Oooh, poor Nora. I hope your night gets better.

{{{Nora}}} I get upset over things like that, too, especially if I'm in the least tired or my hormones or blood sugar are even a tiny hair away from optimum.

I've tried to teach myself to look at pictures of myself the way other people do. Because how often does that happen - you show someone a really cute picture of themselves and they wail and want to sink into the ground. If they go into detail - all the little things they point out, your eyes just glossed over looking at the picture as a whole. And I think we all do that. If you look at a picture of yourself, your eyes pick out all the little elements and don't quite see the whole. You don't look at pictures of your friends that way. So I try (that's try, mind) to keep that in mind when I'm getting ill looking at a picture of myself.

Using Harvey as a wrist rest to send purr-vibes to Nora.

It is Harvey's goal in life to give love and comfort.

I tense up when somebody's taking photographs. I take bad photographs so I tense up so the photographs are bad and around and around and around it goes.

So much better...shower and haircut.

{{{Nora}}}

I had a haircut and color today. It's shorter and redder.

A very sweet coworker, whose English is light-years ahead of my Spanish, and yet far more potential than actual, gave me a very cute pair of earrings for my birthday. Given in a small cardboard box, no cotton-wool or any packing material, so maybe not new, but who cares, that's why we have rubbing alcohol. And yesterday, she wrapped a twisty-tie around my finger to get the size, saying she "maybe go to Mexico tomorrow, visit mother. I have ring for you."

We are not so close I would have expected even a card from her (other than signing the group card) let alone a present. And a second present, just for the heck of it? I dunno. Anyway, language barrier being what it is, I can't ask her (and don't know that I would, given the circumstances) directly.

Her grandmother passed away three weeks ago. So I wonder if maybe this is her sharing some very minor pieces of grandmother's jewelry with me. At a guess, it's not really likely - possibly more likely that she is clearing out her own jewelry box ("I never wear these, and they'd look so cute on Andi") to make room for whatever her Grandmother left her. Or maybe she is just giving gifts because making other people smile will cheer her up.

Does the hivemind have any offerings on Mexican mourning customs? Cuz on the off-chance that this is directly related to the grandmother's passing, then I'd like to respond in the appropriate manner.

Otherwise, I'll just look for the prettiest, floweriest thank you card I can find in the Spanish section.

As long as it doesn't mean you're engaged....