This is my journal entry from February 27, 2026 — my real, unedited day, shared just as it happened.
Today's the big day for the first date. I started off by going to pick the kids up this morning and taking them to school from my ex-wife's house because I'm not going to have any other time to see them today. And this works better because my ex-wife had plans in the afternoon for them, so we switched the time. I bring my son the boxing gloves I got for him in the mail and the boxing pads, and he's excited to start using these at my ex-wife's house. Drive the kids to school and drop them off. Then I hit the 8:30 a.m. power yoga flow where, you know, your boy's got that drama going. I go there for a nice drama-free class and come home right after. I get home. My ex-wife calls because we're talking about what to do with the kids and my mother. My daughter wants to be able to go see my mother and have time at her house. So I talked to my ex-wife. We talk almost an hour, which is really nice. The two main things we cover are, you know, can the kids go over to my mother's house just with my daughter scheduling it, and how much does my ex-wife want to know about my dating life. We work out that, you know, my mother needs to make a couple of little changes, you know, like minimize the screen time especially, and clean the house up a little bit. And then, you know, we're OK with my daughter scheduling time with my mother and my son going over there as well. I was talking about that with the kids this morning, and I said that they could talk to my ex-wife when they got home from school, but my daughter started texting my ex-wife as soon as she got to school about it, so my ex-wife called me. I'm really grateful my ex-wife and I can work together like this.
I also have felt a bit awkward with the dating about what I should tell my ex-wife about and whatnot because she said before she didn't want to hear about it and wasn't interested in it, but at the same time, we're friends, and don't you want to keep up with my life and hear what I'm doing and be accountable and see how it might impact our future? So she says the kids are very interested in hearing about my dating life, and therefore we come to the conclusion that whatever I'm telling the kids about my dating life is something I could share with my ex-wife too, so she doesn't have to hear everything from them, or if she does hear something from them, she's in the loop about it as well. I tell her that I'm going out on a date this afternoon, which she figured that's the reason I rescheduled. And it's like, well, we might as well be clear about it instead of waffling or assuming.
And after that conversation, I immediately have my friend come over and start working on his book with me. He talks so easily. And then when he gets to his book, he struggles a little. So we're going to have to adjust the workflow next time so that he can get this book dictation out a bit easier. This is good learning for me because I'm going to need to have these things down by the time people are paying $300. I'm going to need to have things like that down so that they can knock out the book dictation. But it was also very therapeutic for him to just talk to me and have this space to connect. And that's something people will pay money for too. So it all works out. After he heads out, I get ready for my date. I get all dressed up in my nice clothes. And I take a walk around Crescent Lake. I run into a friend, who's got like five, six dogs in the dog park. I hang out with him for like 30 minutes there. And I feel really grateful that I've got a life where I can just hang out at the dog park for 30 minutes in the middle of the day. And then I've got a date later.
I head out about 2:45 because yesterday the traffic around the same time was 30 minutes longer. So I leave an hour and 45 minutes before the date starts. That way I'll definitely be on time and I can just relax and get there without like being stressed or being late or anything. I figure I can take a walk around when I get there anyway. So I drive down. I don't listen to anything or distract myself with anything. I arrive and I drive by the valet. It's a little backed up. The first time I go around the block, come back and valet park the car. I give the valet a $20 tip, which he's very happy with. And I feel good being able to give it. Then I check the restaurant and go to the bathroom in there. And I then have like 30 minutes to kill before the date starts. I go walk down to the little park that looks out over the water, which is about a 10 minute walk each way. Have a nice relaxing time there thinking that, you know, if things go well with this girl, then maybe we'll come down here and take a walk down here after eating also.
I walk back up there. And I get to the table like 10 minutes early. I sit down at the table. I got a nice view for her walking in. And I sit there. And man, my energy is high. I'm excited. I'm nervous. I'm feeling very vulnerable. It's kind of crazy. And I'm sitting here. But I'm so grateful for this adventure. I see her walk in because the place is empty. I see a woman walk in. I'm like, that's got to be her. And I walk up to her and, you know, I built the expectations way too high up in my head. At least the picture kind of gives you an accurate description. So, you know, I'm picturing like some beautiful 10 model walking in that we're already, you know, know each other and are comfortable. But she's pretty. She's got a laugh like I've never heard before. She looks like she's in pretty good shape. But it's a lot to take in all at once when I haven't seen a picture. And I'm surprisingly like a bit overstimulated, like seeing her all at once. It's fun. But now we also don't hardly know anything about each other. So we talk, we order our food and spend about an hour eating and getting to know each other.
And my initial, I honestly felt a little bit of disappointment at first because I set the expectations and excitement a little too high, but what's cool is the longer I'm hanging out with her I start to like her personality more and more and she's definitely attractive enough and things start to get interesting from here. So after we're finished eating I ask if she wants to go take a walk down by the park, which turns out she lives nearby. She says she lives walking distance from there and she likes going there. And at the same time, she has heels on, so she didn't want to go for a walk with the heels on. I said, well, you live close by, why don't you go change and then we'll take a walk? She says that's fine. So I then ask her, like, okay, well, you know, we just met, like I understand, you know, you want me to just wait here, you can walk back on your own. She's like, you can walk back with me. And I didn't want to feel like pressured to have, like, me on the first date walk back to her apartment, so we walk back to her apartment and keep talking and she crosses the street diagonally, which I love. I love crossing the street diagonally. I'm like, oh, that's so cool. I tell her that and she's funny, she keeps making me laugh. I think I'm laughing more than she's laughing at my stuff. And I'm surprised I'm a little stiff. Like I'm not being as kind of comfortable as I usually am, which is funny. But she seems pretty comfortable and she's making me laugh.
Then we get to her apartment and I'm like, well, I'll just use the bathroom down here. I should have used it at the restaurant. And she's like, oh, the bathroom's always locked. You know, why don't you just come up to my apartment? I'm like, all right, this is like definitely things not to do on the first date. Like go up to the apartment of the person you've just met. I'm like, it's a good thing I'm a safe man. And I'm like, you know what, I like that you like to live a little bit dangerously. That's, I mean, it's not that dangerous. I comment on it. She's like, well, there's cameras everywhere. I'm like, you know, thank you. This is very trusting. And I go up to her apartment and I use the bathroom up there. And I'm trying like not to look around her apartment and judge because I feel like it's not fair. Like she probably didn't expect to have, you know, her date like coming in her apartment an hour afterwards. Or maybe she did. What the hell do I know about this girl? The bathroom door also doesn't close all the way either because she's got like a rack of stuff that hangs on it. Like you can hang towels on it so it doesn't close. And she didn't want that taken off. So the door is like cracked open. I'm going to the bathroom. It's like so funny and so awkward that I can like barely go. But I finally get it out and then she gives me a bottle of water and I'm looking out over a balcony and then she goes to the bathroom, too. And I'm like, this is so vulnerable. And so like we're getting to know each other faster here and hear each other going to the bathroom.
Then we walk out of her apartment. She's got her shoes on and she's even shorter. Like, it's funny. I'm a whole head taller than her. But she's cute. And, you know, she wore a stylish dress and she seems to be having a good time with me. So we walk out of the apartment and go grab some ice cream. I know I don't usually get ice cream, but I get some ice cream. I get one scoop of this honey ice cream they have and it's good. And she gets a scoop of one of the strawberry ice cream varieties that they have. I'm really enjoying her company and feeling drawn to her. And after we eat ice cream, I'm impressed she's really good at just being quiet, like she's comfortable. She doesn't make anxious conversation. She's just comfortable with a little silence, which I enjoy. I'd rather talk less and speak things that are more interesting and have more depth and weight than just constant anxious chitchatter. So I'm impressed with that.
We walked towards the water, which is like 10 minutes or so from where we're at, walking back by the restaurant. And I hold her hand on the way there because I keep bumping into her anyway. She's got a purse. I keep bumping into her. I'm like, I might as well hold your hand and keep bumping into you. And she's got a nice grip. I'm like, oh, I love that she's got a nice, strong grip from working out. We walk down to the beach and it's like a tiny little beach, you know, maybe 30 yards across. But it looks out over the water and it actually has sand and stuff, not very much for swimming. But we walk down there and on the walk down there, I asked her, like, OK, we got past the superficial stuff. And I'm thinking, like, we just went to the bathroom in your apartment and stuff, like, let's get into what's interesting now. Like we don't need to bother. You know, let's go with some depth. And she doesn't have anything to say at first. And she holds me in suspense. And we sit by the water for a little while. And she's very comfortable being quiet. She sits there for sometimes like, you know, two or three minutes without talking. You know, I look at her, I look over the water and I'm like, is this going well? Does she like me? Do I like her?
And then she starts with the interesting stuff. She's like, you know, have you ever seen a ghost before? And I tell her that, yes, I did see a ghost one time. I don't know if I was like asleep. It feels a dream or feels like sleep paralysis. But one time I woke up in bed and there was this ghost of a woman like sitting on me and wailing. And I'm like, come here and give me a hug. So I could tell she just wanted some attention, wanted to be noticed and loved. I gave her a hug and she kind of like fell into me after that and was gone. So I told her that story. Well, she told me a couple of ghost stories and then she really one-ups me. She's like, one time when I was in Mexico, my friend said there's something that I'd want to see outside. So I came outside and the spacecraft came down like just what you've seen, just what you would expect it to look like, like a flying saucer with landing lights. It was at night near the beach. She's like, this spacecraft came down and it communicated with me telepathically. I'm like, shit, now you've really got me hooked. Like this is awesome. Like that is so cool. And I love it. So she tells me about that. She's like, yeah, it followed us along the beach for a little while and then zipped off. And, you know, it communicated telepathically with me using some people's voices in my life that were familiar. I was like, that is so cool. I love it.
So she's really got me hooked after this. So I tell her how, you know, I saw a ball of light after I'd asked, after a decade of watching things like UFO hunters and ancient aliens. I'd said a very clear intention and communication out there that I'm like, look, I'm tired of hearing about all this, but I've never seen something myself, especially with the audience I used to have online. I'm like, I want to know if this is real or not. If it's real, I want to see something personally. No more taking somebody's word for it. So after like a month or two after I set those intentions very clearly and followed the Dr. Stephen Greer's like CE5 contact protocol and downloaded the app and paid for it and all that, well, one night I was walking the dog. I was like 11 at night and I was talking to my mom. And I see what looks like at first, I think it must be a helicopter because there's kind of this hovering bright light up in the sky right about where a helicopter would be. But there's no noise from it. And it's just in one spot. It's just kind of hanging there. My first thought is it's a helicopter, but then it zooms off. It like tears across the entire sky in a second or two. Like it was standing totally still, you know, hovering like a helicopter. And then it just ripped across the whole sky and almost instantly went out of sight. I was like, holy shit. Like that's what I was asking to see. Like that was some intelligently controlled, you know, ball of energy or, you know, spacecraft. Like that was something intelligently controlled that in our mainstream science and stuff does not explain. Like that was exactly what I asked for. And I was super grateful to see that. So I shared that story with her.
Then we kept talking and walked back to her apartment. I figured I'd double down at this point because she said she had another event to go to at eight. So we get back to her apartment at 7:30. So it's been like three hours we spent together. I hold her hand again on the way back, put my arm around her shoulder, you know, feeling comfortable with hers. At some point, she like taps my belly with the back of her hand when we're talking. And I'm like, I guess this is going pretty well, isn't it? I like her, and I really enjoyed being around her, you know, especially when we're sitting on the beach. Even though we didn't talk about like anything sexual, I just enjoyed hearing her speak. We get to her apartment, I'm like, might as well double down as I definitely need to go to the bathroom before I drive an hour back. You know, can I use your bathroom again? She's like, sure. So we come up. This time it's less awkward because I already did this once. I go to the bathroom and then, you know, she's about to get ready and go to her next event and I'm ready to go. So she's like standing there in the door of her bedroom, like, I guess this is the time to like give her a hug or give her a kiss. So she is thinking the same thing. So she leans in and we have a quick little peck on the lips, which I'm like, hmm, that felt good. And I leave her apartment feeling pretty, pretty well.
And I then walk back to my car. I grabbed the car from the valet. I give the valet another $20 tip and he's really impressed. Like he's like, can I get you a bottle of water or anything? You know, where are you from? You from St. Pete? What brings you here tonight? So it's nice. It was like he really appreciated that $40 tip so much that he was kind of like awkward about it. And I'm like, oh, that's nice. Like I'm, you know, $40 is no big deal to me and I'm really happy to brighten somebody else's day up. I remember a friend who passed away a couple of years ago. He used to be a valet in college and he'd talk about with great nostalgia, like the best tips he got when he was a valet. So I was definitely thinking of him when I gave the valet, you know, those tips. And the valet must have like sprinted to get my car the second time because that was around the block and I had like barely a minute and he didn't even look like he broke a sweat, but he got that car fast as hell. So I was thinking of my friend on the way back.
And I was thinking of the date and she, I told her I was a YouTuber. I used to be and I told her I write books. She's like, oh, you're going to put this in your book. I'm like, I think I'll leave her name out, you know, in case I don't see her again or something. Or, you know, I don't know where this is going to go, but we exchanged phone numbers at her apartment right before I left, too. And I sent her a message with my, I realized when I got back, like, oh, I got her number, but I didn't actually send her my number. So I sent her my number and I said, thank you for the date. And she said, you know, same here. And then I start driving back and, you know, I realize I'm kind of missing her. Like, it felt really good. But at the same time, at first, I feel kind of sad. I'm heading back and I'm kind of sad. I'm like, you know, I don't know if she was the one. I was all excited about this. And, you know, I don't know if it went that well or not. Like after I had the first date with my ex-wife, I was just like in total euphoria on the drive back with her. I'm like, man, she's so awesome. I'd love to be with her. And I was kind of comparing that to this. But then about halfway back, I'm like, that girl is really cool. I miss her. I'd really like to see her again. And I want her to know that.
So when I got to the AA meeting, like 10 minutes late that I was going to, I sent her a message that said, I'd love to see you again whenever you're available. And I'll make sure to bring a gift since she said gifts were one of her love languages. I got to shout out my sponsor in AA who said that I should bring her a gift too. But I'm like, nah, this is like, it's too much. You're just meeting someone on a blind date. Like I don't need to be bringing her a gift on the first date. Like I'm trying too hard, but she said she would have loved that. I'm like, OK, I'll bring that. Then right after that message, I realized, you know, I've invited so many girls to do stuff and I don't know what happened. They felt pressured or something. I also want to make it clear, like, you know, if she wants to say no, it's totally cool. So I sent her a second message right after that, like a minute later. I said, you know, at the same time, if one date with me was enough, I paid for 11 more matches through the matchmaking service and I can move on to the next if you'd prefer. And then she texts me like 30, 40 minutes later. She's like, you're cute. Sure, let's do it, which is funny. Because I'm like, sure, let's do it. Let's do what? Like, you want to meet up with me again? So I sent her a message after that. I'm like, awesome, when are you free next? And as I go to bed, she hasn't responded yet. And I'm really grateful that this first date went pretty well.
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