As a kid, I was very afraid of trains and train tracks. And I can remember in -- being in the car -- when we would drive over train tracks, I would -- I could feel the anxiety welling up in my chest and go -- and being so scared we were gonna, like, hit a train. Or when the train would come by and you'd have to stop at the gate, and the loudness of the train whistle and the train, would be so scary to me. And I would have to plug my ears. I'd be, like, humming so I couldn't hear it. But, I conquered that fear because I had a friend. Well, he was -- I guess he was a friend, but he was also, like, a big crush of mine in high school. This kid and I went -- we were hanging out at night, and I thought, maybe someday --  I was hoping we would be a couple. And we’re hanging out, and just -- in the middle of the night and stuff. And we went for a walk, and he took me to the train track. And I was like, “I am too scared. I am not going anywhere near that train track.”  And he was like, “It's fine. It's fine. It's nothing to be scared of.” And he's like, “You just don't have -- just don't walk on the track. You can stand next to it as it goes by. It's fine. And you're not going to get hit.”  And, I was like, “No, no, no. That's too scary. We have to get away. We have to get away.” And then a train, you could hear in the distance, was coming.  And he's like, “Nope, stay here. Stay here. We're not leaving.”  And so, he stood, like, pretty near the train track and then, I stood a little ways away and watched him. And the train came by and, like, it blew his hair back, and he just, like, closed his eyes and put his hands out and was, like feeling the wind of the train go by. And he just looked like he was having the greatest moment of his life. And I saw him do that, and I moved a little bit closer and I felt the wind, too. And then, I was like, “Hey, this isn't so bad. This…

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.

Another example: I think I was constantly underestimated on the basketball court. I don't have the appearance of someone who would be outwardly amazing at the game. I usually did not walk around with an air of confidence or cockiness and I'm relatively unassuming, you know, I am 6’3”, which is tall for most sports, except basketball. And basketball, it makes me look like just a pretty normal guy. And I will say, I took joy in being underestimated on the basketball court. I think that usually meant I was constantly surpassing expectations, which feels good in a way, but you know, it's more because the expectations are probably so low to begin with. I know when I went to the University of Michigan basketball camp, I learned after the first year, you know, they would take these hundred plus campers on the first day of the camp and run you all through a bunch of drills. And then the coaches would all go back to their quarters afterward and draft teams for the week based upon all those drills and watching us play. And because I was just so unspectacular, you know, fundamental but inherently, you know, I don't really catch people's eyes. At least I didn't at that point in time. Because of that, when I would come back in and check the teams, the next day, I was always the last name. And it wasn't written alphabetically! I was always the last name on my particular team, which meant that I was among one of the last players drafted, because they were just writing the names down in the order that they were selected. But then inevitably I would play myself right into the starting lineup and then by the end of the week, I lived for this, but by the end of the week, you know, it seemed like coaches would quickly realize like, “Oh my God, like, this guy's a gem.” Not from a superstar point of view, but I was such a -- I loved working hard and doing all the dirty work. You know, clearing the glass, doing whatever I needed to do to win, really. If I had to be the guy to score, I could, but a lot of times there were more talented scorers on my team. So then it was like, all right, I'll take the charges, I will…

Back in the 1900s, when I was but a mere teenager and waitressing midnights at Denny's,  we had a lot of regulars, you know, who would come and sit along the counter and smoke their cigarettes and drink their coffee. And most of those people were honestly my favorite people in the restaurant. I ended up marrying one of them, as a matter of fact.  But so, a gentleman would come in quite often and sat up there and went by the name Spit. S P I T. And this guy looked like he rarely, if ever, washed his hair or got a standard haircut, had like a cut-off jean jacket, lots of tattoos including neck tattoos, face tattoos, and this guy flirted with me a lot. And I ended up going down to the pool hall with him once or twice, but only with groups of other people. But, the one thing about him that was the huge warning sign that I said, “You know, I cannot be with a person like this. This is a mentally unwell person,” is this person would sit at the counter smoking their cigarettes and drink glass, after glass, after glass of whole white milk. That is correct. A human being would go to a restaurant, sit at a counter and drink whole white milk glass, after glass, after glass. Lord, you know there's something wrong with him there.

Your email mentioned someone who took off from work to see a movie. That happened in our office too. One of our new hires -- there was this huge -- I think it was an annual ev- -- an annual sale, or big blowout sale. And this new hire, she loves to shop. I mean, she's, yeah she's one of those people who just loves to shop. So she called in sick, and she went to that huge sale at Ala Moana shopping center, A L A, next word, M O A N A. You might have heard of it. It's the famous shopping center in Honolulu, Hawaii, near -- right off, right off of Waikīkī. Right by Waikīkī. But, the news cameras all went to the sale to interview people and to report on the shopping and show people shopping in the frenzy of this massive sale that was across the entire shopping center. And guess who one of those people was that they were showing on the TV. It was our, our staff member who had called in sick. So we saw her on TV in the midst of that big shopping thing. I mean, she could’ve just said, “I'm gonna take the day off from work so I can go to that big sale.” And we would have let her, except she wouldn't have gotten paid because she had sick leave benefits but she didn't have -- I mean, none of us have the, the personal time benefits. She didn't -- personal time off benefits, so if she had just told us she was going shopping, she wouldn't have been paid for that day. So that's why she called in sick. And there she was on TV with the reporters standing there, showing everybody shopping. She was there. We saw her on camera. And it wasn't just that one TV. We, we flipped the switches. All three of the news stations caught her. Um, she must have been at the really popular part where -- if all three of the news stations were at that particular point at sometime or sometime during the day. But um, you know, she got -- I mean to be caught like that on TV, when you said you were sick -- when you called in sick, so you could get paid for -- on the day that you were going shopping!…

So, when I was in college and I, I got a cat -- a kitten and he was basically my best buddy for you know, 10, 11 years I think is how long he lived. And he did everything with me, he moved all over the place with me, he was just my, my buddy. And I feel like I'll never get another cat like him. He was, he was the best. His name was Venom. Uh, well, Venom and I had a special relationship where I always knew what was going on with him. I could just look at him and I would kinda instinctively and intuitively know how he was feeling. So I could avoid getting swatted, I could avoid being attacked, because he liked to play. Or I could tell he would want to come sit on my lap. There was, you know, we had our routines. It was really cute, whenever I’d get home, I would go, "Hello.” Or what would I say? “Hi Venom! Hi Venom!” and then he would go [meow, meow] like in the exact same notes that I had just done. So we kinda had this like greeting down pretty well.  And the funniest time, I guess it's not really that I was communicating with him, but that he was communicating with me. Um, so back in like, 2003 I would say, I had an answering machine, I didn't have a cell phone, I had a landline with an answering machine. And on my answering machine, the message that would come on, would be, "Hey, you've reached my name. Venom is listening to you right now. So, say hi to Venom and then tell me what you wanted you know, to -- why you were calling me. Thanks. Bye." And so, so I’d get people calling and they'd be like, “Oh, hey Venom." Well, it was so cute, one day I came home and I hadn't checked my messages yet. And Venom was like, [meow], like  “Hey!” And he runs over to the answering machine and h- -- and there's a big button that like just says play. And he tapped it with his, um, with his paw, and immediately my dad's voice comes on and he goes, "Hey Venom, this is [diarist’s name]'s dad. Can you just tell [diarist] to give me a call back? Thanks Venom." And then he like…

My friend and I, we had this thing, it was called “The Code.” So the initial reason the code was developed is because my middle school had made a rule that we were going to do 10 minutes of silent reflection at the end of lunch. And our lunch was only 20 minutes long. So having to do 10 minutes of silent reflection during lunch to like, reflect on how the class had been misbehaving for the entirety of the Lenten Church season was a big ask. So, we wanted to develop our own sign language, and we didn't want to speak in normal sign language because that would be way too easy for the lunch staff to decipher what we were doing. And we also wanted to be able to talk without any of our friends knowing what we were saying, so we created this thing called the code. So I don't remember all of the hand symbols of the code, but essentially, we had written out everything on a small sheet of paper, but we needed a place to like hide our code like decipher key. So, we thought that it would be really funny to hide it like obviously somewhere that looks like it could be inconspicuous like in a piece of school supplies. And what we determined was the best was a glue stick, so we like used up the glue in the glue stick, and we took off the top, put the code in and then like, would put the like mostly empty glue stick top back on. So it looks like it was a normal glue stick. The other thing is, we would often have issues with the code getting stuck inside the glue stick. And I remember the only way to actually get the decipher key out of said glue stick is you had to like throw it at the wall a couple of times and then it would pop up. And there was our code. But yeah, honestly, we didn't really speak in it that much, but it became a whole game of our other friends trying to like, guess where we had hidden the code because they were aware of its existence but didn't know like where the decipher key was. So that was pretty fun.