I think we’re a bit overdue for another open thread for personal stuff. As per usual, no trolls, no flames, no being a butthead.
I’ll paste in some recent personal comments from other threads.
Categories
Open Thread for Personal Stuff: November Rain Edition
Just post them I formatted, wordpress will convert em to working links. Ugly, but functional.
As for your jury duty argument, yes. I’d do it. I am, in fact, a little dismayed. CT called me twice, while I was living in PA. It seems simple enough — you want a jury of your peers, you have to be willing to sit on one, baring hardship, etc.
Argenti: They are both there, it’s just that one didn’t close, so it looks like one huge link.
I was the foreperson on a jury once. As boring as the case was (6-week breach of contract case), I was genuinely touched that my fellow jurors chose me for that role. I was also pleased that they all took it very seriously, even though we all had to make sure no one fell asleep while in the jury box (because a 6-week breach of contract case is hard to make exciting).
I always get tossed from criminal cases by the prosecution, though.
Ally S – Yay for being able to calm yourself!
I really wish I had advice for everyone in this thread, but I just don’t. So here are some pictures of pygmy marmosets instead, because they are my favorites:
http://img.timeinc.net/time/photoessays/2011/mini_pets/mini_pets_marmoset.jpg
http://www.expatads.com/adpics/-Twin-Pygmy-marmoset-monkeys-For-Adoption-5183546d277ead06d8e1.jpg
http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/isselee/isselee0804/isselee080400101/2935434-pygmy-marmoset-5-weeks–callithrix-cebuella-pygmaea-in-front-of-a-white-background.jpg
I have to say, “asked and answered” is lots of fun.
I’m seeing this new psych for my PTSD in ten hours time and I’m really, really scared.
Sorry, just needed to say it out loud. I’m just so fucking scared and I hate it so much. I’m so sick of being frightened of fucking everything.
I’m sorry, ophelia. :< Hugs if you want them.
[Content note: cissexism, anxiety]
Today I was hanging out with a trans friend in downtown Santa Cruz. She and I wandered around various major streets, and we checked out a cool bookstore. We also ranted to each other about everything from sociopolitical bullshit to casual cissexism we've experienced. And we also talked about various personal problems that both of us were dealing with. It was so nice to hang out with her – she's one of the few trans women I can really relate to.
After a while we sat down outside of a public library to rest momentarily since we were walking constantly. And these two men – a cop and some random white man – were staring at me and my friend. The cop gave my friend a threatening, creepy stare because she was presenting as female. And after that we were both nervous because there were other people who were looking at us in a creepy way. It made me think about how life will be for me once I start living as a girl…
RE: opheliamonarch
Being scared sucks, and it’s okay to be sick and frustrated with it. That’s why you’re getting help. Hang in there, you’re doing yourself a big service!
Also, have you ever heard of The Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Handbook? I’ve never been diaged PTSD, but when I was dealing with some shit last year, I found the book really helpful and accessible.
Hugs if you want them, opheliamonarch. Seeing a new therapist is scary.
I think I can relate to “I’m so sick of being frightened of fucking everything.” I don’t have PTSD, but I had to quit my job today due to other anxiety issues. I don’t mean “I know exactly how you feel!” because I have no idea what you’re going through, but…I hope it helps to know that someone else also feels afraid all the time?
Do you like newfies? Here’s a newfie:
http://dogsnuffle.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/newfoundland-dogs.jpg
And I see asked and answered triggered a meltdown.
I hope you like your new therapist, Ophelia. A good one will help you feel safe.
And toujoursgai, I’m sorry you had to quit your job but I hope that you make progress with your anxiety issues.
My brother is planning to move out of California soon. He told me that he wanted to move to Santa Cruz with me, but it appears his plans have changed. I’m the only person he’s told so far, so he seems serious about this. It’s only fair for him to have the opportunity to move out as he also hates living with my dad (my dad abused him in the past even worse than me), and I’m not upset at him.
But I feel really disappointed and sad now that I know that he isn’t going to stay with me. It’s going to be very difficult for me to move out of my dad’s house if my brother moves back to Colorado because he won’t be paying part of the rent (in case I move into some apartment). I’ll be on my own. I just hope my sister decides to move to California and let me stay with her as a roommate. Otherwise I’m going to have to make preparations (again) for escaping this house very soon. At the same time, I don’t want to pressure her to take me in because she has the right to her own space.
Yep, it’s 100% confirmed now. I just talked to him about it some more. I hope he lives a good life away from my dad. And I mean that.
Ally, I’m both glad that your brother is getting away, and sad that one of your pathways out is probably gone. I know you’ll find another way.
In better news, a trans friend of mine told me about this clinic in San Francisco: http://www.dimensionsclinic.org/
She told me that I can actually get free (or at least really low-cost) HRT prescriptions from that clinic and that she knows trans people who get their prescriptions there. ^_^
*sigh* I can’t wait until I’m out of this house.
That’s good news about the trans clinic, Ally!
Here in Sweden, being trans has both its ups and downs compared to most countries… One of the ups is that hormone treatment and various kinds of surgery is covered by the public health care system. A very big downside is that only special trans doctors are allowed to prescribe hormones, the queues can be very long, meaning lots of people turn to the black market in desperation and have actually been on hormones for a couple of years when they finally get a legal prescription by a trans doctor… Plus, apparently, while Stockholm trans doctors are pretty okay with people who’re a bit more on the gender queer side of the spectrum, if you live up in the Northlands you gotta be a Real Man ™ or Real Woman ™, or the trans docs won’t take you seriously.
Wow…WTF? =S
I have a genderqueer friend who lives here in Stockholm and is on testo treatment (legally). Zie travels around a lot, lecturing on philosophical issues (zie’s got a master’s degree in philosophy) and health and exercise issues (zie’s a personal trainer now) that are particularly relevant for trans people. Zie was recently far up in the Northlands to hold some lectures and zie was shocked at how binary-conservative the docs up there are… Poor trans people who happen to live up there and don’t find the docs’ image of a Real Woman ™ or Real Man ™.
Sorry, should be “and don’t FIT the docs’ image”, not “find”.
Oh look, I found an MRA http://www.rip-factor.com/formen/index.html
And here I was researching symbols for Feminist Borg.
Click your second link, now check out the little pictures in the sidebar. Recognize that face? No? Click it and make it bigger.
They’re for real, or at least the biggest dumbass on the planet thinks they are.
Be even better if it is all a massive trolling of the MRAs, since Tweedlelam’s a follower.
Imagine if it comes out that he’s been fooled – he won’t like being told IT WAS SATIRE!!!!eleventy11!!!
1) Yes. We have bottles of it in the crash cart.
2) The release of dopamine is associated with certain drugs and pleasurable activities. I can’t find the context you’re talking about, but it may be implying that the person is doing something (using drugs, exercising, hating men) to get a dopamine high, or something.
RE dopamine: yes, dopamine is available as an injectable drug.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine#Pharmacology
This is a little late, but MADRE is also helping in the Philippines. I started donating to them when some group–I think Secular Coalition for America?–that I get emails from recommended them (along with others, including IIRC Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders) after the Haiti earthquake.
I’m not really familiar with White River Junction, but it depends on what part of Vermont whether it will be busier in the summer or in the winter. In the Champlain Islands, it’s busier in the summer. Around Jay Peak (ski resort), it’s busier in the winter.
Hang in there, LBT and Ally S! Toujoursgai, sorry you had to leave your job.
Someone here, I think Argenti, keeps loaches? I am setting up a loach tank, a 36″ long tank. I think I will get ~6 kuhli loaches, maybe the P. oblonga/black kuhli type. I think I will put some kind of non-bottom-dwelling fish in with them as well, but I haven’t completely decided. My dad has some orange swordtails he can give me for free, but they like slightly hard water, ideally with a little salt, and kuhlis like slightly soft water, so I don’t know if they’re compatible, though I think the swordtails are pretty tough and may be able to adjust. Maybe I’ll try to find some white cloud mountain minnows instead, but IDK, the kuhlis might eat them.