u/Fantastic_Acadian

There is something so special about a library or church on a weekday morning or a shopping mall where only the AMC and a Claire's are still operating, a café on a snowy afternoon when no one else is braving the weather, a park the morning after a cold snap... so few people that you can be certain you're unobserved. It's quiet, the light is dim, your thoughts can unfold in peace, or you can enjoy the empty space.

I really appreciate what many NTs would call a creepy vibe, but to me it feels as cozy as my own bedsheets.

Well heck.

I've been rolling low and slow for the past couple months, keeping an eye on the prices and the administration. But at some point, due to weather or circumstance, one must roll in earnest.

Loyalty programs aside, what are y'all thinking? How are you planning or revising plans for summer?

Much love to all y'all, rubber gang and leather gang alike. 👍

Decades of misdiagnosis later, I finally got the professional, credentialed, game-changing phrase that pays.

I can finally let go of all that shame. It'll take a long time, just like all the trauma therapy, but it feels so good to know that I'm not unacceptable or bad. I'M. JUST. AUTISTIC.

And yes. I needed someone with a clinical background to say it TO ME. And that happened today. And I'm very pleased.

Can you watch a full episode without taking a few hard drags?

Because I cannot.

I found out at my renewal that the state of Illinois never put my reported self employment in my file!

I was so confused as to why it wasn't added when I first applied over the phone... then I noticed the worker who was doing my in-person renewal also wasn't adding the info to my file as we were talking about it.

(For context, I've been applying for other jobs for about a year and continuing to volunteer at my nonprofit. Before this year, we had enough money as an organization to pay me, but one of our board members embezzled our entire bank account, so now we're rebuilding.)

So why weren't those volunteer hours in my file?

Turns out, and this shouldn't shock me but does, a LOT of folks make fake corporations, fake websites, fake everything. I had to show this woman 3 years of legit IRS filings and corporate videos to prove my life's work isn't smoke and mirrors. So weird! I'm glad I had the receipts to show, but DANG. If I hadn't gone in person on a whim, I never would have seen the facial expression of disbelief and realized she suspected fraud.

All this to say, the fraudsters really make so much more work for the rest of us. Boo on them.