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kurts-still-here · 3 years

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Untitled Kurtbastian Fic Glee TOT Challenge FanFiction

It’s Just A Fork Glee TOT Challenge FanFiction

@celery-elliry @useless-fanfictions @gleethisorthatchallenge

Hi everyone, this is my sixth and finial fic for the Glee TOT Challenge and the prompt I choose was Shower Sex because I’m bad at smut and this seemed like the easier option lol. Hope everyone enjoys and tells me what they thought of it etheir on here, A03 OR FanFiction.Net. Happy reading 🤗🤗😁😁

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Kurt slowly opened his eyes before sitting up in his bed. He looked over to his side to see Sebastian, sprawled messily on his side with his arm now taking up space on Kurt's side. He playfully rolled his eyes at the sight and shook his head before bending over and pressing a soft kiss to his forehead. He got a grunted response from his husband before he stood up and made his way to the bathroom.

He had a lot to do that day. At 7 he had a meeting with his team of designers to go over the pieces they needed for the benefit he was planning and that was planned to take 5 hours, then at 1 he had another meeting with the group of people that were sponsoring his benefit and that was planned to take 2 hours, then at 5 he had a meeting with the construction company to go over the design for the new space in his office and that was planned to take 1 hour and finally at 8 he had a meeting with the interns to go over his inventory stock so they could order new supplies and who knew how long that was going to take.

Working from home was hard but it had its perks. Like the fact that he got to spend the whole day with his husband while they worked side by side, The only downside was that Sebastian never wanted to work. He was like a little kid that would refuse to go to school. Did he eventually go through the plies of contracts he had on his desk? Yes. Did he eventually get up so he could go to that meeting with his client? Yes. But did he go down without a fight? No.

But nevertheless, when there was work to be done, Kurt got it done. He loved being a designer and he loved being his own boss. He usually got to pick his hours and it was something he loved doing and was good at. People loved his designs. He had designed hundreds of pieces for all kinds of celebrities. Designs for Broadway productions, benefits, red carpets, you name it and he’ll have done it. Kurt Hummel Smythe was becoming a household name.

He was also proud of Sebastian, who was on his way to becoming the best lawyer in all of New York. His team had a winning streak of cases won and he had lines of clients waiting for him to take their case. They made a great team together and were hard workers. Some of them got lazy though.

Kurt got ready, taking a shower, getting dressed, brushing his teeth, fixing his hair, doing his skincare routine and then taking a final look at himself before being satisfied. After he was ready he went back into his bedroom to find that Sebastian was still asleep and was now taking up both sides of the bed.

“Sebastian,” Kurt said, going over to him and gently shaking him. “Get up,”

“What?” Sebastian mumbled, lifting his head up slightly just to flop it back down on his pillow.

“I said get up,” Kurt repeated. “It’s 6:30, don’t you have a meeting?”

“No,” Sebastian said, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. “Client cancelled. Family emergency or something like that. It got rescheduled to next week,”

“Lucky you,” Kurt said. “Well still, you can’t lay around in bed all day,”

“Yeah I can. I don’t have any other work to do today and I’m tired. You could use a break too,”

“Not with everything I have to do today,” Kurt laughed.

“Just cancel it babe. Come on, wouldn’t it be nice just to have a day to ourselves? I feel like I never see you anymore,”

“How needy are you? We’re literally stuck together in the same house,”

“Yeah but we’re always working. I want to have fun. Come back to bed with me. Please?” Sebastian asked, pulling Kurt back into the bed and wrapping his arms around him so he couldn’t get back up.

“Seb,” Kurt said, laughing when he started kissing his neck. “Stop it, I don’t have time for this,”

“But I love you,” Sebastian pouted.

“And I love you too but I have stuff to do,” Kurt said, finally wiggling free from his grasp and straightening himself out,”

“Fine then,” Sebastian huffed, crossing his arms in front of him. “Go on then, since you’re obviously too busy for me, go do whatever it is you have to do,”

“You’re funny,” Kurt told him. “Come on, don’t be mad. You look like a child and frowning causes wrinkles,”

“I’m not funny, I’m serious,” He whined.

“Whatever, just try and take a bath at least,”

“Fine,”

“I love you,”

“Do you though? It’s obvious that you don’t have enough time for me,”

“You see, I know that you’re joking and that you aren’t actually telling me to take the day off when I have several meetings to go to today, right?”

“Wrong, that’s exactly what I’m telling you to do,”

“Well it’s not happening”

“Well then I don’t care,” Sebastian said before laying back down and pulling the blankets over his head.

Kurt just shook his head once again before leaving the room to go to his office and get ready for his meeting. He knew that Sebastian would eventually get over it, he always did, but Kurt just found it funny that he was acting so immature. But he couldn’t take the day off, no matter how much he wanted to, with all the stuff he had planned. Sebastian would just have to come to understand that.

After he was done with all the work he had had that day, Kurt was exhausted. All he wanted to do was take a shower and go to bed… but there was still one thing that he had to do. When he walked into the living room there was Sebastian sitting on the couch, watching TV and ignoring him when he sat down on the couch beside him.

“Seb?” Kurt asked him, getting his attention.

“Finally remembered me, have you?” Sebastian asked in return, raising his eyebrows at him.

“I never forgot about you honey,”

“Yeah well, you were obviously too busy for me earlier and you left me the whole day without you, I was bored out of my mind. I’ll never forgive you,”

“Is that so?”

“Yes,”

“Well then,” Kurt sighed dramatically. “I guess I’ll just have to take a shower all by my lonesome,”

“What?” Sebastian asked, perking up.

“Oh yeah well I was thinking that we could have some fun together while I get ready for bed,” Kurt thought out loud. “But I guess since you’re so mad at me…”

“What, no I’m not mad,” Sebastian corrected him. “I’m not mad at all,”

“Well come on,” Kurt said, taking Sebastian’s hand and standing up. “Let’s have some fun,”

#kurtbastian #kurtbastian fanfiction #gleetotchallenge2021

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canaryatlaw · 7 years

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So today was pretty good! It seems as long as I can succeed in dragging my ass out of bed I'll actually feel good and have a positive day, as opposed to staying in bed all day and then ultimately feeling like crap. Who knew? Meh, probably most people. But today was good. I woke up to my alarm at 7 and debated for approximately 1 minute staying in bed with the excuse that I was still sick and it was very tempting, but I pushed through because NO I had to go to work, and so I did. I just don't want to get a reputation for being unreliable when I work so hard to get a reputation as being a hard worker. So to work I went. I had a few new assignments on my desk, including setting up a phone interview with a kid who's in a juvenile correctional facility somewhere downstate, so I called them and then was told I had to fax over an interview request with what time I wanted and what number to call. Okay, so I informed the attorney who gave me the assignment this, and she said to go ahead and type up an interview request and fax it over, and I was just like, so, I don't know how to work a fax machine....😂😂 it's not like I've never been in a situation before that required me to fax something, but I've never been in one that actually gave me access to a fax machine- because you can fax things over the Internet and I've always done that, lol. So the lawyer laughed and said I could ask the paralegal and he would show me. Okay, so I type it up all fancy and ask the paralegal, who takes me to the dinosaur of a fax machine they have and shows me how to work it, and I have to admit I was kind of fascinated by it. Like, you call a number basically and it transmits a paper message? That's kind of nuts, lol. So it took us 3 tries I think, but we got it to go through, so I was pleased with that. Then I left a message for a worker to call me back on another form I had to fill out. These events may be somewhat out of sequence, but sometime around then my supervisor asked if I wanted to go down for a benchmark hearing with her, which is basically just the client, who's over 18, sitting down with a judge and trying to basically get everything in place for them before they age out of the system at 21. It was pretty interesting, kid seems to be doing pretty well for himself, the judge seemed to think so. My supervisor was just like "yeah the only issue is he just smoked a ton of weed" but of course didn't say that to the judge haha but at that point I kind of laughed and was like, who doesn't at this point?? Lol. She had anther one a bit later so I went back to my office in the mean time. Then, for the first time since getting this office, my phone rings, and I go aha! My phone must be working right! So I answer it and no, it's the lady that's in charge of phones and voicemails and originally told me that the number listed on my phone might be the wrong number. So I go to her office and she hands me my voicemail info, including my extension, which is very clearly NOT the number written on the damn phone- the number that I had been giving out on every message I left people to call me back at and in the damn fax for them to call for the interview. Face palm. How the fuck was I supposed to know?? So I go inform the lawyers of this, and they thought it was hilarious haha and they figured they must've just taken the phone from another office and stuck it in there with the wrong extension. So this meant I had to type up another letter to send to juvie saying actually don't call that number call this number, then attempted to fax it over myself and I was successful in doing so, so I felt proud of myself for learning a new skill, lol. Around then I went down with my supervisor for the second benchmark, which we weren't terribly confident was actually going to happen. It was for the girl in the TLP placement we visited last week who had just gotten a new worker who started on Monday, and I called and left a message for about taking her to court on Wednesday, and she had several other ways to know she had to take her, but nope, didn't show. So we go down and talk to the court coordinator, apparently the worker that just quit had the benchmark the hour before who also didn't show so they kind of figured this would happen, but my attorney called and confirmed she was in her placement, and was told they "thought it got moved to another day." So she wasn't terribly satisfied with that answer and filed a motion to compel, which is basically just a way of being like "you're not doing your job so here's a court order ordering you to do your job or be held in contempt" so we got another date and hopefully this time they'll bring her. Went back upstairs, and I took a lunch break around then, then after lunch called back the other person I left a message for and they picked up this time and were like "oh I'm so sorry I didn't get to call you back yet" and I was like "oh no that's okay I'm just calling because I left you the wrong number to call back" 😂😂 so at least it was comical. I knew during the afternoon the office had an ICWA training all the attys had to go to (legal vocabulary review: if you were around for last year you may remember ICWA- the Indian child welfare act- being the subject of my second semester legal writing trial brief, so I actually know quite a bit about the subject. And yes, Indian is the legal term used.) but I didn't have to go since I'm not an atty of course, and apparently it was about a bunch of new rules for it and it didn't sound particularly interesting, so while everyone was at that (everyone except for our courtroom, but more on that later) I finished up the TPR prep I've been working on for the last few weeks, and ended up making everything in chronological order so there was a nice neat timeline even though the documents definitely weren't in chronological order at all, but it's just so much nicer than that, and I try to be impressive. But yeah, then suddenly I was out of work, and there wasn't a damn attorney in the entire office to go to for work. Lol, whoops. I had read fic through lunch so I went to play candy crush for a while just for a bit of a brain relaxer, and at some point spoke with the paralegal about possibly waiting with a kid who was supposed to come to our office while he was in a phone staffing, but the kid never showed- this is the case from Monday and the reason the lawyer across from me was down in court instead of in the training. So, quick refresher, kid got placed with mom on an emergency basis after originally being removed (but not made a ward of the court and actually taken into care) because she could never get him to school on time. Well, guess where else she can't get him on time???? COURT. They didn't end up showing, at all, lol, and everyone else did- dad, grandma, who was now taking out her anger on dad's attorney and apparently they had to call in an extra sheriff to make sure nothing went awry in their little conference room 😂😂😂 bitches be crazy man. And I'm just like, has mom even got the kid to school on time in the last two days? And the lawyers like nah probably not. Like damn lady, I don't understand what's going on here lol. So kid is still placed with mom and they vacated the order without prejudice, waiting to have a full hearing on it on another day when mom can actually be there. It's just an interesting legal conundrum because at trial the judge specifically listed the failure to get the kids to school on time as the neglect factors, but now we're consenting to place the kid back with mom while the problem hasn't been rectified- because it's probably in the best interest of the child, rather than pulling him into foster care. It sounds like a hypothetical one of my profs would come up with, and I'm not sure if there's a right answer really, but that's what it was for today anyway. My supervisor returned to the office and gave me some work for tomorrow because she's gonna be out on visits for a while. Headed out right at 5, and actually got to talk to one of the new law clerks. They all started Monday, there's like 6 of them haha but I didn't have to go through orientation or anything obviously so I don't know any of them yet. Got on the bus and made it home by 6:30, made oatmeal for dinner and tried to make hard boiled eggs in my rapid egg cooker but the little pin you're supposed to use to poke a whole in the egg actually cracked the entire egg open on me, then in the process the other one fell on the floor and cracked open, and I only had one egg left in the fridge, so I just kind of abandoned that idea and got ready to watch the Arrow finale. I didn't really have too many expectations going in being that I don't feel terribly invested in this season at all, or most of the characters at this point, but Nyssa was gonna be in the episode and so was black siren so that was enough to peak my interest. I was back on the showgo app and live tweeting from there because Katrina Law was watching with us on there, and she replied to several of my posts which was amusing. The episode itself was pretty good I guess, good fight scenes and god I hope Malcolm is really dead because I'm so fucking read for that SOB to die already. The Nyssa vs. Talia showdown was way too short IMO, but of course there was no doubt that Nyssa was gonna come out on top, though I wasn't sure if she was actually going to kill her sister, but apparently she was going there (I'm also amused at how the neck twist has become the easy kill on this show in just about all situations). I didn't doubt Slade's allegiance to Oliver for a second, I knew he was going along with him and they had a plan. I'm sad we didn't get to see more of black siren, though her small showdown with "Dinah" was cool to see at least. I mean, I was generally rooting for team arrow, but in that specific fight between the two of them, I was definitely rooting for black siren. It's always been very obvious to me that one way or another Chase wasn't coming out of this alive, I mean the guy is clearly suicidal AF and really just wanted Oliver to kill him. I have to say, plugging the entire damn island with C-4 set to go off when he died was a pretty brilliant plan though. It wasn't really feeling all the dramatic moments of Oliver's selective moral superiority and being like "no I'm different now" because I refuse to kill this one person when you've killed how many people this season Oliver??? Pffffft. I knew he was gonna have to get create if he actually wanted Chase to tell him where William was, because clearly fighting him wasn't working, so I was glad when he finally showed up. I wasn't terribly concerned about that little move he had where it was gonna be "William or everyone else" because I was like meh Oliver is obviously gonna get out of it and he did, then there's just poor fucking William and he's probably so damn confused like what the hell is going on the green arrow is my dad and what??????? Lol, poor kid. But then of course Chase goes and shoots himself, because like I said he was one suicidal SOB, and it ends with Lian-Yu blowing up (which to that particular action I was like, about time man) but like, that's not even a good cliffhanger because we know they're not gonna kill off their entire damn cast????? Like obviously they're going to have a way to survive it, so I'm not concerned about that like, at all. I wasn't feeling the Oliver/Moira call all that much, like I was feeling it for Moira because I can imagine what she was feeling but for Oliver I was like, dude, you really could've done this at any point in the past 3 seasons and you didn't, so I don't have much sympathy for you. But yeah, then it was over and it's only 8 pm, lol, so I hop over to Hulu to watch the new episode of The Handmaid's Tale, which I actually liked a lot, mostly because it was focused pretty much entirely on Luke and I found that a lot more compelling really, so I'm very interested to see what the resistance is doing and how that's gonna effect the story. Then I finished the last episode of season 3 of Kimmy Schmidt, which was pretty good. Her arc kind of felt like a repeat of the first two seasons except this time it was college, but it was still mostly enjoyable. I feel like Titus only ever gets half an arc, like I always feel like he ends up unfinished. So when I finished that I was trying to figure out what to watch, and I decided to go for the new show that just popped up on Netflix and caught my eye called The Keepers, which is a true crime documentary series about the murder of a nun, and the tag line said something about it happening after she confronted a priest about a sex abuse scandal, so that peaked my interest. So I watched the first episode, and I was probably distracted but I wasn't really that into it, but I get that the first episode necessarily has to be mostly exposition to set up the rest of the season, so they mostly just had to get the facts out. So I'll keep watching for now at least. And yeah, that was pretty much my day. Not bad, I'd say. Hopefully tomorrow will be the same. The calendar is ordering lunch for everybody because it's one of the attorney's birthday, so that should be fun. And I have PT at night but it's not till 7, which means I don't have to take an expensive and rushed uber ride home to make it, so that makes me feel better. Okay, enough blabbing, it's already late and I should get to bed now. Goodnight my lovelies. Happy being 3/5ths through with the week.

#daily journal #May 2017 #I feel like this month has lasted forever

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junker-town · 6 years

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NFL Panic Index 2017, Week 16: Patriots’ road to the Super Bowl just got easier

Here’s what you should be freaking out about this week.

Eli Rogers thinks the Steelers will handle the Patriots should the teams meet again in the postseason. Recent history doesn’t bear that theory out.

It’s been nearly 20 years since Pittsburgh was able to beat New England in the playoffs. Tom Brady is 3-0 against the Steelers in the second season, and now he’s got the inside track to ensure Rogers and his cohort have to travel to a raucous Gillette Stadium for a potential showdown in the AFC Championship Game. Home wins over the Bills and Jets will ensure the path to the conference title cuts through Massachusetts.

That’s what happened last winter, and it ended in a 36-17 victory for the home team, the final step on a journey to the greatest comeback in NFL history two weeks later. It’s a familiar feeling for Pittsburgh and its fans — since that January 1998 playoff win, the Steelers are just 3-11 against Bob Kraft’s franchise.

There are still a couple of downsides for the Patriots. New England is actually better on the road (7-1, with wins over the Saints and Steelers) than it is at home (4-2). Sunday’s win also gave Brady the inside track in the league’s MVP race, which is a blessing AND a curse; no NFL MVP has won the Super Bowl in the same year since Kurt Warner did it in 1999.

Panic index: Everyone outside of New England is getting sick of the Patriots — especially the players who have to deal with them in January. Sunday’s loss just added more momentum behind the Pats’ quest to repeat as champions.

What if Antonio Brown doesn’t come back for the playoffs?

Antonio Brown was solidifying his case for the MVP award when he went down two minutes into the second quarter of the Steelers’ Sunday loss to the Patriots. Not coincidentally, Ben Roethlisberger got sacked on the next play, at the Patriots’ 25-yard line, and a promising touchdown drive ended with a field goal instead.

That wasn’t the only drive where the Steelers missed their MVP.

A fun what-if game: The game-ending INT #Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger threw intended for Eli Rogers would have been for Antonio Brown had he been healthy. That was AB's route.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 18, 2017

It’s hard not to think that might have been a touchdown instead of game-sealing interception, even with the confusion between the QB and the sideline over whether or not spike it.

The Steelers have plenty of talent on offense, but there’s no one-to-one replacement for what Brown brings to the field. Now, he’s got a partially torn calf muscle, and probably won’t play for the last two regular season games, which fortunately for the Steelers are against the Texans and Browns.

Panic index: Brown is supposedly going to be back for the playoffs, which is good news for the Steelers. If that assessment turns out to be wrong, well, it’s not going to be a very fun January in Pittsburgh.

The Chargers are back to their old BS again

We wanted to believe in you, Chargers. You were healthy. You had won four in a row. You hadn’t missed a potential game-winning kick in a couple months. It looked like maybe, just maybe, you could steal the AFC West right out from under the Chiefs. Instead, in your biggest game of the season and perhaps the one that determines if you’ll be playing in January, you fell on your faces.

On Saturday night, the Chargers lost, 30-13, to the Chiefs — their eighth straight loss to Kansas City. LA looked more like the team that began the season 0-4 alongside the Browns and Giants than the one from just a week before: a team that had its shit together and was one of the hottest in the entire NFL.

Philip Rivers, who had us starting an MVP campaign, threw three picks. Top receiver Keenan Allen, who has yet to play a full 16-game season, was carted off with a back injury. Tight end Hunter Henry, who has become Rivers’ favorite big-bodied target, lacerated his kidney. Running back Austin Ekeler, who has emerged as a fun-to-watch rookie, fumbled and broke his hand on the same play. Kicker Travis Coons, who had yet to miss an extra point attempt .... well, you can guess it, he missed a PAT.

And just like that, Coons was out of a job:

The Los Angeles Chargers just released my client Travis Coons who was 7 of 8 on field goals (88%), and 5 of 6 on extra points. Talk about a short leash...

— Brett Tessler (@TesslerSports) December 18, 2017

Now the Chargers are on their fourth kicker of the year, Nick Rose — someone they’re hoping will stick around for the long term.

Still, blowing opportunities, injuries piling up, changing kickers ... we thought the Chargers had grown up, but they just seem to have reverted back to their old screwup selves.

Panic index: The Chargers aren’t out of it, but they need a lot of help to make the playoffs. More than anything, we’re just disappointed in them.

Is Bortles the Jags’ QB of the future again?

Don’t look now, but Blake Bortles is having a very good run as the Jaguars starting quarterback. In some respects, he’s been the best QB in the NFL over the last month.

Blake Bortles This Month NFL Rank W-L 3-0 T-1st Yds per att 9.9 1st TD-Int 7-0 1st Total QBR 85 1st

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 18, 2017

Last Sunday’s win over the Cardinals clinched a playoff berth for the Jags, their first in a decade. That, combined with Bortles’ play down the stretch, is setting up a familiar scenario, something that could change Jacksonville’s offseason plans for the quarterback position.

January 2013. That’s when the Joe Flacco #elite narrative caught fire, right after the Ravens won the Super Bowl thanks in large part to Flacco’s incredible four-game run through the playoffs. He threw for 1,140 yards, 11 touchdowns, no interceptions and a 117.2 QB rating.

Despite that, his career had been pretty mediocre until then. And it was after that, too. Except he had a fat new contract, a six-year, $120 million drag on the Ravens salary cap.

Bortles is Flacco-ing. True, he’ll have to do this in playoffs, when it really counts toward #eliteness, but if he does that, could it mean more Bortles in Jacksonville beyond 2018?

Panic index: He’s got one more year on his contract, the fifth-year option the team picked up, worth $19 million fully guaranteed. Technically, the Jags wouldn’t have to make a decision until after next season at the latest. Is the team willing to bet a gazillion dollars that Bortles’ problems really are fixed?

What if the Bengals end up with Hue Jackson as their head coach?

It doesn’t matter how much Marvin Lewis tries to walk back the rumors about his time in Cincinnati coming to an end. We all know it’s coming. And that means that the Bengals are in the market for a new head coach. Could they bring back a familiar face to replace Lewis?

Hue Jackson was with the Bengals from 2012 through 2015 as an assistant and special teams coach, the running backs coach, and finally their offensive coordinator. He was hired away by the Browns to take over their mess of a team. It hasn’t gotten any less messy since Jackson arrived in Cleveland.

Owner Jimmy Haslam says the Browns will stick with Jackson. But we all know that may not be the case. So what if the Browns decide to trade Jackson to the Bengals?

The Bengals were last competitive in 2015 — when Jackson was there. They went to the postseason during every year that Jackson was on staff. But that was obviously not in a head coaching role. Jackson’s record as a head coach is 9-37.

Panic index: It’s up in the air whether Jackson will be back in Cleveland for another season. Marvin Lewis is almost certainly out the door. But these two Ohio teams couldn’t even pull together a trade for AJ McCarron before the deadline when the details were already worked out. It’s probably not going to happen.

Titans’ last-second loss could cost them their shot at the playoffs

The Titans lost on a game-winning field goal against the 49ers on Sunday, putting them at 8-6 on the season and two games behind the Jaguars in the AFC South.

They’re starting to flirt with failure again. After Marcus Mariota was lost for the season near the end of last year, the Titans barely missed the playoffs. They came into this season with higher expectations, and haven’t quite met them, fluctuating week in and week out.

Things aren’t going well for them offensively, either. They’ve put up a combined 30 points the past two weeks against the Cardinals and 49ers — teams that aren’t exactly defensive juggernauts.

Rishard Matthews was asked if he felt they were too predictable. He said, “Yeah, I believe so.”

Currently, they still hold the No. 5 and first Wild Card spot in the AFC, with the Bills and Ravens right behind them also at 8-6. They hold a tiebreaker over those teams based on best win percentage in conference games, but with two more weeks of football, all of that can change.

Panic index: The Titans have games against the Rams and Jaguars to finish the season. Unless they play their best football of the year, things could be looking bad for them.

The Bucs’ kicker curse is back

Former second-round pick Roberto Aguayo landed on Carolina’s practice squad and had a chance at a fresh start with the Panthers. But the Panthers cut him last week. And suddenly the Buccaneers’ kicker curse seems to be back in full effect.

Tampa Bay had a shot to play spoiler against the Falcons on Monday night. It all came down to a field goal with six seconds on the clock to tie things up 24-24 and send the game to overtime.

But this one was doomed from the start. You can tell simply because this official randomly falls down on the line of scrimmage. It’s got to be the kicker curse.

Patrick Murray’s attempt went wide right. The Falcons won and headed back to Atlanta with postseason hopes intact.

Panic index: Don’t be silly. Curses aren’t real — unless you’re a Browns fan.

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liziworldthing-blog · 7 years

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1/6/17

I arrived at Baiyun airport about 2am on Friday morning, it took me over 24 hours to get here due to me wanting cheap ticket and also flight getting cancelled due to lots of smog in Beijing. I also had to pick up my luggages from Beijing and re-check in. It was really difficult to get from Terminal to Terminal to catch my rescheduled flight with two luggages. A mid-age man took my luggage and started walking me to my terminal. I was touched and thought he worked at the airport. However, after I reached my terminal, he asked for 20 dollars, stupid me was taken by surprise and asked “dollars or RMB?”, I was soooo tired. Later I realized, no matter what his answer was, it should have been RMB. I would never forget this encounter because I realize even if I am not at my 100%, I need to remain alert and clear-headed to do well in China. Ms Lin who I know from childhood picked me up from the airport with her husband and my dad and drove home.

The next morning, me and dad came to a dimsum place across the street to make sure I turn in my sexual harassment certificate for work (it’s very noisy although free wifi), I also contacted Martina to schedule for weekly check-in. Hopefully it all turns out ok and I don’t have to explain that I am in China. Later, we went to get a sim card for me, in China, you need a resident card/or passport to open one. $50 for 2G which is not bad, there’s also what is called an “idle hour” where some company offer extra data for hours used after 11pm. Researching for the best deal is prominent in china, we spent over an hour trying to find the best deal between mobile shops that are only a block away from each other. Attitudes of the servers are really bad and they would not disclose all the information, so it is up to someone to be inquisitive. Later, I was walking and twisted my ankle and didn’t think much about it and went to curl my hair at a local salon (from referral of the glasses place). They spent 3 hours on my hair and I intent to return to dye my hair the next day.

Dad and I scheduled to have dinner with mom’s best friend and her family at a fancy Chinese place. Very good food and super clean. They shared their trip in U.S with me very excitedly, and then we got on the topic of “what can Chinese residents invest in?”. According to her, policy can change within a day so it’s important to be extremely flexible. Stock market in china is shit and real estate policy changing all the time is making it a very volatile market. There were policies in which control people from buying too much, for example, if your first house is not paid off, you need to put 70% as down payment for your second house. Later, the real estate sank so the government revised it to 30%. These policies are all implemented within couple years. Also retirement age has suddenly extended from age 55 to 65 with no incremental steps (this is how we lead to investment). Later, they saw that I was crippled and went to the hospital with me. It’s a specialty hospital for bones, anything after closing time is considered Emergency. I pretended to be their daughter and used their healthcare. Employer healthcare works as a % of salary, so the daughter has about $300 every month to be reimbursed towards healthcare. Scan was about a couple hundred and exam was about $70. It’s open work space for the doctors, then they exam and write notes. However, everyone can access them, so sometimes people cut in line or put their medical papers on their desk so they would see them first. They sent me to get an X-ray, radiologist was rude and asked me to “put whatever hurts onto the table”. Devices were outdated and dirty. Afterwards, the doctor looks at the scan and prescribe. Sometimes, you can request them to prescribe you certain medicine. Interesting Chinese healthcare system experience.

1/9

I am on my way to Shanghai by taking the GaoTie (the fast train). Was told by He MingChong’s dad that he will be going to YiWu, which is a wholesaler paradise. However, he’s driving there which takes two days. He suggested that I take the train and spend time with Mabel in Shanghai and then meet up with him on the way back. Train takes only 8 hours.

Want to log some thoughts about yesterday’s meeting with Vidas CEO, he was explaining the idea he has for America. In china, most cabinet/kitchen models are showroom only with no storage in the back. In America, it’s the opposite. It’s like a cabinet supermarket. People go in to literally touch and feel the cabinets and then buy them to go. He explains that it Is backwards and can cause strains to cashflow due to storage fees and cabinets that aren’t sold for a long time. However, he cannot enter the SF market abruptly and ignoring the way of doing things right now. In America, most Chinese Americans rely on their ShiFu (the ones doing the manual work for the furnishing) and pick their furniture piece by piece – so he is looking for partners. His goal is to work with design consulting companies and have them work with Vidas designers. He wants to provide team services to high end customers who wants to customize their kitchen. I didn’t learn much about business, but I did learn some customs of talking business in China. You take them out for food, order expensive dishes, and then take them to your territory, and you “drink tea”. Drink tea is so prominent, even when I am at someone’s house, we are constantly being poured tea. Vidas CEO was very soft spoken and attentive, which is good to know that you don’t need to be aggressive to do business in China. However, when I asked about how he started, he was very hesitant. And just repeated the mission of Vidas. I guess giving very little information to others is a skill of its own- so is repetition to drive home the point when you have nothing else to talk about.

Wechat is a big thing in china. You use it to pay, use it to order tickets, and it’s linked to your bank account. So when I tried to buy tickets, I wasn’t able to do so, and had to ask someone. The train station itself is also very complicated, would need an hour of buffer time. There’s restaurants on the train and security check in for bags. It’s almost Chinese new year in china, which means lots of stealing because lots of non-mainlanders are trying to bring something back home. I was told not to sleep on the 8 hour train!

I went to visit He MingChong’s house. Real estate is another big thing in China. My dad told the story of how we were about to immigrate, so was gonna sell the house for 200k, however, now it’s worth over 2 million. The house He MingChong bought in 2005 was one million, now it’s 10 million. It’s a 3 story house in Pang Yu. Then we drove to ShunDe to eat fish. They catch the fish from the pond and slice them and hot pot it. We also went to a restaurant with Monogolian Bao, and bought some lamb skewers which were very good. You can see plenty of mountains running through China on the train, it’s quite untouched and pretty.

1/11/17

Bought my last minute ticket to Shanghai and took a 8 hour train ride and arrived at Shanghai. Mabel picked me up and we went for a dinner at a fusion Hongkongnese place in a fancy mall. I ordered an angel hair pasta and she ordered a duck risotto. Then we went to her place which is next to the Xing Hai Music school. Her neighbor is applying for the music school so you hear piano sometimes. Her place is small, but her room is quite tidy. We had good talks about life at night and about the despair we feel about the economy and guys in china. The next day, we had shanghai breakfast at a hole in the wall, and I sent her to her work at The Economist. I went to the famous temple and garden in Shanghai and took a walk next to the water and found a cute café to rest my feet. At night, we went into the wrong restaurant and had vegetarian food. We talked about her love life, and her fear of not liking it when she knows a guy likes her and that she can’t tell the difference between friendship and love.

I bid her goodbye at 7am this morning and took the train to Yi Wu, where I spent half the time resting my feet and half the other time browsing the wholesale goods. There are an incredible amount of merchandise from sporting goods (where I bought a pair of shoes) and accessories and toys, etc. There are 5 districts, I only had time for 2. Basic idea is you buy in bulk, sometimes small items wholesale at 1000 pc, and sometimes at a dozen. Drones can whole sale at 18 pcs, at 300rmb each. Later, I met up with He MingChong’s dad and his coworker, who has a stake in the company. He is running a second factory, where he shares his shares with his employees. We then went to visit the VP of a company who showed us the storage of bikes that he has in stock and went to eat dinner. Dinner conversations are good, and he is very knowledgable. Making “things” smart is a very common wish for the products, I guess tech is not caught up yet. Again, the reoccurring theme of service economy kept coming up. He was saying how with scooters, someone came to him and said he will change the batteries for the elderly using the disability mobiles. Also, it is confirmed that virtual business is no longer the hot market, and many are looking elsewhere. At night, I had talks with the dad and conversed about how everyone in Shanghai is a business man, but bc the environment in china doesn’t encourage it, everyone is trying to scam someone or escape tax.

1/14/17

First, I need to record about the last bits of the journey with He Ming Chong daddy’s journey. He was telling me about how from placing an order to getting a payment for an order usually takes up to 60 days. Between factories and factories, for example, if HeMingChong’s daddy gets an order from a client, they would start making the stuff without the client’s payment. However, in manufacturing, they would need to order from another manufacturer. Therefore, if the other manufacturer does not give them the stuff in time, they cannot turn over to the client. And even if they turn over the stuff to the client, the client would procrastinate in making the payment. (Bosses are happy when employees are able to drag it out in payment, perhaps due to cashflow?) Therefore, it’s extremely difficult for small manufacturers to function. Because they need to pay others to make stuff or spend money on making their own product, and then because the client doesn’t pay them yet, they might end up having to spend lots of time in the negatives. I asked what if the products malfunction, they say then the client will drag out the payment even longer. This is not a good practice, but it has been the standard of doing business in China.

The next day, I was able to get together ten-ish elementary school friends at Mann Café, a very cute, wooden furniture coffee place. The teacher also came. We had some conversations about what we are doing as a job. Some are doing design, some are doing 文工，some in marketing, some in event planning. There was this girl who wants to explore the world by going to Australia…however, I don’t think you can explore the world with a boyfriend. And also she did not plan on when yet, she just wants to “play”. I think that is a quite naïve and without purpose. At night, there was this other guy who joined us, he partnered with his ex-coworkers in opening a wig shop. Mostly retail model. A lot of the “bosses” in China have the same look. Slick black jacket, the habit of smoking, the low voice talking, the need to drink, the opening of the topics in a very casual way, the sit-back posture. Someone was telling me about how local Cantonese people are conservative compared to out of the province. The “foreigners” are more willing to take out a loan to start a business, whereas locals want to build a foundation and work a full time job to buy a house. However, once you buy a house, because the houses are so unaffordable, the chances of you doing other things are limited. Especially when the marriage age in china is so low. Your life is basically spent at one job, at one place, paying for one house, working for someone else’s dream at a very young age without having the options to explore. With millennials sharing the same type of “lifestyle” (eg. Only working at the same company for little more than a year), Chinese young working class have it very hard. I wonder where the young working classes look for inspirations? Foreign books? Foreign talk shows? What about their local resources. I went on a date with Wu Jiaoyang today at Grandma’s House at this shopping mall near my house, food was good and we chatted about her life at Chicago for two years, and how she wants to return. She studied Economy as a master student at Illinoise-Champagne. Same place that Jayson went for Psychology. She also informed me that personal statement business is popular, especially for students whose grades aren’t that good and family want to send them aboard to study, they won’t have the ability to write it themselves. If they contact some middle agency, it’s going to cost more. Later on, we went to a bookstore – I really enjoy the coffee shops here. Very nice.

1/24/17

I am at 海底捞 waiting for my number to be called, it’s been two hours. There are nails and snacks in front of the restaurant while you wait. I think it’s the service that people are buying in. I did something stupid earlier, when they led me in and gave me a table, it was a small table and I didn’t ask for a regular table for 6 people. I didn’t consider that there would be food and then there would be no space. I then later on asked for a bigger table, but they said there was none. Foreseeing consequences. I still need to work on it.

I went to Kayla’s wedding thing on 20th-23rd. It was quite a stressful time. Kerwin’s mom was the planner but was for some reason, very reluctant to share the logistics of the wedding – when asked, she would say just wait till rehearsal the next day. However, there was details that she was telling me that was unable to connect or don’t make sense. She was putting on a wedding that looks good on the surface but chaotic at the end. We didn’t have enough bridesmaid or groomsman until the very end. It was a very good looking wedding with traditional Chinese decorations and outfits. There were these VIP rooms that were filled with smokes and alcohol, guessing it was the government officials.

1/29/17

The next couple days when I come back, it was mostly seeing relatives. I also got to see my brother (elementary school friend) and his friends for the Escape Room and karaoke. It was lots of fun. The escape room wasn’t complicated or difficult, but it was just too many people and hard to get close to the clues. But it was huge and well decorated. My brother and his gf gave me a Pandora necklace, I was wayyy surprised. Even my blood related brother didn’t even care to do so. I went shopping with Auntie Jingjing the next day, and got a good idea of how much clothing costs here. I also went to play toy picking machine with another elementary school friend and got a lot of toys. I learned how to strategically pick toys. The business thoughts are less prominent now, I think I am a bit discouraged by the complication of doing business in China. I think I am also slowly discouraged by how troublesome Execly was, and limiting my imagination to very limited scope.

NOTES:

Shopping List for when I come back:

-couple bottles of wine and brand bag for Auntie Jing Jing and Bachong uncle

-running shoes for Brother and his gf

Ideas: dash cam, shoes, bras, university vlog

0 notes