I feel like most of my tweeps need a hug right now, so I'm going to show you my stuffed animals.

This is Bunny-Puppet!

("Bunny" for short)

Bunny-Puppet is special. I've had her since I was literally in a crib. I still sleep with her.

She is remarkably well preserved for 32.

This is The Yeti. (Not all if my stuffies have names.)

I got him from any ex. I had posted a quote from one of Cat Valente's Fairyland books on Facebook. ("Listen to me. Love is a Yeti...")

They found the quote so moving that they got me a yeti of my own.

The Yeti is actually a Wampa from the Disney store, but he's close enough.

That ex and I weren't right for each other, but they had good taste in stuffies.

This is a T-rex who I got from the same ex as The Yeti. No big story here but he's cute and a dinosaur.

These are Sue From The Zoo and Hugh Manatee.

Both given to me on outings with a different ex from the yeti one - Sue in a gift shop, Hugh won as a prize in a midway game.

As you can tell, that guy was a big fan of puns.

Also a jerk. But I'm keeping the stuffies!!

Actually when we broke up he demanded all his gifts back and I attempted to comply, but then like a month later I realized these guys were still on my shelf and I was like hahaha whoops and kept 'em.

This is a dolphin. She doesn't have a name but I bought her for myself!

She's from an aquarium gift shop - either the Baltimore or the Georgia, I forget. I visited both within a year of each other while going to conferences in grad school.

(Pausing this thread because it's dinnertime! But I have more stuffies)

Ok back so anyway I was in a more childlike headspace that day, whatever conference it was, so I treated myself.

But only to 1 stuffie. I had to decide between this one and a baby penguin. Tough choice but the dolphin looked easier to hug.

Some people travel and see the historical sights or the art or the food. Me, I go to the aquarium and the dinosaur museum.

This is the brown bunny, a distant younger cousin of Bunny-Puppet.

I bought her for myself a few years ago, actually for very personal reasons that I'm not going to discuss here.

She's super soft!

Last but not least, here is 'PEDE GIRL!

Boo!

She's not as huggy as the others but there is actually a VERY funny story behind this one.

You see, back when MONSTERS IN MY MIND came out, I organized a book launch, and I had DOOR PRIZES. Monster-themed stuffed animals and monster-themed stim toys, 5 of each, to 10 lucky ticket holders, each connected to a story from the collection.

One of the creepiest stories in the collection is called "Centipede Girl." (It's what it says on the can except worse)

It took some doing to find a stuffed centipede! But I REALLY wanted one. And I found her on Etsy.

Except the day of the book launch rolled around, and it was at a con in Ottawa, and due to a combination of poor timing on the publisher's part and neruodivergent scatterbrain on my and Dave's parts, we arrived a few hours before the launch with neither the prizes nor the books.