Binge TV, Warts, Birthday Surprises, a Fallen Officer and Laundry

Mixture of emotions and opinions today... Since my last post I have been very busy. I finally got caught up with every single season and episode of Married At First Sight. I am anxiously awaiting for the release of the next episode in the current season, which is Wednesday 🤗. Bennett and Amelia are iconic, they are hilarious and lovely all at the same time, endearing is the way to describe them. During the last aired episode (one-month anniversary), I called my dear friend Luisa to discuss the arm-pit hair because she is my fellow MAFS Super Fan. Luisa said she hadn't watched that episode yet because she was glued to Family Murder; the story of the Colorado man who murdered his pregnant wife and two small children in 2018. The very next time I went on Netflix, the ad for Family Murder came on so I got sucked in. What a horrible chain events, with all the information released, including text messages, family videos, and police camera footage. It was overwhelming and scary as all hell. My fear comes from how 'normal' and seemingly average their lives were. The husband had no explanation, no reasoning, just an unconscionable decision to take human lives. It's an evil that I will never understand and pray I will never experience directly or indirectly. I was shaken by that show and I wasn't paying attention when Netflix started playing the next show; The Social Dilemma 😳 That documentary is a game-changer, at least for me. I knew all along that there was an algorithm to the advertisements and even a connection with what I say and what shows up on my feed and my web searches. This documentary gave me insight on how far the progression of artificial intelligence is. I have taken it so seriously that I am going through my Facebook feed and snoozing EVERYONE, I look at the current post and then snooze the person for 30 days (it is no offensive to my friends and family). It's purely an experiment, to see what happens to the feed and the advertisements. I have also turned off all notifications for Facebook, Instagram and my Fitbit. On the Fitbit app, I am purging all the 'friends' that do not have 'recent activity' that is a telltale sign that they do not wear a Fitbit and just opened a profile by downloading the free app.

Yesterday, Saturday October 3rd, was my planned Emily and Tia day. For my niece's birthday this year, I gave her a choice between a physical gift OR an experience. She chose.... wisely. She gave up her entire Saturday and gave me the chance to spoil her. We started with manicures, pedicures and facials. Neither of us has ever had a facial so that was interesting. During the pedicure I received some harsh news. The callus on on the bottom of my right foot, that I thought had formed thanks to my new running shoes, is actually a Plantar Wart 😨 It was super embarrassing and uncomfortable to have the esthetician change her whole pedicure procedure to have to complete my pedicure. I googled wart removal right before bed and its the stuff of nightmares - I wish it was just a callus 😫 After the spa date, I took Em home to get dressed/ready for our dinner at a fancy restaurant. It was an Italian place that neither of us had gone to. We had a good time except for when we both started with the laughing which always results in tears and hysterics. The guy randomly playing the accordion did not help to calm us down. We had some time to kill before our next stop so I had the brilliant idea of stopping at a candy store. I had driven by many times but Kevin would never let me set foot in a place like that because he knows I would buy waaaaayyy too much candy (Kevin is a fortune teller). I think it was over 2lbs of sour and sweet gummy candies 😂 I shared it with Jon and Erika (maybe two or three pieces). The last part of the surprise was a live musical performance at a great little mom and pop place called the GTS Theatre. The show was call Motown City and it was fabulous. We stuck out like a sore thumb, I bought us VIP seats so we were in the front row and we were the youngest, light skinned people in the audience. Even with the diversity of age and race, the atmosphere had the shared love of all the Motown era in music. The hosts of the show often reminded us how music brings us all together. That was the message on the souvenir T-Shirt that I bought for Emily and I. While we sang along and swayed to the sound of the voices on that stage, a domestic violence incident was occurring in Myrtle Beach that resulted in the murder of a police officer. When I was driving Emily home, we both noticed all the activity of the police cars, lights on, speeding in one direction. I went straight to pick up Kevin at Erika & Jon's house and I saw a lot more police cruisers, same thing, lights on, speedy past. In total, I personally saw nine cop cars/trucks in a rush to get to something, someone, somewhere. Waking up this morning to the announcement of Officer Jacob Hancher killed while responding to a domestic violence call, was a sobering feeling. There is unrest and sympathy in my heart today. The Mayor of Myrtle Beach made a statement to the public with very little detail at this time and officials say there hasn't been a police officer death in the line of duty, in Myrtle Beach, since 2002. I decided to stay home all day today, I literally haven't changed out of my pajamas. I am on my fourth load of laundry, I have folded and put away all of the clean laundry that was sitting in baskets around the house and I started watching a new show called Get Organized - The Home Edit. Kevin is not impressed, he can't make sense of ANYONE hiring professional organizers and I aspire, to one day, have either the time to do it myself OR the money to pay someone to get it done for me. My closing thought for today is be grateful for the little things that bring you joy and peace. Find a place in your day to take a few deep breath's and feel gratitude for the space you are in. I have to find motivation now to sew buttons on Kevin's shorts. He asked me this morning if I wouldn't mind and of course I said yes but I am seriously procrastinating. If I could find more things to write about, this post could go on forever so we I can avoid this one little task. I wish my wonderful, beautiful, kind, gracious mother-in-law was here... she can sew the sh*t out of a button, she can also fold a fitted sheet. For those two reasons, I think she should have a TV show. Save me ODIE!!!