What I Learned Today

[FIRE]

Let's see, I learned a lot today...

1. My mom is still making an impact on the cellar almost a year after she has passed.
2. I have hours and hours of very (insert any appropriate adjective) posts my mom wrote I can't wait to read through.
3. You can get almost any cool username you want on this site, unlike Twitter. (Shameless plug: follow my fitness Twitter account @OhioExercise).
4. This site was established the same year I was established.
5. I really like the people on this website a lot. It's a different perspective from the drugged out, dramatic bullshit I encounter on a daily basis dealing with my peers.

[monster]

Hola Fire, welcome

[orthodoc]

Hello, FIRE.
I think I can safely say: your mom will never be forgotten here.
She was incredibly kind and supportive to me when I had my breast cancer diagnosis in 2012.
May I suggest that, rather than reading archived posts, you forge ahead and contribute to this community from your own perspective? I'd love to read about your goals, your values, your thoughts for the future. I appreciated your mother's help so much in my time of crisis; I'd feel privileged to hear from you about your current endeavors and your dreams of the future.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Hello FIRE.

[glatt]

Hi FIRE, welcome.

Your mom was awesome, and we were saddened to lose her. I still think about her from time to time, and I never even met her.

I think as you read through her posts, you should keep in mind that she wasn't writing them with you as the intended reader. She was writing them to other people.

Also, reading individual posts by her will lose much of the context of those posts, you need to read through a whole thread and see what she said to get the full context. And to make things more difficult, conversations often are carried over from thread to thread with no obvious link. It's obvious at the time, but going back, you won't see it.

So keep all that in mind as you proceed.

But welcome!

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by orthodoc

May I suggest that, rather than reading archived posts, you forge ahead and contribute to this community from your own perspective?

I respectfully disagree, but only with the word "rather" I think.
She communicated so well and with such force of personality when she was writing, that her posts here are a treasure trove. Yeah, there are plenty of post-its and bus tickets and even things she would have wanted burned, but it's still all her.

Originally Posted by glatt

I think as you read through her posts, you should keep in mind that she wasn't writing them with you as the intended reader. She was writing them to other people.

Also, reading individual posts by her will lose much of the context of those posts, you need to read through a whole thread and see what she said to get the full context. And to make things more difficult, conversations often are carried over from thread to thread with no obvious link. It's obvious at the time, but going back, you won't see it.

So keep all that in mind as you proceed.

But welcome!

I second this wholeheartedly.
Especially the reading around the topic thing. Sometimes I go back to individual posts and have to work out why and who, and I've been here for over a decade. You'd need Cliffs Notes (dunno if that translates) to get the whole thing, and even then some of it is just of it's time or just plain craziness. Specially because you know, it was your Mum. And she was friends with some other crazies. Like me.

But it's worth at least dipping into.
Just remember that you probably wouldn't want your Mum, or your girlfriend or even your best mate to read everything you've ever written...

[lumberjim]

Hey, bro.

[BigV]

Welcome FIRE.

Good to have you on board. The high idea density of your first post does your mom proud. There is indeed a great deal here to read from her, and to her and about her. Dig in man.

I'm also looking forward to hearing your voice too. Nice to meetcha.

[DanaC]

Hello Fire, and welcome. It's so very lovely to see you here.

[wolf]

Welcome FIRE. I love(d) your mom's courage and her extreme cleverness. And I have a soft spot for psych nurses.

[monster]

I learned the same thing yesterday -somebody on my Facebook feed linked to a George Takei article where he says that after their release from the interment camp during WW2, his family ended up living on Skid Row

http://www.npr.org/2014/07/28/335945...ntent=20140728

[glatt]

It's remarkable. We've got lots of homeless here too, but not all dumped into one neighborhood like that. It's like the cops pick up any homeless people they find in nice parts of LA and drive them over to the Skid Row neighborhood and drop them off.

Look at this. There's nothing like that here. They are practically on top of one another.

[sexobon]

Originally Posted by glatt

It looks as though people who've been making wrong turns in their lives have been labeled no right turn.

[Spexxvet]

The Seattle walking tour claims that the term skid row originated there. It was the road on the mountainside down which the lumberjacks would send the trees "skidding".

Wiki supports this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skid_row

[elSicomoro]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skid_Row,_Los_Angeles

St Louis has had several large gathering points for the homeless. Many used to live in a former underground railroad tunnel Downtown. Then there was a large homeless camping ground just north of Downtown on the Riverfront called Hope Town. It was torn down by the City several years ago, and the underground tunnel was sealed during repair work and the building of the Stan Musial Bridge.