#this is my trial to see if i’ll write for hockey too so don’t be shy

[jostystyles]

hey let’s have a mini sleepover/hc/blurb night!

i’m bored as hell watching hockey so come talk to me or send me a lil something to write <3

tell me about ur day, ask me questions, anything!

send me a prompt or whatever to write!

i’ll write for some hp characters (don’t send me the racist characters) and hockey boys tonight (let’s go w mat barzal, anthony beauvillier, nolan patrick, and kirby dach for now)

have fun and keep it clean!!

come chat!

tagging some mooties who might wanna participate:

@weasleyclaw @gcdric @ch0colatefr0gs @slytherinsunrise @vogueweasley @thisismynerdyself @jilyevans @breadqueen95 @lunalovecroft @theweasleyslut @cedwardcullen @writingsomewrongs @virgohufflepuff @gryffindors-weasley @keepawaythenargles <3

#emmie speaks #this is my trial to see if i’ll write for hockey too so don’t be shy

[no-stabbing-wednesdays]

The Conspiracy Job

I made a post about the “Eliot’s semi-famous identities” conspiracy here and @what---i-dated-a wanted a fic, which got my muse going. So, here it is, and also on AO3

An amazing version of the same concept by @copperbadge was linked in the notes and I recommend you all read that too! The Job Interview Job

The Conspiracy Job

“Oh, not again!”

The others, busy drawing up plans for their latest con, looked over at Hardison. 

“What is it?” Sophie asked.

He brought his display up on the large screen at the front of the room. 

“Someone’s just searched a bunch of Eliot’s old aliases, all at the same time.”

Parker frowned as she looked at the screen. “That doesn’t sound good.”

Eliot was on his feet immediately, concern clear on his face.

“Who is it? CIA? FBI? KGB? Mossad?”

“Give me a second,” Hardison said. “No, I don’t think so. They’re not being flagged on any databases. Someone’s just googling them.”

Eliot relaxed slightly and rolled his eyes. “It’s not those damn conspiracy forums, is it? I thought you got rid of those.”

“I did! They haven’t posted anything, they’re just looking. Oh, they’re here in Portland.”

Eliot tensed again at that, but Hardison shook his head.

“Relax, man. It’s a family house; a couple of dentists and a fifteen year old. If they post anything I’ll take it down, nothing to worry about.”

On the other side of Portland, Julia stepped into her friend Marcie’s bedroom and her eyes widened as she took in the scene before her. Marcie was connecting red threads between grainy, printed-out images on her corkboard and empty bottles of Gatorade littered the desk.

“You have to cool it with this, dude.”

Marcie turned to face her, her hair a mess and her eyes red from lack of sleep, and Julia sighed.

“You look like freaking Charlie Kelly!”

“There’s something here, Jules. I’m sure of it.”

“It’s a couple of athletes and a singer who happen to look similar. It’s hardly the scoop of the century.”

“Look similar? Look similar? Julia, they are completely identical! There are exactly three possibilities.” She held up three fingers in her friend’s face as she counted them off. “Triplets, clones or one ridiculously talented guy.”

“Okaaay, and which one do you think it is?”

“I don’t know,” Marcie answered, turning back to her board. “Triplets? Why would they have different names and hide it? One guy? He’d have to be able to sing and play guitar, baseball and hockey. Why wouldn’t you own up to having that kind of talent? Why go to different places with different names? Clones? I’m leaning clones.”

“Clones? Come on, Marcie.” 

“It’s the most logical explanation.”

“You think someone cloned a human being just to create a one-hit-wonder country singer and some short lived athletes?”

Marcie shrugged. “It could be a trial run or an experiment or something. And you remember that anything I ever said on the forums would mysteriously vanish? I went to look after Jacques Labert turned up and every single forum post was gone! Every one! Doesn’t that sound like a government conspiracy to you?”

“It’s weird,” Julia admitted. “But I think you might be taking this a little too far. If the government were making clones, why would they let them get famous so people could discover it?”

“But they weren’t that famous. Think about it, what were the chances that someone would connect them? There were only ever a couple of us posting on the forums. If I hadn’t happened to be visiting my uncle in Palmerston when Roy Chappell was playing and then gone to Saddle and Spurs for my birthday, I’d never have known.” 

Her eyes widened as a horrifying thought occurred to her . “Then Jacques Labert turned up in my city! What if I’m the connection?”

She swung back to the board and began to write her own name. Julia grabbed her hand.

“Marcie! You’re not the center of a government conspiracy! Besides, who’s this fourth guy again?” She asked, tapping one of the photos in the corner. “You didn’t have anything to do with him, did you?”

“No,” Marcie conceded. “And I told you about him, remember? He’s an animal rights activist who was on the news in San Lorenzo a couple of years ago, talking about dog fights in the Presidential Palace. And he’s Canadian. That’s why it’s so exciting that, after almost two years of nothing new, Jacques Labert, Canadian hockey player, suddenly appears. Was the guy on the news Jacques Labert? If there really is more than one of them in the first place!”

Julia grimaced, increasingly worried about Marcie’s obsession with this wild conspiracy. “He was on the news where?”

“San Lorenzo. It’s this tiny European country. Here look.” Marcie sat at her desk, tapped the name into Google and turned her laptop towards Julia. 

Julia scrolled through a few pictures of the idyllic Mediterranean island, then stopped suddenly and pointed at one of them. 

“Wait, who’s that?”

“Oh, that’s Rebecca Ibañez. It’s a tragic story,” Marcie explained, as she clicked on the link and showed her some clearer pictures. “A couple of years ago, the same time maybe-Jacques Labert was there, there was an election and her fiancé won. But, just as the results were announced, supporters of the former president tried to assassinate him and Rebecca stepped in front and took the bullet for him.”

“She was assassinated?”

“Yes, isn’t it awful?”

Julia shook her head. “She can’t have been.”

“What?”

“She’s my brother Zachary’s acting teacher.”

“What?”

“Yeah, I went to see his play last week and I met her. Her name’s Sophie Devereaux and she’s definitely not dead.”

Marcie looked at her in amazement, a grin breaking out across her face . “And she was in San Lorenzo at the same time as Jacques-Roy-Kenneth! There might be even more to this than I thought!”

Julia, almost as invested as Marcie now that her brother’s odd director was mixed up in this, pulled up a chair and looked on excitedly as her friend brought up another google search. 

Back at the Brewpub, the crew were working out the kinks in their plan while waiting for any sign of the internet sleuth trying to share their ideas about Eliot’s multiple identities.

When the computer pinged again, they all turned to see which of his aliases had been flagged this time, only for their eyes to widen in horror as the search term flashed on the screen.

“Rebecca Ibañez” “Sophie Devereaux”

Sophie gave a gasp that almost turned into a choke. “Wha- wha- what?”

Eliot turned to Hardison, furious. “Oh sure, just dentists and a teenager! Fix. This.”

“I’m trying!” Hardison said. “I can’t find any connections to anything. They look clean.”

“Then look harder!”

Wait, I have something. It’s the kid’s computer.”

“Who’s the kid?” Nate asked.

Hardison pulled up a Facebook page. “Marcie Taylor. She’s a sophomore. She used to post on those stupid Eliot forums that I had to take down every week after Memphis. It was pretty harmless, but I’ve no idea why she’s suddenly looking at Sophie’s aliases.”

He scrolled down the page looking for any kind of hint, when Sophie called out to him to stop.

“Who’s that with her? She looks familiar.”

A few more clicks and Hardison had a name.

“Julia Gutmann. She’s in the same class.”

Gutmann?” Sophie groaned. “I know why she’s familiar. That’s Zachary’s little sister.”

“Zachary? Your acting student Zachary?” Nate asked disbelievingly.

“Yes, she came to our play last week.”

Nate shook his head. “I told you to use an alias at that theater.”

“But I wanted to do this as me,” Sophie protested.

Eliot turned back to Hardison. “So, let me get this straight. The aliases and digital trail that you set up to be uncrackable by international governmental organizations are about to be blown apart by a couple of high schoolers?”

Hardison glowered at him. “They’re only looking at old aliases and they were all burnt when we had to leave Boston anyway. It’s not that bad.”

“Sophie’s still using Sophie,” Eliot argued, nearly yelling now. “And I was only just Jacques Labert and in this city. Now they’ve tied me and her together. How did they even do that? That’s way more than some fifteen year old girls should be able to accomplish on Google.”

“Okay, okay. Don’t panic. They were looking at photos of San Lorenzo. That’s how they found a picture of Sophie."

Sophie glared at him.

"Hey!" he protested. "You're the one who jumped in front of the cameras! I can't control the entire internet you know, and I think the people of San Lorenzo would have noticed if every image of their martyred heroine suddenly vanished.

“It’s just bad luck that Julia had met you. But why were they looking at…” Hardison groaned. “They found that video of Eliot and the puppy somehow.”

“Why didn’t you take that down?” Eliot snapped.

“It’s a thirty second feature on the news from two years ago in a country smaller than Iceland! It wasn’t my top priority!”

“Dammit, Hardison!”

“So, our cover’s going to get blown by kids?” Parker asked, incredulously. 

“No,” Nate insisted. “Well, maybe. But we can manage this. Hardison, don't let them post anything. Sophie, call Zachary. Let’s go steal ourselves some silence.”

#leverage #eliot spencer #the eliot conspiracy #alec hardison #parker #sophie devereaux #nate ford #leverage fic #my fic #this is basically crackfic #purely dumb but hopefully entertaining

[cricketnationrise]

Frog Pile #37, in B major

Written for Nurseyweek2021 Day 7: Free Space

its also on AO3 if you’d rather read it there

_X_

Normally, Nursey loves living in the Haus.

It’s close to his classes and Faber, and there’s a lot of pies, even after Bitty graduates and Jerry’s delivers now. There are enough people in the Haus that make enough noise to knock him out of his writing sessions and remind him to eat. There’s always someone willing to watch a movie or something with him. He never has to walk home from a kegster, he just has to make it upstairs.

Plus – both his best friends live in the Haus too – easy access if he needs something and he’s close by he can tell when either Dex or Chowder need a friendly face.

However, it’s January.

And no matter how much work Dex does to the Haus, it is still, fundamentally, an 80-year-old house – and that means its drafty. Winter in Massachusetts means lots of snow, and Dex insists on the Frogs being the ones to shovel to set a good example, seriously Nursey, what if someone falls on their way here? And Nursey is all for reducing the chances of himself falling on his face, but – and not to be dramatic – he hasn’t been warm since like, October.

Case in point, he is currently trying to get warm on his own bed. Three blankets, his green beanie, a scarf, and a mug of tea complete the picture. But he’s still cold. Normally, he’d just yell until Dex or Chowder showed up, but they are both out for a while. Chowder is walking Farmer back to the volleyball house so she can do homework and Dex is being the most captain ever to captain and checking in on literally every member of the hockey team that doesn’t live in the Haus. Even the other upperclassmen.

WTF aren’t here either, not that it would mean they would cuddle either. Well, Ford and Tango would, and they would drag Whiskey with them, but there’s no need to make that guy more uncomfortable than he still is. It doesn’t matter because they’re all on a date at Annie’s, and their collective body heat isn’t available to him.

Maybe he’ll just become an ice sculpture, fused to his own bed until Spring.

Just as Nursey is thinking about googling hypothermia symptoms – Dex knocks on the doorframe.

“Feeling a little cold there, Nursey?” he smirks.

“Fuck you. It’s 3 degrees out without the wind. And you made me shovel today,” Nursey says.

“Awww, poor baby,” Dex looks him over critically, “Do you want me to come cuddle?”

“Dexy! You’d do that? For little old me?” Nursey pretends to swoon. It’s less pretend than he likes, but whatever, Dex probably doesn’t know Nursey’s in love with him.

Dex rolls his eyes at the dramatics, like always, but still says, “I’ll even text Chowder and have him stop saying good-bye to Farmer and come cuddle as well. Double warmth.”

And if Nursey wasn’t already in love, that would have done it. He’s so gone. Luckily, he has lots of practice dealing with the gay panic that comes with hiding his feelings for Dex, so he sounds normal when he says, “YES! Frog Pile! Dex you rock!”

_X_

“Oh wow, it’s so cold outside you guys! How do you stand it?” Chowder whines when he comes in to Nursey’s room 10 minutes later.

“Well Dex has that Maine man lobster fishing cold immunity built up. But I’m a delicate tropical flower and so I shrivel up and die when not on the ice.”

“Ha. Ha. Very funny Nursey.” Dex is back upstairs and Nursey fist pumps when he sees Dex has brought up the latest batch of cookies from Bitty with him. The three of them have definitely earned those. He passes them off and the three of them arrange themselves in Nursey’s bed. Through a lot of trial and error, they found the perfect arrangement. Dex likes to be on an end because he usually has to leave first for captain duties or his job. Chowder takes the other end for the back support. Which leaves Nursey free to sprawl all over his best friends with his legs tangled with Chowder’s and his head in Dex’s lap so they can all see the laptop on his desk.

He really loves his friends.

Dex is rubbing the back of his neck as Nursey is musing about what they should watch, which Nursey has learned means that he has an idea, but is embarrassed about it for some reason.

“Out with it Dexy. I don’t have any strong opinions about movies today. My brain is too cold to think.”

Dex clears his throat softly and says, “Well I thought, if you guys want, maybe, we could watch The Mummy?”

“Dex why would you be nervous about that suggestion?” Chowder asks, “That’s like, one of my favorite movies!”

“The reason is dumb.”

“Deets, Dex, you can’t just leave us hanging with that,” Nursey says.

“Ugh, fine. I thought of The Mummy because it takes place in a desert. So we could try to trick our brains into thinking its actually warmer than it is,” Dex says, flushing.

“Dex!!! What a great idea! Let’s do it!”

Nursey’s so soft for him. It’s a problem. One he might actually do something about soon. Maybe.

_X_

“Well Beni, I think you’re on the WRONG SIDE OF THE RIVERRRRRR”

It’s probably better that the Tadpole are out right now, they definitely wouldn’t appreciate hearing the Frogs scream that line along with Brendan Frasier. This was such a good idea.

_X_

“You know who can get it? Like universally?”

“Who, Nurse?”

“Ardeth fucking Bey.”

“You’re so right!”

“He’s definitely the reason I knew I was bi,” Dex offers.

“Hard same, dude.”

He’s totally gonna marry that freckly red head. The couple that lusts over horse-riding, tattooed, secret warrior society badasses, stays together. But for now, he has the rest of this movie. He has this Frog Pile. He has Dex absentmindedly playing with his hair. He can wait.

He’s finally warm.

#nurseyweek2021 #day 7: free space #literally couldn't decide what to write #I've never loathed a free space more #came up with something at 2am #wrote it when I woke up #so I hope you like it #nursey #chowder #dex #frog pile #pining #the mummy #ARTETH BEY #fic #yes the title is based on that one Tumblr post #that says we should name fics like symphonies #so #jazz hands

[jadelotusflower]

April 2021 Roundup

Welp - a few days late on this, but I’ve had a busy week, including finding a blue-tongue lizard in my house. I have no idea how or why the poor thing got in or where it thought it was going, but it gave me quite the shock. After some trial and error I was able to herd it into a box and release it in the backyard, where I suspect it’s made a home in my compost bin.

Other than that, this month I was lucky enough to live see my first live musical in over a year - The Wedding Singer. I love the movie and have listened to songs from the Broadway cast album, but this is the first time a professional production has been staged here. It was enormously fun, with an exuberant cast and tongue firmly in cheek. It was so nice to be back in a theatre (with social distanced seating) after everything was cancelled last year.

Reading

David Copperfield (Charles Dickens) - I’ve never really read much Dickens outside of A Christmas Carol, but I enjoyed the Iannucci film so much last year I decided to go back to the source material. I was surprised at how much that adaptation retained from a novel so large, at least in terms of important plot points, but then there’s a great deal of characters sitting in rooms and talking about things only tangentially related to the plot. It was an enjoyable read and of course Dickens is a witty writer, even if I found some parts a bit tedious - anytime Mr Micawber or Mr Peggotty shows up my eyes tended to glaze over. But the novel is dense with so many intersecting characters and plots that  I can certainly see why it’s been well read and much studied. 

A Column of Fire (Ken Follett) - the last (chronologically) novel of the Kingsbridge series, this time set in the 16th Century amid the Catholic/Protestant conflicts in England and France, but also touching on Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands - even the Caribbean. Follett’s favourite tropes are all here; lovers kept apart by circumstance, despicable villains with too much pov page time, rape as a plot device, the apathy/self serving nature of kings and queens. Ned Willard is a typical Follett male (self insert) hero, and as usual it’s the female characters who are far more interesting - Margery the devout but conflicted English Catholic, and Sylvie the enterprising and determined French Protestant. Both are the object of Ned’s affection, which I suppose is telling, and Follett desperately needs to learn how to write some other kind of romantic plot.

Of course it packs in the historical events for them to witness and/or participate in, from the end of Mary I’s reign all the way to the Gunpowder Plot - but it does feel that the latter is rushed in at the end and the novel probably could have ended at the Armada. While I did enjoy the broadened scope, a part of me missed the locality of Kingsbridge as a microcosm of England - this book was more concerned with the macro perspective where the other books (particularly Pillars) was effective in telling the story through Kingsbridge-as-a-character. On the other hand, I did enjoy the France side of the plot (mostly for Sylvie) that covered the machinations of the Guise family, the struggles of French Protestants, and events such as the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre (a rather harrowing section).

Watching

Shadow and Bone (season 1) - I went into this show completely cold (other than the trailer and general excitement on my dash), and really enjoyed it. Alina was a bit generic spunky heroine at first, but she grew on me by the end although I can’t say I really cared much about any of the romantic plots (and want to stay faaaaar away from the discourse). It was the Crows were the real draw for me, and while I was aware that their material came from later books, for me (not knowing any better) their integration into the Grisha plot was seamless. 

While I was impressed by the worldbuilding I could have done with a bit more exposition - I still don’t know who the Shu and Suli are, where Fjerda is in relation to Ravka and what the basis of the conflict between them is. On the other hand, I can appreciate they resisted the urge to do too much “as you know”-ing and assume the rest of the world will be revealed as it becomes relevant. Still, I think if shows can learn one thing from Game of Thrones, it’s the value of finding some way of presenting a map to the audience to give some geographic perspective - a few times I did find myself needing to think about which side of the Fold the characters were on at any given time, and have no idea where Nina and Matthias were meant to be at the end. But then I’m the person who constantly flips to consult the map at the front of a book while reading - I need to see it.

I’ll add my disappointment to the RH fans at the chance of seeing Lucy Griffiths again, only for her role as Luda to be a brief flashback that saw her promptly stabbed to death (her entire demo reel could be made up of death scenes at this point). It’s a real shame, because she is perfect for a series like this (in a role like Genya perhaps), and it seems like such a waste.

Mighty Ducks: Game Changers (episodes 1-6) - The new strategy for family entertainment: taking a property that was popular with young Gen X-ers and/or Elder Millennials in their childhoods, and rebooting/reviving it as a show they can now watch with their own kids. The premise is simple enough - the Ducks are now a corporate juggernaut of the live long enough to see yourself become the villain variety, cue a new rag tag underdog hockey team, training at the run down ice rink owned by a disillusioned Gordon Bombay.

It’s mildly entertaining, the child actors are all very good and I’m always here for Emilio Estevez, although I can do without the inevitable romance with Lauren Graham (the team’s coach and mother of one of the kids). But the most recent episode, where a bunch of the og Ducks (sans Charlie) appear, coupled with liberal use of the Ducks Theme, hit me right in the childhood. They got me! They got me with the nostalgia! Because I am a sucker.

The Handmaid’s Tale (season 4, episodes 1-3) - I was very frustrated with this show last season, because it seemed more concerned with endless extreme close ups of Elizabeth Moss emoting rather than telling a coherent story. June is a character with the thickest plot armour I’ve ever seen, while almost every person she comes into contact with meets a bitter end. Rather than the slow domino effect to topple the regime depicted in the original novel and its sequel The Testaments, the show is moving at a breakneck pace, while somehow little actually happens except rinse repeat torture/endurance porn.

More interesting is the Canada side of the story with Moira and Emily (the excellent Samira Wiley and Alexis Bledel), and the difficulties for refugees adapting to life outside of Gilead, which wasn’t explored in either novel and could use more focus in the show. Ann Dowd is absolutely compelling as Aunt Lydia, and a far more interesting villain than the Waterfords (whose scenes have become interminable) yet funnily enough doesn’t get the devoted close-ups, long speeches, or writer interest they do. I’m still watching, if only to see if the show follows her story in The Testaments or not. 

Writing

Not a very productive month on the writing front at all, I can’t even bring myself to look at the meagre word counts, so I’m going to let them roll over into May.

#personal #april roundup #long post #reading watching writing

[beecherdrysdale]

Brigid I believe that you can get into Umich. I honestly hope I can get in anywhere, who knows maybe we will go to Cornell together !!

Haha you are not sounding petty, it is the best feeling when you don’t crack first lol. I’ll make sure to call you and kesh up to come break his sticks w me if he pulls that shit again!!

Aw thank you! I think being a lefty suits me hehe. That’s really cool that you can shoot well with both, I’m not the best at soccer so I just shoot w my right. For hockey, are you a right or a left shooter?

Yesss leg girls unite:)) same w ab.

Lmao Brigid you got the coolest cars I love!!

Honestly if I ever become rich I want a Mercedes G-Wagon lol 😂

As a starter car I want a Nissan Juke because it’s so cute 🥰. I just drive my parents car atm.

Next question: would you ever get any piercings?

And

Do you have Apple Music or Spotify?

hehe i think i could get into umich, i just don’t think i could swim on their varsity team bc it’s like all olympic trial qualifiers and i really want to swim in college sooooo. but i think we could def go to cornell together! and then we can see kesh if we have away meets/matches against umich

yesss call us if he’s being annoying, i’m always down to break some hockey sticks lmaooo

ma’am i’m actually in awe that you’re naturally a righty but you can now write with your left hand, like i could never. haha i can teach you to play soccer and we can practice so we can defeat the guys on our vacay. for hockey i shoot right, wbu?

ahhhh ty 🥰 our family is very firmly a ford family in case you couldn’t tell, but i love ford anyways, so we’re gucci. i feel like all the cars i chose are kind of stereotypically guy cars except maybe the bronco, but it’s fine bc that kind of fits my tomboy personality lol. haha a g-wagon, i honestly feel like it’s just a more expensive version of a bronco lol, so i approve. i mean personally i would just get a bronco and save my money, but you can get sm clout for having a g-wagon lmao. aw i just looked up the nissan juke and it’s so cute!! haha same i just drive my parents car rn, but once i’m out of college they’re letting me buy their old car (which will probably be a bronco:) ) from them so that it’s cheaper

honestly i wouldn’t get any piercings bc the one i’d be most likely to get would be my ears but i’m too scared it would rip my cap sooo. but i think i’ll probably end up getting a couple tattoos when i’m older. wbu (for both piercings and tattoos)?

haha ok so neither bc, funny story, i have a flip phone and i’m not allowed to get an iphone til senior year. but once i do i’ll have apple music bc it comes free with our plan. wbu?

#ask answered #anon answered #skating anon

[rainbowfox20]

Tips from Maddy

Hey there.

So the other day I was having a conversation with one of my coworkers who was talking about her weight loss journey and how she was going about it and immediately I was getting warning signs all over the place simply because I have been through exactly what she is going through and I wanted to help inform her on what can possibly happen if she continues the way she is right now. I had told her a few good tips and tricks which was a lot of information to process so she asked if I could writes this all down for her to which I happily agreed to do. 

As I was writing this I realized that this information could be super helpful to others out there who are dieting and wanting to lose weight. I am no expert in any sense, I’m still learning things out myself and seeing what works but I have learned a lot over the past couple of years. 

So, here I am giving my tips to you guys. I hope that you learn something from this and if you can share this so others can see and learn as well that would make me so happy. 

Again please keep in mind that I do not have any qualifications, this is all my own personal experience and what I have learned from seeing many doctors, specialists, naturopaths (I have seen way too many people to help me seriously) 

Everything that I have written on here are things that I have learned over time as well as try them out myself and see what works for me. Please keep in mind that there will be some things that will help and other things that won’t. I’m always more than happy to discuss anything if you have any questions if something doesn’t make sense or you’re curious about more information.

Typically, when I talk about my diet, I don’t necessarily mean being in a caloric deficit but more about what I eat and my lifestyle in general. I’m not the type of person to eat less to lose weight, I’m more about eating good healthy foods and exercising the right amount for my body to handle without pushing it to the edge. I’ll give you my basic rundown of my history a couple years ago and what I learned from it.

Around three years ago I decided to change my diet and my overall lifestyle. I was 21 years old and weighing around 64kg. Keep in mind around the time I decided to change my eating habits was when I just came back from a holiday in Korea and Malaysia and boy I did not hold back on eating while away. I was young and used to a diet where I ate what I wanted and didn’t think much of it but over time as I got older I noticed that I wasn’t really recovering as quickly after eating junk food like I did when I was a teenager in high school.

Growing up I was never fat or obese in any sense. I was fit, I played hockey and karate and I would happily enjoy sports during school and enjoy walking, riding, anything I felt like I wanted to do. I was never really interested in being super skinny, I had a little fat on my tummy but it never really bothered me until after I finished high school. That was when I became more aware of how other people would look at me, make comments about my body and thus making myself become more aware of my own body.

When I was 21 I didn’t think that “Oh my god I am so fat and imperfect I need to fix this!” it was “I want to change my eating and just become healthier overall” and so I started to change things bit by bit. I cut things out that I knew my body couldn’t exactly handle such as gluten and dairy and noticed changes in my body such as my face was clearing up of pimples and acne. I was losing weight little by little which at the time made me really happy as it was something that has never happened to me before. That is what lead me down the path that I wish I read the warning signs early on but because I had this goal of ‘you must lose a certain amount and then you will be successful’ but didn’t notice how toxic it became.

I became obsessed with exercise. I would go to the gym 5-6 days a week as well as do 2-3 spin classes as well as 2-3 karate sessions each week, on top of working at a restaurant which is a physically labouring job. Yes I lost weight over time and I didn’t think it was bad simply because it was small amounts every month, ranging between ½ - 1kg every month.

Over roughly one and a half years I went from being 63kg to 53kg. I was the lightest I had ever been, and the strongest I had ever been however things caught up to me very quickly. There was a certain point probably one month after I turned 22 when I started to notice my hair falling out. I didn’t think anything of it and just thought “Oh I have long hair and it happens” which was true but I would wake up every morning with hair all over my pillow and sheets, brushing my hair it would come out and throughout the day strands would fall out. I had always had thick hair so I didn’t really notice it until a lot had come out. By that point I had become lethargic and tired all the time, I would struggle to climb a flight of stairs and I could see that my body was taking a big step backwards.

This was when things went really bad.

I had denied it over and over, never daring to say that I have body image issues and everything was falling apart because I wanted to hold onto this little moment that I had worked so hard for was slowly slipping out of my grasp and I tried so desperately to hold it close to me.

Everything came crashing down so quickly I didn’t know what to do.

Over a period of 3 months the muscle that I had built over a year was gone, I had gained around 7kg and I was severely depressed with health issues I didn’t know how to deal with and am still dealing with to this day.

I’m telling you this not to frighten you but to let you know that this can happen if you are not careful when you diet, if you ignore what your body is telling you and keep pushing yourself to that point that you cannot return from. I had screwed up my metabolism, was close to being diagnosed with chronic fatigue and had to deal with the fact that the body I had a few months ago was gone and that I had/have body image issues.

I am someone who is not afraid to talk about my past and I’m willing to talk about myself and my experiences if it means that I can help someone else.

I have come across many people who do all these fad diets and starve themselves which I didn’t go to any extremes but I did limit what I ate at times which is what would have been one of the factors that screwed up my metabolism and caused my body to just go screw you I’m going into survival mode.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to lose some weight and wanting to be fit and strong because that is what you like and you want to feel that way, I’m all about being fit and healthy but you have to make sure that you do it in a safe manner. Do not expect for weight to come flying off and that it will stay that way because boy oh boy that is not the case. It is something that you have to work at all the time, it’s a lifestyle. This is why I like to endorse a healthy lifestyle change, not just diet for a bit and enjoy how you look for a short amount of time.

As I said when I started back then I made small changes such as eliminating certain foods which is a great way to start. Going online and reading all these articles about how to lose weight and doing particular exercises to lose a few kilos is very confusing and quite honestly overwhelming so keep it simple.

One of the important things is that you need to learn about food and not be afraid of it. You need to figure out what your body can tolerate and what it can’t. It’s all trial and error but you will learn over time what is acceptable. Food is energy, the more energy you have the more you can do but the less energy you have the less your body will tolerate. Don’t think that eating an apple in the morning and going throughout the rest of your day on just that single apple will do you any good, quite honestly it will do you more damage not to eat.

If you deprive your body of food your body will go into survival mode and hold onto body fat. It goes into this defensive mode to keep your body alive and if it means storing fat because it can’t trust you to feed it then that is what it will do. Naturally it will eat away at your muscle as well so it’s important to feed your body!

I highly recommend eating a good breakfast, having a decent lunch and eating a small dinner. The reason behind this is because when you wake up in the morning this is when your body wakes up from its rest and will start to get to work. Breakfast literally means to break your fast. Fasting is when you don’t eat for an extended period of time so to break your fast you need to eat. Tada Breakfast!

Many people find that they aren’t hungry in the morning which can be due to a few reasons. One they may have had a large or late dinner and so they aren’t hungry due to that. Maybe they are used to not eating in the morning however they find that they will eat big meals for lunch and dinner or they will tend to snack a lot during the day.

You want to eat like a king for breakfast, eat like a prince for lunch and eat like a princess for dinner.

Meaning eat a big meal in the morning, eat a good meal at lunch and then have a small meal for dinner.

Dinner is the last meal of the day and most of the time after you’ve had dinner you’re going to wind down, enjoy Netflix and then fall sleep. You’re not doing much after dinner, all depending on your life and what your job entails, but for most people night time is time for rest and sleep. The last thing you need is for your stomach to be hard at work breaking down a giant meal that you shoved its way because you didn’t eat enough during the day.

Another thing I want to stress is how much you chew your food. Holy cow I wish I knew this ages ago and it makes such total sense but no one told me before!

Your stomach has acid in it which helps break down your food, more so it’s designed to really break down meats and proteins due to these foods being tough to digest and so it takes longer to breakdown. Fruits and vegetables take a small amount of time and energy to digest but honestly your stomach and digestive system will thank you for chewing your food properly.

I am someone who has working in the hospitality industry for around 8 years and a lot of the time it involves having to shove food down your throat if you want something to eat and continue on with your work as you don’t have time to properly sit and have a meal and you have customers to tend to so of course during these times I have developed a bad habit of chewing my food lazily and swallowing it almost whole but until recently I have been actively trying to change this.

Keep in mind I can eat a lot if I want, and when I say this I mean when I don’t chew and break down my food properly. If you talk to any of my friends they can vouch for me, a lot of the time they question how I can fit so much food into a small body and I would just shrug and say that I’ve always had a big appetite, which is not a lie. Ever since I was little I could fit a lot of food into my stomach but keep in mind I’ve always been an active person so naturally I burn more fuel and so would eat more.

Now that I am more aware of how I chew my food I have learned to slow down when it’s possible for me to do so and really chew my food before swallowing. From this I have noticed that I feel fuller and I’m not eating as much as I used to which makes sense as I have this tendency to overeat but that was simply because I would shove food into my mouth so quickly that my stomach wouldn’t be able to tell me when it was full until it was too late.

So, CHEW YOUR FOOD!

If you’re noticing that you’re not having much energy it means that you’re not getting enough food into your body or that you’re not eating the right kind of food.

Your body needs 11 essential amino acids which in turn makes another 11 non-essential amino acids. These make your DNA and RNA which are the building blocks of life.

These 11 essential amino acids cannot be made naturally from the body and the only way you can get these is through food. I cannot tell you which food hold what properties, this is where you need to do your own research and learn what you can have and what works for you.

I know that for my body I need a 50/50 diet that consists 50% protein/meat and 50% vegetables. This is how my body works, which would be due to my background and heritage but that’s another thing in itself which I could talk about but I am still learning myself so I do not have enough knowledge about it to discuss it. You need to learn what works for you, everyone is different and you cannot do a certain diet that someone else can do because their body may work differently than yours.

I suggest doing the elimination process where you take a specific food such as bread and eliminate that from your diet for about 2-4 weeks and just take note of how you feel. You can eat how you normally eat just take out that one item and then once the 2-4 weeks are done you can try that food again and then see how your body reacts. You’ll be surprised what your body can tolerate after a while. There will be times during this process where you have such strong cravings for specific foods which will make things harder but you need to try as hard as you can not to give in. Most of the time you will stop craving these certain foods after 2 weeks, sometimes it will take longer but again it all depends on you and what your body is like.

Once you’ve tried doing this this is when I suggest going through your notes of what foods you can and can’t have and then create somewhat of a diet plan based off of this to create food that you can eat that will be sustainable. Remember this is a lifestyle change, you want to be able to do this for the long run.

Another thing is enjoy yourself. Please don’t restrict yourself of life’s pleasures. If you want to have chocolate then have it but I suggest doing so in small doses and less often. I tend to have a cheat meal/day one every two weeks. Sometimes it can be once a week, sometimes it can be once every three to four weeks. I honestly go on what my body tells me.

LISTEN TO YOUR BODY. It will tell you what it wants.

If it wants to rest, let it rest. If it needs more food, maybe because you’ve been exercising more, then eat more. If you’re really craving a specific food then have it, as long as it’s not every single day it’s not going to hurt.

During a lot of dieting phases we tend to have a weak moment and then we punish ourselves by either pushing our bodies to do extra work at the gym and exhausting ourselves and becoming miserable, or we binge and give up completely. Do not let these moments get to you. Easier said than done I know but we are human and we need to be kind to ourselves.

Another thing I want you to keep in mind is treat yourself kindly. Let me ask you this question. Everything that you tell yourself would you tell it to a friend?

Let me give you an example.

A lot of us who are dieting or look at ourselves in the mirror and notice all the imperfections in our bodies will tend to put ourselves down and we let it happen. We say to ourselves that we aren’t good enough, I am fat, I’m not muscular enough, I’m not good looking, my stretch marks are ugly, etc.

How would you feel if someone said these exact same things to you? I’m pretty sure it’s easy to say that you would feel like crap. So why do we let ourselves say/think these things about ourselves?

Here’s another question. Would you say those exact same things to your friends or family? I’m pretty sure the answer to that would be no.

You know that saying things like that would be hurtful to anyone, so again why do we let ourselves say these things to ourselves.

When it comes to exercise I suggest it’s a good idea to see a personal trainer who can set up a program for you. They will adjust it to what suits you but be honest and tell them whether the program is too much or too little, they are there to help you.

Also when it comes to exercise if you’re wanting to gain muscle you need to eat more protein. It’s pretty simple. You cannot create something out of nothing so if you don’t have extra protein in your body to help build extra tissue in your body then your body will eat away at the muscle you have. Also keep in mind the more muscle you have the more energy you will burn throughout the day so lifting weights and gaining muscle is honestly one of the best things you can do when it comes to “dieting”.

There is no way you’re going to become a beefy body builder unless you’re going to the gym every day and following a strict diet plan, so don’t stress about that. Again enjoy your exercise and try something new and fun.

I’ll quickly recap everything because there’s a lot I went through so here:

-          Don’t be afraid of food

-          Food is fuel = energy

-          CHEW YOUR FOOD

-          Try eliminating food from your diet

-          Enjoy yourself: have a cheat meal/day every now and then

-          LISTEN TO YOUR BODY: it will tell you want it wants

-          Be kind to yourself: don’t run yourself into the ground

 There is still so much that I am learning, I am no expert in any sense so don’t expect a miracle from what I’ve told you. This is what I have to offer and I hope it helps in any way, big or small.

#maddy's tips #writing #my journey

[weresey]

Baseballs and Hockey

Jimmy Vesey - New York Rangers blurb with Kevin Hayes and Brady Skjei

It had been a cloudy morning in Boston, you had woken up early to surprise your boyfriend with breakfast because you two had a big date watching your hometown team play his Boston Red Sox. The smell of freshly made eggs and bacon led Jimmy to walk to the kitchen with his cute nappy hair and wrap his hands behind you as you were finishing up breakfast. “This smells really good babe what’s the special occasion?” You turned to look at him after setting the pan down on the stove.

“There doesn’t have to be a special occasion for me to want to cook something for you babe, seeing as you Kevin and Brady only make reservations” you said laughing “But you like it when I take you out with the boys don’t you? And besides I never had someone as sexy as you to teach me to make breakfast”, he said with a wink as he headed to the table to sit down and eat. “Well, whenever you want to learn, you know where to find me” you said sitting down next to him. After finishing breakfast you told him, “I just wanted to make you something because it is our first weekend where we are having alone time and my hometown team is going to kick your Red Sox ass” he got up from his chair and started chasing you around your shared apartment until he had you pinned down on the bed where he straddled you. You both just stayed in the moment staring at each other when he leaned down and kissed you. In that instant you were in a different universe, it felt like time had stopped and you two were the only ones in the world. After minutes of kissing so soft and passionately, he caved in and he made a bet with you. “If your team wins tonight, I’ll attempt to cook you dinner and prepare a romantic evening for the two of us but if the Red Sox win you have to make a reservation which I know you have never liked to do because your cooking is always better than a restaurants” he said with his sly smile that made you quiver upon seeing his cheeks flush a bright crimson like the color of his Harvard shirt that he was wearing. “Deal! You better find a cook book Vesey because it’s your turn to wear the apron.”

You two soon lost track of time making out that you didn’t even notice the spam of messages from Kevin and Brady to see if you were at the stadium already. You laughed it off and told them that you would be there soon. You quickly changed into your hometown jersey and he put on everything he owned that represented the Red Sox, from the hat to a jersey to some socks he was ready to take a win that would never come. You too got to Fenway and found your seats because you could see Kevin and Brady waving their big arms from possibly a mile away smiling like children at the playground. The game started and for the first couple of innings the score had been a solid 0-0, the rest were action packed with the score swaying back and forth between both teams. The whole game you were fighting against Jimmy and Kevin because of their Boston pride, Brady felt bad that you were the only fan from your hometown in the section where you guys sat so he was cheering on along with you. In the 5th inning the commentators showed the boys on the big screen giving them a shout-out for playing for the Rangers and two of them being from the Boston area. They just waved and showed that awkward smile like they do when they have interviews after a game. Towards the 7th inning stretch, the kiss cam went on the screen and next thing you know so were you. “Look you guys are on the screen!” Kevin said as he pointed towards the jumbotron. You looked and next thing you knew Jimmy turned your face and planted a big kiss on your lips causing people to awe around you. At the same time that you guys are kissing, you start hearing laughs and howls as you see Kevin attempt to kiss Brady on the cheek with him resisting. You and Jimmy burst out laughing and the boys wave once again to the jumbotron as they move on with the next couple. Soon after the innings are finalizing your hometown team goes on to beat the Red Sox and you stand up to cheer your team get off the field. You look at Jimmy and say “Better get your cooking skills ready babe or I’m calling Gordon Ramsey!” Kevin and Brady look at you two confused and then Jimmy says, “I made a bet with her if her team won I had to cook her dinner, and if the Sox won she had to make a reservation.” “That’s a dumb bet, anyone who knows Vese can attest that he can’t cook.”, says Kevin “Hey! I can try can’t I” Jimmy says back to him “It’s the thought that counts and I just want to see if his cooking skills are better than mine.”, you snap back at both of them

You and Jimmy part ways from Kevin and Brady who had to take an early flight to New York for some Rangerstown interviews in the morning. As you were driving back home together, Jimmy asked you if you had any preference in meals and you told him to surprise you because in the end it didn’t matter what he made you it is the thought that counts. When you got home he sent you straight to you guy’s room so that you could change into something fancy for the surprise dinner which actually wasn’t much of a surprise since it came off of a bet. After a while of waiting, Jimmy finally called you out to him when you saw that he had made a rose petal trail from the bedroom leading to the dining area. He stood next to the table wearing a really nice suit that he had never worn before to games. The table was set with wine glasses and delicious smelling food that Jimmy actually made seeing as the kitchen was a mess. “Babe, this is amazing! You didn’t have to go to these lengths just to do the bet, a small dinner would have been fine.” “Yeah but if I hadn’t made that bet with you I would have never done what I am about to do next until we were back in New York.” You stood there with a puzzled look trying to figure out what he was talking about when he pulled out a little velvet box and kneeled before you. You backed up, clasped your hands together over your mouth and you were in tears when he started speaking. “Y/N, I have been contemplating with my mind over how to ask you this but when I saw you at that baseball game beside me, I saw myself with you at Fenway, New York, and your hometown doing these activities more regularly. Will You Marry Me?” he stuttered the words out and you could tell he was nervous. You didn’t know what to say because you were sure that your tears were about to flood your apartment so you just grabbed his face and kissed him as hard as you could. You left your hands on his face as you pulled apart and said Yes!

// This was supposed to be a small blurb because I am barely trying to get into writing. I just got into hockey back in January and this is just something that came to mind seeing as the New York Rangers were one of the teams that I got attached to first. Anyways, feedback would be valued. This is my first writing piece and I am self-publishing it so please be aware that this is a trial run and it is scary. I want to see if I have skills like some of my favorite writers on here. Hope you guys enjoyed it!

//Posting again because the first time it didn’t pick up on the keep reading tab. So here it is again. :)

#Jimmy Vesey #New York Rangers #Brady Skjei #Kevin Hayes #nhl imagine #nhl blurb #nhl #mine #first time writer #Jimmy Vesey imagine #baseball #mlb #boston red sox #hockey #hockey imagine #hockey blurb

[grizzbe]

Epilogue

Woo Boy! It’s been a while since I’ve written a fic! I’ve been busy gearing up for graduate school, so I’ve unfortunately let this fall by the wayside. But the series finale of The Americans brought me back! I just needed a happy ending for my favorite spy family. I’ve put the whole thing under the break to spare those of you who aren’t interested, but I enjoyed writing it and I hope those of you who read it enjoy it as well!

1992

Washington, D.C.

Paige sat in her corner of the library, books sprawled across the table, a thick volume of tort law opened next to her notebook. She looked down at her watch, 8:00. She had been there for four hours, and the words were starting to blend together. She leaned back and rubbed the heels of her palms against her eyes. Soft footsteps began approaching her hideaway from behind her.

“Paige,” the librarian whispered. “Your brother called, he wanted to know if you were going to make it for Seinfeld tonight.”

“Shoot, is it Thursday?” said Paige, matching the librarian’s volume. “Thank you, Susan. I’ll go call him.”

The librarian gave her a warm smile and a squeeze on her shoulder before heading back to her desk at the front. Paige had an idea that Susan didn’t go out of her way for most of the other law students, but she had recognized quickly how much of an advantage having the law librarian as a friend would be. She slid a scratch paper into her tort book and closed it before grabbing her purse and heading to the payphone bank.

On her way there, she saw two students that she hadn’t seen in the library before and possibly one new professor talking with Susan at the front desk. A new professor or an FBI tail, but almost certainly just a new professor she hadn’t met yet. The FBI hadn’t been interested in her in four years.

Paige slid a couple quarters into the payphone and dialed the number to Henry’s apartment, he picked up on the third ring as she expected him to.

“Hey Henry, I’m-” she started.

“Hold it, Paige, you skipped last week!” said Henry. “It was hilarious and this week’s is supposed to be even better!”

“Henry! Calm down!” Paige said, rolling her eyes but smiling all the same. “I was just going to say I’m going to be at the library for at least another 30 minutes. Did you ever find the key I gave you?”

“Oh… No, I haven’t found it yet,” said Henry.

“Alright, well, just wait for me in the lobby, okay?” said Paige.

“Sounds good,” said Henry. “We need to figure out what we’re doing next week, by the way.”

“Thanksgiving?” asked Paige. Was it already late November? She tried her hardest to keep her nose buried in textbooks at this time of year. Paige could only guess how it affected Henry.

“Yeah,” came the voice from the other end. “Stan and Renee are taking a trip to California this year. He says he’s tired of ‘freezing his balls off over the holidays.’”

The two Jennings siblings shared a good laugh at that. Stan had done a lot for them over the past five years, more than she ever thought they deserved, or maybe just she deserved. There would be no way to ever repay him. They were lucky that Stan wasn’t the kind of guy that considered repayment when helping others.

“We’ll figure something out,” said Paige. “If worst comes to worst, we can just go to that Mediterranean place you like so much. I think they’re open on Thanksgiving.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Henry said. “Anyways, I’ll see you in the lobby.”

“Alright.”

“And don’t be late!”

“Alright, alright!” Paige said with a chuckle.

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

The trip back to her apartment was uneventful, only a handful of possible tails: a couple of late 80’s sedans and one older lady in a big jacket, but Paige dismissed them with a closer look. Not too close, though, because that might draw attention. She walked into the lobby to find Henry talking with the doorman.

She wasn’t sure how it happened, but Henry looked like he was still growing, even in his senior year at college. One of these days he was going to finally stop, but as it was, he already towered over her. When he saw her, he gave her a smile and said his goodbyes to the doorman as he joined her at the elevator.

“So how’s the studying going,” asked Henry. “John says you’ve been coming in late this week, have a test coming up?”

“Just prepping for mock trials,” Paige said. “Other than that it’s been pretty light. What about you? How did that date go?”

“It went well, I think,” said Henry. “I’m not sure, though, it was kind of hard to get a read on her.”

The two continued to catch up with each other as they rode the elevator up to Paige’s floor and to her apartment. Paige took out her keys but drew up short at the lock. Tell-tale sounds came from beyond the door, pots and flatware being moved around.

“Do you have any friends over,” asked Henry, looking as confused as she felt.

“Not that I know of,” responded Paige, subconsciously checking to make sure her taser was in her purse.

The two timidly opened the door to see the table set for four, soft, familiar sounds coming from the kitchen. The two quietly walked in to see their mom and dad finishing up preparing a meal. Philip and Elizabeth pulled up and looked at the children they hadn’t seen in five years. The four stood there for a moment, almost frozen, no one saying a word.

“Hi guys,” said Philip, finally breaking the silence.

“Mom! Dad!” shouted Henry, as he rushed to close the distance, hugging his mother and father. Paige wasn’t too far behind, and the four stood there in an embrace so long in the making. Elizabeth was the first to start crying, which shocked Paige into her own tears. Eventually, they all stepped back from each other, Paige and Elizabeth both wiping the eyes.

“We missed you two so much,” said Elizabeth through a beaming smile and puffy eyes. Paige couldn’t remember the last time she had seen her mother showing such genuine emotions.

“How are you guys here,” asked Henry. “I thought you couldn’t ever come back?”

“We’ve been doing this for a long time, Henry,” said Philip, his own smile slightly tempered. “Anyways, your mother and I have worked pretty hard here. How about some dinner?”

The family sat down and ate, the whole process being a bit awkward at first. The conversation was stunted, the weight of five years of absence hanging over the dinner table like a pall, until it wasn’t. Before long, the smiles beamed, the laughter contagious. And, of course, the questions came, all four of them just as hungry for the empty spaces to be filled in as they were for the chicken parmesan.

“So, Paige, Georgetown Law? That’s quite an accomplishment!” said Elizabeth, her smile, once so rare, beaming. “What are you studying?”

“Immigration law,” said Paige, a little uneasy with the spot on her, feeling like she was back in high school.

“What made you choose that?” asked Philip.

“I just,“ she started. “I wanted to help people who wanted to be here. A lot of people give up everything to move to this country and then they want to just turn them around. It’s not right.”

Philip and Elizabeth didn’t say anything to that, just smiled warmly at Paige and squeezed the other’s hand before turning their attention to Henry.

“And Henry! George Washington!” Philip almost shouted. “How’s rowing going?”

“It’s going okay, I wish hockey was more than a club sport, but I can do both,” said Henry. “But what about you guys? How’s life back in Mother Russia?”

The parents exchanged a look at that and a small laugh before Elizabeth spoke, “It’s alright, we miss you two terribly, but it could be worse, all things considered. To be honest, Henry, you’re taking it better than we thought you would.”

Henry shrugged, “I’ve had five years to digest it, what can I say? Stan gave me the basics, and Paige filled everything in after that.”

“You have to understand, Henry,” said Philip. “We did what we thought was best for you.”

“Dad, I know,” Henry insisted. “I mean, it took me a year or two, but I get it. How’d you guys even get into the country? Stan doesn’t like to talk about it, but he made it pretty clear that you were Persona Non-Grata.”

“We’ve been doing this for a while, Henry,” said Elizabeth. “And the less you two know about the specifics is probably, the better.”

Henry and Paige both rolled their eyes at their mother’s sidestep.

“So, what are you guys doing these days?” asked Paige.

“Well, we’re mostly instructors these days,” said Elizabeth.

“Spy instructors?” asked Henry.

“I wouldn’t exactly call it that,” said Philip, shaking his head as if weighing the words.

“We instruct the police, these days,” followed Elizabeth.

Only a little lie, Paige picked up. She had absorbed her mother’s lessons better than even she had realized.

“We’ve missed you guys so much,” said Philip. “Your mother cried for a week when we got your photos, Paige.”

Even now, Elizabeth’s eyes were looking a little red, Philip squeezed her hand in reassurance.

“What? No way!” said Henry. “Mom, cry? And when did you send them pictures, Paige?”

“Back in February,” said Paige. “It wasn’t really easy finding your address. I had to go to the embassy and they only really listened to me when I explained our… situation to them. I thought Stan was going to interrogate me for a week after that.”

“Thank you, again, you have no idea how much it meant to us,” said Philip, Elizabeth actively holding back tears at that point.

“So you’re instructors,” said Paige. “What else do you guys do?”

“Well, I cook a little,” said Philip. “And your mother paints! She’s actually pretty good!”

Philip beamed as he turned to his wife, who just chuckled at the shocked looks on her children’s faces.

“Alright! Alright!” said Elizabeth. “My painting isn’t that hard to believe!”

“It’s just, painting is a,” Paige tried to find the word. “Gentle pursuit, mom.”

“And we all know you’re the hard-ass, mom,” said Henry barely containing a laugh.

“You guys wouldn’t believe how good she’s gotten,” said Philip, obviously enjoying himself at the turn the conversation had taken. “Her first few though.”

Philip stuck out his tongue and looked off to the side, earning himself a friendly elbow in the ribs from Elizabeth.

“Well, now I’ve heard everything,” said Henry. “So, how long are you guys staying?”

“Oh, I’d say we have a little more than a week before the office starts wondering where we went,” said Philip.

“More than a week,” asked Paige. “So you’re staying for Thanksgiving?”

Philip and Elizabeth looked at each other for a moment and smiled as they turned back to their kids.

“Yeah,” said Elizabeth. “I think we can manage that.”

#The Americans #philip x elizabeth #Philip Jennings #Elizabeth Jennings #Paige Jennings #Henry Jennings #The Jennings Family #fic #I wrote a thing #I hope y'all like it! #fanfiction

[ledenews]

Chris Thoburn: Running for a Reason

When you meet Chris Thoburn, you discover two things about him quite quickly. One, he’s a big fan of sports. His extensive and varied resume in the industry can attest to that. But two, and more importantly, Thoburn is a lover of people, not just in their stories, but in how his life can affect theirs in a positive way. That’s why he’s spent the majority of his adult life giving back and doing for others as much as he does for himself. His career in the sports industry has gone from sales and broadcasting, to sports information duties, play-by-play announcing, and a bit of writing. He knows the importance sports play in people’s lives, and he’s happy to be a small part of it. But away from his profession is where Thoburn really shines. He’s a volunteer fireman for the Colerain Fire Department. He’s a youth leader at his church, and he coaches youth sports, helping to start the indoor roller hockey league in St. Clairsville. What drives him the most however is distance running, specifically, running for others. Thoburn runs to promote two causes that are near and dear to his heart, and he admits that if not for that purpose, he’d hang up his running shoes and call it a day. Those types of people are rare, ones who put others before themselves and lead by example. The trick is to follow them.

Your post-graduate life is full of careers in sports, from broadcasting and play-by-play to sports information, even the sales side of the industry. What got you into it, and is there one aspect you enjoy more than others?  

When I was doing my internship with the Wheeling Nailers, Craig Bommer told me, “To be successful in sports broadcasting, it's always a plus to have a sales background.” So, during my internships, I learned a lot about building relationships. I actually don’t like the word “sale.” I consider it relationship building and helping companies further business with our products. I’m also forever thankful for all the staff at Wheeling Jesuit when I was there. They let me do so much in Sports Information and helped me land my first full-time job at Oklahoma State. The Cowboys were coming off the Big 12 Championship in football and just recruited Marcus Smart for basketball, so excitement was high all around the area. The cross-country team also won a National Championship while I was there, and being a runner, that meant a lot to me. I enjoy the broadcasting the most. I’d sit there at a very young age, turn the TV on mute, and commentate the games on my own. Even at times during my internships with the Nailers, Tulsa Oilers, Oklahoma City Barons, and Washington Wild Things, I’d bring out my recorder and call a period or inning for my resume tapes. It brought me to where I am today. I absolutely love high school and college football. Being able to broadcast local high schools is a dream come true. People keep saying, "We want to see you on ESPN," and I said I’m fine just where I am. In my hometown, calling games for our hometown teams. If the opportunity presented itself at ESPN, of course, I’d consider it, but I’m so blessed to be back home. Broadcasting is my definite number one.

You grew up in the Upper Ohio Valley and worked a bit here before your time in Stillwater at Oklahoma State. What brought about that change and then what ultimately brought you back home?

I started applying for jobs in January before I graduated from West Liberty, and nothing ever came about. I started working at UPS and then over at Wheeling Jesuit. Finally, after applying for two years after graduation, I got one of the greatest phone calls of my life from Adam Hauka, and I owe so much to him. We chatted, and he gave me my big shot, my chance. and of course I was going to go. It’s just so funny it came a few months after I was sitting there rooting on Oklahoma State to beat Andrew Luck and Stanford in the Fiesta Bowl. My main job was customer service and retention for Football, Baseball, Softball and Women’s Basketball. However, I had so many opportunities in Sports Information, PA announcing, broadcasting, and other duties. We’d be here all day if I listed all of those, but I’m forever blessed for that opportunity, and those were some of the best times of my life. Unfortunately, while I was there, I also received one of the worst phone calls of my life when my mom told me her cancer returned, and it was Stage 4. I didn’t know how long she had left, and she’s the most amazing woman ever, so I actually called Craig Bommer again, and a few months later I was able to return home and work with the Nailers while spending four more years with my mom and reconnected with a longtime friend and eventually married her. She’s the love of my life, and everything happens for a reason. Momma Thoburn was at the wedding too, and we got to do the Mother/Groom dance and just had a great night of celebration.

A few years ago, you began training to be a paramedic. You also volunteer as a youth coach and youth leader at your church. Have you always felt compelled to give back, and what specifically appealed to you about these different rolls?

I wanted to give back wherever I could to my community. Unfortunately, the paramedic path didn’t work out for me. I do hold a Firefighter card, but I was in a rough place after losing my mom and some other mental health problems I was having. There’s no excuse; I just failed, and I let a lot of people down. I help where I can on fire calls. My home church gave me so much and supported me so much throughout my high school years and even when I moved away. When I moved back, I met someone who became the best man in my wedding. Working next to him for those years was the best. It broke my heart when he and his family moved back to Alabama, but his wonderful wife is proudly serving in our U.S. Military, and when duty calls, they have to go. The roller hockey coaching is awesome! Believe it or not I only played roller hockey one year and was terrible at it because I was on ice so much. The St. Clairsville Rec Center called me about starting up a developmental league, and of course if anything can grow the game of hockey I wanted to volunteer. I’ve met some amazing people through that league, and it means a lot to me. Being a former hockey player and growing up in my church youth group really made me want to give back to people who gave so much to me. Because of the COVID-19, the roller hockey league was canceled this year, so I’m hoping we can pick back up next year. 

Chris and young Milana Zatolochenko pose for a picture at Thoburn's office. When Thoburn runs, he wears his #TeamMila shirt to raise funds and awareness for the girl he calls his "hero."

You’ve gotten into distance running, representing both Team RWB and #TeamMila. What got you involved with both of these groups and what way can others help out? 

Distance running is in my blood. I ran my first 5k at 10 years old and my dad ran for WVU, so it was something I was destined to do. I got out of running for a while and was in a very bad place health wise. After a scare that landed me in the emergency room, I decided to change my life around, but I vowed to use my running to help others too. I met Milana, nicknamed Mila, during my time with the Nailers and found out she had a severe motility disorder, the same disorder as the little girl from Miracles From Heaven movie. So, I started Team Mila to raise funds for her. It started as just local races, but then expanded into other states including the Team USA Olympic Trials in Atlanta this past March. Running for someone renewed my passion for not only running but for life in general. She saved my life. Her parents Maggie and Stephen are some of the strongest folks I know. I’m a better person because of them. I found out about Team RWB while at races. Of course, I’m a huge supporter of our current military and our veterans. When I learned that it was a civilian/veteran organization I really wanted to do my part in helping our local veterans. We do monthly socials, weekly rucks, and runs. We also fly the Eagle on our shirts at races. Usually how I’ll do it so I can support both, I’ll run with my Team Mila jersey and then during post-race will throw on the Eagle. The day that running becomes about me, is the day I hang up the shoes. It’s all about Milana and our veterans.   

Chris met the love of his life Jennifer after he returned from Stillwater, Oklahoma. They married in 2015 and Thoburn credits his wife with allowing him the time to train to keep up his race regiment.

Speaking of running, despite the pandemic cancellation, you still completed both the Ogden Newspapers 5K run and Half Marathon on Memorial Day Weekend? Was it important to you to keep with tradition? Or was it a good day to train without an official race, so why not participate on the course you originally planned to? 

Last year, I had my first ever DNF (Did not finish) in a race and it’s haunted me so bad. So, after the cancellation, I was still more motivated than ever to get back out there and run that course. Now, yes, partially this one was for me, but also for my superhero Milana. I badly sprained my ankle on mile 7 last year, but I was so discouraged and upset that I couldn’t get up and finish, but mostly that I let my superhero down. This year wasn’t about a medal. It wasn’t about a time. It wasn’t about tradition. It was about redemption and it felt great. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off of me.  It’s been extremely weird during training. I honestly don’t know when my next race will be. I’ve shifted my focus to Atlanta and Myrtle Beach in 2021. They are back to back weekends and I’m up for the challenge. I’ve completed numerous half marathons and nine full marathons. My goal for 2021 is to complete one more full marathon and my first Ultra Marathon. I will never settle for where I am. I want to get better each and every day. My favorite quote is “Success is never owned, it is rented, and the rent is due every day.” This is more than me, it’s for a little girl that needs our help. I want to thank Mila’s family for letting me run for her, my wife Jennifer for allowing me the time to be out on the course or track training, all my training partners, and of course all the supporters of Team Mila.  Read the full article

#nailers #oklahomastate #running #teammila #teamrwb

[greenishbucket]

I’m Waiting For It

An evening in the bar midway through Andover's Parents' Weekend. 1.9k, also on ao3.

Helen isn’t planning on getting wasted, not really. Just on getting tipsy enough to take the edge off, to push away the memory of the day until she’s home safe in Cambridge in a few days and can cry about it all she wants.

Even if she wanted to get really, truly drunk it’s not like there are many places near to Andover for someone to do so that aren’t places just too sketchy – purposefully so, for the sake of her son and his classmates to get drunk underage – for her to go to alone. She has to be back for day two of parents visiting weekend tomorrow, too, and it would look bad to turn up hungover.

That doesn’t mean she doesn’t push the parameter of ‘tipsy’ to the absolute limit, alone at a table in a nearly empty bar two streets over from the hotel. She forgot to bring a book to read, or even the local paper, and her phone holds too many concerned texts from friends back home. Call me later x and don’t hesitate if you need a shoulder. When she’s in a better mind she knows she’ll appreciate them but right now it rankles.

The bar is dull without something to occupy her, the drinks taking too long to take effect even as she knocks them back and the music low enough that Helen is struggling to hear the words. Time to get her hearing checked, perhaps with her next eye test. Age feels heavy on her for a moment before it passes again.

Helen watches as a woman, also alone, orders an ice water. Her voice is low and firm enough to carry and she taps her fingers on the bar as she waits, looking around the room.

She seems familiar, dressed just a little too high end for the flavour of the bar they’re in like Helen is and her purse larger than it needs to be. She must be another parent from Andover staying in the area; the bag is probably still filled with emergency wipes and band aids, scrunched receipts and about seven half gone packets of chewing mints. Helen knows that her bag is – but maybe that’s just her. Holding on to the past, when her family was new and young and together.

This woman looks put together and held together, whereas when Helen looks in the mirror she can only conclude she looks put together and about thirty seconds from her hair unravelling from its bun, from her seams and the soles of her shoes giving up the ghost for good, all her unmarked papers collapsing on her from the sky.

The woman looks over at Helen and Helen raises a hand in greeting, even though she’s still unsure if this woman even is another Andover parent. It’s either the alcohol having more effect than she thought or that she’s still in polite mode but she supposes there’s no harm in making a new friend either. The woman smiles in response and comes over with her lone water. Helen takes a moment to wonder if she should feel embarrassed about her array of alcoholic drinks on the table in front of her but then discards the idea; what else do people come to bars to do, after all?

“I didn’t expect to see you here,” the woman says, taking her seat.

Helen isn’t sure whether or not to be affronted and so asks, “Why’s that?”

When the women smiles, embarrassed, she’s abruptly human. Not so put together that she can’t misstep with her speaking, not so put together that she becomes cold and unwelcoming like so many of the people Helen finds herself surrounded with these days. It’s a relief, attractive, and Helen feels herself let her guard down a little.

“Not like that!” she insists, “Oh God, let me start again. Hi, it’s great to meet you. You’re Helen, Shitty’s mom, right?”

Helen thinks for a moment, very distinctly, who in the fuck is Shitty? before recalling a phone call last week wherein he’d casually dropped that that was what the kids called him now. His father’s father’s name had been terrible from the start and Helen had always stood by that so it’s no loss to her for him to go by something else.

“That’s me. Sorry, I’m not sure who…?”

“Marcia. My son’s a couple of years behind yours. Derek Nurse? They’re on the hockey team together?”

Helen recalls Shitty saying something about a new defenseman on the team, doesn’t recall if he said he was good or bad. She recognises Marcia now, though, from the little tour group they’d been stuck in all day. Assured air but nervous when asking questions, dressed well with make-up that tastefully compliments her skin tone but tacky, gas station-style charms hanging from her phone case.

“Oh,” she says. “Yes, of course, I’ve heard lots about him. How’s he finding Andover?”

Marcia takes a sip of her water, makes a so-so gesture with her head. “You know. I think he enjoys it, plenty of funding for extracurriculars and he’s making some good friends, but.” She shrugs.

“Sad to have him away from home?” Helen asks. It’s the most common complaint among other parents.

“No,” Marcia says. “I mean yes, obviously, I’d love if he wasn’t away from home. He’s only a child and his sister’s already at college. But I travel a lot for work and so does my hu– my ex-husband, and they’ve both always been independent, so we’re all used to it. It’s just, well. All this old money shit, you know?”

Helen blinks, taken aback by the straightforwardness of it. “Yeah. Pretty exhausting.”

“Stop me if I’m completely wrong on this, but you know what I mean, right? This parents weekend has just been all about how old the buildings are and how many old white donors the school has and all that crap, but they aren’t telling us about what they’re teaching or how it’s being taught, or how the kids are doing emotionally. Derek’s not going to tell me everything and I thought all this money would mean he’s in good hands but now I’m worrying it’s all just a front, not that I thought it wasn’t but today was just really worrying.” Marcia takes a long pull of her water, the ice clattering against the sides of the glass.

“It sounds like you’re prioritising the right things to me,” Helen says. “What they’re teaching academically and emotionally matters, the environment the pupils are in all day matters.”

“I know my priorities are right,” Marcia replies promptly. “I just had higher hopes for this school, God knows why. I’m sure it will be fine but– old white money, you know?”

“I could write to the governors for you,” Helen offers because she is old white money, even if it’s less so than her ex-husband and a lot of the Andover crowd, and that has clout.

Marcia shakes her head. “No. I don’t know. Maybe. Let me think. I just wanted to get it out. I was just going to stew here and then go to bed but you’re here and I figured you’d be willing to listen and you’d get some of it as a mother. I would’ve vented at Derek’s dad if he’d been able to make it but here we are. Anyway, sorry.”

“Hey, my ex-husband who’s on trial for accounting fraud still managed to make it this weekend, just so he could tell me I’m a bad mother and pretend he gives a shit about our son, probably because it’ll look good for his case,” Helen says because all those drinks are finally starting to hit and she’s just stepping over the line into drunk. It feels good to get it out, too, and she’s always believed in letting emotions be expressed. It’s healthy. Her and Marcia can have a bonding venting session in this bar.

Marcia laughs, loud and startled. It makes her look even more human, the way her eyes are dancing with a shocked delight. “Oh shit,” she says, looking like she might be biting down on a smile. “I mean sorry. That’s terrible, I’m so sorry to hear that.”

Helen finds herself trying not to smile too because when it’s put that bluntly, it really is a clusterfuck, isn’t it? How did she get into this situation? She has a PhD, she should have known better than to marry such an asshole. A businessman, too.

“Don’t worry about it, you can laugh,” Helen says and laughs herself. “It’s a mess.”

Marcia just smiles, a little wry. Her foot nudges Helen’s under the table just a little. “At least he’s an ex, right?”

“Should’ve done it years ago,” Helen says, bitter, because all those years wasted with that man. All that pandering to his stupid values, shoving Toni Morrison at her own child in the hope it could counteract some of it (and thanking whatever higher power, just the other day, when he’d asked for her recommendations on gender studies works).

Marica shrugs. “Me too, probably. Not that my husband was anything so bad as yours,” she continues at Helen’s look, “He’s a lovely guy, really great. There just wasn’t anything there anymore. Maybe neither of us made the effort, I don’t know, maybe that’s just how these things go. At least we can still be friendly, he can still be there for the kids.”

“At least he didn’t commit fraud.”

“Exactly,” Marcia laughs. “God, look at me blabbing on. I’m not even drunk.”

“I am, so no worries,” Helen assures her. “Would you like a drink? I’ll buy.”

Marcia pauses and Helen realises the question came out heavier, flirtier than it had sounded in her head. It’s been years since it’s even been an option. She doesn't want to backtrack. She waits.

“Sure,” Marcia says finally. “Just a gin and tonic, thanks.”

When Helen looks back for a moment as she walks up to the bar, Marcia is watching her go. She doesn’t look away even when she notices Helen noticing. It makes Helen’s heart race to know she isn’t misreading the situation, that she was the one to actually initiate this, and she turns back quickly, hands sweaty like she’s a teenager all over again, to order from the bartender.

“We can’t get too drunk,” Marcia says firmly when Helen returns with the drink. “Day two of parents’ weekend tomorrow, remember? Our children are relying on us, your horrible ex is waiting to pounce, the tour continues.”

“I know,” Helen says and she swaps the gin and tonic in her hand for Marcia’s half-finished water and takes a sip. “I’m cutting myself off here. We’ll just be slightly buzzed and we’ll wake up fine for another amazing day of fun tomorrow.”

“You think I’m going to get buzzed off one gin and tonic?”

Helen lets herself notice the details about Marcia that she’s been ignoring so far: the bump in her nose, the strength in the set of her shoulders, the way her mouth closes around the straw of her drink. When she checks, it looks like maybe Marcia is letting herself notice things back.

Helen isn’t sure where this will all go – they’re still on parents’ weekend, after all, and they’re both recent divorcees whose children are friends, and she hasn’t been with a woman in years – but that doesn’t mean it’s something not worth pursuing. Fuck it, she thinks.

“Would you be able to make time for more than one drink?” she asks.

Marcia smiles. She has laugh lines around her mouth, at the corners of her eyes. “I think I could do that.”

#check please fic #my writing #there is no ship name lol #but it's nursey's ma/shitty's ma

[highbuttonsports]

The Flames offseason took a big swing a few days back with blockbuster trade.

Yeah I’m upset. I think it was Drake who rapped that, now the city of Calgary is singing the same song. Let me preface this by saying personally, I’m not upset, let’s go with neutral. The Flames offseason took a big swing a few days back with blockbuster trade. Alright, well yea you’re right, it’s probably not a blockbuster in today’s game, but back it up 5-6 years when both of these guys were in their younger years, it might have been a decent heavy hitting deal. That’s right, breaking down the James Neal and Milan Lucic trade. 

Let’s put this deal in a brief perspective. It’s like used cars. I have a pickup truck that is no longer good to me living downtown Calgary, I can’t park it in a parking garage, I don’t drive it much anymore and need something smaller. My buddy has a smaller car, with a bunch of miles on it and although isn’t ideal it’s better for what I need. We might have a good trade off here, he actually just bought a house and could use a truck for homeowner shit. The payments are pretty much equal, the needs have changed, how about we swap? That seems like exactly what the Flames and Oilers ultimately did. However you want to help yourself sleep at night, whether it was a bad contract for a bad contract type of deal, or  “filling a need” for “filling a need” type of deal, it’s done. Looch will be wearing the Flaming C come October, and the Real Deal will be up in the blue and orange. I’ll be the first to admit, I was excited as hell last July when the Real Deal signed in Calgary. 

  Who wouldn’t love a career 20 goal scorer each year on their roster. It’s screams consistency. Even at 5.75 million some say it might be steep, others might be like that’s a pretty good deal. I’m in the decent deal boat. Obviously that was shown to be a bust this year, but when you look at some of the other contracts out there based on contribution I don’t think it’s the worst. Looking at Milan, again similar deal. 6 million for what he is now is extremely steep. He probably still calls Uncle Peter Chiarelli every summer to thank him for that ticket. I won’t disagree that it’s also steep for what he offers now, but when you’re dealing with bad contracts sometimes you just have to take your medicine. Obviously Holland just inherited this, but he still has to make the best out of a bad situation and I think he did that here. Treliving on the other hand must of felt like he had no other choice. Listening around the city on sports radio, news outlets and all things Flames, or should I say James Neal must go.  Almost a year later what we thought was a good signing, or what I thought was a good signing was traded away. 

Let’s look at it for each player. When I talk to the boys in the shop, I talk about this deal with expectations. I don’t hate that we traded James Neal, I don’t love it either. I don’t hate that we acquired Milan Lucic, but I don’t necessarily love it. When I say expectations, I go this route. Let’s look back at last summer when the Flames signed James Neal. They’re starting to change their identity after another down year. New coach, some roster changes, things are looking up. Adding what was really a bigger free agent signing in James Neal we were all under the impression he’d walk in here and score another twenty. I was in that boat 100 percent. The expectations were being set for James Neal before he ever stepped on the ice in a Flames sweater. He was going to step into the first line with Gaudreau and Monahan and flourish. Worst case scenario he’d be a second liner and likely still throw up twenty. Obviously that wasn’t the case, so as you sit back and try to find out where it all went wrong we can look at a few different things. New coach, Bill Peters. 

   Right from the get go, did he give Neal a true chance. Sure he threw him up on line one or line two from time to time for a shift to give him that shot, but nothing came to fruition. Did he write off Neal before he ever stepped on the ice? I’m not saying that this was the case, but it definitely could be possible. It could be James himself. Did he play too much hockey over the past few years and never had a true off season where he could recover, and train. This could be the case as to why his foot speed or straight up hockey sense seemed to be non existent this past year. Like I mentioned, expectations, here’s where we lie. We EXPECTED James Neal to come into Calgary, with a 5.75 million dollar contract to put up twenty goals and play top line minutes night in and night out. We don’t know it for sure, but it could be the exact same expectation James set out for himself. Once that doesn’t happen, then obviously it’s a failure. When you are expecting a 5.75 million dollar sniper to be just that, and he turns out to be a dud playing out on the third and fourth line, putting up 7 goals, 12 assists for 19 points you’re damn right we’re going to call a spade a spade and call for his head because that was an epic fail of a contract, or so it seems. Now I’m one that was expecting him to get another year to prove his worth. He would have that full summer to get himself in shape.

   He had that bad year so the motivation should be there to get his shit together. There wasn’t many options for Treliving to get rid of him as a buy out just didn’t make sense, and trade partners are extremely limited. Clearly the Flames felt the trial ran out like it usually does after 30 days and found a partner to dance with and offloaded the baggage. Looking at him up in Edmonton, again it’s a hit or miss. Either he’s going to put up 20+, or he’s going to be another dud. Everyone is expecting him to put up 30 being on a line with Connor, but can he keep up? Can he be put in the slot and get a feed from McDavid? It remains to be seen, and should be interesting to see how it plays out. I will say this though, although I’m not sure what the over/under will be set at for 2019/2020, but based upon last years totals, I got the over for James Neal goals this year.

The other piece of that trade was Milan Lucic heading down Highway 2 to the C of Red. I’ll start this bit off with a little about myself. I grew up a Bruins fan, and still love following the Bruins, but living in Calgary and attending many Flames games, and being invested I’ve come to cheer for the Flames. Call me what you want, but unless you live in the city and go through the same ups and downs and feels in the arena, don’t comment until you do! Looch was your stereotypical Bruin. I loved his game since he came into the league. He was the true big bad Bruin. Obviously times have changed, the league has changed and his game isn’t what it used to be. The game of hockey isn’t want it used to be as it’s changed so much over the past few years. That’s why I’m sitting back and waiting to see how this plays out. By the numbers, again bad contract. Calgary did save some money taking on this bad contract which will help when trying to sign our other RFA’s, but we also take on a NMC, and some signing bonus money that we didn’t have with Neal, but it’s the old adage that the change of scenery could make this work (for both teams). Let me take you back to where we talked about expectations. 

  Let’s move into this trade, and realize that we are not expecting Looch to walk in here and play with Gaudreau and Monahan, or with Backlund and Tkachuk. So yes, when you look at it in the sense that we’re paying 5.25 million for a guy on the bottom 6, but we were going to pay that anyway. Are we going to pay that for a guy that we’re expecting to do something that isn’t, or actually find the value in the fact that we have a guy playing his role, what he was brought in to do and anything he does will seem like an added bonus. Let’s not discount the fact that in 12 NHL years, he has over 500 points and 1000 PIMs in almost 900 games. That’s not terrible for a guy who has been a grinder throughout his career, but can also play up and down the lineup. In those numbers, he’s scored 15 or more goals 8 times with a career high of 30 goals in 2010-2011. Now I won’t be the one that sits here and suggests he’s going to put up 30 this year, or ever again, but I will sit here and suggest that he gets 15+ this year. If we get 15+ along with 40-50 points I think that should be considered a success. But all that aside, I think the part of this deal that will make this a win for Calgary is the fact that Milan Lucic is in the lineup. 

  Yes the game has changed, but if you don’t think he keeps guys honest out there, take a lap. He’s a presence no matter where he is, and with a younger lineup along with some vets like Gio, this has to be a win for the dressing room, not to mention allowing some guys like Bennett and Tkachuk to be their usual aggravating selves out there with a bit less pressure knowing whose backing them up. Not that they necessarily need it, but you know in the back of everyone’s minds that’s the case. I’m not sure if Milan feels as he has a lot to prove, but we know his years in Edmonton didn’t pan out how anyone was expecting let alone how I’m sure he expected it too, so maybe he is entering this year training as hard as ever, maybe even with a chip on his shoulder coming into this season with the mindset he has everything to prove. I’m hoping for that, as I’m sure the rest of Flames fans are. 

We’re still weeks away from these guys even stepping on the ice for training camp to see how this deal is going to pan out, but rest assured on every sports channel, every sports radio feed, every blog post at some point or another are going to dissect this trade all year long no matter how it starts, how it progresses and how it finishes. A very familiar scenario is going to be playing out on both ends of the QE2 Highway this year and it will definitely be fun to watch. The more I write about this trade, the more excitement I get thinking of having that 17 flying around in the Dome this year. I’ll leave you with this. Mark it down now, December 27th, 2019 up in Edmonton. The first time this regular season this trade will go head to head. Until next time C of Red.

-Murrant 

[austonmatthews-34]

Not Another Number 8

THANK YOU all so much for being patient and waiting for me to write this! Here is part 8! -Katie 💞

You climbed into the passenger side of the car while your stomach continued to do flips. Wearing your coat this time you were bundled up and began to watch the snowfall from the sky as you waited for Auston to get in. With your eyes focused on the sky, you barely heard the car door open for him to get into the car.

“Ready?” he questioned you as you still stare out the windshield.

“Yeah, of course.” You say turning to share a soft smile to ensure him. He starts the car to begin the short drive to the restaurant for you to make your first impression on his family. He reaches out for your hand and you politely give in. As his left hand is on the steering wheel he holds tightly on to your hand with his right.

“You’re gonna be just fine, Y/N. Nothing to be worried about.” He looks over to you to with a reassuring face.

“You keep telling me that, but I can’t help but to feel nervous.” You say justifying your feeling. Auston sighs and looks back at the road just moments away from the restaurant.

As Auston reached for the door you took a deep breath in. Squeezing his hand, he opens the door to the restaurant. He leads you through the small crowd of people already engaged in their dinners and conversation. You reach a small private back room where dim lights are lite through out the ceiling.

“Auston!” you hear a girl’s voice call out. You let go of Auston’s hand and let him join his family while you wait to be invited over. He instantly clicks right into the bunch and his faces lights up. You could tell he misses being around his family. While you awkwardly stood there, you locked eyes with Mrs. Matthews. She smiled softly at you.

“Y/N, what are you doing over there? Come on here and join us.” She says while waving you down. Taking slow strides you pace yourself to the welcoming family in front of you. Sheepishly you join Auston by his side.

“Everyone this is, Y/N.” he looks down at you and smiled as your name fell out of his mouth. You couldn’t speak so you just smiled a little.

“Of course we know her name, you haven’t stopped talking about her since you played the Pens.” One of his sisters piped up. You blushed a little, causing Auston to lock eyes with his sister. As his family took their seats they began small conversations about their flight here and how they were all excited for Auston’s game tomorrow.

“Surely you’ll be joining us Y/N, yes?” Mrs. Matthews asked as you picked up the menu placed in front of you.

“Oh definitely! I’m looking forward to it.” You gave her a soft smile.

“Do you like hockey?” asked Mr. Matthews.

“Of course she does dad, how do you think we met?” Auston exclaimed.

“It’s okay” you placed you hand on Auston’s knee calming him down “I’m a really big fan of the Penguins. I’ve grown up going to the games with my dad and my brother sometimes. They’re my favorite team by far.” You say while glancing at Auston with your last sentence.

“Can you ice skate?” asked one of his sisters.

“I can, but I’m not the best at stopping.” You could feel the heat on you face.

“Well we’ll have to go together tomorrow before Auston’s practice!” she replied.

“Okay, sure.” You agreed while Auston squeezed your hand.

Dinner continued very casual with simple questions about where you were attending college and how you wanted to pursue a job in social media for hockey.

Once you returned to the car you felt yourself breath fully again.

“You’re amazing, did you know that?” Auston said while leaning in to kiss you before starting the car.

“I’ve heard the before.” You commented.

“No, I’m serious. My parents really like you, and the fact that Breyana asked you to come ice skate with…” he trailed off with a grin stretching on his face.

“You didn’t full on introduce me to your sisters. You were very rude.” You playfully hit him in the arm.

“Don’t worry, you’ll see them both tomorrow.”

“Will you be there? Please, I don’t know how to stop well and I can’t be embarrassed in front of your family yet.” Your heart began to race.

“Oh I’ll be there,” you felt sudden relief “but not to help you stop.” Your eyes shot over to him. “You’ll be okay.” What was this boy doing to you? First making you feel all sorts butterflies trapped in your stomach, now a trial and error test round with his family.

You honestly could wait for the morning to come. You were anxious about skating and getting to know his sister more, well actually the other way around. It didn’t matter if you were ready or not. You heard the alarm that Auston set go off and rolled to your side. You were already awake, but you needed to actually move now. Auston didn’t budge as the alarm continued to ring. Reaching over him to turn it off your caught by a very tired Auston.

“What do you think you’re doing on my side?” he cocks an eyebrow.

“How long are you gonna let that alarm go off?” you fired back.

“As long as I wanted.” he pulled you on top of him, your head fitting perfectly under his.

“I can’t be comfortable with this alarm still going on.” You say freeing a hand and ending the alarm’s life. You could hear him chuckle as he pulled you back in. “I’m still nervous for today. I know you say I’m going to be okay, but it’s kind of a big deal.” He looks down at your face painted with worry.

“Y/N, I know you are. But my sisters are great, and so are you. Plus I will be there to move things along and I promise you I won’t feed you to any sharks. You should know I’m very afraid of those.”

“Oh are you?” you say playfully biting his neck now.

“Yes, but you are no shark. You’re too sassy and independent. Now we should probably eat and get ready. Mom will probably want to get there early.” He let go of you and you lost the warmth that you had from him.

Arriving at the rink you clung to Auston’s side. Holding tightly to his hand you can start to see the familiar faces from last nights dinner.

“Are you ready Y/N?” Breyana spoke up.

“Yeah I think so.” You say letting go of Auston and slipping your hands into your coat pockets.

The Matthews began to lace up their skates and you just sat there starring at yours. I can do this it’s going to be okay. You told yourself. One skate at a time, you become more confident and Auston reached his hand out to help you up. Wobbling a little, you were greeted by Breyana, which you understood is his younger sister.

“Can I skate with you first?” she asks. You look over toward Auston.

“Go on, I’ll catch up with you later.” He guarantees you. You offer your hand to Breyana and she gladly accepts.

The two of you begin to skate and for once, you’re not too worried about falling on your face because you don’t have to stop.

“So what’s Auston like with you?” Breyana turns to you.

“What do you mean?” you look at her eyes wide open.

“I mean, are you two serious or are you just another fling?”

“Well Breyana, I sure hope I’m not another fling. And I told your brother that. From what I’ve seen so far, I really like your family and how close you all are. I’m really close with my family too. In fact I miss my older brother right now, and I know for sure he’s missing me too.” She smiles a little, as she seems to understand what you’re feeling.

“Well I’m sure it’s time for someone else to skate with you Y/N. Alex I’m sure has some questions for you too.” She gives you a teasing face and you smile back holding in your nerves.

Alex skates by and links arms with you, “Hey Y/N.”

“Hi Alex.”

“I’m sure you’ve had a little heart to heart with Breyana?” she insists.

“Breyana is really sweet.” You reply.

“She is the baby of our family.” She clung harder to you.

“I just want to make sure you’re here for the right reasons. I don’t want any heartbreak on either side. I’ve been through a difficult break up before and I don’t want my younger brother to experience this either. And if you’re in this for money-“ she stopped in front of you,” you should just leave now.”

“Alex,” you started,” I just want you to know that I really like your brother for who is, not what he has. Some how we really click and I want to make this work. Unfortunately with heartbreaks, and I’m sorry you went through such a tough one yourself, but you can never predict them. I don’t want to hurt your brother. That’s not an intention of mine.” Alex’s stern face smoothed out.

“Auston was right about you.” She spoke softly. “You’re not another number.”

A small sneer appeared on your face and you could see Auston in the distance now with his parents, his mom beaming while just getting to be around him.

“Come on Y/N, let’s go join the rest. You’re definitely in.” she grabbed your hand.

“What do you mean in?” you yelled as she yanked you across the ice.

You rejoined the rest of the family and were lined back with Auston.

“Okay so we’ll see you guys for dinner before the game?” Auston raised an eyebrow to his family.

“Yes, we can’t wait.” Alex and Breyana both squealed at the same time.

“Looks like you made a good impression, like I knew you could.” He whispered in your ear causing you to blush.

You both hugged his family goodbye for now and headed to the car.

“Do I even want to know the questions they asked?” he leaned down kissing your cheek.

“That’s between your sisters and me.” You winked.

#auston matthews #auston matthews imagine #nhl imagines #hockey imagine #baby leafs #not another number

[officialbarokvanzieks]

YOUR FAVOURITE...? 1. Favourite Ace Attorney game? apollo justice 2. Favourite case? answered this one already 3. Favourite defendant? wocky lol uh... I dunno, none of the defendants were all that memorable. the killers or other witnesses tend to stand out more. but I guess it’s kinda a toss-up between wocky and ron 4. Favourite prosecutor? klavier 5evr 5. Favourite ship? KLAVPOLLO ♥ 6. Favourite victim? eh, uh... well aside from like maybe 3 people, the only time we got to see any of the victims was when they were already dead. so I can’t really say... I guess misty fey? 7. Favourite murderer? why would I like a killer omg. uhhhhhh.... idk luke atmey cause he cracks me up and he doesn’t seem like a murderer to me. also I wanna know how he got that mask over his big schnozz 8. Favourite assistant? SHAWTY oops I mean trucy. and I already explained it in the one post 9. Favourite witness? do the detectives count lol. if so, then gummy all the way. if not, then hugh o’conner 10. Favourite quote? the miracle never happen idk probably some smartass thing apollo said/thought YOUR LEAST FAVOURITE...? 11. Least favourite Ace Attorney game? ace attorney investigations 12. Least favourite case? the last one in aai ugh 13. Least favourite defendant? hmm... larry I’M KIDDING although I love aj I might have to go with machi cause his whole story n such was pretty fucked up and made little sense. close second would be juniper because of all her forced feelings for apollo man that disgusted me 14. Least favourite prosecutor? the paynes? well no I’d have to go with manfred von karma 15. Least favourite ship? all of em that aren’t klavpollo, but I hate narumitsu and narumayo the absolute most. also really really don’t like claypollo and cykesquill 16. Least favourite victim? deid mann /shot 17. Least favourite murderer? I got like 4 lol: manfred von karma, quercus alba, lance amano and yeah I gotta add kristoph gavin to the list. kristoph had no motive to kill zak and he was 100% forgotten in dd so we never found out why he committed the deeds he did in aj. which really angers me because klavier’s basically been forced into the same fate 18. Least favourite assistant? maya, then athena 19. Least favourite witness? I’m sure I got one but my brain’s fried atm OTL 20. Least favourite memory of Ace Attorney? just about all of dual destinies. I like hugh and pre-phantom fulbright, but that’s basically it DO YOU PREFER...? 21. Phoenix Wright or Apollo Justice? POLLY ♥ 22. Maya Fey or Trucy Wright? SHAWTY I mean trucy 23. Investigations or trials? investigations cause I can’t figure out what the hell to present on which statements, then they start throwing in all kinds of crazy shit on top of it, with the magatama, apollo’s perceive, athena’s widget thingy and now the seance thing. investigating is much easier because you walk around, check out stuff and talk to people. I don’t feel quite as dumb that way lol 24. College Phoenix or Hobo Phoenix? hobo 25. Klavier Gavin or Kristoph Gavin? klavier 26. Ace Attorney or Ace Attorney Investigations? ace attorney 27. Apollo's perceive, Phoenix's magatama or Athena's Mood Matrix? polly’s perceive 28. Ace Attorney trilogy or Apollo Justice and Dual Destinies? apollo justice only pls 29. 3D models or sprites? sprites 30. Ema Skye as she is in Rise from the Ashes or Ema Skye as she is in Apollo Justice? aj ema MISCELLANEOUS 31. Did you like what they did to Phoenix in Apollo Justice? yes 32. Your opinion on Dai Gyakuten Saiban? LOCALISE THE GAME GODDAMMIT 33. Do you think Dai Gyakuten Saiban and/or Miles Edgeworth Investigations 2 will get localised to the West? no 34. Do you think Miles Edgeworth should get another Investigation-game or do you think another character deserves a spin-off? I think apollo deserves his own proper game because although he was the titular character in one of em, it wasn’t even his game. that aside, there should be a game with the detectives, like with gummy and ema and the real fulbright 35. Opinion on the soundtrack of the Ace Attorney-franchise? it’s good but they mostly just remix all the music for each new game. we hardly get actual new music anymore so it just gets kinda dull. though apollo’s theme is really friggin awesome 36. Do you like where the franchise is heading or did you prefer the atmosphere in the original trilogy? I preferred things to be as takumi had left them in apollo justice. I really hate how the team basically retconned the entire game and made things all ~bright and happy~ again and brought back almost all the characters from the trilogy. it really irritates me and makes me want to write a true sequel to aj where things are left the way they should be 37. Capcom suddenly announces that Phoenix will no longer appear in the Ace Attorney franchise! Your reaction? yeah right, they can’t keep him out of ANY of the games; he even got cameos in both aai games and has appeared as the only (or main) character in non-aa games like marvel vs capcom 3 and project x zone 2. so I don’t believe it for a second 38. Capcom suddenly announces that the Ace Attorney franchise has ended for good! Your reaction? not surprised. not at all happy, but not surprised 39. Would you like there to be another Ace Attorney/Professor Layton crossover game? no 40. Would you like an Ace Attorney anime? there already is one lol 41. Opinion on anime cutscenes in Ace Attorney? I don’t care, but I wish we had a language option because I want to hear it in japanese. the english voices suck so bad and we lose a really important aspect of apollo’s voice: it’s naturally louder than the others, and when he was all bandaged in dd, his voice was really quiet, which was unsettling to hear. but he wasn’t like that at all in the english version, which I hated 42. Would you want to play an Ace Attorney game where you take on the prosecutors role? answered this one before 43. Do you like having DLC in Ace Attorney-games? no 44. Opinion on Lamiroir’s storyline? they should’ve continued with it after aj. apollo and trucy have a right to know they’re related, and it’s extremely frustrating how they’re never told about it. thalassa needed to make more appearances in the games after aj as well, but do we get it? nooooo of course not 45. One thing you think the Ace Attorney games can improve on? far too many things to even begin to list 46. Capcom suddenly announces an Ace Attorney movie! Would you like it to be based on an already existing case or would you like an all new storyline? there already is a movie lol, based on the first game 47. Capcom suddenly announces an Ace Attorney movie! Would you prefer it being live-action, 3D animated or 2D animated? the movie’s live action so that answers that 48. If there could be an Ace Attorney crossover with whatever franchise you'd like, which one would you choose? (Does not need to be a video-game franchise) can I say pokemon lol. if not, I just wanna see em playing ice hockey cause I’m a big hockey fan (GO BLUES) 49. Opinion on recurring witnesses? (Wendy Oldbag, Lotta Hart, Larry Butz, etc.) dunno, my brain’s still pretty fried so I’ll just say it depends 50. Do you think Dual Destinies deserved its M-rating? psh absolutely not

#misc #if anyone wants clarification on some answers lemme know #my brain's real mushy atm so I'm going to bed #in a little bit

[vedisthana]

Yuri on Ice

Three months ago, I saw YOI on my ‘upcoming anime list’ and thought, ‘I’m not into ice-skating’.

Three weeks ago, I hadn’t seen a single episode of YOI. I had no idea there was a difference in the type of skates you use for hockey and for figure skating. 

Then the anime I was watching ended, and I ended up seeing a link to ‘History Maker’ on Youtube, and I thought, ‘What the hell. Why not?’

Then I was hooked.

I learnt that it was more than just ‘pretty boys on ice’, it was suffering, and trials, and coming back after falling (several times).

Two weeks ago, because of a stupid thing called ‘work’ that you need to do to earn that essential thing called ‘money’, I finished watching YOI. 

And I thought, ‘I need to write something for this’. And like I always do when I’m writing fanfiction, I research. I research *way* too much.

Two weeks ago, I thought that ‘On Love: Eros’ and ‘Yuri on Ice’ were beautiful to watch.

Now I’m looking up real-life programs and protocols, seeing what the base values of certain moves are, the grades of execution, which moves are more difficult. I’ve been watching videos about beginners skating, and how much training it takes to improve. I’m (re)posting things about the meta, about the little tid-bits we see in the show that explain so much in the one-point-five seconds we see them for. 

I’ve just learnt that half the research I’ve done for my fic is completely wrong, because of how the GOE is added to the Base Value, and I don’t even care that I’ll have to redo it, because it will just make it more realistic.

I have fallen deep into YOI, and I honestly don’t think I want to even try and climb back out.

#yuri on ice #meta #hooked on anime

[thrashermaxey]

Ramblings: Mock Drafts, Bratts, and Colorado Goalies (Aug 26)

I decided to give it a go on a Yahoo mock draft today. Standard categories were used, which were G, A, +/-, PPP, SOG, HIT, W, GAA, SV%, SO. I started with the seventh overall pick. Here’s how I fared:

One important note: If you are forming a new league in Yahoo, the default settings now include hits, which are included in the projections. One of my leagues has used standard Yahoo settings for the past few years, so I’m trying to decide whether to change to hits. So I asked my league and only one league member responded. He was against the idea because he believed that hits are subjective in their recording. I’ll wait and see if I receive more responses before making any changes. Needless to say, penalty minutes seem to be on the way out as a fantasy hockey category.

Some of these are players I might be more positive about than you are, but it’ll at least give me some thought on how I draft in my pure single-season league and my keep 4 league. I surprised myself by drafting forwards with my first three picks, although I’ve noticed that only two defensemen (Brent Burns, Victor Hedman) and only five goalies (Andrei Vasilevskiy, Pekka Rinne, Connor Hellebuyck, Braden Holtby, Sergei Bobrovsky) are ranked within the top 30. No defensemen or goalies are ranked in the top 10 either. After seeing numerous top-level goalies struggle mightily last season, I’m not as inclined to use a high pick on a goalie as I have been in previous seasons.

I took care of my goaltending/defense problem between rounds 4 and 10. I thought Fleury was a bit of a reach, but I figured I should grab a goalie and I thought he was the best one available. Sandwiched in that group might be another reach in Jeff Skinner, but he might be worth a gamble at that point if he can find some success on the top line of the Sabres, who I think are a team that could take a big step forward.

I left myself thin at right wing with only Patrick Kane and Yanni Gourde drafted at that position. I don’t get too worried at this point if I have a shortage at one position, mainly because I know I’ll be heading to the waiver wire at some point during the season. But having trial run drafts at least identifies what I should look out for once the real thing comes along.

Earlier in the day I tried entering another mock draft, but my browser got stuck in neutral. So as it turned out, I was kept in the draft and the computer autopicked for me. Yahoo even sent me the results of that draft. Here’s how the computer performed:

Who did a better job, me or the computer? Personally, I like the team I picked better, but that's because I like the players I picked better, but that could also be my own personal biases.

I can definitely confirm that I reached for Fleury there. But could Fleury still come through at that spot? Things couldn’t have gone any better for the Golden Knights last season (okay, maybe if they won the Stanley Cup), so you’d expect some sort of sophomore jinx. But how much of a dropoff should we expect? Keep in mind that Fleury probably deserves this ranking, as he probably would have been a Vezina nominee had he not missed two months of the regular season. Age is also a factor, as Fleury is now 33. But also keep in mind that Fleury is under contract for four more seasons with a raise kicking in after this season. So he’s not about to get bumped out of his starting job.

*

I’m currently in the middle of another draft as I write this. Like, literally, as I write this. No, I’m not a superb multitasker. In fact, I’ve always taken great pride in saying I’m a horrible multitasker. Except to say that it’s not what you think. It’s an auction draft where bids are placed via a message board, with high bids requiring 72 hours (three days) before a player can be drafted. This draft started a week ago and should go on for at least another week and probably more.

Drafting well is important in this league, although you also want to leave some salary cap room for FAAB (free agent auction bidding) pickups during the season. Sometimes there can be crazy bidding on a player (and maybe even a harsh word or two for bids that aren’t placed according to league rules). I actually think that the bidding is more intense than the actual playing of the matchups during the season! On the other hand, sometimes you get players who can pass through virtually uncontested after a league member nominates him for bidding (ie. starts a thread). One such player who falls into that latter category in this league is Jesper Bratt.  

It’s fine to view Bratt’s fantasy value with some suspicion. After all, he was a recent sixth-round pick who stormed out of the gate with 10 points over his first 10 NHL games. The production gradually fell after that, all the way down to just four points over his last 26 games. The slump resulted in his icetime dropping from 15-16 minutes to just 12 minutes over the final quarter, much of which included a drop from two minutes of power-play time per game to virtually none.

Much of Bratt’s success occurred when Kyle Palmieri was out of the lineup. Palmieri missed stretches of time during the first half of the season. But late in the season, Palmieri was back on the top line with Taylor Hall and Nico Hischier, a spot that Bratt had occupied earlier in the season. Not surprisingly, Palmieri had a much more productive second half (30 points) than first half (14 points).

If you target Bratt in a deeper league, he may luck out for you if he’s back on the top line again. But if Palmieri misses time again this season, Bratt should be back on that line and should be a short-term waiver-wire pickup. The power-play time is more likely to be there as well.

*

With Semyon Varlamov now 30 with lots of wear and tear from injuries, the Avalanche planned for the future by trading for super backup Philipp Grubauer this offseason. Grubauer was then given a three-year contract worth $10 million, so unless he’s this season’s version of Scott Darling, he’ll likely be the starter for the 2019-20 season.

But what about this coming season? In case you’re ready to throw in the towel on Varlamov, he actually wasn’t that bad in 2017-18. He posted a very solid .920 SV%, which was eighth among the 32 goalies that played in at least 40 games. This was a better save percentage (albeit marginally) than higher-ranked goalies Andrei Vasilevskiy, Devan Dubnyk, Frederik Andersen, and Tuukka Rask. Assuming he can avoid the injury bug, he could still claim the majority of the starts.

The number of starts that Grubauer receives will obviously be tied to how well Varlamov performs. But a scenario in which I could also see Grubauer claim over 50 percent of the starts during the second half would be if the Avs regress to being a non-playoff team again. Nothing ever as bad as the 2016-17 season, of course, but the Avs may decide to look ahead to the future. The more likely scenario is that they will at least be a bubble playoff team, which might give a 60/40 split in starts in favor of Varlamov.

It will be interesting to see how Varlamov’s career progresses after the 2018-19 season. If he has a similar season to 2017-18 and is left as a free agent, he could still be sought after. Free agent goalies tend to be 1A-type goalies at best, as teams prefer to lock up their clear-cut starters long term.  

In any situation where it’s anyone’s guess who will be the starter and the team isn’t terrible, it’s not a bad idea to try to acquire both goalies if your league is deep enough. But if I had to guess who will receive more starts, I’d say Varlamov.

*

Dobber’s own Cam Robinson made another appearance on Sportsnet 650 in Vancouver. You can listen here (go to about the 1:10:00 mark). As you’d expect on the local sports radio station, Cam focuses on Canucks’ prospects along with his 2019 draft rankings at Dobber Prospects. If you live in the greater Vancouver area, one player that you can watch right in your backyard is Bowen Byram of the WHL’s Vancouver Giants. Byram is an offensive-minded d-man who is currently third on Robinson’s rankings. I’m hoping to watch him a few times this season. In fact, four of the top 10 players on the list currently play in the ‘Dub.

*

For more fantasy hockey information, you can follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding.

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-mock-drafts-bratts-and-colorado-goalies-aug-26/

[type2diabetestreatments-blog]

GlySens (Still) Developing Implantable CGM (See Also: ICGM)

New Post has been published on http://type2diabetestreatment.net/diabetes-mellitus/glysens-still-developing-implantable-cgm-see-also-icgm/

GlySens (Still) Developing Implantable CGM (See Also: ICGM)

As I write this, there's a continuous glucose monitoring sensor attached to my left arm. The little iPod-style receiver sits nearby on my desk, taking in blood sugar readings every few minutes and displaying those numbers on its color screen.

What if I could have that same minute-by-minute sensor implanted under my skin, where it could do its work without needing to be changed out for full year or more?

That's the dream a number of companies have been working on for years -- including GlySens in San Diego, CA. This company's actually been chipping away at this dream for more than a decade; we wrote about them back in 2011, and there was also this comprehensive report from Karmel Allison a year earlier.

The small 16-year-old startup is developing an implantable CGM dubbed ICGM, which in its second incarnation uses a sensor that looks like a fat thumb drive with a quarter-sized circle in the middle.

The sensor will be implanted under the skin, probably in the lower abdomen area, through a simple surgical procedure, and would last at least a year. Fingerstick calibrations would only be needed once or twice a month. The implanted sensor would communicate with a receiver a little thicker than an iPhone that you'd carry around with you.

GlySens is now back in the news, as it gears up for late-stage clinical studies and a fresh round of investor-searching so it can conduct a larger human trial within the next year -- and hopefully move toward FDA regulatory filing by 2017.

"Our goal is to deliver a CGM product that let's person hopefully forget about the sensor itself and just have the information without the hassle you get from a traditional sensor," said Joe Lucisano, CEO and co-founder of GlySens. "We're trying to offer some new level of freedom, for people to take control in way they can't now."

Though cutting-edge, this certainly isn't a new idea, and GlySens itself has been around a while. Founded in 1998, the idea for the ICGM product came from Dr. David Gough, who studied at the University of Utah and then did post-doctoral research at the Joslin Clinic, before starting at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in the late 70s. He's been working on these glucose-monitoring biosensors since then. Lucisano was one of his grad students at UCSD, and after becoming an entrepreneur and working on some diabetes glucose monitoring projects on his own (including Minimed), the two teamed up in the late 90s and created the tech startup GlySens.

Early on, they were exploring a long-term implantable catheter CGM, but eventually determined it wasn't appealing because people seemed too concerned about the higher risk of infection. So, they changed the design and eventually settled on a model that more resembled a mini hockey puck, or maybe a thicker silver-colored milk cap. With a small six-person feasibility study finished about a year-and-a-half ago showing positive results, Lucisano says they decided to make the ICGM sensor even smaller, to its current size of about an inch-and-a-half long and one-third of an inch thick.

Patients eventually won't even think about the implanted sensor their day-to-day diabetes routine, he said -- aside from when they look at the color screen receiver.

Lucisano tells us that the ICGM system should be as accurate as any other CGM device, but unlike other devices it works by detecting oxygen, allowing the system to be more stable in that interstitial fluid environment than traditional CGMs. The sensor will have an outer membrane with electro-chemical detectors, and they'd be primed with enzymes to interact with the oxygen.

Basically, the ICGM will have multiple built-in checks to ensure the sensor is doing what it's supposed to.

"By measuring the amount of remaining oxygen from the enzyme reaction, the device can calculate the extent of the enzyme reaction and the concentration of glucose," Lucisano said.

Yes, it's true that competing CGM manufacturers Dexcom and Medtronic have turned their attention away from long-term implantable sensors... concepts may still be in development, but they aren't immediate priorities. When asked about this, Lucisano pointed to differences in business models.

"I personally, and we as a company, have nothing but admiration for the pioneering work Medtronic and Dexcom have done. They've chosen a path to get a product on the market, and that's worked out very well for them and the diabetes community. We think our approach is the next step."

— Joe Lucisano, CEO and co-founder of GlySens, on implantable CGM technology

He also says the ICGM would function in situations where conventional CGMs might not, like if a Dexcom or Medtronic sensor gets dislodged or gets thrown off by some other human-use factor.

"We certainly believe that it will deliver clinical accuracy that patients expect. but we don't have enough human clinical trials yet to show that conclusively," he said.

GlySens has research under its belt that it says proves the concept would work, and the company leaders hope for a larger human trial in the next year, using the second-gen design they have now. Chances are the design may change and get even smaller, Lucisano says, and they still need to determine things like whether the ICGM would need to be rotated under the skin or could be implanted in the same spot.

We asked how GlySens would respond to concerns about infection or allergy under the skin, and Lucisano really downplayed that as something that science shows wouldn't be much of an issue, if at all. He pointed to defibrillators and infusion port sites, and how those rarely present issues in the people they're implanted in.

Down the road, Lucisano says GlySens would ideally be able to be integrated with an insulin pump and other D-tech for easier use, but nothing is definite at this point.

The cost could also be something that might weigh people for or against a particular device, but Luciscano says their initial vision of ICGM will cost less than existing CGMs on the market (!).

As to Artificial Pancreas tech, Lucisano sees the ICGM as the next step in getting an AP device to the market.

"We see that a conventional CGM has played a role in enabling great research to be done, but we think our device would enable broader capability for an Artificial Pancreas," he said.

God knows the idea of an implantable CGM is a concept many of us patients are interested in seeing become a reality. Recently, I participated in a diaTribe survey saying exactly that: I'd be interested in seeing it and even trying it out, but my larger concerns about whether it's possible for an implanted sensor to function correctly over time without problems trump everything else. Just keeping it real...

And on that note, what stands out to me the most is the fact that we're 40 years into the research without any marketable product, and these feasibility trials seem to always be ongoing as companies search for investors...

Meanwhile, we cannot and should not give up hope for something better. And I trust that the existing CGM companies are working on implantable options that could someday present an "under the skin" option that we can trust.

And until then, I'll keep wearing this current CGM sensor on my skin, trusting and relying on it and most of the time when I'm not looking at the receiver, forgetting that it's even attached to me.

Disclaimer: Content created by the Diabetes Mine team. For more details click here.

Disclaimer

This content is created for Diabetes Mine, a consumer health blog focused on the diabetes community. The content is not medically reviewed and doesn't adhere to Healthline's editorial guidelines. For more information about Healthline's partnership with Diabetes Mine, please click here.

Type 2 Diabetes Treatment Type 2 Diabetes Diet Diabetes Destroyer Reviews Original Article