When was the last time my power went out? I don’t, it’s been actually quite a while since my power went out. Knock on wood, I guess, right? Hopefully, it doesn’t go out anytime soon here. But I think that when I was in — I lived in Indiana for a little while and we had a tornado warning there. And the power went out and I was actually — I was at the library working, and we had to take all the patrons and staff that were in the building at the time into the bathrooms. And I, you know, I’ve never had to do anything like that before. I’ve never lived anywhere else where there’s kind of tornado warnings and tornado shelters, and things like that. And the power went out when we were in there, and I remember, kind of thinking “wow, this is a little bit bizarre.” And I think there were some sort of like, emergency lights or something that were in there. Or maybe people just had their cellphone lights. Now I can’t even remember that. But my mom was actually visiting from northern Michigan at the time and I remember, you know, she wouldn’t have had a clue what was going on. So I told her to go into, you know, the closet in my apartment you know and she, you know, she was at my house at the time and I came home and, you know, after everything had been cleared and she was still sitting, still sitting in the closet in my apartment. And I said, “Mom, you know, we’re safe, everything’s good.” But the power had come back on but she was still sitting in there. So I don’t know. That was — I think that was maybe the last time.

Have you ever tried to make yogurt or cheese? No, but my grandma does it all the time. She's from Jordan and she makes a Arabic or Middle Eastern yogurt called laban. It's a white yogurt. Kind of like Greek yogurt, maybe a little thinner. You eat it normally, on top of -- we normally eat it, like, on top of rice. She has a dish called maqluba, which is rice, chicken, cauliflower. I think there might be some onions in it too, and it's pretty good with yogurt on top that she makes, the laban. And then -- then the cheese is called labneh and it's thicker. It's kind of like cream cheese. I think it's a little more sour and that's pretty good in like a sandwich with -- on bread. You eat it with like, tomato and cucumbers and other, you know, vegetables, lettuce. And you can make a pretty good sandwich out of that. Or sometimes on za’atar bread. Za’atar is like a spice. And you can eat that with like tomato and labneh. And then there's a third type of yogurt called mansaf laban, which is made out of dried yogurt balls. You like mix it with water and it's kind of like a soup and you eat it on top of like a rice dish called mansaf, which is rice and then it has lamb meat. And then you drown it in the sauce made from the yogurt balls. And that's really delicious.

I don’t know that I ever cried tears of joy. When I saw the movie, Inside Out, I cried at the end not because I was sad, exactly. But I was just overwhelmed because I felt seen in a way that I don’t normally feel seen, and I had some mental health problems going on, like flare-ups at that time. So it was a very emotional time for me overall. So feeling seen was very — It was just a very positive experience and a very positive feeling.

Dear diary, this is just a reminder that you don’t need as many things as you think you do. I’ve learned this from moving into a home, furnishing a whole home – almost, except for a couch – and then, four months, moving out. The amount of stuff – I thought I was good, I thought I was, like, more of a minimalist, but I’ve learned from repacking my stuff that I brought that I have more than I need. And so let this be a reminder that you actually don’t need as much as you think, and if you buy new, you’re never going to get back what you think, because selling a lot of my stuff on Facebook Marketplace has been really hard. So next time, go on Facebook Marketplace, and try to find stuff, instead of buying more of the new stuff, because you won’t get the money back if you sell it.

I wanted to give a shout-out to the diarists who just ran their second half marathon in Chicago. I always have the utmost respect for anyone who’s able to lock down and commit themselves to being able to run 13.1 miles. That is amazing. There’s so many athletic things I’m proud of, particularly in basketball. But sometimes when I hear about what people are doing in distance sports, it makes me feel so mortal and it puts all my stuff I’ve done in perspective. Here I am, I’ve really — I’ve run my heart out before for like 90 seconds, and then I like having a break and then you want me to run really, really, really, really hard again for another 90 seconds, okay, but then give me another break please. That’s basketball in a nutshell. So for people, the Chicago half marathon, props to that person. You’ll never hear this, but just hopefully I can put my respect out there in the world and somehow — I don’t really believe in this as a thing, but hopefully they can absorb my kudos spiritually somewhere somehow.