Thank goodness. I thought you were going to say you had body odor.

If you were in NYC, I'd buy you a beer and play you some tunes, so instead, I'll just let you know from my own experience that this too shall pass.

I turned 21 today. The friends I know either don't drink, aren't old enough, or don't live within a reasonable distance to party with. I will spend the day doing homework and laundry.

If its any consolation, I feel the same way too. I spent the morning having coffee downtown, reading the paper wondering if its almost time to post another anonymous why am I single thread. You've chimed in with some great advice on two of those threads. I don't have specific advice to help but you are definitely not alone in feeling this way.

If you lived any closer, I would take you out for a beer and cheer you up.

((((( loiseau )))))

PS: Email in profile if you need to vent

I too have been 'funky'...I think it is the constant stress from this election and the changing of the seasons and a huge workload of schoolwork. Bah...at least one of those sources of stress will be gone soon.

Loiseau, I feel you. There is kindness and love all around you. I just put it there.

((((loiseau)))) Hugs and hot chocolate for you.


(((hellojed))) Happy Birthday!!

*whuffles both of you*

Sorry to hear you're feeling down loiseau. I'm right there with you, except without a specific unrequited love. I'm just depressed and horny. Fun fun fun.

Oh, I wish I were up north loiseau, I'd take you out, but I'm not drinking now, and together we might just end up crying in the corner, So... we will have hot chocolate type beverages, and fancy pastries, and get a whole busload of bunnies, and spread hugs and whuffles throughout the city. It will be bunnyriffic!

*Come on everybunny*

I'm sorry, loiseau. I know well how you feel. Are you eating and sleeping OK? Are you getting some exercise and sunshine? Those things help me a bit (necessary but not sufficient, I know).

loiseau, I'm sorry you're feeling low.

(I could transcribe what one of my self-help books tells us about unrequited love, but I'm afraid that would be annoying.)

Be kind to yourself and try to remind yourself that these feelings are temporary.

Oh man, I feel ya. I'll see if I can post some Merle Haggard or something later for you. For some reason Merle Haggard gets me through times like these.

Or, conversely, if anyone can get some high lonesome Merle up here quicker, please do.

I'm so sorry you're feeling low. I went through about a decade of what you describe and it's very tough, isn't it? There is a lot of goodness and kindness out there and I hope you find some really soon. I also think this is a difficult time of the year - the days are shorter, there is less sunshine and we know that a long cold winter is coming. I try to think about the good parts of winter - how pretty the first few snowfalls look, making big pots of soup, planning something nice for spring, like a vacation, or a section of the garden, something like that.

I wish you were my neighbor and that you could come over, play with my toddler and drink some tea. Sending you love and good wishes for better days. You are not alone.

I am sorry for your punk feeling. The shorter days pick the scabs we are already trying to heal over, I've found. My friend's office burned down today, like to the ground, and we were just sitting around beforehand, having lunch talking about the sort of ooky feeling we were all having as the days get colder and all we want to do is eat and sleep and snuggle which makes NOT-snuggling suck more. Though I know it feels weird to think this, I have said it before re: unrequited loves... you are on brain drugs and they will wear off. This doesn't make going through what you're going through any easier, but maybe it can give you some hope in the long view. Hugs.

hugs. I have nothing else to offer, except a run-in with an old school chum only made me think more about what I have missed in the years since school. Of course, now I doubt so many of my choices. Including... My partner has been away for almost 5 months. My last conversation with him he had not even booked his flight even though he is supposed to come home next week. :/

Hugs your way from me, as well. I'm sitting here at 9 p.m eating what seems to be the only vaguely nutritious food in the house that does not require cooking. I haven't made myself real food in ages, it seems, and I'm really noticing it. Ditto with exercise. I messed up my hand a couple of weeks ago, which has made it tough to get the activity in that I normally do.

Oh dear, I didn't mean to turn this into mememememememe.

My point, sweet loiseau of goodness, is that if I were up there in your neck of the woods, I'd drag you over to my place, take you for a walk, and make you some healthful and tasty food to eat with me. I've been in a getting better phase for a couple of weeks, now, and it's so much easier to make these little habit changes when you have someone to share it with. I choose choose choose YOU!

(I'm not making this better at all, am I. Sigh.)

OK, so HUGS and poutine for you.

Ah hon. This too shall pass and if not, the gods have made antidepressants. Beer and old music and then woods and dogs and hey presto, that's all, really, that the great goddess ever gives us. Sunlight through leaves and the smell of buses and peanuts. Not one good goddamn thing matters in the long run, so the smell of peanuts is enough.

Hugs, beer and poutine all round, funkster.

And Germans. The gods made Germans.
And they are disgusting and hilarious.

Sending hugs. And it's been said before, but exercise really helps. When you are getting frustrated or mad or sad, throw yourself into it. And if you can't talk yourself into general exercise, grab some headphones and go for long walks - it lets you be morose or moody or glum, but when you get back, you feel so much better.

But sending whuffles and hugs...

≡ Click to see image ≡

Sending some happy happy joy joy. I hope this passes quickly.

loiseau, I hope you are feeling happier soon.

Please know that there are people out there who try to spread at least a little kindness and happiness around every day. I have to get up tomorrow and do it at my job. Well, I choose the spreading kindness part. It does make the day go easier.

Hugs to you. It will get better.

*hugs loiseau, all the way to her toes*

Thank you thank you thank you.
I couldn't respond last night. I just couldn't.
I still feel kind of wordless. But reading this did help me.
I'm hoping this feeling won't last too long.

Sing it with me.

Weeeeeeeeee've got the funk
Gotta have that funk
Weeeeee need the funk
Give up that funk

C'mon, let's be beautifully depressed together.

Just checking in with you loiseau...

(((loiseau)))

Guys, just... thank you for this.
I'm slowly returning, in the way that is inevitable with time.
Nothing major happened, I just felt the weight of it all. And I still do, but life goes on.

I'm going to keep visiting the thread, though, because it's just really nice to have so many positive thoughts headed my way.

I know these are things that many people experience, but I feel like it's gone on so long it's unbearable.

Shit, loiseau; you and me both. I've been incommunicado with most of my friends for the last week or so as I try and sort myself out. It's despair. I tried getting help from the city/state, maybe recouping some of the taxes I pay in the form of services. I took the NY state depression self-screening test, and based on the results called the free hotline, and found out that I'd have to go to some psych ER since I have no insurance, but I figure if I go to a psych ER then when I do have a chance at insurance coverage they'll deny me based on pre-existing conditions, so I called Medicaid to see if I qualify, and then I applied for unemployment, and then I redoubled my job-hunting efforts and reached out to my family for help, and then called my friend's mom, who is an employment counselor/psychologist, which helped a lot; finally, after months, I've gotten some bites on my resume and though I still feel pretty fucking wayward I don't feel totally worthless like I did, and even though there's a whole head full of crazy just itching to destroy me, there's plans afoot and the election's over for me and my rent's caught up and never being born wasn't ever an option anyway. Inaction is the devil and despair the only sin, as far as I can see, and I've been doing evil to myself for a long time now. It makes me physically ill, curdled up, and my heart feels like it's falling out, which gets me worried since my dad has a stent and my grandpa died under a heart surgeon's knife and I haven't had a doctor checkup in ten years or more.

I don't know if that's exactly how you feel, loiseau, but cheers to you for soldiering through; chin up and rise to every occasion. Fly like the bird of your name.

William Parker Quartet - Petit Oiseau

And loiseau, Hugh, and others--for what it's worth, I can relate.

Good luck with your stuff too, Hugh.