confident

Even though he'd heard the warm, familiar voice behind him, it had taken him a second to actually turn around and address it. Even as he saw it was Mercedes, he couldn't help pointing a finger at himself as if to silently ask if she was really trying to pull him, of all people, out of the crowd. When it was clear she was, he closed the distance between them. "In my defense, I wasn't actively trying to. Which, when you consider me being me, is actually a compliment," he couldn't help quipping to start. "But you know what? What the hell, sure. Better you than me, anyway. These damn games bring out my competitive edge way too much and before I know it, my wallet is crying."

Mercedes laughed softly, shaking her head. "See? I knew you weren't actually going to ignore me. And thank you for proving me right, though I wouldn't exactly say no to a little friendly competition," she added, one brow arching with amused confidence as she linked her elbow around his. "But no pressure. We can stick with me being the only one making questionable financial decisions tonight. You can stand there and judge my technique instead." She started toward the row of game booths at an easy pace, coming to a stop when one of the oversized stuffed animals hanging overhead caught her eye. Pointing at the giant teddy bear with the confidence of someone who hadn't thrown a single ring all night, she smiled. "That one is coming home with me." Her gaze lingered on the prize for another second before she laughed. "I'm choosing to ignore every logical part of my brain that's reminding me these games are probably designed to make us lose."

Daria had been making her way through the carnival not really paying much attention to anything in particular, so when she heard famiilar voice calling out to her, it snapped her into focus, looking for where it came from. At the sight of Mercedes doing her best to wave at her, she couldn't help but laugh, changing course until she was standing beside her. "Well, when you put it like that, how am I supposed to say no?" she asked, reaching over to take the funnel cake from her without much hesitation. "Though I feel like I should point out that asking the owner of a cafe to hold onto fried dough is a dangerous game. I can't promise there'll be quite this much left by the time you get back." She grinned before nodding toward the game booths. "Come on then. Let's see if either of us has the skills to earn you that giant stuffed bear, or if we're just about to make the carnival workers very happy."

Mercedes narrowed her eyes at Daria with exaggerated suspicion, though the smile tugging at her lips ruined any attempt at looking serious. "You know, admitting you're a threat to my funnel cake before I've even handed it over isn't exactly inspiring confidence. Though, worst case, I get an excuse to buy another one." She lifted her lemonade in a tiny toast before starting toward the game booths. "Honestly, that sounds like a win either way." The bright colors and carnival noise only seemed to add to her excitement as they stopped in front of the ring toss. Mercedes looked over the rows of oversized stuffed animals hanging overhead, her eyes immediately landing on one of the giant teddy bears. "There." She pointed dramatically. "That's the one I want. And yes, I'm fully aware these games are more than likely rigged, but I've decided confidence is more important than skill." Fishing a few bills from her pocket, she paid for a bucket of rings and set them between herself and Daria. "If neither of us wins, we agree to blame the bottles instead of our aim."

Matt’s bopping and grooving around, taking in the sights and all the fantastic-smelling scents that tempted him to just get a funnel cake and stop talking himself out of it. Five minutes later he’s standing, turning away enough to not cram a giant bite into his mouth. Matt was mid chew when he heard someone. Turning his head, powder sugar all over his mouth, Matt chewed slowly and chuckled, covering his mouth. “Sorry. I got this and basically, hyper focused on it.” He glanced down. “Hey! You got one too.” Matt walked over and shook his head. “I’ll hold yours and promise that I won’t consider eating your funnel cake while you play games. But I may cross my toes while doing so.”

"Well, there goes any chance of you pretending you haven't been caught." She tipped her head, grinning as she gestured vaguely toward his face with the straw of her lemonade. "You've got a little..." She made a circle around her own mouth. "Actually, you've got a lot." She shifted her funnel cake into his waiting hands without much hesitation, trusting him despite his less-than-reassuring promise as she linked her arm with his. "Cross your toes all you want, but if I come back and there's one bite missing, I'm sending you to buy me another one." Her smile only widened, making it obvious she wasn't remotely serious. "Besides," she added as she started leading him toward the ring toss booth, "if you're crossing your toes, doesn't that cancel out the good luck I'm supposed to have? I invited you to be my lucky charm, not my sabotage."

Alright, so I know it's 2 weeks away, but since I was already working on a couple of commission pieces, I wound up making a whole bunch of new jewelry for the shop and I'm planning on having it out for the sidewalk sale on the 4th of July! Not to mention, I even matched some of the new jewelry to a few clothing pieces I have in stock, so if you come in needing an entire outfit and accessories, I can totally hook you up. And I'm totally okay with selling some before the sidewalk sale, I was just so excited about getting so much done so early that I had to gush about it.

I wish I hadn’t been so insanely busy these last two weeks because I am majorly kicking myself for missing the early preview. But seriously, congratulations on getting all of that done so fast! Since tomorrow is the big day, you better believe I am going to be one of the first people at your booth for the sidewalk sale. Are you all set up and ready for that? If not, I can swing by and help out. Also, please tell me you at least saved a couple of your favorite pieces for your bestest friend ever 🥰

So Beth is with her dad this weekend. This will be the longest she's even been away from me since she was born and I'm so excited! What should I do first? Sleep in? Watch my own shows? Take a long, hot bath? God the options are endless! I can do whatever I want for the next two and a half days! I feel like dancing for joy!

If I were you? Step one would definitely be turning off every single alarm on your phone and sleeping until noon. Step two is a long, hot bath with absolutely zero interruption -- maybe watch one of your shows? Just whatever you do, enjoy every single second of your peace and quiet! But listen, if you get bored of doing nothing and want to grab a drink or have a girls' night to celebrate your freedom, you know exactly who to text.

text message 📲 D³

That's true, it's not like when we were kids. Notebooks and pens or pencils, handwritten note-passing, doodling in the margins. All on some form of technology now. Though, you do bring up a good point and I may actually just change that to an extra credit assignment. That way, doesn't count against them in any way if I can't read what they wrote. With the typewriters, I could be nice and tell them the trick of using whiteout. Still some effort in there, since they gotta wait for it to dry before typing over it. Can't really record them though, at least not their faces. Privacy laws with minors, but I could have it recording me explaining it to them and get their verbal reactions picked up on the audio, I've seen a few teachers on social media doing that.

Extra credit is smart, honestly. That way you won’t have a bunch of angry parents in your inbox when their precious babies fail because they write like doctors with broken hands. And yeah, obviously I don't mean their faces. But I watch plenty of teachers do that format where the camera is on them and they're mostly reacting to the crazy shit kids say these days -- you should absolutely do it.

Oof, yeah the barely there, thin line of a brow trend. Glad that's something I never took part in. I've heard some people never were able to grow them back in after doing all that. But yeah, I think that’s what makes it feel weird more than anything, just how differently time feels now compared to back then. Everything moves so fast you barely get a chance to sit with it before it’s already part of some nostalgia post. Also now I’m kind of curious what other things are going to get slapped with the retro label next, because at this rate I feel like I need to start mentally preparing for 2010s stuff to show up any day now.

Okay but real talk? This whole “everything is retro now” thing is actually making me feel some type of way. Like damn, we really out here becoming classics without even trying. But enough sulking about being old, it's a little depressing now. Oh, hey, Founder's Day is literally right around the corner. You gonna have a booth this year?

Listen, I've fully seen a student attempt to "zoom-in" on a page on a book before realizing it's not gonna work that way, I can't imagine if they had to do all research for any class without google at their fingertips. Either way, Marley may have inspired me to consider giving them an assignment where they have to write it by hand, no typing it up on a computer. Maybe a typewriter, if any of them have access to one. Sure, depending on penmanship I may end up regretting it in the end, but still might at least make them appreciate how easy they've got it nowadays.

Half of them probably haven't held a pen for longer than thirty seconds since elementary school. You’re going to be squinting at those papers like you're trying to decode ancient hieroglyphics by the time you're halfway through the pile. Though, the typewriter idea is actually genius. It’s "aesthetic" enough that they might actually think it’s cool for the first five minutes, right up until they realize there’s no backspace key and they have to start the whole page over because of one typo. If you actually go through with it, please record their reactions when you tell them they can't just "copy-paste" their sources. I bet it's the type of thing that'd go viral.

Is it truly the internet or is it those younger generations that seem to never cease at poking fun at our trends, despite the fact so many trends of our hay-day are making comebacks with them? But no, I get it. Life was easier back when our biggest worries were scraped knees and who was getting picked first for teams in gym class, stuff like that.

You’ve got a point there. They’ll call us "vintage" in one breath and then go buy the exact same outfit we wore to a middle school dance in the next. It’s a specialized kind of disrespect, honestly. But hey, if looking this good is what they consider "vintage," I’ll take it as a compliment. I can handle the JNCO jeans and the claw clips coming back, but I am begging the fashion gods to not bring back those skinny, barely-there eyebrows. I spent way too many years looking surprised and half-finished. I am not recovering from that trauma just so I can see it all over my feed again. Hell to the no.

Oh don’t even get me started on some of those "songs that are turning 30 this year" videos. And it's even worse when a song ends up on them that's older than I originally thought. But yeah, I hear you Mercedes, no funeral energy, I promise. We absolutely are still fine as hell, that’s not up for debate. I’m just mildly offended on behalf of time itself. Also I fully agree with the golden era statement. We lived through peak childhood entertainment and didn’t even realize we were in the good days.

I’m glad we’ve established that we’re still in our prime, even if the internet is trying to gaslight us into thinking we’re ancient artifacts. But you’re so right about the golden era. We really had it all—the best cartoons, the best snacks, and the kind of summer vacations that actually felt like they lasted forever. I’d trade a lot of things to go back to a Saturday morning where the biggest stress was which cereal to eat and whether the neighbor was coming over to play.

No, seriously, and half the time you’d finally track the book down just for it to have like one paragraph that was actually useful. But yes, and now they’ve got everything instantly and still somehow complain about having to find sources. I almost want to make them do a “no internet” assignment just to see how long they’d last before revolting.

Honestly, watching them try to navigate a world without a search bar would be the highest form of entertainment. But honestly, as much as I complain, I’m not sure I’d have the patience to go back to the dark ages either. If I had to wait three weeks for a library book to arrive on inter-library loan just to finish a project now, I’d probably just quit.