Month: September 2024

The evening was overcome with sadness—a profound level of emotional despair with a planned trip back home this week. I was informed of a distressing situation at home. Yes, it involves mom. Mom isn’t doing well. They said she’s okay, but I can’t have a coherent conversation with her anymore.

“No, she’s not okay.”

I’m going back home.

Writing about it helps—it lessens the emotion that I try so
hard to shut off when I’m at work and have to lead. Writing about it helps confirm that my emotions are real— I do feel pain. Through it all I question whether my life choices were the best possible.

I am not fulfilling my culturally expected role of taking
care of my ailing family member.

I’ll be there soon.

There was an interesting live eating competition on Netflix today, and I found it rather intriguing and peculiar as a sport. Typically not a fan of such things, but I was entertained by the ten minutes of hot dog guzzling. Joey Chestnut became the champion as he managed to down 83 hot dogs in 10 minutes, while Takeru Kobayashi, his competitor, ate a whopping 66. What I found most entertaining was watching the trailer for the hyped-up event and hearing each competitor discuss how they prepare for eating competitions – tongue exercises, jaw movements, practice sessions, and extra water drinking to expand the stomach. This was the first live event I’ve seen promoted by Netflix, and I wonder if the company is using it as a pivot action for their declining subscription sales. Clever. I suppose. Joey Chestnut was kicked out of the yearly 4th of July Nathan’s Hot Dog eating contest this year, we may now have the Labor Day Food Eating Challenge as a new tradition to watch out for.