Kevin Havens

I'd have to put in my three cents here and since I have AS myself, and I sometimes do not understand the benefits versus the risks of being open about my doll hobby to others.

But since this is about your mother, only you know how she is.

But on the other hand, when I told my mother about that I had feelings toward dolls, she said at first "Okay, that's your life, if that's how you want to live it, that's up to you." But then later on, she denied ever saying that statement. She was using my "coming out" as a tool to analyze my behavior, as she is a special education teacher's assistant working with children with similar problems as me, and wanted to correct it as much as possible. It even got worse when I finally met my RG and I have two dolls now alongside my RG, and that made problems worse when I had found the optimum balance between RGs and dolls.

Of course my RG and I aren't talking to my mother or even my family anymore after some stupid stuff that they pulled this past weekend, so I really don't care about what my mother thinks about my quest to get a third doll, which she wants to stop at all costs. Go figure.

I could say more, but then I would go into TMI and I would regret it, so I'm going to go here and just say that only you know your mother than me or anyone else here at TDF, but once you tell, there is no going back. Just try to think of how you want to word it, once you figure out how your mother would probably act. TTFN.

CGM, Kathryn, Daphne and Andrea

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I know it's Labor Day in the US, but since hospitals never close, and I had heard some good news: Kat's doctor came in to her room yesterday and told her that there is a very good chance that she would get discharged and sent home either today (Monday) or tomorrow (Tuesday).

I might go and see her today, but I told her that if in any case that she calls me and tells me that the ambulance is on its way, and I'm less than halfway there, I will get off the bus, cross the street to the nearest stop and reverse direction (I have to pay another fare though) and go right back home and do some quick cleaning up (the apartment is mostly cleaned up, anyway) and get the place ready for her arrival, which does include putting Daphne into the bedroom because Kat and I don't want any frigid stares from the EMTs who are bringing her home.

But then, there would be a lot of work involved in preparing Kat to be sent home either today or tomorrow. First, she needs to go to Radiology to be seen by a (I think) cardiologist to have her pick line removed (that thing is basically a direct line to the vascular system for the I.V. drips to be more effective) and whatever else needed to have her back in my arms. I know that she can now swallow, even after being on a ventilator tube for about a week, spent a week and a half in the ICU, and was hooked up to a lot of machines in the first few days in the hospital, not to mention being on sedation for about five days. She can drink, and now there's hearsay (again) that she has diabetes, or it was just her blood sugar levels were high because of two infections. So, I was told that I would have to have her drink sugarfree drinks and to have her eat a low-carbohydrate diet for a while until further notice. I have some cookbooks on how to cook that way, for diabetics and such, and while I have my fridge right now filled with sugary sodas, liquor (Bailey's Irish Creme, Bacardi light rum, and Mike's Hard Lemonade), leftover pizza and who-knows-what-else, I might have to buy some groceries for her needs.

And just recently I had to turn back on the ceiling fan because I know for sure that when I visited her in her room, both ICU and PCU (Progressive Care Unit, the unit most ICU patients go to when they are about to be fully discharged after being given a better bill of health, but not a clean bill of health yet) and she was having a feeling of burning up and while in her PCU room, her thermostat was set to about 75 degrees and while she kept on asking me to turn it down so she can not feel hot, but when I looked at it, there was no way to set the thermostat up or down. So, when she comes home, I know that even on the ambulance ride home, she's going to be hot, she would appreciate me having the fan on so she can gradually cool off.

Oh, I just realized something about Sentara hospitals: Once your doctor gives you notice of eminent discharge, expect it to be for real within 24 hours. I bet this morning she's going to get her pick line taken out, she's going to be given breakfast, be cleaned up, given some lunch and then her ambulance would be on its way to pick her up and take her home to where me, my cat and my dolls would welcome her back home, because I know that Daphne is waiting for Kat to show her her new lingerie that I bought Daphne and Boots (my cat) is waiting for mommy to come home. Yes, Kat is Boots' mommy. I'm her daddy. We just don't want any kids, so the cat is damned near close to having one, but Kat said that if we do want a human child, we would adopt. But I don't know how I would find a way to have my dolls while having a child in the house and having Human Services say something negative about it. I know that some people with kids and life-size dolls, the kids sees the dolls as big Barbies, but most of you know my tirades about my city's Human Services department, and a certain division within that, but I'm not going there now. (Go search my previous posts about that.)

OK, I'm rambling Babylon and On again, so I'm going to stop here and thanks for your prayers and best wishes for Kat and her safe return home. Thanks to the ones in chat in the late evenings: campdaan, Pit_Viper, Vanessa, midiman, euchre, Siber, thedollregistry, BarbieNEO, and others who might have been in chat with me on those evenings for keeping my sanity and telling me that everything would be all right. Thanks everyone for everything.

Take care, CGM, Kathryn, Daphne and Andrea

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I had thought it over and over and came to a conclusion: since everyone is singing high praise about the RSSD Taffy, I had decided on one of those for my third doll.

As most of you "forumites" (thanks thebunnyboiler for that word ) know, I have one of the first generation RSSD's, a Candy. I enjoy her so much that I don't know what I'd do without her. While I still love my Daphne (the name I have for her), but I had wanted to start a 1-RG, 3-doll harem and even though that I wanted a 3-doll harem first, but then when I met my RG, and she supports my doll hobby, the addition of the RG helped, because without her, I wouldn't be half able to even buy the dolls I have now. (The details got me in hot water by others [not you guys here on TDF, but you know what I mean], so I'm not going to say what or why here.)

And even though that I had tried my hardest to save up for a $7,000 doll, but it seemed like reality pulled me down to earth and daily expenses are eating into my self-imposed savings plan of $200 every two weeks with some support from my tax refunds (both state and federal) come next February, but I tried to save, but since Kat was in the hospital for a couple of weeks at the end of last month, and I only got two days of pay when she got home because if she's not available, I don't get paid (OK, enough of the details, I probably gave some away). But then, I can probably squirrel away a little here and there, just to maybe reach some point where I can maybe pay for itsme's sale price whenever he or Mary posts a sale here on TDF; or if itsme PM's or emails me directly a sale on a Taffy... plus whatever I desire... or at least have some money for the $1,200 full price cost that itsme/Mary asks for on the candyeighteen.com site.

But then, as I had imposed on myself, and what the bank also did the same for me, I cannot withdraw that money until June 26, 2009, quite some time from now. So close, yet so far...

And since I know how to dress a RSSD like a pro, like what size clothes in the adult women's department (sorry, I don't do children's clothing for any of my dolls--it's also a cardinal rule of Kat's, she wants the dolls to appear age-appropriate, that is, over the age of 18 or 21 [most likely 21]), and how to dress them. And since I know that a RSSD would wear what ThinkGeek sells for Ladies' shirts in the Small size, so that is what size I buy for Daphne, so that would be the size that I would buy for the Taffy that I will buy. And then I always buy clothes in either the Petites' or the Junior's departments, sometimes the regular Misses' department if the clothes are either in an acceptable Small or a decent X-small, but as I said, I do not buy children's clothing for my dolls, no matter how small in stature they are. I know some 4'6" RG's that are above the age of 18 (and no, they aren't dwarves--they're just petite) and I know for sure that they do not buy in the children's department for their clothing. Note that I am not putting down the people who choose to dress their RSSD's in children's clothing, but I feel like that the reason why my doll looks more "mature" is because of the clothing choices I make for my dolls.

OK, I know that I speak and write very eloquently, and I am a RSSD owner, usually people who own these kind of dolls usually aren't that computer proficient, and usually they write phonetically here on the forum, but it is just because I am a little smart (I'm not saying that other RSSD owners aren't) and I wanted a different kind of job path back before I became an adult, but I am a blue-collar worker myself, I came from a military family and my father was very anal on having a good education and learning how to write and speak good. Hey, I do misspell myself sometimes, but I know that a spellchecker is always at hand, and if that fails, I just wing it, regardless if that little red squiggly line is underneath the word. I am kind of fluent in SlotSpeak, or what is the way itsme writes his posts, and sometimes I am kind of puzzled on what he writes at first, but then I get a smoke, get a drink (Daphne insists that I have a Bawls, she makes sure that I have some in my mini-fridge in the bedroom, and she tells me when it is time for me to put in an order to ThinkGeek for another case) and re-read what itsme wrote and then I comprehend what he wrote. It may take a few tries to actually get what he said, but itsme is in the business of making dolls for people who seem that they cannot afford the higher-end dolls like the RealDolls and the like, but to make solid doll ownership a reality for the worker whose money is being spent on his basics and would like a doll without having the hassle. Making it a reality for the person on SSI/SSDI (or what some countries call disability pension). He's also making it a reality for the person who earns a little over minimum wage which would take eons for someone making that kind of money for a doll that costs $7,000 or would have to basically default to getting a cheap inflatable doll. Of course, there are exceptions to these rules and some people who do these things can be able to get a higher-end doll, but that's the exception and not the rule.

But with this roundabout way of saying it, yes, my third doll will not be a RealDoll, but a RSSD Taffy instead. I know that I might have disappointed a few people here who thought that I was better off now after about four months of being on my own, but reality settled in and it seems like I adore the RSSD line a bit better because of a few factors.

CGM, Kathryn, Daphne and Andrea

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CasperGhostboy, Kathryn, Daphne and Andrea

See my girls here