I remember my mother's dilemma about one of my blood draws. She didn't want her colleague to take my blood, because I was her kid, but she didn't want to stick needles into me either.

The word "preventative" is jammed into my head in the slot where I fear "preventive" goes. It would be a relief to hear it's a Commonwealth thing. Or perhaps I'm just extrapolating forcefully from "argumentative."

Timelies,

Healing~ma to Emmett.

Still sick. Took a sick day yestersay. Came in today because I didn't want to miss another day of work but would much rather be at home in bed.

On the plus side, since Monday I've been writing daily for the first time in years. I'm not sure how I'm going to feel about the quality once my head clears up, but I'm glad I'm actually producing something. Here's hoping the bout of creativity doesn't leave with the illness.

I remember my mother's dilemma about one of my blood draws. She didn't want her colleague to take my blood, because I was her kid, but she didn't want to stick needles into me either.

Where my mother was annoyingly happy whenever she got to do any of our medical treatment. Which usually consisted of taking stitches out or lancing things, but I'm sure would have extended to blood draws had we gone to her hospital.

In retrospect, I'm very glad we didn't go to her hospital.

My mother's selectively extremely squeamish. She thought the idea of Bodyworks plastination was disgusting, yet it was her medical books that scared me so much as a tot (I swear one was just a deformity coffee table book -- got me worried I could develop congenital problems). She'll dissect freshly killed rats without a second thought, but my seven millionth blood draw freaks her out.

The word "preventative" is jammed into my head in the slot where I fear "preventive" goes.

Huh, me too. m-w.com does recognize "preventative" as a word, but it seems to be the redheaded stepchild to "preventive".

Also out sick today. Been fighting a cold or some similar ick, and the cold/ick won.

OTOH, I think I scored some fun drugs out of it.

Closer to topic, I had a college roommate who was pre-dental. Also into bodybuilding, so built like a linebacker. Another friend TA'ed him in a lab-type class, told me roommate screamed at the sight of blood.

She'll dissect freshly killed rats without a second thought, but my seven millionth blood draw freaks her out.

Am now picturing your mom twirling the rats by the tails to distract herself from your blood draw.

it seems to be the redheaded stepchild to "preventive".

I know! The definitions are all "What the fuck are you doing here? Go look up a real word!"

Uh...there was something else. But preventative has eaten my brain.

eta:

your mom twirling the rats by the tails to distract herself from your blood draw

Going to her happy place, you mean?

I wish I would've had the sense to call out from work today. Instead, after two days of meetings, we've finally come to the consensus that fire alarms will now be called Life Safety alarms.

When I was in the Navy, I did a lot of "preventative maintenance." Whether or not it's wrong, it didn't stop us from doing it anyway. That whole phrase just never looked right from the gitgo.