#theempressar

Ugh my Canadian heart! No particular order:

1. Hayden Christiansen

2. Mark Hildreth

3. Ryan Reynolds

4. Dan Levy

5. Keanu Reeves

Other people may not agree but these are my top 5 ❤❤

Thank you for the ask!

Honorable mention:

"Jessie's Girl" by Rick Springfield

"Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey

"Time After Time" by Cyndi Lauper

"Footloose" by Kenny Loggins

Wishing the happiest of birthdays to the lovely @theempressar​!

Johnny is more than ready for your date tonight... selfie game is strong with this golden boy 😊

5. TV show of the year? COBRA KAI!

9. Best month for you this year? June was pretty awesome.

11. Something you want to do again next year? Hang out with folks from The Quiver and my CK boys (which is looking very likely!).

15. What’s a bad habit you picked up this year? I don't think I did?

11. Bad or petty habits

Biting his nails is a big one. When Amanda met him, one of the first things she noticed was that his nails and fingers were an absolute disaster. It took her years, but she finally did talk him into getting manicures. That slowed him down a bit, but it didn’t stop him completely. He still does it if he’s thinking incredibly hard about something, or if he’s super nervous, anxious or scared. 

Keeping secrets is another one. That’s one that Amanda’s been working on for years, and she still hasn’t gotten him to stop. Most of the time, she respects his privacy enough to not pry, but when she knows those secrets are hurting him, and he won’t let her help, it bothers her. A lot. She’s been known to yell at him about it, which, of course, just convinced him even more that she’d be angry if she knew what he’s hiding. Counterproductive, certainly, and she knows that. But she gets too frustrated to stop herself sometimes. 

Along with the secrets, the fear, nervousness and anxiousness comes his final coping mechanism - drinking. Usually, he only drinks enough to take the edge off. Sometimes, he drinks more than that to make himself relax. Once or twice a year, he disappears for a day, gets completely blasted, lets everything that’s built up in him since the last time explode everywhere (which is why he always disappears before he does it) and comes back home looking like a kicked puppy who just lost his best friend. Amanda just puts him in the shower, pulls the covers back on the bed, and makes him chicken soup.

13. What gets them flustered

I answered this one already, so to avoid sounding like a broken record, I’ll just point you to that one. :)

21. Turning points in their life

Almost too many to count, most of them before his 17th birthday.

Losing his dad. Moving to California with Lucille. Meeting Ali (and Johnny). Meeting Mr. Miyagi. The Halloween dance. His first All Valley. His fight with Chozen. Kumiko moving to Japan instead of coming home with him. Meeting Terry Silver. Realizing what Terry was doing to him. Meeting Amanda. Marrying her. Sam’s birth, and then Anthony’s. Opening his second dealership. Running into Johnny again. Seeing the Cobra Kai sign. Meeting Robby. 

His life has more twists and turns than a one-lane mountain road, and he is nowhere close to where he expected to be at forty-nine. He does have regrets, and a lot of them, but when he looks back over his life so far, there are very few things he would change. The things that happened to him molded him into the person he is, and they will contribute to him becoming the person he wants to be. Plus, all things considered, though he’s had a lot of incredibly low points in his life, he’s also had some incredible highs. And for Mr. Miyagi, Amanda, Sam, Anthony and Robby - if for no other reasons - he’s actually kind of grateful how things have turned out. 

Finally got to this one.  It’s sadly a day late.

10. Something that made you cry this year?

The deaths of Tommy and his portrayer Rob Garrison.  Certain situations in the stories that I’m writing.  Feeling like I was continually screwing up and didn’t deserve to test for my orange belt, let alone achieving it.

12. Talk about a new friend you made this year.

Most of my new friends in the last two years have come from the Cobra Kai community.  But I want to give a special shoutout to @storyshark2005.  She is one of our newer Quiver members, but she has already proved what a good friend she is.  She is a talented writer and such an enthusiastic and encouraging supporter of her fellow writers.  Sara was the first to comment on Never Knew and her review was so touching and nearly made me cry.  Her review of my second chapter did not disappoint.  And she, along with our other friends, have helped me tremendously with Is This Love? with advice and ideas to fix what I’m stuck on.  You may not see these things for a while, but I promise they have helped.

14.  Favorite book you read this year?

Hmmm.  I haven’t read many books this year, in comparison to previous years.  And I’m actually behind.  But I think I will say Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone. 

16. Post a picture from the beginning of the year