I do think a formal name is usually better for birth-certificate purposes.

Hence, the Emeline.

I am miserable. Still sick and blech. And we thing the baby is teething.

{{t-}} I'm sorry. Much ~ma and strength to you.

Susan: I hope things turn out as well as possible for your father.

Deena: I'm glad Aidan's autism was caught at an early stage.

Aimée: Sorry you're still feeling sick.

March in general: Back off the Bitches already!

{{{Aimee}}} {{{Emeline}}}

I just had therapy. Surprisingly, she wasn't that upset about the whole decreasing the dosage of medication thing. I think her exact words were, "Well, now that we know that's not effective, we won't do that again, right?"

Although of course Emma is a perfectly good name with a very long history. Among others, I was named after Queen Emma of France (and maybe the Norway one, too). And there was a Queen Emma of Hawaii.

That's just a historical tidbit, not a suggestion that you run out and change the birth certificate or anything.

Don't forget Princess Emma of Toluca Lake!!

Emily, did you get my voice mail?

"Well, now that we know that's not effective, we won't do that again, right?"

That's pretty much what I thought. I mean, honestly, the fact that you have a concrete theory for why things were a bit bad for a couple days is actually good news.

sj, sorry, I was receiving a fax. Would you believe someone wanted me to do real work? It's done now if you want to call again.

Cash, thank you. I'm glad you called. I'm looking forward to our zoo expedition tomorrow.

Thank you all for the support. It's nice to be able to come here and vent a little. It makes it all a lot easier. Accomplishing things willy-nilly has helped too.

Er... now I have! I was just calling to ask how to use the library to find online journals because I was having a brain cramp. All better now.

So, across the hall they're having ridiculous amounts of work done in preparation for the new administrator who's coming in. There's hammering, there's dust, there's the smell of... stuff (maybe paint, I don't know). Honestly, I think they should have moved the people who work there while this was going on, but I don't (fortunately) work there, so whatever. The (odd) exec assistant asked me to cover the phones (as the other two people in the office left for the day already -- perhaps because it's so bad in there?), so fine. I go over there so she can go to lunch, and there's dust and smell and people in and out (at one point I nearly choked myself on a string hanging across the middle of the room), and I said, "How do you do this?" Just a mild sort of "My goodness, this is pretty bad, huh?" comment. Her reply was, "To be honest, I'm just grateful to have a job. I haven't been here long enough to take it for granted yet."

On reflection, I think she may just have gotten sick and tired of people complaining about it or sympathizing about it. All the same, I was a little taken aback.