Story of a Surreyite

Some of you may remember me from the early days of Tintota. But for those of you who don’t remember or are new here, my name is Patricia McClain. I am a 34-year-old Surrey, BC, Canada woman with severe depression, severe anxiety, Social Anxiety and now, Type 2 diabetes.

I used to have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), but that has cleared up.

Those who do remember me may recall the colored drawing of my orange tabby cat, Simba.

My interests include cats, drawing, cartooning, 70s and 80s pop and rock music, fashion and beauty, dancing (when my nerve-damaged feet can handle it), animation, cherry items, perfumes and candles that smell like yummy treats (like Jacqua’s Buttercream Frosting perfume and bath products- yum!), metaphysical subjects, and Wicca/Paganism. I am a huge Lilo and Stitch fan (my favorite character being the wacky 4-eyed alien scientist Jumba Jookiba).

In the old days, I think my screen name was Cherrycharmca. If you do remember me, you may recall me as the plus-sized woman with light brown hair and glasses.

A lot has changed since I was last here. First of all, I decided to follow the Wiccan/Pagan path. Just to set the record straight, Wiccans do not worship the Devil or do evil deeds, as some claim. Nor do we dress like the character Nancy (Fairuza Balk’s character) in the movie The Craft. True Wiccans don’t even believe in the Devil. We do things to help others, and anyone running around dressing and acting like the Nancy character would be laughed off the face of the earth by true Wiccans. Wicca/Paganism is about harmony with nature and the world around us, and we celebrate the turning of the seasons, with Halloween (Samhain to Wiccans) being our New Year.

As I said earlier, I also now have Type 2 diabetes, which has lead to nerve damage in my legs and feet. I discovered I had diabetes the hard way. In 2004, I was volunteering at a dog grooming place and was on my way to work one morning. I got to the sidewalk on the other side of the street when my legs suddenly buckled under me and I fell, doing a literal ‘face plant’ on the concrete sidewalk. This mangled my glasses and tore a chunk of skin from the space between my upper lip and my nose, which resulted in stitches. Needless to say, I was not a pretty sight. A fellow Lilo and Stitch fan tried to cheer me up by sending me an e-mail where they pretended to be Stitch and threatened to destroy the evil sidewalk. Keeping with the spirit of this e-mail, I took my 18-inch-tall Stitch doll and placed him on the segment of sidewalk where I fell and photographed him, giving the photo the caption Stitch preparing to destroy evil sidewalk. Sidewalk evil, evil! Even in light of the accident, I was still able to keep my sense of humor. Tests were done on me to determine what made me fall, and a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes was made.

With Thanksgiving approaching, I have a lot to be thankful for: a mom who loves me and tries her best to help me with my health problems, a loving pet (my long-haired calico kitty Patches), a very sweet and loving boyfriend (his name is Paul) and wonderful support from the local mental health community. My younger half-sister also blessed me with a nephew and niece. My nephew’s name is Dawson and he is six years old (my ‘handsome little man’ I call him), and my niece is two years old, and her name is Cassidy. She is so cute. She looks like a little cherub, and even in the face of disaster (earlier this year my mom’s dog, Novia, tried to tear a chunk out of her face), she still keeps smiling and giggling. I am also thankful for a good home and all the friends I’ve made on the Internet.

Anyhow, that’s me. I would love to hear from you, old members and new. I’m looking forward to a fresh start at Tintota and getting to know everyone here.

Contact Patricia

- Patricia McClain
Surrey, British Colombia, Canada.