I had been wanting to work up courage to post here again but kept putting it off. Then Dragoneer sadly passed away and it made me realize how much credit I owe FA for friends, help, and even my current self. Without FA I literally would be on such a wildly different course in my life. Even when I'd leave due to depression, life issues, or just having nothing to post for so long I'd still come back here to browse people's favorites or just check messages. It's one of the last few real art gallery sites left on the internet that isn't trying to be social media and ran by algorithms and investors. It's still very much a community website. Whatever your opinions on Dragoneer were, FA is still a major piece of the furry community and has been for almost 20 years.
So I want to start posting again. Actually stop being so reclusive and isolating with myself. I feel like I owe this site that much for the good it's brought me. The community has been good to me for all the years I've been on this site.

As for a little life update. Things ain't that great lol
So last year I lost a good paying job and a few months later I went into working for a bookstore. Love the job. It's easy on my joints, I love all but one coworker, and while it doesn't pay as good as the job before it it's not minimum wage (that's $7.25 here for context). However when February came the corporate bought into the whole AI fad bullshit in a effort to save money which is a load of shit. They installed some AI to do the scheduling for the stores and it's really bad. I went from 25 to 30 hours a week to 5 hours a week. For nearly 7 months I've only worked one day a week. I'm barely making over $100 a check every two weeks. No one can live on that, not even if I didn't have rent and bills. The AI clipped everyone's hours and there's been several days and even weeks where it doesn't schedule people to entire departments like cashiers (yes, there's been days no cashiers were scheduled to save money according to this thing...). In that time I've been applying for jobs every time I see a posting for one I can do but sadly I've only had 4 interviews in these 7 months and none resulted in anything. Everyone in this city is fighting each other for the few jobs there are.
It's screwing me over pretty bad because I'm making enough for like bills, not rent or groceries. And I mention this because I have a $10,000 surgery I've been trying to pay for and get done so I can later on get another surgery that will improve the quality of my physical health. For people who aren't aware, I'm transgender and been approved for sex change surgeries and operations. I've found a lovely doctor who's worked on a few of my friends, I adore his bed side manner and attitude, and he's in driving distance which means while healing I can stay in New Orleans. But like I said, I'm barely making over $100 every two weeks due to AI fuckery at my job. I haven't made payments towards my surgery tab since the start of the year because I simply do not have the spare money to do so. If I was getting 4 or 5 days a week at my current job I'd be able to go back to small payments but that doesn't seem to be happening any time soon since the corporate folks are dead set in their investment with the AI to save money.
Haven't been on meds in a long time either due to simply not being able to afford them anymore. It's heightened my depression and anxiety and also made suicidal thoughts more prominent. It's been rough going through all this. Being aware of how dysfunctional I am without meds because of my trauma growing up on top of my current situations.
But even with all that going on there have been times where I pick up steam again and finish overdue commissions. And in doing so I have pictures to post and will soon be opening them more publicly again like here. I'm ready to come back to art publicly instead of just sharing it in closed spaces. Hopefully get back into it to start breaking even, pay off some debts, and get my surgeries soon.

Sorry for the massive journal. TLDR; I'm coming back to post art, I'm transgender and got a $10,000 surgery to pay for, and AI has fucked my job lol
And sorry to panhandle but if you got a spare $3 or so to help out or just because you wanna help me post more, I'd really appreciate it https://ko-fi.com/A1351QLB