I figure it just looks like I'm fidgeting. I haven't been busted yet. Though I'm pretty sure I get a fairly dumb look on my face while I do it.

I totally still do chisenbop.

Same here. It's a great way to keep count if you don't have another way to make a tally.

On the other hand I'm very proud of the dorky way I tie my shoes and I will show it off at any opportunity.

Jilli, there are a great many people who care dearly for you and have likely wished they could do something, anything to help you during these last couple months, and this will be a way for them to feel useful. It's as much for them as it is for you.

This. Jilli, hon, you have a ton of people who know you and like you, and lots of people like to help out people they know, rather than large organizations. If people don’t want to help, or can’t, that’s great. But if they can, even say 25 people sending $5 is $125. That’s some payment for your dad, plus the feeling that some people in the world are still kind and thoughtful. That can be better than gold when you are feeling shitty. Like I posted for my friends, who no one here even KNOW, and with the money some people sent, they can pay a utility bill or a week’s groceries. With the monies our good friends have collected, they can make a mortage payment for a month or a hospital bill.

Happy potential news. It's really only all open an optional and nothing's written even in pixels and all, but after asking about my plans for next year, I've been told today by a leader in an international feminist network that I may want to send my resume there. There (well, the headquarters), btw, is Montreal.

WOO, Shir! Luck to you! I am mostly making funding applications for next year. I would so appreciate some funding~ma.

Funding-ma, Seska!

Thanks for all the positive comments, guys. It really helps to have a place to vent.

A "Hamish" person makes a place cozy and makes the people around her feel cozy.

In Romanian this person would be called a "gospodina." There is a masculine form (gospodar), but it's more about the homestead more than the home.

Funding~ma, Seska!

And much luck, Shir.

And Jilli, yes, I'm glad you did it. I hope no one will be so thoughtless and rude as to say anything, but if they do, you know we'll rip 'em a new one. Politely, of course.

Oh, dear God, why can't there be a social worker who's not an asshole? Of course, last time we met, he actually stood up for the Hayes code. I should feel sorry, being that he's the most obvious closet case since Ricky Martin,(way not as cute..way) but Jesus Christ! Sign my paperwork and go away, Garment Bag!

Wait, how do you tie your shoes, Laga? Inquiring minds need to know!

I'm trying to find a video but they all start halfway.

link

Basically the firt knot is the same as the one that makes the bow but you pull the ends all the way through. It's really fun to show drunk people, then try and splain them how to do it.

Jesus Christ! Sign my paperwork and go away, Garment Bag!

OK, Erika, I just choked myself laughing at that last bit.

Okay, that's how I tie my shoes. I think it's awesome. I just wanted to make sure there wasn't some *other* awesome way to tie shoes I was missing. I really hate tying my shoes. I spend a lot of time trying to find shoes that don't require tying. My favorite shoes of all time were the awesome pair of lace-less Doc Martens I had in the nineties.