#365Gratitude Day 18:Running on Empty

So as I was on my way to work this morning, my car, Appa told me something very specific.

"Beep beep"

Now I know Appa very well, so I knew just what he was telling me, which is that I was almost out of gas.

I was also at least 7 miles away from my office.  I hung up my phone call with Squee, and focused hard on getting to a gas station as directly, quickly, and safely as I could.

And I made it.  Even though my distance-to-empty meter said I had zero miles of fuel left, I was able to get to a station not far from the office.

After I filled up, I drove to the office and worked an intensely busy day.  I am in the middle of a very big project at work, something which is making me stretch technically, is quite challenging, and rewarding too.  I spent the day down in the weeds of many pieces of code, amidst much strategizing and decision making.  At one point I spent about three hours researching if the particular code I was looking at could be kept, or if it would be better to throw it out completely.

It grew dark outside.  Everyone else left.  I kept going.

At a certain point, I realized I was, mentally, out of gas.  I shut down the laptop, packed up and got out of there.

Because I knew the truth: There's a time to be busy and a time to rest.  There's a time to focus on many things, and a time to focus on just one.

When I went outside to my car, I was pleased to see the nearly full tank of gas it had from this morning's misadventure, and I realized it was the small lesson all over again.

I'm glad I know to take the time to refuel.

#365Gratitude Day 17:Awesome fan mail

I got the best piece of fan mail today.

Here, I'll show you:

Hello, Mako!

I just wanted to reach out and say some thanks.

One year ago, I got divorced from the only other age player I've ever known, or even spoken to. My Mommy left a huge hole in my life, and for a long time, I didn't want to even think about my Little brain partition. What changed that for me was two things. A) The Big Little Podcast helped me feel normal and... less like a freak? Yeah. That. B) I just bought and started reading Concerning Littleton today. The first has been a comfort for years, the latter spawned this gushing (Heh...). My sexuality has suffered a lot from the split, but then I was reading the scene where Christina is being undressed for her first diapering, and noticed that I was rock hard without having felt a transition. Which... which is not typical for me. S-so...

You and your brother have been such a healing influence in my life over the last few years, but never more than the past couple of months. I'm still isolated in Indiana, far from any munches or Mommies, but you guys have given me hope and comfort for the next couple years that I'm stuck here, and have helped me rediscover myself after something that shook me to my core. The past few weeks especially, I've been happier and more at home in myself than I can remember being since I was little in body, and not just in mind.

Thank you to you and your adorable brother for everything that you do. I can't express what a difference you've made in my life.

I'm your's sincerely,

~Little Chris

PS: No, seriously, this is like the hottest shit I've ever read. FUCK.

Wow.  I wrote him back (and asked him if I could reprint his letter in my blog, to which you can guess the answer.

Man, it feels so damn good to know that this stuff we do, the podcast, my books, that it makes a difference in the world.  Yes, it doesn't hurt being told your writing is hot enough to fry the eyebrows off a yak at fifty paces, that part is great.  But the real big hit is knowing that I set out to make people's lives better, and that it's working.

So grateful.

#365Gratitude Day 16:Text Roulette with a small Fee

Spacey, our friend Fiona, and I have this epic long-running group text thing going, that even has a name.  It's called "Message a Trois", a cute pun on a menage a trois.

We regularly chat about anything and everything.  Our lives, our jobs, our health, our partners, our hopes, our dreams.  It's special.  

We do lots of silly, jokey stuff in there too.  One of those things is we play "autosuggest text roulette."  That's the thing where you start a text message and let the phone suggest words for you, and just keep going until it makes a complete sentence or two.

Today I roulette'd up this little beauty:

Fiona your diaper bag is a good way to get your diaper done with the other people that are actually going to be the other way around.

Fee loved it.  So she drew it up for me as a picture:

I laughed myself silly.

She explained the drawing to me thusly:

"That's mommy changing me in a space diaper, with the purple diaper bag, with the other people who are actually the other way around"

I really adore her.  And told her so.

#365Gratitude Day 15:Haircut

I've been sick for a week now, and feeling quite off-kilter.

Yesterday, I went and got a haircut.  Several thousand, actually.  Okay, maybe several hundred.

I feel so much better now.

#365Gratitude Day 14:Sometimes a project works out

So I'm a huge fan of this game QuipLash.  I am addicted to it.  I have it for my xbox, have it for my laptop, worked out how to play it over the internet with friends, have brought it with me to kinky conventions, too.

One thing I've wanted for a while is to bring it to the DC Littles Munch.  On Saturday, I did.  It was a delightful mix of things-just-worked-out-right.  

First, I found a place to project it on the wall, realized it wasn't a good place, and was able to get the permission of the owners to take a picture off the wall in the much better place.

Second, I remembered how to connect the projector directly to the laptop for power and video, and then use the one plug I had access to to run the whole thing.

Third, the timing and the group dynamics worked out just right so that a HUGE group of people got in to play with me.  It was awesome!

On e of the munchers even got up and loosened the light bulb in the ceiling to make the game more visible for everyone.

I love it when things come together like that.