Back Home To Atlanta

Essentials for a fabulous flight: Bridget Jones and TONYMOLY Peach Anti Aging Hand Cream. This cream smells heavenly...like peach gummy rings.  You'll want to eat your hands. Which could be bad. Southwest has been pretty badass at letting you watch inflight free live TV on your devices.

I tried to be a good girl and work out during my vacation.  My ClassPass allows me to visit studios in any participating city. This was my first time doing it outside of NYC. I took Pure Barre in Decatur. It was neat to see a view like this outside the window rather than...my windowless studios in New York.  You're cute, Decatur!

While waiting for my friends to eat dinner, I grabbed an iced coffee at the Java Monkey.  It's a fun creative joint that hosts poetry night, musicians, readings, and other performances.

We ate dinner at Makan, a Korean Chinese fusion restaurant that was oddly located inside of a Marriott Courtyard.

Pork belly bun!!! Slow roasted local pork and pickled red onions. The pecan sugar was a beautiful addition to this traditional appetizer.

Shrimp and pork dumplings: thumbs up!

The fried chicken was tasty. I wasn't blown away, but I wasn't complaining while I cleaned up my plate. The ramen was meh, and my friend's black bean noodles (Jajang myeon) was not impressive.  Stick to the dumplings and buns here!

Being a Kid Again

I just returned from a trip to my hometown.

 I was born and raised in Atlanta, and my mom still lives there.  I'm not a huge fan of Georgia, but I believe a lot of it has to do with past negative experiences and the suffocating feeling (I gave MYSELF) of not being able to grow freely in a small community.

I went along with the usual rituals of our mother-daughter bonding: shopping at Marshall's, my mom showing me the fruits of her gardening labor, watching animal videos for far too long, eating some home cooked Korean food...she also brushes my hair. I know it's weird, but it's a thing. Like a combination of her preventing my hair from shedding in clumps throughout the day and probably wanting to show physical affection but not being able to (did I mention we're Korean?).

From the garden

Usually, I submit myself to painfully long periods of time in our house while she naps, falls asleep while reading, or falls asleep watching ridiculous Korean shows.  There have been way too many instances where I am talking to her and awaiting a response, only to see that my mom has passed out on the couch. Sitting up.  Slight narcolepsy? Maybe.  

Example of a REALLY bad Korean reenactment show about Robert Downey, Jr. my mom was watching during lunch. Yes, HE is supposed to be Robert Downey, Jr. Authentic accent, right? And the other dude's Jon Favreau. 

Life in Pics

This definitely does feel like the longest winter yet.  You know, snow blah blah blah snow.  Sometimes you just have to embrace it.  At least it looked pretty sometimes.

If you embrace the winter, you can get into the wintery theme and excitedly participate in snowy things.

Like snowboarding.  We went to Hunter Mountain recently.

Doesn't my snowboarding partner look creepy? Those goggles combined with the helmet and face mask made me feel like I was hanging out with the Cobra Commander.

image via wikia.com

Georgia Holidays

I've been in Atlanta since the 26th.  I came off of a wonderfully turbulent trip on a teeny tiny plane.  Images of Flight danced in my head as I watched the rain streak across the window. 

GAHHHH

By the grace of God, we landed safely at Hartsfield.  Unfortunately, there was literally no space on this ridiculous excuse for an airplane so we all had to pseudo-check our bags in. However, we had the "convenience" of picking up our bags on the jetway right outside the plane exit (I had to look up the word jetway, which I found from an article entitled "How to Board a Plane").  So I got to spend 20 minutes waiting for my bag while attendants yelled out VERY general descriptions of our luggage ("Black suitcaaaaase? Anyone have a black bag?")

image via newbid.net

That's a jetway, y'all!  I also learned the word "tarmac". Tarrrrmaaaac.  Short for tarmacadam.  If you knew that, I would be impressed. But there's no way you knew that.