and it’s… fine. The prince is great! They’re in love, he’s very sweet and passionate, writing her poems and songs, giving her anything she wants. The time she spends with her husband is great.
but cinderella is not royalty, her family was noble but she never spent time in those circles. She’s used to being busy, she’s used to cooking and cleaning and mending. There are hours, days, where she has nothing to do.
time passes. cinderella learns the fancy lady type of needlework. Learns to ride horses. Reads a lot.
as is normal for royalty at the time, they travel and are hosted by nobles or stay at castles owned by the king. But even that variety begins to become routine. The prince is distracted, there’s a lot of young women living and working on their route. Daughters of nobles. Younger and prettier with soft hands that have never done a day’s work.
cinderella needs something to spend her time on, and there’s a part of her thinking a couple-only trip might get her husband’s attention again, so she suggests making an old castle that’s fallen into disrepair their “project.” It was built in the time when castles were made to be defensible, so it’s quite sturdy, but it’s overgrown and secluded. The prince doesn’t know why his family stopped living there either. A hundred years ago it was their summer home.
so they go. And they work. And for a while it’s great! But when they leave for winter cinderella’s husband forgets her once again. cinderella resolves to make the best of her life and stop worrying about a man who has gotten what he wanted from her.
summer comes again and this time cinderella goes alone to the old castle (minus staff, of course, but cinderella manages to narrow it down to only repair workers and one maid). She can cook and clean and mend again, but this time it’s her own choice. She is happy.
this summer they make more progress on repairs. The workers say that most of it can be salvaged, except one tower that’s been completely overgrown with vines and briars. It will have to come down, eventually, but for now it can be safely ignored.
cinderella has more free time now. The old castle has a surprisingly untouched library, though time and moisture have damaged many of the books. Behind a collection of greek poetry cinderella finds an old diary. Very old, in fact, at least a hundred years. It’s rude to read a diary, of course, but whoever wrote this is long dead, and cinderella is bored, so…
from the description of activities the author looks to have been nobility. Maybe even a princess. She’s sensitive and sweet and smarter than she seems to realize. If circumstances had been different cinderella wishes they could have been friends…
after the summer ends cinderella returns to her husband. He’s spending a lot of time with a young musician and cinderella can’t even work up the energy to care. She does some research about the castle and the family she’s married into, finds out the name of the princess who wrote the diary.
aurora. Cursed and forgotten. She died young, they say, in a plague that also took out the castle staff and her own parents. Luckily they avoided a succession crisis, but not so lucky for the dead.
time passes. cinderella goes to the old castle again and again, even out of season. Soon enough all that remains to be done is the old tower, and the builders say they should tear it down and fill the gaps before it gets cold.
one night cinderella is restless. The princess from the diary had been fond of that tower, and cinderella is far more attached to a dead woman than she ought to be. She gets out of bed, reads by candlelight, and finally goes to walk the empty halls.
she finds herself going to the tower. Pushing past the vines that don’t seem so troublesome really. They almost part before her. The stairs are perfectly intact, the door at the top is already cracked open. As if she should have done this years ago, cinderella steps into aurora’s bedroom.
she’s as beautiful as the stories say. And sitting under her hands, crossed across her stomach as it rises and falls, is a book of greek poetry.
years later, people will tell the story of cinderella as a cautionary one. Don’t seek above your station. Don’t marry for prestige. After all, a girl who grew up as a servant once married the crown prince, and disappeared after only three years. She ran away, they say, she couldn’t handle the lifestyle.
two old women who run a bookshop together agree with the lesson. Marrying for the wrong reasons never ends well. It’s best to wait for someone you have things in common with, shared interests.
or, failing that, the more linguistic of the two says, wait a decade or ten for someone to fall in love with you from your diary.
her partner laughs and hits her with the socks she is mending.
Lando watched Han drop a slice of three days old, unheated pizza on the floor of the Millennium Falcon, and watched as he picked it up and ate it with no hesitation. And that’s the morning Lando decided to divorce Han.
“K-2?” Cassian grimaced, looking from the manipulator controls to the comm. “What’s going on out there?” The comm growled with indecipherable static. Jyn saw something new flash across Cassian’s expression. He was afraid—not intellectually afraid, not afraid of failing the mission, but afraid for K-2. Afraid for his friend.
Oscar Isaac playing peekaboo with his baby. He has his Poe Dameron hairstyle and just the right stubble.
John Boyega playing with TOO MANY KITTENS at once. TOO MANY. He laughs, delighted and overwhelmed, at the tickle of their tiny toebeans.
Diego Luna with sweaterpaws in a big cableknit cowl-neck, peeking out at me with sparkling eyes.
Alternately: Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal lovingly fixing each other’s hair and collars and glasses.
Harry Styles bashfully holding out a bunch of heart-shaped balloons. He’s wearing a floral suit.
Riz Ahmed floating past in a crystal-blue pool, laying atop a swan-shaped floatie. He tilts his sunglasses down to wink.
Harrison Ford looking vaguely maybe-disapproving but being a good sport about it.
George Shelley building a blanket fort for two. He wears a blanket cape.
Mahershala Ali having a tea party with gilded bone china teacups covered in fuchsia roses. The other guests are mostly teddy bears.
Andy Samberg making a giant banana split; he’s wearing a cardigan and his glasses, and he had to roll up the sleeves to his elbows.
Aziz Ansari playing with a Dog That Looks Like Tom Haverford, rip the cutest blog concept.
Tom Holland doing breathtaking fouettes and probably a pas de basque combo.
Harry Shum Jr. can come, too.
Richard Ayoade cleaning his glasses. He’s in a beautiful library. He shushes the camera.
Adam Scott eating a calzone, the cheese stretching entirely too long to be realistic. He laughs at himself.
John Cho riding a white horse like in Selfie, but in less of a shirt. Maybe in a light rain.
Ben Schwartz and Joe Keery brushing their teeth side-by-side.
Alfie Enoch frosting a giant pink cake with a smudge of flour on his perfect cheekbone.
Terry Crews painting a still life of flowers and various fruits.
Dev Patel and Andrew Garfield having a pillow fight in ridiculously-patterned flannel pajama pants and white undershirts. They lightly pluck stray feathers from each other’s shoulders.
Armie Hammer walking a moderately sized army of dachsunds in raincoats. He has a magenta umbrella.
Louis Tomlinson, clean-shaven, wearing suspenders. Freddie is dressed to match.
Donnie Yen polishing an apple on his shirt and taking a cheery bite. Or maybe a peach, and then then he wipes his mouth on his wrist.
Luke Pasqualino carving an terrible, terrible, but very cute jack-o’lantern. He’s too proud of it.
Tamal Ray eating a huge sandwich. Probably the number two best sandwich of his life, when they fried the pork with rosemary. I want to see his joy.
Nick Offerman reading “Make Way for Ducklings.” TO DUCKLINGS.
Alternately: Madeline. He’s probably wearing a tool belt.
Andre Braugher jumping on a trampoline.
EXTREMELY IMPORTANT ADDENDA THAT I THOUGHT ABOUT ON THE AIRPLANE HOME, 🎶‘CAUSE I WAS JUST THINKIN’ ‘BOUT BOYS🎶:
Avan Jogia in a Millennial Pink bathrobe, playing with an oversize rubber duckie.
Dulé Hill tap dancing. He’s wearing jeans and a button-down shirt – it’s tucked in, but unbuttoned flirtatiously at the neck. He grins brilliantly at the top of his toe-stand.
Tinie Tempah sharing a laugh with an ice sculpture of a swan as he pours some overflowing sparkling rosé.
Douglas Booth riding a carousel, eating a giant fluff of marbled cotton candy.
Michael B. Jordan riding a bubblegum bicycle with a basket in the front. There are guinea pigs, or possibly a good lop-eared bunny, in the basket.
Chris Pratt, but Andy Dwyer Chris Pratt, but Andy Dwyer Chris Pratt dressed in Owen Grady Chris Pratt’s outfit, lying on the floor completely overrun by inquisitive golden retriever puppies, like Abbi in that pug scene on Broad City, only it’s Chris Pratt and golden retriever puppies.
Rahul Kohli eating a soft-serve ice cream cone, which I’m shamelessly stealing from @sashayed because it’s perfect.
Ewan McGregor, sitting on a hot pink beanbag chair playing with plush toys of BB-8 and R2-D2. He has the right amount of beard.
this is the first lesson you learn: you are always wrong.
there is no electric hum buzzing through the air. there is no stinging bite to the sweetness of the mango. there is no bitter metallic tang to the water.
there is no cruelty in their laughter, no ambiguity in the instructions, no reason to be upset. there is no bitter aftertaste to your sweet tea, nothing scratchy about your blanket.
the lamps glow steadily. they do not falter.
II.
this is the second lesson you learn: you are never right.
you are childish, gullible, overly prone to tears. you are pedantic, combative, deliberately obtuse. you are lazy, unreliable, never on time.
you’re always making up excuses, rudely interrupting, stepping on people’s shoes. you’re always trying to get attention, never thinking about anyone else, selfish through and through.
it’s you that’s the problem. the lamps are fine.
III.
this is the third lesson you learn: you must always give in.
mother knows best. father knows best. doctor knows best. teacher knows best. this is the proper path. do not go astray.
listen to your elders, respect your betters, accept what’s given to you as your due. bow to the wisdom of experience, the education of the professional, the clarity of an external point of view.
what do you know about lamps, anyway?
Powerful…and true.
oh hey maybe that’s why I have so many autistic friends…
I honestly read this as being about emotional abuse right up until the end….
i love jane eyre but honestly imagine being friends with that bitch. like imagine trying to convince her to leave rochester and she’s like idk and you’re like he called u ugly???? he keeps his secret wife locked in the attic???? wake up???? and then you think she finally has it sorted out and she calls you a few months later like “his wife killed herself and burned down the house so it’s cool we’re getting married” like !!!!!!!!!!!! HOW DO YOU GO TO THAT WEDDING!!!!!!
This monsoon, the southern state of Kerala in India has seen rains and flooding of unprecedented and calamitous proportions. Subin Dennis puts it in perspective (via Facebook):
Most people in India would find it difficult to really understand how heavy the rainfall that has occurred in Kerala during this monsoon is.
Kerala, even in “normal” years, gets the highest amount of rainfall among all major States in India.
The average annual normal rainfall for Kerala is nearly 3000 millimetres – 2924.3 mm, to be exact. (Hence the verdant green you would see in a satellite image of the State.)
By contrast, neighbouring Tamil Nadu gets 912.4 mm rainfall. Karnataka gets 1147.1 mm, Andhra Pradesh 890 mm, and Telangana 942.6 mm.
Haryana gets a mere 554.7 mm, Delhi gets 747.1 mm, and Uttar Pradesh, 965.3 mm. West Bengal gets 1795.8 mm and Assam gets 2296.8 mm. Maharashtra gets 1151.1 mm, while Madhya Pradesh gets 1048.4 mm.
This is the “normal” (the long-term average of 50 years).
But this year, from 1 June (the onset of the South-West monsoon in India) to 15 August 2018, Kerala has received excess rainfall of 30%. The normal rainfall in this period should have been 1606.5 mm. Instead the State has received 2086.8 mm. The rains and floods are the heaviest since 1924.
Ernakulam district has received 21% excess rain, while Thiruvananthapuram district has got 37% excess rain. Kottayam and Malappuram districts have received 41% excess rain each.
Idukki district, which has major dams such as the Idukki-Cheruthoni-Kulamavu dam complex and the Mullaperiyar dam, has received a whopping 70% excess rain. As expected, the district has seen many landslips and casualties.
The situation in the State is extremely serious.
The shutters of 35 out of 39 dams in Kerala have been opened to release water. Red Alert has been issued in all 14 districts. Scores of people have lost their lives. Tens of thousands of people are living in relief camps. More people are being evacuated from their homes as torrential rains haven’t stopped and flood waters continue to run riot.
There are several ways to contribute. You may donate to the Kerala Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund (CMRDF). The account details are:
Account Number: 67319948232 Bank: State Bank of India Branch: City Branch, Thiruvananthapuram IFS Code: SBIN0070028
You can also visit their website and make a tax-exempt donation through their payment portal; all major credit cards are accepted, and there are multiple payment gateways:
For Indian citizens donating from within India, your donations are exempt from Income Tax. For those donating from outside India, your contributions are welcome and exempt from the FCRA 2010 Act.
This website – https://keralarescue.in – has also consolidated relief and volunteer efforts, for those within India/in proximity to Kerala.
Please, please donate as much as you can to Kerala – a state that many may be familiar with as tourists, or via family (as I am). Please signal-boost this and urge your networks to do the same.
Rebellions are built on hope 