On the night of the first real snow of the season, Sam dressed in island-wear and performed at the 4th grade music show "Hawaiian Beach Party."

He did great! He says he doesn't like doing this, but he seemed to be having a good time.

It was very cute. The teacher does a great job putting these simple shows together. Some kids get solo or speaking parts (Sam did NOT want to try out). The choreography is simple and effective.

Wipe Out was hilarious. It went on a long time too, which brought on another layer of funny.

Sam got to twirl one of the scarves in the rainbow. He proudly told me afterward of the lasso-like technique he used to get the most twirling without hitting anyone.

Well done Sam! You did a great job!

Ben has been working on some changes to my blog to help preserve it. It seems to have caused some image gallery presentation problems. Sorry about that. We'll try to get it fixed soon.

This year we returned to our church Trunk or Treat party. Time to don costumes all together! Mom put together these amazing costumes for the boys. Sam is Doctor Finkelstein and Jack is Jack Skellington. Sam loved to lift his help to scratch his brain. Jack looked very authentic too.

Ben and I chose comfortable cosplay. He's Wreck It Ralph, and I'm Valkyrie from Thor Love & Thunder. No one got my reference or appreciated its accuracy (as expected) but I was comfy and got to wear space boot daggers + musical theater merch.

I love decorating my trunk. Sam and I put this together in the afternoon using only decorations from the house. Sam painted the cardboard tombstones. My speaker was hidden behind Zero and played "This Is Halloween" on loop. We won the Best Trunk award!!

Sunday afternoon we carved pumpkins. Every year they do more of the carving by themselves. This year I only stepped in to do some final cavity wall smoothing. The two little ones I carved are from Dad's own pumpkin patch.

Monday the kids wore their costumes to school. I watched the parade and then went inside to help with his class party. It was actually great not to be the room parent this year. The last few years no one else stepped up. I'm glad that a good group of parents are working together for the whole 4th grade. They put me in the game room where I ran the ring toss competition. Sam's costume looked spectacular in the black light.

For dinner I made a spooky stew and jack-o-lantern quesadillas. Sam asked for pumpkin pie for Halloween, but was too stuffed with candy from trunk-or-treating to eat any.

As soon as the sun started to set we went out trick-or-treating. It was so warm this year that I joined them! I still bundled up and turned my costume into a "Fan Girl" with MCU hat and K-pop lightstick - which proved very useful in the dark!

We have a lot of festive houses in our neighborhood. A house near the school set up a haunted house walk-through that tantalized the children all month. It was very popular, with animatronics inside and an elaborate zombie-baby-graveyard. Sam went through twice.

A very Happy Halloween for all! They went to bed already dreaming up plans for next year.

I had to miss Jack's concert to attend a dance class. I felt bad about skipping, but Jack said he didn't care and understood how much I wanted to dance right away. Ben went in my place and took pictures and video for me. Enjoy!

Today, exactly 6 weeks after my surgery, my GYN checked my stitches, declared me “well-healed,” and said I could resume all normal activities with no restrictions.

(。⌒∇⌒)。 DANCE TIME!!! 。(⌒∇⌒。)

I tried to take it easy, I even sat out 2.5 songs to rest. Even so, I’m going to be so sore tomorrow. I'm super out-of-shape. Totally worth it.

September 15 I had my hysterectomy, or officially, "laparoscopic robotic assisted total hysterectomy and salpingectomy." The procedure went very smoothly, according to my surgeon. Recovery has also been going exactly as expected.

I have no memory between laying down on the operating table and waking up groggy in the PACU. I choked down the stale crackers so I could take some pain meds. My BP was low and my hemoglobin was low that morning too. Those are both normal for me and they weren't too concerned. I think I took 4 hours to sleep, pee, and recover enough for Ben to come in and help me get home.

The first week was rough, as expected. I needed Ben to help me sit forward or stand up. My belly was very swollen and tender and I had terrible bladder spasms that had me crying in pain.

I had an outpouring of love from friends and family that made me so grateful and teary. Mom even came over to help cook and clean, until Andy's positive covid test sent her back home to help him and keep us from catching it in case she had it too. It seriously made me so happy to have so many people sending gifts and well wishes.

By the end of Week 2 I was feeling a little more normal. I could walk a little more each day. I couldn't sit up for very long, but I stopped napping and tried to be a little more active.

Week 3 is when I started to feel like myself again. I could drive again and I tried to do more of my normal activities at home. I could sit in normal couches and chairs, roll over in bed, and use the bathroom without too much pain.

Now I'm at the end of week 4 and I feel pretty close to normal. I stopped taking pain medication around the clock, now just 400 mg ibuprofen once a day if I need it. The weight gain from swelling is pretty much gone. I've been walking a lot, 3-4 miles sometimes. It's the only exercise I'm allowed to do, so I'm trying to get the most out of it. I really miss yoga and dancing. If my doctor hadn't strictly told me to wait until 6 weeks post-op, I would probably try a class this week. I'll be good and wait, I promise!

Today Sam turned 9 years old! We celebrated today and last Saturday, when he had friends over (mask-free after testing!) to play video games and watch tv and build legos. He wanted a low-key party like Jack had last time. Easy for me, dude! I put up some balloons and made goody bags and cake, and that was it! He invited his two closest friends from this year's class.

Today at school Sam's teacher gave him a bag of fun trinkets to celebrate. After school we opened family presents and then his other friend came over to play video games. For dinner he asked me to make spaghetti and meatballs. He was so full he didn't have room for the ice cream or pumpkin streusel cake that I made. No matter, I think Jack ate 3 pieces!

This was a great present to me - a genuine smile for the camera:

Happy birthday, Sam! We love you so much. You surprise us and impress us every day!

Seventeen is a 13 member boy group that debuted in 2015. They are known for their precision dancing and "fresh teen" image. Their music varies in style so much, it reminds me of musical theater- the way it has different stories and moods. I started collecting my favorite k-pop performances in a playlist, and quickly had to make a separate list for my fav Seventeen performances because I had too many. That's when I realized they (and Ateez) were my favorite group.

So the time was finally here, when I would get to see them perform in real life. They were incredible! Seriously, I always forget how different it is to watch dance live versus a video recording. I felt the same awe that I feel when I see a professional ballet performance. Their dancing was so much bigger, so much more energetic and powerful, than what I had been watching for years on my tiny laptop screen.

Miranda and I arrived at the Oakland Arena right before the doors opened. I was immediately stressed by the long line. Miranda kept me distracted by showing me pictures from her trip to London, and pointing out all the amazing outfits on the other attendees. It wasn't too long before we got through security and into the arena. There was no signage and we missed the entrance to our seating area. With help from an usher we found our spot and a merch booth without an insane line. I got two T-shirts, and then we went back to our seats to enjoy the traditional pre-show music videos. Unlike at Ateez, they seemed to be showing the Seventeen videos in chronological order. It's so fun listening to the crowd get hyped and cheer at the parts that are also YOUR favorite parts!

We had pretty great seats. Back in April, Andy became a temporary carat to sign up for the pre-sale with me. Together we battled Ticketmaster scalpers for these lower bowl seats at face-value.

At one point during the preshow I was texting and heard a gasp and cheer. Confused, I looked at the screen expecting a sexy moment on a music video, but Miranda said "Look at your lightstick!" It synced!!!!!!! Oh, this made me so happy!

The lightsticks are such a great part of k-pop concerts, and I always wanted to attend one where they synced!

Ok, time to get on with the show!

I don't even know how to narrate the show experience? Here's the setlist:

For fun, I put together a youtube playlist of the setlist in dance practice/best stage form: Link

I also started collecting better fancams than mine of the Oakland show: Link

But of course, this is a journal. So my personal photos and videos matter more. Here's a dump of the many memories we captured. I took a lot of lightstick glamour shots too, because I love them so much! Oh, also, credit to Miranda for all the great pics and video. She has a great eye for framing and lighting (and holding still instead of trying to bop and film at the same time, like I do). Thank you so much!

Here's the first third of the show:

Middle section by subunit:

And the second half:

We hung back from the crowd and took our time exiting. We descended on the most delicious smelling hot dog carts and each devoured one while wandering the lot, trying to figure out how to get a ride back to the hotel. Miranda let me gush and talk about the show for hours. I'm so glad that she had a fun time too. The crowd was enthusiastic, sober, and polite just as I predicted. SVT put on an amazing show.

We eventually turned out the lights, and had a late sleep until our midday flights. It was an incredible trip. I wish I could do it twice a year for my mental health. What a boost of serotonin when it was sorely needed. I miss Miranda already. Hopefully we can get together sooner this time around.

As for Seventeen, I get plenty of them. I'm eagerly following the rest of their tour. My plan to see them early paid off - of the nine US stops, ours was one of just four to have all members perform. The other five stops had some missing for being covid positive. Whew! They are touring Asia next, then will probably slow down for the award shows at the end of the year. Next year the eldest are due for military service, so this really was my one and only chance to see them perform for years to come.

Going over these videos and photos make me so happy. Also glad I sprung for the ridiculous crop top from the tour merch. See me rocking it in hip hop class the following weekend:

At the concert they took the traditional k-pop arena group photo, but they haven't posted any of them yet. Some individual members posted shots where I found us in the crowd:

I'll update the post if they ever release the full arena pic and I (hopefully) can find us.

여름밤에 우리를 새기고 ~~ engrave us on a summer night