#I am good I had mostly plain rice in my bowl too!!!

[quins-makeshift-menagerie]

Trying not to jinx it but I only threw up once yesterday😎

[densi-mber]

Back to School

A/N: This story is for today’s prompt and set in the current season.

I have no idea if Deeks would be able to come home in between courses, but given the rules we’ve flouted to get him to FLETC, we’re not going to worry about it.

***

Kensi was puttering around the kitchen, searching for something to eat and cleaning up a few dishes from the last couple days when she heard the front door open.

“Deeks!” she called out, quickly drying her hands before she ran into the living room. She found him standing in the doorway, his duffel bag in one hand. Dressed in a plain gray t-shirt, jeans, and with his much shorter bangs still somehow flopping into his eyes, he hardly looked like the average FLETC candidate. He did look absolutely wonderful after two weeks away at the academy.

“I’m in desperate need of a hug,” he announced. Kensi immediately embraced him and he wrapped his free arm around her, burying his nose in her hair.

“Is everything ok?” Kensi asked, running her fingers through his hair. His face was a little more drawn than when he’d left and she thought she could feel the outline of his ribs through his shirt. “You said you weren’t coming home until tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I’m good. The instructor for today’s class had a family emergency, so she said we might as well take a long weekend. They’ll tack the training we missed on to the end of the course,” he explained, letting his bag drop to the floor.

“Then what’s with the woebegone face?”

“It was just a rough week,” he told her somewhat evasively. “I really missed you. “Sighing, he rubbed his nose along her jaw inhaling deeply. “God, you smell nice. I forgot how bad a bunch of sweaty guys crammed into a single room can smell.”

Kensi snorted, pulling back just enough to kiss him.

“I missed you too,” she said, running her hands down his sides until she reached his hands. “C’mon, let’s have some lunch.” Deeks let her lead him into the kitchen and gently push him into a chair while she made them bowls of chicken and rice soup.

She was still getting used to navigating their new home, as well as cooking more of the time now that they were on a more restricted budget.

“So you said you started tactical training this week,” Kensi prompted after a few minutes. “How’s that going?”

“Overall pretty well. I aced the physical portion without any problem,” he said with a tiny smirk. Kensi eyes his upper chest, which was even more defined than before he left, if that was possible.

“That’s fantastic, but I think we all knew you were going to be fine in that area. What about the other courses?”

“They’re fine.” There was the hesitation again.

“But...”

“One of the the instructors seems to have just a tiny stick up his butt about me,” Deeks finally admitted. At Kensi’s frown, he quickly added, “It’s nothing serious. He just makes pointed comments about my age, my hair-which seems a little unfair since I actually bothered to cut it for the first time in years-to the other cadets. He’s also super strict about the standards. If I’m even a tiny bit off on a skill, he makes do it five more times while the rest of class watches.” At Kensi’s concerned look, he added, “Honestly, it’s mostly just annoying.”

“That’s not good, Deeks. Maybe you should talk to head instructor,” Kensi suggested. Deeks immediately shook his head.

“No, that’ll just cause problems and I don’t want to get a reputation as a whiner.”

“But if he rates you too low, you could get kicked out the program.”

“I know “ he sighed. “I’m hoping that he’ll get past his initial impression of me.”

“And if he doesn’t?” Deeks grinned at her question, picking up on the implied threat in her tone.

“Then I give you full permission to go full ninja assassin. He won’t know what hit him.”

“With pleasure,” Kensi said, knowing that Deeks was mostly joking. If he wanted to, Deeks was fully capable of ingratiating himself to a biased teacher. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to have Sam go observe that particular class for a day.

Deeks finished his soup and slouched in his chair, letting out a contented sigh.

“That’s the best food I’ve had all week,” he said, glancing at Kensi with a lazy smile. “I’m really glad to be home, even if it’s only for a few days.”

“Me too.” She stood, coming around to Deeks’ side, and sat down in his lap. His hands automatically found a place on the top of her hips. “And if I didn’t say it already, I am so proud of you.”

“Love you,” he murmured, tilting her chin up to meet his lips. “I’m glad you don’t smell like two week old socks.”

[broccoliboix5peepeeman]

hiii!!!! since you mentioned you were comfortable writing non-romantic stuff and the dekusquad- how about ochako and shouto bonding over mochi (and izuku huehue, but the izu thing is just a joke hehe) [ochako loves mochi a lot so she introduces shouto to all the different mochi types!] ALSO YOUR LAST PROMPT WAS SO AMAZING, I WAS IN TEARS THANK YOU FOR SERVING AS ALWAYS!!!!

Of course! Hope you enjoy :D (Also thank you so much, ohmigosh I’m crying) <3

Shoto stood in front of Uraraka's door, hugging his rolled up futon tightly to his chest.

Earlier that day, his friend had suggested that the self-proclaimed Dekusquad should have a movie night in her room as a reward for doing well in their latest English assignment. Initially, Shoto had been hesitant about the idea, but he quickly found that Midoriya could be very persuasive.

'Are you coming tonight, Todoroki-kun?'

'...' Shoto stared into his friend's wide emerald eyes. 'Yes.'

They had agreed to meet in Uraraka's room at 7pm, so naturally Shoto had been sure to arrive at exactly that time. However, when Uraraka opened her door, flashed him a bright smile and said that he was the first one to arrive, Shoto had been surprised, to say the least.

'Not even Iida?' He asked as he stepped into the room, looking around curiously. Admittedly, the decor was rather plain, but Shoto didn't mind. He never cared much for unnecessary luxuries anyway.

'Not yet!' Uraraka chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of her neck. 'Well, he was here, 16 minutes early to be precise, but then Deku-kun messaged to say that he was going to be late because of something to do with Bakugou destroying the washing machine, and when I told Iida-kun, he quickly left to see if he could be of any "assistance".'

Uraraka imitated Iida's hand gestures as she spoke animatedly; Shoto was impressed by the accuracy. 'And Tsu-chan is currently on the phone to her family, so it's just you and me for now.'

Her smile was warm and reassuring, although, if anything, Shoto felt incredibly uncomfortable at the prospect. It's not that he didn't like Uraraka - quite the opposite actually. He admired her greatly and treasured her friendship - it's just that they rarely spent time alone together. Usually, there was a third party present as well - mainly Midoriya - meaning that Shoto didn't have to do much active socialising on his end. Now though, as he shuffled on his feet in the middle of Uraraka's room, unsure of what to do with himself, he found himself starting to count down the seconds until the rest of their group arrived.

'Want me to help unroll your futon, Todoroki-kun?' Uraraka was suddenly at his side. 'We can figure out where you want to put it!'

Shoto nodded, mouth a thin line, and together they placed and unrolled the mattress. They mostly worked in silence - Uraraka occasionally humming some unknown tune to fill it.

Once completed, Shoto sat down on top of the covers, while Uraraka took her place on her own bed, rocking slightly as she continued to hum absentmindedly.

Shoto looked around awkwardly, trying to avoid eye contact. He wanted to get out his phone and ask how long Midoriya would be, but he figured that would be rude. Uraraka was his friend; it wasn't her fault that Shoto was about as fun to talk to as his father at an All Might convention.

After several moments though, his friend jumped to her feet and stretched. 'You want a snack while we wait, Todoroki-kun?'

Shoto's eyes widened with delight at the prospect of food.

'Sure, what were you thinking?'

He watched, intrigued, as Uraraka bounced over to her desk and, after several seconds of searching, procured a glass bowl filled with different coloured balls. Shoto regarded the delicacy. He then blinked dumbly and looked up at Uraraka's excited face.

'How about some of the delightful Mochi I bought yesterday?' She grinned. 'They were on offer, so I got several flavours, which one do you want?'

'Er…' Shoto faltered and looked back at the bowl, lost. 'I don't know… I've never had Mochi before.'

'EXCUSE ME?!' Uraraka all but screeched, the volume making Shoto's eye twitch. 'Todoroki-kun, we have been friends for how long and you are ONLY JUST telling me this?!'

'You never asked before?' Shoto tilted his head to the side and furrowed his eyebrows together. 'Is that a bad thing?'

'Yes!!!' Uraraka exclaimed, waving her arms like an angry bird. 'It's a very bad thing!'

'Oh… Then I'm sorry for not telling you sooner.' Shoto hung his head, ashamed. He had no idea Uraraka felt this passionately about mochi. Were friends supposed to tell each other their dietary habits?

'Oh my poor, sweet, dense Todoroki-kun.' Uraraka crossed her arms and shook her head, all her previous outrage dissipating. 'Allow Uraraka Sensei to educate you.'

She skipped past Shoto, leaped onto her bed and patted the spot next to her. With significantly less energy, Shoto stood up from his futon and climbed onto the bed next to her.

Uraraka set the bowl down between them. 'Okay, tell me what you know about mochi.'

'Rice balls.' Shoto deadpanned.

'Rice balls-?!' His friend broke off and sighed to compose herself. 'Well, okay, fine. You are technically right. They’re rice cakes, but they're made with mochigome!'

'That makes sense.' Shoto did know about that, he had just never tried it before. When he was younger, he had been kept on a strict diet - although sometimes his mother would treat him to soba when his old man wasn’t around. As a result, he had never really had the opportunity to try mochi before.

'Good! Okay, so here are the ones I've got here.' She pointed to a pink ball wrapped in a leaf. 'This is sakura mochi! It has red beans in it and this is a sakura blossom leaf that’s wrapped around it.'

'Oh, I've seen those before during hanami.' Shoto spoke suddenly, surprising himself. Where had that come from?

Was he capable of feeding himself? Yes. Was being fed a little patronising? Maybe. Did Shoto care? Of course not. He was hungry.

'Yes! They're really popular during cherry blossom season!' Uraraka added happily, before taking one and holding it out to Shoto. 'Good job! Now, open wide!'

Shoto stared at her outstretched hand.

He shrugged his shoulders and complied, allowing Uraraka to shove the pink ball into his mouth. It was strange, but Shoto quickly found that he liked it. The saltiness of the blossom contrasted with the sweetness of the mochi, but in a good way.

'Mmm.' He voiced, chewing slowly while Uraraka watched him intensely. 'Not bad, I like it.'

At the proclamation, Uraraka let out a whoop.

'Yes! I just knew you'd like it!' She then scrambled to pick out another one. Eventually she settled on a white one. 'Okay, now this one is called daifuku mochi! It's stuffed with anko and is quite sweet!'

'I see.' Shoto said as he swallowed the last of the sakura mochi. He was then immediately bombarded by his friend's eager hand as she shoved the daifuku in his mouth without any prior warning.

Shoto choked slightly with surprise, eliciting a laugh from Uraraka. However, once he remembered how to breathe, he found that he liked this one a lot more.

'Mmm good.' He closed his eyes and nodded approvingly. 'Not soba-good, but good.'

'Hey, from Todoroki Shoto, I'll take that!' Uraraka beamed before popping one in her own mouth. She moaned happily at the taste and the two ate in comfortable silence, the awkwardness from before completely vanishing.

They continued testing out Shoto's reactions to the different flavours of mochi for several more minutes, until they were eventually interrupted by an enthusiastic knock at the door, followed by a stern discussion on the other side.

'Midoriya-san, please refrain from knocking so loudly.' Shoto could practically hear Iida's hands chop through the air. 'Other members of our class are-'

'It's open!' Uraraka interrupted, effectively saving their friend from a scolding when the door burst open and Midoriya jumped in, hands on his hips and a bright smile on his face.

'I am here- Oh! Hi Todoroki-kun!' Midoriya broke character to wave excitedly at Shoto, pink dusting his cheeks. 'Hi Uraraka-chan! I hope you guys weren't waiting too long!'

'Hi Deku-kun!' Uraraka smiled, before giggling at Shoto, who was frantically chewing on the last of the bota mochi she had given him before their friends had arrived.

'Good evening, everyone.’ Iida greeted with a bow. ‘Please pardon our tardiness. Midoriya-san and I ran into Tsu-san on our way to yours.'

'I wouldn't say run, kero.' Tsu placed a contemplative finger to her chin. 'Running in the dorms isn't allowed, Iida-kun. You should know this by now.'

Shoto snorted, while Uraraka's lip twitched with amusement.

'It's okay, Iida-kun! I was just introducing Todoroki-kun to the brilliant world of mochi!' She clapped her hands together and gestured to Shoto, who swallowed heavily, the lasting taste of mochi still on his tongue.

'Hi Midoriya, everyone.' He eventually mumbled.

'You two having fun without us?' Midoriya laughed with a playful wink.

'Indeed!' Iida agreed, straightening his glasses. 'I confess I thought you two didn't have much in common.'

'Well, now we have mochi in common!' Uraraka leant to the side and poked Shoto's cheek affectionately.

'And Midoriya-chan.' Tsu commented idly. 'You both like him, so you have that in common.'

'What?!' Midoriya squawked, while Uraraka gasped, affronted.

'Tsu-chan! You know that was ages ago!' Out of the corner of Shoto's eye, he saw Uraraka stick her tongue out, however, his gaze was still locked on Midoriya's bright red face. 

Uraraka continued. 'Sure I like Deku-kun but as a frien- Ah! Todoroki-kun!'

Shoto hummed in question as several pairs of eyes suddenly landed on him. 

'You're…' Midoriya started, slowly pointing to Shoto's hair. 'You're on fire!'

Without missing a beat, Shoto raised a hand to his head and extinguished the flame in one swift motion. A soft hiss filled the room and he shrugged his shoulders when his friends continued to stare at him quizzically.

'No, I'm not.’ Shoto finally mumbled. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.'

He was met with silence, before his friends suddenly burst out laughing. Shoto watched them, hoping his blush wasn’t too obvious. However, when his eyes landed on Midoriya and found his friend smiling warmly at him, Shoto’s own lips twitched upwards in response.

It felt nice, having friends who truly loved him.

[flirting-with-psychology]

Has the person you like ever seen you in your pajamas? Yes

Did the last person you kissed celebrate your last birthday with you? He was celebrating thanksgiving with his parents during my birthday but he called me

What’s the first word of the last text message you received? I

Do you think you’ve changed at all over the past year? I’ve gotten more anxiety and gotten fatter

Is there a song that reminds you of your ex? Do you still listen to that song? I Almost Do, Red, and If This Was A Movie (all by taylor swift). Yes I still listen

Did you tag anyone in your last Facebook status? Not in the post I shared, but in my last original post I tagged my boyfriend

How do you behave when you’re drunk? Usually giggly and overexcited

What is your least favorite type of chocolate? White chocolate

When was the last time you felt disappointed? What was the reason? Disappointed that the gym won’t let me cancel over the phone and might still charge me for february

Is there someone that can make you smile, even when you feel like crying? Not always

Is there a certain person on your mind right now? Tell me about him/her. My boyfriend

You’re getting ready to go to bed, and the last person you kissed shows up, what do you do? Get into bed with him

What was your last thought before you went to bed last night? Being annoyed at my dad’s snoring through the walls

Do you think someone is thinking about you right now? Maybe

Are you okay right now? I haven’t been okay this whole year

What time did you get up today? Like 1:30

When was the last time you saw your mom? The other day

What is the last thing you drank today? Water

Do you dislike/hate anyone? Donald trump and Mitch McConnell

Where is your best friend right now? At home I assume

When will your next kiss be? As soon as we get negative test results

Will you be up before 7 am tomorrow? No

Does anyone completely understand you? No

Who was the last girl you hugged outside of family? I don’t remember, it’s been a long time

Have you held hands with somebody in the past three days? No

What will you be doing in 3 hours? Probably wasting time

How often do you straighten your hair? Never now, I used to when it was short

What are you currently looking forward to? The costume sale that hopefully I will be able to go to

Is tomorrow gonna be a good day? What are you going to do? Lol probably not

Who did you last hang out with? My dad

Did anyone see your last kiss? No

Could things possibly get any better? I fucking hope so

Do you know who you’ll even kiss next? I assume it will be my boyfriend

Do you ever sleep in jeans? No, that sounds really uncomfortable

Name something you dislike about the day you’re having? Stress

Did you get a full 8 hours of sleep last night? No

Are you in love lately? Not sure

How often do you see your ex? Rarely

Who was the last person to text you? My boyfriend

Did you like anyone last summer? Yes, my boyfriend

Do you replay things that have happened in your head? Yeah

Who was the last person you stayed up with till 2am? My boyfriend

Do you want a boyfriend or girlfriend? I enjoy having one

Are you currently in a relationship? Yes

Do you use a full length mirror daily? Most days

Would you be shocked if the person you have feelings for texted you? No

Is there anyone you wish you could fix things with? I would like to reconnect with my friend Shaina

What are you planning on doing after this? Idk

Is there a girl you would do anything for? No

Who IMed you on facebook last? My mom

How old are you? 26

Do you love dogs? Yes

Were you finished childhood and teens when Harry Potter movies came out? No, they started coming out when I was in elementary school

Did you keep all your VHS tapes? Probably

Do you think Jack Nicholson is a good actor? Yeah I think so

Have you ever watched an episode of “The Honeymooners”? No

Have you ever owned a pair of high-top Converse? No

Do you have rain boots with a cute pattern on them? I have cowboy rainboots

Would you rather eat an apple or an orange right now? Apple

Would you rather do a cartwheel on land or a backflip in water? If I could do either of them, a backflip in water would be cool

Have you ever performed on stage in front of people? Yes

Were you kinda scared of the goths in high school? Not scared, just didn’t have anything in common with them

What size is your mattress?(single,twin,double,queen,king) Full size

Do you eat foods from all 4 food groups everyday? Lol no

Do you sleep in PJs? Yes

Do you prefer watching TV or listening to music? Watching TV. Listening for music needs to be accompanied by another activity

Would you rather watch a movie in theatre or at home? Theater is fun, but right now at home

Do you prefer brown or white rice? White

Do you like spaghetti? I love spaghetti

What about lasagna? No, I don’t like red sauce

Do you celebrate Christmas? No

Is your Thanksgiving celebrated in October too? Who does that?

Do you like chocolate bars? Yes

what about ice cream? Mostly, although sometimes the plain flavors are boring

Have you ever been stung by anything? What was it? Wasps a few times

Do you get tired easily? Only in the morning

Or do you always have plenty of energy to spare? No

Have you ever done volunteer work? Where? I volunteered as a teaching assistant What about court-ordered community service? No

Have you ever worn contacts?(even just to try them out) I tried but it made my vision all swimmy

Would you wear contacts on a daily basis? Maybe if I got some that worked

Are your ears pierced? How many times? One on each ear

Do you have GOD-GIVEN(not dyed) natural brown hair too? I have natural brown hair but I don’t believe it’s god-given

Or were you born blonde? No

Have you found a gray hair on your head or body before? I don’t think so. Both of my parents kept their hair color for awhile so hopefully I got that gene

Have you ever had any suspicious moles removed? Yes, on my arm

Have you ever been screened for STDs? Yes

Are all your wisdom teeth pulled? Yes

Did you have your tonsils taken out? No

Did you have your appendix taken out? No

How many kidneys do you have?(have you donated one?) I have both of them

Would you(to save someone)?^^^ I'm not sure. If it was someone I loved and there wasn’t one already on hand, maybe

Have you ever found a bug or slug in your salad? ewww no

Do you like Harry Potter? Yes

What about Twilight? It was ok, I liked it at the time I read it How do you feel about Lord of the rings? I like the movies

Are you going to see ‘The Hobbit’ when it comes out? I did

Do you have a glass that says 'Molson Canadian’ on it? No

Do you have any collector’s glasses or cups or mugs? I have a bunch of shotglasses from places I visit

Would you rather have a white fridge or a black fridge or a stainless steel fridge? Stainless steel

What size shoe do you wear? 7.5-8 womens

Do you have a wide foot or a narrow foot or just average? Kind of dorito-shaped, so some shoe types just don’t fit

Do you bite your nails when you’re stressed? No

Do you have to take an allergy pill daily in order to live normally? No

Are you on the birth control pill? No

Or are you trying to get pregnant? I’m trying not to get pregnant, but I use condoms instead

You’d rather wear black sneakers or sneakers in a bright color or pattern? Probably bright color

Has anyone ever told you they were attracted to you? Yes

Can you swim well in water way above your head? Decently

Are you afraid of thunder & lightening? No

Have you ever experienced an earthquake? No

What about a tornado? No

Are you closer to your dad?(more so than your mom) I’m probably a little closer to my mom

Were you your parents’ first born? Yes

Do you have a child? Is the father still with you? No

Did you trade stickers at recess when you were a kid? No

How old were you when you had your first crush? Do you remember their name? I was like 5 the first time I put a word to it and his name was Aidan, but I probably had sort-of crushes even before that

Can you even remember what the hell they looked like? Blond, bowl-cut at the time. He actually grew up to be really hot so I guess I knew how to pick em

Have you ever operated any type of motorized vehicle before? A car

Are you going to drink alcohol tonight? Maybe

Have you ever heard of the Canadian kids show called “Mr. Dressup”? No

What about the kids show “Fred Penner’s Place”? No

Did you hate Sesame Street when you were little too? A little

Were you born perfectly healthy or with some(or a lot) of health issues? I might have had some minor things

Do you collect DVDs? Not as a collection, but I buy movies I like a lot

Do you download music? Yes

Or do you still go to stores and buy CDs? No, those are like twice as much

Did you skip(jumo-rope) a lot as a kid? No, I was bad at it

Did you ever catch any bugs or insects with your friends as a kid? Only roly polies

Didn’t you just LOVE art class in elementary school?! Yeah

Have you ever played dodgeball? Yes but not well

What about Red Rover? No

Have you ever played “What time is it mr. wolf?”? It sounds familiar but I don’t remember it

Do you hate your weight? Yes

Have you ever struggled with a mental illness? A little

Serious question, peanut butter or nutella? Peanut butter for a sandwich, nutella for eating straight out of the jar

Have you ever stepped on a snail? No

Do you prefer baked potatoes or mashed potatoes? Mashed

Do you prefer ankle socks over regular socks? Ankle socks

Last movie you’ve seen in theaters? I can’t remember

What is your oldest sibling’s middle name? I don’t have one

Have you ever been to Disneyland or Disney World? Both

Would you ever go backpacking across any country? Probably not

Would you prefer to travel around the world by yourself or with a friend? With a friend

Do you like breadsticks? Yes

Do you usually wear shorts around your house all year long? No, but I do wear short sleeves year round

What state were you born in? Colorado

Have you ever had a nose bleed? All the time

How far away do you live from your birthplace? Like 15 minutes

Do you have a weak stomach? No

Do you know anybody who has been diagnosed with cancer? Yes

Have you ever had to take care of an intoxicated person? Yes

Have you ever considered becoming a lawyer? Slightly but not really

Do you *really* like donuts? Yes

Do you think Disney World could ever get old? At some point

If you could, would you hookup with the last person you texted? Yes

What are your favorite things to spend money on? Jewelry and nerd stuff

Will you talk to the person you like on the phone tonight? I am talking to him right now

What do you usually order on a pizza? No sauce, cheese, garlic, pinapple Do you and your boyfriend/girlfriend fight a lot? Not really

Who’s the first person with the letter “m” in your contacts? Mac

Which would you rather have a new puppy or kitten? Kitten

How old will you be on your next birthday? 27 yikes

What color are your underwear? Turquoise

Do you ever feel self-conscious when you eat around other people? If it’s messy

[missmeikakuna]

Tired Girl Ch. 4- F/F Fantasy story

Rated: T

Fandom: Original story

Relationship type: F/F

Description:

High schooler Nosderag is childish, impulsive and- worst of all- powerless in a magical world. Her strong sense of empathy leads her to rescue an injured fairy and bring it back to her dorm, to the chagrin of her love-powered rumoured lesbian roommate Dalzonf. Together they try to return the fairy to its enclosure before they get arrested for animal theft.

The problem is, people with love powers are seen as criminals, putting a giant target on Dalzonf’s back. 

CONTENT WARNING: This story will have homophobia, bullying and discussions of sexual assault.

Chapter 4: Anxious Girl

Nosderag slowly and oh-so-casually walked back inside, Dalzonf following close behind. They went straight to the elevator and made sure to be the only ones there. No one was to see the effects of love magic on Nosderag.

This time the effects included Nosderag twirling one of her dreadlocks and gazing at Dalzonf with an innocent lip bite. Her uniform skirt swirled around as she swayed back and forth.

While Dalzonf waited for the effects to wear off, Nosderag tried to look around the room. Just like before, everything but Dalzonf was out of focus. However, she noticed something.

On Dalzonf’s bedside table was a miniature idol that was wearing green. ‘Is that Terio?’ Nosderag asked, squinting her eyes in the hopes that it would come into focus. Dalzonf hummed and nodded. ‘So, like, why? Shouldn’t you have a Marosos statue? Since she's, you know, the goddess of… love?’ Nosderag batted her eyelids at that last word. Dalzonf rolled her eyes at the gesture of affection.

‘My parents are from Terio city, so we worship her mostly.’

Nosderag giggled. ‘Huh, why do they name places after gods anyway? Isn’t that confusing? It doesn’t make any sense. And why-’

‘Alright, that’s enough out of you.’ Dalzonf chuckled. ‘You are so drunk.’

‘I am not! I haven’t had any alcohol.’

‘You’re drunk on… you know what? You’re going to get back to normal soon enough. I don’t know why I’m trying to reason with you when you’re like this.’

As if on cue, Nosderag snapped out of her daze. Dalzonf asked, ‘So what are we going to do about this fairy?’

Nosderag opened her already slightly open backpack further, letting out Daliki. ‘She must be so hungry. Will you feed her?’

Dalzonf held out a hand but curled her fingers in hesitation. Eventually she touched Daliki’s head and closed her eyes. A thin stream of pink mist surrounded the fairy and then entered her mouth. She gulped the magic down and then flew to Dalzonf’s side, rapidly nuzzling her.

Dalzonf tried to move away from Daliki but she continued showing affection. ‘Be grateful you don’t have magic,’ she said to Nosderag, who frowned when Dalzonf pushed Daliki away. ‘Anyway, we need to get her back to that enclosure.’

‘Should we just tell them what happened and clear up the misunderstanding?’

‘Yeah, no. I’m not risking running into the police.’

‘But you haven’t done anything wrong.’

‘I don’t have to,’ Dalzonf retorted, creating a small ball of pink mist in the palm of her hand. Nosderag nodded in understanding.

‘So are we going to sneak in? What about the guards? And the magic shield… wait, how did I make it into that shed? It had a shield around it. I felt it but I made it through.’

‘Huh. Maybe you have powers after all. Is there such a thing as a power to break magic shields? Either that or their shields suck. That’s a distinct possibility. Whatever the case, we can use that to our advantage.’

The two were about to start planning when Nosderag’s stomach grumbled. After descending to the ground floor, Dalzonf led a lovesick Nosderag to the dining hall in the dormitory. She tried to ignore the stares from other students as Nosderag kept attempting to grab her hand.

The dining hall was about the size of a professional soccer field. Tall torches in the shapes of dragons stood at the perimeter, several metres apart from each other. Orange force fields surrounded the flames to prevent them from getting out of control. The tables were made of black wood designed to seem like charcoal. On top of each table were bowls of various brightly coloured fruits. A cart with a long line of students stood against a wall. In addition to granite plates and bowls, the cart contained sikoka beans for making hot sikoka, smelly dried blue kie kriz fish and a ridiculous amount of rice. 

Hanging over everyone’s head was a medieval European-style chandelier with, you guessed it, fire at the ends. At the end of the hall was a low platform with a giant unused cauldron atop it. Students loved to write inane and often offensive messages on the outside of the cauldron in pen. Knowing how many times this happened, the teachers never bothered to clean it.

Nosderag, still affected by love magic and seeing that she was in a public setting, tried singing another serenade. Dalzonf’s shoulders jumped up. Everyone was staring in silence. As soon as she could, she covered the other girl’s hand with her mouth. It was too late.

‘I guess she was getting desperate,’ Sosoka whispered to a friend, who cackled a little too loud.

Dalzonf lowered her head, turning back into the vulnerable girl Nosderag defended a week ago. She shuffled to the food cart line, Nosderag following closely behind.

When Nosderag returned to her senses and looked around the hall in confusion, Sosoka and her friend laughed at the sight. The other students joined in. The girls in line stepped away from Dalzonf while still keeping their spots in the line.

‘Why don’t you just tell them about the elevator?’ Nosderag whispered in her ear, absentmindedly grabbing her arm. Dalzonf tore her arm away and turned towards her with a fire in her eyes to rival all the torches in the room combined.

She ignored her for the entirety of breakfast and left for class without saying a word. The two didn’t share their first class of the day.

Instead, Nosderag had Potions Sapphire Class. As one of the few omlers on campus, she had a more limited curriculum but had to make up for it by taking more advanced classes and excelling in academics. While everyone else her age was in Potions Topaz, she was a year ahead.

A fact that brought a scowl to her teacher Dr Lomaschramm’s lips.

‘Try not to make anything explode this time, Ms Zotmin.’ The teacher’s voice went up and down like a children’s show character. Or a poor person’s impersonation of a rich person. Take your pick. Nosderag tried to laugh the comment off as she took her seat.

The air of the classroom was chilly thanks to the refrigerated potion pantries in the back. The teachers claimed that this was not the case as the fridges were closed. The non-refrigerated potions were kept in a wide, locked cabinet against a wall. A fat lot of good that lock did when students kept punching the unshielded glass and taking out potions to pull pranks on each other.

The class was small, with only half of the ten benches being used. Nosderag turned to her designated lab partner for the term but the other girl ignored her. Someone whispered behind her but stopped when she turned around.

‘I hope you’re paying attention in class, Ms Zotmin.’

Dr Lomaschramm towered over Nosderag. Her hooked, pointy nose made her cat-eye glasses slip down it as she looked down on her. She smelled of hand sanitizer and, when she opened her mouth, minty toothpaste.

‘Now, what do we never mix Aja’s Vine with?’

‘Himalayan healing water.’

Dr Lomaschramm pursed her lips. After a moment of thought, she grinned, showing off her eerily perfect white teeth. 

‘And why is that?’ Nosderag didn’t answer. The teacher turned her back on the class and returned to the whiteboard. She picked up a marker and began writing the first sentence of her answer. ‘We… do… not… mix... healing... potions... together. They’re like those newfangled interwebz security softwares. They compete against each other and are unable to work. Unlike the softwares, two healing potions will create an explosion.’

As she continued her lecture, Nosderag slumped in her seat, trying not to fall asleep. Slumping in her seat soon turned into slumping onto her bench. She closed her eyes.

A second later, she heard a zap and felt a sting on her neck, making her sit up in attention. She didn’t have to turn her head. The sound of snickering students allowed her to fill in the blanks.

‘Save your tolxing for the classes that require it,’ Dr Lomaschramm said.

The laughing quietened but was still audible. 

Nosderag’s other classes were similar. Strict and seemingly sadistic teachers, students high on schadenfreude and lessons that could put an insomniac to sleep.

There was one exception: cryptozoology. No, not the omler version in which wackjobs search for Bigfoot for the millionth time. It was a class dedicated to real magical creatures. The teacher Mr Fot was a portly soft-spoken old man with a clear passion for the field but little confidence in controlling a classroom of bored students. However, he always greeted Nosderag with a smile and gave her high marks. She listened to his classes with rapt attention, in stark contrast with the other students.

The classroom for this subject was cramped between two similarly plain rooms. The only interesting thing about this room was the globe on Mr Fot’s desk, which was decorated with pictures of magical creatures on the countries they originated from. The man brought it into the classroom every day in the hopes that it would inspire intellectual curiosity in his students.

Most of the students were too busy making jokes about his name, which meant ‘flow’.

‘Hey, sir, do you want some tampons?’ one girl asked in between fits of laughter.

When Mr Fot sincerely replied, ‘Oh, no thank you, I don’t need them,’ Nosderag’s heart broke on his behalf.

When Nosderag returned to her dorm, she kept interrupting her fairy-saving plan meeting with Dalzonf to rant about her day. Dalzonf eventually gave up on planning and listened to the other girl’s ramblings.

She even found herself smiling at Nosderag’s wild array of facial expressions.

[elizapbrooke]

A discovery of pancakes

This is my newsletter from Friday, May 22. You can sign up here.

I am disappointed to announce that the bird call I thought belonged to an owl comes, in fact, from a mourning dove. “One of the most abundant and widespread of all North American birds,” Wikipedia says. It’s an embarrassing but maybe understandable mistake. I figured this owl was out during the day because it was a creature of New York like the rest of us, its circadian rhythm all fucked up by early morning garbage trucks and the blue glow of the Chase Bank across the street. The mourning dove’s coo is low and melancholy, a distinctive series of five notes. I’d certainly forgive you for thinking it’s a hoot. As I was listening to mourning dove calls on my computer and having this horrible realization, one landed on the fire escape and startled me with the loudest, most intimate rendition of their song I’d ever heard. It may as well have pressed its beak up against the glass. (I assume it thought there was a dove in the apartment.) I crept over to the window to confirm with my eyeballs what AllAboutBirds.org had already told me, and, yep, there it was. It felt so special to have a mystery owl in the neighborhood, but I guess doves are lovely birds too, with their plushy throats and elegantly tapered tail feathers. Anyway, my friend Sid tells me he’s heard owls in Gowanus, so I’m keeping my hopes up. This week I published a story for Curbed detailing the history and recent evolution of the home office. As I was fact checking it, I realized I’d accidentally talked to ten hundred sources, so please do enjoy the fruits of my labor. I’m not here to talk about home offices, though. A few weeks ago, I woke up in the middle of the night and discovered I’d been brainstorming pitches in my sleep. I was thrilled. On account of pandemic depression and seeing very little of the outside world, I’ve really been struggling to come up with story concepts, which is problematic because that’s my job. Most of my dream pitches evaporated upon waking, but I managed to hold onto one, and in my sleepy haze I thought it was possibly the greatest idea I’d ever had. It was: PANCAKES ARE HAVING A MOMENT IN QUARANTINE. I decided I’d email the New York Times first thing in the morning. In the light of day, I realized that there wasn’t really a story there. When you’re writing a trend piece, you want to be able to point to, I don’t know, at least four really solid examples from the public sphere. My evidence was:

Alex and I had made pancakes recently

We were planning to make them again

I’d recently discussed pancakes with Molly and Vivian

I’d heard you can make pancakes from sourdough starter discard (which actually does speak to the zeitgeist)

But here’s the thing. Pancakes are a great topic for a newsletter. So here is my pancake article.

***

I’ve always liked the look of a big stack of pancakes, but I never really got why people were so into eating them. I like a breakfast that is hyper-functional and maximally filling. Because I’m an aging hippie, my preferred breakfast is a double-sized bowl of Ezekiel cereal, which tastes like delicious cardboard and fulfills 42% of your daily fiber needs. Pancakes, like pastries, always struck me as glamorous but pointless. I was even somewhat distrustful of my mom’s pancakes, which are dense and nutty, not sweet at all. Her recipe came from a “chiropractor/health nut in San Diego about 31 years ago” and involves grinding your own flour from winter wheat berries, groats, rye, brown rice, and millet. I love them, but a family pancake breakfast still makes me feel very out of control. This all changed a few weeks ago when Alex and I decided to make pancakes for dinner. All I can say is that quarantine has a way of melting away the rigid little fucks you used to give. For once, the chaos I associate with pancakes sounded fun and freeing. Also we’ve been watching a ton of Parks & Rec, and I was feeling inspired by Leslie’s diet of waffles and whipped cream. We made buttermilk pancakes, extra fluffy ones that require you to whip the egg whites on their own for several minutes before folding them into the batter. Two with banana chunks, two with bits of frozen peaches, two blueberry, one bonus plain for me. I had mine without anything on top, enjoying the choking feeling of eating so much cakey carb. It felt like a hug. When I saw my friend Todd post a gorgeous stack of pancakes on Instagram, I asked him if he had any theories about why they’re such a good quarantine food. At first he thought I was trolling him, but when I told him I was dead serious, here’s what he said: “What I love about pancakes right now is that they feel both ordinary and radical at the same time. Ordinary because they are nostalgic, all-American, homey, comfortable, and approachable. Anyone can make them. But there’s also something really subversive about a stack of pancakes right now—the gluten, the non-plant-based butter and eggs, eating breakfast when Goop tells us we should be intermittent fasting, so forth. Eating pancakes in the time of coronavirus brings into focus how overwhelming wellness culture has become in recent years—celery juice and collagen smoothies will never, ever, ever beat a big, buttery, syrupy stack of flapjacks.” I would agree. Given my dedication to breakfast foods that involve sprouted beans—which predates our wellness moment but was certainly bolstered by it—I definitely find pancakes subversive. They make me feel nostalgic, too, but not for anything I’ve personally experienced. For weekends in high school that I spent ensconced in the television world of Gilmore Girls, maybe, where breakfast at Luke’s Diner is a comfortable routine. As I continued my journey into pancake reportage, I sought out the perspective of Sarah Jampel, an editor at Bon Appetit. While pancakes made from sourdough discard have their fans, Sarah is not particularly one of them. She’s also team waffle. I don’t really have a horse in the pancake/waffle debate, but Sarah makes a compelling case. “I have thought a lot about pancakes,” she emailed back when I asked if she had anything to say about the topic. “And yes, I have made them since isolation started—mostly because I'm ‘every woman’ and my fridge is overflowing with sourdough discard. ‘Put it in pancakes,’ I thought. The issue is that I need to add more flour (as well as butter or oil and leaveners) to sourdough discard to turn it into pancakes, so I ultimately end up using more ingredients for the sole purpose of not throwing some stuff into the trash or compost (but really, the trash). And even though pancakes sound nice in theory—why not start the day with a hot breakfast instead of the usual routine, eating a Clif bar with one hand while the other clings bare to the subway pole (huge sigh of nostalgia)?—in actuality they're inferior waffles. Unless you take care with your pancakes—loading them with lots of butter and separating the egg yolks and whites (this recipe's my fave)—they're too mono-textured.” Never fear: Alex and I loaded ours with an alarming amount of butter. I suppose it is to be expected that when you go out hunting for pancake insights, you come back with waffle testimonials. When I asked Alex’s high school friends to weigh in on the appeal of pancakes during a global shutdown, Nico said, “Waffles are the superior carb. They provide greater textural variety and are a better delivery vessel for condiments.” (Dylan has been eating toast all quarantine, and Dan “didn’t understand the question” because the only god he acknowledges is the Joy of Cooking’s pancake recipe.) My friend Molly has been eating a lot of savory pancakes under quarantine, for breakfast or lunch. She sautées a bunch of garlic and kale in olive oil, adding scallions at the last minute, and then sets the vegetables aside in a bowl. In goes the Bisquick, and she adds the kale mix on top of the pancakes as they cook; after a minute, she tops the pancake with shredded white cheddar so that when she flips it, the cheese turns crispy. She’ll eat that with a runny egg or garlic yogurt. I can’t wait to see her again so she can make one for me. Pancakes are one of the few foods that Molly has consistently been able to stomach during this period of immense anxiety. They have a strong positive association for her: in pre-corona times, she would make savory pancakes after playing soccer on Saturday mornings. Those games are one of the things she misses most right now. We talked on the phone while she made her daily trip outside to juggle a soccer ball. Molly likes to chat with friends during these breaks because bouncing a ball on your feet benefits from loose attention. “Cooking a pancake is similar,” she said. “It requires some focus but it’s not that hard. You don’t really need to cut anything. You just watch it.” Alex always says that cooking is meditative for him. I would respectfully disagree—to me, it feels more like hurtling down a mogul course—but I can see it with pancakes. You’re just systematically waiting and flipping, waiting and flipping. After making buttermilk pancakes, we progressed to Sqirl’s buckwheat pancakes for lunch on a Sunday. I can’t find the recipe online, but here’s a photo. For those who are lucky enough to have dodged my Sqirl talk thus far, it’s a phenomenal, semi-healthy breakfast and lunch spot in Silver Lake. Every time I’m in LA, I badger my companions into going right when it opens at 8 a.m. so we’re sure to get a table. When I was there to write about Dax Shepard in November, I high-tailed it to Sqirl right after our interview and embarrassed myself in front of the staff by inhaling bits of a particularly seedy cookie and having a loud coughing fit, after which I went around the corner to die in private. Alex and I thought we had all the requisite ingredients for Sqirl’s buckwheat pancakes, other than cactus flour, but the recipe calls for corn flour and it turns out cornmeal isn’t the same thing. We subbed in whole wheat, so they weren’t really Sqirlcakes, but they were still tasty in a restrained, earthy way. Alex convinced me to try one with raspberry jam, which I reluctantly admit was a great pairing. A week or two later, we made them again. I wasn’t really hungry because it was 2 p.m. and I’d already eaten lunch—Alex had just gotten up—but I pledged to eat my portion cold out of the fridge. Alex thought this was insane, but he sometimes forgets that I like my food a little squidgy. We went grocery shopping the next morning, which was as much of a bitch as it always is right now. Even though we’ve gotten the process down to a science, it still takes three hours from start to finish, with significant angst on my part about the cleanliness of the inbound goods. Finally everything was put away, and Alex headed off to take a shower. I was agitated and crazy hungry. I scrubbed my hands one more time, pulled the pancakes out of the fridge, and promptly dropped one on the floor while trying to get it into my mouth. I ate the rest in big, angry bites, one after another, standing in the middle of the kitchen. I didn’t want to sit down in my outdoor clothes. The pancakes were perfect, though. A shot of sweet, comforting carb straight to the heart.

[42wallaby-way-sydney]

Domestic AU:

Pairing: Anatoly and Alex

Прости меня, моя любовь

Moving out of his and Vladimir's shared apartment and into one with Alex had seemed like a good idea at first. It was something they both seemed to want considering how long they had been together, just over a year now. But truthfully, Anatoly hadn't really taken into consideration just how much his life would be changing.

He was able to unpack nearly all of his things before Alex could unpack hers, what with going between school and work she didn’t have the time. So for the first week or so Anatoly grew used to the apartment being mostly his in decoration wise. Not that there was much he had but it was still his. But eventually Alex was able to begin unboxing things.

Changes began with the simple things. For one, the dishes were no longer just his. Hers were now mixed in with his, silvers and coppers amongst the plain porcelain. She had re-organized his kitchen completely by moving the dishes around and adding more spices, some of which he could only hope to learn to pronounce properly, and filled his fridge with more greenery than he'd ever had.

The first day he'd come home, late at night at that, and opened his fridge in hopes of finding leftovers from dinner, and seen the greenery he had shut and reopened the fridge a few times before closing it with a heavy sigh and left the apartment to go across the hall to where he had used to live with his younger brother.

He didn't say anything to his brother, just dragged Vladimir to his home and opened the fridge with a concerned, “Vova, my fridge is full of foliage.”

Vladimir just stared, head tilted and mouth slightly open, as he took in the different shades of green at the bottom of the fridge. Then he clapped a hand to his brother's shoulder and said, “I've told you many times and will again, I hope you like rabbit food.” With that said he left Anatoly staring at the vegetables.

Along with the re-organization of the kitchen came the rest of their new shared apartment. As her boxes slowly but surely began to be unpacked more and more of her things began to find their way intermingling with his. Bollywood and more American movies found themselves next to the few Russian and fewer still English dvds that Anatoly owned.

The oddest thing, that in all honestly took Anatoly too long to notice, for him to grow used to was the shrine his girlfriend had set up in the corner of their living room. He realized it two days after it'd been set up, when he was straightening up in the living room and had moved some of the boxes from the center of the room to the wall.

The shrine was small, just on a small table with candles, incense, small empty bowls, pictures, and a small statue of a figure with the head of an elephant whose name he could never seem to remember no matter how many times Alex told him. An odd feeling that he couldn't find the name for settled upon his chest.

With effort, he brushed the feeling away.

It was another week after discovering the shrine before he found her praying in front of it. It was early in the morning before the sun had even fully risen, he'd woken up because he'd rolled over and found her side of the bed empty and cold, telling him that she'd been out of bed for quite some time. He found her sitting cross legged, hands set in prayer, eyes closed and mouth moving as she breathed out prayers, in front of the shrine. He continued watching her for a few more moments, the odd feeling from when he first discovered the shrine settling on him once more. Then with a sigh he ran a hand over his face, eyes squeezed shut, as he turned and went back to their shared room.

Of course he knew that she was a practicing Hindu. He knew but it had never fully registered in his head that she'd be practicing once they lived together. And he knows that's a stupid thought but can't help thinking it.

Along with the simple changes came the more drastic ones-- hiding his line of work and other life from Alex. In theory, it was easy. But practicing, not so much.

He worked late and often came home in the early hours in the morning. One such time he had come home, tired and exhausted, as she was cleaning the small statue of Ganesha. She paused so she could look up at him and Anatoly nearly winced when he saw the confusion and worry along with slight hurt in her eyes.

“You said that you would be home for dinner, Tolenka.”

Anatoly rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously as he toed off his shoes. “I know. I am very sorry.”

Alex just sighed, finished dressing the statue, and stood. “Do you always have to work so late? You come home in the middle of the night. And then some nights, the few that you're actually home, you have to leave in the middle of the night.” It was clear that she was trying to keep her voice from wavering. Her hands moved as she spoke, arms crossing then uncrossing and one hand coming up to rub at her forehead before falling back to rest on her still crossed arm.

Anatoly couldn't help but to feel as though he were being pushed into a corner. “You knew that I worked strange hours. I have told you this for the past year; work takes priority,” he said almost coldly. It wasn't a tone he had ever used with her. With his men, often. With Vladimir, yes. But her? Oh no, never.

The young woman narrowed her eyes at him, clearly not appreciating the tone, and snapped back just as coolly, “I know but I didn’t realize that you wouldn't be making any time for me anymore.”

“Well I suppose we were both not expecting things then,” Anatoly says before he can properly filter his thoughts and the possible consequences this statement may have.

Alex narrows her eyes, and if Anatoly weren’t feeling so cornered he’d be able to see that she was more confused than annoyed, and places her hands on her hips. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

He scowls and waves his hand, gesturing towards the whole apartment. “You are too clean!” He ignored her taken aback expression, clearly not expecting for that to be a complaint from someone. “You clean up everything! Too much! I am not even allowed to wear my damn shoes in my home! Was bad enough when Vova nagged me about it but you are worse!”

“It keeps the house cleaner!” Alex snapped back, confused on why he was just now bringing these things to her attention.

But he seemed to not be listening to her, just continued rushing ahead with more of the little things that he hadn’t realized were actually bothering him. “You make the bed too! And you cook so much, but I don’t care because I can’t even remember the last time that we ate something I actually like!”

Alex leaned back slightly, offended. “You like my cooking!”

An annoyed huff from the Russian man, “I do but I am not vegetarian like you, Sasha!”

The moment the nickname leaves his mouth he knows he’s messed up. But no amount of backtracking fixes it. “Alex, I-”

“That is not my name!” She snaps, cutting him off.

Alex hated that nickname and Anatoly knew it. Of course Anatoly had explained how ‘Sasha’ came from ‘Alexandra’ but she still didn’t care for it. Years of being picked on by fellow classmates had made her start going by her middle name and so she hated it when even that would get changed to something else.

Neither know exactly when they've moved so that they're right in front of each other, yelling into the other’s face.

“You move my shit and I can't find anything in my own damn home! It isn’t just my kitchen you continue re-arranging, you do it to my clothes too!”

“You say that as if you aren’t moving my things around!” Alex snapped back, eyes narrowing once more as she took half a step closer. “It’s like you just have to keep touching my stuff on my dresser! Just leave it all alone!”

“Your things are even on my side of our bedroom! My side!” Anatoly yells, thinking of a few of her little trinkets and knick-knacks on his dresser in their bedroom.

“I don't understand why you can't just clean up after yourself! You're a grown ass man and you just leave your nasty, sopping wet towels on the bathroom floor!”

He huffed as she poked him in the chest and swatted her hand away, angry but still careful to not actually use any strength. “Do not even get me started on the bathroom, Alex! You have all of your bottles of shit everywhere! And you leave your hairs in bottom of the tub!”

She leaned back, a scowl painted on her face. “I have long hair! My bad,” an exaggerated wave of her hands and sarcasm dripping from her tone, “if I don’t manage to rinse it all out! At least I can keep the rest of the house clean! When was the last time you actually cleaned around here?! Hm?!”

Anatoly spluttered for a moment as he tried to think but wasn’t able to toss a time back to her. “Is not like you leave me much chance! The moment you get home you sweep and clean just so you can bitch about it!”

They turn away from each other, huffing and glaring at the walls. And Anatoly is the first to sigh and move from this position.

“I’m tired. Am going to bed now,” he snaps quietly before brushing past her. He doesn't flinch even as he feels her glaring heatedly into the back of his head, he just doesn’t have the energy to care at the moment.

And as he falls asleep he thinks to himself that he can just apologize later as the slight tinge of guilt begin to fester under his skin.

He wakes several hours later to the smell of food cooking and the brief feeling of contentedness is washed away as the memory of the fight that morning jumps back to mind. It’s with much effort that he manages to force himself from bed, get dressed, and head to the kitchen.

He watches from the distance of the table as she places rice in a bowl and that bowl onto a copper tray. Another bowl is placed on the tray and then another.

“Do you need help?” Anatoly asks, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. It’s a rather silly offer as she already has the table set but it’s the only thing he can think to say. He hates that he feels bad for yelling at her, it’s a feeling he isn’t truly used to feeling; guilt. It didn’t do well in his line of work after all. But this, being with her, was also not a part of his work. She was the exact opposite, innocence and home.

Alex doesn’t say anything but he does notice how she pauses her movements and seems to tense ever so slightly before slowly shaking her head in the negative.

“Alright,” Anatoly says quietly, sounding defeated almost. He pulls one of the chairs out and sits, continues watching her as she pours a thick looking sauce into a dish and places that onto the tray as well.

In all honesty they'd never really had a serious argument before. Alex was typically laid back, a go-with-the-flow type person. And she understood that Anatoly had a life that didn't always involve her. Just as he understood she had her own life that didn't involve him in every waking moment. He'd made time for her before they were living together when he could. But when he couldn't, it wasn't always a bad thing as Alex had school, a job of her own, and friends. Living together was making it harder for Anatoly to make time for dates in a way.

She was always there now and in truth, he didn't have the time to rest before making a caring gesture for her. It was harder to separate work life from home life. He'd never wanted her involved in his work life before and hadn't thought clearly before moving in with her, he'd just wanted to be with her and now that he was he was quickly discovering how difficult it was to hide his secret life from her.

It takes a few more moments of silence as they sit across from each other at the small table that both say their apologies quickly.

“I’m sorry, Tolenka.” “Alex, I am sorry.”

They pause, slowly looking up from the food to each other. The small smile on Alex's face make Anatoly sag in relief as the tension left his body.

“I did not mean to yell at you,” Anatoly continues. He frowns when Alex shakes her head.

“It's alright. I lost my temper too,” she says. “Living together has been difficult to get used to for me, honestly,” Alex admits after a moment. The admission makes Anatoly nearly stand and go to hug her right then. “I think I forgot that it's probably difficult for you too?”

Anatoly purses his lip, afraid to say the wrong thing, but nods slowly all the same. “It has not been easy, you are right.” He leans back in his chair, rubs his chin thoughtfully as he tries to think of a happy medium for the two of them.

But Alex beats him to the point. She fills her bowl with rice and then a nice serving of the thick sauce and holds it out to Anatoly.

“I made something different for dinner. My dad and I don’t eat meat but my step-mom does and she sent me a recipe of hers,” Alex explains as Anatoly slowly exchanges his empty bowl for hers. “It’s lamb korma.”

Anatoly looks at the food and takes a deep breath. It smells good, like spices and meat and Anatoly already knows it’s going to taste wonderful as it is Alex’s cooking after all.

“It smells delicious, zvezda moya.”

Alex grins and fixes herself a bowl, a different sauce that Anatoly recognizes as left over vegetable curry being poured over the rice.

It’s a small step but a step in the right direction none the less and both feel much freer and relaxed than they have in a good while.

[angeltriestoblog]

I try to cook!

This is going to come as a huge disappointment to the Tiktok community, but no I don’t do the cooking, no I don’t do the cleaning—kind of surprising for someone who eats so much! I mean, it’s not like I never tried. I did learn how to make nilagang manok and instant noodles over my five month long summer vacation before the start of college (and threw in the towel shortly afterward), and also expressed interest in being the cook whenever my friends and I go out for samgyup. But yeah, that’s about as far as I would go. Until today!

After almost two months indoors, I’ve been craving certain food that are either unavailable at restaurants for pick-up, or offered in branches that don’t deliver to my house. My love for them ultimately trumped my deep-seated aversion to anything that requires me to leave my seat, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. After collecting recipes, buying ingredients, and experimenting with flavors, I was able to come up with three decent dupes for some of my favorite dishes!

Kko Kko cheese fondue

This is a really simple, no-frills recipe but I still had to make some variations here and there: it’s common knowledge that [1] I don’t like bread (my friends have already interrogated me about it multiple times—I am a rice kinda woman!), and [2] there are barely any frozen finger foods in stock at the groceries. Thankfully, my mom was able to find a fitting substitute! Although it tasted mostly of breading, it went well with the dip anyway.

INGREDIENTS

Cheez Whiz, 110g

Fresh milk, 100ml

Shrimp poppers, 200g

French fries, 450g

Basil leaves

STEPS

Slowly pour the cheese in a pan, over low heat.

Add milk into the mixture and immediately turn off the stove so it doesn’t curdle. Although it’s relatively safe to eat, it doesn’t look appetizing and it can’t be reversed once done: you’ll be left with little lumps suspended in the sauce.

Stir thoroughly, until it reaches a pale yellow-orange color

Set aside and sprinkle with dried basil leaves before serving

For both shrimp poppers and French fries, just deep-fry them until golden brown. The former is a bit more difficult because they’re several spherical pieces, so it’s hard to ensure they’re all evenly cooked. (Don’t forget to wash your hands before you do any dipping!)

Pancake House corned beef hash

I remember being in Pancake House with my friends on my last day in the outside world and I deliberately chose not to order this even if it’s my go-to comfort food—for what reason, I have no idea why! I have beat myself up for it ever since. Thankfully, my version is almost as good as the real thing: I was able to base it off a recipe for croquettes! Although the breading used makes a significant difference, the generous filling surely makes up for it.

INGREDIENTS

HASH

Corned beef, two 380g cans

Eggs, four pieces

Bread crumbs, 500g

Potatoes, four pieces

Mayonnaise, two 2ml packs

Salt, to taste

Minced garlic

RICE

Butter

Cheese, as much as you want

Baby tomatoes

STEPS

Slice the potatoes into squares, then boil; season with salt to taste

Set aside in a bowl and mash into smaller squares with a fork

Saute the corned beef with minced garlic (life hack for those who don’t feel like picking up a knife—tastes just the same!): keep stirring until it has dried up. Set aside and let cool.

Mix the corned beef, potatoes, and two egg yolks in a bowl thoroughly.

Prepare two separate containers: one with two cracked and beaten eggs, and another with breadcrumbs. This is where the magic happens!

You can opt to do this next step with your hands or with the aid of a spoon, in case you happen to be growing your nails out too. Scoop a portion of the corned beef mixture and dip it in the egg mix, before rolling all sides evenly with breadcrumbs.

This recipe yields 12 pieces of hash, so repeat the previous step for as many times as necessary. You can also mold them into different sizes, but it’s advisable that you keep them small so it’s easier to fit many of them in the pan when we get to the next step.

Deep fry over medium heat for five to 10 minutes each side, depending on how well done you want it. Check on it regularly though, because it could burn easily because of the egg. Once done, set aside to cool, then drizzle a generous amount of mayonnaise on top.

To prepare the rice, melt a teaspoon of butter and grated cheese in a pan over low heat before adding a cup of rice into the mixture. Serve topped with halved baby tomatoes.

Koomi Mango Moo

I visited Koomi’s Instagram page to double-check the spelling of my order, and was met with the initially devastating news that their Robinsons Magnolia branch has been open for a week now. I easily could have asked my parents to buy me a cup when they went to the supermarket there last weekend. But now I have no regrets since I can replicate it any time I want without having to leave the comfort of my own home!

INGREDIENTS + STEPS

Mango, one half cup, sliced

Plain yogurt, 250g

Fresh milk, 100ml

Honey, three tablespoons

Literally the easiest recipe in the book: put all contents into a blender, and let it do the magic! 10 seconds was enough for me to get the frothy consistency I wanted.

VERDICT: SUCCESS!

Overall, I’m really satisfied with how I did: not only were the results pretty damn delicious (and I’m speaking from a completely objective point of view), but I also partially fulfilled my childhood dreams of being on Masterchef—minus the heart-stopping time limit and the British chef screaming curse words in my face.

Of course, I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish this without my mom, who served as both sous chef and crash course instructor: had she not stepped in at key moments of the procedure to check on my progress, there is a likely chance that I would have burned down my house. My dad was also kind enough to shower me with compliments while he was eating what I made for dinner: it definitely makes the backache I got from hunching over both the dining table and stove top for three hours very worth it!

If you guys end up trying out any of these recipes and want to share the outcome, I welcome accounts of both disastrous and successful attempts in my messages! Hope everyone is keeping safe and sane during this quarantine, especially because the lockdown period has been extended another two weeks as per our Pr*sident’s most recent statement.

Love and light always,

Angel

[thegeekandthegirl]

Geek+Girl Eat: Ooma and Tokyo Milk Cheese Factory

Backgrounder on Geek+Girl Eat: What would a date be without food? In our case, food is a big factor in our dates. Ever since we got together in 2015, we find ourselves always looking for good, affordable food. Paul is a home cook, and I am always reading/watching food content online (BuzzFeed, Spot.ph, Booky, When in Manila, whatever is in my newsfeed). Back in college when I had some time I would cook a bit of what I saw, too. We’re always looking for the next yummy thing to try, and as we’re fresh out of school we are always looking for promos and occasions to celebrate (and justify a pricey dessert). So here on Geek+Girl Eat entries, we’ll be sharing our foodie adventures! Yay! You can check out our Zomato accounts as well since these are mostly from Zomato anyway. BUUUUT you get both our reviews and a verdict here! First up: where we ate for our 2nd anniversary:

Photos:

HIS:

Ooma

This isn’t my first time dining at Ooma. I actually requested the fam to celebrate my 22nd birthday at this very restaurant. Suffice to say, our experience there was very much worth the price tag. The quality of food here is actually quite a steal at their respective price points! And so I decided to take Reg here for our 2nd anniversary. As I always tell her, when it comes to our relationship, I’ll settle for nothing but the best.

Reg will elaborate on the story behind how we ended up in Ooma last minute. As for me, well, I’m here to tell you guys my take on the food we ordered. We didn’t have as big of a budget as when my fam and I went out to eat here, but we made the most of what our wallets and our appetites can afford and hold: we went for a Hanger Steak, Chahan for sharing, and Ebi and Kani Aburi Maki.

I wish I was as elaborate as Reg in explaining more about each establishment, but my self-proclaimed expertise lies in judging the food. So how did this dinner fare according to my standards? I’d say really well!

The Hanger Steak is cooked sous vide finished with mushrooms, sweet potato mash, and white truffle oil. The result is a VERY juicy steak that has the right amount of bite to it. Flavor-wise, the truffle oil works its magic here as it presents a very deep, well-bodied, intense flavor that I can only describe as “truffly” - something that I could define as a good, earthy pungency characteristic of truffle. The mushroom builds up on this with earthy flavor that compliments the truffle flavor. The sweet potato mash balances this out with a mildly sweet, but very smooth flavor.

We had the Chahan along with it and the result is nothing short of spectacular. While I think that plain rice works well here, the Chahan gives it another dimension of flavor, one that’s slightly more vibrant thanks to the vegetables in the dish. Each bite with the steak results in a balance of earthy low flavors and the bright notes of the fried rice. Absolutely delicious!

To end the Ooma experience, we just had to get a set of their Ebi and Kani Aburi Maki. Blowtorched sushi, to the uninitiated. The ebi (shrimp) and kani (crabstick) compliment each other here, representing the flavors of the ocean quite well. The salty kick of the aligue mayo adds to the ocean flavor, while giving it the body and the creaminess that the dish needs. Cream cheese adds more creaminess to the sushi, which I think is a nice touch. To balance out this fresh, seafood flavor is a sauce that I can describe as a sweet soy-based sauce of sorts. Binding all the flavors together is the char from the blowtorch technique which adds body to both the flavor and the texture. Not my first time having this dish, but the second time is just a good as the first, for sure. This dish goes well with additional soy sauce and wasabi, but I’m a firm believer that good sushi is best enjoyed as it is.

This is among the best Japanese restaurants I’ve visited thus far, and I won’t hesitate to give this place a solid 4.5 out of 5!

Tokyo Milk Cheese Factory

Tokyo Milk Cheese Factory is a stall in the middle of Mega Fashion Hall in SM Megamall that I can describe, at first glance, as very unassuming. Look closer into their offerings and one might say that they’re charging too much for dessert. With a complete dessert dish for around 300 pesos, these things don’t come cheap. Absolutely not cheap.

I’m a very “Treat Yo’Self” kind of guy, and I often treat myself to good stuff when I deserve it. Will I treat myself to this on the regular? I’d say probably!

A complete dessert cup is comprised of three components: the ice cream, the biscuit, and the cheesecake. We only managed to get two out of three as I was apprehensive of the selection of available biscuits at the time; I’m just not that ready to indulge in more pungent cheeses just yet. Anyway, the ice cream has three variants: milk, cheese, and a combination of both. We both got the cheese variant, plus a cheesecake slice.

Very unassuming cup, but upon closer inspection, this is NOT your ordinary dessert. Dare I say this, but this is THE BEST CHEESE DESSERT COMBO I’VE HAD SO FAR!

The cheese ice cream is very creamy and flavorful, with the signature tartness of the cheese shining through magnificently. The cheesecake works well with each spoonful of ice cream as it’s quite rich and moist. This combo can only be described as a superbly rich dessert with a hint of fluffiness that is very irresistible. I’ve never been this sad about finishing dessert ever.

I am not even going to rate this as this easily tops my favorite dessert places ever, but if I can give it more than 5 stars out of 5, I’d be more than happy to. IT’S THAT GOOD!

HERS:

Ooma

Paul and I decided to spend this 2nd anniversary a bit differently and split up the dates–a food date (this one), experience dates (MIBF and Pinto Art Museum), and last time we had lunch with my mom ^_^. 

So the story of how we ended up in SM Megamall on a Saturday? Well, we were supposed to eat at UP Town Center, a mall near the University we both went to. For lunch, Dohtonbori, an okonomiyaki place, then have Manila Creamery for dessert, followed by a Game of Thrones watching session (I need his hand to block the gore LOL) at a cafe or at UP campus. But, y'know, life happens and I had Saturday work. THANK GOD I was able to get out early enough so we could have dinner. Paul chose Ooma, since he had his last birthday dinner there and because I wanted Japanese (we went to an Italian resto last year called A Veneto). We were 8th in line, but it moved quite fast which was good because I was getting hAngry. And the wait was worth it. From the super nice staff, to the fun, Japanese market-style ambiance, I could sense that this is what people were building it up to be. And of course, I wouldn’t expect less from the people who brought us Manam, right? The Moment Group of restaurants is amazing and we both loved Japanese, so I was very excited. As per Paul’s recommendations, we had the hanger steak, ebi and kani aburi maki, and chahan. We started the meal with a warm cup of tea which soothed my hyperacidic tummy. Then the waiters brought out the bowl of chahan (fried rice) and the glorious hangar steak. The chahan was yellow-brown fried rice with the typical toppings of scallions, egg, veggies. Despite being in a small bowl it is actually good for 2 people, sulit ang P99! I tried it out on its own and the flavor is amazing. It’s quite a catch on its own, I believe. Despite its flavor and impact, topping it with the hangar steak did not detract from the flavors of either. Rather, I found that the flavors were enhanced. The chefs knew what they were doing when they concocted these recipes. The hangar steak consists of a serving plate piled with slices of steak, mushrooms, garlic bits, baby potato crisps, and sweet potato mash. The smell is amazing, thanks to the aroma of steak, garlic, and truffle oil. The slices of steak on the yellow-orange mash are reminiscent of a Philly cheesesteak sandwich. Tender, flavorful, a symphony in your mouth when put together with the mushrooms and mash. It was my first time to try anything with truffle oil, and though I could not possibly try JUST the oil given the arrangement of the dish, the flavors and textures were all wonderfully rounded out and even if you can’t taste it solo, you can taste it permeating the whole dish to bring out the flavors of each ingredient. I love mushrooms and garlic and potatoes, so their presence made me very happy–it’s like not having to choose which side but getting them all (and for P498, I better). The sweet potato mash is a bit tart and cuts through the richness of the other flavors, despite being quite creamy itself. There is so much happening in every spoonful of steak and rice, that nothing I’ve had so far will come close to that feeling of flavor…at least in the steak department. Because the sushi, I believe, is the runaway winner, winner in our dinner. (get it?) After we were done with the steak and rice, the waiters served us the ebi and kani aburi maki. The 6 sushi rolls had aligue mayo on them, as well as cream cheese and bread crumbs. Drizzled around the rolls was house tare (which I thought was soy sauce at first–similar but it’s slightly thicker) and a dollop of wasabi. Given how packed each little roll of heaven was, it was hard to dissect it to see the crab and the shrimp, but you could definitely taste the sea in there. The rice is, of course, of the best sushi quality rice. The filling is juicy and obviously seafood even if you don’t look (ah, how my seafood-loving heart sings!), and the cream cheese and aligue mayo make it all melt into your tongue and into your soul. A dollop of wasabi, a rub onto the house tare, and let the flavors explode in your mouth. The whole experience is beautiful. Foodgasmic. And while I’ve given the place a 4.5 on Zomato for now, it’s only because I haven’t eaten all they have to offer. And that’s something I can’t wait to do.

Tokyo Milk Cheese Factory

How does one spend P250 for dessert that’s not even drinks+food? How does one go from finding cheese ice cream meh to finding THE cheese ice cream? Paul and I had this for dessert during the Food aka Lamon date of our anniversary month (for context, he decided to have different gimmicks per date–experience, food, lunch with my mom). After the foodgasm we had at Ooma, we had an even bigger foodgasm here at Tokyo Milk Cheese Factory. I mean, at first I was apprehensive because the prices and the design of the display is intimidating. I mean, we’re fresh grads and P250 for dessert???? A tiny cup of ice cream???? But Paul said it’s justified, it’s our anniversary, and I said, well, when’s the next justifiable reason for me to do this, right? Probably Christmas or my birthday–both of which are months away. Anyway, on to the review! THIS is the cheese ice cream you need to try before you die. Seriously. It’s that good! Good enough that if you don’t have self-control with money you’d buy this on the regular (thank God I have self-control). We both ordered the cheese variant since the milk flavor was out of stock (not sure why we didn’t go for the mix). We added a slice of the milk cheesecake, bringing the total of our cups to P250 each. I was able to see and taste the reason why lifestyle sites are going nuts over this brand. The cheese flavor, made of Hokkaido cheese and cream cheese, is creamy without being overbearing, sweet and at the same time salty, and it doesn’t make you thirsty (at least not until you reach the bottom of the cup). The flavor is to die for. I think it totally knocks out any other premium-grade ice cream/gelato I’ve had like Magnum and Cara Mia. Like I mentioned, I wasn’t a fan of cheese ice cream growing up but this one just understands me! The addition of the milk cheesecake is what…takes the cake (LOL). The slice looks small, but like the cup, it packs a punch of flavor and value. The cheesecake is a cross between New York and Japanese. For those unacquainted with the difference, I love the fudge-y quality of NY cheesecakes. I’ve only had Uncle Tetsu for Japanese cheesecakes so far, but I didn’t like it because it was airy and dry–and I believe cheesecakes, like brownies, should be creamy. Paul thinks the cheesecake here at Tokyo Milk Cheese Factory is made a bit underdone to retain the moisture and creamy texture. You get a sense of fluffiness to cut through the ice cream, but at the same time you get light and creamy goodness made even better by its gelatinous crust with a caramel-colored swirl. I don’t know how they do cheesecake like that but I want it so bad! I can’t wait for the next excuse I have to indulge in this treat, and I can’t wait to try it with the biscuits. Thank you, Tokyo Milk Cheese Factory. You are a gift to the tastebuds.

[blacknovelist]

How about Nana Shimura and/or Toshinori for the inbox meme? ^^

Spell a name and I’ll give you headcannons!

(lets do both because I have no self control and I love this ask meme, I hope ur ready for another round of “Novel can never shut up”)

Nana Shimura:

N: What do they usually eat for breakfast?

Hmmm, I think it kind of depends on what time she’s eating and what she’s gotta do that day! Like if she’s eating late-ish bc of hero duties (or if she anticipates being busy all day), she might stick to simpler things like a bowl of soup or some plain rice with a few sides of whatever’s sitting in her pantry and fridge (ranging from nori, to pickles, to a bowl of fish balls from dinner). Something filling, but fairly quick to eat. 

If she’s eating early bc she needs to be leaving earlier than usual to handle things (or if she doesn’t want to go back to bed) she’ll probably snack on various things around the house, even if they’re not really…. snacking foods. You can’t tell her she’s not allowed to eat it out of the pot by the spoonful when she’s the only one living there, dammit!

If it’s a regular day, there’s a 50/50 chance she’ll pick something different and random to eat, just for the heck of it - maybe some imported cheeses, or these new sausages she picked up from the market, because I’m still a huge fan of Nana kind of being a foodie and being willing to try literally anything and everything. The other 50% of the time, though, she’s probably eating a traditional breakfast (usually with Torino or Toshinori!)  

A: What are/were this character’s best subjects in school?

I really think, outside of the fairly obvious answer of PE, she would’ve been really good in classes like social studies and history! In general, I don’t think there would be too many classes Nana isn’t fond of or terrible at though, in the end.

S: How stealthy are they?

Usually, she doesn’t need stealth, so on a day-to-day basis she’s of average stealth, for a Pro Hero, of course! Should the need arise, though, I think she can definitely manage a few notches above that. Nana’s no spy, but, she can avoid detection when a situation calls for it.

H: What is their deadly sin?

This is… a difficult one, bc we just, know nothing about Nana, ahaha. I mean, everything is just, pure speculation right now. In this case, I’m kind of thinking about and drawing from Ageswap!Nana a little bit, but… I’ve decided, after much thinking, Nana’s deadly sin would be Greed. Not by the classical definition but… i’m not sure how to really explain it, haha. It’s just… I think, there are things she wants to have, and wants to be able to have, but that she knows she shouldn’t or can’t because of her dreams and goals and job. 

Drawing on other headcanons (like that she was a fairly ordinary hero and that possibly, during Nana and AfO’s fight, he brought up her husband), part of her struggles come from straight-up being a regular human being that wants a family and to live her life but can’t, because of her lifestyle. She wants it, can’t always have it, and needs to figure out how to balance it all out. 

I: On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do they love themselves

Anywhere from 7-9, on bad days to good days respectively. Nana knows what she’s capable of and who she is, and she’s happy with who that person is. (if the person she is can inspire kids like Toshinori, too, then surely she’s done something right, after all.)

M: What is their favourite dessert?

A tough one…. I think she’d be a fan of cold desserts, mostly. I’m thinking mochi and halo-halo, because those are… the only two coming to mind right now, haha.

U: What’s their voice like?

Fairly deep, kind of what comes across as a more traditionally rich female voice? I think she’d put a lot of inflection into her voice too, but it usually sounds smooth and… bright, like she’s smiling or in a good mood. 

R: What are their hands like?

Though she wears gloves in her hero form, I think Nana has somewhat rough hands, from training. I also like to think she has big hands, if her pictures are any indication - their size can’t all be from her gloves, man! The kind of large, firm hands that would give All Might a run for his money. 

Toshinori:

T: Where are they ticklish?

Mmm, Toshinori doesn’t entirely strike me as a very ticklish person in general! Though, if I had to pick a spot, probably his legs/feet. And it only tickles if they’re trying to tickle him, just jabbing him won’t do a thing.

O: What would it take to break them, inside and out?

A systematic destruction of everything he’s worked to create and is working to protect. Toshinori thrives on belief, on hope; belief in his own skills as All Might; hope in the new generation of heroes; belief in his successor and the rest of UA; hope that he, together with everyone, can twist fate somehow. If it all crumbled, slow but inevitable - to see that kind of thing happen to the people he loves, to the city and world he’s tried so hard to keep standing with his own two hands, well, Toshinori isn’t the kind of person who wouldn’t take that kind of thing personally, to some degree.

Especially if it’s brought about by Shigaraki and AfO themselves. 

S: How stealthy are they?

I think All Might is only loud and boisterous and with a big, unavoidable presence because most of the time, that’s what society needs. Someone big, grand, able to strike bad guys down with a single hit and, as a result of always announcing his presence in order to discourage villains, not stealthy at all.

However!!!!! I 10000% think Toshinori (both in AM form and true form) is absolutely capable of being sneaky when he needs to. His speed is an asset as All Might, even if his size isn’t necessarily, and as a kid he was small and quirkless - even with years of training to be a hero and having OfA with him, that kind of stuff doesn’t just, vanish. Toshi’s probably got some good tricks up his sleeve about disappearing into crowds from way back when, regardless of form.

H: What is their deadly sin?

In Toshinori’s case…….. I’d say Wrath and Pride. Tho not their classical definitions again, ahaha.

Pride, because having been the Number One hero, he always feels, to some degree, responsible for so many of the things that happen in the hero-villain scene, especially involving AfO - the sense of pride he feels he, as All Might, should have, as far as being the Symbol of Peace and someone who should be able to do things alone goes, often prevents him from seeking help. Which, is fairly obvious. 

Wrath, though… wrath is because of how purely instinctual and emotional Toshinori is. He’s always stated to have been a prodigy with One for All, a natural user. I pointed it out once (in one of the Ageswap AU questions you asked me a while ago, funnily enough) that Toshinori, as hard as he tries, can still be swayed quite easily by his own thoughts and feelings, especially when a subject is personal to him. The best and most clear example (also the one I used in the ask, heh) is when All for One riled him up over Nana in Kamino Ward - those taunts led to Toshinori leaving himself open because he let that rage and anger guide him to strike back. And if it happened at that moment in time, what’s stopping it from happening at others? Even if the context wouldn’t be anywhere close to the same…. (this applies to emotions and thoughts and feelings other than rage too, of course, but in the context of the deadly sin, well, that’s self explanatory.)

So, two deadly sins…. though, if I had to actually pick, I’m not entirely certain which one I would go with! ^^;;

I: On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do they love themselves?

It…. changes, from time to time and day to day. Where we are in canon right now, I think…. he’s wavering around the 4-7 mark. He drifts towards seven more often lately though, especially when he’s got the kids and the other staff at UA with him to lift him up if he seems kind of down.

N: What do they usually eat for breakfast?

Before his injury, his breakfast schedule probably looked a lot like Nana’s did, minus the eccentric food bit! Though perhaps just a bit more beefed up, since he did quite a lot as Symbol of Peace, haha. Gotta make up for those burned calories, my dude.

Nowadays, his breakfasts are filled with tea and protein bars and crackers, spread out over the whole morning of course. He no longer has a “breakfast” to his routine, just a whole lotta snacks.

R: What are their hands like? 

As All Might, they’re broad, firm - rugged from his work as a hero, but not necessarily rough. He has to take good care of all of him, and that includes his hands; not a crack on his skin, though it’s probably riddled in little scars you’d never notice unless you knew they were there.

In true form, his hands are, of course, bony. His fingers and palm remain the same length and all that, but they’re half the size to go with his dropped body mass. Just as firm and steady as they are when he’s All Might though, and you can see/find his little scars (from training, a few from old accidents, and also from working as a hero) much easier when he’s Toshinori. 

[dancekickboxcardio]

This is not a good sign. I wake up 🛏 and I am heavy and sore and tired 😓 as if I worked out the entire night 🌃. I also have nasal drainage 👃🏾 🤧 and keep on sneezing. I am bundled up on a thick robe 👘 and beanie. I feel sickly 🤒. My room 🚪 has always been cold 🥶 but this morning I made sure the air vents ♨️are open and free from obstructions🚧. I had to sleep 💤 in. I had my alarm ⏰ already set at 800a. I have to consider my physical shape. Last night I already made a decision 🤔 that I was going be off today. Well, had I not I couldn’t go today. A touch of weak immune system that with a long sustained day in and day out consecutive fitness batteries shall without a doubt cause you to be ill and it’s Fall 🍃🍂🍁 germy 🦠 Winter ❄️ too. If you are bound to compromise your bod, you are at the perfect time. I was looking 👓 at the butt kicking 🦵🏾 💪🏾 Veteran’s community exercises. I laugh 😆 at myself in silence because I know I won’t be the strongest person and no one expects me to be. I am intimidating tough in a different way 🤯. I shall be wimpy and that’s ok with me. I believe that we are all in different levels with varied skill sets. As long as we work on where we fall short we are ok. If your mindset is you are ALWAYS the best person and you are not, well YOU have a problem. Whose fall is that. I know it’s more complicated than that but being a person who is exacting and admits faults and working lists well honesty is so much more respected than a façade. Keep it going flimsy whimsy ✨.

I have a list 📝 of things I want to do today.

I already described to my BFF that I was reticent yesterday. I wasn’t my yakky bubbly self and that’s ok. Sometimes a change in your rhythm does it. I explain to to him that inside I was feels Katy Perry. I am still quite funny 😆.

I was up at 600a Sunday. I had pizzas 🍕 my left over pumpkin 🎃 spice fit Americano ☕️ and another full cup to keep me going until it is at least close to nap 😴 time. I organized 🧹 and my study desk is breathable spacey and I thought 💭 of ways to free more of the area for academic 👓🗒🖊 work. I want to securely attach my shelves on the wall and revamp my wall space for inspiration ❤️ and like a reflection on what’s exactly brewing in your brain 🧠. I had a “helper.” He “goes through and checks my filing.” 🗄

So my schedule 🗓 is already changed. I am not foreign to constant differences in short time changing plans. That is my signature ✍🏾. I really build myself to doing that. I am doing Tuesday straight to Saturday and I like that a lot because I get to yoga 🧘🏼‍♀️. I know that for some people it is a status way of life just as Lululemon is. To me, it’s get me in that leisurely pace compared versus 🆚 to a New York ran business speed. I mean the Lululemon brand. Yoga 🙆🏼‍♀️ makes my bod less stiff. I was liking that I had tandem free times. Surely I didn’t execute the day similarly. Saturday I was very on top of things, must do stuff. That has always been my life. One place to go after another. I discovered after decades in college 📚 that it really is momentum. When I was younger I go to the gym 🏃🏼‍♀️ 💪🏾 because I had expendable money 💵 in my pocket like cash 💵 🙄 , that’s what cool 😎 college kids do and really I wanted a full day, something that lives to my vision of how my life should be lived. Now a days, I am not precisely where I want to be and heck I tell people all the time I should be having a nervous breakdown for not meeting what I set myself to do. However you have to keep in mind that my trajectory if not glacial 🏔 is certainly super sonic 🚀. I have to be a full pledge person. I have to know the meanings of our existence and yes you discover it in the times when you pour yourself in books 📖 and writings in the library. You are moved by the scholastic and social excitement 🤓. Yet you have to remember that not everybody lives like that. What do you do when there is nothing that is pressed upon you or when society or anyone like your parents dictates by influence what you have to do. What do you do with yourself? What do you want? How do you make sense of existence 😊?

I had a great time with Dad. He just didn’t drive me around 🚙. We stopped 🛑 by Chipotle because he was hungry 😋. I asked for a burrito 🌯 bowl. He wanted like DiBella’s for the nth factorial time. Don’t get me wrong. I love 💕 their sandwiches 🥪 except there is more than one fast food in the corner. Actually he was asking for Five Guys which I am a big fan of. Caturday 🐈 however I feel like yummy 😋 meat 🥩 on rice 🍚 and veggies 🌽🍅🥬 with cheese 🧀 and sour cream. Mmmmmmmm. I also had a seamless time at Target. He had to exchange his lock 🔒 there too and I had to introduce him to the cash register lady as my Dad. I picked up my gym 🏃🏼‍♀️ 💪🏾 essentials 🛒 and got the perf 🤩 planner journal 📓. We also went to the library where I picked up fictions at random. I stayed away from what I made a mental note over reading the jacket and be like that’s interesting 🧐. I came across Gabriel Marquez Garcia who I am going to check out on the catalog 💻. Shall we request the books in Spanish 😆? You totally should.

To me I ate pretty poorly. Not only did I not eat 🍽 on time I also didn’t partake balanced meals 🥘. I ate tons of carbs. I ate what I wanted. When I ordered 🧾 at Chipotle I should have made it conform to my food plan and not how the restaurant recommended it. I should take note of it next time. I am very steady running 😏 and sometimes you have to teach me to live a little. How severe stringent. Even allowing for some loose time is a mental exercise. Sorry 😐 that’s just how I am although it doesn’t mean I am incapable of natural tendencies and inclination. All I am saying is that I have wired my thinking 🤔 to put up those barriers on things that could throw me off. I know. I am quite the self-manager 👩🏼‍💼 psych grad 🎓. I guess I could say that is the great learning or a curse to you on what my entire undergrad learning imparted in me. I have strength because I actually applied myself. Diet right. I ate what I wanted when I wanted. I ate manageable portions 🍴 but how I eat matters a lot on my performance 👟 , how my day unfolds. It really is relevant ⚠️ administratively. That’s why I had this question after seeing the article of a gym gal dying from eating too much protein 🍖 if 60 grams of protein powder on my two barista ☕️ espresso drinks everyday is safe.

Article:

I consumed so much media over the weekend mostly TV 📺 and radio 📻 and I try to move along from Neruda when all I did mostly was look 👀 up what my little stipend can get me. Planning 📅 can sound stupid but it actually makes plain what you want, how you think 💭 😏, why you decided like that 😏, clears your mental processes and really enables a better decision 🤨 making. Overwhelmed? I so didn’t graduate 👩🏼‍🎓 from Notre Dame college. 😂 Ask not why you graduated but why you chose your major. I was like to BFF “Is this what my life has amounted too? The happiest day so to speak every month 📆 is when my allowance 💵 is disimbursed.” Shake that thing.

🎶 “Shake dat ting miss, Cana, Cana

Shake dat ting miss, Annabella

Shake dat ting yow, Donna Donna

Jodi and Rebecca”

These where the things I watched at Netflix. Some of the stuff on my list have been discontinued 😭.

(1) Season 1 Episode 4:

(2) Season 1 Episode 8:

(3) Season 1 Episode 3:

I wrapped my day with some beauty 🧖🏼‍♀️ ritual although I didn’t cover everything. I need to wax before I start to look 👀 like wolverine.

I dyed my hair. It looks awesome 👏🏾 even if it’s going to get chopped. I decided today bob, a very short layered one. Oooh 😯 more hair accessories: barrettes, headbands and hats 🧢. I showered 🧼 and scrub. Self-care that kind of just fell in place and not ran by hurried minutes on the clock 🕰.

I shaved. I didn’t salt scrub. Laura was like Friday PT you smell good 👃🏾. To me, “Oh, my Victoria’s Secret Pink scrub soap is that fragrant.” My Dove liquid soap ran out while I was in the tub 🛁. I applied some great smelling perfumed lotion 🧴. When shall I get more? 🛍 and I did my nails 💅🏾.

I feel like a whole person. I feel good. I kindled 🔥 myself. I did what are really necessary to have some sense of balance, serenity and harmony. I mean in our minds we see things clearly delineated and this must. But the world 🌍 is a constant chaos like many have said before me, you find that me time whenever you can and stop ✋🏾 expecting a perfect day because you actually make your own money. It’s not handed to you. You are a Neantherdal. Go out there and hunt for survival 😏. I need water 💦.

[pendesvoyage]

iTrackBites Smart Plan Update

The first full week of trying a new point system has been interesting and fun to explore. I love love love that I can eat all the fruits and veggies I want. I’ve also started to think about food differently. 

Because the point system is based on more than calories, I’ve started to think about food on more than a calorie-based system. I’ve begun to realize that 100 calories of donut is different than 100 calories of carrots. They don’t have the same effect on my body, and they shouldn’t hold the same value in my mind. 

Sunday:

I went over my daily bite limit of 34 bites by 5 bites, which came out of my weekly allotment. I prefer not to go over my daily bites at all, but that is what they’re there for, and 5 isn’t too bad. Total daily bites: 39

I was sick for most of this week, so I slept late that weekend. I woke up too late for breakfast, but for lunch I had boxed macaroni and cheese. I love mac and cheese more than most foods in this world. It was the thick and creamy box by Great Value. Total bites: 8

For dinner we had chinese from our favorite chinese place like we do on most Sundays. This week we got honey chicken and sesame chicken. The honey chicken is pretty high-bite, but the sesame chicken was not bad. The white rice can add up pretty quickly as well. Total bites: 18

Then for dessert I had one of the cookies I made for the Chocolate Chip Cookie Challenge. It was delicious but so many bites! Total bites: 13

Monday:

I did very well on Monday. I ate a full day’s worth, but it was all real, whole foods. I kept under my 34 daily bite limit by 2 bites, I remember feeling well-fed and feeling light because I kept my portions in check. Total daily bites: 32

For breakfast I had eggs with cheese, bacon, and a banana. With this system eggs are zero bites, so I had 3 eggs- a sizeable amount that kept me full through the whole morning. The bacon is very low bite, 1 bite per slice. Total bites: 4

Lunch was simple and easy because it was between classes at college. I’d saved half of a chicken and wild rice soup from Progresso that I’d eaten last week and ate it along with an orange and a handful of animal crackers. Animal crackers are one of my favorite snacks. Total bites: 5

Mom made her famous chicken over rice for dinner, a favorite in our house. The bites can add up quickly so I had to be sure to keep my portions within reason. Luckily chicken breast is free so all my bites came from the rice and cream of chicken soup. Total bites: 12

Tuesday:

Tuesday I only went over my 34 bite limit by 2 bites. The real difference was that I ate a lot of fried foods and such. I’ve also been eating a lot of bananas and oranges lately so I’ll add one of those to almost every meal. Total daily bites: 36

Breakfast was just a banana before heading out to my early class. It wasn’t enough. I’m a breakfast fiend. Total bites: 0

I had leftovers from the chicken over rice dinner the night before for lunch. Chicken over rice, even leftover, is a favorite of mine. I also paired it with an orange. Total bites: 8

Dinner was a lot of bites. I had a make n bake personal pepperoni pizza that was actually really good. But then I got hungry later and had fries and a corndog. Frozen fries, though, are way less calories than fast food fries. I almost never get them anymore. Total bites: 22

Wednesday:

I went more over my bite limit than I wanted to and it was a very sad day’s worth of food. Friday is my actual overage day, but I started to crave crap food really bad this week, and Wednesday was a weak day for me. I took Wednesday off from school because my sickness just wasn’t going away and I needed one more day of rest and meds. Total daily bites: 40

I slept in late so I didn’t have breakfast.

Lunch was very light because my stomach was uneasy. It was a chicken corn chowder soup. I don’t like a ton of soups, but this is one I’ll always go for. I only had half the can and put the other half in the fridge. Total bites: 3

By the time I got to dinner I was really hungry. My mom offered to pick up food so I didn’t have to cook, and I took her up on it. I got the 3&3 plate from Slim Chicken’s. It was a lot of food, and a ton of bites, but I’ll admit it was so very tasty. Total bites: 24

Thursday:

Another day of overage, but only by 4 bites. That day had some snacking as well, but not great meals. Total daily bites: 38

Breakfast was just a bagel an a little bit of margarine. I had an early class at school so a bagel was easy and portable. Total bites: 6

Lunch was leftovers again. I love having leftovers because it makes lunches so easy. I am nowhere near being able to make cool lunches for on the go. I had cheeseburger macaroni by Hamburger Helper along with an orange. Total bites: 5

Dinner was fast food...again. My family devolved back into fast food this week pretty badly. My sister went and picked up Chick Fil A. I decided to at least only get the sandwich and make fries at home to save some bites. Chick Fil A’s fries are like 400 calories for a medium. Wow oh wow! Total bites: 18

I had a couple snacks through the day as well. Between classes I had a bag of Cheez-Its. I haven’t bought a new box of the individual bags in a while, but that means they just hang out in the house and taunt me. I love them, but the sodium is a lot and I could choose better snacks. Then I had a late night bowl of cereal. I love Special K cereal and right now I have the fruit and yogurt. Total bites: 9

Friday:

I didn’t go over my bite by much, only by one point actually, but my food choices were very poor. To be fair, Friday is my weekly reset day, but that’s not meant to be an excuse to eat crap all day (that’s for my monthly cheat day). Total daily bites: 35

I don’t have class on Friday, so I didn’t eat until the afternoon and I spent the day in a long bath and under a face mask, so I just put together a snack plate of Ritz, grapes, and cheddar cheese (a favorite combination of mine). Total bites: 5

Then dinner was a smorgasbord of bad choices...delicious bad choices. Sister and I actually made two stops, one at McDonald’s and one at Taco Bell. McD’s is doing the 2 for $5, so I got 10 nuggets and Sister got a Quarter Pounder. Then we went to TB and I just got a Cheesy Gordita Crunch (probably my favorite thing there right now). Total bites: 30

Saturday:

On the weekends I don’t like to exist before 11 am. Yet I still figured out how to spend so many bites in so little time. I did really well until later that night- late night eating always gets me! I went over my daily limit by 11 bites. Total daily bites: 45

Lunch was just a bowl of my current fave cereal, Special K Fruit and Yogurt, with milk. Total bites: 8

Dinner was chicken and broccoli Alfredo with fettuccine. The chicken and the broccoli were free which should mean I was golden on bites, but just wait. Even so, I kept my pasta portion down (mostly because I didn’t have that much in my kitchen) and I didn’t use as much Alfredo sauce as my family would normally use, but they didn’t mind at all. Total bites: 8

Then the late night dessert aka bad choices stepped in and was like “oh, no no. you’re going to eat a ton of sugar and carbs and like it.” So I did. Mom brought home ol’ fashioned donuts (glazed and chocolate) and I just had to have some. I had two glazed and half a chocolate. Total bites: 29

One thing I noticed looking back was that I could either pick a protein-filled, whole foods breakfast or enriched carbs. 

Four bites for a 3 egg omelette and bacon and a banana

or Six for a plain bagel...

It’s most about actually making the food. It’s laziness and ignorance about easy ways to eat good food. I’ll keep on trucking.

I started this system at 258. My weigh in yesterday had me at 254.4. It’s probably more about my schedule becoming busy again then my eh eating.

Lost in dictation,

Jess

[cosmosogler]

i got four bottle caps today. two from fishing, one from collecting shards in the “fun adventure island”, and one when i won the lottery. i should probably go back to trying for gold bottle caps now that i’ve got a good fishing system in place for the silver ones.

that’s not really what i’m gonna talk about too much though.

i woke up before my alarm again, but still put my alarm on snooze when it did finally go off. i did not want to get out of bed at all.

this morning i kinda goofed off and grabbed some of the leftover rice for a quick lunch before i left for therapy. i could only eat like two-thirds of it though, it made me really sick. the only difference between this rice and the rice i had a few days ago was the enchilada sauce. but the bean burrito adventure with enchilada sauce didn’t make me sick before the first leftover meal.

i mostly spent my 45 minutes with the therapist complaining about my parents and worrying about my grad school applications. i gotta email florida back about the enrollment deadline... i’ll do that right after i call uic in the morning. they were 10 minutes closed when i went to call them. just missed.

oh yeah, and she can’t see me next week. so it’ll be two weeks before i see her again. for 45 minutes.

i dunno, that extra 15 minutes i usually get with other therapists makes a big difference... i feel like i don’t have much time to settle in and figure out what’s on my mind. i mean, i have the topics i want to bring up going in, but it takes a bit of meandering for me to really find something i can actually work on that week.

i picked up my meds on the way home and then spent the afternoon hanging out with eve, fishing for bottle caps, watching some tv show reviews and adding them to my watch list, and making myself sick with a small snack. it was a frozen cheese pizza. i put it in the oven and left it in longer than the directions said and it was still cold in one spot, which was frustrating.

when mom came home she asked to see my acceptance letter from florida and the paperwork i gotta send in by monday. she said things like “why aren’t you excited” and “you don’t seem excited” and “i just thought you would be happy that you got into one of your top choices” and “you should be more excited” and it made me kinda mad, so i acted less excited and even more vague and tight-lipped about it.

i watched the wind blow the leaves in the tree in our backyard while mom talked to herself about the logistics of coming to visit. it was nice out, but i didn’t want to go outside. i ended up not taking wiley for a walk today. i wanted to give my bug bites a little time to heal, and also i lost track of time and forgot. i’ll take him for a long walk with asher tomorrow maybe.

oh yeah, she told me about her boss’ daughter’s experience with mental health hospitals. she went to a fancy one down south that apparently cost “90,000 dollars.” she said that the daughter’s diagnosis was that she was “addicted to pain” and “could not be happy unless there was something wrong with her” and she had to have a whole bunch of surgeries before she came home, and also had to stop taking her meds. i kind of squinted at mom, trying to figure out what she was implying. well, that’s a lie. i knew what she was implying. i was trying to figure out if she was doing that on purpose.

i told her about the place i found that i liked and was gonna set up an appointment with before my sister and i leave for the concert next thursday.

quick aside - my sister loves k pop and we have tickets for the bts concert. it is an 8 hour drive away. i spent some time with my therapist trying to figure out what i was gonna do about my meds if the concerts went on late into the night.

anyway, mom decided it was necessary to tell me multiple times throughout the day that my aunt and her sister were both familiar with the mental health facility i was looking at. i couldn’t figure out why, so i ignored it, and then when she came home from work she asked if i had called and asked my aunt about the facility. 

man, i don’t tell no one in my family about how i’m doing except sometimes gramma. i’m pretty sure they can tell there’s something wrong with me, but i don’t talk about it with them and they don’t generally ask other than a casual “how are you today?” which is our usual excuse to launch into long stories about whatever financial garbage we’re dealing with or if something has changed about our summer plans.

you know, stuff that’s more or less relevant to the whole family.

oh yeah, i got super mad in therapy today. not with the therapist. i was telling her about my hospital stays and how mom always talks over me. when i was in the hospital back in january after dad brought me home mom was telling the doctors about how i felt. and they were deferring to her when asking questions about my health! and i asked them to put the iv in my left arm instead of my right, so i could use my right arm, and they totally ignored me. i had to do everything left handed. like paperwork.

and the time after my heart surgery when a radio station mom liked was doing a fundraiser at the children’s hospital. we went to go on air and mom told everyone about how my whole life no one ever knew anything was wrong and it was so scary and she started crying and talking about being a parent. 

i knew something was wrong. i started figuring it out around the time i started wanting to die in christian school. nobody had listened to me. they’d just called me lazy or said i had no pain tolerance. and even after the doctors said, you know, i have a huge heart problem and i am in like a lot of pain whenever i exert myself, i would ask to use a wheelchair at the mall or whatever and mom would say “you don’t really need that. everyone’s going to stare at you.”

so, like, my problem turned into mom’s sob story about how scary it is to have something wrong with your child. the dj never asked me one question about it. i just stared at the two of them sitting on the bench while mom cried into the microphone. i was 11. i knew how to talk.

after that when i would bring up therapy, like, after i turned 18, mom would jump to either i’m seeing a therapist because “you have ptsd from your heart surgery” or “you have autism.” i was talking to a therapist about my... depression and nightmares... but you know, whatever floats your boat mom. tell me more about how i’m addicted to melatonin and my medications turn me into “not yourself.”

man i’ve complained about this like five times and i’m still salty and don’t know what to do about it.

the one useful thing mom told me is that she looked into why doogles is eating poop. apparently pack animals do that to hide their pack’s tracks from other predators when a member of the family is sick, so they don’t get picked off by stronger animals. it is a reasonable fear, considering the coyotes that wander around in the ranch land behind our backyard. they are technically capable of jumping the fence, though i don’t think they would do it while our dogs were actually in the yard.

it’s because she knows eve is not doing well, probably because of the tumor. she tries to cover her own “tracks” too. when dad caught her at it tonight he got super mad and yelled at her. i told him there was a reason and he said he didn’t care. i set my jaw and followed him inside.

i had some stuffed mushrooms as a snack. i feel... ok, i guess. and i had plain pasta for dinner. i couldn’t finish the little bowl and i felt kinda junky but not too nauseous. 

i think i lost track of time and started writing late, because it’s just past 12:40. i know i didn’t start until a few minutes after 12 since i was downstairs eating... i don’t like how easy it is to slip from my schedule. and no matter how early i get to bed i can’t seem to get up before 10. i go to bed at 1, can’t get up before 10. i go to bed close to 12, still get up at 10. i want to have a little more time in the mornings to maybe get stuff done, and a little more time between my morning and lunch medication doses, but that doesn’t seem like it’ll happen unless i can trick myself into getting up at 9 or 9:30.

ah, i forgot to draw today. that’s what it was. i don’t have too much to do tomorrow, just the phone call... and then i’m hanging out with asher in the afternoon. i will put my sketchbook back on my desk so i will see it when i get bored and open up youtube.

there was something else i wanted to talk about, but i think it was kind of a meta anecdote about how fleeting the little moments are, and how difficult they are to capture and write down. every now and then i’ll stop and think, and i’ll want to write the thought down here that evening, and i’ll have totally forgotten what it was by the time i sit down to write. sometimes i’ll send a message about it to asher and then write down what i texted basically word for word, but i don’t like to bother him constantly. 

like, my life in my writing seems to take place in some nebulous black text in white space, but it doesn’t quite... give you the experience i was having, the tile on my feet, the bug bites, diogi snoring behind mom’s chair, the darkness of the house’s downstairs and how the windows are always shuttered, the wind chimes, the specific hue of the sky that always makes me think of my dreams and i can’t figure out why because the sky is usually the wrong color in my dreams. the million side programs running in my head while i try to have a conversation and i end up just saying nothing because why bother, or worse, i have something to say and just freeze up or stutter. and then mom sighs, because of course, and of course i’m just too stupid to talk coherently. one of my feet is super sore on the bottom every time i try to walk barefoot. my stomach is always uncomfortable and i almost always am aware of it. the split skin on my finger’s joint stings all the time. 

there’s just so much stuff that i plain forget to talk about, and my posts ARE ALREADY SO LONG! there is too much that happens in one day to talk about all of it! even when nothing happens!!!

it’s 1 now. i should try to sleep. i’m real thirsty, but if i drink water now i’m gonna have to get up in a half hour.

[irltrexxx]

the ikea post

wow i am so happy!!! i just got back home after a whirlwind shopping day buying white button downs and black pants so i can dress professionally next week at training. this morning looking at recipes (as per usual) i worked up a serious craving for tex mex n every food store i walk past i’ve been eyeballing their aisle looking for tortillas and corn chips. the only tortillas i’ve seen here are sold next to the naan and premade pizzas next to the cheese, and are marketed as thin crust pizza doughs or sandwich wraps. they’re usually pretty thick and inflexible and cost about $3 for 5 tortillas. so i was like “maybe i’ll do nachos.” of course with no oven and pretty bad cheese options i was taking a risk. that was before i knew what my tortilla chip options were limited to: doritos. i did find a bag of corn flavored doritos, which might be regular corn chips, but it was $5 for like 10 chips so i was starting to despair.

then, after i had all but given up and was gonna make taco rice, i found frozen tortillas at the gyomu super (import store, but mostly indian stuff)!!!! 12 fucking tortillas for only $2!!!! and they sold beans!!! pintos were too expensive but i got some kidney beans and tonight’s dinner is ground beef tacos with refried beans and rice (just plain brown...). i even got a dr pepper to celebrate!

alright rest of week...this week i didn’t do too much cuz it was raining most days (even snowed on wednesday). i mainly exercised inside, studied japanese, and watched ru paul’s drag race.

on thursday i had a big adventure day! i took the train to shin yokohama to go to ikea and then met up with sudie’s friend patrick and his wife yuki.

it took me a long time to leave the house cuz i’d gotten so used to being a hermit and it was frickin cold outside! but eventually i did it. walked to the zama station and went 3 stops north to machida, then caught the jr yokohama line to kozukue from which it was a walkable distance to ikea (30 min). that all happened without a hitch! the walk wasn’t too pleasant. it was on the side of a highway and through a lot of construction. they’re building a new elevated rail line and it looked pretty cool, but i had to walk through swarms of construction guards and bow to everyone when they bowed to let me through.

eventually i arrived!!!

i noticed that there was a shuttle bus direct to shin yokohama station where i was meeting patrick and yuki later so thankfully i wouldn’t have to repeat my highway walk.

i had just two things on my shopping list: a lamp for the spare room in the apartment where i do my exercise and sometimes read if patrick is watching tv, or if i want to watch tv but he’s still sleeping. i also wanted new towels cuz the current towels are getting kinda mildewy and ratty.

i thought about using my standby-by ikea tactic: enter through the exit and go straight to the discounted furniture, then go to the you-pick area, avoiding the show room all together. but this is ikea japan! i wanted to savor it, and it really wasn’t too busy. most of the people there were moms with babies walking 3 abreast with their strollers (impossible to pass). i’ve really seem so many babies here it’s hard to believe there’s a population problem.

for the most part everything was normal ikea. kitchens looked the same except they featured just the broiler drawers instead of ovens. bathrooms looked the same except most of the showers were the sit down kind like is in our apartment. i think the selection of dish ware was a little different though....LOTS of little bowls, and even ikea chopsticks!

i know the cafeteria was different, but i opted for a hot dog instead of a sit down experience due to time constraints. i will return for the cafeteria!

also the food section was a little different. they sold alcohol! an elderflower and lemon schnapps and a lager beer in light and dark formats.

i ended up sticking mostly to plan (i’m rly good at telling myself “no don’t buy that”) and bought a lamp, two towels, a hanging clothes organizer, a dark chocolate bar (my kryptonite), and an omiyage (small present) for patrick and yuki. i got them ginger snaps.

i made my way to shin yokohama on the shuttle bus and got to the agreed upon meeting place (starbucks at the train station) just in time! patrick, yuki, and i went to a coffee shop and talked for a few hours. patrick and i have oddly parallel lives...first there’s the sudie/seattle connection, then the japan connection, but he also went to college in north carolina and spent time in philadelphia doing research. yuki and i have lots in common i.e. she loves food too. and she’s been studying italian and wants to go to italy! i told them about wwoof and they said they’d look it up. i think my description of eating ricotta made from milk that was taken the same day, from sheep i fed just that morning, sold her.

we exchanged lots of show suggestions and patrick gave me some really good advice on setting up basics in japan (bank acct etc) and how to avoid being taken advantage of at my new job (a common problem with english teaching jobs in japan). then they walked me to the train gate and we said goodbye for now! i have a feeling we will hang out again yuki said she’s taking french lessons right now in the building next to the one where i’ll be teaching eventually. her capacity for languages puts me to shame.

this weekend and all next week it’s supposed to be super nice (60-70s and sunny). i think i’ll be doing so meal prepping so making lunch and dinner next week won’t be too challenging, and if we feel there’s time/energy i bookmarked some museums i want to check out in yokohama.

happy imminent retirment to my dad! and so long for now!

[edgewaterfarmcsa]

CSA WEEK 9

P I C K L I S T

Tomatoes (red + heirloom) - Carmen Sweet Pepper - Hungarian hot wax pepper -

Patty Pan -  Thai Basil - Soy Beans (EDAMAME) - Corn - Cauliflower -

Eggplant- Asian Eggplant - Red Onion - Yellow Onion - Potatoes

Yall.  It’s real hot and your cauliflower is a big indicator of the weather. 

It was our intention to pick the cauliflower crop for you all on Saturday to avoid the 90 degree days ahead but we got distracted by blueberries, weeds as big as tiny horses, the daily pick, etc… On Monday Ray headed down the road to pick 265 heads of cauliflower for you all- hoping the crop had not fully bolted.  He came back mostly successful, but I am sure you will find some damage and bolt on your cauliflower- this is inevitable as cauliflower is not a fan of humid heat waves (but what New Englander is?).  

In other crop news, our blueberries are beginning to slow down.  While there is plenty of good fruit to pick it’s not as fast picking as it has been the past three weeks, the berries are starting to soften which makes it a little difficult to fill a flat.  As a result we had to make a last minute call to pull blueberries from the CSA this week because we just don’t have enough.  HOWEVER, there are still blueberries for sale at our farmstand, COOP food stores, and BB&P.  Hopefully you will be so thrown off by Thai Basil and Soy Beans that you won’t even notice the loss of everyone’s favorite berry.  

 TIPS - TRICKS - RECIPES:

ON THAI BASIL

https://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/ingredients/article/thai-basil

Perfect for Southeast Asian dishes, the purple-stemmed Thai basil has a bright mint and citrus flavor. 

HOW TO USE: Basil should be added to dishes at the last minute. It is not the kind of herb you should simmer or saute, because it loses its flavor quickly. 

JENNY’S NOTE:   I LOVE THIS HERB!  Freshens up any sandwich, salad, rice bowl, spring roll, cocktail, etc…  

HOW TO STORE

Store basil for up to 1 week in the refrigerator. Leave it in its original plastic container or rinse the leaves, roll them up in paper towels, and place them in a resealable plastic bag for up to about 4 days. Sometimes basil will keep longer if you trim the stems and put them in a glass of water-like you would with fresh flowers, then put a plastic bag over them and refrigerate.

JENNY’S NOTE:  the yogurt sauce, while delicious, is not necessary.  My bottomline here: get outside, and grill your eggplant- its soooooo good.  Some recipes call for salting your eggplant first, this one does not.  However, if you let your eggplant sit too long before use, you may want to salt.  For reference this stuff was picked on Tuesday.  Also, head’s up, eggplant loves heat- do not put your eggplant in the fridge, the fruit prefers being left out on any given countertop.  AND LASTLY, Since your grill is on, you might as well cook your patty pan squash, cauliflower, and onions the same way.  We all need to cook more outside as long as possible because October and down jackets are not that far away people!

1 cup plain yogurt

3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon curry powder

1 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper

2 eggplants (each about 1 pound), cut crosswise into 1-inch-thick rounds

1/4 cup sesame oil

2 tablespoons coriander seeds, cracked

Mix first 5 ingredients in medium bowl; season with salt and pepper. 

DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.

Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Rub eggplant rounds on both sides with sesame oil. Sprinkle it with coriander, salt, and pepper. Grill until slightly charred, about 6 minutes per side.

Arrange eggplant rounds on platter. Serve with yogurt-mint sauce. 

(or not? I say, take your Thai basil, and chop and sprinkle on top)

Soy beans 

When eaten at this young stage they are called Edamame (perhaps you are familiar? )

To eat:

Wash your plants (i tried to run the plants through our washer, but it is not obvious, and many of the plants are still pretty dirty- or you can consider the dirt as a necessary micro-biome protective barrier, so in that case, you’re welcome).  

Pick bean pods off plant

Boil in water for 7ish minutes

Drain water, salt pods, devour immediately

This classic potato-and-cauliflower dish, ubiquitous on Indian restaurant menus, makes for a great make-ahead party dish. You can pre-roast the vegetables, and then whenever you’re ready, throw them in the pan with your spices and onions to finish the dish in 15 minutes.

INGREDIENTS

2 medium russet potatoes, cut into 2"-long sticks

1 medium head of cauliflower, cut into small florets

5 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, divided

1 tsp. cumin seeds

½ tsp. ground turmeric

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 Tbsp. thinly sliced ginger

Pinch of asafetida (optional, but really great)

Pinch of red chili powder

1 tsp. (or more) kosher salt

1 Tbsp. (or more) fresh lime juice

½ cup chopped cilantro leaves with tender stems

RECIPE PREPARATION

Preheat the oven to 400°. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Toss potatoes and cauliflower with 3 Tbsp. oil on prepared sheet. Spread in an even layer and roast, tossing once halfway through, until cauliflower and potatoes are browned and slightly crisped, about 30 minutes. Let cool.

Meanwhile, heat remaining 2 Tbsp. oil in a large skillet over medium-high until it begins to shimmer. Add cumin and cook, stirring frequently, until they turn a medium shade of brown, about 1 minute. Reduce heat to medium and swirl in turmeric. Add onion and cook, stirring frequently, until translucent, 4–6 minutes. Add ginger, asafetida (if using), and chili powder and cook, stirring, until heated through and well combined, about 1 minute longer.

Stir in roasted potatoes and cauliflower, including any charred bits from the foil, and gently mix (don’t overmix, or the cauliflower will fall apart). Add salt and cook, tossing occasionally, until potatoes and cauliflower are tender (but not soggy!), 5–6 minutes. Remove from heat and add lime juice. Taste and add more lime juice or salt, if needed.

 Transfer potatoes and cauliflower to a platter. Top with cilantro.

[yayouayang-blog]

Day 11: Sunday, September 15th

For church today, I just put on some concealer and eyebrow gel. At church, there is a sense that you must be dressed and lean towards a more semi-casual look. But I’ve always had an issue with this growing up. I tend to lean towards more casual outfits but I do my best to still make a good impression amongst the elders. I wore jeans and a plain t-shirt with some gold earrings. Pride and how “nice” you look is very important in the Hmong church system, although not directly said out loud. I am a Sunday school teacher for children in Kindergarten through the first grade. Every morning, one of the older men bring in hot white rice porridge for the church to enjoy. Since it’s early in the morning, the children love this as breakfast. They would eat more than a bowl and always put way too many condiments in it. I ate my own bowl before starting class.

Halfway throughout the day, I felt dehydrated and grabbed a plastic water bottle. I drank about half and saved the rest for later. Today, we learned about the story of when Jesus fed the 5,000. Since he broke bread from two loaves and multiplied five fish, we made a bread basket and then colored and cut out two loaves of bread and five fish using paper and paper plates. After church, I went on Twitter to look at Seventeen’s new teaser photos for their new album. Seventeen is one of my favorite k-pop groups consisting of thirteen members. Whenever there is a release of a new album or single song, the wave calls it a ‘comeback.’ In contrast to American music advertising, the entertainment companies send out teaser images a month in advance, highlighting each members new concepts and their songs. For the next week, I plan to be deeply invested into this comeback period.

At home, my parents bought food so we ate sticky purple rice, Hmong sausage, fried chicken, and some Hot Ruffles while watching YouTube videos aimlessly. After eating, I washed the dishes and worked on homework for the rest of the day. This consisted of mostly Web Design and Typography - working on figuring out HTML codes and fixing my monogram and poster edits. I went to sleep earlier than usual around 10:00pm. I know that there’s going to be a live showcase tomorrow morning running on Korean time so I needed my sleep.