Welcome to 2022! Fingers crossed that it's better than 2021 ... 2021 was better than 2020, at least. Apologies for no Friday Five last week, but it was New Year's Eve Day and I didn't do much last week anyways, other than finally testing negative from COVID and also seeing TSO in concert at LCA!
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| EveryPlate Melty Mozz, Tomato Jam, & Zucchini Panini with potatoes |
What I've been up to this week:
- Make-up Christmas. On December 25th, I was still in isolation/quarantine with COVID, so my parents and I finally got a "make-up Christmas" on New Year's Eve day. We opened presents—I give them presents, even though my mom and I mostly celebrate Hanukkah; they give me presents, and "Santa" usually brings me some booze in my stocking, haha, usually a nice wine; and also my aunt in Rhode Island sends us presents. We also watched Encanto—I saw it in the theater but my parents had not—and I've been listening to the soundtrack on repeat this week.
- Beautiful: The Carole King Story, at the Fisher. On Wednesday, my friend Anna and I went to see this, which was a lot of fun—if you like older music, Carole King wrote a lot of hits that you'll probably recognize—and we had great (blogger) seats, main floor row K. Originally I was supposed to see this on Tuesday, but due to the storms in D.C., the production was delayed getting to Detroit, so everything got moved to Wednesday.
- Seeing movies. A *lot* of Blu-rays and streaming movies during my quarantine—I think I estimated about 18 movies, including a lot of rewatches—and then this week, I went to see A Journal for Jordan at the theater, as well as American Underdog. I like to choose screenings that are sparsely attended ... AJFJ had myself and one other in the theater, and AU had myself and three others, which was great. I also watched the Harry Potter anniversary special on HBO Max, which was fantastic, and I highly recommend it if you're an HP fan. It was so fun to see some "behind the scenes" things with the actors in it, they were so young when the series originally started!
- Redeeming birthday freebies. My 35th (!) birthday is coming up, next week, on January 13th, and so far I've redeemed two freebies, although I have a whole list—make sure to check out my Facebook group for the deals doc, too, and sign up before your birthday comes around this year! I picked up my Buddy's four-square cheese pizza on Monday, and added pepperoni to it, so I think it was like $1.06 before tip, and then I also got my free birthday popcorn and soda (I got a Slurpee though) at AMC, which I get for being an AMC Stubs/A-List member. This weekend I'm hoping to redeem my free P.F. Changs appetizer too—I love their lettuce wraps, and I eat them as an entree—and maybe my Mission BBQ sandwich, $5 off at Fresh Thyme, and $5 off at Detroit Wing Company, although B-dubs also sent me six free wings.
- Video chatting. Some fun ones, like with my friends Lauren and Elyssa, and some with my doctors, like my PCP (primary care provider) and also with a GI nutritionist from UM, which has been interesting. I am trying to eat more intuitively with my Crohn's—I really hate recording on MyFitnessPal although I used to do that, but it's better if I just listen to my stomach and see if I'm full or not before I eat.
- Bonus one: booking travel! I'm going to Vegas at the end of the month and pretty excited about it. A friend was supposed to go with me but she's pregnant and understandably worried about Omicron, so I'm going with someone else instead. We are doing one night at Bellagio—comped through the myVegas app, only have to pay the $50 resort fee!—and then two nights at Caesars Palace. Originally I had booked Paris but Caesars was only a little bit more in price, and I've never stayed at Caesars before, so it should be interesting. I also am flying Delta there, and I upgraded myself to Comfort+ for the DTW-LAS leg; flying home I have an aisle seat in coach, which will be fine.
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| This made me laugh, but it's true... |
