Randomness

I must confess. I did my best to ignore all the tagging going on and wasn't going to participate. Then I kept reading all these things about people that I know, or admired, or hadn't really heard of before, and I've really enjoyed getting to know a little more about the people behind the names. To all of you who really didn't want to but did anyway, thanks.

I've had a few rough RL days this week. I was going through the feeds and saw this from GirlWonder Speaks. I absolutely loved the video and it really touched me.

Yesterday morning I logged in and decided to do a little wandering around to grab some of the awesome goodies everyone's giving away and on my list of places to go was Reaction. So I TP'd over and was bombarded by hug pop ups! Not one to turn down a hug, I said yes. I was still rezzing and was being hugged by people I didn't even see! I only went to get a freebie from under the tree (which I completely forgot about) and ended up making several friends. That group of people can't possibly have any idea how much their hugs meant to me. I asked for a sign after a while and headed back to Calla to maybe share some of the love. If just a hug could help me after the last few days I'd had, I was sure going to pass it along to someone else!

Rad and the rest of the folks who'd been over at Reaction came to Calla, signs in hand and we all stood around and tried to hug. I was really, really surprised by the number of people who said no. After a few, it was pretty depressing. My chat looked something like this:

Kitten has declined your hug.
britany has declined your hug.
Zazza has declined your hug.
Lola has declined your hug.
Ayano has declined your hug.
Libertine has declined your hug.
relea has declined your hug.
Shangreloo has declined your hug.
dani has declined your hug.
Lynd has declined your hug.
Valle has declined your hug.
Lang3 has declined your hug.
nadia has declined your hug.
Enchanteddreams has declined your hug.
Hayato has declined your hug.
Ahdri has declined your hug.
Lorelei has declined your hug.
Foxie has declined your hug.

I was quite relieved that 2 of the 3 of the Callatropians to come through did hug me.

But overall, it was a very different experience than what I'd had over at Reaction. It took me an hour and a half to get a dozen hugs at Calla. I even put out a big sign that opens the video url and passes a "FREE HUGS" sign.

I gotta say, I'm a little disappointed. I totally understand rejecting a kiss, or something of that nature. But a hug? Come on people!

I encourage you, if you see someone with a free hug sign, give them a yes. Stop by Calla and get a free sign of your own. If you see someone that just looks like they might need a hug, offer one. Sometimes, a little thing like a virtual hug can make a really big difference in someone's day.