Excuses, excuses (and no more excuses)

Ok, last week I said I would update and didn't so now I have pretty much a month to go over I feel. My excuses are as follows:

The week after Claire and Kristiana left, I had my first lab meeting presentation. I worked night and day on that thing the weekend before presenting and then was all stressed trying to pull it all together. I think it went well thankfully, and the feedback was positive :) There was room for improvement, but boy did that stress me out. That was the two Fridays before Halloween, ie the day before Naoni came to visit me.

[my fall flowers <3 Besides one week where it got really cold and I got sick, the weather here has been nice for the fall I think. It's starting to just get cold again this week, but so far it's ok]

That weekend also started the 3 week tour of my family visiting. Uncle Philip had been starring in a musical called Monstress. That weekend, my aunt and uncle came. The following weekend we had my parents. And last weekend, my other aunt and uncle came. It's been a whirlwind seeing everyone :O

So the first of those weekends was also the one where the one and only, Naoni, came into town! She stayed for the week up until Halloween, and we got up to quite a bit as expected. We saw May and Emma, went to Kenzie's Halloween party at my apartment, ate some really yummy food (of course!), and had cozy nights watching a not-so-cozy show, Dahmer. It was really well done but super unsettling and disturbing. Halloweekend was also when my parents came and Kenzie's bf was there that week as well. We saw Uncle Philip's musical, and I thought it was really fun and well done! It was a small cast in a blackbox theatre so I liked that we were really up close and personal. If you guys didn't know, before acting, Uncle Philip was really serious about violin. He went to high school even for it! In the show, it was cool because many of the actors played instruments, and he was doing the violin part. I was very impressed :D

[my uncle got us frozen hot chocs from this place famous for them called Serendipity. Well actually it was a food truck from there, but ya know, similar effect. It was quite scrumptious I have to admit. It was fun to see them! I haven't since my grandma's funeral october 2021. They also gave me some good advice about medical school :)]

[she is literally the moment. Naoni is really good at posing, i was very impressed. We tried this Ethiopian place and it was tooooo good. I am hungry thinking about it. She also introduced me to this pizza place I really liked and will be going back to :) For Kenzie's Halloween party, she dressed as ~Lady Kronos~. I was confused what that meant but she really went all out with this one.]

[more food moments with Naoni- we went to a japanese cafe (the lady was being confusing bc Naoni asked if it was like an authentic tea house bc the place is called Cha-An TEA HOUSE but the lady was like noooooo it's like a cafe but whatever) and I had black sesame creme brulee and naoni had matcha tiramisu but they used real sake and I tried just a tiny bit and that stuff was stronggg. Naoni definitely was feeling it after finishing it off - The gelato we had with Emma!! They had dinner but I was at work, so we just met and had some yummy dessert after :) - The boba was mid but it's okay - and the rest was amazing <3 The spread you see was all that Kenzie put together for the party! She did a great job getting everything together. I mostly helped by making those little mouse treats and some choco strawbs, but she really went all out with decorating and planning this! I think her efforts paid off, it was a fun time :)

[We went to the FIT museum with May and one exhibit they had on was about shoes. I liked seeing all the funky shoes, I like the pink ones most (are you surprised?)]

[I've been meaning to go to the Line store again in Times Square. Naoni kindly accompanied]

[NYC was in the halloween spirit! I likes seeing the house decorations. It was interesting to see how a city does Halloween. On actual Halloween (a Monday) I had work (booooooo :( ) but it was okay. I wore my little pumpkin ears. I also volunteered at the hospital giving out treat bags. It was a little sad because so many of the patients are in serious states, but I think it did make some people happier]

reunion!!!!!

[us with the star of the production, which by the way, dealt with stories from greek mythology!]

[my parents stayed in Ktown, which made it convenient to eat there. At this popular dessert spot there called Grace Street, they were having a Jungkook bday popup. They had some cute stuff actually (non-BTS stuff too). My mom was happy]

[Naoni got me delicious belgian chocolate that I gobbled up at work. work is really draining to me, so sometimes I think I wasn't the best host :( but it was really fun having Naoni over! Even though she couldn't make it to Albania, I'm glad she got to get on a flight after all.]

Last weekend, I watched my cousins in their hotel room while my other aunt and uncle watched the musical. Papalolo was supposed to come, but he adamantly refused when some weather delayed then cancelled the original flight. He can be the superstitious type. It was funny though because he has this group of friends he goes on cruises with. They went to New York too to see the play, but in the end.... they still went (I feel like it was like 10 people haha) while my grandpa stayed back.

One of these days (I will not say for legal reasons but text me if you really want to know) recently, I helped Mary do something pretty cool! The lady she works for is casting a new show (the same creators of Marvelous Mrs. Maisel which Mary just finished with) about ballet. I helped run the ballet audition! And by helped I mean I directed dancers where to go XD. I wish I got to see them dance, but it's okay. It was an interesting experience nonetheless.

[Mary at work running the audition, the Vietnamese food we had when she told me about this open call audition. Me and Zach were like uhhhh...... to the taro/coconut milk dessert soup she got but I guess she liked it which is what counts]

And tonight, I just came back from watching a screening at an AMC in Time Square of another untitled production. I'm not supposed to say anything about it, but it was an unfinished A24 movie. It was pretty much there, but there were some parts where they said they still need to color correct and adjust audio. Also sometimes there were words on the bottom of the screen and it's lines that are still going to be added in later. I really liked this movie, so I'll have to tell you guys more when it's released ;)

[we spent 10 minutes deciding what snacks to get]

For those of you following my crafty journeys, my cardigan I started when moving here is done! Blocked and buttoned and everything. The blocking really did make the finish of the fabric nicer and it smells good too :) I got this yarn in the picardie region of France, so it's a special knit all around.

I fired 3 pieces out of my pottery classes! This is the only one I glazed... but Kenzie is doing another session and said she'd glaze for me once I do the underglaze (that's how I was able to do the designs). This one I'm really happy with, so I really need to do the other ones soon :) I didn't go for the following pottery session because of money and to just have a little break. But I do want to do another one at that studio at some point soon! I feel much more confident on the wheel, and I would be excited to make even more special items.