I remember going to meet my - meet my dad at a high school basketball game. I picked up my younger brother, who was probably a freshman in high school, and we were gonna go meet my dad and, you know, watch my other younger brother's basketball game. And when we got there, this was the sort of high school gym that has a track, like a running track around the outside, so the court's kind of down a little bit. And my Dad loved to stand along the track. There was a railing. And he loved watching the games leaning on that railing, looking down at the court. And so when we got there, paid for my ticket, paid for my brother's ticket, and spotted my dad. And for some reason - again, I think I was probably, like, 24. This was probably right around the same time as the Subway situation. Spotted my dad and for whatever reason, you know, there's two ways you can approach this. He's watching the game so you can be like, "Hey Dad!" You know distract him. But I decided this time, I would just go stand as close as I can to him without introducing myself and let him notice me, and then I'll be like, you know, my stupid way of saying "Hello!" So that's what I did. I walked right up to him. And got uncomfortably close to my dad. And then he didn't respond, and so I wanted to pretend I was just watching the game too. So I nudged a little bit closer without breaking, you know, my eye line with the court. And finally, he looked toward me, and I looked back toward him. And that's when I realized, it was not my dad. It was a stranger. And so then we're faced with this. The reality which is a 24 year old man just nuzzling up to a random stranger at a high school basketball game. And I looked down about 20, 25 feet and I could see my younger brother standing next to my real dad. And they're both looking at me just like, "What are you doing?" And then the other guy's looking at me like, "What's going on here pal?" And I couldn't come up with an explanation on the spot because I was so embarrassed and I remember just kind of like,…

I was in a really bad relationship many years ago and always kinda had that gut feeling but never could prove it. And then it finally came to blows and it was because I paid attention to - he was on a trip and he was describing the weather and it didn't sound right. He was in another country. And I Googled it and was able to quickly discern that he was not where he said he was, and he turned off all location services. He made it nearly impossible to figure out where he was, but he made an error. He logged into his email from my computer and I didn't know it at the time, but as soon as I fired up my computer to figure out where the heck he might be. So, like that one little clue him talking about how he was really nervous about his flight not taking off due to snow, and me thinking "There is no snow Prague right now." And realizing that's not where he was. And so I was able to pinpoint where he was. Which then led to figuring out why he was there, which was not for good reasons, and I avoided a dead end relationship that was just gonna suck me dry financially, emotionally, and just leave me in a really bad spot. And so I guess you could count that, beyond your typical like avoiding horrible car accidents.

I've mentioned in the past, I'm a registered behavior tech and last Tuesday when I came to see a kid who is basically my favorite. I hate to say it, I have a favorite. But when I first started seeing him, he was really hesitant and guarded, I've mentioned him before, and he warmed up to me pretty quickly within a few sessions. And the other day I came, and his mom said that whenever I pulled up, he looked out the window and saw the car and then ran to the door and started jumping up and down, which is really cool. Makes me feel really good that he is excited to see me, especially because - just, you know, the specialties and the unique needs that these children have, like, just, it's really fulfilling to be able to connect with them and get on their level. Like I said, they're very unique and it takes a little bit to kinda, like, get on their wavelength. But, for the kids who I have, like, been able to get in that zone with, it's been really fun and really rewarding to see them learn and grow over time, even within a session. And just to be able to make that space for them and to be able to make a difference in somebody li- - somebody's life is so cool to me. I came from marketing, which I'm sure I've mentioned too, and you know, I wasn't doing this kinda work. Like, I had a little bit of fulfillment being able to, like, create inclusive storytelling and copy and things like that. But my bosses ultimately didn't care. They didn't understand the value of it and I didn't want to do it anymore for someone who couldn't register how emotionally invested I was in this process of making them money and, you know, I'm making people money now, but obviously the service is just so much more rewarding than selling a product. Yeah.

I come from a separated family. I know how that jazz goes and - but some of the people my ex surrounds himself are especially drawn to drama. And keep in mind, me and my ex are still on talking terms. Maybe too much talking as I said before, but we're managing it and above all we're - we are cordial. And these girls that I've always really felt that they're just kinda mean. Well, they just had a hoot and a half, when my ex and I called things quits and I broke up with him. That makes me the villain, such is life. But there's this social media app called BeReal and I'm on there and I see that one of them had posted an image of them looking shocked and saying "'Looking at the - looking at the, um - looking at this app just to see the tea." And a bunch of her friends comment like "Girl. I was just about to say that," blah blah blah. And I'm like "What's going on? What's the drama?" And I talked to my ex that night and he said it was actually us they were talking about. I said, "Oh, do enlighten me," and he said, "Oh, yeah, like, because we were like talking and exchanging on the app and people could see." It was just like a fun, friendly banter. They just, like, could not get enough of that and they just loved it and wanted to be absolutely horribly mean and just kind of bitter.So I posted the next day. They call themselves - well, we'll say they call themselves the, the pretzels. I put some pretzels in a cup and said, "What are the pretzels doing in my tea?" 'cause that was how they worded it, was like 'going on here to see the tea'. So I said "What are the pretzels doing in my tea?" Silly, silly, all in good fun, with a heart. And they absolutely hated it. They were being wretched and I've heard they said some really nasty things in the group chat that I'm no longer in, and I'm just really happy to have those kinda people out of my life. They said like, "How do you subtweet someone in 2023?" They started it. I'm reacting to it. I shut it down in a way that's silly and that I'd hope…