"Soaking it in" apparently included me grabbing my head with both hands, yelling "holy shit!", and briefly staring wide-eyed at the ground shortly after totality began.

It's interesting to hear you say that, if only because I heard someone on the radio say that watching totality is like having a deep, spiritual experience. I'm not gonna lie, I rolled my eyes at that and thought "Whatever, it's the moon blocking the sun. It's not that amazing." Knowing someone (kind of, we're internet buds, right?) who actually had a somewhat similar reaction now? Maybe the dude was on to something.

Dala tried to get me to look at the sun through her glasses multiple times. I told her no every time. I have few hard "nevers" in my life. One of them is never willingly stand in front of the barrel of a gun unless I'm being foolishly heroic. Another is never handle a visibly rabbied animal, unless again, I'm being foolishly heroic. The big one though? Never stare at the sun, ever, under any circumstances. If I want to see what an eclipse looks like, that's what the internet is for.