Book Unhaul (15)

I was packing up the last of my clothes from home last month and ended up looking through my TBR pile again. I found some more books that I lost interest in. I just forgot to post this because life has been busy, lol.

Illusive by Emily Lloyd-Jones

World War Z by Max Brooks

The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancy

The Curse of the Wendigo by Rick Yancy

Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

Dust & Decay by Jonathan Maberry

The Party Line by Doug Young

Code by Kathy Reichs & Brendan Reichs

Hanging Out, Surprise Visits, Working From Home, & Diet Bet

Here's what happened during the second half of July!

The next week, I started talking with Emily, and we made plans to get dinner together that night since her boyfriend left for a business trip earlier that morning. We ended up going to Tom+Chee, this grilled cheese restaurant I've been wanting to go to for a while. It was really good!

The next couple of days, Jessica came over to spend the night since she was having relationship issues. Basically, she's seeing this guy who goes to KSU, but he's so busy that he can't see her until the weekend like they originally planned. However, Jessica's weekend starts early since she works on Sundays, so she decided to come up early and see if he'd let her crash with him. But this guy is still being wishy washy about their relationship, since his last one wasn't very healthy, which is why he wanted to take things slow, and he knew that having her spend a couple of nights at his apartment would be bad for taking things slow. So she made plans to stay at my place and tease him that she was on her way to his place all of the time when she knew he'd be home, lol.

We went to Sweet Hut the first night, since Jessica skipped dinner to make the drive up and was hungry by then. The next night, I took her out to Revolving Sushi since she was down for conveyer belt sushi, lol. We also started watching On My Block on Netflix, which is the tv show continuation of Dear White People, and we got so hooked onto the show, lol. (I should probably finish it this weekend now that I think about it...) She left the next day while I was at work to take her mom out to lunch before seeing him.

Kyle's grandfather passed away this week, so they went to his funeral that Friday. Originally, we had planned on going home that weekend to see our parents, but Shelle thought that it would be better if they stayed home that weekend to recuperate seeing the rest of Kyle's family and to go to a candle-making class she signed up for a while ago, but mom basically guilted Shelle to come down that weekend, since they were going to St. Lucia the next weekend. So we basically came home for less than 24 hours instead of my original plan of taking Monday off and seeing David longer that weekend, which sucked. 

Instead, I did that the next weekend. :)

But before I get to that, I wanted to talk about how the interns on my floor finally went to get pho with Quang earlier that week! We had been planning on going to Pho Dakao with him since the last time we went to lunch with him, but everyone's schedules were really busy, so it got pushed back for almost two months. But we went, and now I know that there's a decent pho place around work that I can go to whenever I want, lol.

After work, Shelle, Kyle, and I went to Ponce City Market to pick up their candles they made last weekend at a candle making class. We got dinner at the Szechuan place there, which was really good. I didn't know that it was more family-style there, but that was cool.

That Thursday, my manager told me that I could work from home on Friday because I was planning on driving down that day to visit David, so that was the original plan. After work, Shelle and I got our nails done since it had been a month since our last manicure, and our nails were looking rough. After we got home though, I realized that I could just skip traffic by driving home that night and work from home at David's house the next day.

So that's what I did. I drove down to his house and got there around midnight and worked from home the next day. David had to work at 11, but he came back home for his lunch break, so I got to eat lunch with him before he went back to work, and so did I. Since David worked until 10 that night, I invited Mikey out for dinner to bother David at work since we hadn't hungout in a while. Afterwards, we went back to his place and played with his dog, Wally, and talked until 1 AM.

Originally, I had asked Jackie and Meethu if they wanted to grab dinner that night, but since they were both busy, I didn't hangout with Meethu until the next morning for lunch and Jackie later that night after she got off of work. There's a new Vietnamese restaurant that opened up recently in town, so we ended getting brunch there since we were running late and wanted to try it out. It's pretty good; there's a lot of boba options, which I liked, lol.

Jackie wanted to get dinner later that night since she hadn't eaten since before work, and Meethu also came after she got off of work at the same time, too. We ended up going to Steak 'n Shake for milkshakes and food since it was one of the only places still open at 10 PM lol. We stayed there until around 1:30 just talking and catching up. I hadn't seen both of them since before I moved to Kennesaw, so it was nice talking to them and goofing off. :)

I just kind of felt bad for David, because I had originally gone down to spend time with him, but since he was working for two of the three days I was there, I made time to hangout with some other friends, and they ended up taking place during the times when he was free or just got out of work. But I tried to make it up to him during Sunday when he didn't work, and we spent the day just lazing around and making grilled cheese sandwiches to go with our tomato bisque and hanging out until I drove home after dinner. 

The next day was National Cheesecake Day, so The Cheesecake Factory had their cheesecake half off, which is why Shelle, Kyle, and I went there for dinner after work that day, lol. It was crazy packed and took them a while to give us our food, so I was already full off of bread and appetizers by the time my meal arrived, lol.

What sucked is that that was the first day my coworkers and I started our diet bet, and I was already doing poorly, lol. I was complaining to Jack at work that day that I had gained weight, so he told me that he and Anita had a bet going on to see who would lose the most weight by the end of August, and that the loser had to pay for the winner's lunch. He invited me to the bet, and then it spiraled to involve a couple of other people on our team, so we've been weighing ourselves every week to check in and see our current standings. I'm currently near the bottom because I haven't lost as much weight as everyone else. Lol, but it's okay because I've been losing weight instead of gaining it.

But yeah, that's all that happened in July. Lots of exciting stuff lol.

Shows I'm Currently Watching: My Hero Academia, Overlord III, On My Block, Isekai, Good Morning Call

I've been watching a lot of stuff lately, mainly anime like usual but also a couple of dramas.

CURRENTLY WATCHING:

My Hero Academia

This season is just so good! Ugh, I can't get enough. Mikey and I are always spamming each other after we watch the newest episode and gushing about how good it was and how they need to just hurry up and release the rest of the season's episode already, lol.

Overlord III

David and I have been watching it together weekly, but we've been busy lately, so we're an episode or two behind. Overlord in general has a lot of plot and lead up, so this season is pretty slow going since it just started last month.

Dear White People

Jessica and I started watching this when she spent a couple of nights over at my house. This is a continuation of the movie Dear White People, which came out a few years ago, and it's just as good and original and unapologetic, and I loved it. I just haven't watched it since Jessica left, lol. I'm definitely planning on finishing it soon though!

How Not to Summon a Demon Lord

Just looking from the promo pics makes it pretty obvious that it's another "I suddenly got transferred into this game and am OP and have a huge harem" anime, but I AIN'T MAD lol. It's still pretty funny, and watching the main character figure out how to act per his Demon Lord character compared to his internal reactions is hilarious.

Good Morning Call

I decided to watch this Japanese drama on a whim and did not expect to like it as much as I did, lol. It's based off of an old shojo manga, and it definitely shows with all of the tropes like the childhood best friend love triangle and the popular jerk love interest. But what can I say, after the first cringy 30 minutes, I was hooked. I even stayed up til 3AM watching it the other day even though I had to wake up in three and a half hours to go to work. -__-" Mistakes were made, but my work has suddenly gotten more relaxed, so I can afford to be sleep deprived for a day or two, lol.

FINISHED:

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody

I actually really enjoyed this anime. It's another "I suddenly got transferred into this game and am OP and have a huge harem" anime, but the main character isn't a huge pervert, and other than one character who keeps on trying to seduce him, it's not really perverted because no one tries to sleep with each other. Instead, this was more of a slice of life fantasy anime where the main character was trying to figure out how to use magic and his skills to solve problems like washing his clothes and helping people. I'm curious to see how it ends, but I'm not sure that there's even going to be a second season. :(

A Love So Beautiful

Even though I only watched the second half of the drama, I still count it as finishing it since Shelle basically filled me in the plot for the first cringy half of the drama, lol. She had stayed up late watching it the night before one weekend, and we all got roped into watching it with her that weekend. By then, I was invested in her relationship lol. It was good but cringy at times and hilarious and full of shocking moments when the main guy got what he deserved! All in all, it was a roller coaster of a drama. XD

The King's Avatar OVA

I didn't even know there was going to be an OVA let alone a second season! Then I randomly saw it on a website, so I marathoned all four episodes of the OVA and found out that season two comes out next year. The anime has a new animation studio, so the art was different--prettier if I had to describe it lol--but I'm not complaining. The OVA was basically a short interlude to build up the next season, but it still had a good plot and ending episode. I've read around a third of the whole series' webnovels, so I remembered this topic pretty clearly, but it was even cooler to watch it in action compared to reading it.

The King's Avatar Season 1

Watching the OVA basically made me nostalgic and want to rewatch the first season to remember how great it was, so I did lol. It really didn't take me much time to rewatch it since there's only 12 episodes, but it was as great as I remembered. It actually made me go back to reading the webnovel. I think I stopped reading it last year because I got busy with finals and stuff, so I've been rereading the past few volumes to remember what happened, since there's so many characters and events happening.

Racial Tensions, BBQ, Anime, Birthdays, Anniversaries, Volunteering, & Annoyances

July was eventful. I feel like half of the month was just spent eating out and hanging with friends, lol. I definitely have to split this post in half, since so much happened! But first, I have to talk about the interesting Fourth of July party Shelle, Kyle, and I went to.

They're friend, Lance, invited us to celebrate the Fourth of July with him at his dad's house, which was out in the country and therefore let us be as loud as possible. We didn't know that his whole family and some of their friends were going to be there, too. We also didn't take the time to think about the mentality of small town folks before arriving there.

Then we stepped inside his dad's house and immediately realized that Shelle and I were the only colored people there. It was kind of awkward at first, but Lance's younger sister, Caroline, was pretty loud and outspoken, so it wasn't always silent or anything, especially since we stuck to safe getting-to-know-you topics. I'm not sure if things got better or worse after TJ appeared, because on one hand, he and I started making Get Out jokes (but no one else understood them because they've never seen it! D:), and there was one more colored person there. On the other hand, the conversations kept on going back to race every once in a while.

Like, we get it. Everyone was trying to be respectful about race relations, especially about black people. Caroline even said that she dated a black person before (not helpful), but it just got tense and awkward around times, especially when she kept on talking about this viral transgendered post about how not just women have periods. It got super awkward because she kept on referring to the pictured person as an "it" rather than a person, even after TJ suggested her to just call the person them since we don't know their gender. Instead, she responded back that she was going to keep on referring to them as an "it" because she didn't know if they were a boy or a girl.

Are you kidding me???

Then, there was the whole gun issue. When we first stepped into the house, we saw a pink handgun just laying there on one of the low living room tables. Caroline didn't move her gun somewhere else safer and away from people until one of the dogs started sniffing at it! Then, throughout the night, she would occasionally threaten to shoot anyone who had a different opinion from her. I get that it was a joke, and she mainly said it to her brother and her childhood friends, so it was obviously just at people close to her, but really? That's just not something you joke about, especially in these times.

My respect for Jerry grew exponentially by the end of the night because I've only ever been exposed to good gun behavior due to him, my dad, and Kyle, and it was the exact opposite of how Caroline handled her gun. Jerry's the only one I know who actively carries, and he's a lot more responsible and safe when handling his guns around others than Caroline ever was. He puts his guns in safe areas where mainly he'll be able to reach it like the top of a fridge, he always checks to see if the safety's off before letting others hold his gun, and he never threatens to shoot anyone, especially as a joke, because he knows it's wrong.

So yeah, I left the party with mixed feelings, especially because of Caroline's joke towards the end of the night.

Shelle and I were talking to someone else when we heard Caroline saying some joke to TJ on the other side of the room when we heard her say something like "when we have two Chinese people here," and I instantly was shocked and then pissed. I get that it's a joke, but we're not close enough for herto be making racist jokes about us, especially when she got the wrong race. I'm sure that Lance has told her before that we're Vietnamese, and it was really irritating to be called Chinese even in a joke. But I was tired, it had been a long night of racial tension, and I didn't want to start something, so I just pretended to not have heard it and ignored it until we left the party.

Other than those instances, the party was pretty fun. I got to meet some new people, and I got to know TJ more, so we're friends now and will probably make plans to hangout soon. But just thinking back on those instances makes me irritated still, because I've never experienced such closed minded thinking and racism in my face in a long time until then.

Kyle was craving bbq all week, so we tried out a new place called B's Cracklin Barbeque after work that Friday. It was pretty good, but I realized that I'm not much of a bbq person because it's just too much meat and grease for me. Afterwards, we went to watch Ant-Man and the Wasp at Studio Movie Grill, which is a nicer movie theater that offers meals and drinks during the movie.

That Sunday, David came up to visit. We had planned on marathoning the entire second season of Seven Deadly Sins since it had just finished, but we only got around to watching the first half. All-in-all, not a bad way to spend Sunday cuddled up watching anime. :)

The next day was Shelle's birthday, so we ordered Chinese takeout to celebrate since she was craving it. That, and because Kyle refused to let her cook on her birthday. They went out to some fancy place to really celebrate her birthday on the weekend, so there was that.

I didn't go because David took that Saturday off so that he could come up and stay for longer that weekend to celebrate our four year anniversary. We started off by getting some Indian food for lunch that Saturday since the four of us were craving Indian food earlier in the week. The next day, David and I went out to Nori Nori, this Japanese sushi buffet place that we've been wanting to go back to since the last time we went with our friends, to celebrate our anniversary. Then, when Shelle and Kyle went out to dinner celebrate her birthday, we ate a frozen pizza that David brought up from home, lol. Basically, that whole week was dedicated to anime, cuddling, and food, which was awesome in my books.

I forgot to mention that I also volunteered at the Atlanta Community Food Bank with a bunch of employees and interns earlier that week. Our company has a volunteer day where we can take the day off to volunteer and still get paid for the day, so some of the interns planned an intern volunteer day at the food bank a few months back, and it finally happened. It was pretty fun.

I learned a lot about how the food bank is for anyone who's having a rough week or month or year, and that it's not just for homeless people. It's for people or families who suddenly couldn't work or couldn't afford to take care of their families due to certain reasons. I also learned that a lot of senior citizens also can't afford food in addition to medicine or transportation or any number of reasons, so the food bank organizes and delivers boxes of food for senior citizens every month to help them get by so that they don't have to choose between food or medicine or electricity.

My part of the job was to pick up the boxes and put them on the weighing stations to make sure they weren't over or under the weight limit, and then stacking the boxes onto the wooden pallets five boxes high, which was almost as tall as I was. Luckily, there was another person there, so we slit up the work so that I would move the boxes onto the weighing stations, and he would stack the boxes since he was taller. My main mistake was wearing a thin, gray shirt that totally showed my sweat, lol. People were asking me if I was okay after 30 minutes because they could see my sweat showing through! But it was fun overall. I wouldn't mind doing it again.

Afterwards, the interns wanted to go eat out somewhere closeby to hangout, so we ended going to Bar Taco. I didn't realize that I've actually been to one before until we got there, lol. I forgot that Harrison took Mikey and me there one time when we went up to for Mikey's Calman visits. But this Bar Taco was at a different location, which is why I didn't recognize it.

Here's the thing, I was doing a lot of manual labor that day. I was tired. But I had gotten a ride from Sophie, so I felt bad for saying no since she wanted to go eat. So I was pretty tired and feeling introverted when we got there. It didn't help that I sat next to Sonali, who I had just met earlier while volunteering that day, who had just started working here a week ago, and who doesn't have a lot of experience eating most non-Indian foods. So when she started demanding to know what I was planning on ordering 5 minutes after I started looking at the menu, I was not in the mood.

I don't like it when people demand me to do something. It instantly puts me on edge and makes me defensive. I realized that she was asking me because she was curious and hadn't had much experience eating Mexican food (and I've realized now that I've known her for a month that she likes having people's opinions on stuff before trying it), but her tone of voice was not helping. Then she asked me again in the same tone of voice, and I was annoyed with her. And then I got annoyed with myself because I had already invited her to lunch with us the next day and because I knew she wasn't being malicious at all. But yeah, my first impression of her wasn't the greatest.

And it didn't really get any better... We basically eat lunch together with her now since we're all on the 12th floor, and I still kind of get annoyed with her because she's kind of demanding. Like I was picking up my phone to look something up at lunch about a topic we were discussing, and she reaches over and taps my hand as a sign that she wants to look at it, too, instead of just picking up her own phone which is right there even closer to her than my hand. And she's spacey at times, so she doesn't pay attention, and we have to repeat stuff to her a lot.

Idk. Honestly, I think I'm an asshole. She's a perfectly nice person...she has a demanding tone of voice, but I think it's partly because of her accent that makes it sound that way. Idk man... Some people just rub you the wrong way, and I think she's one of them for me. Or I just hold a long grudge, lol.

And with that, I'll end the post here, lol.

Books I Want to Read This Month

I brought back some books from home this past weekend and actually started a new book Sunday night, so let's here's hoping that I'll read some more this month!

1. Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff
2. Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat
3. Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls In a Dungeon? vol. 9 by Fujino Omori & Suzuhito Yasuda
4. Seraph of the End vol. 1 by Takaya Kagami & Yamato Yamamoto
5. Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty vol. 1 by Megumi Morino
6. Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty vol. 2 by Megumi Morino
7. Tsumiko and the Enslaved Fox by Forthright
8. Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer
9. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
10. In Real Life by Cory Doctorow & Jen Wang
11. A Midsummer's Nightmare by Kody Keplinger
12. The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur
13. Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
14. The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman
15. The Consumption of Magic by T.J. Klune

July in Retrospect

A lot has happened this month, and yet I still had time to watch a lot of anime, lol. But the weather this week is really bringing me down. So much rain! D:

I watched:

• Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
• Hasan Minhaj: Homecoming King (2017)
• Vir Das: Abroad Understanding (2017)
• Seven Deadly Sins: Revival of The Commandments (2018)
• Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai (2018)
• Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody (2018)

I started reading a book a few days ago! It's slow going since I only have 30 minutes to read it before bed, but I'm trying to finish something, lol.