older lady said to us while eating dinner after I asked her how many times she's been to Bermuda, her response was "Seven. You know how people say they're going to Myrtle Beach for vacation, well that's Bermuda for me." WELL HELLO! I saw dollar signs float across my eyes when she said that, she's clearly part of the Umpty Umpt (the ballers, the elite, the Coinage Society) and has plenty of cheese. She's going on another cruise in November. The jealousy was real, but I suppose that's what life should be like when you're 50 and 60 and have the money.

Why I Don't Want to Have a (Black) Child.

I failed to mention that another reason why I'm fearful of having a child is because I'm scared to raise a Black man. I don't know if much else can be said to explain why I feel this way besides listing names of all the young Black men who have been murdered, just in my lifetime. I believe Black people, myself included, are tired of the genocide of our Black children. I'd rather be in control of whether I bring a Black child into this world, than for someone who hates him to decide it's time for them leave it.

As I sat in the chair getting my hair done Saturday morning, there was another client waiting to be serviced and she spoke about the Mike Brown murder. I heard about it, but at that point hadn't taken the time to educate myself on his death. (I've been taking a break with researching the murders of Black men since Trayvon Martin, because it really took a toll on me. I didn't want to be angry anymore, so I had to give myself space.) This woman spoke about her 12-year-old son saying he wanted his ears pierced and she told him no "because you will be viewed as a thug" when his appropriately childish response was "but Jacob (his White friend) has his ears pierced" this woman had to explain to her son that Jacob is different than he is. I imagine the confusion I would create for my child telling him they are as good (if not better) than anyone else, but then having to also say "but others will not view you that way". This confusing dichotomy is even difficult for me to understand, so how can I help a child with understanding that?

Mostly when I think about having a child, I fear having/raising a Black man, but I am also fearful of raising a Black woman. I've thought to myself that I would love to have a brown-skinned almond-esque daughter with thick, curly hair like her mother, however I have this sick thought of "but what if she grows up and hates her skin complexion, maybe I should want her to be light-skinned," to aleviate any added stress. I can't even happily, innocently dream about what my future child would look like without considering the consequences for her appearance. What type of world (country) am I living in where women can't even dream about raising a "princess" without thinking about the imaginary monsters who no longer hide in her bed, but are walking the streets in plain clothes blending in with everyone else.

White Racial Identity Development

If you read about WRID you will understand the way my brain was moving in and out of thoughts and processing while in the midst of this hour long convo described below. You can read this quick one-pager here. You can also pick up Dr. Janet Helm's book, A Race is a Nice Thing to Have: A Guide to Being a White Person or Understanding the White Persons in Your Life.

 



Yesterday I met with a young white woman (info needed for the story) to talk about volunteering for an organization. I had no idea I was walking into what I did. I thought I was going to give a little input about how the homeless can be helped in my community, then that's it. It felt more like an interview, so I was a bit turned off, plus I felt like she was prying into my life and testing my passion for the homeless. So she threw out a statistic about the percentage of homeless people who are Black and in my mind I'm like "check! The awareness is there". Then she begins to speak about her first time witnessing racism and it was when she was 21, working at a restaurant, her manager was sexually harrassing an undocumented worker. She helped this worker out by writing a letter to corporate and assured her that it would remain anonymous. With this young woman's help, the manager was fired and the worker was able to keep her job. Beautiful, right? So then she tells a story about another experience when she went to vote in Ohio, she received an email stating her polling location had been changed, her thinking nothing of it, she went to the new location. While there, she witnessed Blacks who arrived at the location being told "your location has been changed, you must go (here)" and often times they're house was only 2 blocks from where they stood and the new location was 20 minutes away and they had no car, according to the storyteller. "I became so angry I didn't know what to do, so I bought a one-way ticket to Mexico and stayed there for a year" because she just wanted to get away because she was so fed up. Now of course, I didn't say this while there, but I wrestled with it in my brain "how nice to have enough money (and privilege) to leave your country of origin and go live elsewhere for a year because you're sick of your current reality, I wish I had that privilege".

One other instance in my convo with this woman as she was testing my passion, she asked about an instance in which I had to stand against an injustice or something like that. I politely told her that "in my everyday life, there's not much I could do" and she gave me the "no that's not true, everything can be fought, she's clearly confused" look. I then gently explained that at times certain instances can be fought, but others it can not and gave her an example. I say "gently explained" because I wasn't in a situation to burst this young White girl's bubble of fighting for equality in the middle of Starbucks. What I would have said if I could was "At times I get extremely tired of fighting and there's nothing worse than running out fuel. It takes a lot of eneergy to remain angry for a long time, and I know because I was angry for 2 solid years about Trayvon Martin, it's not healthy. As a Black woman, I have to discern what's healthy for me to carry and what I have to let go, but you wouldn't understand that because you're fighting a battle that's not your own and I wouldn't expect you to know that. So when you say fight an injustice, I fight every day, it's not boiled down to these critically significant events by which you can say "oh wow! I can't believe that happened to you" it's more of the microaggressions that activate by Black consciousness."

Thoughts on Having (a) Child(ren).

At times I don't know if I want children. The implication of me saying this is that I'm perceived as selfish and that's fine because I know I'm not. I oscillate between wanting one child to raise and not having any at all. Most parents tend to "forget" how difficult raising a child is and are quick to say "I love being a parent," but I'm not sure how much I would love having my sleep disrupted, I'm already cranky when the alarm goes off and I'm not ready for it to be buzzing in my ear. So let me do a costs vs. benefits analysis of having children. Granted, I only want one...

Costs

• The literal costs "It will cost an estimated $241,080 for a middle-income couple to raise a child born last year for 18 years, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report released Wednesday. That's up almost 3% from 2011 and doesn't even include the cost of college." Do you know how much student loan debt I have? This child would be an added debt.
• Anxiety. I would be a terribly anxious parent, much like how my father was with raising me. I would have to place my child in a daycare that has cameras, so when I'm at work I can log-in and see what's going on at any time. Not to mention the daycare would need to be by my job, just in case something went awry. I would say I would like to be a stay-at-home parent for the first few years, but that's not realistic for me. I get sad when I'm alone and needed to get energy from other people, so I would have to work at least part-time.
• Stress. Need I say more? Being a therapist, I hear all kinds of stuff about how parents went wrong all the time yes I know "I will be different," but different people have varying levels of resilience. What if I am a "good parent" but my kid isn't resilient and they become something "because of me"? That's sKressful, bruh.
• Vacations. Any time I or my husband want to take a vacation we either have to take the child or find someone willing to watch the child. My mom lives in Florida and my dad and stepmom are 3 hours away.
• Food. Any time I want to go out for dinner, guess who has to come?
• Sex. Last thing I want is to creep out a kid because of his/her parents having sex. TERRIBLE. Ish happens.
• Anxiety. OH! I mentioned that already...I had to mention it again because that's how bad it would be.
• Focus on marriage. I would like to enjoy my marriage and be simply focused on that one other human being. I don't want my child to have memories of his/her mother and father arguing (because again, ish happens), those are always some of the worse memories for children.

Benefits

• I believe I would be a pretty good mother or so I've been told.
• I don't know if I'd be comfortable going through life and never having that experience.
• Love. The type of love that would be exchanged is incomparable.
• I can't deny my husband that experience because THAT is selfish.

My coworker and I were talking about having children, whether we wanted to or not. He's a pretty practical guy, still in his 20s and married already, so we have good convo and vibe well. He said "the only thing that concerns me is when I'm 65". Who's going to be there for you, by that age all your family is basically deceased and you start to attend your friends' funerals. My thought is, who's going to take care of me and the husband? I'd hate to become so Americanized that I live in a world only focused on myself and my needs, so much so, that it causes me to completely eliminate an option of something that would bring me joy. By that same token, in the words of my coworker, "not everyone is called to be parents". This really hit home as I type this because I not only have to think about our wants and needs as husband and wife, but what does God want for me?

 

Good Food, Good Friends, & Well...

So I had another "Secret Dinner Event," this time it was at Dock 9 above Union Market, which just so happened to be across the street from our last dinner event. This event was smaller than most, Whit and I sat next to some cool females. I say they were cool because they watched The Walking Dead, albeit, they were a few seasons behind, but they loved the show. LOL! The drinks were also pretty darn good as well. They had Deep Eddy ruby red flavored vodka and mixed it with club soda and my word it was so delicious. I've never had Deep Eddy vodka before but I'll def be buying some and mixing it the way they did. The chef was from Alabama and his menu was a rendition of what he used to eat as a child, hence the popcorn and hen nuggets.


Menu for the Night.

First course: Cured Cobia with duck liver. I wasn't a fan of the duck liver, it had this lingering after taste, not to mention it was mushy. It's the brown blobs on the plate :/ Everything else was okay though.

Second Course: Jowl Cracklins. This was served with an arugula salad and creme fraiche for the dressing. IDK what the little beady things were on the salad, but it had the texture of caviar/roe, which I'm not a fan of. The cracklins were good though, I dumped them on my salad. The arugula needed something a bit sweeter though like a craisin.

Up close of the cracklins.

Third Course: Corn & Groundnut Puree. This was absolutely delicious. It had mushrooms and boiled peanuts in it. UGH! I just had a flashback, up until this point I was disappointed, but this soup def made up for the other 2 courses.

Fourth Course: Chicken & Dumplings. I made this extra large so you could see everything it came with. Fried hen nuggets, liver dumplings, veloute (the onion), and tomato jam. The hen nuggets were similar to Chic-fil-A's, so you  know they were glorious. By this point, I was actually stuffed. This would have been able to stand on it's on as an entree even without the tomato jam.

 

Fifth Course: Brown butter & sweet cornbread chiffon cake. This came with a bacon praline, popcorn anglaise, and blueberry icee type deal. The cake was a little dry, but all of the components together were good. There was also popcorn in the 1st dish.

The day after this event, my parents (dad & stepmom) came to visit, it was my dad's late birthday/Father's day weekend. We went to the district and did all the tourist site seeing things. I can only take but so much of my parents, so I was happy to see them go Sunday night, but I had a good time with them and my dad was like a big kid the whole time they were there. It was so bad I told my dad "YOU GOT BUS MONEY?!" because he was hollering about wanting to take the tour bus to all of the monuments, mind you by this point we had seen 75% of the monuments. SMH! I had an awesome time though; we went to Bon Chon when we got back, yum yum! Where a homeless in the restaurant was rambling to us, it was an awful experience, because I don't mind giving to homeless, but don't interrupt my family time asking us for money, when I just saw you order a beer. No SIR! Sunday, we went to church, then we went to get Thai food. I wanted them to try different foods and my dad was in food heaven. He loves food as much as me so it was funny to watch how happy he got over it. While everyone sat in the living room after eating, I got to work on my work week meal prepping.

 

 

I made an egg roll stuffed with pesto I made that I needed to finish up, shredded chicken, and mozzarella. I use water on the edges of the egg roll to fold them up.

 

I baked them and VOILA! They were so tasty with the drippings of...

My Zagana. LOL! I made lasagna, but with zucchini instead of pasta and fat free cottage cheese instead of ricotta. I forgot to take a pic before I started packing them in Tupperware, so I had to get a pic after the fact.

My stepmom brought these fresh herbs from her friend's garden for me.

 

So this past weekend I went to dinner with my friend, Kianna, at Casa Oaxaca in Adams Morgan, then we went to U Street for drinks. Casa Oaxaca we had a Gilt voucher for. Unlike other Mexican restaurants they didn't give us free salsa and chips. They gave us 4 small corn tortillas to share among our 2 servings of fajitas blank stare. Also when I asked for salsa, he brought me out a habanero hot sauce. They didn't even have salsa verde. It was just terrible. I had to add salt & pepper to my fajitas which is unlike me, I never have to touch the salt in restaurants. They also wanted to charge us $2 for 4 extra small tortillas. Clearly they're pretty tight on their inventory. What I will say is that I was impressed by their fajitas comings with squash and zucchini, I liked all the veggies. The next day Justyn and I went to the early service, so I slept most of the day after church. Here's a recap of the weekend.

 

Let me give you a little background on this pic. Kianna & I were at Newtown at this point and sitting next to us on our right were a group of masculine lesbians. Now one in particular kept staring and not your average stare, but a weird stare. Like she sat on the couch next to us and would act as if she's looking pass us, but would stare. Then she got up and stared right in our face. It was weird so much that it was flattering. Like she clearly didn't care about her creepish ways. LOL! So she asked us for gum, I gave her a piece and said "well since you got my gum, can you take our pic?" so like men who I'm not interested in I suddenly became a lesbian. So above we have a pic of me and my girlfriend because this is the only way this chic would leave us alone. LOL! She even hit us with the "so do yall want friends? Where are yall friends at?" -_- LOL! If you know me, you  know I'm not sensitive at all to homosexuality, hence why it didn't bother me. I do believe she was jealous of me and my "girlfriend" doe. At least we got a cute pic outta the moment. There was also some Ghanaians who were hitting on us, one wouldn't catch the hint and smushed his way right over onto our couch. deep sigh Then after one asked me of where to go out, I shared with him that I don't really know, but since we were on U Street he was in the perfect location. He then said his name and wanted to give me his number. Now listen, I'm not your "typical light skinned girl" I'm not rude when guys try to hit on me. I'll converse, but soon as they try to make their move, I let them know I'm in a rela, when they're persistent, I give em the blank stare. So this guy says "my name is Justin, how bout you take my number" My response "Oh! My boyfriend's name is Justyn. No thank you". I'm also not the kinda girl that's gonna take a drink from a guy who's trying to hit on me, so I don't lead em on at all. OH! The drinks were buy one, get one, including top shelf :) I also took Uber for the first time, it was a real cool experience, I can def see myself using it again especially since I don't do the whole driving under the influence thing.

Here are chicken drumettes with the Thai basil my stepmom brought me, onion, and a little BBQ sauce. I seasoned it as well.

Fruit jars for my work week.

Homemade biscuits that taste like they're from Popeye's. I would share the recipe with you, but I'm stingy.

 Baked peaches. I baked them just like I do my baked apples. I've shared my process on another blog of how I do the baked apples.

 I took a chance and decided not to put foil on the bottom of my Pyrex. Big mistake. LOL! I cooked these wings Sunday night, here it is Tuesday and I still have the pan soaking. I learned my lesson. These wings were so good, I hope the international grocery store has the Thai basil so I can use it again.

Some simple oven roasted asparagus. Sprayed with pam; seasoned with Black pepper, salt, and paprika. Sidebar: Why is aspargus so pricey?! I paid $3.49/pound for these. I'll just have to start getting it from BJ's when I want some.

 

 





I Don't Want my Identity (Name) Erased After Marriage.

WOMANIST

I get pretty peculiar/am a sticklar about the spelling of Justyn's name. I mean heck, I type it everywhere, so when my friends/family spell his name incorrectly, I'm quick, and I mean QUICK to correct the spelling. Heck! I may have done it to you "Justyn*". Not because I'm trying to be mean, but out of respect for him and also his mother, who took the time to name him. By that same token, when I'm introduced to someone and I either can't hear them speaking or they're name is culturally indicative of their background, I always ask for clarification, no matter how many times it takes for me to pronounce their name correctly. Nothing boils my blood more than people tuning out someone when they're name has too many syllables for their liking and their response is "can I call u B". Wait what? Also, when people introduce themselves by a shortened name, I always ask, "what is your real name?". One, it's culturally responsive to allow someone to be themselves, ethnicity and all, and two, a lot of times they're simply conforming to American standards, so I would like to give them the opportunity to be called by their birth name if they so choose.

IDK about this whole last name change business...
After I become a married woman, I don't know if I want to change my name. I can't say I've ever dreamed of being called Mrs. (His Last). I've loved my name since forever. I enjoy that my initials are beautifully written as TJJ and that people refer to me as TJ (I think it's a cute tomboy-ish thing). I also enjoy the fact that my name is common and "regular", I suppose American-White, so people don't know my race when they see my name. I was told after I was born, I went nameless for a few days until my dad could think of something to name me. The story goes, he found my name in a baby book and liked the meaning "appearance of God" and also liked that it was an ethnically neutral name. The shortened versions of our names actually rhyme, Cliff & Tiff, my mom always says that when I'm talking with her about my dad. I've been TJJ for 25 years so far, and I don't want to change who I am. My name is the very essence of my being, the root, the foundation, people give up so much in marriage (in return for other things, yes), but I don't want to give up my identity. My child, if I have one, will have his last name for sure, I would never deny him that, but I can't promise I'm willing to change my own. I'm not such a stickler that if people accidentally/made an assumption and called me Mrs. His Last, I would correct them, because that could be emasculating to him. But I definitely will punch whomever officiates my wedding if they say "now I present to you Mr. and Mrs. His First Name, His Last name". That just goes to show you how women and our identities disappear in marriage. I'm also not anyone's possession that needs a stamp of "Return to owner" written after my first and middle name. I'm not yours, we are we, we are separate beings who come together and I want to remember that I am an autonomous being.

I read once that the last name change signified...
The father giving away his daughter to a new man, thus making the wife the husband's possession. I have this perverse image of cattle being giving away. I can't say that when my father walks me down the aisle that he's giving me away because I make the decision about who I'm going to marry, not him. It's semi-radical to have thoughts such as this, but I can't make myself do something to appease my husband's pride if it causes me resentment. Maybe my views will change after X number of years of marriage, but as for now, this is what is.

Now not even I would do this...

This is a follow-up to my last post. Someone created a Change.org petition to bring back the crinkle cut fries to Shake Shack. BRUH! HILARIOUS! Did I sign the post? No. I like the new fries better, but who really takes the time to make a petition about it. That is hilarious. I found this when I was randomly googling where to find some crinkle cut fries in my area because Justyn has been craving them. He's been acting like the pregnant wife and threatening me if I don't find him some crinkle cut fries... Then what do you know I see this pic on twitter... 

There's a WHOLE LOT of food I've been eating, so this post will be mainly pics with few words that give you a feel for everything. Here we go, let's begin with what we've cooked...

Coconut crusted blueberry french toast. Scrambled eggs with cheese and my favorite bacon (Hormel Black Label). Justyn wasn't at my house when I made this and I feel like I cheated on him, he doesn't even know I made it...I don't think bites nails 

He made me chicken, bacon alfredo with spinach. It was quite yummy. Thanks to his chef cousin for the idea.

Baked wings, mashed sweet potatoes, sautéed spinach, and baked apples. Nothing special really, but I was craving baked apples, so I stopped being lazy and made them.

We had a work potluck last Friday, I was game set to take them these lovely mac & cheese cupcakes until a coworker said she was only bringing lettuce. She ended up bringing a salad and another coworker brought white cheddar popcorn -_- Later that day, I accidentally locked him in the unit with our clients. That's what he gets. I believe that was my subconscious. 

I took these "Red Lobster" cheese and garlic biscuits instead.

Now let's pause for a moment of mindfulness, how amazing is it when something beautiful can come out of a situation so difficult. Life is created during those tough times.

There's a lot of outdoor movies going on in the area this summer. We finally got to see Gravity. It was very cool to watch that movie and notice the airplanes flying by in the sky.

Of course I packed a picnic with libations included. Got a new cooler bag from Target and all.

I had to make this XL so you could see the pot in all it's gloriousness. The restaurant is called Hot Spot in Fairfax and it's right next to Bon Chon :) It's a mix of Korean, Japanese, and Chinese culture. But anyways, you get endless everything on the menu. You check off what you want like you do at sushi spots, it's $22.99/person and you can stay for a max of 2 hours. We went here before going to watch Gravity in the park. The food cooks up extremely quickly because the meat is sliced extra thin. You also get to choose your broths, the one on the right is a kimchi broth and I can't remember the one on the left but I believe it was a ginger something.

They have a sauce bar where you can make your palette happy. I mean ENDLESS food AND sauce! This may be one of my new fave restaurants, I'm also a sucker for anything Asian when it comes to food though. 

Hey Shrimp, HEY!

Raw octopus before going in the broth.

Crawfish.

I love colorful food.

Octopus fresh out.

And there you have it, I've been eating well...but then again, what's new?!