Oh, y'all, this show and this fandom. I didn't get into online fandom until season three, but I had a friend at school who also watched Buffy (yes, just the one, weirdly), and we would analyze every episode after it aired. I still have this gorgeous birthday card she made me with all sorts of images from the show. I'm the same age as the Scooby Gang; I want through high school with them, graduated with them, went off to college with them. While I have deep, deep criticisms of the show (and Joss's work overall), I still love it so much, and all it brought me. The Willow/Angel mailing list (and That Happy Place, which spun off it) welcomed me with open arms, though I was one of the youngest, and I became the person I am today due in large part to their influence. They are why J and I reconnected, I had so many adventures with them, and being so active in the fandom is what led me to The Lost Boys fandom, which is where I got my BFF (and she got her husband thanks to the fandom) and so many friends who mean so much to me. I've fallen in love thanks to Buffy fandom, and had my heart broken, become a better person, made good decisions and bad, went to college and grad school, traveled the country, and will have so many adventures still to come.

Pretty soon, I'll hit 20 years of posting fic, and that is all due to Buffy. My life is infinitely richer because of Buffy and fandom and you.

One of the best things about musesfool's Love Meme is that, because I didn't comment anonymously(1), I receive email notifications of the comments posted to those names I submitted. So my day is not full of love for me(2), but of something even better, love for my friends. I would rather see that any day.

(When I started, at the end of the comment pages, there were fifteen pages. Before I got back to page four, there were sixteen. It just keeps growing. I love this.)

More names I've spotted who might not have seen it:

unanon, fabu, dragonsinger, illmantrim, and mlyn

My meeting was cancelled, so after a quick trip to the post office this morning (light_emerges and kphoebe, you both have mail coming. Nikita, yours should arrive around the beginning of next week, Karen -- I have no idea. Sometime.), I've decided to stay inside. We have snow and cold and lots of biting wind, and it's a much better place here than out there.



(1) I have issues with anonymous comments, even in positive situations like this. I feel that if I'm going to say something, it's going to have my name attached to it. Obviously, other people feel different, but this is one of the reasons why I rarely participate in anything where participants are encouraged to be anonymous and stay anonymous.

(2) I do have a thread there, too, which also made me happy and feel warm and loved, but I am happier to see my friends receive the love. It fills me with glee.