#technically i’m fifth wheeling since my parents are also going

[sluttywonwoo]

i’m third wheeling with my sister and her bf for two fucking weeks pray for me

#at least i’ll be third wheeling in hawai’i #technically i’m fifth wheeling since my parents are also going #visiting the fam 🫶🏻 #sluttytravels #sluttythots

[gojosatoruwifey]

Summary: Yugen, a Third Year student from Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical College. After a year, the three Third Years, including her, finally went home to Japan and while the two are either resting and catching up with their parents. Yugen chose to stay in the College for a while to accompany Shoko Ieri and study under her. So, what's the other reason she came back?

Characters: Itadori Yuuji, Fushiguro Megumi, Kugisaki Nobara, Gojo Satoru, Shoko Ieri, Geto Suguru, Masamichi Yaga ,Zenin Maki, Panda, Inumaki Toge, Okkotsu Yuuta, Yugen Akihisa, Ishida Den, Mizuki Shina, Hakari ,Zenin Mai, Todo Aoi, Utahime Iori

Genre: Supernatural,Fantasy, Slice of Life, Crack, Fluff, Action

Warnings: Curse, Swearing, Grammar Errors

The morning sun in Tokyo is scorching and much fiery when walking with the busy streets of the city and the crowds filling up the roads on their way to their business as well as the vehicles' beeping noise, and the drivers waiting for the green light to appear on the stoplight on the sidewalks where people passed through the pedestrian lanes. Not too long after, the color changed and the wheels continued to spin on the cement.  

However, the heat didn't much affect the Japanese traditional buildings on the side of the city where the well-known Sorcerer resides and is known to be the pillar of Jujutsu for many generations.

Inside the classroom built the same as the mentioned building, four individuals are discussing what are they going to do for their lessons. The breeze accompanied by the sun made the room pleasant and the cool scent of the trees and earth made it more ethereal.

“Sensei! Are we going to exorcise Curses today?” The pink-haired one asked, his right hand raising to catch the white-haired Sorcerer's attention. The said teacher with a blindfold covering half of his face grinned upon hearing his question. Seeing this expression, the trio of the First Years of Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical College interpreted this as exorcising Curses again on the fifth day of the first week.

His answer made them surprised.

“Nope!” Gojo crossed his arms against his chest as he leaned on the desk of the teacher’s table. Despite having the dark fabric on his eyes, Gojo can see them perfectly and he can tell that his students are getting impatient and itching to know what they are going to do. The wind outside of their classroom entered and it swayed their hair on the side as Gojo blinked underneath his blindfold.

“Checkups happen every fifth day of the month and our school doctor, Shoko Ieri, is currently not here.” Gojo paused before continuing, “Instead, one of the Third Years is gonna check on you three.”

“I thought the Third Years were suspended?” The dark-haired boy beside the pink one furrowed his eyebrows in confusion at Gojo’s announcement.

“Heh, ask questions to the Third Year herself.”

‘He’s not even bothering to explain’ … the three students thought.

“She just got back from her mission with her teammates. So ask her as much as you want.” Gojo walked in front of them as he led them to the Clinic’s Office not far away from the classroom they were staying earlier.

“And oh, I forgot to add. She finishes her mission from…”

“From...?” Itadori and Kugisaki trailed as they stared at Gojo grinning from ear to ear.

“...South Korea!” Gojo exclaimed.

‘South… Korea!?’  The two are trying to process the bomb that their Sensei said then as if the place warped into the bustling city of Seoul, the capital of South Korea. Kugisaki imagined herself on her fashion clothes trying the famous cosmetics product that the mentioned country can offer, the beautiful shades of lipsticks and foundations as well as the Han River and the Seoul Tower she often sees from the K-dramas she watched back from the days. Meanwhile, Itadori was busy in his dreamland with his favorite idols he listens to on his playlist.

“Who’s the Third Year, Sensei? Since it’s a girl, it’s not Hakari-senpai?” Fushiguro, the one who had met the seniors of the school, asked. Remembering the Third Year Male student, Hakari. Gojo craned his neck to glance at Fushiguro.

“The eldest of the Three Espada.” Those words are enough to make Fushiguro halt from walking as his eyes widened in astonishment. He tried to open his mouth to ask but he remained speechless.

“Fushiguro?” Itadori called out to him. Kugisaki also stopped in her tracks to look at the dark-haired student, confused by his sudden behavior.

‘That woman?!’  an image of a black-uniformed girl appeared on his mind. Fushiguro marched his way to the wooden sliding door a few steps away from them and glided it open loudly. His companions watched him storm to the office.

“Have he met her?” Gojo placed his palm to his nape. Kugisaki and Itadori threw him puzzled looks.

“Yugen-senpai!” He yelled as soon as his light green eyes landed on the familiar small figure trying to place a plastic jar on her hand to the third row of the high shelf. His shouting startled the poor girl when the plastic fell from her grasp.

“Eh?” Yugen gaped at Fushiguro.

“Your deduction before you left is right. Thank you for warning me.” Fushiguro bowed at her, still standing in the doorway. Gojo, Itadori, and Kugisaki caught up to him, standing behind the bowing Fushiguro.

“No problem, Megumi.” the mahogany haired girl smiled at him. “Gojo-sensei will try to steal the cupcakes I baked that day, right? It’s a good thing, you immediately hid them or he will eat it.”

“Ack! So you did hide them from me, Megumi!” Gojo looked at Fushiguro in betrayal.

“And you planned to eat the cupcakes without him knowing,” Yugen added as she picked up the jar on the wooden floor. “The plan worked and we exposed Gojo-sensei. When Den and Shina are here, I’ll collect the money they bet.”

“Yu-chan, you sneaky midget.”

“Revenge for forcing me to eat that huge parfait that you had last year!”

“I thought I could buy it for one person only!”

“That was the problem, Sensei. That dessert was meant to be for couples and it was Valentine’s Day!”

“You lived near the area. That’s why I called you.”

“ I have to take the subway and do you know how many medicines I swallowed? It was 3!”

“I paid for your medical expenses!”

“It was not enough to let me forget the pain.” Yugen glared at Gojo who shifted his head away in guilt.

“How come the topic switched from cupcakes to money?” Fushiguro deadpanned.

Kugisaki nudged him. “Is she the one that will check on us? Who is she, by the way?”

“Yugen-senpai... is the eldest out of the Three Espadas. The main reason they were grouped is that they are experts to track intelligent Curses like the Curse you and Itadori fought the other day. Intelligent Curses are annoying. Even though some of them are low Grades, they are still capable of affecting the humans near them.”

“She and Gojo-sensei had a pretty close relationship. She hangs out with him more than the other two Senpais and that’s because her Curse Technique keeps developing and the Principal ordered him to observe her Curse Technique when she is alone on her missions.” Fushiguro added.

“If the two Senpai are with her?” This time, Itadori asked.

“Then they can control her actions.”

“What? Will she go on a rampage if she uses her Curse Technique?” Itadori remembered a manga character that loses his control during his fight with the antagonist on the shounen manga he read during day-offs.

“I can control myself just fine.”

A pair of gloved hands patted Itadori and Kugisaki’s backs as Yugen stood between the two.

“The reason Gojo-sensei observed me is that my Curse Technique is an unknown factor and even I, the User, doesn’t know that much about it.” Yugen gently led the two First Years to the stadiometer beside the bookshelves. “Enough about me! Shall we start measuring your heights?”

“Yugen-senpai, Gojo-sensei said that you just got back from your mission on South Korea.” Itadori watched Yugen jot down something about Fushiguro’s heart exam on a piece of paper on the desk. Their check-up didn't take long as the Third Year only wrote their vital signs, general appearance, and lastly, the heart exam where Yugen has to listen to their heartbeats and write to the paper. “What exactly did you do?”

“Ah.” Yugen blinked. “There were some Special Grade Curses on a killing spree and two of them,” she formed her fingers into the letter ‘V’, “...are in South Korea.”

“Did you exorcise it properly?” Gojo asked, moving to sit on the swivel chair which the school doctor, Shoko Ieri, is originally the one occupying the seat. He raised his other leg to rest on his left thigh as Gojo leaned back on the chair.

“Of course.”

"You think I'll let those monsters go?" the mahogany haired girl sighed in defeat. "Speaking of Curses, why did you ask me about being the Vessel that can locate Curses?"

"Oh! I forgot to tell you?"

Gojo only received a silent stare from Yugen.

"Itadori Yuuji-kun here," The white-haired sorcerer stood up from his seat and placed his hands on the said boy's shoulders. "..ate Sukuna and now, he is the Vessel."

The Third Year hummed in understanding.

"Eh... you must have a superhuman strength to control the King of Curses..."

"You won't believe it, Senpai." Kugisaki scoffed. "The other day, this idiot right here punched a cemented wall like it's nothing!"

Yugen let out a huff in amusement as she smirked. "Did he sustains any injury?"

"Hmmm..." Kugisaki's memory on the first day that she and Itadori fought together flashed on her mind. "...I think he didn't have any."

"Woah! Nice." Yugen turned to Itadori's direction which the said boy is sitting on the vacant bed meant for patients. The pink-haired First-year met her eyes, feeling her gaze boring right into his soul.

"Hey, Yu-chan," Gojo called. "You should be resting, right? Like Shina and Den."

Yugen scrunched her nose. "As soon as I'm done learning Medicine from Shoko-Sensei, the better."

"I'm not talking about that."

"Hm? What are you talking about then?"

"Instead of using the day off to catch up with your family, you directly went here." Gojo's voice lowered into a serious tone that made the First Year turn to him with surprise written on their faces.

Yugen tilted her head to the white-haired Sorcerer's words.

"Why..did you come here?" He asked.

There was a moment of silence as the atmosphere plummeted due to Gojo's sudden serious tone and the certain Third Year remain looking at him in innocence.

'Yugen-senpai didn't even flinch...' Fushiguro thought, light green eyes observing the deafening and silent tension between Gojo and Yugen.

'W-What's happening?'  Kugisaki shifting her eyes from side to side where the questioned female is standing.

'Are they gonna fight?'  Itadori anticipated.

As if reading his mind, Fushiguro and Kugisaki whipped their heads to him with an intense glare making Itadori feigned ignorance to them.

"I ran away."

Yugen broke the silence.

"Huh?"

"I said I run away from home." Yugen narrowed her eyes to Gojo. "Is that a problem?"

Gojo can't believe that the student he raised half of her life as a Jujutsu Sorcerer and the goody-good shoes little girl image she always shows uttered those words.

'Is she finally on her rebellious phase?!'

"Don't get the wrong idea." Gojo snapped out of his trance as Yugen gazed at him, straight into his concealed eyes. The Third Year dropping the pen on her gloved hand to the table.

"My Godmothers are staying in my family house for weeks and I can't handle their energies." She said in a firm voice. "They are grandmas but they are extremely lively that I can't help go far away from them!"

"Is that it?" Gojo asked. Even though he knows Yugen had a loving family, there was still something fishy when she arrived in Japan.

Yugen only hummed as she turns towards the First Years with an apologetic smile. "Sorry about that."

"It's okay, Senpai..." Megumi answered.

"How about we grab some lunch?" A certain two perked up from her invitation. "I want to have a bonding time with my Kouhai, is that okay?"

"More than okay, Senpai!" Itadori and Kugisaki leaned into her with childish glee on their eyes. The Third Year seemed satisfied with their acceptance as her lips quirked up again. On the side, Fushiguro is watching the scene before unfold with his usual face yet didn't reject the request.

"Are you going with us, Sensei?" Itadori questioned, quietly waiting for Gojo to go with the students. The white-haired Sorcerer grinned.

"I was planning to drop you three-" the First Years felt a vein popped on their temple. "-to Yugen." then they sighed in relief.

Gojo chuckled. "Then, I will go now. I still have a business to take care of. Bye~!"

With that, he disappeared in a flash with no traces left behind where he was standing. Yugen glance at the trio from the corner of her eyes, "Let's go."

"Is it okay not to do missions today?" Itadori steps back when two children suddenly passed to him. Kugisaki on his left with Fushiguro on her side while the tiny one, Yugen, walked in front.

Kugisaki made a noise of complaint. "Oh, leave it. Sensei has been dumping his missions to us these past few days, this is an opportunity to rest!"

Fushiguro, without looking at Itadori's worried eyes, said. "It's a good thing he didn't give us a mission before he left."  It's still unsettling, though.

"Ahem!" Yugen cleared her throat, one arm crossed against her chest, and the free hand-formed into a fist like she's holding a mic. This immediately made the First Year shift their attention to her.

"We're here."

Three set pair of eyes gawked at the sight of the place they never thought they will be. It was like everything was a scene out of a romantic as the people around them faded and they can't hear anything but the hunger taking its claim to their stomach.

It's a BBQ Restaurant.

A grumble escaped on a stomach as Kugisaki embarrassedly clutched her stomach. "I-I never thought I will be hungry this much...!"

"You're not the only one.." Itadori wiped the drool on the corner of his mouth.

Fushiguro is still ogling at the restaurant's nameplate.

Yugen let out an amused, loud laugh. "It's my treat that's why I brought you guys here."

"Senpai!!" the two rejoiced. Once again, Yugen cackled as she slid the door opened. A staff approached them and offered a seat suitable for four. The smoky, alluring scent of meat grilling on the fire with sauce in the eating house made them sigh. Taking their seat, the staff escorting them set up the charcoal as another one come over to them to hand the menu.

"Waah! I can't choose!" Itadori read the choice of meats displayed. "They look so good!"

"Yugen-Senpai, are you okay spending your money on this?" Fushiguro furrowed his eyebrows.

"It's fine, it's fine." Yugen insisted. "Megumi, you should pick whatever you want. I don't mind wasting my money on delicious foods! So, choose anything you want 'cause it's on me!"

"Thank you for coming!"

Yugen smiled as she waved at the staff, the trio saying thank you to the staff, following her after. Walking ahead again, Yugen quietly observed the city she didn't see for half a year since she got the mission. I was lucky to know that the restaurant is still there.

"You mean Yugen-senpai is like a teacher's friend?" She hears Itadori muttered. The two hissed at him at his choice of words, afraid that the Third Year will misunderstand.

"Itadori, you idiot!" Kugisaki covered his mouth to prevent Itadori from speaking.

"Being friends with a teacher is quite intimidating." Yugen blurted. "Hmm...I am more like..an errand girl to them."

"Anyways, why am I in your conversation?"

"We were talking about how Yugen-senpai go to errands for the teachers." Fushiguro is the first to explain. Stuffing his hands in his pocket, his eyes locked with Yugen's eyes looking at him. "Itadori thought you are friends with the teachers."

"Senpai, I'm sorry." Itadori apologized as he clasps his hand together.

"At first, people will also think about it like that," Yugen said, turning her head to Itadori's direction as she grinned. "Should I teach you how to observe like a detective?"

"Woahh!!" stars were surrounding Itadori. "Is that what you do when you work?"

"Of course. It's important to become aware of everything near you to know if Curses were lurking around or when fighting against a Curse, note the Curse's weakness and its ability to counter it." Yugen continued. "Megumi has a sharp sense with that skill."

"I never saw Fushiguro writing a plan," Kugisaki stated. Imagining Fushiguro jot down during mission or assignment like what coaches do in a match.

"No, not like that," Yugen says as she had a hunch about what Kugisaki is thinking. "Being calculative and logical in the situation."

"Oh! like the fight, we first met!" Itadori remembering how Fushiguro acted. "He was quick to rescue."

"That's because the Cursed Object, Sukuna's finger, is there. " Fushiguro grunted. "I can't let a Special Grade like that leave it alone."

"See? Megumi is fit to be like the tactician, just like Den." Yugen mused. "By the way, Den is one of my friends. She asks the Auxiliary Managers what kind of Curse we are going to exorcise or if there are any casualties."

"I thought the tactician is Shina-senpai?" Fushiguro murmured as they turn to a street.

"Shina is the support at the same, the tactician. Usually, we divide the work into combat, the brain, and lastly the healer. The brain is us though Shina is the assigned one. Combat is for Den while I am the healer." Yugen explained. "Since you know, I work under Shoko-Sensei. Not to mention, I am also the backup. If Den can't handle it then that's where I will enter."

"Why Three Espada?" Itadori questioned.

"It was the Principal named that. I still don't know why he gave us that name." Yugen shrugged. At last, the route they are taking is empty with no one around but them. The familiar rustling of the leaves above them protected them from the sunray as the wind blew softly. There is still another one they have to saunter, the last route is where the Jujutsu Tech is located.

"Maybe he thought that you are like Knights?" Kugisaki pondered.

"That's a good rea-"

Thorns darted from the middle of the trees as it keeps shooting with no intention of stopping. Thankfully, the four are quick enough to their feet to evade the attacks coming on their way as the thorns relinquished.

On their fighting stances, Fushiguro formed his hands to the preparation for summoning his Divine Dogs while Kugisaki had her weapons in her hands, Nails between her closed fingers with the other holding the Hammer. On the other side, Itadori and Yugen raised their fists in their faces as they are the ones are unarmed.

"Looks like we have to digest the meat..." Yugen joked, glaring at the disfigured Curse advancing towards them. Coming out from its hideout, the Curse has a huge petal-like curve on its head, the body oozing goo.

'Is it a Grade 3 Curse?' Indigo eyes trailing on the Curse.

"Emerge from the darkness, blacker than the darkness. Purify that which is impure."  she chanted.

Another two similar to the Curse approach them to their side which made them cornered. Kugisaki's nails dig on her skin, Fushiguro raising his guard as Itadori tightened his fist.

"Counter!"

At the Third Year's command, they charge to the Curses as Kugisaki's Nails floated in front of her with her Cursed Energy flowing; pounding the Nails using her Hammer, it aimed to the Curse's head and blow up into slimy pieces.

Closing her eyes with a pleasing smile. 'Flawless.'

Meanwhile, Fushiguro let the White Divine Dog lunge on the Curse from jumping above as the Black Divine Dog distracted it from the bottom which made the Curse focused on the Black one; not noticing the two jumping figures above it, Fushiguro elbowed the Curse's petal as the White one began to pluck its eyeballs.

'The rest of its body is liquid, it's best to mess it to the solid part...which is the petal.' The Divine Dogs chew the rest of the Curse's remain.

Launching a heavy blow on a Curse's body from each side, Itadori pummeled the Curse's head with a punch as Yugen strike on its left. The impact vibrates throughout the whole body; just like what happened to Kugisaki and Fushiguro's Curse, it also blew up.

"Did it died?" Itadori murmured. 'Yugen-Senpai's moves are graceful. Is she good in martial arts?'

"Guess not," Yugen replied, catching the slimy pieces trembling and gathering to one spot.

"I thought we exorcised it?" Kugisaki asked.

"Hmm..." Yugen keenly eyeing the Curse transforming into a large body, even bigger than before as the slimes rapidly circling the Curse.

"The Curse needs to be cut into small pieces." She concludes as the First Years listened to her. "I don't care what kind of method it is; dice, cube, or mince. Just make sure it's small so that it's recovery time will be lowered."

"Now, let's exorcise it."

Cursed Energy from Kugisaki continued to flow into the Nails as she draws out more nails from her light colored belt and aiming it at the Transformed Curse on the shoulder's blade; Fushiguro used the Curse' immobility for the Divine Dogs to pounce on the Curse's torso and limbs as Fushiguro leap to the Curse with a fast speed, his fist slamming to the head which Yugen and Itadori landed both kicks and jabs on the Curse's limbs and torso as they resume to slice the Curse into a lump.

Yugen swiftly grabs highway rails on the side, tossing it to Itadori who didn't expect the weapon. Nonetheless, they use the rails to slash it to the Curse; as Fushiguro pulls off one of the huge petals to Kugisaki.

Linking the Curse's petal part on the ground, Kugisaki hammered the Nails into the straw doll on top of the petal, shouting;  "Straw Doll Technique: Resonance!"

To wrap it all up, the Curse didn't explode but burned.

"Yey!" Itadori and Yugen high-fived each other as the Third Year also do it with Fushiguro and Kugisaki.

Kugisaki sighed in relief. "It was a good thing I didn't leave my belt."

"Alright, good work, everyone!" Yugen clapped, letting go of the highway-rail.

"Senpai, where did you get that?" Fushiguro seeing the highway-rail that he didn't notice she is holding,

"There." Not too far away from them, the highway-rail that is supposed to protect the passing vehicles is missing. "Don't worry, I know someone that can repair that,"

"For now..." Yugen paused. "..to Jujutsu Tech!"

a/n: This may be sudden but I will be no longer posting Apple of the Eye in my main account and instead, post this here.

i only posted my work here in tumblr (gojosatoruwifey) and in my ao3 account. please report immediately if someone reposted my works on other sites without my permission.

#jujutsu kaisen #jujutsu kaisen gojo #jujutsu kaisen itadori #jujutsu kaisen fushiguro #jujutsu kaisen kugisaki #jujutsu kaisen fluff #jjk #jjk gojo #jjk itadori #jjk fushiguro #jjk kugisaki #gojo satoru #itadori yuuji #kugisaki nobara #fushiguro megumi #yugen akihisa #ishida den #mizuki shina #apple of the eye #jujutsu kaisen: apple of the eye

[ifbrd]

Since the old villains in Word Up have been reformed, mind sharing what happened to them and how they turned their lives around? Do they play any part in Word Up?

Okay, so this time I was smart and decided to type this out in a word document!

Long post warning!

Before getting into each individual villain (or most villains, there’s just so dang many of them! I’m sure I’ll forget someone!) I want to talk about them as a whole.

All of them are reformed, and Tobey was basically the start of it all. He inspired several other villains, who inspired others, and over the years they all slowly gave up villain life. The last ones to quit (either BLHG and Invisi-Bill or Rhyme and Reason or both) did so after WordGirl retired from being a hero, because “everyone else did it and it’s not going to be any fun without WordGirl!”

After a few villains went good, Tobey and Dr. Two Brains co-founded the Anti-Villain Association (AVA), which was designed to be a place where villains, or even just minor criminals, who wanted to go good could go to discuss their struggles and experiences with switching sides (it’s kinda like a villain AA meeting). I don’t have many plans for each individual villain to play a major part in the story, again because there’s so many that would have been hard, but the AVA does play a part and so, by extension, the villains do play a bit of a role. However, I think most of this will go to Two Brains since he’s the co-founder and the other co-founder will be busy with all the other plans I have for him XD.

Many of their old weapons have been discarded, but also many of them are still around. For some, it’s to use in case of emergency (like a break-in), others have found other uses for their weapons (you better believe Chuck uses his condiment ray to make sandwiches!) others just couldn’t bear to destroy them (Tobey still has some surviving robots that were designed to crush the city, they’re happily living deep deep deep in the woods because Tobey didn’t feel right about destroying them for no reason), and some weapons are more difficult to destroy (like Mr. Big’s mind control, I’ll go into that a little more when I talk about him.)

Very few of them had kids, for a couple of reasons. 1. Many were too busy trying to turn their lives around to make a family life a priority 2. Many didn’t think they’d make good parents given their criminal history 3. There’s like 30 something villains and I wasn’t about to create children for each of them that’s just so many characters I would have had to make from scratch and I already had Theo, Julie, Emma, and Daisy, not to mention the new villains I had to make and I wanted everyone to have a little bit of depth so yeah… The ones who did have kids (and I might forget someone so sorry in advance if I did) are Tobey (obviously), Victoria, the unnamed henchman of Dr. Two Brains and The Butcher

Now let's get into them individually. Many of them I don’t have the story (at least not yet, if I get time I may start brainstorming that) of why they retired as villains, but for almost all of them I have ideas on what they’re up to now because I thought that was a little more important.

Dr. Two Brains- Was the second villain to retire. He saw Tobey doing such a great job and realized he missed that life for himself and said, “well if that little shit can do it, so can I!” He knew he could ignore the mouse brain’s evil desires, as long as he could fulfill its cheese desires, so his first step was to find a legal way to get a lot of cheese. So, he and his henchman started making cheese! And because Two Brains couldn’t wait, he decided to make a cheese aging ray. Suddenly he was able to produce quite a bit of cheese in record time. And actually, could make more than he could eat. He started selling his cheese and now is the main source of cheese in the city! The company slogan is “Evilly delicious!” And I was thinking about this today at work and realized he’s probably made a lot of money from this because with the aging process completely cut, he can probably charge less, but there’s something called “perceived value” where people think if something is super cheap then there must be something wrong with it, so you want to shoot a little higher when pricing products, so Two Brains probably has to have his cheese priced higher than he needs, so he probably has a pretty decent turn over rate! Anyway! As mentioned above, his unnamed henchman had a daughter, who Two Brains considers a granddaughter. She is aware of her interesting family’s criminal history and accepts it. She loves cheese but she’s not a fan of helping in the cheese-making process.

Chuck and the Butcher- (their stories are so linked it just made more sense to talk about them together) Were the third and fourth villains to go good and did so pretty much at the same time, for similar reasons, those reasons being “this isn’t fun anymore, I’m not getting anywhere with it, and look at what a great job Tobey and Two Brains are doing!” After retiring they partnered up and started a sandwich food truck, which today is a full-blown restaurant. Chuck does most of the sandwich making, but Butcher helps and he’s the meat supplier (guess where they get their cheese from!). I mentioned that the Butcher had a child. He has one son named Kale and a grandson named Baker. His son and grandson have powers like him, with Kale’s being vegetable related and Baker’s being bread-related (bread, not pastries! Important note! However, Baker does like to bake pastries, he’s about eight BTW). Kale and Butcher’s relationship will have a bit of focus in Word Up, and Kale will be a reoccurring character. Kale is very prideful and independent and will do just about anything for Baker. Kale is aware of his dad’s criminal past, Baker probably is aware too, but IDK maybe not. Chuck being close to the Butcher is naturally close with his family. Besides that, he still spends a lot of time with his mom and Brent, who he has a bit of a healthier relationship with now.

Granny May- The fifth villain to retire, and she basically just retired. She basically said “well I’m done! This is getting old and so am I!” She’s still alive, currently having the honor of being the oldest person in the city and is living in an assisted living facility. She’s pretty “together” mentally (how I describe residents at the assisted living facility I work at who haven’t been taken over by dementia yet). She uses a scooter now but carries a cane with her. Why? To whack people who need to have some sense knocked into them of course! Other AVA members are happy to pick her up for their weekly meetings and drive her back home, despite her claims that she could still drive fine “if they would let me!” (don’t let this woman go behind the wheel anymore, don’t listen to her!)

Mr. Big and Leslie- Mr. Big was inspired by the villains before him turning their lives around and claiming to be much happier. He tried this and struggled a lot. He eventually realized his issue was greed, it was too strong for him. So, he gave everything up, he gave his company to Leslie and basically became a minimalist hippie (again, my love for irony shines through!...also I thought the idea of Big being a hippie was HILARIOUS). Leslie has run the company ethically ever since. Today it’s essentially Amazon with morals. Mr. Big and Leslie are friends and talk all the time. Their mind control tech is still around, the reason I’ve decided is that some of the later tech was so powerful that destroying it might unintentionally send out a mind control signal. I’m open to better suggestions; I just need the mind control tech to still exist and be something someone could steal…hint hint….

Ms. Question- Eventually got a job as an interrogator for the police station! She’s the best interrogator there is! She doesn’t typically use her powers on people to get them to confess, usually, they just break from the mass amount of questions she asks, but in more extreme circumstances she is willing to use her powers.

Learnerer- Like Ms. Question, Learnerer found a better gig with the police force. He’s the city’s detective, and rocks at it with all his “learninging” skills. He looks for clues and learns how criminals commit crimes and uses that information to catch criminals in the act and stop them. He often works with Ms. Question.

Amazing Rope Guy- Actually got decent at rope tricks and is an entertainer now! I won’t say he’s incredible, but he’s alright! The other AVA members often hire him for entertainment events (he’s been to several of Theo’s birthday parties and Theo has politely asked his parents to not do that anymore, so now they’re gonna hire him for Julie’s parties) more to support him than because of his skills

Whammer- is a professional demolisher. You need an old building torn down? Call the Whammer! You need to gut the kitchen of a house you’re flipping? Call the Whammer! Need to clear an area of land for a project? Call the Whammer! Need snow off the street so people can get home? Call the Whammer. He loves his job

Lady Redundant Woman- She kept moving up in her job at the copy place, and eventually had learned to do every position there. With this knowledge and skills, she opened up her own copy place where she and her copies are the sole employees. Turns out your business can make a lot of money when you can have the exact right amount of employees at all times and don’t technically have to pay them because they’re technically you!

Hal Hardbargin- Sold his villain inventions and blueprints to the police station so they could have a better understanding of how certain villain gadgets work and therefore how to stop them. Also has made a few honest weapons for some heroes

Seymore- Hosts a self-made YouTube (or YouTube-like website) show called “Can You Spot the Scam?” where he helps innocent citizens learn how to spot scams

Big Left Hand Guy and Invisi-Bill-I never could think of what they’d be up to, so I decided they are still trying to figure out what they should do next. (because my favorite thing when I have a writing problem is to take advantage of it and turn it into a plot point! …something I did with a very important plot point in Word Up that will be revealed in Return to Fair City)

Rhyme and Reason- again I don’t have too much an idea of what they’re up too, but I like to think they are a QPR because I like platonic partnerships!

I talked about Victoria and Eileen here Thanks for the question! Feel free to ask more!

#Wordgirl

[wardoftheedgeloaves]

China Story Time II: Learn Programming and Epidemiology the Very Hard Way

I haven’t posted more than two installments of my promised series on Chinese historical linguistics and dialectology. In lieu of progress on it, please gather round the campfire and enjoy this entirely unrelated story about the time I taught the summer camp from hell in Shenzhen. (Dialectology tie-in: we once had a cabbie who only [?] spoke Canto.)

I wish to emphasize that this story has not been embellished.

Summer in China is a sultry and slow-paced affair for the private-school English teacher--you stop teaching seriously in late May, school gets out in late June, and you don’t have to be back until early September. Your pay is good enough that you’ve got savings to last you the summer, but you could always use a bit of spare cash. Unless your social situation is good, your isolation (and the weather) doesn’t help your work ethic too much. Your life is lived at tea houses, reading thinkpieces and books and procrastinating on writing more thinkpieces and working on your Mandarin and getting around to that damned monograph. (Alternative English-teacher mode: hit the bars prowling for locals who may or may not fit within the (n/2)+7 rule, demolish a couple of six-packs’ worth of alcohol, hit the hay at 2:30 in the morning, wake up at noon, repeat. I was luckily never this much of a degenerate.)

As in the US, the affluent Chinese parent often sends their offspring to summer camp for some educational enrichment and peace and quiet at home. So it was that a recruiter offered me, and another English teacher (we’ll call him...Nick) in Chengdu, the chance to earn 7000 kuai (~$1050) each teaching programming in Shenzhen. A class in the morning from 9-12, repeated from Monday to Friday, with a chance for a second week in Lu’an, Anhui. Plane tickets and accommodation included, other details vague. Technically illegal--you’re not supposed to do any work outside of the job sponsoring your visa--but nobody cares about summer camps.

To learn programming, the students (and we) are provided with little inch-by-inch-by-inch plastic cubes with wheels called “Pocket-bots” or something of the sort. These are actually rather nifty little gadgets. You connect to them with your phone or computer in a spacious computer lab (or so the brochures say) and click and drag instructions to create and run programs. E.g., you might tell the bot to go forward for 10 seconds at speed 10, then check to see if it was on white (rather than black) paper, and sing a little song if it is, then turn left and repeat. The software allowed you to do if-loops, for-loops, and while-loops at the very least, which is pretty good for small kids. Satisfied that we would have the equipment needed to teach the class, we packed our Pocket-bots and arrived in Shenzhen on a sticky, hot, sunny July morning.

Now, a word on Shenzhen. In 1978 when Deng took the wheel, Shenzhen was a sleepy little fishing village of thirty thousand people whose only interesting feature was that it was right next to Hong Kong. This made it perfect for the early-80s experiments in capitalism, and over the next four decades it exploded (it now has 12 million people and a standard of living on par with Western Europe). As a result of its early rise to wealth and power, it’s home to the first private school in China, founded 1994. However, private schools in China tend to be boarding schools, and boarding schools tend to be out away from the city center where land is cheap and distractions are relatively few.

So this place is in the middle of nowhere, or as close to the middle of nowhere as it’s possible to get in the Pearl River Delta. It’s surrounded by forested mountains (Guangdong is surprisingly hilly). It’s about 95 (35) degrees, humid as hell, and in direct sunlight--July, south of the Tropic of Cancer. We’re in the kids’ dorm rooms (luckily we each get our own private dorm room with a private, cold-running shower.) We drop our bags, wash up, and go meet the kids.

And it turns out that a fifth of them are Americans! You see, this wasn’t just a programming camp--it was also an English and cross-cultural experience camp. Approximately 15 high-school kids from Florida and California were being flown out, all expenses paid, to be big-brother/big-sister with the Chinese kids, who were in late elementary school. The chaperone (we’ll call her Margaret; in fact I can’t actually remember her name, but it definitely wasn’t Margaret), the mother of one of the kids, was thoroughly perplexed--but, hey, a free trip to China.

So Nick and I go and look at the teaching rooms (this is about one in the afternoon). These aren’t the sparkling, spacious computer labs we saw on the website, oh no. We have a couple of primary school classrooms no more than about five meters by six, with laughably tiny kindergartner-sized chairs and tables. There’s a smartboard, which we can barely get to run and which we can’t connect to our computers to show the programs the kids are supposed to run. There’s no free access to the wifi. Instead, we have to get our teaching assistants to put their login credentials on every single device that needs to connect to the wifi--and since you have to have wifi to connect to the robots, well. In other words, it’s going to be a s***show, and we’ve got five mornings of it ahead of us.

We know the inevitable talk/confrontation with our boss/program coordinator is going to be a disaster, so we leave for a few hours to try and find a six-pack of Tsingtao. Remember how I said this was in the middle of nowhere? It was in the middle of nowhere. We walk out of the gates for a full kilometer (possibly more; the road meandered, and the terrain was by no means flat) past construction sites and dense forest bordering on jungle until we finally, finally reach an air-conditioned convenience store nestled between auto-repair shops, low-rise tile-walled tenements, light industry and eight-kuai noodle parlors. (Those of you who have been outside of a major city center in China will know the kind of neighborhood I’m talking about--not dangerous, by any means (except for the traffic), but boring, sprawling and not overly prosperous.) But they have beer, and we knock back two each along with a good liter of water.

We have a chat with the supervisor at about 9 o’clock that evening while the kids are engaging in...god, I don’t even recall. I think the Chinese kids were in bed, while the Americans were playing cards and vidya. Now readers who have spent much time in China or with Chinese organizations will know that it is a faux pas in China to admit fault, and an even bigger faux pas to play hardball to get somebody to admit fault. The result, usually, is deflection--our supervisor didn’t know about any of this, it wasn’t her fault, she would ask her boss to try and improve things.

(I don’t wish to come across as too hard on Chinese culture here. I think this is really a situation where American and Chinese culture are doomed to clash, and clash badly. If you fuck up in the US, you’re supposed to admit fault and apologize, at least theoretically--deflection and white lies are infuriating on the receiving end and the natural reaction is to start tearing them apart to get an admission of contrition. In China, the convention is often that you tell a white lie or deflect to save face--and if the other person you’re talking to is Chinese, they’ll often accept that even if it’s not really believed. The result in Chinese-American communication can be an arms race, where the American will get ticked off at the deflection and perceived dishonesty and start playing hardball, which prompts more deflection. Looking back on it now, it was clear that trying to play hardball with our supervisor was pointless--we were never going to get good computer labs or WiFi, and the only thing to do was to figure out something to do. But knowing that we’d at least theoretically been hired to teach programming, we endeavoured to do our best. (Remember, between flying all the Americans over and the company’s profit, the Chinese parents were getting fleeced.) Nick had recently discovered the stern precepts of Jordan Peterson after catching herpes-type-2 (that’s the bad kind) of the mouth from a liaison with his dermatologist, and reminded me that it was our duty to do the best we could by the students.

Day one: Monday.

There are about 70-75 kids in the program between the Chinese and the Americans, so we have about 35 each at least in classrooms of about fifteen square meters, sitting on tiny little kindergarten chairs at tiny little kindergarten desks (not so much of a problem for the Chinese elementary-schoolers, much more uncomfortable for the American high-schoolers). Our teaching assistants spend most of their time in the back playing on their phones after they’ve set the WiFi on each device, which takes about an hour to get worked out. (Remember, three-hour class with a fifteen-minute break). Each room has an underpowered air conditioner which succeeds in reducing the temperature from the mid-30s C to the upper 20s (from about 92 to 78 in freedom degrees) if the windows are closed, at the cost of any breezes.

And we run into the first problem. Your device uses WiFi to connect automatically and effortlessly to a nearby Pocketbot. That’s not a problem when you’re in a spacious computer lab with ten other people and a strong signal. When you’re in a tiny little room with thirty-five other people and a network that wouldn’t have been out of place in the last years of the Clinton administration, well. 

Some kids couldn’t connect to their bot at all. Others were controlling four robots at once with a single device. Some were able to stay connected through the session, others’ internet kept crapping out every ten minutes.

After an hour and twenty minutes of this, we call a twenty-minute break.

easternestablishmentarian: “What the fuck do we even do?”

Nick: “No idea. Start in on the basic ideas of programming. Have the teaching assistants translate.”

We do. The teaching assistants are not all that happy about having to play translator, particularly since their English isn’t very good and the concepts are, well, complicated! I had some success in doing the teacher-as-robot routine you see in intro programming classes, where you have to tell the teacher exactly what to do (Keep going! *teacher-bot crashes into wall*), and extended this up to about half past eleven by making it a group activity where the Chinese kids had to direct their American big-sibling robots around the room. We spent about another fifteen minutes trying to do something, anything, with the robots--remember, we couldn’t show our laptop screens on the smartboard, which didn’t work, so we had to draw the program with chalk. At about 11:45 we just call it quits and let them leave for lunch early.

Right after lunch (which, incidentally, was extremely strange--the cafeteria staff had been instructed to try to make some sort of Chinese-Western fusion, with results like spaghetti with both tomato and soy sauce. If only they’d just stuck to good local dishes, of which there are hundreds, but oh well...) we call an emergency meeting with Margaret.

Margaret: You guys aren’t going to bail on us, are you? I have no clue what’s going on.

Me: No, but it’s clear that there’s no way to do programming and the kids’ll hate it. Let’s just do a regular summer camp.

Later that day we go back out for more beer and sketch out a plan. We don’t have WiFi or devices worth a damn, so electronics are off. However, we do have a campus of at least twenty or thirty acres filled with small fields and six-story dorms and classrooms connected by a labyrinth of walkways. (During the school year, the school is home to about three thousand students, all boarding, so it’s the size of a couple city blocks at least.)

We call a meeting with our supervisor.

Nick: This isn’t working. We can’t do programming.

Supervisor: Well, do you have any other ideas?

Nick: We could do sports and games.

Supervisor: Oh, I think that will be wonderful!

(Nick, later: “How much are these parents paying again?”)

Day two: Tuesday.

We start with Sardines, which degenerates into chaotic hide-and-seek but keeps them occupied for a good hour and a half. The teaching assistants are sent to look for athletic equipment like basketballs, which they’re not too happy about. Midway through break we run out of cups.

Us: “It’s 35 degrees outside and we don’t have enough water. There are only two water dispensers for 80 people and no more cups.”

Teaching assistant: “Oh, well, we didn’t know we would run out. I don’t know where the water is, maybe they can bring some tomorrow.”

Us: *sigh*

We discover that some air-conditioned buses (dlory! dlory! hallelujah!) stop right in front of the school and run towards a major commercial center. We go out for hotpot.

Nick: “So, fun fact--I’m actually on a spousal visa. I married a local chick for visa purposes.”

Me: “Huh.”

Nick: “Yeah, we divorced, but the immigration department doesn’t have access to divorce records and my visas’s still valid. Can’t technically work on it, though.”

Day three: Wednesday.

Capture the Flag, followed by semi-structured time in which the Americans are divided into groups, assigned Chinese students, and instructed to create activities. We run out of cups again.

Nick: *drinking straight from the water dispenser tap*

Me: “Didn’t you say you caught...”

Nick: “Shut up, easternestablishmentarian.”

Me: “...”

Me: “There are seventy-five kids here.”

Nick: “Just shut up.”

I buy my own personal supply of bottled water that afternoon. He did agree to only fill up a bottle from that point onwards.

Us: “Supervisor, please tell us--will there be WiFi when one of us teaches programming with the robots in Lu’an in Anhui?”

Supervisor: “Oh, uh, I don’t know, I am not going to Anhui.”

Us: “Please find out.”

Day four: Thursday. 

It being sunny and slightly cooler, we take the kids on a hike through a back trail that goes by a farm and into the woods. Guangdong proves to be home to some terrifyingly large arthropods, none of which are aggressive.

After lunch, we debate who will go on to Lu’an. Nick makes a good case for needing the money, so I cede it (in part because Anhui is a notoriously boring and underdeveloped province, and Lu’an is only its second- or third-biggest city).

Us: “So, supervisor, please tell us.”

Supervisor: “Oh, yes, there is no WiFi for the summer camp in Anhui, I asked.”

Us: “But Nick’s going to be teaching robots again?”

Supervisor: “Well, maybe he can also teach something else, like English, but yes, it’s a robot camp.”

Us: “But you need WiFi to work with the robots.”

Supervisor: “Oh, I’m not the supervisor in Anhui, just here in Shenzhen, so I didn’t know.”

Day five: Friday.

After a laughably pointless closing ceremony, we collect our paychecks (in cash) and head into Shenzhen, where Nick tries to send it out. 

Bank teller: “So, uh, what are you doing in China?”

Nick: “I’m visiting family, it’s a spousal visa.”

Bank teller: “OK, so I don’t think this is possible, you have the tax form?” (note: this is quite common for foreigners, even those on legal visas--foreigners’ money has all sorts of systems and regulations surrounding it that most bank tellers don’t know how to handle (because there are so few foreigners), and to avoid losing face they will often just tell you that it’s not possible to do what you want to do.)

At this point, I’m starting to shake my head furiously in Nick’s direction--get us out of here before they start asking questions about where this money came from and call immigration. After two hours, we give up.

Me: “You could have gotten us deported.”

Nick: “Nah, man, they’re just clueless bank tellers.”

I fly back to Chengdu the following day seven thousand kuai richer, while Nick hangs on until Sunday and then flies to Lu’an with the Americans, where another group of Chinese kids get their parents fleeced for robots that don’t work (though, as he told it, things worked out fine, kind of.) The kids, incidentally, were great about the whole incident--the Chinese kids I think in part because their lives are so structured that just getting to run around was a breath of fresh air for them. The Americans were fairly willing to work around the absurdity. Nobody got deported and nothing’s appeared in the news about an epidemic of the sort of disease that schoolchildren aren’t supposed to get.

So we come to the moral of the story, children: all’s well that ends well, and buy your own water.

[kewltie]

Kasumi's Saturday is unusually quiet and void of Papa this week. It's an incredibly rare thing for her especially when she is used to spending her Saturday's night with Papa, cuddling up to him in front of their TV as they flip between nature shows for Kasumi and the evening news for Papa so he can get a glimpse of Daddy again.

Now though, Papa doesn't have to look for Daddy on their TV or in the news anymore because Daddy won't leave them alone. Ugh. He would visit their apartment two to three times a week, sometimes five times even, like he doesn't have an entire country to run and other people to harass. But, she grits her teeth, thinking how Papa looks much brighter and happier these days because Daddy's here and is part of their life now even if Kasumi had never given him any permission for it in the first place.

He even had the nerve to want to take Papa out on dates! Kasumi initially rejected the idea, because like she’s going to let Daddy spend any time with her Papa, but Papa had looked so hopeful that she reluctantly agreed to it, letting them go on dates under her careful watchful eyes.

Technically, tonight will be their fifth date so far but it's their first real date they'll have all to themselves because this time Kasumi won't be their third wheel.

Papa was hesitance at first about it but Kasumi had waved his worries off because she's old enough to be left alone without him for one night. And also, because Daddy, trying to curry favor with Kasumi had given her twenty thousand yen to order any fancy takeout dinner that she could ever want. Kasumi may be stubborn but she knows an opportunity when she sees it. She is definitely not going to use all of the money just for dinner because that's dumb and wasteful but maybe an upper limit a thousand yen for her favorite food and the rest she'll put in her piggy bank, the savings would eventually go toward Papa's Christmas present.

And Taro, one of Daddy's people, has the special privilege to be her babysitter for the night but she's not stupid to think he's the only one. Since Daddy had first forced his way into their peaceful life, there are always more than two people watching over Kasumi closely at any time like they're afraid she's going to be kidnapped or something if they’re not looking. Well, she isn't the boss of the lower grades at her school just for show and her pretty face!

But she humors the adults anyway and pretends she doesn't know of the group of people from the palace standing guard outside her apartment, while she slowly grinds Taro's professionalism down and quickly have him bribe her with food so he can finally watch his dumb dance competition show. Kasumi forgoes her animal shows for the night in lieu of the snacks and treats that Taro had bought for her from the convenient store down the block. She didn't even have to use Daddy's money for it so now she can save even more for Papa's gift later and Papa may be mad that's she spoiling her dinner with junk foods tonight but sometimes a little indulgence is okay, right? Kasumi deserves it after all for putting up with Daddy’s horrible attempt at trying to woo her and Papa.

So with a pile of snacks on the table in front of her and her TV tunes into the most mediocre dance competition there ever was, where the audience's votes had already narrowed the contestants down to the top 10 spots and Kasumi, who put more effort into watching the mating habits of frogs honestly, tries not to look too bored.

"Papa used to dance like that," Kasumi says idly, her hand rummaging around the bag of chips in her lap. The girl on her TV screen bends and twists to the beat of the music in a way that is eerily familiar to her, reminding her of Papa's past employment as the girl tries to wow the judge’s panel.

Taro makes a vague noise of acknowledgment next to her even as his eyes are glued on the screen the entire time.

"—but on a pole and for money," she finishes, and pops a chip into her mouth.

"What?!" Taro makes a choked up noise and his eyes finally break free from the TV to stares at her with abject horror. "Um, Kasumi-chan, I don't think that's something you should easily share with people like that." His eyes dart around the apartment like he's afraid someone else is listening in on them.

Kasumi abruptly casts her chip to the side and pushes up on the couch, feet planted on the seat cushion so it gives her height as she glares down at Taro with the full force of her rage. "And why is that?" she demands, hands on her hips and lips thinning out in one unhappy line. Taro should be careful of his next few words because she's about to demote him from the second favorite to her least favorite guard very soon.

Taro’s face goes red and he looks down at his hands like it's suddenly the most interesting in the world. "It's not a, well, a kind of job you want to brag to people," he carefully explains like she’s dumb and wouldn’t get it, "and-and if the media ever caught wind of his, uh, past employment then Midoriya-san will never survive the public execution since he's dating the emperor."

Her eyes narrow her eyes and the ugly feelings that always stirred in defense of her Papa claw its way into Kasumi's chest, digging its nails into her heart. "So what if Papa used danced on a pole for money. He’d worked very hard for it and never complains about it once," she yells, unable to contain her voice anymore. She hates how screechy her voice gets when she is so riled up like this but the thought of anyone dare to put down her Papa’s hard work inflames her like nothing else. "And he did it for me, he did it all for me so I can have a roof over my head, food on my table, and pretty dresses to wear! Papa did his very best to keep us from starving so why is that wrong?!”

Taro’s eyes go hauntingly wide as he scoots away from Kasumi like he’s afraid she’s going to snap off his head at any second and she probably would have too.

Unfortunately, this isn't Kasumi's first fight about this or will it be likely her last. She remembers the time when the other parents had found out what Papa did nightly while Kasumi slept on and how they had looked at her with pitiful eyes and warned their children about her. Kasumi hadn't cared about it one bit because they had meant nothing to her anyway but when Papa had learned how the other kids had avoided her and her one too many fights that landed her in the principal’s office was started because of him, he quitted his job.

Papa had gently held her hands as he apologized profusely to Kasumi for troubling her with his job and for making her life’s harder. He was embarrassed for her sake as though the pole dancing hadn’t allow him to put only four nights per week and still earned him enough money to spend more time with her was something to be ashamed of, which made Kasumi very angry because his current job made far less despite working six days a week but it was better than his old one because it was 'respectable', whatever that even means. She doesn’t care if people whisper behind her back, talking about how she’s such a daddy’s little girl and is so creepily obsessed with her Papa when she knows all the things he’d ever done was for her and how Kasumi has never, not even once, felt lacking in wealth or love. So she’ll fight for Papa even if Papa doesn’t even need it because Papa has always put Kasumi first so this time it’s Kasumi turn.

Kasumi always tries her best to be more like Papa, kind in heart and strong in willpower, but it’s time like this she realizes how much she's like Daddy after all. Because like him, she fiercely fights for what she believes in, not caring for the consequences around her and the way her temper flares up is all his as she rises up to every fight like it's a battle she can't afford lose. After all only cowards give up on the things they love and Kasumi is no coward.

Taro’s lower his head and clasps both hands together in a desperate plead.  “I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Kasumi-chan! Forgive me, please, I was just being a dumbassss-as," he quickly tries to recover from that slip-up as she rolls her eyes, "uh, donkey. I shouldn’t have said that about Midoriya-san at all so could you please, pretty please, not stand on the couch because if you fall and break a pinkie or something under my watch, His Majesty is going to throw me in the compactor.”

Kasumi cocks her head thoughtfully, trying to decide if Taro’s hide is worth saving from Daddy’s wrath as the earlier anger slowly recedes. Taro does appear to be sincere and apologetic about it and Papa always said forgiveness takes strength and Kasumi got a whole lot of strength if nothing else. Plus, she does like him enough to let it go even if he can be quite dumb at times.

She plops back down onto her seat and plasters on a smile that she had perfected over the years. “So, who do you think it’s going to win?” Kasumi asks a touch too sweet, but Taro looks so relieved with the change of subject that he might as well be crying in joy.

See? Kasumi can be nice too. Maybe not in the way of Papa yet but, hey, she’s trying.

#bakudeku #fic teaser #fic: papa said to knock you out #series: kasumi vs the world #kasumi is the def of 'im trying to be a good girl here but y'all are making it v v v v hard'

[kz-i-co]

Babysitter: Part VII

» Summary: You weren't enjoying school

» Pairing: Kim Taehyung/ Reader

» Genre: Smut

» Words: 3k

» COMPLETED SERIES: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 ╫ Part 8

» m.list ╫ bts masterlist

-

“No more crying." He took your hand kissing the back romantically.

Don't wanna cry.....

You kept telling yourself. You were only 20 more minutes away from starting your new semester at school. A long 8 months away from your family and especially Taehyung. Before it was fine but now you dreaded this moment. You wanted to stay.

When you finally reached the dorms, you pulled out your two suitcases that you lived in for the past summer since all of your belongings were still here at the school. The nice thing was you didn't have to change rooms every year unless you requested it, but that wasn't you in this case. You liked your roommate. You became quite close since being here.

You entered your room and she was already acquainted with her boyfriend Youngjae. Before it used to bother you but you felt alright now since you had one of your own but once again you were thinking about him and now you let yourself dread being here.

"Hey...long time no see." She pushed her boyfriend off of her and she jumped up to greet you. Youngjae groaned in annoyance making you both laugh. You always liked him, he was like a brother to you, an annoying brother. But he was perfect with Seunghee.

She squeezed you into a big hug. You really did miss her. "So how was your summer?"

"Good." You simply smiled.

"Youngjae can you leave for a bit, we have girl talk." He just looked at you both, arching his eyebrows but soon got up. "Thank you."

He gave a sarcastic wave and left you both alone.

"Oh my god....remember Youngjae's friend Jongup you have a huge crush on?"

She didn't even let you speak. "Well....he's single now." She squealed. "I was thinking about setting you up and we can double."

Your friend was well known of how you hated being the only single one out of you all. You always felt like you were the third wheel when it came to get togethers, or more like fifth wheel. But you didn't have to worry to much anymore. You found the love of your life.

"Seunghee...wait." You had to stop her excitement. "I'm not single anymore."

You said with a confident smile.

"What?" She was surprised. "Is that why you haven't contacted me all summer like you promised?"

"Maybe." You bit your lip. "Hey...You could of contacted me instead of sucking Youngjae's face off."

"That's not true...he was only with me half of the summer....but don't change the subject...tell me about him."

You both finally took a seat at the end of the bed.

"His name is Taehyung....and he is the sweetest guy I have ever met."

"How did you two meet?" You loved how interested your friend was.

"My family hired him as the baby sitter as I was in school."

"Ooo. Romantic."

You didn't want to get into the dirty details so you just talked about the romantic dates he took you on. The clean side of things.

"He's the one." You knew for sure.

She squealed in excitement. "When can I meet him?"

"He said he would visit me on the weekends."

"He can sleepover and I can sneak into Youngjae's room."

The school was quite strict when it came to the dorms. You can invite company to stay the weekend but it had to get approved by the school a week ahead. Also everyday rules was no girls allowed in the guys dorms and no guys in the girls. Even though no one listens, clearly. It's also very unusual since we're technically adults.

"Yeah....I miss him." You sighed.

"Don't worry....being away will make your relationship even stronger...trust me." You wanted to but you always heard that long distance doesn't work out.

"First let me cancel that double date." She pulled out her phone.

"What? You already had it planned before telling me?" You weren't upset, just surprised.

"I'm sorry....miss didn't contact me because she was sucking some other guys face off all summer." You blushed at her response. Using your own words against you.

"Whatever."

"You naughty." She texted away.

You honestly felt like Seunghee was more of a friend to you then your high school friends. You still loved Sana and Liz but sometimes you didn't feel comfortable around them. They didn't always understand how you felt.

You liked that Seunghee was always there to listen to any idiotic thing you told her. You could he honest with her about anything and you weren't afraid to tell her anything.

It's like they say, you meet the most important people in your life in college.

You got a text from Tae telling you to video chat later. Once you got back from hanging out with your friends, you were in a rush to get your laptop opened and ready.

You heard the familiar Skype ring and you answered seeing the beautiful face you long missed. Even though it's only been a few hours.

"Hi." You pouted.

"Stop that." He gave you a hard look. "I'll see you in a week."

"I know but it's still hard."

"I know....but it's okay." He smiled.

"What are you doing?" You asked as he seemed to be getting ready to leave.

"I'm about to head over to your house actually." He had a slight smirk.

"My parents better not abuse you."

"They haven't before (Y/N)....I love your brother and sister."

"I know but have you looked into some schools for yourself?"

"Not yet....but I will."

"Okay." You sighed. You heard your door open followed by your noisy friends.

"I'll talk to you later." He stated. Putting his coat on.

You heard your friends finally get quiet but you paid no attention to them.

"I love you." He leaned down getting closer to the camera.

"I love you to." Your eyes got a little damp but you made sure to not let any tears out. You can do this. He will always be there for you, even if it's through a camera.

He waved and you both signed off. You shut the lid to your computer and turned around forgetting your friends made an entrance.

"Aw." They both said in sync. You rolled your eyes getting up from your desk.

"You guys are so cute." Seunghee said.

"And he's adorable." Brit spoke up.

"It will be okay.....remember what I told you."

"I know."

It's been a long lonely two weeks...

It was finally Friday when Taehyung said he was spending the weekend with you.

You were watching your phone the whole last ten minutes of your last class. You just couldn't wait any longer.

As soon as you reached your dorms, there he was leaning against his car. He gave you the biggest smile once he saw you pacing towards him.

"I missed you." You were wrapped into his arms.

You couldn't stop smiling.

"Did you really?" He grabbed your cheeks.

You nodded cutely. He couldn't help but laugh from seeing how happy you were.

You lead Tae inside the dorms, all the way towards your room. You were on the second floor. Once you entered you were surprised that it was empty.

Maybe Seunghee assumed you wanted privacy?

"Nice room." He looked around.

"You mean nice prison cell." You joked.

"Stop....it's Not that bad." He smirked.

He leaned down kissing you like he hadn't seen you in a long time. You were swept off your feet. Drugged by his touch. He gently laid you on top of your bed, deepening the kiss.

You were over excited and couldn't help your wandering hands. He stopped kissing you once he felt you reach into his boxers.

"Maybe it's not the best time."

Maybe he's right? Even though Seunghee was aware of you and Taehyung' s whereabouts, that doesn't mean she could walk in at any moment.

"Yeah....maybe later." You bit your lip.

Tae gave you a menacing glare but quickly changed to amusement. "I told you not to do that."

"What ya gonna do about it?" You mocked.

He stared at you for a few seconds before jabbing you into your side's tickling you.

"Stop." You yelled laughing. "I'll pee."

Just as you kept squirming, the door opened signaling you both to look towards the right direction.

"Oh my god....I'm so sorry." Seunghee turned around heading out.

"Seunghee wait....we're clean." You laughed. She turned back around entering your room.

"I figured you were....you know."

"Nah."

"Oh....I would of." She winked.

"Anyway....it's So nice to meet you." She said as soon as you and Tae stood up greeting your friend. "She never shuts up about you." He shook her hand.

"So are we going to double tonight?"

"Yeah...if you don't mind." You looked at Tae

"Of course not, sounds like fun."

"Yay....let me go get Youngjae." She almost tripped out the door overly excited. Yes Seunghee was that friend. The clumsy one, especially since she was a happy virus.

"I have exciting news." Tae started as you were waiting for Seunghee and Youngjae to arrive. You took separate vehicles.

"I enrolled in school." Your eyes lit up. "The auditions for the spring enrollment is in two months."

"Yay....I'm So proud, your grandma will be proud." You wrapped your arms around his shoulders.

"Its just an audition....I might not make it."

"That's impossible." You kissed him tenderly.

"Hey P.D.A." You heard Seunghee. Her and Youngjae greeted you both and sat across the table.

"I wouldn't be talking." You smirked at your friend.

"What do you mean?" She looked at you.

You couldn't help but giggle from Youngjae pointing fingers at Seunghee from behind. It got her attention and she caught him in the act.

She playfully hit him in the chest with a groan. "Your suppose to side with me."

"She makes me do it." He acted.

"Shut up." She then looked at you. "So (Y/N) told me you sing?"

"A little." Taehyung said sweetly.

"He's going to Seoul for Performing arts."

"I don't know yet.....I have to audition." He corrected.

"Yeah but I know you will make it." You said excited. You were happy for Taehyung.

"That's amazing....Youngjae can sing....but I don't know how since he yells 90% of the day."

"That's not true." He whined.

"Yes it is."

"No."

You loved how Seunghee and Youngjae were basically a married couple already. They fought like this constantly but it was pretty much playful.

"Shut up." You glared at them both.

Taehyung laughed, between you glaring at them and them staring at you stunned.

By the end of dinner you felt relieved there was no awkwardness. Taehyung was a social butterfly so he fit in pretty well with your weird friends. Him and Youngjae were talking a lot as well, typical guy stuff, which was fine since Seunghee can talk to you about what she wanted to talk about.

"You have nice friends here." You could tell he meant it.

The little taste he got of your home friends was very disappointing and he knew you haven't been very fond with them over the summer.

"They're all right." You grinned.

He opened his car door for you. You were planning on just watching movies for the rest of the night in your dorm. Seunghee mention going to hangout around town for a little longer so you had no idea what time she would be back.

When you pulled up to your dorms, you were both hesitant to step out of the vehicle.

"I have a question?" You started. Taehyung glanced at you curious.

"Did you tell your parents?"

"....No." He looked down. "I'm afraid."

You looked at him. "Why?"

"Because, that farm means a lot to my parents and I don't know how to tell them I'm leaving."

"They will understand....parents raise you to be independent....to make a life of your own."

He sadly pursued his lips. "I know, I just can't help but feel guilty."

"I doubt they will feel that way, if anything they will feel proud."

"You think?" He asked.

"I know." You smiled.

He leaned in kissing you once again that day that had you mesmerize. You took the next step, climbing on top of his lap in front of the steering wheel.

You missed this feeling of being so intimate with him. His soft lips against yours.

You felt his hand wander down your side until they laid gently on your thigh. You moved your lips down his jaw, leaving every part of him untouched.

"What if someone sees us?" Taehyung said out of breath.

"I've seen worse here." You giggled.

You kissed him once again as you dug in deeper into his hips. You both were in the moment that you didn't care if anyone saw you. The way you were rocking yours hips was setting him off. As you wanted.

You reached down unbuckling his jeans and already had him out in a swift motion. You started to jerk your hand up and down his member while you continued to kiss him deeply. You loved hearing his soft moans against your lips.

You felt Taehyung act fast, pulling your pants down as well. You giggled from his failed attempt, since you were in an awkward position. You moved on your own quickly to undress your bottom half and quickly jump back into his lap.

"Maybe I should wear a skirt around you."

"Maybe you shouldn't." He smirked. "You're a bad influence."

"Am not "

"Are too."

You arched your eyebrows. "I'm sorry for being a bad girl." You said as you were one of those girls in those messed up pornos.

Taehyung didn't say anything he just pulled you back in to kiss you again. You once again grabbed his member but this time guiding it to where you needed it most. You slowly slid down adjusting to his size. Two weeks is a long time.

You started rocking against him at a steady pace. You didn't want to rush your time together since you were in control.

"I never asked you this before but do you like me leading?" You said already out of breath.

"Fuck yes." You laughed at his response.

You grabbed the overhead handle as you both picked up the pace. He was holding onto your hips as he pushed upward into You, causing more friction you couldn't handle.

You felt disappointed that you already felt that familiar feeling develop.

"There's people out there watching." Taehyung said in a panic.

You turned around and saw a few girls near the college dorms doors staring in your direction. Some of them looked shocked as some looked amused. Honestly you felt more turned on, weirdly.

"Let's give them a show." You picked up your pace again. Taehyung leaned forward lifting your shirt. He pulled down your bra so he could suck every inch of your chest

"I'm almost there." You moaned.

The windows were pretty foggy at this point so you felt like people watching wouldn't bother watching as much.

You felt weak as you finally hit your high. You pulled off of Tae and started pumping his member once again since he still hasn't reach his climax. He leaned his head back on the car seat feeling your movement's. You couldn't help but smile from how cute he sounded at this point.

You moved your hand quicker and his breath hitch so you knew he was almost there. A few seconds later, he released into your hand. It was the first time you actually observed it this time. You felt yourself blush.

"You made a mess." You said sarcastically.

He looked at you then down blushing. Again, it was cute. You took one finger and licking it clean. Taehyung looked at you quite stunned.

"You ready to go watch some movies?"

You grabbed a plaid shirt in the back and started wiping up the mess. You got fully dressed and made yourself out of the car. You felt Tae sighed in relief that those girls were gone.

"What are you doing with that?" He asked pointing at his plaid shirt now covered in the sticky substance.

"I'm going to wash it and then I'll see if you get back." He smiled at your response.

He held your hand as you both made it inside to an empty room. You watched movies until you basically fell asleep.

For the past month you felt like everything has been going well. Taehyung usually spends the weekend with you one week, then the next week you spend your time home visiting home and Tae. You didn't feel lonely anymore. You were doing well in school, Taehyung was part of your friends squad now. It was great.

But then.....

This past week you haven't heard a peep from Taehyung. It was already Saturday when it was his turn to visit you but every call went straight to voice mail and no text has been answered. What was going on?

You knew he was okay and breathing since he would randomly text you saying 'sorry he's not feeling good' or 'he's busy'. happens

"Hey where's Tae?" Seunghee and Youngjae entered the room.

"I don't know....he hasn't responded?"

"Still?" She knew he hasn't been active lately. "Maybe you should go home tonight." She suggested.

"Yeah good idea." You started to pack your things and when you were about to make your way out the door your phone rang.

"My mom's calling?" You said as your two friends stared at you concerned.

"Mom?"

"Hi dear.....are we picking you up Wednesday or are you driving?"

You felt extremely confused. What did she mean?

"What are you talking about, I have school?" You said slowly.

"Oh no..." She said more to herself.

What was going on? You felt your heart beating rapidly.

"He didn't tell You." She said sadly.

"Tell me What?"

It took her some time to finally say it. "Taehyung's grandmother passed away."

You dropped your phone stunned at the news.

"(Y/N)? What's wrong?" Seunghee looked at you.

Just then you felt your stomach begin to tremble.

#bts smut #bts scenarios #bts one shot #bts fanfic #bts imagines #bts angst #bangtan fanfic #bangtan scenarios #bangtan angst #bangtan one shot #bangtan smut #Bangtan imagines #taehyung smut #taehyung scenarios #taehyung imagine #Taehyung oneshot #taehyung fanfic #taehyung angst

[treehugginglibrarian]

My Nana is Why I’m Like This

Writing about my Nana is hard, because our relationship was at times hard. I think anyone with an alcoholic or an addict in the family can relate to that. I learned a fair many lessons from her over the years, all of them useful even if not all of them were lessons that were learned in an enjoyable manner. That said, lessons are not what I want to think about just yet. Yes, she was flawed. When she was in a good place, though, and at her best, she was a truly wonderful human. For now, at least, for the few minutes it takes to write each of these pieces, I’m going to let myself pretend that this lovely person is all that ever existed of my Nana. To that, I offer some of her more poignant, thoughtful, or generally amusing moments.

Blankie

When I was a baby, basically everyone in my life lived in Massachusetts, as did I. My Nana lived in a nice house in Richmond with her husband at the time. Whenever we would visit, my mother would put a blanket down on the couch so as to ensure that if I puked, or drooled, or spit up, or just did baby-things in my sleep, my Nana’s couch would be safe. Apparently, after so many months of this, I eventually decided the blanket I was laying on was “mine.”

My mother found this out when she tucked it into a closet after we got home one evening, and I started to cry. She opened the closet and I stopped. Close: Cry. Open: Stop. When she walked me into the closet, I apparently pulled the blanket in question off the shelf, stuck my thumb in my mouth, and settled down. I had a blankie. While this was fine for sleeping and such, my mother was a little concerned. Not because blankets are inherently bad, as even back then there were psychological studies showing that children with comfort toys were actually better adjusted than those without. No, she was worried about more practical matters. Such as laundry day. Or if the damned thing should happen to go missing.

Enter my Nana, to save the day.

My Nana had not found the “original” blankie, but she was who found the “spare” that, excepting the overall color, was exactly identical to the one I used every night. So it was that on most days and nights I could be found dragging around a pink and white gingham and flower print blankie, as though it was a fifth limb. On occasion, however, this blanket would be replaced with one that was yellow. So that the pink one could get washed. Until, at the age of 13 or so, an age at which most normal humans would have long since stopped carting a blanket anywhere, I did something crazy: I retired the pink blankie. Torn to bits and more patchwork than blanket, it was time.

My yellow blanket took over, full time, moving into the task like the champ that it was. Sporting little more wear or tear than a grey foot print from a porch painting incident, this blanket has incidentally been a fair many places with me. It went away to college with me. It moved to Israel with me. It deployed to Iraq with me. It is the blanket I have cried into over failed relationships, fucked up friendships, and fights with my mom. And, yes, it was the blanket I sobbed into when I fully realized that I was never going to see my Nana again.

As for how this came to be… My mother watched a young boy have his comfort object taken away when it was done to one of her babysitting charges. She swore that, even if his parents didn’t realize it, he was never completely the same. Comfort objects are constants. Present when distance, disagreements, or death separate us from the people who matter most. She swore then and there, well before she’d ever read any research reinforcing her opinion, that she would never do that to her child. Which is how I was a 24-year-old Army Officer who ended up taking a blanket to Iraq with me. It’s also probably why I have a stuffed cow that’s been to more countries than most humans I know.

Shirley Temples

I have an absurd fondness for Shirley Temples. That’s not a typo in which I pluralized a child actress, nor is it a reference to a rather fun tap dance step. No, it’s a reference to a non-alcoholic mixed drink typically made with Sprite or 7-Up, grenadine, and cherries. Mind you, I don’t much care for Sprite, 7-Up, or maraschino cherries on their own. But mixed with grenadine and presented to me on a special occasion, my brain is convinced it is the best thing ever.

This is completely my Nana’s fault.

As a child, I was fascinated by the glasses that my Nana’s drinks came in. I was disinterested in the drinks themselves, as they smelled funny, but I liked the glasses. They were so fancy and grown up, and everything you said seemed more important if you were holding one. To that end, my Nana took to ordering me a Shirley Temple in a martini glass whenever we were out for a special occasion, that way I could feel important and profound just like the grown ups.

It didn’t take long for special occasions with my Nana to translate into special occasions of all sorts, and for the glass shape to stop mattering quite so much. As I got older, Shirley Temples became my go-to drink if I was out with friends, out for a celebration, or at a wedding, and I knew I should’t be drinking alcohol. Yes, yes, I have been introduced to the “Dirty Shirley” and, while I find the drink amusing, I prefer wine, whiskey, or bourbon if I want actual alcohol.

At a bar after a car accident a few years ago, I asked the bartender if he could make me a Shirley Temple (I was on concussion protocol, no alcohol for at least two weeks), and he found the request so endearing he refused to charge me for it. And, no, he actually wasn’t hitting on me. When I asked him how much it was, his response was, “No charge. That’s the cutest drink I’ve made in weeks. The chance to be a kid at work doesn’t have a price tag attached.”  

Courtesy of my Nana’s desire to include me when I was a small child, a simple drink now has dozens of happy memories attached to it and has become a tradition so ingrained that I genuinely cannot think of the word “celebration” without thinking of Shirley Temples. Someday, when my nieces or nephews get married, I’m gonna be that eccentric 50-some-year old woman sitting there with my rainbow hair and my excessive glitter, sipping a bright pink drink.

My Nana would approve.

Scotland

When I was nearly 7, my Nana whisked me away on a near empty flight to a beautiful land of greenery, castles, and grey skies, so we could celebrate my birthday. It was October, so the British Isles weren’t exactly a cheery place to be. It was of no matter to me, though. Every part of the trip, from the passport to the money to the fact that my Scottish great aunt and uncle did not understand the purpose of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, was fascinating to my tiny little brain.

From the moment we landed, I found the “strangeness” of Scotland to be intensely intriguing. I was amused by the fact that my great uncle’s car had the steering wheel on the “wrong” side. I was baffled by the idea that buildings as old as the castles we toured could possibly be standing still. I was mesmerized by the sheer amount of red hair, something I almost never saw back home unless I was looking in a mirror or looking at my mom.

My great aunt Nan was in the beginning stages of what would eventually become dementia, which meant I was eternally referred to as Tammy (my mom’s nickname) and often asked about memories of a childhood I hadn’t lived. I eventually stopped correcting her and, instead, goaded her into telling me about these memories. It’s a sneaky way to learn about your mother’s childhood that only a child can cheekily get away with!

On my birthday, she made me a giant fluffy cake that was covered in bright pink, strawberry icing, and put zero limitations on how much of it I could eat. There was always tea, always, which went a long way towards explaining how my mother had ended up passionately obsessed with the stuff. Presented to me with honey and cream in it, I came home with a new appreciation for my mother’s preferred beverage.

At a tea shop, having no idea what any of the desserts or cakes were, I asked the person taking our order to bring me their favorite. Thus, at the age of 7, I was introduced to scones. Which I described as “cookie biscuits,” because they were too fluffy to be one and too sweet to be the other. I still enjoy them immensely, but only with tea, and I still think they’re technically “cookie biscuits.”

My Nana taught me at a young age that it was not only okay to be curious about the things you didn’t understand, it was okay to go explore them. To ask questions. To try new things. Nearly 30 years after this first adventure overseas, I still travel in much the same way. With a curiosity that is intent on learning about the country and the culture I’m momentarily immersing myself in, a desire to find out what the locals like best, and a fondness for trying all of the hot beverages and desserts humanly possible while there.  

Glow-in-the-Dark

Me: Nana, do you remember that time Aunt Anita asked me about blowjobs? Nana: *snort of laughter* Yes, of course I do. You were 14 and you were mortified.

This recollection, gifted to a darkened bedroom in my step-great-grandmother’s house in Montauk, called to mind an event two year’s prior. While visiting relatives in Cape Cod, my great Aunt Anita had asked me if I put condoms on men before giving them blowjobs. Before anyone freaks out, she was on the older side, had never met me before, and probably had no idea that I was only 14 at the time.

My mother was somewhere between mortified, furious, and amused. My Nana laughed and explained that, as her granddaughter was only 14, it was actually pretty unlikely I had given all that many blowjobs in my life. My great aunt looked at me expectantly  and, when I nodded the affirmation that my Nana was correct, she sighed and patted my hip. “Child,” she said, “don’t make them wear them.” She raised a finger in the air to emphasize her next point, “it’s not about them, mind you. It’s just that the only thing that tastes worse than a dick, is lubricated latex.”

The more you know, I suppose.

(It is worth noting that I have no idea how this conversation started. I walked downstairs for a glass of water and simply found myself being asked about blowjobs. I like to imagine my great aunt would be entertained to know I’ve given up on dicks entirely.)

Anyway, lying in the dark in Montauk two years later, still having never given a blowjob, I offered my Nana this tidbit: I found out they make flavored condoms. That would solve Aunt Anita’s problem! Nana: *hilarious laughter* I’ll be sure to tell her that the next time I talk to her! Me: They also make glow-in-the-dark ones. Though I feel like that would be a little too much like turning a penis into a lightsaber. Nana: *contemplative silence* Sweetheart, if you need it to glow in the dark, you need more than just a condom I think.

I offer no wisdom or insight gleaned from this exchange. I know only that for years to come afterwards, if either of us noticed something truly absurd while out and about together, we’d point at it and just mutter “look, a glow-in-the-dark condom,” and the other would know exactly what we meant.

Charming the ROTC

“We’re going to Daytona Beach. You should come. We’re gonna stop in Fort Meyers so George can see her great aunt or something.”

So began my spring break trip my sophomore year of college. The only year that I went on what most would consider a “typical” spring break trip, as the two years after that I traveled via the geography department on my campus. Since my Nana lived quite close to Fort Meyers, we figured it only appropriate to stop in and say ‘hi’ to her while we were in the area. Which is how she ended up with 8 or 10 ROTC cadets showing up on her doorstep crazy early in the morning on an April day.

We had set out quite early the day prior intending to drive all the way through. The end state was that we ended up arriving at like 6am or something. Blessedly my Nana was still an early riser, so she welcomed us all in and got us settled with showers and naps. She stuck around much of the afternoon, keeping us company while we splashed in the pool, getting to know the boy I was dating at the time, and peppering my college friends with questions about pretty much anything she wanted.

They were wholly charmed, with at least one of them threatening to steal her away and make her an honest woman. Again.

Come evening, not wanting to witness the debauchery or “get in the way,” she headed a couple doors down to stay with a friend. She’d pointed us in the direction of the wine bottles and the glasses, asking only that we not ransack the expensive stuff, and making a remark about the cleaner being in the day after tomorrow.

I’m not certain what she’d expected to find when she came back the next day, early afternoon, but I don’t think a nearly spotless apartment was it. I had awoken to one of my friends vacuuming. Someone else was scrubbing a bathroom. A third person was unloading a dishwasher that I’d drunkenly loaded and run the night prior. I began stripping beds and doing laundry. By noon or so that day, when she came back over intending to say goodbye as we made our way a touch up the coast to George’s great aunt, the apartment was cleaner than when we’d gotten there.

Naturally, my Army buddies were welcome to come back to visit her any time they wanted. Though O’Dell did get warned that if he asked her to marry him again she was probably going to say yes and that would make things super awkward for me!

I think we’d all have been that polite and respectful of anyone we were visiting. I also think that my Nana made it easier, though, just by being herself. She was the type of person you wanted to be good to. Exuberant from the moment we walked in the door, ever the charmer, ever the entertainer, and wanting only for everyone around her to have fun. It was a simple task to want to repay that kind of energy, even if only in the form of a super clean apartment.

Swimming with Dolphins

Have you ever gotten sun poisoning?

No? You’re a sane and normal human for whom sunscreen is sufficient protection against the big orange ball in the sky? Fuck you and your melanin, I hate you both.

I have gotten sun poisoning.

In Key West.

When my Nana took me to swim with the dolphins.

Stop laughing, I’m not fucking joking!

The day started out fantastic. Obviously. There were dolphins! Does any day that starts with dolphins start out badly? No. Of course not. As I was with my over-protective Nana, I was slathered in SPF five million. Apparently that was no match for the Florida sun in open water, though. Around 3am the next morning I woke up to projectile vomit basically everything I’d consumed after my dolphin adventure. This continued. And continued. And continued. Until, around 7am, it was decided I needed a doctor.

There was basically no one in the waiting room at the hospital in Key West. Despite this fact, after waiting for over an hour, we left. Unsurprisingly, we actually had much better luck at a local family doctor who, despite having a waiting room full of people, was able to see me within 30 minutes or so. He prescribed a suppository which my Nana took me to pick up at a local pharmacy, and then I got to have happy fun times trying to shove drugs up my ass.

By late afternoon the puking had mostly subsided. My Nana had ordered Chinese food as she knew doing so would afford her the ability to order me way too much rice, which I ate tentatively but gratefully. We then got dressed in something resembling normal clothes and decided to salvage the afternoon with a trip down to the shore/board walk/shopping area. At some point I puked in a trash can. At another point my Nana convinced me a popsicle would probably be a good idea since I really needed electrolytes. At one point we walked past a jeweler that was selling gemstone globes and I lamented the fact that I was not feeling well enough to go in and look properly.

As the sun set, we found ourselves sitting on a bench watching buskers, my Nana eating some sort of street food and me eating soup of some sort, having managed to almost salvage 60% of our last day in Key West. I apologized for having ruined our weekend and my Nana kissed my cheek and told me any weekend with me would never be ruined.  

The next morning, I felt almost right as rain, though insanely hungry. So we went back down to the shops and such and got pancakes and french toast and all those other things that are delicious but terrible for upset tummies. She then detoured us passed the jewelry store, where we ducked inside and I bought my first gemstone globe. An expense I couldn’t afford, but that I’m insanely grateful I spent the money on. I love that sparkly orb so very much!

Half-way across the bridge back to the mainland, the flashing lights of an annoyed police officer showed up in the rearview mirror. When he walked up to the car and realized the young one was the passenger, I couldn’t tell if he was amused or miffed.

“I’m so sorry, Officer,” I said, leaning across my Nana and smiling as big as I could. “She brought me down here to swim with the dolphins, and wouldn’t you know I got sick and spent yesterday in the hospital. She’s just trying to get me home to a familiar bed and some soup. We’ll slow down.”

The Officer studied me for a minute before telling me to feel better, and letting us off with a warning.

“Out,” I said, pointing out of the car, as soon as he’d driven away. “You cannot be trusted with the keys, out!”

My Nana looked sheepish as we switched sides and I got us back to Naples, sans accidents or speeding tickets.

A month later, I called my Nana laughing hysterically. “They billed me,” I said, unable to control myself. “They billed me as though I saw a doctor. 1800 dollars! They billed me at the hospital.”

My Nana gasped, “They charged you that much to check your fucking blood pressure? You called and yelled at them, right?”

“Of course I did,” I said. “I told them they couldn’t have my money until they treated me, and they voided the bill. But still,” I sighed, still chuckling, “they fucking billed me.”

The family doctor that actually treated me? Still don’t know what I owe him. Either he figured out how to bill Tricare, or he decided an Army Officer puking her brains out was on the house. My guts thank him, either way.

Surprise!

In what had to be the strangest quirk about my Nana, she was probably the only grandmother I know of who didn’t like it when her grandchildren came to stay with her. Admittedly, she didn’t seem to like it all that much when anyone came to stay with her. Everything about our visits stressed her out. Having to plan for our arrival stressed her out. Feeling like she had to entertain us stressed her out. Having us interrupt her perfectly ordered living environment stressed her out. It wasn’t uncommon to feel like you were being shoved out the door by the time a visit was over because, in all honesty, you probably were.

This was helped immeasurably when my Uncle got his own place about 30 minutes from my Nana. Unlike her, he is not an overly ordered individual who likes his living arrangement “just so” and feels compelled to plan for someone’s visit. He really doesn’t care who’s there or not, he’s probably doing his thing no matter what. I started staying with him when I would visit my Nana, eliminating the major stressor of “human interrupting stable environment.”

I eliminated her compulsion to plan for my visit by simply showing up. Unannounced. Like a next door neighbor asking for sugar or milk.

The first time I did this I hadn’t seen my Nana in over a year or so. The visit prior had been… unpleasant… and I had needed some space to recover and recoup. My Nana, though one of my favorite humans, was an alcoholic. This meant visits, or parts of them, could occasionally be volatile. Initially, I had planned to go to Florida just to see my Uncle. He said he’d feel awful if he saw me and my Nana didn’t, though, and insisted I at least see her while I was down. I agreed, but only under the condition that he didn’t tell her I was coming. I didn’t want any of the nonsense and fuss that often led to her stressing herself sick (read: drunk) and, ultimately, wishing none of us were there.

So it was that on a warm February evening I arrived for a “condo  complex party” at my Nana’s, and tappity-tapped on her lanai door  while calling in a sing-song voice, “Nana, Nana, I’m coming in. I want a hug! And some wine!”

To say she was shocked to see me would be the understatement of the century. I was slightly worried I’d induced a heart attack at first. Shortly after the shock, however, came sheer and unadulterated delight. Possibly the first time I’d seen her be that delighted to see me since I was in high school. Five minutes later, when her friend Cornel arrived and I opened the door he went through the same series of emotions before saying, accusingly, “Ruth! You didn’t tell me Lyndsey was coming to town.”

“Well, I didn’t know!” she said, laughing. “She just showed up on my lanai, saying she wanted a hug and a glass of wine. Isn’t it the greatest surprise ever!”

I stayed with my Uncle the entire visit, and every visit thereafter, allowing her to keep her space as she liked it. We’d go to lunch, go to the zoo, go to the botanical garden, and sip coffee after my long bike rides. I had cracked the code. I had figured out how to visit my Nana, without stressing her out. Because she wasn’t stressed out, she didn’t get snippy or testy or nasty. On the occasion she drank too much alcohol, she mostly laughed a lot or talked about how much she loved us, rather than getting mean.

In the years that followed, I showed up at restaurants to surprise her, showed up at her boyfriend’s condo during a party, and walked into her place in the middle of the afternoon, wearing my swimsuit, to demand she come float on pool noodles with me. It wasn’t unusual for everyone in her social circle to know I was coming, except for her. After all, I had to plan to see them while I was down there, and I couldn’t do that if I didn’t tell them when I’d be in town! Everyone loved the joy she took out of my “just showing up” so much, though, that it was the general habit not to tell her.

The pandemic killed my ability to surprise her, because everything had to be so meticulously planned. Which is why, the last visit I made without my mother, I brought my wife as the surprise. My Uncle knew Lesia was coming with me, but my Nana did not. She was delighted, particularly since she’d picked up an obsession with puzzles and Lesia happens to be very good at them. We’d drive down in the evenings after work, have dinner with her, and Lesia and she would puzzle for a while as I scratched my head and glared at a singular piece with no intention of finding its home.

Of all of my visits, that very first surprise one will reign forever as my favorite one ever made. The look of delight on her face as I came into her living room demanding a hug, the sheer glee with which she told all of her neighbors, “This is my granddaughter. She came all the way from Ohio without telling me. She gave me herself as a surprise! Isn’t it wonderful!” was all the evidence one could ever need of just how much she loved me. 

(Even if she didn’t want me sleeping under the same roof as her!)

Wheel Chairs at Zoos

In 2018, my Nana made the last trip to my parents’ house that she would make in her lifetime. It was a trip that was made largely on accident. A year or so prior, we had all decided my Nana needed to get the hell out of dodge before Irene hit, since it looked like that bitch was going to make a bee-line for Naples. Though her condo was generally unscathed, Irene did hit Naples harder than most hurricanes, flooding entire regions of the city and uprooting hundreds of trees. My Nana rode it out with her boyfriend, at his summer place in Maine.

My mother had booked the ticket and had borne the brunt of the airlines’ desire to make big bucks by gouging the shit out of every purchaser trying to get out of the region before the storm hit. They then got harshly reprimanded by the federal government for that bullshit, and found themselves gifting basically anyone who had paid more than they should have with a free plane ticket. My Nana used it to visit my parents. Who tucked her into a car for the two hour drive to Cleveland so that she could see her granddaughter’s house.

My Nana had lived independently for basically forever. She was divorced before it was acceptable to be such and while she remarried a couple times, I don’t know that she ever took any of them all that seriously. Because of the era, there were certain things she’d simply been unable to do. Like buy her own car. Or buy a house. Or have a fucking credit card. So to her, the fact that I owned my own car AND my own house was a remarkable feat signifying how far we had come since she was my age.

Humorously, she ended up visiting us the weekend that our basement flooded, which meant she got to see what the worst parts of homeownership are like. It also meant that simply hanging out at our house wasn’t really an option, since the fans in the basement were so loud it made it difficult to think. As we’d had a hunch we’d want to do something, anyway, we settled on the zoo. It was an idea that made my Nana nervous, as she wasn’t sure she’d be able to walk the entire thing, but Lesia and I were unconcerned.

For $20 bucks, we rented a wheelchair, plopped my Nana in it, and promptly ran around the place like we were little kids pushing a shopping cart. We got running starts to go up hills, popped wheelies on stairs, and shrieked “weeeeeeee!” as we raced down ramps. My Nana was thoroughly delighted, my brother was both amused and embarrassed, and my mom was just happy her mom was smiling ear to ear the entire day. I think my father is now concerned this is how we’re going to treat him in his old age. He’s right to be concerned, we absolutely are.

Two years later, visiting her at her place during a global pandemic in which she had not left her condo in six months, I suggested that she, myself, and Lesia go to the local zoo. I had already looked it up, and we could rent a wheelchair for her so she wouldn’t have to worry about walking. There were a couple different animal shows we could see while we were there and everything. Wouldn’t it be nice to get out of the house for a bit?

“Are you going to say ‘weeeeee!’ when we go down the hills?” she asked, with a mischievous grin. 

Indeed, we did.

Pink Wine Glasses

“It’s pink!”

Such was my squeal of delight when, after an exceptionally long workday, my Nana proffered a glass of white wine in a piece of stemware that was, indeed, pink. Though I’m weirdly neutral on pink clothing, I’m a huge fan of random things that shouldn’t be pink, being pink. Pink wine glasses are basically the most perfect wine glasses ever.

To that end, I was delighted when she said, “Oh good, you like them? Take them with you when you go home!”

Which I did. On my very last trip to my Nana’s condo, she packed up those pink wine glasses and made sure they made it into the car with me. I gave her a hug, and told her I loved her, and thanked her for my pink stemware. Two days later, before meeting her and some friends for dinner, my mother and I began the arduous task of packing a months worth of stuff and those wine glasses got lovingly wrapped in t-shirts, underwear, socks, and pajamas. All four made the journey home in one piece.

There isn’t really much of a story to tell here, except that the very last gift that my Nana personally gave me were pink wine glasses. Glasses that I will cherish forever. Glasses that I will use as often as I can, because every time I use them I think of her. Glasses that make everything you drink look just a little pinker. Just a little brighter. Just a little happier.

It was a fitting final present, I think, as my Nana often strove to make my life a little brighter and a little happier. Now, each time I sip her favorite drink, I can capture some of that lightness, courtesy of a gleefully pink piece of stemware.

[artdjgblog]

Innerview: M.L. / ​University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA

April 2008

Image: MO Fine Arts Academy Name Badge / Logo: Roman Duszek

Note: ​Interview for a design student’s art history lecture​.​

Introduction:​

I wanted to know if you would be willing to answer a few questions for me. I really like your work, because I really appreciate the super hand-done and collage quality of it. I think it’s a way of working that’s often forgotten and overlooked, but personally I really like it, and your work really appeals to me. I’m especially interested in your work with show posters, so if you would be amenable to a short interview I would really appreciate it. You can just shoot me back an e-mail, or if you prefer a phone interview that would be fine too. Thanks! ​0​1) Did you go to school for art, or are you self taught? I was fortunate to attend one of the best kept secrets in design schools at Southwest Missouri State University (SMSU) in Springfield, MO. Shortly after I left, the name was simplified to Missouri State University. (Rewind A Bit to 1996) The year before my ​F​reshm​a​n fall semester, I was selected for the first annual Missouri Fine Arts Academy, which was held on the campus of SMSU. Before my senior year of high school (back in 1996) I thought about pursuing a career in architecture design, in particular, the area of sports stadium design. Though, after several years of lying to myself that I would eventually kick my math deficiency, I got a kick in the gut that this might not be my best choice. I loved to shut myself in my room for hours at a time drawing everything from comics to sports logos to buildings and such. I loved the creative aspect of this and felt that not only might I lose some of that personal one-on-one with architecture (though, nothing short of creative, but it’s a relatively computer and technical group effort), I would be held responsible to make the designs actually “work”. Being that I was terrible at math I didn’t want to be held accountable for future building flops. So, at the Fine Arts Academy I did a little bit of re-discovering of my own wheels, as I realized that I had more to offer from my fingertips. Raised from the dirt of a farm in the middle of the mid-west, I was pretty naive to most all things having to do with graphic design, I just knew that I should head in that direction, yet not limit myself only there. And I had shown signs of graphic design earlier on by way of winning a small town logo competition for a skating rink / bowling alley in the fifth grade. I just had a hunch while in creation of the identity (they kept the original, but i still have the newspaper clipping copy depicting my original entry) that I would be chosen out of the dozen other area schools and get my creation up on that big sign. Well, come time for the grand opening of The Fun Factory, my school principal forgot to notify me or my parents that I was the celebrated one to christen the new establishment. The next week she apologized, but i didn’t really give a care as I don’t like such sanctions of attention, and I still don’t. Most kids would have been struck with disappointment by the loss of a free chance to be the first to scuff the freshly waxed lanes with boulders and the new floor with skates, but the deep gut spoilage came to me by way of finally getting to see my logo up on that sign. I was devastated. My design had been butchered. This was my earliest memory of design sabotage. How could somebody take my vision and just ruin it? I look at all things in my life to have lead me up to this point in the writing, and so I feel that early little burnt spark in my gut that day told me something important…pour yourself into your work and protect that. (Fast Forward To 1996) To shorten the story, I came back from those three weeks of Fine Arts Academy in a born-again sense within my own talents, though still unsure of how to officially tap into it like I once had before body hair and outside influences and distractions pushed “play”. Being inspired by a couple of graffiti artists that I observed at the Fine Arts Academy, I began studying the art of typography (though, I had no idea what that word meant then) by way of this whole new world of urban language. And being that I tried to keep my nose clean and lived on a farm in the middle of nowhere, I just practiced my own graffitied typography twists and turns by way of perfecting one-of-a-kind personalized locker names and special birthday certificates for my classmates and friends on cheap Wal-Mart sketchbook paper. I was never so thankful to be attached to my small school in such a way as I only had two dozen classmate name plates to hand draw and color and diecut. If I did that now, my hands would surely buckle. I didn’t need to do it then, but I saw it as an investment towards the future growth of my work, or some way to start my last year of schooling fresh. My senior year was mostly spent in my bedroom making things. All of my friends had girlfriends and I had my work to sit next to on weekend nights. I also was inspired by a new art teacher at the school named Allen Heck. He was a real artist and not just some fluke or painter who couldn’t sell work so in-turn dropped on the totem pole to teach a crummy low-budget art program. Allen had a business head and an artistic head and he meant business in a classroom that spilled creativity. Even though there were a couple of art teachers before Allen that I admired, most art classes before his were mostly afterthoughts or throwaways. Places where the jerk-off kids could goof and ruin the atmosphere for the ones who wanted to be there to learn and develop, just like at most any school, i suppose. Anyway, I found an excuse to be in Allen’s classroom as much as I could and he sorta guided me on some design paths. I also helped him teach several of the elementary classes (we had K-12 grades all under one roof) that year. At this same time I was getting really involved in devouring music and an early mining idea of combining art and music started to strike, though it wouldn’t cement until several years later. Outside of Allen’s classes I landed a logo for the local Future Farmers of America chapter, along with other little so-called “best artist in the class” projects. A title that I didn’t really think I deserved as a friend of mine was ten times the draftsman that I was. Anyway, for my not-so troubles with the Future Farmers (I wasn’t a member and I didn’t want to follow my blood line), I got a giant canvas carrying case for artwork big enough that a beefy baby calf corpse could take a nap in it (I use it now to stuff my dirty clothes in for the laundromat trips). In early 1997, my guidance counselor set-up a special solo trip for me to visit an area company that specialized in yearbook designs. I went and wasn’t completely enthused about this place that seemed to put a lock on creativity in a darkened room with eyes staring at computer screens, shuffling around items given to them, though, I lied to myself that as I would grow older, this is what I might want. It just didn’t really say “Happiness” to me though, more-so (to quote The Beatles), “Happiness is a warm gun”. Still, I decided to go on ahead with going to a college that had graphic design courses. As graduation loomed on the purple and white horizon, I began to think a bit more seriously about applying for schools to further my education. Being that I had some solid fortune at the Fine Arts Academy at Southwest Missouri State University, and being that Springfield, MO was four hours south down the black top road (far enough from everything, but not too far for a weekend visit), I registered with no time to spare. Thoughts of the Kansas City Art Institute loomed, but they were more expensive, and i felt some sort of strange magnetism to SMSU. I ended up getting in by a scrape to the only college I applied for. I had the lowest common denominator for test scores and was in the top half of my graduating class as I was 12 out of 24. That was all the requirements I needed, the deal was set. The transition from high school to college art class (like most I assume) was a little challenging for me as I soon realized that the mold I was in previously had to be broken as I wasn’t comparable to skill with my new classmates. Though, the drawing classes frustrated, yet intrigued me, I did do fairly decent in my fundamentals design classroom. And this is where I learned more about making like-minded, potential life-long friends, a skill I hadn’t perfected much since my first day of Meadville first grade. All of my friends in foundations course were annoyed with working in cutting blades and paper and such…whereas, I flourished a good reputation in those departments and at times neglected all other areas of my studies to perfect my art skills. On break one early spring morning my friends spoke of much better things to come in the coming semester. Their minds were on the computer. They couldn’t wait as they had backgrounds in computer-related image creating in their high school yearbook classes. My school had one computer until I was a senior, and then we got a baker’s dozen or so. Other than that few hour visit to the local yearbook factory, I was naive to the idea of a computer as the essential tool for the modern day graphic designer. Exhausted by their comments, anxieties swelled in me and out finally popped my ignorance to the subject, “I plan to take the direction in graphic design that is done without the computer. I’m going to take the courses that are all hands-on.” And instant mockery, was I. My friends ripped me a new one and basically said I better learn pretty quick because graphic design wasn’t conquered without the computer. This is all really quite humorous to me know (possibly to them too) as I’ve somehow managed some mild success with my hands-on design approach and most of them are staring at computers all day in jobs they dislike or not even doing graphic design at all. Later that year I found out where the design kids were stuffed as I climbed aboard a twenty minute bus ride to the small downtown area of Springfield and up an elevator zooming past vacant floors housing archives of university products and collections to the top of a five story building where the world of graphic design officially opened up to me. Did it open wide at first? That answer is a giant NO as I was still so naive to what the heck I was getting into that when my friends early-on claimed, “I can’t wait until next semester for typography class”. I said, “Cool! We get to design maps?” ​0​2) Were your areas of interest in school (artistically) the same as they are now? My artistic whatevers were put on hold the first few semester of design school. Not only that, but they were run thru the emotional and physical gambits over and over. Being thrown on a computer was very troubling for me and there was a time that I almost quit design all together because I didn’t feel a connection to the work anymore thru the screen barrier. So, I struggled to find myself again for about a year and a half. Though, at the same time the design instructors at SMSU were (and still are) old-fashioned in a sense with their training and we still did many hands-on projects. I shined more in these areas, though my work still seemed more like decorating than me trying to say something. True, design is pretty much decorating and saying something, but, I couldn’t really find myself and it felt more like doing my chores than anything else. I think it can be dangerous when the designer is hogging the avenue and only speaking for their ego or style and not client intentions. Sometimes a healthy dose of both works, sometimes not. Anyway, I just didn’t “get” what I was doing and basically was doing an incredibly OK job at fulfilling my instructor’s projects. Which is fine, but it took me a while to really enjoy design. All of the instructor’s at SMSU were (mostly still are) from Eastern Europe and Russia. This was a great experience for me as it opened me up to not only a unique education in design, but also one in culture. I felt a strange connection to this as I was somewhat foreign being an artistically-challenged kid from a farm in The Sticks, Missouri. There is an exciting mix of design and passion going on down there on the fifth floor of that building. New wheels in me started to get greased around this same time and my eyes started to open a pinch. And they really thumped when I went on a limb to attach illustration classes to my already full plate during my junior year. I was starting to get hungry and / or full…full in a sense to where I needed to get the work out of my system. It was time for me to find my voice. ​0​3) How did you get started working as a​n​ illustrator? Growing up and drawing a lot, I thought I was pretty decent at it, but nothing more special or ordinary than creating strange, graphic WWII battles and mimicking comic book characters. I even had an epic, life-sized drawing of Batman I worked on at my grandma’s almost every week after school. Sadly, I think it was thrown away recently when she moved. However, on the back burner to the drawing, there was a side of me that always did a lot of cut-outs and saving and archiving of things. I think most every kid at some point cuts things of interest from magazines and tacks them to their wall or jumbles words cut to make “cool” sayings glued on paper. My older brother and I did this a lot. Mostly, we were just never bored and always doing something and always being inspired by anything and everything. We even created our own little magazine (I still have a few issues) at my grandma’s. My grandmother was a good influence on my creative side too as we were always making homemade things there. My siblings and I recreated any event we went to or anything we watched on television / movies in our sandbox, tree house(s), forts and bedroom. I was fortunate to have a large intake of popular culture and mix that with the experience of farm life and a lot of room to play. All of this fueled my creative side to where at a younger age I had a lot of options to choose from and I enjoyed and loved them all. Though, it took me a while to re-discover this within myself in design school. I was getting deeper into school and the ever present “What do I wish to do with my life” question(s) (among other personal mind trappings and inner wrangling). This especially was asked after I signed up with other design students on several professional studio visits. Every time I would come home with an empty heart from these “creative” places that felt more like controlled meat markets than anything remotely creative. Some people thrive in certain areas and not everybody wants the same thing, but the typical trappings of community computer screen shuffling didn’t offer me much hope at all. I have always enjoyed being alone making things. I’ve also been very protective of my creations and I didn’t want to be thrown into a factory-like design setting unless it was my own to where I could do what I wanted, when I wanted and have parental rights and control. Coming back to school from these studio visits was very discouraging to me. I felt confused and as if my career path was in a box already. Around this time I toyed with the idea of taking illustration classes to help push myself a little more as I wanted to keep what little fire I had in me from burning out. However, I wasn’t confident in my illustration skills as I thought I wasn’t solid enough at regular drawing. This is a terrible mistake that I feel many students make. I sorta had to shovel deep and realize the way I created when I was younger and that really helped cultivate a new side of me as I learned how to pour myself into and out of my work again and it was fun and special. Looking back, I think mustering up the courage to find confidence in illustration helped me in the long run. Though, at times I still struggle with thinking that I’m still not good enough at particular things. The only competition I have is with myself. ​0​4) Did it take you a long time to find a working style that you are satisfied with? For the most part I advise for makers of things to stay away from the trap of a “working style”. And it’s mighty easy to stumble or choose something and milk it, which is the feeling I get from the majority of artists and designer’s portfolios. It’s easy to stick with turning over the same old tires on the same old asphalt. I realize I have a certain feel to my body of work, but each day my head’s approach to life is so different (heck each minute sometimes) that I try to trust my gut instincts. I just try to speak from my heart, which ends up in my gut sometimes. A lot of times I trust good ol’ intuition. Of course, some projects require a bit more fine tuning than others as something like a logo has more life than say, a concert poster. Even though the logo might have more of a lasting impression, I’d rather put my butter to the blank paper bread of the poster. I love to try new things and just reach and grab at whatever I have around me and in my head, marriaging that with the band and the music in some strange brew. At times it can be quite intoxicating and when you do it enough and for a long while, you end up not even thinking, rather just doing and it’s fluid and non-calculating. This is when it becomes pure, this is when design becomes true language. I’ve had some projects where I’ll be told about it from a client and I’ll immediately have a vision in my head of how it should look, and then go home and start teaching it how to walk. Items like CD packages are very similar to logos because you’ve got to really give out something that you don’t mind sticking around a while in the lock-down of identity for a product or persona. There have been a few CDs that have happened out in a matter of a couple hours. The majority though, I like to have enough time to tackle and build in three separate sessions. But, I really don’t like sitting on projects for a long time. And usually the client has more of a personal care for a CD than a poster, so it might take a three act play or teeter tottering until all sides are fixed to fancy. I’ve had a few CDs that have stretched to almost a year. Being that my work is recognizable to a hands-on aesthetic, I’m sure most think that I don’t touch a computer. This is true and not true. I try to build as much as I can by hand as I love that connection I get. The screen barrier between me getting dirty with my work has bothered me and created anxieties with my work since day one in formal design class when I was thrown on a computer to mash buttons. I do what I can by hand and then use the computer as a layout and printing tool and I use it to correct or help put the finish on some items. Most designers forget that the computer is only a tool. If I could have it my complete way, I wouldn’t use a computer at all. I have made several projects in this way, but it’s hard to do it all in this fashion anymore and I have a wide format ink jet printer to print a lot of my more complex poster works with. The computer has ruined and helped designers. But, overall I feel that if it’s treated with respect and not used as substitute brains, then a designer will truly show his or her meat and potatoes. For the most part, I get a little disappointed in the output from a vast majority of designers as it all feels far away like an afterthought that doesn’t count, or simply as a decorating kit or pre-fabricated template you buy at a craft store. But, I try to keep my disgruntled burly bears close to my own heels. As long as I am creating what needs to be created from my own little corner of the basement, then I am a pretty happy camper. Though, the computer has broken many a bulb, not only with designers, but also with attitudes toward treating the designer with respect. Maybe it’s always been this way, but it’s easy for me to think that I can throw an iPhone and hit somebody who thinks they know graphic design because they can change the colors on their myspace or blog (and I’d have to borrow their iPhone to do so). It’s great that creativity is being fused with daily interaction, in a sense, but it can get a little confusing for people. I don’t think it should be reserved for a certain few, but I feel that everybody thinks they are a graphic designer now. It’s like trying to keep the raccoons out of the patch of sweet corn. You’ve just got to find the right gauge of wire to shock the perimeter with so they will find other food to steal and nibble. And there are still those who are hungry enough to go find and get the good stuff on their own. I suppose I’ve found myself to be more in tune to old folk artists and with the mindset of the old school designers and illustrators. Folk art is as pure in art and language as cave painting and daily ancient living. I like the idea of somebody just up and making something out of the blue because they’ve got to get their story out for themselves. Last summer I went from The Museum of Modern Art to the American Folk Art Museum in New York City in an afternoon and found a more pure-incentive to making things from the folk artists than the artists and designers across the street. It was refreshing. I had been enjoying my personal study of folk art history the past four or five years, but seeing it out of the pages of a book or web site really gave it a new light. And to see that most folk art has pushed into some avenues of the mainstream is really interesting, though chokes the purity from it original conceptual intention. I find that a lot of artists and designers are just as much about making themselves as important as the work they are producing. I just have never understood this idea. So, what individuals are my art and design in kin with? There are many, and it goes beyond just one field, but here is the short list: Grandma Gibson / Jim Henson / Stanley Donwood / Lester Beall / Saul Bass / Seymour Chwast & Pushpin Studio / Paul Klee / Ivan Chermayeff / Henryk Tomaszewski / Art Chantry / Vaughn Oliver / Edward Gorey / Saul Steinberg / Bill Traylor / Ray Johnson / Eric Carle / Cy Twombly / Robert Rauschenberg / Henry Darger / Hans Schleger…to name a few. There are a few items I’ve created that I can tell don’t speak right in retrospect (and they are probably obvious to others as well). These were the ones that caught me in a bad mood, exhaustion or in a lack of time. It’s so hard not to let the daily life and emotions influence the work. And in my case I’ve never been able to just chase my dreams, as I’ve had to work full-time day jobs and at times part-time jobs on top of those, and then slide my work into late nights and weekends (and I always had a girlfriend on top of that…now, a wife). It can be a hard struggle for a healthy balance. I just try to approach it with the idea that I am a man and a man who happens to make things. I am doing what I need to be doing and working hard towards the goal of some day having all of the clocks wound on my time. I have been fortunate in my choices of day jobs. I admire those who wish to live in near-poverty designing for bands and independent projects, but there is no money in it at all and it’s easy for people to take advantage of you. I tried it for a few short stints, but got tired quickly of scraping by and relying on musician’s responsibility of paying me and I ran out of belongings to sell to pay the rent. Throwing out the few bad apple clients, I must say I can’t complain too much as I’ve been blessed with some great people to not only work with, but also to have relationships with beyond the art. Janitorial and groundskeeping had me for 5 years and I loved it. The pay isn’t great, but I was alone and within my thoughts and had time to write and actually make a few things while on the clock. Also, I was able to bring home whatever stuff I could dig out of the dumpster. I’m still chipping at a 15,000 page stack of bricked paper that I found in a dumpster 6 years ago. Currently, I am in the second year of being trapped in a cubicle as a data entryman. It’s a great job, it’s not too difficult, I work with people I know, I walk to work, I’m able to get my teeth fixed and am setting aside some money now for my future, but I don’t plan to marry it as it’s not what I need to be doing with my talents. Many days I can’t sit still because all I can think about is going home and making things. Design is a way of life for me. It’s easy for it to start to take over at times, but I’ve been working on a better balance of it by getting up at 5:00 in the morning, before the “junk” pollution of the day. I love getting up before the crickets and getting to work. Even if I’m filling up on books and movies, it’s still work for me. But, it’s not really work, it’s just what I enjoy and I kinda need it to aid survival. If a designer only puts their design mind onto paper / screen into a 9 to 5 crack, then they might want to think about looking into other lines of life work to chew on. ​0​5) Do you do a lot of self promotion, and how? I’ve been in an interesting position to where my work has been trickling word of mouth for the most part. I’ve been surrounded in positions where I’ve been around musicians a lot and in general, people have been attracted to my creations to where they too want me to make them something. With age, I don’t get out as much to shows, nor do I live with musicians anymore (thankfully). Those days were great, but that kind of lifestyle can’t be taken seriously forever. But, it helped shape me in some way. And I’ve established myself, somewhat. It still amazes me that my work is speaking in the volume that it has. It’s certainly nothing of major impact, but it means a lot to me. For many years I’ve also been at a constant with submitting large quantities of my work to yearly design magazine annuals. This breaks my bank for sure, but it’s the best way of promotion as the work gets spread around the world quickly. I have contacts in many countries who found me this way and thus, offer me entry into their books, magazines, contests or give me a shot to make something for them. The internet is a great source too, of course. Recently I’ve somehow caught a breathe of fresh air from the web currents and realize the easy importance of putting myself out there on it. It’s a strange world though, and I’m still a bit ignorant of it, but I’m becoming more comfortable. I used to not be into self-promotion much. Not only that, I just didn’t have much time with it, being weighed down by day jobs and life stuff. And I’m a believer of the work speaking for itself and letting it take time to mature and incubate. Right now I’m looking at how much weight my portfolio has gained and am seeing what alternate routes I can walk with it. I’ve always planned to be doing my best work, for me, but I’ve never really pushed it as hard until now, as the big No. 30 looms. True, I am making what I want to make, but I don’t wish to be working a full-time job much longer. I have alot more to say and in different varieties of value packs and I just need more second hands to say it in. 0​6) Lastly, because I’m interested in doing show posters, do you have any advice on positioning oneself into that market?

I tell a lot of people a similar thing that I’ve heard Quentin Tarantino say to aspiring filmmakers, (to paraphrase here) “Just go and make what you need to make and do it at whatever cost.” Just get out there and make things and get those things out, even if you go broke or worn out doing it. Catch fire and start a paper trail. I was fortunate to not only love devouring music since the day my ears could, but ended up in positions to where I was surround by musicians and / or individuals with like-minded inner ear infestations. Most importantly, I found that I could merge the things I loved into a cohesive music and art stomping ground. My last couple of college​ ​years I befriended several bands and musicians and had my own little business on the side from class, making show posters and CD packages. After four and a half years of college and exhausting all my design class options…AND ability to fail Algebra four times and even an art history course…I had a higher calling to quit spinning my own wheels and dropped college from the daily schedule, among many other things weighing me down at the time. It was gutsy, but one of the most crucially sound decisions I’ve ever made. I moved from the Bible Belt Buckle comforts of Springfield and into a big, orange, dilapidated house in the middle of a shady section of Kansas City, Missouri with a band that had become my best friends. I almost didn’t do it as my pants pockets were turned inside-out and thoughts of sticking around the family farm to save up money kept me down. I think a lot of people were very disappointed in me too for quitting school. But, my decision was made and I believe in following the heart instead of stopping up the artery. I would have been miserable to stay at home and I had bigger fields to plow and sew. And I didn’t need a piece of paper saying what I was supposed to be doing. Most importantly, only I can tell myself what I should do with me. -djg

#innerviews

[mysticdelphox97]

Tagged by Kalosstarters c:

Welp, I got tagged by Tiia ( @kalosstarters ) so I guess I gotta do this lmao.

Rules: once you have been tagged you are supposed to write 92 truths about yourself. At the end, choose however many people you want to tag!

(this was 13 fucking pages long on Word jesus. I’ll add a “Keep Reading” break so it doesn’t take up people’s dashboards)

LAST…

[1] drink: a mocha coffee cooler from Baker’s Dozen ^^

[2] phone call: uhh, mom probably.

[3] text message: From Mom: “Here.” (she was picking me up from classes)

[4] song you listened to: I’ve got Pandora Radio playing while doing this, so I’ve heard Panic at the Disco and Against the Current so far.

[5] time you cried: Sunday night because I completely forgot that I had an art critique due the next day and I completely forgot and it was midnight and I was trying to churn out this pathetic paper for something I left until the last minute and [SCREEAAMMMMINGGG]

Phew. Okay, I think I’m good now.

 HAVE YOU EVER…

[6] dated someone twice: I haven’t even dated someone once.

[7] been cheated on: Considering I’ve never been in a relationship, thankfully I can say no lol.

[8] kissed someone and regretted it: Can’t regret something I’ve never done sooooo xD

[9] lost someone special: Yeah… ;^;

[10] been depressed: Ugh… yes. It’s… pretty awful, honestly. Couple that with anxiety and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.

[11] gotten drunk and thrown up: I haven’t gotten drunk before, but I have thrown up after drinking an excessive amount of one of those Starbucks mocha drinks when I was a kid. I can’t even look at one of those things anymore because of that.

 LIST 3 FAVOURITE COLOURS:

[12] Purple, like an orchid. C:

[13] Sky blue is rather pretty~

[14] I know black isn’t technically a color but I sure have a lot of black shirts pfft.

 IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU…

[15] made new friends: Tiia and Beth ( @wingsonghalo)~! :D they might be internet friends but I love talking to them every day <3

[16] fallen out of love: Never really been in love tbh. I’ve had crushes that I’ve grown out, that’s close enough right?

[17] laughed until you cried: That’s pretty much me all the time tbh.

[18] found out someone was talking about you: In high school I think… but they weren’t really bad things.

[19] met someone who changed you: Like, for better/worse? I guess most of the people I’ve met have influenced me in some way or another.

[20] found out who your true friends are: Yep. Kinda happened after I graduated from high school.

[21] kissed someone on your Facebook list: Other than my mom and dad? Nope.

 GENERAL…

[22] how many of your tumblr friends do you know in real life: Other than my friend Kelsie, and a few people from high school. Sadly I do not know Tiia or Beth in real life and that makes me very sad, I wanna meet you guys so bad dang it T^T

[23] do you have any pets: Hah, oh god yeah. Three horses, three sheep (we used to have hundreds when I was a kid), three cats (two are mine and they’re my babies c: ), and two little dogs—a purebred pug and a pug/Pekingese mix. Oh, and my family lives on a farm, in case that needed some clarification.

[24] do you want to change your name: pfft hell no, I love my name. Besides, you’re not gonna meet many people who’s name is Rosaleen (and spelled exactly like that too)

[25] what did you do for your last birthday: I went out to a restaurant with some of my family. It was a school day for my brothers though, and my younger bro had football practice, so it was really just me, my mom, my grandma, and my sister with her baby.

[26] what time did you wake up: a little before 9 AM since I had to go to class.

[27] what were you doing at midnight last night: Pumping out mini profiles for my Pokémon fankids because my priorities are trash. Oh, and playing Candy Crush Jelly.

[28] name something you cannot wait for: MarissonShipping Week! :D I can’t wait to participate in it!!

[29] when was the last time you saw your mother: This morning when I got dropped off at college.

[30] what is one thing you wish you could change about your life: I wish I didn’t have social anxiety so I could actually go out and be productive, and not be so terrified of social interaction with strangers. It’s awful.

[31] what are you listening to right now: Whatever’s playing on Pandora Radio. When I got to this question, “Blood Like Gasoline” by Against the Current was playing.

[32] have you ever talked to a person named tom: Uhh, I knew a Tom in high school… he was kind of a bum though.

[33] something that is getting on your nerves: Whenever my brother doesn’t put away the dishes properly, or doesn’t put them all away. IT’S NOT THAT HARD BRO. HONESTLY.

[35] elementary: Like, elementary school? I guess it was okay… well, except for the boys constantly picking on me. That sucked. And that’s about the time my parents separated. That also sucked. Yeah, elementary school just really sucked.

[36] high school: Oh man I really miss the high school I went to. I flourished so well there and had a great time.

[37] college: Honestly… pretty boring. I’m just taking my general studies and getting them out of the way before I transfer to another college, so I can focus on what I love. The problem is, I really don’t know what I want to do with that. It’s very frustrating.

[38] hair colour: Oh god it always changes because it’s got a bunch of different highlights. It’s like, a reddish-brown with gold highlights, and it gets lighter in the sun. It’s really weird.

[39] long or short hair: Uhh, right now it’s like, a little over shoulder-length. I usually keep it a bit shorter because I never do much with my hair.

[40] do you have a crush on someone: Nope, and when I did get crushes it was always on the wrong kind of person. So I kinda hate crushes on real people since it always disappoints pfft.

[41] what do you like about yourself?: Oh jeez, what DO I like about myself? Well… I guess the fact that I can exceed my own expectations? Like, with driving, I didn’t think I’d do well with it at all—and now that I’ve been driving for over a year now, I’m actually a lot better at it. And on a couple of exams that I took a few weeks ago, I thought I’d get at least a B on them; turns out that I got A’s on both of them. And I like that a lot lol

[42] piercings: I’ve got one in my earlobes, and in high school I used to wear earrings all the time. Now it’s like, kinda sporatic.

[43] blood type: I think it’s a B-. RedCross really wants me to donate again because they keep calling me lmao.

[44] nickname: I go by Mystic on Tumblr and Rose in real life.

[45] relationship status: Single, and tbh that doesn’t bother me too much.

[46] zodiac sign: Virgo c:

[47] pronouns: she/her

[48] fav tv show: Lately I’ve been really into Forensic Files—it’s about older cases and the techniques that were used to solve them. I also love Bones and Criminal Minds. And, of course, there’s the Pokémon Anime.

[49] tattoos: Nope. Though I should get the backs of my hands tattooed so I know which one’s left and which one’s right. It’s a dumb thing to forget but agh I forget way too often.

[50] right or left handed: Right-handed!

 FIRST…

[51] surgery: When I was in first grade I broke my left arm and needed surgery. I also had my tonsils and adenoids removed.

[52] piercing: Ears. I believe I got them in eighth grade.

[53] best friend: My friend Miranda, we’ve been best friends since elementary school c: she’s mostly working now but I usually try to get together with her if her schedule allows.

[55] vacation: I remember going to Washington DC for the first time in fifth grade for a weekend. I don’t remember a whole lot about it though. I guess my first ‘real’ vacation was the class trip I went on in eighth grade, which was also to Washington DC but it was for a whole week. Though I twisted my foot literally the day before I had to leave, so I hobbled about on crutches for the most part, and I had a wheel chair for one of the night tours. A lot of my classmates had fun pushing me around in it lol.

[56] pair of trainers: Is that like, a kind of shoe or sneaker? I’m afraid I have no clue.

 RIGHT NOW…

[57] eating: Nothing. I have a protein bar but I’m kinda stuffed from the breakfast sandwich I had earlier.

[58] drinking: Still working on my mocha coffee cooler.

[59] I’m about to: Eventually post this, preferably before I go to class at 2:00 PM.

[60] listening to: I think I answered this question already earlier… well, now Pandora Radio is playing “Miss Jackson” by Panic at the Disco.

[61] waiting for: uh, nothing in particular. I guess for this day to be over?

[62] want: I can’t really think of anything at the moment.

[63] get married: Ehh, I guess of the person is rich I wouldn’t mind. Though if they want kids I’ll have to drag them to the nearest adoption center, there’s plenty of children there. I don’t necessarily want to procreate when there’s kids that can be adopted into a loving home.

[64] career: Currently a suffering student pfft. I guess I’d like to be an accomplished author or someone who works with animals. Maybe I could even help write movies? Who knows.

 WHICH IS BETTER…

[65] hugs or kisses: I’m a sucker for hugs

[66] lips or eyes: Eyes are nice.

[67] shorter or taller: Meh, I’m not picky.

[68] older or younger: Ehh, not picky here either.

[69] romantic or spontaneous: I like both tbh c:

[70] nice arms or nice stomach: bruh do I gotta choose. Bruh.

[71] sensitive or loud: sensitive

[72] hook up or relationship: Relationship

[73] troublemaker or hesitant: hesitant

 HAVE YOU EVER…

[74] kissed a stranger? Definitely not.

[75] drank hard liquor? I think I tried it (with parent supervision of course). It was nasty lmao.

[76] lost glasses/contact lenses? I don’t believe so. I can’t exactly see without my glasses so they’re usually on my face or on my nightstand.

[77] turned someone down: I think someone asked me out in sixth grade and I turned him down. I kinda felt a little bad because the people I was friends with at the time teased him about it.

[78] sex on first date? Bruh I haven’t even been on a date lmao xD

[79] broken someone’s heart? If I ever did I’m so sorry ;;

[80] had your own heart broken? Yeah…

[81] been arrested? No

[82] cried when someone died? Yes

[83] fallen for a friend? Yeah, it was a crush I had on a guy friend in middle school. We both loved Pokémon and would pretend to have battles during recess. We drifted apart eventually, and he hung out a lot with this other girl. I guess he had a crush on her, but I’m not sure. I kinda miss that.

  DO YOU BELIEVE IN…

[84] yourself? Uhhh, probably not as much as I should...

[85] miracles? It depends

[86] love at first sight? Meh, not really.

[87] Santa Claus? Kinda grew out of that a while ago lol

[88] kiss on the first date? Sure why not?

[89] angels?: I’m kind of indifferent.

 OTHER…

[90] current best friend’s name: Miranda, Kelsie, Beth, and Tiia c:

[91] eye colour: brown

[92] favourite movie: I recently watched Moana and I absolutely loved it, so I’m gonna roll with Moana! :)

 I can’t really think of anyone to tag at the moment, so if anyone wants to do this you’re more than welcome to ^.^

#tag meme

[bitchwyatt]

“Berkeley Avenue” Story Below The Cut. Written By Yours Truly.

A short story/ letter I wrote when I got bored. It took a few hours but I like it.It’s about Berkeley Avenue and how it was named. This letter is the “author”’s suicide note.

It’s all made up and any places/people with these names is just a coincidence.

To Anyone Who Cares,

Berkeley is a long avenue with a short history. 33 miles of smooth, dark asphalt, Berkeley was paved just a bit more than four years ago. The avenue stole its name from the tragic story of a young teen who drunkenly street raced with Death.

Ammadon Berkeley, may he rest in peace, had the unfortunate experience of getting drunk for the first time at a high school house party. Although it was a byob set up, there was plenty to drink. He had been a bit of a wall flower that night, or maybe it was already morning, no one knows for sure, but once he had started drinking, he could  not find the strength or reasoning to stop. Berkeley became the life of the party that night. Everyone knew his name, even if they would forget it in the morning, along with all the other events that transpired.

Having drunk what felt like enough drinks to shame a French noble wine catacomb, Berkeley was officially wasted. Hitting on everyone and hitting everything, God alone knows what possessed him to leave the house that night. It truly is amazing what alcohol can do to a brain and a body. Berkeley stumbled through the night, lurching from car mirror to car mirror, stumbling to find his own. Berkeley’s parents were not the richest, but they certainly were not poor. Berkeley was not born with a silver spoon, but still had a very cushiony life. His first, and only, car was a bright yellow convertible Chevy Corvette. It was not difficult to spot, even if your mind was so numbed by booze, you could hardly think, let alone see. So when Berkeley got in and started it up, other party goers took notice.

One of the competitive type students, who deserved Berkeley’s first name far more than he, initiated a conversation with him; he asked questions about the car, how old it was, the gas mileage, but most importantly, how fast it could go. Determined to prove the point of each car being faster than the other, they decided to have a race.

A new street, not even two weeks old yet, was just a few blocks away, and still a race virgin; it was perfect. They met there and the idiot student brought some friends to watch, to set them off, and to determine the winner. Using a real gun to signal the start, one of the friends shot loud and high up into the air. In a deafening roar of engines the reckless youths sped off down the virgin street. Taillights blazing red like fire from the hell Berkeley was destined for, he proved his car was faster, but he did not stop with the five mile race they set. Both soon to be adults flew down more and more of the 33 mile stretch of pavement. Berkeley’s racing rival was far less drunk than he, and knew the road far better as well, so he slowed down and stopped.

The thing is, what is now Berkeley Avenue is not some lonesome line of asphalt. It forks off into to minor streets known as the Gemini Split. Castor Street and Pollux Drive turn left and right, respectively, on a T intersection with the current Berkeley Avenue. The adolescent Berkeley did not know this. As his Corvette had quickly reached speed upwards of 180 miles per hour, the wind bellowed through the downed convertible top and through his hair showing all of the unfortunately ignorant and drunk youth’s forehead. The wind’s shrieks were too loud for Berkeley to hear the sirens coming from Castor Street. Two police cars shot past him, but the third did not make it by. In a horrid crunching of metal and screeching of tires, the two steel beasts collided. The fourth police car had had time to swerve and only be scraped on the doors; it U turned faster than lightning to investigate what happened.

The officer driving the batted car was majorly uninjured, for he was on the undamaged side of the car. Berkeley, however, was not majorly uninjured. The airbags had not deployed, only meaning the scene looked more gruesome than it could have been. The windshield had shattered so it could stab Berkeley's already lifeless body. He had died on impact, but his corpse soared up above the steering wheel and onto the dash. His neck was sliced by glass shards and shrapnel, spewing blood on his no longer well kept interior. All of the stuff in his car, his school books, his bag, his wallet, phone, and week old take out projectiled to the front as well. The crusty Chinese food was splattered with a bloody sauce and sprinkled with windshield fragment seasoning.

The police sirens were still blaring, and the two cops on the scene called in for backup. Searching for some way to tell who the poor kid was, they found his wallet. The two held a short moment of silence for Ammadon Berkeley, broken only by the engine of the other racer who came to see what had happened. Repulsed by the sight of the tattered body, the second kid vomited off to the side of Pollux Drive’s sign. He explained to the cops what all had went down, from the wild party, to the race, to his stopping, and Ammadon’s winning ignorance. Ashamed because he had not only broken the law to some extent with his street race, but was also essentially responsible for the death of a person he barely knew, the poor soul complied with the cops, taken a breathalyzer and been arrested. He had passed the breathalyzer, since the alcohol had left his system, but still acted in a street race, which was technically illegal. The officers had no reason to handcuff him and simply put him in the back of the nearly unscathed police car. Realizing that they had left the other officers in the crash, the fourth officer radioed to them briefly telling them of  the crash. The rest of the team understood and said that they could not turn around for various reasons.

The ambulance and a fifth police car  had arrived to the scene. The EMT examined the cold kid, sighed and said a short prayer, turned and told everyone the state of Ammadon’s dead self. Although she could not be sure how much to drink Ammadon had, she knew it was far more than anyone should have. If the wreck had not killed him, alcohol poisoning should have.

She lifted him off the dash and into a bag so he could be sent to the hospital mortuary and fully examined. She ushered the third policeman into the back of the ambulance and hoisted Ammadon up with her. The driver of the ambulance turned right down Pollux and the fourth policeman turned left down Castor. The fifth and currently the only remaining badge was left to direct any straggling late night-early morning cars away from all the hell that was this intersection. Word would get out soon, the schools would be filled with normally jovial souls dealing with a small piece of their hearts gone forever. Hawkmoth  Thoroughfare had changed forever in an instant.

The fifth cop thought long about everything that had went down, and thought long about the short life of the long street, and figured it would not be difficult to get the intersection dedicated to him, the kid. It was new enough that it had not been put on many maps and there were only a few street signs with its name. Perhaps the thoroughfare could be renamed entirely.

And it was. Hawkmoth Thoroughfare was officially renamed less than a week later, giving birth to Berkeley Avenue. I think this really helped the Berkeley family. I talked with them a lot, to try and help them forgive Ammadon, and to forgive me. It was my fault after all. I sold my car three days later. I could not bare the memory of sitting in that seat, racing, then riding up on the intersection where everything changed. I was not sent to jail that night. The police held me until morning and let me off with a stern talking to. Our race did not legally have anything to do with Berkeley’s death, so I was off the hook. But it still haunted me; for years I just could not bring myself to ride down Berkely, Castor or Pollux. The Gemini Split was essentially unchanged, and since they renamed the Avenue, the town voted against the dedication of the intersection. But six black sets of tire marks skidded the streets. Two from Ammadon, and four from the police cars. For over a month straight I spent all my free time walking those monstrous, unchanging streaks.

Not a day goes by when I cannot stop thinking about what happened four years ago. And not a day goes by when I cannot stop wishing I had just stayed at home, or at least not drank anything. Today is one of those days, and today is going to be the last of those days. Ammadon Berkeley died four years ago tomorrow, and I’m going to die four years after he did. I pray he will forgive me, and I pray I will go as fast as he did.

Goodbye, everyone. It’s been horrid,

An Idiot Who Should’ve Died Four Years Ago.

#story #short story #letter #writing #by me #short story by me #berkeley avenue #berkeley #death #death metion #suicide #suicide mention #please know any of this agnst is not mine #i decided when i was almost done writing it that it was going to be his note #it was sota unintentional #but like #it made it really good #to me anyways #this is going to boosted at all and probably wont get more than two notes #might ask sixpenceee to boost it #she probably won't tho

[weannoyingbouquetgalaxy-blog1]

What does it mean when you take the 6 mos. payment option on a car insurance rate?

"What does it mean when you take the 6 mos. payment option on a car insurance rate?

Im about to buy a car, and the insurance is $1,500, and the 6 month payment plan with $500 down payment, puts me at $200/mo. Does my insurance end after the 6 mos., or does it end after 1 year? how long is it good for? It's Esurance and Geico that I have been looking into.

BEST ANSWER:  Try this site where you can compare quotes: : http://freeinsurancequotes.xyz/index.html?src=tumblr 

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What's the cheapest car insurance?

What are the cheapest cars to insure as a 17 year old male that wants to buy a car in a budget of 1500 pounds?

i know insurance insurance is sky high but which cars can i get with a maximum budget of 1500 pounds that are good reliable cars and have a good name like VW etc i wluld prefer not to have a vauxhall renault pegeout etc and ford is last resort only

How should health insurance companies thank Obama?

I just found out that my health insurance, which used to have a $500.00 deductible, will now be MORE expensive and will now come with a 5,000.00 deductible!! Which means, in order to see any benefit at all, I have to fork over $7,000.00 of MY OWN MONEY!! Which basically means, I have no health insurance now yet I still have to pay for it because it is now the law! If I don't, I get garnished. Asking around, I have learned that this is happening to everybody. So instead of getting MORE people covered by health care, Obamacare is getting millions of people effectively kicked off! But because of the law, we still have to pay the insurance companies, while they are free to raise the deductible to the point where their only purpose is to sit back and collect our money. Great. So I think the insurance companies should fork over a big, fat billion dollars to Obama for the all the cash he sent them!""

When do I sort out car insurance for a car i've bought?

Do I sort it out before buying the car?

Scooter 50cc and 125cc insurance??

Can you please tell me how much insurance in Ireland would cost for a 16 year old boy don't say phone up the insurance company because i am just wondering how much it is thanks if you know I was looking at 125cc scooter which is insurance group 2 I was also looking at a 50cc scooter insurance group 1 Thanks for answering and please tell me your prices in euro thanks again.

Can i cancel my car insurance due to changes made in their policy that has skyrocketed my insurance rate?

Just got a package from my insurance company of my new payment schedule for the next 12 mths. Somebody please tell me why i went from paying $249 to $360 a month for car insurance? Sounds absurd ! There is no way in hell im paying for that . . . my questions is, if this is in fact true, can i drop my insurance company at any point in time because the price went up WAY TOO HIGH (i will no longer be able to afford) ? PLEASE HELP!!!!""

Where can i get cheap auto insurance?

hi, im 18, looking to get cheapest insurance possible liability only, any recomendations?""

What's the best individual health insurance?

I am 27 and have no major health problems, but because all the jobs I have been getting lately are temporary gigs, none of my employers offer health insurance.""

Anyone know of cheap car insurance in California?

Anyone know of cheap car insurance in California?

Can you get braces free if you have health insurance?

i want braces. can i get them free if i have health insurance

Best place to buy health insurance?

Going to retire but need health insurance for family, only 55""

Ladies has anyone every really saved on car insurance when applied to Sheila's Wheels or Diamond?

Everytime I've got a quote its always more expensive than other insurance companies

Car insurance for new drivers?

I'd like to get a car insurance but since i will be buying a new car soon, i'd like to have the insurance for just a few months. Is this possible? if yes, then which company would you recommend and how do i get it? cheers!""

Can i pay for a car and insurance together monthly?

Like on finance or something? so i pay the insurance and the car price on a newish car both at the same time each month?

How much does car insurance go up?

okay, lets say you had a car accident where no one was hurt, and its your fault. how much will your car insurance go up?""

Is car insurance really necessary?

What if your a student and your driving a car that does not have insurance but you don't crash or nothing bad happens...Do you still get penalized if you do not have insurance? Is it a law?

What does it mean when you take the 6 mos. payment option on a car insurance rate?

Im about to buy a car, and the insurance is $1,500, and the 6 month payment plan with $500 down payment, puts me at $200/mo. Does my insurance end after the 6 mos., or does it end after 1 year? how long is it good for? It's Esurance and Geico that I have been looking into.

How would car mileage affect the insurance rate?

Will the rate go higher with higher mileage? (98 Corolla, CA) Thanks!""

Best insurance company for full coverage?

What's the best insurance company that's pretty affordable?? I am financing a Toyota Camry (new) and need full coverage. I have a DUI on my record but have my license. I'm 21. =\

If the policy holder on car insurance crashes does it affect the named drivers?

I am wanting to get a car and been 19 it will cost a lot , my insurance drops below 1000, if i put my parents as named drivers. I was wondering if the policy holder (me) had a crash would it affect their insurance or is it just the other way around, if they crash as named drivers it will affect the policy holder? As they have no claims discount and i have none , so i can not apply NCD protection ? Thank you :)""

Range of Insurance rates for a 25yo Canadian (New Driver)?

I am a 25 year old Canadian, buying my first car. It will probably be 6+ years old, valued at less then 5,000. I'm wondering about insurance. I spoke with a broker telling me prices range from 4,000 - 4,500 a year (~$333/mo). This sounds excessive. She also said with third-party coverage the type of car I drive shouldn't matter, which left me with doubts. What should I expect to pay?""

Motorcycle Insurance in Ontario help?

Hello, I am a 20 year old female looking for motorcycle insurance for a Honda CBR 250r with an M2. I have never owned a bike before and have a clean driving record. Like most people my age it is nearly impossible to get insurance that is affordable if you are under the age of 25. If anyone knows of an insurance company/brokerage that would give a quote below 2.5k a year please give me any way I can contact them. I live in the Ottawa area if that is any help as well.""

What are the ins and outs of buying/owning a classic car?

I have been considering purchasing an older car for about a year. I've done a little research during that time and narrowed down what I want. Last week, I found a car that I really like, a '62 Lincoln. However, I have some concerns about having a car like this and wanting to get some feedback from someone with the knowledge/experience/wisdom in this area. Firstly, I am not rich and getting this car would mean borrowing money. My intent was to sell my current car once I have this car to cover most of the cost of the classic. Would that be a mistake? My current car is paid off, so money-wise it would be a question of insurance costs and taxes/tags every year (if I were to keep my current car). Second, the car I'm looking at is pretty authentic, meaning it has almost all its original parts and accessories. Would it be a mistake to modify it? I mean, repainting it (down the road), having the upholstery redone, installing a current radio and speakers, putting on modern-style tires, etc. Will this change its value negatively? I do like the car as it is, but I'd really like to put modern-style tires on it and put in a modern stereo, at least. Repainting and such would be probably 5+ years down the road, if I decided to do this. Probably, I'd want to reupholster the seats before painting it. And, since I am not rich nor a moneyed individual, I don't have a storage place to park it at my place. I mean, I have a garage, but my house is old, the garage is narrow, and I use it as my workshop. If I were to park the car in it, that would be I'd have to pack up my workshop and remove the shelves to make it fit. Do I need to keep it in a garage? Would that be smart? Does it matter since it's intended to be my primary vehicle? I can't think of anything else to ask at the moment, so if you have any other advice or insights, I'd certainly appreciate them!""

Getting added on to my parents auto insurance?

ok well i just got my license and want to get added onto my parents insurance and a want to know an estimate on how much it would cost for me to do that. Im a 17 year old male and my parents have AIG. So please help me

Insurance question?

will the price of insurance matter on who's name a car is in? or does it just matter on who is buying the insurance?

Home Owners Insurance?

My husband and I are looking for the best home owners insurance in California one that includes earthquake coverage and other stuff like fire and theft can you give me places to check out? We will be living in Culver City, California in the USA""

I need insurance. Im 18 What do I do?

I turned 18 about 4 months ago and ive been trying to get my licence but my mom won't let me because she thinks I need to be insured as soon as i get my licence. I live in OR. they can't afford my insurrance and i dont have time for a job im an honors student in High school. next year im going away and would like to be driving by then. so my questions are. 1. do i need insurance as soon as i get my license? 2. can i drive my moms car (for example to the store and back) without insurance? How about someone elses car? 3. What is the best insurance for me to get? The quotes ive gotten are about 250 PER MONTH. I want to have a car next year but i wont have time to work with the courses im taking in college. how do i pay for my insurance next year.

Most reliable auto insurance company?

How much would my monthly premium be for auto insurance? I'm male and 18, no accidents and responsible. I drive an old sedan, silver. I drive to work, to college, to the market and back home. No joy rides, no trips or visits. What auto insurance company is the best?""

Low- cost insurance for my 2 year old???

Is it possible to get insurance for my 2 year old at a low rate WITHOUT insuring myself or my husband? We tried getting on our state's medicaid program (which was originally started for people who couldn't get health insurance through their jobs but left that behind long ago!) but of course my husband and I make too much money. Every insurance quote we've been given has been astronomical and we'd have to insure one or both of ourselves to get insurance on the baby. What can I do??? We've also both asked our employers to look into health insurance for their employees and it's still just too expensive!

Is there health insurance that just covers serious conditions like cancer and is affordable?

I'm 55 retired & uninsured. I've given up hope of finding affordable health care. Recently I needed surgery and had to pay for it myself. When I told my MD he cut his fee from $22,000 to $13,000) and when I needed an MRI I was able to get a cash price of $350 if I had insurance they would have charged over $2,000. At the time I was happy but doesn't this illustrate why health care in the US is so screwed up?""

Liability Insurance?

I'm organizing a concert, and I'm having an issue with liability insurance. Where can I get some? And what is it all about anyway?""

Why is the insurance company bothering me?

Two months ago I was sitting a red light and was hit from behind . Now the driver's ins. company wants me to reimburse them. Why? What should I do? I'm trying not to think the worst, but when I got out the car she was on the phone and said her husband is a police officer and was sending his friend to the scene. This makes me wonder if some untruth is involved here.""

""Would insurance be more expensive for a Nissan Sentra, or a Ford Fiesta?""

I live in Pa, either car I get will be financed. I got an offer for the Sentra for 72 Months for $275 a month, and the lowest car insurance for that would be $180 so far for that. I did not yet go out to look for a Ford Fiesta, but from what I hear they are less expensive on car insurance. I aparently have til Monday to give the Dealers my decision before the deal drops which I highly doubt , I think they were just telling me that to pressure me into making a quicker decision/mistake. Please give me your advise. Can they really only give me a certain amout of time for the offer? They claimed it had to do with other customers possibly taking any of the money toward loans from the banks... I am new at this stuff and what is more expensive to have insurance on?""

What to do when a car insurance company refuses to pay?

My vehicle got slammed into while parked at my house. Two older ladies were driving and they took out 3 mailboxes, my neighbor's old truck, his tractor, and then my car. The older ...show more""

Are there any insurance companies that insure Classic cars without them being garage kept?

Are there any insurance companies that insure Classic cars without them being garage kept?

""Car insurance - being a named driver on your dads policy, is this still legal?""

I have just received a quote from more than car insurance as me as a named driver on my dads policy, i have read stuff about fronting and how it can make claims invalid, is it still legal to do this? Thanks, much appreciated""

""Got rear ended and no car insurance. will the at faults insurance contact me, or should i contact them?

i have no insurance. i got rear ended today and my car is trashed. will the guys insurance company contact me? should i go to the police station and get a copy of the drivers info and contact their insurance? i dont want medical comp. i just want my car fixed.

How much would car insurance cost for a first time buyer?

I'm 20, male, and buy a brand new car and it will be my first time driving, how much would I expect to pay for insurance in the first year?""

How much does insurance go up in a wreck?

Im a 16 year old male, get good grades, and i drive a 91 firebird. i recently got in a crash, my car was fine but the other guy had a scrape along the side of his car etc. how much can i expect my insurance to go up?""

Should I be able to get disability?

Here is my story, I was working and slipped and fell on my side (I did file a accident report). At first I felt fine just a numbness in my side and thinking it would go away, but as the months went by the numbness went away to only be replaced by a pain. I took pain medications to ease it and it helped relieve the pain but now it hardly does anything, if anything at all. I am like 6'4 and before the accident I weighed around 230, now I am climbing to 320??? Oh, I am 25. Oh, and I have been fighting my insurance for 5 years. I cannot exercise to lose weight because the pain in my side prevents me to do daily activities for long or if any at all. I have grown severely depressed as in that I have gained all this weight and feel disgusted with the way I look like and try to avoid any human contact or be seen because I feel disgusting with the way I look. I hope I have said all I needed to do. I just feel I cannot function as a normal person in society anymore. And times if there is no hope for me, I feel as if maybe the best solution for me is to commit suicide because I just feel so much like a freak to the world now.""

Need help with car insurance?

About a year ago my husband and I sold a car. We went through the usual channels with dealing with the plates, calling the insurance company and so on. Well today we got our yearly insurance cards in the mail and didn't recognize one of the cars they had given us a card for so I went over the statement. It turns out they have been billing us for insurance on a car we sold over a year ago. We never really noticed how much we should be paying in insurance for our cars and only get our statement once a year with these cars. We only pay $1504 a year for what we thought was two cars and I had assumed that was pretty good. In fact we were paying for three cars and an extra $663 a year on the car we sold. I haven't contacted the insurance company yet but my question is what are my options here? Will they give us the money back for the year we payed on a car we legally sold and what do they need, if any, proof of that? We have paperwork of the sale but no real proof we called them to inform them to take the car off the insurance. Will that we enough?""

California teen insurance question?

How much would insurance for a 16 year old beginning driver in a 25,000 car in California be. Thanks in advance friendly Yahoo Answers users :)""

What does it mean when you take the 6 mos. payment option on a car insurance rate?

Im about to buy a car, and the insurance is $1,500, and the 6 month payment plan with $500 down payment, puts me at $200/mo. Does my insurance end after the 6 mos., or does it end after 1 year? how long is it good for? It's Esurance and Geico that I have been looking into.

Loans for older/classic cars?

Any banks or financial institutions out there give loans for older cars? I know most banks only give loans for cars less than 5-6 years old, but I want something in good condition that may appreciate in value, or at least not depreciate so long as I take care of it. But I do need a loan. Links to companies that do these kinds of loans will get you a best answer.""

How much is unsurance for a 16 years old?

I am about to get my provisionary license soon, after i turn 16. I am wondering how much insurance will cost for us. We live in california. My parents are both good drivers, and have never been in an accident for the last 10 years. We have state farm. My parents are right now insured to 3 cars ( toyota seina, lexus gr300, nissan versa) and i will be added in there soon. I am wondering how much their insurance will raise because of me. Don't ask me to ask an agent or go to a website to find a free quote. I understand you can not give me a near exact answer, but just an estimate is good.""

What health insurance will cover people with diabetes?

I have type 1 diabetes and i need affordable health insurance so if you have any inforomation I highly appericate it

Does Florida auto insurance work in Virginia?

What if you have Florida auto insurance coverage but you move to Virginia? Are you still insured?

How to Quickly Find the Best Term Life Insurance Quote?

How to Quickly Find the Best Term Life Insurance Quote?

Ques about auto ins and traffic school in Los Angeles

I just got a ticket for a California Roll..(not complete stop at stop sign)...To do Traffic school it's gonna cost me around $130-$140 dollars...Would it just be cheaper or the same amount of money if I just don't go to traffic school and let my auto ins go up a lil. By how much is my insurance really gonna go up for that, especially when my driving record is otherwise fantastic.""

Car insurance help????????

Hello, I was rearended (not my fault) and I called my insurance companyt to let them know what happened. The car is insured and at the time of the incident was insured under my mother because I am under 21. Now two months later I am receiving a letter that I am being kicked out of my insurance unless my parents insure me. So what do I do in this situation. I find this situation very unfair because why do we need two people insured on one car? Can you offer any insight?""

Can I drive car on my wife's insurance?

I just buy new car . Bt I have no insurance . Insurance is on my wife's name . Bt problem is that car is on my name . Please tell me . Wht is the solution . When I add my wife 's name in car . Then wht could happen ?

Looking for medical insurance for male 25 yrs of age resident of Alaska. affordable. has heart condition?

Looking for medical insurance for male 25 yrs of age resident of Alaska. affordable. has heart condition?

Approximate insurance cost for vw polo (UK)?

I am 17 and have just passed my driving test.. How high is the insurance likely to be for this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2001-Volkswagen-Polo-1-0-E-5-Door-Metallic-Green-/280730016652?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item415cd01b8c#ht_1227wt_1140 ?? Cheers x

My girlfriend battles with sever depression. anyone know of free health insurance?

long history together. she has admitted to feeling very depressed and loosing the drive to do things she typically loves to do... however, she has no health insurance and she doesn't know who to turn to. any solutions? Southern California residents. in orange county/la area.""

""Would insurance be cheaper for a '04 nissan sentra, '08 toyota prius, or '08 honda fit?""

I am making payments on my '04 nissan sentra and i'm running the numbers to see how much more or less it would cost if i owned a new prius or fit. so far for expenses i'm just figuring in payments and gas and that my nissan will need about $1,000 of work in the next 3 years""

Health insurance question?

i am 17, and will be 18 january 12th. i curently live in california, but will be going to arizona to start college in january. my parents have signa nationwide health insurance, and i was wondering if i would still be covered if i only wnet to school part time? i am considering going part time because is is about 2000 more dollars to take 4 classes rather than two, and i am still waiting for my financial aid which wont come until after january. any help would be appreciated, thanks.""

Where i can get cheap auto insurance?

Where i can get cheap auto insurance?

""How Much is Car Insurance going to cost for a 1997 corvette, if I am 16?

Is it true that the older cars cost less to insure?

What is the cheapest/best insurance for a 24yr old student/ stay at home mom?

My 3month old is covered under medicaid, but I need help finding an affordable insurance for myself. My fiance is covered by his work for free, but it would be $200 a check for him to add me and we cannot afford that at this time.""

Could anyone recommend a decent car insurer for a 17yr old female in the UK???

I am looking for cheap car insurance, the cheapest I have found is 860 fully comp for a Fiat Punto. I would like to find cheaper, could anyone recommed an insurer??? Thanks, Jay""

Can't afford college Health Insurance...?

I need some type of advice regarding my options. I feel like i've hit a dead end. I have a 4.0 and financial aid, however my state requires student have health insurance... and the only insurance my school offers is over $80 a week on top of the $85 a week lab fees, dr visits, and meds because I have a severe blood disorder and need to go get my blood check every week. I also have specialist visits once a month. I have medicaid right now and if I go to school at all I will lose it and I can't afford the student insurance. It would total up to be more than my rent each month not to mention they don't cover pre-existing conditions. I feel totally hopeless. I'm willing to move to another state if necessary where insurance is more affordable. I just really wanted to go to medical school and now I feel like my future is shot all because I'm not healthy.... Also, i can't take out a loan because i don't have credit being so young and although I was born in this country and my parents were from here, they relocated to a foreign country so they can't help me either.""

Cheapest car insurance in ontario?

Cheapest car insurance in ontario?

""If I am under my wife's health insurance plan, do i need to get my own insurance under Obamacare?""

Currently, my kids and I are under my wife's health insurance plan. I heard that if we stay under her plans, we will be penalized once this Obamacare goes into effect.""

Can you get car Insurance with No Bank Account?

My question is would it be a problem to obtain car insurance without having a bank account, my credit is in the toilet because someone ran up my debit card and the over draft fees forced the account closed, and now the bank is asking for $600.00, and I can't afford to pay that off with the kind of salary I have, so can anyone let me know if their would be any difficulty in just paying in cash or perhaps money orders or even a check in someone elses name?? thanks""

Has anyone here found any quality and affordable individual health insurance?

Has anyone here found any quality and affordable individual health insurance?

Urgent care? Do I need insurance?

So I really need to go to urgent care but will they even look at me if I tell them I don't have insurance and don't even have a job...? I would go to the hospital... But like I said... I have no insurance and no job.

Medical insurance help!!!!!?

Ok so I'm 20 and my insurance is or was IEHP. I am married now and I want to know if this still covers me. I want to go to the clinic and get checked up and get birthcontrol but I'm not sure if its going to cover me. My husband does not have medical insurance either. Can anyone please help!?? :(

Im a 20 year old male and im thinking about getting my first motorcycle. I need suggestions.?

Like i said im a 20 year old student looking into getting a bike. Most of my friends have them and they tell me how much they enjoy riding so i'd like to take up the hobby and ...show more

What does it mean when you take the 6 mos. payment option on a car insurance rate?

Im about to buy a car, and the insurance is $1,500, and the 6 month payment plan with $500 down payment, puts me at $200/mo. Does my insurance end after the 6 mos., or does it end after 1 year? how long is it good for? It's Esurance and Geico that I have been looking into.

How much is car insurance for a 18 yr old?

Hi, this is probably going to sound stupid but just out of curiousity how much would car insurance be for an 18 yr old female driving an Nissan primera ( saloon) As a first car? Or any car for that matter? It's manual transmission, I have no clue about car insurance! As you probably can tell so how much would it cost on average?? Thanks!""

Can anyone help me find cheap car insurance?

I'm 17 and live in the UK and I'm currently learning to drive. I really want a Fiat 500 when I pass my test, but the insurance is really expensive. My parents say they won't pay for it if it is more than 1000 a year, as I attend a prestigious driving school and they already pay my fees. However, my mum wants a new car and was considering a Fiat 500, so I could always be insured as a secondary driver. What's the cheapest way of doing it and can anyone find me a good insurance quote? I have no idea where to start and my parents won't help until I figure it out myself.""

Can a person with kaiser permanente insurance in colorado move to arizona and retain that insurance coverage?

Can a person with kaiser permanente insurance in colorado move to arizona and retain that insurance coverage?

A question about car insurance in California?

The other day I recieved a letter in the mail that said I need to go get my car insured or it could be suspended. I want to get the cheapest insurance possible (state minimum). What company has the cheapest insurance and how much can I expect to pay per month?

Would OSAP provide money for car insurance?

I'm going to buy a car for college to get from point A to point B and I was just wondering if OSAP would be able to provide me for car insurance and gas money. Thanks.

Insurance costs for a 19 year old with a street bike in Nebraska.?

I am 19 years old and live in the state of Nebraska. I have never received any speeding tickets or traffic violations. I want to buy a Kawasaki ninja 650 or a Yamaha yzf-r 600 and I would like to know about how much insurance would be for that per month.

I want to buy a car insurance on my own and i am 18 years old.?

I want to buy a car insurance on my own and i am 18 years old. and i am going buy an used car (130,000miles). I get just have my driving license. i am a no experience driver. I live in EDISON NJ 08837, is it possible my car insurance is high than $2000/ year?""

Auto Insurance Question?

Hi all, I live in California and I got in a car accident yesterday. I found out today that the insurance company suspended our insurance due to a late payment so we most likely had no coverage at the time of the accident. What are my options at this point?? The accident was not my fault and the other driver was arrested for felony DUI and they had insurance. What are my options?? Thanks in advance!""

How much do you pay for your car insurance?

I'm just trying to pick a car insurance thats affordable. How much do you pay monthly? Also I'm 22, no driving tickets, my car is a 2005, Hyundai Accent. OR AT LEAST WHAT IS AN IDEAL PAYMENT MONTHLY FOR CAR INSURANCE?""

Will a B average my freshman year apply to an auto insurance discount?

I had a 3.2 last year (my freshman) year, and as of now I have about a 2.5. I'll be getting my car soon, so if I can't bring it up by then, will they accept last year's GPA so I can get a 10% discount?""

Car insurance wrong information coverage upon car purchase..?

i bought a new truck, i am a first time car buyer and got the independent insurance agent the dealer had.... the agent told me that he was informed by the insurance agent that i will have a one (1) year coverage for the auto insurance as well as the amount of my monthly premium.. when i got the policy i was shocked to find out i only got six months coverage for the insurance and my monthly premium increased... they got PROGRESSIVE as the insurance company. i have already paid the required first six months (according to the agent) insurance premium and have to pay monthly for the remaining 6 months... which is not the case when i got my policy... is there a way how to handle, change this car insurance that i got? if not how could i send any complain to certain authorities/agencies for this kind of activities? any help is appreciated""

How much will my insurance goes up if I receive a ticket?

Apparently I didn't have my lights on, will mt insurance skyrocket? What's the worse case scenario? I live in GA btw.""

My Car Insurance won't cover this?!?!?

I got into an accident on a rainy day. I did not hold collision or comprehensive. Because I skidded into a ditch and the car rolled, an oil leak occurred. The fire department came and had to put oil dry on the oil leak which was saturating the ground. I hold all the other coverages (liability/property damage, underinsured/uninsured motorist/medical). The fire department bill for the oil leak clean up / hazard removal was $500. The car insurance company says it falls under collision and since I don't have it they don't have to pay out the $500. I insisted it was under liability / property damage as the oil leak is a hazard and causes property damage. Is this fair that they said it falls under collision? Or should I fight it. If so how?""

""Do Asians pay higher Car Insurance rates, especially women and is that legal?

Do insurance companies use profiling in their rate policies. Are they like the IRS who used typical words for known tax cheats like Patriot or Tea Party .Or do ...show more

Low priced car to insure and buy?

I'm a 15 year old girl looking for a cheap car that is low to insure for when I turn 16...I live in the us and don't really care for sporty cars... I was think about a volkswagon beetle 03 but idk how much they are or how much it is insure so... Yeah. But please help!!!

What's the easiest way to get health insurance?

What's the easiest way to get health insurance?

Health insurance?

who knows of good health insurances that would be affordable and good and who cover pap smears practically im in search of one but cant find the right one i really need it asap someone help thank you!

""For a 17 year old, How much about is car insurance (relatively) and which places are cheaper?

We were thinking State Farm or Country

Health insurance costs...what do you pay?

My husband is in the military and is thinking about getting out. Our health insurance is totally covered right now but in the civilian world we have no idea what the cost will be if he doesn't get a job that offers benifits. I'm looking for any info about what people pay monthly, and co-pays for health insurance for a family with 1-2 children. Thank you so mcuh!!!""

Will my insurance rate go up because of a non-moving suspension?

My license was suspended for 2 years because of a fix-it ticket that I was told was taken care of (by my mother; I was a minor at the time of the incident). It recently has been taken care of, and the case was actually dismissed by the judge. I didn't even have to pay a court fee. I'm wondering if I need to report this suspension when I am applying for insurance. I also would like to know if this will increase my rates.""

Window tint affect insurance? Insurance is through a transport company?

I am insured via a transport company so im on the insurance of the business. Will window tinting affect my insurance if its legal tints? Does it normally affect insurance?

Car insurance on car i want to sell?

I am trying to sell my car because my uncle left me his old truck and I don't need two vehicles. Since I don't want to have insurance on both cars, is there a way for me to just have insurance on the car only when it is test driven by someone interested in buying it?""

Cheapest car insurance in Massachusetts for a new driver?

I'm buying a car soon and will need insurance too.

How to get maternity insurance?

We are wanting to start TTC, but we are a little worried about the cost of the actual birth and doctors expenses, as well as any complications that might arise. Now, we do have enough money to cover the basics, but if anything else should arise to complicate things, we're worried. We both work from home for ourselves and have looked into private health insurance, even only maternity insurance, but the plans just suck and dang expensive! Anyway, I was wondering if you knew of any way to get legitimate insurance for only me while I'm pregnant, and for the baby after its born? Some sort of affordable state insurance? Im in AZ by the way. How would i go about finding something like that? thanks!""

Is my fiat Coupe 16 Valve turbo going to be a classic?

Pretty much as th title says really.. What do you all think and why? I think it is the best car Fiat have ever made and that it will be, especially the 20 Valve LE and Plus versions.""

What does it mean when you take the 6 mos. payment option on a car insurance rate?

Im about to buy a car, and the insurance is $1,500, and the 6 month payment plan with $500 down payment, puts me at $200/mo. Does my insurance end after the 6 mos., or does it end after 1 year? how long is it good for? It's Esurance and Geico that I have been looking into.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/which-way-cheapest-car-insurance-lisa-taylor"