I realized last night, I should've put this out to Toasties sooner, but better late than never. A good friend's brother is raising funds for his top surgery, in exchange for art! https://www.gofundme.com/andysartforsurgery

Toasties - you're wonderful, feral mermaids all. I will look out for you in the real world.

Glad you are feeling better. I hope I'm not alone among your readers in being able to enjoy your documentation of the good times, while also accepting that you go through low, tough times. Whether you choose to share the latter is up to you, but I think this is just as important a missive to send out into the world, either through your blog or directly with the people that matter most to you.

Lived in DC for 3 years and moved to Brooklyn three months. So I'll say a few things about DC in a sec, but maybe it'd be helpful to know what someone doing the opposite move notices most:
- People are actually from New York (love hearing accents of all kinds)
- People do things other than 9 to 5 gigs to support themselves (okay, so of course that's partly true of DC, too, but the city by and large caters to an office-going crowd)
- There are more restaurants here at all price points on the spectrum (DC's light on the not-amazing but decent and super cheap stuff)
- Love having access to good pizza, bagels, Mexican & Chinese food again

WARNING: generalizations ahead. I agree with most of the comments you've already gotten. DC and New York have serious, but different struggles with gentrification. You can definitely avoid the DC politico crowd without too much effort, though it is harder if you live near Capitol Hill.

DC can eventually start to feel more like a big town than a city, and for you that will be even more likely coming from New York. I'm not a networker, and I'd still end up talking to a seeming rando at a friend's party or happy hour, only to discover we have at least one other weird connection from our pasts.

Definitely agree with comments about DC's art scene. Again, generalizing, DC isn't really a city of boundary-pushers or rulebreakers. There are really passionate people there, of course. But it's like the presence of the government means everyone's got to have at least a veneer of 'respectability.' And I'm no rulebreaker myself, but I did sometimes feel like all my friends were a lot like me, doing something similar to me, and I appreciate more variety than that. (Related: DC Pride is one of the tamest Pride events I've seen in a major US city.)

Feel the same way. Don't know that I'll never read it, but, if I do, this piece will be a big part of my experience.

I'd say it's time to schedule some phone calls or coffees with friends to fill the daylight hours. We're talking your best 'get a grip' friends, the ones who won't take it personally that you're falling asleep in said coffee and will instead shake you awake, bodily.

Right now I'm looking at a knitting pattern called 'Faux Triceratops Dinosaur Head.' Because, yknow, some knitters just let that whole 'maker' label go straight to their heads.

Meanwhile, on the same page, how dare Walden the Narwhal mascarade as a living, breathing creature!

Prullory?

Yeah, you're right, some of the foreign policy stuff is a stretch. I think what saves some of that for me is the totally committed Petrov (aka MAGNUSSEN) performance.

What I've appreciated most in Season 4 is that the writers and/or showrunner aren't cleaving quite so closely to current events with the political backdrop. Yes, it's also an election year in HOCland, but it's sooo much easier for me to suspend disbelief than the last couple seasons, where the HOC political environment just seemed so familiar that these two larger-than-life characters started to seem laughable. I'm not even an actual politico, and I straight up spilled a hot beverage when Frank decided to do a pilot jobs program in DC. So the oil crisis storyline seemed very smart to me. We all know about the crisis in the 70s, but IRL we're in the opposite position, for the moment. I can just relax and not worry about whether this crazyass show is actually getting its political analysis right.

Money is indeed hard! I'll probably be a lifer in the nonprofit field, and I was frugal to begin with. I try to remember it's 'just money,' but you know what? It's not always 'just money.'

Left my first salaried job in December, only to realize that I'd be insurance-less for about a week until I started at the new place. (Yup, very lucky that this is a short-lived worry, not constant as it is for some.) NYE in a city requiring a rental car was fun. Boyfriend was very patient with my comments about tipsy/drunk drivers lurking everywhere.

Note to self, next time, give two weeks' notice but set official end date after paid time off will be used up. It's the same as the paid time off payout anyway.