Good morning, my beloved readers, few though you may be. It's 8.43 in the AM and I'm awake and feeling truly happy to be alive for the first time in almost half a year.
I was originally going to write about the adventures of my druid character, Towateke, in the 2 week series of old world and BC raids we've been doing in Bloodriver/Carpe Jugulum. However, I'm bursting at the seams with sweeter news than any raid or in-game adventure could ever hope to be.
Previously, I said how "Bloodriver may change my life" with promise of details to follow. Well, here's the details, but first, a little history.
Back in May of this year, my beloved wife was laid off from a job she enjoyed due to a huge firestorm of political, unnecessary drama. In the wake of her layoff, 22 other people also lost their jobs, and while all of them seem to agree that it was related to one trivial event that was nothing more than her doing her job, we have nothing more than circumstantial evidence and word of mouth to prove it with. Thus, there is no pending lawsuit for wrongful termination or anything else that was terribly wrong in the situation. All in all, this whole mess happened as a retaliation for her expecting the wrong person's boyfriend to work like the rest of them and her, in response to his refusal to do so, going through the proper channels to speak up and try to make right a recurring wrong. His girlfriend's big sister turned out to be the hiring manager and bam.... 23 people (including my beloved) are kicked to the curb. Nepotism and retaliation and no one can prove it. The perfect crime.
Anyway, we have moved along. We choose to believe that this just means it's time for us to change things up a bit. For 5.5 months we've been both looking for work like it's goin' out of style. Unfortunately, so has the majority of our state. No one wants the ones with no degrees and only a couple of career certificates when they can have the person with a bachelors, masters, or PhD to do the same job. Why anyone needs a PhD to answer a phone and tell a customer why there's a late fee on their phone bill, I still don't know, but they are the ones getting the jobs that the rest of us used to be able to count on.
With the end of her unemployment benefits coming swiftly to a close and no promise that we'll qualify for the extension of benefits, we knew the choice whether to move away or try and stay in the face of a likely eviction and other troubles that would arise once the unemployment ran out was coming far too soon for comfort. We already had to give up our beloved dog because we couldn't afford to give him the veterinary care he needed. (Good news: He wasn't at the kennel long before he found a brand new home. His handler, I'm sure, is quite happy with that.)
Now we come to present day.
Our friends in Bloodriver have been watching this transition from unemployed and hopeful to unemployed and desperate since the beginning. I've said it before, but I could say it a million times more, this group of people is far closer than many offline groups I've known and associated with. We all believe in that real, physical person on the other end of the computer. We talk about everything, from dating to bills to tomorrow's big raid. We are each other's support.
One of our members drives trucks. She's alone a lot, out on the road, seeing the sights and delivering the truck loads. She has a home, but she rarely gets to see it. She pays someone to attend her animals while she's gone. She keeps the house prepared for habitation so that when she comes home it's ready for her. This is just what her life is. She seems to like it, though I'm sure it does weigh on her now and then. Driving alone all the time only to come home to a now empty house and sleep alone there, then get back out on the road. It'd weigh on anyone now and then.
We have members in all sorts of interesting situations. Good, bad, and just every day stuff type situations. She is just one of the faces of Bloodriver. We have members from all walks. It's a wonderful rainbow melting pot of people here; and when one of our lives is going to hell in a handbasket, these wonderful people are there to support, suggest, and even assist.
From Georgia to Manitoba and even around to Japan, we're everywhere, from all walks of life. We are the faces of Bloodriver.
Well, in light of yet another failed series of interviews, the fact that we're going to suffer being late on our rent again in November, and the realization that we would likely be evicted by mid January due to inability to pay our rent, we both had a nervous breakdown. Not a "crying for a couple hours and then I'm fine" kind of breakdown, either. More the sort of breakdown where being ignored by the cat when you call them is enough to make you bawl your eyes out, or where someone not noticing you at the grocery store when you say 'hello' is enough to make you feel completely invisible and totally hopeless.... and make you cry more. The kind where every penny you have to spend on necessities is handed over with a great pang of fear and desperation. The kind of breakdown you just can't control or get over unless something miraculous happens that changes everything.
In light of the closeness of our guild, it is little surprise that in the end, we vented to a couple of the members who were concerned about us and asked. What happened next was a whirlwind of emotion and awe, and a complete renewal in my faith in mankind.
First, our sweet friend in Iowa offered us couch space should things take a turn for the worst. Funny thing, this, but she was dead serious, to the point of making note of what arrangements would need to be made for the cats to avoid landlady aggro.
Then, in chimes the voice of another angel of Bloodriver. Remember our trucker friend from earlier in this post? Yep. She's the one. She spoke up and reminded us of what we had thought was a joke from earlier in the day where she had pointed out that she had an empty house. I told her how I'd thought she'd been joking and she reprimanded me and made quite clear that she was most definitely not joking.
In the following 48 hours, our life went from wretchedly depressing to quivering with anticipation for the coming weeks.
In one week, this darling woman is going to change our lives by allowing us to move in to her empty home, giving us the chance to relocate and make a fresh new start in a whole new state. Arrangements are being completed this very moment. This is real. Even more amazing is that the situation we'll be in when we get there, the things we'll have access to and be able to learn about, the creatures we'll be caring for, all of it.... it's all things we've wanted to do or learn about or have for many years.
This isn't the kind of help you ask for. This is the sort that comes only once or twice in a lifetime. This sort of gift is what I call a miracle.
It only gets better. The price of living in our new state is so much lower than the prices here in Oregon that for the amount we spend on this small apartment, we could be renting a 3 bedroom house with a couple acres of land there. That means that once we find work, we'll be able to realistically consider just renting or purchasing a home instead of moving into another apartment.
There are a million and one things that make this whole arrangement beyond perfect. I know we'll be singing this angel's praises to the end of time.
On top of all that amazingness, another member of the guild just purchased two months of game time for us, just because she could and she knew we couldn't.
Other friends in the guild have supported us in other ways, by just being there, letting us vent, giving us advice, and even telling me when I'm being a jerk because of the stress. We have phone numbers for people whose faces we've only seen in pictures and we have talked to at least a couple of them over said phones.
Bloodriver is more than a guild. It's a network of real people, living real lives, making real choices and real differences. This is bigger than WoW. As Bloodriver's grown, it's become a family; One I'm proud to be a part of and one I will protect in every way that I can.
Having been saved by a friend we only new on the internet once before, this is not so frightening to us as it might be to those who sing the dangers of meeting friends from the internet in person. Truth is, it's a big world. More and more people are meeting, networking, dating, finding their life partners, and more through the internet. It's a new place, this world we live in. Just in the last decade, I've seen people go from terrified to meet and network with people they only know on the computer, to such events being commonplace or even encouraged in many circles. Entire business run entirely over the computer and the individuals running them meeting, supporting, and assisting each other in person all the time. People travelling hundreds, even thousands of miles to relocate and live on the couch of a friend from a game or a forum because things 'back home' are bad or getting that way.
Isn't it amazing how our world can change so quickly?
Anyway, I'm rambling now cause the excitement has me jittery again. I think I'll call this one done, but I'd like to say one last thing.
Thank you, Bloodriver, for changing my life.
Healing lazers go pewpew
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Remember less than 2 weeks ago when I was complaining about how I can never
seem to find a leveling partner that sticks with me? Well Kazi so kindly
offere...
2 days ago
I have guildmates who can't pronounce "melee," "nuclear," or "Bush is a grinning crackhead" and I'm supposed to get them to pronounce "Sargeras"? I'd have as much luck teaching a fel orc how to pronounce "pacifist."