Has there ever been a time that I wanted to take a time out? That actually happened today. So, I can't give a lot of specifics and you'll understand why in a second but I was called for jury duty and ultimately was selected... So anyway, I ended up getting selected and I knew I didn't want to be, um, besides just the basic like it obviously really interrupts your week. I heard what the crime was and I didn't want to hear more. But I also didn't have a legitimate reason to not serve, so, um I kind of just let the chips fall where they may whether or not the lawyers decided to dismiss me and they didn't. So again, I can't get into specifics but today they had a printout of the charges and then the legal definition of what the charges are or what the charges -- like what a person would have to have done, what would've had to occur for that specific charge to be accurate and the first bullet point under one of the charges, I just like, put the paper down and thought to myself, "Oh, I don't think I can do this. Like if that's what happened -- " 'Cause there was like a menu of potential outcomes essentially that if that outcome occurred, basically, the crime qualifies as this type of crime. And so when I saw, oh, like this is an option on the menu of things that maybe happened, if this is what it is. Like I don't wanna hear about it. I don't -- certainly don't wanna see it, so I was feeling almost like sick. And I say that and I'm not a particularly, like, squeamish person. I'm normally not terribly affected by something I read. See is kind of a different story. Like, I don't like excess violence, you know, in shows or video games or whatever, but. Anyway, so that was the time I wanted to take a time out.

And I love pulling out my coat for the first time -- my winter coat, for the first time in a year. I love the first snow, and the first cold spell, where you remember why you don't like the cold and right now, my nose hurts and my toes hurt. But my coat is really warm, and I feel like I always find surprises, like, sometimes in the pockets. So this year I didn't have any pockets, except a piece of trash in one. But I am looking at the string pull on the hood part. And I'm noticing for the first time, there's little teeth marks in it, like, a cat chewed on it. And for a second, I got a little sentimental because I've had a lot of cats, and a lot of my items have cat tooth -- cat teeth marks on them, um, and a lot of those cats are dead. And so I look at them, and I think about how that cat isn't here anymore. But then I realized, I actually only just got this coat last year, and -- from someone on Facebook -- so this cat is not a cat I know! Somebody else's cat -- that may or may not be alive -- chewed this coat, and that's really cute. And I love that I got to notice it, because I'm looking at my coat differently because it's a new year. I love that!

I was traveling by myself, and um, I was flying out of Grand Rapids, and uh, like, I had to park my car and then take the shuttle to the airport or whatever. And I, I'm one of those people that leaves like several hours of time, but I don't, I don't know what happened, but -- or I don't remember at least. But anyway, I was running late. And by the time I got inside, um, it was like when my plane was supposed to be taking off -- and thank goodness for a small airport in Grand Rapids. I love that about the Grand Rapids airport. But I had to run, and I've always said, you know, the air place -- the air place? The airplane -- no, airport is like the one place that you can like run and be ridiculous and not feel self-conscious because people are gonna cheer you on. Now, that was after 9/11, but it was before certain other things, so maybe now, someone running in an airport is a little more alarming but I don't think so. I mean, people have to run to catch flights sometimes. Anyway, I'm a very self-conscious person so this was not something -- this was like a nightmare for me. But so I had to like run and I'm pulling my suitcase along, right? Run to the, um, to the gate and there were people like clapping, you know, cheering me along. And literally, when I got to the gate, the only person there was a flight attendant and she was like, "Are you [name]?" And I was like, "Yes!" And I mean, they were just about to close the door, and they let me on. So it was a very much a saved by the skin of my teeth moment, but there was no bell involved, but it was -- it very much felt like a movie, a movie moment of barely making my flight.