Friday Five

[taz_39]

Stolen from speaksoftlylove

Do you like other people buying you clothes?

NO. Please don't do it unless it's a "one size fits all" item!
I have a long torso, most "trending" shirts do not fit me correctly.
I hate skinny jeans or leggings that reveal my cankles, or low-rise pants that create a muffin top no matter how fit I am.
In certain colors I look positively sickly.

Unless it's a pair of "OSFA" socks, or a medium t-shirt, you're better off not buying me clothes!

Have you ever brought a present for someone that they hated/disliked?

I dunno about hated, but I know I've bought presents that people didn't use, returned, or regifted.
And I've done that too.
Who hasn't? It happens.

What nicknames do you have/have had?

Dad called me "Meggalito".
Mom called me "Meggie" and "Magpie/Megpie".
I get "Megano" a lot from coworkers. One even called me "Megano Oregano" for a while.
My nickname on the circus was "Taz".
Once I had a Korean boss who for whatever reason couldn't pronounce "Megan", so she called me "Amber", and after a few months I didn't even notice or find it odd. Even had it on my name tag.

Did you have any pretend or imaginary friends?

Yes indeed. I was insaaaanely imaginative. All of my stuffed animals were alive, rocks and sticks had names, and we played with my imaginary friends who were mostly animals, mythical creatures, or imaginary versions of existing children's characters (i.e. I'd pretend to eat snacks with Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street, that kind of thing).
I had a stuffed yellow car named Chief, who played with an imaginary red car creatively named Red. Peaches, my stuffed dog, had adventures with my imagined unicorn persona whose name I forget (it was the 80s, I was OBSESSED with unicorns and rainbows). Even the little decorative blue velvet pillow that my mom embroidered for me was named "Blue Pillow", and came on adventures with me.
As I got older some imaginary friends became characters in internal adventures and fanfictions. The most interesting and long-lasting was Balar, who started out as an imaginary friend and became my Number One Internal Protagonist. He has literally existed in my mind for decades. Don't ask where the name came from, no idea. He was a friend and a protector, a person-dragon, one who handled situations that I couldn't face. One that I admired. I shouldn't even be talking past tense, I still make up stories around him from time to time.

Peaches:


Would you say you are a good or bad influence to others?

Very mixed.
The Good: Because I share a lot of what I do online, some people get inspired to try things that they wouldn't have otherwise; for example, learning to bake bread or bake new kinds of bread because they saw me do it and I made it look fun/easy. It makes me happy when I have a "good" influence like that.
The Bad: There's a part of me that doesn't like the attention that I draw to myself online and reacts nastily to it, even though I'm the one who instigates it and deep down I long for social interaction. Once every few weeks, that part of me hits a tolerance wall and lashes out at the people around me, sometimes hurting their feelings or damaging our friendships. At those times I give a very negative, bitchy, or outright cold impression, and it can influence people negatively. I'm ashamed of those times, but also haven't found a good way to stop them from happening. The umpteenth time someone asks me to share a recipe I've already shared, or the umpteenth time someone asks "WhErE aRe YoU gOiNg NeXt?" when I've already posted that information in eight different places, or the umpteenth time someone decides they have a right to critique something that I shared, I lose my temper and start getting very mean and nasty.

Comments

[lookfar2]

So Balar is a sort of talking dragon, or is he more like a person who resembles a dragon? could you describe how he looks?

I still have the Steiff bear my great aunt gave me when I was 7, which makes him 58 years old, and I remember his personality very well; he was wise and consoling, older than I, kind and practical. He was a good friend to me.

[taz_39]

He's like a character construct that either appears as a mid-20s adult with dark brown hair and kind of a slight, athletic build; or a sort of anthropomorphic dragon-person (I'm trying to find an example online but everything is so sexualized or fanservice-y, and this isn't like that); or he's a full-on four-legged dragon but with the same character/personality traits.

He's something my imagination constructed when I was very young. I've often wondered if maybe it was in response to some kind of "divorce trauma" since my parents divorced when I was five and that's probably around the time I imagined him up. It/He pretty much embodies a lot of the qualities that I wish I had myself (wouldn't mind being a dragon either! rawr!).

Aww, what's your bear's name? If you still have him, doesn't he have that personality any more? Or has he been relegated to inanimacy again :)

I have my mom's Gund walnut shell-stuffed black bear, whose name is Oreo. She took him to college with her and he is very ratty. He's got to be 50-something by now too.
Peaches I lost years ago, and I remember his little leathery foot pads were all worn and cracked and one of his ears was threadbare. His plastic nose was loose and could twist all around. The Peaches I have now is a restored one that I found online, and I bought him because he has the same expression that my first one did: unadulterated rage, lol. He always looks like he's glaring, and I find that hilarious.