Last month, Ian had to retire his electric blue 2011 Scion xB. The blue cube car was truly iconic and saw us through many ventures.
He, Chino, and I are on a trip for the weekend and had our first little road trip in his new car.
We're staying in this old regal house that was converted into an inn. It's gorgeous. And also full of ladybugs, but you win some and lose some.
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Five years ago, I did a term with AmeriCorps NCCC. I was on a team of eleven people, and we got sent on various service projects around the country.
Six of us spent last weekend together in Denver, where we met. Four had wanted to make it but weren't able to, and the other one tragically passed away earlier this year.
We've heard from other teams that many don't keep in contact or keep in minimal contact. It's a wild concept to me to go from living together in cramped and questionable quarters, working alongside each other on horrible tasks day in and day out, preparing and eating every meal together, and never being alone to never speaking again. Our team was formed in the height of the pandemic, so we were basically each other's entire social sphere for the time we were serving.
I made some genuine friendships within my team, but even if I hadn't, I feel at the very least trauma bonded to every single person on my team from the things we endured. Alex and Kiana started dating during our term and have stayed together. Truly a glorious relationship origin story.
I envy them a bit in that they have each other to talk to about what happened. I don't try to explain my time with NCCC to anyone. It's a pointless venture. There are no words that could paint the picture to someone who did not go through that.
Last weekend, we stayed in a house with one of the weirdest layouts I have ever seen. I was the first to arrive and took a nap the second I finished scouting out the place and had thought maybe I'd dreamt the convoluted design. I hadn't.
I dragged a twin mattress into the big closet of the room Alex and Kiana were staying in. Everyone made fun of me, but in the spirit of the program, it would have felt odd to have a room to myself.
We had a really nice reunion and a blast catching up, reminiscing, and exploring Denver and Aurora.
One of the days, we walked around eight miles (I was suffering) between a loop of a state park and finding our way to our campus. We probably spent only around a month there in total between our initial quarantine and training, another quarantine after the holiday break, and days here and there using it as a landing pad between projects. It was really strange to be there in person again. Especially with it empty, as DOGE cut a lot of funding to AmeriCorps earlier in this Trump administration and the current government shutdown being the nail in the coffin for the organization currently.
To Sky 2, it is always a joy. I look forward to our ten year reunion.
I bought a bread machine from Facebook Marketplace.
Ian and Chino both made fun of me about it in separate but near-identical conversations in typical fashion of a couple together for going on seven years.
It looks like a tiny space shuttle. I picked it up after work from a very pleasant older gentleman.
My uncle found me a used one when I was in high school. It was kind of busted and I'd have to fish out the metal spinner from where it'd detach and get lost in the loaf. I did not tell him this.
I enjoy making bread more than I enjoy the resulting bread itself. But, I think it is fun.
My niece always enjoyed making slime. The times she convinced me to join her when she was younger I did begrudgingly. I can't stand the texture. She does it pretty often still and I refuse to touch it.
I'm not entirely sure why because bread dough feels pretty similar when you start kneading it by hand and I like that.
If anyone wants subpar homemade bread (at best, mad science experiments at worst), hit me up.
