This is my journal entry from February 26, 2026 — my real, unedited day, shared just as it happened.
What an awesome day today. I woke up and took the kids to school this morning. Enjoyed watching my son dive into making his lunch. After last night, he was sad before bed. He didn't have time to make his lunch. He made his lunch and my daughter's lunch this morning, which was beautiful. Got him to school on time, dropped him off, and then came home. I immediately had a meeting scheduled with a friend that I got into ICP a year ago. He paid me $300 to help him get his crypto transaction straightened out from last year and to figure out what his cost basis was and all that stuff so that then he could take everything to his accountant. I showed him how to update everything in Coinbase and download all the reports that he could have for his accountant so his accountant would have everything he needed. I had a great conversation with him.
And then I get a text message from my matchmaker that says she thinks something is going to happen. She says that, hey, Jerry, keep an eye out for something exciting happening regarding a match today or tomorrow, hopefully. Then right when I'm going to reply to her, I get an email and a text from the matchmaking service saying that I've got a match. And we're ready for you to schedule a date. My matchmaker says that she's beautiful. And, you know, your availability is open, even though hers is a bit limited. So we'll get everything to work. Then I text. And just a few hours later, I get an email that I've confirmed my availability. The girl I'm matching with gave her availability, so I put in a specific time to narrow down the window. And then the team set up a date for us, made reservations for us, and emailed the details to both of us. I'm like, this is really cool. It says the date's Friday, February 27th, at a restaurant about an hour away. I'm like, this is awesome. Like, this is so cool. Like, literally this morning, I was just sitting there hoping, had nothing going on, wondering if it was going to be weeks before I got a match. And by the end of the day, halfway through the day, like I've got a date set up at a specific place and a specific time tomorrow. The girl's bio looks awesome. And if this is an indication of the kind of girls that are on here, what a joy. It says, basically, she's looking for her partner. I'm so excited about this and super grateful that this has happened so fast. I just feel just euphoric.
At the same time, I feel really good having just earned $300 sitting in my house talking to a friend and helping him out with something he needs help with. I feel like this is exactly what I want to be doing with my business, having conversations with people I enjoy hanging out with, and they give me $300. This is awesome. At the same time, I get an invitation from a lady from AA to go speak about recovery at a church in a couple of weeks. I'm like, that's awesome, too. I literally just got paid 300 bucks, got a date set up and an invitation to speak. So I did coaching, I'm working on my writing today, I got an invitation to speak and I got a date literally all within like 30 minutes or an hour of each other. Like, holy shit. Now, some would say like my personal trainer, I tell him about this and he's like, well, yeah, that's law of attraction kicking in. I'm like, well, really, it's just all the seeds I planted being ready to harvest at the same time. All the stuff I did before and the seeds I planted all came up at once. And I talked to my personal trainer. He's got a girl he just met as well that he's excited about. And he says I'm his favorite client to hang out with, which, you know, we have the greatest conversations. The time flies by and it's going to be my last session with him, at least at my gym. Next time, like I would be happy to continue training with him, but I'd like to cut the middle gym out of the equation and just train with him somewhere else, if possible.
After I do personal training, then I come back home and get to work working on my letter that I'm going to use to promote my business. I, you know, especially really want to get my business going and be ready. I dictate a whole new hour-long letter. This one feels like it came out better than the last one and I worked through processing it with ChatGPT. I get like halfway through and it's time to go to my AA meeting. I go to the AA meeting. I see several people I haven't seen in a little while. I'm really happy to see them. After the meeting I go and get a haircut at a hair salon with a hairstylist. She was the same woman who cut my hair there last time and it's funny I reflect, I'm like, last time I came to see her I was also getting my hair cut to look nice for a date. She says it was nine weeks ago that I came to see her. I'm like, wow, like a lot has happened in my life in nine weeks. Like I moved to the house I'm in now near Crescent Lake. I signed up for a matchmaking service. I had dates with three other women. And I'm like, I feel like I'm in such a better place than I was nine weeks ago. But that date nine weeks ago was nice, but it was pretty far off of being compatible. And I'm really grateful to have something that seems like it could be much closer, although we'll see the details tomorrow. It's funny, I'm already, my mind tries to spin up some scenarios of what might not work out, and I'm like, no thanks. Like, I'm super excited to be exactly where I'm at today, and I'm really grateful to be where we are now.
As I consider this, then I'm feeling super, like, euphoric after the haircut and going to the AA meeting. I'm right in my mother's neighborhood, so I stop by to see her, and I ask my mother if she wants to hear about the date, the match, the profile I've gotten. She says no. I don't want to hear about it. I immediately start feeling a bit hurt and shut down. And yet I talk to my mother. I get my mother talking about her book and her life. I'm like, wow, you know, you get used to seeing somebody as a mother, but it's like my mom was quite a badass in her career. And I really, I encourage her. I'm like, mom, I'd like to read your book. Like I want you to print your book out and give it to me, at least at a minimum. Like this should not be something that if you passed on I'd have to go hunt through your passwords and try and, you know, get a hold of this book. Like I want to read your book now and ask you questions about it. Right when I go to leave after I spent 45 minutes at my mom's house, then she starts to get curious about the date, but by then I'm like it's too late. Like I'm ready to go, you know.
And then on the way home, I kind of feel bad. I'm like, damn, I felt really good when I went to my mom's house and I left feeling hurt. So I start forgiving my mom. I'm like, I forgive my mom for, you know, she didn't, I don't think she like meant to do that. She was just, you know, in the place she was at, not considering how her actions impact me or not considering what I was excited about. You know, I understand that things were better for her in lots of ways. When my ex-wife and I were married, it was easier for her to access the kids, harder for me to set boundaries with accessing the kids right across the street. And she misses me being married. She is impacted by the effect of me being willing to get divorced and not stick with my ex-wife, what it says about her marriage with my father. I empathize and think about that there's a lot of things going on. When I tell my mom that I'm going out with a girl, that it's not as simple for mom as just being excited for me because her own self-interest and her own feelings are conflicting too. So I forgive my mom. I say it out loud. I forgive my mom for hurting my feelings, for not considering how she could support me, for not meeting me with my excitement. And then I forgive her repeatedly in my head until I start to feel a bit better.
And then I think about, well, who the hell would I like to talk to about this date tomorrow? So I called a younger friend up. And he was one of the guys I was hanging out with at the friend's house on Sunday a few days ago. And I talked to him for an hour and a half on the phone. I call and he doesn't answer at first. I take a walk around Crescent Lake and he calls while I'm walking around Crescent Lake. And I talked to him for an hour and a half. We have a great conversation during which I shave and wash all the dishes. I did at least refrain from vacuuming, although I did brush my teeth and everything. But we have a great conversation and he shares that, you know, there's a girl that's attractive at the meeting that he'd like to talk to, but that he's afraid to talk to. And he says he feels he's playing it safe by just not talking to her. And I said, no, you're not playing it safe. Like right now you're losing. Sitting on the sidelines and watching life go by is losing. Playing it safe is to go for what you want, to take the risks, to risk getting shut down, to go out on that date, to get the crush on the girl at yoga. And if it doesn't work out, feel the pain. At least you're in the game. But to me, the biggest risk is just being basically a walking dead, a zombie, someone who's not really alive that sits on the sidelines and observes and wishes for things but doesn't go for them. I go for stuff and that's why I get stuff. And even if it doesn't make me happy, I enjoy the journey of all of it.
And I enjoy that I've got this date set up tomorrow. I'm so excited for that. And then if it doesn't go well, I can have 11 more with 11 other women after it. I go for it. And I love that. And I encourage him. I'm like, you know, I want to see you talking to her next meeting. And I don't care how it goes. Like, even if it goes bad, we can all laugh about it and talk shit and have fun with it. Like the only thing that's lame is nothing happening. Like that's lame. Especially I'm like you're in your mid-20s, like you need, life is an adventure, like enjoy the adventure, go for it. So he sounds like he feels inspired getting off the phone and I tell him I'm really looking forward to seeing him for the meeting and seeing how this goes. I tell him that I talked to the girl myself a couple weeks ago and had a great conversation with her. She was very friendly. She's very pretty. Now I don't know that given where she's at in her life that she's compatible with what I'm looking for. But I do know I'd be interested to talk and explore more. And, you know, like he needs to do that, too. I encourage him to think about her point of view, like from her point of view, would she like all the guys at the meeting to ignore her, even though she's so pretty and she's newly sober and she's in her mid 20s, too? Like, no. Like I love when women, even when I was married, I loved when women would come up and just talk and be friendly with me. It felt so good.
Like the one girl who around a year ago came up to me and told me that she had thought of me every day after she had heard me share once in a meeting that she wanted to be as happy as I was someday. And she thought of me every day since. And that made a big impact to me. I was super friendly and sat next to her at meetings and had a lot of great talks with her. And I'm like, that's, you know, imagine giving that to someone else. I'm like, think about your intention setting. I'm like, my intention for this date tomorrow is do whatever I can to help this girl feel good and feel validated and appreciated and enjoy our time together, whether it's our first and last date or whether it's the start of something amazing and beautiful or anywhere in between. Like, I'm just so excited for the opportunity. The matchmaker said she was beautiful. So my mind keeps trying to counter that and be like, oh, well, we'll see about that. Like, you know what? I'm going to trust that the matchmaker, based on what I described and the pictures I sent of my ex and the other girls that I found attractive, I'm going to trust my matchmaker knows what I think is beautiful because I've told her and I've shown her. And if she thinks the girl is beautiful, then I should get pretty excited about it. Right.
And yes, I told my friend on the phone, like, yeah, I'm being vulnerable. He's like, it's so vulnerable to talk to a girl, to be that open, sober, so vulnerable. I'm like, yes, it is. You can prepare like, you know, I could potentially get my ass kicked emotionally tomorrow, just like I did three weeks ago. I guess it was only two weeks ago when a woman from my yoga class didn't show up to yoga. I knew I could get my ass kicked that day if she wasn't there. That, you know, the thoughts in my head talking about, oh, she didn't show up because you talked to her, she wanted to avoid you, you suck. Like those, it'd be harder to say no to those thoughts if she didn't show up. And I took an emotional beating that I gave to myself for like 24 hours. But you know what? Then I got a matchmaking service right after that. Look at me now. Now I got a date with a girl that according to my matchmaker is beautiful and fit and sounds very appropriate for where I'm at and what I'm looking for. And I'm so excited to tell you about how it goes tomorrow. I realize, you know, this could be another one of the nights where, like, you know, talking about a woman I'd been talking to and how excited I was, and then a couple of days later, I'm miserable. And same thing with another woman I'd been interested in. Same thing with the woman from my yoga class. I'm like, you know, this could be another one of those things. But what if it's not? What if this is something that is the start of a second marriage? What if that's what happens? Because that could be awesome. And I'm willing to put myself in a position for another emotional ass beating, although hopefully less severe. I'm willing to put myself in position for, you know, the two of us to not be compatible, you know, for her to be drinking too much or something or for me to just not think she's hot or, you know, for whatever. I'm in the game. Let's have some... Nope, let's not sing any songs. I'm in the game today, baby. And to me, that's the best, as good as it gets in life, is I'm in the game. I'm playing. And to me, as long as I'm alive here on this planet, I define being alive as being in the game and playing and going for it and having fun and experiencing and exploring and being curious. And I'm so grateful for everything that's unfolded today. I work hard for this!
If you connect with how I live and think, you can follow the rest of my days on YouTube in my Life playlist.