Dear Cat:

You are welcome! I hope that your job situation, whichever it will be, work out well for you.

“In all honesty, in my mind I just have a view of Springfield town from the Simpsons and a view when they go into the woods!! And visualise a forest. You are a person of many mysteries!!“- it is a forest with many elk, deer, mountain lions, and more.. the mountain lions are scary, didn’t see one in-person yet.

“I made a decision recently to go ‘straight edge’ which means no drinking/ drugs etc. Not that I was doing any of that regularly at all but it’s just another way for me to stay focused on trying to achieve my goals“- wow! That’s impressive… in that Springfield town from the Simpsons that you mentioned.. everyone drinks, so it seems. And the price for it is often very high…

“It’s sad that your mum thought that… I’m guessing she was delusional? I think there was alot of delusion with my parents too, sadly“- delusional or angry (saying whatever with no regard to whether it’s true or not) or both.

“I have matured a lot..“- your maturity is evident!

“I didn’t feel like I had anyone to reach out to so I wanted to find somewhere where I knew there would be the right people who were kind and accepting who could look at my life objectively and give me a perspective that could help me – which you have done“- this is the nicest, kindest thing I read all day, thank you!

“I presumed that my thread was going to be similar to other people’s on here. Is this how you see all the people that you respond to?“- all unique, all valuable. What’s different about you than many is your strong personality: daring, courageous, in-your-face assertive (words that came quickly to my mind).. these makes you very memorable for life.

“Why did you think that I had lost respect for you? It’s difficult to keep up social communication on a forum..“- probably because you didn’t post for a long time.. and definitely because I am afraid of rejection, or being though of in negative terms.. like my mother thought about me, and rejecting me.

“Which YouTube video are you talking about?“- mostly the news, The News Hour is one program.

“Also, the other day I was going to watch a video about ‘4:44’..“- this made me smile (don’t know why.. oh yes, I do know, it reminded me of the talks we had about numbers early on, in the very beginning of your thread, and I felt nostalgic.

“The Ed situation was just, traumatizing if I’m honest. I haven’t seen someone be so…..unaware and broken in a very long time… he isn’t being a good person at the moment…His life is a mess and I got swept into it…  I have seen stories and videos and influencers online who are men who were addicts but CHOSE to get sober because they realised they had to get their life together and now they are fit, happy, healthy and devote their social media to sharing recovery stories………Rant over!”-

– that was a pleasurable Rant to read (didn’t feel like a rant to me). I guess seeing what drugs did to Ed contributed to your decision to go.. how do you call it (scrolling up)  straight edge.

“Hope you are well!“- better than some, not as good as others (always the correct answer/ response). I hope that.. you are better than most, not as good as some (the latter is the original saying). Again, a pleasure to read from you today. I understand that you are busy and about to get even busier, so I don’t expect this pleasure too often.. no pressure whatsoever on you to post. Take good straight-edge care of yourself!

anita