The title says it all. I know I could use some and best way to get hugs is to give them. I have been specially trained in the art of huggistry. My mother noted my talent at a young age and immediately had me enrolled in the Massachuettes Institute of Hugology through to high school where I then left it to engage in field work among the high schoolers at my youth group events and have kept up my skills through college and beyond on friends and loved ones.
So who wants a big ol hug?
[giggle]
{{{{Verrain}}}}
May I have a hug, Sweetie? 
Impressive credentials, Verrain
Yes, I will take the biggest hug you’ve got.
Robin
I would like to give a personal reference.
Verrain definately gives good hug!
And I could really use one of them right now.
Verrain, my friend, having been on the virtual end on more than one occassion, I know that your credentials don’t tell even half of the story. And, finding myself in desperate need of one this weekend, I’ll ask to avail myself of your talents once again.
And I promise to do the best I can at giving as good as I get.
{{{{Verrain}}}}
well, i usually run away from hugs. under the circumstances, i’ll run toward this one.
celestina: I giggle with you and hold out my arms with a smile. We embrace happily, truly pleased to be in each others arms, hands smoothing over each other’s backs. We part with a final squeeze and chuckle. Sweetie! <blush> Thanks for the compliment.
MsRobyn I slide forward arms open wide and close them tight cradling you against my chest. We sway softly, calmed by each other warmth. When we’re both ready, we give a final squeeze and step back with a soft smile.
Arden You can feels arms slide around you once more, both of us settling into our cuddly selves. You rest your head on my shoulder as I slide my hand into your hair and stroke it softly. We rock softly stroking each others back until we press close and then part still warmed by the contact.
True Pisces I stand before you with arms open and hold you close as you sink into them. My hands slide over your back in soothing patterns, my cheek rubbing against yours. With one final tight squeeze, I step back and give you a soft smile.
rocking chair I catch you in stride, squeezing you tight as you run into my arms. I continue to hold you close murmuring soothing sounds and smoothing your hair. Once I feel your ready, I press you close once more and release you.
celestina reaches over and kisses Verrain on his forehead. Thanks for the hug. It was really nice. Anytime you need a hug, look me up, hon. I’m only an email away.
Thank you, Verrain. You’re truly a sweetie, and I’d love very much a hug from you. I’d also like to offer my services as a Hugaholic to anyone in need of one. I have been spending part of the last few days calming down several people, trying to make sense of all this. One in particular, a young, sweet man from the Czech Republic. He is so torn up at what has happened, I’ve been talking a lot with him, to help him understand <like any of us really can :(> why this happened. He is in tears now, as we’re speaking on AIM, and I don’t know how to comfort him.
taking a moment to wrap my arms around Verrain in a tight hug, feeling the strength being shared
grabbing everyone for a group hug, trying to hug as many as possible
purplebear I hug you back just as tight, cuddling you close like the bear you’re named for. My hand smoothes your hair, and I hum softly as we draw strength from each other’s warmth. Thanks for the kind words and the pair of arms, dear. Wish I had advice for you and your Czech friend. Just share your feeling and caring as you have done. Its all any of us can do.
{{{{Verrain}}}} I love you. May I have a hug too?
~Kittie
kittie How could I refuse to hug one that loves me? One arm slides around your waist and pulls you close, while my hand moves into your hair and scratches your head softly. I hold you close murmuring soothing sounds, stepping back with a squeeze only when you’re ready.
I’ve been saying in #straightdope for days how I wish it was a real room where we all could gather to comfort each other. Sadly, that just isn’t possible. 
Not without transporter technology Silver Fire. But since you’re here please accept a hug from me. Imagine hands sliding around your behind holding you close. Your head rests on my shoulder and I nuzzle you with mine softly. We draw strength from our shared warmth, and when you are ready, I give you a squeeze, and step back to let you go back to your web surfing.
Damn, Verrain. I think I need to go cool off after that hug.
i like hair smoothing. i believe you have a doctorate in hugging. thank you.
Hug Ethics and rules of conduct:
Varieties of Hugs:
mmmmmmmmmmmmm… Thanks, Verrain
Robin
I’m having a very bad day. My family left here before I woke up and my boyfriend is upset, a friend of ours had sex and the condom broke so now everyone’s scared for them both…
It was a lonely Sunday night . . . there was no football on television, so I was reduced to surfing the Straight Dope website; that pesky third -gry word was holed up in a TMI thread and I was determined to get it out, no matter what I would have to purge from memory later on.
The call came from MsRobyn, who had been investigating a strange occurence in the Northeast since Tuesday the Eleventh. She’d been monitoring especially high levels of ulnae pressed against vertebrae, along with increased endorphine levels and close body contact. “Either there’s a lot of really kinky rugby being played up there, or that Massachusettes Institude of Hugology is up to something again.”
“So what do you want me to do about it, Ms. Robyn? I’m near DC and I have to go to my observation of young adults in the presence of pointless Augustan literature on Monday.”
“Punha, I’ve gotten special clearance for you to take a train up north. You’ll be meeting lots of strange individuals on your way up and it’ll be fairly cramped, but you’ve been through worse before.”
Neither of us mentioned the trains to and from boarding school during my period of investigative analysis of the effects on adolescent males (before, during and after puberty) of close proximity to other males with no female sexual outlet.
I still shuddered thinking about the “fire doors” meetings we had. Some things were too disgusting even for the “TMI thread”.
“Will I have a contact waiting there for me when I get to Boston? I don’t want to have to face that . . . place . . . by myself. The endorphine levels alone are enough to make a person . . . you know.”
“Yes . . . I do. Don’t worry about it; you’ll be working with one of our retired agents living in the area, purplebear. She actually graduated from MIH as an undercover agent with us, so she knows the ropes. Look for someone in a purple raincoat and purple boots.”
“Purple . . . raincoat?”
“Yes, and her daughter, a special ops agent with our interrogation division, will be wearing a spcial blue raincoat,” MsRobyn continued.
Special blue raincoat . . . well, if nothing else I knew I wouldn’t be getting all the weird glances my way once I was in the capable hands of purplebear and bluebear . . .
“I’ll take over your search for that ever-elusive -gry word. I’m going to try out a way of searching every forum in the database for the past two years–”
I had to stop MsRobyn from this madness. “Remember what happened to Silo? All it took was a hint at the URL coding and he was yesterday’s news.”
“Yeah . . . for about a week, too. Thanks for the reminder; I’ll just go looking through the archives.”
“Wise choice . . . I’ll be on my way now. Same deal as last time?”
“Yeah . . . Bernie will set you up and Nina managed to get you a sleeper cabin. You’ll have to bring your own food, though . . . budget cuts and all that. Oh, and the train leaves at 9:30.”
It was a tough job, working for the Peabody Institute of Suspicious Sordidities. The pay was poor and the benefits practically not so.
I hung up the phone and got my things together . . . PISS stationery, my PISS laptop, official PISS uniform and undercover PISS gear. The train left in an hour, and I was an hour from Union Station. I thanked God that it wasn’t rush hour and left for the train station.
The affairs and goings-on of my train ride I won’t divulge here; suffice it to say that there are certain persons being investigated for possible connections to the Sherman House of Indigenous Toons (most notably, one in New York who we’d almost captured when he spent a few days in our nation’s capital a few weeks before). I arrived at the train station and began looking for . . . purple. I thought a purple raincoat in so posh a city as Boston would stick out like a midwestern accent in a Russian submarine.
Evidently there was an influx of Minnesota Vikings fans for the Patriots’ football game. I didn’t find purplebear or her associate bluebear for a full half-hour. I feared all was lost; it was 6 am and I was thorougly exhausted from making notes and a near-capture by MIH.
The drive to PISS HQ in Boston was a struggle to stay awake and keep my eyes on my notes instead of . . . other places, shall we say? There were certain things that even a purple raincoat could not hide. At last we pulled into an apartment and they helped me carry my things up to the third floor of the apartment. It wasn’t much, but we had a modem, a phone line and a stove–that was all I required. I had gotten accustomed to living off ramen noodles first in my years at boarding school and then as an underpaid PISS agent.
A quick pot of noodles (complete with peas and an egg) and the morning news, and I was soundly asleep.
[sub]To be continued . . . [/sub]