August was quite the month. It just came and went by so fast. How did the last month of summer just come and go? Students are headed back to schools. Labor day is just around the corner. It’s State Fair season without the state fair. Even when I didn’t live in MN I still made it to the state fair every year…multiple times, but not this year. Though, there was a state fair parade.

Okay, so what happened in August… I spent some time in Minnesota, per the usual. I then did a maybe crazy thing. I hopped on a plane. I was on my way to NYC for a month (originally it was only supposed to be 3 weeks, but then I realized I had to quarantine for 14 days. It would be 14 days spent trying to be as productive as possible and getting a lot of things done so I can explore the other 14 days. My guess is that I will end up with a LOT of photos on this trip.

August Outing Highlights:

1. Mini Golf – first non-park outing activity at Novelty Golf (they have 2 mini golf courses. They also have batting cages.
2. Weddings: Erica & Louie, Joanna & Chatty – both virtual and both fantastic
3. Paychex HH – always at RA Sushi now and monthly versus a quarterly pre-pandemic. Love my ex-colleagues.
4. Christine’s Farewell – socially distance park hang for our friend who was off to big adventures in CA as a wildland firefighter.
5. Minnesota – as always, there is a lot of food and board games involved. This month also included a graduation photo shoot for my friend Jin and the search for sunflower fields.
6. New York City – impulsive airplane purchase with a little bit of pre-planning, but I’m here for a month. 14 days in quarantine and then watch out NYC!
7. Hung out with my friend Eric, who just moved back into the neighborhood…and we got rained on TWICE, but had good drinks and saw a beautiful rainbow.
8. Baby Shower Parade – my friend Kara is due in early November and as a joke one of my friends suggested a drive by and present chucking event which then turned into a baby shower parade and safe front yard hang.
9. COVID test – pretty sure this is them just taking a sample of brain matter. That’s how far up it feels it goes. I tested negative. (and am I really putting this as a highlight?)
10. Mani + Pedi – it’ s been so many months, but it’s also from my favorite shop in Brooklyn (Tina Green Nail Salon). Though, I now know…they are not as good as the shop I go to in Elgin, IL. It’s about the same price though. And a little of self care and love.
11. Bison searching at Midewin National Tallgrass Praire with my friend Ed was fun.

August Food Highlights (photo dump below…and not even everything):

1. Feng Cha for bubble tea.
2. My first jibarito from food cart/truck in Humboldt Park.
3. Homemade bagels from my friend Tom.
4. Tum mango – it’s just so good.
5. MCCB‘s dry hot pot.
6. Homemade pasta sauce from fresh garden tomatoes.
7. Homemade Mexican corn salad.
8. Paris Baguette‘s matcha chiffon cake.
9. Korean snackies from Bin!
10. Pho Mai‘s pho dac biet.

Stuff I watched/am still watching (I feel like it might be more than the other months):

1. Doctor Who: Season 11 (English, HBO Max) – still watching
2. Chun Cheu Busaba (Thai, Viki) – still airing. He is trying to open a restaurant to keep the hotel from being sold. He hires a chef whose specialty is traditional food. They enter a cooking competition in the hopes of winning and getting the restaurant name out there. He’s younger. She’s older after having just getting out of a long term relationship.
3. Ngao Jai (Thai, YouTube) – still airing. May enters into marriage with a childhood friend, Wathit, who has health issues in exchange for his father helping her family out with some legal issues. However, someone is out to kill him. He ends up in a coma. His very healthy twin brother (they didn’t know about each other) takes his place to figure out who the culprit is.
4. Le Lub Salub Rang (Thai, YouTube) – binged and finished. I forgot what this one was about, but just googled it. It was pretty funny. It was another Yaya & Nadech series. In this one, he’s a SWAT team captain and she’s an entitled actress.
5. 3%: Season 4 (Portugese, Netflix) – still watching. Only the 3%, after a series of tests, make it out of the slums and over to the Offshore to the good life.
6. Thara Himilai (Thai, YouTube) – binged and finished. Part of a 4-part series about quadruplets that fall in love. This is the first of the four and also only sister.
7. Duang Jai Akkanee (Thai, YouTube)- binged and finished. Part of a 4-part series about quadruplets that fall in love. This is the second of the four and one of three brothers. A Yaya and Nadech show.
8. Pattapee Ruk (Thai, YouTube)- binged and finished. Part of a 4-part series about quadruplets that fall in love. This is the second of the four and one of three brothers.
9. Wayupak Montra (Thai, YouTube)- binged and finished. Part of a 4-part series about quadruplets that fall in love. This is the second of the four and one of three brothers. The most outrageous story, but I still watched it. At this point, I was invested.
10. Ban Lang Dok Mai (Thai, YouTube) – just finished. She owns a flower farm. He lives in the city and is an heir to a corporation. He’s also an entitled party boy. His grandfather dies and puts her in charge unless he can meet the terms of the will at which point everything will then be his.
11. Was It Love? (Korean, Netflix) – still airing. Finale to air Sept. 2nd. I cannot wait to see how it all ends. But a story of love re-found 14 years later, but also there are 4 suitors. She also has a 14 year old daughter, so there’s that.
12. It’s Okay to Not Be Okay (Korean, Netflix) – finished. It turned out to be so so good. It’s not your typical story and is super intriguing and deals with the topic of mental health. It’s also beautifully shot and the characters are so good.
13. Mia Ar Cheep aka The Perfect Wife (Thai, Netflix) – still airing. Really enjoying this one. She was paid to marry a guy to help her ailing father.
14. My Precious Bad Luck (Thai, Netflix) – Super cheesey, but I feel I’m invested now. They used to date in high school for a hot minute, but she broke his heart and now they work at the same company.
15. Umbrella Academy: Season 1 (rewatch) & Season 2 (English, Netflix) – still watching
16. Tam Rak Kheun Jai (Thai, Netflix) – binged and finished. A nice girl growing up in Bangkok with money discovers her dad is still alive and working on a farm in the country sets out to find him and to get to know him before she’s off to study abroad. Also, I love Mew.
17. The K2 (Korean, Netflix) – A mercenary it set up to guard a presidential candidate’s secret daughter.
18. Neung Nai Suang (Thai, YouTube) – still airing. Neung has ust retruned from abroad and everyone is beyond excited excited for one person. Poom just remembers him has the kid that tortured her their entire childhood. He, however, feels different and falls in love at first sight upon seeing her.
19. Rang Pratana (Thai, YouTube) – still airing. He’s in love with his girlfriend and plans on marrying her, but her parents don’t like him. To her, she was the orphan her father took in, but also her older brother. She won’t let just any girl have him.
20. Lucifer: Season 5, Part A (English, Netflix) – binged and finished. It was so good. I cannot wait for Part B and the final season, which they found out while they were writing the show finale which was supposed to end with Season 5.
21. 24 Hours to Hell & Back (English, Hulu) – still watching. It’s been so long since I watched this kind of show…and I still enjoy them. Gordan Ramsay has 24 hours to turn around a restauant on the brink of closing. Will they continue with the positive changes or revert ack to their owld ways.
22. Work It (English, Netflix) – finished. A quick movie to add to the roster. A girl is trying to get into a dream school but her resume is like ever other over achiever and with nothing that makes her stand out until she lies and says she’s a part of the dance team.
23. The Sleepover (English, Netflix) – finished. Another quick movie. A couple of kids find their parents are kidnapped and are involved in something they would’ve never expected.
24. Cobra Kai: Season 1 & 2 (English, Netflix) – binged and finished. From YouTube Red and over to Netflix. It was so much better than I expected. I cannot wait for Season 3.
25. Waen Dok Mai (Thai, YouTube) – binged and finished. Two singles become friends after discovering they mutual goal of staying single and NOT getting married. That is until they catch the feels. She works at a magazine about families and he owns a flower shop that caters to events, such as weddings.
26. The Charming Stepmom (Thai, Netflix) – rewatch. I thoroughly enjoy this series and have definitely watched it more than a couple times. Because it’s on Netflix, it definitely has English subtitles. Also, it’s just funny and cracks me up at times. Tammy pretends to be her sister, Cherry, and move’s into Cherry’s boyfriend’s house to take care of his kids for 3 months. He’s not home because his job takes him all over the world.
27. Legend of Korra (English, Netflix) – The sequel to Avtar: The Last Airbender. It’s the second time I’m watchign it in about 2 months. First time was on CBS All Access and now it’s on Netflix…so rewatch. The show I watch with my brother.

So I just realized, the blog is titled September, but summarizes up August. I should change this, but now we’re 5/6 months in to this format so it will just live on. As for the blog itself, let me know if there’s anything you want to know more about or have questions for me. Suggestions for shows I should watch, things I should eat…or things you’d like to see me do. Working on several things on this side of the screen. Watch out for upcoming posts (like my COVID Top 10 Watchlist). Until next month!