#iamdrawberry

Aw naw man, there's a new series called Sleepy Hollow that's, like, set in the present day but a magically time-traveling Ichabod Crane is in it and he was a spy or something and... it sounds really terrible. It probably is really terrible. But I have a lot of Feels about that legend as a native New Yorker and lover of spooky things, and also that guy is pretty attractive, so I'm torn.

I did see that movie a day ago and it was all right. It was mostly good for eye candy.

I think that this deserves a story, because it's a story that I love telling.  Straight out of university, I was recruited to work at a psychiatric hospital to help start up their research program (spoiler alert: it didn't work and I was laid off after 6 months). This job was about 45 minutes North of Dallas in my parents' town, so I moved back home while I was working there. 

The best part about that is that the city also had an amazing no kill shelter that I used to hang out at. I would look at the new dogs that came in every morning.  One day, they had a hideous looking picture of a Cocker Spaniel named Lady that I decided to go check out out of sheer curiosity. No one was there at my office so I left an hour early to go to the shelter.

When I got there, I went back to the puppy section where they keep the smaller dogs sometimes.  As I went back, this Cocker was stretched out to the top of the open air plexiglass pen so that she could sniff me.  When I walked around the room, she moved along the glass on her hind legs.  I petted her for a minute until a staff person recommended a "get acquainted room," which is much less creepy than it sounds.

In the room, I noticed that she had several chipped and missing teeth, had saggy breasts, had bald spots on her butt and tail, was severely underweight, and had a terrible runny nose and cold. She spent the entire time in the room waiting at the door, hoping to escape. I was told that she was most likely a puppy mill mom that they dumped in the streets as a stray after she gave her last litter (estimated she birthed around 4 litters.)

I adopted her right then and there. I named her Dixie because I wanted something Southern and the name Patsy Cline didn't sound right. I gave her the middle name Ribs because you could see every rib because she was so skinny.  When I finally moved out of the house to Dallas a couple years later, Dixie became their dog full-time after their dog Penny passed away. I adopted Dr. Dorian a short time later.

'shots of oxygen'? Like. Breathing? What?

1. Bromine - what was your favorite food as a child?

Potatoes and milk; there is no possible way I could be whiter. There are a lot of foods that are nostalgic for me because of the part they played in my childhood or because I associate them with people I loved, but I distinctly remember standing at the counter and pouring glass after glass of milk (which may explain a lot, that shit was loaded with weird hormones), and I was happy if I got any kind of potatoes on my plate. 

2. Acetaldehyde - what did you used to have that you are happier without?

Wow that’s genuinely really cool :o Is it okay if I reblog it, since you mentioned some personal stuff?

I know that a lot of stuff you post are thoughts you kinda wanna keep private in your circle of friends so is it okay if I reblog this? I have like..230 followers so I am not sure if you’d be cool with 230 strangers reading your stuff »’

Yeah, no prob, that's not really a personal post. If men who hate that women play video games want to come at me, I am willing and able to just ignore it.

I don’t know if that’s good or bad xD oh dear

You may be a woman, but you are human. You have the right to be heard and seen. You have the right to make art and display it and sell it as you please, without the approval of jerks who need to go roll in a field of cacti.

You don't need their recognition. You don't need their approval. You don't need them.

You're a wonderful artist. You have infinite potential. Keep going. Keep growing. Keep making art. Only then can you expand your already fantastic skill set into something those asshats would be jealous of.

Do it to prove them wrong. Do it to show them that you are a woman and you are more than capable and that you are just as necessary to the industry as they may be. 

Do it for you. To show yourself that you can. Even if you don't succeed as well as you'd like at that con, it's an opportunity to learn and improve and try again until you succeed to your expectations.