So, my mom gave me this credit card for like, gas, you know, and like school-related -- like to pay for school-related stuff or really whatever I need to get, and I just -- like, if I need something. And I can just use it, use that card to get something. Well, after the IB exams, after the very last one, I didn't have enough money in my debit card because my paycheck was like, still like a week away. So I used the credit card to pay for that boba, which I was not supposed to do. But I did pay that -- pay it back later. She just didn't know that I used it or that I paid it back. But yeah. Like, that was really risky. 'Cause she can see what I do. So she sees, you know, like, gas station, gas station, gas station, and then like, boba place, like she would like freak out. And then I remember like months later, she did see it and she was like, "What is this?" I was like, "Oh, I paid you back." And she was like, "Oh, okay," but that was terrifying. It was terrifying.

I cannot remember playing video games in my whole life. I really can't. My son, years ago, right before we moved to Michigan, he said, "You're gonna play with me." So he got his Mario Kart out, and of course, the point of Mario Kart is to drive as fast as you can to the end. But -- and so he's -- he must have been, what, 16 or something. No driver's license, nothing yet. So he's just racing along, he gets done in just over two minutes. I'm there driving so -- Mario so carefully. I don't crash, I stay on the road. I was just driving so carefully that I finished that thing in over six minutes. A- and you're not supposed to drive carefully for Mario Kart. You're supposed to just boom, get there. So, poor [Name] finished in just over two minutes and he has to wait another four minutes for Mom to finish her very first game of Mario Kart. And I told [Name], "This is nerve-racking because I'm watching you crash and go off the road," and, you know, all the things that Mario Kart does that the kids think is so fun and I found it very nerve-wracking. So he didn't make me play a second game. He just, he just was glad Mom played with him once, and he let it go at that 'cause it was too nerve-wracking for me.

When it comes to places I went as a kid that, like, now as an adult, the memories of my childhood far exceed, it's 100% when I would go to Sault Ste. Marie to see my aunt. The last time that I drove through the town, like, it feels so much smaller. It feels more depressing. And when I was a kid, like, it was a treat to go up North and see my aunt. We'd get in the car, it was a five-hour drive. My mom would play -- at the time before anybody knew anything, she would play Bill Cosby comedy tapes and we'd laugh, and then my mom would, you know, play Jim Croce. And... certain country stars. Garth Brooks a lot. So, it was, it was a treat, you know? And now, road trips are a drag. You just wanna be there. And going back up there, I mean, my aunt's not there anymore, so that takes away some of it, but, like, even the places we enjoyed going, like, they just don't exist anymore, everything's more run down. It doesn't feel like an adventure. And part of it's the charm. When you're a kid, like, things just happen. You don't know how or why they happen that way. You don't know about the planning or the money it took to go do XYZ, like going to the state fair with my cousins was, like, a hoot. That won't happen anytime soon. Um, we're all grown. And it just won't be the same. So, a little bit of nostalgia but then yeah, things change and it's just not the same.

The prompt is visiting places as an adult that -- and the visit not holding a candle to when I visited as a kid. But I've actually kind of found it's the exact opposite. Most of the places I've been as an adult have been better than when I was a kid. So, when I was young, we didn't actually go that many places. We didn't take yearly family vacations. We would sometimes go along with my dad on business trips, but we didn't, go to a lot of places, I've... Could almost count on one hand the number of times we actually went somewhere as a family, more than like just out to dinner. We went to Washington DC when I was in kindergarten and the Smithsonians were awesome. I still remember them, the Air and Space Museum was pretty new and I loved it. And there's a big green train engine in another museum, I can't remember which museum, and I still love that. But somehow -- my parents really didn't like each other, even from when I was a little kid, and that probably colored it 'cause I remember, most of the times going places with my parents, it just wasn't very fun. They didn't get along, they didn't try to make it fun for the kid, and that was kind of that. Trips were either me tagging along in the back of the car, wishing I could just use a bathroom, or walking forever, it felt like. And, we didn't ever go to theme parks. We didn't go to lots of places. The first time I went to Disney was when I was 43 and we took our kids. But I suppose, one real standout memory would be county fairs. County fairs are so much better as an adult than when I was a kid and that's probably backwards. The county fair when I was a kid -- and it would just be Mom taking me, 'cause Mom and Dad wouldn't take me. We would go there, and Mom would complain about the price to park. And we'd walk in, and I got to climb around on the tractor displays. And we'd go to the Midland County fair, for what that's worth. I liked climbing on the tractors and sitting on them, and my mom would want to see the animals in the barns. And I…

The inn where we were staying had innkeepers that were very, you know, friendly and wanted to help people have a great visit. And the husband of that couple especially kept recommending things that we should do even after he heard like what our plans were. I mean, it just seemed like he really didn't think that we had maybe set up a good itinerary for ourselves. I think, and I remember like one of the things that he was trying to get us to do was to go a little bit out of our way on our trip like up the coast to see a, uh, the site of a big eagle's nest. You know, where bald eagles nested. And I -- it was like so famous, I even read about it in a, in a guidebook somewhere. Uh, but I hadn't put it on our itinerary because while I love birds and think bald eagles are really cool and majestic and you know, a really neat thing to see, where I -- where my parents live, we see bald eagles every single spring. And, um, I mean -- and they're great to see. You know, very exciting whenever, you know, they come to the lake. But, um, anyway it's just not something that -- it just wasn't top of my list for, you know, at least not on our itinerary in this vacation. So he was kinda on me about that and then he was also trying to suggest that we go visit a lighthouse. Or maybe more than one lighthouses. And, you know, I was getting a little bit -- maybe getting a little bit irked with him being so pushy. And so I said, "You know, we actually have a lot of lighthouses in Michigan." Which is kind of like a funny thing for me to offer up simply because -- I mean, yes, there are a lot of lighthouses in Michigan. I believe Michigan might have the longest coastline of any state in the Union and yes, we have lighthouses. But I'm not necessarily a big lighthouse person, and I had never actually visited one or like gone out of my way to visit them. But anyway, I pointed this out to him, "I got lighthouses at home." And he immediately snapped back, "You know, if it's not salt water, it doesn't count." And I…