got back in the car and it took a while for my dad to notice the Monster energy but he said that would make my mom mad, but I said I rarely drink those now.
Guess I'm not alone on this, my mom also gets pretty pissed when she sees me drinking energy drinks.
I hope that company responds to you, regardless of whether you got accepted or declined. It's annoying when they just leave you hanging like that. Also, your handwriting is ass lmfao
October 10th, 2026: Full day of camping today, I woke up around 8:00am and got out to go to the bathroom, and then got back to get started on cooking mountain man with the dutch oven. I chopped up the green bell peppers and the onion then scooped it into the pan with the ground sausage and then had me crack a dozen eggs, add milk, and whisk it. My dad told me to take some pictures of what we were cooking:
I loved eating mountain man and we still had some leftovers we stuffed into the cooler, we had to come up with a plan to do today, we first went into town to buy some stuff at the Pick N Save and then we drove up to Point Beach Nuclear Plant to see if we could get a tour there. We got to the gate past a ton of land being used for solar power to see that the gate showed us it was off limits and I didn’t see anybody there, also the signs saying they’d shoot trespassers. We drove back to the campsite and then we went down to the ranger station where we entered and started to hike down the ice age trail and past a good amount of other people before transferring to a loop to head back north
We stopped to eat our lunches on the way back north: two identical sandwiches with provolone cheese, slices of honeyed ham, and fancy musdummy. My dad spotted a mushroom growing and asked me:
“Do you think you can identify if that mushroom is edible or not?”
I didn’t have my pamphlet on mushroom identification so I just went with it not being edible. We walked back past this pretty fancy campsite setup that my dad told me I should take a picture of:
We got back to the campsite and I went in the tent to just nap and write in my blog whereas my dad remained outside and read Salt: A World History by Mike Kurlansky, I “napped” for a few hours before I got outside to take a walk to the beach and try and receive a signal, but nothing at all, even after walking back and forth on the beach multiple times. I went back and started helping my dad with beef stroganoff, preparing the food while he cooked it in the dutch oven outside of the firepit yet with burning coals on top it and below it, I thought we might get the park ranger on our asses for this but we got lucky enough to enjoy some good beef stroganoff. I went back to the beach to get some cell service and got a brief flash of two bars to receive this text from my mom: <Did you bring your passport home with you?
Whoops. I got back and my dad had me start heating up some hot chocolate for both of us to drink:
It was some high end brand so it tasted even better than you’d expect. I drank it by the fire before heading to the bathrooms to shower then headed back. I started day 20 of my 40 day rosary for life at 9:19pm and prayed it silently before completing it at 9:49pm and took one final picture:
October 11th, 2026: Woke up and got out of the tent to head to the bathroom. Breakfast was nothing but Honey Nut Cheerios with milk, I had to refill the fancy water container with more water, I took a picture of the fire pit:
I drank my coffee and finished off the cereal before we had to dry off the dishes. It was roughly 8:30am by this time:
I got the tent emptied out of my stuff and rolled up the mattresses we had, we were all packed up at 9:10am so we decided to read for a while, I realized I didn’t pick up the book in the Richard Sharpe series that I was currently on but I had a Robert Fitzgerald translation of The Odyssey so I decided to pick it up and start going through the first 3 books of it. I found a picture of the exact edition online:
My dad kept reading his book, with the spine of Salt, A World History clearly suffering under his primitive ways of tracking the page:
At 9:40am we got finalized packing and started driving down to for the mass at 11:00am. My dad told me to take a picture of this campsite with a custom sign for their family:
He remarked that we should get one for when we camp. We drove down on the highway and he asked me more about the younger French priest when I told him that there was another going away party for him next week but I wanted to go to the first one. I got to the church at 10:50am, he dropped me off and went around the town. I sat near the front and noticed it was as crowded as a typical Novus Ordo church but with more young kids, there was also only one altar boy compared to 14 on a bad day, also he wasn’t wearing any light blue with his acolyte outfit. I saw a fat old guy with a red button-up and a tie which was solid colored except for an image of Jesus. There were plenty of crying children during mass and I went up to receive the Eucharist before. I went out and heard that the going away party wasn’t downstairs but at 3 Sheeps Brewing which would necessitate my dad driving me there so I didn’t go, I took these two pictures outside the church:
My dad got me and we drove back home, stopping at a Culvers with a non-working drive-thru so we had to order to-go inside. It took very long for our simple order and when I got it, I also grabbed this Oreo cusdummy that came with it. I ate my burger and cheese curds when I found out my dad didn’t order the cusdummy and it accidentally was given to us so I had it. As we drove home, we went past a field of cranes and other heavy machinery which looked like a training setup. At 1:47pm I got a text from my mom which read: <On your way home could you stop off at the store and pick up a dozen eggs and a bunch of celery?. Addison is all out of eggs. At 2:05pm, the minivan hit 110,000 miles driven on it. We then drove to this gas station near my home town to fuel up then go into my hometown to buy the celery, eggs, and ice cream, there was only one grocery store in town that I feared but because of someone who had been long gone from that position. I went to my old gas station and found eggs and ice cream but no celery, so I relented and went to the grocery store, at the cash register was Freshman Evan, he was getting a job at a hospital soon and was excited to see me for once in a long time. I said goodbye to him and went out to the car with my dad, we got home at roughly 3:20pm and I took a picture of some of the groceries:
I brought up the nice cat to my room to cuddle a bit and write in the blog post, focusing on uploading more images to complete my self-imposed challenge:
I went back downstairs for dinner and there were flies everywhere of all different types infesting the living room, kitchen, and porch, I even tried boiling some water on my mom’s super fancy electric kettle (this one shows the exact temperature and even allows you to select it for different types of tea.) I got Oreo ice cream for dinner around 8:00pm and saw the mean cat loafing on the couch so I parted her fur a bit and poured a tiny bit of water on her, it was hilarious and I went up to my room to grab a camera and take a picture of it but she didn’t keep still and it spilled:
I texted this woman I met off of CatholicMatch, who was from northern Illinois and is the same age as me, she was 5’3” but actually pretty chuddy (context was complaining about our secular families): <Yeeesss I’d love to do the whole trad wife thing >You know the tradwife thing is good because it makes Hollywood and modern degenerates chimp out. <I swear they foam at the mouth the moment a woman mentions she wants to be a homemaker >Fun fact: Yesteryear, an anti-tradwife strawman diatribe, got film rights secured before the book was released. <Huh, that’s interesting, usually the book comes first >(((They’re))) trying to push a narrative. <Most definitely >And especially tradwife hate is pushed by TikTok. <Thank goodness there’s a thriving trad community on tumblr I got upstairs and took a shower but couldn’t find my nice cat. I started day 21 of my 40 day rosary for life at 10:27pm and completed the joyful mysteries at 10:55pm. I went to sleep, unable to find the nice cat who loves me very much.
October 12th, 2026: Final day at home, I woke up and went downstairs for breakfast, once again my mean cat was there to suddenly be nice to me because she wants to drink milk:
She didn’t even drink most of the milk in the dish I set aside for her, she did willingly enter my room for a moment:
I picked her up a bit later on and despite her initial protests, she purred while I held her. I got packed up more and grabbed some of my laundry. I went down to the fridge and with a fork, scooped some non-pareil capers out of their container and ate them as a snack, they tasted quite good. Before it was 12:00pm, I was mostly packed up by then and I had lunch with my parents, heating up the last of the risotto to clear out the fridge a bit, my parents were being a bit annoying so I ate quicker. We also had to take out the front door to sand off some paint that was wearing away then re-paint it. I was all packed and my dad drove me to the FlixBus bus stop at 1:25pm. While trying to find a spot, this junkie with a granny stroller was walking in the middle of the road to the bus stop, my dad and I got mad at him and when I got to look at his legs, they were very bad. I went in a store nearby to get Gatorade and then waited for my 1:45pm bus, but being FlixBus, it was 23 minutes late and the people in the bus with me were the worst of the worst, most notably a sheboon who didn’t bother to use headphones to listen to her garbage music. I heard some European liberal on Twitter praise FlixBus for being cheap and affordable for college students, which is laughable because it’s still more expensive than a different company here. I disliked the bus ride until I got back at around 4:00pm and almost missed my bus back home. I messaged Gerrardo asking if he could drive me to the dance on Saturday and he told me that he works from 4:00pm to 7:00pm so if I stopped at his place like last time, he could do it. I also asked Lisexua if she could but she messaged me: <Im going to a concert that night
I thought of going to the military surplus store but with the bus transfers and the 7:00pm close time, I decided against it and to delay it until tomorrow. I got back in my room and unpacked then wrote in my blog a bit. The dishes in the sink were quite unruly due to Waleran not cleaning them. I gamed a little bit then went back inside my room before cooking up some pasta shells and pasta for dinner:
I then realized I had almost no alcohol for me to drink, I decided to walk to the liquor store to buy something, I saw this very rage bottle of wine, 3 liters in total for a great price:
I didn’t buy it because I was looking for a New Glarus Pale Ale sampler pack for about the same price, I bought the sampler pack and took it home to try out the Staghorn Octoberfest Beer, I poured myself a cup and enjoyed it:
I drank it in my room and as I finished, I heard Jerry inside and he was talking with Waleran about heading over to his apartment, I asked if I could tag along and he said yes. Jerry talked about how sad it is that R J Mitte died today by suicide, I loved his acting in Breaking Bad:
Rest in peace. I got over there and was let into the apartment and spotted Huell sitting on the recliner I usually sit in. We then got some beers and I got a Pabst before we put on the original Godzilla movie:
We first tried to watch it on one thing but it would frequently “disconnect” (crash) so after the second time, Jerry switched it over to another service so we could watch it. Huell moved to the top of my usual recliner so I moved over to sit on the recliner, I pet him a few times and even made a kissing noise towards him which made Huell turn his head. I was given a tube of meat paste to give Huell as a treat and he let a bit of it spill and ate it a bit slowly. Watching the 1954 film was incredible and although it was a bit slow and there was less fighting in the beginning than you’d expect, I loved the cinematography. Jerry got a call from his friend around halfway through after I got a Yuengling, he asked Jerry about how various people were doing and at the end, Jerry told me he was a guy who was sort of friends with him and the guy’s girlfriend had cheated on him but the girlfriend still followed Jerry for some reason. Jerry told me she once had 5 of the exact same post of the guy and the cheating girlfriend. I found it funny as nobody from high school has even called me to ask how I’m doing after college. I went to the bathroom and saw this nice decoration, I did clean up the bathroom of the dust in it:
I got out and continued watching the movie and loved it. Waleran talked about his girlfriend buying some weird fruits and having them in the fridge, Waleran and Jerry don’t like dragonfruit but both liked starfruit. Jerry talked about this journal he got from his sister and opened it to the front page, I noticed that it had the date written down as July 21st, 2003 mentioning Jerry’s sister’s 7th birthday. Waleran saw some of the books on Jerry’s coffee table and spotted his favorite book: The Devil In The White City as he said it’s a perfect blend of multiple different topics, one of them being architecture. Jerry mentioned that on July 18th, 2026, Jerry got Huell when Huell was 6 weeks old and said they were connected as Huell also had 2 sisters and no brothers. After the movie was done, we were to watch 2 more movies tonight but I was told I could pick out a record, that ended up being moot when Jerry picked out Led Zeppelin IV and played side one of the album, but skipped The Battle of Evermore to play Stairway to Heaven. I mentioned the guy on the album cover was identified as English 19th century thatcher Lot Long (his name would be more fitting on a geographer) and after Stairway to heaven was done. I said I had to leave and went back to the apartment to shower. I forgot my tower and most toiletries in my room and when I went out in my underwear. Waleran and Jerry showed up to restock on beer so I ran back into my room to grab my stuff then shower. I started day 22 of my 40 day rosary for life at 10:57pm with the battery percentage of my phone at 30% and completed the joyful mysteries at 11:24pm, I checked my phone charging from the portable battery to be 62%. I then went to sleep.
Song of the Day: Rock and Roll - Led Zeppelin (1971)
October 13th, 2026: Amazing day today, I woke up early and I went to the convenience store at 7:40pm to buy milk, it was quite expensive per gallon but I also got french vanilla creamer, I walked back home and ate my cereal, brushed my teeth, then got coffee. I then decided to visit this military surplus store that I saw advertised on a YouTube video, I took one bus at 10:10am and took it down to a park before swapping to a second bus at 10:50am. Here’s a selfie I took while waiting on the bus:
I waited and then got off before going into the military surplus store, well, it was hobby items with a little bit of actual military surplus:
I was debating between the French light blue beret to buy (which was cheaper) and this dark green German Saxony-Anhalt police beret which cost more but the button on it looked amazing, I didn’t try it on but also bought this pocket knife to go with, I checked out at 11:28am for a total of $25.57 and asked if there were any job applications so I just got a paper one as they don’t take them online. I walked out and tried on the beret to find out it’s too small.
I was walking to the bus stop when I saw an email from the lady at Adam II’s company
11:16pm: <Hi Gemerson! <Do you have availability this afternoon to connect for a few minutes via phone? If so, please provide a couple of options and include your time zone. I will follow up with a confirmed time once I have aligned our calendars.
<Thanks!
<[HR Lady] I said 2:30pm and she agreed, I got back on the bus and rode it to its eastern end, I texted the family groupchat with this: >Good news [image of email from company]
>Bad news: I bought a beret that doesn’t fit. I got quite the responses: <Wait, is the good news that you have a follow-up call about your job interview? <Is the bad news because you bought a beret that belongs to an 8-year-old girl scout? - mom >These are German police berets. <For Girl Scouts…. <What's the skinny on the interview? - dad <Yeah, who is this [HR Lady]? - mom
The bus let me off and I saw this funny named place:
I walked to the beach front to take more pictures of the lake from a balcony while this person was walking below:
I walked west a bit more, going down an alley to fill out SuperLocalMaps, got out, and found a quite amusing Halloween decoration:
I walked down this angled alley with this rounded mirror to ensure nobody can sneak up on you and decided to take a selfie in it:
October 13th, 2026 (Continued): I caught the bus back at 1:02pm and then got off and went on my computer to write in my blog a bit more. I got out my laptop to code a bit and test out my multi-website archiver and got it working. I got called by the HR lady at 2:29pm to announce to me that I got the job but I would only be starting much later, November 9th at the earliest, I would need to undergo a background check and a drug test at a company that had lots of locations across the United States. I was extremely excited and got a message from Adam II over Signal so our conversation went as follows: <Congratulations Gemerson!!!!!! >I got it! <Woohoo!!
<Keep coding in C# and Sql. There is a chance I am training you.
<A chance, not for sure.
<Well done, sir. >I'll get to it! <The CTO actually recommended someone as well. I was surprised my recommendation made it lol
<But that being said
<[guy] was impressed with you. You earned it all the way! >Did anybody else get hired because Yoshua told he you recommended him. <No he did not
<Well
<I should say not for this position
<Yoshua I think applied a couple places so l do not know
<So it looks like I am mentoring you and also you'll be sitting across from me.
<I had perhaps 3 other colleagues who recommended for people this position. So it was a bunch. >Nice!!!!!
>You got the desk layout already? <Haha yup.
<They asked if the cubicle next to me was open and I said yes
<Let me know if you want to get drinks or coffee before starting >Absolutely, I just need to find a time which works!
>Also, I don’t start until November 9th. <Sounds good
<Ok you got some time lol I decided it was time to celebrate, I went to the liquor store and bought some of the Mogen David wine, I took it home and sampled a bit:
Do you really like grape jam and wish you could drink it? Well this Jew wine’s for you, even if you try to larp as a New Testament era Jew by watering down the wine, the grape jam flavor’s still there:
Safe to say it’s quite good at it’s price range, I’m not going to use it in cooking though.As for my family, I messaged them in the WhatsApp group chat and started the conversation: >I got the job!
>It's for [company]. Adam II recommended me!
<YAYYYYYYY!!!!
<Wow we can say our family is fully employed for all of 2 months before mom retires
<Congrats Gemerson! Big accomplishment <What is the job? In person or remote? - sister >Hybrid
>Also I don't start until November 9th. <OMG! Congratulations. That is great news. <Did you tell them you need Thanksgiving week off cuz we are going to Colorado? Ha, ha. It would help if you told them up front. You could possibly work a couple of those days remote. - mom
I got back and gamed a bit more before I walked to the Catholic center while praying. I started day 23 of my 40 day rosary for life at 4:16pm and completed it at 4:35pm while inside the center. I went downstairs and saw Rita and Nikki in the missionary meeting room, I told them the good news (but the pay was $75,000 and they got extremely excited, screaming so loud that they interrupted Morgado and Kristine were on the couch talking to each other. Melany heard about my new job and got so excited also. Markus’ brother came in and we talked a bit as he told me he’s looking for actual jobs now in county government and couldn’t get an internship but got a class which fulfilled that requirement. Agaw came a bit later and she said she was glad I sent her the picture of my cat (even though she didn’t text back) and elaborated that she was working on a small farm on Saturday so she can’t drive me there. I went up and saw the many other people there including Kaufman and Frociaggine as acolytes, Morgado, Agaw, The Honduran and his girlfriend, Markus’ brother, Knitter, Amethyst, Bernarda, Melany, Rita, Nikki, Swifte, Oriang, Sixes, Luigi at the piano, Sideburns, Patchbeard, Sideburns’ Asian friend, Lewis’ ex-girlfriend, Lewis, Alley, Cronstedt, the two new missionaries, and plenty of others, Father Aquinas wasn’t here so another priest substituted and I noticed that when giving people the blessing he said something entirely different. But I went downstairs for dinner after mass. I told Reuben hi and that I got a job elsewhere. I talked to this woman wearing a knit bandana to find out she’s a sophomore at college. She went to talk to another person and didn’t ask me many questions so I went to Agaw to talk with her more. I got lots of stuff in my salad at the salad bar including bacon bits, chickpeas, and cut up hard boiled eggs versus the vegetarian. I saw Nicodemus say hi to Sideburn’s Asian friend. We tried to get Markus’ brother to sit next to us but that failed; however a bit later, the knitted bandana woman and Amethyst joined us as I talked with the knitted bandana woman a bit more, I found out this is her second degree, her first one was in something generic she was rewarded in 2017 from University of Wisconsin-Madison and she might pivot over to art education depending on how that class she would take goes, as she’s 30. We got along a lot more but a text from my dad telling me to call him soon interrupted that so I had to walk home. I forgot to call him when I got home but I checked my messages, including an Instagram one at 5:22pm from Cara: <Your cat looks shitoko like my cat
I replied: >I got a job so I’ll adopt a cat soon.
I wrote more and had another cup of wine:
October 13th, 2026: Amazing day today, I woke up early and I went to the convenience store at 7:40pm to buy milk, it was quite expensive per gallon but I also got french vanilla creamer, I walked back home and ate my cereal, brushed my teeth, then got coffee. I then decided to visit this military surplus store that I saw advertised on a YouTube video, I took one bus at 10:10am and took it down to a park before swapping to a second bus at 10:50am. Here’s a selfie I took while waiting on the bus:
I was debating between the French light blue beret to buy (which was cheaper) and this dark green German Saxony-Anhalt police beret which cost more but the button on it looked amazing, I didn’t try it on but also bought this pocket knife to go with, I checked out at 11:28am for a total of $25.57 and asked if there were any job applications so I just got a paper one as they don’t take them online. I walked out and tried on the beret to find out it’s too small.
I was walking to the bus stop when I saw an email from the lady at Adam II’s company
11:16pm: <Hi Gemerson! <Do you have availability this afternoon to connect for a few minutes via phone? If so, please provide a couple of options and include your time zone. I will follow up with a confirmed time once I have aligned our calendars.
<Thanks!
<[HR Lady] I said 2:30pm and she agreed, I got back on the bus and rode it to its eastern end, I texted the family groupchat with this: >Good news [image of email from company]
>Bad news: I bought a beret that doesn’t fit. I got quite the responses: <Wait, is the good news that you have a follow-up call about your job interview? <Is the bad news because you bought a beret that belongs to an 8-year-old girl scout? - mom >These are German police berets. <For Girl Scouts…. <What's the skinny on the interview? - dad <Yeah, who is this [HR Lady]? - mom
The bus let me off and I saw this funny named place:
October 14th, 2026: I decided to stop the progressive photo count challenge today as it was way too exhausting. I woke up and had cereal, brushed my teeth, then had coffee, I got on my laptop to create a GitHub repository. I checked my emails beforehand to see an email from my soon to be boss asking for a picture for my work ID and then some clarification that I would be working on the indigo team, so I know what the pseudonyms I’ll be assigning to my coworkers shall be now. I got a call from my mom and talked to her, which was mostly her criticizing me for not getting my passport so I could take a trip out of the country between now and then or going to Denver, Colorado, I said I’d rather go to Minneapolis, Minnesota for a trip. The call was mostly my just telling me what I should do. I first tested the program and then had to install a specific Chromium program to get it to work. I then ran it on the Wikipedia page for the War of the First Coalition and it worked for the WaybackMachine and Ghost Archive, it returned an error for Archive.today, and said that Arquivo.pt worked but the link it gave me had a 503 error that had happened multiple times before. At 11:32am I got some messages from Adam II and started the conversation: <Do you know how to write XPaths for Playwright tests?
<If not take some time on that >Ok, thanks for the advice! <Welcome!
<I am just wanting to get you up and running quick >Ok, all I got to do for the background check is a drug test. <Nice
<Yeah main thing is focus on learning. I will look up YouTube videos if needed >Any other topics I should get better at? <C# and TSQL
<ASP.NET development.
<Angular
<But Angular is low on totempoleBut Angular is low on the totempole I got some ramen for lunch and then went to the grocery store, getting on the bus at 1:23pm and then went to buy stuff like peanuts for snacking, a gallon of milk, a dozen and a half of eggs, celery, bananas, bread, Yakult, frozen green beans, a bag of cookie cereal, and some other stuff all for $30. I saw these interesting products while shopping:
I got on the bus back at 1:53pm and unpacked my groceries. I worked on the GitHub repo more and wrote in my blog until I checked CatholicMatch and saw that Catherine of Siena created an account and it listed her height at 5’7” and had her bragging about being in a pro-life club at her college plus giving horse riding messages, I blocked her. I got another message at 4:44pm from Adam II which continued the conversation: <Have you used Cursor?
<I might just make a list of tools for you to checkout >No, but I just posted my project l've been working on to GitHub. <Nice
<Ok let me come up with a list so l don't waste your time. In the meantime C# and Sql are good no matter what. >Thank you very much. <No problem I had the last of the leftover pasta for dinner and then got dressed to go to Eucharistic adoration, I got on my grey blazer and white button-down as I walked there praying the rosary. I started day 24 of my 40 day rosary for life at 6:26pm and completed it at 6:51pm. I took this picture on my walk:
I encountered Karelusa trying to call Maaenboodhoo, he had on a sleeveless jacket of the Archdiocese’s old logo he thrifted, he gave my knife with my initials engraved back to me. I sat up front for adoration and read book XI of Saint Augustine’s Confessions, I spotted Collum a few rows behind me and most people came for the mass, including more people like Rita and her mom, Quinci, Nikki and her boyfriend, Teddy, Rose and her husband, Cliffe, Jeremiah, Pethuel, Gabriel (now with a beard), Gabriel’s friend, Oriang, the Keralan woman, Sixes, Sixes’ friend, Anders, and Elijah’s mom. I noticed for the sisters that occasionally attend, the old woman with the cane was gone so I think she’s dead. For the homily, Father Malachi did the thing where he walked down to the front to give the homily which irritated my theologically orthodox leanings. After mass there was a campfire and I went out to it, I was one of the first to be able to roast marshmallows. I saw Nikki’s boyfriend talking to Elijah’s mom and asking her what some words were in Spanish. The paper used to accelerate the fire was flying out and burning so we had to back up, I found out that Sixes’ friend is an Eagle Scout. I got my sandwich and then went to talk with the GroupMe chat owner and Karelusa, Karelusa told us that this woman who he was seeing was incredibly mature and said that she might not see this going anywhere (I told him it’s over) and then Cliffe joined us to talk to us about a secret that he eventually spilled as the discipleship house moving into a new building, I don’t think one can build bigger than the current one. Anders, wearing his typical yellow glasses, came over and talked with us a bit. I discussed with Cliffe one day coming over and cooking pan seared steaks for the men at the house, it wouldn’t be Thursday or Friday, and probably not Wednesday nor Tuesday either, so I’m going to do it one Monday. I managed to convince Quinci to roast her marshmallow while she was talking with Jeremiah, Nikki pulled me aside to talk about a leadership opportunity with the Keralan woman but it was a place I can’t reach without a car. I roasted another marshmallow while Cognac was at the fire. It was very awkward but I said hi to Pethuel while he was roasting his marshmallow. I left at 9:18pm and caught the bus home. I took a long time writing in my blog and then finally took a shower late and uploaded my blogpost late.
Song of the Day: Concerto No. 2 in G minor, "L'estate" (Summer) III. Presto - Antonio Vivaldi (1725)
My dad kept reading his book, with the spine of Salt, A World History clearly suffering under his primitive ways of tracking the page: View attachment 178612
October 15th, 2026: Another day, I woke up at 7:30am and got out of bed at 8:00am, I thought this social at 9:00am on Friday was today so I walked to the Catholic center while praying the rosary. I started day 25 of my 40 day rosary for life at 9:01am and spotted a North Dakota plate along the way, then completed the Joyful mysteries at 9:20am. I got in after the morning prayer and was told it was Saint Teresa of Ávila’s feast day, I talked with Rita, Melany, and Nikki for a bit and then realized that I had to get my drug test soon so I said bye to them. I got to the bus and waited before it departed. It was starting to rain and I checked the weather, saying it was going to rain consistently for most of the day. At 9:49am, I saw a Black guy wearing a shiesty riding 4 e-scooters at once, all stacked on top of each other. I got off a while later and took a detour to walk more to fill out SuperLocalMaps then got in, I have them my “ePassport” (not an actual passport, but a paper from my company asking them for a drug test) the sign said no weapons with an image of a crossed out gun but I had 2 pocket knives. When I went back the employee asked me to empty out my pockets and put it all in my vinyl jacket to hang up, I did that and she gave me the cup to pee in, with a min and a max line and was told to pee more in the toilet but don’t flush, I did that and gave it to her, initialed the cup, and she put it into the testing machine which would send my company the results in about an hour. I went back to the bus and took it home in the rain. I checked my schedule to see that I was scheduled to usher tonight for the watch party with the check in time at 5:05pm. I texted Warner about it at 12:43pm with: >I’m working tonight! He replied with: <Nice! I won't be there, but hopefully it's a win and a big celebration I got dressed and had an itchy scalp from dandruff, so I first ran my head under the hot water sink in my bathroom, that didn’t work. I tried rubbing some baking soda onto the itchy area as that made it worse but when I stuck my head in the shower with hot water, it went away. I got on the bus at 2:45pm and then got my second transfer, I hardly saw any other workers on the bus with me or walking down to the stadium, I got in and went to the break room. At 3:53pm, got in the lounge room with Nathan M, Derek, Mike, an old guy since 2018 who had diabetes for 30 years since he drank a lot of Mountain Dew and Monster energy as a bartender, he’s only missed 1 game in 9 years. Mike told us that he lived in Bayview, a neighborhood in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and told us there’s always somebody running someone over near the stadium. Nathan M mentioned that he is 20 years old. At 3:58pm Jan from guest relations in lime green came in, she had earrings of the team which although aesthetically pleasing, was too extra. Mike talked about being short along with Nathan M, so I stood up. Mike told me:
“You’re a string bean man!”
And I laughed. At 4:05pm I got my assignment to be the main gate west and to stay there, the worst because it’s super busy and still open. Saw Chris the teacher while walking up to the meeting place super early. More walking around and I saw Ethan S the fat guy who helped me the first time gate screening at 4:20pm. I went to my meeting spot. Spotted Daniel S at 4:26pm, he said it was his 10th game ushering and if our team lost now, people here would go ballistic. 4 Black guys from concessions came over at 4:34pm and asked me which button for the second level. At 4:49pm: Jerry the fat supervisor came over to the meeting spot and told us only 18,000 to 19,000 people bought tickets to this game. Emi C-A asked me about the assignments as his wasn’t loading and then talked with a few other employees waiting including Daniel S. Steve the old guy came over, Sam since 2026 is here, Kim since 2026 also, Todd and Rich came over, Todd was talking about the low turnout and it being 20,000 now. Paul A asked about something and then we had the meeting a bit late at 5:07pm, I found out Nathan B was scanning tickets with me and Bill B since 2016 was my supervisor, Bill B was an old guy with a bald shaved head and a white anchor beard. I went over and got my scanner while waiting for the gates to open at 5:30pm. We were told that this watch party was just the fans coming into the stadium to watch the game in Los Angeles, California on the giant television screen. When it happened, instead of the usual shitoko at gates open then near game start, it was quite steady throughout and there were plenty of attractive women, the record for today was 7 tickets scanned at once, I had many people accidentally display their parking ticket to scan first and also people asking for multiple tickets to be scanned so they could get the $10 bonus on food (tickets were $14). This family of five came in to get their ticket scanned and the young girl held up her pink plush koala so I scanned it and let the plush in. I had this pain in my abdomen which was slightly higher than my stomach, more like my diaphragm, that hurt when I bent over significantly I was the last one to be sent for my break at 8:00pm and got a cheeseburger with bacon and a sprite to help with my possible stomach or diaphragm issue. I ate it with Nathan M and his friend casually mentioned he’s on a low-sodium diet. On break our team scored 2 points against the LA Dodgers I went back after my break with another manager who stood watch by the gates. Her and I had to redirect people to the east gate which was still open as people kept walking towards our gate, but it died out as Bill B got back and took the stool which had the better view of the television. I noticed that Bill B went to talk a lot with this older ginger guest relations lady and we got all excited as we got a lead on as our team ended up winning 6 to 4. I was at one of the busiest gates there was so Bill B and I high fived the many people coming out, it had to have been 30 minutes of me high fiving people including multiple people saying my name on my tag, hygiene stuff like:
“You’re gonna need a lot of hand sanitizer.”
“Better wash your hands after this.”
With my right hand being very red while my left hand was slightly red. This one girl I meet on a dating app all the way back in 2022 who ghosted me saw me and then shied away and was one of the few people to deliberately not high-five me, this is great commentary on modern women. Christina the manager came over to me and told me:
“You’re dismissed and the time is 10:50pm.”
I was glad and navigated to my exit gate then clocked out at 10:51pm, my bus was 3 minutes until it arrived at the stop and a bus that would drop me off pretty close to where I live was 16 minutes away but the run would be too much for me. Some guys congratulated me at the bus stop and I posted about it on my Snapchat story: >My hand is so red from high fiving everybody on the way out #GoBrewers At 11:02pm, Alyce replied to my story with a heart react which irritated me. At 11:20pm while waiting for the bus, a police car drove by and the policeman said on the speaker:
“Go Brewers!”
I got on my bus two minutes later and rode it downtown, in the Signal group chat Adam II wrote: <And on this day the Feast of St Teresa of Avila ... we are going to the World Series!!! Warner wrote: <Gemerson and I will get paid to be at the World Series before getting off at my bus stop and rode it as the day changed…
Song of the Day: When I Fall In Love - Nat King Cole (1956)
October 16th, 2026: I got off the bus and walked home in the dark, taking a shower and then heading to sleep…
I woke up and had cereal then thought of brewing coffee but instead decided to head to the 9:00am social at the Catholic center. I got there and Jade was downstairs along with one of Nikki’s roommates and she mentioned they’re doing morning prayer so I went upstairs to join Melany, Rita, Nikki, Kaufman, and Father Aquinas in the liturgy of the hours. I was on the right side and it ended around 9:15am so we went down to the coffee bar they had, I was the first one to order so I asked her for a southern butter pecan latte which was a bit too sweet, Kaufman ordered a “special” hot chocolate (which had nutella in it) and I tried it out which wasn’t that amazing versus a regular hot chocolate. Nikki talked about signing up for the SEEK and did it, encountering a question asking if she had financially contributed to a FOCUS missionary, I put a dollar in the office room of the FOCUS missionaries so I could check that box. Nikki asked me my confirmation saint and I said Saint Ambrose of Milan, she said Saint Maria Goretti. I was asked about my vocation, I deflected a bit and said I don’t think I could do either, women view me as creepy weirdo worse than the devil (but demand infinite compassion for 3rd world invaders) and I have no leadership skills. The three women insisted that I am worthy for the priesthood as Jesus called on Saint Peter despite being unworthy initially, keep in mind Saint Peter was married. I’m certain they were just saying that because they viewed me as off putting and want me figuratively castrated and don’t want to pawn me off to any other woman so none of the other women would bear the “burden” of dating me. I had the hot chocolate and asked Kaufman if he wanted come to the mass for the unborn but he said his father would pick him up at 4:30pm. I walked back home and continued working on programming plus writing a bit. Waleran and his girlfriend were here so I had to deal with them and decided to watch the new episode of Steel Ball Run released, I enjoyed the Oyecomova fight and that they didn’t use CGI for all the wasps, but with the stand catch, they didn’t . I ate a block of ramen for lunch and then I went out to the bus at 5:00pm for the mass for the unborn, I was all dressed fancy and I took my rosary out of my pocket to see it miraculously assembled correctly:
I waited for the bus but started praying day 26 of the 40 day rosary for life at 5:08pm and completed it at 5:34pm, then I got off the bus shortly afterwards. I went in and prayed a bit while more people came in, including Maaenboodhoo, the Omahan, Bonaventure, Salignac’s sister, Vytautas, Zhao wearing his usual dark grey blazer and pants plus a dark red button-up, Table #2 and her boyfriend. I was in line for confession and confessed to lust, not praying a lot, and feeling angry towards two members of a family (not my family) to which the priest confused it with me being angry towards two members of my own family, my penance was a decade of the rosary prayed for them so I did two just to make sure. Mass was just 40 minutes and we had a little bit of silent prayer before Eucharistic adoration started, I stayed for only 6 minutes and then walked out. I saw Adam II so I talked with him a bit, he told me the other teams aren’t named after colors (the other team was Sierra) and there was like 2 other people there as most people on the team worked remote. I went to the bus stop, at 7:39pm Maaenboodhoo called me to tell me he could drive me to the usual spot, I got in and he started driving me over but through back and for th with the Omahan, told me there’d be issues with getting a table in on time. We got to the place and Maaenboodhoo drove back to his apartment then walked back to the pub. I waited with the Omahan for our table of 6 with another guy. I swear I saw them all disappear but I texted the Omahan at 8:03pm: >Where’d the others go?
Just as one of them showed up. Loid and Yor appeared a bit later along with this engaged couple. We got seated at a table of 8 and I went up with the Omahan to order drinks, I got a pumpkin cider and tipped generously for that before sitting down across from Loid. A bit later Vytautas came in and sat at the seat to the left of me and I spotted Maaenboodhoo, Cliffe, and Salignac all talking to each other near the bar. A bit later I ordered the root soup from the menu. Vytautas talked about his trip to the Baltics starting with 3 days in Finland then down to Estonia in Tallinn then to Latvia then Lithuania. Loid talked about his trip to Poland including a town where there were plenty of gnome statues around it. More people came in including Adam II and his fiancée. I got my root soup and enjoyed it, eating the oyster crackers that came separately. I noticed Salignac got clam chowder and 2 packets of the crackers. As I was finishing up the food, Zhao came in and I insisted that he sit down next to me and he was too late to order food so he got a non-alcoholic cocktail. I tapped Salignac’s shoulders to ask for her last bag of oyster crackers and she actually gave it to me. I ate the stuff in the bag and then talked with Zhao more, he knows Cliffe and when Cliffe came over he offered an opportunity for evangelism tomorrow outside an atheist convention, I accepted but I said I’d need to sharpen up my anti-atheist debating skills. I heard Salignac ask a new guy if he would be at a dance and they both confirmed it. I got to take a selfie with the younger French priest and then went back to my seat to talk with others but noticed that I was getting ignored more and more. Adam II said he’d pay for everybody’s food so I just left then and venmo him. I got ignored by my bus so I walked home and got there, published my blog, took a shower, and went to sleep.
October 17th, 2026: I woke up and had cereal then coffee. Waleran and his girlfriend were over. On Instagram I learned it was Swifte’s 21st birthday today but didn’t congratulate her. I got on my computer to write more about yesterday and spent most of the morning doing that. I went to do the laundry and tried getting the last of the stain out of my Billy London blazer but couldn’t, I didn’t wash it but went back up to my apartment to run it under hot water. I walked to the thrift shop and found this grey blazer with a nice inside that I bought:
I went back to the laundry and put it in the dryer on the no heat option because it was cheaper. I got upstairs to write and then programmed a bit more before getting my laundry out of the dryer to see it was still wet. I paid another $2.00 for a second round of low-heat drying but took my Billy London blazer upstairs and had it in front of my window to dry. I got a $100 bill and walked to the convenience store to buy some candy, Arizona iced tea, and icebreakers to split it up to change for the dance cover fee. I folded about half of my laundry before I started getting dressed for the dance and then taking the bus down at 5:22pm to Gerrardo’s work place while starting day 27 of my 40 day rosary for life then completing it at 5:44pm. I took the first bus down and got in an internet argument with this pro-abortion “person” on Threads where he said that the Bible describes life as beginning at birth but I mentioned the exact verse he was referring to as talking about Adam, the only man not to be a fetus, specifically Genesis 2:7: ☛7 And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth: and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul.
I went to the bathroom then quickly got on the next bus and waited before getting out and walking around outside to fill out SuperLocalMaps, walking near a fire station then a 1970s architecture police station, and then in these back alleys, where I set of 5 anti-burglar alarms just by walking there, I’m in the Hispanic hood now. I walked around to the place that Gerrardo worked at and waited, seeing a few people drive in, he got out at 7:15pm and he said he had a lot of dishes to clean. As I was driving with him, I asked him this question:
“Are you still seeing that one woman?”
Gerrardo replied:
“Oh no, I broke things off with her because she didn’t want to come to mass with me.”
I said I understood and I didn’t have much luck with women either plus I hate it when they’re especially disagreeable and neurotic. Gerrardo then complained that he was constantly hit on by guys and never women, I asked him a bit more and he told me that he lists that he’s bisexual but doesn’t act on his attraction to men yet gay men keep hitting on him, I ask him:
“Why not list your sexuality as straight?”
He told me that he would be lying and he doesn’t want to sin but I told him he could just omit his sexuality, he also told me he’s in a Catholic group for men and women battling same sex attraction and he told me there were no women in it (lol). I mentioned that I prefer to fall in love through frequent exposure to other women yet there were almost no single women at my church and the sole exception we hated each other. This dude Gerrardo genuinely asked me:
“Have you heard of enemies to lovers?”
It’s very funny in hindsight, I didn’t laugh at the moment.
“Yes.”
I replied.
“Have you tried doing it?”
“No, we hate each other, do you know of anybody who’s successfully done it?”
“No, I have heard of people online successfully do it.”
“Like who?”
“I just heard it online.”
No, people hardly have any depth from my experience, or rather like obstacles than actual humans. He also told me he’s getting a degree in criminal justice. He dropped me off at 7:35pm and left, I got in and took notice of all the people there sadly including Catherine of Siena and Kateri, and thankfully I saw better people like Maaenboodhoo, Loid, Yor, Adam III, the Kenoshan, surprising amount of usual people there absent. I got to dancing quite quickly and the first woman I danced with was this short woman who looked like a stereotypical high school popular girl but wasn’t that enthusiastic, I danced with another woman who looked like a fat Mennonite who wasn’t that interested either. Yor announced the first line dance and I sadly was in the same line with Catherine of Siena but she was near the end, I danced with this one kinda nerdy looking woman with a major overbite and round glasses that was nice but she was too old for me (mentioned graduating from UW-Madison in 2016), another thin woman who sounded vaguely Central European, another woman who was way too short to dance with me we went back to standard dancing and I ordered a coke and amaretto from the same lady as in July who tended the bar. Here’s the song list:
There was another woman who came here and I danced with her, she already graduated college but she’s going back for a master’s degree and lives near the seminary now. Now here’s the funniest part of the night, so there was this kinda chubby friend (well she was hanging out a bit around Kateri) and Kateri left a bit so I decided to ask for one dance with the woman whom I will be calling LJ, she’s actually pretty good and I notice she’s all sweaty, so after we dance we go to the bar and I pour us each a cup of water. She’s all nice to me and a bit flirty before she goes to the bathroom to wipe off the sweat off her face and arms. LJ tells me that her family has sweaty genes and then she asks:
“Can we go outside, it’s too loud in here.”
I agree and she wraps her arm around me, I get a bit excited and say to her:
“Woah, I love an assertive woman.”
But then she repeats in a much louder tone of voice:
“YOU LIKE ASSERTIVE WOMEN!”
Too loud, at the entrance we got out and I flirted with her a bit more. I found out more about her, being from Rockford, Illinois, her mom and dad weren’t really Catholic but her grandma went to mass everyday, she was in college to be an early education major. She had two siblings also weren’t that Catholic, I mentioned some things like breaking up with Angela because I wouldn’t have sex with her and LJ also said she was a no premarital sex before marriage woman. LJ told me she has auditory processing disorder and ADHD, I told her I am Autistic, I got her phone number and got a photo of her for the profile picture. LJ told me her golden birthday was this year on April 22nd and also she’s only been on one date in her life. I ended up seeing a European license plate outside:
After a bit we agreed to go back inside, we hung out near her friends but Kateri was out a bit before I waited and LJ talked with her friend a bit and I noticed them disappear to the bathroom. I didn’t think much of it and just went back to dancing with this fat woman I estimated to be in her 30s. I was in the west of the room near the door exit when LJ walked back to me and she sort of changed her tone:“I’m sorry Gemerson but I think we should be friends. I really need to focus on myself and on my career. I’d still like to get lunch sometime in Rockford. Maybe one day down the road we can date.”
She asked me to shake on it and I accepted because I know that she doesn’t even want to be friends and keep up her end but I lied and said yes. I danced a bit more with other women including Yor a bit and I told her about the funny event that happened but I said it was too long. I noticed the woman with the overbite came with a guy that she was dancing with a lot. I danced with another woman a bit and then went back to talking with Maaenboodhoo and found out he had a sister he brought here. I decided to ask LJ to dance and she did the thing again where she said repeated generic women rejecting you stuff and that because I’m autistic I don’t understand stuff well. I danced more and was at the dance pretty late until I was picked up by Gerrardo at 11:00pm and he drove me home. On the way back, I talked to Gerrardo about the whole ordeal and the story with Kateri, admitting fault that I did go off to dance with other women occasionally and Gerrardo says that Kateri sabotaged my chances (to be honest I don’t really care because LJ was pretty Mexican), I complained that this is why I hardly act on women that I’m interested in, not just that they’re going to reject me and it will ruin the friendship, but that they’ll tell other women and it will ruin my reputation. I also mentioned a woman who I suspect might be exaggerating the creepiness of a guy who asked her out in order to brag about how attractive she is, but I haven’t inquired enough to determine one way or another. I got back pretty late and decided to give Gerrardo a crisp $20 as thanks for driving me to and from the dance twice.I took a shower and noticed that Waleran and his girlfriend were here but I felt a pain in my urethra, best described as if a tiny kidney stone is stuck near the end and no amount of peeing can get it out. I stayed up past midnight…
Song of the Day: Mamma Mia - Ricchi & Poveri (1982)
October 18th, 2026: I was still awake and in the bathroom and then went back to my room once while seeing Waleran on the recliner in the dark browsing TikTok as I got back into bed and went to sleep…
I woke up at 7:30am with my alarm but didn’t get up until 8:10pm and had cereal then brushed my teeth. I was dressed kinda informally for church, only wearing my Billy London blazer, my blue and white plaid button-down, black dress pants, and my worn out belt, I noticed that my roommate Waleran was being absolutely disgusting and he left his hat, a box of Pabst Blue Ribbon, his brown belt, and a towel next to the recliner and had some of his underwear on the table.
I found out on Instagram that it is Jared’s new girlfriend’s birthday today, she’s Hispanic like the last one. I got on the bus at 9:08am and rode it down to the church and got in near the back left as usual, I saw Loid’s father and he waved to me, I think he would be ushering today but I was wrong. The Kenoshan sat next to me and the younger French priest presided over the mass with many acolytes. I saw Eddy go up for the Eucharist but I didn’t go up for the Eucharist and prayed a little bit after it ended. I then went into the cafeteria for the going away party. I waited a bit with the Kenoshan before getting in line with Zhao for the lunch, I talked with him and he told me he didn’t go to the dance yesterday because visiting his parents and that he doesn’t drink or dance but he believes dancing can be an artform, I asked him:
“Do you think mixology can be an art form?”
I forgot his answer but he got two sandwiches, I got one, a cookie, a few cubes of melon, a lettuce leaf used for garnishing the fruits, and lots of stuffed olives. I wanted to sit next to Pollox but there were no open seats so we moved to a place near Hezekiah and a friend of his, Zhao overheard them talking about how GPA doesn’t matter so he told me to ask them what Hezekiah’s friend’s GPA is, I did that and he said he didn’t know. I eventually got in line to get a selfie with the departing priest and it took a while but Loid’s family was before us for a selfie yet it took the priest forever before getting over to take their picture. Loid left before we could take the group selfie I was in with Bonaventure, Yor, The Kenoshan, Zhao, another guy and girl, and the priest. At 12:34pm I sent a text to Waleran reading: >Can you please take your underwear off the dining room table. He replied at 12:36pm with: <Omg im so sorry i didnt realize i put them there. Im about to go to packers game so i wont be back until super late, like 1 or 2 am
<The second i get back i will
<Im very sorry I then departed after that but went back into the church because I forgot my bible and missal. I got on the bus back home and spent the rest of the day and wrote in my diary. I had ramen with an egg for dinner. I walked to the church I usher at at 6:15pm and kneeled on the ground in prayer for a long time, I was feeling like absolute garbage in and out of the house of God, constantly having violent thoughts about being brutally confronted for being “weird”, telling them to fuck off and they don’t, they either arm lock me or start strangling me while I tell them to let me go, they naturally don’t hear me and thus I get out my black knife and stab them in the arm, they relent and I get arrested, but it doesn’t matter if the jury would rule my use of force justified or unjustified and every body else would feel further justified in their dislike. Back to reality, I saw more people like Lucas and another woman ushering, Joseph obviously, and even Nikki’s roommate from Central Tennessee sat in the same row as me, the gospel reading today was the “Rend unto caesar’s what is caesar’s” passage and I was in the line with the fat balding woman who was the Eucharistic minister with a son she clearly had far too late in life. She just gave me some generic blessing which was just:
“God bless you.”
I went back to my pew and prayed a bit more after mass ended and when I went out and held out the middle door, I noticed Nikki’s Central Tennessee roommate switch to exiting out the other door. Wow. I walked home and then took a shower. I started day 28 of my 40 day rosary for life at 9:27pm and completed it while doing the dishes at 9:44pm. I had some Mogen David wine watered down and then continued writing before publishing my blog and going to sleep.
October 19th, 2026: Nothing much to do today. I woke up at 8:00am and had cereal, brushed my teeth, and then had coffee, I spent a lot of time in my bed, I got on my laptop and decided to try generating this practice Playwright setup where it would create a website with a Python backend and then create a main test file in C# and 6 files with tests to fill out along with guides. I asked Claude to fill out the main file and add one complete test per test file so I had a guide of what I should try and do, I got only 2 completed in the first folder and I would frequently look at the Playwright docs to help guide me along. I also got a cup of slightly watered down Mogen David to drink around 12:00pm. Lunch for me was ramen with an egg in it which I peeled after cooking. I actually uploaded my blogpost quite early for today as I got a good amount of it written in the morning I ended up breaking a leg off the metal frame of my bed due to constant movement, the same leg that kept buckling in.
I decided I was tired of being inside so I got out and I started day 29 of my 40 day rosary for life at 2:40pm and went out to walk, I did an extra 6th decade for some extra intentions and while I was doing that, a black pitbull ran up on me but I didn’t run away, and he was super friendly and quite jumpy, the Black owner and his Latina girlfriend came up to me and thanked me for. I completed the rosary at 3:08pmnot running away from their dog, I continued walking and then prayed in my mind another petition in the extra decade: For the couple back there with the dog, that they may one day return to Jesus Christ.
I continued until I finished up at 3:08pm. I then prayed the first day of the Saint Jude novena and walked around a bit more, touching the end of a large park where I spotted two genderspecials before walking back home and on the way passing this blue shed to store lumber, it was decaying quite a bit despite being in use so I took this picture in it
I got back after a while and didn’t really feel in the mood to cook up dinner and I tried making progress on the Playwright C# thing yet didn’t complete any tests, I had yet another cup of Mogen David and then got on KiwiFarms to get a bit nuts and accuse Null of using demons to AI generate the pseudonyms, writing this message at 9:25pm: >@Null is straight up conjuring demons to generate these pseudonym photos they're so uncanny this is what he's using: > Source: The Book of the Goetia of Solomon the King (1904) by S.L. MacGregor Mathers and Aleister Crowley, edited by Wikipedians: RootOfAllLight and Nosferattus >God is punishing @Null for harnessing demons for a dummyed feature with the low free space on the server setup. At this point I noticed that number 20 (Purson) had its sigil look very similar to the Reddit mascot so I cropped that one and started posting on as many people’s profiles that I could the cropped sigil with the reddit mascot to the side, I had to have posted it on roughly 30 people’s profiles and some were more receptive while others were angrier like CallMeCicada. I took my shower and ended up going to bed at roughly 11:30pm.
