#odessa is always she’s my beloved

[thehappiestgolucky]

Odessa sweetie I’m so sorry I keep sending you on doomed salmon run shifts it will happen again-

[junkratsjunkertown]

Hi, I hope you don't mind me requesting agian. Can you do a dps shy reader who admits their feelings to junkrat?

Sure thing. Btw for those who don't know N/N is Nickname.

Beloved Junker

Junkrat x GN!Reader

You were always shy since childhood. Even when you joined Overwatch with Junker Queen years after Junkrat and Roadhog. Odessa was protective of you, especially around Junkrat. After two years of being in Overwatch, you developed a crush on the loud Junker. You told Odessa and Roadhog thinking that they could help you tell Junkrat.

Odessa suggested telling him in a huge way. Like an explosion spelling it out to him since his thing is explosives. Roadhog suggested telling him in private since you’d be too nervous to tell him like that and you'd probably pass out. You did plan on telling him at dinner tonight.

You all were at dinner with the other Overwatch members. Junkrat is late as usual. You saved him some food in case he didn't show up. You waited for him even when everyone else left the room. You knew he wasn't coming and took his food to his room. You passed by Roadhog and Odessa on your way there. They gave you a knowing look and a thumbs up.

Once you got to your destination you knocked on the door expecting an explosion as a response. Instead, you got a quiet "Come in" as a response. You enter.

"Jamison? Are you alright?"

"Yeah. I'm alright. Just got distracted making new blueprints."

You nod and set the food on his desk away from his work.

"I brought you dinner since you weren't there."

"Thank you."

He stops working and starts to eat.

"I have to tell you something, Jamison."

He hums in response

"I um... How do I say this?"

There is a silence in the room for a minute

"I really like you."

"I really like you too, Y/N."

"No, Jamison. I like you more than a friend."

You didn't want to wait for a response and just ran to your room passing by Odessa and Roadie. Roadhog heads to Junkrats room and Odessa heads to your room. When she reaches your room your door is cracked open. She opens the door, walks in, and sits next to you.

"Hey, N/N. Didn't go well did it?"

"I wouldn't know, Dessa. I ran off before I got an answer."

She puts an arm around you and you rest your head against her side.

"Well, what you did was brave. Do you know how long it took me to confess to Roadie?"

"Let me guess. A decade or so?"

"More or less. But at least Junkrat knows and you two drongos can work through it."

You laugh

"Hey! You're a drongo too sometimes."

"That's true."

Just then you two hear someone hitting the floor. Turning around you see Junkrat on the floor and Roadhog behind him blocking the door. Junkrat gets up and looks at you.

"I'm sorry, N/N. I'm not good at expressing my feelings. And I wanted to tell you that I like you more than a friend too."

You notice him blushing and you feel the heat rush to your face as well. You get off the bed, walk to him, and hug him. He returns the hug after his initial shock. You two let go and remember that Odessa and Mako are still there.

"Um. Meet me for breakfast tomorrow, N/N?"

"It's a date."

[pla-teau]

WHAT IF...? EPISODE THREE THOUGHTS

GIF CREDIT @lankybrunettepartdeux EPISODE 03: WHAT IF...EARTH LOST ITS MIGHTIEST HEROES? SPOILERS AHEAD! i didn't think phil coulson and i would have the same taste in men.

i’ve missed natasha and fury talking. i didn’t realize how much until the opening scenes of them in the car. love how natasha’s over with fury’s speech about the avengers, i think it hones in that it is a really corny speech. also really loved nat’s animation in this episode like ma’am, please marry me.

seeing tony in the donut again was also awesome. glad we got a little tony before killing him off five minutes later. didn’t think this episode would quickly go dark but it did. and i’m happy it did because i am all for marvel going dark and not having everything be a possible double meaning to something darker. i wanna see that gray areas and the gory stuff every once and a while.

for a second i really thought pierce was going to be the main bad guy due to fury suggesting someone tampered with the antidote. again, completely love nat’s fight sequence in the car. really wish brumlow said fuck cause i would too if i was in his shoes.

phil coulson my beloved. i love love love how we all have collectively agreed that he’s a got a thing for buff blonds with blue eyes. same phil same. thor is gorgeous with or without that long hair but they really made it shine this episode even if it was brief. i think you can actually see the crisis coulson was having upon realizing that the man is basically steve rogers but with long hair and he’s simping. again, phil my dear - same. i’m a simp for steve and thor.

nearly sobbed seeing thor being killed by clint because i’m never gonna be prepared for thor dying on us. i actually can’t fathom it since i love him so much. from promo clips, i figured this would be its own episode like “what if…clint killed thor?” but i’m kind of happy we got to see it in this episode as it makes you believe for a split second barton was the one killing the avengers off one by one.

betty ross? okay, didn’t think we’d ever ever see that woman again especially in the mcu. also, banner? i didn’t know what i thought bruce would look like in this show but it wasn’t like that. don’t get me wrong, i like the animation style of banner, i guess i pictures something closer to looking like mark. either way, was really hoping hulk would be the exception to the plot here since yeah, he really can’t die but boy were we proven dead wrong once more.

loki in this episode was basically if he had no character development and actually got his way with earth under the premise of avenging thor. which i think loki did want. i believe he was hurting that thor was killed but despite this being loki that was still hellbent on being king, he used it as a cover to then actually take over earth. not me thinking he’d change and actually be in the avengers. really thought we were going that route with him as it would’ve been cool to see loki finding purpose being in the avengers in thor’s place and doing a sort of 180 on his whole glorious purpose shtick.

hank pym being revealed as the man behind the killings of all the avengers did take me for a loop because i was wondering who would want to do this. i was going through a whole rolodex of people in the mcu as to who it could possibly be. the fact that hope was working for S.H.I.E.L.D. made me wonder if had she not died, she would be a part of the original avengers lineup like in the comics. also, saw a lot of people pointing to the fact that bucky is the one who killed hope in that mission. odessa, ukraine is the same place natasha said was shot by the winter soldier in captain america: the winter soldier. so this must also mean that nat probably came to work for fury later on in this timeline since she’s usually his go-to agent. anyways, back to hank being the villain. he’s also clearly wearing the yellow jacket armor as he did in the comics. hank has always had disdain for S.H.I.E.L.D. as he didn’t trust them with his pym particles which would be correct to assume since we also know HYDRA is already masking as S.H.I.E.L.D. during this time. i just wonder if HYDRA did influence hank in this timeline to push him to kill everyone.

coulson being the absolute fanboy he is for steve rogers with that password is a mood. like phil my beloved, we’ve all probably had a similar password dedicated to america’s ass one way or another. knowing that HYDRA is posing as S.H.I.E.L.D. by this time, i’m wondering how they still didn’t get to steve or if fury had found him on his own- hence why he’s alone when he wipes some ice from the shield. maybe this was something between fury and a few other trusted agents as maybe he did have an idea that HYDRA was already infiltrating the agency. either way, was pretty happy to see captain marvel appear too when he said “welcome back, captain.” as to say it to both captain america and captain marvel since they’re gonna be co-captains for this new team to take down loki.

overall, i liked this episode and really shocked that they went pretty dark for this third episode. i hope that they have more episodes like this in the season. i figure the dr. strange episode will have a similar tone but i hope there’s more episodes than just these two for darker themes and darker animation.

i know i slipped with the second episode but that was because i got too emotional watching it and was sobbing by the end of the episode. i did love episode two and i think in terms of the fun, adventurous tone, it’s the best episode so far (and i think it really should’ve been the premiere episode instead). looking back on the first episode, it really wasn’t anything spectacular in terms of a new storyline or anything rather creative. it’s just replacing steve with peggy in the first avenger movie. as for the second and third episode, there was a lot changed in storylines and consequences of those changes. ie: thanos being talked out of mass genocide by t’challa and so he joins the ravangers and doesn’t torture nebula to the point of making her fully cybernetic. the most we got from the first episode was that peggy came through the tesseract portal not loki so there’s implications of that but we’re not shown much else. while with this episode and t’challa’s star lord episode, there’s a hell of a lot more changes to the storyline that we’re shown rather than left to guess and it was refreshing to see that.

[abigailzimmer]

Favorite Reads of 2020

In this year of slowness, thank god for books to make the world a little larger again. I read several classics for the first time—Shelley’s Frankenstein and Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and Bernadette Mayer’s Midwinter Day—all of which felt important to return to the source material, to see how these books shaped those that came after them. And I delved into new books from favorite authors whose words I will always seek out—like Kelly Schirmann’s The New World and Heather Christle’s The Crying Book—and I branched out into mystery and romance books because they kept pages turning and tidied everything up so neatly at the end, which if not my usual fare, was sorely needed in this strange year. But since I do love a list, here are the books that sung to me / inspired me / shaped me:

1. Exquisitely told and inventive in form, Women Talking by Miriam Toews centers on a group of Mennonite women in South America who discover they're being drugged and raped during the night by the men in their community. While the men are away, the women meet to decide whether they will stay and forgive their attackers, as their community’s religious leaders ask them to, or leave the colony and start anew. Their conversation over the course of two days questions the role of women, what freedom and forgiveness really mean, how to fulfill one’s calling as a woman, mother, and believer, whether one must choose one thing over another, and whether staying or leaving carries the greater risk. It’s a thoughtful and creative approach to hard questions and the complicated reasons why there’s never a right answer.

2. Ilya Kaminsky's collection, Dancing in Odessa, was one of the first books of contemporary poetry I ever read, lent to me by a friend in college, and I remember being stunned at what poetry could be and do. Deaf Republic stuns in the same way. The poems are incredibly cinematic, telling the story of an occupied town and its people and a couple who fall in love. When a young, deaf boy is shot by the soldiers, the entire town pretends deafness in rebellion, finding excuses to not understand the soldiers. They bear witness to the boy’s death and honor his life. Though a fictional town, the call to political action, to really see those who are being oppressed and stand for justice with them, is resonant for any time and place. Plus, Ilya writes the most beautiful love poems.

3. Another cinematically-inclined poetry book is GennaRose Nethercott’s The Lumberjack’s Dove. In this long poem/myth/fable, a lumberjack accidentally cuts off his hand, which turns into a dove, and then a story parts ways. The lumberjack is not just a lumberjack and the hand-turned-dove is not just a hand-turned-dove, and the story visits both an operating room and a witch, and the story, of course, is one you've heard before and one that brings surprise and wonder to the telling. I simply adored it.

"Living creatures believe they own something as soon as they love it. They refuse to believe otherwise, no matter how many times a beloved vanishes."

4. I fell in love—hard—with The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller and her exquisite, queer love story between Achilles and Patroclus. Miller’s writing is wonderful and after reading her novel Circe as well—another fantastic retelling of Greek myths—I spent the remainder of the year searching for a novel that compared.

5. Some books meet you in the right moment. The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey is a slow and attentive book on small things, which in 2020’s period of waiting and uprootedness was a gift. Due to chronic illness, Bailey finds herself confined to a bed with little to do. Her friend brings her a potted plant and a snail whose pace of life, matching her own, becomes a comfort and lessons her loneliness. As she watches, she learns intimately the snail's eating and sleeping habits, its daily adventures, and the conditions it best thrives in. Later she delves into the literature and science of gastropods and weaves her notes in with her own observations and stories of the snail. Her writing is light and funny and holds such tenderness for this very small creature.

"In the History of Animals, Aristotle noted that snail teeth are 'sharp, and small, and delicate.' My snail possessed around 2,640 teeth, so I'd add the word plentiful to Aristotle's description....With only thirty-two adult teeth, which had to last the rest of my life, I found myself experiencing tooth envy toward my gastropod companion. It seemed far more sensible to belong to a species that had evolved natural tooth replacement than to belong to one that had developed the dental profession. Nonetheless, dental appointments were one of my favorite adventures, as I could count on being recumbent. I could see myself settling into the dental chair, opening my mouth for my dentist, and surprising him with a human-sized radula."

6. Insecurity System by Sara Wainscott was one of my favorite books published in 2020. The poems in it make up four crowns—a series of sonnets in which the last line of each poem becomes the first line (or an echo of it) of the next. The playfulness of the form as well as the topics give the book an energy: Sara muses on time travel, levitation, memory, flowers ("people who read poems know a rose / is how the poet drags in genitalia"), motherhood, Mars, and mythical transformations (children tell their mothers they have turned to seals “and it is true”). Sara is funny and wry, and yet she also captures some difficult emotions of grief and depression, a struggle with complacency amid daily obligations “Sentences become drawn out affairs / but I am doing what I can / to answer one word each day.” The poems move from the mundane to a hard feeling and then onward to wonder and a bit of the fantastical, which I guess is just how life goes—I love how these emotions are all rolled together and always shifting.

7. Asiya Wadud’s powerful long poem Syncope is one I’ve returned to often throughout the year. She tells the story of 72 refugees who fled Tripoli in an inflatable boat in 2011 and were stranded for 14 days, despite the presence of 38 maritime vessels who could have rescued them, but didn’t. Instead, only 11 passengers survived. Syncope is both an indictment against those who did not act and a eulogy for the dead, returning humanity to people who were deemed not worth saving but who were “luminous in that / we were each born under the / fabled light of some star.”

“We began as 72 ascendants by that I mean we were a collective many each bound for greatness merely in the fact that we were each still living”

8. Eula Biss’s Having and Being Had is a thoughtful and exploratory conversation about capitalism and its effects on what we do and how we think. In a series of short vignettes, Eula picks apart what consumption, work, accounting, and investment mean on a personal and everyday level (albeit a white, middle class level). Who defines value among boys trading Pokemon cards and how did Monopoly's origins in economic injustice shift to pride in bankrupting players and if one of Eula's favorite things about being a new house owner is easy access to a laundry machine, is her house merely a $400,000 container for one washer and dryer? Her essays bounce from work that is valued, unseen or shamed; the perceptions and realities of being poor or rich; our approach to gift-giving and art-making and pleasure—weaving together research, observations, and conversations with friends.

9. In Grief Sequence, poet Prageeta Sharma’s grieves the loss of her husband in a kind of journal, tracing the memories of his diagnosis, the hard and normal days, the days before diagnosis, and the days after he is gone during which she tries to make sense of her new reality: “How gauche it is to be in this body being unseen by you now,” she writes. “You are not you anymore and I am trying to understand how a human with feelings has disappeared.” Her writing is excellent but it is hard to sit with and next to her pain, and it makes me wonder: when does one read such a book? When you’ve also lost a beloved to cancer? To be in conversation with someone who has, with Prageeta? Do you read for the sake of the living or to honor a body who was once here? Prageeta writes, “Poetry and grief are the same: you are taught to care about it when it happens to you.” I don’t know who to recommend this book to, but it spoke to me, and I’m glad she wrote it, as a monument, of sorts, to a specific togetherness and to a person.

10. The Lives of the Monster Dogs by Kirsten Bakis is a strange and sweet book about a race of genetically-engineered dogs, created initially to be soldiers, who move to New York in the ‘90s while still holding onto the customs and dress of nineteenth-century Prussia, which is to say: I don't know if I ever would have picked this book up had a friend not recommended it. Told through news clippings, letters, journal entries, an opera(!), and the first-person account of a human who befriends them, their story has echoes of Frankenstein as the monster dogs reflect on their creator and what it is to be human, to have purpose and hope, to wrestle with a clouded past and an uncertain future. "It's a terrible thing to be a dog and know it," writes one monster dog scholar after some of the dogs begin to revert back to their primal state. I loved the varied forms, the piecing together of the dog’s history, and the surreal mark they left in the book’s world and my world.

For more books throughout the year, follow along on Instagram at book.wreck.

[richincolor]

I'm trying to find silver linings where I can, and I must say that I'm very hopeful about making significant headway on my TBR pile. Here are three books I'm excited to read this spring:

The Never Tilting World (The Never Tilting World #1) by Rin Chupeco HarperTeen

Frozen meets Mad Max in this epic teen fantasy duology bursting with star-crossed romance, immortal heroines, and elemental magic, perfect for fans of Furyborn.

Generations of twin goddesses have long ruled Aeon. But seventeen years ago, one sister’s betrayal defied an ancient prophecy and split their world in two. The planet ceased to spin, and a Great Abyss now divides two realms: one cloaked in perpetual night, the other scorched by an unrelenting sun.

While one sister rules Aranth—a frozen city surrounded by a storm-wracked sea —her twin inhabits the sand-locked Golden City. Each goddess has raised a daughter, and each keeps her own secrets about her sister’s betrayal.

But when shadowy forces begin to call their daughters, Odessa and Haidee, back to the site of the Breaking, the two young goddesses —along with a powerful healer from Aranth, and a mouthy desert scavenger —set out on separate journeys across treacherous wastelands, desperate to heal their broken world. No matter the sacrifice it demands.

Dark and Deepest Red by Anna-Marie McLemore Feiwel & Friends

Summer, 1518. A strange sickness sweeps through Strasbourg: women dance in the streets, some until they fall down dead. As rumors of witchcraft spread, suspicion turns toward Lavinia and her family, and Lavinia may have to do the unimaginable to save herself and everyone she loves.

Five centuries later, a pair of red shoes seal to Rosella Oliva’s feet, making her dance uncontrollably. They draw her toward a boy who knows the dancing fever’s history better than anyone: Emil, whose family was blamed for the fever five hundred years ago. But there’s more to what happened in 1518 than even Emil knows, and discovering the truth may decide whether Rosella survives the red shoes.

With McLemore's signature lush prose, Dark and Deepest Red pairs the forbidding magic of a fairy tale with a modern story of passion and betrayal.

We Unleash the Merciless Storm (We Set the Dark on Fire #2) by Tehlor Kay Mejia Katherine Tegen Books

In this nail-biting sequel to Tehlor Kay Mejia’s critically acclaimed fantasy novel We Set the Dark on Fire, La Voz operative Carmen is forced to choose between the girl she loves and the success of the rebellion she’s devoted her life to.

Being a part of the resistance group La Voz is an act of devotion and desperation. On the other side of Medio’s border wall, the oppressed class fights for freedom and liberty, sacrificing what little they have to become defenders of the cause.

Carmen Santos is one of La Voz’s best soldiers, taken in when she was an orphaned child and trained to be a cunning spy. She spent years undercover at the Medio School for Girls, but now, with her identity exposed and the island on the brink of civil war, Carmen returns to the only real home she’s ever known: La Voz’s headquarters.

There she must reckon with her beloved leader, who is under the influence of an aggressive new recruit, and with the devastating news that her true love might be the target of an assassination plot. Will Carmen break with her community and save the girl who stole her heart—or fully embrace the ruthless rebel she was always meant to be?

[sweetsmellosuccess]

Sundance 2020: Day 3

Number of Films: 3 Best Film of the Day: The Dissident

Shirley: Josephine Decker’s much lauded Madeline’s Madeline was one of the films at 2018 Sundance where I most disagreed with many of the other esteemed critics with whom I was staying. Where they saw unfiltered, avant garde magic, I found it confusing, laborious, and fairly incomprehensible. Her new film is thankfully grounded in more of an accessible story, albeit one that takes several leaps of imagination. Elizabeth Moss plays Shirley Jackson, she of the “most reviled story” every published in The New Yorker (that would be “The Lottery,” now standard high school English curriculum). Disheveled, unbridled, and mostly sleeping all day as a shut-in at the house she shares with her husband, the high-revving Folklore professor, Stanley Hymen (Michael Stuhlbarg), she’s stuck in a soul-killing bout of writer’s block. When the couple brings in the newlywed Fred (Logan Lerman) and Rose (Odessa Young), it’s ostensibly so ABD professor-in-training Fred can assist Stanley with his course load, but, naturally, it turns out Rose comes to be a significant foil and muse for Shirley, whose been struggling for years trying to write a novel about a young woman who went missing from Bennington’s campus years before. Decker takes this sort of mixed-couples convention and turns it inside and out, upon itself. Like her previous film, Decker is transfixed with the idea of the creative process, and how one strips away those boulders we put in our paths in the freeing of our unconscious minds.

The Dissident: The assassination of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 set off a series of investigations  —  first, by the Turkish authorities, as the murder occurred in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul; then, the UN, whose initial reports were confirmed by the CIA  —  all of which lead to one primary source, Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince, whose “progressive” platform in his native country has lead to even an even harsher crack-down on speaking out against the Royal Family. Naturally, no real effort was ever made to investigate MBS himself (though the initial UN officials strongly encouraged it), and now, more than a year later, Khashoggi’s outrageous assassination reamins unsatisfactorily resolved. Director Bryan Fogel’s doc covers the facts of the case, gruesome as they are, but also takes pains to show the far-reaching ramifications of his murder, covering everything from the Saudi counter-opp on the Twitter platform, and their purchasing of top-of-the-line spyware (obtained from, of all places, an Israel private concern), to the manner in which our sitting president immediately obsolved the Saudis for having any involvement, and ignoring a call from Congress to withhold weapons’ sales to their government going forward. The overriding effect is, of course, thoroughly depressing, in the way most docs concerning world politics have come to be, but there is still an overriding respect and mournfulness for Khashoggi himself, having been forced out of his beloved country and separated from his family before his murder. Poised to finally re-wed  —  heartbreakingly, he was murdered in the consulate as he had gone there to get wedding documents  —  the film works to document yet another lost human being, in addition to his becoming a symbol of just how completely twisted our governments have become.

Kajillionaire: Miranda July’s work always consists of an odd combination of spices. Her films have a slightly deranged arch quality even as they elicit an emotional response, rather like being trapped in a particularly odd New Yorker cartoon. This film, about a married couple of inveterate grifters in L.A. (Richard Jenkins and Deborah Winger), whose peculiarly disaffected daughter, Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood), becomes further alienated when they  —  somewhat randomly -- take on a new protegé, Melanie (Gina Rodriquez), in the midst of a big scam. Wood plays her character as if she’d been shut in a laboratory her entire life, her chest-long hair blocking her face, her voice a weirdly deep growl. When bubbly Melanie happily joins the crew, Old Dolio feels as if she’s lost the only position she’s ever held in the family. As usual, the film is filled with July’s peculiar forms of whimsy  —  they live in an old office space next to a soap factory, whose bubbles overflow and bleed down their walls at precise times of the day; they are singularly terrified of any kind of jostling, be it earthquake tremors, or flight turbulence  —  but there’s a more contrived quality to the proceedings, as if everyone knowingly takes on their oddities rather than endure them organically, and the character of Melanie, who factors mightily in what happens, is never more than a plot device (there is absolutely no indication, for example, of why this otherwise happy and grounded woman would want to have anything to do with this incredibly messed up family). There are some creative sparks, especially in a scene midway through, set in a darkened bathroom, but it doesn’t coalesce beyond its strained affectations.

Tomorrow: We start the day early, with the #metoo thriller Promising Young Woman; will try to make it in time to watch the Ross brother’s much hyped doc, Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets; check out Carrie Brownstein and St. Vincent in The Nowhere Inn; watch the new film from Sean Durkin, The Nest; and close out the day with the Force Majeure American remake, Downhill.  

Into the frigid climes and rarefied thin air of the spectacular Utah Mountains, I've arrived in order to document some of the sense and senselessness of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Over the next week, armed with little more than a heavy parka and a bevy of blank reporter's notebooks, I'll endeavor to watch as many movies as I can and report my findings.

[diveronarpg]

Congratulations, EMMA K! You’ve been accepted for the role of GERTRUDE. Admin Rosey: Friends, Romans, countrymen -- lend me your ears! For today, we have our beloved Gertrude back in our fold. Emma K, your Gertrude is so strong, captivating, and utterly enthralling. When we saw your application in our inbox, we were absolutely over the moon. How lucky are we to be subjected to the utterly unique tragedy that is our beloved Genevieve Zhang -- a woman who has the whole world at her fingertips, while it is simultaneously stacked against her? Welcome back to the trash pack! Please read over the checklist and send in your blog within 24 hours.

WELCOME TO THE MOB.

OUT OF CHARACTER

Alias | Emma K

Age | 23

Preferred Pronouns | she / her

Activity Level | I’m always lurking on discord and aim for a two-day response rate at the least.

Timezone | GMT

How did you find the rp? | I was recommended about six months ago and, well, I’ve never really left.

IN CHARACTER

Character | Genevieve ‘Gertrude’ Zhang

What drew you to this character? |

I’ve never stopped loving Gertrude, even after I gave her up. I believe the points I made in my original application which drew me to her - how her worth is reaped through her status and her reliance on man - still stand, but the main attraction of Gen is that she is an anchor; grounded and stable amidst the sea of chaos that is Verona, designed to moor the ship that is the Montague faction. However, what is an anchor without a ship and without a purpose to serve? I think that is the question that Genevieve’s purpose hinges on, as well as her role both within the mob and as a mother, and what makes her so interesting to me as a character.

What is a future plot idea you have in mind for the character? |

Genevieve and Henry, in my mind, always had an intense relationship but it was exacerbated through the environment both operate in. As a mother, she has striven for balance between allowing her son to experience the world on his own terms and the desperate need to pull on the reins in order to protect him. Howard’s method had been a volatile concoction containing elements of both, that had only left his wife and child choking on the fumes in the aftermath. In the months following his murder death, Genevieve has felt that sensation returning to her as each glance at her son that reminds her of her husband; and everything associated with him that she would rather forget.

Her son’s needs were paramount and came before her own, until she did something that she couldn’t anticipate; she fell in love with her Cristian De Luca. Genevieve currently doesn’t know the true nature of her late husband’s death (or has started to believe the lies that she has told herself), but this will have to change. It would be the climax for several series of events; the tension between her lover and son that she has chosen to ignore, the choice to seek revenge or show mercy, and unearthing the chance of absolution that she had thought buried with Howard.

Before her promotion to Underboss, Genevieve had been afforded the privilege of not needing to dirty her hands in mob affairs too much. She had married high within the ranks meaning she often worked behind the scenes, ensuring that both the Montague cohort and the Zhang family companies operated smoothly. However, in light of her promotion, I can see a fork in the road of Gen’s future now she is more culpable for mafia decisions - either embrace the power, along with the risk of corruption or be unseated from her perch.

The inter-mob relationships also something I’d like to explore and the impact they have or have had on Genevieve as a person, from people such as Alex and Odessa to those who knew her before she was openly associated with the Montague mob.

Are you comfortable with killing off your character? | It would have to be for the right reasons, besides seeing Howard again, but I’m going to go with a tentative yes!

IN DEPTH

In-Character Para Sample:

Genevieve’s attention was summoned from the documents in front of her by the sound of her front door opening, knowing it was one of three people; that had not long ago been one of four. Brow arches, expectant, in the moments between the door closing and Horatio making himself known to her, a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth in response to this revelation. Her work is discarded, pushed to one side in tandem with the fleeting expectation that he brought good news, before the Zhang woman gestures for him to take the seat beside her.

“Mamma -,” his beginning is tentative, and Genevieve is unable to discern whether the pause that followed indicated speaking difficulties in light of his injuries or that his tongue fought against the syllables that it wanted to form. Genevieve notices the furrow of his brow, the seeming sadness lurking at the edges of his expression and the slight increase in breathing, knowing what they meant. Genevieve notices, though she says nothing, reaching out and clasping his fingers in her own instead. The simple gesture seemed to dislodge the words that had been stuck in her second son’s throat, “ - I need to go, Mamma, I need to leave Verona.”

Hector’s words stole the air from her lungs in a harsh gust of wind which extinguished the small flame of hope that he had coveted inside her, though her composure doesn’t shatter; it couldn’t. Genevieve blinked - once, twice, thrice - against the steadily forming lump in the centre of her throat and the unbidden thoughts about what the decision meant for Henry… or for her. However, she was adept in knowing what her children needed (or she liked to think that) and knew that what Hector needed then was support. He was always too soft for the life that he had chosen to lead, something which had originally endeared her to him that Verona had warped into his fatal flaw. Mouth pulled upward, a practised expression settling on her features as she squeezes his hand in her own. I understand, the gesture whispered.

It lied.

“I’m proud of you, mio angelo,” she tells him, standing as she pulls the much taller man toward her in an embrace; one she hopes will express everything she dare not say. Genevieve and Hector discuss several things over the next hour, the majority of which relating to his resignation which she tells him she will take care of, though he eventually departs with another brief embrace and utterances of love while he departs to tell her biological son the news.

Her heartbeat drums through her ears in the silence that followed the man’s exit, frustration at her new circumstances turning to tears, taking their queue from the gentle click of the closing door, that blur her vision as they swim along her lash line. Gertrude ignores the slight tremor in her hand as she reaches upward to swipe at the treacherous drops, leaning back into the couch and pulling the file she abandoned earlier toward her to resume her work following several unsteady breaths.

For when you are the foundation of the pyramid you cannot crumble, and the Empress of the Zhang Empire would always be seen stand strong to the outside observer - she had no other option if she wanted to survive.

Extras: CFO of Zhang & Co., a freight company established by her late husband, this is her “regular” job that can also double as a cover for the Montague shipments which go out from, and come in to, Verona.

[meredoubt]

NSFW Alphabet: Kassandra (I)

I is for intimacy. 

You thought at first that sex with Kassandra was going to go like it goes for everyone else she’s been with-that you would be, at best, a friend who lucked out; at worst, she’d move on, and her eyes would pass over you, in future. 

When you stumble with her, that first time, away from everyone else, away from the raucous celebrations, the playwrights singing drunkenly, you find it difficult to swallow past something in your throat. The torches throw her handsome jaw in and out of shadow as she hums quietly off key, her face closer to your own than it might usually be as the two of you meander towards...or rather, away. 

She’s not acting different. More handsy, leaning towards you more, but she hasn’t leveled you with any of her awful lines. You’d heard them; Odessa still laughed raucously at one or two of your imitations, always under your breath. The two of you had put your heads together on more than one night, tucked away near empty amphorae, and ruminated on the colossal verbal missteps of your beloved mercenary. Overwhelming conclusion had been that since she tried every approach in the book, she was bound to have some embarrassing rejections and flubs. 

But Kassandra had kissed you, and more, and her expression had reflected the same surprise you’d felt, even as you’d felt heat burn across your skin where she’d touched you. The considering glint in her eye as she’d given you a frank once over had had you biting your lip; and now here you are, her fingers like a promising loose vice on your hip.

Your heart aches when you glance over, as much as the rest of you. 

It’s with some surprise that you realize you’re nervous. Excited, yes; adoring, desirous, of course. But...an end of something big is coming, and you have seen her go through this song and dance before. How many times have you rolled your eyes, waiting on the Adrestia, while the crew gossips outrageously? Kassandra’s life seems to be like something out of a legend, and that apparently extends to all aspects of it. You’ve become used to it at her side; you’ve been her friend for some time now, and at this point her love life is mostly just something that makes you laugh when people (sometimes you) tell tales of it. 

Mostly. You are human.

It hurt differently, then, but not because of the others. You can’t and wouldn’t blame them; after all, here you are. Some of them are your friends. All of you, leaping at the chance. You wonder if any of them had known, her strong arms around them like they are around you now, of the two ways it might go for them. Had any of them thought they’d be the one? If you’d looked behind you just now, would you have caught eyes watching you jealously? 

Whoever comes next, you think, and your stomach twists sickeningly.

Because she’s the real thing, you think, and you know you aren’t. 

“...to do this?”

You startle, and can’t remember how you’d gotten all the way out here.

Kassandra had steered the two of you to one of the outdoor gardens, roofed, clinging to the edge of the mountain. The torches are unlit, but you can make out blankets and plush pillows under cover of a veranda. The sky is reflected in a shallow pool; but for the few stars and the weak moon managing to twinkle faintly through the stormclouds, it is dark and still.The air gently starts to pick up around you, and promises rain. 

Kassandra is looking down at you. Out here, it’s too dark to see her face properly, but you can almost hear her frown. 

“We don’t have to, you know,” she continues, her voice just tinged with concern. 

“No! No. I’ve wanted to for awhile, actually,” you reply hurriedly, and immediately want to fall into the earth. It’s worth it for her answering laugh, at least. It’s wonderful how you feel it, her whole body shaking against yours. Ears ringing, you think-you wish-I could get used to this.

She backs away a step, turns to stand in front of you, and her hands-calloused-are against your face. You close your eyes, even though you’re pretty sure neither of you can see anything anyway. Even in the dark, she overwhelms you. 

“That’s good,” Kassandra says quietly, kissing you. Craning up seems to pull something along your whole body, pleasant and vulnerable, your neck exposed to her even if she won’t notice. You can still taste the wine she drank, and the hairs escaping her braid tickle your nose. “It has been...the same, for me.”

This startles you out of your daze. You stare at her hard, seeing nothing other than her outline. “What, really?”

She stills, just for a moment, huffing a laugh. “Yes, really. Is that so difficult to believe?”

“Yes.” You grasp her fingers now, squinting up at her. “How long?”

“I-I don’t know,” she answers, exasperation and the beginnings of confusion pricking her words. “Does it matter?”

You think about-the Adrestia in raging storms, where you’d swear you were drowning as you slipped on her deck. Battles, all over this damned war, where Kassandra wouldn’t come back for weeks, and you’d assure yourself that if she was dead, someone would note it-history would mean you would know. Myths couldn’t just die with no one remarking on it, so-

You think of-whoever comes next. Those who came before. 

“Yes,” you say quietly. It’s startling how harsh and hurt your own voice sounds to your ears. 

The first time doesn’t happen then, technically; but this was part of it. 

It’s a week later, both of you avoiding each other-difficult, on the ship, easier on land except that you’re both cursed and she keeps running into you-that it finally breaks.

A flurry of words, and glares, more intense than either of you had ever been with each other in your years of friendship. Nothing of importance, truthfully, just evening the score with petty and small things like you’ve done a hundred times on long voyages, until-

“You wasted my time, Kassandra!” 

Her brown eyes are bright with fury. “I was wasting your time? After this last week? How? How can you possibly-you stubborn-”

“I was jealous, and-alone. And I didn’t need to be. I didn’t need to be afraid.” You can’t help gesticulating, not caring how it looks. This can’t just-be let go, not when you’ve been ruminating. “But I guess that’s a foreign concept to you-you, who goes leaping from one thing to another without a second thought-you, who never has to worry about her heart or anything else-”

“I didn’t tell you because I was afraid, you fucking-you-maláka!” She wheels around, away from you, her broad shoulders like a wall. Not fast enough that you miss the muscle twitching in her jaw, or the flash of pain that flickers across her face.

The silence that falls roars in your ears, it’s weight seeming to slow down time itself. You’re angry-so angry, angry in a way that feels bigger than just one misunderstanding-and you realize-

You miss her. You have missed Kassandra. Even when you didn’t know she felt the same, even when you thought this was just you and she seemed like-something all the way on Mount Olympus-she was still your friend. But now, here she is. You think you might love her. She could love you, you don’t know. She’s feet away and right in front of you. And you miss her.

“What do you mean?” you ask gently, finally. Bubbling to the surface, guilt rears it’s ugly head cautiously. You’re not ready to drag it out yet, or push it back under, but-have you fallen to spite, just to lick your own wounds?

“I know how you look at me,” she says awkwardly, her voice slightly higher than usual. She still won’t look at you. “I’ve heard how you talk about me. You, just like-everyone else. You all think I’m something more. I’m not.”

She laughs, forced, and it is the most heartbreaking sound in the world. 

“You aren’t?” You are, you think doubtfully.

She turns to you, her brows furrowed and her face falling. “No. No, of course not-I’m just a person. And everything I’ve done...I’m skilled, yes, but the thing everyone talks about-it’s been luck, or it’s gone wrong. It has gone wrong so many times, and people just don’t hear about it. I have to work so hard to make these things happen, do you understand? Yet everyone expects me to do the impossible, not understanding that every time I do it again, I think, ‘that could’ve been it.’ But it’s not even-” Kassandra stops, looking off to the side. “It’s not even really that.”

“Then what is it?” you ask. You think you’ve started to see the shape of it; maybe started to really see her. The guilt is back and it’s eating you whole. You’d lost this woman, somewhere in your infatuation. 

She was lonely.

Kassandra doesn’t reply for a moment, and when she does it’s apparent she’d rather be talking about anything else. Her body language is tense, her arms crossed. “Even if you got it wrong, I still liked it when you looked at me like that. I really, really liked it. Which is why I thought, maybe just one night, then we could go back to you-still looking at me like that. But if we got closer...” she glances towards you, lightning fast, then away again,”then that would stop.” 

Ah. You hesitate, before taking that first step closer. She obviously notices, going still, her eyes lowered but clearly watching your movements. 

You reach out for her, when you’re close enough, and brush the strands of hair off her face. She swallows hard, turning to look at you, your eyes catching the movement of her throat to avoid that unguarded gaze. You know it would disarm you, and you have to say this before you lose it. She needs to hear it.

“Kassandra, I didn’t know. I’m so-” you stroke her cheek, softly, eliciting a simple and open sound from her in surprise. “I’m so sorry. You were right. I did see something else.” 

You lean forward, feeling that pull along your entire center as you lean upwards. It’s just the strain because she’s so damned tall, but it feels like your own yearning. It feels like more. 

She’s more. You’re more. This-this is-

“But I see you now.”

Sex with Kassandra, it turns out, has quite a lead up. 

[xsofiya-blog]

&&. ( sofia valeria valentina ), the ( 29 ) year old ( daughter ) of the president of ( ukraine ). she is often confused with ( emmy rossum ). some say that she is ( haughty & argumentative ), but she is actually ( clever & compassionate ).

Hi again, everyone! Bree here with my second baby, this time the outspoken First Daughter of Ukraine. I’m almost done with her bio which will be on her bio page when finished, but until then here’s some important info!

Sofia is the oldest child of President Oleksander Valentina of Ukraine and his late wife Anastasia. For most of her life she was an only child. Her nickname is Sofi, and she lets most people use it.

She is fluent in Ukrainian, Russian, English, and Latin (as a result of her education). She’s also competent in French and German, though she finds both a bit exhausting to speak.

Sofia is well-respected and beloved in her home country for her constant use of her status as a voice for political and societal change. She champions civil rights of all kinds across the globe (particularly women’s rights and LGBT rights), and started a foundation whose purpose is to combat poverty and hunger worldwide. Her activism has made her a fairly popular figure around the world, but very little is known about her as she keeps her personal life very private.

The only aspect of her personal life that she openly shares is her art. She’s a skilled painter and sculptor, and has used her art to further her activism and messages many times over the years.

However, Sofia is as divisive a figure as she is a popular one, because of the burning passion she throws into her activism and her abrasively egalitarian views. Among the government of Ukraine, she is seen as a nuisance and formidable enemy to those who stand in the way of progress and change. Many attempts have been made over the years to use laws surrounding the First Family to force her to mellow out or back down, so far with no success. She’s dodged all of these quite artfully.

Romantically, Sofia is quite reserved. She’s allowed herself to have one or two relationships that were primarily for political reasons, but always broke them off when they’d served their purpose. This has given her a little bit of an conniving, “ice queen” reputation, but she doesn’t particularly care. Romance, in her mind, should never be mixed with politics. She knows this first hand.

Her parents were once a political powerhouse. Her mom was her dad’s campaign manager before he became President, and this drove a wedge between them. They kept up the appearance of a happy marriage for the public and for Sofia when she was young, but it was pretty clear to people close to the family that their marriage had some serious problems. When Sofia was 8, her father had an affair with a Russian woman—not unexpected, as both Oleksander and Anastasia had started cheating on each other quite regularly by that point. When the woman vanished, Oleksander suspected that she might have been carrying his child, and whatever resources he wasn’t spending on running a country were spent on finding her. This further destroyed his marriage as Anastasia felt abandoned.

Sofia grew up knowing there was something wrong, that the carefully cultivated image her family presented was a lie. As a budding artist, she took her frustrations out by sneaking out into the streets of Kiev to paint political murals on important landmarks. This guerrilla art earned her the nickname “Buntivnyk”, the Rebel, though to this day no one knows that she was the artist except her. She also began producing slightly less combative art for the public, using it to raise awareness for various causes and charities. Eventually, she went to college for Foreign Affairs and Art degrees.

As she was about to graduate, she finally learned the truth behind her family’s disintegration. Oleksander and Anastasia had not been in love for decades, and furthermore he might have a lovechild somewhere out in the world whose mother he desperately wanted to reconnect with. If/when he found this child and their mother, he intended to divorce Anastasia, regardless of her recent COPD diagnosis. Anastasia was apparently on board with this; she felt she no longer had reason to live with a husband she hated, and was content to sleep around the capital until the disease finally killed her. Disgusted by both her parents, Sofia finished college and moved to Odessa to start her foundation. She only returned to Kiev for her mother’s funeral, but otherwise was determined to stay away for as long as possible.

A few years ago, her father begged her to come home, promising that he’d given up on his one-time mistress and possible secret child. He wanted his family back, what little of it he hadn’t destroyed, and he wanted to be part of her life. Little by little, Sofia reconnected with him, and things were actually going well until six months ago. That’s when special forces brought Tatiana Metanova to the presidential estate, and paternity tests proved that she was Oleksander’s illegitimate child. Knowing her father lied to her again, she has cut ties with him once more and happily moved to Oslo to get away from him. She’s not happy that Tatiana is here, too, but she’s just trying to avoid her newly-discovered half-sister as much as possible.

In some ways Sofia was sheltered the way many royal children and children of politicians are, and in some ways she had a good deal more freedom. While she’s never done some simple things like play cards or learn to drive a car, she did engage in a certain degree of youthful partying, is known for her other hobby of video gaming, and engaged in illegal street art as a teen. It’s a mixed bag.

Despite her tough stance on issues she cares about, Sofia definitely has a very soft side. She can react badly when overwhelmed, lashing out at people until she is given space to calm down, getting very restless and trying to do something about whatever is upsetting her. When scared, she will retreat physically and emotionally until she feels safe again. And she is a very physical person in terms of showing affection. She gives hugs freely, touches people casually, happily cuddles people she is close to, etc.

Sofi is determined to make the most of her time here in Oslo. She still runs her foundation and intends to use it to help common people caught in the middle of this war. She’s uncompromising in her ethics and formidable to deal with as an opponent, but she hopes that this situation will yield some compromise and peace. If she can help make that happen, she’ll do whatever she can.

So there you have it! If you’d like a more specific connection to her, let me know. And if you want to plot anything specific, I’m super duper open to anything. Can’t wait!

[agechat514]

About Me Template For Dating Sites

I thought I’d share these letters that a paid for dating site sends me. I really do love them all, they press good buttons and if there was an iota of truth in any of them they would probably have me falling head over heals for them. Maybe useful as templates or draft replies.

About Me Website Template

About Me Template For Dating Sites Word

Hi, dear Yarmi! I am a very sensitive person, and I hope that your intention is not to play games with me! I am a very romantic person! I like to walk in the moonlight, and dream of happiness! Morning walk on the beach of the river, when the silence … people can hear the cry of seagulls in the distance and a beautiful melody of waves … Waves so attracted to her, looking at them, you will forget about all your worries … When you breathe in the air of purity and innocence …. I am looking for my life partner with whom I will live in happiness, love, understanding, respect … Going through life hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder! In joy and in sorrow! because, as Stendhal said: “Love – a delightful flower, but it takes courage to step up to the edge of the precipice and rip it.” I would really like to know more about you! And I hope that you will want to get to know me . If so, then I’ll look forward to your letter. Hello dear Yarmi! I beg you read this letter attentively as I have put my soul and my heart in it. I decided to write it to you as I hope there is something invisible yet between us but it may appear as a strong attraction and anxious feelings in the future. I’m always brave enough to do a first step as it can possibly change life of two people who search for something special and important in life. I’m young, energetic, elegant and tactful … Someone may say I’m perfect while looking at me or my pictures. But it’s more important for me to know that a person say more about my inner being, about my soul, individual characteristics. I need to feel someone shares with me and don’t throw words into the air. Life is so beautiful … but also it’s not eternal. As every lady I dream to find my true love. How it would be great to bestow a smile to my beloved one in the morning and make him feel cheerful and energetic to the end of day … How it would be great to feel his strong body caring me upstairs to our little cute bedroom. .. And how it would be nice to hear sweet “I love you honey” before we fall asleep … I would like to know if you would like to have those moments in your life? I tend to self-improvement and spiritual growth. I’m fond of dances and sport. An active move is what makes my body stronger and my mood inspired! I’m curious, smart, witty and tender. Would you accept those things? I’m fond of dancing and it has become a part of my life! Would you dance with me? I really want to know your attitudes to foreign ladies and your thoughts about possible relationship. Have a pleasant day and catch a smile from a nice lady Tatiana! Sincerely, Tatiana

The meat of your online dating profile is the 'about me' section, which is called various things on different dating sites. No matter what its title, most online dating sites will require a paragraph or two from you in essay format, describing who you are and what you are looking for. Online Dating Profile Examples Here are a few examples of unique online dating profiles. If you wish to understand the concepts behind these examples, please read our tips for writing your online profile. Example 1: Light-Hearted and Silly.

Dear Yarmi . Yes, do that! Join me and lets discover if we are mates? If we are looking for same things on this site? Speaking of me, I’m looking for someone to share life with; lazy days, laughs, deep discussions, dreams, adventures, embraces, hand holding, heartfelt connection and more. Looking for an easygoing gent with a passion for life. If you are that guy? To tell the true I like to get new knowledge’s and new information, so I want to start exploring and discovering on you! Also I’m a person who is tender, considerate, kind and clever. I love life and enjoy the happiness it gives to me and my friends said that I am a girl who is sensible to live but rational to act. When I am in the lowest point of my life, my friends helped me a lot. So I realized that life only has one chance and we should cherish our lives. I hope one day I can repay them. I hope my matrimony will be simple and happy and we will have the same life goal, and we are loyalty to each other. I enjoy the feeling of staying with my family. I understand that I told many pleasant and positive things in my address, so you might wonder why such a lady on this web site? Is she really ready what she says? Is she really looking for a husband? I could answer you – Yes. I am ready to have all this and think age it is not important in relations. The most important is Love. I am looking for my soul mate to share my life with him. I am romantic and considerate. I will devote myself to our love. I am sincerely willing to find my true love. I hope to get letter from you. Send you sweet kisses, Marina

Dear Yarmi . Yes, do that! Join me and lets discover if we are mates? If we are looking for same things on this site? Speaking of me, I’m looking for someone to share life with; lazy days, laughs, deep discussions, dreams, adventures, embraces, hand holding, heartfelt connection and more. Looking for an easygoing gent with a passion for life. If you are that guy? To tell the true I like to get new knowledge’s and new information, so I want to start exploring and discovering on you! Also I’m a person who is tender, considerate, kind and clever. I love life and enjoy the happiness it gives to me and my friends said that I am a girl who is sensible to live but rational to act. When I am in the lowest point of my life, my friends helped me a lot. So I realized that life only has one chance and we should cherish our lives. I hope one day I can repay them. I hope my matrimony will be simple and happy and we will have the same life goal, and we are loyalty to each other. I enjoy the feeling of staying with my family. I understand that I told many pleasant and positive things in my address, so you might wonder why such a lady on this web site? Is she really ready what she says? Is she really looking for a husband? I could answer you – Yes. I am ready to have all this and think age it is not important in relations. The most important is Love. I am looking for my soul mate to share my life with him. I am romantic and considerate. I will devote myself to our love. I am sincerely willing to find my true love. I hope to get letter from you. Send you sweet kisses, Marina

Hello Yarmi. I am a feminine and adventurous woman looking for the man with whom I will be able to realize all my dreams and desires. I have so many different ideas, business plans, and hopes for the future family. I have my own successful business. I want to find partner with whom I will be able to create strong and friendly family. Do you also want this? If yes, do not hesitate, but write me right now! As I told you I am ready to leave everything for my future family. If you are looking for the same things here, please let me know! I will wait impatiently for your letter! Best regards. Olga.

Hi Yarmi! As this is my first letter to you, I don’t really know what to write to you about, but to begin with, I am looking for somebody that is not afraid to show his feelings. Somebody that likes and want to develop a promising relationship and eventually hatch into marriage. I want a best friend, comforter, confidant, lover, and partner. Most of all I would like him to be faithful, and truthful. I don’t appreciate betrayal and lies. I am a compassionate, and caring person, I am devoted to my partner when I am in a relationship. I have always tried to make my partner happy when ever I can. I believe in communication, as in I think it is important that if you want to have a true relationship with a person then you should be able to have good communication. I believe honesty is the foundation to a stable relationship. I would like to learn your language, which means that I would like to learn more about who you are and where you come from. I am a family woman, which means that I want to have a family with a man who also has family values. I have a lot of interest in dancing! That is a good way to keep my body in a good form! I also like drawing. I enjoy cooking, and from what I hear I am a very good cook, I would like to learn about what foods you like. Well for my first letter I tried to give you a little idea of who I am, if you are interested in getting to know me more please write me back, I would like to hear from you again. Think of me as I do the same and I wait with impatience to hear from you. Kisses! Sincerely, Marina.

About Me Website Template

Hi Yarmi If you have a question why I am here and why I write you so I can answer you because I am lonely and because maybe you are my chance to change it. I am loving and tender woman and I am alone , I want to find my soul mate with help of this agency and I hope it will help me with it .I see here is so many women and so many men , but I am sure somewhere is the only one man that will be my best and for whom I will be the best . If you are interested in kind and sensitive woman with strong character and high family values so I can be this woman . I dream to build a family and to be caring and loving wife and mother. Here in Odessa is so many interesting things to see and if one day you will come here to visit me I will show you all beautiful corners of my city and of my country . I love to travel , I love to see new things and I want to do it with my future family . I wish you all the best and hope to receive your answer Bye Juliya

hello Yarmi! )) how are you today ? i see your profile and i am really interesting about you and i hope for to talk with you of course if you would like too )) i am very simple girl and i like simple stuff .. i am serious and honest and romantic character but i am able for to share everything with my partner even crazy stuff if i am in real love ))) i am open for the life and i want enjoy my life with real man for serious relationship .. i believe in my search here and i am sure in once i will got my man .. i would like for to know you more and i hope you will replay me back .. All the best for you!!! Viccy

Dear Yarmi! I love life. I am very optimistic and friendly girl and maybe that is why life for me is colored. I like to enjoy every day of the week, that makes my life interesting. I have a lot of passion in my soul and a lot of romance in my heart. I am a real woman who loves intrigue, but doesn’t play games. Love to travel, my dream is going to travel around the world, I dream to see the world, get to know the culture of other countries. I have many friends, I love to chat. I think that if the relationship is really happy, strong, and it is based on true love, partners want to start a family then. I see no point in spending a lot of years of just having a good time together and being afraid of responsibility. I want to have a family and in that case I’ll be sure that everything is going in the right direction. That’s why I’m here! I am looking for someone who is serious about starting a family and a life filled with love, happiness and pleasure … Sincerely, Irina.

About Me Template For Dating Sites Word

Hello dear Yarmi! How are you? I am nice and interesting woman. I have always wanted to create a happy family with my loving man. I want to find him, maybe this is you. I want to find the man who will become very special to me and who will want to share every moment with me. Tell me about you. I feel that you and I can be great together. I am waiting for your answer. Kisses Olga.

[queerkeitcoven]

7 LGBTQ Ancestors To Invite to Your Sukkah

On Sukkot, it is traditional to invite honoured ancestors ("ushpizin/ushpizata") to join your festive meals in the sukkah. As some of you know, I am currently compiling an anthology of primary sources for LGBTQ Jewish history for publication (more info on that coming soon — stay tuned!) and my friend gave me the brilliant idea to pick some LGBTQ ancestors to invite as ushpizin/ushpizata this year. There are so so many wonderful stories to honour, but if I had to pick seven — here are the ancestors that my boyfriend and  I are inviting in this year. Feel free to share, or add your own!

1. Rabbi Abbahu of Caesarea, a Palestinian amora [rabbinic scholar] ca. 300 CE. Rabbi Abbahu taught his students a midrash from his colleagues that Mordekhai nursed Esther himself; when his students heard him talking about a man nursing, they burst out laughing at him. What I would say to him: "Thank you for reminding us to amplify marginalized voices, even when they are ridiculed or dismissed. And thank you for your courage in imagining a diversity of bodies and gender expressions for our Biblical ancestors — that makes it possible to continue broadening our vision of Jewishness today. Welcome, Rabbi Abbahu of Caesarea, to our sukkah."

2. Ishaq Ibn Mar Sha'ul of Lucena, a Spanish poet and grammarian, ca. 975-1050. He was the first medieval Hebrew writer to compose homoerotic poetry, a genre which blossomed into such richness in the following centuries, comparing his beloved to figures like Joseph and David. What I would say to him: "Thank you for bringing such beauty to the expression of love, in words which resonate across the centuries. It doesn't matter whether your poems reflect your experience or not — what matters is that you brought them into the world, and in so doing gave a language for others to speak their feelings. Welcome, Ishaq Ibn Mar Sha'ul, to our sukkah."

3. Issach Mardofay [Isaac Mordekhai], a Catalan rabbi who was burnt at the stake for "sodomy" in Barcelona in 1365. What I would say to him: "Your death was a tragedy, a crime, and an unhealed wound in our historical memory. But you have not been forgotten — I draw my strength from you. Welcome, Issach Mardofay, to our sukkah."

4. Sarmad Kashani, a Persian Jewish poet, ca. 1590-1660, whose love for a Hindu youth inspired him to devote his life to the pursuit of spiritual unity, reciting mystical poetry and teaching across the Indo-Pakistani subcontinent, and who was executed by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb for heresy. What I would say to him: "Your life and work are an inspiration to all of us whose sexuality and gender do not push us farther away from our spiritual lives but rather draw us in. Thank you for refusing to live any other way but as your truest self. Welcome, Sarmad Kashani, to our sukkah."

5. Berel-Beyle, a young man from a small Ukrainian shtetl who was assigned female at birth, but always knew himself as a man. Born around 1870, he left his home for Odessa at the age of 23, where "a famous professor" helped him become the man he knew himself to be. When he returned to his shtetl, he was welcomed with open arms; he married his childhood sweetheart Rachel, joined the minyan, and was known by all as an upstanding Jew. What I would say to him: "Thank you for your courage to make your way in a world which barely had the words to acknowledge what you were. And thank you for returning home, allowing them to demonstrate that open-mindedness and communal hospitality to LGBTQ folks are part of our ancestral heritage too. Welcome, Berel-Beyle, to our sukkah."

6. "Agnes W.," the pseudonym for a Jewish lesbian who was interviewed by Magnus Hirschfeld in Berlin around 1910, at the age of 18. A music student, she admitted that she had struggled with social rejection and suicidal thoughts in the past, but declared that now "I consider myself innocent, totally healthy, and natural... I am satisfied with my natural sexual tendency and do not think any change is worthwhile or in my case even possible." What I would say to her: "Your strength of conviction in yourself was right — your love is innocent, healthy, and natural. We welcome and celebrate you for everything you are, and you have no need to hide anything anymore. Welcome, Agnes, to our sukkah."

7. Leo Skir (1932-2014), a gay Jewish activist, poet, and writer from New York, who was friends with beat poets like Allen Ginsberg and other activists like Frank Kameny. Skir published articles, theatre reviews, and even a novel, but after the 1970s was ignored and forgotten. He died in Minneapolis (where he had lived for decades), alone and unknown, the year before I moved here. What I would say to him: "We have forgotten our responsibilities to honour and respect our LGBTQ elders, even as we benefit from your legacy. We commit ourselves this year to doing better. If you are willing to forgive us, we would be honoured by your presence. Welcome, Leo Skir, to our sukkah."

Hag sameah to all!

[michellelinkous]

‘A happy place’

Sometime between her mid 20s and early 40s, MacKenzie Wells lost track of her health.

It began at age 25, when after struggling with infertility for five years, she and her husband adopted three young children.

All at once, they became a family of five.

Engulfed in new responsibilities, Wells went into survival mode.

She cooked a lot of pasta. Indulged in diet cola. Abandoned exercise. Put on weight.

Three years later, her doctor diagnosed Wells with Type 2 diabetes.

“I was really struggling during that time,” she said. “Our kids were little. … I was at my heaviest then.”

A former high school athlete, she lost some weight to stave off insulin dependence but couldn’t keep it off for the long term.

“I still had little kids, we were still cooking mac and cheese for them and I did not change my lifestyle,” said Wells, who lives in a home her family built on 3 acres west of Lake Odessa, Michigan.

“It’s like, ‘I’ll take care of myself later.’”

She recognized both her infertility and her diabetes as complications of polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS, an imbalance of reproductive hormones leading to irregular periods and other symptoms. Other women in her family share the same diagnosis.

Shedding pounds promised relief for some of her symptoms, but her attempts over the years to make lasting changes fell flat.

Life got in the way.

“I had been trying to put more effort in, but my life was so consuming at the time that I was like, ‘I’m doing my best, but I’m just not getting where you want me to be,” Wells told her providers at Spectrum Health Medical Group Diabetes and Endocrinology.

All the while, her need for insulin increased. Her providers proposed moving her to an insulin pump to give her relief from self-injecting up to six times a day.

Breaking point

By the time she turned 40, Wells reached a breaking point. She turned to her endocrinology team for help.

“I just kind of broke down. I’m like, ‘Listen, my life’s a mess,’” she said. “I have to take care of myself.”

Hearing her story, her diabetes specialist, Gail Friedrick, PA-C, suggested she meet with Kristi Paguio, LMSW, a behavioral health specialist who provides diabetic counseling to patients like Wells.

“Gail was like, ‘You’re suffering from something we call diabetic burnout,’” Wells said.

“Really what it meant is I was depressed.”

Working with Friedrick and Paguio became the first step on Wells’ journey to restored health.

“When you start to struggle with your insulin levels, depression is a real deal,” Wells said. “I didn’t see it in myself because I was trying to be Superwoman.”

Emboldened to keep advocating for herself, Wells took the next step: She asked her primary care provider, Laurie Braker, MD, for help in finding a women’s health specialist—someone who could help her better navigate polycystic ovary syndrome in middle age.

“I just really want somebody who understands PCOS and will work with me on my issues,” Wells told her. “Two of my kids have reached adulthood, and I realized I can do this for myself now.”

New hope

Dr. Braker researched the options and referred Wells to Natasha Peoples, FNP, a specialist with the Spectrum Health Midlife, Menopause & Sexual Health team.

Peoples brought exactly the kind of knowledge and care Wells had hoped for.

“I just felt, like, easy right from the first moment I walked in with her. And she was kind and she listened—she listened to everything,” Wells said.

Peoples absorbed Wells’ concerns, reviewed her lab results, discussed her interconnected symptoms and explored possible solutions.

“She gave me a different perspective on myself that was like, ‘You can do this. There’s other ways,’” Wells said.

“She kind of gave me hope for myself.”

Polycystic ovary syndrome is a constellation of symptoms and results that fit a common picture, Peoples explained. Its biggest health risk is that it can lead to atypical growth in the lining of the uterus, even up to the point of endometrial cancer.

Polycystic ovary syndrome looks a bit like metabolic syndrome, Peoples said, in that it tends to be associated with obesity, high blood sugar, insulin resistance and sleep apnea.

Because it’s a complex syndrome that “affects all these different parts of your health and your life … there’s so many ways that we can hopefully impact that,” she said.

Looking at Wells’ situation, Peoples prescribed high-dose Vitamin D, referred her for a sleep study and discussed ways to make successful diet and lifestyle changes.

“She’s like, ‘Let’s talk about what you can do,’” Wells said. “’Have you tried yoga? What do you like to do?’”

In that moment, Wells experienced a change of heart and attitude.

What she really likes, she told Peoples, is walking outdoors—hiking on unpaved trails.

Though she already hiked occasionally, she resolved to hit the trails in earnest.

No more excuses. Wells went all in.

“Whatever the weather, I would be out there,” she said. “I just started going. And so I just hiked and hiked and hiked.”

She joined a Facebook hiking group. She found her go-to spot at the Yankee Springs Recreation Area. She explored her county’s segment of the North Country Trail. She participated in hiking challenges.

Whether hiking alone or with a friend, Wells always brought her dogs, Paisley and Willow.

“When I’m out on the trails, it’s just a happy place,” she said.

This breakthrough took place over the summer of 2019. In September and October, she racked up 100 miles on her hiking shoes, heading out whenever she could while working full time at a local high school.

Wells also took up yoga, something she’d never dared try before.

After practicing at home using YouTube videos, she opened her world even further by attending a women’s yoga retreat.

“I found a community of people who … were taking time to take care of themselves,” she said.

With a new friend from the retreat, she started planning a northern Michigan backpacking trip—her first time on the trail overnight.

Reinvention

Physical activity isn’t all that changed for Wells. She also revamped the way she and her household eat.

Taking her cue from something Peoples had said, she shifted to anti-inflammatory foods, including fish and fresh produce.

She “gave up the beloved pop” and switched to drinking water. She cut out processed foods.

“Basically, I cleaned my system out big time and got rid of all the junk,” she said.

In the process, Wells lost 40 pounds.

As her weight dropped, she used the MyHealth app to keep in touch with Friedrick, who helped scale back her daily insulin injections.

By the time she visited the endocrinology team last November, she’d decreased to just one tiny insulin dose per day.

Wells’ sense of freedom soared.

It’s the kind of transformation Friedrick rarely sees among patients with diabetes.

“I don’t see very many patients who have done what MacKenzie has—perhaps only a handful a year,” Friedrick said.

“She took charge of her diabetes rather than letting it control her life.”

Wells is excited to share her story because she wants to give hope to people in situations like hers.

“I’m just one of the so many out there who feel like we’re stuck.… I just didn’t want to accept that for myself. I’m only 42 years old,” she said.

“I’ve met so many people who are in their 60s out hiking—and that is going to be me.”

She’s grateful to her health care team for taking her seriously and working to help her reinvent herself.

“That’s why this story, to me, is so cool,” she said. “I had three or four different doctors working together. I’m thankful for all of them.”

In the long run, Wells said, the changes she made weren’t even that hard.

They just required “eating more carefully and finding an exercise I loved. Loving myself a bit more, you know?”

‘A happy place’ published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.tumblr.com/

[gordonwilliamsweb]

‘A happy place’

Sometime between her mid 20s and early 40s, MacKenzie Wells lost track of her health.

It began at age 25, when after struggling with infertility for five years, she and her husband adopted three young children.

All at once, they became a family of five.

Engulfed in new responsibilities, Wells went into survival mode.

She cooked a lot of pasta. Indulged in diet cola. Abandoned exercise. Put on weight.

Three years later, her doctor diagnosed Wells with Type 2 diabetes.

“I was really struggling during that time,” she said. “Our kids were little. … I was at my heaviest then.”

A former high school athlete, she lost some weight to stave off insulin dependence but couldn’t keep it off for the long term.

“I still had little kids, we were still cooking mac and cheese for them and I did not change my lifestyle,” said Wells, who lives in a home her family built on 3 acres west of Lake Odessa, Michigan.

“It’s like, ‘I’ll take care of myself later.’”

She recognized both her infertility and her diabetes as complications of polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS, an imbalance of reproductive hormones leading to irregular periods and other symptoms. Other women in her family share the same diagnosis.

Shedding pounds promised relief for some of her symptoms, but her attempts over the years to make lasting changes fell flat.

Life got in the way.

“I had been trying to put more effort in, but my life was so consuming at the time that I was like, ‘I’m doing my best, but I’m just not getting where you want me to be,” Wells told her providers at Spectrum Health Medical Group Diabetes and Endocrinology.

All the while, her need for insulin increased. Her providers proposed moving her to an insulin pump to give her relief from self-injecting up to six times a day.

Breaking point

By the time she turned 40, Wells reached a breaking point. She turned to her endocrinology team for help.

“I just kind of broke down. I’m like, ‘Listen, my life’s a mess,’” she said. “I have to take care of myself.”

Hearing her story, her diabetes specialist, Gail Friedrick, PA-C, suggested she meet with Kristi Paguio, LMSW, a behavioral health specialist who provides diabetic counseling to patients like Wells.

“Gail was like, ‘You’re suffering from something we call diabetic burnout,’” Wells said.

“Really what it meant is I was depressed.”

Working with Friedrick and Paguio became the first step on Wells’ journey to restored health.

“When you start to struggle with your insulin levels, depression is a real deal,” Wells said. “I didn’t see it in myself because I was trying to be Superwoman.”

Emboldened to keep advocating for herself, Wells took the next step: She asked her primary care provider, Laurie Braker, MD, for help in finding a women’s health specialist—someone who could help her better navigate polycystic ovary syndrome in middle age.

“I just really want somebody who understands PCOS and will work with me on my issues,” Wells told her. “Two of my kids have reached adulthood, and I realized I can do this for myself now.”

New hope

Dr. Braker researched the options and referred Wells to Natasha Peoples, FNP, a specialist with the Spectrum Health Midlife, Menopause & Sexual Health team.

Peoples brought exactly the kind of knowledge and care Wells had hoped for.

“I just felt, like, easy right from the first moment I walked in with her. And she was kind and she listened—she listened to everything,” Wells said.

Peoples absorbed Wells’ concerns, reviewed her lab results, discussed her interconnected symptoms and explored possible solutions.

“She gave me a different perspective on myself that was like, ‘You can do this. There’s other ways,’” Wells said.

“She kind of gave me hope for myself.”

Polycystic ovary syndrome is a constellation of symptoms and results that fit a common picture, Peoples explained. Its biggest health risk is that it can lead to atypical growth in the lining of the uterus, even up to the point of endometrial cancer.

Polycystic ovary syndrome looks a bit like metabolic syndrome, Peoples said, in that it tends to be associated with obesity, high blood sugar, insulin resistance and sleep apnea.

Because it’s a complex syndrome that “affects all these different parts of your health and your life … there’s so many ways that we can hopefully impact that,” she said.

Looking at Wells’ situation, Peoples prescribed high-dose Vitamin D, referred her for a sleep study and discussed ways to make successful diet and lifestyle changes.

“She’s like, ‘Let’s talk about what you can do,’” Wells said. “’Have you tried yoga? What do you like to do?’”

In that moment, Wells experienced a change of heart and attitude.

What she really likes, she told Peoples, is walking outdoors—hiking on unpaved trails.

Though she already hiked occasionally, she resolved to hit the trails in earnest.

No more excuses. Wells went all in.

“Whatever the weather, I would be out there,” she said. “I just started going. And so I just hiked and hiked and hiked.”

She joined a Facebook hiking group. She found her go-to spot at the Yankee Springs Recreation Area. She explored her county’s segment of the North Country Trail. She participated in hiking challenges.

Whether hiking alone or with a friend, Wells always brought her dogs, Paisley and Willow.

“When I’m out on the trails, it’s just a happy place,” she said.

This breakthrough took place over the summer of 2019. In September and October, she racked up 100 miles on her hiking shoes, heading out whenever she could while working full time at a local high school.

Wells also took up yoga, something she’d never dared try before.

After practicing at home using YouTube videos, she opened her world even further by attending a women’s yoga retreat.

“I found a community of people who … were taking time to take care of themselves,” she said.

With a new friend from the retreat, she started planning a northern Michigan backpacking trip—her first time on the trail overnight.

Reinvention

Physical activity isn’t all that changed for Wells. She also revamped the way she and her household eat.

Taking her cue from something Peoples had said, she shifted to anti-inflammatory foods, including fish and fresh produce.

She “gave up the beloved pop” and switched to drinking water. She cut out processed foods.

“Basically, I cleaned my system out big time and got rid of all the junk,” she said.

In the process, Wells lost 40 pounds.

As her weight dropped, she used the MyHealth app to keep in touch with Friedrick, who helped scale back her daily insulin injections.

By the time she visited the endocrinology team last November, she’d decreased to just one tiny insulin dose per day.

Wells’ sense of freedom soared.

It’s the kind of transformation Friedrick rarely sees among patients with diabetes.

“I don’t see very many patients who have done what MacKenzie has—perhaps only a handful a year,” Friedrick said.

“She took charge of her diabetes rather than letting it control her life.”

Wells is excited to share her story because she wants to give hope to people in situations like hers.

“I’m just one of the so many out there who feel like we’re stuck.… I just didn’t want to accept that for myself. I’m only 42 years old,” she said.

“I’ve met so many people who are in their 60s out hiking—and that is going to be me.”

She’s grateful to her health care team for taking her seriously and working to help her reinvent herself.

“That’s why this story, to me, is so cool,” she said. “I had three or four different doctors working together. I’m thankful for all of them.”

In the long run, Wells said, the changes she made weren’t even that hard.

They just required “eating more carefully and finding an exercise I loved. Loving myself a bit more, you know?”

‘A happy place’ published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

[fadingfartconnoisseur]

In Kiev, a Stylish and Surprising City

Dear cities of the world: I warn you, it’s dangerous for me to visit you immediately after a city I love. You may not be judged fairly.

So many cities have suffered this fate. Tulum couldn’t hold a candle to Caye Caulker. I would have loved Charleston more if it hadn’t come immediately after my beloved Savannah. And I’ll always regret not giving Luang Prabang the attention it deserved, but how could I when all I could think about was turning around and getting back to Vang Vieng?

I was due to arrive in Kiev after three idyllic days in Odessa. Odessa blew me away — I was expecting to enjoy it, but I had no idea I would fall for it quite so hard.

So if this were an ordinary visit, I would have tolerated Kiev and wished I was back in Odessa. To my surprise, that wasn’t the case at all! I enjoyed Kiev quite a bit. I didn’t fall in love with it the way I did with Odessa, but it turns out that much of what I loved about Odessa was actually what I loved about Ukraine. Like the dirt-cheap prices. Ukraine is cheaper than anywhere else I’ve been in Europe, often on par with Southeast Asia.

Kiev is also huge, which pleased this city-loving girl. Population-wise, Kiev is the seventh largest city in Europe. I find comfort in large cities — they let me move around anonymously with minimal attention, and one of my greatest joys is to treat a new city like I’m a longtime resident.

I was hosted by JayWay Travel on this trip (see the Essential Info box for more information) and they arranged for me to have a wonderful tour guide named Olga, who showed me the best of the city in a few hours. Yes, my guide in Odessa was also named Olga; no, they were not the same person. Meeting multiple Olgas in Ukraine made me smile, though!

One last thing I’ll say is that I did not luck out with the light on this trip, which made photography difficult. Sometimes, I’ve been unbelievably lucky (Kraków’s light was so good, I nearly wept) but Kiev was bright, and doing most of my exploring in the middle of the day did not help. That’s okay. I think I did the best with what I had.

Here’s the best of Kiev! I hope you enjoy it.

The first thing that struck me about Kiev was its many gold-topped churches. As we drove in from the airport, I gasped whenever we passed a gilded cathedral! This one is St. Michael’s Church.

  St. Andrew’s, a green onion-tipped church, is another stunner. I had to take a picture of this one and send it to my friend with a new baby named Andrew!

There’s a surprising amount of green space in the city. I love this overlook by St. Andrew’s.

The opera house is one of the grandest structures in town. I wish I had had time to see an opera.

This sculpture outside Golden Gate is an homage to Pantyusha, one of Ukraine’s most famous cats. He lived in one of the nearby restaurants and was a neighborhood favorite with the locals. Sadly, Pantyusha died in a fire in 1997 and the neighbors raised enough money to have this sculpture built. Rub his ears for good luck.

One of my favorite things about Ukraine was the omnipresent coffee carts. They were on wheels, in tiny kiosks, or outfitted into the back of cars. Wherever you were, there would be one within eyesight, and they made espresso-based drinks to order for less than a dollar!

My favorite was definitely Coffee Mafia.

Some of the architecture echoed the beauty I had seen in Odessa.

I loved the playful use of color throughout the city.

But Kiev is also home to ugly communist architecture, especially in Maidan Nezalezhnosti, one of the centers of the city. Here giant concrete buildings dwarf the delicate churches.

I hated these buildings — but some of my Chernobyl buddies loved them. It’s all about what you’re into.

“FREEDOM IS OUR RELIGION!” blared from the other side of the square.

This is how you say Kiev (a.k.a. Kyiv) in Cyrillic!

I had to try the city’s most famous dish, Chicken Kiev! I tried it at O’Panas, a highly recommended traditional restaurant located in Taras Shevchenko Park. It’s basically the Ukrainian Tavern on the Green, despite its Irish Pub-sounding name.

To be truthful, I wasn’t a big fan of the dish. I found it to be dry. Give me borscht and vareniki any day.

This sign doesn’t lie. I ate borscht at least once per day, every day!

One cool thing to do in Kiev is to head underground. Like many former communist cities, Kiev has a network of underground malls and passageways that are worth exploring. I love this capture of this thoughtful woman.

The subway is DEEP underground — it takes forever on the escalator!

Awww. I wonder who got the flowers from this guy. I wonder how happy she (or he) was.

There are lots of tiny coffeeshops underground. Olga brought me to one and insisted it was one of her favorites, and far cheaper than above ground. I think we paid around 40 cents for a nice latte and got some candies to go with it as well!

If you’ve been following my blog for any amount of time, you know how my afternoon cafe break is essential. I found several cool cafes in Kiev, but my favorite was The Blue Cup. It was right around the corner from my hotel.

Look at that luscious whoopie pie! And that beautiful latte, I remember clearly, cost about 95 cents. In a gorgeous, stylish cafe. Ukraine is insane.

I also like to seek out independent bookstores wherever I go, but I didn’t find any with English language books. It gives me comfort just to be around the smell of books, though.

In Odessa, I was surprised that the women didn’t look like my image of Ukrainians — they tended to be short, curvy, and dark. In Kiev, though, the women fulfilled the stereotype of tall and blonde in tight dresses and pants.

Just look at the height of those heels!

But even the women who broke the Ukrainian mold looked stylish. I loved how well this woman matched the wall.

Kiev was bright. Kiev was playful. Kiev was fun.

Where I Stayed: Theatre Apart Hotel

I spent three nights at the Theatre Apart Hotel in the A5 Suite. These are a collection of apartment-style suites located in buildings surrounding a courtyard in central Kiev, not far from the opera house.

The location was fantastic — I was in walking distance from so many central attractions and there were several terrific restaurants and cafes within a five-minute walk. And the room gave me everything I needed — a comfortable bed, a table with chairs for working, a full kitchen, and a bathroom complete with a jacuzzi tub big enough for four people.

It wasn’t perfect, though. It’s in an old building with an ancient-looking elevator. There wasn’t a stand for the shower nozzle, which might be annoying to Americans who are used to having both hands free while showering.

But between its central location and $39 per night price tag, I thought it was fantastic value. I’d totally stay there again.

The Takeaway

I really enjoyed my time in Kiev. In fact, I’d go so far as to put it on my favorite list of European capitals, alongside Paris, Berlin, Ljubljana, Amsterdam, Helsinki, London, and Tirana! (Strange list, I know.)

Between the beauty of the city and how unbelievably cheap Ukraine is, I highly recommend making a visit to Kiev in the future. I bet you’ll love it as much as I did.

Essential Info: In Ukraine I was a guest of JayWay Travel, a boutique Central and Eastern European travel company, for a custom itinerary they built for me with hotels, transfers, and tours. They do custom trips so whatever you’re looking for, reach out to them. It was so nice to not have to worry about transfers, and my guides were wonderful. Contact them directly for tours or other bookings.

I stayed at the Theatre Apart Hotel, which I enjoyed and would recommend. My suite, A5, starts at $39 USD per night.

Some restaurants I recommend are O’Panas for a traditional experience in the park, The Blue Cup for coffee and pastries, Druzi for international lunch fare, and Cafe Borsch for cheap Ukrainian food. Most do not have websites.

While the subway system in Kiev is cheap and extensive, I mostly got around by Uber. It’s so remarkably cheap that most trips cost me around $2, and having a SIM card meant that it was always easy to call one when I needed one.

There is a significant language barrier in Ukraine, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I feared. In Kiev lots of people in restaurants and hotels speak a bit of English. I do recommend learning Cyrillic, which is pretty easy to do. It will make your life so much easier when you can read what’s in front of you, as many words are similar to English.

I visited Ukraine in May, which was perfect. The weather was pleasant in Kiev, it made for an easy trip to Chernobyl, and Odessa was beautiful without all the crazy party crowds that arrive in summer.

Don’t visit Kiev without travel insurance. Whether you get appendicitis and need to be hospitalized, or your phone gets stolen, or an injury means you need to cancel all or part of your trip, travel insurance will help you out. I use and recommend World Nomads as travel insurance for trips to Ukraine.

Many thanks to JayWay Travel for hosting me throughout Ukraine. They paid for my hotels, airport transfers, and tours; I paid for flights, meals, and everything else. All opinions, as always, are my own.

Have you been to Kiev? Does it look like your kind of city?

via Travel Blogs http://ift.tt/2x1L64Q

[janiklandre-blog]

Saturday, April 15, 2017

10 a.m. sun, still cool, clouds later - greatest worry clouds gathering over North Korea - things getting worse and worse. On abc television news - only the auto show - one of them driving a $320.000 Porsche - the most wonderful car in the world - and more and more SUVs - sports utility vehicles based on trucks - now that gas prices are low they are so in, so in, so in - old people prefer them because they are high, easy to get into and more and more comfortable - America dreaming.

Thank you once again Ken for teaching me how to use a computer - no one to talk to. New York overrun by tourists, paying $150 a night for a room in a slum in Brooklyn - a run down house - I know of Iraquis who really have made hay out of air b and b in such a rundown house - the woman owner got a wonderful German husband out of it and now lives with her two sons in Berlin - in the house in Brooklyn her mother, sisters, brothers - she is, what my mother would have called: tuechtig - that I found related to virtuous. No takers for my free room in the East Village. That's life.

Saturday morning and a computer to talk to. Yesterday I went fairly late in the day to Central park - got there a little after four, to avoid the worst of the crowds in the area where I have been going for years. A hawk so I do hear is sitting on eggs - high up on the building over the park - by now a 22 year oldevent. For years and years Rick Davis on the hawk bench surrounded by a community - Ken! - that is how I met him - yesterday not one familiar face. At some point somebody with a telescope is likely to pass by - around 6 when Palemale - google with dot com - brings dinner to his partner and also relieves her. Two movies have been made, a book written - Redtails in Love, Marie Winn - many articles and countless photographs taken - the hawk outliving so many watchers!

Then I sat on a bench where I first met Jan Letang - close to my age - from a town on the Danube Slovakia on one side, Hungarian on the other. One parent Slovak, from an earlier German migration - he had a grist mill - his mother Hungarian. He told me long, long stories, always brought me chocolate that I called my coffin nails. A master of early computers in Brno, Czech republic - his wife eager to come to America - 1968? - by the time I met him he was a beloved doorman - and loved his work. A brilliant photographer. A few years ago he lost all power in this hands - no cure to be found - at Christmas a few years ago he took his life. May he rest in peace.

It was an interesting group of people - always there - rain, snow, shine - of course there was also the boathouse to repair to where I often stayed late with Ken.

Yesterday sitting alone on a bench I was going in my mind through friends I am in touch with these days - texting! - actually two women who came later with whom I was busy texting. Both getting close to 60 - a lot younger than I am - one a German, we also met on the hawk bench - tall, dark haired, statuesque - full of spunk and energy - tales, tales and more tales - now the most enthusiastic tour guide - in German and Dutch. S.W. the other M.D. - both avid facebook enthusiasts - may just come across my blog - M. born in New York, parents newcomers - of great promise, children - these days a bit weighed down by problems - some she and I share. Also originally from the hawk bench - both came after five, by then I had moved into the sun to tables on a terrasse overlooking the pond, getting the late day sun, it is a concession that like so much in New York is going through constant changes. When my kids were kids - and when I took them to Central Park and fell in love with Central Park (we lived near the park) - this was NEDICKS - a chain then selling cheap hot dogs and an orange drink. My kids at first clamored for it - but I had from their birth established a firm policy: Mother does not buy. Yes, their mother was weird and unAmerican - still is - not so easy to deal with. Since it went through endless changes - for a while the best brownies I could not resist (I did, do buy for myself - but they were already grown by then) - don't even know the latest name they use - coffee $2.50 - liquor - pricey stuff - never buy any of that -comfortable rocking metal chairs - mostly sit on them and buy nothing, like yesterday. They are overrun by tourists with plenty of many, many Germans. S.W. the tourist guide has in a sunny corner her "office" - she likes a bar stool like chair and a high table - I sit in a low rocking chair. She and M.D. had a lively exchange about medical malpractice - filling more and more pages in books, magazines, talk on TV and I am sure facebook and all the best talk on computers I never learned to listen to - also limiting my computer time. The plaints never end and thnings are getting worse and worse.

Then I still earlier sitting alone on the bench was thinking about my other friends these days - once upon a time friends formed a circle - now they are all over the place, totally different from each other - yes, I loved giving parties bringing people together - now there is this one friend who drops in in the evening for an hour, at best two - last night for less than an hour. Last week the fast and vigil kept her busy - by now she is in Philadelphia with her mother and may be back by Monday night - no interest in any of my other friends who do not share her religious inclination. Religion - everything in my New York life seems to come and go - the nature of New York life? The life of an immigrant who was not "tuechtig" enough to acquire the house I too have dreamed of all my life. In 1982 Paco and I bought the house in Brooklyn - then for $32.000 now worth millions, yes, changes - where I had all kinds of dreams, not shared by him. Even after four years it already went for several times the price we had bought it for - that had been his dream - to be invested in a house in East Hampton he still co-owned with his divorced wife, not allowing me to buy her out - she very much needed some money. His dream: Money to build a studio in East Hampton, buy a good car - and at long last attract the heiress he dremed off since the day he jumped ship in Philadelphia - his visa was for Mexico - not a penny in his pocket, not speaking a word of English - days before Christmas in 1945 - he was 22 years old. He did attract several heiresses - alas each time their parents whisked them away - one just before he met his wife to be, a bright, generous, beautiful woman born into poverty - singing in night clubs, working for Abba Eban at the U.N. - 1953? - she legalized him, gave him two children - they bought two houses together - went to Oregon 1965? - she stayed there - another marriage later, she left him, I met him - late 1972, he was about to turn 50 - in  1988 he moved for good to East Hampton - he met several heiresses, they loved walking by the ocean with him (I had also) - never invited him to their house. We remained friends, in 1998 he died.

My cell phone rang - Naomi, the daughter of Stephen W. - she lives mostly in Vermont these days - has been a sweet friend to me - in New York for the wake for David Peel - a singer who died - we will meet at 3 p.m. at the Odessa cafe on Avenue A facing Tompkins Square Park - I am no longer alone!  New York!

The next topic I want to broach - well I guess I just established why  never came to stay in a house - wrong partner! -  but the next topic is politics. How people see me - some occasionally do say something - how I see myself. Houses were my interest - in 1967 I briefly co-owned with Robert G. a house on a lake on Connecticut, also worth millions now - without a moments consideration I wrote it over to him when he divorced me. Not "tuechtig" - liked the Irqui woman. Dumb? He never appreciated it - let me briefly use it after his second wife also had written it over to him - 1969? - from 1969 until he met his third and last wife I helped him set up his business - his every other word: when it gets of the ground you'll never worry about money again - it got off the ground but his third wife was "tuechtig" - he appreciated that - she recently sold the house they owned in East Hampton for $5 Million, the gated community house in Florida wiorth a lot more - and then an apartment on East 72nd street - her daughters owning beauriful houses - smart????

Close to noon, wishing myself happy Easter and also to any andall who may read this - Marianne