evening stream of consciousness

I took the kids to Dave and Busters for half price Wednesday. We had noticed last time we were there that you can cash out your tickets for food in their restaurant. We enjoy playing the games but as far as prizes go, sometimes Owsley will get something for himself or one of his cousins and Gage occasionally gets candy. For the most part the prizes have remained the same the last few years, so we've just been collecting points. Owsley is so good at the crane games and there are a few cranes where you can win rings of tickets, and he often wins thousands at a time that way. Sometimes multiple times. With their 'tastes for tickets' deal you were able to trade out between 1600-2200 tickets for an appetizer, entree or dessert. 

Owsley got a chicken cobb salad, Gage got a flatbread, and I had voodoo pasta. It was all really good and tasted even better because it felt like it was free. We still have thousands of tickets left and they have both decided that they want to try everything on the 'tastes for tickets' menu. There's really only 8 things, I think. The pasta was very good and there was even half for me to bring home. 

I can see how this might not be a good deal if you didn't have a ticket master in your family, but here is some proof below with how good Owsley is at the crane games. He won Violet Beauregard and half the cast of Fraggle Rock. I have a large collection of various animals and foods with faces that Owsley has won me over the years. Oftentimes at D&B he'll just give whatever he wins to a small kid standing nearby, but he was really excited to give me Violet and we really didn't see many other kids there today. There were a couple other families with older kids, but then it was mostly just people on their lunch break. 

Today was a great day with the kids. Gage was in a really good mood and was joking around more than normal. 

It's been three years since I left friendly social media and I don't miss it at all. Although reddit is still social media, it is different because it is anonymous. And I am definitely more of a lurker than a participator. There's less trying to impress people and more emboldened opinions because you can hide behind your username and be as raw or as vile as you choose. I mean, you can do that on regular social media as well, but I think most people probably still wear some sort of mask when it comes to living online. 

My first cousin just gave birth to her first child and I didn't even know she was in labor because I don't have social media. This was such a weird feeling when I found out every single family member knew except for the four of us, because the kids only use discord and Peppy and I only doom scroll reddit. I only have two cousins and we all grew up together, so it actually made me feel this odd, uneasy feeling at not knowing when everyone else did. Not a 'woe is me' type of thing, but just an acceptance of this time we live in. It is so, so weird to me that people automatically assume that you know all these details about their lives because of social media.

So I never really know what is trending on the other socials.

It looks like Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce (sp? at least I remembered his name this time,) are blowing up everywhere and people are tying Pfizer and Joe Biden into this huge conspiracy, and this is what lots of people seem to be focusing on. It is trending all over reddit on all the various subreddits, so I can only imagine that everyone is also talking about it on tiktok, facebook and instagram. Swift is being exposed for being a witch, and people are connecting this all-American CIA love story to the grand conspiracy it really is, or at least the conservatives are. America's sweetheart connects with America's favorite pastime. And because of the sudden attention to this thing that should have been evident to anyone that understands this is all theater, I believe this is a red herring. Don't get too sucked into this rabbit hole. I mean, I'm sure  all of this is connected, but this one is your distraction.

They orchestrated this romantic comedy for us to watch play out in real time. (Will Taylor make it to the Super Bowl in time? Will Travis propose?) But true reality, that most of us believe is science fiction, is being played out behind the scenes. I don't know what we should be paying attention to the moment, probably what all the meetings and agendas were about at the World Economic Forum earlier this month. The theme this year was 'building back trust.' Just let your mind run wild with that one for a minute.