Oh, Connie, I'm sorry. You deserve a break from the health wonkiness.

So, after last night's fun "$2400? Oh shit!" freakout, this morning, while I"m waiting for my boss to actually schedule my annual review, she walks by where I'm talking ot some people and says "Mmm, you're really going to hate me...walk with me for a minute" and walks off towards the cafeteria. I start to panic. Dear lord, I'm thinking. She looks at me and said "Don't worry, you still have a job". I'm thinking "Oh, god, am I on some kind of probation? Shit shit shit!" And what does it turn out to be? Just that she wants me to take a day trip to South Carolina on Friday, instead of her, after I'd told her I wanted ot be in the office all week. SO not a problem. But god, I was petrified. I think I'm a little over paranoid.

And a catchup:

Is Captain Jack really a ghostly fish of bones?

Or he's sort of a Dread Pirate Jack in reverse: "Goodnight, sleep well, I'll likely be dead in the morning."

Hahha! I like that answer.

YAY P-C, that's AMAZING feedback! Whoot!

Yay hearing from Raquel--who I can't imagine so very pregnant! My mental image is stuck on the last time I saw her.

I read all of the freaking-out-over-parenting and I start to freak out over ever BEING a parent. Stop it!

I am a bad Master's student. I'm actually afraid I'm going to end up writing crap that won't even be approved and I'll have to spend the whole summer revising it.

Riiiight. That's why that retired science professor wrote you the other day, to tell you what a crappy science writer you are and how likely you are to write bad, bad crap for, like, ever.

Or not. You may end up flaking out and having to crank out great flipping wodges of words at the very last minute, but it won't be crap.

Much, much -ma to connie's DH, and to connie, both of whom should have long ago filled their lifetime quotas for sitting around waiting for test results. This is just unfair.

great flipping wodges of words

~ma, ~ma, ~ma to Connie's hubby and herself and their doc. And everyone else who needs.

P-C, you got amazing feedback, you have a degree and are working on another. You are gonna do just fine. And dandy. Says she who is utterly, utterly terrified at prospect of returning to a community college for an Associate's. Just because the other decade a stab at a Bachelor's at a rather demanding private college went bad due to health. Ignore all that, I know whereof I speak. You got the stuff, P-C. You are going to get the job done, and done well.

Yay hearing from Raquel--who I can't imagine so very pregnant! My mental image is stuck on the last time I saw her.

I know -- I remember her from the F2F, when I was just kind of stunned into speechlessness at how gorgeous she is.

Oh, connie. So much ~ma to you and your DH.

It should be noted that that picture doesn't even do Raquel justice.

WS, you're welcome to it, though I actually pinched it from the one episode of Blackadder I saw in my entire teenagerhood -- he was plotting something maleficent and gloatingly rubbing his hands and cackling over great flipping wodges of cash, and I have never forgotten the phrase or Atkinson's oily, eager, delicious delivery of the line.

Working as a nanny, it was for me similar to what ita describes. I was very much part of the family. We breakfasted together, then the parents would go to work and the baby and I'd take the 5-year old to school, then come home, shop, cook, do stuff with the baby. We had a cleaning lady, so straightening up is all I needed to do. I knew these people because they were part of my social set. Half my friends worked for the production company the parents headed up anyway, and they'd come home for dinner most nights, which I'd cook. We had a blast. The mom used to be an actress in England and she'd get us doing the most FUN games. If I hadn't've left the cult and been a pariah to everyone except my sister, I'd probably still be friends with them. Anyway, it was the most fun job I've ever had.

My coworker's husband didn't have a heart attack, whew! It's probably an inner ear infection, or something. I picked them up at the hospital and drove them to the transit station. They were going to get themselves home and to their family doctor.

Java, good news.

connie, much ~ma to the hubby and to you, the one who waits without knowledge and that is scarier sometimes than the one who at least can see what's going on while it's going on.

Steph, looking at the title to your pic, Raquel reminds me a little of Jill St. John. Even better, she looks like herself and she is truly gorgeous.

Connie, much ~ma. I'm sorry you have to go through this again.