"sometimes i miss my sanity" –wedge antilles

It started with someone listing "places with uncanny energy," like gas stations on a road trip, empty movie theaters, etc.

Then someone reblogged it and said those are called "liminal spaces," defining liminal as in-between, neither one thing nor another.

Tomorrow (July 4th, 2026) is the 10 year anniversary of the-crepes-of-wrath's comment, which:

Predates the 2020 spike in interest by four years

Predates the original backrooms post, and the the creation of r/liminalspaces by three years

Predates the earliest mention that KnowYourMeme attributes to Twitter by two years

I'm pretty sure this is the moment the term "liminal spaces" was attached to this sort of imagery, and it's TEN YEARS OLD TOMORROW!

When your swatch matches your cat 👌

The answer is: the uterus isn't what causes your period, it is effected by your period. What causes your period and what causes trans women's periods is the same thing: the endocrine system.

HRT changes the sex of your endocrine system. Feminizing HRT makes it a female endocrine system, giving us a 28-day hormone cycle just like cis women. At the end of that cycle, the hypothalamus floods the body with prostaglandins. Those are what cause all but one of the period symptoms, because they make muscles inflame and contract. They are what make the uterus shed its lining, they are what cause intestinal cramps, they are what cause body aches, they are what cause headaches and migraines. The only period symptom not causes by the release of prostaglandins throughout the body is depression, and that is caused by your endocrine system simply not processing as much estrogen and from simply feeling like shit.

So, the only symptoms trans women don't get every 28 days is menstrual cramps, because yes we do not menstruate since we don't have uteruses. But migraines, depression, body aches, intestinal cramps, and the infamous "period shits" don't exactly add up to us having any better of a time. Except we have to pretend that we're fine and nothing is different because no one believes that we get periods, not even cis women.

"Why?"

"I was in a relationship for five years and he loved me in all the ways I was supposed to be loved. He had the motivation. The patience, the consistency. I convinced my self that should've been enough, but what I was missing was the fluency.

"He didn't remember things about me the way I remembered things about him. And I know it sounds silly but I'd buy him his favorite mouthwash at CVS because I remembered he liked the taste. I wouldn't cook with oranges because I remembered he hated them. And I didn't realize how much I needed that reciprocated until a year ago when I reconnected with this guy on hinge.

"There was absolutely no foundation for a relationship but after we met he caught me off guard with 'let me make you dinner' and I said, 'just reminding you I'm celiac.' And even though we hadn't spoken in a year he said 'Dont worry. I already got your favorite chickpea pasta.'

"And I just stood there in his kitchen because I have never been in love with this man and he has never been in love with me, but in that moment, I felt strangely seen and loved, because it wasn't just 'oh he remembered I have an allergy.'

"It's that after a year of silence, there were details about me that felt worth holding onto and that felt more intimate than any partner saying 'I love you' to me becuse declarations of love are just words, but remembering is the action of it. Because you can fake loving someone but you cannot fake remembering.

"And most importantly it implies that I think of you in your absence, whether it's convenient or not. Like when you're going about your day and suddenly there thet are. I find you in the mouthwash aisle. I find you in the fruit bowl. I find you in a thousand small choices I make without thinking. Because even though I don't want to, for the rest of my life I will remember my ex hated oranges."

"What was your name?"

"Sophie."

1. Big drink

2. Air conditioning

5. National parks 🏞️

6. Halloween 🎃

7. Broadway 🎭 (thanks, Jewish Americans!)

8. Buffalo 🦬 (thanks, Native Americans, and I’m so sorry for what we did to them and you!)

9. Bald Eagle 🦅

10. Jeans 👖

11. I know the Walt Disney Company is no angel, but I really do love that we have the world’s best theme parks. 🐭🏰

12. PUBLIC LIBRARIES. YOU WILL NEVER CONVINCE ME THAT THE USA IS WITHOUT ITS MERITS AS LONG AS WE HAVE PUBLIC LIBRARIES. 📚

13. Comic books and superheroes (thanks, Jewish Americans!) 🦸🏻‍♀️

14. Jazz music, blues music, rock ‘n roll, rap, and hip hop (thanks, Black Americans!) 🎶🎼🎵

15. Birthright citizenship 🗽

16. The Americans with Disabilities Act ♿️ (thanks, disabled Americans!)

17. Animation and cartoons (shoutout to Mel Blanc, another Jewish American who gave us all the Looney Tunes voices) 📺

18. The Muppets 🐸🐷

19. No official language 🌎🗣️

20. Mac and cheese 😋

21. Our Mexican cuisine (thanks, Latino Americans!). I know it’s probably not what you’d get in South/Central America, but if you’ve ever tried to get a taco outside the Americas, you know what I mean. 🌮

22. State and county fairs 🎡

23. Despite its shitty origins…Thanksgiving. It’s a holiday about sharing a meal with your family and being thankful for what you have. It’s nice to have a holiday that isn’t about buying stuff. 🦃🍗

24. Juneteenth and MLK Day (thanks, Black Americans, though I fully acknowledge that if we lived in a just world, those holidays would not have been necessary) ✊🏾

25. Labor Day and the labor movement. ✊🏻✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿

26. USAID 💔

27. PBS 📺 We have AMAZING public media and I am forever grateful for it.

28. Movie theaters 🍿🎥🎬🎞️

29. Our universities and the fact that not only are women allowed to attend them, they’re actually becoming more educated than men. 🎓

30. No school uniforms 😎