JUNE: Cousin Visit, Visit the Parents, BTS Concert, Dentist Appointment, Father's Day Present, Potential Root Canal, Cabin Trip

June was a busy month! It flew by so quickly!

My cousin, Leanne, spent the night during the first week of June. Last time she and her husband came, she was convinced by Shelle to get her hair dyed again, so she scheduled an appointment with Shelle's hairdresser and spent the night at our place since it was over late at night. We chilled and hungout with her the next day until Michael called and asked her when she was coming back since he was sad that he couldn't come over, too, lol.

The next weekend, we went down to visit the parents and did the usual: hungout with the parents, stuffed ourselves with food, and ran around doing random errands. 

A few weeks ago, Tawanda texted us and asked if we wanted to watch a repeat of BTS's online concert, so we were like, "Sure, why not?" So the next Friday, Tawanda came over wearing her Army merch and lightstick to watch the concert in our theater. She even apologized in advanced for her behavior lol. It was really fun! I liked their stages and energy on stage! I'm glad there were English subs, so we knew what they were talking about lol.

The next day, I woke up early to get breakfast with Shelle and Kyle. Shelle had an early morning dentist appointment, and Kyle came with her since they were going to run errands afterwards, so I agreed to meet up with them at J. Christopher's for breakfast. We had enough time to go to 2nd & Charles afterwards before I went to my dentist appointment.

Prior to my dentist appointment, I noticed that my teeth would sometimes hurt when I bit down on the top right side of my mouth, but I didn't think it was a big deal since it only occasionally hurt. Then, two weeks before my dentist appointment, it started hurting more every time I chewed on that side, and my teeth would ache if I drank anything cold. I told my dental assistant about this during my appointment, so she took a lot of x-rays and said that a part of my tooth chipped off and got infected. 

My dentist looked further and said that the x-rays couldn't show if the tooth decay reached my nerves or not, but if it did, I would need a root canal. If it didn't reach my nerves, I would just need a cavity filling. However, we were going to treat it as a worst-case scenario and schedule a root canal appointment asap, and if it was a false alarm, then I would only need 30 minutes during our next appointment. So I scheduled my appointment for two weeks later, since we had already made plans to spend the next week at my parents' house as a Father's Day present.

The next day, we packed up our bags and work stuff, and headed down to spend the week with my parents and worked remotely down there. It was nice eating mom's cooking every day, especially since she was excited to cook so much food for us. She always likes cooking big meals but doesn't do it often anymore since it's just her and Brian at home most of the time, so she really liked cooking big dishes for us and having everyone eating meals together again. Lol even though we said it was a Father's Day present, it was really an excuse for mom since she said that she wanted to have us spend a week with them just so she could cook a lot of food.

We came back the following Sunday night with a bunch of food from mom.

That Tuesday, Shelle drove me to get my root canal. Originally, I was supposed to be put under laughing gas if we needed to proceed with the surgery, so I wanted to have Shelle with me to drive me home and get my medicine, but I actually didn't need her because they decided to use local anesthesia instead. 

After my dentist cleaned out the tooth decay, she said that I would need the root canal after all, so they numbed my gums with some gel, then gave me some numbing shots, and did a bunch of drilling and things in my mouth. The surgery was three hours long, and my mouth was starting to get feeling again towards the end when my dental assistant put in my crown. My mouth was aching while waiting for the painkillers to kick in. But overall, it wasn't too bad. My mouth was just numb and swollen for a while. 

However, that night, my top lip became swollen like I had an allergic reaction. But I don't know what caused it! Luckily, the swelling went down in the afternoon the next day because I was going to meet up with my friends at night lol.

You can read about my cabin trip here. It was super fun and relaxing!

Webnovel Review: New Times, New Hell by 林知落

Title: New Times, New Hell
Author: 林知落
Chapters: 134 chapters + 10 extras
Publication: 2019
Summary from Novel Updates:

Yu Zhengdu joined a small start-up company that claimed to offer “life management services”……as a programmer.

On his first day in office, he received a phone call from a stranger: “Hello, I received a text message from your company that informed me of my reincarnation tomorrow……”

Yu Zhengdu: “……??”

Shang Que, the beautiful little boss, said, “New employee, welcome to the Hell organisation in the human world. A thousand years ago, I was known to the human world as the Ghost King of Luofeng Mountain.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……??” From then on, he was incredibly distressed about the development of Hell.

5 STARS - I LOVED IT

MY REVIEW: 

I couldn't stop laughing in almost every chapter. The mood jumps from serious to hilarious in seconds depending on how bad Yu Zhengdu and his boss's brainwaves don't match up lmao. 

There are so many great aspects about this book, but I'm sleep deprived and light-headed, so here's a basic list of all of the things I liked about this book:

• Openminded, enthusiastic, and hilariously smart main character Yu Zhengdu
• Gaming addict and easily misunderstood CEO male lead who only LOOKS like your typical iceberg CEO trope
• Refreshing and hilarious take on outdated religion, hell, and cultivation
• Super cute and funny side characters
• Modern problems requires modern solutions lmao
• Programmer stereotypes and jokes
• Ghosts need social interaction too

Surprise Engagement Party Cabin Trip

We made plans to have this cabin trip way back in January, and we were finally going to see everyone after over a year of not meeting up in person! Unfortunately, Josh wasn't able to make it because their cat got sick that day, and he needed to take Bruce to the vet. But it was super fun. Shelle, Kyle, and I went later at night after Kyle's class group project call was over, and everyone who was already there was already drunk lol. 

The plan was to especially get Jackie drunk so we could decorate while she was asleep, and we got her too drunk lol. Poor Ben was taking care of her the whole night. I mean, part of the plan was to have Ben busy with her anyway since he didn't know that we were planning a surprise engagement party either. We lied and told him that we were throwing Jackie a surprise birthday party, so we needed him as the lookout. It was a surprise within a surprise lol.

So here we are, most of us drunk and trying to coherently decorate the living room at midnight. We had three close calls where we kept on tearing down all of the balloons because Ben said that Jackie woke up, Ben came out of the room unexpectedly, and because Ben came down to the basement to use the washing machine where we relocated after the first two incidents. It was a busy night.

Also, the cabin was amazing. It was beautiful with so many windows and balconies so you could see all of the nature outside. The house had speakers installed everywhere, too, so you could connect to Bluetooth and play music throughout the entire cabin, too! Unfortunately, the upstairs A/C was pretty crappy, so Shanice and I were dying of heat during the day when it was super hot lol. However, the basement was the opposite and super cool during the day, so it was nice hanging out there at night with a soft blanket on the couch lol.

We all woke up early the next morning to (try to quietly) cook brunch and finish decorating. The end result was beautiful lol.

Ben tried to hold Jackie back from leaving the room for as long as he could, so we finished most of the cooking in time lol. They were both shocked when they saw our surprise, and Jackie brought out some giftboxes to give us to ask us if we wanted to be her bridesmaids! All-in-all, a successful surprise engagement brunch! :D

Because we all didn't get enough sleep, and most of the guys were still hungover, we agreed to nap and meet up later in the afternoon before we went to the escape room we booked at three. While planning the trip, we found out that there was an escape room not far from our AirBnb, so we booked the only room that fit our 10 people, which was a Harry Potter themed room. While waiting for everyone to wake up, we all took a Harry Potter house quiz on Buzzfeed since a lot of the non-Potterheads hadn't been sorted before. Luckily, we did, because the escape room employees had us choose to wear robes, so we chose our house colors lol.

It really helped to have 10 people do this room because we made a new record by clearing the room in 34 minutes! I think it really helped to have so many Potterheads in the group who recognized horcruxes and certain people lol. It was a really fun experience since we haven't done an escape room in so long lol. 

Then, we walked to a coffee shop nearby and walked around downtown Blue Ridge and melted because it was so hot lol.

We went back to our AirBnb and chilled while Meethu made pasta for dinner. Then, we played JackBox games and drank and snacked all night. Omg, there were so many iconic moments that night lol.

The next day, we went to Mercier Orchards to have brunch. I had an Apple Brie Panini with turkey, which was really tasty! I also bought some of their apple cider, which was really refreshing!

After exploring their store, we went exploring near our AirBnb and found the pool nearby our place. It wasn't even a five-minute walk! So we decided to go to the pool and play around for a bit before going back and getting ready for our fancy schmancy dinner. Emily had booked a last minute reservation at The Black Sheep at 4:30PM, so we had a super early dinner before going back home to chill. 

While Jackie was napping for a bit, the rest of us girls were busy planning her bachelorette lol. It's too hard trying to figure out where to go and what to do since Jackie is so chill! She's fine with doing whatever because she likes going with the flow and said that she just wanted to hangout with us D:

After she woke up, we played more games and snacked for the rest of the night. We had so much leftover food by the time we left the next morning lol.

Emily, Sean, and Shanice left earlier because they all had plans. Shanice's parents were coming up to have lunch with her, while Emily and Sean went to pick up their dog. The rest of us went back to our house to give everyone a house tour since they didn't have time to visit our house before. Then, I drove Jackie and Ben to have lunch with Seth and his new boyfriend with Meethu and Luke following in their car. 

Seth had reached out to us a week before our cabin trip to get lunch together to catch up, so we decided on that Saturday to get lunch at this BBQ place near my workplace called Heirloom. Unfortunately, it's super popular, and the parking lot is tiny, so it was completely full by the time we got there. We decided to get Japanese food nearby at Yakitori Jinbei instead under my recommendation because I was the only one in the group who had eaten in the area before lol.

I had put it in the group chat so that Meethu and Luke could look up directions, and Emily (who was back home in the area) commented and said that it was an excellent choice lol. So we met up there for a late lunch lol. Because my group got there first, we went in to see if they had a table for eight available and ran into Shanice and her parents right next to the door! Like, what were the odds that we would run into each other all the way in Cumberland! But I forgot that she came back with Emily and Sean who live in Cumberland lmao.

Anyway, we caught up outside while waiting for a table to open up for all of us, and Emily ended up coming for food, too, lol. So in the end, all of saw Seth anyway and found out about his divorce and what he's been up to.

In the end, it was a super eventful and fun trip. I'm glad we planned this because it's been a long time since we all saw each other, and it was fun getting to know the guys better since we never really had a chance to talk with each other individually so much since we always saw each for short periods of time before for lunch or weddings and stuff.

Webnovel Review: FOG by Man Man He Qi Duo

Title: FOG
Author: Man Man He Qi Duo
Chapters: 132 chapters + 4 extras
Publication: 2019
Summary from Novel Updates:

Yu Sui and Shi Luo met each other when they were much younger. One was a pro-gamer, a widely-renowned, best of the best, in-game medic. The other was an e-sports newcomer who was just starting out. The two originally played for the same team, during which their relationship became increasingly deep.

But things did not go as expected. Yu Sui went to Europe and Shi Luo changed his in-game job to become a striker. The two belonged to different teams and different divisions, with oceans between them, each doing wonderfully …

They had become two tigers on separate mountains. The last thing anyone expected was for Yu Sui to return to the domestic league two years later. There was no way to avoid it and the two met once again.

5 STARS - I LOVED IT

MY REVIEW: 

I have been waiting to read this for over a year since this book first started being translated. I could have easily machine translated it, but I thought it would be worth the wait to understand all of the little  details and slang with real translations. And I was right. It was worth the wait, especially learning about the Bury Love subculture lmao. 

Anyway, this book was SO GOOD. The first third of the book was full of tension and heartache which gradually turned to anger as you find out what happened two years ago. I didn't expect an eSports novel to put me in such an emotional wringer so early in the book. I even debated on going back to reread the beginning to understand Shi Lou's complex mood after I found out what happened but decided not to because I didn't want to go through the angst again lol. What happens afterwards just made everything sweeter though. 

Shi Lou's such a tsundere, and Yu Sui's way too good at coaxing and teasing him! There was dog food sprinkled throughout almost every chapter, which was great. I loved that they both were always trying to take better care for each other because they thought that what they were doing now wasn't enough. 

I also really liked the side characters and their FS team in general. Their ritual of roasting each other right before a match was always hilarious, and I thought it was hilariously realistic how they always pit each other and roast each other to their faces but will talk nicely about each other behind their backs. Their poor manager was always getting whiplash because of their abnormal thinking patterns lmao. 

I also want to mention that the side account incident will probably be in the top 5 most cringey secondhand embarrassment incidents I have ever read about!  

New Anime and Movies This Summer That I'm Excited For!

There's a lot of anime series and movies coming out this summer that I'm really excited to watch! Let's hope the subs come out soon lol. I'm also really looking forward to Black Widow and Shang-Chi! Hopefully their release dates won't get pushed back any longer. I feel like I've had Black Widow in this list for the past year lol.

Anime:

• That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 2 Part 2
• How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom
• My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! X
• The Case Study of Vanitas
• The Duke of Death and His Maid
• Sonny Boy
• Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan
• Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles
• Free! Movie 4: The Final Stroke
• The Seven Deadly Sins the Movie: Cursed by Light
• Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop
• Kakushigoto Movie
• Ryuu to Sobakasu no Hime
• Shika no Ou: Yuna to Yakusoku no Tabi

Movies:

• The Forever Purge (July 2)
• Black Widow (July 9)
• The Suicide Squad (Aug 6)
• Free Guy (Aug 13)
• Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Sept 3)
• Venom: Let There Be Carnage (Sept 24)

Mini Reviews: Apocalypse Arrival, The Random Passerby I Married is The Richest Man!, Why Fall in Love if You Can Attend Tsinghua University

Title: Apocalypse Arrival
Author: 龚心文
Chapters: 125 chapters 
Publication: N/A 
Summary from Novel Updates:

This is a story in which the big devil accidentally becomes a poor little loyal dog.

When Chu Qianxun was reborn and returned to the beginning of the apocalypse, she vowed to live a better life, live longer, and stay away from those dangerous people and things. One day, she accidentally rescued an immortal man. After washing his face clean, Chu Qianxun found out in horror that this man was a notorious, cold-blooded and ruthless great demon who made all mankind fearful in the late apocalypse. Whenever Chu Qianxun thought about getting rid of this big demon quietly, that person would always grab the corner of her clothes and say pitifully, ‘You, do you want to abandon me again?’

The dream the FL had and woke up from in ‘Let the villian go‘ is this novel.

4.5 STARS - I REALLY LIKED IT

MY REVIEW: 

I've been meaning to read this book since I finished Let the Villain Go last year. Apocalypse Arrival is actually the first book while Let the Villain Go is set in a parallel world. 

Right from the beginning, I was hooked by the tight pacing and sense of urgency Chu Qianxun had as she prepared for the end of the world for the second time. And then I couldn't stop reading! There was so much action and drama and a cute slow burn romance! 

Like in Let the Villain Go, there's a lot of great examples of how you should rely on yourself to survive instead of relying on others, which I really liked. I loved reading about Chu Qianxun's journey on how she slowly leveled up, made friends, and fulfilled past regrets. I felt like I could have read another 100 chapters of her journey as she continued leveling up and meeting more intelligent monsters! I especially want to know what happened to the ice monster!

Title: The Random Passerby I Married is The Richest Man!
Author: 纳兰榴莲
Chapters: 61chapters + 3 extras
Publication: 2019
Summary from Novel Updates:

When Bai Zhen Zhen woke up, she had actually become the main character of your typical Mary Sue novel.

Car crash, miscarriage, amnesia… In order to fight with her for the male leads’ affection, those vicious women would stop at nothing.

Bai Zhen Zhen said: Who wants a bicycle! Only by walking the way of Buddha I can live a life free of worries till my old age!

As a result, she resolutely avoided the first, second and third male leads, and found a passerby to sign a contract marriage.

The day after obtaining the marriage certificate, shocking headlines stunned the world:

The only grandson of the world’s richest Huo family, Huo Xiang, who had been missing for 22 years, has finally been found!

Bai Zhen Zhen: Such coincidence? His name is exactly the same as yours!

Huo Xiang: Darling, it’s me.

Bai Zhen Zhen: ?

On a certain day after the marriage, Bai Zhen Zhen took out several sheets of paper from the bottom of a box. It was the noninterference agreement they had signed before getting married.

On the cover, a string of gilded bold letters almost burnt her eyes –– 《Bai Zhen Zhen x Huo Xiang’s True Love Filling 10,000 Years of Sweetness and Love Premarital Agreement》 ––

Meow meow meow???

//Male Lead’s version//

On a certain day, Huo Xiang was suddenly bound to a “Saving the female lead” system, and he transmigrated into a book with the mission of rescuing the female MC who was on the verge of experiencing a life full of suffering and torments.

Side quest 1: Find the female lead. If the mission is completed successfully, your health will be restored.

Side quest 2: Marry the female lead within a week. After the mission succeeds, a new identity will be unlocked.

Side quest 3: …..

Besides completing the side quests that pop up from time to time, he must do his best to love the female lead and let her reach 100 points of happiness.

As a result….

Huo Xiang: Darling, I have cut the fruit for you, let me feed you, ok?

Bai Zhen Zhen’s happiness points: +0.1.

Huo Xiang: Darling, the green tea b*tch2 that came to pick up a fight with you has already been driven out by me.

Bai Zhen Zhen’s happiness points: +1.

Huo Xiang: Darling, I will be busy these days, you will have to play by yourself.

Bai Zhen Zhen’s happiness points: +10.

Huo Xiang: ???

4 STARS - I REALLY LIKED IT

MY REVIEW: 

This book was hilarious! Bai Zhen Zhen and Huo Xiang's constant bantering and shameless logic had me laughing throughout the novel. I also loved how they avoided all of the male leads lmao. The way their missions intersected was also funny but sad. Overall, a pretty short but enjoyable read. I loved the ending!

Title: Why Fall in Love if You Can Attend Tsinghua University
Author: 十尾兔
Chapters: 122 chapters
Publication: 2019
Summary from Novel Updates:

Once she woke up, Gu Xuejiao became the arrogant and willful stepsister of the book’s male lead. Her specialty resided in breaking the relationship between the male and female lead… she is the nth female character.

Gu Xuejiao thought about this character´s ending. A desolate, abhorrent annihilation… and decided it’s better to continue to practice the Wu San workbooks she just finished in her last life.

The Cheng family watched in alarm:

The girl who was rebellious, and only served to let others worry; asked with a simple expression:

“Do you think it’s better for me to apply to Tsinghua University or Beijing University?”

Cheng family: ….

Note: Wu San workbooks is the Chinese version of Barron’s and Princeton’s for the SAT

4 STARS - I REALLY LIKED IT

MY REVIEW: 

While the summary makes this books seem like a school life comedy about studying, I was pleasantly surprised at how well it tackled darker subjects like mental health, suicide, and the repercussions of your actions due to stress, pressure, and jealously. It also tackled family relationships really well. Just because you say you're doing it "for your own good" doesn't mean you can force your ideas onto your children and not listen to them. I really liked how Gu Xuejiao and her family slowly worked on their relationship with each other to finally have a happy family that listens and supports each other.

Weekly Haul 138

Went to 2nd and Charles for the first time in forever and picked up some new manga!

The High School Life of a Fudanshi vol. 1 by Atami Michinoku

The High School Life of a Fudanshi vol. 2 by Atami Michinoku

The High School Life of a Fudanshi vol. 4 by Atami Michinoku

Seven Days: Monday-Sunday by Venio Tachibana & Rihito Takarai

Webnovel Review: Retired Villainess Transmigrates into a Cannon Fodder by Lan Gui

Title: Retired Villainess Transmigrates into a Cannon Fodder
Author: Lan Gui
Chapters: 353 chapters 
Publication: 2019
Summary from Novel Updates:

What should she do if she transmigrates into a cannon fodder? The first thing she will do will be to happily repay all the debt owed to the original body. She will enjoy living in the present rather than worry about the future since this is her second chance at life.

Max-leveled bosses suddenly make a comeback at the last minute!

【My fiancé falls in love with the housekeeper’s daughter? What about me? Well, I naturally have my own small wolfdog coax me until I’m happy!】

【So what if the abandoned wife of a wealthy man is ridiculed by the whole internet? How shallow! I came from a rich and powerful family too!】

【An idol fan has accidentally taken in the wrong idol. It’s fine, she will just raise and nurture the puppy dog to her taste.】

*Puppy Dog – A guy who is young, handsome, clingy, possessive, slender, and lean but has muscles.

5 STARS - I LOVED IT

MY REVIEW: 

This was so good! All of the arcs were varied and interesting on their own. I was surprised at how some arcs were pretty long around 30+ chapters while some arcs were pretty short around 10 chapters but still managed to have enough plot and resolution to keep you wanting to read more. 

Chu Xiang was a great character to read about. Because she suffered from loving a man too much to the point that she became a villainess before she transmigrated, she learned that instead of wasting time loving a man, it's better to love herself and live happily instead. Her happiness was the most important, which made her decide to transmigrate and have fun in different worlds. I loved how Chu Xiang loves learning and how she constantly reused the skills she learned in her previous transmigrations whenever it was applicable in her current transmigrations. 

To occupy a person's body, she fulfills their last wishes, so most arcs are about her counterattacking all of the people who harmed the original owners' body and then living her best life. I enjoyed watching her pit her enemies step by step without them even knowing it. 

She's so smart and confident that even when she doesn't mean to become popular, her queenly aura fascinates people and makes her constantly appear on the hot search like in the front line station arc lol. I also appreciate that she doesn't fall in love in every arc because doesn't find anyone that interests her like in the apocalypse arc. The fact that she's a face-con and subconsciously influenced her sect to add a requirement that new recruits must be beautiful was also hilarious. 

And the ending! I had wondered how the author was going to end the book since there wasn't an overarching plot in between transmigrations and was pleasantly surprised at how much I loved the ending. Chu Xiang's possibilities are endless, and I wouldn't mind reading a sequel or spinoff based off of the ending.

Books I Want to Read This Month

Even though I spent a week at my parents house and had intentions to read some of my books at home, I spent all of my time eating and reading MTL novels... -__-" I'll try to do better this month lol.

1. The Anatomy of Being by Shinji Moon
2. The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
3. Seven Days: Monday–Sunday by Venio Tachibana & Rihito Takarai
4. The High School Life of a Fudanshi vol. 1 by Atami Michinoku
5. The High School Life of a Fudanshi vol. 2 by Atami Michinoku
6. Sasaki and Miyano vol. 1 by Shou Harusono
7. Sasaki and Miyano vol. 2 by Shou Harusono
8. The Way of the House Husband vol. 1 by Kousuke Oono
9. The Way of the House Husband vol. 2 by Kousuke Oono
10. The Way of the House Husband vol. 3 by Kousuke Oono
11. Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? vol. 12 by Fujino Omori
12. Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? vol. 13 by Fujino Omori
13. My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! vol. 1 by Satoru Yamaguchi & Nami Hidaka
14. My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! vol. 2 by Satoru Yamaguchi & Nami Hidaka
15. Euphoria by F.S. Yousaf

June in Retrospect

Kingdom is over! I can't believe I spent the past four months watching this show and became low-key stans of all of the groups that I didn't know about before on the show! Other than that, I also read a lot of MTL novels, so there goes my vocabulary and grammar again lol.

I read: 

• I raised a boss in the 90s [wearing a book] by 池陌
• The Male Lead’s White Moonlight is Attracted to Me! by 一节藕
• The People Who’re Supposed To Kill Me Fell For Me Instead by Jiuyi
• Hold up, Hold me by Yuuki Hinase
• Hang Out Crisis by Owal
• Second Lead Complex by Soi
• Hetakuso Love Step by Yoriko
• As a Female Partner, She Just Wants to Rise by 明月像饼
• The Cultivation of Spicy Cannon Fodder in The Last Days by 柔桡轻曼
• Rebirth 60, I Have Supported Five Big Bosses by Long September
• Rebirth Apocalypse: The Military Commander's Strongest Sweet Wife by Huai Girl
• I Married the Male Lead of a CP-free Novel by Ten-Tailed Rabbit
• I Just Want to be A Marriage Tool (Interstellar Age) by Xinxin Yuhuo
• A Fake Holy Mother in the Zombie Apocalypse by 九阶幻方

I watched:

• Kingdom: Legendary War (2021)
• Nagi-Asu: A Lull in the Sea (2013)