#u can win Greg and cake

[fofi42]

Meet Greg, eat cake Charity raffle

[fumikomiyasaki]

🌹 with Mel x Tyler,🍦 with Greg x Forte, 🎱 with Metaron x Rubina, or🤰with James x Carol

Kiss Ask

🌹 – a kiss on the first date

It was... very unsual of a feeling for Tyler... given the last Relationship he had was with Rachel of all people, having a date with Melanie he was a bit insecure... this is the first person in a while he trusted enough to be vulnerable too... but in all he did chose one of his best looks which he made herself to wait for her at the coffeeshop... seeing her in her pretty draw made him hide his face in his turtle neck. As he tried to join his hand with hers.

“I am glad you had time for me today... “

“No problem... work can wait for now and... you matter to me...”

It was his clumsy way of saying he likes her but somehow it seemed endearing... they went into the shop and chatted over cake and coffee about fabrics and designs. As they finished their food he brought her along a park full of birds... as she squeezed his hand tighter...

“H-Hey Tyler.. would you mind to come a bit closer to me?”

“I try...”

He turned to her face and held her in his arms as she tried to move up and face him for a kiss... which he accepted holding her face in his hands... it was short yet tasted sweet. Both looked  at each other with a hint of redness....

“Melanie... please tell me if I ever accidentally hurt you with my words... I don’t want to mess things up.”

She smiled a little when he said this.

“I will try to remind you.”

______________________________________

🍦 – an ice cream kiss

On a heaty day Forte and Gregory snuck out in diguises to try the new ice cream parlor... as usual Gregory had a big portion of his parfait, which Forte only had a small elegant looking one... as he saw some cream left on her lip he smirked at her.

“Ya know I could help ya, ya have something on your lip...”

He quickly pulled her face close and kissed it away with a light lick over her bottom lip... causing her to lightly get red.

“Tastes really yummy... I dunno if its you or the ice cream though.”

“Hey if you steal some from me I steal it back.”

And so she also leaned to him as he took a bite to eat his part of ice cream on his mouth away, making this a light cold kiss between them.

“Urgh... brain freeze.”

She chuckled as he held his head... its always a bit chaos with him.

______________________________________

🎱 – a good luck kiss

The combat tournament went well for HSA given Metaron and Nanoya got into the Finale... Ruby was cheering from afar to support him and as both finished their next opponents. After relaxing in the locker Rooms, She came to visit and wrapped her arms around him.

“You did perfect out there, I am sure if this continues you can win...”

Nanoya looked at them with a smile and tended back to his sword... while Metaron looked at her with a soft smile.

“It was all thanks to your cheering.”

“Hmm.. how about I give you a kiss for good luck... maybe then its even stronger.”

“I would like that.”

And so she leaned upwards to give him a soft kiss... However they got lost in it and Nanoya had to tap his shoulder.

“We need to go.”

“Right.... then I’ll do my best for you.”

She waved them and returned back to the crowd.

______________________________________

🤰 – a kiss on a pregnant belly

“It kicked me a little.” It was the greatest news as James found out that his wife got pregnant some months ago, but just now they both really noticed the kid slowly growing in her belly... It was a warm smile that formed on Carols lips as she laid on the couch and held her belly a little... James was just coming home from his duty and placed a kiss on her lips.

“Wait I forgot to great someone else.”

And so he placed his second kiss on her belly. Causing her to chuckle a little and place a hand on his head...

“I am just glad to see you so happy like this...”

“It was one of my biggest wishes to have a family with you... I wonder what it will be like...”

“How about we start thinking of Names together? this way its easier once they are born.”

“Hold up let me get some paper and then we can start.”

They spend the rest of the night with her laying in his arms and him writting all sugesstions both had down to imagine and think of what comes next.

[irenenorth]

New Post has been published on Irene North

New Post has been published on http://www.irenenorth.com/writings/2018/01/how-to-make-a-bad-day-good-or-spike-gets-some-cake/

How to make a bad day good, or Spike gets some cake

A proper piece of cake.

Tuesday. January 30, 2018.

It was a bad day at work for fellow reporter Charissa Bryce and me until Ag Editor Spike Jordan rolled in. He came in, sat at his desk and pretended to work for a bit before rolling over toward our desks in his black, high back chair.

“What are ya’ll doing today?” he asked.

“We are going to cover the airport today and SkyWest coming in,” I replied.

“Eh,” Spike said, rolling his eyes and shrugging his shoulders.

“There’s going to be cake,” Charissa said.

And then the day got better.

Spike’s eyes lit up. Free cake. We told him to come, but he had an interview at the same time. He said we were only going for the free cake.

Spike admitted to stuffing food into his pockets at a recent event. He had no shame about being “scumbag” Spike. The only reason to go is to steal food. Charissa and I laughed. Then, he explained the perfect way to take extra food from an event you attend.

“You need to sew Ziploc baggies into your pants, so you can stuff your pockets,” Spike said with a huge grin on his face. He then went on to explain that, if there was cake, you just pick it up with your hands and smash it into your pockets. The key, however, was to make sure there was no lint on your cake or it would be ruined. It was okay if your cake was smashed. Just get it into your pocket.

He talked about the free food we get as reporters. “Admit it,” he said. “You only cover BPW for the free food.” I nodded and laughed. Free food is always good.

Fun fact, Spike told us. Greg, our publisher, is a member of Rotary, but he never goes. So, whenever there’s a meeting, we should feel free to say, “’This is Greg’s plate,’ and they should give it to you. He already paid for it, so it would be going to waste if you didn’t eat it.”

“Yeah, people all around this country are hungry and it would be rude for me to go hungry as well,” Charissa said.

“We just need to get the paper to sponsor some event at the Longhorn Saloon,” I said. “Then we can all eat good food for free.”

“I probably could arrange something,” Spike said.

Spike was waiting for a fax from Sioux County. He had some paperwork to sign. Charissa asked him if he thought the Longhorn could fax him a chili cheeseburger.

“It would get stuck in the machine,” Spike replied. “And it would be gross.”

The topic changed to Spike’s father and he complained about his phone automatically becoming a Faraday cage. He has been having an argument with his dad about how much his dad looks like his great grandfather. His father doesn’t think so.

“He was trying to argue with me that he didn’t,” Spike said. “I told him, ‘Wrong, fella.”

After going through some old pictures with his mother, Spike now has a collection of family pictures on his phone to keep.

Topics of discussion ranged from writing a profile on a sugar beet to the ten bags the sugar beet will end up in to the Fort Robinson magazine I’m writing. It gave Spike a story idea for me, which sounded really interesting.

Spike noticed the sketch he made me of Mr. Potato Head was now taped onto my monitor. According to Spike, Mr. Potato Head has some terrible opinions and conspiracy theories. The sketch is a take off of a picture he drew about the Chicago Cubs’ bear who also believes in conspiracy theories.

“That cub has some terrible 9-11 truther things,” he said. “Everyone thought it was great when they won the World Series. I’m here to tell ya, it’s not what it seems.”

I felt the Cubs’ winning of the World Series was tainted because the Rickett’s family owns the team now. Spike agreed.

“It was good that they won and broke their hundred-year streak, but the fact that the Rickett’s family got a win out of it…”

Spike brought up another shitty thing the family did.

“The fact that Pistol Pete shut down Gothamist, the only good community newspaper in New York,” he said.

“I used to read it all the time and then it’s gone,” I replied emphatically. “Then, to be a dick, he deleted all the archives.”

“Yeah, so all the reporters couldn’t even go back and get clippings of their work,” he said.

Note: There appears to be some archives now.

After another discussion about the extra work we have, I mentioned I thought it was dumb to have so many special sugar beet editions of the Farm and Ranch section. Spike discussed his ideas he had, including a double truc of a sugar beet and descriptions of it, he said, “Fuuck.”

“See,” I said. “Spike has the same life motto as me.”

I feel like his has three ‘U’ in it though,” Charissa said. “Yours has only one short ‘U’ and it’s very short, bold, and has an exclamation point.”

“Mine actually has a ‘U’ with unnecessary umlauts,” Spike said.

We talked about other, self-incriminating things, like our opinions on the police, that are hilarious, but better left unsaid. Then, we got back to work. I finished up writing a profile on Emmanuel De Leon, a park ranger at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, cropped the photos and attached them to the story. By now, my stomach was growling.

Charissa and I decided to eat lunch at the Flight Deck Restaurant at the airport. Our burgers came with pickles. We both hate pickles so we wrapped them, first in my used napkin, then in Charissa’s. I didn’t want my camera bag to smell like pickles, so I rolled them in toilet paper.

I interviewed several people about SkyWest coming to Scottsbluff. Everyone was looking forward to finally having reliable air service, but, while they were all talking to each other, I quickly typed up the story and emailed it back to the Star-Herald. Then, Charissa and I grabbed some cake. It wasn’t chocolate, so we were slightly disappointed, but it’s cake, so it’s all good.

I spoke with Tammy Relka, owner of the Flight Deck Restaurant, who was serving the cake. We asked if we could take a piece of cake to Spike and told her our story. With a huge smile on her face, she said, “Sure,” and grabbed all the crumbled and crushed bits that end up on the knives used to cut the cake. Then, since she didn’t have any lint, she took a napkin and shoved it into the cake. We took another, nicely sliced piece of cake for Spike as well.

Spike’s special piece of smashed cake with used napkin.

Charissa quickly ran back to the car with both plates. We were moments away from watching the plane land. I texted Spike to tell him we were bringing him a surprise.

Spike’s poor responses for what Charissa and I were bringing him.

Out on the tarmac, we saw the plane come in. We took too long and Spike nagged us on Facebook.

We took our photos of the plane landing, taxiing through the water canon and coming to rest just outside the airport. We took a photo of the first person off the plane, but couldn’t find him to get his name, so we returned to the Star-Herald. Charissa suffered through my musical selections, as she does each time she rides with me.

Spike attempts to unravel what Charissa and I have brought him as a gift.

Charissa took both plates and put them on her desk. I gave Spike the pickles. He was really confused. He unrolled the toilet paper surrounding the pickles. Then he unrolled some more. When he reached the napkin, he gave us a look.

“Thanks for the pickles,” he said. He tried to give them back. We didn’t want them. Pickles are vile.

I looked at Charissa and said, “Give him his real gift.”

Charissa gave him his smashed caked with the napkin shoved in it. He thanked us for bringing him cake.

Spike is happy to get some smashed cake.

I smiled and nodded at Charissa. She returned to her desk one last time and got Spike the nicely cut piece of cake.

Spike is surprised, but pleased, Charissa and I got him a piece of non-smashed cake.

“Thank you very much,” he said with a grateful smile. Then he disappeared into the break room to eat his cake.

Spike walks away a happy boy to enjoy his cake.

Spike got some cake and he made our day a little bit better.

[larryland]

“A funny, moving, altogether wonderful drama. . . A heartening reminder that a keen focus on life’s small moments can pay off in a big way onstage.” – The New York Times

(Lenox, MA) – Shakespeare & Company opens their 40th Anniversary Season with 4,000 Miles written by Amy Herzog, and directed by Nicole Ricciardi. This Pulitzer Prize finalist and Winner of the 2012 Obie Award for Best New Play explores growing up, growing old and the moments in between. The acclaimed comic drama runs at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre from May 25 to July 16, 2017.

After suffering a major loss while he was on a cross-country bike trip, 21 year-old Leo seeks solace from his feisty 91 year-old grandmother, Vera, in her West Village apartment. Over the course of a single month, these unlikely roommates infuriate, bewilder, and ultimately reach each other. 4000 Miles looks at how two outsiders find their way in today’s world. The Associated Press said, “In 4000 Miles, a warm-hearted new play by Amy Herzog, both love and irritability are woven into an illumination of the healing process after the loss of a loved one. The sensitive play [is] filled with small, revelatory and often humorous moments between a grandmother and her grandson.”

“In Ms. Herzog’s play, Leo is miles from home, lost, avoiding the familiar,” says returning Shakespeare & Company Director Nicole Ricciardi. “Vera is just as aimless, shuffling into a life of meaningless small details. They are distant relatives, generationally divided. Both yearn for human connection and understanding. And yet…they struggle to communicate. They bicker. They joust. They leave things unsaid. And after weeks of close physical proximity, the dam breaks and everything begins to change.”

Annette Miller

Zoe Laiz

Emma Geer

Greg Boover

Riccardi’s production of 4000 Miles features award-winning actress Annette Miller and Company member Gregory Boover, along with Zoe Laiz and Shakespeare & Company newcomer Emma Geer. The creative team includes John McDermott (Set Design), James W. Bilnoski (Lighting Design), Stella Schwartz (Costume Design) and Amy Altadonna (Sound Design).

“Unlike many of the woman I have had the privileged to portray, Vera Joseph in 4000 Miles is not a larger than life woman,” says Miller. “She isn’t a woman who is driven to make her mark in the world, so to speak, but she is like all of those women we know who have lived very full lives, and who are dedicated to creating a more just society. Vera values love, wisdom, and humor – which are all part of the essential core of who she is – I can’t wait to enter that simple truth of her life.”

Tickets for 4000 Miles are available online at shakespeare.org, or by calling Shakespeare & Company’s box office  at (413) 637-3353. The Bernstein Theatre is air-conditioned and wheelchair accessible. Shakespeare & Company is located at 70 Kemble Street in Lenox, Massachusetts. The performance is generously sponsored by Jerry and Honie Berko.

AT A GLANCE PRODUCTION: 4000 Miles PLAYWRIGHT: Amy Herzog DIRECTOR: Nicole Ricciardi SET DESIGNER: John McDermott LIGHTING DESIGNER: James W. Bilnoski COSTUME DESIGNER: Stella Schwartz SOUND DESIGNER: Amy Altadonna STAGE MANAGER: Fran Rubenstein*

CAST MEMBERS VERA JOSEPH: Annette Miller* LEO JOSEPH-CONNELL: Gregory Boover* BEC: Emma Geer    ��                      AMANDA: Zoe Laiz                          

SCHEDULE: May: 25 – 7:30 PM – Preview 26 – 7:30 PM – Preview 27 – 7:30 PM – Preview 28 – 3:00 PM – Opening June: 2 – 7:30 PM 3 – 7:30 PM 9 – 7:30 PM 10  – 7:30 PM 11 – 3:00 PM 16 – 7:30 PM 17 – 7:30 PM 18 – 3:00 PM 23 – 7:30 PM 24 – 7:30 PM 25 – 3:00 PM 29 – 7:30 PM 30 – 7:30 PM July: 1 – 3:00 PM 2 – 3:00 PM 6 – 3:00 PM 8 – 3:00 PM 9 – 7:30 PM 14 – 7:30 PM 15 – 3:00 PM 16 – 3:00 PM – Closing

About Annette Miller (Vera) Twentieth season with S&Co. Bemedette in Sotto Voce (2016); Elliot Norton and Irne Award for best actress as Golda Meir (2003); Elliot Norton best actress nomination for Martha in Martha Mitchell Calling (2006). Florida Carbonell Award best actress nomination for Vi in August Osage County (2012). Now is Our Time – the Pleasures and Perils of our Third Chapter, (Brandeis Women’s Studies Research Center). Favorite roles: Maria Callas, Master Class; Duchess, Richard III; Marjorie Taub, The Allergist’s Wife; Queen Elinor, King John; Maria, 12th Night; Ruth Steiner, Collected Stories (S&Co). Paula Strasberg, Nobody Dies on Friday; Lillian Hellman, Cake Walk (U/S Elaine Stritch); Arkadina, The Seagull (American Rep. Co). B’Way: The Odd Couple Female Version.

About Nicole Ricciardi: (Director) Fifth season with S&Co: Director of The Taming in 2016; The How and the Why in 2015; Cassandra Speaks in 2012, and Richard II in 2013 (Assistant Director). Nicole is a New York City-based director, actress, and instructor, who has directed, assisted, and/or developed work at Youngblood/Ensemble Studio Theatre, #serials at the Flea, Circle East Repertory, Two River Theater Company, Primary Stages, Bushwick Arts, the Nora Theater Company, Shadow Lawn Stage, Irish Repertory, New Century Theatre (Time Stands Still, July 2016), and with her own company, The Wild Court. She currently teaches for the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. Nicole received her M.F.A. from Carnegie Mellon University.

About Amy Herzog: (Playwright) First season with S&Co. Herzog’s plays include After the Revolution (Williamstown Theater Festival; Playwrights Horizons; Lilly Award), 4000 Miles (Lincoln Center; Obie Award for the Best New American Play, Pulitzer Prize Finalist), The Great God Pan (Playwrights Horizons), and Belleville (Yale Rep; New York Theatre Workshop; Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Finalist; Drama Desk Nomination). Amy is a recipient of the Whiting Writers Award, the Benjamin H. Danks Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Helen Merrill, the Joan and Joseph Cullman Award for Extraordinary Creativity, and the New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award. She is a Usual Suspect at NYTW and an alumna of Youngblood, Play Group at Ars Nova, and the SoHo Rep Writer/Director Lab. She has taught playwriting at Bryn Mawr and Yale.  MFA, Yale School of Drama.

About Shakespeare & Company Located in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts, Shakespeare & Company is one of the largest Shakespeare Festivals in the country. Founded in 1978, the organization attracts over 30,000 patrons annually. The Company is also home to Shakespeare & Company’s internationally renowned Center for Actor Training and nationally renowned and an award-winning Education Program. More information is available at www.shakespeare.org.

Shakespeare & Company Presents “4,000 Miles” by Amy Herzog “A funny, moving, altogether wonderful drama. . . A heartening reminder that a keen focus on life’s small moments can pay off in a big way onstage.”