Update for Everyone VIII: He who laughs have the last laugh

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

With every day I see things continually going to s**t the closer I am to deciding against staying here for grad school.

Where will you go?

Plenty of states will never go 50 years to the past regardless of what happens in DC, ever.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

I got into a four-hour conversation with this 70-something guy on Omegle who was in cahoots with every famous person in politics from George Romney (his penpal) to William Buckley (whom he got emotional about as they were very good friends) to John Lindsay and Al D'Amato and other NY politicians, and he also lived next to Rip Torn. Lives in Connecticut, worked as a financial analyst, and was a speechwriter for people who worked for Reagan and Giuliani. He'd also met LBJ, RFK, Nelson Rockefeller, and Trump. Fascinating conversationist - a bit like Fuzzy albeit with better temperament, until the very end when he lashed out at me over a simple disagreement. That part was a real letdown. But even though he got pissed off and disconnected, I can honestly say that it was one of the most fascinating conversations I ever had.

Easily the highlight of my day.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Today is the second anniversary of my mother's death. It still feels surreal and just... out of place. She was the most important person in my life.

I've survived since that time though and changed a lot from that experience. It still sucks that all of my extended family lives in Connecticut and Massachusetts, but I can't be too much of a burden on them.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

It's a Lyrica night. If my posts seem brash today, that's a side effect.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Today I'm 28. But because life begins at conception, technically I'm 28 and 9 months.

Either way, here's to an entire decade of adulthood with nothing to show for it! And, either way, give me cake/presents/money.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Last night, at age 28, I officially lost my "bar virginity." Why have I never been to a bar before? None of your business actually, but life happened. But, I had a blast with a family friend in the area, who told me we would celebrate my birthday after a DC meetup with fellow Atlas olds which was scheduled around the time had been cancelled. We also saw a play earlier. First time I've been to a live show since literally middle school!

And we checked out the boats they decked out for the holidays!

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

And we checked out the boats they decked out for the holidays!

Did you recognize this boat?


REUTERS/Jason Reed

For some reason, I couldn't find it! I thought that was the same boat until I saw the number. I do tend to pass by the Wisconsin quite frequently though.

But this was also an area of Norfolk I hadn't seen before. There's an Irish pub (the one we're pictured in) along with several other bars by this area, and the Little Theatre where we saw the show. I guess it's not stationed here, nor the USS John Warner which is closer to a neighborhood I lived in.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

And we checked out the boats they decked out for the holidays!

Did you recognize this boat?


REUTERS/Jason Reed

For some reason, I couldn't find it! I thought that was the same boat until I saw the number. I do tend to pass by the Wisconsin quite frequently though.

But this was also an area of Norfolk I hadn't seen before. There's an Irish pub (the one we're pictured in) along with several other bars by this area, and the Little Theatre where we saw the show. I guess it's not stationed here, nor the USS John Warner which is closer to a neighborhood I lived in.

?  That *is* Wisconsin, number 64, all lit up in the picture, next to the Nauticus. 
https://nauticus.org/explore/battleship-exhibits/about-the-battleship/

yeah, I know the pub you mean; went there one time a few years ago.

...I must've missed the signage. So it is then.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

I just saw a car with an anti-John Kerry bumper sticker on it (along with a "W '04" one).

It said "I'm not Fonda Kerry".  Not sure I remember that reference since I was still young in 2004.

Jane Fonda/pro Vietcong reference?

Continues the right's obsession with disrespecting and under-appreciating the war records of Liberal servicemembers.

Yeah, but Kerry takes some blame for not smacking down the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth claims right away. All he had to do was release his military records and it would've backfired like the Killian documents did for Bush.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

So uh, like I said on Discord, whiskey talks a lot but says very little. If you were offended by anything I said last night, I sincerely apologize and take full responsibility for my actions.

(NCC and Mercenary are both massive HPs though so I don't care as much about them.)

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

First day on the job this morning with three nice old ladies in the Altar Guild. We prepared the cloths - a collection of names I don't remember lol - for Pentecost tomorrow. Then the week after that, we prepare for Trinity Sunday. Holy weeks are really busy too, so I'll probably be pretty busy next Easter.

For the first time in many years, I have a second family in the church. I'm doing volunteer work because that's what I always wanted to do. And because the church has relatively low attendance, it's easier to integrate yourself in the community.

One of the ladies remarked that accidentally spilling a little bit of the wine is okay because it hasn't been blessed yet. We're catholics, lol.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

I didn't want to create a new thread or bump an old one, but there's something I wanted to say.

A few weeks ago I said that I couldn't support an atheist for president. After talking with some Christian friends, I realize I was wrong in saying that. While it would be difficult for me, God works through people of all creeds. An atheist president who wants to do what's good for humanity is preferable to a devout Christian president who wants to make life harder for marginalized people.

So, I take back most everything I have said on this subject. While I'm a firm believer in the value of spiritual guidance for world leaders, irrespective of religious tradition, my way is not shared by most people in all likelihood. I am not one to judge any individual's relationship with God, whether that is a "one-sided" relationship or not. Only God knows the hearts of men and women, and it was arrogant of me to say that only people who profess (not necessarily apply) faith should be president.

I will take a moment to note that, for every post critical of atheists, there's at least a dozen posts directed at evangelical Christians. Evangelicals, like atheists, are also very diverse. If it is bigotry to say I wouldn't vote for an atheist, it is no less bigoted to say all evangelical Christians are evil. Jimmy Carter is an evangelical. William Barber is an evangelical. But the very word "evangelical" has, arguably, lost meaning over time. But there should still be consistency.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

My weekend with retromike, Crumpets, and a third non-poster (we'll just call him Robert) went really well and it was really fun, if not expensive. But, we saw a lot of great stuff. Went to Jamestown ("where America was born"), Colonial Williamsburg ("where America matured"), and to Yorktown, including the location where Cornwallis surrendered to Washington ("where America came of age.") That, in addition to an aquarium, First Landing State Park (which hiking through has been aiding me in a writing project I've undertaken), and a lot of great food - a Beatles-themed restaurant and a Mediterranean one, where I tried a falafel for the first time and can't believe I'd missed out on one.

We drove by some Westboro Baptist Church clowns protesting on the boardwalk. I immediately regretted not rolling the window down to cuss them out. Then Robert, our non-practicing Jewish friend, appealed to my better nature and said you gotta outlove those people, rather than confirm their prejudices. So, we see them again while we're walking along the boardwalk and so I shout, "God loves ALL people - including the ignorant!" Then it was out of my system.


Miyazaki Japanese Garden
Photo credit: retromike

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

so this happened



now that i remember i kinda was a friggin moron that day.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Interesting weekend ahead. Thanks to a combination of COVID and other stuff, my mom's burial was delayed for three years until this upcoming Saturday. So for the first time in nine years, I'll be back in Connecticut. Plans are to deliver the eulogy, as I did for my dad, and visit my hometown again, which will include paying my respects at the Sandy Hook Memorial. I'll return to Virginia on Sunday.

The fact that I'll be seeing my extended family for the first time since that period, and getting to check out my hometown/street to see how much has changed over the decade, actually has me looking forward, even though it will mostly be a weekend of boring Amtrak trips.

Changing my avatar to D-CT because, well, that's the avatar I used for the first three years I was on this forum.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Interesting weekend ahead. Thanks to a combination of COVID and other stuff, my mom's burial was delayed for three years until this upcoming Saturday. So for the first time in nine years, I'll be back in Connecticut. Plans are to deliver the eulogy, as I did for my dad, and visit my hometown again, which will include paying my respects at the Sandy Hook Memorial. I'll return to Virginia on Sunday.

The fact that I'll be seeing my extended family for the first time since that period, and getting to check out my hometown/street to see how much has changed over the decade, actually has me looking forward, even though it will mostly be a weekend of boring Amtrak trips.

Changing my avatar to D-CT because, well, that's the avatar I used for the first three years I was on this forum.

yo, you should see if you can meet up with reaganclinton

Maybe if I had more time. I wanted to meet with a friend in NYC (very close to my hometown) but had to tell him it wouldn't be possible.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Interview for a very well-paying gig yesterday. Interview was... not so great. Interview today for a fun but very poor-paying gig that is a great experience builder but only delays my return to the real world. Went great. Sigh.

Spoke via phone with my Russian tutor for the first time in a while. I think I availed myself well, and it was freeing to try to carry 95+% of a conversation in a foreign language--though I was no doubt helped by the fac12tht that she's a foreign language educator by trade. She's very against money to Ukraine, FTR (she's American).

What type of gig?

[pic]

Nice! When?

December 14th. I'm going with a good friend of me and my mom whom I haven't seen in a year. (She's Gen X, so she is obligated to like Beetlejuice.) Hoping we can do what we did last time and go to the Irish pub afterwards.

_{and no, we will not be doing anything that's related to Lauren Boebert.}

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

I got selected for an election poll woooooo!