#less than a week now until easter vacations

[reginrokkr]

Today the activity will be likely almost non-existent as I have a bad boy of an anatomy partial tomorrow that I need to study for. It’s also probable that I won’t have more partials until post-Easter vacations, so I’ll be able to start being more active little by little after tomorrow!

[sodalitefully]

Santa Slash is coming to town...

This fic is the Christmas-themed spiritual successor to my Easter Bunny AU.  Special thanks to @slashscowboyboots for supporting all my holiday nonsense! 

Four snapshots from Slash’s Christmas prep marathon through the years:

🎄🎄🎄🎄

Jingle bells.  

Fucking jingle bells.

There were FIFTEEN of them on the stupid-fucking-candy-colored costume he had to wear at this godforsaken excuse for a seasonal job.  “Earn some extra cash,” they said.  “It’s easy, you barely have to do anything,” they said.  "You'll be perfect, you already look the part!" they said.  

"They are about to find a size-ten jingle-toed bootie up their ass,” Axl said – to himself, as he rushed into the storage room turned "dressing room" and buttoned up his itchy red and green vest with one hand while sipping an Orange Julius from the food court with the other.  

“Hey, Axl! You’re barely late today, awesome!”

And then there was this weirdo.

Axl could not for the life of him explain why a shopping mall in Indiana elected to hire a skinny dude in his 20s with a dark complexion and a nose ring to portray Saint Nick himself, but whatever the reason, Axl was stuck working with this fruitcake until Christmas Day.  Sure Slash was nice enough (oh yeah, and his name was Slash, or at least that's how he introduced himself without offering any explanation or even a last name), but he was way too enthusiastic about getting paid minimum wage to let strange kids sit in his lap at a grimy old shopping mall.

Uh, not in a weird way, Slash was good with the kids, really.  But sometimes... it seemed like he was taking his role a little too seriously.  

"How come you don't have a beard?" the first customer of Axl's shift, a little girl in a Tweety bird sweater and blonde pigtails, asked suspiciously.

"That's a good question,” Slash said, scratching at his bare chin. The neck of his Motörhead Beyond the Threshold of Pain Tour T-shirt was visible over the faux fur collar of the Santa costume, and his shiny black boots clearly came from a military surplus store. “I get asked that a lot but the truth is, it just isn't a flattering look, trust me.  I tried it once, and the elves could barely look at me in the eye." To Axl’s incredulity, the girl actually accepted that answer.  "Now tell me, what would you like for Christmas this year, sweetheart?"

As usual, Axl tuned out at this point.  Fake a smile for the overprotective parents, take the painfully awkward commemorative photograph, try not to look like he would rather die than hear Slash try to gently explain that Santa will probably not be delivering a pony this year one more damn time, rinse and repeat – until about an hour later, when the unthinkable happened.

The less said about about the incident, the better.  Suffice to say, one of the darling angels tossed his Christmas cookies, and some of the resulting mess wound up soaking into the front of Axl’s elf costume.  As if he needed another reason to hate his job; this was just adding insult on top of injury (that is, the injury to Axl’s pride as a result of being forced to wear the most ridiculous-looking costume he’s ever had the misfortune of laying eyes on). 

“That’s it. I quit.”  He grabbed the elf cap off his head and slammed it on the ground, then stormed through the exit gate past the sign wishing customers a "Holly Jolly Holiday Season," the bells on his costume ringing merrily as he stomped his feet.

“Hey, wait!”

“No,” Axl growled, but he did turn around to look back at Slash, still sitting in the plastic candy-cane throne unbothered by the mess or the sniffling child now mostly placated by a peppermint candy.  "What."  

Slash offered him a bright, beguiling smile.

"What do you want for Christmas, Axl?" 

-----

Nothing said "holiday cheer" like wandering the tinsel-adorned labyrinth that was a Walmart superstore a week before Christmas, with Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime" echoing through the tinny PA system and surrounded by other last-minute vultures hopelessly scavenging the picked-over aisles.  

In Izzy's defense, he actually finished all his shopping early this year, for once.  But then his two little brothers begged him to drive them around town to find the perfect gift for a girl at school that they apparently both had a crush on, and like a fool he agreed. 

He was regretting it now.  Anything would be better than subjecting himself to nearly an hour of top-40 Christmas music.  The jingle bells were jingling, the carolers were caroling, the B-list pop stars were spitting out god-awful covers of Christmas classics, and don’t even get him started on the commercials. 

He wasn't about to walk around in public with his fingers shoved in his ears (at least, he wasn't that desperate yet), but he did squeeze his eyes shut and pinch the bridge of his nose, trying to force himself to relax.  Just take deep breaths and think of The Rolling Stones... 

"Hey, uh, you doing okay?"

Izzy opened his eyes reluctantly.  In front of him was a young man wearing a concerned expression and a Santa hat, stuffed onto a massive pile of dark curls.  

"I'm fine.  Just finding out if it's possible to die from overexposure to Christmas music."

"Ahhh."  The man nodded in understanding.  "It's not, unfortunately.  I've tested it, trust me."

"Do you work here or something?" Izzy asked.  A leather jacket and ripped jeans didn't look like an employee uniform, but his hat matched the store decor and he didn't have a cart or shopping basket.  

"No, I'm actually a seasonal distributor.  Just checking in to make sure everything's in place before that last holiday rush, you know? Shit always gets crazy at the last minute."

"Tell me about it," Izzy responded, as if he knew a thing about marketing as a cynical 16-year-old.  But he had first-hand experience with last-minute crises, and as if to prove it, his brothers came running up to him at that moment.

"Jeff!  We can't find anything good, what should we do?"

"What's the problem?" the stranger in a Santa hat asked, looking genuinely concerned.  

"We don't know what present to get for a girl at school," the boys explained.

"Hmm..." He tapped at his chin.  "Why don't you just – oh wait, you're underage.  Well, how about you bake her some cookies or something?  That's what everyone does for me and I have no complaints."

Desperate to remove himself from this musical hell, Izzy jumped on the idea.  "Yeah, you could do sugar cookies!  And decorate them like horses, she likes horses right?” The boys had only mentioned that a dozen times; Izzy was starting to wonder if this girl even had any other personality traits.  

To his relief, a spark lit up in his brothers' eyes.  Cookies were a perfect idea, and suddenly they were dragging him away to look at cookie cutters and sprinkles.

Izzy turned around to shoot the helpful stranger a grateful look, but when he looked back, the man had disappeared with no trace, leaving not even a furry white pompom behind.

-----

Slash glanced out the window and grimaced – it was cold as a witch’s big bouncy tit outside, nothing but snow and ice as far as the eye could see. He pulled the blanket tighter around his shoulders and took another swig of hot Irish coffee.   Damn the North Pole, there was a reason he took his summer vacations in Malibu.

But despite the miserable work conditions, Slash was nothing if not dedicated to his job.  In front of him was a sack overflowing not with toys but with the most recent letters to Santa, straight from the North Pole's post office.  With Christmas only a few days away, his daunting task was to go through the whole mountain of letters as quickly as possibly in order to take their special requests into consideration before it was time to start loading up the sleigh.  

Well, there was no time like the present to get started.  Slash stretched his back and got comfortable in his coziest armchair (by throwing his legs over one armrest and slouching until his head rested on the other), absentmindedly tapping the end of his peppermint stick on the edge of an ashtray.  He grimaced when he brought the stick back to his lips and realized his mistake. 

With a sigh, he dropped the peppermint stick back in the ashtray already full of cigarette butts and ruined candies, and unfolded the first letter.  In barely legible green marker, the message read: 

Dear Santa Claus,

My name is Steven and I'm 5 years old.  Please give me a skateboard for Christmas.  My brother has one and he won't let me borrow it to learn tricks.

Hmmm.  Five years old was a little young for a skateboard.  Knowing Steven, he'd probably knock his teeth out by New Year's...

...Slash shrugged.  Why not?  All things considered, he would have killed for a skateboard when he was five, so who was he to say no?

-----

Duff was seven years old when his older brothers cornered him in the backyard and gleefully informed him that Santa Claus was a fraud.  It was all a lie made up by parents to convince their children to behave during the year, they explained, and the toys were made on factory lines not by magical elves.  Their mother gave them a hell of a scolding afterwards but it was too late, the deed could not be undone. 

He tried to play it cool, but the truth was, Duff was very distraught as Christmas Eve inched closer.  Could his siblings be right?  He didn't want to believe it, but if he was being honest with himself, he'd suspected as much for some time.  He braced himself to accept the hard truth come Christmas Eve – but only if he was presented with definitive proof.

When the fateful night finally came, Duff and two of his brothers laid out their sleeping bags behind the couch, where they'd be hidden from view if anyone tried to approach the Christmas tree.  They all swore not to fall asleep, not even for a second until Christmas morning... And it wasn't until his brother started snoring that Duff realized he was the only one still awake and silently anticipating the moment of truth.  

It was imperative, of course, that he stayed hidden and didn't make a sound, or else risk giving their plot away.  But... it was past midnight, dinner was hours ago and Duff's empty stomach was starting to distract him from the task at hand.  He couldn't stop thinking about all the food he would get to eat with his family on Christmas Day: the glazed ham, mashed potatoes, apple pie and Christmas cookies... 

In the dim light, Duff could just barely make out the plate of cookies for Santa, waiting in front of the tree.  The cookies were still there untouched, all six of them... Surely no one would notice if Duff ate just one?  

He tiptoed over his sleeping siblings, as silent as the snow falling outside, making his way around the sofa to the plate on the coffee table.  But just as he reached out to pluck a gingerbread man from the assortment, he saw a shadow of movement out of the corner of his eye.  There, beside the Christmas tree in the flickering glow of multicolored string lights, was a mysterious figure in a fur-lined coat and a red cap.

Duff stared at the intruder, slack-jawed.  The cookie clattered back onto the dish, and at the noise the stranger whirled around to face him. 

"Duff!  What are you doing still awake?" he demanded.  Duff took a breath to answer – or more likely to ask how the man knew his name – but before he could, the man peered over the couch, narrowed his eyes and frowned.  "Oh I see what this is. You thought you would catch your parents pretending to be me!" he accused.  "Well, here's the real truth: adults are always wrong and you should never do what they say!" 

The man – could he really be Santa Claus? – he planted his leather-gloved hands on his hips as he scolded Duff.  "And don't even get me started on teenagers..." he griped, casting a stare over Duff's shoulder where his older brother's leg was sticking out from behind the couch, tangled in a blanket.  

Tears started to well up in Duff's eyes.

"Please still give them Christmas presents!  I know they said they don't believe in you, but they've been good, I promise!" he begged.  Santa's expression softened.

"Aw, I know, kid.  I promise they'll still get their presents, alright?  Let me just finish up here and then maybe you can help me out with those cookies, sound good?"

Placated, Duff sniffled and nodded, scrubbing his eyes with his sleeve. He hopped onto the sofa, swinging his feet and watching with awe as Santa pulled beautifully wrapped gifts out of seemingly nowhere and stacked them around the tree, one after another until all eight of the McKagan children were represented. He took a step back to take in his handiwork, made a few minor adjustments, then turned back to Duff: “Voila! That’s the magic of Christmas. Now pass me that plate, would you?”

Santa sat down next to Duff and propped his boots up on the coffee table. When Duff held out the plate of cookies, he selected one decorated to look like Santa Claus, white beard and all, and promptly bit its head off. 

“I love my job, but delivering presents is exhausting,” he sighed, accepting a glass of milk from Duff’s outstretched hand. “I’ve already covered Asia, Africa, Europe, and most of the Americas, so I’d say I’m due for a break.  Cheers, Duff.” He held up his glass and Duff tapped it with his half-eaten cookie. 

“To a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!”

🎄🎄🎄🎄

[lady-divine-writes]

Saturday with the Boys (Rated T)

(Because I needed some general hijinks with Crowley, Adam, and Warlock. XD Inspired by this post.)

“How much do you want for this here picture frame, ma’am?”

“Oh! I’m so sorry, dear. It should be marked.” Wilma pulls her reading glasses down from her white crown and examines the ceramic frame. She actually knows how much she’s asking for it. It says clearly on the front – five pounds. But this man more than likely wants to haggle. So she procrastinates parting with that information, slowly fixing her glasses on the bridge of her nose for show. She’s had 20/20 vision since childhood, and at seventy-seven, that hasn’t changed a whit. But she milks this moment, making herself seem more infirm than she honestly is in the hopes of getting a few pity pounds out of this poor schlub who happened upon her yard sale on this fine Saturday morning.

To be honest, she bought this God awful picture frame on her disaster of a third honeymoon. The whole marriage was ripe for the rubbish heap about four months in and yet she stayed with her darling Henry till the man died of sepsis a year ago – a week before his life insurance policy matured.

This frame is all she has left to remember him by.

Well, this frame, a house, a vacation property in Belize, and a ten million pound inheritance.

If no one buys the stupid thing, she’s going to toss it into the air and shoot it with an air rifle.

“I’m … I’m having a bit of trouble reading this, love,” she says in an appropriately quavering voice, pointing to the tag in the corner. “Does this say five pounds? Or fifteen? It’s been such a long morning out here in the sun. I can’t seem to tell …”

“How about I give you twenty and we call it a day?” the man holding the frame, a soon-to-be-present for his new wife, offers with a smile.

“Oh!” Wilma feigns astonishment while inside her head she pats herself on the back for playing him for a sucker. God, she should have been an actress! She squandered so much of her long life as a common housewife. “That’s so gracious of you! Thank you, my dear!”

“You’re more than wel—“

The end of his sentence gets severed by a vintage car screeching up to the curb and stopping with a jerk. The doors fly open and three people race out – a tall, lanky man with flaming red hair and sunglasses, dressed all in black like an undertaker, accompanied by two young boys around twelve – one with straight black hair, the other a curly dirty blonde. The curly-haired boy hugs a black-and-white terrier to his chest, whispering to it as all three plus dog race over to Wilma, sitting bewildered at her card table beneath a large oak tree.

And they look in a panic.

“Excuse … excuse me,” the curly-haired boy begins, “but we need to see any cursed amulets you may have for sale!”

“Wh—what?” Wilma asks, eyeing the three suspiciously, the dog especially. “What are you going on about?”

“Please!” the dark-haired boy begs. “It’s a matter of life or death!”

The dog barks. The curly-haired boy hugs him.

“It’s all right, Kevin,” he coos. “We’ll get this curse reversed. I promise you.”

“Is this some kind of a joke?” the man buying the frame asks incredulously.

“I can assure you it isn’t,” the tall man says seriously. “We’ve had a bit of a run in with … with … well, uh …” He rubs the back of his neck uncomfortably, looking down and to the side, hard to tell through the dark lenses of his glasses.

“Well, spit it out, mate!” the man says. “A run in with a what?”

“A … a …”

A demon,” the dark-haired boy finishes, a peculiar twist to the corner of his mouth that makes the man with the frame suspect he might be lying.

“Right,” he says, moving in front of Wilma to guard her from these three hooligans trying to pull a horrible prank on this poor old woman.

The dog whines, sounding for all intents and purposes desperate, and the curly-haired boy sighs. “I know it sounds unbelievable, but we’re telling the truth!”

“It won’t be Halloween for ages, young man, so I suggest the three of you climb back in the car you rode in on and get out of here before I phone the authorities!”

“Don’t do that!” the black-haired boy cries. “We’re not trying to cause trouble! Honest!”

“No! No, do!” the tall man says as if the man with the frame just came up with the best solution ever. “Maybe they can help! Do you happen to have the phone number of a local priest perhaps? Maybe a shaman?”

“You should be ashamed of yourself,” frame man scolds, turning on him with venom in his voice. “Encouraging these boys to participate in this reprehensible behavior!”

“Reprehensible!?” the man in the glasses scoffs. “Right! And what do you expect me to tell Kevin’s mum when we bring home a dog instead of her little boy? Hmm? Sorry, ma’am! We could have helped him out, but we didn’t want to disturb the neighbors! They have a right to sell their tacky goods in peace, your son be damned!”

“Are you mad!?”

“Oh, I’m sure she’ll be pleased that the wretched animal appears to be potty trained at least. And uni? No need for that! Think of all the money she’ll save!”

“Look, young man,” Wilma interrupts finally, having tried this entire time to figure out if there was anything on her table that she could pass off as a cursed amulet. Unfortunately, the only thing that might have sufficed walked away for seven pounds over an hour ago. The man in front of them, going on about demons and dogs like a nutter, might be insane, but if she’s right, that watch he’s wearing is worth a pretty penny. And driving an antique Bentley in mint condition? He could at least afford a hundred pounds or more for some useless bauble. “I don’t know what you’re playing at, but could you please move along? You’re scaring away paying …”

The dog in the boy’s arms growls, long and low, a menacing curdle that stops all conversation dead, everyone within a hundred feet suddenly fearing for their lives.

“Uh … Kevin?” the boy says while everyone but the tall man takes a step back, eyes glued to the animal as if expecting him to explode. And he does in a sense, letting loose with the loudest, angriest bark ever to come from an animal, his mouth opening wide, unhinged, revealing seven rows of razor sharp teeth.

And for a split second, his eyes glow red.

“Saints preserve us!” Wilma mutters, crossing herself with a shaking hand and standing so quickly, her chair topples backwards.

“It’s getting worse!” The boy carrying the terrier looks to the man in the dark glasses for help.

“I was afraid of this,” he says. “Get him back to the car, boys! I don’t think an amulet can save us now! Best to get him away from these God fearin’ people before … you know.”

“Before … before what?” Wilma calls after them, too terrified to follow for an answer.

“You don’t want to know,” the boy with the straight black hair says.

“I recommend you all go inside, find your crosses and your Bibles and start to pray,” the man in the glasses says, holding the door to his car open for the boys and the dog. “I feel … judgement day a’comin’.” He looks skyward, examining the clouds, frowning at something that only he sees. The man clutching the frame and Wilma look up, too, trying to see it, but all they see are clouds. Nothing more threatening than that.

But Wilma in particular, as devout a Christian as her Christmas and Easter attendance can attest, isn’t about to admit that.

“Oh dear Lord! Everyone! Get inside! Quickly!” Crowley hears as he climbs into his Bentley and peels away, trying to restrain his laughter until they’re completely out of earshot. Once they turn the corner and tear up the following block, Warlock and Adam crow.

“Did you see the looks on their faces?” Warlock snickers, putting out a fist for Crowley to bump.

“I know!” Adam giggles, wrapping his arms around Dog’s neck. “That was even better than the last one!”

“How’s about we call it a day and go get some ice cream?” Crowley suggests. “I think that guy with the frame might actually call the police.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Adam says. “I think Dog’s had enough. Or should I say Kevin.”

“Oh, all right,” Warlock agrees, even though he was really hoping they’d hit one more yard sale before the day was up. But ice cream is cool, too. Less of a chance of getting him dragged back to mom and dad by the police.

Of course, that’s never been too big an issue since Nanny is always there to bail him out.

“And remember, darlings,” Crowley says, merging on to the M40, “what’s the most important thing to keep in mind about today’s little adventure?”

“Don’t tell Aziraphale,” both boys say in unison.

Crowley peeks into his rearview, beaming at the two boys with pride. “Brilliant.”

[half--agony--half--hope]

Corona ramble...

Frequently have thoughts about this situation I want to share but just am not in the mood to type them out.  The mood has struck so here is my word vomit.

Our hospital census has tanked overall.  I am hearing this is the same in many areas.  Makes me wonder what happened to so many of our frequent fliers.  Despite the low census and us cancelling 2-3 nurses a shift corporate cancelled all vacations through the end of June.  At this point my Disney cruises have been officially cancelled by Disney and I have worked through my disappointment.  By the time it was made official I was just numb to the whole thing and not nearly as upset as I thought I would be.  I was however still looking forward to taking those 3 weeks off, but since I wont be and I have lots of PTO I have been volunteering for cancel once a week.  I am such a fucking introvert that it really takes until about day 5 in a row off before I start to feel any sort of cabin fever.  My friends I was traveling with and I just decided to move the trip to next year and have already rebooked everything.

At work we had to make a chart showing the dates nurses were assigned to COVID + or r/o rooms.  On my unit we only have 1 nurse a shift caring for them because at most we have had 3 at a time.  About 2 weeks into this we realized we had a couple nurses who somehow always got out of being assigned there.  It came to a boil when one of them said she shouldn’t have to because she has to go home to her husband and kids and a couple of us are single.  Fuck I always love being reminded how much less I am worth because I am alone.  One nurse messaged me on the verge of tears because her and another younger single nurse were currently staying in a rental house because they were worried about spreading it to their parents and she was so upset it was implied that not having kids meant none of her sacrifices mattered.  Of course that family doesn’t matter.  It’s not at all important how much I miss my sister and nephew (who live half a mile away) that I haven’t seen, other than to wave through the window when I dropped off an Easter basket, in over a month.  I genuinely can’t stand the nurse who said that at the best of times but come on, none of us want to be putting ourselves at risk but to come to work and act like your life is more important than the rest of ours just makes me so mad.  So the next shift I made the rota sheet and now it’s fact based and when its your turn it’s your turn.  More than one nurse thanked me for making it so I can tell especially our newer nurses were feeling pressured to just take that assignment all the time and not complain.  

It’s weird not having many COVID patients.  We only have 8 ICU beds total.  2 can take airborne patients.  We have 2 airborne rooms on my med/surg and we turned 2 more into them.  But despite the last of patients there is just still this pervasive sense of anxiety every shift.  Just waiting for the hammer to drop and for it to become unmanageable keeps you from being able to ever relax.  I know we are lucky compared to some places that we are able to keep them in airborne and though have had to go to using 1 mask a shift still have N95s and PAPR for the assigned RN each shift and you start to feel ungrateful for wanting to be able to not have to reuse any PPE.  But you get this sort of imposter syndrome feeling when you see all the thank you posts and know you don’t have it nearly as bad as some others.  Still also doesn’t stop the bouts of paranoia that I am going to end up infected and sick.

[let-it-raines]

Catch Me If You Can (5/?)

298 days. That’s how long Killian Jones was away from a baseball field. It’s less than a year, only part of a season for him, but it might as well have lasted a decade as he alternated between physical therapy and spending an excessive amount of time sitting on his couch.

But then he came back and won the World Series.

It’s something no one saw coming, and it’s certainly not something anyone who knows about his arm would predict. Now it’s a new season with new possibilities, and anything could happen. On-field reporter Emma Swan will be there to cover it all even if she is not his biggest fan right now.

Asking her out live on-air will do that.

Rating: Mature

A/N: It’s been a day, my friends, and when it’s been a day I like to give you guys chapters earlier than I expected. But also because I’m sitting on chapters and want to get to the good stuff! Our favorite duo really start to interact from now on, so the slow burn you guys are feeling is speeding up!!!

As always, thanks to @resident-of-storybrooke❤️

Found on AO3: Beginning | Current

Tumblr: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 

Tag list: @royalswan @shey-starsfury @sals86 @iam2307 @ashley-knightingale @snowbellewells @karenfrommisthaven @skyewardolicitycloisdelena91 @scientificapricot @captswanis4vr @emmas-storybook @ultimiflos @jamif @idristardis @nikkiemms @resident-of-storybrooke @tiganasummertree @wellhellotragic @bmbbcs4evr @onceuponaprincessworld @jennjenn615 @mayquita @captainsjedi @teamhook @kmomof4 @ekr032-blog-blog @ultraluckycatnd @cs-forlife @andiirivera@jonirobinson64 @mariakov81 @galaxyzxstark @qualitycoffeethings @thejollyroger-writer

-/-

“How hot is it in Texas right now?”

“Hotter than here, but not all that bad. Seventies, I think.”

“Well, that’s probably because that weird heat wave is over, and it’s back to being fifty degrees outside.”

“True,” Ruby sighs, pulling a dress out of Emma’s closet. “You should wear this dress. It makes your ass look fantastic.”

“No one sees my ass.” She walks over to Ruby and grabs the red dress anyways, folding it up since she knows that it won’t wrinkle. She pulls up the weather app on her phone, scrolling through the thirty cities she has saved, and finds the week’s forecast for Houston, seeing that the high is indeed mostly going to be mid-seventies. That’s good. That’s far better than it is when they have to travel during the summer. “Should I bring heels or embrace flats for the week?”

“Bring your nude pair.” Ruby chunks them at the bed, about two feet away from taking Emma’s eye out. “Oh, and the turquoise if you’re going to wear that green pencil skirt.”

“You just want to borrow them if we go out, don’t you?”

Ruby pulls her turquoise pumps out of her closet, which really needs to be organized but that’s a story for another time, and tosses them on the bed before she grabs several more shirts and pants for Emma. “You know me so well, even if we mostly go out in Texas simply to eat their food.”

“Ugh,” she groans just thinking about it. “If we’re going to do that, I need to bring looser clothing. I don’t want everyone to think I’m pregnant when it’s just a food baby.”

“I bet you everyone would think it’s Jones’s baby.”

Her eyes cut over to Ruby as she picks up her turquoise heels and places them on her striped chair. How can someone be both the worst and the best friend? “For that, I’m not bringing these heels.”

“You’re evil.”

“You shouldn’t be mean to me if you want to borrow my shoes.”

“Being mean is kind of in her wheelhouse,” Graham adds in as he pokes his head through her bedroom door, eyes glancing over the mess that’s currently happening. He’s totally judging. “Do you two realize that your flight is at six in the morning, and you’re up at two in the morning packing?”

“Do you realize that it’s two in the morning, and you have to take us to the airport at four?” Graham rolls his eyes before Ruby walks toward him and presses up on her toes to wrap her arms around his neck and slide her lips over his. “Thank you for doing that, by the way.”

He presses down to kiss her once more. “You’re going to be gone for three days. I’m going to miss you.”

“Cheesy,” Emma grumbles, tossing a rolled-up sock at the back of Ruby’s head. They’ve really got to stop throwing clothes. She’s never going to be able to find anything. “Can’t you two go make out in your room or something?”

“I kind of like that idea.”

“Me too. Ems, pack the damn turquoise shoes and some spanx so that you can eat and people won’t think you’re having Jones’s baby.”

“Wait, what?” Graham mutters. “You’re having Jones’s baby?”

“No one is having anyone’s baby, and it better stay that way. Use protection.”

“Pack the shoes.”

“I still don’t understand what’s going on.”

“You’re not supposed to, babe,” Ruby laughs, backing Graham out of the room and pulling Emma’s door shut behind her.

Those two are ridiculous, and if she didn’t love them so much, living with them would be nearly impossible. Seriously.

Emma gets an hour of sleep after she finishes packing (thanks late night games and early morning flights), and she’s basically a zombie as she and Ruby load into the back of Graham’s squad car as he drives them to JFK. She knows that it takes awhile to get there, but she’s pretty sure that she slept the whole time because before she even realizes it, she and Ruby are checking into their flight at the kiosk and going through security. It’s the emptiest she’s ever seen the place, and she would know. She spends far too much time in airports for her job.

When the team travels, she travels. Most of the time. Some trips she doesn’t work, and it’s glorious.

It used to not be that way. She’d only travel for the games that were actually shown on ESPN or sometimes Fox, but now that ESPN has an entire online streaming service, she’s traveling nine games out of ten and working all home games. It’s exhausting, to a point, but she has a hell of a lot of travel miles and rewards programs that she gets to keep even though the network pays for her flights and hotels. Sometimes that means she gets six am flights when she doesn’t have to be in Houston until seven in the evening, but it’s not always that bad.

And one day she’s going to use those points to travel to Italy or something.

Pasta would be really good right now.

So would coffee, but if she has coffee, she won’t sleep on the plane. And sleeping on the plane is kind of important if she wants to not look like a zombie tonight. Her face may look like a zombie, but at least her ass will look great.

She doesn’t want anyone to comment on the state of her ass. She’s the only one allowed to do that.

Okay, she’s lost her mind.

-/-

The Yankees win their sixth game of the season that night.

She eats the best barbecue sandwich she’s ever had, and a clip of her eating ends up on Sports Center.

Sometimes she wonders if people actually watch baseball for the game or if they simply watch because there’s always something weird going on in the crowd.

The sandwich was worth it.

-/-

Emma’s feet hit against the treadmill as Queen blares in her headphones and a tennis match in Monte Carlo plays on the television in front of her, Rafael Nadal sliding back and forth on the clay as he absolutely dominates his opponent. If every athlete was as good as Rafa is on clay, they’d all be dominant, but that’s likely a story for another day.

She’s got twenty-three minutes left on her run, especially since she’s going at a slow pace with a slight incline, but she can already feel the incline starting to kill her, her calves burning the slightest bit with each step that she takes. Her face is red, her hairline slicked back with sweat, and she can already tell that getting her sports bra off is going to be an impossible task. She gets that it’s for the support and all, but there should really be an easier way for her to free her boobs from their confines.

Free the boob.

Unless she’s running or walking down stairs or doing anything more than some light walking.

Her phone buzzes on the machine, and the man on the treadmill looks over at her like he’s annoyed by the fact that her phone made some kind of noise. It’s not her fault that he didn’t bring any headphones, and really, if he’s so bothered by her, he can move two treadmills down. This hotel gym is plenty big enough.  

Ruth: I saw you eating a sandwich on TV last night! That’s too funny!

Ruth: I hope you’re having fun!

Ruth: I miss you, sweetie!!!

For Ruth to be sixty-five, she has a fantastic grip on technology. She knows that it’s because she and David have taught her how to text and find clips of their segments and articles online, but still. She knows how to use emojis and gifs and even has an Instagram, which is only slightly terrifying most of the time. But she knows it’s simply to keep up with she and David’s lives since they don’t always tell her everything.

Okay, that’s mostly her.

But David has a much better relationship with Ruth, which makes sense considering she’s his mother. She’s Emma’s…quasi mother. She’s never been too sure how to go about it. Calling David her brother is much easier than calling Ruth her mom, and she knows it’s because the word mom has more heavy meaning behind it.

Emma: It was a good sandwich! Only a little time for fun since I’m here for work. I miss you too!

Ruth: There’s always time for fun!

Ruth: David and MM are driving up to visit me next weekend for the holidays. Are you coming too?

Emma: I don’t get vacation days like David does, so I’ll be in LA. I wish I could.

Her music stops between songs, and she hears the roar of the crowd on the television, seeing that the match just ended, and her treadmill starts to slow down, the time ticking down past five minutes so that it’s time for her to cool down with a slow walk while she keeps texting Ruth about the fact that she’s working over Easter weekend. She pretty much doesn’t have days off, except for days the team has off, until the season is over in October. Or early November. It depends. And then she’s back working in the office writing articles and doing prep work and occasionally having to suffer through covering basketball.

Bills must be paid, but at what cost to her having to listen to sneakers squeaking?

Ruth never seems to understand that because she thinks that she and David have the same job even though David has never once been on camera. He’s behind the scenes all the way.

When her treadmill time officially runs out, she steps off and gathers her things before finding a towel to wipe down the handles from where she touched them. Angry man is still eyeing her as she cleans up, and she seriously hopes that he is not going to be there tomorrow.

If he is, maybe he’ll be happier.

She doubts it.

He seems to just be one of those people who is particularly unpleasant all the time.

Sweat sticks to her skin as she walks through the hotel hallways, casually airing out her tank top and wiping sweat back into her hair to get it off of her face, and she very nearly walks up the stairs to go back to she and Ruby’s room when she sees people milling around the dining room with breakfast on their plates.

Breakfast would be good.

Mostly water. And coffee. She’s not entirely sure if she’s recovered from her lack of sleep yesterday, which made her question her sanity when her alarm went off for the gym this morning, but she knew if she didn’t work out then, she wouldn’t work out at all. And she needs that push of adrenaline and endorphins.

Grabbing a plate from the buffet line, she walks through and fills her plate with fruit and scrambled eggs, even if she knows they’re from a bag and not a shell, and a half of a waffle from the waffle maker. She always loves when they have those at hotels. Good continental breakfasts are her jam…especially if they have jam.

“Got enough toppings there?”

Emma nearly drops her plate when she hears his voice, and when she twists her head to the side, she sees Killian Jones standing next to her, his own plate full of food in his hand. Seriously. Why is she always running into him when she’s eating?

And sweaty.

“Not enough if you ask me.”

He adjusts his hat, a Vanderbilt one that is very obviously a decade old. “I was  asking you.”

“I like toppings,” she sighs, putting some more fruit onto her waffle before grabbing the whipped cream can and spraying some of it onto her food. Her workout is yelling at her for this. “What’s the point of a waffle if you’re not going to load it down with toppings?”

“I’m more of a pancake man myself.” He reaches into the buffet and grabs a yogurt, which is definitely not a waffle or pancake. “But considering I’m playing tonight, I’m supposed to be watching what I eat.”

“You have an entire plate of eggs.”

“Protein, Swan, protein. You would know all about that with all that barbecue you ate last night.”

Just let her sink into a hole right now and never come back up. The internet is ruining her life.

“Weren’t you supposed to be tracking Roseman’s pitches last night or something?”

She turns on her heel and walks away from the buffet to a table, knowing that Killian is walking behind her. They have the weirdest relationship. It doesn’t even feel right to call it that, but they’re somewhere between a working relationship and reluctant friends, and the fact that he’s placing his plate down on the table across from hers makes her lean more toward reluctant friends who see each other occasionally enough to have a bit of a rapport.

Her life gets weirder every day.

Killian Jones has one brave set of balls.

Baseball, testicles, whatever. Both work. At least, she thinks.

“You can eat right after you work out?” he questions, twisting the knob on one coffee machine while she does it with the other, the promise of caffeine already invigorating her.

“How do you know I was working out?”

He raises a brow before his eyes look over her, lingering a second too long at her breasts, before a slow smile creeps from one side of his lips to another that has her stomach twisting inside. “Well, it’s not because of your outfit. People dress more like they’re working out when they’re not every day, but the sweat still soaked into your clothes and in your hair are kind of a dead giveaway. Your face is flushed as well.”

“Observant.”

“I try, but it’s easy when you’re an open book.”

Totally not acknowledging that one.

She twists the knob on the machine and reaches over for the hazelnut creamer while Killian simply puts the top on his. He drinks black coffee? That’s disgusting. “Black coffee? Do you not have taste buds?”

He shrugs. “I don’t like to drink my calories. You want a water?”

She nods her head, and he grabs two bottles before following her to sit back down at her booth like it’s totally normal for them to be sharing a meal together. They’ve done it before, but that’s because she was working with him. It was not because they’re staying at the same hotel and happened to run into each other at the buffet.

Weird.

But she’s not about to be bitchy and ask him to leave when she has no reason to other than her own reluctance to talk to people before noon.

They sit in semi-awkward silence as they work through their plates. She definitely overloaded her waffle, but she would never admit that after earlier. That would be admitting defeat, and she doesn’t take too kindly to admitting defeat. Killian eats at lightning speed, scarfing down eggs and sausage, his yogurt untouched, and she wonders what it must be like to be a professional athlete and eat more than the average human being, even if it’s not all good food like pizza and onion rings and loaded down waffles filled with chocolate chips.

Her phone buzzes on the table, and she leans over to read the text from Ruth still trying to convince her to come home for the weekend when she’s already explained that she cannot.

“Boyfriend?”

“Huh?” she hums, texting a message before looking up and seeing Killian staring down at her, his eyes shaded under his cap. She’s so distracted by the fact that he asked her if she was talking to her boyfriend that she doesn’t pay attention to her answer. “Oh, no boyfriend. It’s my…um, quasi mom.”

“Quasi mom?”

Shit. She should have just said Mom. Maybe she’s a little flustered by all of this.

“She was my foster mom,” Emma explains, stuffing some eggs into her own mouth to give her some more time to talk, “when I was a teenager, but we’re still in touch because her son, David, is kind of like this big brother to me. I work with him and am close to his wife and kid and all.”

That was word vomit that she should not have shared. That is not information that she should just give out, and yet here she is. Obviously, all of the blood hasn’t returned to her brain since her run. Hopefully it’ll all come back soon so she can stop looking like an idiot with a messed up past who shares too much at a breakfast.

“David Nolan, right?”

“Y-yeah. How do you know that?”

He shrugs his right shoulder before taking another forkful of eggs, chewing and smiling in a way that reminds her of that scene in Thor where Chris Hemsworth is in the diner and throws the mug down asking for another one. Why the hell did they dye his eyebrows and his beard in that movie? That was a mistake.

“Ariel, my manager, is super hands on with me. She’s talkative, like extremely, and she shares all kinds of information that I never need to know. So, I’ve heard a bunch of random shit that I literally never need to know about. David sends her a hell of a lot of emails that I get forwarded.”

“So, do you just know my entire life story then?”

“If you’re entire life story involves you liking pretzels and waffles, and being asked out by a jackass on live television, then yeah.”

She barks out a laugh, her lips curving upward, and reaches down to take a sip of her coffee. “I mean, that’s it. There’s nothing else to know about me.”

“You sure about that?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

The smile on his lips fall into a straight line, his gaze intense, and he lifts the bill of his hat up before adjusting it back down. “Perhaps I would.”

“So, nosy,” she starts, still a little annoyed that he asked if she had a boyfriend and most definitely trying to lighten the conversation up again, “I’m going to be very self-indulgent and ask if you liked your segment. I want a more truthful answer than the one I got in the hallway.”

His lips curve up, pretty much taking up his entire face, and she can see the crinkle of his eyes as his long lashes land on his cheeks before opening back up to show his baby blues. Damn his eyes are blue. How is that even possible? Maybe they’re contacts or something.

No, that would be ridiculous.

“I freaking loved it. I mean, it was great. It was so simple, you know? You didn’t try to create some other angle, didn’t try to paint me as anything other than a normal guy. I really appreciate that. You have no idea,” he chuckles, reaching up to scratch beneath his ear. Is he nervous? Why the hell is he nervous? “I saw afterward, your cohost, he was a bit of a dick, wasn’t he? I know we talked about it a bit, but it seems like you just…well, it seems like the shit show is never ending for you.”

That is – that is not what she was expecting at all. She figured his apology was a one and done and that she’d never hear about it again.

“With my friends,” she starts, tapping her nail against the table, “I don’t mind. It’s funny. It’s something we can joke about, that I, myself, joke about, but when it happens in my professional life, it pisses me off. So many men have seen me as a joke in the past, have tried to tear me down that way, and it’s not something I like having to deal with now. I mean, it’s not like I can go off on them. That’s a great way for me to lose my job because I’m no longer,” she holds her fingers up and does air quotes, “likable.”

Killian lets out a low whistle as her heart hammers in her chest, her annoyance at this whole thing making her cheeks heat. It’s all so dumb, and really, she should hate him for it. She doesn’t though. She’s not always his biggest fan, but he apologized and obviously feels actual remorse. How was he supposed to know it would be like this?

And if she knows all of this to be true, why does she still get slightly irked by him sometimes?

Is that just because she’s so damn stubborn herself?

“Is there anything I can do to make it better for you? I mean, I put you into this situation. The very least I can do is try to get you out of it.”

“Nah, there’s nothing you can do more than treat me like a professional and go on as if you didn’t make an ass out of the both of us with millions of people watching.”

“I think I can do that. However I can’t promise not to keep making an ass out of myself though. My brother tells me it’s my natural state of being.”

“Your brother sounds like a smart man.”

“He likes to think so. His patients sure as hell hopes that he is.”

“I mean, I would hope so. Does he get to come to a lot of games?”

“He and Elsa and the girls try to make it to some of them, but it usually depends on if Liam is on call or if the game is too late, so it interferes with the girls’ bedtimes and school. But no matter what I always have a string of texts waiting for me afterwards.”

“They sound great. Your nieces are so cute. Like, adorable. When you posted that photo of the two of them wearing your jersey, my heart melted. That was cute, twenty-nine.”

“Twenty-nine?”

“Your number,” she says slowly, looking him over.

“Aye, I know. It’s just that I’m not used to being called that.”

“Oh, sorry.” She covers her mouth and takes a sip of her coffee. She’s never going to finish her food if they keep talking like this. “I call most of you guys by your numbers half the time. It’s faster, sometimes, for our stat-keepers. It’s a force of habit from back before the Yankees had names on their jerseys.”

“I like it,” he smiles. “You ever play any sports?”

“Nothing official. Why?”

“Just looking to see if you have a number I can call you, love.”

“Ooh, for a second I thought you were going to ask for my number, so that was a nice save.”

“Well, I mean, I could,” he shrugs, flashing that winning smile again.

“Not going to happen, twenty-nine.”

“Damn, I thought I’d stumbled myself into something. I guess that’s strike two for me.”

“Do you always speak in baseball puns?”

“Says the woman who made a joke about oral sex using a baseball pun.”

“Never claimed that I didn’t use them. I’m a fan of a good pun. If you can make it a clever innuendo, all the better.”

“I do love a good innuendo.”

“Yeah, I can tell with the whole tall, dark, and broody thing that you’ve got going on half the time before you whip out a smirk and do that thing with your eyebrows.”

“Why, Swan,” he sighs, waggling those damn eyebrows, “have you been watching me?”

“It’s literally my job.” He does his eyebrows again, and she flicks an apple chunk at him. “Shut it, twenty-nine.”

They sit in the booth and talk, the both of them going through two cups of coffee, before Killian gets a call that he needs to be on the bus to Minute Maid Park, which they both agree is an awful name for a stadium. It’s on the tip of her tongue to start naming off other awful names and major sponsors, but she doesn’t, holding that back as he gathers their plates and walks over to put them all in the bin, his mind seemingly having switched from casual conversation to baseball. She wonders how often he does something like that, just turning everything off to focus on his job.

She can do the same.

“So, Swan,” he sighs as they both walk toward the lobby, Killian to get on the bus and for her to walk toward the elevators, “you going to be around to interview me tonight when I walk off the field?”

“Only if my producer thinks that we need an interview from you.”

“Does this mean I need to play a damn good game?”

“Or a really bad one.”

“I’ll try for one of those.”

“Okay,” she laughs, backing away from him as she sees Scarlet and Fisher walk down into the lobby, “break a leg then.”

He raises a brow. “I’m not sure if that works in sports.”

“Guess you’ll be the first to try it out.”

Emma raises her hand to wave to him, before turning on her heel and walking toward the elevator, her mind trying to piece together all of the elements of her morning while her heart keeps beating like she’s still on the treadmill and not like she’s been sitting in a booth eating for the past two hours.

What the hell just happened?

When she gets back to her room, she quietly opens the door, not knowing if Ruby is awake or not yet, but as soon as she’s inside the room she sees Ruby sitting on the floor with her laptop in front of her with some kind of hair tutorial video on the screen. And whatever it is, Ruby is not succeeding at it, which is pretty much an impossibility with how good Ruby is with hair.

“What’d you do? Run to Manhattan and back? You’ve been gone for forever.”

Putting her phone and hotel key down on the dresser, she slides down onto the floor to sit with Ruby. Her legs are starting to ache, and she desperately needs a shower. She got a look at herself in the mirror in the elevator, and damn does she look rough.

“How long have you been awake?”

“Well, I woke up when you got up because you’re not quiet,” she huffs, tugging at her braid, “and then I woke up an hour ago. You’ve been gone for, like, three hours.”

“I spent a long time at the gym.” That’s not a lie, not really, but it’s not exactly the full truth. She’s not sure why she’s not being honest with Ruby, but it’s…it’s just what her brain has apparently decided on. That breakfast didn’t mean anything, right? So why would she hide it? Probably so no more jokes will be made about them. Yeah, that’s it. That has to be it. “And then I ate breakfast.”

“And you didn’t bring me anything?”

“Not supposed to take the food out of the restaurant area.”

“You could have stolen a banana.”

“Sorry?”

Ruby groans, twists her hair into another braid as the video ends, and then closes her laptop before looking at her, her eyes scanning over her outfit. “Let’s go get something from a café or something. What was that place we went to last time we were here?”

“Snooze, maybe?”

“Yes,” she hums, falling back against the floor before she very obviously remembers her slightly okay braided hair, “let’s go there.”

“I just ate, Rubes.”

“You can keep me company while I eat, and then we’ll go shopping before we have to come back and get ready for work.”

“Can I at least take a shower first?”

“I would prefer if you didn’t smell, so yeah.”

Emma reaches forward and slaps Ruby’s shoulder before getting up. “You’re the worst.”

“But I’m your best friend.”

“Unfortunately.”

“No, very fortunately.”

“Will you do my hair for tonight’s game?” she asks as she strips out of her tank top, sweat having practically dried it to her skin.

“If you let me wear your turquoise pumps.”

“You were going to wear them anyways.”

“Semantics.” Ruby waves her away. “Go take a shower. I’m starving, and I will absolutely perish if I don’t have food in my stomach in the next hour.”

[inkstaineddaughter]

Soft Drop Chapter 7: Ferromagnetism

Charlie/Reader

Fluff, implied smut, angst?

2k words

There’s time to kill between one task and the next. Work is over and you don’t have to be at the airport for a few more hours. It’s tea time. And trashy magazine time! The new issue of Cosmopolitan on your sofa has been tempting you with the promise of “13 Sex Positions to Drive Him Wild!” and you’re determined to find out just how wild that may be. You figure it might be a nice “Welcome home” for Charlie after one of his horribly draining West Coast trips.  

             You’re dipping your teabag into the mug and wondering why on Earth anyone would name a sex position Froggie Style, or name a perfume Guilt, for that matter when you hear the sound of your door being unlocked and opening. It must be either your mom or dad.  They’re the only ones, other than Charlie who have a key. You glance quickly at the clock on the stove. It doesn’t really make sense for any of them to be here at this time. Especially when your dad is always complaining about walking in on you in various states of undress. Jesus, just stop showing up announced! You consider whipping off your shirt and greeting them with just your bra on. It would serve them right! 

 But there’s only a single figure in the entry, tall and slightly rumpled. He tosses his bags onto the floor and holds out his arms. “Charlie!” You almost sound more scolding than surprised. “You should have called me! If I’d known you’re were going to be early, I still would have met you there!” But you press yourself against him, bury your face into his chest as he rests his chin on top of your head. He smells like recycled airplane air and unfamiliar laundry detergent. Why can’t Nicole just keep her ass in one spot? Or at least wait until she gets back from visiting her mom to discuss Important Divorce Things. Is it really worth dragging him across the country on like, no notice?

It feels so good to have him back though. At least, it almost feels good. Today, it seems like there’s more than just jet lag throwing him off. And his muscles feel tense under your hands. You pull away and look closely at him. “I got an earlier flight,” he says and rubs a hand over his hair. “I just wanted to get home. Wanted to see you.”  

“Something’s wrong. What happened?” you demand. But he only shakes his head and gives you a pained look and an irritable twitch of his shoulders. Whatever is wrong, this is a man that is badly in need of some TLC. And while you’re fresh out of candles and rose petals, you do still possess some creature comforts and maybe a few new sex positions too. But first thing’s first. “I have tea,” you offer, grabbing his hand. “Come have tea with me?”

You’re dragging him into the kitchen and he stops, pulls you back toward him. “We’re going to be all right, remember?” he reminds you. Of course, your heart drops through the floor at that.  Why? Why do you need to remember? Why now? And why is it that, whenever anyone tells you not to worry, you immediately assume the worst and start worrying? You may as well just throw a chair through the window now and save some time. At least then, Charlie won’t have to say any more. There. Subject closed.

You both manage to remain calm long enough to sit down and drink your tea and clutch at each other’s hands. You lament over how much you missed him this time and Charlie vows to absolutely fuck your brains out that night. All is back to normal until he drops the bombshell.   

“So, they’re moving the trial,” he says in a flat voice as he sits back in his chair. “To California.” That makes absolutely no sense and the only thing you can picture is a tour bus and a circus tent and taking the act on the road. Like Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, but with less acid and more divorces.

“The whole thing?” you ask. “I didn’t even know that was something that could happen.” You think back on your childhood days staying home from school when you were sick. All those episodes of Divorce Court never prepared you for this. “What the hell?!” you demand.

“Nicole refiled,” Charlie says, squeezing his eyes shut and pinching the bridge of his nose. “She enrolled Henry in school out there and something about establishing residency, I guess.” You’ve known Nicole to be moody and changeable and a pain-in-the-ass, passive aggressive wife, but this is diabolical. And it doesn’t feel like anything other than an open declaration of war.   

              “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.” Charlie sounds almost desperate. His eyes are red as he looks back at you and you notice how his hands shake as he reaches for the teapot. “Hire new lawyers now? I’m supposed to make it look like I’ve put down roots out there and have a stable home environment for Henry? He has a stable home environment. It’s here! But sure, I can just rent someplace else like no problem. Fuck!” he swears as he drags his fingers through his hair, making it look even more disheveled. “The goddamn show is moving to Broadway and I can only be there for what, like two rehearsals a week now? How the hell are we supposed to manage with that?”

The anger is obvious, but you can hear the panic creeping into his voice and the sound makes you sick to your stomach. You’re trying really hard to let him vent his own feelings and remember that this is not about you, but you’re so damn frustrated! Why can’t any of this be easy for him? You’ll always be moral support and you’ll keep it together if he needs you to. But right now, you feel like flipping the table over and shrieking, “Universe! Stop doing shit to my married boyfriend!”

              Charlie buries his face in his hands, pressing his fingertips into his eyes. You silently add a whopping dose of ibuprofen to the list of things you need to do for him tonight.  “Apparently, I have to pay for half of Nicole’s legal fees and now my own housing costs. And all the fucking airfare? Flying there and back all the time? I… I can’t do this. She’s….” He stops and looks around your small apartment almost desperately, as if the answers could be hung on your walls or written in your grandma’s old cookbook.  “God, she could destroy my whole life, (Y/N),” He continues in a lower voice. “All of it. Take my son away from me, my theater company, my whole life. Everything I’ve worked for and created, just gone. And I can’t do anything about it! I have to just stand by and let her?”

              Again, he covers his face, whether to stop himself from crying or stop himself from screaming, you don’t care. Either way, it’s goddamn unacceptable and you have to fix this. “Okay, stop. Stop,” You order him softly as you pull his hands down. “Charlie,” you ask. “What do you need here from me?”

              “Other than just you?” he asks and shrugs helplessly. “I really don’t know.”  But the wheels in your head have already started turning.  No way in fucking hell are you going to let things spiral away from him like this. “Okay,” you sigh as you try to organize the ideas already popping into your head. “I’m definitely not going to be able to spend four days a week out there with you, but I do have sick time and vacation days and I’m sure I can make something work with that.”

              All right. Visiting hours are taken care of. This is a good start. Now keep going. You frown. “God, I don’t know how many off the top of my head, but I know I have a crap-ton of frequent flyer miles. I’ll go online at some point tonight and transfer those to you, okay?” You know that “Tropical Island Getaway” you’d vaguely been dreaming of since childhood is never going to actually happen anyway. You blame Wheel of Fortune for that one.

What else? What else? You bite your lip as you wrack your brain. Charlie sits across from you, staring like at you like the goddamn Easter Bunny has materialized in your kitchen and he can’t believe his eyes. You can send him nudes as a morale booster. Nudes? Sexting? Never mind. Not when phones records can be counted as testimony. Dammit.

And the words leave your mouth before they’ve even become a solid thought. “I mean, shit, if you need me to, I’ll move into your place and help with rent. That would take at least some of the strain off.” Yikes. Did you really just say that? And would you actually do that? The answer is easy. Of course, you would. For him.  

“Really?” Charlie asks. He sounds utterly disbelieving, but a hint of sarcasm still colors his words.

              “Why not?” you shrug. “I like your apartment. You have a washer and dryer. And your bed is bigger.” Unless it becomes public record and somehow jeopardizes him getting custody of Henry, there really is no reason why you shouldn’t move in together.

              You can see he’s losing steam though and all the prior events are catching up to him. His shoulders are slumping and the dark circles under his eyes are getting darker as the sun moves across the sky outside your kitchen window. “You said yourself, it would take a hell of a lot to get you to leave your place.” Charlie’s voice cracks with frustration and defeat, but it’s still an accusation and he still throws it with as much strength as he can muster.

              But you don’t deflect it or even fire back with your own. Instead, you’re out of your seat and in his arms in an instant. And if your combined weight breaks the chair, then so be it. Charlie’s dining set is nicer anyway. You want to be closer to him, to ease some of the anguish this whole thing causes him. Just see him happy and keep him that way. 

               He looks way too relieved and too grateful as one arm snakes around your waist and his other hand goes up to cup your cheek. “I really don’t deserve you,” he says and shrugs. “Shut up,” you scoff, smiling into his palm. “You know you do.” Just as you’re convinced that you deserve him. So, you’re both selfish and horrible, but why shouldn’t you be selfish together? Charlie sighs and rubs his thumb across your lower lip. “But you’re so perfect, how are you so perfect?” You have to laugh at that. “Do not put me on a pedestal, Mr. Barber. You know better than that. I’ll fall off that shit and break my leg.” Charlie shakes his head. “I don’t want you on a pedestal,” he says. “I want you down here with me.” He slides his hands down your arms and over your back, pulling you closer to him and cradling you against his chest. “I don’t intend on going anywhere else, I promise,” you tell him.

              Knowing Charlie, it’ll only be a matter of time before you start to feel his hardening cock strain through his khakis and press into your thighs. Before you’ll swing your legs around and straddle his lap, when he slips his hand between your legs and his tongue into your mouth.

              It won’t be until much, much later, after he carries you off to your too-small bed and makes you come at least four times, that you’ll finally allow your mind to wander onto topics like lease agreements and whose pillows are nicer, what train you’ll need to take to work now, address labels and Lord in Heaven, how the hell are you going to explain this one to your parents? 

[belovedrival]

I’ve been awake off and on for a couple hours. Sleep is not happening at this point, so I’m better off getting up now.

DO NOT READ BEYOND THIS POINT IF YOU WANT TO BE POSITIVE TODAY - I started writing this around 5 am. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Too many thoughts, and most of them are negative. Our state’s shutdown is in effect until the end of April. Today is the 8th. I’ve been working from home since March 20th. What happens if the governor just keeps extending the shutdown? At this point I expect him to. Because the expected surge is *always* next week...or next month...or three months from now. Who the hell knows for certain.

This is what I felt a few weeks ago - when government officials start closing everything, and after getting a taste of really how much power they have (arresting a guy for paddling alone in the Pacific Ocean? WTAF? Is that not enough social distancing??), they are not going to give it up easily.

And what motivation do they have to open anything, even gradually? THEY’RE still getting paid. THEY don’t have to worry about laying off employees (my brother’s work has already had to do that). No, our betters, these experts who know everything (except, it seems, to properly prepare for a pandemic), THEY know best. So we just have to listen to them and question nothing, or we’re just greedy bastards who only love money and want to kill people. 🙄🤬

My church has been shut down for weeks. It is the most sacred time for Christianity, and we are literally not going to be able to celebrate Easter in our own places of worship, at least in this and other states. The dispensaries are still open here. So you can go get weed if you want, but you can’t go to church. I’m sorry, but if you think this country is on the brink of the Handmaid’s Tale, you are crazy. Learn to separate fact from fiction.

My parents live an hour and a half away, and we can’t visit them, nor they visit us, because that travel is not “essential”. I desperately wanted a hug from my mom yesterday. Once, a couple years ago, I drove to their house just to surprise her. I can’t do that now.

If I want to go into the office (I might have to, to get a couple things done), I’ll need a letter from my work, in case I get pulled over by a cop. My dad works at an electrical cooperative, and he has similar papers. Papers. That sounds familiar to anyone who knows history.

“Seine Papieren, Juden!” In the Soviet Union, people used to have to have papers to travel.

A party was busted up by cops in a local town in our county. It made national news because one of the people at the party was the town’s mayor’s wife. Typical - one rule for politicians, another for us. While the rest of us are stuck at home, worried to go to the grocery store, they and theirs flout the rules.

As of today, there is one documented death of Coronavirus in our county. An 86 year old woman. I am sorry for her family - especially since funerals are severely restricted - but again, this state has been shut down for close to three weeks already. What if ten people die next week? I guess we’ll be closed indefinitely in that case.

At this point I would not be totally surprised if my family had to cancel our vacation in July- one that’s been well over a year in the planning, and one that we haven’t taken together in NINE years. If that is the case...the very thought takes me to a dark place.

There are people who have already committed suicide because of lockdowns and social distancing. In times of economic depression, suicides and cancer rates go up. But those statistics don’t matter, apparently. Those people don’t count.

My 89 year old grandfather was taken to the ER last week. Dehydration. He’s okay for now, but really, his cardiologist said a while ago that he could go any time. He has Alzheimer’s, too. He doesn’t understand why my dad and his siblings can’t visit him. If he died, and he tested positive for the virus, Coronavirus would be the official cause of death. Not his worn out pacemaker, or high blood pressure, or Alzheimer’s. Or even that he’s almost ninety. Nope.

“Another death?” “Yes. Six more months of shelter in place. We must flatten the curve!” 😑

Look, one of my cousins has this right now. Another cousin is a nurse at a major hospital. I’m worried about them. I worry about my dad. Just...is it really necessary to shut down the entire fucking state of Wyoming over this? Have you BEEN to Wyoming? Or rural counties in Oklahoma? I know there’s the projection of this thing exploding but that’s all it is right now in many cases - projection. The initial graph that scared the shit out of everyone a month ago has been drastically scaled down. Again, are we supposed to just “stay at home” until a vaccine is produced? Polio ravaged communities for years and society wasn’t shut down over it. San Francisco wasn’t shut down during the AIDS outbreak. And for way too long that diagnosis had a 100% death rate. 100%. Coronavirus isn’t even close to that.

But sure, this is all crazy talk, right? It’s just because I had insomnia. It’s because I’m just a rube living in flyover country who doesn’t know shit. I’m just saying this because I don’t trust people obviously smarter than me, like the NYC mayor who told people to attend celebrations for Lunar New Year, or virtually all the media back in January (look it up) who said it was like the flu or less, and who weren’t reporting on anything except impeachment. And when they did talk about the virus, they called it something else...but if anyone calls it that name now, they’re a raging racist who needs to shut up. 🤔🤨 But sure, I’M the stupid, greedy imbecile who just needs to be a good girl and listen to my state and federal officials. Because they know best.

(The entire paragraph above is wholly sarcastic, in case you didn’t catch my tone. Also, there is a video montage of a variety of media people back in January calling the virus the Chinese virus, or Wuhan virus. Six weeks later, anyone who called it that was screamed at as a racist. This is why I can’t take a vast majority of American media seriously.)

Mister’s school will probably close because of the virus. Because they were already on the brink. Add a state-mandated shutdown of schools starting in mid-March (around the time when they would be looking to enroll next school year, no spring open houses to bring in more students), and it’s pretty much done for. So he’s looking at July as the last month he’ll be paid. If they have the funds to pay staff they promised them, that is. That’s not guaranteed. This isn’t a public school.

So yeah, this is what was keeping me awake. There’s your way too early Wednesday morning rant.

[beyondtsh]

Why Going to Church is Important

New Post has been published on https://wp.me/pe1Nfh-GK

Why Going to Church is Important

When I was growing up, going to church on Sundays with my mom was mandatory unless you were deathly ill. No getting out of it. Sunday was church day. Now I understand why the church is important, but I didn’t know it as a child.

There are countless benefits to attending church regularly, especially if you’re in the right place with the right people. God and His flock will help you get through tragedies, mourning, grief, hard times, loneliness, and heartbreaks; the list is endless.

Get the Christian t-shirt shown above – right here!

Just make sure you’re going to a solid, Bible-believing church! I came across this video and just had to share it! “20 Essential Questions To Help You Find A Solid Church”

It even says in the Bible that we should come together as a church body to worship. Hebrews 10:24-25

24 “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works,

25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Sometimes you walk in and you just need a hug or someone to pray with you or for you. There’s always someone there who can feel you’re in need of something, even if you don’t know yourself that you need it.

I found that peace and comfort by getting myself back to church after a tragedy, and I can honestly say I don’t know where I’d be right now if I hadn’t started back.

Going to Church as a Kid

I grew up in a Baptist church so there was Sunday school on Sunday mornings, worship on Sunday evenings, Tuesday was “visitation day,” Wednesday evening Prayer Meeting and Friday night AWANA. So I was at church almost every day of the week when I was young.

When I turned 15, I started giving my mom a hard time about going, especially since my dad only went on special occasions like Easter and Mother’s Day. If he wasn’t going every Sunday, why did I have to? That was an issue mom couldn’t really argue with, so she let me have my way.

I also went to a private Christian school until I was 15, so right about the time I stopped going to church regularly, I also convinced my parents to save their money and transfer me to the local public school so I could go to school with my neighborhood friends.

It wasn’t long after that, less than a year in fact, that I became a very young wife and mother. When that didn’t work out and I moved back home, I started going with my mother again – to a new church this time. And at 21 years old, I was saved and baptized at this local church.

Looking back, about the only type of outreach this church did was summer vacation Bible school and I helped with that one summer. I was remarried at the time, but like my dad, my husband only went to church with me on special occasions too. Eventually, I stopped going completely and ventured out on my own after marriage number two ended.

Strayed and Walked Away

Over the next couple of decades or so, I visited different churches here and there but never found one that “fit.” They had nothing to keep me coming back. Eventually it seemed more like a chore than something I enjoyed doing.

Like Crowder’s song says, I “strayed and walked away,” unspeakable things I’ve done for years and years – a son out of wedlock, a third marriage and divorce, countless relationships that turned bad quickly and the list goes on; all because I’d stopped attending church regularly, I’d stopped growing in my Christian faith and trusting God.

Fast-forward many, many years, married again to the most wonderful Christian man who agreed that we should find a church and start going again. But where? We agreed not to go any religion-based church but find a non-denominational Christian church.

We could actually see one from our house so we tried that one. That only lasted for about six months and we stopped going there. Again, it wasn’t the right fit. There was something missing, like all the other churches I’d been to in my life.

Tragedy Strikes

We hadn’t been to church for about three years when on January 1, 2017 we got the call that my little brother was in a motorcycle accident and on life support. He was not going to make it. I was nothing less than completely and utterly devastated!

My little brother was my rock, my support, my best friend. Both of our parents were deceased so aside from our children and spouses, we only had each other in our immediate family. We did so much together and we could always rely on each other in emergencies.

One thing we’d made a promise to each other to do when our mother died was never to spend Thanksgiving apart. We spent Thanksgiving together every year for 20 years, no matter what else was going on. So as the year progressed and it got closer to both my little brother’s November birthday and then Thanksgiving, I grew more and more despondent.

Life As I Knew It Just Stopped

Most of 2017 is a complete blur. I stopped blogging, stopped writing; I didn’t want to go anywhere or do anything and I cried All. The. Time. I finally decided to go to grief counseling and made my first appointment. I didn’t walk out feeling any better so I made one more appointment, and didn’t feel any better after that one either.

Then one evening I was on the phone with my daughter and I mentioned that I felt the only thing that was going to help was to get back to church again. There was only one other church that seemed interesting, but we’d been advised against it by a minister associate we met at the memorial service of my grandson’s future mother-in-law when she passed. So that church was out.

My daughter told me about MCC, the church that her boss went to and how much they loved it because it wasn’t like any other church. So we decided to try it.

We were warmly welcomed by many people that we’d never met before. The church is almost an hour from our home, but that didn’t matter. It just felt right from the first minute we walked in.

This is Why Going to Church is Important

The service that morning was about dealing with grief and loss! God had His hand in that, I’m sure, because that was just what I needed! I cried throughout the entire service but at the same time I literally felt an overwhelming peace fall all around me, like the Lord was putting His arms around me and calling me back to Him.

The next day, Monday, I canceled my next appointment with the grief counselor. God led me back to where I needed to be and we’ve been attending regularly now for almost five years. We even jumped in with both feet to become partners at the church and regularly volunteer at various events.

Knowing You’re in the Right Church

We had many “God Winks” in the months following that first Sunday that further solidified our belief that we had found a church home. In the last few years since going back to church, I’ve built a new family in Christ. I have church brothers, sisters, daughters and even a church granddaughter!

Get this Christian t-shirt here! Is going to church important and something you should be doing? Is it for everyone? I believe it is – when you find the right church; the one that the Lord leads you to.

If you get “God Winks” when you visit or within the following months after you start going or when you actually look forward to Sunday Worship and not feel it’s a chore or something that you “have to do,” but rather something you WANT to do, then you know you’ve found your home church too.

[wheelyfine]

How to Save Money on Buying used Luxury Car — Wheelyfine

When is it worth buying a car? The question is not trivial. Buying a car requires a substantial investment dedicated to a product that will be used for years. This is why motorists, before proceeding with the purchase, always devote a rather long period to reflection. It is, therefore, reasonable to learn to move within the dynamics of the market.

If you wish to buy a pre-owned luxury car, there is not much difference between one year and another. Still, the purchase of new vehicles needs to consider various criteria linked to car manufacturers and dealers.

The 10 holidays most favorable for buying a pre-owned luxury car

Buying a used luxury car is like buying a new car — just the other way around. That may sound absurd at first; it simply means that you can save a lot of money even when buying a used car with an anti-cyclical approach.

The prices for second-hand luxury cars in the cold season are significantly higher than in summer. The reason for this is that many motorists are looking for a vehicle for the winter where, for example, any accident damage would mean a significantly lower loss of value and would be less annoying than a new vehicle.

Winter season

In particular, used small and micro cars, which are winter road-friendly thanks to front-wheel drive, are in great demand. Motorcyclists or convertible owners are now looking for a cheap car that is easy on their health and the vehicle.

Early spring

It is best to start looking for second-hand premium cars as early as spring. The best time, however, is the summer vacation time. Many potential customers are now on vacation. The few customers who come to the dealers can therefore negotiate high discounts.

June to August

The opportunity to buy a car is particularly favorable from June to August. What is good for car buyers, on the other hand, is less pleasing to car sellers. Because if you want to sell your vehicle, you should limit yourself to the winter months. October is a good time to sell. In autumn, car prices rise significantly, as experience shows that the demand for used cars is increasing. It is mainly because many drivers want to buy a winter car before the cold season.

By the end of each quarter:

At the end of a quarter, and specifically at the end of June (Q2) and the end of December (Q4), car dealers often have to make the most of their sales goals. They also always look at the stock of used cars for sale during this period. At these moments, you have a better chance of an excellent deal.

The popular month of September:

In general, September is a popular month to buy a car. This month, many new cars are coming onto the market, so the sale of second-hand cars will also increase.

When new models come onto the market:

Will there be a new model of your favorite car on the market? Then it is smart to wait for that. Car dealers often want to stock the new model and slowly phase out the old model. Another chance for a great offer!

Depending on the type of car:

The car model is also a determining factor. Are you buying a convertible? Then it will be cheaper in the winter than in the summer.

When a model is being phased out

Finally, look out for models BMW 3 series second-hand that are being phased out. Sometimes, you can make a good deal. It is useful to check in advance why the model is going out of the market. Google is your friend.

Incidentally, it has analyzed more than 12 million transactions between 2011 and 2019 and found that the vehicle type also makes a difference. Are you looking for a mid-size SUV? Then buy it in May. A large truck is often best bought in October, medium and compact cars in November, and for small and premium SUVs, it is best to go in December.

The top 10 worst holiday times to purchase a used luxury car

While vacations aren’t commonly thought of as essential retail days, sellers generally tend to make a huge push to enhance income within the late fall and early wintry weather by imparting more significant offers. Those vacations are a great purpose for them to pump up their promotions — especially as of the 3 are constantly found on a Monday, which means buyers have an extended weekend to discover the 2nd hand luxury cars they need to purchase.

Between September and October

September is without a doubt the worst time to buy a used car. The manufacturers, in fact, usually release the new models (or the so-called facelift, the partial restyling that are now carried out annually, or almost) between September and October.

Early autumn

Going to the dealership in early autumn, therefore, it won’t be easy to get a discount, even minimal, on the purchase price, so if you are planning for a Mercedes C class second hand, it would be wise that you wait for the right season. Getting the timing wrong is probably one of the worst mistakes people make when buying a car.

Avoid these holidays

Along with the seasons, you should avoid Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Good Friday, and Memorial Day. All these holidays fall in the late spring and summer months, and many people choose to go car shopping on these days, and the dealers know it well. These are the days when the sales are at the highest, and there is no such need for them to push the sale by lowering the prices and offering discounts.

Top best favorable months to buy pre-owned luxury cars

Beginning of the year

The beginning of the year is a good time to buy a used car, especially in January and February. In these months, many model vehicles from the previous year are left in stock and need to be sold, and even you can get an Audi second hand at the best price. Besides, there is also a market slowdown — these being the main reasons for the period to be favorable for this type of business.

As at this time (after parties), large expenses arise, such as enrolling children in school, buying books and school supplies, IPTU, IPVA, and vacations, a smaller number of people are looking to buy cars. Therefore, to attract more consumers, stores, and dealerships launch promotions.

End of year

One of the times when the purchase of cars is also very favorable to the consumer is at the end of the year. During this period, those who want to buy a used car, for e.g., a used Porsche, can benefit from promotions, which start in late October and generally extend until December — when Christmas occurs.

So, if you intend to make this type of investment, take advantage. It is in this period that the biggest discounts appear.

The explanation for this is that at this time of year, the automakers begin to put their launches on sale for the year that begins. Thus, for resellers and concessionaires not to run the risk of having their stocks accumulated, they resort to promotions. The objective is to sell new as well second-hand luxury cars and, therefore, excellent promotions appear, offering great discounts to consumers.

Also read best and worst days in the week to buy a used luxury car.

Thank You for spending your time reading this article.

Originally published at https://wheelyfine.com on March 29, 2021.

[lovinglunaxxtothemoonandback]

We had a glorious (if but a little stressful and exhausting!!) trip to Florida. Easter morning we woke up at 6 and set up lunas trail of Easter eggs leading from her room to the trunk of the loaded car, where her easter basket was waiting for her. There were all fun things to do in the car! Thoughtful easter bunny! We told her we were going on vacation but didn't tell her where. The trip was pretty uneventful. We hit some traffic in Florida, we almost missed her reservation but luckily we made it. When we arrived at the bibbidi bobbidi boutique Luna still had no idea where we were. As we checked in we finally told her and she was stunned. All of the staff adored the surprise and couldn't stop talking about it. It was truly a magical experience, Luna was so awestruck. I cried like 50 times. Especially when she was all done and taking photos. We wanted to go grocery shopping that night but didn't realize everything would be closed for easter. The next morning we did our grocery shopping then left for universal. It was exhausting because Luna was so overwhelmed. She had never been to a theme park before and it was CROWDED. We made the most of it. I loved seeing Diagon alley for the first time. Taking the Hogwarts express was amazing. Luna really enjoyed it too, even if she was impressed with Harry Potter. Kory spoiled her rotten by buying her the $50 interactive wand and she had a lot more fun after that. She really really enjoyed Seuss landing. Overall it was a great first day. Tuesday was our first Disney day. We had to drive instead of taking the shuttle because we had an early reservation at be our guest. Traffic to park was atrocious and the lines for bag check were so long I was panicking. They said they would hold our reservation until 20 mins passed our time so I settled down, then realized once you got through bag checks you had to take transportation to the actual park (cue panic again...Kory was less than impressed with my reaction 😂). Once we got into magic kingdom Kory threw Luna up on his shoulders and we sprinted to the restaurant. Hot and sweaty we made it just in time! The restaurant was beautiful but I was unimpressed overall. You order and pay for your food before sitting, you collect your own drinks and they deliver your food to your table. This, considering our total bill was $74 FOR BREAKFAST, was unacceptable. The food was good but certainly not worth a $25 entree ticket price. I definitely wouldn't do it again. Though I did have the grey stuff and IT WAS delicious!!! We had a good day overall. Lunas behavior wasn't great but it was hot and she was overwhelmed. She had several time outs in the park. We met some characters, got on some rides but the wait times were insane. By the end of the day, we were really happy we had planned a day off the next day. Wednesday we slept in and hung out for a bit before going to our resorts pool. Luna was still a little timid with swimming but had a great time and didn't want to go back. We went back and she had quiet time and watched a movie after then we got ready to go back to Disney springs since all we did there was the boutique on Sunday. Lunas behavior was the worst yet while we were there and we wound up leaving in the middle of our trip. I sobbed when we got back in the car and I think it really hit her our serious we were about her behavior. We decided to try again and she was really good the second half. We had fun walking around. There was a dance party for the kids and we honestly had to drag Luna away from it. She loves to dance, just like her Grammy and mommy! Thursday it was back to the parks. We decided to do the shuttled to save $22 on parking OMG BIG MISTAKE. First of all, it was late. Also we didn't know the hotel outsourced the shuttle and it stopped at like 5 hotels (and lemme tell you, the got sketchier and sketchier each stop). We finally got to Disney, this time, Epcot. As soon as we got there we headed to Norway for Frozen since we didn't have a fast pass for the ride and the wait wasn't long. The wait itself was SO COOL so pretty and so much to look at! The ride was awesome, my favorite ride overall. Meeting Anna and Elsa was great, Luna was SO star stuck. The only character experiences I videoed the whole thing. After those things, her behavior started really going down hill. But because we shuttled, we were stuck for another 3 hours. It was pretty horrible. And I didn't get to meet belle, my favorite princess, and I was upset. Overall it was a fun day but with a lot of low points. Finally it was nearing 9 so we made our way out. Now here's the thing, our paper said pick up would be at 8 and 11 in magic kingdom BUT when our driver dropped us off he said Epcot, spot 49 at 9 and 10. We got there around 8:15 and waited. It was the only chilly night in Florida the whole week and Luna and I were freezing. The driver was late again and it was like 9:15. As we were getting on, he asked everyone was hotel. When I told him ours he said oh no I just came back from there, it's 8 or 11. I explained to him that that isn't was he said that morning AND I had specifically stopped to ask him after he said that(Kory thought I was being a worry wart) but he kept saying no I know what I said I know what I said and letting people on the bus. I started sobbing and looking at Kory like wth are we going to do? We can't sit out here another 2 hours until 11! He finally said something along the lines of I know what I said and my boss will chew me out but I'll bring you. We got on the bus and there was only one seat left so I sat with Luna in my lap and I was still crying and it was embarrassing but everyone was nice and asking if we were okay. They all remembered what he said and me clarifying so they were my witnesses. Then a fight nearly broke out on the bus (same family fighting with each other no less) and it was escalating really badly and the driver pulled over and threatened to call the cops. Luckily Luna was asleep or I would have flipped. And luckily we were only the second stop. Needless to say, we put to Luna to bed and drank heavily 😂 Obviously Friday we decided that wasn't worth the $22 for parking again and drove. We decided on magic kingdom again. We had good fast passes. And we caught the parade. It was soooooo hot out but it was fun. It was annoying when the wait for Cinderella said 20 mins and it was up being an HOUR AND 20 MINUTES. But whatever, made up for it when Ariel said 50 mins and it was only like 10. So inaccurate. Overall it was our best day in Disney and Luna's behavior was much much better. We stayed until just before the fireworks. We had planned on staying for them but Luna didn't do well with the few they went off throughout the day. This morning we just packed up and hit the road. Apparently, so did the rest of America. Traffic was tremendous on 95. Our original eta was 6:05 pm. It's now 8pm and we have another 37 miles to go. I'm soooooo ready to be home!! I only have a day tomorrow before back to work Monday and I feel like I could use another week off! It was a great trip. So many memories I'll forever cherish. Can't wait to make a photo book 😊😊

[boardkingsguide-blog]

Board Kings Cheats

Board Kings Guide

Board Kings guide has been released. No, i'll never improve in the sport, but i won't be throwing cash away both. Wait until you take gain of a so-known as bonus buy! Non existent custom carrier. Do not want to believe it? Take a look at out the comments on their fb web page at some point of an occasion. I will be taken aback if this overview gets posted due to the fact many,many customers are taking advantage of their bonus packages and getting nothing but a receipt. Me covered. I in no way would have given this type of cute sport one megastar however they deserved it this christmas. Your turn is coming lower back and you must thru the cube to recognise your subsequent vacation spot. Every time you'll be throwing the cube, matters will start to trade and we're certain which you are not aware of the modifications and feeling that everything is complicated. Each time you'll be throwing the dice; your wide variety could be indicating the quantity of movements your character could be transferring. In addition, every block will reward you with some of Coins. So after contacting customer support, they answered per week later asking me to send a receipt of my purchase because it wasn't in their gadget? Bizarre, it changed into on my bank statement and apple account. I speedy sent them my receipt and nevertheless haven't heard lower back. Perhaps in any other week they'll reply? Ok so i re downloaded the game and got my development returned ——————————————————————————————normal fantastic sport but i got here back to this game and it logged me in as a new char meter known as "mike" i deleted the sport and i am approximately to re download it and notice if it helps but to date i am mad and concerned approximately getting my account back also i used to be a truely a excessive lvl.... it is so worrying motive why give them to me if i can't even use them??? I use to like this recreation however at this factor i just play it from time to time to okay*** some loose time over again, i amassed over 125 (saves) and become never given my reward rolls. Smh. Thoughts you, i paid $5 to get them. All of this is a advertising and marketing ploy on the way to get you to spend money. I fell in love with this sport when i first began playing, however now i am not so positive. This game may be very addictive!! My fiancé and i play and visit each different's boards and scouse borrow Coins. The handiest downfall we see to this point is that the rolls take for all time to construct lower back up. Attempted twice to improve a building: the sport takes Coins and does not upgrade something. Learn to code! This has been taking place to me more than one instances when i try to do in app buy. It shows $3.ninety nine in app, but on my card it shows $14.forty two each time i tried to get it!! I have no different troubles with any of the other video games i play, but there is usually something incorrect with this one. With the santa occasion coming to an cease soon i've been looking to do my forty rolls. I can not stay on the sport long enough to even get half manner through. Also very dissatisfied with the reality that i reacted santa however now i have to acquire extra carrots to refill his bag!? Impossible, mainly on the grounds that i can't even play the game. I've tried to contact the sport builders but it appears to move no in which. Maybe a negative evaluate will get interest. After the current replace, it deleted all my facts. I spent tons of cash in the sport and purchased many land marks and leveled up to the museum board. Got here returned to the sport to finish the bunny easter task and the game might not open in any respect. Consent crashes and when it does load it takes me through the tutorial and first board. If there may be handiest one roll of the dice on the way to s**** you be assured you may roll it each unmarried time. A reasonably uninteresting game initially, it doesn't need to hide you continuously too. I roll 60+ times and may not land at the tile designed for the mini game sufficient to even get midway to the prize. This is with hitting the right spot once i do land of the tile. But i will hit some random nothing tile over a dozen times. They're shown as houses, and every unmarried one of them can be upgraded. Now, although a few ask greater Coins for an upgrade, all of them give you the equal quantity of Coins. For example, upgrading normal tiles to level 2 will supply five extra Coins for stepping onto the tile. So, improve inexpensive tiles first, and only after all the reasonably-priced ones are upgraded proceed with upgrading the relaxation. This way, you'll earn more Coins considering that there will be greater upgraded tiles at the board, and could, at the long run, upgrade all everyday tiles faster. I emailed and messaged on facebook and nothing changed into ever constant. I think there must be a restriction on how many Coins you may scouse borrow. I used to be saving up Coins, than some one stole 73,000 Coins from me. I was essentially only left with more or less 5,000. i locate this very unfair, i was so close to deleting the app after this. It might be fine if whilst you had an problem and had to contact "assist" that they in reality were given lower back too you! This game isn't worth it. The developers can not even get the sport to load for days on give up. Do yourself a desire- download another game. This game become a laugh however now it is now not. I don't like the reality that people can thieve your cash because i had one hundred,000 stored up to repair my board and when i logged on i best had one coin left. It's not amusing to me because of that and if i shop up again they'll simply steal it once more and that frustrates me loads. So sad :( like the sport it is a first-rate time passer however one it looks like it takes for all time to gain your cube four in an hour appears sluggish but maybe it's carried out that way so you purchase extra. What i hate maximum about their game and i assume others have touched on is that why is it viable to your Coins to be stolen so normally in this sort of short time. I am no longer sure why you have to be robbed with the aid of four unique human beings inside the spans of an hour. But after i go to do so, i can only upgrade two homes bc i failed to land on some thing unique. I simply think including mini video games could add a new detail on how you can gain more of the critical gadgets you need to transport forward :) code:380-709-706 on multi participant when i visit a pals base after the 2d or 3rd roll you instantly land on a cop. Aside from that it is a decent sport. I lost my previous board when they had little glitch the other day, now i have to start all over, i have spent a lot of time on this game and i was connected with fb it had my picture and everything, i'm really annoyed, this is ridiculous, i have spent countless hours on this game and have spent money... stay clear of this game and if you do play do not spend money, their little so called glitches seem to happen when an event is ending so the people super close to winning the prize don't get it because when the glitch is fixed the event is over! The fact that your Coins can be stolen while actively playing. If a player occupies a tile you have to land on that tile and there is no other way to unlock it. The last two issues prevent progress at points. Love the game! A bit obsessed with it actually . Already spent my real money! I'm a bit upset about the update though. No matter how much i roll i almost like never get any christmas cards. If i were landing on more then i would purchase rolls. I was enjoying this game when all of a sudden i had to start all over again. It's frustrating when you have to go back from the start! So i lost my interest in playing it. 😒😩 i try to login and play this morning with my morning tea, after having won a boat load of rolls, Gems, and Coins during the night for being in the highest upgrade tier, only to see the "server isn't responding." Fix it. This is reeaaallllly disappointing. While the game is fun to play, it steals your Coins. My daughter was playing and i came up on her coin king twice in a row. It told her she stole about 78k from me twice. But it told me she stole 1.57m and 457k. Where did my Coins go if she didn't get them???? I don't mind if someone steals them a a part of the game but this is not what is happening!! The developers are just stealing the Coins in hope that you will buy in their store. It was a timed event and i knew right away that i needed to get ahold of someone. Well my 2 claim tickets about the same glitch were never responded to so finally i had to contact apple for my refund because not only am i frustrated that i never received day 2 but i was completely blocked from day 3 sale only for the event to end before anybody tried assisting me. I will not be purchasing anything anymore from this developer. Please fix! Thanks for such a great game. It's amazing. Fun and time consuming. The only problem is i never have enough rolls. And i can't get anymore. It's making me upset. This game is the best game ever! Not super time consuming, fun to play with friends, and a great way to relax after a long day! There's no game that's similar either! Make sure to like their facebook for giveaways too! Love this game! So easy to catch on and much faster than monopoly!! This game doesn't deserve a full 5 stars but if possible i would give it 4 and a half stars. Board Kings is awesome, but there is one problem your run out of "rolls". Almost every game now has "energy" or "hearts" or "rolls" etc... so you have to wait to get the "rolls". Some people on these reviews say 1 star because you run out of rolls but it's not that bad they are over exaggerating. Somebody also said i spent $50 dollars on this game and it didn't really make a difference. Also, the chase continues after our exciting sticker album, with new and super exclusive prizes for completing sets! Also, the chase continues after our exciting sticker album, with new and super exclusive prizes for completing sets! Are you an avid tiktok user? Or perhaps a business owner interested to use tiktok for social media marketing? Here are the top 8 tiktok stats you should know in 2020: warning, they'll surprise you! In this video, professional skater bri, for appgrooves, tells users about an app called riders that lets skateboarders make impressive tricks learnable, such as this fakie bigspin performed by bri. My wife and 2 kids that play the game thinks it's so funny because they play the game to and can't believe how unfair it is towards me. Which i have to admit sometimes it's funny to me to. That's the only reason i gave 4 stars. 1 star for the unfairness on me but added 3 more stars for the humor my family is getting. Gotta laugh love this game. Would give it five stars if it wasn't for the ads glitch. ✴decide a card, any card! Win free rolls and prizes while you draw playing cards from the thriller pile. ✴issues get actually attention-grabbing when mates present up and attempt to steal out of your board. ✴don't surrender! You'll be able to journey to your mates' boards, too, and wreak havoc! Steal their cash, injury their buildings, and occupy their tiles. ✴ your metropolis will change into the discuss of the city with well-known locations just like the empire state constructing and the eiffel tower. This helps create a fun sense of tension within the gameplay. Will we be able to spend our Gems before another player invades your board? Wise spending is the key here. Later on in the game you will have the opportunity to buy landmarks. These buildings can take up the blank spaces on your board. Landing on a landmark will give the player a bonus. There are different landmarks with different bonuses, such as extra Coins. The progression of Board Kings seems fairly standard as far as mobile games are concerned. For example 3,5, or 10. There are also other ways to improve it but my main concern is improvement to make the game more interesting. If the game improves i will add more stars but if it doesn't i will also write the other problems i'm having. Thank you. I would like to report a problem here in trying to play and it won't let me it keeps saying something went wrong can we fix that cause i really enjoy this game and would like to play today is there going to be a new update or something cause it keeps saying something went wrong it's a really fun game when you can play it... unfortunately i haven't been able to since it logged out from my facebook account. And along with that, comes with the lack of Gems and Coins to upgrade your buildings when you're out of dice rolls. When i'm out of rolls, i like to upgrade everything. But when i go to do so, i can only upgrade two buildings bc i didn't land on anything special. I just think adding mini games would add a new element on how you can gain more of the essential items you need to move forward :) so i started playing this game so i could earn some points on money app. Its amazing features and multiplayer option enhance the fun in the game. Hii i'm not able to download the latest version of Board Kings. I downloaded the app from the above link but when i opened the app it asked me download the latest version. Please help Board Kings (mod unlimited Gems Coins) is the best game for having a lot of fun. You can download it for free from our website. With this mod, you will get unlimited Gems, unlimited Coins and infinite dice rolls on your game account. Won a tournament and didn't receive any of the prize package. Emailed support twice and received no reply. I have made 3 separate in app purchases and haven't gotten anything from them. I message the support team and all i get is an automated response. The game is fun to play when you're bored but for the love of g** do not make an in app purchase.... I really hate how you have to buy packs in order to get good things i'm not a fan of pay to play i wish more apps catered to people for it to be a simple fun game.. but 10 hours for 12 rolls like seriously!!? So now i have two boards that went wrong and out 1,000 ruby's. Is someone going to fix this glitch or people going to keep having this problem? If so i am going to stop spending money and delete the game. Was playing daily for last few months and enjoyed the games and new boards. Updated to latest ios 2 days ago and lost all progress. Get the following message, game retries 2-3 times then reverts to original board. Bad news something is wrong, reconnecting 1140502 thank you, fixed today. Couldn't get into the game all day yesterday (12/23/18), it kept saying it couldn't connect. I uninstalled/reinstalled today. I can finally get into the game, but now it crashes every time i try to get a free card. I don't know what changes you made yesterday, but it wasn't an improvement at all! Board kong's used to be fun, but after they keep adding all these events it's turned into a glitch fest. Game takes forever to load even on perfect internet, keeps unconnecting itself from a connection, keeps not rolling, the current event you roll to go down the sidewalk and it takes forever to land on a number and if you do land on a number it doesn't even bounce along the sidewalk nd you wasted a carrot. And i didn't get any of my rewards. I love this game. Please help :( would rate 5 but didn't get my landmark, rolls, Gems or Coins. So sad. It's a really fun and addicting game but i have one problem with it. When you are rolling and rolling and you are so close to unlocking the next building someone will land on steal and take all your money and you have to wait till the next set a rolls to try again. Man, i love this game. Such a good way to waste time. It's so easy to play, yet is so addicting! Only reason i can't give it 5 stars is that it takes so long for more dice. 🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️ great game love to play it, my biggest issue is not being able to attack people who steal money on the steal space and the diabolic part of this game that absolutely needs to be removed and changed is this i can get money stolen from me-as im on my board playing the game!!! I've had over 10 million stolen from me in the last 24 hours because i can't progress. It's been almost 4 days now of trying to get my buildings released and i'm about to just quit. It's a shame really because i really enjoyed the game but now it's just become frustrating. I was enjoying the game until i left fb. It seems Board Kings centres everything around fb. Had to delete the app. I'm not gonna start over this game is so much fun and i really enjoy playing. I've used real money in this game and totally unsatisfied that they want me to start all over. Where is the fix for this?? With the recent update i get several pop ups saying something went wrong and then it puts me back at the beginning of the game. I don't want to start over. Please fix this soon. With this past update. I'm unable to log in to my board and it's asking me to start a new game after multiple errors well i gave bk two days to respond to me before writing this, yet they have not responded to multiple emails that i have written to support. So like in 2017 i got a board and then i clicked on the first one you start off with and i still had the circle board but when i clicked the other board it said i didint have th 2nd board anymore please fix it thanks i give this a one star ⭐️ because of this .-. For some reason i am on my fifth tome on the same board and it is getting very boring.also not getting prizes and i have spent lots of money on this game.i contacted tech support with no answer,not the first time.good game but no longer a challenges,spend what i have left and be done. Now i can finally upgrade all my buildings and get a new board!" Nope!!! Why not? Well, that was the first board i was stuck on due to these annoying golden bricks. So, i not only used all my new dice and got maybe 6 of 180 bricks, but in less than 24 hours, the entirety of my 5m plus everything i had earned with my dice rolls was stolen from me. I wrote to the developers and got no response. The minute i start playing i'm immediately pulled in and before i know it, i'm out of rolls. I wouldn't mind waiting if it didn't take at least an hour to get four rolls. Either way i do enjoy the game. Very addicting game! I just wish you could have more then 60 friends for rolls and Gems like go to 300 friends. Really fun game but i got to the second board and almost every time i get enough money it take a more than half away i just wrote a review about 'no cap on stealing?' Remember, these regular tiles can be upgraded indefinitely and higher levels will ask for Gems. So, once you notice that regular tiles ask for Gems in order to be upgraded, finish leveling up other tiles (the ones that ask only for Coins) before leveling up gem-hungry tiles. When you start Board Kings, you'll get a certain amount of freerolls. After you spend them there are two options. You can either pay Gems (which can be won by playing or bought for real money) for new rolls or you can wait for your rolls to refill. The fines usually cost just a couple of hundred of Coins, which you can earn again with just a few rolls. It's certainly better than spending precious rolls in order to get a double. Board kinks will offer you to watch ads in order to get additional rolls. Watching ads to get prizes is helpful in most other games offering the option since the prizes can be quite helpful. Sadly that's not the case in Board Kings. You see, the ads usually last half a minute, and the prize is just one additional roll! I love this game! But i can't log in. It's crashed. Keeps saying something is wrong with my internet connection but there's not. Something is wrong. Calm lake has a huge amount of multiple accounts. People like that hit you with all of their accounts and completely drain you of cash, and destroy your buildings. After latest update. Game doesn't load. I loved this game. My daughter loved this game. We were inviting other family members to join us and were planning to play all through christmas. However it has a good concept to the game i play it when i'm bored but starting to play it less and less because how frustrating it gets i collected all the pieces to get a new dice and it says collect and win 100 dice after but i never got my 100 dice. This my 4th board of me not getting it. Help!! If you'd like some easy rolls add me! Have a few more spots open. With that done with, liking the game so far! Step 1. Before you go to the download section and begin to play the game. It is recommended that you have to uninstall any previous version of the board king (if installed). Step 3. Again, before installing the game, you have to make sure that you have enabled the unknown sources option from the settings of your device. To allow installation from unknown sources go to settings> security option> unknown sources> enable it. The point to keep in mind is that this option can be found in different sections of settings in different devices. Also, i know the whole "random roll" thing is totally fake because you can clearly see the pattern of going around the board five or six times, falling just one tile short of the important stuff, then suddenly landing on things. Please fix soon, thanks i enjoy the game to a great extent, like 5 stars. However, i think being able to steal other's Coins is unacceptable. You wait hours to build your elixir and earn currency, all to have it taken away. Please make this right. I enjoyed playing the game as something to look forward to in the evening as, it takes quite a while to fully reload. I was almost up to level 20 and found that all my progress was lost and it tried to start me off at the very beginning. I decided it wasn't worth it. No way to recover my progress and no way of knowing if it would happen again. 😏 thanks for the help. You totally figured out the problem and everything is as it should be. When we started upgrading the board my game crashed so that was really stupid and sad but its fine now!!! I really hope you all enjoy the video!!! By adding your company profile to digital.nyc your startup becomes an active part of the city's official hub for technology. Startup listings for digital.nyc are powered by gust.com, the world's largest platform for startup funding. You can update your free profile at any time through the gust dashboard or even take things a step further by using your profile to leverage all the benefits gust has to offer. No where does it state that the prize is a competition and a chance to win the prize. So many people spent real money to get 50 building upgrades. Only to get either 1/10 of the prize or no prize at all. Contacted game support, only for them to claim its from a winners list even though the challenge ad claimed otherwise. Any company that tries to trick you should be avoided. Fun and addicting 6/5 stars man this game is awesome though i'd rather not wait for dice but this is so fun i had a level 7 board with 200k money(was about to level up) and rare idol pieces and i turned my game on today and it started me over. But i have a suggestion make it to where you can roll more downloaded and played this game as an offer for cash points on another game. They took the offer down knowing it would take longer to reach level 3 than the offer would be up leaving everything bill and void. If they are that dishonest and skeezy to get you to even download the game- don't be surprised when the game itself starts getting dishonest and skeezy also. I warned ya. Anyways i've been doing really well, not sure what level i was on, but i had made it to the inferno board. Then suddenly i opened up the game yesterday and it had reset back to the beginning, asking me to pick a starting character, etc.... I have never had that happen on a game before. I have reached out on their facebook page and now here. If they don't respond then i am done playing Board Kings. Posting this as a warning to anyone else who may be tempted to spend real money on this game.... apparently they have a glitch that could possibly cause you to lose everything! The concept is simple and to the point, which keeps my short attention span lol. I appreciate this game and all it has to offer. Add me 640-983-305 :) why the h*** are you allowing a conspiracy theorist and alt-right hate monger advertise on your app? It's disgusting to think kids might see this crap. Shame on you. This game can be a lot of fun. However, after months of building up my board, i logged on one day to find the game had reset, and all my progress was gone. The Board Kings consist a little hard gameplay. In the starting of the game, players need to select a story among various types of stories which are present in the game. The game includes all types of stories like romance, stories, drama, and horror, etc. After selecting the story, one needs to create a character according to their choice. There are two main currencies in the game that are Gems and rolls. It takes a long time which is near about 3 hours to create currencies in the form of Gems and rolls. This game is a joke! If you have money to waste then its your loss because there is no win to this game!!!!! This game is capital-r retarded, as is anyone who plays it. There is, literally, no objective in this game. It's just pay-to-play stripped down to its absolute most basic premise. You can pay to roll dice more often, so you can roll dice, so you can move a game-piece around a board. That is it. That's the entirety of the game. I don't wanna start over! I was really enjoying the game- it auto updated and now it won't let me long back in and the one time it let me it had booted me back to the beginning. I hope it won't stay like that since i made it pretty far, it would be such a pain if i had to start the game from the beginning all over again. I'd probably delete it if that happens. Love the game, but yesterday morning my game refused to open. This all needs to be fixed. Make the events fair to those of us who can't buy rolls and Gems to play. Fix the login issue. At first i loved this game then, as i upgraded things became a little irritating because now im being stolen from or robbed faster than i can get my money back. I've started to become stagnant in the game because i finally have money to upgrade then, and even as i'm playing the game, someone robs me of 132,000. All the challenges are unrealistic to achieve unless you actually put money into it. Even the mini games on the boards have been hard to finish. Don't expect getting much from this game unless you put into it. The animation is adorable and the gameplay is so fun and addictive! One complaint though: four rolls per one hour?! Ridiculous!! A reasonable thing would be like two rolls per ten minutes or something?? Like seriously you would have to wait seven hours to actually refill your roll bar also one more complaint: the fact that some random stranger can steal all your money is just super annoying. 😭😭😭 fix this! 😭😭 not sure what's going on, but one minute i had over 2k Gems and the next minute it was down to 200 after i used the train. Same with the rolls. I won the 4 of a kind event and my rolls went from over 1000 to 2oo+. Granted, i haven't spent any money on the game but what the heck. Be consistent. Maybe it will glitch again and i'll have a bunch of Gems again. I'll spend the heck out of them because they will be gone if i don't... I've been playing everyday for over a month. I constantly get on and play every few hours. Lately i've been very frustrated though. 4 rolls every 60 minutes. Is nothing. I feel like i have no changes to make any progress unless i abandon my favorite game for servers hours. The makers should be giving every player 5 rolls every 30 minutes. This would make players much happier and keep smiles on their faces while playing. I hate getting onto my game and seeing 4 rolls and having to wait 1 hours for 4 more. I promise you if you spend even $10.00 dollars on this game it will make a difference. I really liked it in the beginning but its like i only play it for 5 minutes and i'm out of roles. And it's super annoying how the same person comes back to my board literally everyday and they always always destroy my buildings and own them! I will no longer be playing this game. Love the game. The visuals. The icons you get to buy with Gems. I only downloaded it to earn points for another game. I was supposed to just reach level 2 and my job was done. I have no idea what i'm doing in this thing and just kept rolling the dice. Just as i was about to hit the next level, it wouldn't let me advance unless i paid for extra rolls. What a scam. So played for five minutes thinking this was easy and then a give us your money type of loop. -when you save up your Gems to 500 to purchase a new board, you should be able to preview it first. I spent 500 Gems on a board i ended up disliking and don't even use and Gems are so hard to come by, so 500 was a lot to waste! -the rewards you get for watching ads are minuscule, i don't mind watching ads, i do in a lot games, but with this game i feel like it's not worth the 30secs. This makes it impossible for you to advance in the game. Forcing you to spend your own money i refuse to do that because i've already spent enough. Make adjustments please, i refuse to keep playing if adjustments are not made. Also i spent a good amount of Gems on the vending machine and didn't get any items. I love the game but the support is terrible. I've put in tickets and no response. I decided, like an idiot, to make a purchase. Other than tha it is a great game i love this game and have played it for a while. However, there are a couple of things that irk me. The contests, like santa's sled, are easier for some people than others. The pieces have shorter distances to go but the rewards are smaller between players. I can probably get over that. My real question is why my husband got four rolls per hour and then five and now six rolls per hour when i'm at a much higher level than him and still only get four. Then the christmas update came and after getting my beginner stickers, i've gotten no random roll stickers since. Idk if i'm doing something wrong (mindful i've been playing constantly since i got the app about a week ago) or if it's a bug. Either way i will gladly add another star if y'all fix this. I loved this game and as a result have spent actual money on this game.... welp wouldn't you know it after spending real money the game started to glitch out and steal my rolls!! I really hope the developers start looking at these comments and actually improving instead of writing back "please give us 5 stars". I am absolutely addicted to this game! So much fun! Although it's a little confusing at first, it's so easy to figure out i was looking in the app store for some new games and that's when i cam across Board Kings!i really liked its concept so i got it.after starting i was really happy because i like playing board games but my sisters never play with me.its super easy and i love the little town and the bunny's!although the 1 thing i don't like is i realized that i end up using up my dice rolls super fast and it takes pretty long for the to come back.so when i run out of dice i just get off of the game because there is nothing to do anymore.so i would love if jelly button made the dice come back faster this game is amazingly addictive and i love it. We don't facebook and don't want to have to create fake facebook accounts and log in that way. We just want to enjoy this cute little game on our phones. I've restarted my phone. Restarted the app. Checked that i'm logged into the game center. Updated the app. I still can't get my board back and have lost all my progress. I was almost at level 10 and had made it to the second new board. I'm not starting over. I'll just delete this junk and find something else. However, they never replied, never fixed my issue, never even attempted to pretend to care! Very disappointed. Since this last update i can't be in the game for more than 2 minutes before getting kicked out then can't get back in. They claim to be working on it but i don't know. Giving up for now i have restarted the game and my phone multiple times. I also reinstalled the game and it refuses to connect. The app is now just taking up space on my phone. I had 163,172 Coins (used all my spins for that) and 113,741 stolen which left me with 49,431. ((edit: out of the left over 49k i got stolen 3 more times and was left with 1k)) i've also had a time where i got stolen two minutes apart which left me to hardly any Coins, just really? That's more than half of what i struggled to earn. Another thing on the events, maybe for them to be held a little longer they seem rather short and quick, or have more events more often. I started this game because i love playing board games! Now i can honestly say i'm addicted! I wake up check my rolls! Middle of the day check my rolls before bed i check them again! I love that they keep adding new boards and i love collecting all my idols and messing up my friends boards!!! Keep this game going strong! Earlier i was angry for what happened to my save file but now it can back and this game is better than ever!!!!! Please help you will love to play it with your friends. This time the game is fully unlocked with the new features and advanced levels. However, the gameplay includes a traditional board on which you can play with your friends. Added with different colors of dice and social media platforms, the game becomes quite amazing. The game is made so easy that even a kid can play it. Well, you can also give them their entertainment and there is nothing any unwanted online stuff that can harm them. I've never even been given the option to steal that much from any other players who had that amount. It's not even just to steal that amount from someone. You guys are con artists. This game is pretty great i decided i'd buy more rolls and everything on one of their "specials" but i didn't get the rolls or anything!! It made me extremely angry. So the game is good and all, fun and ive spent my own money to collect cards and more rolls but once i collected another set it gave me my rolls and then they disappeared so it was all for nothing, rip off on the game. How can i reclaim it??? Ive landed on it, increased cash, Gems, & happiness-i'm stumped? When i land in jail, the only "release " i have is to spend Gems... I thought we were supposed to have the choice of either paying a cash fine or rolling doubles? Also, i have the maximum amount of cops allowed, how do i reposition them? Yes, the only options you have after being arrested is paying the fine with Gems or going home. I'm not sure where they got rolling doubles from. But, with every up there is a down. The only problem is that i have to wait sooooo long for the next batch of 4 dice and i think Board Kings could fix how long until the next die or make more die for the amount of time we have to wait. Other than that, i really enjoy this game! The problem with this game is that it costs way to much to upgrade buildings. Also, when there is an event, the game becomes rigged it seems like so that it is impossible to win anything. Trusted and commonly accepted libraries (e.g. Google sdk, facebook sdk, signal sdk) are not displayed. Specific sast test reveals all remote hosts present in the source code of the mobile application where the application may connect to send or receive data at occurrence of a specific event (e.g. User action). Specific dast test provides a comprehensive list of all http/s requests sent by the mobile application without interaction with user. For continuous monitoring purposes, we suggest you exploring our award-winning immuniweb® discovery offering tailored for continuous monitoring with flexible 24/7 notifications. Dont spend your money. They do a great job of reeling you in at first. They make dice rolls, Gems, and Coins seem much more attainable than they truly are, especially as you get farther into the game. It isn't necessarily pay to win, but it just isn't fun anymore unless you want to shell out some money every day. To put things into perspective, i'm on the final board at the moment. That isn't a problem at all because they actually are very prompt with releasing new boards. Have you ever wanted to own your own board game, all along with houses, hotels, interesting tiles to step on, and other players that can come to your board and play on it a bit? Well, Board Kings does all that, and more. The game lets you build your own board game, expand it by adding more tiles, build and upgrade house tiles in order to get more Coins by stepping on one, and visit other player boards to get huge rewards, destroy their buildings, and steal their money! What a load of crap. Deleted. I just love playing this game !! It's addicting and fun for all ages! The bunnies are also cute as can be ☺️ i love it 😊 because of how we can go to random people or to friends or get revenge on somebody who has beaten you! 😉😉😉😉 don't listen to the haters because the haters gonna hate. For a long time it said i had 2 more landmark spots but it would not allow me to place them. My 11 million Coins were stolen overnight, leaving less than 100,000 of what i had purchased. After reading some of the comments, i'm convinced that the developers construct the game so that they can s***** your Coins and boosters away hoping you'll just fork over more to to play. I play several other games and your purchases remain for your gameplay only. Fraudulent i didn't know what to expect at first, but once i started playing i figured out that it is a lot of fun, i just started a couple of days ago and haven't stopped. I rarely make in app purchases, but i did for this game . I made 2 purchases of bundle 4 for 3.99 but was only given 1 , however, my card was charged twice . I've tried to contact support but i don't even see the option of actually speaking to or contacting a real person, only faqs. For that and the run around i quit and give it 1 star the game steals your Gems. You have he option to supplement building with Gems, however it does not ask if you want to use them, the game will just take them if you click too many times. Plus i haven't come across any legitimate problems yet. I actually love this game, but it really made me angry that when i spent my money to buy extra rolls and cash, that as soon as the transaction was complete, someone stole $13m from me. Freaking ridiculous. And why do i never see the 10 free rolls cards anymore? Game is pretty fun, a bit frustrating. Got ripped off on my award but i think it was a fail on the other app. I hope they will fix the number of rolls you get. I mean why 4 rolls per hour. You want to make the game more interesting and fun. We want more interactions and more chances to play this game. The major problem is the simplicity of the game and the amount of time people invest in the game since there aren't much stuff you can do once you run out of rolls. I believe changing the hour to a few mins will make this game a game friends will be able to play a lot so that they can steal each other's Coins. Now, the events amazed me, they were great! Was a little unhappy you had to adventure to different boards instead of just picking one, but it was a neat concept. New boards and idols were neat to see. But today also showed me some of the major flaws in this game... for instance while trying to collect board pieces i had gained a ton of Gems that i was pretty happy to spend when i got to the new board, i had like 500,000 and something. Or when you need just a few extra rolls in order to send a couple of more cop cars out before exiting the game. Remember, this can be of huge help but use it only when really need to. This way you'll be able to spend all of your Coins before leaving the game, making your board less interesting for other players to invade it. Thank you for reading our Board Kings guide. We really hope it has been a helpful reading, and we hope you learned something that will aid you while you build a perfect game board. Sometimes it's hard to earn the carrots or other objects required for the current promotion. But,playing the game is fun. This game has been fun, but ever since a few days ago i can't enter the game. The loading bar is full but it won't let me enter the game. If you fix this i'll gladly give 5 stars. Edit: a new update seems to have fixed this! A fun game this game is fun when you are playing with friends, but when my friend spent money to get millions of Coins, i decided to rob him. I had 40 rolls and got 73,000 cash, the game let some steal 46,000 cash. I was going to upgrade all of my buildings but after i l

[beyondtsh]

Why Going to Church is Important

New Post has been published on https://beyondtshirts.net/why-going-to-church-is-important/

Why Going to Church is Important

When I was growing up, going to church on Sundays with my mom was mandatory unless you were deathly ill. No getting out of it. Sunday was church day. Now I understand why the church is important, but I didn’t know it as a child.

There are countless benefits to attending church regularly, especially if you’re in the right place with the right people. God and His flock will help you get through tragedies, mourning, grief, hard times, loneliness, and heartbreaks; the list is endless.

It even says in the Bible that we should come together as a church body to worship. Hebrews 10:24-25

24 “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works,

25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Sometimes you walk in and you just need a hug or someone to pray with you or for you. There’s always someone there who can feel you’re in need of something, even if you don’t know yourself that you need it.

I found that peace and comfort by getting myself back to church after a tragedy, and I can honestly say I don’t know where I’d be right now if I hadn’t started back.

Going to Church as a Kid

I grew up in a Baptist church so there was Sunday school on Sunday mornings, worship on Sunday evenings, Tuesday was “visitation day,” Wednesday evening Prayer Meeting and Friday night AWANA. So I was at church almost every day of the week when I was young.

When I turned 15, I started giving my mom a hard time about going, especially since my dad only went on special occasions like Easter and Mother’s Day. If he wasn’t going every Sunday, why did I have to? That was an issue mom couldn’t really argue with, so she let me have my way.

I also went to a private Christian school until I was 15, so right about the time I stopped going to church regularly, I also convinced my parents to save their money and transfer me to the local public school so I could go to school with my neighborhood friends.

It wasn’t long after that, less than a year in fact, that I became a very young wife and mother. When that didn’t work out and I moved back home, I started going with my mother again – to a new church this time. And at 21 years old, I was saved and baptized at this local church.

Looking back, about the only type of outreach this church did was summer vacation Bible school and I helped with that one summer. I was remarried at the time, but like my dad, my husband only went to church with me on special occasions too. Eventually, I stopped going completely and ventured out on my own after marriage number two ended.

Strayed and Walked Away

Over the next couple of decades or so, I visited different churches here and there but never found one that “fit.” They had nothing to keep me coming back. Eventually it seemed more like a chore than something I enjoyed doing.

Like Crowder’s song says, I “strayed and walked away,” unspeakable things I’ve done for years and years – a son out of wedlock, a third marriage and divorce, countless relationships that turned bad quickly and the list goes on; all because I’d stopped attending church regularly, I’d stopped growing in my Christian faith and trusting God.

Fast-forward many, many years, married again to the most wonderful Christian man who agreed that we should find a church and start going again. But where? We agreed not to go any religion-based church but find a non-denominational Christian church.

We could actually see one from our house so we tried that one. That only lasted for about six months and we stopped going there. Again, it wasn’t the right fit. There was something missing, like all the other churches I’d been to in my life.

Tragedy Strikes

We hadn’t been to church for about three years when on January 1, 2017 we got the call that my little brother was in a motorcycle accident and on life support. He was not going to make it. I was nothing less than completely and utterly devastated!

My little brother was my rock, my support, my best friend. Both of our parents were deceased so aside from our children and spouses, we only had each other in our immediate family. We did so much together and we could always rely on each other in emergencies.

One thing we’d made a promise to each other to do when our mother died was never to spend Thanksgiving apart. We spent Thanksgiving together every year for 20 years, no matter what else was going on. So as the year progressed and it got closer to both my little brother’s November birthday and then Thanksgiving, I grew more and more despondent.

Life As I Knew It Just Stopped

Most of 2017 is a complete blur. I stopped blogging, stopped writing; I didn’t want to go anywhere or do anything and I cried All. The. Time. I finally decided to go to grief counseling and made my first appointment. I didn’t walk out feeling any better so I made one more appointment, and didn’t feel any better after that one either.

Then one evening I was on the phone with my daughter and I mentioned that I felt the only thing that was going to help was to get back to church again. There was only one other church that seemed interesting, but we’d been advised against it by a minister associate we met at the memorial service of my grandson’s future mother-in-law when she passed. So that church was out.

My daughter told me about MCC, the church that her boss went to and how much they loved it because it wasn’t like any other church. So we decided to try it.

We were warmly welcomed by many people that we’d never met before. The church is almost an hour from our home, but that didn’t matter. It just felt right from the first minute we walked in.

This is Why Going to Church is Important

The service that morning was about dealing with grief and loss! God had His hand in that, I’m sure, because that was just what I needed! I cried throughout the entire service but at the same time I literally felt an overwhelming peace fall all around me, like the Lord was putting His arms around me and calling me back to Him.

The next day, Monday, I canceled my next appointment with the grief counselor. God led me back to where I needed to be and we’ve been attending regularly now for almost five years. We even jumped in with both feet to become partners at the church and regularly volunteer at various events.

Knowing You’re in the Right Church

We had many “God Winks” in the months following that first Sunday that further solidified our belief that we had found a church home. In the last few years since going back to church, I’ve built a new family in Christ. I have church brothers, sisters, daughters and even a church granddaughter!

Get this t-shirt here!

Is going to church important and something you should be doing? Is it for everyone? I believe it is – when you find the right church; the one that the Lord leads you to.

If you get “God Winks” when you visit or within the following months after you start going or when you actually look forward to Sunday Worship and not feel it’s a chore or something that you “have to do,” but rather something you WANT to do, then you know you’ve found your home church too.

[queenofthyme]

85 Questions

Tagged by @laborinquena (❤️)

Rules: Answer 85 questions then tag as many as you’d like!

Tagging: no-one because tagging groups of people makes me anxious (rules says as many as I like so I am not cheating on a technicality okay)

Putting it all under a read more so you don’t have to read my crap. I don’t know why I did this. i never do these. reminds me of myspace. I’m procrastinating I guess. please tread kindly. 

THE LAST

1. drink: water (sorry I’m boring but I’m not drinking pina coladas in the afternoon) 2. phone call: the love of my life to confirm what we were eating for lunch - this was a vital conversation 3. text message: the love of my life still about lunch - again, I stress this was VITAL 4. song you listened to: listening to this right now, don’t judge. listen to it 5 times and then come back to me 5. time you cried: two days ago. It was WINDY okay, got some sadness in my eye but I promptly flicked it away. 6. dated someone twice: lol nah once you out, you OUT. 7. kissed someone and regretted it: I mean my first kiss was gross and my third boyfriend was gross but can’t regret as all the grossness led me to the current love of my life. 8. been cheated on: YAS MAYBE TWICE. MY FIRST BOYFRIEND AFTER LIKE TWO WEEKS OF DATING. Like seriously? And my third boyf denies but I strongly suspect. So I don’t really know which one would be the ‘last’. Oh well. I mean, i don’t get it I’m hot as hell. 9. lost someone special: no. I’ve been lucky up to now. 10. been depressed: never 11. gotten drunk and thrown up: don’t remind me. last time was spiced rum. I think it’s always spiced rum. 3 FAVOURITE COLOURS

12.

13. 

14. Stop making me pick I love them all

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU

15. made new friends: my drarry friends ❤️ 16. fallen out of love: nuh-uh my love is forever 😉 17. laughed until you cried: yeah all the time. just throw a yellow or green balloon at me and i’m down for the count. 18. found out someone was talking about you: i don’t know and i don’t care. I mean actually like please talk about me? it’s all I’ve ever wanted.  19. met someone who changed you: yes in the sense that everybody changes you if we’re being poetic but no in the sense that I am a fully formed unstoppable force  20. found out who your friends are: lol maybe I should have done this in high school. I think I’m past the petty stuff. some people don’t like me because I never leave the house but my friendship isn’t defined by how many times we sit next to each other untalking in the movies or every event I show up to and make small talk with people for a couple of wasted hours. sorry not sorry.  21. kissed someone on your facebook list: the love of my life of course. fun fact: before we even acknowledged each other’s existence apart from being school mates we coincidentally became friends on facebook on valentine’s day - three/four years later and we started dating lol. Is it fate? (no, it’s a coincidence obviously but it’s cute shut up)

22. how many of your facebook friends do you know in real life: all of them. but i don’t speak to literally any of them except my family and the love of my life lmao. 23. do you have any pets:

24. do you want to change your name: planning to make a new name when my partner and I marry. I’m not telling sorry.  25. what did you do for your last birthday: games with the family. that’s my ideal time. 26. what time did you wake up: 10am but to be fair dayight savings just started or ended (i don’t care) so I lost an hour of sleep somewhere in the night. fuck you daylight savings. 27. what were you doing at midnight last night: sleeping. I think. I hope. 28. name something you can’t wait for: to see Jodie Whittaker as the first female Doctor Who 💜💜 29. when was the last time you saw your mom: Easter? (Parents live interstate I’m not a monster) 31. what are you listening to right now: this is a little embarrassing but I’m now listening to this. again, don’t judge until you’ve listened to it 5 times. 32. have you ever talked to a person named tom: um YES. Literally everyone is named Tom? I’ve spoken to like countless Toms in my lifetime. 33. something that is getting on your nerves: did I mention daylight savings SUCKS? 34. most visited website: Tumblr OBVIOUSLY. I am loyal. 35. hair colour: brown. boring. next q. 36. long or short hair: neither. you can’t fit me into your binary. I mean I guess it’s inbetween ok. 37. do you have a crush on someone: the love of my life OBVIOUSLY. But if we’re talking celebrity crushes, right now it’s J-Hope and Halsey but of course it will always be Lana Del Rey and Tom Felton 38. what do you like about yourself: most everything except my crippling fears and lack of passion (i’m being dramatic I love myself don’t worry) 39. want any piercings: i mean I never wear earrings in my pierced ears anymore because I’m too lazy so no point adding to it 40. blood type: A+ because I aced the test. 41. nickname: call me whatever you want I guess. 42. relationship status: A day less than 59 months in a relationship with the love of my life. 43. zodiac: that’s telling. the scorpion one of course. why of course? I don’t know. just go with it. 44. pronouns: She/Her 45. favourite tv show: Buffy The Vampire Slayer, SKAM, Doctor Who, Avatar The Last Airbender, Veronica Mars, Parks and Recreation, Yuri! On Ice, No. 6, Broadchurch, True Beauty, The Mole, Battlestar Galatica, The Real Housewives of Melbourne, Firefly and NATHAN FOR YOU. Please watch Nathan For You. PLEASE. You will not regret it. 46. tattoos: nada I am allergic to pain. 47. right or left handed: Right 48. surgery: nope. luckily. 49. piercing: ears. i am a boring person. 50. sport: NONE. EVER. NO. PLEASE DO NOT MAKE ME WATCH IT EVER I WILL CRY FROM BOREDOM. I mean maybe like dance or gymnastics is okay to watch.  51. vacation: vacation what? like do I want to go? or when I last went or what? these questions ARE NOT CLEAR. I don’t like travel. My favourite vacation would be time off work and then I’d just stay at home. 52. pair of trainers/converse: okay im assuming favourites. I don’t own any good shoes. I hate shoes. But I hate not wearing shoes more. I have these cool black shoes with rainbow platforms on them does that count as trainers lol? what does trainers mean!!!!??

MORE GENERAL

53. eating: more general eating!?!?!?!? What do you mean? The last thing I ate was lemon and herb chips if that’s what you mean. 54. drinking: pina coladas of course. (i lie)  55. I’m about to: WRITE DRABBLES like im supposed to be doing right now. 56. waiting for: lasagne for dinner ooooooooh yeah 57. want: my daylight saving hour that was stolen from me last night back. 58. get married: when it’s legal. get your fucking act together Australia. 59. career: boring. don’t care. don’t want. i just keep floating through promotions and pay rises. Hopefully I can just do that until i am earning billions of dollars. that’s my only ambition.

WHICH IS BETTER

60. hugs or kisses: Hugs 61. lips or eyes: i mean ew idk. I hate floating unattached body parts. it’s a bit creepy. 62. shorter or taller: as in partner wise? don’t care, don’t give a shit.  63. older or younger: again, don’t give a shit but i’m obviously not going to be dating anyone much younger than me as they wouldn’t be of age.  64. nice arms or nice stomach: oh boring this seems like it is about muscles. I don’t care about muscles sorry. next. pass. 65. hook up or relationship: relationship only because I’m in one. also hooking up with people is awkward and scary and you can’t take a shit in their house. 66. troublemaker or hesitant: hesitant. I ain’t no troublemaker I SWEAR.

HAVE YOU EVER

67. kissed a stranger: nah i don’t like kissing someone if I don’t know the last time they brushed their teeth was. sorry i have issues. 68. drank hard liquor: yah and imma do it again bitch. 69. lost glasses/contact lenses: i mean my costume harry potter glasses im constantly losing in storage lol 70. Turned someone down: YES AND I WOULD DO IT AGAIN. HE MADE ME FEEL GUILTY ABOUT FRIEND-ZONING HIM AND DOESN’T WANT TO BE MY FRIEND AT ALL NOW. YOU CAN GO FUCK YOURSELF. 71. sex on the first date: nope didn’t get to do any dating past 17 because I’ve been gladly stuck in a monogamous relationship. 72. broken someone’s heart: so I’ve heard but I’m sure they’re fine. 73. had your heart broken: not really. I’ve been dumped once but luckily my heart is made of ice. 74. been arrested: no. they haven’t found the body yet. 75. cried when someone died: yep. 76. fallen for a friend: I had a crush on literally everyone I ever met in high school so yes LMAO.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN 77. yourself: I mean lame but yes. I exist. 78. miracles: nah mate. 79. love at first sight: NOOOOO NEVER. STOP THIS NONSENSE. 80. santa claus: no. but i wish he was real.  81. kiss on the first date: yeah do what you like. 82. angels: not at all. sorry judas. or whatever the names of angels are. sorry i don’t know my bible and folklore.

OTHER

83. current best friend’s name: that would be the love of my life whose name I am not revealing for reasons that would be clear if you knew me and my partner (but you will never know I guess sorry eek) 84. eye colour: wow what a great second last question. so intense and revealing. mother fuckin brown. 85. favourite movie: The Harry Potter movies obviously. I’m not a barbarian. 

I guess now you know the true me. brown eyes. you know my soul now. use it wisely. don’t judge me because of the kpop vids. just watch them. yah. anyhow. can’t believe you read this. enjoy your life and all.

[aspire-to-the-light]

Executive momentum 5

(Previous)

I’m still a far less powerful rationalist at 19 than I was at 17.

I get far less done. I miss more deadlines. I am late more often, fail to attend more appointments, skip more events. I get upset more easily, and spend more time lying around sniffling when I’m sad. I get angry more easily and find it harder to refrain from yelling at people when I’m angry. I am distracted more often by a wider range of things. I read less and find it harder to maintain a curious truth-seeking mindset. I feel less self-aware, less capable of introspecting and self-hacking into being better. I’ve failed to practise various skills that I used to have, so now they’re rusty and I’m less good at them. When I think of a new habit I’d like to acquire or new recurring commitment I’d like to make, my follow-through is worse. Distractions - social media, gaming, following links down an internet maze leading to reading Marxist analysis of plot synopses of the Saw films, chasing butterflies - feel more salient and more tempting.

It’s been this way for a while, and yet I’m still expecting myself to be as good as I used to be. I can barely manage my schoolwork, yet I keep taking on more commitments because I feel convinced I can handle them.

I constantly feel like I’m on the brink of fixing the problem. Or I think the problem is definitely X, so it will go away once I take a particular step that fixes X. But X goes away and instead of being better I just decide that the real problem is Y.

Until I looked at the data, I was beginning to suspect that I was just making excuses. Something happened to me that made me a way worse person than I used to be, and I’m just blaming it on anything that sounds plausible so I don’t have to face up to being fundamentally broken.

My current hypothesis feels simpler. I am constantly on the brink of solving the problem, and I’m constantly being whacked back to square one.

My last two years of school (A-level years), just after I fixed my diet problem, I had an insanely strong positive feedback loop. I did a lot of stuff and succeeded at lots of it. Then I spent summer in Boston, and then I had my first term at Cambridge, and then I spent part of winter break in San Francisco and part of it in Boston, and then I had my second term at Cambridge, and then I had Easter break in Hampshire, and then I had my third term at Cambridge, and then over summer I hopped between Hampshire and Cambridge and London and Oxford, and now I’m on my fourth term at Cambridge.

I haven’t stayed in the same place longer than eight weeks.

And I’m beginning to notice the same pattern, over and over - I get to a place and I’m useless, but then I set up my coping mechanisms and begin to be able to get stuff done but it’s hard and I procrastinate a lot, and then I eventually build up my home base enough that my positive feedback loops sustain themselves, and I begin to be really competent - meeting deadlines, getting work done, attending appointments, having a consistent schedule, succeeding at stuff, getting my inbox down to manageable numbers… and then I’m back to square one, because I went to a new place and it didn’t have a “don’t forget to eat some food” post-it note on the door so I forgot to eat for a couple days and had a really shitty time with being miserable and unable-to-focus before I realised what was up and replaced my “don’t forget to eat some food” post-it.

Executive momentum is:

Being in a positive feedback loop - you keep doing good things that allow you to do even more good things.

Having a steady flow of work, so there’s always something to do next when you finish the last thing, but there’s never a huge overwhelming backlog.

Small improvements to your environment building up into something impressive - every aspect of your environment making you better in some way - because you’ve stayed in the same place for long enough.

Routines and habits that have been undisrupted for long enough that they’ve become easy; you always get up in the morning and get on with your important tasks, it doesn’t require effort any more.

Having done lots of work recently, so you feel interested and engaged with the work, you know exactly what your next steps are, and you’re confident in your ability to do the next steps.

Not having done distracting things recently, so distracting things don’t feel very salient or available, so they’re just not very tempting.

The ability to be proactive, rather than reactive; you’re working on your goals, not intending-to-work-on-your-goals-just-as-soon-as-you-sort-your-life-out. Maintenance tasks (getting groceries, showering, eating, renewing your prescriptions, paying bills) fade into the background. There are snacks by your bed and you get more food delivered on a regular schedule, there’s a box to drop your keys in so you don’t lose them, you remember to stay hydrated because there’s a water jug by your computer and an alarm that bleeps to remind you, etc.

Constant improvements to your workflow which build on each other - not like switching from one to-do-list software to another to-do-list software every few months, more like you get a to-do list software that makes you more organized, and then you get some inbox software that automates lots of email processing, and then you get an extra monitor that lets you multitask better, and then you have enough screen space to constantly display a pomodoro timer and a reminder of your current task…

A positive feedback loop which is stable and sustained enough that it’s hard to break. A single small distraction, like a loud noise outside, might break your focus but won’t break the loop.

Mental purity; focus on your goals and the things you endorse, without disruptions from distressing thoughts and attention-grabbing distractions and manufactured temptations.

Having a self-image as a person who is good and does good things, and having that self-image backed up by lots of recent memories of doing good things, so you expect yourself to do good things, so it’s easier to do good things.

Having a reputation as a person who is good and does good things, so people expect you to do good things and give you opportunities to do good things, so you end up doing good things because you feel like you’re expected to.

An alief that getting work done is normal, confirmed by a recent history of getting work done, so you don’t feel disappointed and put-out if you don’t have time to take off, and you don’t feel like starting work is some massive exertion of willpower, and it feels sort of weird if you don’t do some work.

Which is not quite the same thing as executive function. It’s about fluctuations in someone’s level of executive function, not about the absolute level. Someone with low executive function can become a capable human who manages to take care of themselves and handle a part-time job with sufficient executive momentum. Someone with high executive function can conquer the fucking world with sufficient executive momentum.

My current priorities, as a conclusion of this:

Figure out a way for executive momentum to survive huge disruptions, like moving to a new place.

Figure out better ‘reset points’ that interrupt negative feedback loops, but don’t interrupt positive feedback loops. (Alarms every hour remind me to stop playing overwatch, but also tempt me to stop working on essays.)

Figure out a faster way to build back up executive momentum after huge disruptions, like moving to a new place.

Either make my home base more portable, or find a way to never leave Cambridge again.

Figure out a way to ensure I keep my executive momentum even when bogged down with lots of maintenance-type tasks (get prescription, go grocery shopping, answer emails, fix hole in shirt…)

Cancel all vacations forever

Seriously, ASAP, figure out a way for executive momentum to survive huge disruptions like moving to a new place

(Next)

[awkward-teabag]

Tumblr ate my long reply so I’m going to summarize it.

1) The government only asks people to be responsible instead of enforcing restrictions. It wasn’t until November that masks indoors was actually required with stores, bylaw officers, and police having the ability to enforce it. Even now they’re simply asking people to not travel during the long weekend.

But because it’s not being enforced, tons of tourist and remote areas are being flooded by people taking a vacation. Tofino on Vancouver Island is booked solid by people from the mainland wanting to visit for the long weekend and locals are terrified.

https://www.cheknews.ca/im-terrified-tourists-flood-vancouver-island-easter-long-weekend-despite-travel-restrictions-758928/?amp

2) Testing was not a priority for several months. Even now, the only way you can get tested in most places is if you were directly exposed to someone with a confirmed case or are moderately-severely sick even though we’ve known for nearly a year a lot of cases have few to no symptoms.

3) Schools are still open and have lower requirements. Non-medical masks are only required in hallways, not classrooms. Distancing is 3 feet instead of 6. Kids are allowed in school if they aren’t visibly sick even if they’ve been around someone who’s sick and hasn’t been tested for covid. If a kid is sick one day and fine the next, they don’t need to be tested before returning to school.

4) Horgan was and still is absolutely insistent schools remain open and the $2 billion for infrastructure and remote learning BC got from the federal government has disappeared.

5) At least with Island Health, they do not announce where cases are or when/where exposures happen—you’re only notified by the government agency if you turn up during contact tracing. This has resulted in practically every outbreak to be reported by companies and/or the media days before Island Health may confirm anything. I don’t know what it’s like in other regions in BC, but word of mouth is the fastest and most accurate way to figure out if you were exposed, get tested, and isolate ‘cause neither Island Health nor the government will tell you in time to not spread it if you have it.

6) The first case of the P1 mutation (the one from Brazil that everyone was worried about back in January) in Canada was detected Feb 7th and less than two months later, Canada now has more cases of that mutation than Brazil and is, in fact, the country with the most P1 cases in the world now. Of this, most are in BC because the government has done so little to take hard measures and P1 shows just how much luck played a part of the low initial numbers as P1 spreads even easier than the non-mutated virus and people did not get more blasé about everything less than a month ago to explain the absolute surge of P1 cases.

And as you can see, that graph is from 2 weeks ago.

You would think a supposedly left-wing government would have done more and be doing more but instead Horgan and Dr. Henry are throwing up their hands in defeat because nothing changed after they did nothing. When companies do a better job of informing people of a highly infectious and potentially deadly virus that has after effects that can last months if not years or for a lifetime than the government, there’s a major problem.

One underrated aspect of how badly BC has botched the current surge in cases here is our amazingly low per-capita testing, meaning we catch *far* fewer cases of COVID than we should be.

To put this in perspective, The Ohio State University alone (student population of about 60,000 + about 35,000 staff/administration) tests about 7,000 per day. That’s just under the daily average testing that all of BC does, a province of over 5,000,000 people. And depending on the day, OSU sometimes tests more people than the entire province.

[mldrgrl]

If it appeals to you at all, would you consider writing something for the fugitive phase? Like the highs and lows or something along those lines?

Day 1

“What are we going to do?” Scully asked once the rain had stopped.  Mulder had thought she was asleep.  He was barely clinging to consciousness himself, but still clinging to her.

“There’s a contingency plan,” he mumbled against her shoulder.  “The gunmen-”

“The gunmen are dead.”

“I know.  We worked it out before...everything.  I-we have IDs, passports, papers...money to disappear with.”

“We do?”

“There’s a safe deposit in San Francisco.  That’s what we’re going to do.”

Day 4

They agreed to travel and night and to move slowly.  In Mulder’s opinion, anyone looking for them would be calculating the distance they could put between themselves and New Mexico and that’s where they would be looking.  He thought it best to throw them off the trail by being behind them instead of ahead.  Scully didn’t like it, but she trusted him.  He’d been able to hide himself for nine months so she let him take the reins.

The safe deposit box with their new identities was in a bank in Chinatown.  The last time they’d been there, they’d been tracking down an internal organ theft ring.  She was afraid someone might remember and might recognize them, but the locals seem to be less suspicious of them this time around.  Maybe it was the lack of badges and trench coats, but no one gave them a second glance as they weaved their way through the market stalls to the bank.

It didn’t go unnoticed by Scully, though Mulder tried to hide it, that there were three passports in the safe deposit box.  She asked to see them before he emptied the contents into a small backpack, but he shook his head and said ‘not now.’

Later, back at the motel, Mulder gave Scully the bag without a word.  She dumped it all out onto the bed and studied the documentation for Allen Vogle, Tricia Vogle (nee Blackburn) and Michael Vogle.  Passports and IDs for Allen and Tricia went back in the bag.  The passport and birth certificate for Michael (six weeks older on paper) were burned in the bathroom sink.

Day 12

It was surprising how one could become accustomed to something new and unfamiliar so quickly.  Such as the ring on his finger or the color of Scully’s (no, not Scully, Tricia’s) hair.  Even though it had only been a week, playing the married couple on vacation didn’t feel that strange.  Maybe all those years of travel, of Scully being called ‘The Little Missus” at nearly every diner across the bible belt, had just been practice for this.

The only real difference between life before and life now was the single room and the single bed.  Plus the rings and the hair and Mulder’s new and neatly trimmed beard, not to mention their next destination was chosen at random by a blind finger pointed at a map and of course, the constant looking over one’s shoulder.

Otherwise, it was mostly the same.

Day 44

Scully wanted to stop.  Just for a little while.  Just for a few days.  She’d forgotten the names of all the tiny towns they’d stopped in at this point but the 4th of July was coming up and couldn’t they just enjoy the holiday before moving on?  They’d been living sunset to sunrise from the front seat of a car for more than a month and she hadn’t realized how necessary daylight was to feel human until she rarely saw it anymore.

It was easy enough to blend in with the rest of the tourists in New Hope, PA, but it was a mistake to think she could be immune to the smiling, happy children running through the park, waving little flags, shrieking, getting pulled in Radio Flyer wagons, throwing tantrums over popcorn or candy, their faces painted with red hearts or blue stars.

They left well before the fireworks started.  Mulder picked up Chinese for them at a take-out place a few blocks from the motel.  Sounds of celebration - whistling and popping and crackling - started at dusk.  Scully tuned it all out in favor of their gasping sounds of release and the noises of encouragement it took to get them there.

Day 70

“Do you think we should split up?” Scully asked.  Mulder thought someone might be following them, but he wasn’t sure.  He knew he’d seen that maroon Cadillac twice in the past week.  It stood out.  Firstly, because it was maroon of all colors, and secondly, because the left headlight flickered on occasion.

“Split up?” he repeated, eyes bouncing between the road and the rear view mirror.

“To make us harder to follow.”

“I’m not doing this without you.  No way.”

“What are we even doing?”

“I don’t know.  Surviving.  Whatever it is, we’re doing it together.  You and me.”

She nodded and slid closer across the bench seating and took his hand from the wheel.  He laced their fingers together and rested their joined hands in her lap, keeping them there long after the maroon Cadillac had turned off the highway.  They were still holding hands when he shut off the engine in the parking lot of a motel at first light.

“We should trade in the car today,” he said, his voice gravelly in the quiet confines of the car.

She nodded in agreement.  They’d had four cars so far.  He looked down at his lap and then back up at her.

“Do you want to split up?” he asked.

“No.”

Day 147

“What do you want for your birthday?” Scully asked.  She was driving.  The radio had just announced the midnight hour on October 13th.

Mulder snorted softly from the passenger seat.  “How about a vacation?”

“That sounds nice.  Where to?”

“I hear Peoria is lovely this time of year.”

“As luck would have it, we’re only 200 miles away.”

“Well then, happy birthday to me!”

The Beach Boys were singing about little surfer girls and Scully turned the radio off.

“What do you really want, Mulder?  If you can have anything at all.”

“The last two years back,” he said after a few moments.  “What about you?”

“It isn’t my birthday.”

“Yeah, but-”

“I’ve said it before and I’ve said it again, Mulder.  We want the same thing.”

Day 219

They stopped for the winter just after Thanksgiving.  The weather was becoming a problem as was their overall stamina.  It wasn’t easy finding a place that they could hide out in yet still be prepared to leave should the need arise.  They ended up in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, a place that was small enough and just touristy enough for them to remain inconspicuous.

Christmas nearly passed them by, but at the last minute, Mulder found a sad little twig of a tree outside a local drug store on Christmas Eve and he couldn’t let it sit there.  He brought it back to the condo they rented and put it on the counter of the wet bar where the canned light shone down on it.  He put the chocolate Santa and tiny souvenir snow globe he got for her under the tree and then called her in from the next room.

“If I’d known we were having a Charlie Brown Christmas, I would’ve gotten you something,” she said.

“It was spontaneous.”  He shrugged.  “And not really anything to sneeze at.”

“I can see that.”  She unwrapped the foil from the chocolate and held it up to his mouth for a bite. 

“These will all be on sale after tomorrow.  We should stock up for the new year.”

She smiled.  “Last year I...”

“What did you do last year?”

“It snowed on Christmas Eve.”  She put the chocolate down and swallowed.  Her eyes grew wet and she blinked a few times.  “I put William in his snowsuit and a little hat and took him outside.  His eyes were so big and wide when the snow hit his cheeks and then he just laughed.  He put his hand out and it was like he somehow got the biggest snowflakes to come to him.”

“I wish I could’ve been there.  I wish that...”

“I know.”  Scully picked up the little snow globe with a surfing Santa inside and gave it a shake.  “But, this is no life for a toddler.”

“Maybe it’s snowing where he is now.”

“I’m sure he’d like that.”  She put the globe down and touched him lightly on the chest as she made her way back to the other room.

Day 375

They’d agreed that waiting a year to settle down somewhere permanently.  There was a house waiting for them in Virginia.  A small, unremarkable piece of property that might as well have been in the middle of nowhere, purchased years ago under an alias and had then sat in wait.

The anniversary of their first year as Allen and Tricia Vogle was spent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, but dates had started to become insignificant little things since the new year.  They counted days more than they acknowledged dates anymore.  Christmas and New Year’s were hard to miss, but things like Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, even your own birthday, were easier to miss if you weren’t paying attention.

They did remember William’s second birthday though.  Really it was Scully who had noticed the date and Mulder put two and two together when she woke him early in the afternoon, well before they usually left a place, and asked him to take her to a church.  He waited in the car so he didn’t know what she did inside - prayed, confessed, lit a candle - but she wasn’t there too long.  They didn’t speak about it, but he knew.  He also knew it was time to head to Virginia.

“i don’t know, Mulder,” she said, getting out of the car and putting her hands on her hips.  “Are you sure you didn’t buy this house because you thought it might be haunted?”

Mulder grinned.  “I did put it on the list of requirements, right up there with gas appliances, ample closet space, and central heat.”

“You’re kidding.”

“It might not look like much from the outside, but it’s a decent place.”

Scully leaned back into Mulder’s chest a little when he put his hands on her shoulders.  She tipped her head back and looked up at him.

“So this is the end of the road?” she asked.

“Hopefully.”

She pushed away from him and went up to the porch, taking a hesitant step up, testing her weight on the wood.  It was more solid than it looked.  Not even a creak of the floorboards as she made her way up the stairs.  Mulder was right behind her, keys in his hand.  Scully cupped her hands against the dirty window in front and peered inside, but she couldn’t see much.  She backtracked over to the edge of the porch and wrapped her arm around the post, looking out at the empty fields surrounding them.

“Coming, Scully?” he asked, holding the door open.

“Right behind you,” she answered.

The End