I know it's not cool to remind folk that we're in an ongoing pandemic, but while COVID doesn't reset the immune system like measles, it can turn on and off certain genes in stem cells, altering how your immune system behaves in future.
VACCINATE YA KIDS FFS
❤️❤️❤️
“I don’t know. Whenever we try to do stuff, me and Zoey, half the time she starts crying and freaking out, and she says it’s not my fault and she says she likes me, but…” Saintjohn Hadouken sighed through pinched lips, hard enough to make his cheeks puff, and shook his head, “...feels like I’m hurting her.”
Johnny Newsroom looked off into the distance and took a pensive pull of his vape. “She said she likes you?”
“Yeah. I just don’t know what’s going on.”
Johnny turned his head to look him in the eye. “Have you ever dated a trans gal before?”
Saintjohn shook his head. “I’m fuckin figuring out some shit about myself, bro.”
“It’s… she’s… let’s put it this way. Imagine if your dick looked like a scary clown.”
Saintjohn flinched. “I don’t wanna do that. I don’t wanna use my brain powers for evil.”
Johnny continued. “Imagine if every time you took off your pants, a fucked-up evil clown was staring back at you. Imagine trying to get close to someone while you’re like that. Imagine trying to have a sex life. Imagine just trying to love when you’ve got an evil clown under your pants.”
Saintjohn’s frown seemed to stretch beyond the limits of his face. “Can I stop imagining it now?”
Johnny took another pull from his vape. “I don’t think Zoey gets to stop. Everyone’s got a different relationship to their own body, I don’t know Zoey personally, but...” he trailed off, letting Saintjohn fill in the blanks for himself.
Saintjohn leaned against the side of the motorhome and sighed again. “So what am I supposed to do?”
“Do you love her?” Johnny asked.
A pause.
“She makes me happy. When she laughs at my dumbass jokes, I feel like I just cured cancer.”
Saintjohn smiled as soon as he started talking about her. Johnny knew that smile, he felt its residual warmth, the second-hand joy. He wanted the two of them to be happy. He wanted one good thing to happen in the middle of this disaster. The Midwest Autonomous Zone could burn to the ground all over again. As long as he helped two people fall in love, he would have no regrets.
“And, y’know, I wanna get all up in there,” Saintjohn said.
“Okay. Well. To answer your question. Be patient. Let her do things at her pace. Let her figure herself out. Give her space when she needs it, even if you never want to be away from her. If you mess up - and you probably will, we’re only human - swallow your pride, apologize, and try not to do it again. Trust that it will all work out.”
“That sounds really hard.”
Johnny gave him a wry smile. “That’s love.”
[later]
“I’m sorry,” Zoey sniffed, pulling away from Saintjohn, “I just can’t right now. I don’t know if I’ll ever…”
She buried her head in her hands. Her body shuddered with heavy breaths as she began to cry. Saintjohn looked at her. He considered putting a hand on her shoulder, then lowered his arm and simply sat next to her.
“It’s okay,” Saintjohn said, “I understand. You gotta deal with the evil clown.”
Zoey lifted her head. She was too surprised and confused to keep crying. “What?”
When there's something in particular that you're spiralling on (for example a recent breakup, something not going your way etc), that's a great opportunity to learn poems or songs. Whenever you find yourself re-entering the spiral, recite/sing the poems/songs instead. Try to see how much you remember before rechecking your source material. It will help.
Honestly it boils down to reparenting yourself & rewiring your own neuronal pathways & telling yourself a firm “stop” when you notice your mind slipping down negative loopholes & being present in the moment & enjoying being mid task rather than waiting for it to end & not thinking of inertia as your baseline and natural way of living
Wow
I grew up with a grandma who quilted, but she’d never been interested in passing along the hobby, so when she finally kicked it I was the grandkid who got all her materials, ‘cause I was the only one who knew how to use a sewing machine. Then, in 2015, a friend had a baby and I figured I’d make her a quilt, ‘cause how hard could it be?
oh
my
god
Luckily I am the stubbornest human alive, ‘cause I never woulda finished otherwise. I didn’t know what I was doing, didn’t know the terms to look up how to do anything, I musta reinvented the wheel like eight times and it took ten months, BUT I DID IT.
Figured I’d suffered enough and would never do it again and now I’m on quilt #9 smdh
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I’m hyperventilating.
Holy shit. Holy SHIT.
This is INCREDIBLE.
Oh my god.
I’ve gotta go lay down holy shit look at this how do we just walk by other human beings every day and live our separate lives when there’s a person sitting next to you on the train or in line for coffee who goes home and makes things like this what even IS being human holy shit.
GOOD FUCKING JOB.
Stay safe in the water
I'm a fan of snakes and I learned new things
Ive never really met anyone that thought of ribs as interesting… that’s such a shame. Ribs and the things they do are fascinating…. I think about them everyday.
The SAVE Act has passed in The House. It makes it illegal for a woman whose last name does not match her birth name to vote as a "citizenship verification measure." The main way around it is being able to present your passport at the polls since that proves your citizenship.
Look up your Senators here and raise hell on their phone lines about this blatant attempt to disenfranchise millions of women:
https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member
*chirp*
you mean to tell me there are people who don't make little creature noises on a daily basis? wild
This paints such a beautiful picture
Musk is the least classy billionaire that ever was. I write that even knowing that Trump exists.
The US government entrusts billion of dollars to this racist manchild and his company that makes expensive fireworks.