Last Monday, I sanded that violin a little bit and that was about it. I also typed up last week’s blog and when I came home I was mostly tired.
On Tuesday I had my appointment with my doctor for my Effexor (Generic: Venlafaxine, Dosage: 150mg). My blood pressure was a little high like usual and I really can’t wait to get my health insurance sorted so I can get my blood pressure under control. I’ve gained about 80 pounds in the past 3 years and my whole family has Hypertension so it’s almost guaranteed I’m in some early stage of Hypertension that I need to manage. My appointment with that doctor was pretty short and I have a follow up in October just before the albums release; I’m hoping to have my insurance switched or whatever I need to do with it (my insurance) prior to the follow up though.
On Tuesday, my buddy Sam read the blog for last week which is very nice of him. He described my phrase, “closest’s clothes hanging rod,” as a DFW-esque phraseology which I also found to be nice of him to notice that inspiration.
On Tuesday I also saw K, me and her practiced a song for her mom and step-dad’s wedding; the song is “I Choose You” by Sara Bareilles, which is a good millennial love song. Kyra was going to sing the song while I played the guitar, which I certainly looked forward to. She had a hard time getting over her nerves but we made a dent in the song. I left at about 8PM and I went to bed.
On Wednesday, I listened to the Upanishads and the Dhammapada; I found that both of these texts to be awesome. I find Buddhism to be great and I look forward to getting more into it because it seems to provide a lot that Christianity simply cannot. I ordered those two books on ThriftBooks.com, alongside the Bhagavad Gita and some selected writings by Emile Durkheim.
After work on Wednesday, I ate Qdoba with Seth and me and him talked about life and music and where we were both at in life. It was a very good conversation and I got home at about 6PM. Me and my mom drank a little and then we both went to bed.
Thursday was the last day before my vacation. I woke up at about 6:46 AM and my dog had laid her head on my head; I’ve linked a picture below:
I haven’t mentioned this in this blog because I’m slightly embarrassed but during the previous part of the week I had been trying to restore that violin and I had gotten to the polishing step; however I messed up somewhere along the way and the finish came out cloudy. I may have to strip the violin to the bare wood and start all over but I’m unsure. Once I get home I’m going to take a look to see if there was moisture trapped in the finish and if it dried or if I will need to redo the whole thing. Oh well, it isn’t that big of a deal and I will get it figured out, oh yeah yeah.
I watched quite a bit of the show “Dopesick,” once I got home - which is a good show. I also played a little bit of Minecraft and then I went to bed.
Friday I woke up at about 4:45 AM, however we did not leave until about 7:31 AM. This was okay as I got to spend some more time with my dog and mom before heading out. Kyra came in and said hi to my animals and it was very wholesome. We officially got on the road towards Charleston, SC at about 8 PM. Kyra’s grandpa, who we call Poppy drove while her mom was a passenger for the first little bit. Me and Kyra tired to take a nap, but it was of no success to any of us. We stopped at a gas station at about noon and ate some Wendy’s. From here, Poppy and Kyra’s mom switched driving roles and we headed on to Charleston. During the ride I listened to an audiobook of DFW’s Good Ol Neon, some SleepyCast, and I tried to listen to Plato’s Phaedrus but the audio was too quiet. We arrived at our Air BnB at around 3 PM.
Me and Kyra were both wore out on Friday, me and Kyra got some Poke Bowls from PokeBros door dashed to us and then we practiced her mom’s wedding song. Me and her mostly relaxed but we were both very very tired. In the evening me and Kyra put on the 2016 movie The Secret Life of Pets and we both fell asleep with the fans going on and it was epic.
Saturday was the day of the wedding and everyone was super nervous for different reasons. The wedding wasn’t until 6 PM, so we all had quite a bit of time before the wedding. Me, Kyra, and her stepdad went to a mall in the morning and it was an okay mall. Me and her got a buffalo chicken sandwich which was expensive and then we went to the Books a Million in the mall; it was okay, there wasn’t anymore books than the BAM in Beckley, so I didn’t get too much. They had some copies of Ecce Homo and The Trial that are like the cheap five below books but they were priced at 10 dollars - I only ended up getting a copy of Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams for about 7 dollars.
We went to another mall, it was a Tanger Outlet mall, which didn’t really have a lot of stuff. Kyra was overheating due to the heat and me and her went to an anime/game store and bought a surprisingly good Hatsune Miku branded handheld fan. Me and her then went to Starbucks and she was starting to get fed up with being in the heat, which I completely understood. She knocked over her drink on accident and I felt really bad because her anxiety was already really high and it was a million degrees and there was like a hundred thousand people at outlet mall and it was just too much. Luckily me and Kyra headed home shortly after and we got ready for the wedding.
Me and Kyra got ready for the wedding and I tied my tie (on my own) and I looked really nice and Kyra looked even better. Me and her practiced the wedding song some more and then we headed to the wedding. Her stepdad was almost late for the photoshoot and I could he was super nervous. I was super nervous as well for him and I couldn’t imagine all the emotions he was feeling.
It was a nice little outdoor platform thing where Kyra’s mom and stepdad got married. Kyra was nervous and we practiced the song a couple extra times before the ceremony started. I counted Kyra in to start the song and we played the song while her mom walked down the concrete path. Kyra did a very good job at singing the song and it sounded like the recording which was really cool. She was very nervous but she did the whole song through and it was great. The ceremony itself was nice and a good time was had by all. Me and Kyra got some photos done by the wedding photographer and it was very nice. I did get tired and hangry just before leaving since me and Kyra both were getting overheated.
Me, Kyra, Poppy, her mom and stepdad went to a Mexican restaurant and it was very good. I had two burritos and a Pacific Blue Margarita, I only had one because I don’t really like to drink with anyone other than my mom and I only had one because the one Margarita made me sleepy. I’ve linked this silly picture of me with the Margarita here:
The only other time I’ve had a Margarita was July 13th, 2024 at around 6:05 PM, approximately 6 minutes before Donald Trump was shot in the ear by Thomas Matthew Crooks (do with that information what you will). I remember sipping that lemonade Margarita whilst the full footage played over and over on CNN. I found the old guy who falls and you can visually see the guy yell expletives at the news camera (for some reason) whilst Trump is being carried off to be funny from the original unedited news footage. I’ve linked that picture below from 2024:
We all had a good time talking and eating and no presidents (or former presidents or presidential nominees) were harmed from my Margarita drinking and we soon left the restaurant. Once we got home I took a shower and then laid down. Kyra stayed up and hung out with her mom which was sweet.
I woke up at about 7 AM on Sunday to some different SpongeBob video game essays and I drank some coffee with Kyra and her family. From here me and her went outside and talked for a while and it was very nice. Me and her planned out our day and we started to get ready. I put on some Blameitonjorge, which was an excellent YouTuber to watch whilst getting ready for me and Kyra’s date.
Kyra’s stepdad drove us to the Maganolia Plantation and Gardens. Upon arriving me and her ate at the Peacock Cafe, where they had actual Peacocks that would walk around the restaurant, which was awesome. Me and Kyra then walked around for a while and looked at the nature the gardens. The Magnolia Plantation is a beautiful place, but it was also a tragic location. Me and Kyra didn’t spend time with tours (the tours I assumed wouldn’t emphasize that history as much), while walking the beautiful bridge and the hot fields and spotting the wildlife I wondered what the land was like 200 or so years ago. I thought about Plantations and Buchenwald and the Goethe Oak and the possible American equivalent and it was a very somber experience. It was a very beautiful piece of land and nature that was tainted by human cruelty. Although the plantation have some rather odd decisions such as having a gift shop with branded t-shirts and dippin dots, these are all pretty in-line with American consumerism in relation to past affairs (e.g. Titanic snowglobes, toy rifles at civil war memorials, the unending supply of weird WWII fiction novels, etc.). What I found to be the most beautiful part of the gardens was the wildlife and the attempt of some animals to reclaim that land. There was a wildlife conservatory that I found to be really beautiful. There were several animals, but it was a very quiet place. There were some snakes and a red-tailed hawk (who has one of the coolest screeches ever, I’ve linked an audio clip here.) and some vultures and a blind owl who shook his head from left to right in what seemed to be a self-soothing movement and an alligator. The big alligator laid still, as most of the other baby alligators we saw did around the plantation’s lakes, as me and Kyra ordered our Uber. Our Uber driver was a nice Russian lady who drove us to our Air BnB. From here me and Kyra ordered some Poke Bowls and then took a nap at about 4:05 PM.
Me and Kyra woke up at about 7 PM which was nice. I woke up first to one of those Blameitonjorge 2.5 Hour Lost Media videos which was perfect to wake up to. Kyra soon woke up and we talked about the plantation and how we stayed there (the plantation) for 3 hours, which was shocking as me and Kyra are the sort of people who don’t stick around one place for too long. Anyway, me and Kyra’s family all went to this seafood boil and I rode with her, her stepdad, and her brother. We had a good time and I talked about Wockaflocka coming to Charleston, WV on August 1st, which got her half-brother and her stepdad thought was funny since I don’t come off as someone who would listen to Wockaflocka. We had a good ride, Kyra played 1st of the Month by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and I asked her about the song Bone Thugs has about the afterlife which I couldn’t remember. I quote the line, “Man I miss my uncle Charles,” since it was the only line I could remember which her stepdad also thought was funny. I ended up figuring out the song was Crossroads by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony by the way - which I grew up watching the music video too with my mom.
Once we arrived at the seafood place, we all got sat down and it was very nice. I believe there was a juice box because the first couple songs were Evil Twins by King Von and Lil Durk, Camelot by NLE Choppa, Rich as Hell and then Vette Motors by NBA Youngboy (who is one of Kyra’s favorite rappers), and then Tennessee Whiskey by Chris Stapleton and a couple different Noah Kahan cringefolk songs before going to a brief tour through Kodak Black’s Greatest Hits (I mean this literally, I love Kodak Black). Anyway, me and Kyra had a Seafood boil which was pretty good. I wore a bib and gloves and I ate until I was full and then I paid and then we all went back to the Air BnB. Me and her stayed up for a little bit and packed to get ready to leave and then me and her went to bed. I have attached a picture of me and Kyra below of us gearing up to eat the seafood boil:
I woke up this morning at about 7:05 AM. Me and Kyra got ready and packed up and drank some coffee. Me, her, and her brother took a walk around the neighborhood and I said the Kodak Black line “I knew the perc was fake but I ate it anyway because I’m a gremlin,” which her brother found to be funny. We walked back to the house and her mom and her brother and Poppy left the house for an interview they had in SC this morning. Me and Kyra helped her stepdad put all of our belongings back into the car and got ready to head out. I told Kyra, “and just like that, the vacation’s over.” I don’t really mean that sentiment - you should not not enjoy things just because they will end. That would be a dumb thing to do; life can fly by, and you shouldn’t just let it pass you by, but when you can find the time to hold onto to a moment* you should enjoy that present, mindfully. I remember being at Hooter’s with my dad and mom when I was like a little kid and they (my parents) were still married and we were getting ready to have a beach vacation and my dad was said because (as he told my mom), “the vacation’s already over,” referring to how good times seem to pass some quickly. I remember me thinking that anecdote was profound but it was not; time will pass regardless if you are mindful or not, whether you are happy or not, so you might as well try to be mindful and happy if you have a choice in the matter. This is a truth I learnt (atleast subconsciously) in Military school.
It is now 12:34 PM, I plan on posting and promoting this blog and trying to take a nap while listening to some ManDrakeCalvin videos, who is a good YouTuber. We’re on track to get back to Beckley around 4 PM. I had a very good vacation and I’ve decided I’m very much in love with Kyra; I mean I was before but it’s one of those things where you find an even deeper love for someone that you didn’t know you already had. One part of being alive means to take care of each other and be kind to each other; and Kyra takes good care of me and is super kind and I love her a lot. Me and her had a very good vacation together and I’m so grateful for her. I am going to take my nap now. Goodbye.
**Holding onto a moment is essentially impossible, I’ve wasted much of my teenage years trying to hold onto moments before ultimately giving up. We live in a future that is constantly being presented in front of us and a past that is constantly dissipating.