I met Kathleen when I was twenty-two. It was at a nonprofit for at-risk youth, which is now defunct. It was a toxic workplace where people worked for ages and had given up hope of making it better. I was hired as a Day Treatment counselor and not trained at all. Yes, they expected a… Continue Reading
When I first woke up from being unconscious for a week, I counted in days. The first day I was awake, the second day, etc. I talked to both Ian and K the second day I was awake, and I remember both of the conversations. Or monologues, to be more accurate. I just babbled at… Continue Reading
Shadow. My best boy. This is post two of my paean to my miracle cat. My boon companion for the past fifteen-plus years. I no longer think about Raven every day, but he is still tucked in a corner of my heart. It was such a shock when he died, I had a hard time… Continue Reading
I have a black cat named Shadow. He is sixteen years old. He has been with me since he was nine months old. Let me tell you the story of his life. Many many moons ago, I was perusing Petfinder for two black cats, siblings, in my area whom I could adopt. I didn’t know… Continue Reading
My brother and I were talking about his journey into dating apps land. I set up my OkCupid profile out of curiosity and immediately shut down. It made me panic because there was just too much stuff to look over. And they were pinging me with notifications that didn’t matter. I don’t like not being… Continue Reading
I call advice columns my stories and I enjoy reading them just as a peek into other people’s lives. However, I find most of the answers unsatisfactory, even from the columnists I usually agree with. The only advice column that I think is good 90% of the time is Ask A Manager, and she has… Continue Reading
I have changed in so many ways since my medical trauma/crisis. By the way, I’m still searching for a way to talk about it that is both accurate and not off-putting/sympathy-eliciting. Right now, I’ve settled on ‘life-threatening medical crisis’, but that’s not quite right. I’m a changed person because of what I went through. The… Continue Reading
In the RKG Discord someone asked what people did to get past their lowest time. I wrote out this whole answer that included my life-threatening medical trauma–then I deleted it because it’s not really helpful. “Go almost die and then you’re life will be changed.” Not only isn’t it replicable, it’s not even true for… Continue Reading
When I w as a kid, I had no idea what was normal and what wasn’t. No, that’s not right. I knew that my family was not like others, but I didn’t know why. It’s easy to see in retrospect that it’s cultural, but how was I to know that at the time? When you’re… Continue Reading
A few months before my medical trauma, I was pondering my gender. I haven’t felt like a woman in ages, but I’m pretty sure I am not nonbinary, either. I am definitely not a man–that’s the only thing I can say with confidence. I’ve been told I’m not a woman all my life, so at… Continue Reading