Full Spectrum: Finn

I had a little trouble believing this guy was my first rainbow model, but I triple checked my purchase dates, and he's numero uno.

 

#712249 Finn was released in 2018 as a Gambler’s Choice for the Stablemate Club. Four colors were available to ship randomly – rainbow, grulla pinto, flaxen chestnut, and dun appaloosa. I ordered him on October 10, 2018, which means he would have been the first Breyer I received after we moved into our house.

 

Given my longstanding love affair with rainbows, I had my heart set on the rainbow guy right from the start, but my luck with Gambler’s Choices hasn’t historically been all that great, so I didn’t think I stood much of a chance.
 
Luck was with me this time, because he’s the one I received straight from Breyer. I might have squealed when I opened the box. His show name is Regenbogen, which is German for rainbow.

Full Spectrum: It's Pride Month!

If this blog were a TV show, now would be the time for the following announcement: “This concludes the temporary blog hiatus. We will now return to your regularly scheduled programming.”

I’m still not back to my normal self, but I have started an antidepressant, and my anxiety has decreased a little bit as Oliver continues to settle in. [For the record, he’s still the cutest little man that ever was, even if he’s starting to test the limits as he gets more comfortable. Knocking my office supplies around my desk and swiping his tail across my face during work meetings are some of his new favorite pastimes.

Still, he’s becoming a cat, not just a scared little thing hiding at every sound, so I can’t really complain.]

I’m going to take the blog in a different direction for June, because first and foremost, I need to keep realistic expectations for myself as I continue working on my mental health, and secondly - it’s Pride Month!

My mother can vouch for the fact that I’ve always loved rainbows. In our old house, where I spent the first 10 years of my life, she had a collection of prisms which she hung from the kitchen ceiling. The kitchen was on the west side of the house, so any afternoon when the sun was shining, the walls and floors were covered in dancing rainbows. I loved to be in there. 

I was also the kid in elementary school who got yelled at for taking too long to put the crayons away because I had to put them in rainbow order in the box.

As an adult, rainbows have another meaning to me - I am an outspoken, visible supporter of the LGBTQIA+ community. I started to write out the ways I’m involved, but that got to sounding like I’m tooting my own horn, and that’s really not who I am as a person. If you’re interested in the ways I show up for the community or the list of organizations I support, just ask.

In honor of Pride Month, my love for rainbows, and my firm belief that all individuals have the right to be treated with dignity and respect and to be loved and accepted for who they are, all my posts this month will be in the Full Spectrum series and will feature one or more of my rainbow-colored models. Here’s a preview!

 

 

Be inclusive and kind, love your neighbor, treat others as you would want to be treated, and value the beautiful diversity of the human experience.

A Brief Hiatus

If you're a regular visitor here, you may have noticed that I've fallen off my posting schedule this past week.

 

I need to take a brief hiatus. Every May since 2015, like clockwork, my brain hands me the unwanted gift of seasonal depression. I had hoped that my horrid bout of depression back in December and January meant that May would give me a miss this time ... but alas, here we are, in the thick of it.

 

I've got all the usual stuff - sadness, hopelessness, fatigue, brain fog, irritability, etc. but the most inconvenient part (and the most damaging to the blog) is the apathy. Every post requires planning, photography sessions, and not a small amount of time to write. I don't have much desire to do or care about anything right now - I could sit on the couch and stare into space for hours and not be bothered in the least - and the little I have gets divided between work and Oliver, which means everything else has gone by the wayside.

 

[Side note: If you're not offended by excessive, gratuitous, and hilarious use of the f-bomb, this song on YouTube is accurate to describe my mental state right now.]

 

I thought about pushing through, but I think that would lead to bad writing and boring posts, and my models deserve better than that. Instead, I'm gonna just accept where I'm at and take the rest of May off. 

 

I've already got the June 1 post written and ready to go, so that's when I'm planning to hop back in.