The first part of this blog will be a manga reivew of five top manga, followed by that classic and tragic experience and pain we all have felt, ‘when your girlfriend goes straight…’ Wow, a pang of pain just in writing that.
But first, a lot of great people have been gifting me with manga from the wishlist. So these are five titles I have been given that we (Linda, Cheryl and I) have all read and enjoyed, 
all rated as top notch. And when you have three lesbians saying, “Go read these heterosexual romantic manga!” then you know they are good. The first, The Name of the Flower 
is more about healing and how we bond as humans than it is a simple romance. The story starts with a girl whose parents have died, and she has been passed every few weeks or months from one family to another until she ends up with her uncle the writer. He is a total grouch. She hasn’t spoken or cried since the funeral.
So the uncle tells her, ‘You clean and cook and you can stay here.’ And she does, and when he sees her one day he says, “If you have extra time, you can garden.” So she goes to school, comes home and cooks, cleans and works in the garden.
And after a time, seeing the plants she has planted as seeds grow up and then bloom, for the first time in a long time…..she smiles. She made something grow. And over two years, she joins the community gardening society (she is the favorite of lots of old men) and cooks and eventually the grouch, who used to speak to no one, starts to speak to her. He asks her the name of a flower. He actually reaches out of himself and asks her something.
With the garden, in some way, she learned to grieve and then learned to go on with life and put it all into her garden so it was a pleasant place to sit.
It has joy. This manga is the highest recommended from all three of us. There will be a book two but this volume can stand alone. Also, this, Heaven’s Will and We were There 1 & 2 should all be available on the 4 for 3 Amazon promotion, which means it has free shipping and you get all 4 for about $26-27.
The next one we recommend is Heaven’s Will,
I have talked about this manga before but this was a book that was SO good, we were all disappointed that it is listed as a ‘stand alone’ (meaning just one volume) book and we want MORE. There is a girl Sudou who has a really bad fear and experience with boys. She can also see ghosts and runs because she is scared...a lot. Sudou is running from a ghost when she meets Sato who is a beautiful goth girl who with her man-servant Kagari (who happens to be a vampire), can exorcise ghosts. Sato and the vampire have a deal; but it will take a lot of trust before Kagari will explain why he is with Sato, even when Sudou walks in on Kagari feeding on Sato in her long black negligee. Oh, yeah, and Sato is technically a guy, but since he is ‘keeping his body perfect until he can have a sex change’ it is sort of easier to think of Sato as she. The good thing is that Sudou now has a friend, who while technically a guy, is sort of a best girl friend
and is teaching her how to be strong and stand up for herself. And while Sato is helping Sudou to be strong, Sudou is trying to help Sato with Sato’s pain, and complicated past (COMPLICATED!). I don’t want to give anything away but this is a great goth loli, best girlfriend, vampire, adventure, friends helping each other and learning to accept each other AND themselves manga I can recommend. We all want more! So write and draw fast Satoru Takamiya (the author), please!
We Were There 
is a story complete in two volumes. This along with the other manga listed have all won awards. This manga is about a boy who has his girlfriend die (only, of course, it is more complicated than that!), and shuts off his emotions
and about the girl who falls in love with him. He uses a smile and an air of ‘I don’t care’ to keep everything emotionally away. It is not like she wants to be, and he shuts her down a bunch of times but... she IS in love with him. 
He soon knows it, they talk about it, he teases her but they become friends but the past is always between them. Is there ever a way for him to move beyond what happened in the past and live in the present? Is that possible for any of us? And this is no simple ‘love wins out’ western story but a Japanese story which leaves the complexities of repressed emotion, falling in love and how even two people who want to care for each other can still hurt each other, and then....maybe love. Again, if lesbians are recommending romances between guys and girls – top recommmendation!
Object of Desire is part of the Luv Luv series 
and is for adults, or at least mature 17 or 18 year olds. It is about the sex that is going on NOW (with girls from 17 and up). I liked it because I heard the kind of statements I used to hear at work in Cardiff, “Oh, I am going down to club xxxxx tonight and having some sex.”
Me: “Are you looking for a boyfriend?”
Her: “That would be nice, but I just want to have some sex for now.”
Or statements like, “It wasn’t great, but the sex felt good afterward.”; or thoughts like, “Do I stay with him, or let him have sex with me just so I have someone?” – these are the statements in this book too! Like I said, this manga is about real life. There are five stories ranging from a virgin who is known as the Ice Princess who is hounded by a dope she finally accepts as her boyfriend and her first time. Then a story about a girl with large breasts who always has boys after her; wanting to be her boyfriend but really, they just want to have sex. She wonders, will anyone be honest, will they stop using these stupid pick-up lines and just say, “I want to have sex?”
Amazingly, one guy does, and it turns out that she ends up, not with just throw-away sex but a boyfriend, in this clueless wonder of a guy. The favorite story of Linda and mine is called 'Maid for Love' and it is about a girl who works at one of the Maid café’s. 
She likes her job, she likes pretending to be a maid and while she is sexualized by lonely men at work, she knows how to cut them off in a polite (and if she has to, not so polite way). She likes to fantasize that she is a maid for her boyfriend, and goes to a work party with him. It turns out to be the house of a rich woman and she volunteers to be a maid for the night saying, “I’m a professional!” But when the other wives and girlfriend find out where she works, they talk trash about her, and when some husbands find out, they come and ask her to ‘service them’ – her boyfriend arrives to take care of her. She just wanted to be a 'real maid' for once, which is what she likes being (what difference between that and the SCA?), so she could dressing up as one. Also her boyfriend watched out for her, made sure she was okay, protected her, because she was a bit of a klutz. As he says while she is sleeping, “You make a better fantasy maid than a real one!” But he accepts what she likes to do. And he helps her do it. The whole book was so interesting (five stories in all), that I put two more of the ‘luv luv’ seres that were recommended on my wish list (they said “if you like Object of Desire try….). I know, I am getting manga with five hetero stories to read? Oh no, is Beth going straight? That will soon be answered!
So go off and try those manga (the last one only if 17 or 18 and above) and see what you think.
This is a brief pause in order to insert a cat girl picture. It is like looking at the Sakura Blossoms. 
Is there a need or reason for the picture beyond its beauty? Would an Elizabeth McClung blog be complete without one?
I finish this post with a common scenerio, in fact one so common that two of the three of us were shocked, maybe a little hurt when they found out that X, a good female friend was…oh, it sounds so wrong…..STRAIGHT. There I said it. Yes, she turned out to be straight. She had the vibes, she had a lot of cues, but in the end, out comes the man. And how do you deal with that?
So a quick survival guide for what is becoming almost an epidemic: girls going straight. I know they say they can’t ‘choose’ their orientation, but…not to MEN, try harder? Nevermind, not going to debate that. We all know that there is a natural order and beauty to the world….lesbians.
I mean, it is what high school romances, and crushes are all about right, finding the right girl, hoping this lasts beyond high school, that special bond, those ‘special sleepovers.’
Now, the thing is, you have a best girl friend and a really close friend, the kind of person you can run up to and give a surprise hug when you see them on the street. 
That kind of close friend, and you are pretty sure you have all the signs down, I mean, they are lesbian! Or at least bisexual, and while you may hook up with your own girlfriend you are completely comfortable around them. You are there, giving your special greeting hug (you are the one with blue hair!)
sort of just huggig each other while you talk and gossip (you are there for each other hugging when times are bad..or good! And often like today you just hang out). Then she starts talking about some guys butt.
This is the great mystery; apparently hetero women can SEE a butt on a guy while lesbians just sort of see the back of a pair of jeans. But a butt on a girl? Oh yes, getting hot now! So she talks about a guys butt or worse, some actor’s chest (it is flat, with hair…what is to get excited about?). So you think “Okay, she’s bisexual!”
Only next time, you are talking to her, she comes out with this story about a guy who ‘totally saved her’ (turns out he caught some oranges – how is that ‘saving her?’) and how cute he is.
You are kind of in shock and miss the next part. Which is probably for the best because it turns out she, for his KINDNESS, invited him out on a picnic. Yeah, it’s a DATE. OMG!
So they go out on this picnic and he is apparently so kind and considerate and she talks about him and everything he said and what he wore, and how afterward he came home and helped her take in the laundry? 
And how he is man enough to do housework, how sweet is that? You don’t answer in case the gagging noises are audible.
And then the next time you see her she talks about how they have taken it to the NEXT LEVEL which is kissing 
and how sometimes it is just great to be hugged and embraced. You think to yourself, as she is lying in your lap; Oh I know some great embraces and they don’t involve GUYS!
But see you DON'T say that because you went and got a out a BOOK from the library and read some Heart columns and you now know that your friend is 'coming out' as straight. What do you do? Here are some tips from the book (Taken from actual help sections): “Try not to think of her being straight as good or bad but more like just being left handed.”, “you may disapprove of what she is doing but accept who she is.” Plus, “It is okay to express surprise, just not TOO much surprise.” And most important, “Do your research to understand what straight means.”
You have followed the book: “Hugs are encouraged”, as well as, “Take them out for a celebratory meal” and “as long as she’s happy.” You did that, which to you is sort of looking like a date but she is clueless and you end your date/time out on the lawn and she looks for four leaf clovers.
“You like this guy” you say, trying to be supportive.
“Oh yes”, she lies in your arms and twirls the four leaf clover she has found and continues, “I wonder if this means I’ll get lucky tonight!”
You are glad she can’t see your eyes as they bulge out: get lucky? Oh my, this is NOT like being left handed at all. You remember the book, “take the opportunity to learn about what it is like to be straight” and restrain yourself and manage to choke out a, “um…ah….what about size and that?”
She twirls the clover the opposite direction, “I guess that doesn’t matter….oh I mean it DOES, but I have the Rabbit for that, I just want to know that I am special and feel that glow and him inside…”
“Um isn’t that a tornado?” You say desperately trying to cut her sentence off.
But that is what she wants and that is what she gets, (she virtually attacks him!)
and you have to hear the blow by blow the next day about how he was great and afterward she wrapped herself around him and ahhhhhh.....(try not to claw out eyeballs)
Okay, she’s straight. You have to deal with it. You have to meet him, as the book says, “Love is love no matter who you fall for (apparently this includes men), and the whole, “If you love them, then I love them” It just can’t be avoided, maybe after a while, like two or three seconds you can tell her that the sexual blow by blow can be toned down (or eliminated) because you have to eat later. But you are all for him and if he makes her happy (you are envisioning yourself nine months in the future with her sobbing in your arms about what a bastard he is!)…
So the thing is, most females like female friends. It is sort of natural, in the same way guys get together to play games with game stations and grunt or hoot, or they go bowling, females get together and talk and share and sometimes just hang out.
But, here are some tips to help you next time, so you aren’t SO surprised, that your friend just might be straight (or a femme which would be cool since you need someone to go shopping with):
1)She wears high heel shoes and claims they are ‘comfortable’ even for eight hours.
2) She likes wearing panty hose
3) She can actually SEE something when looking at a man’s butt (all I see are jeans, what does she see?) and likes it.
4) She says,“He’s so cool!”
5) She says, “Do you think I should act less smart so he isn’t intimidated?
6) She talks about how she watched sports with a guy….and enjoyed it (but can’t name any of the rules)
7) She starts praising a guy for things like: Carrying a 20 lb BBQ (“You are so strong”), lighting candles, “I never could have done that” – apparently this isn’t a lobotomy, it is called straight dating rituals, aka, getting laid.
8) She tells you she wants to get ‘lucky’ as she hold a condom.
Just because your friend is straight doesn’t have to stop you being their friend, indeed you can become stronger friends, but that brief pang you feel as you realize, “Oh no, not a bunch of drunken men over you! You are special, you are precious, don’t you get that?” 
But apparently it is like being left handed.
I want to talk a little bit about dreams and doings. Because right now I am in a lot of pain, I think maybe because I kicked up my action to twice what it was before Lyrica but also I have been fighting a lot of groups (Beacon). So I am in pain. Boring!
So I don’t want to talk about pain because pain and fatigue dominates my day, my thinking, my breathing, my sleeping. So let’s talk about what I do that is good, and pleasant, which is this case is saving toward my DREAM backpack (for either me OR my wheelchair - keep reading) as well as some of the things I do; from restaurants to ordering things online (Don’t worry, I will talk little and there will be lots of pictures).
First off let’s go back to the weekend, because it wasn’t ALL just postcard and postcards and sexy dress up on the corner with men hooting (though that tends to be what I remember), we also went out for Mexican. And here we are at our favorite place, with our strawberry margaritas. 
And no, I did not go and get all ‘innocent schoolgirl’ on the corner AFTER drinking, oddly I did that cold sober. There was however one particularly startling time when I looked over an a 7-8 year old girl was there (with a teddy like mine actually) and she looked at me and asked, “What are you doing?” And while I am thinking, “ABOUT TO GO TO PRISON....from the look on your father’s face!"), Cheryl said, “We’re playing ‘Dress Up’” (Thank you Cheryl!). And the little girl got it right away and kind of smiled and seemed to want to be IN some of the pictures. Her father, whose mind was elsewhere (dirty mind, dirty mind, not like mine, which is pure and innocent, that’s why I made sure the thong strap was showing) quickly called her repeatedly to come far away from me. But, hey when Maggie and Cheryl went to the Cemetery in May we ALL did “dress up”, you can go back and see the pictures!
Okay, new topic: I have looked all over the net (like done a bunch of searches) and as far as I can tell there are about 15 “Postcard Projects” of one kind or another. However, the others are where people want other people to send IN postcards and the person doing the project wants postcards from every state in the USA for example. Mine so far seems to be the only one where you give your name and address and you GET a postcard. And now there are, well about 130-150 people on the list. So I do think I will reach my thousand postcards sent out (my goal) if I can pace myself and I don't obsess or get out of control. Hopefully everyone will get three to six postcards or so if I make it to the finish of the project.
What people don’t ask is, “How does Beth get her postcards?” At first it was just stock of postcards while I was IN Japan. Then those left over from Japan, and then that ran out. And now, some people SEND postcards which I use and send out again and you can see in pictures some of the postcards that people have sent in for me to send back out. But for the majority of the postcards, like the 31 so far this weekend/Monday, I get my postcards....wait for it....one at a time (no, that isn't Zen, I am being literal - read on!).
Yup, I actually go and search out a variety of sites and referrals and webpages every day to find postcards. And I have a fixed amount that I can spend on each postcard (about $1.50, a little more for rarities) so that limits it as well. So for example here is a postcard I bought today. 
That’s right, one card (and a pretty cool shrine maiden one at that!). I try to buy a few cards from each vendor as it helps with the postage costs but today I got in the post, three postcards from Japan: those I ordered over six weeks ago. So I buy a postcard, I wait for it to come, I sort them, then I start the five to six stages of the postcard project and post 30 or 32 a week. So the prep work IS a large part of the postcard project. But I want people to get COOL cards, postcards like this one here which has a nice little see through Anime cell build right into the postcard. 
So yes, this is one I bought two weeks ago, I am waiting for it to arrive. One postcard at a time.
So when sometimes the postcards are damaged, that gets me very sad, because it takes so much effort to get them here. So for example, one of the cards from Japan was damaged, they offered me to take another one so I ordered this one. 
The postcard still hasn’t arrived (but it will). I like the postcard for many reasons (it has a cat AND do you notice that the anime character and I have the EXACT same Kyoto Bamboo umbrella? Neat!). So it is about 10 weeks so far in waiting for this card. And I could hold on to it and look at it now and then but instead I usually within a few days process it and start sending it out. That is what the purpose of the postcard project is after all. And yeah, sometimes I send out collectable postcards. But it seems I collected them.....for you.
I am not sure how many hours a week I spend buying postcards. Now that I have done it a while I am often contacted, as I was today by a seller who had some new Yaoi cards and I ended up buying seven from them, that took about 90 minutes (they will arrive in two weeks or so). But sometimes it takes an hour or two and you get no cards that day, or that week. And sometimes you hit a jackpot and sometimes you just find one – but it is the RIGHT one, like this Gothic Loli postcard I got yesterday (with cat ears!). 
So now I am waiting for this to be shipped from Japan (where I get some of my cards, some from the UK, some from New Zealand, some Australian, Singapore and from around the USA).
And the same is true of getting ‘surprises’, I try to hunt them out, one at a time and then find the right person for them. For instance here is a small stationary set of Hello Kitty as a Maiko, an apprentice Geisha. 
So I have ordered and paid for this limited edition and soon it will be shipped. Arrive here, and then I will try to find someone to “surprise” with it along with a few other things. I don’t get out much. But I do work as much as I can.
Of course, the problem is that when you are spending so much time looking for postcard and things for others occasionally you might find something for yourself…like this nice Pencil Board from Japan (De Capo II). 
It was only a couple dollars and after all that hard work….I needed a reward to look forward to right? Right?
My big thing which I have been trying to save up for and if all goes well I will have the money to pay for in about 10 days is this backpack from Japan. 
It is by the designer h.naota (who does some rare and kick-ass Hello Kitty stuff). It is very adjustable so that it can be worn on any back but also I think on any wheelchair. And, most important it comes in COOL red spiderweb punk pattern! Yes it is $88 BUT, I have a 10% off coupon so the shipping from Japan is free! I could get it from a limited retailer in the states online but they are selling it for $198.95 plus shipping. So I will go with the Japan order, I think. The satchel doesn’t just look cool it also closes with a flap (and some punk pins!)
so that people with limited hand use like me can open it. Plus instead of just a giant space like my ti-lite one, it has LOTS of pockets so I can put things like “cold break packs”, pain meds, my emergency pack with money and stuff, and even a book in all the different pockets. 
So right now, that is my dream, I just have to hope they don’t run out of them in the next 10 days (NO, don’t go and buy them, that one is MINE!). I haven’t had a lot to look forward to in a major way as our trip to San Fran seems a little delayed (thanks to our Tax return for 2007 still being reviewed…and 2006: they have finally sent a letter to say, "Yes, the Canadian Government accept I have a disability.....please let them know when I get better or die so they can remove the tax credit").
So that’s today’s post, I wanted something where you could see what I do, which is that I still use my brain, keep track of dozens of objects, find the right thing for the right people. And yes, I know that I could get postcards in bulk – but they wouldn’t be THOSE postcards, they wouldn’t be the right postcard for the right person.
And I try, even when the pain and my rather certain future makes it feel like a cold grey planet where nothing seems to matter anymore, to find dreams, like a sweet spiderweb punk backpack for my wheelchair. I am also still trying to get out, even a little, four or five days a week, I didn’t today but I WILL tomorrow and I did yesterday (saw a black squirrel – need to go visit squirrels!).
I hope in your pain and your situation that you can have a dream, or something to look forward to. I have been selling off my stuff on ebay to get money for the backpack. I saved stuff for years so that I would have DVD’s to watch for the rest of my life; well, turns out I won’t have that much time so...on to ebay they go. Hurts, but hey, once they are sent off to a new home, I am sure I will happy, and right now, I want that backpack more than the collected film works of Stephen Fry (sorry Fry). So, if you have a dream coming up, I’d like to hear about it!
Gift giving: maybe because I have never kept Xmas or really had a birthday I like giving gifts and I like getting gifts whenever. Gift giving is fun, and so is getting them: nothing better than seeing something and thinking, “Oh I bet X would love that!”
Anyway, I did give one gift over the weekend, but not as many gifts as I would have liked. I was sort of sat upon by my ill health (sometimes when your heart doesn’t beat right, it is like a giant coming and sitting on you – ug!). So that kept me down, but I will make up for it this week!
But I did give MYSELF a few presents (oh was the task to give to others, oops!). Seriously, most of these I got over a month ago and have just been waiting to arrive. For example a sort of friend and person who picks up things for me in Japan offered (as he was sending me two books I bought; a Ghibli card collection – I said yes!) 
As you can see, the artwork is stunning and now I am wishing I got twice as much, but that’s the old problem of the pocket versus the eye (my eye is GOOD at finding things to get, my pocket not so brilliant in finding the money to get them.).
As it happened several people this weekend gave me gifts including a woman who had the stall next to the yarn knitter (last blog post) who was lusting after the Ashford (why is it EVERYONE including Neil knows this and I can’t remember it?). this woman sold goods out of recycled products, in fact everything she sells is recycled, but you would never know it. Anyway, after we chatted for a while she said she wanted to give me a card, because she said it embodied me. 
So here it is, and I guess in a way it is how I operate (I just tend to use more swear words!). Linda had some nicer way of saying it (like, "this is so you!"), I just said thanks and wheeled off in a daze.
I was kind of in shock (actually I medically WAS in shock but for now I mean emotionally) that someone at a farmers faire would just GIVE me stuff. I figured it meant either I exude some special essence, or I look REALLY bad, or maybe they had a similar mission we did, to give something that weekend. Which might be true because I was then given another gift, one which is just as much about who I am, the embodiment of me. It is this necklace which the person actually had commissioned for me (how humbling and cool is that). 
So yes, that’s right, I now have a pendant of Hello Kitty in her Goth boots, with a bloody knife in one hand and a severed heart in the other. SWEET! How incredibly kind and cuddly is that? And she even looks like me!
Plus by post I received from a land I will not name, these stickers, which when I received them, immediately made me lust for more, because I want to put them on people’s postcards. 
But I only have these six. ARG! Oh well, how do I decide though who gets the “Kangaroos Next 25 km” warning?
Actually a few people sent in gifts this weekend to help with the Postcard Project, which is becoming sort of a collective project as the postcards and the stickers are coming from literally all over the globe. Admittedly I end up doing some of the hand work, but I think this is great, how so many postcards sent out now have 3-6 people’s assistance in the creation of them (one person sends a card, another a sticker, another gives a stamp, I assemble and write the message - that's four right there!). So here is one person whose gift arrived this weekend, they sent me some postcards to send, along with a rubber stamp. 
I, being me, immediately put one of the postcards and that stamp to work (hey, we have people who LIKE spiders on the list!). As well as this person/s who send some cards to add to the collection. 
I have to say I have a few candidates in mind for that woman in blue, as well as the seagulls.
So, if you get one of these postcards, I hope you won’t feel it is less of a surprise but more of the joy in receiving a group effort, that your card has ALREADY traveled and been cared about by people before I started on it, just in order to get to you! Thanks to those who sent in cards. As for me, I sent out 32 today (a weeks work) but still, that’s 64 in two weeks so yeah, I do spend hours finding, ordering and buying postcards every week.
In another gift to myself, a person we contacted in Japan went to a limited Exhibit of Oga’s art work, another artist who does some work for Ghibli Studios. I have seen his work in the Museum in oil paintings. 
To give you an idea, here are four of the postcards, just “simple” reproductions of his art. I only have one set, and since the Exhibit is going off, I can’t get any more, so I am afraid this IS a gift for me (sigh!), and you will only be able to appreciate them on here (or when you visit me in person).
I was also given ANOTHER necklace this weekend. An Opal necklace, which the person said that opal as a necklace is supposedly bad luck……but what else could happen to me? I really wished they hadn’t phrased it THAT way. 
I prefer to think of it as since my disease makes everything topsy-turvy, that bad luck opal will be good luck for my heath – and that’s is why I am going to wear it (when not wearing the heart cutting out Hello Kitty!).
Also, a gift I had been waiting on for a LONG time – I don’t know how long, so let’s say 6 weeks, a long, long time (two months?), finally came. And that is my Gothic Lolita Hello Kitty Mug designed by h.naoto 
(he is Japanese fashion designer – if you are somehow overflowing with cash he has tops for $200 or so, but I want a red spider backpack he makes which would be perfect for a wheelchair and is only (just say it fast so that word sounds believable) $88 or so – if it helps I have a $10 off gift certificate?). Anyway the mug was considerably less but is the touch of COOL, Hello Kitty is subversive, Hello Kitty is not just pretty and pink (except when covered in blood). She's cool, and though I can’t wear goth loli (would probably die of heat just putting all those layers on), I can enjoy my Gothic Lolic Mug. Ahhhhhhhh……it is true, some of the best things are worth waiting for (like a new kidney?).
I think that is most of the pile of loot that I gave myself and got (notice I didn’t mention what I gave because I am kind of secretive about things like that – to me gift giving is like a form of communication. Unfortunately I think that means either, I really like myself or I really like Japan, or I really like Hello Kitty, or all three). I hope you had as much fun as I did with giving and maybe you will show me the gifts you gifted yourself with or received?
Also, for every postcard and card and gift I have received, thank you for thinking about me. I try to write you to let you know but with the swiss cheese brain I have now, I miss people out. That isn’t intentional. And the same with postcards, sometimes I find I have forgotten someone so I write one right away! It was fun showing you all the stuff, I liked it (I was like “Here, here, look at this! Look at this!”), so I hope you liked looking? I hope you received or gave some good stuff too!
all rated as top notch. And when you have three lesbians saying, “Go read these heterosexual romantic manga!” then you know they are good. The first, The Name of the Flower 
is more about healing and how we bond as humans than it is a simple romance. The story starts with a girl whose parents have died, and she has been passed every few weeks or months from one family to another until she ends up with her uncle the writer. He is a total grouch. She hasn’t spoken or cried since the funeral.
And after a time, seeing the plants she has planted as seeds grow up and then bloom, for the first time in a long time…..she smiles. She made something grow. And over two years, she joins the community gardening society (she is the favorite of lots of old men) and cooks and eventually the grouch, who used to speak to no one, starts to speak to her. He asks her the name of a flower. He actually reaches out of himself and asks her something.
It has joy. This manga is the highest recommended from all three of us. There will be a book two but this volume can stand alone. Also, this, Heaven’s Will and We were There 1 & 2 should all be available on the 4 for 3 Amazon promotion, which means it has free shipping and you get all 4 for about $26-27.
I have talked about this manga before but this was a book that was SO good, we were all disappointed that it is listed as a ‘stand alone’ (meaning just one volume) book and we want MORE. There is a girl Sudou who has a really bad fear and experience with boys. She can also see ghosts and runs because she is scared...a lot. Sudou is running from a ghost when she meets Sato who is a beautiful goth girl who with her man-servant Kagari (who happens to be a vampire), can exorcise ghosts. Sato and the vampire have a deal; but it will take a lot of trust before Kagari will explain why he is with Sato, even when Sudou walks in on Kagari feeding on Sato in her long black negligee. Oh, yeah, and Sato is technically a guy, but since he is ‘keeping his body perfect until he can have a sex change’ it is sort of easier to think of Sato as she. The good thing is that Sudou now has a friend, who while technically a guy, is sort of a best girl friend
and is teaching her how to be strong and stand up for herself. And while Sato is helping Sudou to be strong, Sudou is trying to help Sato with Sato’s pain, and complicated past (COMPLICATED!). I don’t want to give anything away but this is a great goth loli, best girlfriend, vampire, adventure, friends helping each other and learning to accept each other AND themselves manga I can recommend. We all want more! So write and draw fast Satoru Takamiya (the author), please!
is a story complete in two volumes. This along with the other manga listed have all won awards. This manga is about a boy who has his girlfriend die (only, of course, it is more complicated than that!), and shuts off his emotions
and about the girl who falls in love with him. He uses a smile and an air of ‘I don’t care’ to keep everything emotionally away. It is not like she wants to be, and he shuts her down a bunch of times but... she IS in love with him. 
He soon knows it, they talk about it, he teases her but they become friends but the past is always between them. Is there ever a way for him to move beyond what happened in the past and live in the present? Is that possible for any of us? And this is no simple ‘love wins out’ western story but a Japanese story which leaves the complexities of repressed emotion, falling in love and how even two people who want to care for each other can still hurt each other, and then....maybe love. Again, if lesbians are recommending romances between guys and girls – top recommmendation!
and is for adults, or at least mature 17 or 18 year olds. It is about the sex that is going on NOW (with girls from 17 and up). I liked it because I heard the kind of statements I used to hear at work in Cardiff, “Oh, I am going down to club xxxxx tonight and having some sex.”
Amazingly, one guy does, and it turns out that she ends up, not with just throw-away sex but a boyfriend, in this clueless wonder of a guy. The favorite story of Linda and mine is called 'Maid for Love' and it is about a girl who works at one of the Maid café’s. 
She likes her job, she likes pretending to be a maid and while she is sexualized by lonely men at work, she knows how to cut them off in a polite (and if she has to, not so polite way). She likes to fantasize that she is a maid for her boyfriend, and goes to a work party with him. It turns out to be the house of a rich woman and she volunteers to be a maid for the night saying, “I’m a professional!” But when the other wives and girlfriend find out where she works, they talk trash about her, and when some husbands find out, they come and ask her to ‘service them’ – her boyfriend arrives to take care of her. She just wanted to be a 'real maid' for once, which is what she likes being (what difference between that and the SCA?), so she could dressing up as one. Also her boyfriend watched out for her, made sure she was okay, protected her, because she was a bit of a klutz. As he says while she is sleeping, “You make a better fantasy maid than a real one!” But he accepts what she likes to do. And he helps her do it. The whole book was so interesting (five stories in all), that I put two more of the ‘luv luv’ seres that were recommended on my wish list (they said “if you like Object of Desire try….). I know, I am getting manga with five hetero stories to read? Oh no, is Beth going straight? That will soon be answered!
Is there a need or reason for the picture beyond its beauty? Would an Elizabeth McClung blog be complete without one?
I mean, it is what high school romances, and crushes are all about right, finding the right girl, hoping this lasts beyond high school, that special bond, those ‘special sleepovers.’
That kind of close friend, and you are pretty sure you have all the signs down, I mean, they are lesbian! Or at least bisexual, and while you may hook up with your own girlfriend you are completely comfortable around them. You are there, giving your special greeting hug (you are the one with blue hair!)
sort of just huggig each other while you talk and gossip (you are there for each other hugging when times are bad..or good! And often like today you just hang out). Then she starts talking about some guys butt.
You are kind of in shock and miss the next part. Which is probably for the best because it turns out she, for his KINDNESS, invited him out on a picnic. Yeah, it’s a DATE. OMG!
And how he is man enough to do housework, how sweet is that? You don’t answer in case the gagging noises are audible.
and how sometimes it is just great to be hugged and embraced. You think to yourself, as she is lying in your lap; Oh I know some great embraces and they don’t involve GUYS!
and you have to hear the blow by blow the next day about how he was great and afterward she wrapped herself around him and ahhhhhh.....(try not to claw out eyeballs)
But, here are some tips to help you next time, so you aren’t SO surprised, that your friend just might be straight (or a femme which would be cool since you need someone to go shopping with):
But apparently it is like being left handed.
