I have been working through adding things to a pegboard wall with the help of a 3d printer. Sure it’s not the most exciting but this corner of the universe is not going to shit.

Oh, I wasn’t thinking at all. It was a mistake my body won’t let me make again though.

Years ago I went to a small bar within walking distance of my place to watch a couple games with friends. There was a beer rep there for one of the big brewers debuting some new seltzer flavors, but no one was interested. I felt bad and the game wasn’t terribly interesting so I talked with him and over the course of 4-5 hours ended up drinking ~8 different flavors of fall themed seltzers (e.g., sour apple, cinnamon, pumpkin, flannel(?!)). A few included a shot of vodka. It was all free so I wasn’t saying no and ended up quite drunk.

The bar was also hosting a fish fry that day and the bartender brought over the leftover fish after the party left and offered it to everyone. In retrospect, this must have been sitting out for hours, but in my drunken state it was ambrosia from heaven and I ate a couple fillets and a bunch of shrimp and walked home.

The next day I was violently hungover and had food poisoning. It was the worst I have ever felt by a wide margin. The absolutely abominable combination of seafood and potpourri flavored alcohol made it an exquisitely miserable experience

Many years ago was working in a pharmacy and a patient came in for a prescription for an steroid inhaler. Steroid inhalers can cause a fungal infection in your mouth if you don’t rinse and spit after using them. I told this to the patient’s mother but she said that the doctor told them to not inhale the spray and instead hold it in the mouth and then rinse and swallow. I told them that didn’t sound right and could be harmful but she insisted.

I called the doctor who told me the patient had a relatively rare condition called eosinophilic esophagitis that required they swallow instead of inhale to reduce the swelling in their esophagus and the chance of a fungal infection was manageable. Turns out that physician was performing a clinical trial which is now a recognized (off label) therapy for the disease.

I use that experience when I am training others on why it is important to listen to everything the patient/client/customer is saying, and not to immediately discount it because it sounds wrong.

During a particularly hard part of my life I asked my partner to take my car for an past due oil change while I was at school/work. When I got home at 11pm I asked how it went and they said that my car was a mess, which is not how I keep my car. Turns out someone trashed my car and stole everything the previous night including a bunch of school textbooks and a bunch of other related stuff. I have had things stolen before but this was in my driveway way outside the main city so it felt personal.

Luckily, I was able to work with the professors and my classmates who provided me copies or a spare book for the semester and I was able get by. Really sucked at the time but it was really warming to have other people pitch in to help me.