#it's been three years since this reaction as of dec 7th and i should be over it

[izzy-b-hands]

Let myself try one (1) edible (like a 5 mg tiny candy) to see if my T break needs to restart or not and

it doesn't. that much is for sure. im good again there.

but also, it has me v open emotionally, and i just realised im crying as i write this latest fic

Ramble abt the fic draft below the cut, tw for talking abt a severe allergic reaction in some detail and for emetophobia

told myself I'd see how I do writing out my last horrible allergic reaction but with Frenchie and the peanut paste and some ouizzy to try and process that whole experience of mine a bit more and uh. despite having attempted to do this before, apparently i somehow still haven't really processed much at all how bad it was. Maybe it's bc I'm literally like. Giving every small detail damn near, vs the last time when it was more of a general mention in a fic with less detail overall. I even looked up the selfie I took from that night just to see if i could tell how bad it was and uh. eyelids swell up a lot. and lips. and i know im white as fuck, but apparently i can get even paler in specific situations. forgot how bad the hives were too, but i can see them on my shoulder in the pic like. jfc lmao.

and it all came back, how fucking cold I was (like painfully cold, I couldn't stop shivering and it hurt almost) and how after it made me sick enough to bring up what little I'd had that day, allergens included lol, all I wanted to do was rest my eyes. We had called the nurse line for the nearby hospital by that point, and i remember her telling my mum not to let me sleep, make me talk, make me move if possible and to get to the ER asap. So that's. something for my brain to chew on. But good details for the fic.

Yeah so Frenchie's going through it in this fic, but he's gonna be okay, and Izzy's finally confessing he loves him during it all. Roach is also getting to invent epinephrine which i know is like lab synthesised but shhhh. he's just a very good doctor and knows how to somehow synthesise it in one of the tubs on the ship so it can be injected. don't worry abt the details. im not, at least not those details lmao.

[sorenmarie87]

In The Middle Of The Ride characters

I forgot I had this but if you want to get to know some of my original babies - Here you go. 

Name: Ryuichi A. Madison Age: 18 Height: 5’1’’ Parents: Mom (Elizabeth)- DJ Dad (Jack)- Animator Eye Color: Light Green Hair Color: D. Brown (Dyes it red)

Background: Before Ryuichi was born her mother (Elizabeth) was in college to become a prize-winning pianist but followed Jack to England. (She changed her major to become a DJ), overseas she became famous while Jack worked at his animation.  Before having Ryuichi, Jack and Elizabeth were married on September 7th 1986.  On July 31st 1987, Ryuichi was born and she meets Will for the time when he’s in the hospital visiting his father.  When she was 3, they moved back to America (Jack had been offered a job working on his newest cartoon and they had requests for Elizabeth in nightclubs).

Name: Madeline (Maddie) Parker Age:  18 Height: 5’6’’ Parents: Mom- Chef   Dad- Teacher (Geometry teacher) Eye Color: Hazel Hair Color:  Red Loves: Writing, singing and dancing

Background: Moved from Louisiana and meet Cordy and Ryu in the 4th grade.  She was born on a floating boat casino on May 8th, 1987.  Maddie loves to write music and singing occasionally. She has an older sister named Isabelle and an older brother named Martin (Marty) She also has a younger sister, Leora, and another younger brother named Daniel.

Name: Cordelia (Cordy) Turner Age: 18 Height: 5’8’’ Parents: Lives w/ mom- College professor Eye Color: blue Hair Color: black hair Born on August 3rd, 1987

Background:  Her parents separated when she was four years old and no one has seen her father since then.  Cordy’s mom teaches at the elementary school for the fourth grade.  Her, Maddie and Ryuichi have tried starting a band (hasn’t performed yet).  Maddie writes, Ryuichi plays the guitar and Cordelia sings (although she tries very hard to get Ryuichi to sing)

Name: Lucille (Lucy) Taylor Age:  18 Height: 5’10’’ Parents: Mom (Leilani)- lawyer Dad (Luke)- Animator   Eye Color: D. Brown Hair Color:  D. Brown

Born on April 1st, 1986

Lucy is the type of person who acts and talks tough, but is really a great person to be around.  Lucy is very protective of her family (Lucas and Ryuichi def.)  Lucas and Lucy are only a few hours apart, but Lucas is the older sibling.  (Fraternal twins) Has some anger issues, and when her dad finds out she's dating someone named Lindsey, he assumes that his daughter is a lesbian... but she isn't.

Name: Alice Wonderly Age:  17 Height: 5’3’’ Parents:  Mom- Nurse Eye Color:  Blue Hair Color:  Blonde Born on October 13th, 1988

Background: Alice was born in the country.  She was born on Oct. 13, 1988.  Was friends with Ryuichi and Erin when they were in elementary/middle school.

(She's the kind of person that if there's someone her friend doesn't like, she doesn't like that person either.  Goes with the crowd basically.  Although she considers Ryuichi a very good friend.)

Very kind and considerate, she is very protective of her friends & family.  Alice is an only child and lives at home with her mom.  Others consider her bad luck, but she is very lucky actually.

Very quiet

Name: Erin Ophelia Mackenzie Age: 17 Height: 5’5’’ Parents: Mom - Lawyer Dad - Doctor Eye Color:  amber with flecks of honey Hair Color: red (short) Born on September 15th, 1987

Background: Erin was actually Ryuichi's first best friend.  They met for the first time in the 2nd grade.  Her birthday is on Sept. 15, 1987.  Over time, she drifted from her friends and became very interested in other things (I.E. sports and whatever else) She stopped talking to Ryuichi because a major argument they had.  To get back at Ryu (because Erin always has to get her way) she has to bully her in some way.

-Interested in Will only because she finds Ryuichi's reaction amusing

Name: Hilda Roberts "Quatre" Age: 23 Height: 5’6’’ Eye color: Aqua blue Hair color: Blonde

Background:  Lindsey’s older sister who married the owner of a clothing shop.  She met her husband Wolfram in college while she was studying theatrics; she’s good at improv, which explains the toaster.  She was working with the fashion students on a production her class was putting on; they were introduced and instantly were attracted.  Anita and Pilot like Hilda, mainly because they feared their son was gay, but are happy with his choice.

Name: Charlie White Age: 22 Height: 5'7'' Parents: mom- works at a library, dad- works at an advertising agency Hair Color: Brown w/ red highlights eye color: Blue

Background: Charlie was born on Dec. 31, 1985 in a small town.  She has one younger sister named Remy who is 12.  Her parents are married, and she hopes for the same kind of relationship.  Met and started dating Dominic in his freshman year (her junior year) So she has gotten used to him dressing in girl's clothes from time to time.

Works at a coffee shop on her college campus and still lives in town.  Is unsure if she should go see Dominic or not.  (Her feelings for him never changed.) Working on a degree in early childhood.

Name: Will Sparrow Age: 18 Height: 6’2’’ Parents: lives with grandparents Eye Color:  Blue Hair Color: Black -Born on February 12th, 1986

Background: Will was born on Feb. 12, 1986 in a small province of England.  He is the middle child out of three younger sisters (Yasmin-3, Aiden-11, Rhiannon-15) and two older brothers (Caden-21, Benjamin-28)  When he was three years old his father was in the hospital for an extended amount of time.  The night he met Ryuichi's mom, he was on his way home from visiting his dad.  His grandparents offered to take care of him until his dad got better.  He used to play and visit with Ryuichi until the day she moved to America (He never forgot the promise they made when they were little...)  His grandparents moved to America a few months later, and Will's mom sent him to live with them.  He was home tutored until 15, then he was sent to a high school near them and for his junior year, they moved him to LHS.  His other siblings still live in London with his parents.

Name: Jamie Starr Age: 18 Height: 5’11’’ Parents: None. Lives with older sister and her husband. Eye Color:  Brown Hair Color:  Brown

Background: He was born March 30th 1988 in New York City. His parents died in a car accident three years ago. Jamie's sister took him in after the accident. They just recently moved to the area where Jamie met Ryuichi and her friends. Jamie's sister and her husband own a popular coffee shop/bakery in town. Jamie loves to write. He also loves sweets.

Name: Mark Renart Age: 24 Height: 6’2 Eye Color: Green Hair Color:  Blonde

Background: He is the newest addition to Lasiter High School. He teaches honors and AP English for the juniors and seniors. He lives in an apartment near the school. Mark usually isn't into dating anyone younger, but clearly he makes an exception for one of the students...

Name: Lindsey Houst Age: 18 Height: 6’4’’ Parents: Mom & Dad own a restaurant Eye Color: Brown Hair Color: Sandy Blonde -Born on November 29th, 1986

-Moved from Australia when he was 10 and his parents own a restaurant called “Sheila's”

Name: Lucas Taylor Age:  18 Height: 6’1’’ Parents: Lives at home occasionally stays with Elizabeth & Jack Eye Color: D. Brown Hair Color:  D. Brown -Born on April 1st, 1986 -He is Ryuichi’s cousin and Lucy’s brother.

Name: Gavin Smith Age: 18 Height:  5’11’ Parents: Mom - writer Dad-owns his own business Eye Color:  Hazel Hair Color: Brown

Background: Born on March 11th, 1986 but no one actually knows how his eyes got to be orange, but a lot of people don’t believe he wears contacts.  Gavin’s family moved from place to place before settling into his home in the city.  His older sister is named Samira, his younger brothers are Samuel, Brody, and Tommy, and his younger sister is Joanne.  He went to middle school with Cordy, Maddie, and Ryuichi.

Name: Dominic Hayden Howard Age: 18 Height: 6’0’’ Parents: Lives with his sister (Penny) and her girlfriend (Cassidy) -parents are in Ireland Ashton- Penny's son Eye Color: Green Hair Color:  Red -Born on January 3rd, 1986

Background: Dominic’s parents first met when they were on a trip to Ireland and moved to the U.S. after Penny was born.  He was born on Jan. 3, 1986.   Transferred from different schools due to bullying and harassment issues from other students, and has only been in an all-boys school once. The last school he was in was where he met Charlie.  After 2 yrs of dating, Charlie broke up with him and he moved again.  He spent a year trying to make other friends but it didn't succeed.   On his first day of school at Lasiter High, many people were shocked to find he was a boy, and not a girl. Lives with his sister Penny, her girlfriend Cassidy and their son Ashton.  They take vacations with their mom and dad but this year he declined.  

Name: Sebestyen Erikson Age: 28 Height: 6’ Parents: both therapists Eye color: Left- blue, right- green Hair color: faded Green

Background:  With both of his parents being therapists, Sebestyen’s childhood was very messed up.  His family originated from Germany where his parents met at school.  They moved from various areas of Europe before moving to America.  Although he was teased in school, he refused to go to any psychiatrists or therapist, so he resorted to storytelling so he could tell half-truths to everyone around him.  Knows Hilda, Penny and Cassidy from middle school but hasn’t seen them in forever.  Works at the high school as a janitor and as a greeter for stores when it’s Christmas time.  Sebestyen is easy to get along with; he just needs some getting used to.

Name: Wolfram Roberts Age: 29 Height: 6’2” Parents: Anita and Pilot Roberts Eye color: Unknown, he where’s contacts with a different color every day. (NOTE: Not even Quatre knows!) Hair color: Platinum Blonde

Background:  He is married to Hilda, Lindsey’s sister.  He owns a clothing shop and sells his own clothing from his own line of clothes rightfully called “Ambiguous”.  The gang frequently refers to him as Lindsey’s “Ambiguously gay brother in-law”.  His parents Anita and Pilot are rich business owners, along with Wolfram’s brother Zeb and his sisters Manon and Mem, or otherwise considered by Wolfram seeing as he is the youngest, “The Triplets”.  It is thought that the multitude of tea parties and dress up games Manon and Mem forced him into caused the resulted Ambiguously gay Wolfram.

[thechocolategarage]

India Or Nicaragua?

December 8, 2017

We are open on Sat 8-1pm, please come by to snag a taste, chat with us and enjoy community! Or come to India (image below) with us! 

Happy Friday all, I have much to get across to you in this holiday newsletter, I am going to highlight the topics as a start, so you can dart to the ones you are most interested in... Here is the list: Tastes and new bars coming in... India (two spots opened up!) Nicaragua (3/31 - 4/7/2018) Holiday Hours (Wed 12/20, Thurs 12/21, Fri 12/22, 5:30-8:30 PM) CLOSED 12/24 - 1/8 2018 Saturdays (9am-1pm staying open) Online beta End of Future Chocolate Saturday Tasting Menu Starting with tomorrow's tastes! As we await the uncertain timing on our next monthly Patric shipment, we thought we would feature some of our favorites: Patric Madagascar 67% Patric Habagascar 67% Patric Salty Sunflower Patric PBJ OMG The first two are such a delicious comparison of what happens to the same base chocolate, when you sprinkle some Habanero infused salt on the back. The flavor changes are subtle but really fun to explore. Come on in and have some tastes! Salty Sunflower is the same base chocolate as The BOSS, with crunchy sunflower seeds on the back. Such a yummy bar, and the closest we will see to the The BOSS going forward, unless Alan decides to make that bar widely for all, rather than the five plus years of making it only for The Chocolate Garage. Finally, the PBJ, a beautiful concoction, using cacao from Madagascar to make a jammy, fruity chocolate that is blended with peanut butter to create a true PBJ sandwich in your mouth! We are waiving the tasting fee, making it a donation for those who would like to take part in the costs, we will have a tip jar out, and you can put in whatever feels juicy and right to you. We also just got in more Charm School Chocolate, as well as Sirene bars, and chances are good that we will get the latest Patric delivery later today too! After I send out this newsletter. So, good time to come in and stock up on holiday gifts, get a gift box selection to open up as an after dinner tasting party with pairings... lots of options for a festive experience with family and friends. INDIA TRIP (Feb 17th-27th, 2018) This trip will be exclusively to the southern part of India, the most relaxed, calm and green part of India. We will mostly be in Kerala (my mom's birthplace and home state) with a brief pop into Tamil Nadu, to see an amazing cacao and coconut farm. If you have always wanted to get an introduction to India, this is the way to do it. We have designed to trip for beginners, we will visit Fort Kochi, one of the most important spice trading posts since the beginning of the common era. The Arabian traders were the first to bring pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, sandalwood and other spices to the Europeans. The rich cultural and religious diversity in southern India, and particularly in Kochi, is fascinating and we will explore how this has impacted this area, in its cuisine, religious and cultural diversity and as a starting point for our delicious dive into Kerala: God's Own Country, as it is called. If you are worried about being overwhelmed by India, this is the place to start. Having been to New Dehli, Bombay and Calcutta, I can assure you that the spots we are hitting are not even close to what traditionally is the India that causes such strong reactions and difficulty. Looking at Kerala and Tamil Nadu through the cacao (and inevitably, the coconut) lens will be a most gentle way to start to see a piece of this subcontinent, in a safe and fascinating way. Please email me if you are interested and I can give you more details and answer any questions or concerns you may have. Deposits are due and these two spots probably won't last long, so please reach out to me. Nicaragua (March 31st - April 7th, 2018) The dates are set, I got so many great ideas from Carlos of Momotombo, this second adventure to Nicaragua will barely repeat anything that we did the first time around. Of course we will visit Momtombo, but in their new factory. And we will also visit Giff, but now we will see his exciting new criollo cacao trees starting to produce and also his vanilla plants! An entirely new cacao and chocolate operation has cropped up in Matagalpa, and so we will visit Meaghan and Oswaldo as well, learning how they are working with local communities in Matagalpa to also produce finished product. Instead of Ometepe, this time we plan to go to Isla Zapatera, where deer run, turtles swim in the rivers (as do small caiman) and wild birds will hold our attention as we wander around old volcanoes, visit Carlos' dad's ranch and eat some of the best traditional Nicaraguan food at the local hotel. This trip is kid friendly, I brought my kids last time (they were 5 and 7) and they will come along again this time, so families can consider this trip too! It is during the PAUSD spring break, so we hope more families will come along. If you have not already emailed us your interest, please email us, as we will soon send out a trip specific email with more details, pricing and a more detailed schedule. EXTRA HOLIDAY HOURS We are going to be open three extra times right before the holiday vacation: please feel free to pop in on any of these three days: Wednesday Dec. 20th: 5:30 -8:30 PM (there may be Tom's delicious eggnog!) Thursday Dec. 21st: 5:30 -8:30 PM Friday Dec. 22nd: 5:30 -8:30 PM CLOSED DECEMBER 24th - JANUARY 8th, 2018   We will be closed for shipping, shopping and all things chocolate related for two weeks over the holidays. We will do inventory, literally and figuratively take stock, and then we will (GOOD NEWS!)  re-open on Saturdays starting Saturday January 13th, 2018. 2018 SATURDAYS OPEN For those of you wondering why we are going back and forth, and remaining open rather than converting directly to online, as I have been saying, we want to make sure to honor your Future Chocolate accounts, and not all of you have come in to convert your accounts into delicious Happy Chocolate, so we are staying open in order to make it more available, for some more months, and we are hoping to try some more creative changes during that time, to see what is possible for the Garage and for our community. We will be running our open hours with a smaller are of staff, so the waits may be longer some Saturdays, but hopefully you will work with us and find patience and understanding. ONLINE BETA Please feel free to use our online platform, it only has bar names and ingredients listed (hover over the bar name) so you need to be familiar with the brands we carry, but soon enough, I will populate the site with some juicy, rich and fun descriptions that should help even the novice choose bars that suit them. IN THIS MOMENT FUTURE CHOCOLATE IS PAST We will always have the memory of Future Chocolate, ok, I will stop the silly past and future references, but part of the changes to The Chocolate Garage have meant not being able to order full batches anymore, so... <boo hoo> no more The BOSS by Patric. Once we finish our current batch of Blood Orange, it will only come back if Alan decides to make it as a regular bar. I think he will, it is so delicious, and The BOSS will be a home run as it was at The Chocolate Garage, everyone loves that bar... but, I am not sure we will keep doing exclusive bars, because we just don't have the buying (selling) power that we used to have. Another change is that we stopped selling new Future Chocolate credit months ago. We are working hard to honor everyone's Future Chocolate accounts, which means I have been doing lots and lots of tastings to keep the cash flow positive, so we can keep bringing in new bars, and keep our selection fresh, even though the revenue is down as you all spend down your credit and we don't get to take in larger Future Chocolate amounts anymore. Inevitably, we also need to stop the perk of Future Chocolate, which is the discounted prices on the bars, so our prices are going to the non-Future Chocolate prices. For those of you who still want to get the bars for a bit less, all of the bars on our website that are above ten dollars are going to be a dollar less online. Since online doesn't require as much labor and high touch, we can offer the bars for a bit less on our website. If you have any adventurous friends who might want to take their kids to Nicaragua, and broaden their horizons with a new culture, see nature and wildlife there, learn about volcanoes and cacao and chocolate, please pass this newsletter on to them, and have them check out our first documentary made after leading our first trip to Nicaragua, to whet their appetite. Getting our kids to experience different ways, different cultures and see how other parts of the world live and love, is one of the greatest gifts you can give. I was lucky to take my first airplane trip to a foreign country starting when I was three months old, and my curiosity and bravery to explore the world and it's people never ends. My life is much richer for it, and having no fear of exploring new places and people is a tool that can serve your kids in everything they do. As our world gets more globalized and interconnected, if you are in a position to have your kid travel, this seems to me like a top priority. If we are going to move our world towards more empathy and love and collaboration on this small planet, we need to teach our kids early. Happy Friday, and see you tomorrow! Sunita

Bean to bar to bonbon tasting of Mirzam Chocolate! If you want to come to India, flying through Dubai is a great way to go, and you can go visit this bean to bar to bonbon maker!

Another beautiful day visiting beautiful Anamalai farm in southern India, with cacao trees nestled in amongst lines and lines of the most elegant coconut trees.