#my former neighbor was the one to drive me to the doctor and he was like how long do you think you’ll be

[countess-of-edessa]

getting diagnosed with tendonitis (temporary) and arthritis (permanent) specifically from ballet ON world ballet day is incredibly disrespectful. gonna keep doing what im doing though.

[mama2bears]

Guardian In The Night - Part 1

Parings: Tyler/ F. Reader (former rodeo star/ now a veterinarian)

Warnings: Injury, Angst, a few swear words, talk of death, fighting

Summary: You have known Tyler Owens for 15 years, meeting him while you both were on the rodeo circuit. Five years ago a tragic accident tore you apart. You never expected to see him back in your again, but here he is. Is there still a fire burning between you two? Will Tyler be your guardian when a prowler lurks outside your home?

A/N: I had planned for this to be a short one shot...but here we are already 20 some pages in, so it will be a two part story.

** SIX MONTHS AGO **

You had just returned home from a local farm, where you helped deliver a new baby colt. The miracle of life always amazed you, rather it be animal or human. As the local veterinarian, you most definitely saw more animal births then people ones, and that suited you just fine. You always kinda preferred animals over people.

Pulling into the drive, you saw a red Dodge Ram sitting in the drive and sighed. At first, you thought it was someone bringing their pet to you. Then, you recognized the truck, equipped with drills and rocket launchers. You had seen a few of his YouTube videos...but you never expected to see him again.

“What the hell you doing here?” you asked, jumping from the truck.

You first met Tyler Owens about fifteen years ago. Your father had been a retired bull rider and you had grown up on the rodeo circuit and was a pretty well known barrel racer. Everyone knew and loved your father, so they naturally knew and loved you as well. Tyler's uncle had brought the farm across the street from yours, and Tyler was often over at your house getting bull riding tips from your father.

“Well, hello to you too.” he quipped, “My uncle died, I figured you would know that.” he glared.

“Oh do I ever! I am the one taking care of his animals. I am just surprised that you show up. It's been what, five years now, Tyler?”

You and Tyler became best of friends rather quickly when you first met. Then, that night happened. You didn't leave his side until he pushed you away. Even after that, you called every day...until one day, you realized he was just never going to return your calls. You moved on with your life and out of state to go to collage. Tyler had moved as well and neither of you kept touch. You went five years without seeing or talking to each other. That was until now...

“I am here for the funeral...” he paused, “And I inherited the farm. I guess that makes us neighbors again.”

“You mean you actually are staying this time? Or are you going to run away like last time.”

“You ran away first.” he glared, then sighed, “Listen, I am not here to argue. I plan on staying. I just have to travel for work a lot...”

“Yeah yeah. I know. The YouTube famous tornado wrangler.” you glared, “And for the record, I only left after months of trying to talk to you and being shut out each and every damn time. Why would I stick around? You told me to get the hell out, so I did.” your eyes narrowed in anger, “So what do you want from me now?”

“I know you're the vet, and I know you have been caring for my uncle's animals.” Tyler said, “He told me how big of a help you were to him. I just wanted to know how much I owe you for taking care of the animals...and I want to keep you on as the vet and pay you to look after things when I travel.”

“When did you start talking to your uncle...or anyone else for that matter?” you glared, tears threatening to fall. “It's been FIVE YEARS Tyler! Do you know how many times he tried to call you? How many times I tried to call you?”

He shook his head, looking at the ground as he scuffed his boots across the dirt, “No...no I don't. I was an asshole and I apologize. I've been talking to him for about a month. I was planning on coming back after this season and help him around the farm...the doctors called me the other day and told me about his heart attack. I got back as quickly as I could.”

“He needed you.” you whispered. “He talked about you all the time. He became a father to me after my father died. I was left alone with no one. I tried calling you, but you never called back. Your uncle was the only one there for me.”

Tyler bite his lip, “Y/N...I am sorry.” Tears brimmed around his eyes, “I have no excuse for how I acted. I am trying to make it right. I am trying to get back on track. I am not asking for forgiveness or understanding. I just want to know if you are willing to stay on as vet and care taker for the animals. Just bill me or whatever. You don't even have to see me again if you don't want.”

“Of course I will take care of the animals. I have been taking care of them for the past two years, ever since I graduated from veterinarian school.”

Tyler took out his phone, “Give me your number and I'll tell you the days I'll be out of town. Call if you need anything and I'll pay you each time before I leave.”

“You won't owe me until you return. I normally just send a bill out to my clients once the work is done.”

“In my line of work..I like to pay ahead of time.” he stated.

You two exchanged numbers and he tipped his hat at you, “Good to see you, Y/N.” and with that, he was gone.

* * * Present Day * * *

You were sitting on your porch when you heard the music. You could hear country music blasting from the loud speakers before you even saw the truck. Tyler Owens was back in town, and he was making sure the whole town knew it too. It had been six months since he came back into your life. While at first, your meetings were very short and only about business, gradually, you began have friendly conversations, a few times Tyler called you from the road just to see how you were doing.

“Hey neighbor!” Tyler called, bringing you out of your thoughts. “We're back in town for a few days at least.”

“Really? I would have never known.” you flashed him a grin. “Horses are all good, but I think Tex misses you. He was laying on the porch this morning, staring down the drive way.”

Tyler grinned, “Aw, he's just lazy, that's all. He is always laying on the porch staring down the driveway. Hey, what you got going on tonight?” he asked.

“Nothing that I know of. Same old same old. I got some bills I need to mail out, but other then that, nothing.”

“The team and I are heading down to Big Mo's Bar tonight. Wanna meet us there for some drinks, maybe a game of pool?” he asked.

You thought for a moment before finally saying, “Yeah, sure.”

“Alright, see you then.” he tipped his hat and sped back down the driveway in a cloud of dust.

You finish your coffee and head into the house to do the paperwork you needed to do. If people didn't pay you what was owed, you couldn't keep the place running.

As you got started on your work, you left you mind drift back to about five years ago.

Tyler was the hottest thing on the rodeo circuit. You two had been the best of friends for the past ten years. He was about eight years into his career and on his way to possibly moving up into the PBR. You were on the top of your game in barrel racing.

It was a hot summer night near Little Rock. You on your horse Cisco, waiting to be called out for your barrel run when Tyler walked up to you you. “Hey sweetheart. Wanna go grab a few beers tonight?” he asked, his green eyes staring up at you from under his cowboy hat.

“Is this your way of asking a girl out?” you turned and glared at him.

You have had a crush on Tyler since about the first time you met. He would flirt with you and you'd flirt back, but nothing ever got serious between you.

He shrugged and flashed you that lopsided grin of his, “Yeah. I guess. You wanna go out with me tonight?”

“And next up is Y/N Y/LN...”

“We'll talk later.” You smiled down at him and gave a swift kick to your horse and sped out into the arena.

Your dog, Jack barking out on the front porch brought you out of your thoughts. “Alright boy, what is it?” you mutter, going to the front door.

Tyler was riding up your drive on his horse Thunder, and was leading the other horse, Tequila. 'Now what.” you mutter to yourself.

“What's wrong?” you ask.

“Thunder and Tequila want to go for a ride.” he grinned. “I can only ride one at a time. Want to help a cowboy out?”

You sigh, “Didn't I just tell you that I had paper work to catch up on? If I don't send my clients bills, they don't pay me. They don't pay me, I can't keep this business running.”

“Just a quick ride? For the horses!” he smiled.

“Alright. One quick ride. For the horses.” you agree. It had been just over a year since your horse Cisco died. You couldn't bring yourself to get another horse, not yet. You had missed riding, and quick frankly, it always freed your mind. Maybe, a ride was just what you needed right now.

You take the reins and quickly mount Tequila. Your farm was only about ten acres, but Tyler's was a bit over forty.

“Where to, cowboy?” you asked.

“You remember where that big oak tree is, by the lake on the back side of my property?” he asked.

“Yeah..”

“Race you there!” he yelled, kicking his horse into a gallop.

“Come on Tequila. Let's get 'em.” you kicked the horse up, quickly moving into a full run.

Tyler grinned as you passed him and he kicked up his horse a little faster, coming up along side you.

You held onto the horses mane and eased up on the reins, giving her free rein to run. You leaned forward, letting the wind blow though your hair. You felt wild and free and left out a long howl.

Tyler kept pace next to you, falling back just a few steps as the horses slowed and you reached the tree.

“See, just what you needed, right?” he was laughing. Chasing tornadoes was the thrill of a life time, but second best would be on a horse, riding free though the open fields, not a care in the world.

“That was awesome.” you smiled.

“Think that was great...you should try chasing tornadoes with me!” he smiled.

“Yeah, I don't think so.” you dismounted and left the horse graze freely near the lake and Tyler did the same with his.

“Remember this place?” he asked, biting his lip and glancing over at you.

“I do.” you nodded. “we probably had known each other three years or so at the time. We rode out here and you carved our names in this tree.” you laughed, “I told you that you couldn't carve our names in a tree if we weren't even dating.”

“But I did it anyway.” he grinned looking at the tree, “And they're still there.”

You sighed, “yeah, but you never did ask me out, so it don't count.” you playfully punched his arm.

“Hey, to be fair, I tried.” he pointed out.

“Yeah? When?” you glared. “Because I would have remembered that. I was waiting for you to ask me.”

“I asked you. Remember, I asked if you wanted to grab a few beers that night...the night of the..accident.” he trailed off.

Of course you remembered, you just didn't think he was really asking you on a date. It sounded like a friend asking a friend to grab a beer after the rodeo.

“I remember that night.” you said softly. Silence filled the air between you as you both recalled your last night together.

Right after Tyler had asked you to grab a few beers after the rodeo you had said “We'll talk later,” and took off to do your run. You were halfway though the run when a bull tried to jump a gate. The gate fell over and suddenly, there was a bull charging at your horse. You seen the movement out of the corner of your eye and took off in a full run to get out of the area. Your horse spooked, rearing up and throwing you. Tyler seen you on the ground and that bull charging straight for you. Without second thought he had ran and threw himself between you and bull. You vaguely remember someone grabbing your arms and pulling you out of the area as the bull turned on Tyler, kicking him in the head. You were screaming his name as the bull continued it's attack on Tyler, stomping and headbutting him. The rodeo clowns scurrying to get out there and distract the bull. Cowboys racing out on their horses with ropes. You would never forget the look of Tyler's limp body laying in middle of that area, the ambulance rushing in. Tyler never rode bulls again after that. You never barrel raced again either.

“I went to see you in the hospital, you know.” you told him. “Every single day for the two months you were in a coma, I was there.”

“Yeah, I know. They told me.” Tyler said softly. “Then you left not long after that.”

“Because when you finally woke up, what did you tell me?” You fought to keep the tears from falling.

He sighed, “I told you to get the hell out, that I didn't want to see you anymore.” his lower lip quivered and he turned away, before you could see the tear that fell.

“That's exactly what I did. I couldn't go back out on the circuit again. I was haunted by nightmares of that bull getting lose, attacking you. So I went to Texas to study veterinarian medicine. I tried to call you every day. I left a number of messages for you. One day, my daddy told me that you had moved out to Oklahoma. I didn't see or hear from you again until a few months ago, when you moved back here.”

“They told me I could never ride bulls again.” he said softly. “I needed a thrill, so I went to Oklahoma for a bit to get a degree in meteorology and chase storms. Met my team, became tornado wranglers..moved back home after my uncle passed...and here we are.”

“I missed you.” you whisper. “I really could have used a friend after my dad died.”

“I didn't know about your dad, until last month when I started talking to my uncle again. He told me.” Tyler said slowly. “I would have came back for you, if I had known.”

“Yeah. Your uncle said he tried calling you. I had tried calling you too, for at least the first two years, until you changed your number.”

“I'll always regret that. It was a bad time in my life. My purpose had always been riding bulls and when I couldn't, I was lost. I was trying to make a name for myself. Trying to become somebody...” he trailed off. He wanted to say 'trying to become somebody you could be proud of' but those days were long gone. There was no need to bring up old memories. “I guess we just weren't meant to be.” he sighed.

“Life goes on.” you brush it off, hiding the hurt in your eyes, “at least we are still friends now.”

“Yeah. We've got that.” he gave you a hug.

“We better get back. I got to get this paper work done if you still want me to meet you guys at the bar tonight.”

You both collect the horses and mount up, riding back slowly this time. “Anything I can do to help?”

Laughing you shook your head, “I wouldn't trust you with math problems, Tyler Owens.”

“How about I make us some burgers for lunch. I'll bring them over to you so you can concentrate on your work.”

“Thanks. That would be great.” you flash a smile.

* * * * *

Later that night, you walked into the bar, and quickly spotted Tyler with his team.

“Hey, Y/N! Over here!” he waved at you.

You join the team at the pool table. “Y/N, meet my team. This is Dani, Lily, Boone, and Dexter.” he introduced them.

“Nice to meet you guys.” you nod.

“Wanna play a round?” he asked.

“No, not right now. I think I am just gonna grab a drink and watch you guys. Maybe do some line dancing.”

“Alright..maybe next round?” he asked.

“Maybe.” you agree, going to the bar to order your drink. When you return, you stand next to Tyler as it was his turn to shoot. He pocketed two balls at once.

“Woo! My good luck charm!” he grinned, giving you a hug. “What about next round we make teams. You're on my team.” he smiled.

“Or it can be boys vs girls.” you raise an eyebrow at him.

You watch for a few more shots, then finish your beer and head out to the dance floor to join a group of line dancers. Tyler watched you leave, then turned back to the game.

“So that's Y/N. The girl you told us about?” Boone asked.

“Yeah. Don't say anything in front of her, please.” Tyler said.

“So, this is the girl that you were too shy to actually ask out, even though she had been your best friend for almost ten years, right?” Lily said.

“Yeah. And the girl that I threw myself in front of a bull for. She's the reason that I left the rodeo circuit, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I couldn't just stand there when she was in the path of that bull. I figured it would kill me, but I didn't care. I'd rather it be me then her.”

“Why didn't you ever call her or anything man?” Boone asked, “I mean..she is hot.”

Tyler shot his friend a look, “I didn't know what I was going to do with my life. After I got out of the hospital I had to go though therapy. Then I didn't have a future in the rodeo anymore, but I needed a thrill. I couldn't just do a regular job. I just didn't know what to say to her, and I certainly couldn't ask her out when I didn't know what kind of future I had. After I got started as a storm chaser, years had passed and I figured she had moved on. I didn't need to come back into her life and disrupt whatever she built for herself.”

“You should have called her man.” Dani shook her head. “Why haven't you asked her out since coming back? She is still single, isn't she?”

“Those days are gone, okay? I am just thankful that we are still friends.”

“Well, if you aren't going to ask her out, I am.” Boone teased. “Come on man, you don't think she's hot?”

“Boone, don't talk about her like that. She's beautiful, not just hot.” Tyler said, his gaze landing back on you as the song finished and you left the dance floor.

“So she's a beautiful friend that you just aren't into...okay. I got it.” Boone nodded.

“Shut up.” Tyler hissed, not wanting you to over hear their conversation.

“So, who's winning?” You ask.

“I am. You were my good luck charm, so just stay here. Maybe I can win in another shot or two.” Tyler grinned, taking his turn. He failed to score.

“Guess your luck ran out.” you grinned at him as a guy approached you.

“Excuse me, Miss. Would you care to dance with me?” he tipped his at you.

You thought for a moment, not normally being one to dance with strangers at a bar. He was cute and he seemed to be a gentleman, so you agreed. “Sure. I'll give you a dance or two.”

Tyler looked heartbroken as he watched the stranger take your hand and lead you onto the dance floor. He put one arm around your waist and held your hand as he guided you across the dance floor.

“See, that could have been you.” Boone said.

“Drop it, Boone.” Tyler warned. He no longer was paying attention to the game. He kept watching you on the dance floor with the stranger.

The song ended and you nodded to the man, “Thanks for the dance.”

“Hey...one more?” he asked, squeezing your arm a little too tightly, making you feel uneasy.

“No, I think I am going to go back over there with my friends. I need a break.” You give him a smile, trying to be nice.

Tyler was watching, noticing the stranger holding your arm, but unable hear what was being said. He sat his pool stick down and started to walk briskly over to the dance floor, his eyes never leaving you.

“I said one more dance! Don't be a tease!” the stranger pulled you roughly against him, and grabbed your ass with his hands.

Tyler took off running to the dance floor, grabbing the man by the shirt and slinging him to the floor in one brisk movement. “Keep your damn hands off of her.” he roared, towing over the man.

“And who the hell are you?” the man jumped up, getting into Tyler's face.

“None of your damn business who I am. I said keep your hands off of her. Get the hell out of here!” he took a step towards the stranger.

The man threw a punch towards Tyler, which he ducked, grabbing the man by the neck and slamming him against the wall, “You best be getting the hell out of here, before I take this out to the parking lot.” Tyler seethed.

“Okay Okay. Whatever.” the stranger muttered, putting his hands up. “She was just a big tease anyhow.” he mutter.

Tyler took the man and tossed him to the floor, ready to throw another punch when you walked up to him, putting a hand on his arm. “It's okay. Let him go.” you whisper as the man scrambled to his feet and headed for the door.

“You okay?” Tyler asked, wrapping an arm protectively around you.

“Yeah, but I think I am done for the night. I am going to head home.” you say.

“Alright. Give me a minute to pay our tab and I'll follow you.” Tyler said, “Make sure that creep isn't out there or tries to follow you or anything.”

“Thank you.” you give him a smiled.

“Anytime, sweetheart.” he winks.

You heart flutters a little when Tyler calls you 'sweetheart.' That used to be his nickname for you all those years ago. You never did allow anyone else to call you that. You wait at the door while Tyler talks to his team, pays the tab and then places a hand on your shoulder as you both walk out the door together. He walks you to the car, checking all around the parking lot to make sure there was no one standing out there.

Tyler waits until you are safely in the car with the doors locked, “Maybe I'll see you tomorrow?” he says.

“Yeah, maybe.” you nod.

“Alright, wait until I get my truck started and I'll follow you home.”

You nod and Tyler jogs to his truck, firing it up. You pull out of the parking lot and he is right behind you. Once you reach your drive way, he honks his horn and seeing no other cars on the road, pulls into his own drive.

Chapter 2

[fox-mulder-gets-pegged]

Been spending my time lately thinking of a House MD au where, through a series of accidents and lies and a bet he didn't rly intend to win, House ends up as a registered foster parent (he's still addicted to Vicodin and his normal dickish workaholic self but for some reason he cleared the requirements and trust me he's as stunned and mildly concerned as everyone else is).

Through further Shenanigans™, he ends up accidentally getting handed fostership of not one, not two, but three hellish but brilliant kids:

1. This total smartass 16 year old named Robert Chase who yeah he's a bitchy teenaged boy and a former rich kid and Australian with enough mommy and daddy issues to reawaken Freud after his dad dipped and absconded all parental rights and his mom drank herself to death, but he's also got a nice car left over from his rich kid days and an eye for detail and weirdly enough his best friend/mortal enemy (some other teen named Eric Foreman) and his on again off again girlfriend (Allison Cameron, totally won't last if u ask House) both work at the hospital as a candy striper and after school in the cafeteria respectively so House can get all the inside gossip from Chase. Plus Chase has no problems breaking and entering into patient's homes which helps bc since he's not employed by the hospital Cuddy can't complain as far as House is concerned.

2. A 14 year old girl who only answers to Thirteen (House knows he could look her name up in her file but honestly it drives Chase nuts that she won't tell him her real name and that's good enough for him) and who's dad was declared unfit after the death of his wife to Huntington's devastated him. She's a total nightmare, snarky and quick witted and freakishly smart even tho she puts most of those smarts towards things like shaving Chase's entire head (eyebrows included) bc he's trying to grow a sucky teenage mustache, and trying to take House's wallet bc she keeps calling him Old Man and he informed her he's actually only 25 but the stress of fostering has aged him prematurely and she's like 95% sure that's a lie but she wants to check his license and make sure bc everyone lies. She loves tormenting Chase by telling him his best friend and/or his girlfriend is hot and asking if they're single.

And 3. This 6 year old boy named Lawrence Kutner who's weirdly cheerful considering his parents got killed in front of him. He's way too chatty and excellent at puzzles and the only morning person in the entire house and therefore frequently tries to make breakfast (he likes to be helpful and he hasn't burned the place down yet so House doesn't feel the need to stop him). Once he told House he was gonna build a Death Star in the living room and House said lol sure go ahead whatever, only to return home from work to discover Kutner called himself out from school and has a huge wooden frame made of broken furniture in the living room. House rly can't argue since he did say go ahead. Benefits of fostering a 6 year old are 1. The babes love it, 2. Free excuse to leave work early/come in late/not show up at all, and 3. Justification for buying juice boxes and Ritz crackers. The neighbor kid Taub is his go to babysitter bc his mom volunteered him forcibly and Taub is lowkey praying that babysitting Kutner could lead to an in at Princeton Plainsboro once he graduates high-school and finishes medical school (it won't, House doesn't believe in nepotism unless it benefits him).

The adventures of House and his Foster Ducklings mostly revolve around being a Found Family, but do involve frequent plots such as:

House fired his brand new fellows again (he tosses em every three or so months, he hasn't found The Right Team yet) and will sometimes bring his foster kids in, hand em doctors coats, and tell patients that they're just a bunch of medical savants here to consult yes even the 6 year old he's actually Harvard's youngest graduate ever.

House sends the kids to break into a patient's home. They refuse. House tells them the first one to find black mold or lead paint or a dead animal or whatever gets $20. They agree. Chase drops Thirteen and Kutner off at a bus stop across town and drives over himself so he can get an hour and a half head start (ultimate fuck them kids moment, however Thirteen did steal his wallet so guess who's paying for lunch and their taxi ride to the patient's house? Net loss.)

Cuddy demands House does his clinic hours. House sends his foster kids to do his clinic hours for him. Tfw you go to the free walk in clinic for a sore throat and a cough and your doctor is a 6 year old boy who keeps asking for help with spelling whilst filling out your chart.

Wilson babysits them one (1) time since House doesn't trust Chase not to throw a party or sell his foster siblings on eBay if left as the one in charge. He wakes up with a big strip of hair poorly bleached right down the middle. Chase crushed up stolen sleeping pills and mixed them into a juice box, which Kutner 'innocently' offered to Wilson. Thirteen was going to bleach and dye his whole head blue (for practice, she wants to dye her hair but she's certainly not gonna fuck up her own hair until she has the method down) but Wilson woke up pretty quickly due to years of House drugging him. Wilson has not offered to babysit again.

Anyways this is my House Foster Ducklings au which I'm thinking about actually writing. Thank u 🫡

[felinisnoctis]

Bonded Pairs: Separation Anxiety

prev

Gerhardt seems to have calmed down almost *suspiciously *rapidly after the peach pie incident. In fact his behavior has been wavering between apologetic withdrawal and anxious monitoring. He still rarely talks to me and doesn’t want to come too close most of the time, but he also seems to not like it when I leave. Fortunately I work from home. I had to drive into town recently and from the security cameras he was pacing and looking at the driveway the entire time I was gone - and then fled back to the basement the minute I got out of the car.

He’s remarkably faster than I expected for being blind, especially given that the stairway has a low ceiling and he has to duck down to get past it. Clearly Gerhardt has already memorized the layout of the house enough to move through it quickly. It’s remarkable how silently he moves given his size and physical condition - he could come up right behind you and you wouldn’t even know until you turned your head.

Meanwhile Asariel appears to have slipped out and helped himself to one of the neighbor’s calves and carried it back to the basement. Normally this sort of thing would have been prevented by the bull in the field, but I’ve seen how fast an astartes can move. Frankly I’m just impressed that he brought a calf back and not the bull.

Still, I chided him for it briefly, although I don’t know how much of my language he understood. “You can’t be taking domestic animals like that. Wild game is fine, but people are going to want payment for their livestock.” Blood-red eyes stared back at me for a long moment before he went back to pulling the carcass apart, pushing the heart and much of the meat over to his companion. Gerhardt responded for him after a moment “I will try to explain to him. He does not trust you.”

That was, I suppose, understandable. I really need to get an astartes apothecary in here soon. Someone who can explain to these to what the hell is going on and help them get acclimated properly. Our local doctor is good, she's a former army medic, but she's still a baseline human. I don't think they're going to listen to anyone other than another astartes.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jess Piper at The View from Rural Missouri:

I am also the typical rural woman, with one exception…I am a progressive. And I’m loud. And I have a large platform. And I call out the GOP, which is why what I’m about to tell you might not shock you: my family was swatted. The swat unfolded in such an odd manner. I was gardening — no surprise — and I heard my dogs start barking. They do this when anyone pulls into the drive. I looked up to see a County Sheriff’s SUV parked down the drive. He didn’t pull up close to the house. My first instinct was panic. We have four adult children and my first thought was that something had happened to one of my kids.

The deputy was apprehensive which made me even more nervous. Then I saw he had a piece of paper in his hand. Whew! I thought maybe he was looking for someone or that I had a summons or something of the sort. He stood away from me and asked if my name was Jessica. He knew the answer, he lives down the highway, but I affirmed it. He then asked me how many kids I have. Again…panic. I asked him what this was about? He walked up to me and handed over the piece of paper he was holding. It was a printed email that had been sent to several law enforcement offices and several state offices in Missouri…it had even been mailed to my local water department. The email claimed to be from a close family relation. The letter stated that the family member had murdered me and my husband the night before. It went on to state that they intended to shoot and kill anyone who came on the property. [...]

This is going to be a long list. I can think of several state legislators who would like to see police storming my house with guns drawn. I get threats nearly every week online, but I brush them off as bots. And, then something came to mind that happened last week… I wrote a tweet last week that got the attention of an account called “The Libs of Tik Tok.”

I wrote about a doctor at the fatal Trump rally who gave medical attention to the fireman who later died at the rally. I talked about being so confused to see a doctor, an OBGYN, wearing a MAGA hat and shirt. In the tweet, I spoke about not wanting to think about the treatment an immigrant or a person of color or a woman in need of an abortion would receive from that doctor. I was horrified to know that a practicing physician could support Trump. There is an important distinction for me: The doctor wasn’t your ordinary, run-of-the-mill, conservative Republican. He attended a rally in which others had signs for mass deportation and concentration camps. That’s not okay. The tweet took off, but nothing too wild until that evening. I saw my phone blow up. I muted the tweet, but it was being quote-tweeted. A lot. So, I caved and looked at what was going on. It was the “Libs of Tik Tok.” Shit. Here we go. They were not only threatening me on Twitter, they found me on Facebook and started replying to my posts. They moved to my Tik Tok account and did the same thing. I spent a couple hours blocking and deleting comments and then really didn’t think much more about it. I thought it was over.

[...] Raichik uses her platform to harass teachers and LGBTQ folks especially, but anyone in general. I am a former teacher and a progressive activist…prime for the attack. Her minions often call in bomb threats and send police officers to the doors of progressives. Someone pulled my swatting off, but there is something they should know: I was rattled, but not terrorized. You didn’t win. I am a rural woman…most in my community know me and my politics. When an email came in claiming to be a close relation who shot and killed me, they thought better than to send a SWAT team out. They knew it sounded off because they know of me. They sent my neighbor, the Deputy Sheriff. They were right.

Read this Substack post from Jess Piper, and it’s very frightening. Piper and her family were swatted recently at their home, and anti-LGBTQ+ extremist account Libs of TikTok (run by domestic terrorist Chaya Raichik) incited the swatting.

[lightandwinged]

Update? Update.

Everywhere else people know what's going on, like actually know, I don't really talk about my feelings too much because it's mostly like... why are you going all in on your emotions, Abby, when all of this big stuff is happening to your family and you're just reacting to it over here, cheering your family on and offering a little bit of help, but you're not physically there all the time like your mom is, so you should shut up or go back to giving us daily updates or something.

The sister update goes that because US health insurance is stupid, her insurance yoinked her out of rehab after less than two weeks and said either she could go to a long term rehab facility (they were only going to pay for literal nursing homes that didn't offer rehab, just old people that smell like urine) or she could go home. And since the former would've been a miserable death sentence, she came home and my 67-year-old mother has been taking over all of her care, from the normal hair brushing down to tube feeding and everything in between. She's getting very little in the way of therapy, but she is getting therapy, but it makes me really want next year's Poseidon sacrifice to be some health insurance execs.

Which is to say that I do care. A lot. I don't think I'd be having such big emotions if I didn't care. And the emotions have broken into three categories.

The first is the immediate trauma category, and that's mostly resolving. For the first ~3 weeks after, I was kind of living life in this frosted snowglobe and watching my family go through the motions while I performed a pantomime of being me. I honestly was on the verge of losing it and eventually, the cure wound up being, of all things, a day at the beach. Cliche, I know, but it was like... maybe the cure for everything is salt water or something. It was just peaceful, nobody was around, nobody was demanding things of me or them. I was present for the family I chose instead of having to be on demand for my parents and sister. And it was a reset and it worked. And it broke that snowglobe, so I'm a lot better where that's concerned. Still having days of pantomiming, but they're fewer and farther betweener.

Then there's the related but longer lasting trauma response where the thought of going to my parents' house is apparently triggering me. I was talking about it with my therapist yesterday and suddenly... well, it wasn't a flashback, more of a flash something. Just images of Bad, my parents and my sister all collapsed on the floor, and because it was the end of therapy, I didn't know what to make of it, but BOY DID IT FUCK ME UP THE REST OF THE DAY. I have dealt with triggers before, but this one was intense, probably because the situation was Right The Fuck There.

All of this to say: I am super not okay. I have therapists though, one about day to day shit and one about long term shit, and they're helping.

The long term shit has unearthed Stuff. My sister has always been pretty unwell... she had seizures as a baby, always had something legitimate going on with her health, that kind of thing. One of my first memories is of being in a hospital children's waiting area while she was being treated nearby and falling in love with this toy stove there. It had knobs that you could turn, and when you turned them, the burners went from black to red. I couldn't have been more than three years old, and it was just pure magic to me.

Because it was ~1987, three-year-old me only had whatever supervision the nearest nurse station could provide. My mom had come to the hospital with our next door neighbor driving, and the neighbor was supporting my mom while the doctors worked on my sister, and I don't begrudge her that. I've had a sick kid. When you have a sick kid, that's your focus.

And three-year-old me had the stove.

(my dad was who knows where. Nobody had cellphones back then because it was 1987. Maybe my mom called him at work or maybe somebody like paged him or something. If he had any way of knowing, he was probably driving to try and get to the hospital or get home, but either way, he wasn't there at all, which was a common theme for my childhood: dad either not present or angry)

And that was a theme, you know? Not anyone's fault, but my sister got sick a lot. She went to the hospital a lot. We went to doctors with her a lot. Therapies, diagnosticians, all sorts of things. When we were all homeschooled, we had hours of some days of the week dedicated to her therapies. And it should have been that way because she needed them, but at the same time, it's like. Neglect that isn't done cruelly is still neglect, and when there are needs not being met...

Well, anyway, that was a breakdown or so.

These are conversations with my therapists, my partners, and my closer friends (and this blog), probably never my mom because she doesn't need more guilt. But fuck me, I hate being THIS level of fucked up about this.

[thefamilyeldritchabomination]

Chapter Eighteen: Forever Autumn Pt. 3

“Sloth, you need to come with us! Pride is here now and it’s clear he’s gone off the edge!” Lust urged Sloth to follow only to be given a simple head shake of no.

 “Unfortunately, that is not my job right now. I’m here to collect the stone and Dolly.” Sloth stated as she waited patiently for Lust to register what was said.

 “...How did Dante find out about Dolly…” Lust looked at Sloth, trying to decide if she could take on the organic android with no human compassion whatsoever. “Lust, I’m surprised you didn’t catch onto this given out of the three, you have the brains. Dante had a recording device in your station after growing tired of the failure from Envy.” Sloth casually said as if it was a hard, cruel fact of life that she was doomed to be surrounded by idiots.

 “I thought you were supposed to be the uncaring one…” Greed looked at the unemotional faux humanoid before him. “Oh I am, I just don’t tolerate stupidity around me and I can feel pity from time to time. Now, where is Dolly? I’ll let you all go once I have her and the stone in hand.” Sloth simply stated as she tapped her foot a bit, waiting for Lust to cough up the stone and Dolly.

 “I made a promise to Envy that Dolly would stay safe…you can however have the stone, that one is rude as they come.” Lust prepared herself for a fight with Sloth as she wielded Timmy the Disobedient Stone as a weapon.

 “Like hell you’re tossing us to whatever that deplorable creature is!” Timmy the stone protested at once upon listening in on the conversation, not knowing that they’re about to be used as a bludgeoning weapon.

 “Shit….Al! Sing Mom’s Lullaby right now!” Edward spinned around to his armored brother upon thinking of a plan to get them out of this situation.

 “But Brother, why don’t you sing Mom’s Lullaby!?” Alphonse held his massive metal arms up out of surprise of being put on the spot like that without warning. “Because Al, I’m an alchemist, not a street musician, now SING!” Edward pleaded as he eyed Timmy the Stone, knowing full well that bludgeoning would likely traumatize the already traumatized former doctor. 

 Without much option given the situation, Alphonse began singing the old lullaby of childhood passed by all too soon. Instead of the nostalgia that would normally follow, Edward was apprehensive as he watched the apathetic monstrosity freeze in place as her eyes glazed over upon hearing it. As Edward planned, the song triggered a memory episode in the dread homunculus Sloth, giving everyone enough time to run away from her. Quickly motioning to others, Edward silently gestured to make a break for it. Knowing fully well just how unmatched the rest of them were against Sloth, Lust made everyone else follow Ed’s lead of escaping the building at once. The streets were packed and people were in a frenzy trying to escape the possible massacre from their very own all powerful leader. Some were being loaded into military vans to be taken to the neighboring city for refuge. Lust couldn’t help but wince at the mess everything had become and how difficult things were going to be escaping the Capitol. Gluttony held Lust’s hand, trying to reassure her that things were going to be alright in his own way as Lust squeezed Gluttony’s hand in return. Greed’s eyes lit up as the popular beach party hearse came into view with Freddy driving in the traffic jam.

 “Shit is that the hearse!? I thought it’d be gloomy and tarry like the old hag herself.” Greed was absolutely admiring the hearse, making plans to steal it once out of the Capitol.

 “Yes…that’s our only transport Greed, don’t you even DARE start thinking about stealing it.” Lust narrowed her eyes at Greed, already picking up that he’s about as big of a dumbass as Envy is. 

 “Envy was right, you’re just no fun at all lady!” Greed felt ready to punch himself in the face upon realizing he agreed with Envy on one thing for a change. 

 “Please Greed, don’t steal the car..we need it to look for Envy..” Gluttony put on the puppy face at Greed as he pointed out what they’ll be needing to do next.

 “Shit…you have a point…we need to figure out what happened to that dumpster gremlin.” Greed’s face looked as though he had stared into the void and the void said, ‘Don’t be a jackass!’

 “Come on assholes! Get into the Hearse if you want to live!” Freddy had rolled down the window to the hearse as he honked the horn for the dysfunctional group to hop on. 

 “You heard the Face Fur! GET INTO THE HEARSE!” Timmy the Stone shouted, prompting the rest to follow suit of the commanding advice. 

 “Damn it! Stop calling me Face Fur!” Freddy wailed as the weirdos piled in like clowns into the tiny car.

 “I dunno Mr. Mancer, Envy does have a point about your beard, it’s soft like fur.” Edward said as he glanced at the beard and it's weirdly soft texture. 

 “Brother your manners.” Alphonse scolded as the hearse was filled to the brim with the group and Freddy started to drive off.

 “Gods, I hope Envy is going to be alright..” Dolly held Ernest and Dorian close to her for comfort as she couldn’t help but worry for the homicidal booger. “Oh Dolly…I got some bad news to bare…” Lust looked at Dolly, her eyes giving a look of regret of not stopping Envy earlier. “Lust what happened..?” Dolly’s stomach gave a sensation of being stabbed with a heated poker as Lust bore the bad news.

 “You see…Dante found out about you…I fear that Envy was given their last strike…We have to get out of this town at once, Sloth is coming and she’s weirdly determined..” Lust explained as Dolly looked tempted to teleport out of the hearse to hunt down Envy.

 “We need to save Envy right now if that’s the case! They’re part of this family and we cannot leave family behind!” Dolly was horrified that Envy was left to the mercy of a horrible hermit crab woman.

 “Dolly don’t. Right now, we need to get you away from Sloth before she snaps out of her memory trance. Once we’re out of the town and sheltered safely elsewhere, we can make our plans to locate Envy for rescue.” Lust reasoned as she upheld the promise to keep Dolly safe for Envy.

 “But what if it’s too late? What if Envy is..” Dolly wasn’t entirely sold on the idea of putting off the rescue of Envy. “Dante wouldn’t, Envy is all too valuable to her. They can shapeshift, murder, and spy, it would be a foolish move on her part to kill off someone that is invaluable to her cause. No, Envy is going to still be alive, but what punishment she may dish out I don’t even know..” Lust was getting worried as well as she glanced about for reassurance about the statement.

 “Oh I know what that old hag is going to do and I promise, it isn’t going to be pretty or easy…” Greed shuddered a bit as he remembered that punishment all too well.

 “Greed, what is Dante going to do to Envy?” Dolly looked at Greed, clearly he had an idea on what’ll happen to Envy.

 “Shit Lady, not sure if this is the best place to tell yah this..but given how everything is now a dumpster fire at this point..” Greed started to waffle a bit on the decision to tell this delicate information, especially given there’s Sloth coming after her.

 “Please Greed…” Dolly dilated her eyes to give the puppy eyes in hopes of the information being sold to her. “Fine, only because you asked politely and I’ll be expecting this hearse as payment for this information.” Greed relented and earned a sharp glare from Lust over the demand of being given the party hearse.

 “Sold! I want to get a different car that won’t get me attention!” Freddy jumped on the chance to be rid of the party hearse.

 “Damn it I told you not to try and take the hearse!” Lust was ready to beat the ever living daylights out of Greed for being a manipulative little turd when her attention was turned towards Gluttony tugging for attention. “Uhh..Lust…can we go faster in the hearse?” Gluttony asked as he looked frightened upon seeing something out of the window. “The traffic is jammed, why Gluttony?” Lust raised an eyebrow as she carefully looked out of the window. “Sloth is coming and she looks scary..” Gluttony gulped fearfully as Lust’s eyes widened in horror.

[travelingtheusa]

NEVADA

2023 Jan 5 (Thu) – I have been spending the last few days hip deep in paperwork confirming reservations for campgrounds, meals and activities on our Alaska caravan.  One campground had been sold and the former owner never put our reservation in the system.  Luckily, I called early in the year and the new owner still had space for us.

      At 6:30 p.m. we met Joan & Peter and Adam, Diane & Devin at Lucille’s Smokehouse BBQ for dinner.  It rained all day and everything was wet.  The food was disappointing – Paul’s brisket was dry and my ribs were tough and chewy.  The potato salad was out of this world!  We said good-bye to everyone as we are leaving tomorrow.  It’s been two long months and we are anxious to get back on the road.  It’s off to Texas to buy a new truck.  Hope the one we scoped out is still there.  Fingers crossed.

2023 Jan 4 (Wed) – We stayed in all day.  I spent the day confirming reservations and coordinating deposit payments for our Alaska Caravan.

      The contract agency working for the VA called me today to go over my medical condition.  The doctor asked me lots of prepared questions about my lymphoma and its current status.  This was in response to the claim I filed under the PACT Act for disability.

      I also got a call from my gastroenterologist.  I have been having indigestion since September and nothing seems to work.  I also have been suffering from a frequent cough that feels like it’s coming from my stomach.  He advised me to see an ENT.  I guess I’ll have to schedule an appointment to see one when I go back to New York next month.  I spent the afternoon making doctor appointments.  Paul is working on our route to a major airport so I can fly back to New York.  I will wind up going back about 2 weeks earlier than I had planned to.

2023 Jan 3 (Tue) – I cooked up some egg cups and blueberry muffins this morning.  They’re nice to have when we are on the road.  We ran a bunch of errands today.  We stopped at Lowe’s for wing nut that broke on Paul.  Do you know how hard it is to find one little tiny wing nut among ALL the nuts and bolts in Lowe’s???  He finally found something but it turned out to be the wrong size.  He’ll have to go back and hunt through the drawers for another one.

      We stopped at O’Reilly Auto so Paul could get some sticky spray for the fan belt.  He thinks it’s slipping when the gear shifts.  Then we drove to Skechers where I got two pairs of shoes.  After that, we tried to find a post office.  The first one we stopped at did not have a service window.  How weird.  The next one was a full service office but it was packed.  I got on line (I was number 12) with one agent at the window.  There was another one but he was only handling passports.  About half way through the line, another agent opened a window but it was still slow despite having two windows open.

      I mailed a packet to the NYS Tax Department in answer to their claim that we do not live in New York.  It had a deadline and I sent it registered mail on December 7.  I have been checking it and the website just tells me “it’s in the network.”  What the heck is that?  I asked the mail clerk and he said it means it’s probably lost somewhere.  I’ll have to send the documents again and hope the department doesn’t blame me for the post office’s shortcoming.

2023 Jan 2 (Mon) – We took down the Christmas tree today.  The place seems empty now.  We went food shopping, got fuel and had lunch at Jack in the Box.  We were the only people in the restaurant.  There was a fairly regular stream of cars going through the drive-in.  I guess people don’t like going inside any more.

2023 Jan 1 (Sun – New Year’s Day) – Peter cooked up biscuits and gravy for breakfast.  After visiting for a while, we went over their neighbor’s house, Maggie.  They wanted us to see renovations she had made to her condo.  It was fantastic.

      We went back to Joan & Pete’s where Joan made pea soup (for good luck), ham with cherry sauce, and mac & cheese.  Everything was delicious. 

      We left at 3:00 p.m.  Sheba sure was glad to see us!  We napped then took some ornaments off our tree. We will do a few each day till it’s done.

2022 Dec 31 (Sat – New Year’s Eve) – We met Joan & Pete at the Red Rock Casino for dinner at Hank’s Steakhouse.  Barbara & Preston also met us there.  We played the slots (all lost), then had dinner.  It was late.  Our reservation was for 9:15 p.m.  We didn’t get seated until almost 10 p.m.  We were finishing our meal at 11:40 p.m.  We had to rush out of the restaurant to catch the fireworks show.  We were parked in the garage overlooking the Strip in the distance.  It was a great place to see the entire show.  All the casinos released fireworks.  I guess they were in sync because they released the fireworks at the same time and were the same color: red, green and white. 

      After the show, we went back to Joan & Pete’s and spent the night there.  Didn’t want to take a chance with drunk drivers on the road.

2022 Dec 30 (Fri) – We stayed in today.

2022 Dec 29 (Thu) – We joined Joan & Peter for dinner at their friend’s home.  Barbara & Preston are a delightful couple with lots of European experiences.  Barbara is from Germany and sells medical items.  Preston is a real estate agent.  She made rouladen, potato dumplings, red cabbage, and an orange dessert.  It was all very good.  Afterward, we taught Barbara & Preston to play 31.

2022 Dec 28 (Wed) – We went to Lucille’s Smokehouse BBQ.  Adam & Diane gave us a gift card for Christmas.  It turned out I put the wrong address in the GPS and we took a long ride out of the way.  We finally figured it out and got to the restaurant.  The food was good and we have about $10 left on the card.

     We also stopped to get some propane.  The weather is starting to get warmer.  A terrible winter storm hit the northeast area.  Over 30 people died in Buffalo alone.  It’s been cold here but is slowly warming up.

2022 Dec 27 (Tue) – We met our friend, Linda, for an early dinner at Juan’s Flaming Fajitas.  We met Linda and her husband, Mark, on the Canadian Maritimes Caravan.  They were the Tail Gunners on the caravan.  Mark passed away about 9 months after the caravan. They were a wonderful couple and she is a very nice woman.  We enjoyed our visit very much.

2022 Dec 26 (Mon) – We were invited back to Adam & Diane’s for leftovers.  Afterward we played 31.

2022 Dec 25 (Sun – CHRISTMAS) – We went over Adam & Diane’s house for dinner.  They had 19 people over.  Of course, there was lots of food and drink.  It was a fun day.  They played a game where something (a gift card, I think) was wrapped in saran wrap along with other things.  They passed the ball around the table and you had to try to unwrap the saran wrap with one hand while the next person rolled the dice.  When they got doubles on the dice, they took control of the ball.  As it unwrapped, little things dropped out, like candies and such.

      We also did a gift exchange.  Everyone brought a gift.  When they arrived, the gift as given a number.  Then we shot a nerf gun at a bunch of dixie cups covered with tissue paper.  When the bullet penetrated the paper, you got a number inside the cup.  After everyone got a number, we sat around the room and picked the gift with the matching number.  One guy got a “STEAL” rather than a number.  So he stole my gift!  I had a nice portable cooler and he had chosen my gift of assorted cookies.  So he took my cooler and gave me back my cookies!

2022 Dec 24 (Sat) – I spent the afternoon calling all my brothers and sister to wish them a Merry Christmas.  We went over Joan & Peter’s for open house tonight.  We stayed until 10:30 pm, then drove down the street to a United Methodist Church.  The service felt a little cold but it had a nice candlelight service.  We had communion and stood in a circle with our candles singing Silent Night.  We got back to the campground around 12:30 p.m.

2022 Dec 23 (Fri) – We worked around the RV until lunch time.  Paul is busy making a beanbag baseball table.  I was working on emails and drafting the book for the National Muster next year.

      At 11:30 a.m. we drove into town to pick up some groceries at WalMart.  We stopped at Lowe’s so Paul could pick up paint and a rotor blade.  On the way back, we spotted a liquor store and stopped in to see if we could find Forty Creek.  We have been in several liquor stores throughout Nevada and no one has had it.  This store did!  We bought 4 bottles.  😊   

2022 Dec 22 (Thu) – We did laundry this morning.  What a pain in the arse!  There are only 3 washing machines and 3 dryers in a tiny room.  Two washers were being used so we could only do one load.  We put the clothes for another load on top of the machine and left.  When we returned, one dryer was open.  So the wet clothes went into the dryer and the next load went into the washer.  Having to do laundry like that makes it twice as long to do.  Ugh.

      There was a campground potluck today.  We brought Godiva chocolates and gummy dice. As usual, the food was plentiful and delicious.

2022 Dec 21 (Wed) – We met Joan & Peter at Tuscany Gardens for dinner.  It is an Italian Steakhouse.  We arrived first so had drinks at the bar while we waited for them to arrive.  Then we sat at the table and enjoyed a delicious meal.  After dinner, we went to see the Rat Pack.  It is three performers who represent the original Rat Pack (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis, Jr.).  The Dean Martin look alike managed to resemble Dean. The Frank Sinatra impersonator did not look anything like Frank but had a voice that sounded just like the original.  The Sammy Davis, Jr. character did not resemble nor sound like Sammy.   The show was good any way and the guys were pretty entertaining.

2022 Dec 20 (Tue) – We went to the factory again today. Paul worked around the place, moving inventory and restocking shelves.  I sorted chocolate coins all day.  By the end of the day, my back was squawking from standing all day long.  I was glad to get home and sit on a heating pad.

2022 Dec 19 (Mon) – We went into the chocolate factory today to help.  Paul and I packed net bags with chocolate coins.  Peter made cotton candy all day.  Joan bought us lunch after working on accounts all day.  Adam was out making calls on stores up and down the strip.  I also finished closing out all the 2021 accounts.  It is kind of thrilling to see the big name casinos flash by – Mandalay Bay, MGM, Luxor, etc.

      After we finished helping out, we drove home to feed Sheba.  Then we drove to the Palace Station Casino to watch the new movie, Avatar.  It was over 3 hours long but the graphics were amazing.  We saw it in 3D.  It was pretty good. 

2022 Dec 18 (Sun) – I decided to file a claim in person with the VA.  I made an appointment for Wednesday.  We’ll see how that goes.

      We went to the Candy Cane house tonight.  It is a home owned by two men who open their home to the public for the Christmas holidays.  They have their home decorated in steroid fashion!  There were 50 trees in their house.  Decorations were hanging from the ceilings.  There were lights, and garland, and the decorations everywhere you looked.  It had to take them 2 months to do all those decorations.

2022 Dec 17 (Sat) – We spent all morning in the VA today.  The PACT Act was passed in August and has far reaching implications.  Over 20 medical conditions have been added to a list of maladies that the VA deems as “preemptive.”  That means that if you have the condition, you do not have to prove you got it from your military service.  It is presumed that if you served during a certain time period in a particular area, you contracted the disease even if it didn’t show up immediately.  Lymphoma is one of the conditions recognized for Post 9-11 veterans.  I served in Iraq/Kuwait/Afghanistan in 2005 and was diagnosed with lymphoma 12 years later in 2017.  I wanted to see how to file a claim.  The VA held a town hall that told everyone about the PACT Act but wasn’t much help that.  They had a number of departments present with information and giveaways in the atrium.  We collected information and left.  I will file a claim online.

      We met Joan, Peter and Janice at the Italian American café for dinner at 7 p.m.  It was a delightful Las Vegas style meal with entertainment.  A singer with a small 3-man band sang and joked with the audience.  It was a lot of fun.

2022 Dec 16 (Fri) – We went to the PX today to get Paul some jeans and shoes.  I got a notice from the PX that they were giving 15% off on purchases made with the military card.  Add to that the fact that we pay no sales tax and the savings are significant.  We wound up getting Paul two pairs of jeans and a shirt.

      After the PX, we went to the commissary and got some groceries.  We stopped for lunch at the food court.  I ordered at Sarku Japan.  Boy, was that a mistake!  It took over half an hour to get our food.  They kept goofing up on the orders.  They ran out of chicken and had to cook a new batch twice.  Along with me, there were about 10 people standing around waiting for their orders.  I like Sarku but I don’t think the wait and worry are worth it.

       At 4 p.m., we drove toward Joan’s place.  Their friend from New York, Janice, flew in today and is staying with them for a few days.  We stopped at DSW to get Paul some dress shoes.  They didn’t have the make he wanted so he got something else (:-/). 

       We arrived at Joan & Pete’s, met Janice, talked for a bit, then drove to the Green Valley casino for dinner at a Mexican restaurant.  The food was good and plentiful.  The margaritas weren’t that good.  After dinner, we played the slots.

2022 Dec 15 (Thu) – I continued to work on the caravan today.  Paul continued working around the RV.  We never left the campground.  Miranda’s birthday is tomorrow so I ordered flowers to be delivered.

2022 Dec 14 (Wed) – Paul finished up on the wheels today.  I spent the day working on caravan and SMART correspondence.  What a job trying to arrange an excursion to the Arctic Circle.  We can either fly (5-6 hours) or drive (14-16 hours) but we can’t fly and rive, which would be perfect.  We may wind up renting a car and driving to the Arctic Circle.   It will be the cheapest way to go, short of taking our own truck, but it will be a looooong day.  We had planned to have the excursion on the last day in Fairbanks but if we wind up having a problem and being held over, it would be a problem as we are scheduled to leave the next day.  So I called the company that we scheduled a bus tour of Fairbanks two days earlier to see if we could switch the days.  It was like juggling 4 balls in the air. 

2022 Dec 13 (Tue) - It was a laid back, lazy day.  Paul worked around the trailer, greasing the bearings and getting the tires changed.  I did email and correspondence with folks on the Alaska caravan.  I called Sloan Kettering to have a refill of my medication sent.  My cousin, Kathy, called yesterday and we had a pleasant talk.  She’s going to Florida for a few months.  It’s coming up on one year since her father – my cousin, Claude – passed away.  The change will do her good.

      We ran a lot of errands today.  Poor Paul.  He was working on getting the wheels of the trailer greased and ready for travel.  Unfortunately, he could only get two wheels done.  He drove around trying to find parts but everywhere he went, they didn’t have them.  Finally, he drove to the warehouse but it turned out to not to be the warehouse.  The guy called over to the warehouse for Paul and arranged to have them ship the parts to the NAPA store near the campground.  Later in the afternoon, after we had gone food shopping, we stopped at NAPA and the parts were there. 

2022 Dec 12 (Mon) – The search for a new truck and RV is on!  We searched on line and the kind of truck we want (diesel, 2 wheel drive, camper package prep, long bed, etc.) seem to be mostly located in Texas.  The RVs, however, seem to be in Arizona.  We are changing our travel plans.  We had planned to go to Arizona for the next 3 months.  Now, we are headed to Texas first.  The truck is the most important item to replace first, then the RV.

2022 Dec 11 (Sun) – We drove to Boulder City and met Joan & Peter and Lynn & David (their friends) at The Patio, a restaurant next to Chilly Jilly’s.  We enjoyed brunch then drove to Henaway Park and saw 3 bighorn rams grazing in the park.  There were no signs of the rest of the herd but they didn’t seem fazed by all the attention.  They simply went on eating.

      We returned to the camper for the afternoon, then at 4:00 pm, we drove to Joan & Peter’s for dinner.  Joan made chicken crust pizza.  She shredded chicken, put in in the oven for 10 minutes, mixed the chicken with eggs and spices, put it back in the oven for 10 minutes, then put toppings on it and put it back in the oven to brown.  It was tasty.

      Their friends, Barbara & Preston, came over to visit and we had a delightful evening.  Barbara is German and the way she talks makes everything sound funny.  She is a delightful, spirited personality.

2022 Dec 10 (Sat) – We mailed off the last of the Christmas packages today.  Ouch!  It cost $142 to mail a box to Miranda.  We could have bought a nice gift with that money!  The price of postage seems to be getting out of hand real fast.

      We stayed around the camper today.  I have been coughing and hacking since my return from New York.  I probably should go to the doctor but I don’t want to.  We picked up some decongestant and cough syrup at Walgreens. 

2022 Dec 9 (Fri) – We stayed around the campground all day.  At 4:00 pm, we drove to Joan & Pete’s to join them at their condo Christmas party.  It was a small group crowded into a small room.  At 6:30 pm, a group of students from the local college came in to sing.  There were 8 of them – 3 men and 5 women.  They sang a Capello and were phenomenal!  We enjoyed their singing very much.

      After dinner, we drove to one of Joan & Pete’s friends home in the condo community and played 31.  I won the first game and she won the second.

2022 Dec 8 (Thu) – Paul dropped the truck off at Diesel Specialists this morning then walked the four miles back to base because we couldn’t get the Uber app to work.  Late in the afternoon, when Paul called to see if the truck was ready, they told him they had to keep it overnight.  He had brought it in for a small oil leak and asked to have the gasket replaced.  It turned out that Ford uses a seal rather than a gasket on the oil pan.  The seal needed ten hours to cure.

       Christy flew back home on the red eye.  It was nice to see the siblings visit with each other.  The only other one left is Fred who lives somewhere down south.  He is estranged from the rest of the family.

2022 Dec 7 (Wed) – We drove to the Valley of Fire State Park to meet up with Joan, Peter and Christy.  We then drove through the park, stopping at a couple of sites before pulling out the coolers and enjoying lunch in the middle of the red rocks.  It was cool and you needed a jacket.  It was overcast and there were occasional sprinkles.  We briefly a trail to Mouse’s Tank; Christy quit half way up.

      After the park, we drove to Juan’s Flaming Fajitas for dinner.  It was a great Mexican restaurant with good food.  We all (except Christy) had margaritas.  Paul & I had to stop at the grocery store on the way home because Sheba was out of can food.

2022 Dec 6 (Tue) – We met Joan, Pete and Chris at the Rio.  WOW Las Vegas, a variety talent show, was playing.  The show was very good.  Afterward, we drove to Fremont Street.  I really like that place!  It is bright and noisy and filled with people.  There are circles on the floor where beggars can sit and beg or performers can do their street act or vendors can sell their wares. 

2022 Dec 5 (Mon) – Today was a day we took Christy around the strip to introduce her to the Las Vegas life style.  We went to Circus Circus for dinner then walked through the Palazzo, the Venetian, and the Bellagio.  The Bellagio had their Christmas display on with giant trees and characters as well as a large ginger bread house you could walk through.  Christy was very impressed.  And who wouldn’t be?!?!?

2022 Dec 4 (Sun) – We went over Adam & Diane’s house today.  The plan was to decorate their Christmas tree.  Joan, Pete, and Christy also came over.  I lay down and fell asleep on the couch.  I must have been very tired.  They made a delicious corn chowder and a kind of chicken pie.  Everything was very tasty.  Diane was not feeling well so she stayed in bed.

      After Adam’s, we went to the PX.  I ran out of Christmas cards so we had to buy more.  We also picked up gifts for the gift exchange at a Christmas party we will be going to.

2022 Dec 3 (Sat) – Joan & Paul’s sister, Christy, flew in last night and is spending the week with Joan & Peter.  We drove over at 2 pm and spent the afternoon decorating their Christmas tree.  Adam, Diane and Devin also came over to help with the decorating. 

      At 6 pm, we all drove over to the Sunset Station Casino for dinner.  The reservations apparently didn’t go through so we had to walk around the casino for while looking for a place that could accommodate 8 for dinner.  When it didn’t work out, Adam and his family decided to leave.  Then the 5 of us went back to the pasta place for dinner that we were originally going to eat at.  We all enjoyed a fine meal.  And the charges weren’t too bad – at least, compared to what we’ve been spending lately.

      Paul, Joan, Peter, and I all played the slot machines.  I lost $20.  Paul won $47.  Joan won $35.  Peter won $70.  A successful night for most of us.

2022 Dec 2 (Fri) – We drove to the shop again where Paul and Peter continued painting and repairing the floor.  Joan and I went to the nearby beauty school and got facials.  It was the first time I have done that.  I’m sure I really cared for it.  But we did walk away with smooth and moisturized skin. 

      The guys went bowling while we got our beauty treatments.  We met them at the Station Casino and went to Fatburger for lunch.  After lunch, Joan and Peter went to Costco to pick up groceries.  We went to WalMart to pick up a few things then met them at their condo.  We all changed into nice clothes then went to the Gambit, a jazz dinner club.  We had steaks and drinks and watched the jazz band with singer perform.  It was a very expensive night!

2022 Dec 1 (Thu) – Wow!  It’s December.  The year is almost over and another one is set to begin.  Time is flying by.

      We drove to Joan’s business, Vegas Image, this morning.  Paul and Peter worked on repairing the floor while I got on the computer and closed out accounts for 2021.  Adam was out delivering product on the strip.  When we were done, we drove to Joan & Pete’s to change, then went to dinner at Don Juan’s Mexican Restaurant.  It was good.

2022 Nov 30 (Wed) – We went out for breakfast to IHOP.  The food was good.  The menu listed our meal at $11.99 each for 2 eggs, 2 slices of bacon or 2 sausages, hash browns and toast.  The waitress gave us a senior discount and we only wound up paying $7.99 each.  That was a VERY nice discount.

     We then rode over to the VA Medical Center on Pecos Rd but we couldn’t find a parking space.  The place was packed.  So we gave up and went in search of a supermarket.  We came upon a WalMart and shopped there.

      When we got back, I threw on some vegetables to bring to a potluck the campground was sponsoring today.  We were a few minutes late but there was plenty to eat.  Lots of pumpkin pies and sweet potatoes show people had leftovers from Thanksgiving.  We spoke with a widow who lives full time on the road but spends six months in one place then six months in another.  Can that really be considered full timing?

      At 7 p.m. we went out to see if we could catch the ISS flying overhead.  There was way too much light in the area.  Most of the stars were indistinguishable.  We could not spot the ISS.  Maybe tomorrow.

2022 Nov 29 (Tue) – I spent the morning paying bills.  We ran out of propane overnight and Paul ran out to get the tank refilled.  We spent time searching the internet for trucks and RVs.  This is going to prove challenging.

2022 Nov 28 (Mon) – We rode over to the UPS store in the PX and mailed off another package.  Then we went to the post office, bought stamps, and mailed off the first batch of Christmas cards.  We stopped for lunch at Farmers Boy.  It was a fast food restaurant that offered burgers and several salads.  Paul got the southwest salad and I got the cobb salad.  They were very large and I couldn’t eat all of mine.  There was a guy sitting outside the restaurant with a little dog holding a sign stating he was homeless.  We bought him a breakfast sandwich and a plain burger for the dog.

2022 Nov 27 (Sun) – We spent the day decorating our tree.  Boy, do we have a lot of ornaments!!  There were twelve shoe boxes packed full of ornaments that we put up.  And there are STILL boxes that were not unpacked.  Whew!

      We went out to dinner with Joan & Pete tonight for Italian food.  The place was named Prosecco.  Paul had clams and I had a sole.  The food was good and, yes, expensive.  After dinner, we went over to their house where they invited a friend to join us for cards.  We played three rounds of 31.  Paul won two and Joan won one.  It was fun.

2022 Nov 26 (Sat) – Paul spent the day putting together our Christmas tree and I worked on our Christmas letter and sending out cards.  I cooked a turkey breast for us and we used some of the leftovers Joan gave us from Thanksgiving dinner.

      We ran out to ship off a box to Travis.  While in the PX, we picked up a few items then drove to the commissary and got a few groceries.

2022 Nov 25 (Fri) – Paul found a number to call at Amazon for help with the packages that can’t be delivered on base.  After some frustrating discussion, I had the four packages rerouted to Joan & Pete’s house for delivery.

      I spent the day working on gathering a list of our activities for the year.  This is for the annual Christmas letter I send out with our Christmas cards. 

2022 Nov 24 (Thu – Thanksgiving Day) – We went over Joan & Pete’s for dinner tonight.  Adam, Diane & Devin were there as well as their friends, Ty, Robin & Sophie.  Of course, there was way too much food and we were all stuffed to the hilt when all was said and done.  After dinner, we played 31 then had pie and coffee.

2022 Nov 23 (Wed) – Wow!  It’s been a bit of a challenge to get back on track.  We have been hanging around the campground, doing laundry and taking long walks.  Paul’s sister and husband, Joan & Peter, and their son and family, Adam, Diane & Devin, have visited and we will be having Thanksgiving dinner at Joan & Pete’s tomorrow.  We’ve done some Christmas shopping for the kids and sent off a couple of packages.  The price of shipping has really jumped!  It cost us almost $100 to mail off two packages yesterday.  It’s as bad as buying gift wrap, cards, and ribbon.  You spend more on the wrappings then the gift!  We’ve been having a problem getting some items we ordered.  Apparently, the postal service USPS is not allowed on base.  All deliveries have to come via UPS or FedEx.  Unfortunately, the companies I ordered from have all been sending them USPS and the shipments have been rejected.  Trying to get hold of companies you ordered from when the order was placed through Amazon is a real challenge.

2022 Nov 18 (Fri) – Whew!  What a wild three weeks.  I arrived in New York on October 27 and the very next day, began coughing and hacking.  Three days later, I was positive for COVID.  In addition, my son-in-law had just come out of the hospital and my daughter went into the hospital.  Both of them suffered chest pains and disorientation but nothing was found.  Now, they have a series of follow-ups and tests to try and figure what happened.  Also, my grandson got sick and we all came down with COVID.  I wound up staying until November 16.  During my stay, I saw the oncologist who said my bloodwork was perfect.  I also had a checkup with the ophthalmologist who also said my checkup was perfect.  At least the doctor visits went well.  I got to visit with my sister, Susan, and had dinner with my daughter, Gina.  I got to go to church twice.  There was a Veterans’ Day ceremony at town hall that was nice.

      Paul moved from Pahrump to Las Vegas while I was gone. We are camped at Nellis AFB Desert Eagle RV Park in the new part. Ugh. We don't like it at all. We did the laundry today.  The weather here is cold.  It’s high 30s/low 40s in the morning and doesn’t get much over 65 during the day.  I think it’s colder here than in New York! 

2022 Oct 26 (Wed) – We left Pahrump at 9:50 am.  It was almost two hours to the Lake Mead RV Village in Boulder City.  We were here with the Utah Caravan in 2019.  This is a beautiful area, right on the lakeshore.  We face the water and overlook the water surrounded by mountains. 

      Right after we set up, we did the laundry.  What an exercise in frustration that was!  You had to buy a card; the machines didn’t take quarters.  Paul tried to buy a card for $25 but when we tried to get the washers working, things didn’t work out.  So, in exasperation, I pulled out my phone and downloaded the app.  I was able to put $15 on my credit card and we got 3 washers working, then 3 dryers for a total of $2 a machine ($12).  It cost us $5 for the card that never worked.  Grrrrrrrrr.

      Joan & Peter came over at 5 pm with chicken from Chilly Jilly’s.  The place makes broasted chicken.  It was excellent!  There were also French fries, cole slaw, and biscuits.  Everything was very good.  After dinner, we sat around the campfire talking.  It was very pleasant.

      I fly out to New York tomorrow and will be gone for five days.  See you when I get back.

2022 Oct 25 (Tue) -  An agent from NY Life called to review our annuity with the company.  After some discussion, we decided to leave everything the way it is for now.  We are approaching the age where we will have to withdraw funds from our annuity so the government can get their taxes.

      We went out after lunch to a shop that sells military paraphernalia.  I was looking for a sticker that said something about the Cold War and anything that said I was a lady Army veteran.  Didn’t find either.  Didn’t find anything for Paul that said his spouse was in the army.  Oh, well.  I did find a ninja mask to give our grandson for Christmas.  So, it wasn’t a total loss.

2022 Oct 24 (Mon) – We drove to a model home neighborhood and toured two newly built homes.  The quality of construction was good and Paul was impressed with their workmanship. 

      After the tour, we stopped at Burger King for lunch.  Then we picked up a few items at the supermarket.  We saw that the rum distillery was open (we tried it yesterday but thought it was closed).  We stopped in and tasted 8 different varieties.  The tasting was fun and the conversation with the bartender was very pleasant.  We bought the coffee flavored rum.

2022 Oct 23 (Sun) – We drove over to the Moose Lodge for breakfast.  Paul had sausage gravy on biscuits.  I had eggs, bacon, hash browns and a biscuit.  We both had a bloody mary but it was bitter.

      We met Joan & Pete and Adam, Diane & Devin at Sanders Winery at noon.  We enjoyed a free tasting then drove to El Jefe’s for lunch.  It was a great visit and we look forward to more interactions over the holidays.

2022 Oct 22 (Sat) – We drove 20 miles down the road to the town of Crystal.  It turned out to be a pretty desolate place with no open facilities.  The two or three bars in town were all closed.  We didn’t see any grocery store or gas station.  There were many trailers that were old and abandoned.  Many houses were dilapidated and falling apart.  Yet, there was a small section of homes where folks living there and their homes and cars were in decent shape.

      At 4:00 pm, the Elks Lodge had a dedication ceremony for their new Elk statue out front.  The wind was blowing fiercely and everyone had to hold on to their papers very tightly.  That did not discourage the lodge from holding their ceremony outside or giving it its full measure.  After the ceremony, we all went inside for dinner.  It was a special event because the State President of the Elks Association and several other officers were present.  The meal was excellent: beef stew in a bread bowl with a pumpkin crumble for dessert. 

2022 Oct 21 (Fri) – We packed up and left Beatty at 9:50 am.  It was only 75 miles to Pahrump so we took it easy.  The drive was pleasant, always with mountains surrounding us.  We arrived at the Elks Lodge at around 11:15 am.  We were here in 2014.  It turns out we were parked in the exact same spot 8 years ago.  And neither one of us remembers this place.  Weird.

      There are 8 spaces in the parking lot for RV hookups.  They only have electric and water stations.  The lodge opened at noon.  We went in and signed in but they wanted cash in payment.  So we went into town to get some cash, fuel and groceries.  After we returned, we made lunch then napped.  At 4:45 pm, we went into the lodge for drinks and dinner.  The meal was pork loin, potatoes, green beans, and ice cream with a chocolate chip cookie.  We took the cookies back to the trailer to have with our coffee.  While the coffee brewed, we took a walk down the road and back.  It was twilight and the edge of the mountains in the west were backlit in golden light.  It was beautiful.  The lodge is on a higher grade than the town so we can look down on Pahrump and see all the twinkling lights at night. 

2022 Oct 20 (Thu) – We drove 8 miles out of town to Death Valley, intending to just get our picture taken at the sign into the park.  When we got there, we found the entrance to Death Valley National Park closed.  The road was washed out by flash floods.  The security guard let us walk the short distance into the park to get our picture taken with the sign.

      We drove back down the road to the historic mining town of Rhyolite.  We had been here back in 2014.  There are few crumbling buildings and a bottle house, built entirely out of empty bottles.  There had been three in town but Tom Kelly’s is the only one remaining.  There was a train depot, turned casino that was fenced off.  There is an attempt to save and restore it.  It was used as a casino to attract tourists to the area after the town was abandoned but that, too, collapsed.  There was a small museum with outdoor sculptures.  The artist had friends pose for the last supper.  He covered them with paper mache and after the cover hardened and they stepped out, he covered the forms in fiberglass.  There were other forms he made, too.  These life size sculptures stand out there in the middle of the desert like some kind of weird beacons calling visitors to come explore the area. 

      We drove back into town intending to have lunch at the VFW.  It was an old church converted to a post.  Unfortunately, they did not start serving food until 3 p.m.  It was only 1:30 p.m.  So, after looking around the converted old church, we drove into town and had lunch at Smokin’ J’s.  The food was very good.  We had leftovers to take home for tomorrow’s dinner.

2022 Oct 19 (Wed) – Paul woke me and we went to breakfast at Mel’s Diner across the street.  Later, we walked across the street to a small shop selling jerky and honey.  Otherwise, we spent the day hanging around the campground, working on our various projects.  It was cold in the morning but got very hot in the afternoon.

2022 Oct 18 (Tue) – We left Hawthorne at 9:30 a.m.  It was a long drive to Beatty.  The landscape was endless miles of mountains and deserts.  What few towns we passed were very small, most showing disregard for the buildings and yards.  We arrived at 1:20 p.m.  It turns out, we were here in 2014.  And the two burros that were here then are here now.  At least, I think they are the same two.  They were grazing when we stepped out of the camper after set up.  Of course, we had to offer them carrots which they liked very much.

      This is a nice campground for a desert location.  There are three rows of pull thru sites on dirt.  Many trees are in the area, to include some palm trees.  The owner is a former marine and very talkative.  It was hard to get out of the office – he just didn’t want to stop talking.

      We did the laundry.  The campground has 9 washers and 4 dryers.  The two dryers we first chose wouldn’t take more than 2 or 3 quarters.  So we waited while they ran out their time (6 minutes for each quarter), then moved the wash to the other 2 dryers.  They were working fine.

2022 Oct 17 (Mon) – We pulled up stakes and left Minden at 10:50 a.m.  It was a pleasant drive through the mountains.  We drove through a mountain pass with mountains rising on each side of the road.  It was so impressive.  We arrived at Whiskey Flats RV Park in Hawthorn around 1:15 pm.  The campground is very nice.  There are 4 rows of RVs; all pull-throughs.  We have full hookup with 50 amp electric.  There are some trees around the campground.  Three rows have concrete pads; we have a dirt and gravel surface.  We will only be here for tonight.

      After set up, we drove into town to get fuel and lunch.  There were a couple of gas stations.  The cheapest was $5.69 a gallon.  We stopped at the Hawthorne Ordnance Museum.  It was a small place with free admission.  They had many different kinds of bombs and missiles on display.  The collection was a kind of mish mash of military items from WWII, Korea and Vietnam with a few things thrown in from Desert Storm. 

      We had lunch at El Capitan.  There were about 4 eateries in town; all were casinos with cafes.  I got meatloaf and Paul got butterfly shrimp.  The food was decent and the price was reasonable. 

2022 Oct 16 (Sun) – We went into town today to fuel up for tomorrow’s move.  We also stopped at Tractor Supply to get propane and pick up cat food.

      At 4 pm, we arrived at Carl & Gwen’s for dinner.  Scott and his girlfriend, Patti, were there, too.  We had a delightful visit.  Carl was trying to cook a pork loin on the smoker but apparently he wasn’t happy and wound up cooking it on the barbecue.  The dinner was excellent and Gwen made a delicious dessert.  Patti got ill in the middle of dinner and Scott took her home.  It turned out that she had been to a party before coming to Carl & Gwen’s and she was properly imbibed.  Scott came back and we had a great visit.

      I called a campground between Minden and Death Valley to make a reservation.  We were supposed to drive to Death Valley but it would have been at least a six hour drive.  Too long, in our book.  So I found something about 120 miles down the road.  That will make the next drive’s more amenable.

2022 Oct 15 (Sat) – We drove to Reno this morning.  It was about a 40 minute drive.  Reno bills itself as the Biggest Little City in the World.  It certainly is spread out!  There were 12 exits off the highway for Reno.  We first went to the National Automobile Museum. There were fantastic displays on exhibit and we enjoyed the museum thoroughly.  There were many one-of-a-kind vehicles and the stories about most of the cars were amusing.

      Afterward, we drove to the riverwalk.  Lunch was at Smith River, a restaurant right on the river.  We split a cheese plate and a tri tip sandwich.  As we sat looking out the window, we noticed several people walking by with wine glasses and maps.  Paul remembered reading about a wine walk that takes place in Reno every third Saturday of the month.  Today was the third Saturday.  I asked a lady where they got the maps and we went there after our lunch.  There were 20 restaurants participating in the wine walk.  You just had to pay $30 per person and you got a map, bracelet and hand painted wine glass.  Unfortunately, we needed to get back to Carson City to keep my appointment with the Geek Squad at Best Buy.  So, we did a little walking along the river then left.

      At Best Buy, the tech seemed to be confused at first but he seemed to work the problem out.  I will see the next time I have to send out an email.

      After Best Buy, we went to WalMart and got a few groceries.  We are going to Carl & Gwen’s house tomorrow for a barbecue and want to bring wine and dessert.

2022 Oct 14 (Fri – My Birthday) – We drove to Genoa today.  Genoa is the oldest settlement in Nevada.  Folks still live there.  We toured the Courthouse Museum then walked across the street to look over the Mormon Station.  That used to be a stop on the Pony Express.  What a fascinating history that is!  The Pony Express only ran for 18 months until the trains came across country and made the Pony Express non-essential.  It was very dangerous and demanding work.  The riders were usually teenagers and they wanted them to be orphans.  The route was 1,900 miles long with 184 stops of between 12 to 25 miles.  The operation had 120 riders, 400 horses, and several hundred support personnel.

      After the visit to Genoa, we drove back to Gardnerville where we ate at the Basque Restaurant again.  The meal included stew rather than soup, bread, salad, French fries, wine, and the main dish.  We brought home lots of left overs.

      We tried to bring my laptop to Best Buy to see if they could fix my email.  My sender name keeps coming up as TEST TEST.  It happened when I first got the computer and set up my account.  They did not have room for any walk-ins and I had to make an appointment for tomorrow afternoon.

2022 Oct 13 (Thu) – We were back in Carson City today.  We went to the Nevada State Railroad Museum.  They had some nice pieces but it was a small museum.  After touring the Railroad Museum in Strasburg, PA, this one was very disappointing. 

      After touring the RR museum, we went to a very eclectic place for lunch – Sassafras.  There were very unusual items on the menu.  We ordered and enjoyed our meal very much.

      We drove around Lake Tahoe today.  The California side of the lake is very built up with multi-million dollar homes dotting the lakeside.  Prices were pretty high.  Gas was more than a $1 more than in Nevada.  We did not stop to buy anything on that side of the lake.  We wanted to hike a trail or two but there was no parking.  Just like the other day, crowds filled the lakeside and there was no room to stop.  We did stop at a visitor center but there were 2 busloads of school children running around the place.  Now I understand why old people don’t like to be around youngsters.  It was a pleasure to get back on the Nevada side of the lake.  There was mostly pine forest with very little build up.  It was a beautiful drive that we enjoyed very much.

2022 Oct 12 (Wed) – We drove into Carson City today.  It is the capitol of Nevada and we toured the capitol complex.  Actually, they have a capitol complex and we only went into the domed capitol.  It was small; only 3 floors high.  All the guards were super friendly and were very interested in our living arrangement. 

       After the self-guided tour of the capitol, we had lunch at Great Basin Brewery.  The food was ok.  After lunch, we went to the Nevada State Museum.  It consisted of some log cabins that served as out buildings – a storage shed, blacksmith shop, stable, etc.  The Museum contained many exhibits describing Nevada’s history.  It was quite interesting.

2022 Oct 11 (Tue) – Since we only had 70 miles to go today to Minden (suburb of Carson City), we doodled around until 11 am before leaving.  The ride was an easy hour to the Carson Valley Inn & RV Park.  It is a campground next to a casino.  This is one of the nicer campgrounds owned by a casino.  It has asphalt roadways and campsites, like a parking lot, but there is grass and many trees to soften the effect.  Our site has full hookups with 50-amp electric.  There is not enough room for our truck so we have to park it in the nearby parking lot.

      After set up, we walked over to the casino hotel lobby to sign in.  We were given key cards that allow us access to the swimming pool and hot tub in the hotel, and the laundry and bathrooms in a building in the campground.  We called our friends, Carl & Gwen, to let them know we had arrived.  They picked us up at 5 pm and took us to dinner at JT Bar & Dining Room.  It was a Basque restaurant, like the one we dined at in Elko.  And it was just as delightful!  There was wine, vegetable soup, beans, French fries, bread, salad, and our main course.  Three of us had steak and Carl had lamb chops.  Everything was excellent.

2022 Oct 10 (Mon) – We went out to get fuel for tomorrow’s move.  Lunch was at the Black Bear Diner.  We also stopped at WalMart to get a few things.  We spent some time looking out at the field at the cows and the coyote.  The owls were no where in sight.

2022 Oct 9 (Sun) – We enjoyed our vigil of the field next door, looking for the coyotes in the grass and owls in the trees, but it is time to mosey on.  We packed up and left at 9:10 a.m.  It was a long drive – over 200 miles and we expected everything to go smoothly.  Sadly, it did not.

      I had called the Rye Patch State Park Recreation Area to make a reservation a while ago.  I was told they do not take reservations; it is first-come, first-serve.  But, the agent said, it is not busy and we will not have any problem finding a site.  When we arrived, there was no office.  There was a sign posted, giving the price for non-hookup and hookup sites.  As we drove around the campground, we noted that nobody seemed to have any hookups.  When we got to the end of the loop, we found 3 sites with electric but they were occupied.  It looked like the group had just arrived and were setting up.  One of the men told us they were the only sites in the campground with electric.

      We got back in the truck and drove down the road 50 miles to the Candy Beach Campground in Lovelock.  The office was closed.  I called and left a message on the phone that we were at the office and looking for a campsite for two nights.  Then I walked around the campground.  It seemed like all the campsites were taken by full timers, probably workers in the area.  I found an empty site and knocked on the door of the RV next to it.  The occupant came out and told me she thought the site was open.  The man who was there left this morning.  She gave me another phone number to contact the owner.  I called the number but there was no answer there either.  I, again, left a message.  We kabitzed about it, then decided to take the site.  Paul parked it, we opened the RV up, made lunch, then settled in front of the TV.  I picked up my phone and found a message there (my phone never sounded).  The owner said the site was taken and we could not stay.

      So we packed up again.  This time, I called a campground in the next town of Fernley, 58 miles an hour south.  The Desert Rose RV Park said they did have a site for two nights.  We drove down and found a very nice campground with four rows of campers filling in 117 sites.  The campsite we are on is concrete pad and has full hookups.  We were pretty exhausted by the time we got set up and settled in.  We didn’t arrive here until 4:10 p.m.  Those were long hours.

2022 Oct 8 (Sat) – Today, we drove 10 miles out of town to the Ghost Town of Metropolis.  It was established in 1910 and by 1924, the town was virtually deserted.  They tried farming but the founders had neglected to file for water rights.  The townspeople killed all the coyotes which caused a large rabbit population to eat their crops.  Add a cricket plague and a drought and you can imagine why they left.  There were two foundations with crumbling cement structures.  One had been a school and the other a fancy hotel.  We walked around the area looking for clues but there really was no sign that 700 people once lived and farmed there.  A monument had been erected to the lost town and was fenced in.

      We returned to town and got fuel for tomorrow’s move.  Then we went into the Iron Skillet for lunch.  The service was decent and the food was OK.  The cost was as much as yesterday’s meal at the Star Hotel for only half the cost.

      When we got back to the campground, we took a walk around the area.  Then using the binoculars, tried to spot the coyotes and owls.  The female coyote was working the field yesterday.  A rancher had put his cows in the field and they didn’t seemed fazed by the coyote at all.  We spotted the male great horned owl but couldn’t find the female.  It looked like a hornets nest on the side of the branch until we looked closely at it.  They blend in really well.

2022 Oct 7 (Fri) – We drove into Elko today and toured two museums.   The first one was the Northeast Nevada Museum.  There were lots of displays about the history of the area.  It included the fossil bones on a wooly mammoth that had been found in the area as well a large exhibit about the original inhabitants in the area before the settlers came.

      After the museum, we drove to the Star Hotel for lunch.  It was a Basque run restaurant.  The meal was one of the best we had.  They served cabbage soup (Paul paid $3 more for clam chowder), salad and bread with the meal.  The large bowls of soup, whole loaf of bread, and big helping of salad filled us up.  We wound up taking our sandwiches home and had them for dinner.  The price was very reasonable to boot.  We really enjoyed the ambiance, service, and history of the place.

       Next, we drove to the Cowboy Arts & Gear Museum.  The building used to house the Garcia Saddlery.  It was famous shop and some of the Garcia saddles sold for thousands of dollars.  The museum was quite small with saddles, chaps, spurs, and other paraphernalia on display.  The little old man who ran the museum was not very communicative and I don’t think we spent more than 30 minutes in the place.

2022 Oct 6 (Thu) – We drove to Angel Lake today, about 12 miles outside of town.  The drive up the mountainside was a white knuckle thrill as the road wound around turns and twists with a steep drop off.  We arrived at the lake.  It is nestled in a glacier made indentation and rather small.  I thought it would be a glacier lake with its beautiful emerald green-blue color but it was just a regular lake.  The lake is stocked regularly with trout and bass.  There were two men in boats with fishing poles plying the water.  Two other couples were there, too.  We hiked around the lake.  The first direction turned out to be very difficult with bushes and brambles in the way.  We wound up trying to hike around the other side of the lake.  It was smoother going for a while, then got steep and rocky.  We sat on a boulder to admire the view, then hiked back to the truck and took that exciting drive back down the mountain.

2022 Oct 5 (Wed) – We had the most delightful drive today.  We drove to Elko, north of us to take a scenic drive up into the mountains.  First, it was lunch at Wingers, a kind of sports bar eatery.  The next stop was at the visitor center where we wanted to find out how to get to the scenic drive.  The center was located in a log cabin that had been moved from another location, along with several log outbuildings.  The house was quite large for a log cabin, compared to what we have seen over the years.  It also had a second floor.  The clerk told us the house had been owned by a family with 12 children.  No wonder they needed the space!

      After talking to the clerk at the visitor center, we took off to find the Lamoille Canyon Scenic Byway.  It was a 12-mile road that wound through a pass in the Ruby Mountains.  The scenery was awesome.  We were at the foot of great mountains.  One side was covered with changing foliage, the colors of green and gold were stunning.  The mountains on the other side of the road were stark, bare, and very rugged looking.  We came to the point where the glaciers formed the Lamoille Canyon.  We got out to admire the geography of the area.  There were a couple of campgrounds along the drive.  Those are for those rustic individualistic wilderness lovers.

      We got to the end of the road and turned around to come back.  When we got back to the intersection, we turned right and drove along the back farm roads.  It was mostly packed gravel and dirt.  The ride was very rough and we saw miles and miles of open, undeveloped land with cattle happily grazing.  The entire area is so breathtaking with the view of mountains wherever you look.

      This morning we saw two coyotes in the field next to the campground.  We were watching them move back and forth in the meadow looking for food when three dogs came backing out from the house next to the field.  The coyotes ran off.  That was disappointing but they have to protect themselves.  The owner drove up on his golf cart and we spent some time talking about the wildlife in the area.  Two people in the campground have lost their cats.  He thinks one went to the coyotes but he doesn’t think the second one did.  It might have been the owls.  We stay close to Sheba when we let her out.

2022 Oct 4 (Tue) – We packed up and left American Falls, Idaho, at 9:20 a.m.  The sky was a beautiful blue and the drive was pleasant.  A good deal of the driving was on back farm roads.  Paul was a little nervous but all the roads were capable of supporting our RV.

      We arrived in Wells, NV at 12:50 p.m. PST (we gained an hour), at the Welcome Station RV Park.  There isn’t much around the campground.  It’s kind of like an oasis in the desert.  The campground is very pleasant.  There is grass and shade trees.  It is small with only 21 campsites.  It sits next to an open field.  This afternoon, we got to see a coyote, a moose, and two great horned owls.  What a delight!  We will have to keep a very close watch on Sheba.

      The couple who own this campground were full-timers for 16 years.  They found this campground and decided to buy it.  They run it as a seasonal place; only open from May through mid-October.  The husband said they take off for 7 months, going down to Arizona and Mexico during the colder months.  Sounds like a great lifestyle.

[the-beskar-alchemist]

Bucky x reader imagines that live rent-free in my head (I'm not a writer, but I really needed to get these off my chest)

I'm typically Mandalorian-centric, so if you prefer to avoid this little tangent of mine I have added a cut for your convenience.

My ADHD has me daydreaming CONSTANTLY, so if you're reading this than you don't mind tumbling down the rabbit hole with me...

1) Chubby!Baker!Bucky x Coyote Ugly!Reader - Reader has a meet-cute with Bucky at his bakery right after it opens one morning. A case of PMS leads reader to the only bakery with a dessert that will help her feel better. Reader is a bartender at the infamous Coyote Ugly in New York, fluffy romance ensues, reader stops by every morning at the bakery to visit Bucky before the bakery opens, and sometimes he'll even wake up in time to drive/walk her home after her shift.

2) Fullmetal Alchemist - Bucky is insecure about his arm, so he tries to avoid letting reader see it. Reader is an anime fan and LOVES the series Fullmetal Alchemist, so they decide the best way to show Bucky how cool his arm is would be to introduce him to their favorite cyborg character: Edward Elric. Fluff ensues, Bucky jokingly refers to reader as his "Winry".

3) Supernatural/FaTWS - During one of his therapy sessions, Bucky can't help but notice that Dr. Raynor has a new piece of artwork hanging on the wall across from the couch. It's a strange symbol that seems a little cultish, but Raynor brushes it off as something she found to "add variety" to the room. Later another super soldier is spotted wreaking havoc on New York.....a soldier with long dark hair....black clothes...and a silver arm. Some dark themes. (The symbol in question is a tulpa, when Bucky concentrates on his past life as the WS, while staring the painting, he inevitably brings the "character" to life).

4) Bones/FaTWS - Reader is sick of how Dr. Raynor speaks to Bucky, and asks if it's possible for him to get a different therapist, one with better experience in handling a veteran. They enlist the help of former colleague Special Agent Seeley Booth to help convince his former therapist, Dr. Gordon Wyatt, to accept the position. Booth also provides some wisdom on how to live with  red ledger as a former sniper, as well as having connections with the assassination of a president. Definitely some angst.

5) Law and Order SVU/FaTWS - Similar to the Bones crossover, except reader's former colleague is Dr. George Huang, a forensic psychiatrist and criminal profiler for SVU. Can Olivia Benson and Dr. Huang help heal Bucky in the way that he truly needs as a special victim himself?

6) The Mortal Instruments/Post-Endgame/Pre-FaTWS - Steve isn't actually dead, but fakes it in order to go into hiding so that he can finally "retire" in peace, but still stay in his regular timeline. The only people that know of this are reader and the people of Idris, Shadowhunters, who have agreed to give the great Captain solace in exchange for his services in helping to protect the sacred country. Because of Idris' supernatural protection, both divine and otherwise, Idris is undetectable by even Wakanda-standards, making it the perfect place to hide. Until Bucky finds out the truth, and demands reader take him there. Can he forgive Steve? And why was the Captain so desperate to run away from his best friend? AAAAAANGST.

7) Doctor Sleep/FaTWS - Reader is gifted with the "shining", and tries so hard to avoid accidentally side-stepping into other people's heads, but sometimes their efforts are futile. Reader accidentally side-steps into Bucky's head, and he hates the idea of yet another person messing around in there. He avoids reader as much as possible, but they're neighbors so they still encounter each other in the apartment building. One night Bucky has a nightmare, and reader can't help but sense it with the "shining", immediately racing to help. Angst for sure.

8) The Matrix/(whichever movie you choose honestly, they could all work)....-  Instead of Agent Smith spreading like a virus, it was Hydra that attempted to overthrow the virtual world of the Matrix, and overpower the Machines. Steve is the "One" the free-minded have been searching for, he is freed from the alternate reality, but Bucky remains behind. Bucky's "infected" by Hydra, his programming is rewritten to become the Winter Soldier. Can Steve help free Bucky's mind from Hydra's control? Or will Hydra take over and destroy Zion for good?

9) Gilmore Girls/Chubby!Baker!Bucky x Reader - Reader moved to New York from Stars Hollow a few years back, but will occasionally go back for a visit to see their favorite Inn owners Lorelei and Sookie. Reader gushes about Sookies cooking and baked goods.......and a slightly jealous Bucky is a little miffed that his Cupcake/Peaches (you pick) enjoys someone else's baking besides his own.

10) Treasure Planet with Pirate!Bucky - Captain Steve Rogers is a respectable sailor who becomes an unfortunate pawn in a scheme to steal a spherical map that leads to the legendary Treasure Planet......and Pirate!Bucky will do anything to get his hands on some of the riches.

11) Conventions with FaTWS!Bucky - Reader convinces her grumpy boyfriend to let loose and enjoy a comic book/anime convention. Bucky thinks it's silly at first, but he can't help his fanboy side when he sees some people cosplaying as his favorite characters. There's also the dealer's rooms where he discovers the feeling of buying things he likes just because, realizing how much he missed choosing things for himself. Bonus points if Reader cosplays as one of his favorite characters.

That's all I have for now.....I may fuck around and add more later lol

[noritoshiikamo]

driver’s license 

cause you said forever, now I drive alone passed your street [au where suna is a doctor specialized in memory removal and his last patient of the day is his ex]

pairing: suna rintarou + fem!reader genre: pain, angst, doctor!suna + patient!reader tags//warning: medical procedure of mind erasing, slight suicide ideation, alcohol abuse note: the obligatory trio of mine: not well edited, lowercase intended, english isnt my first language im sorry if i murder it. the songs made me brawled i had to write something about it and i just so happened to finish haikyuu

“it’s odd,” he looked up from the computer screen, osamu approached him pointing to the screen, the last name listed in the appointment schedule under dr suna rintarou. please don’t say it please don’t say anything, he begged silently in his head. “she kinda has her name. haven’t heard her name in ages,” osamu shrugged, grabbing his next patient’s files, “want to get lunch later?” the doctor popped in another stick of gum, leaving before suna could even said a word.

funny that osamu said that. that is his girlfriend. he moved the cursor and clicked at the name. the birthplace, the date, her eye colour, the address and her number; it matches everything he ever memorized of her. except they are no longer together. it has been a month since their breakup.

 she’s an architect. not by choice but she likes art. she’s talented and had once held an art show during school’s open day where they met. she didn’t draw him until they started dating, but she had known some of his close friends who was the subject of her drawings. her parents disproved of her ambitious and to compromise, she agreed to take architectural instead. she stopped drawing completely and suna was the only person in japan that has the largest collection of her paintings stuffed in boxes and behind shelves.

 suna rintarou has been a doctor in inarizaki institute for 5 years now. inarizaki institute was different from others. it was the only medical institution that had successfully developed a procedure to remove unwanted memories. he’s one of the qualified doctors for said procedure. he had done the procedure multiple times now, even on his former high school friends and families but never his own girlfriend.

 is it him she’s removing from her memories?

 he didn’t remember how they broke up. maybe it’s because he was too busy. maybe it’s because she had fallen out of love with him. maybe they just couldn’t stand being in each other’s spaces, but it happened so quickly. she moved out from their apartment, returned when he left to clear out her stuff and he just threw himself back to work.

 he did remember how they met. she was the miya brothers’ neighbor. one night when he came to visit them during semester break years ago, they were in their parents’ car with a girl. suna felt like he had recognized but couldn’t think of where or when. “oi, suna,” the window rolled down and asamu called him over, “come in!” despite being weirded out, he entered the back door of the car. “we are teaching our friend how to drive; can you believe it? she’s in our university and can’t drive to save a life.”

 “shut the fuck up, atsumu or i’ll run you over,” she muttered angrily as she moved the driving gear.

 suna saw the stick going down to reverse instead down further and he immediately reached for her hand. the girl startled at the stranger’s sudden touch. “what the fuck are you d-doing?” she choked up.

 “you’re going to reverse into the wall,” he muttered bluntly, pouting his mouth to the gear. grabbing the stick through her hand, he pulled the gear into drive before letting her hand go. the light from the post shined in and he could see red flush on her face as she nodded, “oh okay, yeah d,” she muttered to herself. she started driving. she wasn’t exactly bad; she just needed a lot of practice.

 so he came over every day of his semester break and accompanied them as she practiced her driving.

 “i can drive you home?” she offered on the last night of his break before he returned to school.

 “you don’t have too.”

 “i insisted,” to which suna agreed and she glanced back at the miya brothers, “get the fuck out.” despite their disgruntlement and the it’s my mum’s car argument, she managed to kick them out. it was just two of them together. “so, i know we went to same high school and university. how come we have never crossed path before?” she questioned as she took her first turn. she memorized the roads to his home. suna shrugged as he fidgeted with the corner of the jacket’s zipper, “i played volleyball in high school.”

 she chuckled, “i’ve never watched any sport matches in high school, sorry. anyway, i’m a last year architectural student by the way. are you taking the same course as osamu?” she glanced at him with a smile. his heart skipped a beat. “y-yeah. i’m in my 5th year of medical.”

 “why not volleyball player?”

 “i got bored.”

 she let a soft exhale and shrugged, “fair enough. i took architectural to please my mother so i’m in no position to give any advice.” she slowed down in front of his house before pulling into a full stop. she pulled into parking and pulled the hand brake. she smiled and fist pumped herself, “did you see that? perfect stop!” suna didn’t expect what was going to happen next. he watched out of control as his arm reached out for her face and pulling her close. what he remembered being in control was asking her boldly whether he could kiss her.

her eyes sparkled and she smiled so widely, “yes.”

so, he did.

she moved into his apartment at the end of his graduation. she didn’t get any job for the first few months while he entered inarizaki institute as medical officer. she took commissions online and waited tables while going to a couple of interviews. he saw a decline in her motivation. when suna returned one night, he found her behind the sofa, drunk out of her mind. what spooked him wasn’t the bottles of whiskey on the floor but the stainless-steel paint scrapper she stabbed the canvas with. she could’ve hurt herself. but, putting her into therapy and pulling strings with some of her friends, she recovered, and he got her an interview. suna watched as she dreadfully shoved her portfolios and files into her bag. 

“you’ll be alright,” he reassured, bringing her a cup of coffee. she sighed and pushed her bangs back, “i don’t know, rin. i just don’t feel like getting another rejection after another and then i’ll just spiral into a-” he stopped her rambling with a kiss. he tasted like coffee; she tasted like their toothpaste. every time she tried to pull away, he pulled her back into the kiss and she could feel him laughing against her lips. “this is going to turn into something else,” she whispered between the kiss and he nodded. he was half aroused. she drank the coffee and kissed him one last time. he felt her fingers slipped from his grip. she stood by the door and waved back.

 “see you?” she beamed.

 “always.”

 suna snapped out of his own memory when an alarm blared out. he looked up past the nurses’ counter and saw a patient being pushed out of room B by a couple of nurses. he knew what goes on in that room; he helped in perfecting the procedure. osamu followed soon. he tugged the blue gloves off and shoved them into the yellow bin. “you would not believe who I met in the waiting room?” by the look of his face, osamu already got the feeling that suna already knew. osamu flipped his file and pulled out a pen. he signed the bottom of the pages and dumping it in the completed pile. “did she tell you?” suna asked.

 “about?” the other doctor asked.

 “the memories she’s erasing. did she tell you?”

 osamu shook his head and pocketed his hand in the white coat. “she asked about you. whether you’re around. i said yeah, he’s on call and she just smiled.” suna stood up and grabbed the file. he felt conflicted. osamu stopped the man before he could enter the room. “look man, I’m sorry about whatever happen between you guys and I’m in no position to judge at all.”

 suna shrugged and smiled, “it’s fine. we were just ruining each other.” the other man nodded understandingly before excusing himself. suna wanted to move but his feet felt heavy. he was glued down. room B was just a few feet away, but he couldn’t move. this is it. the end of them.

 he forced himself into the room. standing in front of the panels and monitor, separating him and her was a one-way mirror. she sat on the seat, talking to the nurses in charge. his heart hurts. she had bangs now framing her face. she’s slight thinner and no longer wore the charm bracelet he gave during their first anniversary. the nurse placed a heart-beat monitor on her thumb and attached a couple more of sensors to her brain, forehead, and neck. his monitor lightened up and spitted out the information. this is it. “doctor, she’s requesting of removal of memory from 2009 up to last month,” the nurse’s words went in his ears and out. it’s of him.

 all his own memories flashed through his mind.

 the memories of every kisses, hugs, the late nights and the earliest of days, the coffees, the spilled paints. memories of every tear he ever wiped and for ever meals she had ever cooked. memories of all the paints of him that she had gifted to him and every night she drove down his streets. for every missed calls and unread texts. the way she touched him and the way she made him felt. he felt suffocated.

 how could he ever love someone else?

 “everything is accordingly. you may press the start, doctor.”

 he looked at the flashing button and back to her. she was looking right at him. she might not see him, but she is looking straight at him and she looked so beautiful. a small smile appeared on her lips as her fingers fidgeted nervously. he felt tears prickling his eyes. his fingers brushed against the button and he slowly pressed it. 

 it took them 7 years to build this much of memories together and it took him 3 minutes to erase it clean from her mind.

 she was drowsy and she had tears running down her face. the nurses rushed in after the red light disappeared and green light beamed. the alarm rang. another memory successfully. “I’m okay, I’m okay.” he heard her from the opened door. shutting off the machine, he immediately rushed out for the door, feared that he might bumped into her and lost it. he hid his shaking hands in his pocket and gritted his teeth.

 “doctor?”

 he stopped. the world stopped spinning and he felt lightheaded. the way she called for him didn’t change, the tone and the pronunciation were the same. it was always melodious yet painful. he turned around to see her being wheelchaired out of the room by the nurse. her eyes were slightly red, and her nose were puffy. the nurse passed her a cup of water. she smiled politely, thanking her and took the cup in her hand. she took a sip, coughing at the coldness of the water down her dried throat. it’s the side effect of the procedure.

 “have we met before?” she asked, innocently.

 suna shook his head and smiled weakly, “no, we haven’t.” he turned to the nurse and nodded. before the nurse could ushered her away, she called him out again. 

 with a smile on her face, she waved goodbye, “see you, doctor?”

 “always.”

[lilfellasblog]

King Roman and the Fake Harem

Summary: King Roman has enemies directly outside his walls, pressure from inside his walls to get a harem, and no solution in sight. Until he sees the solution has been right under his nose the entire time. This is the story of how an aroace King gets a harem of advisors.

A/N: If you liked this, please reblog. It is the only way to help this fic reach a wider audience.

TW: Two brief instances of sexual harassment, one instance of groping, swearing (because Virgil), and people sneering at sex workers/ presumed sex workers.

Word count: 2385

AO3 here!

Fic Masterlist here!

King Roman sighed and rubbed his eyes. “Ugh, give me a few hours to think of something,” he groaned.

His lead advisor that he’d inherited from his father, who Roman refused to refer to as anything but Orange, protested “But sir, we need a decision soon. It’s already been a week since enemy troops positioned themselves just outside our walls, and we’ve done little besides ask them to leave. That, on top of your lack of harem-”

“I’ll have something for you in two hours, regarding the troops,” Roman said, waving Orange away.

Orange huffed and spun on his heel, leaving the throne room grumbling. Roman brushed a hand over his face. A week into being king and the enemy decides to attack? The nerve!

“You know, if you roll out the catapults to the front gate, that would take care of the troops outside the walls on that side, and then you could concentrate your archers on the rear of the kingdom walls.”

Roman looked over to the side of his throne. Sir Virgil had been his best knight, until he’d been shot by an arrow that had permanently damaged his shoulder. That was 4 weeks ago, he was still in a sling, and ever since he’d been released from the medical wing he’d been making his lack of work everyone else’s problem.

Roman raised an eyebrow. “And just how would you propose moving the catapults from the armory down 100 feet of stairs to the front entrance, hm?”

Sir Virgil shrugged. “Ramps.”

Roman stopped short. Oh, he’s smart. “...very well.” He appraised Virgil. He’ll never be able to be a knight again and he needs something to do, and he’s not too unfortunate-looking… “How would you like a job?”

/////

Virgil adjusted the silks that hid exactly nothing of his upper body so they’d sit comfortably over his still-bandaged arm and shoulder. He was about to join his first ever advisor meeting, and he was beyond nervous. He’d been rather enjoying his life as the first member of Roman’s harem (that so far hadn’t even resulted in a single flirtatious remark, which Virgil wasn’t complaining about but he was certainly confused by), and he didn’t want to do anything to fuck it up.

“Ready?”

Virgil jumped and hissed through his teeth as his shoulder was jostled by the sudden movement.

Roman was frowning. Before Virgil could apologize, Roman asked, “Are you alright? I can have a healer come over. If you’d prefer to sit out this meeting and rest, that would be a more than acceptable course of action.”

Virgil was stunned. “Huh?”

Roman nodded at him. “Your shoulder, it seems to be causing you pain.”

“Oh! It’s not too bad, I’ll be fine. Still getting used to not moving it too much.”

Roman laughed. “Yes, that I have been witness to. Are you ready?”

“Yeah. Do I need to walk, like, meekly or whatever?” Virgil asked, cheeks already heating up at the future humiliation.

A look of disgust came over Roman. “No, I wouldn’t expect that of anyone under my employ.”

Virgil let out a breath. “Alright, cool cool.”

The meeting started out as expected, a few snickers from his former co-workers who were still knights, but nothing Virgil couldn’t ignore. Virgil recognized Orange by his blaze orange ensemble that hurt his eyes (no wonder Roman refused to give Virgil his actual name). When it came time to discuss military tactics, Roman spoke first.

“I would like to introduce my military advisor, Sir Virgil. Sir Virgil, if you would, please announce your strategy for driving off the enemies.”

Before Virgil could get a word out, Virgil’s former boss blurted out, “You’re trusting your military strategy with a common whore?!”

Virgil levelled him with his best death glare. “Call me that again and I’ll cut off your balls and shove them down your throat.”

Only Virgil was close enough to hear the King swallow his laughter at the general’s paling face. Roman cleared his throat and spoke.

“To answer your question, yes. Sir Virgil, if you wouldn’t mind continuing?”

Virgil smirked. “Gladly.” For the next 20 minutes, Virgil confidently discussed his strategy with the catapults and archers, fielded questions, and specified the ideal placements. As the meeting drew to a close and Roman went to do the obligatory schmoozing with top leaders (Virgil noticed with glee how the military personel scrambled to get out, supposedly to “update the troops”), the Lead Advisor of Common Education approached Virgil. Virgil did the customary respectful bow, which the advisor returned.

“I trust King Roman is treating you well?” he inquired, blue eyes sparkling from beneath a sandy fringe.

“Yes, very much so. This fucked up rotator cuff is the best thing to happen to me,” Virgil internally winced at his choice of words. Gonna have to work on that.

The advisor just laughed. “I suppose it must be! Surely, being part of a harem is much more comfortable than being a knight.”

Virgil shrugged, and winced as he once again forgot about his injured shoulder. “Yeah, it is. I’m just glad I can help in some capacity by being a strategic advisor.”

“Yes, yes, that must be quite fun for you,” the advisor purred. Virgil bristled at his condescending tone. “Do let me know if you require more… attention than what King Roman provides.”

Virgil wrinkled his face. He focused on Roman, and heard his attention was on Orange who was insisting that one person could hardly be considered a harem. “I think I’m good.”

“Oh, of course, of course, but do keep me in mind.” And before Virgil realized what was happening, the advisor had patted his ass.

Virgil used his good arm to grab the man’s offending hand, twist him around, bring him to his knees, and place a foot on the middle of his back.

“Ow! You stupid whore, get off-”

“What is the meaning of this?!” King Roman thundered.

Virgil released the advisor. “This guy was perving all over me, and I get I’m part of a harem but I don’t stand for that shit.”

“It was just a love tap!”

King Roman’s face was red with anger. “Sir Virgil, he encroached on your person?”

“Yeah, that’s one way to put it.”

“You are relieved of your duties.”

Virgil sagged while the advisor smiled smugly. Welp, the grapes and silk were fun while they lasted. “Yeah, okay.”

Roman jerked back a bit in confusion. “What? No, you,” he glared at the now-ex-advisor.

The advisor was aghast. “Excuse me? How dare you!”

“How dare you, touching a man without his consent and then having the gall to speak to me in such a tone!”

Virgil was in too much shock to process the rest of the conversation. He came back to his senses just outside the medical wing. Roman was instructing the doctor to recheck Virgil’s bandages as they didn’t seem to quite hold his shoulder still, and sighed in relief when he caught Virgil watching them.

“Virgil, there you are! Are you alright? Say the word, and I’ll arrange for you to speak with our mind doctor.”

Virgil blinked a few times.

Roman turned back to the doctor. “Could he have gone into shock? Does he need-”

Virgil shook his head to unfreeze his brain. “No, I’m fine. I’ve had people trying to kill me, part of the job, I’m okay.”

King Roman furrowed his brow. “Are you sure? Truly, if you need to talk to someone-”

Virgil held his good hand up. “I’m fine, promise. I’ll talk to someone later if I need to.”

Roman sighed in relief. “Thank goodness. Oh! The military is deploying your strategy as we speak! I thought I’d let you know before the good doctor looked you over.”

“Dope! Wait, what?”

King Roman was walking away. “I’ll see you once you’re tended to!” he called over his shoulder.

“What are you talking about, my shoulder… actually kinda hurts, okay fine.”

/////

One successful defeat of an opposing military later, and Roman had removed yet another advisor from his circle for creepy behavior.

“Hey Princey, I appreciate you defending my honor and shit, but that was the Lead Advisor of Trade,” Virgil began.

“And I’m better off without him!” Roman declared.

Virgil scratched his chin. “I mean yeah, but also you have a trade meeting with neighboring kingdoms coming up in a week, and two days after that you have an internal trade meeting with surrounding villages and the farmers within the city walls.”

Roman started stretching his arms and back in a way Virgil had identified meant he was stressed. “And there has been even more talk of my small harem, which does not bode well for external negotiations,” Roman murmured to himself.

Virgil shifted. “Yeah, that. Why don’t you just have your new advisors be part of your harem like me?”

Roman paused. “That’s… brilliant! Thank you Virgil!”

Virgil shrugged. “Yeah, no problem. It’s a pretty sweet gig. Although I don’t know why you haven’t-” he cut himself off with an awkward cough.

King Roman looked distinctly uncomfortable. “I’m afraid I’m not… particularly interested in those activities. I apologize if I’ve disappointed you.”

Virgil let out a breath. “I mean, I’m kinda relieved, not that you’re not hot! But I’d rather not break my two rules.”

Roman preened at the compliment. “What are your two rules?”

“Don’t shit where you eat and don’t fuck where you work.”

“Ah.”

“Look, there might be enough time to get someone else up to speed before the trade meetings. But you’ll have to choose someone quickly.”

Roman sat down in his throne and looked skyward in thought. “Are you familiar with Patton Hart? He’s already organized the internal farmers into their current union. What of him?”

Virgil remembered running into him right after a difficult mission and somehow ending up with a bag of tomatoes, a bag of bell peppers, and strict instructions to bathe and sleep. “Yeah, he’s a good guy.”

“How do you think he’d do as an advisor?”

Virgil didn’t have to think for long. “I think he’d be awesome. Want me to talk to him?”

“If you’d be so kind. And please assure him that his role would be strictly as an advisor.”

Virgil smirked. “You mean a shirtless advisor.”

Roman turned beet red, and Virgil cackled.

/////

Before Virgil knew it, the harem quarters weren’t so lonely. Patton had agreed to join, very happy with the wardrobe and quickly making a name for himself. Patton had, in turn, recommended Logan Logos to replace the other creepy advisor. Logan had run a very successful pre-K Montessori program before joining the palace harem, and he fit in with the rest of the advising circle well, already creating reforms to account for diverse learning styles. In fact, Virgil had noticed that the advisors who weren’t part of the harem started taking him and Patton more seriously once the proper and strong Logan had joined them.

The day of the inter-kingdom trade meeting had come, and Logan and Virgil would both be attending along with Patton. Everyone was nervous about how the sweet and gentle Patton would do at such a fierce and antagonist event.

Virgil’s shoulder was out of the cast and sling, although it was still tender. He clapped a hand on Patton’s shoulder. “Go get ‘em,” he said, trying to be encouraging.

Patton flushed. “Thanks Vee.”

The meeting began, along with the customary hour-long political niceties, and finally it came time for the trade advisors to speak on their leaders’ behalf.

Virgil ground his teeth at the open snickering of Patton’s garb, and he could tell Logan and Roman were feeling the same way. Patton, however, seemed to be unaffected by it all. As expected, the Kingdom of Fiery Fields spoke first.

“King Roman, we propose a 5% increase of taxes for the crops we export to your kingdom, lest we cease all wheat exports to you.”

“You may call me Advisor Hart, and for what reason? We already pay you 12% more for your crops than other kingdoms.”

The platinum blonde man stared at Patton with haughty hazel eyes. “Because, Advisor Hart,” he sneered. “our crops are unmatched in quality!”

Patton nodded his head. “Fair point. I suppose you won’t mind a moratorium on all exports of our steel to your kingdom then?”

It was as if all the air was sucked out of the room.

Platinum Blonde was outraged. “You wouldn’t!”

“Actually, we would. You are now meeting with the new King’s new advisory circle, and we won’t stand for pointless tax increases that a review of the books show only go to pay the noblewomen you’re cheating on your wife with,” Patton stated, smiling sweetly the entire time.

Half of the trade advisors around the table laughed, while the other half gawked. Platinum Blonde backed down, and the trade meeting lasted for only 2 days instead of the typical 3 since Patton effectively shut down any ego-based bullshitting that occurred.

/////

Virgil and Patton were taking turns trying to toss grapes into each others’ mouths, laughing, while Logan pretended to be irritated by their antics. The doors opened suddenly to show Orange, in his eye-burning all-orange ensemble.

“Hiya!” Patton chirped, hiding his own discomfort. They were all intensely disliked by Orange, who seemed to blame them for Roman not being interested in sex or romance.

Orange sniffed. “Advisor Logos, the noble King would like to extend his congratulations on the tax reform that redirected many of the fees of our noblepeople to educational supplies.”

Logan nodded at him. “Thank you. I’m quite proud of that myself and am very glad it came to fruition. Was their anything else you required, Advisor Wrath?”

“What?!” Virgil and Patton shouted at the same time. They whipped their heads over to Orange.

“No. Good day.” With that, Orange - or rather, Advisor Wrath - left their room.

Virgil and Patton turned back to Logan, who was seemingly reading again.

“Dude what the fuck-”

“How the heck did you know?!”

Logan just raised an eyebrow while continuing to read. “I have a way of finding things out,” he said, looking up for a second to smirk at them before going back to his book.

Virgil and Patton decided to not test Logan’s abilities.

[froody]

do u have any other fun facts abt appalachia. also do u know Why barns r black instead of red. i am fascinated

here are some more Appalachiagothic tidbits but more oriented towards my family’s experiences

My grandma had to cross a swinging bridge to get to her grandmother’s house, her dad would get drunk and stand on one side of the wobbling it to scare his wife and children. Mind you this was occurring in the 1950s/1960s.

There are a lot of streams and not a lot of bridges here. My grandmother’s most vivid memories are lifting her feet up while her father drove through a stream in their car so she didn’t get her shoes wet.

My mom’s neighbor still has to park her car on one side of a creek and walk across her personal rickety one lane bridge to get into her house.

There are rarely any guard rails here. Sometimes people drive off a mountain and their car is only visible from the road when the trees thin in the fall. This terrifies me and I think about it too much.

The Allegheny region was a very popular socialite destination during the roaring 20s, this is why you will see old stately resorts in the middle of poverty stricken middle of no where communities.

My grandma grew up without electricity or running water (again it was the 50s and 60s, not the turn of the century) and she’s taken me to the spring where she used to get water. I drunk out of it.

My great aunt and uncle discovered a mysterious cave on their property and it was deemed too dangerous and closed off. There’s a very pretty onyx vein inside it though.

I’ve said it before but my family cemetery is on top of a mountain. The oldest burial is from around 1815 but the rest of the burials start in the 1920s. Have no idea why people decided to start getting buried around this random guy’s grave 100 years later.

Our former family church has a baptismal pool carved into the creek. The creek can be damned to form a small temporary lake where someone can be baptized. I think it’s the coolest thing ever. Unfortunately the creek is spring water that’s constantly 58° Fahrenheit.

My grandmother’s first 3 children born in the 1940s were delivered by a doctor who happened to be Black. He was the only one who did house calls to her area. The myth that Appalachia is monoracial really annoys me for several reasons, family history and experience is definitely one. She was a scared pregnant teenager and he was the only doctor with the grace to help her. When she was was dying she asked for him, it had been nearly 80 years since she saw him last.

[searching-for-arcadia]

Sea-Hearts by Margo Lanagan & Vita Nostra by Maryna and Serhiy Dyachenko

torchwood fanfic asks

9. AUs? what kind?

Edits aren’t quite responsive since they��re not quite AUs that I’d say I gravitate towards, but more AUs I’d love to see people’s take on (I’ll actually answer the question below).

First, Gwen as selkie (and not the Torchwood selkie which seems to be an opposite selkie) isn’t something I’ve seen done (though if you know of a fic that has done this, please send it my way!). There is something about the soulfulness of her eyes that says selkie to me. A little snippet of something for flavor:

Gwen loved Rhys. He was a much kinder man than the man whole stole her from the sea. He loved her because he loved her, not because he owned her. That was more than many mortal men could boast.

Second, I would love to see a Torchwood/Vita Nostra fusion where Tosh was recruited to the Institute of Special Technologies and goes through the terrifying transformation and education we witness in the novel, but ultimately rejects her place and her power. She retains her brilliance but is always a little afraid from that point on of what she is capable of of. A little snippet of flavor:

She built the sonic modulator with the same sick feeling in her stomach that she had carried with her when she first joined the Institute of Special Technologies. She remembered when she sleep deprivation was driving her to madness and incoherence; she remembered when her studies suffered and her mother was in a near fatal automobile accident. A reminder, her mentor had said, and an incentive to study harder. She remembered the horrible accidents that befell all her classmate’s family members (broken bones, heart attacks, just-too-coincidental deaths); remembered that they were all taken hostage, their families held as ransom or collateral, until the lessons overtook their senses and they fell into the heady trap of being powerful. She was careful, while building the sonic modulator, to not become too interested, to not let her sense of capability outstrip her sense of fear. She would not forget how to be human twice.

And to actually answer the questions. YES, I love AUs. Excluding my already professed love of Chosen One!Ianto and my continual insistence that everybody, Suzie included, should live, here are some of my favorite AUs (in general, I love things that decrease the stakes for everyone involved because these days I just want to be coddled and comforted):

1. Time Lord Tosh or Ianto: I just think Time Lord Tosh makes a whole lot of sense and that she would make a fantastic companion to the Doctor (regardless of whether she’s human or a Time Lord, so that’s another AU for you, Companion!Tosh).  And of course, I love the different ways that people tackle Ianto and Jack after Ianto regains his Time Lord senses (Does he get over it by sheer force of will/love? Does Jack’s fixedness not bother him at all? Does he choose to live as a human because he can’t bear to be with Jack as a Time Lord and he also can’t bear to be without him?).

2. The Team in Boeshane: I love the idea of the whole team being taken by the Rift and dropped off in Boeshane, either with or without Jack and while past-Jack is there or not. I just love Jack’s mother taking members of the team in.

3. Harry Potter AUs: I think that it’s our prerogative to pry this universe out of J.K. Rowling’s hands, take the interesting bits, and then tell better stories in it. I headcanon Ianto as a Slytherin, Tosh as a Ravenclaw, Gwen as a Gryffindor, Owen as a Hufflepuff, and Jack as a Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, or Slytherin (depending on what happened to his family life prior to his sorting; if there are no incidents, Hufflepuff; if there was an incident with Gray, but his parent(s) didn’t reject him, Gryffindor; if there was an incident with Gray and he has a fraught or non-existent relationship with his parent(s), Slytherin).

4. Daemons AUs: I especially love Daemon AUs that keep the touching taboo and think about how the existence of daemons would impact modern life. I think that the existence of daemons also has interesting ramifications for Suzie and Ianto. Does Suzie persist with the glove even though it can’t bring back a person’s daemon? I think you could characterize her either way. Does Lisa retain her daemon despite her partial conversion? I tend to think so and that the persistence of her daemon is the reason why Ianto doesn’t give up; when her daemon disappears is when he knows its over even if he can’t accept it yet.  I don’t have a lot of defined thoughts about the daemons I’d give the team except that usually, I think of Suzie with a bird, Ianto with a scavenger, and Gwen with a canine. Jack, Tosh, and Owen are more variable in my head. I would also love to see broader HDM AUs that take more of the universe than just the existence of daemons (give me witches and the science of dust).

5. Coffee Shop AUs: Kinda. I’ve never really been particularly into Coffee Shop AUs specifically, though I do love them in the general way that I love fluffy Torchwood-doesn’t-exist AUs (Jack is a traveling artist and Ianto his muse, Gwen is a legitimate psychic who consults with law enforcement, Rhys and Ianto run a restaurant together, Owen as the A&E doctor who treats Tosh after a welding accident, Jack is a sci-fi author and Ianto writes mysteries; the possibilities are endless!), but now I’m a bit of a coffee snob (this happened independent of Torchwood; I developed my coffee habit and snobbery years after watching Torchwood) and know people who roast coffee, so I just want to see more coffee geekery. I do wonder how blasphemous it would be to update Ianto’s coffee tastes to be more in line with third wave coffee roasting preferences/innovations (which was certainly alive and well in the 2000s, especially in certain cities, but hadn’t seemed to hit Cardiff yet).

6. Role Reversal AUs: For when I feel like keeping the stakes the same, I love AUs that put Ianto in charge of Torchwood Three by whatever twist of fate you’d like with Jack working under him. Sometimes he’s immortal (so he takes on Jack’s backstory minus the coming from the future bit), sometimes he’s not (he gets put into power before or after Canary Wharf, though after seems most likely). Sometimes Jack grew up on Earth (either because his entire backstory has been changed or he was taken by the Rift as a child) and sometimes he didn’t (he can still be immortal or he can be a stranded Time Agent/Time Agent in hiding).

7. Dogs AU: Honestly I can’t explain myself. It’s completely silly and I love it. I don’t know if I’ve seen one of these in the Torchwood fandom, but AU where the whole cast are dogs and they meet at a dog park or their humans are neighbors. Jack is a retired military dog. Ianto spent some time as a street dog, was rescued, then there was some incident that put him back on the street, before being adopted (possible by Jack’s human(s)). Gwen is a former police dog that was pulled to join an experimental medical program and she now spends her days sniffing out neurodegenerative diseases. Owen is a therapy dog; his humans don’t get it because he hates strangers, but it’s like he’s a different dog around those in need. Tosh is a scarily intelligent dog who is part of the cohort of animals that is being taught how to communicate using a speech board.

[theculturedmarxist]

@expatiating​

>Literally anyone who lived in a communist or socialist regime: it was terrible..... 16 year old white girl on tumblr: yeah but that wasn’t real communism :///

You mean anyone like this, you stupid fucking asshole?

Oppressive and grey? No, growing up under communism was the happiest time of my life

When people ask me what it was like growing up behind the Iron Curtain in Hungary in the Seventies and Eighties, most expect to hear tales of secret police, bread queues and other nasty manifestations of life in a one-party state.

They are invariably disappointed when I explain that the reality was quite different, and communist Hungary, far from being hell on earth, was in fact, rather a fun place to live.

The communists provided everyone with guaranteed employment, good education and free healthcare. Violent crime was virtually non-existent.

But perhaps the best thing of all was the overriding sense of camaraderie, a spirit lacking in my adopted Britain and, indeed, whenever I go back to Hungary today. People trusted one another, and what we had we shared.

Learn from Cuba, Says World Bank

The island's economy, which suffered devastating losses in production after the Soviet Union withdrew its aid, especially its oil supplies, a decade ago, has yet to fully recover. Annual economic growth, fuelled in part by a growing tourism industry and limited foreign investment, has been halting and, for the most part, anaemic.

Moreover, its economic policies are generally anathema to the Bank. The government controls virtually the entire economy, permitting private entrepreneurs the tiniest of spaces. It heavily subsidises virtually all staples and commodities; its currency is not convertible to anything.  It retains tight control over all foreign investment, and often changes the rules abruptly and for political reasons.

At the same time, however, its record of social achievement has not only been sustained; it's been enhanced, according to the WDI.

It has reduced its infant mortality rate from 11 per 1,000 births in 1990 to seven in 1999, which places it firmly in the ranks of the western industrialised nations. It now stands at six, according to Jo Ritzen, the Bank's Vice President for Development Policy who visited Cuba privately several months ago to see for himself.

By comparison, the infant mortality rate for Argentina stood at 18 in 1999; Chile's was down to ten; and Costa Rica, 12. For the entire Latin American and Caribbean region as a whole, the average was 30 in 1999.

Similarly, the mortality rate for children under five in Cuba has fallen from 13 to eight per thousand over the decade. That figure is 50 percent lower than the rate in Chile, the Latin American country closest to Cuba's achievement. For the region as a whole, the average was 38 in 1999.

"Six for every 1,000 in infant mortality - the same level as Spain - is just unbelievable," according to Ritzen, a former education minister in the Netherlands. "You observe it, and so you see that Cuba has done exceedingly well in the human development area."

Indeed, in Ritzen's own field the figures tell much the same story. Net primary enrolment for both girls and boys reached 100 percent in 1997, up from 92 percent in 1990. That was as high as most developed nations, higher even than the US rate and well above 80-90 percent rates achieved by the most advanced Latin American countries.

"Even in education performance, Cuba's is very much in tune with the developed world, and much higher than schools in, say, Argentina, Brazil, or Chile."

It is no wonder, in some ways. Public spending on education in Cuba amounts to about 6.7 percent of gross national income, twice the proportion in other Latin America and Caribbean countries and even Singapore.

There were 12 primary pupils for every Cuban teacher in 1997, a ratio that ranked with Sweden, rather than any other developing country. The Latin American and East Asian average was twice as high at 25 to one.

The average youth (ages 15-24) illiteracy rate in Latin America and the Caribbean stands at seven percent. In Cuba, the rate is zero. In Latin America, where the average is seven percent, only Uruguay approaches that achievement, with one percent youth illiteracy.

"Cuba managed to reduce illiteracy from 40 percent to zero within ten years," said Ritzen. "If Cuba shows that it is possible, it shifts the burden of proof to those who say it's not possible."

Similarly, Cuba devoted 9.1 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) during the 1990s to health care, roughly equivalent to Canada's rate.  Its ratio of 5.3 doctors per 1,000 people was the highest in the world.

The question that these statistics pose, of course, is whether the Cuban experience can be replicated. The answer given here is probably not.

"What does it is the incredible dedication," according to Wayne Smith, who was head of the US Interests Section in Havana in the late 1970s and early 1980s and has travelled to the island many times since.  "Doctors in Cuba can make more driving cabs and working in hotels, but they don't.  They're just very dedicated," he said.

This amazing video and documentary, produced by Neighbor Democracy, details the evolving communal organs within the Rojava Revolution, from security to health care.

This 40 minute video is an in-depth look into the inner workings of the commune system of Rojava and how they work in practice. Rojava is the colloquial name for the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria (DFNS), a multi-ethnic, pluralist, women’s liberationist, and radically democratic autonomous zone that has grown out of the context of the Syrian Civil War. While there is frequent and thorough reporting on the military aspects of the Revolution in Rojava, especially their fight against Daesh (ISIS) and the Turkish State, the social revolution as it relates to the everyday lives of the people living there is rarely given anything more than a cursory overview, even in radical circles.

This video is one attempt to make up for that gap in easily digestible information about the way the day-to-day autonomous organizing affects daily life in Rojava. It also closes with a call for people in the US and elsewhere to build communes along similar lines, while discussing some possible contextual considerations specific to North America.

The communes in the DFNS are birthed out of tireless organizing by everyday people, predominately Kurdish women, in an effort that started clandestinely in the days of the Regime, but has since led to structures that could fill the power vacuum left in the war. The people of the DFNS are working out in practice through trial-and-error the culmination of 40 years of theoretical and practical knowledge built through the Kurdish struggle, and most thoroughly laid out by the imprisoned PKK leader, Abdullah Ocalan.

The communes have many similarities to the neighborhood assemblies that were the focus of the late American communalist Murray Bookchin, who was an inspiration for Ocalan. There are an estimated 4,000 communes in Rojava today, run through direct democracy of all the residents (50-150 families). The work of the commune is divided up into committees which anyone can join. The most common committees are explored in-depth in this video, and their timestamps can be found below. Each committee covered in the video can be found in its own short clip on the Neighbor Democracy channel so that these short, easy-to-digest videos can me shared in discussions about specific topics relating to communal approaches to various aspects of life.

Marinaleda: Will 'free homes' solve Spain's evictions crisis? 

In the wake of Spain's property crash, hundreds of thousands of homes have been repossessed. While one regional government says it will seize repossessed properties from the banks, a little town is doing away with mortgages altogether.

In Marinaleda, residents like 42-year-old father-of-three, David Gonzalez Molina, are building their own homes.

While he burrows with a pneumatic drill into the earth, David nonchalantly says it "should take a couple of years".

However, when his new house is finished he will have paid "absolutely nothing".

Free bricks and mortar

The town hall in this small, aesthetically unremarkable town an hour-and-a-bit east of Seville, has given David 190 sq m (2,000 sq ft) of land.

He and others are only eligible after they have been registered residents of Marinaleda for at least two years.

The bricks and mortar are also a gift, this time from the regional government of Andalusia.

Only once his home is finished will he start paying 15 euros (£13) a month, to the regional government, to refund the cost of other building materials.

Of course, most people do not know how to build a house, so the town hall in Marinaleda throws in some expertise.

It employs several professional builders and plumbers, a couple of whom work alongside David, to help him construct his house.

HOMAGE TO CATALONIA 

This was in late December 1936, less than seven months ago as I write, and yet it is a period that has already receded into enormous distance. Later events have obliterated it much more completely than they have obliterated 1935, or 1905, for that matter. I had come to Spain with some notion of writing newspaper articles, but I had joined the militia almost immediately, because at that time and in that atmosphere it seemed the only conceivable thing to do. The Anarchists were still in virtual control of Catalonia and the revolution was still in full swing. To anyone who had been there since the beginning it probably seemed even in December or January that the revolutionary period was ending; but when one came straight from England the aspect of Barcelona was something startling and overwhelming. It was the first time that I had ever been in a town where the working class was in the saddle. Practically every building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags or with the red and black flag of the Anarchists; every wall was scrawled with the hammer and sickle and with the initials of the revolutionary parties; almost every church had been gutted and its images burnt. Churches here and there were being systematically demolished by gangs of workmen. Every shop and café had an inscription saying that it had been collectivized; even the bootblacks had been collectivized and their boxes painted red and black. Waiters and shop-walkers looked you in the face and treated you as an equal. Servile and even ceremonial forms of speech had temporarily disappeared. Nobody said ‘Señior’ or ‘Don’ or even ‘Usted’; everyone called everyone else ‘Comrade’ and ‘Thou’, and said ‘Salud!’ instead of ‘Buenos dias’. Tipping was forbidden by law; almost my first experience was receiving a lecture from a hotel manager for trying to tip a lift-boy. There were no private motor-cars, they had all been commandeered, and all the trams and taxis and much of the other transport were painted red and black. The revolutionary posters were everywhere, flaming from the walls in clean reds and blues that made the few remaining advertisements look like daubs of mud. Down the Ramblas, the wide central artery of the town where crowds of people streamed constantly to and fro, the loudspeakers were bellowing revolutionary songs all day and far into the night. And it was the aspect of the crowds that was the queerest thing of all. In outward appearance it was a town in which the wealthy classes had practically ceased to exist. Except for a small number of women and foreigners there were no ‘well-dressed’ people at all. Practically everyone wore rough working-class clothes, or blue overalls, or some variant of the militia uniform. All this was queer and moving. There was much in it that I did not understand, in some ways I did not even like it, but I recognized it immediately as a state of affairs worth fighting for. Also I believed that things were as they appeared, that this was really a workers' State and that the entire bourgeoisie had either fled, been killed, or voluntarily come over to the workers' side; I did not realize that great numbers of well-to-do bourgeois were simply lying low and disguising themselves as proletarians for the time being.

Together with all this there was something of the evil atmosphere of war. The town had a gaunt untidy look, roads and buildings were in poor repair, the streets at night were dimly lit for fear of air-raids, the shops were mostly shabby and half-empty. Meat was scarce and milk practically unobtainable, there was a shortage of coal, sugar, and petrol, and a really serious shortage of bread. Even at this period the bread-queues were often hundreds of yards long. Yet so far as one could judge the people were contented and hopeful. There was no unemployment, and the price of living was still extremely low; you saw very few conspicuously destitute people, and no beggars except the gipsies. Above all, there was a belief in the revolution and the future, a feeling of having suddenly emerged into an era of equality and freedom. Human beings were trying to behave as human beings and not as cogs in the capitalist machine. In the barbers' shops were Anarchist notices (the barbers were mostly Anarchists) solemnly explaining that barbers were no longer slaves. In the streets were coloured posters appealing to prostitutes to stop being prostitutes. To anyone from the hard-boiled, sneering civilization of the English-speaking races there was something rather pathetic in the literalness with which these idealistic Spaniards took the hackneyed phrases of revolution. At that time revolutionary ballads of the naivest kind, all about proletarian brotherhood and the wickedness of Mussolini, were being sold on the streets for a few centimes each. I have often seen an illiterate militiaman buy one of these ballads, laboriously spell out the words, and then, when he had got the hang of it, begin singing it to an appropriate tune.

Feel free to unfuck yourself you class cuck.

[lucy-268]

Jury Duty

A/N – This was an anonymous request to use #39 of the 50 ways to to I Love You prompt list found here. Prompt was - “I knew you weren’t dead. I refused to believe it- I knew it couldn’t be true”. My masterlist is here.

Disclaimer: Characters belong to PB

Warnings: TW - gunshots and violence

Series/Pairing: Open Heart - Ethan x f!MC (Charley Valentine)

Word count: 2,634

Ethan and Charley broke apart when they felt the force hit the car window. Ethan turned his head to see Bryce standing outside the car with Jackie several feet behind him. The two residents were laughing. Ethan turned back to look at Charley. “Your friends are idiots.”

“Sometimes, yeah.” Charley waved at them through the car window. She pressed another kiss to Ethan’s lips. “Thank you for lending me your car. If I get out early I’ll be back.”

Ethan opened the passenger door. “I have to admit it was nice being driven to work today. Be careful and I’ll see you later.” He stepped out in front of the hospital but didn’t get a chance to close the door before Bryce stuck his head.

Bryce let out a low whistle. “This is nice, Ramsey.” He ran his hand over the seat. “Nappa leather. Bowers & Wilkins audio.” He looked at Charley in the driver's seat. He winked at her, stepped back from the car and grinned at Ethan. “Sexy driver.”

Ethan closed the door. “Stop drooling over my car and especially over my girl.”

Charley watched Ethan walk into the hospital with Jackie and Bryce, while the latter was still trying to get a glimpse of the car as Charley drove away.

Soon Charley pulled into a parking space across the street from the courthouse. She reread the letter. Cell phone stays in the car. She took her driver’s license out of her wallet and slipped it into her pocket to make it easy for her to get to. Room 208. She turned off her phone and dropped it into the console. She closed the door and made sure that it was locked before heading into the courthouse.

Charley walked though the doors and looked for the elevator but was stopped by a security guard. “Can I help you?”

“Yes, where are the elevators? I need to get to the second floor.”

“Why?”

Charley looked up at him. “I need to report for jury duty.”

“Most of juries were canceled for today. Do you have your letter and ID? I’ll be sure your group is still supposed to be here today.”

He took her letter and ID and verified her to a list. “You’re cleared to go upstairs. Check in at room 208 and they’ll direct you from there. Good luck.”

Once upstairs Charley checked in. “You can have a seat in here. We have coffee over against the wall. There are vending machines down the hall to the right. Restroom and water fountains across from them. If you leave this room, be back by 9:00 am. That’s when we move you to the courtroom. Judge wants everyone in their seats by 9:15.”

Charley glanced at the coffee machine. “I work in a hospital. Coffee sucks there, how about here?”

The receptionist grinned. “You’ll feel right at home. There is usually an espresso cart on the main level, but security closed it today.”

“Is there something special going on today? It seems like security is an issue.”

“The receptionist shrugged. “We’re concerned everyday, but they did cancel all the jury selections except one today.”

Charley went down the hall and got a can of soda. She went back and sat down at the end of a row. She pulled out the newest NEJM and opened it. She flipped through to find the article by Dr. James Hendricks, her emergency medicine professor. She was about half way through the article when someone sat down next to her. She glanced up to see the newcomer smiling at her. He held out his hand, “Hi, Eric Wilson, and you are?”

She shook his hand. “Charley Valentine.”

Eric held her hand longer than necessary. She had to give a tug to get him to release her hand. “Is that a miss or a missus?”

Charley smiled, “It’s actually doctor.”

The bailiff came into the room just then. “On your juror ID you have a number from one to ninety-one. I need you to exit this room and walk down the hall to courtroom seven in order. You will be seated in rows in alphabetical order and the judge will question you individually.”

Once all the jurors were in the courtroom, the lawyers and defendant came in and were seated. Everyone rose while the judge came into the court. “I’m Judge Hughes. In a few minutes we’re going to go through the jury pool. I want you to tell me your name and occupation. Before that I want to know if anyone in the jury pool has an association with any of the prosecutors, defense attorneys, or the defendant. Please raise your hand. When you are called on, tell the court your juror number and who you have or had an association with.”

For the next twenty minutes various jurors told about former classmates, neighbors, and church group volunteers. None of the associations were extensive enough to excuse any of the jurors. During the juror roll call the judge would periodically ask a juror a question or two. Finally he got to Charley. “I’m juror number eighty-eight. Charley Valentine and I’m a doctor.”

“Charley?”

“Yes, your honor.”

He looked at her and down to his paperwork. “My paperwork says your name is Charlotte, is that correct?”

“It is, but I go by Charley.”

The judge nodded. “What kind of doctor are you?”

“I’m a medical resident at Edenbrook. I’m on the diagnostics team there.”

“Thank you. Juror number eighty-nine, please.”

“Juror number eighty-nine. Eric Wilson, auditor.”

“An auditor, huh? Can you be more specific.”

“I review financial documents and look for fraud.”

Charley saw the defense lawyer turn around in his chair to look at Eric.

“Thank you. Juror number ninety, please.”

Eric leaned over to Charley, “I just got excused,” he whispered.

Charley whispered back, “How do you know?”

“Defense attorney practically got whiplash when I said I specialize in fraud.”

Once all the juror were questioned, the case was summarized by the clerk. The defendant was being charged with embezzlement. Charley glanced at Eric, who was smirking. The odds that an auditor who specializes in fraud getting seated on an embezzlement trial were slim to none.

The clerk stated that the court would give everyone twenty minutes for a restroom break. “If you want a soda or coffee, remember they cannot be brought back into the court. Only bottled water may be carried in. When you get back from your break, we will put you in the jury box twelve at a time and eliminate jurors from the pool until we have twenty-four, twelve jurors and twelve alternates. When you are called up to the juror box bring everything with you, if you are eliminated from the pool do not leave the courtroom, return to the same seat you are in now. Once we have our twenty-four we will dismiss the rest of you. We will all rise for the judge to leave then we will take our twenty minute bre-”

Three armed men came into the courtroom, one from the judge’s chambers and two through the main doors. One of the men shot the bailiff. Charley jumped up and the gunman swiveled to her. “Sit down!”

“I’m a doctor!”

“I said sit down!”

Eric stood up and pulled her back, and two of the gunmen raised their guns and fired.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Bryce burst into the diagnostics team room. “There was a shooting at a courthouse. Eight people were shot!”

Ethan stood. “Which one?”

Bryce shrugged. “I just heard courthouse.”

June and Baz pulled out their phones and Ethan turned the TV on to get late breaking news. His phone rang, with a number he didn’t recognize. He hand shook as he answered. “Hello?”

“Ethan? It’s Tobias. Charley is here and she’s being taken into surgery now. I know you want her there but we can’t move her now.”

“I’ll… I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Knowing Ethan didn’t have his car, Baz was waiting when Ethan ended the call. “I’m driving.”

*~*~*~*~*~*

Soon Ethan, Baz, and Naveen were waiting near the operating rooms at Mass Kenmore. Aurora came in and sat with them. “Dr. Drummond is great. She’s in great hands.”

Ethan slammed his hand against a vending machine. Naveen went over and put his hand on Ethan’s shoulder.  He talked to him quietly but Baz and Aurora still walked down the hall to give them privacy.

Ethan has tears in his eyes. “I should have gone with her. I should have forbidden her to go.” Even as he said that he knew that legally he couldn’t have done either of those.

As the time progressed Bryce and Harper showed up. After another hour Dr. Drummond came out of the operating room stopping short when he saw Harper. He nodded to her before approaching Ethan. “Dr. Ramsey, can we… go somewhere more private.” He looked at the others around.

“They can all hear. I am listed as her contact person.”

Dr. Drummond considered for a moment before nodding. “The bullet hit her spleen and then her stomach. In fact it hit her spleen twice, which is why it took longer to get the bleeding stopped. We were able to repair the damage. But she has a long road to recovery, and I expect that she will make a full recovery. I also understand that you will probably want her moved to Edenbrook. I won’t sign off on that for at least five days.”

“Can I see her?”

“I’m coming with you.” Harper followed.

Dr. Drummond lead them to the recovery rooms and Ethan was finally able to see her through the window.

“I need to touch her. I need to feel she’s real.”

The nurse checked her monitors and grabbed a bag before stepping out into the hall. She provided an update saying that if all went well they would be moving her to a room in ICU in about twelve hours. The nurse handed the bag with all of Charley’s belongings to Ethan. Harper reached over and grabbed it from his hand. “I’ll take that.” Harper squeezed his arm and left him with Charley.

Ethan returned to the waiting room to find Elijah and Sienna with Aurora, Harper, and Naveen. “Jackie went with Bryce and Baz to see if they could find your car.”

“I don’t give a damn about the car.”

“No, but if it’s left there too long it will get impounded and Charley ill feel guilty because she was the one driving it.” Naveen smiled. “That’s probably the right attitude because earlier today I heard Dr. Lahela saying it would love to take the car out for a spin.”

Tobias came into the waiting room. “You should go home. We’ll call you.”

Ethan looked up at him. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“What would you tell a family member in your position?” Tobias asked.

“Probably to go home. But I’m staying here.” Ethan said.

“I’ll stay with you,” Naveen said.

“You don’t need to,” Ethan replied.

“Do you want me to go feed the kittens?” Sienna asked. “I can also get anything Charley might need?”

“Is Charley’s purse in there?” He indicated the bag.

Aurora nodded her head. “Yes, but Jackie took her keys to get the car. She left everything else.”

Ethan handed Sienna his key ring. “Thank you. Just take care of the cats. I’ll get anything else she needs after she wakes up.”

Everyone else left Ethan and Naveen made themselves as comfortable as possible in the inherently uncomfortable waiting room chairs.

Early the next morning Aurora came in with cups of coffee from the diner down the street. “Dr. Carrick and Dr. Drummond signed the paperwork and they are moving Charley. She’ll be in room 583.” She also gave him back his keys.

“Thank you, Aurora.” He looked at his keys. “Will Sienna need these.”

“No. She kept the house key from Charley’s ring. Bryce has her car key. He’s going to bring your car over here later.”

Ethan and Naveen headed up to the fifth floor while Aurora went to check on her patients.

Tobias said that Charley’s vitals had improved overnight. “She’s still not awake, but that’s because of the drugs. Hopefully they’ll wear off by early afternoon.”

Naveen stayed to get more information about Charley before heading back to Edenbrook.

It was late evening and Charley still hadn’t woken up. Tobias came in to check on her. He was concerned and said he was going to go check with the anesthesiologist. Ethan was sitting where he had been most of the day. His chair pulled up next to the bed, with their fingers laced together. His head was resting on her chest.

He heard a moan and his head snapped up. His eyes searched her face and her eyelids fluttered. She opened her mouth to speak but all that came out was a broken whisper.

Ethan poured her a glass of water and helped her take a sip. She looked at him and grabbed his hand. “What… what happened? Where am I?”

Tobias came back into the room just then. “The patient is awake. How are you, Charley?”

Charley looked between the two of them and feel back onto the pillow.

“What do you remember?”

“The courthouse. And guns. Did I get shot?” She sounded almost offended at the idea.

Tobias was the one who answered. “You did. And you were operated on by one of the best surgeons.”

“Why am I here?”

Ethan answered, “Mass Kenmore is closer to the courthouse. And time was of the essence.”

Tobias smiled. “He wants you moved to Edenbrook as soon as possible. He’s afraid that like a couple of the other residents you might want to transfer here if you spend too much time in a truly great hospital. You’re always welcome to come back here, either to work or when you get tired of him. Call me if you need anything. My cell number is on the back.” He winked at her and handed her his business card before leaving the room.

Ethan stood. “I’ll be right back.” He followed Tobias into the hallway. “Thank you. And you know she’ll never call you.”

Carrick nodded. “I know and you’re welcome.”

Ethan returned to Charley. She was sitting up in bed. She blew her nose and she was crying. He wrapped her in a hug. He kissed her forehead. “What’s wrong?”

“I remember sitting in the courtroom and they shot the bailiff. I wanted to go to him and two of them, they turned to me.” She looked at Ethan like she was trying to etch his face into her memory. “I was so scared I wouldn’t see you again. I thought I was going to die.”

Ethan wiped her tears and pushed her hair back to see her better. “When I heard there had been a shooting and there were some dead,  I knew you weren’t dead. I refused to believe it- I knew it couldn’t be true.” He captured her lips in a kiss. He placed her hand over his heart. “I would have felt it if you were.”

Charley looked at him. “You haven’t gone home.”

He shook his head. “I wasn’t going to leave you. Sienna has gone over to take care of the kittens. I forgot about them. Lahela picked up the car by the courthouse. You have good friends.”

She smiled. “We have good friends.”

He chuckled. “We have good friends.”

“Maybe I’m selfish for asking, but will you stay with me again tonight? I don’t want to be alone yet.”

“I’ll stay as long as you need me.”

“Forever,” she smiled as she leaned back on her pillow, holding his hand against her chest. “Forever works for me.”

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[brywrites]

Sweet Sixteen

It’s @goldenalvez‘s birthday today and I wrote this a while back after hearing B said she didn’t have a sixteenth birthday party. I hope your day is joyful and that you never doubt how loved you are! Summary: Luke x Reader. In which Garcia learns the Reader never had a big birthday party and decides it’s time to change that.

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“Y/N!” Garcia calls, running into the kitchenette impressively fast for someone in stiletto heels. “Luke said you didn’t want a birthday party! This has to be a complete and utter falsehood, so I immediately came to get the truth from you!”

Y/N raises her eyebrows, trying not to spill the coffee she’s pouring into a mug. “Why would my boyfriend lie about that?” she asks, laughing. “I’m not really one for birthday parties,” she admits. “I haven’t had one in ages.”

“Not even when you turned twenty-one? Or sixteen?” Reid asks. “Outside of bat and bar mitzvahs, those are the two most widely celebrated years for birthdays in American culture and tend to be seen as major milestones.”

She shakes her head and sets the pot of medium roast back on the burner. “Of course you would know that. No, I didn’t do anything. When I was young I would have parties and eventually people just stopped showing up. It hurt more than not celebrating at all, so by the time I was sixteen I’d kind of just given up on all that. But I mean, it’s not like you had a big celebration either, right?”

Reid considers this as he pours his own coffee. “Well, by the time I was sixteen I was about to graduate college and most of the way through my first doctoral dissertation. I hadn’t planned on doing anything, but Ethan was at CalTech at that point too. He and my advisor got some of the graduate students in my cohort together and surprised me. It wasn’t anything big but it was the first time I’d celebrated my birthday with someone other than my mom. Ethan’s boyfriend made a cake and my advisor pretended not to notice when the grad students broke out the wine and let me have some.” He turns to look at her. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that sometimes it’s nice to share that moment with people. To let them celebrate you.”

“Yes, that is exactly what I’m saying Boy Wonder!” Garcia chimes in. “And it’s no secret that I throw the best celebrations of all time, so it’ll be so much fun!”

“I love you both,” Y/N laughs. “But I really don’t need a pity party from my boyfriend’s team, okay? I just want to spend a quiet day at home with Luke and Roxy. But I need to get back to White Collar. My team has a con-man to catch and that data isn’t going to analyze itself.” She takes her coffee and walks down the hallway to her own office with its computer screens and maps. It’s true, she is looking forward to spending time with her favorite person and favorite non-person this weekend. But she also doesn’t want to go through the effort of planning a party only to be let down again. And though the BAU have become close friends since she and Luke began dating, it would still feel strange to be surrounded only by people she had met through him. But who else would even want to come?

Y/N shakes the thought from her head. She has a job to do. She refocuses on combing through emails and phone records. Agents from her own team come in and out of her office to ask questions or give her updates or stay and joke for a little while. She spends almost twenty minutes chatting with Darcy about the latest episode of The Bachelorette and joins both her and Marika for lunch in the courtyard. The day passes quickly and by the end of it, they’ve located their suspect in San Diego and agents at the local field office are poised to make the arrest over the weekend. It’s a job well-done, and her unit chief, Ahmed, stops by to thank her on her way out. She’s happy to see all their hard work pay off, but she is happier still to see Luke waiting for her by the elevator.

“We did it!” she tells him. “The case is closed!”

He grins and wraps her in a quick hug. “I knew you would. Now we have two things to celebrate this weekend.”

They step onto the elevator and she laces her fingers through his. “I don’t see why everyone makes such a big deal about birthdays. They’re just another day. They come every year.”

“Okay, okay, we don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to,” he relents. “I just want to make sure you know that if there is anything you want to do, your wish is my command.”

Y/N rests her head against his shoulder. He smells nice, his cologne a mix of tonka bean and spice and a hint of vanilla. It’s comforting and warm, just like him. He’s the one person who always makes her feel safe and at home. He drives back to their apartment where Roxy is all to eager to see them.

“Hello sweet girl,” Y/N coos, kneeling down to hug her after the Belgian Shepard nearly knocks over in her excitement. Roxy nuzzles against her shoulder, her tail sweeping back and forth. Luke feigns hurt at the affront of being greeted second. She takes Roxy out for a quick run around the block and returns to find Luke halfway through making dinner.

“Pastelón,” he explains. “It’s like… Puerto Rican lasagna. Plaintains, ground beef, cheese. It’s really good. My mom used to make it for my birthday.”

“Did you have traditions in your family for birthdays?” she asks. After six months together, there’s so much she’s still learning about him.

He shrugs. “We did when I was younger. My mom would cook dinner. If it was my dad’s birthday, she’d make flan, which I always hated. He would buy cheesecake for our birthdays. We’d invite our friends over and have a potluck party in the park across from the apartment. Tia Dolores next door made the best empanadas and my best friend’s dad used to grill plantains. My friends and I would run around the park and get into trouble. And every year we’d go around and everybody had to say one thing they loved about the person whose birthday it was.”

“That’s so sweet.”

“It was,” he says, putting the pastelón into the oven. “But after my dad left it was different.” This is a story she’s heard before – how his father had survived Vietnam but returned home from a brief deployment to Panama with a distant look that never quite went away. He didn’t know how to cope with the trauma and one day he just left. His dad had always been his hero and his mom’s hero – and so Luke had tried to be the same. Strong, reliable, brave. “It was hard for her. We stopped having all the neighbors over. But she always made pastelón, and she always told me what she loved about me.”

“I love that,” she says. Then, noticing the food on the counter she asks, “What are you going to do with all the leftovers there?”

Luke immediately returns to cutting plantains and beef. “I couldn’t make some for us and not give Roxy any.” She can’t help but giggle as his sincerity. Because of course he would make a special dish for her, too. That’s just who he is – he loves big and wide and without apology.

The next day, Luke is mercifully quiet about her birthday. He kisses her slowly when she wakes up and makes heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast, but doesn’t say a word. His smile tells her all she needs to her. He’ll make today about her without making a fuss. That’s all she could need.

But then she takes Roxy out for an afternoon jog, and when she returns the apartment looks completely different. String lights and streamers hang from the wall. Yellow paper flowers are carefully placed on tables and counters. The living room furniture has been rearranged to make extra space despite housing additional chairs from the kitchen.

Luke stands in the center of the living room wearing a burgundy shirt that she loves him in so much. The grin on his face is bashful, like she’s just caught him sneaking sweets from the pantry. “What’s going on?” she asks.

“I would just like to state for the record that this was not my plan, technically, and I was coerced under threat of serious bodily harm,” he says. There’s a knock at the door. Y/N shoots him a look, but he just holds his hands up in surrender, denying all responsibility for whatever is about to transpire.

She opens the door and comes face to face with her entire team. “Surprise!” they chorus.

“Wait, what?” She steps aside, completely stunned and they file into the apartment. “What are you doing here?” Ahmed is holding a plate of frosted cookies, Darcy and Marika both have well-wrapped presents tucked under their arms, and the rest of the White Collar Crimes unit look absolutely delighted to be there.

“You really thought none of us knew your birthday was coming up, Y/L/N?” Darcy asks. “We’re here to celebrate our favorite technical analyst, of course!”

“And one of our favorite people even if you weren’t our tech analyst,” Marika adds.

Before she can respond there’s another knock. Six of their neighbors are at the door this time, including the couple with the two twin boys who live above them, as well as her three former roommates. Everyone has some sort of food dish with them. And just when she thinks that they’ve never had this many people in their living room at once, the entire BAU shows up. Garcia holds a large frosted cake and a surprisingly large pink gift bag swings from her arm.

“Happy day of birth!” she declares, rushing in to set the cake down so she can hug Y/N.

“I don’t understand,” Y/N says. “I thought that-”

“You said you didn’t want a pity party,” Garcia interrupts. “This is not a pity party. This is a party of a bunch of people who love you and what to spend today with you.”

“But how did you do this?”

“I simply roped your beloved Newbie here into assisting me. He’s very good at keeping a secret you know.” Y/N glances back over at Luke, who smiles.

“Guilty as charged,” he admits. “I may have – under duress, of course – helped Penelope identify your closest friends and what their emails and social media accounts were. She sent out invitations and helped me set everything up.”

“We were cutting it a little bit close,” Garcia says, “since I only had twelve hours notice, but I think we pulled it off pretty well.”

So everyone here just showed up? With almost no heads up? She looks around the room at so many faces she’s come to know and love. “But why?” she asks.

Garcia’s face softens. “Because we love you, silly. I mean, everyone here does, clearly. A whole lot. And there were at least twelve more people I invited who couldn’t make but really wanted to be here. Expect emailed well-wishes from them soon.”

At a complete loss for words, she turns to Luke. He pulls her into a gentle embrace. “If you really don’t like parties, I promise to never do this again. But I want you to have one day where you feel special. I want you to know how much everyone here cares about you, and I want to celebrate the fact that you exist. Because I’m pretty happy that you were born today, and I’m even happier that you’re still here. I love you, Y/N. We all do.”

“I love you, too,” she says, fighting back tears. He kisses her forehead, and then all too soon she is being pulled away to socialize. Everyone seems so happy to see her. Everyone has kind things to say and jokes to tell and things to catch up on. There’s enough food to feed a small army, and soon everyone is eating and mingling and their apartment is filled with the pleasant sound of easy laughter and the thumping tail of a happy dog receiving all the attention she could dream of from Garcia and the two twin boys. They go through the ritual of lighting candles on Garcia’s giant pink cake and singing to Y/N, and for once she doesn’t hate it. She looks at the faces of all these people over the glow of the candles, singing to her just a bit out of tune, but looking at her with so much love. She closes her eyes and makes a wish and blows out the candles.

As Reid cuts the cake in the most mathematically equivalent ratio possible and Rossi helps hand it out, Luke pulls her aside. “I know that there’s some other gifts for you,” he explains, “but I helped put this one together, and it’s from all of us.” He hands her a small gift-wrapped rectangle and she opens it carefully. It’s a little salmon-colored notebook with her name on the front. Curious, she opens it, expecting to see blank pages. Instead, the pages are filled with handwritten notes that have been pasted onto them. There’s a note from every single person here, addressed to her. Some are shorter and others are longer, but every one appears to include what they most love about her. There are even a few typed ones that must have been printed out in advance. “Garcia and I made sure everybody signed it before they came, and we collected messages from your friends who couldn’t make it. I know it’s not anything fancy but-”

“Are you kidding?” she asks. “This is the nicest thing anyone has ever given me.”

He smiles, his brown eyes shining, and it makes her heart soar. How lucky is she to have someone that loves her this much? Who would move mountains – under duress, of course – to make her happy like this. “Well that’s not all,” he says. “This one is from me.” It’s not a wrapped gift, but a card with flowers and a cupcake with a heart on the front that says, Happy Sweet Sixteen!  

Y/N narrows her eyes in confusion. “Open it,” Luke insists. And so she does. It’s not a typical card – it has an extra page on the inside. And rather than a standard greeting card message, it is entirely covered in Luke’s handwriting. The 16 sweetest things about you, it reads at the top. It’s followed by a numbered list.

You’re the best listener. Anytime I need someone to talk to, you’re willing to sit with me. You pay attention to what people say and you are always happy to be a confidante and friend. I know I can trust you with anything.

You go out of your way to make people feel included.

You’re an exceptional kisser and I don’t have enough words to describe this because every time I kiss you I’m pretty sure my brain short-circuits.

You love well. There is always room in your heart for the people (and dogs) you meet and you always seem to know exactly what will make somebody feel loved when they need it most. You love me despite how much I love my dog.

You are the only person I love as much as I love my dog.

She looks up from the card, teary-eyed. “I can’t keep reading this or I’m going to cry,” she says.

“Well it’s your party, sweetheart” he chuckles. “You can cry if you want.”

She shakes her head. “Mm mm. Not today. Today I just want to be really really happy with the people who make really really happy.” Luke stands by her side as Garcia urges her to open gifts and eat cake with everyone. The frosting is nearly as delicious as the moment feels. Rossi brings out the wine and Y/N excitedly puts on the pair of earrings in Garcia’s large bag of gifts, which happen to be shaped like her favorite candy. And this, she thinks, is better than any party she could have dreamed of in the past. Maybe big parties aren’t always going to be her thing. And maybe birthdays don’t always need to be a huge deal. But it is nice – to be celebrated. To be reminded that she is incredibly loved, even when she herself doesn’t always realize it.

It’s the sweetest of days, and there’s no one else she would rather spend it with.