Don Manuel and I just returned from our first New York ComicCon…and we had an incredible time! One of our highlights was getting in to the see Wonder Woman Bloodlines before anyone else in the world! In fact, most of the cast was there, and they were seeing it for the first time also! An absolutely amazing experience! The movie screening was followed by a panel discussion with some of the cast, the director, writer, and producers.
Wonder Woman Bloodlines is now available worldwide. You can get it here:
First off, I have to say that Bloodlines is a well-written, emotional movie. Rosario Dawson, who voices Wonder Woman, cried several times. Don Manuel and I got teared up several times. Don Manuel says this is now his favorite Wonder Woman portrayal. I’m still a fan of Gal Godot, but this is definitely a close second!
The movie traces Wonder Woman’s origin story. We don’t believe in doing spoilers, so I’m going to leave it at that. Get the movie! Watch it! Watch it two times!
Now for the amazing Wonder Woman Bloodlines panel!!! Rosario Dawson as Wonder Woman, Marie Avgeropoulos (The 100) as Silver Swan, Adrienne C. Moore (Orange Is the New Black) as Etta Candy, Mozhan Marno (The Blacklist, House of Cards) as Dr. Cyber, and Courtenay Taylor (Regular Show, Fallout 4) as Dr. Poison. Producer Sam Liu (Reign of the Supermen) and Justin Copeland (Batman: Hush) co-direct from a script by Mairghread Scott (Justice League Action). James Tucker (Batman: Hush) is executive producer.
We were blown away by the openness, honest, passion, and love for Wonder Woman that the whole panel felt. We did record it, so you can watch it here:
Live at NYCC for the world premiere of Wonder Women Bloodline
So, folks, if you’ve been thinking about attending San Diego or New York ComicCon…GO!!!! The opportunities for incredibly cool nerdy stuff are endless!
Well, we made it to 2019. Let me tell you about how we spend the last couple days of 2018.
Right before the New Year, Don Manuel’s first passport came in the mail. We weren’t expecting it for weeks!
Now I ask you, what would you do if you lived in New York and your love just got their passport and has never been out of the county. That’s right…you jump in the car and head to Canada!
If you have never seen the Falls from the Canadian side, you haven’t seen the Falls. They are glorious and spectacular!
Not gonna lie, it was cold next to the Falls…we should have dressed warmer, but when you jump in the car without a plan you’re not always prepared. Good thing we have love to keep us warm
After the Falls, we went to check out Lundy’s Lane and Clifton Hill. We rode the giant ferris wheel.
We also did this Zombies Attack! thing. It’s a 6-D experience. You’re strapped into a seat and wear 3-D glasses. The seat rumbles and moves like the car you’re riding in on the screen. Wind blows on you. And, you have to shoot the freaking 3-D zombies that are attacking you. Holy Hannah! Don Manuel came in 3rd and I came in 7th…not bad for our first time! We’d make a pretty good zombie apocalypse team!
After zombies, we had a reservation at the Skylon Tower revolving restaurant for dinner. The views from up there are amazing! You revolve around and get to see everything. The food is delicious. Basically, awesome and romantic.
After dinner, romance over…time for strippers! Seriously, I had heard A LOT about the strip clubs in Niagara Falls, Canada. Don Manuel, always the good sport, agreed to go with me We picked Sundowners, and we were not disappointed! Ummmm…yeah, that’s probably all I can say about our experiences there.
Except…see all that cash he’s holding? We didn’t have ANY of that when we went home
We got home around 2am…napped…and got ready for New Year’s Eve! We went out with friends to get our groove on. We popped wayyyyy too many bottles of prosecco and had the best midnight kiss <3 The balloons all had little sayings or pieces of advice on them…I loved that! And, can we talk about Don Manuel shaving his face for the new year?! I have never seen his whole face. I gotta say, I spent the night feeling like I was out cheating on him with a different man!
We finished the night in the hot tub at home.
New Year’s Day was restful. We had a living room picnic for dinner…seafood and my best batch of Puerto Rican rice so far (turns out, I need to use at least twice as much seasoning as white people are comfortable using!).
Happy New Year, all! We definitely set out intentions for more adventures and random road trips in 2019!
I wanted to spend our first Christmas at home, but with our son in the military and his kids in North Carolina, we all decided to spend the holidays there. We also needed to spend time with our daughter in NYC. All these logistics could have caused mountains of stress and worry…instead, we found adventure!
We started in NYC with a trip to Radio City Music Hall to see the Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes! It was amazing!!!! It even had this cool 3D portion.
After the Spectacular, we visited the famous Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree and had lunch next to the skating rink (we’ll be back to go skating…the price at Christmas time was off the chain!!!!).
Y’all know we love food, and this meal was great! We wandered New York after dinner…I ask you, is there any place in the world more magical than NY at Christmas?!
After saying goodbye to Don Manuel’s mini-me, we started our drive south towards North Carolina. We made it to the top of Virginia before we needed to sleep. Upon waking, we heard my son had made it to Charlotte…and had been up all night with the stomach flu. Um…I love my kid, but not enough to get the stomach flu! And that’s when our adventures began!
You know we love to Poke-hunt. Those Poke-stops can really take you to some interesting things you would never see. For instance, at our gas stop, we followed a Poke-stop to a giant Johnny Appleseed statue. Here’s me grabbing Johnny’s “seeds.”
We saw multiple signs for Luray Caverns, and decided the best way to avoid the stomach flu was to be late and avoid Patient Zero…so detour to Luray! We stopped for gas and saw the General Lee from The Duke’s of Hazard, but it was white! It was called the “Ghost General Lee.” What the heck?! As we were heading out to Luray, it passed us and pulled into Cooter’s Garage. I kid you not. Now, I was raised on the Duke’s of Hazard, so I said to Don Manuel, “you bet your butt we’re stopping there on our way back!” Anyway…I digress…back to Luray.
Luray Caverns are AMAZEBALLS!
There is an underground “lake” so still that it casts a perfect reflection. The stalactites and stalagmites are gorgeous. It takes 150 years to grow one inch! And check out this rock penis I found!
Yeah, I have the sense of humor of a 13 year old boy…but, come on! That’s a rock penis!
We definitely would like to revisit Luray again! Now…off to Cooter’s! Where we spotted the Ghost General Lee again! And, Don Manuel had his photo taken in the General Lee.
As we looked around, Don Manuel was like, “I have never bought anything with a confederate flag on it, but I kinda want to get something for Gary.” We grabbed a pennant for him, and when we were checking out, the clerk all casual says, “Did you know Luke Duke is signing autographs out in the garage?” What??? Tom Wopat chillin’ out in the garage?! Yup. You bet your butt we went out there and had him sign Gary’s pennant and a poster for us. Cool dude.
We had lollygagged so much we were hungry, so we grabbed some great southern food at Daisy Duke’s Cafe!
It was definitely time to get our wheels on the road. Charlotte here we come!
The holidays were nice. We went to the movies a couple times and saw Aquaman and Mortal Engines…definitely recommend both! We went swimming…we both think this should be a new Christmas tradition:
After opening presents on Christmas morning, we didn’t have much to do for the rest of the day. We were going to go Poke-hunting…but as we were headed out, we turned right instead of left and went to Myrtle Beach, SC! Because, honestly, sometimes a random roadtrip with the love of your life is the only way to spend Christmas. We dipped our toes in the ocean and found an all-you-can-eat seafood and steak buffet to eat at!
We can eat!
All-in-all it was a beautiful first Christmas together. It wasn’t what I thought I wanted or how I imagined our first Christmas…it was better.
One of the cool benefits of dating a DJ, is that I get to go interesting new places. DJ Don Manuel got asked to dj the October 9th Hip Hop Night at Funk ‘N Waffles in Syracuse, NY hosted by Exoticz.
Now let me tell you, when he told me it was going to be at Funk ‘N Waffles, he no longer had a choice about whether or not he was going to do this event! I have wanted to go to Funk ‘N Waffles for YEARS!!! Years I tell you! Ever since I saw them on an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives!
So, on a Tuesday night, we headed off to Syracuse for waffles and hip hop! What could be better?! As we were leaving home, Don Manuel got his first PLUR Vision care package as their new brand ambassador…so he had to do a Facebook Live unboxing, because we could not be more excited about this company! That made the trip north go by so quickly!
Upon arriving at Funk ‘N Waffles, we spent quite a few minutes negotiating our order between me, DJ Don Manuel, Mr. Fairbanqs, and the cook We decided on three waffles: the Pulled Pork waffle, the All Shook Up waffle, and the Jive Turkey waffle (this one was not optional, because it’s the one I saw on tv!). The Funk ‘N Waffles staff were super nice and helpful, they sent me off with our drinks and a beeper to wait for our order while I watched DJ Don Manuel and Mr. Fairbanqs set up.
About 15 minutes later, our waffles were ready!!!! Woop woop! Waffle time! From left to right, we have the Pulled Pork, the All Shook Up, and the Jive Turkey. This also turned out to be our order of favorites.
The Pulled Pork waffle is a buttermilk waffle with pulled pork and Dinosaur BBQ sauce on it. Delish! Nothing out of the ordinary, but a solid waffle choice! We all enjoyed it.
Next, the All Shook Up. This is definitely in honor of Elvis and named after one of his songs. This is a bacon stuffed buttermilk waffle with bananas, honey, and peanut butter toppings. Woah. I loved it! Mr. Fairbanqs thought it might be too sweet, but it’s not. It’s just the right balance of sweet and savory. I would definitely order it again! Thank you, thank you very much (please try to read that in your best Elvis impersonation voice)!
Now, Funk Me! The Jive Turkey waffle…as seen on Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives being chowed down on by Guy Fieri. This is a waffle made of stuffing. You heard me, stuffing! And not Stove Top Stuffing either…your grandma’s homemade kick ass stuffing! On top of the stuffing waffle are mashed potatoes, turkey, and gravy…and a side of cranberry sauce. Shut. The. Front. Door. We should have ordered two. In fact, DJ Don Manuel and Mr. Fairbanqs had me order two more to-go before we left for the night…that’s right, Funk ‘N Waffles will make you one of these amazeballs concoctions until 11:30pm or so most nights! You can also check out our Facebook Live tasting here: https://www.facebook.com/CreativityCornerTV/videos/1943976259014179/
After stuffing our faces, it was time for DJ Don Manuel to get to work! He is so goshdarn cute!
There was great music, a great line-up of live artists, and all all-around awesome vibe for the night! As always, DJ Don Manuel went Live to share the party (click on the image to go watch and listen!):
As the show was wrapping up, Mr. Fairbanqs thought to check Pokemon Go and see what was around…and spotted a Lunatone! What??!!! Now, he didn’t have a Lunatone, and neither did I. Ok, well, technically, I did have one, but I gave it to DJ Don Manuel because I knew he’d been looking for one for a long time (We were in St. Pete’s Beach, FL…I woke up early one day and checked my Pokemon Go while laying in bed and saw the Lunatone one resort over. So, I threw on a dress…didn’t even take time for underpanties…and ran over and caught if for him and traded it to him when he woke up. If that ain’t love, I don’t know what is.). Anyway, I digress. This Lunatone that Mr. Fairbanqs spotted was four blocks away. He took my phone and his and bolted out the door. He came back about 20 minutes later with this beauty:
After that, we packed up and headed home. And that, my friends, is how you do a random Tuesday night: adventure, awesome food, great music, good friends, a little nerdy, and a hot DJ!
About a week after Don Manuel and I met back in June, I was talking about wanting to push the “f@&* it” button and buy tickets to Bruno Mars and Cardi B in Philly. I love Bruno, but tickets were a little expensive! Don Manuel says to me, “Cardi B is my spirit animal. I would love to see her!” So, I pushed that button and bought tickets. I may have wondered just a bit if we would still be seeing each other three months from then, but if you don’t risk a little heartache you never find your happiness!
A couple weeks before the concert, Cardi B announced that she would not be going on tour with Bruno, because having a baby was too hard. Don Manuel was hurt and betrayed…between you and me, he still hasn’t forgiven her! I managed to convince him to still go to the concert with me when we found out that Boys II Men would be performing instead…Motownphilly all the way!
Let’s talk about this concert! The Wells Fargo Center was a great venue! Our seats were in what we liked to call a “bougie box.” It had a private bar and bathrooms and our seats were fantastic!
Wow! Boys II Men were absolutely amazeballs! They still sound just like they sounded in the 90’s when I was smooching in the backseat of a car with inappropriate boys
Then BRUNO!!!! I am telling you right now, no one puts on a show like Bruno Mars! He is so talented…and funny! Now that I’ve seen the Finesse dance in real life, I’m good to go! I danced and sang alllllll night. Pretty sure Don Manuel thinks I’m a freak now…he for sure knows I can neither dance nor sing…but I’m enthusiastic!
It was a glorious night!
Since we had taken the next day off from work, we spontaneously decided to do some sightseeing rather than just waking up and hopping in the car and driving home.
First up…the Liberty Bell! It was very cool, and the volunteer who was “watching” the bell gave amazing little speeches about its history.
Since we were looking at the building where they signed the Declaration of Independence, and we had just seen the real one in Washington D.C. a couple of months ago, we decided to go to Independence Hall. Usually, you need to pay for tickets in advance, but the internet let us know if there were any tickets available on the same day you’re there…they’re free!
Next, we went over to see the “Love Statue” at Love Park <3
Since it’s Philly, we had to go see the Rocky statue and run the Rocky steps at the Art Museum. I repeatedly told Don Manuel that I was not running those steps…he could run, and I would meet him at the top. He decided to do the run on Facebook Live, so I decided I needed to play the Rocky theme song for him. As the music played on my phone and he took off up the steps, I realized I really needed to run too or he wouldn’t have any music at the top. So….off I went playing the Rocky theme…and surprised both Don Manuel and myself by hauling my fanny all the way up those stairs. Upon reaching the top and celebrating, we were immediately hustled by a very ambitious homeless guy who charged us to take our picture with our own phones!
Since we had worked up an appetite, off we went to Geno’s and Pat’s philly cheesesteak joints. We got one traditional “onions and whiz” cheesesteak from Geno’s and one from Pat’s to compare them. Holy Yummmmm!!!!
Both cheesesteaks were delicious, however…both Don Manuel and I chose Geno’s as the best!
After we were nice and full, we headed back to our hotel to grab the car and go home. We passed this shop and their sign, which gave me giggles. I was a little disappointed we wouldn’t be in Philly to get educated
So, that’s our overnight trip to Bruno and Philly! Don Manuel and I like to say we “live our best life!” And, it doesn’t always have to cost a lot! Everything we did sightseeing was free except for the cost of our sandwiches! It was fabulous…and I have a list of things I want to do in Philly the next time we go!
