Shanice's Bachelorette

We didn’t have much time to plan Shanice’s bachelorette, but it turned out to be great anyway!

FRIDAY, June 24th:

• We met up at Alec’s house to change into our chauffeur gear and carpool to pick up Shanice at the airport
• Lol Josh had lied and told her that he planned a surprise trip to celebrate their first date anniversary, but she figured it out the night before that he wasn’t coming because his suitcase was empty. He had to tell her the truth that he wasn’t coming but that he had already arranged for someone to pick her up
• Went to the airport and put on our stuff. Jackie let us borrow some suit jackets and gloves while Emily bought chauffeur hats, and Meethu made a sign. We were ready! She was so surprised when she found us lol
• Went to Sweet Octopus for lunch, which was super close to our hotel.
• 
• Because she preferred hotels to Airbnb’s and because we were booking pretty late, we still managed to find a nice hotel in downtown Duluth with connected rooms
• Checked into our rooms before rushing to the Mall of Georgia to make it in time for our pirate themed escape room
• After that, we went back to the hotel and hung out for a while before going to Spa Land & Sauna to relax and have dinner. Luckily, Shanice has always wanted to go to a Korean spa and was excited to try it out.
• Boy, what a culture shock at first! After paying for admission, we went into the women’s room and immediately saw a naked lady and were told to change into their clothes or shower before going into the hot pools or cold pool. Lol we were so confused. However, the lady in charge of scheduling appointments there gave us a tour and told us why we had to shower and everything. So we showered and went into the hot pool all huddled together in one corner, NAKED, and laughed about how everything was so new to us
• We dipped our legs into the cold pool afterwards and died a little lol
• Then, we put our clothes on and went into the dry saunas, which were fun. Some were so hot that Meethu and I slightly burned our toes for standing on the ground for too long
• 
• We ate dinner at the restaurant inside, which was also really good. They gave huge drink portions, which was nice
• Overall, it was a fun, new experience for all of us. We’ve known each other for over 10 years, and this was the first time we’ve seen each other naked lol. But I would definitely come back again because I was SO RELAXED for the rest of the weekend. Normally, I would usually lay in bed with some type of back pain at the end of the day, but I wasn’t in pain at all the whole weekend! Definitely want to go back again and lay in the charcoal room or sea salt room again! :D

SATURDAY, June 25th:

• Walked across the street to eat breakfast at Maple Biscuit Company. Delicious!
• Then drove to Chateau Elan to surprise her with a wine bungalow. Our waitress was super funny and awesome as well, which made the whole experience even better.
• The aesthetics were great, the A/C kept up cool, the wine was nice, and the snacks were fun to try out.
• Shanice and Jackie ended up getting drunk at the end trying to finish up the wine lmao, so that was fun trying to get them to sober up while they kept running around in the heat.
• 
• It would have been nice to lay in the hammocks outside, but it was SO HOT and the sun was out, so that was a no go.
• Eventually went back to the hotel to chill for a bit before walking around to get pie to go for the boys. Since we started to get hungry, we dropped off our snacks at the hotel and drove to Yuki Izakaya for dinner while Shanice and Jackie were still sobering up lol
• After that, we went back to the hotel full and tired and watched YouTube while chatting

SUNDAY, June 26th:

• Woke up a little later and packed up while eating snacks
• Checked out of the hotel and drove to Vegreen, Shanice’s favorite vegan restaurant when she lived in Atlanta, for brunch
• 
• Emily drove us back to my house before leaving
• Chatted with Shelle and Kyle for a few hours before I drove everyone to the airport to drop Shanice off and then to Alec’s house to drop off Jackie and Meethu before making Alec feed me lol

Overall, the bachelorette was a success! Shanice said that she has been super stressed because of work for the past month, so just relaxing all weekend really made her happy and decompressed from work.

DNF Reviews: The End of the World & After Being Fancied by a Necromancer

Title: The End of the World
Author: Mo Chen Huan
Chapters: 107 chapters + 12 extras
Publication: 2015
Summary from Novel Updates:

Global evolution, the last phase of its arrival.

Being born with a golden spoon in his mouth, Jing Xia has had a smooth sailing journey. Having experienced three Beast Tides, exterminated those with S grade physiques, he never expected to die tragically at the hands of his blood-related younger brother.

Opening his eyes, he found himself back in the time before the end of the evolution!

What?!

You have a spatial golden finger?

Hehe, I have an invincible human-shaped lethal weapon!!!

A certain human-shaped lethal weapon: ……

MY REVIEW: 

I made it to chapter 63 before deciding to quit reading it. I thought I could power through if I ignored a lot of the writing, but I lost interest and didn't feel motivated to finish reading the book. 

The main part of this book that annoyed me was the writing. I think the author was trying to be atmospheric and show how important the environment was to the setting by spending so many paragraphs describing the weather or setting around them. There's only so much I can take reading about the sky or how the sun illuminated the male lead from behind so that you couldn't see his tiny micro-expressions (that's all he does). These overly detailed descriptions gets really boring after the first few chapters because \these long paragraphs could easily be condensed into one or two sentences max. Instead, I'm basically skipping until the end of the paragraph to get meat of the topic or directly skipping to the dialogue because I know it won't mention the scenery.

Title: After Being Fancied by a Necromancer
Author: 一口西多士
Chapters: 88 chapters 
Publication: 2021
Summary from Novel Updates:

Cyril was a Harry Potter book fan. He unexpectedly obtained a chatterbox system that said it would take him to experience the desired Wizarding World.

He rubbed his hands together gleefully. Was there such a good thing?

However, once the system was finished, he found that this Wizarding World didn’t seem quite right?

Cyril (eyes shaking: Forest monster? Brass steam train? Gloomy wizard’s tower? Wizarding academy of the fittest? This wasn’t right!

System (forcing itself to be calm): Magic creatures! The appearance doesn’t matter! The architecture isn’t the key! It is still a wizarding academy! There isn’t anything wrong with it! Not bad, not bad!

Cyril struggled to make it through the Blackheart Wizard Academy. Fortunately, there was the gentle and courteous chief gentleman to cling to. This was until he found that the handsome chief seemed to be plotting against him…

My god! This seemed to the other identity of the crazy great magician and necromancer?

***

According to legends, the dark, paranoid, crazy and perverted great necromancer rubbed the white and delicate neck of the beautiful young man in his arms and whispered, “My dear, I heard that you have been very close to the commander of the Holy Light Knights recently?

Cyril denied it three consecutive times with an innocent fact, “I’m not! I didn’t! Who is talking nonsense?”

MY REVIEW: 

I only read up to chapter 10, but I wasn't impressed with the writing, plot, or characters at all. 

The writing focuses too much time on how beautiful the characters are from the tips of their fingers to their eyes. 

The plot is pretty obvious just from the summary alone, and once you read about their first interactions with each other in chapter 10, you can already tell how the relationship is going to go. It's not healthy at all. I'm really not interested in reading about this type of relationship, so this book is hard pass for me.

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

It's been almost 10 years since The Devil is a Part-Timer came out! I've been excited for this and Classroom of the Elite's sequel since the news came out! There's also a couple Chinese donghua that I'm interested in. Couldn't find much info about them, but the art looks nice! 

There's also a couple of movies I'm excited to watch! Still need to watch the new Dr. Strange's movie first lol.

Anime: 

• The Devil is a Part-Timer!! Season 2
• Classroom of the Elite II
• Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? IV
• My Isekai Life: I Gained a Second Character Class and Became the Strongest Sage in the World!
• Uncle from Another World
• Long Zu
• Wo Kao Chongzhi Dang Wudi
• Cang Lan Jue

Movies:

• Thor: Love and Thunder (July 8)
• The Gray Man (July 15)
• Nope (July 22)
• Don't Worry Darling (Sept 23) 

Webnovel Review: The Best Zhuang Yan in the World by 请叫我山大王

Title: The Best Zhuang Yan in the World
Author: 请叫我山大王
Chapters: 93 chapters 
Publication: 2018
Summary from JJWXC:

Copy 1: Recently, there is a rumor spreading at the Central Academy of Fine Arts.

The Flower of the High Mountains of Yangmei can be seen from a distance and cannot be played with. It is a standard abstinence department, and Zhuang Yan, who has been coveted by no mathematician sister for four years in college, has not been captured since then, and has been encumbered!

There are pictures and truth. The woman drove Zhuang Yan to school in a luxury car, and extended her hand to touch Zhuang Yan's head. Zhuang Yan's face in the photo was forbearing and submissive, which broke the hearts of countless school sisters who admired him, and even raised a crowd . Raising funds to save Zhuang Yan from the clutches.

The roommates who have lived with Zhuang Yan for four years are determined not to believe or spread rumors.

Until one day.

The roommates who waited ten minutes in the cold wind and waited for the dormitory door to open saw it with their own eyes.

Zhuang Yan hides a woman behind him.

A woman five or six years older than Zhuang Yan.

The roommates looked at Zhuang Yan's red, unnatural mouth, and suddenly felt that the sky had collapsed, and Zhuang Yan had really fallen!

The rich woman was like a wolf and a tiger, and she couldn't help but commit crimes against Zhuang Yan in the dormitory! It made Zhuang Yan's mouth swollen!

Zhuang Yan pulled out Yu Wanwan, who was hiding behind him, and said calmly, "Let me introduce, this is the rich woman in the rumors."

Faced with three heartbroken faces that were jealous of evil.

Yu Wanwan denied Sanlian: "I'm not, I don't, don't talk nonsense!"

Copy 3: Zhuang Yan likes Yu Wanwan since he was twelve years old. For the rest of my life, I will be unswerving.

Copy 4: Yu Wanwan: "I wanted to give my boyfriend (ex-boyfriend) a birthday surprise. I turned off the lights and sat on the sofa with a cake and waited for him to come back. My boyfriend and her best friend started gnawing at each other after entering the door. Should I? A friendly reminder that someone is in the room? Waiting online, it's very urgent. 

The best Zhuang Yan in the world, the world only likes you.

The heroine is super poor. 

4 STARS - I REALLY LIKED IT

MY REVIEW: 

This was a much more realistic slice of life romance between an older woman and her younger boyfriend. 

I think I enjoyed this book so much because of how relatable and admirable Yu Wanwan was. She dated her boyfriend for two years and found out that he was cheating on her with one of her previous classmates that she introduced each other to and immediately decided to breakup with him even though they were about to have their engagement party and get married the next year. She was so quick and decisive to get over him and move on even with everyone constantly reminding her that she's already 28 and implying that it would be difficult to find someone else better than her ex. 

Because of her poor conditions and giving up going to college to help support her younger brother to go to college instead, Yu Wanwan already knows her social standing and is content with staying in her own lane and enjoying the little things in life. She has an inferiority complex that really rears its head when she gets together with Zhuang Yan who is young, handsome, and rich. She doesn't even think they're gonna last long at first, but she can't help falling for Zhuang Yan's persistent efforts and is constantly trying to give themselves a way out because she's always planning for the worst. 

It was frustrating when it kept on happening, but it was also realistic. When you grew up as humbly and sensibly as Yu Wanwan, it's hard to change your low self-confidence when reality keeps on telling you that you're not super beautiful, you're way older than your boyfriend, you're only with him because he's rich, you guys don't match, etc. There was one section that really got me:

Yu Wanwan didn't think she was such a good girlfriend .

But she has the confidence to be a good ex-girlfriend.

If the other party proposes to break up, she will never entangle.

She's actually a very nice person.

She can't say a word of retention, for fear of becoming humble and pitiful.

I think this section really sums up just how sensible and humble Yu Wanwan has become from her upbringing and life experience. 

That was also when I felt that Yu Wanwan was the most relatable for me. Her whole breakup with her ex and being a good ex-girlfriend thought process resonated with me, because I also am like that. If we breakup, my feelings for you are gone, and I don't want to waste time trying to get back together. There's no point in spending time and energy on someone who didn't want to make it work when we were together. That's why I was rooting for her to gain some confidence and get her man wholeheartedly!

But it's hard struggle to overturn your previous thinking that's pretty much become ingrained in your life. For example, not long after that earlier section, this scene happens with Yu Wanwan and Zhuang Yan: 

Zhuang Yan didn't speak for a long time.

After a while, Yu Wanwan heard him ask: "What if... yes?" His voice was deep, and he couldn't say the word "break up", and asked with some difficulty: "What are you going to do? ?"

Yu Wanwan felt a dull pain in her heart without warning, but her tone pretended to be relaxed: "What can I do? If you really want to break up with me..." She paused, feeling a little uncomfortable, and helplessly smiled a little bit and said, "I can't help it either."

There was a dark silence in the room.

Yu Wanwan's chest became more and more uncomfortable, she forced a smile, and said, "I let you down again, didn't I?"

"I'm just glad." Zhuang Yan finally spoke, with a low voice: "Fortunately I will never separate with you."

Like, my chest was also hurting when I read this scene! Yu Wanwan has been trying to surpress her growing emotions for Zhuang Yan because she doesn't think they'll last. She's trying to give them an out in case they breakup even though her heart is already breaking just saying it out loud. 

Zhuang Yan was also great. This guy was a straight ball since the beginning, which was exactly what Yu Wanwan needed. He was blunt and clear about his feelings, didn't play mind games, didn't hide his feelings, and constantly communicated his affection and anger with her. For someone with such low self-esteem like Yu Wanwan, Zhuang Yan's constant love and even domineering actions helped Yu Wanwan improve and want to be better for him. 

Of course, there was a breaking in period as they got used to each other's personalities, but even that was natural. There are always some friction occurring as you get along with someone intimately. It's just that working through those problems helps strengthen your relationship as you get along with each other. 

Overall, this was a great realistic romance between adults. It was real, raw, and heartbreakingly sweet.

Books I Want to Read This Month

I know that I said I would read at least one of these books last month and didn't, but I will try to do it this month lol. Don't have great expectations of me tho~

1. Oksi by Mari Ahokoivu
2. Spy x Family vol. 1 by Tatsuya Endo
3. Spy x Family vol. 2 by Tatsuya Endo
4. Spy x Family vol. 3 by Tatsuya Endo
5. A Man & His Cat vol. 3 by Umi Sakurai
6. A Man & His Cat vol. 4 by Umi Sakurai
7. Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? vol. 12 by Fujino Omori
8. Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? vol. 13 by Fujino Omori
9. Tamiko and the Two Janitors by Forthright 
10. Love Looks Pretty on You by Lang Leav
11. Euphoria by F.S. Yousaf
12. Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda
13. The Anatomy of Being by Shinji Moon
14. Home Body by Rupi Kaur
15. The Sun Will Rise & So Will We by Jennae Cecelia

June in Retrospect

Now that I've gotten used to my new work schedule, I tried to make more time to read this month! It seems to work! :D 

I read: 

• When an Alpha is Marked by One of His Own Kind by 早更鸟
• Bursting After He Transmigrated Into the Cannon Fodder Omega by 凉白开开
• The World of Comprehension Needs Talents Like You by 开花不结果
• I Am Such a Little Fox by 开花不结果
• The Zombie Emperor’s Domesticated Cat by Metasequoia
• This Omega is Sweet and Wild by Mò Lǐ
• Doomsday Rooftop Gardening by 西大秦
• The Minister Under the Skirt [Quick Wear] by 请叫我山大王

I watched: 

• Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs (2022)
• Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)

MAY: Chicago Trip, Avoiding Covid, New Job, Extreme Cheapskates, Jackie’s Bachelorette, Hiking & Repotting Plants

This month was WILD. So much happened in the span of a few weeks!

First, I went to Chicago with Alec and Jessica and hung out with my cousin for a couple of days. You can read more about our food adventures here.

Then, as Alec and I were waiting to board our flight back home, Shelle texted me not to go home because she tested positive for Covid and that they were waiting for Kyle’s results, but he probably had it, too, because he started developing symptoms not long after she became sick. Luckily, they were fine. They just felt super tired for a few days and mainly had cold symptoms.

But I had to go home because I started my new job in a few days. I needed to go to the office for my orientation and everything, so I needed to pick up clothes and stuff from home and bring it back to Alec’s house. He let me stay at his house while he and his family drove to DC that week to move his parents’ cars and help unpack at their new condo in DC. They were also stopping by some family’s house in NC, so it was a weeklong trip.

Basically, I was staying at my bf’s house alone for a week while I started a new job over an hour's drive away. It was a weird situation lol.

But work was fun. There was a lot of information to take in and a lot of people to meet in the team and sitting around our area in the office, so I’ve been enjoying it so far. I really hated the drive because there’s just SO MUCH TRAFFIC, especially if you’re driving south. But I got used to listening to podcasts during the drives to keep me awake and interested. I also didn’t really want to cook, so I was lucky enough to have leftovers to eat at home, and there were a lot of food options near the office to keep me fed during the week lol.

Shelle and Kyle still tested positive the next week even though they both felt fine, so I stayed at Alec’s house for another two weeks. Luckily, Alec came back from DC, and I had someone to feed me again lolol.

We also somehow got into watching TLC’s Extreme Cheapskates on Youtube and were both shocked and humbled by the way people acted. We later found out that a lot of it was exaggerated or scripted, so we felt bad for the Asian girl, Kate, on the show who got bullied after it first aired.

One extreme cheapskate was an older lady who was dating this guy. They had a one month trial period of living together, and it was interesting seeing how she tried to keep her living expenses down while living with another person. It also made Alec and I realize that we were basically having a one month  trial period living together, too. And it seemed to go over pretty well! My main complaint is the long drive to work!

We had Jackie’s bachelorette one of those weekends. This bachelorette was planned over 1.5 years ago when we had high hopes of traveling again lol. But then the outbreaks kept on occurring, so we decided to just have it in downtown Atlanta since Jackie said before that she hasn’t really experienced it before because she’s always been too scared to drive in Atlanta herself. Luckily, she really enjoyed it!

The last day of the bachelorette, Shelle texted me and said that they were finally negative, so I could finally go home. Unfortunately, I had all of my stuff at Alec’s house, so I didn’t go back home until that Friday just because the weather was bad all week, and I didn’t want to deal with that traffic lol.

Alec also drove up with me because it was Memorial Day weekend, so we were planning on hiking on one of those days. Because it was so hot that weekend, I decided to go to the Leita Thompson Memorial Park nearby instead because I knew that it was shaded and less likely to kill me lol.

After that, we drove back home and found out that Shelle was repotting her plants outside, so Alec helped out because he loves plants. That guy was in his element helping her out lol. Meanwhile, I just read on the side while occasionally grabbing stuff for them.

But yeah, it was a long and eventful (sometimes exhausting) month!

Webnovel Review: My Sister is a Female Partner by 闲杬

Title: My Sister is a Female Partner
Author: 闲杬
Chapters: 137 chapters 
Publication: 2016
Summary from Wattpad:

A certain girl finds herself dressed as the soul character of Marie Su's apocalyptic novel. The sister of the original owner is one of the most miserable female counterparts in the book. The sister must be saved, and the hostess can fight. There is nothing terrible about it. But first... She has to live by herself and change the fate of the cannon fodder in the three chapters... 

Copywriting scum, please include the content tags: Doomsday Female Wearing Book Search Keyword: Protagonist: Su Yunshui┃ Supporting Actor: ┃ Others: Female Matching, End of the world, wear the book

2 STARS - IT WAS OKAY

MY REVIEW: 

This novel started off pretty well. Su Yunshui's struggles to grow and level up as a cannon fodder character was realistic, especially whenever she would clash with the female lead who had the Mary Su halo advantage. 

However, the mysteries and forced being kept in the dark for so long got really long and boring. Instead of keeping my attention using all of these hints and cut off conversations, I got bored and didn't care about it because it seemed like it was stalling for time instead. When everything was finally revealed, I still wasn't interested. I think it was because I got tired of all of the family drama. 

Su Yunshui was always worried about her family. If she wasn't being forced to do something because of her family, she was out trying to prevent something from happening to her family. She was always reactionary and seemed to only live for her family. I could understand that better if she was grew up with her family and had indelibly deep ties, but she only transmigrated into the book three years ago! Three years isn't too long or too short to create bonds, but the amount of time she spent worried about her sister and mom felt like she had no personality for herself, which made HER boring. 

Also, I didn't even really know that there was a male lead until maybe a third way through the book. Even then, he didn't show up often. If you were hoping to read romance, read somewhere else. There's like, a crumb of romantic interest right at the end of the book. I wasn't even expecting it. I thought that Su Yunshui was only going to live for her family with the way things were going. 

This was not the the best zombie apocalypse book I've ever read. Wouldn't recommend it unless you have time to kill and like reading about family drama.