I love cats, they just make me sneeze a lot. As long as I have a cat-free sadness zone to recover from the sneezing, I'd gladly help build the cat cult!
My dog was found as a stray in the panhandle, before being whisked across the country. If his trauma is anything to go by, my heart breaks seeing you stuck out there.
At this point, we really should just build a Hexbear commune in WIsconsin or something.
I'm looking to move from a different state to somewhere else. It's just not feasible to move to another country, but I have to remind myself that there's good people here in this country, I just have to find them.
I'd love to hear what places you liked!
Thanks!
I don't know how to use any of the emotes, is there a guide or reference to look at them?
Thanks for saying hello, even though I don't know what you said.
Makes the anniversary easy to remember
Ya know, I've been wondering about going "fuck it" and escaping to the promised land on an ESL visa. I don't have good family here, but I do have a dog and a classic Miata that I care about.
It's a weird conflict, having a vehicle that is so fun, while wishing death to cars as a means of transport. Just let me have a yearly scenic cruise or a track day, and trains the other 363 days.
Indeed it is, happy to be here, rather than hiding in the bushes with a pair of binoculars.
It's been an odd week. I'm in my 6th month of a "sabbatical" from work. I couldn't take my old, cushy corporate job, it was killing me inside, so I quit.
I was in a bad car wreck last year, and although I'm physically fine, I still have the car and want to rebuild it. It was special to me.
I started my sabbatical with enough money to live off of for 6 months and enough to rebuild the car. Now I just have enough money to cover rent for a while.
I've been dreading it, but I know it's time to look for jobs again. I hate the idea, since even 'cushy' jobs have genuinely destroyed my sanity before. But, I'm glad I'm finally talking to people here. I've been socially isolated before the pandemic, but I want to connect with people more, and I think that's my key for survival, whatever bullshit I have to do to make rent.
Bo Burnham's "Intern" starts playing in the background...
Nice, thanks for sending a welcome!
Nice to hear, have a good night!
What about Anime Election posts? Vote for Naruto!
A blessing from the legendary DIrt Owl!
I've been watching your career with great interest.
Been here all along...
Thank you so much for responding!
I appreciated the votes, but I kept feeling that anxiety when someone leaves you on "read". So, thanks again for calling out from across the void.
I've always been "broken" by a good story, but not like this. For the first time I can remember, I feel I was broken in a good way. That all the walls I had built to keep people out, were being smashed. I was feeling ... seen, but not judged. Seen, but appreciated by Howly, Haps... etc. I'm glad to have people in my life that felt the same in smaller ways, but to feel that on a layer I've kept hidden was... transcendent.
After picking myself off the floor, I decided that I could not stay in the closet any longer. I decided that I would pursue a wholesome relationship that I'd been denying myself. I decided to hope again. Now comes the next steps of, "how the hell do I start meeting people, or even look for a partner?"
I'm recovering from PAD well, and I think that was the most hopeful depression I've ever had. No, the story is not real, but I finally want to pursue a relationship more than I fear the rejection of being gay, and the fear of liking furry stuff. My biggest takeaway from Adastra is: "It's possible to be loved, just the way you are." This is huge, for a child who grew up knowing only conditional and distant love.
Thoughts on being a Furry:
A good question that I never had to answer when I was repressing all of this is "why?"
Why furry? Through some introspection and input, I think the reason is simple: Furry spaces are welcoming and safe, especially when it's not okay to express how you feel.
Growing up in a repressive situation, I've always hidden my gayness, even 'coming out' as ace a year back, even though I knew it wasn't true.
I internally dismissed and conflated my fondness for the welcoming furry community as a kink. I thought that furry stuff was always sexual in nature, but that's not true (there's so much wholesome furry stuff out there). That conflation came from the fact that it was the ONLY community I knew where queerness was okay.
It wasn't that furries were sexual, but that sexuality and queerness were accepted in the furry community.
It's hard to tease the two topics apart, and that's okay. I don't think you can separate queerness and furries, since it's an integral part of the community. Surveys show that the furry community is overwhelmingly queer. Yes, it's neurodivergent too. So, that's why I think teenage, christian, closeted-gay me, found the furry community as a safe haven to express both my romantic and sexual feelings that were considered evil by my day-to-day world. Over the years, I compartmentalized that all into one thing. Now I think I understand. So, when somebody asks me what a furry is, I can say that "the community is a welcoming queer space, with the theme of animal people as self-expression."
More importantly, for the first time in my life, I can actually be proud of my lurking and participation in this community. Yes, it can absolutely be cringe, but that's the damn point. The furry community is a place where people can express being queer, and be able to uwu and owo to their heart's content. The furry community finds refuge in each other, in the midst of a system that failed them. Yes, there's things I find uncomfortable in the furry community, I don't like v***, but I'm not gonna shame someone over it. If you're in the furry community, you've been through enough hardship.
In closing, this has been one of the most important weeks of my life. I've rekindled hope for the future, maybe even Furry Automated Gay Space Communism, if things go well. Through hardship, to the stars.