#overshot california just a little bit

[rocknrollsalad]

STWG Daily Prompt (Nov 30) - Running Out of Gas

if you squint it's also the prompt for today (Dec 1) - road trip

⛽ pairing(s): jargyle

🚙 Jonathan is having a tougher time than he lets on and it ends up all coming out anyway

😿 content/trigger warnings: i don't think there is anything

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 word count: 1273

🌲author's note: this is mostly an experiment in jargyle. trying it out a little bit and playing in this new sandbox but since I'm barely 24 hours late on it, I'm still posting it. for me lol. it's a cute and great idea I should expand on but time and so many challenges and stuff.

A lot was going on with the whole world ending stuff, Argyle knew he was supposed to care but what was he going to do about giant cracks in the ground? He couldn’t fight some slimy vine monster who haunts dreams or whatever. If anyone was ever just some guy, Argyle knew it was him. Maybe this Vecna thing really liked pizza.

Or maybe he didn’t have enough. Good food would make anyone less angry. Argyle ate all the time and he never felt like snapping people’s bones. But he left the monster hunting to all the people who knew what they were dealing with.

Instead, he took on cleaning, cooking, and talking with everyone. It was amazing what talking about anything other than the tragedy they were looking at did for them. Argyle learned a lot about dragons and some things about very boring, uninteresting dungeons. He also learned that even though the cop acted like he didn’t like to be bothered, he really, really liked being bothered. The more people the better, even.

So yeah, Argyle should have gone home by now but he was playing a real part in a very scary situation. He couldn’t leave now. Jonathan needed him because somehow in all this, he and Nancy found time to break up.

Jonathan finally had the tough conversation he’d been avoiding and they did exactly what he was afraid would happen. Only it was hard to be sad about it. Everyone knew it was coming, even his mom barely found any comfort for the guy.

Yet Jonathan moped. For weeks. It was hard to watch but harder to be around and none of Argyle’s tricks worked. As much as he tried to come up with a plan, nothing helped. It was worse than the lead up to spring break and if Argyle wasn’t making friends with everyone else, he might have gone back to California. Sure, he’d probably never see Jonathan again but he wasn’t seeing him now.

Joyce came in like the angel she was and asked Jonathan if he’d run into town and get some things and before she could finish her request, Argyle was offering to drive. Anything to get out of the woods and maybe having Jonathan away from everyone else (all to himself) would help too.

Reluctantly, Jonathan agreed but he didn’t know how to agree any other way. He took the keys since he knew the way, got into the pizza van, and headed into Hawkins proper to get some more lumber, a pipe, and more milk. An easy list, they’d be done in no time so Argyle had to hatch some sort of plan quick.

Had he not been thinking so hard, he might have caught the turn Jonathan didn’t make. The building they were calling the hardware store was now behind them. The “Now leaving Hawkins” sign was behind them by the time Argyle realized.

“Hate to tell ya, man, but you overshot the hardware store.”

“We’re not going,” Jonathan answered, so flat and empty. His mind was already miles away, busy only with keeping the car in the lane.

“Wh-ere are we going?”

“Dunno.”

“Right on.” was all Argyle could think to say.

It’d be a kidnapping if he weren’t willing to follow Jonathan into those cracks in the city or outer space. There wasn’t a crime, just a new adventure. One Argyle rode along quietly until the van started to shimmy and sputter. Jonathan eased it over into a pull-out among the trees and a cough from the exhaust killed the engine for him.

Not that it brought any more conversation to the van. Jonathan continued to stare straight ahead, hands at ten and two like the upright citizen he was. As Argyle went to say something, Jonathan’s forehead fell to the steering wheel, brought down by an unseen force. From there, he let it all out.

This was a new place to be, not the destination Argyle expected but he couldn’t help but think it was one Jonathan needed to visit. Perhaps desperately. It was hard to watch, Argyle likely wasn’t meant to see this but he’d crashed the party, and forced his way into this. As much as he wanted to say he wouldn’t have come had he known, it would have made him want to come more.

Rubbing Jonathan’s back just like that night those gas station sandwiches gave them food poisoning, Argyle inched to the edge of his seat and did his best to stay quiet. He knew a lot of things about Jonathan and one of the hardest ones to put into action was keeping quiet. There was something to be said for how opposite they were but Argyle liked that part best, really.

Jonathan may have been granted the quiet but Argyle couldn’t stop everything and the inching to the edge of his own seat wasn’t enough. Argyle moved over to crowd into the driver's seat to invade Jonathan’s space. Room was immediately made for him. It didn’t take long for Jonathan to turn and curl up against Argyle to get that comfort and affection he so rarely asked for.

By that point, Jonathan was cried out but not ready for much else. Leaving Argyle to watch the cars go by and let his friend share some of the weight he held.

As selfish as it was, it all made Argyle feel better too. Being a help was at the top of that list. Even if it wasn’t asked of him and he probably wasn’t anyone’s first pick for this, he was here and willing. But it forced him to slow down to think about everything. Not just what Jonathan was going through but what he’d be dragged into.

He hadn’t been paying attention to know how much time had passed, somehow a lifetime and not enough, but Jonathan broke the silence with an obvious announcement, “We’re out of gas.”

“There should be a can in the back and I don’t mind taking a little walk.”

“I’ll go with you. You won’t know where to go.”

“Thought I’d just walk straight, something would show up.”

The silence said that was the right answer but they both let it pass by.

“I’ll come with you, we don’t know what’s out there,” Jonathan tried again.

It was a little difficult untangling from the shared seat and made standing out on the road feel empty and expansive. Argyle wanted to climb back in and stay there until the guys at home sent out a search party. They’d be mad but it’d be worth it.

Instead, they walked around to the back of the van and Argyle rooted around until he came up with a small gas can. Holding it above his head like a grand treasure, waiting for that familiar look of annoyance. Of course, it came before Argyle had his arms fully extended. Jonathan was still himself at least.

Without a word shared between them, they both walked in the same direction. Jonathan slid his hand into Argyle’s free hand and drifted closer as they wandered down the shoulder. For as weird as everything had been, this felt incredibly normal. Like they’d been doing this their whole lives.

Whether it was for comfort or something more, Argyle didn’t care. Friends could hold hands without it being something. At the same time, them doing this at eighty played in Argyle’s mind. A life spent side by side. Decades of annoying Jonathan seemed like a great use of his time.

“We’re gonna have to call your mom when we get there. She’s probably already worried.”

“I know.”

[paperbodiesamongthestars]

Promises

He didn't have a lot of friends. That required trust, and trust just wasn’t something Billy Hargrove did. Except with Steve Harrington, apparently. Steve was his friend, which was fine. Billy would have preferred a lot more, but that did not seem particularly likely. Not for lack of trying on Billy's part, honestly. At this point, Billy was so overtly flirty with Steve that he was worried he had overshot genuine interest and was fast approaching the realm of parody. He had spilled his beer on Steve no fewer than four times in the past several months in the hopes that Steve would go to change out of his wet clothes and realize halfway through that just...hanging out in his underwear would be totally fine. Instead, Steve always disappeared into Billy's bedroom, completely at home in Billy's space, and came back wearing Billy's clothes. And that was somehow worse?

And the thing was—the thing was!—Steve clearly wasn’t uninterested. He blushed when Billy teased him. His breath hitched when Billy touched him sometimes. His pupils went wide when Billy stretched or flexed or did that one thing with his tongue. And he didn’t avoid touching Billy, like just about everybody else did, or touch him like he was something fragile or broken. He touched Billy casually all the fucking time. He hugged him when he arrived, and fell asleep against his shoulder, and tucked his feet under Billy’s thigh on the couch, and kissed him on the cheek before he left. He even kissed him on the fucking forehead sometimes, which made Billy feel small and blushy and unbearably cared for.

Billy wondered sometimes if he should just be honest with Steve, but that was tricky, wasn’t it? Because in this particular case, he couldn’t be honest with Steve without betraying a little too much about himself. And it’s not like he had all that many secrets left. Neil was gone and his treatment of Billy was common knowledge, at least among the people who knew what had actually happened at the mall. So, the vast majority of the people Billy actually talked to anymore. It turned out that competent doctors could tell the difference between recent monster trauma and years of physical abuse, and Steve's little group of nerds and their various hangers-on were around enough and had overheard enough to put it together. The fact that Billy was not actually into girls was also common knowledge among that same subset of people, but only because Billy had been in a coma, so he hadn't been able to mention to Eleven that she might not want to share that little tidbit with her friends. Billy wasn’t mad—couldn’t be, not at her—and with Neil gone, he supposed he had a little less to fear on that front. Besides, it wasn’t like he was going to do anything about it, aside from continuing to flirt shamelessly with Steve. So he only really had the one big secret left.

Here's how it was: Billy Hargrove, at the time that he was impaled by a massive interdimensional flesh monster, did not have a whole lot to live for. He had a shitty father and a mother who had fucked off quite a while back and a stepsister who had not yet given up on him for some reason, but who was also probably better off without him. He had a hopeless crush on a gorgeous, oblivious straight boy; several delightful mental images of that same straight boy in a frankly pornographic sailor outfit that he somehow had to wear for work; and treasured memories of California, but not quite enough money or guts to fuck off back to the beach where he came from, with or without Steve Harrington. All of that stuff was good, and it got Billy through the day sometimes, but none of it was actually something to live for. Steve Harrington in that sailor outfit came the closest, but Billy was never going to get to take it off of him, so what was the fucking point?

And Billy knew, even though he didn't exactly remember it, that it had gotten pretty bad for him a few times as he was recovering. Like, 'they were sure they were going to lose him' bad. And people had said a lot of fucking stupid things to him, both while he was in the hospital and after he got out, about fate and love and redemption. About holding on for the sake of the people you cared about. About not knowing what you had until you lost it. About how he must feel so lucky to be alive. And Billy hated all of it so fucking much. He wasn't alive because he had had some big epiphany about how precious life was, or because fate had spared him, or because he thought anyone on the planet would spend more than about thirty seconds being sad if he died. What he did have, what had actually kept him going when it got bad, were these...well, they weren’t anywhere close to clear enough to be called memories.

They came from that long, hazy period when his body was gradually knitting itself back together. When the boundary between being asleep and being awake hadn't seemed real at all. When he had almost no visual memories, aside from brief flashes of fluorescent lights or the shadows of people moving around above him. He had a handful of half-remembered phrases in various voices: Max whispering sorry, El whispering I won't tell. And these...other sentences. These promises, in Steve Harrington’s low, husky voice.

Billy was in no way certain that they were real. He didn't know how much of anything from that time was real. What they were was meaningful, which made it fucking impossible to talk about them. Unlike all the bullshit about fate and family and redemption, they had helped him. Had helped a lot, actually. Had given him something tangible to live for when it would have been so much easier to just let it all slip away. But that was the other thing--they weren't exactly things that Steve Harrington would actually, conceivably say to him. They were things he would have killed to hear from Steve, would still kill to hear from Steve, but Steve was sweet. Goofy, affectionate, kind. Unfailingly supportive. An invaluable friend throughout Billy's recovery. An invaluable friend who consistently, gracefully deflected Billy’s obvious flirting. It hardly seemed possible that he had said those things, and Billy really didn’t want to find out that he hadn’t. It was too awful to contemplate. Because, shit, they still kept him going sometimes, a year and a half later.

The first one came to him from far away, like he was hearing it from the bottom of a well. “I swear to God, Billy, if you make it through this I’ll let you choke on my dick whenever you feel like it.” So, like, there was a fair amount to unpack there. First of all, Steve almost never actually called him Billy, even now. And secondly, literally everything else about that sentence. It wasn't possible that it was real. Billy had to have made it up, given himself a fucking reason not to move toward the light or whatever. And if that had been the only one, he would have dismissed it as an obvious fabrication of his own mind without a second thought. But it wasn’t.

The second one was a little clearer, though all of them were maddeningly hazy. Had he actually felt Steve’s breath against the shell of his ear while he'd said it? It was impossible to say. “Hey gorgeous, hang in there, ok? Wouldn’t want you to die before I get the chance to fuck you so hard you forget your own goddamn name.” It was true—he absolutely did not want to die before that happened. That one had gotten him through some bleak nights, even after he woke up. He still got half hard every time he thought about it.

The next one was maybe Billy’s favorite. Although, honestly they were all his favorite. He wasn't sure he had ever treasured anything more. The third time, he was almost sure he could feel the warmth radiating off of Steve’s body as Steve leaned in next to his ear. “Come on, tiger, you gotta get through this so you can show me absolutely everything you can do with that tongue.” A little less filthy, maybe, but no less motivating. He did want to do that, very much. He had thought about it quite a bit while he was in the hospital. He still thought about it just about every time Steve came over to his apartment, which was often.

The fourth one changed it up a bit. “We’re going to sit there on the sand and watch the sun set over the ocean, and I’m going to make you cream your swim trunks right there on the beach.” And goddamn, that was quite the mental image. Fuck a bunch of holding on for the people you cared about; that was worth living for.

The fifth one was ragged, a little desperate. “You can’t die, baby. I’ve never let anybody put their dick in me before, and you have to live so you can do it.” That one came with the gentle sensation of a hand in his, the phantom press of lips to his temple. He was pretty sure he woke up just a few days after that one. And rightfully fucking so, honestly.

So yeah. He still had the one secret. And there was no fucking way to talk about it without revealing way too much about himself. So he didn't talk about it, and he was never going to talk about it, and he was going to go to his grave not knowing if any of it was real, and he was going to be fine with that because there weren't any other options. Until Steve slipped up.

It was far too early on a Saturday morning. Steve had arrived at an even more ungodly hour and had dragged Billy out of bed for some weekend trip. He wouldn't say where they were going, but he promised it was going to be great, and Billy could sleep in the car, and they were going to have the time of their lives. So Billy was slouched grumpily in the passenger seat, nursing an enormous coffee and periodically glaring at everything out the window for having the audacity to exist at this hour. He didn't glare at Steve. All of this was Steve's fault, but Billy couldn't be mad at him when he looked all sleepy and his hair was a mess and he was wearing his fucking glasses instead of his usual contacts. Billy couldn't be mad at him under any other circumstances either, but he deliberately didn't think too much about that, so it was fine.  

Billy watched out of the corner of his eye as Steve sipped his own coffee and stifled a yawn. Steve had spent the first half hour of the drive not talking at all, but the coffee was apparently kicking in, so now he was trying to get Billy excited about his mystery plan.

“Come on, tiger, you’re going to love it,” he finally said. Billy wasn’t fully awake, so it took a second for it to land. Come on, tiger. When it did, Billy’s head snapped up, eyes wide. It could easily have been a coincidence; Steve would have been fine if he had just played it off, but that's not what happened. When Billy looked up, Steve was staring intently out the windshield, resolutely not looking at him. But his shoulders were creeping up around his ears and his face had gone scarlet. Billy felt a grin spreading across his face. Suddenly, he was on top of the goddamn world; this was shaping up to be the best day of his life. He stared at Steve’s profile for a long moment as the flush from his face spread down his neck. The atmosphere in the car was electric. Billy took a deep breath and tried to get himself under control. Steve's entire demeanor had hope beating wildly in his chest, but there was still room for this to end in disappointment.

“Absolutely everything, huh?” Billy said it quietly, carefully, deliberately, and then he held his breath. Steve made a strangled noise in the back of his throat, and Billy felt giddy. Steve had been right--they had only been on the road for forty minutes, but Billy was already having the time of his life on this trip. Steve didn't say anything, but after a few long moments of silence, he pulled the car over onto the shoulder. After he carefully put the car in park and turned it off, he dropped his forehead to the steering wheel. He didn't lift his head when he spoke.

“I didn't think you remembered," he said slowly. Billy didn't say anything and after a moment, Steve gave a little sigh and continued, still talking mostly to the floor. "The first time, it was a fucking Hail Mary. You were declining fast and nothing was working, and I just...I had a hunch. So I waited until everyone else had left the room and I tried it." Billy was absolutely delighted picturing it, Steve flushed bright red, leaning down to whisper stuff about his dick into Billy's ear. "They kicked me out right after that, at about four am. They told me to go home and get some rest, and to be prepared for bad news. But when I got back to the hospital a few hours later, you were doing better.” Steve cleared his throat. “Apparently you started improving shortly after I left. I told myself it was probably a fucking coincidence, but part of me thought that maybe it had actually worked." He huffed out a laugh. "I could barely fucking believe that you weren’t dead; it was bad. And then a couple of weeks later, it got bad again. So I tried it again. And you started doing better again. And then it was like this secret that we had. That I had,” Steve corrected himself. He sat up and dropped his head back against the headrest, but he still wouldn't look at Billy. He stared out the windshield instead. His  face was still bright red. “And then you actually woke up. I didn’t know if you remembered any of it, and I didn’t want to be the kind of person who would come onto you while you were in a fucking coma and then act like you owed me something afterwards, so I kept my mouth shut.”

"Steve," Billy said softly. Steve rubbed his hands over his face.

"I'm sorry," he said, and Billy stopped breathing for a second.

"Don't," he said quietly. They sat in silence for a long moment, and then Billy decided that he had to know what exactly Steve was apologizing for. “Did you...” he started to ask, but he found that he couldn’t finish the sentence. Steve glanced at him and his face softened before his eyes shied away again.

“Mean it? Yes. Fuck yes. Every word.”

“Then what the fuck, Steve?” Billy had been beyond obvious for months. Steve sighed. His hands came back up to his face, and then he sat up straighter and squared his shoulders.

“You just...you went through something so awful, and it was like...your world got so small. You were trapped in the hospital, and now you're trapped in Hawkins until they clear you to leave." Steve glanced over again, and his voice got smaller. "I just...I really wanted you, but I didn't want you to do something you'd regret just because I was there, you know? And I still don't want you to feel trapped into something just because you can't leave this goddamn town. I would never want you to be with me just because you don't have any other choices."

Ok, so there was plenty to unpack there, and all of it was wrong. Except the part where Steve said he wanted Billy--that part was the best thing he had ever heard. Well, the sixth best thing he'd ever heard. There was a silence while Billy thought about what he wanted to say. He took a breath to psych himself up.

"The first thing you should probably know is that I was into you well before any of the Mindflayer stuff even happened. So there's that." Billy cleared his throat, watching Steve out of the corner of his eye. "And the second thing you should know is that I got cleared to leave Hawkins over a month ago." Steve's head whipped around, wide eyes on Billy's face.

"Then why..." Steve trailed off. Billy had considered leaving, but only briefly. He wanted to go back to the beach, he did, but not by himself. Not anymore.

"Steve," Billy said again, giving Steve a look. "You know why." After all, Billy had been the opposite of subtle about it. Steve just stared at him, eyes going impossibly wider as Billy deliberately took off his seatbelt and moved into Steve's space. "But fine, if you need me to spell it out, I'm definitely not in this car with you right now because I don't have any other options."

He leaned in and pressed his lips to Steve's. Steve responded immediately and enthusiastically, and something that had still been wound tight in Billy's chest eased. By the time they broke apart to breathe, Billy was practically in Steve's lap, both of his hands up under Steve's shirt. Steve had one hand at Billy's lower back and the other buried in his curls. They sat panting a little, their foreheads pressed together. Billy smiled wickedly.

"I would just like to point out that you made a lot of promises about what was going to happen if I didn't die, Harrington, and I held up my end of the bargain." Steve's answering smile was bright and just a little cocky.

"I'm looking forward to keeping every single one of those promises, Hargrove. We can start as soon as we get where we're going." Billy frowned at him.

"I survived being impaled by a giant flesh monster because you promised me--"

"My giant flesh monster?" Steve cut in, cracking up halfway through. Billy snorted, but did not further dignify that with a response.

"As I was saying," he said instead, "I am alive today because you have a really nice dick and a filthy mouth, and I have been waiting on both of them for months, and I am definitely not waiting three more hours to get started." He punctuated this declaration by reaching for the top button of Steve's pants. He had it and the next two buttons open before Steve reached out to stop him.

"Billy," he hissed, "we are parked on the side of the highway! We are not doing this here. Literally anyone could look over at any time and get a fantastic view of exactly what we're doing." Steve had a point, but Billy didn't have to like it.

He sighed and kissed Steve one more time, hard, before he reluctantly clambered back over to the passenger seat.

"Fine," he said. "We can compromise." He leaned over and grabbed Steve's wrist to look at his watch. Then he smiled at Steve, sharp and a little predatory. "I'm going to start sucking your dick in twenty minutes, if not before. We're still in fucking Indiana, so that should give you plenty of time to find some deserted back road somewhere." Steve was already starting the car.

He grinned over at Billy as he pulled back into traffic and made his way to the next exit.

"So you're going to start at the top and work your way through them, huh?"

"Maybe. We'll just have to see," Billy said. He paused. "I gotta say, pretty boy, I'm legitimately fuckin' impressed. I didn't know you had it in you." Steve smirked at him.

“Hey, give me some credit. I knew you well enough to know that if I had mentioned feelings, or called it making love, you would have immediately chosen the sweet embrace of death.” Billy laughed along with Steve because Steve was right: at one point, Billy absolutely would have done that.

Not anymore, though. Not if it was Steve. But he wasn't about to just blurt that out, so. He could still have one secret. For now, anyway.

[ethereousdelirious]

Whumptober #21 - Hypothermia

Fandom: S.team P.owered G.iraffe (lore)

Characters: P.eter W.alter I, Th.adeus B.ecile, D.elilah M.oreau (I am simply not acknowledging the “M.oreo” spelling)

Pairings: One-sided peter/Delilah

Warnings: Anachronisms ahoy. Also P.eter isn’t a dumbass, he’s just a Californian who hasn’t traveled much and didn’t expect it to snow in S.an D.iego

Peter stopped on his way out of the Cavalcadium and frowned at the sky. “That’s odd.” Not only was it cold, it was raining.

"Hmph," said Thadeus beside him. "I didn't expect to need an umbrella today."

Peter followed the line of the drops as they traveled from the clouds to the ground. They splattered with weight and a sort of texture to them. He bent over to further examine the wet spots on the ground, and shuddered as icy water splashed onto his neck.

"I think this is sleet."

"All the more reason to hurry up, then." Thadeus shivered and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Are you coming?"

"Right." Peter straightened. They were neither of them dressed for cold weather and it wouldn't do any good to stand around and get wet.

"Care to join me for a late lunch?" Thadeus asked.

Peter didn't answer. He was thinking about today's discussion, and the nature of consciousness. How trusting humanity was, how empathetic. Could an artificial intelligence learn those higher concepts, trust and love? 

"Peter?" Thadeus prompted. "Bah." He waved a hand. "I've lost you, haven't I?"

"Oxytocin," Peter said so Thadeus would know exactly where he stood.

"Thought so. I'll come by later to make sure you've eaten."

Peter hummed his thanks, still deep in thought. Could he synthesize neurotransmitters?

Dimly, he registered Thadeus walking away. Peter pointed himself vaguely in the direction of home. It would be better to go somewhere he could write things down, but he liked to walk as he thought, the exercise stimulating his brain in a way that sitting still couldn't.

The sleet continued to pour until he was soaking wet and shivering. A particularly strong shudder jolted him out of his reverie once and for all, and he looked up with wide, startled eyes.

He had overshot home by miles, he was soaking wet, and the sun was visible only in the form of some light-colored clouds over the water. The cold breeze made Peter shiver. He wasn't wearing a coat, and what he was wearing was soaked through. He clamped his hands over his ears to try to warm them up and started walking.

It had been a while since he'd gotten this distracted. Gas lamps illuminated the city streets and Peter frowned at the sudden appearance of little specks in the light.

It took him a moment to realize it was snow. A shiver passed through him, not cold this time, but foreboding. The cold could be dangerous, doubly so when one was soaking wet.

A few more minutes of walking made it clear that he would never make it home, not in this weather. He was shivering so violently his teeth clattered together, and his nose and ears stung. Peter sniffled and walked to the street corner so he could read the sign. Relief washed over him. He was close to Thadeus' place. Thadeus surely wouldn't mind the imposition.

Heartened by this, Peter picked up his pace. The persistent blow of the wind made his skin ache and he suddenly felt exhausted down to his bones. If this kept up, he would have to dredge up the coat he used for travel to colder climates. It wasn't often that he left California, and he wasn't exactly sure where it was.

A pang of worry passed through him when he saw no light on in Thadeus' window. Wasn't he home?

Peter ascended the steps to the door as fast as his aching joints would allow. There was no answer. Peter pulled his arms in close and sank to the ground. He would just have to wait here until Thadeus came back.

If he came back. Peter suddenly remembered that Thadeus had promised to visit him. If he had arrived at Walter Manor to find Peter not home, he might have gone out searching.

Peter, not usually a man given to swearing, whispered "damn."

He wasn't sure how long he sat there, shivering and trying not to despair. Not a single person had come by.

Peter rested his forehead on his knees, then jerked his head up, convinced he had just heard voices.

Yes! There they were again-- A pair of feminine voices, conversing in playful tones.

Just as Peter looked up, one of the voices said, "Are you alright, sir?"

Peter's face broke into a relieved smile. "D-Delilah?" He wanted to get up and greet her properly, but he was so tired.

"Peter, are you alright? What are you doing out here?" She ascended the steps, her companion in tow.

Peter rested his head against the wall, unable to keep his eyes open for longer than a few seconds. "Thad-- Thadeus l-lives here."

"I don't think he's home." Delilah extended her hand. "We need to get you warmed up. Can you stand?"

"In a minute," Peter said. "I'm so tired."

"Peter, you need to stand up."

"I will," Peter said.

He was vaguely aware of more talking, more voices, more people saying his name. The world lurched, the tips of his shoes dragged on the pavement. It was too much to try to process, so he gave up and let his head hang.

It occurred to him, as hands undid the buttons on his shirt and trousers, that he ought to be very, very embarrassed about… something, but he couldn't figure out what. The feeling of having his cold, wet clothes peeled away was heavenly, and how could that be bad?

Then there were blankets, a roaring hearth, a warm drink in his hands.

He stared into the muddy brown liquid-- hot chocolate, something in his brain said.

The fog rolled out a little, just enough to let him realize that he was missing spots in his memory.

Where was he? How had he gotten here?

"Thadeus?" Peter called tentatively, although this looked nothing like Thadeus' home.

"I'm afraid not," said a voice, and Peter's heart jumped. Delilah smiled at him. "Feeling better?"

"What happened?"

"I found you on Thadeus' doorstep," Delilah said, "looking for all the world like an abandoned kitten."

Peter's heart thudded in his chest. Bits and pieces came back, not the whole picture, but enough to draw conclusions from. "You saved my life!" Warmth flooded his cheeks. Delilah had undressed him. He stood up, sure that steam was pouring out of his ears. “I-- I should go.”

“I would not advise that.” Delilah gestured to the window. The snow had picked up.

Peter watched it fall, swallowed, and sat back down. “Thank you, Delilah.” All things considered, this was shaping up to be a rather pleasant evening.

[allsportstv]

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Palou leads Pato O’Ward by 25 points with the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey on Sunday, Sept. 19 and the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday, Sept. 26 remaining in the 2021 season. O’Ward led 28 laps early in the race but faded in the second half in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet, finishing 14th.

Two-time series champion Newgarden is third in the standings, 34 points behind Palou. Dixon is fourth, 49 points behind the leader, and Marcus Ericsson is fifth, 75 points back. Ericsson finished seventh in the No. 8 Huski Chocolate Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

“I don’t care that much about the points at this moment,” Palou said. “I think the race we did today, it’s just amazing. Not me, but the guys, with the strategy, with the pit stops, with everything. With all the bad luck we had, we still won. I’m proud about that. Fried chicken tonight!”

Two races remain in the season, with a maximum of 54 points available at each: the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey on Sunday, Sept. 19 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday, Sept. 26 on the streets of Long Beach, California.

Palou took the lead for good on Lap 86 when Ericsson made his final pit stop from the top spot. The Spaniard never was threatened by Rossi down the stretch despite two restarts, inexorably expanding his lead lap by lap on the Firestone primary “black” tires, which have more durability than the Firestone alternate “red” tires that Andretti Autosport fastened to Rossi’s car on his final stop.

"It was a big fight, for sure,” Rossi said. “(Palou) did a good job, he didn’t make any mistakes. The red tires have a peak that’s a little bit better, but they certainly have a bit more fall-off, which is what they’re supposed to do. That’s the beauty of INDYCAR racing with the different strategies.”

The march to victory by Palou seemed almost unthinkable after the chaos that unfolded at the start of the race in the tight right-left chicane in Turn 1, one of the most fraught flashpoints in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES.

Palou and Dixon both overshot Turns 1 and 2 of the three-turn chicane at the end of the front straight after Dixon’s car was nudged from behind by the No. 7 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet of Felix Rosenqvist, who also went wide in Turn 1 along with Colton Herta’s No. 26 Gainbridge Honda and others.

Neither Palou nor Dixon suffered damage in the melee that triggered the first of four caution periods in the race. But five drivers in the mid-pack and rear of the field – Will Power, Romain Grosjean, Oliver Askew, James Hinchcliffe and Helio Castroneves – all were forced to the pits or paddock for repairs after contact in the fracas. Hinchcliffe was unable to continue.

INDYCAR rules state that cars avoiding the collision and remaining on the racing surface at the timing lines embedded in the track through the chicane are placed at the front of the field on the restart, with drivers avoiding the collision but leaving the racetrack placed behind them, followed by drivers involved in the incident.

That caused a massive reshuffle of the order, as O’Ward and Rahal claimed first and second on the restart on Lap 11 because they stayed on track and clean in the first-lap incident. Meanwhile, Palou was moved to 16th, Dixon 17th, Rosenqvist 18th, Rossi 19th, Newgarden 21st and Herta 22nd for the restart after INDYCAR officials reviewed timing loop data, and those drivers’ long road back toward the front began.

Palou, Dixon, Herta and Rossi were among the drivers who pitted under yellow on Lap 9. Those stops triggered a tactical battle of varying fuel and pit strategies for the rest of the race, as teams and drivers decided whether to overcut or undercut rivals with fast pit-in and pit-out laps and perfectly executed stops.

O’Ward stayed out front until he made his first pit stop on Lap 29, handing the lead to Graham Rahal in the No. 15 Total Quartz Honda. Various pit cycles thrust Ed Jones, Harvey, Dixon and Palou into short stints out front before Rahal took control of the race on Lap 44.

Rahal maintained a lead of around 2.5 seconds over O’Ward until rookie Callum Ilott and Dalton Kellett both slowed on track in separate spots on Lap 51, triggering the second caution period of the race on Lap 52.

While a handful of drivers pitted, Rahal elected to stay out and led until Lap 74, when he and second-place Jones pitted to hand the lead to Harvey.

Pit cycles then unfolded over the next 12 laps before Palou, who made his final stop on Lap 79, one lap before teammate Dixon, took the lead for good on Lap 86.

Palou pulled away from Rossi on restarts on Lap 89 and Lap 92 after brief caution periods and reached the checkered flag leading 29 laps for the race. Rahal led a race-high 36 laps before finishing 10th.

Rate The Race: Grand Prix of Portland

As part of INDYCAR's continuing strategic initiative, we conduct a poll after each NTT INDYCAR SERIES event asking fans to provide their opinion on the race. Please rate for us what you thought of the 2021 Grand Prix of Portland from Portland International Raceway. We value and appreciate your honest opinion. Please provide us your overall rating on a scale of 1 star (worst) to 10 stars (best).

Thank you for your assistance. We will see everyone this weekend at the legendary WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca for the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey on September 17-19, 2021.

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Palou Completes Weekend Sweep for Honda

PORTLAND, Ore., Sept. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — Alex Palou led a Honda sweep of the top four finishing positions Sunday at the Grand Prix of Portland, as Honda drivers and teams dominated the finishing order, despite being delayed by a multi-car crash in the opening moments of today’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES event at Portland International Raceway.

Palou, second-finishing Alexander Rossi, third-place Scott Dixon and Jack Harvey, who rounded out the top four, were all caught up in a multi-car incident seconds after the green flag for today’s 110-lap race, when Felix Rosenqvist overshot the entry to the first turn and tagged Dixon’s left-rear tire, scattering nearly half the 27-car starting field.

All four quickly resumed, but now were in the back half of the field for the restart, leading to the thrilling comeback drives that ensued. Behind the lead four, Honda drivers claimed eight of the top-10 finishing positions with Marcus Ericsson, Colton Herta and Graham Rahal finishing seventh, eighth and 10th, respectively.

In addition to Honda’s Indy car win in Portland, Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor took their Acura ARX-05 prototype to the overall victory today in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship endurance sports car race in Monterey, California.

[memorylang]

February’s Holidays in America | #50 | February 2021

Been feeling great! 2O2I goes well for me. I’m excited to have received more word from the Peace Corps that they’ll be in touch when they have a final timeline for reinstatement. Till then, I’m savoring my weeks still stateside. 

February 2O2I encompasses many holidays, including Lunar New Year, U.S. Presidents’ Day, St. Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday. Some Americans may consider the Super Bowl a holiday, too! (Ah, if only Kansas City could make lightning strike twice this year.) Anywho, this month’s tales are on how I’ve spent my holidays. I’m ecstatic to have gotten in another national parks trip!  

Lunar New Year 2O2I

I begin these tales from Lunar New Year’s. (I’ll double back to recount January adventures toward the end of my tales in this blog story.) This year, my LA sister who was in wanted to celebrate the Lunar New Year with more activity, so she’d returned to Vegas, she decorated, we wore red, and we cooked. 

We made dumplings and 包子 /bāozi/, which were tasty. I enjoyed getting to show my sister how Mom had shown me how to pinch them. I remembered too cooking with my Mongol host family two summers ago. This year, our older brother and his girlfriend came over to celebrate, as well as a couple of my sister’s friends. 

This year’s Year of the Ox is my zodiac year. It’s the first one I remember, since in that year when I’d turned 12, I’d been still adjusting to life in Vegas after having moved from Indiana with my family the year before. Here in 2O2I, though, at what was midnight in China, I called our relatives over WeChat. We chatted briefly in Chinese and English. Many got confused about which of my sisters was which, which amused me. I felt glad to have gotten to reconnect. 

For the rest of my friends and relatives, I shared photos from Tsagaan Sar 2O2O. Last year, I hadn’t posted much amid hastily packing as a Peace Corps Volunteer to evacuate Mongolia. This year’s been calmer. 

Later that Lunar New Year’s Day, I and my national parks friends like Victor Del Valle embarked on a new adventure, this time to Utah’s sites. Having my driver’s license felt empowering. 

The Mighty Five

By our trip’s end, I’d reach 14 national parks! I look forward to getting to share these experiences with folks abroad who want to visit the States. 

On Friday, our first day, my friends and I visited Canyonlands National Park then Dead Horse Point State Park. I enjoyed seeing the canyons within canyons. Since the Wednesday before was a virtual high school reunion, I decided to wear my ol’ student council shirt. 

That night we checked into this awesome and affordable place, the “Rustic Inn” in Moab, Utah. I recommend it to anyone coming through the city. It was so fantastic that I wrote a Yelp review. 

On Saturday, we reached Arches National Park early, standing below the iconic Delicate Arch before rain picked up. Despite the cold wind and rain, I loved the hike to the Double O Arches. The trek involved rock scrambling what I call the ‘rock vault’ and walking across elevated slabs that I consider the ‘train cars.’ On rock scrambles, I felt like Spider-Man. Across the elevated slabs, I felt like Violet Evergarden or Captain America. We’d taken so many cool photos that day that my recap post for social media contained numerous photos from Arches. 

For the Feast of St. Valentine, that Sunday, Feb. 14, my aunt who’d visited last summer had mailed ahead candy. Her gift was a pleasant surprise. Coincidentally on that Sunday, my friends and I saw Capitol Reef, to which she’d taken me last summer. But, my friends and I entered from a different side than when I’d seen with my relative. My friends and I also hiked to Cassidy Arch, along a remarkable trail that I hadn’t seen on our first trip. Though I first overshot the destination by a half-mile, I enjoyed the sights! That arch reminded me of Sedona’s Devil’s Bridge. 

"A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one”

On Monday, my friends and I had meant just to see Bryce Canyon but fate had other plans. Winter snow and ice limited our Bryce options such that after experiencing its safe sites we went to Zion. Still, we enjoyed the Dr. Seuss-like sound of “hoodoos” and questions like, “What do the hoodoos do when who doesn’t?” 

Zion felt like Disney, with its wonders at every turn. I’d never seen rock formations like those of the park. Its overlook path, which my friends insisted wasn’t even one of its best hikes, blew my mind. I wish that we’d had more time to see Zion. Our time was short. I resolved to return someday. 

Up next is Redwood National Park in a few months! I’m so excited. Redwood was one of the first national parks of which I’d heard when I was young in Indiana reading about California. I hope that those tall trees are amazing indeed. 

From 2O2I’s First Week 

Presidents’ Day made my friends’ and my trip possible this month. So, in honor of Presidents’ Day, I want to share some January 2O2I experiences with its major event, Inauguration Day! With all that led to it, this year’s was one to remember. 

I kick off my Inauguration Day stories with Wed., Jan. 6, an especially tense day for Americans. That morning, I’d been still in Reno, having arrived to ring in the New Year. That Wednesday, my folks and I were following results from the Georgia run-off election. Georgian friends said not to hold my breath. Well, I felt amazed to see that the two Democrats won. 

But later that day, when I and my D.C. friend were to begin our usual 3 p.m. EST video call on my week’s Bible readings, we began with a different conversation. She asked me if I’d heard about what was happening at the Capitol Building. I hadn’t. She said that police were trying to protect Congresspeople from rioters who’d broken in—American rioters. 

I hadn’t imagined that day that I’d be praying for the safety of our leaders, but I felt moved to do so. I tried not to let the news get to me, too much. I hoped that things would sort themselves out. I’d underestimated. 

“What a year this month has been” 

The next Monday, Week 45 (Jan. 8–15), I felt a bit ashamed to try explaining to my group of Mongols learning English about the U.S. Capitol events. I wasn’t certain about the facts, beyond that rioters opposed the certification of our November election’s results. Ultimately, I suspected that the media had overplayed the drama of the events. Still, I felt ashamed that not outsiders but American citizens had attacked our own Capitol. 

That week’s Sunday, I also attended and later spoke at a Zoom service in remembrance of my late supervisor, Rich Siegel, co-chair of the Honors Community Advisory Board for which I’m secretary. Many on the call wondered what that man, a champion of the American Civil Liberties Union, would have thought about the violence at the Capitol. He would surely have condemned it. After our service, I spoke briefly in gratitude for Rich’s mentorship. A woman at the service contacted me with thanks for sharing my experiences with him. 

On a later week, my English-language learners in Mongolia asked me to weigh in about my trust in the election results. I explained my usual position that I tend to believe whatever our courts conclude about the security of our processes. Our courts declared the election secure, so I trusted our results. Regarding America’s Capitol riots, to my amazement, my Mongol friends compared them to moments in Mongolia’s young democratic history of riots outside of their parliament building and leaders resigning. I felt strangely comforted by similarities. 

Inauguration Day

At last came Wednesday, Jan. 2O. I was back in Vegas, glued to the telly from dawn till dusk. This was the first Inauguration Day I could recall when I wasn’t in school, so I decided that I’d watch the whole thing. By that day, I’d also finished much of the yard work and had even gotten halfway through the “Kafka on the Shore” book to which I’d been listening. 

On Inauguration Day, I kept downstairs with a Snuggie, sitting in a soft rocking chair with a space heater between me and the TV. I set the telly to a channel showing four stations at once—this time showing CNN, FOX, MSNBC and the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies (JCCIC). I liked most the JCCIC broadcast since its hosts sounded passionate about our inaugural setting, having usually given tours of the Capitol. Commentators felt delighted that despite the violence just two weeks earlier, the area was safe and secure now. 

I felt a little disappointed to learn that President Trump had decided not to attend the inauguration, instead taking off quietly from Washington. I’d loved seeing U.S. Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama gathered. I hope that in the future, Trump stands among them as a fellow past leader of our great nation. 

Inauguration

As President-elect Biden and VP-elect Harris arrived, I felt moved. I remembered my time as a young journalist reporting live during Election Night, November 2OI6. Seeing our new administration arrive in January 2O2I, I remembered the faces of people, many of color, who had felt saddened half a decade prior. 

Though I live in Vegas, I wasn’t expecting to enjoy much Lady Gaga’s performance of the national anthem. Generally, I’m not that interested in her music. Well, I felt awed. I found her rendition of our anthem among the most moving versions that I’ve heard. She performed in ways like a guide on our nation’s musical journey. 

In terms of speeches, I enjoyed hearing Rev. Dr. Sylvester Beaman bring to light important issues of diverse communities and felt blown away by the poet Amanda Gorman. Her words resonated powerfully. Her references to “Hamilton” were wonderful, too. That the Biden-Harris administration had given the green light to this magnificent speaker of my generation gave great hope. 

Inauguration Night

I spent the rest of Inauguration Day texting friends as I watched the feeds on traditional Day 1 activities of new U.S. presidents. I especially loved watching that afternoon the Biden-Harris administration’s first press conference. We’re returning to transparency. 

That evening, I saw the virtual concert commemorating our day. I enjoyed seeing talks and performances by Bon Jovi, Foo Fighters, Yo-Yo Ma, Broadway stars and John Legend. New to me yet delightful still were “Better Days (feat. Justin Timberlake)” by Ant Clemons and “Colors” by Black Pumas. Our sun set on what felt for many a renewed nation. 

I didn’t see much other inauguration coverage besides a James Corden treat. He’d made a parody of “One Day More,” which I showed many. I found its lines, “What a year this month has been,” and, “Politics are dull again,” so comical. 

As days went on, I felt delighted to see Dr. Fauci on TV looking far more chipper than during preceding weeks. I felt amused by Stephen Colbert’s return to jesting about political norms instead of contested facts. Thus our world turns. 

Back to Reno

After my Week 49 (Feb. 11–16) Mighty Five Utah parks trip with my friends, I returned from Vegas to Reno. That Tues., Feb. 16, I got to drive the hundred miles from Tonopah, Nev., to Hawthorne, Nev.! I felt delighted. Seeing the sunset while listening to my friend’s party music evoked joy in possibilities of where I can go and what I can do in life. 

The next day, Feb. 17, was Ash Wednesday. That day I returned to my college parish since I’ve been singing for this year’s virtual “Living Stations of the Cross” production. Revisiting the parish and chatting with our staff returned to mind among my favorite undergrad experiences. Meanwhile, our student coordinators have worked so hard to make their office into a recording studio. I look forward to sharing our performance video when it goes live this Lenten season. 

With Ash Wednesday as the first day of the season’s fasting, I had a bagel and tea for breakfast then water throughout the day. That evening, after a series of delightful meetings, I saw a long-time friend when he had a moment free. The homie was Darren Dang, one I’d met when we’d lived in the same residence hall, fall 2OI5. 

That afternoon, Darren and I visited Roberto’s Taco Shop down the street, where we caught up like we’d done a couple years ago, before I’d graduated the University. COVID causes weird circumstances, but we make the most of them. Coincidentally, I’d reconnected too with a mutual friend, through a Pokémon GO group chat when I’d asked what I’d need to do to complete the week’s challenge. 

My friend wished me Happy Lunar New Year in a traditional Vietnamese greeting! I enjoyed that greatly. I knew informal New Year’s greetings in Mandarin and Mongolian, so I said those in exchange. Seeing long-time friends warms my soul. 

Lent 2O2I

Later this February marks the first anniversary since I learned that I’d evacuated from Mongolia. So by the time I next blog, I’ll have been back in America for a year. Expect March tales to feature my reflections. I’m coming back to Vegas in March to see off my LA sister before she moves for work in Seattle! 

The rest of February, I mean to focus on singing for the church production and revising my research for resubmission by early March. I’ve enjoyed seeing WandaVision while not working. My language and outreach projects continue. 

This Lent I've also resumed my habit of praying a rosary a day in addition to daily walks and stretches. I've added, too, Niebuhr’s Serenity Prayer. Let me know if you'd like to pray with me! For now, I leave you with this copy of the text that I’d found cited on Wikipedia (195I): 

God, give me grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, Courage to change the things which should be changed, and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

Living one day at a time, Enjoying one moment at a time, Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, Taking, as Jesus did, This sinful world as it is, Not as I would have it, Trusting that You will make all things right, If I surrender to Your will, So that I may be reasonably happy in this life, And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

You can read more from me here at DanielLang.me :)

[itstimetowatch]

Not Pictured

So this is going to be weird going into an episode where I’m pretty damned certain of the outcome. I think the only thing I haven’t figured out is the “Cliff’s Briefcase” thread. It was stolen by a prostitute hired by a guy that kind of looks like someone that Aaron Echolls once shared a jail cell with. I don’t see how that ties back to anything unless it was something I missed last episode when I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to the courtroom scenes?

Anyway, on with the finale!

Mr Manning is offering the reward for Woody? The child abuser wants the child molester found that badly? I guess this falls under the heading of Even Evil Has Standards. Also, shouldn’t the state of California be the one offering? Maybe this is just preemptive. The state’s reward will take too long to process so Manning is getting the jump on it now before the trail goes cold.

HAHAHAHA! Oh, Vinnie! Please never change! Please be in the movie ten years later every bit the actual worst person ever!

Woody had Chlamydia? So on top of all the other horrible shit he did, Beaver also raped Veronica.

Oh and we’re back in Veronica’s Dreamland. At least she’s not on the bus anymore. That was really long and seemingly pointless, other than an excuse to bring back Duncan and Lilly one more time. Also, the idea of Veronica and Wallace not being friends makes me incredibly sad.

Mr Underhill? How dare you besmirch the name of Frodo Baggins by associating your disgusting self with him.

“I don’t know if I like the idea of you running around a place full of armed, drunk businessmen.” “That’s why I rarely go to Texas.”

I’ve heard at least three writers names called out during this ceremony.

So this is yet another example of Sheriff Shithead being a dickbag, right? Like they’ve known Weevil did it for, what, days now and they wait until the middle of graduation to come drag him out in handcuffs? They could have arrested him anytime but Lamb wants to humiliate him as publicly as possible.

Little Dick isn’t in Veronica and Logan’s class? Or he just can’t walk at graduation because he has to take too many summer school classes? I mean, I remember him failing physics but were there more? Because most of the time if you’re just one class short the school will still let you walk and just hold off on your diploma until you make up the class you failed.

“A PONY?!”

It seems weird seeing Veronica in a dress outside of like Prom. Correct me if I’m wrong but that’s the only time we’ve ever seen her in a dress, dances and other formal wear occasions, of which graduation is not one?

Wallace is just going to track down Jackie? In Paris? A city of like 12 million people or whatever? Wallace, I know you’ve watched Veronica work a lot and you have picked up some not inconsiderable skills along the way, but with this, I think you’ve overshot your potential.

And apparently, Jackie’s in Brooklyn, not Paris… and when she said she learned the birds and the bees the hard way… not only was she pregnant but she’s a teen mom? How is that in any way in keeping with the character we were introduced to at the beginning of the season? And does Terrence think she’s actually in Paris? Or is that just the “official story” that they’re telling everyone?

I don’t think that’s how legal emancipation works, Aaron. Once you’re out, you’re out. Also, Logan is almost certainly eighteen by now. He has his own money left to him by his mother. I mean, he may need to move out of the Neptune Grand and into something a little more permanent and less costly, like an apartment, but then again, so do you as you undoubtedly have a mountain of legal bills forthcoming and no career left to speak of.

A deer’s head, Woody? Just be caught already.

Yep, okay, called it. Like I said, I was 99% sure but confirmation is always good.

Hart Hanson is another producer’s name… I think it’s also the name of the kid who taped Lynn’s suicide, who mysteriously turned back up last episode. In which case, he’s a sophomore and almost certainly is not listed with the phone company.

Cassidy BEAVER, you son of a bitch, on top of everything else, you do not get to shoot… fucking anyone, not Mac, not Veronica, not even fucking Dick! (Also, what did I say about him having plans to put one in Dick’s head at graduation?)

Um, just over halfway through the episode and we’re already up to the big climactic showdown with the bad guy?

“A better place”? You piece of shit! All that girl did was love you!

Oh yeah, I didn’t think about the fact that Beaver would have to have killed Curly.

Um, how long has this bomb been on Woody’s plane? Because those things get inspected regularly, whether they get used or not.

First of all, that plane wouldn’t be visible in the Neptune skyline yet. Secondly, WHAT THE ACTUAL EVERLOVING FUCK?!

Beaver, if you want her to jump, you’re going to have to stop tasing her, genius.

Good riddance, Shit Bird!

Okay, so Mac is alive! Thank God for that! Although Beaver has almost certainly passed along his sex-associate psychological trauma to Mac, so he’s just the fucking gift that keeps on giving after he’s a stain on the fucking sidewalk.

And speaking of sex-associated psychological trauma, this show has forced me to endure seeing with my own eyes Kendall and Aaron together, which I could have gone my whole life (and several more besides) without.

Oh, damn! Well good riddance to that pile of shit, too!

CW? As in The CW? The network that aired Season Three? “It’s a done deal.” Was this an announcement? (I mean, I know CW, Clarence Wiedman, but I can’t think of another good reason for them to phrase it that way.)

I have some pretty serious issues with the idea of Duncan ordering Aaron’s murder. Kidnapping your child to keep her out of the hands of monsters and living on the run from the law is one thing…

Yeah, none of that makes Jackie’s characterization from the beginning of the season make any more sense.

KEITH! HALLELUJAH!

“And pepper spray, in case we run into that Trump character.” GOOD CALL, VERONICA!

Keith, you are not standing Veronica up for something to do with Kendall Goddamn Casablancas! What the hell, my dude?

Okay, so there were a few surprises after all. I didn’t expect Aaron to get clipped. Once they dragged him into this season of the show, I figured he would become an on-going menace in Veronica’s life, but I guess not. I also didn’t expect a resolution to Veronica’s rape. I thought that would spill over into next season where I’m still assuming that the Hearst Rapist is still an on-going problem, maybe there was an upperclassman at Neptune that graduated when Veronica was a sophomore and went to college at Hearst or something and he could be a suspect.

So… this episode was good but felt kind of lacking to me after my epiphany last episode, and then Veronica got the message to go up to the roof and the whole thing kind of came apart for me. There’s no good reason why Veronica would go up there. She did it because the script needed her to have a private menacing conversation with Aaron and then needed her to be in danger of being killed by Beaver. It’s yet another example of Veronica doing something she’s smart enough to know better because the script needs her to be in peril. It’s happened a lot this season and doing it in random, middle-of-the-season episodes is one thing, but in the season finale? No, sorry.

Then she gets to the roof and there’s no good reason why Beaver doesn’t just shoot her in the head. He doesn’t need to know what she knows about him. She’s not explaining it to him, she’s explaining it to the audience and that’s just bad writing.

Beaver’s plan doesn’t really make a ton of sense, either. If he’s so scared that Marcos and Peter are going to spill his secret, why does he wait to kill them? Why do they wait to be killed? Why he wait until Woody’s on his way back to Neptune to blow up the plane instead of on the way to his hideout? Why does let Woody live in the first place? Incorporation/Phoenix Land Trust came way later. Why set-up Woody (or anyone, for that matter) for the bus crash when a criminal investigation of Woody would be exponentially more likely to reveal Woody’s paedophilia than just letting an incompetent sheriff bumble his way through a pile of circumstantial evidence for the next couple of years?

Full thoughts on Season Two will be forthcoming.

[180abroad]

Day 153: To Vienna

Today marked the end of our brief but enjoyable stay in Eastern Europe (the merciless heat notwithstanding) and our return to the German speaking world, which we had briefly touched back in Lucerne, Switzerland. The day started out well--sleeping in and reveling in the luxury of not feeling delirious with heat and sleep deprivation. The rest of the day proved nearly as pleasant, apart from a bit of stress on the train.

We took an Uber--Prague's metro is fine, but it's a perfect city for ridesharing--and made it to the train station with plenty of time to spare. Poking around, we saw a memorial to US president Woodrow Wilson, who played a significant role in the international recognition of Czechoslovakia as an independent country after WWI. I also found much less somber collection of "mapy" maps in the station's bookstore.

We didn’t have assigned seats for the ride and knew that the train was going to be crowded, so we made sure to find a spot on the platform where there wasn’t too many other people. Usually this works out for us. As the train pulled in, however, we realized that it was going to overshoot us completely.

Jogging through an increasingly dense crowd of other people who had been overshot, I managed to squeeze into the back coach of the train. We weren’t the first ones in, but we should at least be able to find some seats together. Right?

Well, no. Unlike most other trains we’d been on, this one had it’s first-class coach at the back. So we would have to move down to the next coach before even looking for seats. I thought about getting back out and walking down the platform, but the crowd was already oozing onto the train behind me and I didn't want to risk getting shut out.

We squeezed and shuffled my way to the next coach, which–of course–was more first-class seating and the dining area. I didn’t realize it, but at this point an attendant checked Jessica’s ticket and actually forced her to go back out the door and walk down to the second-class coaches. Apparently she didn’t want us riffraff even passing through first class.

The third coach was the beginning of second class, but it was already nearly full. I thought I had hit the jackpot with two empty seats right by the door. I had taken my backpack off and begun to wave at Jessica--who had caught back up with me--when I finally noticed the tiny electronic "reserved" indicator above the seats. Moving on…

The fourth coach's seats were unreserved but full up. The train had already started at this point, and we could barely move at all because of other people pushing in both directions to try to find seats as well.

After making our way through almost the entire train–and seeing plenty of duos coming the other way from the front–we gave up and settled for separate seats. So much for watching a movie along the way.

I took the fourth seat in a quartet occupied by a family of three Asian travelers. The mother gave me a polite smile, but I was certain that I was making them at least borderline uncomfortable. The nervous sweating certainly didn't help.

After about an hour of sitting as compactly and inconspicuously as I could manage, a seat opened up closer to where Jessica was sitting--one in a section of the coach where all of the seats faced the same way. I jumped on it. About an hour after that, my new partner detrained, and Jessica joined me. So at least we got to spend the last hour of the train together.

There wasn't any time for a movie at that point, but we were able to get some planning done. I also listened to a Rick Steves podcast about Viennese café etiquette.

Cafés are just as important in Vienna as they are in Paris or Rome, if not more so. Here, you enter into a space that's like a cross between a fancy restaurant and someone's living room, find a table, and sit down. Sooner or later, an extremely well-dressed and Germanically curt host will ask you what you want. If you want an espresso, you ask for a mocha. If you want a cappuccino, you as for a melange. If you want a latte, ask for a kaffee verkehrt (which literally means "coffee [made] wrong"). If you want something special, ask for an ice coffee, which is actually coffee with ice cream in it. For something a little zestier and more adult, a Maria Theresia is an espresso with a shot of orange liqueur and a topping of whipped cream.

Anyway, once we arrived in Vienna, things got easier. It was breezy, not too hot, and the train station was easy to get out of. We called an Uber and were at our flat about fifteen minutes after stepping off the train.

Our flat in Vienna wasn't the largest we stayed in, but it was a mansion compared to our place in Prague. For starters, the bed had its own room with a door separating it from the rest of the flat. Imagine that. And even with the sofa bed out, there was actually floor space left over for walking around.

Best of all, it had fans for both of us.

As I marveled, part of me wondered what it will feel like to be back in the States, where even my fairly modest bedroom is still bigger than some of the places Jessica and I have shared in Europe.

Our apartment building was nice, with a surprisingly modern elevator. It was elegant and ornate, but also slightly shabby--albeit in a mostly charming way. Which turned out to be a fairly fitting introduction to Vienna as a whole

The historic city center was about a 40-minute walk or 15-minute bus ride away from our flat. We had thought about going into town the first night--a great choice whenever time and energy allows it--but we decided to take it easy instead. We had a very busy week in Munich ahead of us, and we were still running on dangerously low batteries after the Great Krakow-Prague Heatwave.

Instead, we took a short walk down to a train station near our flat (not the one we'd arrived at earlier) and bought tickets for our next travel days. It was an automated kiosk, so on the one hand, we didn't have to worry about embarrassing ourselves in front of a local human. On the other hand, we didn't have a local human on hand to explain how the system worked. We figured it out quickly enough, though, and ended up buying tickets for the next two legs of our trip, which would take us to Munich. We actually could have booked our tickets within Germany too, but we wanted to do a bit more research first.

We walked back to our flat and picked up some groceries at the Billa literally right across the street from us. (Billa is an Austrian supermarket chain that we'd first run into in Prague.) Vienna is definitely a beer city and not a cider city. But luckily for me and Jessica, it is also a wine city. Apparently, it has the largest acreage of urban vineyards anywhere in Europe.

I grabbed a bottle of Grüner Veltliner–the main varietal grown in Austria. Neither of us had tried one before, but I had been curious about it for a long time. It turned out to be really good. It’s a light white wine, and ours had flavors of citrus and tart green apples.

Sipping Austrian wine in Vienna on a warm summer evening. How cool is that? After five months on the road, I sometimes needed to force myself to step back and appreciate just how amazing this trip really is.

After dinner, Jessica gave her brother Nic a call to wish him happy birthday. We would be meeting him in Amsterdam in less than a month. Which means that we would be heading home in just over a month. It was one thing to be halfway through the trip, or two-thirds through it. But to be five-sixths through was crazy. When we started, I didn’t know if I could do six months. Now, I wished I could keep doing this for another six months. Or at least three…

At the very least, I wouldn’t mind getting to sleep in my own bed and eating real California Mexican food. So there’s that. Oh yeah, and my friends and family. Them too, I guess.

Next Post: Vienna (The Habsburg Hustle)

Last Post: Prague Castle (and the Window that Sparked a War)

[davidoespailla]

The Housing Slowdown Is Here—and These 10 Cities Are Getting Hit Hardest

heyenge/iStock

Is the party really over?

Over the last decade, the seemingly unstoppable growth of the American housing market has created a bonanza for sellers, a cutthroat environment for buyers, and an endless source of fascination for just about everyone else.

It seemed to be an economic perpetual-motion machine. Could home prices in top markets really just keep going up and up … and up?

Well, no, actually. In the last few months, the real estate market has actually begun slowing down—including in some of the big cities that have been leading the go-go post-recession housing boom.

What does it all mean?

We decided to explore beyond the alarmist headlines to find the 10 metropolitan areas* that are seeing the biggest shifts—and why.

To be clear, prices aren’t always dropping in these places, which are predominantly located on the West Coast. Mostly, they’re decelerating, coming back down to earth. So bargain hunters can put their wallets away.

But in addition to a substantial increase in the number of home listings with price reductions, we found other potentially game-changing signs of market adjustments, including a surge in the amount of inventory for sale and the number of days on the market.

Here are the brass tacks: List prices only rose 7.3% nationally year-over-year in October.

While that’s certainly higher than most raises in compensation, inflation, and buyers’ comfort levels, it’s still less than the 10% annual hike the year before and the 8.2% jump the year before that.

Focus on the small victories, buyers! These markdowns can lead to more choices for those looking to purchase a home. And sellers, you’re still making bank.

Metros seeing the biggest slowdowns

Tony Frenzel

“There’s a rebalancing that needs to happen,” says Len Kiefer, deputy chief economist at Freddie Mac. “Prices have risen so high in some of these markets that it’s very tough from an affordability perspective [for buyers]. … It’s not surprising to me that we’re seeing a little bit of a leveling off.”

So stash the B-word, at least for now: The dreaded Housing Bubble isn’t poised to pop. There are simply more homes for sale now and fewer buyers vying for them. In other words, the market is returning to some semblance of reality.

“Are we going off the cliff?” says Honolulu-area real estate broker George Krischke of Hawaii Living. “I don’t have a crystal ball, but I don’t think so. … It’s a temporary slowdown and may be a plateau.”

To come up with our rankings of the real estate markets that are slowing down the most, we looked at annual price, inventory, days on market, and price reduction changes from October 2017 to 2018 in our realtor.com® listings in the 100 largest metros.

Let’s take a look:

Market  Median list price Change in list price* Change in inventory*  Listings with price reductions* 1. Stockton, CA $397,050  +3.4% +34.7 +299.2% 2. San Jose, CA $1,099,050  -0.1% +129.9% +110.6% 3. San Francisco, CA $899,050   0.0% +41.7% +56.3% 4. Nashville, TN $350,045  -2.5% +32.0% +22.5% 5. San Diego, CA $659,400  +1.4% +41.1% +28.5% 6. Oxnard, CA $685,000  -2.1% +15.0% +31.4% 7. Honolulu, HI $692,550  -0.4% +21.5% +25.0% 8. Dallas, TX $335,050  -1.4% +15.5% +14.0% 9. Seattle, WA $555,050  +12.1% +59.8% +36.2% 10. Portland, OR $455,050  +1.1% +22.1% +11.8% *Year-over-year changes between October 2017 to October 2018 Source: realtor.com listing data

So why are these housing markets slowing down?

1. Mortgage rate increases are sidelining buyers

Unless buyers are paying all cash for their digs—not a likely scenario for most of us ordinary humans—they are probably smarting from rising mortgage interest rates. That’s because even the smallest rate hikes of just fractions of a percentage point can add hundreds of dollars to monthly mortgage payments. Over the life of a 30-year loan, it can add tens of thousands of dollars.

Here’s what’s going on: Mortgage interest rates went up from 3.90% a year ago to 4.81% as of last week. That seemingly small 0.91% increase made mortgage payments $127 a month more expensive on median-priced homes of $295,000. It adds extra payments totaling $45,540 over the life of a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, assuming that the buyers put 20% down. And of course, the more expensive the property, the more new homeowners will be forking over.

This is having an impact, real estate experts say. These increases are forcing some buyers to purchase cheaper, smaller homes and fixer-uppers in less sought-after locales. And it’s led many aspiring homeowners to go into standby mode—waiting to see whether prices will drop to make the whole thing more financially viable. With less competition come fewer bidding wars, and more inventory that isn’t being snatched up within an hour of the “For Sale” sign going up in the front yard.

Borrowers are facing a little “sticker shock,” says Julie Aragon, a mortgage broker at Julie Aragon Lending Team in Santa Monica, CA, who works with buyers from San Diego, No. 5 on our list, and Oxnard, CA, No. 6. “They just don’t realize how much [rates] went up. Even an eighth to a quarter of a percentage point increase is going to make a big impact.”

That’s particularly true in high-priced areas like the Southern California city of San Diego, where the median price of $659,400 is more than double the national figure.

“I’ve seen people lose $50,000 in purchasing power,” Aragon says. And that’s giving buyers pause.

Higher rates are also stymieing move-up buyers who want to trade their starter homes for larger, nicer homes, but are reluctant to give up their existing low mortgage rates to do so, says Ted Wilson of Residential Strategies, a housing consultant based in the Dallas area.

The reality is that rates are still low compared to previous decades, when double-digit rates weren’t uncommon.

“Folks have been used to a world of dirt-cheap mortgage rates,” says Freddie Mac’s Kiefer. “We’re moving to a world where rates are more in line with what we’d expect to see over the long term.”

2. Prices just got too damn high

Fact is, prices can’t increase at record levels forever. And we may have finally hit an inflection point in many bellwether markets.   

“To some degree, the markets that went up the most and the fastest just pushed too hard [in prices],” says Patrick Carlisle, chief market analyst for Silicon Valley and the Bay Area at the real estate company Compass. “Over the summer, it was like something cracked, and people said ‘I can’t do this anymore.'”

In Silicon Valley’s San Jose metro area, No. 2 in our rankings, prices shot up a whopping 22.2% from 2016 to 2017. And this was already one of the nation’s most expensive places to live. But even hefty tech salaries can only stretch so far.

Add in those higher mortgage rates, and “that’s a whole lot more money that someone is going to have to spend to pay their monthly mortgage on a 1,500-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bathroom ranch house that suddenly costs $2 million,” says Carlisle.

So is it any big surprise that about 36.8% of San Jose-area sellers have had to slash prices on their homes in the last year?

President Donald Trump‘s tax changes have also hit Silicon Valley and the Bay Area hard. (San Francisco comes in at No. 3 on our list.) Homeowners can now only deduct from their taxes mortgage interest on loans of up to $750,000, down from $1 million. This isn’t just a rich person’s problem—it’s hard to find even a modest starter home for less than $1 million in this region.

Then add in a new $10,000 cap on property and either sales or income taxes. Suddenly, owning a home is a whole lot more expensive.

The entire West Coast, long the growth capital of the United States, is showing signs of being overheated. “For everyone, there’s a maximum to what they can pay,” says Annie Radecki, senior manager at John Burns Real Estate Consulting, who covers Seattle and Portland.

3. Sellers want to cash in while they can—leading to more homes for sale

More and more homeowners, fearing that the real estate market has reached its peak, are champing at the bit to sell. And that has led to a relative glut of available homes—more than even the hottest markets can easily absorb.

“There’s a perception [among owners] that the market has had a good run and maybe it’s time to cash in,” says Honolulu broker Krischke. “The good times have to end.”

In Stockton, CA, which came in first in our slowdown rankings, price drops are common because sellers shot too high, says local agent Jerry Patterson of Cornerstone Real Estate Group. This is a city that has long been plagued by crime and poverty. But its location, about an hour and a half northeast of Silicon Valley and close to the vineyards in Lodi, CA, gave it a boost in recent years, with annual prices rising 8.2% last year and 14.3% in the prior year.

But with more homes for sale and less competition for them, “buyers are now in a bit more of a power position,” Patterson says. “[They’re] able to flex their muscles a little bit more.”

And sellers are learning the hard way that the danger of pricing their homes too high is that they can wind up stagnating on the market. “They’re entering what we call the ‘sludge,'” says Nashville real estate broker Brian Copeland, of Doorbell Real Estate. “There’s nothing wrong with their house. But that price becomes a stigma.”

4. New construction booms benefit buyers—but slow down sales

New construction in certain markets has given buyers more options—but developers may have overshot their goals, often to accommodate corporate growth. Just look at Nashville, TN, No. 4 on our list, where a new Amazon center is slated for location, and Dallas, No. 8, which has added more than 500,000 jobs in the last decade. About a third of Nashville-area home listings on realtor.com® and a quarter of Dallas-area listings are for brand-new homes.

In Dallas, “There’s more inventory than there is demand,” says Dallas-area Realtor Dee Evans of Ebby Halliday Realtors. But she’s beginning to see the pace of new construction slowing, and those extra units are being absorbed by buyers. “Hopefully, the builders will be smart about putting less new stuff up.”

* A metropolitan statistical area is a designation that includes the urban core of a city and the surrounding smaller towns and cities.

* Lance Lambert ran the data analysis on which this story is based.

The post The Housing Slowdown Is Here—and These 10 Cities Are Getting Hit Hardest appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

The Housing Slowdown Is Here—and These 10 Cities Are Getting Hit Hardest

[wishingfornever]

10/14/17 – No Contact:  Total Relapse

Current time is 1am.  I went to bed early last night.  Can’t remember my dream.  Ariel unloaded A BUNCH of fucking information on me.  Like… a lot.  I’d fill you in but it’s more personal stuff.

I really should go back to sleep.  Tomorrow, I’ll cook myself a couple of eggs.  Not scrambled.  Fried, I think.  The one where the yolks runny.  I made a big egg sandwich today using an ENTIRE can of corn.  The irony is that there was like… more corn than egg and then there was too much egg for a single sandwich, which I ate with spinach and cheese.

It’s… all I’ve eaten today.  And an apple.  Probably should eat more throughout the day.

Whatever. Tomorrow, I’ll make myself a sandwich with those fried eggs I was talking about.  Over easy, I think?  Never been good with food terms, I fear.  I’ll use my seasonings.  As soon as I’m done with that Himalayan pink salt, I’ll get some seasoned salt.  I can’t wait. I’ll make it tomorrow morning.  Which is technically today.  Right now.  We’ll need to go grocery shopping in a bit.  Probably today or tomorrow, seeing how it’s the weekend.  I’d want to get there early to actually get avocados.

HEB sucks at restocking.  Like… the avocados they had last week were fucking gross.

I… want to learn what to do to make slushies like you make. Unfortunately, I can’t ask you.  I guess I can ask in a month and a half.  And then you can block me.  El oh el.

Yeah, probably an accurate guess right now.  Regardless… I didn’t do my sets yesterday.  I’ve been trying to get my sleeping schedule to work again.  Been waking up and not going to bed.  Unfortunately… I basically took a nap.  I’m not that sleepy.  Maybe I can go to sleep soon?  But even then, I’ll try to wake up at 10.  I’ll talk to Adela and see if we can go shopping today.  I want to go there at about lunch, maybe.  Just while they still have shit.

I should be trying to sleeping.  Watching a video though.  It’s titled “It’s Too Quiet.”  You know… that’s an actual thing. My dad said that you could feel when you were about to be ambushed because it’s literally too quiet.  I think the reason is is because animals tend to avoid humans.  If it’s quiet, that means the birds aren’t leaving or moving because there has been someone there for a while.  Thus, they stay away.  People intentionally don’t make noise, so it’s just you in the middle of a jungle with stillness.

We’re always hearing.  It’s… maddening when you don’t hear.  The if it gets too quiet, you can hear your own blood run through your veins.  You use your senses at all times.  When one sense stops working then your brain panics.  For example, white room torture where everything you see is white because you’re in a white room with no colors and you’re only fed white rice.  It’s a torture that lasts LONG after it’s over.

I think sometime this week, I’ll order myself a pizza.  I want to get it with ham but it’ll just be pineapple.  Oh, I’m sorry.  Did I stop talking about torture and blood and ambushes to talk about how hungry I am?

Kidding.  I got that gal from yesterday a pizza.  Now I want a pizza for myself.  I wonder if Pizza Hut finally learned that we’re in their district.  If not, there is always PizzaFino.  That’s probably Italian for Fine Pizza.  Sounds like something that’d happen.  Considering it’s a Latin language, I wouldn’t doubt it.  English is technically Latin but it’s also German.  That sucks because instead of having the best of both languages, we have the worst.  Foreign.  You don’t pronounce the g. I HATE words with silent letters.  Like… seriously?  Why do you need a silent letter?  It doesn’t change how the word is pronounced. Maybe it used to be pronounced for-ayg-in. Like…  Foreagan.  Hrm…  Possible name origin?  If that’s the case, why’d we stop saying the “G”?  I don’t know… Language is weird.  It evolves with the population and culture.  You know, Korean’s written language was supposed to be written by a linguist.  Thus, you could hypothetically learn how to read in Korean in a day.  What it means?  Can’t tell you.  Makes me wonder who the hell came up with writing the other languages like Kanji and shit. That was not written by a linguist, it was written by the clone of Hermann Fucking Goering.

It’s a joke.  Hermann Goering was German, obviously he didn’t write Kanji.  And Kanji was written before Hermann Goering was born, so obviously it’d be older than his clone.  See?  I’m so funny.  At least I would be if I didn’t steal the original quote.  Whelp!

Anyways… I didn’t call my dad yesterday.  Or Starbucks.  I have a terrible work ethic.  Maybe today, hopefully after I wake up at a decent time. I wanted to rewrite the chapter but I was so sleepy throughout most of the day that it’s literally bad if I try to write.  I need to be awake (sort of like now) or otherwise things will turn to crap.

My dad used to have a teepee.  He was part of a group called Mountain Men who basically longed for the days where it was frontier.  Not the settlers traveling by wagon but before that with frontiersmen.  That flintlock rifle above the kitchen he used in some events.  “Bringing home the bacon” comes from one such historical event where they win like a bucket of bacon by shooting a rope.

I remember when I was younger.  I remember the crispy marshmallows and campfires.  Cast iron pots and pans.  His teepee had this long snake wrapping around the outside.  A lot of bearded old folks in tanned leathers.

Current time… 4:30.  Still sleepy.  I’ve spent most of the previous 24 hours in bed.  I was hoping to wake up at 10am but I overshot my intended goal by six hours.  Still… sleepy.  I’m having a hard time resetting my sleep schedule.  It was better in California when everything went down.  Not because I was being good but because my family let me be.  Then my sister and dad kept insisting I join them for their reindeer games which takes FOR GOD DAMN EVER.

I’m not bitter, not trying to insinuate anything.  Well, maybe a little bit.  Because I tried going to bed at 11pm while I was there. Accounting for jet lag?  That’d be… 1am.  Thing is Janis kept trying to get me to stay up.  Saying she’s never there.  Then when I told her I wanted to go to bed she’d be like, “Boohoo, I never sleep ever.”

You know that sort of bullshit.

Regardless, I think I’m relapsing.  I miss my upswing surge but that’s passing now.  I wish I took more advantage of it.  Honestly, I had hoped I wouldn’t need therapy because of it.  I guess I’ll still need it… or medication which I’ve completely been ignoring. Maybe I should get on that again.  Use the Attend stuff.  Hrm…

I had a series of dreams last night.  One of them involved me living life through your eyes at Dennis’s.  Of course, it could have been Dennis I was living through but I spoke to your mom during the dream so I think it was you.  It was a little awkward feeling.  I think that feeling, however, is just my predetermination of what you must be feeling thus is my own bias.  The dream that followed involved a hospital and my Marxist friend who got pregnant recently.  There was also a lady cop there.

It ended with my dad and I driving through old towns and stopping at antique stores.  That was the most dramatic of the dreams for some reason.  Not because of my dad, but because I ended up sleeping with someone who constantly tried to get you out of my life.  Moving on. There was more but I can’t remember…

Huh… I realized something.  I’m sleeping on your side of the bed… I’m going to experiment tonight and see if I sleep better by switching sides.  I’ll keep this in mind today.

When you called yourself a whore… that haunts me.  I can’t get over it.  You said it was true.  It’s not.  You’re so hard on yourself.  And you wonder why I was trying to keep you motivated.  I worry about you.  Because I love you.  I love you unconditionally. Even if I completely move on, years from now you could show up at my door and ask for help and I’d help.

It’s my character.  I told you this before.  You’d REALLY have to fuck up to have me cut you out of my life.

What about Dennis then?

Yeah, well you don’t seem to understand what he did that upset me.  And even then, I tried to give him a chance to apologize.  With my niece, when she screwed me over, I publicly shamed her.  I haven’t done that with Dennis.  That’s my nature.  I will publicly shame someone who I think is a parasite.

You’re ignorant.  You’re naive.  You’ve fucked up, but you’re not a monster.  I know you… it may not seem like I listen but, I listen more than you know.

I hope reading this journal doesn’t make you feel bad.  I feel like it’ll make you angry rather than guilty, tbh (guess I don’t know you that well if I’m so uncertain; lol) but know it’s not my intention.

I got nothing done today.  I should probably just… roll with it. Like, I said I was more awake last night after a dumb little nap. Maybe I should just write at night and sleep throughout the day.  I could always get sleeping pills, too.  Something that’s not organic to force me to sleep.

I haven’t done my sets in a while.  Haven’t had a shower for a while too.

Ugh… this is a familiar feeling.  Negative thoughts tend to overwhelm me. The smallest things need the most extreme solutions… and I mean most extreme.  ><  Christ, I’m isolating myself again.  About two hours ago, Adela asked if I were alright.  I just said I was fine.  I have yet to leave bed today.  She walked Max without me. Currently 9pm.

Just went to the bathroom…  I should probably drink more water.  Yeah, I think my body might be pretty dehydrated.  :/

What if that’s why I’m depressed?  I’m only sad because I don’t drink enough water.  It’d explain why I get so depressed during the summer.  Because I’m always sweating and it’s hot and I’m miserable.  But it’s not hot here.  I haven’t drank as much water as I was hoping to.  I have, however, cooked more.  I mean… I am hungry now but I don’t want to go get food.

Eh…. Well, that’s one way to lose weight.

I’ll probably cook myself something in a bit.  Refill my water bottle. Then clean my room.  Then maybe write.  Of course, I told Shane I’d be available today.  I guess not.  So… feeling like a piece of shit right now.  :/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DrpmXtpFtw

If you open the link, you’ll discover that it’s not a song.  Not this time.  Rather, it’s confronting a problem in Hollywood.  Just finding out about it.  Guess I should probably pay more attention to the news.  I really have no clue what’s happening right now. However, this video talks about something that’s happened to you.

You claimed you consented by letting it happen.  You tend to reference fight or flight a lot.  With Mark and Dennis, you consented because you allowed it and because you didn’t fight or run away.  Turns out, it’s not just fight or flight.  So, yeah.  You don’t need to justify that shit.  So fucking don’t.  Don’t try to justify their actions with your submission.  Admittedly, you confronted Mark but you haven’t confronted Dennis.  I guess you feel like you cheated on me with Dennis, but the way you put it… he and Mark are no different.

Dennis is a piece of shit.

Maybe when this is all over, you can.  Whether we connect or not, it’s irrelevant.

Sorry. Serious topic, I know.  I’ll just blame this all on myself again. ><

Anyways… Current time is 11pm.  Just made myself breakfast.  Two fried eggs in a sandwich.  Two slices of Swiss and a ketchup drizzle.

It wasn’t as good as I thought it would be.  Not because it’s bad but because I’m bad at cooking.  My hands are clumsy.  Couldn’t flip the egg very well.  I like it when the yolk is running but… it would appear that I’m not very good at working a spatula.  I basically broke the yolk twice.  First time was because I cracked the egg poorly.  So, it came fucked up.  Second time?  I failed at flipping.

Then I put too much garlic on it.  Was good but was kind of salty from it. I know I didn’t put too much salt on it because I had to twist it as I cooked it.  I felt pressured and rushed, so quality suffered. Not to imply that it was going to be great before.  That said, Swiss cheese is kind of… losing it’s charm.  I used to actually enjoy it.  When I was younger I didn’t.  Now?  Since I stopped eating meat?  It’s become dull.  I don’t know, I guess I’ll start eating it with other cheeses.  Like cheddar, which you and Adela don’t seem to like.  Not sure why.

She made sure to mention that the Mexican four cheese shredded cheese pack or whatever the hell it’s called isn’t Mexican because of the cheddar.  She emphasized how they only use white cheese in Mexico and I told her, “Well, I’m not making quesadillas with it.”  I intended mix it with some veggies.  Of which, I probably use too much of it.

Eh… Monterrey Jack is a viable option.  I might make myself some more eggs later.  I’ll have to do the dishes though.  Or something.  I don’t know, I’ll probably have some peas and carrots later with an apple.  I might have an apple now.  Then I need to organize my room.  Living out of my suitcase is fun.  Not sure if that’s sarcasm, yet.

I brought a lot of clothes.  Obviously, I’m here for a while.  Right now, they’re in a hamper.  A clean hamper, mind you.  There is a dirty hamper too.  We purchased a light net hamper thing while we were in California.  You didn’t take it… so it’s mine now!  HA HA!!!  >:D

Seriously, though.  It folded and fit so nicely.  Great for travel.  I’m glad we got it.

These apples… are so sweet.  The first bite is like candy.  And the shelf life is incredible.  I think I mentioned it before, but they’re great.  They didn’t even have to be sweet, they just had to last to impress me.  Above and beyond the call of duty, right?

Eh… maybe not so much.  I’m feeling better.  I’ll organize a bit and then take a shower, maybe.  Then write.  Maybe take a nap later on. Try to wake up early and go grocery shopping with Adela.  I wonder if the Attend will help.  I haven’t touched it since I got here, so… yeah.  Might be worth taking.

[kansascityhappenings]

Joe’s Weather Blog: Staying the course for the cold…and maybe some snow (WED-12/20)

Good Wednesday morning…kind of a gray day out there today…and with a lack of sunshine and considering this is one of the shortest days of the year for daylight purposes…it’s going to be rather tough to warm up a lot today. During this time of year with the lowest sun angle of the year…and sometimes a lack of wind…it can create some temperature forecasts headaches. It’s something that I was wondering about over the weekend…and sure enough I overshot the highs for today’s forecast…this will happen during the winter season especially. Strangely though, even with the clouds, and murky skies out there, it should still be close to or above average later this afternoon.

Forecast:

Today: Mostly cloudy and more seasonable with highs in the 40-45° range.

Tonight: Pretty steady temperatures with lows in the 30s with a lot of clouds

Thursday: There may be a few periods of drizzle out there…highs around 50° or so.  It will be somewhat breezy as well adding to a bit of a damp chill.

Friday: Colder but really more seasonable with highs in the 30s

Discussion:

The morning satellite picture is a telling one…some areas are bright and sunny, while more of the KC region from about I-70 southwards are under a blanket of clouds…

These clouds don’t seem to be moving a lot this morning though…so for areas getting sunshine…you may keep it for awhile…and your temperatures may end up more in the mid-upper 40s…while the cloudier areas will really struggle today to warm up above the lower 40s.

All that moisture in the form of lower clouds…mostly from about 5-6,000 feet downwards…will be an issue for our area through Thursday night. The moisture down south will be coming northwards.

As it does so on Thursday and with a cold front getting closer…there may be enough going on to create some areas of sprinkles/mist/drizzle at times. There really isn’t any moisture about 6,000 feet or so to help the clouds create bigger rain drops so anything much more than that should be tough to achieve. Odds are any rain that falls will amount to under 5/100ths of an inch.

The front that has been well advertised for over a week…should move through later Thursday afternoon. Temperatures will drop from about 48-53° to around 32° by late evening. Again IF there is any leftover sprinkles or mist out there…let’s watch the potential for some freezing mist/drizzle. By Friday AM we should be down into the 20s. Highs on Friday struggle but we should still get into the 30s by the end of the day with enough sunshine.

Really in the scheme of things this cold front isn’t that unusual nor is it overly cold…it’s again just a jolt back to more seasonable temperatures for late December. One thing I’ve noticed about the longer range models and these air masses…they seem to be overdoing the cold…I’m not sure if this is because of the true lack of snow cover or what…but we still not tapping any true arctic air…yet.

Speaking of snow cover…here is the latest on that is morning…

There is about 24% of the country under snow this morning…and a real void through the Plains…and really even through the Dakotas too.

The last time there was this little snow cover overall…was in 2011…hey it could be worse…in 2005 there was only about 16% coverage…on this date.

One of the areas that has changed tremendously with snow pack…is across the western US and particularly parts of California…and into the Sierras region. Let’s use a slider bar to show the changes…slide left for this morning…and right for last year on this date…

https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/juxtapose/latest/embed/index.html?uid=ed83c22e-e597-11e7-b263-0edaf8f81e27

Definite differences…

There is some more snow heading for that area over the next 24+ hours…

Chain controls are now up on Interstate 80 from Kingvale to Donner Lake. Roads are snow-covered up there so travel safely! #cawx pic.twitter.com/tFHPoWwcRK

— NWS Sacramento (@NWSSacramento) December 20, 2017

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Up to 3-6″ are possible in the higher elevations it appears…

Meanwhile as far as the snow risk goes here…I’m still thinking there may be at least some snow in the region on Sunday…Christmas Eve…it won’t be a lot…but there is still the potential of a windblown dusting to 1/2″ or so in spots scenario for Sunday morning especially. So I don’t want to let that go yet.

Obviously unless there is some sort of Christmas Miracle on Sunday with this…it probably won’t be a huge issue…and certainly not what the model data, at least, has been showing off and on for the last 10ish days…I saw this tweet this morning…seemed to sum up things nicely…made me chuckle.

Crusty old forecaster once told me: if the 240-hr GFS always verified, Earth would be uninhabitable. So I’ll wait and see before getting too excited about any weather it shows.

— Barb Mayes Boustead (@windbarb) December 17, 2017

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

That’s about right I think.

And guess what…there may be another opportunity to go on the snow roller coaster next week…and actually I’m strangely more intrigued by this potential than I’ve been for the Christmas Eve scenario.

More on that over the weekend…but it seems to “makes sense” to me…and the meteorology aspect of it would be supportive. Let’s watch next Wednesday>Thursday. I don’t think it would be a lot but it could be our 1st 1″+ type event which would probably create some travel issues…

By the way…in case you didn’t remember…Thursday is the 1st day of winter…

The 2017 Winter Solstice arrives tomorrow – almost in lockstep with the incoming cold air mass expected to drop temperatures for the holidays. #WednesdayWisdom pic.twitter.com/Jb2DEfwDWj

— NWS (@NWS) December 20, 2017

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

OK that will do it for today…next update will be Thursday afternoon as we enjoy our last somewhat mild day for awhile.

Our feature photo comes from Skrapy!

Joe

      from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports http://fox4kc.com/2017/12/20/joes-weather-blog-staying-the-course-for-the-cold-and-maybe-some-snow-wed-12-20/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2017/12/20/joes-weather-blog-staying-the-course-for-the-coldand-maybe-some-snow-wed-12-20/

[twentysomethinginorlando]

Mickey's Dapper Birthday

New Post has been published on https://twentysomethinginorlando.com/mickeys-dapper-birthday/

Mickey's Dapper Birthday

I became a Cast Member in 2013, but I don’t remember anything about Dapper Day before the spring of 2014. That’s okay, I also didn’t know what Disneybounding was until right before I moved. Don’t worry, I’m going to explain Disneybounding later in this article if you don’t know what it is. My first experience with Dapper Day involved a fourteen-hour shift at the World Famous Jungle Cruise, and one of my favorite memories as a Cast Member. (That is a story I’m saving for the newsletter early next year, so subscribe now if you haven’t already!)  

Dapper Day is a semi-annual event held at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World, and once a year at Disneyland Paris. The event began in 2011 in California and rapidly grew in popularity. The idea is that you come to the parks in your “Sunday Best”, essentially how it was originally envisioned the guests would dress coming to Disneyland in the 1950s and 1960s. Your dress doesn’t necessarily need to be vintage, just stylish. The events are not actually put on by Disney themselves, though they have gotten more involved as the event has grown. In Spring 2016, the last Dapper Day I attended, Disney didn’t officially have anything special for event. Spring 2017, they had special cupcakes, corsages and all sorts of things. Fall 2017 was a little different, as something else was overshadowing Dapper Day. 

Last year, they started making Walt Disney World’s Dapper Day a two-day event, but I only planned on doing the Magic Kingdom day. 

Somewhere along the line as I was planning out my year, I realized Day One of this year’s Dapper Day would fall on Mickey Mouse’s birthday. I immediately knew I wanted to theme my Dapper Day outfit around my favorite incarnation of the Mouse, the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. 

Enter Disneybounding. Disneybounding is the idea of theming your outfit around a certain character. Created by Leslie Kay, Disneybounding has quite the following on Tumblr. Since anyone over the age of twelve isn’t allowed to wear a costume to the Disney Parks, this is how many people find ways to still be their favorite character. I wish I Disneybounded more often, but it typically calls for a lot of solid colors and most my clothes already have Disney characters printed on them. However, for Dapper Day this year, I knew I would be Disneybounding Sorcerer Mickey. 

I hunted around online for a 1950s style red dress that I liked, not fully sure how I was going to make this work until I stumbled across one particular design. I literally recolored it in Paint since the computer I was on at the time didn’t have Photoshop and sent it to my friend Polly. She’s an awesome costumer and has been helping me with projects (and occasionally keeping me sane) since 2010. You can check out her blog, $20 Lolita, where she talks about making Budget, Offbrand and DIY Lolita clothing. I know we talked about her putting the dress on it at some point, but as of publishing I haven’t seen it on there yet. 

My outfit was settled, Duffy would wear his sailor outfit, and now it was time to figure out Jay’s. I originally wanted him to go as Steamboat Willie, but he thought it would be a little boring, but also look strikingly like his Gangster outfit from Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. I agreed on at least the second point, and we spent the day before the event hunting for an outfit for him. At JC Penny inspiration struck, and Jay would soon be the Yensid to my apprentice. 

The morning of Dapper Day, my alarm went off at 3:50 a.m. If you’ve ever paid attention to my photos, you might have noticed I have all of three hair styles, and on the rare occasion I wear make-up, it always looks the same. Our friend Victoria was kind enough to agree to do my hair and make-up for Dapper Day, but she had to work at 7:30 a.m. This meant I had to be at her house at 5 a.m. Well, I overshot by half an hour and she did an amazing job anyway. 

The Disney Parks Blog had been advertising a special moment in the Welcome Show for Mickey’s Birthday, and we made it just in time. However, I should have known not to get my hopes up. The “special moment” was literally the Squire saying, “Happy Birthday, Mickey!” 

Now that the park was officially open, we popped over to ride the Haunted Mansion. Then it was time to hit as many characters as possible: Alice, Merida, Ariel, and Snow White all before 10 a.m. I carried my heels between characters and switched into a flimsy pair of flats that folded up to fit in my bag. 

We tried to go to Storybook Circus, but apparently, they don’t open until 10 a.m. these days. After Snow White, we waited in the twenty-minute-or-s0 line for Starbucks because we were both badly in need of caffeine, and more importantly, I had a gift card. I saw the special Steamboat Willie Cheesecake on display, but decided that much sugar so early in the morning would likely spell disaster and we grabbed pretzels at the Hub instead. While we were in line for the pretzels, a girl who was not Dapper, but covered in Duffy from head to foot caught my eye and I probably stared longer than was polite. 

At the entrance to Liberty Square there are benches on either side. We grabbed one and sat down to eat our pretzels. We wound up sitting there people watching for about half an hour, checking out all the Dapper Day outfits as they went by. Other dressed up guests would smile and nod or wave, and some even called, “Happy Dapper Day!” Shortly after we sat down, “Mickey’s Friendship Faire” started and we could see about half the stage. I’ve seen the show countless times, but I love the music so we stayed until the end. 

We went to see the pop-up shop at Box Office Gifts for the official Dapper Day merchandise. The creator of Dapper Day was there, Justin Jorgensen, and I wanted to get a picture with him but it was busy and hectic, and I wound up deciding not to bother him. It was really cool to see the clothing in person, even if it was out of my price range. 

Nine times out of ten, if I’m walking up or down Main Street, I cut through the Emporium. It’s air-conditioned, there’s no sun, and you never know what you might find. In this case, someone found me. The girl with the Duffy stuff spotted me again, and came up to introduce herself. Turns out she’s a blogger too! We traded business cards and she gave me a little folded up piece of paper of Duffy! As small and simple as it was, it was probably my favorite part of the day. 

One of the many great photo spots we found.

When I originally planned our Fastpasses thirty days in advance it never occurred to me we would be there for park open, so none of our Fastpasses were until the afternoon. At least this left us with a nice, slow morning to take our time doing what we wanted. We wandered around the park a bit looking for fun photo spots, and had to abort one location just as we arrived because Joey Quintin had posted where he was doing his first button giveaway on Instagram, and I didn’t know how quickly he’d run out. Joey is an amazing artist I encountered at MegaCon, and he was doing button giveaways for Dapper Day. The line was super long when we got there, and I didn’t expect to have so much pressure as I picked our buttons. I froze, and later thought of four other designs I would have rather picked. Oh well. They’re still wonderful! 

We went back to Storybook Circus to find Minnie and Daisy’s line at forty minutes and Donald and Goofy’s at twenty-five. We picked the boys since meeting Daisy is always awkward for me anyway. (She took Duffy’s spot at Epcot, I’m still bitter.) 

After the Circus, we went to ride the Carousel. Well, I rode the Prince Charming Regal Carousel. Jay stood on the outside and took pictures. Riding sidesaddle is strange, and I’m a little surprised the Cast Members allowed it. 

Finally, it was time for our first Fastpass and we made the extremely short, about twelve foot, trip to Princess Fairy Tale Hall. We jumped in the line for Rapnuzel and Tiana, and everything was going great until we were done. I went to switch back out of my heels to the flats when I felt something come undone in the dress. 

The zipper had gotten stuck that morning, and we’d used a couple of safety pins to close it under the belt. Jay went to check, and sure enough the safety pins were now all bent and useless. 

“I don’t know how to fix this,” Jay said. 

“I think I do.” 

I headed over to Bippity Boppity Boutique. Who better to fix a wardrobe malfunction than a Fairy God-Mother in Training? I explained the situation to Corley and she immediately went running off. She came back with a handful of safety pins and a few rubber bands. Jay and I popped over into a gift shop so he could repin the dress, and everything was good as new in no time!  

We headed over to get in line for Winnie the Pooh, and there was no one there. He’d be back in half an hour, so we sat down on the wall to wait.  

I don’t think I’ve ever had a Photopass Photographer take so many photos. There were twenty-four of them when we were done! Pooh took Duffy from me, and wanted to keep him, but I said no. Then Tigger was mad he wasn’t getting any attention and pulled me to dance while Jay and Pooh conspired to hide my Duffy Bear. Needless to say, I got him back before we left and some amazing photos. 

It was finally time for our Mickey Mouse Fastpass, and we were both exhausted. Jay was breaking in a new pair of shoes, and my flats were so thin I might as well have been barefoot. We decided to skip our last Fastpass after 5 p.m. for Cinderella and Elena, and make seeing the Birthday Boy our last stop. We swung over to Pecos Bill to get the Steamboat Willie Cheesecake with my annual pass discount, only to find them sold out. I got them to check the other venues in the park offering it, everywhere was sold out. I was more disappointed than I probably should have been. I love both cookies and cream, and cheesecake! Jay was right, we should have just gotten it at Starbucks that morning. 

When we got into the room to see Mickey, he wasn’t there yet and the character attendant got everyone to sing him “Happy Birthday” as he came in. It was adorable! The line was moving super quick and it was our turn in no time. There will never be a day I’m not excited to see Mickey Mouse, and I’m so glad I got to tell him “Happy Birthday!” in person.  

We headed for the monorail and made our way out of the Ticket and Transportation Center, eager to get home and dump the photos from my camera. 

Dapper Day is an awesome time, and one of the few special events at Walt Disney World that doesn’t require a separate admission ticket. This was the second year I’ve gotten to do it, and I hope to be doing it again in the future. Sadly, both the Spring and Fall events fall in the same month as RunDisney races, and there’s only so many weekends I can take off at a time. I think I like the Spring event better just because the Christmas music was majorly throwing me off and the decorations on Main Street made photos a little more challenging. 

I do already have plans for another outing with my dress, but it will be sometime next year at the earliest. 

Cost: Park admission. 

Value: I have a harder time scoring the value on this one because it’s not something you pay for, but I definitely think it’s something every Disney fan should do at least once! 

Duration: All day. 

Add Ons: You could do both days, or they had an event at Paddlefish on Friday this time at Disney Springs. According to the Dapper Day website, they have more expansions planned for Walt Disney World! 

 Stay up to date on all things Twenty Something in Orlando by subscribing to our newsletter or joining the Fan Club on Patreon! You can also find us on Twitter and Instagram!

[twentysomethinginorlando]

Mickey's Dapper Birthday

New Post has been published on https://twentysomethinginorlando.com/mickeys-dapper-birthday/

Mickey's Dapper Birthday

I became a Cast Member in 2013, but I don’t remember anything about Dapper Day before the spring of 2014. That’s okay, I also didn’t know what Disneybounding was until right before I moved. Don’t worry, I’m going to explain Disneybounding later in this article if you don’t know what it is. My first experience with Dapper Day involved a fourteen-hour shift at the World Famous Jungle Cruise, and one of my favorite memories as a Cast Member. (That is a story I’m saving for the newsletter early next year, so subscribe now if you haven’t already!)  

Dapper Day is a semi-annual event held at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World, and once a year at Disneyland Paris. The event began in 2011 in California and rapidly grew in popularity. The idea is that you come to the parks in your “Sunday Best”, essentially how it was originally envisioned the guests would dress coming to Disneyland in the 1950s and 1960s. Your dress doesn’t necessarily need to be vintage, just stylish. The events are not actually put on by Disney themselves, though they have gotten more involved as the event has grown. In Spring 2016, the last Dapper Day I attended, Disney didn’t officially have anything special for event. Spring 2017, they had special cupcakes, corsages and all sorts of things. Fall 2017 was a little different, as something else was overshadowing Dapper Day. 

Last year, they started making Walt Disney World’s Dapper Day a two-day event, but I only planned on doing the Magic Kingdom day. 

Somewhere along the line as I was planning out my year, I realized Day One of this year’s Dapper Day would fall on Mickey Mouse’s birthday. I immediately knew I wanted to theme my Dapper Day outfit around my favorite incarnation of the Mouse, the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. 

Enter Disneybounding. Disneybounding is the idea of theming your outfit around a certain character. Created by Leslie Kay, Disneybounding has quite the following on Tumblr. Since anyone over the age of twelve isn’t allowed to wear a costume to the Disney Parks, this is how many people find ways to still be their favorite character. I wish I Disneybounded more often, but it typically calls for a lot of solid colors and most my clothes already have Disney characters printed on them. However, for Dapper Day this year, I knew I would be Disneybounding Sorcerer Mickey. 

I hunted around online for a 1950s style red dress that I liked, not fully sure how I was going to make this work until I stumbled across one particular design. I literally recolored it in Paint since the computer I was on at the time didn’t have Photoshop and sent it to my friend Polly. She’s an awesome costumer and has been helping me with projects (and occasionally keeping me sane) since 2010. You can check out her blog, $20 Lolita, where she talks about making Budget, Offbrand and DIY Lolita clothing. I know we talked about her putting the dress on it at some point, but as of publishing I haven’t seen it on there yet. 

My outfit was settled, Duffy would wear his sailor outfit, and now it was time to figure out Jay’s. I originally wanted him to go as Steamboat Willie, but he thought it would be a little boring, but also look strikingly like his Gangster outfit from Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. I agreed on at least the second point, and we spent the day before the event hunting for an outfit for him. At JC Penny inspiration struck, and Jay would soon be the Yensid to my apprentice. 

The morning of Dapper Day, my alarm went off at 3:50 a.m. If you’ve ever paid attention to my photos, you might have noticed I have all of three hair styles, and on the rare occasion I wear make-up, it always looks the same. Our friend Victoria was kind enough to agree to do my hair and make-up for Dapper Day, but she had to work at 7:30 a.m. This meant I had to be at her house at 5 a.m. Well, I overshot by half an hour and she did an amazing job anyway. 

The Disney Parks Blog had been advertising a special moment in the Welcome Show for Mickey’s Birthday, and we made it just in time. However, I should have known not to get my hopes up. The “special moment” was literally the Squire saying, “Happy Birthday, Mickey!” 

Now that the park was officially open, we popped over to ride the Haunted Mansion. Then it was time to hit as many characters as possible: Alice, Merida, Ariel, and Snow White all before 10 a.m. I carried my heels between characters and switched into a flimsy pair of flats that folded up to fit in my bag. 

We tried to go to Storybook Circus, but apparently, they don’t open until 10 a.m. these days. After Snow White, we waited in the twenty-minute-or-s0 line for Starbucks because we were both badly in need of caffeine, and more importantly, I had a gift card. I saw the special Steamboat Willie Cheesecake on display, but decided that much sugar so early in the morning would likely spell disaster and we grabbed pretzels at the Hub instead. While we were in line for the pretzels, a girl who was not Dapper, but covered in Duffy from head to foot caught my eye and I probably stared longer than was polite. 

At the entrance to Liberty Square there are benches on either side. We grabbed one and sat down to eat our pretzels. We wound up sitting there people watching for about half an hour, checking out all the Dapper Day outfits as they went by. Other dressed up guests would smile and nod or wave, and some even called, “Happy Dapper Day!” Shortly after we sat down, “Mickey’s Friendship Faire” started and we could see about half the stage. I’ve seen the show countless times, but I love the music so we stayed until the end. 

We went to see the pop-up shop at Box Office Gifts for the official Dapper Day merchandise. The creator of Dapper Day was there, Justin Jorgensen, and I wanted to get a picture with him but it was busy and hectic, and I wound up deciding not to bother him. It was really cool to see the clothing in person, even if it was out of my price range. 

Nine times out of ten, if I’m walking up or down Main Street, I cut through the Emporium. It’s air-conditioned, there’s no sun, and you never know what you might find. In this case, someone found me. The girl with the Duffy stuff spotted me again, and came up to introduce herself. Turns out she’s a blogger too! We traded business cards and she gave me a little folded up piece of paper of Duffy! As small and simple as it was, it was probably my favorite part of the day. 

One of the many great photo spots we found.

When I originally planned our Fastpasses thirty days in advance it never occurred to me we would be there for park open, so none of our Fastpasses were until the afternoon. At least this left us with a nice, slow morning to take our time doing what we wanted. We wandered around the park a bit looking for fun photo spots, and had to abort one location just as we arrived because Joey Quintin had posted where he was doing his first button giveaway on Instagram, and I didn’t know how quickly he’d run out. Joey is an amazing artist I encountered at MegaCon, and he was doing button giveaways for Dapper Day. The line was super long when we got there, and I didn’t expect to have so much pressure as I picked our buttons. I froze, and later thought of four other designs I would have rather picked. Oh well. They’re still wonderful! 

We went back to Storybook Circus to find Minnie and Daisy’s line at forty minutes and Donald and Goofy’s at twenty-five. We picked the boys since meeting Daisy is always awkward for me anyway. (She took Duffy’s spot at Epcot, I’m still bitter.) 

After the Circus, we went to ride the Carousel. Well, I rode the Prince Charming Regal Carousel. Jay stood on the outside and took pictures. Riding sidesaddle is strange, and I’m a little surprised the Cast Members allowed it. 

Finally, it was time for our first Fastpass and we made the extremely short, about twelve foot, trip to Princess Fairy Tale Hall. We jumped in the line for Rapnuzel and Tiana, and everything was going great until we were done. I went to switch back out of my heels to the flats when I felt something come undone in the dress. 

The zipper had gotten stuck that morning, and we’d used a couple of safety pins to close it under the belt. Jay went to check, and sure enough the safety pins were now all bent and useless. 

“I don’t know how to fix this,” Jay said. 

“I think I do.” 

I headed over to Bippity Boppity Boutique. Who better to fix a wardrobe malfunction than a Fairy God-Mother in Training? I explained the situation to Corley and she immediately went running off. She came back with a handful of safety pins and a few rubber bands. Jay and I popped over into a gift shop so he could repin the dress, and everything was good as new in no time!  

We headed over to get in line for Winnie the Pooh, and there was no one there. He’d be back in half an hour, so we sat down on the wall to wait.  

I don’t think I’ve ever had a Photopass Photographer take so many photos. There were twenty-four of them when we were done! Pooh took Duffy from me, and wanted to keep him, but I said no. Then Tigger was mad he wasn’t getting any attention and pulled me to dance while Jay and Pooh conspired to hide my Duffy Bear. Needless to say, I got him back before we left and some amazing photos. 

It was finally time for our Mickey Mouse Fastpass, and we were both exhausted. Jay was breaking in a new pair of shoes, and my flats were so thin I might as well have been barefoot. We decided to skip our last Fastpass after 5 p.m. for Cinderella and Elena, and make seeing the Birthday Boy our last stop. We swung over to Pecos Bill to get the Steamboat Willie Cheesecake with my annual pass discount, only to find them sold out. I got them to check the other venues in the park offering it, everywhere was sold out. I was more disappointed than I probably should have been. I love both cookies and cream, and cheesecake! Jay was right, we should have just gotten it at Starbucks that morning. 

When we got into the room to see Mickey, he wasn’t there yet and the character attendant got everyone to sing him “Happy Birthday” as he came in. It was adorable! The line was moving super quick and it was our turn in no time. There will never be a day I’m not excited to see Mickey Mouse, and I’m so glad I got to tell him “Happy Birthday!” in person.  

We headed for the monorail and made our way out of the Ticket and Transportation Center, eager to get home and dump the photos from my camera. 

Dapper Day is an awesome time, and one of the few special events at Walt Disney World that doesn’t require a separate admission ticket. This was the second year I’ve gotten to do it, and I hope to be doing it again in the future. Sadly, both the Spring and Fall events fall in the same month as RunDisney races, and there’s only so many weekends I can take off at a time. I think I like the Spring event better just because the Christmas music was majorly throwing me off and the decorations on Main Street made photos a little more challenging. 

I do already have plans for another outing with my dress, but it will be sometime next year at the earliest. 

Cost: Park admission. 

Value: I have a harder time scoring the value on this one because it’s not something you pay for, but I definitely think it’s something every Disney fan should do at least once! 

Duration: All day. 

Add Ons: You could do both days, or they had an event at Paddlefish on Friday this time at Disney Springs. According to the Dapper Day website, they have more expansions planned for Walt Disney World!