SCAD TVFest 2025 - Part 1

SCAD TVFest in Atlanta was held Feb 5th through Feb 7th - and it was so amazingly cool! The fest overlapped with parent weekend which was held the 7th and 8th of February...

 

 

 We did a bunch over those couple of days, I will split this post into two parts!

 

To be honest, Doug and I have done our fair share of SCAD parent visitations. I noticed that most of the parent/student activities were actually happening on Saturday, and we had done a LOT of them already - even before Briana started school. So, Doug and I decided to head to Atlanta and stay in a hotel near SCAD (so we didn't have to drive all the way home at the end of each day) and really we just did the TVFest stuff Briana on Friday.

 

All of the panels and conversations occurred right on campus at the SCADshow theaters...

 

On the evening of the 5th, Briana got a ticket to see the some of cast and executives of "St. Denis Medical" receive a SCAD award and have a conversation...

 

 Doug and I headed to Atlanta on Feb 6th to see Briana and have lunch with her and check into our hotel.

 

We ate at "Taqueria del Sol" and it was so good...

After lunch, we dropped Bri back off at school. That evening, Briana still had class - but her class was going to check out the cast and writers of "Cobra Kai (yes including William Zabka)!" So freaking cool...

While Briana was back at school and at her event, Doug and I checked into the Epicurian Hotel...

 

Our room was so nice...

 

Now, I was healing (and still am) from my heel surgery and also having some other health-related issues. But, I wasn't going to miss SCADfest and seeing my girl, so I was there. I wasn't feeling too great after seeing Briana, so I decided to lay down and rest.

 I wasn't sure if I wanted to go to the restaurant at the hotel that evening for dinner or just get room service. I finally decided that I needed to get out of the room, and Doug and I headed down to the restaurant - Reverence...

As you can see, we almost had the place to ourselves. I guess Atlanta in the evening during the week is kind of a ghost town! 

I am so glad I went to dinner, because the atmosphere was so nice, there were a bunch of small plates to order from (and Doug and I split the burger) and everything was delicious...

We headed back to the room after dinner and I did manage to get some sleep that night. I was nervous about how I would be feeling the next day, but thank goodness, I made it through the day - and it was a busy one - and really enjoyed myself.

Doug and I were up a decent time the next day (Feb 7th). We got to SCAD around 10am to check in for SCAD TVFest/parent weekend and the first panel were were going to see was at 11am. 

 

The SCAD courtyard (and the 44 building)...

I think this is probably a good place to stop for now.

We attended three panels/events on the 7th and it was really something! Sometimes I cannot believe that my kid actually gets to go here for school and also gets to do some really out-of-the-box, amazing things. It feels surreal!

What's Been Going On Lately

 

I am not going to write too much in this post because honestly, I just don't feel well. I've been to so many doctor and therapy appointments. So Many. I am exhausted.

I know, I know. I say I don't feel well all the time. But I don't, and that's why I haven't written on the blog in three weeks.

I am undergoing PT for my heel and I am slowly progressing. I am walking pretty well. It still hurts a bit to walk though. PT is helping strengthen my leg that got so weak when I was non weight-bearing for 10 weeks. It hurts to go up on my tippy toes. My heel still swells a bit. I have a follow up with my podiatrist tomorrow - I haven't seen him in 3 months.

I am dealing with some other new health issues now that I just don't want to talk about publicly. Nothing that will kill me (hopefully) - just once again, chronic and life-affecting. I am totally in functional freeze. I am doing most of the things I need to do but I am not doing anything I really want to do - because I just can't. It is so tough.

That, along with the state of the country right now, I am a frequent rider on the struggle bus.

Every single thing I hear coming out of Mango Mussolini's mouth and the mouths of all his sycophants makes me want to either curl up into a ball or punch people in the teeth.

 

I am SO ANGRY that people voted for this. I am pissed every. single. day. And don't tell me I need to just "choose happiness." It is insulting. And I have every f-ing right to be livid. Things have been crazy since January 20th - and no one deserves to live with this kind of chaos and insanity every day. 

 

Do I blame? I absolutely do. We didn't really know for sure what we were getting into the first time (but had a feeling). But we all did (or should have) the second and the third time - and some chose the hateful route again and again. And I am so tired of being gaslit by the right - saying that we aren't seeing the things that we are seeing with our actual eyes. Things we have witnessed firsthand on live television (not through a conservative or liberal filter) like insurrections and n@zi salutes. It is infuriating. And honestly, I cannot believe women voted for this gross bloated old geezer to make decisions for us. I will never ever ever understand. 

 

Briana came home for a couple of days because she needed a little space from school. It did lift my spirits. She got her very first college sickness (coughing, sore throat, stuffiness) and she dealt with it all last week. She really handled it like a champ - though I still had to talk her through some things.

She was very happy when she came home Friday morning...

She still has a lingering, annoying cough and I hope that will dissipate really soon.

Briana wanted to spend a lot of time with both me and Doug these past couple of days. Bri and I particularly spent a lot of time together.

I think when kids go off to school and don't have mom and dad to lean on all the time, a new appreciation develops. I am feeling this so much with B. I know she loved and appreciated us before, but I do think kids get into a pattern of habit and just living life and don't really always think about what their parents do for them. And Bri is hearing/noticing that not all of the kids she goes to school with get or have gotten a ton of support from their parents. 

Doug and I would do freaking anything for our kid - to a fault at times. I may not have some huge career to brag about (Briana became my career), but I can say I have been/am a really good mom. Not perfect at all - but really damn good. When your kid comes home and actually wants to hang out with you, you must be doing something ok.

I do have a number of things I want to blog about regarding the month of February - SCAD TVfest, time with friends, Valentine's Day, some school stuff about Bri. I will try to do that soon - I am just trying to pull myself together.

So that is the scoop for now. I wish I could come on here and say I feel fantastic. If that day ever comes, I will shout it from the rooftops.

The Rest Of January (Including CNY)

Our family had a number of things going on during the month of January. I already posted that it was Doug's birthday and my parents' 55th wedding anniversary. Briana also started back to school for winter quarter and has come home to visit twice since returning back (once for MLK weekend and once for CNY). It was also Mei's 10 year gotcha day anniversary.

 Now let me preface, despite having a number of happy moments in January, it was a ROUGH month for me. Between the political environment which has me crazy mad and frazzled, I have also been struggling health-wise with a couple of new and exciting health issues that have now entered my life. I have already made a trip to urgent care and the emergency room. Nothing I have is terminal, it just adds to the many chronic issues that I already deal with. And even though Briana comes home on the weekend once in a while, I miss her like crazy when she is it at school.

I'm trying to keep my chin up, but it is difficult. I do know things could be so much worse and I do count my blessings, but I can't keep comparing the severity or lack of severity (depends on how you look at it) of my problems against other people. It is hard living in my body sometimes and I am trying to remind myself that it is ok feel sad about it.

Now on to recapping the good stuff.

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As I mentioned in an earlier post, we brought Briana's things back to school and dropped off her car in early January. We brought her back home to spend a couple more nights at home. Then Sunday morning arrived and we took her to brunch at OK Cafe before dropping her off at school...

 

I ordered the fried chicken and it was seriously some of the best fried chicken I have ever had in my life. 5 stars!

Then that evening, I sent Briana a picture of what she was missing at home...

You can see I had undecorated my tree but hadn't put it away yet.

 

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Briana really wanted to come home to celebrate Doug's birthday, but she couldn't because of the snow. It was ok though, Doug and I celebrated his birthday quietly - just the two of us...

 

I decorated the kitchen...

 

I made him birthday cookies so we wouldn't have a big cake sitting around the house...

 I gave him gifts - I got him Legos and an album for his record player and Briana drew him a Looney Toons picture...

Then Doug and I went out for a delicious dinner...

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A few days later, Briana came home for MLK weekend and to join in the celebration dinner for my parents' 55th wedding anniversary. My family and my sister's family took my parents to a fancy steakhouse and the food was so good...

I'm so happy we were able to celebrate my parents' accomplishment properly this anniversary. Their 50th celebration dinner ended up never happening. Around their 50th anniversary, my mom got sick unfortunately. So, we simply decided to push a celebration dinner off for a few weeks until she felt better, but we had no way of knowing that the pandemic was lurking around the corner. 

 

While Bri was home MLK weekend, she had to go to Blick Art Supply to get some much needed art supplies for school...

 

Doug decided to drive Bri to and from school MLK weekend because the weather was looking wonky again (possible snow). He took B to lunch before taking her back to school (and she got back right before it started snowing at school)...

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Then it was Mei's 10 year gotcha anniversary on the 24th. I don't know what we would do without this furry bundle of love...

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In January, I also had a lovely dinner with my besties one evening...

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And then Briana came home for CNY (and I decorated the house)...

Before Bri came home, she stopped at the nearby shopping area and saw this...

SCAD also posted this on FB...

Here are my decorations...

 

My newest CNY addition...

And we went out to dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant (which happened on Feb 1st, but I'm still including it here!)...

 

So that was January. I'm very grateful for the times I felt well enough to participate in "life stuff."

It is now February and this month is filled to the rim with all sorts of doctors appointments for me. 

Please say a prayer for me or send me some good karma because I am so worn out. I want to feel better and get my life back. I also have to figure out how to navigate living in this new authoritarian landscape that I did not ask (or vote) for. It's definitely a learning curve.

 

 Thanks for reading. I'll be back soon.

Happy Chinese/Lunar New Year!

Happy Chinese/Lunar New Year 2025! Year of the snake.

I am hoping that Briana will be able to come home this weekend to visit and we can celebrate the holiday together (it is looking promising).

Xīn Nián Kuài Lè!

Georgia Snow

Despite all the chaos that is going on in the nation right now, life hasn't stopped obviously. So, our family has still managed to have had some enjoyable moments in January.

 

There hasn't been much snow in Georgia the last few years, so when Georgians heard that we were getting snow a couple of weeks ago, we were all pretty excited. The only downside was the Briana had intentions of coming home the weekend of Doug's birthday (it was on a Monday and we were going out to celebrate on the Saturday before) and she couldn't because Georgia isn't equipped well to handle snowy roads. She had to stay put.

The last major snow at my house was in December of 2017, and Doug, Bri and I had weekend plans in Tennessee and managed to get out of Georgia before the hardcore snow hit. When we got back home, there were several inches of snow on the ground...

Then we got a small amount at one point in 2018...

I didn't even blog about snow in 2019 and then in 2020 (in Feb right before the pandemic), northern Georgia got some snow. Briana was at a sleepover birthday party that weekend and saw a nice amount of snow. Doug and I stopped at my parents' house while she was gone and they got a nice amount of snow at their house...

I am glad that Doug, Bri and I had traveled a short distance to see some snow, because at my house, it was just a trace.

I didn't blog about snow at all in 2021 and then in Jan of 2022, we got some snow but it melted quickly once it touched the ground...

And we had a weird little trace that happened in March of that year...

No snow in 2023 or 2024 - at least at my house.

Finally, in 2025 - it snowed once again!

I have to admit I was a bit miffed when I awoke very early on that Friday morning and there wasn't any snow on the ground. The radar showed snow in the atmosphere, but it was not reaching the ground. I was thinking it wasn't going to happen and my kid wasn't able to come home. I went back to bed after waiting a while and then when I officially got up about an hour and a half later, it was finally snowing...

Over in Briana's part of town, she got snow too...

She had fun hanging out with her friends that day...

 

 Someone made a fort on campus...

 

Mei was perfectly happy watching it all from indoors...

 

Fast forward about a week and a half, there is a threat of snow again, but south of us this time. Briana came home for the MLK weekend and luckily was able to get back to school on Tuesday before the snow hit Atlanta in the afternoon. We got nothing where I live. Some pics of her in the snow again...

It would be nice to see snow maybe one more time this winter season, but I have a feeling that is going to be it for us. I really hope we get some again next winter, but the weather patterns are so wacky nowadays, you just never know.