Tag Archives: Community

Too Excited to Go Back to Sleep

Posted on by Gertie

Good Morning, World!!! I woke up at two fifty-nine this morning Seattle time and have not been able to go back to sleep. I am way too excited to go back to sleep. Today is the first day of Emerald City Comic Con here in Seattle and I am beyond ecstatic. I already have my first day of Emerald City Comic Con planned out. I have been looking forward to this since I bought my four-day VIP pass the first day they went on sale in August of 2025. I’m just so extremely excited for Emerald City Comic Con and that it is over my birthday weekend.

I do not have anything else to discuss or share or to write about in this particular blog post except to say that I want to make sure I have everything that I might need for the day to take to Emerald City Comic Con. I do want to thank you the reader for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things that you the reader, read my blog. If it was not for you the reader, reading my blog I would not be continuing to write my blog. Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my blog. Peace Out, World!!!

Middle of the Night Ramblings

Posted on by Gertie

Good Morning, World!!! It is two forty-five in the morning on Wednesday, March 4th of 2026 and sadly I am not able to sleep. I’m pretty sure my PTSD and insomnia are conspiring against me to be sleepless in Seattle. Being sleepless in Seattle is nothing new to me and it majorly sucks. It sucks because I tend to be a cranky bucket the next day, but I am hoping it won’t affect me so much since I have so much to look forward to.

One of the things, I have to look forward to starts tomorrow (Thursday, March 5th) to Sunday (March 8th). That something is Emerald City Comic Con. It also happens that this weekend is my birthday weekend which makes Emerald City Comic Con that much more special for me. I have been looking forward to this since August of last year (2025). I can’t wait till tomorrow as it is the start of my birthday weekend.

Speaking of birthdays, I bought myself a birthday present. A birthday present that is going to be a weekend of fun here in Seattle and is in April of this year (2026) that involves cats. That birthday present is going to a cat convention known as Pop Cats. I have never been to a cat convention, and I love cats, so I thought it would be a great birthday present to myself especially since it is here in Seattle.

As I am informing you of the conventions, I am going be attending it reminds me of the communities I belong to and how important it is to continue to participate in those communities I am in. I’m part of the comic book community as I love comic books just like I am part of the cat community because I love cats as well as volunteer with cats. As someone who is in mental health recovery building community is huge. For me making sure that I belong to more than one community is key to my recovery. Hell, everyone belongs to multiple different communities.

I do not have anything else to discuss or share or to write about in this particular blog post except to say it is now time to cuddle with my cat, Billie. I do want to thank you the reader for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things that you the reader, read my blog. If it was not for you the reader, reading my blog I would not be continuing to write my blog. Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my blog. Peace Out, World!!!

Daily Prompt; What Do You Do to Be Involved in the Community?

Posted on by Gertie
Daily writing prompt
What do you do to be involved in the community?
View all responses

Involvement in one’s community looks differently for each individual. For me getting involved in my multiple communities looks slightly different in each community. The one thing that is not different in each of my communities that I will mention is I volunteer my time. For instance I am involved with the animal welfare cause in many ways and the main way I do this is to volunteer my time at PAWS Cat City. I also help my neighbors with their pets when they need it as well.

As far as other ways I am involved with my community is that I am highly active in the recovery movement. I used to work as a peer specialist in the mental health field and I hope to go back to work in the field as my mental health continues to improve after a major trauma last summer. I am also helping plan for the Peer Pathways Conference by volunteering my time doing it. To me being involved in the peer and recovery communities helps me with my own recovery.

Another way I am involved in my community is being involved in multiple activities in the queer community. One way I am doing that is playing in a queer sports league for kickball. I am loving it and having fun as well as making friends. I am also apart of a queer book club where we read books by queer authors and/or books about queers. I am enjoying it and having fun with it as well as making friends just like kickball. I just applied last week to volunteer at Lambert House which is a community center for queer teens. I am hoping that I can volunteer at Lambert House.

Daily Prompt; How Would You Improve Your Community

Posted on by Gertie
Daily writing prompt
How would you improve your community?
View all responses

Hello, World!!! There are many ways I would like to improve my community. The two ways that I would like to improve my community that popped up into my head was helping people with their recovery with mental health challenges and/or substances plus helping animals. Helping both animals and people at the same time is possible. I would improve helping animals by helping companion animals such as dogs and cats to their furrever home which is something I do when I volunteer at a local animal shelter. Another way I can improve my community is to go back to work in the mental health field to help people with their recovery once my own mental health improves a little more. Hell, I don’t need to work to do that, I can just reach out to friends who struggle. I can also just stop and talk with someone who is asking for food or money even if I don’t have either to help the person. There are several ways to improve your community, you just have to find at least one that you are passionate about to help.

The Importance of Respecting People’s Pronouns

Posted on by Gertie

Good Morning, World!!! I know it has been a while since my last post. I had a little bit of writer’s block however the writers block appears to be gone for now. The reason why writers block is gone for now is due to my pronouns being disrespected by one of the peer specialist at the mental health agency I am a client at. I have attempted to have several conversations with this peer specialist about my pronouns as my pronouns are they/them. Sadly, my conversations have fallen on deaf ears or it appears like it from my end of things. While scrolling Facebook, I came across a meme that best describes what a person is saying or doing when you ignore a person’s pronouns. Below is the meme:

I am hoping this helps people reading my blog on the importance of using the correct pronouns for any given person. I say this because people have felt hopeless and unseen when others misgender them especially when it is done on purpose.

I do not have anything else to discuss in this particular blog post. I do want to thank you, the reader for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things that you the reader, read my blog.If it was not for you the reader, reading my blog, I would not be continuing to write my blog. Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my blog. Peace Out, World!!!

Attending a Late Night 12-Step Meeting

Posted on by Gertie

Happy Friday, Again, World. It is pretty late on for me to attend an a 12-step meeting. I will be attending Adult Children of Alcoholics (and dysfunctional families. I haven’t gone in a while a will consider my new ACA birthday. I am not a big fan of 12step meeting but ACA doesn’t fee like the typical 12step program is is more recovery focused on the individual than the person that is alcoholic or dysfunctional. It’s has a lot of recovery related language which is why I I think I enjoy it. Of course my cat will be attending with me as he as been being more of a love but than he usually is.

Attending ACA meeting is my way to continue my recovery process and my recovery is extremely important to me, Being active recovery is what helps me stay stable to I can work as a peer specialist or peer counselor. Any skills I can get will help me be able to help others.

I am grateful that I found Adult Children of Alcoholics and dysfunctional families last year but stopped going so today Friday, February 4th, 2022 will be my new birthday. I really like the support the get from ACA/ACOA.

Thank you for listening to me and supporting me in one of my 2022 goals. I don’t have much more to say in this particular blog post. I do want to thank you for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things that you the reader, read my blog. If it wasn’t for you the reader, reading my blog, I would not be writing my blog. Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my blog. I am also that 12Step meeting are now online due to the stupid pandemic. Peace Out, World!!!

Friday is Nearly Over & I Need to Update You on the Conference I Attended

Posted on by Gertie

I realize that this post is a wee bit late as what I am a bout to talk about is an amazing conference that I attended with fellow peer specialist. Peer Specialist that are very near and dear to my heart. With out the encouragement from these amazing people I don’t think I would have even imagined receiving what I received as I personally think other peer deserving of was I received. I received an award that I don’t I think should have been given to me but that is my own insecurities getting to me. I think I am proud of myself for receiving it.

As far as the rest of the conference went, it went well. I was able to receive some new networks in my pocket as well as well as reconnect with others. The peer community is an amazing set of people you can ever meet. You make forever friends in the peer community and each one of them is a precious person.

The best part is when this group of people believe in the work that you do that they think you deserve an award that your fellow peers nominate you for. So thank you for the award even though many others deserve it as well.

Sadly, the conference was done virtually so it was on via Zoom. There were some glitches but that is okay because it helps up peers to be more resilient.

Thank you for the award and am grateful that I was honored for the award. I would like to thank you my reader for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things that you read my blog. If it were not for my reading I would not be blogging. Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my blog. I hope you have a wonderful weekend ahead of you. Peace Out, World!!!

Everyday Inspiration; Day 2: Write A List

Posted on by Gertie

Things I’ve Learned In Recovery

  • Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Skills
  • Setting boundaries
  • The love my family has for me
  • Friends and family I can depend on
  • To not take life too seriously
  • Some days are going to be tougher than other days and that is okay
  • Mistakes are teachable moments as well as lessons learned
  • It’s okay if the only I thing do is get out of bed; some days are going to be like that
  • Helping others helps me; but make sure I put myself first or I might not be able to help others in a health way
  • Working helps me with my recovery and gives me a sense of purpose
  • Volunteering not only helps with my depression and other diagnosis it helps the community at large
  • Building a community the accepts me as me
  • Being in more that one community is a good thing
  • Having an emotional support animal (ESA) to take care  to help with depression (currently my cat, Billie Dean)
  • Doing self care is not selfish

Sunday Afternoon, Ramblings

Posted on by Gertie

Good Afternoon, World!!! So far today has been a great day and it is 12:39pm. It being 12:39pm means the day is technically half over. Anyway as I state so far today has been a great day.

I started off the day with a mindfulness meditation from the Calm app. After that I then worked on The Mindfulness Workbook for about forty-five minutes before going to volunteer at PAWS Cat City. I love volunteering so much as I am giving back to a community I love. The animal welfare community is small like the mental health community.

I forgot to tell you a couple of things yesterday evening in my weekly check-in. The first thing is that I am learning Spanish through Duolingo. I’m having fun with it as well as finding challenging enough for me to continue to do it. I’m even practicing with people I know who speak Spanish even though it is very limited on my part.

The second thing I forgot to mention was that I opened a savings account to save money to do things I want and want to do. I haven’t had a savings account in years and am happy that I am able to have one. Yes, I have had a checking account but not savings account. While, I was at the bank yesterday opening a savings account, I found out what my credit score was and was told by the banker that “its a really good score.” I was happily shocked by my credit score. Anyway, I am glad opened a savings account to save money.

I don’t have much more to say in this particular blog post. I do want to thank you for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things that you read my blog. Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my blog. Peace Out, World!!!

Intro to Poetry; Day 5; Imperfect

Posted on by Gertie

Untitled Poem

by Gertie

The state of American politics is beyond maddening,

It is more saddening,

as the shittyness of all this will put us all in the loony bin.

Or maybe we just need a different way to screen out the rogue politician.

The politician that is driving most of America to the brinks of insanity,

is having us all rethink of ways to build back our community

and in a good way.