Thursday, July 7, 2016

June 2016 Entry

Get ready to read a lot for this month. 

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- A friend had his bachelor party planned out for him (06.04). It was him and 3 others that started things off at HER to challenge Mo's Safehouse and I was their facilitator. One of them had been through Grandma's before, but the rest never did an escape room before. Them and a few strangers were able to escape. 

After work was over, I called them up to see if they were still together. I joined them as they were in the middle of a quiz involving questions about the bachelor (some that I had answered previously). It was just a hilarious time. I think we ended around 2AM.   

- Was feeling sick (or really tired from the bachelor party), but did a little cleaning in my room (06.05). I had done this years prior where I got rid of boxes I would keep from deliveries (in case I needed them). This time it was consolidating posters into fewer tubes and throwing out the rest. Didn't realize how many I actually had collected over the years. 

 

- The Eric Bischoff documentary was really good (06.07). Definitely humanizes the man and also gives closure on a lot of things that happened in his career. Worth the time to watch. 


- NXT TakeOver: The End (06.09) was fantastic just like all their TakeOver shows. The talent always performs to their best. The highlight for me was when the fans were singing along with Nakamura's theme song. Too dang good. 

And speaking of Nakamura, I bought a few new wrestling shirts. 


- Didn't have plans to go originally, but a friend asked me if I wanted to go to Comicpalooza (06.19). I had not been to one in 3 years I believe. At that time, I was working. This time, I got to enjoy it even if it were for one day. Ran into a few friends, but was for the most part enjoying time with my friend as he was in awe of everything and taking lots of photos (had to let him know of some convention etiquette, ha). I also made sure to hand out some business cards when appropriate. 

There weren't that many guests I was interested in seeing, but we did the rounds at the celebrity area a couple times. I walked by Arn Anderson and he looked at me and said "hey." I greeted him back. Classy. And Ric Flair was next to him so being in his presence was awesome. My friend was planning to go see Eliza Dusku, but didn't. We were really close to her at least, ha. And at one point, Kel Mitchell walked by me. But the coolest thing that happened was running into Taeler Hendrix outside of her booth. I wasn't completely sure it was her, but I asked and she confirmed. I brought up that I remember her debuting in TNA and she exclaimed and laughed "my Gut Check!" I then told her to keep up the good work before leaving. Very cool moment. 
 

Then it was home to watch Money In The Bank. Wow, so good. The MITB match itself was full of crazy moments. Then the end with Rollins winning and then Ambrose cashing in to become the new champion, so entertaining.  

- Sistar - I Like That (MV) 

Not my favorite of the summer hits, but I like it enough. If anything, I feel that this is Dasom's season to shine. 


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- Continued playing through Mega Man Legacy Collection. 2 more down, 2 more to go. 



- E3 had a lot of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I'm really excited and a little intimidated by the game right now. I do hope I'll have the time to play through it when it does come out. 


- A friend (and his wife and son) were in for Father's Day weekend. They dropped off a few gaming items he had been holding for me for a while; 2 PS2 games and one amiibo. 



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- With my PC back in working order, it was time crank out some videos for HER. The first was the long awaited trailer for Episode 2: Grandma Codebreaker. I recall Agent Blue actually getting emotional watching it. 


- We were visited by radio personalities from Radio One (06.08). At first I thought they were only from 97.9 (because someone who called the weekend prior mentioned only 97.9), but there were apparently a mix of 3 radio stations. They were a fun group. We also established a small little relationship with them so stay tuned for something in the future with us and them. 
 

- Cranked out a couple of videos from our 2nd Year Anniversary. One of them is viewable by the public. It's actually the short version of us making Rube Goldberg Machine (06.13). 
 

- Had our monthly meeting (06.15). Other than business as usual, I was in charge of the activity. I wasn't sure at first, but then came up with the idea of a quiz about Agent Blue since he was not going to be there. He was cool with the idea and was excited about it. We came up with a few questions and then I made a powerpoint for You Don't Know Blue. I was nervous about it, but it was a success. I also filmed it and edited it fast so Agent Blue could see it himself. 
 

- Much like we did for Mother's Day, we took special photos of dads during Father's Day (06.19). 


- And then we had one of the most draining weeks at HER (06.21-25). It wasn't just me, but almost all of us were feeling it. Some were sick, some got hurt, some of us were pushed to our limits and running on low. To top it off, we had a random act of vandalism (at least we hope it was random). One of our windows got smashed by a large rock. I give props to the whole staff for pulling together to make things run properly and to keep our customers happy. It was rough. While we were able to continue things business-wise, you could tell that the staff was out of it. Sure, we still joked around, but we weren't the same. Things are okay now, but it was a wake up call to beef up our security.   

- Agent Obsidian was chosen (by me) to write June's blog post. Click on the link to read it.  

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- Got my copy of BoA's Nowness concert. While I actually felt sick that day, it did make me feel better and cheer me up. I think I say it every time, but it seems like she has more fun than she did the prior concert. I know I always end up falling in love with her again, ha. This time around, it was a good mix of new songs and songs she never performed before during concerts. Definitely enjoyed singing along the whole time. 


- TaeYeon - Starlight (MV) 

TaeYeon - Why (MV) 

Starlight was alright, but it felt more like a song for the guy featured in it. Why is amazing though. I don't think I've ever been so into and proud of TaeYeon until now. Keep it up. You know you have my support. 

- Christina Grimmie was shot at a fan meeting after a concert (06.11). I woke up to the news that she was in the hospital in critical condition and I was worried. That did not last long as I scrolled down more to see that she actually passed away. I immediately watched the first time I ever saw and heard Christina sing.  


A small tribute I did for her was wear my Christina Grimmie gloves during work. I also called myself Agent 2264 (she was 22 when she died and her YouTube name was ZeldaxLove64). 


I played her songs for at least a day or two straight whenever I was on the road. Sang along and just remembered some good things about her life. I do recall she tweeted me at least once for something silly. There was a moment in time that she was streaming and playing Brawl against her fans and I tried to get in on that, but wasn't able to. I also remembered that she was in Houston not too long ago and I unfortunately did not go see her perform. One thing I knew I wanted to do in the future was ask her to sing at my wedding. While it would have been a long shot, it was something I would have tried to make happen. 

I didn't know Christina personally, but I was there from when she started at 15. The first time I heard her sing, I knew she was an extraordinary talent and knew she would make it big. I was part of Team Grimmie and a Frand. She did a lot of things and I was proud of her. I was bummed that she didn't win The Voice, but knew that that wasn't the end for her. The sky was the limit for her and she was taken away too early.  


Rest In Peace, Christina Grimmie. 

- I got see Alessandra again (06.14). Her mom and I did a few things before coming back to take care of her. It was very stress relieving. Her mom and I said a lot of things the whole time. We knew that what we were doing at the moment was at one time our future. But the fact that we were still friends despite not being together meant a lot to the both of us. In the end, I told her something that I have meant to say for a while and that she is my best friend.  

She texted me to come to San Antonio early to help take care of the baby as she packed. I had requested time off in the beginning of July to visit them, but things had to happen sooner. It fortunately fell in at the same time I had a 3-day weekend. So I left on Sunday (06.26) to go see them. The ride there was probably the easiest I had traveling to San Antonio. I took the new car (couldn't find the cruise control option...) and played DDR songs the whole way. 

I immediately got to take care of Alessandra and it was great. I've never held a baby as much as I have her. Had lunch at a nearby Korean place (pretty good). She's such a good baby in the car and was very tame in the restaurant. Back at the apartment, I got to continue taking care of her and I learned a lot. There were a few times I was left alone with Alessandra and I was calm yet worried. Fortunately, I was able to get her to sleep. Not only that, she slept on my chest. THAT was an incredible feeling. Moments like that are reasons I want to be a father. Ending the night with pho for dinner, so good. 

The second day was more baby care and packing. A familiar face showed up to help take a few things and then my best friend had another friend show up with her 4 kids to help pack and take stuff with her. The familiar face left with his friend and then I was asked to pick up my best friend's step-daughter while her friend took care of the 5 kids (yeah). This was something I was a little worried about as I never had one-on-one time with her step-daughter. I've seen her a couple times and she knew I worked at an escape room, but never really did anything together or talked. When I picked her up, I made sure to properly introduce myself. It was a little quiet in the car, but I knew 2 things I wanted to try. One was ask her how to return to the apartment. Sure, I had a GPS, but I wanted us to talk and I also wanted her to feel important. The other was to talk about the escape room. When she found out I worked at one a few months ago, she was excited since she enjoyed the app games. She was also excited about finally getting to go to one with us and a friend. So I talked to her about what to expect and to come up with a plan (tell everyone what you find, don't be afraid to move things, etc). I could tell she was pumped for it. She even asked questions that we get from normal customers, but it was different hearing it from her. 

After returning and a bit of time for more packing and eventually for the extra kids to leave, the four of us headed out to pick up the step-daughter's friend and then go to the escape room. We were unfortunately told that babies were not allowed. They mentioned that it was on their website that no one 7 or under was allowed (it was not) and they stated reasons why. However, they let us continue as we were the only ones signed up for that session. They even put another lamp inside for the baby as the room we chose was a little dark (not really). Other than making sure the baby was okay, I wanted to make sure that everyone was important to the team. I made sure that the step-daughter and her friend opened up locks when we found answers. I made sure my best friend did important things that i was weaker at than her. All of that was apparent and we were a great team. We were unfortunately one step away from getting out. Everyone had fun, but were bummed out for not getting out. My escape room record is now 12 escapes out of 15 rooms. 

Dinner afterwards was nice. Some strangers gave us coupons for free kids' meals and dessert since they us coming in with a baby. And the step-daughter and her friend were very open to talking with me. The step-daughter went as far as to tell me she tried crank calling me a lot over the past few months, ha (I never picked up). My best friend even asked if she wanted to stay the night at her friend's place again since it would be the last time she could. The looks on their faces lighting up was great. 

Day 3, more alone time with Alessandra. This was also the first time I changed her diaper. Never changed a diaper before. Just to fast forward a bit, I changed her diaper again later in the day, but did not make it snug...so she pooped on me, ha. That girl, such a little gas machine. Another of her friends came by to help take things. He stuck around the whole time and was a cool dude to talk to. But yeah, mainly more time with me and Alessandra. I tried to get her to sleep to Zelda's Lullaby (almost worked) and I played with her a lot while watching the Game Show Network (yay for Family Feud and Deal or No Deal). I was also given a gift to take home with me. She sat in the passenger seat the whole ride back to Houston. 


I actually planned to leave back for Houston at 2PM, but I couldn't leave. I changed the time to 6PM, but it was delayed since it rained. But as it was getting closer to night time, I was feeling down. I knew eventually that I would leave and that soon Alessandra and my best friend would be moving to Buffalo. I was thinking of a speech to say to my best friend and I was getting emotional just thinking about it. When it came time, I hugged both her and the baby together and did not want to let go. She could tell. We had one more hug outside in the rain (felt like out of a movie). I was really emotional at that point and couldn't say anything I wanted to. I left driving away in tears and it took a good while before I stopped crying on the road. I did text everything to her once I got home. I then enjoyed a nice night of rest in my own bed.  

The whole ride back, I kept thinking of what happened the past 3 days. I spent the most time ever in my life taking care of a baby. So many firsts happened like changing a diaper, feeding a baby, doing anything to entertain a baby, putting a baby to sleep, waking up in the middle of the night to calm a crying baby, and so much more. I got to be a dad. It was amazing. To my best friend and Alessandra, I love you so much and I miss you. Can't wait to see you again. 

And that is it for June. It ended with one the most physically (bad) and emotionally (good) draining weeks I can recall ever having. Thanks for reading. Be healthy, be safe, be thankful, and be loved. 


"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits." 
 

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