Atlanta motor speedway friday night drags
Induction Experiences - Need Some Reassurance
2023.06.04 17:06 pelllyq Induction Experiences - Need Some Reassurance
So on Friday I was told I would need to be induced due to signs of mild preeclampsia (slightly elevated BP and protein in urine). We had been watching my BP since around 30 weeks and it had been borderline for a while, but my doctor decided when I was 38+6 and it was 140/95 at the office that we shouldn’t wait any longer. It was always normal at home, however.
On Friday afternoon we go in, attempt cervidil because my cervix is firm and 1.5cm dilated only. It triggers rapid contractions and after 1hr it’s removed, I’m told to go home, monitor the contractions and blood pressure. The contractions do slow down so I’m fine at home for the night.
I go in the next day, still only 1.5cm dilated. They don’t want to try cervidil again as I have a hyper reactive cervix/uterus. A foley balloon is inserted into my cervix, it was absolutely horrible and painful and again I begin to have rapid and STRONG contractions, but after some morphine and gravol they settle down, I’m sent home to wait until the foley comes out but no longer than 24 hours. The foley comes out after about 11 hours, meaning I should be dilated to 3cmish and enough to start the Oxy.
I call the maternity unit and they’re too short staffed to get me in that night so they told me to wait until morning to call, but keep an eye on BP, contractions etc. When I call in the morning they say they’re going to break my water and start oxytocin, but I’m priority but #2 on the list and again they’re short staffed so they said to hang out and wait for a call, but if I can’t be induced today then I’d at least go in for an NST.
I just feel like this process is dragging on so much, as at this point it’s day 3. I guess one of my main concerns and I don’t even know if it’s a real concern is if we wait too long from the time the foley balloon came out to start the next set of interventions??? Is it possible my cervix can like, undilate? I know that may be a silly question but unfortunately my Dr is slammed with babies this weekend so I can’t talk to her.
Just wondering what other people’s experiences have been with foley inductions and how long they’ve had to wait for the next step. At this point the induction process will take like 5 days and that seems a bit crazy considering I was told I was high priority on the first day, we could have just waited closer to my due date anyway as my BP had been stable at home and baby has been completely fine and healthy and happy.
It feels so close yet so far away 😫
submitted by pelllyq to BabyBumps [link] [comments]
On Friday afternoon we go in, attempt cervidil because my cervix is firm and 1.5cm dilated only. It triggers rapid contractions and after 1hr it’s removed, I’m told to go home, monitor the contractions and blood pressure. The contractions do slow down so I’m fine at home for the night.
I go in the next day, still only 1.5cm dilated. They don’t want to try cervidil again as I have a hyper reactive cervix/uterus. A foley balloon is inserted into my cervix, it was absolutely horrible and painful and again I begin to have rapid and STRONG contractions, but after some morphine and gravol they settle down, I’m sent home to wait until the foley comes out but no longer than 24 hours. The foley comes out after about 11 hours, meaning I should be dilated to 3cmish and enough to start the Oxy.
I call the maternity unit and they’re too short staffed to get me in that night so they told me to wait until morning to call, but keep an eye on BP, contractions etc. When I call in the morning they say they’re going to break my water and start oxytocin, but I’m priority but #2 on the list and again they’re short staffed so they said to hang out and wait for a call, but if I can’t be induced today then I’d at least go in for an NST.
I just feel like this process is dragging on so much, as at this point it’s day 3. I guess one of my main concerns and I don’t even know if it’s a real concern is if we wait too long from the time the foley balloon came out to start the next set of interventions??? Is it possible my cervix can like, undilate? I know that may be a silly question but unfortunately my Dr is slammed with babies this weekend so I can’t talk to her.
Just wondering what other people’s experiences have been with foley inductions and how long they’ve had to wait for the next step. At this point the induction process will take like 5 days and that seems a bit crazy considering I was told I was high priority on the first day, we could have just waited closer to my due date anyway as my BP had been stable at home and baby has been completely fine and healthy and happy.
It feels so close yet so far away 😫
2023.06.04 15:42 SillyLilMeLMAOatU Falls and question about relapse(s)
So I'm still really new to this MS diagnosis although it's suspected I've had it since 2011. I am still learning not only about MS but WTF my body is actually doing, so please excuse me if my questions seem really exceptionally stupid at times haha.
Anyhow about two weeks ago I had a weird burning sensation down the back of my left thigh. Kind of felt like a continuous electric shock in a thin line. That went away after a day or two and left my entire leg feeling heavy for lack of a better description. I can fully feel my leg and move it, but it feels like it's dragging and weighted. I called neurologist twice, first time his nurse told me that he wanted me to just keep an eye on it and my first Ocrevus infusion was coming up in couple days and to see how I felt after. The second time was Thursday to let him know that the sensation had changed from the initial burning to just a heaviness that was annoying and I was a little worried. I haven't received a callback but I assume I will tomorrow.
Anyhow the reason for my post is Friday night I fell. I have a short walled baby gate that blocks off the parameter of my kitchen and my leg decided that it wanted to hangout on it. As I stepped over with my right leg my left one didn't come up as it should and I went flying a good distance. I banged up my toes, thigh, breast/ribs, wrist and have a pretty good bruised lump on my forearm to elbow as well as some rug burn as I didn't land in the kitchen haha. I feel like I was hit by a truck but nothing feels broken other than pride. My well intentioned neighbor told my husband that anything like an accident or fall that causes bruising or swelling can cause a relapse and that I should go to ER or neurologist right away. I feel this is a huge overreaction but I also honestly don't know (I refuse to tell hubby this, I simply told him they were both nuts and to go drink their iced tea.) So I guess that's my question, can something as simple as bumps, bruises or sprains cause anything more than possibly my daily ms stuff?
submitted by SillyLilMeLMAOatU to MultipleSclerosis [link] [comments]
Anyhow about two weeks ago I had a weird burning sensation down the back of my left thigh. Kind of felt like a continuous electric shock in a thin line. That went away after a day or two and left my entire leg feeling heavy for lack of a better description. I can fully feel my leg and move it, but it feels like it's dragging and weighted. I called neurologist twice, first time his nurse told me that he wanted me to just keep an eye on it and my first Ocrevus infusion was coming up in couple days and to see how I felt after. The second time was Thursday to let him know that the sensation had changed from the initial burning to just a heaviness that was annoying and I was a little worried. I haven't received a callback but I assume I will tomorrow.
Anyhow the reason for my post is Friday night I fell. I have a short walled baby gate that blocks off the parameter of my kitchen and my leg decided that it wanted to hangout on it. As I stepped over with my right leg my left one didn't come up as it should and I went flying a good distance. I banged up my toes, thigh, breast/ribs, wrist and have a pretty good bruised lump on my forearm to elbow as well as some rug burn as I didn't land in the kitchen haha. I feel like I was hit by a truck but nothing feels broken other than pride. My well intentioned neighbor told my husband that anything like an accident or fall that causes bruising or swelling can cause a relapse and that I should go to ER or neurologist right away. I feel this is a huge overreaction but I also honestly don't know (I refuse to tell hubby this, I simply told him they were both nuts and to go drink their iced tea.) So I guess that's my question, can something as simple as bumps, bruises or sprains cause anything more than possibly my daily ms stuff?
2023.06.04 15:34 ARSENAL_DAILYNEWS Arsenal 2022/23 Season Review.
Arsenal 22/23 A Season Review Part 1 Of 3: August-World Cup: A Stunning Start.
The 2022/23 season is Mikel Arteta’s 3rd full campaign in charge of Arsenal and as well the 3rd of his managerial career. His 1st game in the hot seat came on Boxing Day of 2019, a 1-1 draw at Bournemouth which saw Arsenal drop down a place to 12th in the table. Just a few months into his reign and Arteta was the first high-profile figure in English Football to be diagnosed with Covid-19, the virus which drew the Premier League to a standstill for 3 months and the wider world for a much longer time. It was to empty stadiums which Arsenal played out the remainder of their season which eventually concluded on the 1st of August. An 8th-placed finish was the club’s lowest since 1995. However, there was joy to be found as there so often has been for Arsenal, in the FA Cup. In the one and only Covid FA Cup Final played in front of no spectators Arsenal came from behind to defeat London rivals Chelsea for their record-extending 14th FA Cup, after reaching the final with an unlikely triumph over Manchester City in the semis. Arteta’s first half-season had ended brilliantly and his first full-season started in the same vein with more silverware following as Arsenal defeated Premier League Champions Liverpool to win the Community Shield. Tough times quickly followed and Arteta may have been somewhat grateful for the empty stadiums, as it’s questionable whether the board would have held their nerve and kept faith with such a young manager through this dreadful period had the fans been inside the ground and able to voice their frustrations. On Boxing Day of 2020, not only did Mikel celebrate the 1 year anniversary of his first match in charge, he celebrated a 3-1 victory over Chelsea, his side's first league win for nearly 2 months. It was the first time Saka, Martinelli & Smith Rowe all started a league game together for Arsenal. It was to prove a seminal moment, but it wasn’t enough to move his team up from 15th in the table. It was never so bad again for Arteta and his Arsenal team, with the side eventually settling for a repeat of the previous season’s finish, again coming in 8th. Failure to win the Europa League (exiting the competition to Villarreal in the Semi-Finals, who were incidentally managed by Unai Emery, the manager sacked prior to Arteta taking the job) meant that Arsenal would be without European football for the first time since the 95-96 campaign. And the 21-22 season would begin horribly with Arsenal bottom after 3 matches in which they failed to score and conceded 9 goals. However as the season progressed Arsenal began to find some resilience, quality and self-belief. The sides upheaval came not coincidentally around the time club captain Aubameyang was stripped of that duty before being allowed to depart for Barcelona in the January window. Aubameyang had been the team’s standout performer when winning the FA Cup, but since those performances had seen him rewarded with a new bumper contract which made him by far the club’s best-paid player, his attitude and performance level had become a problem that needed to be dealt with.
More so than any win, it was actually a home defeat to Champions City which perhaps best demonstrated this new Arsenal which was beginning to emerge. They took City on and pushed them all the way only to eventually lose in the 93rd minute, whilst being a man down for the final half-hour with centre-back Gabriel being harshly dismissed. The fight was on with local rivals Tottenham for the final Champions League spot and it was firmly in Arsenal’s hands until a run of 4 defeats in 5 allowed Spurs back into contention. The Gunners appeared to retake control with a run of 4 straight wins before losing tamely away at Spurs and then Newcastle, in the end missing out by 2 points. Throughout the season Arsenal had spells of real high-quality football, and the fans had taken to the project with more passion and belief than they had in the final years of Wenger’s reign or during Unai Emery’s short-lived stint. In the end, though they missed out on the prize of Champions League football due to a combination of injuries to important players and the inexperience of a young group.
Despite the significant setback of missing out on a Champions League spot having held it in their hands for many of the season’s final months, Arsenal still entered the summer of 2022 with plenty of reasons for optimism. Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe had emerged as the real breakout stars of the prior season and Gabriel Martinelli wasn’t too far behind. There had been some clearly smart signings made by the club, in particular, those of Martin Ødegaard and Ben White, signed from Real Madrid and Brighton & Hove Albion respectively. The July purchases of Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko for a combined 75M from Manchester City seemed yet more smart business, in them, they had picked up two quality players with four Premier League winners medals each, and both arriving aged 25 they seemed in the perfect age bracket to become big players for Arsenal not just for the immediate but as well the foreseeable future.
Jesus’ Arsenal debut came in a 5-3 friendly win over FC Nurnberg in which he scored twice. He followed this up with another in a 2-0 win over Everton as Arsenal continued their pre-season with a tour of the USA. Arsenal played 3 matches in America and won all 3, by far the most impressive being a 4-0 trouncing of Chelsea. The Gunners made it 5 pre-season wins from 5 when they returned home the following weekend to beat Sevilla 6-0 at the Emirates, a hattrick from Jesus meaning he had netted 7 goals in his first 5 appearances in Arsenal colours. Arsenal would get the Premier League season underway away at Crystal Palace, under the Friday night lights of Selhurst Park. No Premier League side would have envied them this difficult fixture, Arsenal had experienced just how tough it was 4 months prior when a 3-0 loss away at the ground began a torrid run of results for the Gunners. Arsenal had also begun the previous season away on a Friday night and come unstuck against newly promoted Brentford. Again Arsenal was straight back under the Premier League spotlight to see whether they had grown and matured from such damaging defeats last season. The Arsenal quickly proved they were up to the test, starting right on the front foot and keeping Palace penned back in their own third. Jesus immediately highlighted the new dimension he was going to bring to Arsenal’s attack, when his strength and then neat dribbling fashioned a great chance out of nothing, a chance Martinelli should have done much better with, his side-foot finish going the wrong side of the post with the goal gaping. The Brazilian would make up for it in the 20th minute when a corner was headed into the six-yard box by Zinchenko, who was picked out by Saka to deliver a free header. His head found Martinelli’s and from close range, he was able to notch Arsenal’s first of the league campaign. That was to be the only goal in the game for the next hour, but despite Arsenal’s slender lead they rarely looked in danger of being pegged back. On the instances that keeper Aaron Ramsdale was called into action, he was ready and dealt with Palace’s occasional threats soundly. The game was put beyond Crystal Palace in the 85th minute when Bukayo Saka’s dangerous ball across the six-yard box was headed into his own net by Guehi. This made certain of 3 richly deserved points for the Gunners.
Jamie Carragher for one was particularly impressed with the start Arsenal made to the game saying afterwards: “Arsenal played like a big team. When I say a big team, I’m talking about a Man City or Liverpool, a team who wherever they go, dominate the opposition. I felt like we were watching City or Liverpool in that first 20 minutes, half an hour.” Fellow Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville was more impressed with Arsenal in the second half saying: “The question mark about Arsenal will be whether they’ve got that robustness and resilience, physicality to get through that difficult 15 or 20 minute periods in away matches, and they got through that (tonight) and that impressed me.” Saliba was also singled out for praise with Carragher adding: “He looked the real deal. He adds something, we’ve always felt they were weak, at Brentford last season they got bullied and here last season, his physical stature will certainly help them in tough away games.”
Arsenal’s first home league game of the season was against Leicester City. The opening goal began with Jesus tormenting Johnny Evans tight to the touchline, after beating him he fed Martinelli who was able to get into the penalty area and find Xhaka, the Swiss international touched it first time back into Jesus who took a touch to steady himself then teased it over the head of Ward in the Leicester goal and into the net. It was an angle he had no right to try from, let alone score from but such was the Brazilian forwards confidence in front of the goal he fancied his chances from anywhere. The goal was nominated for Premier League goal of the month. Jesus got his second to double Arsenal’s advantage in the 35th minute, this time in a much simpler fashion. A corner across the six-yard box was not dealt with, a Leicester head on it only sped up its path to Jesus who was waiting to nod home from practically on the goal line.
Later in the first half, Leicester thought they had a way back into the game when referee Darren England pointed to the spot having judged Ramsdale to have brought down Jamie Vardy. However VAR advised him to check the monitor, and after re-watching the incident it was clear there was no contact made and the penalty decision was reversed. Leicester did still manage to half their deficit early in the second half though, a long ball was flicked on leaving Saliba in a difficult situation to deal with. Ramsdale was advancing but wouldn’t get there first and Vardy was waiting on the French defender’s shoulder, leaving him no alternative but to try and head the ball clear whilst facing his own goal. He only succeeded in diverting it into the net. This could have been a moment when the Arsenal crowd got nervous and frustrated. They had allowed a soft goal and their youngest defender was at fault. However the crowd immediately rallied behind Saliba and his teammates, he and the team needed help putting that mistake behind them and the crowd’s noise in the aftermath of conceding will have been reassuring to the players.
Demonstrating this, Arsenal went straight up the other end and scored, Ward made a meal of a cross, dropping it at the feet of Jesus who squared for Xhaka. The Swiss midfielder was being deployed in a new, more adventurous role where he was spending more time in the opposition box, he got his reward for this new tactic with a simple tap-in from right in front of the goal. Leicester would again reduce the home team’s lead to one however when Iheanacho found Maddison, who was able to shoot straight through Ramsdale. The young English keeper will have been disappointed at being so easily beaten from such an angle, his wide-open legs presenting the opportunity to the Leicester midfielder. Again Arsenal immediately responded to the setback by going up the other end and scoring again. This move began with Martinelli winning the ball back and feeding Ødegaard who moved the ball on to Jesus, who carried it forward before finding Martinelli who shot low from outside the box, he beat the outstretched Ward and hit the bottom corner, with the ball hitting the inside of the post on its way in. It had been a good day at the office for Arsenal and a great day for Gabriel Jesus, though despite scoring 2 and assisting the other 2 of Arsenal’s 4 goals, according to his manager Jesus left the field disappointed because: “he thinks he should have scored 4, that’s the sort of mentality you need. I wouldn’t like to play against him. He’s so mobile, intuitive, sharp and proactive in any moment or phase of the game.”
Arsenal next travelled to newly promoted Bournemouth. It took The Gunners just 5 minutes to take the lead and again it came from the phenomenal centre-forward play of Gabriel Jesus. A loose touch from White saw the ball launch high into the air, the Brazilian reacted first, beautifully controlling the ball whilst at the same time using his considerable body strength to hold off the Bournemouth midfielder, with exceptional balance he then dribbled around two other Bournemouth shirts until he was on the edge of the box facing their defence, with a lovely disguised pass he then fed Martinelli who was free to his left, his shot was saved but it fell straight at the feet of new captain Martin Ødegaard who was on hand to notch his first of the season. Rightfully though the praise went to Jesus with commentator Alan Smith saying: “You won’t see a better example of centre forward play than this.”
Ødegaard had to wait just 6 more minutes for his second of the season, a cross along the floor from White found Jesus who was free, his first touch wasn’t the best but it allowed it to set up nicely for the Norwegian to strike first time, which he duly did and the ball flashed into the net. Early in the second half and Arsenal had a third goal, with Xhaka setting it back to Saliba just inside the penalty area. Saliba struck it beautifully the first time, keeping his shot down under the bar and too perfectly placed for the keeper to do anything about. It was just Saliba’s second goal in senior football but he had finished it with the class and composure of a player who had scored 200. The strike drew Zinchenko to his knees, clutching his head in disbelief at the quality of the finish and unsurprisingly it was voted as Arsenal’s goal of the month. Jesus thought he’d netted Arsenal’s 4th but a VAR check ruled the goal out for offside, so the North Londoners had to settle for a 3-0 win in what had been an excellent away performance.
The Arsenal faced more newly promoted opposition the following week, this time back at home against Fulham for Arteta’s 100th Premier League game in charge. They would be without Zinchenko and Partey who had picked up injuries and were replaced by Tierney and Elneny respectively. The best chance of the first half went to Saka who got beyond his marker to face Leno one-against one, but he was unable to beat the keeper. It would be Fulham who took the lead however with Arsenal falling behind for the first time in the season. From the full-back position, Saka flighted a ball into Gabriel, who unnecessarily played himself into trouble. He never seemed to have the ball truly under his spell, and his second touch invited Mitrovic to try and take it off him, the defender then got his body positioning wrong, and failed to protect the ball allowing the forward to nick it from behind him and then the Serb was able to keep his composure and finish past Ramsdale.
Fulham’s lead lasted just 8 minutes, Martin Ødegaard lodging Arsenal’s response. There was a degree of good fortune about the goal, with a big deflection on the strike. But there was no doubt the Norwegian had deserved it, he was having an outstanding game with all of Arsenal’s danger coming through him. He was constantly creating, with inventive passes and dribbling runs. In this instance, a clever stepover had bought him the space for the shot. Ødegaard continued to lead Arsenal’s push for a winner with he, in particular, deserving to be on the winning side, and the winner did come though not until the 86th minute. Leno failed to deal with a corner, missing his attempted punch clearance and the ball fell at the feet of Gabriel who was able to gain the perfect redemption for his earlier error by securing all 3 points for his side. The goal kept Arsenal at the top of the Premier League as they remained the only team with a 100% record.
Arsenal finished August with another home game, facing Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa. This presented Arsenal with a chance to win their opening 5 league games for the first time since 2004. Saka passed up a golden opportunity to give Arsenal the ideal start when Martinelli’s cross found him completely free at the back post, it was set up perfectly for Saka to hit on the volley, which he did but he got too under the ball and lifted it horribly high and wide from inside the six-yard box. An Arsenal opening goal felt inevitable however and it came on the half-hour mark when Emi Martinez could only push out an Xhaka shot as far as Gabriel Jesus, who was on hand to punish him. Martinez did go someway to redeeming himself later in the half with an excellent stop to deny a brilliant half-volley from Martinelli from 25 yards out.
Arsenal dominated the first half and continued their domination in the second but could not increase their advantage, it was instead Aston Villa who got the second goal of the game, in a somewhat controversial fashion. A corner from Douglas Luiz went straight into the net with Ramsdale unable to reach the ball due to his path being completely blocked by Kamara, who also limited the keepers’ movement by having both arms wrapped around his back. The goal stood but Arsenal cancelled it out in their own way, by going straight up the Villa end and retaking the lead. Saka coolly picked out Martinelli who struck it the first time on the half volley, Martinez clawed desperately at the ball but could not prevent it from going over his goal line and The Gunners were able to see the victory out. Arsenal’s player of the month was unsurprisingly Gabriel Jesus with 3 goals and 3 assists in 5 games. Arsenal’s maximum points after 5 games saw Mikel Arteta pick up Premier League manager of the month.
Arsenal started September with a chance to go 4 points clear of City in 2nd, after just six games. Standing in their way was Manchester United who would be hosting the Gunners at Old Trafford, a ground Arsenal had only won at once in the league since 2006, that one as well being without fans during the Covid season. Arsenal was boosted by the return of Zinchenko but had to start with their 3rd choice midfielder Sambi Lokonga for the Partey role after Elneny had followed the Ghanaian onto the treatment table. Regardless of the blow, Arsenal appeared to have made the ideal start when Saka threaded the needle and put Martinelli clean through on goal. The Brazilian finished brilliantly to give Arsenal the lead, but VAR advised the referee to have a look at a potential foul in the build-up. On review, the referee judged Ødegaard to have won the ball from Eriksen unfairly and chalked the goal off. The intervention made by Lee Mason on VAR was later judged by a Premier League review to be an incorrect one, the minimal contact not penalised in real-time by the ref was judged not to be a clear or obvious error. The review came too little and too late as far as Arsenal were concerned as they’d lost their lead and instead found themselves trailing at half-time after a good move from United culminated in a debut goal for Antony who finished past Ramsdale.
VAR’s intervention in the Arsenal goal was always likely to prove a vital one as remarkably United had not lost at Old Trafford when leading at half-time since 1984. This showed the size of Arsenal’s task going into the second half, but they continued to probe and ask questions of United and they got their equaliser on the hour mark when the ball broke to Saka in the penalty area after Ødegaard had looked to thread one through to Jesus. United dealt with that immediate threat but could only clear as far as Saka who slotted through the legs of Martinez for his first of the season. Arsenal looked to be in the ascendancy, but they were only level for 6 minutes. Overcommitting bodies forward left them without a midfield and after winning it back United was able to counter-attack with Bruno Fernandes who looked and found Rashford in behind the defence and he put United back in front. Arteta reacted immediately by looking to chase the game, giving a debut to summer recruit Fabio Vieira. The changes appeared to backfire however as Arsenal were left with even fewer defensive bodies on the field and in the 75th minute they were cut through once more, with Eriksen and Rashford both left in acres of space as United hit Arsenal once more on the counter-attack. It was a horrible goal for Arsenal to concede, it reminded of the worst years of Wenger with everyone so committed to attacking they had no thought for defending. Arsenal suffered their first defeat of the season going down 3-1.
There were some positives to take in how confidently and capably they had passed the ball around, however, United had defended their penalty area very well and counter-attacked effectively. The frustration for Arsenal was how they had helped them in that regard, by leaving key areas of the midfield devoid of players. Partey had been very badly missed, and to a lesser extent so had Elneny whose defensive intelligence would not have seen him vacate his position as often as Lokonga did. The third goal conceded was perhaps the responsibility of Arteta who had gone all out attack mode too early, given the counter-attacking success United were already enjoying.
Arsenal got the chance to put the defeat behind them 4 days later when they began their Europa League campaign. They were placed in Group A alongside PSV Eindhoven, Bodo/Glimt and FC Zurich, and would kick off against the latter away in Switzerland. Summer signings Matt Turner and Marquinhos made their competitive debuts, and Vieira would make his full debut. Arsenal did some counterattacking of their own in the 16th minute when Vieira found Nketiah who travelled down the wing before playing a great ball across the box which found Marquinhos who expertly finished the first time into the top corner. The hosts equalised on the verge of half-time however when Nketiah was judged to have committed an offence in his own penalty box. The death of the Queen being announced during the first half led to the unusual circumstance of a minute’s silence taking place before the second half. When it did kick off, Arsenal regained the lead in the 62nd minute through Nketiah who was found with a delightful ball by Marquinhos who had made a fine debut. That’s how the score remained. Arsenal would not be in Premier League action that weekend, with their home game against Everton being postponed due to the Queen’s passing. Also delayed was their home game against PSV the following week, so the team were not back in action until 10 days after the Zurich game when they travelled to Brentford.
Arsenal dominated the games opening and took a deserved lead in the 17th minute when Saliba’s header from a corner struck the inside of the post on its way over the line. Just shy of the half-hour mark and Arsenal had their second, again with a header, this time it was Gabriel Jesus who rose to meet Xhaka’s perfectly placed ball. The Gunners then got the ideal start to the second half, when Vieira, making his first start in the Premier League in place of the unavailable Ødegaard, struck a beauty out of nowhere from well outside the box for Arsenal’s September goal of the month. Arsenal was in cruise control, always looking like the more likely team to score whilst barely giving Brentford sight of their goal. In the final minutes, Ethan Nwaneri came on for his Arsenal debut, aged 15 years and 181 days he became the youngest player to ever appear in the Premier League. After the match, Brentford Manager Thomas Frank was one of the first to tip Arsenal for a title challenge saying: “I think they will do brilliantly. I think they compete for the title now.” Xhaka was the resounding winner of Arsenal player of the month picking up 83% of the votes. A once deeply unpopular player, his turnaround best exemplified the strides in the right direction Arsenal were taking.
After the international break, Arsenal returned to action in the North London Derby against hated rivals Tottenham. Arsenal went into the fixture just one point above their opponents. Spurs were content to let Arsenal have possession whilst aiming to contain them and spring counterattacks. They kept Arsenal at bay until the 20th minute when Thomas Partey shot from over 20 yards out and hit it so perfectly that Lloris couldn’t get so much as a fingertip to it, the ball flew past him into the net for Arsenal’s goal of the month. Spurs responded in the 31st minute however after a good counterattack between the front three of Kane, Son and Richarlison saw the latter presented with a chance to cross from inside the penalty area and Arsenal did not effectively deal with the situation, a loose touch from Xhaka put his side back in trouble and Gabriel was panicked into conceding a penalty. Kane stepped up and of course, scored for the 7th time from the spot against Arsenal. This sent the sides in at the break-level pegging.
Arsenal regained the upper hand early in the second half after a shot by Saka was spilt by Lloris to his centre-half Romero who, under pressure from Jesus, looked to return it to the French keeper. Lloris missed the ball, it travelled under his body and then Jesus reacted first to poach it home. Spurs hopes of drawing level for a second time were damaged when Emerson Royal was shown a straight red card in the 62nd minute for a stupid and unnecessarily bad tackle on Martinelli. Arsenal quickly punished this ill discipline getting their third 5 minutes afterwards, with Granit Xhaka rifling past Lloris. At this stage Conte retreated to avoid a hammering, he accepted defeat and took off his offensive players, bringing on defenders to ensure the score line didn’t get embarrassing and Arsenal saw out a comfortable 3-1 derby win. Arsenal next returned to Europa League action putting Bodo/Glimt to the sword with a 3-0 win, goals coming from Nketiah, Holding and Vieira, the latter after brilliant footwork in the box from substitute Jesus.
Next up for Arsenal was another tough test at home against Liverpool. With a win, Arsenal would return to the top of the Premier League. Arsenal had faced Liverpool 4 times the previous season, failing to win any, losing 3 times including twice at home. They had also failed to even score against Liverpool in their last 6 meetings with them, but they needed just 58 seconds on this day, with Saka finding Ødegaard, whose ball between Van Dijk and Alexander Arnold put in Martinelli who finished beyond Alisson. Liverpool recovered well from the nightmare start however and was the better team from that point until they got their deserved equaliser in the 34th minute through Darwin Nunez. It was Arsenal however who went into half-time with the lead when Martinelli led a brilliant counter-attack from a Liverpool set piece, finally taking out both Arnold and Henderson by cutting inside and finding an unmarked Saka who slid in to put his team back in the ascendancy.
Again Liverpool responded well, equalising for a second time early in the second half through Roberto Firmino. From that point on though Arsenal found another level, they searched feverishly for a winning goal, looking to pass Liverpool to death and calving many openings. The noise inside the Emirates had reached deafening decibels as the fans urged their team on. The golden chance came with just under 15 minutes to go when Thiago was judged to have caught the back of Jesus’s foot inside the penalty area, having been beaten to the ball by the striker. Saka stepped up and held his nerve, confidently dispatching an excellent spot kick. Arsenal held out for what was in the end a deserved win after an excellent second-half display. In a decision that had raised a few eyebrows, Tomiyasu had been drafted in for a first league start of the season to go into an unfamiliar left-back position, the move paid dividends as the Japanese international had a fine game up against Mo Salah. The result put Arsenal 14 clear of Liverpool who had endured a dreadful start to the season.
“These are broad shoulders, this is courage. A sporting moment in time. Bukayo Saka.. Such poise! such noise!” – Peter Drury as Saka beats Alisson Becker from the penalty spot.
Four days later Arsenal made it 3 wins from 3 in the Europa, with an away win in Norway on the artificial pitch of Bodo/Glimt. A sole goal from Bukayo Saka was enough after he got on the end of a one-two with Lokonga. His initial shot was blocked by a defender but the ball then deflected in after coming back off the Arsenal winger. Bodo calved out many good chances for themselves but was let down by woeful finishing, squandering chance after chance by blazing high and wide of the target. Arsenal then returned to Premier League action at Elland Road against Leeds, though 40 minutes behind schedule after a power outage just after the game had initially kicked off caused the game to need restarting once power had returned.
Again Saka was the only man to get himself on the scoresheet, his goal coming after Jesus had passed up a golden chance to open the scoring failing to hit the net from close range after Ødegaard had found him with a backheeled flick. Jesus attempted to lift the ball over the keeper, but he lifted it too high and it ended up over the crossbar. Arsenal did not let Leeds off a second time however and punished them after a sloppy cross-field pass from Leeds midfielder Rodrigo only found Saka who headed it into Ødegaard’s path. Ødegaard’s return pass then asked a lot of the winger, but his speed allowed him to reach the ball first. Saka was faced with a tight angle, but it didn’t phase him one bit and he picked out the top corner hitting it high into the roof of the Leeds net.
The second half was full of drama, first when Bamford thought he’d equalised but was instead penalised for a foul on Gabriel. The Leeds striker received a second chance though when Saliba was found guilty of a handball in the box after the referee had checked the monitor. Ramsdale guessed correctly in his dive, but in the end, he wasn’t required as Bamford’s penalty went wide of the post. Arsenal continued to suffer in the second half, struggling to cope with the Leeds onslaught and maintain their slender advantage. Through fatigue and pressure from the home side, Arsenal had lost all ability to pass the ball and could do little else but stay in their own half and try to defend. Ramsdale proved his worth to this Arsenal side with his best performance of the season to date, right when his team needed him most. It appeared as though Arsenal had got the job done when crazily they conceded a second penalty of the half in additional time. Patrick Bamford was nowhere near the ball which was safely back with Ramsdale when Gabriel was penalised for a kick out in the box on the Leeds forward. As well as a penalty, the Brazilian centre-back was also dismissed. However on a VAR review, it was clear that Bamford had fouled Gabriel first, barging him to the floor, so rightfully the decision was reversed and Gabriel’s red card was rescinded. Arsenal held on to a win they’d scarcely deserved and it proved an even bigger win later that day when City lost at Anfield meaning The Gunners stayed 4 points clear after 10 games.
The following Thursday Arsenal were back in action in the Europa League. They were originally scheduled to host Manchester City in the league that mid-week, but the Queens’ death led to the postponement of Arsenal’s fixture with PSV, and it was re-arranged to this game week. Arsenal battered their Dutch visitors, in the end mustering 25 shots to Eindhoven’s 4. As was often the case Saka and Jesus were the standout performers. The young English winger was unstoppable in his direct dribbling runs, unstoppable that is without resorting to fouling, which PSV defenders did time and time again after being skinned by Saka’s great ball control when running at speed. Jesus was similarly dangerous, doing his usual thing of fashioning chances out of nowhere with his quick thinking and somehow even quicker feet. In the end, though the deadlock was broken by Xhaka in the 70th minute when Tomiyasu found him in space 15 yards from the goal. He hit the shot down into the ground and it bobbled just at the right time to go under the keeper and past him.
Next Arsenal travelled to struggling Southampton looking to make it 9 straight wins across the Premier League and Europa. They started fast, and when Xhaka finished off White’s cross with a brilliant volley into the back of the net in the 11th minute, it looked like it would be a case of how many, as it wasn’t the first good chance Arsenal had created. For the first 20 minutes, Southampton couldn’t get out of their own half, Ødegaard cleverly found Jesus with a lifted return pass but his volley was straight at Bazunu in the Saints goal. Jesus was in again after a long ball flighted over the head of Caleta-Car putting the Brazilian clean through until the defender dragged him back using both arms. There seemed to be enough contact for 3 separate penalties in there, but unbelievably the referee Robert Jones didn’t point to the spot and nor did VAR intervene. One of the most inexplicable decisions of the season, and that’s saying something, meant that Arsenal went in at the break only a single goal to the good.
The Southampton defence must have felt encouraged from not being penalised inside the box, as the fouling continued on Jesus outside the box for much of the second half, Lyanco getting away with man-handling Arsenal’s striker time and time again, wrapping both arms around his body whenever the ball was anywhere near the Brazilian. Jones did not however ignore perceived ‘diving’ from Saka showing him a yellow card for simulation, even though there did appear to be some contact. A one-sided refereeing performance and poor finishing from Arsenal allowed the home team back into the game and they got the equalising goal with 25 minutes to go through Armstrong after a swift move cut through Arsenal’s defence. In the 78th minute, Ødegaard thought he’d put Arsenal back in front but Tierney had just carried the ball beyond the line before he was able to cut it back into his captain’s path.
The Gunners had to settle for a point and an end to their winning run, paying the price for not scoring more in the first half. As they began to tire in the second half Southampton calved out some good chances of their own, but there’s no doubt the visitors were also harmed by a dire refereeing performance. The dropped points cut Arsenal’s lead at the top down to two. Another away game followed for The North London side as next they travelled to Eindhoven. With 2 group games remaining, they needed just 1 more win to secure the top spot which would mean they progressed straight through to the final 16, without the need for a playoff game. However Arsenal’s performance was poor, PSV were the better team for 90 minutes and good value for their 2-0 win.
submitted by ARSENAL_DAILYNEWS to u/ARSENAL_DAILYNEWS [link] [comments]
The 2022/23 season is Mikel Arteta’s 3rd full campaign in charge of Arsenal and as well the 3rd of his managerial career. His 1st game in the hot seat came on Boxing Day of 2019, a 1-1 draw at Bournemouth which saw Arsenal drop down a place to 12th in the table. Just a few months into his reign and Arteta was the first high-profile figure in English Football to be diagnosed with Covid-19, the virus which drew the Premier League to a standstill for 3 months and the wider world for a much longer time. It was to empty stadiums which Arsenal played out the remainder of their season which eventually concluded on the 1st of August. An 8th-placed finish was the club’s lowest since 1995. However, there was joy to be found as there so often has been for Arsenal, in the FA Cup. In the one and only Covid FA Cup Final played in front of no spectators Arsenal came from behind to defeat London rivals Chelsea for their record-extending 14th FA Cup, after reaching the final with an unlikely triumph over Manchester City in the semis. Arteta’s first half-season had ended brilliantly and his first full-season started in the same vein with more silverware following as Arsenal defeated Premier League Champions Liverpool to win the Community Shield. Tough times quickly followed and Arteta may have been somewhat grateful for the empty stadiums, as it’s questionable whether the board would have held their nerve and kept faith with such a young manager through this dreadful period had the fans been inside the ground and able to voice their frustrations. On Boxing Day of 2020, not only did Mikel celebrate the 1 year anniversary of his first match in charge, he celebrated a 3-1 victory over Chelsea, his side's first league win for nearly 2 months. It was the first time Saka, Martinelli & Smith Rowe all started a league game together for Arsenal. It was to prove a seminal moment, but it wasn’t enough to move his team up from 15th in the table. It was never so bad again for Arteta and his Arsenal team, with the side eventually settling for a repeat of the previous season’s finish, again coming in 8th. Failure to win the Europa League (exiting the competition to Villarreal in the Semi-Finals, who were incidentally managed by Unai Emery, the manager sacked prior to Arteta taking the job) meant that Arsenal would be without European football for the first time since the 95-96 campaign. And the 21-22 season would begin horribly with Arsenal bottom after 3 matches in which they failed to score and conceded 9 goals. However as the season progressed Arsenal began to find some resilience, quality and self-belief. The sides upheaval came not coincidentally around the time club captain Aubameyang was stripped of that duty before being allowed to depart for Barcelona in the January window. Aubameyang had been the team’s standout performer when winning the FA Cup, but since those performances had seen him rewarded with a new bumper contract which made him by far the club’s best-paid player, his attitude and performance level had become a problem that needed to be dealt with.
More so than any win, it was actually a home defeat to Champions City which perhaps best demonstrated this new Arsenal which was beginning to emerge. They took City on and pushed them all the way only to eventually lose in the 93rd minute, whilst being a man down for the final half-hour with centre-back Gabriel being harshly dismissed. The fight was on with local rivals Tottenham for the final Champions League spot and it was firmly in Arsenal’s hands until a run of 4 defeats in 5 allowed Spurs back into contention. The Gunners appeared to retake control with a run of 4 straight wins before losing tamely away at Spurs and then Newcastle, in the end missing out by 2 points. Throughout the season Arsenal had spells of real high-quality football, and the fans had taken to the project with more passion and belief than they had in the final years of Wenger’s reign or during Unai Emery’s short-lived stint. In the end, though they missed out on the prize of Champions League football due to a combination of injuries to important players and the inexperience of a young group.
Despite the significant setback of missing out on a Champions League spot having held it in their hands for many of the season’s final months, Arsenal still entered the summer of 2022 with plenty of reasons for optimism. Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe had emerged as the real breakout stars of the prior season and Gabriel Martinelli wasn’t too far behind. There had been some clearly smart signings made by the club, in particular, those of Martin Ødegaard and Ben White, signed from Real Madrid and Brighton & Hove Albion respectively. The July purchases of Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko for a combined 75M from Manchester City seemed yet more smart business, in them, they had picked up two quality players with four Premier League winners medals each, and both arriving aged 25 they seemed in the perfect age bracket to become big players for Arsenal not just for the immediate but as well the foreseeable future.
Jesus’ Arsenal debut came in a 5-3 friendly win over FC Nurnberg in which he scored twice. He followed this up with another in a 2-0 win over Everton as Arsenal continued their pre-season with a tour of the USA. Arsenal played 3 matches in America and won all 3, by far the most impressive being a 4-0 trouncing of Chelsea. The Gunners made it 5 pre-season wins from 5 when they returned home the following weekend to beat Sevilla 6-0 at the Emirates, a hattrick from Jesus meaning he had netted 7 goals in his first 5 appearances in Arsenal colours. Arsenal would get the Premier League season underway away at Crystal Palace, under the Friday night lights of Selhurst Park. No Premier League side would have envied them this difficult fixture, Arsenal had experienced just how tough it was 4 months prior when a 3-0 loss away at the ground began a torrid run of results for the Gunners. Arsenal had also begun the previous season away on a Friday night and come unstuck against newly promoted Brentford. Again Arsenal was straight back under the Premier League spotlight to see whether they had grown and matured from such damaging defeats last season. The Arsenal quickly proved they were up to the test, starting right on the front foot and keeping Palace penned back in their own third. Jesus immediately highlighted the new dimension he was going to bring to Arsenal’s attack, when his strength and then neat dribbling fashioned a great chance out of nothing, a chance Martinelli should have done much better with, his side-foot finish going the wrong side of the post with the goal gaping. The Brazilian would make up for it in the 20th minute when a corner was headed into the six-yard box by Zinchenko, who was picked out by Saka to deliver a free header. His head found Martinelli’s and from close range, he was able to notch Arsenal’s first of the league campaign. That was to be the only goal in the game for the next hour, but despite Arsenal’s slender lead they rarely looked in danger of being pegged back. On the instances that keeper Aaron Ramsdale was called into action, he was ready and dealt with Palace’s occasional threats soundly. The game was put beyond Crystal Palace in the 85th minute when Bukayo Saka’s dangerous ball across the six-yard box was headed into his own net by Guehi. This made certain of 3 richly deserved points for the Gunners.
Jamie Carragher for one was particularly impressed with the start Arsenal made to the game saying afterwards: “Arsenal played like a big team. When I say a big team, I’m talking about a Man City or Liverpool, a team who wherever they go, dominate the opposition. I felt like we were watching City or Liverpool in that first 20 minutes, half an hour.” Fellow Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville was more impressed with Arsenal in the second half saying: “The question mark about Arsenal will be whether they’ve got that robustness and resilience, physicality to get through that difficult 15 or 20 minute periods in away matches, and they got through that (tonight) and that impressed me.” Saliba was also singled out for praise with Carragher adding: “He looked the real deal. He adds something, we’ve always felt they were weak, at Brentford last season they got bullied and here last season, his physical stature will certainly help them in tough away games.”
Arsenal’s first home league game of the season was against Leicester City. The opening goal began with Jesus tormenting Johnny Evans tight to the touchline, after beating him he fed Martinelli who was able to get into the penalty area and find Xhaka, the Swiss international touched it first time back into Jesus who took a touch to steady himself then teased it over the head of Ward in the Leicester goal and into the net. It was an angle he had no right to try from, let alone score from but such was the Brazilian forwards confidence in front of the goal he fancied his chances from anywhere. The goal was nominated for Premier League goal of the month. Jesus got his second to double Arsenal’s advantage in the 35th minute, this time in a much simpler fashion. A corner across the six-yard box was not dealt with, a Leicester head on it only sped up its path to Jesus who was waiting to nod home from practically on the goal line.
Later in the first half, Leicester thought they had a way back into the game when referee Darren England pointed to the spot having judged Ramsdale to have brought down Jamie Vardy. However VAR advised him to check the monitor, and after re-watching the incident it was clear there was no contact made and the penalty decision was reversed. Leicester did still manage to half their deficit early in the second half though, a long ball was flicked on leaving Saliba in a difficult situation to deal with. Ramsdale was advancing but wouldn’t get there first and Vardy was waiting on the French defender’s shoulder, leaving him no alternative but to try and head the ball clear whilst facing his own goal. He only succeeded in diverting it into the net. This could have been a moment when the Arsenal crowd got nervous and frustrated. They had allowed a soft goal and their youngest defender was at fault. However the crowd immediately rallied behind Saliba and his teammates, he and the team needed help putting that mistake behind them and the crowd’s noise in the aftermath of conceding will have been reassuring to the players.
Demonstrating this, Arsenal went straight up the other end and scored, Ward made a meal of a cross, dropping it at the feet of Jesus who squared for Xhaka. The Swiss midfielder was being deployed in a new, more adventurous role where he was spending more time in the opposition box, he got his reward for this new tactic with a simple tap-in from right in front of the goal. Leicester would again reduce the home team’s lead to one however when Iheanacho found Maddison, who was able to shoot straight through Ramsdale. The young English keeper will have been disappointed at being so easily beaten from such an angle, his wide-open legs presenting the opportunity to the Leicester midfielder. Again Arsenal immediately responded to the setback by going up the other end and scoring again. This move began with Martinelli winning the ball back and feeding Ødegaard who moved the ball on to Jesus, who carried it forward before finding Martinelli who shot low from outside the box, he beat the outstretched Ward and hit the bottom corner, with the ball hitting the inside of the post on its way in. It had been a good day at the office for Arsenal and a great day for Gabriel Jesus, though despite scoring 2 and assisting the other 2 of Arsenal’s 4 goals, according to his manager Jesus left the field disappointed because: “he thinks he should have scored 4, that’s the sort of mentality you need. I wouldn’t like to play against him. He’s so mobile, intuitive, sharp and proactive in any moment or phase of the game.”
Arsenal next travelled to newly promoted Bournemouth. It took The Gunners just 5 minutes to take the lead and again it came from the phenomenal centre-forward play of Gabriel Jesus. A loose touch from White saw the ball launch high into the air, the Brazilian reacted first, beautifully controlling the ball whilst at the same time using his considerable body strength to hold off the Bournemouth midfielder, with exceptional balance he then dribbled around two other Bournemouth shirts until he was on the edge of the box facing their defence, with a lovely disguised pass he then fed Martinelli who was free to his left, his shot was saved but it fell straight at the feet of new captain Martin Ødegaard who was on hand to notch his first of the season. Rightfully though the praise went to Jesus with commentator Alan Smith saying: “You won’t see a better example of centre forward play than this.”
Ødegaard had to wait just 6 more minutes for his second of the season, a cross along the floor from White found Jesus who was free, his first touch wasn’t the best but it allowed it to set up nicely for the Norwegian to strike first time, which he duly did and the ball flashed into the net. Early in the second half and Arsenal had a third goal, with Xhaka setting it back to Saliba just inside the penalty area. Saliba struck it beautifully the first time, keeping his shot down under the bar and too perfectly placed for the keeper to do anything about. It was just Saliba’s second goal in senior football but he had finished it with the class and composure of a player who had scored 200. The strike drew Zinchenko to his knees, clutching his head in disbelief at the quality of the finish and unsurprisingly it was voted as Arsenal’s goal of the month. Jesus thought he’d netted Arsenal’s 4th but a VAR check ruled the goal out for offside, so the North Londoners had to settle for a 3-0 win in what had been an excellent away performance.
The Arsenal faced more newly promoted opposition the following week, this time back at home against Fulham for Arteta’s 100th Premier League game in charge. They would be without Zinchenko and Partey who had picked up injuries and were replaced by Tierney and Elneny respectively. The best chance of the first half went to Saka who got beyond his marker to face Leno one-against one, but he was unable to beat the keeper. It would be Fulham who took the lead however with Arsenal falling behind for the first time in the season. From the full-back position, Saka flighted a ball into Gabriel, who unnecessarily played himself into trouble. He never seemed to have the ball truly under his spell, and his second touch invited Mitrovic to try and take it off him, the defender then got his body positioning wrong, and failed to protect the ball allowing the forward to nick it from behind him and then the Serb was able to keep his composure and finish past Ramsdale.
Fulham’s lead lasted just 8 minutes, Martin Ødegaard lodging Arsenal’s response. There was a degree of good fortune about the goal, with a big deflection on the strike. But there was no doubt the Norwegian had deserved it, he was having an outstanding game with all of Arsenal’s danger coming through him. He was constantly creating, with inventive passes and dribbling runs. In this instance, a clever stepover had bought him the space for the shot. Ødegaard continued to lead Arsenal’s push for a winner with he, in particular, deserving to be on the winning side, and the winner did come though not until the 86th minute. Leno failed to deal with a corner, missing his attempted punch clearance and the ball fell at the feet of Gabriel who was able to gain the perfect redemption for his earlier error by securing all 3 points for his side. The goal kept Arsenal at the top of the Premier League as they remained the only team with a 100% record.
Arsenal finished August with another home game, facing Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa. This presented Arsenal with a chance to win their opening 5 league games for the first time since 2004. Saka passed up a golden opportunity to give Arsenal the ideal start when Martinelli’s cross found him completely free at the back post, it was set up perfectly for Saka to hit on the volley, which he did but he got too under the ball and lifted it horribly high and wide from inside the six-yard box. An Arsenal opening goal felt inevitable however and it came on the half-hour mark when Emi Martinez could only push out an Xhaka shot as far as Gabriel Jesus, who was on hand to punish him. Martinez did go someway to redeeming himself later in the half with an excellent stop to deny a brilliant half-volley from Martinelli from 25 yards out.
Arsenal dominated the first half and continued their domination in the second but could not increase their advantage, it was instead Aston Villa who got the second goal of the game, in a somewhat controversial fashion. A corner from Douglas Luiz went straight into the net with Ramsdale unable to reach the ball due to his path being completely blocked by Kamara, who also limited the keepers’ movement by having both arms wrapped around his back. The goal stood but Arsenal cancelled it out in their own way, by going straight up the Villa end and retaking the lead. Saka coolly picked out Martinelli who struck it the first time on the half volley, Martinez clawed desperately at the ball but could not prevent it from going over his goal line and The Gunners were able to see the victory out. Arsenal’s player of the month was unsurprisingly Gabriel Jesus with 3 goals and 3 assists in 5 games. Arsenal’s maximum points after 5 games saw Mikel Arteta pick up Premier League manager of the month.
Arsenal started September with a chance to go 4 points clear of City in 2nd, after just six games. Standing in their way was Manchester United who would be hosting the Gunners at Old Trafford, a ground Arsenal had only won at once in the league since 2006, that one as well being without fans during the Covid season. Arsenal was boosted by the return of Zinchenko but had to start with their 3rd choice midfielder Sambi Lokonga for the Partey role after Elneny had followed the Ghanaian onto the treatment table. Regardless of the blow, Arsenal appeared to have made the ideal start when Saka threaded the needle and put Martinelli clean through on goal. The Brazilian finished brilliantly to give Arsenal the lead, but VAR advised the referee to have a look at a potential foul in the build-up. On review, the referee judged Ødegaard to have won the ball from Eriksen unfairly and chalked the goal off. The intervention made by Lee Mason on VAR was later judged by a Premier League review to be an incorrect one, the minimal contact not penalised in real-time by the ref was judged not to be a clear or obvious error. The review came too little and too late as far as Arsenal were concerned as they’d lost their lead and instead found themselves trailing at half-time after a good move from United culminated in a debut goal for Antony who finished past Ramsdale.
VAR’s intervention in the Arsenal goal was always likely to prove a vital one as remarkably United had not lost at Old Trafford when leading at half-time since 1984. This showed the size of Arsenal’s task going into the second half, but they continued to probe and ask questions of United and they got their equaliser on the hour mark when the ball broke to Saka in the penalty area after Ødegaard had looked to thread one through to Jesus. United dealt with that immediate threat but could only clear as far as Saka who slotted through the legs of Martinez for his first of the season. Arsenal looked to be in the ascendancy, but they were only level for 6 minutes. Overcommitting bodies forward left them without a midfield and after winning it back United was able to counter-attack with Bruno Fernandes who looked and found Rashford in behind the defence and he put United back in front. Arteta reacted immediately by looking to chase the game, giving a debut to summer recruit Fabio Vieira. The changes appeared to backfire however as Arsenal were left with even fewer defensive bodies on the field and in the 75th minute they were cut through once more, with Eriksen and Rashford both left in acres of space as United hit Arsenal once more on the counter-attack. It was a horrible goal for Arsenal to concede, it reminded of the worst years of Wenger with everyone so committed to attacking they had no thought for defending. Arsenal suffered their first defeat of the season going down 3-1.
There were some positives to take in how confidently and capably they had passed the ball around, however, United had defended their penalty area very well and counter-attacked effectively. The frustration for Arsenal was how they had helped them in that regard, by leaving key areas of the midfield devoid of players. Partey had been very badly missed, and to a lesser extent so had Elneny whose defensive intelligence would not have seen him vacate his position as often as Lokonga did. The third goal conceded was perhaps the responsibility of Arteta who had gone all out attack mode too early, given the counter-attacking success United were already enjoying.
Arsenal got the chance to put the defeat behind them 4 days later when they began their Europa League campaign. They were placed in Group A alongside PSV Eindhoven, Bodo/Glimt and FC Zurich, and would kick off against the latter away in Switzerland. Summer signings Matt Turner and Marquinhos made their competitive debuts, and Vieira would make his full debut. Arsenal did some counterattacking of their own in the 16th minute when Vieira found Nketiah who travelled down the wing before playing a great ball across the box which found Marquinhos who expertly finished the first time into the top corner. The hosts equalised on the verge of half-time however when Nketiah was judged to have committed an offence in his own penalty box. The death of the Queen being announced during the first half led to the unusual circumstance of a minute’s silence taking place before the second half. When it did kick off, Arsenal regained the lead in the 62nd minute through Nketiah who was found with a delightful ball by Marquinhos who had made a fine debut. That’s how the score remained. Arsenal would not be in Premier League action that weekend, with their home game against Everton being postponed due to the Queen’s passing. Also delayed was their home game against PSV the following week, so the team were not back in action until 10 days after the Zurich game when they travelled to Brentford.
Arsenal dominated the games opening and took a deserved lead in the 17th minute when Saliba’s header from a corner struck the inside of the post on its way over the line. Just shy of the half-hour mark and Arsenal had their second, again with a header, this time it was Gabriel Jesus who rose to meet Xhaka’s perfectly placed ball. The Gunners then got the ideal start to the second half, when Vieira, making his first start in the Premier League in place of the unavailable Ødegaard, struck a beauty out of nowhere from well outside the box for Arsenal’s September goal of the month. Arsenal was in cruise control, always looking like the more likely team to score whilst barely giving Brentford sight of their goal. In the final minutes, Ethan Nwaneri came on for his Arsenal debut, aged 15 years and 181 days he became the youngest player to ever appear in the Premier League. After the match, Brentford Manager Thomas Frank was one of the first to tip Arsenal for a title challenge saying: “I think they will do brilliantly. I think they compete for the title now.” Xhaka was the resounding winner of Arsenal player of the month picking up 83% of the votes. A once deeply unpopular player, his turnaround best exemplified the strides in the right direction Arsenal were taking.
After the international break, Arsenal returned to action in the North London Derby against hated rivals Tottenham. Arsenal went into the fixture just one point above their opponents. Spurs were content to let Arsenal have possession whilst aiming to contain them and spring counterattacks. They kept Arsenal at bay until the 20th minute when Thomas Partey shot from over 20 yards out and hit it so perfectly that Lloris couldn’t get so much as a fingertip to it, the ball flew past him into the net for Arsenal’s goal of the month. Spurs responded in the 31st minute however after a good counterattack between the front three of Kane, Son and Richarlison saw the latter presented with a chance to cross from inside the penalty area and Arsenal did not effectively deal with the situation, a loose touch from Xhaka put his side back in trouble and Gabriel was panicked into conceding a penalty. Kane stepped up and of course, scored for the 7th time from the spot against Arsenal. This sent the sides in at the break-level pegging.
Arsenal regained the upper hand early in the second half after a shot by Saka was spilt by Lloris to his centre-half Romero who, under pressure from Jesus, looked to return it to the French keeper. Lloris missed the ball, it travelled under his body and then Jesus reacted first to poach it home. Spurs hopes of drawing level for a second time were damaged when Emerson Royal was shown a straight red card in the 62nd minute for a stupid and unnecessarily bad tackle on Martinelli. Arsenal quickly punished this ill discipline getting their third 5 minutes afterwards, with Granit Xhaka rifling past Lloris. At this stage Conte retreated to avoid a hammering, he accepted defeat and took off his offensive players, bringing on defenders to ensure the score line didn’t get embarrassing and Arsenal saw out a comfortable 3-1 derby win. Arsenal next returned to Europa League action putting Bodo/Glimt to the sword with a 3-0 win, goals coming from Nketiah, Holding and Vieira, the latter after brilliant footwork in the box from substitute Jesus.
Next up for Arsenal was another tough test at home against Liverpool. With a win, Arsenal would return to the top of the Premier League. Arsenal had faced Liverpool 4 times the previous season, failing to win any, losing 3 times including twice at home. They had also failed to even score against Liverpool in their last 6 meetings with them, but they needed just 58 seconds on this day, with Saka finding Ødegaard, whose ball between Van Dijk and Alexander Arnold put in Martinelli who finished beyond Alisson. Liverpool recovered well from the nightmare start however and was the better team from that point until they got their deserved equaliser in the 34th minute through Darwin Nunez. It was Arsenal however who went into half-time with the lead when Martinelli led a brilliant counter-attack from a Liverpool set piece, finally taking out both Arnold and Henderson by cutting inside and finding an unmarked Saka who slid in to put his team back in the ascendancy.
Again Liverpool responded well, equalising for a second time early in the second half through Roberto Firmino. From that point on though Arsenal found another level, they searched feverishly for a winning goal, looking to pass Liverpool to death and calving many openings. The noise inside the Emirates had reached deafening decibels as the fans urged their team on. The golden chance came with just under 15 minutes to go when Thiago was judged to have caught the back of Jesus’s foot inside the penalty area, having been beaten to the ball by the striker. Saka stepped up and held his nerve, confidently dispatching an excellent spot kick. Arsenal held out for what was in the end a deserved win after an excellent second-half display. In a decision that had raised a few eyebrows, Tomiyasu had been drafted in for a first league start of the season to go into an unfamiliar left-back position, the move paid dividends as the Japanese international had a fine game up against Mo Salah. The result put Arsenal 14 clear of Liverpool who had endured a dreadful start to the season.
“These are broad shoulders, this is courage. A sporting moment in time. Bukayo Saka.. Such poise! such noise!” – Peter Drury as Saka beats Alisson Becker from the penalty spot.
Four days later Arsenal made it 3 wins from 3 in the Europa, with an away win in Norway on the artificial pitch of Bodo/Glimt. A sole goal from Bukayo Saka was enough after he got on the end of a one-two with Lokonga. His initial shot was blocked by a defender but the ball then deflected in after coming back off the Arsenal winger. Bodo calved out many good chances for themselves but was let down by woeful finishing, squandering chance after chance by blazing high and wide of the target. Arsenal then returned to Premier League action at Elland Road against Leeds, though 40 minutes behind schedule after a power outage just after the game had initially kicked off caused the game to need restarting once power had returned.
Again Saka was the only man to get himself on the scoresheet, his goal coming after Jesus had passed up a golden chance to open the scoring failing to hit the net from close range after Ødegaard had found him with a backheeled flick. Jesus attempted to lift the ball over the keeper, but he lifted it too high and it ended up over the crossbar. Arsenal did not let Leeds off a second time however and punished them after a sloppy cross-field pass from Leeds midfielder Rodrigo only found Saka who headed it into Ødegaard’s path. Ødegaard’s return pass then asked a lot of the winger, but his speed allowed him to reach the ball first. Saka was faced with a tight angle, but it didn’t phase him one bit and he picked out the top corner hitting it high into the roof of the Leeds net.
The second half was full of drama, first when Bamford thought he’d equalised but was instead penalised for a foul on Gabriel. The Leeds striker received a second chance though when Saliba was found guilty of a handball in the box after the referee had checked the monitor. Ramsdale guessed correctly in his dive, but in the end, he wasn’t required as Bamford’s penalty went wide of the post. Arsenal continued to suffer in the second half, struggling to cope with the Leeds onslaught and maintain their slender advantage. Through fatigue and pressure from the home side, Arsenal had lost all ability to pass the ball and could do little else but stay in their own half and try to defend. Ramsdale proved his worth to this Arsenal side with his best performance of the season to date, right when his team needed him most. It appeared as though Arsenal had got the job done when crazily they conceded a second penalty of the half in additional time. Patrick Bamford was nowhere near the ball which was safely back with Ramsdale when Gabriel was penalised for a kick out in the box on the Leeds forward. As well as a penalty, the Brazilian centre-back was also dismissed. However on a VAR review, it was clear that Bamford had fouled Gabriel first, barging him to the floor, so rightfully the decision was reversed and Gabriel’s red card was rescinded. Arsenal held on to a win they’d scarcely deserved and it proved an even bigger win later that day when City lost at Anfield meaning The Gunners stayed 4 points clear after 10 games.
The following Thursday Arsenal were back in action in the Europa League. They were originally scheduled to host Manchester City in the league that mid-week, but the Queens’ death led to the postponement of Arsenal’s fixture with PSV, and it was re-arranged to this game week. Arsenal battered their Dutch visitors, in the end mustering 25 shots to Eindhoven’s 4. As was often the case Saka and Jesus were the standout performers. The young English winger was unstoppable in his direct dribbling runs, unstoppable that is without resorting to fouling, which PSV defenders did time and time again after being skinned by Saka’s great ball control when running at speed. Jesus was similarly dangerous, doing his usual thing of fashioning chances out of nowhere with his quick thinking and somehow even quicker feet. In the end, though the deadlock was broken by Xhaka in the 70th minute when Tomiyasu found him in space 15 yards from the goal. He hit the shot down into the ground and it bobbled just at the right time to go under the keeper and past him.
Next Arsenal travelled to struggling Southampton looking to make it 9 straight wins across the Premier League and Europa. They started fast, and when Xhaka finished off White’s cross with a brilliant volley into the back of the net in the 11th minute, it looked like it would be a case of how many, as it wasn’t the first good chance Arsenal had created. For the first 20 minutes, Southampton couldn’t get out of their own half, Ødegaard cleverly found Jesus with a lifted return pass but his volley was straight at Bazunu in the Saints goal. Jesus was in again after a long ball flighted over the head of Caleta-Car putting the Brazilian clean through until the defender dragged him back using both arms. There seemed to be enough contact for 3 separate penalties in there, but unbelievably the referee Robert Jones didn’t point to the spot and nor did VAR intervene. One of the most inexplicable decisions of the season, and that’s saying something, meant that Arsenal went in at the break only a single goal to the good.
The Southampton defence must have felt encouraged from not being penalised inside the box, as the fouling continued on Jesus outside the box for much of the second half, Lyanco getting away with man-handling Arsenal’s striker time and time again, wrapping both arms around his body whenever the ball was anywhere near the Brazilian. Jones did not however ignore perceived ‘diving’ from Saka showing him a yellow card for simulation, even though there did appear to be some contact. A one-sided refereeing performance and poor finishing from Arsenal allowed the home team back into the game and they got the equalising goal with 25 minutes to go through Armstrong after a swift move cut through Arsenal’s defence. In the 78th minute, Ødegaard thought he’d put Arsenal back in front but Tierney had just carried the ball beyond the line before he was able to cut it back into his captain’s path.
The Gunners had to settle for a point and an end to their winning run, paying the price for not scoring more in the first half. As they began to tire in the second half Southampton calved out some good chances of their own, but there’s no doubt the visitors were also harmed by a dire refereeing performance. The dropped points cut Arsenal’s lead at the top down to two. Another away game followed for The North London side as next they travelled to Eindhoven. With 2 group games remaining, they needed just 1 more win to secure the top spot which would mean they progressed straight through to the final 16, without the need for a playoff game. However Arsenal’s performance was poor, PSV were the better team for 90 minutes and good value for their 2-0 win.
2023.06.04 14:28 Angel466 [Bob the hobo] A Celestial Wars Spin-Off Part 0840
PART EIGHT HUNDRED AND FORTY
[Previous Chapter] [The Beginning] [Patreon+2]
Friday
Tucker Portsmith’s head pounded so hard he felt like a blood vessel was about to explode behind his eyes. All week he had been dividing his time between trying to find out why he and Helen were no longer permitted to see Alex and doing what was necessary to distance the company from Dyadron to listening to Helen rail about the failings of Pensacola, the US Navy and him as a father and a husband.
He knew he couldn’t contact anyone in the Pentagon for answers. Not after NCIS Director Scott Dyson contacted him via a video call to tell him to his face to stop asking questions that wouldn’t be answered at this time. No matter how hard he tried to word it differently, to get even a hint of what was going on, the director shut him down. Hard. And then, he ended the call with a warning not to interfere. In any way. That they would contact him when they were ready.
Helen, of course, insisted he call the director back and demand the answers she wanted. She hadn’t taken ‘No’ well, but as much as she huffed and puffed, she would not budge him when his actions reflected on his business life. There were times to draw a line for the family and fight for what was right. When the entire US Military was telling you to stand down or risk going to jail and losing everything … that was not one of them.
Last night had been the first real night’s sleep he’d had all week, for they’d severed the last tie with Dyadron and were now completely clear of that nightmare. He might’ve had a drink or ten in private celebration of their achievements and promised Phillipa a steak and lobster dinner once a week for the rest of her life for her part in it. Right after he shook her senseless for not taking better care of herself. She’d been riding his backside about not overdoing it for so long it never occurred to him to do it for her. A mistake he wouldn’t repeat going forward, to be sure.
And now, he had visitors at—he squinted at the glowing timepiece on his side table—WTF o’clock in the morning! The pounding the door to the penthouse apartment took would’ve been heard throughout the building, made worse by the fact it was 5 am. He’d ignored the pounding at first, thinking Helen would answer the door, but when it continued relentlessly, he assumed she had already left to do one of her many daily workouts and dragged himself out of bed.
He tossed on a robe but forwent the slippers in his haste to reach the door. He tied the robe while in motion. “Coming!” he called because, of course, if Helen was gone, Donald would be with her, and he’d be alone. So far, that had suited him, as he’d been able to get a lot of work done without the interruptions.
He looked at the screen and was stunned to see four people crammed into the video image. Two in naval attire (he never did go into the whole who did what rank thing outside of Alex’s rank of Petty Officer) and two ill-fitting suits that made them either detectives or FBI.
The closest in a business suit had his fist raised to pound some more.
“Wait!” Tucker barked, unlocking the door from the inside and opening it just enough to stand in the way. “Can I help you?”
The plain-clothes person that had been beating on his door held up her badge for Tucker to see, along with a piece of paper folded into three, which she pushed into Tucker’s hand on his way past. “Federal agents. We need to conduct a search of your apartment, sir, and you need to step aside. We have a warrant.”
“A warrant for what?” Tucker demanded, opening the letter to skim the contents. In the central portion of the letter was Alexander’s name.
They’re searching for Alex?!
“Are you insane?” he demanded as the rest of them followed the woman’s lead and muscled their way in. “Alex is in a coma! In the hospital! Why …?!” And then his sleep-deprived, mildly alcohol-infused, aching brain kicked in, and he whirled on the people who were sweeping into the living room. “Where is my son?!” he demanded, storming after the four. He caught up with the closest one, who happened to be navy and went to grab her when her partner stepped between them.
“Don’t be touching her, sir. Just stand over there. This won’t take long.”
“Someone had better tell me what the hell is going on! How did you even get a warrant at this ungodly hour?! Based on what? That we’re his parents, and we’re here because he’s in a coma?!”
He watched them head up the hall and try to strongarm the first door, which was locked. “NO!” he shouted, trying without success to push against the man holding him back. “You can’t go in there!”
“That warrant says we can check everything, Mister Portsmith…”
“That room contains access to military secrets that I assure you are NOT on any goddamn warrant, and this says you’re looking for Alexander. That’s fine. I’ll unlock the door, go in first and remove my computer, and you can search to your heart’s content for a comatose patient who isn’t here.”
When the four looked amongst themselves, Tucker straightened and said in his most authoritative voice, “The contents of that room go way above your pay grade, ladies and gentlemen. If you force your way into that room based on the information on this warrant, I assure you, the Pentagon will land on you so hard your families will forget what you look like by the time they see you again.” He stood his ground, knowing he looked as intimidating as a homeless puppy in his robe, but nevertheless, there was a reason he never left that room unlocked.
Finally, the male FBI agent stepped back and gestured at the door. “Unlock it, sir. You may follow me in and collect your computer. I assumed it’s powered down?”
“Of course. My keys are in my bedroom. The master suite, third door on the left in a drawer that can’t possibly contain my son, so you have no reason to open it.” Since the agent was the first to listen to reason, Tucker addressed him. “Let me know when I’m clear to go in there and get them.”
The agent gestured for the sailors to move ahead of them, and when he came back a few minutes later, silently shaking his head, the agent said. “If you’ll come with me, Mister Portsmith.”
Tucker hated being directed like this, but until he could lay his hand on his phone and unleash the avalanche of lawyers that he had at his disposal, he wasn’t sure what was and wasn’t acceptable in this situation. It wasn’t often feds and the military joined forces on things.
He opened the drawer and collected his keys while his other hand holding the warrant palmed his phone off its charging plate. As they went back to the office, he snapped a photo of the insidious document and sent it to his lawyers’ cell phones. Yes, multiple, because it wasn’t just one senior partner that took care of their legal needs but three.
“What did you just do?” the female agent demanded, pulling Tucker’s hands apart.
“I just sent this warrant to my lawyers in New York. You’d better hope you know exactly what you’re doing because…”
His phone immediately exploded with incoming calls, which had him smiling caustically at the woman. Without seeing who had reached him first, he used his thumb to connect the call and put it on speaker.
“Who is executing the warrant?” Julian Santos demanded, his deep baritone voice filling the hallway. The federal agent gave Tucker a disgusted look and gestured at the closed front door.
I don’t think so, junior. “Four, Julian. Two feds and two from the navy. They haven’t specifically identified themselves yet, and they want me to unlock my office door…”
“Don’t you dare! The warrant only demands a search of your present accommodations. It does not include any rooms that fall under the banner of Portsmith Electronics. Those require a very different set of warrants that need to be issued directly from either Washington or the Pentagon, and I doubt you have those at the ready, correct agent?”
“We have the authority to search…” the male agent insisted but was cut off by the three-thousand-dollar an hour attorney.
“Do not unlock that door, Tucker. Even as we speak, I have people in Florida moving to have that search warrant quashed. It’ll be gone in just a few minutes.”
“Until then, this is a valid warrant.” The man turned and quickly gestured for the three with him to fan out, searching the penthouse apartment as fast and thoroughly as they could before the counter-injunction was handled.
Well, well, well. It seemed they were well aware of who they were squaring off with after all.
“Julian, I know Alex isn’t here. He’s been in a coma for over a week, and now they’ve lost him. If I go into my office and remove my computer, is there any harm in letting them search the office for Alex if only to make them go away?”
“Tucker, they’re not going away. The warrant gives them the authority to take you and Helen downtown for questioning.”
“What?”
“Don’t worry. As I said, we’ll have a full team ready to move before you leave the apartment, which isn’t going to happen until more security is on hand for your laptop. Is Donald there?”
“He’s with Helen on her run.” The fact he had been locked inside the apartment for days and only ventured out when he was with Helen and, therefore, Donald was not something he was about to get into.
“Fine. I’ll get your office to organise a security detail for you and your computer. Stay put, don’t answer anything until we get there, and for Christ’s sake, leave me on speaker.” Tucker heard several tell-tale crackles in the line to indicate others had been patched into the call but had refrained from speaking.
It was a strange thing, but in Tucker’s head, he was picturing a virtual reality computer game where the enemy had him cornered until, one by one, his own team spawned around him to level the playing field … and then overwhelm it.
He didn’t hear Julian’s voice anymore and assumed he’d been muted so that the senior partner could bark out orders at whoever else was on the line with him.
“I guess you’re not an honourable man after all,” the male FBI agent said with a tight expression.
“Tell me why you think I’d break into a military hospital and kidnap my crippled son, and I’ll be the first to unlock that door.”
“Tucker!” Julian immediately came back onto the line.
“Relax, Julian. I have no idea what’s going on here, but they have no intention of telling me why they want Alex so badly.” Stiffening, he looked down at his phone. “Actually, make that a priority. There’s only so much the military can hide from us, especially if Alex was using family funds in any way to finance his situation. Have someone call Elias Stoll. He can track down Alex’s accounts and find out what he was up to that way.”
“NO!” the agents and the naval personnel all shouted at once.
“Tucker?” Julian queried, for the man wasn’t used to taking those types of directives any more than he was.
“If I do it, I’ll have to put you on hold,” he explained. The rest of that sentence went unspoken. If Julian wanted to remain an ear in the room, someone else had to do the legwork for him.
“Do not hang up,” Julian reiterated, and once more, Tucker was muted from the attorneys’ conversation.
And so began the dance of the law.
* * *
((All comments welcome. Good or bad, I'd love to hear your thoughts 🥰🤗))
I made a family tree/diagram of the Mystallian family that can be found here
For more of my work including WPs: Angel466 or an index of previous WPS here.
FULL INDEX OF BOB THE HOBO TO DATE CAN BE FOUND HERE!!
submitted by Angel466 to redditserials [link] [comments]
[Previous Chapter] [The Beginning] [Patreon+2]
Friday
Tucker Portsmith’s head pounded so hard he felt like a blood vessel was about to explode behind his eyes. All week he had been dividing his time between trying to find out why he and Helen were no longer permitted to see Alex and doing what was necessary to distance the company from Dyadron to listening to Helen rail about the failings of Pensacola, the US Navy and him as a father and a husband.
He knew he couldn’t contact anyone in the Pentagon for answers. Not after NCIS Director Scott Dyson contacted him via a video call to tell him to his face to stop asking questions that wouldn’t be answered at this time. No matter how hard he tried to word it differently, to get even a hint of what was going on, the director shut him down. Hard. And then, he ended the call with a warning not to interfere. In any way. That they would contact him when they were ready.
Helen, of course, insisted he call the director back and demand the answers she wanted. She hadn’t taken ‘No’ well, but as much as she huffed and puffed, she would not budge him when his actions reflected on his business life. There were times to draw a line for the family and fight for what was right. When the entire US Military was telling you to stand down or risk going to jail and losing everything … that was not one of them.
Last night had been the first real night’s sleep he’d had all week, for they’d severed the last tie with Dyadron and were now completely clear of that nightmare. He might’ve had a drink or ten in private celebration of their achievements and promised Phillipa a steak and lobster dinner once a week for the rest of her life for her part in it. Right after he shook her senseless for not taking better care of herself. She’d been riding his backside about not overdoing it for so long it never occurred to him to do it for her. A mistake he wouldn’t repeat going forward, to be sure.
And now, he had visitors at—he squinted at the glowing timepiece on his side table—WTF o’clock in the morning! The pounding the door to the penthouse apartment took would’ve been heard throughout the building, made worse by the fact it was 5 am. He’d ignored the pounding at first, thinking Helen would answer the door, but when it continued relentlessly, he assumed she had already left to do one of her many daily workouts and dragged himself out of bed.
He tossed on a robe but forwent the slippers in his haste to reach the door. He tied the robe while in motion. “Coming!” he called because, of course, if Helen was gone, Donald would be with her, and he’d be alone. So far, that had suited him, as he’d been able to get a lot of work done without the interruptions.
He looked at the screen and was stunned to see four people crammed into the video image. Two in naval attire (he never did go into the whole who did what rank thing outside of Alex’s rank of Petty Officer) and two ill-fitting suits that made them either detectives or FBI.
The closest in a business suit had his fist raised to pound some more.
“Wait!” Tucker barked, unlocking the door from the inside and opening it just enough to stand in the way. “Can I help you?”
The plain-clothes person that had been beating on his door held up her badge for Tucker to see, along with a piece of paper folded into three, which she pushed into Tucker’s hand on his way past. “Federal agents. We need to conduct a search of your apartment, sir, and you need to step aside. We have a warrant.”
“A warrant for what?” Tucker demanded, opening the letter to skim the contents. In the central portion of the letter was Alexander’s name.
They’re searching for Alex?!
“Are you insane?” he demanded as the rest of them followed the woman’s lead and muscled their way in. “Alex is in a coma! In the hospital! Why …?!” And then his sleep-deprived, mildly alcohol-infused, aching brain kicked in, and he whirled on the people who were sweeping into the living room. “Where is my son?!” he demanded, storming after the four. He caught up with the closest one, who happened to be navy and went to grab her when her partner stepped between them.
“Don’t be touching her, sir. Just stand over there. This won’t take long.”
“Someone had better tell me what the hell is going on! How did you even get a warrant at this ungodly hour?! Based on what? That we’re his parents, and we’re here because he’s in a coma?!”
He watched them head up the hall and try to strongarm the first door, which was locked. “NO!” he shouted, trying without success to push against the man holding him back. “You can’t go in there!”
“That warrant says we can check everything, Mister Portsmith…”
“That room contains access to military secrets that I assure you are NOT on any goddamn warrant, and this says you’re looking for Alexander. That’s fine. I’ll unlock the door, go in first and remove my computer, and you can search to your heart’s content for a comatose patient who isn’t here.”
When the four looked amongst themselves, Tucker straightened and said in his most authoritative voice, “The contents of that room go way above your pay grade, ladies and gentlemen. If you force your way into that room based on the information on this warrant, I assure you, the Pentagon will land on you so hard your families will forget what you look like by the time they see you again.” He stood his ground, knowing he looked as intimidating as a homeless puppy in his robe, but nevertheless, there was a reason he never left that room unlocked.
Finally, the male FBI agent stepped back and gestured at the door. “Unlock it, sir. You may follow me in and collect your computer. I assumed it’s powered down?”
“Of course. My keys are in my bedroom. The master suite, third door on the left in a drawer that can’t possibly contain my son, so you have no reason to open it.” Since the agent was the first to listen to reason, Tucker addressed him. “Let me know when I’m clear to go in there and get them.”
The agent gestured for the sailors to move ahead of them, and when he came back a few minutes later, silently shaking his head, the agent said. “If you’ll come with me, Mister Portsmith.”
Tucker hated being directed like this, but until he could lay his hand on his phone and unleash the avalanche of lawyers that he had at his disposal, he wasn’t sure what was and wasn’t acceptable in this situation. It wasn’t often feds and the military joined forces on things.
He opened the drawer and collected his keys while his other hand holding the warrant palmed his phone off its charging plate. As they went back to the office, he snapped a photo of the insidious document and sent it to his lawyers’ cell phones. Yes, multiple, because it wasn’t just one senior partner that took care of their legal needs but three.
“What did you just do?” the female agent demanded, pulling Tucker’s hands apart.
“I just sent this warrant to my lawyers in New York. You’d better hope you know exactly what you’re doing because…”
His phone immediately exploded with incoming calls, which had him smiling caustically at the woman. Without seeing who had reached him first, he used his thumb to connect the call and put it on speaker.
“Who is executing the warrant?” Julian Santos demanded, his deep baritone voice filling the hallway. The federal agent gave Tucker a disgusted look and gestured at the closed front door.
I don’t think so, junior. “Four, Julian. Two feds and two from the navy. They haven’t specifically identified themselves yet, and they want me to unlock my office door…”
“Don’t you dare! The warrant only demands a search of your present accommodations. It does not include any rooms that fall under the banner of Portsmith Electronics. Those require a very different set of warrants that need to be issued directly from either Washington or the Pentagon, and I doubt you have those at the ready, correct agent?”
“We have the authority to search…” the male agent insisted but was cut off by the three-thousand-dollar an hour attorney.
“Do not unlock that door, Tucker. Even as we speak, I have people in Florida moving to have that search warrant quashed. It’ll be gone in just a few minutes.”
“Until then, this is a valid warrant.” The man turned and quickly gestured for the three with him to fan out, searching the penthouse apartment as fast and thoroughly as they could before the counter-injunction was handled.
Well, well, well. It seemed they were well aware of who they were squaring off with after all.
“Julian, I know Alex isn’t here. He’s been in a coma for over a week, and now they’ve lost him. If I go into my office and remove my computer, is there any harm in letting them search the office for Alex if only to make them go away?”
“Tucker, they’re not going away. The warrant gives them the authority to take you and Helen downtown for questioning.”
“What?”
“Don’t worry. As I said, we’ll have a full team ready to move before you leave the apartment, which isn’t going to happen until more security is on hand for your laptop. Is Donald there?”
“He’s with Helen on her run.” The fact he had been locked inside the apartment for days and only ventured out when he was with Helen and, therefore, Donald was not something he was about to get into.
“Fine. I’ll get your office to organise a security detail for you and your computer. Stay put, don’t answer anything until we get there, and for Christ’s sake, leave me on speaker.” Tucker heard several tell-tale crackles in the line to indicate others had been patched into the call but had refrained from speaking.
It was a strange thing, but in Tucker’s head, he was picturing a virtual reality computer game where the enemy had him cornered until, one by one, his own team spawned around him to level the playing field … and then overwhelm it.
He didn’t hear Julian’s voice anymore and assumed he’d been muted so that the senior partner could bark out orders at whoever else was on the line with him.
“I guess you’re not an honourable man after all,” the male FBI agent said with a tight expression.
“Tell me why you think I’d break into a military hospital and kidnap my crippled son, and I’ll be the first to unlock that door.”
“Tucker!” Julian immediately came back onto the line.
“Relax, Julian. I have no idea what’s going on here, but they have no intention of telling me why they want Alex so badly.” Stiffening, he looked down at his phone. “Actually, make that a priority. There’s only so much the military can hide from us, especially if Alex was using family funds in any way to finance his situation. Have someone call Elias Stoll. He can track down Alex’s accounts and find out what he was up to that way.”
“NO!” the agents and the naval personnel all shouted at once.
“Tucker?” Julian queried, for the man wasn’t used to taking those types of directives any more than he was.
“If I do it, I’ll have to put you on hold,” he explained. The rest of that sentence went unspoken. If Julian wanted to remain an ear in the room, someone else had to do the legwork for him.
“Do not hang up,” Julian reiterated, and once more, Tucker was muted from the attorneys’ conversation.
And so began the dance of the law.
* * *
((All comments welcome. Good or bad, I'd love to hear your thoughts 🥰🤗))
I made a family tree/diagram of the Mystallian family that can be found here
For more of my work including WPs: Angel466 or an index of previous WPS here.
FULL INDEX OF BOB THE HOBO TO DATE CAN BE FOUND HERE!!
2023.06.04 04:20 Cephalomagus 2023 Season 3 Release Notes [Pre-Release Version]
The Release Notes for 2023 Season 3 have been posted on the iRacing Forums!
Find them posted here:
https://forums.iracing.com/discussion/42721/2023-season-3-release-notes-pre-release-version#latest
Or read them below!
========================================================================
Our Dirt Taskforce has completed their work on the Dirt Refresh Project shared with the community back in February, and we are excited for you to experience the fruits of their labors. The Spotter System has received a Race Control-focused set of updates and new calls that will liven up your racing and keep you better informed about what is happening on the track and in the race. New challengers approach - you will now have the ability to add AI Opponent Rosters to your Hosted Sessions that utilize the Heat Racing format! We are excited to announce we have been investing time into saving you time, loading time to be precise, and this Season Release includes a first phase of loading optimizations that should get you into the driver’s seat just a little bit faster. Willow Springs International Raceway is proud to pioneer a new 3D Foliage System that automatically populates the environment with grasses, shrubs, and other creations of Mother Nature. USB Audio Hot Swapping is now fully enabled and supported by iRacing for all of your headset and speaker needs. A new Graphics Option has also been added which controls the display of all cockpit obstructions instead of this parameter being car setup specific.
The New Damage Model has been put into practice on eleven additional cars. And last but not least our AI Drivers have mastered eight new cars and twenty-four new track configurations. Welcome to iRacing 2023 Season 3!
Season highlights include:
Full 2023 Season 3 Release details are below.
submitted by Cephalomagus to iRacing [link] [comments]
Find them posted here:
https://forums.iracing.com/discussion/42721/2023-season-3-release-notes-pre-release-version#latest
Or read them below!
========================================================================
2023 Season 3 Release Notes [Pre-Release Version]
This is the iRacing 2023 Season 3 Release! This release contains both content and upgrades for 2023 Season 3, which officially starts on June 12th! This season update includes three new cars: Cadillac V-Series.R GTP, Ligier JS P320, and Porsche 911 GT3 R (992). iRacing also expands its track offerings to include MotorLand Aragón (7 configs) and Willow Springs International Raceway, as well as a new 2023 Cup config for Chicago Street Course.Our Dirt Taskforce has completed their work on the Dirt Refresh Project shared with the community back in February, and we are excited for you to experience the fruits of their labors. The Spotter System has received a Race Control-focused set of updates and new calls that will liven up your racing and keep you better informed about what is happening on the track and in the race. New challengers approach - you will now have the ability to add AI Opponent Rosters to your Hosted Sessions that utilize the Heat Racing format! We are excited to announce we have been investing time into saving you time, loading time to be precise, and this Season Release includes a first phase of loading optimizations that should get you into the driver’s seat just a little bit faster. Willow Springs International Raceway is proud to pioneer a new 3D Foliage System that automatically populates the environment with grasses, shrubs, and other creations of Mother Nature. USB Audio Hot Swapping is now fully enabled and supported by iRacing for all of your headset and speaker needs. A new Graphics Option has also been added which controls the display of all cockpit obstructions instead of this parameter being car setup specific.
The New Damage Model has been put into practice on eleven additional cars. And last but not least our AI Drivers have mastered eight new cars and twenty-four new track configurations. Welcome to iRacing 2023 Season 3!
Season highlights include:
- Cadillac V-Series.R GTP
- Ligier JS P320
- Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)
- MotorLand Aragón (7 configs)
- Willow Springs International Raceway
- New Track Configuration: Chicago Street Course - 2023 Cup
- Dirt Racing Refresh Project
- New Spotter Calls and Updates for Race Control
- Hosted Session AI Heat Racing
- Phase 1 of Loading Time Improvements
- 3D Foliage System
- USB Audio Device Hot Swapping
- Cockpit Obstruction Removal Graphics Option
- New Damage Model for 11 Vehicles (Cadillac V-Series.R GTP, Dirt Late Model (ALL), Ligier JS P320, NASCAR Truck Series Trucks, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992), Porsche 911 GT3 R (992), and Renault Clio R.S. V)
- AI Racing for 8 Cars (Aston Martin DBR9 GT1, Cadillac CTS-V Racecar, Cadillac V-Series.R GTP, Chevrolet Corvette C6.R GT1, Ford GT GT2, Ligier JS P320, Porsche 911 GT3 R (992), and Radical SR10)
- AI Racing at 24 Track Configurations (Autodromo Nazionale Monza - GP without first chicane, Junior, and GP without chicanes, Chicago Street Course - 2023 Cup and Prototype, Circuit of the Americas - East and West, Irwindale Speedway - ALL FIVE Configs, MotorLand Aragón - ALL SEVEN Configs, Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway - Mini, New Smyrna Speedway, Twin Ring Motegi - East and Oval, and Willow Springs International Raceway)
- Hundreds of new and optimized official iRacing vehicle setups
Full 2023 Season 3 Release details are below.
iRACING UI:
--------------------------------------------------------------Hosted Racing
- The Create Starting Grid functionality and button are now disabled whenever both Heat Racing and AI Opponent Roster are selected for an Event.
AI Racing
- AI Drivers have completed an extensive training course for participating in the Heat Racing format!
- - - Heat Racing is now available for Hosted Sessions using AI Rosters!
- - - This is a brand new feature implementation for both AI Racing and the Heat Racing format.
- - - - - It is important to note that this feature is only available for Hosted Racing events at this time. AI Drivers still need the support of real humans in their Sessions or artificial chaos would surely ensue.
Tracks
- All Track location information has been standardized and updated. All Track locations are now identified by: City, State/Province, Country.
Leagues
- Fixed an issue where the names of AI Drivers who won League Series Sessions were forgotten when viewing the League Season Schedule.
Paint Shop
- A new sponsor, Maconi Setup Shop, has been added to the Paint Shop!
- Fixed an issue with a missing font for the Stock Car Pro Series Class Cars.
SIMULATION:
--------------------------------------------------------------Windows Support
- With the release of iRacing 2023 Season 3, the Windows 8.1 operating system is no longer able to successfully launch the iRacing application.
- - - Microsoft officially dropped support for Windows 8.1 on January 14th, 2023. As a result of this, it is no longer compatible with our software, and it will fail to launch.
- - - If you need help installing or running iRacing on Windows 10 or 11, please contact Customer Support here: https://support.iracing.com. Customer Support cannot get iRacing to work on Windows 8.1.
Race Servers
- Race Server capacity has been expanded to allow for nine different car models to be present within a Session.
- A user’s average lap time will no longer exclude laps that had been labeled as “invalid”.
- Fixed an issue where some Open Practice Race Servers were closing early due to inactivity.
- Fixed an issue where track temperatures were changing wildly if the Session was restarted (via AI Racing controls for example).
Loading
- Some adjustments have been made to how video memory resources are loaded.
- Some car loading algorithms have been optimized.
Dynamic Track
- The manner in which the dynamic track algorithm was calculated on surfaces has been improved, particularly along outside track edges.
- Fixed an issue where the visual display of some dynamic track data including dirt, marbles, and rubber was not functioning correctly on some track segments.
Race Control
- The algorithm for generating race splits based on car classes has been improved slightly.
- Short Parade Laps are now available for use at the following additional track configurations:
- - - Barber Motorsports Park - Full Course
- - - Brands Hatch Circuit - Indy
- - - Canadian Tire Motorsports Park
- - - Charlotte Motor Speedway - Roval, Roval - 2018, & Roval Long
- - - Circuit Park Zandvoort - Grand Prix
- - - Circuit Zolder - Grand Prix, & Alternate
- - - Daytona International Speedway - Oval - 2008, Road Course - 2008, & Moto - 2008
- - - Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg - PEC - Outer
- - - Indianapolis Motor Speedway - Oval - 2009, Open Wheel Oval - 2009, Road Course - 2009, & Bike
- - - Long Beach Street Circuit
- - - Mount Panorama Circuit
- - - Phillip Island Circuit
- - - Talladega Superspeedway
Qualifying Scrutiny
- The Qualifying Scrutiny system has been adjusted to better handle cases where cars needed time to get up to speed after leaving their starting location.
Dirt Racing
- A variety of updates as a result of the Dirt Refresh Project have been enabled!
- - - This project enlisted a focus group of developers, vehicle dynamicists, and testers who did a deep dig through everything that makes our Dirt Racing tick, and they’ve emerged with some sweeping improvements and updates.
- - - Dirt track parameters as a whole have been updated, including:
- - - - - Racing dirt properties at all levels of wear and wetness
- - - - - Dirt height variance, depth, and hardpan behavior
- - - - - Track wear parameters
- - - - - Tire rubber accumulation
- - - - - Dirt displacement from tires
- - - - - The formation of track roughness and perturbation
- - - - - The progression of dynamic track data has been updated for all dirt tracks
- - - All Dirt Racing tires have been updated with some of the following improvements:
- - - - - New wear rates based on the hardness and wetness of the dirt racing surface
- - - - - Dirt displacement parameters
- - - - - The manner in which tires calculate their contact on undulating dirt surfaces has been improved.
AI Racing
- AI Drivers have completed an extensive training course for participating in the Heat Racing format!
- - - Heat Racing is now available for Hosted Sessions using AI Rosters!
- - - This is a brand new feature implementation for both AI Racing and the Heat Racing format.
- - - - - It is important to note that this feature is only available for Hosted Racing events at this time. AI Drivers still need the support of real humans in their Sessions or artificial chaos would surely ensue.
- AI Drivers are now fully trained and capable drivers for the following new vehicles:
- - - Aston Martin DBR9 GT1
- - - Cadillac CTS-V Racecar
- - - Cadillac V-Series.R GTP
- - - Chevrolet Corvette C6.R GT1
- - - Ford GT GT2
- - - Ligier JS P320
- - - Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)
- - - Radical SR10
- AI Drivers have memorized and are ready to race for the gold at the following new tracks and configurations:
- - - Autodromo Nazionale Monza - GP without first chicane, Junior, and GP without chicanes
- - - Chicago Street Course - 2023 Cup and Prototype
- - - Circuit of the Americas - East and West
- - - Irwindale Speedway - ALL 5 Configurations
- - - MotorLand Aragón - ALL 7 Configurations
- - - Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway - Mini
- - - New Smyrna Speedway
- - - Twin Ring Motegi - East and Oval
- - - Willow Springs International Raceway
- AI Drivers have graduated from yet another season of advanced education classes. Training for 2023 Season 3 included the following programs:
- - - Kinesthetics for Preventing Pace Lap Panic
- - - [PHY-220] Drafting Speed Predictions
- - - White-Knuckle Door-to-Door Racing: A Retrospective
- - - Fast Cars Beware: Slow Cars
- - - Slow Cars Beware: Fast Cars
- - - AI Program Upgrade IV: Reaction Timing (Class: Pistol Shrimp)
- - - Danny S.’s Pre-School Seminar: Left-Hand Makes the “L”!
- - - The Technical Know-How Overlaps for GTP & Rocket Ship Piloting
- - - SuperTravel SuperProgram 2023: SuperSpeedways
- - - Lessons from Slot Car Racing on Racing Lines
- - - Tire Compound Connoisseur Magazine (Spring ‘23 Issue)
- - - Brake Pad Dissection - a Science Lab Qualified Course
- AI Drivers have improved their driving skills with the following vehicles:
- - -
NASCAR Cup Series Next Gen Cars - - -
NASCAR Trucks - - - BMW M Hybrid V8
- - - Dallara P217
- AI Drivers have improved their driving skills at the following track configs:
- - - Atlanta Motor Speedway - Oval
- - - Bristol Motor Speedway - Dual Pit Roads & Single Pit Road
- - - Canadian Tire Motorsports Park
- - - Daytona International Speedway - Oval
- - - Detroit Grand Prix at Belle Isle
- - - iRacing Superspeedway
- - - Talladega Superspeedway
- AI Drivers and their cars are now immediately removed from the world at the end of a Session. For safety.
- Fixed a handful of AI System issues including:
- - - Fixed an issue where custom Paint Schemes were not appearing on AI Drivers in Replays.
- - - Fixed an issue where AI Drivers could lag up to several seconds after the green before hitting the gas for standing starts in Hosted Sessions.
- - - Fixed an issue where AI Drivers could incur gain-time penalties while they were being towed back to their pit box. We don’t know what they were doing to Race Control staff to earn them, but it should be fixed now.
- - - Fixed an issue where multiple “Pitting In” notifications could be received.
- - - Fixed an issue with the display of AI Driver names on the Entries tab for Replays.
- - - Fixed an issue where AI Drivers appeared to be using the incorrect dive plane for the Dallara P217.
New Damage Model
- The New Damage Model is now active on the following additional vehicles:
- - - Cadillac V-Series.R GTP
- - - Dirt Late Model (ALL)
- - - Ligier JS P320
- - - NASCAR Truck Chevrolet Silverado
- - - NASCAR Truck Ford F150
- - - NASCAR Truck Toyota Tundra TRD Pro
- - - Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992)
- - - Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)
- - - Renault Clio R.S. V
- Some New Damage Model system code has been reorganized to make future development easier.
Auto Fuel
- Spotters and Team Members may now control their driver's Auto Fuel state.
Spotter
- The iRacing Spotter System has received some updates to help make it more accurate and dynamic. It is now better able to read Race Control events as they occur on the track, and a variety of new Spotter Calls have been added:
- - - Car in Front/Behind is Pitting
- - - Faster Car Approaching
- - - Gaining/Losing the car in front
- - - Leader Change
- - - Leader Lap Time
- - - Leader is Lapping You
- - - Session New Fastest Lap
- - - Your Personal Best Lap Time
- - - Time Remaining in Session 20/10/5 Minutes
- - - Settings for these new messages have been added to the “[SPCC]” section of the “app.ini” file.
- - - - - These messages will only play if “Chattiness” is set to MEDIUM or HIGH, and they are turned on in the “app.ini” file, which they are by default.
- A new “Silence” function has been added for the Spotter.
- - - In the Sound Options Menu, users can bind a key press that will interrupt and stop any current spotter message and temporarily disable future messages for a short duration. The duration of the hush may be adjusted via the “hushDuration” variable in the “app.ini” file, found in the “[SPCC]” section.
- “Leader Car” calls now returns the leader car in the same class as the player car. This means all spotter messages pertaining to the leader will now reference the leader in the same class as the player, instead of the outright leader.
- - - Messages include:
- - - - - Leader is pitting now
- - - - - Leader is at Start/Finish
- - - - - You're catching the leader
- - - - - One lap to win (if you are the leader car)
- Both Italian spotter packs have been updated and improved!
- - - Many thanks to Renzo A. Olivieri and Marco Arcidiacono!
- The Race Laps remaining spotter message logic has been updated.
- Fixed an issue with the fuel spotter calls when the pit entry location was dramatically different from the Start/Finish line location.
Graphics
- A new Graphics Option has been added: Hide Cockpit Obstructions.
- - - This option hides several visually obstructive elements from the world, including: Halo, A-Pillar, and Rock Screen.
- Vehicles that utilize the New Damage model have had their car model format adjusted to reduce video memory demands.
- Improved the accuracy of steering angles for viewing your opponents’ cars’ wheels.
- Adjust brake light exposure on some cars to try to prevent them from turning white when viewed from a distance.
- Updated the system which processes the hiding and displaying of halos for Replays.
- GGX blended dirt texture shaders have been improved.
- SpeedTree lighting has been updated.
- The graphics Option for SpeedTree self-shadowing has been removed.
- - - The visual benefits were minimal and the processing needs were demanding.
- Tooltips have been added for SSAO parameters.
- A new SDK for SpeedTree has been integrated.
- Fixed an issue where the reverse and unseen sides of some SpeedTree faces were being rendered, wasting processing time.
- Fixed an issue where distortion particles were not rendering properly unless they were inside the car.
- Fixed an issue where motion blur would trigger whenever the garage was visited.
- Fixed an issue where motion blur was appearing at different amounts on different parts of the same car.
3D Foliage System
- A new environmental graphics feature option has been added to the graphics options menu: Foliage!
- - - The new Foliage system procedurally generates 3D foliage of an appropriate biome type at specified tracks. Foliage may include grasses, shrubs, boulders, cacti, flowers, and other small environmental assets. 3D foliage has no impact on driving or physics, but should decorate the world much more realistically.
- - - In the Graphics Options menu, there are several levels of detail that may be selected for use by the 3D Foliage System which can customize your visual experience and your rendering performance. You may also select to disable the system entirely.
- - - With this release, only Willow Springs International Raceway has been seeded by the new 3D Foliage system so far, but Mother Nature always finds a way to spread!
Visual Effects
- Lighting for particle effects has been improved.
- The PopcornFX SDK has been updated to the latest version.
Audio
- Audio Hot Swap support has been added to iRacing!
- - - Forgot to plug in your headset before the race starts? iRacing now detects your device when it's plugged in, even during a race. If you've selected "System Default" from the sound options, audio automatically moves to the new device when the default changes. If you have selected a specific audio endpoint, it activates once it's available.
- - - Runtime audio device switching is now supported. When the default device is selected, a new default device can be chosen in Windows, and the Simulator will use the new device. If a specific device is selected, it will be used in the Simulator when it is activated in Windows.
- - - - - disableWindowsCoreAudio=0 When enabled (1), this option disables any Windows Core Audio integration (native windows audio).
- - - - - disableAudioDeviceChangedEvents=0 When enabled (1), this option disables dynamic audio device changing.
- - - Please note: Audio Hot Swapping is enabled by default.
- A new Audio Options setting has been added which allows you to assign a System Communication Default Device.
- A new audio option, “ambientMusicDisabled”, has been added to the “app.ini” file.
- - - 0 is the default value. Setting this parameter to 1 will disable all environment music that is normally played over the PA system while in the Simulation.
- Dynamic brake sounds have been rebalanced.
- Audio for load transmission on a variety of cars has been improved.
- The engine audio for all Pace Cars has been adjusted and optimized.
Environment
- New color and texture variations have been added for a variety of parked vehicles found around the tracks.
Interface
- Enhanced the right-click pop-up menus on the Session/Replay screen, and the Driving screen, to provide the option for private messaging (PM-ing) an individual user, the current driver of a car, or a car's entire Team (which includes a driver's spotters/crew in non-team sessions).
- - - Existing Admin/Race Control operations applied to a car that would have PM-ed someone on the team have been updated to message the whole team, instead of just one team member.
- - - Manually PM-ing a car number using "/#N", with N being the displayed car number, including leading zeros if shown, will now PM the whole team.
- - - To PM just the team member that's currently driving the car, use "/#N@" (add the @ symbol immediately after the car number). If the team's car is in its pit stall but the driver has gotten out of the car, that user is still PM-ed. If the team's car is not even in the world, no PM is sent when attempting to message its current driver, and you will be informed of this.
- - - - - To prevent receiving duplicate messages, if you would receive a chat message you sent because the target includes you (you're on the target team, you're the target team's driver, or you're talking to yourself!), you only receive the message due to being associated with the target of the message. That is, the message is not separately echoed directly back to you.
- - - You can continue to manually PM an individual using the existing mechanism of specifying their name after the "/".
- Text chat responses to Race Control Admin commands now identify the targeted entry with the team name and car number, instead of the name of the driver. In non-driver-swap events, the “team name” is the driver's name.
- An option for the units selection has been updated to “English (USA)” for clarity.
Camera
- A new highest option level, “Ultra”, has been added for Motion Blur.
- Fixed an issue with Driver View Pitch/Roll chassis effects so that when the view is locked to the horizon the car can now roll farther without the camera following the position of the car. This should help reduce motion sickness in VR if you use this feature.
- Fixed an issue for whenever a car’s center-of-mass left the camera frame, all motion blur on the car was lost.
- Fixed an issue where the focus of the camera was getting unwanted motion blur for cockpit cameras.
- Fixed an issue with motion blur on cars when using multiple displays.
Controls
- The automatic parking brake that holds a car still when you come to a stop will now fully apply itself anytime the car comes to a stop, rather than waiting for the user to hold the brake pedal down once stopped. This should help prevent cars from accidentally rolling away when you come to a quick stop but fail to fully engage the brake pedal.
- The Reset Button now prevents users from putting you into the car if your steering wheel needs assignment. Doing this now will take you to the Controls Wizard and allow you to assign and calibrate your driving controls.
- The test for XInput devices has been simplified.
- Fixed an issue that could cause some joysticks to fail to calibrate properly if the previous calibration was similar enough to the new calibration.
- Fixed an issue in the Options screen where the inputs (shifter, wheel, etc) would not respond if a button was held down on a wheel.
Force Feedback
- When calibrating a wheel, iRacing now checks that your selected maximum wheel angle and Force Feedback status match what we expect based on your detected hardware. A notification will appear if these do not match.
- - - This is an effort to detect common errors with certain wheels, either that do not have the correct drivers installed or that have a maximum wheel angle set to a very low value by default. If you receive this notification, or need help setting up your racing wheel, please reach out to Customer Support.
- iRacing will now try to automatically detect your racing wheel’s maximum force, and adjust the wheel force slider accordingly. This is used to help us safely and automatically calculate the force levels to send to your wheel. We can't always know how your wheel is set up, so this may be an overestimate of your maximum force level. This is the safer guess, but in some instances it may limit how strong of a force you can request from the simulation. In those cases you can turn off the “auto-mode” and manually set your wheel’s peak value, if known.
- Improved the force auto tune button so that it takes the wheels maximum force into account. This will lighten up the auto tune as the wheel force increases.
- - - There is a new scaling parameter in the “app.ini” file, “autoForceFactor”. This value defaults to 0.5, and allows you to adjust the aggressiveness of the reduction. Setting “[Force Feedback] autoForceFactor=1” will remove all reduction, giving you a 1:1 force output. Setting it to 0 will effectively always give you 6 Nm of peak force at the wheel. Any value in between will blend between these two extremes. The default value of 0.5 should be a good value for most users.
- A mappable button (Ctrl-A) has been added to apply the Auto Force adjustment found in the F9 Black Box.
- For the Auto Force Feedback peak force detection, data collected when the car is out of control will now be suppressed. Also, data collection will be paused for several seconds immediately after an incident. The goal is to make this system more stable and consistent, even if you wreck.
- For Force Feedback, a safety check has been added to detect if the wheel jumped in position (ie: we lost/gained communication with the wheel). If a communication interruption is detected, Force Feedback will be suppressed momentarily for safety.
- A new slew rate limiter filter that is controlled via the smoothing slider is now available in the Force Feedback options tab.
- - - This filter limits the rate of change of the force feedback signal so your wheel can't accelerate beyond a fixed value. In essence it smooths out the large jolts while leaving the rest of the signal alone. A value of 25% will have almost no impact on your regular driving, while softenting out curb or wall impacts, and a value of 75% will smooth out most rumble strips and make curb hits almost invisible. If you find that you have to turn down the FFB forces below the level you would like because the jolts from curbs or accidents are too large, then try turning this filter up instead. Try a value of 50% to start, and turn it down to 25% if you feel it is too much.
- - - - - You can go back to the old boxcar filter via the “[Force Feedback] smoothingFilterType=1” entry in the “app.ini” file.
Replays
- Chat messages and incident point accruement are now saved and viewable with Replays.
- Fixed an issue where custom Paint Schemes were not appearing on AI Drivers in Replays.
Telemetry
- Live brake line pressure (LFbrakeLinePress) has now been zeroed out and will no longer show a value.
- - - Disk based brake line pressure is still available (LFbrakeLinePress), and now has any ripple from the abs modulation included in its value.
- - - A new BrakeABSCutPct value has been added to the disk based telemetry that shows the percent of brake force reduction being applied by the ABS system.
- Driver suit, body, face, and helmet type ids have been added to the session string.
Official iRacing Sporting Code
- A variety of updates have been made to the Official iRacing Sporting Code, including:
- - - A new section 6.8.3. has been added which describes the correct behavior for Starting from Pits.
- - - Restructured the paragraphs describing Rolling Starts for improved clarity for both Oval and Road racing.
- - - Better explained how multiclass cars grid, and defined what starts a multiclass race.
- - - License Class images have been updated.
- - - Identified that Joker Laps may not be used for time-based competitions at Rallycross Tracks.
- - - A reminder has been added that it is unacceptable for suspended or restricted Members to use alternate accounts.
- - - Identified that nefarious tactics may also not be used during Races, and removed a poor example of nefarious behavior.
- Review the latest version of the Official iRacing Sporting Code here:
- - - https://www.iracing.com/iracing-official-sporting-code/
2023.06.04 03:36 QxV Revel Rockies Half - going downhill vs. altitude
TL;DR course is beautiful, race is super well organized, would recommend.
Between all these races, I followed a weekly schedule of one speedwork day and one long run, with lots of easy miles thrown in.
Because I had come pretty close in Brooklyn, and the Revel Rockies course has a net downhill of about 1,700 feet, I thought I’d have an excellent chance of going sub-90, and maybe it’d even feel easy! (it didn’t)
While we were working together on Thursday, I was nursing a headache, and it suddenly dawned on me to ask: “Are we at altitude?” (lol). Being a mile up from sea level explained why I was feeling so trashy for the last 48 hours - that, combined with the person in the next door hotel room deciding to smoke throughout the day/night (???)
On Friday, I went for a short 3 mile trail run and was significantly more winded than I should/would have been for the route. Still, I was pretty confident the significant downhill would win out - it’d just feel a bit sucky.
With a 6:30am start, the first bus left at 4:30am, which in turn had me waking up at 3am to eat 3 bagels and drink a triple espresso. I went to bed at 8pm and had a pretty decent sleep, all things considered.
In terms of organization, I didn’t really know what to expect, but as I pulled into the parking lot and saw a long line of neatly parked school busses waiting to take runners up, I started to get excited - the whole scene had the vibe of a school trip; one where you’re either up super early or super late to go somewhere fun.
I had originally planned to nap on the way up, but I happened to sit next to a really nice lady and we chatted throughout the ride. I’m not sure I would have been able to fall asleep after all that coffee anyway.
We got to the starting line around 5ish and it was a little chilly, but the organizers had provided everyone with heat blankets, gloves, and arm sleeves, which was super thoughtful, and definitely came in handy. I used the bathroom, warmed up, went to the bathroom again, before lining up at the starting line.
Unlike my last race in Brooklyn, where I had a pretty detailed pace plan, I was going to take the first couple of miles easy (1:30 pace at most), and then run the rest of the race by effort. The course has a couple of rolling hills, but the elevation profile pretty much looks like a right angled triangle, starting at about 8,000ft and dropping to around 6,000ft, so it’s not really that complicated. Having said that, there was some mild elevation gain in the course: 174ft (for reference, Brooklyn had 236ft).
The course actually started with some rolling hills, which helped me stick to my plan of not going out too fast; I took my foot off the gas when going uphill, and let some faster runners pass.
The rest of the race consisted of winding roads downhill, with a couple of smaller hills (the 7min+/mile splits). Running at altitude definitely felt different. I usually race with a heart rate in the 170s-180s, but I was getting winded in the high 160s, and my heart rate never made it above 176, despite me feeling like I was pushing plenty hard. Also, the small hills felt like a lot more work than normal. I’m not sure if it was because I’d been running downhill the rest of the time and my muscles were thrashed, or I didn’t have the cardio capacity because of the altitude, or both.
In any case, the course was gorgeous - you’re surrounded by mountains pretty much the whole race, and they closed one of the road lanes, so you’ve lots of space to run.
This was a smaller (~1,200 people for the half) race, so there wasn’t a lot of passing/being passed going on. A small group of runners took off at the start, and other than a handful of times I was passed/passed someone, I was running by myself.
For the last few miles, the gradient got even steeper, and so I managed to clock some faster miles, and by the time mile 11 came around, I knew that unless something stopped me from putting together two 7:10-7:20 miles, I was going to come in at under 90 minutes. The last 200m though, was actually uphill, but I had enough in the tank to sprint to the finish line and was pleasantly surprised to find out that I’d come in 3rd in my age group.
In addition to doing a great job with the logistics, the organizers also put together many small touches that made the event special. For example, immediately after the finish line, you could get your results printed on a nice card. Also, the age group awards were a white embroided band that they attached around your medal ribbon, which I hadn’t seen before and thought it looked really cool :D There were also lots of photo opportunities, including a cool “R E V E L” sculpture-thing that lots of people (myself included) were taking photos in front of.
It definitely felt like they went out of their way to put on a great race!
Overall, I had a great time and would definitely consider running another Revel event.
Made with a new race report generator created by herumph.
submitted by QxV to running [link] [comments]
Race Information
- Name: Revel Rockies Half
- Date: June 3, 2023
- Distance: 13.1 miles
- Location: Denver, CO
- Website: https://www.runrevel.com/rdv
- Time: 1:28:52
Goals
| Goal | Description | Completed? |
|---|---|---|
| A | Have a good time | Yes |
| B | Sub-90 | Yes |
Splits
| Mile | Time |
|---|---|
| 1 | 6:50 |
| 2 | 6:46 |
| 3 | 6:26 |
| 4 | 6:50 |
| 5 | 6:52 |
| 6 | 6:46 |
| 7 | 6:52 |
| 8 | 7:13 |
| 9 | 7:12 |
| 10 | 6:27 |
| 11 | 6:35 |
| 12 | 6:31 |
| 13 | 6:10 |
| 13.1 | 1:28:52 |
Training
This was my 4th half of the year. In January, I ran the Kaiser Half in San Francisco and finished with a 1:30:24. This race - Revel Rockies - was the last in a series of three, over 2 months: The Get in Gear Half in Twin Cities, MN (1:31:07), and the Brooklyn Half in NYC (1:30:02).Between all these races, I followed a weekly schedule of one speedwork day and one long run, with lots of easy miles thrown in.
Because I had come pretty close in Brooklyn, and the Revel Rockies course has a net downhill of about 1,700 feet, I thought I’d have an excellent chance of going sub-90, and maybe it’d even feel easy! (it didn’t)
Pre-race
I got to Denver Wednesday that week. This year, I planned my race calendar around cities where I have friends; in this case, Denver is where the designer on my team lives, so she and I worked together for a bit, but we also hit up the kid’s casino (Round1) to play some claw machine games. Obviously, the house always wins, but we did win a bunch of soft toys for ourselves and a children’s hospital nearby, so let’s call it a draw.While we were working together on Thursday, I was nursing a headache, and it suddenly dawned on me to ask: “Are we at altitude?” (lol). Being a mile up from sea level explained why I was feeling so trashy for the last 48 hours - that, combined with the person in the next door hotel room deciding to smoke throughout the day/night (???)
On Friday, I went for a short 3 mile trail run and was significantly more winded than I should/would have been for the route. Still, I was pretty confident the significant downhill would win out - it’d just feel a bit sucky.
Race
To get to the start line, everyone had to park near Bandimere Speedway and take a bus up the mountain so we could run down it.With a 6:30am start, the first bus left at 4:30am, which in turn had me waking up at 3am to eat 3 bagels and drink a triple espresso. I went to bed at 8pm and had a pretty decent sleep, all things considered.
In terms of organization, I didn’t really know what to expect, but as I pulled into the parking lot and saw a long line of neatly parked school busses waiting to take runners up, I started to get excited - the whole scene had the vibe of a school trip; one where you’re either up super early or super late to go somewhere fun.
I had originally planned to nap on the way up, but I happened to sit next to a really nice lady and we chatted throughout the ride. I’m not sure I would have been able to fall asleep after all that coffee anyway.
We got to the starting line around 5ish and it was a little chilly, but the organizers had provided everyone with heat blankets, gloves, and arm sleeves, which was super thoughtful, and definitely came in handy. I used the bathroom, warmed up, went to the bathroom again, before lining up at the starting line.
Unlike my last race in Brooklyn, where I had a pretty detailed pace plan, I was going to take the first couple of miles easy (1:30 pace at most), and then run the rest of the race by effort. The course has a couple of rolling hills, but the elevation profile pretty much looks like a right angled triangle, starting at about 8,000ft and dropping to around 6,000ft, so it’s not really that complicated. Having said that, there was some mild elevation gain in the course: 174ft (for reference, Brooklyn had 236ft).
The course actually started with some rolling hills, which helped me stick to my plan of not going out too fast; I took my foot off the gas when going uphill, and let some faster runners pass.
The rest of the race consisted of winding roads downhill, with a couple of smaller hills (the 7min+/mile splits). Running at altitude definitely felt different. I usually race with a heart rate in the 170s-180s, but I was getting winded in the high 160s, and my heart rate never made it above 176, despite me feeling like I was pushing plenty hard. Also, the small hills felt like a lot more work than normal. I’m not sure if it was because I’d been running downhill the rest of the time and my muscles were thrashed, or I didn’t have the cardio capacity because of the altitude, or both.
In any case, the course was gorgeous - you’re surrounded by mountains pretty much the whole race, and they closed one of the road lanes, so you’ve lots of space to run.
This was a smaller (~1,200 people for the half) race, so there wasn’t a lot of passing/being passed going on. A small group of runners took off at the start, and other than a handful of times I was passed/passed someone, I was running by myself.
For the last few miles, the gradient got even steeper, and so I managed to clock some faster miles, and by the time mile 11 came around, I knew that unless something stopped me from putting together two 7:10-7:20 miles, I was going to come in at under 90 minutes. The last 200m though, was actually uphill, but I had enough in the tank to sprint to the finish line and was pleasantly surprised to find out that I’d come in 3rd in my age group.
Post-race
I have to say that this was one of the most well organized races I’ve run. The finisher’s area was right next to a creek and really picturesque. They had lots of great snacks and vendors offering samples. There was also a beer garden (that I didn’t check out). After checking out some of the booths, I took the bus back down to the parking lot and went back to my hotel.In addition to doing a great job with the logistics, the organizers also put together many small touches that made the event special. For example, immediately after the finish line, you could get your results printed on a nice card. Also, the age group awards were a white embroided band that they attached around your medal ribbon, which I hadn’t seen before and thought it looked really cool :D There were also lots of photo opportunities, including a cool “R E V E L” sculpture-thing that lots of people (myself included) were taking photos in front of.
It definitely felt like they went out of their way to put on a great race!
Overall, I had a great time and would definitely consider running another Revel event.
Made with a new race report generator created by herumph.
2023.06.04 01:20 AnarchoFerret Drag is free speech
 | submitted by AnarchoFerret to Fakertarians [link] [comments] |
2023.06.03 19:00 TransitionConnect448 Late Friday night, a federal judge declared Tennessee’s anti-drag Adult Entertainment Act to be unconstitutional Twitter
 | submitted by TransitionConnect448 to u/TransitionConnect448 [link] [comments] |
2023.06.03 15:59 Pinkpenguins40 Update on Tennessee's anti-drag law. Unconstitutional
 | Federal judge basically said "absolutely not." This is great timing. I'm sure the terrible politicians will try something else but perhaps not in time for Roo. Happy Pride People! ❤️🧡💛💚💙🩵💜🤎🖤 submitted by Pinkpenguins40 to bonnaroo [link] [comments] |
2023.06.03 15:49 AnUnknownEarther "The Cellar"
It was a typical Friday evening for Chloe and her friends. They had just finished watching a movie and decided to play a game of hide-and-seek in Chloe's house. Chloe was "it," and her friends scattered throughout the house to find hiding spots.
Chloe searched the house from top to bottom, but she couldn't find her friends. She even searched the cellar, but it was empty. As she was about to give up, she heard a faint whisper. It was coming from the corner of the cellar.
Curious, Chloe walked towards the corner, but as she approached, the whispering stopped. She looked around, but nobody was there. Suddenly, the lights went out, and Chloe was plunged into darkness.
Panic set in as Chloe fumbled around for a light switch. Just as she found it, she heard a creaking noise. She turned around, and in the dim light, she saw a figure looming in front of her. It was tall and shadowy, with eyes that glowed red in the darkness.
Chloe tried to scream, but no sound came out. She was frozen with fear as the figure began to move closer, step by step. Just as it was about to reach her, the lights flickered back on, and the figure disappeared.
Shaken, Chloe stumbled upstairs and told her friends what had happened. They laughed it off, saying she was just imagining things. But Chloe knew what she had seen, and she couldn't shake the feeling that something was watching her.
Over the next few weeks, strange things continued to happen in the house. Doors would open and close on their own, and Chloe could hear footsteps in the cellar, even when nobody was there. She started to feel like she was going crazy, and her friends started to distance themselves from her.
One night, Chloe decided to confront her fear and go back into the cellar. As she descended the stairs, she felt a cold breeze brush past her, and she could see her breath in the air. The whispering started again, but this time it was louder and more insistent.
Chloe followed the sound until she reached a dark corner of the cellar. As she peered into the darkness, she saw a pair of red eyes staring back at her. With a sudden burst of courage, she stepped forward and reached out to touch them.
As her hand brushed against the eyes, she felt a cold, slimy hand wrap around her wrist. She screamed and tried to pull away, but the hand was too strong. The whispering grew louder and more intense, and Chloe felt like she was being pulled into the darkness.
Just as she thought she was going to be dragged into the abyss, the lights flickered on again, and the hand released her. Chloe stumbled back, gasping for breath, and saw that the cellar was empty once again.
From that day forward, Chloe never went back into the cellar again. She moved out of the house soon after, but the memory of the cold, slimy hand and the glowing red eyes stayed with her forever. She still wonders what would have happened if the lights hadn't come back on.
submitted by AnUnknownEarther to Horror_stories [link] [comments]
Chloe searched the house from top to bottom, but she couldn't find her friends. She even searched the cellar, but it was empty. As she was about to give up, she heard a faint whisper. It was coming from the corner of the cellar.
Curious, Chloe walked towards the corner, but as she approached, the whispering stopped. She looked around, but nobody was there. Suddenly, the lights went out, and Chloe was plunged into darkness.
Panic set in as Chloe fumbled around for a light switch. Just as she found it, she heard a creaking noise. She turned around, and in the dim light, she saw a figure looming in front of her. It was tall and shadowy, with eyes that glowed red in the darkness.
Chloe tried to scream, but no sound came out. She was frozen with fear as the figure began to move closer, step by step. Just as it was about to reach her, the lights flickered back on, and the figure disappeared.
Shaken, Chloe stumbled upstairs and told her friends what had happened. They laughed it off, saying she was just imagining things. But Chloe knew what she had seen, and she couldn't shake the feeling that something was watching her.
Over the next few weeks, strange things continued to happen in the house. Doors would open and close on their own, and Chloe could hear footsteps in the cellar, even when nobody was there. She started to feel like she was going crazy, and her friends started to distance themselves from her.
One night, Chloe decided to confront her fear and go back into the cellar. As she descended the stairs, she felt a cold breeze brush past her, and she could see her breath in the air. The whispering started again, but this time it was louder and more insistent.
Chloe followed the sound until she reached a dark corner of the cellar. As she peered into the darkness, she saw a pair of red eyes staring back at her. With a sudden burst of courage, she stepped forward and reached out to touch them.
As her hand brushed against the eyes, she felt a cold, slimy hand wrap around her wrist. She screamed and tried to pull away, but the hand was too strong. The whispering grew louder and more intense, and Chloe felt like she was being pulled into the darkness.
Just as she thought she was going to be dragged into the abyss, the lights flickered on again, and the hand released her. Chloe stumbled back, gasping for breath, and saw that the cellar was empty once again.
From that day forward, Chloe never went back into the cellar again. She moved out of the house soon after, but the memory of the cold, slimy hand and the glowing red eyes stayed with her forever. She still wonders what would have happened if the lights hadn't come back on.
2023.06.03 15:38 obeliskposture Short story about bad times & bad jobs
I've shared fiction here before and it didn't go altogether too poorly, so I'm going to press my luck and do it again. This was written about a year ago, and I'm tired of trying to peddle it to lit magazines. Might as well share it here, know that it met a few eyeballs, and have done with it.
It's relevant to the sub insofar as it's about urban alienation and the working conditions at a small business run by IN THIS HOUSE WE BELIEVE people. (I tried to pitch it as a story of the great resignation with a momentary flicker of cosmic horror.) It's based on a similar job I took on after getting laid off during the lockdown, and the circumstances of the main character's breakup are faintly similar to one I went through several years back (her job sucked the life out of her).
Without further ado:
* * *
It was getting close to midnight, and the temperature outside was still above 80 degrees. We’d locked up the shop at 10:15 and walked over to Twenty, the dive bar on Poplar Street, where a single wall-mounted air conditioner and four wobbly ceiling fans weren’t putting up much resistance against the July heat baking the place from the outside and the dense mass of bodies giving it a stifling fever from within.
Just now I came close to saying it was a Wednesday night, because that was usually when the cyclists descended upon Avenue Brew, the gritty-but-bougie craft beer and sandwich shop I was working at back then. Every Wednesday between March and November, about fifteen to twenty-five Gen Xers dressed in skintight polyester, all packages and camel toes and fanny packs, locked up their thousand-dollar bikes on the sidewalk and lined up for IPAs and paninis. They reliably arrived around 8:00, an hour before we closed, making it impossible to get started on the closing checklist and leave on time at 10:00. The worst of them were demanding and rude, and even the best got raucous and stubborn after a couple drinks. There were nights when bringing in the sidewalk tables couldn’t be done without arguing with them. Most were sub-par tippers, to boot.
After Wednesday came and went that week without so much as a single 40-something in Ray Bans and padded shorts stopping in to double-fist two cans of Jai Alai, we dared to hope the cyclists had chosen another spot to be their finish line from there on out. But no—they’d only postponed their weekly ride, and swarmed us on Friday night instead.
I was the last person to find out; I was clocked in as purchaser that evening. The position was something like a promotion I'd received a year earlier: for twenty hours a week, I got to retreat from the public and sit in the back room with the store laptop, reviewing sales and inventory, answering emails from brewery reps, and ordering beer, beverages, and assorted paper goods. When I put in hours as purchaser, my wage went up from $11 to $15 an hour, but I was removed from the tip pool. On most days, tips amounted to an extra two or three dollars an hour, so I usually came out ahead.
This was back in 2021. I don't know what Avenue Brew pays these days.
Anyway, at about 8:15, I stepped out to say goodbye to everyone and found the shop in chaos. Friday nights were generally pretty active, the cyclists' arrival had turned the place into a mob scene. The line extended to the front door. The phone was ringing. The Grubhub tablet dinged like an alarm clock without a snooze button. Danny was on the sandwich line and on the verge of losing his temper. Oliver was working up a sweat running food, bussing tables, and replenishing ingredients from the walk-in. The unflappable Marina was on register, and even she seemed like she was about to snap at somebody.
What else could I do? I stayed until closing to answer the phone, process Grubhub orders, hop on and off the second register, and help Danny with sandwich prep. After the tills were counted out, I stayed another hour to take care of the dishes, since nobody had a chance to do a first load. Oliver was grateful, even though he grumbled about having to make some calls and rearrange Sunday's schedule so I could come in a couple hours late. Irene and Jeremy, Avenue Brew's owners, would kick his ass if he let me go into overtime.
Danny suggested that we deserved a few drinks ourselves after managing to get through the shift without killing anyone. Not even Marina could find a reason to disagree with him.
The neighborhood had undergone enough gentrification to support an upscale brunch spot, an ice cream parlor, a gourmet burger restaurant, a coffee and bahn mi shop, and Avenue Brew (to name a few examples), but not yet quite enough that the people who staffed them couldn’t afford to live within a ten-minute walk from the main avenue where all these hep eateries stood between 24-hour corner stores with slot machines in back, late-night Chinese and Mexico-Italian takeout joints with bulletproof glass at the counters, and long-shuttered delis and shoe stores. Twenty on Poplar was the watering hole set aside for people like us. It was dim, a bit dilapidated, and inexpensive, and usually avoided by denizens of the condos popping up on the vacant lots and replacing clusters of abandoned row houses.
When we arrived, Kyle waved us over. He didn’t work at Avenue Brew anymore, but still kept up with a few of us. He was at Twenty at least four nights out of the week.
So there we all were. I sat with a brooding stranger freestyling to himself in a low mumble on the stool to my left and Oliver on my right, who tapped at his phone and nursed a bottle of Twisted Tea. To Oliver’s right sat Marina, staring at nothing in particular and trying to ignore Danny, who stood behind her, closer than she would have liked, listening to Kyle explain the crucial differences between the Invincible comic book and the Invincible web series.
I recall being startled back to something like wakefulness when it seemed to me that the ceiling had sprouted a new fan. I blinked my eyes, and it wasn’t there anymore. It reminded me of an incident from when I was still living with my folks in South Jersey and still had a car, and was driving home from a friend’s house party up in Bergen County. It was 6:30 AM, I hadn’t slept all night, and needed to get home so I could get at least little shuteye before heading to Whole Foods for my 11:00 AM shift. I imagined I passed beneath the shadows of overpasses I knew weren’t there, and realized I was dreaming at the wheel.
I was pretty thoroughly zombified at that point. Heather and I had broken up for good the night before, and I hadn't gotten even a minute of sleep. Calling out at Avenue Brew was tough. Unless you found someone willing to cover your shift on like six hours' notice, you were liable to get a writeup, a demotion, or your hours cut if you couldn't produce a doctor's note. So I loaded up on caffeine pills and Five-Hour Energy bottles at the corner store, and powered through as best I could.
I finished the last thimbleful of Blue Moon in my glass. Oliver wiped the sweat from the back of his neck with a napkin and covered his mouth to stifle a laugh at the KiwiFarms thread he was scrolling through. Pool balls clacked; somebody swore and somebody laughed. The TouchTunes box was playing Bob Dylan’s “Rain Day Woman #12 & 35,” and enough bleary 40-something men around the bar were bobbing their heads and mouthing the words to make it impossible to determine which one of them paid two bucks to hear it. A guy by the cigarette machine who looked like a caricature of Art Carney in flannel and an old Pixies T-shirt was accosting a woman who must have been a toddler when he hit drinking age, and she momentarily made eye contact with me as she scanned the area for a way out. Danny was shouting over the bartender’s head, carrying on a conversation with the Hot Guy from Pizza Stan’s, who was sitting on the horseshoe’s opposite arm.
I never got his name, but when Oliver first referred to him as the Hot Guy from Pizza Stan’s, I knew exactly who he meant. Philly scene kid par excellence. Mid-20s, washed-out black denim, dyed black hair, thick bangs, and dark, gentle eyes. He was only truly alluring when he was on the job, because he seldom smiled then—and when he smiled, he broke the spell by exposing his teeth, stained a gnarly shade of mahogany from too much smoking and not enough brushing.
“How’s Best? Marcus still a joker?” Danny asked him.
“Yeah, you know Marcus. You know how he is.”
So the Hot Guy had been working at Best Burger (directly across the street from Avenue Brew) ever since Pizza Stan’s owners mismanaged the place unto insolvency. (Afterwards it was renovated and reopened as a vegan bakery—which incidentally closed down about a month ago.) Danny used to work at Best Burger, but that ended after he got into a shouting match with the owner. I happened to overhear it while I was dragging in the tables and collecting the chairs from the sidewalk the night it happened. It wasn’t any of my business, and I tried not to pay attention, but they were really tearing into each other. A month later, Oliver welcomed Danny aboard at Avenue Brew. I hadn’t known he’d been interviewed, and by then it was too late to mention the incident. But I’d have been a hypocrite to call it a red flag after the way I resigned from my position as Café Chakra's assistant manager two years earlier—not that we need to go dredging that up right now. Let's say there was some bad blood and leave it at that.
Anyway, I was thinking about giving in and buying a pack of cigarettes from the machine—and then remembered that Twenty didn’t have a cigarette machine. I looked again. The Art Carney-lookalike was still there, fingering his phone with a frown, but the girl was gone—and so was the cigarette machine.
I had only a moment to puzzle over this before Danny clapped me on the shoulder and thrust a shot glass in front of me.
“Starfish!” he said. (Danny called me Starfish. Everybody else called me Pat.) “You look like you need some juice.”
He distributed shots to everyone else. Marina declined hers, but changed her mind when Kyle offered to take it instead.
She and Kyle had stopped sleeping together after Kyle left Avenue Brew to work at the Victory taproom on the Parkway, but Marina was still concerned about his bad habits, which Danny delighted in encouraging.
We all leaned in to clink our glasses. Before I could find an appropriate moment to ask Marina if I could bum a cigarette, she got up to visit the bathroom. Danny took her seat and bowed his head for a conspiratorial word with Kyle.
I watched from the corner of my eye and tried to listen in. Like Marina, I was a little worried about Kyle. He got hired at Avenue Brew around the same time I did, just before the pandemic temporarily turned us into a takeout joint. He was a senior at Drexel then, an English major, and sometimes talked about wanting to either find work in publishing or carve out a career as a freelance writer after graduating. But first he intended to spend a year getting some life in before submitting himself to the forever grind.
He read a lot of Charles Bukowski and Hunter Thompson. He relished the gritty and sordid, and had already been good at sniffing it out around the neighborhood and in West Philly before Danny introduced him to cocaine, casinos, strip clubs, and a rogue’s gallery of shady but fascinating people. (None were really Danny’s friends; just fellow passengers who intersected with the part of his life where he sometimes went to Parx, sometimes came out ahead, sometimes spent his winnings on coke, and sometimes did bumps at titty bars.) Kyle recounted these adventures with a boyish enthusiasm for the naked reality of sleaze, like a middle schooler telling his locker room buddies about catching his older brother in flagrante and seeing so-and-so body parts doing such-and-such things.
Marina hated it. She never said as much to me, but she was afraid that the template Kyle set for his life during his “year off” was in danger of becoming locked in. The anniversary of his graduation had already passed, and now here he was trying to convince Danny to contribute a couple hundred dollars toward a sheet of acid his guy had for sale. He wasn't doing much writing lately.
I was the oldest employee at Avenue Brew (as I write this I’m 37, but fortunately I don’t look it), and when Kyle still worked with us I felt like it was my prerogative to give him some advice. The longer he waited to make inroads, I once told him, the more likely he’d be seen as damaged goods by the publishing world. He needed to jam his foot in the door while he was still young.
I could tell the conversation bored him, and didn’t bring up the subject again.
The bartender took my glass and curtly asked if I’d like another drink.
“No thanks, not yet,” I answered.
She slid me my bill.
I missed the old bartender, the one she’d replaced. I forget her name, but she was ingenuous and energetic and sweet. Pretty much everyone had some sort of crush on her. Sometimes she came into Avenue Brew for lunch, and tipped us as well as we tipped her. Maybe three months before that night—Danny witnessed it—she suddenly started crying and rushed out the door. Everyone at the bar mutely looked to each other for an explanation. (Fortunately for Twenty, the kitchen manager hadn’t left yet, and picked up the rest of her shift.)
She never came back. None of us had seen her since. But drafts still had to be poured and bottlecaps pulled off, and now here was another white woman in her mid-twenties wearing a black tank top, a pushup bra, and a scrunchie, same as before. Twenty’s regulars grew accustomed to not expecting to see the person she’d replaced, and life went on.
“How’re you doing?” I asked Oliver, just to say something to somebody, and to keep my thoughts from wandering back to Heather.
“Just kind of existing right now,” he answered. His phone lay face-up on the counter. He was swiping through Instagram, and I recognized the avatar of the user whose album he hate-browsed.
“And how’s Austin been?” I asked.
“Oh, you know. Not even three weeks after getting over the jetlag from his trip back from the Cascades, he’s off touring Ireland.” He shook his head. “Living his best life.”
He’d hired Austin on a part-time basis in September. We needed a new associate when Emma was promoted to replace a supervisor who'd quit without even giving his two weeks. There was a whole thing. I'm having a hard time recalling the guy's name, but I liked him well enough. He was a good worker and he seemed like a bright kid, but he was—well, he was young. Naïve. One day he found Jeremy sitting in the back room with his laptop, and took advantage of the open-door policy to ask why the store manager and supervisors didn’t get health benefits or paid time off. Jeremy told him it "was being worked on," and that he couldn’t discuss it any further at that time. I understand the kid got argumentative, though I never knew precisely what was said.
Irene started visiting the shop a lot more often after that, almost always arriving when the kid was working. No matter what he was doing, she’d find a reason to intervene, to micromanage and harangue him, and effectively make his job impossible. A coincidence, surely.
It’s something I still think about. By any metric, Jeremy and Irene have done very well for themselves. They’re both a little over 40 years old. I remember hearing they met at law school. In addition to Avenue Brew, they own a bistro in Francisville and an ice cream parlor in Point Breeze. They have a house on the Blue Line, send their son to a Montessori school, and pull up to their businesses in a white Volkswagen ID.4. But whenever the subject of benefits, wages, or even free shift meals came up, they pled poverty. It simply couldn’t be done. But they liked to remind us about all they did to make Avenue Brew a fun place to work, like let the staff pick the music and allow Oliver and me to conduct a beer tasting once a day. They stuck Black Lives Matter, Believe Women, and Progress flag decals on the front door and windows, and I remember Irene wearing a Black Trans Lives Matter shirt once or twice when covering a supervisor's shift. None of the college students or recent graduates who composed most of Avenue Brew's staff could say the bosses weren't on the right team. And yet...
I'm sorry—I was talking about Austin. He was maybe 30 and already had another job, a “real” job, some sort of remote gig lucrative enough for him to make rent on a studio in the picturesque Episcopal church down the street that had been converted into upscale apartments some years back. Austin wasn’t looking for extra cash. He wanted to socialize. To have something to do and people to talk to in the outside world. He wanted to make friends, and all of us could appreciate that—but it’s hard to be fond of a coworker who irredeemably sucks at his job. Austin never acted with any urgency, was inattentive to detail, and even after repeated interventions from Oliver and the supervisors, he continued to perform basic tasks in bafflingly inefficient ways. Having Austin on your shift meant carrying his slack, and everyone was fed up after a few months. Oliver sat him down, told him he was on thin ice, and gave him a list of the areas in which he needed to improve if he didn’t want to be let go.
When Austin gave Oliver the indignant “I don’t need this job” speech, it was different from those times Danny or I told a boss to go to hell and walked out. Austin truly didn’t need it. He basically said the job was beneath him, and so was Oliver.
It got deep under Oliver’s skin. He did need the job and had to take it seriously, even when it meant being the dipshit manager chewing out a man four or five years his senior. He earned $18 an hour (plus tips when he wasn’t doing admin work), had debts to pay off, and couldn't expect to get any help from his family.
The important thing, though, the part I distinctly remember, was that Oliver was looking at a video of a wading bird Austin had recorded. An egret, maybe. White feathers, long black legs, pointy black beak. Austin must have been standing on a ledge above a creek, because he had an overhead view of the bird as it stood in the water, slowly and deliberately stretching and retracting its neck, eyeing the wriggling little shadows below. As far as the fish could know, they were swimming around a pair of reeds growing out of the silt. The predator from which they extended was of a world beyond their understanding and out of their reach.
The video ended. Oliver moved on to the next item: a photograph of the bird from the same perspective, with a fish clamped in its beak. Water droplets flung from the victim's thrashing tail caught the sunlight. And I remember now, I clearly remember, the shapes of like twelve other fish stupidly milling about the bird's feet, unperturbed and unpanicked.
Danny peered at Oliver’s phone and observed a resemblance between the bird—its shape and bearing, and the composition of the photograph—and a POV porn video shot from behind and above, and he told us so. Elaborately. He made squawking noises.
“And mom says I’m a degenerate,” Oliver sighed. “Can you practice your interspecies pickup artist shit somewhere else?” Oliver flicked his wrist, shooing Danny off, and held his phone in front of his face to signal that he was done talking.
Danny sagged a little on his stool and turned away. I sometimes felt bad for him. For all his faults, he had the heart of a puppy dog. He really did think of us as his tribe. There was nobody else who’d only ever answer “yes” when you asked him to pick up a shift, and he did it completely out of loyalty.
He was turning 29 in a week. I wondered how many people would actually turn out to celebrate with him at the Black Taxi. Kyle probably would—but even he regarded Danny more as a source of vulgar entertainment than a friend.
Then it happened again. When I turned to speak to Oliver, there’d been a pair of pool cues leaning side-by-side against the wall a few stools down. Now they were gone.
This time it might have been my imagination. Somebody passing by could have casually snatched them up and kept walking.
But a moment later I seemed to notice a second TouchTunes box protruding from the wall directly behind me. I let it be.
Marina returned from the bathroom. Danny rose and offered her back her seat with an exaggerated bow. Before she got settled, I asked if she’d like to step outside with me. She withdrew her pack of Marlboro Menthols from her canvas bag, which she left sitting on the stool to deter Danny from sitting back down.
Marina never minded letting me bum cigarettes from time to time. I couldn’t buy them for myself anymore; it’s a habit I could never keep under control, and was only getting more expensive. Like everything else in the world. About once a month I reimbursed her by buying her a pack.
The air out on the sidewalk was as hot as the air inside Twenty, but easier to breathe. After lighting up, Marina leaned against the bricks and sighed.
“I wish Oliver would fire Danny already and get it over with.”
I nodded. Marina rarely talked about anything but work.
“He sneaks drinks and doesn't think anyone notices he's buzzed,” she went on. “He steals so much shit and isn’t even a little subtle about it. He’s going to get Oliver in trouble. And he’s a creep.”
“Yeah,” I said. These were her usual complaints about Danny, and they were all true. “At least he’s better than Austin.”
“That’s a low bar.”
Three dirt bikes and an ATV roared down the lonely street, charging through stop sign after stop sign, putting our talk on hold.
“Remind me. You’ve got one semester left, right?” I asked after the noise ebbed.
“Yep.”
Marina was a marketing major at Temple. She’d had an internship during the spring semester, and her boss told her to give her a call the very minute she graduated. Her parents in central Pennsylvania couldn’t pay her rent or tuition for her, so she was a full-time student and a full-time employee at Avenue Brew. Her emotional spectrum ranged from "tired" to "over it." She’d been waiting tables and working at coffee shops since she was seventeen, had no intention of continuing for even a day longer than she had to, and feared the escape hatch would slam shut if she dallied too long after prying it open.
She’d considered majoring in English, like Kyle. She went for marketing instead. I couldn’t blame her.
“Are you okay?” she asked. “You’ve been kind of off all day.”
“I’m terrible.”
“Why?”
I gave dodgy answers, but she asked precisely the right follow-up questions to get me going about what happened with Heather the night before.
It was the new job. Before the pandemic, Heather worked as a server at a Center City bar and grill. (That's where I met her; we were coworkers for about a year, and then I left to work Café Chakra because it was quieter and closer to where I lived.) When the place closed its doors and laid everyone off during the lockdown, she got a stopgap job at the Acme on Passyunk, and hated it. Then in March, she found a bar-and-lounge gig in a ritzy hotel on Broad Street. Very corporate. Excellent pay, great benefits. Definitely a step up. But her new employers made Irene and Jeremy look like Bob and Linda Belcher by comparison. It was the kind of place where someone had recently gotten herself fired for leaving work to rush to the hospital after getting the news that her grandmother was about to be taken off life support, and not finding someone to come in and cover the last two hours of her shift.
Heather seldom worked fewer than fifty-five hours a week, and her schedule was even more erratic than mine. At least once a week she left the hotel at 1:00 or 2:00 AM and returned at 9:00 the next morning. Neither of us could remember the last time she’d had two consecutive days off, and it had been over a month since one of mine overlapped with one of hers. She’d spent it drinking alone at home. All she wanted was some privacy.
I’d biked to South Philly to meet her when she got home at 1:30. The argument that killed our relationship for good began around 2:30, when I complained that we never had sex anymore. Heather accused me of only caring about that, when she was so exhausted and stressed that her hair was falling out in the shower. Quit the job? She couldn’t quit. The money was too good. She had student loans, medical bills, and credit card debt, and for the first time in her life she could imagine paying it all off before hitting menopause.
So, yeah, I was cranky about our sex life being dead in the water. Say whatever you like. But at that point, what were we to each other? We did nothing together anymore but complain about work before one or both of us fell asleep. That isn’t a relationship.
She said my hair always smelled like sandwiches, even after bathing, and she was done pretending it didn’t turn her off. I told her she was one to talk—she always reeked of liquor. As things escalated, we stopped caring if her roommates heard us. “You want to be a father?” she shouted around 4:00 AM. “Making what you make? That poor fucking kid.”
We fought until sunrise, and I left her apartment with the understanding that I wouldn’t be coming back, wouldn’t be calling her ever again. I biked home and sat on the steps facing the cement panel that was my house’s backyard. After my phone died and I couldn’t anaesthetize myself with dumb YouTube videos or make myself feel crazy staring at the download button for the Tinder app, I watched the sparrows hopping on and off the utility lines for a while.
At 11:40 I went inside. One of my roommates was already in the shower, so the best I could do was put on a clean Avenue Brew T-shirt before walking to the shop and clocking in at noon to help deal with the lunch rush.
“That’s a lot,” Marina finally said. “Sorry.”
I don’t know what I was expecting her to say. She was sixteen years my junior, after all, and just a coworker. She didn’t need to hear any of this, and I definitely didn't need to be telling her. But who else was there to tell?
She’d already finished her cigarette. I still had a few puffs left. She went inside.
I decided to call it a night.
The second TouchTunes box was gone—naturally. Danny had taken my stool, and regarded my approach with a puckish you snooze you lose grin. I wasn’t going to say anything. I’d just pay my bill, give everyone a nod goodnight, and walk the five blocks back home.
And then Danny disappeared.
One second, he was there. The next—gone.
Danny didn’t just instantaneously vanish. Even when something happens in the blink of an eye, you can still put together something of a sequence. I saw him—I seemed to see him—falling into himself, collapsing to a point, and then to nothing.
You know how sometimes a sound is altogether inaudible unless you’re looking at the source—like when you don’t realize somebody’s whispering at you, and can then hear and understand them after they get your attention? I think that was the case here. I wouldn't have known to listen if I hadn't seen it happen. What I heard lingered for two, maybe three seconds, and wasn't any louder than a fly buzzing inside a lampshade. A tiny and impossibly distant scream, pitchshifted like a receding ambulance siren into a basso drone...
I don’t know. I don’t know for sure. I’m certain I remember a flash of red, and I have the idea of Danny’s trunk expanding, opening up as it imploded. A crimson flower, flecked white, with spooling pink stalks—and Danny’s wide-eyed face above it, drawn twisting and shrinking into its petals.
For an instant, Twenty’s interior shimmered. Not shimmered, exactly—glitched would be a better word. If you’re old enough to remember the fragmented graphics that sometimes flashed onscreen when you turned on the Nintendo without blowing on the cartridge, you’ll have an idea of what I mean. It happened much too fast, and there was too much of it to absorb. The one clear impression I could parse was the mirage of a cash register flickering upside-down above the pool table.
Not a cash register. The shape was familiar, but the texture was wrong. I think it was ribbed, sort of like a maggot. I think it glistened. Like—camo doesn’t work anymore when the wearer stops crouching behind a bush and breaks into a run. Do you get what I’m saying?
Nobody else seemed to notice. The pool balls clacked. A New Order track was playing on the TouchTunes box. A nearby argument about about Nick Sirianni continued unabated.
Finally, there was a downward rush of air—and this at least elicited a reaction from the bartender, who slapped my bill to keep it from sailing off the counter.
“Danny,” I said.
“Danny?” Kyle asked me quietly. His face had gone pale.
“Danny?” Oliver repeated in a faraway voice.
After a pause, Kyle blinked a few times. “You heard from him?”
“God forbid,” said Marina. “When he quit I was like, great, I can keep working here after all.”
“Oh, come on—”
“Kyle. Did I ever show you those texts he sent me once at three in the morning?” The color had returned to Oliver’s face.
“No, what did he say?”
Oliver tapped at his phone and turned the screen toward Kyle.
“Oh. Oh, jeez.”
“Right? Like—if you want to ask me something, ask me. You know? Don’t be weirdly accusatory about it…”
I pulled a wad of fives and ones from my pocket, threw it all onto the counter, and beelined for the exit without consideration for the people I squeezed through and shoved past on the way.
I heard Marina saying “let him go.”
I went a second consecutive night without sleep. Fortunately I wasn’t scheduled to come in the next day.
The schedule. It’s funny. Oliver was generally great at his job, and even when he wasn’t, I cut him a lot of slack because I knew Irene and Jeremy never gave him a moment’s peace. But I could never forgive him those times he waited until the weekend to make up and distribute the schedule. This was one of those weeks he didn’t get around to it until Saturday afternoon. When I found it in my inbox, Danny’s name wasn’t anywhere on it.
As far as I know, nobody who hadn’t been at Twenty that night asked what happened to him. We were a bit overstaffed as it was, and everyone probably assumed Danny was slated for the chopping block. The part-timers were, for the most part, happy to get a few additional hours.
Oliver abruptly quit around Labor Day after a final acrimonious clash with the owners. I never found out the details, and I never saw him again. Jeremy and Irene took turns minding the store while a replacement manager was sought. None of the supervisors would be pressured into taking the job; they knew from Oliver what they could expect.
About three weeks after Oliver left, I came in for my purchasing shift and found Jeremy waiting for me in the back room. I knew it was serious when he didn’t greet me with the awkward fist-bump he ordinarily required of his male employees.
“You’ve seen the numbers,” he said. Business for the summer had fallen short of expectations, it was true, and he and Irene had decided to rein in payroll expenses. My purchaser position was being eliminated. Its responsibilities would be redistributed among the supervisors and the new manager, when one was found. In the meantime, I'd be going back to the regular $11 an hour (plus tips of course) associate position full-time.
Jeremy assured me I'd be first in the running for supervisor the next time there was an opening.
I told him it was fine, I was done, and if he’d expected the courtesy of two weeks’ notice, he shouldn’t have blindsided me like that.
“Well, that’s your choice,” he answered, trying not to look pleased. His payroll problem was solving itself.
I racked up credit card debt for a few months. Applied for entry-level museum jobs that might appreciate my art history degree. Aimed for some purchasing and administrative assistant gigs, and just for the hell of it, turned in a resume for a facilitator position at an after-school art program. Got a few interviews. All of them eventually told me they’d decided to go in a different direction. I finally got hired to bartend at Hops from Underground, a microbrewery on Fairmount.
I’m still there. The money’s okay, but it fluctuates. Hours are reasonable. I’m on their high-deductible health plan. There’s a coworker I’ve been dating. Sort of dating. You know how it goes. In this line of work you get so used to people coming and going that you learn not to get too attached. I walk past Avenue Brew a few times a week, but stopped peering in through the window when I didn't recognize the people behind the counter anymore.
submitted by obeliskposture to stupidpol [link] [comments]
It's relevant to the sub insofar as it's about urban alienation and the working conditions at a small business run by IN THIS HOUSE WE BELIEVE people. (I tried to pitch it as a story of the great resignation with a momentary flicker of cosmic horror.) It's based on a similar job I took on after getting laid off during the lockdown, and the circumstances of the main character's breakup are faintly similar to one I went through several years back (her job sucked the life out of her).
Without further ado:
* * *
It was getting close to midnight, and the temperature outside was still above 80 degrees. We’d locked up the shop at 10:15 and walked over to Twenty, the dive bar on Poplar Street, where a single wall-mounted air conditioner and four wobbly ceiling fans weren’t putting up much resistance against the July heat baking the place from the outside and the dense mass of bodies giving it a stifling fever from within.
Just now I came close to saying it was a Wednesday night, because that was usually when the cyclists descended upon Avenue Brew, the gritty-but-bougie craft beer and sandwich shop I was working at back then. Every Wednesday between March and November, about fifteen to twenty-five Gen Xers dressed in skintight polyester, all packages and camel toes and fanny packs, locked up their thousand-dollar bikes on the sidewalk and lined up for IPAs and paninis. They reliably arrived around 8:00, an hour before we closed, making it impossible to get started on the closing checklist and leave on time at 10:00. The worst of them were demanding and rude, and even the best got raucous and stubborn after a couple drinks. There were nights when bringing in the sidewalk tables couldn’t be done without arguing with them. Most were sub-par tippers, to boot.
After Wednesday came and went that week without so much as a single 40-something in Ray Bans and padded shorts stopping in to double-fist two cans of Jai Alai, we dared to hope the cyclists had chosen another spot to be their finish line from there on out. But no—they’d only postponed their weekly ride, and swarmed us on Friday night instead.
I was the last person to find out; I was clocked in as purchaser that evening. The position was something like a promotion I'd received a year earlier: for twenty hours a week, I got to retreat from the public and sit in the back room with the store laptop, reviewing sales and inventory, answering emails from brewery reps, and ordering beer, beverages, and assorted paper goods. When I put in hours as purchaser, my wage went up from $11 to $15 an hour, but I was removed from the tip pool. On most days, tips amounted to an extra two or three dollars an hour, so I usually came out ahead.
This was back in 2021. I don't know what Avenue Brew pays these days.
Anyway, at about 8:15, I stepped out to say goodbye to everyone and found the shop in chaos. Friday nights were generally pretty active, the cyclists' arrival had turned the place into a mob scene. The line extended to the front door. The phone was ringing. The Grubhub tablet dinged like an alarm clock without a snooze button. Danny was on the sandwich line and on the verge of losing his temper. Oliver was working up a sweat running food, bussing tables, and replenishing ingredients from the walk-in. The unflappable Marina was on register, and even she seemed like she was about to snap at somebody.
What else could I do? I stayed until closing to answer the phone, process Grubhub orders, hop on and off the second register, and help Danny with sandwich prep. After the tills were counted out, I stayed another hour to take care of the dishes, since nobody had a chance to do a first load. Oliver was grateful, even though he grumbled about having to make some calls and rearrange Sunday's schedule so I could come in a couple hours late. Irene and Jeremy, Avenue Brew's owners, would kick his ass if he let me go into overtime.
Danny suggested that we deserved a few drinks ourselves after managing to get through the shift without killing anyone. Not even Marina could find a reason to disagree with him.
The neighborhood had undergone enough gentrification to support an upscale brunch spot, an ice cream parlor, a gourmet burger restaurant, a coffee and bahn mi shop, and Avenue Brew (to name a few examples), but not yet quite enough that the people who staffed them couldn’t afford to live within a ten-minute walk from the main avenue where all these hep eateries stood between 24-hour corner stores with slot machines in back, late-night Chinese and Mexico-Italian takeout joints with bulletproof glass at the counters, and long-shuttered delis and shoe stores. Twenty on Poplar was the watering hole set aside for people like us. It was dim, a bit dilapidated, and inexpensive, and usually avoided by denizens of the condos popping up on the vacant lots and replacing clusters of abandoned row houses.
When we arrived, Kyle waved us over. He didn’t work at Avenue Brew anymore, but still kept up with a few of us. He was at Twenty at least four nights out of the week.
So there we all were. I sat with a brooding stranger freestyling to himself in a low mumble on the stool to my left and Oliver on my right, who tapped at his phone and nursed a bottle of Twisted Tea. To Oliver’s right sat Marina, staring at nothing in particular and trying to ignore Danny, who stood behind her, closer than she would have liked, listening to Kyle explain the crucial differences between the Invincible comic book and the Invincible web series.
I recall being startled back to something like wakefulness when it seemed to me that the ceiling had sprouted a new fan. I blinked my eyes, and it wasn’t there anymore. It reminded me of an incident from when I was still living with my folks in South Jersey and still had a car, and was driving home from a friend’s house party up in Bergen County. It was 6:30 AM, I hadn’t slept all night, and needed to get home so I could get at least little shuteye before heading to Whole Foods for my 11:00 AM shift. I imagined I passed beneath the shadows of overpasses I knew weren’t there, and realized I was dreaming at the wheel.
I was pretty thoroughly zombified at that point. Heather and I had broken up for good the night before, and I hadn't gotten even a minute of sleep. Calling out at Avenue Brew was tough. Unless you found someone willing to cover your shift on like six hours' notice, you were liable to get a writeup, a demotion, or your hours cut if you couldn't produce a doctor's note. So I loaded up on caffeine pills and Five-Hour Energy bottles at the corner store, and powered through as best I could.
I finished the last thimbleful of Blue Moon in my glass. Oliver wiped the sweat from the back of his neck with a napkin and covered his mouth to stifle a laugh at the KiwiFarms thread he was scrolling through. Pool balls clacked; somebody swore and somebody laughed. The TouchTunes box was playing Bob Dylan’s “Rain Day Woman #12 & 35,” and enough bleary 40-something men around the bar were bobbing their heads and mouthing the words to make it impossible to determine which one of them paid two bucks to hear it. A guy by the cigarette machine who looked like a caricature of Art Carney in flannel and an old Pixies T-shirt was accosting a woman who must have been a toddler when he hit drinking age, and she momentarily made eye contact with me as she scanned the area for a way out. Danny was shouting over the bartender’s head, carrying on a conversation with the Hot Guy from Pizza Stan’s, who was sitting on the horseshoe’s opposite arm.
I never got his name, but when Oliver first referred to him as the Hot Guy from Pizza Stan’s, I knew exactly who he meant. Philly scene kid par excellence. Mid-20s, washed-out black denim, dyed black hair, thick bangs, and dark, gentle eyes. He was only truly alluring when he was on the job, because he seldom smiled then—and when he smiled, he broke the spell by exposing his teeth, stained a gnarly shade of mahogany from too much smoking and not enough brushing.
“How’s Best? Marcus still a joker?” Danny asked him.
“Yeah, you know Marcus. You know how he is.”
So the Hot Guy had been working at Best Burger (directly across the street from Avenue Brew) ever since Pizza Stan’s owners mismanaged the place unto insolvency. (Afterwards it was renovated and reopened as a vegan bakery—which incidentally closed down about a month ago.) Danny used to work at Best Burger, but that ended after he got into a shouting match with the owner. I happened to overhear it while I was dragging in the tables and collecting the chairs from the sidewalk the night it happened. It wasn’t any of my business, and I tried not to pay attention, but they were really tearing into each other. A month later, Oliver welcomed Danny aboard at Avenue Brew. I hadn’t known he’d been interviewed, and by then it was too late to mention the incident. But I’d have been a hypocrite to call it a red flag after the way I resigned from my position as Café Chakra's assistant manager two years earlier—not that we need to go dredging that up right now. Let's say there was some bad blood and leave it at that.
Anyway, I was thinking about giving in and buying a pack of cigarettes from the machine—and then remembered that Twenty didn’t have a cigarette machine. I looked again. The Art Carney-lookalike was still there, fingering his phone with a frown, but the girl was gone—and so was the cigarette machine.
I had only a moment to puzzle over this before Danny clapped me on the shoulder and thrust a shot glass in front of me.
“Starfish!” he said. (Danny called me Starfish. Everybody else called me Pat.) “You look like you need some juice.”
He distributed shots to everyone else. Marina declined hers, but changed her mind when Kyle offered to take it instead.
She and Kyle had stopped sleeping together after Kyle left Avenue Brew to work at the Victory taproom on the Parkway, but Marina was still concerned about his bad habits, which Danny delighted in encouraging.
We all leaned in to clink our glasses. Before I could find an appropriate moment to ask Marina if I could bum a cigarette, she got up to visit the bathroom. Danny took her seat and bowed his head for a conspiratorial word with Kyle.
I watched from the corner of my eye and tried to listen in. Like Marina, I was a little worried about Kyle. He got hired at Avenue Brew around the same time I did, just before the pandemic temporarily turned us into a takeout joint. He was a senior at Drexel then, an English major, and sometimes talked about wanting to either find work in publishing or carve out a career as a freelance writer after graduating. But first he intended to spend a year getting some life in before submitting himself to the forever grind.
He read a lot of Charles Bukowski and Hunter Thompson. He relished the gritty and sordid, and had already been good at sniffing it out around the neighborhood and in West Philly before Danny introduced him to cocaine, casinos, strip clubs, and a rogue’s gallery of shady but fascinating people. (None were really Danny’s friends; just fellow passengers who intersected with the part of his life where he sometimes went to Parx, sometimes came out ahead, sometimes spent his winnings on coke, and sometimes did bumps at titty bars.) Kyle recounted these adventures with a boyish enthusiasm for the naked reality of sleaze, like a middle schooler telling his locker room buddies about catching his older brother in flagrante and seeing so-and-so body parts doing such-and-such things.
Marina hated it. She never said as much to me, but she was afraid that the template Kyle set for his life during his “year off” was in danger of becoming locked in. The anniversary of his graduation had already passed, and now here he was trying to convince Danny to contribute a couple hundred dollars toward a sheet of acid his guy had for sale. He wasn't doing much writing lately.
I was the oldest employee at Avenue Brew (as I write this I’m 37, but fortunately I don’t look it), and when Kyle still worked with us I felt like it was my prerogative to give him some advice. The longer he waited to make inroads, I once told him, the more likely he’d be seen as damaged goods by the publishing world. He needed to jam his foot in the door while he was still young.
I could tell the conversation bored him, and didn’t bring up the subject again.
The bartender took my glass and curtly asked if I’d like another drink.
“No thanks, not yet,” I answered.
She slid me my bill.
I missed the old bartender, the one she’d replaced. I forget her name, but she was ingenuous and energetic and sweet. Pretty much everyone had some sort of crush on her. Sometimes she came into Avenue Brew for lunch, and tipped us as well as we tipped her. Maybe three months before that night—Danny witnessed it—she suddenly started crying and rushed out the door. Everyone at the bar mutely looked to each other for an explanation. (Fortunately for Twenty, the kitchen manager hadn’t left yet, and picked up the rest of her shift.)
She never came back. None of us had seen her since. But drafts still had to be poured and bottlecaps pulled off, and now here was another white woman in her mid-twenties wearing a black tank top, a pushup bra, and a scrunchie, same as before. Twenty’s regulars grew accustomed to not expecting to see the person she’d replaced, and life went on.
“How’re you doing?” I asked Oliver, just to say something to somebody, and to keep my thoughts from wandering back to Heather.
“Just kind of existing right now,” he answered. His phone lay face-up on the counter. He was swiping through Instagram, and I recognized the avatar of the user whose album he hate-browsed.
“And how’s Austin been?” I asked.
“Oh, you know. Not even three weeks after getting over the jetlag from his trip back from the Cascades, he’s off touring Ireland.” He shook his head. “Living his best life.”
He’d hired Austin on a part-time basis in September. We needed a new associate when Emma was promoted to replace a supervisor who'd quit without even giving his two weeks. There was a whole thing. I'm having a hard time recalling the guy's name, but I liked him well enough. He was a good worker and he seemed like a bright kid, but he was—well, he was young. Naïve. One day he found Jeremy sitting in the back room with his laptop, and took advantage of the open-door policy to ask why the store manager and supervisors didn’t get health benefits or paid time off. Jeremy told him it "was being worked on," and that he couldn’t discuss it any further at that time. I understand the kid got argumentative, though I never knew precisely what was said.
Irene started visiting the shop a lot more often after that, almost always arriving when the kid was working. No matter what he was doing, she’d find a reason to intervene, to micromanage and harangue him, and effectively make his job impossible. A coincidence, surely.
It’s something I still think about. By any metric, Jeremy and Irene have done very well for themselves. They’re both a little over 40 years old. I remember hearing they met at law school. In addition to Avenue Brew, they own a bistro in Francisville and an ice cream parlor in Point Breeze. They have a house on the Blue Line, send their son to a Montessori school, and pull up to their businesses in a white Volkswagen ID.4. But whenever the subject of benefits, wages, or even free shift meals came up, they pled poverty. It simply couldn’t be done. But they liked to remind us about all they did to make Avenue Brew a fun place to work, like let the staff pick the music and allow Oliver and me to conduct a beer tasting once a day. They stuck Black Lives Matter, Believe Women, and Progress flag decals on the front door and windows, and I remember Irene wearing a Black Trans Lives Matter shirt once or twice when covering a supervisor's shift. None of the college students or recent graduates who composed most of Avenue Brew's staff could say the bosses weren't on the right team. And yet...
I'm sorry—I was talking about Austin. He was maybe 30 and already had another job, a “real” job, some sort of remote gig lucrative enough for him to make rent on a studio in the picturesque Episcopal church down the street that had been converted into upscale apartments some years back. Austin wasn’t looking for extra cash. He wanted to socialize. To have something to do and people to talk to in the outside world. He wanted to make friends, and all of us could appreciate that—but it’s hard to be fond of a coworker who irredeemably sucks at his job. Austin never acted with any urgency, was inattentive to detail, and even after repeated interventions from Oliver and the supervisors, he continued to perform basic tasks in bafflingly inefficient ways. Having Austin on your shift meant carrying his slack, and everyone was fed up after a few months. Oliver sat him down, told him he was on thin ice, and gave him a list of the areas in which he needed to improve if he didn’t want to be let go.
When Austin gave Oliver the indignant “I don’t need this job” speech, it was different from those times Danny or I told a boss to go to hell and walked out. Austin truly didn’t need it. He basically said the job was beneath him, and so was Oliver.
It got deep under Oliver’s skin. He did need the job and had to take it seriously, even when it meant being the dipshit manager chewing out a man four or five years his senior. He earned $18 an hour (plus tips when he wasn’t doing admin work), had debts to pay off, and couldn't expect to get any help from his family.
The important thing, though, the part I distinctly remember, was that Oliver was looking at a video of a wading bird Austin had recorded. An egret, maybe. White feathers, long black legs, pointy black beak. Austin must have been standing on a ledge above a creek, because he had an overhead view of the bird as it stood in the water, slowly and deliberately stretching and retracting its neck, eyeing the wriggling little shadows below. As far as the fish could know, they were swimming around a pair of reeds growing out of the silt. The predator from which they extended was of a world beyond their understanding and out of their reach.
The video ended. Oliver moved on to the next item: a photograph of the bird from the same perspective, with a fish clamped in its beak. Water droplets flung from the victim's thrashing tail caught the sunlight. And I remember now, I clearly remember, the shapes of like twelve other fish stupidly milling about the bird's feet, unperturbed and unpanicked.
Danny peered at Oliver’s phone and observed a resemblance between the bird—its shape and bearing, and the composition of the photograph—and a POV porn video shot from behind and above, and he told us so. Elaborately. He made squawking noises.
“And mom says I’m a degenerate,” Oliver sighed. “Can you practice your interspecies pickup artist shit somewhere else?” Oliver flicked his wrist, shooing Danny off, and held his phone in front of his face to signal that he was done talking.
Danny sagged a little on his stool and turned away. I sometimes felt bad for him. For all his faults, he had the heart of a puppy dog. He really did think of us as his tribe. There was nobody else who’d only ever answer “yes” when you asked him to pick up a shift, and he did it completely out of loyalty.
He was turning 29 in a week. I wondered how many people would actually turn out to celebrate with him at the Black Taxi. Kyle probably would—but even he regarded Danny more as a source of vulgar entertainment than a friend.
Then it happened again. When I turned to speak to Oliver, there’d been a pair of pool cues leaning side-by-side against the wall a few stools down. Now they were gone.
This time it might have been my imagination. Somebody passing by could have casually snatched them up and kept walking.
But a moment later I seemed to notice a second TouchTunes box protruding from the wall directly behind me. I let it be.
Marina returned from the bathroom. Danny rose and offered her back her seat with an exaggerated bow. Before she got settled, I asked if she’d like to step outside with me. She withdrew her pack of Marlboro Menthols from her canvas bag, which she left sitting on the stool to deter Danny from sitting back down.
Marina never minded letting me bum cigarettes from time to time. I couldn’t buy them for myself anymore; it’s a habit I could never keep under control, and was only getting more expensive. Like everything else in the world. About once a month I reimbursed her by buying her a pack.
The air out on the sidewalk was as hot as the air inside Twenty, but easier to breathe. After lighting up, Marina leaned against the bricks and sighed.
“I wish Oliver would fire Danny already and get it over with.”
I nodded. Marina rarely talked about anything but work.
“He sneaks drinks and doesn't think anyone notices he's buzzed,” she went on. “He steals so much shit and isn’t even a little subtle about it. He’s going to get Oliver in trouble. And he’s a creep.”
“Yeah,” I said. These were her usual complaints about Danny, and they were all true. “At least he’s better than Austin.”
“That’s a low bar.”
Three dirt bikes and an ATV roared down the lonely street, charging through stop sign after stop sign, putting our talk on hold.
“Remind me. You’ve got one semester left, right?” I asked after the noise ebbed.
“Yep.”
Marina was a marketing major at Temple. She’d had an internship during the spring semester, and her boss told her to give her a call the very minute she graduated. Her parents in central Pennsylvania couldn’t pay her rent or tuition for her, so she was a full-time student and a full-time employee at Avenue Brew. Her emotional spectrum ranged from "tired" to "over it." She’d been waiting tables and working at coffee shops since she was seventeen, had no intention of continuing for even a day longer than she had to, and feared the escape hatch would slam shut if she dallied too long after prying it open.
She’d considered majoring in English, like Kyle. She went for marketing instead. I couldn’t blame her.
“Are you okay?” she asked. “You’ve been kind of off all day.”
“I’m terrible.”
“Why?”
I gave dodgy answers, but she asked precisely the right follow-up questions to get me going about what happened with Heather the night before.
It was the new job. Before the pandemic, Heather worked as a server at a Center City bar and grill. (That's where I met her; we were coworkers for about a year, and then I left to work Café Chakra because it was quieter and closer to where I lived.) When the place closed its doors and laid everyone off during the lockdown, she got a stopgap job at the Acme on Passyunk, and hated it. Then in March, she found a bar-and-lounge gig in a ritzy hotel on Broad Street. Very corporate. Excellent pay, great benefits. Definitely a step up. But her new employers made Irene and Jeremy look like Bob and Linda Belcher by comparison. It was the kind of place where someone had recently gotten herself fired for leaving work to rush to the hospital after getting the news that her grandmother was about to be taken off life support, and not finding someone to come in and cover the last two hours of her shift.
Heather seldom worked fewer than fifty-five hours a week, and her schedule was even more erratic than mine. At least once a week she left the hotel at 1:00 or 2:00 AM and returned at 9:00 the next morning. Neither of us could remember the last time she’d had two consecutive days off, and it had been over a month since one of mine overlapped with one of hers. She’d spent it drinking alone at home. All she wanted was some privacy.
I’d biked to South Philly to meet her when she got home at 1:30. The argument that killed our relationship for good began around 2:30, when I complained that we never had sex anymore. Heather accused me of only caring about that, when she was so exhausted and stressed that her hair was falling out in the shower. Quit the job? She couldn’t quit. The money was too good. She had student loans, medical bills, and credit card debt, and for the first time in her life she could imagine paying it all off before hitting menopause.
So, yeah, I was cranky about our sex life being dead in the water. Say whatever you like. But at that point, what were we to each other? We did nothing together anymore but complain about work before one or both of us fell asleep. That isn’t a relationship.
She said my hair always smelled like sandwiches, even after bathing, and she was done pretending it didn’t turn her off. I told her she was one to talk—she always reeked of liquor. As things escalated, we stopped caring if her roommates heard us. “You want to be a father?” she shouted around 4:00 AM. “Making what you make? That poor fucking kid.”
We fought until sunrise, and I left her apartment with the understanding that I wouldn’t be coming back, wouldn’t be calling her ever again. I biked home and sat on the steps facing the cement panel that was my house’s backyard. After my phone died and I couldn’t anaesthetize myself with dumb YouTube videos or make myself feel crazy staring at the download button for the Tinder app, I watched the sparrows hopping on and off the utility lines for a while.
At 11:40 I went inside. One of my roommates was already in the shower, so the best I could do was put on a clean Avenue Brew T-shirt before walking to the shop and clocking in at noon to help deal with the lunch rush.
“That’s a lot,” Marina finally said. “Sorry.”
I don’t know what I was expecting her to say. She was sixteen years my junior, after all, and just a coworker. She didn’t need to hear any of this, and I definitely didn't need to be telling her. But who else was there to tell?
She’d already finished her cigarette. I still had a few puffs left. She went inside.
I decided to call it a night.
The second TouchTunes box was gone—naturally. Danny had taken my stool, and regarded my approach with a puckish you snooze you lose grin. I wasn’t going to say anything. I’d just pay my bill, give everyone a nod goodnight, and walk the five blocks back home.
And then Danny disappeared.
One second, he was there. The next—gone.
Danny didn’t just instantaneously vanish. Even when something happens in the blink of an eye, you can still put together something of a sequence. I saw him—I seemed to see him—falling into himself, collapsing to a point, and then to nothing.
You know how sometimes a sound is altogether inaudible unless you’re looking at the source—like when you don’t realize somebody’s whispering at you, and can then hear and understand them after they get your attention? I think that was the case here. I wouldn't have known to listen if I hadn't seen it happen. What I heard lingered for two, maybe three seconds, and wasn't any louder than a fly buzzing inside a lampshade. A tiny and impossibly distant scream, pitchshifted like a receding ambulance siren into a basso drone...
I don’t know. I don’t know for sure. I’m certain I remember a flash of red, and I have the idea of Danny’s trunk expanding, opening up as it imploded. A crimson flower, flecked white, with spooling pink stalks—and Danny’s wide-eyed face above it, drawn twisting and shrinking into its petals.
For an instant, Twenty’s interior shimmered. Not shimmered, exactly—glitched would be a better word. If you’re old enough to remember the fragmented graphics that sometimes flashed onscreen when you turned on the Nintendo without blowing on the cartridge, you’ll have an idea of what I mean. It happened much too fast, and there was too much of it to absorb. The one clear impression I could parse was the mirage of a cash register flickering upside-down above the pool table.
Not a cash register. The shape was familiar, but the texture was wrong. I think it was ribbed, sort of like a maggot. I think it glistened. Like—camo doesn’t work anymore when the wearer stops crouching behind a bush and breaks into a run. Do you get what I’m saying?
Nobody else seemed to notice. The pool balls clacked. A New Order track was playing on the TouchTunes box. A nearby argument about about Nick Sirianni continued unabated.
Finally, there was a downward rush of air—and this at least elicited a reaction from the bartender, who slapped my bill to keep it from sailing off the counter.
“Danny,” I said.
“Danny?” Kyle asked me quietly. His face had gone pale.
“Danny?” Oliver repeated in a faraway voice.
After a pause, Kyle blinked a few times. “You heard from him?”
“God forbid,” said Marina. “When he quit I was like, great, I can keep working here after all.”
“Oh, come on—”
“Kyle. Did I ever show you those texts he sent me once at three in the morning?” The color had returned to Oliver’s face.
“No, what did he say?”
Oliver tapped at his phone and turned the screen toward Kyle.
“Oh. Oh, jeez.”
“Right? Like—if you want to ask me something, ask me. You know? Don’t be weirdly accusatory about it…”
I pulled a wad of fives and ones from my pocket, threw it all onto the counter, and beelined for the exit without consideration for the people I squeezed through and shoved past on the way.
I heard Marina saying “let him go.”
I went a second consecutive night without sleep. Fortunately I wasn’t scheduled to come in the next day.
The schedule. It’s funny. Oliver was generally great at his job, and even when he wasn’t, I cut him a lot of slack because I knew Irene and Jeremy never gave him a moment’s peace. But I could never forgive him those times he waited until the weekend to make up and distribute the schedule. This was one of those weeks he didn’t get around to it until Saturday afternoon. When I found it in my inbox, Danny’s name wasn’t anywhere on it.
As far as I know, nobody who hadn’t been at Twenty that night asked what happened to him. We were a bit overstaffed as it was, and everyone probably assumed Danny was slated for the chopping block. The part-timers were, for the most part, happy to get a few additional hours.
Oliver abruptly quit around Labor Day after a final acrimonious clash with the owners. I never found out the details, and I never saw him again. Jeremy and Irene took turns minding the store while a replacement manager was sought. None of the supervisors would be pressured into taking the job; they knew from Oliver what they could expect.
About three weeks after Oliver left, I came in for my purchasing shift and found Jeremy waiting for me in the back room. I knew it was serious when he didn’t greet me with the awkward fist-bump he ordinarily required of his male employees.
“You’ve seen the numbers,” he said. Business for the summer had fallen short of expectations, it was true, and he and Irene had decided to rein in payroll expenses. My purchaser position was being eliminated. Its responsibilities would be redistributed among the supervisors and the new manager, when one was found. In the meantime, I'd be going back to the regular $11 an hour (plus tips of course) associate position full-time.
Jeremy assured me I'd be first in the running for supervisor the next time there was an opening.
I told him it was fine, I was done, and if he’d expected the courtesy of two weeks’ notice, he shouldn’t have blindsided me like that.
“Well, that’s your choice,” he answered, trying not to look pleased. His payroll problem was solving itself.
I racked up credit card debt for a few months. Applied for entry-level museum jobs that might appreciate my art history degree. Aimed for some purchasing and administrative assistant gigs, and just for the hell of it, turned in a resume for a facilitator position at an after-school art program. Got a few interviews. All of them eventually told me they’d decided to go in a different direction. I finally got hired to bartend at Hops from Underground, a microbrewery on Fairmount.
I’m still there. The money’s okay, but it fluctuates. Hours are reasonable. I’m on their high-deductible health plan. There’s a coworker I’ve been dating. Sort of dating. You know how it goes. In this line of work you get so used to people coming and going that you learn not to get too attached. I walk past Avenue Brew a few times a week, but stopped peering in through the window when I didn't recognize the people behind the counter anymore.
2023.06.03 10:39 SweetandSaltyFruit Ran into my ex.. 32(M)
Long story short is that I’m lonely because I lost my best friend, confidant and former lover to meth use in February. It wasn’t a healthy relationship but in so many ways this man was my ride or die, I loved him dearly. I was highly suicidal when things ended (I made that decision), it took me months to get over him emotionally. I’ve been somewhat scared and lazy to try to make new friends. I’ve been ok emotionally with the help of family and another friend that helps when she’s available. Today I went to the local gay bar to see one of my fav drag entertainers from drag race s15, Mistress. I made the decision to go alone since I don’t have any other friends to do things with. Well I had 2 drinks and as I’m waiting in line for the meet and greet I run into an old pal, a mutual friend I had with my former ex. We hugged and we chatted for a second before asking who he was with. When I saw it was my ex I froze and panic in fear. I told him “I can’t, I gotta go”, he knows the backstory of the drama. I left the bar and crossed the street balling my eyes out. My loneliness and anxiety was heightened, I walked 2 miles completely alone in the middle of some random neighborhood in Pomona, CA. I found a park to sober up in. I spent an hour contemplating my lifestyle and support systems. I’m ready to make friends, to put myself out there. I’m tired of being alone and sad. I lost my best friend, the man I was in love with but I’m tired of obsessing over it. I just spent my Friday night having a good time alone ruined because of my past issues. I’m convinced if I had a friend there at that moment I would have been able to handle the situation. I just needed to rant but I’m ready for a friend. Hopefully I can manifest one. Have a good night everyone! :)
submitted by SweetandSaltyFruit to loneliness [link] [comments]
2023.06.03 10:30 BaseballBot [General Discussion] Around the Horn - 6/3/23
So what's this thread for?
- Discussion of yesterday's games
- Excitement for today's games
- General questions
- Mildly interesting facts
- Praising Santa 🎅
- Anything else worth sharing/asking that doesn't warrant its own post
Featured posts and links
- Join the official /baseball Discord server!
- Be sure to place your entry in today's Nightly Pick 'Em by CNard12
- Check out:
- This week's States of the Baseball Subreddits
- This week's MLB Graphical Standing Series
- New to /baseball and baseball? Check out these resources!
- Interested in learning more about advanced stats? Check out this guide from 2helix5you
- Interested in accessing HD baseball video highlights? Check out Baseball Theater created by hellocontrol_
Note: for the best user experience, we recommend disabling the Reddit redesign while using /baseball.
Saturday's Games
| Away | Score | Home | Score | Status | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11:35 | |||||
| 1:35 | |||||
| 1:35 | |||||
| 1:40 | |||||
| 1:40 | |||||
| 1:40 | |||||
| 2:10 | |||||
| 2:10 | |||||
| 2:10 | |||||
| 2:10 | |||||
| ★ | 2:35 | ||||
| 4:05 | |||||
| 4:10 | |||||
| 5:30 | |||||
| 7:10 |
Yesterday's ATH
This Week's Schedule (all times Eastern)
| Day | Feature |
|---|---|
| Sunday 5/28 | No subreddit features planned |
| Monday 5/29 | baseball Power Rankings |
| Happy Memorial Day! | |
| Tuesday 5/30 | baseball Players of the Week |
| Wednesday 5/31 | No subreddit features planned |
| Thursday 6/1 | Division Discussion Thread: The Easts |
| Friday 6/2 | Friday Trash Talk Thread |
| Lou Gehrig Day | |
| Saturday 6/3 | No subreddit features planned |
2023.06.03 07:52 hebrokestevie So proud this happened in Memphis 🎉
 | Would have posted a news link, but it just happened. When I searched, it hadn’t hit anything, yet. Twitter link: https://twitter.com/thetnhollestatus/1664864397771120642?s=46&t=otIaAofDc248KfwJ5PWf4A Document link: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.tnwd.98391/gov.uscourts.tnwd.98391.91.0.pdf submitted by hebrokestevie to memphis [link] [comments] |
2023.06.03 06:55 bowlcut Late Friday night, a federal judge declared Tennessee’s anti-drag Adult Entertainment Act to be unconstitutional Twitter
| | submitted by bowlcut to Tennessee [link] [comments] |
2023.06.03 06:52 bowlcut Late Friday night, a federal judge declared Tennessee’s anti-drag Adult Entertainment Act to be unconstitutional Twitter
| | submitted by bowlcut to nashville [link] [comments] |
2023.06.03 00:54 PhilsTriangle [USA-NJ][H] N64, NES, SNES, Pokemon 3DS XL Console, Gameboy Console CIB, DSi Console, Playstation, PS2, Sega, SMS, and Xbox 360 [W] PayPal, Venmo
Hey everyone, here's a few pictures of my N64 Games, 3DS XL Console, GBA Console, GBA Games I have for sale . There's a lot listed below that is not pictured so just let me know what you are interested in and I can provide additional pictures.
Prices do not include shipping unless "shipped" is noted. Shipping is $4 for 1 game (1st Class in a Padded/Bubble Wrapped Envelope). An additional $1 per game (if weight exceeds 12 oz). I only accept PayPal via Friends & Family or Venmo F&F, however I do have 295+ confirmed transaction on this board.
Consoles + Accessories Gameboy Original (CIB; unused condition; even the batteries are unopened) - $300 shipped or BO GBA Wireless Adapter (AGB-015) - $20 shipped GBA to Gamecube Adapter (DOL-011) - $25 shipped Gameboy OEM Clam Shells (lot of 32) - $75 shipped Nintendo 3DS XL Pokemon X & Y Limited Edition Console + Luigis Mansion Dark Moon (loose) - $300 shipped Nintendo 64 OEM Gray Controller - $25 Nintendo 64 OEM Controller Pak (NUS-004) - $13 shipped Nintendo 64 GameShark - $25 Nintendo 64 Performance Memory Card - $10 shipped Nintendo 64 OEM Transfer Pak - $20 shipped Nintendo DSI (TMNT Decals) w/ Charger - $50 shipped Sega GameGear Super Wide Gear - $22 shipped Sega Master System w/ hookups + controller (small crack/break in console shell) $125 + shipping Super Nintendo Snes Jr Console (console only; tested) - $90 shipped
N64 Games 007 World is Not Enough (ex-rental) - $14 1080 Snowboarding - $11 Backstage Assault - $12 Blast Corps - $18 Excite Bike 64 - $15 Flying Dragon - $30 F-Zero X - $40 Jet Force Gemini - $13 Madden Football 64 - $5 Mario Kart 64 - $42 MRC Multi Championship Racing - $10 Mystical Ninja Featuring Goemon (ex-rental) - $85 Namco Museum 64 - $12 NBA Jam 99 - $11 NFL Blitz 2001 (torn label) - $18 NFL Quarterback Club 2000 - $5 Pokemon Snap - $20 Pokemon Stadium - $35 San Francisco Rush - $15 San Francisco Rush 2 - $18 Star Wars Episode 1 Racer - $10 Star Wars Rogue Squadron - $14 Super Mario 64 - $38 Superman - $15 Super Smash Brothers - $45 Magical Tetris Challenge - $25 The New Tetris - $30 Tetrisphere - $12 Tony Hawk Pro Skater - $12 Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 - $21 Top Gear Overdrive - $11 Toy Story 2 - $20 Turok Dinosaur Hunter - $12 Virtual Pool - $13 Waialae Country Club - $6
N64 Manuals/Strategy Guides Duke Nukem Manual - $10 Flying Dragon Manual - $40 Silicon Valley Space Station Manual - $50 Super Mario 64 Nintendo Power Player's Guide - $18
NES Games Adventure of Bayou Billy - $7 Anticipation - $5 Bad Street Brawler - $13 Battle Chess (CIB) - $32 Battle of Olympus - $16 Blades of Steel - $9 Defender 2 - $10 Dragon Warrior (CIB) - $70 Dragon Warrior II -$60 Dragon Warrior - III - $120 Dragon Warrior IV - $160 Excite Bike - $11 Exodus Ultima - $11 Faxanadu - $12 Fester's Quest - $10 Final Fantasy - $25 Gauntlet II (label wear) - $10 Golf - $3 Gotcha - $7 Ghost 'N Goblins - $15 Greg Norman's Golf Power - $14 Gyruss - $9 Hydlide - $9 Iron Sword - $8 Little League Baseball - $12 Magic of Scheherazade (CIB) - $65 Mach Rider - $8 Metal Gear (w/ worn box) - $80 Mike Tyson's Punch-Out - $40 Paperboy - $16 Pinball $7 The Punisher - $27 Rad Racer II - $7 Renegade - $10 RBI Baseball 2 - $10 Road Runner - $16 Spy Hunter - $6 Super Glove Ball - $7 Superman - $21 Super Mario Bros. - $15 Super Mario Bros./ Duck Hunt - $7 Super Mario Bros. 2 - $24 Super Off-Road - $12 Super Sprint (Tengen) - $7 Super Team Games - $9 Tetris - $12 Tetris 2 -$9 Tiger-Heli - $5 Tiny Toon Adventures 2 Trouble in Wackyland - $16 To The Earth - $5 Toobin (Tengen) - $20 Top Gun - $5 Top Player Tennis - $9 Vindicators - $10 Winter Games by Epyx - $6
NES Manuals Anticipation Manual - $5 Captain Skyhawk Manual - $5 Dance Aerobics Manual - $5 Friday the 13th Manual - $16 Golf - $5 Gotcha Manual - $7 (crease) Hogan's Alley Manual - $9 Iron Sword Wizards & Warriors II Manual - $7 Life Force Manual - $10 (some damage to an interior page) Sesame Street 1 2 3 - $7 Super Team Games - $7 Tiger Heli - $3 (water damage)
Gameboy (cart only) Batman - $24 Dr. Mario - $10 Star Wars - $11 Super Mario Land - (top of label is faded) - $20 Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 - $30
Gameboy Color (cart only) All-Star Baseball 2000 - $5 Mary Kate & Ashley's New Adventures - $4 Men in Black The Series - $7 Pacman Special Color Edition - $14 Rugrats the Movie - $7 Shrek Fairy Tale Freak Down - $7 Smurf's Nightmare - $10 Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 - $6 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 - $6 Yu- Gi- Oh Dark Duel Stories - $10
GBA (cart only) 007 Everything or Nothing - $7 A Series of Unfortunate Events -$4 Backyard Baseball - $5 Backyard Baseball 2006 - $7 Backyard Baseball 2007 - $7 Backyard Football - $8 Backyard Football 2006 - $4 Backyard Football 2007 - $5 Battleship / Risk / Clue - $6 Bratz - $4 Butt Ugly Martians: BKM Battles - $5 Cars - $5 Cartoon Network Speedway - $6 Catz - $5 Cho Makaimura R Super Ghouls N Ghost ( Japanese Import) - $95 Shipped Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2 - $4 Dogz - $6 Dora Explorer's Pirate Pig's Treasure - $4 Dragon Ball Z Supersonic Warriors - $20 Earth Worm Jim - $16 ESPN Great Outdoor Games Bass 2002 - $5 Fantastic 4 Flame On - $3 Finding Nemo - $5 Fire Pro Wrestling - $11 Frogger's Journey - $6 Hot Wheels Stunt Track Challenge - $3 Hot Wheels World Race - $5 Incredibles Rise of the Underminer - $6 Jimmy Neutron Attack of the Twonkies - $4 Jimmy Neutron Jet Fusion - $3 Lord of the Rings The Two Towers - $10 Lost Vikings - $25 Lizzie McGuire: On the Go - $3 Madagascar & Shrek 2 - $5 Madagascar Operation Penguin - $6 Madden 2005 - $5 Mario Kart Super Circuit (torn label) - $21 Monster Jam Maximum Destruction - $6 Namco Museum - $6 Oddworld Munch's Oddysee - $12 Pong Asterios Yar's Revenge - $4 Power Rangers Dino Thunder - $8 Quad Desert Furty - $3 Road Rash Jail Break - $10 Shark Tale - $4 Spirit Stallion of the Cimarron - $5 Star Wars Episode II Attack of the Clones - $5 Star Wars The New Droid Army - $5 Super Mario Advance (worn label) - $17 The Incredibles - $3 Top Gear GT Championship - $10 Yu-Gi-Oh Double Pack 2 - $13 Yu-Gi-Oh Eternal Duelist Soul - $12 Wario Land 4 - $45 WWF Road to Wrestlemania - $10
Nintendo 3DS (loose) Transformers Dark of the Moon Stealth Edition - $7
Nintendo DS Games (cart only unless noted) Avatar The Last Airbender - $13 Backyard Sports Rookie Rush - $4 Bionicle Matoran Adventures - $6 Club Penguin - $4 Happy Feet - $4 Mario Hoops 3 on 3 - $10 Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 - $10 Megaman Starforce Dragon - $95 shipped Metroid Hunters First Hunt - $6 Namco Museum DS - $8 Nintendo Dogs: Chihuahua & Friends - $6 Nintendo Dogs: Dachshund & Friends (CIB) - $10 Nintendo Dogs: Lab & Friends - $6 Ping Pals - $3 Plants vs Zombies - $10 Ratatouille - $5 Ridge Racer DS - $8 Shrek Superslam - $5 MySims - $5 MySims Kingdom - $5 Spectrobes - $5 Spiderman 3 - $8 Star Wars II The Original Trilogy (LEGO) - $6 Super Money Ball Touch & Roll - $6
Nintendo Gamecube Games (CIB unless noted) ATV Quad Power Racing 2 (missing manual) - $9 Cars - $8 ESPN Winter Sports 2002 - $6 Madden 2003 - $5 Madden 2005 - $6 Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2 - $8 Spongebob Squarepants: Lights Camera Pants - $16 WWE Day of Reckoning 2 (missing manual) - $25 WWE WrestleMania X8 (missing manual) - $12
Nintendo Wii Games (all have cases) All-Star Cheer Squad - $5 Cabelas Big Game Hunter 2010 (CIB) - $8 Call of Duty Black Ops (CIB) - $9 Carnival Games (CIB) - $6 Chuck E Cheese Party Games (Missing Manual) - $10 Country Dance (CIB) - $8 Deal or No Deal (CIB) - $5 Guitar Hero III Legends of Rock (CIB) - $19 Hannah Montana Spotlight World Tour (Sealed) - $8 Major League Baseball 2K12 (CIB) - $10 Thrillville Off The Rails (CIB) - $5 Wii Music - $6 Wii Sports (Disc & Manual) - $20 Wii Sports Resort (CIB) - $30
Playstation PS1 Games (CIB unless noted) 007 Tomorrow Never Dies - $7 A Bug's Life (GH) - $7 Action Bass - $6 Ball Breakers (sealed) - $10 Bass Championship - $7 Battle Arena Toshinden (GH) - $14 Bushido Blade - $36 Crash Bandicoot Warped (GH) - $13 Fighting Force - $20 Gran Turismo 2 (GH) - $12 Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone - $13 IHRA Drag Racing - $5 Inspector Gadget: Gadget's Crazy Maze - $8 MediEvil (missing manual) - $35 Missile Command - $6 Monster's Inc (GH) - $9 Nascar Heat (CIB) - $7 NBA Live 2000 - $8 NBA Shootout 98 - $9 NFL Blitz 2000 - $15 NHL 98 - $8 NHL Faceoff 97 (GH) - $5 Parasite Eve - $75 Parasite Eve (missing demo disk) - $60 PlayStation Underground Jampack Fall 2001 - $9 Q* Bert - $10 Resident Evil Director's Cut (GH) - $30 Rugrats Search for Reptar (GH) - $17 Rugrats in Paris: The Movie - $12 Soul Blade - $23 Star wars Dark Forces (unoriginal jewel case) - $13 Syphon Filter 2 (GH) - $10 Tecmo Super Bowl - $20 Tiger Woods 99 - $8 Tony Hawk Pro Skater (GH) - $10 Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 (GH) - $12 Triply Play 99 - $8 Who Wants to Be a Millionaire 2nd Edition - $8 World Cup 98 - $12
Playstation 2 PS2 Games (CIB unless noted) 007 Everything or Nothing - $7 007 Nightfire - $9 Ace Combat 4 Shattered Skies (GH) - $8 All-Star Baseball 2005 - $5 Ben 10 Protector of Earth - $9 Bully - $22 Clock Tower 3 - $70 Crash Bandicoot The Wrath of the Cortex (GH version) - $10 Crash Bandicoot The Wrath of the Cortex - $12 Devil May Cry (GH) - $7 Enter the Matrix - $10 Eragon - $6 Family Feud - $5 Final Fantasy X (GH) -$9 Frogger the Great Quest - $7 Godfather the Game - $14 God of War (2 Disc Set) - $12 Guitar Hero II - $7 Guitar Hero III Legends of Rock - $9 High Heat Major League Baseball 2004 - $5 Hobbit - $10 Karaoke Revolution Party - $8 Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol - $5 Madden 2003 - $5 Madden 2007 - $5 Madden 2008 - $5 Midway Arcade Treasures - $11 MLB 07 the Show - $5 MLB Slugfest 2004 - $11 Nascar 2001 - $5 Nascar Thunder 2003 - $7 NFL Blitz Pro - $10 Onimusha 3 Demon Siege - $21 Pinball Hall of Fame - $5 Pirates - The Legend of Black Kat - $12 Red Dead Revolver - $17 Rise of Kasai - $8 Silent Hill 4 The Room (Factory Sealed) - $325 shipped Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith - $9 SSX Tricky (missing manual) - $19 Summoner - $10 Teen Titans - $22 Theme Park Roller Coaster - $8 Time Crisis 3 - $23 Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell - $6 Ty the Tasmanian Tiger - $11 Warriors of Might & Magic - $10 Wheel of Fortune - $7 Yu-Gi-Oh Duelists of the Roses - $22
PS3 Band Hero - $6 Call of Duty Black Ops - $10 Call of Duty World at War -$11 Crysis 2 - $7 Fifa Soccer 11 - $5 Guitar Hero 5 - $11 MLB the Show 10 - $4 MLB the Show 11 - $4 NCAA Football 11 - $9 Sports Champions - $5
Sega 32X (all cart only) Primal Rage - $50 Virtua Fighter - $24 Virtua Racing - $20
Sega Dreamcast Games (disc & manual only***; do not have original cases unless noted CIB) Centipede - $7 Plasma Sword Night of Bilstein - $50 Psychic Force 2012 - $25 Ready 2 Rumble Boxing - $12 Rippin Riders - $5 Sega Bass Fishing - $8 Sega Rally 2 Championship - $12 Speed Devils - $15 Sword of Berserk: Gut's Rage (game only) - $65 Trick Style - $7 Zombie Revenge - $30
Sega Game Gear (cart only) Columns - $5 Sega Genesis (cart only unless noted) Aladdin (cart + manual) - $10 Boogerman A Pick & Flick Adventure (cart + manual) - $20 John Madden Football (cart + manual) - $20 Mortal Kombat (cart + manual) - $12 Prime Time NFL Football starring Deon Sanders (cart +manual) - $9 Shining Force (Case & Cart) - $75 Shining Force 2 (cart only) - $55 Sonic the Hedgehog (cart + manual) - $13 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (cart + manual) - $12 Sonic & Knuckles (cart only) - $25 Streets of Rage (cart only) - $22 X-Men (cart + manual) - $15
Sega Master System (Mostly CIB; ask me to check manual) Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars - $28 California Games (missing manual) - $20 Choplifter - $18 Ghostbusters - $25 Great Baseball - $10 Monopoly - $10 Parlour Games - $10 Pro Wrestling - $14 Rocky - $17 Space Harrier (missing manual) - $18 Shinobi (includes map; missing manual) - $30
Super Nintendo (SNES) Games (cart only) Aeroacrobat - $9 Best of the Best Championship Karate - $8 Brandish - $85 Brett Hull Hockey - $7 Bulls vs Blazers - $4 Capcom MVP Football - $7 Captain Commando - $175 Cliffhanger - $9 College Slam - $7 Donkey Kong Country - $20 ESPN Baseball Tonight - $4 Family Feud - Final Fantasy Mystic Quest - $17 Football Fury - $20 Harley's Humongous Adventure - $15 Magic Johnson's Super Slam Dunk - $6 Mickey's Ultimate Challenge - $12 MechWarrior 3050 - $17 Monopoly - $5 Ms. Pacman - $12 NCAA Basketball - $5 Nickelodeon GUTS - $16 Ninja Warrior - $130 NFL Football - $5 Pit Fighter - $8 Romance of the Three Kingdoms II - $20 Soldier's of Fortune (rental sticker on label) - $25 Stanley Cup Championship -$6 Street Fighter II - $15 Super Caesar's Palace - $4 Super High Impact - $5 Super Soccer - $9 Super Star Wars Return of the Jedi - $16 Terminator 2 Judgement Day - $15 Top Gear - $15
Xbox 360 (CIB) Assassin's Creed - $6 Battlefield Hardline Deluxe Edition - $10 Battlefield 3 Limited Edition - $6 Fifa Soccer 10 - $5 Fifa Work Cup South Africa 2010 - $5 Grand Theft Auto V - $10 Injustice Gods Among Us - $5 L.A. Noire - $7 Left 4 Dead 2 - $11 Mafia II - $10 N3 Ninety-Nine Nights - $20 Nascar The Game 2011 - $9 NBA 2K12 - $5 NHL 10 - $3 NHL 14 - $6 Pocket Bike Racer - $5 Red Dead Redemption - $9 Saints Row - $10 Saints Row The Third - $5 Skate 3 - $6 Virtua Tennis 4 - $9
submitted by PhilsTriangle to GameSale [link] [comments]
Prices do not include shipping unless "shipped" is noted. Shipping is $4 for 1 game (1st Class in a Padded/Bubble Wrapped Envelope). An additional $1 per game (if weight exceeds 12 oz). I only accept PayPal via Friends & Family or Venmo F&F, however I do have 295+ confirmed transaction on this board.
Consoles + Accessories Gameboy Original (CIB; unused condition; even the batteries are unopened) - $300 shipped or BO GBA Wireless Adapter (AGB-015) - $20 shipped GBA to Gamecube Adapter (DOL-011) - $25 shipped Gameboy OEM Clam Shells (lot of 32) - $75 shipped Nintendo 3DS XL Pokemon X & Y Limited Edition Console + Luigis Mansion Dark Moon (loose) - $300 shipped Nintendo 64 OEM Gray Controller - $25 Nintendo 64 OEM Controller Pak (NUS-004) - $13 shipped Nintendo 64 GameShark - $25 Nintendo 64 Performance Memory Card - $10 shipped Nintendo 64 OEM Transfer Pak - $20 shipped Nintendo DSI (TMNT Decals) w/ Charger - $50 shipped Sega GameGear Super Wide Gear - $22 shipped Sega Master System w/ hookups + controller (small crack/break in console shell) $125 + shipping Super Nintendo Snes Jr Console (console only; tested) - $90 shipped
N64 Games 007 World is Not Enough (ex-rental) - $14 1080 Snowboarding - $11 Backstage Assault - $12 Blast Corps - $18 Excite Bike 64 - $15 Flying Dragon - $30 F-Zero X - $40 Jet Force Gemini - $13 Madden Football 64 - $5 Mario Kart 64 - $42 MRC Multi Championship Racing - $10 Mystical Ninja Featuring Goemon (ex-rental) - $85 Namco Museum 64 - $12 NBA Jam 99 - $11 NFL Blitz 2001 (torn label) - $18 NFL Quarterback Club 2000 - $5 Pokemon Snap - $20 Pokemon Stadium - $35 San Francisco Rush - $15 San Francisco Rush 2 - $18 Star Wars Episode 1 Racer - $10 Star Wars Rogue Squadron - $14 Super Mario 64 - $38 Superman - $15 Super Smash Brothers - $45 Magical Tetris Challenge - $25 The New Tetris - $30 Tetrisphere - $12 Tony Hawk Pro Skater - $12 Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 - $21 Top Gear Overdrive - $11 Toy Story 2 - $20 Turok Dinosaur Hunter - $12 Virtual Pool - $13 Waialae Country Club - $6
N64 Manuals/Strategy Guides Duke Nukem Manual - $10 Flying Dragon Manual - $40 Silicon Valley Space Station Manual - $50 Super Mario 64 Nintendo Power Player's Guide - $18
NES Games Adventure of Bayou Billy - $7 Anticipation - $5 Bad Street Brawler - $13 Battle Chess (CIB) - $32 Battle of Olympus - $16 Blades of Steel - $9 Defender 2 - $10 Dragon Warrior (CIB) - $70 Dragon Warrior II -$60 Dragon Warrior - III - $120 Dragon Warrior IV - $160 Excite Bike - $11 Exodus Ultima - $11 Faxanadu - $12 Fester's Quest - $10 Final Fantasy - $25 Gauntlet II (label wear) - $10 Golf - $3 Gotcha - $7 Ghost 'N Goblins - $15 Greg Norman's Golf Power - $14 Gyruss - $9 Hydlide - $9 Iron Sword - $8 Little League Baseball - $12 Magic of Scheherazade (CIB) - $65 Mach Rider - $8 Metal Gear (w/ worn box) - $80 Mike Tyson's Punch-Out - $40 Paperboy - $16 Pinball $7 The Punisher - $27 Rad Racer II - $7 Renegade - $10 RBI Baseball 2 - $10 Road Runner - $16 Spy Hunter - $6 Super Glove Ball - $7 Superman - $21 Super Mario Bros. - $15 Super Mario Bros./ Duck Hunt - $7 Super Mario Bros. 2 - $24 Super Off-Road - $12 Super Sprint (Tengen) - $7 Super Team Games - $9 Tetris - $12 Tetris 2 -$9 Tiger-Heli - $5 Tiny Toon Adventures 2 Trouble in Wackyland - $16 To The Earth - $5 Toobin (Tengen) - $20 Top Gun - $5 Top Player Tennis - $9 Vindicators - $10 Winter Games by Epyx - $6
NES Manuals Anticipation Manual - $5 Captain Skyhawk Manual - $5 Dance Aerobics Manual - $5 Friday the 13th Manual - $16 Golf - $5 Gotcha Manual - $7 (crease) Hogan's Alley Manual - $9 Iron Sword Wizards & Warriors II Manual - $7 Life Force Manual - $10 (some damage to an interior page) Sesame Street 1 2 3 - $7 Super Team Games - $7 Tiger Heli - $3 (water damage)
Gameboy (cart only) Batman - $24 Dr. Mario - $10 Star Wars - $11 Super Mario Land - (top of label is faded) - $20 Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 - $30
Gameboy Color (cart only) All-Star Baseball 2000 - $5 Mary Kate & Ashley's New Adventures - $4 Men in Black The Series - $7 Pacman Special Color Edition - $14 Rugrats the Movie - $7 Shrek Fairy Tale Freak Down - $7 Smurf's Nightmare - $10 Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 - $6 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 - $6 Yu- Gi- Oh Dark Duel Stories - $10
GBA (cart only) 007 Everything or Nothing - $7 A Series of Unfortunate Events -$4 Backyard Baseball - $5 Backyard Baseball 2006 - $7 Backyard Baseball 2007 - $7 Backyard Football - $8 Backyard Football 2006 - $4 Backyard Football 2007 - $5 Battleship / Risk / Clue - $6 Bratz - $4 Butt Ugly Martians: BKM Battles - $5 Cars - $5 Cartoon Network Speedway - $6 Catz - $5 Cho Makaimura R Super Ghouls N Ghost ( Japanese Import) - $95 Shipped Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2 - $4 Dogz - $6 Dora Explorer's Pirate Pig's Treasure - $4 Dragon Ball Z Supersonic Warriors - $20 Earth Worm Jim - $16 ESPN Great Outdoor Games Bass 2002 - $5 Fantastic 4 Flame On - $3 Finding Nemo - $5 Fire Pro Wrestling - $11 Frogger's Journey - $6 Hot Wheels Stunt Track Challenge - $3 Hot Wheels World Race - $5 Incredibles Rise of the Underminer - $6 Jimmy Neutron Attack of the Twonkies - $4 Jimmy Neutron Jet Fusion - $3 Lord of the Rings The Two Towers - $10 Lost Vikings - $25 Lizzie McGuire: On the Go - $3 Madagascar & Shrek 2 - $5 Madagascar Operation Penguin - $6 Madden 2005 - $5 Mario Kart Super Circuit (torn label) - $21 Monster Jam Maximum Destruction - $6 Namco Museum - $6 Oddworld Munch's Oddysee - $12 Pong Asterios Yar's Revenge - $4 Power Rangers Dino Thunder - $8 Quad Desert Furty - $3 Road Rash Jail Break - $10 Shark Tale - $4 Spirit Stallion of the Cimarron - $5 Star Wars Episode II Attack of the Clones - $5 Star Wars The New Droid Army - $5 Super Mario Advance (worn label) - $17 The Incredibles - $3 Top Gear GT Championship - $10 Yu-Gi-Oh Double Pack 2 - $13 Yu-Gi-Oh Eternal Duelist Soul - $12 Wario Land 4 - $45 WWF Road to Wrestlemania - $10
Nintendo 3DS (loose) Transformers Dark of the Moon Stealth Edition - $7
Nintendo DS Games (cart only unless noted) Avatar The Last Airbender - $13 Backyard Sports Rookie Rush - $4 Bionicle Matoran Adventures - $6 Club Penguin - $4 Happy Feet - $4 Mario Hoops 3 on 3 - $10 Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 - $10 Megaman Starforce Dragon - $95 shipped Metroid Hunters First Hunt - $6 Namco Museum DS - $8 Nintendo Dogs: Chihuahua & Friends - $6 Nintendo Dogs: Dachshund & Friends (CIB) - $10 Nintendo Dogs: Lab & Friends - $6 Ping Pals - $3 Plants vs Zombies - $10 Ratatouille - $5 Ridge Racer DS - $8 Shrek Superslam - $5 MySims - $5 MySims Kingdom - $5 Spectrobes - $5 Spiderman 3 - $8 Star Wars II The Original Trilogy (LEGO) - $6 Super Money Ball Touch & Roll - $6
Nintendo Gamecube Games (CIB unless noted) ATV Quad Power Racing 2 (missing manual) - $9 Cars - $8 ESPN Winter Sports 2002 - $6 Madden 2003 - $5 Madden 2005 - $6 Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2 - $8 Spongebob Squarepants: Lights Camera Pants - $16 WWE Day of Reckoning 2 (missing manual) - $25 WWE WrestleMania X8 (missing manual) - $12
Nintendo Wii Games (all have cases) All-Star Cheer Squad - $5 Cabelas Big Game Hunter 2010 (CIB) - $8 Call of Duty Black Ops (CIB) - $9 Carnival Games (CIB) - $6 Chuck E Cheese Party Games (Missing Manual) - $10 Country Dance (CIB) - $8 Deal or No Deal (CIB) - $5 Guitar Hero III Legends of Rock (CIB) - $19 Hannah Montana Spotlight World Tour (Sealed) - $8 Major League Baseball 2K12 (CIB) - $10 Thrillville Off The Rails (CIB) - $5 Wii Music - $6 Wii Sports (Disc & Manual) - $20 Wii Sports Resort (CIB) - $30
Playstation PS1 Games (CIB unless noted) 007 Tomorrow Never Dies - $7 A Bug's Life (GH) - $7 Action Bass - $6 Ball Breakers (sealed) - $10 Bass Championship - $7 Battle Arena Toshinden (GH) - $14 Bushido Blade - $36 Crash Bandicoot Warped (GH) - $13 Fighting Force - $20 Gran Turismo 2 (GH) - $12 Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone - $13 IHRA Drag Racing - $5 Inspector Gadget: Gadget's Crazy Maze - $8 MediEvil (missing manual) - $35 Missile Command - $6 Monster's Inc (GH) - $9 Nascar Heat (CIB) - $7 NBA Live 2000 - $8 NBA Shootout 98 - $9 NFL Blitz 2000 - $15 NHL 98 - $8 NHL Faceoff 97 (GH) - $5 Parasite Eve - $75 Parasite Eve (missing demo disk) - $60 PlayStation Underground Jampack Fall 2001 - $9 Q* Bert - $10 Resident Evil Director's Cut (GH) - $30 Rugrats Search for Reptar (GH) - $17 Rugrats in Paris: The Movie - $12 Soul Blade - $23 Star wars Dark Forces (unoriginal jewel case) - $13 Syphon Filter 2 (GH) - $10 Tecmo Super Bowl - $20 Tiger Woods 99 - $8 Tony Hawk Pro Skater (GH) - $10 Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 (GH) - $12 Triply Play 99 - $8 Who Wants to Be a Millionaire 2nd Edition - $8 World Cup 98 - $12
Playstation 2 PS2 Games (CIB unless noted) 007 Everything or Nothing - $7 007 Nightfire - $9 Ace Combat 4 Shattered Skies (GH) - $8 All-Star Baseball 2005 - $5 Ben 10 Protector of Earth - $9 Bully - $22 Clock Tower 3 - $70 Crash Bandicoot The Wrath of the Cortex (GH version) - $10 Crash Bandicoot The Wrath of the Cortex - $12 Devil May Cry (GH) - $7 Enter the Matrix - $10 Eragon - $6 Family Feud - $5 Final Fantasy X (GH) -$9 Frogger the Great Quest - $7 Godfather the Game - $14 God of War (2 Disc Set) - $12 Guitar Hero II - $7 Guitar Hero III Legends of Rock - $9 High Heat Major League Baseball 2004 - $5 Hobbit - $10 Karaoke Revolution Party - $8 Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol - $5 Madden 2003 - $5 Madden 2007 - $5 Madden 2008 - $5 Midway Arcade Treasures - $11 MLB 07 the Show - $5 MLB Slugfest 2004 - $11 Nascar 2001 - $5 Nascar Thunder 2003 - $7 NFL Blitz Pro - $10 Onimusha 3 Demon Siege - $21 Pinball Hall of Fame - $5 Pirates - The Legend of Black Kat - $12 Red Dead Revolver - $17 Rise of Kasai - $8 Silent Hill 4 The Room (Factory Sealed) - $325 shipped Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith - $9 SSX Tricky (missing manual) - $19 Summoner - $10 Teen Titans - $22 Theme Park Roller Coaster - $8 Time Crisis 3 - $23 Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell - $6 Ty the Tasmanian Tiger - $11 Warriors of Might & Magic - $10 Wheel of Fortune - $7 Yu-Gi-Oh Duelists of the Roses - $22
PS3 Band Hero - $6 Call of Duty Black Ops - $10 Call of Duty World at War -$11 Crysis 2 - $7 Fifa Soccer 11 - $5 Guitar Hero 5 - $11 MLB the Show 10 - $4 MLB the Show 11 - $4 NCAA Football 11 - $9 Sports Champions - $5
Sega 32X (all cart only) Primal Rage - $50 Virtua Fighter - $24 Virtua Racing - $20
Sega Dreamcast Games (disc & manual only***; do not have original cases unless noted CIB) Centipede - $7 Plasma Sword Night of Bilstein - $50 Psychic Force 2012 - $25 Ready 2 Rumble Boxing - $12 Rippin Riders - $5 Sega Bass Fishing - $8 Sega Rally 2 Championship - $12 Speed Devils - $15 Sword of Berserk: Gut's Rage (game only) - $65 Trick Style - $7 Zombie Revenge - $30
Sega Game Gear (cart only) Columns - $5 Sega Genesis (cart only unless noted) Aladdin (cart + manual) - $10 Boogerman A Pick & Flick Adventure (cart + manual) - $20 John Madden Football (cart + manual) - $20 Mortal Kombat (cart + manual) - $12 Prime Time NFL Football starring Deon Sanders (cart +manual) - $9 Shining Force (Case & Cart) - $75 Shining Force 2 (cart only) - $55 Sonic the Hedgehog (cart + manual) - $13 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (cart + manual) - $12 Sonic & Knuckles (cart only) - $25 Streets of Rage (cart only) - $22 X-Men (cart + manual) - $15
Sega Master System (Mostly CIB; ask me to check manual) Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars - $28 California Games (missing manual) - $20 Choplifter - $18 Ghostbusters - $25 Great Baseball - $10 Monopoly - $10 Parlour Games - $10 Pro Wrestling - $14 Rocky - $17 Space Harrier (missing manual) - $18 Shinobi (includes map; missing manual) - $30
Super Nintendo (SNES) Games (cart only) Aeroacrobat - $9 Best of the Best Championship Karate - $8 Brandish - $85 Brett Hull Hockey - $7 Bulls vs Blazers - $4 Capcom MVP Football - $7 Captain Commando - $175 Cliffhanger - $9 College Slam - $7 Donkey Kong Country - $20 ESPN Baseball Tonight - $4 Family Feud - Final Fantasy Mystic Quest - $17 Football Fury - $20 Harley's Humongous Adventure - $15 Magic Johnson's Super Slam Dunk - $6 Mickey's Ultimate Challenge - $12 MechWarrior 3050 - $17 Monopoly - $5 Ms. Pacman - $12 NCAA Basketball - $5 Nickelodeon GUTS - $16 Ninja Warrior - $130 NFL Football - $5 Pit Fighter - $8 Romance of the Three Kingdoms II - $20 Soldier's of Fortune (rental sticker on label) - $25 Stanley Cup Championship -$6 Street Fighter II - $15 Super Caesar's Palace - $4 Super High Impact - $5 Super Soccer - $9 Super Star Wars Return of the Jedi - $16 Terminator 2 Judgement Day - $15 Top Gear - $15
Xbox 360 (CIB) Assassin's Creed - $6 Battlefield Hardline Deluxe Edition - $10 Battlefield 3 Limited Edition - $6 Fifa Soccer 10 - $5 Fifa Work Cup South Africa 2010 - $5 Grand Theft Auto V - $10 Injustice Gods Among Us - $5 L.A. Noire - $7 Left 4 Dead 2 - $11 Mafia II - $10 N3 Ninety-Nine Nights - $20 Nascar The Game 2011 - $9 NBA 2K12 - $5 NHL 10 - $3 NHL 14 - $6 Pocket Bike Racer - $5 Red Dead Redemption - $9 Saints Row - $10 Saints Row The Third - $5 Skate 3 - $6 Virtua Tennis 4 - $9
2023.06.02 21:10 TheAdamist PBW: 6/2-6/4 Events
Friday 6/2
submitted by TheAdamist to phillycraftbeer [link] [comments]
- 14:00 khyber mini mardi gras featuring jester king
- 15:08 standard tap hog relay, new kids on the block featuring newer local breweries https://www.instagram.com/p/Cs34XJ-OjtL/
- 16:00 tradesmans pbw kickoff with half acre brewing http://www.phillylovesbeer.com/copy-of-submit
- 17:00 Bru Dewey brewing tap takeover https://untappd.com/v/bru-craft-and-wurst/634511/event/674194
- 17:00 Good Dog Yards brewing "game night"https://www.instagram.com/p/CsNHPk1NwvG/
- Khyber Hammer of glory with jester kinghttps://www.instagram.com/p/CsRV7wzOlRh/
- 17:00 monk's cafe foam brewers pop-uphttps://monkscafe.com/events
- Khyber kegs and eggs with mahou Founders, Avery, Mahou https://www.instagram.com/p/CsRV7wzOlRh/
- Lucky's (Queen Village) Locals only, burger booster dipa launch with neshaminy creek. beers from new ridge, wissahickon, love city, sir charles, second district, dock street, mainstay, sly fox, two locals.
- 11:00 standard tap cider brunch Cider http://www.phillylovesbeer.com/copy-of-submit
- 12:00 Brothers Kirschner Still waters brewfest $55 https://stillwatersbrewfest.com/
- 12:00/13:00 Cherry Street Pier Logjammin3 $80 - $150 Lager https://www.facebook.com/events/557407636527860/
- 12:00 Varga Block Party https://www.facebook.com/events/619550186456644/?ref=newsfeed
- 12:00 Interstate Drafthouse Family/Kids themed quizzo http://www.phillylovesbeer.com/
- 15:00 tradesmans tour de founders, bicycle raffle and founders brewing Founders http://www.phillylovesbeer.com/copy-of-submit
- Khyber Jammin After hours - Log Jammin After Party https://www.instagram.com/p/CsRV7wzOlRh/
- 19:30 fat lady brewing Strike A Pose! FLB kicks off pride month with a celebration of queer culture, a good old fashion lip sync smackdown! 6 contestants go head to head in a runway and lip-sync challenge. $20 https://www.instagram.com/p/CsRPbYcO5a_/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
- 9:00 victory rooftop yoga, ticketed $20 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rooftop-yoga-at-victory-brewing-philadelphia-tickets-631647052337
- Lucky's (Queen Village) (day 2) Locals only, burger booster dipa launch with neshaminy creek. beers from new ridge, wissahickon, love city, sir charles, second district, dock street, mainstay, sly fox, two locals.
- 11:00 standard tap stout brunch Stouts http://www.phillylovesbeer.com/copy-of-submit
- 12:00 Varga Mainstay & Slay... Drag brunch with mainstay and miss troy Mainstay https://www.facebook.com/events/568639015197066/?ref=newsfeed
- 14:00 attic brewery Food Truck Festival Attic
- 16:00 Bru total eclipse: 50/50 eclipse, black butte, abraxas imperial stouts https://untappd.com/v/bru-craft-and-wurst/634511/event/674195
- 14:00 interstate Cornhole tournament sponsored by boston beedogfish Boston Bee Dogfish Head http://www.phillylovesbeer.com/copy-of-submit
- 17:00 Cook & shaker - Other half mini takeover
- 18:00 Varga Murder Mystery Dinner w/sacred vice & carbon copy Sacred Vice & Carbon Copy https://www.facebook.com/events/1266338443989441/?ref=newsfeed
2023.06.02 20:17 Prestigious-String90 Live Music this weekend in Macon
Happy weekend. If you like listening to live music, there are plenty of noteworthy performances taking place in the next few days, including a Prince tribute band at The Society Garden and much more. Check out the full article on Middle Georgia Times for the full list and thanks for reading!
FRIDAY, JUNE 2
MISS KEELA AND SULTRÉ AT THE BOHEMIAN DEN (6 P.M.)
Miss Keela and Sultré will be performing at one of Downtown Macon’s most unique stores. There is no cover charge to see both of these talented rhythm and blues singers perform.
DJ CARLOS AT THE CRAZY BULL (8:30 P.M.)
The patrons on The Crazy Bull will be celebrating First Friday with music from DJ Carlos that kicks off at 8:30 p.m.
SOUTHBOUND MOJO AT WILD WING CAFE (9 P.M.)
Southbound Mojo is a band that plays popular country and rock and roll songs. They are based in Macon and can often be found performing at venues across Middle Georgia. Wild Wing Cafe does not have a cover charge.
BEN CHAPMAN AT GRANT’S LOUNGE (9 P.M.)
Ben Chapman is a self-taught guitarist who recently released a self-produced album titled “Amber Sound, Vol. 1”. His musical style has been described as a bit of the Black Crowes mixed with Willie Neslon and some The Allman Brothers Band. Doors open at 8 p.m. and the show starts at 9 p.m. General admission tickets to Ben Chapman’s performance cost $10.
TIER BLUE WITH FURY IN FEW AT JBA (9 P.M.)
Tier Blue (previously Hindsight) will perform along with special guests Fury in Few on JBA’s main stage on Friday night. Hindsight formed in 2016 in Macon as a 5 piece rock and roll band. Hindsight had many loyal fans in Middle Georgia as well as in Atlanta that will like what they hear at Tier Blue’s electrified performance. Tickets cost $10 in advance or $12 at the door.
SATURDAY, JUNE 3
PURPLE MADNESS WITH SPECIAL GUEST MORRIS DAY AND THE TIME AT THE SOCIETY GARDEN (8 P.M.)
Purple Madness is one of the best Prince Tribute bands around, at least according to several fans who have passionately convinced me this is the case. From the videos I have seen, I would have to agree that the performance is likely as close to a the real thing as possible. Purple Madness will be performing along with a Morris Day and the Time tribute band. Tickets to this show will likely sell out and cost around $25.
KALEIGH COURSON AT THE CRAZY BULL (8:30 P.M.)
Kaleigh Courson is a country music songwriter and singer from Macon who is now based out of Nashville. Courson’s musical style combines Southern rock and roll with country music and she has performed throughout the Southeast.
STREET BEANS AT GRANT’S LOUNGE (9 P.M.)
Street Beans is dedicated to bringing “high quality, low class, street music” to the masses. This uniquely named band is from faraway Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Doors open at 8 p.m. and the music starts at 9 p.m. Tickets to the Street Beans concert are $10.
DYLAN SCHNEIDER AT THE HUMMINGBIRD’S 18TH BIRTHDAY BASH (10 P.M.)
Dylan Schneider is an up-and-coming country music star who has been performing since the young age of 14. Schneider has been named as an artist to watch by the music streaming platform Pandora.
submitted by Prestigious-String90 to macon [link] [comments]
FRIDAY, JUNE 2
MISS KEELA AND SULTRÉ AT THE BOHEMIAN DEN (6 P.M.)
Miss Keela and Sultré will be performing at one of Downtown Macon’s most unique stores. There is no cover charge to see both of these talented rhythm and blues singers perform.
DJ CARLOS AT THE CRAZY BULL (8:30 P.M.)
The patrons on The Crazy Bull will be celebrating First Friday with music from DJ Carlos that kicks off at 8:30 p.m.
SOUTHBOUND MOJO AT WILD WING CAFE (9 P.M.)
Southbound Mojo is a band that plays popular country and rock and roll songs. They are based in Macon and can often be found performing at venues across Middle Georgia. Wild Wing Cafe does not have a cover charge.
BEN CHAPMAN AT GRANT’S LOUNGE (9 P.M.)
Ben Chapman is a self-taught guitarist who recently released a self-produced album titled “Amber Sound, Vol. 1”. His musical style has been described as a bit of the Black Crowes mixed with Willie Neslon and some The Allman Brothers Band. Doors open at 8 p.m. and the show starts at 9 p.m. General admission tickets to Ben Chapman’s performance cost $10.
TIER BLUE WITH FURY IN FEW AT JBA (9 P.M.)
Tier Blue (previously Hindsight) will perform along with special guests Fury in Few on JBA’s main stage on Friday night. Hindsight formed in 2016 in Macon as a 5 piece rock and roll band. Hindsight had many loyal fans in Middle Georgia as well as in Atlanta that will like what they hear at Tier Blue’s electrified performance. Tickets cost $10 in advance or $12 at the door.
SATURDAY, JUNE 3
PURPLE MADNESS WITH SPECIAL GUEST MORRIS DAY AND THE TIME AT THE SOCIETY GARDEN (8 P.M.)
Purple Madness is one of the best Prince Tribute bands around, at least according to several fans who have passionately convinced me this is the case. From the videos I have seen, I would have to agree that the performance is likely as close to a the real thing as possible. Purple Madness will be performing along with a Morris Day and the Time tribute band. Tickets to this show will likely sell out and cost around $25.
KALEIGH COURSON AT THE CRAZY BULL (8:30 P.M.)
Kaleigh Courson is a country music songwriter and singer from Macon who is now based out of Nashville. Courson’s musical style combines Southern rock and roll with country music and she has performed throughout the Southeast.
STREET BEANS AT GRANT’S LOUNGE (9 P.M.)
Street Beans is dedicated to bringing “high quality, low class, street music” to the masses. This uniquely named band is from faraway Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Doors open at 8 p.m. and the music starts at 9 p.m. Tickets to the Street Beans concert are $10.
DYLAN SCHNEIDER AT THE HUMMINGBIRD’S 18TH BIRTHDAY BASH (10 P.M.)
Dylan Schneider is an up-and-coming country music star who has been performing since the young age of 14. Schneider has been named as an artist to watch by the music streaming platform Pandora.
2023.06.02 19:57 Prestigious-String90 Live Music in Macon and Middle Georgia this weekend
Happy weekend. If you like listening to live music, there are plenty of noteworthy performances taking place in the next few days, including a Prince tribute band at The Society Garden and much more. Check out the full article on Middle Georgia Times for the full list and thanks for reading!
FRIDAY, JUNE 2
MISS KEELA AND SULTRÉ AT THE BOHEMIAN DEN (6 P.M.)
Miss Keela and Sultré will be performing at one of Downtown Macon’s most unique stores. There is no cover charge to see both of these talented rhythm and blues singers perform.
MARK JOHNSON AT PATIO 901 IN PERRY (7 P.M.)
Mark Johnson will perform a solo acoustic set this Friday evening at Patio 901. Patio 901 is an outdoor venue in Perry that serves limited food and plenty of adult beverages.
DJ CARLOS AT THE CRAZY BULL (8:30 P.M.)
The patrons on The Crazy Bull will be celebrating First Friday with music from DJ Carlos that kicks off at 8:30 p.m.
SOUTHBOUND MOJO AT WILD WING CAFE IN MACON (9 P.M.)
Southbound Mojo is a band that plays popular country and rock and roll songs. They are based in Macon and can often be found performing at venues across Middle Georgia. Wild Wing Cafe does not have a cover charge.
BEN CHAPMAN AT GRANT’S LOUNGE (9 P.M.)
Ben Chapman is a self-taught guitarist who recently released a self-produced album titled “Amber Sound, Vol. 1”. His musical style has been described as a bit of the Black Crowes mixed with Willie Neslon and some The Allman Brothers Band. Doors open at 8 p.m. and the show starts at 9 p.m. General admission tickets to Ben Chapman’s performance cost $10.
TIER BLUE WITH FURY IN FEW AT JBA (9 P.M.)
Tier Blue (previously Hindsight) will perform along with special guests Fury in Few on JBA’s main stage on Friday night. Hindsight formed in 2016 in Macon as a 5 piece rock and roll band. Hindsight had many loyal fans in Middle Georgia as well as in Atlanta that will like what they hear at Tier Blue’s electrified performance. Tickets cost $10 in advance or $12 at the door.
SATURDAY, JUNE 3
TAYLOR ORTIZ AT JALAPEÑOS CANTINA IN GRAY (7 P.M.)
Macon’s genre blending musician Taylor Ortiz will perform at Jalapeños Cantina Saturday evening. Jalapeños Cantina does not have a cover charge.
FREE LANCE RUCKUS AT TAYLOR’S COVE IN MILLEDGEVILLE (7 P.M.)
Free Lance Ruckus is a very busy alternative Americana rock band from Middle Georgia who perform covers and original songs. Free Lance Ruckus will be performing Saturday evening at the picturesque Taylor’s Cove on Lake Sinclair.
PURPLE MADNESS WITH SPECIAL GUEST MORRIS DAY AND THE TIME AT THE SOCIETY GARDEN (8 P.M.)
Purple Madness is one of the best Prince Tribute bands around, at least according to several fans who have passionately convinced me this is the case. From the videos I have seen, I would have to agree that the performance is likely as close to a the real thing as possible. Purple Madness will be performing along with a Morris Day and the Time tribute band. Tickets to this show will likely sell out and cost around $25.
KALEIGH COURSON AT THE CRAZY BULL (8:30 P.M.)
Kaleigh Courson is a country music songwriter and singer from Macon who is now based out of Nashville. Courson’s musical style combines Southern rock and roll with country music and she has performed throughout the Southeast.
STREET BEANS AT GRANT’S LOUNGE (9 P.M.)
Street Beans is dedicated to bringing “high quality, low class, street music” to the masses. This uniquely named band is from faraway Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Doors open at 8 p.m. and the music starts at 9 p.m. Tickets to the Street Beans concert are $10.
DYLAN SCHNEIDER AT THE HUMMINGBIRD’S 18TH BIRTHDAY BASH (10 P.M.)
Dylan Schneider is an up-and-coming country music star who has been performing since the young age of 14. Schneider has been named as an artist to watch by the music streaming platform Pandora.
submitted by Prestigious-String90 to MiddleGeorgiaTimes [link] [comments]
FRIDAY, JUNE 2
MISS KEELA AND SULTRÉ AT THE BOHEMIAN DEN (6 P.M.)
Miss Keela and Sultré will be performing at one of Downtown Macon’s most unique stores. There is no cover charge to see both of these talented rhythm and blues singers perform.
MARK JOHNSON AT PATIO 901 IN PERRY (7 P.M.)
Mark Johnson will perform a solo acoustic set this Friday evening at Patio 901. Patio 901 is an outdoor venue in Perry that serves limited food and plenty of adult beverages.
DJ CARLOS AT THE CRAZY BULL (8:30 P.M.)
The patrons on The Crazy Bull will be celebrating First Friday with music from DJ Carlos that kicks off at 8:30 p.m.
SOUTHBOUND MOJO AT WILD WING CAFE IN MACON (9 P.M.)
Southbound Mojo is a band that plays popular country and rock and roll songs. They are based in Macon and can often be found performing at venues across Middle Georgia. Wild Wing Cafe does not have a cover charge.
BEN CHAPMAN AT GRANT’S LOUNGE (9 P.M.)
Ben Chapman is a self-taught guitarist who recently released a self-produced album titled “Amber Sound, Vol. 1”. His musical style has been described as a bit of the Black Crowes mixed with Willie Neslon and some The Allman Brothers Band. Doors open at 8 p.m. and the show starts at 9 p.m. General admission tickets to Ben Chapman’s performance cost $10.
TIER BLUE WITH FURY IN FEW AT JBA (9 P.M.)
Tier Blue (previously Hindsight) will perform along with special guests Fury in Few on JBA’s main stage on Friday night. Hindsight formed in 2016 in Macon as a 5 piece rock and roll band. Hindsight had many loyal fans in Middle Georgia as well as in Atlanta that will like what they hear at Tier Blue’s electrified performance. Tickets cost $10 in advance or $12 at the door.
SATURDAY, JUNE 3
TAYLOR ORTIZ AT JALAPEÑOS CANTINA IN GRAY (7 P.M.)
Macon’s genre blending musician Taylor Ortiz will perform at Jalapeños Cantina Saturday evening. Jalapeños Cantina does not have a cover charge.
FREE LANCE RUCKUS AT TAYLOR’S COVE IN MILLEDGEVILLE (7 P.M.)
Free Lance Ruckus is a very busy alternative Americana rock band from Middle Georgia who perform covers and original songs. Free Lance Ruckus will be performing Saturday evening at the picturesque Taylor’s Cove on Lake Sinclair.
PURPLE MADNESS WITH SPECIAL GUEST MORRIS DAY AND THE TIME AT THE SOCIETY GARDEN (8 P.M.)
Purple Madness is one of the best Prince Tribute bands around, at least according to several fans who have passionately convinced me this is the case. From the videos I have seen, I would have to agree that the performance is likely as close to a the real thing as possible. Purple Madness will be performing along with a Morris Day and the Time tribute band. Tickets to this show will likely sell out and cost around $25.
KALEIGH COURSON AT THE CRAZY BULL (8:30 P.M.)
Kaleigh Courson is a country music songwriter and singer from Macon who is now based out of Nashville. Courson’s musical style combines Southern rock and roll with country music and she has performed throughout the Southeast.
STREET BEANS AT GRANT’S LOUNGE (9 P.M.)
Street Beans is dedicated to bringing “high quality, low class, street music” to the masses. This uniquely named band is from faraway Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Doors open at 8 p.m. and the music starts at 9 p.m. Tickets to the Street Beans concert are $10.
DYLAN SCHNEIDER AT THE HUMMINGBIRD’S 18TH BIRTHDAY BASH (10 P.M.)
Dylan Schneider is an up-and-coming country music star who has been performing since the young age of 14. Schneider has been named as an artist to watch by the music streaming platform Pandora.
2023.06.02 19:48 Dad1903 DWT158 (June 3rd 2023)
 | Testing testing; check one two – DWT is live once again on Reddit! submitted by Dad1903 to DadsWeeklyTreble [link] [comments] Terrific, terrific stuff THE CONTENTS ------------------------
I - THE WISDOM ------------------------Welcome back hombres ✌️. Despite successes away from the place, May has been awash with the failing colour of red alas... every week a fucking loss-maker - ah no. Was in keeping with the month itself tbf... just ne'er got fucking going: weather fairly abject, meaning the usual sense of arrival of all sorts of shite has been stuttered and frustrating. June isnae usually summat you can argue with... fine, there'll be the odd spell that says, 'This isnae fucking good enough', but usually, prayers are answered with a wee spot of terrific for a fair bitty 👍. So - at the very fucking least - we're hoping for a bit of yon ; doesnae need to be jackpots every fucking week (here - wouldnae complain sure ✌️), but at least summat that lets Dad know, 'you havenae been forgotten.' Tbf - Dad has been defiantly optimistic in terms of selections made... still pumping out the crazy bastard 30-plussers to one, when maybe a smidge more reservedness would have seen us at least recoup a cheeky Double or two. Perhaps the hoopla surrounding returning to the Hat, resulted in overstretch... afore you know it, the face is drenched in egg being slowly diluted by the tears of regret. The timing couldnae be worse when staring at the stats... lucrativity hasnae exactly dripped freely from June 'n' July in times past - neither month has made a profit in the entire history of DWT... hoo mama. So what we're looking at here, is a Ship devoid of owt inspiring arriving in a port that screams danger... barely a cunt gives a fucking about health 'n' safety etc; a fucking shitshow basically. But here - if Dad has been owt in the past, it's a cunt who sees possibility where others see faeces - Dad'll be planting flowers whilst others'll be depressing the flush mechanism. After a couple months of nurturing, Dad could well be standing behind his wee counter, offering terrific tips on how best to make sure the buds blossom in the most delightful of ways 🌼. Let's see what fucking happens 🙌*** Always acknowledge the challenges: that's some sage advice people ✌️. Too oft, cunts'll ignore what potentially could cause bother at some staged - then it happens and it's frustration a-fucking-plenty. Here - I'm no saying Dad's the fucking Voice of How To or owt - but for sure, with experiences had, one can safely say to cunts, shite akin to yon . 'If only' is as frustrating a musing as there is; if only I'd said yes, or if only I'd gone... regret haunts more than you'd think. If it doesnae - then it's more just a wondering of what may have been. Dad's got regrets - hoo mama... but in truth, manys of these 'regrets' are just that: wonderings about what would have happened, rather than it being a point whereby Dad made a cunt of it. Sure sure - in the grand scheme, manys a cunt would suggest Dad HAS made a cunt of pish... but that's purely based on their own prerogatives - Dad can honestly say that there's a healthy slice of Cock-a-hoop Cake served up most days. The annoyances or grievances or irritations? Let me let yous into the fucking secret: those fucking things exist regardless. Even cunts with more cash than Bill Gates have plenty pish that causes them to rend their garment or struggle for shut eye at night-time - the trick is knowing and dealing. Shite like this keeps you humble - keeps you placid. Too much of your own preference turns a cunt into a right arrogant patronising fuckwit - and no cunt should want that. No to say there isnae a few... but fuck 'em. Gaze back into their not-too-distant past, you'll find summat that can be sliced open and dealt with - and alls of a fucking sudden, they're attending charity dos and volunteering down the food shelter. It's tough as fuck to allow a bitty extra rope with some pricks - but those with the mental strength to do it, contribute huge amounts of terrific to the world... just manys a cunt wouldnae have the foggiest it's occurred. Which tbf - suits the humble, placid nature of the heroes doing such good deeds. Edge yourself towards this kind of methodology - you'll feel a good deal better for it, probably ✌️ *** As is oft the case, this stanza - The Third Stanza - is being written Friday, so as to maximise the amount of time available to the Fodder Receptors. And this week, that approach hath paid off people... great fucking news Dad got the day 🙌. Plodding away Dad has, a new occupation making sure at least a chunk of the day is spent being productive 🤘. To be fair, Dad is rarely kicking his wee heels for long - occupation or no - such is the vigour with which Dad approaches life 👊. Always a project to be getting on with... if there isnae, summat is up. To Dads Mind: There ne'er an excuse to no have summat ongoing. Sure - maybes a cunt or two'll perk up and suggest poor unfortunates who cannae walk or whatever... what about them Dad? A pathetic sentiment that sure - there's manys a thing a cunt who cannae walk can do to improve the quality of their day-to-day; certainly wouldnae need a pair of working legs to do umpteen terrific things, amongst them - DWT itself 😎. Just to clarify those who cannae walk - feel free to do summat akin to DWT, but dinnae just do DWT - that'd be some sorry shite and no fucking mistake - hoo mama. The point is, if you're aware, there should be summat of substance demanding part of your day or week or whatever. Dad worked like a carthorse for manys a year - and for sure, pish was sacrificed in terms of more self-indulgent activity... lots of hobbies enjoyed in times gone by, were shelved in favour of career-evolution. Ultimately - Dad shouldnae have... but if I hadnae, I wouldnae be here the now doing all this bollocks - so it is what it is. It filled a big chunk of life, taught Dad a bunch, introduced Dad to a load of pish... without the skills gleaned and honed - we wouldnae be here. So an important note about sticking in and no writing yourself off can be extracted... just because one, a couple - or even a set - of cunts say you're pish, doesnae mean every cunt will. Terrific cunts sometimes spring from unexpected places, which is largely down to them being stifled by bastards. And for sure - that could be you by fuck 🙌 II - THE FINANCIALS ------------------------There was a sense of optimism come Mays beginning... finally the struggle towards prosperity would become apparent. Then reality smashed Dad in the fucking face with a bastard cricket baton and left him confused and alone with fuck all cash. Ah no. So instead we gaze June-wards - a time we all hope I'm sure, where Dad swaps the water for fresh juice; the cardboard for sizzling sausage. History tells us that's unlikely - but if wt hath been learnt, it's ne'er expect the expected when shite is as fucked up as all of this pish - hoo mama. Reddit Running Total (RRT) currently sits at -£757.64. Ah no. III - The DWT Statistic Collection ------------------------Welcome to The DWT Statistic Collection 🙌
IV - THE FUNDAMENTALS ------------------------I'm not promoting it in the slightest to be put on; it's purely to be completely transparent about where the beans I'm spilling are being pushed towards – this is after all, a Life Experiment: Can a useless old arsehole prosper under strict weekly gambling conditions? Word of warning; prior to this – not really. The sticky clarifies - but just to reiterate - here's the format...DRS20 is Dads Recommended Spend: £20. This is a lot of money granted - and I would encourage absolute apprehension if this sort of money represents life altering for you personally if zero is returned. I’m lucky enough to be able to afford to lose £20 in a week; but confess that if I got no return for say, 20 weeks in a row - I would likely be without something I value (a streaming service or summat). I don’t take it lightly. Four bets are placed with this outlay: a £5 Treble (DWT) and three £5 Doubles. Generally if two come up, the bet is covered (up or down £2 or so). As of DWT100 - we here at DWT now splash out an additional 15 bangers on the Singles. Regardless - DRS20 remains. I would NEVER recommend spending yet more on this if you have been a regular DRS20 utiliser... if owt - spend less 👍. My gambling prowess is pretty much a joke; so whilst I advertise, I in no way qualify them as a given. I’m a prick with plenty bollocks to spout is all. This is how I frame it. IV - THE MAIN EVENT ------------------------So here it is - the one that drags its damaged body on broken legs in a desperate attempt to show it still has enough left to actaully get summat over the fucking line: It's DWT158 https://i.redd.it/hqg5d2fpnn3b1.gif
15.17/1 we get for this selection – terrific 😎 Over 37’s last week; over 15's this week - after all the fucking failings, particularly yon couple of back-to-fucking-backing Whitewashes there - Dads gone tighter, in order to make sure at least some sort of return is garnered. Nowt is for defo obviously... but to Dads Eyes - there's a combo in play here, that'll make sure Dads Pockets arenae home to only fluff and debris. No to mention the last few weeks are yearning hard for summat to holler about; Dad's hoping the Jackpot is won so as to counter the big pile of shite that has gathered. Let's see what fucking happens 🙌 DWT158 - The Doubles
VI - THE REASONINGS ------------------------LENS kick us off - the form team in the division: 9 wins from 10.... outstanding 🙌. The one defeat in that spell happened to be to PSG alas... cost them a shot at fighting for the Ligue 1 Title here the day - ah no. Still - a precedent hath been set... and it willnae be useless arseholes akin to Auxerre who ruin their 6-game unbeaten run - themselves free of victory in the same stretch. Fighting for survival of course... and tbf - that isnae the best when you've hungry devastating heroes to conquer. Fucked they'll get and deservedly so probably 🤘*** LORIENT up next - a chance to consolidate their 10th spot finish with victory here; given it's fellow DWT Inclusion Reims that are behind them, who'll obviously defo win - it's a necessity they do the beeswax here, in order to achieve said feat. No be easy sure - strasbourg are on a 4-game unbeaten run, a run that's seen them achieve safety with aplomb. That objective achieved - it's a simple case of laying down the toolbox and letting Lorient have their way with them. Cheers Strasbourg son 👍 *** STADE REIMS round off the trio - and their season - at the safe haven of home, hoping to further increase the light visible between themselves and visitors Montpellier. 2 defeats and a draw last three - worth pointing out, that they had a man sent off in both defeats. No to say they were on fire afore that... just 2 victories in their last 9 - hoo mama. Still - Montpellier arenae exactly setting pish alight themselves, losing 2 of their last four, with a draw and a win taking the sting away somewhat. They'll no be arsed given the haplessness, meaning a terrific chance for our heroes to exemplify their slicker side 👍 VII - THE EPILOGUE ------------------------So there we have it – nostalgia, hope and determination all apparent in equal measure. This time we do it right; wind in the sails – and off across the ocean in search of new worlds. A powerful pirate ship hunting high and low for treasures. Raise the fucking flag - the Good Ship DWT is back and ready to provide for its crew. If you play; play safe. DRS20 as always people. Frustration at the amount won, is better than the heartache at the amount lost.https://preview.redd.it/r2bb3vyqnn3b1.jpg?width=630&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0a3b945b213e0424e6b11b8d991fad89111d3f34 |
2023.06.02 17:06 ohbutlike Behind My Perfect
I had never fallen in love before; the idea disgusted me. But when I first saw her, I found out that mythical butterflies do, in fact, flutter in one’s belly. I always thought that our society just had an unhealthy relationship with soda pop, but there they were.
She was beautiful! She wasn’t the cookie-cutter beauty that your fashion magazine manufactures; her eyes twinkled naturally like store-bought moissanite. Her bushy, deep dark eyebrows looked like they'd been shampooed with brand-name self-care products. It wasn’t just her pink glazed donut lips or her flowy dark hair that stole my heart; it was her essence. She glowed like those aftermarket LED headlights on my nightly drive back home. And those eyes… those dreamy eyes!
I started cleaning on Friday afternoon as soon as I got home from work. Charlene, my desk mate, had misplaced my favorite pen and became gradually paler as she silently watched me erupt into a volcano without having to pay a subscription fee. It was given to me by my late father, a stickler for rules who failed his “how to show empathy” class up until the very last second of his miserable life. He stared hauntingly into my eyes as he drew his last breath. Her eyes were different; they smiled when she did and rolled when we bantered that one time I cornered her in our local convenience store. She was buying tampons, and I snuck behind and whispered, “bloody murder!” She was startled at first, jumped even, but her face softened as her glassy green eyes laid on me. I felt those damn butterflies again, practicing rain dancing as my heart exploded in my chest. She joked around that she was getting them as earplugs to drown out her noisy neighbor. I told her a shovel would work just as well. It was courting at its finest.
I woke up early on Saturday with the morning light and gingerly started cleaning the kitchen floor. Armed with my favorite dirty cleaning rag, I got down on my knees and found every nook and every cranny. My momma called me on her new iPhone to remind me about my aunt Vicky’s birthday later that day. She was upset that I wasn’t coming. I told her that I had plans with a mortician and whether I should put in a good word for her, but she didn’t find that funny one bit, so she lashed out like I knew she would. Her yell pierced through the phone like a messy SWAT raid, and after that, I heard as much as I cared to listen. She said something about how I always find a way to disappoint her. She reminded me of how that mouth of mine caused me to lose my previous job. Somehow it always comes back to money with her, and it used to make me cry, but this is her insecurity — not mine. Ever since I could remember, she was always keeping face around her more successful older sister who married into wealth. She dragged me to beauty pageants as early as five, and then to modeling castings after that, but I guess I was not good enough to be her golden egg.
The second time I officially met her was in the barely maintained suicidal elevator of our building complex. The maintenance date on the sticker had long expired, and every time those doors closed, it truly was a gamble of whether my laziness was worth the odds of me falling to my death in there. She had forgotten about me and our mesmerizing tampon talk at the nearby store, but I took no time to remind her of our lovely first encounter. “Ah!” she said, like a cliched mad scientist who had just solved aging, pointing an accusatory finger to the heavens. I asked her if she "took care" of her neighbor and extended her a wink. She pouted her juicy lips and started thinking for a bit while I mind surfed down her long, thick dark hair. Then suddenly, I saw excitement and joy building up inside of her and exploding out her bright, hypnotizing eyes. She tried to contain it and with a muffled chuckle, she said, "I won't say a thing, but don't you go looking in the rubbish downstairs!" Somehow, the conversation turned to famous serial killers and crime shows, so I did the thing and asked her to watch some series together sometimes.
The first time we did was last Saturday. I out-thrifted my local thrift stores and was fashionably late. She greeted me in sweatpants that failed to conceal the contour of her hips, and she coughed quite a bit before telling me that I smelled nice. I raided my momma's vanity earlier that day for brand-name perfumes and accessories. She always has the latest stuff. I told myself that I wouldn't overdo it, but I overdid it. She took a good look at me as I was heading out, fixed my hair, and asked, "Who's the lucky man?"
My gorgeous neighbor lived in apartment 31B, the one with the off-red door, and it was disgustingly perfect. I thought that since we lived in the same building complex, her place wouldn't be so different from mine, but it was. I don't think it was even the layout that made it better. It was the furniture arrangement, the attention to detail as if she had her masters in color theory. It was her. She gave me the tour, and I was amazed at how every room looked like someone's pinned Pinterest board. The whole place looked staged for viewing, but the way she flowed through her space made me realize that this was her norm. It was so clean that I started to wonder if she did kill her now eerily quiet neighbor. It wasn't until we sat down on the couch together, and she wrapped us in her silky vanilla blanket, that my anxiety flew away. But those damn butterflies persisted. I sat beside her, far enough to be cold but close enough to fill my fantasies and ask myself what this was. It came as no surprise, then, that we had an awkward goodbye when it was all over, and I stood at her door not knowing what to say or do. She held onto the door and said, "Next Saturday then?"
By the time Saturday evening arrived, it had been hours of me mindlessly cleaning and endlessly rearranging my furnitures around. The same anxiety that I felt at her place came back raging, and no amount of YouTube or Pinterest made me feel any better. But then, there came a knocking at the door. I wasn't expecting her this early, so naturally, I freaked out like a bomb had gone off in my head, and I started running all over the place, getting dressed like a chicken with its head cut off. I smeared perfume all over my body and opened the door with unrepentant puffy messy hair. It was momma. She looked fancy. She was rocking this beautiful light blue cocktail dress with cape sleeves. It screamed, "I overpaid for this dress”, and I wanted to puke—I loved it!' She gave me this 'check me out' look before she pranced in without any invitation. She saw how tired I looked and asked me if I ate anything, but she must have noticed the change in my apartment and didn't bother to let me answer. There was this glimmer in her eyes when she asked, 'Well, well, you smell nice! Who's coming over?'"
I swear I'm better than this, but in that moment of pure exhaustion, I just let my guard down and told her the truth—that I was having a girlfriend over to watch a show. I knew instantly that I'd messed up as soon as the words left my mouth. Her eyes blinked at a thousand miles per hour, like she was looking for the least hurtful way to explode, but there's nothing kind about her outbursts. She yelled, "You're missing out on your aunt's birthday to watch a show with a friend??" I watched her face get redder with anger and felt tears at the ready, edging the corner of my puffy eyes, and I felt the kind of muffled anger that a 30-year-old adult woman would have to explain to her mother what adult choices made her happy, but I couldn't say anything. No matter how angry I was, I couldn't tell her to just let me be. I let out a weak but defiant "Yeah?" And she unleashed on me about just how much she was disappointed in me. She slammed me about how little I cared for my family, so I yelled back at her, saying that I didn't care about a who's who party where we must rent out a fancy dress to be welcomed. "I bought this damn dress!" she yelled in pure anger, oblivious to the point that I was making. I retorted that she was doing a good job hiding the price tag to return it later then, and that's when the palm of her hand found my face. I stumbled onto the ground, and in an attempt to regain balance, I held onto the big standing mirror behind me and dragged it to the floor with me.
I sat on the floor and finally justified crying; a bit of blood painted my right hand. Her left hand covering her mouth, she fumbled a reactionary apology and made her way to the door avoiding the pieces of glass on the floor. She stumbled out in tears just as my green-eyed neighbor was about to knock. She looked back at my fleeing mother in shock and ran to the kitchen to get me a wet paper towel. When she finally joined me on the floor, my face had turned red, but my tears had dried. It was then that I saw this piece of broken mirror shattered perfectly in half, but not separated. You could see the crack going all the way down.
The reflection was of both of us, each of us on different sides of the crack. She was perfect. I would have written a sonnet from the cadence of her hips. I would have written a haiku on her lips, but we were from different worlds, and I was tired of expectations. I was tired of having to validate what my happiness should look like.
So, I reached in.
submitted by ohbutlike to Controlfreak [link] [comments]
She was beautiful! She wasn’t the cookie-cutter beauty that your fashion magazine manufactures; her eyes twinkled naturally like store-bought moissanite. Her bushy, deep dark eyebrows looked like they'd been shampooed with brand-name self-care products. It wasn’t just her pink glazed donut lips or her flowy dark hair that stole my heart; it was her essence. She glowed like those aftermarket LED headlights on my nightly drive back home. And those eyes… those dreamy eyes!
I started cleaning on Friday afternoon as soon as I got home from work. Charlene, my desk mate, had misplaced my favorite pen and became gradually paler as she silently watched me erupt into a volcano without having to pay a subscription fee. It was given to me by my late father, a stickler for rules who failed his “how to show empathy” class up until the very last second of his miserable life. He stared hauntingly into my eyes as he drew his last breath. Her eyes were different; they smiled when she did and rolled when we bantered that one time I cornered her in our local convenience store. She was buying tampons, and I snuck behind and whispered, “bloody murder!” She was startled at first, jumped even, but her face softened as her glassy green eyes laid on me. I felt those damn butterflies again, practicing rain dancing as my heart exploded in my chest. She joked around that she was getting them as earplugs to drown out her noisy neighbor. I told her a shovel would work just as well. It was courting at its finest.
I woke up early on Saturday with the morning light and gingerly started cleaning the kitchen floor. Armed with my favorite dirty cleaning rag, I got down on my knees and found every nook and every cranny. My momma called me on her new iPhone to remind me about my aunt Vicky’s birthday later that day. She was upset that I wasn’t coming. I told her that I had plans with a mortician and whether I should put in a good word for her, but she didn’t find that funny one bit, so she lashed out like I knew she would. Her yell pierced through the phone like a messy SWAT raid, and after that, I heard as much as I cared to listen. She said something about how I always find a way to disappoint her. She reminded me of how that mouth of mine caused me to lose my previous job. Somehow it always comes back to money with her, and it used to make me cry, but this is her insecurity — not mine. Ever since I could remember, she was always keeping face around her more successful older sister who married into wealth. She dragged me to beauty pageants as early as five, and then to modeling castings after that, but I guess I was not good enough to be her golden egg.
The second time I officially met her was in the barely maintained suicidal elevator of our building complex. The maintenance date on the sticker had long expired, and every time those doors closed, it truly was a gamble of whether my laziness was worth the odds of me falling to my death in there. She had forgotten about me and our mesmerizing tampon talk at the nearby store, but I took no time to remind her of our lovely first encounter. “Ah!” she said, like a cliched mad scientist who had just solved aging, pointing an accusatory finger to the heavens. I asked her if she "took care" of her neighbor and extended her a wink. She pouted her juicy lips and started thinking for a bit while I mind surfed down her long, thick dark hair. Then suddenly, I saw excitement and joy building up inside of her and exploding out her bright, hypnotizing eyes. She tried to contain it and with a muffled chuckle, she said, "I won't say a thing, but don't you go looking in the rubbish downstairs!" Somehow, the conversation turned to famous serial killers and crime shows, so I did the thing and asked her to watch some series together sometimes.
The first time we did was last Saturday. I out-thrifted my local thrift stores and was fashionably late. She greeted me in sweatpants that failed to conceal the contour of her hips, and she coughed quite a bit before telling me that I smelled nice. I raided my momma's vanity earlier that day for brand-name perfumes and accessories. She always has the latest stuff. I told myself that I wouldn't overdo it, but I overdid it. She took a good look at me as I was heading out, fixed my hair, and asked, "Who's the lucky man?"
My gorgeous neighbor lived in apartment 31B, the one with the off-red door, and it was disgustingly perfect. I thought that since we lived in the same building complex, her place wouldn't be so different from mine, but it was. I don't think it was even the layout that made it better. It was the furniture arrangement, the attention to detail as if she had her masters in color theory. It was her. She gave me the tour, and I was amazed at how every room looked like someone's pinned Pinterest board. The whole place looked staged for viewing, but the way she flowed through her space made me realize that this was her norm. It was so clean that I started to wonder if she did kill her now eerily quiet neighbor. It wasn't until we sat down on the couch together, and she wrapped us in her silky vanilla blanket, that my anxiety flew away. But those damn butterflies persisted. I sat beside her, far enough to be cold but close enough to fill my fantasies and ask myself what this was. It came as no surprise, then, that we had an awkward goodbye when it was all over, and I stood at her door not knowing what to say or do. She held onto the door and said, "Next Saturday then?"
By the time Saturday evening arrived, it had been hours of me mindlessly cleaning and endlessly rearranging my furnitures around. The same anxiety that I felt at her place came back raging, and no amount of YouTube or Pinterest made me feel any better. But then, there came a knocking at the door. I wasn't expecting her this early, so naturally, I freaked out like a bomb had gone off in my head, and I started running all over the place, getting dressed like a chicken with its head cut off. I smeared perfume all over my body and opened the door with unrepentant puffy messy hair. It was momma. She looked fancy. She was rocking this beautiful light blue cocktail dress with cape sleeves. It screamed, "I overpaid for this dress”, and I wanted to puke—I loved it!' She gave me this 'check me out' look before she pranced in without any invitation. She saw how tired I looked and asked me if I ate anything, but she must have noticed the change in my apartment and didn't bother to let me answer. There was this glimmer in her eyes when she asked, 'Well, well, you smell nice! Who's coming over?'"
I swear I'm better than this, but in that moment of pure exhaustion, I just let my guard down and told her the truth—that I was having a girlfriend over to watch a show. I knew instantly that I'd messed up as soon as the words left my mouth. Her eyes blinked at a thousand miles per hour, like she was looking for the least hurtful way to explode, but there's nothing kind about her outbursts. She yelled, "You're missing out on your aunt's birthday to watch a show with a friend??" I watched her face get redder with anger and felt tears at the ready, edging the corner of my puffy eyes, and I felt the kind of muffled anger that a 30-year-old adult woman would have to explain to her mother what adult choices made her happy, but I couldn't say anything. No matter how angry I was, I couldn't tell her to just let me be. I let out a weak but defiant "Yeah?" And she unleashed on me about just how much she was disappointed in me. She slammed me about how little I cared for my family, so I yelled back at her, saying that I didn't care about a who's who party where we must rent out a fancy dress to be welcomed. "I bought this damn dress!" she yelled in pure anger, oblivious to the point that I was making. I retorted that she was doing a good job hiding the price tag to return it later then, and that's when the palm of her hand found my face. I stumbled onto the ground, and in an attempt to regain balance, I held onto the big standing mirror behind me and dragged it to the floor with me.
I sat on the floor and finally justified crying; a bit of blood painted my right hand. Her left hand covering her mouth, she fumbled a reactionary apology and made her way to the door avoiding the pieces of glass on the floor. She stumbled out in tears just as my green-eyed neighbor was about to knock. She looked back at my fleeing mother in shock and ran to the kitchen to get me a wet paper towel. When she finally joined me on the floor, my face had turned red, but my tears had dried. It was then that I saw this piece of broken mirror shattered perfectly in half, but not separated. You could see the crack going all the way down.
The reflection was of both of us, each of us on different sides of the crack. She was perfect. I would have written a sonnet from the cadence of her hips. I would have written a haiku on her lips, but we were from different worlds, and I was tired of expectations. I was tired of having to validate what my happiness should look like.
So, I reached in.