#two days is leaving home at like 11:30am and coming back at 5:30pm

[qumiiiquinnquin]

fell asleep on the floor after coming back home from my first classes today and then started crying

[plaidbooks]

Everyone Deserves Love - Chapter 13

A/N: This takes place after “Community Policing” (season 17, episode 5), when Rafael indicts the 3 cops. I mention he starts getting threats, but it’s not the one from the show, not yet. But boy oh boy, do you think Devon’s gonna be happy about that?

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Tags: nightmares, mentions of death, trafficking, smut, oral (male receiving)

Words: 4k+

Taglist: @the-baby-bookworm @beccabarba @thatesqcrush @itsjustmyfantasyroom @stardust-fray @permanentlydizzy @averyhotchner @mrsrafaelbarba @dianilaws

Apartment of Brittany Gomez

Thursday, July 24th. 2:05am

Devon was in the courtroom, sitting in the witness box, confused as to why she was there. She whipped her head around, taking in the empty room. She stood to leave, to get some fresh air outside.

“Sit down, Miss Motely,” a stern voice ordered. She turned to see a judge sitting in his seat, glaring down at her; she sat quickly, heart hammering. She heard murmurs and looked at the gallery, now full of people. The prosecutor was making his way around his table, staring daggers at her.

“So, it was at this point that you murdered both your parents,” he started.

“No, that’s not how it—” Devon started before the judge slammed his gavel, the sound reverberating throughout the room.

“Do not speak out of turn, you murderer,” he spat. Devon looked between the two of them, stuck, shutting her mouth. Her hands started shaking violently as the prosecutor started again.

“You murdered them in cold blood, didn’t you? Just like you murdered all those other people, and why, to ‘save’ someone else? Just justifying murder,” the prosecutor shook his head in disgust.

“I’m not a murderer!” Devon yelled, tears running down her cheeks. “I did save those people!”

“That’s it! Bailiff, take her away!” the judge ordered. A towering man, face in shadows, came and hauled Devon out of the witness box, pinning her arms behind her. She struggled but it was futile; his hands held her wrists in a vice. She screamed, her throat burning, raw from the force of it. She slammed her eyes shut as they went through the door.

Silence. The bailiff’s iron-like grip was gone, though she could still feel where he grabbed her. Devon opened her eyes into the empty corridor. She turned, in slow motion, back towards the courtroom. But behind her was the elevator doors, with Marco Sorrel holding a gun to Barba’s head. Devon felt the cold metal of her glock in her hand, rose it to aim at Marco. But her arm was moving slowly, like it was covered in molasses.

“Help me,” Barba murmured, voice barely above a whisper, but in the silence, it was deafening. His bright green eyes were full of fear. “Please.” There was a gunshot, but it was Marco who shot, red exploding out of the side of Barba’s head.

Devon shot up in bed, panting, gasping for breath. She reached over to the other side of the bed, searching for Barba’s warm, sleeping form. But she found nothing. Panicked, she glanced around the room. It took her a few moments for her still-asleep brain to catch up; she was undercover right now, she wasn’t home. Barba wasn’t there.

Sighing, she looked at the clock, groaning at the time. Devon picked up her phone. Well, technically, it was Brittany Gomez’s phone; Devon’s phone was left at Barba’s—their place. Though, she still knew his number by heart, she couldn’t bring herself to wake him in the middle of the night for something as silly as a nightmare. Even if it was a mixture of an old, reoccurring one and a new hell added on. Instead, she took the phone case off, pulling out the folded photo tucked away there. She unfolded the already-worn picture, gazing down at it lovely. It was a picture of Barba and Devon in Central Park, Barba with both arms around her shoulders, pressing a kiss to her cheek. Devon was all smiles in the picture, obviously incredibly in love. Wiping away a tear, she put the picture back in the phone case before laying back in the bed, hoping for at least a little bit of a peaceful rest.

Big G’s Place

Friday, July 25th. 11:30pm

Devon moved her way through the other Johns and Janes, trying not to stare at anyone’s face for too long, but long enough that the camera in her glasses picked up their facial recognition in the FBI database. She finally found a girl—probably no older than 13—that was being manhandled by some drunken John. Devon moved up to the girl, giving her a seductive smile.

“Come on, honey. I can treat you better than this stiff,” she purred. In some part of her brain, a part that was heavily under lock and key, she shuddered at her own actions. But Brittany Gomez liked young girls, especially the ones that were developing early. So, she took this young girl’s hand and pulled her away from the John, who was way too drunk to even notice—he seemed like he had actually passed out on the sofa during this interaction.

Devon collapsed back into an armchair, dragging the girl into her lap. The girl fell against Devon’s shoulder, her head leaning against the chair slightly above hers. Devon kept a hand on her hip, holding her there, but otherwise didn’t touch her, instead taking this time to look around at the partygoers, praying that her team would raid the place, and soon. They were simply waiting for the main pimp to show up, that way they could pick everyone up in one fell swoop. Devon had already seen at least three off-duty cops, all carrying their guns; she wanted to make sure those three were taken care of in case things got ugly. Phones weren’t allowed at this party, but her and her team had their own code when it came to UC’s like this, and Devon had already green-lit the armed partygoers. But Devon was unarmed, one of her least favorite feelings. Which was why she picked out the most miserable girl she could find, to maybe help at least someone.

Just then, a big, white man came bursting in like he owned the place, gold chains hanging off his neck, leather jacket open, gun displayed proudly in his waistband.

Looks like Big G is here, Devon thought, unconsciously tightening her grip on the girl in her lap. The girl squirmed and Devon loosened her grip. “Sorry, baby,” she murmured, keeping as much desire in her voice as she could, but eyes never leaving the new threat in the room.

The FBI waited until he had moved into the center of the room before bursting in through every entrance, blocking the escape routes. Devon grabbed the girl protectively and flipped over the arm of the chair, landing on top of the girl on the ground in a defensive position.

“Stay down,” she ordered, all business. The girl nodded as the commotion around them ended just as quickly as it started, no shots fired. Devon slowly stood, hands up until the team’s leader came over to her.

“Great work, Motely,” she said. Devon nodded in acknowledgement before lending a hand to the girl who was still prone on the floor.

“You—you’re a cop?” the girl ground out.

“FBI actually. Don’t worry; you’re safe now,” Devon replied, helping her up.

Apartment of Brittany Gomez

Saturday, July 26th. 1:30am

Devon threw herself down on the bed, skimpy clothes and makeup still on. This was the 5th bust as many cities in the past two weeks, and she was exhausted. Sure, she was glad to be doing her job, to be helping these kids that they were picking up from these parties. But it was tiring, pretending that she was interested in children, the stress of being caught or uncovered at any moment, the rush of adrenaline leading up to and during the raids. Plus, she missed Barba every moment of every day, unable to talk to him, of even reaching out. And her nightmares were getting more frequent; sometimes Marco would kill Barba, sometimes she would kill Marco and have to deal with Barba’s wrath, and once, she had killed Barba. That last one had shaken her to her core, and she didn’t sleep the rest of that night or the next, afraid of what she might see when she closed her eyes.

The only thing she had to keep her sane was the photo of them from their first date, and even that was wearing quickly, the creases in the material causing the color to fade, the paper tearing in some spots. She was careful handling the picture, afraid it would rip, and then she’d have nothing of him to look at, to have and to hold throughout this raid-fest. And there was no end in sight to these parties. It was almost as if Jenkins were testing her abilities, making sure that she could still work to her fullest, dating or not. And she was determined not to fail.

Devon got up, dragging herself to the bathroom to strip off her makeup before attempting to sleep. Even on the nights that she didn’t have nightmares, her dreams came in random clips, hardly memorable in the morning. But she usually woke up more exhausted than when she went to bed. She sighed; at least she didn’t have another party to attend for three days. Just enough time to move apartments, establish herself, and gain an invite. She sighed heavily as she scrubbed the eyeshadow off.

Apartment of Brittany Gomez

Sunday, September 3rd. 2:15am

Devon packed; she was exhausted, another week meant another three raids. But she was also excited. The raid she just got back from was the last one, and now, she was going home. Just the thought of being back in NYC, of being back in the apartment she shared with Barba, of curling up against him, his warm breath on her neck—it was enough to make it so that she knew she wouldn’t sleep. So, instead, she busied herself with packing, grabbing her meager amount of things—mostly clothes and a few toiletries. The rest of her “belongings” were really the department’s; the FBI would take care of it. She looked to her car keys, innocently laying on the nightstand, debating snatching them up and driving back tonight. But it was an eight-hour drive from West Virginia back to New York, and Devon was afraid that she’d fall asleep on the drive, excited to be home or not.

So, she finished packing, then forced herself to lay down, hoping to get some sleep before the long drive home. Her eyes had barely closed when she received a text. Groaning, she rolled over to look at it; no one should be able to message her except her boss. And sure enough, it was a message from Jenkins. Though, he was passing a message on from a “Detective Carisi.” Sonny? Devon thought, opening the text. She read it, then read it again. A third time.

Wide awake now, adrenaline pumping through her veins, Devon grabbed her things, hurrying to her rental car. She shot a quick text to Barba, asking if he was awake. He wrote back instantly, and she called him while she pulled onto the highway.

“You’re being threatened by police?” Devon blurted out as soon as he answered.

Barba sighed. “Fucking SVU…” he muttered under his breath before explaining, “three cops gunned down an unarmed black man. I indicted them, and then the threats started coming in. Nothing to worry about.”

“Nothing to worry about? Rafael, what the fuck?” Devon’s mind was going a mile a minute. She realized dimly that she was speeding, her foot pressing on the gas in her panic. She eased off, putting on cruise control once she was at the speed limit.

Barba was quiet for a long time before he spoke again. “I missed your voice.”

All of the tension and adrenaline was sucked out of her. Devon felt herself deflate under his voice. They hadn’t seen each other, much less spoke, in over a month, and the first time they talk, she’s freaking out.

“I’ve missed you,” she whispered back. Tears started to form, but she blinked them away. She wasn’t even sure why they had appeared in the first place; she just missed him that much. And now, he was potentially in danger.

“Are you okay to drive? It’s late.” He was changing the subject, trying to distract her, and she knew it. But she also really, really, didn’t want to fight him about this. Especially after they haven’t spoken in so long, nor over the damn phone.

She smiled softly. “I’m fine. I just want…I need to be there. I need to be home, with you.”

“Caller ID said you were calling from West Virginia. That’s a…long drive. Pull over and sleep if you need to; I’ll still be here when you get home,” he promised.

“I will, baby. But I’m pretty awake right now.”

He chuckled darkly at that. “You sound like it.”

Devon stuck her tongue out, even though she knew he couldn’t see her. “Sleep, Rafa. Don’t wait up for me. Like you said, it’s late.”

“I’ll sleep better when you’re here.” It was an innocent statement, but there was a layer of something else underneath it. Something that sounded a lot like sadness. She felt it too; she always slept better curled against him.

“Soon, babe. I promise. I love you,” Devon said, wishing beyond anything that she could just magically teleport home.

She could hear his grin when he replied. “I love you, too. Drive safe, please. Come home safely.”

Apartment of Rafael Barba and Devon Motely

Sunday, September 3rd. 10:42am

Devon knew that she was supposed to go to the Bureau first, to return the rental car and to debrief with Jenkins, but she couldn’t force herself; she had to see Barba first, to make sure he was alright, that he was safe. The rational side of her knew that she would know if he wasn’t, that someone from SVU would’ve told her, but she didn’t care; she was going to make sure.

The elevator ride seemed to take forever. When it dinged, signifying that she was on their floor, she forced the doors open before running down the hallway. Barba must’ve heard her footsteps, because he opened the door to their loft, sticking his head into the hallway, face breaking into a huge smile when he saw Devon. He came out of the loft, and Devon threw herself into his arms, hugging him close. He wrapped his arms around her back, chuckling as he held her.

“I missed you so much,” she whispered into the crook of his neck. She pulled back, just enough to look into his eyes, before she peppered his face with kisses, lips brushing everywhere.

“I’ve missed you, too,” he laughed lightly. “I’m glad you’re safe. I was worried.” They finally released each other, though, Barba interlaced his fingers with hers as he pulled her inside their home.

“I should be saying the same to you; I can’t believe you got NYPD threatening you now,” Devon replied, collapsing onto the love seat. Now that she was home and positive that Barba was safe, her exhaustion slammed into her.

Barba disappeared into the kitchen and then came back, steaming mug of coffee in his hands. He passed it to her, and she took a grateful sip, letting it warm her. He took a seat next to her, pulling her legs over his own, hands mindlessly squeezing, massaging her calves.

“I’m fine, Cariño. They won’t do anything,” he gave her a look, as if the whole thing were ridiculous.

“But they can get someone to do something. I hate not being here; I mean what happens if someone confronts you, and I’m in Jersey?”

“Dev, you can’t be around me 24/7,”—she smirked at him, raising an eyebrow—“that was a special circumstance. You can’t do it every time someone threatens me; you’d never not be there.”

Devon gave him a hard stare over her mug. “Oh? Has someone already threatened you? Do I need to kick someone’s ass?”

Barba chuckled, pinching the skin above her knee. “No, no. Nothing more than the normal amount.”

“Rafael Barba, has someone threatened your life?”

He realized quickly that Devon had gone from playful to serious; she was actually worried about him now. He gave her a reassuring smile. “None that should be taken seriously.” When she glared at him, he continued, “it comes with the job, Hermosa. You think the Aces were the first to ever threaten me? They were just the first that were stupid enough to try anything. I get threats monthly…if it makes you feel better, people threaten you, too, but you don’t see me getting up in arms about it. If I thought any of them had any real weight behind it, I’d take precautions.”

“And your precautions would be to tell me, right?” Barba didn’t answer right away, and Devon took her legs back from him, sitting up straight. “Right, Rafael?”

He smiled sheepishly under her intense gaze. “Si mi amor…unless, of course, you were undercover or otherwise—”

She threw the hand not holding coffee into the air. “So, that’s why I had to hear it from Sonny? No, fuck that, you tell me first,” she reiterated. “I don’t care what I’m doing for the Bureau. I’m not letting anything, or anyone, hurt you dammit. Not if I can stop it.” He sighed, knowing that this was not a fight he was going to win.

Office of Devon Motely

FBI Headquarters

Monday, September 18th. 3:08pm

Devon smiled, hitting “send” on her last email. She double checked everything, making sure all of her paperwork and other, small assignments were done. She wanted to surprise Barba, bring him dinner; she knew he was supposed to be working late tonight, so she thought she’d stop by his office. It had been weeks since the last threat from the NYPD, and even that one, Devon had to admit, was pretty weak. She still asked Olivia to post extra surveillance around him, since Devon had been too busy to be there every day; though, she had been in his office on her days off, shooting death glares at every cop who so much as coughed in Barba’s direction. She was in the process of bargaining time off from Jenkins, first claiming that it was a family emergency, then saying that dating Barba wasn’t “interfering with her work,”—doing 24/7 protection was something she had done for SVU before she was dating Barba. Though Barba was quick to remind her that nothing had happened, she wasn’t quite willing to wait until something did.

Devon confirmed Barba’s late night again, shooting him a text about dinner; he replied with a “get anything you want, don’t wait up for me, I’ll eat in my office tonight.” Knowing him, he wouldn’t order until way too late, so she had plenty of time to make it there. She was kind of shocked no one commented on her outfit at work; she had a simple sundress on rather than her normal jeans and shirt.

As she left the Bureau, she called in a takeout order from his favorite Cuban place—the food was almost as good as his Mamí’s…almost—before heading to the small flower shop in between the restaurant and her work. Devon knew Barba loved giving her gifts, but she liked to reciprocate, too. And she knew that he secretly loved carnations. She had planned this well in advance; she had called the flower shop weeks ago to place an order for two dozen carnations, all different colors. She picked the flowers up, smiling at how pretty they were, and then grabbed the food.

Office of Rafael Barba

1 Hogan Place

Monday, September 18th. 5:07pm

The elevator dinged and Devon stepped off, heading towards her boyfriend’s office. She ran into Carmen as the latter was standing up to leave for the day.

“Those are beautiful, Devon,” Carmen commented, a soft smile spreading across her lips.

Devon grinned back. “Just don’t tell anyone that Rafael likes carnations,” she winked, and Carmen giggled. Devon didn’t think there was anything wrong with men liking flowers, but Barba was sometimes too macho for his own good. Carmen moved around Devon, opening the door for her.

“Delivery for a Mr. Barba,” Devon announced, coming into the office. She heard Carmen chuckle as she closed the door, leaving the two of them alone.

Barba looked up from his desk, eyes widening at the sight of Devon standing there, food in one hand, a vase and carnations in the other. He smirked, standing.

“For me?” He came over, taking the flowers from her and placing a soft kiss on her forehead.

“No, the other Mr. Barba,” she smirked, moving to place the food on his desk, careful not to put it on top of any papers.

“Smartass,” he murmured hugging her, pulling her in for a kiss. She hummed happily, fingers going to the nape of his neck, playing with the soft hairs there.

Devon pulled back, smiling at him. “Have you eaten lunch today?” Before he could answer, his stomach grumbled loudly. “I thought not. Come, let’s eat.” She gave him a playful shove towards the couch while she plucked the bag of food from his desk.

“I’ve got so much work left,” he complained. But still, he went to the couch, sitting down hard.

“And it can wait until you eat,” she replied. She couldn’t fault him too much; she often forgot to eat when working.

She passed him his food, and he groaned as he opened the box, the smell of the food quickly filling the room. “God, what would I do without you?”

“Starve to death, apparently,” Devon said simply, making him chuckle.

They started eating in silence, enjoying each other’s presence. Finally, Barba put his box down, and asked, voice losing its playful tone, “but seriously, what would I do without you?”

Devon glanced at him, seeing how his green eyes were staring into hers, eyes sparkling in that way they did when he was thinking too quickly. She swallowed her food hard, squirming under the intense gaze. “I’m not sure; I’d like to think you’d still be here, working your way towards becoming a judge….”

Barba chuckled; he was going to have to spell it out for her, wasn’t he? But how to go about it…? “I know we’ve talked about it before, on this very couch, but it was so long ago, and things have changed. So, I’d like to ask again; have you ever thought about getting married?”

Realization washed over Devon, her eyes brightening in clarity. Oh…. “I…yes, I have, actually.” Her face flushed at the admission. “But I don’t think I’m ready; not yet. I just…with work and—and everything else—”

“No, it’s fine. I’m not, uh, proposing right now,” he laughed nervously. “I just wanted to know how you felt about it…test the waters, so to speak….”

“Don’t get me wrong; I’d love to marry you, Rafi. I’m just…I don’t know how it’d work with how little we already see each other. Maybe…maybe if I get a transfer in the Bureau? Switch to a desk job or something….”

Barba scoffed, “you’d hate that, though; you’re a field agent through and through. Look, I didn’t mean to put you on the spot. But—I’m just happy to know that you feel the same way I do.”

Devon smiled, moving closer to him on the couch, leaning against his arm. “Of course, I do. I love you so damn much; it hurts whenever I’m not with you.”

He moved his arm to wrap around her, bringing her into his side. “I know, but it’s nice to hear you say it.” He turned his head to kiss her cheek. She grinned evilly, taking this time to throw her leg over his, straddling him, pulling him in for a deep kiss.

“I’ll tell you how much I love you as many times as you want me too. But I’d also like to show you,” she murmured against his lips, grinding her hips against his. He groaned, hands dropping to her hips. She reached behind him, dragging her nails down his clothed back in the way she knew he liked, causing his breathing to hitch. She could feel him hardening against her.

“You know my rule against office sex,” he grunted, breath hot against her neck. It was true; the first time she tried to relieve some of his stress during a late night at work, he declined, citing that this office needed less scandals. Not that he didn’t want to bend her over the desk and fuck her until she screamed. But even this late at night, someone else could come walking into his office at any time.

“What if I only used my mouth? I’m sure you could keep quiet,” she whispered into his ear, dragging her nails down his back again. Fuck, she knew how to push him. She grinded against his now rock-hard cock, his fingertips leaving bruises in the skin of her hips. Barba couldn’t think past the bulge in his pants, the woman kissing his neck, the nails trailing down his back. Fuck it, he thought.

“F-fine, but be quick about it,” he ordered. Devon got up and locked the door, quickly coming back to Barba, dropping to her knees instantly. She used her palm to rub him through his pants, and he tilted his head back at the friction. She undid his belt, unzipped his pants, but left his boxers untouched. Grinning, she leaned forward, mouthing him through the fabric.

“Dammit, Dev, I said quick!” he said, his hips unconsciously rutting forward towards her hot mouth. She innocently looked up at him through her eyelashes, giving him a wink, before pulling him free of his boxers, the cool air of the office against his hot skin making him hiss.

Devon licked her lips before leaning forward, licking around the tip. She used her tongue to follow the prominent vein all the way to the base before coming back, spreading the pre-cum along his shaft. She gripped his base with one hand before taking him in slowly, pushing him deeper, inch by inch, until he hit the back of her throat. She hummed in satisfaction, the vibrations working their way through him.

“F-fuck, Hermosa,” he groaned, eyes fluttering closed. He put a hand on the back of her hand, but more to steady himself than to move her. She pulled him back out to the tip, then took him back in, sucking hard, hollowing her cheeks, and stroking what she couldn’t fit. She did this a couple more times before Barba could no longer control himself, beginning to thrust into her mouth. Devon gagged at first, but relaxed her throat, taking him further and further in. With her free hand, she started massaging his balls gently.

“God, you’re so beautiful, taking my whole cock,” he grunted, starting to pull on her head, fucking her face fully now, chasing his release. She hummed in approval, gripping his thigh, her sign for him to cum. It took him a couple more thrusts before he was cumming deep in her throat, groaning her name into the empty office space. She milked him for everything he had, swallowing all of it. Once he began softening in her mouth, she released him, wiping her mouth with her fingers, sucking the rest of him off her digits.

“Holy fuck, Cariño,” he murmured, watching her with lust-blown eyes.

Devon smirked at him. “Are you sure you don’t want to try office sex?” He quickly tucked himself back into his pants, redoing his belt, before she could see him hardening again at the thought.

“I’m sure. Just wait until I get home tonight,” he replied, pulling her in for a deep kiss. He released her, giving her a sad look, “but I really do have a lot of work to do.”

She chuckled. “I know, baby. I’ll wait up for you.” Then, while making eye contact with him, she reached under her dress, pulling off her drenched panties, and handed them to him. “Just something to remember me by.” She gave him another wink as she unlocked the door, smirking as his eyes darkened, and left.

[kaitycole]

Shoulders Heavy with Guilt

This picks up after Broken Wooden Fence Posts, basically what Drake was doing as Riley spoke to Jackson.

Summary: Drake finally calls Liam

Word Count: 2717

Pairing (for this piece): Riley x Drake

Warnings: Mentions of a hangover and premarital sex. Pretty bland this time.

Part 8 of WP. To catch up read here.

Tag List: @fromthedeskofpaisleybleakmore  @kingliam2019 @texaskitten30 @glaimtruelovealways  @bobasheebaby  @bascmve01  @burnsoslow  @the-everlasting-dream  @ao719  @sirbeepsalot  @janezillow  @i-bloody-love-drake-walker  @kimmiedoo5  @choices97 @marshmallowsaremyfavorite  @lodberg @edgiestwinter @marshmallowsandfire 

*I don’t own the characters, just borrowing them*

A/N: I do not condone the behavior of these characters. Yes, I am writing it, but that doesn’t mean I support their shitty behavior and poor choices. Just FYI. 

THUMP

A slightly hungover Drake falls off the couch after rolling too far to the right. Sitting up, he rubs his forehead and blinks before fully waking up. He checks the clock: 11:30AM, before heading into the bathroom to shower.

“Riley?” He calls out when as he dries his head with one towel while another is tied around his waist, “Ri?”

Where the hell is she?

He begins to walk around the house; checking in the nursery, office and out on the back porch but he can’t find his wife. It’s not until he gets into the kitchen that he finds a note stuck to the fridge door.

Meeting with Lynn to go shopping for the baby. Might be out late. – Riley

He’s a little confused on why she didn’t just wake him up and tell him. But he puts little to no more thought on the subject. Riley was strong and independent, so he wasn’t too concerned. Plus, he couldn’t blame her if she needed space from how he’d been acting the last few weeks.

Speaking of, there was someone that he needed to call, no matter how late it was there.

**

Rubbing his eyes, Liam notices that it’s close to 10PM and he’s still working on this trade deal. He told himself that he would attempt not to stress himself gray until after he found a wife; didn’t look like he’d keep that promise. Just as he gets ready to turn his attention back to the paperwork, his personal cellphone begins to ring.

“Drake?” He tries to hold back a yawn, “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, I know it’s late, but it’s been a while.” Drake lies, he knows that he should just tell Liam, but he’s not sure what mood Liam’s in or how to approach the topic.

He looks back at the paperwork, surely it could wait another day. Drake was right, the two haven’t really spoken in a bit.

“How are things? How’s Riley?” Liam asks, he pushes himself from the desk and begins walking through the room.

“Things are well and so is Riley. However, I wish she’d pick a paint color for the nursery.”

Liam laughs, “Her indecisiveness can definitely keep you on your toes. I’ll stick to trade deals.”

“Does that mean no royal babies are in the works?”

“I’d need a wife for that and I barely leave my office as it is. So, no. You and the rest of Cordonia are just going to have to wait a while.”

Drake chuckles, “I said baby, nothing about a wife.”

“Drake!” Liam laughs again, “The court always said you were a bad influence.”

He seems to be in a good mood, maybe now is the time?

“Yeah yeah yeah, but hey,” he pauses, “I need to tell you something.”

Liam immediately notices the dramatic change in Drake’s tone. It’s rare that Drake said or sounded as serious as he did in that moment, “I’m listening.”

Drake still wasn’t sure how to tell him and he knew that he should’ve told Liam as soon as he saw Jackson. That it was Liam he should’ve called for guidance instead of Leo, but he didn’t. At first, he felt ashamed that after all these years, his dad could be alive and maybe wasn’t the hero he grew to think he was. Then it became guilt, that he enjoyed the time with Jackson and that made him feel like he was somehow betraying Liam. There wasn’t anything the two had ever kept from each other and here Drake was with the bombshell of a century.

“I’m not sure how to say this, so I’m just going to say it.” He pauses, hoping for the universe to do something to prevent this, but nothing happens, “My dad is alive.”

It’s a few moments before Liam responds, “Forgive me, I haven’t had much sleep, it sounded like you said your father was alive.”

“That’s exactly what I said, Liam.” He takes a deep breath, “Jackson Walker, my dad, he’s alive, Liam.”

“That’s impossible. I was there when you buried him. I went to the gravesite with you.”

“I know that, but you have to believe me. He’s alive,” Drake feels a weight lift from his chest, “And it even seems that we have a younger brother.”

Liam’s world stops. Flashes of Jackson and his mother’s funerals resurface, “Who? You and Savannah?”

“And you.”

If it wasn’t for the wall he was leaning against, he would’ve fallen to the ground. There was no way. Jackson Walker wasn’t his father, how could he have another brother? He was Constantine Rys’ son whether he liked it not half the time.

Drake’s too relieved to have the guilt off his shoulders that he doesn’t hear the change in Liam’s tone. He doesn’t pick up on the fact that everything Liam’s believed in, has completely been turned upside down, “His name is Luke Rys Walker and man, Liam, he looks just like you.”

“Rys? You’ve seen my mother?” Liam can tell Drake is talking, but the sound of his heart thumping in his ears makes it hard to make anything out. His mother was dead. He buried her. He grieved her. There was no way that she was alive out there, right? She wouldn’t have left him for Jackson Walker, right?

“Not in person, but there’s pictures of her.” He leaves out the part where Jackson had told him that it’d just been him and Luke for a while. Drake never asked for more information and he didn’t want to tell Liam something he wasn’t sure of.

“I…I have to go.” Liam ends the call without letting him respond. He calls for Bastien immediately, fills him in and sends him away to gather everything he can about Eleanor Rys and Jackson Walker.

Drake looks down at his phone to see the call was ended before he heads back inside the house. He felt with all things considered, Liam took it well, but he was still going to give him time. Hell, he’d known for almost two months and he was still trying to wrap his head around everything.

**

He walks into the nursery and shakes his head, he wants to get started on painting and laying down the hardwood, but he refuses to paint it before he has Riley’s seal of approval. He wasn’t painting this room more than once and that’s exactly what would happen if he painted the original light gray they decided on.

**

Drake checks his phone and sees it’s close to 6PM and he’s yet to hear from his wife. It was rare that she’d be out this late, especially when she was adamant about dinner being at 5:30PM.

Within a few minutes, the phone is to his ear, ringing.

“Hey honey.”

“Are you okay? It’s getting late.” Drake asks, walking into the kitchen.

“Yes, I’m okay. Just got hung up with Lynn.”

Opening the fridge, he looks for something to cook, “Did you two find anything for the nursery? I was in there today, it’s a bit bare.”

“No, I didn’t find anything while shopping.”

“Oh, there’s always next time. I’m thinking of making spaghetti, when will you be here?”

“I’ll be home soon. Say thirty minutes?”

“I’ll see you then. I love—” Drake hears the beeping from the call ending before he finishes.

I wonder why she’s acting so weird today. Pregnancy, I guess.

**

“Drake! I’m home.” Riley says, closing the door behind here and hanging up her purse. She can smell the sauce from the doorway and realizes how hungry she is.

“Hey,” he kisses her forehead, “Did you have a good time with Lynn?”

“Oh, uhm, yeah I did.” Grabbing a glass, she fills it with water before taking a sip, “What were you up to?”

“Oh, I was going to paint the nursery,” he playfully cuts his eyes at her, “but I just called Liam instead.”

“How is he?” Riley feels like she’s about to burst. In their relationship, she’s never lied to him. A few small white lies about birthday and Christmas gifts, but never about something this big. She felt like a fraud.

“Good. No sign of our little having a cousin anytime soon though.”

“Drake Thomas, you did not ask him about that!?” She playfully hits him with the oven mitt.

“I surely did.” He stirs the hamburger into the sauce, “I don’t want our kids to be ten years apart!”

Riley rolls her eyes, “I’m surprised he hasn’t gotten at least engaged. It’s been, what, two years since the social season? Almost three?”

Drake shrugs, “He says he doesn’t leave his office enough to even look.”

“I mean, there were other women at the social season that he wouldn’t have to leave his office to meet.”

Drake raises his brow at his wife, “Such as?”

“Olivia.” She smirks.

“He,” Drake starts before Riley finishes.

“Sees her as a friend. Yeah yeah, I’ve heard that before. But something’s gonna happen where he stops seeing her that way. Bet.”

Drake shakes his head, “Come get a plate, Cupid.”

**

Drake flops down on the couch next to Riley after he’s finished cleaning the kitchen. She’s absentmindedly flipping through channels that he didn’t even realize they paid for.

“Earth to Ri? You okay?”

“Huh? Yeah,” She chews her lips, “Well no.”

“What’s wrong?” He springs into worry mode.

“Calm down, it’s not that serious.” She grabs his hands, “I wasn’t with Lynn today.”

“Oh? Then where were you?”

She bites her lip even harder, worried, “I went to see Jackson.”

“Jackson who?”

“Your dad.”

“How? How did you know where he lived?”

She lets go of his hands as she turns away from him. “I went through your wallet.”

“You went throu…Riley, what the fuck?” He shouts as he stands up.

“I wanted to know why you were acting so strange. You wouldn’t talk to me!”

“So, you went through my personal things? You couldn’t just ask me?”

“I tried! You just drank for days on end. When was I supposed to ask? Between Jameson and Jack Daniel?” She throws her hands up, annoyed.

He knew she was right. He could’ve handled the last few days better than he did, but it didn’t excuse her behavior in the slightest. He begins pacing the room, not sure how to continue the conversation, “You thought I was cheating, didn’t you?”

“What?” She snaps her head in his direction.

“You found an address and number in my wallet. Then you drove there, you thought I was cheating, didn’t you?”

It wasn’t until she heard him say it that she realizes she really did think he was. It had crossed her mind briefly when she initially found the paper, but didn’t dwell on it until she was actually driving towards the address.

He stood there, waiting for her to tell him he was wrong, that she knew that wasn’t even a possibility, but she didn’t. She just sat there, looking at him.

“Really, Ri? I moved across the world for you. I’d move the sun and moon for you. You’re having my baby and that’s the best you think of me?”

“No, Drake. I mean, maybe for a moment, but I didn’t know what to think. That’s why I went there.”

“But you still thought it. I’d never think that about you.” He storms into the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge.

“Getting some more whiskey to deal with your problems rather than talking?”

“Sure am. It’s a new brand called H2O.” He rolls his eyes, “You tell my dad about how his son is a deadbeat that cheats on his pregnant wife?”

Riley glares at Drake, “No. I didn’t tell him I was pregnant. I thought you should do that.”

“Oh, so it’s not your place to tell him you’re pregnant, but it’s your place to go through my things and jump to conclusions?”

“Real nice, Drake.”

“Did you find what you were looking for?” He raises his eyebrows at her.

“What?” She spits at him.

“You went there to get answers, you find them?”

“Obviously since I didn’t know what to expect, I didn’t go looking for anything in particular.”

“Then what’d you do? Seeing how you opened the door to an old man instead of some young and hot raven-haired woman.”

Riley twisted her mouth up, she knew he made that jab on purpose; reminding her of the ridiculous assumption during Liam’s social season that Drake and Kiara had a thing.

“We just talked.”

“You talked? All day?”

“Yes.”

“What’d you talk about?”

She thought back on the nature of what Jackson had told her; all of it being things that Drake should hear from Jackson, not her, “How he and your mother met.”

“You talked to my dad about a story I’ve told you several times?”

But you don’t know the real story. “Amongst other things.”

“Such as?”

“I really think that you should hear it from him. It’s not my story to tell.”

Drake lets out a deep breath. He loves her to death, but she could really piss him off. Then he realized why he was so pissed off.

“So, you’re telling me that he met you and within minutes spills his guts out, but when I, his son, confronted him about who he was, got sent away? What bullshit.” He storms out of the room, slamming the backdoor on his way out.

Riley sighs, maybe going without Drake wasn’t the best decision. However, he did make a good point, but maybe it was easier for Jackson to talk to someone who hadn’t spent their life idolizing him, someone who wasn’t related to him, someone who didn’t expect anything from him. But she could still see where her husband was coming from, everything he thought was a lie which caused her to wonder, how Liam would handle the news.

**

“I’m sorry.” Drake says, rolling over to face her.

After he stormed out to the back yard, Riley had taken a shower and got into bed and it wasn’t long after that Drake got in bed. However, it had been an awkward 45 minutes before either had finally spoken.

“No, I’m sorry. I should’ve just asked you.” She turns the lamp on her nightstand on before looking at him, “I should’ve trusted you.”

He caresses her cheek with his thumb, “I should’ve just told you, even though it felt like no one would listen to me.”

“I hate that I was one of those people.” She presses her forehead to his, “I love you.”

“I love you, Ri. So, what’d you think of Jackson?”

“I think he deserves to tell his side of the story and I know he wants to hear yours.”

“Mine?”

She turns red, she told herself that she wouldn’t go into too much detail. She really did want Drake to hear a lot of what they talked about from Jackson himself. Too late.

“Let’s just say that he didn’t know that your mom left you and Savannah in Cordonia and now he does…”

“He didn’t know?” Drake knits his brows together, “I don’t understand.”

“From what I’ve gathered he thought your mom was still in Cordonia.”

He sits up, his head in his hands, and thoughts clouded. How did he not know what happened? “I don’t understand anything, Ri. Did people really think he died? Or was that a ruse?”

She scoots closer to him, holding his head against her chest.

“Did he tell you? Please just tell me that.”

She runs her fingers through his hair, “He didn’t tell me that, sweetie. But he did want you to come and hear his story.”

He doesn’t respond. The weight of the situation is beginning to weigh on him. It was no longer whether or not this Jackson Walker was his father or not, Drake figured that out. But the heavy questions were starting to come front and center: Was his death faked? Did they know it was faked? Why was it faked if it was? He was too caught up in his hero of a dad being alive, that he didn’t think to stop and realize that maybe he wasn’t the hero he made him out to be.

[jpn-pcos]

Time for a Change and Shift

I think it's time for a change. I am tired feeling exhausted all the time. My body is telling me I need to actively make big changes to improve my health. It's slowly killing me. Dragging myself to work each morning, feeling restless and sad/depressed.  So I need to have some accountability in my life choices and have a work-life-balance.  I will need to decide what is important in my life and give up some things. The problem is, my mind is often preoccupied with so many things. So many life goals and desires. So many activities I wish I could be doing.  During my awaking time, I am suffering. Overthinking!  But this need to stop and actions need to proactively start to manifest into reality.   Starting off, I need to start to change my life schedule. Starting with changing my sleeping pattern and hours of sleeping.  I need to give myself quality sleep. Like how my ASMR videos are helping others with my calm voice. I need to start proactively giving myself this type of ASMR for myself and go into a state of trans.  Starting with trying to create a 9:30pm to 5:30am sleep schedule. I will push myself to do this 5 days a week on Monday to Friday.  On the weekends I can extend the sleep schedule to 11pm to 8am. I need to function on my own time and not on the basis of matching someone else's time. For so long I had always tried my best to match my boyfriend/significant other/ or lover's time schedule. And frankly I have learned, it doesn't work for me.  It causes me more harm than good. And are they appreciative of my efforts?  I don't think so. At least I don't feel they are. So now, the time for compromise is over. They will need to mash with my time schedule.  So lets start with the shift in sleep pattern. So on Monday to Friday, I will try to train my body to wake up at 5:30am, get ready and leave my house by 6:30am.  Walk to the N train station by 7:30am. Let's do this for a week and see how I feel.  On the weekends, I will sleep at 11pm and wake up at 8am, then get ready and leave the house by 9am to take a long walk along the beach or neighborhood.  Eat breakfast and then come back before noon to start the rest of my day.  Let's try this for two weeks and see what happens. These changes they need to be slow, steady and progressive and I need to be accountable for my choices. I will start this starting Today after work. I hope, I can put this plan into action. I will force myself to. No point putting it off to tomorrow. When I can do it today.

As a reminder -  I will write out my schedule:

Monday to Friday – Sleep at 9:30pm and Wake up at 5:30am Saturday and Sunday – Sleep at 11:00pm and Wake up at 8:00am

Monday to Friday – leave house at 6:30am and walk to N train station (arrive by 7:30am); take train to work. Saturday and Sunday – leave house at 9:00am and go walk, exercise, and eat breakfast. Return back home before Noon.

[stephiebutton]

So on Thursday before Coachella, my friend (who bows at the Altar of Ariana) sent me Ari’s posts on IG — one of the *NSYNC pay per view concert in which baby Ari was in the audience; and the new video of her lip syncing to Tearin’ Up My Heart. I thought maybe he was trying to convert me to an Arianator, but I honestly didn’t think much of it, nor did he, so I was just like ok, that’s cute!

On Friday, I had several people text me over a two hour timeframe when the rumors started spreading that *NSYNC may be playing Coachella—all while I was at work and couldn’t really wrap my head around it or even take the time to research it myself. At first I was like REALLY? Then I was like REALLY! By Friday evening, I knew something was going to go down, I just didn’t know what. I had convinced myself that they were going to perform, and that I had to be there, and I even researched flights and tickets; but then, I convinced myself that they were only going to introduce her, and I didn’t need to go. I was scheduled to close at work Sunday night, so I basically threw my hands in the air and was like “Oh well, I can’t go.”

Saturday rolled around, and I had a nagging feeling that I needed to try harder to make it happen, because whatever was going down was something that I needed to see. I knew that if I didn’t try everything I could, I would regret it. I had to close at work Saturday night, which means I had to be there around 3pm and work until 11:30pm. The gal that was scheduled to open on Sunday was still there when I arrived, so as she was getting ready to leave, I said “I need a favor...” and for some reason, I hesitated in asking her, like I didn’t really know what to say or how to say it, like the answer could actually change my life, so I just looked at her with a weird sideways smile, then finally asked if she could switch with me, so I come back and open Sunday morning instead of closing. She said she had to check with her family and see if they had plans, and she would get back to me. Thirty minutes after she left, she texted and said it was all good, that we could switch! From that point on, everything just snowballed. I had the biggest obstacle out of my way, so now to make the rest happen...

I went back and fourth about a ticket to the event. At first, I was like, “I’ll figure it out when I get down there,” like I usually do for most concerts I attend. I checked Stub Hub first, and was willing to pay whatever I needed to, but the only problem with that was because Coachella uses wristbands, not tickets, all bands had to be picked up in person. I called them to see what the latest pick up time was, and if anyone could pick up for me, and all other options I could think to exhaust, but it ended up not working out since I wasn’t going to get down there until much later. At that point, I was like “YOLO, I’ll find someone selling one outside!” But then I realized how late I was going to get there, and was like, “dude, if I don’t have a ticket by time I get there, no one is going to be hawking them; so I’m screwed!”

Then finally, I turned to the one place that scares me the most, Craigslist! I went through the posts, most were wristbands for Weekend 2, but I found one for Weekend 1, advertised for the cheapest I had seen any advertised, anywhere! I replied via text immediately, really not thinking I’d get a reply since the event was well underway and the wristband had probably already been sold. To my surprise, within minutes, the postee replied. I asked if it was still available, and he (I didn’t know if it was a he, she or other at the time) replied that yes, it was, but someone was supposed to pick it up later. But he also said that so many people had flaked already, that he wasn’t counting on it. After confirming it was a Weekend 1 wristband, I told him that I wanted it, 100%, guaranteed! The only problem was that he had advertised it from San Francisco and I was across the Bay, and I wouldn’t be able to pick it up until after midnight. He then replied that he was actually in Oakland, which happened to be the city right next to me! I couldn’t believe it! Aaaaand, it was only $200, which happened to be the EXACT amount of money I had in my wallet, and usually I don’t carry any cash at all! I let the mid shift manager know that I had to step out to make a miracle happen!

I’m not going to lie, I was like, “what if it’s a serial killer?!” “What if it’s a ploy to rob me?!” “Am I going to die?!” So I shared the address with the other manager in case the cops needed to know where to find my body. Two associates hugged me in case they never saw me again, and I was on my way. I texted the other manager when I got to the pick up spot, but I didn’t see her reply immediately, so I didn’t reply right away. She was worried that the “Craigslist murderer” kidnapped me and had been the one to text her that I was there safely, even though he had probably already cut me into pieces, just to throw off suspicion. 😂😂 😂 (we may or may not have seen too many SVUs or CSIs). All in all, it took less than 10 minutes to get there, less than 5 minutes for the exchange, and less than 10 minutes back. The course of my life changed in less than a lunch break! Now the second hurdle had been cleared.

I texted a few friends a picture of the Coachella box and they were all in semi-disbelief/not really surprised/kinda amazed/planning my *NSYNC junkie intervention. But they knew, if anyone was going on this adventure, it was me!

I had posted on Facebook trying to get someone to ride down to So Cal with me, so that I wasn’t traveling alone (I would have anyways, but company is always appreciated on long journeys). I was trying to talk my friends and fellow fans into winging it and coming along, but no bites. Finally, at about 9pm, one of my cousins replied and said she, her husband, and their baby girl were considering going down to Disney to join some of their family, and if I was still looking for some road dogs, they were in.

Schedule, check; wristband, check; road dogs, check. Everything was coming together.

I was home from work at 11:30pm, picked a few outfits, packed, showered, and was in bed by 2am. I met with my mom at 6:30am to exchange cars since hers was a little bit more current with the maintenance, and then I was back at work at 7am to get the building open and operating. The morning is still a blur. My fellow manager arrived at 11am, and I was out the doors by 11:30. I met my cousin and family at noon, and we were on our way. We got an hour into the drive and then the gas light came on. I was so excited that I had freaking forgot to get gas before we left! Like it never even crossed my mind. I had one mission, and I forgot all the steps I still needed to take to get there 😂. Luckily we were still close to civilization, so filling up happened, then we proceeded on the adventure of a lifetime. I think we only stopped a couple times for gas and a baby break on that six hour journey to our first stop. Let me tell you, my baby cousin is a true hero! That 5 month old was so well behaved, didn’t need a whole lot, and was just a little trooper. My cousin-in-law did a lot of the driving on the way down and I am so grateful for that, because it had already been a long day leading up to the trip, and it was going to be an even longer night...

We arrived in Anaheim around 6:15pm. They got checked in their room, my cousin-in-law took the car to fill up, while I got ready and prepped for the last two hour stretch of the trip.

I was officially en route to Coachella by 6:45pm. I remember eating very little all day because I just couldn’t, and I remember snacking on an apple and some goldfish during those last two hours to Coachella. (This is irrelevant but I’m throwing in all the deets I can recall).

I had never been anywhere near Coachella or Palm Springs, so I was really disoriented when I finally made it to that last highway before the getting to my destination. Traffic wasn’t horrible, but it was still quite a trek, so I was slowly getting anxiety with each passing minute. I followed directions directly to the fairgrounds, however, it was about 8:45pm at that point, and the streets were blocked a mile in every direction. I circled the area looking for anywhere to park, feeling helpless, I finally pulled over to ask someone what to do, and they informed me that parking had JUST shut down (at this point it was about 9pm). They suggested that I park at a shopping center and Uber in. I found a shopping center 3 miles away and requested an Uber. I was throwing things in my fanny pack trying to get it together because my Uber was on its way. The guy was only able to get me a mile and a half closer because of the street blockages, so I sped walked a mile and a half in, and started the winding path through the gates of Coachella.

I knew Ariana was scheduled to play at 10:30pm, and at this point it was probably 9:30pm, I was close enough, and I knew I would make it. I was no longer worried about making it in, but now I was having major anxiety and freaking out, and semi-crying at what might be happening in the next hour. There was a lot of talking to myself on that walk, the main message to myself was “BITCH BE COOL!” I knew it wouldn’t be a long line, since it was so late and the night was almost over. People were actually leaving as I was walking in and I’m thinking to myself, “don’t you people understand that *NSYNC is about to be on that stage?! Y’all are going to regret leaving early! I wonder how you are going to feel knowing you missed this when everyone would be talking about this in the morning!” But ya know what, not my problem. Their loss!

The walk into the festival felt just as long as the walk to the fairgrounds. It felt like miles of a fenced off path, which was made of dirt, but not just any dirt. The chunks of dirt were so huge, it was like walking on rocks. I was certain I was about to sprain my ankle, but I reminded myself that it would be worth it and the hospital would be there when it was over.

I made it through the gated path, nothing sprained, just a little sweat. I made it through security, and I was IN. I had absolutely no idea where I was going. I threw this trip together so last minute that I had no time to prep. I walked over to a tent covered stage. It was a big stage and I was like is this it?! I was looking for some sign labeling the stage or some list of set times, and found nothing. I asked around, the first two security people I asked were no help! One was so rude, he was like, “I don’t know, did you look at your map!” I’m thinking “mother f-er, don’t you think if I had a map I would know where the F I’m going, why would I waste my precious breath speaking to you?! I was like “dude, I JUST got here and there is no map and I need to know where the main stage is.” So his rude ass referred me to someone else who was nicer, but said that he didn’t know where the main stage was. I’m thinking “are you people kidding me?! How are you working the most popular festival known to mankind and you can’t tell me where the main stage is?!” A little panic started to set in. It was dark, it was getting late, her set was rapidly approaching, and I had no idea where I was going. So finally, I was referred to another guy, who actually pointed me in the right direction. He’s like “its all the way on the other side, past that tent, past the beer garden and you’ll see it.” The act that was on the stage I had first seen upon entrance had just started, and some people were running towards me to get to it, so I was going against traffic, but my destination was clear now. Once I had the stage in my sight, I stopped for a water. The girl selling those very reasonably priced water bottles (only 2 bucks! That was practically free in festival land) was like “I like your shirt” (an *NSYNC crop tee simply styled with *NSYNC across the chest. [PS I DON’T wear crop tops, but I figured, cuando en Coachella right?!]). And I simply asked, “this is the place right?” And she just enthusiastically nodded Yes. It was about to go down. I tried to locate a restroom, because I mean, I had just spent 2+ hours driving and chugging an energy drink and water, making no stops, but there were no restrooms in sight, and I was not about to walk back to the entrance where they were. I had done way too much just to get within eye shot of that stage, I figured, what’s a little pee in my pants?! It was probably gonna happen upon seeing *NSYNC for the first time in 17 years anyways! (PSS I didn’t actually pee my pants. I think my whole body had shut down at the point because nothing more was going to get in my way).

I kinda of walked back and fourth across the field, I walked all the way down the right side. I had one friend there already, but trying to get in contact with anyone in that mass of people was impossible. It was hard to tell where a good spot would be, because a lot of people were sitting down, so getting an accurate read was not happening. I knew just being there was all I needed, regardless of what I could or couldn’t see, but I really did want to see SOMETHING. My brain was all over the place, I was like “I could just start pushing through people. I could go all the way up front but all the way to the side,” the options were limitless. I ultimately didn’t want to cause any drama by pushing through people, I didn’t want a harsh angle of the stage, so I figured if I was semi central I would at least catch a glimpse of whatever was going down, no matter how far back I was standing. I couldn’t actually get centered because the sound and lighting booth was to my left and the people were too packed in to get through any further, not to mention there was a fenced off area in the middle for VIPs. (In fact, that’s where Billie Eilish and Justin Bieber were meeting. I remember seeing the crowd directly around that spot all holding up their lights and phones. I heard rumblings that it was Bieber, but I could not possibly care less, I’m not a fan [again, another irrelevant point, but it’s part of my memory, so whatevs!]) I settled on my spot and reminded myself that being there was enough. I’ve also done enough GA shows to know that when the show starts, people push in and up, so that was going to be my game plan.

By this time, it was probably about 10pm, and I only had thirty minutes to go! I was calm and quiet, because the ONLY thing I wanted in life might actually be happening, and I was there, I was a part of it. Ariana might have been a few minutes behind schedule, and I had no clue when the song I was waiting for would be coming, so I stayed calm and waited for it. It was the fourth song in, and when I heard the first cords to “Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored” I immediately started crying, and my camera went up in the air. If *NSYNC was actually going to be there, this was the song. This was my entire trip, the whole saga, coming to its peak, my dreams potentially coming true, 17 years of waiting. This was it!

I honestly couldn’t see much, and I didn’t even see them walk on the stage. This was either going to be the greatest moment of my life, or the biggest disappointment I’ve ever experienced. When the song came to a pause, and she looked over her shoulder, and then uttered the words I’d waited so long to hear again, I lost my whole ass mind. “Ladies and Gentlemen, *NSYNC!” I basically blacked out at that moment, and I only remember bits and pieces. I know I still couldn’t see, but what glimpse I did catch, I really only saw JC at first and I was like “is it just him?” And for a tenth of a second, I was thoroughly confused, but still getting my life and losing my ever loving mind! My eyes darted around, and I finally caught a glimpse of everyone else. (I also still didn’t know if Justin was there or not, because I knew it was physically possible that he be there, albeit, highly unlikely. Honestly, I’ll always love Justin, even though I can’t stand him much of the time, and I did secretly hope he would have made it to this, but I was perfectly fine with the fact that he ultimately wasn’t there). I didn’t know what my camera was recording, and I didn’t care, because this moment was everything. When the song ended, I stopped recording, because that was it...or so I thought. I had never even imagined that there would be more and I was so content with them just singing “It Makes Me Ill.” I didn’t have any time to process because immediately after that ended, “Tearin Up My Heart” started and my blackout went even darker. I managed to get my phone recording again, I still couldn’t see a thing, but it didn’t matter. What I do remember was the people right in front of me, looking back at me, and staring. I still have no idea why, because it could have been my screaming, it’s possible it was my singing, it might have been me sobbing, I may have even bumped them while jumping around. I was not aware of anything I was physically doing. I do remember Ari in the middle hitting that choreography so hard, and when Joey yelled “Let me see you jump!” I think that’s when I snapped back in to reality and I started processing things again. I went even harder with the dancing, singing and jumping, because it was one of those moments when I found myself actively living in the moment, and I wanted to live it the best I could. I’ve probably never smiled that huge in my life. As the song wound down, I stayed recording just in case more was coming (not that I needed anything else, because my life was complete in that moment), so I have them thanking the crowd and Ariana and that was a perfect way to wrap up that video.

Once they cleared the stage, I had to catch my breath, gather myself, and keep

from crumbling to the floor. I remember leaning over with my hands on my knees, trying to get my vision and hearing back. Attempting to process anything that had just happened. I had had a brief exchange with the guy next to me before Ari hit the stage and I was like “I’m here for *NSYNC” and I showed him my shirt. While I was trying to compose myself, he put his hands on my shoulders and was just like “OH MY GOD!” I think that was the general consensus of the crowd, because it was that epic. I stayed for her whole set, and appreciated everything she brought to the stage, but nothing would top *NSYNC. It was one of those show stopping, jaw dropping moments that could never be duplicated.

Because cell service had been so bad during the show, I just put my phone on airplane mode, as to not drain the battery, and I honestly, didn’t give a crap about the outside world. Not a lot of people knew I was going, and I didn’t want to jinx anything, so I kept the details of the trip very quiet, with the exception of a few friends I had texted or messaged directly. So once all was sang and done, I turned airplane off, only to be blasted with texts from friends who knew I was there, checking to see if I was still alive. Because I hadn’t replied immediately, a few of them thought I was dead in the dirt in the desert 😂😂😂😂.

The crowd was clearing out, and I was trying to coordinate a meet up with a friend of mine who scored a wristband earlier that same day. She was the only person I knew there, and I’m so glad I had someone to squeeze after the greatest moment of my life! We went to good ol’ Denny’s to hang out and further bask in the glory of the evening! We had mutual friends, and were pals on social media, but never had the chance to hang out together, so it was great to catch up and squeal about what we witnessed!

Finally, around 2am, I headed out of Indio, and I was on my way home. Yes, this trip was a down and back adventure. I knew it would be brutal, but I knew that it would be worth it. I drove about 3 hours up, and stopped to nap in the car, for what was supposed to be a 30 minute cat nap, but turned into a couple hours 😂. I was on a time crunch because I was due to be back at work at 11am. I got back on the road at 5am and the journey continued. I had exhausted so much energy at the show, that the last five hours of the drive home were harsh! I had to stop several times to stretch and keep my blood flowing, and at one point I knew I wasn’t going to make it to work on time, so I let my manager know. She knew I had gone, and knew I was insane, and was shocked I was still driving home, so she was cool with me coming in an hour or so late 🙏🏻. I made it home to shower and change, then made it to work for another nine hours. Although I was exhausted, I had the comfort of knowing that I had just experienced one of my top two moments in life (the other being the Star Ceremony) and the smile never left my face.

The entire adventure officially lasted less than 48 hours. I’m still amazed that everything went down the way that it did. I’m a strong believer in “if it’s meant to be, it will be.” And this was just another example of that being true for me, and especially when it comes to *NSYNC. I have experienced so many cool things and have countless memories thanks to those guys, and this moment will go down as one of the greatest!

[time-to-be-awesome]

A day in the life of Amy

Thursday 14th May 2020

Note - I know this is very long and I hope it doesn’t come across as self-obsessed. I was inspired by the Refinery29 Money Diaries which I find fascinating. I love getting a real insight into other people’s lives so maybe other people will find this interesting? Even if they don’t I know I’ll be glad to have this snapshot of this time in my life to look back on later.

I am 28 years old and live in Yorkshire, England. I live on my own in a rented 1 bedroom flat. I am a mental health social worker but have been working from home during lockdown. I am currently trying to lose weight and get fitter. This is a day in my life.

7:30am Alarm goes off. I spend a couple of minutes checking the BBC coronavirus morning update whilst I wake up. Have a big glass of chilled water and take my tablets for my underactive thyroid. I get dressed into workout leggings and a baggy t-shirt, put on a hoody and a light coat. I make a coffee in my travel mug.

8:00am I set off on my morning walk. The rules were changed this week so I can now exercise outside for an unlimited amount of time, whereas I was previously having to stick to once a day for about an hour. I am very lucky to live close to a big area of interconnected woods and fields that are public access. People have been painting stones and leaving them along the side of the footpaths. There are new ones almost every day, and other people move them to make it a sort of treasure hunt. There isn’t a cloud in the sky and I feel my spirits lift immediately as I walk in the sun and drink my coffee. I listen to the birdsong and as I get to a remote patch of brambles I walk very slowly and quietly. I’m rewarded with the sight of 12 wild rabbits grazing and hopping about before they inevitably spot me and scurry away.

8:50am I get back home. I tracked the walk on the Mapmywalk app and it tells me I burnt 258 calories, but the main benefit is getting the fresh air and a positive start to my day. I make my regular breakfast – one protein weatabix with milk, low-fat greek yoghurt, a chopped banana, mixed berries, and a sprinkle of a seed mix.

9:00am I set up my work laptop on my dining table and log in. I finish eating my breakfast whilst going through my emails and making a to-do list for the day. My first task is to write up a review that I did recently with a service user. It was a very positive review, they have been building their independence and can now manage their daily life with much less involvement from carers. I phoned the care agency to check their rates and then update the support plan with the new lower weekly cost. I call the service user to let them know that the change has been made and we agree that it is time for me to end my involvement. I spend the rest of the morning writing a closing summary of all the case work I have done with them since I was allocated a year ago.

12:15pm I’m already in my workout clothes so I get out my exercise mat and use my lunch break to complete day 2 of Chloe Ting’s Summer Shred Challenge. Today there are four videos including the warm up and cool down and it takes me an hour in total. I mostly do the modified versions but even following the video I can’t begin to fathom how to do a side plank hip abduction! I take sips of water throughout and by the time I’ve finished I’ve drunk two pints. I don’t have a fitness tracker so I don’t track the calories burnt by these workouts.

1:15pm Lunch break is technically over, but working from home has to have some perks and I think a bit of flexibility on working hours is one of those. I have a quick shower and get changed into my ‘day’ leggings and baggy t-shirt. I don’t have to do any video calls so there’s no need to look professional and its comfort all the way. I make my lunch – cut up veggies with hummus, some rice crackers and a triangle of cheese. I’ve very hungry by now so eat quite quickly. Not satisfied so I also have a packet of sweet chilli multigrain wave crisps and a glass of diet cloudy lemonade.

1:35pm I log back on to my laptop. Unfortunately three of my service users have passed away from Covid-19 in the past few weeks so I email the team admin so the records can be updated with their date of death. I had spent a lot of one to one time with one of the gentleman and I feel upset and guilty that he passed away after moving to a care home that I had helped organise. I ring his son to offer my condolences and share a happy memory of the gentleman.

2:00pm I phone a placement to follow up a safeguarding referral. A service user was given an extra dose of medication, but it didn’t have any negative effect and the managers have discussed it with the staff member responsible. Determined that no further action was needed. Discussed how the placement was going in general and there were no other issues and no further role for me. I’d been due to close the case anyway so I wrote up another closing summary.

3:30pm I decide I need a snack, partly because I’m hungry but also because I want a bit of a break. I’ve been using up the food I had in the house so I don’t have many options and go for two digestive biscuits. I start typing up a mental capacity assessment that I completed over the phone. The service user in question isn’t able to make the decision themselves whether they should have home care or not. Part of the job is making the decision of what is in the person’s best interest and they don’t always agree with that. This has caused a lot of issues for this person in the past and I’m not feeling very optimistic about their situation.

4:30pm My concentration has gone out the window. I start thinking about what I’ll make for dinner. I usually make a batch of something on a Monday that’s enough for 4 or 5 portions and I just have to heat it up, but I’ve already run out of my last batch cook. I have most of the ingredients for a bean pot so make a shopping list of the other things I’ll need.

5:00pm I log off from my work laptop, switch my leggings for jeans, and head out for another walk. I want to put some space between my work day and my free time. Whilst I’m walking I phone my mum and we have a good 45 minute catch up. She hadn’t been feeling very well and said talking to me really cheered her up so I’m glad I did.

5:45pm I go to the supermarket on the way home. My closest store is a Lidl and it’s generally pretty well stocked now that everyone has stopped panic buying. I get the ingredients I need, as well as some bits for breakfasts and lunches, and I impulse bought a house plant. Total spend was £22.37. When I get back home the Mapmywalk app tells me that I burnt 338 calories.

7:00pm I put the shopping away and sat down for a second and suddenly it’s 7. I start making the bean pot following a random recipe I found online. Don’t realise until it’s too late that it calls for 50 minutes of simmering time, but that is a fairly typical move for me. Whilst I’m waiting I put some laundry away and have a general tidy up.

9:00pm Dinner is finally ready! I created it as a recipe on Myfitnesspal and it came out as 700 calories per portion. In total today I’ve eaten 1551 calories and burnt 596 through exercise. I eat my dinner whilst watching Lucy Wood’s latest youtube video. Her videos honestly feel like catching up with a friend, even if that does make me sound like an internet weirdo!

9:30pm I put on an ASMR video from TingTing ASMR. The soft whispering and trigger sounds are very relaxing and the best ones make my scalp tingle. I’d jotted down some notes about my day as I went along so I make them into this post. If I hadn’t spent so long making dinner I probably would have watched a Disney film. I’m watching the Disney Classics in order and the next one will be Sleeping Beauty.

10:30pm I’m going to put this post on tumblr then put my laptop and phone away so I don’t get too distracted. I’ll read for about 30 minutes, my current book is ‘Once upon a river’ by Dianne Setterfield. I usually end up going to sleep 11- 11:30pm, ready to do it all again tomorrow!

[keepingupwithabi]

Guess What Day It Is?

*sighs deeply*

Hi guys, welcome back to my blog. 

Today has been one of those non-stop kind of days. I started the day like any other: I woke up, showered, got dressed. Then I cleaned my car off and headed to Dunkin because guess what?! I had to get an oil change and inspection sticker. That was an adventure all in its own, the guy literally forgot to put a new sticker on so I left thinking I was all set only to get home and realize I didn’t have a current inspection sticker. After calling the car place, they were really nice and just had me come back so they could put it on. 

Once that situation was sorted, I picked up my friend and we headed to the store to pick up some groceries. Tomorrow is my apartment’s “Friendsgiving” and I am in charge of the green bean casserole, sweet potato pie (well, Patty Labelle made that for me), and squash. I have also taken it upon myself to make name cards for the place settings... just as a sweet touch. I might find some type of activity where everyone writes down something they’re thankful for then we put it in a bowl and pick it out and we all have to try and guess who wrote it.

ANYWAYS. Upon returning home from the grocery store, I found one of my roommates mid-meltdown due to the apartment common spaces not being clean enough. To give some background, the past day and a half have been pretty tense. I think all our hormones are kind of raging right now, it’s a little crazy. There has been some arguing.

So back to what happened. I helped my manic roommate clean the kitchen, bathroom, and mudroom to her liking. After that, she made up with my other roommate and I swear to God we all had a kumbaya moment, folks. 

Upon all this, I ate a quick lunch and got ready for work. That has literally been my day. A crazy kind of shit show-- excuse my language. But any type of schedule I had totally and completely got tossed out the window because life TOTALLY happened. 

Tuesday was a better day, though. I know I’m back tracking, but I got everything I had planned done. 

I went to history class for 11am.  

I ran the UTimes meeting and got everything on the agenda accomplished (meaning I got through a list of things I needed to go over with my staff writers)

I got my big communications report draft handed back, stay tuned because I have another draft due next Tuesday and there are a TON of edits I have yet to make (this will be the third draft). 

I presented my Spanish project and dipped from class early (it was snowing really bad last night and since it’s a late night class, he let us leave when we were done).

I came home and got some homework done-- thank goodness, because I clearly had NO time until 8:30pm Wednesday. 

Tomorrow will probably end up being another one of those days where I’ll just be running non-stop. Here’s what I have to look forward to:

9:30am: Wake up.

11:am-12:15pm: History.

2:00-3:15pm: PCJ.

3:20-4:45pm: Run to store for any last minute needs for dinner, prep squash, make sure turkey is cooking, get casserole stuff ready. 

5:00-6:15pm: Spanish.

6:15-8:00pm: Homework, cook, get table set.

Dinner is sadly going to be pretty late tomorrow because two of my roommates have basketball games, which is fine, but it’s just going to be a long day. 

Believe me when I say that I am going to need a FULL bottle of wine to make it through tomorrow evening. Thank goodness I don’t have anything early on Friday because I have a feeling I am going to be exhausted. 

Any who, I think the last day and a half has taught me a lot about how I manage everything. I honestly don’t know how I do it. I think I just tell myself that it’s one foot in front of the other. At this point, I also remind myself that it’s just a few more weeks till I am home for a month with my boyfriend and family... also, one more week until turkey day. 

I’ll be sure to take pictures of how our “friendsgiving” goes, I’ll also be sure to give you a full report of it in Friday’s blog post. 

That’s all for now folks! 

Yours truly,

Abi

p.s.-- my roommate asked my what day it was earlier and you best believe I looked at her like she had three heads as I responded, “HUMP DAAAAYYYYYY”. So, that’s why I chose the photo I did. 

Goodnight! 

[thecampbellfam]

Jasper’s Birth Story

I knew there was the possibility of Jasper being born past his due date but I’ll admit that I expected that he’d be born early like Wesley was. Much to our surprise, our due date came and went with not a single sign of labour. Jasper must have known that some life things would come up and we’d need those extra 5 days to be fully settled for his arrival. 

On Monday, February 25th, I finally had my first contraction at around 10:30am. It was a relief to know that my body remembered how to go into labour. My midwife, Jen, called shortly after to discuss induction as I was nearing 41 weeks. My midwives allow a woman to go to 42 weeks pregnant to allow time for natural labour to happen. After that point an induction would need to happen. My midwives apparently needed a week to schedule the induction, which was why Jen was calling. On the phone I told her I’d been having some contractions for the last 45 minutes. We agreed that if labour didn’t progress that we’d talk about when to induce at my pre-scheduled appointment on Wednesday, February 27th. For the next few hours I stayed on my feet hoping that it would speed up labour and encourage baby to move down. I tidied the house, made lunch, worked on some jars, and I was even planning to make cookies. At 1:15pm I let my Doula, Keri, know that early labour had begun. She asked a few questions via text and then called so she could hear my voice. Contractions were fairly sporadic and without much rhythm at that point. I was leaking discharge but had no bloody show yet so we agreed that she’d be on standby until I needed support. I also let Keri know that my least favourite midwife at the practice (Jen) was on-call that day. I let Keri know this just in case I needed a bit of extra space or help in that situation if Jen was the midwife at the delivery. 

Nic had been working in the morning to finish up a jobsite and run some work related errands. I had texted him a few times that morning to ask how his day was going, but didn’t mention that I was in early labour. I asked him to text me when he was done his errands because “I needed him to pick-up something from the store.” Once he called, I admitted that I was in early labour and that he should head home. He arrived home at 2:15pm which was when I texted my friend, Serena, to let her know that I was in early labour. Serena was planning to be at the birth, as she had been at Wesley’s too and is an excellent friend and support to both Nic and I. She was at school until 6:30pm so wasn’t sure that she’d make it in time if the birth happened quickly. At 3:00pm my contractions were still sporadic but hadn’t stopped coming. They ranged from every 2 minutes to every 11 minutes, lasting 30-60+ seconds. However, there was still no rhythm to the contractions. By this point, I was exhausted. Nic’s mom, Erin, came over for a quick visit right as I was getting ready for a nap. I didn’t want her to know that I was in early labour so I had to sit for a half hour having regular contractions while pretending that everything was okay. As soon as she left, I laid down for a little bit. 

By 5:00pm my contractions were still sporadic and I was low on energy. Sitting down on the toilet to pee was excruciating. Nic made us dinner and I ate a tiny bit. At 7:00pm the contractions started to increase in intensity and I had a little bit of bloody show. Contractions were between 35-50 seconds and every 3.5-7 minutes (but mostly every 6-7 minutes). Keri called and reminded me to rest as she could tell that I was getting tired. Serena said she was on her way over. I was starting to feel defeated and wondered if I should just go to bed to rest or if I should continue walking around to encourage labour to become active. At 7:30pm the midwife, Jen, who had spoken with me in the morning called to apologize for her earlier phone call. She had been unclear with me about what the next steps for induction were and felt badly about that. I let her know that the contractions I’d mentioned in the morning had not stopped and that I may be having the baby soon without the induction. 

At 8:00pm, I laid down in our bed while Nic put Wesley to bed. Serena came over and laid down beside me to see how I was doing. Over the course of the next half hour the contractions, even while laying down, were increasing in intensity. Every second contraction was excruciating. At 8:30pm I got up to get a snack. The contractions suddenly got really intense and I promptly vomited twice. Serena used a handheld massager and counter pressure on my back to help me cope with the contractions. By 9:15pm the contractions were very close together. Keri offered to come over and give us some support, which we accepted. It was at this point that we called the midwives to let them know that everything was progressing. Within 15 minutes we realized it was time to leave for the hospital immediately. We packed up the last minute items and loaded everything into the car, including a barf bowl for me, and were on the road to the hospital at 9:39pm. Keri had just arrived at the house and said she’d follow us. Serena did the same. 

We arrived at the hospital at 10:05pm. Nic dropped me off by the front doors and I slowly made my way into the hospital, while having regular contractions. I briefly thought about checking myself in and registering but decided against it as I was all alone and the emergency room looked packed. I made my way to the elevators at which point Keri met me and we made our way upstairs. I pressed the button for the wrong floor but a kind woman in the elevator gently told me that I needed the 3rd floor. ;) I made my way to triage, laid in the bed, and then had a massive vomit session after some extremely painful contractions. Nic and Serena joined us, and then were sent back downstairs to check me in. Keri stayed by my side, ready to catch vomit and support me as needed. Nic and Serena rejoined us quickly after and helped give me support through contractions as I had a few tests done.  

At 10:37pm I was checked. My midwife team was a student named Carly and the midwife that I’m not a huge fan of, Jen. Carly was the main one doing the checks and administering care. Carrie did a vaginal check and seemed surprised. I thought by her expression that she was going to tell me that I wasn’t dilated enough. She wanted Jen to check me too to confirm that she had the right information. To my surprise I was 8cm (almost 9!) with bulging waters. Definitely active labour! I was told to make my way to the delivery room down the hall, so I waddled over there with fluid leaking out of me. Once in the delivery room, contractions remained intense and frequent. It was all hands on deck whenever I had a contraction. Counter pressure on my back was necessary. I was told to pee and it was again excruciating to try and sit. I was able to stand for a few contractions before I asked to lay down again. Keri and Serena told me to try being on all fours. They brought in a yoga ball which I leaned over at the top of the bed. This is where I remained for the rest of the labour. 

At 11:32pm I started to push naturally. After a minute or two of pushing, Carly let me know that my waters still hadn’t broken. She gave me two options: 1. Continue to push and see if my waters would break naturally (which could make for a long time of pushing). 2. Manually break the waters (though there was a risk of infection if there was meconium in the waters). On the next push I bore down so hard that my waters exploded EVERYWHERE. After that came a moment of laughter at the explosion of my waters (and at me for stating the obvious: “My waters broke!”). I continued to push hard with each contraction as the pressure was intense and I wanted that baby out. I continued to make everyone laugh as I started to self-motivated myself by saying: “I can do this. I can do this.” I was pushing so hard and feeling baby move down very quickly. I was told to slow down, which I thought was because of tearing. I later learned that it was because they were worried that baby would fall out if I pushed any harder. I soon pushed baby’s head come out. One of his shoulders got stuck and Carly helped to guide his shoulder out and then he just fell out into her arms. 

At 11:41pm on February 25th baby Jasper was born! He was a surprisingly huge 10 pounds, 5 ounces, 21.5 inches long with a full head of hair. I had some second degree internal tearing that my midwife stitched up. Jasper had a raspy breathing sound so we were in the recovery room for a while. The nurse really wanted us to move to the maternity floor but our midwives insisted on staying until Jasper’s breathing was deemed “normal.” Turns out the hospital was full and there were a TON of babies being born, so they were really needing our delivery room ASAP. 

Nic had to go get our bag and pay for parking right around the time that we were cleared to be moved to the maternity floor. Our nurse helped me gather our things and wheel me and baby up to the maternity floor. We were in our (shared) room by 2:30am. I felt so bad for the other family in our room as our nurse wasn’t particularly quiet at giving us instructions for the evening. Nic met us in our room soon after we got there. I took a few minutes to wash my face and put on an adult diaper and pajamas before cozying into bed with Jasper around 3am. I barely got any sleep that night but was feeling energized as I was high on adrenaline. 

At 6am a nurse came in to give Jasper his firth bath and do some final checks on Jasper and I. Then she gave us the okay to be discharged. Nic went and got the car seat, we did the car seat check and loaded up the car before hitting the road at 7:45am. I let my sister know that baby was born if she wanted to come and take photos of Wesley meeting him. She enthusiastically agreed but needed a bit of time to get to our house. So we slowly made our way home, stopping for Starbucks, McDonalds breakfast and gas along the way. We made it home just as Wesley was waking up for the day. A whirlwind 12 hours but so worth it! 

Welcome to the world, Jasper Thomas! 

[diaryofanormalkid]

Thursday, May 2nd and Friday, May 3rd were such good days

This week started off pretty rocky because I was sleeping so irregularly, it kept messing with my work schedule and also the errands I had to take care of. But then it got better!

Monday

I started off this week on Monday working a 10:30-6:30pm shift. I think I fell asleep at 5:30am and woke up at like 8:45am to get ready for work. My shift went extremely well, except for the fact that I was super sleepy.

And then at the very end it just went haywire because I needed a certain paper to count my cash till, but we didn’t have anymore so I was running around looking for it for a good 5-10 mins.

It was the end of my shift and all I wanted to do was go home! I couldn’t believe this was happening right when I wanted to go home. I thought to myself “these things only happen to me.”

Eventually I found it and was able to count, but by the time I was done counting my till, it was a little after my shift had ended meaning I missed my usual bus to get home.

So I was stuck there waiting for a while, but not for too long. And then I walked to my bus stop and went home!

Tuesday

Today I had planned to get my high school transcripts to apply for colleges. However, after the horrendous weekend I had with little to no sleep and then going into Monday’s shift sleep deprived also, I didn’t have it in me to wake up in time to do that at all.

Even when I had woken up, I was exhausted. I believe I woke up after 1pm that day. This is what I mean when I say my sleep had become so irregular, I would wake up at different times every day.

As soon as I woke up though, I meant business. I called my high school and let them know I needed a transcript, however they let me know that I was expected to come in to physically obtain it.

Figures. I can’t lie, that was a major setback for my entire thing I had going for the week because I wanted to have these transcripts sent in as soon as possible so that I could further complete my application to apply for colleges.

And then they also informed me that it would actually be too late in the day to come and get them and that the only available time I can pick up my transcript would be in the mornings.

So... I was super limited with days that I could go in to get my transcript. I knew then, this week I would only be able to pick it up on Wednesday or Friday, since Thursday I was working.

My mom was so kind offer to take me the following day, which would mean Wednesday I would be able to get it and mail it off to the website.

So by now, I told myself at least if I’m not going anymore to get my transcript today, then I should go to pick up my friends birthday gift and card today. At the LEAST.

But seeing as how exhausted I was, I fell asleep in my couch and just spent the whole day recovering from the already tiring week. In my head I reminded myself that the next couple days I really needed to pick up my slack!

Wednesday

So here came Wednesday, a new day. And there I was again, still exhausted. I still apparently hadn’t fully recovered from all the sleep deprivation. Going to bed late Tuesday night didn’t help either.

I remember telling my mom and myself that today I would wake up at 8:30am so that we could arrive at my high school by 10am to pick up my transcript.

Did I do that? No. What I did was sleep in though. It was such a rainy, gloomy day. I had no energy to get out of bed so I slept in until about 12:30pm.

My mother was upset with me because here she was willing to give me a ride to my high school when she had work later today and there I was in bed sleeping.

I also had work today, so I didn’t have much free time to mess around and waste. I needed to make sure I was ready in time to catch my bus to work.

I managed to slip out of my house just in the knick of time to catch my bus. I have to give credit to my instincts and running abilities however, because if it hadn’t been for both, I would’ve surely missed my first bus.

I made it in time for work, and the shift surprisingly went super well once again. Which I was super happy about. It was least that could be going right in my life with all the mess that was going on lately.

This shift was from 2:30-10:30 and a fun fact is that my mom and I work at the same place, just different areas. So I always wait for her when she’s on evening shift to finish her shift.

Her shift lasts until 11:30 though, which leaves me waiting for a while. Gladly, I finished all that I had to while I was there so I made the most of my time by killing it quickly with silly things.

Thursday

Now today was another day I had work. Ironically, I wasn’t supposed to work today, it was just a last minute shift that was given to me by someone who needed me to take it.

I was happy I got it, i could really use the money after the expensive previous week I had. The catch was I had to be back first thing in the morning for this shift. 8:30-4:30pm to be exact.

I didn’t have a problem with it, as I was the one who approved to take it. However, I knew I was in for quite a shift with the lack of sleep after doing my evening shift Wednesday.

I kept telling myself on Wednesday, “okay Britney, you know you have a shift in the morning so you HAVE to make sure you go STRAIGHT to sleep once you get home.”

Did I listen to myself? No! I believe I fell asleep a little after 4am that night. And I was supposed to wake up at 6:30am so that I could leave out in time to catch my bus.

So I was barely on time to catch my bus that morning, but I still made it by God’s grace. I also almost thought I lost my phone on the bus that morning but quickly found it hiding in my bag.

So glad. By that point in the morning, I had already gone through so much anxiety just thinking about being late to work and then almost losing my phone.

The lack of sleep didn’t help at all, but regardless I was actually feeling more excited than I was anxious by the time I arrived at work. Super uncharacteristic of me, but true.

One thing I will mention is that I hadn’t worked in this part of the Tim Hortons in a long time. So while I had every reason to be nervous to come back to this part, I was still excited.

I tried to prepare myself mentally by repeating in my head “you won’t be clumsy,” “you won’t spill anything,” “there’ll be no accidents,” “positive energy,” “good vibes,” “today’s gonna be a good day,” and things of that nature.

And I kid you not, it was! I anticipated I would be a little rusty, heck and I even tried to prepare myself for the worst, just in case. But it was genuinely a really smooth shift.

I actually enjoyed my time that day. And LEMME TELL YOU... I saw my short crush! So that in itself was so rewarding to get to see him on a day I wasn’t even supposed to be there.

Short crush

So I peeped when he came really quickly because he was with a few other ppl and they kinda had a presence, all of them standing in line.

The whole time while I was taking orders, I could see him in my peripheral just staring at me subtly, but not so subtly. I was nervous but calm, cool and collected all at the same time.

By the time he got to the till, I was surprisingly able to look into his eyes and greet him hi, like any customer. I asked what I could get for him and his coworkers and they all began to state their orders.

For this I made sure to write down their orders because with how flustered I was on the inside, I knew for a fact I would forget. I took my time with it too, just to ensure that I didn’t mess anyone’s orders up.

So as I was making them, his coworkers and him were going back and forth double checking that the orders they said were correct, in the meanwhile, not realizing how confusing that was for me.

Because I was standing there making their orders thinking “should I start these over or read them back to them to make sure they’re correct?” Like what do they want from me???

I ended up just zoning them out and focusing on making what I had written down because I trusted myself to write down everything properly as I heard them say it.

When I was finished with making everything, I handed them all to them and him, and they got some of the drinks mixed up with whose was whose, so I had to point out which ones was which ones.

The whole time my short crush was staring at me half adoringly, half awkwardly because he could see the confusion on my face as I wondered why they couldn’t figure it out.

So then he left and I told them all have a good day. Ahh, he’s so cute. And that wasn’t the only crush I ran into that day because I also saw my American Dragon crush/short guy... at the same time.

Short Guy

[Let’s just get this straight and lemme remind you all that short crush and short guy are two different people in my world!!! So don’t confuse the two no matter how similar they look.

Because the difference is, I do not have a crush on short guy, hence why he doesn’t have a crush in his title! They both just so happen to be short though

So basically

short crush = reciprocated feelings since I am also attracted to him but

Short guy = unrequited feelings since I am not attracted to him back]

I was going on my second break of the day when I ran into short guy. He was also on his break which is why we were both in the cafetaria.

So since I ran into him, I decided to just sit down and eat with him since it was the middle of the day and there are so many ppl in the cafeteria with hardly any seats to sit at.

After I fixed my lunch I kinda waved to him to come sit over with me. So... for the first time with him I was actually comfortable talking and eating with him.

All the other times before, I would always be so nervous to talk or eat in front of him, because I know how he feels towards me. And I didn’t want to give him the wrong idea.

Being self conscious and having low self esteem doesn’t help when you’re eating in front of someone who you know is attracted to you. But today, for some reason I was just so calm.

Anyways, we talked about a few different topics and we kinda just stayed on them for a long time. And I was actually eating too, which was progress, so I felt good about myself.

And eventually my American Dragon crush came to sit down to eat with us since there was still not very many seats.

American Dragon Crush

All throughout today I kept seeing him since he was working morning shift like me. And every time I saw him, I would say something to him. Which to me, is nice because he’s not the type of crush I am usually comfortable talking with if I initiate it.

[My relationship with American Dragon crush is a bit complicated because he’s:

Younger than me by a year and a half

Shorter than me ALSO 👀

Filipino, his mom probably hates me because she sees me alll the time but is so short with me / language barrier is hard at my work when everyone speaks Tagalog and you can’t understand what they’re saying

I am lowkey crushing, but my mom would NOT approve of me even LIKING him so looool

My mom told me the other day she agrees that she thinks he has a crush on me!!!!! So that’s confirmed, he likes me back

He literally ran away (just kidding walked away) when my mom was coming towards me to talk one time like he was scared of her or something looool ]

Anyways, when he sat down with us... my very first instinct was to feel awkward. But the settings and everything made me feel calm, and I thought to myself “as long as nobody says anything weird, this will be fine.”

I really didn’t think either of these guys would try anything or say anything weird because they’re not really like that. There was SOME tension in the air, but it quickly got eradicated.

I tried to keep conversations going between them both to fill the silences that would happen every now and then, and was pretty successful tbh. That really made me feel at ease.

The last thing I wanted was for one to feel weird just because I was talking to the other. I was just glad they both could play along with the whole thing and not put me in an uncomfortable situation.

The lunch time flew by with the both of them there and continuing talking to me and each other. My American Dragon crush asked to borrow my charger so I said I would give it to him.

When I went to get my charger, he met me halfway to take it. I jokingly warned him “protect this with your LIFE. Don’t break it. Or you will never get to use my stuff EVER again.”

He told me, that’s fine and he’s not gonna use it for long. I also told him to make sure he brings it back before he leaves since he was gonna be done his shift a little earlier than me.

He came by his shift and had my charger in hand all neatly wrapped up ready to give to me. He’s like “here you go.” And I said “were you gonna leave with it?” He was smiling and said no.

Honestly thank God, because he would’ve completely and totally lost my trust since I’ve made that mistake before with other ppl.

Anyways, back to my shift at work that day...

I really didn’t have much trouble at all with taking orders other than for when new prices came up. Every now and then I would just check with a coworker to make sure I was charging the correct prices.

And since I was closing, that meant I was counting, meaning it was gonna be a pretty easy-going end to my shift. To me, counting my till is always so peaceful to me.

Closing went super smoothly, other than some ppl coming to ask for coffee last minute. But I had a quick and smooth close! And I got changed and ready in time for when I had to sign out.

I was wearing the most cool outfit after my shift at work. And I just felt my hair went SO well with it, like I was just so upset not more ppl got to see it.

But for the ones day did see it, I definitely blessed their lives for wearing such a cute fit. And I kid you not, I was so upset that this outfit was going to waste that I just up and went to the mall!

If I couldn’t get more ppl at my work, I said I might as well go and let ppl at the mall get to see my great taste in fashion. So I waited until my bus came and was on my merry way!

Alright alright, so my bus was packed and I kid you not... some man “snuck” a whole dog onto the bus! And I was not in the slightest upset about it!

As much as I joke around in real life about how I’m allergic to dogs, I really couldn’t tell you how I excited I was that a dog was somehow on this bus directly in front of me!

It was a super well trained dog too. It was the cutest lil ugly pug and whenever he would move the slightest everybody would look at this lil dogs every move.

I tried my absolute hardest not to sneeze around the dog to give away that I was allergic but I think my watery eyes gave it away once I was sitting there long enough.

As much I was suffering, I still wanted to be as close to the dog as I was. He just made my already good day even better and I knew I would have a nice story to tell when I got home.

Anyways so eventually the dog got off, then I was at the mall in no time. My plan for the day was to get my friends gift, her card and gift bag and then get out!

Since originally I never went on tuesday, today seemed perfect to do it because it wasn’t Friday (aka the busiest day of the week for the mall) and I was done work.

But boyyy, when I tell you it was BUSY! Way busier than I expected it to be. I didn’t remember that Friday, the next day was gonna be a P.A. day, so therefore no school.

That meant all the high school students took this as an opportunity to come to the mall on a Thursday instead. It made for my time at the mall like 3x longer than I thought it would take.

The lines were super long in Sephora when I went in. And literally any other time I looked over they remained that way so I just decided I would take my time choosing my friends gift.

I TOOK FOREVER THOUGH. Like the time I took in there was the equivalent of getting stuck down a YouTube rabbit hole and not realizing how much time has gone by!

But I found the CUTEST stuff for her AND myself. But obviously the main goal was her. I intended to buy a perfume and that’s exactly what I came out with.

Not the original size I had in mind, but regardless I believe my friend will appreciate the scent and effort it took to find a perfume for her. It really does smell amazing.

And it’s good quality that I hope will last! Since the bottle size is so small, there’s no telling if it will actually last all that long, but I think it’s a matter of finding the right scent first.

At least I know now if she truly really likes the scent, I could always buy her another one with the bigger sizes. Of course they’re way more expensive, but it’s quality perfume that lasts.

These are the items along with the card that I ended up getting her. I hope she likes/appreciates them. They’re definitely more on the practical side of giit’s, but nonetheless still good gifted

As for myself, I was spending a LONG time looking at the perfumes in Sephora. I was just super fixated on finding one for myself that I would also like so that when I finally do have the money I can eventually use it to buy the bigger bottles of the perfumes that I found and liked.

I found a lot of them that were decent smells, but i’m telling you, there was only one that fell in love with completely and obsessed with and can still smell the scent of today.

And I mean LITERALLY still smell the scent of because the scent is still remaining on the paper I sprayed it on which is crazy impressive! I’m sooo in love with the perfume, it’s so good!

You wouldn’t believe it, but that scent is actually THE first perfume bottle I picked up once I got to Sephora and I kept going back to it because I couldn’t believe how good it smelled.

I am definitely making that investment when I find the money because smelling like that???? I’d be irresistible everywhere I go! Here is a picture of the perfume:

As for all the other perfumes, they were subpar in comparison to this! What an experience it put me through. And now I will never forget that scent!

So once I had got done shopping for my friends gift in Sephora, I went to eat some Chipotle because ya girl was starved! I also got Starbucks to try the dragonfruit drink!

The one with coconut milk this time because I’d already tried the original mango dragonfruit drink with water and then another time with lemonade before.

All three of them are amazing flavours and it’s my go to from Starbucks at this point. Not that I go to Starbucks often anyways. I waited super long for the line at Starbucks.

But even worse was once I left the place, the line got waaay longer right after so I felt bad for how packed today was.

Anyways, I felt soo guilty after spending all the money I did in one day. I could’ve refrained from buying all the food that I did at the mall since I had food at home good and ready to eat.

But I couldn’t resist how hungry I was in the moment either. Plus, I had been having chipotle and Starbucks cravings the whole week prior so I’m glad it’s out of my system.

My period really did me dirty financially this time. When those cravings hit... they HIT! And I just can’t resist!

Anyways so by the time I left the mall, it was getting dark and I had to wait a while for my second bus so I decided to wait inside the Tim Hortons at the bus stop.

I always feel weird waiting inside a place and not buying anything because I know some places they tell you to purchase something, so I decided for buying an iced coffee to keep with me for tomorrow morning when I wake up.

I told myself it was to help me wake up in time tomorrow morning since I knew I would be tired, but then I also bought those new Oreo pockets...

That one I didn’t have any excuse for, I just was craving to try it. It was good, but sooo not worth it. As I was buying my iced coffee, I saw my bus pull up to the intersection.

It was a mission and a half though because as soon as I got my iced coffee I had to run so quickly to the bus so that it didn’t miss me! I got super lucky because she was at a red light.

Once I got to the bus, I saw my Model crush from my former University! I see him every now and then, but if there was any night I would want to see him, it would DEF be tonight.

I was super happy once I realized it was him because I wanted him to see my in this outfit! When I walked past him, I was acting super confident.

The whole time I was on the bus I was fighting the urge to look at him the entire time. I was so desperate to look but I told myself, only when it’s not obvious. I did pretty good on that.

Eventually he got off at the stop he usually gets off and on at. And then shortly, I was home. BOY was I glad to be home. But I was even happier that I had a wonderful day!

Friday

Today was... pretty good! My intentions were to pick up my transcripts from my high school, then drop off my sisters resumé with her at a mall. However things took a spin for the better today.

So lemme just start by saying I was STILL tired today when I woke up. To be clear, I somehow still ended up going to bed at like 4am last night because... bad habits.

But anyways, remember that iced coffee I bought? Yeah, well first thing after I woke up I went straight downstairs to drink it. I was THAT tired.

But i eventually came around and found a really cute outfit to wear out today. I was definitely dragging my feet however to get dressed. But my mother sister and I left by 10:30am.

I was super hyper due to the iced coffee/adrenaline rush I was experiencing from being so tired, so you could imagine how annoying I must’ve been.

Somewhere along the way, I asked my mom if she could drop my sister and I at the theatre to watch Avengers: Endgame but surprisingly she gave us money to go and I couldn’t believe I was finally gonna be able to watch it! Just like that.

So I found out once I got to my high school that the guidance counsellors need to sign my transcripts in order to send them out to give to me. I was simply... disappointed but not surprised.

It’s always something with me. So the secretary who was there was very helpful in arranging for me to pick it up next week whenever I was ready to get it, thankfully.

And then all of sudden as we were leaving, my mom randomly offered for me to take a test drive around the parking lot of my high school. It was totally spontaneous but serious.

So I took her up on her offer. After I was done, my mother said apparently I did an amazing job on my first time “driving” and that she couldn’t believe I had done my turns so easily.

I was sooo nervous and scared but also impressed with how I did as well. I honestly don’t have any reference of how good or bad I did though, so I’ll assume she was being honest.

Anyways then we headed to the mall and quickly dropped off my sisters resumé. And my mom dropped us off at theatre. I was so happy we could watch Avengers because I jokingly made a Instagram story about going to see it by myself just yesterday.

But now it’s actually a reality and I’m so glad. The whooole struggle to get food was a mission because we went back to THE SAME MALL by bus just to get food from the food court and bus back to the movies.

Then we snuck in our food since we had no time to eat it, otherwise we were gonna be late. And my sister literally snuck in a whole cup of pop from the mall into the theatre without anybody even realizing looool.

The whole time watching the movie I was sooo nervous because I didn’t really have any solid ideas of how the movie was gonna go down aside from the very few spoilers that I saw.

It was amazing! Sad, but not THAT sad for me because I didn’t have THAT much of an attachment to these characters since I didn’t even properly watch the first two avengers.

But I feel so relieved now that I don’t have to worry about spoilers! And also, I sat ALL the way through! Even though my bladder damn near bursted by the end of the movie!

I kid you not, I got up like 2 mins before it ended because my instincts told me it was gonna end soon and I was trying to time it. And I was right because it ended like right when I was about to leave!

I was so happy it was over and then I just made a RUN for the bathroom!!! But anyways today was amazing and I’m glad my week could end off way better than it started!

I still have one more day left to work, today. But I think I can handle the new week ahead now that I’ve gotten some things taken care of this week ☺️

Thanks for reading if you read allll the way through!

[bucketofchum]

lacrimasgonnabefree a réagi à votre billet “fun fact about me: I used to think that food poisoning was like .....”

how did u get food poisoning tho

I feel like it’s an exaggeration to call it food poisoning but basically it was just a lot of stomach pain caused likely by a combination of many things. Sunday around 8:30am I eat some berries. They are relatively fresh I think so it’s okay. Maybe they weren’t good? But I got them frehs from the market so they should be good idk... around 10:30-11am, I have a very disagreeable conversation with my friend. We walk in silence for a while before we part ways (awkward bc we are staying together). So he will take the metro home and I will walk back. I don’t really want to go back into the apartment with him, so I dawdle. It’s really really cold and windy though so eventually I find a train station to stay at and I figure I’d try to meditate or something because I was having an anxiety attack. This is around when my stomach starts feeling unsettled. I figure it’s probably a combination of the cold, the fact that I slept 4 hours, and the fact that I am having an anxiety attack. It’s about 11:30am so I figure it’s not hunger. I keep trying to relax and focus on breathing, but my chest feels tight and I feel like I want to cry but I can’t. So I just sit there having my anxiety attack and trying to keep it under control. idk how much time passes but eventually my friend sends me a message asking if I’m gonna come back because he doesn’t wanna stay in the apt waiting for me (we only have one set of keys and I gave it to him to go back). I tell him I’m at the train station and he says he’ll go there then. Okay. I have like another half hour to have my anxiety attack hooray. He gets there, gives me the keys, and says he’s gonna leave (back to Kiel - we were staying in Hamburg). Kinda shitty considering I flew to Germany for no other reason but to spend time with him, but probably for the best. He’s also not feeling so great after our Not So Great Conversation. By the time I get back to the apartment, my stomach hurts so much. It’s like 4:30pm and I am so cold and my stomach is really aching. I need something warm in my stomach but I don’t really have anything in the apt and it’s Sunday so the stores are all closed. Luckily there are some frozen fries so I pop them in the oven. It’s like an hour before they are ready and as I am eating them I realise I hadn’t eaten in like 9 hours (and I had walked about 15km that day). So maybe all that stomach pain was because of hunger? After eating a plate of fries, I still have stomach pain. So I can’t tell -- maybe I am still hungry? I go to heat up some more fries but also I get a yoghurt and some berries to eat in the interim (it’s cold so less preferable). I think the yoghurt and berries were okay but maybe they weren’t. I might have kept the yoghurt out a bit too long? Lost track of time and stuff. Anyhow after I have the second plate of fries and the yoghurt and berries, I am certain I am not at all hungry, but my stomach is still twisted in knots as if I were hungry. So something is definitely up idk. Eventually the pain reaches a point where I say to myself that I can’t keep going like this so I gotta try to sleep. Try to not be conscious. Also I am still all agitated from realising how terrible this friend had been to me. And in general. It’s like 11pm I think when I try to get myself to sleep and the pain is really intolerable rn. I have like a feverish pain dream (like I never reach a deep sleep and at no point was I ever unaware of the pain - and even all my dreams had something to do with trying to stop the pain), and I wake up fully from the pain hoping for daytime but it’s just 1am. The rest of the night is basically spent like this. Not being able to sleep but trying to anyway and having dream-like scenarios playing in my head about me trying to stop the stabbing pain, and then after 1-2 hours having a sharp episode of pain that is so bad I literally cannot even pretend to try to sleep. My friend in America can attest I sent them a message like every 1-2 hours over the course of the entire night. Finally between 6:30-7:30am, the episodes waned enough for me to actually sleep. I feel like it has passed so I get ready about my day - cleaning the apartment and getting all my affairs in order to get to the airport in time. Buy some food bc I won’t be home til like 5-6pm. Feeling okay. Monday 10:30am - I have reached the airport. Had my yoghurt with berries as breakfast and thinking this was a Bad Idea bc the pain is definitely back. Not as bad as the previous night but it’s definitely there (probably same as evening levels). It’s still there but manageable on the plane (2pm-4pm), but I find that the second I eat anything at all, I get a sharp stabbing pain. Like a sausage, crackers, even water. Anything. Once anything is in my stomach, I get the pain. Idk. By evening time, it’s a little better. And last night, I managed to sleep a full 6 hours uninterrupted. So I think it’s over...

anyhow that’s uh. that’s been my last two days of vacation

[yourworldmyworldourworld-blog1]

Argentina - land of wine, of meat and of tango.

ARGENTINA - Land of wine, of meat, of tango

Day 1. (15/11). It took us half a day to cross the border between Chile and Argentina. Crossed the border and it was pretty fast. I then got into the bus terminal at Calafate, which I will warn you is a bit of a walk away from the city centre (about a 30 min walk). What you have to do to cross the terminal to the taxi side, cross the car park and stay on the road on your left all the way. You will cross a crossroads twice and eventually go downhill and arrive at a T junction. There you turn right and follow the road, cross a canal bridge and you will pretty much be on the Main Street. I would say the walk is safe during the day and fairy easy as its all downhill towars town. The hostal I stayed at was three parallel roads from the Main Street. Try and stay around there. At the hostal book a bus to Perito Moreno (800arg bus ride only; the entrance ticket price is not included) with Caltur.  Try to book the day before as in that case the company picks you up at the hostal unlike if you book on the day where you will have to show up at the bus terminal. I then headed out to the market which is on the main road but further out and headed to a butchery before the market on the same road called El Turco.The meat there is of great quality and cheaper than in the market. I advise you get the Bife de Chorizo cut.

Perito Moreno route options, you can do the whole thing in couple of hours

Day 2. (16.11). We were picked up around 8am ish and it took us 1.5hrs to get to Perito Moreno. You are dropped off at the car park but before you stop to pay the entrance to the park which you can pay by card or cash. Cash is faster. Once you get there you walk around in these platforms. There area few routes: black, blue, yellow and green. We did the blue, yellow then red. The green is through the forest so you can't see the glacier so we skipped it. The bus picks you up at 15:45. We took food into the walk so you can eat and enjoy the scenery on the benches dotted around. We were back for 5pm. Then I bought tickets for a day in Chalten (1,600 and 3hr drive). If I had more time I would have stayed around 3 days to a week in Chalten.

Perito Moreno

Day 3. (17/11). The bus to Chalten got there at 11am and got to the start of the Fitz Roy trek for 11:30am. Be warned that with only one day there (arriving at 11am and leaving at 6pm you can either do the loop that I did and see a bit of each trek or commit to a full trek). From 11:30am-1:10pm I managed to do the first third of the trek where I stopped to look at Fitz Roy for 10 minutes. At the cross section at the top for the second third of the tweak where I went left down towards Laguna Madre y Hija, I arrived at the bottom at 2:20pm. The way was mainly downhill. By 3:30pm I was on the end of the walk/sendero and got to Chalten town in another 10 minutes and before 4pm I was back at the bus station. This meant that I had to wait around 1.5hrs for the bus. This trek was estimated at 6hrs but I did it in 4hrs at a fast pace. As it was mainly downhill allowed for a quicker pace. I estimated 1.5 hours for each third of the trek. I would advise you did the same to give yourself enough time. Below is a picture of the route map...

The actual walk is super beautiful...

Fitz Roy, Chalten

Day 4. (18.11). On this day I woke up and took a transfer to the airport which I booked at the hostal. I paid the driver after the ride. Bag drop off in 19 mins so no need to arrive too early. The flight took 2.5hrs. As I landed I connected to the airport Wi-fi and ordered an Uber. Be warned that the Ubers cannot come into the pick up area of the airport so keep an eye out on the street for your Uber. As I arrived at the end of the afternoon at Benita Hostal I bought some food at the nearby shops, a nice bottle of wine and had a chilled evening. When booking your hostal look to stay in Palermo area. It’s safe and close to a lot of stuff.

Floralis at the United Nations Plaza

Day 5. (19.11) I headed out early to see the street art in Calle Serrano. Then in the pm I headed to Buenos Aires' Recoleta area. First I saw the the Floralis at the United Nations Plaza that works with solar energy and it opens and closes depending on the time of the day. It’s a very slow movement so you won't really see it happening. Followed by the Facultad de Derecho and the Centro Cultural and an exhibition on film and Freud. We saw also some music open air on the green near the bellas artes museum and cultural centre and walked around the market stalls. Then back and to Rapa Nui for ice cream. Yum.

Centro Cultural, Recoletta, Buenos Aires

Day 6. (20.11). Visiting Buenos Aires city center highlights. La Liberia El Atendo Grand Splendid  formerly a theatre; Palacio de Aguas Corrientes; the National Congress of Argentina; Casa Rosada former presidential house built in 1873; Puente de La Mujer designed to look like tango dancers; Plaza Dorrego in Monserrat and the San Telmo market up to the Kavanagh building being the tallest in Argentina in its time and lastly the Colon theatre and the Obelisk. From where I was based made sense. A bit of a zigzag but it worked. About 7 hours walk.

The Kavanagh building

Day 7. (21.11). Woke up went to get a subte card which costs 65 arg plus 35 arg charge. You can either get one by an underground station or, as in my case, right in front of the hostal there was a shop that sold it; just ask at reception. I then headed back to the corner of my hostel and got the 29 bus towards Boca (make sure it says Boca at the front as there are two 29s). Around 45 mins later I was getting off at Caminitos. Just keep an eye on mapsme or your offline Google to know when to get off or ask the driver. Caminitos is a small street and the Boca stadium in only a 2 min walk north. Maybe consider a tour which will last you around 3 hours I reckon. Just walk around and enjoy some free tango, lots of souvenir shops and awesome picture spots. From there we walked north to San Telmo for a photo with Matilda on her bench at Chile with Defensa street. From there to the CCK (a cultural centre by the Casa Rosada) then back home on the green tube line for an easy night.

BOCA stadium

Day 8. (22.11). Woke up and the weather wasn't too great but headed north past Bulnes to do a park route. Past the Las Heras Park then to the Botanical Park. Then north past eco Park and then across to the Paseo El Rosedal - this stunning rose park! Then back towards the planetarium, past the Japanese garden and then the floralis cultural centre and back. Short pit stop at the Buffala Heladeria - yum! Spent most afternoon chilling and packing as wel as buying last minute things.

Day 9. (23.11). Wake up at 6:30am and left the hostal at 8am and made it to the airport for 8:30am. I checked in and dropped bags off. The duty free section of the AEP airport is tiny and no Havana inside so buy outside or better yet in the city as it's cheaper. Flight on time, 2.5 hours I was in Brasil.

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ARGENTINA CRIBSHEET

Hostals:

Calafate: Hostel Cambalache (its clean and the guys there super attentive, not the biggest but I liked it. You also get a discount on the restaurant next door).

Buenos Aires: Benita Hostal (or anywhere in Palermo really)

Restaurants:

Ice cream: Rapa Nui; Buffala Heladeria

Cafeterias: Cafe Tortoni; Florida Garden Cafe.

Things to do:

Calafate: Perito Moreno

Chalten: various walks

Buenos Aires: Recolletta area; Palermo; Liberia El Atendo Grand Splendid  formerly a theatre; Palacio de Aguas Corrientes; the National Congress of Argentina; Casa Rosada former presidential house built in 1873; Puente de La Mujer designed to look like tango dancers; Plaza Dorrego in Monserrat and the San Telmo market (and Matilda bench); Kavanagh building; Caminitos/ BOCA stadium.

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[aion-rsa]

The Twilight Zone New Year’s Marathon 2021 / 2022 Schedule

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Another strange, downright sci-fi year has come and gone. What better way to celebrate 2021’s demise and prepare for what 2022 holds in store than with a heaping dose of Twilight Zone?

The annual Twilight Zone New Year’s Day Marathon is set to continue on SYFY this New Year. The marathon spans three days, from Friday, Dec. 31 at 2:00 a.m., kicking off with The Twilight Zone season 4 episode, “The Parallel” and running until Sunday, Jan. 2 at 5:00 a.m with “He’s Alive.”

The holiday season marks a special time in The Twilight Zone. Serling was born on Christmas Day 1924 and the series has a memorable homage to Miracle on 34th Street with season two’s “The Night of The Meek,” set during Christmas. Outside of his anthology masterpiece, Serling even wrote his own take on A Christmas Carol, as a TV movie featuring Peter Sellers, that was nearly completely forgotten for almost 50 years before it resurfaced on television. We wrote more on that here.

The Twilight Zone Holiday Marathons–first Thanksgiving, then July 4th, and now New Years–have their own history, which we detailed a few years back. The marathon’s most recent home has been SYFY. You can check out the network’s full Twilight Zone Marathon schedule below, as first reported by Shadow & Substance.

Friday, December 31

2:00am – The Parallel

3:00am – Where is Everybody?

3:30am – One For the Angels

4:00am – Mr. Denton on Doomsday

4:30am – The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine

5:00am – The Incredible World of Horace Ford

6:00am – Judgment Night

6:30am – The Purple Testament

7:00am – Elegy

7:30am – Nightmare As a Child

8:00am – Valley of the Shadow

8:50am – The Chaser

9:15am – A World of His Own

9:40am – King Nine Will Not Return

10:05am – Of Late I Think of Cliffordville

10:55am – A Thing About Machines

11:20am – The Trouble With Templeton

11:45am – Back There

12:10pm – Mr. Dingle, the Strong

12:35am – The Rip Van Winkle Caper

1:00pm – The Mind and the Matter

1:25pm – The Arrival

1:50pm – The Passersby

2:15pm – A Quality of Mercy

2:40pm – Nothing in the Dark

3:05pm – The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank

3:30pm – The Trade-Ins

3:55pm – Hocus-Pocus and Frisby

4:20pm – Young Man’s Fancy

4:45pm – Cavender Is Coming

5:10pm – An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

5:35pm – The New Exhibit

6:25pm – A Kind of Stopwatch

6:50pm – The Last Night of a Jockey

7:15pm – Living Doll7:40pm – Time Enough at Last

8:05pm – Perchance to Dream

8:30pm – The Hitch-Hiker

8:55pm – The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street

9:20pm – A World of Difference

9:45pm – Night of the Meek

10:10pm – The Odyssey of Flight 33

10:35pm – Long Distance Call

11:00pm – Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?

11:25pm – The Shelter

11:50pm – The Fugitive

Saturday, January 1

12:15am – Person or Persons Unknown

12:40am – The Masks

1:05am – Jess-Belle

1:55am – Ring-a-Ding Girl

2:20am – On Thursday We Leave For Home

3:10am – A Short Drink From a Certain Fountain

3:35am – You Drive

4:00am – The Self-Improvement of Salvatore Ross

4:30am – Spur of the Moment

5:00am – What’s in the Box?

5:30am – The Brain Center at Whipple’s

6:00am – Mute

7:00am – Passage on the Lady Anne

8:00am – And When the Sky Was Opened

8:30am – Third From the Sun

9:00am – People Are Alike All Over

9:30am – Mr. Bevis

10:00am – The After Hours

10:30am – The Mighty Casey

11:00am – Twenty-Two

11:30am – Static

12:00pm – The Mirror

12:25pm – Once Upon a Time

12:50pm – The Hunt

1:15pm – The Bard

2:05pm – Showdown With Rance McGrew

2:30pm – The Gift

2:55pm – The Little People

3:20pm – The Changing of the Guard

3:45pm – In Praise of Pip

4:10pm – The Old Man in the Cave

4:35pm – Number 12 Looks Just Like You

5:00pm – The Long Morrow

5:25pm – Probe 7 Over and Out

5:50pm – The 7th is Made Up of Phantoms

6:15pm – From Agnes With Love

6:40pm – I Am the Night – Color Me Black

7:05pm – Sounds and Silences

7:30pm – Caesar and Me

7:55pm – A Nice Place to Visit

8:20pm – A Stop at Willoughby

8:45pm – The Howling Man

9:10pm – Eye of the Beholder

9:35pm – Dust

10:00pm – The Invaders

10:30pm – The Obsolete Man

11:00pm – Midnight Sun

11:30pm – Five Characters in Search of an Exit

Sunday, January 2 

12:00am – To Serve Man

12:30am – The Dummy

1:00am – I Sing the Body Electric

1:30am – Nightmare at 20,000 Feet

2:00am – The Jeopardy Room

2:30am – The Encounter

3:00am – Mr. Garrity and the Graves

3:30am – The Bewitchin’ Pool

4:00am – The Thirty-Fathom Grave

5:00am – He’s Alive

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[bike42]

Sunday Sept 19

We awoke to a sunny day. I immediately thought about the mountain and urged Jeff to get dressed so we could climb the tower for a view. It was a bit hazy, but the glaciated top of Kilimanjaro poked out of the clouds and again, we gazed upon it with awe. I wonder if you lived here if you take that for granted? I recall living in Colorado Springs for two years how I’d be delighted and drawn to the majesty of Pikes Peak as it greeted me every morning.

I neglected to write yesterday about meeting Moira at breakfast, a most interesting woman from New Jersey. She’s now a retired teacher, but she told us that about 15 years ago she took a year off, and had a grant to come to Tanzania for a month. Once here, she got engaged in helping teens that had fallen out of the public school system to get into a vocational educational tract, and started a nonprofit to support the cause. Over the last ten years, she’s traveled here more than thirty times in support of her foundation. Amazing woman!

We gathered for breakfast, a mellow cohesive group. We’re all so psyched to be on the cusp of this adventure after all this time.

Freddie and Augustine came to give us a pre-trek briefing and inspect our “gears.” I’m not poking fun at him, I’m in awe of anyone that can fluently speak another language … I thought it was cute that he kept referring to our equipment as our “gears.” Augustine did an awesome job talking us through the trip. Without notes, he fluently took us day by day with accurate reporting on distance in miles and elevation gain in feet (I was following along on our Embark bulletin). We all passed the gears check, but he told us stories of people that get up on the mountain with new stuff that doesn’t work, or worse, not enough stuff for cold weather. We assured him our stuff had been tested hiking through the winter this past year. Jeff and I organized our stuff for a bit, then went out to meet the gang at 11:30am for today’s excursion.

We were joined by Maggie and the two new arrivals: Roy and Nate, Daniel decided to stay back and rest. It didn’t take long for them to mess with my mojo; they’re loud and excitable with lots of profanity. I finally had to ask them to cool it a bit, telling them their profanity reflected poorly on all Americans. That seemed to help a bit, but they were still loud. I found myself grateful that Embark is operating our treks as two separate groups.

Before leaving Moshi for our excursion to the waterfall, we made a stop to pick up box lunches. The sign outside the place said they were known for their cheeseburgers, and I was curious to see what was in our boxes!

We headed out of town. On the outskirts, we saw several neighborhoods of big houses, stores selling lumber and building materials, pavers (no apparent shortage here as there is back home), and a garden nursery that seemed to go on for a half a mile or more!

Being Sunday, there were lots of people dressed up and walking along the road. Mostly women and children, but some most older men. There seemed to be buildings built along the road. Dwellings, stores and some little churches like the one we’d worked with in Jamaica, Cuba - some missing their roofs!

We went through smaller villages where we’d have speed bumps like we were hitting in the dark coming home from the airport. We went through a check point and got flagged to pull over. Our driver, Carl, got a ticket - we think he said for tailgating.

We passed a turnoff for Nairobi, and several for Kenya which is quite close to us. In Augustine’s home village, we turned off the road and headed towards the waterfall. The pavement ended, and we bumped along slowly for another 15 minutes. We walked past a banana plantation and stopped at the top of the path down to the falls, where we stopped for lunch. We discovered too much food in our boxes, but I sampled what I could, and we think the guides ate what was left over. In the box was mango juice, an apple, some kind of slaw sandwich, fried chicken, a muffin, fries, and some kind of little donut pieces.

As we were ready to descend to the falls, we were swarmed by 4 young men who were escorting us down, telling us about the plants and working for tips. Seems to be what people do here, but I did enjoy walking back up with a young man that seemed knowledgeable about the flowers. Plants that we have as house plants, or annuals in my garden, are growing here as wild plants. It’s incredibly beautiful. One plant that we call a “wandering Jew,” he called the Zebra Wandering flower - a better name I think! He also pointed out a Yucca and said they call it a “Peace plant,” and showed me how you tie a knot in the leaf and offer it to someone as an apology. Then he pointed out one called “Take me home plant” and said the leaves make a medicinal tea, but the name comes from the burrs that you inadvertently take home on your clothing.

It felt good to be out hiking and we suggested to Augustine that we could walk down the road as fast as Carl could drive, proposing we walk a little more. He said not enough time, and Gary said best not to push him before we start our trek - great idea!

Our next stop was at the “caves” and coffee / banana farm. A gentleman sat us down for a history lesson first, and jumped right in with details about female circumcision and polygamy - rendering us shocked and speechless.

The area that is now Tanzania originally had 128 tribes, and he detailed some of the issues between theirs, the Chagga tribe (highlands) and the nomadic tribes of the Lowlands. The Chaggas built these caves 200 years ago as a way to hide from invading tribes that would try to kidnap the young women. Going into the caves was out of my comfort zone, but it was interesting. The houses (as the replica they had there), where they lived with their livestock were interesting too.

Our gang had seen the coffee processing in Peru, so we were going to skip that. But we were so captivated by the young ladies there. One said she sings to the coffee, and without much prompting, sang the Tanzanian National Anthem and encouraged me to record it. It moved me to tears, and of course I bought more coffee that I likely have room for in my luggage!

We headed out, probably much later than intended. As the junction with the main road, we stopped and out bus was swarmed by ladies selling bananas and men selling bracelets and paintings. Augustine got out and came back with a large bunch of bananas… we politely declined the trinkets. All along the way back to Moshi, the road was busy with people walking and gathered along the sides. Most dressed up, beautiful kids and everyone seeming happy and friendly. They’d make eye contact with us and wave.

We pulled into our compound around 5 pm and found George sitting there. We grabbed some beers and caught up on his quick trip diving in Zanzibar and the culture he found there. Back to our rooms to clean up and finish packing, then we gathered for dinner at 6:30pm. It’s finally here and we can’t wait!

[singingwordwright]

#Shadowhunters Timeline - Season 2B

If you want to see this in calendar format, I have created Google Calendars for it:

Full Shadowhunters Timeline Calendar

Important Malec Moments Calendar

Click on the events to read my notes explaining my reasoning behind choosing that date/time.

(I haven’t tried looking at these calendars from any other time zone; hopefully they will work. Let me know if the times seem off and I will try to fix that.)

If you want the timeline in long form, keep reading.

Further Notes Can Be Found In the Timeline Intro Post

Season 1 Timeline

Season 2A Timeline

SEASON 2B (September 28, 2016 to October 15, 2016)

2x11 “Mea Maxima Culpa” Timeframe: September 28 (before dawn) to September 29 (evening)

The date for this episode is only a best guess. There are no hard and fast indicators of how long has passed since 2x10, but we have a couple of clues (and a few causes for confusion.) Aldertree has been sent back to Idris to face reprimand (one presumes for leaving the Institute vulnerable to Valentine's attack?) Assuming this is true and not a lie like the one about the Soul Sword, at least a day or two has passed, because it would take a while for messages to pass back and forth, for the decision to be made to recall Aldertree, and for Aldertree to return. However, I doubt Imogen Herondale would wait too long before interrogating Valentine, so we may assume she arrives within a day or two of Valentine's capture.

It’s dark when Alec and Jace are sparring in the courtyard. Assuming they still work the night shift, it could be before dawn and they’re unwinding after patrol the morning of the 28th

The low light indicates it’s either sunrise or sunset when Clary and Simon are on the bench. While I’m not sure a hot dog vendor (in the background) would be out and about right at daybreak, I’m going with sunrise because they appear to be looking across the river at Manhattan, which means they’re probably in Brooklyn facing west, and the sun is behind them in the east.

Azazel attacks the bar after dark that night

Alec tends to Izzy the next morning (the 29th)

CONTINUITY SNAFU: The scene immediately following this is Luke confronting Russell in the Jade Wolf, and then Luke gets a call about Azazel's massacre in the bar. If Luke doesn't find out about it until after Alec, who contacted Alec?

CONTINUITY SNAFU CONTINUED: When Alec is notified he clearly says "there was a demon attack" and yet when Clary is looking at the bodies, she says "this looks like a demon attack" as though that is new information (like, why else would they have been called in?) Oh, Michael Reisz. I love you dearly, with all my heart and every fiber of my being, for giving us 1x12, but you are really not a very good writer

(POSSIBLE) CONTINUITY SNAFU: It’s clearly still daylight when Simon and Maia talk in the bar, but the earlier scene with Izzy encountering Azazel in the alley outside the vamp lair made it look like it was after dark. Is the alley underground? Is it under a highway somewhere that doesn’t allow daylight to get in? Demons don’t seem to like daylight, so how is Azazel out and about if it’s not dark?

It appears to be before sunset when Alec visits Magnus to ask about the demon and encounters Raphael

YET ANOTHER CONTINUITY SNAFU: Raphael says Izzy “just” came by the Dumort, but she came by in the morning as he was getting ready for coffin bed and now it’s nearly sunset

When Alec returns to the Institute to tell them Azazel may have Izzy, Clary says the Inquisitor is in a meeting with the Alicante Council. Which I guess means the Alicante Council holds meeting in the middle of the night in Idris, because 6pm New York time would be about 11pm Idris time.

Best guess is the attempt to summon Azazel takes place around 8-9pm

2x12 “You Are Not Your Own” Timeframe: September 29 (late evening) to September 30 (evening)

This episode picks up maybe an hour or so after 2x11 ends, assuming Valentine-in-Magnus’s-Body doesn’t spend more than an hour wandering around looking for Magnus’s loft

Izzy returns to the Institute with Sebastian in tow after sunrise the next morning

Izzy and Simon “visit” Rosa Santiago sometime that afternoon

CONTINUITY SNAFU: Izzy tells Rosa she and Raphael visited her for Bingo night last week, but Izzy stopped seeing Raphael only a few days ago, only hours after learning about Rosa’s existence. So that’s not possible

The body swap is undone sometime after sunset on the 30th

2x13 “Those of Demon Blood” Timeframe: October 3 (late evening) to October 5 (shortly after midnight)

The date for this episode is only a best guess. The flier Clary creates for Simon’s show says “Midnight Tuesday” which would have to mean Tuesday, October 4 because midnight on October 11 would be after the start of Yom Kippur and Simon wouldn’t be able to have a show that night (and also there wouldn’t be time for 2x14 and 2x15 to happen before 2x16, which takes place on October 12.)

Honestly the timeline for this episode is a bit of a mess. It would make a lot more sense if there was a day between solving the murder mystery with Kaelie and Simon’s show, but Magnus’s lack of a costume change indicates it all happens on the same night.

Clary tells Simon about his upcoming show sometime the evening of October 3. Which seems pretty sketchy to me “Hey, baby, I booked you a show for...24 hours from now. Have fun getting ready for that!”

Maia is wearing Costume #1

Clary and Simon find the first body shortly thereafter

Luke is pulled in for questioning by the Inquisitor maybe around midnight or shortly thereafter

The second body is found while Luke is offering his DNA

After daybreak, the Inquisitor addresses the Institute and tells them she’s leaving Jace in charge when she goes

Jace tells them to collect DNA from their friends the morning of the 4th

Alec does to see Magnus for a DNA sample around mid-morning

Apparently Clary decides to take an art class all day, however, because she doesn’t ask Simon for his DNA sample until after the sun goes down (6:31pm)

CONTINUITY SNAFU: Sometime between 6:30 and midnight, Simon refuses his DNA, rescues Clary, gets arrested, gets released, goes home, changes his clothes, and sets up for his show at the Hunter’s Moon

Maia fights Jace over the tracking chip maybe around 8:30pm or so?

Maia’s arrested around 9:30pm then (the Inquisitor says she attacked Jace an hour ago)

When she’s arrested, Maia says she was walking home from work

CONTINUITY SNAFU: Yet at midnight, only a couple hours later, she’s back at work, wearing a different outfit

Izzy saves Max, kills the bad guy, reports back to the Institute, changes her clothes, and head out to catch Simon’s show as well

Simon’s show takes place at midnight (end of Tuesday the 4th/beginning of Wednesday the 5th)

2x14 “The Fair Folk” Timeframe: October 9 (morning through evening)

The date for this episode is only a best guess. The dialogue is somewhat misleading when Jace claims Alec has been in charge for a week, because there’s no possible way it can be a full week since 2x13. Best guess is 5 days since 2x13.

The opening scene with Jace at the piano is misleading; Jace is wearing the same clothes that he was in 2x13 when he hooked up with Maia in the alley, and from the dialogue we’re meant to assume he just got back from that hookup, but since he later says Alec has been in charge for a week, he and Maia have hooked up more than once

It’s after sunrise when Alec briefs the Institute and sends Jace and Clary on their mission to the Seelie Court

It’s after sunset when the Downworld cabinet begins, however, as established both by the scene with Luke getting the fire message at the Jade Wolf and by the fact that Raphael is in attendance

2x15 “A Problem of Memory” Timeframe: October 10 (after midnight) to October 11 (2am)

Raphael says in this episode that the bleeder den doesn’t open until midnight, which means the scene where Simon and Quinn go to the bleeder den takes place after midnight, a few hours after the events of 2x14

While it seems unlikely Simon would go out to the Hunters Moon so soon after 2x14, he did just originally intend to get some blood to go, so he was either hungry or intending to drink his sorrows away while moping in private; he didn’t intend to go out and get wild

Alec wakes alone sometime after sunrise

Again, because the bleeder den doesn’t open until midnight, it’s sometime after midnight when Simon confronts Quinn

Magnus tells Alec about his past sometime between midnight and 2am

(POSSIBLE) CONTINUITY SNAFU: While briefing her team earlier, Izzy says Valentine’s transfer is set for 2am, which would be 7am Idris time, but it’s already after sunrise in Idris when they arrive, and sunrise shouldn’t have been until after 7:30am if Idris is in the same time zone as Zürich, Switzerland

2x16 “Day of Atonement” Timeframe: October 12 (morning to evening)

Simon is fasting when Maia comes to visit him, which means it’s October 12, as Yom Kippur began at sunset on October 11

Simon and Maia go to dinner with his family after sunset on the 12th, which means the end of Yom Kippur

All the events of this episode take place from the morning of the 12th to the evening of the 12th

2x17 “A Dark Reflection” Timeframe: October 13 (morning to late night)

Alec tells Max he’s approved to begin going on missions the morning of the 13th

Izzy confronts Alec about Max later that morning

Jonathan attacks Elliot Nourse sometime after sunset (which is 6:17pm on the 13th)

Alec is "a few hours" late for dinner (which was probably scheduled for 6 or 7pm) thus the dinner date scene should probably actually take place around 9-10 pm. However, given how much else happens in this episode and the fact that most of 2x18 takes place before sunrise the next day it makes more sense for the dinner date scene to happen earlier

Magnus confronts Alec about withholding the information about the Soul Sword an hour or two after their dinner date

CONTINUITY SNAFU: According to their website, the last paddleboat rental at Prospect Park goes out two hours before to sunset, which means Simon and Maia are S.O.L. Oops

Max confronts Jonathan in Alec’s office perhaps around 11pm to midnight

2x18 “Awake, Arise, or Be Forever Fallen” Timeframe: October 14 (midnight to after sunrise)

Izzy finds Max unconscious in her room perhaps sometime after midnight

Alec goes to Magnus’s loft to ask for his help before sunrise

Exterior shots establish that Jonathan attacks the Elite Guardsmen in the courtyard right around sunrise

It’s still quite early in the morning when Clary reveals Jonathan and Magnus breaks up with Alec

2x19 “Hail and Farewell” Timeframe: October 14 (morning to evening)

Jonathan has his meltdown while it’s still early morning

Clary, Jace and Izzy find Sebastian Verlac’s body in Jonathan’s apartment perhaps mid-morning

While it doesn’t look like it’s daylight outside Alec’s office when he briefs the Inquisitor about the Mirror, it’s nighttime in Idris, which suggests it must be afternoon in New York

The meeting with the Downworld Council takes place late morning or early afternoon

The lighting when Raphael and Izzy talk suggests it’s getting close to sunset, but there are several more outside scenes that take place in the daylight afterward

It’s just before sunset when Valentine attacks the funeral to make the Forsaken

It’s after sunset when Clary, Izzy, Alec, and Jace track Jonathan to the cemetery and “kill” him

Valentine strikes his deal with the Seelie Queen late that night

2x20 “Beside Still Water” Timeframe: October 15 (sunrise to late night)

This episode begins after sunrise with Jonathan washing up on the beach and opening the rift to Edom

Alec et al confront the dragon over Manhattan perhaps mid-morning

Alec asks for Magnus’s help closing the rift in the late morning

Magnus, Alec, and Izzy close the rift around noon

It's just after sunset in Alicante (1pm New York time) when Jace and Clary escape and kill Consul Malachi and his headsman

It’s maybe 2:30-3pm New York time when Valentine summons Raziel

I have my doubts that they’d be able to report to the Inquisitor in Alicante that they killed the Consul and un-summoned the angel and still make it back to New York in time to attend a party that night, HOWEVER the characters in the party clearly state a number of times that it’s still the same day, I so guess they managed it

Continue to Season 3A

Please, if you’ve enjoyed my fic or meta or vids, consider checking out some of my books, or buying me a cup of coffee!

[froggy-s-thought-s]

#13 - 5/12/2021

it's been nearly a month huh? no one cares but i guess i just didnt feel like posting but im back now! (there are also spoilers for the b*d b*tch cause im complaining about it! so be warned!!)

I watched some stuff while i was gone, read some fics, watch youtube and i went to school!! (its hybrid cause they still have to sanitize everything on Wednesdays) but i get to go and talk with my friends and.. yeah?

I drank a can of soda at like.. 8:30pm (20:30 in military time/24 hour clock) and that was fun.. i fell alseep at... some point? i dont really know when- then i woke up due to my alarm which is set for 5:30am and then i went back to sleep cause today is Wednesday for me and i dont have to actually go anywhere!

Since Today is, as i said before, Wednesday, our day is flipped around so we have home room, then math at 8:30 ish, then sometimes we had something at 10:30 and after that at 11:00 we have PE which is currently 7 minutes away from the time im writing this! regular days its homeroom, lang, science, math then history though this week it's homeroom, lang, math, science then history so second and thrid period got flipped.

the reason it's flipped is because we're doing math tests and the kids who go out there at that time always scream and dont shut the fuck up?? there's also this neighbor who has a hen whom's name i dont understand and a rooster named blue (his feathers are iridescent in the light) and they would hop over the fence for a bit till he raised how high it was.

ALSO there are these kids that keep coming onto school property and vandalizing it and harassing those chickens- and the thing is, they've come to or school before! last year they spat on one of the teacher's kids?? we also think they are apart of the theorized two groups of kids who have been vandalizing the school for the past while?

we have more security cameras and gates all around the school now but they keep hopping the back gate which is too far from the school to get a picture of their faces without my teacher bringing her phone with her to snap a picture..

alright so time line time:

1. they spit on my teacher's child (i think they also punched him if i remember correctly?)

2. they possibly/most likely spray painted the school

3. (time skip) they hop the back gate and scooter around on their scooters + hitting the chickens with sticks

4. my teacher goes down and confronts them to which they "circle her like sharks" as my teacher put it

5. they ended up leaving but came back with a couple more people + a ball to throw at the chickens

6. teacher goes back down tells them to leave, two of them leave properly while the two original kids try to wait out my teacher by the fence

7. they end up leaving because there are these dogs by the back gate which go ape shit if you come too close and they were clearly going buck wild so.. dumbasses?? (my teacher called the cops but they didnt show up which isnt a surprise cause there are bigger problems then a couple of trespassers after school hours)

8. sometime during the week last week they were talking about vandalizing the school while at like subway or something?? idk one of my classmates over heard it tho

9. they ended up doing it over the weekend to which the chickens' father (the person who owns them) calls the cops

10. i think they showed up this time? they didnt catch any of the kids but they did show up which is a start..

11. we found out the identity of one of the people who showed up in #5, he goes to a near by school i think and he tried to join this facebook(?) group cause my teacher is on it cause she lives near to the school..

and then his mom tried to join? and then his mom's friends????????? idk man sounds like a you fuckin problem, shouldn't have been hitting the chickens, trespassing on private property and vandalizing the school??

anyway.. i dont think there are any new updates after that, someone did carve some dicks and the word "peepee" into one of the kiddy playgrounds so thats not very cool, cant really say it was them though sense we dont have proof and it could very well just be one of the kids at our school..

N E WAY, i've also watched the first episode of the b*d b*tch and i paused part way through the second one cause.. its not really all that interesting to me? (this is the spoiler part)

I was kind of hoping we'd be able to see why they're so pissy over everything and see them grow as people but like.. nah... they just adopt a child, do some shit, go see some guy and thats about all that's happened so far..

the white washing is also nasty like.. i dont wanna see some white fucker who has the audacity to use 99's name in their title, i wanna see echo get better, i wanna see rex, wolffe.. literally anyone other than them??

idk man its just not really my vibe.. i pointed out how it felt like a bad fanfic to one of my friends who doesnt give a single shit about starwars over discord cause no one lets me talk about it in person cause im mostly just talking about how im in love with ventress or something..... ANYWAY i pointed out it felt like a bad fanfic and then i read someone else's post (sorry i dont remember who) who said all the characters are what you think they are, named what you think they are and act like you think they will so everyone is just their hat.

(side not: a hat is basically just; big man is strong, only thinks about hulk smash and loud!! leader guy is leader, smart guy is smart and sniper guy has a toothpick in his mouth and is a sniper guy (overly sarcastic productions did a good video on it, it's technically about culture's of hats but i think it works here still))

moral of the story: i dont really like the bad batch, i've always hated cr*sshair so i dont really care that he's properly evil (i really wanna see more of his evil-ness tho cause like.. bruh that shit cool).. also im going off of what i've seen which is one and a half episodes so there might be more stuff in the latter half of ep 2??

and uh.. a have a few fics i really want to read currently but i want to do some pacing around first!

if i have anything more to add i'll edit this, if not gnight, sleep tight, dont let the bed bugs bite!

(its like.. 12pm but whatever)

[remembermemorablememories]

Saturday, May 26, 2018

post #138

main points:

- fortnite

- ikea trip

- smash

- dinner with fam

- packing remaining stuff

today i:

- woke up around 11am. it was my last day at home and also with my PC so i just shamelessly started playing fortnite LOL

i played some 50v50, some squads close encounters (shotties/jetpacks only), duos close encounters. on one of the duos, i got teamed up with someone who was actually communicating/listening to what i was saying on the mic (even though he didn’t actually say anything). we landed in fatal and then died pretty quickly. so i was like oh well. then i did duos again right after and i got paired with him AGAIN!! this time around i was talking on the mic and we went fatal again. he seemed to be responding to what i was saying but i guess he was shy and didn’t say anything. or maybe wasn’t too fluent with english. but the whole game we were killing it. we got like 6-7 kills each and went from fatal to salty to dusty to 4th place. we had each other’s backs and it was so dope. it was weird cause it was basically a one way communication. if i said stuff on my mic, he’d listen, but he wouldn’t actually communicate anything. the next game, he died early in retail and i didn’t want him to wait so after i killed the remaining two duos, i decided to leave the game so we could restart again. it was the dynamic duo ayyy. 

then on our last game we went to fatal again, rekt people, went through salty, dusty and got all the way to the last circle until there was no zone. i had like 10-11 kills. he also had a decent amount. idk what it was but i just felt super confident about my gameplay. anytime he got knocked down, i was confident i’d be able to turn the game around. the jetpacks also probably helped. but my aim with the shotties were also on point which felt great. we noticed there were two people with sky bases on opposing sides. it was down to 5 people. one of them jumped off with their jetpack from the sky bases and came down to us so we both chased after him and got him. then the last zone was no zone, and the circle was starting to close in. we made a run for it and then another person jumped off of their sky base to try to surprise us. he actually got me. the entire game i didn’t get knocked a single time and then this random guy comes down with a jetpack and gets a lucky shot >.>. the zone closed on me, so i was a goner. plus there was a hill to climb so i couldn’t. but my teammate was fighting him... and then GOT HIM! but it turns out that guy was actually on his own cause he went down right away. my teammate tried to jetpack up a hill but didn’t have enough stamina in the jetpack so he slid back down and then died in the storm (cause it was hitting for like 10 or 20 damage). then the kill cam switched to the winner, which was this guy camping in his skybase... it’s so dumb >.> he had 2 kills and literally did nothing to win the game. i don’t understand what kind of satisfaction he gets from that. oh well. i felt like that was the best game i’ve had. personal record number of, never got knocked, and almost won (we got 2nd place basically)

- went with my mom, grandma and grandpa to ikea to do some bed furnishing shopping. they bought some blankets and comforters and stuff. we left around 3pm and i also dropped off my apartment rent for the summer in the mail. finished around 5pm and got back around 5:30pm. 

- i played some smash online cause i will also be leaving my wii U here for the summer. had some good games and then some bad games. and then we had to leave for dinner

- dinner was delicious. we had so much good food. the service was a bit slow though. we were there from 6:30-8:30pm basically

- came back, i started doing laundry and took a long shower. then i packed the rest of my stuff (the stuff that i actually use like camera, laptop chargers and such)

- now i’m catching up on yesterday and today’s blog post while waiting for the laundry to finish. it should be done by now so i’m gonna get it, load my stuff in and then go to sleep. i have to wake up at 4:45am tomorrow. gotta catch a plane at 8:30am to cali tomorrow morning!

i’m surprised with how chill i feel about everything. i feel like normally i’d be a bit anxious but idk why i’m not really worried about anything right now. shrug

okay good night