Happy Thank Your Patreons Day!

When I was in high school, some friends and I would celebrate special holidays. I’m not talking about the big ones- Veteran’s Day, President’s Day, Groundhog’s Day. I’m talking about those that are more esoteric:

National Pancake Day.

Happy Buzzard Day.

And everyone’s favorite, Wear Your Pajamas to Work Day.

We would make buttons. I would proudly wear them on my thrift store navy blue corduroy jacket. If the day was a celebration of a certain food- say French Fries or Animal Crackers, we would eat said food for lunch. It was a way to showcase our creativity, our individuality, and our virginity.

I no longer wear buttons to celebrate National Nap Day or Hopscotch Day, even though they do occasionally effect my food choices. November 6th was Nacho Day and truth be told, I’ve been craving them ever since.

I got an email this morning from Taryn from Patreon. I don’t know who Taryn is. Perhaps he or she is Patreon’s version of Tom from Myspace. Nevertheless, I got an email from from Taryn, informing me that today was national “Thank Your Patreon Day.” I highly doubt this is a nationally recognized day of observation. But it struck a chord in whatever is left of that Davey from high school. If Today was Thank Your Patreon Day then dammit, who was I not to thank my Patreons.

I won’t list them all by name, but if you are one of the people who financially contribute to the running of this blog, from the bottom of my heart, I say thank you. The money I get from Patreon affords me the time to create these daily blogs.

Because time is something each blog takes a good chunk of! Each post takes about two hours from start to finish. I begin by sipping my coffee, and then doing about thirty minutes of stream of consciousness writing. This can be about anything-usually an event that happened, a topic that’s been on my mind, or something I did to annoy Jaimie. After that I look back through and find a line or an image or a thought that I find compelling. My favorites are the ones that surprise me. The ones I read and think, “Huh, I didn’t know that’s how I felt.” Then for the next ninety minutes I shape that thought into the blog I share for the day.

Not that I mind the time it takes. Quite often it’s my favorite part of the day.

It started as an outlet for the things I was writing after my diagnosis. Then it became a way to keep everyone up to date on what was happening without having to tell the same story to a hundred different people. Now I consider it a record of life. My life. The things I love, the people I love, in the face of a disease that has completely changed my reality In some ways for the better.

So thank you so much to the people who opened their hearts and wallets to make this blog possible. If you want to take the opportunity of National Patreon Day to become a Patreon yourself, that would be amazing. A link to my page is in the comments.

Hope you all have a great Tuesday. See you tomorrow!

Davey

https://www.patreon.com/davidleenelson