That was a crazy, fun time. I was at the House of Blues watching the home team, and it was packed. I have never been so smushed. You know, you see all those YouTube videos about people dying with like, stampedes, and – 100%, like 100%, because it's like uncomfortably tight and yet, like you're like, "Well, I'm not gonna leave. I paid for this concert." You know? And like, and even then if I wanted to, how would I? And then at one point, someone -- they had to stop the show ‘cause someone was puking. And then of course people were moshing, you know, which -- the definition of moshing is like, it's like -- okay, so you're tightly packed. And you're -- Midwest Kindness, right? You barely jump -- like, kind of -- because you're, you're shoulder-to-shoulder front and back. So you're touching the people around you. Like, your elbows are kind of touching a little bit, like, right? Like, someone's kind of like, knocking into your back. And you're trying to kind of dance, but you're like, "Ope, sorry, ope, sorry, ope, sorry." If you raise your hand, you got to make sure you don't bonk them on the head. Well, then, the opposite with moshing is that you just full blown shove the person, okay? But they're in a crowd. So it's like a domino, but it's like a three-dimensional domino, and it's like, hitting all the people. And so then, they shove back, and then enough people will be shoving and like, enjoying being bounced around like a ping pong ball that like, they will like, kind of make a circle of like, the area of influence. And then like, some people will intentionally be in this like, circular shoving. So there's that all happening, and I'm not a fan of that because I think where the mosh goes wrong is that people get mad, people get frustrated, people are getting, again, hurt, people are getting their foot stepped on. They're trying to dance, they’re trying to listen to the band, but they can't because they now have to be alert to the being shoved, you know? Being shoved, being punched in the face. And that's the biggest thing is that the person being shoved around or being smashed into or getting -- you're now falling into the people behind you, and you're falling…

I have a child now. She's almost two and I finally feel empowered enough to pull out stuff from my childhood, thinking she won't like, completely destroy it right away. And the first things I went for is these three plush, like, stuffed cats that I have. So, one of them is a little Christmas-themed cat. He's like a little black cat. He sits on all fours and he's got a red Christmas hat. And then the other two are like, they're like more -- I guess they look more like Beanie Babies. They're like bigger and they have -- one's like brown and one's kind of like blonde. Oh well, I said three, I guess more. I have like, six cat Beanie Babies, like the small Beanie Babies that I had saved forever too. Just because I wanted them. So all these things I saved because I wanted them, and now I'm like, "Oh my God! My child could actually enjoy these." So I, I like, went down a huge rabbit hole. I tried to look through all of these doll and toy restoration things. I ended up making friends with a friend of a friend who like, remakes dolls and does stuff with them and so was able to like, give me some tips on how to clean the Beanie Babies. It was like all -- it was like a three-day process, like I had to soak them – I think I soaked them in laundry detergent, and then I like, soaked them in -- what did I use? I think it was like vinegar or something. Or no, it was baking soda, and then scrubbed them and soaked them again and then I, I let ‘em air dry out in the sun. And then when they were finally, like totally clean, I could give ‘em to the baby. And then the other three plush cats, I haven't yet. But it's like all of them have kind of a story. I'm so excited to see what she does with them already. The Christmas cat, she sleeps with it now. She'll like -- we lay her down for bed and give it to her and she gives it like this big hug. And then she'll like, tuck it into her blanket and she'll wake up in the middle of the night and see it and go, "Meow!" And then…

One of the prompts this week is the watering hole, and have you ever been in a situation where you've felt out of place. And it's not that big of a leap to think of a bar as a watering hole and one of my first jobs out of college, we had occasional after hours get-togethers at a local bar. And being one of the younger members of the staff, also in a position where I didn't necessarily have a relationship or a family to get home to, I would at least be invited and informally expected to spend some time at the after hours gatherings, just, you know, ideally to socialize, or to, you know, celebrate staff coming together. Sometimes we’d have them when we have field inspectors come in from across, you know, the country for training sessions or occasional, you know, yearly or semi-yearly meetings. But I did have feelings of being out of place sometimes in just my life experience as what I was into musically, or socially just not necessarily meshing with the rest of the group. And even to a certain extent, kinda feeling like the folks with families kind of had a little bit of an edge. That they had a reason, maybe sometimes, to go home early if they weren’t having quite as much fun, because, yeah, they had kid activities to take care of, meals to prep, or time with their significant other.

I did have a story about bison versus buffalo. So basically, they're two different animals, but in the United States, we use them sort of interchangeably incorrectly. So I have been told. So, my sister works at [a wildlife sanctuary in] their nature center, learning center, whatever you want to call it. They have a building there that they do lots of programming in. And from that space they have lots of hiking trails, and in the winter when they have snow, like right now, they have ski trails that go from there and they have a rec building and all kinds of stuff happen on that property. So on that property, they have a herd -- and I think herd is the correct term -- of bison. And everyone who comes calls them buffalo. And one of the main talking points, one of the key learning points for children and grown-ups who come to that center, or to that property, is to teach them that they are not buffalo. Even though they want to be called buffalo. Everyone wants to call them buffalo. And my sister has had so many kids that have looked at her like she has two heads when she tells them that they are bison, and that to call them buffalo is really incorrect. That they really are -- they really are not bison, and they literally will tell her, “Yes, they are.” I mean, they will fight tooth and nail with her that what they are seeing is a buffalo because that really is what they -- what they're called here. I mean, that, that's totally what we associate that -- the word we associate with that particular animal. But if you really look at a buffalo, like an African water buffalo, for example, it does not look like a bison. You know, does not look -- doesn't really look like it. And I'm sure that she's told me where that confusion originally came from or how that kind of came to be but I don't remember any of that. But she is very -- she gets a little, little hostile about it because she's had to tell so many people that what they have there are, are bison and hopefully educate them and hopefully have them believe her when she tells them that they are, in fact, bison and not buffalo.