The Freedom Song of the Jigsaw Girl

The past few weeks have been good for reconnecting with old friends. A few weeks ago my brother let me know that someone I had been best friends with back in elementary school (we lost touch when I moved away) reached out to him on Facebook and was looking for me. I'd changed my last name so I'm a bit harder to find than my brother. I reached out and we messaged each other a bit, and traded phone numbers so we could catch up (with nearly 30 years to catch up on we figured we would be in for a long phone call). I let her know I probably would have a chance to call until after Memorial Day as I had a friend coming up to visit that weekend, and she was totally cool with that. So I finally got around to calling her today and we spent a good hour on the phone catching up.

Thanks to my often rocky self esteem especially when it comes to childhood things, I was absolutely astonished she not only remembered me, but that she missed me and was over the moon to have finally tracked me down. So knowing that she still talks about me all the time was a great blow to some very old brain weasels. I'm really happy to have her back in my life.

I also got to reconnect with a friend from law school that I hadn't seen since we graduated six years ago. She's the one who came up to visit Memorial Day weekend. And I got to meet her adorable 2 year old son. We had a lovely weekend, though I was pretty wiped by the end of it. So worth it though.

This weekend I spent mostly just resting. Got my usual weekend chores (laundry, cooking lunches for the week) done. Played way too much Merge Dragons on my phone (a very sweet, and rather addicting game involving dragons, other mythical creatures, and merging three or more items to form bigger items), and reading stories from the new Quantum Bang (a multi-fandom fix-it challenge that has some amazing stories so far. I'm in the middle of reading Keira Marco's fic and it is amazing (MCU fix it for Endgame--which while I enjoyed for the most part, I still had some massive issues with it).

Anyway, I'll try to remember to check in a little more frequently than once every six months. :D Much love to everyone. <3

So my friends have returned home now after a week working as medical relief in a Jersey City shelter. Ceredwyn posted several great blog entries on her family's blog, Scaling the Peak.

Additionally one of our local newspapers has published a lovely, long article on their volunteer work. If you are curious about the how the money they raised was spent and how things went for them, I would recommend reading both the article and the blog posts. She has some very insightful words on disaster and its effects on people in her Night Shift blog post.

Plus the article includes a lovely picture of Ceredwyn with her adorable dog.

Also if you have any interest in how a modern homestead might work, one that combines the interconnected lifestyle of the 21st century with the old farmstead and basic low technology life of the 19th century, then I recommend checking out the rest of Scaling the Peak, which is maintained by both Ceredwyn and her husband, Bryan.

paganaidd posted an update on her blog.

They made it safely to Jersey City and have checked in with the Red Cross there. There were able to get to their assigned shelter before travel bans were put into place due to the incoming winter storm. They were able to take a care full of goods with them. They left the goods at one of the Occupy Sandy drop points as they seem to be the most effective at distributing goods. Check out the post for more detail and photos. :)

Thank you, thank you, thank you! We have raised $1000 for Heather and we still have a day left on our microfunding. I can not thank those who've signal boosted and donated enough. I really can't. Especially the kind soul who anonymously donated $780.00. I am practically in tears I'm so happy. So thank you again to all who signal boosted and donated. You rock!

::hugs and thanks and good energy::

Edited to add: If you are still interested in ways you can help Heather, please check out her Amazon wishlist and this post.

So yesterday I posted about a microfundraiser that my friend paganaidd and I are doing. We are trying to raise $1000 in 7 days, which may seem kind of ridiculous. But the situation is critical. Heather is disabled, so her only income in her disability check. She cannot stay in her apartment anymore do to her Multiple Chemical Sensitivities caused by long term carbon monoxide poisoning. Her doctor has essentially told her that she would be better off homeless, in northeastern Vermont in fall (which would feel like winter to some of my southern friends--tonight's low is supposed to be 40 degrees Fahrenheit) than to stay in her apartment, which is killing her. We are trying to raise money to get her into safe and healthy housing. Essentially we are looking to pay the security deposit and first month's rent) because there is no way she can save up enough from her disability checks to cover those. Rent is astronomically expensive in Vermont considering its rural nature. I pay more for a studio here than I would for an apartment of equal size in Spokane, WA. Her family is not helpful at this point. So we are doing our best to help where we can.

Heather is a friend and someone that paganaidd and I know in real life. We've been wracking our brains trying to figure out how to help her. Heather cannot come to live with either of us do to the fact that neither of us live in a situation that would be safe to someone with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (the slightest hint of fragrance or chemicals can make Heather violently ill, to the point of passing out). This is what we are trying to get Heather into.

Several of my friends have stepped up and offered donations as incentives, which is amazingly awesome. Unfortunately we (paganaidd and I) are having difficulty adding those incentives to the microfunding site. Since we have such a short turnaround on this, I would like to thank you all very much for your kind offers and request that instead you simply boost the signal where you can. Boosting the signal can help just as much as cool incentives.

If you can spare a dollar, please consider it. Donations can be made here. If you can't spare anything, but are willing to boost the signal that would be amazingly appreciated. I apologize for spamming my dwircle/flist, and thank you for your time and patience.

So in addition to the disturbing news I discuss in the previous post, I am dealing with the latest Herxheimer reaction from the increase in my antibiotics. The increase is a necessary evil in the treatment of Lyme, but it is not fun. So I'm generally feeling fairly miserable.

Knowing that I am not feeling well and probably shouldn't be by myself this weekend two of my very dear friends have offered to come fetch me (since I am not really safe or capable of driving right now) and bring me up to spend the weekend with them. I can cuddle with their animals and spend time just hanging out and get some TLC.

While part of me feels like I haven't spent enough time at home lately, the rest of me is relieved to not be spending the weekend on my lonesome. I'm happy that I can go spend time with my friends, since I don't usually have a lot of free weekends to go up during the school year (they live about an hour and a half from me).

Thank the gods for good friends. They provide a light in the dark.