My husband and I are currently on a child-free vacation. But the twist is we’re actually at home!
Blurry picture because I only took a few videos when we decided on a whim to drive to the casino and this was a screenshot from it.
Our kids are both on separate summer vacations — the youngest is visiting Niagara Falls with my in-laws and the oldest is with her dad. Mark and I have been living it up like we did when we first dated back in college and it’s been so awesome!
He took the week off from work, but I didn’t because I had a light workload and I honestly really don’t enjoy that prep week trying to get ahead because it just ends up stressing me out more than if I had just tried to keep my flexible routine and work around it, as usual.
Which is what I did while we were off and it worked out great! Whenever Mark had a project he wanted to do alone or when he wanted to play video games for hours on end, I had plenty of work to keep me busy.
But when I wasn’t working, we spent the whole week enjoying each other’s company as Mark & Emily, and not Mom & Dad, as we feel like we spend the majority of our time being.
Since we’re both neurospicy, I love that we can easily fall into the same hyperfixations, which was what we did this week!
Have you gotten into any of these or any other hyperfixations we might like? Let me know in the comments below 🙂
Jury Duty
Anyone remember The Joe Schmo Show from 2003? It was set up as one of many reality shows at the time that would put random people in a mansion and have them compete for money. But in the case of Joe Schmo, all the players were actors, except for one person who truly believed he was part of a reality show.
In the end, Joe Schmo (actually a guy named Matt) won all the money, as it was intended. It was such a cool concept for a reality show and even featured Kristen Wiig before SNL and beyond.
When I saw a few people on Instagram posting about a show with a similar premise called Jury Duty available on Amazon Prime, I was intrigued! I had loved the premise of Joe Schmo, but as was the case when it came out, it was hard to do subsequent seasons without too many people getting suspicious.
But this coming out 20 years later made perfect sense, timing-wise!
I won’t go too much into it because it’s just so phenomenal and I hope you check it out for yourself. The trailer is above and even that doesn’t give a lot away! I loved that Mark and I went into it knowing very little, and of course, now we’re both in hyperfixation/research-everything mode with it.
Through Googling, I also found out that TBS will be reviving The Joe Schmo Show soon, so I’m interested to see this Halley’s Comet of a trend come back for the flash in the pan it can be before we need to let it rest and become a distant memory again for another 20 years or so.
EarthCam
I guess my thirst for reality TV has reached a new peak and through some Google research hole I don’t even remember, I came across EarthCam, a webcam network showing webcams all over the world. I’m pretty sure I’ve used the Earthcam website before, but, like Joe Schmo, it settled in the back of my memory banks for long enough to sparkle with intrigue again for me.
Since rediscovering it, I’ve watched delivery people bring supplies into an Irish Pub in Dublin before the crowds came in for the day, while also listening to folks singing karaoke in Las Vegas late into the night.
And even though I knew I wouldn’t be able to see my in-laws and son, I had a tab open with the cam in Niagara Falls and it was cool seeing what they were seeing in real-time.
And as cool as Abbey Road was to see, I couldn’t watch for long because, wow, people just do not care about blocking traffic to get that photo, do they?
I watched a really cute couple walking along the shores of Lake Michigan where I saw them hold hands and laugh with each other. One of them took out their phone and took photos or video of the other for a bit before putting it back in their pocket and then proceeding to cuddle their partner as they continued to walk along the shore.
I realized I loved the voyeurism of feeling like I was a fly on the wall for a very sweet moment this couple in Grand Haven, Michigan, probably never thought anyone would watch and exclaim “Awww!” from all the way in Connecticut.
I’m thinking of creating a shortcut folder on my Chrome Browser for my favorites because it was incredibly calming to watch and, honestly, I think I’ll be adding them to my anxiety self-care toolbox because I find I can’t help but relax after looking at nature in real-time.
KPot - Korean BBQ & Hot Pot
Oh wow, oh my goodness, where do I even start? Actually, here’s my Instagram post about it if you haven’t already seen it.
On our first day of staycation, Mark and I had a completely random day just following our whims, as far as what to do. (I still had to work, but I did that when he wanted to play video games, but my work schedule is designed to be pretty flexible anyway.)
By the time dinner rolled around, we thought we’d be spontaneous by going to our favorite restaurant in town. I guess the universe didn’t think that was spontaneous enough and when we got there, we found it closed for a private party.
We weren’t too disappointed though, because it wasn’t like we needed to change plans or rush back to get the kids from babysitting. We decided to head to Route 1 and find something new-to-us. We didn’t have to look far because, after only a few minutes, we both spotted KPot Korean BBQ & Hot Pot restaurant we had never seen before. Turns out, it’s a national chain and we stumbled upon this one during its soft opening.
We walked in to see it bustling and we had a 40-minute wait, which we took advantage of by going to the nearby liquor store and finding some non-alcoholic beer Mark really liked — shout-out to Athletic Brewing Co.! Even in my drinking days, I rarely drank beer and never got into the hoppy taste of craft brews everyone else seemed to enjoy.
Since it was non-alcoholic, we even cracked it open and had some while waiting in the car for our text to let us know our table was ready.
Once inside, we were seated and told how everything worked. You order from a menu of raw, prepped food and you actually cook it yourself at your table, which is made up of hot plates and a grill in the middle! It’s all-you-can-eat for a certain time period (though there is a charge if you over-order) and cooking is fairly quick and so much fun!
Mark, who would be able to write blog post after blog post about his grilling and BBQ hyperfixation, was in heaven! I think I cooked a few veggies myself, but for the most part, it was all him manning the grill. We tried probably 6 or 7 different meats/cuts of meat that night. He couldn’t get enough and, honestly, I was so curious about everything that I had a hard time knowing my fullness limit.
The next day, we didn’t eat until much, much later in the day than we normally do. We both intermittent fast, at this point. He’s more 12:12 and I’m 18:6 most days. But we tend to skip breakfast for the most part and start our days with lunch together. But that day we had trouble even coming up with a plan for lunch because everything sounded so heavy after the feast the night before.
That was Monday. It’s now Thursday as I write this and I’m STILL having trouble getting through a full meal ever since!
Goblin.Tools
Oh my goodness, I can’t even believe I almost forgot about to write about this!
One night after filling out a Google Survey, I saw I had accumulated a bit of money I could put toward the Google Play Store. I went to the list of the top paid apps and found Goblin.Tools and was immediately drawn in by the premise that it was for neurospicy people to help break down projects and chores into more manageable tasks — something many ADHD people like me struggle with.
I downloaded it and tested it out by asking it to break down cleaning the living room, which was something I had been meaning to do. Almost an hour later and my living room looked awesome! I didn’t think to take pictures because to be honest, I figured I’d tap out halfway through but I actually got the list done!
The other modes on it are really fun to play with, as well. I like the one that helps you calculate how long something will take. I hope I remember to use this one more often because, as much as I hate to admit it because of all my timers and alarms, I still really struggle with being able to manage my time and time agnosia (I try to avoid using the term “time blindness” because it’s associated with ableism and isn’t respectful).
I tried to get Mark into it, but he’s most likely not going to remember to use it for breaking down chores. But he did enjoy the time estimating tool because while I used the app for the first time to clean the living room, he used the app to tell him how long it would take to build a nuclear submarine, lol!
What’s Your Latest Hyperfixation?
I know I’m not the only one who loves finding new things to get excited over 🙂 Let me know if you try any of ours and please share yours below in the comments below!
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