Y13 D309

Well, I survived it. Most stressful 30 minutes ever. My big concern was technical glitches as it was a platform I wasn't familiar with and software I wasn't comfortable using. There was in fact a technical glitch at the beginning but I quickly fixed it, recovered, and got through my presentation. Everyone gave me great feedback which felt really good. What yesterday did show me is I need a new desk. This one is a wonderful table that has given me years of use, but it's not suited for these kinds of technical setups. It's really a giant craft table at the end of the day. At one point, that's what I needed, but needs change. I started looking at some new desks and I think I found one with a monitor riser, keyboard drawer, and built in plugs and USB. A more technical desk for technical needs. 

B's sisters spent the night so there was Mario Partying, quick dinner, and movie watching happening. It was a pleasant evening to be honest. I watched the first episode of Moon Knight. I'm on the fence. I didn't hate it, but I also didn't jump up and down with excitement. We will see how it goes. 

Teach today. Same group as Monday and Tuesday. Scheduled for 11-5 so a shorter day. Then I have some urgent curriculum changes to do on Friday and the week and month are over. Whee!

Y13 D308

 Today is the day I go live on YouTube at 2pm EST. I spent last night once more rearranging my desk to accommodate this shit:

I feel like I am living in some kind of escape pod now. I didn't finish teaching until almost 7, then went to work on this and setting up a new printer. Ours finally died this weekend. I can't complain, I got at least 8 years out of our old printer. This time I went with one meant for a small business so hopefully I will get another 8-10 years out of it. I also switched from Canon to Epson. I have always preferred Epson printers. Got the Workforce Pro 4820. I did a test page last night and was very pleased. Then I went downstairs and worked on my pod. Finished all that up around 10 and went to bed. My group during the day was good. No issues there other than it was another late day. 

Okay, I am done, time to get ready and put myself out there live. Wish me luck.

Y13 D307

Having a shit morning so far. I have a headache, my eyes won't focus, and I am aching and sore. I slept like shit because the dog and the spouse both stole all the blankets and kept pulling them off me all night. I wouldn't mind if it wasn't 2 fucking degrees outside. Sick of this fucking weather. It really is 2 out there right now. No snow, but cold as fuck. I can feel it against the windows and doors. Which means the heater was working over time all night and even with my humidifier I was suffering. I am so done. I need to go away.

Taught until nearly 8pm, had a shit dinner, watched tv, went to bed. Same shit today.

Y13 D306

I was about to start this off by saying how goddamn cold it was outside all day yesterday and hoped that today would be better, but oh no, when I looked outside just now, it's fucking snowing. Snowing. Again. It's almost April for crying out loud. I am done with fucking snow. I am done with being cold. This shit sucks. 

Pretty boring day yesterday. Watched some tv, played video games, stayed out of B's way as she finished up the cake for the birthday party. Had leftover steak for dinner. Cleaned the kitchen for B to take one thing off the plate. 

This week sucks ass. Today and tomorrow shit teaching schedule. Wednesday, live stream, thursday, shit schedule. Friday is open. I am living my life to just make it through the week. Lousy way to live.

Y13 D305

I had a pretty good day yesterday. It started out with me going to the bookstore at 9am. Well, first it started with me getting up and seeing it was fucking snowing which didn't start things off that great, but I pushed on determined to have a good day regardless of the weather. The bookstore is all the way downtown Detroit and it took me about 30 minutes to get there. They opened at 9:30 and I arrived at 9:27. Well done me. So this is the LARGEST used book store in all of MI and up there in terms of size in the world. The only drawback? Used only. No new books. Which means if someone has donated or sold them a book, it doesn't exist. Unfortunately I left with nothing, but I did wander all four floors and enjoyed the silence and smell of the place. This is what it looks like; just floor after floor of this:

Pretty nifty eh? I enjoyed walking around for sure. Came back, did some shit around the house and took a well earned two hour nap. B and I went to dinner around 5:30. We had one of the nicest dinners I have had in a while. We went to Flemings and just had a pleasant date night. It was pricey but very worth it.

When we got back, I got out of B's way because she needed to make a cake for today for her sister. It didn't work out well because of some frosting issues. The message I saw this morning when I got up says to go to the store to buy more butter and sugar because she needs to try again. Not good. The frosting is a specific type and it's not easy to make. But she is going to keep trying. The cake needs to be ready by 3pm today so we shall see what happens. I will go to the store in a bit and stay out of the way.

That's my big plans for the day - staying out the way. Shitty schedule next week and I am not looking forward to it at all.

Y13 D304

Been up for a while, but having some stomach issues. We had noodles last night from our favorite noodle house and while they were delicious, I am paying for it today. The dan dan mian is fighting back hard.  Ah the pleasures of getting older. Such fun.

Taught from 12-5 yesterday. We went over because of questions. Joy. Before class I had therapy, ate some lunch, and prepped for class. After class, B helped a friend go to a doctor's appointment so said friend was here which is why we opted for noodles. When we were done with dinner, B started in on making a cake for her sister's birthday Sunday. I decided to vacate the house and went to the record store for a while. Just wandered around. Didn't buy anything. But it felt good to get out of the house. Went to bed around 11.

Worried about my friend right now. The one who had cancer. The same lesions and marks are back but this time, on the other side of the face. WTF universe? Hasn't he been through enough? I am hoping this isn't as serious. I am here if he needs me. You hear that dumbass? I am here if you need me.

Today I am staying out of the house (out of the way) as frosting said cake will be happening today. I am going to the "Powell's of MI" today. Let us see if it truly is.

Y13 D303

Better this morning. A little tired but not as bad as yesterday. B saved me from having to go to the grocery store this morning which I appreciate. Didn't have to get up super early. Things I forgot to tell you about yesterday because I was out of it - my new amplifier arrived and fucking rocks. I can't turn it past 1/4 of the way up without it being "too loud". Very happy with that decision. That was and is, the highlight of my week. 

Taught day three with my group yesterday. All went smoothly. No issues. We got through it and went our separate ways. Finished around 4:30. Made dinner. Had pulled pork sandwiches, made slow cooked mashed potatoes to use up some that were in the house, and some nice sweet corn. Was a good dinner. Watched some tv after, dog walk, bed.

Today I have therapy, then a 12-4 class, then it's the weekend. Whee.

Y13 D302

See now today is a grunts and groans day. Did not sleep as well. Just had a rough night of tossing and turning. 

Once again my day was teaching. Went until 5:20, made dinner, watched tv, went to bed. That's it. That was my day.

Oh look, same thing scheduled for today. Whee.

Y13 D301

I slept like a rock last night. Like so hard. It's raining outside and my humidifier was on and there was just so much moisture in the air. I love it. Best sleeping when it is like that. Just out for the whole night. Very happy.

Taught from 11-5:30. Spent 2 hours in the morning trying to get servers up and running. That was a pain in the ass. My group is okay. Out of 12, 7 or so are engaged and paying attention. Another 2 are mostly there. But then there's a couple that I can tell want to be somewhere else. Whatever. Two more days with this group. Then I have a 1/2 day class on Friday with public students. Unknown how many or where they're from. I wasn't supposed to teach Friday but this class got dumped on me around 9pm last night. It's only a 1/2 day which is why I'm not upset about it. 

Had leftovers for dinner. B took pupper out so I had the house to myself mostly. You know, if you don't count the four screaming cats. Took a long soak and relaxed. Watched some TV. They got home a little after 9. Took the dog outside for a walk and went to bed.

My new amplifier is coming today. Very excited about that. I didn't tell you about that did I? I have been using B's dad's old receiver for my records and while it's okay, it's clearly 20 years old and to be frank, has more than I need. It's a home audio receiver. Dolby this, sound stage that. Not what I need. I want to listen to records as they were recorded. I need two channels. That's it. I bought myself an early birthday present on Monday. A Denon 600NE 2-Channel Integrated Amp. Just an amp. No tuner, no fancy stuff. Built in DAC and bluetooth is the extent of the fancy. I should get clean pure sound out of this. It's considered the entry point for high end audio and while some say it's not good enough, those are also people comparing it to $5000 amps. I paid $400. Yeah. Much different price range. It also has no display junk either. Just simple knobs and switches. See? Much excite. 

B got something cool in the mail yesterday. They won the opportunity to buy a special edition set of Lisa Frank Crocs. While crocs might not be my thing, I always respect a limited edition of something. I don't know how many pairs are being made, but it's a slim enough amount that they had to do this drawing to buy a pair. So good for B!

That's about it. See how well I slept? I am able to articulate my thoughts in more than just grunts and groans this morning. Amazing.

Y13 D300

 Sixty five days to go and another year's worth of entries are in the bag. Time to do another dump for posterity sake. Some day I will print all of this out at like 4pt font and put it into notebooks so some future people can see how nuts I was. Whee.

I had a rough sleep last night. Technically B had a bad night which in turn led me to have troubles. They were screaming in their sleep, woke them twice from that, then they started kicking, then yelling again. Had to wake them up multiple times. But my sleep was interrupted and it messed me up. I was having interesting dreams too. Oh well.

I didn't do a whole lot yesterday. Had a pre-class meeting with one student who has a vision disability. They wanted to know how class was going to go so they could prepare. They were alright about it, but it's going to make for a rough session. Prepped for the class, wrote some docs, sat on my hands. Whee.

Had leftovers for dinner because we have a lot in there right now. Same thing tonight. I need to clean and rearrange the fridge tonight. Sort things out a bit. I teach from 11-5:30. Yeah I know, it's a stupid time. I will somehow make it work. I am losing roughly an hour of class time each day. AND these fuckers want a 1/2 hour lunch which pisses me off too. 

Okay, time to prep and shower.

Y13 D299

 Had a pretty boring day yesterday. B went over to a friend's house, I stayed home with the dog. We went on a walk, watched TV, had leftovers for dinner, played video games, went to bed. Nothing of any real significance occurred. I don't know what's going on with the world any more. I have become numb to everything out there. I swear I heard like a raid siren go off yesterday and it really didn't even shock me I am so done with all this. My real thought was watch, they will still expect us to pay bills even if we're in the middle of war. Because America. Land of the all you can eat special, home of the corporation. 

Y13 D298

Had a busy productive day yesterday. Started out by going to home depot at 7am. I wanted to go before my hair appointment and before every weekend project doer was there. As it was, I really had the store to myself which was nice. I picked us up a new firepit as directed by B. We got a 34" round copper pit. I like it. It was reasonably priced and looks nice. From there I went to the fancy store and got some bread and a couple of other things for dinner. After that, hair appointment. Doing much better on this piece than the first two. We are now in month three of this one and looking like we won't have to swap out until May. This makes me happy. Headed home and proceeded to build the pit. Got that all setup and by now it was around 1pm. 

I took a 30 minute nap at this point because I knew I wasn't going to get a break for hours starting at 2:30. I was right. B wanted french potato pie. I made french potato pie. It takes hours to make. It came out wonderful as did the roast and the radishes I made with it. Dinner was 100% perfect. I am very happy. When we were done and kitchen cleaned, it was 7pm. Our friend came over and we socialized for a while. I went to bed around 11.

No plans for today. Not sure what I feel like doing. It's raining which I don't mind.

Y13 D297

 I went out by myself again!! Yay me. I actually found decent sushi less then five minutes from our house. Tiny little hole in the wall place I never knew existed. Was quite good. I was mostly just proud of being out for an hour on my own. Still a task based journey but more relaxed than going to the grocery store. 

Spent the day writing. Finished my document. It's a doozy in size that's for sure. Big class. Supposed to be 1.5 days. Yeah, no. Not my issue.

Started a roast last night for tonight's dinner. Worked a bit in cleaning up the backyard. Then the sky erupted and the rain came. Supposed to go through today. We shall see. I won an auction! Some speakers that sell anywhere from $200 - $1300. I got them for $51 off goodwill's auction site. Yep, goodwill has a site. 

Went to bed around 11:30. Hair appointment at 9am this morning. Gotta hustle.

Y13 D296

I have been fucking with the bank all morning already. Jesus almost an hour. Stupid Zelle wasn't working right and so right now I have $500 just floating around out there because I don't know if it went where it was supposed to go. Fuck. Okay, just checked. It's there. Fuck that was a moment. 

Anyway. Spent yesterday working on docs. As the day before and as I will today. Had my corned beef for dinner. We went to the grocery store at 9pm because B wanted to go. $300 in groceries. I am glad B went because for once they got to see first hand what I have been bitching about in terms of shit being way more expensive. Even they were like this is $300 of groceries?? Yep. Welcome to my fucking world. 

Therapy soon, then more docs, then a weekend. Can't come soon enough.

Y13 D295

There was almost a murder at a wake last night. I mentioned the other day that B lost another one. Well last night was the wake. Luckily I stayed home with the dog or there would have been SERIOUS hell to pay. Now, we don't interact with this side of the family much for good reason. They're a bunch of anti-vaxxer cheeto nuts. One of them literally had a framed oil painting of Dubya in their house when he was around. No seriously, that's the kind of crazy we're talking about here. Well last night, B decided to be masked because her one cousin we like was potentially going to be there and she is SEVERELY immuno-compromised and these last two years have been hell. One of B's older (like 50s/60s) cousins walks up and PULLS B's mask and let's it snap back and then says "what's this?" in a snarky way. B was so shocked they didn't know what to do or say. After a moment B says "YOU just crossed a boundary!". The cousin replies with "oh did I?" and flounces off. It took every fiber in B's body not to murder this cunt right there on the spot. But let me tell you, if they try any shit at the funeral today, well, you might need to make room for more bodies. 

As for me, I spent the day working on docs and dealing with a cunt of my own. I did shut her down by pulling the funeral card. I am doing a private session next week and apparently one of the students has a visual impairment. Not a problem. I can handle. But they leave a rambling Karen-esque message on our admins vm who in a panic asks if I can reach out. Sure. I send an email asking what's the issue. Well they just don't to be left behind because sometimes they can't see the mouse on the screen. WTF? Seriously? But here's the kicker - they kept pushing me to call them. I finally snapped and said "well, I have to go to a WAKE tonight and a FUNERAL tomorrow, so not sure if I can call". No response back. I mean come on. You don't have a visual impairment. You're an entitled bitch, now fuck off. 

Humans. Fuck them.

Made chicken with grilled veggies for dinner. We're 24 hours into a 36 hour corned beef. It will be ready at 5:50pm tonight. That's all I am looking forward to today. Just that thanks.

Y13 D294

 The last couple of nights I have slept very deep and sound thanks to turning the humidifier back on. The trade off to that is some very intense dreams. I had one last night about being in a restaurant with a group of people and the kid was killed by a crazed gunman. Yeah. Woke up from that one in a sweat. Don't remember the other ones, but they were very detailed and in depth too. 

Spent 4.5 hours yesterday on a call with my coworker where they walked me through a bunch of stuff that I now need to put into a new presentation. I have pages of notes and stuff to look up and work on today. The goal is to have a new curriculum presentation done today and have a few days to write demos. This is going to be challenging. 

When I finished I had no motivation to leave the house so we ordered in Persian, watched some tv, and went to bed. That was it.

For the record Ukraine is still being destroyed by Russia, oil company execs are fucking us all over, and in general, the world is a steaming pile of dog shit. You're welcome.

Y13 D293

I feel like one of those zombies that walks around saying "Braaaaaiiiiinnnsss" except in my case it's "Sleeeeep". I was in bed by 10:30 but ugh, so tired. Couple more days and I will adjust. Just rough. 

Spent the first half of yesterday recording commercials, then the second half working on new material. Even configured a Hyper-V environment on my desktop to allow me to run two different versions of something since the product has been updated and we need screenshots of both for the material. That was actually kind of cool. I didn't know there was built in virtual machines like that in Windows. I mean I did, but I never thought about setting them up for this purpose. Kind of dumb, I know, but it works for me. 

Went to the grocery store yesterday morning because I realized we were out of some basics like eggs, dishwasher packs, etc. Stuff that couldn't wait for a Friday grocery run. Picked up some dinners for the week too. Last night I had shrimp scampi and B had fettucine alfredo. Yes, I was lazy and got pre-made dinners from the deli, but it's better than eating random stuff. 

Watched some tv, went to bed. 

Today I have a six hour joint working session with my coworker. I hate it. He has to do a new class in two weeks and wants to crank out material. Buddy, material doesn't get "cranked out" but I will have to show him that today. Sigh.

OH! Important news! I am going to the bay area in May! Pearl Jam FINALLY rescheduled. May 13th. I called the kid last night and made sure she took the day off. Put it on my calendar too! Much excite over that! Something to look forward to.

Y13 D292

So goddamn sleepy. I need my hour back please. It's going to take me the rest of the week to feel back in the groove. Beware the groove! Shit, did I turn the humidifier off? I don't remember. Now I have to go check. Hold on... I did, we're good. Anyway, back to it. 

Didn't do a whole lot yesterday as desired. It fucking snowed the majority of the day and I didn't want to leave the house as a result. I was going to go over to see our friend's new apartment, but I messaged him and was honest that I didn't want to go out in the weather. I know he was disappointed, but he also understood. Played some video games, did laundry, made dinner, planned out the week. 

B lost another one by the way. This time it wasn't COVID, just old age. Now we have a funeral to go to on Thursday. Lovely. This was her great aunt. What is this, 13, 14 since we moved here? The advantage of having few close friends and small family is a lot less funerals. "Lucky" me.

After dinner we watched the new Spiderman. Meh. Spiderman has been my least favorite of all these movies so I didn't go nuts over it like everyone else. Also, Toby looks weird as he's aged, and Garfield just is odd looking to begin with. Holland is at least the most Spiderman of all of them. But way too many villains, way too much going on, way too much "setup" for other movies. It could have been 30 minutes shorter and lost nothing. In some ways I miss the 89-100 minute movies of my day. 2.5 - 3 hour movies get annoying. But in general it was an okay time. Went to bed after the movie.

Slow week this week. Recording videos, writing docs, going to funerals. Joy.

EDIT: Happy PI Day!

Y13 D291

 I fucking hate today. Hate hate hate. I feel like I am up super late, like I have wasted my morning. DST needs to be eliminated, eradicated, gone. It's a stupid thing from a stupid time. Ugh. But wait, let me tell you how I really feel.

I spent the majority of my day rearranging my office. While the desired goal was achieved, I absolutely hate it. I feel trapped in a corner with my back literally against a wall. But now I have a completely blank canvas behind me for video. No one can complain now. When I was done with that I went to the store for a few things, mostly pet related. But got some groceries too. B had a few errands to run and I ended up on dog duty for the remainder of the day. We went for a walk, played, and took a nap together. Made carnitas for dinner, then B's cousin came over and we socialized for the rest of the night. Went to bed around 11.

Nothing planned for today as of right now. Have a slow week coming up and will take full advantage of that for sure.

Y13 D290

It's amazing how much faster, smoother, and pleasant the day goes when you're teaching a good group. An engaged, technically knowledgeable group too. Even though I didn't finish until 4:45, 15 minutes past, it was okay. We finished late because they had good questions and wanted to have engaging discussions about things. I have no problem with that. 

B's friend came over to hang out and we ordered from the local pizza and grinder place. I do like their food. By the time we were done eating it was like 7pm and I felt the need to make a true pound cake. A pound of sugar, a pound of eggs, etc. It came out incredible. I was very impressed with the results. Did a little video gaming and went to bed around 11. 

A pretty good day overall I would say. B took Pip to the vet. All is good. No issues, and as we figured, she is hard of hearing. Not quite deaf, but reduced for sure. Everything else looks great. The power company cut down five trees in our backyard and it looks weird now, but they did it for free and cleaned up after themselves. Something PG&fuckyouE would have never done. 

Nothing pressing on the plate for today. It's still 14 degrees outside and there's still snow so fuck that noise. I have to rearrange my desk this morning but that's about it for must do tasks. Otherwise, I am pretty open the next two days which is nice. No rush, no stress. 

Y13 D289

Go to bed, the outside is fine, wake up though and it's covered in SNOW. Yes, snow. Are you kidding me? Still with the snow? Granted, it's not a lot, but it's more the principle of it. "Winter Storm Quinlan" is to blame. First off, Quinlan? Really? Dumbest name for a storm ever. It's supposed to stay cold and nasty through the weekend too. Oh joy. Bah. Done with it.

Nothing of any significance to report on my end. I taught from 8:30 - 4:30 which was nice. Good group too. Paid attention, knew what they were doing, interacted. Have three more sessions with them including one today and not having a problem with that. This is when I enjoy my job.

Had a snack after work as I had group last night. No one showed but me so I turned it into a private therapy session. Because I am teaching today I was going to have to skip my session this week so this worked out in my favor. No complaints there. I got an 80 minute session for the price of a 60. We talked about my outing on Tuesday, the good the bad, and figured out a plan of how to try again. Got back home around 8 and made a charcuterie plate of some fruit, brie, and bread. Was in bed a little after 10.

Round two with the same group today and then it's the weekend. Don't have any plans as it will be cold and snowy. Need to rearrange my office but other than that, nothing on the horizon. We "lose" an hour this weekend which sucks. But oh boy, it will be lighter later so I can see the snow better!

Y13 D288

I actually have to teach today and tomorrow at my old normal time of 8:30 - 4:30. While this makes me very happy, it also made me very paranoid about missing my alarm. I kept waking up thinking "oh it must be close now" and well, it wasn't. The first time was 11:30, then 1:07, then 3:30, then 4:03. Not fun. I was getting REM sleep each time because I was having dreams all over the place, but it was still annoying to keep waking up.

Spent yesterday working on documents. This is why I am happy the next two days are teaching. Can focus on that instead of stupid random documentation. Also the sales guy has been off selling stuff and I have some solid dates for the rest of the month as well as April. Do the job I was hired to do.

B took the dog to go visit her bingo ladies last night as well as grandparents. I had leftovers while they were out. Then we watched some tv, played video games, and went to bed. It was a boring uneventful Wednesday for me.

The world is still fucked. The oil companies decided to boycott Russia in order to drive up their profits, the president backed their play, and gas is $4.50 here, $7 in some places. Good times. I don't know the latest on whether Kyiv still stands. I fear there will be no retribution from any parties outside of "sanctions" which sets the stage for some future scary shit.

Not going to focus on that, just going to worry about my class.

Y13 D287

I went out last night. Yep, in public and everything. Hated every minute of it. Allow me to elaborate. I will circle back to earlier in the day in a minute. First let's talk about my "night". I decided I was tired of being in the house. I looked up the city everyone keeps telling me to go to and found three choices of breweries/restaurants that would be acceptable for me to have dinner at a bar. Two of them are closed on Tuesdays so I ended up at choice number 3. We're already off to a shitty start, aren't we? Where I went is 14 miles from my house. That's issue number one because that meant I had to drive on the freeway and I went out at 5pm. Yeah. Let's focus on that for a second - I am very spoiled in where I have lived before. For too many years everything I needed was either within walking distance, a quick public transportation trip, or 5 minutes away on side roads. I loathe getting on the freeway if I am just planning on staying out for a short time. So last night was not off to a good start. Found a parking lot near where I wanted to be and paid the $3. That was easy. They have an app and I had looked it up before hand to be ready. I then walked around a bit to see where I was, what was near, and what I wanted to do. I did find a cool record store and had to constrain myself from buying stuff. That was tough. They had a great selection and I would go back to that record store if I needed something specific. I had trouble walking around though since it was all of 35 degrees out. This of course led to my frustration. The sun was in my eyes and it was freezing at the same time. My brain didn't like that. I found my food destination and sat at the bar. I ordered a local stout and it was awful. Just awful. I ordered a reuben but didn't read the description closely enough. It was a fucking turkey reuben. Imagine my disappointment. Then on my left I had old guy (my age to be honest) complaining about jukeboxes and how he hates the modern app based ones blah blah blah. On my right, two "businessmen", aka insurance guys or sales guys of some type in polo shirts thinking they're cool. Fail. I didn't finish either the sandwich or the beer. I then walked back towards the car. Stopped in a candy shop and got some stuff which was okay. A little pricey, but okay. Now, here's the issue why I had no fun doing all this - the whole time the specter of having to get back on that damn freeway and drive home loomed over my head. Plus it was too cold for me to wander around aimlessly. I just wanted to get back in the car with heat. I was also accosted by no less than three homeless people while walking downtown and that annoyed me because I was already in an unknown environment, frustrated with the weather, can't hear what they are trying to say to me, and just want to be off the street. In total, I was out for under two hours. I get very frustrated at not having pushed B for us to move closer to a downtown like this. IF we lived within walking or 5 minute driving distance to an area like this, I would most definitely have enjoyed myself more. I could have leisurely walked. Or, if we lived near there I could explore a little bit at a time. As it was, I was more worried about driving, parking, rushing, than enjoying myself.

But, hey, I went outside. That has to count for something, right?

Now back to earlier in the day. I had my dry run for my livestream. An hour of rearranging the room yet again, an hour of presentation, 2 hours of "feedback", an hour of rearranging the room back. I need to come up with a layout for this room that ends that part of things. I was very annoyed at having to move everything around again. My presentation went over mostly okay but I have to do tweaks on it today. Golly, what fun.

So there's my day. Bleh.

Y13 D286

 Spent the day staring at a screen, staring out the window at snow, rain, snow, rain, staring into the void. I slow cooked stew. It was good. Watched TV with B. Also good. Woke up to 7 emails. Not good. Very tired of dealing with a west coast company that doesn't respect boundaries. Time stamp on email? 12:30am to 2:30am. Or, 9:30 - 11:30 PST. WTF? Why are you sending emails that late? Fucking hate all of you. That's all there is to say about it. Just so done with it. Hello lottery gods? Send me a winning ticket please. Here's my useless soul. Tell me where to sign...

Y13 D285

 It's monday. It's another work week. The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round.

The world sucks. I'm tired of everything. 

Y13 D284

So there are too many people in my house right now. I thought when we got home last night it would be to a nice quiet empty house. Nope. The friend who went with us to OH was too tired to drive home (which is odd since all they did was sleep on the drive home, but hey, you know how it goes), and B's one sister felt left out and decided it was HER turn to sleep over. We traded one kid for another. Ugh. Not the end of the world, but I was expecting a nice empty house this morning but do not get that. Oh well.

As for yesterday, we had an awesome time. Was it worth 9 hours of driving? Maybe. I got to pet a rhino, a camel, and a giraffe. I also got to feed all of those. I have never had that kind of close up, one on one experience with animals like this before and it was pretty freaking awesome. It was a small limited group. Basically 3 couples counting us and our friend. It's usually limited to six, but they let it slide to 7. The fact that it was limited made it really nice. Also no children which is great. We took our time we all of the animals, never felt rushed or hurried, and as an added bonus, the weather was about 70 and was just freaking perfect. Riding in the back of an open truck was not a problem. I took about 325 pictures and almost all of them came out really nice. Here's a sample:

Very pleased. The downside is that it was 4.5 hours each way. Plus on the way home we stopped at Cane's for dinner. The ride home was closer to 5.5 hours. Long drive, sore butt. I would go again, but I would spend the night. 

Today I am going to wash the car, slow cook a roast, and go to the mall to pick up something B needs and get a fancy milkshake. A good sunday planned in my brain.

Y13 D283

Up early on a damn Saturday. It is Saturday, right? I think so. No, wait, I know so because yesterday was grocery store and bills. I do that on Fridays. Routines. Good for knowing the damn day of the week. Anywho, I am up early because today's the day we drive to OH for B's final birthday gift. We drive 5 hours so they can see giraffes and rhinos up close. Yep. The things I do. 

Yesterday in addition to the above, consisted of teaching one dude who really was overwhelmed and not sure what he is doing. He was a nice human being, but he's been thrown in the pool, in the deep end, head first. We finished a little after 4, and then we had dinner, then B's mom and sisters came over. B's sister is going to stay here today to watch doggo while we're on our adventure. Our friend is also coming with us, which means I have a house full of people right now. You know how much I love that. Well, I used to. I used to enjoy cuddle puddles on the floor. Now, go away. How far we've come.

Speaking of B's sister, it made me think about something yesterday. She's turning 16 in a couple of weeks and I have to say, I don't understand *some* kids today. I look at B's sisters, 16 and 13, and they seem so naive and innocent to me compared to the shit I was doing at 16 and 13. Maybe that's good? I don't know. At their age I was already jaded and angry. But it's just different. I was staying out, doing drugs, having sex, living my life. These two seem like real children to me in comparison. Even the kid was more exciting at 16 than these two. Is it isolated? Don't know. Just interesting.

Enough chit chat. Need to shower, put gas in the car, make snacks, and drive. Lucky, lucky me.

Y13 D282

Finally fucking payday. I hate Feb. You pay bills and next thing you know they're due again because it's a short month and you lose two days. Annoying. Going to the grocery store this morning too. Need some stuff pretty bad. It's why we have been slacking all week eating out. Got to stop that.

Taught all day again. Good guy but lots of questions. Finished around 4, putzed around a bit and went to group. Got home at 8:30, had some soup, Went to bed.

Have an 11-5 today, then tomorrow we head to OH for B's last birthday treat. 10 hours of driving for 2 hours of event. Story of my life.

Y13 D281

Been up for a while but had to deal with a couple of things. I dislike that because it throws my routine off and I feel "behind" but stuff needs to get done and time marches on. C'est la vie. So yesterday...

Taught from 9-5. A one on one mentoring session with a pretty sharp guy who currently lives in GA but is a former Californian like me. We had good talks. As a result, we ended up ordering Vietnamese for dinner. 0 out of 10. This was part of our discussion was how we both miss "authentic" food moving away from CA. Last night was proof. It was blah and tasteless. Would not order from this place a second time. No thanks. We watched some tv, did dog stuff, went to bed. 

Not a very exciting day, but not bad either. Trying to block out the news of Putin threatening nuclear weapons. Trying to block out the news of just everything. It's so overwhelming. People wonder how people in the past kept boring diaries of their lives when all these world events were happening and look, I get it. There's nothing I can do about Ukraine. There's nothing I can do about TX or FL. Yeah, it sucks and yeah, it depresses me, but I am not going to sit here and write about it when it has no impact on my daily life. Yet. When it does, then I will be documenting it. Until then, it's this thing that's happening outside my bubble and just bringing me anxiety.

Another day with my student, then group. Tomorrow is a busy day, and then Saturday we go to OH.

Y13 D280

We will get a World War this time? We thought we would have one under the cheeto's watch, but now Puti-poot has really gone and done some shit. I mean how fucked up do your actions have to be for China and the Taliban to both tell you to cool it? "Oh we put SANCTIONS on them". Please bitch, he has spent the last five years making sure sanctions don't do a fucking thing. Plus he doesn't care. His own people are like WTF and even that isn't stopping him. This is a mad man making a mad play. Stay tuned to see how it all plays out kids. I am assuming someone 100 years from now is reading this and you already know how it turned out. You're reading it from your digital neurolink from your air bubble in Mars, right? Yep. That's totally how I picture it.

Spent two hours yesterday rearranging my office to make a one minute commercial. I had to change clothes twice. Then it took me another 2 hours to actually make the recording. What a pain. In the end I was happy with the final result. People who've never worked on TV or Movies have no clue what goes into making that little itty bitty video they see. It can take days to get a 10 minute scene just right. Not to mention post production. What a pain.

Friend came over to hang out. We had taco bell and shot the shit. Nothing exciting there. B and the doggo are bonding better. We have figured out that the dog probably was never spoken to directly or with any kindness. She still flinches a bit when you go to pet her. She will learn. This is a safe place for her. 

Teach one student today and tomorrow. Joy. I think they are also someone I might struggle with unfortunately. I am holding comment until I see how it goes.

Y13 D279

Woke up to six emails this morning. Zero could I do anything about. One of them was "adding" me to a thread I was already on asking for my input at 11:30pm on something that had to be solved last night. Like I could have offered any suggestions in my sleep. It was a server issue for our other instructor so it had to be solved last night so they can start class this morning. My input was 100% not of any use. Stupid to even bring me into the thread tbh. Whatever. 

I spent the day recording trailers for an upcoming event. I have a feeling I will be doing more of these because one of my coworkers quit yesterday. He regularly worked on webinars with me and did a decent amount of the promo stuff. Guess whose plate that will fall on? Meh, whatever. There are worse things in life. Also did some pre-work on the livestream. Had to do one more test to embed it into the company website. This way when it goes live you can either be on YouTube or on our site. That was kind of fun to be honest. 

Things with dog are actually progressing well. Since I was in my office all day, B and dog bonded quite a bit. She immediately came back to me when I opened my office door, but it was still good progress. We took her to PetSmart last night to pick up some more things as we're learning what she wants for toys, food, etc. She did great walking around the store. Best day of her life. 

Played some more Elden Ring. I am completely lost but that's okay. The first boss was easy to find as the game sort of guides you. But after that limited hand holding it's like 'sorry bitch, you're on your own now'. I died many times. Many, many times. But I enjoyed it as odd as that sounds. It's a learning experience for sure. I think I found where I need to go, but we shall see.

More of the same today as yesterday. Then three days of actual teaching, then we go to OH on Saturday for the final piece of B's birthday. Rhinos and giraffes! It will be a long drive but it should be worth it. Paid my mortgage this morning because it's now March. 

March 2022. Ukraine is being invaded by Russia. Trans kids are being denied protection in Texas. Florida is hating on gay people. You know, a normal fucking day in this timeline.