#i don’t know what km saying i’m so sleep deprived | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

cxsmicmyeon · 4 years ago

Text

SURPRISE! , kms

kim minseok x fem! reader

IN WHICH minseok wants to spend his 31st birthday at home with his wife and cat but you have other plans that may or may not involve a surprise birthday party. (based on the second prompt from this post by @creativepromptsforwriting)

genre: married/domestic & non-idol au! fluff, humor word count: 3.0k warnings: swearing, light sexual references/jokes, implied sexual content (it gets a tad spicy at times but nothing explicit), chaos, minseok’s butt being The Bomb Dot Com™ (sorry not sorry)

author’s note: happy birthday to my ray of sunshine, kim minseok! i love you so so much darling, i hope your day is filled with so much happiness and celebration. hope this lil piece can help y’all celebrate min’s 31st with me <3 it’s not the 26th yet where i live lmao but it is in korea so yeah! once again have a happy happy birthday minseok, i love you endlessly and forever. <33 MOODBOARD MADE BY ME. I DON’T OWN THE IMAGES, I ONLY OWN MY EDITING. feedback and notes are greatly appreciated <3

One day.

One day until Minseok’s birthday, and you were scrambling from bakery to bakery to try and get the perfect cake for him. There were flaws in every place you’ve been: too expensive, the designs were not creative enough, blah blah blah. You wanted his day to be as perfect as possible, and what would be the point of that if the cake was nothing but?

Everything else was all ready. You invited all of yours and his closest friends to your house the night of Minseok’s birthday for a surprise party. You planned on keeping Minseok out of the house for the entire day as your friends decorated the house.

He didn’t want a party. He made that abundantly clear to you as soon as March began. He incessantly told you that all he wanted was a day off from teaching so he could spend the whole day with you and your cat. All he wanted was a nice and relaxing day with his wife. You understood, obviously. But you also wanted to go all out and throw a surprise birthday bash for your husband celebrating his thirty-first year on Earth. Baekhyun, Chanyeol and Jongdae’s incessant whining and begging for an excuse to have a party only aided in your need to have a party.

You ended up settling with a simple Carvel ice cream cake from the frozen section of the grocery store. You made a mental note to ask Yixing to write out “Happy Birthday Minseok” the next day as you left the store.

You came home to your husband holding a feather toy over your cat, Tan’s head. She pawed at the red feather, always at the cusp of grabbing it before Minseok moved the line away from her. He cooed at the animal, making soft kissing sounds as he continued to play with her.

Realizing that he may see the cake, you tucked the grocery bag under your shirt in an attempt to hide it from him, shivering at the cold contact the frozen treat made with your skin. The rustling of the plastic bag caused Minseok to look up at you. He gave you a gummy smile as you walked past him and Tan.

“Well hello to you too, honey. What’s under your shirt?” Minseok asked playfully, wiggling his eyebrows as he made eye contact with your chest. You realized that hiding the bag did not do much to hide the cake, as the shape of the large box combined with the plastic grocery bag greatly protruded from the fabric of your shirt.

“Nothing, it’s for tomorrow. Don’t wanna ruin the surprise, hm?” you mused, blowing him an air kiss before retreating to your office. He "caught” your kiss with a smile before going back to playing with Tan.

You entered your office and placed the plastic bag onto your desk. You ran to lock the door before opening the bag and taking the cake out, sighing in relief that the cake did not get ruined. You bent down to your mini-fridge and opened the small door of the freezer compartment and placed the cake inside, glad that it could fit inside. After locking the fridge, you exited your office and made your way downstairs to spend time with your loving husband.

You awoke the next day curled up in Minseok’s arms. You cuddled closer to him before jolting upwards in realization. Today was finally the day! You bent down and began showering your sleeping husband with excited kisses, trailing a hand down his bicep. He let out a sleepy groan as he stirred, wrapping his strong arms around your figure.

“Aah, what’s gotten into you baby?” he asked, his voice hoarse from just waking up.

“Happy birthday, Min!” you beamed, pecking him on the lips. He grinned tiredly as he kissed you on the lips.

“Mmmh, thank you honey.” You grinned as you kissed him again. This kiss lasted longer than the previous ones and slowly yet surely grew more heated. You moved yourself so you were straddling him, not breaking the kiss. He hummed against your lips as you slid your hand underneath his shirt, fingertips grazing his toned stomach. He groaned as his hands made their way down to your ass, squeezing harshly. You bit back a moan as you slowly slid his shirt up his chest, breaking the kiss to ogle at his abs.

“Babe... don’t we need to get ready?” Minseok groaned as you pulled the shirt over his head. You latched your lips onto his neck and softly bit down, eliciting a raspy moan from your husband.

“Shh, let me give you your first gift.” you purred, moving your hands toward the waistband of his boxers.

The mall was packed to the brim with people from all different walks of life. Gossiping teenagers, sleep-deprived parents following their energetic kids around, old couples window shopping, you name it. You walked through the giant Macy’s and into the main hub of the mall hand in hand with Minseok.

Since you started dating, it has been a tradition for you to buy each other’s gifts the day of your respected birthdays. You’d usually scour Amazon or websites of your favorite brands all day and end up splurging half your monthly paychecks on each other. But on occasion, today included, you’d take your shopping day to the local mall as a means to get out of your apartment and actually go out for once.

After an... eventful... morning, you rushed to get dressed and usher your husband out of the house, since the boys were coming over at 11, and it was 10:55 by the time you got into the car and sped away toward the mall.

You pointed out a newly opened jewelry store and pulled Minseok inside with you. You looked at him lovingly as he browsed the display of a multitude of different rings. He’d softly mutter to himself as he picked up ring after ring: trying to see what would look best next to his wedding band, what the right price was, if the store even provided the correct size. You loved how organized he was.

Your silent admiring was interrupted by the familiar chime of your phone, indicating you got a text message. You let out a sigh as soon as you saw who the message was from.

operation minseok’s 31st🥳

jun-bug: (y/n) we have a problem (y/n): oh god what happened yee-xing: baekhyun dropped the cake (y/n): he did what bacon: cant u read (y/n) i dropped the fucking cake 11 minutes late: no need to be rude xoxo (y/n): yeah baek u don’t want me to leave my stunning husband inside the jewelry store, come home and mutilate you for dropping his cake and get arrested on his special day (: kyung-soup: oddly specific but i’m here for it jong-waeeee: off topic but the sign says “minseop” instead of “minseok” (y/n): jun, yixing and kyungsoo you better get this settled or else i’m gonna kill all of you nini bear: yes ma’am ofc ma’am we will do this correct chain-yeol: yeah i don’t wanna die today

“Everything okay?”

You quickly locked your phone and threw it inside your purse before making eye contact with Minseok. You nodded a bit too quickly, panic washing over you like a giant wave from the ocean.

“Yeah, everything’s dandy.” you sputtered. Oh, why did this have to happen right now? You silently prayed that everything was going to go well. It had to.

“You sure?”

“Positive. Did you choose something?” Minseok nodded as he handed you a box with a simple black titanium ring. You nodded in approval as he led you to the register.

Your next stop was at Express. You were dying to pick out some new work clothes for him to try on. You assured him (and yourself) that he needed these new pants and this was totally not an excuse for you to check him out.

“Okay, I’ve got three pairs of pants that I think would look absolutely amazing on you and I want you to go try ‘em on.” you said, handing Minseok three hangers. Each hanger had a pair of slacks in different colors hanging from them. He took them from you, shooting you a smirk before walking inside the fitting room stall.

Your eyes widened as Minseok opened the door of the stall. The pants fit absolutely perfectly. The way the fabric hugged his perfect thighs, the color complimenting his white undershirt (which you imagined to be one of his famous white button-downs), it left you practically swooning.

“What do you think?”

You let out a hum in approval before motioning for him to turn around. “Lemme see the goods, hun.” He rolled his eyes before turning around. Your eyes landed on his butt, making you swoon for real. You covered your mouth to hide your obvious enjoyment of the sight before you. And it didn’t help when he gave his butt a mini shake. Still, you couldn’t help but squeal softly.

“You sure today’s not your birthday?” Minseok teased. You tutted as you stood from your spot and walked up to him, giving his butt a light pinch before wrapping your arms around his neck.

“With you, every day’s my birthday.” you answered, giving him a peck on the lips.

“Ugh, I think you ate too much of that egg and cheese for breakfast today.”

“You know you love me.”

“That I do, darling.” Minseok mused before closing the distance between you two. You tangled your hands in his silky black hair as you savored the heavenly taste of his lips. You felt his hands grab your ass as you deepened the kiss, tugging at his hair in response.

As you kissed, you heard your phone chime the same chime that indicated a text from the boys. You decided to ignore it and continue making out with your husband until the phone went off four more times. You scoffed as you broke the kiss, fishing inside of your purse to grab it.

“Is everything okay, hun?” Minseok asked.

“Yeah, fine. Just crap from, uh, ‘work,’” you lied, unlocking the phone. “Go try on the other pants.” Minseok nodded before walking back to the stall. Once the door was closed and locked, you looked down at your messages, worry washing over you once again. What the hell happened now?

operation minseok’s 31st🥳

yee-xing: oh christ yee-xing: (y/n) (y/n) (y/n) jun-bug: you gotta help us yee-xing: please kyung-soup: i am going to kill park chanyeol like my life depends on it (y/n): what the everloving shit happened this time chain-yeol: um i sneezed all over the cake kyung-soup: the custom one u got on wednesday btw (y/n): you. sneezed. on. the. CAKE????? chain-yeol: IM SORRY chain-yeol: I WAS TRYING TO STOP BAEKHYUN FROM KNOCKING IT OVER AND I SAVED IT BUT THEN I SNEEZED nini bear: ur so gross chain-yeol: you too (y/n): i spent 100 dollars on that cake and you fucking sneeze on it?? (y/n): jfc i’m here busy admiring my husband’s sweet sweet ass and u guys are telling me the cake’s ruined? i will murder u all i swear jong-waeeee: ew i don’t wanna hear about minseok’s ass (y/n): shut the fuck up sign ruiner jong-waeeee: I GOT A NEW ONE THOUGH jong-waeeee: YOU’RE SO MEAN bacon: WAIT bacon: (Y/N) WE’LL PAY FOR ANOTHER ONE (y/n): baekhyun you sweet summer child (y/n): I HAD TO PRE-ORDER THAT CAKE 2 WEEKS IN ADVANCE YOU WALNUT bacon: oh bacon: my bad 11 minutes late: W8 W8 I GOT U 11 minutes late: WE CAN STILL EAT IT 11 minutes late: I’LL SPRAY SOME LYSOL ON IT jun-bug: SEHUN DON’T YOU DARE (y/n): sehun honey that just contaminates it even more (y/n): but thank you for trying 11 minutes late: xoxo i try my best yee-xing: how ‘bout we just buy more carvel cakes to match the one you got yesterday up to 100 dollars so it maxes out (y/n): yeah alright fine (y/n): thanks xing ur a life saver (y/n): but don’t throw away the ruined cake i wanna show min what he could have missed out on if CHANYEOL DIDN’T FUCKING SNEEZE ON IT (y/n): WHO SNEEZES ON A CAKE nini bear: only chanyeol (y/n): yep, only chanyeol chain-yeol: y’all are mean. kyung-soup: what u get for sneezing on the cake

You locked your phone, letting out an exasperated sigh. You swore if anything else happened today, you were going to march all the way back home and kill those men. You massaged your temples with your fingers as a means to alleviate your stress. All you wanted was for everything to be perfect for the party; Minseok deserved nothing less than that.

The door of the stall opened, revealing Minseok wearing nothing but the new pair of navy slacks and a devilishly handsome smirk. His smile faded when he saw you with your hands over your face, taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm yourself down from your stress. He quickly pulled his undershirt on and rushed over to you, wrapping his arms around you comfortingly. With a sigh, you buried your face in his chest, your stress starting to wash away as he began stroking your hair.

You stayed like that for about ten minutes. You eventually calmed down, silently reassuring yourself that everything was going to be fine. You were glad that Minseok did not try to ask you anything since you were afraid you were going to let slip what was waiting for him when you arrive home later in the day.

You let out a small sniffle as you pressed a small kiss on your husband’s exposed shoulder. “I’m so sorry I brought down your mood, Min. The p- ‘w-work,’ is just annoying right now. It’s your birthday, it’s supposed to be a good day.” you mumbled, looking down at your hands.

“Shh, don’t you worry your little head about it,” Minseok assured, kissing your forehead. He tilted your head up and pressed his lips against yours. “All I want is for my baby to be happy today.” You gave him a weak smile and wrapped your arms around his waist, feeling so lucky to have him in your life.

“C’mon, let’s go to the food court. All this stress made me hungry.” you joked, standing from your spot.

“Good idea,” Minseok gave you another kiss before walking back into the changing stall to change back into his regular clothes. “Oh, by the way, buy the pants.” You pumped a fist into the air as you took the hanging articles of clothing into your hands.

You were lucky (and frankly surprised) that nothing else had managed to go wrong today. You were suspicious that you hadn’t gotten any panic-stricken texts from Yixing or Junmyeon, but you couldn’t complain about that. Just to be sure though, you quickly texted Kyungsoo to give you a final update on the state of your house. You sighed in relief when he responded with pictures of your living room, kitchen and backyard decorated just how you envisioned it to be. You sent Kyungsoo a text back thanking him and everyone else profusely for their help.

The clock struck 5, indicating that it was time for you and Minseok to go home. The two of you exited the mall, arms filled with different shopping bags from all the stores you went to during the day. After putting your bags into the backseat of your car, you opened the passenger side of the car and slid in.

“Hm, I was thinking of ordering from that ramen place we tried last week. It was really good, don’t you remember?” Minseok suggested, starting the car and pulling out of the parking lot.

“How ‘bout we wait ‘till we get home to... eat.” you responded, a shit-eating grin almost making its way onto your face.

Minseok hummed softly. “I just wanna spend the rest of the night with you and Tan at home, I hope no one’s planning a surprise party for me,” You tensed slightly at his words, looking out the window to avoid his gaze.

“Oh, I wouldn’t do that, hun.” You lied. He shrugged, intertwining his fingers with yours.

When Minseok pulled into your driveway, you shot a quick text to the boys, telling them that you were home. You exited the car quickly, grabbing most of the shopping bags and taking Minseok by the arm, dragging him to the front door.

“Whoa, what’s gotten into you?” he chuckled as you struggled to get your keys out of your purse. Once you got them out and put the house key into the lock, you turned to Minseok and pressed your lips onto his.

“Happy birthday, Min. I love you so much. And I’m so sorry.” you unlocked the front door and pushed it open. You saw Minseok’s eyes widen at the sight of your home. It was filled to the brim with decorations and all of your closest friends holding gifts, balloons and tons of different ice cream cakes.

“SURPRISE!” everyone exclaimed. Minseok’s jaw dropped as he fully took in everything that was happening. He looked over to you with a sly smile, to which you responded with a small shrug.

“I had to, come on.” You giggled, kissing him on the cheek.

“It’s okay, hun. Let’s just enjoy ourselves.” Minseok cupped your face into his hands and pressed his lips onto yours.

“Gross, get a room!” you heard Baekhyun scream. You pulled away from Minseok to flip the younger off.

“Oh! I need to show you the cake I initially got for you but was unfortunately ruined because Chanyeol sneezed on it. Jun, is it in the fridge?” you pulled Minseok in the direction of the kitchen as Junmyeon confirmed the location of the cake.

“He... huh?”

“It was an accident!” Chanyeol whined. You laughed softly to yourself at his childish reaction.

Tonight was gonna be fun.

#xiumin x reader #xiumin x you #minseok x reader #minseok x you #xiumin fluff #minseok fluff #exo fluff #exo #exo scenario #exo scenarios #exo imagine #exo imagines #exo fanfiction #exo au #exo au scenarios #happy birthday xiumin #happy birthday minseok

68 notes · View notes

missbeautyandherbeast · 5 years ago

Text

Baby!Reader X Raphael

(Because something in Donnie’s lab goes terribly wrong)

A/n: Don’t ask me what this is. I’m sleep deprived and hyped up on melatonin. If there are spelling errors, my bad. Honestly this could be any turt but ya know I’m partial to Raph. Also I just made it to 500 followers and I’m???? Am I DREAMING BECAUSE WHAT YOU GUYS THATS AMAZING!!! What do you WANT FROM ME FOR IT???

Tags: @brightlotusmoon @boatloadsofheart @legandarybeauty @crazywritingbug @bitch-kms @ravn-87 @just-a-casual-fangirl-011 @unicornjoos @stuckoutsideofthebox @ilikestuffproductions @whygz @coffee-addicti @sugarspooks15 @leslieebee @serperiorkb @blossom-skies @fantastical-67impala-fangirl @coresan @big-banging-red

You’re turned into a barely crawling toddler

Not to your amusement

But you’re barely two so you don’t really have a say

You and Raph weren’t exactly “dating” before

But hell if anyone is getting near you now

He holds you protectively even from his brothers

“I just need to do a test Raph”

“You hurt her and you’re dead.”

You still have the same big innocent eyes that make him melt

You cry as soon as he lets you into his brothers arms

He snatches you back and coos softly rocking you to soothe your wailing

He sings to you all the time

Even if it’s classic rock songs

He sings you Disney lullabies eventually

He might have gotten ahold of your playlists

His brothers are shocked

Who knew such a hot headed attitude “shoot first ask questions later” terrapin could be so gentle

Don’t get him wrong Raphaels terrified of hurting—dropping, squishing, upsetting—you

Even when he sets you down for a minute to do whatever you’re drawing your way back to him

You tug at his bandana tails

“Stop that.”

You giggle

“What you think this is funny?” There’s a smile on his lips.

You giggle and keep pulling at the pretty red fabric

He can’t get mad at you for it even though he tries

In some ways it’s like having Spike back but something much more precious

Splinter helps him take care of you, guiding him through feeding, napping, etc

Shredder tries his hardest to kidnap you but Raphael fights like a bat out of hell to get you back

Covered in bruises, blood and swear you still smile and giggle when you see him

“Hey there Baby Girl, why don’t we go home?”

You fall asleep in his arms

He passes out on the couch with you still cradled against him

No one has the heart to move you two

It brings protective and vulnerable to a whole new level

When your changed back he hugs you for like a solid minute

He’s not so afraid to break you as much anymore

You barely remember anything but you know you always feel safer when he’s near

He’s still protective of you

And seems to know exactly how to calm you from anxiety now

Of course you love him

And he’s always loved you

You tug at the ends of his mask still

It’s how you pull him close to kiss him for the first time

Then it just becomes a ThingTM

Sometimes you wonder what would be different if you did remember

But you see him passed out beside you still holding you tight and you decide it doesn’t matter

380 notes · View notes

mmacabrera · 6 years ago

Text

Missing pieces. drake mallard/launchpad mcquack & gosalyn mallard.

n/a: universe reincarnation au. hurt/comfort.

The feeling that something was missing grew and grew every day, and the two pieces lost from the puzzle of his life were almost impossible to find. Then, he met Launchpad McQuack and Gosalyn Waddlemeyer and the puzzle started to make sense.

There was this dream that Drake had from time to time.

It always started the same way, he would step into a room, its floor, roof, and walls white to the point that it was hard to distinguish between them, but the really interesting part of it was the disorganized puzzle pieces in the middle of it.

Drake, always up for the challenge and the mystery, would walk and sit down in front of the disaster, immediately putting hands to work and resolving the puzzle as fast as he could. Every time he had the dream, he was even faster than the last time and he would feel extremely proud but at the same time impertinently frustrated. Because it didn’t matter how fast or competent he was at resolving it, there always seemed to be two pieces lost.

He would walk around the room (crashing against the walls more than once thanks to the unsettling amount of white around him) and try to look around for them but he never found anything. He would try to resolve the puzzle differently, flip over other pieces, try to see the puzzle from a different angle, but it didn’t matter what he did, the two pieces seemed to be just as lost as before and the puzzle picture just as blank.

He would wake up from the dream mad and unsatisfied like he failed to see something extremely important. He would get up to his lonely and too little apartment, feeling even more disappointed in his life and talking about how the dream made no sense, but as always, there was no one to heard him out and Drake would be left feeling even more empty and unfulfilled with everything around him.

But he had to get back up, he had an audition that day, he couldn’t blow it out.

So, he forgot about the dream, about the two pieces that were lost and about the loneliness of his apartment.

And he got the part of Darkwing Duck in the new movie, just like he wanted. All the fulfillment seemed to wash away every one of his complaints about his life, every little unsatisfactory moment seemed to be just a great piece that had pushed him for that reward. The validation of everything he had been working for his entire life filling him with a sense of purpose and finality.

But he still felt like he had lost something and he couldn’t remember why that bothered him so much, especially now that he didn’t live in that can-sized apartment; that he had made a scene in Starducks and he had quitted; that he was playing his idol in a movie, that while not perfect (like, at all), was going to be viewed by people who could get inspired just like he was. He was Darkwing Duck! (Or at least, he was playing him on a movie).

Drake thought all of this sprawled out in the couch he now used as a bed, the night before Mr. Starling’s sign-up, his nerves going erratic through his body and every line he was sure to tell to the man that had shaped his entire life running through his mind at 200 km/h. He had a hard time falling asleep on the couch of his trailer at the set, but when he finally did, he felt secure that everything was going to be alright the next day.

He had the puzzle dream that night after completely forgetting about it for months.

Not a second in the dream and he was already groaning, already tired even if he had not moved a muscle yet. When he looked to where the puzzle should be, he blinked surprised. It was already complete, the two pieces were lost as always but there was something different about it. Drake walked quickly, sitting down in front of it and realizing with bold surprise what it was. The picture, he could see it.

Drake closed his eyes harder and then opened them again. The image was still there and he couldn’t believe it. It was him in the middle, he looked quite different, maybe a little older, a little more tired, but he felt like it was him. There were two other people at his sides, two empty spots where there should be their faces. Drake forced himself to breathe, trying to memorize every tiny detail of the two other bodies of the puzzles. He didn’t know why, but he felt compelled to look for them outside of the dream. Some irrational, scared part of his brain picking at his anxiety and lonely heart that wanted something he didn’t know about.

Tall, barrel chest, aviator jacket, white feathers. Tiny, purple shirt, hockey gear, soft yellow feathers.

He touched the empty spots of the puzzle and before he knew it, tears streamed down his face. He felt so utterly, terribly alone.

Where? Where are they?

When he woke up, he had forgotten all about those people, but the inescapable feeling of crippling loneliness was still attached to his heart. Drake blinked away the few tears that tried to escape, he didn’t know why he cried. It was just a dream. An obnoxious and strangely familiar dream but a dream nonetheless. He felt empty.

But he had to get back up, he had to meet Jim Starling at the sign-up and tell him how much he admired him, he couldn’t blow it out.

And he blew it up. Spectacularly.

Not in a good sense.

But it took a hand bigger than his shoulder and a soft and understanding voice to make him forget how terrible that day had been.

“Are you alright?”

It felt like a stupid question after all that happened, but for Drake it sounded like an offering, a shoulder to lean on. He poured his heart to Launchpad and Launchpad only, if he had not thought Drake was insane at the sign-up with his freaking out he wouldn’t think he was now, or at least he hoped that.

Launchpad didn’t, of course. Because his kindness seemed to know no limits. He offered him a place to crash, a hand to get up, and a shoulder to lean on. He supported Drake and helped him until he was back on his feet again, with a new apartment and a new life, and Drake, that had been so accustomed to just get up on his own without no support whatsoever for forever, felt too selfish for this, felt like he was clinging too hard, like he didn’t deserve it.

So, he questioned, he pushed and felt too egotistical when his insides started to growl like demons every time Launchpad had to go out of his apartment and drive Mr. McMiser to who knows where. It was the reminder that Launchpad had other life, some other people he cared about, and he wasn’t Drake’s. He wasn’t. It didn’t stop the empty place in his heart from growing bigger and green, either way.

What could McMoneyBags offer that he couldn’t? He would think bitterly, alone in his new apartment after Launchpad had to go to attend some McDuck’s matter, and the logical, the actual reasonable part of his brain that knew how stupid he was acting would answer: a secure job, a family, stability.

Could Drake offer any of those things?

So, Drake stayed silent. Even when it felt so wrong to do so. Even when he went on patrol and knew every little place where having Launchpad by his side would have made everything so much easier, so much fun and better. Even when his heart was left yearning every time they caught themselves staring at each other with that feeling they couldn’t address yet, even when Launchpad intertwined his fingers with Drake’s own and he felt like he was about to explode from happiness.

But he couldn’t stop Launchpad from saying something, when he touched his cheek tenderly, frowning at all the scratches, broken ribs and pain he looked in Drake.

“It’s not—.” It’s not necessary, please stay where you are. I don’t know how not to be alone anymore. I don’t know if you are what is missing.

“Drake,” he stayed quiet, Launchpad sounded so serious and firm, and yet he was still tender and soft, “you need me more. I’ll stay.”

And with that, the ugly green monster that was growing in that space in his chest calmed down, doubling down his size and mewling happily at some unknown feeling that was growing instead.

Like Launchpad promised, he stayed.

He stayed one night and then, the weekend. Then, for an entire week, and then, it was a month.

Before any of them could know what they were doing, Launchpad’s few belongings were dispersed around their apartment like they had always been there. They got a bigger bed, there were two toothbrushes instead of one in the bathroom, Drake would sometimes take —in a sleep-deprived state thanks to patrol— a t-shirt that was definitely not his and would observe later that morning how Launchpad fainted at the fact, and Launchpad would sometimes grab things that were too high for Drake and kiss the top of his head and Drake would deny his flustered cheeks.

They moved around each other with a strange familiarity like it was supposed to be like that from the start. That empty space in Drake’s chest was, slowly but surely, growing pink and soft instead.

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” he confessed one night where the sheets felt too hot and their door was closed to everybody except them. Launchpad smiled with a simple understanding and kissed his shoulder, then his neck and his forehead. He grabbed his hand and he kissed it too, while the other intertwined their fingers together. Drake felt his heart rising.

“I’m here to stay, remember? We’ll figure it out.”

For Drake, it was like something finally clicked into place.

That night, the puzzle dream came back and, from the start, it felt completely different.

For one, Launchpad was there.

“Hey, DW!”

“Launchpad!?”

He looked quite different, with those weird pants and that aviator hat. His smile was just as dorky as ever though, and at least that calmed Drake’s heart a bit. He looked everywhere around the room, it was just the two of them, and the puzzle just behind Launchpad.

“I’m glad you found me!”

“I-I did?” Drake replied confused. Launchpad simply laughed heartedly and nodded with naked happiness. Before Drake could register it, two strong arms tucked him in this man’s embrace.

“I missed ya, DW,” Launchpad whispered into his hair, Drake felt a blush running down his neck, his hands shyly against this Launchpad’s chest and feeling too confused to reply. Until he moved to rest his head on Drake’s shoulder, and Drake felt his shirt wet and tiny shivers against his form.

“LP,” he whispered back with affection. He had no idea where the nickname came from. It had never occurred to him to call Launchpad like that but it felt…so right. Just like how he felt with him these past few months.

This Launchpad finally let him go, his eyes still a little glazed but with a smile of the size of his heart. Drake addressed how he had dressed again and he couldn’t stop himself from saying: “You look kinda funny.”

Launchpad furrowed his brow and moved his head to the side for a moment. “Gee, DW, but I look like—,” then he interrupted himself with an understanding laugh, “Ah! Duh, of course, I almost forgot this is another…”

Another? Another what?

Drake was about to ask, but it seemed that this was not this Launchpad’s plan. He grabbed Drake’s hand and put something in it, then he closed it and kissed his fist, making Drake blush for the amount of adoration he seemed to pour in the action.

“I adore ya, you know that, right?”

“I-,” Drake didn’t how to respond to that, his heart hammered against his chest and he felt too confused by it all. What was going on with this Launchpad? Why did he look different? Why did he say that?

He smiled at Drake, thoughtful. “It’s okay. You will understand it soon enough. See ya when you wake up, yeah?” Drake could only nod, his brow slightly furrowed and his blushed feathers a little agitated. He almost jumped when he felt a soft kiss to his cheek, but when he turned around to ask him what he meant by that exactly, Launchpad was gone.

He opened his hand and then opened his eyes wide and clear. It was one of the lost pieces.

He almost fell flat in his face in his attempt to run and sit in front of the puzzle. He put the piece where it belonged. And he should be surprised, he should be confused, but all he felt was euphoria when he saw Launchpad’s face staring at him from the picture.

He woke up too happy to describe it with words, he didn’t even know why he was so blissful but he knew he wanted to kiss Launchpad’s face right at that moment and so he did, waking his partner up in a sea of pecks and kisses that left them for too long on their bed just like the night before.

Later, that same day, he called LP to his Launchpad for the first time and he, predictably, fainted on Drake with a smile on his face. Drake, accepting that this was his life now, rolled his eyes affectionately and with a kiss to his cheek, simply rolled Launchpad off of him.

He didn’t have the dream for a while but Drake, for the first time in a long while, felt full and too happy to care about the other piece missing off the dream.

Until the night Gosalyn Waddlemeyer fell asleep on the bed he kept in their hideout, her infinite energy refusing to go down. A little tiny bit of Drake that he didn’t know he had in him hoped she could stay there forever, with her mischievous smile and her unconquerable spirit, but the rational, the scared, the anxious part of him that doubted every step he made knew it was a ridiculous thought, that Darkwing Duck was too dangerous to keep safe a little girl in his life. That was not supposed to be.

But he remembered, looking at Launchpad’s enormously patience smile at the other side of the bed where Gos kept rambling about something to him, that Darkwing Duck wasn’t supposed to have a partner either.

She convinced Launchpad and him to sing her a lullaby, or at least she used some type of reverse psychology to convince him because he didn’t do lullabies and he didn’t know how he accepted. They fumbled at first, with Launchpad playing with the lyrics and making Gosalyn snort and laugh instead of making her sleepy. Drake tried next and for some reason, the lyrics of a song he didn’t know at all flowed out of his beak as naturally as breathing. Gos exhaled, delighted at the new lyrics, and looked at Launchpad until he followed suit and repeated Drake’s lyrics with him.

They kept like that until she was completely asleep, even snoring, her little frame looking rather fragile right there in the bed, in opposite to her stronger nature while she was awake. Drake felt compelled to tuck her in further, accommodating the blanket over her. It wasn’t until he realized Launchpad was looking at him rather heavily that he took into account that he had been doing the same with Gosalyn.

“What?” he asked, just a little bit self-conscious. Had Launchpad felt, just like he did, that those lyrics had come too naturally to him to be normal? Or did his voice broke at some point and he didn’t notice?

“I just love your voice, didn’t know ya were a singer, DW,” Launchpad confessed quietly with an adoring smile, and Drake would have refuted the singer thing if his hand had not come reaching until it was covering Drake’s completely over the bed. He remembered something.

I adore ya, you know that, right?

Oh, he understood now. The missing piece.

Drake smiled and leaned over the bed until he could give Launchpad a peck, and then a kiss just a little bit longer that left them both breathless. He sat down again on his side of the bed, his fingers intertwining with Launchpad’s nicely, fitting just right. Launchpad didn’t wait long to follow Gosalyn, his frame raising and falling with his breathing, his fingers firmly attached to Drake’s own and with a smile on his face that only made Drake’s heartbeat spike up a little.

Drake, tired as he was, couldn’t sleep at that moment and he resumed his staring at the little duckling in his bed. A pang of loneliness hit him, and he stopped smiling. It was the same type he felt the first time he realized Launchpad couldn’t stay with him. The smile didn’t come back, but the loneliness, the unavoidable feeling that something was missing did. He couldn’t sleep then.

And he only did when the hospital’s morphine hit him hard enough to sleep for three days straight. When he woke up, scared and asking for Gosalyn like some kind of maniac that was about run out of the hospital and take his IV out, Launchpad was there to hold his hand and calm him down.

She is safe, he informed. She was a little sad though, he commented. When you get better we can go visit her, he promised. Don’t scare me like that again please, he asked, more shyly than the others, more scared.

Drake was restless for all the time that it took the hospital to release him. He had dreamless nights of sleep for that time, at least. If he had the puzzle dream and Gosalyn appeared in them, he didn’t know how he would handle it.

When he finally stepped into their apartment, the first thing he thought he saw was the ghost of Gosalyn, running around the living room freely and happy, and that was the last straw. He turned around before Launchpad could close the door and he said with the firmest voice he could muster:

“We have to adopt her. Now.”

And Launchpad, beautiful, kindhearted Launchpad grabbed him by his good hand and got out of the apartment in less than a heartbeat, driving them so fast around the city that Drake almost, almost complained, if he had not been completely nervous about something bigger, maybe he would have.

They stepped out of the car fast (Drake would have fallen flat on his face if Launchpad had not been there), and from the other side of the fence of the orphanage, Gosalyn sat down on the grass, the quietest and still Drake had seen her while being awake. And maybe their stares were too heavy, because she turned around with doubt and then, her eyes widened when she addressed Launchpad, and then a smile bigger than her face appeared when she addressed Drake. She squealed and ran to the building, and Drake almost squealed too, being dragged by the hand by a thrilled Launchpad to the building.

They were doing this.

It took a while, more paperwork that they would have liked, with Drake and Gosalyn vibrating with unhinged twin energies and Launchpad about to just drive himself against a wall, but at the moment the old lady asked whose surname Gosalyn was getting and in a too enthusiastic and anxious mood they both answered “yes!”, making Gosalyn giggle and the old lady show them what she had written instead, Drake knew that this time, for real, everything was going to be alright.

Gosalyn Mallard-McQuack was going home.

Maybe it was because he was waiting for it this time, he thought while looking with naked adoration at the duckling that had crawled between Launchpad and him in the middle of the night, that the puzzle dream didn’t appear until a month later of Gosalyn’s adoption, when he had forgotten about it yet again.

“Took you long enough, dad!” the even younger and quite different Gosalyn complained in the dream.

“I’m sorry, Gos.” He had no idea why he was apologizing, but he was too tired of fighting against that dream. He would accept whatever it threw at him.

The mild annoyance seemed to disappear with that and in the next second, Gosalyn was running towards him, Drake prepared and caught her mid-jump, hugging her immediately.

“I missed ya, dad,” Drake only hugged her tighter as a response, her little frame tucked perfectly in his arms. He whispered “I missed you too, sweetheart” back, with too much familiarity to be his voice but he didn’t overthink it. After a moment, she separated enough to look him in the eye. “I thought you would never going to find us!”

“Oh, come on, dear. You know I always come through.” She simply rolled her eyes and giggled in response.

“I know! It’s just, it seemed like you were already here, before us, ya know?” and that made Drake frown, what did she mean by that? “But I’m glad you found us in this universe too, I was getting a little bored, ya know?”

Oh. What? Universe?

“And we both don't want you to get bored, right?” Gosalyn shook her head, still giggling.

“It surprised me when you found Launchdad first, though! It was weird, pops said that he thought he found you years ago, that you were a famous actor of all things but it made no sense! But you are Darkwing Duck here too, I dunno what he was talking about—”

“Well, I was—.”

“Keen gear! And then he said you looked older! But here you look younger. I don’t get it, dad, this universe business is so confusing.”

“Oh, tell me about it.” Especially when he had no idea what she was talking about. She then jumped down and took his hand.

“Here, I’m supposed to give you this,” and she put something in his hand, Drake didn’t have to see it to know what it was. She played with his closed hand, shyly and a little flustered. “Ya know, I love ya, dad.”

“I love you too, honey,” he answered almost automatically.

“I will see ya when you wake up.” And with that, it only took Drake blinking once for her to disappear.

He opened his fist and smiled at the sight.

He had to admit, that putting the last piece to complete the puzzle was leaving him too nervous. More than the Darkwing Duck’s audition, than Jim’s sign-up, than his first kiss with Launchpad. His chest raised and went down, and with that, Drake dared to put the last piece in its space. It fitted perfectly.

There were no more empty spaces.

He couldn’t help the silly smile that grew up in his face at seeing two red high pigtails in the puzzle, a smile too enthusiastic to describe with words and the feeling that everything was coming to an end.

“Took you long enough, other me.”

His hand immediately went to his throat, panicking, but those words had not come from him. It had been his voice but it had not been him. He almost fell on his butt, when he looked up and a grouchy, definitely older Drake Mallard in a sweater vest looked at him from the other side of the puzzle, his legs and arms crossed and a sarcastic smile on his face.

Drake, the young that just married and just now had a daughter, could only blink.

“What? Were you not expecting me? Maybe the correct one was the other, after all.”

“No,” and he felt less surprised than he thought of what was happening, “I was just impressed, Gosalyn said the same thing.”

That seemed to stop the sarcastic smile to give a pass to a more honest and proud one, his arms uncrossed and he looked at Drake with less aggressiveness than before. “Of course, she is my daughter.”

“She is my daughter now, actually.”

“Oh, yeah, rub it out, why don't you?” Drake laughed at that, relaxing after all that had been happening lately. The emptiness, the loneliness, the feeling of inadequacy, everything seemed to come back in memory and he had to ask because he didn’t understand completely yet.

“Why? And how?” and he realized that sounded too vague and not what he wanted to know at all, he said instead: “Who is the other one?”

The older Drake seemed to paralyze. Bingo.

After three seconds of complete silence, he seemed to recollect himself and answered. “You already met him. I didn’t know he would turn out like that, I didn’t know I had that in me. His name is different, but I know he’s me too. Some parts of me, at least. The part I was scared to address, the one Negaduck—” Who? “Well, you fought him, remember?”

“Jim?” The older one nodded with a sense of finality. Drake felt all the air of his lungs being sucked, guiltiness and fear clawing at his heart. Was that why he—? “Why me?”

The other simply shrugged. “You changed your name to Drake Mallard, you tell me. Jim never did it, he continued being Jim and he never changed that, it may be a sign.”

“Did you change your name too?”

The older Drake smiled, cryptic if nothing else but he didn’t answer.

“Just, take care of them, would you?”

Knowing that was the only answer he was going to get, Drake finally answered with confidence: “Like I would do anything else.”

That made his other-self laugh, he calmed down after a moment and looked at him rather serious. “Be careful, with the other one.” Drake nodded with confusion, slightly frowning at the implication and the older one just sighed. He didn’t know yet. “I’ll see you when you wake up.”

When he woke up, he had forgotten everything, absolutely everything about the dreams but the feeling of actualization, the feeling of being content, of finally being home stayed. He turned around to see Gosalyn sleeping on Launchpad’s chest, going up and down with his breathing and he saw Launchpad with his beak slightly open and softly snoring, his hair a complete mess. That space was not empty anymore, and Drake even doubted it existed in the first place since he couldn’t remember a moment when his life was meant to be lonely or missing something.

Everything was alright.

It was a new day.

It was a new universe.

#drakepad #drake mallard #gosalyn mallard #ducktales #darkwing duck #toddy writes

96 notes · View notes

kristatotheworld · 6 years ago

Text

What I’ve Learned on My Exchange

I’ve learned so so much here-- so much about me, about others, about the world, about life. I’ve mentioned a few times how much I’ve changed on this exchange, but I’ve never gone into details on the things I’ve learned. I could probably write an entire novel filled with all of the things I’ve learned. But, for today I think I’ll just stick to the more important things.

By the way, these are in no certain order.

1. How to go out and do things alone: This is something I feel like a lot of people struggle with. Who wants to go out to eat alone? Who wants to sit in a cafe alone? Well, me. Before coming here though, I was definitely like that. I didn’t wanna go anywhere alone, and there was no way I would ever enjoy it. In fact, I would pretty much avoid doing anything alone in public if I could. So how did I come to enjoy doing things alone in public, you ask? (Or maybe you don’t care, but I’m gonna tell you anyways). I realized that nobody cares if I’m alone, so I shouldn’t either. I realized that being confident and comfortable with myself enough to go out alone and enjoy it doesn’t make me a loser, but radiates BDE (uhhh.. superiority). Once I overcame the anxiety that held me back, I realized spending time alone and having fun is quite therapeutic. I go to cafes alone, to karaoke alone, shopping alone, travelling alone-- really anything that I want to do.

2. No shame: This one is like a mindset. I say this quite often. It kind of goes hand in hand with the last one. It’s about not caring about what other people might think, realizing that most people don’t care and aren’t judging you, and not caring even if they are. I realized that, in a lot of cases, the only person judging me was myself. I also realized that people don’t care about what I’m doing as much as I make them do in my head. Things like not wearing makeup when I went out used to give me anxiety. I wish I could tell my past self, “Krista, nobody but you cares if you’re wearing makeup or not. Nobody but you cares about that pimple. The only one judging you is you.” And for the very very small amount of [butt]holes that would judge me, or anyone for something like that-- well, screw them. They’ve got more problems with themself than with the people they’re judging. The lesson here is: do what you want (if it’s legal, of course)-- no shame. ;)

3. Get those steps in: I say this multiple times everyday. It promotes physical activity and being green, so only positives there. I’m not exactly sure when my friends and I made this a thing, but I know we pretty much live by it now. Here, I walk pretty much everywhere that I can. I get quite a few steps in on a normal day. My iphone tells me I walked 11,635 (7.2 km, or 4.47 mi) steps yesterday, but my highest amount in a day in the past few weeks was 21,194 (14.7 km, or 9.13 mi). Basically, I get those steps in whenever I can. I take the stairs instead of the escalator, I will refuse a ride if I can walk (unless I’m like, sick or dying or something), and when I have time, I take the stairs to my apartment instead of the elevator. (I live on the 18th floor. It takes me approximately 2 minutes going down if I run, and way longer going up-- so if I’m in a hurry, I’ll probably take the elevator).

4. How to say no/ stand up for myself: I’ve always been quite a passive person (in almost all situations). It was very hard for me to tell people no. I often got myself into stressful situations because of this. Here, I’ve definitely learned that I can say no if I don’t want to do something, and that doesn’t automatically make me a terrible person. That being said, I will still do just about anything (emphasis on just about) for anyone because I like to be nice, and helping people makes me happy. I’ve also learned how to stand up for myself. If someone says something to me or about me that I don’t like, I’ll tell them. I’m not afraid of confrontation anymore.

5. How to leave my comfort zone: This is something anyone on an exchange has to be able to do. In the states, I did have a pretty large comfort zone, but leaving it was not something I liked to do. After all, who likes to be uncomfortable? (Me) Of course, when I say uncomfortable, I mean a healthy type of discomfort, a type that you can (and should) overcome. Not a weird, scary type of discomfort that’s probably a warning sign that something isn’t right. If a stranger asks you to get in their car because they have candy, yeah, you definitely should be uncomfortable. And you definitely should NOT get in the car. Now that I’ve made that clear, I can move on to what I do mean. I have to speak a language I’m not confident every day. Of course, sometimes it’s embarrassing, and sometimes it makes me uncomfortable. But I leave my comfort zone. Something I’m particularly uncomfortable with is being naked in front of people (I feel like that’s pretty rational). Korean women, however, don’t seem to relate-- a cultural thing. And that’s okay. I’ve seen a lot of naked Korean ladies (in locker rooms and things like that-- not just walking around). Yeah, I’m not really uncomfortable with changing clothes in front of other girls anymore.

6. I am capable with so much more than I thought: There’s this saying like: “You can do anything you set your mind to.” While anything is a bit of a broad category, it’s true. (Maybe you want to become a bird, which is kind of impossible, but who knows, maybe if you set your mind to it, it’ll happen). If someone tells you you can’t do something, do it anyways and take pictures. If you tell yourself that you can’t do something, do it anyways and realize that you should never let self-doubt hold you back. If I really want to do something, and I’m willing to work hard for it, I will make it happen. Instead of telling myself that it’s too hard, I tell myself that I’m willing to put in the work to make it happen.

7. How to go with the flow: There’s this thing in Korea that I like to call 가자 (pronounced ga-ja) culture. 가자 means let’s go. Basically, my Korean parents had a tendency to not tell me when there was a plan, and just come to my room and say “가자”. It was quite stressful. I realized that this is a cultural thing. When your parents say 가자, well you just 가자 then. At first this was quite stressful. Why couldn’t they just tell me like, maybe 2 hours in advance? Why couldn’t they ever give me any details? But, now I’m pretty okay with 가자 culture (most of the time-- sometimes the lack of communication and details given still gets on my nerves, but I am a very structured person). I’ve learned to just roll with it, or to go with the flow. I go for what I thought was a short car ride and end up at a random river 30 minutes away with ducks aggressively hissing at me? Okay, cool. (Yes, this happened to me).

8. How to be healthy: I’ve learned a bit of healthiness here. I’ve become physically and mentally healthier here. I lost some kilos, and became less anxious. I’ve learned how to control myself-- my host parents just bought a whole bunch of snacks and bread? Great, I’ll take a banana. I’ve come to crave fruits, vegetables, and healthy foods a lot more than I crave things like ice cream or chocolate. But, that doesn’t mean I never eat those things. It’s about balance. It’s about the mindset. I learned that I shouldn’t constantly deprive myself of all “bad” foods because I want to lose weight. Rather, I should make a conscious decision to eat healthier because I want to be healthier, and I will naturally lose fat (not weight!! muscle weighs more than fat! the number on the scale means wayyy less than they way your body looks, or the way you feel). I’m also extremely physically active here, with all the walking, and muay thai or crossfit every week day. I’ve also learned how to take better care of myself, self-forgiveness, and self-validation. These are important for a healthy mindset. My body needs sleep, food, and water. I have to make sure I give my body those things so that my body and my mind feel better. Sometimes, I lost a bit of my self control, and I ate a lot of sweets or bread because I was feeling bad, but the next day I would forgive myself and try again instead of feeling guilty about it. Self-validation is also very important. My emotions and feelings are valid. I am valid. I used to invalidate the way I was feeling a lot. But, I’ve realized that all emotions are okay and valid. The first step in dealing with emotions is to acknowledge that they are valid. I’ve also learned to take breaks if I really need one. If I’m feeling exhausted and drained, there’s probably a reason.

9. A friend can be made anywhere: Being on an exchange, I have friends from all over the world. I’ve also made friends in so many places. You never know who you’re going to meet in the place you’re at. Maybe someone you’ll meet will become someone very important to you.

10. There is so much love in the world: There was a time in which I could only see that bad in the world. I was really depressed and pessimistic. When I came out of that, I realized I never wanted to think that way again. Sure, there’s bad in the world. That can’t and shouldn’t be ignored. But there’s also so much good and beauty in the world. A whole lot more good than bad. I love people, and I love the world.

11. How to do things for myself and not for others: I like dressing up, taking care of my skin, wearing makeup, and not wearing makeup. But I’ve learned to do those things for myself, and not because I’m concerned with how other people are thinking about me. I do those things to feel more confident with myself, not because I feel like I should. I’ve felt ashamed for wearing makeup, and for not wearing makeup before-- because I was so concerned with how others saw me. Now, I’ll do my makeup if I feel like it.

12. I hate alcohol: I’m really glad I learned this on my exchange. There are some experiences that people just need to have. My experiences with alcohol are something that I needed. I learned that alcohol isn’t as great as it sounds. It tastes disgusting. I can have so much more fun without it. This is for me: I’m not saying this applies to everyone. But for me, I just really really don’t like alcohol. I have no reason to drink it. There are plenty of things that taste way better than alcohol. I’m not demonizing alcohol, either. But, now I know. I’ve had my experience with alcohol, and I’ve learned that I don’t care for it (or the morning after). I’m perfectly fine with some apple juice-- or maybe some milk tea. Those are nice drinks.

13. How to see the good in every day: In America, sometime it felt like every day was the exact same, only a little different. Like okay, different things happened maybe, but in the end it was just the same. Here, I’ve learned how to see the difference in every day, how to notice every good thing that happens every day. I learned this through journaling. I’ve journaled my entire exchange. I journal pretty much every day in detail. Being able to spot the details in every day has made me appreciate them much more.

14. I have something in common with so many more people than I thought: I feel like a lot of the time, it’s easier to see the differences between us and others than it is to see the similarities. I realized that I can relate with so many people-- people different from me in so many ways-- and find something in common with them.

15. Loneliness is okay: Loneliness isn’t always as bad as it’s made out to be. And sometimes, it can be a good thing. Loneliness doesn’t last forever. I’ve learned how to feel more comfortable with myself, how to improve myself, and how to get to know more about myself through loneliness. Sometimes we’re lonely because we need to learn how to be comfortable with ourselves before we can be comfortable with others. Sometimes we’re lonely because we need to fix problems we have with ourselves before we can put that attention into others. And I’ve learned that loneliness is more of a feeling than an actuality for me. I’m not ever really alone. But I feel alone sometimes. In those times, it’s usually because of an inner problem than an outer problem. My loneliness is time for me to put my attention on helping myself.

16. How to love myself: Self love is very important. Every number before this, every thing I’ve learned here and before has contributed to my journey of learning to love myself. When I learned how to love myself, it felt like the world became a different place. But it didn’t. It was just me that changed. Self love changed so many things for me. It’s a real journey. I had ups and downs. And self love doesn’t mean I feel amazing about myself 100% of the time. It means I treat myself like I love myself. Of course there are times when I still feel a bit insecure, but those times don’t consume me like they used to. I’ve learned how to respect myself like I love myself. My self talk is positive. I help myself when I need it. I take care of myself.

That’s all for this post! I hope you enjoyed it :) As always, if you have any questions, my dms are open.

Quick note: I only have 2 more months left in Korea. That’s so crazy. Time goes way too fast. I’m not ready to say goodbye anytime soon. This exchange has been so incredible and life changing. I want to make these last 2 months amazing, and I know I will.

#exchange #foreign exchange #experience #exchange student #youth exchange #Korea #korea school #south korea #self love #self care #learning #life #Life Changes #life lessons #lessons

23 notes · View notes

ride-run-sleep-repeat · 7 years ago

Text

There are many types of fun and for some reason, I keep having to push the limits of this “fun”.

I was asked to be part of the Mont Adventure Racing team for Wildside Adventure race as unfortunately, Dane had to pull out due to injury so we got bumped into the mixed category. Now I’d done Wildside back in 2014 at short notice and after vowing to never do one of these types of races again (for at least 5 years), I was now saying yes to my third.

So the fun I was looking for came in a 400km race on bikes, foot, abseiling, kayaks and packrafts to get to the often elusive finish line in as little time as possible. Easy right?

Here’s the course break down:

Leg 1 – 55km Trek Leg 2 – 107km MTB Leg 3 – 50km Trek & Abseil Leg 4 – 45km MTB Leg 5 – 33km Packraft Leg 6 – 10km Trek Leg 7 – 45km MTB Leg 8 – 14 km Paddle Leg 9 – 10km Trek Leg 10 – 26k MTB

Leg 1 was basically the ultra-marathon I hadn’t planned to run in many years. The boys set a cracking pace and I could only put my head down and keep my feet moving. Starting at Lake Eucumbene we made our way along the shoreline for 3/4’s of the trek till we went up over the hills and hit the first TA at the big, beautiful Trout. We were also rewarded with a cold lemonade and iced coffee from the servo.

After building our bikes up and making a quick transition we started on the 107k MTB which took us towards Orroral Valley. This leg was great. Mostly for the fact that I could keep up with the boys and that it was all very rideable. There were some big bloody hills, but nothing too outrageous. Morale was high, we got to the TA in Orroral to pack up bikes and start the 3rd leg which was a 50km trek & abseil.

It’s a weird thing racing on your home turf, good – because you know parts of the course, bad – because you know parts of the course. For example, the first part of the trek went through the AMRA Deep Space Mountain Marathon course (from which the mug I won in the race a few years ago I am currently drinking coffee from) and up to Booroomba Rocks. There are some big ass hills to get up and down. Once we got to the trailhead for Booroomba though, we knew there was only a short walk up to meet up with the Abseiling crew to get harnessed and ready to go. Not that I was nervous to do the abseil but I was kind of glad we were doing it at night. After a short and sweet abseil, we reached what i’m going to rank as an equal first worst experience of my life, the other being hike a bike up a mountain in China with 1 billion mosquitos trying to bite me.

We’d estimated it would take us 16 hours (which was the long estimate given to us at the start) and it took almost 24. Paul and Tom had planned for us to go a different way to the river but once we got to the bottom of the rocks, decided it was “easier” via the river. We took bush bashing to a whole new level on this leg. I tried to keep up with the boys but would literally get stuck and have to play Marco polo to find them a whole 5 metres away. Expending a lot of energy to go a whopping 1 km/ph is well… there were words said about Richard (the race director) that would make you blush.

Rare image of bush before I put my Gopro away for about 24 hours.

The rock hopping up the river was fun-ish, and there were some really beautiful waterfalls along the way, often accompanied by some really extreme farts thanks to Paul.

After getting out to near Corin road my feet were pretty wet and sore so I asked if we could take 15 min in the sun to dry them out. I think it took about 20 minutes to discuss this possibility, along with our sleep strategy. In the end, much to our time guardian Lee’s displeasure, we took the 15 which would probably prevent problems in the long run. (Or so we convinced ourselves).

Scott met us for a photo op near Woods reserve which was lucky because not long after I got an epic nosebleed which dripped on Lee’s walking poles (sorry Lee!).

Leg 4 was a ride started at Pierces creek and travelled through all the 4wd tracks in the pine forest. After collecting a CP at the cave, in what turned out to be an excellent navigation move, we decided to ride around to the Deep Space Observatory removing a disgusting part of Bullen Range. After doing a lot of down, up, walk, repeat we got to the descent of the range just as the sun was rising which was pretty speccy.

We arrived at the TA at around 6:30am and after packing the pack horse aka Paul with all the paddles and packrafts, we walked the 12kms from Point Hut crossing to Kambah pools to start on the water. Mel met us a little along the way on her commute to work which was really nice too!d

I always knew there was a nudist beach just down from Kambah pools but only go to experience this first hand literally 20 metres into our raft. It was a sore sight for eyes, I tell you what. After some full frontal nudity, and not because we were changing at a TA, the packraft was really enjoyable. We’d been worried at the start of the race that we might have to do this leg during the night, which meant we were either going to have to sleep before it or risk hypothermia. Somehow the stars aligned and although the river was pretty low, we got through it without a problem during the day. (Except for flooding our dry bags and giving the people watching at home small heart attacks because our tracker stopped working, sorry!). Also, huge shout out to Kim for the Riverview cafe, those brownies were epic!

Leg 6 was a 10km loop around the Cotter to some really cool lookout spots. We passed Stromlonauts as they were starting and they looked in pretty good spirits (although Tom says Clare’s eyes told another story). Then, because it was too easy, the last CP on the leg was 500 metres up a gully. You know, to keep it real again. We saw a few teams at the TA but don’t ask me what they were doing or where they were going.

With morale high, Leg 7 took us back on the bikes up the road to Stromlo to climb the steep fire road to the top. Having not slept for 48 hours + at this point, I decided to take a nodoz just before the climb. Holy. Moly. My eyeballs returned to their sockets, knees stopped aching and, clicking down into my granniest granny gear, I charged all the way up to the top without getting off. I even managed some primal whoop. I think everyone should get to experience a caffeine high after two days of sleep deprivation. Like, I’m pretty sure you haven’t lived until that moment.

Being locals to the area, the boys put away the maps and from Stromlo we sped on fire trails around the Arboretum and Black Mountain to the peninsula where we started the paddle leg.

Paul says this was the highlight for him because it was so trippy. We started this leg at 1am and there was no wind so the lake looked like glass. Everything on the bank had a reflection and everything was morphing into weird shapes. We were all feeling pretty tired by now and I couldn’t get my bearings for the life of me. Sleep monsters were everywhere we looked and while we made some good time collecting the first two CP’s after the third around Kingston Foreshore we slowed down considerably. I was having what felt like 5-minute dreams to jolt awake and find I was still paddling. Lee was also having trouble keeping himself awake because when I managed to keep my eyes open for more than a few minutes, I’d have to make sure he steered us clear of the trees and other debris around the edges. We finally made it to the TA and got ourselves a bit warmer around the gas heater.

Leg 8 was basically a huge hike around the Parliamentary Triangle to answer questions about buildings in Canberra. I would have prefered this be done on bike but as Tom pointed out, it was probably safer on foot. After passing the War Memorial, we decided to pop into Campbell shops around 5:30am to see if something was open. Lee knocked on the bakery door because there were lights on. Miraculously, someone came out and opened the door for us, we asked if we could buy something to eat and get coffee, she said she was just a baker and couldn’t make coffee for us but would let us buy food. I asked if I could make the coffees, as I knew how to use the machine and SHE AGREED. (Although I’m sure if she knew we hadn’t showered in a while it might have been a different story). So I made everyone a coffee, we scoffed some pies outside and marched onto the TA and our FINAL LEG.

Two climbs is what stood between us and the finish. We took the run-up fire trail to the top of Ainslie, which was mostly a hike a bike, then through the saddle to hike a bike up Majura. Close to the top, we came across a supporter’s sign for us, which had been vandalised and defaced by the BMX bandits and their grubby zinc. Soon after we met Ollie about halfway down the descent where he followed us along the wind tunnel of Majura parkway before wishing us well.

We crossed over the finish line after 3.25 days (78 hours) of racing with only 1 and a half hours sleep. To say our sleep strategy was aggressive is probably an understatement but got us through in the end.

On reflection we had a pretty good race partially due to the navigation of the boys being spot on, thanks to Richard Old and his crew for putting on a well organised expedition race in Canberra. We loved the course (even the hard parts) and really enjoyed racing around home.

Wildside Adventure Race 2017 There are many types of fun and for some reason, I keep having to push the limits of this "fun".

3 notes · View notes

a-solo-ginger · 7 years ago

Photo

Day 1 - the zombie day - it’s always the same - 24+ hours in the same attire - a melted face that’s begging to be cleaned - a body that aches from the cramped airline quarters - and exhaustion like you’ve never know …exhaustion by the way that only gets worse as you age …as I’m learning. And it’s not so much that you only had 3 hours of baby wailing interrupted sleep (Dreamliner is clearly a misnomer!) it’s that even once you land and navigate yourself to the hotel (btw that’s a good 2 hour journey of customs, baggage claim, terminal exiting, training to city centre and journey by foot to hotel) you still don’t get a break. ‘Sorry, the room will be available at 2 pm …please spend the next 4 hours wandering the streets in your day old stench.’

So one must do just that. As if wearing the same shoes for 24 hours were not enough, spending the next four hours walking 8.5 km in the shoes that now seem permanently attached to your feet really sounds sooo much better (because you know grabbing the book you’re reading and sitting in a park clearly didn’t cross your sleep deprived brain). Needless to say I found a croissant, then proceeded to find another croissant (and coffee - a momentary saviour) followed by mindless wandering around the Gare L’est station. Its funny to be in this area of Paris, despite how many times I have visited in the past, I’ve never journeyed back to where it all began. But today (because I had 4 hours!) I did.

It’s a very long and now funny story but back in 2006 when I trained in to Paris from Switzerland my first 3+ hours in this city should really have set the stage for me never to return. I arrived at Gare L’est (above) and all I had was an address of my hotel, no direction, no planning how I would get there, nothing. I ‘danced’ aimlessly with my copious amounts of luggage through the main hall of the station (I was finishing grad school and writing my thesis while also vacationing in Paris and well if you get that state of grad school brain you’ll understand why I thought I might also write my thesis while in Paris). Being a non-savvy traveller I brought all my journal papers and laptop … not to mention a suitcase weighing 50 lbs!! Me and my luggage were lost. But one of the attendants ‘helped’ me and said I needed to go to Gare du Nord who would then direct me where I needed She took me to the very end of the hall and pointed to the left. “You must go this way and then two streets up turn left and you will find the station.” To the left was a massive staircase. I asked her then “is this the only way…by stairs?!?” “Yes this is the way” - in her cold abrupt tone. Ok then! That day, in August 2006, I set out to find my hotel and I hauled my 50 plus lbs of luggage up that f*#%ing staircase and little did I know I still had a much longer (and again now funnier but then tearful) journey to go with even more stairs. I had never found this staircase again but it’s memory lives on vividly in my brain but today - today I walked those stairs again as I shook my head thinking what the hell was my 26 year old self thinking!! That staircase is in the picture above on the right. Oh and by the way, there is another way and it doesn’t involve stairs!! I learned that today too :)

2 notes · View notes

laviesepoursuit · 7 years ago

Text

my quarter-life crisis

i’m officially having my quarter-life crisis lol.

i say that with some humour, although i think i’m more lost than ever. i was going through old hard drives tonight. you can imagine my surprise when i unexpectedly came across a whole collection of songs written by my young, brooding, non-musically-inclined pre-teen self. because i am utterly uncreative, the songs seriously lacked any trace of artfulness or skillful musicality. however, i was profoundly struck by the undeniable unhappiness exuded by such a young girl. fun fact: when i was 8, i saw the school social worker because i was a “perfectionist.” after some one-on-one time, she relayed to my mother that she thought i was depressed. yup - an 8 year old, depressed.

fast forward to my apparent songwriting pre-teen and teenaged years, i always felt that i was facing an uphill battle. i always told myself things will get better and all this unhappiness and rewardless hard work and perseverance and sleep deprivation would all be worth it one day. this only continued to gain dangerous momentum during my university days - i was hurtling towards a brink that i prayed was not there.

but just before what would’ve been a horrific plummet into the depths of darkness, my spidey senses directed me to veer off course, re-directing the momentum towards a new path that i could forge on my own. i took it and it was wonderful. i felt like i was finally being rewarded for all the hard work. like the things i was always fighting for, for all these years, finally arrived.

just kidding. those 5 months were so deceitful. and i was so desperate and blind that i was so unprepared to resume fighting. i clung to those 5 months like there was no tomorrow and was convinced, for years, that those 5 months captured my best self. 5 months out of all my 24 years.

it took the next 3 years for me to recognize how ridiculous that was and to learn to stop looking backwards. THREE years! what was i doing, dwelling for three years?! i’m so mad at myself for holding onto that for so long.

still, i take this as a lesson learned to stop dwelling on the past, to focus on what’s to come. however, my dangerous and unstable desire to veer off course is causing me to commit desperate acts in search of answers. a year and a half ago, i moved 4500 km west and 3 hours into the past from Toronto to Vancouver, in hopes of some sort of clarity. well, i’m very introspective (aka melodramatic), and i don’t think i’ve achieved any level of clarity at this point. what the past year and a half has taught me, though, is how to better manage/accept feeling lost. i feel like i’m hanging in limbo.

so, long story...not short...*ahem*...i am now even deeper in limbo. i ended a 3 year relationship/5 year friendship. i declined any possibility of an extension at my current job here in vancouver. i’m terminating my lease at the end of october, and i booked a one-way ticket to europe. i’ll be travelling for 7 weeks, spending 5 and a half of them alone in spain. i’m keeping my belongings stored in vancouver to ensure i keep myself on my toes and out of my comfort zone (aka to force myself to come back here), but i’ll be flying back to toronto to further live out of a suitcase and plan out my next steps. for me, this is a really dramatic leap in a different direction. this is a really big deal for someone like me.

i don’t know what i’m searching for; i’m just searching for some kind of clarity. i’ve abandoned everything that ensured stability and i’m leaping head-first into the unknown. im frickin terrified. i’m going to have to get a Spanish phone plan by speaking Spanish, otherwise i won’t have a phone in Spain! i’m a millennial: phone = lifeline.

jokes aside, there’s now a fervent desperation about me. i think it started out as a conviction, but i am now in full-fledged desperation. i’m not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing. i’m trying to use it to fuel me in a positive way, but the lines between good and bad are so blurred in the realm of limbo.

all i can say is, i’m having my quarter-life crisis. i have no idea what i’m doing, where i’m going, or what is going to become of all this/me. but you just gotta keep swimming, right? wish me luck!

#laviesepoursuit

2 notes · View notes

lesbiansarelovely · 7 years ago

Note

Song recommendations :) please

ahh yay okay !! so idk what sorta music you're into but I listen to a clusterfuck of just idk I'm a mess so I'll try to group the recs by type and then whatever you're interested in you can try out sorta rock ish group I guess I don't know what I'm doing lol I'm so sorry - arctic monkeys (fav songs are arabella, fluorescent adolescent, and do I wanna know. overall this band has some pretty sick base drops and some funky rock beats), the front bottoms (fav songs are twin size mattress and peach. overall the lyrics are totally tubular and you see them embroidered all over the place lol), and then joy division which they rock (kms I'm so sorry that's a horrible pun) and basically every song but if you're looking for a place to start I think the first song I listened to was she's lost control and idk kinda goes without saying but if you're into rock you will probably have already listened to their music or will enjoy it idk songs/bands that make me want to live in a forest and eat berries and be mauled by a bear idk that's just the vibe I don't make the rules also pre bear mauling my wife and I would be in love and climbing trees and shit - hozier (fav songs cherry wine and from eden but actually everything bc his music warms my soul and basically it is very instrumental with angelic singing), I have listened to one song by ben howard in my life and it was old pine and I recommend, kaleo's song all the pretty girls makes me cry, I feel like vance joy's song georgia would work on this list, can everyone tell I'm tired as my descriptions slowly get shittier yes okay continuing, ivory hours warpaint is vv nice, james supercave body monsters has some interesting lyrics and I used to listen to it on repeat not gonna lie I do that with all songs until I hate them but oh well what can you do, that's it for now idk maybe I will add more at some point who knows girls with pretty voices that make me want a wife to sing to me and also I really just want a wife to love and cherish is that a big gay mood can everyone tellbim sleep deprived - regina spektor (fav song is samson im not religious idk I just think her voice is so beautiful but also really listen to all of her songs her voice is great), birdy (she sings so pretty so everything but skinny love is a popular one and good place to start if you don't listen to her already), ella eyre sang we don't have to take our clothes off and I died, lana del rey is lovely (fav songs video games is super great and also lots of her other songs), daughter !! is so great !! love her !! (fav songs are smother, youth, and lifeforms but really everything ever), where does the good go doesn't really belong here but I'm a lesbian and it's pure and also the vocals are lovely and it sounds upbeat miscellaneous mess™ - the lumineers are a fantastic band (love gun song, submarines, sleep on the floor), haven't listened to florence and the machine in a while but you can't go wrong here (my boy builds coffins, third eye, cosmic love), always here for the oldies but the goldies love 80s music and I know bohemian rhapsody was from '75 but I'm a slut for rounding up shoutout to my elementary maths teacher, anyway back to the 80s ya got journey, queen, rick astley, a-ha, prince, bon jovi, michael jackson, survivor, ac/dc, etc, throwback to pink she still owns my ass, kesha is my actual queen now idk girl I just love music and finally, the greatest song of all time, the bop, the banger - fireflies by owl city lol this was so long and I am so tired and I'll probably have to go back and fix this once I've slept but hopefully you like anything at all from this shit list anyway thank you so much for sending an ask you're the light of my life hope you have a lovely night :) also everyone else keep sending in asks and I would honestly be overjoyed to talk to you guys or answer any questions you have or listen to you rant or anything I love y'all am

3 notes · View notes

x-avantgarde · 7 years ago

Text

BTOB [TIME] 2017 Concert Report (Hong Kong)

Hello ya'll! So I've went to BTOB's concert yesterday (14th of July) and it was super awesome!! Even though the venue was really big, the seats weren't all filled (and there was a section across me where it was completely empty ;;) But thank god it didn't look like a black ocean (or else I would've seriously be sad (I was so worried, gosh)). Since the concert "starts" (always late -__-) at 8:00, I decided that I would get there around 5:30.

You could preorder lightsticks so I paid beforehand so I could get it on the day (on the merch table). For some reason, the merch table opened at 5 (it was kinda late), and the VIP ticket holders had to start lining up to have their 'mini fanmeeting' with BTOB prior to the concert (for like 20mins only?? XD).

After I got the ticket, it was lowkey boring since I was alone (waiting for my mom again ahem) and so all I did for the next hour was stand around... (there were so little people after the VIP people were let in because a lot of them were VIP ticket holders). So at around 6:50 (yes it was really painful waiting for my mom ;;), my mom finally arrived and we got some food in this small cafe inside the venue (the food wasn't that good tbh).

At around 7:15 we decided to go through security check (because SHINee's one took forever?!). But it was actually really fast (and this time, they didn't even take out my stuff), but they did have a metal detector... (and they would give you a wristband once you pass (I guess it's for security measures...)). I got in at 7:20 (LOL) and found my seat ;v; this time, I decided to sit in block 4 (which is the sides) (when I got the tickets a few months back) and I was kinda at like in the middle-ish bottom.

There were so little people at the venue I started getting worried (and it was 10mins before the concert started). Then right before the concert started, a shit ton of people came in (in crowds) and they didn't have lightsticks so it was sTraNge (and it felt like they were paid to get in or something because the venue was kinda empty).

So at around 8:10, the lights dimmed, and everyone turned on their lightsticks... it's time for BTOB to shine!! They started with a song (that I don't know the name of (I'm so sorry orz)), but it was really cool hahaha, this time, I actually warmed up way faster than I previously did (than SHINee) and started screaming way louder after this song ended XD

And then it was I'll Be Your Man!! It was sO gOOD (kms bc Hyunsik's vocals ARE SO oN poiNT I CAN'T (and he's also my bias so it's like additional points)). Hyunsik always sings the higher notes / sustained parts (??) / the climax part of the song so it was really great being able to hear them sing in real life ;v;

Eunkwang, and Changsub, as usual, rocked too in vocals!! Then Ilhoon was like KILLING it (along with Minhyuk and Peniel). Sungjae was surprisingly good with his vocals (I think he improved (I'm so proud of my bby ;;)). So after I'll Be Your Man (this song is my jam;;), it was Thriller! (Flashbacks to weekly idol when they were saying how their dance in the intro looked like they were washing clothes haha). The chorus is like KMS ITS SO GOOD.

After that, they had their opening speech, (featuring Sungjae's broken english). Most of them spoke English (except Hyunsik (who spoke Korean) and also Changsub). Peniel spoke first and omg he's so cute ;; Then Minhyuk introduced himself and said "I'M YOURS" (like wOA WOA WOA OK. I THOUGHT IM YOURS BUT IF YOU'RE MINE THAT WORKS TOO (jkjk)). He's such a bias wrecker lmao, and Changsub scrunched up his face purposefully when he heard Minhyuk saying that (and cringed haha (like same)).

Oh yeah, and Peniel kept asking us, "was it fun?" (he was expecting "YESS!" or something like that) but in exchange, he received screams hahaha, so he was like, "I want an answer, not (imitates girly screaming)" LMAO. So when he asked, (for some reason), I was going to say yes, but I ended up saying it too early (that the whole venue was quiet) ;; (and I was really loud too omg hahaha)

Then after that, cue to a messed up setlist. They also sang Someday, Second Confession, Wow, Peniel's new song (solo), Hyunsik solo (he sang a Mandarin song), Sungjae solo (Goblin OST??), then Ilhoon, Peniel and Minhyuk did a collab (insert song name lol), The Movie, Beep Beep Boop Boop (this was the third song on the setlist). I probably would know more if I listen to their songs again (but I'm so tired right now because I arrived home at 12am and I only got 8 hours of sleep;; (bc I went to bed at 1am)).

Memorable parts of the concert: During one of the MC moments, Ilhoon was like "you guys are hot" (I was legit like, "woa wOA woAAH WhAT?") until he said like hot as in the sweating kind of hot (lowkey disappointed (JKJK)). After Sungjae's solo, since he was wearing this long coat (bc Goblin lmao), Eunkwang said he really wanted to try the coat (and the members said, "It'll probably touch the ground if you wear it" (LMAO)).

So when he did, it reached his ankles haha. They also told him to reenact to one of the scenes and it was really cute and funny. Oh yeah, and at some point, Eunkwang showed his abs to the audience (OMG hahahah) and apparently "Someone had left their abs in Korea" (BTOB members look towards Minhyuk). Eunkwang only showed his abs for 2 seconds and Sungjae said "it looks like white chocolate' LOL.

I don't remember which part of the MC, but Sungjae wanted to say how we're a really cool crowd or something, but then he was like "you guys are so tasty" in English LMAO. The moment Peniel heard him, he was like wtf bruhhhh X"D and he tried to correct Sungjae (poor Peniel lololol). BTOB is so good at making their fans laugh bc legit the members were like "see? naturally, we only have 4 members left" (when Peniel legit just walked out of the stage) so everyone laughed hahaha.

Minhyuk is also such a bias wrecker? I didn’t really see why he was so popular in the beginning (im sorry), but after seeing him rap, I’m like fucking in love (kill me pls). He also kept shooting finger(?) hearts to everyone so /dies/. When the backdrop had them

I love them so much ;;v;;

The fans also prepared some rose lightsticks but guess what? ONLY MY SIDE OF THE SEATS DIDN'T GET THEM :DDDD /salt/ and the members took a few of them away (lmao) bc they "were really pretty". The fans also prepared some slogans but they didn't sing the songs (that were for the slogan), but in the end Ilhoon took them up and made this impressed face hahaha (idk why but he always reminds me of an old man?? X"D)

As an overall, it was really great and in no time, the concert came into an end ;v; it was really fun and really worth it. I feel so satisfied and happy after watching them perform and so I hope to see them again!! ;v;

Not related to Kpop shit: (it's all vkei ;v;)

(but after seeing Codomo's photos in Korea, I feel really jealous ;v; and also Pentagon performing in A-Kon (like "guys, you have fans in HK too" loLOLOL)). Not related to Kpop, but when Morrigan's Ayu kept on hinting that they're going to have an European tour on IG, I got really salty becauSE I WANT THEM TO COME TO HK TOO OK /extremely live deprived/ (which is the result of me being salty at all of the bands not coming to hk lmao)

(but Versailles is coming to HK and I really want to go ;v;;;;;;;;;;;;; but at the same time, if Pentagon came, I would have definitely went ;v;;;;;; I want to hear Hizaki's guitar shredding but then no one likes Versailles (not that I know of) ;v;;; and I don't want to be stuck alone ;v;;;;;;)

Basically sad life lol. IM GOING TO WAIT FOR KIRYU, ROYZ AND/OR CODOMO DRAGON TO COME TO HK. C'MON GUYS, IM WAITING TO SPEND ALL MY MONEY ON YA'LL.

#btob #sungjae #peniel #minhyuk #eunkwang #hyunsik #changsub #ilhoon #btob concert #btob concert experience #live report #kpop concert experience #kpop #concert #yay

4 notes · View notes

aritamirablr · 7 years ago

Photo

Primavera Sound tour by Dr. Stings

Day 1

Curiously, as I am starting to write this little ‘article’, Frank Ocean is playing on my Spotify. And to imagine that I almost gave up going because he bailed on us, festival fools. Barcelona was pretty much the same way as I had left it two weeks ago, hot and beautiful! Going to Parc del Fórum wasn’t the most amusing part of it. Although being a little far was inconvenient at times, I was blessed with this wonderful terrace where I could soak up the sun. Truly blessed, if it had had a swimming pool too!

First band, Kevin Morby. After walking what seemed like one km, which made me miss Porto’s grassy lane. The best of it comparatively. And after came Miguel, and oh boy what a blast that was. This guy is so talented and funny, truly impressing. He said ‘make some noise if you don't need any help to have a fucking good time’. And being a single girl at a festival on a different country I felt reassured by my decision to go solo (soloooo, solooo, by myself!). Broken Social Scene was a miss, these Canadian guys are really something. Hope I can catch them sometime later.

Anyway, that night was really about seeing Ms. Solange. What a fierceful woman. To be able to show vulnerability and strength at the same time is the quality that I most admire in people. And most of us can’t do it. I’ve seen the whiners (like myself), I’ve met the strong, but rude, and then I’ve met the strong with kindness. I can count them on one hand. ‘It’s like cranes in the sky, sometimes I don’t wanna feel those metal clouds’. We had serious, we had funky, she even sang a Blood Oraange song, and had her choosing first liners to sing for. God.

I then betrayed Bon Iver to see BadbadNotGood and couldn’t have been more happy about it. Their jazzy contemporary vibes are so incredible, apart from the amazing interaction with the public: 'No judgement here. Let's have fun, let's flow, let's be one together'.

Coca-cola sofas were as comfy as ever (they even made miss some concerts, how come?!). At some point I started talking to this glittery boy, who came with his gang from London. 'So, where's your gang? I'm here by myself. You are? Huge respect! I can't even go to the movies by myself!'.

Aphex Twin, helping me with my noisy brazilian neighbours and when I need to feel less anxious about work. Of course, none of the songs I usually listen to were played. Of course he wasn’t going to play Avril14th! As I was about to leave for my bus ride (btw Kaytranada should’ve been in this line-up), I listened to this amazing sound and checked the primavera’s app for a photographer/designer turned musician called Tycho. And that was it, for the first day.

Day 2

Resolution for day 2 was arriving earlier. And obviously that did not happen, so unpredictable! Nothing to do with the festival but I need to talk about my cooking skills during a sleep deprived hangover festival state. Brilliant! At the hostel I met these portuguese girls: Joana, Sara and Carolina, who were putting make-up with their XX t-shirts on. The XX gang!

Sinkane was playing when I got in. But all I really cared about was going to the Ray-Ban stage and wait for Sampha. Met this couple at the front and the guy was wearing a Flying Lotus you're dead album cover t-shirt and had met Sampha among the crowd and hugged him. Wish I had a huge hug from Sampha! What a soulful boy. If heartache, pain and loss can be interpreted beautifully, he is the person to do it. ‘If heaven is a prison, then I’m your prisoner, yes I am your prisoner’. After what was the most special moment of the festival for me, I bailed on Mac De Marco to rest at the Mango spot, a glass of wine on one hand and an orange juice on the other. Time could pass me by and I didn’t care. I didn’t care to run to the next performer as if my life depended on it. And that feeling was kind of cool. I’m either getting wiser, older, or both.

The XX, I dare you not to feel touched by them. ‘I can hear it now like I heard it then’. At some Romy said ‘Do you know what, I'm so nervous. Do you know why? Because I care’. That was reaching out, that was showing vulnerability in the right way. VCR was a classic. I ran around all over the place cause I couldn’t stand still. And then Oliver says ‘I wanna dedicate this next song to all the singles’. ‘Lips’ of course! Followed by Loud Places, Angels and Perfomance (hugging Anna at this point).‘I’ll put on performance, I’ll put on a show, it is a performance’. Last but not least they say ‘Take care of each other’. Do we?

After came Jamie XX and while I admire his DJ skills I just wish he had stick to the best album of 2015, In colour. But thanks for playing Mall Grab’s Alicia Keys song cover. Best ironic award of Primavera Barcelona goes out to Jamie for mixing his Gosh with Frank Ocean’s Nikes. I am your replacement but I’ll fit you in. Cleeeever. Ok, so what’s up with this dude from Flying fkin’ Lotus? Did he came from outer space? Celestial, esoteric, groovy and funky all together. Home. Before what seemed an endless bus ride.

Day 3

Last day and I manage to arrive even later. Yeiii! Not just because I am always taking a stupid amount of pictures, of course. I went to see Pond, which last song was beautifully played and it was golden hour, so it couldn’t have been more special. Then I came back to walk another 800m to see Miss Angie Olsen playing. This year’s big sensation. She started with my favourite ‘Shut up, kiss me, hold me tight’. Then back to Mango stage to see Metronomy and I feel like I’m running the marathon. Oh, after Pond I passed by this Fujifilm stand that was taking instant pics and got my souvenir, to feeding my instagram obsession. Let’s see, Metronomy. It has been my favourite band since like, I started hearing them, but their shows don’t quite grasp it. Fun, but they could do so much better. Of course I danced, I screemed, and had a musical orgasm when they played Radio Ladio. Grace Jones, not my thing, but I can definitely recognize this ladycat’s talents! So then Arcade Fire starts and I’ve missed their surprise concert (like 2km away from this stage), but I had to go see Mr. Archie Marshall. What an amazing voice.

After ginger power was over I started feeling the effects of four days in Barcelona waking up to my enthusiastic ‘let’s get up at 8 to get to know all the city’ roommates. So, coca-cola stand again! For like too hours. Met some other tired folks, charged my phone, untiiil I start hearing not very far from there: HAIM. Coolest girls ever!!! Just when I was about to call it a night I had my new friends from London convincing me to go to Chk Chk Chk, and ended up staying until the morning with the company of nothing less buut Dj Coco. So much from being exhausted. Going to festivals is the most tiresome and revigorating activity I’ve ever done in my life. Curious right? 😊 And none of this would have been possible if it wasn’t for Frank Ocean!

P.S: I am the little kid playing in the park downtown (only for KOC fans).

1 note · View note

tipotatimes · 5 years ago

Text

scatology

Hi hi dear hopefully no longer grumpy and sleep-deprived friend!!

I hope Wednesday found you in better spirits…

I am pretty sleepy I have to say. Yesterday the heat hit us hard, and today I biked maybe 15 km or more, not so much, but in over 35 degrees, it was a bit draining. But I got the solar phone chargers for me and C. And, with two trips to the bank and two to the accountant (ah, the muddled, heat hormone dampened brain), I did my taxes and paid the rent. Oh my, what exciting times we are living, I tell you.

And now, just after a flaming urban sunset, I am crashing. I need still to do another bureaucratic thing for tomorrow morning which will involve the fulfillment of more bureaucratic, mainly health duties. Ah, the body. Ah.

I am sorry to hear about grumpy, the fear of pain and all that hardcore intensity. Something snapped in me the other day and now I no longer feel the fear. Or rather, I am in a temporary, no doubt very, zone of not worry. Let’s see how many more minutes it lasts :)

Haha, the middle aged entitled white men. Very nice description of them, thank you. I will take it with me, then chuck it far, fling the shit away from I and I. oh fuck, I am so tired my eyes are shutting, is this a food induced coma? It’s just 9 pm now. Come on. I need to formulate questions for the private health insurance salesman I will meet at a local café at 10 am after having peed into a pot and gone to the fucking testing centre to deliver them my liquids for study. I am tired just thinking of this pair of joyful happenings with which I will start my last day here in the city before the long journey to another world entirely. Hopefully not too crowded this other world, else I’ll have to run back to the city quick.

Well as you can tell, I don’t really have anything to say, no fritto misto of any particular emotion, except sleepiness perhaps. Ah, you can have a snippet of my dream if you like. The most beautiful house I have seen in this city, belonging to a couple friend of mine. But really nice, and totally distinct, not at all in keeping with any style I know in the city. I am enthusiastically telling them this. Also with amazing views of trees, a bit of the sea. Stunning. Turns out the flat above and to the left is free, for sale. NO WAY! Can we go have a look? and indeed we do. Apparently no issue with locks and such. And it keeps revealing more rooms, beautiful, it’s kind of a curved corner space, beautiful dark matte wood parquet, curves, a clear view of the sea, loads of trees in the park in front. I mean really, not the usual as you can imagine. I am getting very excited, maybe, could I afford this? Unlikely, given the area, very central and pretty desirable, but maybe… why hasn’t it sold immediately? I find out (they are with me, or the bloke is, behind) there’s another floor, I can’t believe it, the place is massive! I go up. I think it’s just one room, the bedroom, maybe an en suite bathroom. The door is almost shut, I gently push it open, as if expecting to find someone there. I don’t, but what I do find is two pools of thick, dry blood, which I know poured out of the head of the woman whose house this was when she was murdered. I freeze, I slam the door shut, turn around, chilled to the bone. How do I know this? And why didn’t my friends tell me? And who was this woman? I think later she is revealed as a blond glamorous type. I am an idiot, when you dream of murder and houses, you should note it down in your dream book, but today was too much of a rushing day, so I didn’t. so I send it to you instead. I hope you don’t mind a bit of murder for dinner. Maybe it can help murder the bad mood. I hope so.

And now I am going to not fucking think of questions for the traveling health insurance salesman, as planned, nor am I going to start gathering my things, packing spices into tiny pots, putting oil into bottles, in preparation for the trip. Nope. I’m a gonna do nothing at all. I’m gonna lie down (though shit, that means I’ll be up at 3 am…) so maybe instead then I’ll fret some. OR READ! There has been scarce reading of late on this side of the world. Why I don’t know. but hopefully on the island we will read more. or not. i rarely read when there actually. i usually engage in a LOT OF NOTHING. lying staring into space. dozing. walking. cooking. sleeping. finding a high, hidden place (with view) in which to release whatever my bowls have to offer the earth that day. Sorry. Enough of me.

0 notes

bpellerin · 5 years ago

Text

How can you help by driving just a little bit less?

This article asks the question, and answers it:

It turns out that even driving just 10 percent less — if everyone did it — would have a big impact on greenhouse gas emissions.

That’s because Americans drive trillions of miles every year, helping to make transportation the biggest contributor to United States greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2017, light-duty vehicles in the United States (including cars, S.U.V.s, pickups and most of the vehicles used for everyday life) produced 1,098 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents. That’s about one-fifth of the country’s total emissions footprint.

A 10 percent cut, therefore, would be roughly 110 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, or the same as taking about 28 coal-fired power plants offline for a year.

To achieve such a reduction, every American driver would, on average, have to cut about 1,350 miles per year.

While not easy, that target is realistic for most people, said Tony Dutzik, a senior policy analyst at the Frontier Group, a nonprofit research organization.

A low-hanging fruit is shorter rides, Mr. Dutzik said. Over one-third of all car trips are less than two miles, so walking, biking or taking public transport for some of those trips could add up. Planning ahead to combine errands and avoid unnecessary trips could help, too, he said.

Let’s do some math. Say you drive 20,000 km per year, which isn’t far from the average. Reducing your driving by 10% means driving 2,000 less than you’d normally do. Divided over 50 weeks, that’s 40 fewer km each week.

Say you drive your car to work, and your place of work is 10 km from your home. That’s 20 km each day. That would mean two days a week of not driving your own car. Maybe you could bike, take the bus, or car-pool. That’s certainly feasible for most people who live close enough to half-decent transit or bike paths, but it’s certainly not an easy thing to do if getting to work by transit takes 40% longer than driving your own car. Or if biking really isn’t your thing or impractical for your, or if there are no bike paths. (Plus winter; not everyone wants to do cold-weather biking.)

Maybe you can’t take longer to get to work or back home at the end of the day because you have kids who need help getting ready for school and eating dinner in time to be at a piano lesson by 6:45 and the bus timing wouldn’t work. So then what.

Target shorter trips? Sure. Take grocery shopping. Say the store you normally go to is 6 km from your house, and you go there twice a week. You could bike that when the weather is nice enough, sure. But how to bring back the groceries for a family of four? Your bike would need a sturdy trailer, or you’d need to switch to a cargo bike. These look good to you, but ouch, price tag. Out of your budget.

Then what. Kids’ activities? If you’re like me, those are all over the place, and they often happen in the evening and you’re conscious of the need for your children to get a full night sleep so taking longer by transit or bike to get home at 8 pm than it would be to drive isn’t something you’re prepared to do.

Could you think ahead a little more and plan your errands in such a way that you’d combine them and be more efficient? Probably. But I’m going to guess you’re already doing a decent job of that so let’s assume you might be able to shave 12 km a week by planning a little more tightly. That’s good. But a little far off the mark.

You see where I’m going.

While we all know someone who enjoys driving for the fun of it and doesn’t mind taking their car to go get a loaf of bread half an hour before jumping in their car again to go to Starbucks, most people try to be careful and not drive more than they have to. Gas prices being what they are, we’re all trying to save. But we have schedules and family needs that, in a city like Ottawa that was built for cars, are difficult to meet otherwise. Sure, you could cancel the kids’ pottery classes and save yourself an easy 20 km of driving a week. But you’d be depriving your son of something he thoroughly enjoys. And besides, what if nobody else makes an effort to reduce their driving and you’re the only family making sacrifices? What would be the good of that? Better not to think about it too much.

Here’s something else: If you’re already driving your car to work chances are you’re also paying for parking there. Say you’re paying $150 a month for that privilege. If you decided to make the effort of taking transit two days a week, not only would it cost you precious time but you’d have to pay for those transit trips and you’d “waste” 2/5 of the value of what you’re paying for parking.

Ugh. This is getting depressing.

I’m a big fan of micro-gestures like taking your cloth bags to the store or buying reusable bamboo cutlery for eating out or buying unpackaged lettuce or eating less meat. But that’s not where most of our emissions come from. They come from transportation. And while most people I think would welcome the opportunity to reduce their transportation emissions, it has to be realistic and reasonably affordable to do so otherwise very few people will make the sacrifice.

That’s where public authorities need to spend their energies targeting people who might switch to transit if only transit were efficient enough and offered a financial advantage. If buses and LRT were free to use, for instance, that might be enough to entice more than a few people to take transit provided service was good and reliable enough to get them to work and back in good time. But that presupposes more capacity, more financial investments (OC Transpo fares bring in nearly $200 million a year out of a half-billion budget, that money would have to come from somewhere) and a real commitment to making public transportation options more attractive than private cars. And I don’t just mean safe bike infrastructure. I mean higher prices for driving downtown and a reduction in parking spaces in the core. I don’t need to tell you that wouldn’t be an easy sell politically.

In theory, for each of us to reduce the number of km we drive by 10% doesn’t sound like such a big step. But in practice, without clear incentives to do so, including financial incentives, it ain’t going to happen.

#Driving #cars #transportation #transit

0 notes

jesseneufeld · 6 years ago

Text

Dear Mark: Antibiotic Recovery, Sprinting on Keto, Preparing for Bad Sleep

For today’s edition of Dear Mark, I’m answering three questions. First up, what can a person do to help their gut recover its barrier function after too many antibiotics? Are there any foods, supplements, or dietary strategies? Second, what can explain rapid fatigue during sprint sessions on a keto diet? Is this simply part of the deal, or are there modifications you can make? And finally, what do I do when I know I’m going to get a bad night’s sleep?

Let’s go:

Mark – any idea how to cure leaky gut caused by overuse of antibiotics. Tried raw dairy for a month to no avail.

First of all, check out my post on leaky gut. Read through it and follow my suggestions for preventing and treating intestinal permeability. It’s a great place to start.

Then, let’s look at some other interventions that have been shown to improve recovery from antibiotic therapy. While most of the studies referenced don’t explicitly describe antibiotic-induced leaky gut, anything that improves gut function and restores healthy gut bacteria will also normalize leaky gut—since it’s the eradication of native gut bacteria that causes antibiotic-induced leaky gut.

Fermented dairy. You tried raw dairy. What about fermented dairy? While raw dairy has its merits, it’s fermented dairy that just works for recovery from antibiotics. Yogurt is a good option to try, although the evidence is a bit inconsistent. Kefir is probably better; it’s been shown to improve patients’ tolerance to triple antibiotic therapy during treatment for H. pylori infection. This is even worth consuming during antibiotic therapy, as many of the probiotic bacteria found in fermented dairy show resistance to common antibiotics.

Fermented vegetables like sauerkraut are also must-eats. The fermented cabbage contains ample amounts of L. plantarum, a bacteria strain that’s been shown to prevent antibiotic-related diarrhea in piglets (another omnivorous mammal). Good options exist in stores (check the refrigerated section; shelf-stable pickles and kraut aren’t lactofermented), and even more are available in farmer’s markets, but the best way to get the most bacteria-rich vegetable ferments is to make your own.

Supplemental probiotics are fantastic here, too: large doses of the desired microorganisms delivered directly to your gut. Some of the strains used in Primal Probiotics, like B. clausii and S. boulardii, have been shown to be effective against antibiotic-related diarrhea, so that could be a good choice.

Don’t forget the food for your gut bugs: prebiotics. You need to eat fermentable fibers and other prebiotics like resistant starch to support the growth and maintenance of the helpful bacteria that improve gut barrier function. Consider eating cooked and cooled potatoes, unheated potato starch, leeks, garlic, onions, green bananas, apples, pears, berries, and pretty much any fruit or vegetable you can get your hands on. Plenty of them are low-carb enough to work on a keto diet, if that’s your desire. Oh, and dark chocolate is a great source of fiber and polyphenols, which have prebiotic effects in the gut.

Incorporate intermittent fasting. Going without food for a spell gives your gut a break and induces autophagy, which can help with tissue healing.

Get dirty, too, to introduce potentially helpful bacteria. Go out and garden. Go barefoot at the park (do your due/doo diligence, of course) and practice tumbling, or roughhouse with your kids (or friends). Don’t immediately rush to wash your hands all the time (unless you’ve been handling raw meat and/or dog poop).

Whatever you do, don’t stress too much about the antibiotics you had to take. Stress is awful for gut health and you’ve already taken the antibiotics—which were probably necessary—so that ship has sailed.

If probiotics with prebiotics aren’t helping (or making things worse), you might want to try going the opposite direction—removing all plant foods and doing a carnivore diet for a few weeks. While I have doubts about the long term viability and safety of eschewing all plant foods, enough people have written to me about their great experiences resolving gut issues with a bout of carnivory that it’s worth trying.

When on a strict keto plan, why do I become so quickly fatigued while attempting a HIT sprint workout?

The first five seconds of a sprint are primarily powered by phosphocreatine (or creatine phosphate), a “quick burst” energy source that burns hot but disappears quickly. This is the stuff used to perform max effort Olympic lifts, short sprints, and other rapid expressions of maximum power. It doesn’t last very long and takes a couple minutes to replenish itself. A keto diet doesn’t affect our creatine phosphate levels. If anything, it should improve them if we’re eating meat.

After five seconds, anaerobic metabolism of muscle glycogen provides the lion’s share of your energy needs. The longer your sprint, the more glycogen you’ll burn. The less glycogen you carry in your muscles, the shorter your sprint. Because once you run out of creatine phosphate and glycogen, you’re left with aerobic metabolism—great for longer distances, not so great for max effort sprints.

Keto dieters tend to walk around with less glycogen in their muscles. If that’s the case, longer sprints will be harder.

If you want to keep sprinting:

Do shorter sprints. Try a 10-second hill sprint rather than a 20-second one. Really go hard. Heck, you can even do 5-second sprints and derive major benefits; just do more of them and make sure to recover in between. There’s no rule saying you have to sprint for 20-30 seconds.

Take longer rest periods. Give your muscles a chance to replenish more creatine phosphate (and take creatine or eat red meat and fish, which are the best sources of dietary creatine).

Eat 20-30 grams of carbs 30 minutes before a sprint session. See if it helps. Alternatively, you can eat the 20-30 grams of carbs after the sprint session to replenish lost glycogen stores (without really impacting your ketone adaptation, by the way).

Most people figure out their sprinting sweet spot while doing keto. They may have to play around with the dosages, durations, and rest periods, but you can usually make it work. Be open to trying new permutations.

If you knew you were going to have a poor nights sleep, what measures would you take to reduce some of the damage?

I would exercise hard that night. Normally, a bad night’s sleep tanks your insulin sensitivity the next day, giving you the insulin resistance and glucose tolerance of a diabetic. A good hard interval session the night before a bad night’s sleep, however, counters the next-day insulin resistance.

I would make the most of it. Don’t dawdle. Don’t beat yourself up because of the impending sleep deprivation. It’s going to happen. You have to accept it, not let it destroy you.

Enjoy it. A little-known acute treatment for depression is sleep deprivation. That’s right: a single night of sleep deprivation has been shown to ameliorate depression in patients with clinical depression. Sometimes the effect lasts up to several weeks. It’s not a long term or sustainable fix for clinical depression, obviously, and you can’t do it every single night—chronic sleep deprivation is a major risk factor for developing depression—but it can improve your mood if you give in to it.

I would set out a jar of cassia cinnamon. I always add cassia cinnamon to my coffee in the morning after bad sleep; cassia cinnamon the day after a bad night’s sleep attenuates the loss of insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance.

That’s it for today, folks. Thanks for writing in and reading! If you have any input on today’s round of questions, let me know down below.

(function($) { $("#dfEbuhs").load("https://www.marksdailyapple.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=dfads_ajax_load_ads&groups=674&limit=1&orderby=random&order=ASC&container_id=&container_html=none&container_class=&ad_html=div&ad_class=&callback_function=&return_javascript=0&_block_id=dfEbuhs" ); })( jQuery );

window.onload=function(){ga('send', { hitType: 'event', eventCategory: 'Ad Impression', eventAction: '66572' });}

References:

De vrese M, Kristen H, Rautenberg P, Laue C, Schrezenmeir J. Probiotic lactobacilli and bifidobacteria in a fermented milk product with added fruit preparation reduce antibiotic associated diarrhea and Helicobacter pylori activity. J Dairy Res. 2011;78(4):396-403.

Bekar O, Yilmaz Y, Gulten M. Kefir improves the efficacy and tolerability of triple therapy in eradicating Helicobacter pylori. J Med Food. 2011;14(4):344-7.

Erginkaya Z, Turhan EU, Tatl? D. Determination of antibiotic resistance of lactic acid bacteria isolated from traditional Turkish fermented dairy products. Iran J Vet Res. 2018;19(1):53-56.

Yang KM, Jiang ZY, Zheng CT, Wang L, Yang XF. Effect of Lactobacillus plantarum on diarrhea and intestinal barrier function of young piglets challenged with enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli K88. J Anim Sci. 2014;92(4):1496-503.

Jitomir J, Willoughby DS. Cassia cinnamon for the attenuation of glucose intolerance and insulin resistance resulting from sleep loss. J Med Food. 2009;12(3):467-72.

The post Dear Mark: Antibiotic Recovery, Sprinting on Keto, Preparing for Bad Sleep appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Dear Mark: Antibiotic Recovery, Sprinting on Keto, Preparing for Bad Sleep published first on https://drugaddictionsrehab.tumblr.com/

0 notes

lauramalchowblog · 6 years ago

Text

Dear Mark: Antibiotic Recovery, Sprinting on Keto, Preparing for Bad Sleep

Let’s go:

Mark – any idea how to cure leaky gut caused by overuse of antibiotics. Tried raw dairy for a month to no avail.

First of all, check out my post on leaky gut. Read through it and follow my suggestions for preventing and treating intestinal permeability. It’s a great place to start.

Incorporate intermittent fasting. Going without food for a spell gives your gut a break and induces autophagy, which can help with tissue healing.

When on a strict keto plan, why do I become so quickly fatigued while attempting a HIT sprint workout?

Keto dieters tend to walk around with less glycogen in their muscles. If that’s the case, longer sprints will be harder.

If you want to keep sprinting:

Take longer rest periods. Give your muscles a chance to replenish more creatine phosphate (and take creatine or eat red meat and fish, which are the best sources of dietary creatine).

If you knew you were going to have a poor nights sleep, what measures would you take to reduce some of the damage?

I would make the most of it. Don’t dawdle. Don’t beat yourself up because of the impending sleep deprivation. It’s going to happen. You have to accept it, not let it destroy you.

That’s it for today, folks. Thanks for writing in and reading! If you have any input on today’s round of questions, let me know down below.

(function($) { $("#dfNgOXO").load("https://www.marksdailyapple.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=dfads_ajax_load_ads&groups=674&limit=1&orderby=random&order=ASC&container_id=&container_html=none&container_class=&ad_html=div&ad_class=&callback_function=&return_javascript=0&_block_id=dfNgOXO" ); })( jQuery );

window.onload=function(){ga('send', { hitType: 'event', eventCategory: 'Ad Impression', eventAction: '67622' });}

References:

Bekar O, Yilmaz Y, Gulten M. Kefir improves the efficacy and tolerability of triple therapy in eradicating Helicobacter pylori. J Med Food. 2011;14(4):344-7.

Erginkaya Z, Turhan EU, Tatl? D. Determination of antibiotic resistance of lactic acid bacteria isolated from traditional Turkish fermented dairy products. Iran J Vet Res. 2018;19(1):53-56.

Jitomir J, Willoughby DS. Cassia cinnamon for the attenuation of glucose intolerance and insulin resistance resulting from sleep loss. J Med Food. 2009;12(3):467-72.

The post Dear Mark: Antibiotic Recovery, Sprinting on Keto, Preparing for Bad Sleep appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Dear Mark: Antibiotic Recovery, Sprinting on Keto, Preparing for Bad Sleep published first on https://venabeahan.tumblr.com

0 notes