The Friday Five, 4/30/21: 5 things I've been up to this week

Happy last day of April, although this weekend is going to not be fun: starting tomorrow, I can only have liquids (including Italian ice, though, and, surprisingly, light-colored gummies); on Sunday, I start my colonoscopy prep work, and can still have liquids; and on Monday, I finish the prep work, cannot eat anything, and I have my procedure, around 12:45pm, in Ann Arbor. 

Cookies from Crumbl Cookies, Rochester Hills

What I've been up to this week:

1. Eating out and getting takeout. Apparently a little too much, as the scale reflected it this morning. Last Friday night, we got takeout from Mr. Kabob, in Troy, and on Saturday, we got the cookies pictured above, from Crumbl Cookies, which as usual were amazing. The closest Crumbl used to be in Ann Arbor, but now they're in Rochester Hills, which is a bit dangerous, haha ... only a 15-minute drive. We got two PB&J cookies, two Cake Batter, one Chocolate Chip, and one S'mores. The S'mores and PB&J were my favorite; the Cake Batter actually tasted like Dunkaroos, which was just okay. I really wanted the Twix cookie but unfortunately it was sold out. We waited in line about 20 minutes as well, it was busy on a Sat night. I also got Sy Thai takeout on Sat. after my infusion. 
   On Sunday, I met my book club in Farmington for an outdoor meetup to discuss Verity, by Colleen Hoover (which was fantastic, btw), and I got the "Girl Talk" sandwich from Dagwood's Deli, which is this fantastic sandwich which has ham, Swiss, pineapple, and honey butter, on cinnamon bread. And on Wednesday, my boyfriend and I dined on the patio at Imperial, in Ferndale, which was great—I hadn't been there in almost two years and they have the most interesting tacos and hot dogs in town, as well as great elote (grilled corn on the cob). 
2. Cooking. I'm still riding that free HelloFresh gravy train, and this week I had three recipes for myself to cook, and on Sunday I cooked Orange Chicken for myself and my parents. The tempura batter didn't come out that great but luckily the sauce made up for it. Next week I'm actually trying out Green Chef for free, thanks to a friend—a new meal service for me, although HF actually owns it—then I have ONE more free week of HF and it's back to Dinnerly for me. 
3. Binging TV shows and movies. The Circle released four more episodes today and I just finished those yesterday. Younger had one new episode and I've also been watching Mare of Easttown, on HBO (one episode per week). I also started Cruel Summer (Freeform/Hulu) and really love it so far; it jumps between three time periods, in 1993, 1994, and 1995, and it's an interesting "who-dun-it" type of show. The Handmaid's Tale season 4 is now up too (3 episodes, to start), and it's one of the best shows on TV; we watched two episodes on Wed. and hopefully will watch the third one tonight. I already have access to Mythic Quest and Trying season 2 on AppleTV+ too (press access) so I've also been watching those; Trying is a really cute show that I feel like never gets any press, and Mythic Quest a lot of fun too. Yesterday I saw a virtual movie screening called Limbo but unfortunately it wasn't that great—I'd give it MAYBE a generous 2.5/5 stars. 
4. Starting to prep for my colonoscopy. Fun times ahead! (sarcasm) As of today, I cannot eat popcorn, corn, beans, nuts, fruits with small seeds, tomato, or celery. I had to stop taking my iron pills on Monday. Last time, the prep was only Sun night and Mon AM, which was doable; this time, it's Sun AM, Sun night, and Mon AM, and I have to stop eating all "real food" at 12am tonight/tomorrow. The only salvation is this: instead of downing an entire 4 liter of the prep drink in mostly one sitting, I get to drink 2 liters, three times (Sun AM/PM and Mon AM). Also apparently I can have light-colored gummies (and I love gummies) so I bought a gigantic bag from Target this week and picked out all of the red and blue ones. My "treat" for these days is usually wonton soup with the wontons strained out, too, so I'll pick up some of that at Mui's in Clawson tomorrow afternoon—they unfortunately don't open until 3pm on Saturdays, so it'll be my dinner. Also, now that we are all vaccinated, I can stay with my parents for the prep work, this time! (in Nov. 2019, I had to get a hotel room in Ann Arbor, and my boyfriend was my bartender for the prep drinks)
5. Watching the Oscars. It was actually held at Union Station in LA, which I visited back in 2015 during the Entertainment New Media Conference (ENMN), but they built an entire set for it. Felt very anticlimactic this year, although it was fun to see the celebs and their dresses/suits; last year, I think it was entirely over Zoom, except for a few presenters who were actually at the venue (I forget which venue, maybe the Dolby as per usual?). I was pretty shocked that Anthony Hopkins won best actor for The Father—which I still need to see—over Chadwick Boseman, and also shocked that they switched it up and did NOT present Best Picture as the last category. I had a feeling Nomadland would win Best Picture, though; I watched it on Hulu with my parents and it was a decent movie, maybe 3.5/5 stars from me. Promising Young Woman was the only movie out of the Oscars crop this year that I truly thought was fantastic. 

Tacos, 1 hot dog, and elote from Imperial in Ferndale. Delicious!