do you tell your nonTCS friends about your TCS friends?

I mostly tell my s/o about people here. I do occasionally mention TCS to other friends, but I don't go into detail. I don't think they'd understand how great it is, or that I can really trust everyone--although BuNN and his kitty army are kind of questionable.

yea we would be hauled off to the psychiatric ward if we started telling our offline friends about Bunn and the kitty army, they would think we were delusional!

Well, I have had the good fortune of meeting 3 of my friends from this site in person: Colby (Airprincess, Sandie, and Ken. This site is only unreal if you are here under some sort of false personna, which I think most of us aren't. I don't even bother saying "a friend on the internet" anymore. I just say "a friend of mine". I am still hoping that someday we can plan a big TCS convention.

Oooo..that would be SO much fun! But I've only got one request...please pick a WARM location!! This Nebraska weather is killing me! Barely 0 degrees is WAYYYYYYY too cold!!

It's 31 Celcius (87.8 F) here in Sydney at the moment, is that warm enough?

I am just so jealous Deb!!! You got to meet some of the wonderful people here and I haven't! But...my time is coming!!!! I just know I will meet some of you very soon!

A convention sounds like fun! ha ha. We could all bring our cats and have tea and catnip! LOL

My SO is aware fo all of you. Although I do not share everything....I do tell him about some of the stories. As for telling my friends, I have, to a few. And sometimes I wish I hadn't.... I would rather keep TCS to myself ( for selfish reasons....) I come here and pour out feelings I keep inside that I would never share when I am face to face with others. There is just sooooo much that everyone of you knows that my own neighbor will never know. I guess, deep down, my fear is that if I talk about this to everyone, and word gets around to people I don't particularily care for. I'm afraid of not wanting to post my personal thoughts here anymore etc.... I don't know if I am making any sense here.

You guys are all special to me. I've turned to you for comfort, advice, support etc..... I'm not sure if I'm ready to share all of this with someone I work with, or may bump into tomorrow. This is my safe haven. I'm being selfish in wanting to keep it for myself.

I guess the solution for me would be to quit posting personal things and stick to cat related subjects but, I can't. Not yet anyways. I am enjoying having everyone's opinions on different subjects. I have been able to make a more logical decision before speaking many times! When I have felt like a failure...you gave me advice and made me realise there are many options to any problem.

I guess I just want to remain selfish for a while longer....hope you guys don't mind, but I'd rather keep you all to myself!!!!

What I like best about this board is that the topics range from silly to serious, to cat-related, to not. I have belonged to other boards in the past that would not allow anything "off topic" discussed. As much as I love cats, I do not want to talk about them all the time,maybe only half the time! LOL

I have *met* so many of you in emails and PM's that I feel very close to all of you. I feel very fortunate to have found this place for so many different reasons, and believe it or not, in real life, I am tongue-tied, shy and awkward with people.

Forgive me for gushing, It is late 3.10am and I have had 3 hours sleep in the last 36 hours and so may be a bit waffly!

Just the simple fact that we do talk about each other to our partners, relatives, friends and workmates seems to me to show just how real our cyber family is here!! I am always showing Peter (Partner) and Jimmy (Brother) funny posts and pictures!! I know that Peter still wonders if I am insane or not or whether I spend to much time here but knows how much I love it and how much you all mean to me! My Brother just loves the photos and the wacky threads like BuNN's attempt at world domination etc!

I have now met Louise (Purringpanther) and her partner Lee (and their furbabies of course) and Today at the Cat show we went to at Sutherland (NSW) we met Naomi (Manomi) and her Partner! And I feel just as comfortable meeting them in person as I have been speaking to them on line! At least they already new what they were in for hehehe!!! Louise and Naomi are fantastic people and I am so happy I got the opportunity to meet with them! How I wish I could meet all of you!!! Louise and Lee I consider to be really good friends in person now as well and both Peter and my brother do also! ! I am hoping to get to know Naomi in the future also! and already know she is just gorgeous and lovely!

I am so grateful that you all put up with my weird sense of humour and silliness! With out you guys this last year would have been so totally unbearable! THANK YOU!!! I am also amazed to see that I get mentioned LOL!!!

I really feel I have made a special connection with many of you! (You know who you all are!) and also have been amazed at the kindness and support I have felt from you all! I am also astounded at how much I care about your day to day lives, your ups and downs, you furbabies, and that this impacts greatly in my world! I worry about current problems you may have, I rejoice at your accomplishments, I fall about laughing at your humour, I cry with you, I grieve for your loses, I am over joyed when something good happens, I am proud of each and everyone of you for being the remarkable people you all are and so lucky to have found you!

If anyone says I am living in a fantasy world I always like to remind them that this is like having lot's of Pen Pals all over the world! No one ever though that was a strange thing to do LOL!!!

Anyway I have taken up to much room and only scraped the surface of what I would love to say! So in my short (yet blabber mouth record) stay you are a part of my family and my life and I thank you!

Hey, I have an idea...

If we have a convention, can we have it in New Zealand? Everyone wants to go there, and Kiwideus wants to go back so...Sounds like a plan to me.

That sounds like a perfect plan!

Well, I'm joining this one late. But better late than never, right?

You guys ARE my friends, and I communicate with many of you via PMs and e-mails as well. I've never been one to have many friends - I'm not good at casual acquaintences. I tend to be too serious and too intense for that. Drinks after work used to be something I did - but then Gary and I moved into the bus and stopped spending much time in the office (and we stopped drinking!), so my friends got whittled down to the people I had experiences in common with - one best friend from college and one from high school. And they live hundreds of miles away, and we don't talk frequently.

I don't discuss TCS with "friends" at work. I'm like Ghyslaine - I don't want to share you with them!!!! This is my place, my safe space, and you hear about work and everything of any kind of import going on in my life. I share my happy things here, and I share my worries here.

I have told a number of people about the Save Samoa site. If they follow the links there and it leads them here - then that's up to them! But no one has said anything to me, so I assume they're not here....

I share with Gary - especially the cute pics - but he's not too interested in the details of your lives, and I don't share your personal stuff with him. He's interested in the feral cat stuff, and I keep him up on that. But he knows who many of you are - especially because of the (Oh, I'll be off in a minute - I've just got to finish posting happy birthday to .....!)

I do keep a "prayer" list since I joined TCS - there's too many things I want to keep in my prayers for me to remember them all without it being written down!

I haven't developed an on-line personna, and I don't think many (if any) of you have either - so as far as I'm concerned, this is real. And the support and advice and caring I receive (and give) here sure is real - and important to me!

I haven't developed an on-line personna, and I don't think many (if any) of you have either - so as far as I'm concerned, this is real. And the support and advice and caring I receive (and give) here sure is real - and important to me!

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Laurie, I feel the same. It's so nice to have a place to be the real me-sometimes happy, sometimes funny, sometimes sad, sometimes a little nasty...This is real for me, too.

The support is also very important to me. When I'm having a bad patch, I know I can talk about it here and not feel like I'll be looked at funny. I only have 3 face-to-face friends that know all my bumps and warts, and love me anyways. That's how I feel here on TCS.

I can be myself here more than I can with many face-to-face people. I have never made friends easily, and tend to be tactless, and opinionated, but no one here seems to mind. The way I look puts some people off, particularly people in my own age group. My wild oats have long since been sown, but you could not tell it to look at me.
I have shared things here that I have never told ANYONE. I have moved an average of every 13 months for the past 17 years, so I have not had time to develop a lot of friendships. I am so glad that all of you can come with me where ever I go. If any of you ever get to Eastern North Carolina, I would love to take you out for coffee.

I don't share a lot with my "face-to-face" friends either, until I've known them for a long time. I also agree with Laurie, it seems like most of us here are real. We aren't trying to put on an act for everyone else. And nobody judges us for what we say.

Mostly if I talk about anyone here, I'll say something like, "I heard that someone had this situation" or "A friend of mine said. . ." That way I can avoid the strange looks and attempts to explain just why TCS is so great. I think it's hard for anyone who isn't a member here to get it.

I have now met Louise (Purringpanther) and her partner Lee (and their furbabies of course) and Today at the Cat show we went to at Sutherland (NSW) we met Naomi (Manomi) and her Partner! And I feel just as comfortable meeting them in person as I have been speaking to them on line! At least they already new what they were in for hehehe!!! Louise and Naomi are fantastic people and I am so happy I got the opportunity to meet with them! How I wish I could meet all of you!!! Louise and Lee I consider to be really good friends in person now as well and both Peter and my brother do also! ! I am hoping to get to know Naomi in the future also! and already know she is just gorgeous and lovely!

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Thank you, Leslie!!

You have no idea how stressed I got, thinking, ack, she's going to hate me! (I don't do meeting new people very well) - so reading this made me a bit... (*sniff*) ... it just means a lot to me. And you give yourself more credit girl!! You're "wierd sense of humour and silliness" is what makes you so much fun - I love to read your posts, and so enjoyed meeting you - and Louise and Lee, on Saturday (let's do it again some time!)

Oh, and I just want to say, Tatyana is even more beautiful than in her pictures!!

Naomi

Oh gosh thanks Naomi! I was worried meeting you too! I am a bit more nuts in real time than I am online so I didn't want to scare you off! Hehehe!
Tatyana thank you very much too! LOL! She ended up coming 2nd out of 55 kittens so we are very happy with the Princesses results! It was great meeting you and I look forward to meeting you again! I remember you saying that you come to Canberra??? Let me know and we can get together with Louise and lee also! And all the furbabies! hehehe! Now just don't tell everyone how crazy I am!