Meta Log

[GemersonLakeAndPalmer]

May 11th, 2025: Mother's day today. The first thing I did was call my mom and wish her a happy Mother's day, I heard that dad made her breakfast in bed.I decided to play a prank on Macie:
>Did you hear the bad news about Disney?
She didn't take the bait, but I kinda fucked up.
<No?
>I was just pranking
I got yelled at for wearing a Chicago Dogs hat (Was celebrating Pope Leo XIV) at the bus stop. I got to work and joked around with fAsherah and the new guy a bit more. Saw Biker and said hi to him. I talked with Mr. Blundstone about the BPD coworker and her begging to buy alcohol, as we were mentioning the BPD coworker begging for alcohol (she's 19) saying that the manager got it for her, the manager walked by (she's roughly my age) and she said that she heard about this but didn't buy her alcohol. I then went back to work stocking the shelves when Mr. Blundstone said to me:
"Hey Gemerson, it's my friends birthday, can you buy me a beer?"
And we both laughed. Despite it being Jesse, the new coworker, and I for my department the entire day, the workload wasn't bad. Lebanon and I ended up meeting fAsherah's mom and her mom's boyfriend and they were pretty chill. I saw Sabrina and said hi. Lunch was combo olive salad, which prompted fAsherah to say:
"You're like a hampster"
I posted a picture of my mom, my dad, and I and I got some replies like a girl from Puerto Rico saying:
<You look just like Platt it's uncanny
Also @jimbo said that my dad looked like Moses. I started to work on my closing tasks for the day and ended up completing them early because the other coworker got done with his and started working on mine. I asked Enosh if he wanted anything from the grocery store and he said no, I then told him to start working on making pasta and sauce for dinner. I got home and Enosh started making egg noodles with two cans of roasted artichoke sauce, I also told him to keep a cup of pasta water and pour it into the sauce. He got done with that but he cooked the pasta in the pot (because he put leftover mashed potatos into the smaller pot in and stored it in the fridge) I actually enjoyed it a lot, I ended up getting a third bowl of the stuff because it was good and I was hungry. I then walked to church, outside of the church was Isaiah and the guy with the two kids selling Tootsie Rolls for the Knights of Columbus and said hi to Joseph. Lucas and Raphael were ushers and I saw Raphaela up front. Pops was the presiding priest and I even saw in the news bulletin it mentioned when the priests were ordained becuase of a celebration. Pops was May 20th at 36 years the guy who went to Germany was on May 22nd at 32 years, my confirmation priest was May 16th at 5 years, and the guy from the mini masses was May 20th at 2 years. I forgot to mention 2 Sundays ago but they announced that the last two were going to leave for their new assignments on June 21st. The homily was about Pop's dad constantly recording things with old technology, which meant that everyone in the videos was constantly trying to avert their eyes from the camera, also he has 2 older sisters and an older brother. I then got out of the mass and walked home. I finished up my art project and then asked James the Great:
>What's your thoughts on the Pope being American.
<It's cool I guess
<I'm baptist so I don't follow it too much
>Yeah
I then took a shower and went to sleep.

Song of the Day: Electric City - Black Eyed Peas (2009)

 

[GemersonLakeAndPalmer]

May 12th, 2025: Two of my finals today. I woke up and had cereal for breakfast and also sent James the Greater a happy 21st birthday wish. I finished the cover for my art book project and put it under that old 1930s book I got to have the glue actually stick. I then went over to the bank and got 10 dollars in quarters for my laundry machine, I put a bunch of my laundry in the washer and then started studying for 30 minutes until my alarm went off so I moved it over to the dryer for 1 hour and 4 minutes. I managed to complete 3 pages once my laundry was done, but I numbered them as 1a, 1b, 2a, 2b instead of 1, 2, 3, 4 because I was thinking about the Talmud at the time. I went downstairs to grab my laundry out of the dryer and it was still wet and steaming/smoking, I wasn't happy with that at and put a bunch of my clothes on my bed to "dry" out. I then went into the building where my final was being held and continued studying there. I decided to change my password to be a 6 digit number to alphanumeric to help myself concentrate more and cranked out two more pages of study notes, with 3a and 3b. I ended up heading into the room and sat near Padma, and her two friends. The test started and I was actually kinda confident on this as compared to the last one. I ended up leaving 50 minutes into the 2 hour exam, with the extra time at home I worked on finalizing my German presentation, I recorded it one time but the audio wasn't good enough, so I walked over to my Art "final" (just talking about our art pieces.) and got situated there. The oldest guy in the class had the most impressive art piece:

And we did the presentations finally, the oldest guy said that he worked as a general contractor and that this art class helped him learn how to do his job better. Some other ones were Pinky’s amazing painting and Keleche’s ok one. This chuddy looking kid who was never attending class finally showed up to class for the final and the teacher told him to talk outside for a minute. Ginger girl’s friend revealed to me that he would try to draw her in their English class (that he didn’t show up for mostly) and gave the drawings to her, she said she wouldn’t date him even if she was single. Another incident was when she was stockpiling on salt packets to salt her pasta water and he said something about her amount of salt, I didn’t find it weird. But Ginger girl’s presentation was on feminism. On the main side, there was a bunch of suggestive cropped images of her body, not any nudity, which made me super comfortable regardless of political intent. The other side was much less inappropriate images of her as a normal human being. At the discussion the oldest guy said to the others:
“This art piece is making me feel uncomfortable to be a man.”
I immediately snapped back:
“Don’t be.”
There was some more discussion about feminism when the teacher said that she rolled her eyes when they announced a march for men, I noticed she had no ring on her finger and chuckled a bit. The part that enraged me the most is when Ginger girl said shit like:
“One thing that isn’t discuses as much is how men are harmed by the patriarchy too!”
I rolled my eyes because I knew that it was just code word for:
“Tell me you problems so I will then view you as lesser for having problems and then complain about you making me do ‘emotional labor’ without a hint of self awareness!”
Bell Hooks talks about this phenomenon thankfully but it’s clear she doesn’t understand. Hoxha presents his which I like. After class I asked Ginger girl’s friend if she did the pasta water in the sauce thing and she said yes because she’s Italian, I then asked her if she got mad when people break spaghetti in half and she said absolutely, she knew where I worked when I described it but she didn’t ever meet the original owner. I then went home and worked on my final presentation for German class, I ended up watching Khadija’s brother’s video and it turns out he has a wife whose 20 (same age as him) and is from Germany. I was jealous he could fijd someone so early. I got Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner with this Indian dude at the cashier who was clearly here on an education vista and was kind of slow, I got this Spicy Asian sauce (I know it had Asian in the name) for my 10 piece boneless meal along with the fries and it cost me nearly $20 dollars, I fucking hate this retarded inflation shit. I got back home and ate the boneless wings and then saved the fries as leftovers. I then took a shower and went to sleep.

Song of the Day: What is Love - Deee-Lite (1990)

 

[GemersonLakeAndPalmer]

May 13th, 2025: Not so good of a day today. I woke up and had some cereal and coffee to start off my day and I just gamed for a little bit, I decided to ride this bus all the way to its end and back and decided to tell a Vannie and Cara that I was doing so, Vannie's response was:
<why would you ride the bus for fun?
<Cara says the busses are so unreliable
I told her:
>Because it's fun
She replied:
<Why is it fun?
She didn't understand... I hopped on the bus and rode it an hour all the way out while reading my Huey Long book. I got off once it was done, I walked over to the McDonalds and ordered a meal for lunch. It was expensive but ok. I then took a bit of a walk to this church nearby but it was actually pretty ugly, must have been one of those newer built churches. I couldn't get in so I just walked back over. I took a picture of my location on Google maps and sent it to fAsherah and her friend that drove me once. fAsherah just replied with:
<:000
And her friend had this conversation:
<???
>3 phones in one year...
<what
>It's Gemerson.
<i know, why did you send me that
>Taunting you for your disdain of exploration
>(It was boring)
I then waited for the bus back and hopped on it, because I brought my Roman Catholic Handbook of Prayers, I started reading that from cover to cover until I got home, I noticed that the place where Punk invited me to was offering food, I got in and this was the first ever time that I saw Punk at the event, I didn't say hi to them but to the group in general, I grabbed a pretzel, some strawberries, and a banana, and then left while giving a salute, I didn't see Punk salute because I left as fast as possible due to not being welcome there. On my walk back home I saw Sabrina and said hi. I worked on my blog entry for the day and then took the bus over to my therapy place. I got there a bit early and then started my session at 4:00pm. I didn't talk about Asherah and focused more on my friends and what I have done so far. She said she was glad with me and the session ended at 4:30pm. I walked all the way over to the Catholic center and then got there at 5:00pm. I talked with Mercurius, Seraphim, the Honduran, and Markus about some stuff. The engaged girl started talking about the Nation of Islam and Black Hebrew Israelites and how to debate them (Solution: ask them to read the full chapter.) This woman that organized things asked our group if I wanted to read, I volunteered and then got instructed. I read over the readings twice over and then I got seated at mass. I sat next to Elizabeth and Sideburn's cousin and I didn't mess up the readings! Dinner was nachos, I sat outside with Henry, his girlfriend, Markus, the Honduran, Markus's 'brother', and Mahdi, we joked around about how the Honduran would have gone psycho if he was at the event with the Non-Denominationals. Henry's girlfriend left at one point for a while so I made a joke about how Markus had gotten a promotion to Henry's main piece. I told it to her and she said to the others:
"Guys, Gemerson just told me that Markus took my spot!"
Everybody laughed at that. I Henry asked if anybody was staying in the city over the summer and I said yes, I asked why and he said:
"Just finding out places to avoid!"
A bit later Henry's girlfriend started handing out these blessed crosses that she made for her friends, she gave one to each of her friends and obviously I was not included in the gifts, I didn't consider her a friend but it just felt like she was trying to humiliate me. I just stayed quiet for a while but then the Honduran pointed out that I didn't get one mockingly I just flipped him off, Henry told me something and then I flipped him off. He then said:
"That's not enough fingers."
So I made a cross with my two middle fingers pointed towards him, his girlfriend got angry and told me:
"Look, they have been my friends for longer, like over a year, Mahdi was the first person to welcome me to the center."
I remained silent because I was still mad at her for her jabs at me. Eventually Sideburn's crush announced that they were having rootbeer floats so I got one served by Gabriel. We did a celebration of Gabriel's service afterwards and Luigi said some positive stuff about him. We then got droven over to this rich person's house and we went there, we walked down this stairway and made it to this beach with a lot of driftwood on it, the priest, Reuben, and Seraphim started a fire while I was the second one to go out into the cold water, I made it all the way to this rock while having to be super careful with my step. I was the only one to sit on it after a while. Hannah ended up taking a video of her and her friend running out with me on the rock in the background.

I sat there while some other people went in after a while until I had to carefully walk back to shore, I took off my Hawai'ian shirt and my tshirt underneath it, but it was tasteful shirtlessness, I was wearing black dress pants and a belt. I stood around the fire trying to get warm, I chatted with Elizabeth about ways to eat marshmallows and she ended up giving me an entire bar of chocolate. Seraphim talks to me about when we went to Whitewater with some other people:
“Dude, Gemerson was so funny because he pissed off this one girl that was being super annoying to the entire group during volleyball.”
I replied:
“Wait what, I didn’t not remember this at all!”
He replied:
“She was the blond girl with dyed hair.”
I was still confused, after some back and forth elaboration, I still didn’t remember a thing. I went to go to take a leak and Luigi with some others started following me because I didn't tell anybody where I was going. We eventually left and I had to wait on Gabriel because he was driving us back. He then dropped off Elizabeth, she said that she wanted to hang out with Gabriel over the summer. I got driven home by Gabriel but almost forgot to give the blanket back, I went inside and immediately washed off my pants in the shower before taking an actual shower. I then went to sleep.

Song of the Day: Arise, Ye Russian People - Sergei Prokofiev (1938)

 

[GemersonLakeAndPalmer]

May 14th, 2025: My final final today! I woke up at 8:00am and started working on studying for it for a long time, I did pretty well all things considered but I ended up getting distracted a few times but I got back on task, eventually I went out to get a can of Monster Energy to drink before the exam, I kept getting distracted even more but I drank my energy drink and then got into the exam, I had to go to the bathroom before hand and then went back. The exam was divided into four parts, the first was multiple choice, the second we had to write two possible outputs for a program, the third one was like number two but more in depth, and the fourth one revolved around writing a function which would create a parent process and a child process, the parent process would open the file (any file technically but we were only taught how to do .txt files) and send it to the child process by a pipe, the child process would read it and then terminate itself. Most of the final exam was spent on the 4th question but I still managed to complete it in an hour. After I got that done I left and went home to work on my blog entry for the day. I played a good amount of Terraria before finishing up my blog entry. I talked to a friend of mine about the Eucharistic Adoration event and she made the excuse of not having any clean shirts or appropriate dresses, I wasn’t having it at all but she said that she could come to the next one. I asked the priest of the Catholic center if they had the dinner event tonight and he said no, but I wasn’t convinced so I got dressed up all fancy (suit with no tie) and then took the bus, when I got outside the bus was immediately there and I got on and rode it to my stop.

I got over to the place and saw that Father Malachi was in the place where we usually ate dinner. Reuben said that he wanted to go to the Eucharistic adoration with him, his sister, and her fiancé. I said hi to Malachi and then sat with this guy from last Tuesday’s mass who was a missionary. I ate a good amount and asked him if he had converted any people and he said:
“I’ve planted a lot of mustard seeds!”
And we both laughed. Near the end, Malachi asked if anybody could acolyte and I didn’t volunteer because I have been excommunicated from acolyting. At 6:45pm I went in for Eucharistic adoration and I ended up seeing Naomi and Hannah, I waved to them both but only Naomi waved back, which made me feel kind of sad. I got in line for confessions and the shortest line was a face to face confession with my confirmation priest. This woman in front of me in line for confession gave me a weird death stare, her husband was behind me so I asked him:
“Do you want to go ahead of me?”
He replied:
“No thank you!”
I brought my journal and read my book for things to confess to for my confession which included:
*Blasphemed God
*Took communion in a state of mortal sin
*Held envy in my heart a lot
*Lashed out in anger a lot
*Treated others selfishly
*Used mobile phone excessively
*Spent too much time on the internet
*Failed to honor the Lord while acolyting at mass.
I finally got into confession and it was actually super short. I was told my penance was to pray about what God wanted me to do, so I just prayed alone. Sideburn’s cousin didn’t look happy with me and because I sat alone I just felt sad. When mass started up I went outside and took a decently long walk while it was foggy out, I got back in after 10 minutes and even before the first reading. I didn’t feel good still so I just went to the bathroom and then back in. The homily included the phrase:
“Almost as bad as that guy you meet at the [name of event] social that says: ‘I like you’ after one date!”
Which made a lot of laughter but just confirmed my fears for socializing. I just put my head down and started a soft, silent cry, I got it together a bit later and then went up to receive communion. Mass was finished and then I went to the social afterwards. Nobody really bothered to talk to me except for Sideburns, I commented on the fact that we had the same outfit on and had similar necklaces, I asked him what his necklace was and it was a double sided one of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, as compared to mine which was a single-sided image of the Holy Spirit descending on the Church at Pentecost. I ended up seeing his sister and their mom. The other priest from the Thursday Eucharistic adoration was there. I gave Gabriel a hug and talked to him for a bit, Hannah said hi to me but I just ignored her. I talked with Elizabeth and got invited to a groupchat for Catholics in the area. I did say hi to Sideburn’s cousin but I saw Naomi and a friend of hers on the outskirts, it looked like Naomi was comforting her friend because she was sad, I forgot why I went over there but I said:
“I’m assuming I shouldn’t intrude on this moment? It looks like she’s crying.”
Naomi replied with a fake laugh:
“Oh no no no, she’s not crying.”
I noticed the laugh and just left early because it was clear to me that I wasn’t welcome so I just started walking home in the fog. I had made Naomi hate me for the crime of asking to sit next to her at mass and fucking up during that one Friday mass. I stopped to buy beer along the way and then drank some of that when I got home, I took a shower and then went to sleep.

Song of the Day: Anima Christi (Pane di vita nuova) - Marco Frisina (2000)

 

[GemersonLakeAndPalmer]

May 15th, 2025: Work today, I was supposed to get my leather jacket back today when I got a snap from the seamstress saying:
<so, I thought I was gonna have time for ur project but my finals have been taking up literally all of my time. I’ve been working on stuff all day and I’m not even fully caught up yet. I’ve tried to set aside time but unfortunatrly my schoolwork
<comes first. I have an exam from 8:30-10:30a tmrw but if you can be on campus when I’m done I can get it back to you. I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to help out.
<I move out officially at 3:30p
I told her I would leave some money under the box of rice krispies cereal box and told her friend to pick up the appropriate money, which consisted of a $20 and 2 $5 bills. I then got dressed and hopped on the bus to work. When I got in, I saw John, Jesse, Will, and this third old guy Max, working on a delivery. I sat around and then clocked in when the time came. I started off with checking some stuff in before I was told by Jesse to head upstairs and put away a load in the kitchen dry storage. While I was doing that, there was this bag of penne rigatta that had burst open, with most of it spilling in the box, so I grabbed one handful and ate it before grabbing a second handful and putting it in my pocket for later, I told Jesse about it and he helped me clean up. I finished that up and then went over to help John put away a load. I then went downstairs to start on the beverages when I saw some milk had expired, I brought 3 items of oat milk to the back and marked them off when Max said:
“Hey let me try one of those?”
I gave one to him and he immediately started to drink it before dumping the rest out.
“Ugh tastes disgusting!”
I pointed out:
“Well it was expired.”
He replied:
“I don’t think it would have tasted better fresh.”
I laughed and went back to work. I had Calabrian gnocchi for lunch and my cashier was none other than the BPD princess herself, who I will be calling Tiffany. She seemed pretty cold towards me. I got a free Galvanina in the back for lunch and said hi to Ignacio. I got back to work and chatted with Biker for a bit. Because I got done with all my tasks for the day, I asked Jesse if I could powerwash in the back and he said yes, I had a lot of fun with that. Eventually near the end of the day, John said that he had did some facing for me so I wouldn’t have it as bad when I did a good portion of tasks alone. I went on break and talked with fAsherah a bit and also said hi to Bill. I started on my closing tasks a half hour early and at one point I grabbed the last free Galvanina and offered it to one of the two cashiers on shift. Tiffany took it and thanked me. until I noticed that Tiffany was outside doing a task just before the heavy rain and I went out to help her. She thanked me and then she got mad at customers not reading this sign. A bit later on in the shift it was raining heavily and she went out and danced in the rain a bit and I told her to get back inside, she got back in laughing and slipped. I had to help her up and then finish up for the day and head to the bus stop, it was absolutely downpouring during the thunderstorm. I got on the bus back home and I noticed that a coworker of mine, who I will be calling Jab, and that one Brazilian girl’s friend were on the bus, I thought they knew each other but they didn’t. I eventually got home and saw that the cereal box and the money were gone. I asked Enosh if he knew where they were and he said he didn’t see the money under it. My pseudoleather jacket was on the couch and I then had dinner, took a shower, and went to sleep.

Song of the Day: Tonight, Tonight - The Smashing Pumpkins (1995)

 

[SunAndSky]

before I decided to watch this video by Trent Horn arguing against women in the priesthood. I accidentally unplugged my headphones at a certain point while my roommate Enosh was in the bathroom.

Shitlib RoommateCord woke up...

 

[GemersonLakeAndPalmer]

Shitlib RoommateCord woke up...

I won't have to deal with him by the end of the month anymore.

 

[GemersonLakeAndPalmer]

May 16th, 2025: Another day of work today. I woke up at 8:00am and went down to the store because I was out of cereal. I got a box of Lucky Charms and had that for breakfast, I gamed a bit and then hopped on the bus down to work. I immediately checked in with Jesse and John. My task list for the day sadly was to work on all the shitty tasks, like sweeping the dumpster area, stocking the jars, a general pull, and doing the freezer stocking. I got some of those done before my first break where I had a small pizza for $6 and some Maui onion chips. I sent a text to Rose about the chips at lunch and she replied with:
<Maui!
I had my lunch and ate everything that I had, but I still didn’t feel full. A bit later Ignacio said hi to me and I finally realized that even though he’s from Venezuela, he speaks like a friendly Arab. Talked with Will and Bill for a bit. Later, Sabrina tells me to come up front and go outside because these teenagers were throwing glass bottles at the window and only one of them hit. I went outside and didn’t find anything, on my way back in I heard Tony talking to this other employee in Spanish. I saw Biker wearing his infamous hat. While I was sweeping the dumpster outside it started raining hard. I went on my final break of the day and talked with fAsherah and she said that the other cashiers were planning on staging an intervention for Tiffany’s drinking habits, I started laughing so hard at that. I finished all my tasks with time to spare and then waited around before clocking out. When I was walking out I heard Tony talk with Jab about Lynyrd Skynyrd. When I got home I noticed Enosh’s mess in the kitchen from him making biscuits, utensils and bowls in the sink, flour on the counter, and the baking tray on the oven with the paper still on it, I had to clean some of it because he clearly couldn’t be bothered to learn how to be a functioning human being. The Texan had unadded me on Snapchat so I asked her why she did that and she said that she had finally found a boyfriend and that it would be weird to still be friends with me. I finished up my blog entry for the day and watched some YouTube videos for fun before taking a shower and heading to sleep.

Song of the Day: Am I Losin’ - Lynyrd Skynyrd (1975)

 

[3782]

I won't have to deal with him by the end of the month anymore.

Still in college? Unlucky

 

[GemersonLakeAndPalmer]

Still in college? Unlucky

Yeah but he just graduated today and is moving out sometime before May 31st.

 

[GemersonLakeAndPalmer]

May 17th, 2025: Saturday today, I had to wake up at 7:00am and deal with my roommate Enosh’s mess. Had cereal and coffee and then got on the bus to take it to work. Just before I clocked in for the day, I texted Quoc this message:
>Would it be ok if I brought over some books after my work (6:00pm)
He immediately texted me back:
<Unfortunately I am heading back home today, and James is already at his home. Maybe next week when I’m back for the week
I was pretty cool with that, Jesse assigned me more tasks, including sweeping the garbage place again, for that task I focused mostly on the areas that I had not touched previously and got it all cleaned up. I was pretty hungry throughout the day because I was off my ADHD medication. I remembered that I have not seen my cats in a very long time so I decided to ask Rose this:
>Do you have pictures and videos of Maui?

She then sent me two live pictures of Maui and I was so overjoyed. There was a box of bananas in the break room which was free for all of us to take throughout the day, I ended up eating 6 and Sabrina took some home to make into banana bread, she also added:
"I'll bring you some over because you're my neighbor!"
I had lunch and then joked around with Mr. Blundstone about one of the Cashiers coming in on his day off with an Insane Clown Posse shirt, he gave a perfect impression of him. While I was cleaning the bathrooms, I saw Vannie and Cara and went over to say hello to them and Cara talked about her plans to make dinner, I introduced them to fAsherah (Old Ozzy Osborne was nearby) and I had to get back to work. For my second break, I bought some wafers and ate most of them. I got back from that and saw fAsherah playing on her Nintendo DS during her break. I looked at the screen and saw she was challenging Sabrina in SoulSilver. I gave her some tips and I promised her that I would bring my Nintendo 3DS tomorrow. I worked on my closing tasks with the other coworker before heading home. At home I had to deal with Enosh being a slob and I got attacked by “Māori Fruit Farmers” for “turd touching” (trying to get a girl named Zoey, who has BPD, to go to Church) and I had to go into lockdown, I took a shower and then tried going to sleep while Enosh was taking a shower.

Song of the Day: You Are So Beautiful - Joe Cocker (1974)

 

[3782]

May 17th, 2025: Saturday today, I had to wake up at 7:00am and deal with my roommate Enosh’s mess. Had cereal and coffee and then got on the bus to take it to work. Just before I clocked in for the day, I texted Quoc this message:
>Would it be ok if I brought over some books after my work (6:00pm)
He immediately texted me back:
<Unfortunately I am heading back home today, and James is already at his home. Maybe next week when I’m back for the week
I was pretty cool with that, Jesse assigned me more tasks, including sweeping the garbage place again, for that task I focused mostly on the areas that I had not touched previously and got it all cleaned up. I was pretty hungry throughout the day because I was off my ADHD medication. I remembered that I have not seen my cats in a very long time so I decided to ask Rose this:
>Do you have pictures and videos of Maui?
View attachment 185630
View attachment 185631

She then sent me two live pictures of Maui and I was so overjoyed. There was a box of bananas in the break room which was free for all of us to take throughout the day, I ended up eating 6 and Sabrina took some home to make into banana bread, she also added:
"I'll bring you some over because you're my neighbor!"
I had lunch and then joked around with Mr. Blundstone about one of the Cashiers coming in on his day off with an Insane Clown Posse shirt, he gave a perfect impression of him. While I was cleaning the bathrooms, I saw Vannie and Cara and went over to say hello to them and Cara talked about her plans to make dinner, I introduced them to fAsherah (Old Ozzy Osborne was nearby) and I had to get back to work. For my second break, I bought some wafers and ate most of them. I got back from that and saw fAsherah playing on her Nintendo DS during her break. I looked at the screen and saw she was challenging Sabrina in SoulSilver. I gave her some tips and I promised her that I would bring my Nintendo 3DS tomorrow. I worked on my closing tasks with the other coworker before heading home. At home I had to deal with Enosh being a slob and I got attacked by “Māori Fruit Farmers” for “turd touching” (trying to get a girl named Zoey, who has BPD, to go to Church) and I had to go into lockdown, I took a shower and then tried going to sleep while Enosh was taking a shower.

Song of the Day: You Are So Beautiful - Joe Cocker (1974)

All roommates are niggers

 

[GemersonLakeAndPalmer]

All roommates are niggers

He's ethnically Irish though...

 

[GemersonLakeAndPalmer]

May 18th, 2025: Sunday today, I woke up at 6:00am and had some cereal and coffee. My old can of coffee was finally depleted so I started using my new one for the coffee grounds in my machine. I hopped on the bus a bit later and then got to work. I sat around for a bit before I had to clock in and took another banana I asked Sabrina about the banana bread that she said that she was going to make and she replied:
"Oh, I just froze them, I will bring you some when I make it!"
I texted fAsherah about Sabrina's response:
>She said she didn't make it but would bring me some when she did.
She replied:
<Glad it is Resolved
<Inshallah u receive ur Banana Bread
I worked on stocking the beverage aisle and all of that stuff. A bit later on in the day I saw fAsherah's fiancée and I even did my pointing contest from a long distance while they were talking, her fiancée laughed. One of my tasks was to stock a certain part of the store and I was surprised by how little my load was for what I had to do for my pull, I didn't have to use the big cart for it. I went on my first break for the day and had another banana and overheard the new employee, One of my tasks for today was to dust off these two fans upstairs, I went to grab a duster from fAsherah and she laughed. I went upstairs and did the first fan, which wasn't as bad because of how low it was compared to me, for the second fan, I had to grab a ladder and got dust all over the place. I got down from that and then had to start on sweeping up the dust. When I went downstairs after that, I was near Lebanon when he asked me to take out their cardboard, there was some stuff that doesn't belong there that he said the new employee did but I wasn't so sure. He also said to me something about putting a window in somewhere. Lunch was an Arizona Iced Tea fruit punch, a large prosciutto sandwich, and a small bag of chips, I ate all of that and then got back to work stocking the shelves. One point later on in the day, Mr. Blundstone says this while bringing a large thing into "our" room:
"Hey Tony!"
Tony replied:
"What is it Mr. Blundstone?"
"Can you shoot me in the head? I fucked up!"
"Yeah sure thing!"
I just couldn't stop laughing at that exchange. Jesse had me package more cheese for an extra tasks. He left early and I took an extended second break, I tried to talk to Paula for a bit and then I saw fAsherah with her DS, I remembered that i had forgotten. I got started on my closing tasks and accidentally bent one of the squegees a good amount when working on a corner. The new employee did one of my tasks for me and then I clocked out, but I had to let a Hispanic guy in when I was going home. I took the bus back and cleaned up my room a bit before getting dressed to walk down to my Church. I saw on Instagram a picture of Enosh at his graduation ceremony with his mom and dad plus his sister (also kind of tall like him) and even read the handout for Ushers that they wrote. Which included some interesting passages like their whole history section:
>History of Usher/Greeters in the Catholic Church
>The ministry of usher/greeters is the oldest lay ministry in the Catholic Church. In the Old Testament usher/greeters were called "gatekeepers." Their ministry was so important that they were given living quarters in the temple. According to I Chronicles 9, their duties included opening the temple every morning, providing care and protection for all the precious vessels, preparing certain food items used in ritual sacrifices, and guarding the temple. By the time of Christ, these gatekeepers had become known as the "Temple Guard." They were ordered to arrest Jesus, but according to John 7 they instead became interested in Jesus' message.
>By the third century A.D., a clerical order known as "porters" (overseers of the doors) was instituted. During those times, it was the duty of the porters, or usher/greeters, to guard the door of the church against any intruders who might disturb the service. The porters' duties were so important that they came to be included in the rite of ordination, where they were to ring the bells, open the church, and open the book for the pastor. In 1972 Pope Paul VI abolished the order of porter and this important task was given over to the laity.
>While today's usher/greeters don’t ring the bells or open the church, their primary duties and responsibilities include greeting and welcoming parishioners as they enter the church, helping them to find seats, taking up the collection and wishing to everyone a good day at the conclusion of the Eucharistic Celebration.
There was also this section for the collection of the money:
>After collection of all envelopes/cash for Saturday/Sunday masses, all envelopes/cash are placed in the large basket and brought by two ministers of hospitality to the altar and then sacristy (either as part of the gifts or as soon as collection is done).
>In the sacristy, all envelopes and cash shall be placed in the respective (labeled by Mass time) tamper-resistant bags available in the sacristy. Both ministers should sign the tamper-resistant bag. The bag is then placed in the safe.
>The ministers should not take the time to sort the money. The envelopes and money can be placed in the bag in any order even shoved into the bag if necessary.
>At no time, should there be only one usher in the Ministry Room with the collection money.
>After all the money has been collected for each Mass and deposited into the tamper-resistant bag, the tab will be removed from the bag, the bag will be sealed, and deposited into the safe. Again, there must be at least two ushers present during this entire process until the bag is inside the safe. The two ushers with the money may not be related.
>When done with the collection, the ministers should then leave the sacristy quietly and reverently. They should never enter the sanctuary during the consecration of the Blessed Sacrament.
A good thing Lucas and I aren't related. I made my way over and grabbed the stack of pamphlets and started distributing them to all the people there. I shook hands with Joseph. And partnered up with Lucas. Michael and Michaela were there and the presiding priest was the guy who was in Germany for a while. We went through the mass as normal until it got to the homily, the priest talked about his former acohol addicition This kinda homeless looking guy sat near me and there was this old guy who was standing up tapping his cane on the ground. I could feel the cane tapping through the pew, the guy next to me says:
"Can you tell him to stop tapping!"
Lucas went over and told him to stop once, but he kept doing it, I was starting to get annoyed and Lucas then had to ask him for a second time to stop. After mass I helped clean up before going downstairs for the cafe event. I got a can of New Glarus Pale Ale and some chocolate cake slices before getting a can of diet Pepsi before walking home and getting spotted by a friend. I got home and then took a shower before going to sleep.

Song of the Day: Miserere mei, Deus - Gregorio Allegri (1638)

 

[GemersonLakeAndPalmer]

May 19th, 2025: First day of my volunteering today. I set my alarm to go off at 6:00am but woke up at 6:30am. I got all dressed up for work in a blue and white plaid button-up and then took the bus all the way down to my stop. I ended up sitting next to this old Black guy who smelled of cigarettes for a while until I got off to go eat breakfast at a diner. The outer glass door was noticeably cracked but I went inside and ordered some pancakes, eggs, bacon, and coffee for breakfast. It took longer than usual to get my breakfast and when I got it, the pancakes were pretty small and even were undercooked to the point that there were some doughy parts. I ate it all up and then noticed that Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson was in the news again for saying that Black people (like him) were the most generous race, I started this text conversation with my dad:
>Thoughts on Brandon Johnson?
<Useless
<why do you ask
>He’s back in the news.
<What did you see?
<Sitting next to Brandon's wife right now!
<Should I say something?
[Image of her]
>No way!
I decided to leave a decent tip before walking to my work. I got into my work and tried to get in but there was nobody at the desk. I was eventually let in by the woman who interviewed me, Who I will be calling Harmony C. She introduced me to the guy who I would be working under, who I will be calling Seth M. He showed me my location and I went around the building for a bit until I went into the break room and meet one of my new coworkers who I will be calling Zarith C. She told me she was from Malaysia and has been living here for 3 years and her least favorite thing about the place was the cold while she made the coffee. I then went into the meeting room early and met the other volunteer who I will be calling Irving B, he’s from Florida and previously volunteered here. The meeting started a bit later and it lasted like an hour and a half. We sent off the old employees and I introduced myself to the group. My first task was to print out some identification card for me and Irving B, I managed to set up the printer that Seth M had given me and printed out two cards, my second task with the card printer was to make an “if lost please return to this address” cards, I made it in MS Paint and got it centered through math and drawing thin lines Once we got done with that I had gotten my third task of using Google Sheets to format a balance sheet to take information from a different tab based on a key given using XLOOKUP, I was supposed to write it apparently but the formula was already there so I just created the tab and filled it out. It was around lunch time when I decided to head out of the building and ordered some pizza for my lunch. I went over and ate the pizza there before heading back to work. I saw that on Zarith C’s door there was a post it note which read:
<Please come in, door is shut because I’m cold =(
I peered in the room (the door was slightly open) and I saw something that said “Best mom!” and also a woodblock with a
When that work was done Irving B had left for the day and this new girl who I will be calling Helly R came in, she was Pre-Law and went to the same college as me, she was in charge of making the posters. I got inside and started on my new task of working on a dependent dropdown column in Google Sheets as assigned by a guy who I will be calling Zach A. I eventually started working on transcribing all the options into a new tab for the spreadsheet but had trouble getting it to work no matter what I did. I finally had my first IT task of the day where this woman from Burma said that she had been having issues with her charger for her company-assigned laptop not working, Seth M came over and plugged it back in to get it to work. I continued on my dependent dropdown item task until I had a second issue to encounter, this woman named Shima C, Zarith C’s sister, was having issues with her printer only printing blank sheets, I had to call Seth M over to get things fixed and the moment he was there, it printed out perfectly, she had to leave for an appointment but she jokes:
“I’ll make sure to pay for the wasted paper!”
Helly R finally came back from her little adventure before it was time to clock out for the day. She said she was in the basement at that time. I clocked out and I took a bit of a walk to the bus stop and then hopped on it back home. On the bus I texted James the Greater:
>I’m on the bus back home, should I drop by with some books of mine plus my Nintendo Wii.
He replied:
<Sure
I got back home and started filling this smaller suitcase with books that I had and then some additional pasta. I ended up putting most of my 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons books in my suitcase and a few others, including some of my Shakespeare books. I walked over and then texted Quoc that I was here, James ended up letting me in and we went upstairs to their apartment. I was taken aback again at how good and tidy the place was. I put my books next to the coffee table, with my map book on top of it. Quoc and I discussed what items of his he should leave here and which ones he could take, my table was a point of discussion because I had a way bigger wood one. While discussing the items, James was cutting and washing some strawberries and leeks, he had to look up how to cut leeks properly. I was genuinely surprised that I hardly heard any cars in this new place, I was so happy about the newfound peace and tranquility. Quoc and I went into the basement to understand the lock for our apartment to see James’s military gear and accidentally stepped on a Christmas tree bauble. We went back up to our apartment to take a picture of all three of us together because that has never happened for the chain of roommates for this apartment (Me & James ← Quoc & James ← Quoc & Matt ← Matt & Cole) I discussed bringing in a bookshelf for the living room and Quoc showing his very detailed spreadsheet he made for finances, it was extremely detailed, tracking down every single purchase he made with his credit card and where it was. It was cheaper than my old place so I joked:
“This is so much cleaner than my roommate would have ever left it.”
James replied in his deep voice:
“Yeah, I’m kinda a clean freak!”
We talked a bit more and James mentioned that he was looking to date, I told him about the Catholic center and how I tried asking out Punk via writing her a paper with a phone number on it. She and Henry never texted me back but I feel like I might have written my phone number wrong. I then got a strawberry and then went home to take a shower while drinking a beer in the shower and then going to sleep.

Song of the Day: Tusk - Fleetwood Mac (1979)

 

[GemersonLakeAndPalmer]

May 20th, 2025: More volunteering today. I woke up at 6:30am because I had forgotten to set my alarm for 6:00am. I got out of bed and got dressed in my brown shirt and dark grey dress pants. I hopped on the bus down there and walked into my building in the rain and chilled for a while until I had to clock in. I started on continuing the dependent dropdown list until Zach called me in for a meeting at 10:00am to 11:00am, I sat in his office to discuss the items a bit more and then I was dismissed to go back to my work as usual. At 10:58am my sister texted this in the family groupchat:
<Terrorists have taken over Hilda’s mom’s village and burned down the police station, and have apparently been attacking and beheading villagers that try to flee. And Rose’s [Not the Rose I was in Bible study with] brother in Tanongou had a stroke last weekend and is unable to use the right side of his body (idk if this was related to the stress of the invasion or what)
<What!!! - Dad
<Garnet, who are the terrorists in Benin? That is horrible. - Mom
<Islamic - Dad
<Lots of Islamic jihadist groups. They like pendjari national park as a place to hideout and smuggle gold, gasoline, and poached animals - Sister
<have you been talking with Hilda? I saw an article from a month ago that 54 army members were killed in punjari, but nothing about civilians - Dad
<She just told me today, I don’t know if it’s something that happened yesterday/a few days ago or is actively happening. But they’ve lost a ton of jobs in the village over the last few years due to limited tourists at the park. - Sister
<Hilda said when her uncle call he said he didn’t know when he would be able to call again, and that the military was supposed to come but they didn’t. He said if they didn’t come by yesterday they would pack and leave, so sounds like this happened at least 2-3 days ago. - Sister
<Head coached my first game and won 3-1! Against a team full of active college players! - Sister
I continued working with Irving B until it was finally time for me to go out for lunch. There was a slight drizzle so I didn’t take a walk for my lunch break. I finally got my dropdown thing done and talked to Zach A about it and he scheduled me for a meeting from 3:30pm to 4:30pm but it was 2:00pm so I would occasionally make my rounds to act as Seth M and see if anybody needed anything from me. Nothing, I had this pretty nice Eastern European cranberry tea and drank that while I wrote my blog entry for the day. A bit later when Seth M was helping this other employee with the printer, I came up to them and surprised them, the lady Seth M was helping said:
"Gemerson you're like a ninja!"
I eventually got called into Zach A’s office and worked on merging some sheets while this other employee was there. I ended up staying a bit late and initially decided to have dinner at a nearby restaurant but decided against it. I took the bus home and had a small box of white cheddar Cheez Its for my dinner. My roommate Enosh left a mess in the kitchen like usual but I just couldn’t care anymore. I took a shower and then went to sleep.

Song of the Day: Ace of Spades - Motörhead (1980)

 

[GemersonLakeAndPalmer]

May 21st, 2025: My only ‘weekday’ of the week (as in I don’t have any work or volunteering to do) so I started off my day by uploading my daily Biblejak. It was kind of drizzling all throughout the day. So I took the bus to this place where another bus route ended and then immediately got on the second bus, it took over an hour for it to go to the end and while I talked with this girl on snapchat who told me about her new place that she was moving into soon (same girl I invited to the event that happens today) and that she wanted to also visit my new place. There was also this discussion in the family groupchat:
<Good Morning Coach Garnet! Congrats! What formation did you use and how did you approach the match psychologically? - Dad
<Very impressive! - Mom
<Gemerson, I checked out that organization on their website. Very impressive with the work they are doing. Good for you! - Mom
<Ditto here! Sounds like you can help make a difference especially in these times! - Dad
<Garnet are you up yet? - Dad
<Now I am - Sister
<4-5-1 then switched to a 3-5-2 - Sister
<Interesting choice given the score. Please keep a coach's log to track your success. - Dad
I finally got off the bus once it was all the way in the south of the county. I walked over to the Pick N Save and browsed around for a while until deciding to get some sushi and this Japanese melon soda for my lunch, I had to walk around for a while to find a good place to sit and eventually decided on sitting outside of this McDonalds, I sat under this shade thinking I wouldn’t be wet but they used a mesh to let sunlight in. I wiped off this green plastic block used as a seat and kneeled on it in typical Japanese fashion. I had rain occasionally drop on my tray and I just ate it as fast as I could. I got up and back on the bus while finishing my drink. James and I discussed paying for an upgraded Internet plan through Venmo. I took the bus all the way back to its northern starting point and then instantly hopped over to the first bus because I got super lucky. I walked home and then played some more modded Terraria in the meantime. I decided to get dressed for Wednesday mass. I hopped on the bus and then walked over to the place where dinner was usually served but it was locked despite the lights being on. I asked the girl who promised me she would be here this week if she would come and she said she can’t because she needs to pack. I knew that she was going to invent an excuse to not come and I was right. I took a short walk and eventually came back to be let in by Father Malachi. I cleaned up the place a bit when Malachi asked me where I worked and I told him. He remembered and asked me if I went to the original owner’s funeral so I told him that I didn’t because I had German class then. I was told to look out for a car bringing food and eventually I gave the signal:
“We got a car coming!”
So Father Malachi came out and brought in the food. There were 6 total people that came to the event, not including the priest but including Sideburns. We talked about how the numbers dropped due to people leaving after college was done and eventually my confirmation priest came over so I asked him:
“How does it feel knowing that you are going to Rome soon?”
He replied:
“It’s an assignment.”
I eventually made my way over to the church and got in line for confession. The girl in front of me gave me a weird look so I just gave her the death stare to deal with her. After a bit the priest finally arrived and we made our way through confession. My confession was short and the priest talking to me had it short so I just left after a bit to pray my decade of the rosary for my penance. I made my way back and sat all the way in the front. Naomi wasn’t there but Sideburns was sitting next to his cousin and Elizabeth was nearby. Sometimes there are these three nuns that come, one’s super old and needs a cane, the other one is slightly younger, and the third one is Black, the oldest one gave me a mean look which made me unhappy with her. There was this other girl who would go up to do the readings later on that I glanced at and she gave me a fake smile, which just sat in my mind, I have never known her or interacted with her before yet people are clearly talking about me, I wanted it to fucking stop immediately. I just sat in silence during the prayer before the actual mass started. The main presider was the priest from the Thursday Eucharistic adoration who introduced me to Norah. His homily was on Catholic flirting and dating, so I will be calling him Father Valentine. One Saint he mentioned during his homily was José Luis Sánchez del Río (March 28th, 1913 – February 10th, 1928) and him being the first saint photographed during his martyrdom. But Either I’m misremembering things, or he got José Ramón Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez otherwise known as Blessed Miguel Pro (January 13th, 1891 – November 23rd, 1927) mixed up with Sánchez. He said he was going to be re-assigned to Colorado in two weeks but I was glad he was giving the homily instead of that priest from last week. There were only 3 priests today as compared to the usual 4, Father Valentine, Father Malachi, and this newly ordained priest (not the one I had given my confession to). We got in line to receive communion. I went back and then we walked over to the meeting place, I knew where it was so I held open the door for others to come, the girl who read for that day thanked me and I whispered to her:
“I know what a fake smile is.”
I held it open for a bit more before finally heading in, I first talked to Sideburns and his cousin before walking around a bit, I talked with Elizabeth and then wandered around because I felt blown off by everybody until this guy named Quinn decided to talk to me, we talk a bit and then I go over and encounter this one girl who I meet that has been going to this event for 4 years and told me she just graduated high school and that she planned to study architecture. I then decided to try to get Sideburns, his cousin, the architecture, and Elizabeth to talk together and them along with a few other people, we formed an ellipse and the topic of this dance happening on Friday was brought up, this other girl was complaining about how guys didn’t ask girls to dance anymore and she mentioned that when girls are all grouped up guys wouldn’t actually ask them to dance normally, but only do as a dare, I tried to intercede.
“From our perspective…”
I said it two times but they just ignored me and I got so frustrated that I went elsewhere, I wasn’t encountering any hostility beforehand. I got a strawberry shortcake and ate it while I saw the newly ordained priest give out blessings, I got one from him and then walked back over to Elizabeth asking if she drives near where my house is on her way home, she said she didn’t so ended up talking to this cuter woman about this mission service and half about her life, I foolishly felt confident and asked her for her number and she told me it would be better to install this app, I installed it but never opened it and the moment she got distracted with talking to Elizabeth, I sneak-dashed out of there and walked home, the bus skipped my stop before I could even cross the street to get to it so I just walked home and along the way, I smelled some Indian guys while they were smoking all the way from the porch of their house. I got home and had a shot of limoncello before taking a shower and falling asleep.

Song of the Day: I'm One - The Who (1973)

 

[GemersonLakeAndPalmer]

May 22nd, 2025: Start of the workweek today, I set my alarm for 8:00am but I woke up a bit later than usual because it was so silent, I went over to the convenience store to get some cereal from the store and got a discount on cocoa pebbles, I went back and had that for breakfast. I got dressed and made my way to the bus stop and got on it. At work when I got there, Max, Jesse, John, and Will were all dealing with this huge delivery and I clocked in to help put it away. I helped bring stuff to the warehouse before a second delivery of items came in, this time it was an extremely large amount of boxes of olive oil. John and I had to take 3 pallets of boxes and put them on the shelf, I would hand them to him and he would put them up, when I was coming back with the second pallet, he was on a call with someone and said:
“Love you bye!”
So I speculate on who could this be, I just asked him then:
“Wait who were you talking to?”
He elaborated:
“Oh I was just talking to my girlfriend, I was asking her if she wanted me to get some subway sandwiches to eat for dinner on the way home.”
“Oh that’s super nice!”
We finished up and then I went down to stock the beverage cooler aisle. My first break was my lunch break and I was super hungry so I got an entire pizza for my order, I ended up eating half of it for my lunch break and then got back to work. I decided to give Mr. Blundstone a slice of my pizza and I later saw Tiffany. My next task that I had to do was wiping down the windows outside and while I was doing it I just kept hearing this shouting. I look to see it is none other than the infamous Cookie herself shouting at everything and everyone. I saw this Black guy walking in my direction past Cookie, when he got near I asked:
“Did she yell at you?”
He joked:
“Like she always does!”
I replied:
“Classic Cookie!”
I got done outside and started washing the glass inside, when I got done with one part, Tiffany had removed some stuff so that Jesse could clean in this place that hadn’t been cleaned in a long time, I helped him out for a bit and then got back to my regular job. When I was done with my regular job I talked with Paula for a bit to try and crack into her department. She told me about her not working on Friday because she was moving to this apartment. She showed me where and I thought it was pretty nice. Once I got finished with all of my tasks for the day, I started my break and then worked on closings for today. I texted James about potentially heading to IKEA next week to buy furniture for my new place. I started on all of my tasks and took quite a while to finish them all up. When I had the task of getting the umbrellas from outside and bringing them inside, I got two in before Tiffany decided to help me out with my task. I still had two slices of my pizza left so I asked her department if one of them wanted it and Tiffany said yes first so I gave it to her. I had to let Mr. Blundstone back in when he went out while I was clocked out so I let him in and then ran over to the bus stop to catch my bus. I got on and took it home, because my roommate had left such a mess in the kitchen. I just bought a bowl of ramen for dinner and cooked it in the microwave. I gamed for a bit and finally took a shower before going to sleep.

Song of the Day: Invisible Touch - Genesis (1986)

 

[GemersonLakeAndPalmer]

May 23rd, 2025: Friday, I had cereal and coffee for breakfast today and got dressed pretty fancy for the dance after work, dark grey dress pants, my knitted nylon rope belt, and my other blue and white button-up, I also packed my fancy dress shoes in my bag. I then hopped on the bus, when I got to work I started helping out with the pull that Jesse, John, Will, and Max were working on, I immediately got a bunch of compliments.
“Are you dressed for a wedding or a funeral?”
Asked Max. I didn’t get to tell him because I had to go upstairs to help with the load. I got my next task on the list which was to work on the beverage aisle, over there Lebanon asked me what I was dressed for and I told him about the church dance event and he congratulated me. I finished up with the beverage aisle and then completed two more tasks before I started on my lunch break. Mr. Blundstone asked me about my fancy outfit and I told him about the dance thing. I got my Asiago pasta salad paid for and took my break. When I got off my lunch break I was still feeling hungry but I continued my work, while I was upstairs one of the managers complimented me on my outfit:
“You’re looking sharp today!”
I replied:
“You’re not!”
She did that gasp thing and laughed a bit saying:
“Yes I am Gemerson, look at this outfit.”
I then went out on my tasks and finally took my second break. I was still feeling super hungry so I bought this bag of zuppole and ate like a fourth of it. Mr. Blundstone was on break at the same time that I was, he asked me why I got dressed and I told him for this dance at this church, he asked what denomination I was and I said Roman Catholic, he told me about him going to this non-denominational school despite his grandparents being Lutheran. I then had Ignatio say to me:
“What’s good my brother! Looking sharp!”
I said:
“Thank you!”
I continued my day and had that one manager say:
“Gemerson said I didn’t look fresh!”
And I got all of my tasks done early, because I didn’t have Jesse around near the time I was to clock out, I took an extended break and found out fAsherah wasn’t here today. While on my break I noticed that I had missed a call from Quoc and I got a text which said:
<Scratch that, I have to meet with the Landlady so I won’t be able to give you the keys.
I texted him:
>Ok
And then he immediately called, he said that he couldn’t give me the keys on Sunday and that I would have to wait until May 30th to grab the keys and that if I needed to move some stuff over beforehand, I would have to call James to let me into the basement. I did that and put my phone on the charger and then got started on my closings. One of the other guys in my department had stayed late to help me with closings so I got done with them all at roughly 6:35pm, I then helped out another department with floor scrubbing and finally clocked out so I wouldn’t miss the bus down to the church. The bus arrived at my stop at 6:45pm and I thankfully got on it. I took it all the way over and then started walking, on my way there some black kids were playing with a ball and one of them yelled:
“Tell Jamal to stop texting his femboy girlfriend!”
Jamal wasn’t happy:
“Bro shut yo bitch add up!”
I couldn’t stop laughing, I eventually got into the church and was let in by this bald guy, I went to the bathroom to try and get changed into my dress shoes. I ended up meeting this guy named Adam who was getting a masters in business In Iowa, he was attending the Traditional Mass that was going on here, he informed me that it is practically all they do here. I was so overjoyed that they had a time which worked out for me. The wait was so long it was bothering me when Adam finally went inside the bathroom, I just decided to change my shoes outside because I didn’t see anybody else nearby. I went inside the chapel while they were praying and sat in the same row as Adam for a bit until I decided to exit out the doors, outside there was this acolyte who was probably no younger than 55 who spoke with a French accent:
“Thank you very much!”
He stated,
“Thank you too and God bless”
I replied.
“God bless!”
I walked into the place where the dance was being held. I put my bag of zuppole on the The only person that I knew who I ended up encountering was the girl that Gabriel worked with, she had brought along two friends, one called Neera and Neera’s friend, Neera was wearing a dress that was very medieval Ukrainian, I made a joke about how women had such uncreative middle names because it was almost always Marie, Ann, or Rose. We played some songs and I got acquainted with the other men there, who made me feel underdressed. I first asked Neera’s friend to dance with me and she accepted, the first dance we tried was a waltz but I couldn’t get the hang of that even as she was giving me tips, I did the bow thing and then drank some of the sparkling water they had, 4 flavors, red was strawberry, yellow was lemon, green was lime, and blue was original, I ended up having all four over the course of the dance as I saw a lot of partner dances, where the guys would ask a girl to dance for one to two songs and I never saw a girl passing a guy down. I then went to dance again with Neera’s friend again and got slightly better. It was too weird to dance with the same girl a third time in a row so I decided to ask Gabriel’s friend to dance, we practiced the box step, I got a bit messed up with what foot to use but I finally got the hang of it.

Gabriel’s friend had pretty noticeable body odor and after two songs I went out, I went into the drink hall and finally met the priest who runs the Traditional Latin Mass, he also had a very noticeable French accent who I would guess to be in his 30s, he was friendly and I then went in when it was time for the line dance. There wasn’t enough men for all the women (Probably like 10 extra) but I got partnered up with this short girl, I asked her this obvious question:
“What’s your name?”
She replied:
“Marie, like the middle name!”
I laughed.
“I just had this conversation previously about how a lot of women have Marie, Ann, or Rose as a middle name!”
I noticed at that moment that Elizabeth had come in and I waved to her. Marie and I danced a bit as I forgot the dance instructions already. Once we were told to switch, I decided to head out so that another guy who hadn’t danced with anybody the first time could dance with Marie. I went out a bit and saw these two Hispanic ladies cleaning down the hall. When I went back I noticed that nobody had chosen to dance with Neera so I gave her my hand and we danced to this song, I wasn’t as good but I got better, a song came on but I couldn’t get into the beat and she had pointed that out so the moment I was distracted I got out of there, I literally chilled down by going back and forth to the drink bar and grabbing a piece of ice and munching on it a lot. I saw the French priest talking to the cleaning ladies in Spanish. I went back in and saw Adam dancing with Neera, I sat next to Elizabeth in her wheelchair and said to her:
“Looks like both of us can’t dance!”
We talked a bit and I asked her if she ate the zuppole, she didn’t but tried some and liked it. I walked around a bit and waved one time at Neera. Another song came on which was La Vie en rose (the Édith Piaf version) that this one girl said was her favorite. Throughout the night I was watching the foot movement of others without sexual intent to see how they did it and got better at dancing by just remembering how they did it. Some of the guys who were discerning the priesthood and I felt sad for the women who might have been attracted to them. I eventually gathered the courage to ask Neera to dance again and apologized to her:
“I’m so sorry for running off because I was a bad dancer!”
She was happy:
“It’s ok!”
I finally got the hang on the swing and we were swinging all around. She taught me this pretzel swing thing and I was still kind of confused. I did the thank you bow to her, I asked Gabriel’s friend if she could give me a ride home once the dance was done, she agreed. I danced as best as I could with Elizabeth. The final song had went and gone and the dance was done at 10:45pm. I got in the car with Gabriel’s friend, Neera, and Neera’s friend, I sat next to Neera in the back and we discussed ourselves, she did a Liberal Art degree at this Catholic college in Wyoming despite growing up in a super small town in upstate New York near Lake Ontario. In the town she said she didn't need a car because everything was on Main street, which was '5 traffic lights long'. She had 4 brothers and 3 of them did Computer Science like I do, and when I asked for her phone number, she said that she didn’t have a phone at all because at her college, she did not need a phone and there wasn’t any phones on campus. Her campus was super small people and size wise, only having 180 people in her class. She was playing with her braided hair a lot and said she usually writes to those she wants to keep in touch with. I asked for her email but she refused because she felt like we would just fall out of touch pretty fast. She had her birthday pretty late in the school year and had to serve as designated driver because of it. I finally got to my home and said my goodbyes. I took a shower and then went to sleep.

Song of the Day: La Vie en rose - Édith Piaf (1947)

 

[GemersonLakeAndPalmer]

May 24th, 2025: Back to normal work today, I got up at 7:00am and had cereal with milk for breakfast. I started to get packed for moving out and then I got to the bus stop. The bus stop had this woman wearing a hat at it so I went back to my house and got a hat to wear. I got off a bit early and walked into this convenience store to buy some lunch, there was a homeless Black man outside accosting everyone.
“Excuse me sir! Do you have any change?”
He asked me and this other guy that went in. I bought one of those microwavable cups of Mac n cheese and two packets of gum, when I walked out, I timed my exit so that this other guy was getting talked to while he was leaving. I got into work and started off the day by working on the beverage aisle, I got done with that and then got to cleaning the bathrooms. I noticed that fAsherah still wasn’t there today, so I asked one of the cashiers if she had quit.
“No, she’s just sick!”
He replied. I went on with my day and talked to Paula a bit more. Jesse didn’t assign me enough tasks again. For lunch I heated up the Mac n cheese in the microwave while I overheard the new employee in my department watch some anime on his phone. I took the cup out and tried to stir in the dried cheese powder but the black plastic spoons they provided were too flimsy and the heads would bend a good amount. I ate the half mixed Mac n cheese and then bought some cookies for everyone to eat, the bag was in the break room. I continued my tasks and then decided to go into the office to see Jesse cleaning out behind the desk, he then asks me:
“Want some half eaten chocolate I found behind the desk? It expired in 2023!”
I jokingly declined. But the interesting thing he found behind the desk was an unopened package for an USB powered LED clock fan, which basically how it works is it has LEDs on one fan blade (red and green for this one) and when it is on, it spins very fast but also turns the individual LEDs on and off very quickly at the precise time so images are formed as the text on a clock, including an hour, minute, and second hand, but no indication of AM or PM. I enjoyed it and took it home. I decided to finally text fAsherah at 3:49pm and had this conversation:
>I brought my 3D why did you quit this week?
<My Friend I Was Poisoned
<The Microbes Got Me .
One additional task that I got assigned by Jesse was to dust off some stuff for Lebanon with this duster that he found, along the way I spotted the new employee and Will talking to each other in Spanish. I dusted for Lebanon and he congratulated me, saying that the new duster was much less worn than the old duster. I started on my closings and while I was doing so, there was this conversation between Matt, Tony, and Jab about something relating to Tony spending time in jail, I didn’t really overhear that much so I would not make any hasty judgments. I finally got out at 6:00pm and took some boxes for packing and took the bus home. When I got home I had started to work on packing up for the day. I checked my Instagram account and I finally got a message back from Henry asking about the Bible study group, he just replied:
<Yeah
Which makes me wonder if I accidentally gave Henry and Punk my original landline number instead of my current phone number, I kind of wanted to ask him that but I decided against it, I watched two episodes of Severance while on my couch, I cooked some chicken nuggets that were in the freezer compartment of the fridge with the Airfryer and drizzled some ketchup over it, I also had some sauerkraut while finally getting the tv in the living room working. I wrote my entry for the day and then took a shower before plugging in the fan and going to sleep, also I didn’t see Enosh all day…

Song of the Day: Knock Three Times - Tony Orlando and Dawn (1970)