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lisarichardsonbylines · 4 years

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How to Tell Your Husband You’re a Witch

Witches we need you. Now more than ever. In the time of COVID-19 we can find respite in place-based reverence, plant magic and the divine feminine. So writes Lisa Richardson, who came to witchiness with nothing but white hetero straight-lacedness and a crush on a yoga teacher.

Lisa Richardson | Longreads | April 2020 | 15 minutes (4,084 words)

On a Friday afternoon, pre-COVID-19, my husband dropped some ice-cubes into glasses, ready to make us screwdrivers and cheers to surviving another week of working/parenting/wondering where the hell the years were going, only, the vodka bottle was empty.

“Oh yeah,” I said, my eyes sliding sideways, trying to not cause a fuss, “I used it for medicine.” The previous week, the kitchen counter had been cluttered with a giant mason jar full of oily plant matter. “Balm of Gilead!” I explained, brightly, as he wiped away the breakfast crumbs around it.

“But what is it?”

“Cottonwood tips in oil.”

His eyes had flicked, then, over to the brand-new bottle of extra virgin olive oil that was now nearly empty, as I enumerated the medicinal benefits of this old herbal remedy (and all this from a tree in our backyard!). Twenty-four years together means I could hear the abacus in his brain clicking, as he wordlessly calculated the cost per milliliter of a gallon jar of plant matter masticating in top-shelf olive oil, against the cost per unit of a bottle of generic aspirin tables, overlaid with the probability of me losing interest in this project.

First the olive oil. Now the vodka for dozens of little jars of tinctures — garden herbs and weeds soaking in now-undrinkable booze. My midlife quest to attune more deeply to the rhythms of the natural world was starting to incur unexpected, but real, costs.

He was quiet, as he opened the fridge and pulled out a beer instead.

* * *

In my defense, I could have pointed my finger at Natalie Rousseau, a yoga teacher living in my 5,000 person village, who I’d first encountered leading a solstice yoga class billed as a way to survive the madness of the holidays (in slightly more gracious language). Thanks to her offerings of insight I did survive the commercial horror of the “festive” season, and a few months later, as the new moon entered Aries (whatever that actually means), I plonked down $200 to subscribe to her online 13 Moons course — my foray into “slowing down and being more present,” as I pitched it to my husband when he inquired about the strange entry on the credit card statement.

But I did not deflect the simmering tension between us by naming Natalie as the instigator of these “kitchen witch” experiments. Even though I am not a member of any kind of coven or cult, (I don’t think book club counts), I know deep in my bones to never throw another woman onto the fire for helping you. That has been done too many times.

But there it is. The word. Witch. The wound.

* * *

Every day, after COVID-19 entered our world, Natalie Rousseau has responded with an offering, a teaching — a meditation, an ancient mantra of protection, a yoga practice for managing anxiety, a how-to video on harvesting poplar medicine. It’s as if she’s been resourcing herself for this moment to develop the richest arsenal imaginable, to navigate, not the public health crisis, but the billion personal crises each of us is forced to confront as life as we know it slams into pandemic mode. It’s not what I thought a witch would do, if I ever thought about them at all.

Natalie doesn’t look like a witch either — not in the way I conceived it for last year’s Halloween costume, with my long black skirt, dollar-store pointy hat, and heavy black eyeliner, walking alongside my 6-year-old vampire-werewolf. Natalie is petite, just a few inches over five feet, her long blond hair still evoking the decade she spent living in a west coast surf town, her chest and lean muscled arms bright with full sleeve flowery tattoos and Mary Oliver quotes. She moves like a dancer, demonstrating yoga poses as if she’s transcending gravity. As a teacher, she speaks exactly, even in Sanskrit, and guides movement precisely, padding gently and soundlessly through the room, making an adjustment here, offering an instruction there.

So, I was surprised when she used the word “witch” to launch her new online offering, The Witches Wheel. The lure was irresistible. Natalie was claiming the word “witch” without flinching, without anger, without provocation, not as a way to reclaim feminine power and stick it to the men, warranted as that may be: It was essentially an invitation to observe the cycle of the seasons.

A threshold beckoned.

* * *

Natalie, a recent empty-nester, lives with her husband Paul and two dogs in a modest townhome, with a creek and a dozen rogue gardens installed by various residents running behind it. The garage is full of motorbikes. The porch is swept clean on the day I visit, six months into the 13 Moons program, wanting to talk with her about this radical word and why, in a world still unsure what to do with powerful women, she’s not afraid that she’s exposing herself to pitchforks and fires, haters, and trolls.

Even though I am not a member of any kind of coven or cult, (I don’t think book club counts), I know deep in my bones to never throw another woman onto the fire for helping you. That has been done too many times.

A tea blend of her own mixing — vanilla chaga chai — is brewing on the stove in an open saucepan. She tends to it, as I settle in, sneaking glimpses around the room, looking for evidence of witchcraft — pentagrams, cloaks, bottled frogs. Nothing. The space is uncluttered, a throw-rug on the armchair, a couple of stark white deer skulls are mounted, European-style, on a wall against a reclaimed barn board — definitely more Soho chic than occult-goth. Her husband returns from town, where he has picked up fresh croissants for us. He’s tall and strong, with a tightly cropped red beard — he looks like a guy you’d run into at the gym, at the surf break, at the hardware store.

“So, what’s it like living with a witch?” I ask him as Natalie attends to our tea, a light-hearted question sprouting out of the great compost of fears I am thinking. Is it impossibly hard to be with a woman who comfortably claims her own power, magic, cycles, voice? What kind of a man can love and honor a witch? And lurking deep beneath it all: Will my husband be one of them?

Paul rolls his eyes, overly-dramatically, pointing up to the light fixture in the kitchen — light bulbs housed in mason jars of all sizes, evoking summer cabins and fireflies and Kinfolk magazine dinner party lanterns. “I made this for her because everything ends up in jars. Have you seen inside these cupboards?” He walks around the house, in faux-exasperation, opening doors to reveal neat stacks of jars, full of dried petals, leaves, syrups, tonics, salves, salts. “And there’s more upstairs!” If it hadn’t been for the dinner party they’d hosted the previous night, most of their apartment’s horizontal surfaces would be covered in jars, he tells me, and the front porch would have housed a dead raven and a dead Cooper’s hawk.

“She’s always sending me out in search of dead things,” he jokes. He picks up roadkill in case she can salvage feathers or skulls.

“When he first met me, I was already a skull collector, and now he goes and finds them for me and brings them back,” says Natalie. “He’s gotten really good at living with witchy stuff.”

The two of them are remarkably self-sufficient — an animal lover (“he loves animals more than people”), Paul realized veganism left him tired and undernourished, so took up hunting to procure his own meat humanely; one of the deer skulls mounted on the wall was harvested this fall, its meat now fills their freezer. They grow a garden, wildcraft, eat well. There is an ease between them — a tidal push and pull as they navigate their modest shared space and the morning routine, without evidence of fake niceness, of power trips or struggles.

Witchcraft, in Natalie Rousseau’s mind, is too non-dogmatic and non-hierarchical to submit to a single all-encompassing definition. “As a practice, it’s so highly individual,” she says, “but across the board, it is very place-based, land-based and body-based. For me, it’s about cultivating a relationship with your own body, your own mind, your emotions, and subtle sensing faculties. It’s learning how to trust your intuition. It’s about reclaiming your own instincts, but also being able to feel: this is what stress feels like in my body, this is what relaxation feels like, this is what it feels like to say yes to something out of a sense of obligation or pressure, this is what it feels like to have a boundary. This is what it feels like when I’m safe. These cues come to us from our bodies. It has to be, for it to work well, otherwise, you’re always reaching outside yourself for another authority.”

This is what she wants to help women, particularly, to reclaim: their sense that they are the first authority on themselves, that they can trust their bodies’ wisdom.

“The biggest thing I want to share with people,” says Natalie of her teaching and online courses, “is how to trust themselves. Everyone can very easily make the medicines that their household would need for common household complaints — colds and flus and chest colds and menstrual cramps — so many basic things that anyone can make very simply, quite affordably. I’m not anti-pharmaceutical. There are many medications people have to take daily to live. And if I have a serious infection, I’m going to take antibiotics; if I am seriously ill, I am going to go to the doctor; if I have any kind of trauma, I’m going to be so grateful for that form of medicine. But I believe the role kitchen medicine has is in the maintenance and prevention of illness.”

One of her biggest laments, though, as she makes videos and handouts and shares them with her online community, is that even people who have paid to do her course don’t feel that they have the time to take it into their kitchens. “Making a tincture is literally pouring vodka over plant materials and leaving it on your counter for four weeks!” she says. But it is easier for most people to just buy one online and have it delivered to their doorstep. “I am saddened by how easily women give their power over. This is the biggest thing I’ve noticed as a teacher in the past couple of years — how quickly women will say, ‘but how do you do this? I don’t know how to do this! I’m afraid to try this because I might not be good at it, I might be doing it wrong. I’m an imposter.’ I really struggle with this. Where is it coming from?”

But she knows. We have relinquished our power, over a thousand years or more, of wounding, of witch-burnings, of patriarchy either convincing us we have none or forcibly stripping it away, (hello Harvey Weinstein), until all we feel empowered to do, now, in 2020, is consume. And we’ve been doing that with all our might.

We override the listening, we ignore the nudges, we push through, like good soldiers. “Most people are running so hard,” observes Natalie. “Our culture is so focussed on productivity. We are so overly heroic — it’s all or nothing. I can’t do something unless I’m an expert. I don’t want to try. But this is a craft. It’s a path of education.”

Natalie’s invitation is gentle, and she’s crafted her online course to serve that: Start with one plant and learn its taste, its smell. Spend five minutes a day on meditation or in conscious ritual and begin to notice what’s going on in your nervous system, in your mind, in your body.

“When he first met me, I was already a skull collector, and now he goes and finds them for me and brings them back,” says Natalie. “He’s gotten really good at living with witchy stuff.”

Don’t get so distracted by the word witch, that you fail to notice that it is connected to craft. Witchcraft, for Natalie, is a path of learning “how to trust and problem solve, from within, knowing that we are in a system of power that, for better, for worse, will strip us of any ability to trust ourselves and to always feel empty so we have to keep buying more stuff.”

When she says this, a deep thrill of recognition hums in me, accompanied by a shiver of fear. Those are revolutionary things to say out loud, to cast into the open air. I recognize it viscerally as the kind of talk that gets people in trouble.

* * *

Last summer, before I met Natalie, I had stepped from my backyard patio stones onto freshly cut grass and spied the sinuous form of a wandering garter snake. I leaned in quickly, excitedly, about to call my 6-year-old over to glimpse the garden visitor before it shimmied away. But it was eerily still. Ugly slash wounds marked its body. It was dead. Innocent victim to the ride-on lawnmower. Obliterated by our oblivion.

“Oh no,” I muttered. “I’m so sorry!”

I had already begun to wake up to the natural world, it’s rhythms, it’s offerings of medicine, it’s otherness, but it had come with a shadow side, a growing despair at what we were doing to the world. Even without a malicious intention, I was causing death and destruction — just mowing the lawn, drinking my coffee, wiping my ass: My actions, all our human activity, had compounding impacts that were destroying the snakes, the ocean, the atmosphere, the forests, the icecaps — beyond repair.

I wanted my garden to be a habitat. I wanted the bees to waggle-dance directions to my sunflowers to their hive-mates, I wanted the wandering garter snakes to nest in their hibernacula through the winter and bask in the long grass in the summer, I wanted to lie on my back and watch butterflies dance through the flowers and the hummingbirds zoom in and out, I wanted to inhabit innocence again.

I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry. My penitence froze me in place, scared to make a move for fear of ruining something else. Then, regret overriding my squeamishness, I fetched the flat-bladed shovel and edged it under the dead snake. I carried her body over to the vegetable patch, and in a space between the beds, where the mower never goes, I laid her down. I picked marigolds and calendula from around the garden, where they’d been planted to keep the snails away, and lay the bright orange blossoms in a circle around her.

Grandmother snake, I whispered, hoping that some force that exists beyond the definitively dead snake at my feet, might spread the word among the entire species, “I’m sorry. We didn’t mean it. I will try to be more careful.”

It was a made-up ritual, the kind that a kid might perform deep in her dream world at the bottom of the garden, and it made my 44 year-old-self feel a little bit better. At least I’d made a gesture of repair, had expressed my desire to return into balance with the living world around me. If it had any effect, I’d never know. I went back inside, said nothing.

A few days later, out in the garden, my husband tripped over the skeleton of a decomposing snake, ringed by wilted flowers, half consumed by ants.

“That was spooky,” he confronted me. “What’s going on? Are you some kind of witch?”

* * *

Natalie has always been comfortable with the word. Now she’s having fun inviting people to consider the archetype, circle it, unpack it, stumble upon some kind of recognition: Wait a second! Maybe I am a witch!

“It’s cool how people in the western world can take a description that has been used mostly as a slur, and turn it around to use as something empowering,” she says.

For thousands of years, witch was a term used to incite violence against women. By the most conservative estimates, half a million people, mostly women, were executed in the European witch craze between 1300 and 1650. Accusations of witchcraft were used against women, says Rousseau, “in ways that were extremely dangerous and terrifying. It was really about getting power from them, and getting land back. So, to use a word like that in an empowered way, even today, you have to know you’re safe to do it. And it’s important to realize that in many places in the world, it’s still not safe for women to say that. But if we can, in safe places, take that word and turn it around, that, to me, is extremely powerful.”

I wanted the bees to waggle-dance directions to my sunflowers to their hive-mates, I wanted the wandering garter snakes to nest in their hibernacula through the winter and bask in the long grass in the summer, I wanted to lie on my back and watch butterflies dance through the flowers and the hummingbirds zoom in and out, I wanted to inhabit innocence again.

Natalie herself embodies empowerment. Not in the traditional way I have come to recognize power — as someone standing over, dominating someone else, her source of power comes from within.

She doesn’t need to take any from her partner.

“Do you find this relationship at all emasculating?” I joke to Natalie’s husband.

“I don’t. Not at all. No,” he replies.

“We’ve always given each other space to be ourselves.”

But that’s not always a guarantee of safety.

If it is dangerous to be an empowered woman in the world, then it’s dangerous, too, for the men who love them.

Lyla June Johnston is an author and activist of Diné and European heritage. Her inquiry into her disowned European heritage led to a realization: The millions of women burned alive, drowned alive, dismembered alive, beaten, raped and otherwise tortured as so-called, “witches,” were not witches at all. They were the medicine people of old Europe. Her lens, as a contemporary indigenous woman, and as a survivor of sexual violence, helped her identify that those were the women who understood the herbal medicines, the ones who prayed with stones, the ones who passed on sacred chants. And the all-out warfare of the witch burnings didn’t just harm the women. It had a profound effect on the men who loved them, their husbands, sons, brothers. She recognizes the echo of this in the story of her own time, of her own people. “Nothing makes a man go mad like watching the women of his family get burned alive. If the men respond to this hatred with hatred, the hatred is passed on. And who can blame them? While peace and love are the correct response to hatred, it is not an easy response by any means.”

How many men have kept their women down, tried to keep them at home, have become the handcuffs that the women fought against because they were answering to their own unarticulated primal instinct to keep them safe?

Natalie Rousseau speculates, “I am sure historically you had lots of husbands telling their wives to tone it down, not because they didn’t respect their power, but because they were genuinely afraid. I’d apply that to any women described as uppity — getting involved politically, or getting involved in local stuff that’s happening, fighting for the environment: Stop getting noticed so much. This could be dangerous.”

Some dangers are too great to be able to protect each other from. And so we turn the fight on each other — little domestic power-trips that distract us from the fact that we’ve relinquished all our power any way to the Great Machine.

* * *

My tentative inquiries into witchcraft, becoming fluent in my own moods and emotions, and paying attention to the seasons, barely prepared me for the abrupt slow-the-fuck-down order that came when COVID-19 landed in British Columbia, in my village, as school broke for spring break. The emergency handbrake was pulled. Everything came to a squealing stop — all my plans, canceled; all the stores, closing; the whole damn world, under house arrest and in a panic. The whiplash from the stunning speed of that shift has left my whole being hypersensitive to any sudden movement, to being jerked around. But the first things I have staked my trust in, in that space of uncertainty, were Natalie’s teachings: First, trust your body. Pause. Listen.

In self-imposed isolation with my husband and just-turned-7-year-old, I dance with anxiety and curiosity and disconnection and too-much-information. The well-trodden pathways we have all been racing along, flexing our power and exercising our entitlements as consumers, are suddenly bordered up with emergency tape. This invitation that Natalie has been dripping out, month after month, takes root. There is far more potency available to us, than shopping, driving, holidaying, consuming, endlessly moving around the planet.

There is potency in all the feelings that have been showing up at my door. Oh, good morning frustration. Ah grief, yes, I suppose you’d like a cup of tea. Hello there, existential terror, I wondered when you’d pop by. There is potency in sitting with my back against a huge cedar tree and listening, in slowing down so much that I can give my 7-year-old my full attention. There is potency even in my words, when I soothe him down from a tantrum by saying, “you know, this is a really hard time for everyone in the whole world right now because no one knows what’s going to happen and no one can play with their friends. I’m really proud of you.” And I can feel his body relax into this space of being acknowledged in his struggles and his efforts.

I don’t know if there are any medicinal properties in the tincture of St John’s Wort and valerian that I drop into water and hand my husband, to gentle his nervous system. Or in the jar of immune-boosting oxymel, that I brewed up with grated ginger and turmeric and orange peel, and shake every day. But even if it’s a placebo, there’s a relief for me in feeling I can do something, can offer my people some kind of healing intention in a little glass, that I can acknowledge that this is hard for my husband too, and that acknowledgment isn’t a concession that takes away from my own sense of struggle.

For decades, we’ve bought into the illusion that our power is as consumers. Now that stores are closing and the shelves are emptying and we have to stay home and not immediately indulge every whim that arises, we all feel powerless. But that was never our truest source of power. There’s another source that we can all plug back into, our deep relationship and interbeing with the life force. Maybe, this is our threshold moment. Maybe, this is a chance to craft a few little spells, to speak the words of the world we long to inhabit — a place where the currency of kindness and wonder flow, where humans return to a deep memory of belonging among the plants and creatures, and to brew up a cup of tea, light a candle, and dream it into existence. Maybe it’s an invitation to say, “I’m sorry, we didn’t mean to, I will try and be more careful,” and to build a little altar, even if you feel kind of cray cray doing it. Let your nervous system settle as you invent some small ritual, (just ask your inner 5-year-old for guidance, she probably remembers exactly what to do), and make a gesture of repair.

“I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have on my Apocalypse team,” I tell my husband, the night the global virus countertops 400,000. He’s been chopping wood, auditing the pantry, getting our kid across the finish line of the LEGO project that has absorbed him for four days. My husband was a farm kid. He’s always been practical, my polar opposite. Even when we have battled each other, (am I giving up too much of my power to him? If I acknowledge his pain and his needs, will that cancel mine out?) I’ve always known he would do anything to keep me safe. “Not that I can request an upgrade now,” I joke. “But I bet you’re glad to be stuck with me. One always wants a daydreamer at your side in a pinch.”

“Oh yeah,” he spoofs me: “’ The stock market is collapsing, let me just go check my Tarot cards.’”

We laugh. And hold each other. We can’t buy our way out of this. None of us. Our entire species, our global community, is being vividly reminded that we are all in this together, inextricably connected, epidemiologically entwined, in our vulnerability and our sweet potential. We didn’t need Amazon and airlines and online shopping to know what the witches have been telling us all this time. All the power we need is right here — between us, around us, within us. We just have to remember it.

* * *

Lisa Richarson

is a senior contributor to Coast Mountain Culture magazine and a columnist for Pique newsmagazine and edits the hyperlocal websites,

TheWellnessAlmanac.com

and

TracedElements.com.

She’s deep into a decade-long mission to slow the fuck down, but still optimize life for happiness and productivity. Born and raised in Australia, she has lived as a guest on the unceded territory of the Líl̓wat Nation since a ski vacation went rogue 20-odd years ago.

Editor: Carolyn Wells

Posted by

Lisa Richardson

April 8, 2020

https://longreads.com/2020/04/08/how-to-tell-your-husband-youre-a-witch/

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andy-the-8th · 3 years

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Stars and Stripes and Sea Creatures

Part 8 of Creatures That Defy Logic

Read on AO3

Whit reflects on the summer so far while preparing for the 4th of July, before meeting up with everyone for the fireworks. We meet Sam's sister and her cool college friends. Jess gets to do cool sousaphone things.

There's a Brink! crossover - it's more of a quick cameo.

A/N: I may hate America but I do enjoy a wholesome 4th of July summer scene

Whit was standing in the kitchen, carefully moving cups of red and blue vegan jello and tubs of non-dairy whipped cream from the fridge to the center of the counter. It was 4th of July and he and Sharon were going to be preparing a dessert tray to bring down to the cove to watch the fireworks and band performance with their neighbors. While neither of them were exactly what you'd call patriotic, it was still one of the main social events of the summer as much as it was in any small town. The tourist guide boat was closed for the day, with most of the harbor blocked from usual traffic out of safety concerns - the fireworks were launched from a set of rafts in the middle of the harbor, and naturally the town administration wanted to keep boaters and swimmers away from the explosives. Whit was always glad to have the holiday off each year - in the tourism business, holidays usually just meant more work, more people, and ruder customers.

In the month since Cody left, the Griffins had slowly adapted to a new rhythm in the house. Days came more easily first, with work, social obligations, and day-to-day chores around the house and the boats to keep them busy.

The nights were harder. Any parent would worry enough when their kids first start spending the nights outside the home - at a friend's house, away for a school trip. When your kid is spending 24 hours a day for three months and could be anywhere in the ocean, that worry is justifiably magnified.

Whit didn't tell Sharon about his nightmares - it was rare that they kept anything from each other, but he didn't see it doing any good. They were never very specific (or prophetic, as some might believe) - he could dismiss them as his brain simply de-fragging anxieties of the day. Images and ideas that were innocuous enough by daylight, or to anyone who didn't have a 13 year old at large in the open ocean - sharks, whales, Marianas Trenches, tidal waves, ice bergs, tropical storms - and those were just the worries that everyday science had already confirmed. Worries of safety, security, open ended but ominous.

And then there were social (supernatural?) concerns, which both Sharon and Whit had at times discussed to some extent or another. What was mermaid culture like? Did Cody have more family out there? Were they being welcoming to him? Was there a school? Was he making friends? Would there be any way for him to communicate any of it to them if when he came back? Would their language even have words for it all?

Sharon had burned through almost every book in the library about lifestyle tips targeting empty-nester parents. Bohemian and alternative as she may be, she nevertheless was no stranger to research, especially making use of strategies to find natural, healthy solutions to life's problems. And in that search, the best analog she had found to what they were going through was parents of students going away to school for the first time. Many of the concerns were applicable, at least in theory. For the most part, the books helped more than they hurt. Universities out of town generally didn't have a risk of sharks attacking your kid, but there was still advice for parents concerned about safety. Most college kids wouldn't go away and learn a telepathic secret language, but there were still strategies for adapting to your child's social and cultural changes when leaving home for the first time. In fact, the most difficult difference between these hypothetical scenarios and the one they found themselves in was not the existence of merpeople - it was the age of the hypothetical child in question. Sure, trusting your 18 year old to go out into the world and make good choices, knowing you're a phone call away from home, is hard enough. Sending your 13 year old out into the ocean, with no way of knowing where he'll go or how he'll come back, was another matter entirely.

Still, they had each other, and their faith in their son, to get them through it. The Griffins were definitely changed, but as they promised their son and each other, they'd be alright.

Especially considering that this wasn't going to be a permanent change - at the outset, it felt like an eternity before Cody would be coming back. The house felt very large and very empty, and they both felt strangely out of step with the rest of their friends and neighbors, all so genuinely curious about how Cody was doing at this swim training in Australia, always asking how they were doing with him being gone so long. The first few weeks had them feeling very, very lonely, even together.

That was before John Wheatley, of all people, came over one night with a lasagna. He had made it himself, more or less, with Jess's oversight. It had been his late wife's favorite comfort food recipe - Jess had even reminded him to make it vegan, in case that was still Sharon's diet of choice these days. When the big clumsy fisherman had showed up with a big tinfoil tray on their front step, with his small clumsy son right behind him, Sharon had been more than happy to have them in, to insist they stay even though they had only intended to drop it off for them. Whit was surprised at her hospitality more than anything else, given how their last encounter a few weeks before had gone, but followed his wife's lead on how they were navigating their new relationship with the Wheatleys. John and Jess had stayed for the evening, the four of them sharing the lasagna, Jess eventually fitting right in to the conversation with the adults, perhaps sometimes more than his father. It was at first a relief to just socialize with other people who knew the same secrets, but after a while, the Griffins realized they'd grown to genuinely become friends with Big John.

Which was a blessing for several reasons, not the least of which that Whit and Sharon hadn't really realized how close Jess and Cody seemed to have been. Most of Cody's other friends had always been kids from the swim team - friends, like most boys their age, whose connection seemed mostly founded on shared activities. Doubly so as sports players, Cody's other friends had always had a healthy level of competition and rivalry with him and with one another.

Maybe, if there was any truth in what Sharon and Whit heard about Sean Marshall these days, a little less than healthy sometimes.

Jess at their first meeting was a polar opposite of Cody's usual friend group - it definitely had made sense when Cody first introduced them that he was there as a randomly-assigned partner for a science project. For one, he spoke with them openly and very matter-of-factly, almost more comfortable with adults than he seemed to have been around other kids his age when they saw him at school. He was quite straightforward and polite, if very enthusiastic at the opportunity to talk about anything related to marine biology. He was just as interested in hearing Whit and John discuss boating practices or their experiences at the harbor, or patiently listen to Sharon's various spiritual health and natural healing theories, and would light up with the chance to talk about whatever they were learning.

But the one topic that Jess would light up about more than any other, even more than marine biology or sousaphone, was Cody. Naturally, about him being a merman, but just as often it was about him as a person, from the time they'd spent together since the science project. It was kind of weirdly comforting as parents, to hear one of your kid's peers talk about how kind and respectful they had turned out. It was one thing for a teacher or coach to compliment your child, but other kids don't have the filters or obligations to do so. John hadn't been kidding when he'd said how important Cody was to Jess.

Whit had more than once wondered, somewhat apprehensively, if there was some kind of other double meaning to what John had said on the dock - if Jess maybe liked Cody a bit differently than the other boys.

Not that there was anything wrong with that, he always said to himself. And really he never got that impression from Jess - he was just very earnest, and as far as they could tell didn't really have other friends. And he was 13 - kids were all a little weird around that age. Whit hoped that that wasn't going to be the case, mostly for Jess's sake - if they were such good friends, Jess would probably be completely crushed if he had those feelings, when Cody didn't return them.

Not that there would be anything wrong with that, Whit thought again. It didn't really matter, since it wasn't the case.

Sam had also been coming by the house once in a while, when she was walking home from work at the greenhouses. Whit and Sharon had known her through the swim team forever, before she and Cody were "an item" as Whit liked to jokingly call it. It was a lot to put on a 13 year old girl, having such a secret and not sharing it with anyone but her boyfriend's parents, the weird marina guy, and his nerdy son. Even if it was only an 8th grade relationship, they knew they could trust Sam - she cared enough about Cody that she wouldn't ever want to see anything happen to him.

Over the last few months Sharon had gotten lunch a few times with Lindsey Brathwaite, when they were both free. "Meeting the in-laws" she had joked the first time they went out. Whit had already known Lindsey via the Department of Natural Resources - he was one of the few commercial boaters who always prided himself and his business on following all environmental protection regulations and then some. It was one of the reasons they didn't serve snacks on the boat - no trash or food waste to dirty the water and harm the reefs. Lindsey had a bit of a reputation among the commercial boaters and fishers in the harbor - she was smart and relentless when it came to protecting the environment, and held the respect of most of the town for it. There was a reason Mahone Bay had some of the most beautiful shores, some of the healthiest reefs, all along the coast.

Maybe that's why a mermaid would drop her baby off here, Whit thought with a smile.

On the counter, Sharon had laid out 26 clear plastic wine glasses - a spoonful of whipped cream, then blue jello, then whipped cream, then red jello was to go in each glass, then put them all back in the fridge to keep them fresh for that afternoon. Whit was just finishing up putting them all together - he'd zoned out a bit reflecting on all the changes over the last month.

Sharon came in through the back door, (reusable, biodegradable) grocery bags in hand. "Whit, you done with the parfait?"

"Just finishing, putting them in the fridge now."

"OK, I ran into Lindsey at the farmers market, I invited her to come to the fireworks with us if that's alright"

"Oh sure!" It would be nice to get a chance to talk to Lindsey outside of a work context.

"Her other daughter is in town as well, so we can maybe meet her, if she and Sam will be there too. Not sure if they'll have other plans though."

Whit finished putting all the glasses back in the fridge. "I'm sure we'll be appropriately embarrassing like any teenager's parents are supposed to be." Sharon put the bags on the counter and smiled at him at that. "Did you hear anything from the Wheatleys?"

"I think John is tied up at the boat yard with so much extra traffic in the harbor for the holiday. Jess is playing sousaphone with the school band before the fireworks though!"

Of course he would be. Truly no better event for a sousaphonist than the 4th of July.

"Good for him, I'm sure he'll be excited for that."

"Yep. Can you help with these so we can get ready to go?"

Whit moved to the other side of the counter, helping sort through the groceries, arranging things on platters per Sharon's instructions. They'd be ready well before it was time to head down by the pavilion near the water.

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

The band finished their latest number, an up-tempo arrangement of "This Land is Your Land," with a cymbal crash and a sustained sousaphone honk. The crowd clapped for the group of 15 or so middle and high schoolers on the big white gazebo that over looked the harbor - some of the spectators on the folding chairs, some on picnic blankets. Anything the band might lack in musical talent - which might be a good bit - they certainly made up for in heart. Standing up in the back corner with his horn, Jess was dressed like the others in red white and blue - in his case, what appeared to be a glittery blazer, covered in stars and stripes. Definitely looked like he made it himself, but it caught the light well enough, and its homemade quality added to the charm. The rest of the band was a wide variety of outfits - a mix of T-shirts and shorts, denim, suits or dresses their parents probably picked - but it all somehow went together.

They'd made their way through "America the Beautiful," "Yankee Doodle," and "My Country Tis of Thee" with varying levels of success. "This Land is Your Land" was the penultimate in the setlist, right before the mayor's comments, then would play "The Star Spangled Banner" for the start of the fireworks.

Sam watched as the mayor got up to the podium, started some bland speech on patriotism or something.

"God doesn't this small town jingoism just make you gag" Jackie snorted from the other end of the blanket. Sam and her sister had met up with Jen and two of Jackie's other friends, Vanessa and Maria, to go down to the fireworks together.

Jackie used to have red hair like Sam and their mom, but had since cut it short and dyed it black when she moved away to school. She looked way more goth than Mahone Bay usually was used to seeing, with her black lipstick and white foundation making her look much paler than usual. She also usually wore black these days, tomboyish outfits of denim, band shirts, and (ethically sourced) leather. Today's outfit was no exception.

"Totally. They always leave out all the terrible shit this country does in speeches like this." Vanessa turned around to face Jackie, gathering her long braids in her hands and back behind her shoulders as she repositioned herself on the blanket. She was doing a political science major, which unsurprisingly had made her usual contempt for the state of the nation even more viscerally infuriated.

Jen reached in the cooler for a lemonade, and passed one down to Sam on the other corner before taking her seat beside her. Jackie and Vanessa continued their cultural critiques in the background.

"Weird we'll be in high school next year!" Jen was looking at the band, a mix from all the different grades. "Let me tell you, high school boys are awhole 'nother story."

"Jen, do you even know any high school boys?"

"I mean technically all the ones in our grade count! But that's beside the point anyway,"

"Hey kids, let me teach you something" Maria spoke up, interrupting Jen's usual interest in discussing boys and gossip at any large social event. Maria dressed a bit more like Jackie, though with more pops of color, choker necklaces, tons of rings. She had also dyed her hair, hot pink streaks over her natural dark brown, contrasting with her olive complexion. Even if it wasn't her style, Sam couldn't deny Maria always looked cool, in that quirky-alternative kind of way. She even had a nose piercing. "Did you ever hear of the Bechdel test?"

"The what?" Sam could tell from Maria's tone that they were about to learn some allegedly-cool college-girl facts of life, like how when Jackie wanted to talk about love languages, or zodiac signs for aligning the spirit of one's womanhood, or unlearning implicit biases.

"The Bechdel test. You apply it to movies to see how feminist they are. Has to have two female characters, they have to have names, they have to talk to each other, and they have to talk about something that isn't a man."

"Mar, that's not a solid test for how feminist something is -"

"I know, I know, the point is that the bar is SO low, makes you really think."

Vanessa nodded back at that, her point made. From a fashion standpoint, Vanessa had really embraced the pan-Africana look in college, dramatic flowy prints on shirts and dresses. Today she wore a long yellow shirt over jeans, the golden color bringing out the highlights in her dark skin. How did all of Jackie's friends manage to grow up so cool and pretty? Sam turned back to Maria, who was finishing her point.

"My point is, can we try to have this picnic blanket pass the Bechdel test for like, 5 minutes?"

Jen blushed and turned away - Sam put her hand on her shoulder. "Thanks for telling us Mar, sorry we're not enlightened yet."

"It's totally cool, just like, now you know" Maria gave them an exaggerated wink and finger guns. The older girls went back into their previous discussion while Sam turned back to Jen.

"So how are things at the dog washing place?" Jen's summer job was at the Pup'n'Suds that had just opened up - they had their main location way over in LA, but one of their staff had moved over to Mahone Bay sometime last year. Small town and small businesses - made it easy to know things like this, even as a part time high schooler with a summer position.

"Going OK actually! Honestly I always loved the dogs of course, but what a wild company culture. They apparently sponsored some kind of X Games skating team last year?"

Jen and Sam continued off of that, both sharing various stories from work, consciously passing the Bechdel test through the remainder of the mayor's speech, now long past anyone paying attention anymore. Jen someday hoped to be a veterinarian - her interests and Sam's just happened to complement each other like that. Fauna and flora.

The speech finally came to an end, with the mayor turning it over to Mr. Payton and the school band to start the national anthem. Sam saw Jess resolutely stand up straight as they started, as usual executing all 3 honking notes of the sousaphone part with the seriousness of a surgeon.

The band actually played this one pretty well - clearly this was where most of the rehearsal time had gone. On the last "land of the free/home of the brave," Sharon nudged Whit a bit, pointing at the band - in a surprise part of the arrangement, the sousaphone joined in on that final melody.

Jess's face was bright red, cheeks puffed out, every bit of concentration on getting the melody right for the finale. Maybe it was intentional, maybe not, but the sousaphone kind of overpowered the rest of the ensemble by the end of the short phrase.

It got some raised eyebrows but Jess looked so excited and proud when the music closed and the crowd applauded. Sharon managed to get his attention from the crowd to wave - Jess was clearly surprised, but immediately waved back, beaming and still blushed from the performance.

"Well that was a bit unexpected," Lindsey said, laughing a bit, turning back to the picnic table once the band finished. "Never heard quite that much tuba in the national anthem before."

"Sousaphone" Sharon and Whit said together. Their other neighbors at the table, Cynthia and Jack Williams, both chuckled in surprise at that. Sharon and Whit made eye contact with another and smiled, raised eyebrows - both realizing that they unintentionally had exactly matched the way they'd said merMAN semi-regularly just 2 months ago.

Lindsey kind of smiled nervously, surprised at the emphasized correction. "OK, sousaphone. That kid did a good job at least."

"Yeah, that's Jess. He's friends with Cody and Sam actually" Sharon supplied helpfully. "Good kid. Can get a little overenthusiastic, but he's a good friend."

"Oh OK. Sam had mentioned him coming by the greenhouse once, but I'd never met him."

"How is she liking the job?"

The conversation moved easily from there - the rest of the evening unfolded with welcome normalcy - just talking about their kids, work, the fireworks, anything really. Whit relaxed a bit, settling next to Sharon, sharing in the conversation.

They weren't really patriotic, but the holiday was always a good excuse to share time with people away from work. They certainly spent enough time in the house together - they'd needed a chance to decompress and just be adults for a while. He put his arm around his wife as they both looked up at the last blasts of the fireworks. He turned to meet her gaze under the final lights.

"Hey. I love you."

Sharon smiled at him, a bit confused. "I know?"

"Gee thanks, Han Solo."

"Sorry hon. I love you too. Just was surprised - what brought that up?"

"Well I thought we agreed we were going to be the embarrassing teenager parents tonight, as expected."

Jackie, Sam, and the other girls had walked back up to where Lindsey was at the picnic tables, blanket rolled up under one arm. Sam awkwardly waved over at them, saying something to Jackie, who rolled her eyes.

"Ah OK. Love you too Whit."

Yeah, kissing under fireworks definitely counted as an embarrassing-parents move.

END NOTES:

I may hate America but am always down for a wholesome 4th of July scene

"Not that there's anything wrong with that" is indeed a reference to that Seinfeld episode

Sam thinking her sister's friends are pretty is *probably* not anything to read into

might have based Jess's ridiculous red white and blue glitter blazer on something I once made as a kid....might not have

#the thirteenth year #dcom #disney channel original movies #fanfic #4th of july #mermen #mermaid #sousaphone #bechdel test #brink!

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cecilspeaks · 5 years

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160 - The Weather

No man is an island. Some men are fjords. Most men are oxbows. All men are ravines. Welcome to Night Vale.

The news coming up. But first, let’s go to the weather.

[nature noises, birds cawing]

There’s a cold front moving through Night Vale. Temperature at City Hall is currently 63 degrees and sunny with wind gusts later this afternoon of up to 40 miles per hour. These winds are expected to bring cold air as low as 20 degrees this evening, and possibly dropping to below zero overnight. It’s unknown what’s causing this weather, is a statement I make every day, looking out into the sky. Is it God? P-perhaps it is the government. Perhaps Earth itself is, is it out of boredom that the weather exists? Maybe it is out of care. That would suggest the existence of a God who wishes us well, but it does not explain the fierce destructiveness of a blizzard, or a heat wave, or a tornado, or a tsunami. Is a tsunami weather? That is a question best left to oceanographers, meteorologists, or a Tarot deck. But why would God make a thing, then mar it? What mood change is this? what care can this god have for humanity? Ahhhh. And maybe that’s the point. Ah, that does make me feel better, to think that it all doesn’t matter. It really takes a lot of pressure off, doesn’t it?

Let’s have a look at agriculture. John Peters – you know, the farmer – says his orange crop this year is massive. He says the quantity of product has not deviated, only the quality. “Them oranges are huuuu-uuge!” John said, holding an orange the size of the 2002 iMac computer. “I can’t fit this thing into one of them orange crushers (what that) I make the juice with!” he said, struggling to keep his back straight under the weight of the abnormally sized citrus fruit. But John says he’s excited for his orange grove, which has been doing great ever since he genetically modified his crop to no longer cause teleportation across existential dimensions when consumed. Despite his excitement for orange sales, John says he’s worried about next year’s crop of invisible corn. He said he looked up summer 2020 in his farmer’s almanac and all it said was, “Wellll crap. Good luck.” John plans to diversify his farm investment by raising cattle for slaughter. He’s vegan these days, so he does not want to sell the cattle for meat or dairy. He’ll just raise the cattle until they’re old enough to kill. Best of luck in all your endeavours, John! Hope you finally win that coveted Best Orange at the Citrus Festival this year.

Many of our listeners have written concerned emails about the temperature possibly falling below zero. Bob Sturm of Old Town said: “Zero is the lowest number, Cecil. I’m a big stats guy and I can tell you that you cannot have less than nothing, that’s impossible.” Well listen Bob, I’m a journalist, not a numerologist, so I don’t know what to tell you. Apparently there are many unknown numbers below zero, and as they are discovered, rest assured I will be here to report on them. (Reina Guerrero) from the west side asked if there’s anything we can do to better prepare ourselves for this weather. Well (Reina), here are some tips I just looked up online. One: bundle up. Yeah, your heater can only do so much. Two: bring your pets indoors, and if you have an agent from a Vague, yet Menacing Government Agency outside your home assigned to record your every movement, invite them in as well. You don’t want them freezing alone out there in their black sedan. Three: light a fire, if you have a fireplace. If you do not have a fireplace of pellet stove, try using a refrigerator or sink. Four: if you should lose power at any time, do not panic. Just curl into a ball breathing heavily and repeating: “Oh God no, oh God no, oh God no, oh God no”, through loudly chattering teeth.

Now, we’re not expecting precipitation tonight, but should it snow, I recommend making a snow angel. Yeaaah, that’s always fun. All you have to do is lie flat on your back, arms and legs outstretched, until you are called into celestial service to whatever greater authority rules these beautiful creatures. Thank you for your questions and comments. I’ll do my best to keep our town up to date on the latest weather.

But first, this Saturday is Night Vale’s annual Holiday Fireworks Extravaganza at the Night Vale Harbor and Waterfront Recreation Area. There will be live music by local bands, including a new band by Dark Owl Records owner Michelle Nguyen and her girlfriend Maureen. [quietly] Ah, my old intern Maureen. Their band is called The Funtastics, and it’s a folk country slash (trans) tribute band performing the acappella covers of Philip Glass scores. According to Michelle’s press release: “Please do not watch our show. I’m very angry you even know about it. I hate that our secret concert at the annual Holiday Fireworks Extravaganza, Night Vale’s most anticipated and attended annual event, was leaked to the press.” Following the concert, there will be a collective prayer to the [gong, echoing] Great! Golden! Hand! And then the fireworks will begin. Event organizers say they have a special fireworks display in store for attendees this year. Traditionally, the biggest explosions are reserved for the end of a half-hour long buildup of lesser explosions, but focus groups have indicated that people are tired of having to wait for the best part. So instead of normal boring fireworks, they will be blowing up old cars using the 18,000 tons of solid fuel they found at an abandoned missile silo on the edge of the Sand Wastes. The Holiday Fireworks Extravaganza would like to thank the Sheriff’s Secret Police for the vehicle donations, which are mostly cars impounded this past week for overdue state inspection stickers. Can’t wait to see everybody this Saturday at the Fireworks Extravaganzaa!

Brrrr! It’s getting pretty bad out there, Night Vale! The temperature has fallen dramatically to 20 degrees outside the radio station. I can hear the creak and groan of our antenna straining under the 40 mile per hour winds. I’ve seen three different minor accidents outside my window as drivers lost control of their vehicles. I’ve got my little space heater under my desk. Huh, but I can still barely feel my feet. [chuckles] I regret choosing today of all days to bike to work. [sighs]

Oh, I’m getting word that power is out in the Barista District, and dozens of leather apron wearing people have been forced to make torches out of Irish cream soaked biscotti stuffed into (-) [0:09:16]. And the only thing available coffee wise right now is cold brew. Gross.

Employees at the Night Vale power plant are working to restore power to that area of town, but they have run into some difficulties. The blustery winds and extreme cold have kept some of the workers from being able to drive to the plant, and the ones already on site re perplexed by how any of this works. “We are not sure if this is a nuclear plant or electric or coal or what,” said Mike Reiner, director of operations for the power plant. “We tried turning the whole thing off and back on like a computer, but the switch didn’t really do anything. Nobody labels anything around here, for crying out loud.” Reiner then began to cry out loud, as dozens of workers rushed to put their arms around the sobbing man. “We’re sorry, boss, we’re sorry,” the frantic workers all repeated. In the chaos of the consoling, a single worker was heard whimpering: “Oh god! Someone do something before he changes back into…” But that voice was quickly and fearfully shushed by the others.

More on the power outage and weather conditions soon.

But let’s get to some good news. Our population is booming, Night Vale! We have more people than houses. But thankfully, the good folks of the private land development industry are helping out. Ah, the altruistic hand of capitalism! A new housing development named The Final Destination is going up in Radon Canyon. New homes start in the 130’s for 2 bedroom semi-detached townhouses, all the way to expensive 10 bedroom estates with beautiful views of the blue..ish mist that settles every morning along the canyon bottom. Representatives from the EPA have warned against building residences in an area known for producing toxic gases, but the developers said they will equip each home with a large exhaust fan and provide a lifetime supply of rebreathers for the first 15 home buyers. The EPA has tried repeatedly to stop this development, stating that excavation of the canyon floor could lead to the release of more gases, which would catastrophically imperil not only the lives of those in the canyon, but the Earth’s atmosphere for hundreds, if not thousands of miles in all directions. “Who knows what’s beneath the shale in that canyon?” one EPA representative said. The representative was wearing a sports coat too large for his frame and comically out of date glasses. He continued: “We have been trying to declare Radon Canyon a Superfund site for years, but Night Vale doesn’t show up in any government database and so it cannot receive its projection. Didn’t you ever see the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, how everybody’s faces melted off, it’d be just like that.” When it was pointed out that the end of that movie was good because it was Nazi faces melting, the EPA representative said: “Yeah yeah you’re right, that was pretty cool but still, get what I’m trying to say right?” Nobody did, because it was a weird thing to bring up a 40-year-old movie about Nazis and museum artefacts. So, now we will have new housing in the heart of Night Vale’s most beautiful scenic attraction, beginning spring next year.

I’m getting word that the power is out now in Old Town Night Vale and at the library, and on the south end. The temperature has dropped to 5 degrees and I think it will continue to plummet throughout the night. People are doing everything they can to prepare. Before the stores close, I recommend driving out and picking up some water as well as canned goods, even some fresh produce and raw meat while it’s still there. I mean, people worked hard to grow that food ten states away and then drive it across the country right here to you and you haven’t bought it yet? Even if your refrigerator’s not working because of the power outages, it’ll be cold enough in your house to keep it all fresh. So get out there and spend your money on food! We have so much of it. Let’s use it, Night Vale.

But above all: stay warm! If you’re alone, visit a neighbor. Body heat and company can help a lot in weather like this. And if you have room in your home, welcome your neighbors in! There’s no reason to be alone at a time likes. Plus it’s the holiday season, why not keep each other warm with stories, with camaraderie, with good fellowship? [shivering noises] Yet, if you can’t be with others tonight, [groans] then I will do my best to keep you company through this brutal cold.

Ah, I’d like to tell you a story of my childhood. It’s a very personal story, one I‘ve never shared on the air before. [shivering noises] I’m a bit nervous to tell it to you all, but if ever there was time for a story to bring us closer together, now is that time. I will tell you that story in a moment, but first, let’s have a look at sports.

[“Suspension of Disbelief” by Victory Soul Orchestra https://victorysoulorchestra.com]

[beeps] Computer: The National Weather Service has issued a severe weather warning for the greater Night Vale area. Temperatures as low as -10 degrees are predicted with high winds gusting up to 16 miles per hour. Wind chills overnight may reach -30 degrees. Residents of Night Vale and the surrounding towns of Pine Cliff, Red Mesa, and Desert Bluffs too should seek shelter. They should band together around fireplaces with heaters at their highest settings. In cases where heat sources are not accessible or operating, residents should huddle in the vacant lot out back of the Ralphs. Come huddle with us. Come huddle with us. There is a barrel here. It is filled with trash and we have lit it on fire. It is so warm, the trash. The trash is mostly paper and cardboard, but it is also something greater than that. It is a symbol of progress of the great tower of industry (and need) [0:19:51], a ruined towel like Babyl, which just toppled down of the weight of its hubris, and in the language of flame it tells us things. It tells us so much, not through words but through visions.

Here is a list of visions the fire has revealed to us. One: two spools of coaxial cable. Two: a single white bulb atop of an anthill. Three: an empty keg around squat cylinder of frosting, beneath which lies nothing, not even air. A void (cake). “Happy birthday,” echoes the choir from a good distance away. Four: a great black bird whose white wings brush along the castle turret. Five: a snake spiraled and asleep inside a leather boot. Six: a wheelless tractor in a vast wasteland of cracked earth. Seven: your brother. Not a brother you know, but a brother you once had. He looks like you and he repeats your name, but backwards. Eight: smoke clouds shaped like vice grips. These are the visions of the flames in the barrel in the vacant lot out back of the Ralphs.

Beneath our gaze and across our minds, beyond our consciousness, these are the remains of the great tower of humanity. Come huddle with us. You without heat. You without home. You without hope. Come huddle with us.

This severe weather warning is in effect (through) 8 PM tomorrow, when the warm front is expected to move through the region bringing sunny skies and high temperatures in the mid-80’s, and everyone will return to their normal lives, satisfied that they have (-) [0:21:51] death once again, confusing accidental survival with competence and immortality. What doesn’t kill you only makes you more complacent. The National Weather Service knows this is but a night together with you, not a whole life. For what we have in this moment is (truer) than rain, but deeper than thunder. Parting is such sweet sorrow. Blah, blah, blah. I’m not saying the morning will not hurt. I’m only saying the joy of memory is stronger than the prick of any (plate) upon my heart. This has been a severe weather warning from the national weather service. Stay tuned to the station for further updates.

I love you. I have always loved you. And now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

[beeps]

Cecil: And that is what I saw in the mirror that day. And why I do not like to go near mirrors. Ever.

[sighs] I never told that story to anyone before. I hope it has kept you company throughout this treacherous night. I hope it has kept you warm. Just knowing you’re listening somewhere out there in the cold dark has kept me warm. Stay safe, wherever you are. Good night, Night Vale… [shivers] Good night.

Today’s proverb: Who called it Snowpiercer instead of Chris Evans’s Polar Express?

#welcome to night vale #wtnv transcripts #episode 160 #the weather #i had lots of trouble with this transcript #so i would appreciate it if you could help me out #my boyfriend helped me already but #even he wasn't sure of some of it

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andamanislandtour · 4 years

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Top Reasons to Visit the Dazzling Neil Island

Every year, travellers get attracted to the pristine beauty and untouched sandy beaches of Andaman Island. It has some of the most scenic spots for travel and nature lovers. This archipelago is visited by people from all over the world to uncover and explore its jewels. The entire island is amazingly gorgeous but there is one place that nature lovers and beach bums never miss- Neil Island (renamed to Shaheed Dweep in 2018). It is located at a distance of 30 kilometers from the main islands of Andaman, and is known for some of the most unique sights. If Andaman Island is a crown, then Neil Island is its most precious gem!

Looking for surreal natural surprises?

Your search ends at Neil Island! You are asking us why? Let us tell you why- thriving biodiversity, unexploited coral reefs, white sandy beaches, adventurous experiences, a notable population of birds and animal life, etc. are a few reasons among numerous of them. Before you start planning your trip to this little piece of heaven, let us get you familiarised with its stunning beauty.

Loveliest beaches of Andamans

Some of the prettiest beaches in Andamans are located in Neil Island. The scenic beaches boast of white sands and uninterrupted views of the clear blue skies. During monsoon, the sight changes entirely as the sky becomes way too dramatic.

The most popular beaches of Neil Island are:

Sitapur Beach

Bharatpur Beach

Lakshmanpur Beach

Sir Hugh Rose Island

You can book your stay nearby Lakshmanpur or Sitapur beach at a fancy resort.

Want to meet turtles?

Neil Island’s untouched beauty makes it a perfect nesting ground for the marine turtles. Head to Sir Hugh Rose Island if you want to see these amazing creatures. They are found in abundance there. Located at the tip of Neil Island, this tiny island is often known as Small Neil in the local language. You will need permits to visit there as it is a protected region.

Enjoy the best ride on a glass floor boat

Neil Island is famous for glass-bottom boating. The Bharatpur Beach here is known for the beautiful and colorful coral formation. That’s why, the population of fishes is more here. This beach is a must-visit on this island owing to the coral population. The place is a popular spot for fishing and angling as well.

Best snorkeling and sea walking experience

For sea walking and snorkeling, pristine clear water is required, which is in abundance on Neil Island. Its water proves to be an ideal setting for adventurous water activities. When you are at Neil Island, you can see a wide diversity of colorful fishes with your naked eyes. The corals are present in abundance here. There are certain beach resorts also that offer private sea walking and snorkeling sessions to their guests.

Scuba diving sessions for marine life enthusiasts

In India, Andaman Island is the best place that provides scuba diving experience and certification courses. Of all the places, Neil Island has the most advanced scuba diving facilities. The crystal clear water of its beaches makes the underwater sighting even easier. The experience of scuba diving at Neil Island is a memorable one. The underwater marine life surrounds you so closely that you can literally touch it (but you are not supposed to!). The resorts on this island offer scuba training and gear lending as per your requirements.

Vegetable bowl of Andaman Island

If you are a foodie, then you should definitely visit Neil Island. Food lovers call it the vegetable bowl of the Andaman Island. Whereas its neighbor, Havelock Island, is more famed for the seafood, Neil Island provides excellent choices in fresh and vegetarian meals. You can also purchase the fresh supply of your veggies from the local market of Neil Kendra. Along with mouth-watering vegetarian and vegan dishes, you can also try a variety of cuisines ranging from Chinese, Israeli, Continental, Italian and Nepali.

Trekking at Howrah Bridge

Trekking to Howrah Bridge is something that invites all adrenaline junkies to Neil Island. It is among the most popular things to do here. Resembling a bridge, Howrah Bridge is an arch-like structure. Trekkers reach its tip that goes through a small artificial garden and a muddy path. Let us warn you in advance that the route to the bridge is closed during the monsoon seas

Appreciate pretty sunsets and sunrise

Neil Island offers the most romantic experience to the newlyweds (and others as well!) Its beaches are known for the most beautiful sunsets and sunrises. Have you ever witnessed a glorious pink and red sunset? Of course, it exists! Head to Lakashmanpur Beach to enjoy such a fantastic marvel of nature. Evenings here are the best moments to view nature at its best. And if you are an early riser, then you can visit Sitapur Beach to catch the most beautiful sunrise of your life. The sky is painted in various hues here!

How to reach Neil Island?

The capital of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Port Blair, is well-connected via flights. Uninterrupted flights are available from Chennai, Kolkata and Bangalore. Ferry to Neil Island- There are government ferries plying from Port Blair to Neil Island. Every day, two ferries leave in the morning.

Ferry from Rangat- Daily ferry service is available from Rangat.

Private Boat- There are two private boat service providers, Makruzz and Ocean Green, that have scheduled and private departures for Neil Island.

When to visit Neil Island?

The best time to visit Neil Island is from October to April when the weather is pleasurable. Most of the people preferring to come here plan their Andaman trip during this time. The summer season is likely to be avoided. Already excited to step on this unexplored territory? Trust Andaman Island Travels for all your hotel and ferry bookings. It will also make bookings for adventure activities if you are interested in any. The expert tour planners will design the holiday of your dreams!

#visit Neil Island #How to reach Neil Island #Vegetable bowl of Andaman Island #Best snorkeling and sea walking experience #Loveliest beaches of Andamans #beaches of Andaman Island

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daily--positivity · 5 years

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Travel Tips for Vegans: Eating out in the Canary Islands

Are you a vegan going on holiday to the Canaries this summer? Wondering if it will be hard to find vegan food while you’re there? Well, read on for some tips!

What to do for Lunch

Vegan Spanish Tapas

I’ll admit there are not a huge amount of traditional Spanish tapas that are vegan, but there are a couple and some that you can ask to be modified to be vegan. Luckily, the main tapa which…

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#bistro arbol #eating out in the canary islands #gran canaria #lanzarote #summer holiday tips for vegans #the canaries restaurants #tips for eating out in lanzarote #travel tips for vegans #vegan food in spain #vegan spanish cuisine

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theveganroadierecipes · 6 years

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Stuffed Holiday Wreath with Mint Pesto

Last season I was thrilled to deliver the Festive Cheesy Spinach Bread that has now been tested, retested, and tested tested and tested over and over again to make it’s way into my new book “Epic Vegan” that will be in stores this summer. But, what else can we do to create some savory holiday bread in the shape of something that brings a little “Tis’ the season!” to the table? A WREATH! My fiancé, David, and I decorate a dollar store wreath with pride every year and hang it on our door - but I’m super stoked to lay this one out on the dinner table this christmas! It’s perfect for a party nosh and the minty pesto is a refreshing twist on the classic.

For the Wreath:

1 tablespoon olive oil

½ cup chopped onion

2 vegan Italian sausage links, sliced thinly (I used Tofurky)

4 garlic cloves, minced

10 ounces frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

1 ½ cup marinara

14 ounces homemade or store bought vegan pizza dough

4 ounces (half wheel) Miyoko’s Classic Vegan Mozz, cut into 1 inch cubes

2 tablespoons Miyoko’s Cultured Vegan Butter or vegan butter of choice, melted

½ teaspoon garlic powder

½ teaspoon Italian seasoning

For the Mint Pesto:

¾ cup mint leaves

¼ cup pine nuts

2 cloves garlic

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

½ teaspoon sea salt

1 tablespoon white miso

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons vegetable broth

Procedure:

To Make the Wreath:Preheat the oven to 400°, line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Heat the oil in a large skillet, add the onions and sausage and sauté 4-6 minutes until sausage is browned. Add the garlic and sauté 1 additional minute until fragrant. Remove the skillet from the heat and add the spinach and marinara and mix until everything is well combined.

Roll the dough out on a floured surface to a rectangle that is 16x12 inches, with the long side facing you. Starting two inches above the side of the dough closest to you, add the mixture from the skillet, spread out along the length of the dough. Add the cubes of mozzarella, dispersing evenly along the mixture.

Take the 2 inches of dough from the bottom and stretch it over the top of the filling and gently roll the dough up, keeping it as tight as possible, until it is rolled up completely to the top. Transfer to prepared baking sheet and shape into a circle, pinch the ends together to create a full circle.

Using a sharp knife or kitchen sheers, cut into the circle to create separate pieces of bread, there should be roughly 16-18 pieces, as pictured. Be sure to only cut ¾ into the inside edge so the bread is still connected.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Dough’s can vary in baking time, start checking it around 20 minutes to make sure you don’t over bake it...i.e. burn it.

While the wreath is baking, mix together the butter, garlic powder and Italian seasoning until well combined. When the wreath is baked, brush the mixture over the top of the wreath.

To Make the Pesto:

Combine the mint, pine nuts, garlic, nutritional yeast, salt, miso, oil and broth in a food processor and process until everything has been minced and well combined.

Serve hot stuffed wreath bread with mint pesto or dipping sauce of choice on the side!

Tip:

The remade pillsbury pizza crust works well for this and also the trader joe’s pizza dough! But if you have a favorite homemade recipe you love, go for it! And don’t stress the ounces measurement if you dont have a scale, roll it out to size indicated and you should be fine, it will just be puffier if it’s more than 14 ounces, who doesn’t love MORE BREAD!?

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shopmotion85-blog · 5 years

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Just how you can make your family members reunion fantastic.

Custom Patches For Hats Each year we expect summertime. The sun is brighter, the days are much longer and everybody is a little extra loosened up. The careless days of summer can additionally be a great opportunity to obtain the extended family with each other as well as make use of the slower speed and (generally) extra open routines. Easier claimed than done however, right? Working with a family reunion can seem challenging-- individuals are separated by distance, job schedules, college-- you call it. But with a little preparation and organization, an effective as well as fun household get-together is most definitely possible. Family parties can be hard to make occur on a regular basis, so there can be a great deal of pressure on doing minority that do happen right. Never ever be afraid, we have actually assembled a few of our finest pointers to assist establish you up and obtain you on course to intend the type of event you'll listen to family members talking about for years to find. Discover the Right Location Household reunions resemble realty because they are all about 3 points: location, location, as well as place. Sure, in theory a get-together in Hawaii is a fantastic suggestion. But unless you're the Kardashians, there's a great chance not every relative can make it to heaven. Select an area that has typically great weather condition, but is within driving distance for most of people welcomed. Keep in mind that you are taking care of all age groups (family members with children, students, elderly, etc.), so pick a place that enables as many individuals to participate in as possible. Once a city is picked, there are still some choices to make. Beach? Outdoor camping? Amusement park? Bar crawl? The alternatives are practically countless, however ensure to choose a location that will permit the most individuals to enjoy. Create the Invite Checklist Identifying your guest listing is where you choose in between instant household and also expanded family. It's probably been time because you have actually seen and even spoken with some of your out-of-town, expanded member of the family. You may also need to track some of these individuals down. Obtain your checklist together so you can start planning. Day & Invite Your Guests Whatever path you make a decision to take, see to it you schedule a date with the venue, park, or place you plan on organizing at. Normally, your opportunity of securing a day with the place depends on exactly how very early you reserve it, so always see to it to pick a day and also location as early in the planning process as possible. Assist Visitors Discover Holiday Accommodations If you have family members coming from out of community-- and also we wish you will-- it is necessary to arrange holiday accommodations for your traveling visitors, particularly if they aren't knowledgeable about the area. Depending on how many visitors you have coming, you may need to set them up with local resorts or have a few neighborhood relative offer room in their homes. Songs as well as Amusement In the period of apparently endless alternatives to stream songs, a specialist DJ may not be necessary. Nonetheless, a DJ certainly adds something to the event. Whether you're outsourcing the songs to a professional, or making playlists yourself, right here are some tips: Make Every Person Delighted Select a range of songs that interest all age groups and also demographics. The children like Fetty Wap, the parents like Jimmy Buffet, and the grandparents like Tony Bennett-- there's no reason there can't be a little of each to make everybody happy. You could just expose individuals to new songs they'll in fact listen to when the get-together mores than. Classics are Standards for a Reason There are some tracks that never ever get old. They have actually come to be staples at wedding events, college graduations, and also family members get-togethers for a factor. "We Are Family," "Family members Event," "YMCA," "The Electric Slide," as well as "September" are simply a few of the songs that frequently get identified as "corny," yet still load the dance floor at most occasions. If you intend on having grownups and youngsters in attendance, you'll additionally want to intend activities that everybody can participate in together. Some concepts are a wiffle ball tournament, facts, horseshoes, limbo, campfire video games if you're by a fire, or anything you can consider that will get individuals up laughing as well as enjoying. The idea here is to bring everyone together, so feel free to get creative. What's the Food selection? Offering food and beverages for a large, inconsonant group of people is not a simple task. When planning for a large group, it's ideal to go with either a buffet or a prix-fixe food selection with a choice at one set price. These are both good ways to stabilize variety as well as cost. Make the meals remarkable by consisting of some family faves, or recipes belonging to the area of the occasion. Likewise make certain to constantly make certain people with dietary limitations (gluten allergies, vegan, and so on) can be fit. Make Fun Commemorative Tee Shirts At a family reunion, just like at any type of huge event, it's always good to give visitors a souvenir to keep in mind the occasion. Selecting items that make your family members will such as and in fact make use of after the reunion is the crucial to making these free gifts more than simply an expensive item of fond memories that will at some point wind up in the waste. Family reunion tee shirts are an excellent alternative and if you will certainly utilize personalized stitched tee shirts that hallow the occasion with photos and also anytime one uses it in the future. When developing a celebratory t-shirt, attempt to create a trendy logo to make customized patches that integrate the family members name as well as day of the reunion. Then, include any type of various other information, inside jokes, or graphics that will promptly advise people of the get-together.

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makingnewenemies · 6 years

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Hi Hi Hi. Here is a little blurb I wrote off the top of my head about all my friends on this year’s Group Picture Vol. 8. I love them all. I love their songs. And I love that we still keep up this stupid tradition; and somehow the comp keeps getting better and better. Thanks everyone! Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays :) - walt

Sour Guy - All Those Plans Were Wrong

Last summer Kris Schobert (Sour Guy, Walter Etc. / Mitty core member, Ernie…) was admitted to the hospital… and then again… and then again…. I think he spent like a month total in the hospital. It was not chill. But when he got out, the whole experience gave him a bit of clarity and new perspective on his life and the decisions he has made thus far. I won’t speak any further for him, but Kris… hey, nice song! And your quality home recording production and continuation of the WMAHMO slop sound doesn’t not go unnoticed! This song made me tear up in a coffee shop the first time I heard it.

Slaughter Beach, Dog - Big Band

Slaughter Beach, Dog are randomly GP staples by now but also one of my favorite bands and greatest friends. This song is a bit of a sound change for them, swapping mid tempo soft rock John K Sampson vibes for a theatrical late 60’s / 70’s sound that is a bit more light hearted than normal and I LOVE IT. It’s catchy, it makes me laugh, yet its so true. Glad to have these boys back this year.

Teal & Jer - Alphabet

Portland’s dreamiest duo Teal & Jer (Chain, Riled, Loose, lots of projects) bring a quirky alt edge to our otherwise bland and boring comp. Without them, we’d just be us. I personally would like to hear more Teal solo work??? Teal???

Milk Flud - Rodeo

If you don’t fuck with Milk Flud then you can get out.

Chase Hoyt - Health

Chase Hoyt (Ubu Roi, Feed, Chaz and the Minions of Chaz, The Rodeo…) is a GP fixture by now, and important asset to MNE because it’s his classic rock sensibilities that balance out the overload of folk / indie rock that we swim in. This song not only has a comically true message (health is the most important, i agree Chase) but the vibe, especially the chorus, has my head bobbing and me feeling like I’m on a grassy hillside at an outdoor concert in the 70’s, but also one glass of wine deep making homemade pizzas at an Air BNB with a girl I love, and that is a nice combo of feelings. “Let’s wrap it up / I’ve embarrassed us all enough”

Dry Goods - Learnt Nothing

You hear that flawless acoustic finger picking? That masculine story telling voice that sounds somewhere between a suburban Bob Dylan and a cowboy singing to the emptiness of the high desert? Yup, its Russell Park AKA Dry Goods and FKA Weston Bookhouse coming at us with another folk masterpiece, but this year adding in some new elements we aren’t quite used to- namely some cruisey guitar solos! Rumor has it Dry Goods is in the studio recording a new album right now and I would not be bummed out if this song were on it.

Byronius Punk - Beautiful Things

I just spent 3 weeks with Byronius Punk (Ian Farmer of Slaugher Beach, Dog / Modern Baseball) at his studio The Metal Shop in Philadelphia making a record with his beautiful mind and his new drum machine- so this song really hits home for me. I could write an essay on why this is the perfect Group Picture song- my three main points being - 1. It is a song about the act of creating. (“in everything that exists there lies a certain beauty / I want the world to know how much it all means to me”) which is exactly what Group Picture aims to celebrate. 2. It’s a song written and performed by someone who is usually more in the background of his bands (bassist / backup vox / recording engineer) but here has a platform to express his own individual style and skills, which is exactly what Group Picture wants to promote. 3. It has a Milk Flud name drop, which is a classic and classy GP / MNE move. Thank you Ian. You rule.

Dante Elephante - It Bothers Me

Dante Elephante are Santa Barbara legends and their new album “Rare Attractions” shows them evolving their sound into more loungey and ethereal territory. I am so glad they have joined GP this year, because I see singer / songwriter Ruben almost every weekend when he DJ’s at The Tavern in Ventura and I drunkenly annoy him / vaguely fan boy out on him. Dante being on Group Picture is a sign that our friendship extends beyond Saturday nights at the Tavern. Also their album vibes hard. Check out Rare Attractions on Spotify.

Peanut Butter Cups - Highest Quality

Petition for Aaron Kovacs (Peanut Butter cups, Lauren Records CEO, Winter Break and Summer Vacation drummer) to finally put out a full album? This catchy lo-fi pop rock is undeniably infectious. Fun fact: I’ve been hanging with this boy for almost 10 years and I’ve never heard him sing, but then he sends me these recordings and I’m like wtf your voice is so cool! If he makes a full album, MNE will put out the LP and still give him 100% of the digital income. That is how much I like Aaron’s style.

Anika Pyle - Young Love

I once wrote a song with the lyric “I’ll probably see her on tour but she won’t be on Group Picture this year.” I’m so glad I was wrong. Welcome to GP Anika Pyle! Anika (Katie Ellen, Chumped) plays raw emotional pop rock songs and this gem “Young Love” is just the tip of the iceberg. When her vocals max out at the end of the tune and you get a little bit of musical goosebumps, that is the feeling you get for a full 30 minutes of watching her play live. Anika, please come in and stay for a while!

Walter Etc. - This Would Only Happen to Me

Ok ok enough of the soft emotional bullshit. Here’s a song about someone coming to kill me! It’s 100% true. If you’re reading this, help!!!

Jake Lee - Good Run

Jake Lee (Bleeding Gums Murphy) strikes again with a lo-fi indie gem in which we hear Jake Lee reflect on his gaime from last year. Sounds like he made some interesting choices and is coming to terms with them? Or did I miss the mark, Jake? He is and always will be one of my favorite songwriters and his voice in this fuzz effect is not a bad look, I have to admit. The only way my life would be better is if Jake made a full album. Cheers homie.

Babytooth - State Quarters, OR

Technically, this is Babytooth’s official debut on Group Picture, but Portland, OR singer / songwriter Isabel Zacharias had a song on the comp last year that blew me away. It was her vocals and lyrics that hooked me then, and are still yanking me now. Now backed by a full band that gives dynamic range to her songs, it was still that first line “now you know you want a girl without a phone” that had me nodding “yup i love this”. Fingers crossed for Babytooth to become a GP staple.

Trashbike - Weasel

Trashbike is Bread (Blowout, Walter etc., Donkey Lips) and his homie Ru playing the pedals. He told me he wrote this song while stumbling home from the Bye and Bye. Bread is like a sexy emo prince, can’t you hear it? This song rules and I really hope Trashbike is more than just a one and done GP band. I would listen to a few albums of soft songs like this, wouldn’t you?

Banned From Japan - Vegan X

Welcome back to the Socal Valley punk rockers Banned From Japan! If you know that singer / songwriter Matthew Earle has been sober for a few years, this song is hilarious, simultaneously poking fun at vegan straight-edge and himself. The music rips and his vocals are catchy af. Fat Wrecks Chords come and sign Banned From Japan asap!

Walter X - Winter Shy

Ok. This is a bit meta. Walter X (Michael Mahaffie and his WMAHMO / Walter Etc. hardcore chip tune cover project) covers an old Walter GP song as his own GP song. Pretty niche MNE content! This song, in this Lifetime-esque style, his vocals so clear but so gruff, those guitar harmonies, the creative intro and chip-tuney bridge…. this literally gives me chills and is so much better than the original. I encourage anyone reading this to go check out his own original music under the name Jump Cut. It sounds just like this but with Michael’s own songs, shedding the limitations of the musical simpleton Walter songs. Also, check out the full Walter X album on Spotify! What a talented dude…

Curling - Genkai Trip

Curling released their MNE album “Definitely Band” this year and the musical arrangements / song structures absolutely floored me. Genkai Trip is a song that got left off the album, but lives on through GP! Singer / guitarist Bernie Gelman noted “There's some pretty wacky guitar overdubs where Jojo and I each doubled some guitar parts while the other person was playing with the trem on the guitar, so you get this really weird detuning effect.” and yup that is Curling in a nutshell for you. Always excited to play around with gear and recording techniques that are way beyond my level. I think this is an extremely underrated band and highly encourage the world to check out Definitely Band on spotify!

Ali Muhareb - DIY Hell

Ali? What the hell did you even make this song? It’s intriguing in the verses and then when the chorus busts out it sounds like if Dough Martsch were an up and coming artist in Portland in 2018. I actually had to text Ali to ask what these guitar sounds were and, if anyone is interested, he responded, “I compressed two guitars together through a virtual amp. And they’re both running through this sick pedal I got called the Data Corrupter.” For sure Ali! Thanks for a bad ass tune.

Dakota Loesch - Don’t Solve My Mysteries

I’ve been listening to a lot of Dakota’s music (solo, Animal City, Lemp Lungs) recently. I keep coming back to it, and its not a mystery. After hundreds of songs in his pocket, songs like “Don’t Solve My Mysteries” still sound musically and lyrically fresh, like Dakota has never had writer’s block in his life. When I listen to his music, I feel like it vicariously breaks down my own creative barriers. For instance when I first heard this song and he dropped the hook “just don’t solve all mysterious” I had that knee-jerk urge to ditch what I was doing and go write a poem or something. His will to create is just that contagious. Combine that with the Casio-keyboard bedroom drum machine vibe that I love so much about his songs like “The Basmati Rice” and you have a 10/10 GP banger.

Jerbear - Nowhere Girl

Jerbear is Jeremy Murphy (Teal & Jer, Riled, so many) and he is the king of a few things: weird bad guitar tones, asymmetrical organic song structures, rad lyrics that I never understand, and a voice that is universally loved. He stole my heart with Cranberries in the Cosmos on a previous GP, but I think Nowhere Girl takes the cake. Jer- when do we get the full solo album? Please don’t fall into the category of GP lost wonders. You’re not too shabby at this music thing!

Hemingway - Catch My Cool

Catch My Cool is a B-side from Hemingway’s You Will Never Be Happy.

I played drums in Hemingway at this time and I always vibed that Benny didn’t really like the way this song came out int he studio. I don’t get why? That vocal melody, soft sad and surfy guitar leads… it makes me wanna hold hands with a girl on Christmas Eve while walking down some bougie street looking at Christmas Lights. It sounds like a Starflyer 59 worship track and I love it for that. Benny, you made a mistake. This song should have made the album.

Alex Maddox - The Hypocrit’s Dilemma

I’ve heard Alex play this song when we get together to jam, and he always laughs it off as a Walter Mitty rip off song. But honestly, this is what I wish WMAHMO would write about if we made a folk punk record today. If you listen to this song knowing that Alex Maddox was a guy who quit his high paying job to travel Europe in his van, surfing and skating and working on farms, the lyrics to this song are way more wanna-be Walter Mitty. The song depicts a transformation in his paradigm and is completely raw, authentic, and sincere. Alex inspires me to chase a wholesome life that is designed for and by myself, rather than the obvious and sterile template that is provided for us, and this song exemplifies that 1000%.

Uncle Uncle - Nira (I’m Alive)

We played with Uncle Uncle last year in Santa Barbara and I honestly think we should have opened for them. They are actually a good band, both live and recorded. Stylish, friendly, and comically laid back- they might be the quintessential Santa Barbara band. A semi-new band, Uncle Uncle is gaining momentum quickly, and I won’t be surprised when the day comes that Kevin and Dom big time me on State st. Til then, I’m just glad I get to claim that they were on a Group Picture.

Humphrey Orlando - Set U Free

Ah, Humphrey. No, Humphrey accompanied by Toast. Two legends as old as MNE itself. What is there to say? I could listen to their wandering ballads til I fall into the Big Sleep, and still the melodies linger on…

#group picture #group picture volume 8 #making new enemies

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familycuisinee · 3 years

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how to make boiled cajun shrimp | Family Cuisine

Cajun Shrimp Boil - an easy and tasty classic shrimp boil with baby red potatoes, corn on the cob, and Andouille sausages generously seasoned with Creole Seasoning and garnished with lemon for a fresh and vibrant summer outdoor meal ready in less than an hour. <img src="https://ift.tt/3C530l0" alt="Cajun shrimp boil on a baking sheet with creole butter sauce" /> Nothing screams summer to me than outdoor meals like this easy cajun shrimp boil recipe here. In fact, it’s on top of my list of go-to summer meals when I feel so lazy grilling outside. If you think grilling is easy enough, this one here is the most-laid back summer meal you could ever have. You just have to generously season the shrimps, potatoes, sausages, and corn, mix it well. Transfer them to a baking sheet and bake them for a few minutes and you’re all set for a wonderful meal. And the best part? It’s a delicious meal with little to zero clean-up! Now, what’s not to love? It’s a must-try summer weeknight meal. All you’d ever worry about is how to make everything fit in your belly. 😉 Enjoy! <img src="https://ift.tt/3txf0J0" alt="Cajun shrimp boil on a baking sheet" /> <h2>What is Seafood Boil?</h2> Seafood Boil is generally a term referring to different types of social events that involves shellfish, like crawfish, shrimp, and crabs. The Crawfish Boil is the most popular Louisiana Cajun Tradition. They even have Crawfish Boil Festivals. Churches and other organizations hold Major Crawfish Boils in Louisiana for fundraising events. While smaller events are mostly held with family and friends for a weekend get-together and on some Holidays like Memorial Day. The cooking preparation includes boiling, steaming, baking, or sometimes just raw. The kinds of seafood used and side dishes differ according to what Region Seafood boil is being held. Traditionally, in Louisiana Shrimp Boil the ingredients are being boiled in the water to cook, drained, tossed in seasonings, and then being served. Immaculatebites Cajun Shrimp Boil on the other hand is not your ordinary Shrimp Boil. Because I like a little more action so I bake mine after coating the shrimps, potatoes, carrots, and sausages with my special secret sauce. You’ll know more about my secret as you read along. 😉 <h2>Recipe Ingredients</h2> <ul> <li>Shrimp - The star of the show. What I like about shrimp is that not only it’s high in protein but also low in carbs, calories, and fats.</li> <li>Baby Red Potatoes - Because of their low starch content, they are able to keep their shape even when boiled or roasted. Plus, they also have a creamy texture because they are high in moisture. </li> <li>Andouille Sausage - Has a unique distinct flavor with a coarse, smoky, and sharp taste. The sausage is already cooked so you can cook it along with shrimp and corn without worrying if it will come out raw.</li> <li>Corn - I suggest using sweet corn. It is naturally sweet and has an extra crunch when you bite on it. If you have extra corn, you can also try my Oven Roasted Corn on the Cob or click here to learn How to Boil Corn.</li> <li>Creole Seasoning - is the secret to the best Cajun boil recipe. I suggest buying the Salt-free Creole Seasoning. If you can’t find any, try Immaculatebites Creole Seasoning here. </li> <li>Minced Garlic - By cutting garlic into smaller pieces you can really get the flavor and aroma to soak into the shrimp, potatoes, and corn. You can use store-bought or mince it yourself by cutting into tiny pieces using my guide, How to Mince Garlic.</li> <li>Thyme - The subtle minty and earthy flavor with a hint of sweetness and floral notes add character to this dish.</li> <li>Butter - A super versatile ingredient that gives your seafood boil a moist and flavorful sensation.</li> <li>Salt and Pepper - The ultimate seasoning duo. Without these two, any dish will taste bland.</li> <li>Onion - This is optional. I prefer to use yellow onion since it’s sweeter and has a nice astringency taste. You can also check How to Cut Onions here. </li> <li>Lemon - Is used for garnishing to make it more inviting and appetizing. It also masks the distinct “seafood” smell and taste. </li> <li>Cilantro - For garnishing. I personally love the aroma and fresh flavor but if you are one of those who doesn’t like cilantro, just leave it out completely.</li> </ul> <img src="https://ift.tt/3nnQMjq" alt="Cajun shrimp, red potatoes, sausage, and corn season with creole seasoning" /> <h2>Recipe Substitution and Additions</h2> Andouille Sausage Substitutes <ul> <li>Kielbasa Sausage - is a smoked sausage often made with pork. It has a distinct garlic flavor and with a kick of heat.</li> <li>Smoke Beef Sausage - is very similar to Andouille Sausage. Coarse ground smoked sausage, lightly spiced, and less garlicky.</li> <li>Chinese Sausage or Chinese Chorizo - is generally sweet and salty in taste, perfect to use if you want to add some Asian touch to this dish.</li> <li>Vegan Sausage - yes, they exist! Mostly, they are made from buckwheat flour, white beans, or tofu.</li> </ul> Additions <ul> <li>Lobster - If you have extra bucks to burn, why not? It will make your dish extra special and fancier.</li> <li>Crabs - like shrimp and lobster, it has a delicately sweet taste bursting with flavors. Just add crab and you’ll have a Cajun shrimp recipe boiling crab.</li> <li>Clams - has a salty taste chewy texture.</li> <li>Mussels - like clams, it has an “oceany” salty flavor with a slightly chewy texture.</li> <li>Bell Peppers - to add more color and veggies to your Cajun Style Shrimp Boil. The contrasting taste of bitterness and sweetness adds character and depth to the dish.</li> <li>Chili Peppers - Serrano, Jalapenos, or Scotch Bonnet Peppers are the best choice to make mouthwatering spicy Louisiana Shrimp Boil.</li> </ul> Note: It is better to precook these kinds of seafood before putting them in the oven or grilling them in foil packets to ensure even cooking. <img src="https://ift.tt/38X4PE3" alt="Oven baked cajun shrimp" /> <h2>How to Peel and Devein Shrimp?</h2> Peeling and Deveining shrimp is very easy to do especially on large shrimps. It is done mostly for aesthetic purposes and nothing to do with hygiene. You can skip this process for small shrimps. Though it is called deveining, the black “string” found in the shrimps are actually their digestive tract and are not harmful when eaten. Just follow these steps to peel and devein your shrimps easily: <ul> <li>Remove the head and legs.</li> <li>Peel the outer shell starting with the head end. Keep the last part of the shell with the tail tip, for decorative purposes.</li> <li>Using a paring knife, make a shallow cut on the outer edge of the shrimp’s back about a half-centimeter deep until you see the vein.</li> <li>Pull the vein with your fingers or using the tip of a paring knife.</li> <li>If you want to keep the shells on, make a shallow cut on the shell and the outer edge of the shrimp’s back using kitchen scissors and pull out the vein.</li> <li>Gather the shells and place them in a secured plastic bag and discard them properly or you may freeze them to make shellfish broth or stock.</li> </ul> <h2>How Long to Boil Cajun Shrimp?</h2> In Immaculatebites Cajun Shrimp Boil Recipe, only the potatoes and corn need to be precooked. Both are being boiled in water for about 8-10 minutes since they take a longer time to cook. While the shrimp and sausage are being baked along with precooked potatoes and corn for about 12-15 minutes. How long to boil shrimp depends on the size of the shrimp used. Shrimps cook very fast, as soon as they changed into a bright orange color you’ll know they are done. Small to medium shrimp only takes 30 seconds to 1 minute to cook and large to jumbo ones will take about 2-4 minutes to cook. So you really need to watch out to avoid overcooking the shrimp. More Tips and Tricks at the end of the recipe card. Don’t forget to check it out! 😉 <h2>Making Ahead and Storage Instructions</h2> Make-Ahead You can literally prepare everything ahead and pop them in the oven the next day. <ul> <li>Place the seasoned corn, potatoes, and sausage in a clean bowl, covered, and the seasoned shrimp in a separate container. So the “fishy” aroma of the shrimps won’t be absorbed by the potatoes, corn, and sausage.</li> <li>Or line the seasoned ingredients in a single layer on the baking sheet and cover with a cling wrap. Again, place the shrimp in a separate container.</li> <li>Refrigerate for up to 24 hours.</li> <li>Proceed with cooking instructions and add extra 5 minutes to cooking time.</li> </ul> Storing Leftover <ul> <li>You can place them in foil packets or airtight containers.</li> <li>Refrigerate for up to 3 days.</li> <li>Reheat in the oven at 350°F for 10-12 minutes or Microwave on high for 3-5 minutes.</li> </ul> <h2>What to Do with Leftovers?</h2> <ul> <li>Soup - you can turn it into a creamy cajun shrimp chowder or cajun shrimp soup.</li> <li>Omelette - get the corn off the cob and then chop the sausages, shrimp, and potatoes into small cubes. Add them to scrambled eggs or make an omelette.</li> <li>Pasta or salad - you can add them to pasta or salad of your choice.</li> </ul> <img src="https://ift.tt/38X4QI7" alt="A close up shot of Cajun shrimp boil with Creole Butter sauce" /> <h2>What to Serve with Shrimp Boil?</h2> While waiting, you can make your side dish for a complete summer outdoor meal. You can work your way through the recipes below. <ul> <li> Coleslaw</li> <li>Mexican Cornbread</li> <li>Chickpea Salad</li> <li>Baked Mac and Cheese</li> <li>Macaroni Salad</li> </ul> <h2>More Southern Seafood Recipes to Love</h2> <ul> <li>Corn Shrimp Soup</li> <li>Crawfish Etouffee</li> <li>Seafood Gumbo</li> <li>New Orleans BBQ Shrimp</li> <li>Blackened Shrimp and Pasta</li> </ul> <img src="https://ift.tt/2XaTrlm" alt="Cajun shrimp and sausage boil garnished with cilantro and lemon slices" /> <h2>How to Boil Shrimp Cajun Style</h2> <img src="https://ift.tt/3C2BKnf" alt="Boiling red potatoes and corn" /> <h2>Precook Potatoes and Corn</h2> <ul> <li>Preheat oven - to 400 degrees F. Then spray a sheet pan with a nonstick spray and set aside.</li> <li>Boil potatoes - fill a large pot with water, season with salt, and then add the potatoes, and thyme sprigs. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook about 8-10 minutes or until tender. Potatoes should be firm. (Photo 1)</li> <li>Add corn - and cook for 3-5 minutes. Drain water. (Photos 2-4)</li> </ul> <img src="https://ift.tt/3nqpjhc" alt="Making the Creole butter sauce" /> <h2>Make the Creole Butter Sauce</h2> <ul> <li>Combine - in a small pan, combine the butter, creole seasoning, garlic, and thyme. You may also add onions. (Photo 5)</li> <li>Heat and saute - On medium-low heat, saute them for 30-60 seconds and remove them from heat. (Photo 6)</li> </ul> <img src="https://ift.tt/391AhB6" alt="Coating the shrimp, corn, potatoes, and sausages with Creole butter sauce" /> <h2>Season and Bake</h2> <ul> <li>Coat with Creole butter sauce - add the Creole butter sauce to the shrimp, potatoes, and corn and give it a stir until everything is evenly coated. (Photos 7-9)</li> <li>Line and season- line all the ingredients in a single layer on a baking sheet and add the Andouille sausages. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and Creole Seasoning. (Photo 10)</li> <li>Bake - Bake for about 12-15 minutes, or until shrimp is pink and cooked through.</li> <li>Serve - Garnish with sliced lemon and chopped cilantro.</li> </ul> <h2>Grilling and Packets</h2> <ul> <li>Divide into 3-4 portions - Divide between 3-4 packets of aluminum foil. Fold edges of foil up around the food to close the packet for heat retention and keep the liquids in.</li> <li>Grill - Place on preheated grill over medium-high heat for about 8 minutes per side.</li> <li>Serve - Serve immediately garnished with lemon wedges. </li> </ul> source https://familycuisine.net/how-to-make-boiled-cajun-shrimp/

#familycuisine

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ourlittleorganiclife · 6 years

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There’s no better way to get excited about your upcoming summer holiday than by going shopping for all your beach essentials. Even the most eco-conscious of us aren’t immune to this pleasure, but some of us – quite rightly – temper that excitement with our concern for the environment and the health of ourselves and our children. So here’s some greener and healthier ways to join in with the summer joy of planning for your beach holiday.

Sun Protection

Sun protection of one kind or another is so important, especially for children. Getting just 5 blistering sunburns can increase your risk of skin cancer by up to 80%. So make sure you have a variety of ways to protect your skin. Many drugstore sunscreens are full of parabens, oxybenzone and other chemicals linked to various types of hormone-disrupting cancers. But there’s no need to worry – there are plenty of options open to you. You can wear a beach cover up which covers the arms and chest well – and there are plenty of good second hand ones about, like this one which I’ve featured from the Oxfam online shop (click here to check out their full range of colours and options).

You should also invest in a good ocean-safe, reef-safe SPF sun cream each summer. Some people make their own suncreams with coconut oil and essential oils, and if that’s your thing, go for it, but be aware there’s always the risk that you end up making a basting oil for your skin rather than a sun protectant. While many oils and essential oils do have a natural SPF quality to them, there is no way you can guarantee that level of protection is still in the base ingredient product you’ve purchased without expensive testing. Instead, buy a non-nano, paraben-free, oxybenzone-free sun protection product which is as natural as possible. Suncreams like this new one from Weleda which I purchased at my local health food store last week are a great option.

If Weleda is difficult to find in your area, consider the Thinkbaby and Thinksport sunscreens which I tried out on two separate occasions earlier this summer when visiting friends and I had to borrow some sun protection. Thinksport do SPF 50 creams, but also a great SPF 30 face and body stick which is easy to apply to your face – kind of like a mini deodorant stick. It’s a clean range of products which is easy to find in Canada, the US and the UK, and it’s been designed for serious athletes – so it will definitely be able to withstand your beach holiday demands! Plan ahead and make sure you have enough for your trip – you don’t want to end up like I did on my trip to Italy, having to buy horrible overpriced chemical-filled sunscreen at the pharmacy (you don’t want to know how much sun protection costs in Europe).

For kids I also recommend getting UPF 50 sun protection suits for the beach. When paired with a good wide-brimmed hat, it means you don’t have to worry about when they spend a bit too long in the sunshine – as they inevitably will. I do buy these suits and shirts second hand for my daughter but do keep in mind that the sun protection factor in second hand suits might not be as high as it will be in a new suit.

Swimwear

You can get some great bathing suits and bikinis second hand like these ones at the Oxfam online shop (just give them a good boil wash after buying them). I’m a bit busty, however, so have never had luck finding second hand bikini tops that fit me. In fact, finding any gorgeous bikini tops that will fit over a D cup is actually quite difficult. I was gifted this beautiful black Boho Chic bikini from Hunkemoeller (I saw their gorgeous lingerie and swimwear boutiques all over Germany last month). It fits me so well – in fact this model ran a bit on the generous size, so I had return my first bikini top (thank you free returns!) and go a cup size smaller than my usual Panache bra cup size which looks amazing on me. It ties at the top and the back , so you don’t need to worry about whether the band will be too tight or too loose, and the metal U bar in the front, allows the front of the bra to open easily for topless sunbathing (or easy breastfeeding, if you’re still nursing your child). They also had a variety of styles of bikini bottoms, so I was able to find the right cut to suit my derrière. (That’s not me below, btw!)

After Sun

Don’t overthink this one. Buy some pure organic aloe gel (like this one from Amazon which comes in a handy 200ml size). Avoid those livid green and totally transparent Aloe-based concoctions you see at the supermarket and pharmacy – they have a lot of other stuff in them other than healing aloe. You can mix the aloe gel with a few drops of a good quality lavender essential oil (I use Young Living – see why here) to boost the skin soothing quality of the aloe. If you do get a bit too much sun, just rub in some of this into your skin and it will help cool you off and start to nourish your sun-damaged skin. Just keep reapplying as your skin sucks it in (and it will, depending on the severity of the burn).

Beach Bag

Don’t forget a beach bag to schlep around all your stuff. You don’t need to invest in something really expensive – if you’re travelling on your own or with your partner, a small canvas shopping tote will work. If you’re travelling with kids the best thing are those big tacky re-usable supermarket bags which are fantastic for this purpose because they’re waterproof and hold tons of stuff like flippers, goggles, snorkels, sand-encrusted swim shoes, gazillions of towels, etc.

But I know that if you’re going back and forth to the beach club, you might want something a bit more chic than a massive orange Sainsbury’s bag proudly branding it’s elephant design emblazoned on the side. I’ve decided to splurge and treat myself to this black & white one from Hunkemoller UK to match my new bikini. It reminded me of some of the gorgeous bags I’ve seen in Anthropologie. (I remember the days of disposable income. They’re long gone, but I do remember them!)

Sunglasses

For Pete’s sake, don’t forget a pair of sunglasses or you’ll be squinting in agony for the next two weeks. On my way back from Canada in June, I treated myself to a new pair of Oakley matte tortoiseshell Latch sunglasses. (Yeah, I’ve given myself a few treats lately – what’s up with that?) I had been planning to get the folding Ray Ban Wayfarers, but discovered that they come in a leather case, which kind of didn’t flow with the whole vegan vibe.

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Water Bottle

It’s pretty easy most places to access clean drinking water, so unless you’re travelling somewhere at particular risk for waterborne pathogens, just take your water bottle with you and for each member of your family so you can stay hydrated throughout the day. Even if you go to a resort, its great having your own reusable cup bottle with you, so you can have the bar staff refill it with water for you from their filtered water systems. I love my Yeti bottle because I can attach it to my bag with a carabiner – and yes, I bought it second hand.

It’s also a great idea to take a reusable coffee cup (like a Keep Cup) or an insulated wine tumbler (yes, there is such a thing) so you don’t have to use plastic cups for your wine or cocktails, and they’ll stay cooler for longer in the sun. (Amazon have a wide range of insulated wine tumblers at various price points, and Yeti do a cool one too).

Sun Hat

Sun hats are such a personal thing, I’m not even going to show you an example here. I have a great soft brushed cotton baseball cap I love from ethical clothing company Absolutely Bear which I wear for day trips and hiking all the time, but I probably won’t wear it on the beach on my trip to Spain, as I might want something which channels a bit more of a Sophia Loren vibe. But whatever suits your style.

One thing I will say is, just take a sun hat. Something foldable might be wise, so you can pack it in your luggage. I have a gorgeous Panama style hat which I love, but it isn’t the easiest to travel with because I have to wear it for the whole flight, or make sure it doesn’t get crunched up in the overhead luggage compartment.

Sun hats are such a great and easy way to keep the sun off your face without worrying about whether your SPF cream has worn off and panda eyes are developing. And as the (not so) proud wearer of many, many panda eyes in the past, may I say I have expert knowledge that it is worth avoiding. (No make up will really cover those puppies up.) Just wear the hat.

Reading Material

It’s really important to have enough reading material on your trip. On shorter trips I’ll usually just take a library book, but I also have started to enjoy borrowing my husband’s Kindle and I absolutely love Amazon Audible, so I can listen to audio books on my phone while on the plane and so I can keep an eye on my daughter on the beach. (Getting lost in a book isn’t really possible when you’re looking after children near the sea, lakes or the pool.) Here’s the link I used to get a free 90 day trial of Audible so you can see if it’s the kind of thing you would enjoy too – at the very least it will last you your holiday! They’re often read by the author or by someone with a delicious reading voice, like Mariella Frostrup. I recently listened to Swing Time by Zadie Smith and can highly recommend it.

And have a great holiday! For more tips, check out my posts on eco travel, how to pack light and travelling with kids. Have I forgotten anything? Let me know in the comments below.

Resources/References:

Sun Protection – https://www.nhs.uk/news/cancer/just-five-sunburns-increase-your-cancer-risk/, https://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/16/health/sunscreen-report/index.html

Photo Credit: Hunkemoeller bikini shot – from https://www.hunkemoller.co.uk/uk_en/47-boho-chic-bikini-bottoms-black-123295.html, Hunkemoeller beach bag shot – from https://www.hunkemoller.co.uk/uk_en/47-doutzen-beach-bag-black-134253.html

Beach holiday essentials for the green, eco-conscious traveller. There's no better way to get excited about your upcoming summer holiday than by going shopping for all your beach essentials.

#beach essentials #beach holiday #eco #eco travel #eco travel tips #green #green travel #holiday essentials #hunkemoller #second hand #thinkbaby #thinksport #thrifted #travel #travel tips

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studypankake-blog · 6 years

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random study tips in a random order

1. Use Coffitivity or any other background music or noise to aid your brain into studying! However, make sure music does not distract you, so it’s best to listen to something without lyrics, or listen to lyrics in an unfamiliar language. [more background noise]

2. Set multiple annoying alarms/ timers in case you spend time on your phone for too long.

3. The Pomodoro Technique always works as long as you give yourself honest rewards.

4. Deep-clean your desk/room every once in a while!

5. Always write down whatever material shows up in tests in two weeks time. Make sure you know exactly which topics, or else you’d be studying for something that wouldn’t even appear on the test!

6. Start doing some studying/ homework with whatever’s due first!

7. After reading this post, study! (if it’s not yet summer or whatever)

8. This habit tracker is super useful

9. Go go study! After you read this post!

10. Do the schoolwork you can do in five minutes first. After that, do the schoolwork you don’t want to do.

11. Okay, maybe you don’t like to do it because you’re overwhelmed. Break it down into little chunks.

12. Set a day of the week when you would never procrastinate. Set another day solely for self-care.

13. Study/review a little bit each day. Beats cramming.

14. Give yourself an attainable deadline before the due date.

15. Every week, tidy your bag. Remove those little papers in the bottom, and wash it if you want to.

16. Find an organization system that works. Personally, I carry an envelope to school containing all my schoolwork and notes. When this paper or that one isn’t needed anymore, I place them inside an expanding file envelope. The expanding file envelope has tabs for each subject.

17. Notebooks or paper? I prefer paper as to reduce backpack weight, although notebooks are harder to lose.

18. Keep a bullet journal, planner, or calendar/to-do list.

19. Throw away things you really think are already useless.

20. If you really, really think you shouldn’t go to school, then don’t. Your health is a thousand times more important.

21. Always bring spare pens and stuff to school in case you run out.

22. Be nice to your teachers!

23. Before going home, make sure you’ve double-checked your locker in case you left the textbook you need to study.

24. Before studying, make sure your desk has at least a little space where you can write.

25. Find light for your study space as to not strain your eyes.

26. Place your bag and everything you need wherever you study! Don’t stand up in the middle of a study session and waste 30 minutes finding this one paper. Find it before you start.

27. Make your study space look pretty! Put candles, flowers, pictures, stuffed animals, or anything that makes it look friendly.

28. Always have a device that can access the internet in your study space.

29. Honestly, avoid studying on the holidays! Come on, it’s your time to relax!

30. Well, if you have homework on your holiday break, then just finish whatever. Do the bare minimum. Relax. It’s Christmas.

31. Plan what your lunch is the night before.

32. Don’t be so serious when writing your notes. If your teacher said a joke, write the joke down. If somebody sneezed in a really cute or funny way, then write it next to whatever is being discussed at that time. It might help when remembering things!

33. Keep your bullet points in note taking within the 11 word count.

34. Color-code if that’s your thing. You can highlight stuff such as terms, or write dates down in a green pen. Whatever suits you.

35. you thought you knew google when

36. Can’t use Wikipedia? Use Scholarpedia.

37. Open Library provides a million books in the public domain that you can read online.

38, If you’re writing an essay, do the title last. That way, you write about the topic and not the title.

39. Read books on or above your age range to improve your vocabulary.

40. Hemingway App is great for essay writing.

41. As well as Paperrater.

42. Don’t get too overwhelmed. Do only four assignments each day, unless you procrastinated and ten of them is due tomorrow.

43. Make your alarm super annoying and loud, and put it at a distance where you have to stand up to silence it.

44. Don’t forget to study after reading this!

45. Also never never forget to take breaks!

46. And to take a day off when you need it!

47. Stick to two study methods. More study methods wouldn’t be as effective as it is at wasting time.

48. Always have emergency things such as feminine stuff and tissues and yeah.

49. If it is a meal, it is a break. Don’t do anything else but rest.

50. Think things that make you happy whenever you feel hopeless!

51. Try Weavesilk, it’s great for relaxation.

52. Eat healthy snacks, with just right carbs, protein, fruits, vegetables, and dairy. Don’t try a vegan or vegetarian diet when you’re sick or something like that.

53. Go go get to work!

#study #studyblr #study blog #studyspo #study tip #students #school #exams #motivation #positivity #study inspiration

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