Hey stackers,

Writing from the hotel room. The last two days haven’t been too eventful as far as travel and bitcoin spending goes.

The night before last I got horrible sleep, which was a bummer because it was wedding day! My entire life I’ve had recurring sleep paralysis nightmares. Not very frequent, but I’ve had them as long as I can remember. Wednesday night it happened again. I’m either seemingly awake in what ever bed and I’m concious of where I am but I can’t move or talk and I’m always accompanied by some… presence. Or I’m in a different setting with the same feeling/presence. A few times while in the same bed with my wife I remember trying to wake her by breathing harder or reaching her with just a finger because that’s all I can do… so she can shake me awake and end the dream. Wednesday night I was alone but it was the the type of dream where I was in some other place but paralyzed in a fictitious room. I couldn’t talk or scream or stand but there was some presence with me. I can always see it but it’s nothing more than a faded shadow. This time I could feel an immense anxious feeling stemming from my middle spine.. a couple vertebrae above the center one. It was so strong it felt warm and electrical from mid spine up to my head, through my shoulders, and to the elbows. I could feel it in the dream and I could feel it (much slighter) when I woke myself up with a muffled scream at 3 am. It almost felt like I was in a bad position my body didn’t agree with and that was how my brain decided to wake me… I don’t know. But I could still feel that weird feeling in my spine. When i wake myself up from these dreams and fall back to sleep I often revert right back to the same state… paralyzed and accompanied. I knew somehow tonight was no different. So I was afraid to fall back asleep and I ended up finding solace by mindlessly scrolling YouTube until succumbing to restful sleep at 6 am. I hate YouTube and it’s trappy nature but tonight I willfully let it take me away.

I wanted to leave for the wedding which was an hour south of Austin by 1 pm so I had some time to kill. I felt like a zombie. I needed to do some laundry here at the hotel, iron my wedding clothes, and get a now much needed red eye. First things first: coffee.

I went to a third location of the same coffee business I knew I could spend bitcoin at. This Medici Roasters was in a more business district feeling place. It was surrounded by huge office buildings and underneath a bunch of apartments. But walking up I was glad to see the Bitcoin square sign on the door. I got my red eye and a blueberry and cheese danish both of which were very good. The young (probably sub 20) man rung me up and I used the toggle option on square terminal pull up a lightning invoice which I paid no problem. I couldn’t bring myself to say any more words than necessary because I was so tired so I didn’t ask, as I normally do, how often people paid with sats.

Finishing that, and my chores, I started the hour long drive south to the wedding. I didn’t take many pictures but the wedding was great. The groom was a local Texan, and the bride was a Swedish gal. They met in San Diego (where I used to work with the groom) when she was here studying abroad. The merging of culture they accomplished was beautiful. There were traditions from both sides every where. Nearly everyone, even the Swedish guests, were in boots, cowboy hats, and bolo ties. But we got to enjoy a few Swedish traditions too. My favorite being Fika!! Swedish weddings traditionally are quite long and are filled with many speeches so in order to keep people from getting hangry on such a long day you have fika. Which means desert first! So post ceremony and pre dinner we had an option of a variety of cheese cakes, strawberry berry cake, tiramisu, and coffee. My kind of tradition, I tell ya. Cheers in Swedish is "Skål" And we sang a song about a guy named Allan Ley Pretty often and took a sip or a shot of Swedish schnapps (very strong) seemingly every thirty minutes. Great time. Perhaps a Swedish stacker can weigh in with some details im sure im missing.

I really slacked on taking pictures. I was into the wedding and phone in pocket the whole night. I got this crazy bull with massive horns, a decorated donkey that had beers in its sattle bags, and me with my boots and bolo tie. You can’t see in the picture by my bolo tie has four aces on it. Very appropriate I was told by those at the wedding who knew me.

Today I slept in a lot which felt great after the previous nights disastrous amount of sleep. I went straight to the poker room and got 3.5 hours of table time in. I had a small winning session but I felt like I played terribly. Perhaps it was the alcohol from the wedding but I wasn’t as sharp as I like to be and my decisions felt a little uncalibrated. I was really excited for dinner at III forks, a steak house in town recommended to me by @k00b and @Car. Here’s there BTCmap:
https://btcmap.org/merchant/node:1481364381

I took another robotaxi from my hotel because I knew i wanted lots of wine with my steak and it was a pleasant drive through tons of rainy traffic. I love those things. I sat at the bar which was open seating and ordered a glass of the viña Cobos Malbec. I told the bartender I’d like to pay with bitcoin if able and he said no worries I’ll make that happen. A few minutes later I order the USDA prime New York strip 16 oz and seasonal vegetables. I was ready to drop some serious sats on this meal. I was asked if I wanted bread and butter while I wait, yes please, and that was great. The butter comes salted in a flat square easy to cut and spread. Right as I ordered another glass of wine my steak and veggies come. The seasonal veggies ended up being shaved and sautéed zucchini and yellow squash which I enjoyed.

The steak itself was one of the best I’ve ever had. Lightly charred and heavily salted on the outside but incredibly tender and juicy on the inside. Cutting into it felt like I was cutting into a stick of butter every time. I ordered it medium rare. Shortly after its arrival, though, the manger came to talk to me. He said that they’re currently using a brand new point of sale device and won’t be able to accept bitcoin today. I didn’t ask any questions or for any more details I just said ok bummer, no worries. I was bummed though I had spent some on chain fees to top off my Phoenix channel just for this meal and now I’d be forced to pay with cash. Ooooh well.

I ordered a third glass of the Malbec and remembered that SNL was happening so I put my headphones in and watched car and K00b cover the weekly happenings of SN. It was cool that my trip reports were listed as K00bs picks but my favorite part was the two of them covering the recent great post by @spiral. Here it is:

The long road to bitcoin payments... \ stacker news

@car had highlighted that some square terminals may not have the bitcoin payment option because the iPad it’s installed on may not support a current enough iOS to handle the square update that’s recent enough to enable them. That sheds some light on some of the recent discussions I’ve had here with @scoresby and others about the variance we experience of who accepts and who doesn’t.

I had to pay my tab with cash sadly and fairly buzzed from my third glass wondered into the city hoping to find some desert place with a square terminal that I could spend bitcoin at or this would be my first day not spending any bitcoin at all. My phone was at 5% though and I needed to keep the battery to summon my robotaxi ride home so I couldn’t use BTCmaps. After about 30 minutes of walking around in the rain I had to call it. I wouldn’t be spending any bitcoin today.

I called my taxi, asked grok to put on some relaxing lofi, and closed my eyes until I was dropped off at my hotel.

Thanks for reading, stackers.

If you missed day one, two and three, here they are:

Day one: #1602995

Day two: #1603699

Day three: #1604324