#Friday Five

[millerflintstone]

My implant seems to be healing well. It's actually been less uncomfortable than a root canal. I think if I ever need another root canal, I'm going to opt for getting the molar pulled and will then eventually get an implant instead. I've had 2 root canals fail

Unfriendly is reading the Anne Rice vampire books for the first time. He was thoroughly annoyed by Interview with the Vampire. We'll see what he thinks of our brat prince as he makes his way through The Vampire Lestat

Work has been ok. It's been keeping me busy. Nothing annoying or exciting to report, which is good.

I think I'm going to dye my hair this weekend. The goal is ultimately purple but I have to lay red down first

Emma's hoop classes start next week. Hopefully she gets more folks to sign up.

[brostateexam]

Miss California was very good at the vet yesterday. She got upset when they were doing a blood draw and bucked her leggy, so she got a bit bloody, but she accepted her shots and flea treatment with grace. Vet wants to do an analysis of her poop to help figure out why this little girl seems to have a perpetually loose caboose so I get to drop that off today because the alternative is keeping it in my fridge for a while and uh. No thank you.

Houdini had a vet appointment today but it was just a quick follow up for a shot. I'm not sure he liked the cat-in-a-bag more or less than a normal carrier. He screamed his head off, basically the whole time. He did enjoy getting petted, though, and it quieted him down a little bit.

Work is winding down for the year. This time last year I was working up until about 4 PM, but this year people largely wrapped things up yesterday. It's a nice feeling, to be able to relax for a bit. Had kinda forgotten what that was like.

My sister called me this morning and we talked about her husband, his cancer, what a separation would look like, and about how mom drives us crazy. It was honestly one of the nicest conversations we've ever had in all my time on earth.

Yesterday, I had a friend over and we made ube crinkle cookies together and had dinner, me, her, her husband, and Shane. It was so fun and so cozy to just chill out together and bake. I think I want to make this a more regular thing that I invite people over to do.

[tacosaysroar]

5

A coworker once pitched to Beyoncé and asserted that being in the same room with her was “better than sex.” She tried to get me to back her up and nope. Not because I don’t understand what a mega talent Beyoncé is but because sex is . . . sex. We have to stop saying things are better than sex. They just aren’t.

I’m embarrassingly proud of being the only person in our 23-person summit (during someone’s presentation trivia) to know the name of the original female member of the Beastie Boys.

I have once again purchased seasonal hand soap despite knowing I have leftovers from last year in the basement.

You guys. You know you want to go to Boston in October.

Fence-painting Saturday, take two. *clack*

[the-blind-assassin-12]

• Friday Five •

Hi friends! I hope everyone’s weekend is off to a fantastic start! Mine is starting with indecision! (Not that this is a surprise or different from any other day, it just happens to be Friday.) Want to help me pick what to work on this weekend?

Here are snippets from 5 of the wips I’ve been working on lately. If any of them seem particularly interesting to you, please do feel free to weigh in or ask about them!

Petrichor - long overdue follow-up to Point of No Return - Ezra x OFC Clara - the rainy season is here.

Leaning her temple against the cool pane of glass, she looked out and up at the sky, at the endless churning of slate gray and deep purple clouds. The occasional rumble of thunder tumbled down as one cluster crashed into another. Sometimes it was low and distant, drumming out a slow beat. Other times it sounded like it was right over their heads, shaking the walls and rattling things on shelves. The first truly loud boom had made her jump and gasp, her eyes widening before they rushed to find Ezra’s across the table, frightened for a second that the roof might cave in or the ground would collapse.

“Not to worry, little bird.” He’d said it with a wink. “We’re safe and sound in here, I guarantee it.”

Recall - Part 3: Un(f*cking)believable - Jack Daniels x F!Reader - Jack finally opens his big brown eyes in this one.

A metallic taste filled your mouth as you glanced over at him and finished your thought. I don’t know how yet but it’s connected. It has to be.

“When did you last hear from Merlin and the Galahads?” Champ asked. “And what’s the status of their mission?”

Their mission. Right.

In the chaos of dealing with Jack you’d almost forgotten what had preceded his arrival in the lab

Unfinished - Part 3: They Haunt Me in The Night - Marcus Pike x F!Reader - Ghost AU - taking on a trope I’ve never done in this one.

You turned into the hallway just in time to see Marcus open the door to the guest room. As he froze in place, head cocked to the side in confusion, you realized you’d forgotten to address the one logistical hang up of his visit. He spoke your name, a hint of amusement in his tone. “Am I missing something?”

“Shit.” You winced, fingertips coming up to rub at your closed eyelid before dragging your palm down over your face. I completely forgot about - you groaned. “I’m sorry, Marcus. I forgot to tell you. Bill took the guest bed when he moved out.” You gave a pathetic little shrug. “It was technically his, so…”

Trailing off, your eyes widened as another realization hit you. Oh, fuck. Because of how the night had gone, the sheets for the pullout couch that you’d thrown in the wash that afternoon had never made it into the dryer. “Shit!” You half sighed, half hissed through another wince. “I fucked up, Marcus. I left the sheets for the pullout mattress in the wash and now-“ You clicked your tongue and threw up your hands.

Untitled ACR one shot - Nico x F!Reader - angst x comfort - a dinner party goes a little sideways in this one.

Since you’d been reunited, the tether rarely stretched farther than the confines of your home. When it did, when Nico had to go into the office for work or when you had meetings with your editor, it didn’t ache like it did when you had no idea where to find him or if you ever would again. You felt it, sure. But you knew that by the end of the day he’d be right beside you. That you’d fall asleep coiled in his arms with the tether so relaxed that the hook in your ribs could latch right onto his without the elastic between them.

Now, as he finished closing the distance from the house to the pool’s edge, the hum of his proximity soothed the unease leftover from Petra’s comment at dinner. Somewhat, anyway.

“Mind if I join you?”

You didn’t look up as he spoke, your eyes cast down at the water as you watched the way it shimmered in the beams from the submerged light. “Sure.”

Aphelion - Part 12 - cowritten with @something-tofightfor - Oberyn Martell x F!Reader - Vampire AU - girl’s night feat. Toban

The past two weeks had been surreal in every way. Just fourteen days ago you were at Golden Lion’s Halloween party, and the biggest shock had been the fact that Oscar, the alluring and attractive stranger you met in a chance encounter a few days prior, was also in attendance. Since then you’d been attacked, watched that same stranger wield what you thought had been a prop blade in fight in an alley as he saved your life while risking his own, and learned that his name was not Oscar but Oberyn Martell - Prince of Dorne and one of the immortals known as Others that you always assumed were just the stuff of ancient folklore.

All of that would have been enough to fill your Bingo card of things you never even dreamed were possible. But it was only the beginning.

•••

[rustbeltjessie]

I've been, on average, writing 1.5 poems per day, while still working on my novel + other prose pieces.

Last Sunday, during a meeting of my poetry critique group, we were talking about "page poems" vs. "stage poems." One of the members said that he thinks there's rarely a poem that does both equally well—then he went on to add that, in his opinion, my poems naturally fall right in the middle.

Today, for International Women's Day, I had the kiddos learn about important women from the past/now. I let them each choose the profession they wanted to learn about. C. chose astronauts, and learned about famous women astronauts; D. chose doctors, and learned about Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman doctor in the U.S.

Today, I figured out part of the piano from The Replacements' "Androgynous," and that made me so happy, you have no idea. I also made guacamole as part of dinner.

Tomorrow night, I get to go to a swanky catered dinner for free, and I also get a plus-one, so my husband is coming with me.

[unexpectedyarns]

Three birds with one stone

Feet-up Friday

Friday Night Homebodies' Club

and Friday Five:

I had the day off from the tattoo shop today because of:

I got up early this morning to cook for the wedding tomorrow. The woman I love best in the world is getting married.

I made copious amounts of cole slaw, antipasto (and gluten free antipasto), a pumpkin cream cheese Bundt cake, and several dozen Apple Oatmeal and Banana Chocolate Chip muffins for Sunday morning breakfast. And I have 4 huge slabs of ribs to put in a slow oven in the morning.

We babysat Di's cat today. She's the mom of our two cats, but she (the cat) spent all day growling and hissing at them.

Wolf's dad died today. It's been a long time coming, and it's a relief, but of course there are conflicted feelings.

[some1s-sista]

Interesting follows overnight. The names are top shelf … my favorites so far being:

Uncanny stinker

Admirable Woodchuck

Premium Blower, and

8 year old hair.

All have been blocked. I’m torn about this one though: Genital Me

I’m thinking of that one in terms of a verb and a new way to alert the hubs to sexy time. I imagine whispering in his ear “Hey Babe, genital me.”

That would work right?! Guys?

[nympho-brainiac]

1. I never thought I’d be the mom that cared what my kids did to their hair or how they dressed but it turns out…I am. God forgive me but it’s like they’re both trying to see how unkempt they can possibly look. So, there’s that.

2. This week stressed me out to an almost unnatural degree. If you ever want to ruin my life fuck up my schedule. I don’t have even one coping skill to deal with that. If it’s just one day I can masturbate my way through it but listen, I have a schedule because I hate time but I have to live in a world where time is a real thing so therefore in order to do so I have crafted a life and a schedule that works for me in a way that makes it possible to take a day or a week at a time off from the rigidity and play as hard as I want so therefore fucking up my schedule and routine is like fucking with my emotions. I fucking hate late people. That’s the rudest shit EVER.

3. I will never in my life understand bumper stickers or decals of (almost) any kind. It’s also very disheartening to know that I usually share the same beliefs as bumper sticker people. Not the stick figure people though. Red flag for me.

4. I came across a few of my old accounts on here and the nostalgia has been palpable ever since. If I’ve ever abandoned a blog and you were a mutual just know I never forget people I connect with. Even on just a like-re-blog level. And if you are from my chic-named-star days you’re family and I’m so embarrassed about how lame I was when I first landed here but I’m so glad to see some of your faces again. Spoiler alert I’m still a little lame.

5. Do you guys know what Phrogging is?? Oh. My. Gawd. I swear the weirdest things have been happening at my house lately and I never get scared but 👀 idk. What I do know is that if by chance I ever catch someone living in my closet or the attic or the walls of my house…it will be over for me. I will die. Just like that. I’m not being dramatic. Can you be scared to death? Don’t tell me I’ll google it.

[doctor-garceau]

Friday Five 177 by T Garceau

[drink-n-watch]

Top 5 Anime Drinking Spots

[magsinhiding]

This week has been both slow and fast. Slow because I still feel like I am mostly loading around, and fast because I am in a season of intense personal change and o can feel it ramping up.

I met a friend and her new baby for a short walk yesterday, and it was lovely to reconnect with her and see her baby already so much bigger than the first time I met him two weeks ago.

I had a zoom job interview on Tuesday that went ok. I honestly have no idea how it went but I improved my prep for it and learned from it how to improve so I’m considering it a win.

I continue my new unemployment hobby of finding new music and obsessively listening to it for several days until I sick all the joy out of it. This is my current one; we will see how long I can last playing it over and over.

I talked to an old college friend today about her work and looking for a job, and she gave me some great perspective about recovering from burn out and giving yourself time to just rest. I realized I’ve been feeling bad about all the nothing I’ve been doing, but then I started two small editing projects and almost immediately felt overwhelmed and realized I just have to go really slow and give myself lots of grace and patience.

[rewritingkel]

Friday Five Weekly Writing Prompt

Each Friday, Long and Short Reviews hosts a writing prompt. Five words are provided tha tyou need to use in your writing. This Friday’s words are: embryo, future, first, rider, spine. Addison woke to an abrupt noise with a startle. She still wasn’t sure where she was or how she got there. All she knew was she didn’t like the sense she had about this place. She laid back flat when she heard the…

[heartsleevemag]

Heartsleeve Magazine's Friday Five

by Vi McDonald

Welcome to the first installment of Heartsleeve's Friday Five, a biweekly playlist update where we choose five new (or new-to-us) tracks that get our blood pumping. No genres, no rules, just heart.

1. "FLOAT" – JANELLE MONÁE

I've been anticipating new music from Black queer icon Janelle Monáe since her 2018 LP, Dirty Computer, gave us dance-worthy, still-introspective hits like "Make Me Feel," and "Screwed." And her new single, "Float," doesn't disappoint; Monáe spends this track bragging about a (well-deserved) newfound confidence. "Fucked around and got more FREE," she shared in an Instagram post on her birthday in December 2022, prior to announcing the song's release. That freedom shines through in lines like, "It's hard to look at my resume and not find a reason to toast," and "My face card don't come with a limit, I swipe it, I spend it, I swear I be doing the most." If this is a preview of what's to come on JM5, I don't think I'll be able to shake off the Monáe magic this summer. And that's a good thing.

2. "BED" – EDEN RAIN

The new single from UK artist Eden Rain gripped me because of its honesty and relatability, something that she prides herself on infusing into her music. "Bed (For A Year)" is loosely based on the novel The Woman Who Went To Bed For A Year by Sue Townsend, a book that sat untouched on Eden's shelf until she finally read it while depressed and wished she, too, could stay in bed for a year. "I return to the book (and the bed) when life gets hard and I wanted to write an ode to that," she shared. Eden's voice holds many influences, but ultimately feels like being wrapped in a warm, safe blanket. And this track feels like something I'll come back to when I feel like I could sleep for a year.

3. "KILL FOR ME" – AÁYANNA

Specially released as a Valentine's Day single, Chicago-born Atlanta native Aáyanna delivers sultry R&B darkness on "Kill For Me." Discussing the song, Aáyanna said, "One of the best feelings in my opinion is being with someone who makes you feel safe and protected— somebody who doesn’t play about you, and I wanted to convey that with this song." And with layered vocals over a trap beat, lyrics asking "Put 'em in they place, keep 'em in check," this is a song that knows what it wants and isn't afraid to demand it.

4. "AFTER HOURS" – ALY AND AJ

Aly and AJ have been making music for a long time. From 2005’s Into the Rush to 2021’s a touch of the beat… they’ve explored pop, rock, electronica, and more. But with “After Hours,” the newest single from their forthcoming album, With Love From, they seem to be moving towards upbeat indie. The song is a celebration of relaxation and releasing stress. “After hours, that’s when I’m out of my head. I’m a live wire, that’s when I’m at my best,” they harmonize over guitars and a catchy drumbeat. It’s a fun track that everyone who enjoys going out and letting loose every once in a while can appreciate, and everything about the song screams carefree; it’ll be a perfect vibe for the spring weather once it finally arrives.

5. "PRAY IT AWAY" – CHLÖE

The moment I first pressed play on Chlöe's new single, "Pray It Away," I was captivated. Chlöe's range is always astonishing, but on this track she flows seamlessly from her lower register to high notes, blending gospel and R&B influences into something that feels like home but still manages to be surprising and unique. I'm disappointed when this one ends, and find myself playing it two or three times before I'm satisfied.

You can listen to Heartsleeve's Friday Five playlist on Spotify HERE.

[signourneybooks]

Aye Aye Captain | Five Favorite Leaders | Friday Five | SciFiMonth 2024

Like last year we are sharing with you our top 5 on certain topics throughout the month on Friday. If you don’t know what SciFiMonth is, read on here. The topics for this feature can be found here. Today we are talking about our favorite leaders and captains. Within any SFF there are often leaders. But especially in SciFi, even more so in space, there are captains. I did struggle figuring out…

[simplyfroggy]

me when a movie is bad: 👎

me when a movie is good: 👍

me when a movie is mediocre:

[unexpectedyarns]

Friday Five

Josiah re-did my undercut today and did a good job.  He is getting high grades in cosmetology school.  I’m proud of him.

I took Kai to the lake today. The water was cold. Being out in the sun and the wind made them sleepy.

Their best friend/long distance “girlfriend” broke up with them today. They want to be friends like they were. This is probably normal for 14 and 16 but they’re still devastated.

Di came and helped me change out the Snug piercing once again.  I can’t put sterling in it yet but I’m allergic to surgical steel, and even the titanium-anodization is being eaten off by the inflammation caused, ironically, but the titanium anodization being eaten off.  Hopefully this blackline clicker will allow a little healing until I can put a sterling ring in it.

I made dinner and nobody ate it.

Bonus:  Wolf did the grocery shopping with Kai today to give me a break.  While they were gone, I baked cookies, put the curtain rods back up in the kids’ room and hung new (previously used but not at this house) curtains.  It looks nice.  Also I went through my clothes to take a run to Winnipeg this week.  Wow, guess I’ve been busy today.