#BUT spring break is in one week and we’re going to adopt a new kitten then so there’s light at the end of the tunnel!!!!!!!! (temporarily)

[lannisterdaddyissues]

sorry i’ve been so inactive and noncommunicative today friends!! i see all your tags and messages and asks and i love you for all of them i just don’t have the time to answer them right now 💔 but please keep tagging me in things and sending me stuff!! i love it!!! 🥹

[alluremin]

noodle | jjk

pairing: jeon jungkook | reader

genre: boyfriend!au | pure, unadulterated fluff

warnings: none

premise: Sometimes it can get lonely when Jungkook has to leave, and that's definitely the only reason why you continuously pester him to get you a cat.

word count: 1.3k

“Please?” You asked for roughly the fifth time, pulling at the loose fabric of Jungkook's hoodie. At some point another, you were determined to get an answer out of him, and no wasn’t in your vocabulary.

“I don’t know, y/n, we can hardly take care of ourselves. Last week, we had to call Yoongi because you couldn’t figure out how to use the breaker.” Jungkook looked at you skeptically, rolling his eyes when you only responded with a pouted lip.

“But a kitten isn’t a breaker, it’s a tiny little love machine full of love that will love you forever!”

Your boyfriend chuckled at your words. “Sometimes I question how old you are.” Jungkook grabbed the fist you had wrapped around his sweatshirt and slipped his fingers in between your own. He pulled your pouty self away from the window of the animal rescue, trying to keep you two moving down the street toward the cafe you had originally come to town for. You shuffled your feet along the pavement and pushed your head into your boyfriend’s arm bitterly. His shoulders shook as he laughed at your antics.

You delivered a pathetic slap to Jungkook’s chest. “Don’t laugh at me, Guk! I’m trying to sulk in peace.”

“No, you’re trying to guilt me into buying you a kitten.” You reached the cafe, Jungkook holding the door open for you. “A kitten is a lot of responsibility, and we’re both so busy right now, babe.”

“You’re not supposed to be the reasonable one in this relationship..,” the pout on your face somehow got stronger as you stood in line to order. Jungkook just smiled in response and kissed your forehead. You made a mental note to continue pouting no matter the circumstance.

Days go by since you spotted those cats through the shelter window, your mission to guilt your boyfriend ended shortly after you two sat down at the cafe. Sure you had thought about it, but you and Jungkook both knew that you went through, what he called, phases. This wasn’t the first time you had asked him for a pet, far from it. The reasons for your begging ranged anywhere from those sad commercials on T.V., to the Dodo snapchat stories. Regardless of how the idea popped into your head, it always triggered the same response. A few hours of shameless begging, a sprinkle of guilt, and a buttload of affection toward your boyfriend.

You were busying yourself with loading the dishwasher while you waited for Jungkook to get home from work. You were halfway through the pile of plates sat before you when you heard your phone vibrate on the countertop, the dishes before you, quickly forgotten.

[8:57 pm] Coconut: hey sweets, i’m gonna be home about an hour later than i thought, i’ll see you in a bit!

You frowned slightly at his text. This happened pretty often, Jungkook having to stay late to finish a recording or work on choreography, so you wouldn’t say you were necessarily disappointed. That being said, you missed him more often than not lately. With the comeback approaching, those late nights were happening much more frequently. After typing out a quick reply, you set your phone back down and continued the task you abandoned.

After you finished with the dishes, you planted yourself onto the couch and turned on the T.V., mindlessly watching whatever was on Travel channel. Josh Gates was solving yet another thrilling mystery that you couldn’t be bothered to watch progressively. Instead, you hopped in between each of your social media sites, looking at the same posts over and over again, hoping to find something new or even remotely interesting. Just then, the telltale sounds of your future anguish reach your ears and you scramble to bury your head under the blankets. Sarah McLachlan’s voice signaled the sight of the sad, neglected animals on your screen. You screeched and buried your head under the blanket and covered your ears. Guilt was an awfully powerful tool.

Thirty seconds passed, and the commercial was finally over. You felt the familiar pout creep over your features, and you knew that Jungkook would get an earful of it when he got home. Maybe you were being bratty, but when you look around your empty apartment, you couldn’t help but feel lonely. Most of the time, you were at school, studying, or doing homework, but when you finish all of those things, you’re often left to your own isolation. You loved Jungkook, and you understood and accepted his job, but sometimes you really hated how much you were apart. So, yeah, maybe you were being repetitive and a little bit annoying with your request, but there’s only so much cleaning you could do around the apartment to satiate your boredom.

While you were deep in your thoughts, you heard the front door open, signaling the arrival of your boyfriend. You hopped up from your blanket cocoon and sprinted over to the front door, tears springing to your eyes when you saw what was in front of you. Jungkook was cradling a small, orange ball of fluff against his chest. A large smile graced his lips when he noticed the blubbering mess that you had turned into. You stumbled over the shoes in the entryway en route to Jungkook and the tiny kitten he was holding.

“I-... kitty,” you whined out as you continued to bawl over the tiny creature. “You,” sniffle, “got a,” sniffle, “kitty!”

“Yes, sweetheart, I got a kitty,” Jungkook reached his arm up and scratched the back of his neck. You loved when he got shy like this. You looked away from the kitten on his chest for a second and kissed his blushing cheek. “I just, know you get lonely when ‘m not here and I just-,”

“Thank you, baby,” you grasped his cheek and pulled him toward your lips. He reciprocated immediately and sighed in relief, trying to deepen the kiss. Just then, the kitten let out a strangled meow from below you and Jungkook. You giggle and break away from your boyfriend and look at the tiny creature. While you make yourself busy petting the kitten’s head, Jungkook clears his throat.

“The shelter called her Noodle, she’s 3 months old, and she has 3 legs.” Your eyes meet Jungkook’s at his last piece of information. You quickly scoop the kitten out of your boyfriends, and sure enough, one of Noodle’s back legs were absent. Cradling the baby to your chest, you felt the tears spring to your eyes once again.

“She’s the sweetest sweetheart who ever existed, I love her!” Jungkook pulled you into his arms and kissed the top of your head, giggling while you ugly-cried in your boyfriend’s arms.

You managed to pull yourself together after about ten minutes of blubbering. In between your sobs, you managed to catch scattered bits of information about the kitten. Jungkook had gone to the shelter a week prior and signed the paperwork to adopt the tabby. Noodle had been in and out of shelters and foster homes for the first three months of her life. Apparently, she had been orphaned, got an infection in her leg from the poor conditions she had been found in and soon after, had her leg amputated. You couldn’t wrap your head around the fact that nobody wanted her.

It also just dawned on you that Jungkook walked into the house with a cat and a cat only. You had no supplies for her whatsoever. This realization broke you out of your reverie and your wide eyes met Jungkook’s.

“Um, babe, you didn’t happen to buy a litter box, food, bowls, blankets, or a crate for her, did you?” His eyes widened as large as yours had at your question.

“Uh…”

“Jungkook! It’s not like we have that stuff just sitting around the house!”

“This is why I can’t have too much responsibility!” Jungkook threw his hands up in defeat, his bottom lip pouting out as we whined at you.

You grabbed his hands as you stood, sticking the cat into your zip-up and making your way to the door. “C’mon, we gotta make a trip to the store, our child needs some stuff.”

“Our child?” Jungkook looks at you incredulously.

“Yes, Noodle is our baby. Don’t look at me like that! You should have been expecting this.”

© alluremin 2019

no reposting

[artificialqueens]

Objects in the Rear View Mirror (Craquameron) - Epilogue - Saiphl

When the stars are out of sight and the moon is down - Epilogue

Brianna’s PoV

And since I’ve done all the old ones ‘till they’ve all been done in

Now I’m just looking, then I’m gone with the wind

Endlessly searching for an original sin

A bit more than three hours, we’re landing, a bright sunny day in our dear New York, that’s buzzing with life and a way too crowded JFK Airport. Aquaria lazily yawns in the way to the conveyors, “come on sleepy head, we’re close to home, then you’ll sleep as much as you want”, I say to her, and she just looks at me as if I was speaking chinese. “Come on hun, just a little bit more.” She leans her head over my shoulder for a moment and Kameron wraps our waists with her arms.

“Band three and we’ll be out ladies. We’re back home!” Kammy says, and the three of us laugh. We take our luggage and head out the airport, as always it’s messy and crowded, our Uber takes more than ten minutes to arrive because of the traffic, and we stand under the sun, Aquaria trying to hide from the burning light, Kameron and I teasing her about it.

The way to our places takes its sweet time, and we keep talking, this time checking on our schedules to plan a night out. Right now we want to see how this turns out, maybe taking it a little bit slower than we did back in Cheyenne, coming to the realization that we have a lot of time ahead is refreshing, and the three of us know we’ll need to work as a team if we want to make our relationship work.

Kameron is the first to get home, she kisses each of us soft and brief, asking then for us to send a message when we get home. We see her walking to her building, she turns once more, smiling to us and waving her goodbyes, the car gets in motion before we see her get in. Aquaria holds my hand sighing, she looks like she’s going to say something, but it doesn’t come out at last. Leaning her head on my shoulder she says “We’re lucky… I mean, we have each other now.” I nod in agreement, and turn my face lightly to kiss her forehead.

After leaving Aquaria in her place, the driver looks at me through the rear view mirror, judgmentally arching a brow, I smile at him with my best ‘fuck your nose off of us’ glare. Then look at my phone screen, starting to reply all the unseen messages I have there. Soon, I’m dropped by my building door and the driver leaves as fast as he can. I bet he will be talking about us when he gets home after his workday.

I’ve been looking for the ultimate crime

Infinite victims, infinitesimal time

And I’m so very guilty for no reason or rhyme

I keep writing messages to my dear friend Vanessa, she’s been worried about all the process of my visit to Cheyenne, and for sure, she’s pissed that i’ve spent the last four days in radio silence. When the elevator dings reaching my floor, I slid the phone in my pocket and walk carrying my luggage to my door.

There’s a pile of unopened mail on my counter when I close the door of my apartment, I sigh to the idea of looking at it. It can wait. I walk to my room and fall straight on my bed, face buried on the pillows while I blatantly ignore the buzzing of my phone. I’m wondering when will be the time to bring my girls to my home, and suddenly feel anxious about how we will make this work for the three of us. My head spinning violently on the idea when the phone buzzes regularly, I’ll have to take the call. “Hey Vanjie! how are you?”

“Bitch, you have no fucking reason to ignore my messages”, Vanessa yells to the phone. “I demand an explanation, and better for you to start now, or I’ll go to bugger you face to face.”

“Alright, alright… there’s no need to yell, I can hear you perfectly”, I say, putting the phone away from my ear. “I just got home bitch, gimme a break” I ask, starting to laugh.

“Well, you have a lot to tell, the last you said was you were going to Aquaria’s sister wedding and then nothing, radio silence. You can’t say you’re going to see Aquaria after your disappearance and then keep the things to yourself.” Now her tone is more curious than pissed. “What happened at the wedding?”

I sigh, remembering the moment I saw Kameron at the church. “Aquaria was there with no other than Kameron” I answer, sounding a little more bitter than I expected. “Then they kissed old hollywood movie style on the dancefloor and I’ve lost it girl, like… lost it big time.”

We spend the following hour and a half going on every single detail of that night, and I can’t help laughing when I hear Vanessa gasping when I told her about what they’ve proposed to me. For the first time in the almost three years I’ve known Vanessa Mateo, she’s speechless, even more when I tell her that I accepted to be in a throuple with them.

She cackled when I got to the part of the parental meeting, and she was recreating my mom’s angry voice with eerie precision. When she finally managed to control her laugh, and with what meant to be a most serious tone, she asked “so, you are telling me you are now in a relationship with the both of them?”

I nod to the phone, and then say “I think so, like, I’m still sinking on the idea…” I sigh, and look through my window, the purples and reds of the sunset taking over the big apple. “I’m not sure how we will make it work, but what I can say, is I’m so happy that I’m afraid to sleep and not waking up.”

“Never say that again bitch, I need my best friend now, and I’ll need my best friend for at least the following century.” Vanessa sounds death serious, and I know she’s worried, but she will be by my side wherever all this crazy adventure takes me. “I’m happy to know you’re happy girl, but aside of this adrenaline rush, how do you feel?”

I take a little time to answer that, but I know it’s the truth. “I’m in love Vanjie, so much in love and I can’t wait for you to meet them. I’m sure you’ll love them too.”

The call comes to an end with us agreeing to have a coffee the following day, she doesn’t seem convinced, but I’m sure she’ll get me her perspective the moment we find a table and have a chance to talk.  I take a shower and then empty the luggage getting ready for the following day. I’m about to call to order dinner when my phone buzzes again. Kameron is sending a picture of her at an animal shelter, and introducing Aquaria and I to Cheyenne, the kitten she just adopted. The little furball yawning on her left arm.

Aquaria sends a voice message saying “Cheyenne? really? why did you do such a horrible thing to the baby?”

I laugh and record a message, “I have to agree with Aquaria, why did you gave him that horrendous name?”

“Because he’s the second step for a new start, and he will always remind me of you when you’re not around, my loves” Kameron answers, and I feel my heart melting.

Aquaria and I send a long appreciative message to her words, followed by a detailed list of what the kitten will need and a bunch of recommendations from Aquaria and her vast experience on cat breeding. Then we all say good night.

Thinking about the last four days, and how my… our lives have changed, gives me hope on the future, on a future where we are together, and happy. A future where the past injuries are no longer important; a future where love is what matters and I’m sure, for the first time, that I’ve made the right decision.

It’s not enough to make the nightmares go away

It’s not enough to make the tears run dry

It’s not enough to live a little better every day

It’s been a year and a half since we boarded that airplane to New York from Wyoming, and I can tell things were moving faster. The first months were complicated, as far as we were located in three very different points of the city, and our schedules were madness. Aquaria resented the little time both Kameron and I had by the time she was taking a breathe from the released collection of the following spring. Kameron resented the lack of time her work gave her and I… well, Vanjie and I just decided to start our own business, so the bakery was taking most of my time.

On Thanksgiving my parents, Sharon and Alaska visited us, and I bet Sharon was about to rip our guts off when she saw how sad Aquaria was. Thankfully Mom helped a lot on the process of her understanding that our lives were getting more complicated, not just because of us adjusting to our relationship, but because we were growing on our own fields.  

By Christmas we decided it was the time to think of moving in together. Kameron was done with the neverending rambling whenever the schedules didn’t match, and Aquaria was done with attempting to balance the free time, the commuting and the fact that the indie atelier she was working for was bought by a bigger brand. To be honest, I was done too with all the drama and the nights I’ve spent rolling on an empty bed, craving the warmth of their bodies with me. Most of all, we were done with being apart, things were starting to work for the three of us, we didn’t want to let our jobs to become a stopper, more than a way of living.

The first week of the spring, we moved together to a little place in Brooklyn, comfortable enough for three adults and close enough to our jobs. The apartment was big enough for the three of us, each one having a proper space to do our own business, and a good common space for the life we were starting to share. Kameron made sure the spaces were good and comfortable, while Aquaria busied herself on making it a perfect balance between the three of us. Cheyenne was the happiest cat with the moving, as far as he found thrilling to explore every single box we managed to empty.

For our first anniversary, we spent the night in a romantic dinner that Kameron prepared for the occasion. Aquaria designed and supervised the creation of three rings, they looked like a wedding band but were decorated with the birthstones of each of us and engraved with our names. She wanted to make our commitment official, as far as we won’t be able to get married, we can, at least pretend to be. My anniversary gift, was a scrap photo album made by myself, with pictures of us. Sharon, Alaska, Mom, Dad, Nebraska, my siblings, Chad, Morgan and even Katlyn shared those memories to document our story, it also had empty pages at the end for us to fill over the years to come.

As every other couple, we’ve had good and bad times, also moments when we questioned if this is what we really wanted. By now, we’re doing well, creating a world for us, going step by step, going day by day. I still feel lucky to have them both in my life, and as long as it lasts, I can tell that I’m having the happy life I’ve always dreamt about. We are having the happy lives we always wanted to have.

I’ve been looking for an original sin

One with a twist and a bit of a spin

And since I’ve done all the old ones ‘till they’ve all been done in

Now I’m just looking, then I’m gone with the wind

Endlessly searching for an original sin.

[gordonwilliamsweb]

Our Covid Cocoon: The Parents Aren’t Alright (But Help May Be Coming)

HELENA, Mont. — My unvaccinated 7-year-old son began hacking and sneezing in late September as the hospitals in our home state of Montana started buckling under the latest covid surge. I took him to get tested when his symptoms wouldn’t go away.

The cotton swab went up his nostrils and Thomas bucked out of my lap with a mighty snort, nearly ripping the 6-inch swab from the pediatrician assistant’s fingers. It came out bent, but the sample was usable, and as she put it away, I asked a question to which I already knew the answer.

“So we’re in quarantine?” She nodded. It would take about 72 hours to get the results, she said.

The next day, 4-year-old twins Anna and Karen started coughing and sneezing like their brother. They were already under orders to stay home after being exposed to a covid-positive classmate, but they, too, were slapped with a new quarantine while we waited for the test results.

We had already experienced two covid quarantines and summer camp closures in August. In September, our family accomplished a new feat in our pandemic journey: The twins entered a quarantine within a quarantine, running simultaneously to their brother’s quarantine.

For the parents of children too young to get vaccinated, the news that Pfizer and BioNTech deemed their vaccine safe and effective for children ages 5 to 11 is a light at the end of a seemingly never-ending quarantine tunnel. Remember those lockdowns that defined spring 2020 for everyone? We parents are still living them, in increments lasting up to 10 days. When we’re not in quarantine, we’re bracing for the next one.

My wife, Beagan, and I now flinch every time we see a school number on our phones’ caller ID. Are they closing again? Will our bosses be understanding this time? Can we find part-time care at the last minute? Are we even allowed to bring in that outside help if we’re in quarantine?

But the record hospitalizations and spike in covid deaths put the problems of our confined — yet healthy — family in perspective. The same day my son was tested, Montana was among the top 5 states for new case rates and the governor sent National Guard troops to help hospitals bursting with covid patients. The 1,326 new covid cases reported by the state included 118 kids under age 10.

Our pediatrician’s office is part of the St. Peter’s Health system, which was implementing crisis standards of care to ration medical services. Several hundred feet from us at the doctor’s office, all eight intensive care beds in the main wing of the hospital were filled, six by covid patients.

Here we were, just three weeks into the school year, and we were drained. Beagan and I spent much of August and September trying to manage the kids and our jobs. How bad might it get when the cold weather forced us all back indoors?

To top it off, we discovered that the two kittens we adopted from the local shelter had ringworm. The fungal infection spread to the entire family and the dog.

My wife summed it up neatly: “I feel like a crappy parent, a crappy employee, a crappy spouse, a crappy pet owner. I just feel crappy.”

Children are much less likely than adults to get seriously ill or die from covid-19. But they make up about 15% of all covid cases, and the highly transmissible delta variant has led to a jump in child hospitalizations. Some children who get the disease may also develop “long covid” or the sometimes fatal multisystem inflammatory syndrome.

Despite the surge, it seems a lot of people in Helena and around the state have put the pandemic behind them. Maskless faces in indoor spaces, crowded events and low vaccination rates are the norm, aided by new state laws that stymie local health officials’ ability to implement common anti-covid measures.

I feel like an oddity when I’m one of the few masked patrons or employees at the grocery store, or my kids are the only ones masked at the children’s science museum. So I asked Dr. Lauren Wilson, head of the Montana chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, whether I was being too cautious.

Wilson said the parents of unvaccinated kids are right to be cautious, not just because their children might get covid, but because they could bring it home and spread it to vulnerable family members. It’s also important to balance protecting children with providing for their needs, particularly their mental health, she added.

That can be difficult when parents are experiencing “decision fatigue” from the scores of choices they face every day about their families’ safety, she said. It’s difficult to assess risks when so many people are ignoring public health recommendations.

Our wait for test results stretched from three days to five. On the last day, I wrote this essay between tea parties, breaking up fistfights, playing “Frozen” on the television for the umpteenth time and giving in to my son’s request to have potato chips for breakfast. The kids’ negative covid test results arrived near day’s end.

Then we found out 7-year-old son could soon join the ranks of the vaccinated if the Food and Drug Administration approves the Pfizer-BioNTech shot for his age group.

That will be a big day for us, along with the twins’ 5th birthdays in the spring. In the meantime, I’ve started to cough and sneeze. Considering the kids’ tests were negative, I think I’ll skip getting one myself — in hopes of breaking our quarantine streak.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

Our Covid Cocoon: The Parents Aren’t Alright (But Help May Be Coming) published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

[stephenmccull]

Our Covid Cocoon: The Parents Aren’t Alright (But Help May Be Coming)

HELENA, Mont. — My unvaccinated 7-year-old son began hacking and sneezing in late September as the hospitals in our home state of Montana started buckling under the latest covid surge. I took him to get tested when his symptoms wouldn’t go away.

The cotton swab went up his nostrils and Thomas bucked out of my lap with a mighty snort, nearly ripping the 6-inch swab from the pediatrician assistant’s fingers. It came out bent, but the sample was usable, and as she put it away, I asked a question to which I already knew the answer.

“So we’re in quarantine?” She nodded. It would take about 72 hours to get the results, she said.

The next day, 4-year-old twins Anna and Karen started coughing and sneezing like their brother. They were already under orders to stay home after being exposed to a covid-positive classmate, but they, too, were slapped with a new quarantine while we waited for the test results.

We had already experienced two covid quarantines and summer camp closures in August. In September, our family accomplished a new feat in our pandemic journey: The twins entered a quarantine within a quarantine, running simultaneously to their brother’s quarantine.

For the parents of children too young to get vaccinated, the news that Pfizer and BioNTech deemed their vaccine safe and effective for children ages 5 to 11 is a light at the end of a seemingly never-ending quarantine tunnel. Remember those lockdowns that defined spring 2020 for everyone? We parents are still living them, in increments lasting up to 10 days. When we’re not in quarantine, we’re bracing for the next one.

My wife, Beagan, and I now flinch every time we see a school number on our phones’ caller ID. Are they closing again? Will our bosses be understanding this time? Can we find part-time care at the last minute? Are we even allowed to bring in that outside help if we’re in quarantine?

But the record hospitalizations and spike in covid deaths put the problems of our confined — yet healthy — family in perspective. The same day my son was tested, Montana was among the top 5 states for new case rates and the governor sent National Guard troops to help hospitals bursting with covid patients. The 1,326 new covid cases reported by the state included 118 kids under age 10.

Our pediatrician’s office is part of the St. Peter’s Health system, which was implementing crisis standards of care to ration medical services. Several hundred feet from us at the doctor’s office, all eight intensive care beds in the main wing of the hospital were filled, six by covid patients.

Here we were, just three weeks into the school year, and we were drained. Beagan and I spent much of August and September trying to manage the kids and our jobs. How bad might it get when the cold weather forced us all back indoors?

To top it off, we discovered that the two kittens we adopted from the local shelter had ringworm. The fungal infection spread to the entire family and the dog.

My wife summed it up neatly: “I feel like a crappy parent, a crappy employee, a crappy spouse, a crappy pet owner. I just feel crappy.”

Children are much less likely than adults to get seriously ill or die from covid-19. But they make up about 15% of all covid cases, and the highly transmissible delta variant has led to a jump in child hospitalizations. Some children who get the disease may also develop “long covid” or the sometimes fatal multisystem inflammatory syndrome.

Despite the surge, it seems a lot of people in Helena and around the state have put the pandemic behind them. Maskless faces in indoor spaces, crowded events and low vaccination rates are the norm, aided by new state laws that stymie local health officials’ ability to implement common anti-covid measures.

I feel like an oddity when I’m one of the few masked patrons or employees at the grocery store, or my kids are the only ones masked at the children’s science museum. So I asked Dr. Lauren Wilson, head of the Montana chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, whether I was being too cautious.

Wilson said the parents of unvaccinated kids are right to be cautious, not just because their children might get covid, but because they could bring it home and spread it to vulnerable family members. It’s also important to balance protecting children with providing for their needs, particularly their mental health, she added.

That can be difficult when parents are experiencing “decision fatigue” from the scores of choices they face every day about their families’ safety, she said. It’s difficult to assess risks when so many people are ignoring public health recommendations.

Our wait for test results stretched from three days to five. On the last day, I wrote this essay between tea parties, breaking up fistfights, playing “Frozen” on the television for the umpteenth time and giving in to my son’s request to have potato chips for breakfast. The kids’ negative covid test results arrived near day’s end.

Then we found out 7-year-old son could soon join the ranks of the vaccinated if the Food and Drug Administration approves the Pfizer-BioNTech shot for his age group.

That will be a big day for us, along with the twins’ 5th birthdays in the spring. In the meantime, I’ve started to cough and sneeze. Considering the kids’ tests were negative, I think I’ll skip getting one myself — in hopes of breaking our quarantine streak.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

Our Covid Cocoon: The Parents Aren’t Alright (But Help May Be Coming) published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/

[mcjour]

my cat is dying.

i know i get paranoid and anxious about this all the time and always think it’s happening soon but this time it is legit (i think...)

she’s 18, so like, as much as i hate to say it, maybe it is time. she lived a long and happy life, there’s really not a lot that can be done to prolong her life at this point.

for a few days, she stopped eating altogether. so it was very much a “this is it” feeling.

my mom says it’s because of the pills we had to give her. they were causing her to lose her appetite. i mean... maybe? that’s definitely a very possible possibility. but it’s weird how confident she is in that. like.... it could just be that she’s old and ready to die. she took the pills no problem for a few weeks and if anything she ate more food.

anyway we decided to stop giving her the pills. and basically just give her whatever she wants as far as food goes. at least then she will die happy.

so she is eating a little more, but certainly not a lot. i’ve seen her eat a couple bites of wet food, my mom has seen her eat a couple bites of dry food. and then she will of course eat treats and/or human food LOL. So she ate some of my turkey and cheese at lunch and some of my chicken nuggets at dinner. and i’ve given her a tube of puree treats each night too. so definitely better than a few days ago when she was eating ~nothing~ but still.... really not enough. i mean she is small and she’s old so i’m sure she doesn’t need quite as much energy as she once did, but like she is skinny, always has been, so if anything she needs to gain more weight than lose it. in fact, the pills were hopefully going to help her gain weight (the pills were for hyperthyroidism or whatever it’s called). and i really believed it for a couple weeks. she was having no problem taking the pills (hidden in her food), adjusting to a new kidney sensitive diet. she did HATE the ear drops (for an ear infection), and i felt really bad about it. At first I thought she stopped eating because of that. she hid under the bed more, presumably so i wouldn’t grab her put the drops in. so when she stopped eating, i thought it was kinda my fault. she didn’t want to come out and eat in fear i would pick her up. well it’s been about a week since i put the last drops in and she comes out now, trusts me again, but that wasn’t enough to bring her appetite back.

i thought she would die within the week. i mean... you can’t not eat and live very long. and i guess specifically cats who don’t eat can die very quickly because their bodies really can’t process stored fat into energy so it would like destory the kidneys or something. idk. not that she even has any stored fat lol. but like just reading that was kinda like ok, this is definitely the end.

but now that she’s kinda eating again, it’s like ??? ok? i’m glad you are eating again but how long is this going to last? like i think she extended her life a little bit, maybe it won’t be this week, but this can’t last more than a couple weeks, maybe a couple months if we’re lucky. but is it really lucky if all you can think about when you look at her is how she could drop dead any day now

she has become extra cuddly lately. she wants to be by my side 24/7 now. i appreciate it, love to be able to spend every waking moment of her final days together. but it makes me wonder.... does she know? is she trying to make sure she goes with me by her side?

this is weird but i feel like she is holding on for me to get a job offer. which sounds a little silly, cats aren’t necessarily privy to that kind of information LOL. but i kinda wonder if she wants to make sure i am set up for success when she leaves me. idk i can’t articulate it. but making sure i move onto my next part of life. i’ve been stuck in this rut for a while and she wants to see me out of it. and i know that’s silly. but my other cat, he died a couple days after my spring break in college one year. it felt as though he held on long enough to see me one last time, for me to say goodbye. now, i am sure stories like this are just coincidences and not something necessarily in the cat or human’s control, but it’s a little comforting to believe something like that. granted, she didn’t need to pick the week i was inteviewing for a couple jobs to stress me out!! lol

i know her death will fuck me up. it already is and it hasn’t even happened yet.

she is ~18.3 and i’ve had her for 17.5 years. like that’s the majority of my life. and she has helped me through some really really tough shit. she’s always been very in tune to my emotions. like, she’s raised me more than any human has. idk. i don’t want to go into it here. but she is my whole world and more.

and i hate myself for thinking this way but i’ve already been thinking about adopting another cat. like... i don’t want to feel like i am replacing her, but holy shit i can’t live in this house without a cat. i mean, ideally maybe my therapist could help me with a non cat codependent coping mechanism LOL. but in general my life would be empty without a cat in it. my mom has warned me for years now that she is not getting another pet, and so while i am welcome to get another cat one day, it will be 100% mine and when i move out i need to take it with me. which is fine, just another layer to think about re: budgeting for a cat, finding a pet friendly place to live, etc. at first i was kinda like ughh that complicates things, but now my cat’s death is potentially coming up soon and i don’t plan on moving out ~soon~ (i mean, i still need a job LOL) i am thinking i very well may go for it. but still, thinking about kittens makes me feel so awful and guilty. i catch myself looking up adoptable pets from time to time and i feel awful about that too. i mean, i don’t take it super seriously... i would hope that any currently adoptable pets would be adopted by the time she dies and i would be ready to adopt. so like i’m not adding any specific pets to a wishlist or some shit, like just looking at the cute pics. but it still feels so wrong.

LMAO also of course my therapist is on vacation this week!!!! (i mean good for her and if i really needed her i could contact her and all that but just l m a o at the coincidence)

idk. i’m just sad.

i know cats can’t live forever and she’s already lived way longer than a lot of cats so i am very lucky for the time i did get with her, but damn

i will try to make her last days, whether it is days, weeks months, happy

[acuppellarp]

We’re excited to announce that Wen has decided to level up Olivia Smith-Parker from a mumu minor character to a main character! Please go through the checklist to make sure you’re ready to go and send in your account within the next 24 hours. 

OOC INFO

Name + pronouns: Wen, she/her Age: Pepperidge Farms Timezone: GMT+1 Ships: Olive/Chemistry Anti-Ships: Olive/Forced

IC INFO

Full Name: Olivia Jane Smith-Parker Face Claim: Daisy Ridley Age/Birthday: 26, September 8 Occupation: ASPCA vet Personality:  generous, sensitive, optimistic, stubborn, nurturing, idealist Hometown: Liverpool, England Bio:

Olivia Smith was born an old soul. That’s what her mum said when she first looked into Olive’s eyes, anyway. And her dad, who’s always been more of a realist, said all newborns do resemble Winston Churchill somewhat, but that didn’t mean their baby girl was really old, did it? Of course, he eventually realized just what his wife had been talking about.

Olivia was never really your typical carefree little girl. That’s not to say she wasn’t happy, because she very much was. She loved life. She seemed to be perpetually smiling, and her glass was always, always half full. She just happened to care about everything more than most kids her age did. She cared about really big things like war and hunger and the fact that people were suffering all over the world. She cared about slightly less big things like animals without homes and people in hospitals. She cared about everything she perceived as unfair right down to things as tiny as someone squashing a spider instead of just putting it outside. And she didn’t just care. She wanted to help.

Her allowance lasted exactly as long as it took her to run into someone begging in the street, or see a collection box for some cause or another. She gave bits of her lunch to the pigeons, the feral cats along the way to school, and even made sure to leave some crumbs out for the ants. She was horrified to find out where meat came from, and promptly became a vegetarian at the tender age of seven. And she stood up for those she thought couldn’t stand up for themselves. Which, as mentioned, included everyone from refugees in war-torn countries to ants her classmates carelessly stepped on. Her dad’s decision to send her to martial arts classes stemmed directly from her fear that her relentless “activism” would inevitably get her arse kicked at some point or another. It was very much a good call on his part.

The first big change in Olivia’s life came when she was thirteen and she lost her mum. It was an accident - nothing anyone could’ve seen coming or done anything to prevent. And old soul or not, thirteen was far too young to deal with the concept of random tragedy. There was no volunteer organization or charity fund or even research team that could’ve been supported so they’d find a way to fix something like that. You can’t stand up to dumb luck and shame it for being unfair. You can’t go out on the street and collect signatures to make stupid random accidents illegal. Faced for the first time in her life with an evil she could do absolutely nothing to fight, Olive chose to focus on what she could do instead. What didn’t make her feel useless. And that was doing what she did best: caring for others.

By the time she turned fourteen, Olive had become the person who kept their family running. Her dad was far too heartbroken himself to fight his younger daughter’s near-obsessive dedication to the family, and he was far more worried about Bea’s detachment from him than about whatever benign phase Olive seemed to be going through. Olive cooked and cleaned, made detailed shopping lists for her dad to follow, handled laundry and ironed shirts to perfection, and tried (and failed, she always suspected) to give her dad and sister all the love they were missing out on with her mum gone. And when Bea announced she was moving to the States for college? Well. Olivia more than supported her dad’s decision to follow her. Dumb luck might be able to tear her family apart, but a transatlantic move certainly could not.

Adapting to life in America was mostly easy for Olive. It was just herself and her dad now, and her life remained the same. She just had to take care of one less person now, with Bea away at college (which didn’t mean she didn’t send regular care packages to her sister, of course). Her own move to college was a little harder, mostly because she felt like she had to stay home and help her dad, but he made it clear her choices were college or moving out on her own. Having always been a brilliant student, Olivia didn’t have much trouble getting accepted at the college of her choice, and at eighteen, she finally moved into her dorm and found herself on her own for the first time in her life.

That didn’t last long.

Olive met Ben Parker her first week on campus, when she was walking home after an evening spent discussing the evils of capitalism and how to bring it down with one of the many student associations she’d joined in those seven days. Ben always said he knew she was the love of his life the second she looked at his brand new Hummer (his pride and joy, he said, and his secret weapon to get more girls than he knew what to do with) and asked him if he’d rather have a flier on capitalism or global warming. He chose both. And he biked to class the next day.

Olive could never pinpoint the moment she knew Ben was the love of her life, but she did. Soon. So soon, in fact, that they got engaged that first Christmas break. Everyone around them was more than a little horrified by the news: Olive’s dad thought she was far too young, Bea that she was positively insane for even considering marriage in the first place, and Ben’s parents that the heir to a Texan oil empire could do better than a vegetarian commie with an accent (their words, but she decided she wanted them on her headstone). The wedding was going to be in the Summer after her freshman year and his graduation, but they eloped during spring break, and they both hyphenated their last names. Which was the reason Ben found himself no longer the heir to a Texan oil empire. Not that Ben Smith-Parker and his acceptance letter to a Masters in Sustainable Architecture program cared too much about that.

Olivia’s second encounter with the cruelest version of dumb luck came that summer, a couple of weeks before the party they were going to throw in lieu of an actual wedding. It was once again an accident - nobody’s fault, no way to prevent it - and this time she lost Ben. Her usual coping mechanism failed her this time, since she had no one to take care of, and Olive spent the better part of a month trying in vain to find a reason to get out of bed each day. Eventually, she found it: if life was going to be a bully, she was going to deal with it like she did in her primary school years. She was going to stand up to it and fight.

Olivia decided right then and there to spend her life trying to make the world a better place. She went back to school that fall and joined even more associations, marched for even more worthy causes, handed out even more fliers and put in even more hours at her volunteer jobs. And it was one of those volunteer jobs that made her want to become a vet.

It’s been several years now, and Olive works at NYC’s ASPCA hospital. Her heart’s healed, she thinks - Ben will always be the love of her life, but that doesn’t mean she can’t ever love again. Maybe the Universe will make up for its past unfairness by letting her have two loves of her life. She’s open to it, at least, which is a big step. And until she finds that person? Well, she has her job, her many causes, and her sister to focus on.

Pets: Many or none, depending on how you define it. She’s a prolific foster pet parent, and there are never fewer than four dogs and/or cats in her and Bea’s apartment at any given time. She hasn’t adopted any of them (so far), though, so they aren’t technically hers.

Relationships:

Bea Smith: Olive’s older sister and the person she loves the most in the entire world. Although Olive’s always acted as the older sibling, and to this day she tends to be the one taking on the more adult role in their relationship, she admires her sister like only a younger sibling ever could. If you ask her, there’s nothing Bea can’t do, and the only reason she isn’t a star is that the world hasn’t discovered yet.

Rachel Berry: Rachel often volunteers with the animals at the shelter - she walks them and loves on them, and that automatically makes her one of Olive’s favorite people. She also has to admit, for someone who’s always been hopelessly low on the social hierarchy, having a drummer friend adds a coolness factor she’s not immune to.

Evie Miller: Olive and Evie met at ACup, but the second Evie found out about Olive’s work, visiting the shelter with Kay to make the less fortunate pups happy for a while became a near-weekly ritual. Olive considers Evie one of her best friends, and she may or may not feel something resembling a crush type situation for her, but she’s aware it’s very much one-sided, and has no intention to jeopardize their friendship for it.

Sam Evans: Sam loves cats, and Olive loves people who love cats. Especially ones who walk the walk and don’t just talk the talk - and Sam did just that when she convinced Quinn to adopt one of Olive’s littlest patients. Gertie’s well kitten visits are some of Olive’s favorite times at work.

EXTRA INFO

Twitter name/twitter URL/description: Olive S-P @oliveandletlive crocheto ergo sum.

Five latest tweets:

@oliveandletlive not to toot my own horn, but if there were pullitzers for the blurbs under adoptable pets’ names on shelter websites, i’d win #toottoot @oliveandletlive would adding an ‘xs’ tag to my friend’s home-crocheted willy warmer be in poor taste? #petite @oliveandletlive your oreos are great, america, but until you start selling jammie dodgers the uk’s biscuit aisles will always win. @oliveandletlive THERE IS A VERY TINY KITTEN IN MY SCRUBS’ POCKET @oliveandletlive update: her name is hortense and she needs a home that’s not my pocket. pass it on! she’ll be good to go in 3 more weeks.