#and her cousin says how his country never felt like home bc of his aunt

[vogelmeister]

re reading the climax scenes of a story i wrote five years ago and i think the frankfurt tower scene might be up there with the best scenes ive written.

[yanderepuck]

Maybe you answered this but what would be the reason why POW would want to come back to life????🤔🤔

I'm assuming you mean Poe.

This is gonna be a lil long cause I'm gonna go through his life.

Before Poe was even 5 both his parents died and was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife in Richmond, Virginia, while his brother and sister went to live with other families.

John was basically like "you're gonna be a businessman!" And Poe was like, I wanna be like Lord Byron. And he had very little interest in taking the family business and just wanted to write.

Well in 1826 Poe left Richmond to attend the University of Virginia. He was a great student, but didn't even have half the money he needed to stay in the college and soon took up gambling, that didn't work and by the end of the first term he was burning his furniture to keep himself warm. Obvs he went back home, to make matters worse, his fiancee was cheating on him and John became hostile towards Poe. Poe stormed out and said he was going to become a great poet and find adventure.

Two years later he was in the US military academy and got kicked out within 8 months. He's broke, alone, so he goes to Baltimore where his one cousin robbed him. But his aunt Clemm took him in, and he fell in love with her daughter, Virgina. He finally started to publish short stories and worked for a magazine. Poe soon developed a reputation as a fearless critic who not only attacked an author’s work but also insulted the author and the northern literary establishment. Poe targeted some of the most famous writers in the country; one of his victims was the anthologist and editor Rufus Griswold.

1846 he left New York and moved to a tiny cottage, bc his wife is dying and people are saying he's having an affair with another married woman. When Virgina did die, only 10 years of being married, Poe was devastated and didn't write for months. He died two years later.

Summer of 1849, he went to see his of fiancee, who is now a widow, and intended to get married. However, along the way to Philly, he stopped in Baltimore for five days. He was found in the bar room of a public house that was being used as a polling place for elections. He was taken to a hospital, and died a few days later. No one knows what happened and his fiancee didn't know what happened until she read it in the paper.

So. Why did he want to come back?

He really wanted to continue writing honestly. He never felt like he really accomplished anything, he never felt like he properly lived life. Money was always tight and writing was all he had. He did a decent amount of traveling up and down the east coast, but he wanted to see more, he wanted to actually be able to experience and not have to worry about how he's going to afford anything. Not have to gamble for all of his money. He wants to know what it's like to live stress free and do what he likes without having to fully worry. He doesn't his life stressed, drinking, and gambling since he was at least 16.

Ikevamp Poe just wants to actually experience life

[frauleinfunf]

My dumb headcanons about Mrs. Levin and her side of the family

Bc I cannot stop myself and love thinking way too much about Kevin's family tree bc that's how I express my love for characters

-Deborah Rifka Rozowski was born in 1969 at Kings County Hospital

-She has an older sister named Nancy, whom she's thick as thieves with

-Their father was a very physically abusive parent and their mother had untreated postpartum depression that led to her attempting suicide several times during their childhoods

-Their father had threatened to put her in an institution more than once in front of them

-In addition to a rough home life, she grew up in Brooklyn during the Son of Sam killings, the 1977 blackout, and later the crack epidemic. So it's safe to say she survived by being tough and street smart.

-Deb also had a deep of love of books and writing. It started as a form of escapism, but also became an outlet for her to express her feelings in ways that weren't picking fights

-At 16, Deb's father kicked her out. Nancy immediately put her up at her apartment with her husband Ira, but Deb ended up leaving in the middle of the night. Nancy was already heavily pregnant and Deb didn't want to feel like a burden, but also just wanted to leave Brooklyn and New York and get as far away from her current life as much as possible. Of course being a teenager, she assumed this meant she had to cut ties with her mother and sister.

-Deb wandered for the next few years, hitchhiking her way across the country and making money through odd jobs, mostly pick pocketing and mugging people though.

-At 19, she was in a city just outside of LA called Bellwood, where she ended up trying to mug Devin Levin

-Devin Levin was a hard simper and ended up asking her out after disarming her.

-Devin helped her find a job and an apartment, and soon they start a relationship, marking the first time Deb had ever felt like her life was stable and happy.

-Devin eventually convinced Deb to reach out to her sister, who still had her old phone number (Deb was not expecting that when she agreed to give her a call). After yelling at her for having Nancy worried sick for years, she broke down crying so happy to know Deb was alive and well.

-Nancy did have to be the one to tell Deb that their mother died from suicide a year after she left.

-Deb, while still obviously upset, had kind of assumed that happened in the intervening years.

-Nancy stopped speaking to their father after their mom died, and Deb sure wasn't eager to start talking to him again. So at this point their family was just them and Nancy's husband and kids.

-Deb became a mom at 23 and married Devin at a courthouse while she was pregnant. Their honeymoon was a weekend getaway to Santa Barbara.

-Nancy flew out to California with her husband and now three kids in tow to stand witness for the wedding, and she flew back alone a few months later to meet her nephew and help Deb settle into being a new mom.

-Kevin was 2 when Devin died and Deb just kind of spiraled from there, starting to drink while she sat shiva for him.

-Deb moved back to New York to be closer to her sister again. Nancy and her family were living Yonkers at that point so that's were Deb found a place for her and Kevin.

-In addition to her grief and addiction, Deb's life was not made easier by the fact that she found herself having to work two jobs to keep a roof over their heads and having to leave Kevin with Nancy for most of the day.

-She showed up to her waitress job drunk and her boss scrambled to find someone to take take her home. A trucker named Harvey Hackett who was at the diner for a union meeting volunteered.

-Harvey came by the next day to check on her, and that's how their relationship started.

-Harvey signed her up for AA meetings and, once Deb was sober enough, started teaching her how to drive a truck.

-Deb may not have loved Harvey in the way she loved Devin, she never could've loved anyone like that again. But he was a good man who wanted to take care of her and Kevin, and at that point that was all she wanted.

-They got married when Kevin was 4 and as we know that ended up being the worst decision of Deb's life.

-Meanwhile, things in Kevin's life weren't all that great, even before Harvey started to fear him.

-Nancy's kids (Amanda, who was 7 years older than Kevin, Mikey who was 5 years older, and Josh who was 2 years older) did not adjust well to an aunt they only met once and her kid all of a sudden coming back into their lives, and in addition to that their mom was now practically raising their cousin alongside them.

-It certainly didn't help that Nancy almost immediately started including Kevin whenever she called her kids her munchkins, and even called him Kevala the way she called them Amala, Mikala, and Joshala.

-So already they were inclined to ostracize Kevin, and that only got worse once his powers started developing and regularly short circuiting their electronics.

-Things came to a head when Kevin one day followed them to their treehouse and Amanda pretended she was going to push him out, scaring him enough that he unintentionally shocked her and left a third degree burn.

-Nancy and Deb, after a long talk with a lot yelling and crying and cheesecake, decided it would be safest for Kevin if Deb found other babysitters, which she could now afford with her and Harvey being unionized truckers.

-Nancy was absolutely heartbroken about this and cried on her last day watching him. Amanda, still mad about her burn, convinced Kevin that Nancy was crying because she thought Kevin was a freak just as much as the kids did.

-Until he ran away, Kevin ended up having a long, long list of babysitters who were all scared off by his powers at one point or another.

-Eventually Harvey and Deb started working their schedules so that at least one would be home all the time, meaning they started to see each other much less.

-While Deb and Nancy understood that Kevin's power outbursts were something he couldn't control and completely tied to his emotional state, Harvey did not.

-It didn't help that Harvey and Deb had very different parenting styles in general, with Harvey believing Deb was too permissive and Deb believing Harvey's approach was "totalitarian dogshit"

-So whenever Deb was home Kevin, while still struggling, was a lot more happy and behaved than when Harvey was the one who was home.

-A lot of Kevin's acting out was him being a kid who's stepfather feared him and him obviously not having the tools to deal with that since he was like 7.

-The rare time Deb and Harvey had together was often spent fighting about parenting, and Kevin just came to hate Harvey's presence in general, especially with Amanda's words still in the back of his head after all these years.

-On that fateful day when Kevin accidentally destroyed the house, Harvey just completely lost it.

-He said Kevin's mother suffered so much because of him, because of the pressure of having a freak son.

-This, combined with his experience with Amanda, is what convinced Kevin that his mother was going to reject him.

-After Kevin ran away, Deb and Nancy's family searched everywhere for him. Now faced with the prospect of never seeing him again, the now teenaged Amanda, Mikey, and Josh were certainly feeling a lot of guilt for how they treated him as kids and how much they tried to ignore what they did as they got older.

-Harvey and Deb's divorce was very messy, to put it mildely

-Harvey, a smart man, moved to the other side of the country just to avoid Nancy and Ira, whom he now feared even more than Deb. With Deb, he had hurt her baby. With Nancy, he had hurt her baby AND her baby sister.

-Once Kevin reunited with Deb, he reunited with Nancy. He still has no contact with his cousins though.

-Why Harvey was chosen to be the one to talk Ultimate Kevin down instead of Deb or Nancy is a mystery only God knows.

[prenupsremade]

VENT POST !!! TW for abuse and drug mentions and family and ventign oh my god im so sorry But i guess more info into my situation

for years i’ve invalidated the abuse i’ve gone through bc i’ve always told myself they love me and theyre hurting too but i’ve realized now that even if they do love me and are hurting too, that doesn’t mean they’re not abusing me and hurting me. i need to get away from them. they’ve always blamed the problems we face with my siblings on me, because i set a bad example by being depressed and dropping out of school, and initially it wasn’t like this.

when i chose to live with my grandparents, it was after being taken away from my neglectful mother who was (and still is) an addict. my grandmother could no longer work after dealing with cancer for several years, but she was in remission (and still is) and my grandfather had a stable job. i was with them often and was comfortable with them, so i decided to move in with them (my brother accompanying me). i was 12 years old, my brother 4, and the adoption process lasted until i was 15 and my brother was 7. in that time, my great grandmother, whom my grandmother was very close to, passed away, and my brother and i were prevented from seeing our mother for years after she became homeless after the incident.

several months after the adoption process, due to extreme bullying from other students and even Teachers, i dropped out of school, and right after my 16th birthday, my aunt took her life, leaving behind three children, all under the age of ten. her husband was a drug addict as well and was very u nstable, having tried to take his own life many times within the whole time i’ve known him, and the children were taken away. they were also adopted by our grandparents

my grandmother fell into a very intense depression after losing my aunt, who she felt was like the only child she had who wasn’t a mess. she stopped getting out of bed almost completely, leaving my grandfather to take care of all of us. within this time, i began to realize my grandfather was extremely controlling and emotionally manipulative, and often would pit my brother and i against our cousins. my brother began being neglected for our three cousins, two of whom were the same age as my brother, the other being a baby. i didn’t notice the neglect at the time, as i was often giving into my grandfathers tormenting

as i turned 17, my cousins adoption process was finalized, and things didn’t change much, later in the year my grandfather losing his job and having to drive an hour of town almost everyday to visit his mother with dementia, who he refuses to put in a nursing home. my grandma is still in bed all the time. my mother was let back into the picture and although she now lived across the country, she’d visit during the summer, but in the summer of 2018, when i was 18, she came down and relapsed on drugs and had a psychotic break, and now refuses to leave. she’s been here since, staying with her friend but visiting all the time unexpectedly.

my mother is now extremely violent and aggressive with me, verbally, physically and emotionally abusing nonstop, and my grandmother’s depression has gotten so bad that she wails daily from her bed about how she doesn’t want to live. she’s self harmed and when my grandfather asked her why, she looked at me (who previously self harmed when i was younger) and she said she wanted to know why i do it all the time.

my brother has become extremely reclusive as well, and our cousins have begun to see the treatment we’ve been enduring and our grandfather knows this, so when he buys food for our cousins but not me and my brother and we’re vocally upset, he says “look, you’re making your cousins want to die”

this is Every Day . Every day he does this. and every day my grandma lays in her bed and sleeps, and if my siblings or i try to speak to her about.. almost anything, she guilt trips us, saying she knows she’s a failure of a mother and that she should’ve never had kids, and that its my fault im being treated like this by her bc i chose to live with her instead of someone else back when i was being adopted (my grandfather very vocally carries a similar idea- saying if its so bad here, then we (including the kids) should just go move in with our unmarried great uncle, who doesnt have the space or money or time to take care of 4 kids and help me get on my feet at the same time.and not to mention my mother is now back in the picture and constantly harassing me and abusing me, then gaslighting me, and telling me i’m abusing her.

all three of the older kids (my brother and our two cousins) have dropped out of school, similar to me, and they don’t feel safe enough to tell us what the problem or with zoom calls is. and even when we’ve done homeschooling programs, our grandparents don’t monitor them - and so none of the kids do any school work.

im 20 now, turning 21 in january and tbh i feel like a monster, i feel like i deserve this because this is all i know, but then i go to a close friends house and see how fucking Normal things are and i’m so destroyed, i’m so sick of this, i’m so sick of living like this and i don’t know what to do. i don’t want anyone in my family to go through with losing anyone again bc all of my siblings and i are attached to each other, my grandmother can’t handle losing another person, i just need to have a place where i’m safe and my mother and grandparents don’t know where it is and the kids can come over and be safe and eat and fuck fuck fuck i’m so sick of this. i wish i was stronger and smarter and better and i wish i knew what i was doing so that i could DO IT

[transrightsjimin]

urgh im less upset abt grandma dying nd more upset abt my family being so fucking STUPID for acting like they cant do anything anymore during the pandemic nd inviting me for a christmas dinner nd my cousin saying they ‘should just do w/e we want instead of look at rules, because this loss is more important now’ nd the rest agreed O_O

like u fucking DUMBASSES, THE VIRUS IS THE FUCKING REASON GRANDMA DIED ND U WANT TO HAVE CHRISTMAS DINNERS ND MEET UP W THE WHOLE FAMILY IN 2021???? 

THE CONCEPT OF FORCED 'GEZELLIGHEID' ('cozy togetherness'?) IS LITERALLY WHAT IS HAVING PEOPLE KILLED IN THIS FUCKING COUNTRY 

also i feel fucking disgusted for letting my brother pull me in a hug (nd my mom hugged me too which i hate bc shes literally a risk group) bc hes a fucking fascist nd i saw him in a whatsapp group w antisemitic meme today nd i want to puke !!!!!!!

i dont want to fucking see my family during this pandemic but they always force me to be together w them bc thats considered 'GEZELLIG!!!' and normal and fun nd im too bad at saying no when im peerpressured, i fucking hate it nd don;t want my mom or other grandma to die bc of their dumbass behaviour by continuing to visit ppl inside their homes. they really talked about how different it was this cremation vs. decades ago at the same place bc “now we couldn’t enter at the same time nd people could touch each other and sit closely” LIKE U??? LITERALLY SAT NEXT TO PPL WHO DONT LIVE W U W 0 TO 30 CM DISTANCE BETWEEN EACH OTHER?? U LITERALLY HUGGED PEOPLE TODAY?? THERE WERE LIKE 40 GUESTS IN A WAY TOO TINY ROOM FOR THAT AMOUNT LIKE R U KIDDING ME??? I DONT WANT TO FUCKING SEE THIS EVER AGAIN. ALSO i wish death upon my brother but not rly bc it would hurt my mom nd his daughter but jfc i fucking hate him. also my cousin nd his dad are just like him. fascism is so normalized in dutch society nowadays idek where to draw the line between a person who is slightly bigoted nd the ‘never talk to a fascist‘ scenario jfc.

i always feel so fucking mixed abt my family urghfhgh like i truly do care abt my parents nd i guess one aunt nd uncle maybe but i dont want to fucking see them during this pandemic nd i preferrably dont see my brother either. but fuck i REALLY dont know how ppl cut family out of their lives bc i would have to pick and choose who i would stay in touch w but they all communicate to each other so u rly cant keep a secret. if i were to try to close off family i would need to delete my fb + ig bc i do have an aunt who keeps finding me there, nd i would need to never tell any of them my new address if i ever move. but also we never had a huge fallout so i dont think theyd get it?? nd my family on my mother’s side, aside from my american uncle nd aunt, all live rly close in either this city or one nearby so idek how you could avoid them. like im conditioned to care abt them but i honestly really dont care

i got invited by my parents to this christmas dinner over at their house and they didnt see the issue in inviting me, my friend, my brother and his daughter, “bc it’s legal to invite 3 people and children under 13 years don’t count [according to the legislation]” nd said ‘oh your friend will feel lonely on christmas if he’s just home alone‘ NO HE WON’T?? HOW DO U KNOW?? WILL IT LITERALLY KILL U TO TRY TO NOT KILL OTHER PEOPLE??

the only reason i cried at the cremation today was bc i thought of my mom dying nd having no idea what i would say in a speech then. like i dont remember my mom’s speech well but i was impressed how she said positive things abt her mom considering she was rly physically nd mentally abusive of her kids in the past nd left my mom scarred for life. it made me think when people deserved to actually be remembered for the ‘good’ stuff, just because fucking family is supposedly important. nd i just couldnt remember positive stuff abt my mom other than ‘i would miss her‘ but i couldnt think of what exactly i would miss abt her bc our personalities rly clash.

she rly stressed me out today, like she kept honking for the whole neighbourhood to hear bc i wasnt immediately outside when the car arrived in my street, nd at a certain moment said i should take a flower from the bouquet (tht was paid by the nephews nd nieces (minus me bc my parents paid it bc im broke)) nd so i did but then my aunt complained right beside me that she thought it was wrong that people just pulled out flowers ffrom the bouquet so i was like :( oh ok, but my mom kept yelling ‘NO TAKE MORE FLOWERS!! COME ON TAKE ANOTHER ONE!! PUT IT IN YOUR HOME!!‘ nd my aunt kept complaining nd i felt so guilty suddenly for having those flowers as i got more pushed into my hands by others. like my best friend has a rly chill family who srsly didnt pay visits at home or vice versa once nd im so jealous bc when your whole family understands how the fucking virus / social distancing works nd doesn’t look egocentrically only at the lax legislation or treat forced gezelligheid as the ultimate goal, it would prob be a lot easier to actually just not meet up. bc the question of meeting up or having to see each other all the fucking time isnt even a thing. but to him my family is rly weird nd strict while before him i only knew ppl w stricter parents nd i had the easy ones bc i was allowed to drink nd go out nd date even though i didnt want that. urgh im just in conflict nd feeling a bit desperate abt the ppl in this country. nd i worry abt my mom getting sick

[anicegaykid]

who dis?

#firstpost seems more daunting than it needs to be. Got myself all creative blocked up so here is a little diddy to get to know me better.. 

Are you named after anyone?

I am actually named after Jessica Wakefield from Sweet Valley High

When was the last time you cried?

tbh, I tend to flip from emotionless to SUPER emotional like 0-60. Sometimes no response, sometimes (like this afternoon) I see a beautiful pond surrounded in nature, being natural and beautiful, water sparkling in the sunshine and the tears just roll.

Do you have kids? If no, how many do you want?

No kids atm, but a couple kiddos would be nice in the near future

If you were another person, would you be a friend of yourself?

..like.. what.. ? am I just like a duplicate of me? Like am I the same person I am now and would I be friends with someone JUST like me? Or am I someone else? Who am I? Like, I enjoy spending time on my own? 

Bottom line, I like me. 

Do you use sarcasm a lot?

100%

What’s the first thing you notice about people?

eyes, smile, lips, face bone structure

What is your eye color?

blue, sometimes they get a little grey

Scary movie or happy endings?

BOTH. 

Favorite smells?

Citrus, patchouli, cut grass, peaches and strawberries

Do you have any special talents?

Talents include: fantastic with horses, very good dog mom, I can cook frozen pizzas to perfection -- if I don’t get distracted, designing queer tees, i can roll a pretty decent j, solid problem solver, got some wit and can be funny. 

Where were you born?

Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada

What’s your zodiac sign? Do you believe in it?

Leo; I mean it IS surprisingly accurate like all the time. 

What are your hobbies?

I am kind of in between hobbies right now.. I dabble in some things. I go to the gym like more than average, but I would like to go more - said everyone ever. I’d like to hike more, camp more, build more things out of pallets, you know.. the usual

Do you have any siblings?

I have a 21 year old brother and a 14 year old sister.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Life is pretty great tbh, I’d like to continue being happy with my little fam

Who was your first best friend?

My first best friend would have to be my cousin, Brittany. Like a sister.

How tall are you?

5′6″

What is the least favourite thing about yourself?

I wish I was a lot better at expressing how I feel. 

Things that still bother me - my wife and I had a discussion about proposals and who would ask who. We landed on me asking her, which I did and am SO happy about, but the reason behind it being that I am so poor at expressing emotions that she was afraid it would affect her confidence in my response. 

For a first TMI moment of the blog, I have so much anxiety in my ability to express myself that I can’t even manage to make any “noise” during sex. Doesn’t even matter that I am my most comfortable self with her, STILL struggle. A work in progress for me I guess. 

Funniest moment throughout School?

There was a time when we were at a beach party when I was 17, the RCMP showed up to break it up and snag any and all intoxicated minors they could. The tide had recently come in, but where we were was a little dip in the side of the cliff so the path back to the road was water-covered. So someone peeks around the cliff to see the two Mounties wading through the water. This party crew are country-folk and are 100% ready for this situation with a wooden ladder that leads up the side of the cliff into a field close to where all the vehicles are parked. As party-goers are running through the field to cars, someone shouts, “PIT PARTY” and everyone heads towards the local Pit. Along the way someone with a truck steals a round bale from a field and uses it to create the BIGGEST bonfire I’ve ever seen. 

How many countries have you visited?

like ~10

What was your favourite/worst subject in High School?

I struggled with math but funny enough my career path has led me to a life in the casino so I do math daily and enjoy it very much!

My favourite courses in High School were Conservation and Agricultural Science. 

What is your Favourite drink? Animal? Perfume?

Coke Zero Cherry

Horse

Karma by Lush

What would you (or have you) name your children?

I really like Posy, Daisy, Freddie and Loren

What Sports do you play/Have you played?

I used to Figure Skate, Horseback Ride, Ringette

Who are some of your favourite YouTubers?

I’ve always been a Grace Helbig, Mamrie Hart, Hannah Hart fan

I like Phil DeFranco for news, Pewds for some lulz, love me some Tyler Oakley, Whitney Simmons and Chloe Ting to work the booty, Vox for learning, FunForLouis has some BEAUTIFUL imagery and plays to the traveler side of me and I recently discovered Will Smith’s channel and cannot get enough!

How many Girlfriends/Boyfriends have you had?

I have had an unsettling amount of bfs for a lesbian, but 2 of them really stand out as being genuinely decent guys and I would still hang out with, platonically, to this day.

I have had a grand total of 4 gfs, I married the fourth bc I got LUCKY AS HECK!

Favourite memory from childhood?

The day I got my first puppy.

One time I was gifted a horse for Christmas bc my Dad felt so bad that I had to have my first pony put down earlier that year. 

I also was old enough to remember both my siblings being born!

How would you describe your fashion sense?

tom boy hyper femme 

What phone do you have? (iOS v Android?)

iPhone6s

Tell us one of your bad habits!

I bite my nails and chew my cuticles

3 things that upset you?

inequality

excessive force

did I say inequality?

3 things that make you happy?

Olivia

My animals

family

How is your relationship with parents?

My Mom is one of my best friends in this world! My Dad is an odd case, he struggles with my sexuality, I understand that it is because of where and when he grew up, he is never outwardly rude or mean to me, he’s a quiet country guy, he was at our wedding, he gave me away with my Mom, he’s kind to Olivia, he’s kind to me, he doesn’t understand but recognizes that it is real. I love my Dad, I really do. I’m proud of my Mom for educating him and ensuring that he is present and polite. I get frustrated from time to time and I have cried a lot of tears about it. Our relationship can be strange but at the same time hasn’t changed. He’s been a great Dad and he’ll be a fantastic Grampy. I have to check myself because there are people who are much worse off than me. I get jealous of Olivia sometimes because her Dad is so sweet to her and treats me like a daughter so easily, but my Dad has never been the soft spoken lovey type. We’ve hugged twice in my life. One of them was when I was leaving for England with a one way ticket and no foreseeable return plans and one was when he was jokingly blocking my path and I used it as a disarming mechanism to scoot through. 

What’s on your mind?

All I can think about today is the fact that I became an aunt at 5AM this morning and I’m going to see his later this afternoon. I SO excited!

What’s your talent?

troubleshooting queen.

naturally creative to my own surprise.

One word that describes you?

patient

What’s your favourite quotes?

No Pride for some of us without liberation for all of us . Marsha P Johnson

We way too fly to partake in all this hate, we out here vibin’ . Ariana Grande

Any pets?

4 dogs:

Finnley - Great PyreneesXAustralian Shepard

Effie - Border CollieX

Shiro - DacshundXMiniature Australian Shepard

Moose - Great PyreneesXFinnley

2 Cats:

Priya - long haired tabby, kinda sorta Ragdoll’esque

Punkin - short haired orange tabby with a poofy tail

2 Beta Fishies:

King Push & Todd

What is the farthest you’ve been from home?

I lived in England for 2 years & travelled Europe for a month

Are you an extrovert or introvert?

I think TECHNICALLY an introvert?  I can be v extroverted but I really need time to recharge. Recharging for me is being home with my comforts. My wifey, doggos, snacks and Netflix.

Are you left or right handed?

Right hander

Do you consider yourself a good cook?

Like.. sort of? I don’t cook much but when I do I always surprise myself with how well I do lol

Does your name have a special meaning?

It means my Mother was 18 when she had me and REALLY liked Sweet Valley High

If money were no object what would you get for your next birthday?

2 weeks away from home/work, road trip to Halifax for the fertility clinic, get started on a baby and then fly off to one of those tropical cabins on the water. 

If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?

I would love to have a few homes! A winter getaway BC. A condo in Halifax, NS and a cute little hobby farm here in PEI in some rolling hills somewhere in between Kensington and Charlottetown. 

What’s your favourite thing to have for breakfast?

I love chocolate chip waffles/pancakes, French style pastry breakfast, and when I’m feeling fab, some eggs benny on smoked salmon with a couple mimosas on the side. 

What’s your favourite gadget?

I just got a Fitbit so thats been pretty exciting, aside from that, my phone is on me at like all times. 

What’s your longest relationship so far?

My current one. We’re about to hit 4 years together, married for a little over a month. 

[the-pontiac-bandit]

all the way home i’ll be warm

so, thanks to @jakelovesamy for the prompt, and to her and @elsaclack for all of the help!! i’m only including the prompt because it seems important that y’all all know that this started as a creepy cabin drabble. (title is from “let it snow” bc yes i Obviously wrote a christmas fic in mid-june) 

99. “We’re in an abandoned lodge in the middle of nowhere. Sure, you’re totally right, nothing bad could ever happen here.”

Jake Peralta has never enjoyed the outdoors. Sure, that one Cub Scouts camping trip in first grade was pretty fun, but that was mostly because his dad was Assistant Scoutmaster that year, and Jake got to stay up until the sun started to rise, making s’mores with Charlie Daniels and his brother. Adult Jake Peralta prefers snow plows, massage chairs, modern insulation, and easy-access delivery food.

Which makes the fact that he agreed to spend Christmas in a cabin in the middle of nowhere in upstate New York with his new wife’s family a remarkable testament to just how much he loves said new wife.

Of course, the Santiagos are a remarkably awesome bunch of people. Victor warmed up to him - finally - when Jake told the Santiagos about his intentions to marry Amy. He showed them the ring, and Victor decided that anyone who had managed to save up that much money with a credit score below 200 was plenty tenacious enough to be a Santiago. Her brothers, meanwhile, had warmed to him as soon as they learned how much he loved basketball and good cop movies (Luis once told him that there were so many Santiago brothers it wasn’t even that noticeable when they picked up a few extra along the way. Jake had never felt more thrilled to be so entirely a part of something).

Even with all that awesome, being snowed in with all of the Santiagos in an eight-bedroom “cabin” (it’s definitely way too large for that title, and yet still somehow too small for all seven brothers, their spouses, and the kids) for four days over Christmas was not his idea of a dream vacation. Jake has no idea exactly how many nieces and nephews he now has, but he knows that there are at least twenty children that made it to the cabin ranging from scarily-new infants to surly teenagers, and they all call him Tio Jake with an excitement that warms his heart.

That many kids with that few bedrooms, though, means that someone is always sleeping somewhere strange. Usually on the floor. Definitely at a weird time of day. And Jake definitely almost steps on them on his way to the kitchen for more Cheetos (Manny brought a seemingly endless supply - he keeps pulling more from his car every time the boys finish a bag. Jake is eternally grateful).

Amy always seems to know who’s sleeping where (she also knows all of their names, of course, because she’s a perfect aunt who filled up their entire trunk with personalized gifts for each child and all her brothers, leaving Jake with a much better understanding of why they couldn’t afford Paris).

There is a constant hum of noise in the cabin. On the first day, which Jake obnoxiously calls Christmas Eve-Eve to anyone who will listen, everyone is in and out - exploring the nearby town, enjoying the fresh air, playing games of soccer on frozen ground that gives Jake a bruise on his hip when he tries to bicycle kick for the winning point. All in all, a great first day.

Then, that night, the snow starts to fall. At first, it’s some flurries. Just enough snow to be romantic - when it falls, it’s light and fresh, and Jake’s been to the country before, but just rarely enough that seeing fresh, fluffy snow surrounding him is a novelty. The Santiagos, who grew up with a huge backyard and spent their winters rolling around in snow that no dogs had peed in, were less impressed, and thought he was insane for wanting to spend that much time in the woods in the snow at night.

But then Amy walked outside with Jake in her heaviest parka, and they stood together and watched it fall, illuminated by the faded light coming out of the cabin, where the Santiagos were playing the largest game of Apples to Apples he’d ever seen. Everything was perfect, and just a little bit magical, and when he leaned down to kiss her, he could see the snowflakes that had settled on her eyelashes.

Jake is thoroughly enjoying the feel of her lips against his, even if that’s the only skin-to-skin contact available with all the layers, even though the pom pom on top of his hat is slowly pulling the entire garment forward to cover his eyes, but it ends when Amy decides her hands are freezing - even in their wool mittens - and tells him very pointedly that if he likes what her hands were going to do later, he’d best go inside and save them from frostbite. After that, he moves very quickly back towards the fire the Santiagos lit in the living room (carefully guarded by the oldest cousin, college freshman Anna, to prevent any accidental burns to the five year-old twins racing past).

Everything is perfect until the next morning, Christmas Eve, when he wakes up to nearly two feet of snow on the ground outside. Of course nothing is plowed and of course their cars are buried and of course there are somehow now nearly forty people stuck in what used to feel like a very large “cabin” and Jake’s thinking everyone should have just gotten hotel rooms in the city instead, no matter how pretty the untouched snow is.

Jake and Amy are up ridiculously early, thanks to the wails of the baby that radiate from the room they share walls with. Jake gently pushes Amy back to sleep when she starts to get up to go take care of her niece - she never lets herself sleep, and she’s been absolutely exhausted lately. She deserves this.

So Jake finds himself in the kitchen with Luis, Manny, and Joel, sitting in flannel pajama pants and overlarge matching t-shirts (Joel designed Family Reunion 2018 shirts. Jake never wants to take his off). Children are playing quietly around him - all of them are aware that moms, dads, and older siblings are trying to sleep, and they’re Santiagos, so of course they’re complying. Jake’s enjoying his Frosted Flakes (also courtesy of Manny), and reveling in the early morning quiet (at least, compared to Santiagos at full volume), compounded by the thick coat of snow on the ground outside.

It’s Luis who breaks the comfortable silence, clearing his throat and shifting in his seat. His daughter Lucia, just barely three months old, is cradled in his arm, and he’s clutching a steaming cup of black coffee for dear life with the other hand.

“Man, thank God she fell back asleep. Sometimes she just won’t stop crying in the mornings, and I can’t exactly take her outside in this weather. Would’ve been a fun wakeup call for everyone.”

Joel shoots a pointed look at his little brother, just fourteen months older than Amy. “But it’s so worth it. I remember when the twins were that little - a handful, but the best gift I could have asked for.” His gaze rests squarely on Jake, looking inquisitive, and Jake squirms a little bit under the intense stare.

Manny jumps in shockingly quickly to support his brother. “Yeah, Sarah and I only got married a year ago, but we’re already talking about it - we just can’t wait to have some of our own. What about you, Jake? Any kids in your future?”

Jake laughs a little, feeling a bit uncomfortable but brushing it off - brothers must talk like this all the time. “Oh, I’d say they’re definitely somewhere down the line, but definitely not anytime soon. There’s a life calendar hanging above our bed that says no kids until Amy’s a lieutenant, at least.”

Luis starts to laugh, but he’s quickly silenced by Joel, nearly thirteen years his senior, elbowing him in the side. He swallows his giggles, looking furtively at Jake, but their new brother-in-law hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary.

They talk about their kids for a while, and Jake explains the elaborate color-coding system that Amy devised to pack for this four-day vacation. Then the boys give Jake, whose past experience with Christmas has been iffy and mostly related to Santa Claus, the lowdown on the innumerable Santiago family Christmas traditions.

The calm lasts until nearly 7:30, when Isabel Santiago emerges from the master bedroom, Victor looking a little sheepish at her heels. Jake had quickly learned at his first family event with the Santiagos that for all his commanding presence, Victor Santiago is constantly a little cowed and a little quiet when his wife is around. Isabel is furious that anyone let her sleep this late when there are grandbabies to feed and snowball fights to be had and children to catch up with. Jake quickly vacates the kitchen, knowing full well that any cooking done in his presence will quickly devolve into spilled batter and (somehow inevitably) explosions.

Back in his room, he decides to brush his teeth and hair and make some pretense to his new family that he’s less messy than this. His toiletries are stored carefully in the bathroom, in a nice case Amy got him to replace the messy gallon-Ziploc that never quite dried that he previously relied on. Everything is perfectly packed, and he knows exactly where it is. But when he tries the door, it’s locked.

“Amy,” he calls softly, not wanting her brothers to hear them through the frustratingly thin walls (seriously, how did Amy do this for eighteen years?).

“Jake? What do you need?” Amy’s voice is terse, barely audible. The shower isn’t running, so Jake decides she must be using the bathroom. He tries the handle again, wondering if it was just stuck, but nope - still locked.

Amy’s voice comes through the door again. “Can it wait, babe?”

He sighs. “Yeah.”

Then two minutes pass. Then three. The toilet never flushes, and he can smell French toast being fried in the kitchen all the way from their tiny bedroom in the back.

“Babe? I just need my toothbrush.”

“Just two more minutes, Jake. Please.” Her voice is tense, stressed, and a little hoarse, and he’s not entirely sure why.

“This is taking forever,” he whines. Then, a pause. “Babe, are you,” he brings his voice down to a whisper, “pooping?”

There’s a cough, then few seconds of silence from inside the bathroom. Then, a relieved sigh. “Yes, Jake. I’m pooping.”

“Amy, I’ve seen you poop before. Let me in.”

“How on earth am I going to do that?”

“Right.”

And he waits patiently until - finally - he hears a toilet flush, and she lets him in. The bathroom smells a little musty, reminding him somehow of their bathroom the week they both had the stomach flu. Her face is a flushed, and her eyes are a bit wild, darting around the way that they do when she’s stressed or anxious. Before he has time to question it or make sure she’s okay, though, he hears Manny call from just inside the door to their room that breakfast is ready and everyone else is eating. Amy replies that they’re coming, so Jake pours some toothpaste in his mouth, swallows quickly, and follows his wife (he’ll never get tired of thinking that) out the door.

All of the Santiagos are gathered around every flat surface in the living area of the cabin, each with a steaming pile of French toast, bacon, and strawberries. All of the weirdness of this morning is forgotten as he plops on the couch next to Luis with his own plate, leaving a corner of the couch for Amy. The pair immediately start discussing the Knicks’ playoff prospects with a few Santiago nephews sitting on the floor nearby (Jake’s pretty sure their names are Robert and Matty, but he can't be entirely sure. Everyone looks alike - those Santiago genes are strong.)

He’s so busy trying to convince his new family that the Knicks will win tomorrow by a full 70 points that he doesn't notice that Amy spends most of the meal taking deep breaths and leaves her French toast, her favorite breakfast, almost entirely untouched.

As soon as the conversation lulls, the sound in the room transitioning from lively conversation to quiet groans of sated contentment, Amy jumps up to start collecting plates. Her mother quickly follows, as she always does. They wave off all help (although not much is offered - everyone is far too full to move) from brothers and spouses, and even from Jake, and mother and daughter bustle off to the kitchen together.

Moms and dads, startled by the sudden lack of a syrup-covered plate in their lap, jolt to alertness, rushing to scrub powdered sugar, syrup, and orange juice off the faces of their children before they can ruin the furniture in the rented cabin. In the midst of the sudden reinstatement of chaos, Joel’s wife Mari stares at Jake, catching and holding his eyes. Then, seemingly unintentionally, her gaze shifts from him to the still-open kitchen door, out of which the clinking sounds of dishware being washed are emerging over the tumult of voices in the living room.

He gets the message (he thinks - that was a pretty weird look) and gets up to help his wife in the kitchen. He’s happy to go help anyway - after all, he has nothing to do to help clean up the plethora of nieces and nephews surrounding him, and he likes to be useful.

He’s stopped dead in his tracks at the door to the kitchen, though. Isabel Santiago is giving him a terrifying glare that is - like Amy’s - eerily reminiscent of that of a middle school librarian. It stops him in his tracks, and somehow, he knows to stay there. But instead of abandoning the room, going back to play with Robert and Matty, the eight year-olds who informed him during breakfast that he’s the coolest uncle they know, he backs away and sneaks behind the door, watching through the crack between the hinges, so that Mrs. Santiago doesn’t know he’s there.

Amy is gesticulating wildly at her mother, clearly frantic. When her hands reach up to start twisting her hair, though, her mom grabs them gently, says something, and pulls her only daughter into a hug. He can’t make out what’s being said over the din of the room behind him, but the cadence sounds distinctly like Spanish, so he knows he wouldn’t be able to follow even if everyone else would just shut up.

He’s relieved, though, to see Amy’s shoulders relax into her mother’s arms. He’s not sure what’s wrong, but clearly her mother has it under control. The sight of Amy’s breath steadying, her hands relaxing, calms him - whatever it is clearly can't be that bad.

And he's right. He’d returned to his room to change out of pajama pants (although this is the perfect kind of day for a pajama-jammy-jam) when Amy walks in, hugging him from behind and pressing her face into his shoulder.

He lets her stay that way for a few seconds, before pulling her arms just loose enough that he can turn around in her grip and properly hug her back. They stay that way, uninterrupted and holding each other close, for far longer than they should be able to, what with every single child in the house barging into their room at all hours to get some one-on-one time with their favorite aunt.

Finally, she pulls back, placing a quick peck on his lips before opening the top drawer of the dresser to find jeans and a sweater (before Amy, Jake didn't even know you could unpack on vacation, so he takes a second to marvel at the fact that he doesn't even have the opportunity to wreck the organization of their shared suitcase).

“So...you're okay?” he asks, a little tentatively.

Her back stiffens when he asks, and she freezes, one pants leg on, the other leg in the air. Then, in just a second, she's back to normal. In a carefully measured voice, she replies, “Yeah, babe, I’m fine. Why wouldn't I be?”

“I saw you talking to your mom, and you looked pretty upset.”

“Oh, that!” she replies, just a little too quickly. “I forgot the present for Mateo, and I didn’t know what to do, but my mom had an extra, so we’re giving him that!”

Jake’s pretty sure that he remembers writing Mateo’s gift tag himself, is almost certain it’s sitting near the side of the pile in their trunk, but he knows better than to argue. If Amy says it’s not there, then it’s definitely not there.

And then they hear Victor calling for them to come help decorate the Christmas tree that Diego drove up from New Jersey for the cabin, so instead of protesting, he grabs her as her head pops through the crew neck of her sweater (her softest one, which makes it by far his favorite) and plants a firm kiss on her lips. She laughs through it, wiggling away and protesting that we can’t do this, Jake, my dad might be coming in!

But then, when they hear her father’s footsteps fade into the background, she turns around and surprises him with a quick kiss before walking off, expecting him to follow. He does, but only after spending a few seconds marveling that the woman walking off with a new bounce in her step and a swing in her shiny ponytail is married to him.

Jake emerges into the crowded living room only a few steps behind his wife to happily discover that most of the younger children have been sent outside to play and release some energy. This means that the living room, while still loud - thanks to the room full of Santiagos, whose grasp of volume control is iffy at best - is full of the hum of polite conversation, rather than the screams of children trying to play tag between the boxes of ornaments, provided by Isabel.

When everyone sees them enter, though, the conversation comes to an abrupt halt. All eyes are trained on Jake and Amy, standing a few feet apart at the front of the room. Isabel starts to get up, takes a deep breath to say something, and then Amy shakes her head. It’s almost imperceptible, and if her ponytail wasn’t quite so bouncy, Jake wouldn’t have seen it at all.

Immediately, conversation resumes, as though nothing had ever happened, leaving Jake to wonder if he was imagining everything. Still standing in front of everyone, he leans in and whispers the question to Amy, who just shrugs in response - as if to say my family’s weird - deal with it.

So he does. He finds Luis sitting and untangling Christmas lights with Alex, their oldest brother. Alex looks up as Jake sits down, and a smile lights up his face as he claps Jake on the back.

“Congratulations, budd--” Alex is cut off abruptly from a sharp elbow from Luis that Jake definitely did not imagine.

Both men are looking at him warily, looking a little nervous for reasons that Jake can’t even begin to parse. They're silent for 10 seconds, and then 10 more, just watching him expectantly.

Then finally, with a relieved sigh, Luis breaks the silence. “Anyway, Jake, wanna give this string a shot? We can't get this knot out to save our lives.”

So Jake takes the lights they hold out for him and gets to work, doing his best to forget about the weird way that Alex had been staring at him.

Thankfully, untangling the lights turns out to be so consuming that he does manage to put his weird morning out of his mind for a little while. He has no idea how lights could have gotten this bad, until Alex explains that his kids used them as a rope for a hostage situation game that summer and put them away themselves. He’s a little impressed, honestly - figuring out how to untangle these lights might be a harder puzzle than any he's managed to solve with the NYPD.

Finally, though, he is able to hand Victor, who is taking meticulous instructions from Isabel about where the lights should be strung, a perfectly untangled strand of Christmas lights to add to the tree. The children are called back in to add ornaments to the now-lit tree (which stands taller than the trees Jake’s managed to squeeze into any of his apartments). The stomping of boots on the front mat sounds like a herd of elephants entering the house, and it lasts for what feels like an eternity as more and more kids traipse through, tracking an unbelievable amount of snow through the living room on their way to put up their coats.

His job done, Jake moves to the couch and squeezes into the impossibly small space left between Amy and the arm of the couch. Amy, laughing at the noises he makes as he tries to force his butt into the few available inches, gets up, settling on his lap as soon as he sits down.

Her head comes to rest against his shoulder as the kids reemerge, loud and ready to decorate. They watch the tree slowly acquire character via the addition of all sorts of ornaments - from fancy gold family heirlooms that only nineteen year-old Anna and her brother Sam can touch, hung high at the top of the tree, to paper drawings strung with yarn that two year-old Eliza drapes proudly on the bottom branches, balancing tentatively on chubby legs.

Amy slowly snuggles closer as they watch the scene unfold, so that her legs are folded on the couch (she may or may not give Luis, sitting next to them and playing with Lucia, a small kick as she pulls them up, just in case he’s done something today to deserve it), and Jake wraps his arms around her. Two of the thirteen year-olds are making faces at them and pretending to vomit in the corner, but Amy just laughs and plants a kiss on Jake’s cheek to bother her nephews.

Jake notices, when the tree is about halfway done and a few of the brothers are getting up to help their kids even out the ornament distribution (Jake has long-since discovered that Amy comes by her OCD honestly), that Isabel Santiago is watching him closely. She seems to have fixated on his arms, draped lazily over his wife’s (her daughter’s) abdomen. He can't read her expression, despite all his years of detective work, but he sits up straighter, trying to match the professionalism of Joel and his wife, sitting in the opposite corner of the room and gently holding hands in separate chairs.

As he shifts, though, Amy groans her objection, nuzzling her face deeper into his chest. That's when he realizes his wife is half-asleep. So instead, he settles back, deciding Mrs. Santiago must have been looking at something else - a quick glance confirms that she’s now talking to Diego’s wife animatedly about Christmas Eve dinner plans.

Finally, the tree is done. Isabel brings out sandwiches for everyone (Jake has no idea when she had time to make them. He’s at least 80% sure his mother-in-law is magical.), and lunch is finished in 10 minutes flat.

By this time, it's mid-afternoon, and there’s just a few hours until Christmas Eve dinner preparation begins in earnest. Matty and Robert beg their fathers for a snowball fight, and they agree eagerly, and before Jake really realizes what happened, everyone is getting up to go find coats and enjoy the hour or two of true daylight remaining.

Jake wakes Amy up (she claims drowsily that she’s been awake the whole time, thank you very much), and as they get up, Manny and Luis wander over to ask if Jake and Amy will be joining. Jake accepts enthusiastically, but Amy shakes her head.

“I don't think a snowball fight is up my alley today,” Amy apologizes with a yawn.

“Right! Because of the--” Manny starts, and then shuts his mouth so hard his teeth clack.

Amy gives him her special death glare, usually reserved for Charles when he starts talking in meticulous detail about her reproductive system.

Luis just laughs and drags Manny away, but Jake doesn't miss the excited hug Manny and Luis exchange when they think they're out of sight. Things are starting to get undeniably weird, Jake decides, furrowing his brow.

Amy is leading Jake back to their room when they find Isabel herself standing in their path. “Amy, could I borrow Jake for a moment? I need help with something, and your brothers are useless.”

Amy tries to glare at her mother, telling her silently to back off. But Isabel glares right back, and all of a sudden, Jake feels like he’s watching Amy look into a trick mirror at a fair - every mannerism is identical.

To no one’s surprise, Isabel wins, and Amy drops Jake’s hand, throwing one last concerned look over her shoulder as she continues to their room. Amy may have her mother’s glare, but her mother has an extra 37 years of practice.

Isabel starts to walk towards the kitchen, perhaps the only empty room in the house, and Jake follows automatically.

When they get there, she closes the door and turns slowly towards Jake. Slowly, carefully, she says, “You know, Amy loves you. A lot.”

Jake, feeling almost as nervous as when he asked them for their blessing to marry Amy, replies with the first dumb quip that comes to mind: “I’d hope so - we've been married for six months  now!”

Isabel chuckles a little at that, seeming to loosen up. "I know. And we're all happy to have you as a part of the family," she reaches up touch his shoulder, her expression turning back to something more serious. "I know Amy likes to take care of herself. She's been like that her whole life - she didn't even want our help as a toddler learning to walk, which didn't go down well. There was the whole puddle incident," Isabel gets a far off look in her eyes for a few seconds before focussing back in on Jake, who has a host of questions about the phrase puddle incident. "I know she likes to take care of herself, but you're taking care of her too, right? We all need a little taking care of sometimes."

"Of course! We take care of each other - when she lets me," Jake shrugs, like it's obvious.

"Thank you," Isabel smiles a warm smile. "I knew I could trust you, Jake. I'm just reminded how lucky I am at times like these, that all my babies grew up and made such perfect families themselves. All these grandbabies!" Isabel gestures around as if there are grandbabies escaping from every crevice of the house (in fairness, they definitely are).

"They're all pretty special," Jake agrees, remembering the chorus of Tio Jake. No two words any adult (except for Amy) could say would make his heart feel so full.

"All so unique, and so precious." Isabel adds. And I just wanted to tell you how thrilled we all are that you all could be here with us this Christmas - I know it was hard to get off work, but it’s good for Amy to be with family, especially this year.”

Jake has already started to spew words about how of course they were thrilled to be here and it was never a question that they'd find a way to make it and they love seeing everyone. And then her last words register, and he pauses, his mind swirling as he looks for any explanation for what she might mean.

"What do you mean this year? Is-" he lowers his voice "is someone sick? Does Amy know?"

"No one's sick," she chuckles softly, "but Amy has been feeling a little under the weather. There's a special tea I have, it used to help me when...I mean, it helps with the nausea. I'll get you some to take up to her." Isabel starts for the cupboards, rifling around in the ones above her head. Jake isn't sure she can even see in there.

"Do you need any help?" He offers, but just then Isabel produces a lilac box and nods approvingly at it.

The tea takes five minutes to make, but Jake's distracted for most of it by Matty, who comes in with a hacky sack, which Jake can't say no to. The kid is surprisingly good, and Jake’s out-of-practice, leading to more than one miss and several repetitions of the phrase, “Aw! I boofed it!”

Isabel finally hands Jake a steaming cup of tea, which he carefully starts to carry back to Amy.

"Make sure she's getting enough sleep, too!" Isabel says as Jake starts turn away.

"Uh...I will, I guess?"  

She laughs at his confusion, ruffles his hair (she has to reach up on her tip toes to do it), and hands him a cookie (Jake has no idea where she got it, but Isabel always has cookies. Jake loves her dearly for it).

With that, Jake knows he’s been dismissed. He walks out of the kitchen much faster than he should with the tea, carrying the cookie in his mouth.

When he finally navigates his way towards the glorified closet that he and Amy are sharing this Christmas, he throws open the door dramatically, startling Amy, who’s sitting on the bed wrapping a plain white box in red-and-green patterned wrapping paper (Jake remembers her packing the extra wrapping paper over his strenuous objections about the fact that there are no more gifts to wrap and there’s no possible way that she’s forgotten a gift for anyone - she even had one for Alex’s new puppy.)

“Babe,” Jake says frantically, his mouth still full of cookie, “I think your family is trying to kill us!”

“What?” Jake rarely catches Amy off guard anymore - she knows him almost as well as she knows herself. But he can see clearly that he’s surprised her with this.

“D’you think your brothers are still mad at you for that time you busted their party?” Jake is busy running through a list of every possible reason they could be on a Santiago hit list, but he’s discovering the list is pretty short.

“No way - I was nine!”

“Maybe it’s just me! Maybe they know 145 isn't a good credit score! Ames, what if they discovered I don't have a favorite font?”

At that, Amy gets up off the bed and walks over to him. “Babe, they already know that. And you do have a favorite font - it’s the title font from the Die Hard poster, remember? Everything’s totally normal - nothing bad’s gonna happen.”

The statement was clearly supposed to make him relax, and she turns around to find his coat for him so that he can go outside and join in the snowball fight, but Jake isn't satisfied. Then he notices that the peals of laughter he’s hearing are coming from outside, rather than inside, the house, and he realizes that they must be totally alone inside. The knowledge that they're alone in a snowed-in cabin adds an extra sense of eeriness to the afternoon light filtering through the clouds.

“Babe, we’re in an abandoned cabin in the middle of nowhere. Suuure, you’re totally right, nothing bad could ever happen here.”

Abandoning the search for his coat, Amy grabs him by one hand and drags him back to sit down on the bed with her. “First of all, the cabin isn't abandoned - everyone is, like, ten feet outside the front door. Second, we’re on family vacation - you've been watching way too much true crime if you think someone’s trying to kill us. So what’s bugging you?”

Jake pauses for a moment, takes a deep breath, and then lets everything out in a rush. “Your mom just pulled me aside to make sure I knew to take care of you because you love me and everyone keeps staring at me and Manny congratulated me and I don't know why and you were even being weird about pooping this morning and they’re definitely up to something really freaky, babe!”

And then he’s cut off by Amy’s laughter. She’s fallen backwards on the bed and is clutching her stomach as deep belly laughs escape into the still air of the cabin. Jake just glares at her - he can’t believe she’d be laughing about something this serious! They’re in an abandoned cabin in the middle of the woods (she can’t convince him otherwise) and their lives are on the line!

Finally, slowly, Amy catches her breath. When she’s gotten herself under control enough to speak again, she says the last thing he’d ever expect: “Want an early Christmas present?”

In shock, Jake replies, “Babe! Now is not the time for early Christmas presents! Now’s the time to dig out the car!”

“Jake.” She gives him The Look, the one that means that he’s being ridiculous and he needs to stop and listen. “Open the gift.” And she hands him the mostly-wrapped box that has been sitting forgotten on their pillow.

Still uttering half-hearted protests, he tears at the wrapping paper to expose the plain white box inside (what can he say? He’s a sucker for gifts). It looks vaguely like a box a tie might come in, and he looks up at her. “Santiago, clothes aren’t gonna fix the fact that something creepy is definitely coming.”

“Keep opening, Peralta.”

So he does. When he takes off the top, he looks up at her. She waits patiently for him to look down, to actually register what’s inside the box. When he finally does, his jaw drops as some still-unidentified emotion bubbles up in his stomach.

Because lying inside the box is a positive pregnancy test.

“I took it this morning, when you were with Manny and Luis and I’d woken up to throw up again and Mari bought it for me yesterday when they went into town and I was gonna give it to you first thing tomorrow morning but you’re in the middle of a weird...Jake?”

The sound of his name jerks him out of his reverie. Slowly, he looks up at his wife, a grin painted across his face from ear to ear (he’s pretty sure no one could wipe off this grin - not even the still-possibly-murderous Santiagos playing outside). Then, he’s tackling her back into the pillows at the head of the bed, being careful of her abdomen while their laughter mingles and fills the still-silent cabin.

Their legs are tangled and his arms are wrapped around her and her hands are combing through his hair and he’s never felt this disgustingly, blatantly happy in his life. “Santiago...You’re really pregnant?” he asks, awe saturating every word.

She nods in response, a smile growing quickly on her face. “You’re really happy about it?” she asks.

In response, he shifts forward and kisses her firmly. It’s far from their most graceful kiss - their teeth keep clacking because neither of them can stop smiling long enough to kiss the other properly. Jake doesn’t mind, though, because he’s too distracted by the pure, unadulterated joy that’s radiating up from his chest and out through his face and out through his fingers and the very tips of his toes.

Finally he pulls back. “Yeah,” he answers with a laugh. “I guess I’m pretty happy about it.”

She hits his shoulder lightly, rolling her eyes at her dumb husband that she loves so much. And he’s too busy thinking about the fact that Amy’s pregnant and all of the possibilities that that fact brings to even pretend it hurt. Instead, he shifts one hand slightly, gently, so that it comes to rest just over her belly button.

“You know, you can’t feel him kick yet.”

“I know! And him? It’s obviously a girl that we’re obviously naming Nakatomi!”

“Jake, Santiagos have boys. Always. Trust me, this kid is a boy.” She sounds so sure, but he can’t stop himself from giggling (he might never be able to stop giggling because he doesn’t think happiness this strong will ever wear off. It’s pulsing steadily next to his heart, filling him with the same warmth he felt when he saw Amy do the Double Tuck in her white dress as she walked down the aisle).

“Ames, they had you.”

She’s opening her mouth to retort, but the mention of the Santiagos reminds Jake how this whole conversation started in the first place. “Babe, this is all very exciting and everything, but it has nothing to do with why your family was acting so weird. Either you need to explain or we need to get the hell out of this creepy cabin. Something definitely just creaked and we’re the only ones inside!”

“Jake...that was you. You just moved and the bed creaked. And, to answer your other question, my family...might have known.” She sounds a little sheepish, but mostly she just sounds blissfully happy.

Jake looks at her in obviously fake indignation. “Amy! You told your family before you told me?”

“In fairness to me, my mom actually is the one who told me!”

Jake looks at her a little incredulously. “Babe. Come on. You keep track of everything to the hour. There’s no way you didn’t know about this.”

“I’m serious! I was a little late and pretty tired and nauseous, but didn’t think anything of it. My mom took one look at me and pulled me aside and told me. She’s had so many kids she just knows, Jake. Joel and Alex and my dad figured it out on their own, too - they’ve seen my mom have so many kids it takes them, like, half a second to pick out a pregnant woman. Between the four of them, things...got around pretty quickly. They’re all pretty horrible at keeping secrets.”

“No kidding.” Jake thinks back to the millions of weird looks that he’d forced himself to disregard and the dozen weird conversations he’d had since yesterday morning.

“They just get really excited about new grandkids, and they couldn’t wait for you to be excited, too.” Her voice is soft, as is her smile, and her hand has drifted towards his cheek.

“Trust me. I am.” He leans in to kiss her, a proper one this time. And it’s amazing and fireworks are exploding behind his eyelids and he hasn’t been this truly happy in...maybe ever and she’s rolling him over to straddle him and her hands are finding the buttons on his shirt, but then, a small voice is shouting outside their (thankfully closed) door to come outside. With a startled laugh, they break apart, jumping up impressively quickly to seated positions on opposite sides of the bed. Amy shouts back at her niece that they’ll be out in just a sec, and she begins searching for the coats and boots that they’d thrown off so hastily last night while Jake frantically buttons his shirt.

“There’s really no way we can get out of going outside?” Jake asks, a little disappointed.

“Remember when you were so excited for the snowball fight?” Amy retorts, a huge grin cracking across her face.

“Yeah, but now there are better things to do!”

And with that, Amy hands her husband his coat and boots, grabs his hand, and drags him to the front door. They emerge with his arm over her shoulder and her arm around his waist (she’ll say she just needs to be kept warm, but really she just can’t stay away from him). They watch on the side for a while, and at first, everyone leaves them alone (or at least, no one throws snowballs at them).

Jake’s so busy looking down at his wife, who’s positively radiant, that he doesn’t notice the sappy grins being thrown their way by every single adult in the clearing.

They stay that way, blissfully unaware of the screaming children and the happy smiles from Mr. and Mrs. Santiago and the high fives Manny and Luis are throwing each other because their baby sister is having a baby, for quite a while.

And then Joel ruins it. “Ay! Peralta! Stop making eyes at your wife and get in here!” And then a large snowball hits Jake’s face.

Jake roars with laughter as he bends down to start making his own ammo, but he’s slow - certainly unused to the speed at which Santiagos can form snowballs. He’s getting pelted from all sides, and the kids have joined in, and one dumped a pile of snow down his back while he bent down to make another snowball and he’s going down.

And then Amy throws a snowball. It hits Joel square in the face, and he backs up, sputtering. Manny starts to charge, but he’s gotten a heaping pile of snow to the face before he can get anywhere near her (she’d shifted while everyone was distracted, placing herself strategically behind her parents and using them as a human shield that none of her brothers could touch). One by one, the Santiago brothers and their spouses go down, their children getting distracted by the prospect of tackling their own parents into the snow. Jake’s more than a little impressed with her accuracy - now he knows why her aim with a gun is so good.

And then he’s able to stand up, brushing the snow off his jacket and shaking it out of his hair but mostly looking at Amy, who’s all sparkling eyes and rosy cheeks as she gives her dad a high five. And then Victor Santiago is pulling his daughter into the tightest hug Jake’s ever seen and if he’s not mistaken a tear is leaking out of his eye (no - he must be mistaken - that’s definitely just melting snow) and Amy’s laughing a little and he can see her lips moving, reminding them that it’s still early and they’re not even supposed to know, but none of it seems to resonate because then her mom’s joined in the hug and Luis has found Jake watching all of this unfold.

“Congrats, man.” He pulls Jake into a quick hug, clapping him on the back before he releases him.

“Thanks,” Jake says, and he’s surprised to hear his voice crack a little bit on the word.

“Yes! I finally got to say it!” Luis shouts so loudly that Jake falls back down into the snow, startled.

Later that night, after the Christmas Eve dinner that was so amazing Jake may never need to eat again and the midnight mass that they all had to traipse through the snowy woods to get to, Jake and Amy finally get to lie down, limbs tangled as she rests her head against his chest. She’s in her flannel pajama pants and his academy sweatshirt, and he’s wearing her family’s reunion t-shirt, and he’s maybe never been more in love.

His wife is already three-quarters asleep - it’s almost midnight, and pregnancy has made her constantly, painfully exhausted. But through the thin walls, the sounds of her siblings putting out presents from Santa drift in, and he can’t help but smile. He’s pretty sure it’s Luis who stubs his toe and lets out a string of Spanish curses, and he’s guessing it’s Alex who shuts him up so abruptly. He laughs a little bit, quietly, and Amy shifts against him.

“Next year, that’ll be us, babe.”

She grins up at him, her eyes heavy lidded and her hair already a little mussed in its ponytail. “Can’t wait.”

[my-bobohu-blog]

vietnam :)

i tried to think of a more... creative title... but i really can’t. i just miss it honestly. 

so me and mom went to vietnam in july to visit my grandma and the rest of my mom’s side of the family bc grandma was sick and it was looking really serious. i hadn’t been back since i was 10 (which was my first time there) and even my memories from then are lost and choppy at best. 

going back this time... i was nervous? because i didn’t remember anyone and because i’ve always been rocky on my vietnamese. but i wanted to go for my mom’s sake...

but goddamn... going was the best decision i have ever made in my life and it really changed me? or... it... just... made me... more aware of the person i am? 

before this trip, i had visited my sister who lives on east coast and she told me that we were only half sisters. it wasn’t /that/ big of a deal because i had inklings throughout my life and from my cousins gossiping to me about family business one night when i was younger... either way, it never mattered because she’s always been my big sister and she’s always been the one who looked out for me and taken care of me and who was endlessly frustrated with my younger sibling antics LMAO 

anyways~ she told me about family back in vietnam on mom’s side because she’s known them for longer and visited them more (and her vietnamese is so much better than mine) but she told me how caring they are and what honest and good people they are and it was so reassuring because i’ve only ever been surrounded by aunts and uncles who sneered at each other and picked fights over some kind of dramatique affair. 

and i was so glad she told me that... because going there, i could really only see the best in them as i got to know them more.

i really don’t know what i’m trying to write now... because my heart is just a jumble of things... especially all that happened today... 

but i know that whenever i feel sad and like the world is too far from wherever i’m drifting... or when i feel like all is lost in the world... i will always think back to my time in vietnam with my family.

i’ll think about my favorite place in the world to sit on the hammock tied between two beautiful towering trees that offer the perfect shade but let the light peek in through the leaves. the hammock in grandma’s yard that looks out into rice paddy fields and a little beyond are the sand dunes that hide the ocean just over the hill. i’ll think about the birds that chirped and the breeze that swept through that made everything just right and left my mind at peace.

i’ll think about di nguyet and di van who took care of me and let me feel so at home and at peace cuddling into them and seeking them for hugs just because i craved affection. who always bought me my favorite fruit and made sure i ate plenty. especially di nguyet who was always so strong and if she started crying at the airport then i wouldn’t’ve been able to keep from crying at all. 

i’ll think about all the cau’s that played cards with me (especially blackjack) and cau nhan for always putting his money with mine because he said i had lucky hands (which apparently i did except for the last day when cau hai ate all my money bc he was extremely lucky those last two days LOL).... i’ll think of the way they took care of me in their own ways that they tried even if it was just trying to get me to laugh (which they always managed even if i sometimes didn’t understand, i knew they were still so good natured and they’re just goofy dudes tbh LOL) 

and for the duong and mo’s that always took care of me and did there best even if the language barrier was hard (cough my shotty viet) and no matter what just loving me and caring for me like i was one of their own... 

i’ll think about anh ti who is a dork but is endlessly kind and is so great with his younger cousins and always doing his best to make us happy and play with us. and for him just keeping me company even if my conversational skills were lacking- it was always fun messing with him and laughing with him and we grew closer the more time we spent together

and i’ll think about my and linh and how even though we had missteps when i was younger and not the kindest to them, i’m glad that we grew so much closer that i felt like i had two younger sisters on this trip who laughed with me and helped translate everything i missed LMAO 

i’ll think about my mom who finally took me to the cemetery to visit the grandfather i never met. who i prayed to to look after his precious oldest daughter because my mom is strong but she still broke down and cried when she brought me to see him because she misses him too and she felt too guilty for not being there when he passed. 

and all i can think about is this big ass loving family who just... was full of so much love and support for one another even if we’re not perfect in any way but we try our best to make it through and goddamn it this family is so full of the strongest people i ever met.

it was the first time i felt so genuinely loved and cared about without being worried of anything else? like they really were just honest and good people who looked out for me and loved me. and now i know where i get my cuddly nature from LOL 

idk... there’s so much more i want to say... i just... don’t know how to say it?

i love vietnam so much. just staying in the country in a little town near the sea... i think that’s where my soul would go if it was ever troubled.

me and mom only went back because grandma was sick. mom said it’d probably be the last time until grandma dies. 

i don’t like thinking of my mom losing her mom because both are so strong and they both raised and took care of such amazing families and people and that’s /my/ family and i feel so proud to be a part of it? and i wish... i wish we could go back every year and i wish i could go back every week and i wish i could just stay there and for it to just always be summer vacation for everyone and that time stops in those two weeks where life was just a little bit more full of color and happiness and kindness and love and all the goodness in the world that i felt in every part of my being every day while i was there.

and i didn’t cry when i left because even though mom said she wouldn’t go back until much later (10 years if grandma stays alive and makes it to her 90th birthday and anh long becomes a priest) i still want to go back.

i already decided i’d go back with or without mom in two years when i graduate and i go on my all fun asia trip and i’ll go to skorea and japan and vietnam and maybe katherine will join me in all three or maybe i’ll go to vietnam with my and linh first and meet katherine somewhere else...

but either way i wanna go back as soon as i can because that’s my family. i love them so much and they love me too and i finally feel like i belong somewhere even when they can’t understand me or i can’t understand them and even when i just look at them and scrunch my nose as code for “lol wut” and they get it and they just scrunch their nose back and it just works LOL 

i just... i want to go back. 

i found my favorite place in the universe and it wasn’t because of a perfectly placed hammock but all the joy and laughter and smiles that came with sitting there with all this family who was just happy to see their own family again after so long.

i love my family in lagi and that is always where my heart will be.

[survivingfroshyr]

Application and Admission

“I plan for my next post to be about my application and admission process; how, when, and where I applied; where I was accepted, what I thought about the colleges, what I was looking for, etc. Then, I’ll be documenting my post-commitment journey so far, and in the future!” (from my last post)

So, here’s how my admission process kind of went, the results, and why I decided on Smith College!

Applications

In about October of my senior year, we began working on our Common App essays in my AP Literature and Composition class. Our teacher helped us brainstorm, draft, edit, and finalize our essays, and we had many chances to have them peer reviewed and peer edited. It was very structured and I found it incredibly helpful, mostly because it kept me on-schedule. I wrote about being in my high school’s inaugural orchestra as the only cellist (there were only, say, 9 kids in orchestra) even though I hadn’t played since fifth grade. I’m a generally good writer, although I tend to overuse commas and have an issue with the whole “show don’t tell” thing.

I did not have class time or assistance from my teacher while writing my supplemental essays. I pushed them off--way, way off. If I could change one thing about my application process, it would be how much time I put into it. My supplemental essays all got finished very last minute, like I’m talking a week or even days before the deadline. I was so stressed about them and I didn’t feel like I was letting myself shine through because I just didn’t give myself enough time to work on them. If I had started earlier, I would have been much happier with them.

I submitted all my applications last-minute through the Common App to nine schools, all of which I had visited and liked about the same amount, with Vassar and Smith being my top choices and UMass Amherst being at the bottom.

I didn’t do any interviews before applying, which is a big regret of mine. I was under the impression that you had to have applied to do an interview. I don’t know where I got that idea from, but that’s what I thought, and as I didn’t get my applications in until right up to each school’s deadline, lots of schools’ interview periods were almost over. The only interview I did was with Dartmouth, with an alum who had never done an interview before, but it went well! I wish that I had done more at more schools that were between safety and reach schools.

As for my application, here are some things that probably looked good on paper:

above a 4.0 GPA (weighted, including art, religion, and phys ed classes)

hispanic/latina and female

both parents have a graduates degree

went to a college prep school and was still ranked high in my class

6 AP classes (Language and Composition, Calculus AB, US History my Junior year; Literature and Composition, French Language and Culture, and Calculus BC my Senior year) - passed all 3 Junior year exams, with high scores except US History (the devil’s class imo)

had plenty of art credits (4.75 credits - 9.5 semesters’ worth)

math, science, foreign language, social studies, and English all 4 years

French and honor roll awards

high SAT composite score

volunteered at school events, though not much outside of school (regrettably)

ran cross country for 3 years (though I was the worst on the JV team lol) and did the school musical for 4, and was part of the inaugural orchestra

Schools

In a college, I was looking for liberal arts schools, mostly smaller, with a good reputation and a good math department. I looked in New England and New York. I didn’t know what I wanted to major in (I still don’t), but I know I enjoy math and care about social issues and wanted a generally liberal school with a strong LGBT+ community, varied courses, smaller class sizes, and close teacher-student relationships.

Here’s where I applied, my thoughts, and the result.

Vassar College - reach school - my top choice, beautiful campus, newly redone dining hall, great academics and reputation, small town, detached, far from home - denied acceptance

Dartmouth College - reach school - I liked the quarter system and sophomore summer idea, also detached and kind of isolated, gorgeous location, great outdoors program - denied acceptance

Mount Holyoke College - safety school - small, all women’s (which I was open to but not specifically looking for), seemed humanities-oriented, pretty - accepted

Smith College - small, all women’s, more STEM-oriented than Mnt Holyoke I felt, botanical gardens!, great downtown, close to my uncle and his family, good first-year programs - accepted & committed

Wellesley College - all women’s, VERY focused on female empowerment and diversity (which is a plus but I felt like at least my tour guide overlooked academics to talk about it), nice school and similar to others I saw but didn’t really wow me in any way, my mom’s alma mater - waitlisted

Williams College - reach school - pretty campus, great service and research opportunities, blended in to me a little like Wellesley - denied acceptance

UMass Amherst - safety school - HUGE (downside for me), tons of class choices, great facilities, super cheap for me because I live in MA and my mom works in the UMass system - accepted

Skidmore College - Saratoga Springs was an amazing location (like the best of any of the colleges imo), arts-oriented, good dining, good study-abroad programs, good first-year programs - accepted

Boston College - very near home, bigger, seemed less personal than Skidmore or Smith or Mnt Holyoke, a little more athletics-focused (but not overly so), good first-year programs - accepted

Decision Making

After hearing back from all the schools, I decided it was between Smith, Skidmore, and Boston College. It was an incredibly difficult decision for me, and what really helped was the accepted students’ days/revisiting the school.

I attended Skidmore’s accepted students’ day first. I had a great time and really enjoyed how much focus was put on a liberal arts education and the arts themselves. A psyche professor also gave a mock lecture to the entire group, so even though it was a huge group of people listening and I know nothing about psychology, it was engaging and fun. I also took a bus tour of Saratoga Springs, which was a huge draw to the school. It’s a great location, and with most of Saratoga’s big crowd-drawing events in the summer, there was plenty to do and places to go without it being really crowded during the school year. After the accepted students’ day, I was thinking it would be impossible to decide on a school.

Then I attended Boston College’s “Admitted Eagles’ Day.” There were a ton of people and I felt the presentations focused more on academics than on teacher-student connections. I’d also heard that BC’s housing was pretty bad, and I wasn’t able to see a dorm room because they only had a few open and there was a giant line. Still, the proximity to both Boston and home was a huge draw for me, and I was still absolutely torn about where to go. I still had no idea where I was going to end up committing.

I wasn’t able to go to Smith’s accepted students’ days because of timing issues and upcoming AP exams, but I stayed with my uncle and aunt (who works at Smith) in Northampton for a night and saw Smith again anyways. My cousin, who is the same age as me but spends tons of time on campus because of my aunt’s job, gave me a quick tour of downtown Northampton and the campus, and then we parted ways. One of my childhood best friends is in the class of ‘22, so I sat in on her math class, grabbed lunch in a dining hall with her, chatted, and saw her dorm.

I really felt drawn to the atmosphere at Smith. It was similar to Skidmore’s, but I felt like there was more focus on STEM subjects (which may just have been my perception, but that’s how I felt). There was obvious LGBT+ presence and students of color making their voices heard, and my friend told me about tons of great events that she had attended in her first semester and the beginning of her second semester. She told me about all the upperclassmen friends she had made and how they helped her get an internship and how she loved her astronomy professor and advisor. I felt like she really enjoyed being at Smith, and I just had such a gut feeling that it was the right place for me, too. I went home and immediately knew that that’s where I was going to commit. My mom said she could tell from the first time I toured it back in my junior year of high school.

[tastethegrace]

The Road Trip - Part 3.

So I never finished.  Typical me.  

I stopped to see Jeremy and Liz Brandon for a few days in Cincinnati, and then I passed through Chicago and continued through Wisconsin and Minnesota on my way to Minneapolis/St. Paul.  I loved connecting with my friend Nathanial from L’Abri.  He’s a wonderful guy, and his hospitality was much appreciated.  On top of that, he’d gone and gotten married!

After this, I continued on to Sioux City, South Dakota, where I connected with a friend from church.  Northern Mid-western culture is so fascinating, but South Dakota is a different animal.  It’s gloriously Native American.  

Continued on to Rapid City (where I ended up sleeping in my car at a truck stop because no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get comfortable inside the small school building in which I was graciously housed by friends of Jesse Murray).  The space between Sioux City and Rapid City is hundreds of miles of flat plains.  No gas stations almost the whole time.  I discovered Badlands National Park.  Lucky for me, I had gotten a Parks Pass for just such an occasion, so I decided to drive through it.  It was stunning.  Got some great shots, including a few rams that decided to peak out and say hello!  I was struck by the marvel that is God’s creation.  The way these distinct layers were formed -- slowly and with extreme patience over thousands of years.....it’s remarkable.  Little did I know that this was only the first of this kind of natural beauty that I would encounter.

Following this, I headed through Wyoming (taking a bit of a detour from my original route due to snow that eventually caught up with me anyway) on my way to Boise, Idaho to see my aunt and uncle.  Talk about horse country.  It was gorgeous!  I was surrounded by these rolling hills like nothing I had ever seen.  I stopped at a motel (put up by my uncle due to the snow), and continued on the next day once the snow had thawed out a bit.  I had a wonderful evening in Boise with my family.  I hadn’t seen my cousins/their families in years!  I loved sharing a few bonding moments with them.  

In the morning, I set out for a few days with my Aunt Rebekah in Issaquah, Washington, a suburb of Seattle.  I was now in the Pacific Northwest, and as I drove through the brilliant evergreens and orchards, I felt so refreshed and at home.  I had missed being up in this corner of the country.  My aunt and her husband lived in a beautiful townhouse.  I slept on an air mattress in their living room, and we had a great time catching up.  She took me into Seattle to the Space Needle and the Pike Place Market.  I loved getting a taste of this city.

After a couple of days, I headed up to Vancouver, BC to pick up a friend from college who was studying at Regent College.  We had a brilliant time the next day as I drove him from the beautiful misty city into the mountains of Montana. I dropped him off in Missoula, which was absolutely stunning.  It was a small town nestled in the mountains between Glacier National Park and the Grand Tetons to the south.  I skirted Glacer, but because it was so cold and there wasn’t a lot of daylight, I decided I’d have to come back one day.  A bear decided to keep me company as I creeped slowly out of the park on the icy road. O_O

I decided to venture south to see the Grand Tetons in Jackson, Wyoming.  This was a trip worth taking.  Setting out in the morning, watching the sun rise as the high curves with the land instead of cutting through it, then taking so many back roads through the mountains...I loved every second of that long drive.  Most people probably wouldn’t have done it, but I had to.  The mountains did not disappoint, and neither did the herd of elk that ran down the side of the road as I made my exit.  Unfortunately, while the park did jut up against Yellowstone, two out of three passes were snowed out, and I didn’t have time to drive all the way around.  Alas.

After a few days in Missoula (and traveling on mini-trips), I said my goodbyes and I set out for Spokane, Washington, which was I surprise trip...but it was a long drive. :)  I stopped and chatted briefly with Gabriel Shippam, a wonderful fellow I had met a few years back in San Diego.  While I wasn’t able to meet his family due to the lateness of the hour, it was wonderful to catch up.  I got up the next morning and made my way north to the beginning of the Pacific Coast Highway near Olympia National Park.  

I took this road all the way down through Washington and Oregon.  This leg of the journey was very rainy, but the coast, with all its rocks and forests, have this deep, enriching beauty that just compels you with wanderlust.  I got stop by Cannon Beach briefly, which was a highlight of my trip there in 2011.  I spent the night in my car in a hotel parking lot on the Oregon/California border.  

The next morning, I continued my journey down the Pacific Coast Highway to the REDWOOD FOREST!!!  This has always been a dream destination for me, so I was so stoked to see these enormous, ancient trees.  I passed ANOTHER herd of elk, just grazing by the side of the road, and a few hours later, I was standing at the foot of miles high trees ogling the enormity of trunk.  I got a crick in my neck as I tried to see the top.  It was everything I had wanted it to be.  I felt so small, but in a very good way.

I continued my journey down to San Francisco on the Pacific Coast Highway, which after the Redwood Forest became California Highway 1.  This is what this road is best known for.  The stunning vistas as the road curves along the cliffsides, the water turns from stormy to deep blue, the towns stacked on top of the cliffsides down to the shore...how blessed was I to be watching all this as I drove through??  It was totally worth the drive, and I would do it all again.  San Francisco was really interesting, and as soon as I got there, I took my shoes off and ran into the ocean!  I drove over the Golden Gate Bridge.  I drove through the many hillside neighborhoods and just enjoyed the eclectic beauty of it all before continuing on my way down to Riverside, on the outskirts of LOS ANGELES!

Continued in Part 4.