March 2026 Entry:
So much happened this month and it felt like it went slow.
MISC=========================
- Ordered Puffs with Vicks before cancelling my Prime account (03.01). I learned about when lifewithbaz was sick and his partner bought some for him. I always forgot to look for them in stores so I ordered them off Amazon when I actually remembered them. It's not a super strong smell, but it's enough that you can smell the Vicks coming through the box, ha. Part of me wants to try one, but I think I'll save it for when it really matters.
- Went to file my taxes (03.02). Went to the same volunteer place I've been going to for the last couple of years. They changed the location within the library due to voting so I had someone redirect me on where to go. I checked in...and was given the same person I had last year. Two others were still setting up, the manager was kept free to float around, and everyone else was busy with someone. I wish I waited, I had time to wait, but I figured to see how round two goes. He remembered me...and he still made comments. He did mix in some advice, which wasn't bad, but he definitely didn't read my mood. I was trying to maintain interest, but then made comments about the owners and how all owners are trying to screw their employees. You know nothing about the people I work for. The one that really made me shut down like last time was "why didn't your dad teach you these things." C'mon...why would you say and expect me to care about anything else you have to say? I could not wait for him to pass me off to someone else to check his work. I didn't talk much with her, but at least we laughed when she said the wrong number about my return (she added a zero, ha). Yes, in the end, I did get a refund. I wasn't expecting it since nothing really changed from last year other than the raise I got. When all my papers were printed, I asked if she had an envelope to put all of it in and she said they were at the entrance. I went over there to the guy that checked me in, got the envelope, and bent down to put my papers away and to be out of sight while I talked to him. I mentioned that I didn't like the guy that did my taxes, how it's the second year in a row he said things I didn't appreciate, and asked if I could talk to the manager. He said that he was busy at the moment, which he was and asked if I could wait. I could have, but I didn't know how long it would be and I had work later in the day so I didn't want to wait too long just in case. He did ask if it was worth talking about it to which I said that I think someone at least needs to know especially if he talks that way to others. He said that there was a survey number I could call on the envelope then. I thanked him, shook his hand, and left. I ended up filling out an online survey the next day. I was able to type a lot and included the person's name as well as the manager's for a reference. I figured they could find who I was talking about since they also asked for the zip code of where I went.
Afterwards I went to Poppin' Tea. I thought to possibly go home and wait to go to work, but this was the other plan if there was time. The main reason I went was to get their Blue Ocean drink. I shared it with the HERetirees the day before as I found it while checking for new boba places. It was technically on the way to work too, but only a little out of the way. The place itself was larger than I expected. They had a nice variety of options for both drinks and food. I asked about the Blue Ocean drink before ordering it. It wasn't bad. I sat down for maybe half an hour before decided to leave, but not before listening to the last song that played before I left; TaeYeon's "I." It's been a while since I've heard that song let alone heard it out in public. Once that was done, I left. And unfortunately, I had to stop drinking the Blue Ocean. I knew ahead of time it was a soda...and I can't have soda. But it didn't affect me until I was driving. I could feel the headache coming on as well as some numbness. Once I realized that, I stopped taking sips and started drinking the water I had to help calm things. I ended up giving the drink to a homeless person who gladly accepted it. And by the time I got to work, I was 30 minutes early so I laid down in my car to rest and thankfully I felt better before stepping into the venue.
- Tried out a new dessert place called Scoops. It was on the way to meet a friend. Went in, was kindly greeted, and was introduced to their options. I had a couple things in mind already, but wanted to see what they would suggest. One was an ice cream waffle, which did look good based on the photos. The other was one of the things I was thinking of; a sundae. They suggested the Brownie Cow since it is the most popular item and that was one of the flavors I wanted. Once she described it in more detail, I was sold. She prepared it, I paid for it, I took it to my table, and enjoyed it while we talked for about 20 minutes. The warm brownie was the best part. I stayed warm almost the entire time and it was a caramel brownie, which I have never had before. Scoops was very new. Only been around since January 22nd. We talked about a few business things like reviews since we're both managers. She did ask if I would be in a photo along with the sundae and I declined. Normally I'm okay with group photos, but if I hesitate on a solo photo, that probably means I shouldn't. At least she asked. But I promised I'd post my photo and tag them online as well as tell others. I finished everything as customers came in. I bid the worker adieu and headed out.
Met up with my friend. Saw them last month with others, but this was the first time in a while since we hung out with just each other. It was a good opportunity to catch up more than we did last time.
- Met up at Ramen Bar Ichi for Kai's birthday (03.07). I knew I couldn't be part of the latter activities, but knew I could make it for lunch. It's been a long time since I had been there, but I mentioned to Rannchan that they have the tsuke-men ramen that she's wanted to try. For Kai and G, it was their first time there. While it was only for about 90 minutes, it was good to be around them. Got offered a chocolate cupcake before leaving and I ended up eating that late into my work day.
- Watched Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie (03.08). I had a $1.50 digital coupon to use up until the 15th of the month and this helped make the price of renting the movie even cheaper. I have seen some clips from the movie over the years and even recall watching the review at the end of the movie as it played out. As for everything else, it was an AVGN affair with the type of humor and language you'll find in his videos. I found it quite enjoyable. There were a few cameos from other popular gaming personalities (probably some I missed). What stood out the most to me were the practical effects. I remember watching a video where he talks about them and it was cool to see them happen. It's easy to recommend this if you're a fan of his YouTube videos.
- Bought a Dubai Chocolate bundtlet from Nothing Bundt Cakes (03.10). It was another limited time flavor and it served well as a treat for the 11-hour work day. Had a nice chat with the manager there before heading to work. I ate it throughout the day at work. It was fine. Not bad by any means. I did feel a little disappointed in the Dubai chocolate aspect. I never had Dubai chocolate and always heard how good it was...and it may have been over hyped. Like I said, it was fine.
- Went to Drip Dessert after going to GameStop (03.12). It was on the list of places to check out and I needed to give myself a treat. It was empty when I was there and there were no workers at the front. I waited for a couple minutes for someone to come out (no bell to ring). But they were very helpful in describing what I was deciding between after browsing their menu. It was between The Drip Special and the Snickeroo. Ended up going with The Drip Special belgian waffle and added cookie dough ice cream to it. It was larger than expected, but it was so dang good. I was able to finish 2/3 of it before leaving around 5:30PM to meet NRM.
NRM reached out to me in the morning asking to get dinner. I mentioned I might be out early from work and I'd tell him when I end up getting out. He messaged HeXagon to see if anyone was available to grab some food, but none could make it. I told him where I was and nothing out there was appealing to him so he searched for places between us and landed on 92 Chicken. It was a new Korean chicken restaurant and it was 10 minutes from him and 20 minutes from me. Since I already had a dessert prior, I only ordered popcorn chicken and a drink, but we shared the Gold Cheese fries. His wings looked really good. The bite he offered was strong in flavor. Same with the fries, very strong in flavor. The popcorn chicken wasn't bad either. Not as juicy as other places, but stronger in flavor. We had a good 90 minutes of catching up on things and enjoying good food before splitting around 7PM.
- For the first time in a long time...I took a nap (03.13). Being sleepy has hit me a lot lately. In between things that day, I had many hours to do nothing so I plopped myself down and had a two hour nap. It was interrupted a few times, but the fact that two hours were spent to recharge the battery hopefully will be beneficial.
Later on, members of HeXagon met for dinner. Three of us ate at PokeBurri. I suggested it and no one else said anything so that was it. NE and HD and I pretty much showed up at the parking lot at the same time. When we came in, the worker mentioned how it would be a 20 minute wait for the food. We were okay with that. I ordered Sushi Pizza, which was part of their secret menu. Sat down and chatted it up (Kpop, sports, etc). The food came out in 10-15 minutes and it was good. Mine was larger than I thought it was. KN ended up joining us after work. After he ordered his food, I placed an order for BL to take to him. About half an hour later we all left to meet BL at their workplace.
PC and KC joined us there. Shout out to the girl that complimented my shirt, ha. Some got desserts and drinks. We commandeered a table towards the back and BL joined us to eat his food and go on break as the venue was closing. We ended up leaving around 9:15PM, but stayed outside where there were benches to chill and continue talking (fan calls, rodeo, etc). KN left first, BL finally joined us, PC and KC left, and I left at 10:30PM. Good times with the HeXagon gang.
- I updated my dating app profiles (03.14). The only thing I changed was the bio. I replaced "ultimately looking for a partner to start a family with" with "looking for someone to try new dessert places with (and companionship, ha)." A little lighthearted and less serious. I'm hoping this will have a better uptick in swipes.
- NXT was in town (03.17). It was close to a year since the last time they were here. Went to pick up Rannchan at 3:30PM so we could get some Hotline Burger to fuel up. Neither of us had been there, but G had and liked it. I got the Hotline Combo, which had a Hotline Burger and Hot Fries. Figured why not try their namesake. It was good, but nothing spectacular. I'm not a big burger guy to begin with, but I liked it. We left around 4:30PM to make our way out.
Parked at a spot I reserved, which coincidentally was the same lot that NE and I had last year, ha. We made the short walk over to wait in line at the venue. We crossed the pocket check and waited so that ducky could meet with us. He ended up getting the same lot as us too. I passed through the metal detector and got directed to the fast lane for reasons I don't know so I had to wait for ducky and Rannchan to make their way through. We looked at the merchandise from afar, but ducky decided to get in line to get stuff. Rannchan made our way up to section 301 to our seats only to find out that a camera was taking up one of them. We were seats 3, 4, and 5 and the camera was taking seats 1, 2, and 3. We waved a nearby worker over and showed them our digital tickets. He then later found an attendant to take care of the situation. She double checked our tickets and agreed that the camera was taking up one of our seats. She said she would talk with someone and be back soon. We waited for about 10 for her to return with 3 comped tickets for a different section. She apologized and pointed to where we were relocated to. From section 301 front row seats 3, 4, and 5 to section 201 front row seats 1, 2, and 3. Upgrade, yay. That was pretty much $50-$100 off per ticket. We were excited. Texted ducky the new location and told him the story when he arrived. He also showed off his mystery bag of shirts (8 for $40) and his signed Sol Ruca print. And then from out of nowhere, I see my cousin JL walking by. I called out his name, we hugged, he introduced me to his girlfriend and friend, we took a photo, and he went to sit a section and a few rows over. The show was awesome. Screamed my head off the whole time per usual. As we were walking to our cars, my cousin and crew ended up being a few feet behind me. We all parked in the same lot, ha. Bid them adieu as I drove Rannchan back home. Chilled for a bit with her and G before going home at 10:30PM. Good times.
- Stopped by Uni Uni after work (03.19). It was one of the first places I found when I started my stint of trying new boba/dessert places. It was always bad timing to try to stop by because it's in an HEB and adhered to their store hours. Plus...it was out of the way. From work with traffic, it was about a 50 minute drive. I didn't mind going this time as I got out of work the earliest ever at 3:30PM and didn't have anything going on afterwards. It was either this or the newest spot I had bookmarked and figured I should go with the former since it had been in cue for a long time. It was a small place. Literally only a couple of chairs to wait, the cash register, and the back where they made the drinks that was blocked off. I ordered a Strawberry Orange Jasmine Green Tea with Crystal Boba. Took a photo and took a few sips as I walked to my car. It was fine. Tasted good, but nothing I probably could not have gotten anywhere else. But I assume they do well as there aren't many boba places (from what I've noticed) in the area. From there it was a 25 minute drive back. I wasn't familiar with where I was as I kept thinking "where am I," ha. I was on familiar streets, but just further than what I was used to. Got home around 5PM and gradually finished off my drink.
- I woke up a little late (03.22). My daily alarm was set to PM instead of AM so I woke up about 40 minutes later than I normally would. Because of that, I decided to skip morning stretches. That was odd to do because even if I did wake up later than usual, I'd still fit in stretching. Yeah...I shouldn't skip stretching, ha. It's not that I felt horrible, but the aches and pains in certain areas (upper back, shoulders, etc) were definitely there. I made sure to double up on stretching the next day...which oddly enough I also wake up late, but by only 20 minutes.
- Went to my first of two ENT appointments for the year (03.25). Arrived early around 10:30AM and waited for my hearing test at 11AM. Not much different there. Then I waited for my 11:30AM appointment with the doctor. When I got out, the receptionist mentioned that there would be a 30-45 minute wait. Okay. I've had to wait a little extra before. But 10-15 minutes later, another receptionist announced to everyone that they were one hour behind. That was a lot. I listened to some podcasts and watched a few YouTube videos to fill the time. I was finally called up, but was asked if I was properly checked in after my hearing test. I said I was as I went to the receptionist and he verbally said I was good to go and wait. According to the person that called me up, I wasn't set as ready...and apparently so were a few others he checked in. Otherwise I would have been seen earlier. Okay. I waited about 10 more minutes before being brought into a patient room. I asked what was going on and not only was it not being checked in properly, but the doctor overbooked things too. There were four patients slotted for 11:30AM. I didn't get in until around 1:15PM and only saw the doctor for 15 minutes. I could tell he wasn't going to say anything about why he was behind and try to banter like we normally do as he had more patients to get to. There were no issues outside of wax and getting dizzy as he took out a large chunk. I set up my next appointment and left around 1:30PM. That was bad. I've waited long before, but never that long a delay.
After that, I went to try a new (to me) ice cream place 10 minutes away called Flower & Cream. I liked the flavors I saw online and that it wasn't anything crazy. Simple cups or cones with your scoops. I ordered a Biscoff Cookie Butter (one scoop cup). Got my cup, paid, and sat down within a couple of minutes. Yeah, the worker wasn't very social and immediately went to the back when they were done serving me. There wasn't even any music playing so I was sitting all by myself with nothing going on. The ice cream itself was great though. And then a friend who I haven't seen in months came in. They were on their way to work and wanted a treat beforehand. We caught up for about half an hour before they had to go. It was a nice surprise.
I was home around 3:30PM.
- Tried out Swig (03.26). They were a few minutes away from the GameStop I normally go to. Similar to Dutch Bros, it's a drive thru drink place, but smaller. Their specialty is dirty sodas. There was a lot I would have tried if they didn't have soda in them, but they had a few alternate options. When I pulled up, I mentioned how I wanted to try their Sour Patch Kids flavors, but they had soda. The worker mentioned I could substitute it with sparkling water and I was in. It took less than 5 minutes to make my order, pull up to the window, and receive my drink. It came with a color changing straw and a Sour Patch Kid. I was worried that there was still a possibility that they didn't substitute the soda with sparkling water, but they did. It is as advertised, a sour drink that tastes like a Sour Patch Kid. I specifically got the blue one (red and watermelon were the other options). I am curious how the extreme sour option would taste (I went with regular sour). Good stuff for a cheap price.
- Met up with two members of HeXagon to make bracelets (03.29). It was originally slated for Saturday, but it was going to be hard for anyone to make it so it was moved to Sunday morning. NRM and KN went to get donuts and I waited for a few minutes outside of NRM's home for them to return. Later in the day we ordered pizza to keep us fueled. It was a fun time singing to Kpop and sharing stories as we made the bracelets. I should say they made the bracelets as I'm not good at crafts and had to let them know about it. However, I did side tasks such as cutting strings and finding/organizing letters for each members' name for the groups they were making them for (TWICE and NMIXX). We ended around 3PM since NRM was going to church.
I then texted JW letting him know I was on my way to Texas Showdown. I was on the fence about going all weekend as this would be the only time I could, but I kept questioning if it was worth it as the event would close in 3 hours by the time I would get there. I wore a Chun-Li shirt just in case and even had snacks ready for Vampy as she was attending as a special guest. NRM was generous with the leftover donuts and pizza so I took the donuts to take to JW and his staff. Found my way there and arrived around 4PM. Parked in the nearby garage (almost parked a little farther for free to walk, but figured to save myself from the heat. Made my way into the lobby and the front area before the main lobby. I looked in and then walked over to a staff member stating my mission of delivering donuts for JW. I did let him know I didn't have a badge and didn't want to cause any issues, but he walked me into the main hall and said to try and find him within 10 minutes. I walked around looking and texted him letting him know I was in. He told me he was in front of the CVS2 big screen. I didn't see him at first, but finally did and delivered the donuts, which he was delighted to see. We briefly greeted each other, I said that one of the staff members lended me their badge to find him (I didn't want to buy one for only being there for a short time, he understood), and I told him my second mission of finding Vampy. I did pass by her and her booth while looking for JW, but wanted to make sure to find him first.
I went by her booth and she wasn't there, but JRYU was. I waved to him as I waited behind someone with a dog that was talking to him. After they were done I greeted JRYU and asked if he remembered me. I mentioned that we met many years ago at Anime Matsuri. Then he asked for my name, I said it, and he said "oh f*ck, it's you! Give me a hug!" We hugged across the table and he said how he completely remembered me. I mentioned I was only here to deliver donuts to JW and to bring him and Vampy snacks. That's when I handed him a bag that had freeze dried ice cream, jelly worms, and turtle chips. There was also a blind bag DBZ keychain I had leftover from my birthday and I figured she would be the best person to give it to. But she wasn't available when I was there as the cosplay contest was going on and she was one of the judges (I believe). I let JRYU know that I was going to leave because the badge wasn't mine and that I didn't want to get anyone in trouble, but would try to come back if I could. JRYU mentioned that he wasn't checked for his badge and said it would be fine, but if he didn't see me in 5 minutes, he would come bring me in. I left, returned my badge to the kind staff member, and said something like "I wish I could go back in." He replied that since it's the last day and the last few hours, there was a high chance no one was really going to care and that the last day is usually more lax anyways. With that, I thanked him, walked around the vendors in the lobby, and made my way back into the main hall. Greeted JRYU and he was glad I was back. As the cosplay contest was going on, he went to film things and I watched along as the winner were crowned. I continued watching the game on screen on stage in front of me (I believe it was Melty Blood because it was a game I wasn't familiar with). JRYU tapped me on the shoulder saying Vampy was back at the booth and to wait in line. He brought another couple with him to and he got Vampy's attention saying they were here and that I was there too. She looked up and waved all excited at them and at me. I waited patiently as some of the staff were talking to her and of course others were in line to take photos with her. It was a while waiting, but they started to pack things up. They handed stickers and keychains and prints to those that were around. I made sure to ask for a photo when there was an opportunity to do so. Afterwards we hugged and talked for a bit. I kept exclaiming how I was surprised that they remembered me (very heartwarming). I asked how long they were in town for and they said they were leaving the next day (TSA etc). I mentioned how I wanted to invite them to the escape room that I worked at and they said possibly next time when they're in town again (September). They also said if I was ever in their town to hit them up. We exchanged a few more encouraging words, hugged again, and I left.
I went around to where JW was to hopefully find him again and I did. I gave him a hug, congratulated him on the event (25 years), and said I was proud of him. I was welling up as I said that. He thanked me for showing up and said we'll attempt to make time to eat in the near future. I headed out, thanked the staff member that let me in, walked back to my car in the garage, paid for parking, and headed home.
Productive day. Missions accomplished.
GAMES=========================
- Demo Showcase Shorts continues. 22 this month. 4 ups, 13 sideways, 5 downs (I'll start tallying these each month). The only one that ended up on my wish list was UNDER THE ISLAND as it's very much a top-down Zelda game. Technically there were two on my wish list, but one was already there; Denshattack! I added that as soon as it was announced.
11 demos left on deck to try.
- Indie World: My Standouts (03.03)
Denshattack (it looks amazing and fun)
My Little Puppy (I remember the Game Grumps played the Steam demo a while back)
Minishoot Adventures (also looks amazing and fun, Kit from Kit & Krysta recommends it)
Blue Prince (I'm interested, but will wait for a sale)
Demos (Denshattack, Unrailed 2: Back on Track, Outbound)
- Watched all the cutscenes from Resident Evil 9 Requiem (03.01-03.03). Crazy stuff. It's odd that I wanted to find out what happened in this game, but I didn't watch all the cutscenes from VII and VIII. I know of some things that happen in those and even know how VII ends. I think it's because of Leon. I was curious to see what happened to him.
- Super Mario Galaxy off the Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 compilation finished (03.01-03.03-03.04). The dates listed are when I started, when I beat it, and when I got all 120 stars. I forgot that the last 15 are only attainable in the post-game. For some reason, I thought I was going a little slow in collecting them, but this was a good chunk of time spent. It almost mirrored when I streamed it 5 years ago (finished 03.10.21). The only thing I didn't do was do what I've never done and play and beat the game as Luigi. As much as I like Luigi, I've never felt compelled to play through the game again even back in 2007. I like this game enough, but there were always parts that I never felt I could do consistently well no matter what or I was fighting the camera etc. While I was more aware of the things I didn't like about the game, it still holds up very well.
- Our free-to-play game of the month was THE NEW DENPA MEN (03.05). I think I've played a demo or another free-to-play version of a Denpa Men game in the past because I knew what this was beforehand. It's simple in the RPG elements and dungeon crawling. I'd recommend it for someone new to those genres and wanted something not overly complicated. You can also avoid all the micro-transactions and play (apparently) a 60 hour game for free.
- Virtual Boy Wario Land was our Virtual Boy game of the month (03.08). I heard nothing but positive comments about this game throughout the years. Now I see why. The platforming and action was simple. Wario's different hat abilities were interesting to try out as they are quite different from what you'd expect from Mario's powers. Stages weren't overly large or long and going back and forth from the foreground and background was neat and nothing too complicated to figure out. I never had to worry about the timer as most stages took no more than 5 minutes with a little bit of back and forth including rewinds to find all the treasures and keys. I did consider getting all the endings, but after seeing how long it took beat it once (and some endings needing to have a total game time of over 2 hours), I settled for the best ending. Good stuff.
Also this was the least the 3D bothered me. I really had to take more time away when I played 3-D Tetris and Galactic Pinball. I did take a short break after each level, but I barely felt any eye strain. The biggest pain was actually having the cardboard lay on my face. It didn't hurt as much before so I don't know what was different this time. But I would take the physical pain from the cardboard over the eye strain and headache any day.
- Picked up the Kirby Air Riders: Meta Knight & Shadow Star amiibo (03.09). I couldn't get it on the original release date because of my packed work schedule. It's not the first time that has happened, but thankfully they know I'm the amiibo guy that will always buy them. Got it before work, caught up with the manager there, and tried to pre-order more. The Monster Hunter Stories 3, PRAGMATA, Resident Evil Requiem, and other Kirby Air Riders amiibo weren't pre-orderable. Only the upcoming Dedede one. So I made sure to put down money for that and the Disney Afternoon Collection. But they said to call on Friday for the Monster Hunter Stories 3 amiibo and that they would hold one of each for me if they do come in.
My original plan for the photo was to grab the other Meta Knight amiibo and have them together. But since the majority are in a bin now, digging them out didn't seem worth the time. That probably will be how my mind will think for taking future amiibo photos.
amiibo count is now 248.
- Got my copy of FATAL FRAME II: Crimson Butterfly REMAKE (03.12). Went to GameStop after work and picked it up with no problem. I also pre-ordered FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH while I was there. As I was leaving, one of the workers asked me if I was looking for a specific figure (Rosalina & Luma). I said I already had it and went into depth about my amiibo collection. I mentioned how I was only buying my favorites until I realized I wanted more. I said how I have a full retail collection that included the imports (mentioned how much they go for) and that I don't have the special giveaways and the cards. He mentioned how at a different location, someone traded around 150 amiibo and got close to $900 for them. That's crazy.
- Wario World was the Gamecube NC game of the month (03.09-03.13). First time playing it, but the first level felt familiar. Maybe I played a demo at a kiosk a long time ago because I was familiar with what Wario could do combat-wise. The rest of the game, not familiar. I didn't know that secret areas were sectioned off to be their own zones (going down floor areas to collect secrets) which made the whole levels longer timewise. It was good that you could go back into the level to collect what was missed without having to collect everything again, but I figured I might as well get them all in one run. I would play a level getting what I could find and use the balloons at the end of the level to go back to the beginning and that's when I would look up to find what I missed. Rinse and repeat for all levels. I unfortunately realized early on that combat was for the most part skippable and I really wouldn't do it unless I had to. In the end, I didn't dislike my time completing the game and I see why people like it. For me it's a one and done.
- Next up on Capcom Fighting Collection 2 was Capcom Fighting Evolution (03.15). I originally set aside three days to complete this. Knocked it out in hours, ha. There wasn't much to the game. Twelve playthroughs to beat the game with everyone. I knew of the negativity that this game garners and I totally get it now. The game and concept isn't bad, but there's a lack of polish in every aspect like the backgrounds, the music, and so much more. The best thing was the ending comic page per character. Everything else felt so soulless.
Crush Crush continues. I finally got another 200 diamonds (one a day at the least) and purchased the last buyable girl; Lake. I saved her for last and I didn't recall why. It was always going to be Lake, Sawyer, and Nova as the last 3. Quickly finished her stuff...and I still had one more left to unlock; Babybelle. To do so, it requires completing her Phone Fling + getting her through the LTE. Well, I had finished her Phone Fling a while ago and it says that she's in the store. She is not. I tried a reset and ended up doing everyone's stuff again. Online says to try a hard reset, but that means starting from zero without bonuses. A regular reset has the bonus making going through everything easier...but yeah, no Babybelle. I'll have to look up more things to see what I need to do. The only other good thing about doing the reset was choosing the other option of sacrificing myself, which I need to do a total of 3 times according to the stat screen. But I forgot that the hobbies and jobs reset in their times so waiting for them to refill took a while. It's been a bit so I thought I'd be back to where I was before the reset in no time. Incorrect. I'm now up to speed on how demanding some of the requirements are for the girls. So I'm basically back on clicking the A button a bajillion times again, ha.
But on the 19th, I decided to email their support service. I let them know about the issue with Babybelle. They replied later in the day mentioning how it is an issue they knew of for a while. They have a fix for it, but haven't put out their latest update as there are a few other things. So they manually added her into the game for me. So now I need to finish her path and then reset the game once more and work my way up again to sacrifice the main character...and that should be everything.
- Finally received the classic cover for SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance (03.19). Ordered the game on 05.30.25, got the physical copy of the game on 09.03.25, got the classic cover arrived on 03.17.26, and I plan to actually play it this June. Heck of a timeline, ha.
- DELTARUNE Chapter 3 finished (03.17-03.21). I was trying to play this around the same time I streamed the first two chapters which were on 03.11.19 and 03.11.22 respectively. I could have forced it to happen, but I figured it would be fine to at least be in the same month. I definitely didn't beat it in one sitting like I did before. Unfortunately this chapter didn't hook me. It might have been the shift in tone being silly and comedic, which I didn't mind for the most part. But it takes you out of it. I did like the old school Zelda top-down sequences and would have been fine if it were just that (the last top-down boss was tough). And while I had been doing well with a pacifist run in chapters 1 and 2 and doing everything, I couldn't with this. I made sure to look up how to get to the "secret" boss that appears at the end and be prepared for it. I was surprised that you couldn't pacify it and had to straight up fight it. I checked online and this doesn't ruin your pacifist run at least. But I could not actually beat the Roaring Knight. I actually was able to get passed the threshold to continue with the ending in my first fight. After watching it, I went back to replay the fight as you can get an item for beating it. I got worse with each attempt and each attempt was short as the boss can one-shot you easily. I tried for about half an hour with multiple tries and decided to not bother. I was already not as invested in this chapter and the huge spike in difficulty with this final fight made me not care to keep trying. I am curious what will happen in chapter 4 (scheduled for March 2027), but I was a little disappointed playing this chapter.
- Got my Monster Hunter Stories 3 amiibo delivered (03.21). The day of their release, there were notifications about checking GameStop's app and the Nintendo online store for them. I checked both and held a set in basket for both sites because I was going to call my usual GameStop just in case. They unfortunately did not have any and I ended up choosing to go with Nintendo's site to make my order. That was odd because at least with GameStop I would have gotten points, but I don't know why I did that. Both offered free shipping due to the total cost at least. They arrived a few days later and they are great, especially the two different Rathalos amiibo.
amiibo count is now 251.
- Wario Land 3 was an extra NC game from the GB library (03.22-03.24). This was originally scheduled for September, but figured to keep the Wario game train going. Never played this one so I was stunned to see the HowLongToBeat time frame of 10-21 hours. But I get it now and it's one of my biggest criticisms; it just keeps going. It's not that it's a bad game. It's actually fine. But after a while I was wondering when I could wrap the game up. I ended up following a video guide halfway through to make sure I didn't wander around too much. I ended up collecting 75 out of 100 treasures. It would have taken another good day to get the rest, but I was ready to tackle the final boss when it finally opened up. Apparently you only needed 48 treasures to unlock the final boss if you only collected the specific ones needed to progress. I wish I knew that and maybe I would have felt better about this game. Again, it's not bad. You get a lot for what you paid for especially for a handheld platformer/Metroid-type game.
- Picked up the Super Mario Bros. Wonder amiibo (03.26). Elephant Mario does feel hefty, ha. Poplin & Prince Florian look great. And of course Captain Toad (& Talking Flower) is the standout just for being Captain Toad. I like that they all have a grass base and the red bottom (red normally for Mario series specific amiibo). Neat that the grass bases can connect loosely together.
amiibo count is now 254.
- Wario Land 4 was an extra NC game from the GBA library (03.25-03.28). It's Wario Land 3, but better. Controlling Wario was familiar (movement, transformations, etc). The level structure helped a lot. Rather than going back to a level after gaining an ability, you already have everything you need to beat a level and collect everything. If you had to go back to a level because you missed something, you only need to find that item and exit the level again. Exiting the level in general was my biggest negative. The timer makes you worry if you missed anything or simply trying to make it back to the beginning within that time frame. It was never horrible unless I missed something when I hit that threshold. Did I miss it previously or will I be collecting it on the way back? It was hard to tell. But other than that, I did like the WarioWare type sounds and charm and the fact that you can choose your own order of playing the stages. A simple game to 100%.
WORK=========================
- First work day of the month (03.02). SP will be at our venue for 2-4 weeks while Agent Ocean will be at the sister location. HL will be helping train SP on things as well as other new employees for the third location. Agent Ocean will be helping train new employees for the sister location. And I will be training new employees for the main venue. CA came in as usual, but we all met our newest employee CS (another one, I will refer to them as CSt to help differentiate). Gave her the tour as CA was going over training videos. When I finished giving the tour and showing her how to use our clock-in app, she and CA played one of the rooms as CSt never played one. As they played, I also took care of gift cards and walked customers into their rooms.
When they were done with their room, I had them work together to learn how to reset the room. They were following the reset guide and trading off as I would point at stuff. And...unfortunately this wasn't a good first impression of CSt. I was worried in general as she would always agree with a "yes" or "uh-huh" for any question I asked. During the tutorial reset, she didn't seem to know what was what, which makes sense for some things, but if pointing them out and handed things to you, I would have expected a small bit of understanding. The biggest thing that went off was how she could not close a regular key lock. It's nothing complex; just close the clasp. I had to show her a few times and even shine a light to help her see. But this took minutes before she could properly lock it. From that point on I monitored her in even greater detail. CA had no issues and later on helped guide CSt through a reset as I needed to take care of customers. After the room was reset and by the time HL and SP left, I had CA Game Master for one room she had already done a few times while I walked CSt through all the puzzles. This...took...long...almost the entire hour as I had the game running. It really seemed like she didn't know anything. She thought the first number answer found was the one to escape, she would take an item I gave her and take it to some place completely different than I told her to, when we figured out an answer she would do it again incorrectly, and so much more. The biggest frustration was with a compass. I had to explain that NW was northwest, N was north, and NE was northeast. Then I would ask which was N and she would go to NW...multiple times. Repeat that for the south coordinates. This took way too long and I knew this was going to be bad. And then the reset was bad. She didn't follow things step by step when given directions (do this this and this, but actually does this and nothing else). She locked things away when I asked her not to so I could check her work. And she almost locked away the reset guide. When I realized that, I asked her to double check what she was putting away and she stated it was all correct. I asked how she would know (referencing that she could check the guide) and she took all the items out and realized (I think) that the guide was in there. It was not great.
Towards the end of her shift, I asked how she would rate herself out of 5. She said 6. I said 1 out of 5. She said 6. I said 1 is the worst and 5 is the best. She said 1 and I agreed. We talked about a game plan for the next day as she can only move up from a 1. I texted Agent Ocean at one point asking how his interview with CSt went and he said it was similar to CA's. I simply said I had zero confidence in CSt. Before I left for the night, I left a long voice message for Agent Ocean about how her training went and that there is a high possibility that we should let her go. I was hoping things would turn around the next at the least to make me think differently.
Before leaving, I reinforced a maglock for one of our rooms as the last team easily went through the door it was supposed to hold. I left at 10:25PM.
- Came in at 3:30PM to meet new trainees (03.04). They were going to be with us for the rest of the week to train in multiple aspects as they are to be the managers of the third location. ZH was to be more of HL's role (and is great at general fixings and maintenance) while CBS will be more like my role. I spent more time with CBS overall, but got a good chunk of time with ZH as they stayed until 8PM. I had them play one of the escape rooms along with CA when she came in.
As they played, CSt came in for her shift and I started to train her in the room she played the day before. Better...but still slow overall. Her reset was better, but she still needed assistance. As we were shifting to other training elements, I mentioned that we would be having her learn her speeches. To which she replied that she knows what to say except for the locks. I asked her to explain and she said she wasn't familiar with the locks. And I asked how she knew the speeches because I didn't give her the scripts yet. She didn't have a reply to that so that's when I texted her the speeches and mentioned how she can edit them in the Notes app. Walked her through the speeches and let her practice while reading the script. She didn't read it word for word, but it was only a few things that didn't make too much a difference. But she didn't have a good flow and she would read out parts that were actions like opening the door for the customers instead of doing the actions. After pointing that out to her, she at least did the actions. There was so much micromanaging of her actions throughout. The one example I'll share was what to say when exiting a team. So you would come into the room to congratulate the team and say your speech before leading them out. She would start her speech before entering the room. I asked her to practice her speeches for a few minutes and to come find me when she's ready for me to hear her. An hour later...she comes to get me. Her actions were better, but her speech was still fast and robotic. Towards the end of her shift, I had to watch a team so I had her say her speeches in the control room behind me. I stopped her shortly after and said "breathe." She went at a slower pace and it was way better. Before she left, I pulled her aside to air my worries. While she was better than the day before, her training pace is too slow. I mentioned some of the nit-picky things that mattered. I said how she had confidence about things she was not ready to do. I asked about her previous job and it seems like all she did was serve pizza to parties and would wait to clean things up. I think her role as a host there was what she thought she would do here as a host. I mentioned how there was a lot to what she needed to do in comparison. I asked if there was anything I could do to help her learn better because I'm doing what I normally do in terms of training like I have been. She said to give her more time to practice with the locks...and that was it. I gave her some homework, I gave her some encouraging words, and I said anything I could without saying that there's a possibility she might not be working with us. I updated Agent Ocean like last time. The next day he replied with his exchange with her and that she asked for me to teach her slower. He mentioned that I already teach at a slow pace (which apparently was a criticism from someone that no longer works with us) and that there is an expectation to learn and reach goals within a certain time frame. Yeah...
Training CBS and ZH though was great. Lots of questions, lots of walkthroughs, lots of examples, and no true plan as they need to learn everything at a faster pace. They were picking it up though. Along with CA, they're doing great as trainees. We came up with a game plan for the next day, they left around 7:30PM, CA left around 8:30PM, and I wrapped up around 10PM.
- 11 hour shift (03.07). CBS and ZH came in. We were going over some opening duties and checked the rooms that needed to be set up for the day. I already set those up, but did have an issue with one door closing. ZH checked on it and was able to figure out what was going on after a few minutes and needed some time to work on it. After CBS and I did some small assists, we left him to train him on other things. Once the fix was done, I finally got them to play another room together. As they were playing, I was putting in an order for some plastic cups with a new company and ended up asking how to get a sample or a digital proof via their online chat. In the end, I was waiting for digital proof.
No CSt as they had a school event pop up. Agent Ocean forgot to inform me about it, but CSt told me about it while I texted her about other things. Speaking of Agent Ocean, he asked me to call a couple of applicants for future interviews. Neither picked up so I left voicemails. Other than that, normal training for CA, CBS, and ZH continued. There were a few customers sprinkled here and there so they all took turns. Unfortunately a maglock came off in one room, but ZH was on it.
The big group of the night was a team of girl scouts that were occupying three different rooms. There was one other team currently in play so I had to watch them as none of the trainees were trained on GMing that room. We had laid out a game plan, but adjusted it when necessary. But I would mainly utilize their current strengths and give commands on what to do (check them in, crowd control, be on standby, etc). There were last minute changes with one room the girl scouts were playing. ZH was able to fix what needed to be, but I mistakenly thought they were playing that room when they weren't...but they somehow thought they were. I apologized to ZH for giving him a time limit when he actually had more to get it done. Even then, he said it was okay, but not great. So I explained to the coordinator that was some technical error and while they could play it at 90% they could play another room that was 100% because even if it's all great, they'll remember the 10% when it wasn't. The coordinator asked me to take them into the room that was 100%, but not to tell that specific team as they wanted to play the other. I did say they'll eventually know they're in a different room and that did happen during the briefing video. A few of them left the room and came back to the lobby saying they were in the wrong room, but I told the coordinator to usher them back in because that's what she wanted. They ended up having a lot of fun with that one anyways. The only other issue that happened was for the team that was playing the scary room. They ran out. Some came to the lobby, some ended up in the bathroom, and they were all yelling and screaming. I quickly jumped up and corralled them saying to go back in the room, we have other customers so stop screaming, etc. One of the moms ended up going in with them. When I came back to the control room, I mentioned to the trainees how that was a good example of needing to spring into action to diffuse the situation. If there were other customers, they became a disturbance with all the yelling. The ones that went to the bathroom, as far as I knew they were missing. And there could have been a possibility that they opened the fire exits making it horrible for everyone. but in the end, they all played their roles (exiting teams, resetting, etc) well while keeping me sane. When all the girl scouts were done and chilling in the lobby, I shot my shot and asked how we could get some girl scout cookies, ha. They perked and quickly assessed how many they had brought. I mentioned there were four staff members, but if they didn't have enough, I would be fine if they only had three. They brought in a small box with about 6 options with a few repeats. I brought the team by and they chose theirs. We all thanked them, I told them to put the cookies aside, and to take care of things (ZH fixed a chair, CA was resetting, and CBS was checking in new customers).
Once everything was settled with the girl scouts and they left, I said a few words to the guys before saying they could leave. They were there about half an hour extra, but I mentioned how it was good for them to get a taste of how busy it could get and about maintaining composure and putting the right players in the right spots. I said that to CA as well after she took the final team in and before she left. I finally got to heat up the leftover tacos I brought and wanted to eat earlier. I definitely was feeling low on energy while watching the girl scouts, but was able to hold on a little longer before finally eating around 9PM while the final group was playing. Wrapped things up and left at 10:15PM.
- Opened on Friday (03.06). The ladies were already there so we talked shop for a bit (trainees, etc). I got to show one of them the digital proof of the cups and got approval to make an order (waiting on purchase link). ZH and CBS showed up and we simulated opening the store and talked about what to do when closing. They got to talk to the ladies for a bit before I gave them more training tasks. They met SP when she arrived and the ladies mentioned a possibility of the fourth location (seems interesting). The guys went to play in a new room, the ladies left, and the day continued with more training for them and CA when she eventually showed up. CS showed up for their shift and took care of what needed to be done with SP while I was training the others (resets, speeches, locks, etc). I tried to cram as much as I specifically had to clock out at 7PM (an hour early) as I'd be hitting over time if I took my full shift that day and the next day. I stuck around to make sure the guys finished their last tasks before calling it a day for them too.
I asked them if they liked seafood and they did. I recommended Crawfish Cafe nearby. They were excited. The wait was 60-90 minutes...so we went to WIllie's instead. The last time I was there was a couple years ago when WR and JL were in the country. The wait wasn't super long and we got our food. We enjoyed good food, shared some stories, and had a good time outside of the work environment. We were done around 9PM. I also couldn't find my car for about 5 minutes, ha. I swear I parked closer to Crawfish Cafe, but I was actually half way into the parking lot. I can't recall if I've ever had that happen before or for at least that long.
- Came into work late by about 20 minutes (03.07). The reason being was that ZH and HL asked me to pick up bolts from Home Depot to use to fix a maglock. I mentioned that it would be a better idea to send him to get it if it wasn't busy as he leaves at 4PM and that's when I come in. I got no response to that text. They could have sent someone before me as the morning wasn't very busy. I left Kai's birthday earlier than I could have since I wanted to make sure to avoid possible traffic even though Home Depot was 7-10 minutes away from work. I got there around 3:30PM and attempted to look around. I found the bolts section, but couldn't find the one ZH asked for. When HL originally texted me, all she mentioned was 1/2 inch bolts with washers and nuts to with them. I asked one worker and he wasn't sure based on the text. It also wasn't his department so he found someone else to help...who ended up helping someone else and left me to attend to someone else even though I had waved at him (thanks...). I asked another person and it was almost the same with it not being his department and not fully understanding the text. He suggested I call/text my coworker to figure it out. I tried. I actually texted ZH when I arrived and never got a reply. I ended up FaceTiming him and he picked up. I pointed at the bolt sections and he couldn't really tell. I asked him to find a link. He sent one a few minutes later. I looked for it for a couple of minutes and could not find it. Another worker was nearby and he found it in one minute. I asked for nuts and washers and he found those right away. I sent a photo to ZH to verify and he approved. I purchased the items and left a little after 4PM. Then I had to sit in some traffic on the street leading to our venue. Clocked in at 4:20PM and handed over the items. They worked and the prop was stable. Again, someone else could have done what I did. The result would have been the same except he could have fixed it sooner rather than later. I made sure to mention to him and HL that the next time we need specifics to provide links to whoever is going out to purchase them.
ZH and CBS were still around even though they were to leave at 4PM. They said their day went well. I'm glad I got to see them one more time before they left. Other than that, it was a fairly busy Saturday. Not the busiest Saturday, but it was enough to be consistently busy. I was given a $20 tip by a team before serving them drinks. I asked if they were sure and they said yeah because I was very welcoming and joking around with them. SP ended up helping with the drinks. I split the tip with her.
We unfortunately had one team that 1 out of 4 players was very disappointed. One of our props didn't trigger properly and since they said they didn't want nudges, their Game Master most likely didn't pay as much attention to them. Because if they did, they would have known they were inputting the correct answer multiple times and to trigger it. The disappointed customer said they were working on that specifically for up to 8 minutes. They all enjoyed themselves, but that customer couldn't hide their feelings. I thanked them for pointing out the issue and apologized to them. It wasn't until an hour after they left that I decided to call them and offer to come back for free. I left a voicemail thanking them again and apologizing and making the offer for the free play and that I would email their code to use. I sent the email shortly after. They did call back and it was the person that made the booking, not the disappointed customer. But she was very glad we reached out and thanked me for trying to make things right. If they come back, I hope I'm there to make sure it goes well.
And we ended the night with a very nice family. It was their first escape room in general and it was for their son's birthday. When they finished, they asked if he wanted to play another. I let them know what was available and they booked their replay. They also bought a drink per person with one getting one of the champagnes from the Valentine's drink package. They also left a review and gave a generous tip. AH and I closed up and left at 11:50PM.
On the drive home, I realized I didn't send my closing report. After settling in, I sent that report from home sometime around 12:30AM.
- 4PM on a Monday (03.09). Not a lot happened other than having a few late teams. The biggest thing is that CSt didn't show up for her shift. Their shift was at 5PM and I was ready with a training plan for her with the mentality that this week was make it or break it for her. I texted her at 5:30PM reiterating that her shift was at 5PM. No reply. I think I gave her another half hour until I texted Agent Ocean about it. He said to message her that she was no longer part of the team. I worked on a draft, sent it to Agent Ocean, and he approved. I sent that email around 8PM (I think). I asked the HERetirees what was the fastest we let someone go at HER and the best we figured was 2-3 weeks. CSt only had two days of training. Honestly, I'm glad she quit. I really felt she was a waste of time and money and took away training time from others. I could not see her doing well with us even if she did make it. It would have been constant micromanaging and I know the staff would not have wanted to deal with that.
I left around 10:50PM because the last two available times were booked. But I can't recall why I stayed longer than I should have. Pretty much everything was ready to go other than those last two rooms. The only thing I spent a little extra time on was checking our tip tracker as SP wanted me to double check her and give her notes on it. But yeah, 10:50PM.
- 11 hour shift (03.10). 11:30AM-10:30PM. It was myself, HW (taking a couple shifts during Spring Break), CA, and SC (also taking shifts during Spring Break). Everyone did well in their roles and didn't have to be told what to do every time. I made sure to compliment and thank them especially during the 2 hour block with full bookings. The majority of the teams were good overall. There was one really fun team towards the end of the day that were from College Station. I mentioned how we almost built a location there and they were disappointed. But I said to mention putting a location in College Station in their reviews, which they did do.
Other than the busy day, I made a couple of scheduled social media posts. It has been a while since I've had time to make any and I was able to find pockets of time at the beginning of the day to do them. I did stay longer after everyone left (customers and staff) to mop the hallways and lobby. We were knocking out some of the smaller cleaning tasks throughout the day with sweeping being the biggest thing. Figured even though more dirt was tracked in since sweeping that it would be a waste to not mop. Did that and left at 10:30PM.
- I was asked by HL to come in early (03.12). Instead of coming it at 3PM, I was there at 2PM. The reason being that it was only her and SC handling two full rows of bookings...except it wasn't two full rows...and it wasn't that bad. I feel like they could have handled it, but I'm sure I made things easier for them overall. Other than regular stuff, HL had CA play her last two rooms solo even though she made plans to play one with her family the next day. I didn't see why she had to do both considering she would not have had time to properly learn to reset one of them.
SC and HL left when their shifts ended at 7PM leaving just myself and CA. There was only one section where it was busy for us, but never a full row of bookings. I asked CA to stay an extra half hour (8:30PM) to help with walking in the final set of teams while I was Game Mastering. Even after she left, I still had to walk in one final team while GMing two. No major issues except for one team that was behind because they didn't want hints so I insisted on nudging them because they were already upset they weren't doing well. At least in the end they felt better for winning. Once the last team was done and gone, I went to start resetting the rooms. It was at that moment I realized the other three rooms were not open-reset for the night. I spent the next hour resetting all six rooms in a row. Not only that, but I had to check on a couple of issues with some of the rooms (thankfully they were fine), do the tip tracker, and take out the trash. I left at 11PM.
A couple of positive notes. One, 3-5 teams recognized me and were glad to see me be their host/master. One was from a team the night prior (College Station) where I thought the girls were pretty. One was with her (who I learned to be her) husband and the other brought her boyfriend who wasn't with them the night before. As they were leaving, I tried my best to remember their names and they remembered mine. And for whatever reason, I said my name while doing the Iyo Sky head point, ha. The other positive was the new fastest time returning home; 33 minutes.
- Opened at 11:30AM (03.12). Before entering the venue, I approached what I noticed in the parking lot...a turtle. Our neighbors already knew of it and talked about how it walked from our sidewalk to where it stopped where I found it. I took a photo of it and we all talked around the snapping turtle. I went in to take care of opening duties, but saw on the cameras that they eventually put the turtle in a box and took it to the nearby pond.
HW came in to help with the opening bookings. There was one row of five bookings and he was worried. I figured we would be fine with only a bit of overlap and that's what happened. In the end, no teams were upset for waiting a few extra minutes (no more than 5) and we did well with him GMing while I hosted teams in and out and reset the rooms back to back. I mentioned how I could have asked anyone to come in early, but knew we could handle it while comparing how I was asked to come in the day before for less. When HL came in a little before 3PM (RB right at 3PM), I mentioned how I had to leave early because I would go into overtime if I stayed my whole shift that day and the next shift. If I left at 3:30PM, I could take my whole shift Saturday. If I left at 4:30PM, I would have to come in an hour later Saturday. She said they'd be fine if I left at 3:30PM. After resetting and walking in a few more teams, I left at 3:30PM. That may be the shortest shift I've ever had.
- 2PM on a Saturday (03.14). ZM was in for Spring Break so it was good to have another reliable hand on duty. The staff ordered Popeye's for food, but I only got a strawberry premium lemonade (but later ate leftover fries that no one wanted). Got to see and talk to Agent Ocean for a bit in almost two weeks before he had to leave for a flight. Shortly after, HL asked to leave early as they weren't feeling well (ended up being strep throat). Not too long after, Agent Ocean texts me about some new work drama, which...c'mon. At least it's not involving me this time.
The day itself was consistently busy, but not overwhelming. We finally ran out of tall cups and resorted to letting teams take in their bottles and cans as the previously ordered plastic cups were way too small. Myself, AH, and CA clocked out at 11:10PM, but I stayed with CA in the lobby as she waited for her ride (advised her about future prepping so her and the manager on duty wouldn't have to wait as long). Ended up leaving at 11:30PM.
And I was under overtime by 5 minutes, ha. I was prepped to clock out early in general. When Agent Ocean was around, I mentioned there would be a chance I'd go overtime, but he said it would be okay for me in general. As long as it isn't way over, I'm given the okay to go over when necessary.
- Change in shift on Monday (03.16). Originally HL would open and I would work 4PM to close. But she was sick and couldn't make it. She told us the day before and Agent Ocean rearranged the schedule and we blocked out bookings so that I could work 1PM-8PM solo. I made some new gift cards for charity, I fixed one of the prop screens that was "broken" the day before (shout out to ZM for filling me in on what happened as no notes were left) by putting in a new SD card, I did inventory (wristbands, merchandise), stocked the alcohol, and was a Game Host/Master for a total of 6 games.
The big thing that happened was for the last team. They were scheduled for 6:10PM and all of them showed up 5 minutes later and all had to use the restroom. During that time, another customer pulled in and actually hit their car. None of us heard it, but one of the previous customers went out to get something and saw that the cars were being checked on by the mom and her kid. Someone on the team relayed it to the others inside and to me. That's when I checked the live camera feed and saw that the car was super close to the other. While the majority of the team went out to check, I told one of them if they needed to reschedule, I'll do it for them so they could concentrate on the car issues. It was about 20 minutes of discussion, coming back and forth into the venue, and the husband of the family to show up. From what I was told, it was mainly a bad scratch on the paint. No dents or any other damage. The issue was that the family didn't want to pay to compensate for what they caused. The team simply asked for $100 to cover the paint charge instead of getting the police involved to settle things. That's the reason the husband arrived to help figure things out for the family. The team mentioned how they were from out of state and didn't want to do anything that would ruin their vacation or even have to travel back to settle things at a future date. They also pointed out that the family had two luxury cars and had issues paying only $100 to settle things. I stayed out of it the whole time only offering to reschedule the team. I could have mentioned that I could pull up the video footage, but they settled things on their own. The team still wanted to play and basically started about 40-45 minutes later from their original start time which was fine since they were the last team. The reason for the family showing up to the venue was to ask for information about birthday parties, ha. And that took way too long. It was at least 20 minutes of answering their many questions. They had so many requests that no other team asked for before and they were usually minor. I tried to end it early by giving them DQ's business card and saying how she would help them out with everything...but they kept asking questions. When they finally left, I texted her about it so she would have a heads up on the kind of customers she'd be handling when they eventually contact her.
I left at 8:30PM.
- 11 hour shift again on Wednesday (03.18). I brought some Jolibee leftovers to eat around 4PM. There were only two bookings at the start and they happened to be at the beginning of the day and the end of the day, ha. In the end, there were a total of four bookings. But during my time there, I counted the wine for inventory, fixed an issue with a PC in one of our rooms (thanks to one of the ladies for their suggestion), I cleaned two rooms from top to bottom, I spoke with the Xfinity guy that was installing a backup internet box (I took a video afterwards to share with Agent Ocean and the ladies so they know what to do with it at other locations), I searched for a box (bag) for the ladies next door (one of their sons picked it up later), I worked on and finished an email proposal for this year's Easter (the ladies and I talked about it during the brief time they were at the venue at noon), made sure CA trained on her last reset and the online quizzes, made and scheduled a social media post, and hosted/mastered when necessary. The last 3 teams were all return customers, which was nice (made things easier overall). And 2 of the 3 teams gave CA and I cash tips. Left around 10:25PM. Very productive day.
- Short shift on Thursday (03.19). I cleaned the restrooms and did some vacuuming. When I was almost done with vacuuming, the first set of customers came in early. I let them know that the floors were still drying in the restroom too as they needed to use it. They also mentioned how they found out about us, which was from a website I never heard of, but it's good that we're searchable in many ways. I only had three bookings when I was there. One funny note was about a couple and the boyfriend was wearing a shirt that said "I <3 my abuser" and it was a photo of the girlfriend, ha. One customer had her birthday and we got to talking about how I've been in the industry for a while and had designed my own room. She was very excited to hear that and asked to message her if I ever got to design another. I gave her my number knowing that it was highly likely I wouldn't get to design another room. Before leaving, I tried working on a computer screen that wasn't displaying at all. I tried and couldn't figure it out. Agent Ocean found the simple solution the next day, ha. I left early at 3:30PM.
- Left a little earlier to pick up a Sam's order (03.20). I parked in my usual spot and waited. When the loader came by, I noticed she was eating ice cream and I asked what kind it was. She said it was a Kit-Kat ice cream and I mentioned how Kit-Kats are one of my favorite chocolates and she asked if I wanted one. No way I'd turn that down, ha. It took her about 5 minutes to come back out as she had the next order she was going to load, but pulled out the ice cream and handed it off for me. I thanked her and got to work around my normal time.
Not a super busy day, but busy enough. I ended up staying later than my shift (again) because the last customers were our previous secret shoppers. They signed up for two rooms and I figured I should stay rather than ask HL to stay even though I'd be going overtime with my next shift. It was nice to see them and catch up. I thanked them again for what they did and updated them that the employee they secret shopped recently quit. They felt bad, but I mentioned how what they pointed out were things we kept an eye on and that those built over time. Everything was done and they were the last ones in the venue with me. Spoke for a bit before they left and I got out at 12:10AM.
- Busy Saturday (03.21). We had four parties back-to-back. That hasn't happened in a long time. They were all thankfully very easy to handle. The rest of the day was busy enough. Shout out to the set of customers that offered me part of their ice cream cake when I jokingly asked if they brought that for me. They ended up cutting a slice for each staff member (5) and I allowed them to eat theirs at the bar. Another shout out to a couple that had not visited us in a while. They were very kind and I ended up giving them a bottle of wine for free when they ordered two.
One of the reasons I did that was because we ended up being 20 minutes behind. This happened shortly after Agent Ocean left. I don't know what was going on, but part of it seemed like there was no direction for the rest of the staff. At one point, the other three were resetting rooms (which we needed as customers were waiting) while I was checking in customers and serving drinks...but no one was watching the one team actively playing. At one point I had to ask one of them to stop resetting to help with the customers in the lobby as I was walking a team in. Thankfully all the customers were cool with the wait, but it was chaotic for a bit before we finally caught up towards the end of the night.
Something that threw me off was doing our tip tracker. I don't know why, but I could not wrap my head around it and didn't want to mess up. I might have done it 2-3 times and I felt like I was wrong every time. I don't recall the last time I was that frazzled with a task. I messaged Agent Ocean to double check it the next day to make sure the staff got what they earned. Right before we left, I had a small chat with AH and apologized if I seemed I was being rude to her during the timeframe we were behind. I knew she knew what she was doing, but I might have said things in a way she took harshly so I wanted to at least apologize. We left at 11:40PM.
- Solo Monday again (03.23). The shift was just like last week where the beginning and ending bookings were blocked so I could work from 1PM-8PM. As I was opening, someone came in early. It was one of the ladies' husbands, BO. He mentioned that there were things being done to their house so he needed a quiet place to get some work done. Not only that, but he was checking on the a/c issues that we had over the weekend. We both came to the same conclusion that the "issue" was that the sun was out and that's why it was hot...yeah. One staff member complaining about the heat cost us about $100 to have the a/c guy come out on Saturday. We at least learned that the remote control for one of the lobby fans wasn't working anymore. We can turn it on if we climb up the ladder to touch the power button. BO was around until 3:30PM.
I spent my time getting things done. I cleaned two rooms from top to bottom, I started the inventory count for the back of house (2 out of 4 pages done), and I did other miscellaneous tasks before taking care of customers. There was one family at the beginning of the day (one team member was a know-it-all and I had to shut them down about how they solved one puzzle) and three at the end. I did text CG to possibly remote for a few minutes because the last three teams were back to back and I'd have to leave two teams to exit one. Two of the teams were repeat customers that used my promo code. One was a couple that did very well. The other was a family that did a good job, but complained amongst each other a lot. The last team was another couple with one playing for the first time. They did well and we chatted a bit after their game. Then I had to complete the remaining closing duties. I did get most of the rooms reset at least, but I still was there longer than anticipated. I finally left around 9:20PM.
- Showed up half an hour early at 3PM (03.24). The reason being that there was an applicant interview. Agent Ocean knew the person so he had me take the lead for the first time. I followed the questions I had lined up from a previous interview that he normally follows, but I mostly went off the cuff, which lead to some laughs and story sharing from both ends. The interview itself went well and we pretty much hired him. We'll be having him and the other previous interviewee start as soon as next week. After he left, Agent Ocean and I caught up on some of the recent complaints and drama of the company and both realized that a lot of it was from one person at our location and two people at the sister location. It's ridiculous.
Agent Ocean left shortly after CA came in. It was her first shift back after being sick. I had her mainly work on her assesment tests because those were the last few big things to check off her training checklist. By the end of the night, her only thing not checked off was Opening Procedures because she never had to open before. I still checked her status as complete. I also had CA clean one of the rooms from top to bottom while I watched the last team.
My day consisted of finishing the inventory count from the previous day and arranging the new plastic logo cups (moved stuff around in our shelves and stocked the rest) while setting some aside for the sister location. We had only three teams that day, but techincally two since one was a replay. Other than having stomach issues from eating something spicy/old for lunch, it was a smooth day. We left at 9:20PM.
- Short day Thursday (03.26). Fixed a double audio issue in one of our rooms, sent emails, cleaned (lobby, bathrooms, and hallways), scheduled two social media posts, gave gift cards to a school that asked for them, and requested login information for new staff members. The only team I saw came in around 3:30PM and they had a strong weed smell. As I put it to RB when she arrived, "you ever taste a bad smell" because that's how strong it was. Left around 4:05PM.
- Slow Friday (03.27). Came in at 3PM and was greeted by Agent Ocean and RB. CA eventually rounded out the crew for the day. TR joined us as he was called off at the sister location. It was good cathing up and being silly with him. I worked on the beer inventory and made an order (we were quite low on a few things). At one point I got a call from DQ and she had to rant about one upcoming party. It's the mom that hit the customer earlier this month. So much micro-managing. The phonecall was about 10 minutes long where we came up with proper notes to put in the booking to make sure those onhand would be ready.
We had one customer that came to film a reel for us. They messaged us the night before via Instagram and I even had a reminder oh my phone. Agent Ocean mentioned how the ladies wanted me to make sure to go through with the deal. But once I got into the details, I noticed things. They booked the night before and then messaged us two minutes later about making a reel in exchange for a free room for their family of 4. I questioned why they didn't message us first instead. I let Agent Ocean know and he suggested to offer them 2 free tickets for a future booking. I drafted a message and sent it out. She replied saying based on that they would rather come in as a regular customer and send me their fee card for making content. That bugged me so much on top of everything. It didn't help that the ladies already agreed to it beforehand. But they left it ultimately to me to settle. I agreed to refund their booking (we eat a small fee and that's why I wanted to not do that) and she was delighted by that. We messaged a little bit back and forth about what they can and can't do. When they arrived they asked for me. I recognized the mom and dad because they had been to us before, but this was the first time bringing their kids. We chatted a bit and I mentioned how I normally would plan and discuss things with the content creator for about a week ahead of time and to schedule when they could come by (weekdays preferable as opposed to a busy weekend). They understood. But I also comped their drinks as a small apology for the earlier offer of two free future tickets. While I outlined some things they could and couldn't film, throughout their game I would let her know that it was okay to film a few extra things. After they were done, there was luckily not another team after so they took a few extra photos and some suggested video clips before going out to take their team photo. They stuck around for a good 10-15 minutes as she asked a few questions to know what to talk about in the video and what to put in the caption. She also got to learn about me and now understands why I'm passionate about what we do. She said her normal turnaround for a video is a week so we'll be communicating back and forth before the final product is released.
Closed up early for the night and left at 10:20PM.
- Came in at 2PM on Saturday (03.28). It was also HL's first day back after taking a break for a week. It was slow during that time so I volunteered to go to HEB to buy extra paper plates and Gatorade (small) for the pending micro-managed party. CS joined for their shift. And then it was busy for the rest of the day from 4PM-9PM. Nothing that wasn't manageable, but there were a few times rooms were left un-reset for many hours when there were no bookings for that room.
I initially was going to ask to leave early like at 10PM. By that time Agent Ocean and RB would have already left leaving myself, HL, and CS. But around 9:30PM CS left letting me know that HL said they could leave early. While there weren't too many bookings for myself and HL to handle, the final team was at 10:55PM. During the last three bookings, I was Game Host and HL was Game Master. I would also reset rooms and leave them open for the next day if there wasn't an upcoming booking. And when it was that last team, I let HL know she could leave early, which was only about half an hour. The thing is, the family was loud so I know she was annoyed. I was fine with it, but was ready to tell them to stop yelling. But at one point, two of the parents left the room and stayed in the lobby to drink wine and talk to me. I think one of the moms was hitting on me. Earlier she said my name was "beautiful." She asked for my nationality and I asked for hers (Laos). She said all Filipinos can sing and dance so she wanted to me to sing. I opted to dance. But then we were just talking about each other for the final 20 minutes of their booking as the family finished up. She also bought an extra bottle of wine and insisted to leave a big tip. That's when I mentioned that if it's only for me, cash or Venmo is better as it would be split with the other employees digitally. So she gave me $20. They poured another cup for the other mother that was in the room to drink later. When the team was done, I lead them out and took their photo, and they hung around for a bit. The mom that stayed playing bought sodas for all the kids. And the mom that I thought was hitting on me insisted that they all leave a review and mention me in it (3 total). Before they left, she asked for a hug and came around the counter for it. She said she'll come by to visit as she doesn't live too far away and I said she was welcome to. I only thought of it later, but I should have given her my number whether she was hitting on me or not that way she could know when I'm actually working if she were to visit.
Once they left, all I had to do was open reset their room and do my shift report as everything else was already done for the night. I left at 12:35AM and was home at 1:10AM.
- 3rd solo Monday (03.30). BO came by again to use the party room as his office. He stayed longer this time. My day consisted of cleaning (two rooms and the control room), sending an email for a new employee login, contacting AJ Lee via social media to come play a room next Monday (shooting my shot), preparing Easter promotions (I was given the option to do whatever I wanted or nothing at all), and hosting/mastering duties. We had one set of customers that goes to the sister location that recognized me. They were our last team of the night and did very well.
Review-wise, I was able to at least get one review per team (which is always my goal), but I pushed a little harder as we were only a few away for 200 for the month. Ended up with 199. So close. Left work around 8:40PM and got gas on the way home.
- 3:30PM shift on a Tuesday (03.31). Chilled with Agent Ocean for a bit before he left early. We made sure to talk about a few things work-wise to make sure we were on the same page. My first task after emails was to message the two new employees to get schedules ready (only one replied by the end of the day). After he left, I had one team to watch (couple from a week ago, thanks for the 200th review of the month) while I started on the Easter promotions (creating codes, working on the design of the paper slips). After that team was done, I cleaned a different room, which ended up getting booked. It was booked by a couple that came by yesterday. Funny enough, the room they played yesterday was the room I cleaned before they came in, ha. Ended up having 2 more bookings around the same time so I had to text CG to watch my teams for a bit as I took one in and one out back-to-back. And then there was one family that came in to take a look at the party room. They had been talking to DQ already so they didn't need much information, just to see the space. As those teams were playing, I was cutting up the paper slips for the Easter stuff (printed out 100+ slips).
Shout out to the second to last team that was a family. One guy mentioned he did an escape room over a decade ago that was located downtown. I asked him to describe it. "There was a map on the wall and one of the hints was Corpus Christi." He played Mo's Safehouse at HER. I happened to be wearing an HER shirt under my polo. I showed him the trailer and he was starting to recall it more. Yay for another customer from a decade ago.
I stayed a little longer after my shift was done since I had to reset 4 rooms at the end of the night back-to-back. Left my final shift of the month at 10:15PM.
ETC=========================
- Wrist update; it still hurts. It doesn't hurt as much, which is good. I'm still cautious with some things, but it's hard to avoid for something like pushups. I have also shifted doing some tasks with my right hand to help. And I'll occasionally where the wrist brace at home.
- I haven't mentioned this before, but I have noticed that my waist is smaller. It might have been at the beginning of the year that I noticed I had to keep pulling up my pants more often. At first I thought it was specific pairs of pants, but it was almost all of them.
"Reprise the theme song and roll the credits."
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