The most comfortable place in the world  

I know what it feels like. Mostly I do not care what people think of me and I do not notice people that are different so much. WIth me it's more like everytime I open my mouth people ridicule me for whatever I say and believe in.

I say it anyway. This is my life, not theirs.

It's so nice to find your "place" isn't it....where no one judges and you can just feel relaxed and have a good time with like minded people. I think I have only recently found a place to hang out where I feel really comfortable...and that's my local comic shop. See....my boyfriend and I are kinda geeks...we like reading comics, watching sci-fi (another group of people who are sterotyped). He's a Dark Town nut (Stephen Kings stories) and I'm a Buffy freak (Buffy the vampire slayer). Our local comic shop is a great place to hang out, and talk about the subjects we love, with people who are well read and very articulate.
They also do a great job to build community at the shop...we have game nights and play trivia, pictionary, and there have been low budget productions of "The Newly Wed game".
Out of all the bars, clubs and other hangouts I've beem to it's the first place for me that I've even considered "my place".

Bravo! The people that swing by the shop are some of the scariest, meanest looking folks around but they are the first ones to help someone carry in their groceries or hold open a door. It's sad that people see them as freaks; I guess I technically fall into that "class" because of the way I dress or purple streaks in my hair. I don;t do that for shock value or to try to be all "Hot Topic" cool (which really isn't all that cool). I wear my HiTec boots because they are comfortable, the purple streaks - I've had those for years .. my music is MY music.

Thanks for posting this up. Maybe it will make people stop and think that it's better to just someone on how they act and treat others rather than the way they dress or the music they listen to.

I know exactly what you mean. In high school I never joined a clique, never had a "class" of friends, never judged anyone but what they did or how they looked but how they treated me. The only people I avoided were the true troublemakers who were always getting busted for being stupid.

My entire life I've always kept that same attitude. Color, religion, weight, looks, sexual preference.. mean exactly squat to me. But I have found one thing to ring true. I'm much more comfortable with the so called "outcasts" (I dislike that word intensely) than I am with the "it" crowd.

With the outcasts, it makes no difference to them how I dress, if my tattoos are showing, if my hair is perfect, what kind of jewelry I wear or if my fingernails are perfectly manicured. They accept me for who I am.

With the it crowd your worth seems to be judged on what designer your wearing, what kind of car you drive, are they real diamonds or rhinestones, do your shoes match your outfit, who does your hair and I don't even want to go into what they say if they see my tattoos because the only acceptable tattoos are on the lower back and maybe a tiny ankle tattoo. If you fail any of the above conditions, then you are shunned and talked about behind your back and they don't even try to hide it.

I suppose my husband and I are fortunate in that we're in the music business, things that would normally make us outcasts in certain situations are a bit more acceptable because we're musicians. Everybody just sort of assumes that musicians are supposed to be different and that's sort of ok. My husband has hair almost to his waist and no one thinks twice about it when we're on stage, but you should see the looks he gets at the grocery store! It's pretty funny sometimes. I've got some stories that would crack you up.

All in all I'll take the outcast crowd any day.

That is super cool! I've felt that way on a few occasions since we moved to Seattle. It's a much more liberal and accepting city, and there are only a few places where random people will give us odd looks... and I think those are mostly the tourists. :) It's much better than being in the midwest, where even my tiny little nose piercing got me odd looks and comments.

I'm so glad that you had a good time! (sorry about the hangover!) Isn't it a shame that we all can't live happily together and not judge each other on such odd things? I so the greatest skit once. We had taken our oldest son to college and they had a special program for the parents. It was essentially trying to communicate that your son/daughter would be exposed to all types of people and to encourage them not to be judgemental. Rather than use any typically sterotyped group in the skit, they had a group of girls whose 'underwear was blue' and a group of girls who did not want to room with them because they wore blue underwear. It was very nicely done and got the point across so well!

I think that maybe the reason is that as people that have piercings, tattoos, etc.. we are often judged by others. I think that we are seen as abnormal by more conservative members of society. Since we deal with this all the time we are probably more sympathatic to others who are scorned by society. This is just my opinion though.

Yeah it's ironic that the group that looks down at people who are somewhat different from the norm is the group that is responsible for so much negativity. People should stop wasting their energy on judging others and get to know them for who they are. Heaps of times I've been out and seen two homosexuals making out and other people pointing and sniggering and I just think 'get over it'. It's frustrating and annoying and no wonder there's so much hatred in the world still. I love being part of a group where people can be themselves. That's why I love hanging out at Red Paintings concerts. They're a local band (who toured the US last year) and you get all types of people at their shows. Goths, punks, middle aged women, everyone. And we all love eachother and get on great. Good to hear you had a cool time.

Sounds like my kinda place, I think we should all try to be less judgemental! Before people pick up the sticks and stones and start throwing they might want to put themselves into the other persons shoes!

Sounds like a great place to be. Well, except that I'm not a Skinny Puppy fan, but all the people sound wonderful. I love going to concerts with the ones most of society calls the "freaks", they tend to be the best people to know.