And instead of a misclassification, I, this morning, was classified entirely correctly, apparently. I got a car semi recently, in the last eight months, and I haven't seen or been around family with it yet. And I don't talk with my family that much and so, you know, the car was a big deal to me and stuff. But like they haven't heard that much about it or anything. And I showed up at my grandpa's house today, and I pulled in the driveway, and there are many cars there. And then I go inside, and stuff is happening, and I'm not really thinking that much of it. No one's asking about it. We're moving on with our day. And then at some point, someone mentions how my grandpa has to go somewhere, but it's hard for him to get into cars. And it's easier if they're low to the ground, it's hard for him to step up. And then someone's like, "Oh, [Diarist's name] got that car that's really low to the ground out there." And I turned around and I’m like, "How do you know I have that car that's really low to the ground out there?" And they -- everyone -- just looked at me and was like, "Obviously that is your car." And that is because most of my uncles have pickup trucks, my parents have an SUV, everyone has American-made cars. Most of my family works for American car companies, right? It is Michigan. And I was sitting there with my little Honda hybrid. It's a Honda Insight, which is Honda's version of a Prius, but it's a little bit smaller than a Prius. So this is my little hybrid hatchback, and it did not occur to me that everyone would know it's my car.  I don't even feel like I talk about politics or things that often with my family. I kind of keep my mouth shut, but everyone knew. And I'm glad everyone knew, I'm glad that like, you know, even if I mostly keep my mouth shut, and I don't interact with these people that much, and I don't see them that much, at least they know enough about me that somehow every single person there knew it was my car. And it was, in fact! I love my car very much. Well, actually I kind of hate cars in general, and…

So a story as old as time, my mother-in-law says some pretty unhinged things, and they're always pretty harmless, but she fully lives in a reality separate from the one that everyone else lives in. So she'll say something with such conviction, and you'll know that it sounds really wrong, but the way she says it and the confidence she has, you start to question everything. So there was a time we were visiting, we were at their house, and they had just semi-adopted a cat that was hanging around their house, and it was a long haired -- it was really slight, like very small, but it looked like a Maine Coon, like really, really long fur, um, kinda that same coloring. And we're talking, and she's talking about this cat, and then she said, "Oh, yes, this cat is part raccoon, like half raccoon." And I was kind of laughing, like, “Yeah, it kind of looks like a raccoon”. Um, you know, maybe because it’s feral, she was saying that. And then it occurred to me, based on what she kept saying, that she like truly believed it was a cat-raccoon hybrid. So I said, "Oh, that's not a thing, like they don't mate." And she's like, "Oh, no, they definitely do." And I was like. "Well, if they do mate," which you know, maybe you hear about seals having sex with penguins or whatever, "like the action might take place, but they can't produce offspring." And I was trying to describe that to her, and she was just "Oh," like, "oh, okay. No, well it is." Um, so just like super dismissive. And like, you know, it's low enough stakes. It's like, I don't care, if you want to believe that that cat is half raccoon, go for it, it definitely isn't. But like, you'll bring it up later. Like something else that she said, you know, along those same lines, and it's just a very kind of condescending like, "Oh, okay." Like, you know, you say the thing that is actually the truth, and she just kind of smiles like you're out of it or out of your mind. So, um, yeah. That's, uh, that's a specific instance I can think of, but like I said, she really pulls a lot of those out of her hat.

The other -- another story is I took my grandma out to a car show in Cedar, Michigan 'cause my dad was -- had a car in the show. And they had one of those like tethered balloons where you could -- they'd take you on a ride. I'm doing air quotes right now which you can't see, but. So, you get in the basket, and it goes a certain number of feet in the air, floats around for a minute and then they, you know, take you back down. And I remember that I s- -- I asked my grandma if she wanted to do that. She's -- this was, this was probably just a couple of years ago maybe, and she's, you know, got her walker and you know, she's not, not super mobile, but she was like, "Oh, yeah, let's go do that!" She was like so excited to do it, and we were so bummed because they had just ended the, the rides and so like the -- when we, when we got there and saw it up in the air, that was like the last ride that they were doing for the day. So we were, we were pretty bummed because I think it would've been really funny to see her up in, up in a balloon, but maybe another time.

And then on the way back, I stopped at this place called [name] in [city], Michigan which is near [city]. It's like kind of right over the state line and it started out okay, but then this employee was like following me. And I could tell she was following me and I was like so creeped out. And I kinda like hurried out and I like went out to my car and she took a picture of my car which was really creepy. And so I asked her if she had a question and she said, "Yeah," but then she just walked away. And so I walked back inside and I was trying to ask her what her problem was and she said that she didn't understand why I was there taking so many pictures. And I was like so confused. And I asked her for a refund because like she ruined my experience, obviously. She wouldn't give me a refund. So now I have to like take it up with my credit card company, which is annoying but I was like a victim of criminal activity, so it shouldn't be hard to get a refund from my credit card, hopefully anyway.  But then I was like trying to email a manager or something because obviously like her stalking was so inappropriate, but then when I Googled it, I saw that PETA had been -- had tipped off the US Department of Agriculture, I think and they ended up being fined about a year and a half ago for improper care of animals, so then it all clicked and I realized that like she thought I was from PETA. So, when I was there, I had noticed that the aviary was in like really bad condition. So I went to the PETA website and I found their like non immediate danger form and I filled it out and, um -- the ironic thing is like if the woman had just like been better at customer service like I would, I would've left it alone or if she had given me a refund, I might not even have been as mad but like because she's making me go through all the work of like filing to see if my credit card and what not, it's making me like more upset and hopefully she has to suffer the consequences of her terrible…

Me and my girlfriend went to see a band play at a bar when I was in my 20s. And she liked a band member, so she wanted to sit up front, right by the speakers. Well, I couldn't take it. And I shoved paper in my ear, and at break, she went to flirt with the band member and I realized I got a piece of paper stuck in my ear and I couldn't get it out. It came out of one ear, but not the other. And I had to go to the ER and explain to the ER doctor how a full grown lady got paper shoved down in her ears so far they had to use a tool to get it out -- a device. But it came out. But the day was -- the evening was cut short. That's for sure.

Oh, would I want my thoughts in a bubble above my head? I think they already are. I used to sit in staff meetings as a teacher. And I would not say anything, I'd just be sitting there. I'd be writing things down if I needed to, or taking notes on something, or drawing a picture or doing whatever you do when you're sitting at a staff meeting. And one time I was sitting with one of my friends, who was also an older teacher, and we were sitting with one of our mentees who was the brand new band director. Evidently my mind could be read by her, because she's -- we're sitting there and the principal's going on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on about some new thing we're gonna have to do. And she looks at me and she goes in a rather loud voice, "Hey, [Name]. Why don't you say what you really are thinking about all of this?" And I kinda looked at her.  And the principal looked at my face and he went, "No, don't bother. We already know what you think about all this. We can see it all over your face." I said, "I didn't say a word!" He said, "You don't have to say a word. We already know what you think of this. And we're gonna leave it at that, because we all kind of agree with you, but it's the new state mandate."  So, we left it at that. But I don't think I need to have bubbles over my head, because obviously, I'm too easy to read.