#Litsa and her body do not

[dolliesanddelights]

1/24/2021 - Reverie’s Story

I guess maybe it’s a silly thing to be interested in where a doll comes from, but Reverie’s prior owner actually linked me to two of her prior owners so I could see owner photos of her from the past and when I found a third, I decided to go on the hunt to see if I could track her history.

I tracked her first owner down (we will call them “Kitty”) to the date she arrived from Darak Doll which is October 15th, 2016. I’m sad because the unboxing post absolutely had pictures once upon a time but it looks like the host deleted them so unfortunately they have been lost in space~ but that’s technically her original birthday and it made me stupidly happy to find out! She apparently came with bubbles in her resin on her hands and discolored arms - I don’t see that problem now so it’s possible this was fixed down the line!

Anyways, so it looks like she was with Kitty from October 15th, 2016 to at least  August 28th, 2018, where her second owner (Bear), I noticed commented on a picture of Reva and they inform Kitty that they messaged about ownership over Reva.

Bear has no pics of Reva at all so there wasn’t much to be found out about Reva there and she wasn’t with her long! On the third owner’s account (Dollie), Reva was tagged as being bought from Bear and arrived with Dollie on December 17th, 2018! Dollie had never owned a BJD before, she was more into fashion dolls. She had several really cute pictures of Reva though and it made me happu to see! I don’t have tagged confirmations or anything, but I suspect she was the one who sold Reva to 4th owner at that time (Mama) because Mama is who I bought her from and Mama about how Reva’s box was thrashed during shipping and she came with a bunch of Barbie clothes which makes sense?? And I see some of the clothes I got with Reva in Dollie’s old pictures.

Anyways, Mama held onto her a while and she actually relisted her a few times because the owner mentioned that she had reposted the sale because the first post got zero traction.

Anyways! That makes me Reva’s 5th owner. 5th and final owner if I have anything to say about it.

She makes me so happy. She’s so lovely, she’s beautiful and sweet and her facial expression is darling and her body is darling... I just... I adore her. I’m so happy. I get a little sad when I see dolls go up for sale all the time and I feel so happy that her little trail stops with me. My precious girl is gonna get a beautiful faceup at some point and an amazing wardrobe and new eyes and another handful of wigs... I am so happy! Welcome to the family, little girl!

[newstfionline]

I live with disabling illness and chronic fatigue. It has taught me to ask for help.

By Litsa Dremousis, Washington Post, September 23, 2017

Remember the last time your WiFi went out? How you felt alone in an empty world?

You tried to restart it yourself, to no avail. Then you called tech support, which was as helpful as pouring glue down a clogged drain.

You were baffled that no one had answers and, odds are good, your language wasn’t suitable for kids for the next 90 minutes.

Exasperating, right? Something important you’d taken for granted went awry through no fault of your own, and your day was totally upended.

Now imagine that your health is your WiFi, that disability or chronic illness is the outage, that tech support are folks who truly mean well but don’t know what to do, and that your upended day is each moment of the rest of your life.

The late actress Bette Davis famously declared, “Getting old ain’t for sissies,” and the same is true for living with a disability or chronic illness. Of course, many of us with those issues lead rich lives full of loved ones, work, sex, glee and mischief. And many are unable to enjoy some of the above, despite our best efforts. Disability and chronic illness comprise a gigantic tent where everyone’s experiences are unique and equally genuine.

Here’s what most of us have in common, though: Sometimes we need a little extra help. And it can be awkward to ask for help. Embarrassing, even. But what’s the alternative? When your WiFi goes out, you don’t draw in the sand with a stick.

I’ve had the disabling, degenerative and thus far incurable illness myalgic encephalomyelitis (also known as ME/chronic fatigue syndrome) for 26 years. Which means I’ve spent ample time learning how to ask for help. I hope you can learn from my insights and bypass my mistakes.

I’m writing this while lying flat because I don’t have the strength to simultaneously write and sit up. My right leg sustained nerve damage four months ago, and I now use a walker instead of my usual crutches. And because my immune system has been reduced to pencil shavings, I’m recovering from my third bout of pneumonia in the past decade.

So I’ve had to ask for help quite a bit recently. And I still find it hard. But because I like staying alive, I’ve had to enlist others to accomplish simple tasks. It requires swallowing my pride, acknowledging my body is fallible, and asking directly.

On a good day, I can go outside for three hours; most days, I’m inside for 23. I’ve had long-term serious relationships but am solo now and, some days, even with my amazing friends and boisterous Greek family, the isolation is punitive. (I enjoy solitude and, indeed, need it to write. Solitude is a choice, however. Isolation lands on you like a piano.)

Still, I’m grateful. Among my peers, my difficulties are unusual, but adults know life is hard. Out of the 7.5 billion people alive today, I remain among the lucky. My namesake died under Nazi occupation and lies in an unmarked grave. I have perspective.

And yet.

This perspective won’t allow me to drive or climb stairs again. It won’t keep me from falling while making a sandwich or getting dizzy in the shower.

But so it goes when your health goes. One friend had a double mastectomy and is still an incredible writer and activist. Another has multiple sclerosis and is a prominent attorney, maneuvering around opposing counsel as deftly as she navigates the supermarket in her wheelchair. A pal of mine who also has ME is in a wheelchair but remains a gifted visual artist.

Like me, they have adapted. Also like me, they’d rather sip from a mud puddle than ask for help. As I said, you feel awkward. And often, well-meaning individuals--your tech support--feel awkward, too, as though they’re scared they’ll do or say the wrong thing. Which makes you even less likely to ask for help the next time, and the whole shebang becomes a round robin of good people on all sides unsure of what to ask or what to offer.

After a quarter-century of disability, conversations with others in this tent, plenty of therapy and hands-on activism, I’ve learned a few things: Most people in your orbit want to help. A deep trust results when a loved one takes you and your dog to the vet, picks up your prescriptions or changes your lightbulbs. You feel profound gratitude when you open your door in your bathrobe, wool socks and hair looking like kudzu because you’re too ill to bathe and have awful chills, and someone hugs you and says, “I know you’re having a hard week, so I brought dinner.”

But for this trust and beauty to emerge, you actually have to ask, “Could you please help me?” and then keep your request specific. You can’t expect even those who love you most to read your mind. How are they supposed to know you can’t lift the recycling bag?

If you’re the person offering and you’re worried about implying that a loved one is no longer autonomous, go ahead and say it out loud: “Hey, I’m not trying to treat you like you’re a waif, but I’m in your neighborhood and thought I’d check in. Do you need anything?” These are magical words when you’ve been trying for the past hour to walk to the kitchen.

As I said, adults know life is hard. But as is usually the case, it gets so much easier when we help each other out.

Sometimes, you just need to open up and ask.

[dolliesanddelights]

Got some clothing secondhand this last week! The dress was advertised for slim-MSD purposes so I was nervous about Constellation who fits like NO slim-MSD stuff - and then found out that not only does this dress not fit Litsa but it can’t fit Dez either. 8| Anyways, I had a haunch about it working on a mature tiny, so I took a picture of @beedaleebjd ‘s Pisces in it becsuse it will honestly probably work out really well for her.

Another one of Bee’s babies, Cecilia (she has been my model before so she probably looks familiar) is trying on this DARLING purple unicorn YOSD dress for me. I have a plan for one day getting two Littlefees and doing pastel lolita stuff with them and could not say no to this really cute dress. It looks like it’s really cute on the Littlefee body!

[dolliesanddelights]

Mail Expectations

So lots of clothes slowly making their way down town right now -

- an eventual order from Alice’s Collection

- a beautiful pink jacket

- a dress for Constellation and a YOSD unicorn dress that I want to try on Prim but if it doesn’t work bc she is a baby centaur child, I might be making a unicorn-themed YOSD at some point because why not.

- Bee is a terror and picked out a couple of things for me on an Instagram order

We also have Litsa’s incoming body which is making me a LIL nervous cause it’s working really slowly through Australia customs right now BUT I know post is a cluster right now so I have really heavy patience for all of this.

Purchase Goals

- I have a wig picked out from Prim on Alice’s Collections for an eventual purpose, but I am nervous it’s too rose gold for how pink I’m imagining her. I think I need to do some color passes on her to really feel what I want before committing.

- I need a white/silver wig for Constellation. She is all white/silvers/greys/deep royal blues and now that she has a body and dress coming I really want the perfect wig to go with it. Something that feels magical and HOPEFULLY a lil playful without going too immature.

- I want Violet’s body. I’m not planning on purchasing it until later this year, but I think about it and her constantly these days.

- I want to start investigating a maker (or shopping around for premade) for Violet’s eyes. I can actually see them SO clearly in my head so idk whether to just go for the color and FEEL or ask if someone can create kinda what I am thinking in my noggin.

- Harlow’s wig. I don’t know if I get any enjoyment out of wig-making. It’s not like faceups or seeing where I do KIND of enjoy it when I’m not super anxious. So I want to get her one. She deserves it. My baby is almost two years old.