#I can have my whole summer ruined by 3 (4) different england sides!

[kyogos]

I suffer with chronic mental illness (always thinking about england teams)

[boldlyvoid]

Amoreena | chapter eleven

chapter eleven

main summary: Heaven is a real place and it's located exactly 14.6 miles away from the FBI, Quantico Headquarters. Off behind a small park, under a fantastical willow tree surrounded by wildflowers, in every colour young minds can imagine.

Don't forget, heaven also comes with angels.

Chapter Warnings: Y/N POV: details of what happened to Stephen, her grandmas cancer, and very detailed explanations of how babies are made (as biologically accurate and not very graphic as possible) this is an angsty trauma filled chapter that made me cry a lot just writing it so I'm sorry in advance

word count: 3K

from the beginning <3

June 13th, 2010

There’s a knock on her parent's door at 4 in the morning, Y/N’s sound asleep on the couch back at her grandma’s, awoken by said grandmother as she hears all the noise beyond the porch. There are 2 cop cars at the main house, worry starts to settle over them.

She puts on a pair of shoes, taking her grandmother's hand in hers as they begin the early morning trek up the road, anxiety seeping in deeper and deeper as they get closer to the lights illuminating their driveway.

Her father is talking to an officer on the steps, her mother is crying behind him. “We’re so sorry for your loss,” the officer says and Y/N’s blood runs cold, numbing her from the impending despair.

“What happened?” Her grandmother asks, rubbing a hand along Y/N’s back in preparation for the worst.

“Evan was in a car accident,” her father says softly, knowing that Y/N knows Stephen was with him tonight. She breaks away from her grandma and without thinking she’s right in the officer's face.

“Which one of them died?”

“Ma’am,” it was never a good way to start the worst conversation of her life with that word or in that tone. She felt like a '40s housewife learning her husband wasn’t coming home from the war, only he wasn’t even her husband yet.

He would have been on next Saturday.

“I’m sorry, Stephen was pronounced dead on the scene,” he says the worst sentence she’s ever heard, and now she’ll never forget it. “The passenger side took the worst of it, once again, I am so sorry for your loss.”

She’s surprisingly calm, managing to whisper, “thank you,” before she’s walking off into the field, pushing everyone's hands away as she travels as far as he feet will take her.

She ends up at the willow tree by the pond as soon as the sun is rising, it happened a lot earlier in June than the rest of the year. The birds singing, the wind blowing against the leaves making them carry a tune in harmony together. The world is still spinning, life is moving on, but how?

She sat there against the tree for a while, picking blades of grass and weaving them into a chain, soothing her brain as she makes a pattern. Giving her hands something to do so they stop going numb, it’s the only thing that really reminds her that she's real, that she’s controlling the twists and tucks, the shape and length and the fact that it was created at all.

Ending the life of the single blade of grass as she picks it, never to be whole again. Snatched from its happy place, where it grew loved and surrounded by other matching green strands as they blew in the wind.

Then she's pulling fist full after fist full of grass out of the dirt, her hands covered in mud as she shouts, throwing handfuls of grass and dirt towards the pond. The once blue water starting to turn cloudy; disrupted and upset with her anger as it swallows her weapons, but it doesn’t make her feel better. All she did was disrupt the earth, changing the way this once beautiful patch of land used to look. She couldn’t help but sob, realizing that she was like this field now and her beautiful green pasture was disrupted, overturned and ruined.

The life that flowed through her died along with the love of her life.

“Stephen was pronounced dead on the scene,” the words echo in her mind in a constant circle like she’s stuck in a tin can.

It starts to reverberate, getting louder and louder as the same 7 words all run around in her head. Bouncing off the walls, smacking her down again and again as she hears them over and over and over… she’s holding her hands on her ears, shaking back and forth, sobbing when she feels someone wrap their arms around her.

She doesn’t open her eyes, instead, she's rushing to push them off of her, struggling out of their grasp as she fights them. Finally, she loses, being held in her brother's embrace as they both cry, he barely has a scratch on him when she finally looks at him.

she’s never been physical in her life, but she punched him right in the face. Her twin brother, best friend in childhood and the person she’s known the longest in her life. He held her close in the womb, crying if they separated as soon as they were born, she loved him deeply and yet she hated him something fierce at that moment.

“It wasn’t my fault,” Evan cries, “we were stopped at a red light, Y/N!”

“I don’t care! He was supposed to be my husband!” She swats at him, smacking his arms again and again as he tries to hold them back, holding her so tightly as she basically screams bloody murder in the field.

All she can see is his face, her beautiful happy Stephen. The first time she ever saw him, standing under a street light in Boston, papers in his hand and wonder in his eyes. The way he looked up at her, the glow of the light making a halo glow over his head.

She should have known he was too good to be true. Always destined to return to the heavens, he was truly angelic with his big emerald eyes that were only the tiniest bit yellow on the edge of the pupil, the way her name sounded on his tongue like a blessing coming true.

They buried him 2 days after what was supposed to be their wedding. Disrupting another beautiful patch of earth to hide him away forever, she placed a single rose on his casket, she never said goodbye and she never planned to.

“See you later, superstar,” she patted the glossy black box once last time before sending him down into the earth.

—

September 2012

This fucking willow tree and 7-word sentences…

“What do you mean you have cancer?”

Her grandma let a tear slip from her eye, “I’ve got colon cancer, honey, the doctors said I have another 2 years, maybe 5 if I'm lucky.”

Every time someone sat beside her in this one spot, she learned the worst information in the world. Sure Evan didn’t mean to kill Stephen, doesn’t mean she’s talked to him at all in the last year. with Grandpa dying only a few summers back, her favourite house cat now buried in the yard, she can’t lose her grandma now too.

“Okay,” she starts to plan in her head, her eyes about ready to jump out of her skull as she tries to think of all the things they need to do before it’s too late, “let’s go to England, let’s blow my bank account, you can’t leave me without going to England with me? We were supposed to get tea and pretend to be the queen and princess?”

She couldn’t stop the tears, her whole body heaving as she sobbed into her grandma’s dress, “you can’t leave me too!”

“Your grandfather and I have a fund for you, you were the last baby we got to raise when your mom went back to work, I want you to use it for that baby we talked about,” her grandma’s voice is barely a whisper, softly getting the words over her vocal cords as the tears joined Y/N’s on her dress.

Without another word, she took her hand and walked home, getting in her car together and heading to the closest fertility clinic, she booked her first insemination for February, pre-paying for a round of IVF hormones and everything to start in January, she had 3 months to plan.

Finding the perfect donor was the only hard part. She had 3 different books to choose from with all the clinics in the DC area sharing 1 sperm bank. She finally made her decision 3 weeks before they were set to get her pregnant when they updated the books.

Sample 2319, male 30’s, healthy, high IQ, 6’1, brown eyes, brown hair (curly). “Sounds a lot like Stephen,” her grandma agreed, saying his name for the first time in over 2 years, she knew this was her guy.

—

June 14th, 2021

Peeing on a stick shouldn’t be as terrifying as it is.

She hasn’t been this nervous since the first time Dr. Collins inseminated her. Laying back on the table at a weird elevation to make sure she got pregnant, her whole body tense as she thought of the possibilities of her future child.

Sample 2319 sitting in a cup not too far from her face as she prepared for a man she barely knew to put the semen of another man she didn’t know, inside her. She only picked this guy cause he was smart and tall, no health issues to report and the number made her think of Monsters Inc.

In her mind, she made a baby with a man she named mike wazowski, not knowing his real name was actually Spencer Reid and he was only just down the road at Quantico the whole time. It was the weirdest day ever, and then it became the second-best day of her life

Nothing could top holding her baby in her arms for the first time. Her grandma and mother beside her as they all cried, the perfect purple baby screaming on her chest as they tried to wipe the white gunk off her tiny body. her sweet little coos, seeing her swollen eyes open for the first time, the silence that overcame her as they made their first introduction to each other. Her little person, the love of her life, her wonderful Amoreena.

Her cry was perfect, like music to her ears she wanted to hear her little voice as long as she could because it meant she was alive and real. She was healthy and beautiful and the most perfect bundle of joy she could have ever made.

Now she was hiding in the bathroom to pee on a stick while her 7-year-old had breakfast in the next room. Oh, how times changed, but one thing remained the same, she was finding out alone again. Only this time she meant for that to happen, it was exactly 4 days since her period was supposed to start and it wasn’t there, neither was Spencer.

He had something to do that morning, but he’d be meeting them later that afternoon, it was Amoreena’s last day of kindergarten after all. She wanted time to either enjoy the thought of having another baby or cry in peace because for once it didn’t work, giving her a week to recover before trying again.

Amoreena was a miracle, the easiest IVF baby they ever made at the clinic, apparently. If she was pregnant this easily again it was a sure sign that he was Amoreena’s father too, only he could get her knocked up while not even trying.

She didn’t remember pregnancy tests taking this long, she flipped it over and walked out of the room, unable to think of anything else while she waited for 3 minutes to pass. Amoreena noticed she was being weird, studying her mother's movements as she paced the hall outside of the bathroom door.

“What are you doing?” She asked, curious as ever as she twirled lightly in her new princess dress.

“Can you keep a secret?”

“Always mom, I’m the best secret keeper in all the kingdom, remember?” Amoreena smiled, holding onto her leg as she stared up at her.

“Your dad and I tried to make a baby,” she whispered, petting the litter hairs on her forehead as Amoreena looked up at her, her first little baby. “I’m waiting to find out if it worked, but we can’t tell anyone in case it didn’t, okay?”

Amoreena’s eyes were wider than she’s ever seen them, her mouth opened slowly as she understood the words in her mind. She didn’t look happy or surprised, nor upset or worried. She looked confused, “how?”

She laughed then, shaking her head as she lifted Amoreena into her arms, she would have to know soon anyway. “You know how every month mummy has a bad week where she bleeds and her tummy hurts?”

“Yeah?”

“When people with our parts grow up they make little tiny eggs but we don’t lay them like chickens do, they stay inside our tummies and wait to become babies and if they don’t we have a period and release all the stuff our bodies saved up that month to make a little person. You’ll have one soon too in a few years, probably when you're 12 like I was, and when people with a penis get old enough they’re able to help us make the babies like roosters help the chickens. Our bodies are really special and make some really cool things when we try to,” she explained it in the most simple farmhouse way she could.

“Like when the goats are all born in the spring and they just show up?” She tried to clarify, understanding it at the basic level.

“Kinda, you’ve seen the photos of you in my tummy and how aunty Shannon’s stomach grew when she had your cousins, I’ll get really big like that too if I’m pregnant, the baby will grow for 9 long months till they’re nice and healthy and then we’ll have another person in the family,” she couldn’t help but smile as she thought about it.

“How do we find out?”

She opened the bathroom door then and carried Amoreena inside, setting her down on the sink and pointing at the upside-down test stick. “We create a special hormone when we’re pregnant, it’s something that can be detected in our pee!” she explained it like it was magic, watching her get excited instead of grossed out.

“So I peed on that stick and if it has 2 lines I have a baby in my tummy, if not then your dad and I have to try again.”

Amoreena picked up the test and looked at it, keeping it out of her mothers sight as she did so, “there’s two lines,” she lit up waving the stick lightly as she squealed.

Y/N wrapped her up in her arms and twirled her around, “you’re gonna be the best big sister ever!”

“How do we tell dad?” Amoreena’s soft voice whispered in her ear as she snuggled into her shoulder.

“I have an idea,” she whispered back before carrying her back into the kitchen.

Her All About Me project was sitting on the counter, ready for Y/N to drive her into school today. She set Amoreena down on the floor to watch her as she took some tape and taped the stick to the bottom corner of the project. “Pass me the marker, please?”

Amoreena ran to the counter to get it, coming back and placing it in her mom's hand before leaning in to watch what she was writing.

“I’m going to be a big sister sometime next February!” Amoreena read the words as her mother wrote them, unbelievably excited.

“Your dad can read that at the ceremony tonight!”

“I thought you said we can’t tell anyone yet?” Amoreena questioned her, like always.

“Your teacher can know, the other kids won't know what it means, it’s just important Spencer sees it, but we will wait to tell nanny and poppy, okay? Sometimes the babies don’t always stay, it’s sad so we keep it a secret until they’ve got a tiny little heartbeat in there,” she didn’t want to scare her, but she knew it was always a possibility.

“Then we try again,” Amoreena smiled, “It’ll be easier now that you don’t need Dr. Collins to help you, how did you even make me without Spencer?” She didn't use his real name often anymore, only in times when she wasn't referring to him as her father.

She sat down then, pulling Amoreena into her lap so she could hold her while she thought of the right words. “So we have eggs, but people with penises have something called sperm. When adults, and I mean adults you have to be at least 25 to have a baby it’s the rules,” she teased her slightly, ticking her arms.

“Adults have sex, babies are made when someone with a vagina and someone with a penis get together. But when you don’t have a partner with a penis to help, sometimes they’ll donate their sperm to the doctor's offices to help people like me make their perfect little families all by themselves.”

“Interesting,” is all her little mind can say, she has learned so much in one day, Y/N was surprised she was still listening and surprisingly still for once. “Is it a boy or a girl?”

“We won't know for a while,” she smiled, holding Amoreena closer to her chest. “How do you feel about all this?”

Amoreena was quiet as she thought about it, “is Spencer the guy who gave the doctors the sperm for me?”

“We think so, but we don’t know, why?”

Amoreena looked at her softly, “it wouldn’t be fair, I know he said I don’t need a father but why do they get to have him for both?”

“I think Spencer is your father, you’re just as smart and wonderful as he is, there’s no doubt in my mind that you’re his baby too. but if you want to know if he isn't, when you turn 18 the doctors will tell you who it is, it's completely up to you to find out,” she whispered, the tears starting to fall down her cheeks as Amoreena tried to wipe them away.

"I like thinking he's my father, so he is." Her mind worked in the most wonderful way. Y/N couldn’t help but hold her close as she lightly cried, “I had a dream yesterday that I had 8 sisters,” her voice was so soft and innocent as her tiny hand cupped her mother's cheek.

She gasped lightly at the words, remembering Spencer’s panic in the middle of the night last night, how scared he was to leave her all alone with 9 babies and no one to help her. They knew something that she didn’t yet, cheaper by the dozen seemed less like a dream and more like a prophecy.

“I’m so happy to make your dream come true,” Y/N whispered, “I promise I’m happy, the baby just makes me emotional.”

Amoreena placed her hand on her tummy then, “I love you, baby.”

Y/N stuck her tummy out as far as she could, “I love you too, big sister,” she said in a funny voice to make Amoreena laugh, leaning back in the chair as she held her.

And just like that, getting pregnant with Amoreena was bumped into 3rd place for the best day of her life. Sharing the moment with her and no one else was perfect, insuring she knew that she was just as important moving forward as the little person she was growing this time.

tag list: @shemarmooresfedora @spencers-dria @spookyspence @reidsfish @manuosorioh @mochionly @samuel-de-champagne-problems @jswessie187 let me know if you would like to be added as well!!

[needsmoresarcasm]

Favorite Books of 2019

I read a bunch of books in 2019. I loved a lot of them. Here are my ten favorites.

10. Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language, Gretchen McCulloch

Most books about internet culture are garbage because they are written from the perspective of someone who is outside internet culture. Gretchen McCulloch, I am positive, is a part of internet culture. She was on fandom mailing lists and had a LiveJournal, I’m sure. She had to be to write Because Internet, which is an incredibly well written book about how language has evolved to fit online discourse. Because Internet is so fascinating, as it is able to explain thoughtfully (and compellingly) many things that internet people understand inherently. It parses through the evolution of a keysmash or an emoji. And it really helps show how language on the internet is not somehow the deterioration of language, but just another natural step forward.  9. HHhH, Laurent Binet

Originally written in French, HHhH deals with the entire genre of historical fiction. The narrator in HHhH is writing a novel about the murder of Reinhard Heydrich, a high-ranking Nazi official. That novel-within-the-novel is the bulk of the actual HHhH. But the narrator, who has spent years researching the actual facts, struggles with how much history and how much fiction he should be putting into the book. And so the book explicitly plays with the reader’s expectations, and comments at times on paths the story could take. The book works without the metatextual commentary, it’s propulsive and a little wry. But the added layer really just adds to the intrigue: what’s historical fiction supposed to do? And does any of it even matter? 8. Out East: Memoir of a Montauk Summer, John Glynn

Out East is a coming out memoir that deals with entirely internal struggles and not external hardships. Of course, there is an incredible amount of privilege at play for a coming out to be devoid of external hardships. And yes, the memoir, about a group of (mostly white) friends who rent a beach house in Montauk for a summer, is steeped in privilege, which John Glynn is acutely aware of. But John Glynn is not asking for your sympathy, he is instead telling a deeply personal story about self discovery and sexuality in the 2010s. He captures the world-shattering confusion and fear of learning that you don’t know yourself in a visceral way that still somehow maintains perspective. I cannot say that this book is for everyone, but man, was it for me.

7. Red, White & Royal Blue, Casey McQuiston The year was 2019, and everything was awful. Enter Red, White & Royal Blue, a wildly escapist fantasy that dared to dream: what if the world wasn’t on fire? So Red, White & Royal Blue is truly the most escapist novel out there, a fun romp of a romantic comedy that is entirely unconcerned with the disasters of reality. No, we’re just going to take the biracial son of the first female President of the United States and the charming, responsible prince of England and let them fall in love. Let hijinks ensue. Let this wonderful, bubblegum, fizzy drink of a novel enter your brain and wipe away all your worries. God, I had a blast reading this novel. Make everything gay 2020.

6. Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That’ll Ruin and/or Improve Everything, Kelly & Zach Weinersmith

Soonish is the exact kind of nonfiction that I want. It made me feel smarter and also made me laugh. Soonish takes on exactly what its subhead describes: ten emerging technologies (robotics, fusion power, asteroid mining, bioprinting!) that may or may not prove disastrous. It walks through the current science and then the possibilities, and how far off those possibilities are. And then it walks through the potential benefits and consequences. It’s an incredibly accessible read, written with the right balance of information and levity, striking that xkcd Randall Munroe balance. And it also has very funny comics and illustrations interspersed throughout, which will just bring your life so much joy.

5. Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson

Too real. Just Mercy is too real. This is not the right space to get into all that this book says about racial injustice and the flaws of the American justice system. It says a lot, and it says it extremely powerfully. But Just Mercy is Bryan Stevenson’s memoir, too. And it’s equally powerful for what it reveals about Stevenson. It’s so incredibly intimate, and Stevenson really lets the reader into his mind. And I think that openness really makes the whole thing land. Because Stevenson is hopeful and dedicated, and being that close to his inner thoughts ends up turning his story into something inspiring, not enervating. There’s an anecdote about an old woman on a bench outside the courthouse that Stevenson describes, and Stevenson’s retelling is so sure of the overwhelming, indomitable potential goodness of the human spirit that I may have shed a tear. Or two. Or a hundred.

4. The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller

I’m not usually one for deeply tragic stories, but The Song of Achilles I guess is the exception that proves the rule. Locked into the Iliad’s telling of Achilles and Patroclus’ fate, The Song of Achilles feels tragic from the first line. But every sentence builds their relationship and makes you invested, even as tragedy looms. The writing is gorgeous and almost musical; the passion swells and crashes like an orchestra. The book smartly focuses on Patroclus’s humanity to ground Achilles. It’s through Patroclus that we see and understand Achilles, which makes the sharp turns, where we see through Achilles, cut even deeper. In any event, the whole affair is horrifyingly romantic, and I loved it.

3. Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi

Everything about Homegoing is spectacularly audacious. It is an economical 300 page book with the weight, scope, and ambition of a thousand page page epic fantasy series. Homegoing begins by telling the story of two sisters who, by the whims of circumstance or luck or fate, end up on wildly divergent paths. In Ghana in the 18th century, one is sold into slavery and the other marries an Englishman. Homegoing then follows the parallel paths of their descendants through eight generations. Though Homegoing only devotes a single chapter to each character, it manages to develop those characters and their specific settings in more detail than some entire books can. And these chapters are great not only because of what they say about the larger themes of racism and colonialism and family and history, but because of the nuanced, particularized stories they’re able to tell about the individuals.

2. Picture Us in the Light, Kelly Loy Gilbert

Contemporary Young Adult books can feel hit or miss for me. Many of them end up feeling a little shallow or juvenile. And this isn’t a criticism of the books, but a necessary side effect of the fact that I’m not the intended audience. But Picture Us in the Light knocked me over with more force than any “adult” book I read.

Picture Us in the Light, at first blush, is a typical story about Danny Cheng, a Chinese American high school student worrying about getting into college, swirls with weighty plot elements--suicide, citizenship, poverty, familial sacrifice--but never resorts to melodrama. Each issue is treated with a deft, steady hand. But more than anything, it is just the story of Danny Cheng trying to figure out his life. His voice is specifically crafted to reflect everything he is: an aspiring artist, the child of immigrants, Asian American, maybe queer, a Californian, and, maybe most importantly, a teenager. Because Picture Us in the Light turns the youth of its genre, its audience, and its main character into an asset; it channels that unformed teenage energy of wonder, uncertainty, and anxiety to heighten every emotional beat. And mostly, it brims with empathy and optimism for Danny and, really, for everyone.

1. The Starless Sea, Erin Morgenstern

The Starless Sea is the reason I read books. As a kid, I fell in love with reading by devouring entire series, getting lost in a fictional world for days or weeks or months at a time. What made reading so addicting was the feeling of being entirely immersed in the currents of a story. It’s a feeling I don’t get from books much any more. I read too fast, I think too much, and, mostly, I’m too easily distracted. But The Starless Sea brought that feeling of having just spent two weeks reading every Redwall or Lord of the Rings or Ender’s Game book and no longer being able to discern reality from fiction. And for that blissful literary hangover, it was the best book I read in 2019.

The Starless Sea is about Zachary Ezra Rawlins, a video game design graduate student, who comes across an old, unmarked book in his school library. In that book, he comes across a story that impossibly contains a moment from his past, and the book proceeds to unravel that mystery. However, this plot summary is misleading in its linearity; The Starless Sea is structured as books within a book, chapters will switch from the story of Zachary to the story Zachary is reading to maybe a different story altogether. And in this way, it unfolds as a puzzle box, or maybe as nesting dolls, or maybe a Mobius strip (or maybe all three), where figuring out exactly what stories are being told only adds to the experience. 

You won’t find a review of this book that doesn’t call Erin Morgenstern’s writing beautiful or atmospheric or dreamlike, which is appropriate because Erin Morgenstern’s writing is beautiful and atmospheric and dreamlike. Between the whimsical descriptive flourishes and the outward spiraling fantastical plot, the book is always on the verge of floating away or spinning out. But Zachary Ezra Rawlins grounds the story; he’s real and genuine and good, and never have I rooted more for a character. He believes in the power of a great story, and that’s ultimately what this book is about: the ways in which a story can sweep you away. And, truly, The Starless Sea just washed over me, lifted me up, and swept me away.

[abiteofnat]

GOD FORBID I WANT A MASON JAR WEARING A COWBOY HAT FULL OF ANYTHING...

Because guess what? Turns out my significant love for that bayou-slash-open-road-country life makes me a big ole weenie. As someone who’s incredibly open about their love for country music, bandanas, tall boys, and the seafood ways of the South, I have quickly discovered that only select people will understand and respect this part of my life. My parents? Heck nOPE. My coworkers? Heckled me to death after they found out I went to the Country Lake Shake Festival (which will be discussed more later, so leave now if you’re already like noooo thanks goodbye bon soir)! 

Ever since my mom, my sister and I went to New Orleans and Alabama for a family wedding last year, I have fallen head over heels in love with spicy cajun food, butter pickles, driving with the windows down and playing Dylan Scott, and Corona Lite with a lime popped in. I dream of shrimp & grits and I’ll be damned if a weekend night doesn’t end with something crisp and at least 4% alcohol, even if it’s a beer & bath affair. But in Chicago? Keep your country side a secret unless you want your ass whooped. That’s why I am so excited for this post: my top three favorite ways to feel like it’s a down-South summer day year round in Chitown. 

Quick explanation of WHY I love this emerging side of me before I get a whole lotta sass: Country music tells a story like no other genre does. While rap is celebrated for over-sexualizing women and probably leading to most of the sex happening in this country because who doesn’t feel frisky when they listen to fucking Fetty Wap, country is seen as disgusting and stupid even if it tells a narrative of falling in love and getting married and living a WONDERFUL LIFE TOGETHER. SO WHAT IF PICKUP TRUCKS ARE INVOLVED. IS YOUR MOM’S MINI VAN THAT MUCH BETTER??? Also, the food in the South is made with so much more attention, history, flair, and f l a v o r. In every bite there are a hundred spices, and in every spice there’s a piece of history. The recipes, the heritage, the attention to how textures compliment each other. The way people openly enjoy messy food and want to share and there is no other option than just be happy for that meal. You may all disagree, that’s fine. I just know that despite all of this country’s flaws, all of the past years of splitting hairs and choosing sides, grits are still good. Sometimes, y’all, life really is that simple. And that’s ok for as long as it takes to eat some fucking cornbread. 

1. The Fish Bar! 

As said on their Insta page, “New Orleans meets New England style restaurant in Lakeview” and that could not be more accurate! My foodie groupies Erin, Chelsea, & Luzi have a taste for anything and everything so we often try to hit somewhere new & different when we meet for dinner so that hopefully one day we can cross EVERY DARN RESTAURANT OFF our Chicago bucket list, and this last soiree was at The Fish Bar in Lakeview. Located right off the Wellington Brown Line stop, this cozy bar-meets-cookout vibe offers a huge selection of specialized cocktails served in mason jars and decently priced wine as well as tacos, “angry” tots, and a whole lotta seafood. Erin’s choice was the Satchmo Po’boy, a mix of crawfish and shrimp slathered in butter pickles and thrown on a thick n’ buttery bun, kettle chips on the side and eaten by mostly me. She also ordered the “Angry Tots”, a version of tater tots involving spicy aioli and some spices that will not make you angry but will certainly make your tastebuds say WHAT TO HECK?! They are a great compliment to all of the items on the menu, and a bite of tot with a sip of the refreshing (and pink!) cocktail I got? Fan-freakin-tastic. This cocktail not only looked like me in drink form, but also offered a delicious taste of vodka mixed with bubbles, strawberries, freshly picked basil, and a wee bit of cucumber. 

For my entree I got the Shrimp Tacos, a solid choice for my pescatarian ways whenever I’m overwhelmed by how many things I want and 9/10 end up being a lovely choice wherever I order them. These ones really took the cake, so much so I took the description right off the site: “served with red & green salsa, roast peppers, cauliflower, jalapeno crema, cilantro, guacamole, arugula.” Um, jalapeno crema? Need ANYONE SAY MORE?! 

This place is perfect for happy hour and apps as well as date night with friends or ya lover, as the inside is adorable and intimate but the outside offers views on the passersby and allows you to sit at a picnic table! Not to mention the baby blue brick wall with an epic fish design on it, perfect for photo ops. 

2. Low Country!

Ok, this place is beyond epic. Let me set the scene: you walk in and you’re greeted with a wall of garlic so strong you’re salivating but also aware that you’re going to smell like this until the next time you’re under a boiling hot shower. There are rows on rows of checkerboard-clad picnic tables and a giant vintage trough in the middle complete with beautiful faucets for washing hands (very important later), and a long bar that offers happy hour deals that Erin and I took great pleasure in. We got peach beer (!!!) and ordered, as you do at Low Country, a pound of seafood mixed with corn on the cob, potatoes, and a stew of cajun + garlic seasoning. They bring it to you in a giant boil bag still tied, wait for you to put on your bib (which you DEFINITELY WANT TO PUT ON), and then slam it down and cut off the top, releasing a force field of steam and smells so good your tongue literally rolls out of your mouth and lays on your lap until you put seafood on it. I got a pound of shrimp, Erin got a pound of snow crab, and sleeves were rolled up to our armpits to allow the messiest meal ever to commence. 

Is there anything as satisfying as eating a full meal with your hands? No worries, no holding back, just absolutely covered in sauce and drinking beer when you can without dropping it and then suddenly you sit back and realize you ate 1-2 pounds of food without really stopping? You can’t do this everyday because it will lose the magic, but the boil bag experience is one to definitely put on your list. It’s fun, it’s freeing, it’s freaking delicious. Between the succulent corn and the meaty, steamy shrimp that you bite right on out of the tail, it will fill you to the brim but leave you dreaming of more. I can honestly say this meal goes into my Top Ten Best Meals Ever, which is kindaaa impressive!   

*EDIT: Since this post was created and put int he queue, I have since gone back with Luzi and it still stands to be one of the best meals ever ever ever. And I tried the cajun fries, which are CERTAINLY worth it esp. when you swirl them in that boil bag sauce. 

3. Lake Shake!

No, this is not a restaurant, or even a real foodie experience. I just had to delve into the small things that made this such a perfect summer day; for one, there were a million food options at this three-day music festival on Northerly Island in Chicago including a whole vegan tent (!!!) and a million little nibbles that looked amazing, which is kind of rare for music festivals! It wasn’t just ice cream or french fries if you were vegetarian there- which to be honest shocked me, since it’s a country festival and meat is the way of the world down there. But between the vegan nachos, the walking taco, the mac & cheese INSIDE a BREAD CONE... options for days. My goodness. 

The drinks were fab as well! For an ungodly fee you could get their “signature” drink, a vodka lemonade with some blue raspberry flavoring and lemon inside this sick Live Nation cowboy-hat cup, and it was an easy choice for us to commit to that. Bonus? THE CUP DOUBLES AS A PIGGY BANK WHEN YOU’RE DONE. Brilliant. Even though it was pricey, it got me daytime lit so that when Luzi and I saw Dylan Scott perform I was in my dancing and singing-out-loud-very-loudly prime which is the other best part of country music: EVERYONE JUST WANTS TO DANCE. AND SMILE. AND FALL IN LOVE A LITTLE. It was such a feel-good environment that when Luzi suggested we get a couple tall boys before Rascal Flatts went on I did not fight back and we ended up sitting on the lawn just taking in the day for a while with some Bud Lights. 

Even if country music isn’t your thing, you still have to admit any day with festive drinks is a good one. Already can’t wait to go back next year! 

That rounds up a few of my favorite ways to embrace the shade, and I hope you go try a boil bag and ruin all of your clothes in the process because it is sooo worth it. If you hated this whole post, I get it, you hate fun. Stay tuned for what’s coming soon!

Until next time, Happy Eating!

-Natalie

[wolfdiaries]

A childhood of travelling Mediterranean Spain has made me a sun baby and after a decade in England, I have some serious wanderlust. Here’s my current bucket list of places I want to explore ASAP (in order of most to least desperately) and why.

1. Bali, Indonesia

I’m actually planning a trip to Bali next year and I couldn’t be more excited. To me, Bali is a dream come true: its natural beauty, rich cultural heritage and dirt cheap luxury villas spell paradise. I’m hoping to explore Ubud (made famous by “Eat Pray Love” starring Julia Roberts), Canggu, the numerous religious temples and art galleries like Anang Rai art gallery and Neka Art museum.

Bali is a well-known holiday destination among Australians for its surf as well as its natural beauty. It’s also popular for yoga retreats, so I’m hoping to go away for some well-needed aerial yoga to practise my trapeze and silks as well as catch some waves in the sun. *sigh*

  2.Thailand

Another country I’ve been gagging to explore for years. I was very jealous when my close friend went travelling across Thailand for a few months with his then girlfriend, so I’ll definitely ask for some tips when I go and hopefully it’ll be some day soon.

I get the impression that the UK is somewhat conflicted in its stereotypes of Thailand as a travel destination. With the image of numerous idyllic islands like Phuket and Ko Tao sporting dazzling beaches and rain-forests set against the image of seedy city strip joints, prostitution and dangerous, sweaty traffic, I think Thailand scares some people. This reaction fairly understandable, however wherever someone is considered rich simply from the area they come from is going to be harder on the locals than the tourists.

Pai, in the Mai Hong Soon province is a small town that is considered a bubbling goldmine of culture, beauty and cheap activities, including hot springs, markets, hammock cafes and waterfalls. It’s very laid-back. I’d also be very keen to visit Railay Beach on the west peninsula, go island hopping and visit Bangkok for a bit more of a buzz.

3. Budapest, Hungary

I was going to visit Budapest this summer for the music festival Budafest, however it clashed with Boomtown in Hampshire, UK. Budapest is widely renowned for its decadent architecture, food, as well as its rich and exciting cultural attractions. I, like anyone else, travel for three main reasons: food, nature and culture. To me, Budapest is an irresistible city, with its famous thermal winter baths, markets full of street food and bright, gothic castles.

Hungary’s mistreatment of the refugees that attempt to pass through it is very upsetting, however they aren’t the only country guilty, the UK especially have their role to play. It’s quite hard to find much information online on the the current refugee situation there now so when I go, possibly in January 2019 if I can gather the funds, I’d really like to get a picture of what’s happening.

Hungarian culture isn’t something I’m very knowledgeable on, so researching and learning a bit of Hungarian in preparation for a visit to its capital city would be a wonderful opportunity to soak up its culture and history, most of it shrouded in mystery to the average Brit.

4. Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona is a really special place to me; it’s my home-city. My parents moved when I was two. I’ve only been there twice since, but it’s the coolest city I’ve ever been to. It feels like home as soon as you step off the plane. Everywhere you look you’re greeted with music, art, architecture and food. Among its most famous attractions are Gaudi’s church of the “Sagrada Família” (along his many other works), Primavera Sound festival, the Gothic Quarter known for its in tact medieval style buildings, and La Rambla walk; a renowned boulevard full of street performers and market stalls. Unfortunately, La Rambla is now famous for its terror attack in 2017, but is generally considered very safe, even from pick-pockets.

Despite Cataluña’s ongoing political conflict with the Spanish government and frequent riots, Barcelona is home to a wealthy range of different cultures and music festivals. It has become very touristy all year round which is a source of anguish for most the locals but I couldn’t recommend it more. It’d be impossible to go and not get something out of it, no matter what you go looking for. Another unmissable attraction is the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art. Also, due to it’s growing multiculturalism and university, Barcelona has become vegetarian and vegan friendly, which is uncommon for the Spanish region, even now.

5. Japan

What isn’t there to do in Japan? I’ve wanted to go to Japan ever since learned what a capsule hotel was. Of course there’s so much more to see than itty-bitty hotel pods, such as Mount Fuji, Kiyomizu-Dera temple and national parks like Hokkaido and Chubu region. Tokyo in itself, is a big attraction.

A mirror of New York or London, Tokyo is familiar and yet anything but the same. I have always wanted to try out a ramen vending machine and visit its stunning contemporary art galleries like Mori Art Museum and Tokyo Metropolitan Teian art gallery.

Japan has such a rich and varied culture that its hard to say what is most appealing. To me, it’s nature and art, for others it’s the technology and consumerism of many of its cities. Culturally, I would say it’s best attractions are Okunoshima, “Rabbit Island”, Hirosaki Castle, its gourmet sushi restaurants like Sushi Yoshino and Kamata Sushitoku and the magical Ashikaga flower park, which looks like it could be straight out of a Studio Ghibli film.

Being one of the world’s leading pioneers in technology, Japanese culture does have its dark side. A lot of tourists visit Japan for other “attractions” like Hiroshima and Aokigahara “Suicide Forest”. Similar to many Western cultures, social media and the internet as a whole takes back what it gives and many young people are becoming vulnerable to its pressures.

Japan has a very low crime rate and a fairly introverted culture, the main social problem that plagues the locals isn’t social at all: people are lonely. That being said, from a traveller’s point of view, these problems are small in comparison to most countries.

Being the birthplace of two of my all-time favourite artists Ando Hiroshige and Katsushika Hokusai, even if it didn’t have its wealth of culture and natural beauty, I still wouldn’t be able to resist it.

6. Greece

Earlier this year I was planning to quit my day job and go island hopping round Greece with my boyfriend. The dream. It ended up not happening like most of this year’s travel plans and half of the country ended up setting on fire around the time I was hoping to go anyway. Despite this Greece has been in heart for nearly a year now, ever since I set my sights on it.

Travelling the idyllic Greek islands has been a popular choice for all sorts of travellers for decades now. It’s warm, beautiful and affordable. Due to Greece’s near-collapsed economy, like Spain, it has become heavily reliant on tourism as an income. The accommodation is cheap and varied, as well as the cuisine. It’s hard not to be tempted by the dirt cheap flight prices coming up to summer especially when you start googling and see the beaches in the peak of summer.

Like Hungary, I know very little of Greek culture, but I’ve already fallen in love with the idea of backpacking round Mykonos and Crete. Many people are tempted by the ancient Greek ruins and history of Athens or the buzzing night-club culture aimed at British tourists. I mostly want to get lost in the small towns and villages of Milos, the pink beach of Elafonisi, Crete and the Messalina lake, Kefalonia. The only problem would probably be staying alive on a vegan diet, considering lamb and feta are the main components of Greece’s gorgeous dishes.

7. Norway

Norway’s current main attraction for me, is my friend Ane, a native Norwegian I used to live with in England, now residing in Oslo with her partner. Being a Nordic country, Norway seems less like travelling and more like stepping into the game Skyrim. Though maybe with less wolf attacks.

While Norway is expensive to visit, it’s more a place one would visit for its “outdoorsy” stuff. This would be its famous ‘Fjords’, Northern lights and extreme sports winter sports like snowboarding and skiing rather than shopping or clubbing. It’s hard not to be sporty in Norway, there seems little else to do apart from appreciate the country’s vast beauty.

Trondheim, Norway’s third largest town is popular to visit, containing the Nidaros Cathedral and Nidelva River, alongside which are beautiful multi-coloured waterside houses on stilts. Husedalen “Waterfall” valley and Sognefjord are also popular, the latter being Norways largest glacial sea valley. Another attraction among hikers is Trolltunga, a tough climb to reach a cliff jutting out 700 metres horizontally in midair above lake Ringedalsvatnet.

While the price of living is higher, the quality of life is much better all round, Norway has few socio-economic struggles as a nation and is is one of the world’s leading countries for renewable energy and recycling.

Norwegian culture is conservative and quiet, but one of the most advanced and forward thinking in Europe. I find the language fascinating and would love to learn more than just the commands I had to learn to walk Ane’s dog, Dokki, though I doubt I’d have the opportunity to get much practice since most Norwegians are proficient, if not fluent in English.

9. Sri Lanka

Famed for its nature and diverse landscapes, Sri Lanka has had my heart since I was a child. What appeals to most is the animal sanctuaries and conservationist opportunities, as well as the numerous Buddhist ruins like Temples of the Tooth and Dambulla Cave Temple.

A main point of interest would be Sigiriya, the ruins of an ancient city and rock fortress nestled in forest and Yala National Park. The multitude of opportunities to work in animal conservation charities like the Kalametiya bird sanctuary and Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage are unmissable.

Other landmarks are Ella Rock, Little Adam’s Peak and Pidurangala Rock; Sri Lanka is famed for it its variety of climate, ranging from rainforest to desert and home to a multitude of beautiful geological formations.

Until 2009, Sri Lanka had been stuck in civil war for over 25 years. With newfound peace, it is considered very safe to travel. Theft and violent crime is nearly unheard of, but credit card fraud and harassment from street vendors or scammers is common. It’s recommended that poorly lit beaches like Negombo and Hikkaduwa are best avoided at night by single travellers. These areas considered more dangerous for women.

Colombo, the capital city, is a diamond of culture and colour. With over 70% of the Sri Lankan population being Buddhist, there are numerous sacred and world heritage sites all over Sri Lanka, providing opportunity to learn about Theravada Buddhism, directly translating to “School of Elders” and inspired by the oldest of Buddhist scriptures; the Tipitaka.

  *Edit: I originally wrote this in December 2018 but didn’t publish it. While my knowledge on these topics has expanded, I thought it would be best to leave the original text relatively untouched and do a more updated version in the weeks to come.

Thanks for reading! 🙂

Travel bucket list 2019: where to go and why A childhood of travelling Mediterranean Spain has made me a sun baby and after a decade in England, I have some serious wanderlust.

[themoneybuff-blog]

Inspiration from 7 Up, Lauren Oliver, Julien Baker, and More

Once a month (or so), I share a dozen things that have inspired me to greater personal, professional, and financial success in my life. I hope they bring similar success to your life. 1. Thoreau on happiness Happiness is like a butterfly, the more you chase it, the more it will evade you, but if you notice the other things around you, it will gently come and sit on your shoulder. Henry David Thoreau I spent a lot of years of my life chasing happiness, believing that I could somehow build a happy life. What I learned is that such an endeavor is basically impossible. Instead, you should try to build a life thats in line with what your values and principles are, and what youll find is that happiness naturally bubbles up as you get closer and closer to that destination. Happiness is a side effect of doing something worthwhile. When you do worthwhile things, happiness occurs naturally. If you chase happiness for happinesss sake, youll never actually catch it. [embedded content] From the Wikipedia entry on the series: The Up Series is a series of documentary filmsproduced by Granada Television that have followed the lives of fourteen British children since 1964, when they were seven years old. So far the documentary has had eight episodes spanning 49 years (one episode every seven years) and the documentary has been broadcast on both ITV and BBC. In a 2005 Channel 4 programme, the series topped the list of The 50 Greatest Documentaries. The children were selected to represent the range of socio-economic backgrounds in Britain at that time, with the explicit assumption that each childs social class predetermines their future. Every seven years, the director, Michael Apted, films material from those of the fourteen who choose to participate. The last installment, 56 Up, premiered in May 2012; Apted has stated that filming for 63 Up will occur in late 2018, for release in spring 2019. Apted has also been reported as saying: I hope to do 84 Up when Ill be 99. The aim of the series is stated at the beginning of 7 Up as: Why do we bring these children together? Because we want to get a glimpse of England in the year 2000. The shop steward and the executive of the year 2000 are now seven years old. The video embedded above (if you cant see it, you can reach it by clicking on the link) is the full documentary 7 Up, which covers the fourteen children as they were in 1964, as seven year olds. Each subsequent entry in the series revisits most of the children at seven year intervals in their lives, as things go in different directions for them. I watched these for the first time as a marathon in around 2002, when 42 Up was the newest entry available; I watched the entire series again a few years later after 49 Up was released, and yet again with the making of 56 Up. Each time it utterly charmed me and left me thinking about the fragility and difficulty and beauty of human lives. A few days ago, a friend of mine pointed out that all of the films were freely available on Youtube, so theres no reason not to dive in. This Youtube list contains the entire series, starting with 7 Up and continuing through 56 Up, the most recent entry. 3. Lauren Oliver on the whole of people I shiver, thinking how easy it is to be totally wrong about people; to see one tiny part of them and confuse it for the whole. Lauren Oliver I feel like this is a good quote to pair with 7 Up, actually. In that series and in fact, throughout our lives we get only relatively small glances at these people. We see only little slivers of their lives. Even with the best efforts of the filmmakers, this would be true; a filmmaker visiting a person for a few days once every seven years cannot capture their true nature. Yet, as I watch those films, I cant help but draw some conclusions. I think I would be friends with some of them, and Id probably avoid other ones. Those quick takes may or may not be accurate. Im making them based on really limited information about a person. I might be seeing that person at their best or at their worst. I might be seeing a quirky moment thats not emblematic of them as a whole. Its impossible to really tell. What I do know is this: some of the worst mistakes Ive made in life have been due to snap judgments about people, almost all of them more negative than they ever should have been. I drew some very negative conclusions about people and guided my behavior regarding them based on very little information mixed in with my own ideas and assumptions, and it has cost me many potential dear relationships over the years. The tiny part of a person that you actually see is a pretty poor representative of the whole. This article by Jason Fagone chronicles the store of Jerry and Marge Selbee, who, in their retirement, discovered and then exploited holes in the Michigan and Massachusetts state lottery systems. I found myself reading this article one evening while Sarah was busy grading papers, and I couldnt help but mention to her that this is literally the kind of thing that I can see us doing in retirement. Were both curious people who like to understand how systems work. We arent afraid to take big leaps of faith on things that we feel certain about. Id like to think that Sarah and I, in our later years, will go on a lot of quirky adventures, like Jerry and Marge. Im also sharing this because its just a fun story, a well written one by Jason Fagone. This ones really worth your time. 5. Benjamin Franklin on apologies Never ruin an apology with an excuse. Benjamin Franklin One of the hardest things to do is to genuinely apologize when youve made a mistake and not turn it into an excuse or an avenue for blaming others. Anything beyond I messed up is simply a way to deflect blame off of yourself and, in the process, make the apology a lot less valuable. An apology that ends up being nothing more than a redirection of blame or an excuse of a mistake is a worthless apology; in fact, youre often leaving things in an even worse state because the other person perceives that you wont own up to your mistakes. When you mess up, apologize sincerely without excusing your mistake or blaming others. Admit that you messed up, state that youre sorry for it, and that you want to do what you can to make it right and to make sure it wont happen again. Make it clear that its on you, not on anyone else. Its hard to do that. Its much easier to just shovel the blame onto someone or something else. If you do that, though, you eliminate virtually all of the meaning of the apology and look pretty weak to boot. [embedded content] From the description: Do you know what you want when you die? Do you know how you want to be remembered? In a candid, heartfelt talk about a subject most of us would rather not discuss, Michelle Knox asks each of us to reflect on our core values around death and share them with our loved ones, so they can make informed decisions without fear of having failed to honor our legacies. Life would be a lot easier to live if we talked about death now, Knox says. We need to discuss these issues when we are fit and healthy so we can take the emotion out of it and then we can learn not just what is important, but why its important. This whole video harkens back to a big theme Ive come to really understand in my life in the last few years. The best time to talk about something is when youre as far away from emotion as possible regarding that thing. So, for example, dont talk about death when youre sick. Talk about it when youre healthy and vibrant, so theres as little emotion as possible in the subject. When youre talking to your parents about aging, dont do it at their moment of weakness. Wait for a time of strength, when theyre feeling as healthy and unemotional as possible, and then have that discussion. Dont talk about a marital problem when youre both riding the wave of that problem. Talk about it when youre getting along well and youre far away from that problematic area emotionally. This is a key life lesson, one that has stuck with me over the years, and this video really highlights that idea. 7. Roy T. Bennett on self-improvement and criticism Let the improvement of yourself keep you so busy that you have no time to criticize others. Roy T. Bennett Unless criticism is asked for, criticism of others is rarely a worthwhile endeavor. It achieves very little and often has the opposite effect of what you desire, with the recipient ignoring the content of what youre saying and just being upset with you. Hold it in. If you dont have something worthwhile to say, then dont say it at all. That doesnt mean that one should never criticize. A person should definitely criticize from time to time, but it should generally be at the invitation of the person who seeks criticism and is looking for ways to improve. Brutal honesty doesnt achieve anything worthwhile. [embedded content] From the description: In March of 2016, just a handful of months after her debut album Sprained Ankle was released, Julien Baker came and played a quiet, thoughtful Tiny Desk concert that went on to become one of our most popular and certainly one of the most-talked-about Tiny Desk Concerts of the year. (Its now approaching two million views on YouTube alone.) Fast forward to the summer of 2017, when I heard that a new record was imminent. I dont usually ask an artist back for a second Tiny Desk Concert simply because they have a new release but for Julien, I had to make an exception. With all the love that surrounded her first visit to the NPR offices, I reached out to ask if she would be willing to do something different this time around. Last fall, she delivered. All the songs for her return to the Tiny Desk come from last years Turn Out The Lights. Just a few weeks before the albums release, she came to Washington; we tuned our piano, she brought violinist Camille Faulkner. The first two songs, Hurt Less and Even, were accompanied by Camille, with Julien on piano for the opening tune and acoustic guitar on the second. Its quite stunning, as she sings: Putting my fist through the plaster in the bathroom of a Motel 6 I must have pictured it all a thousand times I swear to God I think Im gonna die I know you were right I cant be fixed, so help me For the last, Julien put together an arrangement of Appointments that begins on electric guitar, which then was looped as a backdrop to her on piano and voice. Julien Baker is a massively talented songwriter with a deeply caring heart and a perfectionist streak all of which delivered to her a career-making year. We are so thrilled to have her return. Set List Hurt Less Even Appointments Shes just fantastic. Well worth a listen. 9. Inspirational notes For the last several months, about once a week or so, Ill stick a note inside of one of my childrens backpacks. Its a note card in an envelope with their name on the front, and on the inside, I just write a short note saying something I admire about their character and how I hope they share that with the world. It takes me about ten minutes or so to do this. I just stop for a little bit, think of some truly worthwhile characteristic that one of my children possesses, and then Ill write about it. Ill tell a quick anecdote about when I saw that characteristic used in a positive way, how I am incredibly proud that Im their parent when I see them using that aspect of themselves, a gentle encouragement to use that characteristic in other aspects of their life, and a general reminder that I love them. Thats it nothing fancy. I know that my kids have read the notes because of comments Ive overheard, but not one of them has said a word about them to me. I do know that theyre read, though, and I do know that theyre thought about, and thats enough. Will it make a positive difference? Maybe. I think it will, given enough time. Dont just get inspired. Be an inspiration. 10. Muhammad Ali on the pebble in your shoe It isnt the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; its the pebble in your shoe. Muhammad Ali Its often one or two little details that make the difference between success and failure. You might be able to perfectly nail everything else you need for a diet, but its that mid-afternoon wave of hunger that you thoughtlessly indulge that undoes things. You might have perfect control over your spending except for that one little linchpin. Maybes its online spending at a particular website, or maybe its regular splurging on food. Whatever it is, theres often some little detail that puts a big scratch on the beautiful surface of your progress. The thing is, its far more meaningful to stop and pull that pebble out of your shoe than to keep on running for a little bit longer and just quit. Fix the little problems before they become big ones. [embedded content] From the description: When trying to come up with a new idea, we all have times when we get stuck. But according to research by behavioral and learning scientist Marily Oppezzo, getting up and going for a walk might be all it takes to get your creative juices flowing. In this fun, fast talk, she explains how walking could help you get the most out of your next brainstorm. Going on walks is unquestionably my most powerful creative tool. I dont have anything else in my repertoire that really compares to it. Its part of the reason why winters are often very hard in terms of writing productivity the weather rarely cooperates with the kind of long outdoor walk that I enjoy. While I enjoy winter in small doses, I wouldnt be surprised at all to find Sarah and I living further south in the winter months when we are older. I think it agrees much better with both of us. Still, I cant laud walking enough if youre trying to piece through a difficult idea in your head or youre trying to brainstorm some solutions. 12. JFK on strength Do not pray for easy lives, my friends. Pray to be stronger men. John Fitzgerald Kennedy Hoping that the future will become easier wont really help very much. Its very likely that the future wont become easier. Instead, recognize that your life right now probably is easier than it will be in the future and plan accordingly. Work a little harder today so you dont have to work quite as hard tomorrow. Save a little money today so you dont have to scramble tomorrow. Dont hope for an easier life. Work for a stronger you. https://www.thesimpledollar.com/inspiration-from-7-up-lauren-oliver-julien-baker-and-more/