#it really just happens mainly when I'm working or outdoors the whole day!

[anonymusbosch]

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[redwinterroses]

How much would I have to pay you for you to continue on that train of thought? /hj

asdfghjkl fine. XD

But I'm putting it under the cut because it's gonna be long and it's not like anyone's going to want to reblog this so that shouldn't annoy anyone lol

Rosarian Celebrations

Spring Rains: when the first warm rains of spring arrive, the next day is a festival. If school is still in session, they get the day off, people close most businesses unless they're selling food or other party supplies, and the entire kingdom has a party. Farming villages get REALLY into it and everyone breaks out the last of the winter cider and gets very drunk. Only prissy-pants wear shoes -- go barefoot in that fresh (freezing, it's still cold lol) mud. Many places set up mud-slicks, which are smoothed tracks down slopes that are absolute muddy messes and everyone goes sliding. City celebrations tend to be a little more structured, but there's still a tradition of getting a bit of mud smudged on your cheeks to show you're celebrating, and while few people really go barefoot, there's a special sort of disposable cloth shoe that people will wear that they paint up with all sorts of fun designs. Kids love doing these for their whole families, like Christmas cookies or Easter eggs. If it rains all through the festival, it's considered good luck for the coming spring. (Note; down through the centuries, the name of this festival probably gets corrupted by people saying it fast and becomes known as Springrens.)

Summer's Crest: the longest day of the year is a festival in many countries, and the high meadows of Rosarian are no exception. It's a typical summer festival with outdoor games and competitions of strength and traveling plays and music and such, but at exactly noon the local magistrate or lord will place the first piece of wood on what will become the night's bonfire. Through the rest of the day, everyone contributes a log or a branch or even just a twig -- whatever they can afford or are able to carry -- but every piece of wood is also accompanied by a flower, tied with a bit of silk thread. (And it has to be silk. If you use cotton people judge you.) At midnight exactly, the bonfire is lit, and people spend the rest of the night roasting things over the flames and dancing around it and such. No one is allowed to add any more fuel, but it's also traditional not to go to bed until it goes out (similar to us staying up until midnight to welcome in the new year).

Harvestide: bringing in the crops is always a cause for celebration, long nights, and finally getting a rest after the flurry of work to get everything harvested. Candymaking is a big part of this festival, probably dating back to people preserving fruit and such for the winter. These days though, it's more for fun and less for making food last longer. If it hasn't snowed yet, they bring down snow from the peaks and make syrup candies on big sheets of snow. Caramelized nuts are always popular, and dried fruit with honey is an easy and relatively inexpensive one that even poorer households can manage. (Honey is also a huge export of Rosarian, and bees are incredibly important to their agriculture). This is also the time of year when rose petals are harvested and dried, after which they're used mainly in teas. Rose oil is also extracted, and is one of the more expensive exports from Rosarian.

First Snow: Much like Spring Rains/Springrens, First Snow changes its date and may actually take place before Harvestide, though if that happens it's generally a bad sign and heralds a hard winter to come. It's a smaller festival and each village tends to have its own regional way of celebrating. Snow runs are popular, especially in cities, where people go on barefoot midnight runs through the snow en-mass. This trends toward the younger population that hasn't yet decided running barefoot through city streets is not the best or safest idea, but it's still pretty common. Universities have recurring problems when students decide that if shoes are optional, maybe other clothes should be too. XD One constant, however, is snow-cream: a kind of ice cream made with snow, sugar, vanilla, and cream (and sometimes egg). Venders will set up on city street corners and sell it by the scoop, but just about everyone has childhood memories of setting out clean pans for weeks in hopes of snow, and then collecting it and making tiny little portions of snow cream for themselves and their siblings.

Birthdays: birthdays are celebrated with a bouquet of the person's favorite flowers, fruit pies, and special candles shipped in from Pixandria, which are lit and left to burn down all night long. Hidden in the wax is a trinket of some kind that will be revealed as it melts away -- usually a small piece of copper jewelry or a wrapped honey candy, but can also be a fortune written on a strip of silk.

Weddings: weddings and funerals are the only appropriate time to use roses as decoration, and brides traditionally wear pink or yellow gowns dyed with roses. Weddings take place on hilltops, either open to the sky or in small pavilions built to purpose, and are traditionally very long ceremonies where every relative is given the chance to make a speech and give advice and well-wishes. It's also traditional for the couple to be barefoot during the ceremony, and if you're especially wealthy you might provide your guests with chairs -- otherwise, they sit in the grass or stand the whole time. For reasons you can probably imagine, eloping is common, though considered Very Scandalous lol.

Funerals: funerals are the other time for roses, but in this case only white and true-red roses are acceptable, and they are only used to adorn the coffin and the crypt. Rosarians are buried in the caves beneath their mountains, far deeper than the storage caves that hold winter stores, and there are vast networks of catacombs that can sometimes connect distant cities if you can find your way through them. Funerals are completely silent during the ceremony, save for one member of the family who is chosen to say a final blessing over the deceased and read out their will, if there is one. Afterward, there's a period of mourning called "the wilting" (as in "she's in wilting" or "when he's done with the wilting he'll get around to that") during which the bereaved wear either white or red and traditionally don't eat meat (though that's an older custom that isn't strictly followed by many, other than not serving it during the funeral meal.)

_________

Rosarian Customs

Rulers: The crown of Rosarian is passed matrilineally, and goes to the eldest heir regardless of gender. The second in succession (either a sibling or a cousin from the mother's side) is usually trained as either an ambassador to the other empires or as a military leader, depending on which they're more suited for. If a ruler doesn't have any children, the crown goes to the next closest relative on their mother's side who isn't already the heir to their own family title. If an heir is young enough, they're usually adopted into the royal household and raised with the schooling and training of a natural-born heir.

Jobs: besides the usual farmers/crop-growers and livestock keepers (particularly sheep/goats, rabbits, and bees), a common Rosarian job is that of "pickers" -- people who spend their non-winter months on the high slopes, collecting flowers in various ways. Among pickers are a few subsets -- "seedmen" who purely harvest seeds for planting elsewhere, "pressers" who usually travel in teams with wagons carrying large flower presses and bring back dried and pressed flowers (some of them also specialize in pressing various oils), and "rooters" who bring back full plants, roots and all. They tend to live nomadic lifestyles during these months, and while it can be a bit hardscrabble, it's romanticized very much (similar to how shepherds are seen in medieval literature/art.)

Architecture: Rosarian is a land in which wood isn't exactly scarce, but it can be quite expensive and has to come from special farms or be shipped up to the meadows. So most city buildings and places of business tend to be made of stone -- however, in villages (where perhaps they don't have the time, resources, or skills to quarry) sod houses are not uncommon, and can result in incredibly picturesque townships where the roofs are all gardens and the whole place is heady with the smell of flowers and the buzzing of bees. Low, sturdy builds are the most common (and are useful during the long, harsh winters)

Religion: Rosarians worship a single nameless god who is portrayed as a rose plant: flower, vine, thorn, and root. Those four elements are considered to mean "all of everything" so if you swear something you might swear "by my flower, vine, thorn, and root" and the phrase comes up in weddings and adoptions especially. Places of worship tend to be tall arbors with climbing rose vines, and usually have a gaggle of orphans or street kids around who are hired as caretakers for the vines and given the task of climbing up in the trellises and arches to pluck dead leaves, prune and train vines, and get rid of pests. Children are considered very important in Rosarian religion and are often referred to as "pips" or "seedlings" or even "sprouts" ("sprout" is an affectionate name for kids, like how English-speakers might say "peanut") in holy texts, and one of the priests' highest responsibilities is to make sure that there isn't a child in the community who goes without whatever they need to live and thrive, whether that be food, schooling, clothes, or even an apprenticeship to a suitable job. Priests are usually also very skilled gardeners, and in many cities the biggest apiaries are run by the church.

Pastimes: Rosarians spend most of their winter months hunkered down inside or exploring the caverns beneath their meadows. This leads to an explosion of recreational pursuits in the winter months, and both painting and fabric arts are very popular (and accessible, as everyone has access to plenty of flowers during the rest of the year with which to make dyes.) Stringed instruments are few and far between, but wind instruments -- especially flutes and a small type of bagpipe -- are common, and there's a rich cultural library of vocal music, including hundreds of folk and fairy tales set to verse. During the spring, summer, and early autumn, most people don't have time for relaxation, but the hills often echo with the music of pickers, who communicate back and forth with each other through a musical language that can be heard long-distance across the meadows.

________

...so that's a start anyway. I might have to recycle this for a fantasy novel or a DnD campaign or something someday, lol. I just spent waaaay too long making all this up to never do anything with it.

Anyway, anon, I hope you enjoyed. ;)

[rocksandrobots]

Of Rocks and Robots Ch. 21 - Fishing Trip

"So what do you wanna do this weekend?" Hiro asked Varian.

The other boy only shrugged his shoulders as he had no idea.

It was Friday and they were both walking home from school while trying to make plans for the weekend. All of their other friends were either away or busy due to Father's Day coming up. Fred was going to accompany his dad on a mission. Gogo was driving down to her father's for a few days. Wasabi had bought plane tickets to fly back to his hometown of Seattle. Karmi went back upstate for the weekend with her parents, and Megan was still grounded, but had a full day planned to butter up her dad. Even Honey Lemon was going home to spend time with her abuelo.

This left Varian feeling a little awkward. In Corona they had a Guardians Day, which was meant for both parents or caretakers in general, but for Varian it was always a day for just him and his dad to spend time together. One of the few times in the year when his father wouldn't work in the field, or go to market, or have business at court.

Varian knew precisely what a day like Father's Day meant and how special time spent with the man who raised you could be. He envied his friends, but mostly, knowing this would be the second year without his dad pained him.

In a way, he was thankful that Hiro shared his delima. Though he certainly wouldn't have wished his predicament upon anyone, it was still somewhat comforting to know that he wasn't alone.

They were a less than a block away from the Lucky Cat, still discussing things to do, when a sleek car pulled to a stop beside them. The window rolled down to reveal a man with blonde hair, a large nose, and a wide smile. He was wearing a plaid shirt and a tan floppy hat.

"Hey Hiro! Go grab your overnight bag and some sunscreen!" He joyously ordered. "Your new brother, cousin, thingy too. We're going fishing!"

Varian could only look on confused, he didn't know this man nor why he wanted to him and Hiro to go on a fishing trip with him. However, Hiro apparently did know him and was also apparently not onboard with this idea at all. He stood with his mouth a gape with a look of horror in his eyes.

After processing this terrible news, Hiro could only sputter out, "But.. but why?"

The man in the vehicle began to offhandedly list his reasons. "Because fishing by oneself isn't any fun unless there's someone else around to show off to. Because I had an awful childhood, whose own father would never take fishing, and now I'm living vicariously through you. Also, you're still my intern and for the rest of the year, I still own you."

The man flashed another wide grin and Varian began to put the pieces together. This must be Krei. Owner of Krei Tech, the man in charge of the portals that brought him here, and also Hiro's boss. Though, this new revelation did nothing to stem the confusion in his mind. He couldn't for life of him see why he was being invited along on the trip nor did he understand Hiro's objections.

"But...but...b, but…" Hiro suttered desperately trying to think of way out of going.

"No buts! I've already talk with your aunt and got her permission, reserved the campsite, and I even bought you both fishing poles!" Still grinning, he reached down beside him and lifted the new poles up for Hiro and Varian to see.

Hiro let out a wordless half groan, half whine in defeat, before turning around and slumping towards the cafe. Varian blinked and looked back and forth between the two of them unsure what to do. Krei waved to him cheerfully, clearly excited for the upcoming trip, and Varian numbly waved back before deciding to follow Hiro and pack his own bag.

                                               ----------------------------

Varian found himself enjoying the fishing trip more than he had expected. The first day was spent mainly getting there and setting up the campsite. The second day was spent fishing, exploring, and just taking in the scenery.

Varian had been allowed to bring Ruddiger along, as Hiro had also brought Baymax. His pet was overjoyed to be back in his natural environment and Varian had to admit that he felt more at home here in the great outdoors than in the crowded streets of San Fansokyo. The big city was fascinating but he'd always be a simple farm boy at heart.

Krei felt much the same way. The businessman hadn't been raised in the countryside the way Varian had, but he had a great love of camping, fishing, and being out in nature. His passion stemmed from childhood summers spent on vacation at something called 'summer camp'.

Varian found he got along with older man well. They spent the ride up chatting about science and it's more practical applications, spent the trip sharing wilderness tips, and fishing out in Krei's boat. Fishing had never been Varian's favorite activity, but he now found a new sense of nostalgia for it and the praise Krei would send his way whenever he caught one helped to fuel his enjoyment of the sport even more. Plus he got a chance to show off his cooking skills after they had cleaned their catch. Not the most pleasant task ever, but Varian could stomach it much better than butchering other kinds of meat.

Hiro however did not enjoy fishing, or camping, or anything to do with the outdoors really. The other teen mostly sulked the whole trip. When he wasn't busy gagging at the worms used for bait or getting scared by the unfamiliar sounds of the local wildlife that is. Mainly he stuck close to Baymax and the tent, bored out his mind and annoyed he had been forced to come long. Varian's enthusiasm only aggravated him further and, if he was being honest with himself, he was a little jealous by how easy things came to the other boy. He'd spent half a year trying to get on Krei's good side and impress him, while Varian had managed it in mere minutes of meeting the CEO.

The only time Hiro came out of his grumpy shell was at night, when they built a campfire and roasted marshmallows. Varian had never had smores before, but they were tasty, if also sticky and a little too sweet. Ruddiger however went nuts over the fluffy sweets and had to be kept from stealing the whole bag of them. Hiro didn't really care one way or the other about the traditional treat, but was more than eager to share ghost stories with the rest of the group. Gleefully recalling with gory detail about the spirit of an ax murderer who apparently stalked the woods. Perhaps it was a little vindictive of him, to try his best and scare the other teen, but Hiro couldn't help filling a little thrill whenever Varian gave a little jump or clutched his pet raccoon even tighter in comfort.

Keri was only amused by the story. He'd heard similar ones growing up at camp. He laughed at the end of Hiro's tale.

"Ha! Kids are still telling that one? Let me tell you a real horror story."

It was about tax audits.

Both boys could only shrug at each other.

"I do not understand the purpose of a 'ghost story'." Baymax observed.

"It's suppose to be for fun." Hiro informed him.

"I see; an adrenaline rush within a safe and controlled environment can be considered a pleasant feeling for some people. However I do not understand how taxes figure into that."

"Uuuuh, neither do we." Hiro admitted, "but I guess fear is subjective. Do you have any stories to share, Varian?"

Varian had to rack his brain on that one. His own life was more of a horror story then most ghost tales he knew, but he didn't want to devel into that. Instead he told a folk legend that his dad had once told him. It had been an old story from his home country; a parable about a rich man who was so greedy that he hoarded a well from the poor townspeople during a drought. Forcing them to pay him tribute lest they die of thirst, but he made the mistake of refusing water to a witch and so was cursed to become a vampire. To spend an eternity in thirst himself and to be forever alone, because he could no longer get close to other people without risking harm to them.

"And so a leader must care for his people, son," he remembered his father instructing him at the end of the tale, "He must share and give back to the community. He who sacrifices love for his fellow man in exchanged for selfish possessions, forfeits his right to live among mankind and to even be called a 'man' himself."

If only his father's words had been true. If real life had been as simple as stories, then Corona would have sided with him and not the evil king who kept the wondrous healing flower hidden away and who turned his back upon people need. But Varian conveniently left out this more personal anecdote.

"Wow." Hiro said flatly. "That's deep."

He wasn't used to horror stories having explicit morals attached to them and didn't know how else to respond. The tale hadn't been scary so much as eerie with an unnerving ending. Unlike his serial killer story, it wasn't anything you could be afraid of happening to you, yet questioning your place in the world was somehow more off putting than simple dismemberment.

The mood was broken however, by Ruddiger stealing Hiro's marshmallow off his roasting stick. It turned out to be last one as Krei had spent the majority of Varian's story battling the gluttonous raccoon over their food stores.

"I know racoons aren't 'mankind', but does this mean he's doomed to be a marshmallow vampire now?" Hiro joked as Varian got onto his pet.

"I don't know. Your robot looks like a walking marshmallow though." Varian shot back good naturedly.

Now out of food, save for leftover fish, they all decided to tuck in for the night.

                                              ----------------------------

Hiro hated the woods. He hated how unfamiliar everything was, how inconvenient it was, and most of all he hated how gross it was. He woke up irritated and sore from sleeping on the thin sleeping bag inside the tent. He couldn't find anything decent to eat for breakfast. He never stopped grumbling while he was forced to use the bathroom outside. To make an awful morning even worst, he couldn't shake the feeling of being stalked as strange animals hooted and howled. One bush in particular shook right when he pasted it. He nearly jumped out of skin when Ruddiger pop out of it holding the last of the fish in its mouth.

He groaned as he watched the raccoon scurry away and climb up a tree a little ways off from the campsite. He didn't much care for the creature, or for wild animals in general, but he knew how important the pet was to Varian and so had tried to be polite about having it around. Still Hiro's patience was wearing thin. The walking bottomless pit had eaten practically everything in the camp.

Hiro reluctantly followed after, debating if it was worth trying to get the fish back. Probably not, he didn't even like the taste of fish all that much to begin with. He stopped in surprise when an apple core fell from tree and nearly hit him. He looked up and found Varian sitting in one of the top branches, raccoon by his side, and reaching up to pick another apple off the tree.

The other teen paused when he saw Hiro. "Hey! Morning! You wanna an apple for breakfast?"

Hiro's stomach growled in response but all he actually said was, "How did you get up there?"

Varian laughed, "Climbed up here. How else you do think? Fly?"

Hiro looked up at him blankly. It was an obvious answer, of course, and he felt silly for having asked it.  

"Come on up!" Varian encouraged. "There's plenty of apples to go around."

"I..I can't." Hiro admitted sheepishly.

"Why not?"

"I don't know how to climb a tree." He mumbled.

Varian looked surprised by this revelation and before Hiro could do anything else, the other boy quickly climbed back down to join him.

“You never climb a tree before?”

‘Well, I did once, with Baymax’s help.” He rubbed the back of his neck self consciously.  

“It’s not like there’s a whole lot of trees in San Fransokyo to climb.”

“Oh, well, it’s easy. Here, I’ll show you. Just put your foot there, in that knot, and place your hand here on this bump in the bark.” Varian instructed, helping Hiro find the footholds. “Now you see that groove up here, place your other foot there, and as you hoist yourself up grab that lowest branch with your other hand, like climbing a really uneven ladder.”

Hiro did so, though not without some struggling, but eventually he pulled himself up onto the lowest branch.      

“Great!” Varian cheered and followed after with practiced ease. “The hardest parts done. Now all you gotta do is swing up the rest of the branches, like so.”

Varian took off, showing Hiro the best way to navigate the tree top. Hiro followed him, mimicking the other boys actions. With great effort he hauled himself up onto the final branch and heaved a ‘wooooph’ in relief of having made it up.

His sigh quickly turned to awe though when he caught sight of the view. The early morning sun sparkled on the lake. Further out a misty fog was beginning to disperse and you could see the opposite shoreline reflected in the water like glass. Beyond that giant redwoods poked out of the canopy of trees and way, way off in the distance you just about make out the tips of blue mountains.

“Woah.” He breathed. Hiro had to admit, you didn’t get scenery like this in the city.

‘Here.” Varian handed him an apple. It was smaller than the ones you’d buy in the store, with pink and yellow skin. Hiro tentatively took a bite. It was crunchy and very tart, but edible. Not to mention it was practically the only food they had left in the camp, so Hiro wound up eating it all and started in on a second one.

“So, where did you learn to climb?” Hiro asked taking another large bite of the wild fruit.

“Oh, I’ve been climbing trees since I could walk.” Varian laughed. “We owned an apple orchard along with the farm. Also the forest is right next to my village.”

Ruddiger joined them, procuring his own apple and sitting right on Varian’s lap to enjoy his meal. Varian scratched his pet’s ear.

“Does he ever get full?” Hiro asked.

“Nope.” Varian replied, and then they both broke into giggles.

Once the laughter had subsided Hiro commented, “I guess that’s why you’re so good at this outdoors stuff. This is the first time I ever been fishing, and with any luck, it’ll be my last.”

“My dad taught me.” Varian quitely confessed. “He’d take me on trips like this sometimes. Try to teach me how to hunt and fish. The fishing is a lot better than the hunting, let me tell you. I never could fire an arrow right and I can’t stand the sight of blood.” He cringed as if recalling a gruesome memory. “But, I guess he was just looking out for me. He taught me the skills he had to live on to survive. Apparently there were no farms where he grew up, the land was always baren. I guess that’s why he prefered gardening to being a knight.”

“Wait, your dad was an actual for real knight?”

Varian nodded, “Yeah, I found his armor after...after the accident. Along with a bunch of other important stuff he never told me about.” He added bitterly.

Hiro didn’t know how to respond to that. So he stayed quiet and let Varian dictate the conversation.

“Anyways, it worked. The fishing did come in handy. I had to do a lot of that, when.. when I was on my own.” He worked his jaw as he mulled over that last confession, his eyes gazing out to into the distance, clearly not seeing the breathtaking view before them.

Hiro’s heart dropped. He had a vague idea of what happened to Varian, but this was the first time it really hit home just how messed up the other’s teen’s life had been before now. He could empathize with losing a loved one, but he had always had his aunt and his friends to depend upon. If nothing else to be there and take of him as he sank into depression. But Varian had to do everything for himself, even while battling that same depression. The idea of having to catch or scavenge for your own food on top caring for you ill father was a nightmare that Hiro could barely comprehend. A nightmare that only somehow got worse.

“Fortunately, there’s a river that runs through my village, and I could set up lines overnight and just go check them in the morning, and we had food stored up for winter. Like oats, bacon, dried peas, that sort of thing. That is, until spring rolled around and the king's guards run me out of my house.” He said irritably.”Then I just had to forage or steal to survive.”

“Be...because you stole medicine?” Hiro asked disquietly. He couldn’t imagine a world so cruel and yet to his surprise the story got even worse.

“Oh no, this was before I stole the flower.” Varian said matter of factly and Hiro just stared at him in horror. Varian heaved a heavy sigh and went on to explain. “My father was the only other person who knew about the sundrop. The king kept it hidden from everyone. I guess when he found out that my dad, was, was ‘gone’, he decided to try and remove me from the picture, so as to keep his secret safe. He made a bunch of false charges about me ‘attacking the princess’ so that no one would believe me when I asked for help or told them the truth about the flower. Then he sent his elite guard to arrest me and I had to run.”

Varian gave a little shrug and added, “I guess after that, ‘treason’ didn’t seem like that big of deal. I mean they were going to throw me in jail either way, and not many people leave those dungeons alive.”

Hiro could barely process what was being told to him. He didn’t know what to say. His stomach churned and his breath shallowed. Varian’s past was far scarier than any ghost story.

Then suddenly he felt guilty. He’d been so caught up in his own grief and his own struggles with readjusting, that he hadn’t actually stopped to think about things from Varian’s perspective. He had thus far grinned and bared the discomfort of having his life turned upside down, because, well because that's what he thought he needed to do in order to be a mature decent person. And while that was true in part, it never occurred to him that this move was yet another upset in Varian’s life, in a long, long string of seemingly never ending upsets.  

Hiro found himself so easily annoyed by the other teen, yet he really had no right to be. Varian was readjusting to whole new culture and way of life in addition to struggling with his grief and trauma. So what if he cooked weird food sometimes, didn’t always know the appropriate conduct to certain situations, or was so super confident in nearly everything he did that it made Hiro self conscious and a little jealous at times. Deep down, Varian was suffering through something that no one in Hiro’s little corner of the globe could fully understand, and the least that Hiro could do was try to be a little more patient and a little more open about letting Varian into his life.

“You know,” Hiro slowly said, trying to ease the conversation and offer a little understanding, “I never really knew my dad. I was just four when he and my mom died. It was always Tadashi who taught me things, like how to ride a bike or how to hotwire a robot. Though he never taught me to climb to tree, so I guess that’s one I owe you.”

He smiled encouragingly at Varian, who nervously returned it. Once again Varian wasn’t used to praise or acknowledgement that he anything ‘right’.

“Maybe, you could teach me more outdoorsy stuff.” Hiro offered. “And I can teach you more about more modern stuff, like how to play Mind Smith II Turbo .”

“That..that’s that video game you like, isn’t it?” Varian asked as he tried to remember what Hiro even talking about.

“Yeah!” and with that Hiro eagerly launched into a detailed description of the game.

Soon the boys were interrupted by Krei emerging from the tent. He stretched sore back and tried to reheat the leftover instant coffee he’d brought. He then promptly spit it back out in disgust. The boys tried their best to suppress their snickers. Keri spotted them anyways.

“How ‘bout we pack it up and go get tacos instead?” He asked them.

“Yeeesss!” Yelled Hiro, who was more than ready to go.

“Sounds great!” Agreed Varian. “We’ll be right down!”

Keri went back in the tent to start packing and Ruddigger scurried down after him, hoping to maybe steal another treat from the camp.

Varian stood up and started to also make his way down when Hiro’s voice stopped him.

“Ummm...Sooo how do you get down exactly?”

                                              ----------------------------

The day ended with a trip to Yaki Taco and a huge feast of fast food nachos and deep fried burritos. Rudiger was once again confined to his carrying cage, but was allowed a cup of some cheese sauce to snack on. Baymax was let out of his charger case to kept an eye on the mischievous raccoon. All agreed it was actually the best part of the camping trip.

“Say, ‘cheese’.” The robot said, as he took a photograph with his internal camera.  

The three guys sing songed the the word even as actual cheese dripped off the burritos they held in their hands, plastering on dopey grins for the camera. Then a few more pictures with silly faces to complete the set.

“Fantastic!” Krei said. “I want copies for the office.”

“Why?” Hiro asked.

“So if any clients come in I show off ‘my family’ to them instead just the photo of my mother. I love the woman but she doesn’t necessarily impress the image of ‘family friendly company’.”

“I knew there was a catch.” Hiro scoffed.

Keri looked wounded. “Hey, I told you, my employees are my family.”

Hiro rolled his eyes but he couldn’t help giving a little smile at that. He knew Krei well enough by now to know that, underneath his seemingly conviving self-serving self, he had a heart, and he wouldn’t have invited Hiro and Varian along if he didn’t care.

“Aunt Cass put you up to this, didn’t she?” He prodded.

“I’m sworn to secrecy.” Krei insisted and they gave Hiro a knowing wink. Then more seriously he said, “I know what it’s like not having your dad around on Father’s Day. So, I figured, why not a fishing trip? It’s better than being stuck at home while your father’s away on a business trip to Tahiti that weekend.”

Hiro raised in eyebrow. Keri had a tendency of oversharing at times.  

“Buuut, enough about me. Who wants dessert!?”

[chelseyroseblog]

HOW I'M GETTING READY FOR HAWAII IN TWO WEEKS

I just celebrated my birthday HARD for the last week and I'm not mad at it, but I'm also feeling way less in shape than I was a week ago and totally unprepared for Hawaii haha.

BUT not to fear, I know how to get things back together over the course of two weeks and then we can all just pretend that the alcohol, burgers, chocolate, chips, dips, beer, pad thai, cake, ice cream and bread nevvver happened this week. ALLLRIGHHHHT!

I feel like I get asked this a lot though so I wanted to break down everything I'm doing so you guys know exactly how to prep for a vacation. 

1. WORKOUTS ARE A PRIORITY

I mean, it is quite literally, CRUNCH TIME. NO EXCUSES. When you have a short time period to get ready to vaca or for an event, you need to schedule your workouts like you schedule your blow drys. Here's what my workout schedule will look like for the next 2 weeks:

WORKOUT GOALS

M - Full Body

T - Upper Body 

W - Lower Body 

TH - Upper Body 

F - Full Body 

Sa - Hike/Something Outdoors

Su - Lower Body 

One of my biggest areas of focus is my lower body. I want to lift and round out my booty, tone my inner thighs, and tone my hamstrings SO a good rule of thumb when you really want to focus on an area is to get 30-40 total sets per week. WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN. I'll tell ya. 

So say on Wednesday I do 3 sets of hip thrusts, then I do 3 sets of back squats and then I do 3 sets of dead lifts...that means I've done 9 sets. So by the end of the week I want to try to hit at least 30. (Again this is for areas that you're REALLY wanting to work on). 

If I do that again on Sunday then I will have done 18 sets. This means in order to hit 30 sets, I need to incorporate 12 more sets throughout the week for legs. So I could do this by 3 sets of squats and 3 sets of bulgarians on one full body day, then 6 more sets of lower body exercises on another full body day. 

That would put my total sets for lower body at 30 for the week which is wooorrrrkk girl! This is how you'll start getting those results you're looking for. 

To give you perspective, a beginner usually gets 18 total sets a week, meaning that they might do 9 sets one day, cardio a few days that week, and then one more strength day with 9 sets for the day. This is not ideal for big changes so just something to keep in mind :)

Another thing to keep in mind when creating your work out plan is to make sure you're hitting each muscle group 2 times a week. 

So those are my workouts...Now let's figure out how much I should be eating with those workouts!

CALORIE GOALS:

So if I wanted to maintain my current weight and not work out, then I would have to consume 1,206 calories a day, but since I'll be working out, I can give myself some more calories YAY. (There's a system to figuring this out so if you want this done for yourself - email me at INFO@CHELSEYROSEHEALTH.COM and tell me you're interested in the NUTRITIONAL CONSULTATION). 

There's a whole number and percentage thing that happens here depending on how often you're working out and how hard the workouts are so for me we will multiply my calories by 1.55, so my daily intake of calories on work out days if I wanted to maintain my weight would be 1,869...

BUT

I want to lose a bit of weight right? So what I would need to do is create a caloric deficit so my calorie goal on work out days would be maybe something like 1,600. This means that by the end of a workout day, I will have burned about 250 more calories that day than I consumed which = WEIGHT LOSS. I think what a lot of people tend to do is work out and then reward themselves with a huge meal so your most likely not in a caloric deficit by the end of the day which is why you're not seeing the results you want! (Don't worry, I did that for a long time too).

MACROS GOAL:

Let's start with protein. If I want to maintain lean muscle that I'm putting on then I want to aim to get my body weight in grams of protein. So I would want to aim for about 130 grams of protein, this means that 520 of my calories would be coming from protein. (There's 4 calories per gram of protein so you just multiply 130 by 4). The cool thing about protein is that when consumed, you burn MORE CALORIES simply by eating it. This is called the thermogenic effect of food. Protein burns roughly 30% of calories consumed so if I eat 520 calories of protein, 156 of those calories will be burned off simply by my body trying to break it down and digest it. WOO!

OKAY - from here I can make my CARB goal intake. I know that a VERY low carb diet is 50 grams a day or less and a LOW CARB diet is 100 grams of protein a day or less. When I'm getting ready for a event or a vacation I like to hover at a "low carb diet". Carbs are made of water so when we eat less carbs we start to lose a lot of water weight and look leaner so it really helps when you don't have a ton of time to get ready for something. 

Carbs also have 4 calories per gram so if I want to have 100 grams of carbs a day, then that means that 400 of my calories will come from carbs. 

400 calorie in carbs + 520 calories in protein = 920 calories. If I'm shooting for 1,600 calories on a work out day then this means that I have 680 calories left to use innnnn fat..or alch haha, but seriously. 

one gram of alch = 7 calories

one gram of fat = 9 calories

So depending on what my day looks like I can play around with these remaining calories. 

And that's the lesson on MACROS. 

EATING GOALS

Alrighty - now that we know how much I can eat, I'll talk to you guys about WHAT I'll be eating. I can eat the same thing for months which is nice because then I don't have to think that much about cooking, prepping, blah blah blah. 

Breakfast 6:30am : 1 piece of medium/large fruit like an apple, pear, or banana or two pieces of small fruit like plums...mainly lol. I'm in love with plumcots right now AND a medium almond milk latte.

Snack 11:00am: This is where I like to get in some protein so I will pretty much always have a ONE BRAND Birthday Protein Bar.

Lunch 2:00pm: Protein bowl. If we have rice in the fridge then I'll add a 1/3 cup of that to the mix with 4 ounces of turkey, 1/4 an avocado, and 2 over medium eggs. Then I top it with some sea salt, goat cheese, and tajin. This is a super easy way for me to get in a lot of protein without feeling stuffed or losing any energy, and it keeps me full for like 4-5 hours. 

Snack 5:00pm: This is usually a point in the day that I'm on my way to work and I'm not super hungry but I need to get in more protein and I never know when I'm going to be able to break at work so I like to go in without any vibes of feeling hungry SO i'll do a cold brew with a scoop of protein powder and almond milk or I'll do a ONE BRAND birthday protein bar if I didn't have on earlier in the day. If I don't have to go to work then I skip this snack and just have dinner when I get hungry. 

Dinner 7:00 - 8:30ish: Nothing big. I'll usually have turkey with vegetables and 1/3 cup of carbs whether it's sweet potato, brown rice, pasta etc. Although since I'm keeping my carbs between 50 and 100 for the day it really just depends on what I've had already. 

SLEEPING GOALS

It's impossible to look and feel good without proper sleep and with my stupid ass schedule, sleep can be really hard sometimes. But I've gotten better at setting myself up for the best sleep possible and making sure that I take a nap the next day if I feel like I need one instead of trying to power through. 

When we're on minimal sleep, we LOOK it and our stress levels typically go up and we end up getting sugar cravings so sleep is meggaaa babe important. 

So to get the best sleep I'm going to make sure that I de stress before going to bed. I work at a lounge until midnight so when I come home from there I need to make sure that I try to relax and unwind before getting in bed or else I feel a little stressed in the morning still because it's like I didn't give myself a break. 

I also spray aromatherapy around me when I get home because it just helps with the relaxation aspect of the night and then I make sure that I do my face routine with all my favorite skin care products. 

An eye mask is essential for sleep as well and my phone always goes on the ground on airplane mode. Rest up bitches.

FINAL DO'S AND DONT'S

Do:

+ Drink a lot of water throughout the day

+ Have a celery juice for breakfast a few times to help reduce bloat

+ Drink a detox tea before bed 4-5 nights a week (I like slim master from Ralph's. Super Cheap)

+ Do hit up a sauna and get a colonic if you have time (MAJJJOOORRR)

Don't:

+ Drink if possible. If you do, go for 1 glass of wine or 1 clear liquor on the rocks. Try to avoid super sweet cocktails and beers FOR SURE. 

+ STRESS. This is so counter productive to what you're trying to do. Stressing will make you hang on to weight and crave sweets.

ANYYYWAAAYY I hope you guys found this helpful! I am officially on day one of the count down and made sure to hit the gym this morning, had an apple and a coffee for breakfast, had a turkey bowl for lunch, a ONE bar as a snack and right after this I'll be going on a hike before I figure out what I'm making for dinner! 

Thank you guys so much for popping in to read this. Comment below if you have any other tips, suggestions, or questions!

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