#she has been in quarantine since March because of her father and husband

[theramseyloft]

You go on about how intelligent/emotional pigeons are, but you treat them like objects and that bothers me. You separate bonded pairs of these intelligent, loving animals so frequently as if they don't have any feelings. And then you wonder why these birds afterward do not just take a new mate instantly. You are continually traumatizing these animals and causing them to shut down because they probably begin to realize any new bond they make will only be severed.

I do that because they are.

There is a huge difference between treating a living being like an object and acknowledging that the feelings of a non-human will not often perfectly align with those of a human.

Different species are different.

They have different physical, emotional, and social needs, even if there are a lot of close parallels.

And there are certainly a lot of parallels between humans and pigeons;

They are self aware cooperative social learners.

They form societies.

Those societies have a culture that varies regionally and they have a base line of values...

But their society, culture, and values are different from a human’s because pigeons are not human.

Nothing specializes in preying on humans. We generalize in preying on everything, as a species, as a whole.

We change our environment to suit our needs as much as we are able, and we are more able with every generation.

While things, objectively, can happen to any human at any time, out of nowhere..

On the whole, we generally don’t expect them to.

As such, our monogamous relationships are, ideally, “Until death do us part” meaning “Until we both die of old age, preferably around the same time.”

To the extent that closely bonded humans are emotionally devastated by the loss of that life partner.

To many of us, a life partner is also counted as lost if they engage in sexual infidelity, and if this happens, we are just as devastated (if not even more devastated) as we could have been if that partner had died.

Pigeons are a prey species that evolved in a cheetah-and-thompson’s-gazelle-style arms race with the Peregrine Falcon.

Their monogamous relationships version of “Until Death do us part” can be better translated; “Until one or the other of us gets eaten on a foraging trip.”

And sexual fidelity does not enter into the equation for a pigeon unless their partner is treading or being tread by some one else at the exact moment that bird wants to tread or be tread by their partner.

A cock who wants sex will seek out his wife first, but if she is not interested, he will go asking all the hens away from their nest until one agrees and crouches for him.

If his mate changes her mind and wants him to tread her, she will seek him out and crouch to present herself.

He will tread his wife, and after they do the cute little “I just had sex” dance that’s reserved for mated pairs (side flings get neither this nor courtship. Just sex and separate.) she goes off to do what ever she wanted to do.

If the cock is satisfied, he goes with his wife.

If he still needs or wants more sex, he can tread as many hens as he wants. His wife will not care, because she has had her turn.

If a hen wants sex, she will seek out her husband, generally, but if he’s busy or away, she’ll present for who ever she likes.

Her husband does not care who filled the egg. He only cares that she lays it in his nest and he gets to help set and raise it.

Pigeons divorce partners they consider to be inadequate. Cocks who fail to fill eggs, hens who refuse to set eggs, partners of either sex that don’t spend enough time reaffirming their bond with their spouses...

Unrequited relationships and love triangles are also relationships that pigeons find themselves in.

A pair is considered to have divorced if one partner or the other moves in and spends their nights in the nest of another partner, not for mating with some one else.

Some times, divorces are mutual, and both birds move on to other mates.

Some times, they are not. And the partner left will pine and keep making overtures to reconcile with the partner that left them.

But when a mate just disappears and doesn’t come back, they are assumed by the remaining partner to have been eaten.

If they were closely bonded, the remaining partner may wait a week or so at most, in case they were lost, in hopes the missing bird will make their way back and reunite.

If, after a week, the remaining bird is keeping to them self and not socializing, something is physically wrong, and anthropomorphizing it as “depressed” can get the bird killed.

The veterinary term ‘depression’ describes an animal that is physically ill, be that from a pathogen attacking it to ingesting or absorbing a toxin or simple vitamin or mineral deficiency.

For example;

A week after I became aware that breeding pigeons could become salt deficient and gave the flock a salt and trace mineral brick, birds that had shown no interest in bonding or courting for months are suddenly flirting with everything that moves.

They were not too traumatized to before.

They had a mineral deficiency.

They did not court because they did not feel good.

With the addition of their supplement brick, lo and behold, they all feel better and are courting again.

I have an entire flock to take care of, and I am responsible for the wellbeing of every individual I bring into the world.

To avoid overcrowding, I have a cap of 10 breeding pair.

Because that is the number of adults and their offspring under 6 months old that my loft can comfortably house.

When ever a new breeding bird leaves quarantine or a keeper reaches 6 months, a bird of the same sex has to be retired and made available to avoid overcrowding and the stress and disease that come with it.

Who retires when is not arbitrary.

There are very strict criteria.

1. Physical health.

Regardless of whether or not I have a replacement ready, a bird who may be hurt by the physical process of reproduction or the strain of rearing young, or who may pass on genes that may be harmful to potential offspring is retired on the spot and adopted out with a strict nonbreeding agreement.

Gus is a sweet boy,

But this happens to him every molt, and we have since found out that it runs in both sides of his family, proving it to be genetic and cumulative.

As cute as he and Leela were together, I cannot let him breed.

Because I would have to be a monster to be willing to knowingly pass that painful condition on to another generation.

He has a forever family familiar with his condition to whom he is going on Monday.

2. Undesirable structure

I do not mean anything as stupid as “This animal isn’t pretty enough.”

Cody is not only gorgeous, but an excellent father who has served our program very well.

But his muffs are big enough to make walking uncomfortable, so while I like the rest of his traits, that’s one I want to breed away from.

Now that I have a brother and Sister of his with short muffs that do not cause them discomfort, 

Farthing 

and suki

will continue contributions to the project

and Cody is available.

3. Antisocial behavior that disrupts or disturbs their flock mates.

Indica

And Pookie 

Are the poster children for flock disruption.

They are a gay and bi mated pair of cocks, who are literally turned on by prying other treading pairs off of each other.

If they see another pair treading, Indica will grab the hen by the scruff, Pookie will grab the cock by his, and they will pull in opposite directions, prying the treading pair apart, and marching them in opposite directions towards the wall.

Indica and Pookie will then throw the bird they have at the wall and then run back to meet each other in the center of the floor, smooch-feed each other back and forth, and take turns treading each other.

On top of this, they defend 15 of the 36 total nest boxes in my loft, refusing to pick a specific one or let any other pair settle in a box to lay.

You may or may not have noticed that when I advertised the available birds on Thursday, I made a point of saying that I would prefer these two be adopted together because they are bonded and would be happier that way.

A prospective new family is coming to meet them on Monday.

But they are SUCH a violent disruption to their flock mates that if only one had a home lined up, it would be unkind to the rest of the flock to keep them both on the insistence that they go together.

4. Shitty parenting history

Parents who tend to ignore eggs or peeps, leaving all the work of setting or feeding to their partner.

This is a personality trait, and such a parent puts dangerous strain on their partner and stress on their peeps. 

Their partner will usually divorce them for that, so adopting the bad parent out isn’t “Splitting up a bonded pair”.

Their former spouse is usually looking for or has found some one else with out any interference on my part.

5. Too many offspring/grandchildren

This is to avoid any more inbreeding than necessary.

Betty is one of the best studs here.

He is an outstanding father who sits tight on his eggs, pumps his peeps full, and educates them carefully though weaning.

MANY are his children and grand children, and he has a strong preference for birds with faces like his.

He has already bred with his niece to produce Sherry, and I would like to avoid having him breed to any more of his kin.

Once his peep with Liang is weaned, he will be adopted.

Liang is very skittish, and she liked him right off the bat, so I delayed his retirement to give her more time to feel secure with the flock.

But with her egg hatching, she is allowing herself to be casually flirt with more.

Wukong still likes her. So do Cherub and Ginger, so she’ll have her pick when Betty goes to his new home.

6. Temperament

The Therapy Bird Project is working towards developing a performance breed with a temperament conducive to Therapy work.

All else being equal; The birds are all physically sound with no known detrimental genes, no embellishments too exaggerated, not overly aggressive to flock mates, great parents... Then the bird least interested in human company gets retired.

The ground work of physical and mental base soundness has to be laid first and foremost for that excellent temperament I’m aiming for to shine in their handler’s lives for as long as possible.

You probably have not noticed that when bonded pairs retire at the same time, I make a thing of them being bonded in hopes that they will be adopted together.

Dodger and Alex retired close enough to each other that both are still here, and I would prefer they be adopted together.

But if one of them gets a perfect home lined up where I think that individual will be happy, I will not refuse them that good home for the sake of not splitting up a pair.

You care about the idea of that a LOT more than the pigeons themselves do.

[ageofevermore]

an update on how my oc's are getting along during this pandemic :)

Harry and Goldie: this man is absolutely loving the time he gets to spend with you and your little love! sure, now he's going out and about between the states and your flat back in london, but he absolutely adored the few uninterrupted months he got to spend with the both of you. goldie is just over two and a half years old when quarantine begins, so you and harry decide it's a good time to start potty training. she hates it at first, mostly because the sound of the toilet flushing is intimidating, but soon she learns that harry will sing over the loud sound. you almost rolled your eyes allowed the first time you watched your husband sing beside the toilet, clapping his hands and blowing into a blue harmonica between words.

the three of you also become a family of four, well five if were counting the goldfish named finn. you get pregnant just after march, and your finding out in a few days the gender...it's a little girl. even before you know though, harry has deemed your little one bowie. the baby inside of you loves grilled cheese and tomatoes, which you were never fond of, and is guaranteed to start moving around when music is played. the first time harry realized this, his head was in your lap and david bowie was playing on vinyl.

"did ya feel that, lovie?" he looked up with wide eyes and a glowing grin, "bunny likes himself some bowie."

"who said it's a boy harry?" you bit back, a smile on your lips.

"we already got a girl, it's only fair, love." he mumbled back before pressing his lips to the skin of your bare belly, not just popping but definitely not as tight as it was, "hi, bowie. ya gonna be my music partner? i think yeh big sister might have a fit."

but quarantine also came with struggles. goldie didn't understand why she couldn't bounce back and forth between your flat and anne's house, and she definitely didn't understand why you were no longer going to the pack every afternoon with a packed lunch and a plan to stop at the ice cream shop and collect a blue popsicle. she had thrown a fit at harry's feet for six days before moving along to the next obsession -- which happened to be styling harry's growing hair into a messy ponytail, or unicorn horn as she deemed through giggles.

Ellie McCall: ellie and liam are doing great! they've taken this time to just sit back and actually enjoy each others company. ellie's fresh out of college and beside stiles at the FBI, working as a medically trained field agent. her brothers best friend was less then happy when he realized that the younger girl was moving up in the program quicker then he could. ellie and liam are ready to start a family, though they don't look to be having any luck. when they do get pregnant though, ellie immediately worries that she's going to have to push a werewolf sized baby out of her. it takes seven calls to deaton and three voice mails to derek to assure her that the baby will be normal sized, and lacking in supernatural abilities until he's at least a toddler. oh yeah, it's a baby boy that is immediately named called brett dunbar.

though ellie and liam are enjoying the time home, it does bring ellie into a darker headspace. she dwells over allison and what her best friend might have been doing, and she can't help but think about boyd and erica. even matt crosses her mind a few times before she wiggles into bed besides liam and falls asleep with his heartbeat in her ear. liam isn't oblivious to her suffering, but it's apparent he doesn't know how to help. he sits were her sometimes when she's just staring out of the living room window, and makes her a cup of tea, because recently she's grown to hate the taste of coffee. he just lets her know that he's with her, and even though they're along in DC, she isn't actually alone.

Dylan O'Brien, Chloe O'Brien, and Maisie O'Brien: the trio is so good! dylan is so glad to finally be home with his girls for longer then a couple of broken up weeks. he can't remember the last time he was truly free to just be a dad and a husband. yes, chloe and dylan got married. it was a few weeks before the new year that they celebrated two months married. dylan's glad they waited so long, because the image of his daughter walking down the isle never fails to bring tears to his eyes. mae's just over four and a half, so she was in pre-school when everything started shutting down. she cried for weeks about missing her friends, clinging to dylan's torso for hours until she could be persuaded into walking on her own.

mae was a busybody, which meant keeping her home all day every day was hard. dylan was a personal jungle gym at this point, having bruises and cuts littering his arms and legs from how frequently he was used as a latter or slide. he wouldn't have it any other way though, loving that himself alone could entertain maisie for hours. what was hard about being home was finding alone time. the little one chloe and dylan shared loved to sneak into bed with them at two am, meaning that any passionate love making was rushed and done half dressed. it really wasn't passionate, but it quenched the thirst that would build after days of thick sexual tension.

every morning dylan would wake up after chloe and mae, coming down to plates of fresh fruit and pancakes. chloe didn't mind the big breakfast, giving her something to do other then stare at the wall or sing along to frozen for the umpteenth time that week. she had tried to get mae into something else after watching it seven times in a day, but the littler girl had crawled into her fathers laps with pleading eyes and a frown, sweetly asking if he could turn on anna and elsa when you were in the bathroom. it was no surprise that he cracked under the pressure, wanting nothing more then to be mae's best friend even when he knew a movie couldn't hurt her.

chloe's favorite thing about it all though had to be waking up in the middle of the night to cold sheets. she would leave the bedroom confused, having remembered falling alseep in dylan's arms, but in no time she would find her husband and daughter either in the kitchen eating ice cream, or cuddled up together in a toddler sized bed happily asleep. she would selfishly take a few more months of this isolation if it meant making more magical memories.

Emma James and Dylan Sprayberry: emma and dylan are great! they've started wedding planning, and have been using this time to finally finish moving into their house! emma was sad to let go of her first home with everly, but she comes to love their newly purchased home in SoCal even more. emma and ellery have been besties this entire time! it's not often that the two of them are apart, finding it a comfort to have some sort of daily routine that helps them stay mentally okay. emma is more then glad to have dylan by her side at home, but she needs more then her fiancé to keep a level head.

emma doesn't have any upcoming projects, instead taking the time to work on herself and her mom life. everly james is everything to her! the little beauty who looks just like her mother is just under two years old when this pandemic really cracks down on california, and it takes a toll on emma when they're forced to spend her second birthday with just dylan's sister and mother.

emma tries her hardest to keep in contact with holland and crystal, often having facetime calls scheduled. she misses seeing her friends faces every day, but knows that their reunion will be so much sweater once everything is safe and reopened.

Scotland Reilly and Dylan O'Brien: i haven't introduced scotland to this blog yet, but she's my little bean, and the irl oc for leila martin! anyways, scotland and dylan have been so good and really enjoyed being home together for longer then a few weeks or broken apart months! they're coming up on their seventh dating anniversary, and beginning to talk about what the next step might look like. they're been living together since season two of teen wolf, which was a year before they started dating, but neither one is completely sold on whether they want to go through with marriage. they have no doubt that the rest of their lives will be spent happily together and as one, but the idea of getting married never really stuck out to them!

scotland has an eating disorder that goes hand in hand with OCD that manifested after a childhood of travel between modeling jobs and bicoastal co-parenting. she's been strictly a vegan for almost nine years as a way to ensure that she's always healthy and so she doesn't feel to guilt about the foods she's eating, but recently she's started to introduce chicken (which dylan is absolutely thrilled about) fish, and a few dairy products. being home has given her the chance to actually feel comfortable with how far she's willing to push past her comfort zones and find new things out about herself. she's also overly plagued by baby fever!

she had her head on dylan's chest one afternoon, scrolling through moodboard on her pintrest account when the cutest pastel themed nursery caught her attention. they're in no way ready for a baby, but scotland can just imagine a tiny baby the two of them sharing her eyes and strawberry hair but every other quality being strictly dylan's. they both think a baby is the perfect next step, but in a few years time when hopefully the pandemic has calmed down and it's not so high risk.

the conversation goes like that:

"baby." scotland coos, looking up at dylan whose entire focus is on the old baseball game. he hummed in her general direction, his fingers brushing through her hair absentmindedly. "can we have a baby?"

he has to pause the game after that question, his whiskey eyes wide and caught off guard. scotland giggles at his reaction, pressing a kiss to the dip between his collarbone, "not right now, silly! but one day, can we?"

they'd never really talked about kids. dylan knew she wanted a few, having grown up with a large family, but they were both at the high of their career and never had time to imagine little hands and feet.

"one day." he promises gently, "i'd like that."

#none of this is proof read or edited #but i can't help but think about what they're all doing #if i missed anybody let me know! #goldie styles #dad!harry #dylan o'brien #dylan sprayberry #ellie mccall #emma james #scotland reilly #maisie o’brien #chloe o’brien #chloe daniels #harry styles

[tabloidtoc]

National Examiner, March 1 -- 2 of 2

You can buy a copy of this issue for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Page 44: Eyes on the Stars -- Diane Keaton strolls in Santa Monica with one of her beloved dogs Reggie (picture), Arnold Schwarzenegger goes for a spin in L.A. (picture), Bindi Irwin is excitedly awaiting the arrival of her wildlife warrior daughter with husband Chandler Powell and she says she has no doubt her late dad Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin would have been an incredible grandfather, Rob Lowe famously turned down the role of Dr. Derek "McDreamy" Shepherd on Grey's Anatomy which went to Patrick Dempsey but Rob doesn't regret the decision, Demi Moore recently opened up about her unusual COVID-19 quarantine in Idaho with ex-husband Bruce Willis and their daughters Rumer Willis and Scout Willis and Tallulah Willis and Bruce's wife Emma and their daughters Evelyn Penn and Mabel Ray, Rupert Grint who played Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter film franchise admits he hasn't seen all eight of the flicks

Page 45: Bradley Cooper carries daughter Lea in NYC (picture), Paris Jackson steps out in West Hollywood (picture), Good Morning America host George Stephanopoulos greets folks on set (picture), Prince Harry boards a double decker bus for an interview in L.A. (picture), Serinda Swan will be stepping into some very big shoes as she's been pegged to play Elizabeth Taylor in the upcoming movie Devotion -- the '50s-era flick will tell the story of two U.S. Navy pilots who fought in the Korean War and became famous after the Battle of Chosin Reservoir and will show Liz during an appearance at Cannes, the late jazz singer Peggy Lee has been tapped to get the full biopic treatment and Michelle Williams will play the sultry chanteuse in Fever which is named after Peggy's signature hit, Nikki Reed says she's sharpened her hairstyling skills during the pandemic because she's been trimming the tresses of husband Ian Somerhalder and their daughter Bodhi and well as her own locks, Queen Elizabeth marked 69 years on the throne in February but the pandemic put a damper on the way she's traditionally honored the day -- in the past the British monarch has spent Ascension Day at Sandringham House where her beloved father King George IV died in 1952 at age 56 but this year she stayed at Windsor Castle where she's been isolating with Prince Philip since March 2020

Page 45: When an Oregon snowstorm blocked some COVID vaccines from getting to their destination before they expired, some healthcare workers had a brilliant idea -- they bundled up and went car-to-car giving shots to other drivers

Page 46: A-listers who were cheerleaders -- Blake Lively, Chrissy Teigen, Kelly Ripa, Mandy Moore, Madonna, Cameron Diaz, Sandra Bullock, Dakota Fanning, Halle Berry

#tabloid #grain of salt #tabloid toc #tabloidtoc #diane keaton #arnold schwarzenegger #bindi irwin #steve irwin #rob lowe #mcdreamy #dr. derek shepherd #demi moore #bruce willis #rupert grint #ron weasley #harry potter franchise #serinda swan #elizabeth taylor #peggy lee #michelle williams #nikki reed #queen elizabeth #ascension day #bradley cooper #paris jackson #george stephanopoulos #prince harry #blake lively #chrissy teigen #kelly ripa

[scrambledgegs]

Moving with Purpose, Making a Difference

Segment 2 of: “Moving with Purpose” amidst COVID-19 Series

To keep our sanity, it is important to see the beauty in the mundane, as now on our 6th month of lockdown in the Philippines, one can say that COVID-19 has permeated every aspect of our waking and subconscious lives. This pandemic is as gnarly as it gets, and it is tremendously easy to fall prey to despair and anger. One quick tune-in on the news or any social media platform is enough to do the trick. We yearn for normalcy or any semblance of it, especially when we Metro-Manila dwellers take a peek and compare what’s happening in other countries who have flattened the curve and have returned to normal living.

    Yes, truly, there are countless things to feel glum and anxious about, but if this pandemic has taught us anything – it is to keep fighting, and to make the most of what we can with the cards we are dealt with. We must not forget that extraordinary times require extraordinary mindsets – which must spillover into action.

    This too shall pass. However, at the same time, we all really have to do our part. The truth is, we cannot just hide away and passively wait things out. We have to keep hustling, keep adapting and keep evolving.

Everyday People of Diverse Industries

     Something that I’ve said since the beginning of ECQ in March 2020, is that we need not look far to witness heroism. They come in many forms, “the Hero with a thousand faces” (Joseph Campbell). Perhaps we can’t all be at the frontlines during this crisis, but it does not mean that we can’t create an impact within our own spheres of influence. Whatever we do, we must do purposefully, so that our seemingly small acts can create ripple effects, and so on, and so forth.

    Thus, in light of National Heroes’ Day, four days ago, it made me think about some admirable and genuine people of various backgrounds who have been making a difference in ways they know how and beyond – whether in their respective industries, chosen career or vocational paths, and/or at home with the family. Here are some highlights of their stories and excerpts of their lives which I believe, deserves introspection and celebration.

At the forefront of the fight: Dr. Jose Maria (“JM”) Villamor, M.D., Pediatric Anesthesiologist, Philippine General Hospital

    We always talk about the heroism in the face of surmountable struggles that our doctors and healthcare workers endure collectively as a whole, but it is also important to capture and document their individual stories, for there is much to say that is left unsaid.

      Among these medical frontliners is Dr. JM Villamor, an anesthesiologist at Philippine General Hospital (PGH). His main task is to provide anesthesia to all patients who must undergo surgeries or any medical procedure that involve pain or discomfort. For those who know JM personally, he is often described as kind and funny, but he is also a very intelligent, brave and collected person who unconsciously downplays his skills through humor. Nonetheless, this works well for him in his particular field in medicine because it enables him to focus on critical tasks at hand in the hospital, and when needed, able to diffuse tense situations.

    JM indeed faces a series of battles everyday. From his own experiences as an anesthesiologist in PGH, he saw how the hospital has gotten extremely busy and packed, as the number of people getting infected with COVID-19 piled up day after day. In fact, in the words of PGH’s Director, Dr. Gerardo Legaspi, M.D. in an open letter, he writes, “communities and hospitals around us are being inundated with patients. The resulting panic and confusion was palpable and paralyzing.” Such that, PGH made the informed decision to step forward and offer their facilities and resources, making PGH one of the three COVID-19 Referral Centers in the country.

    Let us also not forget that PGH is a state-run hospital, and it primarily caters to indigent patients – those who cannot afford private hospitals. Thus, one can only imagine the multitudes of people who have flocked to PGH in desperation. We can deduce that JM, like the other doctors at PGH, have been exposed to the whole gamut of patients, of all kinds of diseases and infections, coming in and out of the hospital. Clearly, it is a job not for the faint of heart.

    At one point, JM himself contracted COVID-19, but fortunately, he was not severely hit. A man of strong resolve, he recovered quickly within a few weeks of self-imposed quarantine and isolation. After testing negative for the virus three consecutive times, he was back at the hospital doing his usual rounds, donned in his usual full PPE gear.

Where he draws his inspiration

    For JM, it is all in a day’s work. When he looks back at his early stages pursuing the medical field, he can’t recall anything or anyone specific that inspired him to choose this vocational path. All he knows is that since he was young, he simply wanted to be of help to other people, and thus, chose to be a doctor.

    In JM’s words, “Seeing everyone at work is very inspiring for me. These people go to work even with the constant fear of getting infected by COVID-19, but still go forward, in order to provide hospital care to all patients that come to the hospital. Most of them do not get to go home to see their families for weeks at a time.”

    JM himself had to make many sacrifices too. He was not able to see his wife and 1-year-old daughter for two and a half months during the start of the pandemic, as he too feared bringing the virus home and possibly infecting the family. To cap off his ongoing story, JM’s cautionary words are the same things that everyone has been harping: “Always wear your mask. Wash your hands. Stay home as much as possible.”

We heard it right here. This is definitely not a drill.

Role Model in Local Government: Jhana Corona-Villamor, Batangas Board Member

    Leadership through example, concrete action and sacrifice does not fall far in JM’s family, as his own wife, Board Member of the 3rd District of Batangas, (former Mayor of Tanauan, Batangas), Jhana Corona-Villamor espouses these very virtues as well. We all know what continues to be said about our government’s response to this pandemic, or lack thereof. However, we must remember not to jumble everyone together in one lot, as there remains, and there will always be, people who will prove us wrong otherwise. One of which is Jhana, a role model in local government.

    Like her medical frontliner husband, Jhana too is a frontliner herself. Lest we forget, LGUs and Provincial Governments play a very significant role in the fight against COVID-19. They must ensure that their constituents are abiding by, at the very least, the minimum health standards prescribed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the national government. Such that, most cities and municipalities have utilized their calamity funds and realigned their development funds to counter the impact of the pandemic in their localities. Of course, implementation is easier said than done, but throwing in the towel has never been an option for Jhana.

    Jhana’s daily work regimen is likewise a hectic one. As a Provincial Board Member, she forms part of the province’s legislative body, tasked with enacting ordinances, approving resolutions and appropriating funds for the general welfare of the province. She is the chairperson of the Committee on Budget and Appropriation where its main task is to review the annual and supplemental budgets proposed by the Governor. Much of her time has been devoted to conducting public and committee hearings to make sure that each and every centavo is well-spent to address the needs of her constituents. Jhana’s committee is also responsible for the review of the appropriation ordinances of all 34 municipalities and cities in the province. Her work as a Board Member also involves coordination with city, municipal and barangay officials and visiting constituents for consultation.

Whom She Looks Up to     When asked whom inspired her to follow this career path, Jhana speaks of how her father was her main source of inspiration to enter public service. Growing up, she saw how he was able to help others, and she in turn, decided to choose this path because she also wanted to make a difference and be given the same opportunity to effect change in their community.

Resilience in 2020, beginning with Taal Volcano’s Eruption     To say the least, 2020 has been a terrible year for most of us. For the Philippines, the year began quite literally with bang, when Taal Volcano began erupting in January 2020. For those who had businesses and social plans that involved Batangas, Tagaytay and nearby areas, the eruption caused much disruptions and stress. However, for those who lived within the volcano’s immediate radius, it meant far worse – death, sickness, relocations, evacuations and a prolonged loss of livelihood. The economic impact was and continues to be great. In the spirit of resilience, affected business owners tried to shrug off these worries in hopes of making up for losses in the preceding months to come, and then COVID-19 happened. These back-to-back unforeseen and debilitating events has made recovery seem close to impossible.

     Indeed, for Jhana, 2020 has been a baptism of fire. Beginning in January, right off the bat after her happy Christmas holidays with the family, she was forced to immediately snap back to reality, as her world revolved around the survival, livelihood and welfare of her constituents in Batangas.

In Jhana’s words, “the past few months have been very challenging for most Batangueños. It started when Taal volcano erupted in January 2020, destroying livelihood and properties, leading to the forced evacuation of thousands and the declaration of a lockdown in 12 municipalities and cities in Batangas. These cities and municipalities still haven’t fully recovered from the eruption, and then to make matters worse, COVID-19 hit. Hundreds of families are still staying at evacuation facilities. These events highlighted the resilience of the Batangueños. Despite the repercussions of the Taal eruption and COVID-19, there are a lot of inspiring stories that make me feel hopeful and optimistic.”

    If there is anything that Jhana clings onto during these trying times, it is her faith, her empowered attitude and the support of her family that uplifts her, day in and day out. She remains strong, so that the many Batangueños who look up to her can also remain strong. She continues to hold out for everyone counting on her, including her beautiful baby daughter, Bella who takes after her mother.

Where Technology and Education Converge: Michelle Pastelero, Education Manager, IT Software/Cloud Services

    Something close to my heart as well, is the pandemic’s effect on the education sector, especially for young children. For instance, I have seen how my now, three-year-old daughter has grown in leaps in bounds when we enrolled her in a progressive ‘big preschool” called Bankstreet Summit School when she had just turned two last year. One year later, I can genuinely say that she learned so much in various aspects through schooling alongside other children, and I am all the more a believer of early childhood education. I have nothing but admiration and gratitude towards the very patient, caring and hardworking educators and staff. I can say without a doubt, that members of the education sector everywhere are truly heroes.

    It was painful to accept that physical and face-to-face- classes would not be possible when COVID-19 set in, but like other parents, I settled for the next most feasible and safest option for now, which is online classes or what is called distance learning via platforms like Zoom and Google Meet. Of course, I am not alone when I say that this is not the most optimal way to learn, especially for young children. The social benefits of traditional classroom-learning are immeasurable; however, this is what needs to be done, in order not to compromise health and safety.

    Just like adult Work From Home (WFH) situations however, children also experience the usual technical glitches and obstacles with these learning platforms. That said, it also makes me thankful for he people behind the scenes who do their best to assure smooth implementation of the current distance learning platforms.

    This is where people like Michelle come in; she represents innovation that bridges such gaps between distance learning and the reality of our country’s sub-par infrastructures. At a first glance, one would think that she stepped out of a high fashion magazine, with her modelesque beauty and physique. Yet, there is more that meet the eye when it comes to Michelle. A veteran in the IT industry and an advocate of education, she is currently an Education Manager for IT Software/Cloud Services for a leading global tech company. Her scope of tasks includes having to ensure that distance learning platforms here in the Philippines are running smoothly. This means making sure that their cloud services are running well, and that all students and teacher-users have access.

    Information Technology (IT) is among the industries which has certainly taken off, its growth catalyzed by the pandemic. As previously mentioned, Michelle talks about how schools far and wide, private and public alike, across all levels, have been forced to temporarily suspend physical classes; others, sadly, have permanently shut down. The words synchronous and asynchronous are terminologies often used to describe school curriculum these days.

    On the flip side, a bright spot that has come out of this is that, in Michelle’s words, “it has really pushed projects to happen sooner. For example, because education must continue online, internet connectivity in remote areas has become the main priority for continued education this year. In the last two to three months, digital transformation has finally begun, where it originally was pegged to happen in over a 10-year time frame.  Philippine education seems to have changed overnight, virtually. It has been a busy time, migrating printed curriculum e-books, training teachers how to be able to teach virtually, all of this to create a hybrid online learning platform where students nationwide can access education. Education ultimately, must be accessible, physically and financially for everyone.“

 The Road Towards Industry 4.0

    When asked what drew Michelle to the IT business, she talks about how she was working in IT since 2009 and witnessed firsthand how the industry drastically improved various businesses in a short period of time. She realized that IT was a good industry to be in, if one wanted to truly see change happen.  

 Education, Economy and Global Competitiveness

    Michelle also talks about a former mentor who saw how she possessed a genuine passion for change, so he introduced her to many government agencies whom they could help through IT solutions that would concretely capacitate transparency and efficiency for its citizens services.

    However, it was only when Michelle was working in education when she was able to see which service area of IT she was most drawn to, to truly make an impact. The urgent need to improve the country’s education spoke out to her. For example, she saw how the Philippines fared against the whole world based on results of a global, standardized achievement test called Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). To give a short background, PISA is an international study launched by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OCED) in 1997, but the Philippines had only joined PISA for the first time in 2018, as part of their reform plans on improving quality basic education. PISA’s methodology and objective, respectively, is to survey its 79 member and partner countries every 3 years for comparative data on 15-year-olds’ performance in reading, math and science. It measures and benchmarks their ability to apply such skills and knowledge of subject areas, to meet real-world challenges.

    The results were extremely alarming. The Philippines ranked one of the lowest in the world across all three subjects. Michelle explains that what these results mean for us, is that the average Filipino is not well-equipped for the ever-evolving job market; they may not have the best odds of securing quality jobs, other than perhaps, sadly, low-income or minimum wage jobs that will not be sufficient to get them by. This poses as a vicious cycle, detrimental to the economy.

    The lack of access and means to quality education, and how it translates to job security has always been a lingering problem in the country, but it has become all the more vividly real today because unemployment has hit at an all-time low, due to COVID-19. Furthermore, most jobs that have been let go are those from within the service industry which make up more than half of the country’s GDP.

Equip Yourself

    Michelle firmly espouses that “if we can improve education for children, we can equip them with future, with ready skills that they would need for future,” and this is exactly what she has set out to do.

    I cannot agree more with her closing words that: “It is true when they say education is the best investment you can make for yourself, so never stop learning. Especially in a time like this, seek out more ways to learn, like taking free online courses. For instance, K-12 education in the Philippines is free, so I highly encourage continuing schooling. That’s really the only weapon we have when faced with the problems of the future.”

Staying Able to Enable Oneself: Nick Daez, Co-founder & Director of Seabiscuit Films and Kundalini Yoga & Meditation Teacher, Sound Healer

    For some, when they hear the term Wellness, they have the impression that one has to be “unwell” in order to explore this industry. However, this is not necessarily the case; the wellness industry caters to everyone in all spectrums of health and wellness. Although I do understand how practices under this umbrella can especially have a huge and profound impact on those going through dark times.

Rude Awakening

    Nick Daez for instance, is no stranger to dark times, to grief and loss. Among his many life experiences to choose from, one that drastically molded him into the person he is today, was when his marriage came to an abrupt end in 2014. He was only 28 years old. Numb, lost as he was dazed, his search for answers  brought him all over the world. This is what pushed him back then, to explore the wellness industry, and which had subsequently made him a credible and compelling voice on its healing capabilities. In contrast, during that rough time, his other world, in Film making and Production was flourishing. Seabiscuit Films, Inc., the company he organically created with the collaboration of high school friends back in 2012, had grown into a successful video production company.

    To take a quick stroll down memory lane, according to Nicky, he fell in love with Film making back in Ateneo when he was taking up a Production Design elective under the late national artist, Salvador Bernal. His class had just finished watching foreign and art films the whole semester, and for their final project, they had to make a short film. For Nicky, he just absolutely loved the process and obsessed over every part of it. From then on, he started helping out in shoots and apprenticing under directors which eventually led him to create Sea Biscuit Films, Inc. However today in 2020, Nicky is not active in its day-to-day operations anymore, but remains involved in making the big decisions, in checking on the company’s finances and having a bird’s eye view of the on-going projects.

    Fast forward to present day; His new passion is now Yoga and Meditation since getting into it six years ago when his marriage had just ended. In Nicky’s words, that time, “he was desperate for anything to help him find inner peace.” Through referrals from a trusted cousin, Nicky joined a Hindu meditation gathering which eventually led him to Kundalini Yoga. Nicky can still recall his very first Kundalini Yoga class, as it was, “such an intense and visceral experience.”

    Nicky was hooked instantly. He became obsessed with it the next four years and decided that he wanted to deepen his practice by joining a teacher training course in New Mexico, USA two years ago. At first, he had no intention of becoming a teacher, as his pursuits began for purely self-healing. However, when he got back to Manila, much to his surprise, he suddenly became awash with a strong urge and calling to teach. He has been teaching full-time ever since.

The Synergy of Two Industries

     As it turns out, there is a burgeoning market for Yoga and Meditation in the Phillpines, even more so now due to the pandemic, as people search for ways to cope and find inner peace. Thus, as his classes began gaining traction, Nicky’s scope of work expanded into also being responsible for the scheduling, PR, marketing, and accounting of his yoga and meditation classes. For him, it is reminiscent of his younger days when he was still starting up Seabiscuit Films. It seems that Nicky will always have a hand at business and production, but this time, it has evolved to include his yoga practice as the main point of engagement.

    In fact, Nicky highlights how video production and teaching yoga have a lot of similarities in terms of trusting the process and being patient with oneself and other people.

For example, he talks about how, “as a director and as a teacher, you have to lead by example and learn the intricacies of holding space for other people. There are a lot of highs and lows during this pandemic and I just try to view every moment as lesson and an opportunity to grow and help other people. I think selfless service is one of the big themes of this pandemic for me.”

     Indeed, Nicky is one of those creatives who found a way to seamlessly mesh production and wellness through his online classes. Additionally, he, together with longtime friend, Snap Lopa, also created a Podcast aptly entitled, Paliwanag where the duo strikes casual conversations with various people of different industries. The aim of the podcast is to create an inspirational medium for the exchange of ideas and the discussion on spirituality and alternative living in relation to the current times.

Acceptance and Adapting: What’s Next for Production and Wellness?  

     Many questions remain as to the future of these two industries, but right now especially, during a time when mental health should not be taken for granted, more emphasis is now being placed on nurturing our well-being. It is not taboo anymore. In his closing statements, Nicky relays his thoughts:

“The video production industry was hit pretty badly, especially during the first three months of the lockdown. A lot of people were out of work. Fortunately, the recent last two months have been busier, but the safety protocols have forced everyone to adjust and shorten work hours. I think is a big improvement, since most shoots would go passed sixteen hours on a regular basis. I think the people in the industry all worked together to come up with fair and safe protocols for the new normal. I’d like to believe that by humanizing the industry even more, it’ll make the environment a lot healthier and beneficial for the people working as well.” 

 “On the other hand, the wellness industry has been thriving since the pandemic started. I think it just goes to show how important it is to focus on your health and well-being. Although we all had to adjust to teaching online, in my experience, everyone just helped one another more by creating more workshops and gatherings to work together. I think it’s always been like that since I entered the wellness industry, but it just got highlighted even more during this challenging time. For me, I think we just need to continue to collaborate and create that sense of community strong for things to keep going and thriving.” 

Lastly, as the Sound Healer that he is, Nicky says:

“Life is short so we need to just embrace every moment as if it were last. We should always be kind to people and move through life slowly and with intention. “

A Test of Faith: Father Edwin L. Soliva sdb, Catholic Priest belonging to the Salesians of Don Bosco

   Part and parcel to nourishing our well-being, I’d like to think, is being in touch with our spirituality and faith, regardless of whichever religious sect we belong to. This pandemic has truly been a test for everyone, and for sure, we have all by now come across times when we question the meaning and sense of everything, including God’s hand in all of this. I don’t consider myself a religious person, but I’ve experienced and seen what good can come out of real introspection and reflection, especially when guided by someone you can trust.

    I think I speak for most schoolmates of my generation when I say that Father Edwin Soliva is the best person for this kind of spiritual guidance. He has been a Catholic priest for the close to 30 years, belonging to the Salesians of Don Bosco, and presently, he has been assigned in Don Bosco Batulao, as the Rector and youth in-charge. His apostolate is to facilitate retreats and provide good accommodations for retreat groups, and I am certain that he conducts them with much heart and enthusiasm, for among all the many apostolates for Salesian priests, he finds himself most comfortable in giving homilies, recollections and retreats. There are times of course that he feels physically exhausted after giving retreats to young people, but it nonetheless, does not outweigh the spiritual and emotional fulfillment that also accompanies it.

    As the Rector of Don Bosco Batulao, his role is to keep the life of the Salesians in his community healthy. He is looked upon like the Father-figure of his flock, and thus, also makes that everyone regularly prays together and does their apostolate well. He oversees that the retreat house functions well, and that they are overall providing a good experience for the retreatants.

    As my close friend and confidante for more than 15 years, I can personally attest to the effectivity of his homilies, retreats and personal advice. For me, his words can move mountains. They can truly move one to dig down deep and trigger that need and want for change. I can truly say that Fr. Edwin is a great example of what Catholic priests ought to be. He is not preachy or self-righteous; he is down-to-earth, kalog and in touch with reality and the changing world. He’s like that cool kabarkada who never gives up on you. Above all, he is real Man of God with a heart of gold.

Getting By During Hard Times

    However, even those with a direct line to God see hard times. Having had zero mass gatherings, any sort of group, face-to-face gatherings and retreats since March 2020, the retreat house has really been struggling financially due to the pandemic. Moreover, their main source of income is handling retreat groups from schools whom all have cancelled or indefinitely postponed accommodations as well. Let us also not forget that the retreat house also experienced disruptions caused by Taal’s eruption.

    To mitigate losses and adapt to these times, the retreat house, spearheaded by Fr. Edwin, invested in faster internet connectivity, webcams and a sound system for their online masses, recollections and retreats. Fr. Edwin describes how this shift has not been easy, since they of course, have been accustomed to handling retreats with the physical presence of the retreatants. Yet, they continue to simply do their best to persevere and survive during this struggle. Like other industries who are barely making it, Fr. Edwin remains steadfast in making the best of the situation, as this is also the field of work that they have prepared for.

Disseminating God’s Message online

    As we are all human, Fr. Edwin too has some apprehensions about the future. He ponders about how effective online recollections and retreats will continue to be. Prior to the pandemic, his usual retreats were typically 3-days long, filled with lots of activities, talks, film showings and the like. Now, it has been reduced to a few hours online. He too, really started to question himself.

    His continued inspiration comes from this thought and conviction, that “Edwin, if ever the young find your retreat effective or meaningful, it is due to a small part on your efforts and preparations, but remember that the real inspiration and power behind is God. You just scattered the seeds, but the seeds come from God and it will bear fruits beyond your efforts. Now, it is the same God who will work His power and wisdom when you give the young the online retreat. It is the same God who will give you the wisdom and the words to speak and inspire. Don’t worry. Let God give his ‘retreat.’”

The Serenity Prayer; let go; let God

When asked for a few words that he can impart, Fr. Edwin says genuinely:

“What is happening now with this pandemic is something that caught the world really by surprise. We were not prepared at all for this, and it changed everything in our life. There is a lot of fears and anxiety about how life will be. But life will go on and with resiliency, creativity, and flexibility. We will find a way to cope with all these.”

“For years we have been living a normal life and everything has always been in our control; that’s why God has been pushed aside because we feel we don’t need Him. Now we don’t know what to do. Now we are not sure anymore, and things seem to be out of control. This is the best time now to put God back into our life. Now is the time to get down on our knees and recognize again our creator. The God who created the world, can create life and make us live a meaningful life in spite of this pandemic. Let us find comfort in what Jesus said “remember, I will always be with you until the end”.”

The Home and the Online Marketplace

    Definitely, another trend these days is the renewed understanding in the importance of home life. As the home has now become the center point of life as we now know it, what has emerged is the online buying and selling of artifacts that are made to make the home a better and more conducive place for living and working. In addition to medical and sanitation supplies, the common things we see sprouting online are the likes of plants and gardening materials, wifi boosters, laptops, homecooked or homebaked food, homemade crafts, big-item children’s play things and even sports and exercise equipment. This is not entirely surprising. As all sorts of livelihoods and jobs have been disrupted or lost, many have turned to alternative or added sources of income, or have revamped their old ways of doing business. The key platform of engagement and marketing across all these shifts is of course the digital world, whether through social media or community messenger apps and what not. The good side about this shift is that it has allowed people to hone their more creative side, coupled with business acumen.

    I would go as far to say that the overall theme of today’s online marketplace points towards going back to the simpler life, or taking a pause to be more attuned with the beauty of everyday. As much as this can pose a threat to industries who offer an experiential type of product, this does not mean they cannot thrive as well.

Going back and Giving Back: Rosa Farms, Zambales

    Take Rosa Farms for instance who is in the business and advocacy of Agri-Tourism. Rosa Farms, named after the clan’s matriarch, Lola Rosa, is a family-run, 12.5-hectare mango-orchard in the breath-taking coastal province of Zambales. The farm is home to the “Philippine Carabao Mango” and is “open to walk-in guests who want to experience the ambiance of a real functional farm.” At the same time, the sprawling farm provides countless jobs to workers in the area.

     Rosa Farms is also open to exclusive events, usually booked in advance by both local and foreign farm-goer tourists which include, sightseeing, family gatherings, reunions or corporate events which are complete with buffet-style meals and unlimited mangoes. According to their website as well, “Rosa Farms is certified by the Department of Agriculture as a GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) compliant farm, belonging to an exclusive roster in the country. They advocate the principles of GAP in their trainings and workshops to fellow stakeholders in agriculture, highlighting the value of these principles in operating an agritourism (farm tourism) site.”

      Farm activities also include the annual Farm Fiesta and Mango Pick & Pay. In fact, since the farm’s opening in 2011, “the Pick-&-Pay program has been one of the most sought-after activities of the patrons of Rosa Farms.” 

Modern-day Agri-Tourism: Chamz Cayabyab-Zulueta, Sales and Marketing Head for Rosa Farms/Clearvision (Quezon City) and General Manager of Make IT Work, Makati City

    Rosa Farms, including its café called Rosa Café, located inside the farm, have become household names in the Zambales vicinity However, like most industries, Rosa Farms was not spared from the repercussions of the pandemic and its subsequent lockdowns. They too were forced to get more creative, push the envelope and come up with alternative strategies.

    Meet Chamz Cayabyab-Zulueta who is a pivotal figure in Rosa Farm’s marketing strategies. She wears many hats – she is the Sales and Marketing Head for Rosa Farms/Clearvision (Quezon City), General Manager of Make IT Work, Makati City, a wife and a hands-on mother to a very active toddler. Yet, no matter how busy she can get, she makes sure to attend to all her responsibilities. In fact, her expertise and knowledge in various industries is what helps her do her job well for all positions. Her professional career began with spending more than 10 years in Broadcast Television and Advertising, but she has always dreamed of managing her own business. Thus, she took her MBA back in her mid-20′s to shed light on what she would like to pursue into fruition.

      Fruition indeed, as this has led her to Rosa Farms. Chamz tells us how Rosa Cafe operates usually from January until June every year, and the concept of the Cafe is "dine under the Mango Trees." This resonates especially well with the Café’s senior citizen customers because they love the ambiance and tell stories of childhood past, on living the simple life in the province. Yet of course, it has been a challenging time for Rosa Farms this year. Chamz tells us how peak season is usually around April and May, but due to the lockdown, they were forced to suspend operations. Furthermore, their annual Farm Fiesta with the Mango Picking event was scheduled around April, but it likewise also did not push through.

Bringing back the joys of childhood    

     To keep things going and to make up for months of forced closure, Chamz and Rosa Farm’s Management thought of launching Rosa Café’s menu online, but they also had to revised the menu in order to cater to a now broader market – to include the Metro Manila market as well. They found that this proved a little daunting at first, having to compete with an already saturated market, compared to formerly serving only the Zambales market. Moreover, it was also a struggle to bring in Rosa Café’s Head Chef into Manila; lots of permits had to be processed. Finally, she was eventually able to go back to Manila in mid-May, and through perseverance and determination, Rosa Café continues to operate from Chamz’s home. To remain top of mind, they are constantly innovating with new dishes to add to the menu.

     Chamz also spearheads Rosa Cafe's product development, as well as coming up with marketing campaigns for its online platforms. To augment Rosa Café’s persona as a brand that “brings back the joys of childhood”, Chamz launched new products beyond food, that would promote this theme, such as customized potted plants. It was a hit; many customers, also known as Plantitas, rushed to buy these beauties.

     From here, the idea to launch a by-product came to mind, inspired by her adventurous three-year-old son. As her son loves to look for new things to do, she thought, “why not teach these urban kids early on about going back to basics, such as planting?” Thus, the creation of the Kiddie Plant Grow Kit, or simply, “KP” which is intentionally named after her son's nickname. The concept of the KP Grow Kit is that customers can purchase a beginner’s planting kit, complete with soil, seeds and a canvass-like blank pot that can be designed through simple art materials. Not surprisingly, it was another hit.

A Meaningful Advocacy

      For Chamz, inspiration can literally be found in every little thing. She simply has to take a look around for her to draw inspiration for new product launches. She says that, “We bank on the things that keep people sane these days – food and new hobbies like planting. After all, Rosa Farms' advocacy is to bring people back to their simple lives and happy childhood memories. She adds, “It is a good thing too that my husband supports all these crazy ideas that I have in my head to keep the business going.”

When it comes to innovation and taking risks, Chamz says,

“There will be a lot of times when things don't go your way, don't be afraid to innovate and try new things because you can only manage the things you can control”

On Grit, Passion and Family: Carmela S. Juban, former banker, Mother of 3, Entrepreneur    

     Last but not the least, let us also not forget the importance of nurturing relationships with the people in our homes, as we continue to spend most of our time within its confines. Harmony and peace are key. Often times, this becomes the responsibility left to the mothers of the household, sometimes the unsung heroes of our generation.

     Carmela for instance, is a selfless mother personified. A successful, former banker for 7 years at the Treasury Department of one of the country’s upper tier commercial banks, Carmela eventually left the financial market in 2017 to focus on raising her three sons, Matias, Amancio and Augustus; 4 years, 2 years and 7 months old respectively. Her husband’s work required him to be away in regional areas often times, so Carmela knew that one of them had stay home and man the house. Carmela recalls how she was on bed rest during the pregnancy of their first baby. She remembers how the first trigger in her early contractions was caused by walking back to the office after visiting a client. For her, it was a tell-tale sign.

     It was a sacrifice on Carmela’s part, as she truly loved her job, but at the same time, she knew she was giving so much of herself at work, that she decided it best to recalibrate her energies to being a wife and a mother. She has no regrets, as she knows that the time will come when her kids are older, that she herself will have a “rebirth,” so to speak, and have the opportunity to reinvent herself, as she muses that, “life, growth, motherhood, business is not a straight line.” 

It Takes Two to Tango; It takes a Village to Raise a Family

    Something that Carmela says a lot is that she appreciates her husband’s support, whether in business or when it comes to the responsibilities at home. For instance, upon resigning, she set up a side business to manage with her husband. It would help marry two situations - Carmela would have the convenience of working from home where she could watch over her kids, at the same time, augment their finances and put her knowledge of banking & finance into good use. In the beginning, it was something new for her, after being a corporate employee for so long, but she has since trained herself to think like an entrepreneur. She likes that she and her husband get to work together. They brainstorm for new ideas, and this also hones her ability to trust her gut and make things happen.

     As her confidence in this side hustle grew, Carmela also began an entrepreneurial stint running a food kiosk in a nearby mall. Her business was thriving until COVID-19 hit. Like all mothers, she had many worries about possibly bringing the virus home; thus, she decided to cut her losses and close it down. For now, she and her husband are focused on venturing into other opportunities, not just in food, but possibly in clothing as well, and likewise, utilizing social media to effect change.

     In Carmela’s words, “at this time when a lot of entrepreneurs are on survival mode, we just really need to keep trying; keep pushing. We can never think that a market is too saturated because there is always opportunity somewhere. Although, sometimes there is doubt, just taking the plunge without over-analyzing is the first step...I also think about having three young boys to take care of. The fact that we are all safe and healthy, is already a win for us.”

     Indeed, her family is always her shining source of inspiration and motivation, “to act based on the scope we can control, and hopefully, in our next emerging steps, we can do our part in shaping a better generation.” The next question she throws out, which I agree posits reflection and action is, “is this the country we want to leave our children?” 

Personal Learnings When asked if she has some insights to share. Carmela says, “This time has shown more the importance of family, how we are connected to each other, and the success to get through this pandemic highly depends on our relationship with one another. Be kind. Be extra patient. Everyone has a cross to carry even if they do not talk about it.”

“You can sulk, but pray and have faith.  Who knows? It might lead you to what you are really meant to be doing.”

[dailyaudiobible]

03/22/2020 DAB Transcript

Numbers 33:40-35:34, Luke 5:12-28, Psalms 65:1-13, Proverbs 11:23

Today is the 22nd day of March, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I'm Brian it's great to be here with you at this threshold that we step through every week into a brand-new week. And just reminding us each week, this is this is something that we have to live into and it's before us and this is a fresh start. And, so, we'll dive in. We’ll pick up, of course, the journey where we left it off yesterday, but we’re in a new week and we’ll read from the New Living Translation this week. Today numbers chapter 33 verse 40 through 35 verse 34. And we’re almost at the end of our journey and numbers. We will conclude this book tomorrow. But this is today. So, Numbers chapter 33.

Commentary:

Okay. We have an interesting story happening in the book of Luke. It's a famous story. It's kind of a Sunday school story because it's dramatic. And some friends have brought their friend who's paralyzed, they brought him on a sleeping mat to Jesus but they can't get to them so they climb up on the roof and kind of carve a hole in the roof and lower him down before Jesus. Super dramatic. But something really interesting happens because Jesus doesn't say like, “do you want to be made well or be healed?” He says, “your sins are forgiven”. Why is He saying that? Which only makes the religious leaders freak out. Like, “that's blasphemy. Only God can forgive sins.” So, Jesus responds to that and He’s like, “what's easier to say, that your sins are forgiven or stand up and walk?” And we can look at that and go like, I’m not sure which would be easier to say. They seem like completely different things.” But in this case, they're not. In this first century Hebrew spiritual worldview, in other words, the world Jesus lived in, if a person was chronically ill or deformed in some way, then it was because of some sin somewhere. So, for that person to be healed than their sins were forgiven, and they would go before the priest to verify this and offer the sacrifice and be pronounced clean or healed. So, with that before us than Jesus has been moving all over the place, forgiving sins. So, in so many ways Jesus is saying to the religious leaders, “are we going to split hairs on this too. Like I'm moving around the countryside doing this. What's easier to say, your sins are forgiven or get up and walk?” And then He unites the two issues, “so that you can see that the Son of Man has the power and authority to forgive sins. Young man get up and walk.” And then the man did. But it brings up something interesting to consider. Jesus continually refers to Himself as the Son of Man or the Human One and we are…I mean the goal of our faith is to become Christ like. And the Bible tells us that the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in us. So, can we forgive sins too. Do we bristle up at that thought? Like, do we bristle up like a Pharisee like this exactly like they did around Jesus at that thought? Can we forgive sins? Of course, we can. We must. We have no power to make ourselves or anyone else righteous before God, but we certainly can forgive those who sin against us. Isn't that what we pray in the Lord's prayer, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”, who sin against us. Of course, we can forgive. Jesus said, “if you forgive, you will be forgiven. If you don't then you won’t.” Forgiveness flows through God's kingdom like water. It sets the captives free and often that captive is us. Forgiveness brings healing to our soul and our lives, our hearts and our bodies as we see demonstrated in this story today. Forgiveness and mercy flow from the heart of God into our lives and then we in turn turn that out into the world. Forgiveness is where the actions add in God's kingdom. Forgiveness brings freedom. This is why we can see Jesus exasperated at times with the religious leaders because they don't get…they don't see it. For them it's in obeying the rituals, it's about obeying the religion, but they've lost the Spirit of the law as we've talked about so many times. What Jesus is revealing is there is a way, way better story going on here. There is way way more authority and power than you can imagine. All things are possible for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. And Jesus, in effect, is merging these two issues. Can I heal you or can I forgive your sins, since it's seen as one and the same in this worldview uniting them? For us reading this, we can see how pervasive the theme of forgiveness is in the Gospels is

Prayer:

Father, we love You and we thank You for Your forgiveness in our lives. Your mercy and grace abounds beyond anything we could ever comprehend or deserve. There's no question about that. And we certainly acknowledge that forgiveness is an irreplaceable part of Your kingdom and something that we must participate in every day. And we acknowledge we can’t walk around forgiving people and making them righteous before You, that's not the point. The point is You have forgiven us so much. You have been merciful so much that the only response is to turn that out into the world and forgive as we have been forgiven, forgiving those who have sinned and trespassed against us, knowing that the burden upon us, the damage that we do is astounding sometimes. And yet You still forgive us. So, come Holy Spirit we pray. And show us again the places that we need to revisit, the things we need to let go of, whether that’s an entanglement because somebody cut us off on the road and so now we’re following them too close to teach them a lesson instead of just forgiving it and letting it go or whether it's something far, far more deeper with tremendous amounts of wounding. It all starts somewhere, and it starts with this posture, this openness to forgiveness, to forgive and to be forgiven. Come Holy Spirit and let us see that this is where freedom lies. This is how Your kingdom works. Come in Jesus in we pray. In Your name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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And interesting times that we’re in as we great this new week. But no matter what the week may bring in terms of further isolation from each other, this is a safe place. Around this Global Campfire it's always been that. So, no matter how…no matter how we are led into further disconnection we don't really have to change anything about the rhythm of our life around the Global Campfire. This is gonna be a safe place and it's gonna be a different place, it's gona be a place that we know that we can go and exhale and be safe. And, so let's continue to pray into that and continue this rhythm forward as God continues to speak to us through His word. And let’s stay connected with each other.

So, at dailyaudiobible.com in the Community section you’ll find all…all kinds of different ways to stay connected as well as the Prayer Wall. The Prayer Wall lives there and it's a continual ongoing prayer and encouragement for each other. So, let's make sure were aware of that. So, that’s Community section at…at the website. If you’re using the app you can just push the little Drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner to get into the Community section as well.

If you want to a partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you with all of my heart. Thank you. In these times or in any other time, we wouldn't be here if we hadn't done this together. And, so I'm grateful that we continue to do this together and create safe space no matter what's going on in the world. Thank you for your partnership. So, there's a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

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And that is it for today other than to tell you I love you and I do and hang in there, we’re gonna get through this and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

This is the day our Lord has made let us rejoice and be glad in it. This is Dawn from Maryland and I’m calling for prayer. I had been blessed in the last few years to be surrounded by people, some ministers and being shown a different way of __ and prayer and also to church. I discovered the Daily Audio Bible probably within the last five / six months and I have been __. I wanted to ask for prayer and strength because my husband had divorced me and had taken everything from me - the house, the children and he advised that I did this because I was, you know, like not mentally stable. I had devoted my life to him and to my children and, you know, even…even before that I devoted my life to God. And I taught them about the Lord Jesus Christ. Please pray for me and ask God to release me from this depressive state that I have been in. I am in need of a lot of prayer. I can’t even find any friends. My family, you know, my family has abandoned me. My mother has not answered her phone. My sister has been calling but she’s going through her own issues too. And please keep my family in prayer. Also pray for my sisters, my two sisters that I have and my mother and also too for my two children. Thank you in the name of Jesus Christ. God loves you.

Hi DAB family this is CS from SC. We’ve been told that the best thing to do for this coronavirus is to self-quarantine, stay out of the public. So, I would like to ask prayers for all those that can’t self-quarantine, all those that can’t stay at home because of their job, all those that are the hospitals and doctor’s offices. We think of the doctors and nurses but I would also like to think about those that are the housekeeping staff, the people at the desk, the clerks, the people at the grocery stores and convenience stores, the people at the hotels that are doing housekeeping and working the desk and just all these thousands and thousands of jobs of people that don’t have the opportunity to stay home like some others do. So, Lord I just ask that You have a hand the protection over these…all these people that don’t have the opportunity to just stay at home where it’s a little bit safer, where it’s a little bit calmer, and that You’ll calm their souls, calm their nerves, that they’re not infected with this disease that only because of where they work or what they’re responsible for. Lord I ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

Good morning DAB family this is March 18th, and this is Teresa from Birmingham. I am calling for prayer request for all of our professors out there, our teachers that are trying to figure out the best way to help the students and how to navigate in this world where the coronavirus is ruling everything. All my students are…are being held at home and college students being told they can’t go back to the dorms and just overwhelmingness. Social distance…distancing can make you just feel alone. I pray for the students. I pray for calm. I pray for peace. I ask in Jesus precious name that as our teachers and our professors figure out how to put their lessons online and help their students the best way they know how, the Holy Spirit just watches over and protects them. I pray this prayer in Jesus’ precious name. Thank you DAB family for being there. Thank you, prayer warriors. We need you and I am just thankful to God. Thank you.

Hello family this is Lisa from San Jose. I really need your prayers. I just dropped my husband back up at the hospital because he’s having complications with his feeding tube. He’s probably down to 112 pounds now which he’s normally a robust 200 if not 180. So, please pray for me and him. They wouldn’t even let me in the hospital because of the COVIDS, you know. And, so, now I’m just at home waiting to kind of see what will happen. I’m confident though with all these prayers God has been holding him together and I thank you so much. And I do want to pray for the man who called in on I believe it was the March 7th prayer community line. He’s been on my heart a lot that’s in dark depression. I’ve been there brother and I understand that you’ve had this all your life, very dark and you’re just wondering where God is. He’s there. He’s there in the darkness. Please don’t forget it and hold onto Him with all your might. And, you know, it’s these darkness…these dark times that make us really cling to Jesus. And as somebody recently said, lean into Jesus. Oh…thank you family. We praise you, praise you Jesus. Okay, I’ll let you all know how Craig is doing. Thanks.

Good morning DAB family this is Janel in China. It is March 19th 9:24 in the morning and I just want to pray. I want to let everyone know that I am praying for you all while you are having to isolate yourselves for the coronavirus just like we did here in China. And honestly, we’re still doing that. I’m still working from home. I want to ask the Holy Spirit to give everyone who is listening the peace that only He can give. Have an awesome day everyone.

[keywestlou]

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Happy Halloween!

One of my happiest days as a father. When the kids were little, I took them Trick or Treating. I would stand on the sidewalk as they ran up to the front door of each house.

Their excitement became mine.

When we got home, we would lie on the living room carpet and go through the goodies. Me, too! I enjoyed the excitement of….Look what I got! I enjoyed also in joining them eating the unhealthy food.

Their mother was always in the background yelling at me to “stop letting them eat that garbage.”

Those were the days.

I have been in quarantine again for 3-4 months. Sick of it!

Next saturday will be 2 weeks since my booster shot. I can’t wait. I am getting stir crazy. I am going out next saturday!

I missed Fantasy Fest this week. All I have are some newspaper photos to show me what is going on.

From my perspective, nothing should have been. Key West cancelled the parade and other public events. However everything else was planned, open and available.

Saw a picture of the Zombie Bike Riders. Three different streets. Crowded shoulder to shoulder as far as the eye could see. Everyone made up to look like zombies.

The zombie parade begins at the cemetery. Because of the crowd, three separate streets were used. Each ending up in the same place on Duval.

There was also a photo of costume dressed people marching down Duval all excited. Not as many as the zombie event, but enough.

My age affects my thinking process. I believe all of Key West should have been shut down. No partying anywhere, inside or out.

COVID is not behind us. Yes, the numbers are better in Florida the past 2 weeks. Guaranteed the numbers will be up in Key West in 2 more weeks. COVID must have had a field day this past week while enjoying Fantasy Fest together with the humans.

Facebook has billions with which to operate. Whatever they do should be better than what has been done. All of Facebook’s problems probably could have been avoided with better care being taken in the formulation/development of new steps.

The most recent example being the new name for Facebook revealed this past week by Zuckerberg: META, short for Metaverse.

Facebook blew it!

The term META is traceable to “dead” in Hebrew. Israelis have been mocking the name. Someone developed a new hashtag: #Facebook Dead.

When it rains, it pours!

Lori has been cutting my hair for more than 25 years. We have become friends.

I got a haircut about a week ago. Lori told me she and her husband were going camping this weekend. Where, I asked? In the Everglades.

Sounded strange to me. I have been through the Everglades by car several times and once by a 24 hour boat trip.

I asked why would you want to go to the Everglades to camp.

They have done it before. They were going with another couple this time. The others like to swim. Swim!!! They’ve got to be crazy!

Lori agreed. She refuses to go in the water. There are alligators everywhere. And who knows what else.

This blog appears also in Feedspot everyday. Feedspot carried an article today: Snorkeling in the Florida Everglades.

No way, Jose! Some people are just plain crazy!

Gas prices have been going up the past several months. COVID and the supply line problems the reasons given why.

Bullshit!

Saudi Aramco announced yesterday that it had posted a 160 percent rise in profit for the third quarter just ended. In dollars, the profit amounted to $30.4 billion.

We have been warned gas prices will continue to go up. Aramco announced they expected the next few quarters to be even better.

President Biden and Communion. An ongoing issue.

Prior to Biden’s visit with the Pope, several American bishops wrote the Pope chastising him for meeting with Biden. The reason being Biden supports legalized abortion.

Recall a good number of American bishops are anti-Pope Francis. They want him removed from the Papal Office for a number off reasons. They are joined in the effort by Steve Bannon and Newt Gingrich.

The Pope handled the matter well.

In their face to face meeting, Francis called Biden a “good Catholic” and said he should continue receiving Communion.

That same day, Biden and his wife received Communion at St. Patrick’s Church in Rome. St. Patrick’s a part of Francis’ archdiocese. Father Joe Ciccone is Vice-Rector at St. Patrick’s. He said, “When you are a public figure you have to make certain decisions, especially in a democracy, on behalf of more than just your own personal feelings.”

The Atlanta Braves continue to have a nick name problem. A number of people want the name “Braves” removed.

It’s World Series time. Last night, Trump and wife attended the game in a private box. They were seated up front in the box. They smilingly joined the rest of the fans who stood and did the “Tomahawk Chop.”

The term is considered racist and demeaning by Native Americans.

Syracuse won again yesterday. Beat Boston College 21-6. Hope we win a couple more.

Enjoy Halloween!

  HAPPY HALLOWEEN was originally published on Key West Lou

[creativitymouth]

Up-Surge Pt.1

A/N - So there is a 50/50 chance I won’t be uploading this as often as I uploaded TWFBTWF because I have a lot of requests I am also working on at the moment but I will be continuing this if the response is well enough.

Summary: We can’t contain the unknown. AgedUp!EddieKaspbrakxFem!Reader

Trigger Warnings: Germs, Swearing.

Forever Tags: @mari-melancholy​ @hello-mynameisfinn​

Chapter 1: The Spread

Day 1:                                                                                                                    It was just a cough. A young woman passing by a child and forgetting to cover her mouth. She didn’t see the countless bacteria she’d spread, she hadn’t known she’d infected others. Her trip to Malaysia had been an innocent one, all she’d wanted to do was care for the innocent there. If only she knew what was inside of her meat.

Day 2:                                                                                                                    5 cases now, spreading across New York. Hands touching bus poles, bodies pushed together on crowded trains, money being passed to the waitress at the local diner. They don’t know. They think it’s just a common cold, it is so much more.

Day 3:                                                                                                                    The Center for Disease Control has been notified 18 cases, 6 dead. They have no idea what they’re working with. They’ve never seen anything like it. It’s a cross between Swine Flu and Bird Flu, with violent symptoms.

Day 5:                                                                                                                It’s spreading like wildfire. One uncovered sneeze in a movie theatre and the entire movie-goers are sick. A mother goes home to tuck her child to bed. She forgot to wash her hands before touching him. Not that it would have helped any. Her head spins violently, her mouth is dry, vision blurry. The Doctor has said it was just a cold. Just a cold.

Day 8:                                                                                                               They don’t want to alarm the masses. 48 cases in New York. 12 in Massachusetts. 10 in Washington. It is spreading like wildfire. And there is no cure. They can’t figure out who patient sub-zero was, they do not know of her travel to Malaysia. They do not know of the infected meat she ate. They do not know that she went home to kiss her mother on the forehead. She died 2 days after infection, without a trace to her there may be no hope.

Day 12:                                                                                                             They must tell the people. New York is suffering. Massachusetts is close behind. The larger the city is populated the easier infection spreads. No one thinks to wipe down subway seats before they sit, or to wear gloves when they touch things others have encountered. They had conditioned them to not be afraid. Now they should be.

Day 20:                                                                                                           Mass Hysteria. Doctors are fleeing their jobs. How can they work without a cure? It has spread past the East but, yet they haven’t shut down travelling. They consider quarantining New York, they don’t for now. People wear Masks outside, but it isn’t enough. Now is not a time to be brave. Stay in your homes and pray for the best.

Day 30, Hour 12:                                                                                              Eddie Kaspbrak sits in his Derry home watching the new reports of the fast spreading virus. His friends had always teased him about his obsessively clean and hygienic quirks. Now look where they were. A virus with no cure, airborne, and extremely deadly. All you had to do to contract it was touch what the infected came in contact with. Chance of survival from the illness was low at least until they could come up with a cure. But in 30 days New York State and Massachusetts had already been placed under quarantine, no one in or out. They’d thought it would prohibit the spread of the infection but they were wrong. Eddie knew Maine was 7 hours away from New York and 4 hours away from Massachusetts, but those numbers seemed so small. Already 1 person had fallen ill in Derry though rumors told it was just a chest cold. Isn’t that what all the infected had thought? Just a cold.

Day 30, Hour 14:                                                                                               Your father, ever the stubborn man, did not take heed of the virus warnings. He still traveled the days to work. It was not until Day 20 of the spread that anyone noticed his lethargic behavior. Your mother had locked him away in their room to try and contain the illness. She tried to tell your sister and yourself that it was nothing to worry about. 4 days later they were both dead, rotting away in their rooms as you held your younger sister to you while she cried. Your aunt had come to retrieve you and now you were being sterilized in the basement of her house in Derry, Maine. You understood why the precautions she took were necessary. She didn’t want to risk infecting her 3-month-old child and husband. She took you in out of courtesy, not because she wanted nor needed too. Your sister was just 10 years old, her child-like brain unable to understand what was going on. She didn’t see the dangers of contact and would whimper when denied hugs from her extended family. You too missed the embrace of another human beside her, but you had learned to accept what you were given.

“This can’t get much worse.” You spoke aloud, your sister was snoring soundly beside you. You didn’t know how wrong you were.

Day 45, Hour 17:                                                                                                The Infected now display signs of insanity. They run rampant in the streets, with a fervor you’d only seen in movies. They foamed at the mouth, clawed at their eyes, and attacked anyone in sight. This was the last stage of the illness, the only thing to follow was death. You listened on as your aunt cried softly.

“Even if you don’t believe in a God, I suggest you pray.” The spokesman said. “The illness has once again developed just out of reach in time for our doctors to find a cure.” His face was red and blotchy, and you wondered if he would be the next to fall ill. “The sick are now experiencing Walking Dead like symptoms. If you come into contact with one,” he paused taking in a large breath, “well may God help you. May God help us all.” He signed out then and the only sounds left in the house were the cries of your aunt.

“(Y/N)?” You looked down at your sister taking in her large eyes.

“Yes baby?”

“Am I going to die?” You didn’t respond because you didn’t know how too. “Are you?” You looked away from her to the TV, watching as the ill roamed the streets in anger. Some sat banging their heads on the concrete, others chased passerby. The world was in chaos. The sickness, still had failed to reach Derry but you knew peace didn’t last.

“No Sully.” You said with strength because you knew you meant those words. “Neither of us is going to die.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

Day 50, Hour 20:                                                                                            “Have you seen the hot new girl next door?” Richie was squinting through the blinds in Eddie’s room. Pretending as though he was oblivious to the chaos outside. He was 18, but in the heat of the everything he felt 100.

“No.” Eddie responded blandly. Unlike Richie he couldn’t ignore the death counts, and the ill roaming around like zombies. He hardly wanted Richie at his home and breathing the same air as him, there was no way to insure he didn’t carry the virus. “I’ve been busy studying.”

“For what? Schools been out for 3 weeks.”

“I still need an education Tozier.”

“What you need is to ease up and get some fresh air.”

“Yes, because I am so keen on getting ill and then attacking my mother in a frenzy of neurological madness.” Richie rolled his eyes, accustomed to his best friends tiring sarcastic commentary.

“She moved here like a little less than 3 weeks ago.” This caught Eddie’s attention. He put down his Trigonometry textbook and faced where Richie was playing peeping tom from the window.

“She has a little sister too.”

“Moved here?” Eddie mumbled under his breath. “From where?”

“Washington, D.C.” Richie turned away from the window and watched as the wheels of panic turned inside of Eddie’s head.

“How long ago?” He didn’t want to think too much about it, there was a chance he was just overreacting. There was also a chance he wasn’t.

“I said a little under 3 weeks ago.”

“What day was that?”

“Um, if I remember I saw the car pull up on the March 27th.” Richie was trying to play it off, but he knew that was the day you had moved in. Since the spread of the virus, and the shutdown of the school he’d had nothing to do but watch life pass him by. He had been doing just that when he saw your aunt’s car come back into town. “Why?”

“Washington was quarantined on the 1st of April. She came here from an infected zone. She’s going to get us all killed.” Eddie had begun to pace the room frantically. There had been a scare once before that Derry had contracted the illness but if someone was here from an infected zone that raised the stakes. “She’s going to run out of that house, come over here, and attack me. She’s going to be foaming at the mouth and crazy and going to completely fucking ruin my chances of survival.”

“Calm the fuck down.” Richie moved away from the window and over to the passing Eddie. He put his hands on his shoulders to try and slow his paced movements. “Think of the plus side in all of this.”

“What plus side?”

“The Losers Club can now become like Zombie fighting bad-asses.”

“What?”

“You know,” Rich took his hands-off Eddie’s shoulders to gesture into the air, “How in every T.V show there’s a group of kids who fights monsters or something. That could be us.”

“This isn’t a fucking T.V show, it’s real life.” Eddie was growing tired of Richie’s look at the Brightside attitude. To him there was no Brightside just infected people roaming the streets, and an illness that had no cure. “And they aren’t zombies.”

“They’re close enough.” Richie smiled at Eddie, he knew his best friend was nervous, but he didn’t see a reason to be. The likelihood of the illness reaching Derry was 0 to none.

Day 51, Hour 20:                                                                                                    They now had a name for the people infected who became mad. They called them Rabid and they were dangerous.

Day 52, Hour 4:                                                                                                   He had just managed to escape the quarantine in Florida, seconds before the barriers had come down he’d drove his car through. He’d heard the sirens following him but after about an hour of chase they’d given up. He wasn’t infected, so it didn’t matter if he left. That’s what he kept telling himself as he drove to what he considered a haven town. He had been raised in Derry, Maine and knew that the infection couldn’t have spread there so quickly. He could lie low here and not have to worry about becoming a Rabid or getting pulverized by one.

Day 54, Hour 14:                                                                                                  He was experiencing dry mouth and blurry vision. He told himself that it was just the nervousness of having escaped with his health. He handed money to the waitress bringing his food, she gave the money to the cashier, and the cashier put it inside of the register. The Cashier went home to hug his wife and kiss his 3-month-old baby on the forehead. He didn’t touch his wife’s nieces in fear that they were infected. He didn’t know that he now carried the virus, that he should be afraid of himself and not the young girls in the basement.

Day 57, Hour 12:                                                                                                  The man who traveled into town looking for haven died, after clawing his eyes out in a fit of rage. He had denied his symptoms for so long that he was capable of spreading the virus in the small town. All it took was a cough, a handshake, a hug, and someone else was infected.

The Waitress had died alone in her house where she had one day hoped to start a family. She hadn’t had much but she was content to build, now she would never have that chance.

Then there had been the Cashier:

“Sully,” You whispered as your aunt began to violently cough. “Come here right now. Cover your mouth.” The Cashier had been your Uncle and though he had shown the symptoms of the illness your aunt refused to believe he was sick.

“But auntie is making us a sandwich.” Your uncle had yet to come out of his room that morning, you’d figured he was dead. Maybe your aunt had killed him when she started to experience signs of madness.

“Sully,” you took a deep breath as you watched your aunt slowly slamming the knife onto the cutting board, “I said now.” Your sister saw the panic in your eyes and scrambled over to your side. “Walk to the front door and run to the neighbor’s house when I tell you to.” She was staring at your aunt as she cackled to herself the madness settling in her bones. Her head was tilting side to side threateningly, her eyes leaking blood as she coughed. “Don’t take your hand from your mouth no matter what.”

“(Y/N)?” Your sister whimpered as she started walking to the front door her eyes never leaving her aunt.

“You did this.” Her voice was hoarse and tired as she waves the knife in the air in front of her face. “You brought this illness here.” She turned to you smiling with her teeth blood stained. She coughed blood spewing from her mouth. You instinctively put your hand over your face inhaling short breaths.  “Come give auntie – “she struggled to speak the blood gurgling in her mouth, so instead of finishing she lunged towards you.

“Go, Sully! Now!” You listened as your sister’s footsteps took off from behind you. Your aunt had given up the ability to speak and was now just making wet sounds from her throat. You pulled your sleeves over your hands grabbing the nearest chair and throwing it at her. It hit her in the leg, but she wasn’t at all stunned as she took another lunge for you. You stepped away quick enough and grabbed the thing too your left. It was a set of forks and you weren’t very sure they would help but you’d flung them at her regardless. You were very aware of your bodies proximity to hers and became grateful for the fact that she’d been so paranoid that you or your sister carried the illness. Those plastic utensils suddenly seemed like a godsend. The forks hit her in her forehead and did absolutely nothing. She shook her head, reaching out for your foot. You screamed kicking out at her not wanting her to meet your skin.

“(Y/N)!” You didn’t have to turn your head to recognize the voice as your sisters. Your aunts head snapped in the direction of Sully.

“What the fuck Sully, I thought I told you to go!”

“I heard you scream!”

“And that caused you to come back?” You would have taken more time to scold her if your infested aunt hadn’t changed course. Her ears had begun to bleed, and you knew it was only moments before she depleted all her energy and dropped dead, but moments were too long. Since her attention was temporarily distracted from you, you took the opportunity to slip towards the butcher knife she had been making sandwiches with. You should have known something was wrong then, but you wanted to play house and ignore it. No one made turkey sandwiches with a butcher’s knife. Your sister was screaming as your aunt cackled and stared at her. It was if her brain was melting. Pulling down your sleeve over your hand you picked up the knife.

“(Y/N)!” You turned around with the weapon in your hand to see your aunt having cornered Sully. You took a deep breath - which you realized you shouldn’t have done and didn’t have time for – before walking quickly over to your aunt and stabbing her in the shoulder blade. She howled in pain reaching around for the knife in her back. You took her lapse of pain as a chance to escape.

“Go!” You yelled at your sister, “Go, go, go.” You wished you could push her, but you didn’t want to risk infecting her. She glanced once more at your animalistic aunt before turning and running out the door. You followed behind her and with your hands still covered by your sleeves you shut the door and locked. You know her cognition would be to messed up for her to turn the knob to begin with but you wanted to be safe. You stripped your shirt off - it had come into contact with a lot of things that carried the virus - and tossed it to the side. “Walk to the neighbors, don’t touch me.” You said sternly as you moved a couple of paces away from your sister. You were happy she’d come back because it had saved your life, but it had also risked her own. After the death of your mom and dad you weren’t ready to handle another. Sure, the passing of your aunt had been sad, but you’d never had a close relationship with them to begin with. When you reached the neighbors door you shooed your sister away, she took several large steps over.

“Who is it?” Your eyebrows quirked up, you hadn’t expected someone to answer so quickly. The

voice sounded strained and nervous, but it was obviously a boy around your age.

“We need help.” You tried to keep the desperate pleading from your voice. Eddie peaked out of the peep hole, and was mortified by your lack of clothing.

“I don’t sell clothes.”

“No, what the –“ You took a shuddering breath in. You were still overcome with nerves over your aunts Rabidism. When it had first started you weren’t given a chance to let it sink, but now standing here with your thoughts and a boy who wouldn’t open his front door you couldn’t shake the metallic taste of fear. “Please open the door. My little sister is only 10 and she’s afraid and so am I, we have nowhere else to go.” Eddie shifted his weight between his feet. He could see it in your eyes, something terrible had happened over in that house. He didn’t know if he wanted to risk bringing it to his own. “Please.” You tried again as the emotion clogged your throat.

“Oh, for fucks sake.” Eddie whispered to himself before swinging his door open. “Come in.”

“Thank you.” He didn’t look at you as you stepped inside of his living room, a shaking girl behind you. You stood in the center of the small house as your sister sat on a lounging chair and curled into herself. She at once started to cry, and you wished for nothing more than the ability to comfort her. Eddie tossed you a shirt from the bag of clothes he had by the door if he ever needed to make an escape. You caught it gratefully and shifted it over your head. Between your sister’s cries and the way, you stood stiffly, the tension inside of the living room was awkward.

“The illness,” you cleared your throat looking up at the lanky boy before you, “it’s in Derry.”

#Eddie kaspbrak #Edward kaspbrak #eddie kaspbrak x reader #jack dylan grazer #finn wolfhard #sophia lillis #jeremy ray taylor #chosen jacobs #wyatt oleff #jaeden lieberher #jaeden wesley lieberher #jaeden wesley #richie tozier #richard tozier #beverly marsh #benjamin hanscom #ben hanscom #mike hanlon #michael hanlon #stanley uris #stan uris #bill denbrough #william denbrough #georgie denbrough #it 2017 #stephen king #contagion au #contagion #the losers club

[orbemnews]

Think Covid’s Messed Up Your Travel Plans? Try Getting Into China. Leave your partner and children behind. Quarantine for up to a month. Get inoculated with a Covid-19 vaccine from China, if you can find one. And prepare yourself for an anal swab. For the past year, people trying to go to China have run into some of the world’s most formidable barriers to entry. To stop the coronavirus, China bans tourists and short-term business travelers outright, and it sets tough standards for all other foreigners, even those who have lived there for years. The restrictions have hampered the operations of many companies, separated families and upended the lives of thousands of international students. Global companies say their ranks of foreign workers in the country have dwindled sharply. At a time of strained tensions with the United States and other countries, China is keeping itself safe from the pandemic. At the same time, it risks further isolating its economy, the world’s second-largest, at a moment when its major trade partners are emerging from their own self-imposed slumps. “When it comes to measures that draconian, you are going to disenfranchise people who are big China fans and are not allowed to return to the country they have made their home,” said Alexander Style, the British owner of a Shanghai-based company that makes electric vehicle parts for export, who has been forced to relocate with his family to New Jersey. Other countries have their own travel restrictions, though few are as tight. The United States, for example, bans foreigners traveling directly from China unless they are green card holders or certain immediate family members of American citizens. It also bans foreigners leaving from Europe, as well as Brazil and other countries. Australia lets in just a few hundred of its citizens and permanent residents each day, while Japan has barred the entry of foreign workers and students since late December. In China, officials regard travel limits as crucial to their success in containing the virus. Since the outbreak started, China has reported more than 101,000 Covid cases. Although questions have been raised about the accuracy of the numbers, they are far lower than in the United States, where 29.8 million people have tested positive for the virus. China’s strategy reflects its strengths as well as its weaknesses. China was the only major economy to grow last year. It knows businesses will find a way to keep their Chinese operations running, with or without expatriates, and it is betting that they will come back when the pandemic eases. At the same time, China’s restrictions highlight the inadequacies of its vaccine rollout, which has been slow compared to those of the United States, Britain and other countries. Foreign executives think China is likely to be one of the last countries in the world to fully reopen, perhaps as late as next year, after the Beijing Winter Olympics in February. China’s restrictions will mean significant delays in building large factories or winning sales orders, according to business groups. In recent days, Chinese embassies in at least 50 countries have said that foreigners wanting to enter China could avoid some visa paperwork by taking a Chinese-made Covid-19 vaccine. The government has presented the rule as an easing of its visa application procedures. But it does not help travelers from countries like the United States where Chinese vaccines are not available. “It’s kind of a Catch-22,” said Jeff Jolly, who has been stuck in the United States since July after leaving Shanghai, where he runs a language training center and academic consultancy. In a statement, China’s foreign ministry said: “We believe this is a meaningful exploration of facilitating international travel once mass vaccination has been achieved.” As deadlier and more infectious virus variants appeared in other countries in recent months, China introduced onerous new requirements. At the end of last year, it essentially stopped allowing anyone to bring a spouse or child into the country. Since January, travelers arriving in Beijing from countries with severe outbreaks have had to endure weekly anal swab tests while in quarantine, with fecal material tested for traces of the virus. The measure prompted indignant complaints from the United States and Japan. Last month, the government announced that foreign and Chinese travelers coming from more than two dozen countries would have to do two weeks of employer-supervised quarantine overseas before they were even allowed to fly to China. Then, after landing, they were expected to spend two more weeks at a government-managed quarantine facility. Updated  March 21, 2021, 3:14 p.m. ET The number of foreign business managers in China has slumped. A survey of 191 businesses in southern China by the American Chamber of Commerce found that 70 percent had fewer than five expatriate employees in China at the end of last year, compared to 33 percent a year earlier. The proportion of companies with no expatriates had surged to 28 percent, from 9 percent a year earlier. Mr. Style, the owner of the electric vehicle parts company, said that the Chinese visa process now favored big companies that contribute a great deal of tax revenue, not start-ups like his business. He said he had settled down in the United States — his wife is American — and did not plan to return to China any time soon. The foreign ministry said China’s re-entry policy “treats all foreign personnel equally, and there is no so-called differential treatment.” China’s restrictions have been compounded by decisions on visas and entry requirements that can seem arbitrary to those trying to return. Glyn Wise, who had been teaching English literature at an international school in Shanghai, was able to get a work visa from the Chinese Embassy in London in October. But the agency that helped prepare his application told him later that Chinese border officials would not acknowledge the visa. “A lot of the times they would change the rules about who they were accepting,” Mr. Wise said. He said he was looking for job opportunities outside China. But many others are still hopeful, and some have organized campaigns on social media to draw attention to their plight. Nearly 13,000 international students being kept out of China signed an online petition urging Beijing to allow them to return, while others launched a Twitter campaign called #TakeUsBackToChina. Amanuel Tafese, an Ethiopian student enrolled at a university in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu, said he had tried taking his lessons online since being shut out of the country early last year. But he had to rent space to do so, because there is no electricity or internet access at his family’s home, 280 miles from the capital, Addis Ababa. Mr. Tafese says he cannot find a job, because he has no degree, and is relying on his father’s small income to support himself. “All this made me depressed,” Mr. Tafese wrote in an email. China’s tough restrictions, including its recent ban on dependents, have also exacted an emotional toll on some families who have been forced to live apart for months, in some cases more than a year. In February of last year, Jessie Astbury Allen took her two young daughters to England to wait out the outbreak as it swept across China, hoping they would reunite with her husband in Shanghai by Easter. It was a plan she would come to regret. “I knew in my gut we were doing the wrong thing, but it was too late,” she said, weeping, as she described how she felt upon landing at London’s Heathrow Airport. Like many parents coping with a lockdown, Ms. Astbury Allen has had to juggle the demands of her daughters’ online classes with her job as the China director of a marketing and strategy company that helps foreign brands sell in China. In late September, the government announced that people with expired residence permits could return to China after applying for a visa. Ms. Astbury Allen rushed to apply for one in October. But by the time she reached a visa center, the rules had already changed. China announced on Nov. 4 that it would temporarily suspend the entry of foreigners from Britain, even if they had visas or valid residence permits. It described the move as a “temporary response” as cases of Covid-19 surged in Britain. The situation has left Ms. Astbury Allen feeling overwhelmed. She worries most about the trauma this separation is inflicting on her daughters. Her 12-year-old, Livia, became depressed and hid under her blanket, refusing to come out of her room for three days. When Mae, her usually cheerful 7-year-old, saw her mother crying last month, she became very upset and emotional, Ms. Astbury Allen said. “I said, ‘Do you miss your dad, honey?” said Ms. Astbury Allen. “And she said, ‘Yes,’ and I said: ‘It’s OK. We miss him, too.’” Elsie Chen , Coral Yang and Claire Fu contributed research. Source link Orbem News #China #COVIDs #Messed #plans #Travel

[tabloidtoc]

National Enquirer, October 12

You can buy a copy of this issue for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: Queen Elizabeth’s 73-year sham marriage to Prince Philip collapses

Page 2: Kanye West is in top-secret talks to launch his own TV network and is crowing it will be bigger than the Kardashians -- he wants it to reflect his lofty vision of what the world should be and to provide a spiritual awakening for the masses but he doesn’t realize there aren’t a lot of people who want to spend hours a day listening to him rant about how the world would be a better place if he was in charge -- meanwhile Kim Kardashian is at the end of her rope again 

Page 3: Furious Angelina Jolie is tearing into Brad Pitt’s new girlfriend Nicole Poturalski blasting her as a scheming psycho and as a borderline stalker who is dating Brad just to get famous and it’s going to end in disaster for the whole family not just him so she’s already told Brad to keep Nicole away from their kids and she’s looking to make this part of their ongoing legal case 

Page 4: Newly single Kelly Clarkson has enlisted fellow country star Maren Morris to help her find a new man -- Maren advised Kelly to use her talk show to connect with men she admires but Kelly may have taken her advice a little too literally when she had her crush Keanu Reeves on the show and was drooling all over him though she knows it’s probably wishful thinking 

Page 5: Ellen DeGeneres kicked off her new season by publicly apologizing for allegations of misconduct on her talk show but body language experts blasted her remarks as tone deaf and missing the mark totally 

Page 6: Jimmy Fallon’s wife Nancy Juvonen is furious over the time he spends nurturing his bond with close pal Kathie Lee Gifford -- Jimmy loves to reminisce about the old days at NBC with the former Today yakker especially during today’s challenging times and he worships her and he’s the only late-night host who treats Kathie Lee like an A-lister but Nancy can’t stand Kathie Lee’s constant self-obsessed talk and considers her a squeaky third wheel 

Page 7: Cher keeps trying to turn back time with plastic surgery but the results have been disastrous and although she insists her most recent work is a facelift her kisser is frozen and packed with Botox and fillers and lip injections -- she also appears to have had a nose job and a face and neck lift to achieve a smooth jawline and neck and the results have left Cher barely able to move her face and even made it difficult for her to speak let alone sing, disgraced chef Paula Deen had emergency eye surgery this summer in a desperate bid to save her sight -- Paula had been suffering from declining vision for months and was shocked when doctors told her the cornea was dying and going under the knife was necessary to save her sight 

Page 10: Hot Shots -- Tiger Woods took a brief break during practice, Leighton Meester caught some waves in Malibu, Kristen Taekman in a New York Jets bikini, Dolph Lundgren doffed his mask after leaving a lunch date in Beverly Hills, Dominic Cooper took his electric bike for a spin in London 

Page 11: Cash-strapped Tori Spelling and husband Dean McDermott are back in couples therapy and on the verge of filing for bankruptcy -- they’re in counseling for the same old stuff which is their constant fighting and spending money and work that isn’t happening -- the parents of five were hit with tax liens totaling nearly $1 million and were also sued by American Express over an unpaid credit card bill of almost $90,000 which Tori asked her mother Candy Spelling who is worth about $600 million to pay but Candy refused and after Candy revealed her plans to leave her fortune to animal charities Tori and Dean may file for bankruptcy because they both love to spend, Bravo bigwigs are hoping hotel heiress Kathy Hilton will fill the vacancy left by Denise Richards and Teddi Mellencamp on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and producers are trying to keep ratings high by getting veteran Kyle Richards to recruit sister and former castmate Kim Richards and half sister Kathy -- Kathy is said to be high on producers’ wish list because of her wit and humor and is also considered old-school Beverly Hills and show brass want her to bring a certain glamour and sophistication to the show 

Page 12: Straight Shuter -- Demi Lovato at a NYC screening party (picture), when the ball drops on New Year’s Eve in Times Square Anderson Cooper won’t be there because he would rather be at home with his baby boy, The Bachelor has cut all ties with Colton Underwood after his ex Cassie Randolph got a temporary restraining order against him, Teresa Giudice plans to move to NYC after listing her New Jersey mansion but she still wants to keep her job on The Real Housewives of New Jersey and to get around that Teresa hopes to pretend she’s moved into her brother Joe Gorga’s home in Jersey 

Page 13: John Legend revealed couples therapy helps strengthen his marriage to Chrissy Teigen and said they keep their romance going strong by communicating and being considerate and listening, Jackie Stallone was more than just Sylvester Stallone’s mom -- she was also one of the world top astrologers and psychics who predicted the fall of the Berlin Wall and Kanye West’s presidential run 

Page 14: Crime -- convicted Melrose Place killer Amy Locane is in lockup again for a fatal 2010 drunk-driving smashup that took one life and nearly took another after a New Jersey Superior Court Judge said she got off too easy by serving two years behind bars and sentenced Amy to eight more years in state prison 

Page 15: The gruesome house of horrors where Drew Carey’s ex-fiancee Amie Harwick brutally met her untimely end is on the market for $1.5 million and her family can’t wait to get rid of it, Shannen Doherty is in pretty good spirits amid her ongoing battle with stage 4 breast cancer according to her former Beverly Hills 90210 co-star Jason Priestley

Page 16: Cover Story -- After decades of turning a blind eye to her husband’s cheating Queen Elizabeth’s 72-year marriage has shockingly collapsed and Prince Philip is now banished to a remote cottage far away from the monarch -- despite royal courtiers painting a rosy picture of the couple quarantining together at Windsor Castle since March the truth is their marriage has been a sham for decades and they’ve been living separate lives for over 50 years and all this forced togetherness was simply too much for them -- Philip has been cheating on Elizabeth since before they were married and has several love children; he has rumored to have had flings with actress Helene Cordet and Daphne du Maurier and Pat Kirkwood and Jane Russell and Merle Oberon and Zsa Zsa Gabor and Princess Alexandria and Sacha Duchess of Abercorn and most recently Lady Penny Romsey -- there will be no divorce and they will just quietly continue their separate lives to the end of their days but the queen never wants to see Philip again 

Page 18: Larry King’s estranged wife Shawn Southwick is demanding $33,000 a month in spousal support because she claims she gave up her music and TV career to marry the frail talk show host and then raise their sons Chance and Cannon, Hollywood Hookups -- Halle Berry and Van Hunt dating, 90 Day Fiance stars Ashley Martson and Jay Smith split for good, Justin Duggar dating Claire Spivey 

Page 19: Tom Cruise is set to shoot the first major movie in outer space and he’s headed to the International Space Station in October 2021 with director Doug Liman -- the two and possibly one additional actor will hitch a ride aboard Elon Musk’s SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule to film the unnamed project, the IV needle allegedly used to administer the fatal dose of propofol to Michael Jackson on June 25 of 2009 is up for auction by the estate of the late singer’s father Joe and the chilling item used by Michael’s physician Dr. Conrad Murray is reportedly still stained with Michael’s blood -- it was submitted to the auction by Michael’s cousin Marsha Stewart who says she took it from Michael’s bedroom days after he died, Sharon Stone has pressed her lips on a long list of Hollywood hunks but picked Robert De Niro as far and away the best kisser but rated her other leading men as kind of like meh 

Page 20: Stars Playing Stars -- how they did it -- Muhammad Ali and Will Smith, Frida Kahlo and Salma Hayek, Ray Charles and Jamie Foxx 

Page 21: Marilyn Monroe and Michelle Williams, Queen Elizabeth and Helen Mirren, Billie Holiday and Diana Ross, Bob Dylan and Cate Blanchett 

Page 22: An adopted son of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen has charged it was his mother not his father who was the monster in the family -- Moses Farrow says Woody did not molest adopted daughter Dylan Farrow in 1992 and that he can no longer stay silent as Woody continues to be condemned for a crime he did not commit 

Page 26: Less than nine months after Kobe Bryant and daughter Gianna died in a helicopter crash a vicious feud has ripped the family apart -- the row erupted between his widow Vanessa Bryant and her mother Sofia Laine after Sofia went on TV to publicly accuse her daughter of tossing her out of the family home -- Vanessa feels she’s already given her mom so much and then she heard through the grapevine that Sofia complained she should have more -- it does seem cold that Vanessa would take such action against her mother but she’s ready to take on anyone using her husband and child’s deaths as a selfish cash grab and that includes Sofia 

Page 27: Danny Masterson’s rape trial is looming and the Church of Scientology is doing everything in its power to back the scandal-scarred actor -- the church’s leaders have assigned their top lawyers to aid Danny who is a prominent member of the religion and the lawyers are scouring every law on the books to get the case thrown out or get him acquitted -- the church has previously been accused of trying to get the other side’s defenses dismissed or judges thrown off cases and using all manner of tactics to delay due process 

Page 28: American Life -- Bighearted ex-billionaire Chuck Feeney has spent 38 years giving away nearly all of his vast fortune and the generous do-gooder said he wouldn’t have had it any other way 

Page 29: Famed stoner Willie Nelson can’t stop sampling his own marijuana products and now friends fear the 87-year-old music legend is smoking himself to death -- Willie’s a believer in the powers of cannabis and promotes it passionately but years of smoking has done a number on his lungs and he can barely breathe at times, Julia Duffy has been keeping close a tragic heartache for more than a year -- her only son Danny Lacy committed suicide at age 29 after years of suffering from mental health issues 

Page 34: Comic Kathy Griffin has seen her popularity plummet in recent years and it’s played a role in her plans to sell her sprawling Bel Air estate -- Kathy has burned a lot of bridges and concerts and TV appearances have dried up because of her many industry conflicts so she’s trying to unload her massive manor with wine cellar and movie theater and eight bedrooms for $16 million -- she didn’t want to sell it but the cost and size have become too much for her to handle 

Page 36: Health Watch 

Page 38: CIA bigwigs once hired a psychic to determine if there was life on Mars -- the misguided mission was said to be part of Project Stargate which was launched in 1978 and somehow cost an astronomical $20 million after the CIA hired a man who claimed he could see the surface of the planet in his mind -- the unnamed man claimed he could see huge pyramids and an obelisk structure and road networks on the Red Planet as well as living creatures, John Lennon’s killer Mark David Chapman shocked the parole board when he admitted he deserved the death penalty even as he begged for his freedom at his last hearing -- his murderous motive was seeking self-glory -- the board denied his parole saying they found his statement infamy brings you glory disturbing 

Page 42: Red Carpet -- London Fashion Week 

Page 45: Spot the Differences -- Luke Bryan and his dog Choc 

Page 47: Odd List -- doctors remove granny’s football-sized tumor 

#tabloid #grain of salt #tabloid toc #tabloidtoc #queen elizabeth #prince philip #queen elizabeth and prince philip #liz and phil #kanye west #angelina jolie #brad pitt #nicole poturalski #kelly clarkson #keanu reeves #ellen degeneres #jimmy fallon #kathie lee gifford #cher #paula deen #tori spelling #dean mcdermott #kathy hilton #the real housewives of beverly hills #real housewives of beverly hills #rhobh #john legend #chrissy teigen #jackie stallone #amy locane #amie harwick

[dailyaudiobible]

03/28/2020 DAB Transcript

Deuteronomy 9:1-10:22, Luke 8:4-21, Psalms 69:19-36, Proverbs 12:2-3

Today is the 28th day of March, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian and it is a joy and an honor to be here with you today as we take this…well…final step of the week. And I'm glad, I'm grateful that we can take this next step together. So, we’ve been working our way through the book of Deuteronomy which is we’ll continue to do. And we’ve been reading from the New Living Translation this week. Today Deuteronomy chapters 9 and 10.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for another week and we thank for…we thank You every time we come to the end of another week because we’re thankful and our hearts are grateful. And even though there's plenty of things to challenge us, You’ve given us the gift of life and You've given us the ability to reveal Your kingdom in this world and participate. And, so, we are grateful, and we heed the word of the proverb today - wickedness never brings stability but the godly have deep roots. And yet, even as Jesus, as we approach this story of the soil again, we pray that by the leading of Your Holy Spirit we will be good soil for deep roots. So, come Holy Spirit, show us the path of wisdom, show us the narrow path that leads to life, we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, its where you find out what's going on around here. There's usually something going on around here.

Check out the Community section. That's where the Prayer Wall is and that is always underway, like that is always happening as well as the different links to different social media channels like DAB Women. If you're a woman and you're not connected this is a great time to get connected there, but the different social media channels that we are participating on. So, check that out.

And…well…since the middle of the week we've been doing something really special, releasing kind of in serial form like once a day, day by day we’re releasing a chapter a day of this book called Sneezing Jesus. Once this kind of outbreak started happening, once the world started paying attention, once it started freaking out, all the stuff that's going on, I began thinking about this book because…because it's poignant, the times that we’re in because it just shows in its conclusion how the gospel spread like a virus. And, so, we’re working real hard to not spread things but we have an alternative view that we really have an opportunity to spread light and life and the good news. And, so, Sneezing Jesus was…was my attempt to draw with words…what I say in the prologue of the book is, the Word became flesh and this is how I try to make the flesh become word, like how I try to portray this Jesus that I've fallen in love with out of the Gospels and bring the good news. And, so, that's what we’ve trying to do to offer light and good news, and encouragement free. And I called my…my book publisher, NAV Press who published this book a few years ago, asked them if we can do this and they were like really on board with it. And, so, I am so so grateful to be able to offer this to you and you can have this encouragement in your hands in your ears each day as…as we go through one chapter a day. And, so, today's chapter is called “Go Away” and it's an exploration of Jesus among the Gadarene people. And Jesus, ultimately the story that we immerse ourselves into in this chapter is Jesus throwing a legion of demons into a herd of swine and just the implications of that. And, so, that is today's chapter and it just shows up with your Daily Audio Bible every day. And, so, indeed partake, enjoy, be encouraged in this time. There’s no shortage of bad news out there. This is the good news.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link on the homepage. I am profoundly grateful, deeply deeply grateful for your partnership all of these years. If you are using the Daily Audio Bible app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996. Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hello, my sisters and brothers in the Lord Jesus Christ this is Candace from Oregon. I would like to pray for a couple of missionaries beginning with Margo from Australia. So, please join me in this prayer. Lord thank You that Margo and her husband are in good health and not afraid of their own confrontation with the coronavirus personally, but they have some real concerns about what will happen to the whole infrastructure around them. Lord, I pray that You’d be very near to the children in their malnutrition clinic. I pray that You’d put a hedge of protection around all the people that they came so far to love on and to bring Your love. And I pray that Your love would serve as an incredible force of goodness surrounding the entire experience for every person involved. And I lift up my dear, dear Tina Barstool who is in Uganda. She had only recently gone to the mission field there, a sustainability project. Please Lord, their concern is that normal food deliveries will continue so that there won’t be any stealing and I just ask You God to cover, cover, cover, cover everyone concerning this and honor this desire that she came so far, her and others, to bring Your goodness, Your love, Your redemption. May it be only increased by what’s going on.

Hi fellow DABbers this is Rosanna from __ I’m calling to encourage all of the parents out there during this time of quarantine in our homes. I have three children and I’m single parent and they are all young children. And what I want to encourage you is that God has given us this time to powerfully influence our children for the gospel. We are gonna shoot our children out as arrows into the world and I encourage you to see this as an opportunity to poor scripture and godly influence into them. And, of course, I need prayers for patience and guidance and wisdom as I try to teach my children at home and guide them and discipline them and love them. So, I encourage everyone around the world to take this opportunity and see it as an opportunity to pour into your children. I hope you are doing well, and I pray for you and I am so grateful for this, for this ministry. Bye.

Family, I’m in desperate need of prayer for my two teenage daughters. I’ve got a 13-year-old who is deeply suicidal right now and indignantly telling me that I have no right to insist that she stay alive when she’s in this much pain. And her 16-year-old older sister has also really been struggling with depression and wild panic attacks and just really dark thinking and I don’t know exactly what’s coming against our family but it feels like warfare and I just need lots of warriors to pray for us. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Lexi and I just want to pray for my grandma especially. And that would be like a star on my prayer list and I wanna pray for my family.

Hey Daily Audio Bible friends it’s been a long time. I just recently…I just want to thank God for everything because I just recently got back into the faith. So, I am just praying asking maybe if you guys would pray with me on this journey, not necessarily for me because we’re all together and we’re altogether in this. And I just hope that wherever you are right now, you can do it and if he did it you can do it too. So, thank you so much for listening to this and you have a wonderful day.

This is Protected by His Wings calling from Virginia. I’m just calling to pray for some folks today. Dear heavenly Father I bring these people before you today, specifically Prodigal and Christina with a bumpy dog, Lee from Chicago, Pink Paint, Angel in California, SG a woman who’s struggling with mental health issues, Alex a man who helped a DABber with her car on the side of the road, a flat tire and a disabled veteran’s wife. Dear heavenly Father I bring these people before You today, You know their concerns, breakthroughs, healing, needing breakthroughs, things falling apart in their lives, they’re asking for prayer Lord whether its fighting cancer, fighting divorces, bankruptcies, depression. Lord You know their issues Lord I bring these people before You Lord and I pray for them often and ask that You reach each and every one of these people individually in a way that they know, that today they know and feel Your loving arms wrapped around them, that they know that You are there with them walking beside them if not carrying them during the this time through the…through the valley of the shadow of death. And though they know they fear no evil Lord they know that You are with them. I pray Your hand of blessing, graciousness and peace that goes beyond all understanding upon each and every one of these people today. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. Brian thank you for this wonderful podcast and China, thank you as well. I’m a double DABber. Love you all. Bye.

[faceofmalawi]

South African Man Weds Dead Fiancee

A 48-year-old primary school teacher, who died after setting herself on fire as a result of Covid-19 depression and the stigma attached to it, was yesterday wedded by her husband in an extraordinary symbolic wedding ahead of her official burial. The private traditional ceremony took place yesterday at the couple's Crystal Park home in Benoni on the East Rand in South Africa. The woman succumbed to severe burn injuries last Thursday after being in the intensive care unit of a local hospital for a month. Before she died, the harrowing details of the teacher's attempted suicide were exclusively reported last month when the woman's husband told of how he planned to embark on a community education campaign aimed at de-stigmatising people infected by the virus. The husband, a high school principal, has subsequently tested positive too. Speaking to Sowetan yesterday, he said he was on day eight of self-isolation. He revealed that he tested positive after going back to work on July 8 following the incident of his wife's attempt to take her own life. He further told Sowetan that a total of seven people have tested positive at his school and he was one of them "even though I had tested negative when my wife was tested positive". He said as an "advocating campaigner", he has been able to calm his fellow colleagues who tested positive and their families as well. The 51-year-old, whose name is being withheld to protect their children, had previously told Sowetan newspaper how he battled to save his wife from the flames engulfing her isolation room in their home. He was wearing full personal protective gear (equipment) during the private wedding which was attended by family and friends at the family home late yesterday. He again recalled that fateful day on June 6 after his wife had been in quarantine at home for 11 days. He had not noticed that his wife "was losing it after all the support we had offered to her". He recalled how his wife woke up that morning at around 4am when everybody was still asleep. He and their 17-year-old son also woke up and checked if she was fine before they went back to bed. "After a while we realised there was something burning. I ran to her isolation room. It was locked. "I broke the door open and found her in flames. I immediately took a blanket and tried to put out the fire until my brave eight-year-old child ran to fetch a bucket of water which she emptied on her mom in an attempt to rescue her," the man told Sowetan at the time. The man again recalled how he was not aware that his wife was "depressed from receiving messages on social media from friends and colleagues". He said she had complained about being sent messages that made her feel like she was dying. She also complained about gossip that came from colleagues and friends. He yesterday told of how his wife was always looking forward to her big traditional wedding that was put on hold when the national lockdown was announced in March. They had been planning their wedding since last year. "She was excited to be going to wear her isiSwati wedding gown. We are still going to honour that wish because she will now be buried wearing it." The father of two met his wife in 1991 while he was travelling in a taxi in Daveyton. "I jumped out at the wrong stop just to go and talk to her because she caught my attention. She was with her two friends." He said his wife was a mother to many children besides her own. She taught him how to love all children unconditionally. Many of those children who are now working "come to our home from time to time to thank her for the role she played in their education." Death impacts heavily on culture A family elder said in their culture as Swati people when wedding preparations had been done, there's no going back even if one partner dies. "In this regard the family will find a sister of the deceased bride to represent her in the ceremony because her body will be in the mortuary. Then the groom will take his stand and marry the bride and both families will exchange gifts," he said. The elder said the bride's corpse will then be washed with herbs and put in the coffin and a ritual, joining the two, will be performed a day before her body is brought home from the morgue. He said when the body arrives home, the groom will then enter with her in the house with elders announcing to ancestors that she is now part of the other family and can be laid to rest as a part of her husband's family. The man will then go into a mourning period after the burial and will be cleansed after several months. An emotional Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said "this sad passing of our educator, colleague and sister who happened to be a wife to our fellow colleague and a principal in one of our schools really touched and devastated me dearly". He said: "Covid-19 hit us where it matters most and robbed us, our most valuable resource in the education sector. "It is difficult to even try to understand the horrible incident which led to the death of our colleague. "We would like to convey our sincere condolences to the family and the school community. We are hopeful that, the psycho-social support that was dispatched by the department will play a significant role in assisting the family to heal from this traumatic death." The deceased's funeral service will take place tomorrow. Source:TheSowetan Read the full article

#deadfiancee

[justanothercinemaniac]

Epic Movie (Re)Watch #194 - Godzilla (2014)

Spoilers Below

Have I seen it before: Yes

Did I like it then: Yes.

Do I remember it: Yes.

Did I see it in theaters: Yes.

Was it a movie I saw since August 22nd, 2009: Yes, #293.

Format: Blu-ray

1) There’s a good chance that this fact will effect my opinion of the film, but this is the first and to date only Godzilla film I’ve ever seen. Not a bad intro to the franchise.

2) I like that this film pays respects to the character’s origins. Godzilla is rooted deep not only in Japanese culture but also history, with the original Kaiju being representative of survivors of the nuclear attacks which hit the country (his skin being based on that of survivors from those blasts). This film incorporates nuclear radiation in a meaningful way, has a strong Japanese setting (at least in the first act), and even features a meaningful scene recognizing the attack in Hiroshima. It’s more than just a pale carbon copy (as I understand the version directed by Roland Emmerich is received as) but is aware of what makes a Godzilla movie.

3) The film’s entire prologue does a very good job of establishing the film’s dark tone and occasional sense of mystery.

Vivienne [while inspecting the bones of a dead Kaiju]: “Is it possible? Is it him?”

Serizawa: “No. This is much older.”

4) Juliette Binoche as Sandra.

Binoche’s role in the film is brief but holy crap if she just doesn’t juice all her screen time for everything it is worth. In the few minutes we know Sandra her professionalism, priorities, skill, and investment in family became incredibly clear. It is her ability to get you so invested in her character in these few moments which makes her death all that more effective.

While Bryan Cranston’s total desperation and heartache in that death scene is an enormous factor, it is largely carried by the strength of Binoche’s unfortunately brief performance. The scene is perfectly paced and Binoche helps play each emotional beat perfectly. I tear up every freaking time I see it, especially at the fact that Sandra and her husband Joe get to see each other one last time while she’s basically dead. It is Binoche’s brief performance and her death scene which helps anchor the giant monster spectacle in real human emotion moving forward.

5) Aaron Taylor Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen as Ford & Elle Brody (husband and wife) have this really great chemistry between them. It’s not so much a crazy hot chemistry as it is significantly deep. You understand the strength of their love, their connection, their trust, all in the way they act around each other. It would be a chemistry the pair would repeat (with some obvious differences) in Avengers: Age of Ultron a year later.

6) Aaron Taylor Johnson as Ford Brody.

The role of a human protagonist in a monster movie is wildly important but incredibly easy to have be a forgettable schlub against Godzilla. But Johnson does incredibly well to make Brody not only memorable but also get the audience invested in him. You can see Brody’s struggle and pain throughout. Over the course of the movie he loses his mother and father while at risk of losing his wife and son too. These lead to very simple motivations: take care of his family. This drives his every action, his every choice, to help and get to his family. The struggle is largely man vs nature (nature in this case being a trio of giant monsters who keep getting in his way) but Johnson plays it VERY well and helps elevate the film because of it.

7) Bryan Cranston as Joe Brody.

Cranston is arguably the strongest actor in the entire film. Very similarly to Binoche, his performance and character is the emotional bedrock on which the human story rests. The pain/turmoil he displays is so freaking raw and powerful that in every scene you are just drawn to him. You know exactly why he’s doing what he’s doing, how powerful his grief is, and it drives a fair amount of the early plot. Through Cranston’s performance and the writing surrounding it he’s able to even give the audience a fair amount of exposition in a way which is very telling of his obsession. All in all, it’s just freaking great.

8) There is this very nice sense of place to the Quarantine Zone that is established immediately. The overgrown plants and sense of tone all help make it seem otherworldly.

9) Director Gareth Edwards employs a controlled sense of pace, taking his time to set up the story and the conflict at large while never boring his audience. It’s a nice change of pace from standard giant monster movie fair that really just helps the film be its own thing.

10) Ken Watanabe as Dr. Ishiro Serizawa.

It could be argued that if anyone gives a better performance in this film than Bryan Cranston, it’s Watanabe. But that could also be because he has far more screen time. The actor is absolutely incredible here, with a soft but poignant pain which defines his every moment of screen time. Watanabe just breathes tragedy but not in a way which drags down the film but instead motivates much of the action. It is not all there is to him but it’s definitely a huge factor in his character. It is this sadness (first seen at its best when he mournfully says to kill the MUTO) that is so telling of his character and helps get you invested in his character. He’s just great.

11) I give this film massive credit for introducing new monsters - the two MUTOs - into an at the time sixty year old canon. The filmmakers could’ve easily made these monsters be boring/lazily designed creatures who only exist as something for Godzilla to beat on, but they end up getting a lot more screen time than the titular monster actually. The thought put into the design of both, what makes them different from not only other giant movie monsters but also each other, is what helps make them so good.

12) Ford’s motivation for the entire film can easily be defined by his father’s last words to him.

Joe: “GO home to your family. Keep them safe. Whatever it takes.”

13) Honestly, if they only had Ken Watanabe in this film to deliver two of its best lines I would’ve been so okay with that because he’s so great at it.

Serizawa: “We call him, Gojira.”

Originally the line referred to the monster as Godzilla but Watanabe asked to call him by the original Japanese name.

14) The entire backstory with how giant monsters exist in this world (how they’re ancient alpha predators who pretty much exist entirely off of radiation) and how the government agency of Monarch fits into it is all REALLY well done, actually. It could’ve easily been boring and shoehorned in but there’s a fair amount of thought put into it which helps to organically build this universe at large.

15) The film does a nice job of making sure each giant monster scene has a parallel human conflict to it. The kid on the monorail Ford has to keep safe when the MUTO hits Hawaii, for example, is a good example of this.

16) So one of the things this film does which I appreciate is also a great point of frustration for me and that is how little we so of Godzilla for so much of the film.

On the one hand, it is very Jaws esque. That decision helps to convey the scale and significance of Godzilla. Each time he appears on screen you can FEEL the stakes rise, you can feel the dynamic of the scene change, and that’s pretty great.

On the other hand: I WANT TO SEE GODZILLA FIGHT GIANT MONSTERS! IT’S A GIANT MONSTER MOVIE FOR PETE’S SAKE!

I’m very conflicted about this.

17) This is nice.

Vivienne [on the second MUTO]: “It’s far bigger than the other one.”

Adm. Stenz: “This one doesn’t have any wings.”

Vivenne: “A different sex?”

Serizawa: “A female.”

It’s easy when making not only one giant monster but a species of an original giant monster to have them all be carbon copies of each other. But to put thought into differentiating between the sex shows an intelligence in the filmmaking which I certainly appreciate.

18) Remember the respect I mentioned that this film pays to its original source material?

Serizawa [showing Stenz a broken watch]: “Eight fifteen in the morning. August sixth, nineteen-forty-five.”

Stenz: “Hiroshima.”

Serizawa: “It was my father’s.”

The original Godzilla came out only nine years after Hiroshima was bombed. Not only that, but a Japanese tuna fishing boat known as the Lucky Dragon was exposed to/contaminated by nuclear fallout from the US Castle Bravo nuclear weapon test in March of that year. Godzilla as a character originally served as a metaphor for nuclear weapons; a destructive force which is beyond nature and humanity have little control over stopping. The fact that this film not only recognizes that but openly discusses Hiroshima - if only briefly - is an important respect to pay to its predecessor.

19) The phone call between Elle and Ford not only speaks to the strength of their relationship but also shows off Elizabeth Olsen’s ability to portray raw human emotion brilliantly.

20) So there is this brief pan over jammed traffic with a downed plane while we hear reports over the radio and I think that tiny moment does an incredible job of establishing the effect of these monsters on everyday people.

21) I actually really like the military’s representation in this film, more than any other film that comes to mind. They don’t Michael Bay it by glorifying the armed forces to the point where they’re action figures or ridiculous action heroes. But it also avoids vilifying the military or dumbing them down to the point of stupidity. Everyone involved understands the weight of their decisions and David Strathairn’s  Admiral Stenz has this constant eagerness to hear better ideas than what he’s coming up with because it’s not about his ego. It’s about saving as many people as they can and I like sort of the simple elegance they convey the armed forces with in this film. I hope some of that made sense.

22) Okay, is Ford nuclear or something? Because he’s like a giant monster magnet! No matter where he goes, there are giant monsters!

23) The scene on the golden gat abridge is very nice, primarily because it does the Spielbergian thing and shows the action and drama through the eyes of the kids on the bus. I like that.

24) I’ve mentioned the intelligence put in designing the MUTOs already, but particularly the mating ritual shown between the male and female is very strong. It feels natural, organic, and makes them more than just destructive forces but actual animals.

25) Remember how I said Ken Watanabe has the two bets lines in the film? Well, besides, “Gojira,” we get this iconic beauty:

26) The halo jump.

The halo jump is possibly the best set piece in the entire film and not because the action is strong but because of how freaking haunting it is. There is this absolutely stellar atmosphere which is created by the strong visuals, sound design of Ford’s breathing, and Alexandre Desplat’s eerie score. You KNOW they’re past the point of no return just because this scene is so freaking awesome.

27) I love the little moment when Godzilla’s eyes and Brody’s eyes meet. It’s like, “Yes, these are the two protagonists we’ve been following this entire time, and they connect!” I love it.

28) When Godzilla is able to use his freaking atomic breathe for the first time, that’s really when the monster vs monster action kicks off. The ensuing fight is truly badass, culminating in one epic finale which has you asking: “Why didn’t he open with that?”

29) You can tell when a film has a great climax because when it’s over, all the tension will leave your body. You just relax and take in the ending. For me, that’s how the ending of Godzilla is. Once he kills the last MUTO and lays down for a quick “you think I’m dead but I’m just napping” nap, I just take in the rest of the movie.

Although you may find issues in how little of the titular monster we actually get to see, odds are you’ll get a kick out of Godzilla. There are a handful of absolutely amazing performances (Binoche, Cranston, Watanabe) which help root a very strong human drama which gets you invested in otherwise forgettable characters. And when Godzilla does show up on screen it is utterly badass. By sacrificing some of the sheer fun the giant monster movie genre can have the filmmakers are able to create a well paced, dark, mysterious, and intriguing film which is at the end of the day still really freaking good. Again, I’ve never seen another Godzilla film, but I definitely recommend this one.

#Godzilla #Godzilla 2014 #Aaron Taylor Johnson #Bryan Cranston #Elizabeth Olsen #Ken Watanabe #David Strathairn #Juliette Binoche #Gareth Edwards #Let Them Fight #Epic Movie (Re)Watch #Movie #Film #GIF

[compare-wp10]

COVID travel issues didn't dissuade Americans from visiting hot spots

See on Scoop.it - COMPARE RISK COMMUNICATION

'Pragmatic and cautious': As some Americans avoid travel, others visit COVID-19 hot spots anyway USA TODAY Published 9:33 AM EDT Aug 10, 2020 Jacqui Slay, a 38-year-old stay-at-home mom of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, planned her family trip to Disney World in Florida a year ago. One month away from her scheduled tour in early September, she said she wasn't sure if she would go, citing recent record-high COVID-19 cases in Florida. “We’re kind of up in the air about it,” she said.  Slay is one of many Americans who faces a travel dilemma during the COVID-19 pandemic: Is it worth the risk to travel and escape the monotony of quarantine life, or is it better to wait until the country has the coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, more under control?  A USA TODAY analysis of data from Trivago, a platform for searching and booking hotels, shows Americans have chosen a little of both. Although people aren’t quite ready to travel in full force again, they are still searching for domestic vacation destinations that have long been major draws — including in places where COVID-19 case counts are rising. Trivago measures hotel search volume, which reflects travel requests and booking queries based on users’ link clicks. Last month’s volume was off 73% from the same time in 2019.  It’s been up and down for months. After dropping 92% below 2019 levels in April, Trivago hotel searches started coming back in May and June as states reopened. Florida was among the states to progress the furthest back to normal booking levels, going from 95% below 2019 levels at the start of April to just 18% below normal in mid-June. In July, when the number of new coronavirus cases was rising sharply in dozens of states, would-be travelers pulled back. The number of searches for hotels slipped further below 2019 numbers compared to the number of searches in June. Yet Florida remained the country’s most-searched domestic travel destination, followed by California and Nevada. All three were major COVID-19 hot spots. Big heads up: State Department lifts March advisory on avoiding international travel amid COVID-19 pandemic Travel to hot spots Florida, California and Nevada are “very traditional summer places for domestic travelers,” said  Robertico Croes, a professor at the Rosen College of Hospitality Management at University of Central Florida. He added theme parks in Florida and California are “very attractive, especially in the summer,” to tourists, and Las Vegas “is known for entertainment and casino gaming.”  “In general, especially when there is a crisis like this pandemic, people tend to be very conservative in terms of their travel behavior,” said Croes. “It means that they go to the places where they're familiar with.” In late May, Croes and his team surveyed nearly 2,000 American travelers across the country and found nearly two-thirds responded they would not travel within the next 12 months.  For people who expected to travel, 40% said they were likely to stay close to home and consider destinations with small numbers of coronavirus cases, but 27% of them were “daredevils,” who were less concerned about the coronavirus situation when picking destinations and willing to travel further.  Craig Haseman, a 49-year-old family medicine doctor of Evansville, Indiana, is one of the “daredevils.” In mid-July, he and 11 friends and family members drove about nine hours from Indiana to a vacation house in WaterColor, a resort community on Florida’s Gulf Coast, and spent a week there. When Haseman booked the rental about a month prior to the trip, after most states, including Florida, had begun reopening, he had no idea the virus cases would spike there during the very weeks for which his trip was planned. “When the numbers were going down everywhere, we went ahead and planned it,” Haseman said. “As we got close to time, we realized that the numbers were going up.” The group of Indiana travelers decided to stick with their plan, but “we just stayed with the people that we went with” to social distance, said Haseman. Susan Glasser, 50, and her husband of Nashville, visited Florida in a way that potentially exposed them to more people — by air.  They had originally planned a trip in January to Costa Rica for their 25th wedding anniversary in July but by June chose to cancel. “We are not overly frightened of coronavirus, but we are pragmatic and cautious enough,” Glasser said.  The pair took a quick flight to Jacksonville, Florida, instead and went to Amelia Island.  “We felt as safe as can be when traveling during COVID,” she said, complimenting The Ritz and Southwest Airlines for their safety protocol enforcement. So much so that Glasser is hoping to go on a family trip with their five children in September or October if they can get their schedules — and COVID-19 — to cooperate.  But for others, canceling altogether became the safest choice. Tracey Marshall-Underwood, a 44-year-old optometrist from Dover, Delaware, chose to “forgo our summer” in the name of safety for her family. They typically spend a week in Virginia Beach, Virginia, as well as attend the state fair and go to amusement parks. She bought a trampoline to keep her 13- and 10-year-old kids occupied outside the house instead. Tracey Marshall-Underwood bought a trampoline to keep her 13- and 10-year-old kids occupied outside the house. Courtesy of Tracey Marshall-Underwood In case you're doing domestic traveling: These states require travelers to self-quarantine or present negative COVID-19 test Some travelers avoiding hot spots Amy Fesmire, of Firestone, Colorado, opted to cancel her family’s summer vacation plans to South Carolina. They’ve been going to the same beach in Isle of Palms for about 22 years with another family. Fesmire said they didn’t feel comfortable flying right now and cited South Carolina’s coronavirus numbers for the concerns. New cases in the state were rising throughout the summer, though have since begun to fall; they opted to change plans around Father’s Day. “When I called to talk with someone there, she said that it was crazy and no one was wearing masks,” the 54-year-old second-grade teacher said. “My daughter-in-law is pregnant, so we didn’t want to take any chances.”  Amy Fesmire, of Firestone, Colorado, had to cancel her family’s summer vacation plans to South Carolina. They went to Yellowstone instead. Courtesy of Amy Fesmire Fesmire and her husband, three sons and daughter-in-law decided to visit Yellowstone National Park instead of South Carolina because they all could drive there; they arrived July 25 and left Aug. 1. They rented a lakehouse in Island Park, Idaho, made day trips into the park for sightseeing and wore masks wherever they went, including on hikes.  Travelers may also be contending with quarantine restrictions around the country or from their employers when deciding whether or where to travel.  Diana Snyder, a 34-year-old teacher of Jonas, Pennsylvania, received a list from her school of 18 states, including Florida, California and Nevada, that, if visited, would require her to quarantine for two weeks. “The coronavirus isn't really holding me back from going anywhere. … But I wouldn't go to any of those states because of the fact that I won't be able to go to work for two weeks … when the school starts back at the end of August,” said Snyder, who eventually drove with her family to upstate New York and camped near Lake Ontario for a week. Diana Snyder, of Jonas, Pennsylvania, and her family visited Niagara Falls while they camped near Lake Ontario in upstate New York. Courtesy of Diana Snyder US coronavirus map: Tracking the outbreak Some trips canceled by restrictions, others by choice Matthew Loraditch, a 35-year-old network engineer of Maryland, was supposed to be in South Africa with his parents for a 11-day trip in mid-July. Three months prior to his family trip, his international flight got canceled. South Africa began its lockdown in late March, when all its borders were closed and international flights prohibited. Months later, he canceled two more trips: a convention trip to Las Vegas scheduled in June, and a Disney World tour that was originally planned in March and rescheduled in September.   “I'm not doing anything now,” said Loraditch. Nevada saw a stronger recovery in travel interest in May and June – Las Vegas reopened casinos in early June – but the interest declined as the state’s outbreak worsened. Trivago data shows the hotel search level bounced back to just 26% below 2019 levels in mid-June after dropping to 94% below 2019 in the beginning of April. Then Nevada hotel searches dropped down back to 58% of 2019 levels at the end of July. Among the countless trips that have been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a 37-year-old trip planner from Northern Virginia who specializes in booking and planning Disney tours, experienced 14 of them. Justin Rose said 10 families canceled their trips during Disney World’s shutdown between March and July, and when Disney World reopened its Florida parks starting July 11, four more families requested cancellations due to “concerns for COVID itself or concerns that the experience at Disney would not be what it was prior to the shutdown.”  “A lot of people plan their trips a year or two years in advance. They do all the pre-planning and go through all the excitement to build up to it, and then to have it be canceled last minute, out of their control, is really unfortunate,” said Rose, who has visited Disney parks about 30 times so far. For the rest of the calendar year, he has 10 other trips booked to Disney World in Florida. Before the shutdown, visitors may have faced long lines. Now, Rose said, “because the park is going to be so empty, you can see and do all things you want to do.” After lower-than-expected attendance amid the coronavirus pandemic, Disney is scaling back operating hours at the Magic Kingdom and several other Florida theme parks. José Miguel Polanco, a 27-year-old sales supervisor, lives in Peru but is currently in Brazil with his parents. Every year he goes back to the U.S. to visit family. This year, that couldn’t happen. José Miguel Polanco, a 27-year-old sales supervisor, lives in Peru but is currently in Brazil with his parents. Courtesy of José Miguel Polanco He was supposed to fly from Lima to Dallas, Texas, this past week, for a work event and then vacation. “First our company canceled the event and then Peru canceled all international flights,” he said. He was able to fly to Brazil on a humanitarian flight to be with his parents. His family had other trips planned this year, including one to the French Riviera in May and to Ecuador this August.  “There was no question on whether to cancel the trips, it just doesn’t feel right to be out and enjoying travel when there are so many people in the Americas suffering either from health or economic problems,” he said, noting he's had relatives sick with COVID-19 in Peru. Important to know: Is international travel allowed? See reopening dates for Canada, Mexico, Bahamas and other spots Wow: Disney lost nearly $5 billion while theme parks were closed due to coronavirus Published 9:33 AM EDT Aug 10, 2020

[phgq]

'Hatid Tulong' sends 150 LSIs back home

#PHnews: 'Hatid Tulong' sends 150 LSIs back home

MANILA – Thankful and happy.

This was the feeling of some of the 150 locally stranded individuals (LSIs) who were sent back to their hometowns in the Bicol region on Saturday morning via a Philippine National Railways train, through the Duterte administration’s "Hatid Tulong" initiative.

Aside from the free transportation back to their home province, they were also given cash assistance by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), a bag of groceries, and food for their trip.

France Avila was traveling with her three children aged eight, seven, and one. They visited her husband in Las Piñas to spend a two-week vacation but got stuck when the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) was declared in the National Capital Region to contain the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) outbreak.

“Kaming mag-iina, pinupuntahan namin ang asawa ko dito para magbakasyon, pag walang klase sa Bicol. Mga two weeks lang. Namimili rin (kami) ng gamit ng mga bata. Tapos, umuuwi na kami sa Bicol. Kaso nung March, hindi na kami nakauwi kasi nag-lockdown na. Kasama ko ang mga bata kasi hindi nakakauwi ang papa nila. Dun sa Bicol nag-aaral ang mga bata (My children and I usually come to Manila during the school break and stay for about two weeks. I bring the kids along because my husband rarely goes home to Bicol, where the children study. We shop here and then, we return to Bicol. But in March, we got stuck because of the lockdown),” France said.

She said she was very thankful to the government for being given priority under the “Hatid Tulong” program because they would finally be able to go home.

”Inasikaso kami talagang mag-iina. Hindi po kami pinapabayaan. Nag-text po ako, tapos three days tinawagan na agad ako kasi priority daw kami dahil may mga bata. Ang binigay sa amin, dahil may kasama akong tatlong bata, PHP5,000. Tapos may mga pagkain kami, lalo na para sa mga bata (They attended to our needs. I sent them a text message and after three days, I received a call. They said that we were prioritized because I have children. We were given PHP5,000 plus food, especially for the kids).”

Upon arrival at the PNR station on Friday afternoon, all the “Hatid Tulong” beneficiaries were subjected to a rapid test for Covid-19.

This is to make sure that the LSIs are negative of the virus for their safety and that of their families when they arrive in Bicol.

PNR employees continuously reminded the LSIs to follow safety protocols, observe physical distancing, wash and disinfect their hands, and always wear their face masks.

Lost their jobs due to lockdown

Mary Anne Cynthia Nieves, another LSI, was relieved that she would finally be able to go home to Sipocot, Camarines Sur.

Mary Anne recalled that she wanted to go home before the lockdown was imposed. She was employed as a "kasambahay" together with her husband. 

“Kaso nung mag-lockdown, nagkatanggalan sa trabaho. Tapos wala na kaming matirahan (When the lockdown was imposed, we lost our jobs and had nowhere to go),” she said. “Buti na lang may kababayan kami sa Caloocan na pumayag na makitira muna kami sa kanya pansamantala. Ang hirap ng sitwasyon namin. Buti na lang may ganito palang programa ang gobyerno (It’s good that a townmate of ours took us temporarily into his home in Caloocan. Our situation was very difficult. It’s good to know that the government has this program).”

Mary Anne thanked the government for helping bring back stranded individuals in Metro Manila to their home province.

“Nakakatulong po masyado ito (sa) katulad namin na gustong-gusto na naming umuwi, dahil tulad nitong na-lockdown kami dito at wala kaming trabaho (This program is such a big help to us who really want to go home, especially in our case, there’s a lockdown and we are unemployed),” she said. “Nag rapid test din kami kaya hindi na kami natatakot umuwi (We also took the rapid test, that is why we are no longer afraid to go home).”

Like Mary Anne and her husband, Mark Denver Sabinorio came to the city for work.

Sabinorio was working for a factory in Valenzuela. He had just returned from a vacation in January when several weeks later, the lockdown was imposed.

“Kakaunti pa lang ang naipon ko. Magta-tatlong buwan na kaming walang trabaho kaya napilitan ako na mag apply dito sa ‘Hatid Tulong’ (I had little savings. I have been jobless for almost three months, so I applied in ‘Hatid Tulong’),” he said. 

Although they would undergo a 14-day quarantine when they arrive in Bicol, Mark Denver said that is fine with him.

He said people should follow the health protocol because it is for their own good, “para siguradong wala akong madalang virus sa aking pamilya (to be sure that I do not infect my family)."

Mark Denver said he was thankful for all the assistance extended to them by the government.

“Wala akong ginastos kahit magkano kasi libre na po lahat, pati po pagkain. May binigay po sila na kaunting grocery. Nabigyan din kami ng DSWD ng PHP2,000. Yun po yung assistance nila sa amin para may dalhin din po kami pag-uwi namin sa pamilya namin (I did not spend a single centavo. Everything is free. They also gave us some groceries and the PHP2,000 cash assistance from the DSWD, so we would have something for our families),” he said. 

Stranded student

Because of the lockdown, many students temporarily staying in the NCR were unable to go back to their families in the provinces.

Bryan Resoco, a student at the Batangas State University, was in Manila for his on-the-job training at the University of the Philippines in Diliman but was stuck when the ECQ was declared.

Since he was only renting a small space in an apartment, he did not have a television. It was his father in Bicol who informed him of the “Hatid Tulong” program.

“Nakita po ng tatay ko sa balita. Wala kasi kaming TV sa apartment. Sinabi ng tatay ko sa akin, may nakapaskil na number. Nag-text ako dun, tapos ayun, nasama ako sa listahan (My father saw it in the news -- I did not have a television set in the apartment. My father gave me a number and I texted it. Somebody called me up to inform me that I was included in the list),” Bryan narrated.

During the time that he was in Manila, he was in constant touch with his family back home who wanted to make sure that he was fine and safe.

“Masaya po ang mga magulang ko na merong ganitong programa ang gobyerno at dahil dito makakauwi na ako. Nakakatulong po siya lalo na ngayon wala pong ibang paraan ng transportasyon (My parents are very happy with this government program, through which I could now go home. It is a big help, especially now that there is no available transportation going to the province),” Bryan said.

Travel time from Manila to Bicol, according to a PNR staff, would be about 12 hours.

The PNR employees assured that their passengers would be provided with food for a comfortable trip.

As soon as they arrive in their respective provinces, these “Hatid Tulong” beneficiaries would be isolated for 14 days by their respective local government units to ensure that they are Covid-19-free. (PNA) 

  ***

References:

* Philippine News Agency. "'Hatid Tulong' sends 150 LSIs back home." Philippine News Agency. https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1106495 (accessed June 21, 2020 at 01:39AM UTC+14).

* Philippine News Agency. "'Hatid Tulong' sends 150 LSIs back home." Archive Today. https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1106495 (archived).

#Philippines #News #Filipino #Pinoy #Tourism #Politics #Culture #Editorial #Environment #Society #History

[tabloidtoc]

OK, June 15

Cover: Jennifer Garner’s miracle baby at 48 

Page 1: Big Pic -- The Bachelor alum Hannah Ann Sluss with a water gun 

Page 2: Contents 

Page 3: Contents 

Page 4: Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli’s marriage in crisis -- following guilty pleas in the college admission cheating scandal the couple may be headed toward divorce 

Page 6: Amid rumors that Queen Elizabeth will soon hand over reigning duties to her eldest son Prince Charles his wife Camilla Parker Bowles is prepping for an exciting new reality where she will likely ascend to princess consort rather than queen but will still get to enjoy the benefits and responsibilities of a co-ruler 

Page 7: Now that Ruby Rose has left Batwoman after one season because her recovery from neck surgery after an on-set injury has been slow and painful and she frequently disagreed with showrunners and now she’s happy to be back in L.A. and eager to reconnect with the friends she wasn’t able to see when she was filming the Vancouver-based series, with production on Jeopardy! still temporarily halted host Alex Trebek who’s battling pancreatic cancer is worried about his future on the hit game show because his hope was to bank as many episodes as possible before getting too sick to carry on, John Travolta and Kelly Preston’s 9-year-old son Ben is learning to fly and John has an arsenal of private planes he’s using to teach Ben how to fly 

Page 8: When the lockdown began Tori Spelling was excited to spend more time with husband Dean McDermott and their five children but it didn’t take long for the household to turn chaotic and she may be on the verge of a total meltdown, Rande Gerber and Cindy Crawford’s son Presley Gerber seems to be over his rebellious phase of getting face tattoos and DUIs since he got a job at his father’s Malibu restaurant where he met girlfriend Sydney Brooke and things have changed for the better, after years of flying solo Martha Stewart is eager to find herself a man 

Page 10: Red Hot on the Red Carpet -- stars in red ensembles -- Celine Dion, Kate Beckinsale

Page 11: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Rosamund Pike, Maya Rudolph 

Page 12: Who Wore It Better? Emily Ratajkowski vs. Tessa Thompson ✅, AnnaLynne McCord ✅ vs. Maria Menounos, Hailey Bieber ✅ vs. Tallia Storm 

Page 15: News in Photos -- Jessica Simpson and husband Eric Johnson on their 10th anniversary, Nina Dobrev in Red Rock, Arizona, pregnant Katy Perry gave some cash to a panhandler while picking up food, Margot Robbie eats watermelon 

Page 16: Suit Up -- stars are embracing the warm weather and showing some skin -- Cardi B showed off her massive new tattoo which took several months to complete, Elizabeth Hurley modeled a design from her own line, RHONYC alum Kelly Bensimon accented her swimwear with vintage jewelry for a day at the beach in Palm Beach, Florida

Page 18: Joe Keery on a bike ride, Ricky Gervais and longtime love Jane Fallon strolling around London 

Page 19: Tennis star Novak Djokovic chatting about the upcoming Adria Tour at a press conference in Belgrade, Serbia, Mario Lopez and son Santino, Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi pick up some takeout food 

Page 20: Nicole Kidman, Kris Jenner and granddaughter True

Page 21: Demi Lovato trying on lots of clothes, Naomi Watts joked that the beautifully optimistic painting on the wall now reminds her of a virus 

Page 22: RHONJ star Melissa Gorga plays video games with her sons Joey and Gino, Reese Witherspoon, Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton performed together for the season finale of The Voice 

Page 23: Heidi Klum rocked a laid-back look to rehearse for the finale of Germany’s Next Top Model, Pierce Brosnan gushed to wife Keely as they celebrated his 67th birthday 

Page 24: Inside My Home -- Miranda Lambert’s Tennessee estate

Page 26: Ryan Seacrest quietly popped the question to food blogger Shayna Taylor after dating on and off for seven years 

Page 28: Eight months after Riverdale costars Cole Sprouse and Lili Reinhart reunited after a brief split the two have called it quits again with quarantining separately without close physical contact spelling the end for them, as her due date approaches Katy Perry has confessed that the uncertainty of giving birth for the first time especially amid the pandemic has her crying and spiraling a little bit every day but luckily fiance Orlando Bloom has been there to ease her woes every which way he can from making her breakfast to massaging her feet, twice-divorced Kris Jenner is ready to tie the knot with her beau of six years Corey Gamble

Page 30: Cover Story -- Jennifer Garner’s baby surprise

Page 33: Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas’ baby talk -- it may not be long before Ben and Ana welcome a little one of their own 

Page 34: Christie Brinkley answers everything -- the former supermodel is gearing up to tell all about her looks, her life and her rocky romances 

Page 36: Kristen Bell gets real about motherhood -- she opens up about her unconventional approach to parenting 

Page 38: The Hills -- Where Are They Now? Brian Drolet, Audrina Patridge, Whitney Port 

Page 39: Lauren Conrad, Jason Wahler, Jordan Eubanks, Heidi Montag 

Page 40: Interview -- Javier Bardem work in progress -- the Oscar winner opens up about his career, his family and striving for greatness 

Page 42: Fit at Every Age -- 20s Emma Roberts, 30s Gisele Bundchen 

Page 43: 40s Tracee Ellis Ross, 50s Cindy Crawford, 60s Vanna White 

Page 47: Style Week -- Lucy Hale has been named Almay’s latest global brand ambassador 

Page 49: 5 minutes with Denise Richards -- the RHOBH star dishes on her self-care rituals and new skincare line 

Page 50: Fashion -- Take Pride -- Victoria Justice 

Page 52: Beauty -- sexy by summer -- Brooke Burke 

Page 54: Entertainment 

Page 55: Q&A Kristen Doute of Vanderpump Rules 

Page 58: Buzz -- Khloe Kardashian’s latest selfie has everyone doing a double-take because of her dramatically different facial features

Page 60: Hollywood Heat Meter -- Kendall Jenner and NBA player Devin Booker were spotted together on Memorial Day, Lorde came out of hiding to explain that her highly anticipated new album is taking so long because she wants to release something of quality, a former Parliament member estimates that from their wedding day to March 31 of this year the British taxpayer has forked out more than $53 million to provide Prince Harry and Meghan Markle with whatever they want, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has become the longest-running live action comedy series in history, Chrissy Teigen is removing her breast implants, these stars got their diplomas later in life -- Bryce Dallas Howard, Quavo, Ashley Judd, Swizz Beatz, Eva Longoria 

Page 61: Sound Bites -- Helen Mirren on being called a sex symbol, Jerry Seinfeld on why he hasn’t done another sitcom since Seinfeld, Halsey revealing how she injured herself, Jennifer Lawrence on drinking wine during quarantine 

Page 62: Horoscope -- Gemini Emily Ratajkowski 

Page 64: By the Numbers -- Cameron Diaz 

#tabloid #tabloid toc #grain of salt #jennifer garner #lori loughlin #duchess camilla #camilla parker bowles #ruby rose #batwoman #alex trebek #jeopardy! #john travolta #tori spelling #presley gerber #martha stewart #ryan seacrest #shayna taylor #kaley cuoco #margot robbie #lili reinhart #cole sprouse #katy perry #orlando bloom #orlando and katy #katyandorlando #kris jenner #corey gamble #ben affleck #ana de armas #javier bardem

[stephenmccull]

The 30-Somethings Who Fled Big Cities To Shelter With Mom And Dad

AUSTIN, Texas — It took three weeks, but Lawrence and Arlene Maze finally persuaded their younger son, Gregory, of Los Angeles, to get on a flight home to Austin.

“He basically shut his business down to come here and has to restart his business when it’s safe,” his father said. “It was a very difficult decision.”

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Alex Rose, a 33-year-old event producer and recording artist, didn’t need much persuasion. She spent a couple of weeks alone in her 500-square-foot Hollywood apartment, taking long walks to break up the days. In mid-March, her event bookings and performances began to disappear. Then a neighbor showed her video of an arsonist setting trash can fires on their street and she saw the melted cans next to her building.

“All of a sudden I didn’t feel safe anymore,” she said. “I didn’t feel safe, and frankly, I felt totally alone.”

The next morning, she and her cat, Eloise, flew home to Austin to her mother and stepdad.

As COVID-19 has ripped through densely populated communities, millennials have fled their own cramped quarters for less congested cities with more room in their parents’ homes. They are near family should someone get sick. The familiarity is comforting in an uncertain time. Overwhelmingly, parents and their adult children view the arrangement as temporary. Of course, no one knows how long “temporary” might last.

Lawrence Maze said the thinking was that Gregory could help him or his wife if they got sick, and they could help him if he did. Also, they believed Austin’s health care system would be less stressed than L.A.’s.

“He’s lived on his own now for a very long time,” Lawrence said. “It’s not like he moved back into his old house. He knows he’s living in a guest bedroom.”

It’s a major disruption for young adults who have established their lives thousands of miles from home: They keep paying rent on empty places. They have left behind their routines and social lives. Some have lost their work. Others can work remotely alongside parents who are doing the same.

The magnitude of the outbreak has, for a time, reordered American lives. It’s fostering unexpected togetherness.

Rose’s mother, Elizabeth Christian, said her daughter hasn’t visited Austin this long since she was in college, and now “nobody is rushing off to do anything.”

“We’re having meals together. And we’re watching movies at night,” she said.

Christian and her husband, Bruce Todd, a former Austin mayor, wanted to make sure Rose got back before California wouldn’t allow her to leave or Texas wouldn’t let her in.

Sarah and Ken Frankenfeld had barely moved into their downsized townhome when the coronavirus pandemic brought their 31-year-old son and his girlfriend from New York City to quarantine with them.

“I was nervous about how this was going to work,” Sarah Frankenfeld said of their lack of furniture and readiness for houseguests. They’d met his girlfriend for one evening a few months earlier. “He hasn’t lived here in a while. But it’s worked and it’s been lovely.”

Kevin Frankenfeld, who works in digital, social strategy and marketing, has lived in New York almost nine years. He and his girlfriend, Maddie Haller, wanted to quarantine together.

“In Manhattan or Brooklyn, people are just on top of one another,” he said. “So we wanted to get out of town.”

This shared feeling of lockdown with so much unknown can cause stress and make us feel lonely and anxious, even with others around, said Dr. Vivek Murthy, U.S. surgeon general from 2014 to 2017.

“In this moment, we have no idea when the pandemic will end,” he said. “We don’t know when our lives will go back to normal.”

Well before the stay-at-home orders, Murthy recognized Americans’ increased loneliness, prompting his new book, “Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World.” Now that many are isolated by themselves, he urges us to “step back and take stock of our lives.”

“The silver lining of COVID-19 is that it’s given us the opportunity to reset our social lives and remember how essential relationships are to our well-being,” he said.

Rose is doing her own reset. She’s among California’s estimated 2 million self-employed. But because of the pandemic, she’s applying for full-time jobs around the country in digital media and project management.

“When I left L.A., I never expected that I would not go back to that apartment,” she said. With her lease up in June, she asked a friend to pack up her place and move everything into storage.

Rose and her mother returned late Sunday from a quick turnaround to California to retrieve Rose’s tiny 2016 Fiat 500 that was stranded six weeks in long-term airport parking.

Gregory Maze, 33, is a private chef, event caterer and part-owner of a coffee truck business. He moved to L.A. five years ago.

“I’m fortunate to have a situation like this, but leaving L.A. was not on my terms,” he said. “It’s out of my hands. I really don’t know what the landscape is going to look like at the end of this.”

While some younger adults mock baby boomers with the “OK boomer” meme, the pandemic seems to have shifted the tone — at least where parents are concerned.

Suzanne and Stuart Newberg’s older son, Jared, 27, and his girlfriend, Melissa Asensio, both of Manhattan, arrived March 21 to quarantine together.

“They bought one-way plane tickets and we said, ‘You’re welcome as long as you need to be here,’” Suzanne Newberg said.

(Clockwise from left) Jared Newberg eats a meal with his parents, Suzanne and Stuart Newberg, and his girlfriend, Melissa Asensio, at the Newbergs’ home in Austin, Texas. Jared Newberg and Asensio left Manhattan in March. “They bought one-way plane tickets and we said, ‘You’re welcome as long as you need to be here,’” Suzanne Newberg says. (Courtesy of the Newberg family)

Jared and Melissa, who both worked full time in their New York City offices, now work remotely from Austin. His three roommates left for their hometowns about a week before Jared and Melissa. Her two roommates left New York around the same time.

“It was a lot safer and more comfortable to come here,” Jared said. “We’re super-lucky and super-fortunate.”

Back in New York, one of Kevin Frankenfeld’s roommates remains in their three-bedroom apartment. The other went home to Boston. Maddie lives in the same neighborhood. Her apartment is empty now. Both Kevin and Maddie work full time remotely and are glad they’re not in the city.

“We didn’t want to be stuck in a small apartment to isolate in a hotbed,” Kevin said. “Here we’ve got a green area, dishwasher and laundry.”

The 30-Somethings Who Fled Big Cities To Shelter With Mom And Dad published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/