#i ate (am still eating actually—) strawberry cake as i rolled to celebrate dai’s birthday. best boi deserves best cake!!!!

[deus-ex-mona]

✨foolproof gacha summoning ritual✨: spamming the bf’s voice lines before rolling in the gacha—

hid the vid evidence under the cut bc the tumblr app #betrayed me

[staytheb]

Like Oh 2.0 - White Day

Previous Chapter: Late Night Word Count: 3,949 Summary: It’s White Day and the boys wanna show their small appreciation towards the females.

Like Oh 2.0 masterlist

here is the 7th chapter!! and i wanna apologize again for the name changes, languages bits, and the usage of unnie/noona/oppa/hyung as well as i find it as a customary honorific sort of thing. so it’s staying for the sake of how this story was written back then. lol also i honestly have no idea when writing this where i wanted to go with it. i just knew that i based the writing on a year thing as i started with the school year and would work with holidays and birthdays from there on. it will include the boys’ actual schedule during that year, but it has been tweaked to fit my fic. lol but other than that, it should be fun so um, happy reading and kthxbai, Admin Lia~

Serena spotted a grocery bag hanging on the door of her apartment upon returning from work. She eyed the bag suspiciously. In all the years she has lived here she has never received such a thing before. The woman slid one of the holders off the door to peer inside the bag and discovered that it was filled with candies and folded pieces of paper. "How long has this been here though?" She muttered in English while glancing around her, but nothing. "Is it a trick or something?" She did another look around, but was still the only one in the hallway. "Or is it related to White Day?" Serena shrugged her shoulders while taking a hold of the bag and entered her peaceful abode. She set everything onto the coffee table while throwing herself face first onto her sofa and let out a satisfied yet tired groan.

The woman had just finished a twelve hour shift as a part-timer at a pet center that groomed, pet sit, and whatever else to care for and treat the animals. Serena's been up since four in the morning and she was dead tired. She vowed she wouldn't take another twelve hour shift in her sleepy state ever again. Still lying on her stomach Serena let out another groan upon remembering that she still had to finish the rest of her Chinese assignment that was due tomorrow. "Ugh, seriously fcuk my life." Serena muttered in annoyance as she slowly maneuvered herself into a sitting position while rubbing the tiredness away from her face. She then stared at her feet while running her hands through her hair. "Shower first. Food second. Then homework." She stood up while stretching. "Yeah, that sounds great."

After her quick shower Serena made herself two sandwiches and sat down in front of her laptop with music playing in the background on her TV. She logged onto the school's campus's website to access where a majority of her Chinese homework was already released. "I still can't believe that we still do everything online and attend the class just so we can review everything that we did online, man. If I knew that I would have registered with another teacher for more of an interactive environment." Serena muttered to herself. The class itself wasn't as bad, but it was just boring sitting there just listening to Teacher Cuī go over everything that was already online. Serena enjoyed the in class assignments on her own, of course with Mark always asking to be her partner.

The female figured it was because the idol could avoid working with the classmates who were fans who would rather talk about him, the group, or of themselves instead of working on their classwork. Serena couldn't blame them for that since he was a celebrity and a popular one that was still rising. Still though, it gave Serena some minor issues whenever Mark couldn't attend the class where they would actually need a partner as a lot of those classmates didn't want to pair up with her and would always give her the stink eye and ignore her. So Serena would either do it alone or pair up with another student that wasn't a fan, but working alone made it manageable to get through those days.

After about an hour into her online work and several grumbles during most of it Serena finally took a break. "I'm pretty much self-teaching myself." She sighed as she rubbed her eyes. "Well, it's better than bugging Jaycee and Euncy about it although they would be a better teacher than my current one." Serena muttered as she stood up and stretched her limbs. "Maybe I'll ask them for a review later on." The woman then heard the sound of her front door opening and saw just Melanie entering. "Where's the twins?" Serena asked. "At school. They're getting ready for their double date." Melanie answered as she set her things onto the sofa and coffee table. "A guy asked Jasmine out and she agreed. She just had to rope Jeannie into it as the guy was looking for a date for his friend as well."

Serena laughed upon hearing that. "Please don't tell me that they both agreed only because of a free meal at some restaurant that they've been wanting to go to since forever." "What you just said." "I don't blame them. It is White Day." Serena noticed the two small white boxes on the table. "What's in the boxes?" "Macarons given by two guys who are friends with one another." "Awkward." "Yeah, but dude, you got to try the lychee rose flavored one since I know you like lychee." Melanie said as she then pulled out a white and pink macaron with a dark pink filling along with a light blue macaron that had yellow filling. "This one is blueberry lemon isn't that bad." Serena took the pink one from her sister and bit into it. "Oh yeah not that bad." She tried the half-bitten blueberry lemon. "This one is okay, but I like the lychee flavored one is better." "I know."

Melanie followed her sister to the kitchen. "I have marshmallow cake that another guy gave me." Melanie said as she placed it into the refrigerator. "But it tastes better when it's cold." "Ugh, I can't handle anymore marshmallows for today. I'll eat it later." Serena made a face as she chugged down some water. "I ate a lot of those at Pet Care and brought some of the extras home that no one wanted." "Hmm, maybe I can put some in my secret stash." Melanie chuckle as she opened the hidden compartment pantry to the right of the fridge. "I need to stock up on it anyways. I'm running low on my snacks." "Be my guest." "Cool, but I'll do that later. Lazy right now and I need a shower." "It's still on the coffee table where I left it once you're done." "Okay."

Just then a dialing tone sounded. "What's that?" Melanie asked while looking around. "You don't have a home phone." "I don't. It's from the laptop. Someone's calling me through Skype." "Is it Jaycee or maybe Euncy?" "Probably one of those two." Melanie went to take a shower as Serena returned to the living room to glance at the caller and saw that it was Mark. "This better not be homework related or better yet, it better be homework and not some thing to pass time for." She sat down in her previous spot, turned off her TV, and answered the call. "Nǐ hǎo." Serena greeted Mark in Chinese and then switched to English. "What's up?" "Nothing. Just wanted to bother you." Mark laughed as he fixed a few strands of his hair while Serena rolled her eyes. "Well, if that's all you wanted, Mark, then I'ma hang up." She shot him a small smile. "I don't need you to waste my time when I can be using it for studying."

"But I'm not wasting your time, Serena." Mark smiled at her. "Because you're talking to an idol." "Get out of here." Mark laughed upon hearing her response and then noticed that Serena was really going to hang up on him this time. "Hey, wait, Serena, wait. I'm just kidding." He continued to laugh. "Really, I'm kidding." "I don't have time for your jokes, Mark. I still have to finish my Chinese homework which you should be doing too, Yí Ēn tóng xué." She spoke the last part on purpose as Mark grinned at her. "Well,  Zhōng Lǐ  tóng xué, wǒ yě shì." He then grinned wider. "We can work together like we do all the other times." "Tch, again? Really?" Serena made a face as she stuck her tongue out at him. "Why don't you just ask Jackson for help? He's fluent." "Yeah, he just talks too much." "Ouch." "Besides, I get to talk with you more because you don't talk a lot like him." "Wow."

Serena noticed the background behind Mark and recognized it a moment later. "Are you at the company?" She asked him. "Yeah. Why?" "Then don't you have practice or company work you have to do?" "Yeah, but we're on break right now." He smiled at her while playing with his hair. "That's why I'm calling you so I can ask for help. Also, I don't know when I'll actually have time to complete it. Plus, I still don't have the textbook." "I knew you just wanted to copy my work since day one." Serena glared at him as Mark laughed while dismissing it with one hand. "It's not even like that." "Please lor, nǐ shì xué rén jīng." She shook her index finger at him in a playful-like manner. "What?! No way, Serena. Teamwork, remember?" Mark reminded her with a smile. "Besides, the term you used is a bit offensive, but then again you wouldn't really know since you're such a newb to the language."

"You're a jerk." The female told him as Mark let out a chuckle in disbelief. "What? How am I a jerk?" "You just are." She stuck out her tongue at him before speaking again. "Anyways, how would I say those words without being offensive?" Mark thought about it as Serena took that moment to go through the grocery bag from earlier and grabbed one of the Hi-Chew bars. "I guess you can say something like, nǐ shì gēn pì chóng. Although there are other words, this one is more in a teasing-like manner. Also, it works better than the other one if you don't want to sound rude that is." He teased Serena as she nodded while opening a strawberry flavored Hi-Chew and popping it into her mouth. "Okay." "I see you got the candies that was hanging outside your apartment door. Do you like them?"

"Wait, they're from you?" Serena asked surprised while holding up the opened pack as Mark nodded his head. "Yeah, didn't you read the letters?" She eyed him weirdly. "What letters?" "The pieces of paper." "No, not yet. I thought they were for decoration or something." She let out a sheepish laugh as she grabbed one of the papers and then showed Mark the letter with a bored face. "Seriously? You guys put 'from the boys from a few doors down'. Really?" Mark laughed. "What? Did you expect us to put our real names or GOT7?" "No. I wasn't thinking of anything about it until you mentioned it." Serena shrugged as she set the paper on the table before looking at the idol again. "Why did you give us candy though?" "For White Day." "But we didn't give you guys anything for Valentine's day, Mark." "It's just a simple gesture, Serena." "Ah, well thanks then. Happy White Day."

"You're welcome and Happy White Day to you, too." He smiled. "The younger members actually wanted to make you guys chocolate, but we didn't have time. We had to do our White Day event with ahgase this morning." "Oh, that's nice of you guys to do that. I'm sure they appreciated it." She smiled at him and then remembered something. "Oh yeah, tell the other members thanks, too." "Yeah, I will." At that moment Melanie returned to the living room after her shower. "So who called?" " Yo-Mark." Serena caught herself from saying 'your boyfriend' as she turned the laptop around to show her sister. "Hi, Melanie." "Hi, Mark." The two waved at one another as Melanie picked out a melon gummy from the grocery bag. "Did you get these on our way home, Rere?" "No. GOT7 left it on my door after I went to work and saw it when I came back home."

"Oh, thanks, Mark. Happy White Day." Melanie thanked the idol. "You're welcome, Melanie, and Happy White Day to you, too." Mark smiled at her as he initiated small talk. "Did you get any good stuff for White Day?" "Yeah, a lot of macarons and cake." Melanie showed him a light green macaron that was pistachio from out of the white box. "Have you've tried these before?" "I think so. I don't remember." He laughed as Serena appeared behind her sister so she can look at Mark as well. "Since I can't do my homework now, you guys converse instead." "Wait, why? Where are you going?" Melanie asked her sister with a confused expression. "Yeah, Serena, where are you going?" Mark echoed. "We're supposed to work on our Chinese assignment together. Remember?" "No, I don't recall as I don't remember, Mark. Sorry!" Serena smiled at him before facing Melanie.

"I need a nap. You can continue to talk to Mark and help him with his homework or whatever." She then faced the idol. "Your break should be over by now. Go back to practice. Later, Mark." Serena waved at him as she muttered the last part to her sister. "Don't disturb me." She then headed off to her bedroom for a well-deserve nap. "Wow." Mark simply let out as Melanie laughed and sat down. "Yeah, that's just Serena being Serena for you." "Yeah, I'm beginning to understand that little by little." "Anyways, I don't think I can help you with your Chinese homework at all." Melanie informed the male. "I'm not that fluent and only know basic, and I do mean basic, Chinese." Mark dismissed it. "It's all good, Melanie. I liked to annoy your sister about the homework anyways. I finished that yesterday." "Oh, then why did you tell her that you guys still needed to work on it?"

"It was just a lie to see what she was up to." Mark explained with a smile. "And to see if you guys were free tonight." "Well, it's just me and Serena. Jeannie and Jasmine are busy with other things." Melanie told him as she continued to eat the melon gummi. "Is there a reason why you're asking?" "Oh, well, it's nothing big or anything like that." "Well, I'm sure whatever it is, you still have your practice that will tie you guys up." "Oh yeah about that, well, practice actually ended earlier than usual." He laughed as Melanie shook her head with a smile. "Wow." Mark was about to say more, but someone appeared and blocked his view and replaced Mark's face with theirs. "Hi Yugyeom." Melanie greeted the youngest member. "Hi, Melanie." He greeted back in English as Melanie tilted her head. "Or should I call you Chris?" "Chris is nice. How are you?" "I'm good. You?" "I'm fine. Thank you." "Welcome."

Another person decided to butt in. "Hello, Lani." BamBam greeted the female in Thai with a smile. "How are you?" "I"m good, Bam." Melanie switched to Thai with a shake of her as BamBam looked for the others still speaking in Thai. "Where's everyone?" "Nhi and Minh are busy and aren't coming over. Lina just went to sleep just now." "Oh." A fourth person appeared. "Hi, Chaewon noona." Youngjae greeted Melanie with a wave and a bright smile as the conversation switched to Korean. "Hi Youngjae." Melanie greeted back as she was still wrapping her mind about how casual the conversation was going with one of her favorite K-Pop groups. "What are you doing, noona?" Youngjae asked her as Melanie held up the now half-empty bag of melon gummi. "Eating. Thank you guys by the way." "Oh yeah, you're welcome!" The youngest trio exclaimed.

Somehow in the process Mark's phone was snatched from out of his hand and in control of the younger members as the trio walked off to show Melanie the practice room. Mark shook his head with a tired smile as he still wasn't able to ask Melanie the real question he had contacted Serena in the first place. "What's wrong with you, hyung?" Jackson asked coming up to him. "Why are you smiling over here like an idiot?" Mark just shot him a look. "Sorry I asked." Jackson backed off while putting up his hands. "But what did they say?" "I didn't get the chance to ask them." "Hyung, you were on the phone for like half an hour. What were you doing then?" "Not even, Jackson. We were just talking. Anyways, the kids took my phone before I could actually ask them the actual question." "So? Just ask for it back so you can asked." "Oh, right."

Mark beckoned for the trio to returned with his phone. "But we're not done talking with Chaewon noona." Youngjae replied dejectedly. "She wants to ask JB hyung something." Yugyeom said as he handed Mark's phone over to Jaebeom who began speaking with Melanie about something with one of his buddies from Konkuk. "Just tell JB to ask her the question." Mark suggested to Jackson. "Since he knows Melanie better." "Why can't you just ask him to ask her?" "Because you're the one that keeps bothering me about it. So just go do it, Jackson." "Ugh, fine, Mark. I will." Jackson huffed as he made his way over to Jaebeom dramatically as Mark just shook his head with a wry laugh at his friend's behavior. Jackson whispered the idea to Jaebeom as the older male then asked Melanie the question. "Sure, that's fine. See you guys later tonight." She answered before ending the call.

~~~~~~~

Serena woke to the smell of something cooking. Not like in the deliciousness sort of smell, but the kind that had a strong scent and it needed to be aired out kind of smell. She hated that kind of smell the most where she felt like she couldn't breathe. She groggily got out of bed, stumbled out of her room, and slowly made her way to the kitchen. "Mel," Serena began as she leaned on the wall that separated the kitchen and living room. "It smells. Open the window or turn on the fan." She then focused her eyes on the figure. "It's too strong." Serena squinted to make out the back of what she assumed was her sister and realized that it wasn't Melanie she was staring at as the person had wide shoulders. "Who are you?" The person turned around to look at her and Serena looked at Jaebeom in confusion. "JB?" "Hi, Jyongri noona." He greeted awkwardly with a slight bow of his head.

"What are you doing here?" Serena asked the idol in Korean. "Making kimchi stew." Jaebeom answered. "It's almost done, noona." "Okay." She let out slowly as she rubbed at her eyes thinking she was still in her sleepy state, but knew that she wasn't. "Why are you making kimchi stew again?" "Because he wanted to make dinner because of White Day." Melanie responded instead as she appeared beside her sister and then pointed towards the living room. "Go say hi." Serena followed to where her sister was pointing and saw six other blurry figures. "Wait, why is GOT7 here?" Serena switched to English to have a private conversation with her sister. "To have dinner." "But why?" "White Day. Stop asking questions and go say hi and be nice." "No."

Melanie watched as her sister walked towards the bathroom instead of greeting the male idols. "Don't worry about Jyongri unnie. She's being weird and dumb right now." Melanie told the six males in Korean with a smile as she joined Jaebeom in the kitchen to prepare some snacks for the rest as they waited for his stew to be done. "I'm really beginning to think that Jyongri noona doesn't really like us." Youngjae voiced his opinion out loud. "Me, too." BamBam agreed with a nod. "Just try to be nice." Mark advised them as Jinyoung interjected. "It might just be a defense mechanism." "For what?" Jackson asked confused. "To defend herself from what?" "Not from what, but maybe from who. Maybe you, hyung." Yugyeom joked as he directed it towards Jackson who shot the younger male a look. "I'm an awesome person. I get along with everybody." He boasted. "Everybody loves me."

"What a joke." Serena commented in English although it wasn't directed at Jackson, but the idol didn't know that. "Excuse me?" Jackson let out a bit offended upon hearing that comment from Serena while also using English. "What did you say, Serena?" "Huh?" She let out distracted while squinting at the males. "Say what?" "That I'm a joke." "When?" "Just now." Serena looked at the blurry figures in confusion. "I didn't say you were a joke." "Yeah, you did." "I-" Serena paused as she looked down at her phone when she felt the vibration and realized the situation. "Oh, I wasn't talking about you. I was just talking to myself about what my co-worker had just messaged me just now. Sorry." She apologized as she walked towards the group of six and pointed at Mark. "Um, what's your face. Oh yeah, Mark. Can you hand me my bag please."

"Did you really just call me 'what's your face' right now, Serena?" Mark scoffed as he grabbed a hold of the blue and white stripped backpack, but didn't hand it to the female. "Yeah, sorry, but can I have my backpack please? I really need to get going." "Where are you going, noona?" Youngjae asked in Korean. "You have to stay for Jaebeom hyung's kimchi stew. It's super delicious!" "Maybe later, Youngjae." Serena cast him a tired smile as she was close enough to all of them to distinguish each figure better. "It's work related so I can't eat it with you guys. I'm the closes one because they can't reach any of the other managers at the moment." "Where do you work, noona?" Yugyeom asked curiously. "A pet center." "Can we come?" BamBam asked as Serena shook her head. "No. Because I don't want to explain how I know you guys." She admitted with a laugh and then focused her attention onto Mark. "My backpack, please?"

Mark eventually passed Serena her bag as she took it with a smile and made her way back to her bedroom. Melanie returned shortly afterwards as she set a bowl of popcorn and a plate of freshly baked oreo and chocolate chip stuffed cookies onto the coffee table after she had cleaned it up earlier. "Where's unnie? I heard her talking a few seconds ago." "She said something about work." Jinyoung replied as he picked up a cookie. "Again? That's annoying." Melanie scrunched up her face. "Anyways, I'll be back with more snacks and a variety of drinks." Just then Serena spotted her sister while wearing a pair of glasses this time around and in a different set of clothes as she exited her bedroom. "I really have to go, Mel. Tell JB and the others sorry about the soup and White Day."

"Okay, dude, sure. Later." Melanie replied as she headed towards the kitchen again as Serena didn't look in the other six's direction and cast them a short wave while speaking briefly. "Sorry and bye. Happy White Day." Serena was out the door before any of them could respond back. Jaebeom and Melanie entered the living room with the main entree and other things. "Let's eat." Jaebeom exclaimed excitedly to direct the attention away from Serena's departure after what Melanie had informed him about a minute ago. The group of eight proceeded to eat while watching a movie and talked in-between every now and then. After that the idols helped cleaned up once they were done and called it a night as it was getting super late and they all had schedules to take care of the next day. Serena didn't return home until four in the morning. She was too exhausted to eat and just went to bed.

[abiteofnat]

AVOCADON’T EVEN TELL ME ABOUT WHERE THERE IS GOOD GUAC… 

Because last month in six days I ate Mexican food for dinner six times. That’s right, every single dinner somehow started with a big ole basket of tortilla chips and ended with greasy fingers and 3-6 tacos in my stomach.  I think at one point I just began to expect that my night would end in rice and corn tortillas, and then it just kept happening…

Is this anywhere near a complaint? ABSOLUTELY NOT. Mexican is in my top three favorite categories of food, the other two being Italian and Mediterranean (but bagels always, always coming in first above all), and so I tend to be a harsh critic. There’s also different types of Mexican food: the traditional, authentic type that’s hard to find but life changing when you do, the 3 a.m. places that are the real reason we even go out in the first place so we can end up in front of a chimichanga of shame after a somewhat irritating house party, and then the nearly authentic kind that has a dash of flair added. I LOVE ‘EM ALL. Most of these will be a mix of the first and last kind, as everyone who knows me knows the only 3 a.m. place I frequent is Allende Restaurant even though everyone else is a Taco Burrito Palace bitch. That Allende rice and white tile walls; nothing will comfort you and your premature hangover quite like it. When your friend is crying over that fuckboy and your friend’s friend drank about six beers too many? Take them to Allende! Can’t cry when you’re choking on horchata! 

I haven’t done a good taco roundup in a while and for a city that loovvesss margaritas as much as Chicago does it’s about time. How can I even write this after being up to my ears in salsa verde without wanting to throw up? IT WAS ALL JUST THAT GOOD. I’m living vicariously through my own memories from the past week and I am legitimately excited to write about these tacos.  

HERE WE GO. 

1. Adobo Grill 

On any given menu, there’s about 10% of things I have no interest in eating. Add on the 80% I can’t actually eat due to being vegetarian, and that leaves 10% of a menu that is up for grabs. The fact that the happy hour taco offered the night we went to Adobo Grill was one of the most astounding tacos I’ve ever had literally blows my mind- what! are! the! odds! For $2 a piece you could assume that it’s going to be chicken, beef, or some odd mixture because at Adobo the taco platters come in sets of three tacos with rice and beans for $15-19 so why would they give the good stuff for cheap… AND INSTEAD IT WAS A LUCIOUS FISH TACO, GRILLED TO GOLDEN PERFECTION. Topped with pico de gallo and spicy mayo sauce? Add in some of their fresh to death guac and a little spicy red salsa? It was almost tooooo good. The single corn tortilla held up beautifully against the moist, meaty fish and they did not skimp on anything even though it was 5:30 p.m. and happy hour drinks were flowing and the restaurant could have really taken advantage of that. These tacos have not left my mind, or my heart… 

Another thing so wonderful about this place: the patio! It’s open and covered in tasteful twinkle lights, with the giant mural (pictured) of a happy skeleton man a and some flowers that play off the orange and purple hues of the decor. To sit outside right across from Second City (great date night all in one city block!) and sip a Modelo pretty much means fucking euphoria, and then add in guac that actually tastes like guac and not avocado slime? KABOOM. As much as I want to say all guac is good guac Adobo puts a lot of places to shame (cough cough Chipotle how the frick is that shit celebrated so widely) and gives you a TON of incredible guac for $9. Chip score: 8/10. Guac score: 10/10. Vibes: 10/10. 

Insider scoop: Go for happy hour until 6 p.m., splurge for guac, add the salsa to everything, and order a side of plantains with sour cream. Never had plantains before? This is the perfect place to just trust the food blogger and go for it because you will DIE OVER THEM. 

2. Big Star

BIG STAR IS MY KING, QUEEN, AND THE ENTIRE KINGDOM. If you live in Chicago, and it is above freeze-my-nuts-off temperature, it is patio weather and any restaurant that puts 2 chairs and a table out front will be considered a patio destination. Like Adobo (but even better) Big Star goes above and beyond as it’s a mainly-patio restaurant, with bulb lights lights above every stainless steel table and the warmest, most inviting outdoor seating there is once the sun goes down. You can watch the people, see some street art, watch the Blue Line zoom by, and walk to Stan’s Donuts for a wide array of treats afterward (aka a blueberry cheese danish, YUMBO). 

Located in Wicker Park, a very artsy n’ cute section of Chicago that’s a bit more on the ~trendy~ side since lots of blogged about restaurants have opened up, Big Star offers tacos a la carte and the best chips and guacamole on that side of the highway. I have gone for the past two years close to my birthday to celebrate because the pitchers are insanely alcoholic and also delicious, serving about 6 glasses in each pitcher. With one marg being $9 and a pitcher being $36, it is an absolute steal and even if only two people are at the table it is worth the high price tag. Best part is that the pitcher comes with a wooden ladle which adds to the vibe of Big Star, but is also hilarious to stir your vat of tequila and juice with. Like witch’s potion, but probably even more dangerous! 

Once everyone is seated and with drink, it’s time for the poor waiter to scream over everyone to take the order. While Big Star is mostly outside, it’s verryyyyy loud due to the sheer amount of people and the music pumping from the inside section that leaves the doors/ windows wide open. We were seated near the window and with a group of ten, it was one of those nights that leaves your voice hoarse and your ears ringing but feeling like you had a good as heck time! My favorite vegetarian tacos are the:

- Taco de Zananhorias: try ordering that when you do not speak Spanish and are two margs deep! This taco is the best yet overlooked one on the menu, featuring spiced cooked carrots that are savory and still have a crunch to them, pumpkin seeds for flavor and texture, and an incredible spicy date & yogurt dressing that offers a chipotle kick to offset the sweetness of the carrots and the dates. Wrapped in a corn tortilla, this taco is actually a filling veggie taco that doesn’t just taste like red peppers topped in guac! Which is like 99% of most vegetarian tacos! The flavors in this are worth more than $2.50 a pop, which is what it will cost you. 

- Taco de Pescado: Your typical and delicious fried tilapia taco! Beer battered and with the expected crunch of cabbage, top with some line for a perfect fish taco. This is a good standby if you’re weary of the more creative ones. 

- THE WALKING TACO: Most of the table ordered this one! It’s a DAMN fever dream to eat! Let me preface by saying honey BBQ twist Fritos are my most coveted, most guilty snack that I find myself eating far too often and usually when I’m having a flip off the universe and treat yourself moment. So take the trusted, panty-dropping crunch of the Frito and then add buffalo sauce, beans, cheese, crema, and cilantro? STILL IN THE SNACK SIZE FRITO BAG? AND YOU EAT IT ALL WITH A FORK? FUCKIN NUTS GUYS. I know for a fact this stretches the authentic “Mexican food” title, but man that was a great business decision to include it. Once a year, as a birthday treat, the Walking Taco is my bitch. 

Shoutout to Big Star, the ideal location for any event that needs tequila. 

3. Garcia’s Restaurant 

Garcia’s feels like home due to the amount of times a meal there has included the same group of close friends, emotional conversations about sorority stuff, and late night escapes from boys that don’t understand when they’re ridiculous, we will go get mole and strawberry daiquiris instead of dealing with them. While I have no photos to share, I do have memories and the assurance that this place is truly authentic. From the large wooden chairs to the flags on the wall, atmosphere lacks but the food is absolutely incredible. I always order the Cheese Enchiladas with mole poblano on top, and it is the real mole that makes you warm from the inside out. It’s thick with notes of cocoa, spices, and not too sweet- almost bittersweet in fact, and with the pull of cheese inside chewy tortillas all rolled up underneath it is a rare find indeed. 

The chips & salsa take the cake in my book; they’re perfectly crispy and not greasy, and the salsa will make your eyes water but then before you know it your face is soaking wet because you ate ALL OF THE SALSA ANYWAY. Hurts so good, you know? 

And as mentioned the strawberry daiquiri is DOPE DOPE DOPE. Huge for the price, sweet and sugary with all the spicy food, and perfect for late night gossip. Or pregaming, either one. 

4. Taco Diablo 

An Evanston favorite! The OG Taco Diablo opened a few years ago and was an instant hit in the North Shore as it was a dark, intimate den of Mexican food, a place for casual drinks, and coated in sugar skull paintings and weird demonic creatures dancing around the bar area. Given the logo has little devils in it, it’s fitting that here they take a sultry, somewhat naughty approach to decor and food. We went once or twice a week and craved their guac that has a very specific lime & garlic undertone to it in the best way guac ever could, and the baskets of thin chips with rock salt sprinkled on the sides. 

No one was prepared for the morning we woke up and Beloved Taco Diablo had burned down, along with it’s neighboring restaurant Pine Yard. Needless to say, everyone was SHOOK and really genuinely upset that this tragedy struck such loved, run-by-good-people places. So then even more was no one prepared when the ashes were burried and from them rose A NEW TACO DIABO RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET! The owners of this cantina and the conjoining (long time closed) Asian-influence restaurant Lulu’s bought a double lot across the street and just went gung-ho on giving Evanston two of their favorite places back, which was like Christmas 100x over. The tacos from Taco Diablo AND the sesame peanut noodles from Lulu’s??? Next door??? HECKIN’ YES. I have literally downed a -very strong- marg with friends at Taco Diablo and then placed an order for the noodles to go to enjoy later in bed, and if that’s not employing DEMAND AND SUPPLY IDK WHAT IS. 

Go here for dinner with friends, a second date or a weekly drink date, and to sample every fucking thing on the menu. Especially the chilaquiles!!! 

5. Depot Nuevo

This one is hardest to type because we adore it, cherish it, crave it, owe many years of our lives to it way too much and in fact I will be here this week a couple times already. Depot graced our lives many moons ago in Wilmette and quickly became the neighborhood hub, as it’s downtown and in a real, separate house with a wraparound porch and the same smiling faces greeting you every single time. The menu offers your typical Mexican favorites such as tacos, fajitas, burritos + bowls, and of course guac and salsa, but with a slightly more upscale twist in a casual yet good-enough-for-a-life-event setting. The shrimp taco filled with crispy grilled shrimp, spicy crema, and actual slices of avocado are in my list of favorite foods in the entire world, but order the cheese quesadilla with a side of avocado and rice and holy frickle frackle you will never see quesadillas as a children’s food again. The cheese is juicy, chewy, stretchy, buttery, everything you could imagine and more. House-made corn tortillas and red salsa are impossible to describe, and the pomegranate margarita is the sweet n’ sour necessity to the meal that will linger in your mind for days afterward until you go back. 

Don’t brush it off because it’s in the quiet and sleepy suburbs. It is constantly busy, turnt, and I promise people in my friend group will be there heckling the staff and demanding elite service because we keep them in business. I THANK AND APPRECIATE YOUR WORK, DEPOT! 

That’s all I’ve got for you today friends, I hope this helps shape some weekend plans and gives you some new happy hour spots! What are your favorite Mexican restaurants?? Always looking for new places! 

-Natalie 

[canaryatlaw]

alright, it’s late and I’m tired so let’s do this thing. I woke up originally at 8:30 am because one of my aunt’s dogs likes to sleep under the bed I’m staying in and she was making noise, so I tried to get her to get out of the room but she wouldn’t, so I went to the bathroom and left the bedroom door open and then she left. I went back to sleep and was woken up again at like 12 by my mom asking if I wanted an egg sandwich, to which I said sure, and asked what time it was, she said around noon and I was like you know you could wake me up right....and she was like “yeah, that’s what I’m doing now” lol okay then. I got dressed and everything and had an egg sandwich which was pretty good despite me not really liking whole wheat bread (traumatic childhood memories, okay). So the plan for the day was essentially to go to the mall and for me, my sister, and girl cousin to get our nails done. so there was planning and going back and forth, and we eventually decided we’d go to the mall and go to this japanese place for lunch (despite the fact that I’d just eaten, but by the time we actually got there it was like 3) that was at the mall and then go to the nail place in the mall and go from there. So we got to the mall just as it started down pouring, I let my sister and cousin use my umbrella because I had my jacket with me that had a hood, so that helped somewhat. The place was basically sushi and some other japanese food options, I opted for one of their daily special sushi rolls which had like, shrimp tempura, mango, rare strip steak, all wrapped in rice, seaweed, and then rice paper, and served with a mango sauce, and it was really good! I was a bit concerned I maybe hadn’t ordered enough but I was still somewhat full from earlier so it was all good. When we finished I went with my sister and cousin to find the nail place. My sister already had her set of fake nails but had lost one or two, so she was gonna get those filled and in and go for other color, and my cousin was getting fake nails done. I opted for just a gel manicure because I did fake nails exactly once and they drove me up the fucking wall so I’m not doing that again, lol. My nails did have some polish on them already because I did them last week to match my toes (since I’ve been wearing sandals) with this dark purple color, but since I was changing this I decided to go with a really intense pink instead, so they’d look good together (or that was the idea at least). It was pretty standard, it’s been a while since I got a full manicure because I pretty much only do it when I’m with my sister and she wants to go. The real gel nail polish with the blue light and everything obviously works a lot better than the dupe gel knock offs you can get at the store that don’t need the light but also comes off a lot easier (though I still buy them because they’re still somewhat better than normal polish) so they look all nice and perfect now so I’m going to do my best to keep them that way. I was finished first but the girls finished not too long after me, so we left and then went to try to find this tattoo/piercing place because my sister wanted to get another hole on her ear. We stopped by pac sun quickly which was interesting, and the forever 21 at which I had to restrain myself from buying a bunch of floral dresses from the buy one get one free section because they are totally my weakness but I already own SO MANY of them. But I was successful in restraining myself, so that was good. We got to the tattoo/piercing place, they’re the same company but split into two stores right next to each other, so we were in the piercing part. Originally they were just gonna go to like Claire’s or one of the grody piercing stands in the mall but I was like noooo, those are crappy you need to go to a tattoo place, so we did. While they were getting everything sorted out I was looking around at different options for my various piercings and what would fit for me, I ended up getting a cute pair of normal earrings that are lightning bolts, and an industrial bar with the wonder woman insignia on it, though idk if or when I’ll actually use it, because I’m honestly kinda emotionally attached to my arrow industrial bar, lol, I mean I’ve had it for at least 5 years now without any thought of changing it. There was also a Superman belly button earring I liked but they didn't have it in my size, as was the case with a spiral earring for my tragus piercing. So I bought the two and then hung out for a while with the rest of everybody. The plan from there was that my sister and cousin were gonna go to a party and then sleep over my cousin’s friends house (it was briefly floated that I could join them at the party if I wanted, but they kinda figured I wouldn’t want to go to a party full of 18 and 19 year olds, which was a correct conclusion) so we left the girls and I headed back home with the adults. They had been discussing seeing a movie tonight, and were saying they were gonna see the new mission impossible movie and I was like.......eh.....I  mean how many of basically the same movie can you make that are actually good?? So we went back and forth about a couple different movies and splitting up so we could go to different ones, then I had a great idea and convinced everyone to go see Ant-Man and the Wasp, with my recommendation that they’d all like it, and they all assented to that, because I am really very good at getting what I want, so we bought tickets for the 7:25 showing of that. We were running home first though, and we stopped at the dollar general so we could get cheap movie candy and sneak it in lol, which was of course my aunt’s idea. I got a bag of sour patch watermelon and a box of sugar babies. We went home and fed the dogs as well as eating some of the leftover baked ziti from the other night before heading out to the movies. The theatre was in a pretty nice complex with a bunch of other shops, including a cold stone we’d been to previously, so I managed to casually drop that in to plant the idea of getting some after the movie. We got there slightly before the listed movie time, and I had tall the tickets on my phone so we could go straight through and just swipe it, which worked well. It was one where you had to pick your seats in advance and we couldn’t find 4 in a row, but there was a row where there were two open, and then next to them two taken ones, and then two more open ones, so I took the open ones betting that we could get the people in the two middle seats to switch with us, and once they saw that we were all together they offered to switch, so that worked out nicely. As far as the movie went, I enjoyed it just as much the second time around, they did a really good job of mixing comedy in with the epic superhero story. The little girl who plays Cassie is SOOOOOO cute, I was dying when (spoiler) Scott is running around while giant and you see them watching tv with the mom and stepdad being completely dumbfounded, then the camera pans down to Cassie and she just has the best smirk on her face because she knows EXACTLY what was going on, and it was too damn cute. I might’ve said this before, but I also really like that Scott’s ex-wife and her new husband are totally supportive of him and include him in their family because that’s such a refreshing change of pace from just about every other depiction of such a family. The humor was great, when Scott was running around as a giant my mom could not stop laughing, she thought it was the funniest thing, which made me happy to see because generally she just won’t go to movies unless they have a specific Christian connotation to them, but I thought they would all really like the movie and there really wasn’t anything “inappropriate” (like sexually or whatever) and she really liked it, so I was glad to hear that. I had to somewhat contextualize the mid-credit scene for them because of course none of them had seen infinity war or were at all aware of what happened in that movie, so they had no idea what the characters suddenly turning to dust meant. When we got out we indeed decided to go to cold stone, it was at the other end of the shopping center but we decided to walk there because my dad said he wanted to get more steps in and I was like well I live in a city and walk everywhere so I’m game lol. Just about all the stores we passed were closed (it was like 9:30 on a Friday at this point) but once we got to cold stone the line was pretty much to the door, so we had to wait for a bit. I hadn’t been there in a while, and they had a few new combos regarding their birthday celebration (so made with cake batter ice cream or different types) so instead of getting my usual strawberry order I did their strawberry cake batter one with strawberry wafers, sprinkles and caramel, which was very good but also filling and I couldn’t finish it lol. I had gotten the medium size when I otherwise would’ve gotten a small because they were running a promotion if you came in with a movie ticket from the past 24 hours you could get a buy one get one free deal for a medium size, so I couldn’t finish it lol. Once we got our ice cream we sat out at one of the tables outside and ate, then walked back to the car and drove home. I stayed up on my computer for a bit after stumbling onto a series of legends screen caps with humorous comments added on Reddit, and it was pretty fucking hilarious so I ended up posting a bunch of them on my twitter in a giant thread (with credit attributed to the original creator of course because I’m not a shitty person who would just steal content like that) and I was laughing pretty hard at all of it. but it was getting late so I showered and got ready for bed and then got distracted on my laptop for a while, then started writing this and here we are, and did I mention it’s late because it’s now past 3 am??? Don’t know what the plan for tomorrow is, if it’s somehow nice (the weather forecast predicted rain every single day this week but it’s actually been mostly sunny) we might go back to the beach but there was discussion about not being able to get a parking spot, so we may end up getting lunch at a restaurant on the beach front and see what we want to do from there. Hopefully I can sleep in a little so I’m not totally dead, lol. Alright that’s it for now folks, talk to you tomorrow. Goodnight chicos and chicas. Happy weekend.

[opepin]

july: week three

17: i was really awake at 7:15 am when my alarm woke me up, but i went back to sleep for like 5 more minutes to see what i would do in the dream i was having. LOL. well, i got up, did my hiit workout, and i had the hardest time lowering my heart rate so i could stop sweating and take a shower. .___.; after like 10 minutes, i was finally able to do it...kinda, but i had to take a shower anyway and eat breakfast and then get to work on time...ish haha. my heart rate has dropped back down to 53 bpm :) yay, it makes me happy that it’s normalizing again. my face was pretty red and i was still sweaty when i got to the train... it’s okay! i just gotta keep going and wake up earlier to give my body time to cool down. the moment i walked in, cait was like woahhh, where have you been and etc. aw, it was nice welcome back chat with her, raj, joe, and charles. some of the devs weren’t there because they had to go to their client site and everyone apparently, just rolls in later on in the day now :O lol so my not being there is not a big deal :P

i started my work day by filling out an enrollment form for benefits! i’m getting my own dental insurance -- i feel so adult. lol. then i started working on templates mixed in with some internet errands. it’ll be a short week for me because i’m taking the day off to celebrate kevin’s birthday with him on thursday :3 hmm being at the office again is so far, refreshing. i got a good amount of work done and got to catch up with phil after lunch. charles made lunch plans so i went to south station to get food from the taco party food truck but they weren’t there... so i had to do some social media hunting and i found them down the street next to gogi on the block. i got their deep fried tofu and chorizo seitan taco with a side of tortilla chips and pinto dip. mmm. i ate all of that at my desk and i was so fullll. then i ate some of the cherries i brought from home. i ate so much that i was pretty uncomfortable in the tummy for the rest of the day lol.

i continued working until 4 pm and i got real worked up about tax withholdings and allowances because something changed in my paycheck and i was trying to figure out if i needed to fix it... sigh. then i noticed that haowei and charles dipped real quick after coming back from a bathroom break... raj said he hurt physically somewhere and cait, michelle, and i were all worried and watching him lol. then i left to catch the train where this lady (she was injured / had a limp) decided to take the stairs while the braintree train was approaching. the guy behind her turned around and ran down the other side of the stairs and i just stayed behind hoping that i would make it. then she stopped midway... and when she finally got to the bottom, my train JUST left. omg, i was in such a rage. it felt like she did it on purpose because she looked back at me right after the train left and then said nothing and stopped again. i just walked around her. the next train was 15 minutes away and it was flipping packed. i had to be standing behind the most inconsiderate human being. this guy decided that he owned the entire aisle and just let his body hang out 3/4 of the aisle while holding on to the top of the holds. his hand was inches away from my butt and i was putting all my body weight on my still healing foot. i was so ticked off that i kind of pushed him whenever i could and etc but he kept taking up space -_____-” #commuterrage

he left and i got a seat on the train for the rest of the ride. i picked up packages and had to get a trolley because one of my packages was just so freaking heavy. i only realized what it was when i opened it in the apartment... me and my mom got kevin a boos cutting board and i decided to splurge and get him the largest one... i didn’t expect it to be so damn heavy. well, i read 6.5 lbs but it was SO heavy. i decided to hide it along with the boxes (just in case we need to return for a more practically sized one) under half of the bed lol. then i went to play with the new smartphone lenses i got in the mail as well. the wide angle one works like a dream and the macro one is okay... i don’t think i’ll be using that one much anyway. when kevin came back, i debated on whether to keep or return them... i made a snapchat video and asked people and they all said to keep it. i had sort of an anger episode after telling kevin about my day and what i should do about my paycheck stuff and ugh, i just couldn’t not yell and kinda shake things around. i ran around the apartment yelling ‘why ______?! why ____?!?!’

then i exercised while kevin cooked steak for dinner. the video i did was more cardio than strength so i did a lot of cardio today and i was wiped out. i took a shower and then kevin and i ate his deliciously cooked steak topped with the most delicious onion glaze ever. we watched izombie, i cut up all the dying strawberries, we ate them, and then kevin went on a small run. he’s starting to do cardio now and he told me to keep him honest... WILL DO >:D haha. i did my pt stretches and iced my feet while reading a chapter of the journey mapping book. then i brushed and got into bed just right before 12 am. i stayed up relieving an itch to edit a picture i took today with the wide angle lens, updated to instagram, and then went to sleep at 12:30 pm. zzzz. i was working from home tomorrow so i would get enough sleep to wake up at 8 am. :)

18: i woke up at 8 am, did some hip hop cardio, showered, ate breakfast, and woke up kevin. then i started work, got fired up over an article about a girl’s post on linkedin that talked about job rejection (very generic) and how she is now getting job offers and that the linkedin post is now viral -__-”, and then got even more bummed out when i was talking to cole and he revealed that all the teams at t7 will be separated when we move office locations :/ and also that the dev team went to check out the space yesterday and left me in the dark... well, i’m not in the dev team so i guess i have no right to feel sad or left out, right? it’s gonna be an interesting move :/ sigh. i ate lunch while we had our all-hands and then went to pick up kevin’s present from the package concierge :) the packaging for the thing i got him is so on point. i’m so excited to surprise him thursday morning (:

i hopped on a call with phil and dave before stand up and we figured out some things. i pointed out some design details that could be addressed -- i’ve been feeling akjnskdf about my tasks right now because everything feels so disorganized with the new features even though it’s supposed to be easier to use the product :/ well, we figured stuff out, got on stand up, and then i worked on the templates for a bit and stopped because we have a trial with a potential customer tomorrow and we didn’t want to import any unfinished sample journey maps in there if i was working on any. i got pretty tired from everything that happened in the morning so i doodled a bit to make myself feel at least a bit better before taking a nap and then doing my ab workout. after i finished, i took some pictures for pas with the wide angle lens i got and also talked to vivian for a bit on chat. kevin came back early from climbing, showered, and then we cooked right away because both of us were pretty hungry.

i rested my foot while editing my instagram and stuff. my foot started to hurt a bit but nothing is swollen. i may have done too many jumps today and yesterday... we ate dinner while finishing the latest season of izombie?! i didn’t know we went through it all that quick ): now we have to find something new to watch and / or just wait for our shows to come out again. the rest of the night, i did my pt stretches while watching half of an episode of beat shazam and then read a chapter in the journey mapping book while icing my feet. then i got ready for bed and had the hardest time falling asleep... :( i knew i wasn’t gonna get a good night’s rest by the time i did ko...

19: i had a slight headache when i woke up and my foot kind of hurt so i did low impact cardio in the morning. then i showered and ate breakfast. my stomach was cramping a lot so i decided to work from home in the morning and then head over to the office after my physical therapy appointment. i fell asleep trying to wake up kevin LOL but then i woke up and got started on work. i put on the latest world of dance episode and then continued creating templates. my stomach felt slightly uncomfortable the rest of the morning... i ate some plain buns before heading out to physical therapy. i had a bit of a longer session today because it was my last. there was some swelling in my foot again but that’s because i did 2 hiit workouts in one day on accident... i got a good farewell and then walked over to the office. i ate lunch before hopping on stand up and getting on a call. after that, i wrapped up what i did today and then headed out to pick up kevin from work at around 4:30 pm. i looped around to grab kevin a slice of cake from flour bakery and got lost doing that... so i was really sweaty by the time i got to kevin. it was soooo humid and hot today.

we walked to south station because the silver line was working above ground today and it was too hot for that. we got to south station and it was PACKED. we waited for 2 trains and then rq’d and made a reservation at a restaurant on opentable and walked over there LOL. we actually made a reservation for miel, a restaurant i booked for tomorrow’s dinner... so i had to tell kevin and he just laughed and called himself clever... haha. we were the first ones to get dinner and we also looked really out of place with our attire HAHA. we were also super sweaty. kevin got scallops and risotto and i got ratatouille pasta with red wine sangria. the sangria was good~ the pasta was subpar, but kevin’s food was deliciousssss. lol we felt too out of place to ask for the pasta to go in a box so the waiter took it and we never saw the rest again. oh well~ :/ by the time we finished eating, south station was pretty empty. we got home and just chilled out. i didn’t exercise in the evening because i walked like 40+ minutes in the humidity and i sweated a lot. so i just showered and watched beat shazam before hopping into bed at around 12 am. i stayed up to wish kevin a happy birthday of course :)

20: i got out of bed at 10:30 am or so and then set up all of kevin’s gifts on the island, wrote him a card, and made the gifts look presentable LOL. kevin already knew that he was getting a cutting board, but not the skillet and the accessories :) i woke him up at around 11:20 am and then brought him to the island and he was actually so surprised. i thought he knew i was going to get him a cast iron skillet because i’ve been telling him that we should cook steak and etc. haha. he got caught up in reading about seasoning it but then we got ready to leave for brunch at brownstone! the ‘t’ trains got there whenever we got on the platform so we had perfect timing today. we ordered drinks and got delicious egg benedicts and hash. i got the duck and sweet potato hash and kevin got the pulled pork benny. everything was delicious~ they even put a candle in his english muffin LOL <3 we got midday tipsy from drinking and walked around copley mall for a bit before going home.

we chilled on the sofa for a while when we got home. kevin read fanfic while i talked to people on facebook messenger. then we drove to roche bros to get ingredients for steak dinner (: we got back and kevin started seasoning the skillet while i did my workout for the day. he looked so happy with that large af cutting board and skillet. :P i showered and then watched kevin cook. hehe, he looked so happy. kevin had to clean the skillet a bit after cooking so our food kind of got cold but still delicious! kevin made us roasted potatoes, asparagus, and a medium steak with mushroom and onions on top. mmm. we ate while watching ‘quanitco.’ lol i got hooked right at the very first episode and we watched maybe 4-5 episodes after because there is always a twist!!! i got ready for bed before 12 am and then spent the final minutes just cuddling with kevin :3 then i went to sleep. kevin handed me my feet xray bill though and i had to look at it before i went to sleep and it got me so tilted because they charged me more than the received estimate. .__. i spent some time looking up the massachusetts pricing transparency law for health care and just gave up and went to sleep at 1 am. i did not sleep well though.

21: the health care system in america sucks. i woke up in a pretty bad mood because i looked at my x-ray bill yesterday night and i woke up with the same disgruntled thoughts -_- after brushing my teeth, i called them and they said they had no record of the estimate i was given, but they did call to check and gave me 10% off my bill. so i guess it turned out alright because i ended up paying around what i was quoted for, but still, wtf, health care? after that call, i ate breakfast, and started my work day. i felt like i needed to exercise but i needed to get some actual work done today because i feel like i’m lagging behind in some ways. i did a good amount of work and then i fit in a 30 minute oblique workout before showering, washing the dishes, and making sure all is well in the apartment before heading out to meet kevin at the envoy. this meant me stressing out about meeting him later than usual. i did calm down on the train ride there and told kevin how i felt. the overnight bag was hella heavy though so i had to stop on the bridge and rest before meeting up with kevin. my back was soaked when i got there.

we checked in and went to our room first. the room was so nice :) i loved the sliding doors with the antique map designs on them. i really liked the tv and its placement right in front of the bed. kevin and i watched quantico before getting ready to head out to miel for his birthday dinner. it was a nice walk there but our dinner there wasn’t...well, the service was pretty bad and it might be because we used a voucher? but i’m not sure. we got seated outside right away but it took forever for our server (he reminded me of my grandpa) to get our order and get our food out. he forgot to make our sangria and apologized but we were almost at our entrees by the time he remembered. he kept disappearing and attended to other tables before us for some reason too. well, the food was pretty good. we got beef tartare, atlantic sole and gnocchi, steak and frites, and sorbet for dessert. mmm. we had to take our entrees back to the hotel only to find out that there wasn’t a mini fridge. well, our dinner was 2 hours long and we spent more than half of that waiting for our food. :/ so meh. we were really full when we got back so we rested and then got a bucket of ice for our food (didn’t use it though) and then we explored the hotel. they have a fancy af fitness center that we ended up not using.

we walked along the wharf and it was so nice :) then we spent the rest of the night watching quantico. the shower was nice too with the waterfall design and the space. the envoy also has fresh brand shampoo and lotion (ofc i took that stuff when we checked out). we got a vegan almond butter coconut ice cream sandwich before room service closed down for the night and it was DELICIOUS. we stayed up until 4 am and then went to sleep in the comfy hotel bed. what a day. what an experience with kevin (: <3 i hope he’s enjoying his birthday weekend so far. hehe i love spending time with him and staying in nice hotels lulz.

22: we did wake up at 10:15 am and then i ordered room service for us for breakfast. it was so exciting! :) i got steel cut oatmeal and kevin said it did taste better than regular oatmeal hehe. i also got $6 chamomile tea... why is tea so expensive at hotels? we watched an episode of quantico as we ate breakfast and packed. lol i think we’re very lbejafhsjdf about the characters right now. we finished packing and checked out right at 12 pm. then we stopped by starbucks so i could get a drink and get gold status again LOL. we finished the pink drink by the time we got to south station. when we got back to the apartment, i unpacked all of our stuff, chilled on the sofa for a while, and i tried on my warby parker glasses. i hated them LOL. the lenses caused a lot of chromatic abberation and made my eyes terribly small so i was not into them. the frames also felt/looked smaller than they were in the store?? kevin said they looked fine and he still liked them but i was not into them. so i asked him if we could drive over to south end to spectacles and check out their frames and etc.

even though he was tired, kevin agreed and then we left :) so grateful for this bear <3 we found a really good parking spot and then met paul, the owner of the store. he adjusted my glasses for me and checked the prescription and he suggested frames and etc. the moment i walked in there, i knew that i was gonna buy glasses from him and return my warby parker ones. kevin and i had a fun time trying on glasses. kevin was also bummed because we went down to the leasing office to make an appointment to see the apartment with the den earlier that day and she told us that they had someone else sign a lease for that apartment already... wtf? we’ve been talking to her about it for weeks and they mentioned nothing about this until now. i was ajkfnsjkf about it but not as much as kevin. i got these cute round “treasure” glasses and 1.74 high index lenses for $250. it would have cost about the same if i upped the lenses to 1.74 at warby parker as well.

we drove right to kam man because we were hungry and made a makeshift meal plan for the week because we’re leaving on friday. we split a beijing crepe and bought some buns. unff chinese sponge / chiffon cakes are the best. we were in and out real quick. we put everything away when we got home and then kevin played some hollow knight while i watched. then kevin went to cook and i did 30 minutes of cardio. we ate dinner while watching quantico and then kevin went to run in the fitness center and i just did dance cardio in the apartment. this new video is pretty great, but lots of jumping x( i stopped by the center to give company to kevin and then got distracted by talking to daniel about bartering LOL. kevin showered first while i did the dishes haha and then i showered and i think we stayed up watching quantico? maybe we didn’t...but it says on my fitbit that i went to sleep at 2:30 am... he might have gamed while i watched some thing on the ipad. zzz. well, we stayed up because we had nothing planned for tomorrow :)

23: it was our lazy day today. kevin got up at 10 am to talk to priya on the phone and i lazed in the bed until around 10:30 am. i ate a banana with peanut butter and some oatmeal for breakfast while i looked at this week’s coupons and planned my outfits for our upcoming trip on friday! i watched some youtube videos and then crawled back into bed after a bit. after his call, kevin made soup dumplings and i ate some along with leftovers. i did some packing while kevin gamed a bit and then we went to bj’s to use our coupons. we stocked up on a ton of meat and i got more contact solution and lotion~ we also got a 6-pack of lunchables...LOL. right when we got back, we split a pizza and nacho one. mmm they still taste the same. then kevin went to game while i did a bit of cleaning. then we watched a few more episodes of quantico and then kevin cooked japanese curry for dinner. i did 30 minutes of cardio while kevin cooked and then stopped to fold laundry. then we ate dinner and watched more quantico. i also talked to my mom for a bit and she told me to have safe travels~ we also ended up eating 5/6 lunchables by the end of the day and then i did 30 minutes of back and then 20 more minutes of hip hop cardio because i was feeling bad about eating them lunchables LOL. i showered and then got ready for bed and snoozed at around 12 am. wow, we did a lot today :O