that Lauren, she could have her own show

Someone I have worked with for a decade is retiring. He and I have been close- we’ve traveled together, shared meals, talked about our families and our hobbies, spent time. We text. We talk. We’ve know each other for ten years.

I went looking for a gift for his retirement, and found a watch that relates to the specific kind of car that he works on as a hobby. I bought it, and then invited people to chip in if they wanted.

My coworkers are acting like this is miraculous?

“How did you think of that?” I knew he had a hobby and I googled it?

“How did you know he works on those?” I listen to people when they talk.

“How do you always buy such good gifts?” I listen when people talk to me. Most people are dying to talk about their interests. You just have to give them an in. If your memory sucks, start a note in your phone and write down what people express interest in. Look at it every so often before you hang out to refresh your memory.

“I never would have thought of that.” I didn’t, really. I just spent 20 minutes looking at eBay and Etsy and a few subreddits. It’s easy if you try.

the closest thing to real soulmates you can find

we fought in the same trenches and have a warrior's bond that carries over into every stage of life

friend i sit next to in every class and pass notes to/whisper to constantly

academic peer/colleague that i respect and have a little intellectual crush on

neighbour in the same apartment block that i say hi to on the stairs

neighbour across the street who i wave at every morning and evening

we're regulars at the same bar

Ilya leans into simple pleasures. He can’t have Shane, but he can have a snickers. He can have fast food. He sustains himself on small joys because he can’t have the big thing he wants.

—Did you know that Juneteenth is also celebrated in a part of Mexico? Nacimiento Mexico was once home to thousands who escaped slavery in the US. As many as 10,000 slaves followed a clandestine Southern Underground Railroad to Mexico. —To date, many Black Mexicans from the Texas area retrace a portion of the same route their African American ancestors followed in 1850 when they escaped slavery. —Descendants of slaves who escaped across the southern border observe Texas’s emancipation holiday with their own unique traditions in the village of Nacimiento. —Slave hunters would patrol the southern border for escapees, led by the Texas Rangers but the Mexican army would be there waiting for them (the slave hunters) to turn them away.

Shane: Ilya, we are not getting old billboard vinyl sent to our home! *in Russian* And stop talking to my mother about you wanting big photos of me in boxers and a tank top! It's weird!

Ilya: You are so right, moya lyubov. New is much better. Yuna, can we put a condition in Shane's modelling contracts that they make extra copy of billboard for "quality control" and send it to our home?

Mostly we use them for roofs on the mobile pasture units, which I don't have a photo handy of-- I could probably get one. But imagine this thing, only it's homemade, and instead of nice shiny new clear greenhouse plastic (which tbh in our climate is going to be too hot in the summer), it's made of an old tarp, which has an ad on it.

I do not have a good photo in my collection. Sometimes you can see enough of the ad that it's unnerving. The one photo I can find of a pasture unit in use, I obviously was aiming for aesthetics, and also the tarp is cut down and the section used seems to be plain white. But imagine that with an ad on it. The second photo is the laying hens' pasture units, and the middle one is more visibly covered in a billboard tarp, though it doesn't look so striking. The broiler units are much larger (and not on wheels) than the nestbox units.

But i am saying he has rarely gotten off harder than he does when shane pants, half moaning, smearing his lips against ilya's neck and cheek like he almost doesn't want to be heard