I'm 35 with no wife or girlfriend. Sometimes it bums me out, but then I do literally whatever the fuck I want, whenever the fuck I want. So, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go take a few bong hits, watch porn on a big screen with the volume up, and spend the rest of my afternoon stoned playing videogames, probably with no pants on. Things I may not be able to do if I had a girlfriend :).

Today in early morning a dead cat appeared in front of my mother's restaurant, someone seemingly rolled him (it was a male) over and had been dead for a few hours.

Because my mother is perpetually afraid of cats and the morning employee refused to pick it up, I had to do it, of course. It's a frightening sight, not the same thing as seeing a dead cockroach, for example, I typically don't get to see dead vertebrates (not even rats/mice), so the whole process was tough for me.

Initially, I grabbed a dustpan and a broom to put the body in a box, but the guy turned out to be heavy and impressively stiff, it was like frozen clay, that's the best way I can put it. Usually when you touch a cat, you can feel the muscles all soft and cozy, if you know what I mean, but this guy was imploding. Since putrefaction hadn't properly started yet, I assume it had been dead just for a few hours.

So I had to grab him with my hands, but it took me a long while to get around the idea. I grabbed him and threw him inside the box, but guess what, he fell out and rolled over some cacti nearby.

I cried.

Had to gather courage again and I finally did it, then I researched what I had to do with the body. There supposedly has to be a department in the city that takes care of this type of matters (because it is forbidden to toss animals in regular garbage around here), but obviously it wasn't available. So, since I'm not a fan of just tossing my problems to other people, I didn't put the box next to a random house like my mother suggested. Went out a little bit and decided to bury it, didn't take too long.

Hopefully he can rest now, he was slightly larger than your average cat.

Well, for the first time since 2019 I have just signed up to go back into classroom mentoring.

The pandemic set my progress against my OCD back several years, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't terrified still, but I feel like it's time I faced this fear and got back to doing my job in person. Online teaching is an okay stopgap but I've found you just can't connect as well over zoom as you can face to face.

This is a huge step for me, but I feel like with all the stuff I've been through before, I can handle this.

Gonna need a lot of video game therapy to de-stress afterwards, but with Kirby, 13 Sentinels, Zombie Army 4, and Sunbreak coming up, it looks like I've have plenty of glorious escapism to charge my batteries.

Since I'm sure you're all dying to know how my workouts are going, I've been getting back into swimming. I can do about 60 laps without stopping (except maybe 10-15 seconds occassionally to change my song or readjust my goggles) which is just under a mile (pretty slow mile though). Although after doing that today I felt seriously sick for a little bit. Which is bad in the sense that I'm not in great shape, but good in that I'm pushing myself.

I have underwater headphones, and I'm going to load them up with some good water level music from videogames. Aquatic Ambience from DKC, Dire Dire Docks, etc. Accepting recommendations.

Bureaucracy in Japan is so dang annoying. It is so tedious that it actively hinders my life. Even if I knew Japanese perfectly well, I STILL wouldn't be able to get things right.

Ok. Not really the purpose for the thread, but gotta vent somewhere.

So, when I was teaching I had my own apartment. I had a recliner that I absolutely fucking loved. I always wanted one, but never could have one when living with my parents due to space concerns. My teaching career ended poorly. Literally went directly from my last school placement to a psych word. The hardest part was giving up my apartment. I was 31 before I moved out, which made me feel like a failure. I was so happy when I had my own place that even before I had any furniture there I would go, just sit in it and have a sandwich (my parents were across the street so it was a short distance). I didn't want to store the furniture due to expenses and not really knowing when I'd have a new job. I begged my mom to let me keep just the recliner, but nope.

Anyway, I needed to get rid of the furniture I bought, and the whole thing was just too much for me. So, my aunt was interested and I told her she could just take whatever she wanted if she handled the leg work. I didn't ask for any money I just didn't want to deal with it. I said though that I wanted the recliner back when I had a place of my own again.

I wound up moving into my grandmother's apartment during the pandemic. She needed help throughout the day, so she stayed with my mom and dad, and I stayed in her apartment. The idea was that I would stay there when she got back too, and eventually take it over (it's a coop and it's hard to get). Everyone but my grandma was pretty sure that wouldn't happen, but we let her believe it. My grandmother passed away (she was 95 so she led a long life) and the apartment was officially mine. My parents continued to pay the rent while I finished law school.

Once the apartment was mine, I wanted my recliner back. So I asked for it. My aunt lives in the same building so I thought I could just go and grab it. My aunt responded asking if I *really* wanted it back, because it was kind of old and in not great condition (was in fine condition when I gave it to her). She even sent me pictures of other recliners I could buy. I responded that it had a lot of sentimental value to me and I would like it back. She replied that they had to remove the door from the hinges to get it in, and I would have to pay for mine to be removed and blah blah blah. At first I was willing to do it, but I really didn't have a ton of disposable income, and didn't know when I'd get some. My aunt said she was going to get rid of it if I didn't want it, so I eventually told her to just do it. Maybe a year ago?

Anyway, today I'm on my way to the gym for a swim, and taking an exit I usually don't use. As I leave, I look to my right and there is my recliner. I'd know it anywhere. It was still in tact. If it couldn't fit through her door how could that be? Surely she wouldn't have paid to have the door taken off its hinges just to get rid of it, she'd have taken it apart.

Anyway, I go to take my swim and on my way back I grab the chair. With the teensiest bit of squishing the sides together, it goes right through the doorframe. Getting it into my bedroom was only slightly more of a challenge. So, I really could have gotten it at any point over the last year and a half or so I've been here.

So, kind of pissed. Because obviously it was bullshit. Dunno if she didn't want me to see the condition the chair was in (it's a little sketchy but I think a good cleaning and it will be fine) or just was too lazy to get it to me (although it was not much further than leaving it in the outside of her building). It was something that was really important to me, would have taken the smallest effort to get it to me, but was just left lying outside. It's honestly a bizarre coincidence that I even found it, because I didn't start using that exit till recently when I changed gyms, and I only go three days a week, so the odds were heavily against me seeing it ever again. I'm tempted to have the next holiday here just so she can see the chair and try to explain how it could have gotten here. But that probably won't accomplish anything. I know with all that's going on it's stupid to get worked up over a chair, but it really had a lot of sentimental value. I associated it with being on my own and losing it was associated with failure.

On the bright side, I have my beloved recliner back, so maybe I should just be happy about that. Really thought I'd never see it again. And now that I'm gainfully employed (or soon to be at least have a position waiting for me after graduation), it's the perfect time for it to be back.

Officially had my first session back in classroom mentoring since 2019!

It was a big step for me, and it took a lot out of me. I felt less anxious than I expected when I was actually there, but the night after and today I have a massive stress hangover; I still feel light-headed, nervy, and exhausted.

Still, as scary as it was, I faced my OCD and won, and for that, I’m proud of myself.

I think I downloaded the wrong Sim City.

That's, if I'm not mistaken, the first Sheen Megamee Tensay game. It's wild.