The Friday Five, 12/9/22: 5 things I've been up to this week

This week has seemed really long, for some reason, so I'm glad it's Friday. I have plans with two friends for lunch (Saturday/Sunday) this weekend and I'll be heading to Detroit for a Yelp pick-up event at City Bird (for chocolate!) and will probably go to Detroit Shipping Company or Jolly Pumpkin after for dinner.

Chicken tikka pizza at Gift of India, Farmington, MI

What I've been up to this week:

1. Influencer events. Well—one was an event, and one was more of an invite just for me. Last Friday, I drove to Leila's Lebanese Kitchen, in Clinton Township, as an influencer friend had invited me to a foodie event there. I love Mediterranean food but had never been to Leila's, and all of the food was excellent; my favorite of the things we tried was probably the beef shawarma, which surprised me because I'm normally all about chicken shawarma. (see the reel here)
   Then on Monday, my boyfriend and I drove to Gift of India, in Farmington, which is pretty close to his house. I had been to GOI one other time, I believe in summer 2020, and both times I was invited by them to try out some of their menu items. The first time I really enjoyed their chicken tikka pizza, so I asked for that again (see pic above), and this time they truly went above and beyond; we will have leftovers for a week, probably. Everything was really good but their kathi rolls in particular (like Indian wraps), one with chicken and one with paneer (cheese) were delicious, as well as the pizza again, and the Ferrero Rocher milkshake. (see the reel here).
2. Watching movies. I saw Violent Night at the theater yesterday and I'd give it like 3.5/5 stars. I'm a big fan of David Harbour from Stranger Things, and the premise was definitely unique, but I did find it slow in parts. I have a ticket reserved to see Spoiler Alert tonight and I'm a little bit more excited about that one because Sheldon from Big Bang Theory is in it, although I've heard it's very sad. I also booked an Avatar ticket but may rebook to see it with my boyfriend—it's about 3h15m long, which is LONG, plus then you have to add in 20-30 minutes of AMC or Emagine trailers too ... so then you're at the theater for like 4 hours. But I did hear it's best seen on the biggest/best screen you can find, and in 3D if possible. 
3. Seeing the Tina Turner musical at the Opera House. On Tuesday, my mom and I saw Tina, the Tina Turner musical, at the Opera House, which was very good, albeit a bit slow. I did NOT realize Tina Turner had such a rough life and there was actually a lot of violence in the show. In addition, the lead who plays Tina actually switches with someone else because the role is so demanding, so depending what day you see it, it might be either of them. I would probably give it 3.5/5 overall but the singing was definitely 5/5 for me. It's playing till December 18th at the Opera House, and you can read about it on my blog post here.
4. Going out to eat. Probably a bit much recently, but I try to write down (on MyFitnessPal) when I'm not going out. Other than the two influencer tastings, on Tuesday before the Tina Turner musical my mom and I went to The Great Greek, in West Bloomfield—I had been the week before for a Yelp pick-up event, and their gyros were really good, so we both got a chicken gyro. They are doing buy 1 get 1 half-off entrees/gyros this month via their FB page, but my boyfriend lives in Farmington Hills and actually received a BOGO coupon for gyros in the mail, so we used that. Yesterday after my movie, I redeemed my free Green Lantern cheesy bread, too; for some reason they always email me a free cheesy bread or sometimes a free pizza coupon, maybe bimonthly, so I always try to use it. I added pepperoni too and it was very tasty; I usually eat half and then eat half the next day or freeze it for a future meal. 
5. Watching TV shows. So much good TV this week—the new Harry & Meghan show is out on Netflix and I've watched two of the three episodes that are now up. I'm continuing to watch Welcome to Chippendales and Fleishman is in Trouble, both on Hulu, as well as Dead to Me (Netflix) which I still need to finish; My Unorthodox Life (also Netflix), which I binged this week; Gossip Girl (HBO Max), Abbott Elementary (ABC and Hulu), The Sex Lives of College Girls (Hulu); and I'd like to start the new season of Too Hot to Handle, also on Netflix (can you tell I like trashy reality TV sometimes? Haha). I also started the new season of Firefly Lane, which so far is pretty good, but then started to binge My Unorthodox Life, so I'll be returning to Firefly Lane soon too. I also saw there's a new Young Sheldon episode up; I use my parents' DVR to watch that, although I do have Paramount+ now too.

The spread at Leila's Lebanese Kitchen, Clinton Twp.