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behindheremeraldeyes · 4 years

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sasusaku month 20

day 3- sleeping soundly

title: power nap

summary: every Tuesday, both Sasuke and Sakura go out for lunch during her break at the hospital. It’s a sacred tradition between them, but what happens when she’s too tired to even walk?

a/n: I tried to make a very cute pic this time so they could take a break from all the stress of being a ninja hahaha I have to admit that this theme made me want to miss the time when I could take more naps, and perhaps, I should start taking them whenever I can XD As always, I hope you enjoy this one! Have fun! PS: This story is still un-beta'd. My beta-reader is quite busy lately and she didn't have time for proofreading this one yet. Sorry for the mistakes you're gonna find!

Rated K

According to the big clock displayed above the central desk of the hospital reception, Sasuke had arrived just in time for her break. It was Tuesday, and just like every week, it was the day of their weekly lunch. He was on time, as always, and for some of the staff already knew what he was doing there, it wasn’t unusual for some nurses to look at him and whisper something to each other. Some would even giggle, eventually, and when they did, the Uchiha couldn’t help but wonder if seeing two people going out for lunch together was really that amusing.

It really was just lunch, after all.

A couple of months before, Sakura had been the one who had first created that tradition between them, saying it would be a nice chance for them to bond, and even if he liked to believe they didn’t really need an official reason to meet, the Uchiha eventually decided to play along. Every week since then, she would normally be waiting for him in front of the hospital reception, and as soon as their eyes met, she would greet him joyful before they could go find a place to eat. They would spend some time together, just the two of them, chatting while enjoying a nice and peaceful meal until her break was over. He would walk her back to the hospital, then, and he wouldn’t cordially wait until he made sure she was already inside.

Those were their Tuesdays. Simple, comfortable and consistent.

They had fallen into that delicate and domestic routine, and it didn’t take long before he grew fond of that unaltered part of his new life. He enjoyed those moments to the point where he would sometimes catch himself growing excited for their weekly encounter and lose a couple of hours of sleep because of that.

Tuesdays had become really great days, for sure.

And as soon as he saw her smiling, small figure talking to an old lady, he realized they were about to have another good day just the two of them.

When her green eyes made contact with his mismatched ones, a brighter smile lit up on her face and it didn’t take long before she excused herself from what seemed to be just a civilian wanting to chat. Ever since he returned to Konoha, Sasuke realized the pinkette had become quite popular among the elderly, and it wasn’t unusual for them to greet her with a wrinkled smile whenever they saw her on the streets. She would always treat them nicely, he realized, and perhaps that was the reason why they all liked her so much.

She walked up to him, then, yawning deeply as her heels clicked across the hospital reception. Now that she was standing closer, his eyes could see that she seemed to be a bit tired, her eyelids looking too heavy as they threatened to cover her eyes completely. There were dark circles around her eyes, and her breathing pattern was calm and slow.

Apparently, someone had had a rough day.

“Hey there—” She started, but her words were cut by another yawn that escaped her lips. The back of her right hand went to cover her mouth, and she blinked twice before fully opening her eyes. “—Sasuke-kun.”

“You look tired.” He said, simply, his face unaltered.

She looked at him, lifting her brows in surprise. The pinkette was still not used to how straight-forward he was, but it didn’t take long before her lips curled up. “Is it that evident?”

“Aah.” He agreed. “The dark circles around your eyes are quite big.”

“Ugh.” She pouted, her small hands now touching her face. “I guess not even all that make up could hide them in the end.” She smiled weakly at that, her head tilting to the side.

“Bad day?”

“Not really. It’s just that I got home pretty late last night.” She started, and soon they were walking towards the exit of the building. She stretched her arms above her head, moving her shoulders in order to relax her muscles a bit. "That mission took a little longer than I had initially expected and I didn’t really have much time to sleep.”

“Oh, I see.” He nodded in understatement, remembering she had, indeed, talked about a mission Kakashi had selected her for. If he recalled it correctly, she had been sent to Amegakure so she could help the new governors establish a new health care system based on medical ninjas. It was something the Shinobi Alliance had decided to do together, and though it would cost her many days of going back and forth to the village hidden in the rain, Sakura seemed very excited about the outcome. “At what time did you get back?”

“I think it was around 2am or something like that… I just know Kakashi-sensei wasn’t there when I went to his office to report back.”

“2am?!” He sounded surprised, his brows arching at her words. No wonder why she looked that tired. “And at what time did your shift at the hospital started today?”

“My shift officially began at 7am, but I was already here by 6:30am. I had an important surgery scheduled so I came in earlier to prepare everything.”

His dark eyes grew wider now, and suddenly, he stopped walking. Sakura couldn’t really be serious at that moment. She was basically telling him that she had returned to the village from a long trip around 2 in the morning, and instead of taking at least the morning off, she was already up before 6am and operating at 7am.

Normal people shouldn’t push themselves that hard.

She had definitely spent way too much time alone with Naruto, he thought.

“You've barely slept, Sakura.”

“I know…” She said, yawning once more. “I'll get some sleep when I get home.”

“And at what time will that be?”

“It won’t take long. Probably around 7pm.” Her voice came out softly and an innocent tone lingered to it. Her eyes held no malice, and at that moment, he really thought she was even worse than the Dobe.

Maybe she had hit her it during the war or maybe it happened during her time spent training with her master, because there had to be something really wrong with that girl’s head. At that moment, she was barely being able to hold herself up, yawning every three seconds, and yet, there she was, all smiles on her face as she was ready to go out with him for lunch. Even knowing about that mission at least 1 week before she had to go, Sakura had decided that it would be okay to sign in for a 12h shift at the hospital the day after she got back. Couldn't she just haven been a decent person and allow herself to get some proper hours of sleep at least once?

Apparently, the answer was a big, irresponsible and tired no.

Perhaps, he wasn’t the only one who needed to have some sense knocked into him.

A couple of seconds went by until the pinkette finally realized the Uchiha had stopped in his tracks. She turned around, then, her heels also stopping, as her green eyes were now looking at him with a confused expression. She tilted her pink head to the left, her lips pressed in a thin line. “Why did you stop, Sasuke-kun?”

“Sakura…” He stopped talking, his mind still trying to think about his next words. He knew he had to be helpful without sounding rude, but he could feel an urge to call her annoying running through his veins. Even if he really hated the idea of ruining their little routine, the Uchiha knew better than to believe she didn’t have more pressing needs at that moment. “Do you still have a couch in your office?”

“Yes, I do. Why?”

“Hn.” He nodded, his hand now hiding inside the pocket of his dark pants. “Go back upstairs then and try to get some sleep. You still have most of your lunch break.”

“What?” Her eyes widened and she unconsciously approached him. At that moment, her confused expression melted into a childish pout, and he would be lying if he said that face didn’t make him feel a bit moved. “What about our lunch?”

“We can just reschedule. You need to get some rest if you want to last until 7pm.”

“This is ridiculous, Sasuke-kun. I’m fine. I’m a bit sleepy, sure, but I’m also hungry. Come on, it’s Tuesday…”

The way she was batting her eyelashes at him made his heart skip a beat. Even if her current appearance was affected by her lack of sleep, Sakura still held traces of the cute girl she has always been, and like before, it was still hard for him to say 'no' to her. She had always known how to be pretty convincing around him, and at that moment, even if he knew she could use a power nap— or any kind of nap, for the matter— it was still hard for him to simply give up on their lunch.

It felt selfish of him— futile, even, because, really, it was just lunch— but he really wanted to go out with her so they could spend some time together. They had a lot of catching up to do, and even if he would mostly just listen to her while she talked about something that had happened at the hospital or at her missions, it was always great to see her looking that happy.

After everything that had happened in the past 3 years, Sakura needed happy times in her life. Both of them did. And if their happy could be achieved by doing something so trivial as going out for lunch, then it was worth fighting for it.

However, if she could use that time in order to recover from a tiring mission, how could he deny her such thing?

“You really need to sleep, Sakura.” His voice came out firm and with no hesitation. His eyes were locked with hers, and there was no sign in him that indicated that he would back off from his decision. “It will be good for you if you can rest a little.”

“But—“

“No ‘but's. You look like you were hit by a boulder and we both know how distracted you get when you’re sleepy.”

Her lips parted at his statement, but no words came out from her mouth. Even if she wanted to answer him that she was fine and that she wasn’t really that sleepy, they both knew it would be useless. The Uchiha, if anything, is as stubborn as his blonde best friend, and at that moment, he wouldn’t simply be convinced by her white lies.

A soft smile crossed her lips, then, and she shyly looked down for a bit before her glance returned to his eyes. Her hands were now hiding behind her back, and she bit her lower lip before deciding to talk again. “I bet every girl would love to hear such delicate words regarding her looks.”

“Tch." He scoffed. “You know what I meant.”

“Yeah, I’m just messing with you.” She giggled, softly. “Are you sure it’s really okay?”

“It is, don’t worry. Try to get some sleep and I’ll go fetch you something to eat.”

“What?” She asked, confused, her sleepy head clearly not working well anymore.

“I'll go out and bring you some food. You weren’t really thinking about skipping lunch, were you, Sakura?”

“… Of course not.” She said, looking away from his judging stare. Sakura was clearly lying— or, at least, trying to— and if not for her need to sleep, he would’ve certainly scolded her for being that irresponsible.

Maybe next time, he thought.

“Hn, yeah, right…” He nodded, his eyes closing before he could start his way towards the exit. Their shoulders brushed as he walked past her, and though he knew she wanted to follow him, he was glad she didn’t. “I’ll be back soon with your food.”

“Fine.” She said, stretching the first syllable. “Next week lunch will be on me, then!”

“Aah.” He agreed, as he continued his way across the room.

“Oh, and Sasuke-kun!” She called his name, and immediately, he turned his head to look at her. She was smiling now, her arms crossed across her chest. “Don't forget to bring your food, too! We can still eat together in my office, right?” The cheerfulness lingering in her voice made his chest feel warmer, and even though her eyes were surrendering to her exhaustion, she still looked quite happy to have found a way for them to be together for lunch. She was smiling softly at him, and even if he had initially planned on bringing her food and leaving her to rest, Sakura had just convinced him to stay. With her joyful features and her sleepy expression, she had just managed to save their beloved tradition.

It should be okay if he stayed for just a little, right? Just until she could finish her lunch, and then he would be gone. Yes, it would certainly be okay.

“I guess we can. I’ll meet you there.”

“Hai!” She said, and he began walking again. “I’ll leave the window open for you!"

At her words, his lips formed a soft smirk as he finally exited the hospital. Though she would normally tell both him and Naruto not to invade her office through the window, on that day, Sakura figured it would be easier like that. His ears captured the sound of her heels clicking as she turned back, and he just hoped she could get some sleep before he returned with their food.

It was going to be a different Tuesday, for sure, but he figured it should be okay as long as they could be together in the end.

–––––––––

Though there weren't many people in the small restaurant down the hospital street, Sasuke made sure to take his time before ordering so she could have some more sleeping time. With his eyes always checking the clock, the raven haired boy made sure to calculate a decent amount of time— given the circumstances, of course— for her to sleep and eat properly before going back to work.

For they have gone eating together multiple times already, he knew about her taste for vegetables and something lighter for lunch, choosing to order her the special salmon with a bittersweet sauce that was made of honey, rice vinegar and soy sauce. It was a very popular dish according to the guy who worked there, and he hoped she would like his choice.

The food inside the take-out bag was still hot by the time he reached the hospital, and he made sure not to waste a single moment before climbing up the walls to her office. His chakra-coated sandals helped him make his way up, and in no time, he was at her window, which had been left open for him. He was very careful while entering, making sure not to bump on any of her belongings. As always, her office was filled with piles of papers and medical books, and he wondered how she even managed to find anything in the middle of that mess.

Once he was completely inside, his eyes wasted no time before they could start their search for her, and quickly, they found her small and delicate figure still asleep on the couch. She was sleeping soundly, her shallow breaths escaping her slightly parted lips in a smooth rhythm. Her chest was going up and down in a slow rhythm, and if he had never seen her breaking large trees with her bare hands, Sasuke would even believe she was just a defenseless and powerless girl.

Sakura looked really peaceful like that, he thought, as he looked at her with softness in his eyes. She was so calm and tranquil, clearly too busy sleeping to even notice his sudden presence in the room. Back when they were younger and they had to camp outside during their missions, she would always wake up at the slightest noises, but at that moment, he doubted she would wake up unless he literally shook her awake.

She was really tired, for sure. She was all curled up on her couch, her head resting against a crumpled jacket that was serving as a pillow for the moment. Her pink locks were falling forward, covering the seal on her forehead, and there was a small pout decorating her rosy lips.

Though he has never been the most sensitive person out there, it was undeniable that Sakura looked incredibly cute. His eyes— even if he was probably unaware— looked at her affectionately, and suddenly, a mix of tenderness and empathy coursed through him, and he had to hold back the urge to move her pink locks from her soft face.

He didn’t want anything to disturb her at that moment. She deserved those minutes of pristine silence, and he would do everything he could in order to protect them. After seeing her like that, it didn’t take long for the Uchiha to decide not to wake her up to eat, choosing, instead, to leave her food there so she could eat it later that day.

The salmon would turn cold, sure, but he figured that she could heat it some other time.

A soft smile took over his lips, and slowly, he made his way towards the couch where she was sleeping. For it was a chilly afternoon, he took his dark coat off, covering her small body in order to keep her warm. The piece of fabric weighted over her small figure, and he watched as she tugged it closer to her with a comfortable expression on her face. After that, the Uchiha found a spot next to her, and since they had decided that they would eat together, he believed that it would be okay if he just ate his lunch there, by her side before it also turned cold.

Slowly and carefully not to wake her up, he fished his sandwich from the paper bag, taking a bite from it and allowing the tomato, the cheese and the basil to mix inside his mouth. The sandwich tasted very good, indeed. It was just a simple thing anyone could prepare, but it still tasted pretty special for him. His eyes would eventually drift from his lunch to her sleepy, little head; and even if her small breaths were the only sounds filling the room, Sasuke couldn’t simply find the words to describe how domestic and pure that whole thing felt.

It felt so casual and intimate, in a way he hadn’t felt in years. His heart skipped a beat at the thought, bringing a shy smile to his lips, and he mentally thanked her for bringing back that innocence to his life. As the months went by, he realized how much that girl alone could do for him— even when she was doing nothing more than sleeping by his side— and he wondered how many other things could she bring into his new life if he just allowed her to.

In a matter of weeks, Sakura had turned his Tuesdays into pleasurable days, and now, he wondered what else could she do were she to take care of the rest of his week.

A sigh escaped his lips, and quickly, he brushed that thought away. After a couple of minutes, he had finally finished his sandwich, satisfied with his pleasurable lunch, and slowly, he allowed his head to fall back a little so he could rest it against the couch. He closed his eyes, for an instance, solely paying attention to the sound of her breaths, lulling him into a moment of pure bliss.

His head was feeling lighter, his breath was matching hers, and suddenly, he felt an odd warmth against his leg. It caught him by surprise, at first, but it didn’t take long before his body grew used to that small contact between them. A feeling of calmness invaded his body at that moment, and soon, he emptied his mind from whatever bad thought could even dare disturb that moment. He felt his conscious slipping from his grip, then, knowing very well what would happen if he just let it go.

He was going to fall asleep, he knew. He was going to fall asleep on a couch by her side, and even if that would probably be something hard to explain once they both woke up, Sasuke couldn’t find it in himself to care.

It felt too good. It felt right and even if he had had a good night of sleep himself, he figured he could allow himself to rest for a bit.

It was just a nap after lunch, after all. Was it really such a bad idea?

No. At least not at that moment. Not on that odd, yet ordinary, Tuesday.

fin.

#sasusaku #sasusaku fanfiction #sasusaku month 2020 #ssm20 #ssm20d03 #myssfics

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thirdeyecomics · 5 years

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FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2019 FAQ

Here's a quick re-post of the tips & FAQ we sent out for the event -- check it out! Lots of info on stuff about parking, free comics, and all that good stuff! :) PARKING, FREE COMIC & LINE ETIQUETTE NOTES Okay, Third Eye Faithful, you know us: our number one concern is that every single one of you guys is having an awesome time! Due to how big our FCBD event is, we do have a few favors we'd like to ask of you guys, as well as a heads-up on a couple of things. I know this email has a ton of info, but if you read anything, please read this. :) PARKING We have a TON of open, free parking in our building's lot, but -- it can and will fill up fast with the amount of folks FCBD can bring. Please, do us a favor: DO park in the rear lot of the store if spaces are available BEFORE parking in the rest of the lot, there's a ton of open spaces in the back, and these are the best spots to use if you're getting here early to camp out the night prior. DO carpool if you have friends / family going. The more folks you can condense into one vehicle the better. DO park off-site somewhere near-by if our lot is full. On weekends, there's a TON of open street parking within a minute or two's walk of our store. There's also a couple of walkable parking garages near-by. DO use our overflow parking at AIRECO, which is a 3 minute walk down the street from our store, and will have a THIRD EYE EVENT PARKING sign up. DO park off-site especially if you are hanging around the shop for the day, cosplaying, etc. DON'T park in front of the cone'd off spaces for our neighbors. There's only a few spots we have to cone off for them, but we want to make sure we don't take up all their spots! RESTROOMS -- provided by Third Eye! :) We'll have two portapotties set up for you, Third Eye Faithful, so that while you're waiting in line you have a quick and accessible option for restrooms! LINE ETIQUETTE Third Eye Faithful: we love to bring you all together as a community, and I swear, all of you guys and gals are the coolest people in the world. We never have issues with people being uncool in line, but we just wanted to take a second to remind you guys of some good line etiquette: You can begin lining up after 6PM on Friday night. Our door prize drawings don't begin until after 7PM on Friday night. When you arrive to line-up, you'll be given a numbered token. Our staff will be periodically checking for new line attendees throughout the day and evening on Friday. We will be giving out tokens until 10:00PM Friday night, and then resume (if the giveaways aren't already maxed out at the 100 mark) the next morning at 7:30AM. Once in line, PLEASE only leave the line to use the restroom, or grab food. Please make sure to let your line mates know, and please try not to be out of the line too long. It gets really difficult keeping things organized if everyone is not there. Just please: do not lose your token! :) Please try to stay in the vicinity of the store - while we cannot be there all night to police this, we count on you to help us keep the line orderly and fun. FREE swag will be given out once we hit our target #s (i.e first 50 in line for t-shirt, first 100 for prize bags, etc.) -- this means we need you guys to try to stay in an orderly line as much as possible to get your swag! Do NOT lose your tokens; you must have your token to give to us to get your swag. Please: bring tents, board games, grills, whatever -- but make sure that you are in a neat line, so you don't lose your spot! Please do not bring alcohol (even if it's in your tent, and we don't know about it!) -- we gotta keep FCBD an all-ages thing, Third Eye Faithful! :) TENTS are welcome, but please avoid anything so large that it blocks the flow of traffic. We don't have hard guidelines about how big is too big - but if it's the size of a mid-sized vehicle -- that may make traffic flow in the parking lot a bit difficult. :) Also, we're pretty darn awesome at Third Eye, but not super-human, our staff needs some sleep the night before such a big day. :) We'll be having everyone pack up their tents and whatnot around 6:00AM, so if you could set an alarm to be up and packing up then - that would be awesome. The tents tend to take up a lot of parking lot space, and the sooner we can get them up - the happier our neighbors typically are due to truck deliveries, etc. We really, really cannot stress enough how important it is to make sure we have everyone packed up and good to go before 7AM so we can properly manage the line. So, please be cool to each other in line, and make sure there's no line-jumping going on, and that you guys are taking care of each other. This is your community, and we count on you to keep it awesome. At 8AM Saturday, we will be splitting the line, so that those of you who are here for the creators first, will be taken to that area, while those of you who want to hit the free comics are in that line. Please note: the creators do not begin signing until 11AM, so you may not want to wait in that line until after you've gotten your free comics!

Most importantly: be cool to each other. We're all here to have fun!

LINES WILL BE MOVING FAST One thing we've gotten good at is moving through lines quickly and smoothly, and that's one thing that you can count on for FCBD. There'll be a lot of people, but after getting plenty of practice doing this in the past, we've gotten pretty good at this. :)

We will have multiple cashiers open, with more than just the four normal checkout lines. For Third Eye Cards, we will be writing out a voucher for you to bring in redeem at a later date, so that the check-out process is quick and efficient.

FREE COMIC ETIQUETTE! Our goal is to make sure you get the free comics you're most excited about, and to do that, we're going to be counting on you, Third Eye Faithful! :)

Please do not take more than 1 each of the free comics. Please ONLY take the free comics you are genuinely excited about - so that everyone is able to get their favorites. We do not enforce limits on how many free comics folks can take, because you are all super awesome and super kind about making sure that you scoop the comics you genuinely want, and not just a big stack of everything, without any thought into what is what. :)

With that being said, please review our list of FREE COMICS here and have an idea of the free comics you'd like to grab. While we can't guarantee they'll all be in stock, it does help move the line for free comics along quicker, instead of waiting to pick and choose once you hit the table.

And, don't forget: you can always come back for more free comics after you get done doing all your fun FCBD stuff! We do receive a lot of requests each year to hold free comics, and unfortunately, we cannot hold free comics. :( We're sorry about this, but we promise: FCBD is about so much more than the free comics; it's about the experience itself, and coming out for the event is totally worth it!

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charlottestarchild · 6 years

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Figs and Charlotte

It’s 2018 and I am visiting my good old friend in a small remote village in the south of France. I haven’t seen her in years and can’t wait to spend some quality time with her. She’s staying with her kids at her parent’s place so I booked myself into a small, and as it turns out quite cute, B&B close to her place. The village is famous for its clay pottery and so it happens that the B&B is in an old pottery fabric. Everything is the color of terracotta. My friend’s parents grow grapes and have a lovely fruit garden. We go pick peaches, apricots and figs fresh from the tree each day … On the morning of the second day, I take my plate full of fresh fruit and walk to the little terrace in the backyard of my room to sit in the sun and enjoy my fruits. Walking up the concrete stairs to the little terrace, I catch a glimpse of a guy lying on the ground, earphones in his ears, doing yoga. I hesitate for a moment but then decide to go back. I would basically need to step over him in order to get to the chairs. Way too shy and respectful of his privacy for that.

Saturday night. The kids are at sleep. Maria and me decide to enjoy some quality time. We grab a bottle of wine and simply drag out some chairs from my room onto the street and set up our own little private bodega on the street. We’re drinking lovely wine and are chatting about all sorts of things. We have plenty to catch up. Suddenly the sound of a Ukulele gets to our ears from one of the windows above. Portuguese? She says and looks at me. I try to listen. Yeah. Sounds like Portuguese. We giggle a bit and continue chatting. The sound gets louder and suddenly you can hear two voices sing. We listen for a bit, suddenly the music stops. We look up at the window where the music came from and the guy from the morning appears in the window. “Hi” he says waving down to us. “Hi” we say back.

We keep chatting about her marriage, about my divorce, about live here and there. Suddenly Mr. Portuguese Ukulele Yogi walks down the street. We start chatting about how we heard him sing in Portuguese. He’s Brazilian so yes, it was Portuguese. He says he’s visiting his friend who is staying here. Two minutes later also his friend comes down the street. A funny looking guy in dangaroos, his colorful socks pulled up towards the knees, his dark beard shaved in a funny way, one long earring dangling from his left ear. After a bit more chit chat I ask if they don’t want to join us. “We have some more chairs we can pull out”. Without hesitation they agree. Fernao, that’s the name of the Brazilian, is tall, curly wild hair, glasses. Looks a bit nerdy. Not as hot as I thought from the glimpse I caught of him in the morning but still quite cute. Sami, is from Iran but lives in Austin, Texas, he is into pottery which is why he is here in this village; he starts telling us how he got totally hooked on it by watching YouTube videos and now he finds himself here, learning from the best of the best. He’s a storyteller, that much is clear. I like story tellers. He’s much shorter than Fernao, but has very dark, mysterious eyes.

We chat about things for a while when Maria suddenly gets a phone call. Her daughter has fever. She has to leave. I’m sad she has to leave. It was so nice catching up and even now, talking to these strangers together as if we were on a holiday somewhere together in our early 20s.

I stick around and chat some more with the two guys. I can’t really say what they’re up to. Sami makes me a compliment suddenly about how beautiful my face is. I have to laugh cause at this point of time I consider my face anything else but beautiful. I look over to Fernao, shrugging in his direction as if to say “what’s wrong with your friend”. We keep on drinking wine and talk about space, aliens, nature, random encounters. I ask if either one of them smokes and Sami gets up getting his tobacco from his room. We smoke. We drink wine. We talk. Cats join us. Sami feeds them so they stick around meowing for more food. Suddenly without any clear reason why, we all get up and there’s a sense of “party is over”. We all take the chairs inside, clear up the stuff, hug each other good night “was nice to meet you”.

Somehow, I’m relieved I didn’t end up in bed with either one of them. Not that there would have been clear interest from their side anyways but I’ve been having a bad conscious about my promiscuous lifestyle lately and that would have been too much. And I’m here to visit my friend and not to fuck around. Good girl.

The next morning I’m about to hop into the shower when someone knocks on my door. It’s Fernao. He’s got no shirt on. I’m only wrapped in a towel. “Good morning!” – “Good morning”. “Sami and I are planning to go to this remote beach today. We have a rental so we can drive around. I was wondering, well, I’m sure you have plans but if not, if you’d like to join us.” I explain that I don’t know because I need to wait for Maria to contact me. Her daughter has fever so I don’t know what’s going to happen. “Ok sure, well, let us know or at least come up for a coffee anyway.” “Sure.”

I get into the shower smiling.

I make myself another fruit plate and go to the terrace upstairs. Fernao is again there doing Yoga. But this time I dare to pass him and sit on one of the sun chairs. We chat a bit. He continues his yoga. Tells me how yesterday he got up at 7am and did a 3 hour yoga session. This place energizes him. Maria calls. Her daughter had bad fever last night and her sister’s dog died. I tell her not to worry about me, she should be with her family. I will go to the beach with the guys.

Within a few hours we are on our way to the beach. It’s a bit of a drive but eventually we get there. The beach can be reached after walking for about 15min through sand dunes. It’s scorching hot. Fernao is carrying his botijo with him. Sami carries his Ukulele and a football.

We get to the beach. It is anything else but remote. It’s filled with people. Naked people. It’s a nudist beach. I make nervous jokes, how funny it is that we think we’re going to some remote beach and we end up at a nudist beach. “Well, it’s not like we were going to wear swim wear at a remote beach anyways”, Fernao says. It doesn’t take 5min and both of them are butt naked. Great.

First round of swimming I leave on my bikini. But when Fernao starts to make handstands and wheels in the sand with his shlong dangling around I feel seriously overdressed and tell myself “ah what the fuck”. I take off my bikini. I’m not exactly comfortable with my body in broad sunlight. My boobs are tiny and my nipples are ugly when they’re not hard. But well. It’s not like those two are carved out of stone either.

I don’t exactly remember when but at some point I realize that Fernao is flirting with me.

I lay on my stomach, taking in the full sun. Fernao starts touching my back. I don’t know why but it makes me insanely horny. We swim, we eat, we drink beer, we swim – life could be worse. At some point Fernao is playing the Ukulele and Sami starts to massage my feet. And I’m lying there on my back wondering HOW DID I GET HERE? How am I here? On this beach, with these guys? By the way, not sure this is clear but they are both really nice fellas. Not dodgy at all. Just really nice, funny guys.

I did start to think at some point if they have some twisted plan of luring me into a threesome. For a second I am wondering if I could be convinced but no. Seems a bit much.

We go for another swim. It feels great to jump naked in the waves.

It’s getting late and I start to have a bad conscious about having fun here with these guys while Maria needs to deal with her sick daughter and a sad sister. I tell the guys that I need to get out of the sun; maybe we could start thinking of going back soon? They don’t really seem to want to and I don’t really want to push for it, since it’s their car and I don’t want to ruin their fun. I say I go for another swim and then we see.

When I get back from the water, Fernao has explored the area in the dunes and says there is a nice place in the shade where we can hang out for a little longer. I agree. We take our stuff to the dunes and make up a camp. Fernao even brought his hammock… :D

We hang out for a little longer and decide to go back. Finally. It’s already 7pm or sth.

Once we’re back I get in touch with Maria and we meet for dinner. After that, I go upstairs to join the guys. We drink some wine, chat. Sami goes to sleep. I guess he noticed Fernao and me flirting with each other. Fernao and me have been caressing each other’s back and hair all day. I think it takes not even 1min after Sami left and we’re kissing. I am so horny. How does this guy make me so horny? My Argentinian and Colombian friends have been telling me how Latin American guys are just different. Boy were they right. We’re sitting on the sun chair kissing and Fernao is leaning in on me when suddenly the fabric of the chair breaks and we’re both landing on the floor. We’re laughing.

We get up and continue kissing against the wall when he asks: “Can I take you somewhere where I can take all these clothes off?” Yes please.

We go to my room. As soon as I close the door behind me, Fernao pushes me against the wall, holds up my hands above my hand, kisses me passionately and seems to have his hands all over me. He lifts up my dress, squeezes my but, kisses my neck. I wrap my arms around him, he lifts me up so I am against the wall, legs wrapped around him. I slide down, he opens the zipper of my dress, slowly slides it down my shoulders. I’m not wearing a bra. I’m only in panties. He looks at me and smiles. Takes my hand and guides me to the bed. We make passionate love until we fall into a soft slumber. A few hours we wake up, make love again…

In the morning, we wake up next to each other. He says “Yesterday morning, Sami asked me what I’d like for today. And I said “Figs and Charlotte””.

#figs #pottery #france #love #ukulele

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singingwordwright · 6 years

Text

#Shadowhunters Timeline - Season 2B

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

Full Shadowhunters Timeline Calendar

Important Malec Moments Calendar

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

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

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

Further Notes Can Be Found In the Timeline Intro Post

Season 1 Timeline

Season 2A Timeline

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

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

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

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

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

Azazel attacks the bar after dark that night

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Izzy and Simon “visit” Rosa Santiago sometime that afternoon

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

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

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

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

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

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

Maia is wearing Costume #1

Clary and Simon find the first body shortly thereafter

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

The second body is found while Luke is offering his DNA

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Alec wakes alone sometime after sunrise

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Izzy confronts Alec about Max later that morning

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

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

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

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

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

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

Izzy finds Max unconscious in her room perhaps sometime after midnight

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

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

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

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

Jonathan has his meltdown while it’s still early morning

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

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

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

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

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

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

Valentine strikes his deal with the Seelie Queen late that night

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

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

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

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

Magnus, Alec, and Izzy close the rift around noon

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

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

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

Continue to Season 3A

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

#shadowhunters #shadowhunters meta #shadowhunters timeline #meta #timeline #timeline s2b

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mubal4 · 4 years

Photo

“This is pure snow!” – Charles De Mar, Better off Dead

Not sure why this quote above comes to mind when I see snow, but it does, and I giggle. This past Saturday, this quote entered my head often, I giggled, but then it got old. It was just everywhere :O. Snow? In Arizona? In late May? Yep – in the high country there was a ton of it. The “plan” was to head up to Flagstaff to hike Humphrey’s Peak on Saturday, spend the night up there camping in a Yurt, get a good run in Sunday morning at altitude, and head home before noon. Humphrey’s is the highest point in AZ, sitting just above 12,500’. We’ve been up to Flagstaff a number of times, but I’ve never hiked Humphrey’s. We did some of the San Francisco peaks that it resides in during the Stagecoach 100 race a few years ago but never got to the summit. With the high elevation, climbing race coming up in July, figured this was a great opportunity to get some good training in. However, just like most times, when you have a plan developed, it won’t be long until you get punched in the face. (based on the pictures you can probably tell where this story is going 😊)

Friday night I got things all packed up, gear, snacks, water, clothes, wood, etc. It was going to be low 30’s in the AM and warm up to about 68* during the day. However, I was going to be above 8,000 feet most of the climb and it was scheduled to be windy. When I was lining up the final details on the yurt, the dude that helped me indicated that above 11,000’ there is quite a bit of snow. At that point I thought it was cool but didn’t pay it much attention to his words, but I did to some recon. Sure enough, the forest service was saying that Humphrey’s Trail was closed & the road leading to the trail head was also closed (this should have been another hint 😊). However, I was able to find Weatherford Trail that leads up to Humphrey’s, it would just be a longer day and more miles. Figured I would be on the road by 7am and hiking by 9-930am. About an hour into the drive Saturday morning, I was thinking about camping, the yurt, and hanging out by a fire under the stars; got pretty excited too, until I realized that I forgot my sleeping bag, blankets, and no warm clothes other than a sweatshirt. “Oh shit, that will make things inconvenient.” Oh well, I had the hike to do first and would deal with that aspect later. When I got to Weatherford trail head the sun was shining but it was windy and a little chilly. I talked to Robin to let her know I was starting and off I went, shorts, t-shirt, long-sleeve, trail shoes, poles, and vest with some goodies. The climb up, as you can see from some of the pictures, was beautiful. The views were great, the trail was in good shape, the Aspens were colorful, and you could smell the pines. There were not many people out at this time but was able to catch up to this dude, Dylan, and we shared some miles for an hour or so. We were moving at a good clip and climbing, but had not problems with the altitude, which was good. I stopped a few times to take pictures and soak in the views as Dillon kept moving. It was just over 6 miles from the trail head to Doyle Saddle. This is from where I took the title picture. You can see Dylan off to the right enjoying a snack and Humphrey’s peak just over his head. It looks smaller because it is farther off in the distance. We basically had to hike the face of the first peak, then switchback up the second peaks face then climb to the top of Humphrey’s. You can’t make it out in the picture but from this spot you can see parts of the switchbacks and some of the trail across the face of the peak to Humphrey’s. Sure, you can see the snow but at this point we had no idea what we were in store for. What’s crazy is on the drive up, coming into Flagstaff, you are looking right at the western slope of this range – very little snow. Once I hit this saddle though, I was amazed at how much this opposite slope had. Then we got to experience it firsthand 😊!

As Dylan finished up his snack, I got moving down the trail from Doyle saddle. One of the pictures has a shot of the trail with snow to the left. This was like corridor with snow on one side where the trail continued to get smaller and smaller until there was no more trail, just footprints in the snow. I stopped for a minute to wait for Dylan because he had done this hike before and was looking for his guidance. When he caught up, I should have taken another hint, he had put on another layer of clothing and micro spikes on his shoes. Meanwhile, I am standing there with t-shirt, shorts, and running shoes. WTF? We started moving forward, following the tracks in the snow, and estimated there to be about 6-10 feet in certain parts; yes, feet. There were some sections, specially where there was avalanche areas that we think it may have been 15 feet deep. Dylan was a life saving for the next hour or so. We shared our stories, a few laughs, some frustration from the snow, potholing, and sliding. A couple times, specially walking through 3 separate avalanche chutes, where our hind quarters puckered up. There is one picture looking up at one of the chutes. Yeah – dumbass me stopped in the middle, on the way through to snap that one – not a bright idea 😊. After about an hour, where we covered a little over 1 MILE!!! Yes, it took 48 minutes to go one mile we hit a trail intersection. Dylan said this was the last point where we would be able to bail out before hitting Humphrey’s Trail. Once we hit Humphrey’s we would be good on the switchbacks but traversing the face of that 2nd peak was walking, what we can only assume because of so much snow, a glacier and we weren’t equipped for that today. Dylan decided to bail and after climbing up an embankment of snow that was higher than the trail sign, we said our goodbyes. I came up to get to the top so I was at least going to try to see how far I can get so I kept moving forward. At this point, I was just on top of feet of snow and following the footprints. I made it another quarter/maybe half mile from where Dylan and I split, and the tracks ended. I was about 2 miles and roughly 1,000’ feet from the summit. Unfortunately, I had to turn back. It wasn’t safe to go on, especially by myself, considering the conditions and not knowing what I was in store for. Figured I could try it again next month and definitely in August when I believe the snow will be gone.

So, I turned back and was thinking about what route to take; follow Dylan’s path or trudge back the way we came originally; through more snow, more avalanche chutes, more sliding, more puckering 😊. I decided to go the original way and this time that mile or so took me 53 minutes. It was crazy but just couldn’t rush it because of safety and the deep ass snow! When I finally got back to Doyle saddle it was incredibly happy to see dry ground. At this point, my feet were soaked and cold, my legs were all cut up, and I was beginning to get a headache (likely b/c I hadn’t eating). So, I took a little spell, shoved a Clif Bar into my head and got ready to run this bitch back down to the car. I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t get to the summit but was happy to know that I would be heading into town to Mother Road Brewery to pick up a case of Tower Station IPA, so I had that going for me which was nice. At this time, Doyle saddle had a bunch of people just chilling out; some setting up camp, some grabbing lunch, and another group that was cordially enjoying a nice toke on the peace pipe 😊. Even though we were spread out on top of that mountain the smell of cannabis filled the air and gave me a little pep as I started to descend; either that or the Clif Bar 😊. The run back down was uneventful but incredibly scenic. Some awesome views, passed a bunch of nice folks going up and down, connected with Robin on the adventure to that point and began thinking about freezing my ass off in the yurt over night or just heading back down to Phoenix. When I got to the trail head, I had already decided it would be best to head home. It was a longer day than I anticipated but could still be home by 7pm and have dinner with the family. As I got cleaned up and packed the car, a truck slowly drove by, we both waved, but I couldn’t see the face. They turned around, pulled up next to me, rolled down the window, and – it was Dylan. Had just gotten back himself and I thanked him profusely for helping me out up there. He saw me come out of the trail head and knew I came down the way we went up. He regretted his route and thought he should have done the same as me; it would have been good to have some company on the way down! Overall, it was a great training day and awesome time on feet. The adventure was epic, and I am already lining up dates in a few weeks to try it again. Hopefully in August I can get at least Robin, if not the whole family (and Bear) to join me on the shorter route 😊.

It certainly didn’t go as planned but did get in a good day and scored my case of Mother Road IPA! After I picked up the case, I called Robin and told her I was headed home. She and the girls were going to order some pizza’s and have them for me when I got there. We spent the night on the patio, having some slices, a few beers, and a great night together. Until next time Mr. Humphrey – I will get to ya; in the meantime, let’s enjoy the pictures.

#AZhighcountry Flagstaff HumphreysPeak thisispuresnow holyshitthatsdeep

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jaegerandmikeineurope · 5 years

Text

Travel to and Day One in London

After six long years, I am making my way back to Europe for another adventure, casting my family aside and replacing them with my boyfriend Mike. We have never been on an overseas trip together (except for a New Zealand ski trip back in high school - but does it really count when you are accompanied by another 40+ students and teachers?) so decided to book a fun European trip together to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. Mike has never been to Europe before so I have been looking forward to showing him all of the sights.

If my friend’s speeches at my 21st birthday party were anything to go by, people know that I am organised. So I have planned this holiday meticulously, researching the best places to eat, drink, shop, ways of getting around and even writing out the directions to some destinations heaven forbid my phone/internet stops working for a second.

The downside to being so anal organised is that the moment something doesn’t go to plan, I can tend to fall a part just a teensy, tiny bit.

So comes Thursday 12th of September, our day of departure. Mike and I are trying to mentally prepare ourselves for the 17 hour direct flight to London that we are about to undertake and are doing so by trying to distract ourselves. We start the day relatively easy, gathering together the few final items we need to pack, purchasing the foreign currency we need, having Macca’s for lunch and planning to give our house a deep clean so we can arrive home to a fresh house.

About four hours before we are meant to depart I realise that I need to check-in to our flight online to save us some extra time at the airport. So I log into the good ol’ Qantas app, enter in all the required passport details and hit enter. To my shock and horror (and definitely through no fault of my own) I see that our selected seats have randomly changed from those which I booked back in February, making Mike and I sit now 11 rows away from each other.

Immediately panic sets in as I dread to think of having to sit sandwiched between two strangers for 17 hours - NO THANK YOU. I attempt to call Qantas only to be greeted with an hour and a half wait time, hang up and instead have a bit of a panic cry as I feel the first of my plans fall away.

Yes, I am always this dramatic.

Anyways, after some reassurance from mum that everything was going to be fine and her advice to pop a quick half a tablet of Valium to take the edge off, we make off for the airport at around 3.30pm with my lovely mother driving us in. She tries to give me reassurance that everything was going to be fine and that it wasn’t the end of the world, as much as I was convinced that it was.

Fortunately a lovely Qantas woman was immediately able to assist us and solved our issue, getting Mike and I sitting back together again. CRISIS AVERTED.

We are the first ones to arrive at the gate after a smooth security check and settle in for the wait, either playing phone games or watching Friends reruns. Finally just after 6pm we are called forward to board the flight and before we know it, we are on our way.

I personally found the direct flight to be somewhat of a breeze, however this was likely due to the fact I managed to get around 5 hours of sleep compared to Mike’s 0.

We arrive in London at around 4:30am, around half an hour earlier than expected. After the longest ever wait at baggage claim, we easily get through customs (because no one was there), get a little lost searching for the train we need to catch, before hopping on the underground heading to our accommodation.

We arrive at our accommodation in Fulham at 7am, and have to use our combined brain power to work out the self check in lock, to which we had been given the incorrect code. When we finally gained entry to the apartment, we finally felt like we could relax and get settled.

Our apartment is small but perfect for just the two of us. We had to practice locking each other out to make sure that the main door lock worked, and the shower/bath requires a bit of a steep climb to get into, but otherwise everything is great.

Not wanting to immediately fall asleep and completely screw up our sleeping patterns, we decide to push through the tiredness and head out in search for second breakfast after an unsatisfying fruit salad that was served on the plane.

We got showered and dressed for the day and hopped on the tube into town. After a packed tube journey (it was morning rush hour), our first stop was at a bakery called “Bread Ahead” where we order two chocolate croissants and a chocolate brownie to share. The bakery is super cute, with a trendy design aesthetic and all it’s cakes and pastries laid out on display on huge cake stands. We head next door to Soho Grind, a coffee bar, where Mike orders a much needed flat white coffee, and I a classic hot chocolate.

We set up camp at a local park and tuck into breakfast. When we were done we started to wander, there were two stores close by that I particularly wanted to check out today so we headed off in the direction of the first - Liberty London.

At this time it is still only 9:30am in the morning, but it feels like it should be mid-afternoon considering we had already been up for around 6 hours before this. We realise that we are too early for the shops, most of which open at either 10 or 11am, so we just continue to wander around for a while. We come across the mega Topshop on Oxford Street and head inside, going to the mens’s section.

As we unpacked this morning, we realised that we stupidly left Mike’s fancy leather jacket at home so he was in need of finding a replacement jacket quickly to avoid wearing his hoodie all the time. We fortunately find for him a perfectly fitting black, felt trench coat. Unfortunately we were dumb and forgot that we would have to now carry this huge Topshop bag around with us all day - great.

After Topshop we walk around a bit more checking out the few other stores hat were open before heading back to Liberty London and begin to explore. We make our way through the levels, admiring the old fashioned architecture and layout and the many quirky items and beautiful clothing ranges that they have in stock. I tell you, if I was a millionaire I would own that store.

We next walk over to Dover Street Market, a really trendy and alternative clothing store, with incredible visual merchandising displays and whose shop assistants all look like models dressed in super eccentric outfits. Here I buy a wallet that I had been eyeing off for several months, and I am finally happy that I have a “showbag” of my own to match Mike.

We loved just walking around the city, all the buildings are so beautifully designed and there was just so much activity going on with people everywhere. Everyone is dressed so stylishly here, not just the women but the men too - it was great to see so much self expression in everyone’s outfits!

Mike was dying from exhaustion and I had subjected him to enough shopping torture, so we headed into a local Five Guys burger store for some lunch. The last time I had Five Guys was in America, and much to my delight, the UK version tasted the exact same as how I remembered it.

After resting our legs for a moment, we set off on our walk to get to Hyde Park. We arrive after about 15 minutes, and begin to walk through gardens that were lush and green and teeming with pigeons and geese. We find these quirky fold out beach chairs to sit on and decided to set up camp for a while just to chill out. However we were approached by a man with an eftpos machine who told us that it was 1.80 pounds to sit in the chairs. To this we laughed and said no way, instead finding a shaded spot on the grass to sit.

After relaxing for a while, we decided to call it quits and head back to our flat, ready to pass out. We first made a stop to our local grocery to stock up on some essentials and are now just sitting in bed, trying to distract ourselves with anything that will keep us awake until 7pm UK time.

Unlikely.

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damagemirror94-blog · 5 years

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Day 3 & 4 of My Bachelorette to Mexico

We're back with the second part of my bachelorette party in Mexico! With this final post I feel like it's really over :( I still hope you enjoy the recap as much as I did!

Day 3:

If you missed day 1 & 2 from the trip, you can catch up by reading this post. We're now on to Saturday of the four-day trip and our last full day in Mexico. We had to wake up really early for our excursion. We met at the buffet around 7am and grabbed all the food we could before we left at 7:20. The original plan was to drive to Cancun, take a boat to Isla Mujeres to snorkel, spend the day at the beach, shop, swim and parasail back to the hotel. But when we woke up that morning it was pretty overcast and super windy.

As it turns out, once we arrived in the lobby they decided to cancel our tour. The water was way too choppy for us to go out and the ports in Cancun closed. I wasn't too disappointed because I'd rather they cancel it early than cancel it once we got to Cancun. So we went back to the buffet for a real sitdown breakfast. I was easily the most overdressed person there lol.

After breakfast, some girls went back to the room to sleep, and others to the pool (like me) to read and hangout. I took a nice little nap as captured by Morgan's photo below haha.

We spent most of the morning at the pool. A few girls went to explore downtown and have a bite to eat. The sun was peaking out here and there but nothing like the day before. Thankfully it was still warm, and the spot where we were in the pool was blocked from a lot of the wind!

Also, this was my favorite look from the trip! I felt so sassy and bridal. It was fun.

There was also a foam party at the pool. Of course I wanted to view it from afar, so we hung out in the pool but far away. It was still super windy so some of the foam bubbles were flying over to us. One of them smacked Caitlin right in the face and it was pretty funny.

Ultimately, we discovered another excursion very similar to the one we were originally going to join. Instead of a full-day it was a half-day and instead of Isla Mujeres, we would go to Cozumel. We decided to go for it. In hindsight, I probably wouldn't do it again but it sure is a fun story to tell! Because the docks were closed in Cancun, we left out of downtown Playa Del Carmen. It was about an hour long ferry ride straight across the ocean. It was still super windy so the dock area was a little crazy. I've never been sea sick like this before! Thankfully the further away from Playa Del Carmen and closer to Cozumel we got, the more the water calmed down.

The excursion was a catamaran tour. I've been on a lot of excursions in my life -- Andrew and I take one or two every trip we go on -- so I can say it wasn't the best, but it also wasn't miserable. If the weather was better and the music louder, it could have been more fun. The sun would pop out here and there and the water was calm enough, but the hosts were kind of "meh" about the whole thing.

What made it fun was having everyone in Lilly! I originally wasn't going to make it a thing, but after we had hopped in the pool in the morning, I thought a quick outfit change could be fun. Lilly Pulitzer was so kind to us for my bachelorette. They gifted all the girls a swimsuit and dress of their choice from their current collection. It was fun to see everyone in their swimsuits and have most of us matching!

One-piece on Jen, Allison and Ashby / Bandeau top on Kim, Morgan and Caitlin & bottom / My one-piece

The first stop was for snorkeling and only Ashby joined. I love to snorkel, but didn't feel like hopping in. Most of the other girls didn't either. I've been to some of the most amazing snorkel spots in the world and I didn't think I'd be missing much at this location.

This is where the trip kind of went dull. It was a very long and drawn out process of getting to the ferry, waiting to get on the boat, waiting to leave, waiting to get to the snorkel spot, waiting an hour at this spot, going all the way back to the other side of the island to swim ... everything was just long. And a lot of us were tired. The weather wasn't nice either.

BUT THEN it all turned around when we got to our next spot. They docked the boat and said this was a great place to swim. Me, my sister, Ashby, Caitlin and Morgan were going to jump in, but when we got there, no one really felt like it. We were sitting around and playing games (starving also btw lol) and then the sun popped out. And it stayed!

It was really nice and I really had to pee (haha), so I jumped in. We all banded together and said, "If you jump in, I'll jump in." So my sister, Caitlin and I decided to go for it. Morgan joined at the last minute and we all jumped off the front of the boat into the warm blue water!

This was the best part of the day! We had SO much fun in the water. We were laughing and flashing the girls on the boat and being so silly. We had a wonderful time. The sun stayed out, the food came and it was like a whole new burst of life. It was a lot of fun as we went back to the docks to catch the ferry back to the hotel.

The waters were fine and the sun was setting. And then we got closer to the Playa Del Carmen dock...

The next part of this story turns into a drama. The sun had completely set by the time we reached the dock. We all looked around the boat, and it was tipping from side to side. We were parallel with the waves as we waited for the other ferry to leave the dock. We were getting thrown around pretty good. Then we tried to dock.

These waves were NO JOKE and were hitting the boat hard. These poor guys out on the dock are trying to wrangle in the ferry as they're being hit by the waves and pulled by the ropes. It was crazy. The waves were so big they were reaching the second floor. One even came up to the third deck and drenched a bunch of people sitting behind us.

The mentality on the boat was pretty much, "Kids and elders get off first." The stairs to get off were packed with people so we decided to wait it out. As we're seeing the boat get thrown around by these waves and people flying around, it clicked: we need to get off this boat ASAP. Honestly, I was surprised they even docked. It was NOT safe, but there was no way I was staying on that ferry or going back to Cozumel. We needed to get home.

We made a bolt for it. Ashby and I got off first and it was a race to run off the boat. They had workers holding us back until it was safe, then they were yelling "big steps!" and "move fast!" as we ran off. It got pretty scary at the end of it all. When Ashby and I made it to land we hugged and jumped and were like, "Let's get the F out of here."

Everyone made it off safely in our group, although Allison gave us a scare. The bridge from the ferry to the dock swung her left and right before she jumped off. It was crazy and scary and funny. How did we let ourselves get in this situation?!

We were supposed to be back around 7pm, but didn't arrive until around 9pm. Thankfully everyone was a trooper and we decided to quickly get ready for dinner and put on our Lilly for our last night.

Dresses from Left to Right: Allison, Catherine, Ashby, Kim, Me, Caitlin, Morgan, Jen

I think I got ready in record time and we headed to the last restaurant we hadn't eaten at yet. I think it was an Italian/seafood place. We all got drunk quickly because we could feel ourselves still rocking from the ferry. It was a wonderful last dinner and we ended up closing the place down (and ordering about three meals each lol).

We wandered a bit after dinner looking for dessert, but 11pm on Saturday night was a dead time for the hotel. It was so weird! We went back to the room to play more games and have some fun girl time before leaving the next morning.

Day 4:

Sunday morning we all met for brunch at the buffet and yet again stuffed our faces lol. Morgan, Catherine and Jen had early flights, so soon after brunch they were off to the airport. Caitlin and I got ready in our room to take some blog photos. Ashby was at the pool and would help when we were ready to shoot. My sister and Allison went into town to do some shopping.

Sunday was another overcast, humid day, so I didn't mind leaving! After we were done shooting, we packed up our bags, hung by the pool a bit longer and then were off to the airport.

The rest of the day was spent traveling home and watching GOT! Nothing overly exciting. Just a no-fuss travel day. All in all it was an amazing bachelorette and I cannot thank my friends enough for such a wonderful weekend. I'm so sad that it's over. But I'm happy I can stop stressing over it! Honestly, I want to go back asap.

What does make me really excited when I think about it was how well everyone got along. Not that I was worried about that, but it's so wonderful having your friends come together like we did. It meant the world to me! It's great because we'll all be reunited again (except for Catherine, she's dead to me!!!) at the wedding.

Now I'm on to planning our couples shower which is happening in less than a month!!

-----

You guys also sent in some questions via Instagram stories that I wanted to help answer for you as well:

Peak and pit from the day?

Pit was the weather not being amazing 100% of the time. Peak was the girls!!

What would you do differently?

I keep going back and forth, but probably the excursion. Did you go into town? Did you feel safe? I never did, but a lot of the girls did and said it felt totally safe. What was your favorite part of the trip? Gingham night! It was really fun to see it come together like it did and it was just a very me way to celebrate. How did you decide on location? How did you decide where to go? You can find a detailed story about this in my Q&A bachelorette party post. Are you glad you opened it up to friends? Yes! Especially since I technically only have one bridesmaid. How did everyone get along? Everyone got along really well! I don't deal with dramatic people in my life, so I wasn't worried about this at all.

How did your makeup hold up? It was great! I'm doing a new routine that I LOVE and it worked like a dream.

Did you use a travel agent/were you able to get any deals through the blog or for being a larger group? No, we just booked directly through their website. My sister was able to get a discount because she was a Hilton rewards member, and we booked/paid right away with no option to cancel.

Average cost for the trip? I honestly don't remember what I paid. But outside the reservation and excursion (which was $100 pp) there were no other costs.

Pros and cons of the hotel? Pros -- all-inclusive, great staff and a fun time Cons -- drinks were weak

Who planned what for the trip? I like to think I was involved with pretty much all of the trip's planning. I gave input but the coordination of most everything else was my sister (MOH).

How did you coordinate outfits? Caitlin emailed everyone in advance saying that we were having a gingham night. Everyone was aware and had time to shop. Lilly let everyone pick out an outfit and swimsuit for the trip as well (that will be tomorrow's post). They knew we'd be wearing that for one night.

How did you convince friends to join due to timing and price? I didn't really need to convince them. I feel like since we're older and have money (vs. right out of college) it wasn't an issue. It just so happened we found a weekend that worked for everyone. The price, being that it was an all-inclusive was too good to pass up!

Most thoughtful thing the girls did for you? I really liked the marriage game and how they each had a little part of putting it together!

How detail oriented were you with scheduling the weekend? I was super chill about what we did and when we did it. No plans other than a gingham night, an excursion and a Lilly night. It was all up to us when we did what.

How was the beach? We actually didn't end up going. Well, I didn't! A few girls dipped their toes in the first day. Playa Del Carmen isn't really known for their beaches. I heard from hotel staff it was super rocky!

And if you missed it, here is a link to Day 1 & 2, here is more information on our trip and a large Q&A on it, here are all the links to my outfits and here is what I gave the girls on the trip.

Source: http://www.coveringbases.com/2019/04/day-3-4-of-my-bachelorette-to-mexico.html

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holisticpassport · 7 years

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The Path to Perth.

I’m actually being semi decent about posting weekly updates! It helps when the events that are happening are positive because I want to share as opposed to dreading writing about negative things that I don’t want to remind myself about. Let’s start with work!

I started work at Five66 Café on Flinders Street (the main street downtown across from the central train station). It’s a cute little café ran by an Indian family that’s conveniently located in front of a tour group departure meetup point, so I meet people from all over the world every shift! The 6am wakeup time was brutal the first week but my body is finally used to it… too used to it because now I wake up every day at 6am instead of just the 3 days I need to. Oh well. I kind of do a bit of everything there, but focus on the coffees. I was doing a pretty crap job my first day, but woman I work with took the time to show me how to properly froth milk for each type of coffee so I feel much better about it now. Only thing is the pay is SO low. Like illegally low that I can make the same amount of money in half the time at my waitress job. I work hard and put in the hours if I feel valued as an employee, and making $13 an hour (when the minimum is supposed to be $20), I’m not sure I can stay at it for very long-- will be searching for something else. My waitress gig is going well though. Feel like I can handle the fast paced work now, and I love the girls I work with! Wish I could get more hours there. They’re closed this week for renovations, but I’m getting some cocktail training today so that should be fun.

Life at the hostel is pretty good. The staff are getting to know me, the social vibe is awesome, there’s always stuff to do every night at the basement bar, a movie room to chill out in, and all of my roomies have been quiet and respectful. I was on a top bunk for a week right next to the door, so every time it opened the light from the hall would wake me up. I haven’t been getting a lot of deep sleep. I’ve felt it too because I’m on the verge of being sick, but that’s also because I haven’t been eating healthy, started drinking again because I’m in that social vibe, and being really active. I’ll work on getting my health back in check this week.

Over the weekend, I worked Wednesday through Sunday 10-12 hours each day and the military guy I met at the pub crawl came back to town so we could attend White Night together (a cultural/art festival that goes from 7am to 7pm with the whole downtown area participating). I certainly regretted staying out until 4am with work at 7am, but still had a lot of fun. And as far as the guy goes, nothing could come from it because he was moving to Cairns (hella far North), but people come into your life for a reason. A friend of mine said the people we meet are mirrors; they show the most present/relevant part of ourselves right now. I think I met him because I’ve finally begun to enjoy who I am and in turn found someone who equally enjoyed those parts about me that I used to think were crazy like being obsessed with Harry Potter, eating raw cookie dough, and aspiring to live a life like Alexander Supertramp (aka Into the Wild guy). If nothing else, I have memories of Spanish dancing, making a pact to make the next 10 years of our lives the best yet, and 5am tram rides talking about politics, open relationships, and playing guitar for each other. White Night consisted of going back to the creepy hospital bar (which I finally learned is called The Croft Institute), watching a live swing band and dancers perform, eating drunken sushi, and observing a light show on the walls of Finders Station.

On Monday night, the hostel was hosting bingo karaoke (karaoke songs on the sheets and when he plays them, if you knew the lyrics you could sing it to get a free shot). Well you all know me and singing…. So that was a fun night. But went to bed at midnight because I had an early rise for some adventures the next day at 8am with a group of 4 other people to the Grampians National Park. It’s about a three-hour drive west of Melbourne, and it was the most perfect temperature, clear day we could have asked for. We stopped off at Boruka viewing cliff, The Balconies, and McKenzie Waterfalls. This was by far the most beautiful place I’ve probably ever seen in my life. I wish we could have stayed for a sunset. I will hopefully get back there again before I leave AU.

Speaking of leaving AU, because I’m embracing this whole living week by week thing, my mind is swirling with ideas of where to go next and what to ultimately do. I’m really aiming for farm work (as I made a connection with a girl on that trip), and can make the money I need in order to be able to go back to Europe this summer. I also don’t want to stay at this café job which will cut my money down in half, and I can’t afford to stay at this hostel anymore. So need to make some moves! I could wait it out another month and do the prawn ship thing, but I don’t know if that offer is still on the table.

On Wednesday I went out to Leonard’s House of Love (no, it’s not what you think). It’s a quirky hipster dive bar off a main street with cheap beers, and I chatted with a girl from work after cocktail training. We talked everything and anything (I’m sensing a common theme with politics when I start drinking… I must be passionate about it or something). Then I went to my old host’s house for dinner to see the kids again since I didn’t them before I moved out, and it was lovely.

**Update 2 days later** I quit the café because it was already bumming me out and the pay just wasn’t worth it. In doing so, it gave me the whole week off because of renovations at the restaurant. I had some time to organize my bags, get rid of stuff, grab a coffee/go for a swim with a friend, and really think about my next moves. Because I’ve done so much in and around the surrounding area of Melbourne except Wilsons Prom, I feel like I’ve seen what I wanted to and gotten what I needed out of my time here. There’s just been a gnawing feeling that it’s time to move on and begin elsewhere. I thought about going up to Sydney to see some friends, do some sight-seeing and try to find farm work up there. I was about to book a flight/care rental, but intuition said that specific place wasn’t right. But I did still need to go somewhere else. I woke up this morning and received an offer for farm work in Shepparton, but the pay was even more abysmal than the café! Then I ran across a posting on a Facebook page for people new Melbourne, and there was a hippy bus leaving on Tuesday for a 4 week trip to Perth (Western Australia). My stomach began fluttering with butterflies and I knew that was it. I wrote to them to see if they had any more seats available, they did, and I booked my spot. I’ve really been embracing the impulsive Aries side of me because the battle with the practical Taurus side of me was getting old and everyone has an opinion, but in the end it’s my life. A lot of people don’t listen to their intuition and just TRUST that everything is going to work out how it’s supposed to. I don’t think I’ve ever been genuinely happier in my life now that I’m past all the bullshit and it’s because I’ve put an emphasis on relying upon myself for happiness; my newest motto is “if you aren’t absolutely obsessed with your life, then change it”. Ironically I’m financially the poorest I’ve ever been, but money is just money. Some are enslaved by it and others believe our government is going to fall apart any second so it wont matter anyway (Or just wishful thinking so I don’t have to pay back student loans. It’s good to dream.) Today, I’m buying a tent and sleeping bag, selling a ton of clothes, and also getting ready for my final trip tomorrow… to Wilsons Prom!

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fritomonster · 7 years

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That One Time I was Institutionalized

I don’t know how to start this story. I had a fancy, poetic post thought out in my mind, with bits like “falling in love is parasitic” and “how does one fix a problem when they are the problem” and “depression lies, but persuasively so.”

But you know what? Fuck that. I’m tired. The medication I’ve been taking the last few days has made me physically weaker. I don’t have the strength or the patience for introspection or explaining why I ended up in a psych ward to begin with. So here’s just the facts. This is what it was like being there.

I was admitted to The Ridgeview Institute at 5AM on January 13th, 2017. We got in around 11PM the previous night, but there was only 1 clinician on staff (and a line of other patients), so it took forever.

Once they met with me, they took my vitals, including a breathalyzer, and went over the events that led me there. I had been suicidal, so they wanted to know about the stressors in my life.

Then they assessed whether they thought I not only was a good fit, but which ward I should stay in. I was technically assigned to General Psych (which I’m told they just medicate you and you’re done), but they were full so I went to Women’s Trauma. That meant I was with women that suffered from anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and PTSD, among other problems. That particular ward also focused on therapy, as well as medication.

Next I was strip searched and had to hand over whatever items I brought with me. Certain things were withheld (anything with alcohol as an ingredient, electronics, phones, wallets, etc.). I had to hand over anything with strings or laces as well, but more on that in a moment. Items meant for hygiene were stored in a locked closet for once-a-day use; personal valuables were kept in an inaccessible safe. Everything was given back to me at discharge, and it was all documented just in case they missed something.

I was escorted to the ward via security van. They took my vitals again and gave me a really brief orientation (lacking severely in my case). Normally you get a room and a roommate if the place is filled, but I was on suicide watch. That meant anything I could potentially hurt myself with, like drawstring pajama pants and laced shoes, was confiscated. They also took my mattress out of my room and had me sleep in the hallway (in line of site of the nurses). I also wasn’t allowed to leave that specific area, and if I was, I had to be escorted at all times.

The day began at 6:30AM for morning vitals. We were allowed to go back to sleep until 8AM after that, but most used that time to either use the phones (open 7AM - 8AM), do laundry, or take care of their morning dress routines. Access to our rooms stopped at 8AM regardless. Doors were locked until 8PM.

The first thing we did past 8AM was fill out a “diary card,” which was a worksheet describing whether we had destructive urges, if we acted on those urges, what triggered those urges, and how we felt emotionally. Once that was done, we had breakfast.

Eating in that particular ward was carefully done. Since ED patients were involved, we couldn’t talk about calories, weight, ingredients, etc. They also had dietitians set up meal plans. Thankfully, I didn’t have to worry about that, but I still had to be very conscious when I eventually got cafeteria privileges and brought back some dessert.

After breakfast, we met for a group review of our diary cards. We’d also share our goal for the day and if the goal from the day before had been met. This included day-goers in the partial hospitalization program (PHP). They’d be on campus between 8:45AM and 3PM.

Immediately after was the first group of the day - usually a focus group. Things like art therapy, a lecture, or a workshop. Sharing was limited, but still encouraged. Most of them involved a specific theme, like shame, guilt, types of attachment, etc. Many things were topics I learned about as a Psychology minor in college.

There were also family visits, some that required a group and some that didn’t. The family groups were focus groups. Coincidentally, the first group I attended was a family group that happened to go over the very reason I ended up in the damn place. CODEPENDENCY!

Then we’d get a snack break! And a smoke break for those who smoked (more patients did than didn’t).

Then came process group. This was the touchy-feely, bare-your-soul group therapy you’d expect when you hear the term group therapy. It took some time for me to warm up to it, but it was incredibly refreshing once I really participated. I made a lot of valuable connections with other patients. A lot of new friends. It was certainly helpful to hear that, even if our experiences were different, we felt the same in many ways. However, at the end of the day, I couldn’t always talk about what I wanted to talk about, and the feedback was more general than personalized. I prefer 1-on-1 therapy as a result.

Then came lunch time! Depending on whether we were to be checked every 15 minutes or every 30 minutes (level I and level II respectively), we either ate predetermined meals sent up from the kitchens or got to go to the cafeteria. I got bumped off of suicide watch after the first day, then off of level I watches after about 2 more. Finally being able to get out of the ward (fresh air) made cafeteria time soooo nice. The extra selections were nice too. I had taco casserole 1 night and would highly recommend it.

After lunch came a mini focus group, followed by a full focus group. The former was split into 2 sections based on why we were admitted: nutrition and meal planning or trauma. Sometimes the second group would follow that pattern as well.

Snack time came around again, then some free time and dinner at 5PM. Then more free time, another snack, and finally free time until 11PM. That was final call for bed.

Free time consisted of: television, puzzles, card games, lounging on couches, talking with other patients, board games, staring off into nothingness, coloring, reading, or having complete meltdowns. For the most part, we talked over card games.

Phones opened up again at 7PM until 10:30PM. We could shower (with access to the valuables closet) between 8PM and 9PM. It was really quiet mostly during this time, because people were waiting for the phones (there were only 2, depending on which assistants were working the front desk - some would let us use the desk phones).

Throughout the day at no specific time, psychiatrists would come to the ward to meet with every patient every single day. Thankfully, I really liked my doctor (he dressed like a dapper, little old man and was both attentive and soft spoken). We discussed why I was admitted, what I’ve been doing while there (EVERYTHING you do is recorded for them to see, from participation to napping), medications, when it looked like I’d be discharged, etc.

This information was then given to the case managers. They kept tabs of our personal progress and acted as counselors. They’d meet with us regularly as well and were in charge of our actual discharge based on the doctor’s advice.

On the weekends, a lot of the structure got cut out and we were left to keep ourselves busy. Unfortunately that meant I was bored. A lot. Especially since it was a long holiday weekend.

Personally, it was all very tolerable. Enjoyable even when I clicked well with the others. But there was also always an air of anxiety that surrounded us. And there were plenty of moments (especially during free time) that I’d dwell on the negatives or want to go home.

In the end, we weren’t allowed to leave with the doctor’s blessing until we had both therapist and psychiatrist appointments on the books. Which I have. I start therapy Monday, hopefully 3-4 times a week (I don’t know if 5 days is realistic).

I want to get better. The medications are working. So I guess it was worth it. Now we wait and see...

P.S. There was a really entertaining/heartwarming moment when myself and 3 other girls realized everyone at the table was gay. It was great! I made new friends! Now I’m just waiting for them to get discharged so they get their phones back!

#Rambling #Mental Health #Mental Illness #Depression #Suicide

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oneplusoneistwins · 5 years

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A look into my every day life with two 6 month old twins! . . .

Wake up : 7am-8:30am

• Babies play with their toys/ drink a couple oz of a bottle depending on when they ate in the middle of the night, or I wait a little bit till their hungry.

• I usually make my coffee during this time and relax for a couple mins watching tv.

Breakfast : Between 9am-10:30am I put them in their high chairs in the kitchen and they watch me make their oatmeal. I make about a cup of baby oatmeal for them to share and mix it with puréed banana or apples.

• Babies eat and I play Disney songs on our Alexa and if they start to get antsy I play the baby shark video because let’s be real... my kids always need to be entertained of some sort and I need them to finish their breakfast 😆

Bottle time: I make about 4 oz in each bottle and put them in our twin boppy, they usually don’t finish and start to get really fussy so then it’s siesta time!

Nap time: 10:30am-11:30am I try to put them down for nap. They sleep in the same crib feet to feet and I wrap them up in these little sleep sacks and give them their pacifiers and then turn on their Hatch nightlight/sound machine and they usually fall asleep within a few minutes.

• During their nap I usually do housework like unloading the dish washer, throwing diapers away, vacuuming, throwing in/folding/putting away laundry, making the bed, and making some breakfast.

Wake up: They usually only sleep for about 45 mins- 1 hour, and then it’s time to play again.

• During this time I am usually still doing housework while they play and I try to read them a few books and play with them too.

Lunch time: They usually eat some lunch between 12:30-2pm it just depends how hungry or fussy they are. I give them some puréed veggies or fruit and they usually share a jar of food or a little bit more.

•After they eat they either play for another hour or I try and go on my two mile walk with them through our neighborhood! We live in Marina right next to my school CSU Monterey Bay and live in the off campus family housing and there are so many pretty places to walk! We have a park right across the street and a garden in our court, but I usually walk to the dog park which is less than half a mile and there a couple parks beyond that one that I walk by until I get to a mile. Then I turn back around to go home, and it usually takes me 45 mins round trip if I’m walking steady.

• I love walking though because I usually put in my headphones and walk up and down these little hills and it’s so peaceful with all the trees and flowers and just clears my head for the day! The babies are usually napping in their stroller the whole time which is also great. I take this time to just reflect and pray, and just thank God for all our blessings.

• After breaking a bit of a mom sweat and getting home I usually feed the babies a bottle or they play for a bit more.

Dinner time: Then around 5pm-6pm I feed them some baby oatmeal about half a cup and mix it with puréed fruit as well.

Bath time: After they are done making a mess I get the baby bath ready and take one baby and put her in her bouncer in their room next to the bathroom. Then I take the other baby and give her a bath and get her jammies on. Then I switch them and get the next bath ready and give her a bath and put her jammies on. Then I make them some bottles and they eat. (This is so tiring btw)

Bedtime: 7pm-8pm they usually go down pretty easy in their little sleep sacks and pacifiers. They either fuss for a bit and I have to give them their pacifiers a couple times or they go straight to sleep. (I never rocked them to sleep when they were newborns because they slept so easy but the past couple months I had to rock them to sleep, but this past month I stopped rocking them to sleep because they are so dang heavy now!)

Me time: Then I usually make some dinner and do more housework and I FINALLY get to relax ! Depending on when my husband gets home we eat some dinner together and watch movies or I wait for him to come home between 11pm-12am . It’s never an early night for me!

• I go to bed around 11:30pm-12:30am and then the babies kind of wake up whenever they are hungry again which is either between 2am- 4am. I get up and feed them and then they go back to sleep and then I start all over again!

• Exciting right?! Lol I am very excited for school to start next month because I will finally have some real time to myself and really get out of the house for a little while. I’m gonna miss my babies so much but I have waited almost 8 months to get back to school!

Anyway, if you made it this far, thank you for reading! I thought it might be nice for moms to read into my schedule each day and maybe soon to be twin moms see how I juggle it! I must say I have come a long way... I get a lot more sleep than I used to and I finally can get a lot of stuff done around the house because they are starting to play with each other and their toys.

The things missing from this schedule are all the diaper changes (about 25 per day), the screaming that occurs when they are hungry, tired, or just want mommy to hold them. The teething and giving them freezer teethers and cold pacifiers. All the times I heat up my coffee and forget that it’s in the microwave, eating cold food because I’m just that hungry, all the interruptions during my housework, finding time to shower when they are sleeping and hoping they don’t wake up, rinsing the messy bibs and clothes before putting them in the wash, poop explosions, changing their outfits 2-3 times per day, yelling at the dogs to stop barking at the neighbors, taking a second to drink a glass of water and so so much more...

My life is pretty much tiring as hell but I love my babies so damn much I can’t stand it. I cherish all the smiles and laughs I get all day long and all the kisses and hugs I give them. I cherish them staring at me in awe while I sing to them baby shark and Frozen. I cherish cuddling up next to my husband when we get in bed together and both our dogs sleeping at my feet. I cherish yummy dinners and hot showers that are uninterrupted and so so much more.

Thank you for reading,

Xoxo tired and happy twin mommy 💓💓

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remembermemorablememories · 5 years

Text

Friday, February 1, 2019

post #389

main points:

- went for another blood test (second one)

- long shower

- started watching netflix’s show “explained” and leftover hoagie for lunch

- learned wii fit trainer for smash

- played smash online for... 4 hours

- packing for chicago/seattle

- dinner with the fam at e. buffet without sheena :’(

- fortnite with bryan/josh (attempted but servers down)

- smash doubles with sheena

today i:

- woke up at 7:45 ish when my dad woke me up. i had my alarm set for 8am

i quickly got out of bed, grabbed my blood test papers and then took the car to leave. i needed to go asap cause my mom needed the car to drive to work

- went to the lab and waited for about 10 minutes after checking in. then got called in by the same woman who took my blood last time. her assistant wasn’t there this time though. i asked her to do it on my right arm this time cause i think my left arm is still recovering. this time she didn’t have to wiggle it around, it was a quick in and out and done drawing blood within 30 seconds

- drove back home and got back around 9am. my mom took the car and drove out to work. then i chilled for a while, watching some youtube videos. daniela andrade made a new song!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7fl5ATu5vw

- took a long shower from 9:30-10:30am

- started my laundry so that i could pack it for later tonight

- i called BU to figure out my student account inquiry cause they were still charging me for an apartment plan even though i graduated. the person on the phone said the payment will be cleared by 5pm today so i was like oh okay cool

- went downstairs to eat lunch which was my leftover chicken salad hoagie and fries. and then i browsed netflix and found a show called “explained”, which was a collab with vox. i forgot i wanted to watch this from a while back. i watched the first episode on music, which was super cool to learn and watch. i love it it’s like vox videos but 5 times longer. they’re usually 4-5 minutes but each episode is 20 minutes

- around 1pm i decided to try to learn a new character so i just randomly picked... wii fit trainer. i watched tkbreezy’s video on it at 1.5x speed. it was 38 minutes long and i spent like 25 minutes watching it/practicing in training mode

then i played online and got wii fit trainer to elite smash. then i was like... hmm i guess i’ll try to get ike into elite smash. then that worked pretty quickly. i got lucky i think. cause i got matched up against relatively bad/okay ish players so even though i didn’t practice ike, i was doing okay. then i was like... i guess i’ll try dedede. then got him into elite smash. learning dedede was very weird. also got lucky cause i wasn’t playing that well honestly. but the other players weren’t too great either and i got through and won. he has such a weird style of gameplay. then got inkling into elite smash. that was not too bad cause i played him before on the alt acc to elite smash. also i played against this really good ness, it was super fun. we kept saying “well played.” “good fight!” and other friendly taunts. elite smash cutoff right now is like 3.5mil GSP and most of the characters i have started around 3.2mil GSP

- started packing around 5pm. it was snowing all afternoon so i was gonna go outside to shovel some snow (it was like an inch maybe?) but dad came home around 4:30pm and created some basic paths. so i was like oh okay i’ll just go pack then

packed up all my clothes, drone and camera stuff

- went upstairs and wasn’t sure what to do so i tried to play falco to get him to elite smash. falco is... so weird compared to smash 4. he’s completely changed and i kind of don’t really like it. his jump is so sensitive, i can’t short hop consistently. also his moves feel so different from smash 4 >:( i played from 6-7pm. around 6:50pm i got kind of sick of playing so much smash today and was gonna take a break and watch another episode of explained, but mom came home so we were like okay dinner time

- we were gonna go to a steakhouse near us for dinner. sheena stayed after school for rehearsal and went to eat dinner with her friends. when we got to the steakhouse, the wait was 45 minutes.. so we were like, i guess we could just go to e. buffet, so we went there instead :p i ate more fried foods this time cause i was feeling more americanized food. like chicken fingers, fries, etc. nice filling meal

- got back home, took a shower and cut my nails

- i hopped on discord to play fortnite with bryan and josh around 9:30pm. chris also joined too. but then we tried to start the game and they said the servers were down for emergency maintenance... rip. we tried to play survive.io but it was only 50v50 and no squads :o

i started typing up this blog post while chatting on discord. we were just trying to figure out what other games to play. sheena just came back around 10pm and we’re gonna play some smash doubles and then i’m gonna go to sleep

gotta wake up at 7am tomorrow morning!

it’s 10:36pm and sheena’s playing solos right now with zelda but i’m gonna join her in doubles

also health update: had bowel movement in the morning and one at night. both times small ish stools but at least no watery stuff. but when i wipe there’s some watery-ness to it :o idk what that means

okay the end. trip begins tomorrow!

#post #normal #february #2019 #health

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