The Monthly Zest - May 2025
I'm trying to get back into writing my monthly journals now that I have way more free time. I feel like I'm back on summer vacation, being unemployed so I want to make the most of it and remember to have fun too!
May was a busy month! The current season of my pinball league started up and I've been having a decent season so far. This time they're dividing us into divisions and somehow I made it to B division. Don't think I'm good enough to qualify for finals but we'll see!
One of my favorite things that happens where I live is Porchfest and despite a rainy start, we had a lot of fun wandering around the city and seeing tons of musicians performing on their porches. Lots of rock and punk bands, but we did encounter a barbershop quartet and a string ensemble at one point, and a DJ in the park toward the end of the day.
Speaking of music, I saw two excellent concerts in May. First was Ichiko Aoba, touring her newest album which I was a huge fan of when it released earlier this year. She's an outstanding guitar player and it was kinda nice to be at a much more relaxed concert than what I'm used to (read: getting pushed around). The real surprise for me was her opener, Hayden Pedigo - a folk guitarist from Texas. His music really blew me away and I became an instant fan. He just released a new album too!
A few weeks later it was back to Worcester to see The Wonder Years do an acoustic set with a string quartet at the Palladium. I hadn't been to the Palladium in years... probably not since college so it was very nostalgic to be there listening to a band I was crazy about when I was in college. They played for almost two hours and the strings sounded amazing too. Also got some delicious ramen at Wooden Bar which is always a plus~
I also took a quick weekend trip to Philly with my friend Michelle to visit our friend (and my former roommate) Shawn who had moved back there last summer. We had great weather and did a lot of exploring, poking into thrift stores, record stores and lots of dive bars. Capped the weekend off in the Gayborhood at 254 and an attempt to get on live band karaoke (they never called us unfortunately but we still had fun). I love Philly more every time I visit.
To cap things off the two foot tall statue of Zangief (my favorite Street Fighter character) I ordered over a year ago finally showed up. Happy summer and happy Pride!
