May 2025 Entry:
- May was rough.
MISC=========================
- My dad got a dog from a friend (05.03). At first he was being coy saying it wasn't his, but eventually did say it was. I like dogs, but I knew I wouldn't have the time dedicated to take care of it and I made sure he knew. All I did was clean its sleeping area, give it water, and play with it (gave it an old massage ball I had that it liked).
I did think it would be a good reason to get out of the house more often even if it was just the backyard. I even thought it would be nice to post a new photo of it every day, which I did. It's a young dog at 3-4 months so it was feisty. Nothing new, I've interacted with high energy dogs before. The biggest thing was that it was very bitey. It would constantly try biting my hands, my toes, my legs, etc. At first it was in a playful way. I would reprimand it when it bit a little too hard, but it got worse over time.
On the morning of the 9th at 9AM, it bit hard on my right hand and broke my skin and I bled. And I worried. I went back into the home after abruptly stopping play time at 5 minutes at most. I went to shower since that was the plan and cleaned off the bite area. Felt okay, but I started to feel different. My right hand and arm felt very cold, nothing else. It also felt heavier and had a numbing pain. Did some quick Googling and nothing matched what I needed to worry about so I continued on my day and ate lunch. But it got worse. Called my parents to let them know about the arm issues and they were home after doing errands a few minutes later. When I mentioned the dog bit me, mom went into panic mode. I don't blame her as the dog had not received its vaccinations yet. Dad was mad that something like that happened, but I got them to take me to a nearby ER. I had been to this ER before it rebranded and it was less than 5 minutes away. Unfortunately they could only take me if it was a big emergency (like I had full on rabies or I was bleeding horribly from the bite). They pointed to the nearby physician a street away. Went there and they could not accept me because I already had a PCP. So they pointed to another urgent care that was about 5 minutes away that was new. They were able to take me in. Filled out my information, waited for about 20 minutes, and eventually was brought it to be checked. They determined that it was a superficial bite and that there was a possibility I didn't have rabies despite the dog not having vaccinations. They did recommend getting a tetanus shot (I was due) and made a prescription for meds to fight off a possible infection on my hand. They said if I wanted to get a rabies shot, I would need to go to the medical center as they had the vaccine.
This is where my mom became problematic. She didn't understand why we couldn't go somewhere closer instead of downtown. They reiterated that not everyone has it and that the place recommended confirmed they did and were expecting us. Even after we left, she insisted on calling the closer location, to which we needed to pull over because if we were to switch locations, we would need to figure that out before going on the toll road. I could hear the phone call and while I understood what she wanted, she said it in a way that was confusing to the other end of the phone. In the end, they didn't have it and we continued downtown. Combine this with my dad trying to hurry to wherever we needed to go, missing turns, and trying not to yell in frustration and it made things not fun. Despite the toll, we were still traveling during traffic time so it took a long time. When we got there, I was told I was at the wrong building and that it was a street behind. That was after my parents got valet parking because that's all that was offered. We walked and it seemed like I was lost, but that's because I was just worn out even though it was only a few minutes of walking. When we got into the right building, I was confirmed where I needed to go and wait. A few minutes later I was brought into the room and I laid down on the bed.
That's when I took a breath and let a few tears fall. It was simply frustrating. I already called off work so I was losing my money. I also had to pay a few fees for the care I was getting (thankfully insurance covered the majority). And it was the time spent. 9AM; got bit. 11:30AM; go to several medical facilities. 2:30PM; arrive downtown. Then it was the discussion of "you don't need a rabies shot." the doctor and nurse took a look at the bite, asked how old the dog was and a few other questions, and let me know of the fact that there has not been a case of rabies from dogs in over 20 years in our town. From other animals, yes, but not from dogs. Vaccinated or not, there was a high chance the dog didn't have rabies. Plus there was a chance the rabies shot treatment (4 sets of 2 shots every 2 weeks) would have been bad for me. I told them I understood, but that they needed to explain it properly to my mom, the retired nurse who was worried about her son getting bit by a dog even though the decision would be mine in the end. They understood that part as well. A few minutes later, she came in with the doctor saying there was an understanding that all agreed the rabies shot was not needed. But the doctor did insist on getting the tetanus shot because I needed it. We could have gotten that at the last medical facility, but opted to go for the rabies one rather than both. I waited a few more minutes for them to get things ready, got the shot, waited for 10 minutes in case there was a reaction to it (there wasn't), and I was discharged close to 4PM.
It was a long ride home because we avoided the highways due to traffic. I was glad that my mom and dad weren't upset or mad about things as that has happened before with other issues. I was simply out of it. My arm did feel a lot better, but I was drained physically and mentally. We got to CVS around 5PM to pick up the prescription. Then we were finally home around 5:30PM.
I knew there was a discussion about keeping the dog after this. I honestly didn't care. I knew that I wouldn't play with the dog anymore, but I'd at least give it food and water and that's it. But the next day, I noticed that all of the dog's stuff outside was cleaned and turned upside down. Double checked other areas it played in and all the stuff was not there. Triple checked to see if the dog was around at all and it was not. My dad had taken the dog back to his friend. I never named it and never asked my dad what its name was because I didn't want to get too attached. I had done that in the past when he volunteered to dogsit his friends' dogs, but I just had a feeling that I should not get attached. Even if the bite didn't happen, I'm sure it would be a matter of time before my mom pushed to give the dog back because she doesn't like animals. It definitely would have been worse if she got bit. We never would have heard the end of it. And that will be the end of taking photos of the dog.
- Watched the Conan O’Brien: The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor special (05.04). I didn't know about it until I saw him tweet that it was now available to view. After finishing things for the day and since I wasn't feeling too well to do anything bigger, I figured it was a good time to watch. It was hilarious. Not only is he deserving of the award, but it's just great to see someone receive their flowers like that. All the guests said nice things and were of course funny. I'm pretty sure watching this and laughing helped my physical weariness fade somewhat.
- Stopped by G's Birthday gathering before work (05.07). I could only stay for a little bit so I didn't partake in any food as it was still being prepped (I mentioned not to worry about me in terms of food anyways). Caught up a bit with Rannchan, greeted Kai when they showed up as I was about to leave, and we sang Happy Birthday to G while in a group circle. Were it the day before or after, I could have hung out, but I figured the least I could do was make an appearance.
- Caught up on Backlash the next day (05.11). I watched the first match the night before after getting off work. The original plan was to watch another hour of it in the morning and then the rest after lunch. Nope, watched it all in the morning, ha. Had nothing pop up on YouTube and nothing else going on so I turned it on and watched it until the end. Good stuff.
- Woke up early for no reason at all (05.13). I was woken up around 5:30AM when a text message went off. And then I couldn't go back to sleep. I tried for a good hour and probably lulled back for a good 15 minutes. After that, I just stayed up and started my day early.
This unfortunately happened for the next few days. The 14th wasn't so bad as it was around 6:30AM and I started things early. But the 15th was 4:30AM. Couldn't go back to sleep so I gave up and started doing things around 5:30AM (like typing this out). But I'll take sleeping aids to help balance things out. Things were okay, but I did wake up early again on 05.20 at 4:30AM.
- Hung out with G (05.15). I internally called it wings and things, ha. But the main reason was to give G their birthday present which was a shirt I had custom made based on events that happened recently. Picked G up, gave the gift, we laughed, and then headed out to Tastebudzzz. It was kind of like I was heading out to the sister location, but not the whole way. It was a food truck stop that G looked up so we could both try something new. I ended up choosing their wings (lemon pepper) and shrimp combo. G selected a wing combo; half honey garlic and half Cinnamon Toast Crunch. It unfortunately took a long time for the food to be prepared. It was a little over half an hour. They had a lot of orders come to get picked up, which is understandable, but we were there in person. The other downside was their sit-in area was covered in dust. It made sense considering their location, but I don't see why they wouldn't have made an attempt to clean it up. G and I decided to eat in the car since any other location to sit and eat was a ways out. At least the food was really good. We definitely enjoyed our meals. The flavor for G's Cinnamon Toast Crunch was immediate and tasted exactly like the cereal.
After eating, it was time for traffic. My timing of the plans was off unfortunately (should have left 30-60 minutes earlier). We originally had plans to go to a boba place we never had been to out there, but decided to nix it in favor of going to stores for G to go hunting for their collection. It was interesting to see how they go about it and what they look for. If you've seen their social media posts about it, I pretty much got the behind-the-scenes peek at it. Didn't find anything new unfortunately. After that, we headed back into more traffic. While the traffic wasn't horrible, it's still traffic. But the whole trip was us catching up on things, which was really nice. Haven't done that with someone in a while. And I did get my prediction correct about what time I'd get them home; 7PM. Said hello to Rannchan, chilled for a bit, and then headed out again to meet another friend, and ended the night. Good times.
- Went to the eye doctor for the first time in almost 10 years (05.19). I had been meaning to as I've felt my eyes were getting lazier over the last year (random blurriness, floaters, etc). Even though one of the owners where I work is also an optometrist, they didn't accept my insurance. She recommended places in my area, but recent reviews made me not want to go to them. Finally asked my mom where she went and it was somewhere close by (12-15 minutes away). Made an appointment in April.
Even though I had passed by these buildings many times, I wasn't familiar with what was there. Parking was simple and the main office I needed was right by the entrance. I checked in, I paid, and I sat down to fill in papers (thankfully I was 15 minutes early). At some point while taking my wallet out to find information I needed, I dropped it and a lot of things spilled out. It wasn't super embarrassing, but it was one of those "dang it" moments, ha. I simply crammed everything back in (organized it at home) and continued with the paperwork. Returned the papers to the receptionist, sat down, and waited 5-7 minutes before being brought in. It's been almost a decade since I've seen eye technology so I was impressed with what they were using (a scanner for my glasses to figure out the strength and prescription, a monitor for easy eye chart exercises, etc). The classic "which looks better; 1 or 2" was still around. My right eye is definitely bad compared to my left eye, but both aren't great. There was one letter I kept calling out as Y not realizing it until minutes later it was a V, ha. Got my eyes dilated and was sent back into the lobby to let it set in and wait. It steadily made everything blurrier to the point I couldn't read my phone. About 15 minutes later, the doctor called me in. I mentioned how my mom goes to her and she remarks that she knew my last name was familiar. She carried on with what she needed to do as we made small chat (how long has she been doing this, etc). She put some other drops in my eyes that left a bright yellow residue in order to do the examinations. A few times when she asked to look to the sides I could see the nerves and it was so cool. After some talk about my eyes (they're fine), she did recommend small alterations if I wanted new glasses even though she thought it wasn't necessary. I asked if she had recommendations for where to get them made (apparently there were a lot close by) and chose a place 2 minutes away. I forgot how we got into it, but I mentioned how the owner of where I work didn't take my insurance. That confused her so she asked where I worked and I mentioned an escape room. That confused her more. So she asked where the optometrist came in to play. Then I said that she was one of the escape room owners and an optometrist as well. That's where it all clicked, ha. After that, we scheduled another check up a year later and said bye. Not going to lie, I thought she was pretty, but didn't want to do anything unprofessional, especially since she's my mom's optometrist as well. I checked, she didn't have a ring. Maybe next year I'll say something?
Got my papers from the receptionist and walked out to my car. The sun really hit even with my sunglasses on. I sat in my car for a good 5-10 minutes because my eyes were still blurry. I double checked my vision during that time. I could see far in front of me fine, but reading anything close up was almost impossible. It took a while for me to read the address for the glasses place to type into the GPS. Once I felt comfortable, I drove off and was there 2 minutes later. Walked in, let them know what I was here for, handed them my printed prescription, and was immediately attended to (it wasn't busy). The person that took care of me was very detailed and attentive. I described that I wanted something similar to what I currently have, but different (similar in size, nothing that could easily fall off my head, light weight, etc). She let me try on as many glasses as I needed. I think I tried 5, narrowed it down to 3, and then sat down and directly compared it to my current glasses. I ranked the final 3 from best to worst as she proceeded to check what my insurance covered. Unfortunately my health insurance didn't cover anything; however, she did find that I had actual eye insurance. She said the name and it clicked in my head; that's the thing that takes like $9 from my bank monthly, ha. I would never know what it was and even looked it up one time, but wasn't worried as it was a small price. It's my eye insurance, ha. That took care of a lot of things. We went through different variations of magnification, periphery view, blue light, anti-scratch, etc options. It took a long time, but she wanted to make sure I knew what was available and how much it all cost. The largest cost option with everything possible was close to $700-$800 without insurance. With insurance, what I ended up getting (minimal plus a few extras) was close to $200. Not bad. I paid and she said to expect them in two weeks. And of course before I left I remembered one last thing and that was the frame colors. The one I chose only had 3; crystal, black, and demi. We had to look up what demi was, ha. Ended up going with crystal so I just didn't have another pair of black glasses and to help update my look overall. In a perfect world, I would have also gotten a pair of blue ones. But this was the longest portion of my outing as I was there for over 90 minutes.
The last thing to do was try a new boba place that was another 1-2 minutes away; The Alley. They had Kpop playing (didn't know who it was), and the place was a decent size. Good photo op areas. Even though I knew what I wanted, I looked up at their digital menu and pointed out to them that the mouse cursor was still visible. They had a puzzled look on their faces until one of them came around the counter and I pointed it out to them. They proceeded to move it off screen, ha. I ordered myself a passion fruit green tea that already came with boba and lychee. No extras needed. The other option I had in mind was the Oreo drink, but I wasn't in the mood for something sweet (maybe next time). The drink was done in less than 3 minutes. I was surprised. Took my photo, sat in the car, took a sip, was satisfied, and drove home.
By the time I got home, most of the blurriness was gone. It eventually went away as the day progressed, but a large headache took its place. Getting my eyes dilated and the bright shining sun and blurriness definitely attributed towards it. For the rest of the day, I mainly laid down and "watched" videos. Other than that, my micro SD Express card arrived. The second item for the Switch 2 is in my possession.
- Watched UNTOLD: The Fall of Favre (05.20). You might be thinking why I would watch this. Am I a fan? No. Am I super into football? I was when I was younger. But it was because of Jenn Sterger. I've been to her comedy shows in town and she's hilarious. Followed her after the first meeting and just kept up with what she posted. When I saw she was involved in this, I was like "what's going on?" I never really dug into her past, but knew she had a history in sports, but I had no idea about this.
The documentary itself was done really well. It shows the rise and fall and those that were involved at any point. But I was more interested in how Jenn was a part of this. It was interesting to learn and to realize how much she had gone through. I only knew of her as a funny awesome person. Now I know she's also a brave and strong person.
- Watched part of Saturday Night's Main Event after work the day it aired (05.24). I did contemplate watching all of it that night, but figured not to wear myself out. Pretty much did half that night and the rest the next morning. Good stuff. Cheers to the announcement of Evolution 2.
- Battleground and Double or Nothing were interesting to bounce back and forth from (05.25). Definitely paid more attention to Battleground as I have access. Double or Nothing I only caught clips posted live. Fun night of wrestling.
- The new shower is unfortunately leaking into the kitchen below it (05.15). The other pipes in the remodeled bathroom don't leak, just the shower. So I've been using the other shower as we've been waiting for the installer to arrive (05.29-05.31). Sucks that only a little over a year we're having this issue with it. Even suckier is that when they finished, they didn't bother to test to see if it still leaks. It still does (06.01).
- Watched Captain America: Brave New World (05.30). Seeing the teasers of Red Hulk is what got me interested otherwise I would have let this go by like other Marvel movies. And I really enjoyed this movie. There wasn't a lot of action, but whenever it happened it was great. The story unfolded at a pace that worked well for me and that's what kept me intrigued. The most surprising thing was the lack of jokes I expected to come from Marvel movies, but I was fine with that. They did enough. Good movie overall. Thumbs up from me.
- LL was in town. We texted back and forth to see if we could meet up. In the end we met Friday night while I was at work (05.30). Since it was slow (only myself and PH were left as two late bookings were made) so I took care of everything other than game mastering. But I brought an iPad to watch along with the teams just in case while I spoke with LL in our VIP room. I made sure to do it there to show that I had my eyes on work and that all we were doing was talking. She brought me a lemon slush and shared here boba waffle. Once it was close to the teams being done, she looked up places to eat. We decided on a burger restaurant that neither of us had been to. After wrapping up and closing up shop, we split and met at the restaurant.
We didn't know that Christian's Tailgate also had open mic karaoke so we were listening to that the whole hour we were there. We did arrive a little before midnight and our waiter said the kitchen was closed. But he double checked as we said that was the reason we were there, not for drinks. He came back with the menu and said to quickly choose and he'll put it through (gave him a decent tip for that). The food was fine. Nothing spectacular, but not bad. I got a bacon bacon burger which had bacon, ha. LL and I ate and caught up for a good hour. It's been a bit since we last hung out so we definitely had things to talk about. We ended our night around 1:30AM and I was home a little before 2AM. Good times with a good friend.
GAMES=========================
- Demo Showcase Shorts continues. There were 15 demos played, which is the most in the longest time in one month. There are 2 that I didn't play. DELTARUNE being one of them as I've already played the first two chapters. The other was How To Escape 2 as it's another co-op only game.
- Star Wars: Episode I: Jedi Power Battles was 1 of 2 Star Wars games offered as Game Trials (05.01). Never played either and wasn't sure if I was going to play one or both. But since I got Imp of the Sun completed earlier, I scheduled both in. Then it boiled down to which to play first. While Jedi Power Battles originally came out later, canonically it's before Bounty Hunter.
And then I played it. I almost quit within 30 minutes, but decided to power through especially after turning the difficulty down. There were so many bad things about it. Firstly, the game crashed on me a few minutes into the first few training levels. I stopped playing the training levels and went into campaign mode. As I mentioned earlier, I turned down the difficulty because it was taking so long to defeat the regular droids and they were all hitting hard. Didn't even beat the first level on Jedi difficulty. Thankfully Easy made it a little better. But I realized during the training that it doesn't control well. There was a sense of input lag that I unfortunately got used to...sometimes. That didn't make platforming or combat great. Combat itself was mindless. Sure, there were three attack buttons, combos, and Jedi powers. You didn't need to do anything fancy. I mainly dash attacked into enemies. If that didn't kill them, do it again or do quick hits to finish the job. But I also started to avoid fights when I realized that enemies would stop at some point. They were relentless upon chasing you, but once you got too far, they stopped. Pits were infamous for cheap deaths and there are a lot of pits. Add onto those deaths some bad check points and it made replaying certain sequences time poorly spent.
I did make it to the end to battle Darth Maul. All I did was hit the Y button (weak hit) over and over and over and over and over again. I didn't realize at first that you only needed to damage him enough for him to run off to the next area and fight again so the first time I hit Y for maybe 5 minutes straight before he eventually got out of my hit cycle to run off. Eventually I realized what needed to be done and progressed through the level. Then Darth Maul groaned in defeat...and he and my character were in the idle stances doing nothing. I couldn't move and hitting other buttons did nothing except to pause. Even using the cheat code to reload the latest checkpoint fudged things up further. Had to quit and start the final battle all over again. Thankfully the final sequence played out (which wasn't much) before the ending cutscene played. And that was it. I didn't care to try any other characters or play any of the minigames. I lazily played through the story mode and was displeased. I really don't know if the original Dreamcast or PlayStation versions of this game were also bad or if this was simply a poor port to the Switch because that unfortunately happens. In the end, it sucked.
- MY HERO ULTRA RUMBLE was the free-to-play game of the month (05.01). I was expecting this to be like the fighting game, but it was actually a well done Fortnite clone. A lot of the elements from Fortnite are there such as where to drop, safe zone closing in over time, health/shield, etc. The standout is not just the My Hero anime theme (it looks really good), but how each character you can play feels different. Unlike Fortnite, there are no guns (at least I don't think). Instead each character has their own set of abilities and those abilities are vast. Sure there's the simple energy shot a good number of them have, but that's about the only similarity they would share. Not only that, but it was fast-paced. The one thing I didn't like about Fortnite outside of building (because I sucked at building) was how slow matches could be. The playing field might feel similar in size, but there were plenty of buildings and other obstacles around to make each map feel different enough. The timer also felt naturally faster because the safe zone would close way more often. Outside of a few bits of lag here and there (mostly in the tutorial for some reason), I really enjoyed my almost 2 hours of game time with it.
- Finished STAR WARS: Bounty Hunter (05.02-05.04). It was the other Star Wars game trial made available. This was definitely a better game compared to Jedi Power Battles. While I'm not great at most shooters whether it be 1st or 3rd person, I did like this game. The controls were pretty good. It took a while for me to get used to combining jetpack flying with combat. The jetpack itself took getting used to. Having that type of movement felt like you could do anything. However, I do think level design had to be confined due to it. Not that the level design was bad, but you could tell when they didn't want you to fly and when you needed to make those long leaps of fate. Combat was decent as you did get a wide variety of weapons. Although relying on your trusty blaster took care of most situations.
I do wish there was a map. There were many times I was going around in circles trying to find the accessible door or a panel to activate something or a hole or platform to continue onward. Areas were very samey. If you're in a building at the beginning of the chapter, you're probably in it and similar ones until the end. If you were out in the environment like a jungle, you'd be lost in the jungle. At least that was my experience so I had to look up a video a few times to know how to move forward. On top of that was the sharp rise in difficulty. The first couple of chapters were not bad at easing into larger hoards of smart enemies. Chapter 3 and the rest ramp up. I gave it my best shot, but most levels I was able to complete legit took 30+ minutes. If I lost all my lives, I used passwords to play the next level. So I definitely gave it a shot, but knew I wouldn't be able to beat this in a good amount of time had I not skipped forward. At least you have to beat the final boss to see how things end. Unfortunately, the final boss was way too easy. Just walk backwards and shoot when their weapons are held down so they don't reflect your blaster. It took me two tries to figure that strategy out. And I saw the bad ending when you lose the final fight, which I was surprised to see happen.
Overall, I liked it and would recommend it if you're ready for the challenge.
- First purchase of the month was The Last Book Of Bust A Move Strategy Guide (05.05). I learned of the fact that guide books for Bust A Groove/Move actually exist late last year. I had one listing where it had all the games and three of the guides as a bundle for four digits. The reason to keep an eye on the listing is simply to compare that other guide listings to make sure they were the same. A random check at the end of April led me to find them sold separately plus the one extra I didn't know about previously. Three were sold by the same seller while the new one was a different seller. I decided to put all of them on my watch list to save for another day. But then the new seller sent me an offer that was $15 off. It was still up there in price, but that was a nice offer. I figured I'd shoot my shot and counteroffer for an additional $5 off. They agreed, yay.
A few days later, it arrived. Slight cover damage, but in fairly good condition overall. Flipping through it, it is very thorough. It shows each dance step depending on which button combinations you press. I honestly didn't know what to expect from the guide, but that makes the most sense. I just didn't think it would be that in-depth to show each dance step for each character. Good stuff.
For the rest of the guides, I might make them the thing I slowly collect like I did with the games or get the rest in one big purchase. While originally I wanted to slowly collect the figures, I still haven't been able to find all of them in circulation. That's what makes me hesitant to continue collecting those since I most likely won't finish it. The guides, I'll double check if there are more, but I doubt there would be so many. The individual listings are all fairly priced.
- The Genesis NSO game of the month was STREET FIGHTER II': SPECIAL CHAMPION EDITION (05.05). Beat the game with each character, jumped from Champion to Hyper mode each character, and liked what I played. It's a great port overall. The only downside was using a 3-button controller. I knew ahead of time that pushing Start swaps the buttons from punch to kick. It wasn't bad for some characters, but for others it was not a fun time. Overall I had to disregard moves and combos I've known for years. Other than that, good stuff.
- Got my email from Nintendo about being able to buy a Nintendo Switch 2 from their online store (05.08). I signed up for it just in case I couldn't secure one in-person. I wasn't confident in getting the online invite to begin with, but signed up for it just in case. When I got it, I checked to see what else was available. The GameCube controller was a must. Then I saw that the Yunobo amiibo was purchasable too. That got me super excited. Sure, retailers are supposed to have Yunobo available the day of, being able to secure one was preferred. I put the controller and amiibo in my cart and proceeded to check out. An error code popped up saying I needed to add the Switch 2 to my cart.
That's when I reached out to others. First was Rannchan since she wasn't able to secure hers yet. My invite was for the console only and she wanted the bundle. I said I'd wait until she hopefully got her invite. The next day she called saying she got her invite, yay. Then I reached out to HeXagon. NRM had his already, but I knew others didn't. None of them showed interest and I waited a day just in case. But I'm sure the timing of concert tickets didn't work well for some of them. Then I reached out to the HERetirees. There was immediate interest from Agent PQ, but wasn't sure since there was nothing particular they wanted and also would have preferred the bundle. At work, Agent Ocean expressed interest, but wanted to wait on PQ. The next day I messaged them again (05.11). PQ decided to pass and Agent Ocean immediately jumped on the opportunity. I let him know of the price and made sure he knew it was for the console only. He was cool with it. I added the Switch 2 to my cart along with the GameCube controller and Yunobo amiibo and purchased it.
Crazy that I was able to secure myself two Switch 2s.
- Golden Sun: The Lost Age was the GBA NSO game of the month (05.06-05.13). Played the first Golden Sun for the first time in April 2024. Something right off the bat, it took close to 10 minutes to type in the link code from the first game so that stuff carries over to the second. It was 6 pages of a lot of text, but I did make sure to double check everything because it would have sucked to have messed up on possibly 1-2 symbols.
The game picks up where things left off (from what I best remember), but from different character perspectives. I didn't remember who they were and I think that's what took me out of it fast. I wasn't paying too much attention to the story for the longest time. It's not that I would ignore it, but I wasn't invested. But when in the latter portion where you end up having a bigger team, that's when I cared. I didn't know that was going to happen despite putting in the link code. I thought we would just receive their items, not have them be part of the roster. At first I didn't bother switching as the old crew was 1-2 levels under my current team. But then there were boss fights that got tough and switching mid fight really helped.
Speaking of fights, they seemed easier. I rarely used any magic or techniquest unless it was a boss fight. Even then, some of the early boss fights weren't much of a challenge. It did gradually increase and were tougher when the team grew. Since I was following an online guide, I did sidequests along the way. My main goal was to collect all 72 Djinni, which I ended up doing. The next goal was to beat all the extra bosses, which I did not end up doing. The optional four bosses were definitely a challenge. Lost to the first one, beat the second one, beat the third one, and did not bother going for the fourth because of time. Yes, I could have spent another day getting those two extra bosses, but I was ready to end the game. Funny thing about the final boss fight. It was a challenge too, but more straightforward. It ended up taking a good hour and I tried my best not to take a break so I don't lose any momentum or forget anything. But I couldn't and went to the bathroom for a minute and came back. And after the next attack, the final boss was defeated, ha. Had I only waited a little longer I would have paused after the fight to take that bathroom break.
It was satisfying to see the ending and to have both Golden Sun games under my belt. I did enjoy the first one more as it was new to me. Like I mentioned earlier, I didn't get invested in the story of the second game until way later. They're both good though. I see why the series gets the praise it does.
- Picked up my copy of Capcom Fighting Collection 2 (05.16). I scheduled it for next year just like I did for the Marvel Collection; one game a month (January-August). As much as I'd like to play it now, the schedule consistency is nice.
- Fatal Fury 2 was the SNES NSO game of the month (05.15-05.17). This wasn't great. The game itself was very sluggish. I know that because I've played the arcade version before. It's also what made it take longer to beat even though I've beaten games with the same fighter roster within less time. I do think the lack of speed would have been something I'd get used to, but the game was also difficult. I tried my best on the default difficulty of 4, but couldn't get a win. And this unfortunately is one of those games that won't show you the true ending unless you beat it at the default. Otherwise you get the default "so-and-so became the strongest fighter" text with your character standing over a downed Krauser. That's what I had to settle on. I didn't call this one complete even though I've done something like that in other games, but the fact that we had to look up the true endings (only one extra slide...) made it feel like we didn't earn anything. Not a great port by any means.
- KILLER INSTINCT GOLD was the extra N64 game of the month (05.18). It was released on the 15th so I debated on whether to wait on this or just fit it in the current schedule. Into the current schedule it went as I looked up when I played the SNES Killer Instinct; April of last year. Funny that both Killer Instinct and Golden Sun were played a year and a month apart. I used to own Killer Instinct Gold back in the day. I remember liking it enough, but I never liked the sequel as much as I did with the original. That is probably the reason that I forgot almost every single combo string in this game. Moves, Ultimates, and music were familiar at least. But this game also does the thing where you only see the full ending on higher difficulties. And just like Fatal Fury 2, it was only one extra slide. The arcade had at least 3-4 slides per ending and alternate endings for each character with most having 3-4. No alternates for the N64 version. Of course beating this game was hard enough on Normal. Beating it with each character on the highest difficulty setting would not have been possible without extra options being unlocked. The main one that helped with everything was turning off blocking. It was easier for some characters over others. At some point I figured to just jump attack and sweep repeatedly with the occasional Ultra combo here and there. Got some nostalgia out of it, but it was tough to relearn the little that I did know.
- Fifth game in the MARVEL vs. CAPCOM Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics was MARVEL vs. CAPCOM: CLASH OF SUPER HEROES (05.19-05.25). Didn't have too much experience with this game so it was almost as if I was playing it for the first time. Not bad overall as a fighting game. I wasn't too big on the duo special where you can have both of your characters on screen to do infinite supers. Felt like it never really worked.
I had a few things I was disappointed with. The first was the endings. None of them had unique art made for them like the previous games. It was mainly the in-game character models with text boxes and maybe a few extra sprite work. It also sucked to see the Marvel secret characters get the generic "you beat the game with a secret character" endings like in the previous game. Odd that it was only the Marvel secret characters because each secret Capcom character had actual endings.
The main thing I did not like was fighting Onslaught. Cool like design, but not fun to fight. I get that he's overpowered, but at least Apocalypse felt achievable. I had to save after his first form if my characters had a fair amount of health left and then hope to beat the second form. It's doable with a good chunk of the roster where it's almost impossible for others. The longest amount of time I've spent solely on Onslaught was close to 40 minutes. Maybe there was something I missed in how to properly take him on, but I never looked forward to fighting him.
- Tuff E Nuff was an extra SNES NSO game of the month (05.26). Played a lot of fighting games this month and figured to add another. This was actually penciled in last year when we did Virtua Fighter 2 and Killer Instinct, but I put it aside. If you've never heard of this game, you've probably seen the box art, which was all I knew about it. It functions, but it's not good. There's some bad collision, which didn't make some fights fair. I initially beat it with one of the main fighters on Normal and only got a congratulatory message saying try it on Hard. So I looked up passwords. There was one to skip each of the four individual fighters to the final boss and I did that with the same character to see if there was a difference. The boss was tougher for sure. But beating it on Hard gives you a similar congratulatory message and the end credits showing your fighter battling all the CPU characters...and that's it. I did a quick search online to double check on the endings. The localized versions took out all of the dialogue and the endings, which was disappointing. Once I realized that, I didn't feel like playing through with other characters from the beginning to the end. So I used their individual passwords to get to the final boss and beat it with them. And yes, I mentioned it earlier, but there are only four main characters you can choose from in story mode. It didn't take long to complete that task. I did know there was a way to play as the CPU fighters, but it only works for VS whether against the CPU or another human. And that was a wrap on Tuff E Nuff.
WORK=========================
- Same as last week, I opted to go to the sister location instead of taking the day off (05.02). My plan was to continue proofreading the last two rooms (one was also available at the main location). I left a little earlier than last time as I had an idea of how the traffic would be. It did start to rain, but not too bad. Unfortunately there was a lot of traffic on the main freeway. What normally takes an hour without traffic took a total of 3 hours. There was rain, there was traffic, there was a freeway closure, there were a few small wrecks, prom was happening, I missed two turns because I was in the wrong lane and couldn't get over, and I learned the next day someone had jumped off a nearby bridge causing more traffic...it was horrible. The thing is that I was maybe 20 minutes away from my destination and that's where the extra 1.5-2 hours came from. It was deflating seeing the estimated time of arrival increase over and over. If I wasn't that close, I would have thought to turn around and go home. There were plenty of times I literally sat at the same light for 10+ minutes with minimal or no movement. I lost my patience and had to yell at one point.
When I finally got there, CG greeted me and we hugged for a good minute. Unfortunately he's going through some stuff, which we did have a conversation about later in the day. But we both needed that hug. It was a slow day, customers were coming in late (courtesy calls were sent out ahead of time), some random people sought shelter with us just to get out of the rain. We sent KM and TR home early when the weather had calmed down so they could at least be safe at home. Then it was myself, TJ, CG, and SP taking care of things the rest of the night. Although most of my time there was proofreading, I did other tasks when needed like hosting in teams etc. To top off the night, the fire alarm went off. TJ is still new so she didn't know to close the doors when exiting a team out and too much of the fog got out to set things off. I was in the bathroom when it happened and thankfully I was already done, ha. This happened with the last team of the night so only those two had to experience it. It didn't take long for the firefighters to arrive. I was impressed with how fast it was. CG had already shut off the alarm, but they swung by to make sure. Made sure to hug CG again before we all parted for the night. I pulled into the driveway at midnight, ate, and went to sleep around 1AM.
Heck of a day.
- First Saturday of the month (05.03). Oddly enough, there was a patch of traffic here too. I was less than 5 minutes from work when the traffic wasn't moving. Quickly turned around and got the next best alternate path, but it still took an extra 15 minutes to get there. I probably would have done better staying put. But when I got closer to our area, I had to skip the entrance I normally take since that's where a couple of tow trucks and an ambulance were. So it cleared up just when I got there.
Unfortunately it was slow with only a total of 15 bookings the whole day. Compare that to our busiest of days when we could possibly have 50-60...bad. Only thing of note is that I used my credit card on a customer's behalf as they only had cash. They were buying a shirt after their session. I joked around saying "I'm not leaving a tip" to which they said that I could keep the change, nice. I knew it was an option for management to use their own card if they were comfortable enough to help out a customer, but this was the first time I ever had to.
- Solo Wednesday (05.07). Not much to say. Did a lot of cleaning, answered voicemails and emails and phone calls, had one booking, and left early at 7:30PM.
- Saturday was slow, but got busy (05.10). There was a chunk of time in the middle of the day where we didn't have any bookings. I looked around to find things to do (restocking, organization, etc) before defaulting to my long term project. Half the team left early close to their shift ends, but that's when it got busy. The last two lines of bookings almost filled up completely due to getting replays and walk-ins. It was good, but crazy as almost all the walk-ins happened at the same time. We got things done, but it did suck to hear the other coworkers saying "I hope no one else books" and "I don't want to be here." Like...how do you think we get paid? I was excited that we got this actual amount of business instead of going home early. Funny that they asked if I wanted to leave early literally minutes before it got busy. I turned it down since I missed the day before anyways. This was the first Saturday in recent memory that I left later than my shift ended (half an hour) and got home after midnight (close to 12:20AM). In the end, I was proud that I got 2 replays and 7-10 reviews that day.
- Put ZM on-call for a solo day (05.14). At first we only had two bookings; the first and last, which was nuts to see, ha. Then we did get another one towards the beginning of the shift making it 3. Not bad. Those went well. When they left, I open-reset those rooms and continued to do some extra tasks I started before they arrived.
One was fixing a cable prop in one of our rooms (needed for the last booking of the day). It was poorly held together by tape, which I was surprised to see because it did not look good. While simple, it took a bit of time as I had to remove the tape and hot glue as well as dig out extra bits. Then I finally set the piece again with hot glue and let that sit to dry.
The next task was to change web addresses to all our bookmarks we had. Our main system that runs the games (timer, clues, etc) was recently updated and the old web addresses were not working properly. The team was notified the day before about the change and what to do about it, but it made me think "why didn't they just edit the web address?" All that needed to be done was change one number. Once I tested it and made sure it worked I went around to all the systems in the escape rooms (except one I couldn't access), all our PCs in the control room, and all our iPads and edited all of the addresses. This took longer than anticipated as some rooms had slow load times when using the new address. Other than the one I couldn't access, two other rooms had issues. One needed to have their HDMI connection be reconnected, but I didn't realize that it was such an easy solution until a few minutes later. The other was very difficult to access. While using the remote control could be used on the outside, the PC stick needed to be reset. Not only was everything behind a cabinet box, it was also drilled closed. One screw was easy to remove, but the other was stripped badly thanks to me not getting the right size bolt.
Then I was texted in our manager chat to count the remaining wristbands we had as I mentioned to them earlier we were out of one. A tedious task, but it was a nice break from the issue with the last timer I was working on. We keep them in separate boxes. I dumped one out at a time and counted every 10 and threw them back in while keeping tallies in an email draft. Other than 0, the lowest count was 97 with the highest being 315.
Then I went back to trying to fix the last TV timer. I mentioned it in our manager chat and they said to use a flathead. I did try the flathead bits, but they were too big. We didn't have a booking for that room so I blocked it just in case. Ended up having to use a manual screwdriver and it took a lot of elbow grease to get out, but it felt good to have it out and open. Around that time was when we got another booking towards the end of the day so I went to reset the room. Everything was fine until I went to close one door...and it didn't close. I looked up, saw the issue, took a picture, and sent it to the manager chat. I kind of had an idea of what to do, but wanted to be sure. During that time was when I heard customers come in. They didn't have a booking and asked what was available. I mentioned one of the previous rooms that was used as I only had to lock things up since it was open-reset. They were cool with it and I created their booking and went to prep the room as they signed their waivers. At this point I texted ZM to come in and waited for a reply. When I came back, another team came in. Unfortunately they were the team for the room that had the issue with the door locking. During this time, Agent Ocean tried FaceTiming me to walk me through the fix, but I had two teams in the lobby to tend to. Without spoiling it, I basically explained to the team that there was a big issue with the room they chose and I wouldn't be able to fix it in a few minutes. I suggested swapping to another available room, which was the other open-reset room from earlier in the day. They understood and were okay with it. Made the change in their booking and took the other team into their respective room. Came back out and the other team's last member arrived. Made sure they were okay with waivers and stuff. ZM never replied so I texted Agent Ocean to remote game master from the sister location and he agreed to do it for this team I had to switch rooms. Shortly after taking them in, the final team showed up early. Had them sign their waivers and sent them in and locked the door.
Only one more room was possible left to book and I hoped it wouldn't. Could have blocked it, but figured to just let things happen. In the end it never got booked. Thankfully the three teams were not problematic. My two teams got out one after the other (the latter being really good at their game that I barely had to help). Once they were out, I took over for the game Agent Ocean was watching over and ended the tasks of game mastering on a positive. Locked the front door, proceeded to open reset all the rooms, and then went back to the previous tasks of the countdowns. With the cabinet open to the TV, it took a couple minutes to reset the PC stick and to change the web address. Locked it up and then went to the other room that had the door issue. I made sure to unlock everything else and in the process triggered the magnets. Thankfully I stood a few feet away as triggering the door magnet off, the magnet fell to the floor. That didn't happen previously when I tried so I didn't think too much about it until I heard a loud clang on the floor near me where it fell. That would have been horrible had I stood underneath it as it is a heavy duty magnet. At least it was off. But I noticed the time and it was close to having to clock out. I figured to leave it there and easy to see for the ladies to fix it as they were already coming in to look at the cabinet. I made sure everything else was fine for the night, I typed out a long message in the manager chat about what was left out, and left the venue at 9:05PM.
I could not believe how busy that day became. I didn't even do any other tasks I had originally planned.
- Friday shift (05.16). I was a couple minutes late since I went to GameStop beforehand, but I immediately started tasks since there weren't any bookings at the time. One was to fix the other lobby TV since I didn't get a chance to do it on Wednesday. It was hard to get to the media player as the TV was set up very close to the wall. Took a few minutes before I could unplug the cable and plug it back in. The video played for a good amount of the day before crapping out again. Agent Ocean knew and said not to worry about it for now. By this time we had a couple of teams come in and I hosted them back and carried on doing other tasks.
I did some restocking of items, throwing away trash, replying to reviews, etc. Another task was left on a post-it note on our lobby desk by one of the ladies asking to create a back-up SD card for one of our monitors in one of the escape rooms and to throw out the current one. I asked Agent Ocean if anyone did this yet (since it was there before my shift) and he said no. I double checked it to see what the issue was. One of the two files would hiccup and it was the more important one. I double checked it with the main video source and the main one was fine. Went to find an extra SD card (we had a few), brought out to the lobby, added the files to it, formatted the old one, threw it away, and put the new SD card with the rest of the back-ups. Simple task that took a few minutes.
As I'm walking back to the control room, I hear a couple of our employees talking and it was about me. I stayed out of view of the door frame, but within view of Agent Ocean who saw me. The complaints were definitely about me with Agent Ocean defending me. I decided to carry on as I had things to do and knew he would handle it. He sent me a text that I will type out now leaving out names other than mine.
"They're literally complaining about you and I'm like what has arnell done to either of you today. And neither had an answer. And then ___'s like he wrote those long notes in the box every time and I'm like idc if he's describing their shoes, that doesn't hurt you. And I even told IB "see how they're complaining and have no reason to"
My reply:
"I've been working every single minute since I've been here. If they don't appreciate anything I've been doing, I'll leave and go do stuff at the sister location right now."
His reply:
"Exactly what I told them. I said he showed up and got to work."
I know I'm not Mr. Popular and have been told that those two specific coworkers have had complaints about me (most defended and debunked), but this really upset me. I don't even remember what I was doing at the time, but I knew I went to the back area to type my initial reply and was ready to leave even if it took another 2-3 hours to get to the sister location during high traffic time. Agent Ocean said not to go and to continue doing what I do because I'm not in the wrong. But he also let everyone know that the ladies were coming by to pick up things. I asked if it was okay to talk to them and he said yeah.
When Agent Ocean's shift was over, I walked him out to talk to him a little more about the issue. The ladies had not arrived yet and he said he'd message them. I said to let them know I would like to talk to them. Bid him a good day and went back in. Less than five minutes later, one of the ladies came in. She said hi to everyone and asked me if I could carry the items she came for outside, which was a clever way to bring me out of the building to talk. She asked what was going on and I asked Agent Ocean if I could show his text which he agreed to. She read it and my replies and was baffled. I explained how I'm not doing anything wrong. The complaint about writing a lot in the text box was legit because I'm relaying information to them (the team was 10 minutes late, 2 adults were filming and I asked them to stop so keep an eye on them, they're okay with extra nudges - the last one being the thing one of the employees was wanting to know). If I wasn't doing anything and they had complaints, understandable. But I can always find something to do. I brought up a previous incident with one of the complainers that I explained a month or two ago. I threw in how sometimes they'd get upset that I didn't do what they asked, like hosting a team out when they were done, but almost every time I was serving drinks or on the phone or checking in customers that they had to end up going to do it. I brought up how last weekend they were upset that we had more customers at the end of the night even saying out loud "I don't want to be here," which is quite troublesome. To that Agent Ocean said they complained to him that I got replays and didn't mention it to them. That explained their attitudes, but it also made the owner upset because I was bringing in more money. I shouldn't apologize for doing my job and for doing what I can to earn profits for the company. I added that the ones that always complain about hours also ask to leave early and complain when we have too many customers.
And to reinforce any other small things they might bring up, if they ever say I'm doing nothing then they happen to catch me during the 1 minute out of 60 that I wasn't doing anything. It was a long conversation and she had mentioned what may be going on and what could be done. Not only that, she and her sister (only one of the ladies showed up) would find time to have a talk with one of them to find out what's going on as not only what we talked about an issue, we're seeing the consistency in lack of consistency (and apparently they've always been like that since working there). I was thankful for that because one other thing I was worried about is that employee trying to gather others to mass complain about me. Why do I worry about that? Because whenever this employee has issues with me, they always close the door to the control room and I'm conveniently the only person left outside. It is very obvious that either they're goofing around or complaining about me to those within earshot. I've responded to those a few times by simply closing the door for them, but have been advised to simply open the door and if they have an issue with it to say why. I definitely needed this talk. We hugged and parted ways.
Shortly after rejoining the team, one of them left early (not sure if they asked or Agent Ocean said to leave early). The rest of the day was fine. No one complained out loud, teams had fun, and there weren't any issues with the rooms. Ended the night with sending a message to the team letting them know a few issues with resets happened and to take a few extra seconds to double check things. The other message was that our system automatically adds the completion time now, but to keep an eye on it to edit because it's not always accurate.
- Mid shift on a Saturday (05.17). Originally I was closing like I have been for a while, but Agent Ocean texted me asking if I could move up, which was a good thing because the opening staff was low compared to the closing. This also might have been a reaction to the discussion I had the day before, but I think taking this shift again for the foreseeable might work out in more ways than one.
It was a nice surprise to see RL back. I saw him on the schedule, but figured he was doing remote like he has a few times since going off to college. But he said he was done for the semester (like a few others like CP are) and that he needs to make money. It was good to catch up with him and to see him get right back into the swing of things (only a few questions about some changes and where certain buttons were in the new program).
The shift itself was busy the entire day. A couple negatives were the side-eyes I got from the employees that bad mouthed me the previous day and that the whole team didn't save me any food that was bought for everyone. To the latter part, yes I should take the initiative to get my own food when it is available. But it is also discourteous for them to not make sure everyone had their share. It would be even worse if specific employees didn't bother. Positives, the shift was smooth. And for me it started with a hot mom and ended with a hot mom, ha. Getting to go home around 9PM on a Saturday was nice.
- Unexpectedly busy Wednesday (05.21). It was myself and RL and PH. Been a while since I've worked with them together since they were away at college. But there was nothing in the beginning of the work day for them to do (I had things). So I talked to them about coming up with social media posts stating how there's nothing going up on our page outside of holiday hours. I showed them a very popular video that one of the other cities posted that blew up. I suggested that they come up with at least five ideas and we have to at least create 2-3 of them. They almost immediately got to work looking up trends, popular gifs, familiar music, etc. After I did a few things, I rejoined them and they had ideas. We bounced things back and forth because there were some things I didn't want them to do (no inside jokes or anything political) and to alter ideas. PH came up with some good five second videos. RL was more of an idea person and came up with a lot. This was a good productive two hours before the first set of teams came in.
All our teams took up the majority of our final set of sessions. Funny enough, we had two different sets of girl scouts (some who have been here before) and a youth boys group. There were some extra customers and they happened to do the same room. It went from a quiet time to a noisy time to another set of quiet time. After the teams were done, RL and PH filmed one more video. All their videos got approval from the owners and will be posted in the future.
After we left for the day, I stuck around and spoke to the organizer of the youth boys group. Him and the other adult were talking outside. He gave thanks to how hospitable we were and how they also got an anonymous donation to pay for the booking. They spoke about some religion and asked about my affiliation. We swapped stories back and forth before parting ways. I thanked them for ending the night on a calm and positive note.
- Solo Thursday after putting KA on-call (05.22). At the beginning of the day, there were no bookings, but I had plenty to keep me busy. Other than regular opening duties, Agent Ocean asked me to order new locks to prepare for the summer. I went to each of our rooms, took group photos of all the looks per room, and then went to Amazon to see the previous locks that were bought. Some were no longer available to purchase, but it was easy to find alternates whether similar or from a different seller. The total came out to a little over $300. I let Agent Ocean know before hitting purchase and he reminded me we have a tote specifically for locks. There weren't a lot, but I was able to delete a good chunk of the order to bring it down to a little over $200 instead. This took longer than anticipated (around 90 minutes), especially with phone calls coming in here and there. One of them booked for a time towards the end of the day so I went to prepare that room.
The next task I had for myself was scheduling the videos we made yesterday. I had never used Birdeye before, but had seen it. Had to look up a few things yesterday to prepare and it helped as things were fairly simple. It just took time. Originally I was going to schedule each of the six videos to go up every Wednesday. But there were some other posts scheduled ahead of time that took up a Thursday. Some made sense as to why they were being scheduled (Memorial Day, Father's Day, etc). So a few of the videos will be on another day, but still be part of the six weeks in a row. This also took longer than I thought it would (about an hour). Another customer made a booking that was also around the last set of bookings so I set up that room.
Then I finally had time to do some online training that I've been putting off. It's always towards the bottom of priorities because I'm not big on the program for the company. And unfortunately a lot of staff haven't even touched it. But as a manager, it would look bad if I didn't do them. I did the other room I had left (missed one question). Then the final/new module was for our booking system. It was only a series of videos and a lot of the information I knew already. I was surprised when there were things I wasn't familiar with, but only two of them I felt were useful (showed Agent Ocean one that he didn't know previously). By the time I was done with that module, I was on top of the leaderboard once again. When I first came into the company and completed the what was available, I was first place. I lost it when more modules were added and I didn't have time to do it because I insisted to do it at work and not from home like I did before. Now I'm number one again by 420 points. Does it really mean anything? No. At least I'm showing upper management that I did it and that I have the highest score.
The two bookings at the end of the day went smoothly. Nothing big to note. It was a nice way to end the unexpectedly busy Thursday.
- Smooth Friday (05.23). Had a lot of money tips (I got $21 total from 3 different customers, double that for what needed to be split among others), got some return customers that had another good time (some big groups and one young kid that does them by himself - had a nice chat with him afterwards), and got a good number of reviews.
One funny thing was coming into work when a birthday party just started. The kids were already brought into their room and the two moms were sitting down in the VIP room to watch. They asked if they could pay ahead of time and I brought the Clover device ahead of time. I've had customers insist on paying and they would go back and forth. These two really fought for it. I basically held the device up up and away from me and they both raced to pull out their credit cards and reach out to pay. I don't even recall who ended up paying, but they were laughing about it.
- Saturday shift started alright (05.24). The first birthday party had a mom that I was pretty sure was Filipina, but didn't want to ask. However, I heard her husband talking about how they went to the Philippines and I said to him "I knew she was Filipina," ha. After the session when I went to retrieve the party from their room, the mom asked "are you Filipino?" I said yes and asked why. She said that when I introduced my name, she knew. But also that her mom was going to give her the same name as mine if she was a boy. Then I told her that my parents thought I was going to be a girl and that's why they gave me my name because it's unisex. Craziness.
Got a replay by doing the "pick a card" discount and they were very elated to get the largest one. Got a good number of reviews again. There were also a few return customers. One of the hot mom's from last week returned with her husband, kids, and her daughter's boyfriend. It was nice that she and her husband really enjoyed themselves that they wanted to bring the rest of the family into it.
Towards the end of the day, the solo guy from yesterday came back. He had gotten a reputation at work and others were curious to see him etc. A lot of the male staff like him because he's a chill guy. He knows he's not the best, but he enjoys them. Unfortunately, HL did not like him. He went solo per usual, but she had no patience for him. For the whole hour she complained about why he wouldn't read things, why he wouldn't follow instructions, etc. It really was a mood killer that I left the control room multiple times. In hindsight, I should have taken over. She was so aggravated that she sent a text in our group chat saying she will never be his game master if he ever comes back. She is the type to get upset and complain about trivial things, but she has never been like this. The thing is, everyone else that was his previous game master had no issues with him. They knew he wasn't great at the game, but knew to help him along properly. So seeing HL incredibly frustrated was so baffling. When I went to exit him from the room, he knew he didn't do well despite escaping with five second remaining. I gave him a pep talk and some advice on what to do next time such as trying out things even if he isn't sure or talking to himself either out loud or internally to help focus. He also knows the last half of the rooms he has to play are tougher so he's worried. But I know this for sure, myself, Agent Ocean, or any of the other previous game masters he's had will be his game master. I left shortly after as my shift was done, but that was a very deflating way to end the work day.
- Busy Wednesday (05.28). Even when opening, I had more to do than normal. I tended to phone calls and spoke with one customer about a mistake they made in booking. There were many missed calls, voicemails, and emails from them. I called and let her know she had a few options and to think about what she wanted to do with the extra booking she made. The refund process is never fun and at some point it is out of our hands. The option of rescheduling is way easier, we just need to know the date and time. When she arrived later (first booking of the day), I walked the preteens into their room and went to talk to the grandmother. I slowly explained things and she was very intersted to reschedule the extra booking. Gave her time to think, but ultimately she didn't know as she had to coordinate with her other grandkids. Her booking was moved earlier to a non-existent time and I left notes letting any other staff know what's up. Basically we're waiting on her and we will move it.
Shortly after, we had an unexpectd sight visit. They were for a big group coming in next week and they wanted to make sure of safety precautions throughout the venue. I confirmed who they were and then gave them the tour of the lobby, hallways, bathrooms, fire exits, and escape rooms. Was definitely more descriptive with each escape room by pointing out the camera placements, showing the camera views, how doors opened and how they could be opened from the opposite side if accidentally locked in, etc. Couldn't show her one room as that's where the young ones were playing. Throughout I was answering all her questions. Answered more after we were through with the tour just to make sure of other things like how the flow would be with handling such a large group (originally slated for 48, possibly will be 81). To that, I mentioned splitting up teams ahead of time would help tremondously as well as getting all the waivers done. It took longer than I thought it would, but it was better to be thorough.
Then there was a phone call from a customer that has had Groupon issues. I wasn't part of the initial communication line, but I was told to refund the difference between what they spent and the cost of the Groupon the previous weekend. It went through. But the guy called thinking he was supposed to get the full refund. While I mentioned he should talk to Groupon, he thought it's not necessary as we get the money regardless. I get what he means, but everything I've said and done worked for every customer in the past that had a similar issue. In the end, he was frustrated and wanted the whole thing to be done with. I let him know that he should email us and be as detailed as possible with what he wants/expects as I didn't want to promise anything different and did what I was told.
During this time was when late customers were showing up. I had to gesture them around to do things and where to sit as others were coming in. And at the same time, our wine delivery came so I had to gesture where he needed to put the wine. Once the customers were all tended to, I wrote a check to the wine guy and saw him off.
There was another customer that called to confirm things for their booking the future. It's another big one, and I had handled part of the communication process. Had to look things up to be double sure of what we were offering and that the price was correct on the contract.
Ended the night with a Vietnamese team. One of the girls was very pretty. I didn't do anything to show favoritism, but part of me felt like she was interested. The reason being that when we closed the venue, they were still hanging outside and I swear at least the other girl in their team gestured towards her and then to me. I did say bye to them and even stalled a bit, but nothing. Oh well. If they ever come back, we'll see if I was right or wrong.
Shout out to PH and RL for holding it down and doing what needed to be done to make the surprisingly busy Wednesday flow well with no issues.
- Surprisingly busy day with KA (05.29). We didn't have as many bookings as the previous day, but they were spread out enough for us to always have at least 1-2 teams at the same time. Was able to get a replay, had the parents of a birthday girl watch their game even though they didn't pay for it (we sometimes do that if it's slow), and the sessions ran relatively smooth. One team did mention that one puzzle for their room (the replay team) was missing a piece. We didn't have any spares so one needed to be made. KA wasn't confident in doing it, but gave it a shot as I was working on a bigger issue that happened.
One of the monitors in another escape room only had audio play, no video. Thankfully we had a backup plan by posting the end of the normal video on the hint screen. That happened for the first session for that room. Unfortunately another monitor went out during that team's time there. That was half fixable with a simple reset, but it crapped out again for the second session. I did prep that team beforehand that "I didn't have time to fix this screen, but we've got you covered." After that, I texted back and forth with Agent Ocean for suggestions. In the end I tried replacing the sprite player and the HDMI cable to no avail. Texted the manager chat and the ladies both said it was the SD card. I didn't think to try that, but that also didn't do anything. I later hypothesized that it's possibly the TV monitor itself. They mentione we had spare monitors and to try. Of course during all this, I was going back and forth checking in teams, walking them to their rooms, exiting teams, resetting rooms, and answering phone calls. One caller wanted to play that room I was trying to fix and I straight up mentioned that they could play it, but two things will stick out like a sore thumb. The fact that two of their teammates would be playing an escape room for the first time, it would be bad for them and us to have a bad first impression. In the end, they said they'd wait.
Once the final session was done, I finally was able to tackle the TV monitor. KA was done with her tasks like the prop replacement and asked if there was anything else she could help with. I did mention she could go home or stick around assist with smaller things that would require me needing more hands while I did the main work. I hooked up the TV and that was the solution. Unfotunately I put the TV in upside down so I had to take it out. We decided to try the clue again and it didn't work. Tried it again and it worked. Made sure it would work three times in a row before settling it back in its display. But the original wood brace wouldn't fit as the backs of the new monitor and the broken one were different. Texted management and let them know we did as much as we could before leaving a few minutes after our shifts were over. Not a bad day. I was proud to have figured out what the issue was with the TV, which the ladies finished the job the following morning.
- Slow Friday (05.30). The two previous days were busier than a Friday, which is very surprising. It actually started before I went in to work as SP called about a customer that emailed us. It was the customer that called on Wednesday about the refund. She wanted to know what the story was and I explained. There was one part of the whole ordeal that I didn't know, which made things make more sense. In the end, the person that handled the situation to begin with made the wrong decisions. I told SP to call Agent Ocean to confirm things and to take care of it from there, which from the email reply would be a full refund.
When I came into work, Agent Ocean mentioned he called off 3-4 employees that were also supposed to be there for the closing shift. Made sense as there were already 5 of us and low bookings. It was so slow that I showed Agent Ocean the rental car (more on that at the end of the entry) and drove him around the lot to show off some of the features. HL left early, then Agent Ocean and RL left early as well. This was around the time LL was texting me about dropping by. I mentioned I couldn't give a hard time we close as customers could still book. At the time, it was possible we'd be closed by 9PM. Then around 8PM was when we got two bookings during the last round of sessions. Both PH and I couldn't believe it. But we took care of things as you are supposed to and left around 11PM.
- Last Saturday of the month (05.31). It wasn't busy to begin with (less than 10 before I came in, 14 when I left, 22 by the end of the day).
POSITIVES:
1. We hit 600 reviews on Google. We were 5 or less away when the day started and my goal was to get it to 600 before I left. We had some good groups that very much enjoyed their time with us and left their reviews. I made sure to tell the person that left that final review that they were the 600th review.
2. Got a 3 replays. One was from a couple that had never done one before. They chose their discount (cards) and got 50% off so they were excited. The other two replays were from the group I'll talk about next.
3. There was a group of four guys that were really cool. I didn't initially welcome them in, but when I met them I said "are we standing in order of beard length" because that's what I noticed. It wasn't intentional, but they were, ha. Two of them had never done escape rooms before (one liked like NE, but older and bigger) and the other two had done plenty and mentioned how they usually like to do as many or all escape rooms a business/venue has to offer if they really like them or don't have any extra plans. They all bought drinks (2 Twisted Teas and 2 Miller Lites) and then I brought them to the wall of locks. One of them made a joke about using lube on a lock and key and that became a running joke between us while they were with us. Walked them to their room, did my usually speech, and let them play. At some point one of them came out with all their cups to get a refill on what they previously bought. While holding 4 empty cups was easy, holding 4 full cups was not so I took 2 of them and walked back with him. They were excited when they won and I offered them to choose their discount (cards) if they were intersted in a replay. They chose the one with 20%, chose another room, we refilled their drinks again, and they paid. Sent them into their room with a faster briefing and let them do their thing. Again, one of their members came out to get refills and we filled them back up and I walked back again with them. When they were done, I offered to give them 50% off if they wanted to do one more. They asked what rooms were available and chose one that the other two had done before at a different location. Took care of their payment as I refilled their drinks. They sat down as the room was being reset, but once they were ready to go, I sent them back. I didn't get to walk them out as it was a little bit busier. However when I took at the trash after they left, they happen to be pulling out of the lot and stopped once they saw me. They rolled down their windows and everyone said bye to me and I thanked them for being awesome.
That was probably the best part of the day for me.
NEGATIVE:
At one point, HL told me a team had just finished. I responded that someone needs to go get them. She came out and said that she and RL were both watching games. I pointed that I'm literally taking customer payments and pouring drinks (specifically the group of guys getting ready for their third room). She mumbled off saying "I guess I'll ask CP to get them" as she was already resetting a room. Once I was done, I went to the back to make sure the guys' room was ready and passed by CP and KA. I asked if things were good and neither responded. I went to the control room and asked RL if HL was upset with me. He responded that he didn't know as he was concentrating on his games. That's when I caught a glimpse that HL was talking to both CP and KA (who just arrived) in a room they were resetting. I immeidately thought that they were talking about me. I didn't listen in, but I should have. I let RL know I was walking the guys back. As I was doing my speech, all three (HL, CP, and KA) walked by and avoided eye contact. At that point I knew they were upset at me. At that time, I could feel my enthusiasm and mood changing to being underappreciated and defeated. Speaking to other teams and on the phone later in the day, I could not bring my voice to its default work manner. Before I let the guys into their room, I let them know that if for some reason I didn't see them due to my shift ending soon that they were awesome and thanks for being cool. When I came back out to the lobby, I saw that the door to the control room was closed. No reason to do that as it wasn't loud or busy in the lobby other than to let me know I was not welcome or they were talking about me...getting tired of this tactic. I busied myself as usual. When KH came in, she went to the control room and the door was shut again. But I had to open it as I had to tell them I was walking a team back. I used a louder voice as they were obviously talking loudly and I did slam the door. Not needed and not even super loud, but needed to vent a little frustration. And also to show them...yeah, I get it, you don't like me or what I did earlier. SC came in her for her shift and at least greeted me. For some reason the door stayed open this time.
I had texted back and forth with Agent Ocean who unfortunately coudln't be there. First few texts were to make sure he was okay and him checking if things were alright. I also asked if it wasn't busy if I could leave as early as 6PM to save labor (and I was tired from the night before and early errands with the new car). But once the incident with HL occurred and I noticed the moods of the others, I texted him giving him my side in case anyone complained to him. I could not wait for 6PM to hit once all this stuff was going down. RL was packing up as I checked in the next set of customers came in. I took that time to let the others know who that team was and that I was also leaving to the surprise of some. I let them know that Agent Ocean said I could leave early if it wasn't busy. Got my stuff and walked out with RL. As we walked to our cars, I thanked him for always being good at his job. Sat in my car to find a Supercharge station and drove off with a sigh of relief. While I was at the Supercharge station, I did text one of the owners (the one I spoke to earlier in the month) and asked if she had spoken to the employees yet about my concerns. She said she had not, but that Agent Ocean is arranging something soon. Since something is in the works, I will not intervene unless asked to. We shall see how things pan out.
This type of thing can't keep happening. I could understand if they were upset if I wasn't doing anything or refused to do it, but I was doing things. Any time an incident like this happens, I was doing something that made me incapable of doing something else. I'm always doing something and rarely take breaks. If the roles were reversed, would I be upset if someone coudn't go get the team out? No because I would figure out a solution due to the circumstances. If it wasn't me and it was Agent Ocean that couldn't go get the team, would they still complain? Probably yes on the complaining part, but they'd more than likely give him a pass because they like him. And the thing is, these complaints are coming from the same people all the time. Why is those few (and those they complain to and rally around) have issues with me, but no one else does? Why does the sister location have employees ask if I can work with them more? Why does Agent Ocean (their manager) defend me? Why do the ladies (the owners) want me to keep doing what I do? I have expectations with what may happen soon, I have my solutions for what can be done, but we need to see how things go early June to figure out the direction of things. Stay tuned...for better or for worse...
ETC=========================
- Rogaine update. It seems to be working. More often than not, the bald spot seems less visible and that's witht he good lighting. I still have a little more than half a bottle left and will continue to use it until it is done. I'll get a third bottle as that's what the normal number of bottles is recommended to use. Mine is just lasting longer since I only do once a day instead of twice a day.
- Cheon Sang Ji Hee - The Grace had their 20th year anniversary (05.01). There was no official event. However, Stephanie did an interview going over old videos/songs and answering questions. She had been advertising it leading up to the video going live. Shortly after the video aired, she did an IG Live stream talking to fans. I put that on in the background as I was doing other things. At some point she invited Sunday and Lina into the stream and it was amazing seeing them interact with each other after so many years (talking about memories, songs, etc). Unfortunately Dana could not join. But these series of events got me to listen to their albums all over again on my car rides to work for the next few days. I remembered the majority of songs. Some weren't as familiar, but my favorites made me emotional. Some of the choreography was coming back to me too.
Watching these videos made me go back to watch a few old videos. I also looked up specific Lina videos. She was my favorite from the group. Listening to their songs again reminded me of how amazing her voice is. There are some very talented singers that have come since her time, but hers is still one of my favorites.
This was something I didn't know I needed. For those that don't know, Cheon Sang Ji Hee was the main reason I came back to Kpop. Not that I had completely abandoned it, but it wasn't at the forefront as it was when I first got into it. I own all their albums (Korean and Japanese, there weren't many) and they were possibly the first group fan event I participated in (wrote a thank you note, made suggestions for gifts, bought fan magazine). I would absolutely accept a reunion album, but would understand if it's not in the cards for all of them. They still have my loyalty and my thanks for what they have accomplished. Thank you, Cheon Sang Ji Hee - The Grace.
- Red Velvet IRENE & SEULGI - TILT (MV)
- I received an emergency SOS text from my dad around 8AM (05.27). He had gotten into an accident. I called him and he told me where he was (double checked with the emergency SOS text) and he wasn't too far from home. I let my mom know and told my brother I was going to take his car and drove out.
The car was in bad condition and so was the other driver. Physically he had some superficial scratches on him while she was bleeding a bit on her arm. She told me her name, I asked if she was okay and if either of them called the police (they did). Then I started to take photos of my car and her car and even cleared a bit of small wreckage from the street. Double checked with my dad and he attempted to turn the car back on...it would not. We then started to move items from the SUV to the other car. And then her brother (or boyfriend I forget arrived).
He was immediately aggressive and cursing me and my dad out yelling things like "don't you know how to drive," "what's wrong with you," etc. I even emphasized how I just got there because he kept implying that I was also in the car. He really went after my dad to the point my dad was getting angry and cursing back at him. I had to calm him down because he was making an approach at that guy. There was a point where he and the girl took photos of their car and my dad and I went into the shade of a nearby building. The guy then approached us (still being aggressive) asking a bunch of questions (why did you do this, why did you do that, etc). He was basically trying to provoke my dad into doing anything and trying to say something wrong. He even said he was going to film what he says. Again, I was in between them calming my dad down, reminding him not to say anything. The guy kept saying things and I basically said we'll wait for the police to arrive to share stories rather than trying to jumble things up. He kept provoking. I said "we'll see how things play out" to which he called that a BS answer. I just didn't want my dad to do anything. At one point my dad went to our other car to get something and the guy said something like "oh, it's like that" and started to go to get something from his car. This is when I thought one of us was going to get shot, but I pulled my dad away from the car and back into the shade.
I called 911 a few minutes later since it was about 20-30 minutes since the accident happened. They mentioned how an officer was already deployed and gave me another number in case we needed more assistance. Within the next 5 minutes was when the police officer finally arrived as well as two tow trucks to move the cars out of the way and into the lot we were in. The cop spoke to the girl first and then to my dad. I mostly kept silent unless I could tell there was a misunderstanding due to the small language barrier from my dad. As the officer went to report things, I started to take photos of our car now that it was pulled in. I spoke to the tow truck driver too. He gave me his card and asked what happened. My dad joined us at that time. He reminded us to check for any other items we had left in our car (I later realized we left a few things like an aux cable and a cigarette lighter charger). He also summarized that the car was basically totaled...yeah.
The ambulance arrived. They checked on the girl first as she had more visible injuries. They started to check on my dad when my uncle arrived (my mom called a few times asking where we were and she told him). My dad was in better spirits talking to him. At one point, the other driver's dad arrived and finally things were calmer from their end. My uncle took a look at the car and came back to us when my dad was getting his vitals checked. The paramedics let us know that everything seems okay, but to go check in at places nearby in case he felt bad later. There was another talk with the police officer as he told us what the girl was given a ticket for (no insurance) and what my dad would be given a ticket for (failing to yield). He gave back all of my dad's information cards. Soon after, the other driver and her family left. I took photos of her car before it was hauled off. I wish I got better photos of ours, but I had taken enough that were suitable. We bid farewell to my uncle and I drove us back home.
Explained things to the family, talked about any misunderstandings, and that was that. I contacted JW about renting a car, my brother looked into buying a new car, my mom called up our insurance, and my dad went to work on the other SUV we have that has unfortunately been out of commission.
There was more stress with calling insurance. The person on the other side of the phone was good, no doubt. Just the stress of my mom not getting what she wants and not understanding what they're asking. I at one point had to take the phone away and do all the talking for both parents. They did their best like when my dad described what happened when he was hit. But then when they were asking specifics, I had to clarify. I said things slowly and concisely, I sent them photos, I gave all the information they asked for, and asked what I needed to know. But after I was done, my mom repeated questions just so she could hear it. Not only that, even though JW had already lined us up with his help, she wasn't thrilled about the type of car, a Tesla, stating that there are no charge stations (there are) and that my dad has to also drive it (it can still drive like a normal car). So it's a taxing thing to handle with her because she is very particular even though we have things taken care of.
In the end, my mom couldn't find anything cheaper than what JW was offering. I let him know and arranged for a time to meet up. Originally we were going to pick it up, but it was getting late and dad doesn't drive well at night. So he agreed to come to the house (it's been a long time) to drop it off, show it off, and answer any questions my parents had. He showed up around 9PM. My parents realized who he was as he had come to the house in the past plenty of times when we had parties. I think they felt more comfortable after that because they might have thought I was just mentioning a random friend. JW has been a car guy for as long as I've known him and that's why I trusted him. After talking with them, I settled in for him to show me some of the basic controls and options. While I've been in a Tesla a few times, I've never driven one. It's a little intimidating at first (along with the pressure of driving a different car). Took my time exiting the neighborhood as there were a few things to get used to like the braking. After a few turns on the roads, I felt more comfortable and simply drove while we caught up with each other. About half an hour later, I dropped him off, asked a few more questions about the car, and headed back home to relatively no issues. This man is always on his hustle and keeps his loyalty to those that deserve/earn it from him. One of those people I'll always be proud of and speak highly of. Thank you, JW.
One thing I needed to be diligent about was charging the car. I had seen Supercharge stations in passing, but obviously never used one. I looked up videos the day I finally used one (05.29). I'm glad I did because there were things I didn't know (the colors of the charge light, parking every other car to make the charge faster, etc), specifically needing to back up into the spots as the cable for the charger is short. I'm not good at backing up in general and usually avoid it if I can. Couldn't avoid it this time. Thankfully the station I went to wasn't very busy or packed giving me enough time and space to successfully back in (took 2 tries). Connected the cable and sat in the car while it charged. I only got an extra 20-25% as my timing was off and I needed to head work. That same night, I went to another Supercharge station on the normal way home. I sat there for about about 20 minutes to get it to 80%. It is a nice way to wind down and catch up on stuff on my phone while waiting. By the time I left, there were 6-7 cars at the station compared to the 2 when I pulled in.
A couple days later after leaving work early (05.31), I went to the original station. The one on the way home was full by the time I go there. Stayed there for a little over half an hour, but I wanted to get it to 100%. The last 5% sure took a while especially since someone pulled next to me as the station filled up. I know you don't have to charge it to 100%, but I figured if I were ever to do it while I had this rental, this was the time.
We did end up buying a new car (05.31). I didn't know until the night before that the process was happening. My dad has a friend that worked at a dealership and my parents went there that Saturday to look at cars. They locked down a car that was to their liking; a Toyota RAV4. The put down some money for a deposit. The next day, I went with them to get the car. I made sure to pay off more of my credit card to make sure there were no complications. I wasn't told how much so I paid off $5000 just to be safe. When we got there, I simply was not in the mood. One, I didn't know until the night before and wouldn't have been told if I didn't ask if they needed to be driven anywhere. Two, I didn't know how long this was going to take and I had to leave for work by noon (we got there at 10:30AM). Three, I never had good experiences at car dealerships with my family. With others, yes. With them, no. So I was expecting the worse. It wasn't that bad, but my mood didn't help. My dad's friend was with us the majority of the time. It took a while for him to get a manager to take our payments (it didn't seem that busy). They could have explained things a bit better as my mom got confused a few times. Not only that, they said they might be able to take a credit card payment, only debit. I mentioned I paid off part of the card earlier so there's enought credit and that I brought my check book just in case. Payment was taken care of ($2000 cash from my mom, $3000 credit from me). The manager that was helping us had a small collection of international money so I gave him some Korean won I had from WR when he last visited.
Once we were done and were heading back downstairs, I unfortunately was glaring at a woman I saw in one of the offices we were passing by. My mood still wasn't great, but I couldn't hide it. And I wasn't glaring because she was doing something horrible. She caught my attention because she was pretty, but that wasn't enough for me to shift my attitude and I realized shortly I was glaring at her as we walked by. This person will never read this, but I'm sorry and I hope I didn't ruin your day.
Downstairs, I had to download two apps. One was for the dealership. The other was specifically for the car (similar to the Tesla, but not as extravagant). It took a long time to download the apps (5-10 minutes each) due to their wi-fi. At some point, my dad's friend walked away to take care of things with another coworker. Sure the apps were still downloading at the time, but I don't think he mentioned that he'd be back or gave a time frame. My mom had to go find him. She was back in about 3 minutes. I had to ask a few questions as one was asking for an account and I couldn't create one. My mom had made an account the day before, but I didn't know. At least he was attentive with this part letting me know what to click on and what I had to fill out. Once that was finally done, he walked us out to the car. This was my first time seeing it and it was bigger than I had imagined (a good thing). We turned on the car and he walked me through the process of a few necessary things such as adjusting the mirrors and syncing my phone. Syncing the phone took a little longer than expected as he actually wasn't sure where to find certain settings on the touch screen. I'm glad that there was some ability sync phones because it would be helpful since the previous SUV didn't have full bluetooth functionality. I apologized for my demeanor and we were set. My parents took the Altima to do errands and I drove the RAV4 home. It was smooth and comfortable. I've gotten used to being up high compared to being low like in the Tesla. We are only holding the car for now and not driving it because we need to add it to the insurance. Speaking of insurance, they're still estimating how much we'll be getting from the accident and still determining if the previous SUV is salvageable even though it's been labeled totaled a few times already. Asked JW for an extra week with the Tesla and he approved. Hopefully the remaining bits will be done sooner than later.
Welcome home, Vy III.
Thanks to the handful of people that reached out. Some were from people I had not spoken to in years. Car accidents are all things we can unfortunatley relate with. And thank you to the SUV (Vy II) that is now totalled. You lasted for over a decade (2015). You've been on many road trips (Marfa being the farthest) and have been hit many times and survived. You hauled a lot of stuff back and forth like when helping people move or for transporting stuff for work. You served me, my family, and many other passengers well.
That's a wrap on May 2025. Thank you for your support. Be cool and be kind.
"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."
