cereal:

I'm so sorry Teppy. Everyone is right in saying that you have a perfectly valid excuse for not volunteering tonight. If you think it would take your mind off things for a little while, go ahead. Otherwise, I would recommend cancelling. I imagine that they have at least some other volunteers!

vw, do you get RefWorks paid through your school?

Yup. It's part of the library. We also use it at work, so I *have* to learn it. So, I figure I might as well utilize it with school stuff too.

Teppy - just do what you need to do tonight...

{{ Susan}}

BALLS. Dad is back in the hospital.

Damn. And I thought having a parent go through cancer treatments was a roller coaster.

Teppy, I'm sorry. I am hoping he is right about the numbness, and checks out just fine.

Yeah, but....I'd just feel so *guilty* for bailing on her. (I'm not asking for reassurances that I shouldn't feel guilty; I'm just trying to convey my admittedly INSANE frame of mind right now.)

Understood. I don't know your friend. I'm a different one of your friends. And as someone whose had sick parents, and other commitments, and friends with same, if you had said you would help me with the volunteer gig tonight, and then I learned about your dad, I'd ask you to stay home, or go be with your dad, or do whatever it was you felt like doing...

...Except reading those demon romances which will send you right to catladyville. Clearly.

Oh Steph, I'm so sorry. I'm a fan of the movie and a bottle of wine coping mechanism.

The only problem with Buff-diving is when you hit that moment where, suddenly, the humor is synergistic and the laughing starts to hurt but you CAN'T STOP PUSHING THE BUTTON and then you die.

Will now go back and read the last 50 or so posts and see what i'm missing and who I should give punctuation to.

Happy B-Day to Emmett, and much sorriness and well-wishes to Teppy. I understand your "I would feel guilty" thing, but sometimes you really do need to curl up under the covers for a while. Wine optional, but preferred.

I'm going to run contrary to the prevailing opinion here and advise Teppy to go and do her volunteer thing tonight. It's a better distraction than going home and curling up in a ball.

In my experience, Doing Something is a lot better than Not Doing Something when you're feeling overwhelmed and helpless.

In my experience, Doing Something is a lot better than Not Doing Something when you're feeling overwhelmed and helpless.

You never have different sorts of helpless? Sometimes you need to let the motor run down, sometimes you need to rev it in a different direction.