Catherine’s ear has a cartilage piercing, and apparently she was tossing and turning the night before, leading to some irritation and swelling underneath. She was really worried about it since there was some pus, so she went back to the tattoo parlor where she got the piercing and they gave her a thicker stud that wouldn’t jostle as much. Meanwhile, I went to the pharmacy and got some saline solution and gauze pads, but she said she didn’t need them anymore so I fished the receipt out of the garbage next to Walgreens and returned them. Luckily, there was nothing terribly wrong with her ear, even though she’d read some horror stories of ear amputations on Reddit owing to shoddy piercings.

I went to bed pretty early, and I can mostly say that the main thing I’ve gotten out of hacklodge so far is better sleep and eating habits than I’ve had for the past month.