#and then i got a crepe from a place across from the theater but it reminded me of la and i got sad

[violetlou2020]

DAY 6 of @flufftober2021

Fireman's Carry

Title: Capture This [← ao3]

Author: Vividly_Violet

Fandom: Diamond no Ace

Relationship: Miyuki Kazuya/Sawamura Eijun

Rating: General

Word Count: 1644

⚾♦️

The cultural festival was in full blast in Seidou High School, students and visitors were milling about, each classroom occupied with whatever their class came up with, from cafe's, exhibits, game booths and photo booths. Miyuki was finishing up his last batch of yakisoba — their class opening up a simple Japanese summer festival themed restaurant — when a loud booming voice called out his name. The third year sighed before removing his apron and calling out one of his classmate to take over for him.

"You're boyfriend's looking for you," she said amused.

"I can hear that." he responded with a chuckle. Miyuki made his way over to the loud noise courtesy of Kuramochi locking the young southpaw in a headlock.

"I give up, please mochi-senpai!"

"Oi Kuramochi, there's food waiting to be served."

"Shut up bastard, I'm just keeping this loudmouth from freaking out our customers."

"You're the scary one kuramochi-senpai, if anyone's driving out customers It'll be because of your delinquent looking scary face." Eijun shouted ducking out of the other third years reach once he escaped Youichi's hold.

"Why you—" Miyuki laughed at the pair running around the semi crowded and busy classroom of class 3B until their class rep grabbed Kuramochi by the scruff of his shirt and glared at Kazuya.

"Seriously?" she sighed, "Kuramochi-san, the customers please and Miyuki-san you can go and enjoy the festival with Sawamura-kun if you'd like, you're off for today. You've done a lot of the prep work, the rest we can handle but be sure to be back before three for the clean up." Eijun let out a loud shout, thanking the class rep with a deep bow embarrassing both her and Miyuki while Kuramochi cackled at the background.

"You heard her, now let's go!" Sawamura grabbed Miyuki by his hand before dragging him out of the classroom. The catcher let the younger teen pull him from classroom to classroom, making sure to stop by some of their teammates rooms to see what their class was doing. From Kawakami's class doing fortune telling to Okumura's class doing an animal themed cafe (Eijun just had to snap a picture of Koushu with wolf ears, the growl the younger teen adding to his character).

They also visited Haruichi and Tojou's class which was doing a haunted house which Kazuya drag his boyfriend in. Sawamura jumped and screamed when he was greeted by the younger Kominato who opened the door from the other side. He wasn't even in costume since he was the one manning the entrance and Kazuya laughed at how easily jumpy Eijun is when they even hadn't even entered. After visiting each of their friends class the pair went jumping from one food stall to another to try out their foods and gamebooths much to the protest of the catchers wallet which was becoming lighter and lighter as they pass one room to another.

⚾♦️⚾♦️⚾♦️⚾♦️⚾♦️⚾♦️⚾♦️⚾♦️⚾♦️⚾

"Hey by the way, what's your class doing?" Kazuya asked after taking a bite out of Eijuns crepe. Both were sitting on a wooden bench under a tree just outside of the school building.

"Hey—" before he could protest Miyuki shoved his own crepe in Sawamura's mouth, taking the cue Eijun took a huge bite from the treat as revenge. Miyuki shook his head before taking another bite off his.

"Were doing a photo booth, the girls in my class kinda got obsessed with brides and grooms from this one manga that's recently became popular and demanded we have a wedding themed photo booth." Eijun answered his boyfriends earlier question.

"Wanna go take one?" Kazuya joked but Eijun jumped to face the older teen.

"Really!?"

"I was just joking."

"But—" the younger teen gave his best puppy dog eyes, a move that was greatly effective with getting whatever he wanted from his boyfriend except for catching for him more. He still needs to work on it to reach that level.

"Fine." the pair made quick work of their crepe and headed off to Sawamura's classroom.

Kanemaru greeted them by the door of class 2B, giving one look at the exasperated team captain and overly excited southpaw before ushering them in.

"So we get to have a costume change and have photos taken of us." Miyuki asked, eyeing the other couples who were having their photos taken.

"Pretty much, we have some backgrounds installed here and costumes that the theater club kindly lent us." the sandy blond teen said as one of their female classmate approached them holding the wedding attires.

"Shinji-kun we have a problem!"

"Huh?"

"We don't have an extra tux!" she exclaimed. Both Shinji and Kazuya paused to stare at her before turning their heads towards Eijun, a grin plastered both on their face. The south paw gulped and tried to make a run for it but Kazuya pulled him to his chest.

"Hey, where do you think you're going, wasn't it you who wanted to have our photos taken."

"I changed my mind." protested the teen, Miyuki's hold tightened.

"Kamemaru!" Sawamura wailed at his fellow first years for help but Shinji was holding up the white wedding dress and Furuya was standing behind the blond, coming out of nowhere, with a camera on hand.

The rest of their classmates seemed to ignore the screams from behind the changing curtain and echoing cackle of Kanemaru as he forcefully shoved the south paw in the dress.

"Haruno! Make-up"

"On it!" She replied as she went inside of the curtain.

"Wait— no one said anything about make-up! Hey—"

"Miyuki-senpai the other changing area is this way."

"Ahh thanks."

After fifteen minutes with Miyuki leaning across the rooms wall having changed into a black tux with a sunflower pinned at the lapel, the curtain to Eijun's changing area finally opened revealing Eijun in a dazzling white long sleeved wedding dress that hugged his lean body perfectly.

His hair was styled in a way that revealed his heart shaped face, white and bedazzled hair clips keeping his hair away from his eyes, clip on earrings with a yellow gems hang from the brunettes ear and his lips were glimmering with the light lipgloss Haruno put on him. His cheeks were pink in hue growing redder and redder the longer Miyuki stared at his boyfriend in awe, mouth agaped and eyes wide.

Eijun blinked, batting his mascara covered eyelashes and showing off the smoky eyeshadow lids at the starstruck older teen.

"Oi you bastard say something!" Eijun yelled as he tugged at the side of his dress, Miyuki snapped from his daze giving Eijun another once over from his head to his heel clad toes.

"Oi you pervert! Stop staring at me like that." the southpaw shrieked and the catcher just chuckled before taking Eijun's hand into his and giving it a squeeze before he pulled it up and placed a kiss on the back of Eijun's pitching hand.

"You're really pretty like this, you know? My lovely pretty bride." Miyuki said shamelessly causing the pitcher to combust. From behind, someone cleared their throat and the pair jumped in surprise, they forgot they weren't the only people in the room.

"Yo remember us?" Shinji said drily while the rest of his classmates were trying to busy themselves and not look at the flirting couple in the room.

"Ahh sorry about that."

"If you guys are done we can take the pictures now."

"Sure."

"So how do you want us."

The pair were led to the other side of the room where flowers were arranged in to an arch and one of the students handed Eijun a bouquet of flower while another fixed the veil on his head. The photographer snapped a picture of the two standing side by side with Eijun's hands wrapped around Kazuya's arm, another with a peace sign and a couple more with different posses all the while most of the female students gushed about how good they look together.

"Hey how 'bout I carry you in a bridal carry?" Miyuki whispered in Sawamura's ear.

"A wha–" but before the younger teen could get ready Miyuki began to lift him up. Sawamura squirmed around at the hold, trying to have Miyuki put him down and shouting how embarrassing it was. The older teen struggled to keep the brunette in place but to no such luck, instead Miyuki heaved a sigh before picking up Eijun again and putting him on his shoulder in to a firemans carry instead of a bridal one.

A couple of shuttering of the camera lens later and with no signs of Miyuki letting him go, Eijun gave up and held on to his catchers strong shoulders grumbling to himself as he heard Miyuki chuckle.

One last shoot, Miyuki brushing his hands across the brunettes thigh and a red hand imprint on Miyuki's face and dressed back in their casual wears later both were heading back to Miyuki's classroom.

"Uhhg I can't believe you did that in front of all my classmates."

"I know, did you see Kanemaru's face."

"That's not— uhhg you're imposible."

"Thank you!"

"Not a compliment."

"Haha love you too."

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Later that evening, Eijun pinned the photo of Miyuki carrying him on his shoulder on the small corkboard over on his desk. Kuramochi who was lounging on his bed rolling his eyes at his roommate tossed his phone to Sawamura. The messenger app of the phone was open to their teams group chat and Eijun let out a squeak upon seeing tons of photos of him in both the changing area and in the photo shoot. When he looked at the name of the sender, he gaped. All were sent by Furuya.

Just then a grinning tanuki sticker was sent and Eijun just plopped down face first on Kuramochi's bed where said person was laughing at him.

[rune-writes]

One Date

Fandom: Final Fantasy VII

@zerith-week » Day 1: Church

Word Count: 3178

Rating: G

Summary: Zack visits the Sector 5 slums church with a mind to ask Aerith out on that date he promised, but when rambunctious kids are involved, nothing goes as he planned.

Chapter 1 of Of Wishes and Promises: Zerith Week 2021

Read on AO3.

~*~*~*~*~

When Zack visited the church that day, he’d already had a mind where to take Aerith out. A date filled with excitement, he called it. He’d bring her to the Upper Plate as he’d promised. It’d be a surprise—one he planned not to tell until they boarded the train heading for Upper Midgar. He’d show her the cute cafes Kunsel told him about, then the flower shops that might interest her to invest more in her own business. They could visit boutiques, and he’d buy her all the dresses she wanted; threw in a couple of shoes and maybe a hat too. His SOLDIER salary could afford it. He’d checked. Then, they could go to the food plaza with those sweet, fluffy crepes with an overabundant of cream. They could even visit the theater at Sector 8, if that was more of her thing. But one thing he knew was that at the end of their date, he’d bring her to Midgar Tower—the highest commercial tower in all the metropolitan city, bar the Shinra building. With no other skyscrapers to block their view, he’d show her the sky, stretching as far as the eye could see.

She’d love it—he knew. So bright, so blue, so deep. It was the most beautiful place to witness it in the entire Midgar. So when Zack reached the Sector 5 slums church and pushed open the heavy double doors, his entire being brimming with enthusiasm—

A sharp jab to the center of his stomach; Zack doubled over, clutching his abdomen as tears sprang to his eyes. Gleeful squeals filled his ears. Kids, around six to eight years old, ran back down the aisle to the flower bed at the church’s other end, where Aerith sat next to a girl making crowns from her lilies.

“Oates!” she called, stern, but even from the distance, Zack could see her suppressed smile. “You don’t jab people on the stomach.”

The smaller of the two kids running from him skidded to a halt, mumbling “aww, shucks” or something of the like, though he didn’t look apologetic at all.

“Now go back and apologize to Zack.”

Zack remembered the kid now. He was the one who'd stolen Zack’s wallet the first time Zack was here. Oates, was it? He'd never gotten the kid’s name.

Oates reached his side a moment later and, eyes downcast, mumbled a half-hearted apology. Before Zack could say anything, however, the kid had rushed back to where his friends waited, leaving Zack staring after him. His mouth quirked up into a little amused smirk.

“Sorry, Zack,” Aerith said later when he reached her flowerbed. Brows drawn back; her face split into an apologetic smile. “You know how he gets.”

He knew. At least from their brief encounter before. Proud. Cocky. But with a good heart. Zack couldn’t help softening as he watched the boys wrestle.

“So.” He turned to Aerith, who offered him one of those bright, inquisitive looks. A soft little “hm?” that tugged at his heartstrings. Zack fought to contain his bursting emotions as he addressed the issue at hand. He nodded at the children playing at the church. “What’s all this?”

“Oh, Leaf House is having some renovations today, so the teachers asked me to watch over them for the time being.”

The explanation was short and simple, yet it was as though the sky—or, well, the steel sky here in the slums—had crashed down on him.

“Babysitting?”

She met his question with a giggle. “They’re not exactly babies, but, yes, something like that.”

There went his date-with-excitement plan out the window, ripped and blown into smithereens until not a speck of it remained. The tower… The sky…

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Zack shrugged. Well, what could he do if Aerith was already preoccupied? They could save that date for another time. Meanwhile… He sat down next to her, stretching his legs in front of him. A date at the church with a handful of kids in tow wasn’t bad either. Right?

Beside him, Aerith tilted her head to the side. Zack grinned, then noticed the loose hair coming out of her braid. He reached out and slipped it behind her ears. It had been a reflex—the way his hand moved. He only realized it when he spotted the blush coloring Aerith’s cheeks. Even the girl at the flowerbed gasped, quiet. He glanced at her; she ducked her head.

“Hey, Mister.” A bump on his head; Oates stood behind him in that self-important way. The kid should really learn some manners. “Are you going out with Aerith?”

With that question alone, all eyes turned toward him: the wrestling boys, the girl making flower crowns, and a couple others playing with the abandoned piano. The off-key tunes that had filled the church ground to an abrupt halt.

“It’s Zack, Oates,” Zack said into the sudden silence. “I thought we’d introduced ourselves to each other.”

Oates frowned, the way six-year-olds frowned when they were being told off, and folded his arms. “I don’t remember telling you my name, Mister.” Zack struggled to maintain his composure. “Well, are you or are you not?”

“I am.” More gasps, mostly from the girls. The boys only stared, some wide-eyed, some skeptical, including Oates.

Oates looked over his shoulder at his friends. Determined nods from all around. Zack had a bad feeling about it.

When the boy's gaze returned to him, he pointed an accusatory finger at him. “Then we challenge you! Come on, guys! We need to see if this Mister guy is right for Aerith or not!”

The air split as cries erupted everywhere—boys and girls and even the kids at the piano. Before he could prepare himself, the little rascals had leaped from all sides, tackling him to the ground.

***

Aerith jumped when the children pushed Zack to the ground. Muffled sounds came from that squirming pile of bodies. They pinned him around his waist and straddled him on his chest. A couple climbed up and held his arms to the ground, maneuvering their way around that big sword hilt behind his back.

“Got it!” one of them yelled. A small square object held high in his grasp.

“Hey, you little, that’s my wallet!”

They squealed and shouted and laughed, jumped away when Zack tried to get up. “Spread out!” came a voice louder than the others, and they did, spreading out to the benches and the fallen beams and the room behind the altar. Zack pushed himself off his back, leaped to his feet, then put his hands on his hips. He scanned the church, a little frown playing across his lips.

“Lost something?” Aerith couldn’t help but ask. She pressed her lips together to stop herself from giggling.

“My wallet,” Zack said under his breath. “I know they’re good kids and it’s got nothing much but…” He stopped, glanced sideways at Aerith on the flowerbed. “Nothing,” he muttered.

It was unusual to see him blush, but there it was, the pink shades on his cheeks. She took a picture of it in her mind then saved it in her heart, shifting her attention back to the flowers by her knees, only to feel a stare at the side of her head. Leila, who'd been making crowns, was looking at her. Aerith arched her brows in a silent question, but before neither of them could say anything…

“Look!” Another call came. One of the older boys—Basil—waved a piece of paper in the air. “I found something!”

In the blink of an eye, Zack had disappeared from her side and crossed the church’s length. "Give that back!" she heard him say, and when Basil refused, running to the other side of the church, leaping over benches and hiding behind pillars, Zack quickened his pace. He caught the boy from behind and wrestled for his wallet. Soon, the other children had crowded around them, helping Basil keep his hold on the paper. Aerith snorted. Never had she thought she would see the day when Zack Fair wrestled with a child. That paper had to be very important.

“Are you really going out with that man, Aerith?”

The voice was soft; Leila looked at her with big, brown eyes. Curious, wary.

“I am.”

The frown deepened. The girl looked back down at the crown in her hand. Almost finished, Aerith noticed. Just a little more touch. Behind her, Zack shouted, “A-ha! Got it!” She glanced back just enough to see the fluttering paper caught between his index and middle fingers, before another boy—Finn—leaped from the nearest bench onto Zack’s back and grabbed the paper from his clutch. “Brat—!” Zack swung around trying to catch him, but Finn only clung to his back, laughing with glee.

“Isn’t he from the upper plate?” Leila asked again, pulling Aerith’s attention back to her.

“He is.”

“Aren’t they scary?”

Aerith blinked and stared, before the realization hit her. Like many people of the slums, the only things Leila knew of the upper plate were prejudice and discrepancy, hate and violence. Having to scrap for a living, only to be kicked and shoved by the so-called securities the people they called their government had stationed there; then watching the news and ads on the big monitor at Central District, only to realize how big a difference their lives were. Leila's father was taken to the war, and when they'd refused, those securities had almost crippled her grandfather.

“Zack’s not scary, though.”

“But the sword…” The girl lifted her eyes and looked at the massive sword on Zack’s back.

“He uses that to protect people.” Aerith's smile was warm. “He protected me before. I’m sure he’d protect you with it too.”

The nine-year-old still didn’t look convinced. Maybe there was something, anything, Aerith could use to show the girl that Zack was harmless. A thought just occurred to her mind when, suddenly, a weight pressed itself on her back.

Oof!

“Aerith, look!”

Oates had climbed onto her back, arms dangling down from around her neck. He waved a small piece of paper in front of her, where she glimpsed her face, smiling, on it.

“Got you!” The weight disappeared; Zack stood behind her, holding Oates on both arms as though the boy weighed nothing more than a sack of rice. “Stop squirming and hand over the photo.”

“Does the photo worth more than the wallet to you!?”

“Yes! Now give it—“

The photo lay on Aerith’s lap, now crooked after having so many hands wrestling for it. She picked it up and turned it around. Her own smiling face looked back at her. Hair braided back; a little smudge of dirt on her cheek; she'd crouched before her flowers as she'd tended to them, eyes crinkling at an ear-to-ear grin. When did Zack take this?

“Why would you put a picture of me there instead of your parents?” she asked the first question that popped into her mind. Zack had left home when he was thirteen without ever telling them. She’d thought they’d be foremost in his mind. But she knew the answer, even before she looked up and saw his beet-red face.

“And why are you blushing?” Oates asked.

“Oh, shut up!” He finally let Oates go. The children had gathered around them then, their expressions ranging from bemused to mischievous grins.

“You’re blushing too, Aerith,” Leila noted beside her.

She believed she was. Her cheeks felt hot. She met Zack’s sky-blue eyes, and as she beamed, he started beaming too.

***

Aerith asked Zack to tell the kids about his adventures—adventures, because the kids shouldn’t hear about missions or wars; adventures where he went to all corners of the world to protect people and their homes.

“Who wants to hear about my adventures?” Zack asked then. Silence…

“I wanna know more about your sword,” Oates said. “Why is it so big?"

Another voice asked, "Is it real?”

“Of course it’s real!”

“Can I touch it?” Zack didn’t realize a kid was standing behind him, and when he reached out to touch the steel blade, Aerith and Zack shouted at him to stop. The kid jumped, retracting his hand as quickly as it’d come.

“That’s dangerous, Finn!” Aerith said from her seat.

“But it looks so cool!”

“And also very heavy and sharp,” Zack said. “It could easily cut your arm off if you so much as touch it wrong.” Gasps and grunts and nervous gulps. Despite the glare Aerith was shooting him—maybe he should have toned down the gore, though he’d only spoken truth with it—he thought that was enough to scare them away. But then a voice spoke up:

“But you can use it.” It was the girl who’d played the piano before. Jet-black hair tied in twin tails.

“That’s because I’m trained in combat.”

“Show us!” she said, prompting the others to chant yeah, show us, show us.

At the urging, Zack broke into a grin, wide and proud. He told them to give him a bit of space, and they stepped back. Then he reached over and behind his back and curled his fingers around the hilt. He’d show them. Yes, they would see that he was the coolest guy they ever saw.

Pulling the Buster Sword from his back one-handed was an easy feat. He gave it a wide swing in the air before landing it, tip-down, on the church’s wooden floor. Oohs and ahhs greeted his ears. Even Aerith’s emerald-green eyes were wide, joining the children’s cheer. Then he lifted the sword with both hands and bent his knees in his battle stance.

“Want me to show you some battle moves?” he asked them, and they did, so he obliged.

The “show” ended with a series of claps, thrilled cries, and jumps. What skepticism and mischief he’d seen in their eyes were now gone, replaced by nothing short of awe. Zack couldn’t help the smirk that he’d somehow won their hearts.

“What do you do, Zack?” the oldest of the boys, he’d heard Aerith called him Basil before, asked.

“I’m—“ Then he stopped, and he remembered how Aerith had talked about SOLDIER and Turks and Shinra when they first met, and figured he should omit that part. “I’m a mercenary,” he said instead. “I help people whenever they need me.”

“Like how?”

“Finding lost items?”

“Rescuing a cat?”

“Yeah… And, like, bigger schemes.” The kids looked at one another. “Like protecting people from monsters.” More oohs and ahhs. Zack felt proud of himself.

But then, someone said, “I wanna have something like it.” It was Oates. He turned to his friends. “Just imagine: we can be our own Protection Squad! Defeating evil and helping people around the slums.” The idea immediately appealed to everyone’s minds. Before Zack could do anything about it, they’d already crowded around him and begged him for a sword of their own.

Zack broke into a small, weak smile as he tried to figure how to handle this new onslaught. He looked at Aerith for help, but her features reflected the resignation he felt. She offered a shrug, a silent permission to do what he thought best. In that case…

“Want me to make you wooden swords then?” The children’s eyes sparkled at that. They nodded, crowding closer that Zack had to step back and raise his hands, shoulders shaking in a chuckle. “Well, if you can find a good chunk of wood and some sawing equipment, I think I can make some.”

They'd bolted out the church’s double doors before he realized maybe he shouldn’t have told them to grab a saw. But Aerith was laughing, and she patted the spot next to her. Zack sat down with a loud sigh.

“You think they’re okay handling a saw?” he asked.

“Don’t worry, the carpenters won't let them hold it that easily,” Aerith said.

Zack wondered about that. Seeing how the kids had been, it wouldn't be a stretch to think they'd find some way to bring a saw there. But he was too tired to go look for them, so he hoped the carpenter would be so kind as to bring it himself. He sighed again, feeling the tension rolling off his shoulders. Who would’ve thought babysitting was even more exhausting than going on a mission?

Warmth enveloped his head. When he looked, Aerith was patting him, a bright smile on her face. “Great job today.”

And Zack would have broken into a grin, would have leaned in and rested his head on her shoulder and claimed it as energy recovering, if he had not noticed the girl on the flowerbed still weaving flowers into a crown. Aerith seemed to notice his line of sight too, because then she introduced the girl as Leila. In a whisper, she added that the girl had lost her family in the war, so she was a little taciturn around armed strangers.

The reason Aerith had suggested for him to talk about his adventures finally dawned on him. Zack scooted to the girl and peeked beneath the brown bangs. Big, brown eyes were focused on the flower crown in her hands. He noticed she’d braided her hair to match Aerith’s.

“You’re not going with the others?” he asked.

Leila shook her head. When she spoke, her voice was small. “I’m not really into those sword stuffs.”

“What are you into then?”

She lifted her flower crown, then continued weaving in more flowers. Zack fumbled for more topics, but before he could, Leila had risen from her seat. She walked over to him, then plopped the flower crown over his head. Zack blinked.

“That glow in your eyes—I’ve seen it. They took my dad away to the war, and he never came back.” Leila pursed her lips. “But you’re a good guy, Zack. At least, I think so. Everyone likes you. Aerith, too. And, you know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her laugh so hard like that before.” Zack blinked again, and this time, the girl softened her features. “She really likes you.”

With that, she turned toward Aerith and plopped another flower crown on top of her head.

“Well, I’m off. Think I’m going to catch up with the others and make sure they don’t hurt themselves.”

Her footsteps disappeared behind the double doors. The silence that followed stretched awkwardly. When Zack turned his head, Aerith was still staring at the church's entrance, half in daze.

“You really like me, she said.”

She jerked, glancing at him from the corner of her eyes. A frown formed across her lips, even as a deep shade of red tinged her cheeks. “She didn’t emphasize it, you know.”

Even so, that was not a denial. A slow grin split his features. Zack crawled to her side, then gazed at her scarlet face.

“What?” she asked.

His reply was a soft kiss to her cheeks that rendered her speechless. “I really like you to.” He beamed at her stunned face. It wasn't much of a date, but he enjoyed it nonetheless.

~ END ~

[imaginepirates]

New York

Another modern au, but this time, the whole crew shows up.....and they show up in New York, a hub of modern technology and culture. Aided by your friend, you help them acclimate to life in modern times. As if that wasn’t enough, the crew tries to set you up with James, who is, admittedly, one of your fictional crushes. For @shadowsingeraxolotl

@emdrabbles​ @tesserphantom @paljonkaikenlaista @viper-official @wordsinwinters​ @groovyfluxie

~3350 words

~~~~~~~

          New York was a hub of activity, people flitting about from place to place in the early evening light. The diversity between people was staggering; hipsters walked on their way between stores, the well-dressed made their way to music halls and theaters, tourists took pictures of everything in sight, and tired-looking students drank their weight in coffee at each Starbucks.

          You, however, were just going home. You’d spent the day on Manhattan’s waterfront, and you looked forward to coming back to tour the middle of the city later. You lived in Brooklyn, and spent some of your free time exploring the various sections of NYC. No matter how long a person lived in New York City, there was always more to see.  

          You passed a small group of people who looked to be dressed in costumes. They looked like they’d come straight out of a history book. Each of them were staring up and around at the surrounding skyscrapers with wide eyes, and you wondered if it was part of the act. One noticed your curiosity and beckoned you over.

          “Could you tell us where we are, love?” He asked. Dreadlocks hung to his shoulders, and he had on a costume like a pirate. In fact, he quite looked like Johnny Depp, and you wondered if there was a production of Pirates of the Caribbean going on nearby.

          Wouldn’t have missed that for the world, you thought. How did I not see any advertising? “Why, you’re in New York.” You played along, though you felt a bit shy around the strangers.

          “New York?” Another man sputtered. He stood just behind you, and you turned to see a man in naval uniform.

          You smiled to yourself. The stricken expression on the man’s face was quite convincing. A good actor, I bet. Then you looked him over again, and you were sure all the color drained from your face, because he was the spitting image of James Norrington. Did I eat something, or am I just dreaming?

          “Wonderful.” This came from a girl standing next to you, and you turned to see a girl who looked exactly like Elizabeth Swann. She was staring with wonder up at all the big buildings, eyes shining.

          And Elizabeth would like it, too. There was another, and you knew before looking that it was going to be Will Turner. He looked awkward, looking around with clear anxiety in his eyes.

          You swallowed. “You must be lost.” You could feel your own anxiety skyrocketing. This is insane. I’m insane. This can’t be real. Instead of saying any of that, though, you said, “Do you need a place to stay?”

          “That would be wonderful, love.” As calm as he was trying to sound, there was some tension in Jack’s voice. You couldn’t blame him.

          “We can get an Uber. Or two. Or….” It might just be best if I called a friend. No driver could take five people in the small cars Uber drivers usually had, and they certainly wouldn’t fit in a taxi. “I’ll just call a friend.”

          It felt odd, standing there, in the middle of the street, with a bunch of strangers dressed in eighteenth century garb, waiting for your friend to show up. They had a van, and you could count on it to fit everyone.

          You had to wait a long time. Traffic in Manhattan was something else; the crush of cabs, busses, and cars made driving through the area a nightmare. You tried quietly convincing your new companions not to stare at things. The statement went both ways. You wanted to gape at the little group, but you knew it was rude. Still, they literally came right out of a story. I think that warrants for staring a little.

          In your peripheral vision, you could just see Norrington’s coat sleeve. Norrington. A man that you’d had a crush on since you’d first watched the series. You could feel yourself fidgeting in embarrassment, wanting nothing more than to retreat to the safety of home. Then it struck you: I’m going to have all these people in my house. The one place where I can retreat from people. You sighed. This’ll resolve itself. It has to. Right?

          Finally, your friend arrived. They pulled up to the curb, the window to the driver’s side rolling down. “You owe me, fam.” Your friend called out. “What was so import—oh.” They stared at the little gathering.

          You ushered the group into the van, instructing them on how to properly use seatbelts. You hopped in the passenger’s seat, looking over to your friend with what you knew were dazed eyes. “Yeah,” you said. “I owe you.”

          There was a collective gasp as the van drove off. You could hear dull thuds from where the characters had thrown out their hands. Elizabeth, at least, was smiling. You could see her in the rearview mirror, her face pressed up against the van’s tinted windows, fingers splayed against the glass. Clearly, she was enraptured. James, on the other hand, had drained of color. You felt badly for him. This definitely wasn’t what he’d signed up for upon entering the Navy.

          You pulled into the parking lot of your apartment, ushering everyone inside. The less people saw of your visitors, the better. You had them gather in your small living room while you pulled your friend aside into the bathroom.

          “I just found them on the street,” you explained. “And you can see them too, which means I’m not insane.”

          “Yeah….Still not sure what we should do with them. Should we turn them in to the police or something?”

          Somehow, the thought didn’t seem right. “The police will probably try to put them in a psych ward.”

          “You might be right on that one.” Your friend sighed. “I don’t know where you plan to keep them. This isn’t the roomiest of places.”

          “It’ll have to do.” You shrugged. “And thanks. For helping me out. For going along with all this.”

          They smiled. “I don’t think I have a choice.”

          You stepped back out into the living room to see four expectant faces staring back at you. You had to explain a lot to them, and the task was daunting. You didn’t even know where to start. “I’m guessing that you’re all a little confused,” you began.

          “That’s an understatement, mate.” Jack picked his way across the room, looking at your furniture, electronics, and decorations. He poked and prodded at a few things, making the ridiculous facial expressions he was famous for.

          “As I told you earlier,” you continued, “you’re in New York City.”

          “This certainly isn’t how I remember the Colonies.” Norrington looked around the small room, a frown in place.

          “And I’ve seen some strange things, love, but this can’t be New York,” Jack added.

          “Well….you also happen to be….” Even the thought of it sounded ridiculous. Welcome to the twenty-first century! Here are three hundred years worth of war, politics, culture, and technology to catch up on! “You’re also a couple hundred years in the future.” You watched worriedly for their response, but all you got were four sets of eyes.

          “A couple?” Norrington was white as a sheet.

          “Three, I think.”

          “Three.”

          You all stared at each other, including your friend, who looked around the room with concern. It was at this moment that Will flipped the lightswitch, causing everything to go dark. There were exclamations from the four pirates. Pirates. Probably shouldn’t bring that up. For all I know, Jack is still the only true pirate here, and the rest hadn’t fallen in yet before they got here. Suddenly, Will flipped the switch again, and your eyes had to adjust back to the light. The panic subsided—for the moment.

          “Electricity,” you explained. “We don’t use candles anymore.”

          “Convenient.” This came from Will, who was squinting at a lightbulb.

          “Yeah. Might not want to stare at that, though.” Will nodded at your suggestion, but kept glancing back at it as if it would suddenly change.

          At some point, Norrington must have regained his composure, despite the slight pinch he gave the bridge of his nose. You expected that it was a common gesture for him, what with his line of work. “You must be overwhelmed, having us here. You’ve been very kind to take us in. If you can think of anything you might need help with, we’d be happy to help you.” He gave a sharp look to each of his companions and an awkward smile to you.

          You nodded, indeed feeling quite overwhelmed. The realization that you’d have to keep them in your apartment and feed them did nothing to help. You eventually figured out sleeping arrangements, though you felt badly about the lack of space. Elizabeth would share your bed with you, and the boys would take the living room. Your friend left to find suitable clothes for everyone, and you thanked them profusely.

          You woke up early the next morning, full of stress. You padded softly through the living room into the kitchen, trying not to wake anybody, looking for food to make everyone. James stirred as you passed him. He was laying on the couch, though it was too small for him, and his feet were dangling over the edge. He shifted, yawning a little and stretching out. He’d doffed his wig and hat, leaving his hair to poke out at all angles. You found it adorable. He looked up at you with tired eyes, and you looked back with what you knew was equally messy hair.

          “Morning,” you whispered.

          “Good morning.” He gave you a small, soft smile and stood up from the couch. “Can I help you with anything?”

          “Do you know how to make crepes?”

          “Unfortunately not.” He looked a little awkward, but it was clear he wanted to help.

          “You can help me fill them.” You gave him what you hoped was a reassuring smile, and he followed you into the kitchen.

          It was strange, to have company in a kitchen that usually only held you. It was nice, too. James was a welcome presence, spreading jams, peanut butter, and nutella across the crepes you made. You gave him some ham to add to them, too, in case someone preferred a savory option. Crepes could, in your opinion, get overly sweet.

          You caught a smile on James’ face. “This reminds me of times gone by,” he admitted. “When I was a child in England. I used to watch the women in the kitchens preparing food. They’d give me small tasks to do, sometimes. It was,” you watched him search for the right word, “nice. It still is.” He looked over at you, a little blush tinting his cheeks. You felt yourself blushing right back, though you couldn’t say the feeling was unpleasant.

          Breakfast was eaten with gusto, and though you’d feared it might be awkwardly silent, the group had a never-ending string of questions. Elizabeth voiced her desire to explore, and you figured it couldn’t hurt to take them back to Manhattan. The world had seen stranger things than supposedly enraptured tourists.

          Your friend stopped by with clothes and volunteered to go with you so they could drive you in their van. You were more than thankful for it. You let the group change, smiling to see modern styles on them. Elizabeth was a sight in particular, wearing a lovely little floral dress. The boys looked at her with varying degrees of embarrassment. They weren’t used to seeing ankles, much less knees.

          You changed into your own clothes. You almost found yourself looking forward to playing tour-guide. I planned on going back to Manhattan anyway, so why not with some others? You knew it would tire you out a little, but you were growing more and more excited to properly get to know the group. They were some of your favorite characters, after all. This is like a child’s Disneyland dream come true.

          The first place you stopped was, of course, Times Square. You wanted the group to see the extent of today’s technology, the overwhelming lights blaring at you from a thousand different screens. There would be a crush of people, as usual, and the towering buildings always made you feel small. You could only wonder at how your group would feel, so new to all these sights and sounds, and so far from home.

          Your friend found a parking spot a couple blocks away, and you all slid out of the car onto the concrete. You noticed how Will immediately took Elizabeth’s hand, and how even Jack walked alongside your friend.

          “That leaves you with our host, Commodore,” Jack called, clearly amused.

          You could see that James was embarrassed, but he offered you his arm all the same. “Shall we?”

          Equally embarrassed, you accepted. The two of you strolled arm in arm behind your friend as they led the group into the square. James stopped when you entered, looking up at the ads plastered across screens and billboards, and at the skyscrapers encased in glass. You found the wonder on his face to be enchanting.

          “Technology really has progressed,” he managed to stutter.           “More than you could ever know.” You looked out at the bright screens promoting movies, musicals, and all different sorts of companies. We changed so drastically in such a short amount of time.

          The rest of the group had stopped as well, staring with the same awe and reverence as James.

          “I’d been to New York, once,” said James. “We had to stop in for supplies on the Dauntless. It was large then, but now…. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so small.” Color dotted his cheeks.

          Ah. He’s a man used to being comfortable in any situation, to being in control. You smiled to yourself. Though maybe not social situations. “It’s nothing like the past,” you agreed. “Though not everywhere is like this. Just big cities.”

          “Is London like this?” Elizabeth asked excitedly.

          “Very. But all the older architecture has been kept around, so there’s a massive difference in styles.”

          “Speaking of styles, we have a cathedral here from the nineteenth century. It might be cool to check that out.”

          The group agreed. It was a neat spot, surrounded by skyscrapers, strictly contrasting the modern styles. As you walked back to the car, you passed a group of teenagers. One girl looked up at you and James, smiling. “You’re a cute couple,” she said as she passed by.

          You and James both blushed, and you opened your mouths to protest that you were not, in fact, a couple, but she was gone before you could get a word out. Too embarrassed to look each other in the eye, you stared at the ground. When you looked up again, you could see the smirking faces of the rest of the group, your friend among them. Even Will was giving you a little smile.

          When you got to the car, Jack hopped in the passenger’s seat as your friend drove. That left you to squish in next to James, and you could tell by the look on Jack’s face that he’d meant for it to happen. Your friend turned the radio on, saving you from having to make awkward conversation. James was pressed right next to you, his thigh and arm against yours, and you fiddled with the bottoms of your sleeves to keep your mind preoccupied. Not that it works. James, too, was using a similar tactic, though you could tell he was acutely aware of your proximity.

          Finally, you found a place to park near the cathedral, and you slipped out of the car, thankful to be out of an awkward situation, but missing the warmth of James’ body against yours.

          St. Patrick’s Cathedral looked short compared to its neighboring buildings, though you still had to crane your neck up to see the top of the spires. It was heavily decorated in the Neo-Gothic style, and you were sure that most of your group had seen the like before. The Gothic style had been around for centuries, and though the Neo-Gothic style had some of its own features, the two were very much alike.

          You toured the cathedral in pairs, walking silently through the echoing nave. “I’ve never been much one for religion,” whispered Jack, “but these churches do command a certain respect.”

          That was true enough. Even to the nonbeliever, a cathedral demanded respect and reverence. The air in them was different, somehow, heavier. Every sound was magnified. Every careless footfall echoed throughout the chambers like a rockslide might echo in a canyon.

          “It reminds me of England,” James said. “My family used to go to Canterbury for Christmas. The cathedral there was much like this one. Bigger, perhaps, but similar.” He stared with sad eyes up at the arches and stained glass. “It seems so long ago, now.”

          You gave his hand a squeeze. “We’ll find a way to get you home.” The words sounded unconvincing, even to your own ears, but James smiled appreciatively all the same.

          Your third and final stop of the day was the Statue of Liberty. One of the most iconic pieces in America, you figured the group had to see it. You explained that it was a symbol of liberty and freedom while in the car.

          “Freedom?” James asked.

          You knew you had to break it to them sometime, and you supposed that now was the best time to do so. “From Britain. We’re not colonies anymore.” Your friend parked the car in a space where you could see the statue from across the water.

          “What happened?”

          “We had a revolution. Britain was taxing us unfairly, so we decided to start our own country.”

          “Avoiding taxes?” Jack grinned, joining the conversation. “Sounds like something a pirate might do, love.”

          “It was more complicated than that.” Still, you couldn’t suppress a smile. “It was taxation without representation.”

          “If you say so, mate.”

          “The world must be very different,” said James. “New borders, new countries. And Britain has probably lost many of its colonies, by now.” He looked sad, worried, even.

          “Yes, it has. But it’s still a strong country with a good economy, and is looked to as a world leader. The world may change, but the powers remain, taking power in new ways.”

          He nodded. “They always are.”

          You returned home afterwards and talked to your friend about what you should make for dinner. They smiled at you. “You should get Norrington to help you. The two of you are adorable, and I think he likes you.” They leaned in. “Besides, I know you’ve had a crush on him ever since you watched those movies.” Your friend winked, leaving you alone to blush as they went on to talk to the group.

          When you got to the kitchen, you saw that Jack, Elizabeth, and Will had had much the same idea for James. He stood there, awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck with a hand. “Today was lovely.” He looked at you bashfully, and you couldn’t help giving him a small smile back.

          “Thank you. I….” You didn’t really have words, so you trailed off into awkward silence, grabbing the ingredients for dinner.

          James helped, getting things out of the fridge for you, though he stared at it like it was from an alien planet. To him, it is.

          He passed the food to you, but his hand lingered on yours, and you felt yourself blush. You set the food down, turning back to him. Gently, he took your hand in his, raising it to his lips and pressing a soft kiss to your knuckles. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but clearly couldn’t think of anything.

          You stepped forward, a little uncertainly, and kissed him on the cheek. He went red, and so did you. You stepped back, returning to your cooking. He watched, helping where he could, and you settled into a comfortable silence, goofy smiles across your faces.

          Living with this group has its upsides, I suppose. James, I think, accounts for ten of them.

[lady-divine-writes]

Serendipity (Rated PG13)

Summary: Aziraphale’s best friend Tracy sets him up on a blind date, but the man who shows up isn’t what he expects. (4351 words)

Notes: Written for the @ineffable-valentines prompt ‘perfect date’ and inspired by a post I saw @miraworos reblog on tumblr, which happened to be the exact premise of a story I had written a long time ago for another fandom. So I brushed it off, re-sculpted it, and voila. I hope y'all like it

Read on AO3.

“So … how’re the crepes treating you? Are they everything you dreamed they’d be?”

“Oh my yes! They’re absolute Heaven!”

“They should be. This place is famous for them.”

“Good, because they’re my favorite.”

“I know. That’s why I brought you here. More wine?”

“That depends … are you trying to get me drunk?” Playful blue eyes, twinkling above cheeks darkening from baby pink to dusty rose, meet seductive liquid gold.

Lush lips split into a devilish grin. “Maybe.”

Those blue eyes dip down to those inviting lips and linger there, lost in a daydream of mouths meeting, tongues sweeping, kisses traveling, caressing pale skin … “Well, at least you’re honest about it.”

Wine pours. Glasses clink and the robust red sipped. Fingers snap, and like magic, another bottle of wine appears.

“Now,” the devilish lips ask, “where was I?”

“You heard something in your walls?”

“Oh yes. For days I’m hearing scritch-scritch-scritch, and the pattering of tiny feet on my marble floors morning and night, like little ghosts wearing tap shoes puttering about my flat.”

“Ooo! That’s spooky!”

Subtle shrug. “Don’t bother me. I like spooky. Big spooky fan me. So I look and look. but I can’t find where it’s coming from. And I mean, I look everywhere …”

Aziraphale covers his mouth and giggles, blown away by how drawn in he’s become to this story. Reuben is such a dynamic storyteller. Aziraphale feels like he’s there with him, searching his house for the mysterious scratching that’s plagued him day and night, shivers as his description of them runs its nails delightfully up his spine. For good or bad, Aziraphale is invested now, even though the events of this tale are over and resolved. Reuben pauses his story; chuckles shyly, too; while Aziraphale waits patiently to hear the rest of the saga.

“To make a long story short, I take apart the entire wall unit, and finally I find the culprit – the cutest family of white rats I have ever seen! Momma had made a nest in the insulation and had babies! Five of them! I couldn’t believe it!”

“Oh no!” The tips of a mouth turn down as those shivers make a return trip. “I don’t personally fancy rats. What did you do?”

“The only thing I could do.” Reuben takes a sip of his wine – a 2014 Bogle Petite Sirah. It sounded so scrummy when Reuben ordered it, Aziraphale couldn’t help himself. He had to have a glass, too. And Reuben was not wrong. Its dense blueberry and blackberry flavors compliment the crepes exquisitely. The alcohol doesn’t overwhelm the palette, but it’s racy enough to bring color to Aziraphale’s cheeks. “I adopted her. Named her Rogue.”

“You adopted wild rats!?”

“Turns out - not wild. After a little investigating, I found out that momma rat had belonged to a neighbor who moved out a week ago. They couldn’t bring the rat with them, or they didn’t want to, so they set her loose in the garden downstairs. She ended up getting back in somehow.” Reuben runs his index finger around the rim of his glass. “It may sound bonkers but I admire Rogue. I really do. Abandoned by the family she thought would love and take care of her, she fights and struggles to find a safe place to have her brood, which ends up being the place she was cast out from. I couldn’t just put her on the street.” He sighs, a fond but sad smile crossing his lips. “Reminds me a bit of my mum, to tell you the truth - the unforgiving life she had raising me and my sisters after our father left …”

Aziraphale gasps, that confession wrapping around his heart and giving it a solid tug. He could listen to Reuben talk all night. But he’s not just a great storyteller. He happens to be sweet, funny, attractive (God is he attractive! But, of course, Aziraphale has always been a sucker for hazel eyes like his, with flecks of gold that brighten the irises when the alcohol flows or the lighting is right). And as if that wasn’t enough, he works at one of the most successful (and philanthropic) firms in the city. But he doesn’t wear his wealth on his sleeve, doesn’t flaunt it like a selling point. His shirt is vintage, the wine he ordered costs $20 a bottle, and he came here on the tube. Personality, modesty, good looks, environmentally conscious, a stable career … Aziraphale sighs. In his opinion, Reuben is close to the perfect guy, and this blind date is going swimmingly!

Too bad it isn’t his.

“Oh Reuben …” Lorelei – Reuben’s date – blots her eyes with her napkin. She reaches across the table to touch his hand. Reuben’s eyes flick towards the touch and he smiles brighter.

Oh yeah, Aziraphale thinks, raising his glass and finishing the last of his Sirah. They’re having a fabulous night.

Aziraphale pulls out his pocket watch and checks the time. 

9:45.

He’s been sitting at the table next to theirs for over an hour, waiting for his own Reuben to appear. Aziraphale figured out thirty minutes ago that his blind date wasn’t coming. He’s gotten no texts, no calls, no apologies, no explanation why. Reuben and Lorelei might have a glowing future together, but his date for the evening is definitely a bust. The wait staff knows it, too. Every time the waitress stops by, offering to refill his water glass, it’s with a sympathetic smile. She’s long since stopped asking him if he wants to pack up what’s left of his crepes to go.

What’s left.

That’s a joke.

It’s pretty much the whole order.

He lost his appetite a long time ago.

Aziraphale reaches for his cell phone but stops with his hand on his pocket. He’s not going to be that guy. He’s not going to send another text. He’s not going to give this man an easy out, refuses to give him the benefit of the doubt and say, “Well, I guess you got caught up. Text me back and we can reschedule for another time.”

Aziraphale is done.

He just wishes he knew why.

Why doesn’t dating work out for him?

He’s not a bad guy, if he does say so himself. He’s reasonably attractive (at least, he’s always thought so). He owns his own small business, even if it doesn’t necessarily turn a profit, but money isn’t something he needs to worry about anyway. He’s doing what he loves, therefore he’s living the dream.

He’s not asking for much. He’s not looking for the perfect man, just a nice one. One who might share some of his interests like theater, food, music, wine, food, books … food. But on the whole, he wants to find a man who wants to spend time with him, get to know him, who maybe isn’t ashamed of doing cutesy, romantic things, like hold the door open for him, pull his chair out for him, offer him half his desert the way Reuben did with Lorelei.

Reuben.

Aziraphale peeks back over at the happy couple.

As Reuben stares into Lorelei’s eyes and signals for the check, Aziraphale knows that he needs to face facts and be done with this. His roommate Tracy has, yet again, succeeded in finding him a date that’s not interested in actually dating.

Where does she even find these guys?

More to the point, why hasn’t he learned to say no to her?

Unfortunately, he won’t get to gripe to her about it until Monday when she comes back from some spiritualist retreat she went on with their friend Anathema, so Aziraphale has a long, lonely weekend of reading Oscar Wilde and drinking (Irish) cocoa to look forward to until then.

Aziraphale takes one last sip of the lukewarm water in his overfilled glass and decides to ask for the check. He feels awful. He may have ordered a full meal but he’s barely touched it. Plus, even though he’s done his best to be as polite as possible, he has wasted over an hour of their time occupying a table that could have been made available to other paying customers on this busy Friday night.

He prays he has a forgettable face. On the off chance he ever comes in here again, he wouldn’t want them spitting in his food.

He looks around the dining room in search of his waitress – a lovely young red-head with freckles across the bridge of her nose and a permanent pout. He doesn’t see her, but spots a man rushing towards his table – a tall, remarkably handsome man dressed all in black and wearing designer sunglasses (indoors!); cheeks flushed as if he’s been running in the cold; a warm, inviting smile aimed his way.

“Hey there, handsome. Sorry I’m so late,” the man says, pulling out a chair, spinning it around, and straddling it across from Aziraphale in a move that makes Aziraphale’s breath catch. “I wish I could say I was stuck behind a seven car pile-up or something, but I really have no exciting excuse. Not that the M25 isn’t a bitch at this hour, but I didn’t take it so, again, no excuse.”

The man smiles at Aziraphale, waiting for him to laugh at his joke. Aziraphale looks suspiciously back, turning his head left and right, searching for an explanation.

“I … I’m sorry,” he says, addressing the man, mostly through side-eye glances. “Are you are you … looking for me?”

“Yes.” The man extends an arm across the table. “I’m your date for the evening. I’m Tracy’s friend Gabriel.”

“You?” Aziraphale raises an eyebrow. “You’re Gabriel?”

The man’s smile becomes wider in a tense sort of way. “Yes, I am.”

Aziraphale looks left and right again, obviously skeptical.

The man folds his hand on the table and sighs.

“Look, Aziraphale, I know I was supposed to be here at a quarter to nine, and I know you’ve probably called and texted a hundred times. I’m really, really sorry.” He looks down at his thumbs, fidgeting as he speaks. “I know this is going to sound lame, but I got caught up at work, and then my car ran empty. I wanted to call you, but I left my phone at the office.” The man sighs again, deeper, the air leaving his body causing him to flatten a bit. “This has been a pretty shite day, all things considered, and I was really looking forward to this date tonight. I would like the opportunity to make it up to you.” The man looks at Aziraphale from behind dark lenses, a sincere expression of regret on his face, eyes peeking over the frames pleading for a second chance.

Hazel eyes, with so many gold flecks crowding in they practically shine.

“Will you let me try?”

Aziraphale is stunned to silence. He doesn’t quite believe that Gabriel ever intended on showing up at all. But then, why is he here? Did some other plans he made fall through? Did he feel guilty about blowing Aziraphale off and turn around at the last minute? Aziraphale knows he has every right to leave - stand up, say goodbye, and go on his merry way. But Gabriel did show up – the first of three blind dates to even bother – so maybe Aziraphale should give him a chance.

He’s mulling it over when he catches sight of the man staring at him, a flirty smile on his lips that Aziraphale can’t help find alluring.

“Please?” the man mouths, the hands he’d folded on the table finding their way up to his chin to aid in his begging. “Please?”

Aziraphale rolls his eyes to pry his gaze away from the man’s mouth. “Alright. It sounds like you had a hard day. I can’t fault you for that.” The man looks relieved. His smile turns slightly impish, and Aziraphale finds himself giggling without meaning to. “Why don’t we have a nibble and get to know one another?”

Gabriel smacks his hand on the table in triumph. “Great!” he says, reclining back on the chair like a large snake relaxing in the sun. “Thank you! I promise, you won’t regret it!”

A hint of a smirk twists Aziraphale’s mouth at the corners as his waitress makes a sudden and unexpected appearance. “Don’t get ahead of yourself, my dear. You have a bit of time to make up for.”

***

“So my mate rings me up, and he’s screaming …” Gabriel gestures with his hands as he gets more into the story he’s telling, and Aziraphale watches, utterly captivated. If Aziraphale thought Reuben was a good storyteller, it’s only because he hadn’t met this man yet. “He’s straight yelling, “They’re everywhere! They’re everywhere! And it’s bloodcurdling, ya know? Like straight out of a horror movie. And I’m trying to pretend I have no idea what he’s talking about …” He pauses to catch his breath in the middle of a laugh while Aziraphale, already in tears, pictures Gabriel sitting at home, listening to his friend Ligur yelling while trying to make out like he has no idea what the man is on about. “And I’m just like, “Calm down, buddy.” But at home, I’m biting my fist trying not to blow my cover. And the next thing I know - bzzt.”

Aziraphale sobers slightly, his eyebrows shooting up. “Bzzt? What does that mean? Bzzt?”

“Bzzt as in the line goes dead. And on my end, the world might as well’ve stopped spinning because I knew what happened.”

“And what did happen?” Aziraphale asks, on the edge of his seat.

“They’d destroyed it! The rats! Those furry little buggers, they managed to knock out the phone system! And not just in my neck of the woods, but the whole of London!”

Aziraphale’s eyes go wide. “That was you!?”

Gabriel points to himself proudly. “That was me! All because …”

“All because you fed a rat!?”

“All because I fed a rat!” Gabriel guffaws so loudly, other diners turn their way to make sure he’s not choking.

“I remember that day!” Aziraphale says, but not too upset since he’s not all that fond of his cell phone. Necessary evil in his opinion. Tracy made him get it so he could field calls from potential suitors. But Tracy, who spends hours on the phone talking to her fiance, was livid!

It gives Aziraphale no small measure of satisfaction to say he now knows the man who inconvenienced her.

“I didn’t know its whole family lived in the building! Extendeds and all! I thought it was just one rat!”

“And what happened to them?”

“Exterminator, I guess,” Gabriel says with a hint of regret in his voice. “Rats are smart, though. Resilient, too. I’m hoping they got away.”

His story brings to Aziraphale’s mind Reuben’s story about the rat in his walls. He looks towards the table where he and his date were sitting, but a new couple has taken their place.

Huh, he thinks. Wonder when they left?

Aziraphale, having ordered a second glass of wine, takes a healthy sip, but the buzz he gets from the alcohol is nothing compared to the one he already has from this date with Gabriel.

“I have to say,” Aziraphale says as the laughter dies down, “I was a little wary about being set up. I mean, you hear so many stories. Best case scenario, you find your soulmate. Worst case, you wind up in the boot of someone’s car. But this is going so well!”

“Yeah. Yeah, it is,” Gabriel agrees, becoming suddenly quiet.

“I’ve never met a real live Pied Piper before!”

Gabriel laughs, but it’s not like before - not as effervescent and carefree. Aziraphale looks down at the empty plates on the table, at the stray pieces of crepes and deviled eggs they’d ended up splitting, not a single full bite left. As it turned out, they both ordered really well. Aziraphale didn’t think it was possible for two things to be so compatible.

He was wrong, pleasantly so.

“I know you had a rotten day but thank you for showing up. This was probably the most perfect blind date ever.” Aziraphale watches Gabriel, concerned that his attention seems to be slipping away.

Before he gets to comment, Gabriel beats him to it.

“Aziraphale, I have a confession to make.”

Aziraphale feels the butterflies that have been dancing in his stomach during dinner drop dead, as if hit by a sudden frost.

“Yes, Gabriel?”

“I …”

“Crowley! Hey! Fancy seeing you here, ya old bastard!”

Aziraphale’s attention pulls to the left, to a man with white hair and dark eyes heading their way. No, Aziraphale amends. He’s going to go past them, to a table on their right since neither of them are named Crowley. Aziraphale peeks at the handful of tables there, but no one seems to notice the man calling over their heads.

No one named Crowley is responding to his call.

He is sort of making a scene. Maybe this Crowley is trying to ignore him?

But the man coming their way seems completely focused on Gabriel.

Aziraphale looks to Gabriel, staring down at his plate and concentrating on it, as if praying this man, whoever he is, will pass them by.

Who could it be to him to elicit such a reaction, especially when it’s obvious he’s got the wrong man?

“Gabriel?” Aziraphale says, worried that perhaps something they ate soured his stomach. “Is there something the matter?”

Gabriel closes his eyes and shakes his head. “Aziraphale, I …”

“Crowley!” The man comes right up to their table and claps a hand on Gabriel’s shoulder, hard enough to make him flinch. “How long has it been, huh? Two months? Three?”

Gabriel sighs. He turns to the man looming over him and smiles the strained smile of a man about to commit a murder. “Hastur! Buddy! What a pleasant surprise!”

“Yeah.” The man chuckles. “You look like it is.”

“I thought you were vacationing down under.”

“Well, I’m back now. Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?” he asks, taking no time cutting to the chase.

“Aziraphale,” Gabriel … no, Crowley … says, doing everything in his power to avoid the full intensity of Aziraphale’s confused gaze, “I’d like to introduce you to Hastur. He’s … uh … an old friend of mine from school. Hastur, this is Aziraphale. He’s my … date for the evening.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” Hastur says, extending a hand. Aziraphale takes it and gives it a shake. It’s cold from the outdoors but not unpleasant. Hastur, on the whole, isn’t being impolite. He’s just oblivious.

As is Aziraphale.

“I’ve been tellin’ this asshat for years now he needs to get off his high horse and start dating again. Nice to see he finally took my advice.”

“Yeah, well, now that I have, why don’t you make yourself scarce so Aziraphale and I can continue?” Crowley grumbles, shooting Hastur several venom-filled glares.

“A’right, a’right,” he says, putting his hands up in defense, “don’t mind me. Just headin’ to the bar anyhow. Ring me up later, Crowley. We’ll go out for a few. Maybe your friend can come with us.”

“Will do.”

“You gentlemen have a nice night.” He bumps Crowley with his hip, winks at Aziraphale, then turns on his heel and heads for the bar.

The silence he leaves behind at Aziraphale and Crowley’s table is so thick, it could suffocate a wild boar.

Aziraphale clears his throat first. “So …”

Crowley follows, a bit softer. “So …”

“Tell me the truth,” Aziraphale says, too emotionally charged to keep frustration from cracking his voice.

“And if you don’t like what you hear?” Crowley looks at Aziraphale’s hands worrying his napkin, as if he’s longing to reach across the table and take one. “Are you going to leave?”

“I’m going to leave anyway. I just want to know who I’m calling the cops on when I get outside.”

“Don’t do that. I’m harmless. I promise.”

“Who are you?”

“Well … as you probably already know, my name isn’t Gabriel,” he says, finally removing his glasses and setting them aside. “It’s Crowley. Anthony Crowley. And I wasn’t your blind date. I’m not the man your friend set you up with.”

Aziraphale moves the napkin to his lap and smooths it, giving himself something other than Crowley to look at.

“To tell you the truth, I had a feeling,” he confesses. “I mean, you don’t seem like the type of man my friend would usually set me up with.”

“What kind of men does she usually set you up with?”

Aziraphale chuckles. “I don’t know. They don’t tend to show up.” Crowley growls, shakes his head in disgust. Aziraphale is flattered by his reaction. But he has to ask, “I don’t understand why? Why did you do this?”

“I stopped in for a drink and I saw you sitting at this table, waiting for your date.” Crowley grins. “I have to admit, I thought you were a looker, so I kept looking. I heard you talking to the waitress, making jokes. You sounded like a nice guy. You told her how your friend set you up, how excited you were. Then I heard you calling, saw you texting, and waiting and waiting and …"

“And you took pity on me,” Aziraphale says, embarrassment wearing a pit in his stomach.

“No, I was angry! I was angry that some dumb fuck got the chance to have a date with such a great seeming guy like you and he bailed. Opportunities like that don’t come by all the time and he threw his away. But I saw an opportunity and I took it. And no matter what you think about me now, I’m glad I did. Because you’re great. You’re really great. And I hope that you’ll forgive me and let me take you out on a real first date.”

The table becomes quiet again - Crowley watching Aziraphale, Aziraphale looking at his lap. The whole restaurant seems to have gone silent, as if everyone around them who has listened to them laugh and talk and watched them share their meal is waiting to see what Aziraphale is going to say. From somewhere off toward the kitchen door, Crowley thinks he sees a few of the waitresses peeking around a corner, watching their table a little too intensely.

“What else was a lie?” Aziraphale asks. “Everything you said over dinner, was any of that true?”

“All of it,” Crowley says. “Everything I said about living in Mayfair, owning a Bentley, taking a permanent gap year, working as a nanny for kicks, being an obnoxious trust fund baby, tormenting my friends with a rat army … here … wait …” Crowley opens his jacket and reaches into his pocket, pulling out his phone. He touches the screen, swipes it a few times, then hands it to Aziraphale. “Take a look. Granted I’ve only had this since the recent iPhone hit the bricks, but I’ve got a few pictures on it that should back me up. My Bentley, my flat, a few of my plants …” Crowley ticks photos off as Aziraphale flips through them. “There should even be one or two of the rats. Ligur sent them to me before he ran screaming.” Crowley snickers in such an off-handed way, Aziraphale can’t help believing him. And speak of the devil, next photo up is of a work station covered in black rats rooting through the works and apparently sending London skidding back to the dark ages.  

Maybe Aziraphale just wants to believe him, but as far as he’s concerned, Crowley is telling the truth.

“I … I don’t know,” Aziraphale says, handing the phone back.

“What?” Crowley asks, his expression of newly kindled hope falling off his face. “What don’t you know?”

“Yes, you’re telling the truth, but …”

“But …”

“I don’t know anything about you. Not really.”

“Fair enough,” Crowley says, slipping his phone back in his pocket. “But can I ask you a question?”

“I guess.”

“What did you know about Gabriel before you showed up here to meet him?”

“Well, I …” Aziraphale sits there with his mouth open, expecting words to come out that don’t exist, because he didn’t know anything about Gabriel. Not even what he looked like. Tracy told him that she showed Gabriel a picture of him, and that Gabriel would know him when he saw him. But other than that, all he had was Tracy’s assurance that they would work well together. In reality, Gabriel could have stopped by at some point, caught Aziraphale waiting for him, didn’t like what he saw, then turned around and left, and Aziraphale would have never known.

But Crowley on the other hand - Aziraphale has been talking to Crowley all through dinner. Provided he’s telling the truth, Aziraphale knows more about him than he does his best friend, and they used to room together.

“Okay,” he concedes. “You’ve got me. Alright, Crowley. Sure. I would love to go on a real first date with you.”

Crowley reaches his hand across the table and Aziraphale takes it, suddenly recalling the look in Reuben’s eye before he signaled for the check.

Crowley has a similar look.

He raises his hand for the check.

But after not seeing her for most of their meal, their waitress walks over and puts two glass flutes down. Then she pours each man a glass of champagne from a bottle Aziraphale is certain costs more than their meal.

“Uh, waitress?” Crowley calls to the woman before she can walk away.

“Yes, sir?”

“What’s this?” he asks, perplexed by the sudden appearance of alcohol.

“It’s champagne,” she says, as if that isn’t apparent. “The house special.”

“But we didn’t order champagne” Aziraphale points out.

“I know,” she says with a wink. “It’s on the house. Enjoy it. Take all the time you need …”

[legobiwan]

Whumptober #9 (shackled)

TW: THIS GETS SCHMOOPY YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. I RARELY WRITE ROMANCE BUT YOU KNOW, TIMES CHANGE, THEY COME TO AN END, FOR A START. 

Fandom: Good Omens (Aziraphale/Crowley)

Notes: This not at all what I generally write, but these two have hijacked my brain in some weird ways. Less angst than usual, far more schmoop than I amn generally comfortable writing but it’s good to expand one’s horizons. Still grappling with these characters and universe, so thank you for bearing with me, the bar has been set high in the Gomens fandom, dear gods. 

-----

To shackle (v.): to chain with shackles. See: shackles (n.)

Shackles (n.): a pair of fetters connected together by a chain, used to fasten a prisoner’s wrists or ankles together

Aziraphale hadn’t been there when it happened. He fought in the war, of course - everyone had fought in the war. The actual Fall had went by unwitnessed, however, save for the small tug Azirapahle had felt in his chest when Heaven had opened to that great maw, flinging no less than one-third of his angelic siblings into the impenetrable void.

No one knew for certain what happened after, and first-hand accounts from demons were rather hard to come by. Rumors spread - some had tried to crawl back to Heaven, they said, the enormity of their error made real by the loss of Her Grace. Others welcomed their Fall, dancing, reveling in the maelstrom of indignity and damnation, internalizing their pain to use as a cudgel against others. Still some struggled in the new order, neither desperate for a return nor willing to accept their new fate with open arms. 

Soon enough, they all came to know their place, essences shackled to Hell, to their new master.

That, at least, had been the rumor in Heaven.

But Aziraphale had seen the angry, red welts on Crowley’s wrists and ankles in the beginning, and wondered if the rumors were true.

To bind (v.): 

1. To tie or fasten (something) tightly

 2. To cohere or cause to cohere in a single mass

 3. To impose a legal or contractual obligation on; be hampered or constrained by

All things being equal, it wasn’t that difficult to summon and bind a demon. Aziraphale found this perplexing. For a mortal to summon and bind an angel - well, it just didn’t happen and woe betide the angel who found themselves caught in such an embarrassing (and dangerous) situation. One would think Hell might take better precautions, but if the multitude of accounts regarding demon-summoning in the 1800s were anything to go by, this type of activity was categorized more as an occupational hazard than existential threat.

Still, Hell almost always came out on top, as the humans did have a tendency to enter into ill-conceived arrangements with whatever demon they had managed to wrest from the occult plane. The maths worked out in Hell’s favor (between the two sides, it was widely accepted Hell had better accountants. The devil was in the details, after all), and the house always wins. Doubly so when it came to making bargains with the agents of Hell.

And besides, the humans - well, one generally didn’t call upon a demon to do good deeds, now did they? It wasn’t a net loss for Heaven - those sould had been written off the ledger years before Hell got involved.

(Not that demons were called on to do good deeds, in general. That was, excepting certain situations involving Aziraphale and one particular demon.)

Crowley had disappeared three decades into the 16th century.  

And then one day, he staggered into Aziraphale’s quarters, complexion chalky, his hands shaking as he grasped the flagon of wine on the angel’s table, downing the contents in one long gulp.

“Where were you?” Aziraphale asked, hours later, neither he nor Crowley having moved from their spots on the floor.

“Summoned. Humans. Nasty business,” Crowley croaked, laying his head on the angel’s thigh. It took less than a minute for the demon to still, mouth open, snores soft as his chest rose and fell with a regular rhythm. Aziraphale wrapped an arm around Crowley’s chest, eyes shuttering closed with uncharacteristic sleepiness. 

The next morning Crowley was gone.

To chain (v.): to fasten, bind, or connect with or as if with a chain. See: chain (n.)

Chain (n.): a series of usually metal links or rings connected to or fitted into one another and used for various purposes (such as support, restraint, transmission of mechanical power, or measurement)

Most humans used a calendar to mark time. Aziraphale, being an angel and therefore accustomed to thinking of events in terms of decades and not weeks, used Crowley as his personal calendar. Or more precisely, Crowley’s clothing.  

Linens gave way to fitted garments. Heels rose, then tapered in concert with bottoms, which peaked and fell like the tides. And as fashion changed, so did Crowley, a serpent in new skin.

By the 1970s, Crowley had recycled his pants from the Victorian era (“Reusing pants, Crowley?” “Eh, everything comes back, angel. Besides, think of it as Sloth in action, er...non-action, this is. Why make the effort to miracle up something new when I can use something old?”) The long velvet jacket had been a nice touch, although Aziraphale had not been convinced by Crowley’s hair, and certainly not the mustache. It was during the contemplation of said facial hair (and how he might tempt - persuade, rather, the demon to shave it off) that the angel noticed the glint of silver, evidence of a long chain looped around Crowley’s neck. Aziraphale, having lost track of fashion fads somewhere in the eighteenth century, took it as another adaptation of the times and thought nothing more of it.

Except it was now the 1980s, and wide lapels and polyester had given way to egregious shades of neon and tight spandex pants that left little to the imagination. Cheeks flushed, Aziraphale was keeping his gaze trained on the demon from the waist-up, thank you very much, when something caught his attention. A raised outline, on the demon’s chest. If he concentrated, Aziraphale could hear the subtle scrape of metal against metal as Crowley sauntered through Soho. 

By the time the 90s had rolled around, (and had thankfully ended the spandex era, there was only so much temptation the angel could withstand), Aziraphale had a working hypothesis.

“It’s nothing, angel,” Crowley responded to his inquiry. They were two bottles of wine in, inhibitions fading with the afternoon sun.

“Crowley, you’re been wearing that - that thing for the past three decades. You can barely keep the same style for five years! Just tell me what it is.”

The demon glanced down at his chest, silver links showing just above his collarbone. Crowley tucked the chain under his black shirt, not meeting Aziraphale’s eyes. “Why does it matter to you?”

The angel frowned. It didn’t matter, shouldn’t matter, but - two bottles of an exquisite Shiraz was making it difficult to remember why. It was something about consistency. Something about being marked, about the symbolism. It was like wearing an amulet, or...Aziraphale’s mind searched for an appropriate metaphor. 

Or like a wedding ring, he supposed.

Crowley sagged in his chair.

“It’s Hell, angel.”

“What?” Aziraphale’s stomach sank. 

“I mean, literally, Hell’s idea. A way, uh,” Crowley pulled at his collar, muttering at the floor. “A way of reminding me who I belong to.”

Oh.

Oh.

“Crowley, this isn’t some kind of punishment, is it?” Aziraphale bit his lip, casting his eyes upwards. “For our, uh - you know?”

“Oh, well. No, I mean. The Arrangement - no one knows you’re involved, angel, don’t worry.” Crowley made a show of looking at his watch. It was new, large, and incredibly fancy. “Oh hey, look at the time, angel, I’d better be going.” The demon was already halfway across the room by the time he finished the sentence.

“Still on for the theater tomorrow?” Crowley called over his shoulder, jacket crumpled over his arm. 

“Yes, but Crow - “

“Super! Great! See you later, angel.”

The door slammed shut.

“No one knows you’re involved, angel.”

But Crowley hadn’t said Hell didn’t suspect one of their own. 

To cuff (v.): to handcuff. See: handcuff (v.)

To handcuff (v.): 

1. to apply handcuffs

2. to hold in check; to make ineffective or powerless

They had both been cuffed, dragged to their respective organizations, wrists locked together, hands immobile, rough, celestial and demonic rope playing the part of handcuffs. An angel in the guise of a devil, at the mercy of Hell’s whims. A devil, masquerading as an angel, offering himself to a second Judgement.

A simple snap would have broken their bonds. The line between angel and demon was not the thick, measured boundary both sides pretended (they were of the same original stock, after all), but in this case, there was an important difference. Simply put, bindings for an angel would not contain a demon and vice versa.

There had been no other choice but to go ahead with the plan. If they ran, Heaven and Hell would follow, track them through every city, star system, every nebula of the universe. If they went to their respective offices as themselves, feigning contrition, they would be destroyed. And fighting, no matter how much Crowley protested otherwise, was not an option.

And so they went willingly, bound not in body, but to the promise they made each other.

To hold (v.):

1. to support in a particular position or keep from falling or moving

2. to cover (a part of the body) with one or both hands (as for protection or comfort)

3. to have or maintain in the grasp

It took a week after the cancelled Apocalypse for Crowley to break down.

Nothing of note had precipitated the event. They had gone to dinner - an adorable French cafe nestled at the edge of Hyde Park. It boasted a crepe bar, truffle gnocchi, and a delightful Rosemary Vesper cocktail, of which Crowley had partaken of three before hurriedly moving on to the wine list with more frantic zeal than seemed appropriate for the occasion. 

Still, the dinner passed with idle conversation and the scraping of silverware, an altogether pleasant experience. Bellies full, they ambled through the park, Aziraphale chatting about nothing at all as the London sun gave up its struggle to break through the haze of mid-winter, ceding its territory to dusk, then to evening’s dark blanket.

A few ducks huddled near the Round Pond, no doubt to find warmth in the cooling air. Aziraphale envied their closeness, his gaze flitting towards the thin, shivering figure at his side. Ridiculous, really, to be jealous of animals only acting according to their nature.

Crowley shoved his hands further into his jacket pockets, shoulders taut, high around his ears.

“Crowley, is everything okay?” Aziraphale worried at his hands. The demon had been - well, for lack of a better word, off the whole night.

“Mmnnit’s fine, just a little chilly out here. You know, sssnake and all.” Crowley shrugged, kicking at some loose dirt.

“Really, Crowley just - “ In two steps Aziraphale was at Crowley’s side, arm poised above the demon’s shoulders, protective instinct hijacking his better judgement.

Crowley’s eyes went moon-wide.

And then the demon deflated, burying his face in his hands.

“I can’t do this anymore, angel.”

The next moment were a blur. Hands grabbed at thick, woolen clothing, wet eyes found sanctuary in the crook of Aziraphale’s neck, mumbled, broken confessions whispered into his shoulder.

They were on the grass, Aziraphale leaning against a sturdy oak tree, a tangled mess of demon in his arms. The angel stroked the soft, fiery air, whispering nothing syllables as he held Crowley in his arms.

It’s going to be alright, he said. And for the first time in centuries, Aziraphale believes it.

To tie up (v.):

1) To restrain from normal movement.

Aziraphale tightened the final knot. The demon certainly wasn’t going anywhere. Not without his help, that was.  

2)  To keep busy.

The angel chuckled to himself, running a hand through Crowley’s hair, tugging lightly at the roots. They would both by rather busy for next few hours. 

3) Preempt the use of

Yes, well, Aziraphale flushed. That was rather the point, was it not?

4) To connect closely

It was a gesture of trust, all of this, the way Crowley allowed himself wholly into Aziraphale’s care. It was a responsibility, a solemn duty, to be gifted with the small, glowing orb of Crowley’s trust, and Aziraphale swore to never breach, never break what he had been given. Later, he’ll wrap Crowley in his arms, when it was all done, when love poured from the demon in tired, euphoric waves, their limbs tangled together, cocooned by thick, soft duvets and softer emotions. 

Aziraphale smiled.

To secure (v.): To make permanent.

Aziraphale held his hand to his face, silver band gleaming in the moonlight. Long fingers intertwined with his own, the metal of Crowley’s own ring cool against the angel’s lips.

“You’re trapped now, angel,” Crowley hummed, waggling his ring finger. “Shackled by a demon.”

Aziraphale wrapped his arms around his husband’s neck. 

He wouldn’t have it any other way.

legobiwan does whumptober

[chiseler]

VAUDEVILLE & BROADWAY THE HARD WAY

Like a lot of poor kids on the Lower East Side around the start of the twentieth century. the brothers Cliff and Max Gordon turned to show business as a way up and out. Cliff, who was older, made it big in vaudeville, and in effect it killed him. Max became one of the most successful producers in Broadway history, and survived to write a memoir about it.

They were born Morris and Mechel Saltpeter in 1880 and '92, two of eight kids. Their parents had grown up and married in a village in Poland. They were strict Orthodox Jews who spoke Yiddish, never learning English or participating much in American life. Dad, bearded and pious as a rabbi, pressed pants in a Montgomery Street sweatshop for eleven dollars a week. Mom kept house. Old-school Orthodox tradition condemned theater and movies as time-wasting frivolities. In his memoir Max Gordon Presents Max says his mother never saw a movie and came to only one of the many shows he mounted. At first the family squeezed into three rooms in a tenement on Goerck Street (now Baruch Place), and shared an outhouse behind the building with the other tenants. Later they moved a short distance to a four-room tenement apartment with a bathroom at the end of the hall on Lewis Street.

Cliff left school at the age of twelve to contribute to the family's income. In his teens he started hanging out at the variety theaters on the Bowery with a pal of his, Will Fox. Born Wilhelm Fried in Hungary in 1879, Will was brought to the Lower East Side when he was nine months old. Impressed with the "Dutch" (German) antics of the comedy duo Weber & Fields, who were Lower East Side guys themselves, the teens simply copied them. Cliff played the Fields part, Will did Weber. They got small bookings in and around the city, making five or ten bucks a night. Cliff's parents were not happy, but they couldn't stop him.

According to Upton Sinclair Presents William Fox, an as-told-to biography, one night after a gig in Bayonne Cliff and Will found that the booker had absconded with their pay. Penniless, they walked from Bayonne to Jersey City, where Will found a bit of cardboard and a pencil and made a sign, BLIND. He hung it on Will and stood him next to the ferry entrance with his hand out as the morning commuters headed across the river for Manhattan. They not only earned their two-cent fares but reached New York with four cents extra. Another time they did their schtick in Arlington Hall on St. Mark's Place as part of a benefit for the former welterweight prizefighter Spike Hennessey, who was then battling consumption. The audience booed and hissed them; Spike was so angry at them for ruining the evening that he refused to pay them, and socked Cliff in the eye as well. "When Cliff arrived home with one eye and no money, and told his father what had happened, his father punched the other eye and blacked that," Sinclair writes.

Fox gave up performing, but went on to a big career in movies, building the empire that became Twentieth Century Fox. Cliff stuck with performing and soon got a slot as the Dutch comic with Al Reeve's Big Beauty Show. Born in 1864, Reeves had grown up Catholic in the Five Points, a policeman's son. By fourteen was performing on the Bowery as a banjo-plucking blackface minstrel. Through the 1880s he toured the early vaudeville and burlesque circuits. He billed himself as The World's Greatest Banjoist and Comedian, and although by contemporary reports he was neither, he was an impressive, bigger-than-life presence on stage and off. As he got famous he sported a lot of diamonds and other jewels on his person, and got himself a diamond-encrusted banjo.

By the early 1890s he was producing and emceeing his own burlesque revues, which were considered among the finest of the era. Burlesque wasn't yet equated with striptease; it was more like a minstrel show or vaudeville with a leg show as the centerpiece. "Dirty" burlesque and stripping came along in the next century. The Big Beauty Show featured up to forty girls. Al claimed to have invented the tableau vivant, in which they posed as "living statues" in classical, mythological or just fanciful scenarios, any excuse for them to appear without a lot of clothes on. They couldn't move a muscle, or cops might stop the show for lewd behavior. Comics, musical acts and Reeves himself rounded out the bill. A young Al Jolson got work touring with Reeves. In The Jazz Singer, when Jolson does the fingers-in-the-mouth bird-whistling break in "Toot, Toot Tootsie," he's showing off a trick he learned from Reeves. Jolson's whole peppier-than-thou approach to blackface performance showed a lot of Reeves' influence.

Max was nine when Cliff took him to a matinee of the Reeves revue at Miner's Bowery Theatre. It was Max's first time in a theater. He remembered that though the chorus girls were big and fleshy they were also "gay, spritely, buoyant, full of grace and delight." He was agog at Reeves, "the grandest man I had ever seen," and all his jewels. Cliff, in baggy trousers and long frock coat, with a loopy bow tie under a fly-away collar (think Professor Irwin Corey), was then perfecting his signature routine, "the German Senator." It was a combination of a Dutch act and a minstrel show stump speech, a comic monologue on political and social topics of the day. "Friendts and Vellor Voters," Cliff would begin, "I am gladt to address such a massage of beoples, and vill distress you mit all der elephance dot is in me." He'd go on in that vein to crack jokes about whoever was president at the time, the newfangled automobile, trade unions, women's suffrage, whatever was in the headlines. Max was entranced and began haunting the variety and vaudeville houses on the Bowery and around Union Square.

Max was a ten-year-old participant when a riot broke out at the funeral procession for Rabbi Jacob Joseph on July 30, 1902. Several of the small Orthodox synagogues on the Lower East Side had chipped in to bring Joseph from Poland in 1888 to be their first (and as it turned out last) chief rabbi. From the start he ran into opposition from other Orthodox and Hasidic congregations, who elected their own chief rabbis in protest, and from the Reform German Jews in the city, and from the Lower East Side's large contingent of radical and Communist Jewish intellectuals. He struggled largely in vein to bring some order to the graft-ridden kosher butchery trade. Demoralized by all the controversy and reduced to dire poverty in his own tenement flat, he suffered a series of paralyzing strokes and died on July 27 1902 at the age of only fifty-four.

Despite all the acrimony during his life, the entire Orthodox population of the Lower East Side went into mourning. On July 30 much of the neighborhood shut down for the funeral procession that carried his plain pine coffin from his home on Henry Street over to the Grand Street ferry, bound for a cemetery in Brooklyn. A crowd estimated at fifty to one hundred thousand mourners thronged the streets. As the cortege approached the waterfront it passed the giant R. Hoe & Company factory on Grand Street, where printing presses were made. The more than two thousand workers there, many of them Irish, were infamously anti-Semitic. When the horse-drawn hearse went by, accompanied by two hundred black-creped carriages and the immense crowd on foot, workers on the factory's upper floors jeered, shouted obscenities out the windows and hurled whatever they could get their hands on -- nuts, bolts, blocks of wood, buckets of water. The crowd flew into a rage and charged the building. Max was among those who ran over to Delancey Street, where the Manhattan end of the Williamsburg Bridge was under construction, and carried back loose bricks to be thrown through the factory's lower windows. A delegation of Jewish leaders who got into Robert Hoe's office to try to end the situation claimed Hoe chased them out with a pistol. (In the publishing world Hoe is remembered as a collector of rare books and a founder of the Grolier Club.) A riot squad of some two hundred police showed up. Also mostly Irish, the cops enforced calm by wading into the Jews with clubs swinging. Hundreds of Jews were injured and scores went to jail, while only one factory worker was detained. Ironically, in 1929 the factory would be torn down and replaced by the wonderful Amalgamated Dwellings apartment building, cornerstone of the largely Jewish Co-Op Village.

By the time of the riot Cliff was touring the country with the Imperial Burlesque Show and making a princely seventy-five dollars a week -- enough that he could soon move his whole family off the Lower East Side, first to 106th Street near Central Park, later to Jewish Harlem. His father retired, though he continued to press his kids' clothes, including Cliff's tuxedos.

Max expanded his theater-going to Broadway -- legit dramas, George M. Cohan's musicals. He supported the habit by selling score cards and peanuts at the Polo Grounds when the Giants were in town. Despite Cliff's urgings, he dropped out of Townsend Harris Hall -- in effect the prep school for City College, where Yip Harburg, Ira Gershwin and Paul Muni also went -- to take a job as an advance man for a touring burlesque show. He'd go into a town ahead of the show to put up posters and do p.r. At seventeen he was traveling around the country in the company of chorus girls, low comics and cigar-sucking impresarios, getting a type of education he never would have gotten at home.

Cliff's star meanwhile continued to rise. He was never the headliner, but he got near. On big-time vaudeville circuits he filled the toughest spot on the program: he was a "closer," the last act of the show, who came on right behind the headlining star. Closers were also known as chasers, because the audience, having just enjoyed the big star, often started walking out on them. Vaudevillians called it playing to the haircuts. It's said that Cliff's monologues were so funny and timely that audiences stayed and roared -- until one day in 1913, when he took on the daunting burden of closing for the grande dame of divas, Sarah Bernhardt.

Bernhardt had been coming to America since 1880, was approaching seventy, and though some critics had ceased to be kind to her a decade earlier, her fans still adored her. Martin Beck of the Chicago-based Orpheum vaudeville circuit startled all of show biz when he convinced her to stoop from legit theater for the first time. Rumor was he agreed to pay her $500 -- in gold coins -- after each performance. (She'd learned a few things in a lifetime in show business.) Touring his Midwest vaudeville houses in preparation for a three-week stand at the new Palace in Times Square, she slayed audiences with excerpts from her tear-jerking greatest hits -- Tosca, Camille, Racine's Phedre.

Cliff was booked to close for her at the Majestic in Chicago that April. He told Max he wasn't sure he could make a crowd laugh right after La Bernhardt had them all sobbing and weeping, but he'd give it his best shot.

Even for a successful performer vaudeville was a precarious life and an exhausting two-show-a-day grind. Cliff had been suffering migraines. At the April 21 matinee, Bernhardt got the whole house bawling with her Tosca. Cliff, his head pounding, walked out to a cold and distracted reception. After struggling to get a chuckle out of them for five minutes he left the stage to no applause. He hadn't laid such an egg since the early days with Will Fox. Legend has it he moaned to the Majestic's manager backstage, "Any comedian who tries to follow Bernhardt is bound to die." He went back to his hotel room to gear up for the evening performance. Apparently he drew a hot bath and took some of his migraine medicine. When he didn't appear for the evening show, they broke down the door to his room and found him on the floor. A doctor on the scene called it a heart attack. He was thirty-two.

Desolate, Max soldiered on. He formed a partnership with Al Lewis. Another son of Polish Jewish immigrants to the Lower East Side, Al had also done a Dutch act. After some rough sledding at first, their Lewis & Gordon booking and producing agency earned a reputation for developing classy one-act plays to insert into vaudeville programs. One of the early ones was Eugene O'Neill's In the Zone, which had premiered in Greenwich Village.

Max was one of the few people in show business who became friends with the imperious Edward Albee, the playwright's adoptive grandfather, who ran the Keith-Albee circuit and was generally considered one of the meanest sonsabitches in vaudeville. In 1927 Max engineered a late-career comeback for one of everybody's favorite old troupers, Eddie Foy, Sr., who'd been on the boards clowning and hoofing since the days of minstrelsy (Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday had caught his act out West) and raised seven children in the theater. Bob Hope plays him in the 1955 film The Seven Little Foys. Foy even died on stage, of a heart attack, at the Orpheum in Kansas City in 1928.

By then vaudeville itself was dying. Everybody in it struggled to adapt to the big changes motion pictures were making to the entertainment industry. Lewis and Gordon broke up the partnership. Lewis went to Hollywood to work for Cliff's old partner, William Fox. Gordon watched in dismay as the upstart Joseph Kennedy took over Albee's empire, which became RKO. Fox invited Max out to Hollywood too. Max would later dabble in film, unhappily, at the urging of his friends the Marx Brothers, and produce a little television as well, with equally muted results. But for now he went in another direction: to Broadway.

Max and Al had previously put on a few shows there, including one hit. In 1925 they produced a play close to both their hearts: Samson Raphaelson's The Jazz Singer, set on the Lower East Side where they and Raphaelson had grown up. They did it at the small Fulton Theatre on W. 46th Street, formerly the Folies-Bergere (and much later renamed the Helen Hayes Theatre, which it remained until it was torn down with its neighbors in the 1980s to make way for a giant Marriott). George Jessel, who'd been doing vaudeville since he was a kid, starred as Jakie Rabinowitz. The newspaper critics found it too schmaltzy, but it was a big hit with audiences. When Warner Brothers bought the rights to film it they decided it should be a musical -- the stage version was a play with some incidental music -- using the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system. They clashed with Jessel over money -- he demanded more to do sound -- and over the simple fact that he couldn't sing. The studio went with Jolson, who had inspired Raphaelson in the first place, and had already done a popular Vitaphone short, A Plantation Act.

Now it was the 1930s, and the Depression was laying waste to Broadway. Yet Gordon thrived there. His very first production was a hit. Three's a Crowd was a little musical revue with a lot of talent participating: Clifton Webb, Libby Holman (whom Webb nicknamed the Statue of Libby), Fred Allen and Fred MacMurray on stage, with songs for Holman like "Body and Soul" and "Something to Remember You By," and Max's pal Groucho contributing some gag material. It ran from October 1930 into the summer of '31. He followed it directly with more hits -- the revue The Band Wagon, starring Fred and Estelle Astaire, which featured "Dancing in the Dark"; a Jerome Kern musical, The Cat and the Fiddle, with Eddie Foy Jr. in the cast; Noel Coward's racy Design for Living, starring Coward, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, who all co-produced it with Max.

In the 1933-'34 season he had four hits running simultaneously, a pretty stunning feat. The next season Gordon achieved what everyone said was impossible, convincing the Rockefellers to back his idea for a lavish operetta about the Strausses, The Great Waltz, to be performed in the large Rockefeller Center Theatre (the companion to Radio City Music Hall, torn down in the 1950s). At three dollars a ticket in the depths of the Depression it filled the 3500-seat hall with families and tourists, ran for more than 250 performances and made tons of money. Max's friend Cole Porter doffed his cap in lines from "Anything Goes," "When Rockefeller still can hoard/ Enough money to let Max Gordon/ Produce his shows,/ Anything goes."

On the street they called Max a miracle worker. But it didn't all come easy. Over twenty years producing on Broadway he'd have his huge successes and his miserable flops. The flops could send him into bleak depression. When things weren't rolling his way he might go to the top of a stairway or a window ledge and threaten suicide. Remembering the peculiar way his brother had died, people took him seriously. More than once he would seek professional psychiatric help.

Through it all his broad interests and tastes showed in the range of comedies, dramas and musicals he put on the stage. They included George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's flag-waving spectacle The American Way, starring Fredric March; the historical costumer The Farmer Takes a Wife, starring the young Henry Fonda, who'd soon head to Hollywood to get his screen debut in the Fox film adaptation; Othello with Walter Huston (another vaudeville vet) in the lead and Brian Aherne as Iago, a flop; Huston in the much more successful Dodsworth, from the Sinclair Lewis novel, later made into a film; Clare Boothe's satire The Women, another big hit adapted for film; Ethan Frome, with Ruth Gordon, Tom Ewell and Raymond Massey; Kern's musical Roberta, which yielded the standard "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and helped make Bob Hope a star; Cole Porter and Hart's musical Jubilee, soon forgotten except for "Begin the Beguine," a giant hit for Artie Shaw a few years later; the massive hit My Sister Eileen, which ran from 1940 into 1943 with Shirley Booth in the role Rosalind Russell plays in the movie; and Born Yesterday, the Judy Holliday vehicle she reprised on film. His last production was the hit The Solid Gold Cadillac, with the great Josephine Hull (Aunt Abby in Arsenic and Old Lace), which ran from 1953 into 1955. Holliday stars in the 1956 film adaptation.

Through a long retirement Max couldn't resist kibitzing and threatening to come back and do one more play, but he never did. He died in 1978.

by John Strausbaugh

(photo: Cliff Gordon)

[mielikki-austin]

12102021

Hello! Lately it's been all about enduring the shorter days. Okay, they're not that much shorter this far south; our ten hour days are better than brother's eight hour days, but it's still noticeable with my seasonal affective disorder (my computer does not believe 'affective' is a real word and is trying to get me to change it to 'effective', but I've assured it that I'm not mistaken).  I have not decorated for Christmas like brother has, and I'm just starting to realize that I wish I was- though I may plan for next year since I can have a 'go big or go home' kinda vibe.  I'm thinking lights on the house, which I have no idea how to do, but surely I can figure this out.  It's not like I'd be the first person to try it, right? On to some photos! 1.  Crepe myrtle and the Moon - these trees are all over the place and they are one of the few reliable sources of fall color.  If only they were natives, I would plant more, but they aren't, so I don't.  It's taken me some time to figure out that 'all over the place here' doesn't mean they're native, and I want to stick with natives whenever possible. But I'll take care of the ones we've already got and love them- this one is next to friend Joel's condo and I just happened to look up at it one morning and saw the Moon hanging in the sky next to it.

2.  Hair decoration - a late birthday present arrived in the mail last week- a bone hair stick carved to look like a snake.  It's very me; I like snakes, and I have a lot of hair that needs to be corralled.

3.  Moon and Venus - another picture of the Moon.  I'm frustrated that I can't take good pictures of the Moon at night; this is the smallest Moon in the darkest sky I can decently photograph.  If the Moon were any more illuminated, or the sky any darker, the Moon gets all blown out and just looks like a big white blur.  Above the Moon is the planet Venus, which I'm told is getting closer to Earth in its orbit every day and will look huge in a telescope or binoculars.  I will try to see this soon before it gets too close to the Sun.

4.  Mistflowers - now that I've crammed as many plants into the rocky back yard and narrow side yard that I can manage, I'm starting to dig up patches in the front yard.  All of this was just planted with whatever grass was the cheapest when the house was built, and has been slowly converting to a low meadow as the years have gone by.  This is fine by me except for when it grows sticker burrs, which this patch of lawn tends to do, so in my continuing theme of all blue and purple flowers, I picked out this native to plant.  I've seen bunches of it in neighboring yards and it's always covered with butterflies.  So I started hacking out a space for it, which was a lot harder than I'd thought it would be and I didn't finish it until well after dark.  When I went out the next morning to see it in the daylight, and there were already butterflies on it.  You can see one of them on the middle plant.  Success!  I also sowed some bluebonnet seeds in the bed because why not.  I have them and they demand a lot of sunlight, so it's a perfect spot for them.

5.  Joel at the Bullock - there's a Texas museum right across from the UT campus that has an IMAX theater.  Joel and I went to see the newest Dune movie there (there was a movie made in the eighties and at least a couple of TV movies from other parts of the series); I had already seen it with Eric at a regular theater but wanted to see it at an IMAX because it's such a BIG movie with big, sweeping scenery and a big, thunderous score.  I don't know if I'd recommend it if you're not familiar with the source material because it's one of those really dense multi-novel narratives with a lot of politics and this movie only covers the first half of the first book.  But it's very pretty and seeing it at the IMAX was amazing and wonderful; the soundtrack has a lot of loud, deep bass in it that just rumbles through your insides.  I've gotten a copy of the soundtrack and my tiny computer speakers don't do it justice.  Maybe I can get to the IMAX again before it leaves the theaters.

Anyway, that's all I've got for now.  Until next week!

[2021laxteentour]

Day One (Arrival)

Today was amazing on so many levels. I flew across the country to actually explore California and not just stop by. I have seen so many beauties in one day and I loved every moment because there is just a difference seeing something in real life for yourself which brings a rush into your body. Seeing the Memorial and looking at the neighborhoods was very emotional for me by seeing how celebrated he still is after his passing, The Walk of Fame was really crowded so I didn’t get the impact I was expecting but it was still a rush nonetheless. -Paris B.

From the Hollywood Walk of Fame to Rodeo Drive, I was put in the path to explore greatness. Greatness when it came to focusing on a career and greatness when it came to how to elevate a business. While on the Hollywood Walk of Fame I was able to see some of the people stars that I idolized as a child. Doing so served as an inspiration to keep striving for greatness because that too could be my star one day. Alongside visiting the Walk of Fame, you know what they say you didn’t go to Los Angeles unless you went to Randy’s Donut. So far along my travels to Los Angeles for my 6th WECCAAN installment I’ve seen a thriving city on the outside shell. I look forward to being able to see the inside of the shell where the hardships fall at. I’m excited for the adventure that awaits tomorrow as we prepare to volunteer on Skid Row. -Roderick T.

Today we went to Nipsey Hussle's basketball court, store, and memorial area. I've also learned a lityle bit more about the story behind his death as well. Then we went to Hollywood and we saw, and walked on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. We also saw a cast member of the Fast and Furious 9 movie in Hollywood. I also saw the car/set of the movie as well. I also learned about the famous theaters in Hollywood and I hope to get an opportunity to perform there in my mother's stage plays/movies. Afterwards, we went to Rodeo Dr. in Beverly Hills to view the high class stores. This is my first time on a plane and in California. -Tiffany W.

This was only my second ever plane ride so I was slightly nervous but everything went well for me. I noticed that Los Angeles is a lot faster than Columbia and has such a diverse variety of people. Within minutes we traveled from a street with many homeless and drugged people; to a street with purses worth more than a house. My favorite part of the day was visiting Long Beach; it was what I had imagined LA to be like. I also enjoyed seeing the Nipsey Hussle memorials; they were so well done and creatively made. Although Hollywood was very chaotic, I still really enjoyed going there as well. We also visited Randy's Donuts which was really delicious and also something that I was looking forward to when arriving in California. I really enjoy trying new things and everything that I did today was new! -Ariyana L.

Today’s visit to Nipsey Hussle’s Marathon store and neighborhood was enriching which started with the community event at the school.  Seeing the outpouring support from the community for what Nipsey stood for was overwhelming.  In contrast, going to Rodeo Drive and seeing all the high end stores reminded me of how divided the country is - the have & the have nots. Long Beach area was fun with lots to do.  But even there, we ran across a homeless person. Hollywood Blvd wasn’t what I expected.  I guess since it is where the rich & famous hang out, I expected everything to look “rich & famous”.  It reminded me of New York.  A busy, dirty street yet full of history and landmarks. -Pamela F.

Starting the day off with morning circles was cool as everyone got to know one another. I really enjoyed starting with the crepes located in Pasadena as it introduced me to a different culture of authentic food and was really delicious. Also going downtown Hollywood was inspiring with seeing the stars on the ground for actors and actresses showing proof for their hard work and running into Han off of Fast and Furious. Stopping by Randy’s was super good and good to taste the traditional donuts that have been there since 1930’s. Visiting Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive was nice to see how the rich and famous live and spend their money and seeing the nice cars was cool too (different from home). Visiting Nipsey Hussle community was inspiring too as he has had an outstanding impact on the community. Out of all the sites visited today I really enjoyed the school that gave away food, water and clothing. Reminded me of what I want to be able to do with my community and I just thought that was amazing at how they were able to do with no cost to the children or parents. I enjoyed the day as it helped reflect on ideas that I want to achieve on my own. -Morgan F.

Today was a super busy jampacked day with tons of stops. I really enjoyed Long Beach, the weather was perfect and the temperature was just right for walking and enjoying the scenery.  Our stop to Hollywood stars was a bit more exciting this year, we were able to see some celebrities from the newest Fast and Furious movie that will be coming out in a couple of weeks (which I have seen every single one!) Closing out the day with a quick stop to Rodeo drive was calming from the busyness of Hollywood but was a nice addition to see all the shopping areas where-more likely all the celebrities shop.  I am looking forward to my favorite event tomorrow where we get to volunteer in Crenshaw neighborhood. -Rania A.

The first day here in Los Angeles was full and eventful. It is always enjoyable to catch up with previous WECCAAN volunteers and meet new teenagers as we embark on a new adventure. This is my second time in California and Los Angeles and it certainly feels like an experience unlike the first. Having seen Crenshaw and visited Nipsey’s several murals, I was reminded of the sense of pride a community will have during hard times. Yet 2 years after his passing, his legacy lives through the community. It brought a refreshing energy although the aesthetics weren’t your expected California stereotype. Sight seeing in Long Beach, Rodeo Drive, and Hollywood inspires aspiring beliefs of ones own drive for success. I look forward to what day 2 of this trip brings. -Steven V.T.

I really enjoyed starting with the crepes as it introduced me to a different culture of authentic food. Also going downtown Hollywood was inspiring with seeing the stars on the ground for actors and actresses showing proof for their hard work. Out of all the sites visited today I really enjoyed the school that gave away food, water and clothing. Reminded me of what I want to be able to do with my community and I just thought that was amazing at how they were able to do with no cost to the children or parents. I enjoyed the day as it helped reflect on ideas that I want to achieve on my own. -Morgan F.

Today, I met the other tourists to go to new places. We went to Subway for breakfast and went to a Juneteenth celebration. We then went to take pictures at the "Nipsey Hussle Memorial Sight". We took a 30 minute drive to the pier where we took pictures. Today was a great experience. Going to places I've never been, meeting new people, it's been a fun experience. -Darius W.

Interesting day, as we started by taking a stroll down Crenshaw Blvd. In observance to this Juneteenth weekend, we were able to see the local vendors up and down the sidewalk. Adjacent to the mural of the late Nipsey Hussle, the vendors showcased several different items for purchase. Then on to Long Bleach where you seen paddle boats, multishared cyclists, and boats. Took a walk over the pier, seen lots of lovely views from the shoppes to the eatery's and even the friendly people walking with their animals. Sharing this experience with my sons is the greatest feeling and meeting and creating relationships along with memories with WECCAAN is so well worth the flight! -Tia J.

My first day in California was awesome! The beautiful art work that was displayed in Nipsey Hussel’s neighborhood was just fantastic. I was surprised to see so many vendors outside of  where his store once was selling his merchandise. However, I felt that it took away from the memorial the community was trying to build.  As I reflect over this specific site we visited today, I wish I could have served during the first LA tour when  there was a chance to garden after his death. I am looking forward to day two of this awesome experience. -Stephanie L.

Today was an amazing day out in LA. Especially Crenshaw where we went to visit Nipsey’s shop, it taught me a lot on how his people truly cared for him and how much dedication he put into that part of the city, with his music and etc. His murals were very beautiful. To finish off the day with the late night walk at rodeo drive was pretty relaxing too ....today was truly a really good day! -Ashleigh F.

Today was long overdue. It's been quite sometime since I've been with a group of people and in heavily populated areas. That combined with the solidarity of our convening around service to others was a feeling that did my soul a lot of good. Although traffic was horrendous, I was inspired by the people out and about. I met many new volunteers today and was pleased to share the experience of exploring Los Angeles with them post-quarantine. I was thrilled to revisit Randy's not so much for my sweet tooth, but there's some comfort in ritual and one of SSA's while in LA is to visit Randy's everyday of every trip. Seeing the diversity of the people waiting in line reminded me how beautiful it is to contribute to the color of the world. I will surely make the most out of the sleep I get tonight; extremely exhausted currently, but in the best way. -Giovan B.

My family had been to California several times, Anaheim, San Diego, Santa Clara, Santa Ana but had only passed through LA.  While reviewing the itinerary, I wondered how the group would interact and if we’d know anybody since this was our first trip.  The girls were excited about the tour stops and the activities planned.  We went through the TSA check line to get through faster. Even though we arrived 3hrs ahead of time, the lines were pretty long.  The flight seemed long only because a passenger loudly talked the entire way and continuously pressed the stewardess call button.  -Pamela F.

[ginnyweatherby]

Never Too Old to be Young

Just a silly little story about how Lefou might spend a milestone birthday.

Happy birthday, Josh Gad!  I hope your day is absolutely splendid, and here’s to many, many more.  I’m glad you were born.

The morning started like any other day.

Stanley woke up with the sun, and he abandoned his snoring lover to allow him a few more precious moments of slumber.

He sneaked out of the bedroom into the kitchen to start the coffee pot. He rarely drank much more than half a cup, but Lefou could finish off the entire pot.  After pressing the on button, he busied himself calling their respective bosses over the phone, informing them neither Stanley nor Lefou would be making it into work that day.  If anyone asked, Lefou had contracted food poisoning, and Stanley’s car refused to start in the brisk February weather.  It was a rare occasion that Stanley played hooky, but it wasn’t every day your beloved husband turned forty years old, was it?

Ending his calls, he made his way to the stove and began to make Lefou’s favorite fruit crepes.  Strawberries were pricey this time of year, but Stanley didn’t mind splurging.  His man deserved the best on his birthday.

He hummed to himself as he cooked, and was in a generally cheery mood. He was going to make sure that Lefou had the best day possible. Lefou often liked to be the center of attention, but for some reason on his birthday he liked to keep things more low-key.

Stanley supposed after having forty of them, the thrill may have begun to wear off, but as he fondly remembered his fourth 25th birthday – the one where all of their friends had gone to play laser tag together – he couldn’t imagine spending his birthday lounging around the house in his pajamas all day.

He could hear Lefou beginning to stir from the bedroom (he had never heard someone make so much noise waking up before he met Lefou), and quickly filled a tray with their breakfast, taking extra care as he balanced the coffee in their matching “I love you”, “I know” mugs.

He pushed the door to their bedroom open with his shoulder as he wandered in.

“Happy birt-”

“If you start singing this early in the morning, I want a divorce.” Lefou said as Stanley carefully placed the tray over his lap.

“Hmph,” Stanley pouted, leaning over to kiss his husband’s cheek.  “Later then.”

Lefou groped around the nightstand in search of his glasses before plucking them on his nose.  He wore them more often now, saving his contacts for truly special occasions.

“You know I didn’t want to make a big deal out of today, right?” Lefou said, stabbing his fork into a strawberry.

“I know,”  Stanley shrugged, nestling in the bed next to him.  “But we have to do something.  This is a milestone birthday, my love.”

Lefou embraced aging with a certain grace that Stanley could only admire. In addition to his glasses, he now sported a full beard, his hair was beginning to gray around his ears, and he didn’t worry about the few extra pounds he’d acquired over the last couple of years.

Stanley couldn’t say the same thing about himself… the day he found his first gray hair had been traumatic, as he raced to the nearest store to stock up on hair dye.

“Well, what’ll it be, then?”  Lefou cut off a piece of his crepe and stuck it in his mouth.  “Hopefully nothing as crazy as Gaston’s 40th.”

Stanley chuckled at the memory.  Gaston had turned the dreaded four-oh only a few months prior, and while Stanley admittedly didn’t remember much of the evening, he knew it involved Gaston going through the most stereotypical mid-life crisis he had ever witnessed and bought a motorcycle in a fit of angst; and Dick coming to their door early the next morning asking if he or Lefou had any idea where his pants might have disappeared to.

“No, nothing like that,”  Stanley assured him.  “I’m not sure Dick can afford to lose another pair of trousers.”

“Good,” Lefou said, sticking a strawberry between his teeth, offering Stanley the other half with a suggestive quirk of his eyebrow.

It was nearly lunchtime by the time Stanley and Lefou made it out of bed.

Just when Stanley was about to get ready, Lefou lured him back with the offer to binge a few episodes of Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

Lefou wasn’t a fan, and Stanley knew he was using his passion for trashy reality TV against him… but he never could say no to a few (too many) episodes of the Kardashians.

Which is why they were nearly late to their lunch date with their sisters.

“Happy birthday, Lefou!”  Laurette, Paulette and Claudette chorused as they walked through the entrance to their favorite family diner.

“Thank you,”  Lefou said, picking up his menu.

“The senior menu is on the last page,”  Stanley said, peering over the top of his own with a cheeky smirk.

“My, my, forty years old,”  Lefou’s sister, Jacqueline tutted from across their round table.

“Your time is coming,”  Lefou said, bringing his glass of water to his lips.  “… unless you’re Stan, of course.”

“I can’t wait until I get my twelfth consecutive 25th birthday invitation,”  Laurette teased.

“I plan on taking my precious time getting old,”  Jacqueline informed them.

“I think Lefou was born thirty,”  Paulette said.  “I can’t see you ever acting truly eighteen.”

Lefou snorted into his glass, and muttered something about asking Gaston about that.

A little over an hour later, just as Lefou suggested heading out, Claudette sneaked away to the “ladies’ room”.

Stanley knew her well enough to know that she never used a public restroom without the company of her sisters – and that she walked in the opposite direction of the restrooms.

Lefou was looking down at his phone, when a plate of something warm and chocolate was pushed in front of him.

“Oh, no…”

Without much warning at all, four of the wait staff appeared at their table and began to sing a birthday song that made Lefou’s face flush a lovely shade of fuchsia.

By the time they had finished, he looked ready to crawl underneath the table, his face hidden in his hands, only the tomato red color of his forehead visible.  He politely thanked them – and the now applauding restaurant patrons as their serenaders made their way back to the kitchen.

“Oh, man,”  Jacqueline hooted.  “I am so glad I got that on video!”

“Usually you like singing in public places,”  Stanley nudged Lefou with his shoulder as his husband’s face began to return to its normal color. “Remember that time Gaston was getting over that bad breakup and you improvised an entire song about him?”

“This was just… unexpected I guess,”  Lefou shrugged, before digging his fork into the gooey dessert.

“Okay, I’m stuffed,”  Lefou groaned as he settled into the passenger’s seat of the car.

“It was that cake,”  Stanley said, despite the fact he was also on the full side.

“Where are you dragging me off to now?”  Lefou asked, as Stanley drove out of the parking lot.  He leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes.

“Why, does my old man need a nap?”

“Yes, but it’s not because I’m old.”

Stanley flicked on the radio and they rode the rest of the trip in silence, and he was almost certain Lefou really did drift off.

“Rise and shine, darling!”  Stanley said cheerily, as he put the car into park.

Lefou opened his eyes and looked around.  “… We’re going shopping?”

“No… well, we can, but not right now.”  Stanley said.

“Then care to explain to me while we’re at a mall?”

“Look in the glove compartment,”  Stanley said, with a mischievous smile.

Lefou frowned and opened the little door in front of him.  Stanley knew he’d found his treasure when he let out a little gasp.  “How did you get these?”

In Lefou’s hands were two tickets to a movie he had been itching to see ever since the first trailer dropped, but was sold out at all their local theaters.

“I have my connections,”  Stanley said, mysteriously.

“You know what?  I don’t even care.”  Lefou leaned over to kiss Stanley before he threw open the car door and nearly bolted inside the building.

Stanley blinked as his eyes adjusted to the fluorescent lighting of the mall after spending hours in a darkened theater.

“That was so good!”  Lefou gushed.  While their tastes in TV shows differed, their taste in movies tended to be more in sync, so Stanley had to agree.  Some of the special effects were on the cheesy side, but the story was impeccable.

It reminded him of when they had first begun dating, when they would sit near the back of the theater, sharing their bucket of overpriced popcorn and sneaking glances at each other during intense or emotional scenes.

“We still have a few hours to kill before the next phase of your birthday,”  Stanley said.  “Do you want to wander the stores a bit?”

“I’m really hoping this ‘next phase’ isn’t some sort of crazy party,”  Lefou said.

“I can’t confirm nor deny,”  Stanley said with a wink.

Lefou rolled his eyes as he took Stanley’s hand in his and dragged him into the nearest store.

After they’d walked off their heavy lunch and theater popcorn, they headed home.

“Go get changed, love,”  Stanley said, as he dropped their bags of unnecessary mall purchases on the floor.

Lefou looked down to himself.  A pair of dark jeans and one of his many, many Star Wars t-shirts.  “Is what I’m wearing not suitable for this ‘next phase’?”

“It’s up to you,”  Stanley shrugged, “but I’m going to put on a real shirt.”

“A real shirt?”

“One with buttons.”

“Ooh, sounds fancy,”  Lefou said.  “Should I be wearing a tie?”

Stanley shrugged.  “It is a special occasion, after all.”

Lefou wandered back into their room to change, just as Stanley’s phone buzzed.  A text alert from Gaston.

G:  Did you blab?

S:  Such faith you have in me

G:  That wasn’t a no

S:  He’s getting dressed now

S:  He thinks it’s something fancy

S:  I think he’s putting on a tie

G:  Good

G:  I bet it’s the pink one

Gaston’s intuitions proved to be correct, as Lefou walked back into the living area, still sporting his denim, but now wearing a collared shirt and his favorite pink bowtie.  Stanley had never met anyone else with such an expansive collection of bowties, much less someone who managed to fit them into casual wear as often as Lefou.

“Does this look suitable?”

“You look wonderful, as always,”  Stanley promised.  “Now allow me to go find something to go with it.”

As he made his way back down the hall, he heard Lefou fall onto the couch with a muffled thud, and the TV flick on.  Lefou had long since learned that Stanley wasn’t quick to get ready.

“Okay, babe, open your eyes,”  Stanley instructed, as he shifted the car into park.  About a mile ago, he’d informed Lefou he had to keep them shut, not wanting to spoil his surprise.  Their true destination was actually only a few blocks away from their front door, so Stanley drove them up and down side-streets and back again in order to lengthen their trip and to disorient Lefou.

Stanley watched as Lefou blinked behind his glasses, his face falling into a frown.

“… Tom’s house?”

“Happy birthday, love!”  Stanley said, with what must have been a ridiculous smile on his face.

“I don’t know what you’re planning,”  Lefou said, suspiciously, as he unsnapped his seatbelt, “but I suppose it’s better than a club or something.”

“Have you ever gone clubbing?”  Stanley asked, incredulously.

“You didn’t know me in University,”  Lefou said, with a wink.  With that, he made his way to their friend’s door.

Gaston opened it, a beer in hand, a wide grin on his face.  “About time!”

“It isn’t my fault that Stan decided to take forty five minutes to drive three blocks,”  Lefou said.

“I think you’ll find it was forty minutes even,”  Stanley chimed in. “… see what I did there?”

Lefou rolled his eyes.  “Is that why you sat a stop sign for three times longer than usual?”

Stanley didn’t have a chance to reply, as Tom appeared behind Gaston, handing each of them a drink.  “Well, come on, I didn’t vacuum the carpet just to hold this party in my entryway.”

As they walked properly into the house, Stanley could practically see Lefou brace himself for whatever surprise was on the other side of their friend’s two-bedroom.

Instead of the noise and chaos of the parties of his youth, the only people inside were Tom, Dick, Gaston, Jacqueline, and the triplets.  The house was modestly decorated – which consisted of a little “Happy 40th Birthday, Lefou!” sign, some balloons in the corners, and a cake with a few too many candles on it.

Lefou’s hesitant grimace faded away, and Stanley watched his face break into a wide smile as his eyes lit up.

Stanley walked up behind him and hugged him.  “I knew you didn’t want a big party,”  he explained.

“You’re a bad man,”  Lefou shook his head.  “I’ve been dreading some crazy party all day!”

“You don’t trust me very much,”  Stanley slapped a noisy kiss on the side of Lefou’s scruffy face, before releasing him.

“I shouldn’t have doubted you,”  Lefou admitted, glancing over to a table with a few small packages on it.  “Are those for me?”

“Lefou, you’ve had forty birthdays, and you still don’t know what a present looks like?”  Dick asked, pulling one of the boxes from the table and handing it to them.  “Don’t worry, by the time you get to be my age, you should have it figured out.”

“Oh, that’s right,”  Lefou said, nodding his head.  “You’re turning fifty this year!”

Gaston snorted.  “I think I’ll get you one of those automated scooters so you can still get around.”

Dick reached over to slap Gaston’s head, but he ducked out of the way just in time.

“Well, open it!”  Jacqueline nodded towards the present in Lefou’s hand.

Lefou tore open the small package and frowned.  “Rubber bands?”

“That’s from me,”  Paulette explained.  “There’s forty of them!”

Lefou laughed, as their friends each gave Lefou their presents in turn.  Paper clips from Claudette, tissues from Laurette, safety pins from Jacqueline, a pack of crayons from Tom, some ear swabs from Dick, a baggie of cereal from Gaston.  Each one of them with an exact count of forty.

Lefou turned his head to Stanley after he’d politely thanked their friends for their presents – even if they were gag gifts.  “No present from you, babe?  You’ve been making fun of me for being old all day.”

“Which I wish he wouldn’t,”  Tom said, with a scowl.  “Lord knows when Stan here turns forty, we’ll really take it out on him.”

“Lucky for me, I’m only turning twenty five this year,”  Stanley said, smugly.

“Stanley!”

Stanley turned his attention back to Lefou.  “I was going to give you forty kisses, but I think I’ll have to save that until we get home.  I’m not sure these people could stomach something so sweet.”

“We do have to save room for cake,”  Jacqueline quipped.

“So, until then,”  Stanley reached into his trusty backpack and pulled out a little package.  “You can have this.”

Lefou opened the pretty blue paper to reveal a little photo album.

“Forty pictures of our life together,”  Stanley said, as he watched Lefou flip through some of the photos, a small smile coming over his face.

“That’s so sweet,”  Stanley’s sisters chorused.

“It’s beautiful, Stanley, thank you.”  Lefou said.

“Enough of this sap,”  Gaston said, waving them off.  “Who wants cake?”

The group moved to stand around the cake, admiring Claudette’s handiwork.  She’d always been so talented at baking.

“It was a challenge to fit forty candles on such a small cake,” Claudette said, as Lefou seated himself in front of it.  “But I was determined to fit them all.”

“You did wonderfully,”  Stanley said, “but next year, you may just need to get those number candles.  I’m not sure a man so old will be able to blow out so many at one time.”

Lefou narrowed his eyes at him, before leaning over to blow out all forty candles, without a hitch.

“What did’ja wish for?”  Stanley teased, as Paulette began to cut the cake and hand out slices.

Lefou dug his fork into the soft cake, and stuck it in Stanley’s mouth. “I wished for forty more birthdays as good as this one.”

[familydestinationsguide]

The Grand at Moon Palace Reviews: Unbiased Look at the Cancun Resort

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Overview

Located along Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on the Riviera Maya, the Grand at Moon Palace offers a luxury all-inclusive escape for families. Located outside of the lively Hotel Zone, it’s about eight miles from Cancun International Airport (CUN).

With nightly entertainment, a full schedule of activities and lots of dining options, this Cancun beach resort will appeal to families with tots, teens and tweens. Grand guests can also use the amenities at the two Moon Palace sister properties located within the same complex (Sunrise and Nizuc).

The large resort atmosphere and vast array of amenities at the Grand may be overwhelming to some. There can be a lot of walking from section to section (and even from the lobby to the beach). If this doesn’t fly with your group, you’ll want to check out an alternative. Those who love a lively resort, poolside parties and lots of on-going activities, however, have come to the right place.

If you’re looking for the Grand at Moon Palace reviews for your family’s next vacation, keep reading to get all the details.

What We Love

Water park with slides, a wave pool and a lazy river for the whole family to enjoy

Excellent kids’ clubs with bumper cars, mirror mazes and mini golf

Nine pools with swim-up bars, lounge chairs and an adults-only pool

Access to three resort properties with pools, a spa, entertainment, restaurants and activities

What we Don’t Like

Beach is often disappointing and covered with seaweed

Large resort complex means you might have a long walk to get to certain areas 

Location and Layout

Address: Chetumal Km. 36.5, Riviera Maya, 77500 Cancun Quintana Roo, Mexico Phone Number: (800) 817-1792 Website: The Grand at Moon Palace

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Things to Consider Before Booking

Budget

Packages

Family Interests

Check-In Time

Budget

Between airfare, hotel, food and activities, budgeting a family vacation can appear to be a daunting task. One of the best ways to take control of the budget monster is with an all-inclusive package. When you have everything bundled together, it makes it much more manageable. You’ll probably find that it’s not that far out of the question. Consider booking your flight and hotel together for even more savings.

Packages

All-inclusive packages at The Grand include accommodations, food and beverages (including top shelf alcohol), activities, non-motorized watersports, entertainment, room service and taxes and gratuities. You can usually find a holiday package for the Grand at Moon Palace. 

Adding in transfers to and from the airport helps to make things a bit more stress-free. There are on-going golf, kids-stay-free, honeymoon and anniversary packages as well as other cheap deals, so be sure to ask your travel agent.

With a stay of five to eight nights, you can get up to $1500 (USD) in resort credits. These credits can be used for “extras” like the spa, tours, the dolphin experience and golf. With more nights, there’s even more resort credit available. Even for just a three-night stay, you’ll get $500 (USD) in credits. 

Family Interests

If your family is into pools, lively entertainment and outdoor activities, you’ve come to the right resort. You can also gather your crew and head out to the El Rey Mayan ruins or the Mayan Museum. Bicycle rental is available, and there’s a 27-hole Jack Nicklaus golf course nearby (about 10 minutes by golf cart).

For a really fun and unique experience, book a tour to Isla Mujeres where you can swim and snorkel the day away. Off-site activities are not included in all-inclusive package rates, but resort credits can sometimes be used. The resort concierge can help with tour reservations. 

Check-In Time  

Check-in time at The Grand hotel at Moon Palace is as soon as you arrive. Check-out is at noon, but late check-out is available.

Features & Benefits

Amenities

Family Activities

Kid Clubs

For Mom and Dad

Dining Options

Room Information

Wheelchair Accessibility

Amenities

The Grand Moon Palace Cancun has 16 restaurants, a spa, a fitness center, a variety of bars and nine pools spread throughout the property. The pools are smaller and spread out around the resort. This is a very effective way of preventing overcrowding. Grand section guests can use amenities at the adjoining Moon Palace property, which has 20 restaurants, bars, lounges and snack bars. Two pools include a kids’ pool with water features. 

Family Activities

Between pools, water park and nightly entertainment, you won’t be at a loss for activities at The Grand. The hardest thing will be deciding what to do. There’s a full-size water park with slides, a lazy river and a wave pool. It’s worthwhile to note that there are age and height requirements for some of the slides. One has a minimum age of 12 and a height requirement of 62 inches. The other one has a minimum age of 10 and a height requirement of 47 inches. 

The kids’ clubs have games, arts/crafts, arcade games, bumper cars, mini golf and more. In the evenings, enjoy music and magic shows in the resort theater. 

The neighboring sister property, Moon Palace, has a Flowrider surf simulator that adventurous teens, tweens and even adults will love.There’s a swim-with-dolphins experience at Moon Palacee’s Nizuc section. Resort credit can be used for this.

Kid Clubs

Kids have got it going on at The Grand. The kid clubs have glow-in-the-dark mini golf, bumper cars, mirror mazes and more. There’s one for ages 4–7 and one for ages 8–17.

The Moon Palace property also has two kids’ clubs (one for ages 4-12 and one for ages 4 – 10). Wired Lounge, the teen club, has game stations, Wi-Fi, game tables, lounge chairs and a variety of parties and social activities. 

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For Mom and Dad

The Grand has an adults-only pool and restaurant. Book a relaxing spa treatment or mingle with a drink at several bars and lounges. There’s a nearby Jack Nicklaus golf course for you’re interested in practicing your swing. Don’t forget that you can also use the facilities at The Grand’s sister Moon Palace properties. They have a spa, fitness center and lounge areas as well.

The Grand has a library-inspired Speakeasy bar called, appropriately enough, The Library. From the outside, there’s a wall with books like a regular library. But it opens up to a bar. I’m all about secret hideouts, so I can see myself checking in here just for the cool factor. 

Dining Options

Guests can choose from Mexican, Italian, Peruvian, Lebanese, a steakhouse and an International buffet, as well as many more cafes and snack bars, at The Grand and the adjoining Moon Palace. 

Your sweet tooth will enjoy the 24-hour bakery and its selection of gelato, coffee, crepes and macarons. The French restaurant is adults-only. 

The Grand really comes through with its kids’ menus. Each a la carte restaurant has its own kids’ menu (rather than the same chicken fingers and fries on every menu) with items in the same cuisine as the rest of the menu.

It’s advised to make reservations ahead of time, as the a la carte restaurants do fill up quickly. 

Room Information

Rooms at the Grand have whirlpools, Wi-Fi, 24-hour room service and smart TVs. Choose from swim-up suites and garden view rooms with private balconies. The Family Deluxe Room has a room with a king-size bed and a connecting room with two double beds. There’s also an Xbox, kid-sized robes and a kid-friendly mini bar. This is a great choice for a family of four.

For a truly luxurious experience, consider the Grand Presidential Suite. It has one bedroom with a king-size bed and one bedroom with two double beds. There’s a furnished terrace and a separate dining and living area. It can accommodate up to six guests, which makes it a great choice for larger or multi-generational families traveling together.

Wheelchair Accessibility

The Grand resort has wheelchair accessibility. There’s an accessible pool in the resort’s sister property at Nizuc.

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Customer Reviews

I’ve searched the Internet to find out what actual guests thought about The Grand at Moon Palace. They give high marks to the helpful staff, fun activities and great shows. Some of the shortcomings involved the large size of the resort and the lack of one main pool (there are several small pools). Check out what some of them had to say.

Alternatives

The Grand at Moon Palace vs Moon Palace

For lots of family-friendly activities and amenities with less of a “luxury” ambiance, Moon Palace makes a great alternative. It’s within the same complex as The Grand, but it may appeal to those with babies and toddlers as it’s more on the “lively” (or loud) side than The Grand.

The difference between Moon Palace and Grand Moon Palace is two-fold. The Grand is the more upscale property and has more restaurants, pools and upgraded amenities like a water park.

Guests at The Grand can use facilities across all three properties, but Moon Palace (which is divided into two sections called Sunrise and Nizuc) guests would have to buy a day pass to use The Grand facilities.

Excellent kid and teen clubs with bumper cars, glow-in-the-dark mini golf and more

Poolside activities and a Flowrider surf simulator

Optional swim-with-dolphins experience

See the newest deals at Moon Palace

Paradisus la Esmeralda vs The Grand at Moon Palace

If you enjoy a tropical setting among exotic flowers and mangroves, combined with access to cultural sites, you’ll want to check out the Paradisus la Esmeralda. It’s located further south of the Hotel Zone near Playa del Carmen. This puts it much closer to sites like Tulum and day trips to Cozumel. There are 22 restaurants and bars, a spa, a fitness center, two lagoon-style pools

Water park with five slides, giant water buckets and three swimming pools

Clubs and activities for tots, tweens and teens

Activities and entertainment such as Cuban cigar making, flower arranging, live bands and traditional Mexican dancing

See the newest deals at Paradisus la Esmeralda

Beach Palace vs The Grand at Moon Palace

The Beach Palace resort has three pools, four restaurants, a fitness center and a spa. Guests can also dine at some of the other Palace resorts, which is a nice option for foodies. It’s within close proximity to the shopping and nightlife of downtown Cancun.

Theater with nightly magic, music and aquatic shows

Kids and teen club with a pool and water slide

Adults-only pool and relaxing spa

See the newest deals at Beach Palace

Conclusion

The Grand at Moon Palace checks off all the right boxes for a family-friendly vacation with its dining, activity and entertainment choices. Between the water slides, wave pool, Flowrider, kid clubs and various pools, your whole crew will have something to do. With everything available right there, you wouldn’t even have to leave the property.

The Grand’s more isolated location makes it a safe retreat for travelers. You’ll most likely have the beach to yourself and a few other resort guests. There’s a gated entrance and a long driveway that leads to the resort. When returning from off-site tours, the resort staff checks wristbands. 

If you’re more interested in lounging on a beautiful beach with soft white sand, you may want to keep looking. The beach at the Grand Moon Palace Cancun isn’t as welcoming as other areas, and guests have complained of it being covered in seaweed. 

Travelers interested in shopping, nightclubs, casinos and entertainment in downtown Cancun probably won’t be happy here. The Grand is not really within walking distance of off-site shops or restaurants. There’s always the option of a shuttle bus or taxi.

For a luxury all-inclusive resort experience with nearby golf and on-site activities, amenities and numerous restaurants, you can’t go wrong with The Grand at Moon Palace.

See the newest deals at The Grand at Moon Palace

Read more at https://familydestinationsguide.com/the-grand-moon-palace/

[ynibytina]

Meet Scott P. Harris!!!

After seeing the trailer for the documentary Being Ginger, I'll admit, I almost cried. It's hard enough being a ginger, but to have cameras documenting your love life must be unimaginable. Scott P. Harris shows everyone what it is like to face cruel prejudice in his latest hard-hitting film called Being Ginger, which hits selected US theaters later this fall. If you're like me and can't wait to see it in theaters, on August 23rd you can visit Being Ginger's official website and order the DVD or download the movie. In the meantime, you should get to know more about the famous filmmaker Scott P. Harris by following him on Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, and Facebook.

Favorite Musician: Led Zeppelin.

Favorite Movies: Casablanca, North by Northwest, The Big Lebowski.

Favorite Books: The Count of Monte Cristo, The Princess Bride, and Catch-22.

Favorite Color: Blue.

Favorite Holiday: Burns Night.

Mac or PC: PC.

Twitter or Facebook: Facebook.

Blackberry or iPhone: iPhone.

Chocolate or Vanilla: Vanilla.

Winter or Summer: Summer.

Pancakes or Waffles: Crepes.

Math or Science: Math is science.

Past, Present, or Future: Present.

Read Book or Go To The Movie: Movie.

Favorite Film You've Made: Being Ginger.

What was it like making your film Being Ginger?

Frankly, it was the most difficult thing I've ever done, but I loved every second.

What's an important lesson you've learned from making Being Ginger?

I've often been told that you have to find the thing that you're passionate about, and then give it everything that you have, but that was always fine in principle but actually doing it was another matter. Making the film required a huge leap of faith, and though I haven't released it yet (it comes out on August 23rd, worldwide, on my web site beingginger.co.uk) I already feel like it's paid off. The reaction I've had from so many people has really been profound, and I'm so grateful for that.

What is your favorite part of Being Ginger to watch?

I love watching the film with an audience. I've only been able to test it a few times, but after spending two and a half years on it, there is something so gratifying about hearing the different reactions to it. Most profound of all is the conversations that come up after a screening.

Are there any other gingers in your family? If not, did you feel special growing up because you were ginger before you started getting bullied?

I have an older brother and sister who both have red hair. My father did, but he's been bald my whole life. And my mother's mom did as well, but her's was grey my entire life. I never felt special because of my hair. I absolutely hated it from a very early age. It wasn't until I got to high school and all of my friends started doing "stupid" things to be different that I started to appreciate it, because I was already different.

If so many people hate gingers, why do you think so many people dye their hair red/orange?

I don't think that so many people hate gingers. I think people think it's funny to tease us, there's a difference. And while I get good-natured ribbing from my friends, that does have a tendency to breed more offensive comments from strangers because we do live in a world where it is acceptable to make fun of redheads. Ultimately, I think it's connected to a deep-seated human need to form hierarchies. I've spent most of my life trying to better understand bullying, and I've come away with two conclusions for why people do it: First, anyone who has been bullied or abused feels a loss of power, and some people make themselves feel better about it by taking power from someone else. So a kid who has an abusive father feels powerless at home. His solution is to go to school and be a bully so he can feel the power there. The second reason is that we, and I mean human beings, feel repulsed when we see someone who reminds of the things we don't like about ourselves. Someone has insecurity about some aspect of their appearance or personality and when they come across someone who has that same aspect, they feel the need to destroy it, because they hate that they have it too. Ultimately, anyone who is different is likely to be bullied, it doesn't matter what that difference is. And most of the time other people join in because they don't want to be the victim. On an almost subconscious level they feel that if they make fun of that person, no one will make fun of them. So bullies are usually hiding their own low self-esteem. That doesn't make it easier to deal with when it's happening to you, but it does help me now to look back on it and understand it. The other thing is that it can become a self-perpetuating cycle. Once you've gone through something traumatic, enough that it had a profound impact on your self-esteem, you become marked in away. Your low self-esteem becomes obvious and it only drives more people away. It's the reason that a bad experience when you are only 10 could have a profound impact on your life when you're 30. I don't have a solution for this, but I do know that I have very low self-esteem and I've had to learn to hide it at all costs. And slowly, over time, things have improved for me. Enough that I hope to one day not have to pretend that I'm self-confident, but to actually be self-confident. As for people dying their hair, that's really only a girl thing, no man would ever dye his hair red. And when women dye their hair red, they don't look like natural redheads because they can usually tan. It just means that you can't compare the experience of a fake redhead with a natural redhead.

What's the meanest story or thing you can tell about people who've bullied you?

Well, I have a long history with bullies that goes back to when I was seven. I don't know that I could pick the single worst, and to some degree, this is something that I talk about in the film, and I'd like to keep that for the film. I'll say that when I was 15 one of my bullies put a knife to my neck and told me he was going to kill me. The next day he swung at me with the knife and thankfully I saw him in time and ducked. The blade broke on the locker my head had been leaning against. I don't know that that happened because I was ginger. I had so many bullies at that age it felt like the whole school went after me. But I do think it was connected to what I said about being marked. And at the start, the bullying was connected to my hair.

Do you ever wish you had another hair color? If so, what color and why?

I wished I had a different color hair when I was little, but not now.

I heard that you went to the Redhead Day Festival in the Netherlands. What was it like to go to the festival? What did you do there? Do you recommend other gingers to go to it?

I had a fantastic time at the Redhead Days, and I am happy to recommend it to all redheads. There were about 50 different events, and I took part in as much as I could, but the real highlight was just talking to a bunch of people from all over the world who had this one thing in common. Our stories were all different, but it was nice to feel part of a larger community.

Why do you think people judge gingers so much? Do you think people who aren't ginger are jealous of us?

I think it's just because there aren't that many of us and we stand out of any crowd. This is slightly controversial to some people, but I don't think they are jealous of us at all, and I hated it when my parents told me that they were just jealous of me. I think that's a total lie that some people say to feel better about themselves.

Of all of the places that you've been to promote Being Ginger, what country do you think gingers get treated the best in and why?

I haven't actually been to that many different countries, but I have spoken to people from all over the world, and for every country, someone has told me that they were never bullied because of their hair, I have met someone else from that same country who had terrible stories about what they went through. I'm looking forward to going to Asia to see what the response is there, where we'd be truly unique.

Besides making films, what do you like to do in your spare time?

I'm actually really boring, I love film so much, I don't think of it as a job, so it totally dominates my life. The only spare time I've had in the last two years was when I went on vacation (either up into the highlands of Scotland or to Paris) and made sure to not take my camera along. But even then I was still thinking about films I want to make.

[spyzguyz]

Day 1 (5/9)

I woke up at around 6:45 AM to make an 11 AM flight to Qatar. I met up with my friend Jon at a bagel place near the A train, then took the hour long subway ride out to JFK. On our flight to Qatar I sat in the very last row, 47G, next to a large man from Albany who was visiting a friend in Kuwait. During the 12 hour flight he fell asleep multiple times and encroached on my side of the arm rest, which frustrated me. I watched three movies during the flight: The Front Runner with High Jackman, Passengers with Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt, and Green Book with Viggo Mortensen and Mehershala Ali. I also wrote two articles and ate a considerable amount of spongy airplane food. Overall I’d call it a productive flight.

The airport in Qatar is very modern, so much so that it has no distinguishing features whatsoever. It’s really like a very nice mall with some airplane gates in it. We met a girl from Ontario, Canada who was also on our flight to Bali, and we decided we’d all stick together until it came time to board our plane. We got chicken nuggets at Burger King and I drank banana milk out of a juice box. Once we boarded the flight we were surprised to see that there was barely anyone on it. After about an hour I found a completely abandoned row on the plane, sprawled out, and slept for four hours. I woke up, grabbed some water, then slept for another hour and a half. With only two hours and thirty minutes remaining in the flight, I watched Whiplash with J.K. Simmons.

We arrived in Bali at 11 PM local time. Getting through the airport was simple enough, and we met our driver outside. He drove us to our Airbnb in Seminyak—a beautiful open air house with lots of lush greens and sand gardens. All the rooms had king sized beds, and there was a terrance and roof deck with very nice views. We went for a dip and then I tried to go to sleep, but sleep never came. The girl we met in the airport texted us around 1 AM to let us know she had been robbed of her passport and money by a man on a motorcycle leaving the airport.

Day 2 (5/10)

I didn’t sleep at all the first night. Jon came in my room at around 6:30 AM to tell me he hadn’t slept either. No surprise considering how jet lagged we were. We decided to go for a walk into town. We found a modern looking cafe named Livingstone and had an American-esque breakfast of eggs and bacon. Then we went for a walk down to the beach.

The main way to the beach from our Airbnb was a fairly run down road that was jam packed (even at 7 AM) with folks riding motorized scooters. However, many of the bars, shops, and restaurants along the road were quite fancy, which makes for a weird juxtaposition. It felt like the road was built long before Seminyak became the tourist hotspot it is today.

When we reached the beach we walked south to Kuta and gazed at all the fancy hotels and villas that looked as if they had been built within the last 10 years. Then we turned around and walked back to our Airbnb in time to hang out in the pool all morning listening to music. Our friends Lee and Ty arrived around 11 AM and we again walked down to the beach—this time to get some drinks at a little shack. Then we met up with our other friend Eddie, who lives in Bali. From there we went to Potato Head , a really fun beachside club where you can eat delicious food, drink cool drinks, and look at great booties.

That night we went out to a bar in Seminyak called La Favela with the Canadian girl who had gotten robbed and some of her friends. La Favela is a massive and sprawling bar and restaurant that turns into a gigantic dance floor after hours. It reminded me of the enormous bars you see in Spring Break towns like Panama City, only much nicer. We danced for a considerably long time, then headed back to the Airbnb late night for some swimming.

Day 3 (5/11)

On Sunday we all agreed we needed to go back to Potato Head, only this time we would get a day bed. These are comfy little poolside mattresses where you can order food and drinks and lay out in the sun all day. However, if you want to get one you either need show up right when the club opens, or make a reservation ahead of time (we did the former). Over the course of 8 hours we ordered breakfast, lunch, and dinner for five and roughly two dozen alcoholic beverages (fancy stuff too, like mojitos and Long Island Iced Teas and stuff you drink out of a coconut) for a total cost of $300. I spent the day going from the pool to the bar to the poolside bar to the day bed. It was great.

Around 6:30PM we watched the sunset on the beach. Bali sunsets are really quite pleasant, and tons of people gather around to watch them, making it a fun shared experience. That night we decided to head north of Seminyak to another beach town called Canggu. There we went to another large outdoor bar called Oldman’s that had live music. It was filled with rowdy Australians and Englishmen not wearing shirts. When the bars closed around 1 AM, we went down the road to Sand Bar, another large bar on the beach where people dance until the sun comes up. To be candid, it was one of the crazier bars I have ever been to.

Day 4 (5/12)

Partied out from the weekend, we gathered our possessions and hired a driver to take us to Ubud. Before we left we visited a very Instagram-able cafe near our Airbnb where I ate something called a Swiss Roti. There are many places in Bali that provide food and an atmosphere designed for social media.

The ride from Seminyak to Ubud took about an hour and thirty minutes—mostly because the roads are all one lane and jam-packed with motor scooters. Aside from that, driving through Bali didn’t really make me feel like I was in another country. Almost everything is written in English, and most areas that I saw are fairly built up and modern looking.

Our Ubud Airbnb was even bigger than the one we had in Seminyak. It also came with its own staff that cooked us breakfast and made our reservations (for a total cost of $90 per person for two nights). Once we had settled in we went for a walk into town. Being that Ubud is in the middle of the jungle, the entire area is filled with lush greenery. We went for a hike along a valley and took in some views, then headed into the center of town to a movie theater called Paradiso where we bought tickets to watch the penultimate episode of Game of Thrones. The theater was filled with expats (as most of Ubud is) and the lighting wasn’t ideal, but overall it was a cool experience. After the episode ended we grabbed a simple dinner in town and went home.

Day 5 (5/13)

For Tuesday we had booked a day-long tour with a tour guide a friend of mine had put me in touch with. For $50 American dollars he agreed to drive us around all day long and show us the most popular attractions in and around Ubud. We woke up around 7 AM and ate a delicious crepe breakfast prepared by our in-house staff. Then we piled into an SUV driven by the tour guide—named Komang.

The first stop on the tour was the Ubud Monkey Forest. This is pretty much what it sounds like—a nice little forest where you can walk around and look at long tail monkeys. The monkeys run around and play with each other, and, for the most part, don’t mess with humans (as long as humans don’t mess with them). Still, we were told to keep our phones, wallets, and other possessions close, less a monkey get any clever ideas.

The next stop on our tour was the Tengenungan Waterfall—a decent drive outside of Ubud. The waterfall is cool looking enough, and everyone can jump into the water and swim near the waterfall, allowing you to really feel the force of the water crashing down.

After that we went to Bali Swing, a sort of ropes course located in the middle of a rice terrace. The farmers grow the rice in a terrace formation for irrigation purposes, but they are also quite nice to look at. At Bali Swing you can sign up for a variety of different activities, including zip lining and (you guessed it) a swing set that swings you over the edge of a cliff and gives you a neat view of the rice terrace. There is also a tandem air bike, which Jon and I decided to do. This is a bike attached to a harness that you can pedal along a wire over the rice terrace. To the naked eye, it almost looks like you are riding a back across the sky—ET style. Riding the bike was a bit nerve wracking at first, especially because every time the bike shook I felt like it was going to fall off the wire. But by the end we were able to relax and take in the view.

Afterwards we went on a little hike through the rice terrace and took in some nature. Then we went to a nearby restaurant where I had my first traditional Balinese meal—a cone of rice with a bunch of random meats, vegetables, and fishes in little bowls that you can mix in. This is also where I had my first banana juice in Bali. The banana juice is quite literally a liquified banana, but the juice tastes so sweet and creamy that I indulged many more times throughout the trip.

After lunch was the Kopi Plantation, a plantation where they make coffee out of feces from the Luwak—a nocturnal cat-like animal native to Bali. The Luwak enjoys eating coffee beans, and the digested beans (once cleaned and roasted) happen to make some of the most delicious and expensive coffee in the world.

The last stop on the tour was the Pura Tirta Temple. This is a Hindu Temple where you are invited to throw on a water-proof sarong and climb into a pool. From there you can swim up to a variety of different spouts and bath in the rush of cold water— the idea being that you are washing the sin off of yourself.

With our sins cleaned away, we headed back toward Ubud. However, our progress was disrupted by a parade of people marching through town toward a temple for some sort of celebration. This is fairly common in Bali, as there are over 180 holidays on the Balinese calendar. In the end we were late for dinner, but we were a little more cultured for it. Dinner was at a fancy vegan restaurant called Zest. Vegan restaurants are a dime a dozen in Bali, but this one was especially delicious. I indulged in a steak made of jackfruit, and also snacked on some vegan nachos and pizza. Exhausted from our day-long journey, we called it a night after dinner.

Day 6 (5/14)

We had deliberately only booked the first five days of the trip because we wanted to have flexibility to do what we wanted. On Tuesday night we all agreed to visit the Gili Islands next—a set of three small islands off the coast of Lombok, roughly an hour away by boat. Our in-house staff helped us with the arrangements, and Wednesday morning a shuttle took us to Padang Bai, where we caught a ferry across the Java Sea to Gili Trawangan (AKA “Gili T”)—the largest and most developed of the islands.

But “developed” is still a generous term. There are no paved roads in Gili, rather dirt paths. There is a bike trail that goes around the entire perimeter of the island, which is where most of the bars and restaurants and shops and hotels are located. Our Airbnb was not on the perimeter of the island, but several blocks in. When we checked in we also learned that Ramadan is currently ongoing, which is why Muslim prayers were being blasted from a loudspeaker perched atop a minaret across the entire island (unlike Bali, which is Hindu, most other parts of Indonesia are Muslim). Being that it was Ramadan, most of the island closed up early. We eventually learned that the island was at barely 20% capacity of what it usually is.

Regardless, we still found a way to have fun. First we rented bikes and rode the entire island (which took all of an hour). Then we found a nice spot on the beach to watch the sun set, which was even nicer than the sun set in Bali. We grabbed dinner at a restaurant called Naty’s, then popped into a few bars around the area (all but one of which closed at 11 pm). There were still plenty of people out and about, even if it was a far cry from the crowded bars in Bali. When we did get to bed early in the morning, we were awakened shortly thereafter by the 3 AM prayer, and then the 6 AM prayer.

Day 7 (5/15)

Our Airbnb in Gili was certainly the weakest of the bunch. We stayed in a set of three bungalows that lacked hot water and featured toilets that flushed inconsistently. But the two guys who worked there cooked us breakfast and gave us all the free orange juice we could ask for (again, juice in Indonesia is delicious). For Thursday we had arranged to take a scuba diving class at a facility a few blocks from our Airbnb. When we arrived a nice instructor named Sandra went over some scuba diving ground rules and made us watch a safety video. Then we strapped on wet suits and air tanks and hopped into a pool.

There is definitely a bit more to scuba diving than I considered. For instance, there are things you need to do to make sure your goggles don’t fog up, and that your ears aren’t bursting in pain as water pressure builds. There are also a variety of hand signals you have to learn so you can communicate with your instructor underwater. After about 30 minutes in the pool, I felt like I was ready to give it a shot for real.

We rode out in a boat from Gili T to an area closer to Gili Meno. Beneath the water there was a floating pier that had sunk about 10 years ago and was now a popular hangout for tropical fish. We strapped on our gear and fell backwards off the boat. For the first ten minutes underwater I remember having a really hard time seeing and feeling very worried that I might be doing something wrong. But once I was able to un-fog my goggles, I was awestruck by what I saw—thousands of fish swimming around a giant structure that had been reclaimed by the sea. So I flapped around for as long as I could, taking in the sites. About 25 minutes in I looked at my air gauge and was alarmed to learn I only had 50 PSI left (We started at 200 PSI and were instructed to alert someone when our gauge reaches this level). Shortly thereafter we all clicked a button on our scuba suits that inflated our life vests and allowed us to rise to the surface.

All in all we lasted 29 minutes. We would later learn from our instructor that we all wasted too much oxygen because we were waving our arms and legs around so much and not controlling our breathing. Good divers can last up to an hour and 30 minutes by swimming correctly and taking deeper breaths, but the excitement and novelty of the situation caused us all to sort of freak out. Oh well, it was still a cool experience.

After we washed up, Jon and I went on another bike ride—this time through the middle of the island. Then we watched another sun set and we all grabbed a nice dinner on the beach (I had chicken and very fresh calamari).

Day 8 (5/16)

Friday we took the ferry back from Gili T to Bali and caught a cheap cab to Canggu. We decided the night before to stay in Canggu over Uluwatu because Canggu has a better party scene. We had another nice Airbnb with in-house staff, although not as nice as the Airbnbs we had stayed in in Seminyak and Ubud. When we got there we asked our in-house staff to arrange to have massages set up for us. After our massages we went out to a very nice steak dinner at a place called Mason’s. A word about Canggu: It feels like a nicer Seminyak. It’s less congested, the restaurants and bars are nicer, and the area just feels generally cleaner. It’s almost like Bali took all the lessons it learned from developing Seminyak and applied them when building up Canggu.

After dinner (I had the pork loin) we once again went to Oldman’s and then Sand Bar, because one time just wasn’t enough.

Day 9 (5/17)

Speaking of one time not being enough, on Saturday we decided to go to a beach club again. This time the beach club we visited was Finn’s, which a woman later described to me as a “classier” Potato Head. It was also slightly more expensive ($390 for the day for 4 people), but we still got all the great food and alcohol we wanted (as well as two more banana juices), plus a killer sun set and lots of friendly people to hang out with.

Saturday night (our last night) we started at a bar called Backyard’s, but ended the night at Sand Bar. It may seem repetitive, but it really doesn’t get much better than partying on an Indonesian beach until the sun rises.

Day 10 (5/18)

Our last day in Bali, we hired a driver to take us to Uluwatu, an area on the southern tip of Bali that features beautiful cliffside views of the ocean and a famous Hindu Temple. After walking the temple (literally named “Uluwatu Temple”) and watching a monkey steal some guys sunglasses, we asked our driver to take us somewhere where we could buy some mementos for the trip. Unfortunately, great shopping isn’t why you come to Bali, and I couldn’t really find anything that interesting, save a “I 🌴 BALI” shirt.

We ended the day at a hotel restaurant and bar called the Double Six in Seminyak, where we took in one last great Bali sunset. Then we piled into a van and went home.

Final Thoughts:

Money: I spent a grand total of $2,300 on this trip, including my flight. In my opinion, that’s ridiculously cheap. We didn’t try to spare any expense while traveling—we stayed in nice Airbnbs, ate at nice restaurants, and bought plenty of drinks. Still, everything is so cheap it’s almost difficult to overspend. Meals cost under $10 and cabs to distant locations are no more than $5 a head. I can’t think of a single instance in which I felt something was too expensive.

Beverages: The beverage game in Bali is on another level. Every restaurant, cafe, and bar you go to has an elaborate drink menu featuring smoothies, juices, elixirs, “mocktails,” and shots with ginger in them—and it’s all delicious! The fruit in Bali is so fresh that all of the smoothies and juices are bursting with flavor. I only wish I could get banana juice that good in New York.

Food: I didn’t find Balinese food to be that unique. Really, the whole island is so westernized that you can get a burger, pasta, or bacon and eggs almost anywhere. There were some more traditional Balinese dishes, mainly rice based, but they never struck me as that appetizing. If you’re a foodie, you can definitely get some good meals in Bali, but don’t expect to be immersed in a world of traditional Balinese cooking, because I don’t think that’s a thing.

People: Balinese people are mild mannered and extremely accommodating. The Balinese economy is based primarily on tourism, so the Balinese want to be as helpful as possible to all the white people (and there are a lot of them). Speaking of the white people, I found that most of them were either Australian, English, Scandinavian, or Canadian, with a few Americans mixed in. Many of them were either staying in Bali long term, or taking a multi-month trip around all of southeast Asia. When we told folks we were only visiting for 10 days, they seemed to be almost surprised we would choose to spend such little time in a place like this.

Truth is, I wish I had more time there. It’s been four days since I returned, and I’m already daydreaming about going back. The island is cheap yet extremely modern, meaning you can live very comfortably. Furthermore, it’s just a good time. The beaches are gorgeous, the woman are beautiful, and there is a party every night of the week. I’m fairly certain this won’t be my last trip to Bali.

Bali Trip Day 1 (5/9) I woke up at around 6:45 AM to make an 11 AM flight to Qatar.

[trekwithtaylor]

Country #101 - Japan Day 3

The Tokyo Drizzle

Well, it was quite the first day of the trip! We got a relatively early start to the day and, after having spent plenty of time researching the metro and trains last night, I was ready to start the day and take on Tokyo’s transit. Our hotel was just a short walk from the nearest metro station. After finding the correct entrance we ran into a bit of an issue (the machines don’t take foreign cards) but it was actually pretty entertaining because a little peephole opened up and an actual person handed me my card back. It was pretty cool, honestly! We found an ATM, bought a 1-day card that covers all of the trains in the city, and were on our way. Now that we had everything figured out the transit was a breeze for the rest of the day!

Our first stop of the day was the Asuka neighborhood which is home to the Sensō-ji Temple and other historic and significant buildings. It was a great first stop as it was about as traditional of a Japanese sight as we would see all day. It was so interesting to see my first Buddhist temple (of many to come) and to begin to learn about the different practices. I also really enjoyed walking around the Asuka area and looking in the cool little stalls. Our next stop was to grab a quick bite to eat. We headed to Ichiran Asakusa which served ramen and other small dishes. You ordered out of a vending machine (which was super cool) and then received a ticket. The food was then brought to the table! We shared one large bowl with a few sides. I have to say, for my first real ramen, it was pretty tasty!

The next area that we visited was Ueno Onshi Park. Unfortunately, by this time, it had started to rain, and our supposedly beautiful walk through the park was quite wet and dreary. But I could see that it was a very nice park when the weather is nice! After wandering around Uneo Oshi Park, we took the metro to our next destination, Akihabara, where Edward really wanted to make a stop. The area is basically one huge shopping area for all things associated with anime, manga, and video games. He wanted to buy his friends a few small presents, and I also enjoyed taking in the overstimulation of the area. It was crazy but really cool, too! We went to a few different stores and the number of figurines of different characters was truly amazing. They had everything!

After Uneo Oshi Park and Akihabara we realized two things: that we needed to get out of the rain, and that I needed a new rain jacket. I got a new coat for this trip but realized once it started to pour that the hood basically did not work at all. So we hit two birds with one stone and made our way to the Ginza area, which is basically the High Street of Tokyo. We decided to visit Uniqlo in Ginza as it is home to their flagship store, which is actually one of the ten largest flagship stores of any brand in the world. And I could definitely tell! Once inside it was ten floors of clothes. And it was quite a cool store as well! I found an inexpensive, lightweight jacket, and we also bought a few inexpensive t-shirts. They had Shanghai Disney t-shirts which I figured would be much better to buy inexpensively now than to actually buy at Disney. So it was quite the productive little stop! And by the time we left the rain had let up as well. It was a win-win!

Our next stop was just a short walk down the road to the Kabukiza Theater. I’ve heard the story from my grandmother many times of her visit to the Kabukiza Theater over 30 years ago, so it was cool to see it for myself! We bought a ticket to a short 30-minute act of the play that was ongoing. I really appreciated the ticket setup where you can just see a short snippet to get a glimpse of the theater and the shows. It was a traditional Japanese show (completely in Japanese) but we were able to follow along with the English pamphlet. After the show, we visited the Tsukji Market which is famous for its fish market, though it was mostly closed up by mid-day when we visited.

From the market, we headed to the metro to make our way across town to Chidorigafuchi Park to attempt to see the cherry blossoms. We were, unfortunately, quite disappointed as they were not yet in bloom. We must have missed them by just a few days as it is technically the beginning of the season. We then tried to visit the National Garden which unfortunately was closed earlier than it had listed online. After two failed stops our next stop was thankfully just barely still open. The guard was very nice and let us and another few tourists in right before he closed the gate to visit Meiji Jingu Shrine! It was quite an eerie walk up the long pathway to the shrine as the sun was going down and it was starting to rain again, but it was cool all the same. The shrine itself was very interesting to see and was a highlight of the day. I’m very thankful to the guard for allowing us to visit! It was a rushed visit but we were able to see the entirety of the shrine and take pictures as well.

While our walk up to the shrine had been eerie, our walk back out was downright creepy. There were no other people in sight, it was getting quite dark, and, all of the sudden, sirens started to blare in the distance. Given our current location in the world I could think of two things: either there was an earthquake or North Korea had done something. But after searching online for any explanation we still have no idea what that was about. Anyways, creepy sirens aside, we then made our way back to the metro to visit Takeshita Street, a pedestrian street lined with cute stores and unique foods. We were determined to try two different delicacies: the giant rainbow cotton candy and the creme brulee crepe!

The giant cotton candy was our first stop at a store called Totti Candy Factory. It was truly giant! It was so crazy and very fun to attempt to eat. We were both quite the mess afterwards! We then stopped in a few adorable shops (where I bought some cute socks and a little Monsters Inc. outfit for one of my dogs… I am such a sucker for cute things) and then found the crepe shop that serves creme brulee crepes! Unfortunately, we were almost out of cash for the day so we decided to just split one. It was so good I could have eaten many by myself - I definitely recommend them! We had them at a place called Com Crepe Sibuya.

By this point in the day we were both struggling to even walk. My feet were killing me and we still had plans to go to the Samurai Museum. I somehow convinced Edward that our feet (and sanity) were more important to maintain since we still had a whole week ahead of us, so we then made our way to the Shibuya Crossing Intersection instead. It was so cool! I had, of course, seen the crossing before, but I couldn’t believe how crazy it actually was, especially with the unfortunate weather bearing down. There were people, and cars, everywhere, and the district itself was very cool and filled with shopping and tons of light up signage. Edward had picked out a spot for dinner but we unfortunately could not find it anywhere until we finally found a sign saying it had closed. We were now reaching peak exhaustion and just wandered into the restaurant next door. We had been searching for somewhere serving Japanese food but somehow ended up in an Italian restaurant (the signage outside was very deceiving). I offered to leave if Edward wanted to find another spot, but he was so tired he had no desire to try and find somewhere else. So, we had Italian food. It was okay but the best part was definitely just being able to get off of our feet.

After quite the busy day in Tokyo we then took one final metro ride back to our hotel. We are exhausted and have to wake up relatively early to fly to South Korea in the morning. It was definitely a short visit to Japan, and there is so much more that I want to see in the future, but the good news is that we both are seriously planning on being back for the Olympics in 2020. So, despite the lingering rain all day, thanks to Tokyo for a great day: we can’t wait to be back soon!

101 countries down, 94 to go

Read about my second day in Japan here.

[prague-lematic]

The last few days :(

Once Mer left, I realized how short of a time I had left... sad sad sad. As I write this blog post from home it’s so real to me now and I’m looking at my pictures realizing how freakin lucky I was for all of this experience. My god. I got a pilsner at the secret garden with becca after our final and then headed to the market near old town square and picked up my final czech republic sweatshirt and some knick knacks. Then somehow we found the AAU barbecue after looking through a huge park for about 3 hours. That evening, we headed to the “Pivni Festival” meaning Beer festival up near this little coffee place Brittney and Mackenzie had brought us to and the “futbol stadium.” It was so fun, there was a live band and we drank beer to our hearts content. This night was Olivia’s last night so afterwards we all went to the Charles Bridge with her and sat and contemplated everything. We sat in a circle and ate mcdonalds. Some guy from America walked by and muttered, “You come halfway across the world to eat mcdonalds.” We all laughed. How right he was. A touch of home on the Charles Bridge. Mcdonalds was a comfort, but yet so was Charles now. It was a melancholy kind of night and I still had 5 days left to spare. The next day I took some time to myself to finish my english paper by starting near the castle at this open garden place and got some apple strudle one last time. Then I wrote the rest at Bohemia Bagle and then I got myself my very last classic Eurodog with mustard and ketchup and ate it peacefully in the shade at the Wallenstein gardens. That evening we had one last dinner all together 5 days before the sad departure at this restaurant near the baby statue park that I loved so much. Afterwards, room 18 grabbed some pizza and champagne and headed up to the metronome park and watched sunset over the greatest city in the whole entire world. I may be biased but I swear it’s true. If you’re ever lucky enough to stay in Prague, you’re lucky enough. You will see everything I am talking about. You will meet the most loyal and fun people here. You will eat the most delicious and different food. Fried cheese for instance. Huh. You will fall in love every two feet with a new sight or view or just a building. You will fall in love with Prague. All of it. That night, Kellie and I went to the Dubliner as we had always wanted. We tried to get in a month or so before but there was a soccer game so it was packed. We both got yummy beers and sat and lsitened to some great live music. We stayed awhile before heading to catch the metro. The next day I finally ordered a pilsner at mcdonalds before going to Stromovka for the actual AAU barbecue. My bad, that was actually on May 26th not 24th. It was the biggest park I’d ever seen and filled with so many beautiful flowers and trees. It was never ending. Becca and I quite literally got lost in it, ending up at some little vegetarian/smoothie stand area and finding an old theme park. Once we got to the barbecue for the free food, we found the guys and we ended up going on this Huckleberry Finn kind of raft thing that you pulled yourself across a little river/pond thing with. Of course it was for kids and we had to wait a good 30 minutes for a mom to notice us and feel bad enough for us to get her kids off for a few moments for us. Pathetic. But so worth it. I laughed the whole way even when we almost sank it. During the waiting, I saw my first ever little czech version of an ice cream truck. It was a girl on a bike with ice cream attached as a freezer to the front. I didn’t get some but I was definitely impressed and glad to see they have some fast service for the necesssities as well. Later, Becca and I checked out the market off JZP (Euros and Pita Bread as Becca called it) and got Burrito Loco and sat outside there and ate it. That night, a group of us went to see a Czech opera at the National Theater by Dvorak (Czech composer) The Jacobin. It was entertaining even though we had nose bleed seats. It was good to see something live theaterish since the last time I had in Prague was my english teachers play in like February. That night we went to Beer Geek and played some fun games and ordered a few beers. I got a coconut beer which was pretty interesting. Beer Geek was the guys place where they played magic and escaped from all the girls madness I’m sure. But It was nice to get a taste of their place for a night. The next day I met up with a good friend from High Point from my freshman year, Tori and her good friend Delaney. I showed them around the castle and then we got beer in old town square. Then we split to get ready for dinner/pub crawl round 2. We got italian again before getting our discounted tickets for the pub crawl that night thanks to Kellie and i ;). Goodness, was that pub crawl the best thing that ever happened to us or what oh my oh my. We had a blast and the British man was there as well. So fun! The next day, I walked near the center with a friend and then went into the palladium mall to grab a snack. That evening, Becca, Zach, Kellie and I went to the TV Tower for a drink. Pretty cool to be that high up over Flora and everything. The 29th I did my own day really which started early with an apple pie crepe and a few eggs at one of the very first restaurants we ate at- right near our rehearsal space. Then I visited the John Lennon wall one last time. I walked the bridge by myself which was much needed. I finally went into the church, known as St. Nicholas Church. Though there was construction going on inside I could still see all the beauty. I was so glad I made the decision to finally go in. I said a prayer or two for my family and everyone to get home safe the following day. Then I drank some beer across the street from the church, with a view of the top of the castle. It felt right. I just sat and people watched for awhile, really trying to take it all in. I visited the Wallenstein Gardens again and visited the peacocks that live there. So beautiful. I wish so many tourists wouldn’t bother them, they’re trying to clearly defend themselves or scare people away when they open their feathers in an array. Still beautiful though. I sat there for a bit before heading to Staromestska for the Andy Warhol exhibit which I’d been eyeing since I first got to Prague. I went and wandered for a bit, enjoying the AC for sure. Then I made my last trip to the castle with Becca and died of heat stroke a bit and stopped at the starbucks and then met up with everyone at the charles bridge. We watched sunset. It was a perfect sunset and I ate a lovely ice cream trdelnik while sitting on the charles bridge, looking at the sun set over the castle. I touched the good luck thing one more time. We got some mcdonalds of course and some people went back to nap before sunrise however Alec, Matt, Kellie and I decided to walk around and grab a beer at the dubliner and then got asked to join the pub crawl for free (we got into M1 for free) and we danced for awhile. We had to stay awake. It was so fun. When we left M1 though and said our goodbyes to the pub crawl staff who had become like family to us, we headed sadly back through old town square and then back to charles bridge. Charles Bridge hit us like a ton of bricks. All four of us stood seperately around the bridge and because I was sad, a group of guys even stopped me and asked if I was alright. I had to explain to them this was my last night on the Charles Bridge. They quickly understood and gave me my space hahahah. such good guys! Eventually we all regrouped as Alec and Matt headed back to get ready for the airport. Kellie and I stayed and layed on the bridge awaiting sunrise. We talked about all the lasts and how much we were going to miss Prague. We were there alone at times, sometimes it only being us and the trash guys. Then it was just us for awhile and then as soon as light began to peak through in came the photographers. We had our spot though. With a dead phone, I just simply watched with amazement as this perfect city I call home came to life. It was so beautiful and melancholy and sad. I didn’t sleep my last night in Prague and for good reason. It was the only right way to say goodbye to it. I will be back though. It is definitely more of a see you later. Thank you for everything. I am truly a different person because of my experiences there. Until then, all my love... xo 

[hellojessicabrown]

Last Day of Vegas, Anniversary + P!@tD Concert

I suppose going back to work yesterday wasn't as horrible as one might think but it all evens out because I take Tuesdays off generally for sleeping in after late night volleyball Monday nights. Last Monday was our last in Vegas. We had scoped out a few places to go, grabbed our coffee from downstairs and headed to Paris to have crepes. We opted for savory crepes, picked out two we wanted to try and got in line. Unfortunately we got there at 11am and they were already sold out of ham so we changed from the Monte Cristo to the Roasted Chicken and Breakfast Crepe. Give me all the basil pesto please! After we got half way through one crepe we traded plates and tried each others. I love switching plates because you get to try more things especially in new places. After brunch at Paris we headed down to Sambalatte. We had passed it the night before and I remembered wanted to try it when I was looking up things to do in Vegas. I didn't realize until we got home why I wanted to go there, rainbow lattes. I guess we will be returning some day... We ordered another cold brew to split and took in the atmosphere. Jeremy kept mentioning that the cold brew here tasted like whiskey, I'm not sure I agree but I haven't had much whiskey to compare it to. One of my main goals before we left was to go back to the Bellagio to take pictures of the theater and grab a souvenir coffee mug because if you know me at all, I'm addicted to coffee mugs, probably because of what goes in them. This mug is beautiful and my favorite part is all the characters that are represented. Jeremy's favorite was the composer (top right) and I have to agree. He complimented the show with everything he did from jumping across the water to descending into the water playing the piano. We did a little more wandering but then ended up dodging raindrops until we could get across the street where we purchased some t-shirts and a photo album. Fun fact: Jeremy and I love to go around and find photo albums from the places we have visited. We have one from all of our cruises and then some randoms. It was so odd to have had it rain in Vegas while we were there. It ended up letting up and we started walking back to our hotel to collect our bags from the bell desk and get on our way to the airport. Once we got through security we had about two hours until our flight. We decided to grab nachos and water at a restaurant near our terminal. They were just what we needed to end the vacation right. Our flight did however get delayed and we waited on the plane for about an hour which pushed our flight back and we landed in St. Louis at almost midnight. Lucky for us, we were still on Vegas time! We caught a cab back home because Uber was going to be uber expensive at the time and the Metrolink was about to shut down for the evening. We let the driver drop us at the opening of our subdivision so that he wouldn't get lost and we walked home. Again, we walked a lot in Vegas so the trek home wasn't bad. Our options for dinner that late at night were Taco Bell or Courtesy Dinner. We opted for the dinner. I got chicken tenders and Jeremy got a burger. It was a great end to the evening. Tuesday was our 3rd wedding anniversary. We were going to have brunch at our favorite place The Mud House (you can see more here) but we had been eating so late for the past few days that we were not hungry. We opted for Starbucks instead. The 3rd wedding anniversary gift is Leather. Let me tell you folks, leather is the hardest one so far. Paper was easy, cotton even more so. Leather gave both Jeremy and I a hard time but in the end we figured it out. I got him a leather poker case with his initials because he had just rebuilt our poker table and wants to start poker nights again. Jeremy went above and beyond and got my favorite wedding picture etched onto leather. It is beautiful up to the frame around it. It perfectly compliments the colors in the basement as well. It came with a cute little leather square that I attached to my keys as well. At 2pm we headed over to Zen to grab sushi before we saw Beauty and the Beast. That movie was amazing. Every time they sang songs we grew up with as a kid I got goosebumps. They even filled in the story line and complimented the original perfectly. I will be purchasing that for our collection asap. After the movie we headed out to grab our favorite wine to celebrate our night. Robller Winery Traminette. Jeremy also built us a meat and cheese plate with crackers and basil pesto. We dropped the wine at home to chill and grabbed Ke$ha, you better believe we celebrated her birthday too. We headed to Treats Unleashed to get her birthday bone. She was so excited to get her paws on that cookie. We ended the night watching the new Rick and Morty that was put out on April Fools day. The summer season premier cannot get here soon enough. Wednesday came and it was finally Panic at the Disco concert night. After the last one we went to got rained out Jeremy bought VIP tickets to the Death of a Bachelor tour. We rode the Metrolink down to Scottrade, picked up our tickets and got in line. They let us in five minutes early so we headed straight to the table to grab our bag of goodies. We got a reusable bag, t-shirt, 7" vinyl and guitar picks. We decided we should head down and see where our seats were and we were beyond excited when we got there. Those were our two seats! No one behind us, no one beside me, straight shot to the stage. It was perfect! I had waited at least 10 years to see Panic at the Disco and here it was, in perfect seats. He even played my favorite song on the piano in the middle of the floor up in the air. Love! Our vacation may be over but it sure was amazing. I already cannot wait to plan the next one. We are thinking about Colorado. Questions for you! Do you have any suggestions of a good vacation? Even a few days long trip? What's your favorite show you've ever been to?