3/9/25

Today I got up a little before 5 AM because we had to be out the door by 5:30. I guess we had to be up this early to catch the tram to go to the docks to catch the ferry. So I was up early, didn't even have to have an alarm I don't think. Rhett was up, too. I went to the bathroom, brushed my teeth, packed my things, and that was it basically. Everyone gathered outside the hostel with all of their luggage and we were only missing one person, Tosha. So we waited a while outside until she finally came down.

Then, we walked to the place where our tram stop was, which was really just a little stop in the middle of the road. And it also turned out that we were really early. We waited there for like, 40 minutes or something. Probably from 5:40 to 6:20 AM. And it was dark this whole time. So we would not have had to be up that early. But yeah, by 6:20 we were on the tram and heading for the ferry port. I don't think the ride over there was too long, and we also got to see the sunrise as we were going there. Pretty cool. Once we all got off the tram and walked to the main terminal building, Tosha realized that she forgot her purse on the tram, so Dr. Caldwell and her ran back to the tram. I think we all just continued on into the building. I think there was a little bit of security that we had to go through, then we took an elevator up to this waiting area, and we waited up there for 25 minutes or so. Also, Caldwell and Tosha got back, and somehow the tram hadn't left yet, even though they thought it did because it changed its number or something. But she got her purse. The waiting area was actually really cool, too. It had lots of windows, these wooden ceilings, and pillars with vines on them.

But after waiting, we could get onto the ferry, and this is when I realized it wasn't really a traditional ferry, it was a cruise ship basically. We were on the ship by 7 AM and made our way to the buffet area because I guess that's where we were eating breakfast. I sat with Rhett, Chelsea, Molly, and Elisabeth, then went up to the buffet to get my food. There were all sorts of unique looking foods, so I got rice pies, potato rosti, a green egg muffin that I guess had spinach in it, bacon, breakfast sausage that just looked like a mini hot dog, meatballs, salami and cheese, and these little pancake things that definitely weren't pancakes, I don't know what they were, but they were good. And to go with all of that I had a glass of Coke, because they had that for free, too. Better than Carnival, cause you have to pay separate for soda on there. So I ate all that, had another glass of Coke, and then went up for dessert. I got some bread with margarine, a little strawberry donut, and a tiny piece of berry crumble cake. All very good. And then I had another glass of Coke, and Rhett was judging me for drinking so much of it, but hey, I had to get caffeinated.

Once everyone was kinda done eating, Elisabeth and Tosha kinda wanted to walk around, so I went with them, and then Molly also went. Rhett stayed behind because he was doing his little journal or whatever. So I went with those three and we just kinda walked around. We went up a few flights of stairs because we were going to go to the deck. We walked by a bunch of rooms, and it made me wonder, why are there whole rooms for a two hour ferry ride. I have no idea. But there were a lot of rooms, it literally was a whole cruise ship. When they said ferry, I was imagining a tiny two-story open boat like the kind that you take from the cruise ship to shore or whatever. But anyways, we made it to the deck and we went outside. It was super windy, but pretty cool out there, there was an Estonian flag. Estonia has one of my favorite flags of any country. Really nice colors. But there wasn't much else out there, so we went back in a different way, down these stairs through a glass door. And that led us down to this botanical greenhouse looking area. There were lots of windows and some plants and wooden seats and stuff. So we sat around there for a bit. The girls were taking pictures and stuff on this fake swing thing, so I kinda just looked around the room. There was this little slingshot game that looked kind of cool that two people were playing. Anyways, I was getting a little bored in there, so I decided to go off on my own.

Walking around on my own was actually really fun. It was my first bit of alone time I had on this trip. So I kinda just walked all over. There were tons of seats like an airplane in one part of the ship, there was a Burger King, and then I discovered the mall area. I also FaceTimed Janell around this time. It was a little after 8 AM on the ship, so it was like, 1 AM or something in Cape. So I showed her all around the mall. They had a Moomin display, Legos, candy, and alcohol. And they had one kind of alcohol on sale, a Hartwall Original Long Drink, gin and lemonade flavor. They had it a can for 1 euro, so I ended up buying one, Janell convinced me. I accidentally went up to the wrong cashier to check out, I went to the pre-checkout or something first. But I eventually found where to checkout and I bought it. It was pretty scary buying alcohol for the first time. Then I left the shopping area and walked around more, still on FaceTime with Janell. I found a vending machine and bought this Geisha candy bar because Janell said it looked good. There was also an arcade and a place to play PlayStation games. Also, I guess I ended up back at the botanical place, and Autumn said I should get another picture for my mom, so then I got my picture taken on that stupid fake swing. Then I went back to the buffet area. I also passed by Elisabeth and Tosha and Tosha was drinking something from the bar. Then I guess I'd FaceTimed Janell again and I was standing outside the buffet, so the other girls saw me talking to her, and they were asking stuff like, "did you call her or did she call you?" So I said I called her, and they were like, good. Anyways, I got back to the buffet and sat at my table for a bit. I also had another Coke or two. After about 30 minutes, we arrived in Tallinn. We departed the ship at 9:30.

After leaving the ship we walked down this enclosed ramp thing like you do with cruise ships. We could also see all of the cars driving off the ferry, that was cool. Elisabeth wanted to stop at this shop in the ship terminal, so she went in there. I was with her and Rhett and probably Chelsea at that point. So I waited outside the store while Elisabeth went in there. Then the rest of the group caught up to us. Elisabeth didn't end up getting any shoes from there. Then we all met outside and it was 9:45 by this point. This other random American lady was with our group, too, for some reason. My first impression of Tallinn was that it didn't really seem like too much. It seemed really flat, it was cloudy, kind of bleak even though the sky was blue under the clouds. But yeah, once we were all outside we started walking to our hostel. It definitely felt kind of Baltic, I guess? Our hostel was like 15 minutes away. The professors were giving us a little lecture on how not to walk in the bike lanes, I remember that much from the walk.

We got to our hostel, Fat Margaret's, and went in. We put all of our luggage in one room again, the very top floor room. Then we kind of just sat around up in that room for a little bit. Some people went to the bathroom because there was a bathroom in the room. It was also pretty hot up there so some people were trying to open the windows. Then Dana came over and said that this room that everyone was in would be our room. Like the boys room. And she showed me a piece of paper with a room code on it and had me take a picture of it. And of course, Rhett immediately sat on the furthest away bed in the room. Like, who gave you first choice. So I had to get the bed that was next to Caleb's and I had to duck down under the low slanted ceiling to get to my bed, which proved fun later. Eventually, I guess we were finally ready to go, so I put on my little black Adidas backpack which I hadn't worn yet, and my black coat, and then we left. Right after I walked out the door, I realized I forgot my water bottle, so I turned around and tried to open the door with my code, and it wouldn't work. I tried it a few more times, switching around some numbers and stuff and it still wouldn't work, so I turned around to leave because a water bottle wasn't too important anyways, but then Rhett and Chelsea showed up and they also needed into the room for something, so they started trying the code. They also couldn't really get it, and we tried it for a while. After Rhett's like, fifth attempt, this little alarm started going off in the door handle. Then I think they texted Dana, and she came up and somehow got it on the first try. Then we all went outside after getting our stuff from the room, and everyone was waiting out there.

Then we walked down the street a ways to Tallinn Old Town, which was pretty awesome. It was really just across the street from our hostel, but it felt like a whole other city. There were narrow cobblestone streets, colorful buildings and shops, and castle-like buildings. 

6/19/25

Today was my birthday, yay! I actually wasn't as sad or anything this year, last year I remember not wanting it to be my birthday and feeling kind of sad about it. I think that was because I was turning 20 and that felt like a big jump from 19. 21 Also feels like a big jump from 20, but not as big I guess. 21 feels like way more of an adult age. Anyways, I woke up to my mom singing me a little happy birthday at like, 6 AM in the morning. I had to get up so early because I had my 5 year check-up appointment for my spinal fusion today, and that was in St. Louis. We were also going to do some stuff in St. Louis for my birthday, so my whole family was going to go. After I got up and Janell also eventually got up, she brought out the basket that she had made for me after my mom and her went shopping yesterday, and it was honestly awesome. The Lego desert skiff set, Can't Buy a Thrill CD, a JBL speaker, a box of penguin crackers (my favorite), a pack of Hershey Cookies and Cream (also my favorite), two Buzz Balls, and two frozen margarita things. Those are honestly the best gifts I've ever gotten for a birthday. So after I opened those, I continued getting ready. I decided to wear a button-up shirt, because why shouldn't I dress a little nice for my birthday? So we left probably sometime around 6:30. It was a decent little trip up there. I finished episode 2 of Arrested Development because I already started rewatching it after I finished the first three seasons a week or so ago. But I guess we mainly just talked on the way up there.

Once we got to St. Louis, we went to my appointment first, which was at the children's hospital unfortunately. 21 years old and still going to a hospital for kiddos. But it was kinda cool, the waiting room had an Xbox that a kid was playing Lego Marvel on. So I went in with my mom and my dad and sister stayed in the car in the parking lot. Luckily my mom went in because the co-pay for the appointment was $150 dollars. Apparently our insurance used to cover more, but since Southeast was taken over by Mercy, it doesn't cover as much anymore because this hospital was kind of a competitor or Mercy. But yeah I filled out the little iPad survey they make you do, and then I went back. I had to get changed into a gown and get another x-ray, which cost ANOTHER $150 dollars! So 300 bucks for today's visit. Useless visit by the way. But yeah I got my x-ray and had to take my shorts all the way off, the nurse said I wouldn't have to, but yeah I had to. But all that went good. Then I had my actual meeting with Brian Kelly, my doctor that did the surgery five years ago. And that all went good, except my mom was making me sound like a little baby. He was like, "You doing anything fun for your 21st?" And my mom was like, "We might be going to Six Flags," because we had just been talking about going to Six Flags while we were waiting for him to come in. And I think he was expecting me to say I was gonna go out drinking or something. But yeah overall it was a really quick appointment and we were out of there pretty quickly.

Once we got back to the car, we decided to actually go to Six Flags. Before that, I was thinking about going to the zoo, but maybe Six Flags would be more fun. Janell said she'd rather do Six Flags. But before we went there, we were going to get breakfast, but we couldn't really decide where to go. I said I was fine with just McDonald's so that's where we went, even though Janell did not want to do that. But it was really good, I got two Sausage McMuffins, love those. And I used the code on my account for everyone's meal that gave me double points for breakfast, and that gave me 8,000 points. That's enough for like, five free cheeseburgers, plus some points to spare. Awesome. And we ate in the restaurant because Six Flags didn't open until 11 AM so we had some time to spare. We also went to a Dollar General and Old Navy across the street because my mom was looking for a fanny pack. I don't think she found one, but my sister found a bag from Old Navy that she wanted instead.

But after all that, we finally made our way over to Six Flags. I hadn't been here since like, 8th grade I think, so like seven years ago. So I really don't remember this place too well. And I didn't go on any roller coasters because none of the people I were with wanted to (cough Colton cough). So I actually was kind of excited. We sprayed some sun screen on and walked towards the entrance. And soon enough we were in after waiting for a bit.

Janell and I split up from my parents pretty soon after getting in and I think American Thunder was the first ride we went on, after we found a bathroom for Janell. And it really wasn't that busy in here, it seemed like it was going to be because there were a lot of people in the parking lot, but it really wasn't. But that ride was fun, a pretty average roller coaster. Then we went on Mr. Freeze I think? That ride was crazy. Unlike any roller coaster I've been on before. It launches you backwards through a dark tunnel, and then there a big drop and you start going forwards, it was awesome. We rode it twice in a row because there was like, no line. Then I think we did The Batman. There was a pretty long line for that one, probably 45 minutes or so. But Janell confessed her love for her two lesbian managers, I sang Feliz Cumpleanos, and we saw an entry level trans guy, so the time passed pretty quick. That ride was alright, but didn't really seem worth the wait for me. I'm not really sure what we did next, it may have been the Boomerang. That one didn't have too long of a line and it was pretty fun. I think that was the only roller coaster I rode the last time I was here. Mason Diamond called me right before we were getting on that one to wish me a happy birthday and ask if I wanted to do anything later. So I told him maybe, but right now I was in Six Flags getting on a ride, so I couldn't talk to him long. But that was nice of him. Then I think we met up with my parents and ate. The food here was really expensive, like 20 bucks for chicken tenders, twenty bucks for a normal cheeseburger. I ended up getting bacon, ranch, and cheese fries that were around 14 dollars and those were pretty great. Janell got a taco salad thing and my parents got a burger. After we ate, we rode some more rides. We went on the Screamin' Eagle, and that one was crazy. It was really rough and it's a pretty old ride, 49 years old is what the guy said. So I had a headache after that one, but it may have been my favorite. We also did the Sky Screamer, which was like the swings but it went really high into the sky. That one had a long line, we didn't think it'd be too long, but it was. Probably over 45 minutes. Then we did the Joker, and that one also had a super long line. The longest I think. I'm not sure how long, but we were there forever. And then when we actually got on, I got put next to this man-child (Sabrina Carpenter?) who was actually going crazy. He had a son but was acting like a kid. He literally pulled a "can I get a hoy ya?" Like boy, you're 35. And he kept talking to me and telling me he's scared but we're in this together. And he smelled really weird, like a mix of cigarettes and vomit. And also, that ride almost took me out. At first it wasn't bad, but it got pretty bad. It's one that swings back and forth and also spins. I think it was because I already had a headache, this made it way worse. I actually felt like I was going to vomit after getting off the Boomerang, but here, I really felt like I was going to die. I literally just had to close my eyes eventually because the ride felt like it was going on forever. And that guy next to me was still trying to talk to me while we were flying through the air. But it was pretty fun. After that we did The Boss, which was another wooden, rough roller coaster. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting, but it was pretty wild. Next, I think we met my parents at this saloon show. We didn't really sit with my parents because they were right in the center row, pretty close to the stage, and that was a little to close for us. So we sat a ways off to the side. And luckily we did because this was a show where you could've been called up to the stage. So luckily I didn't get called up. They sang that Money Money Money song from Cabaret, and the show was about these saloon workers who were after money but ended up with chocolate money? Very interesting. After that, Janell and I rode the Fireball, which also gave me a crazy headache. That ride just was not enjoyable for me. It's a ring that you spin around and around on and I felt like I was going to die. Like my body couldn't take it. Six Flags had a lot more thrill rides than I remember. More than any park I'd been to. We rode a couple more, and I think one of the last ones we went on was the river rampage one where you're on a raft, and we ended up getting super splashed and my dad was kind of mad he got so wet. He was worried about his wallet and all that. But Six Flags was pretty awesome today.

After Six Flags, we walked back to the car and of course, you know we had to go to Cane's. I love Cane's, have to get it every time we go to St. Louis. So I got that and my parents got that, but Janell of course had to be different and she wanted Chick-fil-a. So she got that, it was pretty close to Cane's. She ordered it to-go on mobile and then got scared because she thought that she accidentally ordered from a mall because the address was Arnold Mall, but it was an actual normal restaurant. So crazy. So I ate some of my food, and then fell asleep on the way back home. I actually ended up putting my seat down and then laying all the way down, half in the trunk, so I could really stretch out. And I basically slept all the way back home.

dad drying his money from the river rampage

On the way home, Mason had texted again to ask if I wanted to go out tonight. So when I got home, I texted him sure. I mean, it's my 21st, I might as well. They were actually going out already because it was Sophie's (Jordan's girlfriend) birthday, too or something. So I got ready at home, brought one of my new buzz balls (the blue one) with me, said bye to my parents, and left. I went to 333 and drank my blue buzz ball in my car before I got out. Owen and Mason pulled up and they picked me straight up from the parking lot.

The first place we went was Katy O'Ferrell's, and that was pretty nice. I'd only ever been here with Olivia, Paige, and Lennon last year, and that was a whole different vibe. But this was nice, I showed them my ID, I am now officially 21, and I think all I got here was a beer because they were pretty cheap. I'm trying to think who all tekes were there. I know there was Mason, Owen, Jordan, and I think Whitlow. Also, I didn't buy any drinks or anything tonight, they were all paid for by someone else, so that was nice of them. I think Mason bought my beer. I think they also gave me a free shot here because it was my birthday.

The next place we went was Blush, and it was also pretty nice. This place was more laid back. Here, Sophie's mom started talking to me some, but she was nice. It was kind of odd she was there, because I could never imagine my mom going to bars with a bunch of young people like this. But it was cool, Jordan bought me an amaretto sour here, and that was good.

The last place we went was Blue Diamond, and this was probably the busiest place. The boys ordered a pitcher or two of beer, so I drank some of that, some of them were playing pool, Sophie's mom bought me a mystery shot, it was pretty awesome. I also started talking to this one girl who was one of Sophie's friends, Savannah, so that was kind of cool. And I actually stayed later than the other guys.

When we left I think it was just me, Jordan, Sophie's mom, and Sophie and some of her friends. And it was Sophie's sister who picked us up and brought Jordan and I back to 333. And then I slept on the couch there.

So I would say that my birthday was pretty amazing, probably the best birthday I've ever had. From my present basket this morning, Six Flags, Cane's, bars, talking to people, it was great. 10/10.

3/8/25

I can pretty much just flow right off the last post at this point, since this is basically the same day.

So we landed and had no problems getting off the plane. I was the last one off from our group because they were all waiting for me in the airport. Their airport was really nice, it was very Scandinavian feeling. Like an IKEA, lots of light colored wooden architecture and decorations I guess. We wandered through the airport to go to our checked luggage area, I got my suitcase, then we went to customs. They scanned my passport, I got in, and we went to the shops area to use the bathrooms. The bathrooms here are different and kinda confused me at first. Especially the paper towels, because they are actually more like cloth and they retract to be reusable. Also bird noises were playing in some of the bathrooms, very ambient.

We made our way through all the customs or whatever and stuff, and we were through all of that by 11 AM, and we ended up in an area where all the airport shops and stuff were. I really liked this little hand-drawn looking guy who I later figured out was the mascot of a store chain called 'Normal,' there was a shop of it in the airport. I went to the bathroom again, and Dana went to get day train passes while we were waiting, so once she got back, we made our way down to the train station. We took a really long escalator ride into a deep pit, where the train station was. The Nutcracker or something was playing on a projector on the way down there. Very interesting.

We waited in this big cylindrical, concrete, underground train station thing, and we were on the train by 11:45 AM. I sat across from Chelsea, near Rhett and Elisabeth, so I talked to them and got to know them a bit better. I also got to see my first view of Finland from the window, and it was kinda different than I thought it'd be. Lots of apartments and lots of little parks and nature and stuff with trails. Pretty cool. There were also some pigeons at one of the train stops and I remember laughing at one with Elisabeth. I think we got off the train at like, a quarter after 12. We got off a little before getting to the main train station but then walked to the main train station I think. The main train station was really cool, very grand-looking. There was some fancy restaurant or something in there called Olivia. Then we went out front of it, and it looked really cool from the outside, too.

After that I think we either took another little tram to a place closer to our hostel, or we just walked. I feel like we took a tram though, because I remember waiting outside the big train station for a while. But anyways, we got to the hostel, Hostel Diana Park, and we put all of our stuff in one room, because our own rooms weren't ready yet. Caleb was also there. He had gotten to Helsinki the day before us, so I guess he was just waiting around for us to get there. But we weren't at the hostel long, because our rooms weren't ready, so then we all went back out and walked to this Citycenter Mall as a group. From there, they said we could kinda just do whatever we wanted to do. So a bunch of the girls went off to go shopping, and me, Caleb, Carolyne, and Chloe, were left behind as our own group.

So we started off just kinda walking around. We left the mall area and walked towards the city square I guess. There was a lot going on in this city today. There was a queer festival or something going on, lots of them out and about. And then there was this huge pro-Palestine protest going on. There were also people handing out little pamphlets for different things. I think their elections are coming up, so lots of people promoting that. So I started collecting the little pamphlets that they were trying to hand out, while the other people in our group kept declining them. We made our way towards the Helsinki Cathedral and went in there for a bit. It's this pretty large, grand, white, cathedral, that I think is Lutheran. There was a bust of Martin Luther in there, so that was my guess. But it was pretty cool. Then the main Senate Square area is overlooked by that church, and down there was where that big Palestine protest was happening. We left there eventually and walked around some more. We went in this Moomin store, and Caleb said I looked really out of place. Like, boy, you don't look so in place yourself. But Moomin is this big thing in Finland, it's like Mickey Mouse in the US. He's this little white character guy, and I was going to buy a pin of him in there because it was only 3.50 euros, but Caleb didn't wanna stay in there for too long, so he kinda rushed us out. We eventually ended up back at the mall thing and the two girls went into some girly shop, so that left Caleb and I on our own, great. We didn't know what to do, so we walked around the mall and ended up on the top floor, where all there was was a gym. So we just stood up there looking out over the mall and talking some. Then we went down to some shops and we went into this nerd store, and he was in there forever. They had like Funkos, Pokemon, manga, board games, and this Warhammer stuff. Old me would've really been into it. So he was looking around in there forever. I waited outside for a bit. After he was done in there we went to the bottom floor where there was a Tokmanni. I figured it was like Finland's version of Target because that's what it looked like (I later realized they are unrelated). So we went in there and we were kinda trapped because we had to walk all the way through the store to leave. And we didn't end up getting anything, even though we looked at some candy. Then we somehow met back up with the girls and went down to this underground thrift store thing called UFF. There wasn't really much down there, I kind of wanted this one Finnish book just because it looked cool. I wouldn't have been able to read it though, because it was in Finnish. Also, Chelsea was down there and she ended up getting these bright green shoes because she said she couldn't stand just wearing her boots. Also, Caleb waited outside this whole time because he didn't want to go in. But after that I think we were finally done. It was 2:30, and that's when we were supposed to meet back with the group outside.

So we went back outside and met with them. There was this big floral arch and the girls said I should take a picture under it and send it to my mom for international women's day, so that's what I did, a girl named Autumn took my picture. Once Dana got there, she had this bread with rice in it or something. Maybe egg? I don't know, but she had us try it and I really liked it, but Rhett hated it. But anyways, once the whole group was there, we started walking around again. With the group, we walked to the Oodi Library or whatever it's called. It's this big library thing that apparently the Finns are really proud of. It's more of an activity place than a library. There were 3D printers and fabric printers, gaming areas, escalators, lots of study areas, and then the top floor was like an actual library area. The top floor also had this ramped floor where you could go up and look out the windows, there were lots of windows. And we were just walking through this library as a big group like it was an attraction while everyone was in there studying. It felt kinda weird and we definitely were super touristy. I also saw that they had that one book that I stole from the cruise ship, Vesper Flights, in their library and it was in Finnish so I thought that was cool. We left there eventually and went outside where there was another protest. I don't know if this was a new one or if the other one had migrated over to here, but this one was outside of the library and I think it was a women's rights protest.

After that we walked to the grocery store for some reason, because Dana wanted to show us what their grocery stores were like. I just walked around by myself in there for a bit. Dana wanted to show how they buy produce but there was no produce in there so that didn't work out. I got this Novelle mango water drink because I was getting pretty thirsty, but it turns out it was carbonated so it wasn't as refreshing as I thought it would be. Still eventually drank it all though. Also, once we got out of the grocery store, we realized that Elisabeth was missing, so we waited around for a while outside of the store until she was found. Don't know where she'd wandered off to.

After the little grocery stop, we started walking again. Caleb had me carry this box of chocolates or something that he bought and the reason he had me carry them was because I "was wearing a hoodie." But they did not fit well in my hoodie pocket, it looked like a big box was poking out of my crotch, so I had to keep a hand in my hoodie pocket that whole time to make it not look as weird. And he said he'd give me one if I held it and he never gave me one. But after the grocery store we went to the Helsinki Cathedral, which we'd already went to earlier when we were in our small little group. This time they were playing the organ in there though, so that was kinda cool. Then we actually walked down the steps into the Senate Square, and we walked along until we got to the docks or the oceanside or whatever. Down there we saw the Uspenski Cathedral, and that was probably my favorite thing, architecturally, that I saw on this whole trip. And then we actually went up to it and went inside, too. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside but I accidentally did anyways because that was before I saw the sign. And Caleb was like, "NO PICTURES." Like boy, look who's still holding your chocolates. But it was really cool in there, and there was this bishop who was waving this incense stuff around in a little lantern thing. Smelled very interesting and was a really cool experience. There were also people confessing and chanting and stuff in there. But that was that, we left after 10 minutes or so.

After that we walked down to the Market Square, walked by some souvenir stalls and shops, and went into this vendor building called Kaartinkaupunki, and this is where we ended up eating dinner as a group. The place we ate was called Stadin Herkut. I kinda got stuck at the weird table with the two professors, Dana and Caldwell, and Caleb, who I finally gave his chocolates back at this time. It was 5 PM now so I'd been carrying those things since like 3:45, you're welcome, Caleb. I ordered the salmon with Finnish potatoes, the same thing that Caldwell ordered, and he probably thought I copied him even though I was thinking of getting that first. The food was pretty good, it was all a little watery feeling, I didn't really like this glop of white stuff that I was apparently supposed to dip my potatoes in. But overall, it was good, and it filled me up.

After that we walked around. Someone bought this dried ginger stuff in there and they let me try it, I think it was Carolyne. And it was not great, it was a very weird taste. But no one liked it, so I wasn't alone on that one. I think someone else got lost, maybe Chelsea or something, so we had to wait for them to catch up. Also, this crazy girl named Tosha was gone for most of the day because she got to the airport late, so she had to be picked up from there at some time. I don't remember when she got back with our group, sometime in the afternoon. But she apparently accidentally booked a limousine service instead of a taxi for her layover in New York and paid like, $170 for a 12 mile ride. So that sums her up as a person. Anyways, she was probably with us now. We walked more and ended up at the Fazer store. Dana gave us this little tour guide talk about how Fazer was like Hershey over here and then she gave us some candy. First, she gave us black licorice, and this made me realize that I'd never had real black licorice before. I thought it was going to taste like a Twizzler, but it tasted nothing like that. It was possibly the worst thing I've ever eaten. But then she gave us actual good chocolate afterwards, so that was good. And then we made our way back to the hostel.

We probably got to the hostel around 6:30 PM and we had our rooms and stuff now. Rhett and I were roomed together since we were the only guys and Caleb was staying in his hotel for another night. We were in the same room that all the luggage was initially in. I walked almost 8 miles today in those boots, so when I took those off, the room actually really stank. But part of it was definitely Rhett's feet, too. And at least my boots were actually really comfortable, even though I didn't really break them in prior. Rhett's apparently weren't and he had blisters and stuff, so he had Dr. Caldwell come in and give him scissors and stuff to pop his blisters. Pretty nasty. Rhett took a shower first and then I took one at like 7 o'clock in the shower outside our room. It was a pretty good shower. After that, I basically went straight to bed. Rhett apparently listens to YouTube videos to fall asleep, but that didn't bother me because I had my AirPods and was listening to music, so I was asleep by like, 8 o'clock I think. And that was that.

Pretty great day today. At this time, I still didn't know anybody too well, but this was a good first day in Europe. 8/10.

3/7/25

Today was the day I was leaving for the study abroad trip to Finland. Last night was when I got most of my stuff packed, and I got all my homework and everything done. And I went to bed at like 2:30 because it took me a while to fall asleep. But this morning my alarm went off at 6 AM and then my mom also came in and got me up of course, like right after my alarm went off. So I got ready and everything and then we left. I didn't get to say bye to Janell or anything because Addie spent the night last night so they were probably still sleeping downstairs. But that's okay, I got to say bye to my dad and the dogs. Then my mom and I left.

We went to Jennifer's first because we were picking her up because she was coming to St. Louis with us for some reason. I guess so her and my mom could shop after they dropped me off at the airport. When Jennifer first got into the car she commented that I was listening to Brain Damage and I was like, "Oh, do you know this song?" And she was like, "No, that just sounds like a weird song name." So anyways, we picked up Jennifer and then went to Chick-fil-A because my mom had placed a to-go order for there before we left. So I got some hashbrowns, chicken minis, and a sweet tea.

Not much happened on the ride up to St. Louis, just chitchatting and the usual. Jennifer didn't talk much. Not as much as I was expecting. So then we eventually got to the airport and my mom kinda drove in loops for a bit because apparently she wasn't just going to drop me off, she was going to go into the airport with me. So then she parked in this parking garage at Terminal 1 after asking a guy what to do, and we walked inside.

Inside, I first went up to one of those little kiosks where you can get your boarding pass. And that all went well, I scanned my passport, put in my flight number, and that was done. My mom was going a bit crazy making sure I did everything right and Jennifer kinda noticed, because I think mom's a bit more nit-picky than Jenny. Then we went down the escalator towards Gate 2, and they STILL came with me, because apparently they had to "use the bathroom." like, okay. Then they took pictures of me about to go through TSA and a SEMO student, one of the ones in this class, saw them doing all that. Like, so embarrassing. But yup, once I went through TSA, that was when we actually went our separate ways. And I ended up talking to that girl in line for that. She's the one who's like 31 and has kids that are basically grown. We talked about Cape Central and musical theater. At the actual TSA thing I got patted down, OF COURSE. I knew that was going to happen. Because it happened when we flew to and from California last summer. Every time I go through the metal detector thing, a red square shows up on my crotch and they have to caress me down.

Once I got through that gay scene, I kinda followed the other girl to our gate, but when we got there, I sat in a different spot than her because she went to talk to another student from our thing who was also there. And at least my mom wasn't this bad, because the other girl's mom was at the gate with her. But that was because this would be her first flight ever. Then a different dude eventually showed up at the gate, and he was from our class. Either Brett or Rhett is his name. And he's kinda weird, he started talking to me about how he's not going to smoke any pot on this trip. Like, okay? Then we all eventually gathered up and sat together, the four of us. I guess I should also keep track of times. This was at like 9-10 AM. Apparently the Brett Rhett guy used to be in Phi Delt, but got kicked out because he was selling weed or something. So I told them I am in TKE. Then another girl named Elisabeth showed up and sat with us and then some more students eventually. Then at a little after 11 AM we boarded.

I was in Group 6, so kinda the middle group. They encouraged anyone after Group 6 to have their bags checked on because this was going to be a full flight and there wasn't going to be enough room. So I get on the plane and I'm supposed to sit at Seat 7B, which is towards the front of the plane. But there was no room overhead because the compartments above those seats were somehow out of order? So I started stressing and it was like my old kind of stress that I used to have at Red Lobster. Like, these people walked in and every server's section is full. So I made the decision to keep walking and I ended up at Seat 18, and I was like, why don't I just stay here? But then I remembered every seat was going to be filled, so what was I thinking? So then I ended up putting my carry-on above Seat 18 and then I kinda had to push my way back to my original seat, Seat 7. So that was really fun. And I wasn't really alone, apparently that also happened to the Elisabeth girl, but someone up front had taken her carry-on but she somehow ended up in the back with me. Don't know what she was doing. But yeah, I got back to my seat, squeezed over the older lady who had the aisle seat, and sat in the middle. The guy in the window seat slept most of the way I think, and then the lady in the aisle seat read her Kindle the entire time. I kinda wanted to be a matchmaker and try and get them to fall in love with each other. Just a thought I had at the time. That flight wasn't too bad. I got apple juice because they were out of Dr. Pepper I guess, and they gave me some of those Bischoff graham cracker things. I listened to the album, Wish You Were Here for the takeoff, and that is like the perfect album for being on an airplane, I don't know, something about it. After about an hour on that flight though, it was getting really stuffy, and I was stiff and sweaty. Not fun. But after not too long, we landed in Dallas. We had to sit for a while because it took them a while to connect the tunnel thing to the door. And then I had to sit extra long because I had to wait for a ton of people to get off so that I could go to the back of the plane and get my suitcase. But I got it eventually and then I got off of that plane.

Right after we got off the plane, Dr. Caldwell had everyone meet outside the gate we just got off at. Yeah I forgot to mention that, Dr. Caldwell was also on that flight. So now we were like a group, and I have to admit, I kind of would've rather been on my own. But whatever, it's fine. Some people went to the bathroom and after that, we went to get on the Skyline (I think that's what it's called) because we had to go from Terminal A to Terminal D. The Dallas airport is actually so crazy, and the Skyline trains were so cool. There's like a highway cutting the airport in half, too. Crazy stuff. Those little tram things were fast, I almost lost my balance every time they took off. And we were on it for a while because we were going to the opposite side of the airport. Once we got to D, we got off and looked at the screens that show all the flights. Then Dr. Caldwell was like, "Hey, the screen shows a different gate than our boarding passes show," so we went to the gate that the screen showed, and it turns out we had to exchange our boarding passes for new passes. So I was lucky the group was there with me for that, because I would not have known that we would've had to do that. So we did that, and then we ate. We started off as a bigger group but kinda split off when we went to eat. So I ended up with the two girls who were in my presentation group, Carolyne and I forgot the other one (Chloe, I now remember). But we went to Whataburger, and it took a while, not going to lie. It was pretty busy. But I just got a normal cheeseburger, no tomatoes, and I thought it was kinda pricy, being over 7 bucks for a single cheeseburger, but they were actually pretty big burgers, and it was pretty good, so maybe it was worth it. I walked around a bit with those girls before we sat down to eat, and we ended up sitting with Dr. Caldwell and this other girl that he was with, and they were at this Asian restaurant area where they apparently bought $25 bowls of food. Pricy, pricy. So we sat at a table with them, pulled up a few chairs, and ate our burgers. Then we walked around with them for a bit before going back with them towards our gate. Dr. Caldwell was trying to talk to me and it was a little awkward. He did tell me my last name meant "wind servant" which I actually didn't know, and I looked it up and he was right, 'wind' is wind and 'knect' is servant in German. Huh. On the way back to the gate, we found more people from our class so he talked to them, but then me and the other two girls kept walking. We ran into Brett Rhett and Chelsea (the mom), and Elisabeth, so we talked to them for a bit, then the others caught up, and we were all together for a bit. Not much else really happened, we just talked and stuff and made our way back to the gate. I met this girl from our group who had me quiz her on her name. I guessed Emily, but it was actually Haley, but I thought she said Kailey. So I accidentally called her Kailey for a bit. Then we just waited near the gate until like, 5, I think that's about when we boarded. I went back and forth several times from standing near the gate to going near the bathrooms to drink from the water fountain because I was not going to pay 4 dollars for a bottle of water, but I was pretty thirsty. Then it was basically time to board.

I was on Group 4 for this flight, but I don't think there were as many groups for this flight. But it did take a while to load. At least this time, it was easier to load. Especially because, I forgot to mention this, I didn't have my suitcase anymore, when we got the new boarding passes, they said we could only bring one bag on the plane, so my suitcase was put down for checked luggage. So it was easier because i didn't have that this time. This plane was a huge plane, there were 9 seats per row, three on one side, three in the middle, and three on the other side. My seat was 60H, so I was in the middle, but in an aisle seat. It also took forever to get going, because apparently there were problems with loading luggage, so we were just sitting in the plane not moving for like, 25 minutes. I ended up having to sit next to this woman who I think was Finnish, and her husband or someone was next to her. Eventually though, the flight did take off. I think I underestimated how long a 10 hour flight would take.

Once we took off, I kind of fell asleep pretty fast, but only for like, 30-45 minutes or something. I was listening to Pink Floyd again. And apparently I missed the dinner because I woke up and everyone was eating out of these little cardboard boxes, but I didn't have one. I did get offered a drink shortly after I woke up, so I got a Coke. The lady beside me had started knitting, that was a little crazy. So I didn't really do much, I just listened to music. I also realized a bit earlier on, but forgot to mention, I didn't bring a phone charger that connects to a USB, only to a type C. And the only outlets were for USB, and the battery box thing I brought also was only for USB. I kind of blame my mom, because she was like, "Type C is so much faster," but it's not her fault because I agreed. So yeah, I opened my Goldfish that my mom packed for me and ate some of those while listening to music. For like an hour or two, I was watching the screen of the guy in front of me, he was watching some crazy stuff. I think he was watching Ferrari first, and there was kind of a crazy sex scene. Then he eventually started watching this movie that I thought was Justice League or something, but it was more about the Flash. It was like, the Flash went back in time and then met himself from the past, and they had to stop Superman's enemy from coming to earth and killing everyone. At first I thought it was Elliot Page who played Barry, but it definitely wasn't. I was actually really into that movie. Then they dimmed the lights and I was going to try to go to sleep, but the lady next to me turned on her overhead light so that she could continue knitting, so that made it a bit harder to sleep. And I wasn't really that tired, so I decided to start a movie instead, Blade Runner 2049. I've always heard of this movie, but never watched it. It was a little weird watching in public, because there were some weird scenes and some nudeness. But it was a really good movie actually. I don't really think I did much else after watching that, just relaxed. I was kind of really uncomfortable on this plane. I guess cause I was on it for like, 9 hours. My legs hurt. Breakfast was served eventually and it was an omelet with tater tot hashbrowns and this red stuff and spinach. I actually ate it all because I was getting pretty hungry. I also got orange juice. Then probably an hour or so after we got breakfast, we had landed. I didn't do much after the breakfast, just played 2048 on the screen. And then I realized I actually did have a USB charger, it was that little greenish blue one. Hallelujah. It was in a different spot from my other cords. So I charged my phone a bit, and then we landed.

And that is what I am going to consider the end of this day. Because of the time change and everything, it's a little hard to determine the end, but by the time we got to Helsinki, it was like, 10:30 AM for their time. So today was just the ride over there. I hate plane rides now more than ever. I used to love planes, what happened? But today was like a 7/10.

3/2/25

3/1/25

2/26/25

Today was kinda interesting I guess. I started off by getting up, getting ready, talking to Janell some because she got home from her class before I left, and then leaving to go to my noon class.

My noon class is the transcultural class for the Finland trip. Today they went over more stuff that you should have done before leaving, like phone plans and stuff, and then they moved on to presentations. They also gave us some luggage tags. My group was that one guy and two girls, there was supposed to be another guy but he wasn't here. I really didn't work on the presentation a bit, I checked on it and it looked like it was already done and was only edited by the two girls. But before we presented the guy came up to me and said, "If you want your 300 points, you're going to do the food slide," and I was like, "Okay that's fine." So we were the first to present and everyone else talked for like 5 or more minutes with their slides and I read off the food slide and that took me about 1 minute. I don't know why they gave me the food slide and only that one, but whatever, I was fine with it. Then the other groups went and that was it. I still don't know about this trip. I wish I'd made friends with more people in this class.

After class I went to Nana's and Morgan was there so I said I real quick to her and went upstairs. I really only went here to get my Airpods, but I stuck around for a bit. I was here for a couple of hours, until around 4 or so. Then I left and was planning on going to the gym since I now had my Airpods.

So I got to the gym and realized it was pretty packed, like, there were no spots in the parking lot. So instead, I went to Teen Challenge. In there I got two shirts, one was a white graphic t-shirt and one was a shirt that said 'Everybody Poops' and I thought it was funny so I got it. I also did it to test myself, because it was kinda embarrassing checking out with that. But I think the cashier also thought it was kinda funny. The gym was still busy by the time I left, so I was planning on going home.

But then, when I was on my way home, Naethan asked if I was doing anything later. So I pulled over into that one Pickleball Factory place's parking lot and texted him back, "No," because I thought he wanted to hangout or something. But then he invited me to another Bible study tonight. And I couldn't say no because I already said I wasn't doing anything. So I said I would go. This would be my third Bible study in a row this week. Like, that's a little too much. But that was at 6 and it was a little after 5 at the time, so I went to the public library for a bit.

At the library I saw Mark Richey, but I don't think he saw me. I also thought I saw Pierce's girlfriend, but I'm not sure. I sat next to a window and blogged a bit and doodled some more on my animal science notes. Then I left at around 5:50.

I got to Dempster at around 6 o'clock and went in. I was really hoping this was a separate study away from the CAMO group, but nope, as soon as I walk into the building I saw Seth Fink. Dammit. I walked past him in the hallway and said I'd be right back. I went to fill up my water bottle and go to the bathroom, and then I went out to my car for a bit because I don't think Naethan was even here yet, and I didn't want to be in there alone with them. So once I saw Naethan walk in, I walked back in.

This was a weird Bible study, let me tell ya. There were like, 9 guys there and 1 girl. The first thing they had me do was stand up and swear on my right hand or whatever, that I would be there every Wednesday and that I would go up front and tell a poop story. Like, what the hell? First off, I am NOT going there every Wednesday. Second off, a POOP story? I really tried to get out of that, I said I don't think I had one. But they still made me go up front. I was going to tell the story of how I got a poop shirt today, but instead I told the one from several years ago when I was sick and pooped my pants in bed while I was asleep. That was soooo weird, why would they want me to tell them all that. And then they were like, quizzing me on it afterwards. The rest of the study was more normal.

Afterwards they wanted me to go to Blue Diamond or some place that had pretzels, I'm not sure where they were talking about. But I turned them down. Then Naethan said I should hand out with him, so I did for a bit. We drove to the Rec Center and played ping pong with some of his foreign exchange friends. So that was kind of fun. And then I guess I went home and did my little 12-3-30 workout on the treadmill.

So today was average I guess. A pretty full day. 5/10.

2/25/25

Today is Tuesday, so that meant I had animal science class, so I went to that. We talked about poultry, like chickens, ducks, and geese. And turkeys I guess. I was really doodling today. So I missed some of my notes because I was doodling instead of looking at the board. 

2/24/25

Today was kind of a filling day. I started by going to my labs and classes and stuff after leaving home. But before that, Naethan texted me and asked if I wanted to go swimming later today, so I said, "Sure," so I grabbed my swimming trunks before I left. Seth from CAMO also texted me asking if I want to go out to lunch but I didn't respond to him yet.

In lab we had a lab quiz that I definitely failed. Maybe I got 1 or 2 out of 30. But I think everyone failed, it was hard stuff. Then we worked on our unknowns for the rest of the time. I restarted my unknowns last time because McNew said two of mine were the same. So I got out my new TSA plates and they all looked the same and none had the bacteria I needed, so she said I should just take the 2 point deductible and only do two unknowns instead of three. So that's what I did. I re-streaked my bacteria on new plates to hopefully get better isolated colonies and did a gram stain on them. I hate using the microscope, I always get nauseous and lightheaded when I look through it. But I successfully figured out their shapes and if they were negative or positive.

Then I went to the lecture and nothing really happened there. I did win the wheel thing, so I got to go down there and get a brain shaped eraser. That's the only interesting thing I think. I also responded to Seth and said I don't really have time for lunch today, which is kinda true. My class goes from 12:00-1:15, that's kinda lunchtime gone right there.

After that I went to HealthPoint and got a good little workout in. I did my fifteen minutes on level 15 of the stair climber again. I'm getting more used to it I think. Yeah, not much happened in here either.

Then after that it was like, going on 3:00 I guess and that's when Naethan said to meet at the aquatic center, so I went there, but then after a bit he or someone texted that the pool doesn't open until 4:00 today. Colin and Nyk were also supposed to be going. So I just waited in the parking lot for like, 45 minutes. I worked on my CJ100 assignment a bit.

Then Naethan called me and said he was inside, so I went in. We played basketball until the other guys showed up. It was kinda funny watching him play, he wasn't too great. I mean, I wasn't either. But it was fun, we played for like 20 minutes. Naethan somehow knows like, everyone. He kept going up to people he knew and said hi. And I was just there.

After a bit, Nyk and Colin showed up and we went to the locker room. I actually had my shirt off this time, unlike at TKE a Dip. Pretty sure I was the fattest one there. But hey, I've actually been working on it by working out, so I wasn't too ashamed. Then we went out to the pool and played volleyball first, then tried the rock wall, swung on the rope, got in the hot tub, and laid on the pool bed thing on the edge of the pool. It was actually really fun. I was on Naethan's team for volleyball, we weren't too good. But yeah, it was like I was at someone's birthday party as a kid again. Really fun and unique thing to do on a Monday. We were there until like, 5:40 I think. Then we got changed, Naethan was taking a really long time because he also decided to take a shower. Then we left and I drove Naethan and Nyk to the Hill to go to the Bible study thing tonight.

At the Bible study, the only tekes were me, Nyk, Naethan, and Lucas. Then the two CAMO guys were there. It was an alright study though. The CAMO guys were kinda weird again. Will kept playing these cat remix songs. And then they had us play an intro song for Lucas's readings and stuff so I played the theme from Rocky. Then at the end, Seth and Will were really pressuring me to go to the Spring Retreat thing. And I kinda just said I'd think about it. They were kinda weird though. Like, "You could meet your future wife here, these people are gonna be better than any girls you would meet at a TKE event." But I'm pretty sure Seth said that he first met his wife at the TKE house. So I don't know what he is talking about.

Then I went to Nana's. They also gave me half of a pizza to take home because they always have extra pizza there. So that was nice of them I suppose. At Nana's I played some music on my TV, mainly Pink Floyd. I've been really into them lately. Then my dad showed up so I talked to him for a bit. Then I kinda just goofed off, finished my criminal justice assignment, and went to bed to the sound of brown noise.

So it was a pretty good day. Definitely more filling than most of my days. So 8/10.

2/22/24

Today I didn't really do anything all day. I just did stuff around the house like burning trash, I made some taco Hamburger Helper, Janell left for a bit to go to Creative Ewe and some macaroni bar with some of her tri deltas. The snow was really starting to melt today, too. It was like, 40s all day. Then I made some protein pancakes and that was basically all I did, until the evening.

That evening, TKE was having a little informal party, it was just like a get-together thing. And I wasn't going to go, but then Grant texted me and told me to go. So then, I had Janell be my sober phone and she drove me to the thing. She actually volunteered because she wasn't doing anything, so thank you to her. Since we were down to two beers at home, I brought those two beers, plus the little bit left in our Malibu bottle, plus the little bit left of that whipped vodka stuff. So I drank a shot of vodka on the way there, and drank some Malibu. We put on 6 Feet on the way there to be my hype song. I poured the Malibu into a water bottle before I went in because I didn't want to bring in a bottle.

So I walked in and there weren't really as many people there as I was thinking. Keely immediately came up to me, along with this other tri delta, Hannah, and they were just yapping about whatever. They found out I was Janell's brother. They also had a cooler of some drinks there. So Keely gave me a Busch and said me, Grant, and her were going to shotgun. So we went out on the porch and did that, except I didn't really shotgun, just kinda sipped it out of the hole I made. I suck at shotgunning. Then Zach showed up and brought some Jell-o shots so I had a couple of those, too. Then Adriana and some friend of hers showed up. I ended up talking to her friend for a while. She was this Asian girl who was from Denmark or something. She had me hit her vape. Then I talked to Indian Naethan for a bit and we went up to deliver Jell-o shots to Simon's room because Zach told us to bring some up there. Then I took one smoke of the joint cause they were doing a bit of that outside. Then I talked to Presley for a bit because Keely and a bunch of others had left to go to Hypno. Eventually they got back and Keely talked to me some more and then she called Janell on my phone and like, confessed her love for me to Janell. Too bad I don't really feel the same about her. So that was weird. And then that was basically it, I called Janell to pick me up at like, 12:30. So that was actually pretty fun. A nice little change.

Janell got McDonald's before picking me up so she got me a cheeseburger and sweet tea (thank you). I guess I'll have to pay her back somehow. So we went home and my dad was still up. Then I got my laptop and went downstairs and played Roblox and watched Trailer Park Boys.

Pretty good night, 7/10 day.

2/18/25

I'm just gonna really quickly recap this day. It was Tuesday so I had Animal Science class. Pretty sure nothing happened this class, we went over goats. So it was just normal notes.

Then I am pretty sure I went to the gym afterwards. Actually, maybe I didn't. I don't remember and my Google Maps timeline is like, tweaking out. It has like a million lines going from home to Cape, but no stops, so I don't know. Actually I'm pretty sure I did not go to the gym, the more I think about it, so scratch that. I think I went straight home. Yeah I did go straight home, because I remember Janell was there and she was about to leave. So I don't know what I did at home, probably just goofed around.

My mom really was worried that there was going to be a huge snowstorm and it did end up snowing later that evening but it wasn't really anything too crazy. At least not yet. But then later that evening it did snow quite a bit. That's basically it.

The snow was nice today. Nothing else happened. 5/10.

2/17/25

So it's Monday today, but I'll go over real quick what happened over the weekend and stuff.

On Saturday, I didn't do that much in the morning. I don't actually remember what I did. But at 6 o'clock, they had 'TKE a Dip' at the aquatic center. Janell made enchiladas before I left, but I didn't have time to eat one. Also I was trying to stay a bit foodless in case I'd have to take my shirt off and swim or something. I also brought some alcohol with me because there was gonna be a party afterwards.

It was raining pretty bad when I left and when I got to the aquatic center. I saw Colin walk in when I was in the parking lot, so I also went in. Luckily there was no one at the front desk, because I forgot my SEMO ID to get in. So I just walked past the desk and back to where the aquatic area is. So I go back there and go into the men's locker room expecting to see some people, because it's basically 6 o'clock, and no one is there. But after a bit, some people do get there and they start changing and stuff. So I kinda start changing too, but I leave my sleeveless shirt on. Luckily I'm not the only one who left their shirt on. I would've taken it off if I knew if I was a coach or not, but I had no idea. But yeah let me just quickly say what happened. It was kinda awkward at first, we went out to the pool area and some of the sororities and stuff were there. I actually talked to the new Grant some for the first time. But yeah, I'm pretty sure I wasn't even a coach. But then the old Grant had me join Tri Delta, but that was also awkward because I didn't know any of them and they didn't know me. So they started and Tri Delta got out like third or something. Then they did two more rounds, with the last one being with the coaches. But it was only two of the coaches from each team, so from ours it was Simon and Alex. They also lost. So yeah I was just kinda standing around during all of this. Doesn't help that like, everyone around me was drunk so they were probably having a bit better time than I was. Then we took some pictures and that was it. After that got out I drove Owen and Kevin to the Gamma Phi house I think because that's where their cars were. Then I drove to Nana's.

Dad was at Nana's when I got there, so I talked to him for a bit. Then I went upstairs and had a beer or two. Then after an hour and a half or so, I called Gavin to pick me up for the party tonight. Then I hopped on Roblox and he was here in like a second. Time always goes by so fast when playing Roblox. So I went out there and he was like, turning around in a circle by the barn and he was spinning and stuff, because it had been raining all day. So I went out there and got in and he eventually got out, with a lot of spinning. So the ground out there is kinda torn up, but what else is new. So he drove me there, we talked about The Walking Dead and Star Wars, it was kinda nice. But I think him getting almost stuck kinda scared him so he told me to have someone else take me home. He drove pretty quickly so we were at the house pretty fast.

This party really wasn't anything too special. I spent the first bit of time sitting in the living room talking to Presley and her friend. I went downstairs for a bit to the actual party, but was never down there for too long. Katelynn was down there for most of the night and asked why I hadn't snapped her back. I made up some excuse so then she gave me her number. Ay ay ay. Then this one girl came in and started talking smack about my braces or something, but then later that night, she gave me her snap. And then even later that night I was sitting on the couch and these two other girls asked for my snap. Too bad they were both low-key chopped. And I think one of them might be Logan Wendell's ex. But that's basically it. I also talked to Sarah, the tall girl who apparently is always shaking ass on people at these parties. So I was talking to her for some reason and I remember I complimented her teeth and she really appreciated that. And Nyk sent a picture of me talking to her in the group chat. But it was just an alright party. At the end I went out and smoked a cigarette with Naethan. Then he told me I should come to the Bible study on Monday, so yeah, smoking and Bible studies. I also almost brought my cigarette into the house and Mason had to tell me no, my bad. This was the end of the party so this was the time I was the most out of it. But that kinda embarrassed me. Especially cause I don't normally smoke. Then Lucas Gaskill drove me home and Naethan came with us to get dropped off at towers, but he went with me to Nana's first. It was snowing really hard by the time we left, I didn't even realize it was supposed to snow tonight. But we made it back safely and I went inside and played Roblox until I decided to go to sleep. I also did some Omegle but didn't meet anyone interesting. That stuff is only fun to do when you're a little drunk.

Then Sunday, also not much happened. I stayed at Nana's until it was time for chapter at 4. At chapter I don't even remember what happened. I'm writing this on Friday now. Was this the one where Grant was inducted? I think that may have been last week. I think this weeks was just a normal boring one. They wanted us to clean house afterwards, but I went home.

Then on Monday, I had my normal classes and stuff, nothing special happened. I sat next to Mason in lecture because we had to do a Quizziz together. Then I went to the gym for a while, I think this was when I started going for 15 minutes on the stair climber. I've done that a couple of times this week now, I upped it from 10 minutes. And I had 6 Feet by Hamzah on repeat. Then I went to Nana's and slept I think, and made some pretty nasty Cajun rice that I had to add some pepperoni to to get a little flavor.

Then I went to the Bible study. Naethan called me when I was on the way there to make sure I was going. It was at the Hill, which I'd never been in. That's just like the Greek housing by towers. So I parked in the residential lot, which I'm not supposed to, but there was no commuter parking around. Then I kinda walked around a bit and sat on a bench near the place until I saw Naethan and then we walked in together. I was really surprised at who was in there. There was Darrion, Nyk, Ryker, Eddy, two guys from CAMO, and Lucas. Apparently it was also Eddy and Ryker's first time going to this. The two guys from CAMO were the ones leading it, their names were Will and Seth. It was pretty good, they also had free pizza. We went over Romans 6:23 and talked about how the only way to get to heaven is through Jesus Christ. So that was pretty good, we had a little paper that we filled stuff in on. The only weird thing was this little outburst that the two CAMO guys had when they were asking us if we truly believe that, and I said "Yes" and they were like, "Are you sure?" and then they started going crazy, they were like, "Okay now imagine CNN walks into this room with a camera on you, what would you say, then the camera crew bursts out of the closet, blah blah blah, and then Bronson stands up and says, 'Actually yes I do believe that.'" I actually don't know what that was about but it was a little awkward after that. I don't remember what all they said. Once the actual study was over we talked a bit about personal life and stuff. I told them I went to a Lutheran church and high school and that I'm a nursing student. Then I left and went home and my dad was really interested in what happened. He liked what they were teaching, so that's good I guess. My dad has been wanting me to join a Bible group or something so hopefully this makes him happy.

So that's a weekend recap. Pretty mid honestly. Weekend was a 6/10.

2/13/25

Okay so I missed quite a bit of February, but literally nothing happened so I'm not going to try and fill in those days. I'll write a quick recap of the month so far below with the days I missed, and then I'll go on with today.

So to recap, I've played Roblox quite a bit. A couple of weeks ago I played with Faith for the first time in a long while, that was fun. Played pretty late into the night. And then also Chapel Road, the weird guy who just last night I found out was a gay white boy. I always thought he was black and also was on the fence whether he was a girl or not. So that's weird. I also played Elden Ring for a couple days early in the month but haven't gotten on in a bit. It's kinda an overwhelming game. Also GTA 5, I re-bought that for my Xbox Series X, so I started replaying that. I also got Spotify Premium. It was a dollar for one month of premium, and it has been so worth it. I don't know if I'll be able to go back, I was getting so tired of the ads. I've been listening to Hamzah's 6 Feet a lot recently. I've been taking without paying some this month with Lego Minifigures. It's just so easy, and they are so overpriced, but so fun to collect. So I've gotten like six or so without paying. I haven't done it in a bit, I'm leaving that life behind, but yeah, that happened. The Slushy Noobz boxing match was last Saturday on the 8th. That was kind of life changing. I tuned in for the whole thing, it started at six and went till like, 10? It was so good. Aldo was there, the fight was awesome, and the Noobz are back. It was inspirational really, it got me into working out again. Then Quen Blackwell posted a Feeding Starving Celebrities video with them the next day or something, and that was one of the best videos I've ever seen. So basically, we are so back. Then the Super Bowl was the day after on Sunday. We had it at the Craigmiles' of course. It was alright. The food was good. I didn't talk to anyone much, cousin-wise. I talked to Chevy Chapman's dad some, can't think of his name. I referred to him as 'bro' when we were there. There was also an old guy who I didn't know, so he was referred to as 'unc'. I mainly talked to Janell. Kendrick's half-time show got all the white folks there riled up. Mainly Chevy's mom. Can't remember her name either. Chevy made an appearance when Janell and I were leaving. Then I had Janell go to Dollar General once we left because I wanted to see if they had any retired Lego sets (they didn't). Then on the 11th (Tuesday), I went to Family Dollar and another Dollar General in Cape to look for my retired Lego (didn't find any). It's just kinda fun to look for, though. And those are the places nobody checks. So while I was in Dollar General, my mom called me and had me go to the bank to try and set up my online banking. This was the most annoying trip to the bank I've ever had. The lady helping us had the worst computer experience ever. We were in there for probably an hour, and she was doing all my stuff publicly, that's what pissed me off. She was asking me to make security questions, but she would type them in. Like girl, let me do that part. So I was like, "Let's do my first car. It was a Chevy Cavalier." And she was also the worst speller ever. I'm pretty sure all the security questions were typed in wrong, so let's hope I never have to do those, because Lord knows what she was writing. And she would never press save or whatever, so we had to redo a couple of pages. And then once she had to redo it, she said, "Let's pick a different question," for the car one because she didn't want to spell 'Cavalier' again. Like, it's not that hard. That pissed me off. And my mom was having a blast in there because she loves little one on one meetings and stuff. And then they set up my notifications and my mom and her thought I should have notifications on for everything. So anytime I use the card, I'll get notified. Anytime my limit goes under 1,000 dollars I'll get notified. Like, LET ME SET THAT UP MYSELF. Then after that fiasco, my mom wanted me to get my flu shot, so I met her at the Mercy pharmacy. And I guess that probably about sums up the recap.

   

So for actually today, I don't think much happened until the evening, when there was the Red Carnation Ball. I had no idea what that was, it was a TKE thing. So I wore normal clothes but brought fancier clothes along, because it kinda sounds like a fancy event. It wasn't, it was like a talent show thing with some of the sororities. I sat in the back kinda near Grant, Mason, and Kyle, behind the Tri Deltas. And it was at Dempster. It was alright. Someone made a rap, the Deltas played a flute clarinet duet, someone made a cake, someone made Mexican street corn, and there was probably some other stuff. Nothing crazy though. Then I guess I went home after that. I'm writing this six days later as of today, so I don't remember anything else.

So this was mainly a February recap. But the actual day was like a 5/10 I guess. Don't remember.

2/4/25

Today was pretty fun. 

2/5/25

Today was Janell's birthday.

2/3/25

Today I woke up at like 8:30, luckily I woke up a little early because I had no alarm set and I had to finish my lab questions before class today at 10. So I got up and did that, got ready, and left.

Lab was a little awkward because I did the make-up lab yesterday and I think Evan threw away our little petri dishes because his lab was before mine. So I just sat there for a bit until telling the instructor that I didn't have my dishes. So she let me borrow someone else's, but then I had to change all the antibiotic information that I did yesterday. Then we did the actual lab for today, which involved little spheres of Staph. aureus and disinfectant and stuff. I didn't really get to do much except use the stopwatch because my partner was taking initiative. My little chime stopwatch was cute though.

After all that I went to my car and chilled for 20 minutes because we got out early. I actually put my rubber bands in because I have an orthodontist appointment on Wednesday. Then it was time for lecture.

2/2/25

Today I woke up kinda early from downstairs. I didn't do much that morning until I went to church with my parents, and that wasn't too eventful. There was a baptism for that baby that I said looked like a bulldog. So that was sweet. Then my dad was there talking for like 20 minutes after we got out because the Kelpe's were there. So my mom and I just waiting in the car.

After church we went home and Janell got home shortly after from her church work. I played some Elden Ring that I started yesterday I guess. I still don't know about that game. Seems very confusing. I kept dying at the Gate Ruins. Then my dad called me away from the game because he needed help on the roof. So I had to hold his feet so he didn't slide while he patched the skylights for leaks.

After that I don't really know what I did. I started reorganizing my Legos. It's kinda therapeutic sorting all of them. Then I left at 3:30 to go do my make-up lab, since I missed lab on Friday. The door to Rhodes was locked and I tried opening it but obviously it didn't open and this girl that was sitting at a table was like, "Microbiology?" and I was like, "Yeah." So I sat at a table near her until it was 4 and the professor came over and unlocked the door.

The actual lab wasn't too fun. First we did the quiz, which was all I thought we were doing. 

2/1/25

Slept until 1 PM at Nana's, drove home.