Tag: Lifestyle Blogger

Solo Date: Detroit, Michigan ♡ – Food & Place Alert

Hello SALLY ♡ THINGS readers! If you follow me on any social platforms, you might have noticed that I have been out more and doing more solo. Lately, I have been pushing myself to do more things solo and forcing myself outside of my comfort zone. This has been something that I’ve been working on for years and years now. When I turned 30, something really clicked and I just see life in a new perspective. I get to be “selfish” by standing on my boundaries and choosing better. You only get older, so live your best life. Stop holding yourself back. One of the best advice I ever got was to date yourself. ♡

My original plans did not work out, but instead of just staying home I decided to make new plans. The week of, I decided to buy Jonas Brothers concert tickets in Detroit. I am a long time fan of the Jonas Brothers, ever since 2005/06. I’m very blessed that I have the privilege of being able to do things so last minute. I took this day to date myself. I explored, adventured, spoiled myself and got to sing and dance my heart out to the Jonas Brothers. I have only been to Detroit a couple times and never have I’ve driven or really explored the area, so this was very brand new adventure for me. Come explore the east side of Michigan with me!

My first stop of the day was two hours away to Moose Pastry & Tea in Novi, Michigan. Moose is a pastry shop that has tons of buns and sandwich-like options. I’m never really on the east side of the state, but when I find myself over here I try to grab some goodies. My go to buns are the Garlic Hotdog Bun, Moose, Doraemon, and Piggy (Buta). The pastries are all a good size and price! I believe all the buns I got were only $3 each. I bought a bag full to take home with me.

Garlic Hotdog Bun: Filled with hotdog and pork floss (dried, shredded pork) topped with garlic butter

Moose: Our signature animal! Filled with blueberry cream cheese richness.

Doraemon: Come and test our ability to recreate the famous Japanese manga character, Doraemon. This delicious pastry has a creamy custard filling and
a cherry on top

Piggy (Buta): Our strawberry jam filled bread is the perfect reason to PIG out

Down the street from Moose is this place called MIRAI – Coffee, Bubble Tea, and Stationery. Yes, it has all those things plus more! I was surprised at how much seating they have for the cafe side. They also had a lot of gashapon machines and a decent amount of mini claw machines! I got a hot vanilla latte to keep me going, it was an early morning & late night day. I also won two little plushies from the mini claw machines. I couldn’t resist!

I was all over the east side of the state. My next stop was to OVERRATED in Clinton Township, Michigan. The store is located in The Mall at Partridge Creek. I found this store on tiktok and everyone kept saying that they had tons of blindboxes, so you know I made sure to visit. I bought a Sanrio fruit keychain plush blind box and a snowglobe Studio Ghibli blind box. Let’s say I was very satisfied with my pulls! Can we get an OVERRATED over on the west side? They also sell authentic Labubus, Sonny Angels and Smikis. OVERRATED really does have it all!

Not the final destination, but the final city. HELLO DETROIT! (located midtown Detroit) At this point I was on the road more than I was visiting places. There’s a lot of construction happening on that side of the Michigan, but what’s new? 40 minutes later, I made it to Hihi, a super cute store with all the Sanrio plushies and merch that you can think of. At Hihi, they have some items that were only released Japan or Korea, so it was very cool to see those items in person! They sell more than just Sanrio, like Bearbricks, Toki Doki, Pusheen, Pokemon, etc. The prices here are a little higher, but you do have to consider the out of country items and how much it cost for them to get them here.

What is a solo date without a nice wine and dine? Choosing where to eat was a challenge for me because Downtown Detroit has so many good places to choose from and let’s face the real fact, I’m a girl. It’s very true. We have a hard time deciding what we want to eat! I wanted to splurge on myself and try something new. We live to eat and not eat to live, right? I decided on Experience Zuzu for: 1) easy parking 2) menu items and 3) aesthetic. Parking was pretty easy, even with the blocked roads for a jazz festival and all the construction going on downtown. I was having cravings for a really good steak or lamb chops, which all three options had, but what really caught my eye was the Sailor Moon Mai Tai. I’m a sucker for cute things. Since I’m a sucker for cute things, I saw photos of the interior of Experience Zuzu and knew they would be the place I would eat it.

Experience Zuzu has a very fun vibe the moment you walk in and it was perfect to get me concert ready. There’s lots of reds, golds, and metallics. I sat at the bar and was blown away at the set up. I bartend myself, so I LOVE seeing how other bars are at other places. The bar itself, like the table, has built in LED lights and the table changes colors as you eat. The music they play is the perfect mix of edm house, it was a great time. I got the Sailor Moon Mai Tai, which came in a cute Artemis cup; the Waygu Beef Gyoza, 10/10, very rich in flavor and melts in your mouth; and the Prime Miso Lamb Chops, full of flavor and tender. I would recommend Experience Zuzu, so if you’re ever in downtown Detroit area give them a try!

Sailor Moon Mai Tai: Bacardi Anejo Rum, Macadamia Orgeat, Lime, Mint, Orange Blossom

Waygu Beef Gyoza: Wagyu Beef Dumplings, Garlic Chili Crunch, Sweet Citrus Ponzu

Prime Miso Lamb Chops: Tableside Grill Presentation, Red Onion + Mint Salad, Pickled Cucumber, Shishito Pepper, Fingerling Potatoes, Miso Anticucho Sauce

Before heading to the Jonas Brothers concert, I drove and ran around downtown to try to find a portable battery because my phone was dying and my car charger takes forever to charge. That was the adventure of my life because why did I have to go to FOUR different locations until I found a power bank? I even got a parking ticket, RIP. Nothing like being stressed right before a show, right? This caused me to get to Little Cesars Arena a lot later than I wanted to be and I still had to find out parking around the arena.

I’m not sure if you guys are aware, but this Jonas20: Greetings From Your Hometown Tour is super important because not only is this their 13th tour, but it also celebrates their 20 year anniversary as a band! It’s a huge milestone, especially since the band broke up for a bit. If you love them, you know how it is. As I was in line for their specialty drink, Boys Like Girls were closing out with ‘The Great Escape’. It took me back to middle school days. Russell Dickerson was the hometown guest for this show and Marshmello played a set mid concert, so there was a little rave break. Then at the end, Detroit got all the Jonas men (Paul Kevin Jonas Sr & Franklin Jonas) on stage singing ‘When You Look Me In The Eyes’. Even though I was by myself, I had the best time singing and dancing with thousands of people around to my favorite boy band. To describe what a Jonas Brothers show is like, a room filled with thousands of feral women, ready to jumpship LOL. Nick sang “ReeeEEEeEeED DReeeeEEssSSS” and the crowd went wild, Joe took his jacket to show a shoulder and the crowd went wild, Kevin played a little guitar solo and the crowd went wild. Look, WE LOVE HOT DADS, what can we say? I’ll also admit that I did cry when they first came out on stage. These boys are seriously so talented with voices from heaven. Listening and watching them on tv in 2005 to seeing them live for the second time in 2025. It’s been a great 20 years of music and to many more ♡

Burning Up’
“Slip into the LAVA with the Joe Bros Hurricane”
Captain Morgan, Barcardi, Passion Fruit, Orange Juice, Lime Juice, Grenadine in a Red Flame Glass & Light Up Ice Cube.

Once you got your drink, you got to choose from three different stickers and OF COURSE I needed the one that said “Greetings from Camp Rock Bar”.
How Iconic.

I see more concert trips to Detroit in my near future and more solo dates. Do what you love for yourself and don’t let anything stop you from experiencing life! It’s fun to be with friends, but it can also be fun being with yourself too. Date yourself and give yourself love. Until the next adventure, live your best life and live for you ♡

@sallynohands

Not in my vlogging era cause I never finished this 😂 I visited Overrated in Clinton Township, Hihi in Detroit, ate lamb chops at Experience Zuzu and then to the Jonas Brothers concert 🙂‍↕️ It was a great day #vietnamesegirl #detroit #solotraveler #jonasbrothersconcert #healingenergy @Jonas Brothers @Nick Jonas @joejonas @Kevin Jonas @Franklin jonas

♬ Noite de Verão – ya-su

Then and Now.

I probably have typed about this in the few blogs I wrote before, but never finished. Fair warning, be prepared to read a little more of this in other blogs if they ever get posted. So far it’s the only thing that comes to my mind when I try to sit down to blog, so it’s something that needs to get out and hopefully after I can blog about other things. I feel like a broken record sometimes. I blog a lot about healing and my journey, it’s all I know right now. It is currently what’s going on in my life. Then and now. I wouldn’t quite call this a drunk thoughts blog, but I did have a good chug of some strawberry sake. Just a bit to loosen up and be not so in my head about sharing this. I actually find it hard to share this side of me because it feels super and very vulnerable of me. Maybe a part of me feels embarrassed, maybe because it still gets me in my feels or that I haven’t yet fully processed it. It’s hard for me to express because I simply do not know where I’m quite at with it all. Whatever it is, here I try to go.

These summer months, I have really compared my current self to my 2023 self. If I could describe myself this summer it would be: confident, strong, happy, healing, thriving, joyful, sober, living life to the fullest, a normal person. If I were to describe summer Sally 2023 it would be: sad, but grateful, stressed, alcohol driven, burnt out, lost, fun, goal driven, and hurt. What two very different and confusing versions of me.

A word that best described me then is lost. A word that best describes me now is healing, but of course I would not be who I am today if it wasn’t for that lost version of me. Looking back I’m actually very grateful for that part of my life (not the problems, but the lessons) and very proud of how I managed, even though I was very hurt. I sat with myself every day and I listened to my cries, I listened to my thoughts, I felt the hurt. I sat with every emotion and let them take their turn. I sat with all my doubts and gave them the time they needed. I sat there and cried out every tear in my body almost every night until there was nothing left. Some people might think it’s pretty pathetic, but it was what I needed to do for me. That was my way of trying to comfort myself. I gave myself that safe space. Now, I still have that safe space, but it’s more for the appreciation of my happiness, celebration of small steps on my healing and the new self love that I have for myself. I won’t say I’m completely on the other side, but it’s definitely a positive path.

I did something that I never thought or saw myself doing and that was to stop engaging and going silent. I let go of any hope and expectation, I let go completely. That’s such a hard thing to do. To let things go free and to let things come to or go from you. I ignored and pushed everything away as much as I could until I realized that it was something that was trying to come to me. I really crawled into my own little shell and if you weren’t someone I saw in my daily life, I unfortunately didn’t reach out to or interacted with for a bit. My social battery was fighting so hard, but my emotional side won. I’m a person who tries to act fine when I’m not, but in reality my emotions literally leak out of my pores and you can tell how I am through my body language and facial expressions. I pulled away for a bit so people didn’t have to see that side of me, ask me anything and I didn’t have to keep pretending. I’m sorry to my friends and family for that and I’m also very thankful that everyone understood that I needed some space. I put myself first and really focused on nothing, but myself and moving forward. One positive that did come out of it was my decision on schooling. Now, because of then, I still am continuing my education and I feel more comfortable with being truly vulnerable in front of others even if I feel stupid. It is not a burden. Now, I can thank the ‘then me’ and comfort any part of her that I still have left with the ‘now me’.

One thing that I learned from this and in my therapy sessions are to acknowledge all these different parts of me, listen to what they need to say, validate them and thank them. Practicing this has helped build a better relationship within myself with myself. Practicing this has allowed to me forgive myself, love all the different parts of myself, remember my worth, remember what I deserve, growth, healing, forgiving others and most importantly not to hurt others because of my own hurt. One day, I’ll be at the end with the rainbows and unicorns or in my case, a room filled with anything and everything Hello Kitty.

This was really building up in my head and I tried to avoid blogging more on it, but I guess I still have a lot to say. If you are still reading this, thank you. Sending lots of love out. Then and Now. ♡

September & October Mini Writings.

These two months were quite hard on me, but here I am. Still here, still standing, still living, still loving, still going. Physically exhausted, mentally stronger and overall more kind and gentle to myself. ♡

September 2, 2023

Let them.

Let them try to ruin you and your day.

You know you haven’t played in any fire lately.

They are doing it out of their own insecurities about you anyways.

– sally.things

September 10, 2023

“Listen before I go.”

– sally.things

September 16, 2023

Once you let go, you let go over and over and over again.

You let them go when you go to the grocery store and don’t buy their favorite snack. You let go of them when you eat at your guys’ favorite restaurant and decide to order something different. You let them go again when you do things out of your normal routine that involved them.

You’ll be letting them go in many different ways, in many different places and a million different times.

– sally.things

October 8, 2023

Keep on laughing, smiling and finding little joys in things.

The little things will eventually become big and you’ll forget about all the worries of the past.

Love life in the present.

– sally.things

October 12, 2023

I deserved a kinder goodbye. One that wasn’t ruined by deceit.

One that didn’t get competed against or used for someone else’s needs.

One that wasn’t used by another and rubbed in my face.

I deserved a goodbye that was only meant for you and me.

– sally.things

October 24, 2023

I’m dancing with all my emotions and giving each and every one of them their time to shine.

We’ll dance until we can’t dance anymore.

Love, sadness, grief, gratitude, heartache, happiness, and more.

What a lovely ball.

– sally.things

October 25, 2023

Read these words and think of me.

Remember all the love and think of me.

Now read these words: think of me for once.

– sally.things

What It’s Like Going Back to School at 28.

Am I crazy? Slightly. Did you read that right? Yes. I decided to go back to college this semester at the age of 28. The last time I had classes was back in 2014/2015, so 8-9 years ago. Life got in the way and I really wasn’t ready back then. I’ve been wanting to go back, but timing wasn’t right or it didn’t feel right to me. How I feel about something is very important for me. This time around, things fell into place and I was able to sign up and get back into it. I’m happy that I’m back in school and excited to see what’s to come from it.

So what’s it like to be back?
While it feels like I haven’t left and majority of things look the same, many things have actually changed. My professors from back then are still here, but they have aged. It’s weird cause I feel like I went time traveling to the future. The student IDs are different colors and now have more use for things, I got mine replaced to the new one and the person taking my picture said, “Wow, welcome back it must be a while for you. I haven’t seen the all blue IDs in a while.” How embarrassing that was LOL. The parking student rates have gone up and boy does that make me sad, but happy cause I’m only on campus 2 times a week. I also just feel sooo old in my classes. Majority of my peers are 18-20. I’ve interacted with some classmates in group projects and we’ll get to know each other with little questions and they all get so shocked when I tell them my age. It’s always the same reaction too, “No way! You look so good and young for 28!” Thank you for that compliment though, I’m starting to appreciate it more. ♡ I’m also meeting others who are older than me, that are coming back to school just like me. Having that in common has been very motivating for me and reminds me to not be too hard on myself for starting over again.

How are you feeling about it all?
Well it’s been very emotional for me for sure. It’s been 3 weeks already and on the first day I was 15 mins late and I skipped one class lecture already. The enrollment period before was pretty stressful for me already. It’s been a while since I’ve been in school, so some of my credits that I earned when I first went no longer exists. I have to pretty much take some of same classes over again to get the credit again, which sucks. School was a hard topic for me to talk about before and even now at times because of how my first year went. It wasn’t ideal and I didn’t feel supported back then. Those feelings come through still from time to time and I can get very discouraged and less motivated. Have I already thought of dropping out? YES, plenty of times already. I did have someone who was my #1 supporter and they helped me talk about and through my worries about school, someone who was always there for me. I ended up starting this semester without them. It’s heartbreaking to lose someone who was so proud and believed in you and I’m still trying to adjust with that. Besides those feels, mainly I’ve been excited and motivated. I am proud of myself for taking this step again and trying again. I’m happy with my decision of going back and ready to see what’s to come with it. I’m happy that I get the opportunity to change up my daily routine and change my environment. It’s something that I needed to do for myself.

I’m here to let anyone else that’s looking to go back to school, whether you’re older, younger, haven’t gone yet, or dropped out that you can do it. You’re not alone and you definitely don’t have to think negative about yourself about it. Whatever your story was before, it’s not going to be your story this time around. Take your time, go your own pace, don’t listen to those who bash others. You have your own journey to go through. Most importantly YOU got this!

This won’t be the last blog about school and I’m hoping to be able to post about getting my degree when the time comes around. Whenever that will be. I’m in no rush right now and enjoying the ride. I’m happy for this new start and I’ll see everyone at the end. ♡

Let Me Reintroduce Myself and SALLY♡THINGS.

I wrote a super brief first post of the reasoning behind creating SALLY♡THINGS, which you can read here <- click
I think that I was too excited about writing the first post so I didn’t write it the way that I had imagined. Plus the way I thought I would be using my blog turned out very differently, in a good way though. So let me reintroduce myself again!

My name is Sally Tran and I’m turning 27 this year in July. I am Vietnamese, part of the first American born generation of my family. I’m still very rooted with my culture and background, Vietnamese dishes are my favorite. Even though I don’t speak as fluent as I use too, I understand it perfectly fine. Okay, maybe more like 90%, but that’s enough to pass. A little fun fact, I discovered over the pandemic that I’m mixed with Italian about 20-25%! I was born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan, but now I live on the other side of Lake Michigan in Madison, Wisconsin. I love to eat, travel, attend concerts, shows, music festivals. EDM is what I listen to the most. I’m a little headbanger, but I do enjoy all other genres as well. Every time I travel or adventure to some place new, I fall in love with the world and life even more. It’s nice to meet all the new faces and to meet familiar ones over again!

I created my blog instagram back in 2018 with the visions and goals of reviewing products, specifically posting EDM content and hopefully becoming an influencer. When the pandemic started, it became harder to be category specific because of everything shutting down. That’s when I created my WordPress blog SALLY♡THINGS where I had a place to post more of my personal experiences and thoughts, where I don’t have to be category specific and I could write novels if I wanted too. Along the way, I changed my end goals from influencer to blogger. I would like SALLY♡THINGS to be a brand/phrase/business that people hear and can put my face to it. I’m working on making it my creative space. I have many, many, many ideas of where I would like to go with it and I’m slowly working on making those ideas come to life. I’m not an influencer, I’m barely a blogger and not yet a business woman. I am a 26 year old figuring out life and trying to make her dreams come true!
Thank you for reading and thank you for all the support on everything I’ve posted and all the different social media adventures that I’ve had. Most importantly, thank you for the love and kindness! ♡

ps – I do have stickers made of my logo if you would like one or a few, I’d be more than happy to ship them out to you. Just send me a dm or email! I also haven’t been very active with posting lately, but I’m just trying to get my life together personally and work wise. Self care is important and it’s okay to cut some stuff out or put some things on pause to make more room and time ♡