✍️ When One Newsletter Ends... 5/26/25

Hi everyone! 

So I’ll be honest with you, this week begins back on Sunday, but I thought i had such a great ending that I pushed this story to the next week. What can I say, I’m a sucker for a way to bookend something. I love wrapping my newsletters up in a tiny little bow to share. And the truth is that when one newsletter ends, it just means that it’s the beginning of a new one. If you have a problem with that, find another newsletter about my life to follow. 

With that being said, let’s find out What’s Up With Will…

We pulled up to the Chicago Midway Airport, checked our bags, and walked up to the gate, but we found that it was delayed by an hour. And then 3 hours. And then 21 hours later, which resulted in a mad dash to find other plans to return to Oakland. 

The next flight out from Chicago would put us in on Tuesday. Instead, we would fly to Las Vegas, spend the night, and then fly out early in the morning.

I am not even going to go into detail about how our Las Vegas Flight was delayed 2 hours, or how we got 4 hours of sleep, before we had to head back to the airport. 

On the bright side, it was Rylee’s first time in Las Vegas, so we made sure to do at least a little bit of gambling before we left. We both found a slot machine at the airport, put $5 into the machine, and let it ride. Rylee immediately lost the $5, but I got a “Dynamite Win” before losing it all. The lesson here is that whether it be the casino or budget airlines, the house always wins.

I have previous mentioned the tragic story of Oakland Sports, so I won’t go much in depth here. However, all is not lost for Oakland Sports. As the Oakland Athletics left (the local MLB team), the Oakland Ballers started up. Now it should be noted that the Ballers are in the Pioneer league, which is essentially a minor league team, so you can’t expect the best level of play. For us though as people who go to sports games for the vibes instead of the sport itself, the Ballers is a great alternative. 

This Tuesday was the opening day for the season, so we decided to go to the game. They gave out special opening day baseballs to commemorate the event.I had a lot of fun hanging out, watching the game, and sipping on my official Oakland Ballers Beer. Rylee bought me a Ballers hat too which I’m very grateful of. 

The best part was that I was able to get my baseball signed by the mascot Scrappy the Possum (which has an interesting history with the Oakland Athletics and can be found here).

In other news, we are starting to prep for moving. We submitted a 30 day notice for our apartment and picked up some supplies for moving, all while we still don’t have a new spot to live in currently.

We also went apartment hunting this week to find a couple more options. It’s rough out there though, as a lot of places are unreceptive to us having a cat, which winnows down our options. I feel like we are getting close though to finding our spot. I say that with optimism, but we better be…

For our Memorial Day Weekend, we flew in Thursday to Canton, GA for Rylee’s Cousin’s graduation. 

That Friday was the actual graduation, but before then, I had to look presentable. It has been a couple of months since my last haircut because the haircuts are so expensive over in Oakland, and it just so happened that Rylee’s parents had a hairstylist who does home appointments (I know people who know people). We set up shop on the deck, and I learned a lot about all the hot gossip happening in Canton.

We then went to the graduation, which was cool to see, and reminded me of my graduation in high school way back when. What I liked was an inspirational quote by Freddie Mercury written on the back of the commencement program, “You can be anything you want to be, just turn yourself into anything you think you could ever be”. Someone must have finally figured out that he’s really cool with the kids. Unfortunately, they are a little behind the times.

After the graduation, we immediately ran to a Keith Urban Concert with Rylee’s parents at the AmerisBank Amphitheater with Alanna Springsteen and Chase Matthew opening. I was very excited to go to my first country concert, being the city slicker that I am, but Rylee’s dad informed me that Keith Urban wasn’t actually a country musician but more rock musician. That being said, he was a fantastic musician and performer. As a bonus, during his performance, he covered Pink Pony Club.

Saturday was the graduation party, so we had lots of cake to celebrate! Congrats to Landon for graduating! I’ve known him for a couple of years at this point and graduating from high school is always a great achievement and major milestone.

On Sunday, it was race day. So everyone spent most of the day watching the Monaco Grand Prix, the Indy 500, and the Coca-Cola 600.

In the morning, I checked out Alma Coffee, a local coffee shop that has an impressive operation of roasting happening right before your eyes. I had a banana pudding latte that was incredible, but I am still feeling the sugar high to this moment.

I was also able to spend time with a whole ton of animals since Rylee’s family had practically runs a farm. I met a cow, goat, donkey, pig, and a couple of farms dogs. On account of me being a city slicker, I didn’t have any boots. Thankfully, Rylee’s dad lent me a pair.

I grew up playing Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley, and love a good farming game. That being said it’s good to come here as I found out that I don’t really know what to do around animals. I feel like a fish out of water around them or whatever the appropriate metaphor is for a barn animal. It’s probably better to learn this now instead of trying to live out my Harvest Moon dreams. I’ll just start up a new save file instead…

On Sunday, I also found out about the Inaugural Oscar Mayer Wienie 500 race that happened on Friday. I am absolutely distraught that I wasn’t able to watch live. I am not going to miss next year’s race.