#special Olympics North Carolina

[autismonfire]

Taking The Plunge

Today my team and I took the plunge for Special Olympics Gaston County, and with help from the Gaston College Campus Police and Gaston County Sheriff Office, we raised over $1,000 for my local Special Olympics program.

[inthedayswhenlandswerefew]

1968 [Chapter 6: Athena, Goddess Of Wisdom]

Series Summary: Aemond is embroiled in a fierce battle to secure the Democratic Party nomination and defeat his archnemesis, Richard Nixon, in the presidential election. You are his wife of two years and wholeheartedly indoctrinated into the Targaryen political dynasty. But you have an archnemesis of your own: Aemond’s chronically delinquent brother Aegon.

Series Warnings: Language, sexual content (18+ readers only), violence, bodily injury, character deaths, New Jersey, age-gap relationships, drinking, smoking, drugs, pregnancy and childbirth, kids with weird Greek names, historical topics including war and discrimination, math.

Word Count: 5.2k

Let me know if you’d like to be tagged! 🥰

💜 All of my writing can be found HERE! 💜

Here at the midway point in our journey—like Dante stumbling upon the gates of the Inferno—would it be the right moment to review what’s at stake? Let’s begin.

It’s the end of August. The delegates of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago officially vote to name Aemond the party’s presidential candidate. His ascension is aided by 10,000 antiwar demonstrators who flood into the city and threaten to set it ablaze if Hubert Humphrey is chosen instead. At the end—in his death rattle—Humphrey begs to be Aemond’s running mate, one last humiliation he cannot resist. Humphrey is denied. Eugene McCarthy, dignity intact, boards a commercial flight to his home state of Minnesota without looking back.

Aemond selects U.S. Ambassador to France, Sargent Shriver, to be his vice president. Shriver is a Kennedy by marriage—his wife, JFK’s younger sister Eunice, just founded the Special Olympics—and has previously headed the Office of Economic Opportunity, the Peace Corps, and the Chicago Board of Education. He also served as the architect of the president’s “War on Poverty” before distancing himself from the imploding Johnson administration. Shriver is not a concession to fence-sitting moderates or Southern Dixiecrats, but an embodiment of Aemond’s commitment to unapologetic progressivism. Richard Nixon spends the weekend campaigning in his native California, a gold vein of votes like the mines settlers rushed to in 1848. George Wallace announces that he will run as an Independent. Racists everywhere rejoice.

Phase III of the Tet Offensive is underway in Vietnam; 700 American soldiers have been killed this month alone. Riots break out in military prisons where the U.S. Army is keeping their deserters. The North Vietnamese refuse to allow Pope Paul VI to visit Hanoi on a peace mission. President Johnson calls both Aemond and Nixon to personally inform them of this latest evidence of the communists’ unwillingness to negotiate in good faith. Daeron and John McCain remain in Hỏa Lò Prison. The draft swallows men like the titan Cronus devoured his own children.

In Eastern Europe, the Russians are crushing pro-democracy protests in the largest military operation since World War II as half a million troops roll into Czechoslovakia. In Caswell County, North Carolina, the last remaining segregated school district in the nation is ordered by a federal judge to integrate after years of stalling. On the Fangataufa Atoll in the South Pacific, France becomes the fifth nation to successfully explode a hydrogen bomb. In Mexico City, 300,000 students gather to protest the authoritarian regime of President Diaz Ordaz. In Guatemala, American ambassador John Gordon Mein is murdered by a Marxist guerilla organization called the Rebel Armed Forces. In Columbus, Ohio, nine guards are held hostage during a prison riot; after 30 hours, they’re rescued by a SWAT team.

The latest issue of Life magazine brings worldwide attention to catastrophic industrial pollution in the Great Lakes. The first successful multiorgan transplant is carried out at Houston Methodist Hospital. The Beatles release Hey Jude, the best-selling single of 1968 in the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Canada. NASA’s Apollo lunar landing program plans to launch a crewed shuttle next year, just in time to fulfill John F. Kennedy’s 1962 promise to put a man on the moon “before the end of the decade.” If this is successful, the United States will win the Space Race and prove the superiority of capitalism. If it fails, the martyred astronauts will join all the other ghosts of this apocalyptic age, an epoch born under bad stars.

The night sky glows with the ancient debris of the Aurigid meteor shower. From down here on Earth, Jupiter is a radiant white gleam, visible with the naked eye and admired since humans were making cave paintings and Stonehenge. But Io is a mystery. With a telescope, she becomes a dust mote entrapped by Jupiter’s gravity; to the casual observer, she doesn’t exist at all.

~~~~~~~~~~

What was it like, that very first time? It’s strange to remember. You’re both different people now.

It’s May, 1966. You and Aemond are engaged, due to be married in three short weeks, and if you get pregnant then it’s no harm, no foul. In reality, it will end up taking you over a year to conceive, but no one knows that yet; you are living in the liminal space between what you imagine your life will be and the cold blade of the truth. Aemond has brought you to Asteria for the weekend, an increasingly common occurrence. The Targaryens—minus one, that holdout prodigal son, always glowering from behind swigs of rum and clouds of smoke—have already begun to treat you like a member of the family. The flock of Alopekis yap excitedly and lick your shins. Eudoxia learns your favorite snacks so she can have them ready when you arrive.

One night Aemond takes your hand and leads you to Helaena’s garden, darkness turned to twilight in the artificial luminance of the main house. You can hear distant voices, chatter and laughter, and the Beatles’ Rubber Soul spinning on the record player in the living room like a black hole, gravity that not even light can escape when it is wrenched over the event horizon.

You’re giggling as Aemond pulls you along, faster and faster, weaving through pathways lined with roses and sunflowers and butterfly bushes. Your high heels sink into soft, fertile earth; the air in your lungs is cool and infinite. ���Where are we going?”

And Aemond grins back at you as he replies: “To Olympus.”

In the circle of hedges guarded by thirteen gods of stone, Aemond unzips your modest pink sundress and slips your heels off your feet, kneeling like he’s proposing to you again. When you are bare and secretless, he draws you down onto the grass and opens you, claims you, fills you to the brim as the crystalline water of the fountain patters and Zeus hurls his lightning bolts, an eternal storm, unending war. It’s intense in a way it never was with your first boyfriend, a sweet polite boy who talked about feminist theory and followed his enlightened conscience all the way to Vietnam. This isn’t just a pleasant way to pass a Friday night, something to look forward to between differential equations textbooks and calculus proofs. With Aemond it’s a ritual; it’s something so overpowering it almost scares you.

“Aphrodite,” Aemond murmurs against your throat, and when you try to get on top he stops you, pins you to the ground, thrusts hard and deep, and you try not to moan too loudly as you surrender, his weight on you like a prophesy. This is how he wants you. This is where you belong.

Has someone ever stitched you to their side, pushing the needle through your skin again and again as the fabric latticework takes shape, until their blood spills into your veins and your antibodies can no longer tell the difference? He makes you think you’ve forgotten who you were before. He makes you want to believe in things the world taught you were myths.

But that was over two years ago. Now Aemond is not your spellbinding almost-stranger of a fiancé—shrouded in just the right amount of mystery—but your husband, the father of your dead child, the presidential candidate. You miss when he was a mirage. You miss what it felt like to get high on the idea of him, each taste a hit, each touch a rush of toxins to the bloodstream.

Seven weeks after your emergency c-section, you are healing. Your belly no longer aches, your bleeding stops, you can rejoin the living in this last gasp of summer. Ludwika takes you shopping and you pick out new swimsuits; you’ve gone up a size since the baby, and it shows no signs of vanishing. In the fitting room, Ludwika chain-smokes Camel cigarettes and claps when you show her each outfit, ordering you to spin around, telling you that there’s nothing like Oleg Cassini back in Poland. You plan to buy three swimsuits. Ludwika insists you get five. She pays with Otto’s American Express.

That afternoon at home in your blue bedroom, you get changed to join the rest of the family down by the pool, your first swim since Ari was born. You choose Ludwika’s favorite: a dreamy turquoise two-piece with flowing transparent fabric that drapes your midsection. You can still see the dark vertical line of where the doctors stitched you closed. Now you and Aemond match; he got his scar on the floor of the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, you earned yours at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. There are gold chains on your wrist and looped around your neck. Warm sunlight and ocean wind pours in through the open windows.

Aemond appears in the doorway and you turn to show him, proud of how you’ve pulled yourself together, how this past year hasn’t put you in an asylum. His right eye catches on your scar and stays there for a long time. Then at last he says: “You don’t have something else to wear?”

~~~~~~~~~~

It’s Labor Day, and Asteria has been descended upon by guests invited to celebrate Aemond’s nomination. The dining room table is overflowing with champagne, Agiorgitiko wine, platters of mini spanakopitas, lamb gyros, pita bread with hummus and tzatziki, feta cheese and cured meats, grilled octopus, baklava, and kourabiethes. Eudoxia is rushing around sweeping up crumbs and shooing tipsy visitors away from antique vases shipped here from Greece. Aemond’s celebrity endorsers include Sammy Davis Jr., Sonny and Cher, Andy Williams, Bobby Darin, Warren Beatty, Shirley MacLaine, Claudine Longet, and a number of politicians; but the most notable attendee is President Lyndon Baines Johnson, shadowed by Secret Service agents. He won’t be making any surprise appearances on the campaign trail for Aemond—in the present political climate, he would be more of a liability than an asset—but he has travelled to Long Beach Island tonight to offer his well-wishes. From the record player thrums Jimi Hendrix’s All Along The Watchtower.

When you finish getting ready and arrive downstairs, you spot Aegon: slouching in a velvet chair over a century old, hair shagging in his eyes, sipping something out of a chipped mug he clasps with both hands, flirting with a bubbly early-twenties campaign staffer. Aegon smiles and waves when he sees you. You wave back. And you think: When did he become the person I look for when I walk into a room?

Now Aemond is beside you in a blue suit—beaming, confident, his glass eye in place, a hand resting on your waist—and Aegon isn’t smiling anymore. He takes a gulp of what is almost certainly straight rum from his mug and returns his attention to the campaign staffer, his lady of the hour. You picture him undressing her on his shag carpet and feel disorienting, violent envy like a bullet.

Viserys is already fast asleep upstairs, but the rest of the family is out en masse to charm the invitees and pose for photographs. Alicent, Helaena, and Mimi—trying very hard to act sober, blinking too often—are chit-chatting with the other political wives. Otto is complaining about something to Criston; Criston is pretending to listen as he stares at Alicent. Ludwika is smoking her Camels and talking to several young journalists who are ogling her, enraptured. Fosco and Sargent Shriver are entertaining a group of guests with a boisterous, lighthearted debate on the merits of Italian versus French cuisine, though they agree that both are superior to Greek. The nannies have brought the eight children to be paraded around before bedtime. All Cosmo wants to do is clutch your hand and “help” you navigate around the living room, warning you not to step on the small, weaving Alopekis. When Mimi attempts to steal her youngest son away, he ignores her, and as she begins to make a scene you rebuke her with a harsh glare. Mimi retreats meekly. She has never argued with you, not once in over two years. You speak for Aemond, and Aemond is a god.

As the children are herded off to their beds by the nannies, Bobby Kennedy—presently serving as a New York senator despite residing primarily on his family’s compound in Massachusetts—approaches to congratulate Aemond. His wife Ethel is a tiny, nasally, scrappy but not terribly bright woman, five months pregnant with her eleventh child, and you have to get away from her like a hand pulled from a hot stove.

“You know, I was considering running,” Bobby says to Aemond, chuckling, good-natured. “But when I saw you get in the race, I thought better of it! Maybe I’ll give it a go in ’76, huh?”

“Hey, kid, what a tough year you’ve had,” Ethel tells you, patting your forearm. You can’t tear your eyes from her small belly. She has ten living children already. I couldn’t keep one. What kind of sense does that make? “We’re real sorry for your trouble, aren’t we, Bobby?”

Now he is nodding somberly. “We are. We sure are. We’ve been praying for you both.”

Aemond is thanking them, sounding touched but entirely collected. You manage some hurried response and then excuse yourself. Your hands are shaking as you cross the room, not really seeing it. You walk right into Lady Bird Johnson. She takes pity on you; she seems to perceive how rattled you are. “Oh Lyndon, look, it’s just who we were hoping to speak to! The next first lady of the United States. And how beautiful you are, just radiant. How do you keep your hair so perfect? That glamorous updo. You never have a single strand out of place.” Lady Bird lays a palm tenderly on your bare shoulder. She has an unusual, angular face, but a wise sort of compassion that only comes from suffering. Her husband is an unrepentant serial cheater. “I’ll make you a list of everything you need to know about the White House. All the quirks of the property, and the hidden gems too!”

“You’re so kind. We’ll see what happens in November…”

“Good evening, ma’am,” President Johnson says, smiling warmly. He’s an ugly man, but there’s something hypnotic that lives inside him and shines through his eyes like the blaze of a lighthouse. He pulls you in through the dark, through the storm; he promises you answers to questions you haven’t thought of yet. LBJ is 6’4 and known for bullying his political adversaries with the so-called “Johnson Treatment”; he leans in and makes rapid-fire demands until they forget he’s not allowed to hit them. “I have to tell you frankly, I don’t envy anyone who inherits that den of rattlesnakes in Washington D.C.”

“Lyndon, don’t frighten her,” Lady Bird scolds fondly.

“Everyone thinks they know what to do about Vietnam,” LBJ plods onwards. “But it’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t clusterfuck. If you keep fighting, they call you a murderer. But if you pull the troops out and South Vietnam falls to the communists, every single man lost was for nothing, and you think the families will stand for that? Their kid in a body bag, or his legs blown off, or his brain scrambled? There’s no easy answer. It’s a goddamn bitch of a quagmire.”

Lady Bird offers you a sympathetic smirk. Sorry about all this unpleasantness, she means. When he gets himself worked up, I can’t stop him. But you find yourself feeling sorry for President Johnson. It will be difficult for him to learn how to fade into disgraced obscurity after once being so omnipotent, so beloved. Reinvention hurts like hell: fevers raging, bones mending, healing flesh that itches so ferociously you want to claw it off.

LBJ gives Lady Bird a look, quick but meaningful. She acquiesces. This has happened a thousand times before. “It was so nice talking to you, dear,” she tells you, then crosses the living room to pay her respects to Alicent.

The president steps closer, looming, towering. The Johnson Treatment?? you think, but no; he isn’t trying to intimidate you. He’s just curious.

“Do you know what Aemond’s plan is for ‘Nam?” LBJ asks, eyes urgent, voice low. “I’m sure he has one. He’s sworn to end the draft as soon as he gets into office, but how is he going to make sure the South Vietnamese can fend off the North themselves? We’re trying to train the bastards, but if we left they’d fold in months. It would be the first war the U.S. ever lost. Does he understand that?”

“He doesn’t really discuss it with me.” That’s true; you know his policies, but only because they are a constant subject of conversation within the family, something you all breathe like oxygen.

“We can’t let Nixon win,” LBJ continues. “It’s mass suicide to leave the country in his hands. The man can’t hold his liquor anymore, getting robbed by Kennedy in ’60 broke something in him. He gets sloshed and shoves his aids around, makes up conspiracies in his head. He’s a paranoid little prick. He’ll surveille the American people. He’ll launch a nuke at Moscow.”

You honestly don’t know what he expects you to say. “I’ll pass the message along to Aemond.”

“People love you, Mrs. Targaryen.” LBJ watching you closely. “Believe it or not, they used to love me too. But I still remember how to play the game. You’re the only reason Aemond is leading the polls in Florida. You can get him other states too. Jack needed Jackie. Aemond needs you. And you’ve had tragedies, and that’s a damn shame. But don’t you miss an opportunity. You take every disappointment, every fucked up cruelty of life and find a way to make it work for you. You pin it to your chest like a goddamn medal. Every single scar makes you look more mortal to those people going to the ballot box in November. You want them to be able to see themselves in you. It helps the mansions and the millions go down smoother.”

“President Johnson!” Aegon says as he saunters over, huge mocking grin. He thumps a closed fist against the Texan’s broad chest; the Secret Service agents standing ten feet away observe this sternly. “How thoughtful of you to be here, taking time out of your busy schedule, squeezing us in between war crimes.”

“The mayor of Trenton,” LBJ jabs.

“The butcher of Saigon.”

Now the president is no longer amused. “You’ve never accomplished anything in your whole damn life, son. Your obituary will be the size of a postage stamp. I’m looking forward to reading it someday soon.” He leaves, rejoining Lady Bird at the opposite end of the room.

You frown at Aegon, disapproving. You’re dressed in a sparkling, royal blue gown that Aemond chose. “That was unnecessary.”

Aegon is wearing an ill-fitting green shirt—half the buttons undone—khaki pants, and tan moccasins. “I just did you a favor.”

“What happened to your new girlfriend? Shouldn’t she be getting railed in your basement right now? Did she have a prior commitment? Did she have a spelling test to study for? Those can be tricky, such complex words. Juvenile. Inappropriate. Infidelity.”

“You know what he brags about?” Aegon says, meaning LBJ. “That he’s fucked more women by accident than John F. Kennedy ever did on purpose.”

“That sounds…logistically challenging.”

“He’s a lech. He’s a freak. He tells everyone on Capitol Hill how big his cock is. He takes it out and swings it around during meetings.”

“And that’s all far less than admirable, but he’s not going to do something like that around me.”

“How do you know?”

“Because he’s not an idiot,” you say impatiently. “He was perfectly civil. And I was getting interesting advice.”

Aegon rolls his eyes, exasperated. “Yeah, okay, I’m sorry I crashed your cute little pep talk with Lyndon Johnson, the most hated man on the planet.”

“I guess you can’t stop Aemond from touching me, so you have to terrorize LBJ instead.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Aegon hisses, and his venom stuns you. And now you’re both trapped: you loosed the arrow, he proved you hit the mark. He’s flushing a deep, mortified red. Your guts are twisting with remorse.

“Aegon, wait, I didn’t mean—”

He whirls and storms off, shoving his way through the crowd. People glare at him as they clutch their glasses and plates, sighing in that What else do you expect from the worthless son? sort of way. You’re still gaping blankly at the place where Aegon stood when Aemond finds you, snakes a hand around the back of your neck, and whispers through the painstakingly-arranged wisps of hair that fall around your ear: “Follow me.”

It’s not a question. It’s a command. You trail him through the living room, into the foyer, and through the front door, not knowing what he wants. Outside the moon is a sliver; the light from the main house makes the stars hard to see. “Aemond, you’ll never believe the conversation I just had with LBJ. He really unloaded, I think the stress is driving him insane. I have to tell you what he said about—”

“Later.” And this is jarring; Aemond doesn’t put anything before strategy. He grabs your hand as he turns into Helaena’s garden, and only then do you understand what he wants. Instinctively, your legs lock up and your feet stop moving. Aemond tugs you onward. He wants it to be like the very first time. He intends to start over with you, the dawning of a new age in the dead of night.

Hidden in the circle of hedges, he takes your face roughly in his hands and kisses you, drinks you down like a vampire, consumes you like wildfire. But your skull echoes with panic. I don’t want him touching me. I don’t want another child with him. “Aemond…”

He doesn’t hear you, or acts like he doesn’t, or mistakes it for a murmur of desire, or chooses to believe it is. He has you down on the grass under the vengeful gaze of Zeus, the fountain splashing, the sounds of the house a low foreign drone. He yanks off your panties, but he doesn’t want you naked like he always did before. He pushes the hem of your shimmering cobalt gown up to your hips and unbuckles his trousers. And you realize as he’s touching you, as he’s easing himself into you: He doesn’t want to have to look at my scar.

You can’t ignore him, you can’t pretend it’s not happening. He’s too big for that. It’s a biting fullness that demands to be felt. So you kiss him back, and knot your fingers in his short hair like you used to, and try to remember the things you always said to him before. And when Aemond is too absorbed to notice, you look away from him, from the statue of Zeus, and peer up into the stone face of Athena instead: the goddess who never married and who knows the answer to every question.

“I love you,” Aemond says when it’s over, marveling at the slopes of your face in the dim ethereal light. “Everything will be right again soon. Everything will be perfect.”

You conjure up a smile and nod like you believe him.

“What did LBJ say?”

“Can I tell you later tonight? After the party, maybe? I just need a few minutes.”

“Of course.” And now Aemond pretends to be patient. He buckles his belt and returns to the main house, his blood coursing with the possibilities only you can make real, his skin damp with your sweat.

For a while—ten minutes, twenty minutes—you lie there on the cool grass wondering what it was like for all those mortals and nymphs, being pinned down by Zeus and then having Hera try to kill them afterwards, raising ill-fated reviled bastards they couldn’t help but love. What is heaven if the realm of the immortals is so cruel? Why does the god of justice seem so immune to it?

When at last you rise and walk back towards the house, you find Mimi at the edge of the garden. She’s on her knees and retching into a rose bush; she’s cut her face on the thorns, but she hasn’t noticed yet. She’s groaning; she seems lost.

You reach for her, gripping her bony shoulders. “Mimi, here, let’s get you upstairs…”

“No,” she blubbers, tears streaming down her scratched cheeks. “Just go away. Leave me.”

“Mimi—”

“No!” she roars, a mournful hemorrhage as she slaps your hands until you release her.

“You don’t have to be this way,” you tell her, distraught. “You can give up drinking. We’ll help you, me and Fosco and Ludwika. You can start over. You can be healthy and present again, you can live a real life.”

Mimi stares up at you, her grey eyes glassy and bloodshot but with a vicious, piercing honesty. “My husband hates me. My kids don’t know I exist. What the hell do I have to be sober for?”

You weren’t expecting this. You don’t know what to say. “We can help make the world better.”

“The world would be better without me in it.”

Then Mimi curls up on the grass under the rose bush, and stays there until you return with Fosco to drag her upstairs to her empty bed.

~~~~~~~~~~

The next afternoon, you’re lying on a lounge chair by the pool. Tomorrow the family will leave Asteria and embark upon a vigorous campaign schedule that will continue, with very few breaks, until Election Day on Tuesday, November 5th. The children are splashing and shrieking in the pool with Fosco, but you aren’t looking at them. You’re staring across the sun-drenched emerald lawn at the Atlantic Ocean. You’re envisioning all the bones and splinters of sunken ships that must litter the silt of the abyss; you’re thinking that it’s a graveyard with no headstones, no memory. Your swimsuit is a red one-piece. Your eyes are shielded by large black Ray Bans aviator sunglasses. Your gaze flicks up to the cloudless blue sky, where all the stars and planets are invisible.

Jupiter has nearly a hundred moons; the largest four were discovered by Galileo in 1610. Europa is a smooth white cosmic marble with a crust of ice, beautiful, immaculate. Ganymede, the largest moon in our solar system and the only satellite with its own magnetic field, is rumored to have a vast underground saltwater ocean that may contain life. Callisto is dark and indomitable, riddled with impact craters; because of her dynamic atmosphere and location beyond Jupiter’s radiation belts, she is considered the best location for possible future crewed missions to the Jovian system. But Io is a wasteland. She has no water and no oxygen. Her only children are 400 active volcanoes, sulfur plumes and lava flows, mountains of silicate rock higher than Mount Everest, cataclysmic earthquakes as her crust slips around on a mantle of magma. Her daily radiation levels are 36 times the lethal limit for humans. If Hades had a home in our corner of the galaxy, it would be Io. She glows ruby and gold with barren apocalyptic fury. You can feel yourself turning poisonous like she is. You can feel your skin splitting open as the lava spills out.

Aegon trots out of the house—red swim trunks, cheap red plastic sunglasses, no shirt, a beach towel slung around his neck, flip flops—and kicks your chair. “Get up. We’re going sailing.”

“I don’t want to talk to anybody.”

“Great, because I’m not asking you to talk. I’m telling you to get in my boat.”

You don’t reply. You don’t think you can without your voice cracking. Aegon crouches down beside your chair and pushes your sunglasses up into your Brigitte Bardot-inspired hair so he can see your face. Your eyes are pink, wet, desperately sad. Deep troubled grooves appear in his forehead as he studies you. Gently, wordlessly, he pats your cheek twice and lowers your sunglasses back over your eyes. Then he stands up again and offers you his hand.

“Let’s go,” Aegon says, softly this time. You take his hand and follow him down to the boathouse.

Five vessels are currently kept there. Aegon’s sailboat is a 25-foot Wianno Senior sloop, just roomy enough for a few passengers. He’s had it since long before you married into the Targaryen family. It is white with hand-painted gold accents; the name Sunfyre adorns the stern. He unmoors the boat, pushes it out into the open water, and raises the sails.

You glide eastbound over the glittering crests of waves, slowly at first, then faster as the sails catch the wind. Aegon has one hand on the rudder, the other grasping the ropes. And the farther you get from shore, the smaller Asteria seems, and the Targaryen family, and the presidential election, and the United States itself. Now all that exists is this boat: you, Aegon, the squawking gulls, the school of mackerel, the ocean. The sun beats down; the breeze rips strands of your hair free. The battery-powered record player is blasting White Room by Cream. When you are far enough from land that no journalists would be able to get a photo, Aegon takes two joints and his Zippo out of the pocket of his swim trunks. He puts both joints between his lips, lights them, and passes you one. Then he stretches out beside you on the deck, gazing up at the September sky.

You ask as your muscles unravel and your thoughts turn light and easy to share: “Why did you bring me out here?”

“So you can drown yourself,” Aegon says, and you both laugh. “Nah. I used to go sailing all the time when I was a teenager. It always made me feel better. It was the only place where I could really be alone.”

You consider the math. “Wow. You haven’t been a teenager since before I was in kindergarten.”

“It’s weird to think about. You don’t seem that young.”

“Thanks, I guess. You don’t seem that old.”

“Maybe we’re meeting in the middle.” He inhales deeply and then exhales in a rush of smoke. “What do you think, should I get an earring?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“It might shock Otto so bad it kills him.”

“I’ll get two.” And then Aegon says: “It’s not cool for you to mock me.”

You are dismayed; you didn’t mean to hurt him. “I wasn’t.”

“Yes, you were. You were mocking me. You mocked me about the receipt under my ashtray, and then you mocked me again last night. I’m up for a lot of things, but I can’t handle that. Okay?”

“Okay.” You turn your head so you can see him: shaggy blonde hair, stubble, perpetual sunburn, the softness of his belly and his chest, flesh you long to vanish into like rain through parched earth. “Aegon?”

He looks over at you. “Io?”

“I don’t want Aemond to touch me either.”

He’s surprised; not by what you feel, but because you’ve said it aloud, a treason like Prometheus giving mankind the gift of fire. “What are we gonna do about it?”

If you were the goddess of wisdom, maybe you’d know.

[fareterminal]

Discover Affordable Travel Options: Book Your Next Adventure

Explore Atlanta Without Breaking the Bank Atlanta, a vibrant city full of history, culture, and entertainment, is a dream destination for travelers seeking a blend of modernity and tradition. For those planning a trip, securing affordable airfare is often a priority. It’s never been easier to book cheap flights to Atlanta, allowing you to experience the city’s iconic attractions like the Georgia Aquarium, Centennial Olympic Park, and the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site without stretching your budget.

Using reliable platforms for online flight ticket booking USA, you can compare prices and schedules to find the perfect deal that suits your travel plans. These tools streamline your search and ensure you don’t miss out on competitive airfare rates.

Seamlessly Plan Trips to North Carolina North Carolina offers a range of experiences, from the majestic Appalachian Mountains to serene coastal beaches. If you’re planning a visit, securing airline tickets to North Carolina at the right price can help you allocate more resources toward exploring the state’s natural wonders and rich history.

Online platforms specializing in flight searches can provide the convenience of comparing multiple airlines and routes, ensuring you find options that match your budget and preferences. Whether you’re heading to Charlotte for its bustling city vibe or Asheville for its artistic charm, finding affordable flights is the first step toward an unforgettable journey.

The Advantages of Online Flight Booking Technology has revolutionized the travel industry, making online flight ticket booking USA the most efficient way to secure your travel arrangements. Instead of visiting multiple airline websites, you can use a single platform to compare fares, check for promotional offers, and select the best routes.

One of the key benefits of online booking is the ability to access real-time updates and availability. As prices can fluctuate based on demand, booking at the right moment can save you a significant amount. Moreover, many platforms allow you to bundle your airfare with accommodation options, ensuring a seamless experience.

Combining Flights and Hotels for Better Deals Travelers often face the challenge of separately booking flights and accommodations, which can be both time-consuming and costly. Choosing the best booking site for flights and hotels simplifies this process and often results in additional savings.

These platforms allow you to package your flight and hotel together, providing exclusive discounts and convenient payment options. Whether you’re planning a business trip or a leisure getaway, bundling your bookings reduces the hassle of managing multiple reservations while ensuring you get value for your money.

Maximizing Travel on a Budget Whether it’s exploring the lively streets of Atlanta or the scenic landscapes of North Carolina, smart planning is key to making the most of your trip. By focusing on cost-effective travel arrangements, you can allocate your budget toward experiences like dining at local restaurants, visiting iconic landmarks, or indulging in activities unique to your destination.

Using the best booking site for flights and hotels, you can gain access to tailored packages that suit your preferences. Many platforms also offer loyalty programs and discounts for frequent travelers, allowing you to save on future bookings while enjoying your current trip.

Your Gateway to Stress-Free Travel In today’s fast-paced world, convenience is a priority for travelers. From finding airline tickets to North Carolina to arranging your itinerary for Atlanta, choosing reliable online tools ensures that your journey begins on the right note.

With features like customer reviews, flexible payment options, and travel insurance add-ons, booking sites enhance the overall experience. They make it possible to plan and customize your trips according to your preferences, enabling you to focus on the joy of exploration rather than logistical worries.

Conclusion Traveling doesn’t have to be expensive or stressful when you leverage the power of online platforms. Whether you’re seeking to book cheap flights to Atlanta, planning a getaway to North Carolina, or searching for the best booking site for flights and hotels, smart choices lead to unforgettable journeys.

Start planning your next adventure with ease, and let technology guide you toward affordable and convenient travel solutions that cater to your every need.

[tigerrockhighpoint]

(From HIgh Point Police Department) In honor of Women’s History Month, we are introducing you to some of our department’s female leaders.

Lt. Kisha Yokeley is the supervisor in our Support Services Division and oversees our training. She is also HPPD’s coordinator for the Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics North Carolina and a Protective Tactics Apprentice.

Important Qualities for Every Leader: Lead by Example, Selfless/Servanthood and Integrity/Honorable

“Leadership is helping a team of people meet a common goal or mission, all while challenging each team member to reach their full potential in that process. As a leader, my biggest hope is that I can do whatever is in my control to bridge the gap to make things better and positively impact everyone around me.”

Lt. Yokely is also a BJJ Blue Belt at our academy. We appreciate all she does for us and the community.

#rmnu #bjj #bjjgirls #bjjlifestyle #blueline #police

[the-firebird69]

There are a few people who are not paying attention of Morelok and it's a lot of them here. In other words they've been attacking this more like basis to get them out of the way. There are a lot of people evacuating and quickly globally to the islands and every kind of warlock you can think of are leaving and fast. They are desperate to get out and need to the clones are running to their bases down below.

This is a massive strike compiled by the enemies of the clones and morlock. Huge hits for delivered on those trying to get here to fight on either side of this nonsense fight massive massive hits on where they're coming from I had up the line to where they're from and they devastated them devastated the people here are surprised and don't react appropriately because there's not with it are damaged or slow. It's going on right now huge huge strikes on warlock basis and areas of operation City areas and those trying to get here and people here and there are tons of troops going out all over the state and they're sending them all over the world and we have to be there shoes numbers of troops are going out giant numbers and police idiots out of their houses. They're devastating them and they're going after them and in Britain a war is developing they are going to retake the island and others will be there if they say because of JC and Mary and the max are hitting a little s*** out of this is because of what they said. Divulged and what they forced our son to say they're going to town on them and they are making sure that they're down is a huge attack it's gigantic okay people are going down. More like areas are shutting down and closing down areas the size of Massachusetts because they're evacuated and they leave you leave all the lights on appliances on and everything that's it coming back and that's just what they do. And there are more people are going in there now people don't want to go in there they're afraid to this bridge they're afraid it's rigged and they should be the whole place is right bottom is a top is.

-there's a few more things happening John remillard the song of special warrants and by the United States government and they are going to town on them shortly and it is the empire and foreigners and the sick of this idiots from the pseudo empire. They call them jackasses but our son says what do you want for the special Olympics Star wars for crist sake. You're saying that Daniel they're probably eat you cuz they was being mean and the beat goes on but really these guys are mean and they do stupid s*** and they need to leave and they don't seem to want to they're going to have to be dead and it's been expressed too I don't want to see their s*** hey they were forced out of North Carolina and actually the Jason Friday the 13th series moves out to Los Angeles area. More over tons of people are evacuating. They're moving very fast and it is fairly intense and we need it they are upset and their refugees and what they're seeing is horrifying them cuz a lot of them didn't pull out of their houses they got armies are moving over to their areas and pulling them out huge armies are going to Mike to areas right now in New York City and he said he knew about it and he did not and his people are getting grabbed all of them and killed and he's going to run. There's massive movement here people are evacuating Florida and they're noticing that people are going after them all over the place. Minority marlocks too, are leaving and fast and they have decided they should leave and really don't have much of a choice there's so many evacuated that there are not enough ships and there's there's so many ships out there now it's ridiculous and they're killing off crabs and it's killing off sea life there's a ton of death at sea. In the grocery store some little a****** girl no it's Becca was saying there's the meat I want to a son and she was teething and son circle back and it's too idiots with her and said watch out and the Indians were supposed to do something but we're afraid of him and said this we can't go here and your encouraging us to get hurt because you're an a****** and they beat her up when they get home they struck down to about only a foot bigger than her and started beating on her she said what is this for and the trumpsters she was terrified again and how do you see how they operate and what you're wrong about and she said I'm not wrong you're wrong I said no you get eaten not me just start crying and said why are you f*** you're all such a s*** I said really you're stupid she has no I was wrong there's no s*** this is their modus operandi. So Brad showed up if you guys and beat the s*** out of them and took her away she's crying and said they had me say stuff and he knows it and then he said shut up you're wrong you idiot and surely had human s*** you're an a****** and your funny shaped. And she smiled it tell each other a little since we're all going away cuz this dumb s*** oh crap. He said they wanted you to fight him because of the last time and I'm supposed to fight them and I wasn't there and they're stupid idiots all of a sudden they said this we're going to be sheriff and have the clothing nearby and instead of yelling, someone ran it on us and I'll tell you what if these idiots trumpsters that are doing all this damage to a realm they're horrible horrible people and yeah they sound like the clones it's going on now that he looks like after them the same dumb s***while they're evacuating and we're taking over and tons of area and factories very quickly and they're evacuating everywhere we are up and moving out and we see what our son is saying

:: you must mobilize and take advantage of this type of maneuver and we have to anyways I'll call it right now and I'm sending the order

Thor Freya

Olympus

Zues Hera

[shortfeedshq]

The Rise and Philanthropy of Chris Paul: From High School to NBA All-Star, a Story of Perseverance and Giving Back

Chris Paul is a renowned professional basketball player, widely recognized for his exceptional skills and talent in the game. Born on May 6, 1985, in Lewisville, North Carolina, Paul had a passion for basketball since his childhood. He pursued his passion and eventually turned his dream into a reality by becoming one of the most prominent basketball players in the world. In this autobiography, we will take a closer look at the life and career of Chris Paul. Table of Contents: - Early Life and Education - Rise to Fame in Basketball - NBA Career - Personal Life - Philanthropy and Activism Early Life and Education: Chris Paul was born in Lewisville, North Carolina, to Charles and Robin Paul. Growing up, he showed immense interest in sports and played various games, including football and baseball, but he had a special affinity for basketball. He attended West Forsyth High School in Clemmons, North Carolina, where he played for the school's basketball team. During his senior year, he was named North Carolina's Mr. Basketball and earned the title of the state's player of the year. Rise to Fame in Basketball: After graduating from high school, Chris Paul attended Wake Forest University, where he continued his basketball career. During his two-year stint with the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, he led the team to consecutive NCAA tournament appearances. In 2005, he declared for the NBA draft and was picked by the New Orleans Hornets as the fourth overall pick. In his debut season, he was named the NBA Rookie of the Year and became the first player to achieve such a feat after Michael Jordan in 1985. NBA Career: Chris Paul has had an illustrious NBA career, playing for various teams throughout his career. He played for the New Orleans Hornets from 2005 to 2011, then for the Los Angeles Clippers from 2011 to 2017, Houston Rockets from 2017 to 2019, and currently plays for the Phoenix Suns since 2020. Throughout his career, he has earned various accolades, including eleven NBA All-Star selections, four NBA assists leader titles, and two Olympic gold medals with Team USA. Personal Life: Chris Paul married his college sweetheart, Jada Crawley, in 2011, and they have two children together. He is known for his strong Christian faith and has frequently spoken about how it has helped him throughout his career. He is also an avid golfer and has participated in several celebrity golf tournaments. Philanthropy and Activism: Chris Paul is actively involved in philanthropic and activism efforts. In 2005, he founded the Chris Paul Family Foundation, which aims to provide resources and opportunities for children and families in underserved communities. He has also been vocal about social justice issues, including police brutality and racial inequality. FAQs: What teams has Chris Paul played for in the NBA? Chris Paul has played for the New Orleans Hornets, Los Angeles Clippers, Houston Rockets, and Phoenix Suns. How many NBA All-Star selections has Chris Paul earned? Chris Paul has earned eleven NBA All-Star selections throughout his career. What is the Chris Paul Family Foundation? The Chris Paul Family Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by Chris Paul in 2005, aiming to provide resources and opportunities for children and families in underserved communities. - What social justice issues has Chris Paul been vocal about? Chris Paul has been vocal about social justice issues, including police brutality and racial inequality. Read the full article

[johnnyrobish]

North Carolina Republicans Introduce Bill to Outlaw  “Participation Trophies”

Republicans in North Carolina are moving to outlaw “Participation Trophies,” with State Sen. Timothy Moffitt introducing the "Eliminate Participation Trophies Act" (SB 430).  The bill reads, "Youth sports or other youth recreation activities operated under the authority of a local government shall not include awards for participants based solely on their participation in the sport or other activity," the proposed law states. "Awards provided in connection with the activity, if any, shall be based on identified performance achievements.”

Terrific move, Repubs!  Yet another instance of the Republican party being laser-focused on the issues that really make a difference in people’s lives.  Wow, is this seriously the most pressing issue in North Carolina for elected officials to address?  Come on, why this?  Are there no little puppies to kick or no tiny kittens to drown?  I guess we don’t even need to ask what they really think about organizations like the “Special Olympics.”  That said, I get where they’re coming from on all this.  After all, they don’t want voters to start taking them seriously and expect them to legislate something of real value to citizens.

My guess is North Carolina might be angling for that coveted “Worst Carolina” trophy?  I mean, if they’re so opposed to “Participation Trophies,” then just what the hell do they think all their “Confederate monuments” are anyway?  Are we to assume this means no more Confederate flags can fly in the state?  After all, we only celebrate the “winners,” not the damn “losers.”  Of course, having no Confederate flags will sure take all the fun out of their Monster Truck events.  Oh well, I guess they’ll always have their "I Participated in the Jan 6th Insurrection" T-shirts to give them street cred.

Now let me get this straight, kids are getting shot in classrooms all the time, yet Republicans wanna save them from “Participation Trophies?”  OK, but what I don’t understand is just how Republicans intend to enforce this law?  I mean, will they have “monitors” in school classrooms and gymnasiums ready to confiscate "awards" if its decided the child really hasn’t done enough to deserve it?  Will armed SWAT teams forcibly burst into students’ homes and bedrooms and yank these trophies off these kids’ desks and dressers?  Only your “small government” Republican legislators know for sure, folks.

If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve just read, please consider joining me at:

[volleyball-jake]

En route to Chapel Hill, NC.

[soncjake-blog]

My desk setup at my place. Full room tour coming next week sometime. Stay tuned for more information.

My new nameplate for my desk

[autismonfire]

Häagen-Dazs at the Mall

On Saturday (1/21/2023) night, I went to Southpoint Mall in Durham, NC with Special Olympics North Carolina and their Athlete Leadership Council.

[csuworldrecord]

Beloved Special Olympics Athlete From North Carolina in Icu Battling Covid-19

Beloved Special Olympics Athlete From North Carolina in Icu Battling Covid-19

CONCORD, N.C. (CSU) — COVID-19 is a deadly new virus that has claimed the life of a well-known North Carolina Special Olympics athlete in the ICU. “He had a smile that would just brighten a room, and we miss it,” his sibling Robin Collyer told CSU in Charlotte. TJ Carpenter has been on a breathing machine in a hospital in Cabarrus County for more than a week. Because they can’t go see him, his…

[wutbju]

Genny was a caring wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother and friend.

She left this life suddenly on Saturday, Jan. 1, 2022, after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Genny was born in Bronson, Florida, Sept. 21, 1928, daughter of Geneva Berryhill Osteen and Leander (Lee) Alexander Osteen of Otter Creek Florida. She was their third child and only daughter. Her mother passed when she was only six years old.

School was one of her loves, along with books. She graduated with high honors and went on to attend Bob Jones University with a degree in Religion and History. In 1950 she graduated. She and a college friend traveled to Gilmer County West Virginia to teach Bible School for the summer, with a missionary for the American Sunday School Union, Glenn U. Kirkpatrick. After the summer she returned to North Carolina to teach a semester.

In December 1950, she returned to West Virginia and married Glenn Kirkpatrick. There was a huge snow storm that December that shocked the young Florida lady. Genny was a partner with him, in the American Sunday School Union, typing reports, putting out newsletters, teaching Sunday School, Bible School and Bible Camp. They had three children, Glenn Joel (Joey), Rebecca B. (Becky) and Robert William Paul (Bobby).

Summers were filled traveling from county to county, in West Virginia, having Bible Schools ending with a Bible Camp in August.

During the rest of the year, it was a different church or one-room schoolhouse each Sunday for Sunday School and preaching.

In all of her free time, she taught herself to drive and took a class at the Gilmer County Career Center to learn to work on cars. She never missed a band concert, choir concert or ball game that her children were in.

Genny worked for the Dept. of Human Services as a Social Worker, and then for the Area Agency on Aging at The Gilmer County Senior Citizens’ Center.

The bookworm in her, took her back to school at Marshall University for a Masters in Special Education and Learning Disabilities.  It was back to teaching, this time in the Gilmer County School system.

Special Olympics became a big part of her life. She loved working with the children and giving them new experiences. For 30 years, she was the Director of Special Olympics in Gilmer County.  When the house needed an addition, she built one on. Nothing could stop this lady.

When grandchildren came, there was plenty of love to go around. As with her children, she was always there for them. Stewarts Creek Church was her home church.

Genny served on the board of the Gilmer County Historical Society. The newsletter for the Gilmer County WV Retired School Employees was one of her projects she loved doing.

She was a member of the Martha’s and Mary’s of Gilmer County and received the Helping Hands Award. Others now saw what we always knew, she was the one behind the scenes lifting all the rest of us up.

Genny was preceded in death by her husband Reverend Glenn U. Kirkpatrick, her sons Joey and Bobby Kirkpatrick, her granddaughters Julia Erin Oppe and Oakley Monroe Kirkpatrick, her mother Geneva and father Lee Osteen, her brothers Lee and Richard Osteen.

Surviving are her daughter Becky and son-in-law Jim Oppe, grandchildren children Tiffany and her husband Mitch Davis their children Luke and Emma, Whitney Oppe and Woody Porter, Carrie and her husband Kevin Summers and son Wyatt, Tommy Kirkpatrick his wife Amber their children Keegan and Ava, Charlie Kirkpatrick, Tara and her husband Billy Eagleston and children Kylie and Landyn, and Chandra Kirkpatrick and her children Jade and Trinity. And Genny’s adopted families the Dorans and Pifers.  

A funeral service will be conducted at the Ellyson Mortuary, Inc., 2 Vanhorn Drive, Glenville, WV; 26351 at 2 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022, with Rev. Bill Hunt officiating. Burial will follow in the Meadow Lane Cemetery near Glenville. Friends will be received from noon-2 p.m.; Thursday at the mortuary in Glenville.  

Ellyson Mortuary, Inc., is honored to assist the family of Geneva “Genny” Osteen Kirkpatrick with arrangements.

[fearsmagazine]

The GHOST ADVENTURES, the team investigates the haunted activity inside the childhood home of iconic American author JOHN STEINBECK

The Ghost Adventures crew is back! Zak Bagans, Aaron Goodwin, Billy Tolley and Jay Wasley continue their travels to haunted destinations where they meet with locals, eyewitnesses and experts in an attempt to piece together the haunted history of each site. They then begin their “lockdown” investigation, using the latest scientific gadgets and technology in an effort to obtain physical evidence of the paranormal and uncover the truth behind each haunted mystery.

Zak Bagans and Jay Wasley outside of author John Steinbeck’s former childhood home in Salinas, California, believed to be haunted by a dark presence.

New Season, Now Streaming on discovery+ and Airing Saturdays on Travel Channel

Jack Osbourne and Katrina Weidman face more hellish hauntings when PORTALS TO HELL returns with an all-new season. The intrepid paranormal investigators resume their chilling journey to haunted locations across the United States, confronting the dark side of the supernatural as they seek concrete evidence that a spirit world exists. In each episode, Osbourne and Weidman dive headfirst into a site where they examine unusual incidents of unexplained activity while utilizing specialized technology and a network of experts, including psychic mediums, in their search for answers. [Hour-long episodes]

“Savannah Theatre” – Begins Streaming Saturday, April 30 on discovery+ New Episode Also Premieres Same Day Saturday, April 30 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Travel Channel Katrina Weidman and Jack Osbourne investigate the Savannah Theatre in Savannah, Georgia, a paranormal playhouse dating back almost 200 years. And in a television first, the duo takes the stage and discovers that this theater likes to put on a horror show.

Katrina Weidman and Jack Osbourne take the stage at the historic Savannah Theatre in Savannah, Georgia, where they discover this theatre likes to put on a haunted horror show.

“Fort Mifflin” – Begins Streaming Saturday, May 7 on discovery+ New Episode Also Premieres Same Day Saturday, May 7 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Travel Channel Katrina Weidman takes Jack Osbourne to one of her favorite hotspots – Philadelphia’s Fort Mifflin, a location rife with the ghosts of wars long past. The pair peel back the layers of haunted history and discover something unexpected is stationed at the fort.

PARANORMAL CAUGHT ON CAMERA New Season, Now Streaming on discovery+ and Airing Thursdays on Travel Channel Some of the most amazing, eye-opening and downright scary paranormal videos from around the world are featured as a panel of experts break down the footage and analyze what exactly the eyewitnesses captured. Insights from some of the most knowledgeable specialists in the field and firsthand accounts from the people lucky enough – or perhaps unlucky enough – to witness these strange phenomena for themselves just might make a believer of even the biggest skeptics out there. [Hour-long episodes]

“Alabama Glitch in the Matrix and More” – Begins Streaming Thursday, April 28 on discovery+ New Episode Also Premieres Same Day Thursday, April 28 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Travel Channel A UFO shoots across the sky in the Pocono Mountains. Bigfoot hides from a crowd in Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains. A suspended soap bubble may be evidence of a glitch in the matrix.

“Mysterious Mountainside Lights in North Carolina and More” – Begins Streaming Thursday, May 5 on discovery+ New Episode Also Premieres Same Day May 5 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Travel Channel Mysterious orbs light up a mountainside in North Carolina. A man in Sweden communicates with a graveyard ghost. A humanoid creature perches atop a roof in Brazil.

EXPEDITION BIGFOOT New Season, Now Streaming on discovery+ and Airing Sundays on Travel Channel

A year after devastating wildfires forced them to evacuate the Olympic Peninsula, the EXPEDITION BIGFOOT team – acclaimed primatologist Dr. Mireya Mayor and Bigfoot experts Bryce Johnson, Ronny LeBlanc and Russell Acord – return to Washington State. Encouraged by an incredible discovery from the previous expedition, the team devises a new plan to rouse a Bigfoot from hiding and prove these elusive creatures are not a myth but a reality. [Hour-long episodes]

“Where the Legend Began” – Begins Streaming Sunday, May 1 on discovery+ New Episode Also Premieres Same Day Sunday, May 1 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Travel Channel The team has a truly shocking sighting, only to see their best lead yet lead slip through their fingers. But a groundbreaking tip leads Bryce Johnson to wrap up their expedition in Washington State and relocate to a new Bigfoot hot spot.

“Sounds of Terror” – Begins Streaming Sunday, May 8 on discovery+ New Episode Also Premieres Same Day Sunday, May 8 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Travel Channel At their new base camp in California, the team records a howl unlike anything they've heard before. Later, Bryce Johnson learns of a potential Bigfoot coverup by the U.S. government. And Russell Acord, Ronny Le Blanc and Mireya Mayor come face-to-face with danger while on a night hunt.

[sarastahlman]

About Me

Thank you for your interest in my work and my story. ​I am a communication professional with a masters degree in Student Development in Higher Education and an undergraduate degree in English. I've honed my writing and interpersonal skills to become an expert at information design - taking complex information and crafting effective and digestible messages. With this skill set, I deliver creative, innovative and engaging solutions to communication needs and health issues alike - across print, in-person and digital forums.  After graduating from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in English in 2003, I immediately continued to UW-Law School. Instead of accepting a law firm internship after my first year, I chose to intern at the Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center which supports people with disabilities in exploring the outdoors. During that summer, I decided to put my law education on what would become a permanent hiatus. After a few months of determining how exactly how to learn to coordinate internships, I heard about and was accepted into the Higher Education and Student Affairs program at the University of Iowa. I coached rowing and Special Olympics, interned for Disability Services, and during my second year took on a graduate assistantship with the health promotion department at the university. After graduating in 2007, I accepted my dream job as a health educator for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. There, my position evolved from mostly focusing on sexual health and supervising three graduate students to data-driven, population-level health promotion and communication on a wide range of topics while supervising 14 students. When my family needed to move to the North Carolina mountains in 2011, I pitched to my colleagues that I could continue working there as a webmaster and social media coordinator. This resulted in my current role as the Marketing and Communication Coordinator for UNC Campus Health and Counseling and Psychological Services. My clean and focused approach to communication has been successfully applied to a wide range of projects, which are highlighted on this site. Using my years in student affairs and public health as a guide, I begin a project by focusing on the behavior goals for the target audience and requirements of the client. I strive to create work that is engaging and results in the intended outcome.

[slinglouis]

august fic rec!

hi friends! these are my favorite fics that i read during july while avoiding studying for my mcat & i think you should all read this month! if you have a fic you want me to check out this month please let me know, i’m always looking for more!

black with autumn rain by whimsicule -  93k

“Thank you,” Geoff says, taking a sip of his tea. “What did you tell him?”

Louis has a sip as well, lets the tea burn down his throat too quickly, too hot, and he feels it all the way down to his stomach. “The truth. Essentially,” he replies after a moment, licking his lips, relishing the slightly bitter taste of the brew that’s never quite strong enough for Louis’ liking. At least it’s not decaf. “That my dog scented it. That I didn’t touch the body. That I came here first thing.”

Geoff nods pensively. “Did he believe you?”

“Probably not. There’s only so many people who can drown on dry land before it gets fishy.”

or: Harry is a journalist, Louis has lots of secrets and the moors aren't exactly the ideal place to rekindle a lost romance.

Oh Glory by alivingfire - 21k

Tomlinson looks Liam over, tilting his head. “Are you a swimmer as well?”

“Yeah,” Liam says, a little cautiously. Harry wonders if it’s Tomlinson’s fame or the unimpressed eyebrow that’s making Liam wary. “Distance, I’m doing the 1500m. Harry here’s a sprinter.”

“Ah,” says Tomlinson, turning his glinting eyes back to Harry. “So you’re not an endurance man.” A beat passes, and his grin grows, wide and filthy. "Shame."

Harry Styles is Team Great Britain's newest swimmer, and has spent his whole life training for this moment, a chance at the gold medal in the Rio 2016 Olympics. All his training, hard work, and dedication to no distractions is tested when he's assigned to the same Rio apartment as Louis Tomlinson, British gymnast and Harry's childhood crush.

Howls Like a Beast (You Flower, You Feast) by @indiaalphawhiskey​ - 17k

“You don’t love me,” Louis had said, utterly blasé as he callously fractured the heart of a Harry that was just barely eighteen.

“I do,” Harry had insisted pleadingly, green eyes already watering.

Louis had rolled his eyes, exasperated and flippant in the way only beautiful, young boys could be when faced with the affections of a baby prince. He had run his finger down Harry’s cheek then, had forced him to look into his eyes as he delivered the final blow.

“You’ll change your mind once you’ve seen more of the world,” Louis had teased, pressing a brutally delicate kiss onto Harry’s lovely, pure cheek. “Once you’ve been properly defiled.” He had whispered filthily, delighted by the gasp he heard, the frantic pink blush that had rested high on Harry’s cheeks, the power he had felt at knowing he could make the Crown Prince squirm.

And down the long and silent street by whimsicule - 86k

The year is 1881 and if you’re alone in this world you might as well be dead, because starving dogs have no mercy.

Or: Wherein Louis and Harry are on the opposite ends of the social ladder, but their paths still cross on the filthy streets Louis calls his home. The odds are staked against them from the beginning, and even more when Louis' past finally catches up with him.

Run Like the Devil by benzos - 138k

Harry stops pouting, but his frown is still fixed in place. “Are you sure?” he asks. “You know it’s your soul you’re signing away.” He sounds…sad? No, that’s not right, but there’s something.

Christ. This is the most incompetent demon Louis’ ever met. If he hadn’t seen the red of his eyes he wouldn’t believe he was a demon at all. How’d he get this job if he isn’t trying to convince Louis to deal? Or is it just another trick? A ploy for sympathy?

“I’m sure,” Louis says. “Come over here and kiss me.”

*

Supernatural AU. Louis hunts demons; Harry's the strangest demon he's ever met, and he keeps fucking meeting him.

No Place Without You by @fackinglouis​ - 19k

Harry's in love with life and he's in love with the world.

Louis' in love with Harry and he doesn't think there's any way he can possibly compete.

A Wanderlust AU in which Harry doesn't have a permanent home and stays with Louis when he visits NYC.

Given a Chance by fabby - 170k

Five years after One Direction took their last tour, the last thing Louis Tomlinson ever expected to happen while on a tea run at the local Piggly Wiggly was to run into his ex-boyfriend and ex-bandmate Harry Styles.

The odds of them ever running into each other again had to be super slim, right?

Wrong.

What happens when you mix ex-boyfriends with a large serving of Small Town America? Will Louis and Harry be able to set aside their differences, or will Louis be able to stay breezy as fuck in the wake of Harry’s arrival?

(or, the one where Louis and Harry run into each other five years after One Direction ends and learn how to love each other again. Featuring: Reggie as the overweight labrador, Niall as Louis’ last grip on reality, and Nowheresville, North Carolina as the setting for Louis’ worst nightmare to come true.)

these bountiful silences by tommoandbambi - 123k

they live in a world where they can only say four words per day. harry meets some people that don't want to live that way.

we can only look behind by @hereforlou - 70k

His mum said there was no getting an idea out of his head once it was stuck in there and Harry thought she was right. It wasn’t like he did it on purpose - his ideas were just really sticky.

(Or, the one where Harry fixates through the years.)

Don’t Want Shelter by kingsofeverything - 77k 

Louis and Harry have known each other all their lives. Friends as children, they danced around each other as teenagers, and have spent the last twenty-five years either screaming at each other or not speaking at all. Except for that one time ten years ago…

When Hurricane Nicole threatens the coast, they end up stuck together in their families' old vacation home that they begrudgingly co-own.

During the storm, and in the months after, they’re both forced to reevaluate their history and what they mean to each other.

somewhere in between the lightning by jassy117, nauticalleeds, shiningdistractionwrites - 100k

As Louis took another bite, he thought back to how he had once believed that the hardest thing about being on Love Island would be Liam handling his social media. He had been wrong. It was Harry Styles, peeking over at Louis as he forked a pancake into his mouth, and gauging his reaction. It was having to quench the swelling of his heart, which felt simultaneously like hope and the breaking of a thousand pieces.r

A summer gone wrong (or very right) when, under Liam’s persuasion, Louis finds himself drunkenly applying for Love Island, and getting accepted. Oh, well. A summer spent on an island paradise couldn’t be all that bad, right?

Imagine his surprise when Louis arrives in sunny Majorca to find that his first love and ex-boyfriend, Harry, is another contestant, about to capture the hearts of everyone in the villa. Most normal people don’t have to face their ex on an otherwise straight TV show. Most normal people don’t fall for their ex again in front of the whole nation, either. Too bad this whole situation isn’t normal.

special mention bc an epilogue was added and this is one of my fav fics of all time: Collision by @tequiladimples (itjustkindahappened) - 225k

Mythology/Fairytale!AU in which Louis is a dainty fairy with a temper who wants to be intimidating and Harry hurts people. Naturally, they hate each other.

(Featuring Liam, the big and not-so-bad wolf who’s got a thing for humans, Zayn, a human with supernaturally good looks, and Niall, the cupid who just wants his job to be easier.)

[tripeakathlete]

Weekend Reminder - May 15 - 16, 2021

Weekend Reminder – May 15 – 16, 2021

If you are not volunteering at the Special Olympics clinic, please get your long run in for that day. On Sunday, we will be riding out of Lake Minneola at 6:30 am. – Ironman Cozumel: 2 – 3 hours – Base Training Begins / run after bike 20 min – 70.3 Augusta and North Carolina- Base training – 2:30 – 3 hours / run after bike: 20 min – Short Course: 90 min – Base training Keep up the good work…