#2nd best

[life-is-pulchritudinous]

I’m learning to read people more and pushing people out of my world and keeping more to myself.

[biostatprof]

My second favorite top 5. When picking my top gray-card top 5, I whittled down from 360 or so to 30 to 20 to 10. In the top 10, these were the five that didn’t make the top 5. The biggest surprise for me is that there weren’t more. 

Yes, 4 beaches at sunset and one arrow slit in a small castle (Castle of Santa Maria da Feira). Two pictures were on the same evening in Ericeira, Praia de São Sebastião, this is my home beach as it were. The other two are Little Pony Seat beach (translating best as I can) and Praia do Tonel.

Merry New Year and a better 2021 to all. 

[hamsters-in-cups]

This image comes from a UK evening time article on pressreader HERE entitled 

“Every pet is perfect – but they can’t all be second best hamster“ 

The article starts out:

I don’t actually have any pets of my own but I hamster sit for Toffee.

There’s nothing more boosting to positivity and wellbeing than having a soft wee creature around to talk to, another little heartbeat in the house.

So imagine my delight when I discovered the inaugural Glasgow Hamster Show happened to fall on a weekend when I was in possession of Toffee.

To read the rest of this thrilling story (and trust me, it gets much, much better!), continue reading under the cut:

And it was in Yoker.

I’ve never been to Yoker so that and the chance to take a day trip with a hamster was levels of excitement unfelt since... well, ever.

The Saturday came and off we went in the car to Yoker. Me, a grown adult woman, and Toffee, fast asleep in his nest.

On arrival I went in first to check out the lay of the land. Toffee’s cage is huge and it was raining so I wanted to dash in quickly to see what was what before carting the cage in.

There was my first error. It turns out you can buy small travel cages to transport your hamster to such things as the vet and the Glasgow Hamster Show.

Almost everyone there had their hamsters in neat little carry cases.

And almost everyone there was under the age of 12.

Erk, I thought, there’s no way I could come in with a massive hamster cage and without a young child to justify my presence. What to do?

I sauntered round, casually, pretending I was just looking at the lovely hamsters.

I realised this made me look even worse, particularly given I didn’t even have a hamster with me. Just strolling around the Glasgow Hamster Show, a lone, hamster-less adult, like a weird creep.

It was time to go home, defeated.

Walking briskly back to the car I checked Twitter and there was a photo from a Twitter-pal of her hamster (and her child) at the Hamster Show. I messaged her. She said she would keep me company. Toffee and I were back on! Lugging the cage and a still sleeping Toffee, back we went and I set up the cage to wait for the two judges to come round and assess my small friend.

Now, I know Toffee is the best of all hamsters. He is an industrious little fellow, loves to keep himself busy, and he is unfailingly tame and friendly.

Yet, I admit, I was nervous on his behalf as the judges lifted off the top of the cage and scooped him out to begin their assessment.

Next door was James, a young man with his hamster Alan (names have been changed). Alan was a very fine little creature indeed and I really thought a shoe-in for top prize.

The judges told James and James’s mum that Alan was the first 24 out of 30 they had.

Toffee was assessed. We lost half a point for having the wrong type of bedding in his cage (grossly unfair to the hamster, I thought, it’s not his fault his humans have failed him) but Toffee was well praised for his “excellent tone” and “good nature”.

“We’ve all been there,” the judge reassured me as I apologised profusely over the substandard bedding.

The judging over, we had time to relax by running through tunnels and seeing what the cafe had to offer.

Then, the big moment. Prize giving.

The organisers had everyone gather round as they announced each runner up, leading to announcing third, second and first places.

I waited for Toffee’s name to be called. It was not called. The numbers of remaining hamsters dwindled. There was only a handful left.

Surely Toffee wasn’t going to be in the top 10? The top five?

We were up to third place. Myself, James and James’s mum were getting agitated. Third place was announced – it was Alan.

And then... second place... Toffee!

Having watched child after child after child go up to shake hands and take their rosette, up I went, for once in my life at least a head taller than anyone else and only slightly embarrassed to be the only adult exhibiting a pet hamster.

Now in possession of Scotland’s second best hamster, I was elated. Toffee had an extra yoghurt drop. It was honestly marvellous.

Multiple scientific studies have shown that pets are a boost to good health and self-esteem. They are vital members of families.

That’s why I love our Perfect Pet competition, the highlight of the year.

So, good luck to everyone with whiskers and paws entered into our Perfect Pet competition. You might not be Scotland’s second best hamster but you’re still extra special.

[killowave]

[thotful-alien]

Why am I always right though

I swear I come back and look at this blog or my journals after something has gone wrong with a relationship and God I need to trust my intuition more, because I really do see this shit months in advance of heartbreak happening. I'm so fucking sick of trying to be with anybody. They're all too good to be true and then hit me with the "hey can we still be friends I want you in my life now's just not a good time hahah" and I'm absolutely 100% fucking sick and tired of being someone's backup plan when they decide 4 months into things that they "like me" but not enough to put in the fucking effort to act like an adult about it.

[sweetsushiminnow]

Match up Masterlist

   Links to all the match-ups I did over the past few days. All the match ups with canon minor characters were aged to their 20s when I made the match-ups. 

Yusuke

Kurama

Hiei

Keiko

Yukina

Shizuru

Botan

Chu

Jin

Touya

Suzuka

Shishiwakamaru

Bui

Risho

Koto

Juri

Gama

Itsuki

Sensui

Seaman

Sniper

Yana

Kido

Kaito

Yomi

Enki

As you can see, we’re missing one very important character: Kuwabara.

I thought I matched him with an anon, but clearly I didn’t. He’s a good character who deserves love. I ship Kuwabara with me. We’d be great together due to our love for animals (especially felines) and we have our own honor code. We’re both loyal friends and make excellent lovers. I have very feminist viewpoints that Kuwabara won’t really agree with, other times it’s just educating him. There are points where we agree to disagree, but I can always appreciate how emotionally in tune he is with himself and others. Our height differences (I’m 4′10 and he’s tol) make for excellent commentary and hilarity. If he’s ever in a funk, I’m the gal to make you laugh your guts out. I’d also get along really well with Shizuru. 

[gurikajis]