I suppose I shouldn't be doing this, but.. #Housewarming #MutualAidRequest ($125/$600)
tldr; we need help getting a couch and a mattress with a box spring.
WARNING: Incredibly long-winded diatribe ahead. Do not drive or operate heavy machinery while reading this.
--------------------------------------------
I try to be respectful and use CWs when fundraising to avoid unnecessary cluttering of the timeline unless incredibly urgent. I never, *ever* want to make people feel pressured or scammed, and if I have inadvertently done so, I sincerely apologize.
Having said that, I realize it's very arrogant of me to request this after all the help we've been given on our journey already. There are countless other people in far more dire circumstances. There are even people on the Fediverse who are flat-out homeless, so how can I justify such a frivolous plea for help?
My counter-argument to that is: regrettably, I don't have one. I have no idea how we've been so lucky when there are so many others also in need.
Ever since an encounter I had recently, I've tried to think of how I would feel about other people raising the kinds of funds that have been donated to us. Would I feel jealous, or that it was just "getting old", despite them going to great lengths to not seem pushy or yelling and to just be as unobtrusive as possible?
Obviously I'm biased, but my answer to that question has always been "Absolutely not". I would feel excited and happy that they were being helped. I have helped a couple of people fundraise and I was just as thrilled seeing us hit goal for a total stranger halfway across the country, as I am when *we* hit goal.
Where am I going with this, you ask? Well, perhaps I'm still a little rattled from the aforementioned encounter. I try to look at our situation as if through the lens of others but somehow I can't always muster as much sympathy or excitement for *us* as I would for literally anybody else.
I don't honestly have a valid justification for making this request and I'm struggling like hell to get past that because personally, I wouldn't fault anyone else for a humble CW'd request as this yet it feels vain to write this.
Alright, none of that had any point. Yay cannabis!
So my exceptionally long-winded immediate digression aside, I'm hoping people might consider the following scenario as a "housewarming" gift:
We're coming up on Black Friday. (Yes, I know this is supporting bloodthirsty capitalism. I am a hypocrite, okay? They've got some good deals and I don't know what else to do.)
We haven't owned a bed since we had to abandon it due to poor planning and a very urgent need to get the hell out of a toxic situation. Since we'd been living in motels for just a couple days past a full calendar year, I was making due with what we had in the motel rooms but now that we're in an apartment finally, we've been sleeping on 4" foam padding on the floor. Let me tell you how great that is for my allergies with a prolifically shedding border collie, and how relaxing it is after a full shift of pushing carts. (That's a negative on both counts.)
One of our local furniture stores has a bed I would love on a Black Friday deal, and they do delivery. It's the cheapest I've been able to find with the features I need.
Why not a used mattress, you may ask? What's my justification? Why do I seem to be asking so many rhetorical questions so as to rival Rumsfeld?
The answer to the first two questions in the previous paragraph is multi-pronged: my incessant, never-ending allergies, and a brand-new mattress allows me to put a mattress protector over it and then an hypoallergenic, waterproof liner over that. My allergies are fucking ridiculous.
Secondly, for some inexplicable reason, I seem to do better with back problems if I sleep on a *firm* mattress rather than a fluffy pillowtop. Weirdly, it seems rather difficult to locate a used, firm mattress in good condition in our area.
Thirdly, it gets our bed installed in our apartment. We let the professionals lug those suckers up a narrow flight of stairs to our bedroom.
Alright, if anyone has managed to make it this far, there's another part to this:
We haven't had a full-size couch in six years. God I miss having a couch. I've always used second-hand sofas because pets. Plus brand-new couches cost a fortune. The problem is transportation; usually when a couch we like comes up on the free classifieds section, we have no way to get it home.
I found a local couch - god I hope it hasn't been sold and the seller was just too lazy to take the ad down - that, as far as I can tell from studying a handful of pics of it seems to be in great condition. And the seller is willing to deliver it, although I doubt they would be interested in scaling the above-mentioned stairs.
These two items would make our apartment truly feel like home. And I'm pretty sure I can have them both transported here if not set up inside as well, for $600. Sadly, despite the large price tag I'm afraid this is probably one of our cheapest opportunities.
I promise you we are trying so damned hard to become self-sufficient, despite this request and a gnawing fear that I won't quite be able to make December's rent, which I really *really* don't want to happen during our first month here in the complex.
In closing, let me just say once again that we are insanely grateful for all the help everyone has given us these past few years, and I mean that from the bottom of my cold, cynical heart. We would've lost all our possessions and risked entering a vicious cycle of bad situations. I will never understand why we were chosen to be so fortunate, but thank Cthulu you've kept us alive nonetheless.
If you're willing AND able, please boost and if possible donate. If you can't donate, *do NOT feel guilty* for being in the same boat as us. Your feelings about it are valid but rest assured you needn't feel bad.
Venmo: https://venmo.com/thegizmotwins
Cashapp: https://cash.app/$thegizmotwins
PP: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/gizmo1982
GFM: https://gofund.me/12171be3
#MutualAid #MentalIllness #BPD #CPTSD #MutualAidSavesLives @mutualaid