One time this happened...

Sometimes after 2 am on a Tuesday my stomach starts talking in a voice that's almost a perfect imitation of a particularly grating aunt – you know, the one that means well but will drone on for 17 minutes about last month's water bill. At that point I get this gnawing urge, usually driven by some fleeting regret or misplaced insecurity, to pick up my phone and rattle off an update that is 97% mundane and 3% slightly cringeworthy details – for instance, I spent Sunday watching 4.5 hours of Korean variety shows with 1 cat and 0 productive tasks – only to immediately regret having hit send because 9.7 times out of 10 the next day it all feels like a desperate attempt to validate or at least appear somewhat present in this virtual echo chamber we've constructed for validation.

My mom somehow stumbled upon my browsing history from when I was 13 and decided to bring it up over lunch at a diner - the smell of greasy eggs and stale coffee still transports me back to the awkward afternoon of discovering she knew about all those Justinian forum posts and how 'caramel macchiato' was really a euphemism for something more...inexperienced.

Moments I'd rather forget involve the time I accidentally confessed my crush to the coffee shop manager during a heated debate about the perfect coffee-to-water ratio. I was mortified.

My therapist thinks I have an unusual attachment to used straws, so I've started collecting them in a mason jar under my bed – now I have 47 from last week alone.

My therapist keeps telling me to focus on my 'inner child,' but honestly, sometimes my inner child acts more like a clingy roommate who won't stop eating cereal out of the carton. I've started scribbing weird reminders on Post-its to 'remind' it to be more adult sometimes – stuff like 'stop sobbing at the thought of a minor disagreement' and 'relearn personal space'.

Fingers stained with turmeric, I rummaged through a pile of yesterday's unwitnessed memories while attempting to cook a decent dosa - my mother's culinary curse, the inability to resist inserting unsolicited kitchen lessons still lingered. The soft murmur of my partner asking what I was making, followed by a disinterested glance towards the TV, sent a shiver down my spine, the kind that occurs when something fundamental in your universe just unravels.