#drinking my coffee reading my emails. breaking out the book i brought from my town library. working on my fic

[pussymasterdooku]

i love you absolute quiet room at the library……

[olicitysecretsanta]

UNITED Exchange fic for @tangled23works

Hi @tangled23works

One of your requests was for Olicity and kids.  You inspired me to write my first Olicity kid fic.  Thank you for your challenge.  It turned out longer than I expected but I hope it’s all enjoyable.  There is a little bit of anxiety and worry, but most of it is pure fluff.

The story is set in a canon like environment but in my AU there are a few special features.  Elseworlds and Crisis never happened.  Curtis and Felicity sorted out their differences and became business partners.  Roy doesn’t suffer blood rage after being brought back to life using the Lazarus Pit. The Diggles have three children and I created this aspect of the story long before I watched Crisis.  Oliver knows how to run searches and is confident with other technical tasks using Felicity’s computers.

@icannotbelieveiamhere Liz

UNITED

Part 1 : Mia 3 months old

Felicity looked down at Mia in her arms. She didn’t know what time it was. All she knew was that Mia was having one of her many overnight breastfeeds. Mia was attached well and drinking her milk eagerly. It was a cool night and Oliver had wrapped a multi coloured wool blanket around her shoulders while she sat up in bed.

“Why can’t I do this?” Felicity sighed.

Oliver had a puzzled look on his face. He was sitting next to the bed ready to help Felicity when Mia needed a diaper change between sides. He had jumped out of bed as soon as Mia had cried and brought her straight to Felicity. Once the feed was over he would take Mia back to her cradle and settle her back to sleep. A few hours later the cycle would repeat all over again.

“I’m confused,” Oliver admitted. “You and Mia are doing great with breastfeeding. I think you ARE doing this.”

Felicity smiled.

“Mia and I have been really lucky these first few months. She learned how to breastfeed really quickly and I must have enough milk because the ARGUS nurses say Mia’s putting on sufficient weight…… I was so worried I wouldn’t be able to breastfeed. I read horror stories of feeding and expressing taking over and hour each time and very little break between one feed and the next. I’m enjoying our breast feeding. I love listening to her little gurgles and how she calms down the moment she senses me.”

“So what am I missing?” Oliver enquired.

“I wake up when Mia does, but I can’t get out of bed. Sometimes I almost fall asleep when she’s attached to me. If I didn’t have you watching me, I don’t know what would happen. You’re a wonderful dad.

Oliver smiled but he still seemed concerned. Felicity attempted to explain how she was feeling.

“I don’t understand why I can’t move at night while you jump out of bed and attend to Mia immediately. Even during the day I sometimes run out of energy. I used to be able to cope with only a few hours sleep a night when I worked during the day and became Overwatch at night. Why can’t I do the same thing now?”

Oliver nodded his head, finally understanding what Felicity was worried about.

“It’s a different type of sleeping pattern,” Oliver started. “After we finished saving the city each night, you were able to go home and sleep for one long block of time, even if that was less than a normal nights sleep. On the weekend we could usually catch up on some sleep and occasionally you got some rest time between work and helping me through the night.”

Oliver paused and Felicity started to remember how that mayhem had felt. It was completely different to the last three months of Mia’s non stop feed, play, sleep cycles.

“Back then, you knew roughly when you could sleep and when you would wake, aside from emergencies like the city being under siege. Now, you’re on a completely different timetable. You don’t know when you will be woken up and when you can sleep. Mia sets the timetable and we fit in with it. She’s totally dependent on us. That’s scary. Your body doesn’t know how to sleep and wake up full of energy. Your might adjust to being woken up every few hours, but hopefully Mia will start sleeping longer and you’ll get better rest.”

Felicity thought about Oliver’s words for a moment. It made sense. After a long night as Overwatch, she had been able to sleep soundly until her alarm went off in the morning for work. Coffee in the morning had helped wake her up but she’d had to cut down on the coffee while she was breastfeeding, and now she didn’t get the early morning rush the coffee gave her. Things started to fall into place and she gazed down at Mia again and smiled. Mia was worth all the long nights and exhausting days. Mia had filled Felicity’s life with joy and she loved finally having Oliver with her nearly all the time. Oliver’s wisdom made everything seem clearer, but the more she thought about it, the more she realised the explanation didn’t explain why Oliver was so good at tending to Mia during the night.

“Wait, what about you? How can you just jump out of bed, ready to do everything?”

Oliver laughed.

“I love jumping into action for my girls.”

“Yes you do, but there’s got to be more to it.”

Oliver sighed. “It’s still hard for me to talk about what happened on Lian Yu, but I think what’s been happening is because of my survival mode and alertness which never left me. On the island I taught myself to survive on short sleeps. If there was someone with me, we’d take it in turns to sleep so there was always someone to watch for danger. I didn’t have time to wake up slowly. If there was a threat, I had to jump straight into action. After Mia was born, those instincts took over again. I rarely go into a deep sleep for very long, so as soon as I hear Mia I can’t help but rush to her.”

Mia finished the first breast and Oliver took her in his arms to burp and change her diaper.

“You said once that nothing good happened on that island, but I’m glad you were able to gain so many skills which have helped all of us. I’m guessing most mums don’t have someone as energetic and eager as you to get up every night.”

“This time with you and Mia feels like my reward for all my struggles. These last three months have given me the most joy I’ve had in years. I barely feel the pain. I know it’s hard for you, but your determination and persistence with everything you do is amazing. You’ve taken on motherhood in the amazing manner you always have and you’re still doing multiple jobs”

Felicity watched Oliver change Mia’s diaper and smiled as he sang and whispered to her. Oliver was right. She was still doing multiple jobs. During some of the day Oliver watched Mia while Felicity worked in the secret room of their Bloomfield cabin. She was glad they had a safe house built by ARGUS and other covert organisations. It had lots of additional features you wouldn’t normally find in a traditional cabin in the woods.

Felicity had installed her Archer security system and had sensors and cameras throughout the cabin. She kept her searches going on the Ninth Circle, alerting ARGUS of whatever she discovered. She also worked on her business, Smoak Holt Dynamics. She and Curtis communicated by video feed and email and shared information across the internet. Felicity had encrypted everything so it couldn’t be traced. She had been determined to keep working after Mia was born.

“I don’t want my brain turning into mush,” she had told Oliver.

So far, things had been going to plan, however she was torn between spending time in the secret room and looking after Mia. Oliver was happy to look after Mia between feeds and Diggle and his three children had helped out as well.

Diggle and his family lived in a cabin a few minutes walk from their cabin. The Diggle’s cabin had a much bigger secret room where Lyla ran operations for ARGUS there. Her life had been threatened as well and this was the only way for her to stay with her family.

The twins, Sara and JJ had great fun playing with Mia and singing to her. Connor, their adopted son, loved to hold Mia in his arms and tell her how he was going to protect her all through her life. Felicity was glad they weren’t completely alone in Bloomfield.

There were also two other babysitters they could call on. Roy and Thea had gone into hiding after getting married. Their cabin was closer to town and Roy worked as a car mechanic. Whenever Felicity went to town, she had to refer to Roy as Jason. Most of the town people knew everyone was in hiding but she still wanted to respect Roy’s wishes.

Thea loved being an auntie and Felicity wondered how long it would be before she and Roy started their own family.

Oliver handed Mia back to Felicity. They still worked well as a team. Oliver had learnt all of Mia’s routines and loved being with Mia. Occasionally he fell asleep on the sofa with Mia in his arms but she knew he would protect her with his life.

After the feed Felicity slipped back down under the covers and tried to go back to sleep. Soon she felt a comforting arm around her, keeping her warm and safe.

“I love you,” she whispered.

“Always,” Oliver said softly.

Part 2: Mia 6 months old

“Archer, where is Mia?” Felicity cried out.

Felicity frantically ran around the cabin in Bloomfield looking for her six month old. She’d been putting books back on the bookshelf which Mia had pulled out earlier. The last time Felicity saw Mia she had been lying on the rug playing with little animals, but after her book sorting job was finished Mia had disappeared.

“Mia is behind the sofa,” Archer replied.

Felicity was glad she had been so thorough when she installed sensors all over the cabin, the yard and the surrounding areas.

Felicity crawled across the floor and looked at the narrow gap between the wooden wall and the sofa. Mia was there on her tummy, playing with her little panda.

“How did you get in there?” Felicity said in amazement. Mia looked up at her and smiled.

Felicity couldn’t help but smile back, even though she was more frustrated than happy. She wondered how she was going to rescue Mia. Oliver was in town at the Farmers Market and wouldn’t be back for another hour.

Suddenly, Felicity felt movement on the cabin veranda.

Archer’s voice broke the silence.

“John Diggle, Sara Diggle, JJ Diggle and Connor Hawke have entered the cabin,” Archer announced.

“Hi John, I’m so glad you’re here,” Felicity said.

“Where’s Mia?” Sara asked.

“Mia did a disappearing act. Somehow she managed to get behind the sofa,” Felicity replied.

Connor went to the opposite end of the sofa and looked at Mia excitedly.

“I can get her out,” he said boldly.

“Let Felicity and I move the sofa before you get Mia,” John instructed.

John and Felicity slowly and carefully moved the sofa while Connor kept his eyes fixed on Mia in case she ended up under the sofa. Connor quickly moved behind the sofa and brought Mia out and gave her a big cuddle.

“Were you scared of the sofa monster, Mia?”

Mia just laughed at Connor and gave him the panda. Connor waved the little animal in the air.

“Panda Panda Panda,” Connor said as Mia watched her toy moving up and down. He gave the panda back to Mia and handed her to Felicity.

“I’ll always save you Mia, no matter what you do.” Connor exclaimed.

“Can we play with Mia now,” Sara and JJ said together. The twins were adorable when they came up with the same words.

“Of course,” said Felicity, “But make sure she stays on the rug with you. Felicity put Mia on the rug a few feet away from the sofa and watched her pull herself around on her tummy as she gathered together all her animals.

“Is that crawling?” Felicity wondered. “I didn’t think babies could crawl as young as this. Plus it looks more like she’s pulling herself along rather than crawling. I thought she’d be only rolling around at this time but she’s doing much more than that.”

“She’s got really strong muscles,” Connor said proudly.

“I’m not sure it’s just strong muscles. I think she might have strong joints as well. John, would you watch Mia while I do a bit of research.”

“My pleasure, Felicity,” Diggle replied.

Felicity looked at his eyes. They had been through so much together and he had protected her for years. Maybe that’s why all his children wanted to protect Mia. Compassion for others came naturally to John’s children.

Felicity picked up her phone and typed a few searches into her web browser. She had a hunch about Mia’s skills, but she wanted to check her facts before she shared her theory.

Oliver arrived home while Felicity was still researching and started unpacking the shopping.

Sara, JJ and Connor were crawling around the floor with Mia, testing how quickly she could move from place to place. Mia squealed with delight as she moved between the children. She loved having friends.

“Uncle Oliver,” JJ said with excitement, “Mia’s a ninja! She disappeared in front of Auntie Felicity.”

Oliver looked at Felicity with a puzzled expression on his face.

“I was sorting out the bookshelf. Mia was on the rug one moment and behind the sofa the next. I thought she was just rolling a bit but she’s actually crawling and moving quite swiftly. She’s got really strong joints and I think she’s got extra mobility in them. I’ve watched her over the past few months and I can see her flexing her fingers a long way.”

“Like being double jointed?” Diggle suggested.

“Yes and no,” Oliver said. He looked at Felicity realising, what she’d been researching. “I’ll let you explain the rest.”

“It’s extremely rare for someone to have extra joints. I think Mia has joint hypermobility syndrome. It means she has joints that easily move beyond the normal range. I’m guessing she also has very flexible tendons and ligaments which means she has more control and mobility over her bones, muscles and joints. I think she inherited it from Oliver.”

Oliver smiled.

“I’ve always been like that, but I never learnt to use the ability until I was on the island. My training involved using my extra mobility to dislocate joints when needed.”

“Yes, you were always very good at that,” Diggle said.

“As long as you don’t teach Mia to do that, I don’t have a problem with her hypermobility. Aside from the fact that she’s going to be even more difficult to keep track of.”

“Does it hurt?” Connor asked.

Felicity wasn’t sure when Connor had started following their conversation. His connection to Mia seemed to be increasing each time he saw her.

“Some people get sore joints and they take medicine for the pain, other people have no symptoms and don’t need any extra help,” Felicity replied.

“I’ll start figuring out which training routines will work best for her,” Oliver said.

“Wait, she’s only 6 months old. Why would you start thinking about training her now?”

Felicity hoped that Mia would never have to use training skills to defend herself and would be spared from all the dangers they had faced.

“She loves activity. I’ve seen that even when she’s in her cot in the mornings, before I pick her up. I want her to be able to focus that energy. It will help her release frustration. Plus, me training Mia will give you extra time for Smoak Holt Dynamics, rest or whatever you feel you need.”

“Okay, I see what you mean,” Felicity sighed.

Oliver looked at JJ.

“JJ, would you like to wash the vegetables with me before I prepare dinner.”

“Yes please,” J.J replied. He loved getting his hands wet.

“I’ll put Mia down for a nap. She must be tired after all that crawling,” Felicity said.

Diggle smiled.

“Mia’s good for both of you,” he said.

“Definitely,” Felicity said. She picked up Mia and gave her a big hug. She carried her to her bedroom and laughed as she watched Oliver getting all the Diggle children involved in dinner preparations. She wondered whether Mia would inherit her cooking skills or Oliver’s. She was hoping Mia would take after Oliver.

Part 3: Mia 9 months old

JUMBO

Felicity stared at the online catalogue. Yes, Jumbo was exactly what she needed. She stared at the large wooden playpen. It had plenty of space for Mia to play in and she could probably stand herself up using the wooden bars and playpen surf around the hexagonal shape. She hadn’t started climbing out of her cot yet. Felicity was hoping it would be months before they had to worry about that problem. Mia was growing stronger and more flexible each day. If they purchased Jumbo, Felicity could watch Mia play in the cabin and work at the same time, without worrying about which storage units Mia would crawl into or kitchen appliances she would discover.

Roy had been delighted when he’d seen Mia moving around. He started to teach her basic parkour moves which she practised inside and outside the cabin. There were plenty of uneven surfaces and obstacles she could maneuver around. Roy had wanted to nickname her Little Speedy but Thea and Oliver didn’t want any part of Thea’s moniker being used.

Roy and Thea were happy to look after Mia while Felicity worked on Smoak Holt Dynamic projects and Oliver caught up with sleep during the day. She wondered whether Roy and Thea were thinking about starting their own family. They loved playing with Mia and the Diggle children. Roy had also taken John and Lyla’s children on parkour expeditions in the woods around the cabin.

Mia still woke up each night and Oliver looked after her. Sometimes Felicity didn’t wake up at all during these times. Felicity had been expressing milk after each breast feed and had been putting it in bottles which Oliver used for the night feeds. The sleep deprivation had finally caught up with him and he usually slept for a few hours during the day.

They were probably going to need more babysitters.

Felicity looked longingly at Jumbo but decided not to buy it. The wooden bars made it look like a prison. She and Oliver had seen too many prisons in their lives and she didn’t want Oliver experiencing any flashbacks when he looked at Mia inside Jumbo.

Felicity went back to her searches on the Ninth Circle and wondered how they were going to keep Mia safe while she explored the world around her.

Part 4: Mia 15 months old

Felicity and Oliver were cuddled up on the sofa watching Mia show her latest trick to Roy and Thea. At 15 months she was walking confidently and she was showing off by walking between Roy and Thea who were standing at opposite ends of the room. Each of them would hug Mia and she would squeal with delight.

Felicity was tired. More tired than she’d ever been. The good news was that now she wasn’t confused. She knew why she was so tired. It had taken her months to figure it out, however.

Mia had stopped drinking breast milk just after her first birthday. Felicity had been hoping to breastfeed for much longer but there wasn’t much she could do once Mia made up her mind. At 13 months, Mia had started sleeping through the night. Felicity was delighted to get extra sleep but no matter how much sleep she got, she still felt exhausted half way through the day. She’d fallen asleep during a video call with Curtis. He’d been chatting about his husband Nick and the vacation they were planning and Felicity had dozed off when Curtis started rambling on about the troubles of finding a direct flight to Bermuda.

Curtis had eventually realised Felicity was asleep and sent a message to Oliver’s phone. Oliver had carried Mia into the secret room, hoping she wouldn’t remember going in there, and woken Felicity up. Felicity had wished Curtis well on his travels before letting Olive take her to the bedroom. Mia appeared confused but happy to have her mum back.

Later that day, one of the ARGUS doctors had visited for Mia’s regular check up. She asked Felicity whether her menstrual cycle had resumed, but Felicity couldn’t remember when she’d had her last period. The doctor suggested a pregnancy test. While they waited for the results, Felicity had called Oliver over so they could get the news together. She felt bad about the fact that she had kept her first pregnancy a secret from Oliver. This time she wanted Oliver to know as soon as she did.

They were all delighted with the positive result. Even Mia seemed to sense the excitement and started babbling.

“There’s another baby coming, Mia.” Oliver said.

“Ba Ba Ba Ba, “ Mia replied.

Felicity looked at Mia with awe, suddenly realising she was the first one to know her brother or sister was on the way.

“Mia knew,” Felicity said to Oliver.

Oliver looked at her strangely.

“Mia stopped breastfeeding when she turned one. Breastmilk changes taste when a woman gets pregnant again. Mia knew there was something different.”

“Amazing,” Oliver said. He looked over at Mia, “You’re going to be as smart as your mum.”

Oliver kissed Felicity on the cheek as they watched Roy start another activity with Mia. Roy was trying to get her to balance on one leg. Felicity wondered what Roy was up to.

Thea turned towards Oliver and Felicity.

“If she can balance on one leg, she can kick with the other,” Thea explained.

Felicity turned to Oliver. “Isn’t she too young?”

“I think she’s okay. We’ll make training like a game. If Mia gets tired or frustrated we’ll stop. Once she’s older, we’ll start explaining what we’re doing.”

“Shall we call Autie Nyssa?” Thea asked.

“No,” Felicity replied, “We have enough experts with us. If I was alone at the cabin with Mia I’d definitely reach out to Nyssa. Now that all of you are with us, I think we’ll manage with Mia’s training.”

Felicity couldn’t believe how well things had worked out. It was wonderful to have their family and friends so close. She wasn’t sure how she was going to cope when her next baby was born however.

“We’re definitely going to need more babysitters after the next baby arrives,” Felicity said.

“Have you talked to the ARGUS babysitters John and Lyla suggested?” Oliver asked.

“Not yet,” Felicity replied. “I know they’ve been security checked but I’d prefer family and friends looking after Mia and our new baby. I’m just not sure how we’re going to cope.”

“We’ll cope. It’ll be tricky with Thea’s baby due at the same time. I have a couple of ideas. Give me a chance to figure things out.”

“Okay,” Felicity sighed as she rubbed her belly.

“Precious cargo” Oliver whispered in her ear.

Felicity put both arms around Oliver and kissed him intensely.

Part 5: All together now

Felicity screamed as she pushed.

She lay with the multi coloured woollen blanket around her. The same blanket which had kept her warm during Mia’s birth.

“Not long now Felicity,” said one of the ARGUS midwives calmly.

“I don’t understand,” Felicity said, “My labour with Mia took ages. Why is this one coming so fast? Thank goodness you arrived so quickly.”

“Your body knows what to do now. Labour is usually quicker the second time around. Okay Felicity, it’s time to push again.”

Felicity lost complete track of time after that. Oliver held her hands and spoke softly to her. Felicity wondered if a boy or a girl was on their way. This time she and Oliver had decided not to find out the sex of the baby before the birth. They wanted this to be a surprise.

Felicity kept pushing when directed. She heard a scream and her new baby was placed on her tummy.

“Congratulations. You have a baby boy.”

“Lucas,” Oliver and Felicity said together.

“Mia’s going to love her baby brother.” Felicity said.

The next few minutes passed quickly as one midwife examined Lucas while the other midwife helped Felicity deliver the afterbirth.

Suddenly there was a rush of footsteps along the corridor.

Mia burst in the door with Lyla close behind.

“Baby. Baby. Baby,” Mia screamed with delight.

“I’m sorry,” Lyla said, “I gave Mia a hug when we heard your baby screaming but she wriggled away somehow.”

Mia rushed to Felicity and Oliver. The midwife who had been looking after Lucas handed him to Felicity. He was wrapped in a yellow blanket and a green bonnet was keeping his head warm.

“Mia,” Oliver said, “This is your new brother, Lucas.”

“Hi Lucas,” Mia said timidly, “Why you wrinkly?”

“Your face was wrinkly when you were born,” Felicity replied.

“Was I tiny?” Mia asked.

“You were tinier,” Felicity replied.

“Now I big strong.”

Mia lifted her arms in the air.

Felicity laughed.

“You are very strong.”

John Diggle appeared in the doorway surrounded by Sara, JJ and Connor.

“I rang Roy,” John said, “They’ll be here soon.”

By the time all the Diggle children had a look at Lucas there were more visitors. Lucas was sleeping soundly by then.

Roy and Thea entered the room. Thea was holding her new baby wrapped in a red blanket.

“Hello Tommy,” Felicity said to the one month old, “This is your cousin, Lucas.”

“He’s beautiful,” Thea cried.

“It’s great to have everyone together,” Roy said.

Oliver looked worried. Felicity wondered what he was thinking about.

A proximity alert went off on Oliver and Felicity’s phones.

“I’ll check it out,” Oliver said. “Roy, Thea, you’re on guard.”

“Of course,” Roy replied.

Roy grabbed Felicity’s phone and gave it to her. He stood at the door and kept his eyes between the corridor and the window. Thea held Tommy and Mia close to her.

A minute later there was another alert on the phone.

“All clear,” Felicity said.

Everyone relaxed. Mia and the babies hadn’t even noticed there was a problem.

Felicity heard Archer announcing visitors entering, but the volume level was too low for her too hear any names. She made a note to herself to investigate why the volume had changed. She wasn’t expecting any other visitors, but Oliver sending the all clear alert meant the situation was under control.

Suddenly a tall, dark haired woman, all dressed in black, appeared in the doorway. Mia hid behind the other side of the bed. She wasn’t used to seeing strangers in the cabin.

“Who you?” Mia shouted.

Nyssa smiled.

“Hello Mia. I’ve been looking forward to meeting you.” she started and then turned to Felicity and Lucas. “Greetings sister wife and my new step son.”

“I thought you annulled the League marriage?” Felicity said puzzled.

“Yes, but I swore to protect Oliver and his entire family, so I use these terms with respect and fondness,” Nyssa declared.

“Thank you. But why are you here and who turned down the volume on Archer?“ Felicity asked beginning to get suspicious.

“That would be my fault on both questions,” Oliver said as he entered the room side by side with Nyssa.

Felicity knew there was definitely something going on now. Oliver and Nyssa were standing so close together she knew there was something happening behind them.

“As Husband here, phrased it, I was transporting ‘more precious cargo’. Our route took longer than expected,” Nyssa explained.

Oliver and Nyssa took a step apart to reveal a tall, fair haired teenager.

“William!” Felicity cried as she gave him a hug. Oliver held Lucas while they embraced.

Mia had hidden behind the bed again when William appeared.

“Mia,” Felicity said softly, “This is your big brother, William.”

“Hi kiddo,” William waved to Mia.

“Yippee,” Mia cried, “ Two new brothers.”

Mia climbed on the bed to take a closer look at William. Mia looked from William to Nyssa.

“Why black,” Mia said, pointing at the clothing William and Nyssa were wearing.

“Nyssa said it would hide us when we travelled in the dark,” William explained. “We’ve been walking for 3 days and before that we travelled by truck and train, in the cargo section.”

“It was the only way to keep you safe,” Nyssa said.

“I’m sorry this took so long to organise,” Oliver said, “Samantha’s parents made things very difficult and they didn’t understand why everything had to be arranged via phone and video conference.”

“I wanted to come back to you for a long time but my grandparents wouldn’t let me contact you. I found out they’d been keeping your messages from me.” William said.

Felicity had allowed Oliver to use her secret room in the last few months to check her searches and assist with Smoak Holt Dynamics duties. She realised he’d been doing a great deal more with his time.

“Thank you.”

Felicity was crying with joy.

“You asked for more babysitters who were family members. William is staying with us for as long as he likes, Nyssa will be here for a few months, but I’m not sure how long our third babysitter will be staying here.”

“Third?” Felicity said in amazement.

A middle aged woman with blonde hair and a hot pink and gold dress rushed into the room.

“Bubbe’s here! Hello bebbies!”

Mia hid underneath the bed overwhelmed with all the visitors.

“Mum!” Felicity cried, “How did you get here?”

“I have no idea,” Donna said in confusion. “One minute I was in my kitchen. The next minute I was on the porch standing next to William.”

“You got the Flash express,” William said in awe, “When do I get to meet the Flash and why didn’t the Flash bring me here?”

“It’s complicated,” Oliver said.

William laughed.

“Okay. I’ll let you say that for once.” William conceded.

“I’ll arrange a meeting with The Flash when I can,” Oliver said apologetically.

“I think we shall leave Oliver and his family alone while the rest of us get acquainted,” Nyssa announced.

Everyone started to leave until only Oliver, Felicity, Mia, Lucas and William were left in the room.

Oliver rescued Mia from under the bed and placed her on the bed next to Felicity and Lucas. He walked over to the wardrobe in the corner of the room. He opened the wardrobe and brought out a large brightly coloured parcel.

Mia stared in amazement at the present.

Felicity looked at her daughter.

“Mia, this is a present for you from Lucas. I think you’re ready for it now.”

“Thank you, Lucas” Mia said as she started tearing the wrapping paper excitedly.

Mia gazed at the tiny bow and arrow set which Felicity and Oliver had made for her.

“Mia hands strong?”

“Yes, very strong,” Oliver said.

“Mia love slapping water.”

Felicity laughed remembering the water slapping stories Oliver and Roy had told her. True to his word, Oliver had made training fun for Mia and she’d been incredibly enthusiastic. She loved water play and the slapping routine had come naturally to her.

“Hey Dad, will you teach me archery as well?” William asked.

Oliver looked at William proudly.

“Of course,” Oliver agreed, “But you’ll need a bigger bow.”

Felicity, Oliver, Mia and William laughed.

“It’s so wonderful to have everyone together,” Felicity said.

“I will always keep us together,” Oliver said.

Felicity knew they would get through everything together. She wondered why she had ever been afraid.

“Okay time to fix Archer,” Felicity said.

“No, time for you to rest. We’ll all look after Mia and Lucas,” Oliver said.

William looked at Felicity, his eyes full of joy.

“May I sit with you…….Mum…..?” William asked.

“Of course…..Always, “ Felicity smiled as she leaned back on the pillow. William held Felicity’s hands as she put her head back on the pillow and relaxed.

[lady-harrowhark]

A Spoonful of Sugar

Happy Royai Day everyone! A special update in honor of the occasion! Thanks to everyone who has been reading and sending such kind comments and reviews. I’m still baffled and thrilled that people enjoy and are excited for my little daydream world! Summary: Since her father’s death several years ago, Riza has dedicated herself to keeping Hawkeye Bakery afloat. When Roy Mustang opens a coffee shop next door, Riza finds herself getting more than just a caffeine fix. They’ve got their hands full managing custom cupcake orders, exploding espresso machines, and eccentric employees, but this new partnership just might be the best thing that’s ever happened to either of them.

Chapter Three: Vanilla Latte

Word count: 2691

first chapter  | read on ao3

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“They want to have it when?” Riza asked incredulously.

“Tuesday morning,” Olivier said without a single trace of apology in her voice. “I’ve let them know what an awful inconvenience this is for you,” she drawled sarcastically. “And money’s no object here. You can charge whatever you want. Tasting fee, appointment fee, short notice fee, booking deposit.” Riza could almost see Olivier waving her hand dismissively on the other end of the line. “You would not believe the budget we’re working with.” I definitely would, Riza thought to herself, knowing the kind of clientele Olivier had cultivated.

Riza thumbed through her planner, pages thin and crinkled, finally landing on the upcoming week. “I literally cannot do before eleven if they want a full tasting.” She tucked the phone against her shoulder and pulled down a worn binder from the shelf. She flipped through the pages, each with a different cake recipe. “What are you thinking?”

“Bride says she wants something exotic but will end up going with almond. Tell her it’s “French Amaretto” or something and she’ll be completely on board. Do a couple of more out-there flavors to satisfy her and then your regular wedding selection.”

“Have you discussed decorations?”

Olivier scoffed. “Have I discussed it with the bride? No, but I drew up a diagram of what we’re doing and it’s in your email already.”

Riza shook her head, still amazed after all these years at how Olivier’s imperious demeanor hadn’t landed her in hot water yet. Quite the opposite, in fact. Her no-nonsense attitude and uncompromising nature ensured her weddings were always the height of taste and class, and her services were in high demand. And with that demand, came a steep price tag. “I’ll look at it in a few hours. Will I need anything unusual for it?

“No, florist is doing most of it. Not your problem.”

“That is my favorite design.” Riza pulled a sheet of paper from the tray of a printer perched precariously atop the bookshelf that served as the bakery’s “office.” Binders and folders of various paperwork filled the shelves, and a file cabinet with tax and employee information sat next to it. It wasn’t fancy, but it was a system that worked. She shifted a few papers, looking for a pen. Snagging one from beneath a stack of delivery receipts, she started jotting down a few flavor ideas. “Any flavors completely off the table?”

“No lemon. It’s ‘common.’” Riza quickly scratched out ‘lemon lavender.’ Nevermind.

There was a muffled shout in the background, and Olivier made a sound halfway between a sigh and a growl. “I’ve got to go, but just as a heads up, the groom’s mother will be accompanying them. Expect a bloodbath.”

The line went dead. Riza stared at the handset for a moment before returning it to the cradle. She’d figure out what that meant later.

With several events happening in town that weekend, the store had been exceptionally busy, and customers had been exceptionally cranky. It was barely early afternoon and Riza was already concerned at their dwindling supply of baked goods. That is, when she had a moment to think about it, between constantly refilling the displays and switching out batches from the oven. She’d enlisted Jean’s help to crank out some more single-serve products - muffins, cupcakes, cookies - while Falman continued to prep for the next day. Seeing the register total climb higher and higher each hour was a temporary balm for her nerves, though that was rather cancelled out by the frenetic pace of the day. It would be a long day, and so would the next, now that she had to prepare a custom tasting for Olivier’s couple (and the soon-to-be mother-in-law).

Out front, Sciezka had been running herself ragged, serving customers, manning the register, cleaning tables. Busy days were especially hard on the young woman, a natural introvert who, given the choice, would prefer to spend her weekends at her university’s library rather than working food service to afford her student loan payments. They had made it through the post-lunch rush, and color was high in Sciezka’s cheeks, her normally messy hair in even more disarray than usual. But for the moment, the shop was blissfully empty.

Riza grabbed a rag and began wiping down the front counter. “Why don’t you go take your lunch, Sciezka? I’ll handle any customers for now.”

“Thank you thank you thank you thank you.” Sciezka was already untying her apron, hurrying towards the back room. She scooped a creased paperback and a granola bar out of her backpack and jogged outside to one of the two small cafe tables. Riza was always fascinated to see how quickly the girl could lose herself in a book - she wished she could switch gears like that, although part of her suspected that Sciezka never fully disengaged from her fictional worlds either.

Riza got to work swiftly cleaning down the countertops, refilling napkin dispensers, and sweeping crumbs from beneath the tables. After a morning spent making messes in the kitchen, there was something satisfying about cleaning them in the front.

Just then, a clatter rang out from the kitchen. Riza squeezed her eyes shut, imagining all the different catastrophes that could have made that sound. “What was that?” she called.

Jean’s disembodied voice responded. “I’m going to clean it up!”

She sighed. “That’s not what I asked.”

Jean strode into view, his broad chest blocking the doorway to the kitchen. “I know. But I figured you’d like that better than the real answer.” He braced his hands against the doorframe, barring her from peering around him. Riza cocked her head, her mouth a firm line as she fixed her eyes on his. He winced. “Fine, it was the cupcake tins, and yes, it went everywhere. BUT one tray survived and they’re going in the oven before I can destroy them AND I was just about to mop anyway. So it’s fine, actually, and you should just stay out here until I’m done mopping.”

Riza eyed the mess splattered across the bottom of his apron and remembered the four trays of yellow cupcake batter she’d left on the table for when the current batch came out of the oven. “For everyone’s sake,” she said levelly, “I am not going back there right now, but I will when Sciezka gets off her break, and at that point the floor will be spotless.”

Jean nodded solemnly before backing around the corner. Riza heard water running in the mop sink and the squeak of the plastic mop bucket wheels. I need a drink, she thought, then stopped herself. Things weren’t that bleak. Maybe just a cupcake when they’re ready, she amended. She pushed a hand back through her short hair and inhaled deeply, eyes closed. She exhaled and reached for the broom again.

A moment later, the phone rang. Riza glanced at the caller ID, praying she wouldn’t see Olivier’s number twice in the same day. Relieved to see a number she didn’t recognize, she answered.

“Hawkeye Bakery, this is Riza. How may I help you?”

“Oh good, Riza. Hi.” Despite having spoken to him only twice before, Riza recognized his voice. “This is Roy from next door.”

“I know.” Riza cringed, aware of how that must sound. She didn’t normally blurt things out like that.

Roy chuckled on the other end. “Did it come up on caller ID?”

“No,” she admitted after a brief hesitation. “I just recognized your voice.” She leaned her hip against the counter, gazing out the window towards the street outside. Sciezka was still reading at the table, and the shadows were just beginning to lengthen.

“Oh.” He sounded somewhat bemused. “The reason I called was that we’ve got our equipment up and running and most of our stock in, and I’m hitting kind of an afternoon slump. I thought you might be too. What’s your drink?”

She definitely was hitting an afternoon slump, but she wasn’t sure how to answer him. “My drink?”

“Yeah. Like, what do you order when you get a coffee?”

Riza glanced at the coffeemaker on the back counter, which had just an inch or two of coffee left in the decaf pot. “Well… when I make coffee for myself here, I take it with milk and sugar. I don’t really order coffee anywhere else.”

“Hmm, okay. Tell you what, I can bring you just a coffee with milk and sugar, or I can take my best guess and make you something else, and if you don’t like it, I’ll try again tomorrow. What do you think?”

“You don’t have to make anything fancy for me, really.” Riza imagined Roy analyzing her, attempting to craft the perfect beverage using some mystical barista divination. The thought was endearing but made her feel incredibly self-conscious for reasons she couldn’t quite name.

“First of all, making fancy coffee is literally my job.” Riza laughed. She did have to concede that point. “And second of all, I owe you for all the pastries and things you brought over the other day. So if it’s okay with you, I’ll be over in a few minutes, hopefully with something you don’t hate.”

Outside, Riza could see Sciezka closing her book. As soon as she got off the phone, she was going to have to make good on her ultimatum about the backroom floor.

Reluctantly, she responded. “It is okay with me, but really, don’t feel obligated.”

The satisfaction was evident in his voice. “I’ll be over in a few!”

-

Riza was attempting to diffuse an irate older woman when Roy slipped in the door.

“I don’t want cupcakes,” the woman said slowly, as if Riza were having trouble understanding her. “I need a full size cake for a birthday. Is there another bakery nearby that DOES carry cakes?”

Riza shook her head. “The only other bakeries I know of close early on Sundays. The supermarket bakery section would have some though.”

“I don’t like cake from the grocer’s. If I wanted that I would have gone there already.” The expression on the woman’s face clearly showed that she thought she was being extremely patient with a ridiculous situation. Sciezka stood just a step behind Riza, watching with saucer eyes.

“I’m sorry ma’am. If you’d like to place an order for the morning, I can give you a discount, but I won’t be able to have a cake ready for you today.” Riza’s lips pressed together tightly, signaling the end of the discussion.

The woman slung her handbag over her shoulder and leaned in towards the counter. “This is not the kind of support I expect from local businesses. I don’t know what I’m going to tell my family.” She turned on her heel and hustled out the door.

Riza pursed her lips, watching as the door swung shut. “Happy Sunday, everyone.”  She reached out, touching Sciezka’s arm lightly. “If she comes back, I’ll take care of her. I don’t want you to have to deal with that again.”

Catching Riza’s eye, Roy lifted the mug in his hand. “Looks like you could use this.”

“I really, really could. Thank you.”

After brokering introductions between Roy and Sciezka, Riza gestured for Roy to follow her into the back. Jean leaned back from the sink at the other end of the room long enough to nod a greeting before returning to rinsing dishes, and Vato called both a greeting to Roy and a goodbye to Riza as he left for the day.

Roy’s gaze wandered around the kitchen. Space was at a premium, but at this point in the day, everything was mostly clean, and the floors were indeed spotless. “Are you guys open for much longer?”

She shook her head. “Just until four thirty. I don’t normally stay ‘til close on Sundays but we’ve been so busy…”

“Hopefully this helps a little.” He held out his offering: a wide, heavy mug on a saucer. It was filled with something creamier than her usual coffee, and topped with a swirl of foam reminiscent of something floral.

Riza took the mug and lifted it towards her, inhaling the scent. “What is it?” she asked.

“Just a vanilla latte.”

She was acutely aware of his eyes on her, scrutinizing her reaction, as she took the first sip, pausing a moment to appreciate the flavor. “It’s really good.” She took another sip.

“I figure it’s a good starting point until you figure out what you really like.”

“I think I like it just like this.” She smiled and lifted the cup to her lips again as if to prove her point.

“You flatter me. You can check out the full menu next time you’re over.” Riza was surprised to find how good it felt for him to assume there would be a next time. Despite the newness of their acquaintance, there was an easy rhythm between them, a casualness that she so rarely felt with others, and rarer still so quickly. “How long have you had this place?”

Riza made a vague hand gesture. “Technically about seven years. But I’ve always worked here. My father started it so I grew up here, and when he died, it became mine.”

She knew it was coming before he said it. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize about your father.”

A small smile flickered across Riza’s face, more in acknowledgement of his obligatory condolences than anything else. “Thank you, but it’s been a long time now. This was place was everything to him.” Sometimes she felt him here more than she would admit, could sense his disapproval at sloppy kneading and overbaked loaves, his pride in the structure of a perfect croissant. And other days, like today, he didn’t even cross her mind. Those days felt good and bad all at once, and Riza wasn’t sure how much she wanted to prod that particular hornet’s nest today. “Hawkeye Bakery’s been around longer than I have, that’s for sure. Almost thirty years now.”

Roy’s eyes widened in surprise. “Thirty years? That’s incredible. I can’t even imagine how much you guys have put into this place.”

He probably can’t, Riza thought. She grew up in this very store, standing on overturned crates to see over the table, working before and after school when she was old enough. “But what about you? Have you always been a… coffee person?” She sipped from her mug, an eyebrow raised at him.

“Yes and no… I grew up a few towns over, came here for college and worked in a coffee shop the whole time for beer money. Poli-sci, thought I was going to go to law school. And I did, for a year. And I hated it and spent every second wishing I was back in that casual little shop, making coffee and hanging out with our regulars. So I left. Spent a couple of years working my way up into management at another place and I finally decided I’d rather be my own boss and start my own place. So here I am.”

From law school to food service. She’s sure he’s heard it all about that particular choice, so she doesn’t ask. “Here you are,” she repeated.

He shrugged. “I don’t usually tell people I’m a law school dropout. They’ve always got something to say about it, but,” he gestured around them at their current surroundings, “I figured you’d get it. I’m sure you could be doing anything, if you wanted, and here you are as well.”

Riza looked down at the cup in her hands, rotating it slowly. “Now it’s my turn to be flattered. This is all I’ve ever known.” And besides, she thought, the time for that had passed long ago.

Looking back up at Roy’s easy grin, though, the tension she’d been holding from this hectic day was starting to drain away. The looming thought of staying until closing didn’t seem so daunting. Today was just another day in the bakery, just like the years and years before it, but somehow, with his arrival, it didn’t feel like the days she’d always known.

It all felt brand new.

-

-

-

Notes: I’ve been asked to start a taglist by @heavymetalhauswife :) If you are interested in being added to the taglist, please message me. You can also follow on ao3 (linked above) to receive email alerts when i post new content.  Also, I’ve been posting here and on ao3, but do many of you use ff? If so, I can look into starting to post there as well, but I figured I’d ask before I added another step. Let me know!

[goodproofingwater]

Wildfire Records: Breaking America - Chapter Twenty-Two

Word count: 1985 Playlist: Love on Top - Beyonce press play when you see the *

Notes: I just want to thank everyone who has stuck with wildfire through all 45 chapters, for everyone who has sent me messages of support and who has loved these characters as much as I have, especially @crucioprongs who even asked to see the places that inspired scenes when he was in London. Wildfire will always be my baby and although I’m not really ready to let it go, sometimes you have to set the things you love free! If you miss them, the characters will always be available to request from, and I will always oblidge because to be honest I miss them already! It will also always be available here to re-read! Thank you again.

The news of Josh and Victoria being back together became apparent to everyone that evening, the two taking the opportunity of an empty bus while everyone was still at the after-party to consummate their relationship, but the two had so much time to catch up for that it continued long into the night.

When Josh got up to get water he noticed that both Andy and Danny had moved to the spare bunk and Juliet’s bunk respectively, and although he wanted to apologise, the thought was pushed firmly from his mind as Victoria quite literally blew his mind.

It was 5am by the time they stopped pushing each other to the brink of pleasure, and she finally felt right falling asleep in his arms. The smell of his cologne mixed with the smell of sex relaxing her and lulling her into such good sleep that even though they had to get up earlier than usual for soundcheck she felt completely rested.

The same could not be said for anyone else but Josh.

“Did you have to keep going all night?” Juliet spoke over her second cup of coffee, staring into the brown liquid as if it would be able to tell her the secret to waking up after such poor quality sleep.

“I didn’t really notice that it was so late…” Victoria spoke, still on the high that she had from both multiple orgasms and post-orgasm sleep. She was about to apologise once more when Josh walked out of the shower room in nothing but his boxers and her eyes fell to him, the beautiful man who had given her so much pleasure, had told her that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, and she bit down on her lip as he smirked at her.

“Oh for God’s sake…” Juliet shook her head and rolled her eyes as she caught sight of what her friend was staring at, and although she sounded angry there was a small smile on her face which told Victoria just how happy she was for them. And she was.

Juliet and Danny had felt the full brunt of everything that had happened around them and had spent most of the time trying to deal with a deservedly forlorn Josh, a version of Victoria which none of them had ever met before and Andy who was doing everything in his power not to relapse and take Victoria for his own. The two had always been the ones without any drama, but it seemed crazy to have to deal with so much of other peoples. Luckily everything seemed to have worked itself out, and as Juliet tucked herself into Danny’s body for an afternoon nap after soundcheck she felt more content than she had done in weeks.

Two weeks went past mostly the same, with everyone trying to stay out of the bus and laughing as Josh and Victoria made unceremonious escapes from any group situation in order to “make up for lost time”. It wasn’t until the night before the gig in San Francisco exactly fourteen days after Josh and Victoria got back together that the group sat backstage playing quarters as they heard the crowd forming outside.

“Do you think that you’re done with this crazy streak you two are on?” Andy spoke, sipping his beer with a smirk on his face which was only made worse when one of the girls that worked at the venue walked past in a short skirt, “You’re making it hard for the rest of us to bring girls back y’no..”

“Speak for yourself,” Danny grinned and Juliet couldn’t help but laugh at him, rolling her eyes as she sipped on her gin and tonic

“I’m not sure man,” Josh grinned, squeezing Victoria’s thigh and she licked her lips at the movement,

“I’m sure we could continue our streak somewhere else to you wanted to bring a girl back...although I thought you had a thing for fucking in green rooms?” She teased and he smirked at her, shaking his head as he chuckled,

“I save that exclusively for shitty cocaine-fuelled radio deals, but I appreciate you remembering my preference,” He winked before he stood up and walked in the direction of the girl who was talking to one of the stage managers, and Victoria couldn’t help but laugh and shake her head and how blatant he was being.

“Got his confidence back without the coke then?” She offered to the group and Danny nodded, “He got an email saying that they’ve sent his 60-day sober chip in the mail this morning, I’ve never seen him so excited about anything.”

“God we’re going to have to get earplugs aren’t we?” Juliet grinned as she looked between Andy and the girl and Josh and Victoria and Victoria chuckled and laughed, “We’ll keep it down…”

The run-up to the show was running smoothly even with Andy sneaking off with the girl to get a drink, and Danny and Josh stood at the side of the stage watching people chanting for them. It was unreal that they had come this far, that they had gone from playing shitty little venues in San Francisco to small venues in London, and now they were playing the same stage that they had watched some of the greats perform on. Victoria and Juliet had been a godsend, had helped them more than they had ever expected anyone to help and had brought them further than they had ever expected. None of the band really thought that the time in London would bring them anything but life experience, had expected to come home and have to get normal jobs with the promise of weekly band jams fading into history as they got increasingly more stressed. But here they were, performing for thousands of hometown fans, known internationally and represented by an independent record label which allowed them to do what they wanted with their music.

The merch that Victoria had put on their online store was selling out faster than they could order the shirts in, and she was liaising with new designers each day to find new products to put on the site. Juliet was incredible with the money side of the business, ensuring that royalties were being distributed and even charging the venues that they had booked in advance for The Dangers to perform as they almost all of the venues on the west coast had to release more tickets due to them selling out so quickly. They even had a European tour booked in for a few months time, and Victoria had been speaking to international contacts to see if there was a way for them to go even further afield.

They had never expected in their wildest dreams that they would be standing backstage at their favourite music venue with everything they had ever dreamed of. But for Danny, there was one more step to take.

“You sure you’re ready?” Josh spoke as he smiled at his friend, the drummer's hands shaking as he swallowed thickly. Josh had never seen Danny this nervous, and he knew that this had nothing to do with performing for a home crowd, or the fact that the girls would be meeting the parents after the show.

“I’ve been wanting to do this for months so it’s definitely right time… I just hope that she’s okay with the way I do it.”

Andy came up behind them sipping water and wrapped his arms around both of them, “Ready boys?” he grinned, and after a nod and Josh’s traditional hug with Victoria, they ran on stage to perform the final show in their first American tour.

Half way through their set, Victoria and Juliet were standing side stage and watching them, and they were so used to the setlist now that it surprised them when Josh and Andy called Danny to centre stage between two songs which were supposed to be played one after the other.

“So San Fran… I don’t know if you know this but this is our home town show, the last show on the most amazing tour of our lives, and we want to take this opportunity to thank every one of you for coming out tonight.” Josh spoke into the mic as they all grinned down at fans who were holding signs bearing their names, wearing their faces on their t-shirts - it was all so unreal.

“But most of all, we want to thank the girls who have made this happen. Without them, we would still be playing in Danny’s garage or in tiny little venues in London. Come out here…” Josh beckoned them both and Victoria swallowed, nervous at first until he came and took her hand, dragging her and Juliet to the middle of the stage in front of a massive crowd of people.

“These girls quite literally changed our lives,” Andy spoke, his arm around Victoria as she stood between him and Danny, “And it’s only right that they get the recognition they deserve so give it up for Wildfire Records!”

*The crowd erupted, and Victoria grinned between her friends and the crowd, thanking them and walking over to give Josh a kiss, knowing how much he loved public affection.

“And uh... I just have something else I wanna say...” Danny took the mic from Andy who stood back, a smile on his face which Victoria couldn’t place, and Josh began to play a sweet melody which made her smile, but not as much as what happened next.

“Juliet… since the day I met you, I’ve felt like you’re the only person in this world who truly understands me, who knows my thoughts before I say them out loud, the only woman strong enough to help me through everything that life has thrown our way. The only woman who could deal with my friend's dramas and the only woman who could stop me losing all my money in Vegas.” He grinned at her, chuckling as she did but her expression of joviality turned to total shock as he pulled a small box from his pocket and got down on one knee. The crowd screamed, and Victoria looked between the boys in total shock that they had kept this from her too,

“There is no one in this universe that I would rather spend my life with and I want everyone to know it.” He grinned at the crowd, his hands shaking as he opened the box to show of a sparkling diamond ring inlaid with emeralds to match her hair, “Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife? Will you marry me?”

Tears immediately fell from Juliet's eyes, and she nodded before she could even say anything, and he stood and picked her up, spinning her around as the crowd roared for them, Victoria leaning against Josh as tears began to well up in her eyes. 

Josh pressed a soft kiss to his girlfriends cheek before he ran over to Danny and hugged him and Andy wrapped his arms around Juliet, each member of the band hugging the girls until Andy took back the microphone, “Alright now that cuteness is out of the way, lets get back to showing you guys a good time yeah?” The crowd screamed and the girls made their way off stage, Victoria grinning wider than she felt she ever had done as her friend did the same, and the two didn’t even watch the rest of the show for looking at the ring and discussing plans for the wedding.

And so the tour was over, the band had successfully broken America and came back to England with a few months left on their original trip plan and a determination to tour more of the world, to see more countries, to play to more people and to share their ongoing happiness with others.

[women-are-visual]

Mendocino: A Foggy New England Town in California

Mendocino is a foggy New England style town on the coast of Northern California, four hours north of Oakland. My brother told me about it after going there, and I’ve been missing the country outside of Buffalo and going to Maine during the summer, so I finally convinced Scott to take a short vacation and endure the somewhat long drive. I rented a cute, Americana cabin in the woods on Airbnb, where he could edit his sci-fi novel and take a break from doing IT work, and I could have some outdoor space and enjoy the country. The ad said the owners were Christians, but Scott said that’s okay, because now that we’re older our values are aligned, even though we’re atheists. He said, “Think about it, we were raised Catholic, is there any culture or religion that we’re more aligned with?”

I booked the cabin for Friday through Monday, but Scott was too tired from working all week to drive there on Friday night, and I had worked all day coding fonts on a website, so we waited to leave until Saturday afternoon. It was a sunny, warm day. I drove because Scott needed a break. We were in his Honda Fit, but he’s so tall that his knees touched the dashboard on the passenger’s side, so he had to stretch out his legs and put his feet up, until they touched the windshield, and he finally got comfortable that way. We had drinks and snacks, berry soda water and salt and vinegar Pringles. Within half an hour we had left the city and were in the country. The highway was beautiful. We passed golden meadows and hills, dotted with live oak trees, cows and sheep grazing, and old, brown wood barns with metal roofs and missing windows.

After two hours, halfway through the drive, we stopped for dinner in Healdsburg. It’s a cute little town with a town square and a surrounding business district, but it smelled like cow manure, and it was full of bitchy yuppies. They were sitting at the sidewalk tables in front of fancy restaurants, drinking wine, and being served by what looked like the kids of migrant farm workers. The yuppie guys wore boat shoes with no socks and khaki shorts and and sweaters tied over their shoulders. They looked like older, silver-haired, jock-turned-CEO, assholes. The women were anorexic and had nose jobs and facelifts and perfect, dyed and straightened, shoulder length hair. They wore long sun dresses and cardigans. The couples drank wine from big wine glasses and scowled, barely talking. We got dinner in a generic fancy restaurant: a salad with wild flowers, gamey chicken wings, and roasted brussels sprouts, and then we drove on.

It was another two hour drive from Healdsburg to Mendocino. That’s where the real country began. The road became windy and narrowed to only two lanes, one lane going each way. The only things separating us from oncoming traffic were two bright yellow lines and a rumble strip. It was wine country, so people were drinking.

“This scares me,” I said.

“Me too, be careful and stay on our side,” Scott said.

We started to pass vineyards, fields full of grapevines on stakes in perfect rows, and charming wooden signs that said the names of different wineries.

“Look at the grape fields,” I said.

“Those are vineyards,” Scott said.

“When I think of vineyards, I think of the fancy houses where they do wine tastings, I don’t think of the fields with rows of grapevines on stakes.”

“Well, that’s what a vineyard is, a vine yard.”

“I was trying to be poetic,” I said.

After an hour, we entered the redwoods and it got darker, because we were in the forest and the trees were very tall. We could only see the rough textured bark at the base of their thick red trunks. We rolled down our windows and smelled the fresh air. Finally, we got to the cabin.

It was nighttime by then and pitch black in the woods. We drove slowly down a dirt road, branches thumping against the car. Near the end of the road, a teenage boy was waiting for us, listening to his headphones. He pointed to the main house. An older woman came out and showed us the cabin, which was pretty closeby, not nearly as far away as I would have liked. Her name was Pat. She had white hair. The cabin was cute. They had built it themselves and it had a big front porch with a picnic table and a living room with a peaked ceiling. The decor was red, white, and blue Americana. There was a blue plaid couch with red pillows, two rocking chairs, and a wood stove. Red cotton curtains, tied back with floral fabric ties, framed each window. Pat showed us a pamphlet that said not to stand near the edge of cliffs overlooking the ocean, because they crumble sometimes where they’re undercut by the water, and people die. I said, “Really?” She looked at me seriously and said, “We’ve lost a few.” She said there was no internet or cell phone service and Scott just laughed. We both spend our entire days on our computers. 

She showed us the kitchen and I asked her who the other people on the property were and she sighed and said, “Our daughter and her four kids are living in the cabin across the way. Her husband went crazy. He stopped working and sold everything they owned and got abusive with her and the kids. She’s got a restraining order on him.” 

“What made him go crazy?” I asked. 

“I don’t know, meth?” she said. 

Oh shit, I thought, a meth head, but I only said, “Hmmm.” Of course I immediately envisioned him coming back to kill his wife in the night and bursting into our cabin instead. Then we noticed that the back door in the kitchen had only the flimsiest of locks. It was the type of handle that usually goes on a bathroom door with only a tiny button that clicked to lock it. Great. Pat left and Scott kept saying, “I should have brought my gun. You don’t come to the country without a gun.”

We decided to go into town. It was ten o’clock at night by that time and there was only one business open on the main street, Patterson’s Pub. It was a dark bar where the locals hung out. We sat next to a glowing jukebox, under a moosehead, and got a club sandwich with fries and some Lagunitas IPAs. The server was a friendly guy and they had internet and the sandwich was really good, much better than we expected. I emailed my friends Sandy and Cheryl, asking them to please search for me if I wasn’t back in a few days, and I was only half kidding.

We drove back to the cabin. It was pitch black all around. We were scared again. There was an axe next to some firewood near the front door. Scott got it and put it near the bed. We sat outside and looked at the stars. “Wow, look at all of them. You could never see this many in Oakland,” Scott said. He went to bed and tried to sleep, but I couldn’t. I read Misery by Stephen King in bed next to him, holding an LED tealight up to the pages and listening to every little sound.

I woke up at 10:30 the next morning. Usually I sleep until noon, so I hadn’t slept well, but there were no blackout shades and the sun was coming in through the thin blue curtains. I thought about my mom on vacations when I was young, chain smoking and pacing back and forth, bitching nonstop in her short shorts and tank top. I felt shitty and ugly, but I didn’t want to be like her. I wanted to complain about the light coming in, but I decided not to. Scott needed a break. I decided to try to be a stoic and accept that life is full of pain and it’s not about being happy or being a rich supermodel on a yacht with tons of friends and always partying, like I see in celebrity news. I decided that it’s okay to feel pain and I should just try to deal with it because the Buddhists were right. Life is pain. I had to try to accept that and get through each day by taking the best physical care of myself that I could, eating and sleeping well, grooming and dressing myself as well as I could, and tolerating my emotions.

I got up and went outside and Scott was sitting in the sun, at the picnic table on the front porch, typing away on his laptop. We hadn’t been able to see the area surrounding the cabin at night, but it was a pretty, sunny field with birds chirping and tall redwoods all around. A sparrow buzzed past me and landed in an apple tree and hopped and pecked, rustling the leaves. I made tea and sat in the sun and felt its warmth on my skin. It was a great feeling that I don’t get enough of.

The village was ten minutes away. We drove down a sunny country road, thick with pine trees on either side, and I felt happy because it reminded me of Collins, New York, where I grew up. It looked like Amish country, and I almost expected to see a horse and buggy any minute. We passed openings in the trees, the entrances to long dirt driveways, marked by silver mailboxes on wooden posts. We turned onto the main road into town and suddenly the weather changed. We were near the ocean and it was gray and foggy. A white, misty fog blew across the road and the pine trees. It was beautiful, so East Coast. We drove across a bridge over a river. More mist and fog, obscuring everything, graying things out, making the pine trees on the hills plump and happy. It was an amazing sight, especially now that we live in Oakland and every day is perfectly, maddeningly, sunny and warm. It was May and it hadn’t rained in a month and wouldn’t until October.

The main street had a grocery store, a bank, and some restaurants and coffee shops. It was chilly and we had to put on our jackets when we got out of the car. “I love this weather. It makes me happy,” I said. “It’s the negative ions,” Scott said.

For breakfast, we went to practically the only place in town, in the center of the street, called GoodLife. Scott got a chicken curry and I got chicken enchiladas and a chocolate croissant and we both got coffees. The cafe was bright and cheery and everyone in town seemed to be there. I saw a woman from the bar where we’d been the night before. Then we walked down the main street and around the village. It was very small and only had intermittent sidewalks if the home or business owners had bothered to build one. We passed Victorian houses, water towers, and art galleries. We saw the Mendocino Art Studio, a series of dark wood buildings with a pretty garden in the center, where they taught painting and ceramics. I bought a tiny, handmade ceramic bowl as a souvenir. We went to a book arts show at another gallery and saw little homemade books with women’s travel journals and paintings and collages inside of them and the pages folded and sewn together. I loved them and spent a long time looking at them and thinking about making one of my own. My sister was an artist who always teased me about being into book art, she said most artists make fun of it, but I love books, so I can’t help it. The woman volunteering at the gallery told us about the art show and the town. Everyone we saw was old, in their sixties and seventies. There were old yuppie tourists, old hippie artists, and old lower class people, plodding along in black, heavy clothing, but they were all old. I liked it that way and thought about retiring there. We went to Copperfield’s bookstore, so I could get another book for the cabin. I felt happy for a minute, sitting on a warm bench in the window of the bookstore, reading next to Scott.

At the end of the main street, a path led to cliffs that overlooked the ocean. We stood near the edge, careful to avoid the undercuts, and looked down at the white waves breaking on the brown rocks. It was chilly, damp, and gray. Fog obscured everything and it was impossible to see very far. We occasionally felt a drop of cool mist that was like a very light rain. I was reminded of The Fog by John Carpenter and The Mist by Stephen King, and I wanted to watch those films again. We went to the grocery store, Harvest, and bought snacks and went back to the cabin.

For dinner, we went to a fancy French restaurant in a Craftsman house called Cafe Beaujolais. On each table, there was a candle and a vase of wildflowers. We split a salad with goat cheese croquettes, a pork chop, and some mushroom risotto. Scott got two Sonoma cabernets and I got a kir royale and a rosé. Good wine starts out tasting like vinegar and then tastes like water at the end of each sip. I know that because my brother’s girlfriend sells wine and is a sommelier, so I’ve tasted a lot of wines now, but I’ll never really like it, normally I drink beer and vodka. We bought a Lagunitas IPA and drove back to the cabin. We were drunk, so we didn’t feel scared that night. Scott built a fire in the wood stove and sat on the rug in front of it, tending to it by moving the embers around with a cast iron poker. He said that building a fire was a good thing to learn, like learning how to shoot a gun.

The second day we drove up the coast a bit and walked down a long road to a lighthouse. It was a little white wooden building on the edge of the water with a tower with a light spinning around at the top of it. The light was very elaborate and looked like a glass jewel spinning inside of a casing. Scott was fascinated by it. He said, “I thought the light would just be some industrial thing, not this ornate thing.” It was foggy and beautiful and we stood at the edge of the cliffs and looked at the ocean and said we loved the lighthouse.

On the walk back, we went into the house where the lighthouse keeper and his family had lived. It was a really cool museum, because there was nobody there, they just left the house open for tourists, so it felt very relaxed and homey. I never read signs, but there was an interesting one in the kitchen about “A day in the life of the lighthouse keeper’s wife.” The family lived there during the 1930s. She only had a wood stove to cook on and a sink to wash clothes in, but at least they had plumbing. Her day started at 5:00 a.m. when she had to get kindling and coal and build a fire in the stove. She would milk the cow and collect eggs, if there were any. If there weren’t, she would just make tea and toast. She would unseal the wax around the jam jar and put jam on the toast. Then she would spend hours washing the clothes with a washing board, so the kids could have clean clothes for school. I liked that description, because my own days are so filled with housework, even just picking up the house, that I can relate. Although we often go out to dinner and get our laundry done down the street, it’s still a lot of work.

We were scared at the cabin again that night.

The fourth day was our last day there. We got up and cleaned the cabin and left Pat and Jerry a note about the flimsy door lock that we wanted them to fix. They had left instructions that said to pack all of the wet food inside of a plastic bag inside of the main garbage bag, so it wouldn’t smell before Jerry got a chance to take it to the dump. I put half of a watermelon inside of a plastic bag, but I felt sad doing it. Here they lived on twenty acres and they weren’t composting their food scraps and they didn’t appear to have a garden either. What did it mean to live in the woods if they just bought shitty old produce from the grocery store and then hauled everything to the dump? I told them I thought they should have a compost in the note. But I also told them that Pat was a great decorator and Jerry told charming stories. I didn’t want to be a shit, but I wanted to give them honest feedback. We had breakfast at GoodLife cafe again. Scott and I got emails and texts from my friend, Sandy, saying that she was worried and was going to come out there if we didn’t get back to her soon. We laughed, but I felt very grateful for that, because normally it seems like nobody cares about us. I wrote her back that we were fine, after all. We walked on a beach along a river with golden sand, past big grey-white logs of driftwood, and watched the fog blowing across the water and the hills of pine trees.

We drove home. It got sunnier and drier as we left the coast and entered wine country again. The live oak trees looked withered and the long grasses in the fields were yellow.

We passed a corner store called Lemons and a sign that said, “Navarro.”

“Dave Navarro,” I said.

“He’s the guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers,” Scott said.

“Really? I just remember him from Jane’s Addiction.”

“No, he’s their guitarist now. He’s really good. They didn’t have a good one until him.”

We talked about how the band is full of macho, trashy, LA beach bum cholos, but they’ve managed to stay relevant and have gotten better over time because we both like “Californication.”

“Dave Navarro might have written that song,” Scott said.

(I looked this up later and it was actually their regular guitarist, John Frusciante, who played on “Californication.” Dave Navarro only played on their album, One Hot Minute, which was a failure critically and commercially.)  

I drove for a long time, but the drive was beautiful and we didn’t mind it. We passed the A&W in Marin, with the oval brown and orange sign, in the seventies building with a pointed, brown shingle roof that makes it look like a cross between a chapel and a Burger King. “I’ve always wanted to go there and I never have, and I love rootbeer floats,” I said, “Can we go? Please!” Scott usually lectures me about sugar, but this time he surprised me. “Okay,” he said. I drove towards the exit, but then I realized that I’m already fat, so I decided to just keep driving.

It was dusk when the road went from two lanes to ten lanes and the trees disappeared. There was traffic on all sides, speeding by and pushing us along, the faster cars wove between the slower cars, cutting everyone off. The landscape was gray but it wasn’t from the fog, it was from the concrete. We were back in the city.

“I don’t want to be here,” I said.

“I like it here,” Scott said, “I’m not from the country, like you, I’m scared of hicks.”

We got home at 9:00 and got on our computers, thankful to have internet. Then we had tea and unpacked.

The vacation had given me some new ideas, as vacations always do, which is why I like them. My new ideas are that I’m going to try to be less of a hedonist and more of a stoic. I’m going to recognize that life is pain and try to tolerate that pain more. I’m also going to go to farmer’s markets and try to eat healthier food grown by local farmers. If we live in an apartment and I don’t have land to grow food on, then I will at least try to eat organic food that is locally grown. It will just be a matter of getting up early enough on Saturdays.

May 27, 2017

[weightloss441posts]

Working Day in the Life: 21 Months Old

Hi friends! It has been ages since I did a day in the life post – especially a day in the life post on one of my work days vs. mom life days!

We have childcare twice a week – on Mondays from 10 to 4 and Wednesdays from 10 to 6. I can get a little work done on my mom days during naptime as well, but Mondays and Wednesdays are my days to get more focused work done, to take AnneTheRD nutrition client meetings or calls, and occasionally to go to appointments or attend to other stuff that’s not toddler-friendly. :) 

So – here’s what I was up to this week on Wednesday!

6:15 a.m. – I always seem to wake up right around this time which is annoying if Riese isn’t up yet and if I’m not trying to do an early workout! I usually do early morning workouts (6 or 6:30 a.m.) 2 or 3 days a week, but this is not one of those days, so I try to fall back asleep. 

6:45 a.m. – No dice, can’t fall back asleep, and I hear Riese waking up anyway. Matt is in the shower so I get myself up and going and head in to get her up, change her diaper, etc. 

7:15 a.m. – Come downstairs and start breakfast! This basically entails Riese flipping out and refusing to be put down, so I do everything one handed. Usually I’ll get her started in her high chair with some fruit before I give her the rest of her breakfast, especially if I need two hands to make whatever else I’m making! 

I have some leftover Veggie Egg Casserole and some fruit and muesli, plus yogurt that Riese feeds to me. ;) Sidenote – Riese LOVES banana and I’ve been giving it to her with a little nut butter on each bite – helps keep her full longer than just the banana alone… especially if it’s a day where she only wants to eat the banana and nothing else. 

 We say bye to Matt at 7:20 – he has an early meeting to get to. 

7:45 – 9:20 a.m. Bumble around the house cleaning up from breakfast, playing with the dog and cat and various toys, feeding the dog and cat, and getting myself and Riese ready for the day. 

I love that our sitter doesn’t come until 10 a.m. – our previous nanny used to arrive at 8 a.m., and while the extra hands were helpful, I love our new routine and am grateful to get to spend morning time with Riese every day of the week now. :) 

9:25 a.m. – We finally make it out the door! Every weekday morning Riese and I take the dog for a walk or a jog. I’m always proud when we finally get out the door because it’s so many logistics… getting dressed and ready for me and Riese, getting the (outrageously excited and jumping all over us) dog ready and waiting by the door with her leash, collar, poop bags, etc., getting a snack for Riese ready and both of our water bottles ready, grabbing (/trying to find) my phone and hat, getting Riese in the stroller while the dog waits inside, THEN bringing the dog out and attaching her leash to the stroller, then putting sunscreen on both of us… OMG so much. Ha. I can only imagine this with more than 1 child… (not pregnant, just a comment)!

Sidenote – thank you for all your helpful comments on Monday’s blog post about bribery and strong toddler opinions… I’ve been reframing things with the morning stroller and now instead of “please just get in the stroller and I will give you a snack” – I’ve been talking it up and saying “Let’s get dressed, and then you can enjoy your snack in the stroller when we walk the dog.” Same outcome, but framed more positively for both of us. :)

(Another sidenote – if you also have a very strong willed child, check out this article that a blog reader shared – I found it helpful! Peaceful Parenting Your Strong-Willed Child)

9:30 – 10 a.m. – Stroller run with Riese and the dog! It’s pretty hot out already but I was craving a workout and our dog is always super happy if we run vs. walk. ;)

We probably cover about 1.5 to 2 miles, which is about my max when the stroller is in the mix. That ish is hard!

10 a.m. – Arrive back home just as the sitter arrives – perfect timing! I always try to time it like this so that Riese is still in the stroller and I can quickly show our nanny the food situation for Riese for the day and then send them right off to the playground, vs. Riese coming inside first, clinging to my legs and crying, etc.

She’s still sad when I say bye, but if she’s still in the stroller at least it’s easy to quickly get her distracted and off to their adventure. 

10:10 a.m. – Hop in the shower and get ready for the day. 

10:40 a.m. – Head out the door with my work stuff in tow. #WetHairDontCare

I take a bit of a roundabout route to avoid going by the playground or down the street where Riese and our sitter could be walking around… if Riese sees me she’ll get really sad all over again (and so will I)!

I also eat a snack while I’m walking – a peanut butter oatmeal ball from Stomping Ground in Del Ray + an Oatmeal Banana Coconut Cookie (

I packed two of each so I save the other two for the afternoon!

10:50 a.m. – Grab a quick iced latte because I realize I forgot to have coffee this morning and I’m dragging. 

11 a.m. – Tour a co-working space in Del Ray! I mentioned last week that I tried one out in Old Town, Alexandria that I really liked, but I discovered there’s one walking distance to our house so I wanted to give it a shot too because not having to drive (and deal with expensive/annoying Old Town parking) would be ideal. 

11:05 a.m. – It’s a small space so it was a quick tour! They let me stay and work for the day to test it out, which is what I was hoping, so I set up shop and get going. It’s SUPER quiet (only one other person around) which I actually don’t love because I’d rather have more life/action going on, but the convenience may mean I go with this place over the Old Town one even though I liked the more lively vibe better in Old Town… we’ll see. 

My blog post for the day (my Watermelon Mojito Sorbet) is already live (I wrote it and pre-published it on Monday so it would appear on Wednesday morning – I usually do this nowadays since I’m not actively online as early as I used to be), so I spend some time sharing it around on social media, sending the links to the client, and then catching up on emails and blog comments. 

12:40 p.m. – Break for lunch! I walk over to Stomping Ground and order their beet salad with roasted chicken added. 

It’s really delicious!

While I eat, I listen to an episode of Janet Lansbury’s parenting podcast “Unruffled” that a bunch of you recommended to me in the comments section of Monday’s post. I love that the episodes are mostly only about 20 minutes – perfect!

I listen to the January 22 episode about how to set limits with children (even those as young as Riese). It’s really interesting and helpful! I also got her book (“No Bad Kids: Toddler Discipline Without Shame“). Matt downloaded it on Audible and is going to listen to it in the car on his commute so we are on the same page. 

1 p.m. – Take a quick walk around the block (technology free) to reset and get some fresh air. 

1:15 p.m. – Back to my desk! 

I spend the rest of the afternoon catching up on emails, working ahead on some blog stuff (like starting this post, and another recipe post that’s in the works), and working on some blog redesign to-do items (reviewing old recipe blog posts to see which ones I want to keep/feature – they sent me a massive spreadsheet of links to go through, oof).

At some point I get tired of sitting and set up this makeshift standing desk using a filing cabinet. ;)

Around 4, I eat the rest of my snack from the morning. I probably should have brought something savory and crunchy with me as well because I’m still a little hungry and craving something not sweet or chewy, but oh well!

5 p.m. – AnneTheRD nutrition client call. 

5:30 p.m. – Send my client a follow up email, wrap up a few other loose end emails, and pack up and head out the door. 

5:55 p.m. – Arrive home – yay! It’s always so fun to come home to Riese – she gets SO excited and runs towards me. It’s the best. :)

6 p.m. – Say farewell to our sitter and go upstairs to play with Riese. 

6:45 p.m. – Riese starts getting a little manic (throwing heavy wood toys down the stairs, and when I ask her to please keep the toys upstairs with us, she instead starts throwing them at me… ahh, toddlers) so I decide it’s time to get her ready for bed. Usually Matt gets home between 6:30 and 7 but he texted that it would be a late one, so I know I’m not trying to keep Riese up to see him!

7:15 p.m. – Finally get Riese wrangled into her jammies, drinking some milk, and reading a book/singing with me to try to calmmmm things down a bit before bed. 

7:30 p.m. – Lights out for Riese. Night, night!

I come downstairs and snack on some crackers and guac while trying to decide if I feel up for making an elaborate dinner. ;)

I eventually decide to throw together a simple rice, beans, and fish situation.

I pan sear some fish rubbed with a little Mexican-themed seasoning…

And then serve it with 90 second brown rice, microwave string beans, and some canned black beans. Easy and fast! Enjoyed with a magazine. :)

8:30 p.m. – Clean up the kitchen, tidy up downstairs, and then sort through some mail and packages.

My new purse came – cute, right? Less than $20 on Amazon and comes in a ton of color options, too! I needed a new everyday purse that would match everything – I had two I alternated between but both were basically falling apart after many years of use. I was nerdy excited to put all my stuff away in this. I like the size – not too big, but big enough to fit a water bottle, phone, wallet, etc. 

9 p.m. – Head upstairs and get ready for bed. 

9:15 p.m. – In bed! Getting in bed early to read is my fave. I start reading the “No Bad Kids” book – interesting, although I wish she went into a little more detail about how to carry out her advice… 

9:30 p.m. – Matt is home! Wow, that was a late one. Poor guy! We catch up on our days and relax. 

10 p.m. – Lights out! I’m wiped and I have my alarm set for 5:33 am (yes, those 3 minutes matter) to hit a yoga class – oof!

—

Feel free to play along in the comments – what’s a typical day in the life like for you? 

In other news, I’m off to Monterey, California tomorrow! I’m attending a press trip that takes place Monday to Thursday, but decided to head out early to see my friend Lauren from grad school. I’m excited! I’ll pop back in on Monday with some travel adventures, so stay tuned – or see what I’m up to on Instagram in the meantime. :)

—

Please note there are affiliate links in this post. 

from https://www.fannetasticfood.com/working-day-in-the-life-21-months-old/ from https://myfunweightloss.blogspot.com/2019/08/working-day-in-life-21-months-old.html

[weightlos6]

Working Day in the Life: 21 Months Old

Working Day in the Life: 21 Months Old:

Hi friends! It has been ages since I did a day in the life post – especially a day in the life post on one of my work days vs. mom life days!

We have childcare twice a week – on Mondays from 10 to 4 and Wednesdays from 10 to 6. I can get a little work done on my mom days during naptime as well, but Mondays and Wednesdays are my days to get more focused work done, to take AnneTheRD nutrition client meetings or calls, and occasionally to go to appointments or attend to other stuff that’s not toddler-friendly. :) 

So – here’s what I was up to this week on Wednesday!

6:15 a.m. – I always seem to wake up right around this time which is annoying if Riese isn’t up yet and if I’m not trying to do an early workout! I usually do early morning workouts (6 or 6:30 a.m.) 2 or 3 days a week, but this is not one of those days, so I try to fall back asleep. 

6:45 a.m. – No dice, can’t fall back asleep, and I hear Riese waking up anyway. Matt is in the shower so I get myself up and going and head in to get her up, change her diaper, etc. 

7:15 a.m. – Come downstairs and start breakfast! This basically entails Riese flipping out and refusing to be put down, so I do everything one handed. Usually I’ll get her started in her high chair with some fruit before I give her the rest of her breakfast, especially if I need two hands to make whatever else I’m making! 

I have some leftover Veggie Egg Casserole and some fruit and muesli, plus yogurt that Riese feeds to me. ;) Sidenote – Riese LOVES banana and I’ve been giving it to her with a little nut butter on each bite – helps keep her full longer than just the banana alone… especially if it’s a day where she only wants to eat the banana and nothing else. 

  We say bye to Matt at 7:20 – he has an early meeting to get to. 

7:45 – 9:20 a.m. Bumble around the house cleaning up from breakfast, playing with the dog and cat and various toys, feeding the dog and cat, and getting myself and Riese ready for the day. 

I love that our sitter doesn’t come until 10 a.m. – our previous nanny used to arrive at 8 a.m., and while the extra hands were helpful, I love our new routine and am grateful to get to spend morning time with Riese every day of the week now. :) 

9:25 a.m. – We finally make it out the door! Every weekday morning Riese and I take the dog for a walk or a jog. I’m always proud when we finally get out the door because it’s so many logistics… getting dressed and ready for me and Riese, getting the (outrageously excited and jumping all over us) dog ready and waiting by the door with her leash, collar, poop bags, etc., getting a snack for Riese ready and both of our water bottles ready, grabbing (/trying to find) my phone and hat, getting Riese in the stroller while the dog waits inside, THEN bringing the dog out and attaching her leash to the stroller, then putting sunscreen on both of us… OMG so much. Ha. I can only imagine this with more than 1 child… (not pregnant, just a comment)!

Sidenote – thank you for all your helpful comments on Monday’s blog post about bribery and strong toddler opinions… I’ve been reframing things with the morning stroller and now instead of “please just get in the stroller and I will give you a snack” – I’ve been talking it up and saying “Let’s get dressed, and then you can enjoy your snack in the stroller when we walk the dog.” Same outcome, but framed more positively for both of us. :)

(Another sidenote – if you also have a very strong willed child, check out this article that a blog reader shared – I found it helpful! Peaceful Parenting Your Strong-Willed Child)

9:30 – 10 a.m. – Stroller run with Riese and the dog! It’s pretty hot out already but I was craving a workout and our dog is always super happy if we run vs. walk. ;)

We probably cover about 1.5 to 2 miles, which is about my max when the stroller is in the mix. That ish is hard!

10 a.m. – Arrive back home just as the sitter arrives – perfect timing! I always try to time it like this so that Riese is still in the stroller and I can quickly show our nanny the food situation for Riese for the day and then send them right off to the playground, vs. Riese coming inside first, clinging to my legs and crying, etc.

She’s still sad when I say bye, but if she’s still in the stroller at least it’s easy to quickly get her distracted and off to their adventure. 

10:10 a.m. – Hop in the shower and get ready for the day. 

10:40 a.m. – Head out the door with my work stuff in tow. #WetHairDontCare

I take a bit of a roundabout route to avoid going by the playground or down the street where Riese and our sitter could be walking around… if Riese sees me she’ll get really sad all over again (and so will I)!

I also eat a snack while I’m walking – a peanut butter oatmeal ball from Stomping Ground in Del Ray + an Oatmeal Banana Coconut Cookie (

I packed two of each so I save the other two for the afternoon!

10:50 a.m. – Grab a quick iced latte because I realize I forgot to have coffee this morning and I’m dragging. 

11 a.m. – Tour a co-working space in Del Ray! I mentioned last week that I tried one out in Old Town, Alexandria that I really liked, but I discovered there’s one walking distance to our house so I wanted to give it a shot too because not having to drive (and deal with expensive/annoying Old Town parking) would be ideal. 

11:05 a.m. – It’s a small space so it was a quick tour! They let me stay and work for the day to test it out, which is what I was hoping, so I set up shop and get going. It’s SUPER quiet (only one other person around) which I actually don’t love because I’d rather have more life/action going on, but the convenience may mean I go with this place over the Old Town one even though I liked the more lively vibe better in Old Town… we’ll see. 

My blog post for the day (my Watermelon Mojito Sorbet) is already live (I wrote it and pre-published it on Monday so it would appear on Wednesday morning – I usually do this nowadays since I’m not actively online as early as I used to be), so I spend some time sharing it around on social media, sending the links to the client, and then catching up on emails and blog comments. 

12:40 p.m. – Break for lunch! I walk over to Stomping Ground and order their beet salad with roasted chicken added. 

It’s really delicious!

While I eat, I listen to an episode of Janet Lansbury’s parenting podcast “Unruffled” that a bunch of you recommended to me in the comments section of Monday’s post. I love that the episodes are mostly only about 20 minutes – perfect!

I listen to the January 22 episode about how to set limits with children (even those as young as Riese). It’s really interesting and helpful! I also got her book (“No Bad Kids: Toddler Discipline Without Shame“). Matt downloaded it on Audible and is going to listen to it in the car on his commute so we are on the same page. 

1 p.m. – Take a quick walk around the block (technology free) to reset and get some fresh air. 

1:15 p.m. – Back to my desk! 

I spend the rest of the afternoon catching up on emails, working ahead on some blog stuff (like starting this post, and another recipe post that’s in the works), and working on some blog redesign to-do items (reviewing old recipe blog posts to see which ones I want to keep/feature – they sent me a massive spreadsheet of links to go through, oof).

At some point I get tired of sitting and set up this makeshift standing desk using a filing cabinet. ;)

Around 4, I eat the rest of my snack from the morning. I probably should have brought something savory and crunchy with me as well because I’m still a little hungry and craving something not sweet or chewy, but oh well!

5 p.m. – AnneTheRD nutrition client call. 

5:30 p.m. – Send my client a follow up email, wrap up a few other loose end emails, and pack up and head out the door. 

5:55 p.m. – Arrive home – yay! It’s always so fun to come home to Riese – she gets SO excited and runs towards me. It’s the best. :)

6 p.m. – Say farewell to our sitter and go upstairs to play with Riese. 

6:45 p.m. – Riese starts getting a little manic (throwing heavy wood toys down the stairs, and when I ask her to please keep the toys upstairs with us, she instead starts throwing them at me… ahh, toddlers) so I decide it’s time to get her ready for bed. Usually Matt gets home between 6:30 and 7 but he texted that it would be a late one, so I know I’m not trying to keep Riese up to see him!

7:15 p.m. – Finally get Riese wrangled into her jammies, drinking some milk, and reading a book/singing with me to try to calmmmm things down a bit before bed. 

7:30 p.m. – Lights out for Riese. Night, night!

I come downstairs and snack on some crackers and guac while trying to decide if I feel up for making an elaborate dinner. ;)

I eventually decide to throw together a simple rice, beans, and fish situation.

I pan sear some fish rubbed with a little Mexican-themed seasoning…

And then serve it with 90 second brown rice, microwave string beans, and some canned black beans. Easy and fast! Enjoyed with a magazine. :)

8:30 p.m. – Clean up the kitchen, tidy up downstairs, and then sort through some mail and packages.

My new purse came – cute, right? Less than $20 on Amazon and comes in a ton of color options, too! I needed a new everyday purse that would match everything – I had two I alternated between but both were basically falling apart after many years of use. I was nerdy excited to put all my stuff away in this. I like the size – not too big, but big enough to fit a water bottle, phone, wallet, etc. 

9 p.m. – Head upstairs and get ready for bed. 

9:15 p.m. – In bed! Getting in bed early to read is my fave. I start reading the “No Bad Kids” book – interesting, although I wish she went into a little more detail about how to carry out her advice… 

9:30 p.m. – Matt is home! Wow, that was a late one. Poor guy! We catch up on our days and relax. 

10 p.m. – Lights out! I’m wiped and I have my alarm set for 5:33 am (yes, those 3 minutes matter) to hit a yoga class – oof!

—

Feel free to play along in the comments – what’s a typical day in the life like for you? 

In other news, I’m off to Monterey, California tomorrow! I’m attending a press trip that takes place Monday to Thursday, but decided to head out early to see my friend Lauren from grad school. I’m excited! I’ll pop back in on Monday with some travel adventures, so stay tuned – or see what I’m up to on Instagram in the meantime. :)

—

Please note there are affiliate links in this post. 

from https://www.fannetasticfood.com/working-day-in-the-life-21-months-old/ from https://myfunweightloss.tumblr.com/post/187050447532

[myfunweightloss]

Hi friends! It has been ages since I did a day in the life post – especially a day in the life post on one of my work days vs. mom life days!

We have childcare twice a week – on Mondays from 10 to 4 and Wednesdays from 10 to 6. I can get a little work done on my mom days during naptime as well, but Mondays and Wednesdays are my days to get more focused work done, to take AnneTheRD nutrition client meetings or calls, and occasionally to go to appointments or attend to other stuff that’s not toddler-friendly. :) 

So – here’s what I was up to this week on Wednesday!

6:15 a.m. – I always seem to wake up right around this time which is annoying if Riese isn’t up yet and if I’m not trying to do an early workout! I usually do early morning workouts (6 or 6:30 a.m.) 2 or 3 days a week, but this is not one of those days, so I try to fall back asleep. 

6:45 a.m. – No dice, can’t fall back asleep, and I hear Riese waking up anyway. Matt is in the shower so I get myself up and going and head in to get her up, change her diaper, etc. 

7:15 a.m. – Come downstairs and start breakfast! This basically entails Riese flipping out and refusing to be put down, so I do everything one handed. Usually I’ll get her started in her high chair with some fruit before I give her the rest of her breakfast, especially if I need two hands to make whatever else I’m making! 

I have some leftover Veggie Egg Casserole and some fruit and muesli, plus yogurt that Riese feeds to me. ;) Sidenote – Riese LOVES banana and I’ve been giving it to her with a little nut butter on each bite – helps keep her full longer than just the banana alone… especially if it’s a day where she only wants to eat the banana and nothing else. 

  We say bye to Matt at 7:20 – he has an early meeting to get to. 

7:45 – 9:20 a.m. Bumble around the house cleaning up from breakfast, playing with the dog and cat and various toys, feeding the dog and cat, and getting myself and Riese ready for the day. 

I love that our sitter doesn’t come until 10 a.m. – our previous nanny used to arrive at 8 a.m., and while the extra hands were helpful, I love our new routine and am grateful to get to spend morning time with Riese every day of the week now. :) 

9:25 a.m. – We finally make it out the door! Every weekday morning Riese and I take the dog for a walk or a jog. I’m always proud when we finally get out the door because it’s so many logistics… getting dressed and ready for me and Riese, getting the (outrageously excited and jumping all over us) dog ready and waiting by the door with her leash, collar, poop bags, etc., getting a snack for Riese ready and both of our water bottles ready, grabbing (/trying to find) my phone and hat, getting Riese in the stroller while the dog waits inside, THEN bringing the dog out and attaching her leash to the stroller, then putting sunscreen on both of us… OMG so much. Ha. I can only imagine this with more than 1 child… (not pregnant, just a comment)!

Sidenote – thank you for all your helpful comments on Monday’s blog post about bribery and strong toddler opinions… I’ve been reframing things with the morning stroller and now instead of “please just get in the stroller and I will give you a snack” – I’ve been talking it up and saying “Let’s get dressed, and then you can enjoy your snack in the stroller when we walk the dog.” Same outcome, but framed more positively for both of us. :)

(Another sidenote – if you also have a very strong willed child, check out this article that a blog reader shared – I found it helpful! Peaceful Parenting Your Strong-Willed Child)

9:30 – 10 a.m. – Stroller run with Riese and the dog! It’s pretty hot out already but I was craving a workout and our dog is always super happy if we run vs. walk. ;)

We probably cover about 1.5 to 2 miles, which is about my max when the stroller is in the mix. That ish is hard!

10 a.m. – Arrive back home just as the sitter arrives – perfect timing! I always try to time it like this so that Riese is still in the stroller and I can quickly show our nanny the food situation for Riese for the day and then send them right off to the playground, vs. Riese coming inside first, clinging to my legs and crying, etc.

She’s still sad when I say bye, but if she’s still in the stroller at least it’s easy to quickly get her distracted and off to their adventure. 

10:10 a.m. – Hop in the shower and get ready for the day. 

10:40 a.m. – Head out the door with my work stuff in tow. #WetHairDontCare

I take a bit of a roundabout route to avoid going by the playground or down the street where Riese and our sitter could be walking around… if Riese sees me she’ll get really sad all over again (and so will I)!

I also eat a snack while I’m walking – a peanut butter oatmeal ball from Stomping Ground in Del Ray + an Oatmeal Banana Coconut Cookie (

I packed two of each so I save the other two for the afternoon!

10:50 a.m. – Grab a quick iced latte because I realize I forgot to have coffee this morning and I’m dragging. 

11 a.m. – Tour a co-working space in Del Ray! I mentioned last week that I tried one out in Old Town, Alexandria that I really liked, but I discovered there’s one walking distance to our house so I wanted to give it a shot too because not having to drive (and deal with expensive/annoying Old Town parking) would be ideal. 

11:05 a.m. – It’s a small space so it was a quick tour! They let me stay and work for the day to test it out, which is what I was hoping, so I set up shop and get going. It’s SUPER quiet (only one other person around) which I actually don’t love because I’d rather have more life/action going on, but the convenience may mean I go with this place over the Old Town one even though I liked the more lively vibe better in Old Town… we’ll see. 

My blog post for the day (my Watermelon Mojito Sorbet) is already live (I wrote it and pre-published it on Monday so it would appear on Wednesday morning – I usually do this nowadays since I’m not actively online as early as I used to be), so I spend some time sharing it around on social media, sending the links to the client, and then catching up on emails and blog comments. 

12:40 p.m. – Break for lunch! I walk over to Stomping Ground and order their beet salad with roasted chicken added. 

It’s really delicious!

While I eat, I listen to an episode of Janet Lansbury’s parenting podcast “Unruffled” that a bunch of you recommended to me in the comments section of Monday’s post. I love that the episodes are mostly only about 20 minutes – perfect!

I listen to the January 22 episode about how to set limits with children (even those as young as Riese). It’s really interesting and helpful! I also got her book (“No Bad Kids: Toddler Discipline Without Shame“). Matt downloaded it on Audible and is going to listen to it in the car on his commute so we are on the same page. 

1 p.m. – Take a quick walk around the block (technology free) to reset and get some fresh air. 

1:15 p.m. – Back to my desk! 

I spend the rest of the afternoon catching up on emails, working ahead on some blog stuff (like starting this post, and another recipe post that’s in the works), and working on some blog redesign to-do items (reviewing old recipe blog posts to see which ones I want to keep/feature – they sent me a massive spreadsheet of links to go through, oof).

At some point I get tired of sitting and set up this makeshift standing desk using a filing cabinet. ;)

Around 4, I eat the rest of my snack from the morning. I probably should have brought something savory and crunchy with me as well because I’m still a little hungry and craving something not sweet or chewy, but oh well!

5 p.m. – AnneTheRD nutrition client call. 

5:30 p.m. – Send my client a follow up email, wrap up a few other loose end emails, and pack up and head out the door. 

5:55 p.m. – Arrive home – yay! It’s always so fun to come home to Riese – she gets SO excited and runs towards me. It’s the best. :)

6 p.m. – Say farewell to our sitter and go upstairs to play with Riese. 

6:45 p.m. – Riese starts getting a little manic (throwing heavy wood toys down the stairs, and when I ask her to please keep the toys upstairs with us, she instead starts throwing them at me… ahh, toddlers) so I decide it’s time to get her ready for bed. Usually Matt gets home between 6:30 and 7 but he texted that it would be a late one, so I know I’m not trying to keep Riese up to see him!

7:15 p.m. – Finally get Riese wrangled into her jammies, drinking some milk, and reading a book/singing with me to try to calmmmm things down a bit before bed. 

7:30 p.m. – Lights out for Riese. Night, night!

I come downstairs and snack on some crackers and guac while trying to decide if I feel up for making an elaborate dinner. ;)

I eventually decide to throw together a simple rice, beans, and fish situation.

I pan sear some fish rubbed with a little Mexican-themed seasoning…

And then serve it with 90 second brown rice, microwave string beans, and some canned black beans. Easy and fast! Enjoyed with a magazine. :)

8:30 p.m. – Clean up the kitchen, tidy up downstairs, and then sort through some mail and packages.

My new purse came – cute, right? Less than $20 on Amazon and comes in a ton of color options, too! I needed a new everyday purse that would match everything – I had two I alternated between but both were basically falling apart after many years of use. I was nerdy excited to put all my stuff away in this. I like the size – not too big, but big enough to fit a water bottle, phone, wallet, etc. 

9 p.m. – Head upstairs and get ready for bed. 

9:15 p.m. – In bed! Getting in bed early to read is my fave. I start reading the “No Bad Kids” book – interesting, although I wish she went into a little more detail about how to carry out her advice… 

9:30 p.m. – Matt is home! Wow, that was a late one. Poor guy! We catch up on our days and relax. 

10 p.m. – Lights out! I’m wiped and I have my alarm set for 5:33 am (yes, those 3 minutes matter) to hit a yoga class – oof!

—

Feel free to play along in the comments – what’s a typical day in the life like for you? 

In other news, I’m off to Monterey, California tomorrow! I’m attending a press trip that takes place Monday to Thursday, but decided to head out early to see my friend Lauren from grad school. I’m excited! I’ll pop back in on Monday with some travel adventures, so stay tuned – or see what I’m up to on Instagram in the meantime. :)

—

Please note there are affiliate links in this post. 

from https://www.fannetasticfood.com/working-day-in-the-life-21-months-old/

[chriswvasques]

A Walking Pace

Life in Fairfield Iowa is best met at a walking pace. This “appropriate” speed is something I feel every time the Caddy is having a little mechanical mood swing, and becomes undrivable. Since Monday morning, the Caddy has been unresponsive. I believe it is related to the ignition, but it could possibly be the starter. The Caddy is a 1989, with around 82,000 miles. Low for the age, and I take care of her best I can. Eventually, this will get fixed too. While car trouble is never something anyone looks forward to, this was not my first forced-on-foot experience here in town, and there has always been a certain kind of experience that follows. The story of yesterday and today is something I felt captures that experience a little. I’ve always been compelled to share “the Fairfield experience” so, this is my crack at it for today.

“When my library trip hopes were met with only a mild electronic whirl of letdown yesterday, I first sat for a moment. Then, I went to get a coffee. I adjusted my day accordingly, knowing I am not in a financial position to have work done on the ol' girl right now. I also adjusted my perspective and attitude to envision walking and biking for the next… week? Two weeks? I reviewed the engagements I have planned. How many of them absolutely require gasoline powered transportation? Laundry. Refilling water gallons at Everybody's. Most like, I can get a friend to help out with those tasks. I decided to head home and work on my senior project instead of the library. The project work went well at home. Eleven pages added to the research paper, and I was ready for my dinner plans with Lennen and Luna. After dinner we watched the new Rick and Morty. Then, with Lennen's help, I moved the Caddy to a better overnight spot. We rolled her easy, and Lennen and Luna headed home. With the night winding down toward 9pm, I decided to take a walk to the gas station nearby and get a cold drink. Snapple, Mango Madness, has always been the drink that reminds me of High School Jazz Ensemble. My walk through Fairfield's town square alleys is quiet, still. The air remains summer-kissed even as we approach October. Finally, Snapple in hand, I sit for a moment on the curb to embody the child spirit who remembers a simpler time when this was the timeless pastime of my youth. No cars were necessary in those times for me. On curbs in Massachusetts cities and towns alike, a gas station curb drink break could somehow refresh what seemed to be an eternity of exhaustion. I suppose I hoped to soak up a bit of that regeneration in that moment after a day I knew would be the beginning of a period of vehiclessness. Just then, my friend Jenny was walking by, and she had just texted me about taking a photo with the Caddy for her band, “The Roman Cadillacs.” How charmingly incidental. I explained to her the Caddy situation, and we left it at “We’ll see.” Before heading home, I checked my PO Box nearby at the Post Office. In the dim and quiet chamber of metal boxes, I collected the parcels containing what I knew to be used books from Amazon. At home, I opened them joyfully and stacked them by order of which gets read first.

Tuesday, today. I woke up knowing the day would be structured around walking or biking times. Add 10 minutes here, add 20 there. My strategy was just to make it work and touch the bases that needed to be touched. I took my coffee to go on my morning walk to my weekly therapy. 8:45am. My paper Starbucks coffee cup from last week lived a second life after getting the PSL washed out of it. I was careful to preserve the cup with just a small prayer in honor of the intelligence beyond a "single use" life-cycle. After yet another progressive therapy session, I walked back toward my place on the square, grateful that the car trouble hadn’t thrown off an important part of my week. Gratitude. I stopped to visit Revelations Bookstore to check for anything new in SciFi/Fantasy, Writing, and Ecology. The upstairs has been converted into apartments. I kept moving. At home, I read more of the report for my senior project, but the writing wasn’t coming. My lunch plans were at the school for 12 noon. The manager of my work-study for Sustainable Living Department Marketing, Heather, offered to buy me lunch for our lunch meeting. I thought forward through a bit of the day, but not much came to mind. I considered that I may want to get the car towed today, but I didn't have all the pieces felt out for that just yet. I knew I would need money to pay for what happens at the other end, wherever that may be. Reminded myself to just keep moving, so I stepped outside my apartment with the bare essentials. Keys, Phone, Wallet. No backpack. No computer. After a few minutes, some light rain starts up. I had decided to bring a hoodie, so it's a bit hot but still refreshing to get rained on a bit. A hood in the rain always makes me feel comforted. The walk was quiet and peaceful. Through the streets, through the back path to the school, across Argiro field, I padded on. I visited the gift shop first, since I arrived a bit early. I had a gift card from playing music at Visitor’s Weekend, and I needed candles, but today wouldn’t be the day for that. Carrying candles around on foot was not gonna happen. I was also looking for items for my Mother. Her birthday is next week. Everything without a car has to be planned for. Biking with any kind of glass items in my backpack is just asking for trouble, right? I left the question unanswered in my head, and headed out to the lobby as 12 approached. Heather arrived and we discussed some strategy and work points over lunch. Lennen joined us. Today was Mexican day with quesadillas and a type of veggie casserole. Full plate of veggies on the side - check. Happy lunch, happy body. Heather and I decided to check back in on Monday. I have work I could do, but nothing was urgent. Kept moving.

The rain had stopped. It was one o'clock. Heather recommended I check in with Kris Wood at Dreier building about this weekend's residence course. If any space was left, I was planning to join for the weekend. Three days of meditating, yoga, and discussions of the transcendent are always time well spent for me. Again, without a car, the planning will become an extra consideration. But, the simpler the better for retreats. I arrived at Dreier building to find Kris Wood, where she told me the course looked full and that I could just show up and jump into an extra room if someone cancels. I considered that, and thanked her. While heading out, I remembered I wanted to check in with the Writing Center to see their new space. I had considered spending some time there with my senior project before turning it in this Thursday. Tighten the bolts, as it were. I popped in to seek out Room 112, but the room was locked. Onward I went. Walking out of the Art Center, with waves and smiles to friends along the way, I suddenly received the feeling that it would be wise to check in with Cheryl, and the Distance Education folks. As my second work-study, any meeting with them while I'm on campus today was going to prevent me from having to walk or bike back later. I walked the 10 minute stroll up to the office at a leisurely pace. In the lot outside, I could tell Cheryl's car wasn't there. I sat at a nearby bench and considered options for a moment. I decided to try a call to Cheryl. As chance would have it, she was on her way to a meeting with Dr. Travis that was relevant to my work. We agreed to meet at Maharishi Veda Bhavan building. I ended up sitting outside the wrong building, The McLaughlin Building. I watched the bees as I shared with them a Facebook Live video of I AM affirmations from a friend, Nikki. The bees enjoyed it, I enjoyed it. Cheryl called me to get an update, when in that moment I realized I was at the wrong building. Two minutes later, I had corrected my error and joined them in Dr. Travis' office. We had a productive and coherent meeting. His office was so organized and immaculate. Being there was peaceful - his energy was peaceful. I was so incredibly grateful for my time with him in class, and the thorough education on the nature and mechanics of consciousness I had received at this school. I realized just how sweetly these people had brought light to a dark place where I only felt alone before. Gratitude.

The meeting ends, and I said farewell to Cheryl. My next stop, as revealed to me at some non-specific point during the meeting, was to hit Everybody's for a kombucha and some berries for morning yogurt. As I walked in that direction, I checked in with emails and social media. After the notifications were peacefully cleared away, my attention was drawn then to the pine tree branches hanging onto the sidewalk as their needles swung in the faintest of breezes. Past my face the swayed, all near misses. Beautiful. I was suddenly pulled back to the affairs of the road when a blue SUV tooted two beeps at me - it was Adam. Cheryl's husband. I shot him a shaka hand gesture in the spirit of the time we all spent in Hawaii together. I felt the anticipation of spending more time with him on his visit here. Shortly after, I arrived at Everybody's. At the plastic bag repository near the entrance, I pulled out one of the donated bags people leave for reuse. I told myself, ‘One bag should be enough.’ My first stop, the berries, revealed what I had been expecting for some time - less Driscoll's products. I supported this move. Fuck Driscoll's. I chose a local Aronia berry pack and moved on. A few spontaneous items made their way into my bag - italian salad dressing, protein bars on sale, and more protein granola. Oh, and the kombucha. Tart Cherry. Items in the bag, items paid at checkout, items back in the bag. $20 total was spent keep my mornings going through the weekend, at the very least. One bag, filled, and I was on my way home.

My apartment in the square wasn’t a far walk. All told, the distance was maybe 10-15 minutes at a casual tick. I had done this walk many times and I had somewhat of a set route I typically took. The weather was calm with only a slight breeze. I began to relax into the freedom of the rest of my day. Responsibilities met. Tasks complete. Spontaneous alignments - resolved. The rest was up to me. I thought again about my car, and became aware of a growing swell of gratitude for being able to achieve so effortlessly the demands of my day even without knowing what they necessarily were or how they would fit together. All, with no car required. The simplicity of the walking life, much like the simplicity of the Snapple break on the gas station curb, overwhelmed me with joy. I was landing each step with incredible blissful gratitude that nearly lifted me off the ground. I was suddenly aware that I was smiling. The awareness only made the smile wider as I realized the complete effortlessness of its expression. The Caddy was where it should be in this moment, and whether it returns in a week, or two weeks, or longer, the weather would still be reasonable enough to walk outside well into November if need be. I had a simple bag of groceries in my hand, and accomplished spontaneously a day of vitality and bliss. I drank in the Tart Cherry kombucha, waving to more friends along the way as they passed me in the streets, and I poured my gratitude at every molecule in my sight. I multiplied my deepest peaceful bliss in an exponential spiraling of fractals as I considered the incredible number of people in the world who aren't as fortunate and privileged as I am to experience such simple joy. As the 1%, I also feel connection to the people in the world who are like me, and do have the ability to channel abundance and fully experience such blessed transcendence. I collected their love with my own, and radiated the purity outwards in a toroidal formation. All of this occurring without even a whisper of effort. Finally, spontaneously then, it was released. What remained was… nothingness. Completely immersed in the moment again,  I was fully present, and was still smiling as an unconscious physiological response to the experience. Gratitude. I spoke aloud, "Fairfield, I love you. Earth, I love you." I walked past the Caddy, and laid a hand on her as I walked by, assuring her that she would be cared for.

I reached my door as I accepted the completion of the experience. I unpacked the bag of groceries, I kicked off my shoes, and briefly reflected on the rest of the week to come. Tuesday. Today was Tuesday. I knew I could get the Caddy towed to Bob's Auto with that kind of fair notice. More than likely, they would diagnose it for free since it seems related to the last work they did for me. I made the call, spoke to Bob himself and arranged the drop off. They would take in the Caddy on Friday. I hung up with one more success for the day.”

Life in Fairfield is best met at a walking pace. Normal days here are what I would consider extremely magical by any other measure I have previously known. Days like today remind me that the town hears me, and the town responds. When the speed of our lives match the speed of how the world around us is actually moving, the human experience expands to match the Earth’s experience. Meet life at a walking pace, and you will know the pace of the Earth - maybe, if you’re lucky, with a Tart Cherry kombucha for the ride.