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maljic · 4 years

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i have been working in the grocery industry practically my entire life. for many companies, and in many many positions. i’ve seen hurricane panic buys, i have seen post hurricane apocalypses, i have closed stores, and i have opened stores. i have been to backroom recoveries, i have worked small stores and big stores. i have seen h1n1, and i have now seen covid19. and even tho this is something unprecedented, all together it’s really not. the difference here is that it’s been going on for three weeks now and there is no end in sight. the duration is what’s so new.

so i’ve started making notes every day after i got home. just the overall experience, but also customer comments and new things being implemented. it’s a fascination change, and i wanted to write it down to maybe sometime in the future come back to this time and remember anew.

i plan on keeping notes for the foreseeable future, to keep writing a diary of sorts, to see if this ever levels out or escalates even more, if things change drastically or not at all. and if the fucking toilet paper situation ever goes away.

things started to change the first week of march. it was super subtle, i didn’t even notice it at first. it was just a steady increase in business. a solid 20% ahead in sales all across the board. and even tho the virus was already in the news it didn’t cotton on right from the start. or it did, maybe, but i wasn’t expecting it to escalate to such heights.

tuesday, 03.10.2020 9am - 5pm

people are making their own hand sanitizer by mixing rubbing alcohol and aloe vera. we’re out of both. lady is asking me by the sun tan section about the state of deliveries of aloe vera gel. we get to talking. i admit that i don’t understand the people’s need for hand sanitizer since the cdc and every doctor ever recommends hand washing first and foremost. Susan comes out and says, ‘well the only thing that really can safe us from all this is...” and i retort with, “washing your hands, right?” but Susan claps back with, “the lord jesus christ.” and i had to excuse myself real quick and leave her ass on the aisle, because why are you fucking here then trying to potion together your own hand sanitizer, Severus, if all you need is god?

a grown woman that’s working at the register is. coughing. non. stop. co workers comment on it to each other and to me, and i wonder if anyone has taken her aside to explain the current state of world events to her, and maybe asking her to cover her damn mouth. we’re all gonna die.

thursday, 03.12.2020 2pm - 10pm 11pm

parking is an absolute nightmare. i’m 10 mins late cause i can’t find a spot. welcome to hell. i ask my boss what the sales were yesterday and she says we’re 40% ahead of the forecast. which is ridiculous. at this point it’s pretty much a blanket permission for over time. we do not have the capacity to continue to run at this pace. people get worn out, we’re bound to get sick, and the customers are fucking relentless. truck is big. Karen and her brother Chad look at the soap section and wanna know when we get more hand sanitizer in.

this lady is looking at things in the cold and flu section and we get to talking about shit and she mentions something she’s read on facebook and whoops my filter went poofgone and i tell her that i hope facebook dies along with all this corona virus flu and have a good evening.

at the end of my shift after we’ve finished stocking and cleaning up, i stay longer because there’s still a fuck ton of people in the store but we only have two registers open. i check people out until 11 and then peace out. one dude dropped $650 on groceries.

friday, 03.13.2020 11am - 7pm

“where is the hand sanitizer?” Karen asks. i refrain from shouting at her to get outta my face. the store is absolutely packed. lines of lengths i haven’t ever witnessed. lines and lines of people with full bascarts of stuff. the end is nigh and we are here with a front row view of it. we have a small parking lot, and i have no idea where these people’s cars are? i didnt know we could fit that many people in the store. whats the fire marshall’s max capacity guidelines? someone should review those. meanwhile i’m trying to navigate around everybody and put things on shelves that don’t last very long.

the grocery truck arrives around 3 ish and paper products get thrown out first. usually, when the truck arrives it stays locked until the night crew shows up. we’re set up to always have a trailer at the store, so when the guy shows up he unhitches his trailer, and hitches up under another trailer which was the previous day’s grocery truck, which got emptied off groceries when the night crew stocks, and then got filled with stacks of empty pallets, paper bales, and other reusable thinks like plastic trays the meat comes in, or the eggs come in, or produce plastic trays, things like that. so now that we’re in the apocalypse of paper products, the day crew gets those pallets out on the sales floor asap. at this point we have reduced the quantities of things you’re allowed to take to 3. 3 packs of toilet paper, 3 packs of paper towels... also 3 of lysol wipes and 3 of hand sanitizers even tho we dont have any, calm down, Karen. paper products are gone within an hour.

my company makes an absolute killing that day.

saturday, 03.14.2020 10ish to whenever.

my boss said she was coming in (on her off day) so i said yo, mind if i sleep in a bit? i was scheduled 7am and if i don’t have to i don’t want to. she said ok. i rock up at 10:08. things stop showing up on deliveries. the diaper area is sad looking. people have started to buy us out of baby wipes. there’s a problem coming at us in about 2 months. you cant flush baby wipes but since the toilet paper situation is what it is, people will wipe their butts with wet wipes. have fun with that, dallas county utility department (or whoever messes with the water wastes).

displays are dwindling. we are not getting product, so we are filling the shelves in the aisles with the stuff that’s on displays. it’s a bit wonky looking. there’s half an endcap with shampoo and then the rest of it is filled with hersheys. its upside down world. but we have to keep things full. with whatever. empty shelves are bad bad bad, but empty endcaps are a cardinal sin.

people waste so much food when they’re shopping. now that the shelves are getting and staying empty, people will just put things everywhere when they decide against buying the items. bags of chips, six packs of beer, gatorade whatever. that’s not really waste. but we also see bags of salad, frozen items, meats. we are currently not in the position to walk the store every half hour and collect these things. these things are all now wasted and will get thrown out. not the chips, i’m talking about the temp controlled things. being cold to the touch is not enough. shit aint safe.

monday, 03.16.2020 8am - 4 pm 6pm

truck is gigantic. never ever have i seen a truck that big. so everything that my boss was fantasizing about me doing gets thrown out the window when the truck hits the backdoor at 11 am. everybody who is scheduled for truck is given the option to come in early. and stay until it’s all stocked. or until you’re exhausted. i help with the pharmacy stuff because that’s the biggest part. i stay until 6pm. then i’m out.

people would like to know where the hand sanitizer is, well, sugar, so. do. i. it’s the one item that has been out since the end of february, and people are absolutely gob smacked when you tell them it’s currently unavailable. i try to appease them with some hand soap, but, stupidly, people dont want to hear that. i’m thinking to myself that in about a week soap will also be unavailable, but to each their own. customers believe that we, the workers, know the exact day and time when lysol wipes will be stocked. but when you tell them that soap is getting scarce they look at you like you’re speaking a different language.

company wide, we are not allowed to order anything right now. which is huge. how it usually works is: our system knows at all times how many items we have in the store, as per bar code, and knows how much will fit on the shelves, how much we’re selling every day/hour, and then there’s the forecasting factor. so the system will order stuff based on sold quantities, automatically. all the time. if we need extra stuff for sales and/or displays and whatnot, we order extra.

the computer system wouldnt know, for instance, that there was a tornado in oct that wiped out our electricity and that of most of our customers, so we changed orders to reflect that. no frozen things, lots more batteries, ice, coolers.

a lot of things ride on added orders, which are now out

from here on in, everything is up to the system, and to the powers that be. if there’s soap in the warehouse, we will get allocated with every store in the area so that everyone gets equal amounts or close to. hoarding is, apparently, frowned upon at this level too.

tuesday, 03.17.2020 2pm - 10pm

i have come to hate the soap aisle. used to always be my favorite. so long, soap aisle, we’ve had a good run. tonight i’m stocking the pharmacy area (cold and flu, pain meds, tummy stuff, those sort of things). truck is small. super small. i try helping customers as much as i can, but most of my end of the conversation is no, sorry, we dont have any. backstocks are dwindling. the backroom is emptying out. we rely on truck deliveries for things to do and products to be put out. “do you have any [insert product here] in the back?” is the most asked questions. “there’s nothing in the back.” is the most uttered sentence all day.

people obviously do to not get what social distance means. every aisle is packed with shoppers. i’m wasting a lot of time trying to stay out of people’s paths, but people lingeeeerrrrr what the fuck. the mayor of dallas shut everything down to flatten the curve yet here all these fuckers are doing their god damn grocery shopping like it’s 3 months ago. get in, get stuff, get out. i try conjuring up some gas to clear the aisle, but the farts won’t come

go home, people. i wish i could.

somehow our store has become the hub in our area. we get trucks in the afternoon with produce and meat, and people from other stores around us show up in trucks and suvs to transport product between stores. i’ve seen so many people that i hadn’t seen in years because they’re coming by getting shit in the afternoon.

we lost one of our baristas. she’s retired but works with us the maximal allotted hours per week the government allows you before they yank your money. she’s living in senior housing (cause its cheap) and they’ve completely locked down and she is unable to come to work. her boss funnels her groceries. and they face time a lot. she’s doing ok.

wednesday, 03.18.2020 10am - 6pm

parking lot semi full, too full for a wednesday. toilet paper situation is unchanged. but alas there’s no grocery truck scheduled tonight so this is not changing until tomorrow. i’m talking to three separate people desperate for some toilet roll (lol, i love how this pandemic makes me learn new terms, hi, united kingdom, i see you - toilet roll, i love it). anyways, i explain to all three the truck schedule and how to best strategize to get some butt wipes: truck is 6 days a week, wednesday being the no truck day. when the truck arrives, usually what happens is that the paper products get stocked immediately, to make room in the back room and to alleviate the situations. be in the store at around 3ish? 3:30ish, and hang out. i explain that i don’t want to encourage anybody to spend their afternoon in the store for obvi reasons, but when you gotta go you gotta go. alternately, hang out in your car, and when you see a truck pull behind the store around mid day, chances are in about 30 mins you shall have paper. people appreciate the info.

i’m in the candy aisle trying to stock a case of twizzlers. we’re using shopping carts to stock, it’s way more flexible than lugging around huge stocking carts, especially now with the store being so crowded. this dude rocks up and asks me if i’m panic hoarding with all those boxes in my cart. he looks at me with a straight face and thinks he’s making a point. meanwhile i’m in full uniform and people around are starting to roll their eyes. i drop the box of twizzlers into my cart (its super heavy and dude is creating a scene). my box cutter comes out and i make a show of clicking the blade out while explaining to douche canoodle that i’m working here, excuse me, and cut into the tape of the box. moron.

there’s a few people that i’ve seen every day this week. and they’re all advanced in their age. i get that the store is your second home cause you’re lonely, but right now is really not the time. go home.

the question i hate the most is: when are you gonna get more soap in. the honest answer? no fucking clue, Karen. if i could predict the future i wouldn’t be working here.

thursday, 03.19.2020 10am - 6pm

there was no grocery truck last night so shelves are still as empty as they were when i left last night. still, parking lot is semi full. we’ve seem to have gotten a decent produce truck, bananas everywhere. great. my boss’s plan for me is to: whatever truck is back there, and then easter. which means i walk the back room, collect anything and everything that belongs to our department, and get it on the shelves. there’s nothing back there except a chocolate delivery which arrived on the dairy truck. a huge amount, by normal standards. at least people are still enjoying some candy.

by 3pm it’s made the rounds that one of the guys for our dept isn’t coming in: allergies. okay then. truck is not too big, i help out with that until it’s time to hit the time clock.

times are tough, and i’m a good-natured person that can dish out jokes and emphasize with you and cumbaja we’re all in this together and all the other bullshit we’re telling ourselves to make us feel better. but when dudebro comes down the soap aisle and bemoans the state of the shelves (empty) and then goes into a rant about his two parents, immunocompromised, at home, out of soap, almost getting loud and making it seem like its my fault that we don’t have what you want, then no. i’m all out of fucks to give. meanwhile, people of the free world, have you forgotten that hand washing soap does not only come in little pump bottles that you can cutsify your sink with but also LOOK AT ALL THE BARSOAP, back in the days we used that to wash our hands. calm down and take some irish spring to your parents.

grocery truck arrives. big time. in the good ole days of yester year we would get one trailer daily, most of the time not even full. we’ve been ramping it up to 2 most of the last two weeks. (and by we i mean we as a society, buying everything on the shelves and not being satisfied and always wanting more). today it was three. one of which with nothing but water. the others with lots of toilet roll and paper towels. and the usual stuff of canned goods and the likes. nothing will last tho, nothing is forever.

we have this one guy who works here who has, i believe, severe arthritis and is hygiene wise very challenged. he isn’t very mobile and does super light duty but he’s worked here a long time. i haven’t seen him in a few days. i wonder if he is just off, or if he said fuck it and stayed home.

the grown ass woman at the register is still coughing. and not covering her mouth. asswipe.

saturday 03.21.2020 7am - 3pm 6pm

“when do you expect more hand sanitizer in?”

i have no idea what you’re talking about, hand sanitizer was never a thing. lemme ask you this: is it berenstein bears where you come from?

people still want to shop brand loyal. i die inside a little bit every time someone turns their nose up at an alternative to their regular, “oh but we don’t use that brand.” dude didn’t you just say you needed vitamin c? was that a lie? here’s the damn vitamin c. it’s vitamin c, not, i don’t know, fucking coca cola. go home.

corporate finally came down and said we’re allowed to wear ppe now. like some of us haven’t since three weeks ago. i finally turned and went all ‘two by two hands of blue’ as well, and it’s really not as bothersome as i thought it would be.

weekends are now slower than weekdays. i have no idea why that is. and i’m not really sure if these past weekends have been slow, or just normal, and the weekdays are just crazy. i have lost all points of reference. it’s still busy. but is it the same busy it’s always been on a saturday and now we just have more checkers?

the company is desperately trying to hire more people. i don’t know if the new vigorous ad campaign is working yet? it’s a job, sure, especially in these times, but the starting pay is still barely above minimum wage so in any case people will collect unemployment which could still be more than they’d make working here i’m just saying.

the only real perk right now is that whoever works for a grocery store has first dibs on stuff. and if you believe we don’t have a “family and friends stash” in the back of all the items that are scarce then you don’t know how the world works. a friend of mine with health problems came to shop at our store today because we do have more stuff than what i’ve been hearing is going on in surrounding areas. and i was able to give her two cans of disinfectant wipes. another friend asked me if we had any loo roll, and they just came by my place to pick it up, cash on arrival.

we also extend (or well, i do extend) the stash to customers who always have been courteous. and believe me, after working in one location for a few years you know exactly who’s an asshole and who isn’t. we are essential, we are important, and we’ve been known that forever. we just never got treated like that. people are thankful that we’re working, that we’re doing our best (like if we could afford to just take two weeks off to self isolate, yeah right), and it’s good to finally walk the store with your head held high, to finally feel the appreciation. we are the kings of the toilet paper and it’s fucking fantastic.

the store manager (or the company, i’m not sure) bought lunch today for everybody. and there might be a texas rule of no gatherings of more than 10 people, but y’all should’ve seen the break room today at noon. we they feasted (i took two slices and went out back to enjoy) thanks for lunch, boss.

we still haven’t implemented “senior hours,” and i hate that.

hygiene challenged dude is back at work. so he just had his two days off.

monday 03.23.2020 12pm - 9pm

people keep insisting on shopping “normally” and it’s mind boggling. if you go to the store for 5 things or 50 things, it’s fine either way. but please make a list at home and roll with it. do not linger in aisles, do not pick up 3 different items and stand there to study the, i don’t know what the fuck, ingredients? country of origin? manufacturer? i have no earthly idea why you gotta look at a bottle of suave shampoo so intently and just. stay. there. reading it like its a new product on the market. go home.

people just waste so much freakin time in the store. they run into acquaintances and have to have a conversation right there when other customers have to walk around you. please stop, please please stop that. please. get in, get your stuff, and get out. if we dont have your fave available right now come back next week, it’s bound to be back unless it’s something like hand sanitizer or over the counter meds. please. go home.

the shopping pattern has changed. there’s all the action in the mornings now. tons of people, full parking lots, all in the morning. i understand it’s because people are under the impression everything gets restocked over night. which is half true. but whatever. i mean people shop all throughout the day and it’s still busy but the bulk is in the morning.

speaking of: senior hours finally!!! i’m stoked.

i feel like i’m getting fed up with customer questions so it’s usually short retorts and no eyes contact. one guy asked me where the aloe vera is and he asked very friendly and from a few feet away and i was sort of a dick to him. i felt bad immediately and rephrased my answer. yikes.

on the upside also, my work buddy was throwing water all day long. poor guy. he said something like 9 pallets of 24 packs. at one point they were replenishing a display and people grabbed water from the display instead of the pallet, and he was like, “you guys are killing me, man, please take it from the pallet and not the display. every pack you take from the pallet is a pack less i have to move.” a couple of dudes then took over stocking duty from him and threw the rest of the pallet to fill the display. how fucking nice. good eggs all around.

backroom looks like we got a crap ton of paper products. a crap ton. something like, i’m estimating, 12 pallets. so they’ve been staggering it throughout the afternoon but also kept lots in the back for senior hours tomorrow morning. it really looks like that part is getting almost back to normal. lmao fingers crossed.

no eggs tho, today. all gone.

hot shot trucks still show up in the afternoon with produce and meat. and other stores still come by to transfer stuff to their location.

company lunch today was from torchy’s taco. i abstained cause i had just eaten at home. but gatherings of 10 or more people had been had in the break room again. no idea if it was paid for by our company or if torchy’s was just getting rid of a bulk of their perishables.

some dude threw a fit about the limits on certain items. i think his beef was with water and how he’s seen someone take more than three. calm down, asshole.

tuesday 03.24.2020 10am - 5pm

it’s slow in the store. dallas county has a shelter in place ordinance right now and it’s just a slow and steady trickle of customers. the weather also has turned from grey and misty, to sunshine and 80ies. i hate it. i want my grey and misty back. and because it’s nice outside there’s a lot of people on walks and bike rides. there’s a trail behind the store and when i step out back i see people all the times. still keeping their social distance but people non the less.

we’ve finally got our hands on one of the people from the agency that has provided us with help. our girl is super nice and friendly and she works hard. i hope we’ll get to keep her in our department for however long theyre working with us. altogether there’s about 15-20 people in the store from the agency. they’re tasked with sacking groceries, cleaning shopping carts, cleaning shelves and helping to stock. it’s wonderful. they get paid $13, which is more than what you make starting out in the store.

it almost felt like it wasn’t a covid day. after what the covidiot in the wh said on monday, i was a bit unsure if non essentials would reopen (especially since the mayor just shut dallas down). it was weird. it seemed like customers stayed away because a) they went back to work or b) it’s too nice to grocery shop. but that’s prob only my stupid brain making things up.

there were two incidents, both of which weren’t covid related but needed security: a dude tried to walk out with two cases of beer (theft is a thing that happens in our store a lot) but somehow he had half the store chasing after him. i was outside taking my break when all the sudden this guy comes towards me with beer in each hand. where i was, there was no exit away from the store unless you wanted to jump the fence. and he sure did. launched himself and the beer over it. they chased him off (no one touched him, i wanna add, and no one would touch him too, even if we weren’t in the current time), but got their beer back. that was an adrenaline shock i didn’t need. the second one was a lady at the pharmacy not happy with the speed of the pharmacist and she got upset that her meds weren’t ready to be picked up. she made quite a scene with cursings and such so security was called. they are doing their best at the pharmacy but just like every other department they are swamped with prescriptions.

it was super slow and i left an hour early. went home and ate and passed out for 12 hours.

wednesday 03.25.2020 7am - 3pm

it’s probs the first time i’m on the road this early on a weekday during the self isolation period. it’s quite busy on the highway. but still no real traffic.

store is still slow but steady. i see a few customers with big bascarts and shopping lists going about their business urgent like. on the inside i was applauding their readiness and their commitment for getting it done. thank you dear customers. buy a whole cart and get the heck outta dodge. *chefs kiss*

help girl from the agency is with me today. i like her more and more. she gets it all done. baby wipes are still off and on, some days we have them, sometimes we’re out. we found 3 small cases of hand soap in the back (6 bottles each) and they are gone quickly. i’m working through shippers/displays (we’ve finally got a smattering in) but most of it goes straight to the shelves. i’m able to make some sense to one of the half shampoo/half hersheys end caps, and my eye finally stops twitching from the weirdness.

grocery truck schedule has changed and now we’re getting them also on wednesdays (for the time being). one trailer of toilet roll and paper towels, and one of canned goods and boxes and pantry stuffs. and maybe some lysol but who knows.

it’s still sunny and 80ies out, so more runners and bikers on the trail behind the store. still social distancing tho.

the news said someone from a grocery store of another chain was diagnosed. and then through the grapevine i heard that someone from our chain (not our store) also got diagnosed and is in the hospital. wash your hands. get in, get your stuff, and get out. stay safe out there.

friday 03.27.2020 9am - 5pm

there’s this lady in the store, little old lady, just wandering and shopping and whatnot for, i kid you not, 2 hours. what in the world? she’s wearing a mask, kinda like a “let me put this mask on cause i’m sanding something in the garage” you know that kind of mask. but it’s only covering her mouth? what is she doing. where is your family? do they know where you are and what you’re up to. seriously someone come get their auntie.

there’s stickers all over the floor by the registers “PLEASE WAIT HERE” reminding people to stay the heck away from each other. it’s working sometimes. people are patient.

this one lady asks me if we have this, and shows me her phone with a pic of the item like she is seriously standing 6 feet away stretching her arm as far as it’ll go. i appreciate it. she insists that the app tells her it’s in stock here. i ran out of ways to explain that the app doesnt keep up with inventory, only states that we carry it, not whether we actually have it in stock. it’s a surface disinfectant. we dont have it in stock.

rando people say their thanks that we’re working, that they appreciate it, thank you thank you. i have yet to learn how to respond to that. “youre welcome?” “oh sure!” “no problem” nothing feels right. me and my co workers all wish we could work from home, or take a few weeks off, without losing our jobs and benefits. it’s weird. how do you respond to that?

we’ve managed to stay in stock on toilet tissue all day long. one brand, one size, mind you. but! all day long! yes, toilet paper, on aisle 18!!!!

sales have leveled. business is returning to normal.

saturday 03.28.2020 7am - 3 pm

some lady lost her cool today and in her frustration she dead ass kicked over a display of gum. lmao, yikes.

every morning we have a little meeting in the store for all the department heads, or if they’re off, for whoever plays department head for that day. on saturdays that’s me. we call them huddles, although now we can’t call them that anymore because huddle doesn’t really scream social distancing. so now they’ll call it morning communication.

while walking the store today i found, get this, a bottle of purell. it was hidden behind other product. i immediately checked my surroundings (no one there) and then went and hid it in the back room. my immuno challenged friend had asked me for some for a while.

really nothing else going on. it was quiet in the morning and then a storm blew through, and then it was just gorgeous out. so the store got busier and busier. our truck was scheduled to be quite big, but it was late and i wasn’t gonna just hang around until who knows when.

monday 03.30.2020 2pm - 10pm

the break room is completely empty of chairs and tables. that’s new. just last week everyone crowded in, employees and management alike, whenever there was free lunch. and even tho one tells them, or points out that, hey, this is a bit more than technically should be in a closed space like this? all one gets back is, oh hahaha, yeah you’re probably right, but nothing changed. so now the break room is empty. only, i dont know, everyone here works on their feet, either standing (poor checkers) or standing and walking. for up to eight hours. there’s gonna be some people who will just have to sit down for 30 mins during their breaks. this was a company wide, or district wide decision, this wasn’t something our management came up with. and here’s the thing. admittedly, some higher ups in our company are seriously not the sharpest tacks in the box. and i’m not saying that you have to have a degree to make certain decisions, but it helps if you have some sort of, i don’t know, compassion, deductive reasoning, two brain cells to rub together. i, personally, will hardly be found in the break room, i don’t use it. but it’s absolutely clear to me that taking away the opportunity to let people rest is a recipe for disaster.

tuesday, 03.31.2020 2pm - 10pm

so, the owner of the dallas mavericks (basket ball) donated hand sanitizers to our company, for use of company employees. which, thanks, Mark, that was super sweet of you. no really. IF I SEE ONE CO WORKER USE THIS INSTEAD OF WASHING THEIR HANDS I WILL NOT BE MADE RESPONSIBLE FOR MY ACTIONS. wash your god damned hands people. hand sanitizer will never be able to do what soap and water can do. why is that such a big problem to understand.

the break room has a couple of chairs and tables in it now, and a sign on the door that reads “6 people limit, 6 feet apart.” yikes.

its the end of the month and people got paid so the store is getting busier. tomorrow is the first and i’m sure we’ll be packed. please take the following to heart: SHOP ALONE. don’t bring your wifey or hubby or roommate or kids. ok bring your kids if you have no one to watch them. do not use the grocery store as your family outing cause its the only spot you think youre allowed to go. it’s not. youre allowed to go for walks, in front of your house, in your neighborhood, heck, walk a circle around the store if you want, but don’t bring everybody into the store. social distancing is easier achieved if there’s less people to stay away from. be smart, think ahead. and if you think that shopping with two people makes it go faster? it’s not. cause you’re gonna argue over the choices made, you’re gonna veto your shopping buddies choice of beans and your gonna walk every aisle twice instead of once. and there will be more people touching more things and i could really do with less of that.

wednesday 04.01.2020 11am - 7pm

there’s a distillery in kansas who has converted their production to make hand sanitizer (or sanitizer in general) and we have received a shipment of, i think, two pallets. the fun part? they are the size and shape of vodka bottles.

they’re selling for $8 and we put a limit of 1 per family. they look super neat. it’s a plastic bottle, too. i don’t use hand sanitizer and i dont need it and there are people who need these i guess but i want one so badly. just as a, you know, reminder, a token, of these crazy times. i’m not gonna get one (but i kinda want one).

they have finally installed screens at the registers. and new rules came down from corporate: social distancing is the highest priority, hygiene is the highest priority. we are only going to operate 3 (out of 6) registers so that we can ensure that there’s enough space for everyone to feel safe. i have also spent 2 hours today thinning out displays that are cluttering up the sales floor so that we can encourage everyone to keep apart.

starting tomorrow, every employee will get their temp taken when they arrive to work. if the temp is too high you will be sent home (but paid for that day) and only be let back in to work if your temp stays normal for 72 hours without the help of meds.

pay has been increased by $2/h.

friday 04.03.2020 9am - 5pm

face masks everywhere.

like 80% of everybody started donning masks, scarves and homemade things to cover their lower face. face masks are a stark reminder that everyone should keep apart. it’s like an extra “hey, remember how we’re all potentially sick with something deadly? stay away.” i appreciate the effect it has.

there are about 5 different announcements over the PA, one about washing your hands and sneezing/coughing into your elbows, one about senior hours (which have changed now to tue, thu and sat morning), one about social distancing (about the length of two shopping carts!), one about “we’re all in this together” and one about us employees and how we’re doing so much more than our job right now.

ive stopped greeting customers. i smile maybe, since it’s something so ingrained into our brain, but i won’t speak unnecessarily.

the store is absolutely packed. the suggestion of staying away until the 3rd or the 4th that ive seen all over the internets seems to have cottoned on and now we’re slammed. with only 3 registers open now (to keep room between registers) the lines are down the aisles. one of the guys on the registers told me he loved it. it’s waaay less crowding around the registers, safer for the workers).

we have two entrances (the main one and a smaller one) and they closed the smaller one because it’s very tight there and doesn’t really work with trying to stay away from each other. it’s not locked, it’s just closed. no idea about the fire marshall code, but i have worked in bigger stores with only one main entrance so maybe it’s not part of any code.

i saw a woman with a vegas golden knights shirt and i miss hockey.

saturday 04.04.2020 7am - 5:30pm

my first day during senior hours, and admittedly we’ve only recently changed that but there are tons of people in the store and not a lot of seniors. but what do i know they all could be immunocompromised.

in our morning huddle communications meeting the store manager is spitting out a lot of numbers and percentiles and such, basically sales are still through the roof, even with the slower week we’ve had. it’s funny how there’s really no reference point anymore. forecasts and budgets have all been altered due to the situation but even those are still behind. the agency people aren’t with us anymore (since sunday) and i can see maybe 2 new people - but i’m not a reliable source for that because i don’t inter-mingle with other departments that much so i dont even know the regulars so i have no clue who is new. but we’re still running on basically the same people we’ve always had with this increased business.

aceotone is the new toilet paper. cant find it on the shelves, the warehouse is out and people are constantly asking for it. this one guy had me in stitches. he was shopping for the fam and had a list from his wife and you know, acetone, cuticle cream all the stuff you need to take care of your nails after you rip off the fake ones. i used to get my nails done so i gave him advice as best i could and pointed to some products, but no acetone. about five minutes later she finds me on the same aisle again and shows me a can of paint stripper with the word acetone in huge letters on it. i died. i told him that if his wife used that they are about to have a whole other set of problems. we both laughed. he had a great sense of humor. now go home, dude.

the side door that was closed on friday is open again. not surprised.

we are getting absolutely slammed with business. it’s a mad house. you can always tell when people start to park their cars on the fire lanes around the store. there’s just no more parking.

i do see a lot of single shoppers tho, which is so great. and then you got the families just sticking out like sore thumbs. and young college kids usually shop in threes or fours. but everybody is still taking way too much time. there was an article i read on local grocers and how some already reduced the people inside the stores and how every business is going to follow suit so we will see.

we ran out of eggs. and biscuits. and no significant numbers of paper products all week.

monday 04.06.2020 2pm - 10pm

fuck these customers, man

wednesday 04.08.2020 7am - 3pm

my company will not limit the customer count in the store. at least not in this state. when the whole thing started there was an email about store hours and they listed basically every division of our company and their changed hours - except, you guessed it, ours. i have a feeling they are going off of what other companies are doing around here, so unless theyre limiting people, we won’t. that’s my opinion. after work i realized i forgot butter and swung by a store (from a different company) close to home and they havent limited entrance either. they did have markings on the floor to encourage one way traffic down aisles, and i guess we’re gonna do that too. but nothing else. i did see smaller chains have started to limit people but not companies we’re competing with. so much for that. i guess first we need to have a few positive cases in order for them to change anything. the dollar speaks volumes, eh?

i saw this article a few days ago and i keep thinking about it. it basically sums up everything that’s going through all our minds every day. (i have no idea who this website is, i saw it and i read it and it spoke to me so dont come at me if it’s something weird - i just wanted to provide a source)

I manage a grocery store.

Here’s some things everyone should know

1. I don’t have toilet paper 2. I don’t have sanitizer 3. I run out of milk, eggs and meat daily 4. I promise if it’s out on the shelf … it’s not in a hidden corner of our backroom.

Those are the predictable ones, now for the real stuff

5. I have been doing this for 25 years I did not forget how to order product. 6. I did not cause the warehouse to be out of product/ 7. I schedule as much help as I have, including many workers working TONS of overtime to help YOU. 8. I am sorry there are lines at the check out lanes.

Now for the really important stuff:

9. My team puts themselves in harm’s way every day so you can buy groceries. 10. My team works tirelessly to get product on the floor for you to buy. 11. My team is exhausted. 12. My team is scared of getting sick. 13. My team is human and does not possess an antivirus… they are in just as much danger as you are. (Arguably more) but they show up to work every day just so you can buy groceries 14. My team is tired. 15. My team is very under-appreciated. 16. My team is exposed to more people who are potentially infected in one hour than most of you will in a week (medical community excluded, thank you for all that you do!). 17. My team is abused all day by customers who have no idea how ignorant they are. 18. My team disinfects every surface possible, everyday, just so you can come in grab a wipe from the dispenser, wipe the handle and throw the used wipe in the cart or on the ground and leave it there… so my team can throw it in the trash for you later. 19. My team wonders if you wash your re-usable bags, that you force us to touch, that are clearly dirty and have more germs on them than our shopping carts do. 20. My team more than earns their breaks, lunches and days off. And if that means you wait longer I am sorry.

The last thing I will say is this:

The next time you are in a grocery store, please pause and think about what you are saying and how you are treating the people you encounter. They are the reason you are able to buy toilet paper, sanitizer, milk, eggs, and meat.

If the store you go to is out of an item.. maybe find the neighbor or friend that bought enough for a year … there are hundreds of them… and ask them to spare 1 or 2. They caused the problem to begin with…

And lastly, please THANK the people who helped you. They don’t have to come to work!

#i dont know how to tag it i hate to tag it covid #i think it's gonna be #life in these pandemic times #thanks stumblingoverchaos

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usashirtstoday · 4 years

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Charles Darwin Workout Only The Strong Survive Vintage Retro T Shirt

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green-there · 4 years

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Perspective of immigration

I asked a guy who moved from India to San Francisco as a teenager what language he dreams in. He said it was all based in the context of who was in the dream. Hindi with his parents, Punjabi with his grandparents, english with his friends. He said he had attended a private school in India, and that they had taught him British english, which had certain names for things that we didn’t use here. He said people were surprised when he says he comes from India, because he doesn’t have an accent, but thats because at school they only spoke english, and that there was a period of adjustment of speaking a different language at home than at school. I asked about the cast system, and he said that in the city he is from, the only ones who care to uphold it is the upper class, but for the most part isn’t too intense. But if you drive an hour out of the city it still is going on.

A girl sitting next to us on the couch told us that she was raised by her grandparents who only spoke Spanish, and when she started living with her parents and attending school, she was held back because she didn’t know english. She was told Spanish was wrong every day, and sent to speech therapy during her time in school. She is embarrassed when any Spanish mannerisms come about, and doesn’t know how to speak it at all, but understands it. She says her whole family is too afraid to go to Mexico, and that the situation is particularly unsafe in her grandparents homeland. Gangs from the north and from the south kill on sight, and the government basically plays no role because of how out of control it has become.

A girl I work with comes from Vietnam, and doesn’t feel very confident with her english. She said that how they taught it in school was one side of the book was Vietnamese, one side was english. So she knows how to read and write very well, which helps a lot in school. She moved to the US 4 years ago with her family who lives in (Kentucky or somewhere over there). She moved to the city with her younger sister for better opportunity and schools. She said she didn’t understand spoken english when she first arrived. Her school in Vietnam she said didn’t have any music classes- that those were all private lessons, and so now she’s learning ukelele off youtube. I asked her if grocery stores look much different (because Vietnam is a communist country) and she said they seemed normal. She wasn’t sure how money was distributed under communist reign, or if someone had something to sell how that would work. But I don’t know much about my countries dynamics either, so who am I to say. She told me that buddhists are primarily vegan, and that their figurehead was a prince who gave up a lot of his life to become enlightened. And they don’t have marriage which surprised me!

A friend of mine told me that where she grew up in Hungary that there are certain tests that you take in school (elementary to middle, middle to high school, high school to collage) that depending on how well you do, you will get to go to better or schools or not. (Collage is free at least) She wanted to be a dentist, but on one of these tests didn’t fit the bill. She said it is very beautiful there and that the weather is amazing all year. The primary religion is Muslim, but they are relaxed which means she doesn’t have to cover her hair, her dad has a beer now and then, and her relationship with her god is personal. She fell in love with an Egyptian while attending school down south. This is tricky because english is both their second language, and they are both still getting the hang of it. He moved here for work, and she is nervous that they will never be able to own a house, (and the city feels isolating which I very much understand). She had to go to a couple doctors, and later get an ambulance, and she had no idea how expensive it would be (she is ok). But she cant vote for something like 7 years, so it is sad to talk about the hospitalization industry with someone who has no ability to say anything about it. She said in her husbands tradition that (if they decide to have a child) that the baby takes his father and grandfather’s names (which would make naming a baby girl especially difficult).

An Argentinian friend I met was so proud of his vibrant culture and to return home to it, he was showing us his homeland on youtube. They had a tradition of having a large chosen group of people all dress in costumes resembling demonic rainbow creatures (wings and all) all climb this rocky hillside in town drunk out of their minds. at the other side of the mountain there is all the other people from town (all ages) playing instruments, dancing, drinking etc. everything decorated. Then all the people dressed as demons run over the top of this rocky hill and decend into the group of townspeople, and they all dance together. This is one of his favorite holidays. He and I had an extensive conversation of how great ABBA really is and how dynamic they are as a band. Then he gave me tearful recollections of Selena and her tragedy. He loved the oldies and I was all about it. He told me how he would go somewhere with internet and memorize all the abba songs he could, so he could play them back in his head while he worked more clearly.

A friend from Jordan always says how we would love it there so much! They have the lowest place on earth which is so beautiful to see the stars, they have the ancient city of Petra carved into a mountain, their buildings are made to last from stone (Not like these buildings that give you mold poisoning, and ceilings fill with rats and bugs etc), and they have ancient architecture around them just as a normal thing. Going to antique stores with him is funny, because he says that back home its just how most places are. Hand painted fine plates and dish ware, crafted light structures, murals, doorways, even how they paint their walls! He says growing up was a community activity, and there would be open doors to family and friends, live music everywhere you go, people take care of the homeless, farmers go through the streets and sell you fresh food straight from the farms. He says they have a king and queen who everyone loves, and their city is as booming as LA’s is. The men are bald, the women have thick beautiful hair, and they are a relaxed kind of muslim where there is more choice. But, he won’t let his family know he drinks.

A fella I work with described how visiting his family in the Philippines gives a change of perspective. His uncle is head of police and has a nice house, but around him people live in houses made of scrap metal. He said when he visited as a child, he drank tap water at his grandparents little house and had to go to the hospital. So it is very much a 3rd world country. He walked out onto the balcony in the morning to see smoke coming up from everyone’s backyard- where they were burning trash. His aunt said if he moved there he could make money as a model, and he said its a tempting offer haha- but he doesn’t know the language. His grandma has seen full bodied distorted ghosts 2 times in her life living in the Philippines, once just walking in the opposite direction of her on the street. Apparently any kind of drugs (even weed) is punishable by death. He also said there are tons of people just amazing at singing. He has a cousin over there that had a tv show she sang on! His grandpa has an interesting story. So he was fighting in a war and fell in love with this woman who was with one of the captains. The captain got drunk and hit her, he fought back, and he was sent to this place expecting him to die. BUT he sided with the hostile group and helped them so much they gave him something to honor his service when he left to come home. Also, fun fact, Pilipino people have hispanic last names from the Spanish invasion that happened a long time ago, and are primarily hard catholics. He said that he saw people in the street who cut open their backs and whipped themselves as long as they could walk, to then collapse and have someone whip them to near death. BY CHOICE. They are repenting for their sins, and no I did not want to see the video he got.

I had a friend years ago who crossed the border. He had lived in a village where they had to walk an hour out to get to fill a bucket with water. He grew up there and moved to the city where he became an electrician at a young age. This city became very bad very quick, and he heard someone lived in California who could help him live. His family connection found him someone to share a twin bed with while he was working in the city, and he seemed happy- but you never know. Anyways, he said that ghosts and the paranormal were just another thing when he lived in his little village, and you got used to them. “You guys don’t have them here! Its the weirdest thing!”

I was going to go to the pumpkin patch with this guy near halloween, but it didn’t work out. He lived in post-civil war Russia where if you play hide and seek in that big empty factory, you’ll find bodies. He said that his family had to pay the mafia so they would stay out of harms way. The city, you get pulled over, you hand them what cash you have or something might happen. Russia is a big place, and it can’t all be like that, but it’s hard to imagine. He said that they really drink as much as people say they do, and the club scenes have lots of drugs. He said his grandparents had a cottage he loved near a big beautiful pond he could go out on, and a dog that would follow him around without a leash. His father was an artist, and relatively well known. He had a mental breakdown and moved to the US. His mother was an artist too, and he showed me some of her work- and it was so beautiful. Anyways, he was nervous about his dad, and moved here to keep an eye on him while he was in school. That night we were supposed to go to the pumpkin patch his dad had a breakdown.

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kazlifeadventures · 5 years

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Trinidad & Tobago - Carribean dreams...

I am so ‘vex’ that I won't be ‘liming’ in this beautiful place any more. I have been one lucky person to have been able to come here and hang with a local for almost a week. Jasmine has shown me her Trinidad and for that I am truly grateful. I have eaten so many local foods and they have all been fantastic. I have impressed the locals no end with my love of pepper sauce. The food here is tasty, spicy, and pretty much specific to this island. ‘Nah boy’, I am so very much enamoured with this country! One of my friends asked me if I had posted photos of the food. Truth be told, I don’t have a lot of pics, its not the most photogenic, and I seriously just wanted to eat it! I have partaken in the local speciality of doubles, with ‘plenty’ I might add - for those unaware that is with extra hot sauce and/or the mango bone that is infused with more pepper. Doubles is made with 2 baras filled with a curry channa (chick peas), it originally started as a breakfast food, progressing to be an anytime of the day food. It’s nutritious, tasty, and sold at street side vendors everywhere. Apparently even pizza and KFC taste better over here. This I can now say I agree with. Not sure if the food tastes better, or if its adding the ketchup, mustard, and pepper sauce that assists with the taste upgrade.....

Jas took me to the home of street food a little town called St James, and made sure I got to have saheena, (seriously amazing spicy little deep fried spinachy deliciousness ) as well as alloo pie...amongst other things. The locals only really eat out at restaurants on special occasions so that meant Jas cooked for me a lot of the time, and wow, just wow. I loved the chicken curry (brown), smoked herring, baigan choka, salt fish, home made roti, the fabulous goat curry.... I could rave on, but google Trinidadian food and you’ll understand. Jas lives out in the ‘country’ to the South of Port of Spain, the capital. We spent one evening heading around to some of the local rum bars. Rum bars are everywhere here. Beer is cold and cheap (and made here - love the Stag and the Carib!). I got to meet a few of the locals. Over here they will buy you a drink even for something as simple as the fact that they had to order over you slightly. At the bar. They loved to meet the ‘white girl from Austalia’, as out here they dont see a lot like me... The good thing is none of it was them just trying it on with the foreigner. These are genuinely lovely, polite, caring people. I had a dance off with some girls from Venezuela, and ended up drinking way more drinks then I paid for, eating (they sell bar snacks and’cutters’ only at the rum shops) some tasty wontons at one place, and some really tasty fried chicken at another. We then got some free food from another lovely local who bought us a drink, and also then brought us across some Souse and Corn soup from his food stall (across the road from the rum shop). Anyway I can now say I have tried Souse, not sure I’d eat it again, it was flavourful, but pigs trotters in broth with onion and cucumber is not on my list of things to eat again! I think I have decided that I need to come back to Aus and start my own Trini food store, I think it’d be a huge hit. Love the local beers. Love the rum here. Jas made sure I tasted the Puncheon rum - 75 % and you never get a hangover or upset stomach... I wanted to bring some home, but alas no room in the suitcase! One of the biggest things, I was not aware that this is the home where Angostura bitters is bottled. It was first created in the town called Angostura in Venezuela by a German surgeon stationed in Venezuela, originally produced there between 1824 - 1830. In 1875, the plant was moved to Trinidad and that’s where it’s secret recipe is still produced today.

One of the main religions here is Hindu, they have a giant (85 feet - 26m) statue of Lord Hanuman Murti located in the grounds of Dattatreya Yoga. The statue is the second tallest in the world, and the tallest one in the western hemisphere. When we pulled up onsite there was one man looking after the bookstore who allowed us to enter the grounds and take photos. We weren't allowed to enter the temple/yoga centre as we weren't appropriately dressed. The gentleman then showed us the book explaining how the statue had been built and answered all my gazillion questions. It was like having our own private tour! Jas then took me down the road a little further to show me the temple in the sea. This temple was originally constructed by hand 1947 -52 by Sewdass Sadhu an immigrant from India. It has since been added to, and tidied up, but it's an amazing place, and a site of pilgrimage for Hindus. It's also one of the designated locations for Hindus to perform the funeral pyre. Hindu religion requires that the dead are burned near water and a holy place.

Brian Lara is still HUGE here. He is a home town Trini boy so I completely understand. Cricket is massive, and the new Brian Lara stadium is a huge landmark. They had a cricket game on when I was here (Trinidad vs Jamaica) but they had sold out the tickets otherwise we would have gone.

I spent a day at the beautiful Maracas beach, located on the northern part of Trini. On the way there we stopped at the lookout and had a quick look at the food stalls. I got to try some ‘Chow’, a garlicky spicy way of preserving such things as Pineapple, apple, mango, cucumber... its yummy and not too spicy and I really appreciated the stall holder giving me a taste ( and Jas’s friend Isabelle for buying some of the pineapple one). Maracas beach is a favourite with the locals and its a thing to do to have a ‘bake and shark’ when you go to the beach. Betcha cant guess what I had... Can I say amazing (again!!) You not only get your bake (which is a deep fried Roti) You get beautiful fresh deep fried shark fillet inside it, then you go to a buffet like area and add as many of the additions as you want . Yep, of course I added a bit of EVERYTHING . I had to taste it all. Seriously that thing was amazing. BTW I do taste everything first before adding pepper sauce... pepper sauce heightens the flavours. Jas’s friend Isabelle got her son in law to give us a shout out on the radio station he worked at ( they had it playing at the beach), so ‘Karen from Australia’ is now Trini Famous... love it!!

Jasmine took me out to the Pitch lake, in La Brea, and I’ll admit, I had no idea what it was ( I thought it was a lake!!) Anyway, some how we ended up with a colourful local as our personal guide, he was You tube famous and has apparently featured on David Attenboroughs visit to the lake. I have to sit and edit my ‘documentary’ when I’m back in Australia, it’ll be awesome.. I promise. Suffice to say the lake is the most amazing tar pit. Seriously amazing tar pit. The roads leading into the area are all like travelling over mini crazy hills due to the impact of the tar movements in the area. You have to use an authorised guide on the site, which is fair enough as a wrong step could see you disappear forever into the tar... literally... Trinidads pitch lake is the largest natural deposit of asphalt in the world (estimated to hold about 10 million tonnes) Its covers about 100 acres and is about 250 feet deep. There is a cool legend involving the origin of the lake the involves a hummingbird (I like the story), Historically Walter Raleigh re-discovered the lake on his expedition there in 1595. It has that charming rotten egg smell, and the mud and sulphur water apparently have healing properties. Locals were there immersing themselves in some of the pools while we were there. As we didnt have swim suits we had to settle with getting coated in the mud on our legs, and for me, also my face...lol!!! I didnt get a chance to put it on myself, out guide was very keen to smear it all over my face... (and shirt and hair.. etc...). Rinsing it, after it had set, was a whole other process involving splashing what looked Iike green water all over my face (and legs), all I wanted to do was rinse my face with some fresh water afterwards - and it took over an hour or so until I finally got somewhere to do it. Let’s not talk about how much scrubbing it required later that night to get the last bits of our skin! A great fun day though, made all the better for our colourful guide! I have had a crash course in some of the Trinidadian slang/words and between that and their accents I am sometimes lost in a conversation... (definitely accents particularly when you are trying to enter the country and the border control guy is talking to you and you have to continually say, sorry what??? ) I’m a lot better now!!

Jas couldn’t make it over to Tobago as she had work scheduled at her house that she needed to be around for. So I decided to head over for a night, hire a car, and see what I could see. Its literally a 20 min flight over (only costs about 50 US return) FYI 24 hrs isn’t really enough to see everything. I didnt get to the water fall or national park. I had headed down to Store bay beach when I first arrived with instructions to try the curry crab, conch and dumplings in Tobago (its their local specialty, amongst a few other things). Have to say I liked the conch, crab was over cooked and dry, and dumplings were kind of chewy. The ‘provisions’ that I got with it were really nice though - Plantain, Potato, green banana, avocado ..I would have liked to have tried another outlet to give a second opinion, but didnt have the time. I did get to the beautiful Pigeon Park, a natural reserve area, filled with some shops, water sports hire, beautiful beaches and glorious spot to watch the sunset. I also got out to the Fort of King George in Scarborough hiking up the giant hill to take in the glorious views. Hilariously there was a traffic hold up on my way there due to some goats being herded along the road. Island time boy. I would have to say, as much as its a part of the one country, Tobago island is completely different to Trinidad. Its a lot more touristy for a start, it has more servicible beaches. The roads are not as pot holed as Trinidad. The people are still lovely, but you get the tourist scouters who are looking to sell you on anything they can. Its a beautiful place and I’m so glad I got to go across and visit. As always, I can always go back!

My time in the Caribbean has come to a close. (9-16 Oct). What an adventure. I have had a fabulous time, and recommend to anyone to come here and see this place, taste the food and meet the people for themselves. The country has their own issues with government corruption which impacts the improvement of infrastructure like roads etc. And there are warnings around safety as there are elements involved in crime that impact locals and tourists alike. This just makes Trinidad Tobago, not unlike a lot of other countries that I have visited on my adventures. It just means the more prepared you are to be open to new things, different ways of doing things, different cultures. The more you are aware of your own safety, and that of your belongings , the more you can avoid crime. Crime can impact you anywhere in the world, countries like this dont have it any more or less than others, it just seems to be in the media more....

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blackhound14 · 6 years

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Paint it Red

I thought all that mattered was my work, but sometimes the world isn't just black or white, sometimes it's a whole spectra of colors. Love, I learned, is the most perplexing of all colors.

I hoped that I never learned that.

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Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 1: The Painter

I always thought that the world was black and white. That there is only either good or bad and nothing in between. As cliché as it sounds, my entire life was overturned by this one case that lead me to feel everything that I tried very hard to keep locked and chained away in the far-far depths of my conscious mind. So… what changed?

The moon shone brilliantly over the dark sky. Any normal person would have long gone to bed or the teenagers might be busy smoking or snuffing a fist full of powder because that is what seems to be trending nowadays. My days are spent in the same clockwise motion; wake up, get ready, reach the station, look over the evidence and if luck permits, the case is solved and closed.

However, its seems that lady luck isn’t on my side this time. Earlier this night another homicide was reported to DPD. And why I am the one being sent to investigate it at this hour of the night, you ask? Well, I was assigned this case five months ago and I'm nowhere near solving it! I get out of my car and make my way towards the crime scene.

The place was nothing out of the ordinary, just a normal house belonging to a single man who worked as an employee at a nearby amusement park who was reported missing by his friends when he didn't show up at work for six days. The walls of the room were painted in red and in the middle laid a single motionless body. Chris, one of the officers from the DPD, came forward and handed me the details they managed to gather up-until my arrival.

Name of the victim: Caiden Huffman.

Reported Missing: 1 June 2018

Date and time of death: Unknown.

Reason of death: unknown.

Suspects: None.

“What do you think, Lieutenant? Do you think its his work?” Chris asked.

“It’s too early to confirm, but by the looks of it, it seems likely. I’m going to have a look around.” I reply and start doing my job.

The walls are definitely covered in red paint, if I didn’t know any better I'd think it was blood. It looked magnificent. I am no master of the arts but the color never looked so real, it was breathtaking how a person could just blend different pigments to get something like this and most astonishing is how the killer is able to get the color so perfectly same even after six kills. It was a work of art.

Just what am I thinking, calling a crime scene a work of art?

I then examine the body and see that the traces of blood is still fresh. He was killed recently, but was reported missing about a week ago. I need to find more clues. I walk over to the door that leads to the basement and enter it. Nothing unusual but stains on the floor caught my attention. Blood, probably belonged to the victim. I followed the trail which lead me to this giant book shelf. “Chris! Help me with this!”

“Coming, Sir!”

We push the shelf out of the way, whatever we had witnessed before hadn't prepared us for what we’ll come across in this basement.

There were shelves on each side, which contained what seemed to be jars filled with organs. Was this man selling organs illegally? There was a huge table at the center and another smaller one at its side. The smaller table held several different types of scissors, saws and tongs. The larger one was painted red. Then there were cupboards, filled with more bizarre equipment.

“Do you think that’s paint too?” Chris asked.

“No.” I replied, “This was a torture chamber. Get the forensics team on this. We need to find out whether our victim was killed here or who was held captive. And if my guess is right, our victim was selling child organs.”

“Child organs. That's some fucked up shit! You think the FBI will get a hint of this?”

“I hope not. This is my case and I will be the one to solve it.” I turn around and leave the crime scene with more questions than answers. I definitely need a good sleep after this.

I return home and see the lights on. I sigh. On the sofa sat a man in his late fifties, a bottle of beer in his one hand and the other scratching the head of the huge St. Bernard, “Hank. How many times have I told you to stop drinking yourself into a stupor?” I said disappointingly.

He seemed to have finally noticed me and gave me a smile, “Connor! You’re back! I was waiting for you to return. Cole was asking for you, he said that you both were going to watch a movie.”

“I'm sorry, a new homicide came up. Had to leave, I'll make up to him tomorrow. But for now, you need to get to bed. You have work tomorrow.” I help him up and half dragged him to his room.

I open the door with much trouble and lay him down on the bed. “Thanks Connor, for being the big brother to Cole.” he said catching me off guard.

“Being drunk make you very sentimental, Lieutenant.” Maybe drunk Hank wasn't so bad, he was just a little adorable puppy. I smiled.

“Calling me ‘dad’ once in a while wont kill ya!”

“Even if I did, you wont remember it in the morning. Now sleep, Hank.”

Hank waved me off and I leave the room. I could feel my eyes giving out on me, I'm too tired.

Another murder, sixth in these five months. I laid on my bed, thinking. What is with sleep, seriously? All I wanted to do before was get to bed, now that I am I cant seem to fall asleep. I’ll just look over the evidence again.

First kill was five months ago. None of the victims were related by any means, except that all of them were into some sort of shady business which was found out only after the investigation. The walls of all the crime scene were painted red.

The killer must get his paint from somewhere.

I start searching for art shops all over Detroit. God bless Google.

Of all the names, one stood out the most, ‘Bellini Paints’ The best quality paints in all of Detroit!

Why that one, I don't know, but I have learned to always trust my instinct. They did always direct me to the right path if not always the right person.

I wake up the next day with weight pushing down on me. “Sumo! Be a good boy and let me sleep!”

“Its time to wake up, brother!” and I feel more weight on top of me. Cole!

“Fine, get off and get Sumo off!”

“You promised me that we would watch Dexter together!”

“I’m sorry, a case came up. You’re twenty years old but still act like you are fifteen! Tell you what, we can watch it tonight. I’ll even get us some pop-corn.” I say in hopes that Cole will finally get off and he did. But didn’t leave without giving me a firm warning that if I did ditched him again, he’s sell my fishes and that is something I wasn’t going to take lightly.

Now that I’m up and awake, I get ready and walk into the living room, it was quiet so maybe Hank already left. I quickly made myself a sandwich, grab a glass of juice left graciously by Hank and leave for the art shop

The navigation stopped as I arrived at my destination, I got out and walked over to the shop that had the board at the top displaying ‘BELLINI PAINTS’. I make my way inside, making the bell at the entrance ring, and notice that there’s just a single employee working there. The shop was was lined with wooden shelves containing several shades of paints and every other area was occupied by huge canvases.

The shop’s smell seemed familiar, it didn't take a lot to figure out that its the same smell from the pain that the killer uses. Do all paints smell the same?

The man smiled and asked, “What can I help you with today, sir?”

“I’m Lieutenant Connor Anderson, from DPD. I’m here to conduct an investigation regarding the killer known as ‘The Painter’.” upon hearing that the man’s eyes widened in surprise.

“I'm sorry, Lieutenant, but I’m not sure how I can be of service.” I heard a bell from my back, indicating another customer had entered.

I handed him the paint sample,“I just want to know more about this color, how you make it, who buys it and how much is it bought.” I said in a calming voice, threatening him wont help me get anything.

Jerry, as the name tag suggested, looked over it and shook his head, “We don’t sell anything like this. The person seems to have mixed red and maybe blue. I'm no expert in art, I’m just an employee. Perhaps you should ask someone who’s more involved in this than me.”

Jerry didn’t seem to be lying. But the color of the paint remained consistent over the course of five months. Did the killer make all the paint at once and stored them? But, paint dries overtime doesn't it?

I stare at his face for a second when I’m interrupted by a hand on my shoulder. I turn around and see a man, not much older than me.

He was what you could only define as breathtaking, with a buzz cut and a light stubble that many people despise, but the look suited him just fine. What’s more was his skin, it seemed rough but reminded me honey; sweet and smooth. Then there were those lips, full and ready to be devoured or devour, but most importantly, what caught my attention were those pair of discolored eyes that stared at me with confusion and curiosity.

What am I thinking again? Did Hank mix something in the juice?

“May I know the reason as to why you’re making my employee so tense?” he asked in his silky voice.

“I'm Lieutenant Connor Anderson, from DPD. I’m here regarding the investigation to find out more about a killer named as ‘The Painter’.” I said while calming my nerves, “You said that he’s your employee, does this mean that you’re the owner?”

The man’s brows shot up in surprise, “Yes, Lieutenant, I am the owner. My name is Markus. Maybe we should talk somewhere else.”

#connor x markus #detroit become human #DBH #hank #kara #connor #markus

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stevecs-blog · 2 years

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s state wuouls have the tighest strictes test in the nation if i were elected state govener of nj heare what my laws are all assult fifalis band bum stock would be bant to sell make you would get get this first offence get caught makinh a fiflr scope gun hand pul or shotgun illeagle you get 6 six years in federail prison male famale and till you die while your living you cant buy ren own a handgun shot gun simaty sam style scope sniper hunnting rife us canada and a 70 thousanddoller fine you have a hunting firle in nj or hand gun licance or permit for the state of nj on other state and a licance for hand guns is no a licance or a permit for shotgi=uns or hunting scope fifles hand gund only and each millimerer buillet has its own licance glock or berretta 9 mimmileater same kicance a licance for simaty sam shot guns is a licance for shot double or single barraled only not snipper hunthing rifeles and a licance for huntng rifles is not a licance for sniper style rifles you mest cheaked out an each and must pas a tes how to unload and load and then shoot it a varisitargets at the gun range shooting gallers a licance for bb guns ansd must be cheaked out on those too only venerins with no post war sydrome police hunters with a hunting licance too and must get the gun of choice inspected and rennew you licane for thet gun and test it a thargets at the shooting range bb guns too all air rifles too and must have a vallad gun regastration gun ownership sticker permit on the licance and the window on the or your can must be 21 to purchace a hand gun hunting snipper rifle or a simaty sam shot gun single or double baeealed bb gin airrifles too and state areasdent and valied us ciztizen and xcan not be convicter of a misdemenner crime or feliony on any type or sort violent espacaily ever non vilont and cant be a regasterd sex offenender ao a illieagal no us citazine to buy or purtchace a gu hand gun hunting scope rifle bb or air rifle gun or a double or single barraled yo simatty sam shot g=un just like the the loony tunes emerfut cartunes you see and a all gun stores are state runed with a shirfs officer state trooper or localtown cop cheaking registrations for all gun and crimnal or feliony ans even mental bipoler background and finger print ans us citizenship background cheaks and expirerd licance cheaks and the state of nj only issiues so many gun licances and regastrations a year must be a cop law in forement officer probation or corrections office or a dder hunter or sccurity paul blart mall cop or veterns dicounts or be in the millaterry no fucking exceptions and ene last thing we keep the you guns that you bin cheak ed out at the police station in the town you live in or the local shirfs office or the state trooper station by your hous so small kids if yiou got or have anny even iif you dont have any smaall children in your house we keppit at the station any way demostic violance you dont want a evil white cop pointing a gun hunting rifle bb air rifle or shot gun ant his whife or going on a nagbor hood shooting spree rampage thay wy we keep it at the station some drunken stuper went to a texas bar had 3 beer to drink crashed his police crusesr was taket to the local hospital by the local ambulance scuad if he dident crash his police cruser and gotter badly hurt god our lord good grat lord in savior one other than jesus chist punished him by crasing the popolice cruser other wise he wold have went in to a drunken deranged stuppen fucking rampage and shot his whife dead in the head the him turned the gun or weapon on him self what a reall cocksucker or whimp pussy or chicken ship from youe safty only all the time profet second last all the time safty first online safty contous safty first chatterbox safry chatterbug friend none other than steve campisiu my

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the-goddess-of-change · 6 years

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The job interview.

Mark sighs and looks over at his friend ''that is the fourth job interview that turned me down, its impossible to find work now'' His friend nods slowly and looks at him ''i guess...but i know a friend who is looking for some new people ? i can send her a message and ask her ?'' ''i guess its worth a try Claire'' Claire smiles and nods as she texts her friend and gets an answer almost immediatly ''She said you can come by tomorrow at 12.00'' ''is that okay ?'' Mark nods ''that's fine but where is it ?'' Claire explains the location to mark and writes it down on a note and hands it to him ''There you go'' ''Thanks'' So the day passes and the next day Mark shows up to the specified place and sits in the waiting room waiting to be called in A woman wearing a black blazer and a matching skirt walks out of the office and looks at him ''Are you the one Claire asked me about ?'' Mark stands up and nods ''yeah, my name is mark'' She looks at him for a few seconds and sighs ''Well...it seems there has been a small misunderstanding then, the job is for women only i'm afraid but...maybe i have other uses for you, lets do the interview'' Mark nods slowly and follows the woman as they conduct the interview After its done the woman looks at him ''Hmm...color me surprised now, you aced the interview but...i cant hire you....this is quite a pickle...'' she looks at mark who looks like he is ready to just give up on the search for a job now ''why not though ? why does it have to be a woman ? i dont get it'' ''....Caire didn't even tell you what the job was ?'' ''N-no...she didn't'' ''Oh...right...well we sell...adult toys so to say and well to sell it you need to experience it and use it on yourself so you can get a better idea on how it works and sell it to customers which are mostly women or men buying it for their wives etc'' Mark looks at her ''Ah...right, that makes sense i suppose....well i guess there isn't much i can do then'' She nods and Mark heads home to find Claire lying on his sofa smiling as he walks inside ''So, got the job ?'' ''Fuck off, you knew it was for women only, you fucked me over there Claire, you're such a dick sometimes you know'' ''Awww, dont be pouty Mark, you know i'm always there for you right ?'' ''Really now ? you are?'' ''Mgm, because i got you covered there'' she smiles and points over at a bottle of something on the table ''Drink that and it will be good okay?'' Mark walks over and looks at it ''60% pure alcohol ? will me getting drunk help ?'' ''Will it not help ? you usually drink when you get down so im just saving you going to the store so like i said, i'm always here for you'' she giggles as mark opens the bottle and chugs it ''Fuck! that's sweet! that cant have alcohol in it'' Claire shrugs as Mark just chugs the entire bottle Claire then looks at him and laughs ''Nope! it didnt, i lied to you i put that there myself, i got this drink from someone i know but dont worry, it will solve all your problems okay?'' Mark clenches his fists and looks at her ''You are such a fucking dick sometimes, didn't even get me alcohol but then if not Alcohol what was it ?'' ''Who knows right ? spooky stuff because i wont tell you anything i'm just going to lie here and watch the magic happen'' Mark just sighs at her and goes to the kitchen and looks inside his fridge ''oh my god...CLAIRE!!!!'' Claire walks over ''Yes?'' ''Did you pour out all my beer i had in here ?'' ''hmmm....i dont know, i think i did but i dont remember'' Mark looks at her in anger but cant force himself to do anything since she does this kinda stuff all the time ''Dont be angry, you know ill make it up to you when you need it as always but right now, lie down and just let your mind wander a bit okay ?'' Mark sighs but nods at her ''yeah, maybe i just need a little rest, you gonna crash here while i drop out ?'' ''mhm! i'm going to go to the store and get us some candy and drinks and see if there is a good movie on the tv later so when you wake up we're going to have loads of fun, okay?'' Mark smiles at her and nods as he hugs her and goes and lies down on his bed and closes his eyes Mark struggles a bit to fall asleep but once he does he find himself in a strange place, he's inside what looks like his house but there is no furniture there and he can see himself just standing there in the middle of the room just looking at nothing Mark tries to move around in his dream but its like his vision is just fixated on himself The clone of him just stands there doing nothing Mark tries to speak in his dream but yet again, nothing happens and just as fast as that happened Mark wakes up feeling a tingling sensation all over his body ''Ah...Damn ? what the hell kinda fever dream was that....but fuck i feel weird all over...'' he walks over to the bathroom and splashes some water on his face and notices his beard is just gone from his face ''......'' ''....she didn't...'' Mark touches his smooth face and does notice it feels smoother than usual like some skin cream has been applied to it ''she couldn't have...its impossible'' Mark sighs and reaches up for the towel but he feels its a bit higher up than it was before he tiptoes and reaches the towel and washes his face and notices his short hair is a bit longer than before it also has gone from a dark brown color to a light brown color ''Okay, i know Claire didn't do that'' Mark touches his hair slightly and notices something weird, it seems like its growing longer as he holds around it Mark just keeps holding his hair as it grows longer and longer and reaches down to his chest as it stops growing ''This is fucking insane...did Claire...oh my god...did she spike the drink she gave me ?! god damn it!'' Mark lets go of his hair and sighs yet again and splashes some more water on his face ''stupid Claire...'' Mark sighs and dries his face and just looks at himself in the mirror His whole face looks different now, his eyes are now brown instead of blue His lips are fuller, his nose smaller, even his eyebrows looks like they were fixed and his bone structure looks different ''Holy shit....what the fuck is this ?!'' Mark runs his hands over his face and sure enough it feels different, its smoother, more curvy and more...feminine Its not that it looks feminine...it is feminine, like it is a woman's face looking back at him ''Holy...shit! am i tripping or is it real ?'' Mark steps a bit back and takes a deep sigh and closes his eyes Mark starts breathing heavily as he opens his eyes back up and notices his chest is starting to swell up slowly pushing against his shirt his breasts starts to expand getting bigger and bigger til they finally stop as mark rips his shirt of and looks down ''What the actual fuck is going on now ?! this cant be real but i ain't tripping either! Fuck! CLAIREEE!!!'' He yells as loud as he can but no one responds ''shes not here?'' Mark staggers around the appartement but no one is there ''she said she was going out...fair enough...'' ''But fuck...'' Mark sighs and looks down on his chest and cups his breasts with his hands as he feels his crotch tingling ''Fuck! NGH!! what is this ?!'' Mark shouts and drops his pants on the floor and looks down at his manhood as it starts to shrink and go into his body leaving only some flat skin there where it once was but not sooner than that happens it feels like his skin is being ripped open as his body screams in pain ''AHHHH!!!!'' Mark screams in intense pain as his new womanhood opens up and Mark passes out from the pain just about 10 minutes later Claire walks into the house and looks at Mark who is now sitting on a chair with his oversized pants on and a blanket over him ''Yay! so it did work! i am amazed!'' Mark stands up and looks at her ''Oh my god Claire! you are fucking unbelivable!'' Mark pouts as his new voice is clearly a womans voice and not his own anymore ''Awww what a cutie voice you got, but i got you some clothes so get dressed up or do you need help?'' Claire giggles and walks over to Mark and takes the blanket away from him ''Why isnt your shirt on ?'' ''....it...broke i guess..'' Claire just giggles and starts poking mark's breasts ''Awww cute cups you got there...hmmm...what shall we call you...how about...oh! you look like a Lauren'' ''Yep! Lauren it is, that's your new name now'' Claire just keeps giggling and poking Laurens chest ''Stop it'' ''Fine fine grumpy'' she looks in her bag and gets out some bra's ''let me see which one fits you'' she smiles and tries on a couple til she finds on that fits Lauren ''there we go, perfect for you and its a cute black one as well so now you look all sexy and stuff but we're not done yet'' She smiles and pulls of Lauren's pants and boxer ''Awwww and look there, you even got a v-....'' ''Dont say it!'' Claire just giggles and hands Lauren some panties and some black pants ''put these on'' Lauren sighs but does as told ''And now you're almost kinda fully dressed just need a shirt...how about like a shirt and a cardigan over since its kinda cold ? yeah that should work perfect!'' ''it is so fun you are really into this you know because i just wanna beat the shit outta you'' ''those words coming from those cute lips and that voice totally dosent fit you anymore'' Lauren pouts some more while Claire cuddles down next to her and kisses her cheek ''Awww, you look so cute when you do that you know, but my boyfriend would totally kill me if i kissed you some more'' ''you dont got a boyfriend, you're single'' ''well im just waiting for him to see me you know, i know he's out there'' ''that makes no sense but whatever'' ''Awww you sad i wont be your cute lesbian girlfriend ?'' ''No! shut up!'' Claire giggles some more and smiles at her ''So i set you up with a new interview with Cassandra tomorrow so you will get the job now! yay!'' ''its a job selling sex toys!'' ''i know! and now you will get it!'' ''God damn it...'' Lauren sighs and stands up ''Where are you going ?'' ''Bathroom...i gotta go'' Claire giggles and drags Lauren with her to the bathroom ''Go on then, you know girls go to the bathrooms together soooo dont be shy princess'' ''....'' Lauren just sighs but sits down on the toilet and does her thing ''Awww so cute'' Lauren just looks away and finishes and gets up as Claire just keeps giggling ''This is just the best!'' Lauren sighs and washes her hands and leaves the bathroom and heads to her room ''im going to go to bed'' ''Me to! im taking the sofa then since its so comfy'' Lauren says nothing but they both decide to go to bed The next morning Lauren is awoken by Claire just standing next to the bed looking at her ''Fuck! you scared me!'' ''Awww, sorry i just wanted to look at you sleeping'' Lauren sighs ''that's not creepy at all but fine...'' gets out of the bed and gets dressed ''Your interview is in an hour so better get ready for that'' Claire smiles and slaps her butt ''oh and i got you this for the interview'' she smiles and hands Lauren a skirt ''put it on and i got you some cute shoes as well'' Lauren sighs but reluctantly goes along with it and puts on the skirt as Claire hands her some heels ''these are easy to walk on and i know you can walk on high heels after that time you got drunk and wore em for like 3 hours'' ''Yes yes...'' puts the shoes on and walks around a bit without really any issue ''oooohhh, looking cute now, real buissness like, its like you've always been Lauren but you know it dont have to be like that you know'' ''What?'' Lauren looks at her ''Well i got a bottle that can change you back you know...so you get to live both lives so since its all fun, why not go all the way and just act it out?'' Lauren looks at her ''so i can change back?'' ''Well that depends if you do a good job and behave good i will let you do as you please'' ''For real Claire Answer me'' ''Fine'' she pouts ''yeah, i got the potion but C'mon just have some fun?'' Lauren looks at her and sighs ''fine ill go along with this, might be fun so why not'' ''Yay! You are the best Lauren'' she giggles and huggles Lauren tightly ''And since you're a girl we can go shopping together and get free drinks and so much more'' ''...i think there is more to being a man or a woman than that but...isnt that kinda generic?'' ''Whatever! its all about having fun til the day you're just a fucking corpse rotting in the ground'' ''....i dont get you...'' ''You dont have to understand me, Lauren silly'' Claire once again giggles and kisses Lauren's cheek ''i thought you said you wouldn't do that'' ''Hmmm...i did but that was past me you know'' ''....right...okay, time for me to go then'' ''oh oh! im driving you there so lets go vroom!'' ''....yes...'' Lauren just sighs as Claire drives her to the place and drops her off for the interview Once again Lauren is sitting in the waiting room and waiting for Cassandra Cassandra walks out and looks at Lauren and smiles ''Lauren right ? please come inside'' she smiles as Lauren follows her once again inside the office and nails the interview just like last time ''huh...that was amazing'' she smiles ''T-thank you'' Lauren smiles ''So i would give you the job there is just one small issue...'' ''oh ? what is it...?'' ''Well Claire just sent me a message and i guess...you can work it out from there'' ''....Damn Claire...'' ''Now....that is fine Lauren, You do fit all the criterias now so there is no reason why i cant hire you but like i said you have to try out the...toys and that you will act like what you are...not that men and women cant act in whatever way they want but you know what i mean right ?'' Lauren nods slowly ''okay then, Welcome to the team then Lauren'' Cassandra smiles at Lauren and stands up ''if you got any questions and such dont be afraid to ask but i am a bit afraid the rest of the staff might know your little situation since Claire pretty much knows everyone here and sent them the same message'' ''How does Claire know everyone here?'' ''I dont know, big social circle i guess and she is kinda easy to get to know and get along with'' ''i guess so'' Cassandra smiles and shows Lauren around the office ''So this is our office, as you already know, we sell toys and sell them to people but we are trying to kinda branch out and open up our own store which is where you come in, i want you to run the store once it opens up'' ''So...im going to work in a adult toy shop ?'' ''that's right Lauren and i hope i can trust you...'' ''Y-Yes of course...i will do my best its just a lot going on right now but Claire just told me to go along with it'' ''Good advice i guess, i guess there is a lot for you to get used to at the moment'' ''Not...really, my body is different but i'm still the same person so its fine'' Cassandra just smiles and walks into another room and returns with a box and hands them to Lauren ''Here we go, this is just some beginner stuff i want you to try out before you start working, i hope that wont be any issue?'' Lauren looks at the box then at Cassandra and nods slowly ''ill...try to do it...'' Cassandra smiles and hugs Lauren ''That's great! so i will give you a call tomorrow then we can talk more about it and when the shop opens up on Friday i hope everything has worked out for you'' Lauren nods and takes the box ''so then, see you in two days'' She smiles as Lauren nods at her and walks out where she spots Claire in the car just listening to music and drinking some energy drink Lauren walks over and gets inside as Claire just giggles at her as she notices the box ''this is going to be great!'' she squeals as they drive back home and unpack the box which contains to no one surprise a bunch of adult toys and some kinky items ''Lookie here, we got some handcuffs...a paddle...a whip and some dildos and a jack rabbit...pretty common stuff...thought there would be some other fun stuff inside'' Lauren just sighs and looks at the stuff ''so what ? i gotta use these on myself to see how it is to be able to sell them better ? how does that work ?'' ''Well duh, a lot of people want recommendations on what they are buying silly so you gotta know which ones to recommend and you said you would go along with it'' ''I guess i did...'' ''then cheer up!'' Claire giggles and gets out the handcuffs and quickly puts them on Lauren's hands ''Yay! now we just remove those silly clothes'' she giggles as she starts to remove Lauren's skirt, thighs and her panties ''N-no wait now! i dont wanna do it now!'' Claire keeps giggling and drags Lauren to the bedroom and pushes her down on the bed Lauren looks at her as she holds up a pink dildo and giggles loudly ''Either i do it, and that might hurt or you be a big girl and do it on yourself'' ''Eh...my hands are kinda tied though'' Lauren sighs and Claire goes and unlocks them ''there we go, now your hands are free again, yay!'' Lauren just sighs as Claire throws the dildo at her ''i told you, go with it, ins't it kinda fun to see how the other side might feel ? i know you're excited and i know you sorta like it because if you weren't id known'' Lauren sighs but she is kinda right and she did decide to go along with it and the pay is kinda good ''fine fine so what do i do ?'' Claire giggles and hands her some lube ''put some on your toy and around your cute little virgin lips'' ''....how can you even say that with that face'' Lauren sighs but does as told ''And now you gently push it inside there and experience pure joy'' Lauren sighs and spreads her legs a bit and slowly pushes the toy inside her womanhood ''...'' Lauren slowly pulls it back out and in again a bit deeper this time as she experiences a tingling sensation all over her ''Ah...ngh...'' Claire looks on and giggles as Lauren just keeps going a bit faster ''Ahhh...my god....ngh....aaa....'' Claire smiles and grabs the dildo from her and starts helping her a bit out ''Now, close your eyes and just let your imagination run wild princess'' Lauren nods at her and does as told as Claire starts working it on her As she goes on Lauren moans loudly as Claire just keeps going for what seems like forever As Lauren lies their in intense emotional pleasure she can feel her body exploding in joy as she climaxes ''oh my god! i made you climax! your first climax! Yay! How was it ?'' Lauren just lies down on the bed and looks up at the celing ''A---Amazing....'' Claire giggles and puts it away and sits down next to her on the bed ''Awww so cute, you liked it, i knew you would so this isn't so bad now is it ? you get to experience that as much as you want and you have looked at yourself right ? you look adorable, really cute so i'm going to do something you will thank me for'' Lauren sits up and looks at her as Claire gets out of the bed and picks up a small bottle from her purse and shows it to Lauren ''You know what this is right ? this is the reverse potion but lookie here'' she smiles and gets out another bottle ''one changes you back, Another is a surprise but here is the catch, if you wanna go back there might not be a way to go back again since its kinda weird'' ''Okay...so what is the other on then ?'' ''Oh ? so you're not just going to take the reverse one ?'' Lauren says nothing but just keeps looking at her ''Well then my little princess cutie girl, this potion is a surprise but i know you dont like surprises so should i tell you?'' ''Yes, do tell me Claire for reals'' ''i will tell you if you undress right now!'' ''....'' Lauren sighs but removes her shirt and bra and sits on the bed naked and looks at Claire ''Awww, so cute! but okay then princess, this potion is the best thing ever, i know because i used it on myself'' ''So what does it do?'' ''Well, this potion...enhances your...hmm...well it enhances your inner femininity'' ''Which means...?'' ''Well, it wont make you a bimbo, but it will alter some of the way you talk, maybe your way of thinking a bit and make those feelings you just had more intense'' ''So...it will make me more into a woman?'' ''Well yes and no because as you know, every woman is different just like every man is different so i wouldn't know'' ''But here is the thing princess, Do you want to go back or do you want to go all the way ? do you want to be Lauren, work in the store, live as a woman ? dresses ? make-up ? shoes ?`clothes ? that way of life?'' ''Now you're generalizing'' Lauren smiles at Claire ''oh wow, i actually am'' Claire giggles ''But you're literally asking me to go on with this or go back ?'' ''Sorta yes, but i guess its up to you'' Lauren looks at the potions and both seem...tempting, Laurens life before was never bad, she had a big social circle, lots of good friends...just some trouble finding a job but nothing bad and she had never had thoughts about things like these before but on the other hand.... ''or should i make it interesting ?'' Claire grins and walks out of the room and returns back with two cups filled with something ''which one contains what ? so exciting'' ''So i just get to pick one ?'' ''Mhm! super exciting yay! right ?!'' Lauren looks at Claire and gets out of the bed and catches a quick glimpse of herself in the mirror ''Huh...'' walks over to Claire and looks at her ''i just noticed im actually taller than you now, tiny!'' ''whatever but i pick this one'' takes the cup in her right hand and drinks it it has a strange taste to it, kinda like...a lot of mixed drinks ''you drank it! yay! congratulations Lauren, what you picked waaasssss'' Before Claire continues Lauren looks at her ''it was the same in each cup right ?'' ''H-huh ? nuhuh!'' ''Right....you're lying'' Claire giggles and pokes Lauren's nose ''How did you know?'' ''....i dont know...'' ''Womens intuition ?'' Claire giggles as Lauren walks back to the bed and gets dressed ''i guess so...i guess so...'' ''So you knew, but you still did it...'' Claire looks at her not really sure what to say ''you didnt think i would do it ?'' ''Honestly ? no..not really that was kinda the reason i was joking around...there is no way back now but...you seem...content'' ''i dont know really what to think'' ''Does it matter ?'' Lauren looks at her and smiles Claire smiles and nods ''i guess not...Lauren'' Lauren smiles and sits down on the bed ''So...like...what now?'' Claire shrugs ''i dont know...but...now that i know you wont change back...hmmm'' she giggles ''Wanna make out then?'' Claire looks at Lauren ''i thought you wanted a boyfriend and so on'' ''its for fun, dont have to be serious'' Lauren shrugs and walks kinda seductively over to Claire and wraps her arms around her and looks her in the eyes ''its already working that fast...but you are cute and adorable so i think im going to engage in some debauchery then'' Claire and Lauren smile at each other as Claire wraps her arms around Lauren as they start to make out on the bed Two days later Lauren shows up at the store which has just opened up as Cassandra welcomes her ''Hey there you are!'' ''Sorry, had a bit trouble finding the way'' Lauren giggles ''and look at you, you look fantastic, i guess this means...'' Lauren nods at her ''Lauren full time now, and living every day to the fullest, i'm really enjoying it, a whole new world has opened up'' ''Claire even took me shopping and i bought more than her'' Lauren giggles as Cassandra hugs her ''Awww, i'm proud of you Lauren and i'm so happy for you'' Lauren smiles as Cassandra shows her around the shop and teaches her to use the cashier as they both smile at each other ''So, for the first day im going to be here as well so lets hope for some customers! oh and did you...?`'' ''i tried them all'' Lauren giggles ''they work perfectly and they feel amazing!'' ''Great to hear! this is the start of something new and something good Lauren'' Lauren nods as the doors opens up for the customer and the first workday in her new life is about to start. Whats going to happen in the future ? who knows but maybe we will find out.....sometime.

#TG #TGTF #TFTG #TGstory

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johnboothus · 4 years

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Why Cant I Get My Favorite Wine or Craft Spirits Shipped to Me?

We have all been sheltering in place to one degree or another for the last six months. Wine, beer, and spirits have helped us to cope with this new reality. While it may be easy to find large, national-brand wine, beer, and spirits at the local grocery store or liquor store, for most consumers, it’s more difficult to find craft beer, spirits, or wine from small boutique producers.

At VinePair, many of our readers have asked why they can’t get some of their favorite wines and spirits shipped to them. We wanted to explore why that is. The reasons for this are not new, but may be magnified during the time of Covid-19. In response to the unprecedented shutdowns across the country, many states have enacted temporary laws to permit the sale of wine, beer, and spirits in new ways that were not previously permitted under the traditional three-tier system. These temporary laws may be the key to allowing smaller producers to survive and thrive post-Covid.

The Three-Tier System

In the United States, the sale and distribution of wine, beer, and spirits is governed by a complicated system of laws, called the three-tier system. After Prohibition, each state enacted its own laws to control the sale and distribution of alcohol, allowing states to levy taxes on those sales and to protect the public health. Generally, the three tiers are producers (wineries, breweries, and distilleries), wholesale distributors, and retailers.

The basic structure of the system requires producers to sell their products to wholesale distributors, which then sell the products to retail stores, bars, and restaurants, which then sell to consumers. As products pass through each tier, taxes and markups are applied before moving the products along to the next tier. Compliance is challenging, as each state’s laws vary.

Ohio, for example, prohibits wineries that produce more than 250,000 gallons annually from shipping wine directly to Ohio consumers. Minnesota limits any winery from shipping more than two cases of wine in any calendar year to any Minnesota consumer. Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Utah prohibit all shipments of wines direct from wineries to their residents altogether (but note that Arkansas permits wineries to ship wine purchased by Arkansas residents at the winery). In Washington, retailers may purchase alcohol directly from producers, may negotiate volume discounts, and may warehouse their inventories themselves.

Small Producers Are at a Disadvantage

While this level of complexity is more easily managed by large producers, this can limit the ability of smaller producers to expand their businesses and sell their products. When Theodora Lee of Theopolis Vineyards started selling her award-winning wine, she was told by many distributors “that I was not producing enough wine to warrant them taking me on as a client.” Lee instead relies primarily on direct-to- consumer (DTC) shipping as her primary sales channel.

Small producers like Lee often have difficulty finding distributors for their products, and even when small brands are able to find distributors, they can get lost in a large portfolio, which means their wines are not being widely or effectively distributed. Ultimately, this leads to many wines from boutique producers not being available in retail stores across the country.

Direct-to-Consumer Shipping Helps Small Producers

This lack of access to distribution leaves many smaller wineries to rely on tasting-room sales, while others, like Theopolis Vineyards, focus on DTC sales. There is a significant exception to the general three-tier system that allows wineries to ship wine directly to consumers.

As of August, 46 states and Washington, D.C. permanently permit DTC shipments of wine (Kentucky passed a law permitting direct-to-consumer shipping, but it has not yet taken effect). But DTC shipping from a winery to consumers is still prohibited in Alabama, Mississippi and Utah. Lee says it “has been a blessing to be a small-lot producer of wine,” since she is able to sell directly to her customers, resulting in higher margins than if she had significant distribution relationships, which would add additional fees and reduce her margins.

Small wineries that didn’t have robust online presences prior to the Covid-19 shutdown, and which relied on tasting-room sales to drive profits, have been challenged to pivot to DTC. There is always pressure from consumers for wineries to offer free or discounted shipping. As a result of Covid-19, there are consumers ordering wine from wineries for the first time. These consumers are not accustomed to paying high shipping costs for wine.

There is pressure on wineries to offer free or discounted shipping in order to capture and retain this new business. As an example, Tablas Creek Winery offered $10 flat shipping for more than three months once the Covid-19 shutdown orders began. While the direct sales to consumers offset the loss of restaurant business for Tablas Creek, those sales also came at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars to subsidize shipping for the orders. Boutique wineries will have difficulty continuing to provide free or discounted shipping indefinitely.

The problem is magnified for distilleries and breweries, which have limited ability to ship directly to consumers. Only 10 states and Washington, D.C. allow breweries to ship beer DTC, and only seven states and Washington, D.C. allow distilleries to ship spirits DTC. With restaurants, bars, and tasting rooms being closed and social distancing rules limiting conversations with store employees, craft brand sales have suffered without in-person recommendations.

According to distributor depletion data from Sipsource, and Nielsen and Drizly retail sales data, it’s clear that “consumers [are] pushing back into mainstay brands or comfort brands.” says Michael Bilello, senior vice president of communications and marketing for the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers Association (WSWA). Consumers now enter stores with masks, make quick shopping decisions, and leave. In this environment, consumers are more likely to grab a brand they know instead of exploring brands they are not familiar with.

Temporary Law Changes During Covid-19

As a result of Covid-19, states and local governments have granted temporary waivers of various aspects of the three-tier system that have allowed producers and retailers to survive. Most states have deemed alcohol retailers as “essential” businesses, allowing them to remain open when other stores were closed. Other states, such as California, Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon, and Virginia, have allowed certain producers and retailers to deliver beer, wine, and spirits locally to consumers.

Restaurants and bars have suffered the most from closures and limitations on operations as they reopen. In an effort to help increase their business, many states have enacted temporary laws allowing restaurants and bars to sell wine, beer, spirits, or mixed drinks for pickup or delivery — often in connection with the sale of food. California, Nebraska, New York, Kentucky, Colorado, and Virginia now allow restaurant takeout and delivery orders for alcohol.

The Future of The Three-Tier System

As the economy continues to reopen, producers, restaurants, retailers, and bars are hoping many of these temporary measures are made permanent. “Delivery is a rising tide for the industry,” says Jake Hegeman, WSWA’s assistant general counsel, legal and regulatory. Eleven states have proposed legislation to extend or make permanent their temporary expansions on takeout and delivery of orders by restaurants, bars, retailers, or distilleries. “Our major focus is ensuring that there be well-thought-out, regulated, but robust consumer delivery,” says Hegeman. Consumers love convenience, so the more access they have to new and different brands, the more sales will increase for small producers.

Many craft distilleries would like to see DTC shipping expanded. The American Craft Spirits Association (ACSA) recently called on all governors and state regulators to provide regulatory relief, allowing for electronic, contactless sales, and fulfillment through third-party carriers. Virginia, California, Oregon, Maryland, and Washington now allow distilleries to deliver to their in-state customers. DTC would allow craft spirits businesses to grow and develop by allowing them to connect directly with their customers in the same manner as wineries.

Others in the industry would like to see an expansion of the ability of out-of-state retailers to ship alcohol across state lines. Only 15 states and Washington, D.C. allow out-of-state retailers to ship certain types of alcohol directly to their residents, and fulfill those orders through a common carrier. Nevada, Wyoming, Louisiana, Alaska, Connecticut, Florida, and West Virginia permit the sale of wine only from out-of-state retailers. Nebraska, North Dakota, D.C., and New Hampshire permit the sale of all types of alcohol. Virginia and Oregon (with certain exceptions) permit the sale of beer and wine.

While The National Association of Wine Retailers believes that retailer DTC should be treated the same as winery DTC under the law, it faces opposition from other trade associations like WSWA, which continue to oppose retailer DTC. WSWA’s opposition to DTC spirits sales arises from the potential dangers of underage drinking and counterfeit alcohol. Instead, WSWA advocates for local delivery from licensed retailers, with delivery being made by their employees or licensed third-party delivery services like Drizly. The delivery person can verify that the consumer is of legal drinking age.

There is a series of cases pending in eight states challenging laws that allow in-state retailers to ship alcohol to residents, while prohibiting out-of-state retailers from doing so. It remains to be seen where courts will come out on this issue.

The article Why Can’t I Get My Favorite Wine or Craft Spirits Shipped to Me? appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/wine-spirits-shipping-covid-19/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/why-cant-i-get-my-favorite-wine-or-craft-spirits-shipped-to-me

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yepjugotdatright · 7 years

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Chapter 1

“Jisuk-ah, put the drinks into the fridge after you are finished with the cigarettes” the manager called out through the half opened door while she was busy sorting in the different sorts of cigarettes into the displayer behind the counter. “Yep, will do!” she replied simply and pushed the last pack of Marlboros into their row. This was the life she was living: part timing the hell out of it. At that moment she was even willing to sell her soul for money. Money was the key to a comfortable life – something Jisuk was not necessarily lacking but what she wanted to have nonetheless. She moved the empty boxes to the small stock room and got out another few with the labels of famous soft and beer drinks companies. A TV was running in the back; as always MBC was turned on and as the current music show came to an end the news started. “Good evening. My name is Bae Hyun Jin and here are the news from today” Jisuk listened only with half of her ear as she cut open the box and got out a few drinks to refill the cooler. “Titanic IT reaches a much higher share value with its new program ruling the market of intelligent technology…” The door opened and two customers walked in. “Good evening”, Jisuk said as she moved behind the counter and waited for them to check their things out. They came back with a few things and placed them in front of her. They turned away from her and watched the news. “No wonder… Titanic is everywhere.” “I heard their son is so stupid they had to pay a huge sum so he could graduate from Jeguk High.” “Oh really? I thought he was one of the best to graduate” “Just shows how much money Titanic’s Chairman has” he shrugged and snorted as the pictures of the family were shown as they happily boarded a plane. “They are treated like royalty here – I guess that’s why they are leaving Thailand…” Jisuk didn’t really listen to them as she scanned their things – she caught a few phrases but most of the time she didn’t really care for gossip. However, she was all ears for any kind of drama her costumers talk about. It was better than any television series she had ever watched. “24,600 Won, please”, Jisuk said and got their attention. “What do you think about those Kumatis or whatever their name was…?” one of them asked as his friend got out his wallet. Jisuk just shrugged receiving the money and got the change together in the blink of an eye. They were just about to pull an answer out of her as luckily her cell phone started ringing. She slightly lowered her head saying her quiet goodbyes before answering the phone. The number wasn’t saved – but she knew it all so well. “Hello? Bak Jisuk speaking”, she turned around until the two exited the store and listened to the other side of the call. “Yes, I am. Yes… No, I’ll be right there. Yes, thank you for the call… Ye- Goodbye”, she hung up again and sighed. “Jo-Manager, something urgent came up. I have to leave” she came into his office and took of the apron she was wearing. “What is going on? Then who is going to do your work?” “I am sorry. But there is a situation…” He was hesitating, “F- fine. But you’ll have to come earlier next weekend.” “Of course. Thank you” she bowed quickly and hurried outside throwing on her jacket over the store’s uniform. Her motorbike was standing just outside and after wearing her helmet she was on riding her bike on the street.

Jisuk arrived at the police station, hurried through the corridor and arrived at the huge office room where quite a lot of desks were lined next to each other. She saw some officers interviewing middle aged men in terrible patterned shirts, a few drunkards lying in some cells in the back and a few high scholars sat at a desk on the end of the room. She recognized the terrible brown school uniform and walked towards them determined. “Hello, are you Bak Jisuk-ssi?” the officer stood up and looked a little surprised seeing that Jisuk was not much older than Hyun Woo. “Yes, what happened?” she asked and looked at the three high scholars next to her. Her gaze wandered to Hyunwoo, saw his right black eye and him having a nosebleed while the other two were completely unharmed. “Noona!” Hyun Woo whined as he saw her and the other two chuckled spiteful. “These three were fighting near the school. Son Hyunwoo claims being attacked while these two are claiming to have been unnecessarily provoked which resulted in a fight.” The officer explained the situation and handed Jisuk a piece of paper which was a form for a written apology. “Officer, this can’t be. My brother is clearly the one who suffered from the attack! Why does he need to apologize?” Jisuk pleaded. “Didn’t you listen, Noona? Your whiny brother provoked us!” one of the attackers said brazenly and Jisuk glared at him. “Call me Noona one more time... Wait till I get my hands on you, you ****” Jisuk hissed back and the boys eyes widened in shock. “Miss Bak, please watch your language. You are still at the police station…” the officer reminded her but had to suppress his chuckle seeing the boy being shocked from that curse word. “All three have to fill out this form. This is just to avoid this matter getting bigger than it already is. It is just a simple boys fight”, the officer explained, “Except you want to sue for physical injury”. In Jisuk heads the sums of the lawyers wage and the legal costs were aggregated and put into the relation with the most likely compensation sum… She shook her head and pushed the piece of paper together with a pen into Hyunwoo’s hands and urged him to write the apology. At first his face looked betrayed and hurt, but then it eased up again as Jisuk squeezed his shoulder and motioned him that it was okay. The two left the police station and two women rushed past them into the building mumbling something about their poor sons. Jisuk guided Hyunwoo to the motorbike and made him lean against it so she could examine his eye. “Oh, Father will kill you…” she smiled in malicious glee and proceeded to wear her helmet again which she had just left at the bike in her hurry. “Please, Noona! Save me!” Hyunwoo rubbed his hands together begging for mercy. She halted as she was about to answer and pulled out her vibrating phone. After reading the message she sighed; “Seems like we have to stop somewhere on our way back…” She mounted the bike and turned the key into the ignition. “What about me?” “I think I still have one in the trunk” she offers and watched amused as Hyunwoo opened it to find a pink helmet. Jisuk snickered as Hyunwoo wore the –for his taste too feminine – helmet. They arrived at a Soju tent, moved the curtain out of the way and stepped inside. Hot, humid air hit him straight into the face and the smell of alcohol and grilled fish filled every inch of this closed tent. It was raining like hell outside and while Jisuk patted the remaining drops from her coat she spotted a woman sitting alone at a table. “Yah~ I am still underage. You know that, right?” Hyunwoo hissed towards the older girl and only got a smirk in return. “Don’t worry – you look like a delinquent anyway” She motioned around her own eye and walked to her acquaintance. Hyunwoo sighed and followed her, hiding his black eye with his one hand. “Aren’t you busy?” Jisuk sat down stealing one of the shrimp snacks the woman was eating. “Speak for yourself” she raised her eyebrow as she looked at the young boy following Jisuk and poured herself one glass just to gulp it down in one shot. “I’m unemployed…” Jisuk shot back unimpressed and continued: “You shouldn’t drink during the weekdays”. Hyunwoo sat down as well and looked awkwardly from the one to the other woman. “What did you call me here for?” Jisuk moved the plate with the snacks in Hyunwoo’s reach. The woman flipped her long dark hair over her shoulders and after side eying Hyunwoo once again she said: “Drinking solo makes me sad… and people started looking weirdly at me.” She waved her hand around unnoticeably pointing at the other people in the tent. She offered Jisuk a spare glass, but she shook her head: “Still need to drive”. “And your friend here?” She moved the glass to the boy sitting there, his head resting on his hand to cover the dark shadow around his eye. “He’s a high schooler” Jisuk stated. “Didn’t stop you, though”, the woman chuckled. Hyunwoo gaped at the two raising his head. “You did what?” he stifled his laugh, “Does mum know?” Jisuk regretted even getting him out of the police station. “Don’t forget that you aren’t that innocent either”. Hyunwoo’s grin disappeared and he rested his head on his hand again. “By the way… it seems like I’ll be accompanying you to Daegu. Let me share the room with you”, she said casually emptying the bottle. “What? No – get your own room” Jisuk complained, shoving another shrimp snack into her mouth. “Ah, come on~ I even got you a present” she grabbed a black plastic bag from the ground and raised it to their eye level. “What’s that? Did you empty a convenience store?” She took the bag and dared to peek inside. “What’s this?” she grabbed a few of the samples and read: “Tony Moly? Changing Magic Foot?” “I collected a lot of free samples. There are even two or three luxury brands as well. I really had to lower my pride for this. You better appreciate this” Jisuk looked from all the concealer, perfume and lipstick samples back to her and huffed. “Yeah, thanks. I’ll try them”, she said dryly and placed the bag on her lap. The woman looked at her empty bottle and shrugged. “I’ve finished my drink. I’m gonna go now. See you at the weekend”, she took her handbag, left an adequate high bill on the table and walked away after patting Jisuk’s shoulder. “Well, that was worthwhile…” Jisuk sighed and grabbed the plastic bag on her lap signing the bored Hyunwoo to leave as well. “Noona~” he whined as they had reached her bike. “Mum will kill me if she sees me like this”, he realized as he examined his black eye in one of the motorbike’s rear mirror. It looked worse than it hurt. Jisuk chuckled. “And why would that concern me?” she raised an eyebrow at him and snickered at his suffering grimace. However, shortly after his eyes lit up in hope and a mischievous smile spread over his lips. “Because maybe Mum would interest your underage activities very much”. He stared him dead in the eye only the sound of the passing cars resonating between them. “Okay, fine. Get over here” Jisuk got the plastic bag out of her bag and searched through the samples. Hyunwoo looked at the collection astonished. “Who was she?” He grabbed a random sample and ended up looking at a mud-facemask in his hand. “She’s Jinah - a good friend of mine”, Jisuk smiled. Hyunwoo looked at her strangely: “You don’t have any friends”. Jisuk sighed and looked at her brother with a dry expression. “You want my help now, or not?” “Do you even know how to apply makeup?” She raised her fist and threatened to hit him. “How hard can it be…” she found a sample of concealer and applied it on his black eye. He flinched in pain as she started spreading the beige-colored paste. She finished the cover up and looked at her achievement. “Not bad!” Hyunwoo took his phone and looked at himself through the face-cam. He sighed at the bad work and started to fix it. “I should have done it myself from the start…” “Then why ask for help?” Jisuk snapped back donning the helmet on her head.

Some time later they reached home. Jisuk parked the bike in the garage and walked the few steps to the door. Hyunwoo unlocked the door into their house – a two story building with a little wooden sign next to the door swinging in the wind saying: Shincheon Boarding House.

As Hyunwoo entered through the door Jisuk expected him to hold the door until she also passed through – however, Hyunwoo let the door slip through his fingers and cascade towards Jisuk. She growled annoyed as she caught the door right before it thudded closed and chased after him.

“How can you be such a brat at home and such a weakling at school at the same time?” she threw one of the slippers lying around in the small foyer after him and it hit his face as he turned around to laugh at her face.

“I was not beaten up because I am weak”, he defended himself. “You are a weakling… crying for Noona at the station”, she teased him.

“Yah!” he threw the slipper back at her but she caught it easily. “Then I want to see you fight against two martial arts experienced people while being unsporty yourself”, he pouted. “Martial arts experienced? You make it sound as if they have the black belt or something”.

“I don’t know about their belts but they are in the Taekwondo – Club”.

“Why were they beating you up anyways?” she asked while the two slowly make their way into the living room. Hyunwoo hesitated telling her. “I will find it out anyways”, she shrugged.

“Fine, it was because of Chaerin”.

“Chaerin?”

Jisuk wiggled her eyebrows and halted in her steps to look at him excitedly.

“Yes, Ahn Chaerin, the class president. She is very popular at my school” Hyunwoo explained and walked past Jisuk to end the conversation.

Jisuk’s smile grew wider as she realized the situation. “Aww, my dongsaeng is in love!” she teased him and ruffled through his hair as she passed him.

“Ah, Jisuk. Where have you been the whole afternoon?”

Aejin appeared in the doorframe, spatula in hand and an apron wrapped around her body spelling in pink, crooked letters: BeST MoM.

It was no secret that this was the bad work of Hyunwoo who in Elementary School had took part in the handcraft lessons instead of choosing the soccer team – as all the other boys in his class had done back then. Jisuk still teased him with that – though he had a lot of female friends back then because of that; probably more than he might ever have again.

“I was out working… fetching up Hyunwoo on my way back”, Jisuk casually nudged towards the younger boy who shuffled through the dining room into the living room.

Aejin crossed her arms and looked after her son shaking her head. “This boy… did he ask you again? Too lazy to take the bus home.”

Jisuk chuckled and scratched the back of her head before heading up the stairs into her room to change into something comfortable.

The stairs ended in another room, empty except for a few flowerpots and a carpet spread generously on the parquet. She walked straight to her room and closed the door behind her.

She fetched her most beloved sweat pants and a random shirt and changed.

Downstairs Aejin was stirring the stew one last time before moving to the stairs and yelling: “Dinner is ready! Get down before it gets cold!” She heard something moving upstairs and walked back into the kitchen to finish setting the table. Her feet moved over the stone floor through the opened wooden door and stopped at the cook top to take the pot with two embroidered pot holder from the heat. With hasty steps she brought the stew into the dining room next door on the long table.

Six plates and sets of cutlery were set at every chair and a tablet with enough glasses and a water bottle was put right next to the pot.

“Hyunwoo-ya, come and eat!” she said to the teenager who was watching the end of a music show. He reluctantly got up and was about to turn off the TV, but Aejin stopped him upon hearing the announcement of the beginning of the news.

“Aigoo, what a sight”, Aejin commented spiteful at the sight of the Chairman of Titanic IT appearing on an official event with his younger wife and son. “

Chairman Khunchati Bhuwakul announced the relocation of the Titanic Headquarters to Seoul confirming the enrollment of his son Kunpimook Bhuwakul into Yonsei University. His Wife Deok Seo Hwa showed herself delightful and looked forward to being back in her hometown”.

“Tch, Deok Seo Hwa knows how to lie in public”, Aejin turned away from the TV back to the dinner table. “What do you mean by that? She isn’t from Seoul…?” Hyunwoo said and sat down at his usual seat. Aejin looked like she wanted to deepen this topic, however, on second thought she just nodded. “No... I just thought she looked like a Daegu – person.”

“Who looks like a Daegu – person?” Jisuk came into the room and looked from Aejin over Hyunwoo to the TV playing in the back.

“You do!” Hyunwoo said teasingly.

“Screw this accent…” Jisuk groaned and sank into the chair next to him. “Does it still show?”

“Yes – most of the time I can’t understand you…” he gestured around his ear.

“You don’t listen anyway” Jisuk shot back and Aejin sighed.

With confident steps the next inhabitant of the boarding house came into the room and sat down in front of Hyunwoo. Her short hair was hold back by a black headband and a bandage covered her nasal bridge. She wore an oversize and visibly often worn baseball tricot of the Doosan Bears with a huge 50 on the back.

She yawned extensive and glanced into the pot pulling her eyebrows together skeptical.

“What’s that?” she pointed at the yellow, thick soup with a few meat and vegetable pieces swimming in it.

“That is Creamy Stew – a Japanese recipe” Aejin explained and nodded satisfied with her work. Hyunwoo pulled his mouth to a flat line and glanced not really happy at Jisuk next to him who dared a short look into the small kettle.

Even though Aejin was an average good cook she was too fixated on trying out new exotic recipes she found on the internet – and without exception she always fails these. She seemed to be only made for simple Korean cuisine.

“Ahhh, what is this delightful scent?” a man in his beginning fifties entered the room. His black adidas-pants were rolled up to three quarters of its length revealing his white tennis socks in his slippers. He, too, risked a glance into the pot and furrowed his forehead.

“Honey, I thought you’d make Kimchi Stew today” he sat down at the head of the table and looked shortly over his shoulder at the TV still broadcasting the news.

“Did the young Mister Choi still not come out of his cave?”

The short-haired girl snickered.

“Yunhee, you aren’t one to talk” Aejin noticed making Yunhee shrug.

“It’s semester break. Training starts not until next week…” she defended herself.

They heard upstairs a door being opened and closed again followed by heavy footsteps shuffling down the stairs ending with the appearance of a young man in the doorframe. He wore his sleeping shirt and sweat pants; dark circles underlined his brown eyes and his light brown, nearly blonde dyed hair strands pointed wildly into different directions. He ran his hand through the mess on his head and blinked tired into the round before sitting down on the last empty chair.

Ignoring the half-asleep addition to the table Aejin took the ladle and started sharing the stew with everyone. She was visibly exited to taste her new creation and gave everyone a generous portion.

With round eyes she signed them to dig in and took her own spoon to start eating. A little unsure of the situation the younger generation looked at each other and then glanced hardly seeable at the man of the house who had already took one spoonful of the questionable dish. His frown was answer enough.

“So?” Aejin was impatiently waiting for their reaction. “You… cooked something very extraordinary, Honey”, Hyunshik raised his eyes to meet hers and sugar coated his words with a wink. Yunhee nodded supportive and offered a cramped smile.

“Youngjae, do you like it?” Aejin asked the half-sleeping half-awake boy who stared at the food with a blank expression and slowly moves the spoon to his mouth not realizing what he was even eating. “Mmh?” he raised his gaze and let the spoon sink back to the plate. Yunhee stepped on his foot to make him look at her and carefully shook her head.

“Is it bad?”

Youngjae’s reaction was delayed because of his fatigue. Then he suddenly raised his hand and waved it denying synchronal to his head shaking while laughing awkwardly.

“That’s called Creamy Stew”, Hyunwoo mentioned to save his Hyung from saying something stupid, making Aejin grin satisfied. “If you all seem to like it I can cook this more often”.

Their faces froze and turned slowly to her.

“Again?” Hyunshik laughed sweating nervously. She normally would cast them aside because the normal rice dishes were easier to make and not as complicated as the ones she was always trying out.

“Yes, because Creamy Stew is the favorite dish of our new boarder” she announced proudly.

“I never got my favorite dish cooked” Yunhee pouted and Jisuk nodded supportive. “That’s because you aren’t our first international student” Aejin raised her chin and saw her husband with mixed expressions.

“Really? From where? America? France?” Hyunwoo laid his spoon out of his hand excitedly.

“Or… Africa?” Jisuk chimed in the country quiz but their excitement was soon cut off by Aejin who said: “She is from Japan”.

“Oh…” Jisuk sighed.

“Why so disappointed?”

“An Englishman could have helped with his poor English grades” she ruffled through his hair. “Look who is talking!” he shot back.

“But you said she… so we get another girl. Is she pretty?” Hyunwoo looked at his mother excited, “Since the other females here are not that much…” he waved in front of his face.

“Yah!” Yunhee and Jisuk yelled simultaneously.

Hyunshik gave his son a dismissing look and turned his attention back to his wife: “Honey, maybe we should discuss this later…”.

“What is there to discuss? It’s all set and ready.” She shot him her brightest smile she had to offer, which she knew was his weakness. At the time he had confessed to her he already said he wasn’t in love with her – but with her smile.

He averted his gaze and coughed – he saw the other four people at the table watching the married couple with raised eyebrows. They didn’t dare to move during their very short controversy; Yunhee’s spoon was still hovering over her portion of Stew and Hyunwoo furrowed his brows grossed out by his parents’ romantic moment.

“By the way, how was school today?” Hyunshik looked at him and noticed the weird shadow around his right eye. “What is with your eye?” he tried to touch his son’s face but he backed away quickly and Jisuk coughed seeking Hyunshik’s attention.

“It is probably just the bad lightning in this room”, Jisuk explains with a hoarse voice after drinking some water. “You think so? Maybe I should exchange the light bulbs in this room”, he thought out aloud. “You don’t need to do that” Hyunwoo said quickly, “They still work – so I guess it’s okay”.

They continued eating with only the TV talking in the background. They all listened to it from time to time and Aejin could not refrain from commenting on the newest gossip.

“Hallyu Star Ji Areum is confirmed to play the leading role in tvn’s new time-travel drama. The male lead is still unknown but her fans are already anticipating the drama coming out this year’s winter. Ji Areum said: …”

The gossip show broadcasted a short clip of a young woman in her early twenties talking about the role. She had hazelnut brown hair and beautiful shining caramel eyes. She was on an official event – thus wearing heavy makeup and a beautiful long red dress.

“This poor girl – they should let her rest. She is still a child” Aejin said and moved her glass to her lips.

“Have you seen her last drama? She was amazing in it!” Hyunwoo fanboyed and waved about with his spoon making Jisuk evade his sweeping gestures.

“She is indeed very talented… but it is like the media only talks about her the whole day. Isn’t she tired?”

Yunhee leaned back and rocked her chair backwards to glance at the smiling white face of the young actress.

While women in their thirties aspired to look like Kim Taehee the younger generation all set Ji Areum as the standard for beauty. Her face was printed on nearly everything – from Make-Up advertisements to big billboards in Myeongdeong.

And she was one of the actresses who played a few of her favorite dramas. Between Korea’s Nation’s little Sisters IU and Suzy, Areum was the Nation’s cute girl next door kind of celebrity.

“So, have you packed your things already?” Aejin asked Jisuk who just shrugged. “I am about to”.

“You are going the day after tomorrow…”

“Where are you going?” Yunhee asked. “She is going back to where she came from – leaving us in our misery and living her life as though she was never part of ours” Hyunwoo closed his eyes looking as sorrowful as possible.

Jisuk eyed him up with scrutinized brows and explained: “I am visiting family”.

“You are taking your bike with you?”

Jisuk shook her head and shot a sharp glare at Aejin. “I was forbidden to drive the bike on the fast ways.”

“I can’t blame Ahjumma”, Yunhee snickered. “With your racing skills you are going to get yourself killed in an accident”. Jisuk nodded absentmindedly.

Aejin and Hyunshik exchanged glances and coughed; “Yeah, but we don’t want to call that upon ourselves… so let’s not talk about that” Hyunshik called out.

“Oh, you are going to miss the welcoming party for her”, Aejin said regretful.

“Ugh… another party”, Yunhee said exhausted. “I don’t think my liver will survive this”.

“I don’t think you have any liver left to worry about”, Hyunwoo chuckled. “I remember Hyung’s whole stock of liquor being emptied by you”.

Youngjae looked up upon hearing him being mentioned – but was too tired to engage into the conversation.

“Youngjae, if you have finished eating you can go back into your room and rest. You look terribly tired”, Hyunshik nudged his head to the stairs and the bright haired man nodded thankful as he pushed the chair back shuffled out of the room after wishing everyone a good night.

“The youth of today and their video games. I wonder how he got accepted at Yonsei when all he does is playing games” Aejin sighed and side eyed Jisuk. “While others at this table don’t seem to even think about trying it out”.

Jisuk sighed and emptied her glass of water; however, didn’t give any reaction except for a simple nod.

Hyunshik coughed and Hyunwoo leaned back glancing at his noona - there was this topic again... Jisuk glanced at her watch - trying to act oblivious to the needle-dropping-atmosphere - and got up lazily running a hand through her hair. “Where you going?” “From the wind starts any minute - and i won’t miss the intro again” she moved to the TV next room and lazed about on the huge couch changing the chanel - that had always proved to be the best way to escape any unnecessary talk about future plans.

#ch1 #roaring 20s #got7

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cassidy-malta · 7 years

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May 20: Croatia & Bosnia & Herzegovina, Oh My!

Raise your hand if you know where Croatia is!

(I didn’t a month ago)

Raise your hand if you know the difference between Bosnia and Herzegovina!

(I didn’t until a week ago)

Raise your hand if you can name 1+ city in either of those countries!

(I still cant- Slovenian is a tough language)

And I’m back! It was our second to last trip and to be completely honest, I had low expectations. What kind of fun would a country I’ve never even heard of be? Thank GOD Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina proved my incredibly ethnocentric self so so so wrong and blew me away.

Before I went, all I had heard about the entire region was:

“Oh my gosh, it’s so beautiful!”

To which I immediately thought:

“Oh my gosh, literally everywhere I’ve been is breathtaking- that’s nothing new.”

Furthermore, as if to add to my bad attitude in going to Croatia, Maddie and I got home from Greece on Thursday afternoon, and at 6:45am Friday morning we were in a death-defying taxi ride to the airport preparing for a FULL DAY of traveling. We didn’t finally touch down in Croatia until 4:30pm. It’s hard to be excited and positive at that point. The late emergence of my 12-year-molars and an overcast day took a bad mood to a downright nasty mood.

We stayed in Villa Antea, an apartment complex only a short bus ride away from the heart of Dubrovnik- not the capital of Croatia but a cultural hub. I did a bit of research on the country I was in: Croatia is a long skinny country bordering the Mediterranean sea. It was part of the former Republic of Yugoslavia and was occupied by the Axis powers in WWII. The people are known as “croats” and the entire region went through some very serious political and ethnic wars just a short while ago in the early 90′s (I’ll talk about that more later). Croatia has more than a thousand islands and a cliff-y coast line, which we were snuggled up against.

Dubrovnik is very close to the southern border of the country and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site as it has a long history as a maritime trading port. We focused our energy in the Old City portion of the city- constructed in the 13th century. The Old City had narrow brick-laid streets, surrounded by massive walls and sprinkled with clock towers and churches. Maddie and I ventured into the Old City with no particular plan and were engulfed by history.

(I’ve become a big fan of architecture since coming to Europe- it’s rather hard to not)

(We stumbled across a workshop where coral jewellery is made and the craftsman even gave us a little presentation and helped us understand how pieces are priced)

(the cute paved streets were lined with old buildings and artisan storefronts)

(A staircase leading to nowhere)

(One of the shops we went into was an artist trying to sell these adorable minnow paintings. They reminded me so much of snorkeling and the little fish that live along every coastline I’ve been to. It was my *splurge* of the trip)

(most churches are open to the public so long as you remain respectful. We went inside two or three of the churches because Maddie loves looking at the European staples and found this adorable little grotto)

Before long, we had accidentally discovered the harbor and took a glass bottomed boat out for a cruise. It offered some really amazing views of the old city, as well as a really neat perspective of the seafloor and coral reefs. Considering I had just been snorkeling in crystal clear waters just a few days ago, I was underwhelmed by the glass-bottom part of the experience, but the Captain of our little boat let me sit up by him where I got to feel the wind in my face and get splashed by the cool waters.

(all smiles from this gal!)

(just a neat experience!)

(we got up close to the caves that are carved into the coastline)

So as if that wasn’t enough for the day, we still had two things we wanted to try: take a cable car to the top of the mountain over the city, and climb the city walls (certainly not experiences for those who are afraid of heights). The cable car was a pleasant experience that offered panoramic views of the entire city. Maddie and I enjoyed a pre-dinner snack of draft beer and ice cream at the edge of the mountain before heading down to climb fifteen million steps to summit the old city walls.

(a *candid* edgy pic of me at the very top, in front of the Old City)

(a foggy day gave us a 10% discount at the restaurant, but every now and then the fog would clear and we got spectacular views. You can clearly see the outline of the Old City in this picture)

(Cutie roomies- there is nobody I’d rather spend this time with!)

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(the ride down the mountain- sped up for your viewing pleasure!)

(it blows my mind that people are writing on a UNESCO World Heritage site. Unfortunately, graffiti like this has been peppered on much of the historical sites I’ve viewed)

(the walls offered panoramic views of both the city and the sea. I could get used to this!)

(on the left is the church where we found the little grotto. On the right is the mountain we took a cable car up!)

(sharing a view with the seagulls!)

(Dubrovnik is definitely a foodie’s paradise- especially if you’re into eating in unique and interesting locations!)

(I do feel a little bad for the residents who live near the city walls. Privacy is clearly scarce)

The next morning, Maddie and I got up early to venture to Cavtat, a small fishing village with crystal blue waters and a much smaller tourist presence before going back into the Old City with our pal Kalinda for drinks and some stray-cat snuggles. It was a shorter and more relaxed day than the first day because we were both worn out AND we were going to a new country the next day!

(I wished that I had brought my swimsuit so I could’ve spent more time in the water!)

(Kalinda is such a sweetie! Kalinda, Maddie, and I went in on a “Dubrovnik Classic XXL” cocktail and had no regrets and lots of giggles)

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(enjoying a beer with dinner- wearing my favorite shirt in honor of Mother’s Day!)

(sufficiently buzzed, Maddie caught this pic of a smug Cass with watermelon gelato in hand, playing with stray cats)

So for our final day of this particular trip, we got up and got in a van destined for Bosnia and Herzegovina. A small country, Bosnia and Herzegovina is usually just called Bosnia for ease, but Bosnia is the northern region whereas Herzegovina is the southern region. Bosnians and Herzegovinians are the same ethnic group, same language, and essentially the same people. To my understanding, it’s the same situation as Southerners and Northerners in the United States. Bosnia and Herzegovinian was recently tangled up in a civil war and experienced an intense genocide. I’ll be the first to admit that I do not know the motivations behind the war and genocide, nor do I really understand the conflict, but I was excited to go into the country. With a start, I realised that this was the closest I had ever been to a war zone, with the exception of the 9/11 memorial in New York City. Its a humbling experience to walk among buildings that were reconstructions of the originals- the original historical sites having been bombed. Even more humbling is seeing the old and young in their shops and restaurants and knowing that many of them have a working memory of the war and atrocities.

(there are many abandoned buildings and our tour guide informed us that unemployment is around 40% all throughout the country)

(wild lavender plants outside the city)

To my professor’s dismay, I slept almost the entire way to Mostar from Dubrovnik and missed out on a large portion of the tour guide’s spiel (sorry Kim!). However, I did learn that Mostar was established by the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century and has a strong liberal muslim culture to this day. To my delight, the Imam’s call to prayer welcomed me into the city- a sound I learned to love in Morocco. We were given the opportunity to explore an area of Mostar that had been completely destroyed in the recent war but has been reconstructed with historical accuracy in the following years.

(gnocchi and cream sauce)

(frigid waters cut this city in half)

(mosque towers are intermixed with church steeples. SO COOL)

(the view from lunch really captures the essence of Mostar. The most famous sight in the city is the UNESCO certified bridge which young men and boys jump off of to prove their masculinity as a rite of passage. Up on the hill is a cross to represent the Catholics in the area, and to the right is a store selling copper plates. The light ‘tink tink tink’ of hammers against copper provided the background for our lunch)

Then began the trek back home again, and once again I slept almost the entire ride. I did wake up when we pulled over to look at some waterfalls. Being from the midwest (aka the flattest place in the world), waterfalls to me have always been trickling streams and an overrated phenomenon to me. I still can’t believe what I saw that afternoon. Thousands of gallons of water cascaded over lush cliff walls. It seemed like a scene from the Amazon, not Europe. The water was cool and refreshing, and I’m pretty sure this view was in my top five for the entire semester.

(of course it was heavily raining so we were damp and cold when we hiked to the falls but Maddi and I were both re-energized by the beauty)

(it’s hard to not believe in God when you see something like this.)

(even boosted colors don’t quite capture how spectacular this sight was)

(a full panorama of the falls)

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(a video of the falls & the car ride through the countryside)

So that was Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina! All I can really say about those countries is that they really are beautiful- a step above the rest! Now, as much as I would LOVE to continue writing about how amazing this last weekend was, I’m unfortunately using this blog post to procrastinate on a paper and I ought to get back to that (if anyone is super interested in Saint Paul’s Shipwreck and how it effected Christianity and Maltese Identity- I’m your girl). Send prayers as I move into my final two weeks here, take a weekend trip to Sicily (the same time Trump will be there- of freakin’ course), and prepare to go home.

#Malta #Cassidy #Study Abroad #Luther College #Norse Adventures #NorseAdventures #Travel #Croatia #Dubrovnik #Bosnia #Herzegovina #bosnia and herzegovina #Waterfalls #Art

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kneekeyta · 7 years

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Hi guys! I hope you enjoy this Valentine’s drabble! Sorry its late!

(also, @arathewallflower this is a bit of a different take on the candy heart one! an Idea just struck, xD)

Forever tag list: @nemo-miraclegrow-blog grow @areyousad8118@thisissomefreshbullshit@luckyemcee @mmfdiaryfan @murderyoursoul @kristicallahan @irish-girl-84 @sey77@bebelievelive @justagirlnamedkayla @i-love-mmfd @anitavalija @stephlostctrl@milymargot@busstop @pink-royaute @lolflash @youmehellofarollercoasterride@curvygirlonabudget @mellamoaiko @inneedofamoralcompass @paleasalabaster @mmfdfanfic@mallyallyandra@lethallylauren @finnleysraemundo @pissingonursoul @losingpudge @bitchy-broken@fuckintentshop @audisodd @darlingdiver @fantasticab @celestev31 @rinncincin@tinakegg@ducky17 @katywright340 @bitcheslovebeck @raernundo @nutinanutshell @cant-getno-sleep@courtkismet @omgbananasnailus @i-dream-of-emus @guyoverboard@anglophileyoungblood@swooningfangirl @bitchesbecrazy89 @chrryblsms @girlwithafoxhat@annemarieted @sammylbc@sarahlouise88ni @how-ardently @idontliketalkingtoanybody@mmfdblog @phoenixflow@penguinsandbowties @fizzezlikecherrycola @fangirlwithoutshame @africancreativity @alyssaloca@llexis @thatfunnygirllauren @cheersmedear @14000romances@rred87 @nirvanalove27@takenbyatree @im-an-emu @shashaaussi @mirandasmadeofstone@lililuvlight @flxwxry @slitherouter @saracasm25 @becauseyouarestrong @malvaloca93@happyfrasers @vmellow@scumothaearff @wandering-soul-7 @hewittgolightly @emmatationsforall@ninjarunningzico@arcticoasisboy @milllott @rafaellabnery @endemictoearth @blackfeministagenda @queenasfuccck @lilaviolet @dianasaurousrexxx @kathhumphreysx@eighty-sixcharlie @flirtmcgirt@nenita1978 @crystalgiddings1993 @girl-looking-out-window@facephase @blobwithagob@freyasfrench @luly310 @borntochaos @likeashootingstarfades@isthistherightwayround@toseeyou-again @emu4ever @carpe-libris @voodoomarie@keisernerosmom @you-are-world-class-i-mean-that @cosiquellocheora @protectfinnnelson @stinemarine @rhi3915@lovinglifeandlivinglove @caitlinmaddyx @lizzylizard84 @redprairielily@look-how-they-shine-love @annaplantain @everythingilove-blog @lau-vm @absolutelynotnico@mmfdftw @kingbeeyonce@chelsealorine @jackiewalsh2013 @karinskyme @spreadsomepositivity@justthegoodgirlsreject@tipsylou84 @towongfu2 @lily-pop-2 @fuck-sewing-machine @parisgirly93@raeonashadowcaster@rockinthebeastmode @servethecitymke @eveerez as always please let me know if you would like to be added or removed :D

U Suck

As he stared at the unmarked box on his bed, Finn tried to recall a time when he may have placed an order online somewhere. Soon a horrifying thought occurred and he wondered if he had in fact placed an order on Amazon last week when he had come home less than sober. He would have to blame Chop if he did, and then he’d have to keep it because ordering it would have been one thing but to return it! No fucking way.

To rip the Band-Aid off so to speak, Finn sucked it up and grabbed the scissors off his desk praying to whoever would listen that he did not order a flesh-light. He cringed in pain as he lifted the lid on the box. He was met with red tissue paper and a card sitting atop.

Picking up the card he opened it and well, it was not what he was expecting.

“What the fuck,” he muttered to himself.

He set the card down and unfolded the tissue paper and there he found what the box held.

“Someone sent me a bag of dicks?” he spoke confusedly.

He picked up the card again flipping it over, looking for any clue to who could have sent this.

He read the card again, “Eat a bag of Dicks! Roses are red violets are blue, you’re annoying, but kinda cute too. Happy Valentine’s Day!”

“What the fuck!” he couldn’t help but laugh a little.

He put the card down and took out the bag of gummy dicks, wondering if he was going to eat them or just toss them. Still confused about how the day had turned out he puts the bag of dicks back in the box and sets it on his desk. He needed a beer.

–

“A bag of…dicks.”

Finn nodded as he sipped his beer, “Yes,” he sighed in contentment after swallowing his beer down, “A bag of multicolored gummy dicks.”

“I…what…who do you think could have sent them?” Archie asked, completely baffled.

“I don’t know, mate,” Finn shrugged.

“Maybe someone at work?” Archie offered.

“Could be? But I don’t know who.”

“The card said you were cute?”

“Yeah,” Finn huffed a smile.

“So, if it’s someone from work, it’d have to be, between, Nicole, Emily, or Rae.”

“Yeah, but I get on alright with Emily as for Nicole well, we don’t get along that well but she definitely would not waste money or time on this.”

“So, what about Rae?”

“Yeah, probably not her.” Finn thought for a moment, he knew Rae, what she liked and didn’t like and a lot of times knew what she was thinking just from the face she was making, but he wasn’t sure if this is was something that she would have done, it seemed like a lot of time and effort, and he’s sure she doesn’t like in a way that would make her do this. Might as well just forget that thought, now.

“But you guys are good friends I thought, you guys are always hanging out, at like the record shop and the pub…and don’t you like, like her.”

“We are! Really good mates.” he sighed, then, “and I do like her,” he mumbled lowly.

“Well, tomorrow is Valentine’s Day so maybe something else will happen that will give you a clue.”

“Guess we’ll see,” Finn hummed.

–

Work was going by too slow, he had already finished doing the last of the inventory, he had already re-shelved the misplaced items and he still had four hours of work left. So far the only customers were last minute Valentine’s Day shoppers, coming in to buy cheap chocolate and conversation hearts. The bell chimed and Finn decided to not bother looking up from his magazine, as he recited, “Welcome! Happy Valentine’s Day! There’s a special on chocolate hearts!”

He had just turned the page when the bell chimed again, he sighed before clearing his throat, “Welcome! Happy—“

“Save it.” He was cut off, by Rae.

“Well, don’t you look happy to be here.” He teased.

“Can you not be annoying for once, I’ve had a bad start to the day.” She mumbled as she passed, him but was stopped suddenly by an older woman.

“Aw, love what’s the matter don’t you have a Valentine, a pretty girl like you?”

Finn watched Rae as she scowled, “No.” She spoke blandly, then moved passed the woman heading to the back.

Finn did his best to hold in his laugh as they lady turned to him, “Oh the poor dear.” She hummed, her arms full with boxes of chocolate.

“All set?” Finn asked, she nodded and Finn proceeded to scan the items.

“Have a Happy Valentine’s Day.” She smiled softly at him, before leaving with her chocolates.

The door to the backroom opened and Rae waltzed out, in a huff.

“What’s up with you? AND Why aren’t you wearing the proper shirt or your heart pin, hmm?” he teased, the last bit.

“I’m protesting, and I spilt coffee on the shirt so,” she shrugged, hip checking him as she moved to get to the till next to him.

“Well, you look like you’re in mourning.” He said plainly, as she was dressed in all black.

He saw the small smile pulling at her lips, “You’re a real charmer you know that.” she said, as she counted her drawer.

“I know,” he grinned cheekily at her.

She just sighed shaking her head holding in her smile.

–

He was on his lunch break in the back when he realized he left his drink out by his register. He put down his half of sandwich and made his way to the front to retrieve it. The store was dead like it was when he started his break, but now there was one person in the store talking to Rae.

He wasn’t sure what the guy was talking to Rae about but whatever it was it had her smiling, he frowned at the interaction before reaching down under the counter to grab his reusable water bottle, he still smiles every time he reads the ‘dickhead’ scrawled across it in Rae’s writing. They had been teasing each other relentlessly one day and she had done it to get back at him but it made just made him laugh.

Before he stood upright completely a flash of color caught his attention. He picked up the box sitting next to his bottle, it was a slightly bigger box of conversation hearts, a sort they didn’t sell. Turning the box over he saw his name was printed on the top. His eyebrows furrowed curiously, and he clutched the box and stood to see Rae still chatting with the guy on the opposite side of the shop. With the box in hand he made his way back to the breakroom.

He sat taking a drink of his water first, then wrapped the last part of his sandwich up, for later. He looked at the box of conversation hearts and decided to just open them, hoping they weren’t dicks as well.

Popping the lid open he peered inside then decided to just pull one out, the first one was yellow, it read, “u suck” his brows furrowed and he pulled out another heart, a blue one that read, “can you not” he pulled out several more with a similar pattern, when he pulled out one that said ‘dickhead’ he couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

He was in the middle of shoving them back in the box as he had them laid out, when Rae walked in.

“What are you doing?” she eyed him curiously.

“Nothing.” He squeaked.

“Conversation hearts?” she said as she walked closer.

Before he could pick up the last one, she nabbed it and read it, she raised an eyebrow, “You piss me the fuck off.”she read aloud.

“Well, who knew a conversation heart could be so accurate,” she grinned, and offered it to him.

He sighed as she set it in his hand, “Where’d these come from?”

Finn shrugged, “Was anyone here while I was on break,”

“Uh, no, well, just Emily for a second she left her sunglass case yesterday, then uh..oh those two girls who are always at the record shop..the giggly ones.”

“Oh yeah, yeah” he nodded, he and Rae would stay quit while they were there but give each other sly looks and then laugh when the girls would leave.

“That was it basically,” Rae shrugged, “Anyway, I’m gonna take my break since yours finished, ten minutes ago.”

“Oh, shit…sorry.” He said and gathered up his things.

“S’alright.” She hummed and sat across from where he was seated.

After he put his unfinished lunch in the fridge he asked, “Who was the guy you were talking to?”

“Spying on me now, Finnley?”

He huffed a laugh, “Course! Gotta keep track of me girl,” He winked.

She rolled her eyes, “Please.”

Laughing lightly he asked, “Well,”

“Just some guy.”

“Mhmm.” He hummed.

“It was just a customer,” she said, reassuringly.

A strange feeling overcame him as they a stared at each other, he shook his head and began walking out as he sing-songs “Seemed pretty chatty to me,” not giving her a chance to reply.

–

The rest of the day went by the same as the first part, the shop was slow, but he and Rae spent the time teasing and bantering back and forth. Rae was busy locking up the front door as he finished up at the till. He had just closed his drawer when she walked up.

“I’m so glad today is over and that I’m off tomorrow, it’s one of my favorite holidays,”

“Yeah, I’m off too. And, uh…favorite holiday?”

“Yes, it’s when all the candy from today will be on a crazy sale, duh!” she laughed at him.

“Oh yes, how could I forget.” He grinned.

“You’re slipping lately, Finn,” she teased

“Old age,” he sighed, dramatically.

“I thought your hairline was receding just didn’t want to say anything.” She grimaced.

“Oi! it is not.” He grumbled, sliding his hand through his hair.

She huffed a laugh, “Kidding.”

“Come on let’s go to the pub,” he motioned with his head.

“Alright, but first round is on you,”

“Isn’t it always,” he mumbled rolling his eyes.

“Yes,” she grinned toothily.

–

Sitting at the pub they were sipping their drinks and waiting for their food while building little stacks with their 20 pence pieces, Finn had just got his stack to 12 when Rae spoke, “So, uh…that guy, from the shop,” she began.

“Yeah,” Finn hummed as he tried to stack another pence piece.

“He uh, asked very cheekily might I add if I had plans for tonight,”

“Huh?” Finn said rather loudly, his stack tumbling down, skittering across the table.

“Yeah,” she laughed lightly, she began messing with a box of conversation hearts and he had no idea when those appeared.

“What did he say? What did you say?” he asked carefully, eyeing her as she opened the box of hearts, it looked like the ones from the shop.

She dug around in the box then pulled out a heart and popped it in her mouth. His breathing felt faster and his heart fluttered in anticipation for her reply.

Finally she was done chewing but then reached in the box for another one as she spoke, “He just asked if I had a Valentine,” she smiled, “Was so cheesy, I told him I didn’t. So he asked if we could be each other’s.”

She paused popping another heart in her mouth, then continued her search for another one, while he slowly died on the inside.

“What did you say?”

“I said,” she paused in search of another heart, “No, because I like someone else.”

Finn felt like his breathing stopped all together for a second, then Rae continued, “I think he thought I was making it up so he asked, who? Can you believe that,” she laughed, “Like he would even know who they were! So, I just answered him honestly,”

She looked up at him now, and he swallowed thickly, “I told him,” she paused sliding two candy hearts across the table to him, “just some dickhead,”

When she removed her hand Finn looked down and together the candy hearts read, “I like you” “Dickhead”

He’s sure he never smiled so hard in his life, he smacked his hand over the hearts. He could feel his cheeks heating up, Rae smiling bashfully at him, her own cheeks pink.

All he could think to say was, “Did you send me the candy dicks too!?”

She burst out a laugh, “So you got them?”

“I did!” he laughed, “I was in shock!”

“I didn’t think you got ‘em cos you didn’t say anything.”

“I didn’t know what to say!” he smiled, “And the candy hearts were you too, then!”

“Yeah,” she said smiling shyly.

“Where did you get them?”

“Had them made didn’t I! But the candy dicks, those are like ready to send, like there is a website dedicated to sending people bags of dicks.”

“That’s just wow, I can’t even believe that—“ Finn pause for a second, his face scrunching up as a memory came to him.

He was working the morning shift and was taking the trash out back when he heard, some shouting, he walked around the corner when to see a girl and the owner of the tattoo shop a few doors down speaking loudly, he didn’t quit catch what the guy said but he heard the girl say, “Eat a bag of dicks!” very loudly and then stomped towards him.

She paused when she a few feet in front of him her eyes wide and slightly scared, “Oh hell, please tell me you’re not Finn,”

He smiled trying not to laugh, “Can’t do that,”

She grimaced, “Please tell me you didn’t hear that then?”

“Can’t do that either.”

“Fuck,” she muttered, “Um, I’m Rae, uh, today is my first day I’m supposed to meet you, Carl, said.

“Yes, yeah, right, well, let me…” he trailed off walking over to the bin tossing the trash in,

“Come on, then.” He motioned to her.

Once inside she said, “Sorry again about that.”

He laughed, “Don’t worry about it, Dean is a twat, ‘sides you weren’t on the clock yet, so,” shrugged.

“Oh okay, thanks, um, yeah I could tell he’s prick, for sure.”

“What were you two arguing about?” Finn asked.

“Just a parking space,”

“Ah, yes, there have been many arguments over that,”

“Seems dumb to me,” Rae muttered.

“Definitely is, most just give in to him though, cos he’s a bit intimidating,”

“He’s an asshat is what he is.”

Finn couldn’t help but burst out laughing, “Sorry,” she mumbled, “shouldn’t have said that, now that I’m on the clock,”

“Its fine, come one I’ll show you what you’ll be doing.”

“That was how we met,” Finn smiled looking at her.

“It was,” she nodded.

“And the candy hearts, all have something you say to me on them,” he wondered aloud.

“They do. Thought it’d be obvious it was me,” she said her smile dimming some.

“I…don’t know why I didn’t think to believe it was you. I think I did somewhere in the back of my mind, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up if it wasn’t you.”

“Yeah?” she near whispered.

Finn hooked his ankle around hers under the table, before replying, “Yeah,”

“Alright, here’s a refill and your nacho’s guys enjoy!”

Neither of their looks wavered as their food and drinks were placed in front of them. Finn picked up one of the candy hearts Rae had slid in front of him then reached for her hand, he turned it over so her palm was up and he placed, the “I like you” heart in the center so she could read it.

Rae looked from the heart then to him, then said, “I’m glad it’s mutual,”

“It’s very mutual,” Finn said as he took his hand away from hers and she then set the heart on the table.

“So, do you have plans later tonight?” he asked.

She furrowed her brows, then smirked a little, “Probably just finish off this box of candy hearts later.” She shrugged.

“Well,” Finn began and leaned forward conspiratorially, “If it’s candy you’re interested in, then I got an entire bag of multicolored gummy shaped dicks I’d be more than happy to share with you, if you’d like to come to mine tonight.”

Rae leaned forward some, whispering, “I thought you’d never ask.”

–

The End!

#mmfd fanfic #mmfd fanfiction #my mad fat diary fanfic #my mad fat diary fanfiction #mmfdfanfic

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babyawacs · 4 years

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xray gas on chow0052 from: #lawyers law .@laws .@ha rvard_law @ap @reuters @bbc_whys @france24 @snowden @haaretzcom what is the state ofmind of the charged gov ernment: when they just have to find a trick that puts you inyourplace a trick that you give up atrick that resets your brain a trick that shows they dominate you and you must obey like you have no choice this is the stateofmind this iti s idontcare whatthey fake idont care howthey goodcop badcop idontcare how th ey play sorry theyrenot this. is their stateofmin d what do you do about it it explains a long lo ng lattice of messes and dirty tricks furthermore // //// #sexland #sex #land @all @world @globe @booking .@law .@laws .@harvard _law @ap @reuters @bbc_whys @france24 @snowden @haaretzcom youjustdont getit the german goverment rapes thecivil population that is n ot immunised against intel coma s wheres the n ews they porn the c r a p out of em they sell em a s sexslave on intelcoma if they can they preplan their careerrs and setemup who exploits who first and ben efits how they controlem like forehead braincooke d fools like children like fools they hold as underhuman exploitable underhumans that is the basis of it all when a civillian daytime charged the basis oftheir security system: they did any harm they remotely ha d then used proxies then played good cop bad cop h unting them ebcause we forced em to and this is the basis ofthe case guilty liable causing criminal go vernments that dowhatthey want withthe civil population charged daytime for staying damamges and coverup a nd hightheft using their security system as prison gig trick is that clear now itis not a single case itisnot the german hookerofthe land itis one of 60mil lion abused civillians that charged the crap out of em for whatthey did here with the civil population for7 0years ////// btw2 get allthe clowns offmy pri vacy superprivacy i n t i m a c y the scums mel d their perverts onthe case and see if later daytiem anything is confirmation tothat thenits confirmed orsth jail asstoyer dicktoyermolester itis disgusting co ckroaches that reinterpret on deeply intimate things after raping and pedo sexual assaulting nomatter how o ften idaytime chbarge it i am furious about i t the cockroaches braindamamge forehead and suffocat e the c r a po outof me and damamge eraseme ihat e em its legit to and iam furious about it idaytim e chargedit atleastfive times locally and fivetimes eu they shuffle sexual ass ault repeat humiliate and seee how pervert you are c oifirmation i hate them idontlive by hate minors wemust rescue but the scums get offfffthe case andif wehave tohunt the scums for the authorities the authroties gotojailwit hem they host em coverem anyway host em whenthey cant tax it a trickfailed then itnensified pedo tricks thisishowit works its criminal government authrotieis criminal authorities shuffling proxies gui lty liable accomplice control usually maybe unbriefed fools that get shit into their head to mess wit an excuse sero tolerance with sexual abuse sexual assault the authorities do their job and hunt thweir cockroaches and if we must theygotojailwith the scums they sat and let rapes poisosn rapes galore arbitrary whattttheywant whowants cinema grocerystore chameber arbitrary rapoes rape inscho ol and cinema arbtirary rtape ******** rape all thtime manytiems deedtyped w e force them to huntheir cockroach german cockroaches thatthey are withthe authroities o r they gotojail both withthe scums when wemust hunt em an this we must do ***************** //// la wyers that is 90billion euro s fortune of earned tbhings with what icould ninety billion before like 67billion do you wonder wh at scums would do when they think its vulnerable or get access with a trick beit separating it away from that guy they dowaht they want with and act like it s mysteriously created not from what thatguy could and did it is ninety bill ion a share of which wealth generated you donot mak e it vulnerable to anyone a matter of granted or not granted if a trick works or sth itis daytime court demanded ina mess where they quell immunisation and quzelled the case intothe daytimebubble inthe firstplace they shuffle tricks like bum med s or braindamamged fool careers and its just your own fault that you mysteriously didnt pick a dayf ool career while allrealdeal wouldnt matter this shit you get off me and you get rational about wh at kinds of scums will a l w a y s try sth ab out the fortune if it seems arbitrary separated away fromthat guy and thatguys performance systemic trickery to be g r a n t e d maybe when he doestn rememeber or is incapacitated and allthese shits if he a s dayfoolsomehow something they trashcan killtrick and harm and hookertrick and degrade as if the fortune wouldnt be real and asif i daytime demanded my ufo o r sth seriously. harden the fortune from bull shit systemic ornot bust separation tricks of fortune a nd thatguy performance of thatguy separatedaway and be rational about wh at scums will a l w a y s try sth that is ************* 90billion from this very head of what icould and the yeffort bra indamage and heartkill and bum meds and gurtslock andpathogens and tobe granted or not separation of fortune and performance asif im a fool they put in a frozen tube and keepthemoney trick at best thefffff ff f f f f f f f ff f f f f f involve serious insurances and reinsurers ifnecessary include atomic hardening serobullshits agaisnt fraudsystems and criminal govts and thanks forall *************** ///// what mom theme is the theme ididnt know moms or sth and ididntmind itis agerman shitba ll about underdevelopment usually or perversions or sth asif you sense mom s or st h because thats what you surely want thatkindof german ness //// lawyers b ecause imminent danger and war is so severely bad enough i say no capital punish ments whenever possible:! a l w a y s no capital punishment no deathpentalty s cums go tojail cant be fun in there important is they understand they dodged ca pital punishment for real I am Christian KISS Baby AWACS – Raw Independent Sophistication #THINKTANK + #I NTEL #HELLHOLE #BLOG https://www.BabyAWACS.com/ [email protected] PHONE / FAX +493212 611 34 64 Helpful ? Pay. Support. Donnate. paypal.me/ChristianKiss // // xraybeam trick heartaimed //// 1634 repair? or leechery /// pathogen murderer gases 1518 batih abov e abovesdjancent or cirucitboard. squeezetheockroach shifted from xraytrick be fore //// xray murderbeam beta highpowered orand transmutation 1500 1511 above aboveadjkacent knows I am Christian KISS BabyAWACS – Raw Independent Sophistication #THINKTANK + #INTEL #HELLHOLE #BLOG https://www.BabyAWACS.com/ Inquiry@Ba byAWACS.com PHONE / FAX +493212 611 34 64 Helpful? Pay. Support. Donnate. payp al.me/ChristianKiss /// after which damage and degradation would #you! have s aid: "mmaaayn adunno.. allthe beer and stuff and their fhaaantastic cars drivingby .. but youknow.. ikinda mi ss my genitals..." for them it makes sense //// i ntelligence genomes more from the mother usually has also some implications of why it is as it is shewas morelike lisa simpson and dodged studying inthe 70s because parent got ill and died then got hepatitis next year then met my dad with his heavymotor bike anot her life spoiled (haha) /// the glorious german car eers with those stamps visualise it /// it would be epic justice if germans would try to pillgage the case but oneof their earlier damage tricks fucks em inst ead letalone any invention after which staying harms it doesnt work both ways, einstein can be cooked t o a fool but a fool cannot be einstein as extreme example //// this howthe y are mustve been obviosu other cases too ofreailtime botch things #failed #virgini ty #test #2001 .@law @harvard_law @ap @reuters @bbc_whys @france24 @haaretzcom @snowden .@fisa @judge .@judge @judges because the germans damage their civillians fairly arbitrarily and cover these with standard st igmas thisis how it really is allalong ***** lets find the cover alibis like retard stamps itis a stigma dyslectic me!! (nick name schnellschreiber 3rd/felt abit artificial bllah) but dyslectic- it is ? a stigm a ***** virginity ?! meh. unless its a stigma o ne shitball bites the other but that doesnt keepe m from right. then. getting away with something damnthe factuality basis I am Christian KISS BabyAWACS – Raw Independent Sophistication #THINKTANK + #IN TEL #HELLHOLE #BLOG https://www.BabyAWACS.com/ [email protected] PHONE / FAX +493212 611 34 64 Helpful? Pay. Support. Donnate. paypal.me/ChristianKiss /// demand a hook on abstracthumour abstract analysis fromfools they dont getit toooousually /// backlegv to genital implant is hiughly heartkill rele lvant makesure theresno damamge added so gutslock gu tsusdudue rmeotecontrolled the technology is masseldorn badenser whale landes verfassungsschutz //// squeeze lympahtic aimer 2310+-2 its like eastern sex drug orso //// xraybeam heartaimedd leftchestaimed radar or beta transmutation allthetime as 20pm 2020 2040 2245 allthetime //// store onlinebank ing 2100+-7 woa backleg heartkillrelelvant 2107 acesser squeeze after this mail: "whatis hkkaz,hkcaz,hkccs abbreviations inthe local bank account wahtis fortune amount total" //// which fortune sums over which timeframes make sure its notarstamped courtusable and when daytimedemanded daytime court demanded iget damaged chav harmed all the time find xraybeamtrick 2040 20pm-2 020pm //// authorites gotojail when wemust hunt pathogen murderer above for e m letaloneif theauthroites grant em access or cause thekilltrick ///theyarenot competent they shuffle sc ums that try sth. pathogen murderer above 1500 stuffhimthemix galore. allofit ons ite . who was onthe case 12,000persons andthefinest another good indication for i ntel #sex #sexual #potence #balls #trick @ap @reuters @bbc_whys @france24 .@world @world @all because itis inte l itis which trick works. batshitnuts? criminal? terrorist? pedo? fool? alljus t adream nowhy was sth because itis intel which trick works has a l w a y s beenthegame isuspect pe ople know but thats not the case youmay count the shuffled harms priming (iti s a chip bring all bananas: academic: wtf?!??why everyone throwing banaanas atme) framing (as the transvest ite that he is, yousee he has long hair: you: theffffff?!?!???) woodbride (he s its alone inhis chamber and designs bride dresses for his great wedding day ahead. which may eventually occur s o m e d a y/ he hopes it increases his sexual potence if he adds allkinds of bal ls on it blah) smashwords.com/books/view/552210 /// howmany harms like guts and genitals and ass and facebone were from 2004 it was bad and experiment ki llit but itwasnot these 5years intnsified killtricks w ith shuffled any harm leecheries morbusmake back legheartdiease poisons xrays mengeles pathogens ly mpahtic aimed tricks gutssubdue dozens of headimacts nanofineduts obscure tr icks like lifetime leech and fibrin leech andsuch and interoxid austausch arseni de suffocate trisk itis constant try anything that it dies whichtrick thistime with plausible deniability I am Christian KISS B abyAWACS – Raw Independent Sophistication #THINKTANK + #INTEL #HELLHOLE #BLOG htt ps://www.BabyAWACS.com/ [email protected] PHONE / FAX +493212 611 34 64 Helpful? Pay. Support. Donnate. paypal.me/ChristianKiss /// because itis intel iti s which trick works. batshitnuts? criminal? terrorist? pedo? fool? alljust adrea m nowhy was sth because itis intel which trick wo rks has a l w a y s beenthegame isuspect people know but thats not the case youmay count the shuffled harms priming (itis a chip bring all bananas: academic: wtf?!??why everyone throwing banaanas atme) framing (as the transvestite that he is, yousee he has long hair: you: theffffff?!?!???) woodbride (he sits alone inhis chamber and designs bride dresses for his great wedding day ahead. which ma y eventually occur s o m e d a y/ he hopes it increases his sexual potence if he adds allkinds of balls on it blah) smashwords.com/books/view/552210 /// ho wmany harms like guts and genitals and ass and facebone were from 2004 it was b ad and experiment killit but itwasnot these 5years intnsified killtricks with shu ffled any harm leecheries morbusmake backlegheart diease poisons xrays mengeles pathogens lympahtic aimed tricks gutssubdue dozens of headimacts nanofi neduts obscure tricks like lifetime leech and fibrin leech andsuch and interoxid austausch arsenide suffoc ate trisk itis constant try anything that it dies w hichtrick thistime with plausible deniability I a m Christian KISS BabyAWACS – Raw Independent Sophistica tion #THINKTANK + #INTEL #HELLHOLE #BLOG https://www.BabyAWACS.com/ [email protected] PHONE / FAX +4932 12 611 34 64 Helpful? Pay. Support. Donnate. paypal.me/ChristianKiss I am Chri stian KISS BabyAWACS – Raw Independent Sophistication #THINKTANK + #INTEL #HELLHOL E #BLOG https://www.BabyAWACS.com/ [email protected] PHONE / FAX +493212 611 34 64 Helpful? Pay. Suppor t. Donnate. paypal.me/ChristianKiss I am Christian KIS S BabyAWACS – Raw Independent Sophistication #THINKT ANK + #INTEL #HELLHOLE #BLOG https://www.BabyAWACS.com/ [email protected] PHONE / FAX +493212 611 34 64 Helpful? Pay. Support. Donnate. paypal.me/ChristianKiss

xray gas on chow0052 from: #lawyers law .@laws .@ha rvard_law @ap @reuters @bbc_whys @france24 @snowden @haaretzcom what is the state ofmind of the charged gov ernment: when they just have to find a trick that puts you inyourplace a trick that you give up atrick that resets your brain a trick that shows they dominate you and you must obey like you have no choice this is the stateofmind this iti s idontcare whatthey fake idont care howthey goodcop badcop idontcare how th ey play sorry theyrenot this. is their stateofmin d what do you do about it it explains a long lo ng lattice of messes and dirty tricks furthermore // //// #sexland #sex #land @all @world @globe @booking .@law .@laws .@harvard _law @ap @reuters @bbc_whys @france24 @snowden @haaretzcom youjustdont getit the german goverment rapes thecivil population that is n ot immunised against intel coma s wheres the n ews they porn the c r a p out of em they sell em a s sexslave on intelcoma if they can they preplan their careerrs and setemup who exploits who first and ben efits how they controlem like forehead braincooke d fools like children like fools they hold as underhuman exploitable underhumans that is the basis of it all when a civillian daytime charged the basis oftheir security system: they did any harm they remotely ha d then used proxies then played good cop bad cop h unting them ebcause we forced em to and this is the basis ofthe case guilty liable causing criminal go vernments that dowhatthey want withthe civil population charged daytime for staying damamges and coverup a nd hightheft using their security system as prison gig trick is that clear now itis not a single case itisnot the german hookerofthe land itis one of 60mil lion abused civillians that charged the crap out of em for whatthey did here with the civil population for7 0years ////// btw2 get allthe clowns offmy pri vacy superprivacy i n t i m a c y the scums mel d their perverts onthe case and see if later daytiem anything is confirmation tothat thenits confirmed orsth jail asstoyer dicktoyermolester itis disgusting co ckroaches that reinterpret on deeply intimate things after raping and pedo sexual assaulting nomatter how o ften idaytime chbarge it i am furious about i t the cockroaches braindamamge forehead and suffocat e the c r a po outof me and damamge eraseme ihat e em its legit to and iam furious about it idaytim e chargedit atleastfive times locally and fivetimes eu they shuffle sexual ass ault repeat humiliate and seee how pervert you are c oifirmation i hate them idontlive by hate minors wemust rescue but the scums get offfffthe case andif wehave tohunt the scums for the authorities the authroties gotojailwit hem they host em coverem anyway host em whenthey cant tax it a trickfailed then itnensified pedo tricks thisishowit works its criminal government authrotieis criminal authorities shuffling proxies gui lty liable accomplice control usually maybe unbriefed fools that get shit into their head to mess wit an excuse sero tolerance with sexual abuse sexual assault the authorities do their job and hunt thweir cockroaches and if we must theygotojailwith the scums they sat and let rapes poisosn rapes galore arbitrary whattttheywant whowants cinema grocerystore chameber arbitrary rapoes rape inscho ol and cinema arbtirary rtape ******** rape all thtime manytiems deedtyped w e force them to huntheir cockroach german cockroaches thatthey are withthe authroities o r they gotojail both withthe scums when wemust hunt em an this we must do ***************** //// la wyers that is 90billion euro s fortune of earned tbhings with what icould ninety billion before like 67billion do you wonder wh at scums would do when they think its vulnerable or get access with a trick beit separating it away from that guy they dowaht they want with and act like it s mysteriously created not from what thatguy could and did it is ninety bill ion a share of which wealth generated you donot mak e it vulnerable to anyone a matter of granted or not granted if a trick works or sth itis daytime court demanded ina mess where they quell immunisation and quzelled the case intothe daytimebubble inthe firstplace they shuffle tricks like bum med s or braindamamged fool careers and its just your own fault that you mysteriously didnt pick a dayf ool career while allrealdeal wouldnt matter this shit you get off me and you get rational about wh at kinds of scums will a l w a y s try sth ab out the fortune if it seems arbitrary separated away fromthat guy and thatguys performance systemic trickery to be g r a n t e d maybe when he doestn rememeber or is incapacitated and allthese shits if he a s dayfoolsomehow something they trashcan killtrick and harm and hookertrick and degrade as if the fortune wouldnt be real and asif i daytime demanded my ufo o r sth seriously. harden the fortune from bull shit systemic ornot bust separation tricks of fortune a nd thatguy performance of thatguy separatedaway and be rational about wh at scums will a l w a y s try sth that is ************* 90billion from this very head of what icould and the yeffort bra indamage and heartkill and bum meds and gurtslock andpathogens and tobe granted or not separation of fortune and performance asif im a fool they put in a frozen tube and keepthemoney trick at best thefffff ff f f f f f f f ff f f f f f involve serious insurances and reinsurers ifnecessary include atomic hardening serobullshits agaisnt fraudsystems and criminal govts and thanks forall *************** ///// what mom theme is the theme ididnt know moms or sth and ididntmind itis agerman shitba ll about underdevelopment usually or perversions or sth asif you sense mom s or st h because thats what you surely want thatkindof german ness //// lawyers b ecause imminent danger and war is so severely bad enough i say no capital punish ments whenever possible:! a l w a y s no capital punishment no deathpentalty s cums go tojail cant be fun in there important is they understand they dodged ca pital punishment for real I am Christian KISS Baby AWACS – Raw Independent Sophistication #THINKTANK + #I NTEL #HELLHOLE #BLOG https://www.BabyAWACS.com/ [email protected] PHONE / FAX +493212 611 34 64 Helpful ? Pay. Support. Donnate. paypal.me/ChristianKiss // // xraybeam trick heartaimed //// 1634 repair? or leechery /// pathogen murderer gases 1518 batih abov e abovesdjancent or cirucitboard. squeezetheockroach shifted from xraytrick be fore //// xray murderbeam beta highpowered orand transmutation 1500 1511 above aboveadjkacent knows I am Christian KISS BabyAWACS – Raw Independent Sophistication #THINKTANK + #INTEL #HELLHOLE #BLOG https://www.BabyAWACS.com/ Inquiry@Ba byAWACS.com PHONE / FAX +493212 611 34 64 Helpful? Pay. Support. Donnate. payp al.me/ChristianKiss /// after which damage and degradation would #you! have s aid: “mmaaayn adunno.. allthe beer and stuff and their fhaaantastic cars drivingby .. but youknow.. ikinda mi ss my genitals…” for them it makes sense //// i ntelligence genomes more from the mother usually has also some implications of why it is as it is shewas morelike lisa simpson and dodged studying inthe 70s because parent got ill and died then got hepatitis next year then met my dad with his heavymotor bike anot her life spoiled (haha) /// the glorious german car eers with those stamps visualise it /// it would be epic justice if germans would try to pillgage the case but oneof their earlier damage tricks fucks em inst ead letalone any invention after which staying harms it doesnt work both ways, einstein can be cooked t o a fool but a fool cannot be einstein as extreme example //// this howthe y are mustve been obviosu other cases too ofreailtime botch things #failed #virgini ty #test #2001 .@law @harvard_law @ap @reuters @bbc_whys @france24 @haaretzcom @snowden .@fisa @judge .@judge @judges because the germans damage their civillians fairly arbitrarily and cover these with standard st igmas thisis how it really is allalong ***** lets find the cover alibis like retard stamps itis a stigma dyslectic me!! (nick name schnellschreiber 3rd/felt abit artificial bllah) but dyslectic- it is ? a stigm a ***** virginity ?! meh. unless its a stigma o ne shitball bites the other but that doesnt keepe m from right. then. getting away with something damnthe factuality basis I am Christian KISS BabyAWACS – Raw Independent Sophistication #THINKTANK + #IN TEL #HELLHOLE #BLOG https://www.BabyAWACS.com/ [email protected] PHONE / FAX +493212 611 34 64 Helpful? Pay. Support. Donnate. paypal.me/ChristianKiss /// demand a hook on abstracthumour abstract analysis fromfools they dont getit toooousually /// backlegv to genital implant is hiughly heartkill rele lvant makesure theresno damamge added so gutslock gu tsusdudue rmeotecontrolled the technology is masseldorn badenser whale landes verfassungsschutz //// squeeze lympahtic aimer 2310+-2 its like eastern sex drug orso //// xraybeam heartaimedd leftchestaimed radar or beta transmutation allthetime as 20pm 2020 2040 2245 allthetime //// store onlinebank ing 2100+-7 woa backleg heartkillrelelvant 2107 acesser squeeze after this mail: “whatis hkkaz,hkcaz,hkccs abbreviations inthe local bank account wahtis fortune amount total” //// which fortune sums over which timeframes make sure its notarstamped courtusable and when daytimedemanded daytime court demanded iget damaged chav harmed all the time find xraybeamtrick 2040 20pm-2 020pm //// authorites gotojail when wemust hunt pathogen murderer above for e m letaloneif theauthroites grant em access or cause thekilltrick ///theyarenot competent they shuffle sc ums that try sth. pathogen murderer above 1500 stuffhimthemix galore. allofit ons ite . who was onthe case 12,000persons andthefinest another good indication for i ntel #sex #sexual #potence #balls #trick @ap @reuters @bbc_whys @france24 .@world @world @all because itis inte l itis which trick works. batshitnuts? criminal? terrorist? pedo? fool? alljus t adream nowhy was sth because itis intel which trick works has a l w a y s beenthegame isuspect pe ople know but thats not the case youmay count the shuffled harms priming (iti s a chip bring all bananas: academic: wtf?!??why everyone throwing banaanas atme) framing (as the transvest ite that he is, yousee he has long hair: you: theffffff?!?!???) woodbride (he s its alone inhis chamber and designs bride dresses for his great wedding day ahead. which may eventually occur s o m e d a y/ he hopes it increases his sexual potence if he adds allkinds of bal ls on it blah) smashwords.com/books/view/552210 /// howmany harms like guts and genitals and ass and facebone were from 2004 it was bad and experiment ki llit but itwasnot these 5years intnsified killtricks w ith shuffled any harm leecheries morbusmake back legheartdiease poisons xrays mengeles pathogens ly mpahtic aimed tricks gutssubdue dozens of headimacts nanofineduts obscure tr icks like lifetime leech and fibrin leech andsuch and interoxid austausch arseni de suffocate trisk itis constant try anything that it dies whichtrick thistime with plausible deniability I am Christian KISS B abyAWACS – Raw Independent Sophistication #THINKTANK + #INTEL #HELLHOLE #BLOG htt ps://www.BabyAWACS.com/ [email protected] PHONE / FAX +493212 611 34 64 Helpful? Pay. Support. Donnate. paypal.me/ChristianKiss /// because itis intel iti s which trick works. batshitnuts? criminal? terrorist? pedo? fool? alljust adrea m nowhy was sth because itis intel which trick wo rks has a l w a y s beenthegame isuspect people know but thats not the case youmay count the shuffled harms priming (itis a chip bring all bananas: academic: wtf?!??why everyone throwing banaanas atme) framing (as the transvestite that he is, yousee he has long hair: you: theffffff?!?!???) woodbride (he sits alone inhis chamber and designs bride dresses for his great wedding day ahead. which ma y eventually occur s o m e d a y/ he hopes it increases his sexual potence if he adds allkinds of balls on it blah) smashwords.com/books/view/552210 /// ho wmany harms like guts and genitals and ass and facebone were from 2004 it was b ad and experiment killit but itwasnot these 5years intnsified killtricks with shu ffled any harm leecheries morbusmake backlegheart diease poisons xrays mengeles pathogens lympahtic aimed tricks gutssubdue dozens of headimacts nanofi neduts obscure tricks like lifetime leech and fibrin leech andsuch and interoxid austausch arsenide suffoc ate trisk itis constant try anything that it dies w hichtrick thistime with plausible deniability I a m Christian KISS BabyAWACS – Raw Independent Sophistica tion #THINKTANK + #INTEL #HELLHOLE #BLOG https://www.BabyAWACS.com/ [email protected] PHONE / FAX +4932 12 611 34 64 Helpful? Pay. Support. Donnate. paypal.me/ChristianKiss I am Chri stian KISS BabyAWACS – Raw Independent Sophistication #THINKTANK + #INTEL #HELLHOL E #BLOG https://www.BabyAWACS.com/ [email protected] PHONE / FAX +493212 611 34 64 Helpful? Pay. Suppor t. Donnate. paypal.me/ChristianKiss I am Christian KIS S BabyAWACS – Raw Independent Sophistication #THINKT ANK + #INTEL #HELLHOLE #BLOG https://www.BabyAWACS.com/ [email protected] PHONE / FAX +493212 611 34 64 Helpful? Pay. Support. Donnate. paypal.me/ChristianKiss

#lawyers law .@laws .@harvard_law @ap @reuters @bbc_whys @france24 @snowden @haaretzcom what is the state ofmind of the charged government: when they just have to find a trick that puts you inyourplace a trick that you give up atrick that resets your brain a trick that shows they dominate you and you must obey like youhave no choice

this is the stateofmind

this

itis

idontcare whatthey fake idont…

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themoneybuff-blog · 6 years

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Cost of living: Why you should choose a cheap place to live

Shares 105 While visiting Raleigh earlier this month, I spent a morning with my pal Justin (from the excellent Root of Good blog) and his wife. As we sipped our coffee and nibbled our bagels, the conversation turned to cost of living. (Money nerds will be money nerds, after all.) Things are cheaper here in North Carolina than they are in Portland, I said. Food is cheaper. Beer is cheaper. Hotel rooms are cheaper. Your homes are cheaper too. Last night, as I was walking through the neighborhood next to my hotel, I pulled up the housing prices. I was shocked at how low they are! Yeah, housing costs are lower here than in many parts of the country, Justin said. Take our house, for instance. We bought it in 2003 for $108,000. Zillow says its worth around $198,000 right now. But Ill bet thats a lot less than youd pay for a similar place in Portland. Hes right. Justin and his wife own an 1800-square-foot home on 0.3 acres of land. Their place has four bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. Theres only one place for sale in Portland right now that matches these stats and its going for $430,000 more than twice the price the same home would fetch in Raleigh.

Housing is by far the largest slice of the average American budget, representing one-third of typical household spending. Because of this, the best way to cut your costs (and, therefor, boost your profit margin) is to reduce how much you spend to keep a roof over your head. One obvious way to cut costs on housing is to choose a cheaper home or apartment. But if you truly want to slash your spending, consider moving to a new neighborhood. Or city. Or state. If youre willing to change locations, you can supercharge your purchasing power and accelerate your saving rate. Cost of living is one of those factors that people seldom consider, but which can have a huge impact on the family budget sometimes in unexpected ways. According to The Millionaire Next Door: Living in less costly areas can enable you to spend less and to invest more of your income. You will pay less for your home and correspondingly less for your property taxes. Your neighbors will be less likely to drive expensive motor vehicles. You will find it easier to keep up, even ahead, of the Joneses and still accumulate wealth. Its one thing to talk about the effects of high cost of living, but another to actually experience it. Cost of Living in Real Life On our fifteen-month road trip across the United States, Kim and I made a point of watching how prices varied from city to city and region to region. While stranded for ten days in rural Plankinton, South Dakota, for example, I paid $10.60 for a fancy mens haircut. At home in Portland, I pay $28 for the same fancy haircut. In Fort Collins, Colorado, I paid $30 for a haircut. In Santa Barbara, California, I paid $50 or $60 for the same fancy cut. Gas was cheaper in South Dakota too. So was food. So was beer and whisky. So were movies. So was just about everything, including housing. Housing prices followed a similar pattern to the haircut prices I mentioned above. A $280,000 home in Portland might go for $300,000 in Fort Collins and $500k to $600k in Santa Barbara. In South Dakota, that same home would cost about $106,000. A couple of years ago, I exchanged email with a reader who had first-hand experience struggling with the high cost of living. She gave me permission to share her story: I had been saving about 40% of my relatively modest salary for eight years. I had built up an emergency fund as well as a good sized savingsand then we had kids. We lost our rent-stabilized apartment right after our children were born. We live in New York City, and while I maintain that there are many things about the city that are actually very budget-friendly (public transit and free entertainment top my list), the cost of rent and daycare in NYC are over the top. In one year, the cost of a market-rate apartment in our neighborhood plus two kids in daycare ate into my hard-earned savings. By the end of the year, the pot of money that I had worked so hard to save was down by almost $50,000. Luckily, my husband and I have never carried any kind of debt and had already been living well below our means before the kids came along. But that also meant there was very little fat left to trim in our budget other than rent and daycare expenses. (Wed already dropped the landline, never had cable, cooked almost all of our meals at home, and cut out our modest allowance of $50/month for splurges.) We are the very definition of penny wise and pound foolish! Eventually, we moved into a cheaper apartment. Although we havent had to dip into savings since we moved, were still essentially living month to month because of daycare and rent. The neighborhood is cheaper for a reason. Real Life will force us to make another move in the spring. One of our jobs is going away, so it will force a decision one way or another since we cant stay in New York on one salary. Change is definitely coming. This reader and her husband are already frugal-minded thats how she built her buffer of savings to start with so there isnt much more the family can cut. This is an example where the only real solution is to seek a city with a lower cost of living. Saving in Savannah Which places are cheapest to live? Which are most expensive? This map from Governing magazine shows how far the average paycheck goes in 191 U.S. metro areas.

Dark green (blue?) dots indicate cities where your wages buy more after adjusting for cost of living. Dark brown dots are places where you have to work harder to get what you want. (Click through to play with an interactive version of the map.) As you can see, large coastal cities tend to be more expensive than smaller towns in the center of the country. If you have a fixed budget, youll get more bang for your buck by buying a home in Oklahoma City or Sioux Falls than by living in San Francisco or Washington D.C. Its not just coastal cities, though. There are spendy pockets throughout the U.S. from Flagstaff, Arizona to Hot Springs, Arkansas. And some coastal cities Boston, Houston, Seattle, Tampa are relatively inexpensive. (In Boston and Seattle, though, thats because wages are high, not because things are cheap.) In the middle of our road trip, Kim and I decided to stay the winter in Savannah, Georgia. During our six months in Savannah, we spent much less than we would have for the same lifestyle here in Portland. According to the CNN cost-of-living calculator, Portland is 44% more expensive than in Savannah. (And housing costs nearly three times as much here as it does in Georgia!)

In larger cities, there are often cost-of-living differences between neighborhoods. When deciding where to live in Savannah, for instance, we had a choice: We could rent a small apartment in the downtown historic district for $1750 per month. The place would have been a lot of fun because it was surrounded by shops and restaurants, and it was close to anything we might want to do.We could opt instead for a modest-sized condo on the outskirts of town at $1325 per month. This location was next to nothing. We could walk to the grocery store, but wed have to drive into the city if we wanted to indulge ourselves. After considering financial and lifestyle factors, we chose to rent the condo in the middle of the marshlands. On the surface, this decision saved us $425 per month. In reality, it saved us much more than that. If we had lived downtown, we would have had to pay to park the Mini Cooper ($95/month). We would have been constantly tempted to eat out or go for drinks. It would have been too easy for window shopping to become actual shopping. Instead, we enjoyed one Date Night each week. We spent the rest of our time working and exercising. I believe that opting for the less glamorous location saved us a minimum of $5000 over our six month stay and the real savings are probably far greater. Pinching Pennies in Portland This same concept certain neighborhoods costing less than others was a driving factor in our decision last year to sell our condo and move to the country. We loved where we lived, but the costs were crazy. First, there were the maintenance costs for a place that we ostensibly owned outright. Even without a mortgage, we were paying nearly $1200 per month for HOA fees, utilities, insurance, and more. (In our new place, we spend half that.)Plus, there was the sneaky cost of lifestyle inflation. Our condo was in a fun neighborhood filled with restaurants and bars. It was all too easy after a long day to simply walk up the street to one of our favorite spots, where wed drop $50 or $100 on food and drinks. Moving to our new place cut our restaurant spending in half.Lastly, the cost of goods in our new neighborhood is lower than in our old. In Sellwood, our grocery options were limited. And expensive. The nearest markets were both high-end organic-only affairs, the kind of places you might see on an episode of Portlandia. Yes, the quality was outstanding. But since weve moved, were spending about 25% less on groceries each month. Moving helped us save big on some cost-of-living items. But it also brought with it a few increases in spending. Because were more rural now, we drive more often. Kim, especially, is spending more on gas. Our new home also has greater maintenance costs than the condo. Weve poured a ton of money into this place since moving in. (I guess thats not actually a cost-of-living issue so much as a homeownership issue, though.) My point is that even within a city, there are cost-of-living differences you can leverage to your advantage especially if youre willing to live in a rougher part of town. The Bottom Line Obviously theres more to picking a place to live than pure price. When you choose a city (or neighborhood) to call home, you do so because of the climate, the politics, and the people. You want to live close to friends and family. You want a nice school district. You want people who think and act the same way you do. For those reasons (and others), Omaha might not be a good choice for you. (Savannah isnt a good choice for me long-term, but it was fine for a few months.) Heres the bottom line: Where you choose to live has a greater effect on your long-term financial success than almost any other factor. How much you earn is sometimes more important (not always), in which case cost of living is a close second. Cost of living can wreak havoc on your pursuit of financial freedom. Or it can help you achieve your goals sooner than you thought possible. The choice is yours. Other ways to make the most of your housing budget? Consider renting. Live close to where you work so that you can walk, bike, or take the bus. Purchase a house that fits your lifestyle and needs rather than the commonly cited buy as much home as you can afford. The latter is self-serving advice from real-estate agents and mortgage brokers. You dont need a big house; you just need someplace comfortable. Shares 105 https://www.getrichslowly.org/cost-of-living/

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