Oh, God!

She's inside my head.

This is going badly.

(upbeat music)

One weird thing you can buy on eBay

is a stranger's diary.

You can bid on a total stranger's most personal thoughts.

Most of the diaries you find on eBay

are from 50 to 100 years ago or more.

But I want to see if I can find a diary from recent times,

something that was written in like the last 20 years.

Okay, I found a diary from the early 2000s.

(upbeat rock music)

It's from 2001 to 2005,

written by someone who lived in Illinois.

You have to assume that the person who wrote the diary

probably, when they wrote it, had no idea

anyone would ever be reading it.

I don't know what I'm gonna find in these diaries.

What if it's like "Dear Diary, today I murdered."

The starting price is $4.95, I'm gonna try

bidding $6 and see what happens.

Somebody else wants this diary.

So I've been outbid and I'm in a bid war.

I'm gonna increase my maximum bid from $6 to $60.

Hopefully it doesn't go up more from that.

Two more people are trying to bid on this diary.

Things are getting intense.

I bid $100 and somebody still beat me.

I'm gonna have to play hardball and I'm gonna bid $200

for this early 2000s diary from Illinois.

Let's see how much it's really worth to these people.

I won, but I had to pay $160.

So, I drove up the price quite a bit.

Let's hope there's some murder in these diaries

and not just like "Today I ate another bowl of oatmeal."

These are the diaries of a stranger.

Dream!

Whoa, this is very jam-packed with a lot of handwriting.

A lot of very small handwriting.

We have no idea who wrote these,

how old they were, what their gender was,

we don't know if they're still alive.

I'm gonna take a look inside

and give 'em a read, and I'll get back to you.

This diary still has a pen attached,

so this was probably the pen

that this person used to write this.

So, I emailed the eBay seller to try to get

some more information on these diaries,

and the person who sold them definitely didn't write them.

He said he bought them from an estate sale.

That means that the person who wrote them has possibly died.

This might be a dead person's pen.

This handwriting is incredibly hard to read,

so this is a challenge.

"Thursday, January 4th, 2001.

"Didn't sleep well last night.

"Watched some TV then went to post office

"and after that to Walmart.

"Bought three plastic bins and SlimFast.

"Home at one PM."

I'm definitely getting the impression that this is a woman.

Even just reading the mundane details of somebody's life,

it still feels very personal to be reading it.

So, this woman keeps writing about someone named Micki,

and I really thought Micki was a baby,

and I was like, why does this lady have

a random baby in her house named Micki?

And then I realized, Micki's a dog.

Micki is a dog. (bark)

"Wednesday, February 7th, 2001.

"Up at 8:30, Micki very restless all night long."

The woman who wrote this diary has had to endure

some rude comments from someone named Lydia,

and I think Lydia is either her stepmom or her sister,

and basically Lydia said "You don't wear clothes well."

That's mean.

And then she says "Your stomach sticks out.

"Your pants are too small."

"Tuesday, January 9th, 2001.

"Watched Oprah.

"Friday, February 9th, 2001.

"Slept well last night, but had a lousy day.

"All I wanted to do was sleep and eat."

I've been reading the diary for days now

and, so far, no murders.

I'm starting to get the sense that

there will be no murders in this diary.

It's a lot of drinking SlimFast,

a lot of going to Walmart,

a lot of watching The Price is Right,

but, hey, that's better than murdering,

let's be honest, from a moral standpoint.

Well, the handwriting is hard to read,

but the more I read it, the more I start to understand it.

It's like my brain has finally figured out the code.

I'm in her head, she's in my head.

"Saturday, January 6th, 2001.

"Up at 10:00, didn't sleep well.

"Thursday, February 8th, 2001.

"Didn't sleep again last night."

She writes down what time she wakes up.

She writes down whether or not she slept well.

Oftentimes, she doesn't sleep well.

It's hard when you wake up in the morning

and you feel like crap, and it sounds like

that's happening a lot for her.

Every single night she doesn't sleep well,

it's just "Didn't sleep very well," "Didn't sleep again,"

"Didn't sleep well again," "Didn't sleep again."

Every time she says "I finally had a good night's sleep,"

I'm like, good, good, finally!

I feel deeply connected, and I want

everything to be okay for this woman.

She keeps talking about someone named J.J. calling,

and I think that J.J. could be a son or a daughter.

"Wednesday, January 10th, 2001.

"J.J. didn't call today, I should call him tomorrow."

J.J., get it together!

Call your mom!

I've just come across one of the more exciting things

that I have encountered in this diary, and that's diarrhea.

"October 10th, 2002.

"I got up at 8:30, have diarrhea again."

I'm inspired by this because I've written in a diary before

and I don't think I would ever mention

that I have diarrhea, and to be this comfortable

with yourself, to say I have diarrhea in your diary,

I think we should all strive to be that comfortable

talking about diarrhea.

Almost every day, she writes "Woke up with Micki."

Micki is mentioned almost every day.

So, Micki seems like a good dog.

She's running errands, she stops at McDonald's,

she gets two Happy Meals, one for herself

and one for Micki, the dog. (bark)

I think she has an older father

that she has to care for sometimes.

"Tuesday, January 9th, 2001.

"Dad went downstairs, so I tidied his room

"and aired out his bed.

"Read paper after Dad was finished.

"Had juice and Dad and I watched Price is Right

"and then he ate his breakfast.

"Lydia got up and I had SlimFast

"while she had some oatmeal."

I feel like what I'm learning from reading these diaries,

it's gonna sound cheesy, but I feel like

you can learn something from every person.

There's not a bunch of exciting stuff happening in here,

there's nothing crazy, and yet,

I still feel inspired by this woman.

You know, she's writing down all her personal thoughts

and she never once says a negative thing

about another person, and she makes her bed every day,

and I just feel like, I did not realize

this was going to be such an emotional roller coaster.

I honestly did not.

And I would be so cranky if I couldn't sleep all the time,

and maybe she was, I haven't found anything mean or cranky

written in five years' worth of diaries.

I'm on the very last journal.

In case you were wondering, Micki is still alive and well

and the end. (bark)

The very last entry, December 2nd, 2006, says

"Slept pretty good, on the couch by the fireplace."

I'm not gonna cry again, I am not gonna cry again.

(upbeat music)