“In what ways, large or small, did you armor yourself (i.e., set important boundaries) this month?”

It’s a silly thing, but significant to me.

Hanging out with friends at the coffee shop last night, we talked about cartoons (as nerds wont to do). I managed to find a really good essay about some aspects of this cartoon that we feverishly discussed. Problem was, it was the first half of an article series. I could not find "Part 2," anywhere, much as I tried. So, as if a white woman came into my sushi restaurant demanding a sword to Kill Bill, I broke my blood oath.

I dove back into tumblr.

To be fair, this was entirely my fault. I went looking to the place where I thought I’d find the missing piece I remembered reading, and it was… to be nice about it, a hive of a Star Wars Reference. So I wasn’t surprised that I ran into the messy stuff: drama, tea spilled, receipts, shots fired, strays caught, the whole shebang. What did (and it shouldn’t have, really) was all the stuff I was not familiar with– new to me. I lived through that clusterfuck, and only the start of it; clearly it carried on long after I bounced.

"Not today, Satan," I whispered as I closed all ten tabs of futile searching, "We’ll need to reschedule."

So, you can say that’s a boundary I set. I can do without drudging up old hurts and retraumatizing myself.

Having a kiki with a friend while complaining about online dating, I decided to reactivate my OKCupid account.

Since we’re on a "what changed?" type of groove, let’s continue that trend. …Well, not much since I was last there. I didn’t take a terribly long time looking at my answers because of that. Same goes for my profile.

P-P-P-Profile?

Alright, copy-pasting paragraphs wholesale would be cheating on the Bloganuary. Besides, that stuff on my site anyway. Here’s some notable stuff:

  • Worst Quality: Organizing Things I Probably Shouldn’t
  • I have and I’ve really been leaning into it, to the point of startling people
  • I have no idea what to do on Friday nights; so it depends
  • The Good Place is my cheer-me-up show
  • Spyro the Dragon is the retro game that defines me
  • ROBOTECH defines my childhood. And on further reflection, Studio Ghibli perhaps.
  • Teebs is still the soundtrack of my life
  • Best part of cooking? The presentation. (and eating it)
  • Scrabble
  • also, much nostalgia
  • also also, I love seafood and my steak medium-rare
  • Hej, I have tattoos now.

And I’m reminded of my dream job, aww

… I’m always interested in how information is displayed and how it can reach more people.

And fun fact: The highest match possible with me is 100%, and I have answered 220 questions publicly. I think that’s because a lot of my answers were "meh, whatever actually," and I just filled them in for fillin’ in’s sake.

What about the dating stuff?

I love a good coffee date. Or, as it’s been lately, a tea date. Boba tea date. It’s chill, a bit fun– but it’s still a date.

I want the comfy seats, giant menu, and acoustics that doesn’t make me feel like I need to run away screaming (unfortunately, a lot of coffee places have terrible acoustics). While I have some favorites I keep in the backpocket, if I’m feeling spicy I’ll flip a coin to take my date somewhere unfamiliar. If it’s great? GREAT! If it’s a bad miss, maybe we can bond over how much it sucked.

Give me the damn tea. What were the matches like?

Well… at least I can tweak things so only queer non-monogamous people show up in my stack. And most of them are also trans/non-binary!

First person in my stack was still a friggin’ white guy, tho.

Next was someone I already knew.

Next was a current partner. I sent them a super-like, because I’m supportive like that.

Everyone else? I didn’t feel confident in the OLD thing enough to do more than send two likes.

Well, that was fun. Deactivate, whatever.