#and missing the bus home and calling an uber and having the uber delayed and starting to walk and then getting lost

[faithst]

BUS STOP ༄ TK

synopsis after hanging out with keita, you decided to go home only to see that it’s pouring and you’re now stuck at the bus stop with him

pairing keita x gn!reader

genre fluff

notes this was honestly so cute, thank you for requesting and i hope you enjoy this <3 i miss seokeita too :(

masterlist<3

laughing at keita’s jokes and catching up was a great way to spend your weekend. after the laughter died down, he leaned back into the bench “i’m so glad the weather is great today!”

you nod in agreement as the sun shone giving you both a golden tint as birds chirp in the distance. wouldn’t it be such a shame for something unpredictable like bad weather to ruin your planned out day with keita?

as you saw the sun setting, you figured it was time to bid your farewells. “time flew so fast.” keita spoke up, gazing at the beautiful sunset. maybe it was true that time went by quickly with the people you love, when you’re truly in the moment. he got up, offering a hand indicating it was time to walk back to the bus stop. you grabbed his hand, standing up and wiping invisible dust off your clothes.

as you walked back together, there were still loads of stories keita had to tell and he wanted to make sure you got to hear them in person. so he used the periods walking to tell them. they were fun bursts of energy as expected from keita; neverending enthusiasm which you loved.

though you were walking rather leisurely, the day slowly sunk into night and to your luck, you missed the bus. watching in the distance as it drives off. you try to chase it but it already went far.

keita pat your back, thinking of other solutions. but as the light bulb on his head lit up, the sounds of light drizzle became audible. soon, the drops painted the pavement around the small and covered bus stop.

this wasn’t so bad, right? well, none of you had brought an umbrella and was now stuck there. checking your phone to call up an uber, it didn’t turn on as it had ran out of battery earlier. keita looked at you with an empathetic smile, a bit of guilt because he delayed you.

but it was okay, the person with you wasn’t some rando. it was keita, and you’d do anything to spend more time with him. even if it were tricky situations like this. all you could do now was wait another hour or so in darkness, the only lights illuminating were the ones covering the bus stop. though you weren’t alone.

as the temperatures decrease and the moon took over the sun, overlapping the coldness given by the rain. you were freezing, both of you were absolutely chilled to the bone. as much as keita wanted to do a romantic gesture such as wrap his jacket around you; he didn’t have a jacket with him.

all he was wearing was a sweater that you gave him for his birthday a year ago, he cherished it alot. maybe it was his favourite item in his closet, always reaching out to it whenever he could. as an attempt to keep eachother warm; he grabbed your hands, rubbing them with his to spark some heat. you smiled, it wasn’t much but it was something.

the temperature got worse as the rain started to pour even more, causing you to hug yourself in attempt to get even the slightest bit of warmth. keita saw this and was absolutely heartbroken. maybe it wouldn’t happen if he told the story faster or walked a bit quicker.

he wanted to apologise for making you miss your stop and for making you wait in the cold but his mouth was numb. pulling the sleeves over his hands in shapes of sweater paws, he continued holding your hands. it was a bit better than without the sleeves.

he saw your quivering lips, moving his sweater paws now to your cheeks, cupping your face. flushing a cute tint of pink upon his action, using the weather as an excuse for your red face.

yes, it wasn’t the most ideal situation but it was a situation that made you closer to keita. as you wait, head on his shoulder and bodies huddling together to make sure you both got enough warmth and away from any drops of the rain. you’re glad you missed the bus to this.

© keiwook | 2023

taglist @bruhiamistake @trashhdez @chxrrymxxnlight @haesunflower @big-uwu-stan @gnwookie @yjhcloud

here, if you want to join the taglist !

[apexart-journal]

Mvelo Mahlangu in NYC, Day 17

I woke up early this morning at about 4:30am for the Megabus to leave NYC for DC at 7am. I had timed myself in such a way that I would arrive at least 25 min before departure time (the Megabus suggests 15 minutes), which was ample time. However, as I got to the subway, I realised my card needed to be filled up again for the week so that I could enter the subway. In that short 1-2 minutes, I ended up missing my N train out, which lead me going into full panic mode. The Mega Bus was only 16 minutes away via car, but 25 minutes via the next train with a couple minutes. This meant that the next train would see that I end up arriving at the Megabus 5 minutes before departure. I couldn’t let that happen, but I had no choice as Uber had a waiting time which I couldn’t risk, another train was on its way and the Lyft app was also not an option because it couldn’t work on both my phone and fellowship phone. I even consulted with an NYPD officer, who must’ve thought I was a little crazy in my panic state. I tried breathing to calm myself down and made the split second decision to just hop onto the next train and sprint as soon as I got to my last stop. Thankfully the train was slightly faster than usual, and as soon as I got to my last stop, I ran so fast. I ran up the escalators at 34 Herald square station and let me say, it was a nightmare because the escalators at that specific station seem endless. As I exited the station a kind stranger, who I think could’ve been homeless, saw that I was running and asked me where I needed to be and then quickly pointed me in the right direction to the bus which I could see in the distance. What a moment I will be so grateful for. I ran down the road, and made it to the bus, and when I got there another delayed passenger and bus manager laughed at how out of breath I was. He asked me  if I had ever missed a flight before, hence the frantic running. Which I laughed and replied that I never have, and plan not to. I sat down into my seat, looked at the time. I made it 8 minutes before departure time. A word of advice, just plan to arrive 30-45 minutes before departure because you never know what could happen, even if it is suggested to arrive 15 minutes before departure. We ended up waiting 10 minutes after the initial departure time. 

The bus ride was slightly long but comfortable as no one was sitting next to me, meaning I could sit with both legs up. It was lovely being able to leave the skyscrapers and watch them melt away into trees. Usually on the highway back home, when you drive away from the city, all you end ups seeing are flat planes of grass and bush which we call “veldt” (pronounced ‘felt’). So seeing forests or rows of trees was interesting. I worked a bit on updating my journal, and then ended up taking a nap for about 2 hours. Casey was already waiting for me once we arrived, and gave a warm and welcoming hug. He told me that I was most probably the 100th fellow he’s met over the years, and that I could’ve been the youngest so far. This surprised me, as it was not something I noticed when looking through the past fellows (mental note to ask on this). Union station was so beautifully built, with a large dome overhead, decorated with gold square panelling. Casey shared a nostalgic memory of randomly meeting and having been greeted by the president George W. Bush at the station. Exiting the station and seeing Washington DC was such a huge contrast to New York. No tall skyscrapers and definitely a whole lot more quiet. And I welcomed it. Casey and I walked around for a bit, him showing some of his old haunts, while looking for a good place to sit and eat. It gave me time to soak up the environment which I must say was quiet, quaint and very suburban energy. We found a place to sit at and chatted away while eating. Amongst other things, we shared backgrounds, spoke on the fellowship, his personal experience of it, and his relationship to apexart & Steven which spans almost 20 years! 

We then headed over to Library of Congress. This was my first time being in the passenger seat of a left hand side driving car and it was such a weird experience, haha! The first mistake I made was instinctively going to the drivers side door, thinking it was the passenger side. The next was internally questioning why Casey would drive into the lane he’s was turning into, only to remember that where I was. Walking into the Library of congress was insane! The architecture immediately transported me out of America and into Europe. It was absolutely ostentatious with sculptures everywhere and beautiful wall murals & mosaics of mythology. Casey explained that this level of ostentation was a compensation for the superiority complex that America against Europe at the time. We made it to the actual library area, and it was quite a sight. Ive never seen something like this in my life and felt like out of a movie. The architectural detailing when looking at the dome in the middle but also the interaction of all the art & carvings was unreal. A lot of the mural writings and references seemed extremely progressive for a structure built in the 1800’s considering the documentation of cultures & religions from across the world. Casey gave me a tour of the whole place and even took me to other parts of the building that tourists did not go to, as he spent almost 20 years of his life frequenting these buildings while working on his PHD, so knew his way around. The wealth of knowledge that I was surrounded by, all in one place, from various era’s & timelines & places, was quite overwhelming. It was a lovely experience nonetheless, however at this point I had quite a headache. We finished our tour of The Library of Congress and headed to the Hotel. Casey waited before leaving to make sure that everything was alright with my check in. I can’t thank him enough for sharing his experiences with me and our conversations, which like Vanessa, made me a little sad knowing it would be the first and last time meeting up, until the future allows another meeting. 

I checked into the hotel, rested, then prepped myself for the last activity of the day: Classical music concert. Unlike NYC, and more like Johannesburg, DC has a simple subway system. The Concert was happening all the way in Mary Land, and I was initially a bit worried about how i’d get to and from. But using the train and bus, I made it. Awkwardly for me, in this instance, I made it 30 minutes before the start of the event. Even more awkward and confusing was that I realised it was happening in someone's private home, in a residential neighbourhood. Awkward then turned into worried because I didn’t know if I should ring the door bell, or just wait outside at a nearby park. But then I got scared because I got worried that someone might call the police on me, seeing me randomly roam the streets at night. I think in that moment for the first time being in the States, I became acutely aware of what I look like, how I could be perceived, and just the stories I’ve seen online. After 5 Minutes of waiting around, I worked up the courage to ring the door bell. The owner looked slightly confused even after I explained why I was there, which didn’t ease my feelings of awkwardness. Once he let me in, I was greeted by the performers, a young lady and young man, and proceeded to sit and wait in the performance room. Placing my feelings aside, I must say, to have a performance room that can accommodate 30 people, with soundproofing and a whole grand piano was unreal. Thats a dream! I still felt quite uneasy and still hyperaware, but people started arriving and filling up the seats. As they greeted each other, I realised that even though this event was posted onto eventbrite, almost everyone in the audience were just neighbours and friends of the homeowner. So in that moment I understood the slight confusion or surprise he must’ve had when seeing me.

Once the performance began, and the music filled my ears, a lot off what I felt melted away. In that moment I remember thinking to myself how music works so well at being a universal language that people from different backgrounds, who don’t even know each other, can just feel so connected through it. The young female performer was the lead, and played the violin. I couldn’t believe that she was just 13 years old. The question of nature vs. nurture comes up. Once the performance was over, I made my way back to the hotel. I was exhausted, hungry and cold. 

[sorikkung]

you ever have like three major inconveniences all in a row and then have google maps draw a dick on your way home alone at night just to spite you because it knows you're lost anyways and

[kaitlynpcallmebeepme]

Airport Confessions

Airport Confessions

Tom Holland x Reader 

Warnings: Like one swear word, a tad of angst, lot of fluff to make up for it

A/N: This is my first of two works I have for @peeterparkr and @marvelousxtsh for their Rom Coms writing challenge. Both of them are separate from one another.

#mandnchickflicksummer

Summary: Doubts and nerves almost separated you two by hundreds of miles.

I also had no idea how to do this so I kinda made the scene like the movie. Comments and feedback are always appreciated. Requests are open and Messages are open if you want to chat. I’m trying to make these shorter because I’m behind on some of my writing. It’s also really early (5 am) and I haven’t been sleeping on good times the past couple nights. On a good note, I did a somersault on carpet and did like ¾ of a somersault with cymbals, which I have to figure out how to do by August.

P.S. Haven’t seen Far From Home yet because I won a bet and my mom said she’d take me to see my first Marvel movie in theaters, but at this rate, I’ll be the only one in the theater when I see it. ���

The gif I just found cute.

Tag list: Send me an ask if you want to be added. 

@trashinaglass and @peter-pan-hoe 

Prompt:

12. “I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” – when harry met sally 

Word count: 747

*Haz and Tom in the Atlanta house. Tom’s POV*

"She's gone Tom." 

"Gone. Gone where? What about her internship?" 

"Her last day was today." 

"Why didn't she tell me?" 

"She didn't like getting mixed signals from you being too afraid to make a move." 

"Shit. This is my fault. Do you know when her flight is?" He should have seen with her shy personality that he should have stepped up and made a move, and now it would cost him everything.

"7 pm. Why?" 

"I'm going to tell her what I should've said from the beginning." He rushed out the door already ordering an Uber. Hopefully, because today is Wednesday, there wouldn’t be much traffic on the way to the airport. Call her. Answer machine. “Don't go past security. I have to tell you something very important.” She was the one who made all the broken noses worth it because she would sing to distract me from the pain. She would say it sounded bad, but it was angelic. My thoughts were interrupted my the sound of my phone ringing. It was her.

*Y/N POV*

Your phone started ringing and you knew you might as well answer it before going through security. It only upset you a little when you knew you had to listen to his sad voice one more time. “What?”

“I need to tell you something very important.”

“What is so important that you have to tell me in person?”

“ I can’t say it over the phone. I can't because you won't believe me unless you see it written on my face that I mean what I say.” 

“You know people will probably be filming you and swarming you.” 

“Okay, then just meet me at the entrance before the elevators. The far side is always secluded.” 

You cold tell the despiration in his voice that he wouldn’t be okay until he said what he wanted to. “Fine. I’m not past security I’ll meet you there, but if you make me miss my flight, you’re buying a new ticket.”

“Deal. See you there.”

Ten minutes had barely gone by when you saw his disheveled face enter on the other side of the hallway. His arms were outreaching for a hug, but knew he should hold back. So he did.  “I have to say this before you walk out of my life, possibly forever. I love you.”

You tried to look in his eyes to see if he was lying. The same way poker players see cards in their enemy’s eyes. You saw no acting in this scene. “Why didn't you say this before? Why did you come here and say it now.”

“I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible; and I realized it later than I should have. I should have realized it when you were wiping the blood off of my broken nose while singing to keep my mind off the pain by singing Disney songs.” 

You had a decision to make. Technically, it wasn’t the worst spot you could be in. You two weren't together before now and he didn’t cheat on you. You just didn’t know yet if staying was the right call, so at this point, you’re winging it.  “One sec.” You don’t look at his confused puppy face as you dial you’re mother’s number and hit call. “Hi, Mom. Yes, my day went alright. I’m safe and inside, but something’s come up. My flight got delayed by a day. I don't know something with the runways. They can't get another plane for us so they gave us a refund and I'll be staying in Atlanta for another day. Okay, see you tomorrow. Love you. Bye.” You gave him the most accepting smile you could muster and grabbed what little luggage you had.  “You got a ride. We have one day to work this out.” That’s when the milky way could be seen in his eyes because those coffee orbs simmered. He takes the wheeled bad from your hand and holds elbow out. You do a little curtsy thanking his chivalry and looped your elbow around his. 

“Your coach awaits.”  Although the first uber left and you two would be waiting under the bus hoods for a minute. 

“That’s one of the most English sentences I've ever heard.”

“But you love it darling.” 

“Yes. Yes I do.”

[timeforgodyagm]

Discernment, Interview, Placement Event

It has officially been a little more than a week since I've gotten back from the "DIP" Event that placed me in the United Kingdom. Now that I've gotten some time to process and break down everything that happened, I feel more capable of voicing how that event changed my life, at least for the next year.

I woke up absurdly early on Thursday, April 11th, so I could get to the airport an appropriate amount of time early. That day was a pretty snowy day, especially for April, and flights were already being delayed. I had to wait a few hours to discover that my original flight that had been scheduled to arrive in plenty of time to catch the bus we'd be taking to the retreat center was delayed by several hours. Instead of arriving in Chicago by 12:30pm, we touched down around 5pm. Obviously we had missed the bus already, since they had left by 2:30pm, which meant taking an hour long Uber drive.

When we arrived, some of the icebreakers had already started. Because we were late, we were told to throw our luggage in our rooms and immediately head down to the conference room, with no down time. That actually set the pace for the whole weekend, it seemed like. I think I only called home once that entire time, which is really weird for me. The first day was full of introductions and telling us what to expect for the weekend, and it was... A lot to absorb. We closed Friday night with a welcoming worship, which I think helped me settle into the weekend a little more comfortably- even 400 miles from home, on my own, ELCA services all ring the same.

The next morning started pretty early, but we got an hour for breakfast which helped us be awake by the time we sat for devotions. We got a little more information on how the "YAGM" (Young Adults in Global Mission) program works, and then it was time to be thrown in to our country presentations.

I'm going to make a paragraph break here, in bold, just to say that I think this is when it started to get emotionally overwhelming.

My first presentation was the United Kingdom. A little disclaimer, I definitely headed into this weekend favoring the UK, but not for the right reasons. Coming out of this presentation, I was beyond sure that this is where I belonged. Every question I could've asked, they had already thought of and answered. I still wasn't consciously aware that I was leaning this way because of my own brain, and not God's will.

They gave us a break for lunch, and this is when the LGBT+ lunch took place. People who had already been through the program got to talk about what it was like being in their placement while not straight, and how they had to either stay in the closet or got to be out. They talked about the toll it can take on mental health, and we were told to carefully consider what we could handle in that way, because some of the countries you could not be out in. I've italicized this part for anyone reading in the future, trying to consider whether to apply, or what country placement they might prefer. The ELCA takes this into account and, again with the italics but with bold as well, will not place you anywhere that you are not safe. You will be safe where you are placed.

After lunch we got thrown into our second country placement's presentation. My other country was Jerusalem/West Bank, and going into it I wasn't sure what to expect. From high school debate I had learned a lot about the conflicts there, but that's all I knew. I didn't know how much this presentation would affect my decision. When I left that presentation, I couldn't make a decision between the UK and JWB.

Oh yeah! They had given us little note cards Thursday night, to be due on Saturday evening, where, aside from our name and two country placements, we were told we could write anything on one side that we thought was important to help them make a decision. That was anything from medical concerns, LGBT+ information, or even just a country preference.

Friday continued with a panel from YAGM Alum, who were back from country either recently or within a few years, to answer questions. They answered everything they could with the amount of time they had, and it was really helpful.

After the panel, interviews started. These were one on one interviews with the country coordinators of the 2 countries we'd been given, and were, to be honest, nerve wracking. Luckily for me, my first one was scheduled after dinner, so I had a bit of a break here. I got to try to start making a pro/con list for both placements. Spoiler alert: I spent way too much time on this, and it didn't help. At all. After that wasted time, I went to dinner with one of the UK coordinators that I wouldn't be interviewing with. We got to ask him some questions, learn a little more about England (where he's from!) and joke around a little. It was really relaxed.

After dinner was my first interview: Jerusalem/West Bank. My impression of myself that whole time? I spoke too loudly, moved my hands around way too much, and could not think of answers to the questions fast enough. I was stressed and nervous, and I don't think I interviewed too well. I was still at the point of not being able to make a decision, and I definitely thought I screwed that interview up.

After getting that interview out of the way, it was time for the evening service. This was a deeply reflective time, and I can't put into words how much it cut into the core of who I was. We placed candles around altars designed to be prayers for different things; countries, the environment, the church, ourselves. After that, I was emotionally exhausted. I went to my room and stressed about my morning interview for a few hours before falling asleep.

Saturday morning! This meant individual photos (I can't tell you how I really do not want to see what these photos look like) that will represent us for the next year around congregations and synods as our stories get told, and breakfast. My photo was right at 8am, and my interview wasn't for another hour. I got to spend that hour filling out a preference sheet for the UK (which we used to express our experience and desires for the different types of placements the UK has). I went into my UK interview feeling a little confident, having been through one interview and sorting my thoughts with their preference sheet. My impressions of myself this interview: excessively honest, still way too loud, and hands that just couldn't stop moving. Still nervous. I exited that interview feeling marginally better about it than last night's.

Now it was time for a couple more presentations, this time about what we'd be doing for the 4 months leading up to August (when we leave!) and how to fundraise. After that it was dinner, where I (and the people I sat with) stressed about what to put on our cards which were due in a few hours!!! What to do, what to do. After dinner I had more break time, (code for more time to stress about my card) where I continued to try to pro/con the countries. Still didn't work. Don't try this at home, kids. While I was stressing, I spilled my (English Breakfast) tea all over my folder (and the table) which really summed up my state of mind and should've been a hint as to where I'd end up. After cleaning it all up, I had only a few minutes to get to the next presentation, which blew my mind away and made me chill out so much about my card.

The presenter spoke about accompaniment and mission, and what exactly we should be doing with our minds. He spoke about how "God is the essence of relationships," and how we shouldn't be going out into our mission with a mind to convert, but to "help make others better people."

The biggest thing I took away from this weekend was someone this presenter quoted. He told us about Kaj Munk, who said:

"What is, therefore, our task today? Shall I answer: “Faith, hope, and love”? That sounds beautiful. But I would say–courage. No, even that is not challenging enough to be the whole truth. Our task today is recklessness. For what we Christians lack is not psychology or literature…we lack a holy rage–the recklessness which comes from the knowledge of God and humanity. The ability to rage when justice lies prostrate on the streets, and when the lie rages across the face of the earth…a holy anger about the things that are wrong in the world. To rage against the ravaging of God’s earth, and the destruction of God’s world. To rage when little children must die of hunger, when the tables of the rich are sagging with food. To rage at the senseless killing of so many, and against the madness of militaries. To rage at the lie that calls the threat of death and the strategy of destruction peace. To rage against complacency. To restlessly seek that recklessness that will challenge and seek to change human history until it conforms to the norms of the Kingdom of God. And remember the signs of the Christian Church have been the Lion, the Lamb, the Dove, and the Fish…but never the chameleon."

We went to a service after this presentation, but those words rang in my ears. I knew I'd be sent somewhere that I could help others, and to be honest? I thought for sure that was going to end up JWB. I didn't have a preference, and after all that stress, I never actually ended up adding anything to my card after the required information. My thoughts were too jumbled, and I knew I would be sent where I was needed. I put that card into the basket mostly blank, but a weight felt lifted off of me.

Sunday morning was worship (which I overslept.. I know. I know. But I wasn't the only one!!) and packing. After we had packed and check out, we gathered in the chapel to hear our placements. It was alphabetical, which means most names had been called out before mine, but I didn't absorb anyone else. I was focused on waiting for my name, and after I heard "Nichole Schloesser-Becht... United Kingdom," I zoned out again. We were told we couldn't outwardly react until it was done, to respect everyone, but I don't think I could have reacted in that moment if I wanted to. I didn't feel relieved that it wasn't Jerusalem, I didn't feel disappointed that it was the UK, I didn't really know what I was feeling.

Right after this we were sent to meet with everyone else in that placement, and it was only then that I started feeling truly excited. I could see myself in the UK, walking with a community for a year, creating a home in a different land.

After our meetings we headed out to the airport. It was snowing, because of course it was, so our flights got delayed, because of course they did. I'd be ending my journey how I began it -waiting for hours in an airport- but this time I had the approximately 7 other people who were making the journey back to Minnesota with me. It was a lot less lonely, and we all got to know each other pretty well by the time our flight took off (15 hours later than originally scheduled).

Landing in Minnesota and getting back home felt a little weird. I had spent all weekend emotionally engaged, and so I holed up for a day decompressing and catching up on the sleep I missed out on from the flight delay.

In summary, I'm thrilled to be making the journey to the United Kingdom in August, and I'm excited to learn exactly where I'll be placed come May/June. Stay tuned if you'd like for more information, and this is where I'll be updating when I'm in the UK!

[tirednotflirting]

okay! another one! from @clumsyclifford and this one is the opening lines game! rules below:

Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories. (If you have less than 20, just list them all!) See if there are any patterns. Choose your favorite opening line. Tag some people to play the next round!

i’m just gonna start at the top of my posted works on ao3 and go down ig?

god really exposing myself here bc so many of my opening lines sound basically the same i am SCREAMING why am i like this

home is wherever you are tonight

Some nights Calum misses the stars.

i’ll be cleaning up bottles with you on new year’s day

Alex isn’t big on resolutions.

all I need is your heartbeat beating (next to mine)

Calum had always enjoyed the little things in life.

found a space and time in the holocene

Alex is the last one back on the bus after the show.

i could do without a tan on my left hand where my fourth finger meets my knuckle

(this one starts with like, a theme thing + a timestamp so technically not the first line but shhhhh)

Alex loves his kitchen.

happy, free, confused, and lonely at the same time

Alex is a planner. 

turn it on in a new kind of bright (it’s solar)

The light breeze blowing through the late afternoon air carries the scent of honeysuckle and the sun shining down on Los Angeles is warm but not hot and Luke is smiling.

show’s over, the same old story now

He’s never given Alex a key.

Remind me how it used to be

((alright so i am like 99% certain @reveriesofawriter actually wrote this opening line but still!!!!))

Jack pulls his door open expecting it to be Zack or Rian, but instead he’s face to face with someone who might as well be a ghost.

darling, you’re the one i want

Jack didn’t know love could feel like this.

to open my eyes in the right way

Rian is on his second cup of coffee, the steam rising from the mug against his cheeks a sharp contrast to the cold, mountain air, when he feels a pair of arms wrap around his middle.

I can picture it after all these days

((okay also wrote this fic with @reveriesofawriter but this opening line was me i’m pretty sure lol)

Jack isn’t sure what time it is.

a sunday kind of love

Jack has learned a lot of different things in his 32 years of living. 

just take it easy (hold onto this feeling)

Luke had really grown to love the quiet.

when you’re next to me and the music’s loud

Watching Alex watch a show is probably Jack’s favorite view in the world.

you're the one to help me get to sleep // maybe i fell in love when you woke me up

The sun is just beginning to set over LA and Alex is in love.

i want your midnights

“Any idea how we’re supposed to get down from here though?”

so alone in love like the world had disappeared

It’s moments like this that make Jack want to be a better songwriter.

but it’s clear when it hits me

It’s close to 3 AM when the four of them spill out of an Uber.

you’re a sky full of stars

Alex’s flight is delayed.

lol kind of a boring last one dsjfkls. and uhhhh yeah i can see a pattern and it’s called i have a Formula when it comes to writing apparently bc all but like five of these are the same like. Vibe. of a sentence lol. i bolded my favorite one and i think it’s a very Me kinda line. just very flowery lol. thnks for reading this if you did hehe

[sweet-xoxo-thatcares]

Omgg I'm about to cry.

Snappy from Amazon gave me a $50 credit for a free gift this holiday after I was having such a hard time today emotionally about all this stuff about a girl who doesn't even think about me.

It made me feel great to know one of the things I asked for was actually coming to me for free.

I wanted a new smoothie blender because the only had, I had left at my grandmother's house in Grand Rapids, the one who passed cause she had sorta kicked me out after that fight about my hamster...wtf lol I don't even wanna bring it up lol....

But yea not funny story. I'm just thankful.

And to have all these blessings coming to me for my hard work and after all that suffering.

Almost a reminder to appreciate the good things and not just keep complaining about the past and what I struggled with or still am struggling with...

Like my sexuality, money management, driving, taking better care of myself, and knowing how to let go instead of holding a grudge that could hold me up from receiving more blessings.

I definitely need to go see a therapist though, but I get so frustrated and tired after work that I don't even wanna go out or do shit. I'd rather just be at home alone again and go back to work later so I could shop around and then go to asleep 😴

I'm so drained rn and I gotta go to my parents so I can be there for Thanksgiving.

Then right back here to my apartment on Friday but then I gotta work right after I get home.

Like damn can I get a full day's rest.

I don't even wanna dress nice or get cute, but at the same time I do cause it's been a month since I wore makeup really and got freshened up like a girly girl.

But often I've been tomboying it for work and I get tired and hungry so there's no time to do it.

Even my hair I get stressed out about or if I just miss one day from washing my face cause it's that much of a crunch to leave the house, get an uber or a lyft to the nearest stop instead of walking 45mins in the cold.

Then I gotta wait but pay attention to see if the actual bus is still on its way or if it's delayed and if it is I gotta call customer service just so I can prearrange another uber to get me to my next stop and I just started leaving 2hrs earlier in case those sorry fucks actually do have a bus that didn't show and I can wait outside for a whole nother hour or go shopping to the closest store to stay warm.

Yes it's alot of stress revolving around leaving. But thank God my aunty said I could have my other grandma's car, I'd just have to pay for maintenance which could be near 200-300 dollars depending on what needs to be fixed. Also I got drivers Ed, now that's a whole nother story since technically my pay is gonna be short January and February due to me starting this office job.

Which is why I'm so scared to even spend any money on me like I was before because I gotta be patient for the biweekly checks instead of the weekly ones from Amazon.

The training pay is ok, but after I pass the training tests it goes up to be more than what I'm making now and I'll be working on carpet and THANK GOD NO MORE SLEEP DEPRIVATION 🙏 back to 8-10hrs of sleep 😇

I never thought I missed sleep so bad, but I actually do. I function alot smoother, kinder, less babyish,and less short of a tempur or ptsd reactions because I noticed I'm drained after coming to work having to manage the inconsistencies of the bus routes that I'm living near now.

I ride 3hrs to and from and it's 3 different buses. So if one miss or is late, I'm behind schedule already.

I hate leaving 2hrs earlier than I would if I stayed with my parents but shit the area is nicer, there's plenty of more restaurants and stores nearby that I can walk to from the apartment or just go by bus. Also I love living with my roommate and their dogs because it's like when he's here (their ftm) I'm a big softie around the pups and they're so freaking huge and tall with softvwhite fur. And I like that I get along with him too, we watch Netflix and anime sometimes. And even today I made him an omelet with bacon, cheese, and Kale and I bought us a pumpkin pie for later on.

Last night we shared the special LGBT Pride Wine that was Sparkling Sweet Rosé flavor. It was so pretty and it actually did taste sweet, no dry bitter ends like most Rosé wines I've had.

I made me a mimosa with it this morning. So good.

L bought me Chicken Alfredo since we both had a pasta craving. I just like that we can help each other out and I can help him take out the dogs to go potty.

I can't believe how amazing this feels to say I don't have a crush on my roommate and we can bros. Because I used to be so worried about that since I wasn't finding anyone else to talk to on the dating apps as far as girls.

But L he's definitely a good bro. No weird shit. Not even checking each other out or looking at each other's chest or bodies. Nothing out of the platonic sanctum.

Minus last night, but I think it was the wine mixed with me feeling alone after noticing that my ex sex buddy/friend lied about something serious like that.

It was ironic how loose and switched I was. Where one side was platonic, and the other was like no, don't look.at him that way you're just hungry for attention, so I fell asleep on the couch right after and then L woke me and Said you sleep, you should go to bed and we laughed. Cause we were in the middle of just watching our show lol Young Royals on Netflix 😆

[louisfeatharry]

okay so here’s the long ass story about how i got my ass from nyc to philly featuring @imlouisaf, @foliealou, and @1000-directions.

alternatively: how philly did us dirty

it starts wednesday when i jokingly talk to justine (imlouisaf) and rachel (foliealou) about making a road trip down to philadelphia and try and get last minute tickets to see harry. it spirals into “yes, we can totally do it!” and “here are the bus schedules!” and “okay, i have a price alert set up for stubhub.”

but you know murphy’s law? anything that can happen - will happen? yeah, fucking real as shit.

it starts off with me getting an uber from my house to the train station to catch a bus in midtown manhattan at 6pm to get to philly at 8:05pm.

3 ubers are cancelled on me, and i don’t end up getting an uber until 4:05pm, which - fine. my train is at 4:30, it takes like 25 minutes to get there, and nj transit is usually shit when it comes to being on time. so it’s fine, right? at this point, i’m expecting to make it to midtown east to drop off my stuff (a full-fledged backpack with 1d monopoly, clothes, and shit all in it) at justine’s apartment and maybe shower if i have time and i’m lucky.

my uber driver makes a wrong turn, adding 5 minutes to our ETA, there’s traffic. and so, i end up missing the 4:30 train, but it’s fine, because trains come like every 5 to 15 minutes, so i’ll just catch the 4:46pm train, right? wrong. because the 4:46pm train ends up being 10 minutes late. so fuck trying to get to midtown east at this point. i can’t even shower because i have no time (and the plumbing’s busted at my house). 

in the meantime, i finally buy a GA ticket from stubhub for a little over face value, but tickets were selling fast off stubhub and i didn’t wanna take my chances. so now i’m like committed 

so, justine and rachel check and apparently, i can leave my bag with greyhound. so okay, that’s fine and cool and dandy. but then i get to port authority to meet up with them for the bus, and customer service says i can’t leave my bag with them. GREAT, FABULOUS. then they direct me to brochure for a luggage service a few blocks away that can hold my backpack. (since it’s big enough that the venue will 100% not let me bring it in.) 

i go up this rickety ass elevator to the second floor of this small ass building, and guess what? NO LUGGAGE SERVICE. LIKE NOTHING. JUST ALL DANCE STUDIOS OR SOMETHING. my patience is dwindling, i’m legit 5 seconds away from a breakdown in the middle of manhattan. and i’m just like, “well, fuck, i’ll have to find a place in philly to store my shit.”

i get to the gate on time by some grace of god, and we get on the bus and i’m trying to charge my phone because i’m at 20% in the hours before a concert where cell service is absolute shit. i put my phone into what i thought was a clean sick bag, but i guess it had water at the bottom in it. (i would’ve actually cried if there was vomit in the bag, and i put my phone in vomit. i would’ve straight up cried.)

so, as a result, i’m calling greyhound and they have me on hold for 5 minutes before i’m in the tunnel and i have to hang up because no service. my phone isn’t charging - but now, my phone screen is flickering... just half of it... flickering dim... and i’m like, “WHY!” because i cannot afford to break my phone right now. i try not to think about it and just call and search on my phone for anywhere i can leave my bag.

i call tower theatre, and they tell me the box office is closed after the show starts so they can’t store my bag, and i’ll have to talk to security to see if they’d let me leave it somewhere. but there’s no way for me to know for sure until i get there, so that’s not an option. i call greyhound, and FINALLY the lady tells me i can leave it at the counter in philadelphia. so i’m like relieved, right? 

i’m on the bus for 2.5 hours, running on pure adrenaline and maybe 3 hours of sleep from the last 36 hours. i try to sleep on the bus, but i’m too wired to do so. i end up doing my makeup on the bus while justine and rachel try to find things to eat because guess what? we haven’t eaten dinner. but our bus is late, so we don’t get to the station until 8:30pm.

i go up to the counter and ask them if i can leave my bag, and the agent’s like, “yeah, it’s $10. cash only. i’ll just call baggage to come pick it up.” i don’t have $10 in cash, but justine does, and we hand it off. then the baggage guy comes, and he’s like “we don’t hold luggage after 8pm.” and honest to god, justine, rachel, and i all had matching looks of frustration, despair, and pure, pure panic. luckily, the agent sees the clear as fucking day distress on our faces and does us a solid saying she’ll take the bag anyways and leave a note for the people coming in later as long as we give the $10. we thank her profusely before quite literally running out the door to catch the septa train underground for 12 fucking stops all the way to the end of the line from the 11th st station.

so, eventually, we get to the venue at fucking 9:01pm, completely missing muna’s set. and we’re like, “let’s get our merch now since harry’s probably being dramatic as fuck with his curtain.” so we probably missed like the first verse of ‘ever since new york’ but it was worth it since we were in the GA seated section with a kick ass view and had half a row entirely to ourselves (read: to myself) to dance and go nuts. (amazing.)

[insert 10 paragraphs of me waxing poetic about harry]

after the show, we have a 11:25pm bus we can catch back to nyc. we already bought tickets, but we also bought backup tickets to the 3:35am bus. we end up meeting with steph (1000-directions) who offers to drive us to the bus station. except no one could apparently fucking drive last night, and we’re convinced we’ve missed our bus as we get to the station at 11:30. but BY SOME MIRACLE, the bus is delayed 30 to 45 minutes. but at least, i’m able to get my backpack from the counter, thank god. (and with our $10 returned!)

we’re able to grab food from some fried chicken place - in which some lady tried to get food for free, much to the chagrin of the owner who unceremoniously kicked her out. and then the owner, who we thought was cool and nice, ended up trying to invite justine and i back to his place for drinks and for a party - to which we immediately were like, “nope.” and took our food and RAN out of there. 

aaaaaand then we get back and we find out there’s been an accident that’s preventing the buses from getting to the station. (there was another group of people waiting for a bus to pittsburgh.) so we have to wait another hour and a half for the bus. 

we’re chilling and eating, i’m reading fic (a road trip fic, ironically), and my phone is ... questionably working. the screen is no longer flickering, but there’s some damage to the mechanism behind the power button since it’s gone sticky and tries to turn off my phone every fucking five minutes. and if i press the home button? screenshots. every. single. fucking. time. 

eventually, we get on the bus at like 1:20am. and some guy plops up right next to rachel, offering her juice and shit and being hella shady. our bus driver is a maniac on the road. i somehow sleep for 1 hour. we get to nyc at 3:20am. and then our uber driver is yelling on the phone to some guy, but he’s nice. except he stops at red lights and keeps trying to inch forward even though HE’S GOING TO INCH US THE FUCK INTO TRAFFIC. but after all is said and done, we get dropped off at justine’s apartment.

so, as a summary:

bus tickets to and from philly (plus all emotional distress involved): $45

last minute resale tickets to harry styles: $160

septa train tickets to go 12 stops: $2.50

pretzels and hummus to tide me over so i don’t pass out in the middle of harry’s show while being called an icon by the girl in front of us: $5

chicken fingers and fries (and being creeped out): $5

but, the experience of a lifetime to spontaneously travel 100 miles to go see harry styles perform kiwi twice with his tits and tummy out while surrounded by rainbow flags? absolutely fucking priceless. and i wouldn’t change a second of the shitshow for the world.

[yourstruly-a]

-December 14 2019.

Flight UA5759

-Another not so happy flight. Alone and scared not by choice. Again. What’s the lesson here?

I started my day by missing my bus to the airport. I was off to a great start. I was getting out of the Uber as the bus was driving away at the bus stop. I was suppose to get on that exact bus to get to the airport in time. I felt like the man in every single cliche ending I’ve ever seen in a “little too late” story line. Except why was I a little too late? I checked the time. That bus was 3 minutes early. They were a little too early. I waited for the next bus. That bus was also 3 minutes early. I checked the website to make sure I wasn’t losing it. Then I thought, how many people do you think missed this bus? Then I laughed. I laughed cause I was trying not to cry. It was a rough week. My 65 and sunny vacation turned into a freezing 52 and rainy locked in a house with 2 teenagers who hate each other, blasting Ryan Adams records and consuming about 6 pots of coffee. It was lit.

I got to the airport. I boarded the plane after 8 days in this state. I was stuffed in the middle seat of a tiny aircraft that was so old, I could almost smell the cigarette smoke still lingering in the leather seats. Inflight smoking was outlawed too long ago for this to be true. But maybe it was the ash trays that sparked the nostalgic stank. Why do airplanes still have ash trays? I grew up around smoking grandparents. I like the smell of smoke. I was never a smoker but something is comforting about the scent. I started off relaxed and ready to get home. Boy was I wrong.

We started taking off the runway. Full speed ahead. The pilot had just gotten the nose lifted from the pavement. There was an awful noise from the right side of the aircraft. Something went terribly wrong. The aircraft immediately kiltered. Right wing was almost on the ground and we were still half way in the air. Almost out of runway to put the plane down immediately before it was too late. The pilot did it. It was unreal. I was in row 8 with a perfect view and he maybe had about 20 yards away from the end of the runway. We weren’t going home anytime soon. Sat on the runway a good 2 hours before the mechanics reached the aircraft. They couldn’t diagnose the problem. Taxied us back to the gate and all of us left the plane. I was getting text updates about the status of the departure every half hour starting another hour delayed. 6 hours had gone by until they gave us the option to reassign our flights. I was alone with a phone that was about to die and boarding passes that were no good. I couldn’t take it anymore. I opted to get on a plane the next day with a layover in Denver and then home by 4:30 pm at MSP. I was set to go, I was going to hop on a plane tomorrow and get home safely.

It was 11:30 PM by the time I left the airport. I had to catch the bus that betrayed by that same morning. I made sure I was 3 minutes earlier than posted pick up time. The bus was 3 minutes late. I just about had it. I boarded the bus and got ready for the hour long ride home through the city and up into a suburban bus stop ride off the freeway. I got dropped off at the bus stop and then had to take an Uber to where I was staying. No ubers were in sight. They gave me an estimated time of 60 minutes until a driver could come get me. I waited for what seemed like the longest 60 minutes of my life. I was stuck at the bus stop. Scared and alone. Again. This seems to be the theme of my life these days.

I made it 30 minutes before I wasn’t the only one at the bus stop. I was approached by the silhouette of what seemed to be a man who was coming right up to me. The bus stop light was behind him and he had his hood up. I couldn’t see his face. I was freaking out at this point. He started strong towards my way. Slowed down and stood about 20 feet from me. For a good 5 minutes he just stood there. Took his hood off then started my way again. This time I could see his face. He was a man. A man with glossed over eyes, sores all over his face, and an empty expression. This man had been through some shit. I was terrified. He started off strong, told me how he’s fleeing the state cause his dad is trying to give him some injection and then send him off to this treatment center. He asked where I was flying to, where my family was and if I was traveling alone. I gave him fake answers to every question. At this point I was just trying to make it into salvation. That bus could show up any minute.

He asked to use my phone. He had misplaced his is what he had told me. His words were all jumbled, his mannerisms were all over the place. This guy was on something and I was just trying to not aggravate him. I told him he had 10 minutes to use my phone before the Uber came. He called whoever he called if he called anyone for that matter. My call log didn’t have any number on there... he was having a full on conversation with this said person. At this point this man had sit right next to me on this bench at this bus stop in the middle of nowhere. Why was I alone? Why am I in this situation? How dangerous is this? What the hell was i thinking? I was scared and alone. Again. What is the lesson here? The conversation he was having turned hostile. I was 3 seconds away from losing it. My Uber showed up 3 minutes early. I wasn’t scared anymore. I took back my phone and bolted into the Uber. Checked my call log and there was nothing on there. He never called anybody.

And that’s when it hit me. He is also one that is just scared and alone. He was at the lowest low of his life. Yes he was using drugs, yes he made that choice. That is how he scared and alone copes. I was scared and alone. Was this the lowest low of my life? How am I going to cope? I haven’t gone into why life has wrecked havoc on me but in due time. I’m learning to cope. I feel a pivot in the near future and God do I hope so. I see a little glimmer of hope. I have to hang onto that and find a healthy way to be ok with being alone and scared.

Yours truly. -A

[suggxmaynard]

Joe Sugg Imagine - Got Lucky.

"No, Alan! Stop biting my cushions!" Joe ran after the little pug around his living room, making Zoe and Alfie burst out laughing. Zoe ended up picking her up and placing her on her lap to calm her down.

"Nala, baby, stop" she said sweetly, still laughing at Joe's reaction "Be nice to Uncle Joe's furniture" she said and immediately after she chuckled loudly, knowing how uncomfortable it made both men in front of her feel. Indeed, they were already making faces "Come on boys, it's just a joke"

Joe ran a hand through his now ridiculously long hair, and sat down next to her sister, whose dog ran towards his lap not long afterwards. He stroked her behind her ears and turned to Zoe "How would it make you feel if I called you Auntie Zoe, huh?" He asked, immediately regretting he did because he already knew the answer.

And he wasn't wrong with his guess "More than delighted" she smiled.

"Too bad it won't happen for a long, long, long time" he said, relaxing on the sofa as Alfie sat down next to him with a glass of apple juice on his hand "Well, you never know" he said, sipping from his drink.

"I'm not even seeing anyone at the moment" Joe said as he felt his phone vibrate on the back pocket of his jeans.

"What about that girl you told me about...what was her name...was it Leigh?" Zoe asked.

"Jeez, that was ages ago" he said as he took his phone out and read the text he just got.

"Honestly" Alfie said "Don't get me wrong, Joe, but do you even have feelings?" He said, mid-laughing. He had known him for years now, and he didn't know of a single girl he had sincere and pure feelings for.

But Joe wasn't listening "Guys, Y/N can't come tonight. She promised Finn she'd go to his party, so" he said, putting his phone back on his pocket.

"Aw, that's a real shame" Zoe said "I really wanted to see her. I really liked the video she uploaded today, that Q&A with her dad. Well, maybe tomorrow"

"How come you weren't invited?" Alfie asked Joe.

"Finn and I aren't exactly close to each other" the boy explained "Then again, neither is he close to Y/N. But he wants to get into her pants, so" Joe's voice let out a slightly jealous tone. Zoe and Alfie looked at each other.

"Does she fancy him as well?" She asked her brother, giving her boyfriend a knowing look.

"Y/N? I don't think so, but I've never asked" Joe said "I mean, it's not like I care at all. It's just that if he has to leave me out of that party in orden to try to flirt with her, it says a lot about him" He said without really thinking.

"Are you saying he wouldn't flirt with her if you were around?" Zoe asked again.

"Well, me or Jim for that matter" Joe stated, matter-o-factly "I don't get how she doesn't see it"

"Maybe she doesn't mind it" Alfie said, trying to push Joe's buttons. He'd understood it all with Zoe's glare; Joe was, if not totally, partially into you, and he wanted him to confess. You and him have been best friends for a ridiculously long time now, and it was obvious there was more than friendship between you. But neither were good with feelings at all, and it drove your friends insane.

However, Joe closed his eyes and hugged Nala tightly, as if missing someone's touch. As if he needed so badly a hug, and said "Maybe"

When Alfie and Zoe closed their bedroom's door, he let himself fall into the sofa. It was already 1 am, and he was wide awake. Joe opened Instagram and saw that Finn had uploaded a new picture. Before he saw it, he already knew you were on it. Essentially.

Not long after, he got a text from Jim asking if he was at that party with you. 'Luckily not’.

 As the clock went round and round, like the wheels on the bus, he started thinking about the new collab he had to upload that same night. At first, you had agreed that Joe would upload his collab with you first, and then the one with Connor and Caspar that he had filmed the other day. However, the due date for the video finished in like, two hours, and Joe didn't feel like pressing 'upload' to said video.

So he did exactly the opposite of what you had talked about, and immediately after went to bed.

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

Your POV.

The music was so loud I couldn't even hear myself think. However, I easily felt the unmistakeable buzz my phone made when I got a YouTube notification. They were turned on only for a small amount of people, so almost as an involuntary move, I got it out of my purse.

ThatcherJoe has just uploaded a video 'WTF is this video | ft. Conor Maynard and Caspar Lee'

I immediately checked out my YouTube calendar on my phone and essentially, Joe's video for today had to be our collab in order for me to upload our video later. Thinking it was probably just a silly mistake, I texted him. Then I realised it was 2 am and that he was likely to be sleeping.

I scanned the room for Finn, hoping I could find him easily and leave for home. I wasn't exactly tired, but I had the slightest feeling that Joe's move wasn't an accident and I just wasn't in the mood for techno music and expensive cocktails anymore.

After almost five solid minutes of looking for Finn, I finally found him at the balcony, laughing at who-knows-what with two other boys. As soon as they saw me, they left, leaving the two of us alone.

"Hey, Finn" I said "Thanks for inviting me, I had the best time" I smiled.

"I'm glad you did, love" he sipped on his brown drink. Love? Since when did Finn call people that? It reminded me so much of Joe, it made my stomach turn as I recalled the current video situation I was in.

I decided to ignore it "Sadly I need to go, gotta stay fresh to film tomorrow" I wasn't exactly lying, but I definitely wasn't planning on filming the next day.

"Bummer" he said, licking his lips. He caught me looking at them "But that's fine. Maybe we could film a video together some time"

"Yeah, would be fun" I said. It wasn't on my plans, but I really wanted to leave as quickly as I could. And saying no to that would only delay my plans.

"Alright, see you soon beautiful" he said, and before I could do something about it, his lips locked with mine in a quick, o-so-drunk peck which I didn't respond to. I muted a confused bye and left as quickly as I broke our kiss.

Once I was outside, I intended to call an Uber when I found out that the Uber App had collapsed and that I didn't have the slightest idea of where I was. I looked it up on Google Maps, but I still didn't have a clue. I looked around. The streets were empty and dark. It wasn't exactly cold, but I was definitely shivering. I only had two options.

The first one was to call Jim so he could pick me up. And so I did. About eleven tones later, I finally got to the idea that he wasn't going to respond. It was already 2.30 am on a Friday, I didn't blame him. Jim and I have been best friends for years, as we had grown up together, our houses in front of one another. Thinking about it, it was better if he didn’t pick up the phone. Being so protective of me, if he found out I was alone this late at night, he’d flip his shit. He was something between my father and my brother, and even though he could be annoying as hell sometimes, I wasn’t complaining.

However, that only left me with my second and last option: calling Joe. It was the last thing I wanted to do at the moment, but it was still better than standing in the middle of nowhere at night, all by myself.

Five tones afterwards, I heard his tired voice on the other line "I'm so sorry I woke you up" I said, knowing that he had been sleeping.

"What do you want?" He said, and my heart sank a bit. I ignored the poorly way he was making me feel "I need a huge favor. I just got out of Finn's party and my Uber App has collapsed and I don't know where I am, and Jim-"

"I get it, where are you?" He said, and I couldn't help but feel relieved.

"Google Maps says Campden Hill Road" I told him.

He stayed silent a few seconds, probably mentally planning the ride "Right, give me 15"

"Thank you so much, Joe" I said "I owe you big"

"No need to" he answered, and then he hung up.

Twelve minutes later, Joe's car stopped in front of me. I opened the door and awkwardly sat next to him "Thanks again" I said, looking at him. But he didn't look back at me. He was wearing a Sugg Life hoodie and grey sweatpants. His messy hair was pushed back, and his glasses sat perfectly on his tired blue eyes. I couldn't deny he was quite the charming guy "I'm sorry I woke you up" I said again.

"It's fine" he said as we stopped on a red light "I wasn't sleeping well anyway, and I wasn't going to leave you wandering around London at night" Then he finally looked at me, and I felt small.

His blue eyes fixed on mine until I couldn't take it anymore and I lowered my glance, quickly looking ahead on the road to hide the fact that I was blushing. But I still could feel his eyes on me.

"How was the party?" He asked, and I couldn't help but stare at his hands as he drove.

"Not as good as I was hoping for" I sincerely said "I barely knew anyone, and the ones I knew were far too drunk to recognise me anyway"

Joe let out a laugh, and I visibly relaxed. We stayed in silence for a few minutes before he broke it again "Hey, Y/N, about the video I uploaded today" he said, rubbing his neck. I smiled at how cute he looked when he was nervous "I'm so sorry about it, I knew I had to upload our video but I..."

He stopped at another red light. Three overly drunk guys were passing by in front of the car, one of them still holding a bottle on his hand. A guy with a tuxedo on turned his head, locking his eyes with mine. He started to cheer, and suddenly his two friends joined in, shouting things to me that I wouldn't even bother to repeat.

With the red light still on, Joe slowly started the car again, as if he were to run over them. The three guys jumped and, scared, put their hands in the air as if they were surrendering. The light changed and Joe hit full speed, not even bothering to see if they were on his way.

I couldn't help but laugh "That was aggressive" I commented.

He had a smirk on his lips "Couldn't care less if I ran over them, to be honest" he said.

"About the video" I said, wanting to get it over with.

"Yeah, I'm sorry" he said for like, the hundredth time "I thought you were coming to mine's last night and I got a bit upset. I feel like a 5-year-old now"

I laughed "A really cute one, tho" I said, and I immediately regretted it, not really looking for another awkwardness stage. Luckily, he laughed.

"I will upload our collab as soon as I can, I promise" he said, turning to the street where I lived.

"Okay" I nodded "Hey, can I ask you a question?"

"Shoot"

"Do you think Finn likes me?" I blurted out. His hand tensed on the wheel, and his smile disappeared, forming a straight line. I didn't know where I was going with this.

"Why'd you ask?" He asked instead of answering my question.

"He kissed me tonight" He abruptly stopped the car, only to find out that we were already in front of my apartment block "Like, he was drunk and it was just a short goodbye peck, but I'm so confused"

Joe had always told me about his love life, that is, when I got it out of him after hours of insisting. He's not the extrovert kind. So I thought I would do just the same.

"I don't know if he likes you, but just think about his past relationships" he said, running his hands through his hair "They haven't been exactly long, and that must be for a reason"

I looked down at my intertwined fingers, as I could feel his eyes on me. They sent heat down my body. He then put an arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer, kissing the top of my head. People always said Joe wasn't good with emotions, but I couldn't believe them completely.

"Don't worry about that now" he whispered, still holding me tight. I could've fallen asleep right there "It's time you go to bed now. My sister and Alfie are staying at my house today and they wanted to see you in the morning"

"Cool" I said "I'll text you when I wake up, okay?"

"Okay, love" he said, and his 'love' was far more comforting than Finn's.

"Do you ever get heartbroken?" I asked out of nowhere. I wasn't exactly heartbroken because of Finn, but I wanted to know.

"The only thing that could break my heart right now is you crying over stupid guys who don't deserve you" he said, leaving me blank. "Now go to bed" he kissed my head again before removing his arm from my frame. I immediately felt cold.

"Stop being so sweet" 

“No, it’s true” he said, his hand going through his hair once more. He then looked at me, and that’s when I realized I had been staring.

“Joe” I meant to say out loud, but it came out as a weak whisper. I didn’t know what to say next. His name just sounded nice when it left my lips.

“Yes, love?” he asked me sweetly, his hand cupping my cheek as he pressed his lips against it. I felt the urge to feel his lips on mine.

“It’s nothing” I finally said. I turned around to open the door and leave, embarrassed. But he didn’t let go of me. Instead, he pulled me closer until his eyes were staring deeply into mine, and suddenly my body went numb.

He let out a small chuckle “I don’t mean to make this awkward or anything” he said, staring away from me. My lips were almost pressed on his jawline “But I really want to kiss you right now”

My whole body froze, and my palms started sweatingt. I looked at him, searching for his eyes, as he eventually gazed back at me. I smiled as I got closer, pressing a small kiss on his jaw. He chuckled again, and kissed the top of my head “I shouldn’t have said that” he said.

Just when he was about to release me from his embrace, I grabbed the collar of his hoodie and pressed our lips together. Fuck it. If he wasn’t going to do it, I sure was. His lips moved slowly, as I opened my mouth slightly for his tongue to slip in. He cupped my face with one hand, so big compared to it. I held his hand while we kissed, feeling its warmth.

When we pulled away, our foreheads pressed together, I couldn’t help but smile “I would really love to go upstairs with you” he whispered, making me blush. Every time I thought about Joe touching me, holding me, I got goosebumps “But I’ve got my sister and Alfie alone at my place. And a dog” he said, making me laugh.

“Oh, come on” I pouted “It’s not like they like you anyway” I joked.

He laughed, as he pressed a small kiss on my lips again “You know what?” he said, as he released himself from my touch to grab the car keys “You’re right. They’ll be fine without me” he said, kissing me again. I could get used to it “Let’s go. I need some cuddles”

I laughed as I followed him out of the car. When we met each other at the entrance, I pressed our lips together again, and as we walked inside of my apartment, me already on his arms, legs around his torso, I wondered how I could’ve gotten so damn lucky, 

[artificialqueens]

Dress Up in You (Trixya) - Chapter Eight

Summary: In which Trixie gets by with a little help from her friends.

AN: Sorry for the delay getting this out, and thanks for all the great feedback! You can find previous chaptersin my tag or search ‘Dress Up in You’ on A03.

Trixie summons an Uber with shaking fingers, hot anger coursing through her limbs as she waits, pacing agitatedly, for her car to arrive. The driver must pick up on her mood, or be freaked out by her 'slutty scarecrow goes to the circus’ look, because he doesn’t try and make small talk with her on the short journey to her side of town. She feels unsettled and shaky, fizzing with the aftermath of the argument, and this sustains her until she gets home, keeping her eyes mostly dry and her overdrawn upper lip stiff until the door to her apartment is firmly bolted behind her.

She doesn’t even want to look at herself, knows her makeup will be terrible and wants to spare herself the added embarrassment of knowing just how shitty she looked while she argued with Katya. Right there in the hall, Trixie slides off her PVC dress and stockings, realising in slight mortification that her panties must still be on the floor of the studio as she does so, and then unclips her knotted extensions, tugging them free with a rough yank that pulls at her scalp. She shoves her clothes into the laundry basket in her bedroom and her extensions on her bedside table to brush out later when she’s thinking straight. Careful to avoid the mirror, she enters her en-suite bathroom and turns on the shower, stepping into water so hot she can barely stand it.

She holds it together long enough to scrub her face with makeup removal cream, getting the worst of the caked-on crap from last night off as she begins to cry. In the scalding stream of water, Trixie lets herself lose it – all the anger and the shitty feelings, her annoyance at Katya for not being clear, her annoyance at herself for lashing out when she felt hurt. Trixie feels so many things at once, but largely what she feels is pathetic. Why did I assume she’d want me? she thinks bitterly and why did I make it her fault that I got too attached too fast?.

The wind now fully out of her sails, Trixie can’t believe how righteously angry she felt just an hour ago. Who the fuck does she think she is to be angry at someone she’s been on one date with for politely explaining her stance on relationships? What does Katya actually owe her? She feels like a little girl who just had a foot-stomping tantrum in the grocery store because her mom wouldn’t buy her the candy she wanted. Just because you let yourself imagine her being your girlfriend, she tells herself, doesn’t mean she ever said she wanted to be.

Miserably, a now clean Trixie wriggles damply into her onesie and sinks into the safe haven of her sheets, laying on her side under the covers and glumly flicking through Instagram on her phone. She has a few texts in her inbox but she doesn’t feel up to the sick swoop of embarrassment that runs through her when she thinks about talking to Katya, and what a baby the other woman must think she is. She turns off notifications for texts, so that she won’t be disturbed by any more incoming messages until she’s ready for them, and opens WhatsApp:

Trixie: You there?

She’s hoping and praying that Kim isn’t busy, because she’s never needed a friend more. Her former housemate isn’t too experienced with dating but she’s super smart, and Trixie knows that her friend would never judge her for her feelings, rational or not.

Kim: When have u ever known me not to have my phone in my hand? [hair flick emoji]

Trixie: I did something dumb I think

Kim: Tell me something new, bitch

Kim: But srsly are u ok?

Trixie: I dunno :( girl stuff, I kinda messed up my date thing and I feel shitty

Kim: Want me to skype u?

She thinks about it for a second. Trixie’s sure she looks like absolute, puffy-eyed crap right now, but curling up in bed with her best friend’s digital company seems really comforting right now.

Trixie: I look like garbage but sure

Kim: That never normally stops you tbh

Kim’s friendly shade makes Trixie smile, and she accepts the incoming call, wincing a little at the little image of herself in the bottom corner of the screen. Thank the lord for dim lighting.

“Hey Trix! Do I need to come and kick someone’s ass for you?” Kim opens, doing a campy little martial arts pose at the camera.

“No, girl. But you can come karate chop some sense into me in a minute” she answers, her voice sounding tired and defeated, even to her own ears.

“What happened?”

“Uh, well, after the date when we sort of ended weird, you remember?”

Kim nods in recognition and makes a little humming noise.

“Well I went out with Violet from work and her friends, they’re super nice actually, and I bumped into… her… on the way home,”

“Bumped into, or like, bumped into?”

“It was totally a coincidence! Her art studio is really near the bar, and we went back there and ended up hooking up, and then this morning she was all 'I don’t do relationships’ and I sort of flipped out at her and now I feel dumb as fuck” Trixie summarises, making a little frowny face as she finishes and looks to her tiny, palm-sized Kim for guidance.

“Aw, honey. Are you ok?” Kim asks, her face sympathetic.

“Yeah, I just feel like a loser I guess. Like, I’m 24, I don’t get why I even feel so bummed, you know? Not everyone wants to be like, married and settled. Especially at my age.”

“I mean, that’s true, but not everyone doesn’t want to either, you know? Like you can’t assume someone is a certain way, but that goes for both of you. You’re not weird for being like, emotional about sex, and she’s not weird for not being. I think you’re being too hard on yourself”

Kim’s words are comforting, but Trixie doesn’t feel much better. She and Kim are similar – Kim’s still a virgin, so she doesn’t hook up at all, and she and Trixie are both disappointingly traditional about just wanting a simple, straightforward relationship. Neither of them are really about fucking around – and Trixie knows cause she’s tried. She enjoys sex a lot, and likes having fun, and it took her a long time in college trying to enjoy casual flings and feeling shitty and sad before she learned that it’s just not for her, much as she’d like it to be. She gets pretty insecure about it sometimes, like it makes her uncool and babyish, and knowing Kim’s the same way makes her doubt the validity of her friend’s statements.

“Is Pearl there, babe?” she asks, hoping for a second opinion from someone more 'normal’ – Pearl is totally cool hooking up with boys and girls without feeling weird about it, and is probably in a better position to judge whether Trixie is being irrational or not.

There’s a brief clattering and the sound of Kim shouting at Pearl to turn off her music and come help with Trixie, and she closes her eyes, imagining for a second they all still live in the same noisy, friendly house. When she opens them, two girls are peering back at her from her phone screen, and Pearl winks, drawling in her flat monotone that she heard Trixie was looking for a 'slut’s opinion’ on her current romantic entanglements.

Trixie runs through recent events for Pearl, with Kim chipping in to give her opinions and add in any bits Trixie misses out. When she’s done, Pearl chews her lip for a second before responding.

“Well, it’s totally fine for her to not be about like, dating, you know? I know that’s not your issue though Trix. It’s not like, slut shaming or anything to want to date and stuff. She should have talked to you before it went that far, but things do happen, you know, like in the moment. Nobody’s perfect. I think a lot of you being angry is 'cause you were like, hurt and disappointed maybe?”

“Wow, Pearl, I think that’s the most words you’ve said in a row this year!” Kim mocks, and Pearl gives her an affectionate shove. It makes Trixie’s heart ache to be with her friends, and Pearl’s considered opinion makes her feel a little better.

“Yeah, you’re totally right, girl. I guess this is just one of those 'suck it up and move on’ things, you know? Like, sucks for me, sucks for her, get a new bus stop and get on with life?” Trixie surmises, resignation in her tone, and her friends both nod in agreement, adding that she shouldn’t feel dumb for being sad that someone she likes doesn’t want to be with her.

The three chat about random crap for a while, and it’s so familiar and soothing that Trixie finds her eyes fluttering shut with increasing frequency as they float plans to see each other again, talk about reality TV (this one guy on the new ANTM is so extra, and they all have conflicting feelings about boys being on the show at all. Tyra Banks is serious business) and just generally catch up on each others’ lives. Kim and Pearl have so many small embarrassing stories to tell Trixie about one another, and Trixie just relaxes in their company, letting their chatter flow over her… until she dozes off, waking up a minute or so later to two very amused women making fun of her slack-mouthed napping face. (“We took screenshots”, Kim informs her gleefully).

Trixie says her goodbyes and spend the rest of her Sunday napping, waking up to snack and restart the podcast episodes she’s sleeping through. It’s an okay way to spend a crappy day, and she feels a little better by the time Monday morning rolls around, her commute only ten minutes longer with her new bus-stop detour in place. She tries to put things out of her mind, succeeding partially, until Violet rolls into work around noon for an afternoon shift, pulls out her headphones and says to Trixie “Hey, bitch, you never said your date was with Katya!”.

Oh, shit.

[canaryatlaw]

okay, well today was pretty good. My alarm went off at 7:45 and I did not want to get up, but I dragged my ass out of bed anyway and got ready for church. transit was a bit of a mess, the bus somehow got really delayed so I just hopped off where I usually switch to the train and ubered the rest of the way, which got me there only a little late, so that was good. the sermon was the second week of their series called "A Bigger Table," I missed last week's episode and it hasn't been on their podcast feed yet, so I wasn't totally filled in with what they were talking about, but I was familiar with the bigger table language, mostly from one of my favorite Christian authors, Rachel Held Evans (who tragically passed away in 2019 at the age of 37, leaving behind a 2 year old and an infant a couple months old...it's heartbreakingly sad), who often used it in her writing. I really can't underestimate how big of an impact she had on Christianity, especially for young people. She changed the game for so many people, with the radical idea that we make more room at the "table" and stop turning people away because they don't meet the requirements of what we think Christians can be. She was very strongly LGBT, and I know she had a huge impact on young LGBT Christians who had felt completely traumatized by the church, and letting them know there's still hope, that just because people who are full of faults are misrepresenting God. This was a slightly different message though, because it was mainly about how to disagree with people, on issues of faith or otherwise, without being a (fill in the blank with your descriptor of choice). And it was somewhat challenging for me, because most of the church is very progressive and I know he mostly meant the message to be aimed at those who attend who aren't so much, but I do know it goes both ways, and that I have been very judgmental about Christians who do not believe the same way that I do, and there are obviously some issues I will always stand up for. the table part though, he was saying the "main course" in the middle of the table is the very important parts of scripture, the whole God thing and core beliefs, and the other things are "sides," and too often we let the sides dictate who we will or won't sit with when that's really missing the point entirely. my pastor went as far as saying that they loved the diversity of the church, from race to age to sexual orientation, and while it's not a secret they're pro-LGBT, that was the first time I heard it from the pulpit I think, so that made me happy. after the service I was in with the babies for the second one, which has ended up being a lot less crowded than the first, which is how I like to serve because it's a lot less chaotic with less babies running around. we ended up with 2 today, both very cute, so it was a nice time. after that we were doing a kids ministry "summer bbq" that ended up being inside lol but was still good, and they kind of updated us on where they're going with things. we've had somewhat of an issue of keeping a head of the kids ministry in place, we were talking about it today and since I joined the church in 2015, almost 6 years ago, we're now on our 5th ministry head, so it's basically been a new one every year which has made things hard, but I like our new ones, they had both been hired like a week before everything shut down which of course changed everything, so they started doing youtube videos for the kids that are lots of fun and have a ton of them out there on youtube now, which is really cute. they're heading into the summer kids camp stuff now so they're prepping all that, and looking forward they said that halloween was on a Sunday, and they were going to use it to launch a "harry potter style" program, and like, I can't even tell you how happy that makes me, having grown up in a church that immediately condemned HP without bothering to do as much as read a word, and of course also insisting that celebrating Halloween in any form is innately evil, so the combination of those two things made me really happy.

I did tell them at the end I have a BA in Theatre and would totally be down to help them with videos and such, so we'll see where that goes. By the time I got out it was around 2, and we were supposed to see an apartment fairly far north at 3:15, and I considered taking an uber but fares were up and it would've been $40, so I said fuck that and just took the train to the bus, but it ended up taking forever and I ended up being late, then when I got there I realized I fucked up the address (I managed to type in 3917 as the house number instead of 3719) so I told them to just go for it and I'll walk down there. I got outside right when they were coming out of the building, but the agent wanted to show us the other unit they had available that was considerably bigger and nicer, definitely a strong possibility, the only snag being that it's not available until 8/1, and friend's lease ends 7/15, and we've discussed that she can absolutely live on my couch for two weeks if we have to, because she already has a lot of stress about the move so I'm trying to minimize that as much as I can. but yeah, it was really pretty, so we'll see. once we left we made a mcdonalds stop and sat for a bit eating before heading home. once home I watched the last episode of Panic, which had a highly satisfying conclusion, so high marks there. after that I didn't really have anything to do or watch and was feeling tired, and I had some time to spare so I laid down for like an hour or so, probably took me longer to fall asleep than actually get to sleep, as that tends to be my issue with naps. but I got up in time to watch Legends, which was a fine episode I guess, I do like that we got more of Sara and her plot than we have been, and I thought the Ava clone stuff with Gary was really funny, it was just overall kind of meh. I liked the Batwoman episode, it had some really sweet moments that I just wanted to like breakdown and cry haha so I'll have plenty of things to discuss on the podcast this week. after that I'd since run out of shows, so I logged into disneyplus for the first time since I split an account with my sister like two weeks ago and watched the first episode of Loki. It definitely had Legends vibes, but that was expected, so we'll see where this goes. after that I watched Seinfeld for a bit before getting in the shower and getting ready for bed, and yeah that's about it. It's 1:30 am currently so I really need to go to sleep, so I'll end this here. Goodnight friends. Hope your Monday doesn't suck.

[thebogdanone]

Short play from overheard...

(Miles and Scott are on their way to work. It's early, just past dawn, on a gloomy morning in London. They work in finance. They are both in their early 20's and are living the rather mundane lives of the work-a-day world but they work for a mysterious woman who runs a hedge fund. They are two of her staff of 18: all males, all brilliant, all in their early 20's. Neither Miles nor Scott can figure their boss out. She dresses as though she is heading out for an elegant evening every single day. She is in her early 50's (they guess) and she is rather stunning. She is always 100% put together; they have never seen her in jeans with hair pulled back and no make-up. When she arrives at the office (every single day at 7:45 sharp!) she spends 30 minutes at her computer — 30 minutes exactly — then she comes out of her office and into the board room where the entire staff have a morning meeting, every morning, at 8:15. The meeting lasts exactly 45 minutes — never longer and never shorter. She never raises her voice, she is always very clear with her instructions, and she is very polite when asking and answering questions. Needless to day moral in the office is excellent as are quarterly results. No one complains because everyone knows exactly what is expected of them. It’s like they are all living in a dorm and working on a senior finance project every single day. Then their boss leaves for the majority of the work day. She returns promptly at 4:15 PM.  She is never late.)

(Blaring loudspeaker at the bus terminal)

Transit employee: "Attention please. All bus and tramway services are delayed due to dispatch problems. Again, all bus and tramway services are delayed due to dispatch problems. STB apologizes for the inconvenience and thanks you for your patience."

Scott: "Freaking great. What the hell is wrong with this city? We can't be late again.”

Miles: "Relax man, we've got time. Sooooo...how was the big date?"

Scott: "Yeah, we ended up not going."

Miles: "WTF...please don't tell me you chickened out."

Scott: "Naw man...its me, my head. I'm so F-ed up. I called her and cancelled when I walked by the theater on my way home and saw the line. I overheard someone say: 'They’re not getting in. There’s no way.' and I just thought it would be some weird, awkward moment standing in a line with a human I don't actually know and so I called her — at least I didn't text — and told her I had to work late. I know, I know, schmuck."

Miles: "What is your problem. Do you want to die a virgin?"

Scott: "At this point I think that may be my reality...really, my head is just so screwed up. Last night AGAIN I was just, like, running circles in my head. I couldn’t sleep. It’s terrible. All this week I’ve been so worried about work with the emails and all her visitors…I get like 200 a day and I can’t even read them until after our morning meetings. I don’t know. I really wish she was more into [inaudible] because this would all be going much better if she was."

Miles: "Dude, WTF, she is the most amazing boss.  We have the cushiest jobs in all of London's finance district. Really! I mean why are you stressing. Most of the guys would die to be her assistant. You have got to relax. Take it easy. She is so chill...Shit man, we work for 'Madame Chill' for god’s sake!"

Scott: "Yeah man that's just it...maybe that IS IT!  Maybe she's a madame!"  

Miles: "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT??? That chick Daisy you were supposed to go out with? Why the hell would you say she's a madame?"

Scott: "No! Idiot! Marnie, our boss, stupid! I'm serious…maybe…maybe she's a madame…?"

Miles: "What the fuck ever gave you that idea, man? You are nuts! She's a smart trust fund kid who decided she wanted to wear the pants and so she invested well, hired us idiots to manage her investments, and her life, and she goes off each day doing her thing. Shite, I think she deserves to do whatever she pleases — hair, nails, meet a man...whatever...as long as we all do our jobs and get paid. Why on earth would you be thinking that about her...your head really is screwed up!"

(Miles now moves around to look Scott in the eyes in an attempt to better evaluate this situation...)

Miles: "Really man I am worried about you..where is all of this coming from?"

Scott: "Naw man...really...you should see her personal date book…and what's even weirder is I think she is a madame for a stable of male prostitutes! No shite! The other day she was on the phone saying: 'I didn’t say Bogdan was getting fat; I said he was getting fatter!' and then she said 'maybe we should send him to that place in Florida for awhile and let Harrison take over his accounts.’ Come on Miles...what the hell do you think she is talking about? (more anxious, agitated and confused now...) I mean if she has another office of boys just like us she would not be discussing replacing brains in finance because they are getting fat...or would she...all these healthy lunch options and that new gym installed last year...maybe she's a fatist!  That's IT!  She's a fatist! Fuck...I knew it..."

Miles: Dude…man…dude…hold on there and calm the fuck down...your brain is firing on all pistons and revving out of control! A Madame...a stable of boys...a fatist...you really need calm down and I honestly think you need to see someone. This is insane thinking! Marnie is just a relaxed woman who has come into her own. Life is good for her and in turn it’s good for me...and for you too. We are the fortunate ones! Have you ever seen that woman get upset or ever raise her voice past her rather seductive default whisper? No. I bet you have not! Just because she is unconventional does not mean she is up to things untoward.

Scott: (running his hands through his hair and trying to shake himself out of it...) "I know, I know…man, I need ta charge my phone...is that a plug...what the heck is that thing? Do you know what that’s connected to? Wait; don’t TOUCH it!...I thinks it’s live! Shite I gotta get my head back to rights...I nearly electrocuted us!"

Miles: "Hey man, why don't we just sit over there and listen to some of my tracks. I downloaded these two new songs and they're kinda like modern manele."

(Scott takes ear pods from Miles)

Scott: "I’m sorry but cowboy music is nothing like manele.” (he hands the ear pods directly back to Miles shaking his head) "That shite is just raw sewage spewing in your ears. Your taste in music sucks man!"

Transit  employee (over loudspeaker):"Good early morning; the buses are all running late today. Trams too."

Scott: "God, five more minutes and I'm Ubering it. I can't handle the stress of this commute much longer..."

(Just then the engines of the buses can be heard starting up and Miles and Scott queue to be amongst the first on the impending bus.)

(Like clockwork their work day begins at their morning meeting at 8:15. Marnie is looking especially smart today in a tight knee-length black suit with a deep V front and cream colored silk scarf just sneaking out from the collar. Her Louis Vuitton silver-toed pumps and seamed stockings complete the look.  The meeting is like all the others, efficient, to the point, and lasting exactly 45 minutes. They are all back at their cubicles now and anticipating lunch.)

Miles (to all the guys within earshot): "Anyone have a suggestion where I can take Daisy this weekend? I think she is starting to think I'm a complete bore.”

Charles: "How about the Taste of London down at the docks. I brought Katharina last year and she loved it. Cold though, man. A good excuse to keep close and, of course, drink!"

Miles: "Hmmm, she is quite the foodie...that would be perfect. What's it called..(he speaks it out as he types it into a google search)... taste of london...yeah man, looks fun. Thanks. Excellent suggestion! Should score me some brownie points...and then some..."

(Miles turning his swivel chair around to Scott)

Miles: "How 'bout you tiger...wanna come and bring that Tinder hottie along — it could be a double date..."

Scott: "I'll think about it but I'm dealing with landlord shite right now.  My housemates are freaking out. I don’t know why the landlord always picks Thursdays. We all have classes all day every Thursday. Today she just calls us up and asks if someone will be there to let the heating tech in. I think maybe she remembers Thursday but forgets what it is about Thursday she’s supposed to remember. I mean how hard is it - Thursday are off limits...no access...capiche?  She is another mystery woman in my life... she always smells heavy of garlic and she’s so frail I wonder if she's on some 'garlic only' diet."

Miles: "Man you are just the weirdest human alive! You should write spy novels or somethin.’  You’re suspicious of everyone. I wonder what you think I'm up to...maybe I'm moonlighting as a stripper at night…"

Scott "Naw man, no way, they only hire hot, hung dudes for those jobs!"

(Miles chucks a tension-relief ball at Scott's head but he ducks and it misses him. They all get back to work. Later in the afternoon Miles check the time...)

Miles: "Well boys, five minutes to the Madame show..."

(Miles stands up to open the window. They are anticipating the arrival of Marnie and they know the sound of her G-wagon as it pulls around to the rear of the office building. Two minutes later the hydro purr of the Mercedes engine rounds the corner and they all nod knowingly.)

(Moments later, there is loud talking in the alley between the building...they can't see who is talking but it is definitely two women.)

Women in Alley: "You’re a cow.   You’re a FUCKING COW!   YOU STOLE MY FUCKING MONEY!    GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HERE YOU DISGUSTING WHORE.   YOU STOLE MY MONEY AND MY MAN!"

(Miles and Scott stick their heads out the window and they see Marnie stumble from the alley adjusting her scarf. She looks like she's injured on her arm or her leg ...or both...)

Miles: "Shit man - that's Marnie and she looks hurt.  We need to go down there right now..."

(Turning from the window in a panic...)

Scott: "No, you guys wait here. I’ll go alone; it’ll be a lot faster this way."

[tripstations]

Should You Change Airports During a Layover at Paris, Chicago, NY, London, Tokyo

Is altering airports in a metropolis attainable, and even a good suggestion? Right here’s how you can deal with the switch, what to contemplate earlier than you e book, and how you can take advantage of out of your stopover.

Scrolling by way of obtainable flights, evaluating layovers and connections, your eye catches an excellent deal. The one factor is, the flight arrives into Heathrow, however the connection leaves from Gatwick. Your mouse hovers over the “Ebook Now” button. Is altering airports in a metropolis attainable, and even a good suggestion?

Right here, we break down the advantages of adjusting airports throughout a layover, issues to contemplate earlier than you e book, and 5 cities the place altering airports is frequent: London, Tokyo, New York, Chicago, and Paris.

INSIDER TIPTest together with your airline to see if there are any perks on supply for a protracted layover, equivalent to lounge entry or a free evening’s keep.

Connecting to a home vacation spot is the primary profit in relation to altering airports. Many main cities have a global airport and a home airport. The latter provides routes for lesser-visited areas of a rustic. You may want to modify airports, however you’ll be rewarded with someplace extra native and off the crushed path.

One other profit of adjusting airports? Cheaper flights. Airways often make airport-transfer flights cheaper due to the inconvenience. What’s a bit additional touring in comparison with a cut price?

Altering airports will even provide the probability to discover a brand new place. If it’s important to switch by way of a metropolis, why not take the scenic route and discover, and even keep in a single day? It’s a mini-vacation inside your trip.

  What’s the connection time?

The length of the layover and the time of day you’ll be transferring. Do you have got sufficient time to make your connection? Can you are taking public transport at the moment of day?

What are the transport choices?

Trains, buses, or taxis? How lengthy do they take, what hours do they function, how usually do they run, how a lot do they value, and the way do you purchase tickets?

Do you want a visa?

You’ll must undergo immigration and out into town, even when you’re not spending any high quality time there. Test whether or not you want a visa, if that you must apply upfront, and the way a lot it prices.

What occurs to your baggage?

You will have to gather it on the baggage carousel and take it with you, however verify together with your airline simply in case they’ll transport it for you.

What about delays or cancellations?

Do you have got any wiggle room in your connection time in case of delays? Are you protected if one in all your flights is canceled, otherwise you miss your connection?

How dependable is the airline?

Are you flying with one airline or two? If it’s two, you is probably not protected in case of delays, cancellations, or missed connections. Subsequent, ask your self how probably these delays or cancellations are—is the airline respected? Do you belief each flights to run on time?

Listed below are 5 frequent cities on this planet the place you could want to vary airports and how you can switch between them.

London

London is dwelling to 6 airports: Heathrow, Gatwick, London Metropolis, Luton, Stanstead, and Southend. Whichever you’re switching between, these are your finest choices:

Coach: The simplest and least expensive technique of transport is the Nationwide Categorical coach service. Direct coach routes between main airports will be booked on-line upfront (which is often cheaper), or when you’re nervous about delays and lacking your switch, on arrival.

Taxi: Taxis, particularly black cabs (and particularly black cabs in London ready at airports), are notoriously costly. Calling an Uber is a greater choice, however you’ll nonetheless be spending a small fortune.

Prepare: In concept, you may change airports by prepare, however you’ll want to vary a minimum of as soon as within the metropolis, change to the tube, then again to a prepare once more. And there are at all times delays and strikes to cope with. Dragging your suitcases by way of old style underground stations (learn: no elevators) might find yourself being probably the most aggravating a part of your journey.

Tokyo

Transferring between Tokyo’s Narita and Haneda Airports takes between 60 and 90 minutes, so enable for loads of time. Your choices are:

Limousine Bus: Sadly not a bus-sized stretch limo because the identify would counsel, these comfy coaches run each 20 minutes between 6:55 a.m. and 9:25 p.m. (Narita to Haneda), and 6:25 a.m. and 6:10 p.m. (Haneda to Narita). The value is round $30 ($15 for youngsters underneath 12 and free for youngsters underneath six). You possibly can change the bus time totally free as much as 10 instances on-line and as much as 5 minutes earlier than departure.

Airport Shuttle: Shared buses function 24 hours a day, although tickets are costlier at $91 (or $23 for youngsters). There’s additionally the choice to e book a non-public airport shuttle switch: $239 for as much as three individuals, $327 for 4 to 6 individuals, or $381 for six to 9 individuals.

Taxi: A taxi will value you round $225 (there’s additionally a 20-30% surcharge between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m.). Uber is costlier than a daily taxi in Japan, so the identical journey might value you round $255.

Prepare: It’s also possible to journey between the airports by rail, altering at Shinagawa Station. The journey takes 97 minutes and trains run each 15 to 30 minutes, from 7:45 a.m. to 9:44 p.m. Between Narita and Shinagawa you’ll pay $29 for Bizarre Automobile tickets, or $44 for First Class tickets. Between Shinagawa and Haneda you’ll pay $6.10 (or $3.10 for youngsters underneath 11 years previous).

New York Metropolis

New York’s main airports are John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia, and Newark Liberty. JFK and LGA are nearer to one another, however transferring between any of the three will be difficult.

Bus: Take the NYC Categorical Bus (previously the NYC Airporter bus), with a change at Port Authority bus terminal in Manhattan. Buses run each 30 minutes between 5 a.m. and 11:30 p.m. Tickets value $29 (or $17 between JFK and LaGuardia) and also you’ll want two copies of your ticket printed out—one for every leg of the journey. Test on-line for availability and timings, and don’t overlook to think about additional time for visitors.

Shuttle: The ETS runs each hour between 7:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m., and tickets value $34.

Taxi: A taxi between LaGuardia and JFK prices round $50, however from JFK or LGA to Newark prices $120 or extra.

Chicago

Chicago’s O’Hare and Halfway Airports are solely 17 miles aside, so transferring isn’t too painful.

Prepare: The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) prepare takes round two hours, with a change downtown. Take the Blue Line from Terminal 2 (round $5), change at Clark/Lake Station, then experience the Orange Line to Halfway Station (round $2.50).

Taxi: A taxi between O’Hare and Halfway prices round $50-60. There’s additionally the choice to make use of a Rideshare service to make it cheaper—roughly $37 per passenger.

Shuttle: Hourly shuttles run between the airports for $16 and the journey time is round an hour too.

Paris

Paris Orly and Charles de Gaulle are the 2 greatest airports in Paris. Nonetheless, be warned that Charles de Gaulle is a labyrinthine nightmare and easily getting out of CDG with out the minotaur catching as much as you is a problem.

Bus: Le Bus Direct (Line 3) operates between 6 am and 10 pm, departs each 30 minutes, and the journey takes round an hour and a half, or extra at peak instances. Tickets value about $24 (or 40% much less for youngsters underneath 11 years previous).

Prepare: From CDG take the RER prepare to Anthony Station, then change to the Orlyval shuttle (or the alternative route when you’re transferring the opposite manner). Test you’re on the proper prepare, as trains on the identical line can cease at completely different stations. The trains run between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m., and journey time is round 75 minutes in complete. Tickets value $14, or $7 for youngsters underneath 11.

Taxi: A taxi takes 40 to 60 minutes and between $45-90, relying on visitors and whether or not you e book upfront.

  A stopover with a change of airport helps break up a long-haul journey and may even add an additional vacation spot to your journey, however solely you probably have loads of time to discover or you may keep in a single day.

A shorter layover with a city-wide airport change just isn’t very best. However, hey, generally you’ve obtained to do what time and your financial institution stability can help you. Simply be sure to’re nicely ready and know all of your choices, then you definitely’ll discover a solution to make it work.

The post Should You Change Airports During a Layover at Paris, Chicago, NY, London, Tokyo appeared first on Tripstations.

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A number of salaried individuals like you come to Loan Singh to apply for a quick online travel loan. With loan amounts varying from Rs. 1,00,000 to Rs. 5,00,000; the destinations chosen by most of them is located abroad. The usual destinations are the Switzerland, Bahamas, Dubai, Singapore, Egypt, Rome, Barcelona and Greece.

But, we do have loan applicants who want to spend a great deal of time exploring our very own India. Spoilt for choice, there are destinations involving beaches, caves, mountains, desert, forests, backwaters and what not. Incredible India has everything to offer. There are the culturally rich & historically affluent places to go see in India. You can opt for the quaint villages or experience the chaotic city life in India. In a two-part blog series, we will discuss 15 must-visit places around India. The list is in no particular order. We just feel these 15 destinations are diverse, interesting and worth all the travel loan amount availed from Loan Singh.

Learn all about availing an online personal finance loan in India

Travel Season

We millennials love to work (or at least pretend to). We are so engrossed in our daily tasks, PPT presentations, client meetings, smoking breaks, unending gossip that we forget about the more important things in life, such as family, friends, pets and pizza.

Many of us promised our family that we would go on family vacation by the end of this year. Some of us might opt for spending the start of 2019 in a different country. Some might want to see the sun rise in the east (literally) or some would prefer ogling at the fireworks of Burj-Al-Dubai. We all have our individual plans and travel itinerary to follow.

Some of you might want to go on a world tour perhaps. Whatever the reason for the travel or whichever destination you want to visit, you will need funds. It is not easy for salaried individuals to keep aside some form of travel funds when there are so many priority expenses to cater to. So, what do salaried individuals do in order to go on a holiday? Apply for a travel loan of course.

What makes a travel personal loan so perfect for salaried millennials?

Travel Loan at Loan Singh

The unsecured aspect of a travel loan in itself makes it a potent financial solution in times of travel cash crunch. Suppose you remove the offline paperwork, delayed verification, repeated trips to the bank and delayed approval, from the travel loan availing process.  And then you turn the process online, with only 3 documents (to be uploaded), an approximately 5-minute application process and doing all this from the confines of your home. These features, my friends, make an online travel loan even faster to avail.

An online travel personal loan is a fantastic option during times of sudden travel plans. Sometimes, your savings might not cover the cost of a complete travel holiday. You might sometimes need to supplement your emergency travel fund with a shot of cash from other sources. It is true that a number of traditional lending institutions provide travel loans. But, isn’t an online travel personal loan synonymous with quick, instant and requiring less paperwork?

So, what’s the best source of travel funds to plan a sudden ‘zindagi milengi na dobaara’ travel trip? How can you travel the world with the least of hassles and no tension? How to apply for an instant travel personal loan? Are there any online travel personal loan providers in India? The single answer to all these questions is Loan Singh.

Need funds to go see any part of the world or explore India?

Travel Loan Features

Travel loans are a type of personal loan. These are provided to salaried professionals who are seeking funding for travel. More and more millennials are opting for online digital lending platforms to apply for travel loan. These platforms marry the instantaneous facet of online lending along with the swift backend processing of credit underwriting.

A simple travel loan application process is further coupled by instant e-approval based on credit worthiness. Even applicants with no credit score can apply for a loan, albeit with a 6-month salary credit. Thanks to travel loans at Loan Singh, millennials can now avail up to 10 Lakh for travelling to some of the most gorgeous and stunning locales around the world.

With travel personal loan being secured in nature, you do not need any collateral, guarantor or security. The travel loan can be used to cover travel (airfare, train, bus, Uber, Ola cab etc.), sightseeing, pilgrimage, accommodation, tours, excursions and shopping. Travel personal loan can be used for either domestic travel holidays across India or a foreign trip to go see the world.

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Must Visit Destinations in India

You can apply for a personal travel loan at Loan Singh and avail funds between Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 10,00,000. Let’s look at some really cool Indian destinations to visit this season or any season.

1. Ladakh

The region of Leh-Ladakh is easily recognizable from picture postcards, thanks to its serene mountainous beauty and unlimited trek options. If you keep the trekking aside, the allure of glacial lakes, snow-capped mega mountains and gorgeous valleys can hardly be missed. Peace seekers, thrill seekers and serenity seekers can all get what they want when visiting Ladakh.

Adventure freaks can feast on massive mountain passes and high altitude trekking trails. You can also visit the Hemis Monastery, where the chanting of hymns by lamas will take you on another trip. Also worth visiting is the Pangong lake. There is solitude and peace aplenty. The Zanskar river offers a trekking tour over a frozen lake.

Hop on to a Bactrian camel to experience a sand dune safari. The vast landscape of Nubra Valley is great for getting a feel for natural livestock. The Hemis National Park allows you to spot the mountain snow leopard. Don’t forget to visit the Hemis Festival which is a must visit sub-destination of Ladakh.

2. Agra

There is nothing that can beat the Mughal grandeur, which is where Agra comes in. The city of Agra is submerged with Mughal charm and architecture. The iconic Taj Mahal is located at Agra, and this symbol of true love is more than enough for you to visit this beautiful city. The Taj Mahal finds itself among the 7 wonders of the world.

Agra, however, also boasts of 2 more world heritage sites. The other two being the splendid Agra Fort and the magnificent Fatehpur Sikri. Tens of thousands of tourists throng Agra each year. You can experience Agra’s delectable Mughlai flavours. Also worth seeing are the buzzing markets. Purchase marble handicrafts which are inlayed with carvings.

The ‘Kalakriti Cultural and Convention Center’ gives you a glimpse of the eternal love between Shah Jahan and Noor Jahan. The ‘Taj Mahotsav’ gives you a chance to indulge in a bit of fun while you are at Agra. A cool place to also visit is the birthplace of renowned Urdu poet, Mirza Ghalib.

3. Rann of Kutch

The unbelievable rustic experience available at Rann of Kutch is a must-see. The massive stretch of white salt is under water for up to 4 months in a year. Located in the state of Gujarat, the Rann of Kutch is simply incredible. The natural beauty visible here is abound. The world’s largest salt desert is the Rann of Kutch.

Tourist from around the world come to visit Kutch. The ‘Rann Utsav’ is specially a great time to visit Kutch, wherein the white sand canvas transforms into the most colorful of hues. Also worth experiencing are the traditional music and dance performances, trying out the delicious Kutch dishes and walking along the vast white sand stretches. The salt making process is also a cool activity to partake.

You can also visit the ‘Chari Daand’ bird sanctuary and get some amazing pictures taken from ‘Kala Dungar’. Here you can also look at talented artisans weave magic while creating exquisite pieces of embroidery. Get a chance to also live inside ‘Bhungas’, which are traditional cylinder shaped huts with its roof shaped like an inverted cone. Some of these Bhungas are decorated with mirrors and also lattice patterns. At night, enjoy a bonfire while watching folk dancers swirl under the moonlight.

4. Aurangabad

If it is ancient caves that interests you the most, then look no further than the Ajanta & Ellora caves situated in Aurangabad, Maharashtra. This place is littered with monuments from the past. Aurangabad is named after the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and has been ruled by a number of dynasties. The Ajanta & Ellora caves are a world heritage site, which features Buddhist cave paintings.

Tourists from the world over come visit Aurangabad. Places to go visit here are ‘Bibi Ka Maqbara’, which is a monument that houses the tomb of Aurangzeb’s wife Begum Rabia. Art lovers, historians and visitors throng this monument. Also worth seeing are ‘Kala Darwaza’ and ‘Rangeen Darwaza’, both massive gates that are adorned with intricate carvings. The ‘Ellora Ajanta festival’ helps showcase a number of musicians and dance performers. Also don’t forget to purchase hand-woven Paithani and Himroo silkm, which is a specialty of Aurangabad.

5. Meghalaya

Adding more artistic destinations to this list, Meghalaya certainly comes to mind. Meghalaya is called as the ‘Abode of Clouds’. It is a region quietly nested between the Khasi and Garo mountains within Eastern Himalayas. It is easily one of the most beautiful places to visit not just in India, but around the world.

There are mystic caves, terraced slopes, pristine lakes, dense forests and awe-inspiring waterfalls located in Meghalaya. Trekkers, cavers and adventure enthusiasts throng to Meghalaya. Access is possible between ravines via foot bridges. These bridges have been grown, and not built, since ages. One great example is the ‘Double Decker Bridge’ at Cherrapunjee. Also worth your time is the ‘Krem Mawsmai’ caves. Stalactites and stalagmites are formed since hundreds of years. The cleanest village in India, ‘Mawlynnong’ is also situated in Meghalaya.

6. Kerala

The next destination on the list is Kerala. Kerala offers the thrill and fun of southern backwaters. You can also witness coconut tree filled beaches, centuries old Ayurvedic medicine techniques and vibrant festivals. The ‘God’s Own Country’ is filled with tourists visiting throughout the year.

Kerala is blessed with natural beauty. Not just the beaches and backwaters, Kerala also offers an opportunity to experience hill stations and wildlife sanctuaries. Do try the houseboats as you cut through the backwaters in Alleppey. Munnar’s tea gardens will offer you the aroma of life, while the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary will give you a chance to experience Kathakali performances. Also try the local cuisine that are served on banana leaves.

7. Andaman & Nicobar

Finally, we come to a destination that is a hub for water sports – the Andaman & Nicobar islands. If its clear blue water, dense forests and tranquil beaches, Andaman & Nicobar can be the perfect destination during the summer. The region is a group of close to 500 mini islands located within the Bay of Bengal.

These islands transport you to a world unknown. Asia’s best beach, ‘Radhanagar beach’ is located here. Honeymoon couples come visit Havelock Island for some private time. Adding to the beaches are the multitude of water sport activities, is the witnessing of gorgeous coral reefs and marine life. Scuba-diving and sea walking are just 2 of the numerous activities to partake at Andaman & Nicobar. The ‘Baratang Island’ is famous for its limestone caves. ‘Saddle Peak’ is a scenic trail through thick forests. You can also witness colorful birds and gorge on barbequed fish or crabs.

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About Loan Singh

Loan Singh is a digital lending platform that prides in providing online personal finance loan or unsecured personal loan to salaried individuals. You can apply for quick funds as an easy emergency loan which is not a bank loan. We provide a loan with the best personal loan interest rates. The instant funds, or instant loans, are loans between Rs. 50,000 and Rs.10,00,000 taken for purposes such as:

Home improvement loan/Home renovation loan

Marriage loan/ Wedding loan

Medical loan

Used vehicle loan

Consumer durable loan

Vacation loan

Debt consolidation loan

Credit card refinancing loan

Job relocation loan

Smartphone loan

Travel loan

Festival loans

Gold jewelry loan

Shopping loan

Lifestyle loan

Short term loans

You can calculate your easy EMIs using our personal loan EMI calculator. We accept bank statement and PAN, for quick loan approval. A bad credit score or credit report errors can lead to personal loan rejection. The ‘Loan Singh Finance Blog’ is one of the best finance blogs in India. Loan Singh is a product of Seynse Technologies Pvt Ltd and is a partner to the Airtel Online Store.

Loan Singh’s Online Presence

Loan Singh is not an anonymous digital platform. We are present on almost all leading social media platforms. All you need to do is look for us. You can find us on Loan Singh Facebook, Loan Singh Twitter,Loan Singh Google+, Loan Singh YouTube, Loan Singh Pinterest, Loan Singh Instagram, Loan Singh LinkedIn, Loan Singh Blogarama, Loan Singh Google Business, Loan Singh Medium, Loan Singh Reddit, Loan Singh Tumblr, Loan Singh Scoop It, Loan Singh Feed, Loan Singh Storify, Loan Singh Digg and Loan Singh Blogger.

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Whirlwind Weekend in the Windy City ~ 05.25.18

Friday, May 25, 2018

When my alarm clock buzzed at 4am, it took all of my willpower not to hit the snooze button.  Luckily, the thoughts of deep dish pizza were strong enough to pull me out of bed.  We quickly got ready and ate breakfast, and then requested an Uber at 4:30. It took the Uber 15 minutes to arrive, which didn’t really surprise me considering how early it was, but there was no traffic and we arrive at SJC around 5am.  The line at security was much longer than I expected given the early hour, and it took even longer to get through because they stopped the line to reposition the ropes for each security line.  Isn’t that the kind of thing they should take care of at 3am when there aren’t any passengers waiting??  On the bright side, we didn’t need to remove our liquids, shoes, or tablets because they let us all just go through the metal detectors instead of the thorough screening process.

One big advantage of a flight leaving at 6:30am is that it is unlikely to be delayed.  Our plane was already sitting at the gate when we arrived, and they began boarding at 6am for an on-time departure.  Southwest has some new planes in the fleet that are bigger with about 30 extra seats.  It was nice that they used a brand new big plane for our flight because it is one of the longest routes they fly.  Since the flight was twice as long as most of their flights, they had a little surprise for us when they came around with the basket of snacks.  They served plane-shaped cinnamon cookies that tasted like Teddy Grahams, and coconut biscuit cookies, in addition to the standard peanuts and pretzels.

As we flew over the Sierras, we had beautiful views of snow-capped mountains through light puffy clouds.  

As we made our way further east, the views changed to endless farms and crop fields as far as the eye could see.  I passed the time by watching the new season of 13 Reasons Why on my iPad, and before I knew it, we could see the Chicago skyline in the distance.  We sat on the right side of the plane (when facing the front), and had beautiful views of the city and Lake Michigan as we made our final descent into Midway Airport.

We landed a few minutes early at 12:30pm local time, but we had to wait about 10 minutes for our gate to open up.  Midway is a nice, small, convenient airport, and we easily found our way down to the L train station.  It did take a few minutes to walk down all of the corridors, but once we found our way, it was clearly labeled.  We bought one Ventra card to share because they cost $5 each but you can scan on up to 6 people at a time.  L train rides cost $2.50, and bus rides cost $2.25, so we loaded $20 onto the card, knowing we planned to ride round trip to the airport and to Wrigley Field. If we needed to add more money later in the weekend, we could easily do that at any vending machine in the L train stations.  The orange line ends at Midway so it only goes in one direction and you can’t get lost when boarding the train.  I appreciated that even though there were 2 trains waiting, they had a sign indicating which train was next to leave so we knew which one to board.

The ride to our stop took about 25 minutes, and we exited at the Quincy stop in the Central Loop.  From there, we only had to walk 2 blocks to reach our hotel. We arrived a few minutes before 2pm and our room was ready even though check in wasn’t officially until 3pm. They explained that there is complimentary coffee and snacks in the lounge downstairs (in addition to the Keurig machine in our room), and they have a complimentary wine and cheese happy hour from 5-6pm each night. We went up to our room to drop off our bags and change into shorts, and then we set off to explore the city. Just one block away, we found this huge sculpture (use the women standing below it to show the scale of its height!).  We didn’t know it at the time, but later learned that this sculpture was 53 feet tall and designed to look like a flamingo.

Our hotel was on Adams Street, and as we walked a few blocks east, we found a sign marking the start of Historic Route 66.  I’m not sure of the exact path it travels, but I have been to the sign at the end of the route at the Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles, so it was neat to see the starting point and know that our hotel is on the same road.

Proof that I also saw the end of the route in 2011…

From there, we walked south on Michigan  Avenue, passed the Art Institute of Chicago to Grant Park.  There were lots of pretty fountains, sculptures, and gardens along the way.  Being a warm, sunny day on Friday of Memorial Day Weekend, the sidewalks were buzzing with lots of people out and about, enjoying the day, and it was such a great way to start our weekend here.

Dan Kiley Plaza at the Art Institute

I love how the clouds reflect off the skyscrapers

This Abraham Lincoln statue was meant to be placed in Lincoln  Park, and there should have been a statue of Ulysses S. Grant in this location.  Somehow things got mixed up, but it was decided to just leave this Lincoln statue here in Grant Park.

North President’s Court

Buckingham Fountain

As we were admiring the fountain and taking photos, this happened…!

Every hour, the fountain shoots this impressive stream of water up into the sky for about 10 minutes. We could actually see the fountain going off from several other places around the city during our visit, so it was fun to see it now up close and personal.

Walking around to the opposite side of the fountain, you can see the city skyline in the background of the photo.

Next, we continued back north, walking from Grant Park to Millennium Park.  On our way, we saw this beautiful garden.  The Lurie Garden spans 5 acres within Millennium Park, and is dedicated to eco-friendly botanical landscaping.

The Jay Pritzker Pavilion is used for music festivals throughout the year

Just a short walk further and we found The Bean!!  Officially called Cloud Gate, this silver bean-shaped sculpture was something I really looked forward to seeing.  The sun was shining bright and the skyline looked so pretty in the reflection of the metal. 

Unfortunately, we weren’t the only ones who wanted to see The Bean today, so it was super crowded and impossible to get a photo of just the statue without any other people in the photo.

Our reflection in The Bean

Once we had our fill of The Bean, we walked further north along Michigan Avenue until we reached the Chicago River.  We’d be spending lots of time here later tonight on our walking tour, so we took a quick photo and continued on our way.

Looks like these people are having a fun Friday evening on their boats!

We were getting hungry since we hadn’t eaten since the sandwich we ate on the plane, so we weaved our way through the River North section to find something for dinner. One of our goals for this weekend was to eat as much deep dish pizza as possible, so why not start right away?! I tried to research the “best” restaurants for deep dish pizza in Chicago but it was nearly impossible to get a straight answer because it is so subjective.  DH heard about this place called “Illuminati” that was said to have good pizza, but I couldn’t find that restaurant anywhere online.  I did notice a handful of places that appeared on more than one top 10 list, including Lou Malnati’s.  We both laughed when we realized he had misheard the name of that restaurant and thought it was called “Illuminati” instead!  With that straightened out, we decided to eat there on our first night in town.  According to reviews, this place is very popular and can have very long waits to get a table.  We were scheduled to take a walking tour tonight which met at 6:45pm so we knew we had to eat an early dinner, but between the risk of a long line, and the fact that it takes 45 minutes to cook deep dish pizza, we knew we had to get to the restaurant very early.  We arrived at 4:15pm and were shocked to be seated immediately!  There were lots of people at the restaurant but luckily there was no wait for a table for 2.  

Lou Malntai’s menu

We were going to order a plain pizza, but “The Lou” caught our eye.  It included a spinach mix with garlic, basil, onions, mushrooms, and sliced roma tomatoes, covered with 3 cheeses.  It was nice that our waiter warned us it would take 45 to 60 minutes to cook the pizza, even though we already knew that.  I can imagine if they don’t warn everyone, they must get lots of complaints from impatient people.  We ordered the small, which is said to serve 2 people, and asked for the tomatoes on only one side because I don’t really like tomatoes.  We passed the time catching up on social media and missed emails, and just enjoying the cool air conditioning after spending several hours walking around in the heat outside.

The pizza arrived just about an hour after we ordered.  It was served in the baking pan and the waiter helped serve our first slices.

While I have never been to Chicago and therefore have never had official Chicago deep dish pizza, we do have a Chicago-style restaurant we enjoy eating at at home called Patxi, so I only had that in mind for comparison.  Honestly, neither of us was blown away by this pizza.  The crust had a grainy cornmeal-like consistency, and the pizza was too salty.  We both thought it was just okay, as in we didn’t hate it, but we definitely didn’t love it.  Maybe our standards were off and this was what Chicago pizza was supposed to taste like?  We ordered the small size because the menu said that was good for 2 people.  It was cut into 4 slices, and we had no trouble finishing the whole pie.  We didn’t really want any leftovers considering we were not going back to the hotel anytime soon, but had there been a little more pizza or had it been a little bigger, I think we both would have eaten more. We were both satiated, but neither of us was really full.  

We finished dinner by 5:45pm and had about an hour before our tour, so we started to walk back towards the Riverwalk.  One thing we were not quite prepared for this weekend was the heat and humidity.  It was over 90 degrees and very humid every day this weekend and ended up being Chicago’s hottest Memorial Day Weekend on record!! Instead of walking around to kill time before our tour, we went into the lobby of one of the hotels to relax and enjoy the air conditioning.  While we were there, I was looking at Google maps for directions and noticed a parade route along State Street showing up on the map.  I have never seen that before and I thought it was a little weird, but I clicked on it and noticed that the Memorial Day parade was on Saturday.  Uh oh!  We were planning to ride the Hop On Hop Off (HOHO) bus on Saturday at the same time as the parade and State Street is on the HOHO bus route.  Not only that, but we were going to board at stop #3 at the Willis Tower, located just a few blocks from our hotel, and stop #2 is the Chicago Theater on State Street, so the bus wouldn’t be able to get to our stop if State Street is closed for the parade.  This is so not good!  I immediately went onto the website for the HOHO company Big Bus Tours, but they did not mention anything about changes or cancellations for this weekend.  I tried to call their office, but it was now 6:30pm and they closed at 6pm.  Too bad I didn’t catch this problem earlier in the day, but why would I know to think about that when Memorial Day isn’t until Monday?  Who has a Memorial Day Parade on a Saturday?!?  There is no contact email address on their website and the ‘contact us’ online form would not load on my phone, so I did not know what to do.  I didn’t want to risk showing up at our HOHO stop #3 and waiting for hours but the bus never showed up because of the parade.  I went onto Trip Advisor and searched their reviews for the word ‘parade’ to see how they handled this situation in the past, and luckily there was one very helpful post about the 2017 Columbus Day Parade and how the HOHO bus was a total fiasco.  He said he was stuck on the bus in traffic for a long time and it was a terrible experience, and that no one should ride the bus on the day of a parade.  Big Bus Tours wrote a long reply, and included an email address at the end of their post.  I knew it was after hours and unlikely that I would get a reply tonight, but just in case, I sent them an email to ask about the plan for tomorrow. Our original plan was to get on the first bus which would pick us up at 9:15am. We would need to leave our hotel a few minutes after 9am at the latest to catch that bus, and their office as not due to open until 9am tomorrow.  I did not expect a reply by then, but it was worth a shot.  By the way, for those of you thinking “Why not just swap your Sunday plans for tomorrow?,”  we panned to ride the HOHO bus on Saturday morning and get off after one full loop when we got back to the Planetarium to spend the rest of the day there. The Planetarium is 2 miles south of our hotel, so it was a little too far to walk to in this heat and it worked well to use the HOHO as free transit to the Planetarium.  On Sunday, we had tickets to the Cubs game and we planned to spend some time at Wrigleyville beforehand, so it would be too rushed to do all of that on Sunday.  Anyway, all of this happened at the same time as we were meeting up with our evening tour so it was really stressful.  I just told myself to forget about it for the time being and to try to enjoy the tour, and I would figure out tomorrow’s plans later.

Last night, I got an email from Aram, the guide from Free Tours By Foot.  He sent instructions on where and when to meet him and included his photo so we knew who he was.  Right at 6:50pm, Aram arrived wearing a company logo on his shirt and holding a clip board to check us in.  There were about 25 people on the tour with us.  This walking tour was to point out key sites along the Riverwalk and to learn about some of Chicago’s history.  Aram explained that this is a “pay what you want” tour and that we could do so at the end if we felt so inclined.  The tour lasted exactly 2 hours and covered 1.5 miles, with lots of stops and photo opportunities along the way.  Aram was a fantastic guide.  Instead of simply rattling off facts, he told stories and explained the history and significance of the sites in a way that made it both interesting and memorable.  We were very impressed with this tour and thought he was one of the best guides we have had on any tour we have ever taken!  He even incorporated a bathroom break in the middle of the tour at Ghiradelli, with a chance to sample some chocolate.  This is just a small sampling of the photos I took on the tour…

The Vietnam Memorial is decorated with wreaths for Memorial Day

Trump Tower Chicago is the 7th tallest building in the world.  While the building itself is quite sleek, with 5 distinct levels symbolizing parts of Chicago’s history, and a nearly all glass exterior to reflect the surrounding riverfront skyline, the 2,800 square foot TRUMP sign creates a controversial eyesore.  The sign was granted permits through proper proceedings, but the city council was so upset by the final product that they revamped the rules for signs on buildings in the city.  Since the current Trump sign is grandfathered in, they effectively guaranteed that this eyesore will always be by far the biggest sign on a building in Chicago.  Maybe they should have just left the laws as they were originally!

The Wrigley Building was built as the headquarters for the chewing gum company, and is famous for being the first major office building built north of the Chicago River.  After this building opened, many other companies followed suit and it was the start of a new downtown area in Chicago.

The Wrigley Building’s white glazed terra cotta façade glows beautifully in the evening light… with Trump Tower looming over in the background.

I loved how beautiful the riverwalk looked as all the lights came on at night.

The NBC Tower was built to resemble the art deco buildings of Rockefeller Center in New  York.

The views grew even more beautiful as the sky darkened and the lights reflected off the water.

Aram timed the tour to end at exactly 9pm at the Centennial Fountain on the river so we could see the fountain go off.  This happens every hour to commemorate when Chicago reversed the flow of the river’s current because the trash and sewage they had been dumping in the river was polluting Lake Michigan and their drinking water.  They engineered a way to force the river to flow south and connect with the Mississippi River to send the pollution south and clean up the lake water.  This was a huge turning point in Chicago’s history (even if it did annoy the people who lived down stream in St. Louis!), so they created this fountain to honor it.

The problem is that it creates a waterfall over the river so boats need to wait for it to end before proceeding if they don’t want to get soaked haha

The Centennial Fountain

After the tour, we walked over to Navy Pier to check out what all the fuss is about.  Navy Pier is listed on all of the lists of top attractions in Chicago, and all the tour guides say it’s a must-see for tourists, so since our tour ended a half mile away, we decided to walk over and check it out. When we arrived, there were lots of people leaving and hardly anyone was there.  We thought this was a popular tourist attraction and expected it to be really hopping at 9:15 on a Friday night, but it was nearly deserted.  We walked around to see the gardens, the carnival rides, and the nice views of the nighttime skyline, but didn’t stay long because it was dead.  Maybe it is more exciting here during the day, but we did not understand the hype.

A few people were playing in the fountain, likely trying to cool off after this extremely hot and humid day!

This indoor garden is sometimes used as an event space.

 We could have redeemed our City Pass to go on these rides, but decided against it.

There are great views of the Chicago skyline from out on the pier.

After about 15 minutes of exploring, we decided to walk back to the river walk to grab a drink at one of the outdoor bars.  Navy Pier is 2 miles from our hotel, so we considered just taking an Uber to the hotel and calling it a night, but it was only 9:30 and we thought we could tough it out for 1 drink.  The Riverwalk was a mile away so that would break up the long walk.  Unfortunately, life does not always go according to plan. We arrived at the riverwalk around 10pm, just as the skies opened up and it started to rain.  All of the bars on the Riverwalk are outdoors with no inside seating, so we had to think of a plan B.  We decided to duck into the Renaissance Hotel where we had been hanging out earlier before the tour, and ordered a round of drinks at the lobby bar.  This was the first chance I had to look at my phone in a few hours, and I was shocked to see an email reply from Big Bus Tours.  This is what it said…

Thank you for your inquiry.  As far as we know right now we will not be impacted too much during the parade. However, sometimes the city does shut down certain streets that prevents us from stopping at certain locations. If this does happen, we will adjust accordingly and signs will be posted amongst the buses as you board.  We do still expect to pick up at the stop number 3 and majority of the locations along the tour.

Ummm, how can you tell me you don’t expect any problems?  Surely the city will shut down State Street to vehicular traffic during the parade.  This sounded like a big fiasco, so we started thinking of alternate plans.  While it may be possible to take the Architectural River Tour in the morning, then take an Uber down Michigan Avenue to the Planetarium, that didn’t sound like a good idea because we wouldn’t get to the Planetarium until 12:30pm, then we’d need to eat lunch, leaving us not much time at the museum before they closed at 4pm.  Instead, we decided to take a public bus from near our hotel to get to the Planetarium when they opened at 9:3am.  We would spend a few hours there and eat lunch in their cafeteria, then catch the HOHO bus in the mid-afternoon.  Hopefully by then, the parade would be over and traffic would be back to normal.  It meant spending a little more money out of pocket to get to the museum (which should have been free with the HOHO bus), but that wasn’t a huge deal.  It also meant we would be sitting outside upstairs on the HOHO bus during the peak heat of the day, instead of in the earlier morning hours as planned, and on a day with a predicated high temperature in the 90’s, we were not thrilled about that, but with the parade, this seemed like the best option.  

After finishing up our beers, we made the one mile walk back to our hotel, passing the famous Chicago Theater on State Street on our way.

When we got back to the hotel, all we wanted to do was crash on our bed and get some sleep after an extremely long first day in Chicago. Unfortunately, that was not to be.  When we checked into our room this afternoon, we were very impressed with how clean and modern it was.  We were up on the 9th floor so we couldn’t hear any noise from the street, the room was very large and fairly recently renovated, and they even had a fill-your-own filtered water bottle station on each floor.

What we didn’t notice or bother to check was the pillows.  OMG, these pillows were terrible!!  They were very firm and way too thick, and we had no idea how anyone would find them comfortable for sleeping.  After waking up at 4am, and then walking all over Chicago all day, you’d think we could sleep on a concrete slab, but after 30 minutes of laying in bed, we were both still awake. We were completely exhausted and it was nearly midnight, but neither of us could sleep.  DH called down to the front desk to ask if they had softer, thinner pillows.  He said he didn’t know and would ask housekeeping and they would send some up if they had it.  Well that didn’t work at all because we had our ‘privacy’ door tag out for the night which said they staff would not knock on the door if displayed. We explained that and asked him to call us back after he spoke to housekeeping.  Ten minutes later, he didn’t call back yet so DH called again and the guy said they don’t have any other pillows.  How is that possible?  Most hotels have either a small variety of pillows or a standard, generic pillow that is likely to appeal to a lot of people.  This pillow was very thick and hard and likely uncomfortable for many of their guests.  With no other options, I tried to get comfortable, but ultimately I was awake much more than I slept that night.  DH and I planned to purchase a travel pillow tomorrow if we could find one because there was no way we would survive two more sleepless nights like this!  

Step Tracker Daily Total: 23,358 steps; 9.4 miles