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#they met around christmas and their wedding was in april - they just had their 1st anniversary and their baby's due next month
becca-alexa · 1 year
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✨personal so read if you want to✨
the people in my immediate circle all think i'm crazy for saying i'd want to be in a relationship for 2-3 years before talking about marriage and i think they're all insane for it but then i remember the average time from strangers to married for them is around 6 months
#becca.txt#legit do not think any of their relationships went on for longer than a year before marriage#my bestie went from absolute strangers to married in 4 months#they're adorable together but FOUR MONTHS???wild#they met around christmas and their wedding was in april - they just had their 1st anniversary and their baby's due next month#that's what happens when you're latina and religious i guess#not me thinking that 30s+ is a good age to marry and have kids and everybody thinking i'm insane 👀#don't even get me started on HAVING kids -- nobody wants to hear that i can't conceive naturally they all say to stay hopeful!...#there's still a chance!you can do it!like y'all i got stage 4 endometriosis that's taken over both my ovaries i ain't having no kids 😂#honestly i've said this before and i'll say it again - if i'm to have a marriage like some of them i'd rather stay single#i think only my bestie has a TRULY happy and functional marriage#i love her for it and her husband's an angel on earth -- everyone else's marriage is a literal dumpster fire#like my dudes if you're doing relationship counseling WHILE DATING then do premarital AND post marital couseling...#why get married???? like i am the biggest supporter of utilizing mental health services but something's not right there#and don't even get me started on how YOUNG they marry or how religious folk play round robin with each other til someone sticks#god forbid you tell anyone you don't want to get married in general or GASP!you marry a non-believer#everybody always talks shit about “missional dating” and how you can't do it!!but like... everybody does it#literally everybody#it's not a big deal#just because we're the same denomination doesn't automatically make you a decent person#and the opposite is true - just because we don't believe the same things doesn't make you a hellbound pagan#it's just frustrating y'know???idk if anybody will relate to this but i am so ready to just... do my faith on my own terms#so sick of people i've known all my life looking at me like i'm sick or something bc i'm 26 and still single#by this point if anybody in that circle tries to set me up with a guy it's an automatic aversion#not one man they've ever introduced to me is worth the light of day - and i'm not being rude#like buddy you're 30+ still living at home no job no career no education no ambitions....but he's christian tho!!#yeah sure but he's still trash#i want a partner not a baby imma have to support#just me rambling about things nobody want to hear but i gotta put this out somewhere or else i'll implode
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ingek73 · 4 years
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imho a better read then Finding Freedom
(too many pics to include, click on the link to see them’
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The British Royal Family, The Media and ‘SussExit’ – Part 2
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Zanye Linda August 13, 2020 18 Comments
At the end of part one, I posed a few questions: Was the spare and his wife outshining the heir? Also what is the connection between ITV and the Markle family? Why does this mainstream channel consistently give them a platform? And what about the Royal Rota – they exist to sell the Monarchy to the public while also subjecting them to the appropriate scrutiny. Did they not think the negative coverage surrounding Meghan would have a negative impact on the Monarchy? Where was the Royal Family in all this? When Diana and Sophie were faced with negative media coverage, the Queen and the palace asked the editors to ease up on them. Even Kate was given a grace period to settle into her role as a Royal. Why were they not offering Meghan the same protections?
Winter 2018
By now it was clear Meghan was under attack by the UK media and each story was picked up and amplified across the entire world. It had been earlier reported that the Queen had invited Doria Ragland, Meghan’s mother to spend Christmas at Sandringham. Shortly after that story made the rounds, Thomas Markle Sr. would once again feature in the Daily Mail courtesy of Caroline Graham. He revealed the heartfelt notes his daughter once sent him and makes another attempt to ‘tell his side of the story’ and present evidence that he did indeed have a heart attack and that is why he missed the wedding. But he would go on to claim that he had been frozen out by Harry and Meghan, and any attempts he had made to get in touch with them had gone unanswered, and that he was living in fear of never seeing his daughter again.
Thomas would once again appear on ITV’s GMB with Piers Morgan, who has now switched his tone of commentary on Meghan Markle. The brilliant young woman – his words – was now a conniving ruthless social climber who had ‘ghosted’ her father just as she ‘ghosted’ him after she met Prince Harry. Interestingly, Thomas Markle is now using the same term ‘ghosting/ghosted’.
Harry and Meghan press forward with their royal duties and in early January 2019, the palace announced Meghan’s patronages – a total of 4 that include two – the Association of Commonwealth Universities and the National Theater – that she took over from the Queen. Around this time, they suffered a major violation of their privacy. Emily Andrews of the Sun (currently mail on Sunday royal editor), revealed the location of their country home in the Cotswolds, and the Times actually published pictures of the house taken via a paparazzi helicopter. This was a residence that they privately leased, not one gifted by the Queen or some taxpayer funded whatever, and there was absolutely no justification for breaching their privacy in that manner. It later came to light that Prince harry sued and received “substantial damages” for the invasion of privacy. It was revealed that the couple surrendered the lease early because of security concerns once the location of the home had been revealed.
With the media onslaught carrying on into the new year and new recruits like Piers Morgan aboard the anti-Meghan train, five of Meghan’s friends in an anonymous interview expressed their concern for Meghan and called out the global bullying by the media and the stress it was putting on 7-month pregnant Meghan. The article also mentioned, contrary to existing narratives, that Meghan did not ignore her father and had made attempts to reach out to him, begging him to stop attacking her via the media so they could repair their relationship. In a rebuttal to this article, the Mail on Sunday published parts of a private letter Meghan had written to her father. The excerpts revealed her anguish and confirmed the lengths she went to to keep in touch with her father. On the other side, under the charge of Piers the press was putting pressure on Meghan to call her father.
Kensington Palace welcomed a new communications secretary, Christian Jones to the Royal Household. Following his appointment we begun to see even more leaks. Firstly, pictures of Meghan and Christian leaving lunch were published in the UK papers, a highly unusual move because according to the Royal Rota, there is an agreement with the palace not to publish paparazzi pictures of the royal family. Meghan being pictured was significant in that, we know from multiple reports that she paid several private visits to her patronages( before becoming patron). They, as well as the women of the Hubb Community kitchen but not a single picture was ever seen, until they were ready to publicize the visit.
In mid February, Meghan quietly traveled to New York and for 3 days had gone undetected, that is, until the Daily Mail published paparazzi pictures. With her location revealed she was forced to move out of her friends residence into a hotel, where the media created a spectacle of themselves to the extent that back-up security had to be provided by US officials.
Then, ever so eager to break “exclusives”, Emily Andrews wrote a story about the events at Meghan’s baby shower, that appeared on the front pages of the Sun. Only problem was that, the story, complete with details of guests in attendance and games that were played, was published a day too early. The baby shower hadn’t taken place yet. According to Emily, she was told by her source at Kensington Palace was to blame for the mix-up and had apologized to her for getting the dates wrong. Interestingly, all of Emily’s tweets between 1st February 2019 and 23rd February 2019 have disappeared from her Twitter timeline. The baby shower was on February 20th, and we know she tweeted about it.
The baby shower attracted a lot of criticism from royal reporters and experts with claims it was ‘unroyal”, ‘lavish and distasteful”. And as if that wasn’t enough Kensington Palace in covering an engagement William was undertaking published UK poverty statistics, prompting Piers Morgan to weigh in accusing Meghan of living the high life while the Queen’s subject languish in poverty. The Daily Mail even went as far as criticising her for not inviting her mother in favour of her ‘New A-List Celebrity friends’.
Shortly after returning to London, Meghan was on a plane with Harry headed to Morocco to carry out another Royal visit at the request of the UK government. As for the royal press, on the one hand, they continued to complain about lack of access to Meghan – continuing a narrative they created at the time of the cookbook launch – while hopping on planes to go cover their events. According to the likes of Arthur Edwards, since Harry met Meghan he had changed and was no longer “one of the lads” who used to hang out with them in the pub. So what if the press had written a few unflattering pieces about Meghan – it was all a part of the game and the two needed to loosen up.
Spring 2019
Expectation is building up for the Royal baby and the royal reporters are trying to close in on a due date. The only thing they know came by way of a chat during a visit to Bristol, when Meghan told a lady during a walkabout the baby was due late April early May. Besides waiting for the arrival of their baby, Harry and Meghan were forced to leave their Oxfordshire home(as stated earlier) after the media published pictures of their house. In the same month, Buckingham Palace finally announced the split in the royal household commonly known as Kensington Palace and the creation of a new household for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex based at Buckingham palace, with Sarah Latham as their head of communications.
While the focus was on Harry and Meghan, it seems other royals were up to the usual royal shenanigans. The Sun’s Dan Wootton run a story on Kate’s fall out with a local rival, Rose but just like the “Meghan made Kate cry” story no reason was given. The story did not generate much interest until in an attempt to bury the story, Richard Kay in a Daily Mail article downplayed the fall out and instead tried to use it as another opportunity to slag off Meghan and Harry. The story gained momentum on social media and of particular interest were tweets from people within the Norfolk set, stating that the affair between William and Rose is well known but nobody talks about it. These tweets would very quickly disappear over the following days but never off the internet.
A royal affair is not surprising considering 3 of the Queen’s 4 children are divorced in part due to infidelity. The surprise was nobody in the UK press was covering this story. No follow up articles, no TV debates, not even a tweet from the Royal Rota who claim to be journalists covering the royals without fear or favour. The same reporters who had spent the past months giving us behind the scenes stories about Meghan, where no story was too big or too small or too nonsensical to be written about. Subsequent media reports indicated that Prince William lawyers threatened the media with legal action if they covered the story. And just like that, the story was buried. We witnessed the full strength of the palace unleashed to protect William from the media, while the same press continued to attack Meghan. The so-called royal family mantra “never complain, never explain” was applied to Harry and Meghan but the rest had the freedom to complain.
In early April 2019, Harry and Meghan finally moved away from Kensington Palace to Frogmore Cottage. Harry and Meghan had strong social media support where people worked hard to highlight media lies, challenge narratives and call out the racism, sexism, classism Meghan was subjected to. Given the nature of stories that were being written about the couple, the volume of leaks coming out of the palace, the petty displays of jealousy and double standards applied by the royal family and the media, there was a sense the two were working together to bully and harass this young couple and to undermine their achievements so they do not outshine or outperform the heirs, specifically William. This was mainly social media chatter as people attempted to connect the dots around everything that was happening, each circling back to Kensington Palace.
A few weeks later suspicions would be confirmed via an article by political journalist Tim Shipman that appeared in the Sunday Times titled, “Revealed: Palace’s Africa plan for Harry and Meghan”. In the article he mentioned how the palace was struggling to harness the popularity of Harry and Meghan. That their popularity was a source of concern for William, whom courtiers had to assure, telling him the current situation was “peak Harry, and the popularity would fade”. He also confirmed William’s displeasure at Harry’s appointment as Commonwealth Youth Ambassador the year before. The palace was therefore considering creating a position for them somewhere in Africa. Other continents had been considered but even Australia was not far enough given the internet age, and Canada was too close to the US, Meghan’s home country. The article went on to reveal efforts William was undertaking in preparation to be King after the death of his grandmother and then his father. Part of this involved reaching out to the very same editors that had been harassing his brother and sister-in-law for the past year, a move that the palace supported, and one which saw the media side with William and the palace, and advancing the most negative coverage of Meghan’s father.
The portrayal of Africa in the article as this backward, out of the way continent where Harry and Meghan could be “banished” to, attracted the ire of social media and forced the palace to issue a denial and the online version of the article was re-framed with the contribution of royal correspondent Roya Nikkah. Another area of interest within the original article were the lengths the palace was willing to go to make William (and Kate) more comfortable, which is understandable considering William will one day be king. But it begs the question, why an institution that was looking to modernise as they had boldly claimed to the world would suddenly find problems with the modern ways of Harry and Meghan, who in a short amount of time had brought attention to the royal family and were quickly attracting a demographic of the UK population and the world, that had until now felt disconnected from them? It seemed counterproductive that a move like this would be in the works.
About two weeks later, Meghan delivered the couple’s baby on May 06 2019. Archie Harrison Mountbatten Windsor was introduced to the world two days later in a photo call at Windsor Castle. That they were able to travel to the hospital, have the baby and be back home without so much as a peep, underscores what a tight inner circle they had and most importantly, what the distance from other households had done to stem the leaks.
The day after the photo call Harry traveled to Netherlands to launch the Invictus Games 2020. Initially, A day or two before the IG 2020 launch, Harry was scheduled to undertake an engagement in Amsterdam. The Amsterdam engagement happened to be on the same day William and Kate were to travel to Wales, and Charles was concluding a tour of Germany. In a move that was reminiscent of the Winter of 2017 where the media informed us of William’s fury at a scheduling conflict with Harry and Meghan, the Amsterdam event was cancelled, citing logistical difficulties for reporters covering all three events. Charles’ and William’s went ahead as planned with no scheduling complaints.
Summer 2019
Another summer as a royal brings another round of attacks on Meghan by the media. Her crime this time; while less than a month post-partum and on maternity leave, the Duchess did not participate in any events during Donald Trump’s visit to the UK. The scheduled events would see appearances from the Queen, her two heirs in-waiting and a brief appearance by Harry at a luncheon hosted by the queen. Somehow, it was the absence of Harry and particularly Meghan that the press was focused on. They accused the Duchess of absconding from her Royal duties, while on maternity leave.
On the work front, Emily Andrews would “exclusively reveal” that Meghan was working on a project with vogue and went on to speculate on the details. As far as their charitable endeavours were concerned it was announced that, Harry and Meghan would step down as, joint patrons of the Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and work towards creating their own charitable vehicle. While the royal reporters feigned shock at this news and and wondered why this was happening, a review of the recently released financial reports of the Foundation told a story. Most of the income and successful impactful projects were attributed to the efforts of Harry and Meghan, plus the financial health of the foundation was found to be lacking.
Around the same time, 2019 financial reports, revealed the impact of The Sussexes’ wedding on the royal family. The Royal Collection Trust, which oversees visitors to the palace and other royal exhibitions reported “a bumper year of royal celebrations”. Retail sales increased by 19%, the Queen’s official residence enjoyed a record 3.3 million more visitors mainly driven by Windsor, and admission income grew by £7.5 million. Contrary to earlier media reports that Meghan’s wardrobe budget estimated at about £1 million (suggesting she cost the RF a lot), the Royal household expenditure only increased by £85,000. From the looks of things, Meghan joining the Royal family had been good ‘for business’.
This did not matter one bit to the UK media when the review of capital expenditure of under the Sovereign Grant showed that £2.4 million was spent to renovate Frogmore Cottage – a building that had been already been earmarked for renovation( regardless of the Sussexes’ occupancy) for the year ending April 2019. The media used this as an opportunity to demand access to Meghan, evoking the taxpayer/publicly funded argument and accusing her of having unrealistic privacy expectations. This criticism reached fever pitch when it was revealed that Archie’s baptism would be a private affair, with portraits to follow. Piers Morgan used his TV platform to tell Meghan “Go Back to America”. The media however didn’t appear to care that £1 million was spent to refurbish a Kensington Palace driveway. Harry and Meghan had obtained consent from the Queen to use her private chapel and keep details of their son’s godparents private. So desperate were the media to get details of the event that, Richard Palmer went as far as accusing the Queen of breaking the law. No matter how the media felt about this decision, the fact is both Harry and Meghan made this decision jointly with consent from the Queen but it was Meghan who bore the brunt of the criticism.
In July 2019, Jeffrey Epstein a New York financier accused of molesting dozens of minor girls was arrested and charged with sex trafficking by federal prosecutors. Jeffrey Epstein was a friend to Prince Andrew and the two had been pictured together in London, on a boat with topless women in Thailand, walking together in Central Park shortly after Jeffrey’s release from an earlier prison sentence for similar charges. Once again Prince Andrew’s association with Jeffrey Epstein was generating international media interest. When the Royal Rota were asked why they were not covering this story, their response was he has not been accused of anything. Nobody was asking them to accuse Andrew of anything and the public was pointing out a story that deserved their attention. Rather than address this growing concern, the palace instead threw a bone to the media by announcing that Meghan was to guest-edit of the prestigious September.
About a month later Jeffrey Epstein died in his prison cell and the following day the UK tabloids that had by and large ignored this story published pictures of a smiling Prince Andrew riding in a car with the Queen on their way to Sunday service at Balmoral. Royal experts tell us the royal family uses a lot of symbolism. The pictures themselves were taken at such close range, which could only have happened with palace approval. In allowing these pictures to be published, the message from the royal family was loud and clear – Prince Andrew had the full support of the Monarch herself. When Richard Palmer accused the Queen of breaking the law, the palace communications did not feel it necessary to respond but here was a whole Prince with credible rape allegations receiving a public showing of support from the Queen, the royal family and the media.
Still reeling from being left out of the baptism celebrations and choosing to ignore the Jeffrey Epstein – Prince Andrew association in light of Jeffrey Epstein’s arrest, the media would once again turn their attention to Meghan and Harry. This time round accusing them of hypocrisy for going on holiday using a private jet while advocating for climate change and environmental conservation. This is a common criticism of the rich and famous by the UK media. But in this instance it was problematic because as usual the bulk of the criticism fell on Meghan accusing her of “lecturing” the British public about climate change, never mind that never once has she spoken publicly on climate change which is her husband’s area of focus. Secondly, Princes Charles and William use private jets all the time but are not subjected to this level of criticism. The double standard was exhausting, the attacks equally tiring. Elton John was compelled to address them publicly, posting on his Instagram that he had paid for their private jet and its carbon emissions and called out the media for their relentless attacks on the couple. He was one in a list of public figures to come out and defend Harry and Meghan, while the Royal Family sat back and watched this happen.
Not to be outdone by the media and in what appeared to be a calculated move to capitalize on the negative reporting on Harry and Meghan for the Cambridges’ benefit, Kensington Palace under the leadership of Simon Case made last minute arrangements for William and is wife fly a budget airline to Balmoral to visit the Queen. Of course, they just “happened” to be pictured carrying their own bags as the walked across the tarmac. On cue, the media went into phase 2 of slag Harry and Meghan off. This was clearly a publicity stunt and as much as Royal Rota attempted to defend the situation it was comical when a Scottish paper broke the backstory of this very conveniently timed flight. Two planes were flown empty for hundreds of miles so as to position an aircraft for The Cambridges’ flight to “maximise publicity”. Their expertise in carbon emissions were suddenly non-existent. The Royal Rota were so far up that Kensington tree that they continued to make ridiculous excuses for the stunt. They were squirming.
The release of Meghan’s Vogue issue provided the media with the perfect segue to get away from flights and stunts to resume their attacks on Meghan. All manner of criticism were thrown her way. She was being political, woke and all that nonsense. So-called journalists, were provided platforms by TV networks to lie about commonly known facts. It was a manufactured hysteria, that was designed probably to sabotage the issue. All the dry heaving did very little to dissuade the public and Vogue September 2019 issue “Forces for Change” went on to become fastest-selling issue in the history of British Vogue, selling out in 10 days and the biggest-selling issue of the past decade.
The ridiculous display by the British media had now attracted global attention and the media received a lot of push-back. The racism, misogyny, sexism and classism was rightfully called out and so was their double standards and hypocrisy criticising Meghan for doing everything every Royal had done in the past. The British media pushed back. Dan Wootton who happened to attend University with Jason Knauf, a senior official in William’s court and had a mutual friend with Christian Jones, Communications Secretary at Kensington palace accused Harry and Meghan of playing the victim card when in fact it was the family and their courtiers that had been briefing different parts of the media about them. His colleague at the time Emily Andrews eagerly informed the public that, the palace had been angered by Harry and Meghan’s actions and nobody was supporting them.
It wasn’t the Prince hanging out with the convicted paedophile; or another Prince allegedly having an affair with his wife’s friend; nor was it the fact that in 7 years of marriage said wife had not done anything meaningful in her royal role that had angered the palace. It was Meghan’s admirable qualities of feistiness, can-do attitude and work ethic that had angered the family and the household.
Autumn 2019
In spite of all the media criticism and angry family members briefing the media against them, Harry and Meghan pressed forward with their royal duties and each day they had to come into contact with the very same people who constantly bullied and harassed them. Meghan gave the public a glimpse of a project she had been working on with SmartWorks Charity– one of her patronages -while Harry traveled to Amsterdam to finally launch Travalyst a sustainable travel project whose earlier launch had been postponed due to scheduling conflicts within the royal households. For the media this was another opportunity to undermine Harry’s work like they have done with his achievements in the past. Not being one to shy away from tough situations, Harry stood up in front of the world media and acknowledged the criticism surrounding his use of a private jet stating majority of the time he traveled commercial but occasionally it was necessary to travel via private in order to ensure the safety of his family – as simple as that.
Almost a year after the successful launch of the cookbook that raised more than £500,000 for the ladies of the Hubb Community kitchen, Meghan in partnership with John Lewis and Partners, Marks and Spencer, Jigsaw and her friend Misha Nonoo launched the Smart Set Collection; a 5-piece capsule collection using the 1:1 model with the aim of providing SmartWorks Charity with enough units to dress the women the they support for a full year. It came as no surprise when some of the items sold out within an hour of launching and in only 8 days the target was realised with only 4 days left to the end of the sales period.
Another successful project under her belt, together with Harry they would embark on their fourth foreign visit in a little over a year. This time traveling to South Africa as representatives of her Majesty the Queen and her government at the request of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Over the summer period the UK media had gone to even greater lengths to deny what was a clearly racist agenda against Meghan. It was racist because Meghan was being relentlessly criticised for doing the very same things that all other royals did; guest editing a magazine, using a private jet, not making a public appearance immediately after birthing her child (the public didn’t see Prince Charles until 3 months after his birth), addressing issues such as feminism, climate change, sustainability, mental health. The critics called for the palace to fire their PR team led by Sara Latham because according to them, Harry and Meghan had fallen out of favour with the public. In the words of Eamonn Holmes, “Harry and Meghan needed to consult with media types like them” to get their PR straightened out.
That narrative was difficult to square with the fact that, the press pack that would accompany the “out-favour couple” consisted of 80 accredited traveling media and 300 local media. It was even more shocking to see the number of people that turned up to the events. Interestingly though, there was a slight change in tone of coverage with Meghan gracing most front pages back at home (but then she always did), but missing was the scathing words and the name calling we had become accustomed to over the past year. The media finally had a public appearance by 5-month old Archie prompting the likes of Sarah Vine to claim that in doing so, the couple had turned things around.
On the penultimate day of the tour, in the presence of a global audience, Prince Harry released a statement in which he called out the UK media for launching a smear campaign against his wife and informing the world that his wife was taking legal action against the Mail on Sunday and Associated Newspapers for the publication of a private letter she had written to her father. The UK media was livid to say the least. While the rest of the world media covered the last day of the tour declaring it a success, their UK counterparts wallowed in self-pity choosing to make themselves the victims and questioning the timing of this announcement. As they went on and on about the action of Harry, they failed to mention to the public that a week prior to this latest announcement, Harry had filed a lawsuit against the Sun and Mirror group for phone hacking. Although the media called this a highly unusual move and warned Harry and Meghan “would draw the ire of editors”, this was not the first time the royal family had sued the press. In July 2019 Harry was paid substantial damages after suing Splash News and Picture Agency for invading his privacy when they flew a helicopter over the Oxfordshire property. William and Kate, Prince Charles and the Queen have all filed privacy suits before. Just Meghan apparently doesn’t deserve or have privacy rights.
Across the pond another Duke and Duchess were preparing to embark on a tour to Pakistan, their “most complicated tour to date”. In keeping with royal family requirements not to overshadow other working members, Harry and Meghan kept a low profile throughout the month of October. Tom Bradby a journalist and friend to Harry & William, had been traveling with the couple and making a documentary about their Southern Africa tour. Naturally he covered the new legal action as well as the behind the scenes goings on. When ITV’s release of the promo for the documentary coincided with the last day of the Pakistan tour, William and his army of reporters turn their ire towards Harry and Meghan, instead of the media company, The Royal Rota accused them of intentionally overshadowing a very important tour by the future king and his consort, as if they are responsible for programming at ITV. Unsurprisingly, the royal press pack in Pakistan told of William’s displeasure; a comment that by now, we’ve come to expect. Protocols were invented for this specific occasion with Rhiannon Mills claiming “There is an unwritten rule in the royal family that you don’t do anything too high profile when other members of the family are on tour”. And yet only 5 months ago, while Prince Charles was on tour in Germany, William himself held high profile engagements. The sky didn’t fall out and neither of them lost their place in the line of succession. Also, remember that Princess Beatrice announced her engagement during Harry and Meghan’s Southern Africa tour. It wasn’t a problem and shouldn’t be. But oh that Harry and his wife Meghan.
The UK media reviews of the documentary were scathing but globally, Meghan’s authenticity was welcomed. The hashtag #WeLoveYouMeghan trended for two days with many calling out the UK media for their blatant racism and refusal to take accountability. On the part of the royal family, customary silence as far as Harry and Meghan are concerned. When social media users pointed out that the palace was quick to put out statements in support of Prince Andrew, there were leaked reports mentioning William’s apparent “concern” for his brother. So concerned was he that he had apparently not reached out to his brother(see Finding Freedom) but was able to reach out to the media with this information using unnamed sources. When the documentary finally aired, Harry made it categorically clear that “he would not be bullied into playing the game that killed his mother”, the third time he would reference “the game” – meaning the relationship that exists between the royal family and the media.
The British establishment were unwilling to acknowledge the blatant racism Meghan had been subjected to over the past year, but we were starting to hear outcry that the media scrutiny had been relentless. 72 cross-party members of parliament wrote a public letter of support to the Duchess. Rather than take accountability for their actions, they once again blamed Meghan. In November 2018 it was announced that Harry and Meghan would be taking a 6-week break and would not be spending the upcoming Christmas holiday with the Queen and the rest of the Royal Family. A decision that was roundly and dishonestly criticised by the media.
Again, why is it that other members of the royal family can do things – anything – but Harry and Meghan dare not? What is the basis of the blatant discrimination? It certainly isn’t seniority because Andrew and Beatrice, who are 8th and 9th in line behind Archie and his father get a pass. And so did Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips when they spent Christmas away from the Queen. WHY?
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secret-rendezvous1d · 5 years
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mobile masterlist.
ORIGINAL STORYLINE meeting and dating. - the coffee shop incident; harry and the missus meet for the first time. - hot-tub quickie; harry and the missus have sex in jeff’s hot-tub. - anal; harry and the missus experiment with anal play. - sunburn; the missus gets badly sunburnt. - clingy cuddles; harry and the missus lay in bed together on a rainy day. - anne’s icloud hack; personal photos get leaked online. - injury; harry comes home from dunkirk with a bad hand. - big toe tattoo; the missus makes fun of harry’s tattoo. - pool handjob; the missus gives harry a handjob in a greek pool. - surprise dinner; harry surprises the missus with a homecooked meal. - first time oral and ice play; harry eats the missus out for the first time. - another man photoshoot, 2016; the missus joins harry on his photoshoot. - red coat; harry wears a red coat during sex. - timing; harry cums prematurely.
- break up novella, part one. - break up novella, part two. - break up novella, part three. - break up novella, part four. - break up novella, part five.
- for when you’re missing me; the missus records something special for harry.
engaged and married. - getting permission; harry asks the missus’ parents for permission. - choosing the engagement ring; harry goes and picks an engagement ring. - proposing; harry asks the missus to marry him.  - telling the families; harry and the missus announce their news to their families. - telling the boys; harry and the missus announce their news to the boys. - early ideas; harry and the missus discuss their wedding. - first concert; one direction are back on tour. - walking around together; harry and the missus stroll around cardiff. - poolside loving; harry and the missus get intimate in a hotel pool. - sick; the end of the tour and harry falls sick. - bridal party and groomsmen; harry and the missus pick their chosen ones. - venues; harry and the missus talk about potential venues. - cake shopping; harry and the missus go cake tasting. - suit shopping; harry goes suit shopping. - dress shopping; the missus shops for a wedding dress. - stag-do and hen-party; harry and the missus celebrate before their wedding. - the wedding; part one. - the wedding; part two. - reception party; harry and the missus celebrate their wedding day. - honeymoon; harry and the missus honeymoon in santorini. - reminiscent; harry and the missus reminisce over the past. - simba; harry introduces the missus to what simba means.
pregnancy, labour and delivery. - talking about having a baby; harry and the missus discuss starting a family. - baby making; harry and the missus make love to make a baby. - “we’re pregnant”; harry and the missus find out they’re pregnant.  - news; part one. - news; part two.  - “did you know?”; harry talks about their baby. - twelve weeks; the missus hits twelve weeks. - bump; harry notices her bump for the first time. - award shows and fan greetings; the missus joins harry at the ama’s. - flights home and belly flutters; the missus feels the baby kick for the first time. - gender reveal; harry and the missus find out they’re having a girl. - names; harry and the missus discuss names. - cravings; the missus wants to eat weird food. - nursery; decorating the nursery begins. - protective; harry gets worried. - pregnancy frustrations; the missus doesn’t handle the heat well. - jamaican babymoon; harry and the missus and gemma and michal head to jamaica for a quick getaway. - “she’s not longer out little secret, is she?”; harry and the missus announce their pregnancy to the world.
baby (0-3). - happy birthday, missus; harry and persephone surprise the missus. - chewing daddy’s fingers; harry doesn’t mind alfie teething on his fingers. - ears; persephone has an ear infection. - newborn; harry changes persephone’s first nappy. - birthday boy; harry celebrates his birthday with his family. - valentine; harry and the missus go out for valentines. - insecure; harry feels insecure.
toddler to teens (4-19). - sick daddy; harry’s sick and persephone cheers him up. - fight; alfie walks in during an argument. - alfie’s eighteenth; alfie celebrates his eighteenth birthday. - a-level results day; persephone receives her a-level grades. - accidental accident; rose has an accident in front of connor. - kidneys; rose struggles with a urine infection. - sheets; harry catches rose washing her sheets in the middle of the night.
adults (20+). - welcome to the family; persephone introduces jack to her family. - great parents become grandparents; persephone and jack announce their pregnancy.
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harry tags. - harry talk. baby love.
- 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018.
- gucci campaign, 2018. - gucci campaign, 2019.
- live on tour, 2017. my show - eventim apollo, october 30, 2017.
- live on tour, 2018. my show - london’s o2, april 11, 2018.
- bbc radio one’s live lounge, 2017.
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au tags.
frat-boy harry. - broken promise. - party.
college dad harry. - “i’m pregnant, harry”. - ella.
divorce (completed). - settling for divorce. - “i miss you”.
soldier harry (completed). - letter. - home.
the missus and little mix. - apple music festival. - get weird tour. - the brit awards, 2016. - the brit awards, 2017.
single dad harry | harry bakes. - the one with the meeting. - the one with the first date. - the one where harry might experience more heartbreak. - the one with the third date. - the one where asher is sick. - the one where yn meets asher. - the one where yn meets harry’s family.
- best friend harry. best friend harry, single mum yn and elias.
- x factor harry. teen-dad/x factor harry.
- university student harry.
- big brother harry.
- teacher harry. teacher harry, single mum yn and isabella.
- professor harry.
- doctor harry.
- neighbour harry.
- gang harry.
- inexperienced pornstar harry.
- fifty shades.
- alex.
- the walking dead au.
- ceo yn.
- painter yn and photographer harry.
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blogmas, 2017.
december 1st, 2017. P first Christmas
december 2nd, 2017. Omg please do more Persephone and jack for blogmas!! I am in love with them. Maybe something where jack and P are out shopping and they split up in a department store and Jack starts walking around and looking at engagement rings and H and the missus go over and have a little chit chat with him?
december 3rd, 2017. Maybe at Christmas Eve after being with H and his family for a couple of days the whole Styles family and the missus would be sitting under the Christmas tree and opening presents. There would be a little box with the name of our lady and inside of it there would be a promise ring and Harry would be the cutey he is and go up to the missus and tell her a little monologue then put the ring on her finger.
december 4th, 2017. Harry and the miss being best friends and he takes her home to celebrate Christmas and he takes her virginity on Christmas Eve.
december 5th, 2017. Harry and the missus and the kids spending Christmas at a vacation
december 7th, 2017. Alfies first xmas
december 8th, 2017. Oh but imagine harry giving his girlfriend a border collie or rough collie or a husky puppy (i love) for Christmas because she had dogs her whole life but now she’s away from home and miss them so he surprises her with one amd she’s crying (I would cry so much) but then she’s like “oh no I can’t have her at my flat :(” so he tells her to look closely and there is a key to his house around the puppy’s neck
december 10th, 2017. I just love the idea of them having a brand new baby around Christmas time
december 11th, 2017. btw, you should write one a about Uni Harry and Y/N spending Christmas with Y/N’s family for the first time and him begin all awkward at the begging and everybody asking them how they met and what his goals in life are and yeah I think that’d be reallyyyyyy cute
december 13th, 2017. Set in 2017. The missus Amelie and Harry spend Christmas with Gemma and Anne and Michal at Anne’s Home x
december 15th, 2017. for blogmas or regular hazza begs for a date night after one of the baby is born like 1 year old
december 17th, 2017. How about the missus and Harry spend Christmas at her home and Anne is really sad
december 18th, 2017. Maybe one where Darcy tells the family she is pregnant on Christmas Day after all the struggles she’s been through?
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blogmas, 2018.
december 1st, 2018. someone else mentioned pubes talk, and I thought it would be hilarious if Harry was trying to do something romantic like cooking a Christmas Eve meal but naked and there was singe-ing (not singing!).
december 2nd, 2018. Are you doing Alex requests for Blogmas? If so, maybe his and Y/N’s first Christmas together since the war and he decides to propose to her?
december 3rd, 2018. what about pornstar harry making a festive christmas special w y/n?
december 4th, 2018. What if the missus gives Harry a gift on December 1st and it’s like an advent calendar but each day is a new position/place to have sex up until Christmas.
december 5th, 2018. Could you do maybe a sadder one after Ellie and Alfie’s miscarriage and for Christmas they all cheer him up
december 6th, 2018. Maybe they’re in la for Christmas one year because of Harry’s work when Persephone is like 4 and she’s missing the snow and does like being away from the UK for Christmas and harry just feels really bad like he ruined Christmas
december 8th, 2018. Did doctor harry having to work on Christmas
december 9th, 2018. First Christmas together and Harry is under the weather trying to act healthy.
december 10th, 2018. angst should be best friend harry! where they get in a fight about her flirting and being with someone else at a christmas party when she already kinda had an “unsaid” thing with harry where they’re friends with benefits but she didn’t know how he really felt plssss uGh
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additional tags. - nsfw  - cockwarming - instagram prompts. - yn’s tour instagram prompts. - text prompts; 1 - 99 | 100 - 199 | 200 - 299 | 300 - 399. - what are they doing now? - who is most likely to? - would you rather? - gemma styles. - fionn whitehead | fionn talk. - louis tomlinson. - liam payne. - niall horan. - videos. - harry fantasies. - recommended writers and stories.
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inkstainedfanfics · 6 years
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End of the Year Fic Rec!
I started this blog in like March or April of this year, and since then, I’ve written plenty, but I’ve also read tons of work by others. So I decided to take a moment and just list some of my favorite fics/drabbles/one-shots I’ve read this year from the lovely people that take time to write stories for everyone.
I sorted them by fandom, and listed the author only once. So if there’s a few fics that follow an author, then they are written by that author until you see a different username! I hope you all check out and enjoy these stories as much as I do, and send comments to them if you do!
If you’re on this list, thank you so much for taking the time to write your stories. They’ve helped make my days better and have made me smile countless times. Thank you so much, I hope you have a lovely 2018 :)
And if anyone has any other recs, feel free to reblog and add them on. Authors deserve some love, and starting the new year off by giving them some appreciation can’t hurt!
                                       FANTASTIC BEASTS
White Lace - @fantasticnewtimagines: A Prince!Newt AU. Need I say more? Probably not but I will bc this series is wonderful. 2 parts are out, and I’m already shipping Newt x Reader. He’s so sweet but impatient with his role in the world and I just adore him and his interactions with Theseus so much.
Breakfast in Bed: Newt x Reader fluff. Pure fluff that is beautifully described with an adorable guest appearance by the disgusted Pickett.
Come Back: Newt x Reader. 3 recs in and I’m already recommending angst. Fitting. But honestly this fic will break your heart. Mentions of blood so don’t read if you’re squeamish about that I guess but otherwise, I promise you will not regret reading this fic. It’s heart wrenching and gorgeous.
Magical Office - @drdanwrites: The Office crosses Fbawtft. This series is hilarious and moving and a lovely combination of the popular show and the popular movie. I love the characterizations within this, and plenty of the jokes have legit made me laugh. It’s the right balance of goofy with dramatic and I’m hanging on every update.
Too Late - @scamanderson: Newt Angst. Shoot man I’m a sucker for the ‘tries to return to find out the other has moved on, awkward reunion’ trope (v. specific Ik lol) and this fic perfectly captures that idea. It’s sad, depicting the emotions of lost love and anger and regret as well as I think is possible.
                                       HARRY POTTER
Well, Hello There - @losers-witch: Remus Lupin x Reader. Sassy Reader gives me life tbh. “What’s a pretty young thing like you, doing in a bar like this?” “Ignoring you” I love it. + Protective, Confident Remus, something I miss in fics. + it mentions his scars in no way in a negative light, something I really like. + it’s a super cute story that has a chance meeting oooo. Go read it, seriously. You won’t regret it.
Mine: Draco x Reader. Tbh I normally don’t read Draco fics bc they don’t always characterize him like I expect, but this one is different (along with all the other ones she writes about him). He’s sweet in his own, Draco specific way. I like how it tracks the relationship growth in separate times and how we watch them grow together and apart as we read. and it has another confident Reader ahhhhh. I’ve reread it multiple times, also something I rarely do.
Welcome Back - @drdanwrites: Cedric Diggory x Reader. I honestly cannot read this around other people. I flail and can’t stop smiling it’s so dang cute. I love it more than anything. My boy Cedric is horribly underrepresented, and this is a wonderful cure to that. He’s so sweet about how much he loves his S/O and how he misses her when she’s gone and when he’s in the taxi on the way to pick her up??????? You should totally read this if you want your heart to grow like the Grinch’s.
The Climb: Cedric Diggory x Reader. I can’t even with this. It’s beautiful. He’s sweet and cute and you watch the relationship unfold and then there’s a kiss that I will never be over it’s so well written and honestly if you love Cedric and haven’t read this fic, you’re missing out.
You Are My Happiness: Seamus Finnegan Soulmate AU. Another boy that’s totally underrepresented. I haven’t read any other fics for him, so finding this was a miracle. The friendship between the two is adorable and seeing the two’s thoughts about each other is flipping adorable idk. You should 100% read this to make your day better.
                                       CRIMINAL MINDS
Gingerbread - @bookofreid: Spencer Reid x Reader. Soooooooo sweet. The final sentence gets me. Spencer’s so adorable and I love him and this drabble only fuels that love further and further. I still swoon and “awwwww” even after reading it at least six times. Short and sweet and worth your time 1000 times over.
Christmas Cheer: Spencer Reid x Reader. For some reason the line “Christmas with the Reids” gets me. This one involves Derek. Another short and sweet story that I love. The author has tons of shorter ones like this and Gingerbread, and I’m slowly but surely making my way through the list. The author has a wonderful grasp on the voice of the characters, and not once have I felt they said something ooc. Definitely check out and (I recommend) follow bookofreid bc the blog’s pretty great too.
The Ramblings of an Introvert: Spencer Reid x Reader. Okay, I’m a few parts into this 7 part series, but it’s gorgeous. It captures Reid’s voice really well, and I like the idea of him writing letters since that’s actually addressed in the show as something he would do. It’s an interesting way to relay his feelings, and I think the author executes it really well. The language use is exactly how I think Spencer would write, and the expression of his emotions is well done. Really lovely story that I’m certain I’ll be rereading in a while.
We All Fall Down - @criminal-minds-fanfiction: Spencer Reid angst. Another series that I’m only a few parts into. Honestly, I don’t read long series often, and I believe this one is over 20, but I read the 1st part and I had to continue on. The writing is descriptive enough that you get the scene but aren’t overloaded with details. It’s extremely engaging and sets up a story with a hook better than almost any other fic I’ve read. It also involves an intriguing relationship between Spencer and Reader, one that keeps you guessing and reading. Plus Will makes an appearance and I live for his accent and sweet attitude.
                                       MARVEL
Night Out - @wolflhards: Clint Barton x Reader. All right, this is my only Marvel entry bc I don’t really read for the characters EXCEPT Clint and I’ve found very, very few Clint stories *sobs*. I like this one though for how mischievous Clint is in the beginning. I think it really captures him. Then he’s sweet and goofy and ahhh so many emotions bc I love Clint so much. + a Corvette is involved, an undeniable plus. + THE END if you love Clint you’ll die. It’s such a wonderful last couple of paragraphs there to tie up a beautiful story.
                                       SUPERNATURAL
Dean Checking In - @supernaturalfreewill: Dean x Reader. Super short, a drabble, but still super cute. We get to see how Dean and Reader text, and then Dean smiles and I love that and Idk man I don’t have super in depth ideas for this, it just made me smile and swoon and I figure everyone should have the chance to read it and have that reaction.
Protective Dean: Dean x Reader. Another super short drabble but I have a thing for Protective!Boy fics, so this one is a favorite of mine. Dean’s so dang swoonworthy help.
Dean Sees You in a Towel: Dean x Reader. Dean’s so startled and he starts stammering and he’s showing his dorky, embarrassed side. Such a cute glimpse into a small situation.
Shut Up and Dance: Dean x Reader. They meet at a wedding Dean crashes, and the chemistry is amazing. I adore the dialogue in this, and could only ever wish to write Dean this well. Perfectly captures him and how he acts, and sets up a beautiful meeting that I just want to continue to read. Plus the ending is so gosh dang cute you’ll never get over it. Dean’s met his match :D
Impact - @kaz2y5-imagines: Dean x Reader. I will never be over this fic. I think about it all the time. It’s haunting, and Dean’s reaction to the crash has me swooning. He cares SO MUCH for the Reader, evident in his begging for Reader to return. And the end. Ugh. I love this fic so much. One of my favorite Dean fics I’ve read ever.
                                       DRAGON AGE
What You Did was Stupid - @jawsandbones: FenHawke. Okay, jaw is my go-to Fenhawke/ZevxWarden author bc all the works are beautiful. The author’s writing style is like the opposite of mine with short sentences and concise descriptions, but I’m jealous bc it’s so wonderfully done. A master of writing, I read everything that’s posted. This drabble in particular broke my heart. I requested it, and didn’t expect to literally tear up, but I did and now I’m here, recommending it to you all so you can have your heart shattered into millions of tiny pieces. It’s worth it, though, for the beauty of the tale and the tenderness of the emotions.
I Care About You: FenHawke. I don’t normally like fics that include mage!Hawke bc I always play as a rogue, which is fine, obv, authors can write what they want, I just usually scroll past it. But I didn’t scroll past this one, and thankfully so. It depicts a moment, one that is held out, one of terror meeting calm, need meeting warmth, worry finding a hand to help. I just love it. It’s short like the one above, but still rich with emotions and tentative, uncertain feelings that plague the beginning stages of a relationship. Idk I just love it. Highly recommend checking out her other works.
All in a Name - @kierarutherford: Cullen Rutherford x Inquisitor Baseball!AU on AO3. I don’t like baseball, but I’m partway into this series and I love it. I really enjoy how various characters have been included and written while Cullen’s still the focal point. Diana is independent and tough, but not obnoxiously so. I haven’t finished it yet, but the pieces I’ve read are interesting, the details really well described. I can always hear/see the scene vividly. The author’s super talented and wrote tons of stories this year, and I think y’all should check her works out bc they’re awesome.
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The Shadow
Deets:
Today is the day we admit to our shortcomings.
February tends to be a hard month because both of my lovely grandparents passed away during this month although during different years.Its a good time to feel reminded and grateful for all they have done for me. I also get a chance to see some of my more difficult behaviors so I wanted to take time during this post to honor just that... shortcomings.
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I feel like we live in a world that celebrates so many successes superficial and non superficial. There’s just this sense which is part of technology world now, that even though we know we’re not all perfect, that peoples lives viewed via that computer screen seem that way.
On the radio show I have been doing once in a while (woo Broken Record Radio Show) we talked about this article (thank you for sharing Leah!) about toil glamour.
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I enjoy this term “toil glamour” because I feel like it captures this new millennial craze of rising and grinding, a pull yourself up by your bootstraps mentality for the new generation. Work until you’re finished, grin until you cry, so that you can transcend these impossible situations and be your own “hero”  protagonist entrepreneur CEO  special golden boy that made it despite all the odds.
But I just want to be me.
Not especially loving my day job me, stress eating too many meals me, big hair don’t care me, sleepy tired and wanting to do more for my community me, but sometimes feeling like I need to just go home and cry me, questioning my gender and sexuality me, afraid of the future me, hiding me.
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I wanted to talk about my shortcomings, because I’m in a negative headspace, but it also connects to my story about challenger #2. My shortcoming seems to come up a lot when I confront a part of my life I have a lot of contention with, my romantic life.
I was talking with a good friend about romantic relationships and or romantic encounters and how for these experiences can bring up lots of traumas just by association. I appreciated my friend for noting this because it made me realize this is true for me in a way as well. 
I find romantic interactions and relationships pretty threatening because they bring out some difficult aspects of myself I am still trying to work through in this process of guitar battling. I associate romantically coded interactions with abandonment, my internalized sexism (which I really hate), disassociation,  my repressed sexuality and confusion around being both stripped of having a sexuality in some spaces, and exotified and objectified in other spaces. 
I’ve been lucky in having some relationships that help me to heal some of these things but they are still there, floating around. I want to note these things because they came up in a big way with challenger 2.  My encounter with them brought all this up so I could see it.
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Its a weird situation because from the outside looking in I thought I must just be obsessed with this person.  I met them so briefly right after my grandfather passed away. I was having auto troubles as so many of us do and took my car in to a nearby auto shop. After going there a few times, I started noticing the guy at the front desk. I took a bold move after some forgettable conversations in February and going to one of his shows in March. On April 1st I brought a Christmas card with the invitation for tea and left it for him at the Auto shop. Seven days later we set up plans cancelled rescheduled and finally met up to go to ones of his friend’s Wedding. 
Even without telling you about the “shortcomings” of this dude. Im sure its easy to see a barrage of red flags. Theres so many I won’t go through all the excruciating detail of pointing them out. But what I will say is that its pretty easy too trick one’s self into seeing what you want to see, a better life where you are working more, being more productive, somehow shiner version of yourself, and you really do find some interesting things when you explore the illusions we can create. Challenger 2 showed me a lot about the ways I trick myself and was an  important catalyst. 
I am reading this great story called the “Cruel Prince” by Holly Black, its definitely a teen fantasy novel and I enjoy it. The main character Jude is such a badass female working through her fear of being in land of magic and fairies that can hurt and trick you. Toward the end of the story you start to get more of sense that she’s not fighting so much with her father, royal courts, princes, goblins, fairies, she actually really fighting herself. And I really relate to this. I've been fighting shadows, shadows of myself, I’m still fighting them. 
You know, I love a strong female protagonist. And I’d like to be the one in my own story and I guess also the antagonist as well!   I hope there are more narratives in the future about complicated characters that are and are not protagonists and antagonists all at the same time. To be fair too all my challengers I have to own up to at least some of my shortcomings. In my first guitar battle it was with a friend, meeting one another at mutually appreciable places.
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In this upcoming one  I’ve had no contact with this person for 3 years and out of a sense of ego am still convinced I’m better than them in every way. So as you can see there’s some flaws here for sure, some shadows, some shade I’m throwing around, hoping through guitar to finally cast myself in some light.
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Updates
I have played some songs during theater shows so thats been pretty cool! Love you Imaginists. Its been nice performing a little in front of more people and has helped me stay focused on continuing to learn more. I find that these late winter/ early spring months are good for analyzing actions and values and channeling some of that inner angst. Also I got a tattoo! 
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ossyuche · 5 years
Text
100 Reasons I Love You
I’m a writer.
I can’t say whether I’m any good. All I can say is that I’m prolific.
I wrote the comedy column in my college newspaper.
I wrote a dozen screenplays and 15 sitcoms when I moved to LA in my twenties.
I have written over 1000 blog posts, 400 newsletters, 100 podcasts and 4 books since then.
But the most meaningful thing I’ve ever written is something no one has ever read before.
It’s a series of lists called “100 Reasons I Love You” that I wrote for the extraordinary woman I call my wife.
The first one was dated July 25, 2007. That was six months into our relationship  when I first told her I loved her.
The second one was dated November 25, 2007. That was for her 38th birthday.
The third one was dated April 24, 2008. That was when I proposed to her.
Since then, we’ve gotten married, bought a house in the suburbs, and had two children, now 6 and 7, who fill up our world with delight.
As a husband, father, son, brother, friend, and small business owner, I’m as harried as you are, trying to spread my time and attention around to make everyone I love happy.
But, as you know, things fall through the cracks. That’s life.
We all have to pick and choose what’s important.
As a dating coach, I have a daily window into this, and one of the things I see regularly is how well-meaning couples fall into a rut and start to take each other for granted.
To be fair, we all have a great excuse: life is, indeed, busy!
And really, who has the time and energy to treat your spouse like you did when you first began dating?
Yet that lack of time and energy are exactly why relationships falter.
It’s why people grow apart.
All the little things stop and you fall into your roles.
You work. You parent. You sleep.
All the time you put into being a couple has disappeared and been absorbed into life’s other endeavors. Next thing you know, you’re wondering: “What happened to us?”
THAT’s why I insist that relationships don’t take “work,” but they do take EFFORT.
So while I’d like to think I’m a good husband – I wake up the kids and make them breakfast, I’m out of the office every day at 5:30 to help out my family, and I’m fluent in all 5 Love Languages – there’s always something that can be done better.
I’m doing it today.
This week marks my 10th Anniversary.
It’s not only been ten years since my wife and I tied the knot, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, ‘til death do us part – but it’s been ten years since I wrote a list for my wife of 100 reasons I love her.
It’s something I’ve been meaning to do, but haven’t gotten around to, what with soccer practice, cleaning out the garage, and putting together that earthquake preparedness kit.
My 100 Reasons list is not a work of literary genius. It’s mostly a series of inside jokes for an audience of two. But I’m sharing it with you today for three reasons:
1. I’m proud of it. I’m proud of my wife. I’m proud of my marriage. I’m proud that I’m given this opportunity to let you peek in on my relationship and show you what healthy, lasting love looks like from the inside.
2. My wife is cool with it. Sure, this is written for private purposes, but my wife has made peace with the fact that I’m an open book. So while I respect her privacy and cherish our marriage, I also see our partnership as an education on love that I can offer directly to you. All the good, all the bad; I only have one mode: honest.
3. True love can be yours. While I wouldn’t hold my breath on your future husband writing you 4 lists of 100 reasons he loves you, that’s because he’ll have a real job besides “dating coach.” What he lacks as a romantic and fast typist, I promise he’ll make up for with other traits: character, consistency, kindness, and commitment.
This much I know is true.
Great husbands come in many forms to the millions of women who look for them.
Great husbands come in many forms to the millions of women who look for them.
They don’t, however, come to women who have given up on men.
They don’t come to women who think the worst of men.
They don’t come to women who think dating is a waste of time and that relationships only lead to heartbreak and disappointment.
That’s why, starting officially on Thursday, November 1st, I’m having a special sale on my Believe in Love program where you’ll get $50 off just for being on my mailing list.
Consider that my 10th-anniversary gift to YOU.
You deserve to be happy and in love.
If you don’t have it now, then something has to change – preferably sooner, rather than later.
In the meantime, enjoy your day, hug someone special, and check your inbox on Thursday morning to take advantage of this opportunity to get your groove back and save big money.
Warmest wishes and much love,
Your friend,
Evan
P.S. You didn’t think I’d close this email without sharing my list, did you?
So, without further ado, 100 Reasons I Love My Wife, Volume 4:
1. You always have floss with you.
2.  You let me read bedtime stories to the kids every night.
3. You know how to turn on the pool heater and filter since I don’t.
4. You make a generous effort to visit my family whenever we can.
5. You have separate washes for blacks, colors and lights.
6. You say yes to all social plans — and often consider whether I want to be part of them.
7. You encourage me to see my guy friends.
8. You are the pioneer of the Mad Libs Dance Challenge.
9. You are really fun, considering you’re the not-fun parent.
10. You will always go out of your way to help a friend.
11. You validate me when I say I need more quality time with you.
12. You appreciate how much I want to provide for the family.
13. You offer me fair criticism in ways that I can always handle.
14. You drive six hours in a day for a weekend without the kids.
15. You make a mean gazpacho.
16. You rock those holiday wall calendars.
17. You care about the details of every barbecue, dinner party, and birthday party.
18. You continue to surprise me with random military facts that I don’t know.
19. You can spend three nights packing for a three-day weekend.
20. You need to have 10 different kinds of vinegar to eat one large heirloom tomato.
21. You listen to me relentlessly vent about the technology part of my business.
22. You are proud of your age and you’re proud that I’m proud of your age.
23. You know how to laugh at yourself.
24. You make sure the kids can laugh at themselves, too.
25. You are the model for all the Catholic wives at synagogue.
26. You sort through endless amounts of kids’ homework on the kitchen table.
27. You always prove that when I can’t find something, I just did a “man-look.”
28. You are willing to go to the beach with me, even though you don’t like sand.
29. You made sure our 16-day East Coast road trip was an experience to remember.
30. You’re willing to listen to my ideas about how to be happier and more efficient.
31. You like to keep the pool at 88 degrees.
32. You get 97 texts from your PFA friends in one day.
33. You dominate at board game night, especially Taboo.
34. You are wonderfully shameless when it comes to karaoke night.
35. You never go to bed mad.
36. You can somehow sleep until 11am on weekends.
37. You write cards that make me cry.
38. You only cry when your computer is causing you trouble.
39. You will always want to go to a movie on a night when the kids are in San Diego.
40. You put salt on salted popcorn.
41. You actually owned a tank of helium for balloons.
42. You like math.
43. You are the designated poop-picker-upper when there’s an accident.
44. You never say no to a Mommy’s Night Out.
45. You curse more than I do.
46. You are more into reading, theater and politics than when we first met.
47. You insist on themed Halloween costumes for all four of our family members.
48. You have a whole section of the attic reserved for different holiday decorations.
49. You need two attics to house all the things you’ve never thrown out.
50. You like 90% of what I buy you for Christmas.
51. You trust me when it comes to choosing a restaurant.
52. You always order the least healthy (and most tasty) thing on the menu.
53. You are cool with canceling Christmas. Or our 10th-anniversary vacation, if need be.
54. You are slowly coming around on the dog thing. Maybe a dwarf hamster first…
55. You finally got into book club — but you have a better idea if this one collapses.
56. You are always agreeable when I invite old friends over to dinner.
57. You treat my family like your own family.
58. You care about how you look — and you invariably look beautiful.
59. You make incredible meals in the crockpot.
60. You have a pantry with about 50 kinds of carbs, crackers, chips and cereals.
61. You don’t tell me how you vote — but I’m pretty sure you vote the way I would.
62. You are an excellent disciplinarian with the kids.
63. You invariably agree with me when we do our post-party rundown in the car.
64. You are the unofficial mayor of our town.
65. You embrace why my Israel trip meant so much to me.
66. You are the best kind of stable — I know exactly what I’ll get for the rest of my life.
67. You are almost willing to go camping, as long as there’s a shower in the woods.
68. You are an easy audience.
69. You don’t count calories.
70. You make bangs look good.
71. You take pride in being the best school treasurer ever.
72. You’re sometimes willing to have sex TWO times in a week.
73. You use 12 pillows when you go to sleep at night in your pillow fort.
74. You knew every word at the Depeche Mode show and braved three days at Desert Trip.
75. You allow me to play dinnertime DJ and introduce the kids to our music.
76. You don’t want anything more in life than a weekend alone.
77. You still read wedding magazines and consider them your version of porn.
78. You laugh at my mishaps at Thai massage places.
79. You drive much faster than I do.
80. You read much slower.
81. You say “I love you” at least 25% of the times I say it to you.
82. You are a hero to women you’ve never met.
83. You save random Saturday Night Live sketches for me to watch after you’ve seen them.
84. You handle customer service issues when I’m about to blow a gasket.
85. You make sure the kids are prepared for any fluctuation in temperature.
86. You never pass up a glass (or two) of wine.
87. You have middle-class taste at home and five-star taste in hotels.
88. You look great naked.
89. You make me feel like I do, too.
90. You donate to every charity that any of your family members request.
91. You can take a 2-hour break from telling a story and begin right where you left off.
92. You can operate on three hours of sleep.
93. You are more than willing to leave a party…an hour after I first asked if we could go.
94. You never make me feel bad when I’m falling short.
95. You don’t let your past relationships negatively affect your present ones.
96. You understand my need to talk about my past — my father, my exes, my career.
97. You have the highest emotional intelligence of anyone I’ve ever met.
99. You know all my embarrassing anecdotes — and you’re still here!
100. You are my muse, my north star, my raison d’etre, my favorite person in the world.
Happy 10th anniversary, honey!
Love,
Evan
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100 Reasons I Love You
New Post has been published on https://onlinedatingloves.com/awesome/100-reasons-i-love-you/
100 Reasons I Love You
I’m a writer.
I can’t say whether I’m any good. All I can say is that I’m prolific.
I wrote the comedy column in my college newspaper.
I wrote a dozen screenplays and 15 sitcoms when I moved to LA in my twenties.
I have written over 1000 blog posts, 400 newsletters, 100 podcasts and 4 volumes since then.
But the most meaningful thing I’ve ever written is something “no ones ever” read before.
It’s a series of listings called “1 00 Reasons I Love You” that I wrote for the extraordinary girl I call my wife.
The first one was dated July 25, 2007. That was six months into our relationship when I first told her I loved her.
The second one was dated November 25, 2007. That was for her 38 th birthday.
The third one was dated April 24, 2008. That was when I proposed to her.
Since then, we’ve gotten married, bought a house in the suburbium, and had two children , now 6 and 7, who fill up our world with delight.
As a husband, father, son, friend, friend, and small business owner, I’m as harried as you are, trying to spread my day and attention around to attain everyone I love happy.
But, as you know, things fall through the crackings. That’s life.
We all have to pick and choose what’s important.
As a dating coach, I have a daily window into this, and one of the things I see regularly is how well-meaning couples fall into a rut and are beginning to take each other for granted.
To be fair, we all have a great excuse: life is, indeed, busy!
And actually, who has the time and energy to treat your spouse like you did when you first began dating?
Yet that absence of period and energy are exactly why relationships falter.
It’s why people grow apart.
All the little things stop and you fall into your roles.
You work. You parent. You sleep.
All the time you put into being a couple has disappeared and been absorbed into life’s other endeavors. Next thing you know, you’re wondering: “What happened to us? ”
THAT’s why I insist that relationships don’t take “work, ” but they do take EFFORT.
So while I’d like to think I’m a good spouse- I wake up the kids and induce them breakfast, I’m out of the office every day at 5:30 to help out my family, and I’m fluent in all 5 Love Languages- there’s always something that can be done better.
I’m doing it today.
This week marks my 10 th Anniversary.
It’s is not merely been ten years since my wife and I tied the knot, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health,’ til demise do us portion- but it’s been ten years since I wrote a listing for my spouse of 100 reasons I love her.
It’s something I’ve been meaning to do, but haven’t get around to, what with football practise, cleaning out the garage, and putting together that earthquake preparedness kit.
My 100 Reasons list is not a run of literary genius. It’s largely a series of inside jokes for an audience of two. But I’m sharing it with you today for three reasons :P TAGEND
1. I’m proud of it. I’m proud of my spouse. I’m proud of my wedding. I’m proud that I’m given this opportunity to let you peek in on my relationship and demonstrate you what healthy, lasting love looks like from the inside.
2. My wife is cool with it. Sure, this is written for private purposes, but my spouse has constructed peace with the facts of the case that I’m an open book. So while I respect her privacy and cherish our wedding, I also consider our partnership as an education on love that I can offer immediately to you. All the good, all the bad; I merely have one mode: honest.
3. True love are likely to be yours. While I wouldn’t hold my breath on your future spouse writing you 4 lists of 100 reasons he loves you, that’s because he’ll have a real task besides “dating coach.” What he lacks as a romantic and fast typist, I promise he’ll make up for with other traits: character, consistency, kindness, and commitment.
This much I know is true.
Great husbands come in many forms to the millions of women who look for them.
Great husbands come in many forms to the millions of women who look for them.
They don’t, however, come to women who have given up on men.
They don’t come to women who guess the worst of men.
They don’t come to women who think dating is a waste of time and that relationships merely lead to heartbreak and disappointment.
That’s why, starting officially on Thursday, November 1st, I’m having a special marketing on my Believe in Love program where you’ll get $50 off just for being on my mailing list.
Consider that my 10 th-anniversary gift to YOU.
You deserve to be happy and in love.
If you don’t have it now, then something has to change- preferably sooner, rather than later.
In the meantime, enjoy your day, hug someone special, and check your inbox on Thursday morning to take advantage of this opportunity to get your groove back and save big money.
Warmest wishings and much love,
Your friend,
Evan
P.S. You didn’t believe I’d shut this email without sharing my list, did you?
So, without further ado, 100 Reasons I Love My Wife, Volume 4 :P TAGEND
1. You always have floss with you.
2. You let me read bedtime stories to the kids every night.
3. You know how to turn on the pond heater and filter since I don’t.
4. You make a generous effort to visit my family whenever we can.
5. You have separate washings for blacks, colours and lights.
6. You say yes to all social plans- and often consider whether I want to be part of them.
7. You promote me to insure my guy friends.
8. You are the pioneer of the Mad Libs Dance Challenge.
9. You are really fun, considering you’re the not-fun parent.
10. You will always go out of your way to help a friend.
11. You validate me when I say I need more quality time with you.
12. You appreciate how much I want to provide for the family.
13. You offer me fair criticism in ways that I can always handle.
14. You drive six hours in a day for a weekend without the kids.
15. You make a mean gazpacho.
16. You rock those vacation wall calendars.
17. You care about the details of every barbecue, dinner party, and birthday party.
18. You continue to surprise me with random military facts that I don’t know.
19. You can expend three nights packing for a three-day weekend.
20. You need to have 10 all sorts of vinegar to eat one big heirloom tomato.
21. You listen to me relentlessly vent about the technology part of my business.
22. You are proud of your age and you’re proud that I’m proud of your age.
23. You know how to laugh at yourself.
24. You make sure the kids can laugh at themselves, too.
25. You are the model for all the Catholic wives at synagogue.
26. You sort through endless amounts of kids’ homework on the kitchen table.
27. You always prove that when I can’t find something, I simply did a “man-look.”
28. You are willing to go to the beach with me, even though you don’t like sand.
29. You constructed sure our 16 -day East Coast road trip was an experience to remember.
30. You’re willing to listen to my notions about how to be happier and more efficient.
31. You like to keep the pool at 88 degrees.
32. You get 97 texts from your PFA friends in one day.
33. You dominate at board game night, especially Taboo.
34. You are wonderfully shameless when it is necessary to karaoke night.
35. You never go to bed mad.
36. You can somehow sleep until 11 am on weekends.
37. You write cards that make me cry.
38. You merely cry when your computer is causing you trouble.
39. You will always want to go to a movie on a night when the kids are in San Diego.
40. You put salt on salted popcorn.
41. You actually owned a tank of helium for balloons.
42. You like math.
43. You are the designated poop-picker-upper when there’s an accident.
44. You never say no to a Mommy’s Night Out.
45. You curse more than I do.
46. You are more into reading, theater and politics than when we first met.
47. You insist on themed Halloween costumes for all four of our family members.
48. You have a whole section of the attic reserved for different holiday decorations.
49. You require two attics to house all the things you’ve never hurled out.
50. You like 90% of what I buy you for Christmas.
51. You trust me when it comes to choosing a restaurant.
52. You always order the least healthy( and most tasty) thing on the menu.
53. You are cool with canceling Christmas. Or our 10 th-anniversary vacation, if need be.
54. You are slowly coming around on the dog thing. Maybe a dwarf hamster first…
55. You eventually got into volume club- but you have a better idea if this one collapses.
56. You are always agreeable when I invite old friends over to dinner.
57. You treat my family like your own family.
58. You care about how you seem- and you invariably look beautiful.
59. You construct incredible meals in the crockpot.
60. You have a pantry with about 50 kinds of carbs, crackers, chips and cereals.
61. You don’t tell me how you vote- but I’m pretty sure you vote the way I would.
62. You are an excellent disciplinarian with the kids.
63. You invariably agree with me when we do our post-party rundown in the car.
64. You are the unofficial mayor of our town.
65. You embrace why my Israel trip entailed so much to me.
66. You are the best kind of stable- I know exactly what I’ll get for the rest of my life.
67. You are almost willing to go camping, as long as there’s a shower in the woods.
68. You are an easy audience.
69. You don’t count calories.
70. You attain bangs seem good.
71. You take pride in being the best school treasurer ever.
72. You’re sometimes willing to have sex TWO days in a week.
73. You use 12 pillows when you go to sleep at night in your pillow fort.
74. You knew every term at the Depeche Mode show and braved three days at Desert Trip.
75. You allow me to play dinnertime DJ and introduce the kids to our music.
76. You don’t want anything more in life than a weekend alone.
77. You still read marriage publications and consider them your version of porn.
78. You laugh at my mishaps at Thai massage places.
79. You drive much faster than I do.
80. You read much slower.
81. You say “I love you” at least 25% of the times I say it to you.
82. You are a hero to females you’ve never met.
83. You save random Saturday Night Live sketches for me to watch after you’ve seen them.
84. You handle customer service issues when I’m about to blow a gasket.
85. You make sure the kids are prepared for any fluctuation in temperature.
86. You never pass up a glass( or two) of wine.
87. You have middle-class savour at home and five-star taste in hotels.
88. You look great naked.
89. You stimulate me feel like I do, too.
90. You donate to every charity that any of your family members request.
91. You can take a 2-hour transgres from telling a tale and begin right where you left off.
92. You can operate on three hours of sleep.
93. You are more than willing to leave a party…an hour after I first asked if we could go.
94. You never induce me feel bad when I’m falling short.
95. You don’t let your past relationships negatively affect your present ones.
96. You understand my need to talk about my past- my father, my exes, my career.
97. You have the highest emotional intelligence of anyone I’ve ever met.
99. You know all my embarrassing anecdotes- and you’re still here!
100. You are my muse, my north star, my raison d’etre, my favorite person in the world.
Happy 10 th anniversary, honey!
Love,
Evan
The post 100 Reason I Love You seemed first on Dating Coach – Evan Marc Katz | Understand Men. Find Love ..
Related posts: Do You Know Which Website Is the BEST Website for Your Needs?Are My Kids Maintaining Me From Find Love?The# 1 Reason You’re Not in Love is NOT What You Suppose
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failedimitator · 7 years
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I had a dream last night. In it, I got a kitten. A tiny fluffy white thing I brought home in a cage. Then I forgot all about it until I saw it again a few days later still in its cage and barely alive. I freaked out.
It's an anxiety dream, and I've been having a few of those lately. Some are about sex. Some about money. And others about my inability to complete a task. Like most dreams, there's a greater than random chance that they have something to do with stuff going on in my life at the moment.
Well, at this very moment, my friend Ahmad is waiting on me to send him pictures I took at his wedding earlier this month. Vix is waiting on me to send him a cut of a music video I shot of him last year. There's work waiting for me in the office when I get back in tomorrow. And of course there's this -- my annual birthday-year review -- that's at least two weeks late.
So let's get on with it, shall we: All this anxiety business, how does it compare to last year?
This time last year, to the day, Hamza and I were at Digital Mall getting a laptop for my mom. The day before, Liy and I were in Jalan Masjid India getting fabric for my mom. And two days after that, Maysoun and I would be back at Digital Mall to get a phone for my mom.
I would fly back home for the first time in two and a half years at the end of April. My brother and sister would pick me up from the airport and we'd get some suya before doing the 45 minute drive back to Wudil. It would be my first time being at the house in Wudil. My dad's new job.
The one thing that stuck with me while I was back home was everyone's comment about my weight. Specifically, how much of it I'd gained. 
I got back to KL in May and started looking for apartments immediately. I called a few agents. One got back to me. We met. He showed me three apartments. I chose one because I liked the couch. I transfered him the money a day later, and two days after that I moved in.
I was in the apartment a week before I had to fly off to Greece for Afest. Matej and I shared a room. Millie and I became friends. I shot a video for Babbel in Mykonos. Matej and I took pictures in Piraeus. In Athens, I had drinks with Aurora, who I'd only met just once before, three prior, on a bus in Berlin. 
I flew to Berlin from Athens. Stayed with Dani, Seth, and Alex. I had drinks with Alex Billington, which was kind of surreal before I love his website. 
I went to the World Press Photo exhibition with Nine in Amsterdam, and then immediately rushed to the airport to catch my flight back to KL. I had to pay 150 EUR because of some technicality, and I was mad because my friend Matej -- who's white -- had the same issue but didn't have to pay. I wrote several e-mails to KLM  about this apparent racial discrimination, but in the end, nothing really happened. Because of course nothing happened.
Back in KL, Kwena came down from Myanmar and stayed with me. We recorded an episode of Before I am Black, my podcast that still isn't, and also just had a really good heart to heart. 
Around the same time, Mille helped me shoot a video with Tashny, which is still one of my favourite of the things I've shot. And at the end of May, we celebrated Millie's birthday at Bilique with ice-cream cake, shisha, and pool.
I just realised, going through my journal from last year, that July was when Shafina and I became friends. We met up four times in July, pretty much once every week. One of those times, she was my plus one to Omar's raya open house at Damansara Heights.
Soraya also got married in July. Ling and OJ and I drove up to Kuantan together.
In August, Maysoun and I went to The Garden to see Az Samad perform. And then a few days later, to Playspace to see Homeboy Sandman.
Nine, Liy and Furzann, and I, drove up to Bangi for Shafina's raya open house, and then later in the day, came back to my place to watch Mother of George. In August, I shot two music videos with Vix (one of which is the one he's still waiting on).
I had dinner with Samreen and Mano first week of September. It was one of those things that I was super anxious about before hand, but that ended up being completely wonderful.
SY and Patrick's wedding was in September. I flew to Berlin for that. The party from Malaysia, myself included, had dinner with the couple the day after the wedding. The day after that, Dan and I went to silent gig with Beula and Clement.
The day after I got back from Berlin was Ling's wedding. OJ invited a few of her close friends for a surprise dinner at a restaurant in Damansara Kim. I mention Damansara Kim here because I thought it was one of those made up places like Bangsar South. Turns out, no. Damansara Kim is legit, who knew?
Faiq, Amanda, and I drove up to Janda Baik at the end of September for Ling and OJ's wedding. The speeches from the Best Man and Maid of Honour were both very funny and heartwarming. The decor at the location was great. Food was on point. And the people just wonderful. It was the most at-home I've ever felt at a wedding. 
I shot Zack in October. My first photo shoot since I turned 27. Millie was there to help. And so was Shan. I don't know how Zack feels about the photos, but I thought the shoot went really well.
In November, I started tracking my moods. Specifically, I started tracking sleep and how long I ran on the treadmill, and how those things correlate with my levels of anxiety, happiness, paranoia, and contentment. 
For those keeping score at home, in November, I slept for an average of 6.77 hours a night. Even though that's way below my target of 8 hours every night, I'm still surprised at how I actually got. I ran for 7.38 minutes every morning, which is way way less than my target of 20.
I logged anxiety 13 times in November. Pure, unadulterated happiness 7 times. Paranoia twice. And I was contented every single day of the month expect for one: November 11.
On the 26th of November, Syakirin and I drove up to Penang for Georgetown Literary Festival. There, I hung out with Maysoun and Dhiyana and also met Manal.
In November, I also started measuring my weight, body fat percentage, muscle mass, and body age.
I have this vague memory of feeling too depressed to log anything in my journal for the first two weeks of December, but I guess not strong enough to remember what it is I was going through at the time. 
I remember that at some point in December, I think sometime around Christmas, Shan and I went to The Berlin KL and that night was a lot of fun.
For New Year's Eve, Maysoun took me to a BBQ at her friend's place, at at midnight, we went to a cemetery to watch the fireworks over KL.
January started with a day time party at TTDI which I went to with Maysoun. Millie, Andrew and Zara, and I went to see Arrival. All hail Bradford Young. I also went climbing at Camp5 with Berlina and Daryl -- my first in over 4 months -- and it made me fall back in love with climbing. 
My friends Deo and Clara got married in January in Jakarta, but I couldn't go because of visa issues.
February was Mahen's exhibition at the Islamic Arts Museum. Or more accurately, an exhibition of the photography of Sultan Isma'il of which a documentary Mahen made about the man was a part of. It was my first time at the Islamic Arts Museum and it made me want to go back again at some point.
I watched Tokyo Story in February because Kogonada told me to last year and I want to e-mail him but I didn't want to until I'd seen the film. I liked it, but I still haven't e-mailed him. 
I took part in the Lifebook workshop, and finished reading the James Baldwin book Kavya sent me -- Notes of a Native Son -- in February. The workshop gave me a lot to think about, and the book pretty much changed how I look at myself.
Kristen joined the company in February, and at least three people on separate occasions came up to me and asked if I'd met her. In my head, I was like -- Yes, I'm black, and she's black, and we've met. With my mouth, I just said yes. 
I had a screening of Moonlight at my place in February. Or, more accurately, Shafina had a screening of Moonlight at my place in February. It's not Medicine for Melancholy, but I like it quite a bit. The last third, especially.
At the very tail end of the month, Syar read my tarot. At some point, she asked if there's a point in my life I'd like to go back to. If I'm nostalgic for some better time in the past. And I realised, I think for the first time, that there's nowhere else I’d rather be.
Shafina wrote Ghosted, a short film, which we shot in March at Sid's.
Alex and Florian came down from Berlin and stayed with me for a few days. Just before leaving for home, I had lunch with Velina and it left me with a lot of questions about relationships. More specifically, one question: Why do I want to be in a relationship?
I flew to Kano on the 28th on Saudia.
By this time, since I started measuring in November, I'd lost about 4 kilo grammes of weight, lost 4.6% body fat, and gained about 3% muscle mass.
On March 31st, my dad and I drove up to Abuja for Ahmad's wedding. He drove back that same day, and I stayed with Mubarak. April 1st was Ahmad's birthday, and also his wedding reception, which is where I took the pictures that he's still waiting on. 
I came back to KL four days before my birthday, and three days before my birthday, I went to the Spanish embassy to apply for a schengen visa. I met up with Jillian to discuss a music video she wanted me to shoot for her friend's band two days before my birthday. A day before my birthday, I took Alex and Florian to Iham Gallery and Lake Gardens. 
On the day I turned 28, I had brunch at a Japanese restaurant with Maysoun and Hamza -- Maysoun got us cake (it was also Hamza's birthday). Afterwards, I went to the office and took pictures of myself, which, I guess at this point, is pretty much a yearly tradition.
The new picture is a visual representation of my transformation at 27. I wouldn't say that I necessarily learned anything new, but there's at least one thing that I've internalised more:
I've learned to stop comparing myself to other people. Just because it works for someone else and not for me doesn't mean it's not fair. And even if it was, why lose sleep over it if I can't change it.
There are still a lot of things I'm unsure of, of course. For one, I'm anxious about my future in this country. And there are questions about romantic relationships that I still cannot answer. I'm still insecure about parts of my body. And my financial life is a fucking disaster. 
I got an e-mail from my 18-year old self on my birthday (futureme.org), and I was horrified while reading it. Not only was the language atrocious, but my vision for myself at 28 when I was 18 was completely off. Not only do I not have a wife and kid, but I’m not even in contact with most of the friends I referred to in my e-mail.
Having said that, this -- me here right now -- is the best version of me yet. I've never been smarter than I am right now. I've never been more confident and capable. I've never felt more like an adult. I've never been more content about life. 
And at the risk of sounding superficial, I've never liked what I see when I look in the mirror more than I do now.
See also: Caring less about sounding superficial.
I've never been more excited about seeing a version of myself go through something like I am currently excited about seeing this version of me go through 28. 
Here we go.
"Any writer, I suppose, feels that the world into which he was born is nothing less than a conspiracy against the cultivation of his talent--which attitude certainly has a great deal to support it. On the other hand, it is only because the world looks on his talent with such frightening indifference that the artist is compelled to make his talent important." 
- James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son.
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