#my transit and all my neighbors and everyone who built the building I live in and the buildings surrounding it

[jacksprostate]

Once more awash with love for everyone around me... I think it's one of the most beautiful intrinsic traits of people, to love one another <3

[dailyanarchistposts]

Solidarity begins at home

I don’t need to be empowered by adults; I need them to stop having power over me.

—Lilah Joy Bergman, age 9

While friendship is made vapid by Empire, coupledom and the nuclear family become the container for all other forms of intimacy. As anti-racist, Indigenous, and autonomist feminists have shown, the nuclear family—where one generation of parents lives with one generation of children, separated from everyone else—is a recent invention of Empire.[62] It was (and is) a crucial institution for the privatization and enclosure of life. It is also central to the maintenance of a culture of authoritarianism, abuse, and neglect that underpins heteropatriarchy and white supremacy. It evolved as a way of reproducing wage-laboring men through the unpaid labor of women. Violence against women and children within the family was condoned as part of a civilizing process, and it became a conduit for intergenerational violence, and for the accumulation of white wealth and property through inheritance.

Through feminist struggle, some of the most brutal, state-sanctioned violences of the nuclear family (such as legalized rape and abuse) have been challenged, but it remains a site of isolation and violence, for children in particular. One of its most brutal effects is that it makes other forms of intimacy difficult or unthinkable for many of us. Through suburbs and apartments designed for a privatized existence, the nuclear family is even coded into the built environment.

At the same time, people are constantly inventing and recovering other kinds of belonging and intimacy. They are creatively collectivizing and communalizing life, sharing income, food, and housing in ways that break down privatization and segregation. As Silvia Federici writes,

We also have a return to more extended types of families, built not on blood ties but on friendship relations. This, I think, is a model to follow. We are obviously in a period of transition and a great deal of experimentation, but opening up the family – hetero or gay – to a broader community, breaking down the walls that increasingly isolated it and prevented it from confronting its problems in a collective way is the path we must take not to be suffocated by it, and instead strengthen our resistance to exploitation. The denuclearisation of the family is the path to the construction of communities of resistance.[63]

Many Indigenous people, people of color, and queer folks have never been invited into the structure of the nuclear family, and they have always made kin in other ways. Queer chosen families have created intimate, intergenerational webs of support, and these radical ties remain alive in spite of new forms of homonormative capture. As Dean Spade writes,

In the queer communities I’m in valuing friendship is a really big deal, often coming out of the fact that lots of us don’t have family support, and build deep supportive structures with other queers. We are interested in resisting the heteronormative family structure in which people are expected to form a dyad, marry, have kids, and get all their needs met within that family structure. A lot of us see that as unhealthy, as a new technology of post-industrial late capitalism that is connected to alienating people from community and training them to think in terms of individuality, to value the smaller unit of the nuclear family rather than the extended family.[64]

Similarly, bell hooks points to traditions of informal adoption in Black communities, in which people adopted and cared for children in ways that were communally recognized but never sanctioned by the state:

Let’s say you didn’t have any children and your neighbor had eight kids. You might negotiate with her to adopt a child, who would then come live with you, but there would never be any kind of formal adoption, yet everybody would recognize her as your “play daughter.” My community was unusual in that gay black men were also able to informally adopt children. And in this case there was a kinship structure in the community where people would go home and visit their folks if they wanted to, stay with them (or what have you), but they would also be able to stay with the person who was loving and parenting them.[65]

Leanne Simpson, writing on Indigenous nationhood, notes how resurgence entails displacing settler colonialism and the nuclear family with “big, beautiful, diverse, extended multiracial families of relatives and friends that care very deeply for each other.��[66] In many ways, these kinds of relationships make possible and sustain the creation of intergenerational forms of organizing that include kids and elders, and break down divides between public and private. Simpson spoke to the importance of this when we interviewed her:

How change happens matters to me, which is why I don’t spend much time lobbying the state. I believe in creating the change on the ground, and creating and living the alternatives. In my nation, children and Elders are critical, and it means we organize differently. You can’t invite kids to a twelve-hour, boring meeting and then get frustrated because they are bored or frustrated because they won’t stay with the childcare worker they’ve never met. You can’t invite the Elders to welcome people to the territory and then not speak to the issues. I think we actually need to do less organizing and more movement building. Right now, we have activists, not leaders. We have actions, not community. My kids are also fundamentally not interested in “the movement.” They are, however, fundamentally interested in doing things.[67]

These kinds of non-nuclear kinship networks have been sustained in the face of state terrorism and incarceration, residential and boarding schools, and Empire’s ongoing attempts to privatize and destroy non-nuclear kinship networks, extended families, and webs of relationships that include non-human kin. Nourishing and sustaining these communal forms of life throws into question some of the dominant ideas about what counts as political work, about separation of activism or organizing from everyday life. They challenge the segregation of kids from the rest of the world (and from organizing and politics in particular) and the ways that elders are isolated and intergenerational connections are lost.

Creating intergenerational webs of intimacy and support is a radical act in a world that has privatized child-rearing, housing, subsistence and decision-making. Challenging the nuclear family is not about a puritanical rejection of anything that resembles it; it is about creating alternatives to its hegemony, to the dismembering of social relations, to the spatial division of people through suburbanization, incarceration, schooling, dispossession, and displacement. This entails the proliferation of relationships that may or may not be based on blood but are built on care and love. The Latin American political theorist Raúl Zibechi argues that non-nuclear family and kinship networks are at the heart of Latin America’s most transformative and militant movements, including those of Indigenous peoples, peasant farmers, landless and homeless movements, piqueteros, and women’s and youth movements.[68] These collective forms of life are based in new forms of dwelling, subsistence, and resistance. At the same time, Zibechi is clear that these are “only tendencies, aspirations, or attempts in the midst of social struggles.”[69] Relationships of mutual support are not a destination but a continual process of struggle.

As people renew intergenerational relationships and bring their whole lives into struggle, new forms of politics emerge. In this context, Silvia Federici argues,

This is why the idea of creating “self-reproducing” movements has been so powerful. It means creating a certain social fabric and forms of co-operative reproduction that can give continuity and strength to our struggles, and a more solid base to our solidarity. We need to create forms of life in which political activism is not separated from the task of our daily reproduction, so that relations of trust and commitment can develop that today remain on the horizon. We need to put our lives in common with the lives of other people to have movements that are solid and do not rise up and then dissipate. Sharing reproduction, this is what began to happen within the Occupy Movement and what usually happens when a struggle reaches a moment of almost insurrectional power. For example, when a strike goes on for several months, people begin to put their lives in common because they have to mobilise all their resources not to be defeated.[70]

Federici here gets at the way in which care is not only a means of maintaining struggles, but a transformative part of struggle itself. While Empire works to privatize and individualize our daily lives, many movements are reproducing themselves more autonomously by collectivizing care: from cooking to cohabitation to learning to just being present with each other.

Friendship, kinship, and communalization have also been at the heart of working across the hierarchical divides of heteropatriarchy, white supremacy, colonization, ableism, ecocide, and other systems that have taught us to enact violence on each other and internalize oppressive ways of relating. To make kin across these divisions is a precarious and radical act. Everyone knows how difficult this can be, and how people fuck up, hurt each other, and blame each other. Those conscripted into oppressive roles can always fall back into old habits. In some cases, people are able to talk about all this in ways that are subtle, gentle, and more attuned to each other’s tendencies, triggers, and gifts, and genuine relations of support emerge. In the context of queer, anti-racist disability justice, Mia Mingus speaks to the centrality of strong relationships for undoing oppression:

Any kind of systematic change we want to make will require us to work together to do it. And we have to have relationships strong enough to hold us as we go up against something as powerful as the state, the medical industrial complex, the prison system, the gender binary system, the church, immigration system, the war machine, global capitalism. Because we’re going to mess up. Of that I am sure. We cannot, on the one hand have sharp analysis about how pervasive systems of oppression and violence are and then on the other hand, expect people to act like that’s not the world we exist in. Of course there are times we are going to do and say oppressive things, of course we are going to hurt each other, of course we are going to be violent, collude in violence or accept violence as normal. We must roll up our sleeves and start doing the hard work of learning how to work through conflict, pain and hurt as if our lives depended on it—because they do.[71]

Between the authors of this book, friendship has required us to negotiate divisions ingrained in our bodies by ageism, patriarchy, capitalism, and ableism. Sometimes these divisions get in the way of our capacity to connect in ways that are enabling and transformative. Patriarchy has socialized Nick, as a man, to be self-assured, (over)confident, rational, and individualistic. carla has been socialized to be submissive, caring, diffident, and to put others before herself. Even as we worked against some of these tendencies, carla ended up doing more emotional and caring labor for this project and Nick ended up doing more labor when it came to writing and editing. We have also been learning to challenge these divisions, always partially and inconsistently, through processes of mutual growth, support, and (un)learning. In part because of our very different life experiences, skill sets, and perspectives, our collaborative process has enabled us to produce something new together and made us both more capable in new ways. Neither of us could have written this book, or anything like it, alone.

[itznikkitty]

Rose Garden Cafe These are the four locations of the Rose Garden Cafe, a small chain of cafes that Rosy founded so that she could share good food and hospitality to people across the galaxy. Each location is on a different planet. One on Earth, one on Everdawn, one on Illum, and one on Capitol.  

Earth: This location is in the outskirts of San Francisco with a small farm and house nearby that was the home of Rosy’s adopted father, Farmer John, for the remainder of his life.  

Everdawn: This is Rosy’s home as well as the largest of her cafes. It is located on the homeworld of her people, the Mothkin. Everdawn is a beautiful, warm, tidally-locked planet with most of its habitable land locked in a perpetual twilight.

Illum: This location has been built on the Mantid homeworld because it is where Rosy’s closest friend and chosen sister, Regina, has chosen to make her new home. It has an astonishing cliffside view of Chie’s crystal palace, and is the most remote of Rosy’s cafes, being in an entirely different galaxy. It is accessible only through portals built by the Mantids which are kept hidden from all but a select few individuals that they trust.  

Capitol: This location is the most recent one and has been built on the megastructure which serves as the mobile capital of the Galactic Alliance. It was built here because it is one of the most cosmopolitan places in the entire Nozari Galaxy, given that it is able to create a wormhole allowing it to warp to any system in said galaxy. Additionally, given that Capitol is an artificial world, Rosy had a lot of freedom to mold the geography of the surrounding area. With this ability, she decided to make a recreation of her very first cafe in Windsworth, which sadly was never able to open. 

The surrounding area is also modelled after the geography of Windsworth, with the transit hub being built on the spot where the neighboring town of Smolderon would have been.  

None of the buildings other than the cafe itself and the two central trees of the town plaza and outlook were recreated, but on the spot where Farmer John’s old house would have been, there is instead a memorial dedicated to all of the people who Rosy knew from the world that has since been destroyed by The Withering. The memorial is surrounded by rose bushes, and is built in the shape of the emblem of The Swarm, with its spikes being made from amethyst, the favorite crystal of Queen Parizz Ite. 

The memorial has a display screen mounted on it which displays the emblem of the Silver Lotus as well as an extensive list of the names of each individual that Rosy knew. If a name is selected with the touch screen, a portrait of the person is displayed along with a brief description of them.

There is also a plea for anyone who comes across the memorial to provide any information they have on any of the people on the list:   

“Every name you see on this list is a person that I knew and cared about on a strange world that has since been destroyed by a horrible catastrophe. 

Each of them helped in some way to shape me into the person I am today, and showed me kindness and friendship during a time in my life when I had only begun to understand that such things were possible. 

They showed me that there was more to life than simply trying to avoid death. They showed me that I could actually enjoy my life, that I could live every day looking forward to tomorrow. I cherish every last one of them deeply, and hold their memory close to my heart. 

This cafe is a faithful recreation of the very first Rose Garden Cafe. It was something that I was very proud of, and I had hoped to open it with a big celebration where I’d invite everyone I knew. Sadly though, I was never able to do this. I had to leave, and by the time I returned, everything was gone... 

To anyone who sees this, I beg of you, please read every name you see, and tell me if you know anything at all about any of them, no matter what that may be. I still hold out hope that someday I’ll be able to hold that big celebration that we never had.”

[woman-loving]

marital commitments between couple and society

I wanted to share another selection from Let Our Voices Be Heard! Christian Lesbians in Europe Telling their Stories, edited by Randi O. Solberg, 2004.

This contribution describes the commitments involved in a lesbian couple’s approaching civil partnership and why they wanted to mark it with a Christian ceremony attended by family and friends. While I don’t think I share their outlook on marital partnership or coupling, I did think their vision of the meaning of their civil partnership was very sweet and potentially inspiring. They saw their partnership as one of many commitments, made distinct by its social and spiritual dimensions. It was a commitment not just from one individual to the other, but also between the couple and society, and between the couple and God (with God making a reciprocal commitment to the couple). I like to recognize the social dimension of partnerships and marriage, because the selective recognition/imposition versus denial of social meaning to kinship bonds is a method for social control and oppression.

The authors described their commitment to society in terms of building a “fruitful” relationship that can contribute to the betterment of society:

We wanted to state our love before those close to us--families and friends--and to affirm that our relationship could be fruitful in its own way, that it could contribute to building the society and the church in which we live. [...]

We are asking society to meet us as a couple; what can we bring to society in return? How do we, a lesbian couple, want to work on its construction and evolution? It is perhaps there that our future commitments will be.

Lesbian couples have often been denied legitimacy on the basis that they can not be “fruitful” in the reproductive sense, and I wouldn’t agree that the legitimacy or significance of a couple relationship must be measured by its productivity or utility to “society.” However, I also think that creativity and working to achieved valued goals can be significant sources of joy, and I was charmed by the idea of partnerships being creative and expressing social values/visions in this way.

“Our Commitment,” Bénédicte and Marie-Noëlle, Roman Catholic

Translated from French to English by Rosemary Johnson Part I en II revised by Randi O. Solberg Final proofreading by Klaus Braun

Part I: a testimony

The testimony that we are going to present to you is a personal witness, which of course will not apply to everyone nor everywhere.

We have been asked to give a testimony about commitment, in the sense of a promise. For us, this promise will take the form of a PaCS [PaCS is the abbreviation of pacte civil de solidarité (’civil pact of solidarity’) and is the French name for a registered civil partnership], which we have planned for 2002.

In the course of this testimony, we are going to try to show you how the commitment about which we will talk to you is not a ‘one-off’, is not ‘unique’. That is to say, we are not talking about a single commitment, but multiple commitments, because one commitment leads to another, then another, then yet another... All of these were--and still are--taking us towards creating the relationship which we are today living together, because we have made this choice rather than that choice, made this commitment rather than that one. Our life together has taken certain turns in the past, which have resulted in us now being where we are, and will influence where we go in the future. All this has happened continuously, and not just continuously but progressively. It is not one PaCS, on one particular day, but a further step among so many others in our relationship.

We have thought of our relationship, from its beginning, as something that could endure. Neither of us wanted just an affair. We both went to the David and Jonathan women’s weekend, three years ago. We took the time, first, to get to know each other, to know each others’ views of life; spending time together, experiencing events together. We both wanted to be sure that this would work out, that we had compatible personalities, that we had points in common; and then that we had also some points of divergence which, in truth, would permit us to progress with and through each other. Little by little, we were able to check that being together, living and building something together seemed possible, seemed more and more possible, even though, of course, one is never one hundred percent sure.

We thus started to commit ourselves to each other.

The first commitment was to declare ourselves to each other, to launch into telling each other our feelings, touching each other, giving ourselves up to each other... with the risk of being rejected. Already, we needed to have mutual trust, to have confidence in the other’s reaction, whatever that should be: that she is not making fun of me, that she will not be angry, even if she does not feel the same emotions as me; while hoping very much that the response will be what one expects...

The second big commitment was to move in together.

We ran the risk of conflict, because living together is to expose one’s day-to-day habits to each other; it’s to become aware that I am not her and she is not me, that my wishes are not necessarily hers. It is to share lots of things together, as many things as possible, along with the day-to-day and the danger of routine.

And then, moving in together is to reveal ourselves to our friends and neighbors; in an unofficial but noticeable manner, we make ourselves known as a couple. This reinforces our mutual commitment, one to the other. But not so much towards the world outside. At that stage of our commitments, the world outside, that is, ‘Society’, only exists in what it can bring us, and not in what we can bring to it.

Finally, living together is of course, once more, to run the risk that it will not work out. It signals to the other that you love her, and that you are ready to run this risk for her but also for yourself.

There! Already in these first commitments, in the testimony which we’re writing for you about them, we have often used the word ‘risk’. Maybe it’s because to make commitments to each other is to take risks; risks which are useful because they let us demonstrate what is important to us. That is, to express what we are living, what we have now been feeling for some time, and to be able to move on to another step.

Now, we’ve been living together for two years and we’ve reached another step, obviously, and it is our third commitment: we have decided to get PaCSed. But, there is for us an essential difference between this commitment and the previous ones. Up to now, our commitments have been in the form of one to the other. They were individual commitments of me to you and of you to me. Now, we’re moving to another dimension. It is not better, it is not worse: it is different. We were (and we still are, besides), individuals. Now, we are entering the realm of the collective. it is a commitment of our couples vis à vis the community which is society. Because it would be possible for us to go to court on the quiet, and give our little piece of paper to the nice lady from Office Number Something. But that would not have been very sensible or interesting. You see, we want to give it another dimension over and above the simply practical considerations. So, on this occasion, we want to introduce two specific times:

The first is the PaCS itself, a social and legal act. The second is a celebration which would let us put ourselves in the sight of God and of the Church, without for all that imitating marriage.

For the PaCS itself, we want to be surrounded by our close friends and family. There have to be people as witnesses, we speak our piece and will be accountable to society (via our friends, our families...) for our actions, for what we have built together and what we will yet build. At the same time, society takes note of this joint declaration. It is our couple meeting society and society meeting our couple. It is to commit ourselves to each other before society. It is a step taken by two. We want to make our commitment at a given time and for the future, because we believe we have a future together. We want to say in front of other people that we love each other, and that our relationship can be fruitful and bring a lot to society and why not?--and we want this to be in church, because we want a Christian celebration, a time of prayer and reflection.

For us, this celebration will be the occasion of a strongly spiritual commitment, which will bring together all the aspects of our current and past commitments. It will involve an implication of Me to You, of You to Me, of Us to God and God to Us. I insist on things being reciprocal. For we are there in a relationship, and there is no relationship, or building of a relationship, except in reciprocity. God is a witness to our commitment of one to the other, and we are making our commitment before God. It is the same for the Christian community present with us on that day, because they are also the representatives of the Living God on Earth.

There, we want to make our commitment in the sense of a promise, of something sacred. It is also for this that we want to take the time for ritual. Through this ritual, we are entering the realm of the sacred, into another dimension by making our commitment in the sight of others, of third parties: our families, friends, society, and finally God. The ritual is what makes one day different from all the other days. It’s a passage, a transition. It’s the completion of one stage and the beginning of another by assembling the people who are important for us. This is why we are planning to get PaCSed next year, only because we want our close families to be there and they are not all ready to take this step, so we are leaving a bit of time for them to get there more serenely.

In conclusion, we would like to say that our commitment will not stop with this future PaCS. It is always there to be renewed and always renewable. Other commitments will surely follow, in the same way that this one has followed from our past commitments. Not to consider this commitment and the future commitments which will follow on from it would not be honest to ourselves, nor to the people who surround us and who have been witnesses since our meeting to the relationship that has grown between us. We think and believe it will be necessary to make still further commitments; otherwise, our shared history would have reached its conclusion. We are asking society to meet us as a couple; what can we bring to society in return? How do we, a lesbian couple, want to work on its construction and evolution? It is perhaps there that our future commitments will be.

Part II: Of the good will of God

(One year later, after the celebration of the PaCS)

This summer, on the 27th July 2002, we got PaCSed. For us, this was an important commitment. It brought us out of an unofficial ‘private’ relationship, and into an official ‘public’ relationship. It was, and it is, a commitment of our couple toward society. We would have been able to go discreetly to the court, to make our pledges to the Clerk of the Court: it’s true, we could have done that. But in our eyes, that would not have made sense, and moreover, had very little interest or place in our lives. No! We wanted to give this PaCS another dimension besides the practical considerations and the tax advantages. We wanted to state our love before those close to us--families and friends--and to affirm that our relationship could be fruitful in its own way, that it could contribute to building the society and the church in which we live.

We both came from very faithful, church-going families and our faith is firmly rooted in each of us. It was thus inconceivable to us that we shouldn’t place ourselves in the sight of God. This is why we wanted a Christian celebration of our PaCS, a time of prayer and reflection, surrounded by the people we love. It was important to do this with others, to declare our joy before them and with them. That is a part of the ritual. It is through this that we enter the realm of the sacred, another dimension. Ritual, that’s what makes one day different from all the other days. It’s a passage, a transition. In any case, this celebration was not an end in itself. It was, and must be, only one step (however exceptional!) along our path into the world and the future.

This celebration was the occasion of a strongly spiritual commitment. Testimonies, readings and songs followed each other in order, telling the direction of our individual lives, of our life as a couple, of our difference. God was indeed a witness to our commitment on that day, present in all the faces which surround us, but also in the love shown by those who were not there, for whom this celebration was too difficult to live through. But in the course of this time of prayer and sharing, our union was not blessed. Only our lockets, symbols of this commitment, were blessed. As much as giving thanks to God for the happiness he gives us seemed essential to us, so the blessing of our union did not: in any case, not in this rigid form imposed by Catholic ritual. the blessing of our lockets, wasn’t this a simple question for God? ‘If you indeed wish it...’

And if God did indeed wish it, he surely did it... but at least, he would have done it of his own free will, without human religion coming to interfere. We did not need to have this certainty. It was enough for us to know that he loves us and to thank him for this life which he has given us to share together.

[peace-coast-island]

Diary of a Junebug

Making omelettes at an egg farm

Annika has an egg farm, e-i-e-i-o... On this farm she has a bunch of chickens, e-i-e-i-o!

Literally the first thing that popped in my head when Annika posted about buying the farm. I still can't believe the place is hers - and Kaisa's too - like it was totally unexpected but with how things are turning out now, I can't imagine it happening any other way!

Running an egg farm was pretty much an accidental thing. Old Mr. Elmhearst built the place about fifty years ago, becoming known as the egg and poultry man for nearby towns. Then about a few years ago, he had to go into semi-retirement for health reasons before fully retiring last year. He then sold the farm and moved away to live with family. A neighbor took care of the chickens in the meantime while waiting for someone to buy the place.

It was the neighbor, Vint, who planted the idea of Annika running the egg farm through an offhand comment. Being a farmer himself, as well as the owner of the local produce stand, keeping up the egg farm on top of that is just too much for him. He's been helping Mr. Elmhearst find buyers but it turns out that egg farmers are a niche market. Of course, Vint's willing to keep running the place on the side for as long as it takes to find a new owner, but he can only do so much.

He mentioned the dilemma to his friends, who have also been helping out in terms of keeping up and looking for potential buyers. Annika and Kaisa were hanging out at the diner with a friend when Vint approached them and the guys got to talking about the egg farm. Annika and Kaisa were aware of the situation so Kaisa offered to pass the information along to her colleagues at the hospital.

What caught Annika's attention was the money. When Vint mentioned how successful Elmhearst was in terms of the money he made, Annika was all ears. Over the next several days she did a lot of research and asked Vint about the place. No one had any idea what she was thinking - they all thought she was just curious.

Let's just say that when Annika announced that she was going to buy the egg farm, no one believed her. Even Daisy Jane and I were questioning it when she posted about it online. It's not that we didn't think she could do it - more like why would someone with absolutely no background in farming want to take on something as big as running an egg farm? Given how at the time Annika was going through a bit of a rough time, it seemed like an impulse decision. Can't blame her though, as I too would've hopped on to the first opportunity to break out of a rut no matter how out of left field it was, especially if it fell straight into my lap.

Using her life's savings, Annika bought the egg farm. She had to do some poking and prodding to get Vint and Mr. Elmhearst to sell it to her. Reluctantly, they accepted her offer, cutting the price in half and saving half that money in case Annika changed her mind. Kaisa wasn't too crazy about the idea either, but she supported Annika on this new venture, offering to help out when Vint was unavailable.

As expected, Annika had a rough transition. Up until then she had never done anything related to farming or raising chickens. She never even had her own garden or took care of more than one plant at a time. Everything was brand new to her!

No one would hold it against her if she gave up. There were many times when she wanted to throw in the towel but she said that a little voice in her head kept telling her to get back up. Annika figured that a year was enough time to figure out whether or not running an egg farm's her thing - the others weren't sure if she was going to last a few months. Again, it's not that she can't do it, it's a question of whether is this something she really wanted to do.

Fast forward about six months in and everything's changed! Things still aren't 100% smooth, but it looks like Annika's found her footing. Just when she was about to admit that raising chickens wasn't for her, she decided to give it one last go. It's still a lot of work but Annika's finally starting to enjoy it. Big plot twist, right? From finding a routine that works for her to getting more comfortable working with chickens, Annika found that running an egg farm isn't too intimidating once you finally know what you're doing.

It also helps that she has loyal customers - mainly friends and family at the moment - so that's been keeping her afloat. Even when she struggled with the farm, she managed to break even with the profits and upkeep, which is actually pretty good. Obviously she's nowhere near how Elmhearst ran the place at its peak, but if she keeps this up, maybe she'll get there in a few years. For now she's happy that she's making a profit, and that buying the farm wasn't for nothing.

Seeing the quaint little farm in the countryside with the chickens and pastoral scenery, I can see why Annika was charmed by this place. It's one thing to read about her posts about the farm online, it's another to see her run the place. Annika's always been a fast learner, but being able to pretty much run an egg farm with no experience is an impressive feat! And of course, Vint helps out whenever he can so that makes things a little easier. Annika hopes to fully run things by herself once she's got everything down.

The house is in the process of renovations since it's pretty old. Elmhearst managed to fix up the place as much as he could before selling, but there's still a lot that needs to get done. Fortunately most of what's left to be fixed isn't really anything big, but now with Kaisa in the process of moving in with Annika, she wants to make sure the house is in tip top shape before she settles in.

That's part of the reason why me and the campers are visiting here. Aside from wanting to meet up with old friends, of course. I'm always accumulating on craft materials so I try to use them up rather than let them sit in my inventory because you can only store so much stuff at a time.

Along with building stuff for the house, we also got to help Annika out on the farm. She has six chickens, nicknamed the Spice Girls because of their names - Ginger, Cinnamon, Pepper, Cayenne, Anise, and Nutmeg. Aren't they cute names? I have never been in a chicken coop before so it was an interesting experience. Still getting used to being around them - I don't know why but I'm afraid of getting pecked or bitten by them. But for the most part they're pretty tame and friendly. I can see why Annika became attached to them once she got used to them.

Yeah, I don't know how Annika does it. Honestly, I probably would've given up as soon as the chickens started acting out. Farm life just ain't my cup of tea so anyone who can run one all by themselves is impressive in my book. I'm so proud of Annika and her accomplishments!

Kaisa stops by often to drop off some of her stuff and help out around the farm. I think her moving in with Annika is for the best. She's a nurse at the hospital, working the night shift - something that her dad and brothers aren't happy with. Basically they're early birds while Kaisa's a night owl - and the guys often make fun of her for sleeping in and such. Like, no offense to those who like waking up early but why do some of them feel the need to flex on that? I'm a night owl myself and why some people see that as a flaw that needs to be fixed is a mystery to me.

Like I said, Kaisa works the night shift from 7PM to 7AM. Being a new nurse, most of the entry level positions are for nights, so you gotta take what you can get. Working nights isn't bad though, things are a bit more quiet and you get paid more. Plus it's not like Kaisa's become nocturnal - she only works three days a week - so it's not like the job's taking over her life. In fact, the night shift works out perfectly for her and she loves it!

Literally the only reason why her family doesn't like it is because it's inconvenient for them. By inconvenient, I mean it goes against what they believe. Kaisa's dad has been pushing her to switch to days now that she's been working for over a year, which Kaisa has no desire to do. It also doesn't help that her family sees the night shift as a "lesser" position because patients are usually asleep at the time despite the fact that she is just as busy and gets more benefits from the job. Now it's getting to the point where Kaisa's finally fed up with them trying to push their standards on her that it's time for her to leave the nest.

I honestly don't understand people who feel the need to push their own ideals into others. They're the kind of people who act like their way is the best and if you aren't like them, then you need to be fixed. Although a good number of them do mean well sometimes, it's just exhausting trying to get them to understand that not everyone functions like they do.

Vint also drops by from time to time to help out and check in on us. Annika credits him for being the reason why she kept trying on the egg farm. Had she been running it all by herself, she would've given up after a few days. Kaisa says he's a good guy, but has a tendency to spread himself a little too thin. Although the three of them grew up together in the same town, it wasn't until Annika became neighbors with Vint when they really got to know each other. So in a way, he's become Annika and Kaisa's mentor/older brother figure. I'm looking forward to getting to know him some more in the next few days.

In between renovations and tending to the chickens, we got to looking up egg recipes like omelettes, quiches, custards, and more. Today we made omelettes as Vint gave us a big box full of fresh dairy and produce. I'm not an expert at making omelettes so it was good practice! Though, to be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of omelettes - they're a bit heavy and eggy for me so I can only enjoy them once in a while. But I have to say, using fresh eggs and veggies really do make a difference!

Since we were feeling creative from all the building and interior decorating, we kinda threw together an omelette contest. It's always fun to come up with new recipes and share them with friends!

Pancetti made an arugula, salmon, and goat cheese omelette over toast. I don't know why I never thought of having an omelette over toast - it's genius! Plus the goat cheese and salmon balance each other well while the arugula adds a nice contrast to the flavors. I think this is my favorite out of all the omelettes we made today.

Erik's creation is a pizza omelette, a creation that's fun to put together. It's basically a pizza but the crust is a cheesy omelette. Drizzle marinara, add some cheese and other toppings and voila - pizza omelette! I made mine with mozzarella, ricotta, onions, peppers, and sausage.

Plucky threw together an omelette salad topped with a creamy ranch dressing. The omelette's made with caramelized onions and chopped up into strips. For the ranch, she made some buttermilk, added a bunch of herbs and seasonings, and drizzled it over the salad. For some reason I don't like eggs in my salad but this is an exception - especially with the dressing.

Claude went for a dessert omelette, an interesting twist that turned out great! You'd think it would end up tasting like sweetened scrambled eggs or a custard gone wrong, but it's not. It's kinda like a pudding in terms of texture, but not overly sweet thanks to the cream cheese. To add to the dessert element is coconut sticky rice, which pairs well with the cream cheese omelette.

It's been fun helping Annika and Kaisa out on the farm. Like I said, none of us ever imagined Annika, out of all people, to run an egg farm. There's still a lot that she has to learn, which she's looking forward to. It's a lot of work, but she's been enjoying it a lot. Now that I've seen it for myself, I can't imagine her doing anything else. I can't wait to see where this venture will take her!

Tomorrow's more of the same - renovations, collecting eggs, and tending to the chickens. We're also gonna make puddings and help set up for the Apple Dumpling Festival, where Annika's running an egg stand.

[religioused]

Words Never Die

by Gary Simpson

1 Samuel 3:1-20 (King James Version) And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open vision. And it came to pass at that time, when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see; and ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep; that the Lord called Samuel: and he answered, Here am I. 5 And he ran unto Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me. And he said, I called not; lie down again. And he went and lay down. 6 And the Lord called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again. 7  Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him. 8 And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child. 9 Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down in his place. 10 And the Lord came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth.

11 And the Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle. In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house: when I begin, I will also make an end. For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering for ever.

15 And Samuel lay until the morning, and opened the doors of the house of the Lord. And Samuel feared to shew Eli the vision. Then Eli called Samuel, and said, Samuel, my son. And he answered, Here am I. And he said, What is the thing that the Lord hath said unto thee? I pray thee hide it not from me: God do so to thee, and more also, if thou hide any thing from me of all the things that he said unto thee. And Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is the Lord: let him do what seemeth him good.

19 And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground. 20 And all Israel from Dan even to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord.



Reflection:

There is an old public domain hymn titled “Kind Words Never Die.” Sadly, angry words take on a life of their own too. In no realm does that seem more accurate than political and religious discussions.

Three general principles you might want to look for in this sermon. (1) Ridicule and insults can cause religious and political divisions and political tension. (2) We can reflect on how our theological beliefs and political news consumption may cause us to hate others. (3) Look for ways to build people up.

There are times when a dose of Biblical trivia feels right. And this is one of those times. In the Septuagint, 1st and 2nd Samuel were called 1st and 2nd Kingdoms, and 1st and 2nd Kings were called 3rd and 4th Kingdoms.(1) A few people think 1st and 2nd Samuel would be better named Saul and David, or 1st and 2nd David.(2)

First and Second Samuel were probably written about 900 BCE(3), and the events described in 1st Samuel might date back to somewhere between 1200 and 1000 BCE.(4) The book was written after the division of the nation into two kingdoms, the northern and the southern kingdoms.(5) The events in the book of 1st Samuel take place during a time of political change. The children of Israel were transitioning into a monarchical form of government.(6) We see a shift from the leadership of priests, prophets and judges to kings.(7)

As we look to contemporary issues dividing Canada and the United States, we may find parts of 1st Samuel, a book written for a people divided into two kingdoms, valuable. A major theme in 1st Samuel is that the main characters, Samuel, Saul, and David, all “make mistakes that cost them dearly.”(8) This last point, which seems quite trivial, could be important. Religious institutions and religious leaders, combined with political institutions and political leaders, made mistakes that could be challenging for North Americans for many years. Decisions relating to the creation and operation of residential schools made by the Canadian Government and church denominations hurt generations of Indigenous people. Contributors to the NIV Foundation Study Bible observe that Samuel’s ministry is built on a foundation of an “attitude of listening.”(9) And listening could be critical to the future for people of faith.

There is some literary foreshadowing in the passage. Samuel means “requested of God.”(10) We can get the sense that there is something special about Samuel, and that sense increases as we read the narratives in 1st and 2nd Samuel.

In the ancient Near Eastern world, prophets gave messages from God. Should a god not give messages through prophets, it was considered a sign that the gods were unhappy.(11) Contributors to the Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible indicate that some people speculate that Samuel was in the temple area at night in hopes of receiving a “divine vision,” but there is nothing in the Biblical passage that supports that conclusion.(12)

Verses 15 to 17 are worth exploring for a moment. Warren Wiersbe draws attention to the fact that Samuel got up and went about his daily duties. He gives Samuel credit for being mature enough not to run around telling everyone that God gave him a special message.(13) I am not sure if it was maturity or dread of telling Eli the message God gave Samuel. Because Eli was almost like a foster father, Samuel might have loved Eli. His love for Eli might have been why Samuel was reluctant to tell Eli God’s message. Samuel did not want to hurt Eli.(14) Eli had a long vocational calling as a judge, having judged Israel for 40 years. Knowing Eli's vocation might have made it even more difficult for Samuel to deliver God’s stern message.(15)

Eli appears to threaten Samuel. He says Samuel must tell the whole truth and not to hide anything from him or God will deal severely with Samuel. Eli may have spoken strongly because he realized that God did something “rare” when God bypassed him and gave Samuel a message.(16) Eli, who recognizes physical maturity does not always go hand-in-hand with spiritual maturity, takes the rebuke God gives him through the mouth of young Samuel.(17) I think Eli shows significant maturity in his willingness to seek out and to accept the message Samuel gave.

Moses understood the children of Israel wanted to have a king.(18) There could be many reasons why the children of Israel wanted a king, a person of power, leading their country. They might have been seeking power, prestige, and a feeling of safety. Chapters 8-12 of 1 Samuel describe the establishment of a king for the children of Israel.(19) Was a desire to have a powerful leader, a person who could protect people of faith, a factor in some Christians being involved in the Capitol protest, a protest that claimed the lives of people? Did some people of faith believe they needed a strong president, a virtual king figure to protect their faith? We may never know.

When protesters took over the Capitol Building in Washington, DC., a few Americans carried crosses and Christian banners. Photos show somebody put up a noose. There was a massive juxtaposition between the images. As Canadians we cannot look down our noses at our American neighbors and congratulate ourselves that this could never happen in Canada. Increasingly strong and polarizing rhetoric is not just an American thing. We have the same problem here. Polarizing language between conservative and progressive Christians is both a Canadian and an American problem.

There are a few things that we may want to consider when reviewing how you live out your religious and political convictions.

• Is our shared theology and understanding of the Bible helping us feel more compassion for others, or are we finding ourselves progressively feeling more angry with those who do not share our values or our doctrine?

• When we hear a politician or a minister speak, do we find ourselves feeling increasingly angry because we believe that we are being cheated?

• Have we studied, to understand, and not to prove other people wrong, the beliefs of other Christian denominations and other world religions?

• Do we find ourselves engaging in calling members of other religious or political groups names? Do we find ourselves calling either progressive or conservative Christians names?

• Do we decide to vote based only on one political issue?

• Are there times when we seriously want to punch people who disagree with us on core issues?

• Do we spend hours each week listening to all news, all talk shows? Are we feeling anxious and angry after we watch hours of news and opinion shows?

If some of the things I mentioned seem to describe you, this might be a sign that you need to focus less on news and theology. You may want to limit your consumption of news to the morning news and the evening news. That might help you feel less like your core values are being assaulted.

Anglican theologian John Stott states, “No theology is genuinely Christian which does not arise from and focus on the cross.”(20) Historically Christians have seen love and grace as being symbolized in the cross. This means Christian theology is only genuine Christian theology when it shows love and grace. A prime test of love is respect. When we express theology in a loving manner, we attempt to show respect for those who disagree. The use of sarcastic language, ridicule, and insults might win the argument, but it generally loses the war, since the tactics offend and alienate.

I am going to conclude with a story.

Lawrence Welk is a big band leader who had a highly successful career. There is a website that estimates the net worth of celebrities. According to the website, when Lawrence Welk died in 1992, he might have been the richest person in show business, possibly being even more wealthy than the legendary Bob Hope.(21)

I hope that I recall the story correctly because it has been years since I read Lawrence Welk’s autobiography. As I recall the story, Lawrence Welk was reminiscing about his early days in show business. Welk and his boss, the leader of the band he was in, were eating in a café. Evidently, the food was pretty awful. Lawrence Welk complained about the food. The leader of the band complimented the waitress on the coffee. Later, Lawrence Welk asked the leader of the band why he didn’t complain about the bad food. The bandleader replied to the effect that whenever the waitress heard his name, she would think about how he complimented her for the coffee and whenever the waitress heard Lawrence Welk's name, she would remember how he criticized the food.

I encourage people to change the topic from political concerns and religion to other topics and to look for a reason to praise. Your kind words will be remembered and will build a bridge.

Kind words can never die,

Cherished and blest,

God knows how deep they lie,

Stored in the breast:

Like childhood’s simple rhymes,

Said o’er a thousand times,

Aye, in all years and climes,

Distant and near.

Kind words can never die(22)

End Notes

(1) Joel Rosenberg. “1 and 2 Samuel.” The Literary Guide to the Bible. (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Univ. Press, 1987), 122.

(2) Rosenberg. (1987), 122.

(3) Marshall Shelley, et al., eds. The Quest Study Bible. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zandervan Pub., 1994), 358.

(4) John H. Walton and Craig S. Keener, eds. New King James Version Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zandervan Pub., 2017), 480.

(5) Shelley, et al. (1994), 358.

(6) Walton and Keener, eds. (2017), 480.

(7) Rosenberg. (1987), 122.

(8) NIV Foundation Study Bible. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zandervan, 2015), 283.

(9) NIV Foundation Study Bible. (2015), 286.

(10) Merrill F. Unger. Unger's Bible Handbook: An Essential Guide to Understanding the Bible. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1967), 187.

(11) Walton and Keener. (2017), 486.

(12) Walton and Keener. (2017), 486.

(13) Warren W. Wiersbe. The Bible Exposition Commentary: History. Colorado Springs, Colorado: Victor, 2003), 216.

(14) Walter J. Harrelson, et al., eds. The New Interpreter's Study Bible. (Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press, 2003), 399.

(15) Bruce Barton, et al., eds. Life Explanation Study Bible. 2nd ed. (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Pub., 2004), 413.

(16) Shelley, et al. (1994), 363.

(17) Christian Community Bible. 2nd ed. (Madrid, Spain: San Pablo, 1988), 277.

(18) Kenneth Barker, et al., eds. The NIV Study Bible. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zandervan Pub., 1985), 372.

(19) Barker, et al. (1985), 372.

(20) John Stott. The Cross of Christ. (Doners Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1986), 216.

(21) “Lawrence Welk Net Worth.” Celebrity Net Worth. 2020, 16 January 2021.

<https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/rock-stars/lawrence-welk-net-worth/>.

(22) Abbey Hutchinson Patton. “Kind Words Can Never Die.” Public Domain Hymns. <https://www.pdhymns.com/SheetMusic/B_Normal/I-Q_Normal/K_Normal/Kind%20Words%20Can%20Never%20Die_N.pdf>.

[jkottke]

The Symbiotic & Toxic Relationship Between Houses and Cars in America

Since reading Gregory Shill's writing about how heavily subsidized cars are in the United States, I've been on the lookout for different frameworks for thinking about America's relationship to cars. I recently ran across a pair of interesting things about cars & housing. First, a refresher on what Shill had to say about how our nation's laws have made cars all but mandatory:

Let's begin at the state and local level. A key player in the story of automobile supremacy is single-family-only zoning, a shadow segregation regime that is now justifiably on the defensive for outlawing duplexes and apartments in huge swaths of the country. Through these and other land-use restrictions -- laws that separate residential and commercial areas or require needlessly large yards -- zoning rules scatter Americans across distances and highway-like roads that are impractical or dangerous to traverse on foot. The resulting densities are also too low to sustain high-frequency public transit.

Aaron Bady shared a few meaty pages from Nathanael Lauster's The Death and Life of the Single-Family House: Lessons from Vancouver on Building a Livable City about houses being urban parasites and their symbiotic relationship with cars. Here's an excerpt (italics mine):

Returning to the metaphor provided by the pine beetle and blue stain fungus, one parasite often works with another. In similar form, houses cultivate cars. Integrated through planning, they displace vastly more habitat than either could manage alone. Because houses consume space and tend to surround themselves with other houses, which also consume space, people often cannot walk to where they need to go. Because all that space results in a relatively low population density, it is also not very efficient to run public transit lines to areas with many houses. Low-density areas tend to end up with very few riders for what are often very expensive systems to maintain. In short, public transit loves density. The relationship between urban density and public transit use is exceptionally strong, with some suggestion of a cutoff -- perhaps around twelve persons per acre (or about three thousand per square kilometer) -- below which ridership drops off and expense per user makes transit impractical. By contrast, cars love the sprawl associated with houses and houses love cars back.

Houses cultivate cars. Cars love the sprawl associated with houses and houses love cars back. Lauster continues with the nature metaphor:

Altogether, house habitat displaces alternatives. The establishment of a Great House Reserve has protected house habitat even as it continues to expand in size. Agricultural and wild lands suffer in an immediate sense, as do the more urban habitats prevented from expanding beyond a constrained Urban Core. The house allies itself with the car at the same time as both contribute to global warming, potentially risking the displacement of everyone and everything. The house habitat excludes the poor. But even for those who can afford to live there, the Great House Reserve is a troublesome place to live. By its nature it leads to disengagement, contributes to inequality, and encourages a sedentary, unhealthy lifestyle.

And so on:

Houses are not just unaffordable for most people; they're ultimately unaffordable for cities too. The fiscal situation of cities varies from place to place, but overall, houses tend to create a drain on municipal coffers. They are often taxed at lower rates than other properties, reflecting zoning restrictions on what could be built on single-family lots and how they can be used. But houses are more expensive to service on a per-unit basis, both in terms of the basic utilities infrastructure and, as previously noted, in terms of transit and transportation infrastructure. This could mean that my modestly wealthy neighbors and I, living in low-rises and town houses, end up supporting the very wealthy house owner nearby by paying more property tax relative to the amount of urban land and services we receive. The disparity becomes more notable as one crosses municipal boundaries into nearby house-dominated suburbs, where residents frequently enjoy the services (e.g., roads, commerce, employment opportunities) provided by the city without paying into the municipal tax base at all.

Josh Vredevoogd's No Parking Here is about the poor parking policy in LA and leads with the statement: "Let's build houses for people, not cars."

For commercial buildings, it's common to see a parking space required for every 100-200 sq ft. Meaning that parking is built at an almost 2:1 ratio to actual retail space, marginalizing the place that actually creates value and prioritizing temporary car storage. This inefficiency is carried into rent, groceries, meals, and overall raises the floor for cost of living.

Per City of LA code, a set of storefronts like above are illegal to build, instead they are required to be surrounded with empty pavement at the cost of walkability and comfort.

This forces people into driving. Parking requirements increase the density of cars but reduce the density of people. It also puts pressure on businesses by taking up useful real estate and replacing it with car storage.

Certainly a lot of food for thought here. See also Cars! What's the Matter with Cars Today? and on a lighter note, What On Earth!, Kal Pindal's Oscar-nominated short film about Martians visiting Earth and their observations about the dominant form of life here, the automobile.

[missolivialouise]

“If I asked my neighbors in San Francisco if they’d support a policy that reduces fossil-fuel consumption, protects unspoiled wildlands, increases economic mobility, and creates more affordable housing, they would probably all say yes.

But if I told them such a policy would legalize small apartment buildings in our neighborhood of charming, million-dollar single-family homes, many of them would balk. That would make parking even harder, increase traffic, block views, bring rowdiness and crime, make our schools worse, they’d argue.

[...]

While by no means a panacea, increasing the density of America’s cities is a prerequisite for any remotely left-leaning vision of the future. And right now, neighborhoods zoned to accommodate only single-family homes are standing in the way of the society everyone in liberal America claims to want.

To understand the problems associated with America’s land use and housing status quo, it’s instructive to look back at the political choices that have dictated where, and for whom, new housing could be built.

For most of American history, urban neighborhoods had limited zoning restrictions. Single-family homes were regularly converted to flats or boarding houses, like Boston’s triple deckers and many of the Bay Area’s Victorians. Apartment buildings, sometimes with street-level stores, were permitted to rise alongside them. By the 1960s, this piecemeal urban-development regime had been replaced by massive government-initiated urban-renewal projects, which frequently led to the demolition of historical low-income communities of color in favor of modernist housing blocks and parking lots. As the horrors of urban renewal came into view, more politically empowered, usually white communities rallied to get their neighborhoods “downzoned,” severely limiting the number of new housing units that could be built.

Los Angeles went from being zoned to accommodate 10 million people in 1960 to 4.3 million in 2010. San Francisco’s 1978 citywide downzoning decreased the number of housing units that could be built in the city by 180,000, equivalent to more than 50 percent of the city’s housing stock at that time.

[...]

With so many neighborhoods functionally off limits to new housing, development has been pushed ever farther into the hinterlands, gobbling up farmland and open space, and forcing people into harrowing, gas-guzzling car commutes. As cities regain their cultural clout, low-income African-American and Latino neighborhoods are often among the few where new housing is permitted, concentrating growth pressure and accelerating the process of gentrification. Just as in the urban-renewal era, our current “urban renaissance” has seen low-income minority neighborhoods change dramatically, while upper-middle-class, single-family-home neighborhoods have had the privilege of remaining the same.

[...]

The cities and states feeling these challenges most acutely are beginning to respond in kind. Minneapolis was a trendsetter with its 2040 plan, ratified in December, that legalizes duplexes and triplexes in all neighborhoods formerly reserved for single-family homes, and allows even higher densities close to downtown and along major transit corridors. In many cases, the law re-legalizes housing types that were prevalent in the first half of the 20th century which characterize the most beloved, desirable neighborhoods.

Massachusetts, Utah, Seattle, Austin, Berkeley, and many other jurisdictions are also crafting new policies that would increase residential densities near jobs and public transit. The Oregon state legislature, having recently passed the nation’s first statewide rent-control law, will soon consider House Bill 2001, which would eliminate the category of single-family-home zoning in all cities larger than 10,000 residents, and instead permit structures containing up to four units in all residential zones. Cory Booker’s and Elizabeth Warren’s housing bills include incentives for cities to increase allowable density, and reverse zoning rules that have perpetuated segregation.

[...]

Another yawning spatial inequality is the ability to live a low-carbon urban lifestyle, which is increasingly the privilege of residents of expensive cities. People who live in multifamily urban housing have carbon footprints less than half the size of those who live in suburban subdivisions. Across the country, transportation is the biggest source of greenhouse-gas emissions, and in many West Coast cities it dwarfs other sources. The most effective thing any city or state can do to combat climate change—not to mention improve safety and public health—is to get more people to walk, scooter, bike, or take public transportation. And that means more people need to live in the places where these options are available.

At the same time, the three- to five-bedroom houses that dominate most single-family-home neighborhoods have stopped making sense for a growing number of Americans. More people are staying single or childless, the elderly are living longer, and plenty of others simply can’t afford 3,000 square feet. If half of the single-family homes in my neighborhood were converted into triplexes, a lot more young, old, and moderate-income people could live here. It’s the same story for every single-family-home neighborhood: “There are a huge variety of needs in our housing market, and not all of them are met by either a single-family home or a six-story apartment building,” said Lisa Bender, president of the Minneapolis City Council and a major champion of the city’s 2040 plan.

[...]

A more equitable, sustainable society cannot be grafted onto a segregated, carbon-intensive landscape. The landscape itself will need to undergo a redistributive, greening process: Poor people will need to move into rich neighborhoods, residents of depressed small towns will need to move to major cities, and McMansions and SUVs will have to be traded for apartments and bus passes. If the liberals who control the most dynamic cities and states really want to change the world for the better, they will have to accept to live differently themselves.

I cut some sections out to shorten the piece; click through the link to see the full article

[andrewjohnsonmpls]

The Comprehensive Plan (2040)

Every ten years, the City of Minneapolis is required under state law to update its Comprehensive Plan – a document that guides land use and hundreds of policies. For years, City staff and policymakers have been preparing for this latest update, and will spend years after an updated plan is passed working on setting specific details and implementing components of the plan; in this way, the Comprehensive Plan is part of a continuous cycle of policy work.

Given the monumental challenges before us – climate change threatening our way of life, some of the worst racial disparities in the entire United States right here in our city, and an affordable housing crisis devastating families across Minneapolis – we wanted more than a light refresh of the Comp Plan, we wanted to revisit all policy areas and seriously consider the causes of the problems we face today and how we might work to address them during this next cycle of policy work. This work was informed by a wide-variety of open houses and input sessions to gather a diverse range of feedback from across our city. What our staff produced is a well-written draft, which you can find here. I encourage you to read it.

The initial draft of the plan, released this spring, was meant to be bold and start a conversation – that it did. That first draft proposed allowing property owners up to four units of housing (through new construction or conversion of an existing home) on what are today single-family home lots. Many residents, myself included, had concerns about the impact of this for a variety of reasons, and it became the focal point of criticism of the plan; in many ways that was unfortunate, as it overshadowed so many other important policy suggestions – most of which are also bold and would have widespread support if they received more attention. Public input on the initial draft plan was gathered over months, and with more than 10,000 comments received, staff went to work updating and releasing a final draft which was unveiled this fall. This final draft reduced the maximum allowable housing density for today’s single-family house lots from four units to three, downzoned many corridors from what was initially proposed, and added more detail and supporting information throughout the plan.

Since the initial release, I have held four meetings in Ward 12 in partnership with our three neighborhood associations (LCC, SENA, and NENA) to share information, answer questions, and most importantly, hear from constituents. Beyond these meetings and the emails and phone calls I have received, I have also been intentionally asking residents what they think at block parties, neighborhood meetings, and community events for the better part of the year. While meetings, emails, and phone calls have been fairly split between those that are supportive of the draft plan or have significant concerns (along with a handful of individuals who think it does not go far enough), I have found that most residents I approach and ask about this in the community are aware of the Comp Plan and think it’s fine. Where people have been opposed, I have sought to understand what their specific concerns are to see if they are being addressed or consider how we might address them.

After carefully reading the draft Comp Plan multiple times, spending hundreds of hours listening to thousands of opinions, and doing a ton of research, I brought forward more than 40 amendments to the plan which successfully passed (more than any other Council Member). These ranged from implementing technology solutions along Highway 55 (Hiawatha Ave) which will improve signal timing and relieve traffic congestion, to analysis of property tax trends on burdening homeowners and developing plans to mitigate those impacts (particularly for those with low or fixed incomes). Other amendments of mine included improving our recycling efforts and working to ensure every resident has access to high-speed fiber optic internet, to significantly improving snow and ice clearance from sidewalks and going further in supporting our locally-owned small businesses. On the land use maps, I worked with residents who expressed concerns to build consensus among neighbors and amended the proposed zoning to better fit the neighborhood.

With such a truly comprehensive effort, there are inevitably parts of both the plan and the process around it which I have mixed-feelings on. While every home in the ward received information on their doorstep about the Comp Plan and meetings through multiple editions of our local community newspapers, and while we worked to get notice out via many other channels (such as my e-newsletter, e-Democracy, NextDoor, social media, and of course traditional news media), I am disappointed that mailed notice was not included in the City’s communication strategy – something I had pushed for internally. I also disagreed with the decision by staff to hire a PR firm to counter misinformation, which seemed not only wasteful when the City has a Communications Department that could have been leveraged, but destined to entrench critics.

As for the most controversial element of the plan – allowing up to three units of housing on a single-family lot – after extensive consideration, I do not expect our community to see much change as a result. Property owners on a typical single-family lot who wish to take advantage of this will still be restricted to the existing height and setback limitations (in other words, they can’t build anything bigger than what is already allowed). And the economics for the most part are just not there, at least for rentals, to justify duplex or triplex development. But sometimes there are other reasons to build when the economics don’t make sense. Take Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), which the City Council legalized for all single-family lots back in 2014; the same can be said of ADUs - that there is not a good economics case to be made for building them. Yet we have seen nine ADUs built in Ward 12 over the past three years. In many if not all cases, there was some personal or family reason to do so. As many residents in our ward continue to age, it is undeniable that there exists a case for multi-generational households to consider building duplexes or triplexes. For individual with declining mobility, new construction is often a necessity – putting a bathroom and living quarters on the main level, along with bringing the washer, dryer, and utility access up from the basement. And having family just a floor away not only provides critical support, but obvious social value. The desire for seniors to continue living independently within our neighborhoods and the lack of housing options that help facilitate this need cannot be overlooked. When we legalized ADUs, we knew the vast majority of property owners would never build one (just 9 of more than 11,000+ homes in Ward 12 have), and I am confident that the same is true of this added flexibility for converting existing homes to multi-family or building new; our charming community with its quiet streets comprised mostly of single-family homes, a community I fell in love with just as so many of you have, will continue to be charming, quiet, and mostly single-family homes. Development of new housing units will predominantly continue to be focused along Hiawatha Avenue, where transit access, commercial amenities, and economically-sound opportunities for new construction are abundant.

Whether increased market-rate housing supply will help ease the affordability crisis is of debate and concern with the plan. In addition to the record levels of funding for affordable housing as part of Mayor Frey’s 2019 budget (more than $40 million), the City Council also passed an inclusionary zoning policy tied to the Comp Plan. This policy requires most developers to make at least 10% of their units in new projects available at 60% or less of Area Median Income (AMI) for at least 20 years, and offers incentives to make 20% or more units available at 50% or less of AMI for 30 years. Like the rest of the Comprehensive Plan, there will be regular reporting on progress towards achieving these goals, what if any unintended outcomes we may be seeing, and opportunities to adjust policies and even the plan itself along the way.

The Comprehensive Plan was passed by the City Council today 12 votes in favor to 1 opposed (CM Palmisano). For such a comprehensive rewrite of such a comprehensive plan to receive this near unanimous level of support is noteworthy and helps illustrate the level of thought and care that went into this update, the overall widely-supported policies within it, the compromises made, and the many checks and balances in place to ensure that it moves our city and our community in a positive direction – enhancing the neighborhoods we love while helping address the most pressing challenges that face us. I will continue working hard over the coming years to listen to our community and represent it well in the fine-tuning of detailed regulations as they relate to this plan. Thank you for everyone who shared your thoughts on this with me and I hope you will continue to stay engaged in our policy work together over the coming years.

(If you have any questions or would like to discuss this further, please contact me or stop by my weekly open office hours).

[finn-nelson-for-the-win]

New Beginnings

Hello, my lovelies! So I got the idea to write this multi-chapter AU a few months ago but between work, Uni, personal life drama, and the writing I had been doing to fulfill fanfic prompt requests (as well as A LOT of writing for the other fandom I write for haha) I’m only getting the chance to get the ball rolling on this one now.

I didn’t tag anyone in this Intro chapter because I wanted you all to know what you were signing up for with this fic before committing to being tagged in subsequent chapters. With that being said, if you like this story and would like to be tagged in future chapters, feel free to let me know!

So without further ado…this is New Beginnings.

***

Rae sat in the back of the car, staring distractedly out the window as she saw the city that she had been born and raised in pass by in a blur.

Linda and Karim had tried to make conversation when they first started their nearly hour long drive, but the early morning hour and Rae’s unwillingness to respond with more than one word answers led to Linda and Karim chatting among themselves in the front while Rae was left alone with her thoughts.

The first twenty minutes of the drive, Rae had been overjoyed.

She had spent the summer months after college ended excitedly fussing over every detail of what her experience at Uni would be like and how good it would feel to be living on her own—well, technically in the dormitories on campus at her university, but that was a minor detail as far as Rae was concerned because she would no longer be living under her mum’s roof.

The next twenty minutes, Rae had been terrified.

College had been hell, but Rae had made it through. University had to be different for her, but what was to say that different meant better? How did Rae know that she would be strong enough to handle what life would throw at her, even after everything she has already been through? Failure was not an option for Rae, but her concerns about how unprepared she suddenly felt and uncertainty about what would happen if everything went tits up for her at Uni made it hard to focus on anything else for those minutes that seemed to drag on endlessly.

As the scenery outside the car window transitioned from the only town she had ever called home to unrecognizable countrysides and finally to the distinct cityscape that had built around the University that was soon becoming her home away from home, the all-consuming fear Rae had felt was quickly replaced with guilt.

Rae was being selfish, it was as simple as that. Her mum and Karim were stuck at home with a young child and Rae was free to just pack up her entire life and leave them behind without second thoughts. She had willingly applied to Uni and agreed to pay more money than she cared to think about at the moment to further her education and pursue her dreams, but her family needed her. Rae’s baby sister—too young to fully understand why her big sister was leaving and telling her goodbye early that morning—needed her, and yet Rae was still going through with all of this.

“Rae...Rachel, dear, I think we’re here,” Linda said most likely not for the first time, pulling Rae from the rabbit hole of doubt and overthinking that she had fallen into.

“Oh, uh yeah, sorry mum. This is the place, I think…”

***

“109...110...try to keep up, Karim! Rae’s dorm room should be right around the corner from here!”

Linda walked along the perimeter of the courtyard, passing each dormitory door as she searched for the room number that matched what was scrawled onto the small envelope containing the keys to Rae’s dorm.

Karim and Rae, who were following a short distance behind, were slowed down slightly by the surprisingly heavy boxes they carried with them. Linda had stopped walking and moved to one side of the sidewalk to give the group of people currently trying to maneuver a large flat screen television through the door to the nearest dorm space to move as necessary.

“Look at this, Rae,” Linda said quietly as she leaned over to her daughter to speak quietly with her, “they have nice and strong Uni boys to help move in the heavier stuff!”

Rae rolled her eyes and leaned away from her mum who gave her a wink and playfully nudged her side with her elbow, but Rae’s poorly contained chuckle showed that she was mostly unbothered by her mum’s joking.

“Alright, let’s just hurry up and find my dorm room. This box is heavier than I remembered it being,” Rae replied with a huff from the weight of the box she carried.

The three continued walking along the row of dormitory doors, smiling politely at the other residents that they passed.

“Which number?” Karim asked as he tried to adjust his grip of the boxes he was holding without dropping either box.

“Room 113, so this one...I believe,” Linda replied as she walked towards a door that was a few down from where the group had been carrying in the TV only minutes ago.

Linda pulled the shiny key from the small envelope it was contained in and inserted it into the lock, giving it a turn.

When the door unlocked without further hesitation, Linda swung open the door and held it open as Rae and Karim stepped inside the dimly lit apartment-style dorm.

“Hello? Oh! You must be Rachel, huh?” Rae heard the cheerful voice before she saw a petite girl with fiery red hair emerge from one of the bedrooms, but she smiled and nodded as the girl walked closer to her.

“Yeah, that’s me, but I go by Rae, not Rachel,” Rae replied with a small smile.

“Perfect, thanks for letting me know, Rae! My name is Isabella, by the way, but you can call me Iz or Izzy or some other nickname if you’d like! You were the last roommate we were waiting on and the other girls have been coming in and out all morning, but I can introduce you to them when I see them, if you’d like.”

“I’d really appreciate that, Izzy! Do you know which room is mine? I’d really like to put these boxes down,” Rae replied with a strained laugh and she tried to adjust her grip on the box she was carrying.

“Oh, silly me! Of course! Your room is right here on the right and I think Maddie took the bed on the left, so the one on the right is your side of the room by default, I guess!”

“Perfect! This is my mum, Linda, and my stepdad, Karim, by the way.” Rae replied as she used her head to motion to Linda and Karim where they stood beside her.

“It’s lovely to meet you both! My parents were here earlier this morning but they left already, or else I surely would have introduced them to you all as well!”

Rae followed Izzy into the bedroom that was lighted solely by the two large windows against the far wall of the room that had the window coverings lifted fully. Rae set the box she was carrying labeled “desk stuff” onto the plain black desk that was set up against the foot of her lofted bed beside the wall.

As soon as she turned around, she was pulled into a tight hug by Izzy, which she returned only slightly awkwardly despite the initial surprise.

“I’m just so happy to finally meet you, Rae! Me and the other two girls met up and got to know each other a bit over summer, so we already feel like old friends, but since you were only recently added to our dorm, all three of us have just been waiting anxiously to finally meet you. I really hope you love it here and we can all be really good friends.”

“I’m really excited to get to know you and the rest of the girls living here as well!” Rae added with a wide grin.

“Do you wanna meet one of the girls now? Or were you gonna go with your parents and get the rest of your stuff from their car?”

Rae looked at her mum and Karim as they stacked the boxes Karim had been carrying neatly on the carpeted floor beneath her lofted dorm bed.

“Go on ahead and meet your suitemates, Rae. Karim and I can get the rest of the stuff from the car. We might even be able to get a little help from those fit boys we saw earlier,” Linda replied with a suggestive eyebrow raise as she herded Karim out of Rae’s bedroom and towards the front door of the dorm.

“Come on! Maddie is at the Student Services building getting the parking permit for her car so she can park in the lot over here without being towed, so you’ll have to meet her a bit later. But you can come meet my roommate, Chloe!”

Izzy grabbed Rae by the hand and gently pulled her into the neighboring bedroom inside their dorm where there was a girl with her back turned towards them hanging clothing in a closet.

“Chloe! This is Rachel, Maddie’s roommate. She likes to go by ‘Rae’ instead of Rachel though!”

“Hiya, nice to meet you, Chloe,” Rae said quietly as the girl turned to face Rae and Izzy where they stood just within the entrance of the room.

“Hey babes! It’s so nice to finally meet you. I was surprised to see that they added someone into our dorm so close to move-in, but I’m glad that you’ll be living with us nonetheless!” Chloe replied as she walked forward and pulled Rae into a hug.

Wow...is it just me or is everyone at Uni a hugger except me?

“Rae’s parents are still getting some of her stuff from their car, but when they get back I can introduce them to you as well, Chloe!”

“Sure, that’s fine with me! Now that you two ladies are here, do you think you can help me with lofting my bed? I want it to be a little bit higher up so then I can fit my dresser and mini fridge underneath my bed to help save some space,”

Izzy and Rae shrugged and agreed, walking up to the bed to try to help Chloe figure out how to loft the bed.

“I don’t know how to loft the beds any higher than this,” Rae replied after they had tried and failed to loft the frame of the bed significantly higher than it had been initially, “my bed was already lofted when I got in there.”

“Should we go ask our neighbors to see if they can help us out?” Izzy asked as she wiped the small bit of sweat that had accumulated on her forehead from the exertion of moving the heavy bed frame.

“Sure! Plus I think it would be good to meet the neighbors and make friends with them, you know?” Chloe replied with a knowing smirk, which confused Rae slightly.

The three girls walked outside their dorm and turned right, towards dorm 114, and Chloe knocked on the door.

“Let’s try our next door neighbors to the left,” Izzy suggested after waiting a while since they knocked to see if anyone was there, “I’m pretty sure I saw a couple of them moving in around the same time that I got here, so they might still be inside their dorm!”

They walked past their dorm door and towards their other neighbors’ door and Chloe knocked on the door while the other two ladies stood beside her waiting to see if anyone would answer the door.

Just as they began to walk away from the door, they heard someone call “just a minute” followed by a loud series of thuds and sounds of items being moved hastily before the door unlocked and was opened.

“Oh! Hello!” called the cute boy wearing glasses who had answered the door as he panted, slightly out of breath from his rush to get the door.

“Good morning! We’re your next door neighbors, from dorm 113! We needed a little bit of help lofting my bed, and I was hoping that you boys could help us out a bit?” Chloe asked, laying on the charm nice and thick and batting her eyelashes excessively.

Boys? What did Chloe mean by ‘you boys’?

“Yeah, of course! My mates and I will head over there to help in a just a second. Dorm 113, right?” the boy asked with a friendly smile.

“Yup! Number 113...we’ll leave the door cracked open for you boys and you can just come right inside, alright?”

Chloe gave the boy another smile and he waved at Izzy and Rae behind her after promising that he and his mates would be over to help them soon, before the three girls returned back to their own dorm.

With the front door propped open using one of the small blue bins for recycling, the three girls walked into the room that Izzy and Chloe shared to clear some of the clutter out of the way so the others would be able to access Chloe’s bed without stepping on anything on the ground.

“Hey ladies!” A booming voice sing-songed as a shirtless boy with short hair walked through the front door of their dorm, followed by the boy in the glasses that had answered the door when Chloe and the girls first knocked.

“Hi, you must be one of our neighbors from 112, huh? I’m Chloe!” she said as she emerged from her bedroom to greet the boys that had walked into their dorm.

“I sure am! You can call me Chop,” he replied with a wide grin that exposed a noticeable, but strangely suiting gap between his two front teeth.

“You three saw me earlier, but we haven’t been formally introduced. My name is Archie and I’m not roommates with Chop, but I was just helping him and our other mate get settled since none of my suitemates have moved into our dorm yet.”

“And who are these two lovely ladies?” Chop asked with an eyebrow waggle as he turned his attention to the other girls that had joined Chloe in the common area of their dorm while Archie introduced himself.

Rae stood beside Izzy in a state of stunned silence when Chloe’s previous statement clicked into place.

‘You boys’ as in our neighbors...who are fit and/or shirtless and casually standing in our dorm room right now...

“My name is Izzy...and this here is Rae!” Izzy replied for both of them when she saw that Rae was not jumping at the chance to introduce herself.

“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you three ladies,” Chop added with a smirk, “some of the guys aren’t in our dorm right now, but I think between you three and us three, we can loft a bed, don’t ya think?”

“Three of you? I just see you and Archie..?” Rae replied with her eyebrows scrunched in confusion after her initial surprise and shyness had begun to fade in the presence of the two friendly boys standing in their dorm room.

“Huh? Oh! Arch, do ya know where Finn ran off to? He was just here a moment ago…”

“I, uh...maybe he—”

“Oi, Chopper! I’m right here, I just turned back to grab something to help loft the bed,” muttered the shirtless boy with slightly shaggy brown hair as he walked into the girl’s dorm room.

“There he is! It’s about fucking time, mate!” Chop joked as he gave his mate’s shoulder a playful shove.

“Sorry, I...uh…” the boy stood beside Archie and his voice trailed off as he looked between the three girls in front of him and himself, shirtless and dressed only in joggers that hung low on his hips, and he chewed his bottom lip out of nervousness.

“Oh, don’t mind him! My boy Finnley here is just a little bit shy around beautiful ladies like you all,” Chop added with a chuckle, “Ya missed all the introductions here, mate, but these ladies are Izzy, Chloe, and Rae...they are our next door neighbors!”

The girls gave Finn a small wave and smiled as Chop introduced them, but all Finn managed was a tight-lipped smile and silent nod at each of the girls.

“Anyway...we hear that there is a bed that needs lofting, yeah? Let’s get to it!” Archie replied with a smile as he gestured for the ladies to lead them to the bed they wanted to loft.

As Chloe and Izzy explained to Chop and Archie what they had already tried doing, Finn walked up to the bed frame and looked at the structure of the base where the mattress sat.

“Hey, uh, May...was it? Can ya help me move the mattress off the bed frame?” Finn asked quietly when he noticed that Rae was leaned up against the wall nearest to him watching what he was doing.

“Oh, sure, but my name is ‘Rae’ not ‘May’...” she replied as she walked up to the mattress to help him pull it down from the bed frame and lean it against the wall where she stood previously.

“Thanks for the help,” he muttered before returning to his inspection of the bed frame.

“Alright, now that we got the mattress out of the way, you should just be able to lift the base of the bed frame and move it into a higher notch to make the bed lifted higher up,” Chop said as he moved to stand at one end of the bed, “Finn, can you get on the other side and hold it in place so I can lift this side of the base?”

Finn nodded and stood at the opposite end of the bed from Chop and gripped the bed frame tightly to keep it still.

Chop began to pull the base upward, trying to unhook it from the notch it was currently positioned in, but despite his greater than average strength that was clearly a result of years of working out, the base would hardly budge.

“Can I take a look?” Finn asked when Chop stepped away from the bed frame with a frustrated huff.

“By all means. Do you really think you’re stronger than me though, Finn?” Chop asked, lifting his arms up to flex his muscles as if to prove his point.

“Well I am stronger than you, Chopper, but it also might help you lift the base if you undo the screws that are securing them in place,” Finn muttered as he pulled a screwdriver from the pocket of his joggers and loosened the screws on that side of the bed until the base was easily lifted using only one hand, “there ya go!”

Finn handed the screwdriver to Archie who got started loosening all the other screws on the base to help them loft the bed.

“So that’s what you were looking at on the bed frame so closely a minute ago. Nice job by the way, if not for you I don’t know how long we would have tried to loft the bed using brute force,” Rae replied with a smile when Finn walked to stand next to her on the opposite side of the room to give the others more space to adjust the height of the bed.

“Yeah, well I knew the screws had to be holding something in place and I had brought my screwdriver from my dorm just in case I’d need it, so I just took a guess. It wasn’t a big deal or anything,” he replied quietly as he crossed his arms over his torso to try to hide the exposed skin of his bare chest.

“Rae! Can you help Karim with the box on the top of the stack? It’s about to fall off,” Linda replied from the doorway of the dorm as she used a foot to gently kick open the door that was still held open by the recycling bin, since her arms were full with boxes.

“Yeah, of course,” Rae walked into the common room and grabbed the box on top of the stack Karim was carrying before following them both into her bedroom to put the boxes down.

“Are your other roommates here? We heard a few extra voices as we walked into your dorm,” Linda said as she placed the boxes of clothing she carried onto the carpet near the open closet.

“Two of my suitemates are here. Our neighbors also came over to help us loft one of their beds in the other room, so they’re here now too.” Rae explained.

“Perfect! Let’s go meet them!” Linda replied enthusiastically as she walked out of Rae’s bedroom and into the neighboring room that Izzy and Chloe shared.

“Hiya ladies! I’m Rae’s mum, Linda Bouchtat, and this is my husband...Karim…”

Linda stopped dead in her tracks when she walked into the other room and saw that in addition to the perky redhead she had met previously, there was now a pretty girl sitting in a desk chair and three fit boys—two of which shirtless and glistening with sweat—standing beside a newly lofted bed.

“Hello, Mrs. Bouchtat!” Archie said as he reached a hand across to shake Linda’s hand in greeting, “I’m Archie and these two lads are Chop and Finn. We live next door to your daughter and her suitemates!”

“Ah, I see...Rachel, can you come help us get the last couple things from the car, so we don’t have to make an additional trip?” Linda asked almost curtly as she turned to face Rae where she stood behind her.

“Uh, sure, mum…” Rae replied hesitantly, unsure as to why her mum had referred to her by her full first name.

As soon as Rae, Linda, and Karim were a short distance away from the dorm, Linda placed her hand on Rae’s shoulder, causing her to stop walking.

“What the bloody hell was that back there, Rae?”

“What do ya mean, mum?”

“What do I mean? Are you serious, Rachel? Those boys...those shirtless boys...what were they doing in your dorm?”

“They are our neighbors, like Archie said, and they were helping to loft Chloe’s bed, like I had told you,” Rae replied with an eye roll as she continued walking towards her mum’s car.

“You live next to boys?”

“Yeah! Apparently all the odd numbered dorms have girls and even numbered dorms have boys...don’t act so surprised, mum! We both knew that this was a co-ed dormitory community!” Rae replied casually when she noticed the look of shock on Linda’s face.

“Well yeah, but I thought that it would be separated right down the middle or by floor or something!”

“Oh relax, mum! It’s not like there are co-ed showers or toilets that we have to share, since they are apartment-style dorms. Each dorm still only has up to four boys or four girls, but it’s not mixed!”

“Hmm...Alright, I guess. I still wish that I knew about this earlier.”

“I didn’t know about it either until when I met my neighbors, but it’s gonna be fine, mum.”

“I suppose so. It’s a good thing that I trust you so much to make smart choices, Rae!”

When the three of them got to Linda’s car, there was only Rae’s denim backpack and a box with some of her favorite books left to take to her dorm.

“Karim and I should probably get back home to your sister Leila. You know how she can get when she is with a sitter for too long and I’m sure you have plenty of unpacking and bonding with your suitemates to do still.”

“Alright, I should be able to take this last box and my backpack without any trouble. Thanks for helping me move my stuff into my dorm, mum and Karim.”

There was a brief moment of awkward silence before Linda pulled Rae into a tight embrace despite the box Rae was carrying in her arms.

“I’m just really gonna miss you, Rae! You’re my little girl and now you��re growing up so fast and going to Uni and I’m just so proud of you!” Linda said as she rubbed circles on Rae’s back with her hands while the two remained hugging.

“I’m gonna miss you too, mum...both of you and Lei-lei too, actually!” Rae replied as she looked over at Karim when he reached to place a comforting hand on her shoulder, “but I’m not leaving forever. I’m still close enough to come home for holidays and when I have days off of school.”

“I know, I know...and living in the dorms with all the other first year Uni students will be good for you so you can branch out and make some new friends, I think. You better still call us once per week,” Linda said as she released Rae from her tight embrace and wrapped an arm around Karim’s torso instead.

“No, please try to call every day,” Karim added, his accented English thick with concealed emotion.

“Okay, I’ll be sure to call you guys often and keep in touch as much as I can, alright?”

Rae gave Linda and Karim hugs goodbye and she pretended not to notice how glossy their eyes were with holding back tears so that she could maintain her composure as well, but before long her parents climbed into their car and drove away, leaving Rae standing alone in the parking lot with her denim backpack and the cardboard box full of books.

I’ve never lived away from my mum for such a long time, but this is what I wanted, right?

I knew what it would entail to apply for Uni and sign up to live in the dormitories on campus.

But now that it’s actually happening, I feel almost...wistful, I suppose.

The short walk back to her dorm room brought back the excitement, fear, and guilt Rae had felt on the drive earlier that morning in waves, but none of the thoughts lingered and soon she was standing in front of the locked door to her dorm.

My dorm...I think I can get used to the sound of that…

“Oh, good! You had your keys with you,” Izzy called from where she was seated on the couch in the common room of their dorm when Rae unlocked the door and stepped inside, “I wasn’t sure if you had them so I wanted to make sure that you were still able to get back inside after the boys left a few minutes ago.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry I left without telling you all. I just went out to grab the last couple things from my mum’s car and then I was seeing off my mum and stepdad because they needed to start driving home,” Rae explained after turning to lock the front door of the dorm behind her.

Rae walked into her bedroom and was surprised to see a short, but athletic-looking girl with long blonde hair pulled back in a loose ponytail standing on the opposite side of the bedroom from where Rae’s boxes were stacked.

“Oh, hello! You must be my roommate, Maddie, right?” Rae asked as she set down the box she was carrying on her desk.

“Yeah, that’s me! Sorry I wasn’t here earlier today, but I’m glad to see that you seem to be getting settled in alright,” Maddie replied with a smile.

“Oh, yeah! The other girls have been so welcoming and we even met some of the boys in the dorm next to us earlier today. I think I’m gonna really like living here,” Rae said as set her denim backpack onto the chair beneath her desk.

“Knock-knock, ladies!” Izzy sing-songed as she walked through the open door to Rae and Maddie’s bedroom door, “I just wanted to let you two know that Chloe and I were going to go into the city to do some dorm room essentials shopping a bit later today, so you are both more than welcome to join us if you’d like!”

“Thanks, but I’m meeting a couple of my friends from back home for a movie tonight, since we all spent all day today getting settled into our dorms,” Maddie replied with a smile as she continued organizing her side of the bedroom.

“Aw, okay. Maybe we can all hang out another time. What about you, Rae? Do ya wanna come shopping with Chloe and me?”

“Yeah, sure! There’s a few things that I still needed to get too, so I’d really like that!” Rae said with a smile.

“Perfect! I’ll give you a while longer to unpack all your boxes and then whenever you’re ready to leave, just come into my room and let Chloe and I know!”

Izzy walked out of the room and Rae turned back towards her side of the bedroom and looked at all of the boxes that she had left to unpack.

18 years of my life.

Every memory with mum, Karim, and Leila...

All the books that hold a special place in my heart…

And the music that has helped me keep my sanity when life went to shit...

All of the reminders from when my life spun out of control and very nearly slipped from my grasp…

And the diaries and memories from hospital that proved that I was stronger than I ever thought I could be…

My entire life up to this point is now reduced down and packed neatly into ten cardboard boxes and my denim backpack.

The past is the past and there’s nothing I can do to change anything that has happened to me.

But now I’m starting this new chapter of my life and truly living away from my family for the first time in my life.

University is a time for new beginnings, and I swear I’m not gonna fuck it up this time.

A/N: Okay, so this is the introductory chapter, or perhaps a preface, to the new multi-chapter fic that I’m going to be writing and posting for a majority of the foreseeable future.

I’ll be completely honest with you when I say that I have no clue exactly how long this story will end up being and/or exactly what this story will entail, but here are a few things I can tell you about this story: this will likely be a pretty long fic though each chapter may vary greatly in length, this AU takes place in modern day but with the background of Rae’s past struggles with her mental health that are detailed in the show (except for the gang, since she meets them all at Uni in this fic), and the vast majority of events that will be covered in this story are going to be based off of real events from my own experiences of living in the dorms during my Freshman year of Uni...I haven’t decided whether I will let you all know which events were real in the author’s notes of each chapter or whether I’ll leave that a mystery for you guys to make your own assumptions about haha.

Without a doubt, my first year of Uni was the most fun/difficult/crazy year of my life up to that point, but it taught me a lot about myself and about the people I had in my life and ones that came into my life during this time and while there were a lot of bad times, there were also a lot of good times and memories that were made...so hopefully with this story, I can help share some of my experiences and memories with you all!

Until next time: Stay awesome, my friends!

[kaijutegu]

Wait why would your apartment manager care if you had a reptile? They don't really make noise or anything plus they ain't gonna run loose and bite anyone.

It’s... 

Actually, it’s kind of an interesting story about a seedy Chicago real estate agency. So the apartments I live in had a pretty bad reputation- not that there was crime or anything, but I’m right by a bunch of hospitals and a lot of my neighbors are southeast Asians (mostly Indian) who are here for medical school. That’s not the problem. The problem is that Management Company A was having problems with housekeeping and maintenance in some of the units (which were built in the 80s and hadn’t been renovated in quite some time) and blaming it on them- I was once told by someone in the management office that “they don’t even let their women learn to read,” and he said that in all seriousness, like he thought I’d commiserate with him instead of saying “why would you say that, you know my neighbors are female medical students, that’s pretty racist.” They’d always been super nice to me, but, y’know. I’m white. I didn’t know how dang racist they were when I moved in, otherwise I wouldn’t have signed the lease. Anyways, Company A for some mysterious reason gets a lot of bad reviews on the apartments, they’re losing money and tenants, and so they sell out to Company B. And Company B was shady as hell. Company A informed us of the transition, and when Company B moved in, they went over everyone’s lease and found new and interesting ways to charge them. They tried to charge my elderly across-the-hall neighbor extra maintenance fees for her wheelchair- she had a power chair, and they were going to charge her extra fees for wear and tear, which is illegal. My animals are in my lease, and despite Company A telling me that there wouldn’t be any problems and that I’d be grandfathered in, Company B said they had a new pet policy: one dog under 25 pounds or one cat per unit, nothing else, and pet rent went up from a flat payment of 100 per year to 100 per month. And no pets would be grandfathered in- so if you had a big dog, you had to move. Suffice it to say, people were freaking out, me included. They also closed our swimming pool, took one of the elevators out of commission (that had JUST BEEN FIXED), turned off the air conditioning in the laundry room, and just generally made everyone miserable...

Until three weeks later, when Company B disappeared. They just up and left, didn’t tell anyone. Didn’t tell maintenance, didn’t tell the concierge- they just fucking left. There was no one in the front office for like a week, and then Company C moved in- and that’s who we’ve got now. They’ve done a lot of work to rebrand the apartments, including a new name, renovating all the units, and renovating the infrastructure and amenities buildings, and they went back to the original pet policy (no rodents and no aquariums over 60 gallons, which has more to do with the potential damage that 60 gallons of water dumped on the floor can cause than anything else). 

Company C is a pretty good management company. Company C’s agents, however, are all under a non-disclosure agreement re: what happened with Company B. I can find no mentions of Company B online, their website is gone, and the one e-mail I had during the less-than-a-month tenure of Company B gives me no clues as to what happened to them. 

[caveartfair]

Tips for Artists on How to Settle into a New City

Edge of a River, 2018. Paul Balmer Caldwell Snyder Gallery

Many an artist has moved more than once. The reasons are wide-ranging—from the promise of more work opportunities to cheaper studio square-footage rates. One thing’s for sure, though: Being the new kid on the block is rarely easy. So what does it take to get comfortable in an unknown city’s creative scene? From going on friend dates to using a paper map, here are five ways to navigate the rocky road of relocation.

Make new connections out of old ones

There’s an old, slightly cynical saying that success is all in who you know. But when it comes to making a successful move to a new city or country, sometimes it’s about who others know. “The Central American art scene is small if you compare it with others around the world, but it’s characterized by being very supportive,” said Honduran performance artist Pável Aguilar, who further explained that his regional network was helpful when he relocated to the German city of Chemnitz last year.

Despite having traveled to Europe before, Aguilar experienced some culture shock when he moved to Chemnitz. “The customs, the language, the weather—it was totally different than anywhere else I’d lived,” he said. To help acclimate, Aguilar reached out to other Latin American artists and curators in the region, knowing that it was a tight-knit circle. “It was no surprise when many had close friends in Central America who I knew, which helped facilitate a lot of meetings,” he said.

Korean painter Hyegyeong Choi also went back to her roots when she moved from Seoul to New York City in 2010. She found it easy to make friends, especially because she felt like the two cities are similar in pace and style—but that didn’t keep her from feeling isolated occasionally. She asked her mates from back home to set her up on friend dates with people they knew in her new city, which helped her feel a little more like herself. “Even though I spoke English well, it was hard to live life without speaking my own language—I’m much funnier in Korean,” she laughed.

Talk to strangers

For a crash course in a new city, consider throwing out the cautionary “stranger danger” adage—at least under the right circumstances. That’s how Colombian performance artist Daniela Medina Poch settled in when she moved to Amsterdam in 2014 to pursue a master’s degree. Because her socially engaged practice often relies on collaborative performances and happenings in the public sphere, she wanted to get to know the local scene���and fast.

The best way to do that, she found, was to cold-call other artists who were doing like-minded work. “When I first moved and I barely knew anyone, whenever I saw an artwork I liked, I contacted the artist and asked her or him for a coffee,” Medina Poch explained. Often, they agreed, and her strategy helped her quickly get to know others outside of her school circle and become involved with the community.

Venezuelan-Ecuadorian artist Ana Naves also had a knack for striking up conversations with everyone when she first moved to Bogotá, Colombia, earlier this year. As much as she was interested in meeting other artists, she was also curious to make the acquaintance of her new city—and, more practically, figure out where she was in it.

Naves recommends striking up conversations with taxi drivers and fellow passengers on public transit, adding that people were generally happy to tell her a bit about a certain place or area. To that end, she also suggests foregoing Google and investing in a paper map. “I think it is a good exercise to internalize the city’s structure,” she said, adding that it makes you take notice more of the environment and people around you.  

Embrace social media

Naves may eschew digital maps, but she advocates using online tools like Facebook when trying to settle into a new city, especially because a change of place and pace can upend even the most finely tuned schedule. “It’s simple, but it’s a big help to have regular reminders in one place for shows, events like concerts or openings, and lectures,” she explained.

Social media may do more than just help you get to know a new cultural scene, though—it might also help you get your work seen, according to Kimia Ferdowsi Kline. In 2012, one year after she finished grad school, Ferdowsi Kline relocated from her hometown of Nashville to New York City. “I really wanted to be in a community of other working artists where I could continue learning and contributing to the discourse of art,” she explained, even though her first studio was “basically a closet in a building underneath the Williamsburg Bridge.”

As she looked for new ways to connect with artist peers, Ferdowsi Kline began posting and crediting images of work by other artists she was seeing around town on her Instagram. “Developing the practice of generosity goes a very long way,” she said, adding that many artists returned the favor. Soon, she had built a substantial network and was selling her own paintings through the online platform, which had the added benefit of helping her pay rent—eventually, for a studio larger than a closet, and not under a bridge.

Do as the locals do

Photographer Ding Ren says she had always wanted to try living in Europe, so when her partner received an email about his research from a Dutch professor out of the blue, they made an impulsive decision to move to Amsterdam from Washington, D.C., in 2010. Ren’s eagerness prompted her to try to get ahead of the curve before she even got there, and she signed up for newsletters and events at all of the city’s museums and galleries she could find online.

But when she finally arrived, Ren said she decided on a more “Joan Didion approach, as a cultural observer.” That led her to her first art opening, at a pop-up gallery in a now-defunct squatted space—something she never would have stumbled across in her newsletter briefings. “There are so many different shops, cafés, and alternative spaces throughout the city, and the best way is to happen upon them without planning,” she explained.

Video artist Andrew Norman Wilson concurs, now that he’s traded in New York City for Los Angeles to help offset his seasonal affective disorder. Even though he had thoroughly researched the sunny locale before moving, L.A. still managed to surprise him once he started frequenting the local hotspots. “Going to El Matador Beach on a hot Saturday or Sunday will tell you things that the Los Angeles Wikipedia page could never communicate,” he said.

It wasn’t just the beach life that threw Wilson for a loop, though, since L.A.’s art scene also proved different in person. He noted that he initially found exhibitions “often lacking the rigor of those in New York or European cities I’ve spent time in,” even at an institutional level. So Wilson turned his sights to the local grassroots spaces, where he found plenty of room for growth in the city’s artist-run spaces and organizations. “Because the stakes aren’t quite as high as back East, there’s more room—literally and figuratively—for experimentation,” he said.

Find ways to collaborate

As an artist, perhaps one of the best ways to get to know your proverbial neighbors in a new town is to work with them, even on a small or informal scale. For instance, after Wilson got a feel for the Los Angeles art landscape, he began hosting an interdisciplinary event-slash-party with his friend and fellow artist, Blaine O’Neill. Though it has a fixed date and venue—every other Wednesday night at General Lee’s in Chinatown—he said they let the shindig shift in form. “We call it something different every time, but we usually just share the details as Instagram stories and make events on Facebook,” he said, adding that guest DJs have ranged from curator and critic Aria Dean to sculptor Mathis Altmann.

Serbian-born photographer Vesna Pavlović took a similar tack after she moved to Nashville from Seattle in 2009 for a teaching job at Vanderbilt University. “You can see so many good musicians play here, and I wanted to tap into that,” she explained, adding that she started frequenting small gig venues where she could talk to the bands. Now, she’s working with local folk musicians to recreate traditional Serbian songs for her latest video project. “I’ve moved around a lot, and each place offers something different,” she said. “Any place you can create art is productive, but it’s worth pursuing collaborative opportunities—you never know where it might lead.”

from Artsy News

[mlek13]

Summer, Year 7: University Changes

My first order of business with the new year is to sort out my university situation.

At the end of year 6, I had 14 university students, plus 4 incoming freshman that I had already moved in, but not aged up.  Looking ahead I have 9 more sims starting university in the summer and only 4 that will be graduating this season. (And that’s not counting my subhood sims that should be starting university like Cassidy Mellon and Vlad Bachman.) I’m not sure what the record size for my university lot has been so far or how many beds it actually has, but 18-23 students is way too many to pack into one lot and manage in a way that would still be enjoyable.

My initial solution was to move committed couples into another lot and treat it like married student housing, but I wasn’t really happy with that solution.  My sims aren’t only in university to find spouses, but I also want them to build friendships with other members of the upper classes.  Last season, I moved Ruby, Aloysius, Leila, and Colette to their own lot.  I liked the little lot I built them, but I hated that they were so isolated from everyone.  And it really wasn’t doing much to ease the size of my main university lot.  Ruby has already graduated and moved back home (taking Aloysius with her) and the other three are due to graduate this season, leaving the lot empty.

I decided to see if there were any other couples I could move in with Leila and Colette and I decided on two; Sadie and Silas, who have mutual marriage wants for each other

and Aisha and Samira, who don’t have any commitments wants yet, but seem to be a fairly stable couple (and not romantically interested in anyone else at university.)

So that moved 6 sims to a second lot and 2 sims (Aloysius and Erik) are finishing university in the main kingdom, but it still seemed like my university lot was still going to be too crowded.  (I would be back up to 17-18 sims on that lot before I know it.) 

I went back and forth a bit on what to do.  I’m attached to the lots I’m using, even though they are far from perfect and it is such a hassle to move university sims.  I have to set up all of their semester testers to keep time moving.  I have to consider the semester timing, the season timing, pregnancy timing (if anyone is pregnant), resetting motives, and the timing of classes and finals, but ultimately I decided I needed to make the move . . . to university apartments.

I decided to edit a copy of the middle class apartments that I moved Jonathan and Meredith into.  The lot originally had three houses on it, but for my university students I removed the fenced in outdoor areas, built a fourth apartment/house in the back corner, changed the center building to a community area packed with skill building objects, and put in a pool.  (Here’s a crummy picture of the first floor layout.  All of the buildings have a second floor, but since I couldn’t decide what to do with the second floor of the common building, I left it empty.

I decided the easiest way to split up my sims between the apartments is by age/grade.  Then as new freshman move in, I can add them wherever there’s room or with the upperclassmen who will be graduating soon.

The sims I had had moved into the married student housing, moved into the back corner lot.  This is my couples group.  This group includes: Leila (senior), Silas and Colette (juniors), Sadie, Samira, and Aisha (sophomores.)

My second group happened to be my purple polo crew (plus Leonardo) aka Elizabeth and the guys.  These are my older students who are not coupled up. In this group we have Laurence, Leonardo, Elizabeth and Samson who are all juniors. 

I ended up moving Vlad Bachman in with them as a freshman.  I am really concerned with how a vampire is going to survive university, but at least with smaller groups I can keep an eye on him.  There’s no way I could babysit him and keep him out of the sun with 20 other sims to manage at once.  They occupy the apartment on the right, next to the pool.

My third group are the freshman, which are three sets of twins.  (No wonder my university is packed!  I didn’t realize how many twins I’d had born around the same time.)  Miranda and Chastity Cade are second semester freshman.  Lila, Calvin, Bianca, and Olivia are incoming freshmen.  They are my last group to start university on the old lot.  (All those hills on the old lot were a pain and factored into my debate about moving.)

Calvin was slow to transition to young adult, but he wasted no time getting into bed with Miranda.  (I barely played this lot before I moved everyone, but still this managed to happen.)

I moved everyone in to the new lot and I was enjoying how the apartments were working and how active the common areas were, but I realized my apartments were too small.  Unless I convert the living areas into bedrooms, there is only room for 6-8 beds in each apartment and there aren’t enough bathrooms.  The number of beds is perfect for the number of sims I start the season with, but I have 9 more sims to move in during the season (and only 3 sims moving out.)  Plus, I underestimated the amount of space I needed for all of the semester testers and I got rid of the outdoor space so I couldn’t place the teleporter shrub I need to move in incoming freshmen outside.  I found the cheats to place things outside of the apartment and that helped me be able to do this at least . . .

I already started thinking up ways to rebuild and improve the university apartments (and spent way too much time and effort doing so) when I discovered my newly built, back apartment was broken.  The upstairs bathroom wasn’t being read as part of the apartment and instead as a neighboring apartment.  So I was down a bathroom and the constant noise coming from this empty 3x3 room was disturbing the sims trying to sleep in the bedroom where 4/6 of the sims on this lot sleep.  I used cheats to add a wall to block out the noise, but that made the hallway dark like it was part of another apartment.  So I decided I needed to move to my new lot sooner rather than later.

With one day left in summer, my couples were the first to move into the new apartments.  I haven’t played it yet, so I’m crossing my fingers that everything will work out.

So here’s my lot that I spent the majority of my Sunday working on.  The basic layout of the apartments is the same, but the buildings are a lot larger.  There are three rentable buildings and one common building.

All three buildings have attics that are not accessible to sims, but provide storage space for tools like the semester testers, romance adjuster, and crystal ball, etc. 

I thought about making almost everything, including cooking areas in the commons, but in the end I didn’t.  I thought it might cause problems and I knew from experience my sims would roll wants for refrigerators, toilets, and bathtubs if they weren’t included in each apartment.  I could even put bedrooms and bathrooms in the common areas and have almost nothing in the actual apartments themselves. That’s an idea I should play around with some time.  What actually needs to be in the apartment and how much can they live in a shared area.

Here is the floor plan of the first apartment.  I made sure to include an outdoor area this time, just in case they need it.

Most of the floor space is upstairs.  There are six bedrooms that can sleep 12-16 sims.  This is the lot that I moved my couples into because it’s the largest and my last group of freshman who are moving to university in the summer will be moving in with them.  (I still need to play their households up to the last day of summer before they can move in.)

This is the back corner lot.  No one has moved in yet since my other two university groups are still at the old apartment lot.  I’m not sure if I want to move them right away, so they have more time to interact with their neighbors, or wait until one day left in summer so I don’t have to bother with the season controller to adjust the day.

This apartment (or dorm, really) also has six bedrooms, and sleeps 12 sims.  One of the downstairs rooms could also be another bedroom.

Here is the third dormitory. 

There are two common sleeping areas upstairs and one of the downstairs rooms could be used as another bedroom or a living area.  I basically just started lining up beds and adding walls around them when I built this one.  (It was the last part of this lot I built and I already felt like I was going way overboard and spending too much time on this.)  There is easily room for 9-10 sims to sleep upstairs and another 4 or 5 downstairs. 

I definitely wanted to make sure I wouldn’t be short on bed space on this lot, like I was on the last, so I know there is room for more beds than I will actually need.  I also would rather have fewer larger groups of sims rather than more smaller groups, so it’s fewer households for me to play.  So if my university population goes down in the futures, I can consolidate them into fewer households and let some of the apartments be empty or maybe I can occupy them with sims who have nowhere to go after university or who are still looking for partners.  (I don’t expect to have and use the maximum number of beds on these lots all at once.)

I think of the common building on this lot as an academic building or set of classrooms.  I tried to put as many skill building objects here as possible (especially those that sims will use autonomously.)

In my commons building, there is a music room.  The music room seemed to be very popular when I played the first apartment dorms.  (Also, I need less modern looking instruments.)

This is the general study area with bookshelves, computers, chess boards, and comfy seating areas.

This is the art and dance studio.  (Public restrooms are behind the doors.)  There are easels, ballet barres, and a stereo for social dancing.

There are areas for outside sports.  I added a soccer goal and a basketball hoop (not pictured.)  The soccer goal is something I never think to use, so it’s been fun seeing sims roll wants to play soccer. (That’s a totally new want to me!)  There is a swimming pool.  I remembered when I was editing the other lot that I could change the walls and floors on the pool, so I tried to go for something a little more natural.  There’s also a telescope on the other side of the community building that I did not take a picture of.  (You can see it and the basketball hoop on the first exterior picture of this lot.)

And I made an outdoor area just for fun and socialization for when my students need to unwind.  I added a grill, some outdoor sitting/eating areas, and a default replaced karaoke machine.

I like the students living in apartment dorms, so far, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this lot works out well without any issues.

[ernmark]

Hi I love all your penumbra metas. In the latest episode I'm still confused by what actually went wrong with the dome, was it the society or the dome that didn't work?

Is this gonna be a thing I do?

I am totally cool with this.

Again, major detailed spoilers for Promised Land under the cut.

And an anon asked:

Thanks for explaining the end of the episode! I’m a little confused about what happened with the dome in the first place. I mean, I know the free dome wasn’t real. And Erin tried to get her son(?) to get it to work and he was a giant dick trying to torture people looking for it. Did Erin set up the dome stuff prematurely? Did it ever exist? Marshall’s son felt really bad and wanted to warn everyone. Where did the hallucination gas fit in? Did Erin and company think they had it but didn’t?

One thing to keep in mind is that we’re deliberately not given the full story, so all we’re left with is bits and pieces that we can glue together to kind of get a vague impression of what happened, but the way I put them together won’t necessarily be the way you put them together. 

So let’s get to it, shall we?

Why was the Free Dome important?

Real estate on Mars is expensive, outside of super low-income neighborhoods like Oldtown, The Boiler, etc. 

This is because 90% of Mars’s surface is uninhabitable. If you want to live somewhere, you better be willing to fork over a ton of cash for a tiny place, or else you’re going to be buddying up with your immediate family/seven of your closest friends/etc. 

JUNO: Mars only has a couple cities and a few desertoutposts cuz the radiation will bake you like a potato if you stay out theremore than a few hours, and Domes can’t be built just anywhere. So if you want anew city, you’ve got to figure out how to build a place to build it. You haveto invent a better Dome.

Life cannot exist underground, because the ambient radiation is just too strong:

PILOT: A lot of space in this subway. I wonder why I neverbuilt anything down here. Some housing or something.

PIRANHA: People lose their marbles if they live under Martianground too long. Radiation burns, Brainswell…

STRONG: You know whatbeing under all this radioactive sand too long does to you? Drives you crazy.Makes you see things.

This is likely why the subway has been closed off everywhere except Oldtown– most likely it wasn’t safe for the people working there, or for the people using it for transit.

Oldtown was the only part of Hyperion City that still had a connection to the Old Subway, behind a boarded-up door in a nondescript office building. (Stolen City)

This is probably also why the only thing that lives in the sewer are giant mutant rabbits. 

Notably, though, both the subway and the sewer system are in fairly good repair because they’re both under Hyperion City and its protective dome. The same doesn’t hold true for structures built outside of that protection:

People hadbuilt things down here, signs and lights and tracks, but the radiation hadclearly done damage even this deep below the surface. Fixtures corroded. Trackslike time had taken a blowtorch to them.

Even the existing domes are fragile. We know that Hyperion City’s has some places that are protected better than others.

RITA: Well… sounds like a pretty bad sandstorm is gonna hit this afternoon. You’ll probably want to be out of Oldtown by then; the shield over there’s about as strong as used tissues. They went into lockdown three times just last month. (Day That Wouldn’t Die)

Our Man-Who-Wasn’t picked a good neighborhood to set up shop in: the Old Industrial District, a place blasted by sandstorms and cosmic rays so hard that not even the roaches would live there anymore. The shields protecting the rest of Hyperion didn’t reach this far, and so neither would most of its citizens. It was the perfect place to do bad business – so long as you didn’t mind a tumor or two. (Prince of Mars)

That’s important: You can’t build domes just anywhere, and the domes that do exist have to be heavily shielded from sandstorms and cosmic rays. 

If you can solve those two problems, then you can build a dome wherever you want, you can build as many of them as you want, and all the unclaimed land on Mars is effectively yours for the taking– and that means that you now have the power to decide who gets to live there and who doesn’t. Do you give affordable housing to anyone who wants it, like Erin Marshall D’Arc? Or do you do like Pilot wanted, and make the hyper-wealthy pay top dollar so they can have their own personal golf course? Either way, that’s an incredible amount of power.

The Family D’Arc

So we have three main characters in this story: Erin, the scientist; Marshall, her son; and his kid, Domer 3 (they’re never given a name, but that’s what the script calls them).

We started in a reception hall that didn’t lookprepared to receive anybody. There were portrait frames on the walls, but mostof them were empty, and the ones that weren’t just showed family photos. A momand her son –- the D’Arcs, probably. The kid all grown up, moody, wild-eyed.The only full portrait in the room had the face scratched out – and theydidn’t look like Erin or Marshall. 

Erin was a military scientist who thought she had a solid technology on her hands, and believed in it enough to run away with a group of other believers. Erin was an optimist who seemed to genuinely believe in her Utopian dream.

After her death, her son Marshall took over leadership of the dome.

MARSHALL: Cuz Ma might’ve had allthat crap about everyone being her neighbor or whatever, but guess what? She’sdead.

The character descriptions in the script talk about how Marshall was a believer who wanted desperately to be good enough, but neither he nor the Free Dome ever lived up to expectations, and that broke him.

But all of that is background information. From what we see in the episode itself, Marshall was… not a nice person. His tests were murderous, sadistic, and full of gaslighting and victim-blaming, and the way he addressed his prospective “neighbors” was nothing short of abusive. 

So you’reprobably wondering why I stopped you out in these irradiated badlands, with allthe oogidies and the boogidies waiting to getcha. I’ve got three answers forthat. Answer one: it’s none of your business. Two: my testing materials havegot to last a long time, forever probably, and it’ll help wear-and-tear if lessof you make it to them. Three: it’s still none of your goddamn business.

“Anyone whowishes to enter the Free Dome must be generous, and give more of themselvesthan they can afford. So sit upon this Chair of Charity and give to us… fromyour blood.”

Congratulations.You’re a very generous idiot. Here’s the Dome… and here’s your blood back,weirdo. Just do me afavor: if you feel like you’re gonna bite the big one, show yourself out,alright? We’re already behind schedule without cleaning up your carcass.Marshall out.

That’s it!Easy, right? Just hold the Dome and walk straight. No matter what. You hear me?No matter what. (AN UNDERCURRENTOF DARK, DARK ANGER) And if youknow what’s good for you, you’ll listen.

That’s way beyond unreasonable. But it wasn’t just toward the test-takers. His kid flat out tells us that this was regular behavior for him.

Dad was a good guy, too. I mean… well, no hewasn’t. 

I never met her, but Dad… Dad wasn’t good beforethe radiation either.

(Notably, this is the same kind of language that Juno uses to describe his own mother.)

We don’t know Domer 3′s name, but we know that they lived outside of the dome with Marshall long enough to know him (and his abuse) before the radiation made him worse; we also know that Erin didn’t live to meet her grandchild. 

After Marshall presumably died, Domer 3 seems to be the last person here. They recorded warning messages to keep everybody away, and encoded a kill switch into the final recording so that once it was activated, nobody could enter the Free Dome again.

There is a fourth character here, but we only know them incidentally. I don’t know whether they were Marshall’s ex-partner or his co-leader, but Marshall really did not like this person:

MARSHALL: … a test tosee how generous you are. You want in you gotta have a sense of charity. Notlike that weasel Malvin, I swear ifyou’re listening to this, Mal, I’m gonna tear your—

Alright, fine.Test of Faith. You’ve got to do whatever I say exactly, right? That’s how youprove you can be faithful. That you’re going to listen when I tell you to dosomething. That you’re not just going to run out. Malvin.

I suspect Malvin is not Domer 3, because otherwise Domer 3 would have been given a name in the script. Also because Malvin clearly left on their own terms, whereas Domer 3 was clearly the last one there.

So what went wrong?

As near as I can put it together, there were two main problems, one structural and one societal.

Structurally, the dome tech just didn’t work.

I’m sure it did in the short term– after all, the dome sample that Pilot received was powerful enough to protect them from most of the dangers of the third trial, and it was stated to be a much less powerful version of the real thing. 

I genuinely believe that Erin set up her city on the other side of those doors in the end. But what worked in a lab setting just couldn’t hold up to the brute force of sandstorms and constant cosmic radiation. As soon as the dome failed, everybody had to rush back into the relative safety of the underground areas on the other side of the door. The ruins of the city were likely warped by radiation and ground up by sandstorms until they were reduced to nothing at all.

Underground, Erin kept trying to fix the dome tech, and then brought in her son to give it a go. Both of them failed.

I wish they made it. I wish it was possible. Erin, I think she really thought, even if she couldn’t do it… maybe Dad could. She believed in him so much. And when he realized he couldn’t make it work, he just… (BIG SIGH) It was bad. He was… bad.

They were underground in the facility long enough that they started to hallucinate death millipedes, undercrows, and from the sound of it, the functioning dome itself:

I don’t know how it happened. The undergroundradiation, maybe, making them see things, or… maybe they just wanted to see it. 

What exactly happened to them isn’t elaborated upon, but the implication is that they assumed that the tech worked and walked into the desert unprotected, which killed them within a few hours.

(Just to clarify: there was never any hallucinatory gas; the hallucinations were a result of the brainswell, which was in turn a result of the underground radiation.)

But there were some societal issues at play, too.

I’m gonna step back for a second into the real world: historically, there have been a handful of experimental Utopian colonies over the years, with varying degrees of success. A common thread, though, is that a lot of them tend to fall apart when people stop dividing things evenly and start hoarding and hiding an unfair share of the goods for themselves (among other things). The test of charity suggests that this is one of the things that went down here. Once again:

MARSHALL: … a test to see how generous you are. You want in you gotta have a sense of charity. Not like that weasel Malvin, I swear if you’re listening to this, Mal, I’m gonna tear your—

But it’s not the only thing that went wrong. 

Erin’s answer to a galaxy-ending conflict wasn’t to address any of the existing problems that broke the world, but to just pack up and move somewhere else.  Which is not that great of a strategy.

Your wholething is that the world’s a train wreck, so you open up a new city and just letanybody who wants walk in? That’s not anew world. That’s not a utopia. That’s the old one all over again. Justsmaller.

Erin’s strategy was apparently to please everybody, which is also not a great leadership strategy, especially in a small place with limited resources. Marshall had a lot of things to say about that, but he wasn’t much better. Apart from being seriously abusive, Marshall wasn’t the kind of leader that could command respect, which he clearly resented. 

… what isthis, second? Uh, Test of Faith, how about that? Listen to whatever I say.Somebody’s got to. Somebody should.

Hey, you listened. Nice work. If you’re alive. Which you probably aren’t. Because you probably didn’t listen. Nobody does. Why would you? Why would anybody? 

On a societal level, the Free Dome was doomed to fail even before the brainswell started making people hallucinate and taking away their ability to think rationally.

From the sound of it, people stopped listening to the D’Arcs, they started hoarding things, and then they started leaving or dying, until the only ones left were Marshall and his kid. And then it was just Domer 3, who shut down the whole thing and walked away.

[violetsystems]

#personal

Throughout this extended period of being alone, I’ve done a lot of reorganizing and downsizing.  It’s become a daily game of Tetris when it comes to how I utilize the space I have.  As the world gets smaller and more claustrophobic, the world inside gets more spacious.  I built a computer for the first time in years, piece by piece.  It’s a Ryzen 3600 with pink violet fans.  It sits next to the fifty inch screen lcd in front of a couch I appropriated from my next door neighbor.  I literally had to tetris it through the fence next to my unit.  I removed the slats and just angled it down the stairs into my home.  There was a time when my living room wasn’t really a living room.  My mom came over for the first time in what seems like months.  She seemed disoriented.  All the shit that was tacked to the walls was gone.  The one room she paused on was in transition.  I turned it into an exercise room a day later.  Now there are actual physical spaces within spaces I can go when I’m done with the world.  My porch is occupied by an ever multiplying Taro plant I found by the train yards.  Somebody had just left it there to die.  Now it shades the orange tabby that lounges on my doorstep all day.  There’s this feeling lately less of claustrophobia.  It’s still there.  You can’t ignore the neighbors.  People on my property have come to know just what I’ve been dealing with.  Even some people in the hood secretly know the drill.  But for the most part, it’s on me whether I want to participate in the constant reality show out there.  I’ve loaded my computer with years worth of music.  I woke up in the middle of the night to an email about a zero day vulnerability with my router.  I rolled out of bed, fixed it, and made coffee.  Flipping on the switch to flood my couch with pale violet light.  I read the news on the big screen and it still makes no sense.  I go out for groceries and it’s wall to wall cops.  Not like all over.  Just around me.  It’s like I’m my own personal parade at times.  And everyone seems to know what color flag I fly.  Nobody realizes I humor it for one person really.  And humor it is a little unlike me.  I just live these things.  I live in the love I feel and walk accordingly.  Or run.  Truth be told I haven’t been running more than two or three miles at a time.  When I do it’s through empty industrial plots of city land once occupied by public housing.  It’s easy to get lost over there.  The times when I feel most free in Chicago is when I’m off the map.  My apartment is a lot like that.  However visible I am out there, there is an understanding in my home that it’s safe.  Safe enough for wild animals to congregate on my porch.  Safe enough for crust punks to stage protests around under the watchful eye of their parents.  Safe enough for the future however chaotic and disorganized it may be.  You build around stability.  And unfortunately these days people have come to know me as one of the most predictably, unpredictable pillars of society out there.  

The truth is that I feel like a big red brick falling from the sky.  I rotate to land and connect.  And then I contort my shape and become something else.  These days I’ve landed and stayed put.  The sky itself seems to be falling everywhere around me.  And yet my life is pretty rock solid to a point.  It doesn’t mean people don’t still try.  Maybe it means more people understand how often people still do.  And why.  Nobody has ever given me a reason for anything I live through in isolation.  I only write about what I know.  And I don’t really know much.  Isn’t that the most romantic thing you ever heard?  Somebody having faith.  Belief.  Hope.  Inspiration to be patient.  That’s just how I am.  Stubborn maybe to some people.  But after all these years, there are people out there that exist only as a whisper to me.  They speak the loudest.  I’ve listened and made decisions based on this validation.  My own decisions on how to proceed and move forward.  And the agonizing truth for me to realize has been that I should do absolutely nothing.  At least on the surface.  Staying out of sight and out of trouble seems to be the most rewarding use of my privacy.  I quit instagram.  I didn’t go back.  Why explain that in more than a sentence?  I occasionally broadcast video games on my new computer on the weekends.  The AMD software makes it so ridiculously easy to do.  Not to mention I sent up a channel months ago as an experiment.  Nobody watches.  I make asynchronous content more so to understand how my professors deliver their lectures.  I’ve learned more about computers in the last three months than I have in years.  Computers are ultimately the very core of my career.  These days I’ll be working from home for the foreseeable future with a return in the Fall.  I’ve spent most of my time here online writing every week.  Sometimes to the community and sometimes to a very special person.  This place has become very special to me.  A place where I feel people understand the way I think.  Can respect why I choose to live the way I do.  Understand just how many bricks have been piled on top of me unfairly.  And probably understand more than anyone out there why it can be so alienating to be in the dark about everything.  And yet you’ve proven yourself to be right about your intention every step of the way.  Sometimes the power is in resigning yourself to the fate you have decided for yourself.  Listening to drum and bass mixes on your television at five in the morning and letting romance speak through your dashboard in code.  It all connects for me.  Privately and securely on a hush hush need to know basis.  I’m the only one who really knows.  And I’m pretty much ok with it.

The things that I do know are fairly boring.  I will be ok.  I am actually far more ok than I have been.  Although my sleep schedule is completely fucked up and I’m mildly depressed near all of the time.  That’s these times in a nutshell.  I know delivery is a hell of a lot easier than going to the grocery store.  I know Magic Arena is pretty much the game we always wanted but we’re afraid to ask for.  I know that nobody really listens to me or gets me other than a hardcore select few.  That’s the closest thing to a blockchain friendship anyone could ask for.  I know I’m loved.  That’s a real one to stop and think about deeply.  Because I’ve felt unloved at times.  We all do.  Lost and disconnected from real people and feelings.  Tough emotional bonds that don’t falter when it’s time to fake it for the cameras.  Or the gram.  Or the police.  Or whoever we’re trying to desperately impress this time.  Academia.  For profit news.  The CIA.  I don’t really care about any of that shit when it’s all said and done.  I care about actual people.  And people and relationships are complex.  So is living in the world today.  How does a person become sustainable and valued at the same time?  You can make all the money in the world one day and lose it the next.  Heidi Klum said it best.  One day you’re in.   The next day.  You know the rest.  I intended to be in from the very start.  Painfully consistent.  Ridiculously self aware.  The only person I was ever trying to impress knows just how much and why.  In that I became very self critical but not in a harsh, unloving way.  I changed things about myself when I thought about the people who mattered most to me.  Some of these people exist out there without me ever having to speak or acknowledge.  Those are boundaries I know not to pressure.  And over time those people know I’m open to whatever they choose to give me.  And I’ve grown close to people that way.  Very strange but beautiful bonds of trust without ever saying a word.  And ironically I’ve said too many over the years.  And yet very few know exactly what I’m talking about or addressing.  It’s just the life I’ve been living.  And honestly it’s been more alive than it has been.  You could be lying beside someone and be light years away.  And you can be staring at the same picture and understanding how it connects you.  It’s all very mysterious and scary at times.  But after awhile people come to know what you are about.  Especially when you blast drum and bass from your living room at five in the morning.  It’s called coffee.  It’s a stimulant.  Stay in school.  Build personal computers.  Connect to the ones you love on the internet.  It may be awhile before we’re completely back to normal. <3 Tim

[sapphicscholar]

hey so i have a stupid funny prompt that popped into my head, could you write sanvers watching taxi brooklyn together, cue alex not seeing the uncanny resemblance between her and cat, maggie continually telling her, and maggie criticizing everyone lol

Here you go! It’s also posted on AO3 if anyone would prefer to read there (or if other folks have watched Taxi Brooklyn and want to commiserate there in the comments). Fair warning for spoilers for the show and pure crack ahead.

It had all started with Maggie coming home from work excitedly declaring that she had found a new show for them to watch. “Babe! I found your TV twin!” she had insisted, holding out her phone to a skeptical Alex, who had refused to admit any resemblance. “When you see her in action, you’ll see it,” Maggie maintained.

Which is how they found themselves curled up on their couch one rainy Saturday morning, intent on binging several episodes. During the first episode, Maggie insisted, time and again, that the resemblance was truly uncanny. Refusing to budge on her position, Alex shook her head. “Absolutely not! Look at how short her hair is!”

“Babe,” Maggie whined, “you’d look like her with short hair.”

“I don’t wear that much plaid.”

“But how great would it be if you did? Also, maybe you should give that open-flannel over sexy ribbed tank top thing a shot…just saying, it’d be hot.”

“It’s hot on her. On me…no, I’d look funny.”

“That’s so not true. Also, I’m totally shipping your character with the ME. I think they’d make an excellent couple.”

“You’ll ship any two pretty women who talk to each other,” Alex retorted, feeling more than a little proud of herself for having remembered the definition of shipping after learning all about fandom from Maggie. “Plus, she’s not my character!”

Maggie just sighed loudly and rolled her eyes; she’d get Alex to see it eventually. As she focused more on the plot, though, Maggie grew increasingly frustrated with their depictions of police work. “You can’t just commandeer a taxi!” Then, a few minutes later: “You don’t just go with your gut! God, Alex, your character is a terrible detective!”

“She’s not me!” Alex shot back.

By the time they got to the third episode and Annabella was introduced, Maggie cackled, “Oh my god! Cat even has her own Vicky Donahue!”

“What do you mean? They’re just friends, Maggie.”

“Yeah…just like you and I are gal pals that share a bed and casually fuck but just like BFFs do, right?”

“Not the same.”

“They’re talking about practicing kissing, for god’s sake!” Maggie yelled, nearly upending the popcorn in her excitement to make her point.

Alex paused, rewinding to hear that scene again. “No!” she countered. “They were practicing kissing the same neighbor boy! That’s totally different.”

“You know it’s just one stop short of turning to each other and cutting out the middle man. Literally.”

“Speaking from experience?” Alex asked, arching an eyebrow as she paused the show and turned to regard Maggie more closely.

“What? No…”

“That’s a big yes.”

“It’s a no…just, well, a nuanced no? There are a lot of straight girls in college who really want to know what it’s like to kiss a girl and all.”

“And you were only too happy to satisfy their curiosity?”

“I satisfied something.” Maggie preened as Alex scowled. “C’mon, you love me.”

“You’re okay.”

“It’ll do. Now hit play! I need to find out what happens.”

By the sixth episode, both Maggie and Alex had grown quite vocal in their commentary. It helped that they had begun drinking after lunch—just beer, but enough to loosen their tongues.

“You can’t just take your friend to interview a serial killer! No captain would allow that!” Maggie yelled at the screen, tossing a handful of popcorn, even though she knew she’d be the one to vacuum it up later.

“It’s a show,” Alex whispered, pressing kisses to Maggie’s temple and stroking a hand through her hair.

And to her credit, Maggie did let that particular point go in favor of complaining as soon as she first suspected that the new serial killer might be a woman. “Statistically that is so unlikely. And are they really going to make the killer a queer woman? That’s so rude. I mean, yeah, I’d be in love with Cat too.” In response to Alex’s glare, she added, “Because she looks so much like you, duh. But we’re not all villains! When is television going to do right by us?”

“I thought the biggest problem was all of the shows that kill us off.” Alex tilted her head to the side, trying to remember the list of dead lesbian characters Maggie had once rattled off to her—Dana, Tara, Lexa, probably more names ending with ‘a’s too.

“Well, that’s its own separate issue. But also TV shows somehow think it’s gonna be a big plot twist to have some crazy jealous, possessive lesbian who goes crazy and murders her ex or some girl she’s in love with even though they’ve barely met or something. It’s rude. I hate it.”

“Do you hate it more than the bury your gays trope, though?”

Considering it for a moment, Maggie shook her head. “No. If they’d get a little more innovative with it, I wouldn’t mind the gay villains. Very campy. Lots of history there. But stop having us do the same damn thing over and over again. We literally fill the halls of English Departments and MFA programs and art schools! We’re more creative than they give us credit for,” she huffed.

Once Maggie was vindicated in her suspicions about the show, they took a break to get themselves another round of beers and make out for a while to “make up for the lack of overt queerness on the show,” Maggie had insisted, though as they let the seventh episode play, she went back to insisting that Cat was quite clearly a lesbian.

Alex laughed it off, until the show cut to a scene of Cat making out with Rhys and looking terribly uncomfortable as she pulled away, finding that she just couldn’t do it. “Well…that is a bit familiar,” she chuckled, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly.

“Danvers, she is literally you – those are your mannerisms!”

Alex shook her head at Maggie and looked back at the screen just in time to see Cat transition seamlessly from aggressively making out with Rhys to pinning him on his stomach. “What the fuck?” Alex laughed.

“Oh my god…was she trying to peg him?” Maggie cackled. “If this isn’t proof that Cat is as gay as you are, I don’t know what is.”

“I think she was trying to arrest him?”

“That’s not fun. Unless it’s role play,” Maggie added with a wink.

“But they wouldn’t really imply that she was trying to, you know…would they?”

“It’s based on a French film,” Maggie shrugged. “Plus, I bet Gregg was into it.”

“Ew, he’s so gross.”

“True. But also you and your doppelganger are also both so gay.”

“We don’t look alike,” Alex huffed. “Seriously, she’s got more freckles than I do. And her hair is lighter. And shorter. Also, I feel like we’re built differently.”

“Freckles can be covered with makeup. Hair can be cut and dyed different colors. And as the person who is perhaps most intimately familiar with your body and your build, I’m telling you, you’re totally twins. Also, you act similarly.”

“You were just calling her a bad cop!”

“Okay, not like that. I mean, she’s not following procedures, but I’m talking about your temperaments. You’re both a little…angry?”

“You’re not helping your case.”

“I meant to say passionate!”

—

As the credits for the twelfth episode rolled, Alex clicked play to go on to the next episode, only to find that an entirely new show began. Grumbling, she clicked back to the main menu to get back to their show, only to find that episode 12 was apparently the last episode of the season. “Mags!” she yelled to Maggie, who had gotten up to find some dessert. There was nothing like staying on the couch all day to tire them out.

“What?” Maggie yelled back, making her way into the living room balancing a box of cookies and a carton of vegan ice cream.

“Where can we stream season two?”

“There isn’t a season two.”

“Excuse me?”

“It got cancelled.”

“So you’re telling me that we’re never going to know what happens? Will Gregg get arrested? Will Cat get arrested? Is Leo’s roommate okay? Is his family okay? Is Cat’s mom alive? Was she on the boat? Is Annabella going to jail? Oh my god, there are so many fucking questions! Why would you let us watch a show that got cancelled?”

“You said you didn’t even like the show that much,” Maggie tried by way of a defense, though she had to admit, she’d expected a more satisfying ending too.

“Just because it’s not my favorite doesn’t mean I don’t want to know how it ends!”

Maggie’s face suddenly lit up and she nearly threw the desserts in her excitement as she began gesticulating wildly—one of the surest signs that she had crossed the line from tipsy to drunk. “Oh my gosh! Wait! You already look like Cat, then we can get J’onn to shapeshift into Leo and find people who look enough like the other characters—no! Wait! J’onn can play them all! Except Cat, because you already look like her. And we’ll create our own finale to answer all the questions!”

Alex burst out laughing only to find that Maggie had dropped off the desserts and already had a pen and notepad in hand. “Okay, first question,” Maggie began. “How long into this finale do we have to wait for you to come out?”