#my grandma hopped out of the ride car to take photos of us right before the ride was set to depart

[cithaerons]

my grandfather, my mom, and i all have a very similar streak. it’s the, hm, come si dice, jerk streak.

#there’s this picture from when i was a kid #when we all were at an amusement park together #my grandma hopped out of the ride car to take photos of us right before the ride was set to depart #my grandpa my mom and i are all yelling at her to come back with the EXACT same angry face 😠 #whereas my sister and my dad have this expression 😧 #captured perfectly on photo #(not proud of this but at least i’m aware)

[chwrpg]

What's happenin', hot stuff? -- Duk Barnes

A NOTE FROM ADMIN R: Can I just say, you knocked this completely out of the park, Kayla !!! I am so, so, so, so ready to see what you’ll be doing with Duk given the groundwork you put down in this application. Not just that, but Duk was simply missed on this dash. I love, love, love him and thank you for taking him up once more.

OOC NAME/ALIAS, PREFERRED PRONOUNS, AGE & TIMEZONE:

Your fave Kayla, she/her, 26, EST

DESIRED CHARACTER:

Donald “Duk” Barnes

HOW ACTIVE WILL YOU BE?

Okay so like I am always trying to be better for you guys, so let’s be optimistic and say 6 out of 10.

SECONDARY CHOICE:

N/A

DESCRIBE THE CHARACTER:

One of the things I’ve always loved about Duk is his kind heart. Like, underneath that very attractive exterior, there’s really a heart of gold. When I have written him before, I’ve always enjoyed how much he loves his family. It’s something I connect to and part of what draws me to him. He especially loves and is close to his sister, Sage. He never has seen her as weird, she’s just Sage. His relationship with his two younger siblings is different, of course, but I know he loves them and would do anything for them. It’s the same principle that I see in him with his friends. He’s very much ride or die, as the kids say. He’s also respectful and so funny. I love him so much and I’m forever grateful to be part of giving more depth to a character that was originally just a stereotype.

SAMPLE WRITING:

Adjusting his AirPod in his ear, Duk Barnes reached for his phone, hitting play on his coming to America playlist he had curated specifically for this moment when the pilot announced they had reached America and would reach their destination shortly. 

In a second, he heard the familiar strains of his first track begin just before: “I hopped off the plane at LAX / With a dream and my cardigan / Welcome to the land of fame excess / Whoa, am I gonna fit in?” 

It was a surprisingly apt song for having been released over ten years ago in what felt like an entirely different world. He could remember Sage playing this song over and over until he broke her CD in a moment of anger. He smiled to himself, thinking about how she’d laugh about how he was willingly listening to it now. 

It had been over two months since he’d seen her in person. Or anyone in his big, loud, crazy American family. He’d talked to them through instant messaging, Skype, FaceTime. But that was it. For he had done something crazy on his own. 

He’d gone to Singapore. To meet his biological family for the first time. 

The thing was when Duk had turned 18, his mom had sat him down and presented him with a rather thick packet tucked inside a time-worn Manila envelope. 

“This,” She had said with a shaky breath “Is everything I have about your biological family. You’re an adult now and your dad and I think that it’s time for you to have it.” 

At the time, he didn’t know what to say. He’d taken the big envelope without a word, just nodding. 

“You don’t have to do anything with the information if you don’t want to, of course.” His mom said rather quickly, having taken his surprised silence for disinterest. “But it’s yours. You used to always want to know more about your… your roots. At the time, I didn’t think it was right for me to share. But in there,” She nodded then to the packet where Duk was touching the golden brad holding the envelope shut. “In there, I think you’ll find the answers.” 

In truth, he hadn’t opened it until a year later, He’d found it stashed in a neglected high school science textbook he had forgotten to return while preparing his things to return to college. Sitting at his desk, he finally pried it open. And his mom had been right, the answers to each question he could have wanted to ask were there. 

There was also a letter. In a perfect script, on a fine soft-feeling stationery, written in English. It was from his mother’s mother. She wrote about her disappointment that Duk was given up for adoption, how she wished to raise him herself in Singapore, and gave some background about their family, how they were proudly Chinese and Malaysian and had such history that could be traced back over centuries. She wrote about how his mother had come to Chicago to study and fell in love with a white man. They’d broken up before Duk was even born and it was clear that the man didn’t want to be involved in raising the child. But his mother gave him up because she wanted to focus on her career and how the whole family had prayed that this baby would find a good home and a good family to love him as much as they all did. 

However, most importantly, it said that Duk was, no matter what, part of the family and welcome to come to Singapore and meet them. 

Using some of the names mentioned in the letter, Duk cautiously typed them into Google. The results were mostly in Mandarin, which he knew very little of, so he used the translate function to see what could be made of the articles. It looked like his maternal grandfather was something of a mogul. He had created a hotel and resort empire that spanned not only Singapore, but other countries in Asia and, apparently, a few in development in Europe. It felt unreal, and sat heavy in his chest. So much so that he had abruptly shut his laptop so hard he thought he would break it. 

But it all had stirred up something in Duk. A yearning for something he couldn’t quite name. So, he took up learning Mandarin. He wanted to be able to communicate with his newfound biological family, on the off-chance that maybe some of them wouldn’t speak English. First with Duolingo, then borrowing Rosetta Stone from the local library. He wasn’t fluent, might not ever be so, but as he kept working on it, he realized he took to it almost naturally. The words felt right in his mouth. He saved money in a Tupperware container that he hid in the back of his sock drawer. He had given the adoption agency his information in the hopes that he would hear from his family and the first person to email him was his maternal grandmother. She was who he practiced writing Mandarin to, then, slowly, spoke to on Facetime. She was an adorable lady, with a big smile that reminded Duk of his own and the same shared love of the chaos and beauty of life. She encouraged him to come to Singapore and offered to help financially, but he told her it was okay. He could do it. He’d get there, he’d just need a place to stay. 

“Well,” she said, a determined but amused look on her face. “That much I can do.”

Singapore was… beyond words. He would never be able to put words to the beauty of the country of his biological family and the feeling that settled in his chest when he stepped off the plane for the first time. It took his breath away, looking out across the tarmac, toward the trees and then the city skyline just beyond. It looked like something out of a movie about the future. If he didn’t know better, he would have been anticipating to see flying cars in the sky. It was amazing - and insanely scary - to meet the family, some of whom were eagerly awaiting him as he walked out of customs. It was kind of freaky, too, to notice how he could see himself, for the first time in real life, in other people. Grandma had given him the biggest hug and kissed both his cheeks. He wouldn’t remember all their names and how they were connected to him at first, his head felt full with information and tired from long hours whiled away in the air. He was, however, mildly surprised to discover that his family all seemed to speak English better than he could and playfully teased him with smiles on their faces about his choppy Mandarin. 

Looking at his phone now, he flipped past photos of himself with cousins and various friends of the family, past the TikToks and other videos he had made of his travels (he had been surprised when his video of himself dancing in various airports on his way to Singapore to Billy Idol’s “Dancing with Myself” had begun raking in the likes). It made him smile and he knew already he couldn’t wait to go back. Grandma had begun hinting, toward the end of his time there, that he could try for dual citizenship and had outright offered him a job with the family company, even though Duk wasn’t sure if his uncle - the current CEO of the business - was certain of him. He stops on a video of himself doing one of the many TikTok dances with his cousins outside of a nightclub. They’d been the ones to show him the country’s nightlife, showed him what was what and brought him up to speed on the culture. They’d even managed to get him onto Weibo, the Chinese social media site, and looped him into their WhatsApp groupchat. 

They had encouraged him, too, to meet his mother. Which was… easier said than done, it would turn out. He didn’t meet her until his last few days in Singapore. They’d texted a little before that, mostly just to set up a time and place. And when he had seen her, sitting by the window at the tea shop, it was like looking in a mirror. They had the same eyes, same mouth. And she had smiled at him like he was an old friend. Their meeting had been a little awkward, with pockets of nervous silence on both sides. But when they said goodbye, they hugged and Duk held his composure until he was back in his room, where he broke down into tears. Not sad tears, but tears of relief, of joy. It was all so much more than anything he could have expected. 

The plane makes its final descent into O’Hare and Duk closes his eyes, uncomfortable still with the way the plane downshifts toward the ground, even though he knows it’s safe. He gets his things together once the plane settles on the tarmac, steering toward the gate. Turns off his AirPods, checks his phone for messages. He smiles at the notifications already popping up on his screen; friend requests on Facebook, new followers on Instagram, new likes on TikTok. Most are family, but he doesn’t recognize several of the new likes on TikTok or followers on Instagram. There’s also a text from his sister that just came through: Why is there a video of you dancing on TikTok????? 

He shrugs it off, blowing up on social media doesn’t mean much since he’s still on cloud nine about his trip and eager to just get the hell off this plane already. He’s tired, almost running on fumes, but he still has a bounce in his step that always seems to be with him. 

Then, once he makes his way through disembarking and through hectic customs, there’s the Barneses. Crowded right up to the metal barrier. They’re there to greet him, his mom waving her hands in the air as if he can’t see her in the crowd. His father is saying something to Michael, who is hoisting a big sign up into the air. Sara is picking at Mike, as usual and Sage is just looking around as though she would almost rather be anywhere else. But their eyes meet and she smiles. And he knows she is glad to see him, too. Duk tilts his head to one side, studying the simplified Hanzi type lettering on Michael’s sign. “You do know that the sign says ‘fried rice here’ right?” He asks the group. He didn’t expect this to be his first words to his family upon his prodigal return, but then again, normal to the Barnes family is always entirely subjective. Immediately, his mom shot a look at Mike, who is covering his face to hold back a burst of roaring laughter. “Michael!” She hisses and the boy finally lets loose peals of laughter. Sarah punches his shoulder and he grimaces as Sage rolls her eyes, turning her attention to her phone instead. It was the best welcome home he could have ever received.

ANYTHING ELSE?

Nothing! I love you all!!

#accepted #submission

[scandinaviacroatiaengbergs]

Saturday Evening and Sunday: Saying Goodbye to Zadar, and Hello to Plitvice Lakes, Badovinci, and Zagreb

On Saturday evening, we spent an extra hour at the seashore chatting with the Austrians before heading home to the apartment for our last dinner there and what we hoped would be an earlier bedtime; it wasn’t.  I did mention a few posts ago the guy who takes the money at the gate to the beach (it wasn’t very expensive to go in) everyday; I think I noted that Rowan befriended him.  Well, this guy’s name is Ivan Vladimir and he’s actually an MMA fighter -- and that is such a crazy sport!  He told us to look him up online, and we did, and we saw some of his fight results and clips.  He was so nice to our kids and they took a picture with him, and we’ll share that to him via Facebook.  He was from Dubrovnik and, after having been in a car accident earlier this year, was about to get back in the MMA ring for some new fights.  It is so interesting the people you meet while traveling. We met an American friend of his too, a veteran of our U.S. Army who fought in Afghanistan but was discharged due to injury after four years, and this guy is also an MMA guy who trains in Las Vegas, but in Croatia, he trains with Ivan and wants to move to Croatia full time. Anyway, I really need to get to what we did today, Sunday!  We had the craziest, longest day.  I am writing this, finally, at 10 p.m. from the Airbnb we’ll be in for two nights in central Zagreb. 

So, we started off from Zadar this morning, leaving there just before 10 a.m.  We had some snacks packed, but nothing substantial, which was kind of Error Number One.  It didn’t end up going too badly, but that was really poor planning on our part.  We drove a few hours to Plitvice Lakes National Park, which my friend Kristin actually visited just a few weeks ago, so we’d seen her photos online, after we’d already decided we really wanted to go there on this trip. It’s Unesco World Heritage site and it is so obvious why.  It was amazing.  After our drive, on which we saw some beautiful farms and lots of roadside stands (seriously, like 20 of them) selling honey and cheese, we parked and bought our tickets into the park.  It wasn’t cheap; I wasn’t sure how much it would be, but it actually ended up being about $100 for our family of four.  There were tons of tourists there, lots from Europe and so many from China.  So, once you park and walk across a bridge (over the highway), you follow whatever trail your time will allow you to do. We followed trail “E” because we had about three hours.  Trail “E” was going to allow us to see about 12 lakes.  

After the little path after crossing the bridge, you get on a boat of about 4-minute’s length and then you start hiking.  The beautiful, stunning turquoise water starts immediately, with waterfalls over mossy boulders everywhere, and then larger waterfalls further on.  In all, we hiked 2.5 miles, with Cece doing some shoulder-riding after a while. There were many hazards for children, ranging from slats too far apart on the boardwalk through all of the lakes to just the general fact that many of the boardwalks had no railings on the sides, and there were so many people that jostling was happening all the time, and a kid could’ve easily plunked in the water.  

For the second half of our hike, when the crowds had thinned a bit, it turned out that we were right before a two-dad couple with their two sons (one was a 9-month-old baby in a hiking, child-carrying backpack).  The second son, Ansel, was about 11 months younger than Rowan, and that family was from California, and they were so cool.  Our kids were like a team with Ansel for the second half of the hike.  It was great chatting with them.  Both of that dads were in software (one in data analysis, like Eric).  We also saw some goon—a young teen who was maybe a YouTuber because he had someone following him with a really nice camera, filming—strip down to swim trunks and dive into one of the pools, then hop quickly back out.  It was totally stealth and super fast, because I am nearly 100% sure that is not allowed in the National Park.  It was probably some stunt for online distribution. Anyway, I will just have to post pictures here of the lakes. I can’t even do them justice with a description.  They were amazing.  The only part that was not amazing was the ladies bathroom, which had like holes in the ground with a stainless steel plate, with treads where you were to put your feet.  I might sound like a total delicate flower to say this, but I did not like that set-up.  It turns out that the men’s bathroom was like a regular bathroom!  With urinals and standard toilets in stalls! I can’t figure out why the women got holes in the ground.   After Plitvice Lakes, we decided to tack on our 1.5-hour drive north to Badovinci, the town my Great-Grandmother Mary Badovinac left to come to the United States, as a very young bride.  She actually came to the U.S. with her husband, had maybe one or two babies, and then took the babies and went back to Croatia, where she stayed for several years, and then her mom (Mara) was like, “You have to go back to your husband in the U.S.” and so she did.  And, after she returned to the U.S., she had my Grandma Marion. Now, getting to Badovinci was 1) ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL, and 2) an adventure because we nearly ended up in Slovenia ;)  OK, so, driving from Plitvice Lakes, as I said, we drove North, and about halfway there, the landscape changed a bit, and it really got hilly, there were amazing farms as well as people’s home gardens just bountifully producing.  It was a lovely, sunny afternoon, too, with big, fluffy clouds that were doing some periodic sprinkling. Anyway, our journey to Badovinci, which has a population of maybe 20 people right now, was super curvy.  The hills (or maybe I should call them mountains) and the valley were winding around, creating some amazing panoramas, but also lots of switchbacks.  We got to a point where we only had about 10K to go before e got there, and on a one-lane road (most roads were, though people used them as two-lane roads) we encountered two boys who gestured to us that we couldn’t go further.  There were a bunch of men working to clear the road of maybe some fallen tree, which they were doing some serious work with, with heavy machinery, and we had to rely on Google Translate to get through that encounter.  We learned that if we waited 20 minutes, we could get through.  

So, the kids and Eric got out and checked out the work, and then, soon enough, we were on our way.  Not too long after that, because I thing we took a wrong turn, we were at the Slovenian border!  The guard, who spoke English perfectly, told us that we couldn’t use that checkpoint, as it was only for locals and they didn’t stamp passports there, so we’d have to go to a different checkpoint.  Badovinci is so close to the Slovenian border that you *could* get through by driving through Slovenia, but eventually, by backtracking and then following some random police officer who was driving by (mind you, this area is very sparsely populated), we got on the correct road.

So, it is a good thing I do not get car sick because these road were so narrow and there were so many twists and turns, that it wouldn’t be easy on a queasy person’s stomach. Finally, we got to the church at Badovinci and we went into the church yard and saw all of the family gravestones.  Almost half of them were Badovinacs.  We walked about a quarter mile to the village itself, and on the way, a car passed us twice, and on the second time, they stopped (which I would totally do, too, if some random family of four foreigners was ambling through my neighborhood on a Sunday evening) to ask if we were going  to the village.  We said we were and the driver introduced himself and his son (both Badovinacs) and they pointed the way; we were almost there.  In the village, which I use loosely because it is only about four family houses and then some dilapidated old buildings (barns? Old homes overgrown now with shrubbery?), we saw a woman weed-whacking her farming plot and then the two people we saw in the car, and a lazy dog sleeping in front of another car at the end of the road.  I took a few pictures and then we walked back to our car and took dozens of windy roads for another 1.5-hour drive, this time to Zagreb.

I can’t tell you how beautiful the region is where Badovinci is.  From so many of the village streets, of all of the various villages there, all with their own Catholic church and many with roadside altars, you can see vast vistas and they are grape vines tidily spread out across the steep hillsides and just the lushest green panoramas you can imagine.  The late afternoon light was incredible, too, and the photos surely won’t be able to convey that. We did not have a proper lunch or dinner, and this is where our lack of snack-packing became a particular problem.  At one point en route to Zagreb, we stopped at a gas station and I bought  a packet of crackers and some chocolate cookies and that is what my children had for dinner.  They were such troopers the whole day.  When we got to the Airbnb in Zagreb, I got them bathed and in bed in like twenty minutes.  They were wild, exhausted creatures in those twenty minutes, but once we miraculously got their teeth brushed and got the lights out, they were probably asleep almost instantly. Tomorrow we have a full day to explore Zagreb!  I am really excited to see what we will see.

[shunkashuutou]

Hawaii! January 2018

(Wow, sorry this post is so late, I’ve been busy with apartment hunting)

I spent the first three weeks of January in Hawaii visiting my family! I had such a fun time; here’s some photos from my adventures!

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It was a beautiful sunny day when I arrived! I took my Gyuki plushie to Hawaii with me, and I wanted to take a quick photo of it with the pool in the background, but I ended up doing a spontaneous little photoshoot in the backyard! The pictures turned out really cute ^^

So tropical!

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I got to see the new Star Wars movie AGAIN with the family! It was just as good as it was the first time, and so fun to see it again and be able to catch more of the details!

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A very cool new shirt I got from my aunt and uncle for Christmas! It went well with my Ookurikara-themed earrings and Mitsutada necklace. I always appreciate any chance to be stylish while also being a huge nerd.

That evening we went out for dinner with family friends! The food was great and the dessert was wonderful! That spumoni gelato~

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I got to enjoy a lot of American/Hawaii foods that I can’t get in Japan! It had been ages since I’d had apple pie with cheese on top.

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 We went to visit Kualoa Ranch! One of our family friends works there and he’d been telling us to come visit for years, so I’m so glad that we finally got to go!

What a beautiful place, WOW

Our friend hopped in the car with us and gave us the inside tour of the whole ranch! It was AWESOME and a very memorable experience.

Kualoa Ranch has been used as the set for a ton of movies, including various Jurassic Park and Godzilla movies, a King Kong movie, the new Jumanji movie, and even Nicki Minaj's "Starships" music video!

The most popular of Kualoa Ranch’s many activities are the horse riding tours, so there are a ton of horses there. I got to hang out with our friend's horse, Hoku! (Hawaiian for "star") She was SO CUTE

I fed Hoku honey from my hand! HER NOSE WAS SO SOFT. I never fully realized how cute horses are but THEY HAVE THE SOFTEST NOSES!

And if all of that wasn't amazing enough, the food was also delicious there! Garlic shrimp, and taro bread pudding with coconut sauce.

After that we went home to rest for a few hours, and then it was time to go to Waikiki to see a magic show! Another family acquaintance is a professional magician, so we went to check out his show. It was very impressive; even when you try to look for the trick to how things work, you just can’t figure it out. He even made a car float and disappear! HOW?!?!

That was such a great day! Definitely one of the highlights of my trip.

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The next day we had a really nice dinner with some more family friends.  Any time I see any sort of fish encrusted with something, with either namasu or yuzu involved, you can be sure that that’s what I’m going to order, lol. So this arare-encrusted salmon with namasu and a yuzu-butter sauce was perfectly my kind of thing!

I ordered the “symphony of desserts” and it was awesome!! Creme brulee, chocolate souffle, and a matcha cake with layers of chocolate and vanilla mousse. The matcha cake was actually my favorite of the three.

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Definitely one of my favorite things about going to Hawaii is family dinners at home! Always good food and hilarious conversation!

On that night we had loco mocos for dinner (with homemade onion rings!), and chocolate haupia pie for dessert!

After dessert it was time for another family tradition, "Casino Night"! 

Casino night is always hilarious because my grandma likes to keep changing the rules halfway through playing a card game, LOL! But even when she’s not trying to change the rules in her favor, she just happens to be ridiculously lucky.

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On the morning of Saturday, January 13th, I was eating a bowl of cereal and reading the comics section of the newspaper (color comics every day in Hawaii!!) when suddenly everyone’s phones lit up with a warning message:

The 28 minutes of waiting before we got the announcement that it was a false alarm were really scary, but I was shocked that so many people were so angry about the incident. I think the false alert was a good reminder that everyone should know what to do and have a plan in case anything like that were to actually happen. Hopefully it never will, but we should all take some time to think about what we should do to prepare.

The other thing that really surprised me is how many people didn’t take the warning seriously, or had an if-it’s-real-we’re-all-just-going-to-die-anyway sort of attitude. One of the main things I learned when I went to the Peace Museum in Hiroshima (which is something I think that everyone should experience. It should be mandatory for every American president) and listened to a survivor of the bombing speak about his experience is that the effects of an atomic bombing are very random and have so much to do with chance and where you happen to be. In the museum there was a page from a book, and all of the lines of text had been burned away because the black ink had absorbed the heat, but the white paper was still intact. There was also a story about someone who survived simply because at that moment they had happened to bend down behind a low stone wall to pick up something they dropped. An atomic bomb doesn’t necessarily mean total destruction. It’s definitely worth taking alerts seriously, even if they turn out to be false. 

That afternoon we went to Haleiwa to share some drinks with an old friend. It’s a pretty place, and always nice to be able to go visit.

After the false missile alert and visiting my friend's grave, I was thinking: Nobody knows what's going to happen tomorrow, so be sure to tell people "thank you" and that you love them. So to all of my blog readers, thanks for sticking around and reading my posts! Lots of love to you all! ♡

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While we were in Hawaii, I went to the Methodist church a couple of times with my mom. I would say I’m one of those “spiritual but not religious” sorts of people, but I had an enjoyable time going to church. Even if the things they said didn’t 100% suit my own beliefs, there were still lots of good messages that I did think were applicable to my own life, and the rainbow stained glass windows were so pretty! I want some in my future house (castle?) someday.

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One night we drove up the mountain to look at the Honolulu city lights!

I really like this photo that I took of my parents.

After I took a million nice normal photos of the city lights, I started playing around with intentionally moving my camera while taking the photo. I really like how these turned out; I love stuff like this! (kind of cool how in the top left photo you can still see the tops of the buildings as well as all of the lines of light)

I think this one is my favorite. 

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My parents and I went hiking to a waterfall with our friends Curtis and Cathy and some of their friends!

The trail to the waterfall was exactly my sort of hiking, not too intense or long, and lots of cool stuff to see along the way.

I had a lot of fun taking photos of all of the different plants! For some reason, every single one of this type of purple flower had one of these little green bugs on it. 

Curtis and I went into the waterfall! It was so nice to cool down after hiking there.

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For Christmas my aunt gave me a gift card for a makeover at Sephora!

It was so much fun to get my makeup done by a professional; I asked a lot of questions and learned some new techniques! And I LOVED how it turned out! The eyeshadow-as-winged-eyeliner thing worked so well with my eye shape, the sunset-like eyeshadow colors were really pretty, and I like the way they did my eyebrows too. And the lip gloss color!

I liked my outfit that day too.

And I did a bunch of shopping at Sephora afterwards (wow, Sephora is dangerous for my wallet), and got some of the makeup that they used for this look, so I can try to re-create it on my own sometime. So much fun stuff, I can’t wait to experiment with it all more!

Also I ordered "roast chicken" in the food court for dinner that evening, and got LITERALLY 1/4 OF A CHICKEN. WHAT THE HECK AMERICA.

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I got a gel manicure for the first time! 

This is my favorite color, and the holographic and glitter accents are so fun!

The day after I got my nails done, I did my makeup with lots of blue-green to match! My mom and grandma were very quick to tell me that they didn’t like my lipstick color, but I like being a cute poisonous frog sometimes, lol.

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Also, LOL, this is a screenshot of the camera roll from my iPod. As you can see, I really like taking photos of pool water. The color is just so pretty and the patterns are different every time you look at it!

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On my last evening in Hawaii, we bought dinner at the food court in the shopping mall and took it to Ala Moana beach for a sunset picnic!

It was fun to eat on the beach and watch the sky change colors. And we saw the green flash when the sun set!

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And then it was time to come back to Japan. The sunset was really pretty right before we landed.

Hawaii was so much fun! I’m really glad that I got to spend so much time with my family!

Hopefully it won’t be too long until I get to go back to Hawaii again!

#Hawaii #blogging #Kualoa Ranch #food #Oahu #January 2018 #2018

[ramvanfam]

Ohio by way of Niagara Falls and the Rustbelt

My grandma was turning 85. There would be a surprise party...in Westerville, OH. It’s not often everyone on my dad’s side of the family all get together anymore. We are multiplying (in fact there would be my cousin’s new baby to meet) and live all around the country. In the spirit of avoiding the weddings or funerals mindset, I knew I wanted to make this trip happen.

We decided to drive, in part because we love road trip adventures, and in part because there is no easy way to fly to Ohio from Rhode Island. Also, according to virtually everyone we mentioned this trip to, because we are crazy. We had only four days and 1600ish round trip miles to cover. 

Thank god Cody is a morning person, because these types of trips only make sense when you leave well before sunrise. By the time the sky was turning red, we had already made it to our first pit stop. We were treated to this rainbow sky behind the iconic golden arches in an almost empty parking lot, save for a few over the road truckers.

I had been daydreaming about taking the kids to see Niagara Falls for a while. I was there just once in college, while visiting friends at RIT; this would be Cody’s first time. After looking at the map, I decided it would be a great way to break up the drive. We had learned there are bike paths all around Niagara Falls, so decided this would be the perfect opportunity to try out our bike rack on its first long trip.

Our drive took us right along the Erie Canal. Coincidentally, Willa’s 3rd grade chorus was in the process of learning Low Bridge, so we all had that song stuck in our head for days. We got off the highway in Canastota, NY and got to see a painted low bridge up close. 

Cody is an expert at the backroads, and this is one of my favorite things he brings to our adventures. Miles of highway can get so monotonous - from the interstate, everything looks the same - but one reprieve into a small rustbelt town is enough to light a fire of interest and curiosity in all of us. 

There’s a toe path that runs along parts of the Erie Canal and through this town - you can see it just beyond that arch in the picture. We didn’t have time to get our bikes out, but we walked along it for a little and saw some beavers working on their dam. 

Small towns like this make me feel at home, and it was relaxing to walk around and just see life happening on a sleepy Thursday morning. I like how the murals gave us a small glimpse into what the town might have been like back in the canal’s hay day. 

“A House Held Up By Trees” - Other perks of taking back roads - seeing a house held up by trees that looks just like the pictures in the book we have by the same name.

After playing a friendly competition of Eye Spy (a farm animal - 5 points, a silo - 7 points, an Amish person - 10 points), we got back on the highway to log some more miles. We took this opportunity to listen to every podcast we could find about people going over the falls in a barrel. Next stop - the Canadian border!! 

We crossed the border at the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge and just followed signs for Niagara Falls. We weren’t sure what to expect. The last time I came here, we walked across the border from the US side during a time when you didn’t need passports. This route took us along the Niagara Parkway and we saw that right beside us was a bike path along the Niagara River. 

We parked the ramvan right near the Butterfly Conservatory and unloaded the bikes, resisting the urge (mostly mine) to first go look at the butterflies. It was about 2:00 in the afternoon, and we were all ready to be out of the van and stretch our legs.

We had no idea how far we were from Niagara Falls, and purposely didn’t look at a map to find out; we figured we must be pretty close.

It felt great to have reached out first destination and be out in the fresh air in one of the first warm days of the spring. The mood was slightly less jubilant as we kept riding for 7 more miles before we finally reached the falls. Oops! Didn’t think it would be quite that far, but there were a few picturesque places to stop along the way.

Someday I would love/be slightly terrified to ride one of these gondolas across the Niagara River. By the time we got to this junction, we could start to hear the roar of the falls (good thing because the kids were beginning to lose patience). 

It was so worth it to have the anticipation build and get to slowly approach this view by bike. I was trying to put myself in the shoes of someone who had no idea what to expect, but it was also just as awe inspiring the second time around.

It was a beautiful sunny day, but it had been a long cold winter and the falls were still pretty pretty frozen, so the Maid of the Mist tour boats weren’t running. While I would have liked the experience of getting so close to the falls, it was kind of nice to not have to feel like we were missing out on something if we decided to view the falls just from above. 

It got more and more crowded as we got closer to the horseshoe falls. The temperature dropped a solid 15 degrees as we walked through the mist coming off the falls. 

We were now closer to the main streets of town, and could see our hotel in the distance. We were staying at the Marriott on the Falls and it was just down a little farther and one street above us. We had come so far - we decided to just keep walking/riding to get to our hotel and then send Cody back to get the van once we checked in. There was an incline car to get up to the main street from the falls, but there was one problem - no bikes allowed. We were so close, yet so far away. We ended up on a trek through a big parking lot that we were sure would lead to a road to the hotel. Instead, we found a dead end. We saw a dirt path through the woods above that said no trespassing, but it seemed like our only option. After convincing the kids that it is okay to sometimes break rules at times like this (MY HEART VOICE SAYS TAKE THE PATH!!), we made it up to the main road, and finally to our hotel.

There were no falls view rooms left, but we could walk right around the corner from our room to the elevator alcove for this amazing view. The hotel stored our bikes for us while Cody rode his to get the van. The parking lot in the above picture is the one we rode through. 

We contemplated walking down to the busier part of town for a restaurant dinner, but it was getting late and the kids wanted to swim (always get the hotel with the pool!). Cody took them down to the pool while I unpacked and laid out this dinner spread. I had packed a ton of food for this trip and we ended up not eating out at all. After dinner, we turned on a movie for the kids, and Cody and I took our wine and went around the corner to sit by the hallway window and look at falls. People coming off of the elevator probably thought we were nuts, but we just wanted to soak in that view. And it’s a good thing we did - when we woke up the next morning, it was so foggy that you couldn’t even tell the falls were there. We took that as our cue to leave - but not before a morning swim. Onward to Ohio!

We took a slight detour to drive through the town of Erie. It was a part of PA I had never been to. The city center still had kind of a 1960′s vibe and it was easy to imagine what life might have been like back then. Cody led us down to Presque Isle State Park, which is a peninsula that juts out into Lake Erie. It was still pretty foggy, so we couldn’t see much. We stopped for a picnic lunch and planned our next move.

There are 21 miles of bike paths throughout the park. It had started raining a little, but we decided we couldn’t pass them up. 

We rode for a few miles and found an End of the Rhode type of beach with dunes perfect for jumping.

It was nice to have some time to explore and stretch our legs, because after this stop, it was hammer down to Ohio; we were expected by dinner. 

After hundreds of miles of driving, coming from two completely different places, and not talking all day about our travel plans, the Wolfe’s pulled into the parking lot of my grandma’s apartment at the exact same time we did. Twin powers unite! We only had about 36 hours in Ohio, so we were going to make the most of them. After a pizza dinner with everyone trickling in as they arrived, we went back and slept at my aunt and uncles’ house. On Saturday, there would be a Bunny Hop 5K run, an Easter egg hunt, lunch and a tour of my grandma’s new apartment building, and the surprise party.

It was a busy day, but so worth it to get to spend it with these people!

Sunday was Easter. We had originally planned to get up and leave pretty early, but we decided to enjoy a more leisurely morning. We had a nice breakfast at my aunt and uncles’, then headed over to my grandma’s where the kids rode their bikes on the bike paths that surround her apartment while the adults “visited” (as my mom calls it). We took some final photo ops and were on our way around noon.

At our first gas station stop, the kids were excited to discover that the Easter bunny had left their baskets and some eggs hidden in the ramvan! Each time we stopped, there would be a couple more eggs hidden, filled with lego people they could put together and play with in the car. That Easter bunny sure is a tricky guy.

We weren’t sure if we would try to drive the whole way in one shot, or if we would have to stop overnight somewhere. The kids fell asleep in the car around 9:00, and by the time we got to NYC around 11:30 hardly anyone else was on the road. We knew at this point it would take us twice as long to drive the remaining 200 miles in morning traffic, so we just went for it. And by “we” I mostly mean Cody. I just did my best to stay awake and pick good podcasts. 

4 days, 1700 miles, and a whole lot of fun. And we even all made it to school and work the next day!

#ramvanfam #ramvan #niagarafalls #presqueisle #eriecanal #lakeerie

[twistednuns]

June 2019

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.”   

A (very) sunny day in London. Seeing a seal in the Thames, right under the Tower Bridge. Walking through St. James’s Park, eating ice-cream. Taking a beautiful picture of Laura in Covent Garden. Finally getting out of the underground. A tiny rainbow reflection in the sky over Greenwich.

Playing badminton in the evening with Frank. Sitting by the river, making new friends (duckies).

Micha. Meeting in Thalkirchen after I had just seen a half dead mouse. Walking along the river, finding a nice spot across from the zoo with a bunch of musical hippies playing the drums on the other bank. We got drunk on Toro Loco and Grasovka in ice hockey cups until he kissed me in the middle of a sentence. It took quite a while until I noticed I was just kissing my first man with a tongue piercing. At some point I re-erected a knocked over portable toilet (does drunk me have superhuman powers?) and we walked to the subway together. Such a gentle weirdo.

Making breakfast for someone other than me. Sharing an apple. Eating out of the same bowl.

IKEA has veggie hot dogs now. Excellent. I also got a new cutting board. And that’s ALL I got. I’m virtually patting myself on the shoulder right now.

Christoph and Lauren’s wedding was pretty chill. We squeezed into a car, went up a very steep hill to attend the ceremony and spent the rest of the day around a camp fire drinking gin and tonics or dancing to very bad music. I loved getting to know Michael’s boyfriend of 4 years. I always received gay vibes from him… good to know that my gaydar isn’t broken.

Taking polaroid pictures in the beautiful afternoon light. I also loved Christian’s outtakes of the theme music quiz. One of them honestly looks as if I’d just won a beauty pageant - we have a host, two ladies with jealous side glances and me, all excited, open mouth, in front of the mic, waiting for her tiara…

Spending a few hours in my mum’s garden. Doing dangerous yoga exercises in the grass. Walking barefoot. Marveling at the lush roses everywhere. Watching a blackbird taking a bath under the cherry tree. Very entertaining.

I want to learn Spanish and this video gives me hope - apparently I can heavily rely on my French vocabulary.

Why the men I like usually look the same.

Hanging out with Martina, Tobi and Diego the dog at the Thalkirchen campsite. Watching the rafts go by (horrible music), driving them home with their car right before the apocalyptic thunderstorm.

The perfect dessert: berries or peaches with fresh cream. The perfect dinner: Truffle pasta.

The concept of eclecticism.

Spending the afternoon with Franzi at Maria Einsiedel. Meeting baby Elise for the first time. Hopping into the Eiskanal, turning my body into a freezer for five minutes. Eating tiny lemon ice-cream and galia melon.

Meeting Catrin and Andreas at Brillengalerie in Altheim. Really good cappuccino (he’s an optician AND a latte artist). I loved trying on those gorgeous glasses and talking to Catrin about the Latte Art championships and rude customers.

Our trip to the Bavarian Forest to make a cake tree for the wedding. We visited Lena’s uncle who turned a tree trunk into a three-tiered cake stand with his chainsaw. We helped. I really want to get a chainsaw license now.

Once again: roses. They are incredibly lush this year. I don’t know why exactly but climate change seems to have one tiny upside.

Drawing. Portrait practice. Filling my sketchbook from idee. Polychromos coloured pencils.

Using Instagram’s story feature for the first time. I love editing pictures and adding gifs and colours. Immature and tacky but fun.

Looking trough old analogue pictures. Finding lots of my dad looking like the perfect Millennial. 90s fashion really IS back. I still loathe fanny packs though.

I found someone who’s coming to India with me!! I’m going to travel with Bibi this summer. So excited!

Unfortunately: the Solitaire app on my phone. Unhealthy obsession. You know you’ve got a problem when you’re getting REALLY good…

The smell of dill pickles reminds evokes vivid memories of my grandma. She used to make them herself, in heavy stoneware next to the wash room in the cellar.

Spending the evening with Bibi at Kulturdachgarten (having Ginger Spritz as a sundowner in the late afternoon sun), eating Israeli mezze at NANA in Haidhausen and seeing Rocketman at Rio cinema. My colleague works there so we got discount tickets and free ice-cream. Taron Egerton is a fabulous actor. If I had to describe the film in one word it’d be flamboyant. Also, I’d have loved to be the costume designer for this.

Iglo veggie love frozen meals. With Hela curry ketchup. Nom.

Extremely cute new rockery plants (who will have to do with regular potting soil I’m afraid).

Meeting Andre at Thalkirchen. Spending the evening on an Isar gravel bank, drinking the beer Martina brought from Croatia. Joining the… eh, what’s the Mile High Club for people who prefer water to air travel? Catching the last train home. Taking dinky photobooth pictures because we still had ten minutes to spare. That fake photo strip makes me happy instantly whenever I look at it.

Getting better at asking for what I want.

The character Moe in the Netflix series Trinkets. To me, she’s so much more attractive than Tabitha. And I love her attitude. And her hookup in episode seven. What a pretty man.

Manu making me realise how much I look like my dad. “At least jawwise!”

Spending the evening with Tom. Pre-theatre Spritz, Melancholia at Kammerspiele, Isar-beer near Müllersches Volksbad. Talking about our insights and issues.

It’s fascinating to see the lupin in front of my balcony door open it’s blossoms gradually from bottom to top. This plant has such an interesting structure and geometry.

Salad season. Somehow I only like salads in the summer but then I eat them passionately. With strawberries, Black Forest tofu, peaches, blueberries, mangoes, olives. Those nice, firm Roma tomatoes you only get during the summer months. I made a huge bowl of Tabouleh the other day and had it for breakfast, lunch an dinner.

Going home in the morning, smelling of another person.

Booking flights to India. 5 weeks. I’ve never been gone for so long and then I chose India of all places… I feel a mild panic attack coming but I’m also super excited.

Artificial cherry flavour.

A day trip with Lexi. She brought crisps and a fun Mexican dice game which we played on the train. Spending the whole afternoon soaking in the warm water at Therme Bad Aibling. Discovering the amazing acoustics in the various domes. Making a new duckie friend. Weird mirror selfies with hairdryers. Dinner at a Bavarian restaurant in Rosenheim. Teaching le Sash some obscure Bavarian words.

The word obscure, come to think of it. Uncanny is a close second.

Jupiter being so bright in the night sky. I always notice it first as soon as it’s dark.

Librarians are secretly the funnest people alive.

So many things, really. I’m feeling quite happy at the moment. My only problem is that I keep gaining weight. Somehow enjoying myself is adverse to the strict regime I need in order to stay perfectly healthy.

Random things: Schweppes Fruity citrus and orange lemonade. Tomato sandwiches with fresh basil on olive ciabatta. That squirrel running over the garage roof in the morning. Dreaming of ferry rides through US rivers. And intercourse with a panther. The Garner Ambre Soleil natural bronzer spray with coconut oil. Nice colour, good smell, minimal chipmunk effect. And of course me regular Garnier sun oil. It’s the bottled essence of summer.

Filling in for someone in the Natural 20s pub quiz team. Being invited to a pen and paper round with feline characters only. Meeting Sophia who, I realised later, played Rosencrantz (or Guildenstern?) at Entity Theatre’s production of Hamlet last year.

My complete and utter obsession with Phil Collins’ version of You Can’t Hurry Love. I think it’s going to be my next karaoke song.

A desire and drive to be creative. Making collages out of dried leftover paint. Drawing on the window panes. Getting out gouache, pastel chalks, oil pastels, those weird 3-in-1 coloured pencils which create such a nice texture. Drawing first thing in the morning. Spending hours drawing owls for the coffee roasters. Using coloured pencils to draw portraits of all the cool girls of Instagram.

Oh, speaking of art. I don’t want to jinx it but I might get the chance to write a book soon! I met an editor who works at a publishing house for lifestyle books and needs someone to make a book about portrait drawing/painting for her. So. Excited. They’re also looking for a trainee in the graphic design department. I really hope I get to collaborate with them in one way or another.

Cute summer outfits. Good colour combinations. Accessorizing. Wearing pretty clothes with a creative twist. Actually putting some thought into putting together an outfit can be a lot of fun. After all it’s just another way of making a collage.

Polarized sunglasses providing me with the bluest skies and rainbow-tinted tram windows.

The Croatian man who sat down next to a visibly pregnant Bavarian woman on the subway and started telling her about his daughter Persephone and the abduction myth connected with her. I keep reading and hearing about Demeter and Persephone lately, for example about Baubo and the vulva presentations / Demeter worship.

Carmen Rohrbach’s Unterwegs sein ist mein Leben. I was very impressed by how much she has seen and experienced. How much she knows about nature and animals. I mean, she’s a biologist, too. Reading this book made my days a little more special because it gave me a sense of how much more there is to discover on this planet.

Eating vegan ice-cream (pumpkin seed and ginger-turmeric) with Micha. Sitting on the balustrade in front of the Art Academy. Staring into these insanely pretty blue eyes all the time. Looking for the toilets, roaming through the hallways. I love the architecture of that building.

A ladybug escaping the subway train through an open door. Freedom!

I love how the characters resemble each other so much in the different generations in the TV-series Dark. Uncanny. And they feature very nice colour contrasts, too. I guess I like their production designer / cinematographer.

Late-night Isar strolls. Drinking red wine, lying down, watching the stars surrounded by fireflies! (which are quite rare where I live so I was lucky - the strangest thing is that I had drawn a firefly into my sketchbook earlier that day, feels like I manifested it)

Tollwood gin and tonics, forgetting to go home, ending up in a gay club at 3am. Nice Thursday.

Making up for the lack of sleep on Friday afternoon. Waking up late. Releasing my inner Julia Child at 2am by making sushi rolls, taboulé and Bergsteigerbrot, something like super tasty vegan granola bars with lots of nuts and honey.

A little bike tour with Frank along the river. Pseudo-meditating on a log, eating some snacks I brought. Floating with the current. His alliterations (“further fodder for future followers”).

#personal #present perfect #things i love #june #2019 #june 2019

[straightnochaser-ff-blog]

2.

Q

I woke up at 10 am a little confused. First Take wasn’t on which was weird because my tv is always left on that channel at night. I sat up when I heard someone coming in the door. It was Aventer in her towel. Her hair was wet and she had water droplets on her shoulders. Made sense now, I was in her room.

“Hey” she said.

“Hey” I smiled.

“You wanna go get breakfast?” she asked.

“Sure, let me go to my room and shower. I’ll be back when I’m done” I said. She nodded and I got up putting on my wife beater and stepping into my slides.  I walked over to her and kissed her forehead. As much as I’ve wanted to kiss her lips, I didn’t think we were there yet and I didn’t want to do anything more to jeopardize our progress. I walked out of her suite and to the elevator so that I could go up to mine. I pressed up and got on the elevator when it came. When I got to my floor I walked down the long wood planked hallway to my suite. I swiped my card and the suite door unlocked. Timothy was in the living room watching first take.

“Yo” I said. I felt bad for taking my anger out on my homie like that last night. We’ve been friends since kindergarten and he’s always had my back, even when I was wrong. 

 “Wassup” he responded. 

 “Bro I wanna apologize about last night, I shouldn’t have put my hands on you” I said. 

“It’s aight man, I know you were in your feelings” he said. These niggas were always calling me emotional. 

 “Cool” 

 “Where you coming from?” he asked. 

“Aventer, I slept there last night” I said. 

 “Oh really? she gave you some?” he asked smirking.

 “Nah man” I said shaking my head. 

 “She’s not like that” I said. 

 “Every girl is like that for the right nigga” he said putting his cup in the sink. 

“You might be right man. Anyway I’m gonna go shower, we’re going to get breakfast” I said. 

 “Nigga sprung without the pussy already” he yelled. I laughed. I wasn’t sprung but damn if I wasn’t feeling her. 

I hopped in the shower and cleaned myself up for about 20 minutes. I brushed my teeth when I got out and then went to my room to get dressed. We were only getting breakfast so I threw on some grey sweats and a white tee. I then chose my black Yeezy boosts as my footwear for the day. I looked at my phone to see that it was already 10:40. I grabbed my car keys and texted Avy to meet me downstairs. I waited in the lobby for about 5 minutes before she appeared. 

“I like your Yeezys” she said chuckling. She had on the zebra ones. 

 “Great minds think alike, come on i’ll drive.” I said. We walked over to my matte red Range Rover and I unlocked the doors. I opened her door for her and held it until she was in her seat and then went around to the drivers side. 

 “So where to?” I asked. 

 “Definitely craving some iHop” she said. I nodded and pulled my car out of the spot. There was an ihop 10 minutes from here so we’d be there soon. The ride was mostly quiet with the exception of the music playing from my playlist. Aventer busied herself by looking out the window. She was beautiful even when she was doing nothing. 

 “You okay” I asked looking over at her briefly. 

 “Yeah I’m fine” she replied smiling at me as she twirled her hair. She was nervous about something. I grabbed her hand with my right hand as I continued to steer with my left. She squeezed it and rested her head back on the headrest. We had finally made it to ihop and were seated immediately. We both started looking through our menu to find out what we wanted to eat. I already had something in mind so it didn’t take me long to figure out what I wanted. I looked up from the menu and watched her as she looked though the menu puzzled. Her face produced a small smile, I assume after she found what she wanted to eat. 

 “Why are you staring at me?” she asked before looking up from the menu. She turned her head to the side awaiting my reply. 

 “You’re nice to look at” I replied. 

 “So are you, but you don’t see me staring” she said. 

 “Well we’re two different people so we handle things different” I said. 

 “When’s your birthday?” she asked. 

 “August 27th” I replied.

 “No fucking way” she said slamming her hand on the table. 

 “What” I asked laughing. 

 “My birthday is also the 27th” she replied. 

 “You serious?” 

 “I’m deadass b” she responded making me laugh. 

 “Where are you from?” I asked. 

 “New York” she said. I figured. I could here the accent all in her voice. 

 “You?” 

 “Indianapolis but I been in LA since I was 11” I responded. She opened her mouth to say something but the waitress interrupted her. 

 “Hello my name is Susan and I’ll be your waitress. What can I start you guys off with today” she asked cheerily. 

 “What do want Avy?” I asked. 

 “Ummm can I have grape juice and the blueberry pancakes” she said to the waitress. 

 “And for you handsome?” she asked smiling in my directions. If she wasn’t in her 50s Aventer probably would have gotten an attitude. 

 “Can I have the cinnamon pancakes and lemonade please” I said. 

 “Sure thing sweety, I’ll have the right out to you kids” she said and took our menus walking away. 

 “So why did you move to LA?” she asked focusing her attention back on me. 

“My mom re-married so her, my brother and I moved out here where my step-dad works” I said. 

 “What does he do?” she asked. 

 “He’s a lawyer” I said. Our waitress came back with our drinks before Aventer asked me some more questions. 

 “My dad is a lawyer too, he works mostly with celebrities and my mom is a surgeon” she said sipping her juice. 

 “A surgeon? What does she specialize in?” I asked curiously. That’s exactly what I wanted to be. 

 “Neuro” she replied. 

 “Wow. Your mom has my dream career” I said. 

 “So you’re a little rich girl?” I asked but mostly assumed. She was 19 driving a Benz, of course she was a little rich girl. 

 “Yeah but I work for things I have. My car is in my name because I bought it. I model and do a lot of photo shoots, which is why I wanted to go to school in California to keep my business up. I’m spoiled yes, but I still buy things with my own money” she said. 

 “My kind of girl” I said smirking. She blushed and looked out the window trying to hide her face. 

 “Well, aren’t you spoiled too? Your step-dad is a lawyer” she said. 

 “Yeah but I wouldn’t say I’m spoiled. I still work for my own shit but my car was actually a graduation present” I said. 

 “Aww how sweet” she said pinching my cheek. I chuckled and swatted her hand away from my face. The waitress brought over our food and Aventer dug in right away. 

 “Damn the food ain’t going anywhere” I said laughing at her. 

 “Shut up” she said with a mouth full. 

 “I’m hungry as fuck” she said waving the knife around. 

 “Take it easy killer” 

 “I would really murk someone over food too” she said. I believe it. She almost put a dent in Melissa’s face last night. 

 “So what part of New York you from?” I asked. 

 “Well I’m originally from the Bronx but my family moved to Westchester when I got to high school. My parents had my older brother when they were 16 so their lives didn’t really pan out how they wanted it to immediately but they both finished school by the time I was 10 and then my dad caught a big case when I was 12 so he took that money and moved us to boujee ass Westchester” she said. 

I wasn’t really familiar with any other parts of New York besides the boroughs but I’m assuming where she lived now was equivalent to Calabasas, where I lived, or the Valley. 

 “You don’t like it there?” I asked. 

 “Yeah, I made friends and everything but those people been rich since they were born so they don’t really get my personality. I wasn’t born into anything, my parents made something out of nothing” she said. 

 “I feel you, I wasn’t born into anything either. If it wasn’t for my step-dad I wouldn’t even be in Cali” I said. 

 “Well, it’s nice to meet someone who isn’t a spoiled brat, my sister Amethyst though-” she paused shaking her head and sipping her drink.

 “She’s spoiled as fuck. She has a good heart and all that but she’ll literally go up to my dad and ask him for $500” she said. 

 “Does he give it to her?” I asked. 

 “Once in a while but more often than not, that’s why she’s spoiled. My mom spoils her too but whatever” she said. 

 “I’m sure if you were to ask they’d give you money” I said. 

 “Yeah, but I wouldn’t. I’m too prideful for that, I’d have to be in desperate need to ask and even after that I would still find a way to pay them back” she said. 

“You’re very independent, that’s a good trait” I said. We finished our food while getting to know each other and cracking jokes. I asked for the bill which Aventer insisted on paying her half for but I ignored her. We headed back out to my car and got in. It was hot as hell outside so my air conditioning was hitting the spot. 

 “You got anything planned for the rest of the day” I asked. 

 “Nah” she replied while buckling her seatbelt. 

 “Alright, well I need to go to the mall real quick. you down?” I asked. She nodded and turned up the music. 

 “Can you slow down, damn” she said touching my shoulder. I chuckled. 

 “I’m only going 50 mph grandma” I said jokingly. She mushed the side of my face irritating me a bit. 

 “Aight, it’s never smart to fight with the person driving the car” I said. We got to the mall and took the short walk from the parking lot to inside. 

 “Where you going?” she asked. 

 “There’s this place called LA gear, I need to look at their new stuff” I said. 

 “As if you need more sneakers” she said. 

 “First of all, you don’t know what I need” I said. 

 “I’m sure you don’t need this” she replied. I mean she was right. I had about 50 pairs of sneakers in my dorm and well over 200 at home. But still, there was always room for more. We arrived at the store and I began to look around. I ended up buying another pair of yeezys and 2 pairs of Jordan’s. Aventer also bought another pair of yeezys so I don’t why she was going so hard on me. These shits were like $600. 

 “You just blew $1200” she said shaking her head at me. I shrugged. 

 “I’ll make it back” I said. 

 “How, you selling drugs? I don’t fuck with no trap lords” she said making me hunch over in laughter. 

 “Nah not at all, my dad lets me work at his company on Saturdays and I make $40 an hour on a 8-hour shift. I’ll have this back in 4 weeks, not like it put a dent in my account anyway” I said. She nodded but she wasn’t paying attention to me anymore. She stopped in her tracks and her eyebrows furrowed. I caught the direction she was looking in and it was some tall light skin nigga with tattoos. 

“You know him?” I asked.

 “Th-that’s my ex” she said. He looked over in our direction and Aventer turned around and ran.

 “Hold up!” I yelled after her. 

 “Avy” I said grabbing her after we ran what felt like a mile. She had ran all the way out of the mall. 

 “We have to go, please!” she basically begged grabbing onto my arm. We made it back to my car and she got in as soon as I unlocked it locking her passenger door behind her. I got in the driver seat and locked my door as well. We sat there for about 5 minutes before I dared to ask a question.

 “Aventer, was he hitting you?” I asked. I couldn’t think of any other reason for her to be afraid of this nigga. She nodded her head. 

 “He would grab me up and be rough and he would hit me sometimes but he always told me ‘If I can’t have you no one can’. I don’t even know how he found me. He’s suppose to be in New York still” she said. 

 “Don’t worry about him. Okay? I’m not gonna let anything happen to you” I said grabbing her hand. 

 “You don’t get it, Chris doesn’t fight fair. He has guns and guys that will come looking for me” she said. That didn’t phase me. One thing about my biological father was, he was a gang leader. He’s the reason I’m fearless. He got killed when I was 16 over some petty bullshit but that’s what happens when you involve yourself in that type of lifestyle. My Uncle’s have taken over the business for him and they always have my back.

“Trust me, I got you” I said. I grabbed her face and turned it so she was facing me. Her eyes looked so scared and worried. I brought her face to mine and placed a soft kiss on her lips. It sounds corny but I swear I felt an electric shock go through my body. I turned on my car and got back on the road to our dorm. She never let go of my hand the whole ride. We reached the dorm building about 20 minutes later and I walked her to her room. 

 “Can you stay with me for a little while?” she asked. I nodded. 

 “Of course” I walked in behind her and took a seat at her desk slipping off my shoes and putting them in the corner. She took off her shoes as well as her sweats and her shirt. I wasn’t sure if she forgot I was here but I was enjoying the view. Her body was amazing. She was small but curvy with a little fat ass. 

“Sorry, I kind of forgot you were over there” she said. 

 “No problem, trust me” I said not bothered. She slipped on some booty shorts and a tank top and walked over to me. I looked up at her puzzled. She stood between my legs and ran her left hand through my curls while she stroked my face with the other. 

 “I just wanted to tell you that it’s rare that you find loyal people in life and I’m glad we found each other. Just like you have my back I’ll have yours. But, I do have one question. Why are you so…nice even though we just met?” she asked. I put my hands on her waist and pulled her down on my lap. 

 “Class isn’t the first time I saw you” I confessed. 

 “We were at orientation together but I was still with my Ex at the time so I never spoke. I thought you were beautiful, you still are” I said rubbing her thigh with my thumb. 

 “I told myself that if the opportunity ever presented itself I’d talk to you, and you presented the opportunity” I said and chuckled. She smiled and leaned down to kiss my lips. She had the softest lips I had ever felt. She broke the kiss because things were getting a little too intense. 

 “Sorry, I just don’t want to move that fast” she said standing up. 

 “I understand, we have all the time in the world to get to know each other” I said standing to my feet. 

 “Come cuddle?” she asked but more like commanded. She pulled me over to her bed and I laid down. She laid next to me and we both stared up at the ceiling enjoying each other’s silence. 

 “This isn’t cuddling” I said due to the fact that we weren’t even touching each other. She giggled cutely and turned her body to face me. 

 “How’s this?” she said throwing her arm and leg over me. 

 “Perfect” I replied placing my hand on her thigh.

 “Just perfect” 

 Aventer 

 "So you’re telling me that you think Iron Man is better than Captain America?“ I asked. We were having a Marvel nerd conversation. I probably don’t look like someone that’s in to all that but I’ve actually seen every movie by Marvel and read all their comic books. Turns out, so did Q. We were so much alike that it was scary. 

 "I’m telling you that Captain America couldn’t beat him in a fight” he said. 

 "Do you see how big that nigga is?“ 

 "That has nothing to do with it! It’s all about power” he said. I rolled my eyes unconvinced. 

 "I beg to differ" I said making him laugh. 

 "You’re stubborn" he said. 

 "And hard headed, my Momma said I was" I said smiling brightly. Our fun was interrupted by my phone ringing. It was an unknown number. 

 "You have to be fucking kidding me" I said looking at the screen. Chris managed to be calling me again I’m sure. Even after I had blocked his number. I was going to have to change my number now. 

 "What’s wrong?“ Q asked leaning over to see my phone. He grabbed it out of my hand and answered it. 

 "Q-” I started to say but Q put his finger to his lips signaling for me to shut up. 

“Who’s this?” he asked. 

“Chris. Who the fuck is this?” I heard Chris say. 

 "Wassup Chris. I’m gonna need you to stop calling this number" Q said calmly. 

“Nigga I don’t know who the fuck you think you are-“ 

 "Don’t worry about who the fuck I am nigga. Do yourself a favor and don’t call here again” Q said sternly. I heard Chris chuckle. 

 "Or what nigga!“ 

“You’ll regret it. Trust me, tread lightly nigga.“ Q said and hung up. 

 "You need to get your number changed” he said looking over at me obviously irritated.

“I know but then my parents are going to ask questions” I said.

“Just tell them you lost your phone or something, but you need a different number especially since that nigga knows you’re around San Francisco somewhere” he said. He was right. There were like 10 other colleges in San Fran but it wouldn’t take much for him to find out which one I went to. I made it my business never to post about my university but he still found me.

“We’ll fix it tomorrow okay?” he said grabbing my face and stroking my cheek with his thumb.

“Okay” I smiled. Q smiled at me and leaned over to kiss me but the ringing of his phone stopped him.

“Hello” he said to whoever was on the other line.

“Nah nigga I’m not going out tonight”

“Cuz I’m chillin”

“Yeah I’m with her. Hold on”

“Avy you going out tonight” he asked me. I shook my head no. After last night, I needed a break, at least until next weekend. 

“She said no bro so that’s a no from me too dawg” he said making me giggle.

“Shut the fuck up nigga, aight bye” he said and ended the call.

“Niggas keep saying I’m sprung” he said.

“Well are you?” I asked.

“Nah, but I’m not far from it” he said as he looked over at me seductively. Control yourself Avy, It’s way too early to give him some.

“Can I ask you something?” I said.

“Wassup”

“How do you view a girl that has sex with you like 3 days after meeting you” I asked curiously. He shrugged.

“Honestly, I can’t even say I’d call her a hoe because me and my ex had sex maybe 5 days after we met. But when you have sex doesn’t define how a nigga is gonna treat you. Niggas will treat you like shit if you have sex right away or wait a while simply because you’re not the one they want. But if you are, time won’t matter. Only time you wait to have sex is when you want to build a bond first, that way you don’t mistake lust for love and you know for sure that’s who you want to be with” he said.

“Wow, that’s a good answer” I said. I didn’t think Q was this inquisitive. 

“That’s just how I feel about things. Why you ask me that though?” he questioned stroking his goatee.

“No reason” I lied and got up to grab a juice from my fridge.

“Mmhmm” he said in a low tone. I knew he called bullshit but I wasn’t about to tell him why I asked.

“You want something to drink” I asked.

“You have water?” he replied. I grabbed a bottle and sauntered my way back over to him.

“If you not trying to have sex anytime soon I suggest you stop walking around here like that” he said before smacking my ass.

“Keep your hands to yourself little nigga” I said mushing him.

“Oh I’m far from that” he smirked.

I sat back on my bed propping my feet up on his lap. 

 "I look like a foot rest to you?” he asked pushing my feet off him but I put them right back. I raised my right leg and pushed his face with my foot. 

 "Get. Ya. Foot. Out. My. Face.“ he said grabbing my ankle. I laughed at his attempt to sound serious. 

 "Or what?” I said moving my head from side to side. Q frowned and then started tickling me. Unfortunately, I was ticklish as hell.

 "Q!! STOP!!“ I screamed trying to push him off me. 

 "I don’t know who you thought you were playing with” he said as he continued to tickle the life out of me. 

 "Okay okay I’m sorry" I said. I was laughing so much that tears were rolling out of my eyes. Q stopped tickling me and started laughing at my helpless self. 

 "I bet ya ass will leave me alone next time I ask" he said hovering over my face. 

His nose brushed against mine and our lips were merely inches apart. His right arm was supporting his weight and his left hand was holding my right arm down. We were engaged in an intense stare off just admiring each other’s features before he leaned in to kiss me. The kiss started off innoncent but it quickly became passionate. Q slid his tongue into my mouth and our tongues quickly became involved in a battle of dominance. Q broke this kiss and started kissing along my jaw bone and down to my neck where he began to suck on my flesh. 

 "Mmm" I moaned. My neck was my weak spot, you could pretty much get me to do anything you asked if you were sucking on it. 

 "Q stop" I said realizing what we were doing. Q ignored me and began to kiss down to my breasts. 

 "Q!“ I said louder but I still hadn’t pushed him off of me. As much as I thought we should wait, I really wanted this. 

 "Alright stop” I said pushing him away. 

 "What’s wrong?“ he asked. 

 "I- this isn’t right. We’re not ready for this” I said. 

 "I don’t know about you but I am" he said smiling. 

 "Q-“ 

 "You want to do this Aventer, you can’t fool me. Are you afraid I’m going to stop talking to you?” he questioned. 

 "No" 

 "You think I don’t really like you?“ 

 "No" 

 "Then wassup?“ 

 "I-” I began but couldn’t even formulate the words. I don’t know what I was really holding back from. Maybe the fact that he could secretly be just like Chris and this attachment would make it hard for me to leave him too. Or, maybe Q really is trying to play me. But if he wasn’t, he’d find these accusations insulting. So it wasn’t the best idea to tell him this. 

 "I just want to wait, until the time is right” I said. Q sighed but gave me a nod acknowledging that he was agreeing with me. He rolled over beside me and rubbed his hands down his face. 

 "I’m sorry" I said. 

 "You don’t have to apologize, my bad for taking it too far though" he said. 

 "It’s okay" 

 "Whenever you’re ready, I’ll be here" he said. 

 "What if it’s like a year from now" I asked laughing knowing that I wouldn’t even be able to last that long. He chuckled. 

 "Even if it is, you’re worth it" he said. 

 Chris 

Aventer must have forgotten who the fuck I am. She was really acting like I couldn’t have her snatched up off the street with the snap of a finger. I was trying to keep my patience though because I didn’t want to hurt her but she was testing me. As if I didn’t know what school she went to. And, whoever that nigga is she’s with, he’s dead. No one fucks with what’s mine, man, woman or child. I gave no fucks, everyone could end up with a bullet between their eyes. I let her get away at the mall in San Francisco because there was too many people. But, I’d be paying her a visit when the time was right. Anyways, I was out in Oakland at the moment handling some business with some of my niggas out here. I had to stop at the gas station to refill my lambo and get some papers. I pulled up to a tank, hopped out my car and went into the station. 

“I’m on number 2” I said to the clerk. I walked to the back to pick up a snack I was going to need after smoking and some bitch backed up into me stepping on my Jordans. 

“Yo what the fuck” I said angry. 

“I’m so sorry” she said turning around. She was pretty. She had brown hair, smooth skin and her lips looked soft as fuck. She was on the tall side but she had a nice little body from what I could see. 

 "It’s aight" I said. If she was ugly I would have blacked but shawty was fine.

 "I have those sneakers too" she said pointing at mine. 

 "Yeah they’re essential" I said grabbing a few things. 

 "Yeah, 1′s are always essential" she said. Hmm so she was into sneakers. 

 "I’m Chris" I said introducing myself. 

 "Briana" she said extending her hand. I grabbed it and shook it. 

 "You go to school out here" I asked. 

 "Well I’m from here but yeah I do" she said. 

 "That’s wassup, I’m new to the area" I said. 

 "Well I’d love to show you around some time" she said smiling. I smirked. 

 "Sounds good to me" I said. She held her hand out for my phone and I passed it to her so she could put her number in. 

 "Text me" she said. 

 "I will.“ I smiled.

Briana might just be who I need to complete my plans. She was young and in college which meant hanging with her would probably help me cross paths with Aventer. All I wanted to do was get back at her for leaving and if that meant making her life hell on Earth, I was all for it. 

I paid for my snacks and the gas and then went back to the pump to fill it up.

“Maxwell” I heard someone call my last name.

“Who wants to know?” I asked not turning around.

“Melissa.”

#Trevor Jackson #trevor jackson fanfic #chris brown #straightnochaserff

[kelsiestelting]

I think I’ve been waiting to use that song as a blog title and now I finally can! Why? A) because Ty’s grandparents are the best, B) we got to travel with Ty’s grandparents and cousins, Clayton and Jeanette, and C) because we spent the last week on a ship eating, eating, eating, and visiting Jamaica, the Grand Caymans, and Cozumel.

The entire week was full of firsts for us. Our first travels in 2017, our first time on a cruise, and our first time seeing three different countries.

The first country on the itinerary? Jamaica. We had been at sea for two days, survived sea sickness, and at this point two out of five of us had gotten a cold and two out of five had aches and pains. (Not me! For the first time ever!) So, it was just Ty, Grandma Stelting, and me.

Jamaica

At first, we thought we’d take a paid tour, but we found a better deal called the “hop on, hop off.” Basically, you pay a flat fee and can ride on a buss that goes around town for the duration of the day. The first stop was the Rose Shopping Center. I was super excited about this stop because FREE WIFI. Did you know wifi is not included on a cruise and cell phone service is sparse in the middle of the ocean? Well, it isn’t and it is, and I was having a real tech craving. I had just good enough signal to see that I had facebook notifications and maybe two emails. Score.

After that, it was time for the beach at Montego Bay! For $6 a person, we got a place to plant our butts in the sand and enjoy the water. Luckily, a few people left and gave us their beach chairs so we had somewhere to sit.

One of Ty’s favorite things to do at the beach is snorkel. So, we rented a snorkel and I swam along side him while he checked out the reefs of Montego Bay.

One of my new favorite things to do is use my phone’s waterproof case to take fun pictures in the water. Here are a few attempts. 😊

  After the beach, our next stop was Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville. So I may or may not have know that this place actually existed out of the song. *cough* didn’t know *cough* Okay, so the cat’s out of the bag. I didn’t, but now I do. Why? Because I saw it. And just for good measure, had a pomegranate Marg while I was there because I didn’t look touristy enough.

  The thing about cruises is that you only have a limited amount of time – like 7 hours tops – to check out the destination, so our impression of Jamaica was limited to those three places. We hopped on the hop-on-hop-off and made it back to the cruise ship with some time to spare before dinner.

I took advantage of the 120 feet in the air view from the top deck and got some beautiful images of the sunset on the island.

Grand Cayman

When we woke up the next day, we were at the Grand Cayman. Okay, well, we were at the port. This stop was different because instead of just walking off the ship, we “tendered.” Unfortunately this has nothing to do with getting money. Basically, they packed us like sardines into a smaller boat and shipped (haha) us to the shore.

Carnival Breeze is on the right. The tender boat that looks like it could be CB’s toenail is on the left. That boat in the middle is just photo-bombing.

This about sums up the day: Sun. Sand. Spotty wifi. Rash from sunscreen. (Did you know you can be allergic to sunscreen?) Happiness.

Grandma Stelting and Jeanette. This is one of my favorite photos from the trip.

The beach was absolutely beautiful. All fine sand and blue, gentle waves. We could swim out and float, pretending the wakes were waves, and enjoy the sun on our faces.

Can you feel the sand between your toes yet?

Cozumel

According to Jeanette, every cruise ship stops at Cozumel because, “It’s Mexico.” Everyone got off the boat so we could take a picture together on the gangplank, and then we went out separate ways to enjoy the day.

The “gangplank” wasn’t as intimidating as the narrow wooden board I had imagined.

Cozumel was probably my least favorite stop on the trip for two reasons, the first is that I suffer from “shoppers empathy.” Shoppers empathy is a terrible disorder where if someone looks like they really want you to buy something, and you maaaaaaybe have enough money to buy said thing, then you’ll probably buy said thing unless you have Ty next to you saying “no, no, no.” Even with Ty by your side, you still might buy said thing. Anyway, one trip into a jewelry store nearly left both me and the salesman in tears, and that was the end of my shopping “fun.”

First view of Mexico.

View of the ocean/CB from Mexico!

  The other reason Cozumel isn’t number one on my I-have-to-go-back list is that transportation is incredibly expensive. A taxi to the Mayan ruins and the beach was $70… per person. Let me just put this in perspective by saying there’s only one real road on the island and its a 20-mile loop. So, rather than spend $140 on a taxi driver who might desert us, we opted to rent a car for $100.

Cozumel road.

Ty was able to say he drove in another country, and I was able to say I survived Ty driving in another country. Win-win.

Our first stop was one of the smaller Mayan ruins. We came, we saw, we took a picture with a man in body paint, we conquered.

The ruin was located in a neat little neighborhood that had houses with thatched roofs, a Catholic church, and some little shops.

We spent some time there, and thought we would use the rest of our remaining time to check out a beach.

Sky Reef at Cozumel

One of Ty’s bucket list items was to partake in an adult beverage while sitting by a beach. But… he was driving, and apparently not drinking there gives him a reason to go back to a beach again soon. Like we needed a reason. The beach we went to at Cozumel wasn’t quite as nice as the ones we’d been to over the last couple of days, and we didn’t have beach shoes, so we mostly tip-toed around, watched the waves, and enjoyed our last excursion on the cruise.

Returning Home

After all of our trips, we had one more day on the cruise ship. Ty wrote an awesome blog post about what we did the four days we were on the ship, and I definitely think it’s worth the read if you’re considering a cruise or if you’re just curious. :) Also, Ty wrote it and he’s the bomb diggity, so there’s reason number three.

Thanks for reading and going along on this journey with us! Traveling is always more fun when you have people to share it with! <3

  While we were on our cruise, we had three stops: Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. I wrote about our excursions in this post, and Ty's writing about what it was like aboard the ship in another post. If you're curious about these places or just want to see what we were up to for the last week, check it out. ;) I can promise some thinly veiled sarcasm and pretty beach photos. I think I've been waiting to use that song as a blog title and now I finally can!