Hee. Looks like the Welcoming Committee is here. Hello, delurkers!

Come out, come out, wherever you are.

God, has it been a year? I'm glad you have better memories than me.

Delurking's always fun.

To the lurkers:

"Welcome to [our] home. Come freely, go safely And leave something of the happiness You bring."

Lurkers, come on out and de-

We'd love to see you!

This is hilarious. National Delurking Month!

Some of the oldtimers on the board remember me but everyone else is probably puzzled. I started participating just after Buffistas left TT (I was on TT but don't remember having found Buffy yet then) and followed on various boards until b.org was formed. I was here for a year or two but dropped out for various reasons. I've popped back in intermittently over the years.

I popped back in again this last July and am trying to make it stick. I lived in the SF Bay Area for 25 or 30 years and am now (temporarily I hope) in LA trying to consolidate financially.

I'm disabled, a singer, songwriter, VO artist, visual artist, not necessarily in that order.

Yay delurking! I have almost completely reverted to lurking status due to being overworked. This was such a delightful thread last year. I hope to at least be able to keep up here.

To the lurkers who know not Laura: I live in Pompano Beach, FL. DH and I have worked together for 22 years, mostly providing software and services related to electronic medical records. We have 2 teen boys who contribute joys and sorrows to our lives in varying proportions. Our Brandy and Georgia are also getting up there in years, but they're not nearly as moody as the boys.

I still watch BtVS to de-stress in the comfort of familiarity. My current TV is severely limited but I do record Fringe and Doctor Who when they air and have Caprica in the queue when it happens in a few days. TDS records too, yikes am I far behind.

Well, I see the sun is rising and there are lovely pink streaks over the coast line so I am going to walk outside with my coffee and welcome the day.

I miss all of you! Come on lurkers; trust me on this, we really do love to hear from and about you.

Hi Buffistas!

I'm trying to de-lurk, though so far I have met with limited success. I love this thread as last year it got me posting in what felt like a VERY safe space, not that I’m exactly scared of you all, perhaps just a little intimidated. Buffista talk moves fast! It moves faster than I can keep up with and frequently when I finally have something to contribute or say the conversation has moved on. I’m going to keep at it though as this community is more than worth the effort. As an aside, I am fearful I will be caught out using a semi-colon improperly.

Last year when I de-lurked I was unemployed and remodeling my home – which left me with lots of free time to hang out in cafés and pretend I could somehow sustain a life of leisure. I couldn’t. Now I am working it’s even harder to keep up and though I post in a few slower moving threads, I can’t seem to bust out comfortably in Natter (or Bitches). But I’m very relieved to have a job as it means food, shelter, & healthcare and that’s very much of the good. I am grateful to be having the “keeping up” problems I do. I work in HR Technology, project management & software implementation (mostly SAP which I’m almost scared to mention around here), and am working in Healthcare for the first time. It’s been an interesting contrast to private industry.

33 Revolutions, the local café and my home away from home, is sadly gone, succumbing to the rough economic times. El Cerrito has somehow lost it’s hip cache with that loss, though I’m glad to report the pub theater survived with new management. I am back in my home, a child hood home, built in 1944 that was in desperate need of being rescued from dry rot, old wires, cracked stucco, and dubious previous kitchen and bath remodels. I had a great builder, but I can’t really recommend going through the process to anyone. It’s stressful, harrowing, and full of endless decisions (micro and macro). My house was robbed three times during construction, but perhaps most disgusting, the first time, the thieves left a scatological present. I cannot fathom the thinking there. And now, due to nerves (& perhaps common sense), I have an alarm system, something I had frequently declared unnecessary.

I have a fabulous foster cat named Monkey from the Berkeley Humane Society. Remarkably, he survived the horrific fire the shelter had last year unscathed. He was one of the few cats to survive. He is an itchy self-harming kitty who wears a collar to deter him from chewing his limbs off. He’s adorable and the Humane Society is determined to identify the source of his allergies (not fleas) before adopting him out. They have spent a fortune on this little guy with tests, vet visits, specialists, and medications. I hope they solve it because it’s horrible to be itchy all the time. That said, I’ve never met a cat that wants to play as much as he does. He’s relentless in the pursuit of play.

The last year carried a series of incredible challenges for Buffistas, and I just wanted to say that I have admired the strength, courage, support and love you’ve given each other through these tough times. It’s unbelievably touching that an online community can so clearly become a family. I feel like a foster who may be ready for adoption but is still afraid to commit.

I want to send a vigorous hand wave and shout-out to fellow El Cerrito lurker, Fern.

ehab! I forgot you were in El Cerrito. We should plan an East Bay outing. We can talk about SPN.

And frogs.

Absolutely! Talk and watch sometime maybe with pocket frogs [and wine].