#I literally finished the 3rd drawing on sunday

[darushi-chan]

Day 4. My last drawing for Magical Boy Lucerys

Civilian appereances and some other small details for the AU. Also got to have some fun with some of my nonusual brushes. I'm also leaving the tiny Ao3 lore dump I did. Can't wait to keep seeing what everyone else created for the rest of the week, yay. https://archiveofourown.org/works/48661156 Note: The dragon brooch its the one they use in the show, I just really love the use of the three headed dragon theme, so that's not mine at all, don't bite me.

[spine-buster]

The President Wears Prada (William Nylander) | Chapter 1

A/N: To celebrate William “Thirst Trap” Nylander’s birthday last Friday, I’m going to do a double post this week!  (Also maybe because he’s technically not in this chapter).  Make sure you set your clocks for Thursday at 7:30pm cause that’s when I’ll post Chapter 2.  Chapter 3 will then proceed next Monday on our regular once-a-week schedule.

September 3rd, 2019

Aberdeen Bloom was still looking for a job.

She was still sending out her resume to companies.  She was still making follow-up phone calls.  She was still creating alert notifications for jobs she’d be interested in.  She was still going for interviews.  She was still shaking hands and thanking people for their time.  She was still writing follow-up thank you emails.  She was still getting rejection calls.  She was still submitting work to writing contests and magazines.  She was still getting “It’s not what we’re looking for right now” emails.  

She sighed.

So maybe getting the dream gig was harder than she thought.

It wasn’t like the bank had let her go.  She was still earning something to keep her afloat, but it was the bank.  It wasn’t writing, it wasn’t anything else.  It was the same stuff every single day and Aberdeen was starting to resent it.  She didn’t move downtown to stay a bank teller.  She moved downtown to start her career, and this was not starting her career.

But then a phone call came on Sunday – peculiar, she thought, since it was a long weekend and had expected everybody and their mothers to be at a cottage – asking if she wanted to come in for an interview.  To MLSE.  For the personal assistant job.  Aberdeen didn’t even remember applying to MLSE.  But she was desperate, so she said yes, and now she found herself looking in the mirror with her best “interview outfit” on ready to ace it.

She took a deep breath.  She could do this.  She packed her bag, made sure she had her wallet at keys, and left the condo, deciding to walk the short way to 50 Bay Street so she could pick up breakfast on the way.  Even while eating the ham and swiss sandwich, she could feel the butterflies in her stomach – it didn’t calm her nerves at all.  For some reason, she felt like this was her last chance to build something towards her career.  If she didn’t, she’d be stuck bank-telling forever.  When she stood outside the doors of 50 Bay Street, she took a deep breath before walking in.

“When you arrive, tell the receptionist you are looking for Frances Munro” the woman on the other line had told her when she called for the interview.  As she approached the receptionist, she tried to look as confident as possible.  “Hi, my name is Aberdeen Bloom.  I’m here for an interview with, um, Frances Munro?”

“Aberdeen Bloom?” another voice called out.  

Aberdeen looked up to see another woman lurking in the back, a clipboard in hand, dressed impeccably well.  “Yes.  Hi.”

The woman looked at her.  Aberdeen could see her give a quick up-down.  “Great.  Human resources certainly has an odd sense of humour,” she quipped, chuckling for nobody but herself.  “Follow me.”

Aberdeen did as she was told, giving a polite nod to the receptionist who was already ignoring her.  She circled around the desk and followed Frances, who walked through the door but didn’t hold it open.  “Okay, so I was Brendan’s personal assistant but I recently got promoted so now I’m looking for someone else,” Frances explained.

“Oh, so you’re replacing yourself.”

“Well, I’m trying to.  We tried to be proactive and hire early but the last two Brendan sacked after only a few weeks.  We need to find someone who can survive here – who can survive Brendan’s schedule and survive the pressure of the Leafs.  Do you understand?”

“Yes.  Absolutely.”  Aberdeen looked around awkwardly.  “Who is Brendan?”

“What?” Frances stopped dead in her tracks to look back at Aberdeen.  “Oh my God, I will pretend did not just ask me that – Brendan Shanahan, he’s the president of the Toronto Maple Leafs,” she practically hissed at her, continuing her walk.  “Not to mention a hockey legend.  If you work a year for him you can get a job in any adjacent field you want – sports, media, journalism, writing, whatever.  A million people would kill for this job.”

Writing.  Writing.  WRITING!!!!!  Alarm bells were going off in Aberdeen’s ears.  “It sounds like a great opportunity.  I’d love to be considered.”

Frances giggled, pushing her clipboard up to cover the smile on her face.  They had stopped in front of a series of doors and Aberdeen felt like she was going to have to pick the one without the tiger in it.  “Aberdeen…the Toronto Maple Leafs are a hockey club.  An interest in hockey…even just a little bit, is crucial,” she explained condescendingly.  Aberdeen wondered how someone like this could even get promoted.  “Do you play hockey?

“No.”

“Do you watch hockey?”

“No.”

Frances looked shocked.  “Do you know who the Toronto Maple Leafs are?”

“Of course I know who the Toronto Maple Leafs are,” Aberdeen huffed.  “I just don’t…I mean, I don’t…”

“If I put a picture of Mats Sundin in front of you right now could you pick him apart from Wendel Clark or Doug Gilmour?”

There was an awkward pause.  “Are those Mr. Shanahan’s right-hand men?”

“Oh my God,” Frances muttered under her breath.  “Have you ever been to a game?”

“Yes.”

“Are you lying?”

“No – no, I’m not lying,” Aberdeen said quickly.  “One of my friends – her dad gets tickets through clients or whatever.  I’ll go to maybe one a year with her family.  But it’s not – I’m not like…the experience is fun.”

Before Frances could respond with something that was ruder than the last thing she said, her phone let out a really loud notification.  She balanced the clipboard on one hand as she took out her phone.  But as she looked at the message on the screen, her face dropped.  “Oh my God, oh my God, no!”

Aberdeen’s face dropped too.  “What’s wrong?”

Frances dropped her clipboard onto the desk and ran around it, grabbing the phone receiver and dialling a number.  Almost automatically, she began talking.  “He’s on his way.  Tell everyone the story needs to be retracted now,” she barked before hanging up.  A man walked through another door and suddenly, it was complete mayhem.  People were running through everywhere.  

“He wasn’t supposed to arrive until 9:30.  What happened?” the man asked Frances.

“Those idiots at the Sun had the audacity to actually post the story about his daughter online.  God, these people!” Frances huffed.  

Aberdeen stood awkwardly as everyone seemed to go into mayhem mode.  Frances was running around like a chicken with her head cut off, that one guy had mysteriously disappeared, and men in suits were in and out of everywhere with panicked looks on their faces.  She watched as Frances whipped into the office and began putting stuff out on the desk – a glass of San Pellegrino water, a venti Starbucks, and the sports sections of all the local newspapers.  When she was done, Frances grabbed the clipboard from her desk, a pen, and ran back down the corridor they just came from, leaving Aberdeen there, standing alone.  Awkwardly.  

Eventually, she could hear Frances’s voice again – much more polite this time – and footsteps of very expensive shoes clacking down the hallway.  “Yes Mr. Shanahan, of course.”

“And tell David at The Sun that I’m this close to revoking media access to the locker room if he publishes another article to do with my children ever again,” a voice Aberdeen could only assume was Brendan Shanahan’s was echoing down the hallway.

“I’ll get right on it.”

“Then tell Ben up in the legal department to draw up the paperwork necessary for that to scare them,” she heard, and finally, they rounded the corner.  Frances and Mr. Brendan Shanahan, President of the Toronto Maple Leafs.  He was angry.  Aberdeen could tell, even if she didn’t hear any of his last sentences – his body language showed it all.  She stepped back a few steps so he could get into his office unimpeded, where he would very obviously yell at the top of his lungs once he shut the door.  

“Who’s that?” he asked.

Frances stood in front of Aberdeen, shielding her from Brendan’s view as he looked back at Aberdeen from inside his office.  “Nobody – well – human resources sent her about the personal assistant job and I was going to interview her…but, but she’s hopeless,” she chuckled out, “and totally wrong for the job—”

“Well clearly I’m going to have to do that myself, since the last two you sent me were completely inadequate,” he deadpanned.  Frances’s back stiffened at the words.  “So send her in,” he finished as he sat down at his desk.  

Frances walked out of Mr. Shanahan’s office.  “Mr. Shanahan would like to see you,” she said politely, loud enough for him to hear.  It was when she leaned in closer that she began to whisper so he couldn’t.  “Brendan Shanahan is the absolute nicest person you will ever meet,” she began, “but he is also the busiest, most intense, most dedicated hockey professional in the entire National Hockey League.  Do you understand?”

Aberdeen gulped.  “Yes.”

“And I hope you know that this is a very difficult job for which you re totally wrong, and if you mess up my head is on the chopping block.”

‘That might not be so bad’, Aberdeen thought.  She would have appreciated some words of encouragement, like what Kasha had given her this morning, rather than the shpeal she was getting now.  But Aberdeen digressed, and nodded her head.  She took out a copy of her resume from her purse before walking in.

When she did, she couldn’t help but notice all the fine detailing of his office.  A lot of oak, bookcases, a lot of framed pictures of his family, and a giant Toronto Maple Leaf logo plastered – literally plastered – onto the wall.  He even had a giant oak desk – so regal – in the middle of the room.  

“Who are you?” Brendan asked in a tone much softer, but still angry.

Aberdeen took a deep breath.  This was her time to shine.  “Hi Mr. Shanahan.  My name is Aberdeen Bloom,” she said, stepping forward awkwardly to place her resume on his desk.  “I recently graduated from the University of Toronto—”

“And what are you doing here?” he asked.

Aberdeen blanked.  What was she doing here?  “Um, well, I think I could do a good job as your assistant, and um…” she started, noticing that Brendan was putting on his glasses.  Her gave her a look as those words left her mouth.  He grabbed the newspapers off his desk and placed them in front of him, over her resume.  

‘Alright Aberdeen.  Cut the bullshit’ she told herself.  “Yeah, so, I graduated U of T and want to become a writer.  I sent my resume out everywhere, and my work to try to get published, and finally I got a call from the MLSE human resources department, and…well, basically it’s this or bank-telling.”

Brendan didn’t look up from his newspaper.  “So you’re not a fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs.”

Aberdeen’s body stiffened.  “Uh…no?”

“And before today you had never heard of me.”

“…No.”

There was an awkward pause.  Brendan didn’t seem like he had any more questions in him – if he even cared.  It was so clear that he didn’t and that she was bombing this interview.  But Aberdeen felt more words coming.  “I was recently published in Acta Victoriana, the oldest continuous university magazine in Canada – twice, actually – and was also published in the Hart House Review—”

“I think we’re done here,” Brendan said, not looking up from the newspaper.  That was it.  Cut throat.  Didn’t care.

Aberdeen swallowed her pride.  So this interview was a dumpster fire from the get-go.  But it was him that came in angry and him that came into this without an open mind.  She couldn’t help but scoff at how he dismissed her; he didn’t even have the courtesy to look up.  She turned to walk out.

‘Don’t let it end like this’ her mind told her.  ‘You have so much within you that he doesn’t want to see’.

So she turned around.  “You know what?  You’re right.  I know nothing about hockey,” she began, her voice as strong and powerful as she could make it.  “The woman who brought me in asked if I knew the difference between Matt…Gilmour and something…something Sundin, and I didn’t.  I don’t fit in here,” she continued, noticing that he finally looked up.  “I’m a girl who grew up in an old bungalow in Etobicoke with immigrant parents.  I’m an English major with a double minor in classics and film.  But I’m smart.  I’m really f…really smart, and I learn fast, and I will work hard if you give me the chance to do so here—”

“Good news – they’ve agreed to take down the story,” somebody burst into the room interrupting her speech.  Brendan looked at her until the person laid their iPad down in front of him.  “The tweet linking the article is gone and it’s completely gone off their website.  Adrienne Batra wants to call you to personally apologize.”

“There’s no way I’m speaking to that woman,” Brendan mumbled.  “Tell her I want it in writing.  And one to my daughter as well.”

“Thank you for your…time,” Aberdeen said, as if he gave her any.  She walked out of his office and out of his life forever.  

Aberdeen decided to take the stairs, slowly walking down the flights of stairs, hearing her shoes clack against the bare concrete.  There, she could at least wallow in her self-pity after that train wreck of an interview.  She could deliberate about her next choices and steps.  Keep bank-telling?  Go back and get her Master’s?  Take a new course?  Tell her parents how she was failing?  Move back home?  Never do anything with her life?  Live in her parents’ basement for the rest of her life?  Maybe she should just stay in this stairwell.  Maybe she should start living here, since there was nothing else for her out there in the big wide world.  Maybe she’d become a hermit.

As she finally reached the ground floor, she thanked the receptionist again, who ignored her again.  Typical.  As she was about to walk out of 50 Bay Street, she heard her name being called.  “Aberdeen!”

She turned around.  Frances was waving her back, rolling her eyes at the same time.  Aberdeen furrowed her brows.  Did she forget something?  What was going on?  She scurried over to Frances.  “What’s wrong?”

���Brendan wants to speak to you.”

Aberdeen gulped.  She was going to get yelled at by the President of the Toronto Maple Leafs.  He was going to completely obliterate her entire life and not-yet-burgeoning career for that little stunt she pulled inside his office with that speech, and she’d never be able to find a job anywhere in Toronto again.  She may as well just move into her parents’ basement now.  

As they both rode the elevator back up, Aberdeen’s heart kept beating faster and faster.  “Do you know what he wants to speak about?” Aberdeen asked.

“I have no clue,” Frances said absent-mindedly, typing something into her phone.

When they arrived back upstairs, Frances led her straight back into Brendan’s office.  He was working on his laptop now, instead of reading his newspaper over Aberdeen’s resume.  “Brendan, I have Aberdeen back for you,” Frances announced.

“Excellent,” he said, his voice much more upbeat than what is was five or ten minutes ago.  “Franny, I’d like you to take Aberdeen to get her picture taken for her new MLSE identification badge,” he said.

Frances’s eyes bulged out of her head.  So did Aberdeen’s.  “W-What?” Frances stuttered out.

“And after that, I’d like you to take the town car and take Aberdeen to the Eaton’s Centre to get her an iPad Pro with a keyboard so we can start the process of downloading all the necessary apps and internal mail server she’ll need to do the job.”

Aberdeen’s stomach dropped.  “I…I got the job?” she asked, completely flabbergasted.  Was he nuts?  Completely, certifiably insane?

“You start next Monday.  Is that fine with you?”

Aberdeen found herself nodding.

***

“I’m so glad Steven could get that done for you today,” Brendan said as he rounded the corner of his desk so he could sit in his fancy big chair.  Aberdeen nodded, looking at the screen of her new iPad Pro.  Steven, one of the guys from tech support, had helped her download everything she needed to have on it.  

“Yeah.  It was all really fast.”

“After you finish up here today you may need to go back to the Eaton’s Centre,” Brendan informed her.  “You’re going to need to purchase a work wardrobe.  Keep every receipt because MLSE will reimburse you.  I prefer black, but really…get whatever you think is appropriate for an office.”

“Okay.”

“No heels necessary.  When we travel, I obviously don’t mind something more laid back – especially trips to the west coast.  Do you have a valid and working passport?”

“Yes sir.”

“Make sure you have it when traveling.  Our charter plane will still need to see it.  We’ll make copies.”

“Yes sir.”

“You’ll need to be available every game day.  We usually have Sundays off, but it’s a very untraditional schedule.  You’re okay with that?”

“Yes sir.”

“And I have your contract for you,” he said, grabbing some paperwork on the desk.  “We’ll have someone from the legal department come and explain it shortly,” he handed it to her, “but you’ll see the salary at the bottom of the first page.”  Aberdeen looked down.  Her eyes bulged at the number.  “If everything is to your liking, then we can sign.”

“Okay,” she nodded her head.  She gulped.  

Brendan looked at Aberdeen and could tell she was nervous – it was obvious in her short “Yes sir” responses anyway, but she looked like she wanted to curl into her shell.  “Before Ben from legal gets here, I would like to apologize about this morning,” he said.  “A local newspaper ran an article about one of my daughters, and my children…well, my children are completely off-limits.  Everybody knows that.  But sometimes some journalists like to see how far they can take things, even though they know family is off limits.”

Aberdeen understood where he was coming from.  If anyone ever said anything bad about Siena or Camden, she’d have their head on a spike.  She couldn’t even imagine what it was like for a father, or any parent for that matter, to have an article published about their child without their permission.  “I understand, Mr. Shanahan.”

“We are like a family here, you know – MLSE, but the Leafs especially.  You will feel part of that family soon enough.”

Aberdeen nodded nervously.  “I’m sure I will, Mr. Shanahan.”

“Well…” he shrugged his shoulders, leaning back in his chair and smiling at her.  “Congratulations, Miss Bloom.  You are now an employee of MLSE.”

***

“With the Leafs?!” Kasha was shocked when Aberdeen told her.  She’d started pouring glasses of wine when Aberdeen told her she got a job, but once she revealed the specifics, Kasha was shocked.  “Gosh Aberdeen, remember when my dad would bring me, you, and Siena to games with the company season tickets?”

“I know.”

“And now you’re working for them?!”

“For the President.  I’m his personal assistant.”

“Oh my God!” Kasha exclaimed.  “Seriously though, I bet a million jocks would kill for that job,” she commented as she finished pouring the wine.  

“Yeah.  Great,” Aberdeen shrugged her shoulders.  “Thing is, I’m not one of them.”

“Well, you gotta start somewhere, right?” Kasha offered.  She picked up both wine glasses, handing one to Aberdeen.  Kasha held her glass up.  “To jobs that pay the rent.”

Aberdeen giggled.  “To jobs that pay the rent.”

[cassercole]

HAPPY 2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY REALITY IN MOTION!

published december 3rd, 2017. 470,161 words. 83 chapters. 115,023 views. 841 reviews. 284 follows. 234 favorites. 

wow. wow. wowie. i seriously can not believe it’s been two ( 2! ) years since i published this story. never, ever did i think i’d still be writing it today ( literally updated on sunday lol ). and yet, here we are. this is the longest i’ve ever kept up with a story lolol. thank you to everyone who has taken the time to review, send me an ask about q proctor or the story itself, or even make me something. i truly never expect anything so i’m always pleasantly surprised when people take the time out of their busy lives to do any/all of the above.

this story has been such a Journey to write. i’ve learned so much about writing and plotting and of course, steve rogers. i know it’s not the most popular story out there, but it’s one of my personal favorites because i really do love writing it and the characters/world i created (weird, right??) which means much more to me than reviews (though i do love reviews lol). 

there are a few people i want to thank personally, so bear with me cause ya girl is gonna get Sappy! 

first and foremost, i have to thank my wife, my sister, and my daughter, @whindsor for helping me come up with q that fateful night when i decided to watch ca:tws after a long flight home. then literally coming up with q’s name (and i have the screenshot to prove it). ever since, she’s been in my corner, cheering me on and encouraging me to write even when i didn’t want to. she’s constantly inspiring me to better myself as a story teller and one day i hope to be as smart, poetic and beautiful with words like she is. and tbqh, this story wouldn’t exist without her. 

side note -- here’s the screenshot: 

@missjanuarylily: because jan. that is all. no, lol, but because seeing your skills and talent and attitude inspired me to try and become an all around better oc community member. from working hard to improve my manip skills to reblogging other people’s work even if i’m not in that fandom to leaving reviews on everything/anything i read, and always striving to be kind in this community, you’ve been a HUGE example for me and i’m so so so happy and honored to call you a friend. and also i cherish everything you’ve ever made me.

@mystic-scripture: for always sending me an ask IMMEDIATELY after finishing a chapter with your reactions, thoughts and feelings. plus, your love for dawson has truly warmed my heart and helped spring him from his secondary, background role to being one of the most important characters in this story (sans q lol). 

@inkoutsidethelines: for being there when i needed a Genuine Opinion on a choice i made in the story, and not holding back when telling me i probably shouldn’t have done the thing i did -- and for reviewing every chapter you read. thank you for your honesty and constant reblogs of chapter updates.  

@universalfanfic: for (i think) being one of the first people to ever draw?? q??? when i tell you i reached PEAK fanfic author? i truly mean it. i think about that storyboard you did of q and steve’s bar tour at least once a month. and in the same breath, @starsandstormyseas for the INCREDIBLE profile of q -- even with her butterfly hairpin! i appreciate both your artistic skill and the very detailed reviews you left while reading -- i loved them so much! 

♡ to those who always are up for a crossover chat ♡ @sgtbuckyybarnes  @nellie--crain @daaeleira @luucypevensie @thegalanerd @hrhatbat @perfectlystiles @anotherunreadblog @chuck-hansens @isaaclahys @susiesamurai​

♡ to those who constantly support the story and it’s characters by leaving reviews, reblogging edits, making me things or sending in asks ♡  @fraysquake @ofbadchoices @iceandwaterfairytail @the-elena-show @tandybowcns @samwilsonns @chlobenet @emiliachrstine @curious-kittens-ocs @moirei @heirsoflilith @xlavenderseas @witchofinterest @jamezvaldes @purple-and-red-ribbons @seize-the-droid @jarvis-is-my-copilot @peterparcour @ohhitherekatie @drbobbimorse @fiercefray @avengiers​ 

i know there’s probably a bunch of people i’m forgetting, but just know that i am forever grateful for your support. i couldn’t have done it without any of you. it’s cheesy, but it’s true. so thank you and here’s to another two years lol (oh god) 

[wellfuckthisshitagain]

Well fuck, this shit again?

I read a lot about narcissistic personality disorder because my parents fit this behavior so perfectly. However, I notice that my 1st oldest and 3rd oldest sister share some of their same behaviors.

I started looking for these type of behavior from my 3rd oldest sister. She lives near us therefore she's practically living with us. She rents an apparment from my mother and she gets access to our main Wi-Fi, our washing machine, and our food. She basically only shit, shower, and sleep in her apparment.

The problem I have with her is that she would come over and criticize our house. Saying how dirty it is, how smelly it is or how loud and cluster it feels. I'm literally the only one out of the 4 people that sleeps in the house that cleans it. Therefore whenever she passes one of her snarky comments about the house I feel like it's aimed at me.

I also have a problem with her eating our stuff. Before this whole COVID 19 shit I would buy my own Cheerios and Pb &J. I would buy a separate box of cereal for my 2nd oldest sister because she like the honey, but I like the chocolate Cheerios. My 3rd oldest sister would always eat out the honey Cheerios and when only the chocolate were left she'd get mad. I stopped buying the honey favored and just kept getting the chocolate, but I would feel bad because my 2nd oldest sister didn't like those. In the end I just kept on buying the 2 cereal and just kept mine in my room. My 3rd oldest sister would say I was being mean and rude and too exact like my mother with my cereal. Consequently I just stopped buying cereal overall. I notice she started buying her own stuff but kept them in our kitchen and when I would clean the cabinet would find her "stash".

The same thing happens with the PB&J. Recently my 2nd sister has gotten sick so she can't eat sweets but the PB&J had finished too fast. That's when it occurred to me that my 3rd oldest sister has been eating the PB&J all along. With my 2nd sister being sick she realize that no one could take the blame for her eating out the PB&J so she went and bought a new one. But it was the WRONG flavour.We literally have jars and jars of empty PB&J that we recycle and use in the kitchen. The fucking jar is purple. My 3rd oldest sister favorite color! But this bitch went and got the bloody red strawberry flavor PB&J! I told her she'll be the only one eating from that and she didn't have a problem with that, but I know if I go get the purple correct PB&J she'd eat from that as well.

It might seem "cold hearted" And minuscule to be upset about food sharing but I'm mean when it comes to food.

In addition, this occurred over the weekend. Monday or Sunday my 3rd oldest sister asked me to scan some documents for her. Now I honestly didn't want to do it because well, I didn't and she was also being a bitch to me over the weekend which made me more not want to help her. However, I told her I would do it and I did. I scan her stuff for her the Tuesday evening as she was getting home. Just 2 papers no big deal. While I was at my desk doing the scanning I called her to give her back the papers and to see how she wanted me to send her the documents. She said Whatsapp so I sent her the file. "FILE" ONE DOCUMENT. She got upset because I scanned the 2 paper and saved them as one document. It was saved as PDF I'm sure you can separate PDF files if you wanted to, and I told her that. She then asked me to scanned 2 more other paper for her right there and then and to save them separately and as a JPG document. Ok done. Sent via Whatsapp.

Now tonight. I came out of my room to eat, but ended up starting to wash the dishes. She came over from her apparment saying she want me to scan more things for her. I told this child I will help her after I finish the dishes. She started shouting at me that her papers are more important and that she's asking me to do this one thing for her because she's on a time deadline and that she wants someone from work to print them for her tomorrow morning. I kept telling her I will help her, but after i finish the dishes. She's said no. I can either put on my laptop and let her use it or she will take the printer to her apartment and connect it to her laptop on her own. I told her I don't want her using my laptop and I just need to finish the dishes and then I'll get to her.

This woman started saying how everyone have to do everything on MY timing. The kitchen gets clean when I want to clean it! Everyone has to wait on when I'm willing to help!

Now that's when my mother chimed in saying that she wakes up every morning and have to wash the dishes so she doesn't want me to come out the kitchen until I finish and that my sister should help me so I finish faster. My sister didn't say anything to my mother; with that she just kept yelling how I never help her and that she's on a time deadline and that she's just asking me to scan some documents and all I need to do it enter my password on my laptop so she can use it.

I told her numerous times I was going to do the scanning for her while she was shouting at me. She said she can't wait on me so she's just going to take the printer with her and connect it to her laptop on her own.

I only took half an hour to wash up. Just 30 mins. She could have waited. When I went to my room my desk and draw that the printer was set on was pull out of place and the cereal box that i use to hold all my printing paper on the floor. She just left them like that. Didn't even bother to push back the desk and draw against the wall.

Now this got me pissed because most likely she saw my ballet shows on the floor and I honestly didn't want anyone from my family knowing that I'm practicing ballet in my room again. I also didn't want her using my laptop beucsse we all my phone notification displays on it and my emails and plus it's my fucking laptop I have to right to privacy, don't I?

I went to her apartment and yelled at her for leaning my room like that. And that she crossed a boundary for taking the printer out of my room like that. And that it was unfair of her to treat me in such a manner because I was going to help her regardless. She just sat there and said "you're not over this yet?" While on her phone. She then told me to get out of her room and that she's gonna put in her headphones just like i do because she doesn't want i hear me.

I walk around cleaning the house while listening to podcast so I'm always wearing my headphones and my family hates that.

The display board that I bought to make her and my 2nd sister their birthday number sign slipped behind the desk.

Seeing the damn display board that I want to make them their birthday number sign from reminded me of what my 3rd older sister told me a couple weeks back. She wants to have a birthday part. She wants to have it on the roof, with fairy lights and a photoshoot background and to have her boyfriend buy her the balloon numbers to show her age. She wanted to have her own party but from the time she started talking about it no one really paid her mind. That's when she told my 2nd sister to join in on her birthday party so it can be 2 birthday celebration into one party. She knows the family is more inclined to do stuff for my 2nd sister. Even my mother passed a comment saying that she's only joining the two birthday because the family is more willing to do stuff for my 2nd sister than for my 3rd therefore she's using my 2nd sister to piggy back ride on.

A couple weeks ago the 3 of us went to buy decorations for the party, and when we came back home we went to her apartment to look at what they got and what all needs to be done in order to start decorating. She listed stuff like: cleaning the roof, putting up decorations, making food arrangements, getting tablets and chairs on the roof, checking if all the lights are working and making the photoshoot background. Just talking about it made me tired. I knew I would be the one who would have to help her do all these things. At that moment I was laying on her bed tired form the day and now tired from the mental thought of doing all those things and I just sighed in exasperation. She got mad and said she doesn't even want to ask for my help and that she doesn't even want to ask me for the bare minimum of help.

I want to be mean and just don't help her at all with the party. Make only a birthday number sign for my 2nd sister and not my 3rd. I want her to keep the printer and not give it back and just keep it. I want to go buy my PB&J and cereal again and tell her non for her. I want to be so fucking mean to her and just cut her off and just ignore her all the fucking time and just stop talking to her over all. But we fucking live together!

[megbox]

2018 Year In Review

Previous Posts: (2017) (2016) (2015) (2014) (2013) (2012) (2011) 

2018 has not been a banner year for self care. It has not been a banner year for much of anything, to be honest. This year in review will be much less colourful and exciting than they traditionally tend to be. It has been a year of hard work, stress, and feeling the pressure of the less-fun parts of adulthood creeping up on me. It has been really hard, to be totally honest. I have spent the majority of the year in a deep state of exhaustion and distress. There are positives within it all, though. Big positives, such as: 

I went on my longest trip ever away from home. 

I have developed so much in the professional sense and have fallen so deeply in love with social work and my future career path. 

I have made new friends who reflect these changing influences in my life, and the enduring friendships that have survived all of these years continue to strengthen and deepen as time goes on. 

January: 

Tell me - why does January always suck? 2018 began with an opening double shift on New Year’s Day, which I feel is strongly symbolic of the year as a whole because you have an exhausted Megan struggling to responsibly balance my professional responsibilities, self-care, and partying. On January 3rd, Alex and I booked our flights to Asia and in doing so, solidified that we were going through with a plan made drunkenly over the table last summer at a karaoke bar. 

I did get to spend an awesome ski weekend with Alesta, Sydney x 2, and Shelby. It was especially nice because this particular group of people had never spent time all together - we were just united by being a group of girls who love to ski. We hit Lake Louise on Saturday, stayed overnight at a hostel in Banff, and Alesta and I hit Sunshine on Sunday. In Banff, we got a free jug of sangria because we are cute girls. We went to High Rollers and Sydney was drinking IPAs and porters like a pro. I went alone (like... what? Who am I? How drunk was I?) to Dancing Sasquatch after and made friends with some Nova Scotians in line. One of them paid for my cover and bought me not one but two of those infamous Time Machine drinks and extra bonus - Alesta and I got FREE lift passes at Sunshine. 

At the end of the month, my mental health took a sharp nosedive into oblivion and I don’t even really know why. I started experiencing a violent resurgence of something I haven’t felt since the end of the 12th grade, having what I now recognize as panic attacks. The first one came when I was studying on a Sunday at Higher Ground and I had no idea what the fuck was happening, I’d been there for several hours when I suddenly felt the urge to throw up. I packed up all my shit and burst out the door literally gasping for air but ended up being fine. Just shaky and confused. They started happening more frequently after this, with no predictable trigger, and I started to feel the physical manifestations of stress. That was new and it freaked me out. This lent itself to a lot of strange patterns around eating (since I was constantly feeling nauseous, or I thought I was, I didn’t want to have a full stomach. I also thought I had a food intolerance, and because I’m me was 100% convinced I was pregnant because the stress caused me to miss my period). 

February 

Things started to get so bad in February that I had to plead my manager at Famoso for less hours. He was an idiot in general but also did not seem to grasp the severity of what I told him. He would frequently schedule me for these long swing swifts all weekend long, leaving no time or energy for the mountains of homework I had to do. It did not help. 

February was especially busy with school. That’ll be a recurring theme throughout this year. It could honestly be a summary of this entire year - so I’ll spare you the details. But five courses at the University of Calgary is no joke. 

I never needed reading week so badly in my entire life. I was beyond happy to just be able to take a long weekend and not be at Famoso. Shelby arranged for a giant group of her friends to spend the weekend at her friend Sawyer’s massive, absolutely beautiful cabin in Invermere. I got to spend some quality time with two of my favourite people on the planet - Emma and Sydney. From the minute we got into Emma’s car together, to having ciders at the Emerald Lake Lodge on the way, to eating A&W and sharing a bed and “she gon’ fuck the fridge.” Sydney and I spent one afternoon on homework while everyone else went skiing and I was with her when she got the news that she’d won this massive grant and we celebrated by sitting in this magical massage chair and just loving life. We played Drink, Talk, Learn! And I gave a drunken presentation on the history and etiology of pugs. Emma and I went skating on Lake Windermere to cure our hangovers on Sunday. A keg and a bonfire were involved. It was so Canadian, honestly LOL. And so perfect. 

March 

Although I was still struggling with this weird panic-nausea cycle, it lessened through March as more and more assignments were completed. I started to see the light at the end of the tunnel, to use a cliche. I gave three presentations in a week, I remember that being particularly awful. 

I attempted Mellow March for the second time and once again failed. Mildly concerning. I caved on a Wednesday wing night with the Famoso friends. It was 27 days in. So close, so close. 2019 will be my year! 

I started getting really into podcasts at this time because I started commuting using public transit. I got really into Guys We Fucked (which I still love), and This Is Actually Happening. TIAH is kind of fucked up though, and after a while it started to fuck me up. I would have weird dreams about the content and I started becoming paranoid that there was something wrong/extraordinary about me. So I stopped. I guess that is something I have learned about myself this year, is that even when it’s not overt, I am really deeply effected by some of the things I learn. Typically, people of this nature do not excel in the field of social work so allow me to flag this as a place for improvement in the future.

I ran the 5km at the St. Patrick’s Day road race, which was awesome and I won the draw that everyone was entered in and got a FREE pair of these super nice, hot pink New Balance running shoes that I now cherish with my life. 

I had my first round of practicum interviews, which only ended up being one interview because I was offered the placement at CommunityWise before I could interview anywhere else. This is one of the best things to happen the whole year :) 

And a special moment for me as well was on March 31, I got to see Alvvays live. 

April 

In April, I finished hell semester and immediately jetted off to Thailand.

From the get go, the trip was a bit of a shit show. This was my second time to Asia, and my first experience with really planning a trip including flights, hostels, and transportation from place to place without the aid of a tour guide or travel company. We had a time even getting to Bangkok due to an untimely snow storm the day of our departure that forced our flight to Vancouver to be late and causing us to miss our connecting flight to China. After two hours in line at the Air Canada desk, an agent produced a new itinerary for us. Calgary to Los Angeles to Hong Kong to Bangkok. He printed the sheets out and when I looked at the times on the paper, the mental math wasn’t adding up. With me, the mental math never really adds up but this time it seemed impossible that we could leave so much later than planned for our trip and arrive in Bangkok only three hours later than we were supposed to. I brought this up with him and he assured me it was fine. I wasn’t satisfied though, and asked a bunch of other airport personnel the same question. They all said we were fine but lo and behold, we land in Hong Kong and are waiting for the Thai Airlines desk to open so we can retrieve the tickets for the last leg of the journey when the agent there tells us, “They put you on the flight that left yesterday.” Anger and distress ensues. I call Air Canada from the airport in Hong Kong and the call drops. I’m straight up crying on the floor at this point. But in the end – we fucking made it.

In Bangkok, I was welcomed back to the stifling heat and humidity of Asia. We met American doctors-to-be who were at the end of their trip and were totally sick of one another and were very happy to have company. We ate massaman curry for every meal, partied on Khao San Road (those nitrous balloons!!! God, they’re so fun!!), and spent a lot of money on a single cocktail just for a photo op at the top of a skyscraper but the sunset was perfect and it was totally worth it.

In Chiang Mai we drank Sangsom and Coca-Cola by the pool and ate street food out of Styrofoam containers. We met these Americans who were teaching English in Chiang Mai and they took us to a night club on the back of their motorbikes. I did a drug I said I’ve never do in one of the bathrooms at this night club and ended up going home with one of the aforementioned teachers. It was funny to me because at about 3:00pm, Alex and I went back to our hostel to change and get ready for the evening and at that point I said, “I think I’m going to end up hooking up with Cory.” I fucking knew. I KNEW.

In Pai, I had the DIRTIEST hostel experience of my life. I was showering… just fully naked and vulnerable in this nasty ass shower when I saw a bug I did not recognize from my sheltered upbringing crawl out of a hole in the wall. I have never felt more small. It was also 43 degrees and we were staying in a tiny hut with a plug-in fan that only worked half the time and somehow had the effect of making the room hotter? Pai was also the first time we rented motorbikes. It’s honestly so dangerous… like, what the fuck, Thailand. We experienced our first flash rainstorm. We went to a place called Sunset Bar and took mushroom shakes and holy shit I’ve never experienced more potent mushrooms in my entire life. We met our Irish friends who we’d later see in Koh Pha Ngan, and I slept with an Israeli soldier on our second-to-last night and I’m almost 100% certain I took his virginity.

Koh Pha Ngan was alllll thunderstorms. We also decided to splurge a bit on food on this island and gorged ourselves with seafood and lavender Moscow mules at this nice restaurant down the road from our hostel. We partied so hard. We went to the pre-parties for the Full Moon – they have the Waterfall party two nights before, and the Jungle party the night before. I had sex with a total stranger at the Waterfall party up against a rock (when I recounted this story to Steven upon returning home he put on a redneck accent and said, “C’mon baby let me take you down to the fuck rock” and now that’s all I hear when I think about this experience in my head). The Full Moon Party was fun but not AS fun as the pre parties. It wasn’t as wild and the beach is so big but everyone concentrates in one little area. I took some kind of mystery pill (as you can see, I was very safe in Thailand) and had yet another sexual experience with a casual partner. I also witnessed a fight in the taxi back because one girl called another girl a stripper. It was bad.

May 

Continuing on with our Asia trip.

We landed in Krabi and intended fully to chill out a little bit after the wildness of Koh Pha Ngan. The first night was chill, we were staying in the Muslim quarter of the Krabi area so there weren’t a ton of nightclubs to go to and the hostel had some kind of run-in with police and weren’t able to take us out on the pub crawl we signed up for (lame). We had a roommate from Vancouver on the second day who bought a bunch of Xanax from a Thai pharmacy and gave me one. I can never do it again because it was so. good. But of course, I took one pill and stopped drinking just in case. This bitch continued drinking and took six or seven Xanax throughout the night. I honestly don’t know how she lived. We went rock climbing and drank beers on a boat tour one day and it was soooo great. We had the hottest tour guide. I did a hike by my lonesome that I nearly died on.

On the ferry ride from Krabi to Koh Phi Phi is where I got the sunburn that will likely give me skin cancer in later life and kill me. 90 minutes on the outside deck of a ferry (because I felt nauseous as fuck and didn’t want to vom in the cabin) absolutely fucked. me. up. We stayed at another pretty fucking gross hostel in Koh Phi Phi, and my roommates were all male which was a new experience for me. I went on a solo booze cruise cause Alex was sick. We took mushrooms again with our Canadian friend Kelsey and god, I was laughing so hard I was crying and I could not stop. I was like rolling around in the sand laughing so fucking hard about Fisherman’s Friends candy. It was so blissful. So pure.

And then… the sickness. This is going to be TMI but… fuck it. A bit of indigestion and stomach trouble is expected whenever a white person enters Asia. Different microbes etc. etc. But this… this was on a new fucking level. I knew something was up because on the morning that we woke up to take our ferry from Koh Phi Phi to Phuket, I vomited. And I never vomit, and I wasn’t that hungover (especially in relation to much of the rest of the trip). I felt okay afterwards though so we soldiered on. Three hour ferry ride, totally fine. We board our bus that will take us from the ferry port in Phuket to our hotel and about halfway through this bus ride, I feel it. I am wearing overalls. My heart starts beating loudly in my chest, sweat begins to bead on my forehead. Holy fuck, I am going to shit my pants. I clench until we get to the hostel – which is, of course, the last stop. It’s like a solid 45 minutes of pain. My stomach is ROILING. I have never felt anything like it.

I honestly know nothing about Phuket because I spent the entire 72 hours we were there running from my bunk bed to the bathroom. I would go so far as to say every ten minutes. At one point, I just brought my laptop into the washroom with me and watched Netflix for a few hours. A roommate who was with us switched rooms (understandably… I’m sorry, Helen). I didn’t eat for four days, literally not a fucking thing. Just Gatorade and water so that I didn’t die of dehydration. Because we had an airplane to catch and I needed to not be shitting the contents of my body out, I saw a doctor. He prescribed me like five different medications and told me just to take like eight of these pills and to expect stomach pain but it would at least get me through the flight to Seoul and hopefully home.

It worked, and we spent the last few days of our trip in Seoul. What an absolutely fascinating and beautiful part of the world. With Kieun as our guide, we got to see the best parts of Seoul. People took photos with us and gave us free shit. I had the absolute best meal of my life (it was the first thing I’d eaten in like four days… I really risked it all with the Korean barbecue honestly…). All-you-can-eat thick fatty slices of pork belly, grilled in front of us and dipped in sesame oil and salt with garlic and spices. Spicy chicken feet on the side, corn with cheese. It was wild. I cannot believe I stomached it.

And on May 12th, we returned home back to our lives and school and work and all of that boring ass shit. I remained ill for a solid six weeks upon returning home. To a lesser degree, I still have not fully recovered. At this point, I am unsure if I ever will. I truly think that second-round Asia gave me skin cancer and permanently altered my gastrointestinal functioning. Worth it? Unsure. But it happened nonetheless.

June 

My brother graduated from university and won a very prestigious award and it was very nice to watch him cross the stage and hear a nice speech about his accomplishments (he won so many scholarships that he basically had a free ride to school – I think it’s clear who inherited the brains).

I finished up my spring courses. Can I just say - spring courses are the worst? The two I picked were especially bad. The one about human sexuality was basically Sex Ed 101 which made for an easy A but I was hoping to investigate deeper on a number of topics. And the second one was way too hard for my tiny brain to accommodate and I got the lowest mark I’ve ever gotten on my paper and it brought me down.

I had a very random unexpected night where I slept with a really close friend of mine (like, friends for over a decade) who I used to have a little bit of a crush on in high school. We were very drunk and it was kind of a curiosity-satisfying move that has actually not resulted in a very big change to our relationship at all but I think it’s worth mentioning because younger me would have been stoked. This one’s for you, younger me!

We went to the High River Rodeo and Cabaret – another unexpected move but oh my god it was so fun. Matt, Steven, Amanda and I. You could buy as many beers as you wanted at a time and they were cheap because fuck the AGLC apparently. The rodeo was actually super fun. The cabaret was redneck af and I happened to see my roommate from the hostel in Koh Phi Phi and his buddies there? Although it was not a friendly reunion because I had unknowingly exposed him for cheating on his girlfriend when he was in Phi Phi (which he did. I shared a room with him, and the girl he loudly banged every night until 4am). Two-stepping ensued and I passed out in the car ride home. I have a great photo of Steven from this night next to a bottle of hot sauce. I do not recall why. I will include it below. 

July 

Okay, I am just going to preface this by saying July was a hot mess. 

Myself, Madison, Maeghan, and Cayley were all single and messing around on dating apps so we decided to create Tinder bingo. It’s exactly what it sounds like. The rules were that you could only cross off two things per date (so that you had to go on a minimum of three to win), you got bonus points for going on a Tinder date with the same person someone else had gone out with, and the first to win got their drinks paid for on a night out. So, I went on exactly one Tinder date. Which is something I said I’ve never do and never really saw myself doing but I went for it on this occasion because I think that in this day and age, a Tinder date is an experience everyone should have. So I bit the bullet, and went for a drink with this guy James at the Oak Tree Tavern. And oh... my god? What a terrible experience? LAUGHABLY terrible. His only desired topic of conversation were the nationalities of people I had slept with and in what circumstances. At one point he asked me, “when was the last time you had sex? Was it good?” He also talked at maximum volume and I guarantee you everyone else at that bar overheard our conversation. Midway through the date, he asked for a review of how he was doing and I told him he seemed a bit nervous. This angered him. He said, “I’M NOT NERVOUS” and I was like, “you asked, buddy.” He asked me if I would pay for him. Cayley literally had to come rescue me and I ran out of his car where he had unbuttoned his pants and had his dick out and was literally on the verge of tears begging me to touch it so hard. I literally bolted out of his car and he yelled out the window, “CALL ME!” He still hits me up on instagram sometimes. I hope his life gets better. 

I also moved again. This is my favourite living situation I’ve ever had. Great roommates who are almost never home. Cute house. Good location. A+ choice by me. 

I got really obsessed with the Thai cave rescue. It was just such a compelling and unique STORY and I would literally come home from work and refresh the BBC live update feed for hours until I fell asleep, then I’d wake up and refresh hoping for good news. I cannot wait for the movie. I will go opening day. #Obsessions 

Stampede!!! Oh my god, what a wonderful Stampede. The most memorable thing is that Steven and I went to the standing rodeo one afternoon and got absolutely. fucking. hammered. Whilst there, we met and befriended two Australian retirees named Lyn and Ken. They are rich and are obsessed with horseriding and rodeo stuff. They purchased many drinks for us and we convinced them to come to Nashville North with us, where they purchased MORE drinks for us and Steven attempted to show them how to two-step. They later invited me to go horseback riding in Banff and I accepted. They literally picked me up, drove me to Banff, we crushed two bottles of wine at the Park gin distillery, went on a three-hour horseback ride through the mountains, they drove me home and I paid for NONE OF IT. It was........ a day. I sat on my bed later and thought to myself, “that was fucking weird.” But now, if I ever go to Melbourne, I will hit them up. 

It was Ali’s birthday and we went camping in Waiparous. We took mushrooms on Saturday and just as they were beginning to fully kick in, the RCMP rolled in and kicked us out of our campsite. What a wild time to be faced with an interaction with the cops. Also - no one could drive except for two people who had stayed sober and they had to shuttle us to a new campsite. Have you ever tried setting up a tent on mushrooms? Do you know how difficult and hilarious it is? 

And lastly at the end of July, I went to Folk Fest. I saw Alvvays again. Front row! Like, against the barrier front row. It was awesome. It was folk fest that inspired me to cut my hair and get bangs again. No regrets. I love my bangs. I also experienced a level of street harassment that I didn’t know was possible from some random, innocent-seeming guy. It was terrifying. I called the police. No bueno. 

August 

In August, I got promoted at my job and basically became a baby manager. It was better in theory than in practice because my shifts got longer, I made less in tips (but more hourly), and the cash out for a restaurant is a long and frustrating process that depends on a lot of small pieces working together correctly in a big ass spreadsheet and I suck at math.

In happier news – August was also the establishment of podcast club. Podcast club is one of the best and dorkiest things I have ever been involved with. We pick a podcast each week to listen to, and get together on Sunday mornings at 10:00am to discuss the contents of the podcast. It was initially open to whomever wanted to come but has since whittled down to a core group and at this point, we’re all so close that it would almost be weird to introduce a new person into the mix. There is Kendal, who I go to school with and who started the whole club. Her boyfriend, Mitch. Lachlan and Maddy who are siblings. Matt, a YouTuber who was kind of a wildcard. Chad, also kind of a wildcard but who works as a youth counsellor – and me! Podcast club has made my life infinitely better and is probably the best thing to come out of 2018, in all honesty.

I also got obsessed with Harry Potter and read like almost the whole series and my new at the time roommates thought I was such a loser because I would literally post up on the couch in the living room with a HP book and they would come back five hours later and I hadn’t moved and all I wanted to talk about was Harry Potter. 

September / October / November 

I am lumping these three months together in this review because truly, they are lumped together in my mind and heart. 

On September 11, I started my first practicum at CommunityWise. I really had no idea what to expect when I started there but looking back, I cannot believe how hard I lucked out. The U of C is VERY clinically-based when it comes to how it educates and describes the practice of social work. CW was the opposite of it all and day-to-day so much happens there that it is honestly impossible not to get dragged in at such a deep level that it literally forces you to care. When I was in practicum, I did a lot of reading and I came across this concept of a “disorienting dilemma” which is “an experience within which a current understanding is found to be insufficient or incorrect and the learner struggles with the resulting conflict of views. Such experiences often are those to which learners point as the beginning of the process of questioning their understanding and views and entering the transformative learning process” (Source). Truly, being in that space over the course of 300 hours created this for me. I was forced to confront a lot of racist and otherwise problematic shit that I have been brought up with and that comes up in small ways for me that I try and quash down for the sake of saving face. Poverty, addiction, mental health issues showed up LITERALLY on the doorstep and I was thrown into it all. The experience was a disorienting dilemma and it shook me out of my bubble and I have never fallen so deeply in love with social work. My supervisor and I formed a VERY close relationship that probably broke some ethical and professional boundaries and she was there for me to discuss social issues and experiences I was having in an honest way that really deconstructed things. I had my debit card stolen by a client on one occasion, had to call the DOAP team because I witnessed people in overdose more times than I can count, had to talk many a person down from suicide, befriended a very mentally ill person who suffers from delusions that they are an alien in a human body sent here to observe earth and report back to their master. We had to kick someone out of a workshop for being racist. It was a wild ride, honestly. There were many many positive things to come out of practicum. I built my professional network in ways I never would have been able to, I was able to move out of the “student” realm and step into the role of a social worker and advocate and professional. I did a lot of public speaking! I was out in the community talking to a million different people. I made videos and posters. And the best part of all is that even when my practicum ended, my connection to CW did not. They have hired me on as a digital storytelling intern (paid!) for the new year. Which is a major confidence boost and I just love CW and everyone there so much. I will literally be forever grateful to them for taking me under their collective wing and showing me I have the skills and abilities to be an effective social worker :) 

Ahem. Now on to some not-so-good things... 

The end of October was kind of difficult because I was attempting to manage practicum responsibilities, actual class projects and homework, second-round practicum interviews, and Famoso. I was very stressed out and it was not good, especially because I got a rejection from one interview and didn’t even get an interview at my top choice. I was feeling very sorry for myself and may or may not have cried at my desk at practicum. It all worked out in the end though, and actually I was offered a placement at the first place I interviewed – they just took a while to get back to me. She called me to let me know this while I was on a run and being idiot me, I picked up… panting and gasping for air in Nose Hill Park. She was like, “We’d like to offer you the place… wait, are you okay?”

I would also like to just slide it in here that I slept with my ex in October. Which wasn’t a particularly momentous occasion and was actually kind of funny because it felt so much like a one night stand. I am mostly putting this in here because I don’t think many people know that and I want to see who reads this far.

Along similarish lines – I PUT MYSELF OUT THERE AND ASKED SOMEONE ON A STRAIGHT UP DATE AND GOT REJECTED AND IT WAS HONESTLY SO EMBARASSING AND BRUTAL and it’s okay now but oh… my god. This also happened around the same time as the rejections from practicum placements and I had such a bad night where I got drunk on my couch alone and Cayley brought me burnt ends from her new job at a brewery because she was #concerned for me and I didn’t want to be alone. That’s a true friend right there.

December 

December is only halfway done - but I feel I can summarize it accurately. It has been a nice, tidy wrap up to the year. A month of podcasts, cleaning my house and my car and my life up, a mysterious knee injury that is really fucking me up, working a lot at Famoso, finishing my practicum and school semester. One thing I am dreading is that my brother’s girlfriend who our family is not particularly fond of will be joining us in Saskatoon this year. But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. 

In General 

2018 has been very stressful for me. But despite the stress, and sometimes out of it, have come some very nice, beautiful things. I said last year in my post that I wanted to become more deeply involved in my community and in activism and social work and in that way I think I have excelled. I’m in it now, you guys. I feel capable. I feel motivated. I feel CONFIDENT. And I’m fucking excited to see what comes in the future. 

I nearly doubled the amount of people I’ve slept with so that’s... a notable thing that happened this year. 

It has been nice to feel a return to a sense of belonging with my old high school group of friends. In a way, I feel more united with them than ever. I guess not having a partner that they all hate helps. But also, I think I’ve just been feeling more and more like myself. But to Connor, Steven, Matt, Adam and the assortment of new(er) members that come and go - I am very grateful for you all. It has also been good for my heart and soul to become so close with people from podcast club. It’s actually like... really hard to make new friends. Podcast club made it easy. And I found myself on a Friday night in Maddy and Ben’s apartment, watching cooking shows and teaching them how to play card games, laughing until I cried and drinking wine. And it’s like... who else gets together on EVERY Sunday morning to discuss podcasts? For fun? I know relationships change and dissolve and grow from each year to the next but I just have a deep feeling that some of these friendships are the real deal. And I’m really lucky. It sounds so ~fake deep~ and lame but honestly podcast club is making me a better, happier, less anxious person. 

2019: 

I think 2019 is going to have to be the year that I really, truly grow the fuck up. I’m not mad about this. I look forward to crushing through 400 more hours of practicum, graduating and getting my degree. Hopefully entering the work force for real (this prospect is honestly so exciting to me... I creep the job boards every day daydreaming about what I might eventually do when I leave the world of waitressing) and making some adult money. 

I also like... totally got fat in 2018 so 2019 will involve some activities to counterbalance this. AND I have a ticket to Big Valley Jamboree. Which is hilarious because I think if you asked 2015 Megan what she’d never do, it would be “go to BVJ” but here I am, ticket in hand, excitement mounting by the day. Boots on, bitches. 

Some of my goals or things I’d like to work on in 2019 are to become less attached to social media and more invested in the actual moment/doing of things rather than recording them (ironic as I type this MASSIVE year in review post, yes), to get into a healthy and sustainable pattern of exercise where I don’t just like become obsessed with it for a little while and then slowly taper off and then do none of it for like six months... and honestly? I want to download a bunch of those dating apps again and just go for it. I think you can learn so much about yourself through dating and I’ve been such a recluse this year for the most part because I have been sort-of-but-not seeing someone since literally JULY but we’re not actually together and I don’t know what’s going on. I just need to get over my own insecurities and anxiety and just jump in with both feet. It’ll be fun. It’ll be crazy. I’m excited. 

The rest of it, as always, is an open book. Who knows where I will be, what I will be doing, or who I will be doing it with by this time next year? Not I. 

[kpopisthereasonihavenolife]

Captured

Ooooh, I like this AU.  Very interesting to think about and write for!  Thanks for the fun request, I hope it lives up to your expectations and was (at least some what) what you were looking for!! <3 I also didn’t know if I wanted to make this a multiple chapter thing, but in the end I just made it one long one-shot.  It’s lengthy, but do enjoy the long request!  I’m actually pretty happy with it turned out so I hope you are too!! 

P.S. I can’t name stories for shit. It may change, it may not, who knows. 

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GOT7 ft. Monsta X

Jaebum/Reader AU

Genre: Drama, Lil Angst, Fluff and, Uh-oh, some cursing too (just saying)

Words: 8.4k (dear lord)

Kidnapped [captured]: verb: to take (someone) away illegally by force, typically to obtain a ransom.

“I’ve already told you Changkyun, I work today.”  You spoke into the your small cell phone as you pressed it to your cheek with your shoulder as your hands worked on gathering the rest of your things to put into your small plaid purse.

“That is no excuse.  You could always call in and actually come out with us today.  Nothing wrong with playing a little hookie you know.”  You rolled your eyes as your young friend spoke back into the other end of the cellular conversation.  

“No means no, Im Changkyun.”  You chuckled at the childish whine that you receive as a response.  See, today Changkyun wanted to take you out with the rest of his friends, whom you were also close to because today was a special day.  Today was your birthday.  You were turning 23 today and you were stuck working.  Where you may ask? Well, none other than a boring old bank.  

Honestly, you didn’t mind the work, but doing it day after day, just like with most jobs, it gets boring pretty fast.  Accounting and working with numbers was something you had a skill for, which is how you landed this job in the first place and you couldn’t really complain about the pay, but in all honesty you wish you could get out of work today.

You had finished stuffing your purse with your wallet, some over the counter pain medication for your inevitable headache later, a small bag of bobby pins and hair ties in case the bank decided that in the dead of summer A/C wasn’t a thing that was going to happen and finally a small package of hand tissues and bandages of both large, medium and small variety.  You never know when you might need them and you’d rather be safe than sorry later.  

“Listen,” you set your purse on your small table by your apartment door and walked back to your room to change into your work clothes. “I’m off tomorrow, so all that’s happening is us pushing off plans by a measly day.”  

“That doesn’t change the fact I wanted to do it today.”  

“Yeah?  Well if memory serves, you wanted to go out to a movie and then probably go all out at a buffet didn't you?  It’s always busy in both of those places on a Saturday.  Going tomorrow would be better, it’s most people’s lazy days before a new week.  It’ll work out.”  

“No. No, see, that’s just it.  Sunday is the lazy day.  It’s hard enough getting Hyungwon out of bed on a normal day.  You don’t realize how the chore drastically increases in difficulty on Sunday’s that when we have literally nothing to do.” 

“Oh, it can’t be that bad.”  

“Y/N, we draw straws to decide who’s going to wake him up.”  You suck in a breath between your teeth as you slip on a pair of black slacks that buckle around your waist and tuck your white, collared, button up shirt into them.

“Wow, that bad huh?”  

“Don’t leave us hanging Y/N!!!!”  You scoffed at his whine again.  You pushed your bangs out of your eyes and grabbed your black cropped blazer before you left your room, not yet putting it on.  You set it in a heep next to your purse as you pull you hair back and loop a hair tie around it, pulling it into a bun to keep the hair off your neck.

“I’m sorry, but I need to go.  I’ll listen to you complain later.  I’m going to be late if I keep talking to you.”  You heard him dramatically feign a wounded noise as he wept into the phone, as he tends to do when he finally realizes what he wants to do, isn’t going to happen.  

“Uugghhh, fine.  You’re so buying me food to make up for this later.”  You grabbed your phone with one of your hands and swapped ears for a moment, straightening your neck and relaxing your shoulder finally.  

“Yeah yeah, send your orders in later.  I’ll pick something up after work.  Ask the boys what they want to and I’ll buy for them too.”  You rolled your eyes as you heard your friend cheer.  Funny how you were buying people food on your birthday.  

“Thanks Y/N, you’re the best old person I know!”

“YAH!”  He laughed at your sound of annoyance.  You weren’t that much older than him.  He wasn’t so young compared to you anyways.  

“See you later then. Happy birthday.”  You smiled as you huffed out a breath through your nose.  

“Thanks Kyun.  Later.”  You pulled the phone away as you ended the call and dropped your phone in your purse. Grabbing it, your keys to your car and throwing your blazer over your arm, not going to put it on, you left your apartment, locked the door and sped down the halls to the elevator of the 3rd floor to the parking lot before you plopped in your car.  Tossing everything into the passenger seat, you inserted your keys and the car revived to life with the turn of your wrist and before you knew it you were on your way.  

As you drove, you heard on one of the new stations about another recent convenience store robbery.  This is the third one this week.  Either multiple groups are striking at once to confuse the authorities, or someone is just clever enough to do all three and not get caught with so much activity going on.  Honestly, you didn’t really find it too concerning or interesting.  

Robberies are pretty common, unfortunately, and so long as there were no injuries or deaths, you wouldn’t find the time to really worry.  Sure, it’d suck pretty hard for the people who have to deal with broken windows and doors and have to figure out how to replace what was stolen, not to mention the cash that was left in the register, but none of that was really your business.  Call yourself cold-hearted, but if you had nothing to do with it, you wouldn’t dwell to long on the problem.

So, when you pulled into the large, over cramped parking lot of your bank, into the space that is reserved for employees, specifically you, you never expected to have anything other than another boring day tick on by.  

You entered the building, now slipping on your blazer, politely greeting coworkers you met eye contact with as you glanced at the watch on the inside of your wrist.

9:56 AM.  Just barely made it before your 10 AM shift, but even barely is making it.  You’ll just blame it on the, probably still sulking, Changkyun as he sat bored at home.  You slid into your window as you hung your purse on the hook you had placed on the inside of your window, just out of sight.  You turned your computer on as you pulled your keyboard out and opened all your documents and programs before officially opening your window to help those in need of managing their money.

By the time 10:47 AM hit, you had only dealt with a whining middle aged woman who was acting like switching money from checking to savings was the end of the world, an elderly man who was wanted to withdraw money for his niece’s graduation and a mother with her teenage son who wanted to open an account of his own.  It wasn’t too much, but it already made you feel tired.  Your shift lasted until closing today, since you had to cram for the day off tomorrow, so for the next nearly 8 hours, you’d be stuck in this chair unless you had the chance to get up and pee.  

It was almost a quarter past 11 when you decided leave your window for a moment, placing a ‘Be right with you’ sign on the desktop so you could go grab a mug of coffee.  You had brought in one of your mugs when you found out there was a coffee pot in the back lounge and whether you were a coffee drinker or not, anyone would grit through the taste of it to make it through this dreadful shift.

On your way back to your window, you spotted someone in the lobby, a man to be precise.  He had a baseball cap on his head, black with no logo or anything, just plain with an long tail on the back of it to adjust the fit as it bumped against his back with each turn of his head and a black mask covering his nose and mouth.  It wasn’t uncommon for them after all, it was summer and the cap would shield their eyes and the mask would keep out dust and pollen; well to some extent.  He wore a grey tank top that hung loosely from his body under a gray cardigan and his black skinny jeans had the knees torn out.  His sense of fashion was pretty good, whoever he was, you had to admit, but he seemed off.  He just kept fiddling with his phone, looking at it every so often as if he was lost.

So, with coffee still in hand, your slightly heeled shoes stepped against the hard floors over to him to see if he needed any help with anything.  You walked up beside him and looked under the bill of his cap to try and make sure he knew you were going to address him.

“Excuse me, sir?”  He jumped a bit.  Now closer, you noticed the hair that peeked out from under his cap and down his sideburns were bleached.  His eyes appeared to be brown, but it was tough to make out under the shade of the cap’s bill, even in the lit up bank lobby, along with all the large windows around.  “Do you need help with anything?”

He shook his head and cleared his throat.  

“No, uh, I’m just waiting on a couple friends.”  You opened your mouth as you understood.  Maybe a friend of his is going to take out money to have a night out, or maybe they’d just chosen this spot as a meeting place.  Whatever, the reason, you obviously weren’t needed here.  

“Ah, I understand.  Sorry to disturb you.”  It was when you were ready to leave the man, that the wooden doors to the bank slammed open and multiple rounds of gunfire were shot off, leading the entire vicinity into a panic. You also felt panic well in your chest as you turned to see where the fires came from, but before you could get anywhere your legs were kicked out from under you, and you were forced to the grown.

You mug was dropped and shattered as the hot contents of caffeine was spilled next to you and the man you had just spoken to held your arms behind your back as your chest was pushed painfully onto the hard floors.  You felt your blazer being ripped off your form as the man above and behind you pried it off and placed it over the glass of the shattered mug to avoid him stepping on it and then to into the liquid were he would leave liquefied shoe prints that could dry and be used to track him later.  

Lifting your head, the best you could from your pinned state, you saw the visitors and innocent civilians on the ground as two different men went and bound their wrists with zip ties, just in case someone wanted to try and play hero and do something stupid.  Looking around more, there were 5 men in the room, with the man on your back in the mix, there were 6.  All dressed in seemingly normal clothes, but all shielded faces and caps hiding their hair.

Their guns didn’t seem to be anything too extreme like what you would see in a dramatic bank robbery movie.  There were no M-16s, no semi-automatic rifles, no machine guns, just simple pistols and a couple with shotguns.  However, you weren’t going to judge them, if it shot and the bullet hit the intended target, pretty much any gun will do the trick. You were pulled out of your though process as one of the other men shouted at the man on you back.

“What!”  He shouted back as you turned your head.  The man was standing by your window that was vacant, before moving inside and rummaging around on your computer. Luckily all the important information was locked via passwords that changed on a daily, but just as you were thinking it, you felt yourself being pulled backwards onto your knees then lifted harshly to your feet.  

With the man holding your arms behind you, he shoved you towards your window, then behind it and finally down into your chair before he gestured towards the screen.  You knew what he was implying, ‘get into the accounts and get the information we want.’  You caught the glint of the pistol of the man in the corner of your eye as he pulled it from his waistband at his back and you’d really not push your luck.  

Honestly, if you could, you’d deny any order given to you like a trouper if you were alone, but here there were too many people and you couldn’t make yourself the culprit as to why one or multiple of them could get hurt or even killed if you didn't listen.  So, with quaking fingers, you followed the orders of the second man who stood behind you, pointing out everything he wanted to see.  

Codes to safes, information to the accounts of the more fruitful names that were well known, the amount of money stored in the bank’s safe in the back of the store and surprisingly enough a map of the area.  You figured the map would be so they could completely finalize their escape route, what with the authorities on their way from someone cleverly acting on that panic button under their desk before being pried away from it when this all began.  

When all the information and codes you knew were out in the open to the criminals, the one who had you previously pinned on the floor, zip tied your hands together and also put another zip tie through the belt loop of your high-waist slacks and your hand zip tie and kept your hands in place in your lap.  Again, you could try your chances and run since you weren’t actually tied down to anything and no one was holding you, but you’d rather not chance a bullet to the back of your head acting like a panic stricken fawn.

While you sat put with the second man from before watching over you, he noticed a wire running behind your ear and down into your shirt.  What he was looking at was a communication wire used for your bank, since the building was large.  Not, wanting to chance the idea of someone hacking into it to try and give you a way out, he began working on removing it.  The sudden touch of him around your ear and then suddenly gripping your shirt only to unbutton it and remove the wire, startled you to the point, you jumped.  

Everything happened in one go.  Your body reacted to it being exposed to this strange criminal and in shock, your body jolted.  As it did so, the back of your head collided with the face of the man, and was enough of an impact to make his mask slip.  His back was to the mass of people, so your eyes were the only pair of eyes that saw how his mask fell from one of his ears and revealed his face.  You two stared at each other before he hurried, fixed his mask and got a call from the back that they were ready to bolt.

You let out a silent huff, ready for this all to be over, but oh no, the universe wasn’t done fucking over your day.  As the man’s face was covered back up and his cue to skedaddle was clear, you felt him harshly yank up on your bicep and drag you with him.  Next thing you knew, you were listening to 6 voices all shouting in your direction, or rather the strange man’s direction, and you were thrown into a van that was in a hidden alley away from the press and media covering the robbery.  

“The hell?!  Who’s this?!”  A deep voice asked as the one who had thrown you in, slammed the doors and the van began to move.  Your, still restrained, body rolled and moved to the sudden driving and moving as you looked back and forth.  The man whose face you saw, removed his mask again, now in a safer environment.  

“The damn woman saw my face.  I can’t just let that go!”  As two of them bickered, one looked at you as he reached to pull you forward a bit and just as he saw the fear and panic in your eyes, it all blanked out as your consciousness faded with a harsh force on the back of your neck.  Now, with your reality distorting and the sounds of tires screeching and men bickering you let a final thought cross your mind.

What a shitty birthday.

When your mind started to fuzzily return to normal, you couldn’t bring yourself to pry your eyes open, and the ringing in your ears finally cleared out for you to hear arguing.  Much like the arguing from before you lost track of everything.

“You stole a fucking woman!”  This voice didn’t sound like any of the ones you heard echoing in the bank before hand.  It sounded new, and almost like it held a sort of superiority, it was like the harsh voice of a leader.  “I stay behind to cover our tracks, so that you don’t get your asses caught, but now you decide to grab a fucking person and bring them back with you?!”  

“It was Bam who did it!  He just grabbed her and threw her in with us!”  That was the voice of the man who had you pinned in the very beginning of this shitty story.  

“Shut up Jackson, no one asked for your imput.  You would’ve done the same thing if she saw your face you know!”

“I wouldn’t have fucked up enough to let her see my face, so this wouldn’t even be happening!  You know, the whole purpose of a mask is to hide your face so it doesn’t get seen.”

“Both of you shut the hell up!  I don’t care who did what or why it happened, now I have to deal with this problem along side the issue of throwing the cops for another goose chase, so you goons don’t get us located.”  The voice of the assumed leader of your group of kidnappers sighed as there was silence.  Then he spoke up again.  

“Youngjae, work on the computers.  Track where the cops are and make sure they don't find a trail.  As the computer wizz, I’ll expect you not to screw up.”  

“Right on.”  You heard a pair of feet fade off as it was silent a bit longer and soon your body involuntarily twitched, and it didn’t go unnoticed.  Feeling someone come closer to your body, you decided it was now or never, as you slowly cracked your eyes open to come face to face to a man who was kneeled down to your level.  

“Oh, hey, she’s awake now.”  He didn’t look away from you, or really speak loud to really announce it, but it was heard anyway as the remaining sets of eyes were now on you and your groggy state.  The man staring at you looked over his shoulder for a moment before he stood and moved away from you.  He was taller than you expected, but that thought was short lived as a new face was now in your view.

A man that seemed to be no older than yourself was staring at you.  Hair cut short, but moved out of his eyes enough to revealed two moles over his left eye that one could almost mistake for a piercing on his eyelid.  His face was slim as it was emotionless, looking you over just as you were him.  Even in this situation, as much as you hated to admit it, he was handsome.  If your mind wasn’t so dazed, you probably would have sneered at the man, but all you could do is just stare at him.  

He grabbed your arms and pushed you from you lying position to one where you back was rested up against the back of the presumed couch you were on and your legs hung over the edge of the cushions, you hands still bound to your waist.  Your hair, that still remained tied just barely in the bun from, whenever it was since you hadn’t known how long you had been out, had strands of all sizes and lengths falling from it.  Strands fell over your forehead, the sides of your face, and around the nape of your neck.  Given any other situation than the one you found yourself in currently, it probably would have seemed fairly attractive.

The man hooked his finger under your chin, using his thumb just below your lips, to move your head around, looking at you.  You slightly smeared eyeliner combined with the heavy stress filled bags under your eyes did nothing to your appearance and your lips had become dry from the lack of running your tongue around them on occasion. You found a bit of strength in you to jerk your head away from his grasp, chin slipping from his fingers as you glared at him.  He looked at you, surprised for a moment before dropping his hand and smirking at you.

“Ah, I see you’re finally coming around then darling?” His voice was slick, but beneath the dark undertone it held, it was almost as attractive as he was.  

“What’s it to you?” You had sneered back through your teeth and furrowed brows.  You took the time the man in front of you took to stand up and then place himself next to you on the couch, to look around.  You found yourself in wide open, nearly empty concrete building.  Looking up, there appeared to be a second floor that was divided visible from the second, only a railing running around the rectangular perimeter of the second story floor to make sure no one walked right off.  It was like an abandoned warehouse, or old state penitentiary that you’d see online for ghost tours.

The windows, or rather lack-thereof, were very few, you could count only a few on one hand all on the top story.  You deemed that perhaps most of the building was underground.  Of course there were individual rooms on both floors, small trinkets scattered around here and there, a space used as a kitchen and a decent television. You wouldn’t call it a 5-star stay, but it’s enough for someone to definitely live there, and undetected to boot.  

“Well sweetheart,” you were brought back with the man next to you started speaking to you.  You turned to look at him as he spoke, but he just kept his head down as he rubbed his forehead and closed his eyes.  He was clearly still annoyed.  “Looks like you have two options.”  He held out the hand closest to you and held up two of his fingers.  

“One, you run and try to rat us out, meaning you get to be pressed under social media scrutiny after being ‘kidnapped’, questioned non-stop, have all attention on you and help get us arrested, by the time you show up we’ll be gone and you’ll be known as the woman who cried wolf.”  He lowered one finger, leaving you silently dreading knowing what the other option will be.  

“Or, you could stick around and pitch in.”  You’d be crazy to stick around, especially with this lunatic, but the first option didn’t sound any better.  You watched as he lowered his hand all together and gave you a moment to think it over.  One might thing a life of living as someone who claimed something true, but to the rest of the world it’s a giant lie would be better than dealing with a gang of thieves, but your mind was thinking the opposite.  

Call you crazy, but as shitty as this situation was, and how stressful it had been, a part of you wanted to keep living the life he may or may not seriously be offering you.  You’re day of working boring power shifts behind a window would disappear, but a new life of constant hiding and a hushed life would be at your fingertips.  However, you’d also lose your friends, you’d lose your best friend, Changkyun.  

There wasn’t an easy answer to this, but you were leaning towards the option of staying around, but…

“I’ll make my decision, under one condition.”  You spoke to the man next to you, making him open his eyes and glance at you.  “If I can make a call and call just one person, just to let them know I’m okay, I’ll stay.”  The man raised his brow.  That could be risky for someone in his position, so you added on to your condition.  “I’ll let you listen in, you’ll be right next to me as I talk so I won’t try anything funny.  Just one call, please.” You couldn’t live with yourself if you went the rest of your, perhaps shortened, life without at least talking to Kyun one more time.  

The man waiting a moment before he sighed and reached into pocket of his dark jeans and lazily pulled his phone from it.  

“Cut her ties,” he simply ordered on of the men around.  Not arguing with him, one man came and cut your zip tied hands as well as the zip on your slacks.  Looking at the eyes, it was the same man who had you pinned to the ground at the bank. You clicked your tongue and without thinking slammed the toes of your heels into his shin.  He hissed as he dropped his knife and glared are you.  

“That’s for pinning me down before.  Asshole.”  The man next to you laughed.

“Forgive Jackson, he was doing his job.”  You rubbed your, now free, wrists.    

“Yeah, well he’s heavy.  Not to mention just laying on your chest as a woman hurts like hell, not to mention having my boobs pushed on the hard floor with a man on my back.  Criminal or not, have some tact.”  You hissed.  Jackson opened his mouth to protest, but just sighed and shook his head.  He wasn’t even going to go there as you silently applauded his choice to just shut up.

“I think she’ll fit in just fine with that attitude.”  The man the ground on the opposite side of you looked up at you spoke with a smirk.  

“And you are?”  You rose your brow.  You’d might as well learn names at this point.  You’re too deep in now.  

“Yugyeom.” The man next to you who fiddled with his phone answered for him.  “The guy on the ground is Yugyeom.  Jackson your familiar with.  Bambam was the one whose mask you managed to screw up; and also the one who decided to bring you here.  Youngjae is up on the second floor in our tech room handling some business. Mark’s not here right now, you’ll have your introductions later.  Jinyoung is handling repairs for our firearms, so you’ll get acquainted with him later as well.”  

“Alright, and now who are you?”  He smirked as he held his phone by one of the corners and slung his wrist to offer the phone to you.  

“Jaebum.  JB is just fine.”  You rose your brow before you took the phone.  You sighed as you started the process of just accepting anything and everything from this point on.  “Now it’s your turn for your name, or if you want we can just continue with the pet names darling.”  You rolled your eyes in annoyance.  Were all criminals this way, or just this particular group?

“Y/N, a pleasure.”  You spoke with a huff.  

“I’m sure.”  You rolled your eyes again looked at his phone then up at your audience.  

“Alright, I know I agreed for someone to sit in on my conversation with one one call, but I don’t need the happy hungry bunch as an audience.”  JB chuckled as he rose from his place on the couch and grabbed your bicep, pulling you up.  

“Well go to the roof, better signal and no audience.  Happy?”  You just scoffed as he pulled you along with him, leaving the rest of the group to do their own thing and probably discuss your sudden membership.

On the roof, it was just turning dusk you had opened JB’s dial pad, noticing the date was the same as your birthday still on his lock screen, and entered in Changkyun’s number, happy that you took the time to memorize it.  As it rang and you placed it to your ear, you hoped he’d pick up an unknown number. Thankfully, he did.  

“Hello?”  

“Changkyun?”  You head the sound of scuffling on his end as you assumed he was lying down previously before bolting up.

“Holy shit, Y/N!  Where are you?  What happened?  Are you okay?!”  You chuckled lightly as his concern.  You’d be a bit frightened if he wasn’t a bit worried for you.  

“I’m okay, I promise.  A lot has happened since the incident at work.”  You sighed.  

“No shit Sherlock, I texted you and you never answered, next thing I know Hoseok is shoving a news article of a bank robbery at your work and you’re the one employee who went missing!  I’ve been going crazy here!”

“I’m sorry Kyun, I am.” You sighed again.  “I can’t tell you much, but I don’t think we’ll be able to celebrate my birthday today, or tomorrow, or really again.”  JB behind you picked up on your conversation a bit.

“The hell does that mean?”  

“Kyun, I’m not coming back home.  I can’t anymore.”

“You’re not making sense Y/N.”

“I know, I know I’m not..just,” you ran you hand over your face, “something happened and I can’t go back.  I don’t even know if I’ll get to talk to you again.” You felt yourself start to choke up slightly.  Telling your best friend goodbye hurt like hell.  

“No, what?  You can’t just decide that by yourself!”  

“You think I wanted to do this?  I have no choice Kyun!”  He sighed as he heard the slight crack in your voice.  

“Are you really going?”  You could only nod, but he could hear the movement of your head against the phone speaker.  “Is someone there with you?” You looked slightly behind you at JB who stood with his hands tucked into his pants pockets. 

“..Yeah.”  You spoke softly.  

“Alright, can I talk to them?”  You blinked confused at his request as you turned to JB and brought the phone away from your ear slightly.

“He.. he asked if he could talk to you?” He raised his brow slightly and dug out on of his hands, walking to you and slowly grabbing the phone from you.  He took a few steps away from you before he started speaking.

“You wanted me?”  JB’s voice was monotone as he heard Changkyun on the other side.

“I don’t know what you did to make her stay, but if she chose this on her own, you better make sure I don’t ever see her on the news being arrested or worse her body being carried away by a god damn stretcher, you hear me?” JB looked back to you, seeing how your arms crossed over your chest and you held your arms, shifting in your stance, clearly try to distract yourself from letting go of your best friend.  

“Of course.  I’ll keep her under my constant watch.”

“Oh, and you so owe her.  You and your friends happened to kidnap her on her birthday, jerks.”  JB scoffed lightly.  

“I’ll think of something.”  He looked at our briefly again as you were now fiddling with removing your shoes, sick and tired of the aching in your feet.  He whispered into the phone, while you were distracted.  “I’ll have her contact you in the future.  I’d feel pretty bad if I took everything from her away.  Just don’t give her, or us away, understood?”  

“Wow, that’s pretty sympathetic coming from the bad guy.”  

“We have a good points to.”  With that JB walked back to you as you had kicked off your second shoe and handed the phone back to you.  “Finish up quickly.  It’s getting dark.” You nodded as you took the phone back and continued with a short conversation with Kyun.  

“Just, promise me you’ll stay safe. I’ll really miss you Y/N.”  You smiled at his words.  

“I know, I will.  I’ll miss you too.  Don’t cause any trouble for the guys either.”

“I’m the youngest, I live to cause trouble.”  You chuckled at him.  “Hey Y/N?”

“Yeah?”

“Happy birthday.”  You felt your eyes sting as this would be the last time you would hear him say this to you.  You took a breath and looked at the darkening sky, keeping your tears in your eyes.

“Thank you Kyun. I guess, goodbye then.”  He cleared his throat on the other end of the phone as you started to hear the voices of the other guys.  

“Yeah. Later girl.”  The last thing you heard of him was someone asking who he was talking you, and him replying that it was ‘nothing important’ before the line went dead.  You pulled the phone from your ear and watched as the screen of the phone called showed the duration of the call before it returned to the standard keypad.  

Just like that, Changkyun was gone.  Your chest felt heavy as you felt something messing with your head.  You went to turn to see what it was, but were stopped when a pair of hands held it in place.

“Don’t move your head around.” JB then moved to mess with your hair.  “I’m taking your hair out.”  You stood there in silence as his hands wove through your messy hair and untangled it from the hair tie in the least painful way possible.  You felt your hair fall back, now loose, against your neck as you turned and handed him his phone back.  He took it, tucking it in his pocket.

He looked at the sadness in your eyes.  Clearing his throat he placed a hand on your head and ran his fingers through the thin strands of hair, snagging just a bit on the small tangles.  

“It’s late.  You need rest.” He moved his hands from your head to grip your hand and pull you inside after him.  You briefly ran into, and met with, Mark and Jinyoung the two who weren’t present earlier and watched as JB stopped by the tech room where Youngjae was sat with headphones on his head and computer monitors on every side of a large desk.  He offered you a friendly smile, still clearly busy where you just bowed politely back.  

After that, taking your hand again, JB lead you to a fairly decent sized room on the second floor before he shut the door behind him, dropped your hand and dug around in a closet for some clothes.  A large king bed sat against the rooms backwall in the center with a dresser under a window with a dark curtain covering it.  The room was void of anything really, just a standard room to sleep in.  

“Change into those.  We’ll focus on getting you actual woman’s clothes later.”  He had tossed an over large t-shirt to you with a loose pair of shorts to wear.  “I’ll offer you a hoodie if you want since you don’t have a change of bras to put a comfortable one on and I’m pegging you don’t want to go bra-less in this situation.” You were surprised he even thought about the annoyance that is the female chest, but took him up on the offer of a hoodie.  

“Grab your clothes and follow me.  You’ll probably want a shower too.”  You did as you were told and he led you to the bathroom down the walkway of the second story. “Just take your time. Since this place is basically off the map, we don’t pay any bills, but we still have connections to have working water and what not.”  He was setting up the shower for you as you stood there behind him.  He was awfully kind for someone who is supposedly the leader of a bunch of criminals.  

“Thank you.”  You thanked him as he looked over his shoulder.  

“It’s the least I can do.  We did ruin your birthday after all.”  You blinked at him them remembered Kyun had talked to him.  

“He told you, didn’t he?”  

“Of course he did.  He seemed like a good friend.”  You smiled sadly.

“He was the best.”  The past tense of your sentence almost made you flinch.  JB put his hand on your shoulder, ready to leave.  

“When your done, just head back to the room from before.  You can sleep there tonight.” You nodded at him.  

“Goodnight then.”  He nodded at you as he left.  You locked the door behind him, out of fear someone might just come bursting in and finally let yourself relax a bit.  It wasn’t until you were in the shoulder, you finally let yourself cry.  Unknowingly to you, JB stood at the door of the bathroom, arms crossed as he listened to your cries mix with the shower and soon walked off.  

Just like that, you started your life as a fellow second hand criminal, you called yourself.  You never really did any crimes, but you helped when Youngjae needed support with his tech, or when you could use your intelligence to help them in random things, you would.  You were almost acting as their moral support.  

Over the course of time you began close to every member there.  Jackson, whom you despised at first, soon became your best friend after one particularly large fight you two had that seemed to help you bond in a weird reversed kind of way. But, there was something you wanted to deny at first when you felt it in your chest, but the way your felt towards JB made your heart palpitate.

You first felt it when he surprised you with a phone that had been modified, courtesy of Youngjae, to be unable to be tracked. He gave it to you 2 months after you were brought by Bambam, and he deemed it a ‘late birthday present.”  You saw he added Changkyun’s number to it, under the name of ‘Kyun’, since JB didn’t actually know his name.  That’s just what he remembered you call him.  With that phone, you were able to text and call Kyun when you wanted, but of course you had to be careful with what you said at times, but it was like angels singing when you called him and heard him through the phone again.  

From then, it just started growing.  The feeling in your chest.  Part of you thought that maybe you could just be experiencing Stockholm Syndrome, and maybe that wasn’t too far off from home base, but you didn’t care if you were or not.  You weren’t trying to stay on their good side to stay alive, because you knew they wouldn't hurt you.  Sure you might have arguments, but the boys always leave or make sure you aren’t in arms length of them if they’re feeling angry enough to do anything.

The one time someone had accidentally cut your arm with a shard of a glass that he threw against, and smashed, on a wall near you, JB wanted to cut his arm by breaking a different glass directly on his arm, right on the same place you got cut. JB was a frightening leader, but more than that, he was honestly a good person.  He cared about things and people just like others did.  He even brought back a dog one day to give to Youngjae, who had been wanting a pet to liven things up a bit, as a surprise for his hard working tech expert.  

When you started sharing a bed with JB as well, since it was his room you were hogging the first week of your arrival, it wasn’t anything more than that.  Sharing a bed with a comrade, if you could call him that.  But soon, you wanted to be facing him when you slept.  You wanted to be pressed against his back or his chest and you’d flush when you caught yourself wanting to be held by him.  

So, for some reason, you decided to go to Bambam for help.  Why Bambam, you didn’t know, but you thought that if you went to Jackson for help, he’d just scream everything and make sure the whole world knew how you felt.  At least Bam could be a bit more dependable when asked.  It had been 8 months since you came to the base of the 7 boys, so if Bam wouldn’t be of help, there were always 5 move, with Jackson as dead last.  

As the two of you lounged on the room for privacy, Bam held a sucker in his mouth listening to you.  

“So,” he started, “in conclusion, you have the hots for JB?” You wanted to bash your face into the concrete floor as many times as possible until you passed out.

“Well, if you want to be blunt.”  You rolled your eyes as he gave you a smirk.  “Am I going to get an advice, or am I just going to get teased?  Because I will so leave and tell Jinyoung that you’d the one who wasted 4 magazines of perfectly good bullets just to shoot at a squirrel that was annoying you by throwing acorns at your window.” The Thai boy seemed to choke as he took the sucker out of his mouth and looked at you.

“You wouldn’t dare.”  You rose your brow in attack towards him.

“Try me.”  He ran his hand through his hair.  

“Okay, okay.  I’ll talk, but I get to tease a bit, deal?”  

“I’d expect no less.”  

“Alright, just let me think…” He closed his eyes and cupped his chin as he cross his legs and though.  His sucker moved from one cheek to the other as he tried to think of the best way to give you advice and not risk his neck at the thought of an angry Jinyoung wasting even more bullets trying to shoot him.  

“Well, I guess when it comes to JB, it’s best to be blunt?”  He was questioning himself, but he was trying.  “He’s blunt himself, and he’s also the most obvious person on the face of the planet, so he probably doesn’t even know.”  You nodded at that.  “He does seem to favor you over us, so I don’t think you confessing would go bad.  I think he’d be pretty glad actually.”  Now he lost you. 

“You think?  Honestly?  The leader JB accepting me, a backseat criminal, as a potential lover?”

“You wouldn’t think it, but you’ve help us a lot thanks to your brain.  Backseat or not.”  You shoved his shoulder a bit as he smiled.  “Seriously though, just tell him.  I’d go for tonight when everyone’s sleeping so no one interrupts you though.”  You nodded.  

“Yeah, I guess it’s worth a shot.”  You two stayed up there for a while longer just chatting as friends, and you teasing him about how you managed to make his mask slip that first day of everything. He still gives you shit for it, back then you were mad about it, but now you almost wanted to thank him that it happened because it lead you to meet all of them. But, that would just inflate his ego and we don’t need that.  

So, as the day continued and eventually started to dwindle, you found yourself changing into a large t-shirt of JB’s again with your shorts.  That hadn’t changed since day one, you always took more to the shirts of ones of the guys. Yugyeom’s were the most fun to wear, as he was a giant and walking around in his shirt was like a toddler wearing their dad’s shirt.  Not to mention if it was long sleeves sneaking up on someone and slapping them with the sleeves that went well past your hand was pretty entertaining.

You had just slipped the shirt over your body as the door creaked open and in stepped JB.  You hadn’t yet put your shorts on, but you were well past the point of being embarrassed around him, or anyone for that matter. You could probably comfortably walk around in shorts and a bra and not bat an eye at this point.

He strolled up beside where you stood, next to the closet, and began to grab his own change of clothes.  Or rather, a comfortable pair of sweats, as sleeping with a shirt wasn’t really necessary for him.  While the both of you changed in a comfortable silence, he started up a conversation.

“You were gone for a while this afternoon.  What were you up to?” He pull his shirt over his back and then freed his head, having the shirt rest on his biceps before letting it fall off his arms.  

“I was with Bam on the roof for a bit.  I wanted to talk to him about something.  He was surprisingly helpful.”

“Talk to him?  Something bugging you?”

“Eh, you could say that.”  There was a pause for a moment as he reached to grab a pair of sweats from the hanging cubbies in the closet.

“You could always come to me you know.”  You nodded.

“I know that, but I needed someone else’s opinion.”  You wouldn’t tell by the never changing look on his face, but that comment seemed to urk JB.

“I see.”  His comment let you know that he was curious as to what you needed help with, and you mind went back to Bam’s advice: be blunt.  You signed as you grabbed your shorts, stepped into them and slid them up our legs, letting them rest on your hips.  You casually tossed your clothes from the day into a bin separate from the one that help the clothes JB had yet to wash.

“Bam was helping me figure out the best way to tell I like you, is all it was.”  You head JB start coughing behind you and you just shrugged.  “He told me I should just be blunt, but I didn’t want to make you feel uncomfortable.”  You strolled over to the bed, sitting on the side of it as you grabbed your phone from your night stand on your side of the bed.  “I guess I could have just texted Kyun about it.  He’s surprisingly smart when it comes to things like this.”  

You lifted your eyes from your phone to see him pull the sweats over his hips and mess with the strings in the front of them, his back to you.  As always, you couldn’t read exactly how he felt in this particular situation. Thinking about anyone else in his situation ou just forced on him, you grabbed your phone and stood, stretching before turning towards the direction of the door.  

“Sorry for springing this on you.  I know your pretty busy running the rest of the boys and what not, so I’ll go bunk with Jackson tonight to give you a little space.”  With phone in hand, you strolled to the door and turned the knob, just barely opening the door before it was slammed shut.  From behind you, JB had pushed his palm against the door, shutting it before you would even peek out of it. Looking over your shoulder and following his arm to his shoulder and up his neck to his face, he just stared at you.  

“Jaebum?” You turned your body around to face him, as you back was pressed to your door and his free hand came to capture your chin in his fingers. He kept silent as he moved his fingers to rest on your neck.  It wasn’t at all threatening, he just let his fingers light hover around your neck, almost in an action of endearment. 

“Next time, come to me.”  He whispered a his breath, strongly scented of mint from his recent toothpaste, fanned over your face and he leaned closer to press his lips against yours. It took a moment for you to fully comprehend the situation at hand, but once your brain caught up, you found yourself relaxing into him.  The kiss didn’t last nearly as long as you had first hoped, but when he pulled away, he grabbed your wrist only to drag you back to the bed and have you climb in.

Placing your phone, you were surprised you hadn't dropped due to shock a moment again, back on your nightstand, you felt JB climb into the bed next to you as he did every night.  The new thing was him snaking his arms around your waist and extending the arm he lay on for you to use as a substitute for a pillow as you were now tucked into his bare chest.

“Uh, JB?”  He hushed you.  

“Go to sleep.  I’m tired.”  You chuckled at him.  He cracked open one of his eyes to stare at you.  

“What’s so funny?”  You shook your head.

“Nothing.  I’m just happy.”  You smiled up to him as he smiled back and placed a kiss on the crown of your head.  

“Good.  Now sleep.”  Like magic, the moment you closed your eyes, your consciousness faded and JB was able to admire your sleeping face. He hand the back of his hand over your cheek and brushed under your eyes with his fingers as you slept.  You face was so relaxed when sleeping, it seemed almost impossible for someone to seem so ethereal to him.  Soon after, he pulled you tighter to his chest, entangling your legs and drifting to sleep with you in his arms.  

The same way he had been wanting to hold you since your birthday.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I spent all day working on this piece, so I’m going to post reactions tomorrow guys!  I have a few ready to go, so until tomorrow I hope you enjoyed reading this long ass story!  ^^”

[pansyofthesouth]

Tag game!!

Thank you wonderful @maikhiwi00 for tagging me uwu ❤️♥️ *Uma flor pra você linda*

I've never done this before (?) so I'll give it a try

Favorite color: Aquamarine.

Last song: Lazing on a sunday afternoon - Queen.

Last movie: The Father with Anthony Hopkins

Last series: Loki (I'm literally watching the second episode rn for the 3rd time JSJSJ)

Sweet, savory or spicy: UFF, Sweet ♥️

Tea or coffee: Hot tea and cold coffee 💕

Currently reading: all of the AO3 Lokius/Wowki Tag JSJSJS I started reading the Mo Dao Zu Shi novel but I haven't had the time to finish it 😔

Currently watching: Loki JSJS forgive my revived obsession with this man, I can't help it, it also has one of my biggest crushes ever, Owen Wilson in the role of the Supreme sugar daddy ♥️

Currently craving: Hey @maikhiwi00 I want some blueberry eggo's with honey 🥺 I don't think I've eaten them since that day at your house (or was it on the beach? I don't remember ksjsk)

Currently working on: Like a thousand Uni projects and assignments, but I'm ignoring them to draw some Loki fanarts 😂 I also have some Wowki fic ideas but they'll have to wait until the semester is over :(

Tagging (only if you want to uwu): @confettucini @alexjcrowley @cool-abed-filmz @malofrost @gayshipsandanxiety

tag game!!

omg thank u so much for tagging me! 🤧💞 @oddishblossom @leonzhng i put everything in one post, i'm sorry! but i enjoy doing these so much, thank u i love u! <3

favorite color: pink!

last song: when doves cry - prince

last movie: raya and the last dragon, v nice and cute!

last series: word of honor; i don't think that's a surprise ajwkfkq

sweet, savory or spicy: sweet!

tea or coffee: coffee!

currently reading: many wenzhou fics dkjskdk and i want to read qi ye so bad! but once i start i won't stop so i want to wait until the semester is over;;

currently watching: loki series, miss the dragon, master chef latino (does that count?), castlevania and maybe i forgot to mention something kjfskd

currently craving: now that i think of it, maybe some coffee!

currently working on: well, i have several uni projects yet to finish, so i've been doing only small gifsets for now, and i want to do more prince qi and da wu gifs, so maybe i'll do it later or tomorrow!

tagging (if you want to!): @pansyofthesouth @koujaaku @snowyfuxue @minniedlucca @dubidadei @yiling-recesses @tender-elegy

[randombitsofthisnthat]

London and Spain 2019

Yes, for the 2nd time on this blog, i’m writing something about travelling lol

This summer, i visited London (after leaving for 10 months... i know...), Barcelona and Pamplona with one of my besties. This journey, man, i tell you, was one of the most unforgettable and interesting ones i’ve had so far. You’ll see why as you keep reading.

The trip was, in fact, fairly short and rush to be honest. We left Hong Kong on the 1st July, arrived London on the 2nd and we were back to HK on the 11th July.

It was my friend’s first time travelling to Europe (and with such a crazy and tiring itinerary lol) so we did a bit of sightseeing together. As always, you can never get bored with London. There are so many things and places you can do and visit. So, as tourists, my friend and i went to the famous Duck and Waffle for brekkie (it was my 1st time too!). With the beautiful view overlooking London city and their iconic duck and waffle on your marble top dining table, that was literally one of the most delicious and enjoyable breakfasts i’ve ever had.

Within the real short 3-day stay in London, i’m glad that i was able to squeeze in some time to meet with some of my London friends and former colleagues. It was always lovely to see and chat with them!

Leaving London, we off to Barcelona and Pamplona, the main destinations of this trip. We stayed there for 5 days (including 1 night in Pamplona) where all the silly things happened.

Our first day in Barcelona was actually nice. We visited the Mount Tibidabo after settling ourselves at the airbnb. Mount Tibiado is the tallest mountain in Barcelona, and it’s not just a mountain, but one with an amusement park and a cathedral (we went there for the view and the latter one tho). We took metro L7 line to Av. Tibidabo, got on the bus which took us to the plaza where we took the tram to the top of the mountain. Apart from a bit of detour in finding our way to the bus station near the metro, the view from the mountain was not bad at all.

The tram to Mount Tibidabo

Overview of Barcelona city

Tibidabo Cathedral del Sagrat Cor

Speaking of the detour, as we asked for directions to the bus station, we accidentally came across an elegant old lady whom aunt was a saint of that cathedral as we chatted. My friend and i were quite amazed by that :O We finished the visit by having a GIANT glass of Sangria at one of the peak restaurants.

On the second day, we visited Mercat de la Boqueria and Mercat de Sant Antoni, two of the famous markets in the city centre in the morning. Mercat de la Boqueria is famous for its great varieties of food. Tapas, seafood, ham, cheese, fruits, you name it, were all there.

We tried some of the oysters and unis. fresh and yum.

While Mercat de Sant Antoni, first opened in 1882, is known for its vintage goods/ books stalls set outside the market on Urgell street on Sundays. The market reopened in May 2018 after undergoing a major renovation. Again, the food there was amazing. Compare with Mercat de la Boqueria, we found this one more local and less touristy.

After the markets, we walked around the Sinagoga Major de Barcelona, The Ancient Synagogue of Barcelona. We didn’t join any walking tour but just wandering around by ourselves. If you would like to know more about its history and have someone explains to you properly, there are loads you can join as we could see. 

Sinagoga Major de Barcelona, The Ancient Synagogue of Barcelona

We then spent the rest of the day visiting Gaudí’s architecture. First off was the Park Güell. Under the crazily hot and almost-too-sunny weather, we strolled around from 3-ish pm until 7-ish in the evening. After that, we had a tasty seafood paella as dinner in a restaurant in the L'Eixample district.

Park Güell

Seafood paella at Bodega Joan, an authentic Spanish pub and restaurant.

After having such a big portion of paella (we tried very hard to finish the whole thing but couldn’t...), we decided to walk back to the bnb by stopping by another two iconic Gaudí buildings, Casa Batlló and Casa Milà aka La Pedrera.

On our way to these two spots, we saw a big recycle bins (you can see these bins everywhere in Barcelona) on fire, was literally burning from the inside. We immediately asked a lady who walked by and phoned the police. Seeing the smoke and the strong smell, another man walked past and asked us what happened, “The trash bin is on fire”, said my friend. ‘Oh, that’s better.”, the man replied with a relieved expression. My friend and I couldn’t quite believe what we heard. We guess he meant it was good that the fire wasn’t come from a building nearby LOL

Casa Batlló 

Casa Milà, also known as La Pedrera

The 3rd day in Spain, instead of staying in Barcelona, we travelled to Pamplona for the Fiesta de San Fermín (Running of the Bulls as you may heard of), one of the oldest and traditional festivals in Spain. This annual 9-day event takes place on 6 - 14 July.

But who knew we would almost missed the train to Pamplona (yes, what a ‘great’ start to the trip). We literally were late for ONE minute and were told by the station staff that our train was GONE. We then headed to the ticket counter to see if there were any chance that we can take the next train. “It’s very difficult to get tickets to Pamplona today”, said the lady, shaking her head. BUT, after a bit of searching on her computer, we were so grateful that we were able to get another indirect train there (knowing that we weren’t suppose to exchange the tickets for FREE and my friend saw on the computer screen that those two tix originally costed something like €142......). 

Because of the festival, nearly 99% of the hostels and hotels were booked up way ahead the festival began, even our airbnb costed us HKD two thousands something for just one night. So my advice is to book at least 10 months or a year ahead if you are planning to go. Yet, the host and the apartment were outstanding. We had a very nice chat with the retired psychology teacher/ artist and she even gave us a lift to the train station when we left.

And little did we know that the dress code for the festival was all white (from top to bottom i meant, and people were all so ready and dressed for the festival as they got on the train from different stations), we only had a white tee shirt. Luckily, we got a souvenir pack which includes a small red scarf, a foldable red fan and a festival guide by finishing a survey right outside the train station. Although we missed the opening ceremony (which started at 12noon at the City Hall), we were very excited that we got to see a spectacular fireworks display at night! 

How lucky we were!

Our outfits were SO TOTALLY not matching with the people behind us...

The fireworks was SURREAL.

Apart from drinks and parties, family with kids can also joined the fun by buying some sort of lucky-draw tickets to redeem gifts ranging from stationery to groceries. My friend and I bought 4 tickets at €3.2, got nothing but were told that we might be able to win €2500 at the finale draw when the festival ends.

Of course, the major event of the festival was the running of the bulls (i’d like to clarify that we DO NOT support they treated the cows that way). The very first bulls run kicked off at 8am on the second day of the festival. We got there at around 7:30am but was already very crowded that we had to stand on a table to watch.

Strongly suggest early arrival at like 7am if you want to get a good spot. 

Another major event took place after the bulls running was the Giants and Big-heads Parade. There were four pairs of four meters high giants, each pair came out as a king and queen, representing Europe, Africa, Asia, and America, with some smaller giants accompanied behind. 

After the Giants and big-heads, the statue of San Fermin came out, accompanied by the clergy. They prayed and sang in the middle of street, the crowd was in absolute silent when this took place. 

The statue of San Fermin

People stood at their balconies to watch the parade

Bands and music all around

People went crazy with the cows statues

Despite an awful lot of drunk people and smokers, both my friend and I were glad that we eventually made it to Pamplona and enjoyed the festival a lot. Not only because it was something new and interested us, but also we were able to get to know more about their culture and history, celebrate together with the locals. (Click here if you would like to learn more about the festival)

After two long day in Pamplona, we returned to Barcelona for one last day in Spain. Yet again, who would have guessed that another ‘amazing’ incident happened when we visited the infamous Sagrada Família. 

Right, here’s what happened. 

We bought the ticket via its official website when we first arrived Barcelona, my friend and I actually read through the details together and confirmed all are fine. So we set off from the bnb and arrived at the Cathedral at 9am on the 8th of July. When we were about to go through the first ticket check, the staff suddenly said to us, “Wait, wait, your ticket is for the 9th, TOMORROW.” My friend and I were like, WHATTTTTT?! Are you joking?! We booked the right tickets. Then we looked at the tickets again, OH MAN, it writes 9 JULY 2019. We couldn’t believe our eyes and wanted to cry out loud... We told the Cathedral and the customer service hotline staff that we were leaving in the evening and asked if there are tickets that we can buy on the spot, but the answers were no no no. All the tickets were sold out for the day, all they could do is give us the refund. 

So my friend and I sat outside the Cathedral, feeling and looking helpless, thinking how the heck we booked the wrong date... Suddenly, my friend said, “hey we got the tickets from the official website, does it mean that there are non-official sites that we can get the tickets?”. I was like, “YES YES YES!”. We then started searching on our phones like rushing to finish an exam paper before the teacher says ‘pens down’. 

After 5 minutes of searching, we MANAGED to get 2 tickets at 3pm in the afternoon. My friend and I triple checked the date and time, we even ran to ask the Cathedral staff that is that we can get in with those tickets. And when we heard the staff answered, “Yes, I think so. You even have an English speaking guide to explain you everything about the Cathedral.”, we almost wanted to cry. We were SO happy that we could get in to see this masterpiece after this silly incident.

Sagrada Família. The rest to be finished by 2026. 

Aren’t those stunning? We were amazed. 

After calming ourselves down, we went back to the Mercat de la Boqueria for lunch. We queued at the El Quim and that was one of the best decisions we’ve made in the trip. We ordered their house special: fried eggs with baby squids, razor calms and slow-cooked beef plus two glasses of wine. All of them were really delicious and fresh. If you were there, this is the tapas bar that you could not miss!

And that’s it, with all those silly incidents, we back to Hong Kong with a joyful soul (and a tiring body lol). Thank you our heavenly Father for all the amazing provisions and arrangements during the trip. We couldn’t be more thankful for that! 

[mandygoff-blog]

One Year Later

Friday, June 3rd 2016 is the day that my world seemed to shift. It is the day that I was told that the my test results had come back and that I had breast cancer. I can remember I was literally out in the middle of camp when I took the phone call, it was one of those times where I really didn’t know how to respond, I was very silent and when I hung up I just walked over to my house and laid on the couch. I don’t remember what I was supposed to be doing, I know we were in the middle of staff training and I probably should have been doing something but I just couldn’t process anything, that is where Jacob found me and asked me what was wrong, he was the first one I ever told I had cancer (Jacob is the maintenance director/ former summer staff member/ and friend), I also told Mary Joe and called my parents (in tears) to tell them… which was my least favorite part since because I had to tell them over the phone since they were all the way in Illinois.

I find it hard to fathom that this was exactly a year ago... it really doesn’t seem that long ago that I began my journey with cancer. This is last year has been one of the most challenging times in my life, but it is also something that I have grown the most from.

I was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 28

I underwent 3 surgeries in one day- single mastectomy, axillary lymph node procedure, and gall bladder removal

Went through more tests and blood draws than I can count

Had surgery to have a port put in (for chemotherapy)

Went through fertility treatments to have my eggs preserved which involved giving myself shots, and surgery

Got involved with First Descents (young adults with cancer) and went whitewater kayaking in Montana

Started Chemo

Lost my job and home

Moved into a house in Newport with Heather

Went on a family vacation (first time since middle school)

Lost my hair

Attended the PCCCA Annual Conference in Arkansas

Attended a breast cancer walk with my family- had another walk happen in Woodhull in honor of me the same day

Finished Chemo (8 rounds)

Interviewed at Camp Eagle

Started Radiation Treatments

Had my port removed

Finished Radiation Treatments (31 total)

Took a solo camping trip with stops at Disney & Universal Studios

Volunteered with First Descents for an ice climbing trip in Montana

Took job at Camp Eagle and moved to Texas at end of March.

Those are the big events that happened this year… I am still blown away at how steadfast God is and how he can work through the toughest situations to bring about something beautiful.

I went through an extreme amount of pain and suffering this year with my diagnosis and losing my job, but I also learned who my true friends were and what it really means to have support from a Christian community. I am also happier now than I have been in the last 4 years. I am working at a truly wonderful organization that truly lives out their mission and puts Christ first. I have been supported from day 1 and have a team behind me that I can rely on. I still miss my friends and co-workers in North Carolina everyday, but I am thankful to be where I am.

I am excited for this new chapter to truly begin as we welcome our first campers of the season this coming Sunday! I have an amazing summer staff who I really enjoy spending time with and I can’t wait to see them pour into these teens lives!

[fluffyblue-multifandommess]

I wanna go to sleep but I promised myself I’d get those 6 drawings done and  I’ve only finished one and the second one is at BEST 75% done so I got four more even though I’ve been up for 17hours and I JUST WANNA SLEEP but I HAVE to get this DONE because I also have to do six photos tomorrow and 6 collages saturday and 5 more drawings sunday because even though I had an entire fucking month to do this shit I of course had to wait until the absolute last fucking minute to get my ass moving and so now I have 4 days to complete 23 art stuffs and I’ve never wanted to sleep for a thousand years so badly but instead I have to sit here and do my fucking assignments because if I don’t I have literally no future no career path nothing nothing nothing and all I’ve been doing this past month is being anxious about this thing and making vague drafts but not completing anything and I’m so exhausted from all the anxiety I CAUSED MYSELF BY NOT WORKING AND JUST SLACKING OFF like seriously I just started my 3rd TWW rewatch AND I started a new show that runs at 3 hours per episode because procastination is y middle name and I’m just, I’m so fucking terrible at everything why can’t I ever take anything seriously why do i push myself into these corners when I know the consequences why do I keep doing this to myself why am i like thi

[unfair-sports]

The OSG Fantasy Report Week 13

The OSG Fantasy Report Week 13

Thursday Slate

Here we go with what is always one of the most exciting slates of the year.  Most fans are off of work, and some will have time to plug in some lineups.  Some versus friends, family, and versus the masses.  On a 3-game slate, you have to try to make some lineups a little different to avoid the chalk, and get ahead of the field.  However, do not ignore the best plays.  Sometimes, you just play the best plays. On short slates, raw points matter.  You are not going to love your lineup from top to bottom and will be forced to roster players that on a full Sunday slate would not even be in your player pool.  If they hit, you may have a new favorite NFL player.  (I’m now the biggest Derrick Henry and Calvin Ridley fan in America!).  Regardless, the Week 13 Thursday OSG Report!!!!!!!!

Chicago Bears -4 @ Detroit Lions (39)

Buffalo Bills @ Dallas Cowboys -7 (45)

New Orleans Saints @ Atlanta Falcons (49)

 Quarterback

Drew Brees- On paper this is an excellent matchup for Brees on the road in the dome in Atlanta.  He’s an easy play because of the ability to stack with Michael Thomas, Jared Cook, or Alvin Kamara.  They have one of the narrowest target trees in the NFL.  The only issue here with Brees is price.  He has by far the best matchup, the highest total vs a reeling defense who for two weeks showed signs of life.  If Atlanta can keep the game somewhat close and force Brees to pass for 4 quarters vs allowing the Saints to kill the clock for the 4th quarter, then Brees can meet or beat value.

Mitch Trubisky – Purely a price play here if you have seen him play lately.  He’s gets a friendly environment at the Lions dome, along with a soft matchup who handed Dwayne Haskins his first win.  I’m willing to succeed that Mitch is a hair higher on the rankings than Haskins.  He offers some rushing ability here and can make rostering some studs a little easier depending on lineup construction.

Matt Ryan- Vs this Saints defense, Ryan is a tough sell.  Early season he was a lock for 300 yards and multi TDs every game.  With his dome and weapons, it SHOULD still be there and it’s not.  And with Julio Jones very questionable Wednesday evening, he’s a tougher sell depending on how many lineups you are building. 

Josh Allen- At the time of writing this, Allen is my favorite QB.  The thing here is I am considering NOT stacking him in the traditional sense.  Allen to Brown etc.  (we will get to that at WRs).  The likes of Sam Darnold and Jeff Driskel have played very comfortable vs Dallas, and in the dome, could be easy fantasy points picking for Allen.  The same knock on Dallas applies to Buffalo, no wins vs quality playoff bound opponents.  So, I even think the 7-point line in Dallas is way too generous and could lead to Buffalo feeling a little disrespected and coming to play.  Regardless, Allen provides a solid rushing floor and leads his team in rushing TDs on the season.  An easy plug and play

Dak Prescott- As of now, Dak is my least favorite QB and draws the toughest matchups of any QBs on the Thursday slate.  10 of 11 of QBs facing Buffalo have finished 13th or worse in QB fantasy points each week.  The running game here should be the target vs Buffalo.

Running Back

Tarik Cohen/David Montgomery- The Bears get the best matchup vs RBs this week and this is purely a play to be different.  The masses loaded up on Montgomery vs Detroit a few weeks ago and it DID NOT WORK OUT!  So, the common sense move would be to avoid him, but on a 3-game slate he has to be considered.  I prefer Tarik Cohen due to his pass game involvement as of late.  I do wish he secured a few more rushing attempts, but on a 3 game slate beggars cannot be choosy.  He’s a sneaky stack mate with Trubisky depending on how many lineups you do get to.

Alvin Kamara/Latavius Murray- Pass catching backs vs Atlanta are a “thing” and in comes Kamara.  The very definition of a pass catching back and can be stacked alongside Drew Brees for that reason.  While the 20 touches are always there, it’s a mix of pass and run that gets him there.  Last week, Murray somewhat started off the game in the backfield, and even punched in the beloved red zone TD.  Vs Atlanta either back is in play.  For his price, I would prefer Kamara to have access to the goal line and red zone carries.  From the eyeball test, it seems that the Saints are managing his rushing load, which for his price has been making him an extremely tough sell.  If you fade Kamara for these reasons, then Murray is the direct beneficiary of Kamara’s missed snaps.

Devin Singletary- He topped 100 yards last week, but no TDs.  The positive regression should come soon.  He’s in a great dome environment and has the speed and athleticism to take a screen pass from Allen the distance.  Frank Gore is always scary due to his goal line work, but not enough to roster, though we can do stranger things on a short game slate.  Gore and the likes of David Montgomery could easy go for minimum yards and a few goal line carries for 2 TDs.

Ezekiel Elliott- Once again, Zeek is one of my favorite RBs of the slate.  While the “explosiveness” may not be like his rookie year, the work however is.  He dominates his backfield touches and gets plays drawn up for him in the passing game.  With so much pressure on Dallas, the head coach, and facing a very tough defense with a shutdown corner, the commonsense play is to “feed him on Thanksgiving” (clever right?)  Regardless, we targeted Phillip Lindsay vs Buffalo because the Bills never put 7-8 in the box which allows them to clamp down on the passing game.  So that means Zeek vs a weak front, with very little LB presence around the line against a defense allowing 4.62 yards per carry, sign me up Zeek!!

Devonta Freeman- Mentioned here because of the slate.  He’s returning from injury and was the clear lead back for an Atlanta team that doesn’t like to use their lead backs in heavy loads.  His pass game involvement was there, and Julio may miss.  It’s the worst matchup on the slate for RBs but all must be considered. 

Wide Receiver

Atlanta Falcons- With the Saints being so stout up front on the run, all production shifts to WRs against them.  We need the news about Juilo, but on a short week in a lost season, why rush him back with a shoulder injury here?  I could be wrong but I fully expect Jones to sit which leaves Russell Gage, and Calvin Ridley as their main WRs.  I love them both here despite not loving the QB.  Gage was heavily involved last week, and though in trash time Ridley once again hit value with a late TD.  He is going to be one of my favorite WRs on the day.  In 3 career games vs the Saints he has gone for 3/28/0, 8/93/1TD, and 7/146/3TDs a few weeks ago.  We cannot expect 3 TDs, but with Hooper already out, and Julio very questionable without practicing all week, Ridley is a candidate to finish with the best WR box score Thursday.  The Falcons/Saints will more than likely be where most if not all my WRs come from (A Rob, Beasley maybe) while attacking the rushing elsewhere outside of some Kamara stacks.  So, pay attention to news regarding Jones despite being the latest game of the day.

Michael Thomas- Do we even have to tout Michael Thomas.  He’s steady floor is running back-ish at his point.  He’s gone over 100 yards in all but 4 games and scored in one of those games.  He has absolutely dominated the Falcons during his career, and this once again sets up as a can’t miss.  The smaller your field or number of opponents, makes it very hard not to roster Thomas here paired with one of the most accurate passers in league history.

Allen Robinson and company- The Bears are always a tough sell, but we saw last week as well as several times during the season that when Tribusky shows any amount of competence, Allen Robinson has very good fantasy and real-life games.  They face the woeful Lions defense who is a mecca for shootouts, and just laid 6/86/0TDs vs them on November.  Taylor Gabriel is out with another concussion which places Anthony Miller in line for extra targets coming off of 9 and 11 target games the last two weeks, as well as bottom priced Javon Wims.  Again, it’s the Bears, so you have to only really like 1 guy and hope for the yards and the TD.

John Brown/Cole Beasley- Dallas plays a stingy zone defense which is designed to prevent the big plays which by design should suppress John Brown’s recent production and big play ability.  Of course, on such a short slate, anybody is in play, but I may look to the slot receiver who had some choice words for the Dallas offense in Cole Beasley.  It’s a great revenge spot on Thanksgiving for Beasley.  Aside from revenge, it’s a great spot here.  Dallas has yet to give up over 75 yards to a WR, and the slots have led in yards the last two games vs Dallas.

Amari Cooper/Michael Gallup- Assuming Cooper will see Tre’Davious White who hasn’t given up a TD since Week 14 of last season!!!  Gallup on the other hand should see Levi Wallace who runs a 4.63 and has allowed catches on 69 percent of his targets for 495 yards, and 4 TDs. 

Tight End

Dawson Knox- Purely a price, and matchup-based play in hopes of a TD here.  They get the matchup on Sunday vs a stingy zone defense designed to suppress WR production.  With Allen’s scrambling ability, and Dallas forcing production to screens and the middle of the field, I could see 3 catches, 34 yards, 1 TD.  For his price, that is completely acceptable on a slate where any TE not named Jared Cook is highly questionable.

Chicago Bears- They are literally down their 3rd and 4th string TEs which means they really signed them as opposed to be on the roster as a 3rd or 4th.  Avoid this situation at all costs.

Jared Cook- Easily the best TE of the day, but everybody will play him as well.Outside of Dawson Knox punt lineups, Cook will bless each lineup.He has the highest upside and comes in with 70 or more yards and or a TD in five straight games.He’s been on a tear lately and will be a targeted receiver from one of the leagues best with the highest game total.

Defense

Any defense on a short slate is in play, and you may love a lineup and be forced to have a defense vs an offensive player.  For instance, I love Zeek, but also the ability of Buffalo to catch a INT or two vs Dallas or garner some sacks. 

I do like the Bears vs the 3rd string QB in Detroit easily.

 I do like the Saints vs the struggling Falcons.

The Bills more for their price fit, and you could punt with Atlanta in hopes of a semi repeat vs the Saints.

[theleaderdotinfo-blog]

SPORTING ALFAS CRICKET CLUB has been published at http://www.theleader.info/2017/04/05/sporting-alfas-cricket-club-6/

New Post has been published on http://www.theleader.info/2017/04/05/sporting-alfas-cricket-club-6/

SPORTING ALFAS CRICKET CLUB

Sporting Alfas 2nd X1 214 for 9 lost to Ashington C C 217 for 9

Following a tough match against the Sporting Alfas 1st XI on Saturday and an even tougher night in Fandango’s celebrating the life and times of the late, great Jack Hyams, the tourists came back to a bright sunny Woodbridge Oval for another battle against their hosts.

After a ceremonial toss, Jack Hyams men were invited to set a target and Sharkey and Dunn strode out to open proceedings against the opening pair of Braithwaite and Fletcher. A sedate 1st over from Braithwaite led to Fletcher’s eventful 1st Over…

After his 2nd ball, the Umpire decided to get the sledging started early and informed Fletcher that he “looked like he used to have a bowling action”, never one to back down from a challenge, the wily left armer dismissed Dunn next ball for a duck, a straight drive straight into skipper Perman’s hands at Mid-off. Fletcher getting the last laugh in that exchange with the Umpire!

Said Umpire was then removed from proceedings a few overs later as a very straight drive back to the bowler saw Braithwaite duck for cover leaving the Umpire blindsided and cracked on the arm! Leaving for medical attention at the end of the over, once the whiskey had been sourced behind the bar!

It was very nearly a great start for the Alfas side as, in Fletcher’s 5th over, he tempted Sharkey into a high swirling shot that found Chris Cooper in Cover. However, as the Alfas fielders were starting to celebrate, the inexplicable occurred and the safe hands of Cooper failed to gather the ball, the swirl of it as it came down deceiving him and the chance went begging.

After that, it was all Hyams’ team, both Sharkey and Robinson seeing off the opening bowlers as well as the first change pair of Walker and Roper and both made 50’s in a mammoth partnership.

Matters took a turning, literally, with the introduction of the Spin demons Perman and Marriner. First, Robinson, on 75, walked right past one from Marriner and kept on walking, allowing Byrne to remove the bails after a “slight” fumble, Robinson looking back to watch the ‘keeper struggle but decided to keep walking! Alfas had the breakthrough and looked to gain a foothold in the match.

Next ball Marriner and Byrne combined again for another stumping, Jones the new batsman showing off his forward footwork but stranded outside his crease, Marriner on the other side of a Golden Duck for once!

The hat-trick ball came and went without troubling Smith but in Marriner’s next over, he got the big wicket of Sharkey. With the batsman on 92, the Alfas fielders took the opportunity to remind him that he was nearing a Ton, unfortunately for him, he chased a wider one from Marriner and could only find J. Perman in the covers and finally being dismissed after 30 odd overs. The sledging Fielders claiming full responsibility for the wicket this time.

Perman was not to be left out of the action for long and in his 5th over, he struck his first blow, getting Worall to do all the work for him by stepping back and taking out his own stumps while trying to hit the young spinner into next week. Perman was at it again in his next over, firstly “clean” bowing Smith by sending one towards leg and getting a deflection off the pads to divert it back onto the stumps and then getting Smith to pop one up for an easy catch, 2 in the over for the leggy.

Marriner was not finished at the other end and after shipping 11 to Common in his previous over, came back and got the heavy hitter with another stumping from Byrne, 3rd of the match, and two balls later, somehow managed to clean bowl Whitworth. The final over of the match going for a few singles and Jack Hyams XI finishing with a total of 217.

After Tea, the Perman pair strode out to get the chase underway for the Alfas but, having had to do two days fielding as well as opening the day before, M. Perman was out of gas and in the 2nd over, hit one straight to the Sub fielder, on for Jefferson who had taken the field with a shard of glass in his shoe! Alfas 1 for 1 after 1.

Walker joined Perman at the crease and together they added 30 runs, and both were put down in the field, Walker when on 0 and Perman on 13. However, neither batsman could make their lives count and Perman was next to go, snicking on to slips on 15. 31/2.

Fletcher, “fresh” from a Football match that morning and a sledging from the Umpire earlier in the day was next in and could have been next out as Dunn put down a catchable chance of his own bowling with Fletcher on 1, this time the batsman would make his life count in the best possible way.

Walker was next to go in the 11th over when the dangerous Common came on to bowl and his pace was troubling the Alfas batsmen. Walker edging behind 5th ball of an opening wicket maiden. However, at the other end, Fletcher was relaxed as, with both the skipper and Vice captain having faced Common the previous day, Fletcher had been warned and went out with a solid game plan, face Common as little as possible. The plan worked perfectly as the bowler went through 7 overs, Fletcher only faced 4 of those balls!

Evans was the next man in and the next to go, having to face virtually all of Common’s deliveries and after being peppered for 2 overs with sheer pace, he was trapped LBW without being able to add to the score. Tocher came and went much the same way, another victim to Common who ended his first spell with 6 Overs, 5 Maidens, 3 for 1.

Alfas were reeling a bit but Fletcher was now in his swing and with Cooper alongside him, they took the change bowlers of Hyams’ team to the cleaners for a few overs. Between them, they added 70 in 7 overs before Cooper finally gave a hint of a chance and was caught on 33.

Byrne joined Fletcher for a few overs and had the pleasure of seeing the 100 come up from Fletcher before falling for 7, sending the ball straight down the throat of short fine leg.

Fletcher’s mammoth day and innings finally came to an end shortly afterwards as with energy flagging he diverted a ball that he would have pummeled earlier in the day for 4 to the waiting hands of point to finish on 105.

Braithwaite joined Marriner at the crease and the Alfas still had a chance of winning, needing 20 off the last 4 overs. However, Marriner went for a straight drive for 4 but it went higher than it went long and fell for 7, picking out Mid Off.

Final pair for Alfas, Braithwaite and Roper took it into the final over with 8 needed for a win. Braithwaite found the boundary 2nd ball of the over leaving it 3 for the draw or 4 for the win, but with wily cricketers in the field, they knew how to defend when needed and with 9 men on the boundary, Braithwaite could not find the right gap and could only get 1 more run off the over, Alfas losing by 3 but an amazing game of cricket enjoyed by all, the comical and the divine in equal measures, well maybe the comical a bit more!

Next week see the Cryptics come over from England to play 3 matches, Friday, Saturday and Sunday (07 – 09th April) any and all spectators welcome to enjoy some cricket, good food, fine wine and absorbing cricket, where anything can and usually does happen!!

Sporting Alfas Cricket Club Sporting Alfas 1st X1 155 for 4 beat Jack Hyams X1 153 for 10

Jack Hyams X1 travelled to Spain this week and found the SACC bowlers a little tighter than expected, Mohib and Hamza started things off and both looked in control as the batsman played and missed a few times.

Although Robinson struck three suburb cover drives and a sublime late cut in his 18 he followed his opening partner back to the dressing room well caught by Muñoz at 2nd slip, Whitworth(5) had also fallen to a sharp catch by Muñoz, Sharkey went the same way Muñoz three catches two for Hamza(2-25) and 1 for Mohib(1-10), it should have been two apiece as Muñoz dropped Common on 0, Ross came and went lifting one over the slip cordon into 3rd man, Mark Perman´s, safe hands.

Thewlis and Common then looked to play some classy shots and the SACC bowlers thanked Muñoz for dropping Common as he reached the boundary time and time again. Until the spin twins Gary Crompton and Jack Perman took back control Thewlis(29) playing across one from Perman and walked as the players appealed for a plum LBW. Commmon(43) spanked one to many and was the first of second X1 keeper Byrne´s 3 catches in the deep. Levison(25) gave Algers first over(14) a bit of long handle but after finding his length the bowler gained revenge and removed his middle stump.

Dunn (20) went after J Perman(2-32) but again the bowler won the short battle as Byrne took his second catch at mid wicket, or near the tree the skipper needing to tell him. his third catch was similar when Watson tried to pull Crompton(2-40) only to find Byrne´s. Alger´s last over gave him fine figure´s of 2 for 15 from 3.4 exceptional when his first went for 14. 153 all out.

Tea time at the Woodbridge Oval where all are welcome to watch the entertainment and enjoy the exceedingly fine refreshments.

M,Perman and I,Byrne opened the batting and both preferred the other end as Common whizzed the ball by their noses in an hostile start, the batsmen finding out why the other end is the best place to be.

Jefferson at a more sedate pace had Byrne´s caught by a lifter well held by Thewliss at gully, This bought in Crompton and things became calmer as the Alfas normal number 2 found the pace to his liking, this lifted Perman and the player took control of his own destiny when spanking any ball that was pitched in his area, reaching 28 before falling to change bowler Whitworth,

Alger joined forces with Crompton and the pair took the came away from the visitors with a array of shots that found gaps in the field and the boundary. Alger the first to go mistiming a lifter from Whitworth to short mid wicket.

Crompton then took the score to 127 before becoming Whitworth´s 3rd victim in similar style. Spain´s captain showed of his T20 skills and hit the remaining 39 runs in a vicious attack on the bowlers. Game over with Muñoz on 39 from 16 balls in the 21st over.

[delicatelysublimeforester]

Here at your fingertips is a literal book extravaganza! These books have the potential to be life changing, and it is a pleasure to draw attention to the value that these books bring to homes, schools, and communities as truly, “nothing else takes bookworms on such magical, extraordinary and exciting adventures”~WBD National book tokens.

White-tailed Deer Fawn. Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area. Saskatoon, SK, CA

Red-Winged Blackbird. West Swale Wetlands Chappell Marsh. Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area Saskatoon, SK

Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, Saskatoon, SK, CA

Colorado Blue Spruce Cone. Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, Saskatoon, SK, CA

American red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) Courtesy D. Gordon E. Robertson

Richard St. Barbe Baker, himself, was a notable author, writing books as a way to raise money in an effort to save forests and trees around the world. There is a personal warmth in all the books that Baker wrote, in his speeches, and public appearances and it is felt that we knew him in a sort of personal way, as if we had shaken hands with him, and heard his voice; and we always have a feeling that he is addressing us in our own person.

If you were to walk in nature, and write a book, what is your story, your most vivid memory of your natural world? Here is an introduction to other writers, authors, and publishers who also have written about biodiversity, wildlife, nature, and the province of Saskatchewan we have all grown to know and love.

“I believe in the Oneness of Mankind and all living things and the interdependence of each and all.”~ Richard St. Barbe Baker

Saskatchewan wildlife federation book: Wonders of Wildlife – Lori Milligan An activity manual for teachers and youth leaders for expanding the awareness of nature to young conservationists. A guide book to get youth become more involved in the outdoors, which mitigates Vitamin N deficiency.

The Great Sand Hills: A Prairie Oasis Text by Rebecca L. Grambo Photography by Branimir Gjetvaj

Saskatchewan Breeding bird Atlas in the process of compilation as we write this. Citizen scientists and professional bird watchers between 2017-2022 will collaborate to map the distribution and relative abundance of breeding birds in Saskatchewan.

Saskatchewan nature books compilation from Eco-friendly Saskatchewan Updates

Nature Viewing Sites in and around Saskatoon (3rd edition) (includes the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area)

Trevor Herriot’s latest books

Towards a Prairie Atonement

The Road is How: A Prairie Pilgrimage through Nature, Desire, and Soul

Grass, Sky, Song: Promise and Peril in the World of Grassland Birds

Saskatchewan: The Luminous Landscape, Prairie Light, Prairie Skies by Courtney Milne and Old Man on His Back: Portrait of a Prairie Landscape, which he co-authored with writer Sharon Butala. Both Milne, and his wife Sherill Miller worked alongside environmental green groups raising awareness, and reclaiming our natural biodiversity.

The Great Saskatchewan Bucket List,Photographer’s Guide to Saskatchewan and Western Canadian Farm Trivia Challenge Saskatchewan published by Robin and Arlene Karpan

Lone Pine publishing nature books

Flora of Saskatchewan books and book reviews from Nature along with a number of other great Nature publications

Conifers and Catkin-Bearing Trees and Shrubs of Saskatchewan (July 2016)

Grasses of Saskatchewan (August 2014)

Sedges (Carex) of Saskatchewan (March 2012)

Lilies, Irises and Orchids of Saskatchewan (October 2011)

Ferns and Fern Allies of Saskatchewan (June 2011)

When the Ice Goes Out on Dore Lake

Dragonflies and Damselflies in the Hand

Grasses of Saskatchewan

Getting to Know Saskatchewan Lichens

Great Sand Hills: A Prairie Oasis

On the Living Edge: Your Handbook for Waterfront Living

Prairie Phoenix: The Red Lily in Saskatchewan

Birds of the Saskatoon Area

Atlas of Saskatchewan Birds

Robert David Symons, Countryman – The Life of a Cultural Giant

A Country Boy by R.D. Symons – A Prairie Classic

Birds of the Rosetown-Biggar District

Nature Saskatchewan also compiled another excellent listing of books;

A Land Manager’s Guide to Grassland Birds of Saskatchewan. 2002. Saskatchewan Watershed Authority.

Benefits of Biodiversity. 1999. U.S. Council for Agriculture Science & Technology. Task F orce Report.

Biodiversity in Agroecosystems. 1999. W.W. Collins and C.O. Qualset (eds). CRC Press. Washingto n D.C.

Canadian Cattle Producers and the Protection of Species. 1998. Canadian Cattleman’s Association.

Conservation of Canadian Prairie Grasslands: A Landowner’s Guide. 1992. Canadian Wildlife Service.

Global Warming and Agriculture. 2003. Best Management Practices Series. Soil Conservation Counc il of Canada.

Grazing: A Natural Component of Grassland Ecozone Riparian Syst ems. 2004. K. LaForge. Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration.

Landowner’s Toolkit Series. Alberta Conservation Association.

Managing Saskatchewan Wetlands. Saskatchewan Watershed Authority.

Managing Your Native Prairie Parcels. 1998. Saskatchewan Wetland Conservation Corporation.

Prairie Agricultural Landscapes: A Land Resource Review. 2000. Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration.

Prairie Conservation Action Plan 2003 – 2008. 2003. PCAP Partnership. Canadian Plains Research Centre.

Preserving Working Ranches in the Canadian West. 2000. Southern Alberta Land Trust, The Land Conservancy of British Columbia and The Sonoran Institute.

Ranching Along the Stream. Saskatchewan Watershed Authority.

Saskatchewan’s Native Prairie. 2001. Native Plant Society of Saskatchewan and Canadian Plains Research Centre.

The Diversity of Life. 1992. E.O. Wilson. Harvard University Press.

The Future of Life. 2002. E.O. Wilson. Vintage Books

Environment Canada publications relating to biodiversity ecosystems, migratory birds, species at risk, wildlife habitat and nature Saskatchewan wild and other Saskatchewan books. Listing from Saskmade

Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre Publications Biodiversity

Biodiversity Handbook [online]featuring for the prairies:

Mixedwood Forest Society ” A campaign to protect mixed forest, wetland, and river landscapes—and the unique species they contain—in the Swan River & Porcupine Hills regions of western Manitoba.”

Saskatchewan Prairie Conservation Action Plan “A project to increase conservation of native prairie and at-risk species within the Prairie Ecozone in Saskatchewan”

Saskatchewan books Prairies North listing

So today, March 5, 2017 is World Book Day. How can we, the shepherds of the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area celebrate the authors, illustrators and books today? On this 20th anniversary of this United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Book Day celebrate, come together, and explore the pleasures of exploring nature, biodiversity, wildlife, the ecosystem to open your eyes and senses next time you are out in the afforestation area. If you are a primary school teacher or home school educator check out these fabulous activities and another 20 ideas.

Another marvelous concept would be to support a green group with a purchase of one of the books they have published as a fund-raising initiative as listed above. However, don’t stay inside too long. Don’t become Vitamin N deficient, or acquire Nature Deficit Syndrome. A most excellent way to be healthy, enjoy nature and its excellent bio-diversity would be to obtain one, two or more nature field guides as listed above,  and set out on an explore!

Help create the Saskatchewan Breeding bird Atlas with your bird watching skills. Take out a field guide, and discover what wild plants and flowers are blooming this spring. Wander among the tall prairie grasslands and identify butterflies, trees, prairie grasses and sedges along the way with the help of a guide book or two. Reading can really help you open your eyes as to what you are seeing around you on your walks.

Please advise if there are any other most excellent books on the environment, nature, wildlife, flora and fauna which should be included to celebrate World Book Day this Sunday March 5, 2017. If we get reading now, while the snow whitens the ground, by the time the crocus pop up on April 16, 2017, oh, what amazing flora and fauna you may come to recognize by the time the Easter pasque flower shows its head.

“Mid-summer … when the alchemy of Nature transmutes the sylvan landscape to one vivid and almost homogeneous mass of green; when the senses are well-nigh intoxicated with the surging seas of moist verdure and the subtly indefinable odours of the soil and the vegetation. In such surroundings the mind loses its perspective; time and space become trivial and unreal, and echoes of a forgotten prehistoric past beat insistently upon the enthralled consciousness.”~H. P. Lovecraft

“There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti

For more information:

Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area is located in Saskatoon, SK, CA north of Cedar Villa Road, within city limits, in the furthest south west area of the city. Wikimapia Map: type in Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area Google Maps South West Off Leash area location pin at parking lot Web page: https://stbarbebaker.wordpress.com Where is the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area? with map Facebook: StBarbeBaker Facebook group page : Users of the St Barbe Baker Afforestation Area Facebook: South West OLRA If you wish to support the afforestation area with your donation, write a cheque please to the “Meewasin Valley Authority Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area trust fund” (MVA RSBBAA trust fund) and mail it to Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area c/o Meewasin Valley Authority, 402 Third Ave S, Saskatoon SK S7K 3G5. Thank you kindly! Twitter: St Barbe Baker Pinterest richardstbarbeb

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