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oveliagirlhaditright · 3 years

Text

Teasing

https://archiveofourown.org/works/33451297

“Neku, do you miss my being a redhead?” Shiki asks after Neku had gotten back to her in the RG after three years. And what Neku had thought was pillow talk with Shiki, might be the result of an underlying issue there.

“Neku, do you miss my being a redhead?” Shiki asked, nearly as soon as Neku had gotten back to her.

The two of them were chilling in Shiki’s apartment when she said it, even though Neku was pretty sure he had his own one too, thanks to Joshua—and memories of another self to somewhat go along with that place—but for now, it still felt more natural to be at Shiki’s. More real.

And, well… to say that they were just chilling was a bold face lie, Neku allowed. The two of them had gotten done making love just a little while ago, and it had been… amazing? Spectacular? Perfect?

All those cheesy things that people said about sleeping with their supposed soulmate: Neku thought that was what it had been like to be together with Shiki. And he wouldn’t trade it for the world. And he knew she wouldn’t, either.

But since then, the two of them had eventually sort of ended up doing their own thing, as the day had gone on—not awkwardly, like they were ignoring each other or bored of each other—but since Neku knew you had to be pretty close to someone to be able to sort of split off during your hangouts, and still be good friends (or more of course, since he and Shiki were definitely that). And he and Shiki could definitely manage it. But then, they’d always had a good sync rate, huh?

…Which was why Neku was so flustered by her sudden question now, as he sat on her bed with her. Neku had thought that Shiki was wrapped up with her fashion magazines, like he was with this tin pin game on his phone. But Shiki couldn’t have put up a guise in reading them—while deep down, she was upset about something—could she have?

Neku decided to go for the lighter approach in broaching the topic here. And really… he didn’t think Shiki was being too serious, anyway. So, he pulled her from the foot of the bed, and back closer to him and kissed the crown of her head once. “Of course not, Chic. I knew you were a brunette from before!”

“Yeah…” Shiki trailed off now, as she fidgeted with her hair that she had just cut recently shorter, “but we didn’t get to spend that much time together before… I worried that maybe Game-me would have been stuck on your mind. And sometimes, people think couples with the same-colored hair look good together for some reason. I don’t know. I probably am just being silly here.

“But fiery redheads are a thing. You’re that, Neku. And maybe I still am, I don’t know—even without my hair matching who I am—but would you miss me if I’m now not as blunt, as when I was trying to be Eri?”

“Clearly,” Neku argued—pulling Shiki underneath him now, so she couldn’t escape him and would have to look into his eyes and see only truth there, while he smoothed her hair back—“if you don’t think brunettes are fiery in their own right, you don’t know how scary you all can be, in being so smart and knowing everything.”

And when Shiki laughed at that, Neku kissed her nose afterwards to make her giggle even more… and maybe it was even a reward to him, for his getting her to laugh, that he allowed himself to kiss her nose. Because Neku thought that you couldn’t have a nose as fucking cute as Shiki’s one, and not kiss it.

“But in all seriousness,” Neku rued now, being somewhat bold and placing kisses onto Shiki’s arms now, however you want to look is fine by me. I, uhh… love you for your soul, I think. Especially since I can read those now. So don’t ever change that, please.”

And while Neku had started out that last confession to Shiki so well, he’d somewhat tripped at the finish line there, and was being like his fifteen-year-old self again, in awkwardly running a hand through his hair and wanting to avert his eyes from her now. Even after everything. Oh, well. Some things would come with time, Neku knew, and that was fine. He had had three years stolen from him, after all…

And Shiki was really chortling now, before she wrapped her arms around Neku’s neck to bring him in for another kiss. And who was he to complain?

Shiki tasted like strawberry bubblegum… and kissing her was like having had vertigo your whole life, but finally having your world righted when you were with her... or being told that you had a terminal illness, but that now you had the chance to live—as you looked into chocolate eyes of such warmth and life themselves—and Neku could never get enough of it. And it was certainly the case now.

He was loath to pull away for air. But Neku ended up being glad that he did, when Shiki immediately began joking with him again: “If we don’t care about looks in this relationship, does this mean you’ll look however I want you to? Like, bald, perhaps… or with blue skin, from putting on that one sunscreen that turns your skin that color… and with you wearing a floatie as shorts?”

And now it was Neku’s turn to guffaw. And he rolled off of Shiki as he did so, to make sure that he wouldn’t hurt her with his weight, as be absolutely lost it here. But they’d both heard recently that Hishima was thinking of going bald… and Neku had seen those commercials for that kind of suntan lotion in the 90’s… And, hey. He had to wear a floatie in the most recent Game once—and had told Shiki about it—and she’d never let him live it down. Leave it to Shiki to make a joke out of all of that, and to leave him dying, trying to catch a breath of air.

Thankfully, Shiki was very much an angel now—gently breathing into Neku’s face, so he might catch his breath—and calmly holding his shaking form until it calmed down.

With all that settled, Neku reached up and moved a strand of stray hair out of his lovely girlfriend’s face and continued their day: “I’ll even let you take my shirt this time, instead of my pants, if we end up in the UG again, Stalker. How’s that sound?”

And Shiki hummed, satisfied at that, as the two of them laid back down together again, while the sun started setting through the window and Shiki began using Neku’s chest as a pillow.

He had the most content feeling in the world at that, as she began drawing circles on him, that almost had him humming, as well.

“And a very good thing that you’re giving me that, Neku, since we’re sexually active now. I may want your shirt off all the time and might take advantage of this if we ever wind up in the UP again.”

“Tch. ‘A very good thing I’m giving you that’, indeed,” Neku echoed back to his girl, and thinking that he probably sounded a little bit like Rindo while doing so. Or maybe even Joshua.

And Neku had wanted to come up with a better snipe towards Shiki than that—since that was apparently what they were doing right now: like week one of their Game, but for fun now, and with their hearts in harmony with each other—but he instead thought better of it and kissed Shiki’s hand. “And… thank you for that, Shiki. Thank you for you.”

“Mmm. And thank you for everything, Neku!”

And there was really nothing better they could do or say than that, was there? Especially not when they were getting tired here, as it was getting late for these midnight owls.

So, it really was just another perfect day in the RG.

Author’s Note: This came out a little different than I planned. With them being more playful than I’d imagined… maybe because I’m writing this late and am sleep deprived.

Oh, well. They deserve this fun. Hope you all enjoy it!

Happy NeShiki Day!

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dustedmagazine · 3 years

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Ian Mathers’ 2020: We’re stuck inside our own machines

I’ve had a song I loved in high school and haven’t thought much about since stuck in my head. The song “Apparitions” by the Matthew Good Band is a fine example of the alt rock of the late 90s; if you grew up then but somewhere down in the states (or elsewhere) instead of my southern Ontario you may well have your regional equivalents, and like this one they may not resonate terribly strongly outside of their time and place. It popped back into my head after a long time recently and of course 2020 has changed it a little. A song that as a teen I felt keenly as about loneliness (albeit also about how technology can feed into that) of course now plays on my nerves as another small piece of art about the way that most of us (those scared and/or responsible anyway) have only that relatively narrow, technologically mediated connection to the people we love. All of us, artists and listeners alike, are trying to fit our feelings and art and selves down these little connections, with some success.

On a personal level, 2020 wound up being stressful in ways we couldn’t have predicted even after the pandemic hit. In circumstances that could have seen governments on this continent support those unable to work (and those who shouldn’t have to), support those workers who are truly essential, support workers and renters and even landlords and small businesses, instead we got a near-total abeyance of those governments using the resources we provide them with to save any of us. On a personal level my wife and I were lucky enough to be able to work from home (not that it didn’t come with its own forms of stress, and now that I’m off until January I have several work/stress-related illnesses to recover from) but still saw friends and loved ones lose good, used-to-be-sustainable livings overnight, saw family businesses succumb to a near-total absence of effective government support after months of trying to keep above water, etc.

It is probably no surprise that this is not a situation conducive to listening to music, let alone writing about it; I have deliberately and happily kept busy on behind the scenes stuff at Dusted that I could still manage but looking, at the end of the year, at the amount I managed to actually create is demoralizing if not at all shocking. I’m not sure I think next year will be ‘better’ in many important ways, although at our job there is a growing feeling among coworkers that next year has to have some work/life balance because 2020 was, maybe more than anything else, unsustainable.

That’s not to say I didn’t spend a lot of time and emotion on music this year, and if nothing else constant sleep deprivation, stress, and panic meant I was probably open to being deeply moved by all sorts of art even more than normally (it’s gotten to the point where I can’t even read a sad or moving twitter thread out loud to my wife without getting teary, which is kind of… nice?). Funnily enough the band that did the most to keep me sane didn’t really put out anything in 2020. Personal favorite, Low, instead started, in early April, getting on Instagram with something they called on whim “It’s Friday I’m in Low.” With one brief break they have now done by my count at least 35 shows (catalogued here, by the way), every Friday at about 4 my time.

Admittedly it’s easier for Low to pull this off than some bands, since the 2/3 of the trio that sing are a married couple (they’ve had a couple of socially-distanced backyard shows with bassist Steve Garrington, but he’s mostly been isolating elsewhere). These shows have seen the band’s Alan Sparhawk take a mid-set break to do follow-up phone interviews with the acts featured in the COVID-curtailed touring bands series Vansplainingthat they started on YouTube, or just to give a tour round their vegetable garden and talk tips. It’s seen Alan and Mimi Parker draw on their impressive, 25+ year body of work (averaging 4-5 songs a set, I don’t think they’ve repeated themselves yet) and talk a bit between songs about pandemics, politics, song choices, and whether Alan should grab his bike helmet this time.

They’re not the only musicians out there speaking love and sanity (and playing music) into the strange digital interzone filled with hate and disinformation where we’ve all been forced to gather while locked down, but they were and the most consistent and steady signal being emitted each week. No matter how tired I was from work or what new symptoms I’d developed or what horrific thing I read into the news, even if I had to take an emergency nap while it was actually airing, every Friday the show was there. Once things do return to something more like normal, it’s one of the few things I’ll unambiguously miss about this weird-ass year.

So if that makes an argument for Low as my band of the year (admittedly again… it’s not like Double Negative has aged poorly, either), that does a disservice to those 2020 records I did connect with; even if there are still literally dozens I have to go through, many of which I expect to love, my top picks this year (if as unrankable by me as always) hit me as hard as any top pick in recent years did. So here I present a quick and informal top 5, which the rest of my top 20 following in alphabetical order. Here’s hoping for more time and space in 2021 for music, and even more than that, for more support for those who need it from those who could have been providing it all this time. (The Matthew Good Band, incidentally, always did best with their ballads. “Strange Days” is another I’ve had in my head these days; the image of moving “backwards, into a wall of fire” has stuck with me since the 90s and it’s never felt more grimly appropriate.)

Greet Death — New Hell

New Hell by Greet Death

This one is, in some sense, cheating; it came out November 2019. But that just means it’s the latest winner of my personal Torres Prize for Ian Being Late to the Party (so named because becoming slightly obsessed with Torres’ Sprinter just after I sent in my 2015 list was the first time I noticed that one of my favorite records of each year tends to get picked up by me just after I call it quits on the year, no matter how long I try to wait). This very doom and gloom slowcore/metal/(whatever, just know it’s heavy) trio at first felt very much like my beloved Cloakroom (whose Time Well has also won a Torres Prize) but sure enough nuances revealed themselves. Back in February it felt almost a little too negative, but then the rest of 2020 happened. And the extended burns of “You’re Gonna Hate What You’ve Done” and the title track remain searing.

Holy Fuck — Deleter

youtube

Probably the record I’ve been trying to write about the longest in 2020, and the one I’m most disappointed in myself that I just couldn’t get the requisite paragraphs together. It’s a wonderful effort from the consistently great Toronto resolutely human-created (and —mediated) dance music quartet, one that both feels like a summation of everything they do well, and with the addition of some outside voices (including strong turns from the singers of both Hot Chip and Liars) a step forward at the same time.

Spanish Love Songs — Brave Faces Everyone

Brave Faces Everyone by Spanish Love Songs

As the year got worse, this roar of defiance only got more crucial for me to hear every so often; I was a big enough fan of it, even after writing it up for Dusted, that when they solicited fan footage for a subsequent music video you may just be able to get a glimpse of me in it. (I’m the one in a “No Tories” t-shirt.) My punk rock-loving twin brother was the one who introduced me to Spanish Love Songs and we were supposed to spend an evening in June screaming along to them live in a packed, sweaty room. I need that in my life again.

Julianna Barwick — Healing Is a Miracle

Healing Is A Miracle by Julianna Barwick

It’s a sign of what 2020 has been like here that even just this album title leaves bruises, and while I privately worried Barwick would have a hard time following up 2016’s sublime Will (probably my favorite record that year), it seems that continuing to take whatever downtime she needs to keep focusing and refining her particular muse has once again yielded amazing results. Anyone who thinks they know what a Barwick track sounds like should really check out, say, “Flowers”, but much of this record absolutely sounds like Barwick, just even better than before. She also boasted my wife and I's favorite streaming concert of 2020, an absolutely gorgeous rendition of this album with Mary Lattimore showing up.

Phoebe Bridgers — Punisher

Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers

I joked on Twitter recently that I have far too nice a dad (and far too good a relationship with him) to be as obsessed as I am with Phoebe Bridgers’ “Kyoto”, but here we are. Like most of her generation, Bridgers’ social media presence ranges from shit-posting to inscrutable, but even though things are often just as hard to figure out in her beautiful songs (as they often are in life), there’s an emotional clarity to them that can just grab you deep down. Couple that with seriously impressive songcraft and the progress from her already astounding debut Stranger in the Alps and more than anyone else in 2020 I’m excited to see just where the hell Phoebe Bridgers is going to go, because it feels like she’s talented and hardworking enough to go just about anywhere and drag a lot of our hearts with her.

Other Favorites

Aidan Baker & Gareth Davis — Invisible Cities II

Anastasia Minster — Father

Deftones — Ohms

Hum — Inlet

Kelly Lee Owens — Inner Song

Mesarthim — The Degenerate Era

Perfume Genius — Set My Heart On Fire Immediately

Protomartyr — Ultimate Success Today

Rachel Kiel — Dream Logic

The Ridiculous Trio — The Ridiculous Trio Plays the Stooges

Sam Amidon — Sam Amidon

Shabason, Krgovich & Harris — Philadelphia

Stars Like Fleas — DWARS Session: Live on Radio VPRO

Well Yells — We Mirror the Dead

Yves Tumour — Heaven to a Tortured Mind

Five Reissues/Compilations/etc.

Aix Em Klemm — Aix Em Klemm

Bardo Pond — Adrop/Circuit VIII

Charles Curtis — Performances & Recordings 1998-2018

Coil — Musick to Play in the Dark

Hot Chip — LateNightTales

Ian Mathers

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marksleepy · 7 years

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a lot more

genre: fluff, artstudents!au (is this how you do it) word count: 4,947 a/n: this was one hell of a ride

The lurid light seeps through your eyelids and you rouse yourself from your slumber. It’s unusually bright this morning. It doesn’t occur to you it may have been way past the time you’re supposed to be up. You rub your heavy-lidded eyes, sleep deprivation makes locating your phone an effort. You kick the duvet dangling from your foot off the bed and retrieve your phone from the floor.

Eight unread messages. Four missed calls.

Donghyuck where are you [7:30 AM] we’re still meeting right? [7:35 AM] dude [7:41 AM] class is starting [7:41 AM] and it’s the first day of the start of electives [7:41 AM] ok technically second day since everyone went for one before summer break [7:41 AM] but still [7:41 AM] YOU’RE STILL SLEEPING AREN’T YOU [7:44 AM]

“Shit,” you hiss. It’s 8:12. You were supposed to meet Donghyuck at the school gate 45 minutes ago. It isn’t necessary, but he’d claimed that he feels uncomfortable walking to class alone.

“Ask Jeno or something,” you’d groaned into the phone the night before.

Donghyuck had whined. “He doesn’t want to wake up earlier than he already has to.”

“Neither do I!”

You shake your head and rush to the bathroom to brush your teeth. So much for agreeing with Donghyuck’s plan. You throw on something decent and grab your bag and the sketch you’ve been working on over the summer before heading downstairs. You’ve left it lying on the ground, something which you swear you’d never do but still do it. You haven’t even started painting it yet. Running your fingers through the mess you call your hair, you slip on your shoes and tear out the door and dash to school. Forget about waiting for the bus; it’ll take too long anyway.

You step into the doorway of the class. Everyone looks up from their canvases, paintbrushes poised. The eyes of the lady sitting behind the teacher’s desk go wide behind her bifocals. Her expression softens upon seeing you fighting for breath, your palms resting on both knees, back curved.

“Pretty sure this isn’t how I’d expect my first impression of you to be,” she says, looking down at her clipboard. “Y/N? I believe.”

You nod, too out of breath to say anything. She beckons to you and points to an empty seat in between a girl and a boy with the softest caramel-coloured hair you’ve ever seen. You manage a light “sorry” before scurrying to your seat facing an easel. You sit your bag on your lap and start rummaging through it for the familiar amethyst tube you use to store your paintbrushes. Palette. Your paint set. No purple tube.

Exasperated, you sigh loudly, earning the curious stare of the caramel hair boy to your left.

“What’s wrong?” he mutters, dipping the tip of his paintbrush in a jar of sooty water. You catch a glimpse of his canvas. Cerulean waters and gold-coloured sand. It reminds you of Beach in Pourville, only his provides a more vivid splash of colours.

Cheeks flushed, you stammer, “Uh… I, uh, left my paintbrushes at home.”

He circles his hand around three paintbrushes resting in a silver tin on the wood stool beside him. “You can use mine,” he grins, facing you.

You accept them readily, heat from your cheeks fading and draining into your fingers. “Thank you…” you trail off.

“Renjun.”

You blink, a small smile playing on your lips. “Y/N, but you already know that.”

He turns away and focusses on his painting. You marvel internally at his work. He has clearly not wasted summer surfing the web. Or maybe he had, just that he has better time management. You turn to observe the girl next to you, whose painting of a cherry blossom tree almost looks ready to be displayed. You take a deep breath and pick up one of your (read: Renjun’s) paintbrushes, gently poking the rounded tip to your chin. A sketch of your grandmother’s front porch stares back at you. You stayed at hers for a week in summer, spending most of your time there lounging on the porch, with her yorkie nipping at your legs every few seconds. You love visiting your grandmother, so when your teacher had informed new art students that the assignment for summer was to just put something down on canvas, you immediately knew what that something was going to be.

“Alright, that’ll be all for today,” the teacher speaks. You’ve forgotten her name (surprise, surprise!), and do not have any idea how to casually ask for it.

She tucks a dark strand of hair which has been bothering her cheek behind her ear. “I want your paintings in by the end of this month. Leave it in the art studio at level two if you’ve completed your piece. There will be easels for everyone.”

The class hums, synchronised, and starts to pack. You bring your canvas to the back and rest it on the voluminous white table, together with several other wet paintings.

“Remember to collect them before going home,” Miss Something calls out, slotting pieces of papers in her sapphire blue file.

You take the paintbrushes and palette to the sink area, somehow not that surprised to see that it is enveloped in layers of dried paint. You fill a container up with water and run the brushes through it, watching it turn ebony. You hate washing paintbrushes, but returning dirty ones to their owner seems pretty insolent. The class starts to empty, leaving only you and this other girl whose fingers are flying over her phone screen. You quickly work some soap into their bristles. After rinsing them, you find some rubber bands on the teacher’s desk and tie them around the brushes.

Renjun’s long gone. You bring his brushes up to eye level and examine them. He has carved what you assume to be his initials on their handles. You run a finger across the engraved ‘H.R.’. The girl drops something on the ground, making you jump. You pick up your bag and leave the room, clutching the trio of brushes.

“You’re alive.” Donghyuck slides into the seat opposite you. “Sigh.”

You scowl at him and unwrap your sandwich. “You can’t sit with me.”

He blithely disregards what you’ve said, picking up some kimchi with his metal chopsticks.

“I overslept this morning,” you start, biting into your snack from the 90-seconds sandwich vending machine. “And I forgot my paintbrushes.”

“I didn’t ask,” Donghyuck says. He chortles when you send him another death glare. “Kidding. So what did you do? Paint with your hands?”

“I always paint with my hands.”

“You know what I mean.”

You take another bite, chewing for a bit before answering, “Someone from class lent me his.”

Donghyuck glances at you. “I’m surprised someone would actually lend stuff to you.”

You reach over and punch his shoulder. At that moment you see the familiar caramel hair boy walk past. You wait till he’s walked further before gesturing to Donghyuck.

“Renjun?” He’s confounded. He shakes his head, shoving rice into his mouth. “He attacked me so many times I’ve lost count.”

“You know him?”

He nods. “Dude, he’s evil.”

“Be nice. He’s nice,” you tut.

“He may look innocent but he’s evil. Trust me. He’s in my vocal class.”

You scrutinise your last bite of sandwich. “So you don’t like him?”

Donghyuck smiles. “He’s a good friend.”

You roll your eyes and pop the small piece in your mouth. He gets up with his tray, and you follow him to the tray return area before ambling to the next class together.

Sharing only one class with Renjun, you’re pleased to see him seated before his unspoken designated easel. You cross the room in a few strides and sit down next to him, fumbling around in your bag for that amethyst tube which you had double checked was in your bag before leaving home. You pull the lid off and draw out the paintbrushes which are engraved with his initials.

His eyebrows shoot up when you tap him on the shoulder. “I wanted to return these to you earlier but I didn’t have the chance to, so… Here you go,” you say, handing the paintbrushes over.

A smile creeps onto his face as he takes them from you. “Don’t worry about it. I have loads.”

You place your canvas on the easel, glad to say that it’s a WIP. You gently squeeze different coloured paint onto your palette. Dipping your brush into a clean jar of water, you then put the tip of your brush in the well containing light pink paint you’ve mixed. You transfer the tip to the canvas, carefully working on the potted flowers hanging from the ceiling of the porch. You move on to working on a cream rocking chair, often dipping the brush in water when the colour isn’t to your satisfaction.

“Wow!” You flinch at the voice and tip the transparent jar holding your paintbrushes over, sending them rolling away from you.

“Oh my God,” the same voice continues. “I’m so sorry.” You see Renjun and two other students getting up to pick up the runaways. You rise from your stool and stoop to get hold of one, but Renjun beats you to it.

“I’m so sorry,” he repeats. He places your brushes back into the jar, and you thank the pair who helped before turning to him and say, “It’s okay.”

He looks at you, his face besmirched with a contrite expression.

You wait till heads turn back to their work. “You scared me. Don’t apologise,” you speak silently.

Renjun studies your face, fiddling with his paintbrush. He diverts his attention from you and points at your porch painting. “That looks incredible.”

You scratch the back of your neck. Your tongue suddenly feels too dry. “Thank you.”

You gawk at his painting. The colours look as though they’re leaping off the canvas. His artwork is close to being lifelike. You can smell the salty sea, feel the warmth radiating from the sand.

“You’re really good.” You pause. “And fast.”

“I’ve always loved Art,” he gushes. He opens his mouth to say something but stops. You can tell he spends most of his time painting. His hands are invariably splattered with paint.

“I—”

“Less talking, more painting,” Miss Something taps on the surface of her desk with an unused paintbrush, and that sends you and Renjun right back to work.

Unknown Number hey. sorry if this is weird but it’s renjun and i got your number from donghyuck [9:29 PM] i wanted to ask if you’d like to work on the new art assignment together [9:30 PM]

Your heart lifts when you see the messages.

You hi renjun! [9:31 PM] don’t worry it isn’t weird [9:31 PM] and i would love to. i wanted to ask you actually [9:31 PM]

Your phone lights up only a few seconds later.

Renjun great! [9:31 PM] btw [9:32 PM] i never knew you were donghyuck’s friend [9:32 PM]

You yeah. we’re close [9:35 PM]

Renjun i hang out with him often [9:37 PM] maybe we should too [9:37 PM]

You lie back on your bed and close your eyes, unable to rid the smile off your face.

Donghyuck takes you to the newly opened waffle house on a Saturday. Or is taking you. He slips his hands into his shorts pockets. Only Donghyuck wears shorts when everything is numb with cold outside.

“These legs deserve to be admired,” he claims.

You snort. “I hope you freeze to death.”

A cool zephyr ruffles Donghyuck’s hair. He pokes you. “Spill.”

He leads you into the waffle house bustled with habitués and first-timers. Both of you order immediately after being ushered to a vacant table. You study the waitors and waitresses passing your table.

“Spill,” Donghyuck says again.

“Spill what?”

“I know Renjun texted you.”

You fiddle with the tissues in the ivory tissue box. “Who’s that?” You feign confusion.

“Ha ha.”

“Is this a sleepover or something? Let’s giggle about random stuff, why don’t we?”

He throws the paper wrapper of a drinking straw at you. “Just so you know, I invited him too.”

“Mm,” you intone. “Wait, what?”

A waitress walks over to your table and sets two plates of waffles down, with small plastic cups of maple syrup on the side. She flips a strand of hair from her face and tends another table, her kitten heels clicking across the tiled floor.

There are some people near the entrance, some peering in the place but frowning when they realise the interior is teeming with patrons. Nope. No Renjun.

Donghyuck chuckles. “I was joking. Eager much?”

You pick up the plastic cup and pour the syrup over your waffle, disappointed. “No, I’m not.”

He sighs dramatically and dunks his cut waffle into the syrup, tapping it lightly on the edge of the cup before devouring it.

“He said we should hang out, so I thought…” you say between chews. “Can we talk about something else?”

Donghyuck raises a brow when you mention the first part. He doesn’t ask any more, instead starts prating on about how he did a hidden camera prank on a senior Mark.

You spot the familiar red vans resting on the wooden chair stretcher, visible from under the easel. It’s no longer news to you that Renjun is unfailingly early for art class. You only share this class with him, but you suspect it applies to every other class he takes. He offers a small smile when you lower yourself onto the seat next to him.

“New piece?” you gasp. He stops sketching, face cracking into a greater smile, albeit bashful-looking.

He looks at your canvas. “Are you ready to submit that?”

You press your lips together tightly and shrug. “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean? It looks amazing.”

You glance at your porch painting. It does look better than your previous works. The deadline for submissions is next week—ample time for you to ponder if you’re going to submit it early. Renjun returns to his sketch. He suddenly remembers something. “Y/N?”

“Yeah?” you reply, pulling pencils out of your paint-splodged pouch.

Miss Something looks up from her drawing, and you and Renjun duck down tout de suite, laughing silently behind the canvasses.

“About the assignment,” he says sotto voce. “My parents are going to town today, so you can come over. If you’d like to.”

You force yourself to look away. “Sure.”

You spend the next hour working on a new sketch, the waft of paint no longer detectable.

The first thing you notice when you step into Renjun’s house is the coppery swinging cradle chair. Or the girl on it, to be exact. She focuses on you and Renjun and waves, the book on her lap temporarily forgotten. She looks like a doll. Renjun runs over and leans into her outstretched arms. They exchange a few words before she jokingly chases him away so that she can resume reading. She smiles at you and looks down at her novel.

You follow Renjun up the stairs and enters the first room on your right. His clothes are folded and neatly stacked in his closet, the sliding door with slats left ajar. There are drawings of a milk-white animal with a big snout on his wall, and below them lies a small single bed with a fair amount of pillows atop. It looks exceptionally comfortable, maybe because of lassitude.

“Who was that?” you ask.

Renjun throws his bag on the bed. “My cousin.”

Oh.

He walks over to his closet and slides the door shut, then saunters to his windows to raise the blinds. You put your bag down at the foot of his bed.

“Do you want anything to eat?” he queries. “I can make hot chocolate too.”

“Sounds good.”

He proceeds to the door. “Make yourself comfortable.”

You flop down on his bed, deciding to just lie down and rest your eyes for a bit. You can hear the clanking of cups downstairs and faint conversations. The whirring of the fan coaxes you into dreamland.

You wake up to the sound of pencil scratching, feeling your heart stop when you’re greeted by an unfamiliar ceiling. You sit up, locking eyes with the caramel head. The room is a lot darker than when you had last seen it.

“Good nap?” Renjun greets you, taking a bite out of his choco pie. You jump out of his bed and smooth down your hair, collapsing onto the seat opposite him, the rectangular table the only object between both of you. He picks up an empty mug and a thermos and pours some hot chocolate in it, stopping at about three quarters full.

“Here.” He places it down in front of you.

You grab it by the handle. “How long was I asleep?”

He looks at the digital clock. “About an hour and a half.”

You let out a puff. “Why didn’t you wake me up? We didn’t get anything done.”

“You looked so peaceful sleeping. I didn’t want to disturb you.”

Your face heats up. He watched you sleep. And you don’t even know for how long. Not even Donghyuck has seen you in your most vulnerable state.

“Sorry for sleeping in your bed. I’ve messed it up.”

He shakes his head. “I don’t mind. I’ll be sleeping in it later anyways.”

That comment somehow makes you flush harder. You clear your throat and take a sip of the hot—now lukewarm but still good—chocolate.

Renjun pushes his sketch to the side and leans forward. “So I was thinking we could do juxtaposition art. I googled it while you were asleep and thought it was pretty interesting. It’s all about contrast, usually with two things which wouldn’t normally be seen together, I guess.

“I thought we could do something cool like a balloon with needles, or like a gigantic boat that’s about to sink in an ocean, or an elderly with a small girl, or—Sorry am I talking too much?”

You blink once, twice, at him. That sounds like it would actually work, and though they aren’t related to art, your other projects were disastrous. Not because you were put into a group with a bunch of ne'er-do-wells (right), but because your ideas sucked. You also wonder what goes on inside Renjun’s brain. “How?”

“Is that bad? Maybe I’ll look for—”

“No, Renjun,” you interrupt. “How do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Be a genius.”

He titters, eyes curving upwards. You sip on the drink again, hiding your smile behind the white mug. There is a light tap on the closed door before it’s pushed open. “Renjun,” his cousin starts. She looks at you as well. “Y/N. Dinner’s ready. I ordered pizza. And Renjun, your parents said they’ll be coming home late tonight.” She disappears down the hallway.

You see one regular and three cans on the table. Renjun’s cousin pulls off a slice from the box and grabs a can. “I’d love to stay kiddos, but I’m meeting a friend.” She slips into her shoes and unlocks the front door. “It’s nice meeting you,” she smiles.

“You too,” you say. You watch the door close behind her as Renjun annihilates his pizza slice. You catch him glancing at you a few times, or maybe it’s the other way round. The pair of you munches quietly, taking gulps of the overly gassy soda, the two mugs of hot chocolate neglected upstairs.

“Why don’t you hang out with me anymore?” Donghyuck whines one Thursday afternoon.

You sigh theatrically. “Don’t blame me. You ditched me twice to hang out with Mark and Jeno.”

“Thrice.”

“That’s even worse.”

He exhales deeply and looks at you, eyes serious. “You can always hang out with us, you know? Yeri joins sometimes.”

“Thanks, Donghyuck. But why are you making it sound like I don’t have friends?”

He suppresses a laugh. “Do you?”

You flick his forehead.

“Kidding.”

You find yourself at Renjun’s so often you’ve lost count. He comes over to your occasionally, but you prefer going over to his. You sit on his bed, playing with his Moomin plush—a softer and larger version of the ones on his wall. Renjun holds up the artwork for the nth time, turning it so it faces you.

“One to ten,” he says.

“Easily ten,” you laugh. You and Renjun had decided to go with the balloon and needle, and it turned out better than expected.

“It’s a scale breaker, Y/N. Miss Lee’s going to love it.” At least now you know the art teacher’s name.

You chortle. He sets it back down on the table and climbs onto the bed next to you, legs dangling off the side.

“What should we do now?” he asks.

“I don’t know,” you state. “It’s your house. What do you do for fun?”

He begins to mull. “When I’m not drawing, I sing. When I’m not singing, I watch movies.”

You tug Moomin’s tail and look at him. “Can I hear you sing?”

He looks at you, petrified. “Absolutely not.”

“Come on.”

“It’s… awkward.” He steals Moomin from your hands and rubs his ears.

His eyes light up. “I can send you some files. I used to record my singing.”

“You’d do that but not sing for me now?”

“It’s different. You’re not staring at me.”

“I’ll close my eyes and sit facing the window. How about that?”

He pokes his chin with his index finger. “Fine.”

You move yourself to the front of the window. Renjun coughs, and there’s silence before he starts.

You don’t know the song he’s singing, but the voice that flows to your ears isn’t honey-like like Donghyuck’s, isn’t bubbly like the sophomore Chenle’s. It’s scintillating. It’s Renjun’s. You close your eyes even though you don’t have to, smile widening.

He stops too soon for your liking. “Renjun,” you say, opening your eyes and facing him. “Just what can you not do?”

He smiles meekly.

“I know.” You raise your hand. “You can’t resist the temptation to attack.”

At that, he wraps his arms around your neck playfully. You hit his arm, eyes wet from laughing too hard.

That night, your phone notifies you that you have messages.

Renjun downloadfile.mp3 [10:00 PM] bye i’m going to get off my phone forever [10:00 PM]

You download and open the file, and immediately his singing roams your room. You locate your earphones and plug them in your phone. Earbuds in each ear, you rest your head on the pillow, drifting off and dreaming about this particular boy with soft hair and sunshine smile.

Miss Lee indeed loves your and Renjun’s work. So much she hung it up in the art studio next to the door so that everyone can see it. You cross your arms securely across your chest and admire it, grinning. You also see your porch painting on one of the easel—Miss Lee likes it too. You don’t have anymore classes for the rest of day, or for the week (yay Friday!) and Donghyuck has invited you to lunch. You whip out your phone to see three messages.

Donghyuck 1 pm @ usual place [12:43 PM] DON’T be late [12:44 PM] at least try to show up ;) [12:44 PM]

It’s already 12:55. You get out of the art studio and pootle off to meet him.

Donghyuck isn’t alone. Renjun stands beside him, laughing at something the former says.

“We’re going to watch a movie, then crash Renjun’s house for a sleepover,” Donghyuck begins once you join the pair.

“What about lunch?” you ask.

“Popcorn.”

He treads down the path, and you and Renjun follow him.

Yeri and Mark are standing beside the ticket booth. Yeri reaches out and ruffles your hair. You slap her hand away in mock anger as she sniggers. Mark hands you, Renjun and Donghyuck the tickets and together the group walks into the dark cinema.

You’ve been wanting to watch a scary film for a while, and your face sags when that isn’t what’s showing on the screen. It’s no wonder, Mark would rather take five mathematics exams than watch horror films.

You shove some popcorn in your mouth. Because you’re sharing with Renjun, you make sure he’s taken some before putting your hand in the tub. Yeri laughs at the screen beside you. You catch a glimpse of Donghyuck throwing popcorn seeds at Mark. Whatever’s on the screen certainly isn’t entertaining you like it is entertaining Yeri. You turn to Renjun, but he’s already looking at you.

He looks as if he’s been caught doing something he isn’t supposed to do.

“Enjoying yourself?” you ask, then splutter because that sounded eminently narcissistic. And no, that isn’t what you mean.

He smirks, then shakes it off by looking at the screen. “Not really.”

“Same.”

You let the background music from the movie fill in the air of silence between you and Renjun. 45 minutes into the movie, you don’t know what made you do it, but you wait for the exact moment for Renjun to dip his hand into the popcorn tub before doing the same.

He freezes. Then he’s holding your hand with fingers intertwined in the confined red tub. You feel Yeri nudge you, and turn your head to see Donghyuck with that vexatious look on his face.

You’re freshly out of the shower, snuggled in Yeri’s sweater you’ve borrowed. Renjun’s now taking a shower—he’s the last person to because he believes in being a good host—and that leaves you in his room with the trio. You’re starting to feel uncomfortable.

“Look at the time.” Donghyuck sneaks a look at his nonexistent wristwatch. “It’s confession time.”

Mark looks up from his phone, but stays in his position on the bed—tummy side down. Yeri stops spinning on the chair. You let out a “pfft”.

“So Y/N,” Donghyuck says. “Do you like someone?”

You sit still, noiseless.

“You want me to be more specific? Sure. Someone who loves drawing, someone who loves painting, someone who loves—”

“Donghyuck, you could’ve just said “someone who loves art”,” Mark cuts in.

Yeri shakes her head. “No. You could’ve just said “Renjun”.“

“I-I don’t like him,” you stammer, suddenly feeling too hot in Yeri’s sweater.

Donghyuck falls onto the bed next to Mark and says, “Would you hold hands with someone you don’t like? Voluntarily?”

You look at Donghyuck from where you’re seated on the carpeted floor. “It wasn’t voluntary.” Liar.

“Oh, so Renjun did it?”

“Can we stop talking about this?” You look at the door then back at them.

“Fine, Y/N. But you’d better do something about it, or I’ll do it for you.”

You start to say something but Renjun enters the room, board games in each hand. You thank your lucky stars, moon, sun, whatever that he didn’t walk in earlier.

It’s two in the morning, and everyone is full and dog-tired, having stuffed Twiggies and juice in their mouths non-stop for the past few hours. Mark and Donghyuck snore quietly on Renjun’s bed, chests lifting and dropping calmly. Yeri cuddles a pillow on the floor next to them, her face obscured by her hair. Renjun tidies up the games and pushes them under his bed. He drags two throws out of his closet and smiles apologetically at you.

“These are all I got, unless you’re up to kicking Mark and Donghyuck off the bed,” he whispers.

You laugh into your palm. “Tempting.”

He settles the throws down on the floor at the end of the bed and turns off the light.

“Is this okay?” He lies down next to you and spread a blanket, throwing it over the two of you.

You hum softly. He faces you. You see the outline of his face, then his eyes, nose, and lips when your eyes have adjusted to the darkness, and also with the help of the white light the moon is casting through the windows.

Renjun raises his right arm, his knuckles gently brushing your cheek. He closes his eyes, and stays that way for a few minutes, hours even. All you can hear is Mark and Donghyuck’s shallow breathings, Yeri's periodic movements.

You can’t sleep, not at all. You study Renjun’s sleeping face. He looks younger, smaller, vulnerable.

“I like you. A lot,” you whisper, heart beat accelerating. You feel foolish. He can’t even hear you.

Except he can. He opens his eyes and runs his fingers through your hair, grinning. “I like you a lot more.”

Looks like you’re not the only one who can’t sleep tonight.

ok clarification time. i know nothing about art. my last art class was two/three years ago. i didn’t learn much. and renjun’s cousin knows your name because he told her when he’s downstairs preparing snacks. i wrote this whenever i take a break from studying. i hate studying asdvpdvskdpwd :( so this has been rotting in my drafts ahahaha. lastly and always, thank you for reading! i really appreciate it

#nct #nct scenarios #huang renjun #nct renjun #renjun fluff #nct fluff #nct dream

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tinyrock · 7 years

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Day001

Hello, world. Sol here, or rather, Tinyrock as this blog is called. I will be going by Sol, for all intents and purposes, though. Originally this was going to be used for solely(haha) Dungeons and Dragons based blogging and posts but since I needed an outlet for my life - crazy right? - and I am currently too lazy to just create a Tumblr for blogging the old fashioned way. So here it is. D&D is basically my life anyway outside of art.

For the first topic, I recently saw Ghost in the Shell. Not the animated movie from the 90s but the 2017 live action adaption. I was ecstatic at first, even with my hesitance surrounding the casting Scarlett Johanssen's performance was good for the "Major". But nonetheless, it was a let down as a live action adaption. It would have been leagues better just being its own GiTS movie. After the viewing, I was torn. Torn between what I love and what I think I love and how I get the things I love to continue loving them. I am an art student in art school. The Art Institutes to be exact. One of those thousands of wayward souls seemingly conned into following their dreams by a for-profit system. Why? Because till about three or four years ago state education didn't support or fund anything game related directly. It was always some rigamarole communications degree that I had to finagle to fit what I wanted it to. Which isn't bad, but the college of communications wasn't going to teach me sculpting or 2D animation solely. I've been in this degree system for collectively four years. I know what I need to continue on. I know what I must learn to excel. After months of doing my finances and seeing that I cannot

A: Afford to go to school and live in the city in which the school is located without financial assistance.

B: Apply for any more Federal Aid because it effectively ran out - thanks to Full Sail's (the university, I also attended there.) failure logic- last quarter.

C: Work and Go to school (I already have two jobs in order to refinance my situation.

The reality of it was, despite all I wanted. What I needed was to stop, I was spending money I didn't have to achieve a dream through means that I didn't need to use. I'm not saying 'Don't go to school!' I'm saying don't waste money on meaningless classes in a system that exploits your thirst for knowledge and equates that hungry mind with a piggy bank. As soon as you are too poor to attend, no one cares about how knowledge hungry you are. So with the lacking funds, the least amount of financial help from the school and my family I have had to decide to withdraw. Dropping out is so against my style. I feel like I've failed myself no matter how many times I crunch the numbers and see that it is necessary. I tell myself I can go to sleep when I'm between classes. But I can't because I have to speed off to work, to fight the traffic while I'm fighting sleep deprivation to work for too little for too long and do the same thing back home in order to do homework. The main reason I got a second job. To get control of my life back. I'm too busy to enjoy the quiet times I do get. I'm too distracted to see days pass me by. I am too...something to do anything. That is a problem. So, blogging to keep me sane.

I have a brother, he is in jail. He made a mistake and is paying the price for that mistake. Don't worry, no one died. But if you ask him, he might tell you otherwise. I miss talking with him, he was a font of advice you see. We worked the same job for a time, we needed the cash and we didn't mind working hard. I blame myself, sometimes, for his current state. I moved away and he stayed by himself and was going through some tough times. I couldn't have been any help other than a voice on the phone. Even I know how depressing that is sometimes. Like now, when people ask me to call them and they give me words of encouragement where words will only be words and their actions only thoughts in their heads. Leaving me the same way by the time I hit 'end call' the same way he did when our conversations ended. Tough reality. To add some glory to my days, I will be doing an art challenge. At least one drawing a day for the entire year. Most likely will all be D&D related or some D20 system. But you never know. I am a traditionally trained artist so my mind and muse sometimes wander...by the end of the year, 365+ designs or full pieces. Hopefully. I can do this. I know I can.

Time to just do. - Sol 2k17

#Blog #LifeofSol #longaf

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thomasalwyndavis · 6 years

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Your Summer Sleep Survival Guide

Your Summer Sleep Survival Guide was originally seen on TAD's Blog

Here’s how you can boost your sleep this summer

Summer is here, which means plenty of sunshine, lots of active time outside, cookouts with friends and grabbing dinner fixings straight from the garden, or at the farmers’ market in town.

For all its many pleasures, summer can be hard on sleep. The heat makes it harder to get comfortable, sound nights of rest. Our schedules and routines can easily go sideways, upsetting sleep patterns and leaving us short on sleep. Many of my patients try to pack so much activity into their summer calendars they wind up feeling stressed and overwhelmed. If you’ve ever greeted September feeling like you need a vacation, you know what I’m talking about.

But summer doesn’t have to be unfriendly to sleep. If you follow a few simple strategies, you can not only protect your sleep this summer, but actually arrive at Labor Day better rested than you were in June.

Here are 8 essential sleep tips to get you and your family through this summer season:

1. Don’t ditch your sleep schedule

I think of this as the “school’s out” mentality about sleep routines. Summer arrives and it’s suddenly tempting to get really relaxed about our own, and our children’s, sleep schedules. Pretty soon, those regular bedtimes and wake times that anchor your family’s sleep have flown out the window. That upsets the sensitive timing of your circadian rhythms, which can have a cascading effect on your sleep, performance, and mood. (Think: tired, cranky, and distracted.)

I wrote recently about new research on the effects of weekend make-up sleep that contained some important news that most of the media missed: keeping a consistent sleep schedule is the best thing you can do for your health and the quality of your sleep. That goes for weekdays and weekends—and also for the seasons of the year. Stick within an hour of your regular bed and wake times, and you’ll spend the summer getting the rest you need and keep your biological sleep-wake rhythms on track. This goes for kids and teens, too. Work with them to keep their bedtimes and wake times within 60 minutes of their regular schedule, and they’ll be much less likely to get sleep deprived. Plus, the transition back to school will be less painful for everyone.

2. Limit your evening light exposure

In the sleep world, we talk all the time about melatonin and the importance of avoiding too much artificial light exposure in the evening. One part of the sleep-light conversation that often gets overlooked? How summer’s extended daylight can contribute to delayed melatonin production and to sleep issues. You’ve probably heard of seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, a wintertime condition that occurs in large part because of circadian rhythm disruption that results from too little sunlight. You may not know that scientists have identified a reverse seasonal affective disorder that happens in the summer—a version of the summer blues—that may occur as a result of too much sunlight.

Everyone’s circadian biology is unique, and not everyone is at risk for the summer blues, or the winter ones. (These circadian rhythm disorders are also affected by geography, with people in more northern regions of the US more likely to experience SAD, and people in the southern areas more vulnerable to reverse SAD.) It’s important to pay attention to summer changes to your sleep patterns, particularly an inability to fall asleep around your regular time, as well as changes to your mood. And it’s a good idea for everyone to take steps to make sure you get time out of bright light before bedtime, so your body can make the melatonin it needs to bring about sleep. I’m not suggesting you need to head inside and draw the curtains at 6 p.m. when there’s still hours of natural light left. But summer is an extra important time to limit the additional light sources you’re exposed to at night.

3. Take advantage of morning sunlight

One of the best ways to keep your circadian rhythms in sync and your sleep schedule on track is to get sun exposure in the morning. A strong body of research shows that morning exposure to natural light is linked to better sleep, and lower levels of depression and stress. This is true year-round, but it’s never easier to get consistent exposure to morning sunlight than during the summer months. This morning dose of sunshine will help energize you for the day and make you more inclined toward sleep at night. That’s true for kids, too. Getting them outdoors for a first-thing-in-the-morning dose of sun can help make them more ready to fall asleep at bedtime. That’s a family-wide sleep win.

4. Load up on Vitamin D

Roughly half of adults in the US are estimated to have a Vitamin D deficiency. A lack of Vitamin D can have a broad impact on your health, including increased risks for heart disease, diabetes, cancer and depression. Vitamin D is also important for sleep, helping maintain sleep quality and protect sleep amounts. (I’ve written before about the growing evidence of Vitamin D’s role in promoting healthy sleep.) The best source of Vitamin D is the sun. Research suggests that Vitamin D absorbed through the skin lasts as much as twice as long in the body compared to Vitamin D that’s ingested through food or supplements. For obvious reasons, summer is prime time to fuel your body with sun-delivered Vitamin D. Five to 10 minutes a day of sun exposure without sunscreen can give your body a healthy boost of Vitamin D.

5. Go camping

Are you a fan of sleeping under the stars? I’ve taken some great camping trips with my kids over the years. Sleeping in nature, and away from all the sleep-disrupting artificial light exposure and stimulation of everyday life, turns out to have some pretty potent benefits for sleep. Scientists at the University of Colorado, Boulder have spent several years studying the effects of camping on sleep and circadian rhythms. Their research has found that as little as a weekend’s worth of camping—with only sunlight and firelight for light sources—can reset circadian rhythms to their natural cycle and elevate melatonin production. That’s going to help you sleep better, able to fall asleep earlier, get more sleep, and wake feeling more rested. It will also improve how you function and feel during the day. Remember, circadian rhythms do a lot more than regulate sleep. They play a critical role in regulating everything from appetite and digestion, to mood, cognitive function, energy levels and sexual desire. If you’re really into camping, the researchers in 2017 found that winter camping also works to reset circadian rhythms and increase melatonin production.

6. Spend time in nature

Camping not your thing? Just spending regular time in the natural world can deliver benefits for sleep. Recent research shows people who spend more time in nature are less likely to experience insufficient sleep. Time spent in nature can lower stress and reduce our risks for depression, both of which interfere with sleep. This 2015 study showed that a 90-minute walk through a natural landscape produces changes to negative thought patterns and quiets activity in areas of the brain that influence negative thinking.

7. Pay down your sleep debt

If you don’t over-schedule yourself all summer long, this can be a great season to erase a sleep debt you and your family have been carrying. Sleep debt is the difference between the amount of sleep you need and the amount of sleep you’re actually getting. Most adults need 7-8 hours a night. Children and teens need more sleep: six to 12 years olds need somewhere between 9-12 hours a night, and teenagers typically need 8-10 hours. Everyone’s individual sleep needs are different. Use the numbers as a guideline, and pay attention to how you feel and function, while keeping in mind that when you’re short on sleep, you’re likely to underestimate how much sleep deprivation is affecting you.

There are a couple of ways to approach repaying a sleep debt during the summer. You can use your vacation time to re-charge your sleep and reset your natural circadian rhythms, whether that’s by camping or setting up a very restful, relaxed vacation where you can unplug from electronics and reconnect with your natural sleep rhythms. You can also pay down your sleep debt a little bit at a time throughout the summer, by giving yourself small amounts of additional sleep on most nights. Shift your bedtime or wake time by 15-30 minutes to extend your overall sleep window, and add some extra wind down time to your evening Power Down Hour. Chip away at your sleep debt during the summer, and you (and your kids) could start the fall at a zero balance, feeling rested and ready to hit the fall running.

8. Stay cool

Do I need to tell you to keep your home and especially your bedroom cool and comfortable this summer? Hot, humid temperatures are tough on sleep. An ideal sleeping temperature for most people is about 65 degrees Fahrenheit. In summer, that means nearly all of us will need to take steps to cool down our sleeping spaces in order to sleep comfortably:

Keep your bedroom cool throughout the day, including keeping shades drawn

Use fans and air conditioners to regulate your bedroom temperature

Keep your bed linens and covers light and breathable, made from natural fabrics like cotton and linen

Don’t over-dress for sleep—and try sleeping in the nude

Even when you take all these steps, the sweltering summer heat can still get the best of your sleep. I often recommend to my patients they use Chilipad, a sleep system that enables you to control your body heat throughout the night. Chilipad regulates the temperature of your mattress surface, helping you sleep soundly and wake up feeling alert. I particularly like Chilipad because it lets bed partners adjust their body temperatures separately. And FYI, Chilipad isn’t just for summer—it can help you maintain an ideal body temperature for sleep all year long.

Summer doesn’t have to throw a wrench in your sleep. With a little attention, summertime can be relaxing for both the body and mind, and a sleep-restoring season for the whole family. I wish you a fun, sun-filled, sleep-friendly summer!

Michael J. Breus, PhD, DABSM

The Sleep Doctor

www.thesleepdoctor.com

The post Your Summer Sleep Survival Guide appeared first on Your Guide to Better Sleep.

from Blog | Your Guide to Better Sleep https://www.thesleepdoctor.com/2018/06/26/your-summer-sleep-survival-guide/

from Thomas Alwyn Davis - Feed https://thomasalwyndavis.com/your-summer-sleep-survival-guide/

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ellymackay · 6 years

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Your Summer Sleep Survival Guide

Your Summer Sleep Survival Guide Find more on: The Elly Mackay Blog

Here’s how you can boost your sleep this summer

Summer is here, which means plenty of sunshine, lots of active time outside, cookouts with friends and grabbing dinner fixings straight from the garden, or at the farmers’ market in town.

Here are 8 essential sleep tips to get you and your family through this summer season:

1. Don’t ditch your sleep schedule

2. Limit your evening light exposure

3. Take advantage of morning sunlight

4. Load up on Vitamin D

5. Go camping

6. Spend time in nature

7. Pay down your sleep debt

8. Stay cool

Keep your bedroom cool throughout the day, including keeping shades drawn

Use fans and air conditioners to regulate your bedroom temperature

Keep your bed linens and covers light and breathable, made from natural fabrics like cotton and linen

Don’t over-dress for sleep—and try sleeping in the nude

Michael J. Breus, PhD, DABSM

The Sleep Doctor

www.thesleepdoctor.com

The post Your Summer Sleep Survival Guide appeared first on Your Guide to Better Sleep.

from Your Guide to Better Sleep https://www.thesleepdoctor.com/2018/06/26/your-summer-sleep-survival-guide/

from Elly Mackay - Feed https://www.ellymackay.com/2018/06/26/your-summer-sleep-survival-guide/

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mitmama · 6 years

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Tips for Traveling in Southeast Asia (with Kids)

Flight & Jetlag

People often ask me how do our kids (6 and 9) deal with the long flight and jetlag. Well, I do a fair bit of sleep management. ;-) I believe well-rested kids are happy kids, and that makes for a more enjoyable trip for them and the parents. ;-)

Cathay Pacific is one of the few airlines with one stop flights to much of Southeast Asia. They typically stop over in HK from Boston, a 15 hour flight that leaves at 1:30am. I tried to get the kids ready for time change.

I made them go to bed a bit earlier for a few nights.

Then the day of the flight, they went to bed at 6:30pm and I woke them around 11:30. That way they already have almost 5 hours of rest.

Then I kept them awake for the first part of the flight and we all tried to sleep the 2nd half. My kids did better than me on that. We then all dozed off a bit towards the end of the flight and were ready to go when the plane landed at 6am local time in Hong Kong.

The kids were excited to see Vietnam, but were also tired, and slept our first night around 10pm local time.

Within a couple of nights they were waking up at 6am. My son did feel a bit sleep deprived on the third day, but after a 2.5 hour nap and 8.5 hour of sleep at night, he got fully adjusted.

I believe a good night’s sleep is key to kids’ enjoying travels. So we always make sure to take nap or sleep early or late to ensure proper amount of sleep. A bit of exercise also helps. Kids are just as excited as us to explore the cities. So we make sure they get plenty of walking.

Local flights

Flights within Southeast Asia are relatively cheap: about $100 across country and $50 or less within.

Packing

Be sure to sure to pack light! All the local flights charge for checked luggage.

Don’t bring too much clothes. Clothing is cheap in Southeast Asia, so you can always buy more if needed. T shirts go for $1-2 in Cambodia and a couple more elsewhere. At the Grand Palace in Thailand, we were told can’t wear shorts, so we had to buy some pants last minute.

You’ll be walking a lot so be sure to wear good shoes with rubber sole. Flipflops might be fine for the beach but not for city walking. The sidewalk in Vietnam especially is paved with a very smooth tile that’s very slippery after the rain. I slipped a couple of times and my father-in-law fell hard.

Food Safety & Illness

The other thing I hear often is how easy it is to get traveler’s diarrhea despite being careful. On this, I found a really awesome blog post full of great tips.

Basically it boils down to eating food freshly cooked and piping hot (so can kill any bacteria).

The water in southeast Asia isn’t really safe for drinking so good to get a big bottle of water and refill your smaller bottle for the road. No tap water, no cold drinks especially no ice or smoothies, even at fancy restaurants.

With these tips we were able to even enjoy street food in Bangkok. In fact, the only times one of us got sick was when we violated the rules above. My husband who’s already weakened by a cold and lack of sleep drank an ice coffee and ate some cold salad, both at restaurants! He got sick both times. Our kids had no problems.

We got shots at the travel clinic at our doctors’ before the trip and they also gave us medicine for traveler’s diarrhea. The latter came in handy.

By the end of our two-week trip we were able to enjoy ice at least in restaurants without problem. Grandma wisely suggested that we probably fully adjusted. :)

Sleeping well also means stronger immune system and not as likely to get sick and faster recovery. My husband brought us his cold and everyone in turn started coughing and having body chills and runny nose for a couple of days. The last one being my daughter after 10 days. With sufficient sleep and rest, we were still able to enjoy a lot of activities.

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia consists of developing countries, which means even in the city you'll get

Sidewalks that are unpaved and dirty, except for Bangkok and Saigon.

Garbage on streets or by the side of the road, and people burning garbage.

Traffic rules are not enforced.

Broken seat belts and no car seats.

Our kids surprisingly weren't too bothered by this, they just accept it as is, and only complained a bit about the occasional garbage smell.

We also rode around a number of times in tuk tuks or wagons pulled by motor bikes. No seatbelt or carseat. One thing to realize is due to traffic, they can’t go very fast. So just relax and enjoy. ;-)

Hardest for me is in Vietnam, the cars and motorbikes never stops for pedestrians. So you kinda have to weave thru traffic to cross the street. I got scraped on my leg by a 50-something lady on motorbike: she was just a bit off in estimating where she can safely go, and wasn’t even apologetic!

Trip Planning

We picked the list of cities to see based on just a little bit of research. That worked out fairly well, as part of the fun of traveling is the discovery. We picked December as it’s the coldest month in Saigon, but even then it’s 90s and hot there.

I’m surprised at how much we all loved Siem Reap. Angkor Wat was on #1 or #2 of everyone’s list from age 6 to 70! That says something. :) Be sure to get a guide for Angkor Wat so you can fully appreciate this bucket list item. The food is also overall the best in Siem Reap. There’s no good Cambodian food in Boston so it’s new for all of us. Also the curry there is much more flavorful than in Thailand, and more unique. Also there’s something to be said about a relaxing town vs. bigger cities.

Everyone’s other favorite was Krabi. It has the same Karst mountains as Halong Bay or Guilin, but you can get up close by kayaking, swimming, and walking, and climbing. The beach is also almost as beautiful as you’ll find in the Caribbean or Hawaii but the mountain scenery elevates it. Another plus is being able to see monkeys in the wild (or semi-wild) and geckos. Be sure to stay right on the beach for fuller enjoyment.

We pick Hanoi because it’s a base for exploring Halong Bay the top site in Vietnam. I was pleasantly surprised by the charm of the old quarter, the food especially pho and the coffee. I’d make that the other must-see on the trip.

Bangkok has some nice temples and a fun ladyboy show. Just stay away from restaurants other than the River Vibe and try the street food.

Saigon was where my husband was born. It’s just a big city, and might be more fun for visitors who’d enjoy the partying.

Journaling and Making Top Lists

Our kids did very well on the whole trip, enjoying everything and rarely complained. One thing that helped was getting each of them their own notebook for journaling.

My 6-year old daughter enjoyed writing and drawing about her day. There was a lot of “we did this, and it was fun!” ;-)

My 9-year old loves to play video games on the phone or laptop, and journaling is his way of earning rewards for gaming. I talked to him about covering the 5 Ws and praised him for good writing and incorporating his feelings and opinions. With some practice he was able to admit when he’s not done a good job.

In the past I’ve asked them for favorite part of their trip and got back answers like iPad. Grr... This time I got a bit more specific: what are your top 3 restaurants, sites, hotels. I got back some pretty interesting answers.

My 9 year old’s list:

Angkor Wat: 5 towers flashing colors at night so awesome and carvings with monkeys puling demons’ head off.

Railay Beach because of the soft sand.

One-Pillar Pagoda in Hanoi because of the fish.

Trấn Quốc Pagoda in Hanoi because there are 11 stories.

My 6 year old’s list:

Kayaking at Railay Beach

Looking for shells on Railay Beach.

Angkor Wat because of monkeys and glows different colors at night and 5 towers are different heights and a fun place.

Red bridge in Hanoi lights up and looks pretty

Buying food at the Bangkok fresh food market with lots of yummy stuff, e.g. rambutan.

#travelwithkids #travel tips #southeastasia

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bodizwonder · 7 years

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Sylvia Jeffreys on sleep, detoxing and working your personal race

Photo: physique+soul

Our visitor editor Sylvia Jeffreys reveals the mantras that form her wholesome life-style.

Be finest pals with sleep

Sleep is the very first thing folks ask me about – for the document, my alarm goes off at 3.18am, I am going to mattress at 8pm, and I actually sit up for my Friday night time sleep – it’s my favorite time of the week.

I’m fortunate that I can go to sleep immediately, and have at all times been a very good sleeper however, oh, have I come to understand the worth of sleep! I discover it curious that some folks put on a brief night time’s sleep prefer it’s a badge of honour. Sleep is crucial for our physical and mental health, so we can’t afford to neglect it.

I used to be fortunate that in my first week of labor on the Today present, I interviewed a sleep professional, and she or he gave me a fantastic tip to assist survive my unnatural work hours – napping. For 18 minutes, to be exact. It’s lengthy sufficient to recharge, however quick sufficient to keep away from the post-nap fog. I attempt to get 1 in earlier than lunchtime – by 3pm that ship has sailed!

Make well being a precedence

As annually passes, the extra I see the necessity to deal with my well being as prime precedence. It’s about being aware of what I put into my physique day by day, how I transfer and relaxation – about seeing well being as an asset in life.

I’ve learnt lots from 3 years in a job with uncommon hours – my metabolism and my power ranges have modified, so I’ve needed to be taught extra about what I eat, and work more durable at conserving match.

At first my well being selections have been reactive, however now I’m being proactive for the long run. I’m 31 so I’m waiting for motherhood, turning 40 and past. I imagine in a holistic method to well being. Our bodily and psychological well being is so interconnected.

Over the previous few years I’ve labored with the charity Youngcare, via which I’ve met superb folks dwelling with disabilities, and now greater than ever I perceive how fortunate I’m to guide an energetic life, and that I can’t ever take that without any consideration.

Find workout routines that you just love

When I used to be a child I swam lots, spending hours every week chasing the black line, and by the point I acquired to highschool, I used to be sick of it. So I switched to netball and contact footy, and I not solely loved them extra, I used to be significantly better at them! For me, exercising in a group was higher; I appreciated with the ability to share a win with others.

For the previous couple of years, my activity of choice has been barre-based fitness classes – I like how fast-paced they are, that they have yoga, pilates and dance elements, and that I’m exercising with different folks and a enjoyable coach. Jesinta Franklin acquired me into it: I assumed, I’ll have what she’s having! I ought to level out right here that I’m not a very good dancer, actually I’m tremendous uncoordinated, but it surely doesn’t matter. I do 3 or 4 courses per week, however I’ll additionally combine it up with working, spin and yoga. Pete and I do kickboxing courses collectively, too, which is enjoyable as we’re each aggressive!

Detox in a smart means

Detox is a phrase I was afraid of – I grew up following the everything-in-moderation template. A current detox retreat at Gwinganna in Queensland modified my considering. I went primarily for some downtime, and was nervous that I’d signed up for one thing hardcore as a substitute. For 4 days I didn’t have any added sugar, alcohol, caffeine, dairy or wheat. But I didn’t go hungry; I had yummy porridge, pretty items of lean meat with as many greens as I wished, plus plenty of fruit. It was a fantastic perception into wholesome detoxing and lightening the load on our organs – it doesn’t need to imply deprivation.

Sure, by day 2 I had a reasonably large headache from caffeine withdrawals, however days 3 and 4 have been sensational. I actually did really feel vibrant. I believe it has nice advantages, so I’ll proceed to do these quick detox stints at house each few months – ideally when Pete is away, so he’s not at house, craving spaghetti bolognese!

Run your personal health race

I comply with quite a lot of health bloggers on Instagram for motivation, however then I really feel unhealthy as a result of I can’t maintain the unimaginable yoga poses they do – on a ship, sporting a bikini! So I’ve to distance myself from these excessive talents that I see, and work by myself health targets as a substitute.

Fun runs are a fantastic aim for me – this yr I did the 10km Gold Coast enjoyable run, followed by the 14km City2Surf in Sydney. I set myself a time to beat – for the 14km run my aim was 90 minutes, and I beat it by 5 minutes. I do know that for others that’s not a very good time, however I couldn’t have felt extra happy with myself even when I’d accomplished it in 45 minutes!

I additionally love enjoyable runs since you see folks with all completely different ranges of means smashing out a aim. It’s actually inspiring.

The solely draw back to working is the chance of damage – for the time being it’s my hip, with plantar fasciitis and sore knees earlier than that. I suppose my physique doesn’t like working as a lot as my head does! So proper now I’m specializing in enhancing my energy and alignment to maintain me working for so long as doable.

My hero, my mum

The greatest affect on my well being has been my mum, Janine. She by no means put emphasis on my – or my siblings’ – look; it was all about doing the issues that we like, working laborious and being good to others. My childhood revolved round being with my pals or enjoying sport, not garments or my physique, and that made me very snug in my very own pores and skin.

She additionally inspired me to have a go at something. Girls’ cricket? Let’s signal you up! Nothing was past my attain. When it got here to consuming, it was easy meals – we’re speaking meat and three veg for dinner, cereal for brekkie, sandwiches for lunch, treats only on holidays – however she taught me that good well being doesn’t must be difficult. I’m so grateful for that.

In half 2, Emma Seibold demonstrates how one can get lengthy and lean legs..

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Source: fitnesscaster.com Source: Bodiz Wonder

#Bodiz Wonder #Bodiz Wonder - Wonderful Life

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