#new-kid-intown

[joe9cool]

Collide- Epilouge 3- A New Life

A/N: The usual, do not steal my work. You do not have permission to post or steal my work. This is fiction, I do not know or affiliate with the Chargers, all characters are mine.

Justin raced in and out of traffic, cursing himself for even going to the golf tournament. He knew it was a bad idea, even though Sara insisted that he go. Justin should have known his wife was stubborn, even more now in her condition.

Taking the back streets he knew so well from childhood he pulled up to the house, seeing the cars of his mom and the team that Sara wanted present. As he walked up to the door he was shaking. This was it, they were now going to be a family of three. The last nine months flashed before his eyes. Their surprised reaction to the positive test, the Hyperemesis Gravidarum Sara suffered, hiding from the media. The joys of telling friends and family. Late nights of nervousness wondering if they could be good parents. Setting up nurseries in California, Eugene, and Wexler. The overall football season and the gross intrusion of the media.  Finding out the sex of their first child. It all led up to this moment. They were finally going to meet their baby girl. 

Taking a deep breath, Justin opened the door and the first thing he saw was the tarp on the floor of the living room which was pushed around for space, and the huge birthing pool that was filled with water. The house was quiet, which was weird considering there was a laboring woman and her birthing team present. All of the sudden he heard a loud yell from upstairs and he immediately ran towards the sound. "Sara?!"

"In the bedroom!" His mother called as he walked in the room. His wife was bent over the bed in one of his t shirts as the midwife had her hands on her lower back. Holly was wiping a cool washcloth on her head.

 "That was a good one." Elizabeth, a kind, middle aged woman who was highly experienced in Nurse Midwifery smiled encouragingly at Sara. She noticed Justin there. "Dad is here." His wife turned towards the side. "Hi." She grimaced and he immediately went to grab her hand. "Sara honey it's okay to yell." Holly spoke. "I cursed Mark out when I had all three of my kids."

Justin laughed. As Sara calmed from the contraction she addressed him. "Did you call my family?"

He nodded. "Yes, your mother is en route on Bella's plane." The plan was put into place so it wouldn't tip anyone off.

Elizabeth cut in. "She's only at a three, and her water hasn't broken. Usually first babies take a bit so we could be here for hours. "It also looks like back labor, since her uterus is a bit titled."

Sara groaned. She was the biggest baby when it came to back pain. During all of her periods she didn't have cramps, but the back pain was hell. So of course she would have back labor. 

The doula, Jane, set up a bar over the bed she could hold onto for support. Sara moaned as she felt another wave of pain wash over her. "Oh god this is so painful."

"Are you sure we can't give her anything?" Justin asked Elizabeth and Jane. He was never a fan of the homebirth plan Sara had wanted. When the topic of a birth plan came up, Justin was shocked and upset that she didn't want to give birth in a hospital. They agreed since it was the offseason the baby would be born in Oregon away from the noise. But to give birth at home? Where there was no emergency medical equipment on hand in case something went wrong with Sara or the baby? Justin nearly had a panic attack when she told the family of their plans.

Sara, honey I know you hate hospitals. But I don't think it's safe.” her mom told her when she was intown making a birth plan . Justin had never agreed so much with his mother in law.

“mom, my midwife says everything is fine, there is no reason why I can't deliver at home.” Justin shook his head. “I agree. With LA traffic delaying a possible trip to the hospital I think its too risky.”

She glared at him, not happy he was taking her mother's side. “For your information she will be born in Oregon. Our midwife got everything cleared with the state and the nearby hospital.” Justin's eyebrows raised. This wasn't something he was comfortable with, and he was a little hurt that she did this without him.

Justin remembered that day clearly. What was supposed to be a conversation when they were alone turned into an argument. Both yelling and stubborn over their stance, they both ended up apologizing. Justin decided to give into the home birth even though he wasn't happy at all.

He was broken from memory as he felt his hand being squeezed. He remembered the lamaze classes they took and coached her through the breathing techniques. Once the wave was over Sara looked at him. “thank you for this.”

“hmm?” She smiled. “for supporting me, I know you aren't the biggest fan of me giving birth at home.”

Justin kissed his wife. “You're right, I am not, but I'm doing what a husband is supposed to do. I can't thank you enough for going through this to have our daughter.”

Tears gathered in her eyes. “God you are going to be an amazing dad.” He smiled and kissed her. “We're going to be amazing parents.”

She nodded, before making a face and squeezing his hand as another contraction washed over her.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------

“It looks like you're still only at a four.” Elizabeth tried to be encouraging as labor has slowed down since. It was now hour ten and almost midnight. Sara groaned as she was on the bed, in one of Justin's teams shirts. Cathy held up a cup of water for her to sip on. She had arrived a few hours prior. “It's been hours and she's in a lot of pain. Is this normal?” Justin spoke, worried and ready to call an ambulance.

Elizabeth knew the new dad to be was very concerned. “Yes, first babies can take quite a while.”

“Mom, weren't you only in labor for three hours with me?” Sara looked at Cathy for comfort.

“Yes honey, but you have to remember you were my last. With Katie I was in labor for twenty eight hours.”

Sara's eyes widened. “Dear God.”

“Are you sure there isn't anything we can give her pain?”

Jane shook her head. “The point of this Is that this is all natural birth. We can try other breathing techniques, play some music.”

None of those sounded appeasing to Sara at all. Her sisters words echoed in her head.

Don't be stupid sis, go to the hospital and get the drugs.

It didn't help that their daughter was more than likely an eight pounder thanks to her father.

Why couldn't I have procreated with an average person.

“babe what?” She looked up and saw the room was smiling. Sara realized that she voiced her thoughts out loud. Her cheeks flushed red and Justin laughed. “Hey babe, you knew when you married me that our kids might be bigger than normal.”

Sara sighed. “Yeah I didn't think that far ahead.”

He laughed. “Too late to back out now.”

—------------------------------------------------------------

She had been in labor for 18 hours. Justin had paced back and forth every time the nurse checked Sara and checked on the baby's heart rate. “This isn't normal, she has to be in some sort of distress.” Referring to their daughter.

“You know you can call her by her name, since we are going to know soon.” Cathy cut in, hoping to ease some tension. Justin glared at her. “Let's focus on delivering her safely"

Elizabeth checked the baby's heart rate.  “Her heart rate is normal, no sign of distress.” Sara took a sign of relief. She felt bad that Justin was panicking a little bit. “Hey you're supposed to be comforting me. I'm pushing an eight pounder out of my crotch.” She joked.

That seemed to calm him as he was back by her side. “I'm sorry.” He kissed her slightly clammy forehead. “I love you,and thank you for delivering her, and other future babies.”

She huffed. “Yeah depending on this one it's not looking too hot for more kids.” On cue she grabbed his hand and squeezed as another contraction came on. It was a long one, and once she came down she looked at him.

“Yeah its not looking good.” —---------------------------------------------------------------

“Okay, you ready to start pushing?” Elizabeth smiled. It was finally time, after twenty one hours she was in the pool, and ready to push.

While her body may have been ready, she certainly wasn't. “No” She moaned. 

Birth was weird. It felt like her body wasn't hers, it had a mind of her own. She wasn't in any pain, thanks to being in a squatting position in the water, but it was a weird sensation. Like she was about to have the biggest shit of her life and she couldn't hold it.

Elizabeth was kneeling in the water, hands underneath her ready to catch, while her doula was waiting with the towel. Holly and Cathy were supporting her so she didn't fall over. Sara was glad that her mother in law and mom were both involved. Her original plan was to have her sisters as well as her best friend, but Justin reminded her that she might get overwhelmed and overstimulated, and she was glad her husband knew her so well.

Holly had cried when they asked her if she wanted to be present for the birth of her first grandchild, and she was grateful, despite some hesitancy from Justin that they were doing this at home in Oregon away from the flashes of cameras and fans who were actively searching out clues to what hospital she might be staying at.

“Okay Sara, I need you to start pushing.” Elizabeth instructed and her body took over.

The next ten minutes were a blur as she pushed with all her might. Everyone's words of praise surrounding her. Finally, she heard a loud cry, and she was gently eased into a sitting position. 

“Baby girl is here!” Elizabeth called loudly as Justin and Sara saw their screaming daughter being held up. For a couple that didn't believe in love at first sight, they were in love. She truly had no words as the still screaming baby was placed on her chest. She felt Justin's lips against her forehead. “I'm so proud of you honey.” 

Sara glanced around to see the smiles and tears of the women who surrounded her. But for some reason she couldn't speak, like she was being silenced. In fact, her body didn't feel real, she didn't feel real. 

It was weird, but she just focused on the weight on her chest and in her arms.

“She was all warm and cozy in momma. So she isn't too happy.” In a flash, Jane took the baby off her chest, explaining that she needed to be weighed and tested. Justin went over to their set up station with the baby as Elizabeth explained the process of delivering the after birth.

It was then, the moment of happiness would change for the worse.

--------------------------------------------

Justin took in the scene around him.

He was officially a dad. The one thing he wanted most in life he had it in front of him. This was the princess that knew everything about football plays, their parents favorite foods, the cats. She knew everything about Justin, yet he knew nothing about her, and he loved her more than anything in the world. Guess it was love at first sight.

He had never been so proud of his wife, who had been a champ throughout not only delivery, but the entire nine months. She grew an entire human, and a large one as the scale weighed her at 8lbs 7oz and 21in. Baby girl was long.

“aren't you being a little rough with her?” Justin asked out of concern as Jane wiped her down. The doula laughed as she knew the concern of the new dad. “Mr. Herbert, she's going to cry no matter what. She's cold and wants to be back in the womb.”

Justin was going to respond, until he heard Elizabeth call for more supplies. “We got a heavy bleeder!”

He didn't like the words, or tone. He looked behind her to see his wife being helped by their moms out of the tub. As she was being lifted, a massive gush of blood had came out, and Sara had collapsed, nearly weighing down the older women.

“Sara!” He ran over to see his pale wife had passed out.

Elizabeth had taken over and pulled Sara out to set her on the tarp. “call 911.” Her voice was calm, compared to the chaos of the room.

Holly was already on the phone. Explaining that Sara was bleeding very heavily after birth.

Not too long after, the ambulance arrived and had Sara unconscious body on a stretcher, and the baby in the ambulance. Justin, still not comprehending what had just been happening, was in a car behind them with Cathy driving. Holly was going to make Justin and Sara things and meet them up.

“She's going to be okay.” Cathy kept repeating as she drove behind the lights. After the fifth time, Justin looked over. “Do you really think that?” Tears were coming down his face.

Cathy nodded as her tears were no longer controlled. “I truly do, she's a fighter.” Her voice was shaky.

“Have you ever seen that before?” Justin had to ask and torture himself with the answer he already knew. “No, I haven't. The midwife didn't sound panicky or anything. My baby's in good hands with them.” She gestured. “And my grandbaby.”

He nodded. They pulled into a separate guest parking lot as the ambulance went to the emergency unit. Justin and Cathy ran inside, only to be told to go up to maternity and they would have more details. Justin couldn't help but notice people staring at him, and at that point he knew there was no way people wouldn't know that his wife was hospitalized.

When they walked into the hospital doors Justin was Fighting hard to keep it together, a staff member escorting them to a labor and delivery wing. They apologized as they hadn't been preparing for a celebrity to be Admitted, but they did give Sara her own room as the doctors worked on her.

“Is there any update?” Justin choked out between tears. The nurse smiled sympathetically. “Her blood pressure is low, and she lost a ton of blood. We call it postpartum hemorrhaging. It's rare, but it happens.”

“Was there anything we could have done to prevent it?” Cathy chimed in. Then spoke to herself. “I knew I should have talked her out of that stupid home birth.”

“No, there's no indication that it is going to happen until it happens. Mrs. Herbert is in very good hands, and your daughter passed all of her tests, and is doing well. Would you like to see her?”

They both nodded, before Cathy stepped Back. “I'm sorry, Justin I think you should g-”

“Please, I can't go alone.” Justin cried, wondering where his parents were. Cathy nodded before they both followed the nurse. —----------------------------------------------------------

Justin sat in the rocking chair in the nursery. They were behind one of the partitions to give them some privacy. His daughter had been wiped down, wrapped Up with a pink cap on her head.

She looked like a sleeping angel.

Justin studied her features. It was too soon To tell who she favored in the looks, he hoped she favored Sara.

speaking Of, they hadn't heard an update. It had been a half an hour. He almost worked Himself up to a panic attack earlier and Cathy had to calm him down until the nurse wheeled the little plastic bassinet carrying his daughter, and even though there was still panic, the little girl already had her dad wrapped around her small baby fingers.

“You both did so well.” Cathy smiled as she took in the sight. Justin looked up and smiled at his mother in law. Cathy took a shaky breath. “No Matter if it's my 1st or 10th grandchild, it's still such an amazing feeling. She's so beautiful.”

Justin smiled, feeling proud and emotional he gestured her to come near him, and she sat on the chair as he passed the baby to her grandmother. Cathy was in tears as she held her. “Oh my baby girl. Grandma loves you so much. Sweet little girl.”

“Ella.” Justin blurted out. Deciding that she should know before everyone else. Over the years he and Sara had kept her from a distance, still feeling pain from her past mistakes. However, she had been truly amazing throughout all of this, and he had felt really bad when all she wanted to do was be a grandmother. “We decided on Ella Kate Herbert”

Cathy smiled. “After Jerry's daughter Kate?” Justin smiled, recalling the memory of the Bar owner Getting choked up when he and Sara revealed her name a few months prior to honor his late daughter. “Yeah.”

The older woman's tears were falling harder. “Thank you.” She whispered.

“Mr. Herbert?” They both looked up to see a doctor heading in their direction. Justin and Cathy stood up. “How is she?” Justin took a sharp intake of breath.

The young woman smiled. “Sara's stable, and she is awake. A little out of it. But we had to do a few rounds Of blood transfusions considering she lost alot. But we will monitor Throughout the day, and it looks like we are not seeing any damage.

“Can we see her?” Justin took the biggest breath of his life. Knowing that his wife was okay. The doctor nodded and Justin addressed Cathy, who spoke first. “Go, your family is here. I'll deal with them and then call my family.” He nodded in thanks and followed the doctor.

He wasn't sure what he was expecting when he entered the room. Sara was awake, her bed was positioned upwards slightly. She looked pale, and weak, with oxygen and an IV. She smiled weakly and he matched it. Justin grabbed her hand. “Oh my god I'm so relieved.” The tears were coming freely. His lips met hers, and they both tasted the saltiness of their tears combing together. “How's Ella? Is she okay?” There was a slight panic in her voice.

“She's perfect, and healthy.” On cue, the door opened and a nurse wheeled the bassinet in. Sara broke down crying as the nurse handed her the baby. “When you get a moment, we can fill out her birth certificate with the official name.” She left, leaving the new family of three alone for the first time.

“Hi Ella Kate,” Sara whispered as the baby opened her eyes. Justin helped with supporting the baby's body as his wife was weak. “We are so happy you're here with us princess.” Justin placed a kiss on her forehead, then Sara's. “My girls” He whispered. Relieved that everyone was alright and safe.

—-------------------------------------------------------------

“Are you ready to meet everyone Princess? I know they have been dying to meet you.” Sara whispered as she was dressing Ella for her big debut. It had been a month since she made her appearance and it felt the time was going slow and fast at the same time. The first week of them being home was filled with panic and shedding tears of being overwhelmed and sleep deprivation. Justin had adjusted to fatherhood with no issue, while Sara felt like she was drowning.

She had never been more grateful to have both sets of moms with them. Cathy stepped in to deal with her publicists badgering of releasing baby photos. Getting into an argument with the sharp minded woman telling her. “My granddaughter isn't public property. They will release details when they want!”

The Chargers social media team had posted a tweet of congratulations only announcing the birth and that she was healthy.

Holly had been eager to help with her first grandbaby. Mark made meals on the grill to bring them over. Sara ate everything up as she was breastfeeding a baby who had an appetite like her father apparently.

Mitch and Isabelle, along with Patrick and Carly had flown In the night before, but Justin and Sara agreed that they would come over for lunch and meet their niece.

So far the day had been a bit chaotic. Ella had been fussy in the early hours of morning, While Sara had a clogged duct that she had to take a hot shower to unclog (it was more painful than childbirth itself)

Justin was feeding Ella as Sara got dressed. She had never been so grateful that she found a husband who understood that they were partners in the relationship, and that they shared all of the duties of having a baby.

After she was burped and a messy diaper change (which included a new outfit) Justin opened the door to his mom carrying groceries for them. Her son immediately grabbed the bags.

“You certainly remember grandma.” Sara cooed to her baby as Holly sat next to them. Immediately Sara handed the baby off to her mother in law, who cooed at Ella and tried to get some reaction out of her. “Everyone will be here in about 20 min, but I decided to sneak in a little early for some alone time.” Sara laughed as Justin teased his mom. “Oh yeah, since you have been so deprived of that.”

Holly glared at her son. “Hey this time goes by fast, and you guys will be in Pittsburgh, and then back in Los Angeles.”

“I'm sure you and dad have already planned out what days you're coming to visit already.” Holly's silence confirmed Justin's theory and Sara laughed.

After another fifteen minutes there was a knock at the door, and Justin opened it to see Mark, followed by Carly and Patrick, and Mitch and Isabelle.

“We got a sushi tray! Courtesy of my idea” Patrick announced loudly. Totally Forgetting about the baby in the room

“Patrick!” Mitch scolded and Sara laughed. “Don't worry she is up and alert.” Checking on the baby, she was right as she met her daughter's eyes. She looked down at the huge assortment of sushi placed in front of her. “This is the sweetest gift I have ever gotten.” She teared up at her brother in law’s consideration.

Then she realized she was crying over sushi. “sorry my emotions are out of whack” She laughed and went to get up to hug Pat but then she felt dizzy and sat down, hoping no one knew.

“Easy baby.” Of course her husband saw it. He was next to her in a flash. “Let me get your water.”

“Don't worry Sara, I can hug you sitting down.” They hugged and the rest all followed suit.

The star of the show began to cry, voicing her displeasure at not being the center of attention.

“Oh you guys.. she is beautiful.” Isabelle cooed as she looked over Holly's shoulder. As Ella couldn't calm down, she was handed off to Sara as Justin got her bottle ready. “She has an appetite like her dad.” She laughed. “ Thank God I got a heavy milk supply!”

“God help her if she has our height.” Patrick laughed. “Get her into sports fast!”

“She can do whatever she wants to do” Justin cut in as he handed his wife the warm bottle. Immediately Ella settled as she took her food.

The day seemed to go by quickly, and before the couple knew it it was just them two and their daughter.

Sara woke up and rolled over to grab her phone. Adjusting to the light she saw it was 3am. Which meant Ella had to have Woken up at least once, and she had slept through it. In a panic, she ripped the covers and stood up in a hurry.

She didn't even notice the space next to her was empty as she walked into her daughter's nursery.

A beautiful sight stopped her at the door.

Justin was seated in the love suite rocking chair, the cats at his feet.The soft glow of the nightlight illuminated his face as he took in the baby in his large arms. Sara could see that Ella was awake, her eyes fully locked on her dad's face as he spoke to her, and she realized that he was telling her the story of how her parents got together

“And then by grace of God, mommy took daddy's sorry ass back.”

Sara giggled, causing Justin to look up and smile. “Sorry if we woke you, she finally calmed down.”

She shook her head and came over as Justin made room for her to sit on his lap. “I didn't even hear you guys.. God I'm such a terrible mom.”

“Don't say that. You deserve rest. You had a hard labor and you have been Getting up with her almost every night.” He adjusted Ella's tiny body in his one arm as he wrapped the other one around Sara. They both studied her features as her eyes darted from parent to parent. “She's all you babe.” Sara Whispered. Justin smiled. “She has my eye color and shape. That rest is you.”

“Well I didn't almost die delivering her for no reason.” She laughed and Justin frowned. “Please do not joke about that. That was the scariest moment of my life.”

He felt her press her lips against his head. “I'm sorry. That was in very bad taste of me. I love you so much, and you're never getting rid of me. Cause even when I pass on in sixty years if you're still alive I'm haunting your ass.”

Justin laughed, and the move disturbed Ella who was now wide awake. “Well shit I've got to start over again.” They both laughed.

It was quiet until Justin Picked up his phone. “Maybe our song will get her to sleep.”

The chords of Collide began playing, and in habit Sara began singing. Ella's eyes slowly began to close and Justin looked at Sara.

“We did good babe, we did good.”

Sara smiled, "How do you feel about number two in six months?"

Justin shook his head. "Absolutely not, not at least until Ella is a year old. I'm surprised you want to go through delivery again after all the complaining you did."

Sara laughed and ran her finger down the babies face. "We do make beautiful babies though. I wouldn't mind a couple more." All of the sudden Ella jolted awake, and began crying. Justin looked at Sara.

"Let's wait until she is at least a year."

A.N. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR PATIENCE AND LOVE. I know this has been a long time coming. I might do another one shpt documenting the pregnancy with Ella. Guys I am so emotional posting this! Keep an eye out for other imagines.

#justin herbert #sara and justin canon #Alexa writes collide #nfl imagine

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[365plus1]

Take my bones when you go

For @new-kid-intown

#I’m zoomin right now #and finished season one of Lucifer in like 3 sittings #whoops #new-kid-intown #art #simple art #color block #water #waves #ocean

[c4pricornc4ts]

Where are Your Parents? - Sbi Au Chapter five

Also on my ao3 

 Read the other chapters here: [1]  [2]  [3]  [4]

----------

Tommy scrunches his nose in distaste. “I wouldn’t want to leave either of you ever!”

Techno laughs softly. “Wilbur would love to hear that he won’t have you disappearing like me when you're older.”

Tommy giggles as Wilbur fusses over his clothes. Techno finishes packing a small bag for his trip to the mountains past town. Tommy didn’t like him leaving so much, but he knew it was what Techno wanted to do. He knew Techno left the orphanage to be free to go wherever in life.

He also knew neither of them planned to live in a questionably stable shed with a 10 year old boy to look after but here he was. He always tried to stay positive, but he wasn’t oblivious to how his brothers feel.

Wilbur puts a cap over his messy blonde hair and Tommy smiles at how happy Wilbur looks.

“Remember what I said, Techno.” Wilbur warns.

Techno pretends to be nonchalant and fake yawns. “Yeah, yeah, Toms passes out. I bring him back. If he seems fine, I let him run around town so you get a break” He teases the younger boy.

Wilbur sighs, and steps back from straightening Tommy’s suspenders. “Alright, I’ll see you both soon.”

Tommy grabs a basket and waits for Techno by the path while the older two talk.

Techno readjusts his travel bag and they start walking towards town. Tommy walks ahead of him slightly, excited to finally be out of the woods.

“Slow down Toms c’mon. I know you miss town but it’s not going anywhere.”

Tommy slows down. “What? I thought you were excited to leave that forest too?”

“You know I am, and I know you are, but I’m leaving for a few days so we should talk.” He swings his arm around Tommy’s shoulder, having to lean down very far to reach the ten year old’s shoulders. “I always miss you, you know.”

“If you miss me so much, why don’t you stay intown? I’m sure someone would hire you.”

Tommy watches his brother look straight ahead. “Well, you know how Wil likes staying in the forest?”

“Yeah…”

“And you know how you like to be in town?”

Tommy nods, unsure where his brother was going with this. “Yeah?”

“Well I don’t like the forest or the town. I’m not happy with anything unless I’m free.” He smiles at Tommy. “I like knowing that no matter how far I go, you two will always be there when I’m back.”

Tommy scrunches his nose in distaste. “I wouldn’t want to leave either of you ever!”

Techno laughs softly. “Wilbur would love to hear that he won’t have you disappearing like me when you're older.”

They reach the town and Tommy takes a deep breath at the sight of people other than his brothers. He missed the crowded buildings and stone streets. Before he can go and find the man who will let him sell newspapers, he has to get Techno's seal of ‘I’m not gonna pass out’ approval.

“Well…?” The blonde questions.

“Well… I think you’re going to be fine today, just take it easy for Wil’s sake. And go tell Phil thanks for saving you.” He laughs and starts walking away.

Tommy always wondered how Techno was so sure on where he was headed. He didn’t have any kind of map that the boy could see, he just seemed to know. He hopes one day he could walk into uncertainty with the confidence of his brother. He knows they aren’t really related, but he can’t help but realize he’s adopted traits from both of them over time.

Wilbur taught him about being grateful for all the little things in life, to be happy with who he was becoming and keep pushing to be better. Techno helped him understand that the world was big, bigger than any problem, bigger than him and his brothers. That you’ll never be able to face the world till you start within yourself.

One thing he hadn’t picked up from them is their general distaste for talking to people outside of their family. Though his older brothers were both very interesting people, Tommy always hoped he’d never get their attitude towards others. He’d find it very boring if he didn’t interact with new people everyday.

He turns another corner and shakes hands with the man who owns the newspaper printer. He tries to suppress a sigh when he sees some of the ink from the man's stained hands was now on his.

“Jim, Guess who’s back?”

“Your brother finally let you out of home-jail huh? Took ya almost the full week he told me you’d be out for you to convince him.” The man teases.

“He was really worried, okay? I didn’t want to be home that long either!” He huffs and holds his arms out for Jim to put a stack of newspapers into.

“You know the routine, but in case you forgot; money by tomorrow.” He ruffles Tommy’s blonde hair until it's a mess.

He cringes thinking about what Wilbur would say if he saw someone mess up his hair. “I know, it’s been a week not a year. I’m almost 11 and I can remember everything now.” He puts the newspapers in his basket and walks to the door, opening it with his unoccupied hand. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Tommy notices the sky has been slowly getting cloudier as he continues to sell newspapers down each street. Stopping to talk with many familiar faces and answering questions about where he’s been.

He’s tapped on the shoulder and turns around while taking a deep breath, prepared to talk about the news yet another time this morning.

He’s greeted with one of Tubbo’s older brothers, Sapnap. With his familiar headband holding back his dark hair like usual. “Sapnap! How are you?” “I’m better now that I know you’re still kicking. Dude, you scared us! Maybe give us a ring next time you get grounded or whatever.”

Tommy wasn’t sure he was allowed to tell people he didn’t have a house phone… or a house. So he just laughed it off. “Yeah, sorry. I fell and hurt my head pretty badly, Wilbur didn’t want me to pass out so I stayed home for a bit.”

“Never heard of someone’s brother grounding them but hey, first time for everything right?” Sapnap laughs and hands him a dime. “For the paper. I’m glad you're better, come visit soon yeah? Eret and Tubbo have been busy with some kind of castle in the backyard. I’m sure they’d like your opinions.”

“Tell them soon, I’ve got something to do this afternoon.” Tommy was going to go thank Phil like Techno recommended. He owes the bookstore owner that at least.

“Alright, I’ll go tell them you’re alive and you know where we’ll be. Just make sure to come after school. Or you’ll be stuck talking with my mom again.”

“I like talking with May, but noted.” Sapnap waves and starts to walk away, flipping through the newspaper as he walks.

Tommy starts heading to the other side of town where (hopefully) Phil would be working in the store and not closed for the day. He sells the rest of his newspapers on the way, which wasn’t surprising since he was handed so few.

The clouds were growing closer together, Tommy walked a little faster to try and beat the oncoming shower. He hoped it would just be a quick afternoon rain.

“Mr. Phil?” Tommy pokes his head into the book store and calls.

“Tommy? How are you doing? Come in before the rain.” He sets down the box of books and sits in a chair behind the desk. Tommy sets his basket on the counter before resting his chin on top of his folded arms.

“I feel better now, I came to say thank you for saving me. Techno wanted me to say thank you for him too!”

They both turn to smile at the new customer when they hear the jingle of the door opening before Phil continues the conversation. “What about Wilbur? How’s he?”

“Well I’m sure Wil’s thankful too, he’s probably just um- embarrassed? I think he’s too busy being upset that he wasn’t there for me…” Tommy lulls his head to one side and starts fiddling with his sleeve.

“He’ll come around I’m sure. He’s just worried about you like a brother should. I hope you told him thank you too.” Phil tries to cheer him up a bit by being the second person today to mess up his hair.

“I did! Well, sort of.” He looks at the box of unsorted books and quickly changes topics. “Can I help you sort those? Please?”

“Well I’m not going to pass up free help. Come over here and I’ll teach you how.”

The pair walk over to the shelf in the back corner and Tommy picks up a soft paper book. Then looking up at Phil for an explanation.

“They’re sorted by title in this section. What’s the book name?”

Tommy freezes, he almost regrets being such a devil about school that they stopped making him try. Because right now it’d be really helpful if he could read.

“I- uh- cah? Cah-la?”

Phil steps beside him and takes the book from him gently. “Call is that first word. Do you know the next one?”

It’s two letters long and Tommy still doesn’t know. “I-I don’t know how to.”

Phil pauses for a moment, Tommy wonders if he is realizing that maybe a kid who lives in the woods doesn’t go to school, and therefore does not thrive well in a bookstore.

“Th-that’s okay Toms, it’s okay. This book is titled ‘Call it Courage’” He reads it slowly, pointing to each word.

“I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to be sorry, we can turn this into a teaching experience. We’ll read the titles together and then you can sort them.” He hands the book back to the boy and they walk over to a shelf labeled ‘Kids non-fiction A-E’

Phil makes a space and Tommy reaches up to put it on the shelf.

They continue like that for a while, Phil occasionally going to ring up someone’s books or when they both stopped to have lunch.

Tommy is about to pick up another book, when someone with a large dog walks in. He wasn’t a big fan of dogs, and has had too many encounters with mean ones on the street to be comfortable with this situation. He hides behind Phil and grabs his arm.

“The dog is on a leash Tommy, it can't get you.” Phil tries to step away from his grip so they can put away the final few books.

Tommy looks up ready to try and ignore the dog but he immediately makes eye contact with the animal and buries his face in the adult’s arm. He really wishes bookstores had a no pets policy.

Phil detaches himself from Tommy, much to his dismay. “I’ll finish up here, do you want to start heading home before the rain?”

It was only 3pm, he didn’t want to be back in the woods so soon. “Can I go to your apartment and leave after the rain?”

“Sure, but leave the door open so we can listen for customers. I’ll come up there when the store is empty.”

Tommy nods, waits for the dog to be in the opposite corner of the stairs and books it to the red apartment door. Leaving the door open behind him felt strange, Wilbur would scold him when he left their door open at the orphanage.

He’s not a big fan of Phil’s interior design choices, but their house didn’t even have furniture. So really who was he to judge?

He sits on the plaid carpet and opens one of the coffee table drawers. Looking for a game. He pushes a pack of cigarettes aside and pulls out a checkerboard and a small bag of pieces.

After he figures out how to turn on the radio, he sets the boardgame up. Checkers was the only one he really knew how to play. Techno would try to teach him chess but he never could get all the rules right.

So they stuck to checkers. Before they left, whenever one of them was hesitant to talk about what was bothering them, they’d go downstairs and pull out an old checker board and talk while they played.

It always helped Tommy figure out what he needed to say if his hands were busy. When Techno started getting upset over school he’d watch Wilbur smuggle a card game up to the older kid’s rooms.

So he uses it now, he plays a few games of checkers to distract himself from the dog downstairs. He lays on his side and moves the black and red pieces around, flipping them when they reach the end.

The rain starts to pour in sheets. Tommy gets up off the rug to go look out the window. The bookstore overlooks the street where he can see the roads begin to flood with the heavy rain. He leans on the windowsill and watches it for a while, his nose fogging the window from where he has it boredly pressed against the glass.

He gets really worried when he starts to hear thunder. It was already 5pm. Phil would be closing the store in an hour. He really didn’t want to walk home in a thunderstorm.

He especially didn’t want to sleep in the woods in a thunderstorm. The roof always leaked, and it's already so cold that he knows all that water would turn to ice very quickly.

Deciding that walking back in this was something he had to do, he thought it was better to go through a storm than have Wilbur assume the worst and never let him in town alone again.

He drags his feet over to the board game left on the floor, and starts to put each of the pieces back in the bag. He pauses when he hears the stairs creak, turning around to greet Phil once again.

“The rain’s bad Toms, I don’t think you’ll be able to get back home yet.”

“I have to or Wilbur’s gonna be worried about me. I’d rather walk home in the rain than have him out in this looking for me.” He continues to put away the pieces and folds the board.

“I can’t let you out in this, you’re a kid, it's dangerous. If it let’s up later we’ll walk back together again.” He can tell by the tone Phil actually feels bad for not letting him leave. So Tommy pushes the table drawer closed and doesn’t argue.

Besides, sleeping in an actual house during a heavy storm sounded very nice. It might be worth the lecture he’d get from Wilbur when he returned in the morning.

Both of them were sitting on the couch, with the first book Tommy had picked up earlier, ‘Call it Courage’ and they are switching off who reads each paragraph. At first it was difficult stumbling over almost every word, but when he got to sit back and listen to Phil read his paragraph, he knew that being able to read on his own would be worth it.

The boy in the story was afraid of the sea because he saw his mom fall victim to it. Tommy thinks he’d be scared of the sea too if he saw it, especially since he knows it could swallow him whole. He thinks he’ll stick to the river.

They hear more thunder roll by and Phil closes the book as Tommy watches the lightning flash through the curtains. Tommy was nervous about how loud the wind sounded.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to light a candle while you cook? What if the power goes out- and you’re trying to see the pan in the dark? What then Phil?” He’s sitting at the kitchen table now, up on his knees with both hands lifting him up so he was leaning over it precariously.

“There’s a candle in that cabinet,” Phil stops what he’s cooking to point to the drawer closest to Tommy. “If you get me one i’ll light it and well keep it in the middle of the table yeah?”

He picks out one after smelling all of them twice, and by that time Phil is already done with the food. Tommy walks it over to the stove carefully since it’s glass and the bookstore owner trades him the candle for a bowl of soup.

They eat and talk about the story they were reading and the whole time the rain doesn’t let up once. The wind is so aggressive Tommy stops mid rant to worry about Wilbur alone out there.

Phil notices and carries both their bowls to the sink. Leaving them for morning before grabbing the candle and turning to Tommy. “I have a guest room, you can sleep there and leave first thing okay? I can’t let you have a candle because that’d be a fire hazard.” He pauses to laugh at his own joke. “I’ll open the curtains so you won’t need a candle. Streetlights are enough.”

Tommy nods, the storm really wasn’t letting up and it was getting late. Maybe Wilbur will assume he went to Tubbo’s house. He pours a glass of water and follows Phil through a door in the living room.

The room is small, much like the rest of the apartment and has a double bed in between two bedside tables. The wood floor is cold beneath him so while Phil fixes the curtains and sets down his water and climbs under the covers.

“See the door to your left? That’s the bathroom and through there is my room. The storm should be over soon but if you need me that’s where I am.”

“Goodnight.” He’s sitting up in the bed, holding the blanket close to him while he watches Phil turn out the lights.

“Goodnight Toms, I hope Wil’s okay out there.”

While Tommy sleeps, Wilbur doesn’t.

#tommyinnit #sbi #sleepy bois inc #minecraft fanfiction #minecraft #philza #runaways au #wilbur soot #techno #technoblade #c4pricornc4ts

[geneticistlarrie]

Here's a new CDC study which shows COVID-19 "spread efficiently" at a Georgia youth overnight camp.  44% of kids/staff were infected.   There is no mention of hospitalizations or deaths.

-*Out of 597 campers & staff, 344 were tested and 76% of those tests were positive -26% positives report no symptoms

[theycallmebecca]

Prompt idea for Chris Evans x reader - his wife reveals that she’s pregnant with their first baby to Chris with a Patriots babygro in front of his family (because she knows & loves how important they are to him) and ugh Chris is v v emotional and rambles about how his lil bubba and him will watch all the games, go to all the games, walk Dodger, how he’ll coach their lil league games etc 🥺🥺🥺

Hey nonny! Thanks for the request! I hope you like it.

Title: Evans 20

Paring: Chris Evans x reader

Title: G

Warnings: pregnancy

Disclaimer: This work of fiction is not to be reposted, used or translated without my permission.

You and Chris had thought long and hard about how to announce you were pregnant even before you’d gotten pregnant. The two of you wanted kids so badly that it became an inside joke between the two of you, even when you were still dating. Sometimes they were serious ideas (like putting a pair of baby booties in a grandparent’s stocking on Christmas morning), but most of the time they were ridiculous (like hiring a skywriter).

The two of you had been married for a little over six months when you found out you were expecting. You’d begun to suspect you might be pregnant in mid May, but had waited until the beginning of June to take a test, or rather, four of them. Of course, Chris had been on set when you’d taken the tests, so you’d had to wait until he’d gotten home to share the good news with him.

With his birthday just a couple weeks away, the two of you had decided to keep your pregnancy until then. Since his family was intown, the two of you planned to tell them in person when you all got together to celebrate Chris’s special day. With your family in a different state, you and Chris planned to tell your parents over a video chat. As for how to tell your friends and extended family, the two of you were still trying to figure that out, but didn’t plan on making an announcement until you were out of the first trimester.

On the Sunday after Chris’s birthday, the two of you went to his mom’s house for dinner after calling and sharing the news with your parents. They’d both been ecstatic at the news.

“Oh a package came for you,” Chris’s mom told, after giving you a hug. “From the NFL’s website.”

As planned, Chris’s ears perked up and he turned his attention to you. “Do I detect a birthday present?” he teased.

“Not if I decide to return it,” you retorted.

His mom snickered from the doorway to the hall and said, “He’s always been like this. A little snoop when it comes to presents.”

Once she was out of earshot, Chris whispered, “Hook, line and sinker.”

You shushed him as his mom made her way back to the kitchen with the package in hand.

“Thanks, mom,” you said, accepting it when she offered it. “I knew he’d snoop if I had it delivered to our address. I’ll go put it with the other gifts.”

It wasn’t until after dinner when you were all eating dutch apple pie that Chris got to open his birthday presents. His niece and nephews begged him to open their gifts first and he ooed and awed over each of the handmade gifts. Then he opened the gag gifts from his siblings, laughing along with everyone else at the insanity of them. With two gifts left to open, he opened the one from his mom and cheered when he saw that she had gotten him a new camp stove to replace the rusted one he’d been using.

Then it was time for your gift. You averted your eyes as he tore through the outer plastic packing, afraid that if you looked at him, you’d somehow give it away too soon. You and Chris both knew there were two plastic packages inside, a large one and a small one. Glancing up, you saw Chris let the smaller package fall to the floor while he tore open the larger one.

“A new Patriots shirt!” he exclaimed in joy at the sight of a red shirt with the Patriots logo on it. “Thanks, babe!”

“Uncle Chris, you dropped one!” his niece informed him.

“I did?” he asked, playing dumb. Looking down, he saw the smaller package and picked it up. “I wonder what it could be.”

“Open it!” his niece exclaimed.

Chuckling, Chris tore open the package and revealed an infant sized jersey.

“I don’t think that’s going to fit you,” his brother teased.

“Did they send you the wrong -” The words died on his mom’s lips as Chris turned the jersey around so they could all see what was written on the back “Evans” and the number 20.

Looking up, you saw your mother-in-law’s eyes flash from you to Chris and then back again. You gave her a subtle nod and she shrieked in delight. She pushed past Scott and wrapped you in a big hug. Chris joined your hug a second later and kissed you on top of the head. His siblings quickly joined the group hug too and you found yourself in the center of them.

“What’s going on?” his niece demanded with a stomp of her foot.

Chuckling, Chris separated himself from the hug and explained, “Auntie and I are going to have a baby.” Grabbing the tiny jersey, he continued, “The baby’s last name will be Evans and he or she will be born next year in 2020.”

The little girl’s eyes opened wide and she let out a shriek that rivaled her grandma’s. “I’M GOING TO BE A BIG COUSIN!” she exclaimed. Turning towards her brothers, she said, “You can’t call me a baby anymore!”

A chuckle ran throughout the room at her outburst and you found yourself pulled into Chris’s lap as the group hug dispersed. He gave you a kiss and then rested his hand on your still flat tummy while the two of you listened to his niece and nephews talk about what they were going to teach the new baby.

#theycallmebecca #beccaheartschrisevans #theycallmebeccawrites #beccas on vacation prompt me #chris evans #chris evans fanfic #chris evans fanfiction #chris evans x reader #chris evans x you #chris evans x y/n #reader insert #becca writes drabbles #Anonymous

[captawesomesauce]

Before you send your kids back to school...

https://twitter.com/i/events/1289281288826843138

COVID-19 - Hundreds of campers in Georgia contract COVID-19, CDC report finds 

Hundreds of people who attended a youth overnight summer camp, including dozens of children under the age of 10, tested positive for COVID-19, according to a CDC report published on Friday. The summer camp was revealed to be in northern Georgia.

----------------------

Articles: https://www.ajc.com/news/coronavirus/260-coronavirus-cases-tied-to-north-georgia-camp-outbreak/NZDPEZRRUNHT7CVE43JOPUAVSY/?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot&ecmp=intown&utm_medium=social&utm_source=intown_tw

260 cases

COVID-19 spread rapidly among children and teens

Overall attack rate of the virus was 44%, though the agency acknowledged that’s an undercount

children of all ages are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection

All  campers and staff to have a negative COVID-19 test within 12 days of the start of camp.    

--------

What remains to be asked is how many of these kids have myocarditis or neurological damage that will show on other scans, even the ones who had no symptoms. 

The testing/policies don’t work... kids are kids... when you group people together, this virus IS GOING TO SPREAD and people are GOING TO GET SICK. 

It’s not rocket science, it’s not complicated. 

They had the rules, everyone had to be tested and be clean for 12 days prior, masks, and this and that, and the virus still managed to beat the rules and policies. 

Stay safe, keep others safe. 

#covid19 #georgia

[hrsun111]

INTOWN REPORT for 12/5/19 – 12/11/19

THURSDAY, 12/5

5 Star Bar – Telekinetic Yeti, Darvaza, + Hexicon

1720 – Lousi Futon

Alex's – Five Guys...One Cover Band, Glitter Wizard, + Crimewave

The Belasco – Daughters, Protomartyr, + Show Me The Body

Bluespade 75 Studios (E.L.A.) - The Virus, Cinderblock, The Venomous Pinks, + HeadNoise

Bootleg – Lisa Prank, Rose Melberg, + Worriers

Doll Hut – Slaughterhousers, The Pawns, + The Tragic Radicals

Dynasty Typewriter – Michelle Buteau

Echo – Magic Sword, + Go Dark

Echoplex – Saint JHN

Fonda – Sasha Sloan, + Winnetka Bowling League

The Hi Hat – Bonavega, Brasko, + Mood Killer

Harvard & Stone – Baby A, + The Emerald

House of Blues - Gryffin

House of Machines – Love Nothing EP release, Deep Fields, New Balance, + Lindsay B

Largo at the Coronet – Anthony Jeselnik

Little Joy – No Exits, Programmed For Pleasure, + Del Lucrii

Malone's - Big Rig Dollhouse, Ascent, + Tragic Radicals

Maui Sugar Mill – Midnight Cloud, John Thompson, High Grass,+Carry On Band

Moroccan – Moon Hooch, + Coco Columbia

Observatory – The Hu, + Crown Lands; From Indian Lakes, Queen of Jeans, + Yummm (Constellation Room)

The Palace – Vagabon, + Angel Olsen (also Friday)

Petie's Place - The Kitty Litter Disco Show Band, Review Killer Lords (Tribute to The Lords of the New Church) + The Flutterbyes, free entry with a toy donation for Children's Hospital LA

Redwood Bar – The Tearaways (feat.Clem Burke), The Reflectors, + Mogg

Satellite – Salute to Lou Reed with Angie Bowie, LoveyDove, The Dick & Jane Family Orchestra, + Mary Woronov

The Smell – Banny Grove, Pregnant, + Brendan Eder Ensemble Theater at Ace Hotel – The Revolution (Prince's former band) Troubadour – Alex Cameron, + Holiday Sidewinder (also Friday) Wiltern – Snoop Dogg, + more

Zebulon – The Make-Up, + Seth Bogart

FRIDAY, 12/6

5 Star Bar – Endless Struggle, Destruction Made Simple, Dead77, Gob Patrol, + Dcon

1720 - Graves Bootleg Theater – Madison Cunningham, Johanna Samuels, + Pet Dress

Doll Hut – Reagan Youth, Functional Lunatics, The Lewd, Damaged, Justified Anger, Ciphors of Transcendence, Krovak, The Order of Nine Angels, The Outskirts, Pig City, 6pm

El Rey – Dreamers, Arrested Youth, + American Teeth Garden Amp – The Adolescents, The Zeros, The Crowd, + more! Glass House – The Hu, + Crown Lands The Hi Hat – Sonny & the Sunsets, + The Gonks Hollywood Forever Cemetery – Drab Majesty, + Body of Light House of Blues - Thrice House of Machines – The Dickies, Cheap Tissue, + DM Tina & The Bumps The Lash – Body of Light, + DJ Drab Majesty Lodge Room – Surfbot, Dumb F**ks, + Nice Maui Sugar Mill – Dr. Savage &The Shrunken Heads, Super Villian, + Caroshi Moroccan – Kills Birds, Daisy, + The Living Roomers Observatory – The Wrecks Pappy & Harriet's – Ryley Walker, + Black Mountain Petie's Place – Dickwad (also Sat.)

Redwood Bar – Drug Front, Dante HH, + Graveyard Bandits Regent – The Slackers, Viernes 13, Soul Ska, + Gabriela Penka Teragram – Marco Benevento, + The Mattson 2 Zebulon – Judge, Regional Justice Center, Section HB, + Down to Nothing

SATURDAY, 12/7

5 Star Bar – A Darker Bright

1720 – Minty Boi, Twin Tribes, + She Past Away

Alex's – Boyo, Dustin Lovelis, Nik Freitas, Tino Drima, + Emily Edrosa

Alpine Village - 7th Annual Krampus Ball with Rosemary's Billygoat, Hammerstein Band, Totendanse, + Krammpstein

American Legion Post 206 (Highland Park) – Master Cylander, Sapphic Musk, Somos Mysteriosos, Ley Valentine, + Stars at Night

Bootleg – Mike Krol, Night Shop, + Jess Cornelius

Catch One – Reagan Youth, The Voids, The Skeptix, The Virus, Defiance, Cheap Sex, Thulsa Doom, + more! 2:00pm

Doll Hut – Punxmas Toy Drive with Ravens Moreland, Big Mess, The Whining Pussies, The Pawns, Shubees, SLOKA, Mr. Firley, Dirty Hammer, + Time Kats (entry with 1 unwrapped toy)

EB's at The Farmer's Market – The Stardust Ramblers The Echo - Glades El Cid – Eyedress, + Natia & The Renaissance Family El Rey – Greyson Chance

The Factory- Daisy Chain, Lunch Lady, Silky & the Scopers, + Dummy Glass House – Aly & AJ, + Armors The Hi Hat – Fitness, + Somme Hollywood Forever Cemetery – Mount Eerie, + Julie Doiron

LEM HQ (835 N La Brea Ave.LA) – Crisis Actor, Safeword, Le Face,+DJsTerminal A Lexington – Drop Top Jesus, Wagemaker, Mountains of Delusion,+Living Darkness Lodge Room – Louis Cole Maui Sugar Mill – Punk Rock Karaoke, + Shiner's Club

Meltdown (1644 S La Cienega, Unit 4, LA) – Justus Profitt, Poll Tax Riot,+Noah Salem Moroccan – From Indian Lakes, Queen of Jeans, + Yummm Observatory – Me First & the Gimme Gimmes, Glitter Wizard, + Masked Intruder Pappy & Harriet's – KOLARS, + Soft White Sixties

The Paramount – Very Be Careful

Permenant Records Roadhouse (former location of Cafe Nela) – DJ Frankie & the Witch Fingers

Redwood Bar – Tramp For the Lord, + Jason Heath & The Greedy Souls Regent – High On Fire, Power Trip, Devil Master, + Creeping Death (sold out) Roxy – Black Flag, + The Linecutters Silverlake Lounge – Dangerously Sleazy, Fox Medicine, + Cosmic Kitten Teragram – Defeater, + Modern Life is War Troubadour – Lindsay Eli Wiltern – Snoh Aalegra Zebulon – Frankie & the Witch Fingers, Kevin, + Perfection

SUNDAY, 12/8

Alex's Bar – Headless Palms, The Sleeping Sea Kings, + Boom Years

All Star Lanes – Boy In the Water, Margeaux Sippell, Jack Rabbit,+Arch Stanton

Bootleg Theater – Tow'rs, + B.R. Lively

C.I.A. - Angela Bowie, Cat Museum, + The Chelsea Club

The Echo – Myles Parrish

Echoplex – Nothing, Launder, No Swoon, + Sprain

Fonda - Me First & the Gimme Gimmes, Glitter Wizard, + Masked Intruder

The Hi Hat – Tribute to Jim Morrison by The Burning Doors, + John Lennon Memorial Celebration

Lodge Room – Jason Lytle Moroccan – Spindrift, Federale, Roselit Bone, Sir Woman, + Dylan Meek Observatory – High on Fire, Power Trip, Devil Master, + Creeping Death The Pike (L.B.) - Hamapple

Redwood Bar – Blood Wisdom, Beatnik Party, + Calico Sky Roxy – With Confidence, Seaway, Between You & Me, + Doll Skin Teragram – Ours, Chris Shinn, + Black Angel The Wiltern – CHVRCHES, + Dominic Fike

MONDAY, 12/9

4th Street Vine – The Cure & Friends Aratani Theatre at JACCC – An evening with Flea Bootleg – Henry Hall, Polyplastic, + Corvax Echo – Courtship Echoplex – Trap Girl, Agenda, Strangers, La Pregunta, Skirt Cocaine,+DJ Bat Slave The El Rey – The Pineapple Thief Fonda – Fabio Frizzi Moroccan Lounge – Halfnoise, Blackpaw, + And That Zebulon – Shannon Lay, + Earth Girl Helen Brown

TUESDAY, 12/10

5 Star Bar – We Were Giants, + Next Door to Heaven 1720 – Unearth, + Darkest Hour

Bootleg – Erin Anne, Potty Mouth, + Cartalk Echo – Say Sue Me, + The Pantones Echoplex – Madame Gandhi El Rey - Zhavia

Fonda – The Hu, + Crown Lands The Hi Hat – Georgi Kay, Esbie Fonte, + Psychic Twin

Lodge Room – Rob Bell

Moroccan – Channel Tres, + The Briggs

Novo – Cindi Lauper, Belinda Carlisle, Bily Porter, Brandi Carlile, Carol Leifer, Charlie Musselwhite, Emily Estefan, Henry Rollins, Perry Farrell, Marilyn Manson Lily Tomlin, Margaret Cho, + more! (Home for the Holidays benefit)

Redwood – Thee Idylls, Dylan Champion, Kid Bandit,+The Path of Most Resistance Resident – Stalley Roxy – Divinio Nino, Bardo Martinez, + DJ Venus

Zebulon – William Tyler, + Xylouris White

WEDNESDAY, 12/11

4th Street Vine – Downtown, Sleeperz, + Calm Kill Alex's – Las Chicas Tristas, White Woods, Slice, Sea Moya,+DJ Caliate Y Escucho Bootleg – The Monolators, Soft Sailors, + Saint Heartbreak The Echo – Khemmis, UN, + Future Usses El Rey – Berhana, + Pomo Fonda – Conan Gray, + Denee Highland Park Bowl – Emmitt James, JeremyJones, + Shaelle The Hi Hat – Mothica, Cannons, HUX, + Velvey Starlings House of Blues – Falling In Reverse Lodge Room – Rob Bell Moroccan – Channel Tres Observatory – Allah-Las, Mapache, + Tim Hill Redwood Bar – Here Lies Man, Sissy Brown, + Mars Rodriguez Roxy – Role Models, + Jackie Hayes Teragram – Fruit Bats, + Kacey Johansing Troubadour – Beouine Zebulon – Xylouris White

LIVE ON LIVATION, WEDNESDAY NIGHTS FROM MIDNIGHT TO 2AM THURSDAY MORNINGS (PST) ON KXLU 88.9FM, LOS ANGELES & KXLU.COM

12/11 – Otniel y Los Condors 

12/18 – Dangerously Sleazy

12/20 – Livation fills in for Demolisten with special guest Bruce Duff, 6-8pm

12/25 – Lucky Otis

12/27 – Livation fills in for Demolisten with Clifton AKA DJ Soft Touch 

1/1/2020 – Buzz Clic Adventure

1/8 – Crisis Actor

1/15 – PR Shake

1/22 - Jason Paul & The Knowitalls

2/12 – Ley Valentine

2/19 - Cheap Tissue

2/26 - JesuCrisis

reverbnation.com/venue/livation 

intownreport.wordpress.com 

livation889fm on Instagram l

theosangelesbeat.com

kxlu.com

[threadatl]

Congestion pricing in Atlanta? Weigh this option carefully, but with urgency.

Posted by Darin Givens, April 11, 2019

You’ve probably seen the news that New York City will likely adopt congestion pricing in order to bring fewer cars into Manhattan, and to aid public transit. Several big cities worldwide have implemented versions of pricing, and other U.S. cities are already looking into it as well. What about Atlanta?

The Atlanta City Council Facebook account posted a poll last week about whether or not Atlanta should look into it, asking: “New York City will be the first American city to implement congestion pricing to ease traffic congestion. Should the city of Atlanta implement a similar tax?”

With over 400 votes, “Yes” is in the lead by a wide margin. (And at least one Councilmember is already on board with studying implementation of pricing for certain districts.)

But in the comments for the poll, there are some solid concerns raised about a congestion tax not being appropriate until public transit is expanded as an alternate. A few samples from the post:

"[Amanda Rose] We need better public transportation before this would work"

"[Michael Polacek] Makes sense cause NYC has efficient public transit but Atlanta?...."

"[Marcus Jabreel Johnson-Westbrook] Why would Atlanta want to do this? Our mass transit infrastructure isn’t ready."

"[Anderson W St. James] Atlanta lacks the proper public transit for this to work."

A lot of people are understandably concerned about any move that could make it harder to drive into the city, since most of the Atlanta region is built in a very car-dependent design that’s hard to serve with transit. Many people here don’t have good access to buses and rail options.

To illustrate, see this map below. It was published in an excellent Streetsblog post a couple of years ago which details the low access people have to jobs in the Atlanta region by transit. Very few of the region's residents have access to more than 50,000 jobs within a 30-minute transit trip.

With the ability to get to work (and other destinations in the center city) being so dependent on driving, it’s no wonder that people would oppose congestion pricing. 

And with the growth of low-income population in the suburbs of Atlanta, the issue involves equity as well. Between 2000 and 2013, poverty in Atlanta’s suburbs had the highest rate of growth of any similar-sized region in the nation. Are we punishing lower-income people if driving into Downtown becomes more expensive?

These questions and concerns are important ones to address before we look into putting a price on driving into the city during peak congestion times. But complicating things further is the need for speed on the matter. 

Reducing car trips is important for addressing climate change. We absolutely cannot halt global warming unless we reduce driving. And it’s important for addressing the health of children in the region -- particularly lower-income, non-white ones. 

The connection between good health and reducing car trips is strong

We know that car pollution hurts kids by way of asthma.

A new study indicates that as many as four million cases of childhood asthma worldwide could be caused by air pollution from traffic, about 240,000 of them being in the U.S.

We know that car pollution causes developmental delay in kids.

When researchers recently studied children’s exposure to ozone and fine inhalable particles, two pollutants produced by car traffic, they found that living closer to a major roadway is “associated with almost two times the risk of having a communication delay by the time the baby is 3 years old.”

We know that low-income, non-white kids are exposed more to pollution.

The findings of Yale University research show a widening racial and economic gap when it comes to air pollution, with communities of color and those with high poverty facing greater health risks.

We know that taxing car trips is successful in reducing them.

When Stockholm, Sweden introduced a congestion tax to discourage driving in the center of town, traffic eased and the pollution level dropped -- and the rate of asthma attacks among local children decreased by nearly 50 percent.

What should Atlanta do? Study pricing and other options carefully, but quickly

Atlanta needs some very open, honest conversation about addressing the way that measures like congestion pricing could be punitive for the many lower income people who can only afford to live in car-dependent suburbs. If the conversation is being led by privileged intowners, that’s wrong. It’s got to be inclusive and sympathetic, and we need thoughtful study of the potential for pricing.

But it also needs to be urgent.  We've got an imperative to reduce the harm of changes in transportation policy upon people with low incomes, but also to address the sprawl, congestion, and emissions that are a burden on them and everyone else. Maybe congestion pricing isn’t right for us now, and maybe other things need to be tried first. After all, New York City tried pretty much every idea out there before giving in to the last resort of congestion pricing. But something needs to happen in Atlanta, and soon. Car-dependent sprawl and emissions are serious climate issues and health issues (regarding health, we haven’t even touched on deadly collisions with pedestrians yet). Anything involving natural and health catastrophes impacts the most vulnerable among us the hardest, and is deserving of high priority from leaders. Even if it means making hard decisions about how much we drive in a car-centric region. 

#atlanta #urbanism #congestion pricing

[new-writer-intown]

Dear Universe, Pt. 1

Author: New-Writer-InTown

Pairing: Tom Hiddleston x Reader

Warning (s): None

Word Count: 1,586

Summary: Y/N accepts a job working as an interpreter for a week, but soon she finds that the man she’ll we working for is Tom Hiddleston.

Note: Hi everyone, sorry for the bad grammar, english isn’t my first language and it’s my first story so please bare with me. 

The reader is Mexican but she lived in the US for 9 years and that's why she’s fluent in both languages.

The beginning is a bit slow but I promise that its important and I’ll be referencing to it as the story moves along.

Y/N Point of View

When I was in my first year of university my french teacher taught me how to write letters to the universe to ask for anything I desired, however she did warn me that I had to be very specific with my requests and pay attention to details because if I didnt I might get something completely different than what I had wanted.

“You have to write it as a thank you letter to universe, so you have to imagine you’ve already got what you’ve always wished for.”

“Okay I’ll give it a try!” I was a bit skeptical to say the least, but I did as I was told. 

Dear Universe,

I feel so grateful for all the wonderful things happening in my life. I can hardly believe I’m 25 years old, time sure flies by! Looking at my life I’m beginning to feel like I’m finally able to put all of the puzzle pieces together. I finished my dream career two years ago and ever since graduation everything has been going smoothly.  For once in my life I'm truly happy, I work doing what I love and it pays well so I was finally able to move out of my parents house and got my own place!

I now have a boyfriend, we’ve been together for a while, and I couldn't be more grateful for having him in my life. He has been very successful in his career and I am very proud of him, whoever he has to travel a lot which I don’t like but every once in a while he brings me with. We have been talking about marriage and kids, I’ve told him I’d love to get married but I would like to wait on the kids for a little longer since there are so many things that I would like to accomplish, and he understands that, everytime the subject comes up he reminds me there is no pressure. I love that man he is so supportive of me!

Oh I nearly forgot! Since we decided to wait on the kids we adopted a dog, he’s the cutest little puppy EVER!

I think that's about it for now, so thank you, I can hardly wait to write you another letter!

Lots of Love

Y/F Y/L.

After writing the letter I placed it in my scrapbook but soon forgot about it. After finishing my first year in college everything went downhill. It all started with me telling my parents I wanted to quit architecture school to move to law school, needless to say they nearly got a heart attack since they were paying for it.

A year after that I told them I was going to be transferring to a smaller community college because the prices were over the roof, and again they nearly killed me.

Moving on to present time, here I am, a 20 year old who still lives with her parents, who  has been to three different colleges, doesn't have a job and doesn't have friends. Now that I say it out loud I can finally understand why everyone criticises me, I’m a failure and my life is depressing to say the least.

On Wednesday during dinner my dad told me that his brother who works at the airport had called him and told him needed an english interpreter since he had been assigned to be the “tour guide” to some foreigners, and he didn’t’ know more than ten words in english.

That night I called my uncle and told him I was in, he said we’d be gone for at least a week but that it could vary depending on the client, I didn't have a problem with that since I only had college classes on Saturday and didn’t matter as long as I uploaded my assignments to the platform in a timely manner.

On Sunday I was all packed up and incredibly nervous, it was going to be my first time working with my uncle. As a teen I had taken a few jobs here and there as an interpreter  but it was usually for a couple of hours, my longest gig had been for 8 hours, and now I had to be translating for some strangers for a whole week!

I didn’t know anything about the people I’d be working for and I hated that, how many people were coming? 1, 2, 3? Where were they from? Are they old? Well it wasn’t like my uncle himself knew anything either, we’d be completely in the dark until the next day.

On Monday I got up at 5am to shower and get ready, by 6am I was already in the car with my parents because they had to take me to the bus station where I would take a two hour bus to Mexico City’s Airport where I would meet my uncle and we’d wait for the strangers or stranger, who knew?

When I was all settled on the bus I considered taking a nap but somehow I started talking to the woman sitting next to me. Sometimes I honestly wonder why I didn't have any friends, I’m very friendly and I don't have a problem talking to strangers, I always make sure to talk to my cab drivers, bus drivers, neighbors, people at stores etc.

By 8:50am I was waiting by the “international arrivals” door, my uncle had told me that I was to wait there holding a sign he had given me that said William T.H.

At 9am I felt my phone vibrate, I checked and I had a new message from my uncle.

“My boss got in contact with Mr.William he told me he’s wearing navy blue trousers, a blue dress shirt and a blue jacket. Apparently he’s very tall, has wavy hair, blue eyes, and is british. Keep an eye out for a man with that description.”

“I will, don't worry!” - I texted back

“Oh, I nearly forgot, he doesn't want to attract any unwanted attention, so please help him keep a low profile.”

“Sure! When he’s with me I’ll call you and we’ll meet you at the entrance.” - I had been so distracted texting my uncle that I didn't see a man approaching me and standing next to me until I heard his voice.

“Excuse me, I think I’m supposed to be meeting with you.”

Oh god how could a stranger's voice sound so hot? I looked up from my phone expecting to see a face, but instead found a strong chest, wow he really was tall! I looked up searching for the strangers face and I nearly fainted, standing in front of me was Tom freaking Hiddleston. 

Breath Y/N, breath, you have to calm down, remember what your uncle said. What did he say? Oh, that's right keep a low profile!

“Um, I don't know? Hi, sorry I….” - I was making a fool of myself and he was smiling at me.

“Is this supposed to be you?” - I showed him the sign William T.H.

“Yes, that would be me!” - Obviously that's him, he probably asked to used his second name, but to include his initials just in case.

“Great!” - great? Really Y/N, that's the best you’ve got?

“Shall we get going?” - He asked with a smile, as he pointed towards the doors

“Sure, let me just call our driver to let him know you are with me, I was told you wanted to keep a low profile so I think it would be best if we just stayed inside until he’s outside.”

“Whatever you say, you’re the expert!”

“I wouldn’t call myself an expert” I smiled at him, I gestured him to walk with me to a waiting area near the exit door while I was talking to my uncle on the phone.

“He’ll we here in two minutes” I informed him

“Sounds good.” He turned his body to look at me, “We didn’t properly introduce each other back there, you clearly know my name,” he said pointing to the now folded sign in my hands, “ but I’m afraid I don't know yours.” He made gave me an apologetic smile, “Shall we start again? I’m Tom” he stretched his hand towards me

“Hi, I’m Y/N, sorry, nice to meet you!” - The touch of his hand made me feel even more nervous.

“Oh god, you can probably tell I’m knew at this thing” - I pointed to the distance between us

“Are you really?”

“Yes!” - Now it was I who gave him an apologetic smile

“Don’t worry darling, it's my first time using this system too! I guess we’ll just have to learn together!” -There was that smile again

“I guess we will! So how was the flight?”

“It was quite exhausting actually, it was an 11h30 plane flight from London to here!”

“Oh my, you must be terribly exhausted!”

“A little bit, I got a few hours of sleep on the plane but my body is feeling a bit jet-lagged.”

“I can’t even imagine how tired you must be! The time difference is like 5 hours right?”

“Um…” he checked his watch before continuing, “It's actually 6 hours, here in Mexico its 9:08am and in London it's 3pm.”

At that time my phone started to ring,

“I’m sorry, that's our driver” I said as I answered the phone, after ending the call after a few seconds I told him that the USV was waiting for us outside.

#tom hiddleston #you x tom hiddleston #tom hiddleston x reader

[oliveratlanta]

Images: Soon to top out, Midtown’s The Mark promises luxe living for students

The swanky option will debut before the fall semester, developers say. | Renderings courtesy of Landmark Properties

The Spring Street project is further proof that housing for Atlanta scholars isn’t what it used to be

A rooftop pool deck, tanning booths, an indoor golf simulator, and an arcade.

Such are the amenities being offered at Landmark Properties’s under-construction The Mark, a student housing tower that’s expected to finish its ascent soon in Midtown.

At the corner of Spring and 10th streets, the 28-story tower is slated to top out February 21, Landmark assistant project manager Patrick Fitzgerald told Curbed Atlanta this week.

Like nearby student-housing ventures University House and Square on Fifth before it, The Mark is promising amenities your parents never had at their college dorms or apartments.

The Mark at Atlanta is poised to offer nearly 800 beds for intown scholars from Georgia Tech, Emory University, and Georgia State.

A few thousand square feet of retail and restaurant space will operate at the foot of the building.

Expect studios spanning about 500 square feet with starting rents of $1,485 and 2,300-square-foot, six-bedroom units—yes, two-floor, six-bedroom options for college kids—that rent for about $1,400 per room—and everything in between.

Projected to debut just before the fall semester, the tower will also feature four-bedroom, four-bath penthouse suites that rent for about the same rate as the six-bed option.

Those units would also flaunt living room pool tables—a staple of any outlandish student housing complex.

At the 10th floor, the sky deck is going to feature a pool and a Jumbotron, Fitzgerald said.

That floor will also serve as the amenity deck, replete with workout facilities, billiards, and more.

The new tower stands a few blocks north of Landmark Properties’s other student housing complex, The Standard at Atlanta, which offers equally lavish amenities.

Have a look at what’s to come for Midtown students below:

source https://atlanta.curbed.com/2020/2/11/21132229/midtown-atlanta-student-housing-apartments-dorm-mark-student

#OliverAtlanta

[allen-tiller]

Old Geelong Gaol: Part 1

Old Geelong Gaol (HM Prison Geelong) Part 1

Geelong Gaol was built in sections over a period from 1849 until 1864. It was built with locally sourced bluestone, volcanic rock and brick. Its design is based on English gaol, Pentonville Prison in north London. The building appears as a large cross from above (cruciform). V

 The east and west wings served as cell blocks for prisoners, with the north wing serving as an administration wing. The southern wing of Geelong Gaol served as a Kitchen on the lower floor, a tailoring workshop and a hospital as well as a toilet block. A shower block was later added on the east wing of the cell blocks.

The gaol was built with convict labour, with convicts being housed on floating prison barges on Corio Bay. An 1850 Argus newspaper article made note of the cost of staff for the gaol proposed for the year 1851:

·         A Gaoler (Governor) at 125 pounds per year.

·         A Surgeon at 40 pounds per year.

·         A visiting Justice at 40 pounds per year.

·         Two Chaplains at 20 pounds each per year.

·         A Matron at 25 pounds per year.

·         A Clerk at 84 pounds per year.

·         A Superintendent of treadmills at 3 shillings 6 pence per diem.

·         Four Turnkeys at 3 shillings and 6 pence per diem.

·         One female Turnkey at 2 shillings and 3 pence per diem. [1]

The first appointed ’Keeper’ of the Gaol was Sergeant Ashley, of the State’s Detective Force, announced in January 1851.[2]

The gaol was used for various purposes over the years:

·         In 1853, the gaol received its first occupant.

·         1853 until 1865 the building was used as a gaol for convicts

·         1865 until 1872 the building was used as an industrial school for girls (street kids) housing 180 children aged 9 to 16 who were abandoned during the gold-rush.

·         From 1877 – 1940 it was a hospital gaol

·         From 1940 until 1947 it was an Australian army detention centre.

·         From 1947 until 1958 it returned to being used as a gaol hospital

·         From 1958 until its closure in 1991 it was used as a training prison, retraining the state’s worst prisoners.

·         1998 - 2019, the Geelong Gaol has housed Rotary International, and Lazarus Community Centre (from 2016)

·         2018 the site was purchased by Montgomery International who are going to re-develop the site in a heritage appropriate manner.

Geelong Gaol Cell Block - photo: Allen Tiller

The Geelong Gaol cells never contained heating, cooling or any plumbing. Prisoners were forced to use buckets for toilets, emptying them every morning. There were six executions at the Geelong Gaol, most of which happened outside the gaol at Gallows Flat. Gallows flat was approximately 200 meters down the road from the gaol where present-day St Mary's Hall sits (162-190 Myers Road) it sat between Myers Road and Little Ryrie Street.[3]

EXECUTIONS:

·         1854: George Roberts (16 December); murder. Gallows Flat

·         1854: John Gunn (9 November); murder. Gallows Flat

·         1856: James Ross (22 April); murder. Gallows Flat

·         1858: Owen McQueeny (20 October); murder. Gallows Flat

·         1863: James Murphy (6 November), murder. Permanent Gallows inside the gaol.

·         1865: Thomas Menard (28 October), murder. Permanent Gallows inside the gaol.

I’ll be hosting two paranormal investigation nights at Old Geelong Gaol in late August 2019. Find the details here:

https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=509130&

Researched and written by Allen Tiller ©2019

Other Sources:

The Old Geelong Gaol, Intown, (2018)

https://www.intown.com.au/locals/geelong/attractions/geelong_gaol.htm

Former Geelong Gaol, Heritage Council Victoria, (21 February 1997),

https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/539

Exciting vision for Geelong Gaol revealed, City of Greater Geelong, (27 July 2018),

https://www.geelongaustralia.com.au/news/item/8d5f3a6a93a67b2.aspx

[1] 'Domestic Intelligence.', The Argus, (18 July 1850), p. 2.

[2] 'LOCAL INTELLIGENCE', The Melbourne Daily News, (30 January 1851), p. 2.

[3] 'TOWN TALK.', Geelong Advertiser, (30 November 1898), p. 2.

#Geelong #Gaol #paranormal #investigation #ghost hunt #ghost hunters #Victoria #history #Allen Tiller #jail #prison #murderers #haunted #haunting

[toldnews-blog]

New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/travel/atlanta-best-places-to-eat-drink-and-play/

Atlanta: Best places to eat, drink and play

Atlanta (CNN) — Downtown Atlanta is home to a host of densely packed attractions — the Georgia Aquarium, World of Coca-Cola, the Center for Civil and Human Rights, the College Football Hall of Fame and more.

But the city’s real flavor comes from its neighborhoods, and any visit to Atlanta should skew heavy on food and beverage outings, as this guide does.

So while fans in town for the Super Bowl would do well to check out what the area around the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium has to offer, they should also explore a bit beyond downtown.

Grant Park

Zoo Atlanta is home to more than 1,500 animals, including several giant pandas.

One of Atlanta’s most interesting and storied spots, Historic Oakland Cemetery (248 Oakland Ave) opened in 1850, making it the city’s oldest public park.

The graves serve as resting places and reminders of Atlanta’s layered history. Jewish, Confederate and African American grounds are all part of its 48 acres. Mayors, former slaves, athletes and authors are all buried here.

The elaborate Victorian cemetery carries its dual role as a park into the modern era. Picnickers and dog-walkers are welcome, and Oakland Cemetery is host to a whole calendar of events from music festivals to Halloween tours. Tickets for various tours can be purchased in advance.

Memorial Drive near the cemetery runs along the border of the Grant Park neighborhood to Cabbagetown and Reynoldstown, where Petit Chou (662 Memorial Dr) and Home grown (968 Memorial Dr) are top spots for breakfast or brunch.

In the evening, Golden Eagle (904 Memorial Dr) serves up expertly crafted cocktails and bites in a knock-your-socks-off space — think plush, retro hunting lodge.

For a kid-friendly outing, Zoo Atlanta (800 Cherokee Ave), located in 131-acre Grant Park, is a crowd-pleaser. The zoo is one of only four in the US to house giant pandas.

Old Fourth Ward

Martin Luther King Jr. was born in this house, right, on Auburn Avenue.

James Duckworth/Courtesy of ACVB & AtlantaPhotos.com

Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birth Home (501 Auburn Ave) is located about a mile from downtown.

The National Park Service offers ranger-led tours that are first-come, first-served and limited to 15 people. Getting to the visitor center early in the morning to sign up is key.

A block south of the MLK birth home, Atlanta’s young (and youngish) gather along Edgewood Avenue.

Among its eclectic bars: “Nerdy dive bar” with arcade games Joystick Gamebar (427 Edgewood Ave) and Sister Louisa’s Church of the Living Room and Ping Pong Emporium (466 Edgewood Ave) — Church, for short — where adult beverages meet ping pong, a church organ and all manner of irreverent religious art.

Also on Edgewood is Staplehouse (541 Edgewood Ave), named America’s best new restaurant by Bon Appetit in 2016.

The Eastside Trail of the Atlanta BeltLine connects several intown neighborhoods.

James Duckworth/Courtesy of ACVB & AtlantaPhotos.com

About a mile and half north, Ponce City Market is a beacon of adaptive-reuse development and premium dining and retail.

Casual chef-driven eateries — fish shack, burger joint, fried chicken, tacos, ramen, doughnuts — dominate the market’s Food Hall, located in the rehabbed 1920s Sears, Roebuck & Co. warehouse.

Ponce City Market sits along the Atlanta BeltLine, a 22-mile urban trail that, when finished, will connect 45 intown neighborhoods. This stretch, the Eastside Trail, is the place to people watch and get a sense of Atlanta’s rapid redevelopment.

A few blocks down Ponce, in the Poncey-Highland neighborhood, the Clermont Lounge (789 Ponce De Leon Ave NE) is a you-have-to-see-it-to-understand Atlanta institution where a 60-something stripper named Blondie crushes PBR cans with her breasts.

Upstairs, the trendy boutique Hotel Clermont recently opened, complete with a sultry lobby bar and a fun rooftop watering hole with great views of the city.

Midtown

The “Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors” exhibit has been a sold-out success in Atlanta.

In Midtown, the fabulous Fox Theatre (660 Peachtree St), has hosted musical acts, theater performances, movies and more in its ornate Moorish- and Egyptian-influenced auditorium since 1929. Ticketed tours of the space can be booked in advance.

The Center for Puppetry Arts (1404 Spring St) is the largest American nonprofit dedicated solely to puppet theater. There’s a museum with a Jim Henson Collection and a Global Collection, rotating performances (for kids and adults), workshops and other programs.

The High Museum of Art (1280 Peachtree St) is wrapping up its blockbuster showing of “Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors.”

Advance tickets are sold out, but for the patient and optimistic visitor, the museum offers 100 walk-up tickets to the Kusama exhibition each day. Lines for those tickets begin several hours before the museum opens. There’s also a cache of tickets going on sale on February 5 for the final week of the exhibition (February 11-17).

Nearby, 200-plus acre Piedmont Park is Atlanta’s biggest city park and a hub for exercisers, meanderers and a host of festivals and events.

Hungry now? Empire State South (999 Peachtree St) serves creative takes on Southern cuisine, while Lure (1106 Crescent Ave) is a stylish seafood restaurant.

East Atlanta Village

Banshee is an upscale restaurant addition to the no-frills East Atlanta neighborhood.

Courtesy Banshee

Southeast of downtown, East Atlanta Village is home to a bevy of casual bars (and food, too) at the intersection of Flat Shoals and Glenwood avenues.

The Earl (488 Flat Shoals Ave) offers consistently good bar food, a winning dive-bar atmosphere and a full schedule of local and national bands in the back room. (Take note: smoking is allowed inside.)

Down the block, the menu at gastro-pub Argosy (470 Flat Shoals Ave) ranges from hot chicken to charred octopus, plus a long list of craft beers.

Across the street and down an alley, Gaja (491 Flat Shoals Ave) offers contemporary takes on Korean classics alongside cocktails, soju shots and so on.

Mary’s (1287 Glenwood Ave) is often voted Atlanta’s best gay bar. Tuesday night karaoke is popular at the 21+ spot.

East Atlanta’s newest and swankiest dining option, Banshee (1271 Glenwood Ave) showcases locally sourced ingredients, plus creative cocktails from its arresting turquoise and indigo bar.

West End

The historic West End neighborhood is a classic Atlanta story — an area that started out as a transportation hub (a trolley stop), hit hard times but is bouncing back strong now.

One thing driving that resurgence is the West End Trail portion of the BeltLine. And for those who find the Eastside portion too crowded, you might find a little more elbow room here.

For a classic soul-food experience, the no-frills Q Time delivers (1120 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd). You can fill up on large portions of delicious Southern favorites such as turnip greens, black-eyed peas, fried chicken and peach cobbler.

If that’s too heavy, the opposite end of the food spectrum is nearby at Tassili’s Raw Reality Cafe (1059 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd), with a menu of raw vegan delights such as Moroccan Couscous or their Original Kale, a wrap with kale salad, avocado and tomato.

West End also has two sightseeing attractions worth a visit:

The Hammond House Museum (503 Peeples St) is an excellent place to learn more about the contributions of visual artists of African descent. The museum has 18 works by influential 20th-century artist Romare Bearden.

The Wren’s Nest (1050 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd) is an Queen Anne architectural pleasure and the former home of Southern newspaper writer and fiction author Joel Chandler Harris of “Uncle Remus” fame. It’s a close-up look at how an upper-middle class family lived at the end of the 19th century.

West Midtown

Howell Mill Road and the surrounding area is a hot spot for shopping and dining.

Long a hub for furniture, fabric and all things design, the Westside has filled in with restaurants, boutiques and chain stores.

Bacchanalia (1460 Ellsworth Industrial Blvd), opened in 1993 by chefs/owners Anne Quatrano and Clifford Harrison, has been at the top of Atlanta’s fine dining scene for decades.

Entertainmentwise, The Painted Duck (976 Brady Ave) offers duck pin bowling in a glamorous venue also equipped with shuffleboard, horse shoes, air hockey, etc.

And in an area teeming with craft cocktails, Northside Tavern (1058 Howell Mill Road) is the spot for a bottle of beer, lives blues and a game of pool. This smoky dive bar dates back to 1972, and it’s holding its own as new buildings rise up around it.

CNN’s Forrest Brown contributed to this story.

#Atlanta&x27;s neighborhoods: Best places to eat #drink and play - CNN #foodanddrink #latest travel news #travel deals #travel magazine #travel map #travel money #travel news

[sapphicseekingsapphic]

Jess / 19 / Michigan Biochemistry major at Lake Superior State. Send me a pic of your pets please. In love with pop punk, tennis, and the arts. @new-kid-intown

#Michigan #submission

[walterfrodriguez]

The Closing: Barry Sternlicht

Barry Sternlicht (Photo by Emily Assiran)

Barry Sternlicht, who has amassed an estimated net worth of $3 billion over the years, is co-founder, chairman and CEO of Starwood Capital Group. The investment firm manages more than $60 billion in assets, and Sternlicht is launching a public company focused on special acquisitions that will hold a $600 million IPO in May. Sternlicht is now on the hunt for discounted properties, including distressed hotels. The Brown University and Harvard Business School graduate got his start in real estate investment at JMB Realty. Sternlicht was laid off from the company in 1990, following the market’s collapse, and went on to launch Starwood the next year with his partner at the time, Robert Faith. In one of their first deals, they bought apartments from the Resolution Trust Corporation — which the federal government formed to hold and liquidate properties owned by failed savings and loans in the wake of the S&L crisis. Starwood, which is building its new headquarters in Miami Beach, now employs more than 4,000 people across 16 offices on three continents. Over the past three decades, the company has acquired and developed more than 150 million square feet of office, retail and industrial space, 300,000 hotel rooms and 180,000 multifamily units. Starwood has also invested about $7 billion in energy infrastructure and $230 million in oil and gas. While the company has largely withstood the pandemic so far, Starwood has had to furlough some of its hotel workers. Sternlicht told The Real Deal he’s optimistic the hospitality industry will rebound from the pandemic, but said he’s more skeptical about the future of retail and voiced his many frustrations with Amazon. In a wide-ranging Zoom interview from his home in South Florida, the billionaire CEO also talked about everything from his stance on restarting the economy and his relationship with Donald Trump to his father’s harrowing experience during World War II.

DOB: November 27, 1960 Lives in: Miami Beach Hometown: Stamford, Connecticut Family: Divorced with three children

I always start with the hardest question: What is your full name? Barry Stuart Sternlicht.

Where were you born? Long Island. Stamford, Connecticut, is really where I grew up. I moved there at like 4 or 5 years old.

What were you like as a kid? Happy and a frustrated jock. I was pretty good at most sports but not great at anything. I actually taught tennis to earn a living during my summers before college.

Were you a good student? Yeah, I was a pretty good student. I always leaned toward the humanities. My major at Brown was called Law and Society. I used to call it Lost in Society because it was a major that combined economics, political science, history and philosophy.

Your father was a Holocaust survivor. Did he ever discuss that with you? Yes, but not until I was 38. I took him back to Poland. I think that was when he first told me that he killed someone during the war. He was not in a camp. He was lucky to survive in the mountains, and he was liberated by the Russians.

How do you think that experience shaped his worldview and how he raised you? I think he had a hard time trusting people. He always felt a little bit like an outsider, even though he married a gal from Brooklyn. He obviously taught me to be tough. My worst day was probably better than his best day during that eight- or nine-year period. He was angry, though — he really had a lot of anger against the Poles for their behavior during the war.

How did you get started in real estate investment? I really didn’t start in real estate until after business school. I had an offer from Goldman Sachs, which I didn’t take, and I went to JMB Realty instead. I always walked a little less conventional route, and that was the less conventional route.

Let’s fast-forward to the present, with Covid-19 continuing to wreak havoc on the world. What’s your next big move as an investor? I don’t know. Well, I’m not going to tell you. Too many of my competitors are going to hear about this. I think a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. I was exceptionally bullish on CNBC on March 13 and said we’d have a very quick recovery.

Are you referring to your comment about the pandemic being World War III for 90 days? Yup. I got that right. But with the fallout from Covid in the real estate markets, it will take time to figure out which tenants survive and which tenants don’t. The equity markets reprice overnight, and the real estate markets don’t.

You’ve said Starwood will look to be opportunistic during the pandemic. Does that mean you’ll look to buy properties at discounted prices? We will. We’ve probably laid out half a billion dollars in the last 45 days, but we haven’t bought any individual assets yet, although we have been actively acquiring public equities and CMBS securities. When it looks like the world is totally ending, that’s the hardest time to actually push the button and buy something.

Are there certain types of assets that you’ve got your eye on? We have a pretty deep background in hotels, and I’m willing to buy cheap real estate in the hotel space because I believe in the asset class. I think I know what we can do with them. Our thinking is: “Okay, where will we be in 24 months? Let’s not worry about the slope of the recovery right now.”

What’s your outlook on distress bets these days? We love distress markets from a buyer’s standpoint. I like markets like this where you have to hustle. Hopefully, we’re big enough now to help people survive, too. They can come to us, and we can give them capital.

Barry Sternlicht in the Zoom interview with The Real Deal’s Eddie Small

How do you feel about restarting the economy? Do you think it’s time to start lifting some of the social distancing restrictions? Yes. We have to reopen the economy, and we have to do it soon. People who are at risk should stay home, but the vast majority of people are probably not at risk. We have to open with protocols, and we have to watch the results really carefully, but that can be zip code by zip code. The medical experts, they’re the same people who told us that 2.5 million people would die. They’ve since revised their forecasts.

Have you had to lay off any workers or cut salaries? Not at the parent company or the asset manager. At our most impacted assets like hotels, we had no choice.

If you had to boil it down to one point, what is your biggest concern about the pandemic in the long run? I’ll give you two. One is treating money as if it’s free and doesn’t matter. I do think we should spend trillions of dollars. I just think we should be super careful about how we spend it.

What’s the second one? I worry about fear-mongering. I heard a mayor say the other day that she’d keep her city closed until a vaccine was found. That may not be until next year — the country would be in a depression. You cannot keep [more than] 30 million people on unemployment. The whole financial system will collapse. We can keep our hotels closed for a few months. We can’t keep our hotels closed for a year and a half.

What has been the pandemic’s biggest impact on Starwood so far? I suppose hotels, but I think it’s just temporary there. We have some retail outfits, but they’re not really significant investments. For retail, this was a dagger to the chest.

Do you see a way forward for retail after all this? Walmart’s big enough to survive. Target and Costco seem to be doing fine. But I don’t want to walk down Main Street in Greenwich and see a Costco. I’m not interested in seeing an Amazon outlet. I like the mom-and-pop stores. I have to say, I’m not a fan of Amazon. They’re demolishing the Main Streets of America, and they could behave a lot more benevolently to communities.

Are there any Starwood assets that you think are well-positioned to hold up during the pandemic? We have apartments, and so far they’ve held up really well. We have 98 percent of the rent, so I’m pretty happy about that. Our best-performing asset, the one I’m happiest about, is a company we call InTown Suites. It’s classified as a hotel, but it’s a low-end extended stay, so people use it as an alternative to housing. We have 196 properties, 24,000 keys, and we’re 80 percent occupied.

How long do you think it will take for the hospitality industry to recover from this? It’s going to vary [depending on] the kind of asset you have and your location. I expect high-end resorts to do okay. The large fly-to markets and the large convention businesses will come back last. That’s Vegas and New Orleans and Chicago’s convention center base.

Do you see demand for office space going down after this, especially with so many people now working from home? The faster you reopen the economy, the faster people get back to their old habits. We might have less demand for space if companies are nervous about the economy and don’t need to expand, but they’re probably going to offset that by social distancing themselves a little bit. I think we’re down to like 220 square feet per employee, but they’ll go back to the 250 or 300 square feet you had 10 or 15 years ago. You’ll inch your way back that way.

You said before the pandemic that a bubble in tech stocks could impact office leasing by some of those companies. Does the same theory apply now? As long as those tech companies are growing, there’s going to be demand for office space, regardless of what’s going on. The government is busy trying to get money to the unemployed, as it should be, rather than breaking apart Google or Amazon. I do not know how it can get much better for those companies.

Are you bullish on any particular company stocks these days? I might have been one of the more vocally bullish people on the equity markets. But I did not expect the market to be down 10 percent from where it was pre-Covid.

You had been warning of a recession well before the pandemic. Are we in it now? Yeah. I thought that the country would slow its investment cycle this year. I didn’t realize you’d have Covid to deal with. There are two things I worry about coming out of this. One is our relationship with China. The outcome of that relationship is critical not only for U.S. economic growth but for the world. The second thing is the political climate. We’re going to have an election. It isn’t going to be kumbaya, I love you, you love me. This is going to be ugly.

Do you consider yourself a Republican, or are you more flexible ideologically? What are you, crazy? I’m an independent. I’m socially liberal and fiscally conservative. I think capitalism is the best form of government, but I think it needs to be regulated.

How would you rate the Donald Trump presidency so far? There’s one positive thing I’d say about the Trump presidency: If you’re a businessman, you’re no longer demonized. What I objected to under the Obama administration was the thought that we were morally corrupt for succeeding. I do think there are certain things that the federal government can uniquely do, like defense spending, and there are national priorities, like energy. We still don’t have an energy strategy.

What about a national pandemic strategy? Well, we had one [for an influenza pandemic] under Bush, and it was abandoned and dropped, so I guess we need one now.

When did you first meet Trump? I’ve known him for decades. He came to the opening of the first W Hotel on Lexington Avenue in 1998, so I probably met him around 20 years ago.

Do you consider him a friend? I consider him a friend, but I don’t talk to him as president. I haven’t been involved in the administration. I’m pro-choice, and the environment is another very important issue to me. It’s complicated.

What is the biggest mistake you’ve made in your career? Randsworth, that’s easy [JMB acquired the London property owner for $425 million in 1989, and by 1992, Citicorp forced it into bankruptcy, according to Forbes]. It really wasn’t my mistake, but I got blamed for it.

More recently, we bought some retail assets. I probably didn’t have the right management team for them, and I didn’t realize how quickly the retail space as we knew it would be reorganized and dismantled.

What do you like to do to unwind? I golf. My tennis career is still around. I work out and bike, and I travel and drink wine.

You have two sons and a daughter. Do you get to see and talk to them on a regular basis? I see them all. My daughter’s an hour away right now. I am divorced, though. I was married for 25 and a half years.

Are you still in touch with your ex-wife? All the time.

Are you dating anyone these days? I’m going to pass on that question.

Where do you live? I live in Florida, in South Beach.

Do you have any other homes? Yes. I have a home in New York City and on Nantucket.

Are you abiding by the stay-at-home rules in Florida? Well, I’m working from the house, but I’ll drive this weekend to play golf in a neighboring county. So it’s stay-ish at home for me.

What are you most looking forward to doing once the pandemic ends and social distancing restrictions ease up? Traveling. Going to Europe for the summer. I’m also excited to get back to the office. I’m not one of those people who’s in love with working from home. I like having people around me.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

The post The Closing: Barry Sternlicht appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.

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[writer59january13]

Howami? hmm... good question,

but for some unknown reason

more tired than usual...,

without daily twenty four hours

proper rest, I feel haggard.

I strongly suspect (a hunch acquired

upon returning home after visiting Notre Dame) deep sleep interruptions...

attributed to uncontrollable need: tap a kidney, micturate, spend a penny (thee last mentioned British, informal)...

quite displeasing... yea urinate kidding.

Methinks perhaps to purchase adult diapers

(or fashion/repurpose water absorbent material)

in an effort to stave off awakening groggily

after experiencing an awesome dream, cuz

REM (rapid eye movement cycle) interference

courtesy natural function versus external

noise, which when slumbering both equally

affect bringing about onset of fatigue,

yet herewith yours truly intent to hone in

on former. Meanwhile, he hoops to entertain thee dear anonymous reader with the following poem posthumously dashed off while falsely believing himself to transition into afterlife So sit back and kick up dem heels

without falling on yar crown

and/or bare stocking feet

and/or if ye prefer by all means lie down

attempting moost impossible mission

to flip (i.e. reverse) any lurking frown

other than standing on head whereby gown

and/or other stitch of clothing (casual wear)

preparatory to embarking on scheduled hoedown,

perchance participating among other groupies (a gratefully deadset of fervent beastie boys

and goo goo dolls) join fracas intown

where martial law heightened surveillance

police able, ready and willing with Billy clubs

to crack then scramble noggins, and knockdown

civilly disobedient citizens in dire straits

politely courtesy coronavirus

(COVID-19) lockdown,

which heavily truncated livingsocial options

inextricably linkedin with societal meltdown

psychological fallout endemic among Caucasian

or hue men/women talking heads of natural nutbrown

persuasion, which madding crowd (think Woodstock)

where little upstate New York town

of Bethel hmm became quickly overgrown

with peaceable folks across gamut regarding age, nationality, race, religion...,

rendered superfluous strong arm of law to putdown

and/or quell any anarchistic uprising

(perhaps even top brass

military industrial complex)

incognito as... beetle browed brothers

of some contraband slated to perform

and eventually gain world wide webbed renown

donating their unexpected proceeds

to upgrade and gentrify

one after another shantytown

even boosting fame and (mis)fortune of Matthew Scott Harris

at long last, he could relocate

out his tumbledown abode to parts unknown.