#((THIS IS SO LATE we went out for an impromptu dinner 45 minutes away from my workplace and i had no access to rio icons))

[puzzledmemories]

Hey Rio? How much do you care about the other Barians? Obviously not Nasch we know you care about him what about the other emperors?

"I guess no one's going to be surprised if I reveal I have a favorite. I've always cared a lot about Nasch; he's my brother. Do I really need to say more?"

"As for the others..."

"Durbe has always been a good friend and ally. Even before we became the Barian Emperors. He's always been a bit closer to Nasch than he has me, I think, but that doesn't mean I don't care about him. Even until the end of our time as Emperors, he's always fought hard to help me and my brother. He's earned my respect and my friendship many times over."

"I didn't know the others before I became an emperor, so I can't say I care as deeply for them, but..."

"Mizael's a bit arrogant at times, sure. But he's always cared so much about the rest of us. With the help of his dragon, he'd take on anything and anyone for us. So of course, I care about him, too. I worried many times about the day he would inevitably get in over his head for the rest of us. When it came to the Numeron Code, though... my fears came true, but at the same time, I think we're all glad Yuma and Astral won the code in the end."

"Girag and Alito were always closer to each other than anyone else. I've always gotten along with them well, though. They have their own quirks that make them a funny pair. I never wanted to see them get hurt and used as badly as they were during our war against Astral World. Even if I wasn't as close with them, I always cared about them. And since we have this second chance after the war, maybe I can make up for that.

"As for Vector..."

"...That's something he still has to earn, after everything he put us through."

[thatesqcrush]

First Dates & Christmas Kisses

Rafael Barba x Reader.

CW: None

AN: Prompt #6 (Nutcracker) from the @thefanficfaerie Christmas OTP challenge found here. A continuation from Candygram Wishes.

Tags: @theenchantedgalleryofstories @madpanda75 @ottosuricato @delia26 @dreila03 @sass-and-suspenders @glimmerglittergirl @melsquared79 @zoeykaytesmom @mommakat32 @garturbo @southern-magnolia @niyashell @tropes-and-tales @imjustreallynosy @whyissvuruiningmylovelife @sweetsummertime99 @evee87 @scarletsoldierrr @kscarlett1 @cesarofangirl78 @redlipstickandplaid - anyone else just ask. 

You smashed the garlic on the cutting board, before scooping it into the pot, with some of the onion you had finely diced moments earlier. They hit the pan with a satisfying sizzle and you wiped your hands on the towel that hung off the oven handle. You turned to look at the recipe card given to you by Sonny, when your phone began to buzz and vibrate against the counter. You lowered the heat on your stove, lest the garlic begin to burn and you checked your phone. 

It was Rafael. 

You bit your lip and felt your heart quicken. After the impromptu Chinese dinner date that also served as a study session with him, you hadn’t seen Rafael since. Sure, you and he exchanged the occasional greeting, but nothing ever live. You worried you two were venturing into the friend zone, but like in the song, Señorita, friends don’t know how each other tastes - and you and Rafael spent a good part of that study session making out like teenagers. And at the same time, you knew from Sonny and Olivia that the Evie Barnes case was being reopened on appeal. Sonny was helping Rafael with the case in particular as he had knowledge from having been a detective on the matter. 

[Rafael, 6:45 PM]: I know it’s last minute, but are you free for dinner? 

Your eyes swept against your kitchen. Pasta was boiling and cans of crushed tomatoes beckoned to be opened. You then looked down at your own appearance: an over-sized shirt and leggings, feet in fuzzy slippers. You quickly typed your response, inviting him over to dinner at your apartment. You watched three bubbles appear, then disappear and reappear. Rafael agreed and said he’d be there soon. You knew Rafael lived downtown - even if he took a car to your place in midtown, you had at least thirty minutes to change.

[Y/N, 6:48 PM]: See you then. Can’t wait. 

***

You left your hair up, and changed into dark denim and a muted grey cashmere sweater, which you had been gifted just Christmas prior. A dab of concealer, a swipe of gloss and a few strokes of mascara and you were ready. The pasta had finished cooking and the sauce was simmering. You opened up a bottle of the 2013 Borolo Mosconi Vigna Ped and set it out to breathe.  

And you waited. 

An hour later, with no Rafael in sight, and him unresponsive to your follow-up text, you wondered if you had misread the situation entirely. You sniffed the bottle of Borolo - it had opened up beautifully. You debated drinking it straight from the bottle, but decided against it and grabbed a stemless wine glass from your cabinet. You sat on the couch with the glass of wine. The silence was nearly deafening. You decided you would have a glass, or two, and then put the food away. 

You debated texting Sonny to see if he had heard or seen Rafael, but also decided against it. Part of you did worry if Rafael was even okay. You were mid-way from pouring a third glass when your phone buzzed. 

[Rafael, 8:15 PM]: I am on my way up - I will explain. I am sorry. 

Sighing, you got up to unlock your door and you leaned against the door-frame, waiting once more. You heard the elevator ding from down the hall, and you knew that was him. Sure enough, the handsome prosecutor appeared in your hallway, a worn look decorated his face.

“I am so sorry,” Rafael apologized, his ears flushing pink. “I went home to change and got an alert that there was an accident on the West Side Highway, so I decided to take the 4 when we got stuck in a tunnel. I had no service.”

You immediately felt sympathetic. “That is just awful. I have been there. But you’re here now, and that is what counts.”

Rafael nodded, his eyes raking in your form. His eyes landed on the exposed slope of your neck, and he recalled how he peppered it with kisses, and how receptive you were. “You look lovely,” he managed to choke out as he tried to gather himself. 

“Thank you. You look quite debonair yourself,” you replied with a wink. You opened the door further, to let him walk past. “Wine?”

“Please,” Rafael replied. You moved to walk past him, when Rafael grabbed your hand, stopping you. You gave him a quizzical look when he pulled you close to him. An “oh” had barely left your lips, when Rafael dipped his mouth to yours. The kiss was initially chaste, before it inevitably became open mouthed. Rafael’s tongue swept your bottom lip, seeking entrance to which you did not deny. Rafael tasted like mint and cinnamon, his cologne overwhelmed your olfactory senses. The combination plus his firm grip on your hips was sending you into overdrive, making you lightheaded. The two glasses of wine on an empty stomach were also not helping. 

Rafael broke the kiss but you kept your hands on his forearms in an attempt to steady yourself. You stared into each other’s eyes - his green eyes were bright and enchanting; you thought you could get lost in them forever. Your eyes managed to catch a hint of pink that was his tongue when he licked his lips and you felt a fire pool in your belly. A stray tendril of hair fell across your face, and Rafael gently tucked it behind your ear. 

“I will get the wine,” you managed to squeak out, while trying to remain composed.

Rafael followed you into the kitchen, and took in the sight of food you had made.

He cursed inwardly. “I ruined dinner,” he noted, an apologetic lilt in his voice.

You shrugged while cringing. “Technically...the pasta is cold. I can reheat but it’s never the same.” You handed him the glass and he sniffed it, inhaling the tannins before taking a large gulp.

“No,” Rafael replied, after swallowing. “I want to make it up to you. I’ll help you clean up and we’ll go out. I will make a call.”

“Don’t tell Sonny we didn’t eat what I made. He had given me this recipe and if he finds out I wasted pasta, he will have me arrested and arraigned,” you replied to which Rafael guffawed in response.

***

You and Rafael were generously accommodated at La Grenouille, an intimate French restaurant. You both skipped over main courses, focusing on appetizers of black olive palmitos, pike dumplings, and cold canapés and then dessert, where you shared dark chocolate mousse with a raspberry coulis. More wine was had. You weren’t completely buzzed, but you were relaxed. You complained about your studying and shared your continued anxiety. Rafael shared what he could about the Barnes case. Other first date exchanges were had: you told him about changing careers, he told you about going up in the Bronx. You both had a mutual affinity for jazz and blues music.

After, you and Rafael walked hand-in-hand through Rockefeller Center. Despite the lateness of the evening, the city was still very much alive and busy. There was still a crowd by the Rockefeller Christmas tree.  The railing around the rink was flanked by nutcrackers, that we’re at least 12 feet tall. Each one was a different color - blues, gold, red and green. You imagined the nutcrackers were protecting the tree and the tourists alike. You stopped to look over the railing to watch people skate. Rafael stood behind you, and enveloped his arms around you. You leaned into his embrace, your back to his chest. The December wind was icy, and it sent a shiver up your spine. All it served was to have Rafael bring you closer to him.

“Tonight was lovely,” you murmured. Rafael hummed his agreement, while nuzzling your neck. “We should do it again.” You turned slightly to face him, but Rafael shifted you, so you faced him head on.

“I couldn’t agree more,” he murmured, his eyes searching yours once more. Rocking onto the balls of your feet, you leaned up and with one gloved hand on the back of his neck, you pulled Rafael into a kiss. Breathlessly, you broke the kiss and looked around. You gasped and smiled at what was fluttering around you. “It’s snowing.”

Rafael looked up - snowflakes coated his long lashes - before he looked back at you.

“Come on,” you grabbed Rafael’s hand, leading him away.

“Where are we going?” Rafael questioned, his brows furrowed.

“Back to my place. We may not have had dinner there, but you can bet I’ll be making you breakfast.”

FIN.

[rememberthattime]

Chapter 45. Melbourne

A few weeks ago, while I was in London, Chelsay and her lady friends drove one of Australia’s most popular roads: the Great Ocean Road. Most people (including Chelsay) start their trip with a few days in Melbourne, which is considered Australia’s “cultural” capital. It’s consistently ranked among the world’s most liveable cities... In other words, it’s great to live there. To the casual traveler though, there aren’t any major attractions. For that reason (and the fact that Chelsay had now already visited), Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road weren’t high in my priority list. ...Fate had other plans.

By “fate”, I mean work. And by work, I mean a Friday afternoon meeting in Melbourne. This set up for a great weekend, but after weeks of travel, did I really want to be away from my wife again? Chelsay was in Madrid that weekend... “Fate, book it!” Again, fate (in the form of work) covered flights and most of my accommodation & car. The trip came together too easily: it was basically gifted to me, and couldn’t have been timed more perfectly. Chelsay and I had finally concluded a string of SEVEN straight weeks with guests... Sunshine, the open road, ma’ jamz, and a few bags of sunflower seeds were exactly what I needed. My work presentations went well Friday, and by that I mean I kicked butt and left the room to a standing ovation. Legend. Then the weekend began: I grabbed drinks with a coworker in the Flinders (?) area... Again, there aren’t many famous attractions so I didn’t have landmarks to gauge location. We walked through tightly packed shopping lanes and graffiti-clad alleyways, grabbed drinks at an unmarked speakeasy, and enjoyed some seriously tasty Thai in Melbourne’s Chinatown. This was cool. I could see why Melbourne would be “liveable”. Personally, I’d take Sydney’s beaches, but to each their own.

Friday wasn’t too late of a night because I was starting early the next day: on the road by 6:00. I had an early flight home Sunday, so I wanted to fit as much of the Great Ocean Road into Saturday as comfortably possible. Wait is 6:00 AM “comfortable”...? Remember, Chelsay wasn’t with me. I grabbed coffee and croissants from the early birds at the Queen Victoria Market, then hit the roaaaaaad.

Stop #1: Torquay, the first town along “Surf Coast Shire” and home to Bells Beach, the setting for the climactic scene in Point Break. Torquay really plays up this affiliation, hosting its own surf museum and claiming to be the birthplace of some company called “RipCurl”. I gave into the hype, rented a board, and hit the Jan Juc surf.

After a few good waves, I hit the road again, spitting seeds and rocking out to Arctic Monkeys along the Great Ocean Road. My thoughts on the GOR: wonderful bit of infrastructure. Every bend reveals a new breathtaking view, cascading coastline, or remote beach. Oh, my thoughts on the Arctic Monkeys: love the sound; can’t understand their accents.

Between the towns of Lorne (Michaels) and Apollo Bay, I decided to veer into Otway National Park. Over a delicious avocado and lemon bagel in Torquay (like, an hour earlier), I’d seen pictures of a place called Lake Elizabeth. I’d spoken with people about the trip and I hadn’t heard anyone mention it, and the blog network didn’t provide much help either. I located what appeared to be the trailhead on GoogleMaps though, so I decided I’d roll the dice... This whole trip was impromptu like that. I’d been driving away from the GOR for about 15 minutes when the paved road ended. Google told me I still had 30 minutes left though, so the remained of the journey must be remote, off-the-grid, out-of-service gravel pathways... I was only 60% sure I knew where I was going, so the out-of-service part was a little concerning.

After passing two wallabies and hanging a left at an echidna, I pulled beside where Google said the trailhead would be. There was no sign. No people. Just a rusted metal gate guarding a small gap in the bush. What??? Pictures of this lake look amazing - there should be enough visitors for a marker AT LEAST. Per my now out-of-service GoogleMap, I was parked on the closest “road” to Lake Elizabeth. I was absolutely 50% sure this was the entrance. I decided to give it a shot, but if I didn’t see anything in 20 minutes (and hadn’t been murderer), I’d head back and hope my car was still there.

It took the full 20 minutes, but my backwoods bush path finally intersected with a wooden walkway. This must be something. I stepped onto the slightly elevated walkway but saw a colorful stick on the ground... Blue, huh? What kind of stick has light blue spots-it’s a snake. Oh shit! I jumped away like a wuss, but I was NOT getting bitten an hour from help. Also, it’s Australia, so that snake was definitely poisonous. My pace quickened walking along the wooden walkway. Surrounded by bush, I could hear leaves shaking and branches moving... I had no idea where I was, but something(s) was eyeing me for dinner. I checked GoogleMaps and it said I was right on top of the lake. Where!? I found the spot with the lightest brush, strained by eyes through, and finally saw the ripples. Whew, the lake. Knowing I was close gave me more confidence as I rounded the lake, eventually making my way to a small beach. Side note: there was another much-safer-looking path leading to the beach. My guess is that was the “main entrance”. Lake Elizabeth. Pristine. Private. Peaceful (don’t think about the snakes). Dead tree trunks still standing in the lake give this place a primordial feel, but it’s actually only 50 years old, caused when the timber valley was drowned by flooding.

All my worries faded away while peering out at the lake: the snakes, spider webs, sense that I was lost in the bush, too much work travel, guests at our house for SEVEN weeks. It all disappeared. That’s what this road trip was really about. It was the exclamation mark on a really long, exciting (and enjoyable), but unavoidably exhausting run... Actually, exclamation mark is wrong. There needs to be a punctuation for when something is said softly: an upside down exclamation mark. That’s what this trip was. Side note - I looked into the lake more after arriving back in Sydney and came across this review: “Top spot. But, DO NOT use Google Maps to get there - worst navigation ever.”   ...Ditto.

I actually think my couple hours at the lake were the peak of this road trip. I continued along the Great Ocean Road, stopping in Apollo Bay for some souvlaki sustenance, and obviously visiting the 12 Apostles and Loch Ard Gorge for sunset.

I expected the 12 Apostles to be my roadtrip highlight, but it was the wrong vibe: beautiful landscapes & probably the trip’s best pics, but too many tourists that forgot they were human. Regardless, I stayed relaxed. I enjoyed the views, strolled the seaside, and took my time as the tour buses left and crowds dissipated.

I didn’t feel rushed for two reasons. First: this trip was basically free - I didn’t think I’d make it down to MelB, but fate (again, work) intervened and paid my way. Second: I’d already found my privacy and peace. Whether it was in the Jan Juc waves, in the woods beside Lake Elizabeth, or blasting ma’ jamz on the Great Ocean Road, I’d already exhaled. For my solo road trip weekend, that’s exactly what I’d hoped for.

[crazydiamondlife-blog]

JANUARY

i’ve been away from Australia for approximately one month and in that short amount of time both my skin colour and my plans have changed. I have had one near death encounter with a moose and her calf, attended one hedgehog’s birthday party, received one message from ‘dee’ congratulating me on the healthy arrival of my second baby boy, and chowed my way through more vegemite than I have in three years at home. I’m not kidding. please send help. if not help, then just more vegemite will do. I’ve been walking to work in the dark at 730am, watching the sun rise over mountain tops, instead of oceans, waking up to the sound of avalanche bombs, and meeting countless dogs in the streets of Fernie. I have seen this family of newfoundlands through the car window too many times and have resolved to just follow them next time and become friends. In addition to vegemite and grilled cheese on toast, my diet now consists of perogies, poutine and pot stickers. I am becoming more like my mum by the minute, and have a new found love for thrift shops and stir fry. This is good because they are cheap. 


After a game of kings cup with strangers and best friends, a one hour wait in line for a pub we didn’t get into, and an impromptu hostel concert featuring two musicians who never learnt to play and their out of tune instruments (definitely not two girls called sarah and chelsie), I welcomed in the new year in true form, asleep on the couch. This year I was in a Whistler hostel swimming in snow. I found my way to bed at about 4am, leaving Jordan in the hostel common room to dream his way into 2019. Chels, nanny and i left early to snowboard, packing up our beds before hand as check out was around lunch time. Jordan woke up to no us, our bags gone, and our beds emptied. The poor thing though it was 2020 and we had left him. It was nearly the case that nobody left, owing to a relaxed late afternoon stroll and semi literate taxi driver, but fortunately, my luck came in handy and we miraculously made it to our bus in to vancouver. The driver certainly lived on the edge, hurtling through the mountain ranges at 140kmh, and getting us into van just in time to witness a strange man using a hotel wall as a rock climbing wall, and casually setting off the fire hose, which proceeded to soak some innocent peoples baggage. well done, strange man of vancouver. well done. A couple of hours later and i was wishing that strange people were all we had to worry about. Instead, we were walking past homeless people half dead with signs asking for money for weed and ice addicts smashing in the doors of the 711. Our experience of vancouver could have been better, but we lived. From Vancouver, i headed to Fernie, via Calgary, where life as i now know it began. My first month in Fernie has been mostly about settling in. I am now a legal, working resident of British Columbia. I have an address (239 beaver street for those sending vegemite. i know right. most canadian address ever) with a 6 month lease. I have a canadian bank account including credit card, because it came with a $400 discount on a flight. I will likely use that to get to Panama. I’ve started to get to know the local Ski Resort, which is for the most part, avalanche terrain and obviously very exciting because that means avalanche dogs. still alive and pretty proud. I am no longer licensed to drive in Australia. They took that off me when I got my Canadian drivers license. Can turn right on red lights, flashing green lights means proceed with caution, theres 4 way stop intersections, least polite person goes first which can sometimes take a while to work out in this town, pedestrians have right of way always, and theres some other funky rules in other provinces but I’m just going to hope i don’t drive there.

I’ve started working with grace, although it doesn't feel much like working and feels more like living a beautiful life. This experience requires a piece of its own, but grace has unequivocally changed my life for the better. Probably the best way to explain her, is to say that.. well.. all of those cliche sayings - seize the day, all you have is now... etc.. well, watching her is watching those sayings live. . If you would like, you can get an insight into the beauty that she is by watching this video. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_LXFPU8ONM&t=45s

Its a small documentary of when she went heli skiing with her partner in crime but mostly adventure, Scott. He is an equally phenomenal human and also the man i call in emergencies, i.e. moose encounters. All of the thanks, Scott. I set up my room, my favourite part is the photo wall of home, closely followed by the $6 bedding that i got from the op shop in town. I’ve also purchased most of my wardrobe from there for a grand total of approximately $40. No undies though. I have no more than 100 possessions and i quite like it that way because less things to lose. I wake up slowly, with a mug of hot tea. i spend  time to stretch, and read, and write, and ride. 

This has been the start of two years of change and while i have quickly fallen in love with this small town, i would be kidding myself to say i don’t miss home. There have been a lot of changes, not least of which is the temperature and the faces that i get to see daily. I have made friends with people who are as insane as they are passionate about snowboarding, friends who lend guitars, blankets, anything you need. Friends to share dinners with and tea at the end of long days when our calves are killing. But nothing compares to sitting on the couch with old friends and not even needing to talk. Nothing compares to the conversations with people who know you better than you know yourself. People who know me well will know that i can spiral into a state of colourful mind where the questions never end and the answers just bring more questions and I sometimes lose my mind a little bit. Thank you to the selection of friends and family who have saved me from these spirals and small bouts of home sickness that seem to arrive in the middle of the night, and also some other more sombre, harder to handle emotions that i maybe never expected. The voices of loved ones seem so much sweeter with so much sea between us, and not even the expanse of the pacific ocean can get between a good laugh. I’ll see you all soon :) All of the love. 

[fadingfartconnoisseur]

AK Monthly Recap: October 2017

October in New York is fantastic. The best month of the year. And this was actually my first time experiencing an October in New York!

Last October was split between Poland, Germany, France, Luxembourg, and Australia. I think October is a fantastic month to travel, especially to Europe, but after a big Eurotrip last month it was time to sit still and spend time in one place.

It was a month of Halloween goodness, exciting opportunities, and a surprising number of visits to Staten Island. It was a month of admiring the decorations throughout Harlem and enjoying far-warmer-than-usual weather. This month rocked!

Destinations Visited

New York and Croton-on-Hudson, New York

Tybee Island and Savannah, Georgia

Jersey City, New Jersey

Favorite Destination

The new? Tybee Island. The old favorite? Savannah. Don’t worry, Jersey City — you’re nice, too.

Highlights

The other half of my dad’s visit to New York. My dad visited over a long weekend and I talked about the September half of his visit in last month’s recap. On this part of the trip, we got dim sum at Nom Wah Tea Parlor in Chinatown, walked around the 9/11 Memorial and downtown Manhattan. We cut through Brookfield Place and did a walk-through of Le District (it’s essentially the French Eataly) and I can’t wait to go back for a proper meal! Post-Whole30, of course…

We also got a trip in to Staten Island — the only borough Dad hadn’t visited. And we introduced him to one of my absolute favorite things to do in New York: drinking on the Staten Island Ferry. As on every trip to Staten Island, we walked to the Flagship Brewery and had a few beers before getting back on the ferry to Manhattan. Topping it off? Fraunces Tavern (a very cool place and one of my favorite bars in the city) and John’s Pizzeria (Bleecker Street), which I’m starting to think is my favorite New York-style pizza in the city.

And before Dad left on Monday, I introduced him to the quintessential New York breakfast: the bodega bacon, egg and cheese and a coffee. He loved it.

A beautiful beach getaway to Tybee. October is still beach season in Tybee Island, Georgia, and I enjoyed temperatures in the mid-80s. I even got a tan! I’ve written a lot about that trip already, so I won’t repeat myself here. It was also lovely to spend a day in Savannah, one of my favorite cities in the world.

Traveling to Jersey City for amazing pizza. Jersey City is a short PATH train ride from Manhattan, but I had never been before — until I read a New York Times piece asking, “Is New York’s Best Pizza in New Jersey?” The place is called Razza and it’s pretty damn good pizza. Not classic New York pizza, but I’d definitely place it in my top five for the city. Maybe even the top three.

What makes Razza pizza great? Amazing crust, a delicate thinness, and unusual and inventive toppings, many of them locally sourced from New Jersey. My favorite was the Panna with tomato sauce, mozzarella, local grass-fed cow’s cream, arugula, and parmigiano. Cream on a pizza is a stroke of brilliance. It’s like burrata. So yes — go to Razza! It’s absolutely worth the trip to Jersey City. It’s very popular and they don’t take reservations, so try to go at an off-peak time. I had to wait an hour on a Monday night.

Golden Girls Trivia at the Golden Girls Cafe. I made my first visit to Rue la Rue Cafe, the Golden Girls-themed cafe in Washington Heights, for a wild night of Golden Girls trivia. The owner, Michael La Rue, was close to Rue McClanahan and inherited much of her estate, some of which is on display at the cafe. Even the phone from the set! He gave away some of Rue’s things as prizes — things like one of Rue’s canceled checks, one of her coffee cups, and even the script from the George Clooney episode that George himself drew on!

And man, these were serious Golden Girls fans who showed up. (My sister is a hardcore fan and she aced two rounds of trivia.) I was very happy that the grand prize winner was the guy who took the midnight bus from Baltimore and showed up in Blanche Devereaux drag!

Visiting the Chihuly exhibit at the New York Botanical Garden. The exhibit is now closed, and I’m glad I made it there. I love the New York Botanical Garden and Chihuly is such a great fit for a natural environment.

Visiting The Blaze in Croton-on-Hudson. Every year, the Hudson Valley town of Croton-on-Hudson does a giant jack-o-lantern display. There were a merry-go-round, a Tappan Zee Bridge, and a Statue of Liberty all made out of pumpkins. And they’re still doing it through November!

It’s a nice little getaway from the city, and there’s a nonstop train during rush hour. Just 35 minutes from Harlem-125th and 40 minutes from Grand Central. And while the website says the walk from the train station is “not pedestrian-friendly,” don’t let that stop you — the walk is easy and the cabs are both expensive and communal. (Me: “What is this, a marshrutka?”)

Visiting Staten Island a whopping three times. Once with my dad, once to cheer my sister on in the Staten Island Half Marathon (her first half marathon ever and she did amazing!), and once with the Knights. More on the Knights below.

Halloween festivities in Hamilton Heights! This year my neighborhood’s running group, of which I’m kind of an honorary non-running member, put on a Halloween dog parade and 5K fun run. I photographed the event for them. The costumed dogs were adorable and I really enjoyed getting to know more of my neighbors. Stay tuned for a Halloween dog post next week!

And I went out in my neighborhood as trick-or-treating was in full swing. I went to Broadway in Hamilton Heights, and you guys, I’ve never seen trick-or-treating that crazy. Hundreds of kids and their parents filled the streets. In the city, they trick-or-treat at businesses, and I wouldn’t be surprised if business owners invested in upwards of 1000 pieces of candy!

Also, my friend Jessie threw an impromptu fall celebration party at her apartment with pumpkin painting. You are never too old to paint pumpkins!

Let me just say that I am so happy that I got to experience a lot of Halloween fun this year, after missing so many Halloweens due to my travels. I love this holiday so much!

A fun and creative gig with Visit Kissimmee. On the thirteenth, I spent the day with the team from Visit Kissimmee in Florida, traveling around the city with knights from Medieval Times, taking hilarious videos of them for Snapchat, interviewing people on the street, and getting people to sign up to win trips. First of all, I laughed harder this day than I have in a long time, and second, it was deeply gratifying to have so much creative control from a first-time partner.

On the professional front, very exciting things are happening. The rest of 2017 will be on the quiet side but I’ve got two big trips planned for next year. Both will be cold and snowy trips. One is to a place I’ve been before and the other is to a place I have never been but has long been a goal of mine to visit. The first trip isn’t until late January so I’ll be revealing it in the next few weeks.

One hint: I’ll be visiting a city that hosted the Winter Olympics in my lifetime, and it’s not Sochi or Albertville. Any guesses?

Challenges

My flight back from Savannah was delayed upon delayed upon delayed. I soon realized I could have gone to dinner in Savannah! Missing a meal in one of my favorite food cities made me sad. Eh, what can you do.

I had a bad cold this month. One of those help-me-I-can’t-do-anything, stay-inside-my-house-and-not-move-for-three-days, please-let-my-sense-of-smell-come-back colds. It happens once or twice a year; I hope this means I’m good for awhile.

When the challenges are that minimal, you know you are a very lucky person indeed.

Most Popular Post

How Men Can Fight Toxic Masculinity and Rape Culture — I’m so glad that finally this conversation is being taken seriously by the media.

Other Posts

What’s It Like to Tour Chernobyl Today? — It was a beautiful, haunting, and life-affirming experience.

Finland in the Summer: Quirky, Isolated, and Pretty — My Finnish trip took in air guitar championships, deep wilderness, and a pretty town just outside Helsinki.

A Getaway to Tybee Island: Savannah’s Beach — Everything that I got up to in Tybee, including the most beautiful sunrise ever.

Most Popular Instagram Photo

This was the easiest shot I took this month — I woke up at 6:45 AM on Tybee Island, reached over to my camera on the nightstand, and shot this photo through the glass door without even getting up. For more live updates from my travels in life and New York, follow me on Instagram at @adventurouskate.

What I Read This Month

With my reading challenge over with, I’m still sticking to my informal goals each month: one work of fiction, one work of nonfiction, one work by an author of color, and one work published in 2017. Now that I’m spending a lot more time cooking and cleaning (more on that below), I haven’t had as much time to read, but I still got four books in. Three fiction, one nonfiction, three authors of color, and all four published in 2017! Not to mention two of the five finalists for the National Book Award in Fiction (The Leavers and Sing, Unburied, Sing).

The Leavers by Lisa Ko (2017) — I chose this novel from Book of the Month. What a beautiful and unusual story; what a tragedy that means so much in our world today. In this novel, Polly, an undocumented Chinese immigrant, is living in the Bronx with her American-born 11-year-old son Deming. Suddenly Polly disappears out of the blue. Deming is placed with white foster parents who eventually adopt and rename him Daniel. The book picks up a decade later as Deming/Daniel is still dealing with the trauma of losing his mother, the anguish over her abandoning him, and he starts trying to find out what happened to her.

I don’t want to give anything away. But this book terrified me, and it showed that immigration reform needs to be tackled in so many different ways. Because the way it exists right now, people are being denied their humanity. As I always say, reading is the way to compassion, and this book will grab you hard and not let go.

My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent (2017) — “Lord, give me the confidence of a mediocre white man.” That quote kept surfacing in my mind as I read this book. One of the most notable debuts of the year, and receiving far-ranging praise from both the media and legends like Stephen King, I thought that I was in for an extraordinary novel. Nope. It was terrible, it was a mess, and I’m bewildered that it was even published in the first place.

A thirteen-year-old girl named Turtle is living in the wilderness of Mendocino, California, with her survivalist father. He is a sadist who sexually abuses her. Turtle begins to think that there’s more to life than her small world with her father, and when she makes friends with one boy in particular, her father is furious.

Let’s see. What did I hate about this book the most? The fact that fifteen-year-olds talk like pretentious philosophy professors, even trying to be witty when facing life-or-death situations. Has Tallent even met a teenager before? I couldn’t stand the complete disassociation from characters and their emotions, similar to Neil Gaiman’s American Gods. Turtle was the protagonist, but nothing about her emotions was ever revealed, only her behaviors. Nothing about her resembles any girl I’ve ever known (or been), and that’s not “because she’s so different” — it’s a glaring error. And finally, while the father was a sadist who reveled in torturing his daughter, I feel like Tallent himself was a sadist, writing grotesque scenes for shock value and nothing more.

I’ll give Tallent one thing: he knows nature very well. He himself grew up spending extensive time in the California wilderness and his book lends a level of expertise not unlike Andy Weir’s scientific knowledge in The Martian. I think I would have appreciated it had it been put to use in a different kind of novel.

Most importantly: if you’re a privileged man writing from the point of view of a sexually abused young girl, you need to knock it out of the park. Tallent didn’t even make contact with the ball.

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward (2017) — One of the biggest releases of the year and another Book of the Month pick for me, Sing, Unburied, Sing is so many stories wound into one. It’s a story about the relationships between children and their parents. It’s a supernatural tale of ghosts and spirits. It’s about race and addiction and police brutality and economic insecurity. It’s about love and guilt and duty. It’s a wonder.

Jojo is a thirteen-year-old boy living in Southern Mississippi with his grandfather, whom he emulates; his grandmother, who is dying of cancer; his baby sister, for whom he is the primary caregiver; and occasionally his mother, a drug addict. His mother takes him and his sister on a road trip to pick up his father from prison in Northern Mississippi, where Jojo meets a ghost who served time there as a child and was protected by his grandfather, also a former inmate there.

Every now and then I read a novel that makes me marvel at just how creative fiction can be. This is one of them.

Lagom: The Swedish Secret of Living Well by Lola A. Åkerström (2017) — It’s no secret that I am enamored with the Nordic lifestyle. From the löyly of the Finns to the hygge of the Danes, this month I dipped into the Swedish lifestyle. Lagom is a word roughly meaning balance and equilibrium, and it’s a guiding force in many aspects of Swedish life. Swedes indulge but don’t overeat; they build fitness into their daily lives; they buy investment pieces but not ostentatious ones, and they don’t boast but lift each other up. In short, Swedes are so goddamn sensible and I wish I had the fortitude to be more like them. Reading this book was a start at how I can do that.

Lola is a friend of mine, a pillar of the travel blogging community, and one of the foremost authorities on Stockholm. Most excitingly, this week she was named the Society of American Travel Writers’ 2018 Photographer of the Year — check out the portfolio that won her the prize here. Another bonus: Lagom makes a great coffee table book because it’s a small and adorable hardcover book. Perfect for stacking on larger books, as you can see in the photo below.

Fitness Update — and Whole 30

I started Whole30 this month! 30 days of no sugar, no alcohol, no grains, no dairy, no legumes, no natural sweeteners other than fruit, no artificial flavors, no processed foods, no “technically compliant” versions of unhealthy treats, no snacking, no weighing yourself. Learn more about it here. Many of my friends have done it and I’ve wanted to try it for quite some time, but my hectic travel schedule made it impossible, since you need to prepare nearly everything you eat yourself. With 30 free days in October and November, I decided to go for it, embracing it as a disciplinary challenge.

(“But whole grains and legumes are healthy!” you say. To be honest, whole grains and legumes both cause inflammation, and this is an anti-inflammatory diet. Keep in mind that no one diet is perfect for everyone on the planet, and for me, this is just an experiment to see how it makes me feel. But I think we can all agree that sugar is bad and Americans eat way too much of it.)

How has it been? It’s been pretty awesome, actually! It hasn’t been remotely a struggle. And I’m so happy I’ve broken some of my more harmful food habits, like ordering takeout way too often and snacking out of boredom, and I’m making more of an effort to cook nearly all my meals. Every morning I have two poached eggs and a sweet potato for breakfast and I love it.

Additionally, I’ve decided to step up my workouts during this month. I already do personal training twice a week (and let me tell you that twice a week makes SUCH a bigger impact than once a week) and Zumba twice a week, but I’ve fallen off the wagon a bit in terms of other stuff, so I’m adding in more classes and more cardio. I also took Pilates for the first time ever and I loved it! Faster and less boring than yoga and not the cruel and unusual torture that is barre!

Day 30 is scheduled to be November 19 for me, but I’m going to keep it up until November 21 so my trainer and I can do a proper weigh-in and body composition analysis. We did one beforehand as well, so it will be interesting to compare.

What I Listened To This Month

I like listening to podcasts when I cook and clean. And if you do Whole30, you will be doing a hell of a lot of cooking and washing dishes!

Dirty John is the podcast of the moment, and I binge-listened and highly recommend it. It’s the story of a con man and the effect he had on one well-to-do woman and her family. A lot of people have been saying that they can’t believe how stupid the woman was — but I disagree. I know first-hand how abusers can completely warp your sense of what is good and/or normal. They’ve had a lot of practice at it, too.

Other than that, I’ve recently started listening to The Daily from the New York Times every morning while I cook breakfast (it’s just 20 minutes, which is perfect). I also love Pod Save America for politics — it’s basically like listening to your best friends gab and riff on all political issues, only they happen to be incredibly smart and knowledgeable. All the guys used to work for Obama.

What I Watched This Month

This month I started watching a new-to-me series on Netflix: Lovesick (formerly Scrotal Recall). It’s a British comedy with plenty of sweet and heartfelt moments. The series begins when the main character, Dylan, is diagnosed with chlamydia and has to inform his past sexual partners. (Stay with me here, it gets good.) Each episode focuses on one partner in particular and what happened with them. The stories tie in with his two best friends and their relationships with each other.

This show is wonderful. It’s hilarious but also very sweet, and it reminds me a lot of Master of None. It also makes me miss Britain a lot. Put it on your watch list — the pilot is one of the funniest pilots I’ve ever seen.

Coming Up in November 2017

I’m going back to Vegas for the first time since 2009!! Can you believe it? My friends and I were Vegas regulars when we were in our early twenties. So why not go back in our early thirties? And yes, I’m including the picture of us with Ice-T and Coco because it’s one of my favorite photos of all time. This was taken at XS at the Encore back in 2009.

This will just be a quick weekend visit, but I’m excited to see all we can get up to as four classy grown women. Less bursting out of after-hours clubs at 6:00 AM, more high-end cocktail bars, and maybe finally getting to see Celine…

In Memoriam

And to end on a somber note — this month we lost one of our own. Billie Frank of Santa Fe Travelers passed away unexpectedly. Billie was passionate about sharing the best of Santa Fe with visitors and she was a huge proponent of getting Baby Boomers to travel more.

Her husband and partner in life, Steve, wrote a beautiful eulogy on their site. Here is an excerpt:

“She wasn’t easy. We met at a time when men’s attitudes towards women were changing. It didn’t take long to figure out where she was coming from. Many men were intimidated by the force of her personality. Those men who had the misfortune to patronize her soon found the error of their ways. There are lots of definitions of masculinity and I don’t necessarily subscribe to most of them but I believe it takes a strong man to be with a strong woman. I’d like to think that I was a strong man with her strong woman. I loved the idea that for her, being liberated was non-negotiable. We were partners in the truest sense of the word. Not only was she strong in living her convictions, she supported her sisters along the way.”

Billie and I never met in real life, but we’ve been Facebook friends for years and chatted often. Prior to that (and prior to my own blog’s existence!), we were both part of the BootsnAll message board community. Over the years she was always eager to help whenever I had an issue, especially when I moved to her native New York. I still can’t believe she’s gone.

My thoughts are with Steve, their son, and all those who loved her. We’ll miss you, Billie.

The post AK Monthly Recap: October 2017 appeared first on Adventurous Kate.

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