It's been a hot minute.
It's been quite some time since I've updated, & the site finally forced me to use a new site layout. I lost the old layout that I was able to revert to ages ago that was just like what I had in school. Oh well.
So since I haven't updated since mid-January, I guess I have a lot to update on. It's been quite the year so far. Some good, some bad.
Some of the not so good stuff is health-related. I can't recall if I mentioned it or not before, but I think I might actually have an official diagnosis of fibromyalgia. (It's on my charts, anyway) The muscle & joint aches/pains & weakness didn't get much better, especially with the cold. I'm on a couple of different meds for it, & it's less worse than it was. I am a little worried that as we start to shift gears towards fall, it may get worse again. Hoping for no October Slide this year, that's for sure. I've also got some skin issues that I'll be seeing a dermotologist for. Unfortunately it's just like any other specialist, so that's still not for another few months, but we'll see what becomes of this whole thing when we get there.
There's been some good things though. I don't really remember much happening in January & February, but in March I did get to go see Excision with Alan. The only downer about the evening was that they definitely had oversold the show, so what started off as enough room around me to feel okay quickly turned into "Oh shit it's too crowded" real fast. It was so hot in there too because of it, & I ended up getting sick probably because my body sucks a little now. The music was good though, & it was neat to see that live. If I do that again though, I'll have to play it a little more wisely as far as not overdoing it. I also finally managed to return to Rick's for their Dinner & a Movie for the first time since Die Hard in December of 2022. I hadn't felt good enough to go for pretty much all of 2023, so it was great to return. We had dinner with The Neverending Story, which I'll have to admit I had a giggle at the intro music because all I could think about was Stranger Things.
March did have a big downer as well: Akira Toriyama passed away. It was a passing that hurt a lot, given how much I've loved the Dragon Ball universe since Toonami rolled it out back in the late 90's or so. (Maybe even before that, as I vaguely remember seeing the original Dragon Ball series on TV when I was a kid living in Canada) So that was a real bummer. No more new Dragon Ball content, & the creator of one of my all time favorite things ever is gone.
April was quite an interesting month. I got to cross off a Bucket List item that I didn't think I'd ever get to cross off: I saw a total solar eclipse! Back in 2017, when we had that one that went across the middle of the country, that's when I learned that we'd have one that would cut up in a northeastern direction, just skimming the top of Vermont & New Hampshire. I waited seven years for that eclipse, & we got SUPER lucky & had clear skies for it. I was a little sad though because in 2017, I had talked with my mom about going to see it together. The best I was able to do was bring one of her little cards from her servces (I forget what they're properly called, but just saying "funeral card" or "memorial card" seemed a little weird) & have it with me as the eclipse happened. The eclipse was just breathtaking. The sun/moon was bigger than I had expected since pictures always made it seem so small, & something the pictures didn't quite convey was how it looked like a glittering ring around the moon. We were on the outer edge of totality, so we only had about a minute to a minute & a half of totality, but it was insane. We also got pretty lucky because a good friend lived right in Lancaster, so Kyle, Emily & I were able to stay at her house & go to a relative's house of hers nearby with a clear view to watch the grand event. It worked out so well.
Another fun thing that happened in April was The Mummy (1999) returning to theaters to celebrate 25 years since it first came out. Since that's one of my top 2 favorite movies (the other being Twister) that I've seen probably hundreds of times, I HAD to go see it. I managed to see it more than once as well, so it was extra cool! I never got to see that one in the theaters when it first came out, with The Mummy Returns being my first theater venture for a Mummy movie, so I was so happy to finally cross that one off my I Need To See It In A Theater list. (Now if only the original Twister had gotten a re-release in theaters when the sorta-sequal came out in July!) Eric & I also went to Worcester to go see Queensryche. Before the show, we went to the Wonder Bar for dinner. I hadn't been there since... 2001, maybe? It was my first time going with the new owner, & it was a little bittersweet because it was also something my mother & I had talked about doing. She wanted to know if the pizza really was like the original pizza. Unfortunately I can't remember the original pizza all that well so I couldn't do a proper comparison, but it at least looked the same. The pizza was SO good though. We also got to sit in the only booth that had one of the original old school radios sitting in it, so that was really cool that I got to enjoy that. To wrap up the night, I even got a setlist from Queensryche, so it was a pretty cool day! (And only a couple of days later, that street in Worcester where the Palladium is got converted to a film set for a Walking Dead spin-off!)
May also started off a little interesting. It was another possibility of seeing the northern lights as far south as us, but this time, I actually got to see them. It was a little hard to see with my bare eyes because of light pollution, but I did get to see them, & my pictures came out really neat! It was another Bucket List item crossed off my list, though I do hope I can see them again someday! Late May had a theatrical re-release of The Crow, so I went & saw that in the theater as well. I love that movie so much. The NHRA New England Nationals started the very next day, so of course we went to that. John Force ended up winning for TF Funny Car, which I'm glad he did because a week or two later, he crashed his car pretty good & sufferered a TBI & was hospitalized for a few weeks. He was released a while ago & was doing much better, doing rehab of course, but I think that might be it for racing for him. Jack Beckman took over his driving responsibilities, so it's neat that he's back.
June had a lot of fun things happen as well. Theaters brought back the Spider-Man movies for a theatrical re-release, starting with the Tobey McGuire one I saw in high school. I missed that one as well as Spider-Man 2 since I didn't realize what was happening in time, but i did catch Spider-Man 3 & Spiderman No Way Home at the theater! Those were so great to see in a theater, since I didn't see Spider-Man 3 in a theater for some reason & missed NWH because Eric was sick with Covid at the time. June 8-10 brought back The Lord of the Rings to theaters as well, so I had to go see those. I did see Return of the King at a theater last year, but it was nice to catch it again, especially not sitting so close to the screen this time. The other two movies, I hadn't seen in a theater since they first came out 20+ years ago. (Hell, Fellowship was my first-ever date movie, when I went on my first date with Jacob waaaaaay back in my freshman year in high school)
June 13th was the live Dungeons & Daddies show, which was freaking awesome! I had snagged the last front row seat available when tickets went on sale, so I was front & center to enjoy the show! That seat was a VIP seat, so I got to enjoy VIP goodies like early entry, exclusive free merch, & a Q&A! During the show itself, I was super lucky & Beth May handed me her sweatshirt after her intro at the start of the show, so that was neat! I met so many cool people there too, with the girl sitting to my right (I forgot her name, but I have her number in my phone!) giving me a Fuck Willie Stampler bracelet lol. I went down with Mary, from D&D/work, but Doreen, Nick, Natasha & Tirk all came down as well. We all got to get a picture with the Daddies cast after the show too, so that was neat!
I also attended another Dinner & a Movie at Rick's, this time seeing Happy Gilmore. I went with my old buddy Mark, from the tool store, who I hadn't seen in a long time! It was nice to catch back up with him again. I saw saw A Quiet Place: Day One at the theater & loved it. Joseph Quinn (who plays Eddie Munson in Stranger Things) & Lupita Nyong'o both did an incredible job in that film.
July... July... Now July had a VERY big positive. I was able to cross off yet another Bucket List item, this time being a VERY big List item. I went to Alaska! Our cruise that we were supposed to do in 2022 finally happened! We flew out to Seattle, where we stayed the night before boarding our cruiseship the next day (the 14th). We had an incredible time & I saw SO many amazing things. I saw whales, porpoises, orcas, lots of eagles, amazing mountains, lots of fog & rain of course, glaciers, & crab! I got to explore the Glacier Gardens & see a beautiful Twilight-esque forest, I saw Mendenhall Glacier, & even got to go on a crab fishing boat on our excursions! (The Aleutian Ballad, which gained fame being in the show Deadliest Catch & nearly capsizing in season 2) I'll have to make a separate entry talking about the trip because it's a lot, but we had an incredible time. (We as in me, my brother Kyle, his girlfriend Emily, my dad & his... I don't know, girlfriend? Holly) Of course, my dad is cursed with this trip & Covid, & he ended up catching it. He started to feel under the weather & didn't tell us, so I didn't know until the day we were getting ready to leave the cruiseship to head back to the airport, 4 days after he first started feeling off. Sure enough, the very next day when we were home, I had a tickle in my throat & had to keep clearing it. THen it just went downhill from there. My dad tested himself at home the next day, that first full day back & told me he was positive for covid. I tested positive two days later, & missed out on our work's company cruise, the Jet Car event at New England Dragway, & a Linkin Park tribute show. I knew the risks taking a cruise & tried to take precautions with masks, frequent hand washing etc., but I can't help but think that I caught it from my dad since he was around us & failed to mention how he felt. (Kyle & Emily also got sick right about the same time as I did, both with covid also)
August was pretty uneventful. I did see the new Deadpool and Wolverine movie at the theater & LOVED it. I also went to Funspot & wasted so many tokens on a Stranger Things pinball machine they had on loan there. This past weekend, I went up to Maine again with the Fifes for the first time since 2022. It was nice being up there, but the weekend went by way too fast.
And now here I am, just updating this. I don't do a whole lot these days. Mostly just lounge around in bed since I still feel so tired & fatigued a lot, & read a LOT of fanfiction. The author to my favorite fics has not updated their latest work since the end of December still, & I'm starting to think that work will never get finished. I just sincerely hope that person is okay, as there was a delay in their last complete fic due to health issues. I wish I had a way of knowing. That's uh... That's pretty much it though.
Anyway, it's 7:30 now & I still have to figure out what I want to eat for dinner so I should do that. I'll update soon though, as I've currently got more things planned over the next few weeks, so I look forward to updating then.