Samantha’s POV

SCORPIA- it stood for Sam (me), Chris, Olivia, Rachel, Peter, Irene and Alanda. Well, it used to, till Chris, died, and now we are SORPIA-incomplete without him. As 2nd powerful in all of our kind, we didn’t expect him to die so soon.

Olivia reached out and snapped the mirror shut. It was now time for the voting for the person who would take Chris’ position. Usually, the lowest 3 in the group-Rachel, Peter and Irene would die in the first few 100 years. None of us expected Chris to die. He was our rock, our brick wall to lean on when the going got hard. Now.. he was resting underneath a pile of dirt, with no worries at all.

I sniffled a bit before paying attention to Olivia again. “So, now we have narrowed down our choices to 10 people. Let’s have a look at them now, then we’ll vote.” She reached out and flicked the mirror back on.

“No.1 candidate: Christopher Hawkins-currently residing in Paradise, Ohio. Knows a bit about our existence, although is 100% unaware that he is one of us. Has an orange chakra.” read out the mirror in a very boring, monotone voice.

Christopher Hawkins, to me, looked very lanky, and seemed as if he had never used or discovered shampoo.

As if reading my thoughts, Olivia sniffed snidely at me, and said, “Haven’t you heard of the saying, ‘Never judge a book by it’s cover’? Christopher is a black belt in karate, and has great senses. I have a feeling he can used the ‘Drunken fist’ technique too.”

“And mortals with an orange chakra are said to have a great potential,” quipped the mirror. I glared at it, not that it could see me. “And the next choice: Christina Collister-lives in Los Angeles with her father. Has no knowledge about us. Has a blue chakra. May be able to see ghosts.” the mirror said.

Christina Collister had ash-blonde hair with brown highlights, and bright green eyes that seemed to have a certain hollowness within them. She had no expression on, and immediately I knew that I had to choose her. Her height was perfect-and she looked slim and very fit.

For the next 8 people, I blanked out, and started planning on what I would train her when she got here. It was Olivia’s high heel, which had painfully imbedded itself into my foot that brought me back to the present. I hissed in pain, then glowered at Olivia. I turned my full attention back to the front.

Peter was talking now,”-so Samantha, Do you agree?”

Agree with what?

“Uh yeah! 100%” I chirped back, trying to sound sincere and put on my most convincing I-was-listening-the-whole-time face, even though I knew my tell-tale blush was rising in my cheeks. I nodded a bit more and tried to regain mu normal skin colour.

It was somewhat working until Pete added with a hint of shock in his voice, “Even with the gorillas?”

Huh? The GORILLAS? What gorillas?!

“Uh…” and before I could answer, he chuckled. “You may be the most powerful out of all 6 of us, but you certainly are the worst at lying,” I scowled deeply at him, while Olivia giggled girlishly and batted her mascaraed eye-lashes at him. Pete, being Pete didn’t notice a thing.

“What I was saying before was that we were going to vote, and I was asking whether you would do the honours of counting ours and your vote.” Pete explained.”

“Yeah ‘course,” I said, then cleared my throat,” Christopher Hawkins?” Olivia’s hand was the first to go up. I scowled Then it was followed by Irene, and then Pete. He shrugged sadly at me with an apologetic look on his face. I decided to ignore him and the sickly sweet looks Olivia was giving him “Christina Collister?” Rachel and Alanda’s hands went up at the same time. Mine was about to join theirs, when I hesitated. If I voted o the wrong person, our world could collapse. My gut feeling nudged my hand again, but  ignored it. I needed to make a decision-the right decision. Theoretically, Christopher Hawkins was the better option. But…

“Guys,” I said, “It’s a tie. I vote for Christina Collister.” Olivia groaned, while Rachael and Alanda excitedly hi-fived me.

Pete control again. “Usually there wouldn’t be a tie, but since we have never encountered this problem before, I think Sam should make the decision on what to do.” I kicked him hard in the shins under the coffee table while banging my knee on the corner of it in the process. He knew I hated being the leader and making important decisions.

“Well, I’ve heard stories before in the past where the group was also in a similar position, like us, and in most cases, the ‘S’ of the group killed the choice they didn’t like, and well, personally, I don’t think it’s very fair.” I closed my eyes, and rubbed my temples in a vain effort to soothe my killer headache. I opened my eyes again, “Olivia, who do you have in Los Angeles?”

“Danielle.”

“Alanda, who do you have in Paradise?”

“Dan.”

“Dan and Danielle will bring Christian and Christopher here. They will get trained for 1 month by either me or Olivia, and in exactly 1 month from the time the got here, they will have a fight to death.”

Il ya quelques semaines, nous avons assisté “Delight Chic Summer” / “Chic Plaisir d’été”, un événement de networking / défilé de mode mettant en vedette designer de Montreal Jennifer Masabni au Café des Éclusiers au Vieux-Port. Parrainé par BMW Canbec. Malgré le ciel nuageux et la pluie, c’était une atmosphère agréable rempli de cocktails, de la musique et des gens glamour!

Barbara: Blazer: H&M T-shirt: Olivia Leggings: American Apprael Shoes: Zara

Amanda Blouse: Rehab from Style Exchange Leggings: Zara Shoes: Urban outfitters

Amanda & Barbara xox

Alice + Olivia creative director, Stacey Bendet designs a Collection that’s Very fun, flirty, and uses lots of patriotic colors and black. Her collection is also very feminine using lots of lace, and shades like white. There were many printed dresses in checkered print, floral, and stripes in many shades, especially red, blue, and white. One of my favorites was the red lip printed full skirt, paired with a red shirt, with a red lip printed collar, matching. Bendet also used lots of stripes, big, small, or medium. Even a nautical printed sweater, making me think of singer and style Icon, Taylor Swift. For a very Fun, Flirty, and Beautiful.

Though these exams I’ve really had to just focus and these are my tips for revising for exams!

• Step 1 – GET COMFY!

Weather you sit on your bed, couch, floor or at your desk make sure you are in a comfy position! I like to lie a blanket down on my floor and study that way. If you are  sitting at a computer make sure you are not hunched and your eyes are a arms length away from the screen!

• All distractions GONE!

I know when I revise I have to turn off the WiFi! I know alot of people like to revise off websites i prefer to study from text books! But it’s your choice really! just make sure the televisions off and your phone is away from you or on silent! 

• Study cards or Flash cards!

I love personally making flash cards! Get a pack of A6 cards, or just make them yourself my cutting normal computer paper in quarters. If there are any words or phrases you need to learn for a exam write the words on one side and the meanings on the other!

• Get your highlighters on!

With a set of highlighters go through your text books, sheets and any important details and highlight them with these pretty neon colors!

• ASK FOR HELP

Weather it’s your teachers, piers or friends don’t be afraid to ask for help! Write a email, grab a phone or meet up with them now! Come on!

• TAKE A BREAK!

Study’s show the more you revise without a break the less the amount of information will go into your brain! So take a 15 minute break every hour have a cup of tea! 

• Have some Brain food!

In breaks make sure you have a snack! I like to have greek yogurt or fruit! This is soo much better for you than crisps or chocolate!

GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR EXAMS! I hope all these tips help you!

Olivia xox

As you know I love to bake. Though I also love to just chat! So I have created a second blog! If you have any requests just comment or message me and i’ll do y best to make them happen!!!
So let’s get this straight! Cooking blog this channel, and anything else other channel! Great!
Here it is:  Holaolivia.wordpress.com

Thanks and please check it out!!!

Oh…Almost forgot I’ve had a request to bake a microwave cake so that’ll be soon!!!

Olivia xox

These are obviously for Olivia and Connor and were made to match their nursery colors. We are getting down to the final touches on their co-nursery.

This is where money, prosperity and REAL success lies and how to get others to literally throw money at you.

Last night my wife and I dashed out of the house as soon as grandma came over to baby sit and went to one of our favorite places, PF Changs.

I can never get tired of their Mongolian Beef and Chicken Lettuce Wraps.

Anyways, usually the servers bring you extra lettuce, and mix the sauce, but last night the guy who waited on us, didn’t seem to want to put any extra effort in the service.

He wasn’t rude and brought everything on time, but it was obvious he was just doing “his job”… you know exactly what he’s supposed to do and not an ounce more.

For example, he didn’t once ask us if we need anything else.

Didn’t offer extra lettuce (like every other time I’ve been there), didn’t bring a wine chiller and even had a surprising look on his face when we asked for one.

I mean seriously, why do we need a wine chiller with a $40 bottle of wine?

Oh, and I just remembered as I’m typing this, he didn’t even bring us fortune cookies like they usually do with your bill. That’s the first time ever.

So obviously, when it came time to pay the bill, I think my “tip” reflected all that.

Now a couple weeks ago we were at a different restaurant and the server asked us if we wanted any bread.

Usually I like to try different breads, but for some reason this time neither my wife or I wanted any bread so we thanked her and told her to just bring us the food and skip the bread.

A couple minutes later she brought the bread anyway.

Well, I figure if it’s there I might as well try it.

And I must say…

This was one of the best breads I’ve ever had.

Slices of French Bread (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A few minutes later, Olivia (the server) came up and said – “I knew you’d like it, so I brought it for you to try.”

My wife started asking her if they made it at the restaurant and what kind of bread was it.

Olivia said there are actually different kinds and she’ll bring us others to try, as well as the name of the bakery where the restaurant was buying it from.

She then brought 2 baskets of Olive Rosemary, Garlic-Cheese, Focaccia, Swiss Multi-Grain, Potato Onion and Dill, and Orange-Pecan Raisin.I think for a moment I forgot I ordered a steak and appetizers.

She also brought a piece of paper with the name of the baker, their address, phone number, and website all handwritten.They’re actually located a good 40 minutes from where we live, so Olivia then brought us info on two more similar places closer to us, and even explained which stores in the area carried them.

Now keep in mind that the bread is free, and we could actually buy these loafs at their restaurant, probably at a higher price than at a store.

Later on, when my wife couldn’t decide on dessert, Olivia brought us an extra one for her (at no charge) and said – “This is in case you don’t like the other one.”

Before we were getting ready to leave, she also brought us more bread in a box and a bog to take home with us… it was probably obvious how much we liked it.

Needless to say, when the bill came, I didn’t even hesitate to leave Olivia a very generous tip, much larger than usual.

And I’m willing to bet she gets these “unusually large” tips all the time.

Why?

Because she goes out of her way to serve people.

In a world where almost everyone just does their job, it is rare and surprising to see people go the extra mile to make their customers feel special, important and when they do, you just want to “reciprocate” with a larger tip, a compliment, and desire to continue doing business with them.

There’s a huge lesson in this.

Are you going the extra mile for your customers and downlines?

Are you doing MORE than expected?

Are people surprised by your attention to details and the willingness to do more even when you don’t have to?

I believe having this attitude will make a tremendous difference on the kind of business you have… the kind of people you attract… and how much money you end up making.

Once again Zig Ziglar’s most famous quote comes to mind…

“You can have everything in life that you want, if you help enough other people get what they want.”

And what do they want?

They want to feel special, important and appreciated.

And isn’t that what we ALL want?

Cheers,

Vitaly Grinblat

“Though she be but little, she is fierce!”

Olivia’s near-permanent scowl is slowing being replaced by a semi-permanent smile.

Why?

Because her parents stopped treating her like a sack of potatoes to be hauled from one location to the next – bed-to-table, table-to-sink-, sink-to-car, car-to-school, school-to-car, car-to-table, table-to-sink, sink-to-bed…

Phew!
Repeat until independent.

Well it turns out little Olivia made her emancipation proclamation loud and clear. She has transformed from a pale preemie who communicated via mewing to a forceful 1 ½ year old who knows exactly what she wants and how to say it.

But it’s up to us to decipher “it”.

“Miw.”
“Milk?”
Enthusiastic nodding.

“Miiiwwn”
“Uh…more milk?”
“NO!!!”
Emphatic head shake accompanied by sippy cup throw.
Grab a towel. Take a deep breath. Try again.
“Uh…vitamin?”
Frantic hand clapping. Good job, Nana!

“Miow.”
“Yes, the cat does say meow.”
Death glare. Do you see a freakin’ cat anywhere in this house?
“Miow!”
“Uh…more?”
“Yeah! Yeah! Miow! Miow!”

I have to admit, I thought Lori was going to take the linguistic lead in the translation department since Olivia’s cryptic words sound similar to some Cantonese I’ve heard Lori speak with her mom. Alas, she’s as stumped as I am.

Perhaps Olivia is speaking Mandarin…

As our third child, I used to call her my plug-and-play kid, but she has made it clear that she is so much more than that. She is a force of nature, completely present and fully engaged. She has thrown down the gauntlet, demanding the same level of attention, interaction and of course, respect as her siblings.

Her parents can no longer make assumptions about what she’ll wear to school or what she wants for breakfast. And when we make choices without involving her, we do her a disservice, robbing her of the voice she is so eager to use.

“Wa-aw.”
“Uh, water?”
Smile.

“Waa.”
Oh boy.
“Um…take Skippy out for a walk?”
Laugh and point to leash.

“Wauw.”
I smile, pick her up and hug her tight.
“I love you too, Olivia.”
She snuggles into my chest.
“Wauw, Nana.”

TOP 10 “Things to do while Scandal is on hiatus”

1. Organize your bookshelf.

Surely you have books that you have neglected because of this amazing show…GET TO IT!

2. Call your mother and talk about Scandal.

Mom always appreciates a call and you can have a cool conversation about Olivia’s fashion sense and how Huck turned into a punk.

3. Find a cure for ADHD.

Huh?…what was that?…I got distracted.

4. Start a support group for Scandal withdrawal. S.W.A.G. (Scandal Withdrawal Assistance Group)

I would do this one myself, but I have a blog to write.

5. Write your own TV Drama and cast Megan Goode as the lead.

I know it was done already…but do it again Megan deserves it

6. Become a politician and run for President of the Scandal Fan Club.

I’m sure there are great perks with becoming the president of the Scandal Fan Club. All the wine you can drink and more backstabbing than you can handle cant be bad.

7. Watch Greys Anatomy.

I always seem to catch the last 5 minutes of the most dramatic moments of Greys right before Scandal comes on. Im assuming that this show is awesome because Shonda Rhimes writes this also. All I know is that I would NEVER want to be  a patient at that hospital. TOO MUCH DRAMA!

8. Defend the show to all of your friends who dont watch it.

Olivia is a “complex” character to say the least and people who dont know anything about the show seem to be talking about it the most. Invite your friends to the S.W.A.G meetings and provide some insight on the gladiators.

9. Create fictitious story lines about Scandal and start discussions on FB.

In my version of Scandal, Edison beats up the President a marries Olivia. HA!

10. Go for a walk at your nearest park and hold secret meetings on the park bench.

Apparently the best way to make sure things are kept secret is to have a discussion on a park bench surrounded by the public.

Thats my Top 10 List of “Things to do while SCANDAL is on hiatus.”  Could it be better? What would you add? I would love to read your input below. Like the blog, share the blog and leave a comment.

-Precise

Buy/Listen to The Hit Single “Take Our Time (Right Away)” produced by Tye Hill from the soon to be released Ep “Ladies Love Mixtapes” 

As I stated in the previous post, the flows and connections along the continuum going from street artist to world can be reassembled in new ways at any given moment. Street artist Olivia is a case in point. The object of her artistic work, Olive Oil of Popeye fame, drove the choice of her moniker. Olivia felt attracted to Olive Oil because, as she clarifies, Olive Oil was:

una imagen que me encantaba de siempre y el nombre lo tenía muy claro cuando empecé a hacer street art. Me iba a llamar Olivia. Físicamente tengo cierto parecido y me sentía identificada con ella.

[an image that I always loved, and the name I had very clear when I began to do street art. I was going to be called Olivia. Physically, I look like her, and I identified with her] (Dr. Case and Olivia)

The fixed subject/object divide is clearly loosened and obscured here. Olivia, the artist, is radically open to Olive Oil, her art, in such a way that the interaction between the two is a process of unrestricted commingling. Olivia functions less like a body and more like a bundle of networked relations connecting herself with Olive Oil, that is, the organic with the non-organic, and the material with the immaterial. In other words, Olivia is not solely body but also ecology of relations whose subjectivity is in a continual process of becoming. Also, not only is Olivia’s subjectivity in a continual process of becoming, so are the subjectivities of her Olive Oils. Olivia explains:

Empecé a utilizar las Olivias como una base para luego crear con ella otros tipos de personajes. Bueno, más que disfrazarse, lo que hago es que Olivia se convierta en otras cosas. Mujeres que o admiro o me gustan. Pueden ser mujeres que han existido o no.

[I began to utilize the Olivias as a base in order to later create with her other types of characters. Well, more than disguising them, what I do is make Olivia become other women. Women that I either admire or I like. They can be women that have existed or not]  (Dr. Case and Olivia)

Some of Olivia’s converted Olive Oils that have been seen in Barcelona’s Ciutat Vella are Frida Khalo (Frilivia Khalo), Marie Antoinette (Marie Oliviette), Botticelli’s Venus (Venuslivia), Madame Butterfly (Madame Olifly), the Virgin of Guadalupe (Virgilia de Guadalupe), Amy Winehouse (Oly Winehouse), Queen Latifah (Queen Olifah), and My Fair Lady (My Fair Livia) among others.

This is an excerpt from my forthcoming article “From Graffiti to Street Art: How Urban Artists are Democratizing Spanish City Centers and Streets.” Transitions: Journal of Franco-Iberian Studies 8 (2012): 9-34.

Logarr emerged from the shadows. “It is time,” he said calmly.

“I’m not meeting with you.”

He gazed at her, neither surprised nor disturbed. “Then I will challenge your mate,” he said.

“I’ll tell him to concede to you and I’ll refuse you.” She lifted her chin, glared at him. “I’ll go the women’s tunnels and I won’t come out again until Vorgullum comes back and puts an end to all this.”

He smiled. It was not a threatening or unpleasant expression, much as she wanted it to be. It was just tired. “As you like it, Olivia,” he said.

“And you’ll leave me alone?” she asked suspiciously.

“No.”

“What are you going to do to me if I don’t come to you?”

“Something like this,” he answered, and before she could do more than flinch, he reached up and tapped her on the forehead with one claw.

Just a tap. Hardly worth noticing. If she’d been asleep, it wouldn’t have even woken her up. She started to ask him what on Earth that had been meant to do and didn’t. Couldn’t.

She couldn’t move, could only watch him approach her until she could feel the heat from his body. She made a conscious effort to do something, anything, even blink her eyes, but her body was not her own.

Logarr spoke, his eyes locked with hers and strangely sad, far removed from the things he promised her. “You will come to me, Olivia. Your thighs will open around me. Your body will ache and tremble where I touch it. I will taste your sweat and caress the secret places within and without. I will have you, Olivia, possess you, consume you. And I am sorry. I wish that it had been anyone else, anyone.”  His finger brushed at her slack palm. His eyes dropped to look at it and for the first time, his voice faltered. “I still remember the way you smiled at me…the way you reached out your hand…”

She tried to scream, but all she managed was a soft sigh as she pushed air uselessly between her open lips.

“Do not resist me,” Logarr whispered, kneeling before her. She couldn’t see him, but his voice invaded her completely, almost as though it originated in her mind. “Do not resist her. You can’t win. Believe me, I know.”

His hands caressed her ankles, slipped up her legs, over her thighs, her hips. Her skirt pooled over his wrists, tickling her where the hem lightly kissed her. She wanted to struggle and could not move, wanted to moan and could scarcely continue to breathe.

Let me just start out by saying that I was captain of the Junior Varsity winterguard at my school. Junior Varsity (competing in Scholastic AA) was a new thing this season. Our Varsity team competed in Scholastic A.

We finished the season with Varsity coming out Musical Arts Conference champions with their show Awakening, while Junior Varsity ended the season 7th out of 7 in a straight last place season with our show Sunkissed.

Despite this, I was very proud of my JV ladies. Six out of eight of them were brand new, five of them having only first touched a flag in December.

Merp.

I ended up being a junior instructor, I think. Our instructors were all first-season instructors. Poor things.

I love them, though. They’re all so nice. Their names are Kellie and Heather, and we also had Gabby.

Our whole winterguard had only twenty girls between the two teams. Their names are:

AA

Me, Sarah

Bethany

Ruth

Jade

Abby

Hayley

Catherine

Clare

A

Shannon

Caroline

Hannah

Lucia

Emily

Olivia

Sara

Averye

Taylor

Catie

Alysha

Sarah

So, yeah. Merp.

Here’s both guards together at Championships (AA is all hiding because a bunch of the girls were crying and my ‘friend’ made me cry after screaming at me for being upset.) The coach in the bottom left is my awesome cousin, Whitney:

 Cuteness, I guess.

Let’s take a look at the season and some of my photography and all:

AA Winterguard!

Top row, left to right: Catherine, Jade, Abby, me

Bottom row, left to right: Clare, Bethany, Hayley, Ruth

Averye performing in “Awakening”

Shannon on rifle in “Awakening”. Her last high school season!

Flags in “Awakening”

Dancers in the opening of “Awakening”

Hannah (left) and Shannon on retreat.

Hannah and Shannon with their trophy at the Newtown, CT competition! All of the Newtown shows had aspects made in tribute of the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. One of the Newtown guys is from the Sandy Hook district.

Clapping for their friends? Maybe…

At the Newtown competition again.

Our whole team at Newtown

Ruth and Bethany on the bus! Cuties.

CHS A guard at Newtown

CHS A guard at Newtown

Catherine, me, and Jade on retreat at Newtown.

Alysha at Newtown

Averye (left) and Hannah at Newtown

A guard at Newtown

A guard at Newtown

Taylor’s solo at Newtown

Taylor’s solo at Newtown!

A guard at Newtown

A guard at Newtown

Newtown

Newtown

Rifle line

Rifle line and a flying dancer

Emily under a toss

Taylor tossing

Lucia finishing a sabre solo

Newtown

Newtown

Newtown

Sabres and flags

Lucia flying away on sabre

Flag line

Flag line

Flag line

Flag line doing a ripple

Flag line

Flag line

Flag line

Flag line

Flag line

Flag line

Flag line

Flag line

Flag exchange

Lucia and Hannah

Lucia and Hannah

Flags and dancers

A guard

A guard

Jade being adorable at practice one Saturday

Bethany and Olivia on the bus

Shannon being awesome

Shannon and Caroline solo’ing

A guard

Bethany!

Abby

Olivia and Emily at Championships before the first warmup

Left to right: Heather, Bethany, Abby, Hayley, me, Mrs. Mariani, Catherine, Jade, and Kellie

Kellie and me at championships <3

So, yeah. Have a nice day, everyone~

Every other Monday I share the lesson plan for what Olivia will be learning in our two week unit rotation. This is Olivia’s “Life Cycles” Unit lesson plan at age 18 months.

Life Cycles: Froggies and Flutters (May 12-25, 2013)

-Rena

I know for a fact that I am not the only one looking forward to seeing the discussion that Olivia will have with her father in the back of that limo. But uhhhh…We gotta wait. For the record I am not one who watches very much TV; however Thursday night is a good night to turn on the television and chat it up with my fellow Scandal fans on Facebook. I love doing the commentary as much as watching the show. It’s like sitting in the living room watching television with 4000 of your closest family members. I have a lot of friends….HA!….Anyway…what do I do on Thursdays now?

I was having a conversation with a close friend. We were discussing this enormous void (not really) that Shonda has placed in our lives for the next 4 months. WHAT IS WE GON DO?!

We came to the conclusion that we can do a few things. We will provide the world with a list of what you can do during this Scandal hiatus aaaaaaaand we will provide you with some cool background on some of the characters. So…There you have it. Scandal-Less Thursdays is in effect…LETS GO!!!

-Precise

Buy/Listen to The Hit Single “Take Our Time (Right Away)” produced by Tye Hill from the soon to be released Ep “Ladies Love Mixtapes” 

From its beginnings in the early 1970s as a women’s music publishing company to its branching out into the business of lesbian-only cruises, Jeanie Rule, New York rep for Olivia Records & Travel, tells the company’s story on this Episode 9 of Forward & Out, Olivia Past and Present. Featured are various video clips and stills, including a performance by singer/songwriter Cris Williamson from the 1990 Berkeley Concert, and a promo clip from an Olivia all-lesbian cruise to Mexico. Ole!