I'm 53.  I'm a lesbian.  As of January 15, 2007 Melanie and I have been together for 15 years. We have cats and dogs and mice and rats and I love animals as much as I love people, sometimes much much more.   I left home at 15 because of the abuse.  I was in a state mental institution in Texas from the age of 15 until 17 days before I turned 17.  I was on the streets for many years.  I suffer from bipolar disorder, depression and PTSD. Politically I am very far to the left.   ...but I hate politics.  Politics are dirty business.  I get a lot of my meaning in life and meaning of life, from Joss Whedon.  I relate much better to metaphor and allegory than to day to day glaring "reality".   Joss Whedon is the Creator of and Main Writer of: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Angel", "Firefly", and the movie, "Serenity".   As one of the posters at the forum of one of my very favorite websites says:   From: "All Things Philosophical on Buffy the Vampire Slayer": People search for deeper meaning because they want and need to, not because it's "necessary" or "appropriate." Whether the meaning actually exists is almost besides the point. BtVS is the common language we use to discuss whatever is important to us - justice, morality, sex, friendship, fate, God, whatever. This board lets us conduct conversations with like-minded people that range from the ridiculous to the sublime, and that is a wonderful thing - rare, and worth having. Where Buffy is shallow we spackle in the depth, and where it is deep, we plunge our minds into the heady intellectual maelstrom of discussion, argument and debate. Hamlet used a silly play to work on the conscience of his king - we use a tv show about a pretty vampire killer to examine ours.   --- Arethusa, 7/05/02, 6:37 One of the most important things in my life is a Yahoo Group I've owned since August 2002.   We have all kinds of people and yet we get along like family and Newbies always feel welcome.  It is Invitation Only.  We have about 600 members and 3000+ posts a month.  There is a link at the end of the description if you are interested in requesting membership:   Welcome To   Buffy, Angel and Firefly! BAF is a discussion Group for Joss Whedon's incredibly cool creations: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Angel", "Firefly" and it's big screen spin-off "Serenity". Share news, reviews and images.   We also cover "Veronica Mars", "Battlestar Galactica", "Torchwood", "Spooks", "Drive", "The 4400", "Star Trek", "Medium", "Jericho", "Charmed", "LOST", "Dexter", "Dead Like Me", "The Inside", "Stargate SG1", Stargate Atlantis", "Life on Mars", "Twin Peaks", "NUMB3RS", "Bones", "Heroes", "Eureka", "Smallville", "Dr. Who", "Farscape", "Alias", "24", "The Gilmore Girls", "The Closer", "Wonderfalls", "The X-Files", "Harry Potter", "Weeds", "Las Vegas", "House" and various other shows, books, movies, cartoons, animé, comics, graphic novels and manga.   This Group is Kid Friendly. Please do not post any photos or fanfic with a rating higher than PG13. Please respect Group members. Trolls, racists, sexists and homophobes will be beaten with sticks and banned from the Group.   To request an invitation, please send email to:   BuffyAngelFirefly-owner@yahoogroups.com One of my other favorite Buffy sites is:   Slayage: The Online International Journal of Buffy Studies: http://slayageonline.com/ You can find out more about the shows I love in the section:   SciFi/Fantasy/Horror

	This is also Me:   A Tiny Historical Moment   I came to Austin  in 1969.  I was committed to the state mental hospital. I don't remember the month.  That's odd.  I remember the date I started having a period.  I remember the date I left the state hospital.   I don't remember the date I was committed.  I don't remember the date I shot my daddy.  Both were in summer...both seem like they happened in August.  I'm pretty sure the committment was in August....not so sure about the shooting.  You would think I would remember the date I shot my father.  You would think it would be stamped deep and hard...in my brain, in my soul.  I picked up a gun and tried to kill a man and I don't remember when.  ...and it led to this day in 1969 when I was committed to the hospital.   My mom and my grandmother brought me.  My father wanted nothing to do with this psychiatry "horse shit".  I tried to kill him and he didn't think I needed a shrink.  He was right that I shouldn't have been going away.  He should have.  It wasn't quite fair.  He was the abuser and I was the one being sent away.  He got to keep his life, his home, his car, his job.....and I got sent away.   ...but I'm glad.   All I ever wanted, as long as I could remember, was to leave the home of my family and now it was 1969 and I was getting my wish.  I had been running away since I was 11.  I was 15 when we brought me to Austin.  We arrived the day before.   We stayed at the Holiday Inn on Town Lake.  We took a river boat ride.  It kind of seemed like a nice vacation except for the part where I was being committed to the state lunatic asylum the next day.  My mom always said this was the hardest day of her life.  I wonder why it was harder then living with a man who beat her children.    Oh yeah, in my wild youth I also spent some time on the East Coast.  I had friends and lovers at Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore and Harvard.  I lived in Cambridge for a couple of years, on the Swarthmore campus for a semester and in New York for a summer.   I also spent a couple of months in the psychiatric unit of Beth Israel Hospital in Brooklyn Mass.    A lover and I ended up hitchhiking back to Texas, from Boston.  We held up a sign that read "Boston to Austin".  It took five days and 36 rides to get home.   One last thing.  I also have a very high IQ.  I have learned that with the high IQ and three bucks, I can get a really good coffee at Starbucks. Get this widget!

I sometimes post about politics at my Xanga blog: