Dunno if I've ever properly de-lurked so I guess kinda starting from scratch. I'm originally from Richmond VA and hauled myself cross country to San Diego for grad school. Lived and worked in Costa Mesa, CA for years where I managed the stages and worked with many fine folks who introduced me to the board. Sadly, I hate sunshine so in spite of the wonderful people I couldn't handle living in SoCal and moved north to PDX....er....edging towards 9 or 10 years ago. Turns out PNW is kinda my ideal climate. (Well, I actually preferred the U.K. but that was decades ago and being a non resident was kinda an issue wrt working and living without settling into a less than desirable marriage.)

After a short but significant career in stage management I needed a little less stress in my life so I got a job with the city as a 911 call taker. Working nights and weekends is totally my cuppa so it's been a good career move for the last 8 years until the past summer when staffing numbers continued tanking and call volume continued growing and suddenly I'mstaring at constantly holding calls no matter how fast or efficiently I work....and I kinda can't deal with that reality. Right now I'm in the middle of a much needed vacation heavily evaluating my levels of burnout and compassion fatigue. I updated my resume last month and had my first ever full blown anxiety attack in the process. Turns out considering totally changing one's professional life at 40 is also a little stressful? Suggestions welcome.

After many years of being convinced that I was just not capable of being in a long term relationship or ever connecting with someone romanticallly I found an amazing guy (on okcupid of all places.) We had a rather strange but functional courtship and he moved in last October. So now my 800 square foot house contains two adults, one very large dog (Thor), and two cats (Nicodemus and Malachi) who still resent the other human for bringing the dog into their home. He does IT support and likes carrots and rewatches Firefly at least once a year. Also, we bonded over Buffy so while he's even more introverted than I am, he is also One Of Us without having an inkling of what that means.

I had a couple surgeries a little over two years ago now that changed the landscape of my life emotionally. I haven't really processed everything even yet but have fascinatingly clear memories of days in the hospital staring out the window or at motes in the sunbeams trying to figure out who I was and who I wanted to be. Navel gazing at its finest (my largest scar starts in my navel and continues almost 3 inches down...they used super glue to close the wound and I spent a lot of time litterally staring at that crust trying to figure out how on earth super glue could keep my entire abdominal cavity closed like that.) Still in physical therapy and still having ongoing pain issues that may or may not be related and randomly last month started having breathing problems that may or may not be due to environmental pollutants in my workplace or city...and that's way more ambivalence than I would like wrt breathing....but....dang. I am talky tonight, on my mom's sofa like its 1996 and I'm spending all night on alt.gothic.

Right, and I'm the other other Erin ;)

Wow Susan, we should chat at some point about raising the gender queer/non-conformist teen

And sorry about the burnout, I guess, but I am excited about you writing fantasy!

Yeah, as part of working through the burnout, I asked myself why I wasn't writing fantasy when a good fantasy novel is my favorite thing to READ, and I decided it was time for a genre switch.

And running, yay running! I'm super surprised how much I like it, myself.

I said for years I'd never run, but I enjoy it so much, I think because it's such a perfect introvert exercise. And also because "I will never do X" seems to guarantee that eventually I'll come around to it. Though so far, "I will never win the lottery" hasn't worked its reverse magic for me.

Wow Susan, we should chat at some point about raising the gender queer/non-conformist teen

I'd be glad to. It's definitely a learning curve while playing by ear thing so far for me.

::waves at Erin:: PDX? We're near-neighbors, then, though it's been a few years since I last made it down to Oregon.

Susan, despite all the trips I've made up to Seattle I've never managed to see you! Terrible.

esse, erin, Susan - so good to hear from you.

Erin-o, I met D on OKC! And it sounds like your guy and he could be mental twins. Also, if you have any questions about the hysterectomy, feel free to ask; I had mine lo these 8 years past, and it was straight up one of the best things I've done.

It's so nice to hear from everyone!

Susan, it's really nice to see you! I think fantasy sounds like a great move for you, too.

esse, (I had no idea that's how you would pronounce -- I have zero Latin) it's lovely to see you here, too!

does a happy delurky dance

So good to see you Susan and Erin. I celebrate your successes, sending ~ma and hugs where desired.

My hope is that we see more of the infrequent posters, and may some superlurkers show their pixels too!

Hi again, prodigals! And holy cow people have been going through a lot. The total amount of bravery and dealing-with-it on this board is the awesomest.

Surgical super-glue is neat; I'd done some writing about the new tech in that area for warfighters (I still hate that word), so I was not expecting to discover that I am radically, virulently allergic to it. I had about a half pound of blood vessels taken out of my arm a couple years ago (long story, error in my DNA) and the surgeon used that glue to seal the several incisions and my arm turned into a freak show straight from any body horror movie. It looked like I'd been chewed on by a bobcat AND was deliquescing.

Now I am ruefully amused at the fact that "surgical glue" is not in any medical database of allergens.

Oh, holy carp, Raq, that's horrible! Both the excess blood vessel growth and the glue allergy.

That's good info for me to have, though, given that I'm allergic to most adhesives, if I ever need surgery again, I'll tell them to avoid using surgical glue! Yikes. Allergies are like little internal ninjas, hiding and just waiting to attack you when you least expect it.