take care, vw.

Fay, {shudder} at the kids at the gym. There's one day a week when the kidlets are at my pool, and it is distracting and sort of unnerving. They're all in a group being herded by swim coaches/counselors, so it's not so bad, but I feel VERY self concious in the locker room, like if I'm naked (which is what happens in the locker room) then I'm being a child abuser or something. Blah. That's really the part I hate.

In other news, I took today off (cleared it with my boss yesterday, no problem) to get the house in ship shape. I woke up with the beginnings of a cold. Argh! Also, I'm stressed because I will need to take off another day for this stupid interview, the week after next. I dread trying to finesse that.

Just did nebulizer number 2 for the morning. I've decided to stay home and go to the doctor today.

This is getting old. Really, really old.

Do you have any theories why this is happening so badly this winter? Physical triggers or weather stuff and such? I'm really sorry.

A friend suggested this morning that maybe it's connected to the Nor'Easters, since there was one in November too.

I really don't know. I wish I did. Maybe then I could better prevent the attacks.

it's hard to prevent weather related triggers. I didn't mean for my question to insinuate other wise, please know that.

I think I've been hanging out with Tom too long, I'm adapting his stance of, "I feel helpless that someone I care about is suffering, how can we FIX THE ROOT of the problem??? I need hard data!"

Of course, a lot of stuff doesn't work like that. {{vw}}

I think I've been hanging out with Tom too long, I'm adapting his stance of, "I feel helpless that someone I care about is suffering, how can we FIX THE ROOT of the problem??? I need hard data!"

You're a man, baybee!

Which is to say, I have no idea why anyone else would haul their cats around to school concerts, but if I did, it would be simply because Harvey had decided he was not done being held when I went out the door.

But you see, you're operating from a context in which cat lovers get cats. And in which if you see a cat on the street? It's somebody's cat.

In Egypt, normal people don't have pets. There are gazillions of wild cats and dogs roaming the streets, and this will continue to be the case because in Egypt it's all tabboo and terrible to have your pet 'done'. (Expats do it, but Egyptians mostly regard this as appalling cruelty. Let's just remind ourselves that in this country cliterodectomy is still reasonably widespread in both the Christian and Muslim populations. Let's marvel at that little juxtaposition.) Anyhoo, Egyptians with pets are rich Egyptians, and their pets are status symbols. Their cats are not regular 'baladi' (local) cats, such as my own wee Daniel; no no, their pets are like designer gear with a pulse. Furry wee status symbols of impeccable lineage. Given that most people here (the poor being the majority) don't get to eat meat very often themselves, the whole Marie Antoinettishness of having an obscenely expensive animal that you buy special meat for...well, it's pretty stark.

Um.

Therein lies the whole Siamese Cat thing. (Said cat being, incidentally, a remarkably biddable and well mannered wee cat. Which is just as well, because in its place MY cat would have been freaking out bigtime.)

Oh, man, Fay. The sudden infestation of kids in your gym made me want to punch someone, and I'm a confirmed and devout child worshipper. And the mums standing around with their bags not chipping their nails? That's got to be so infuriating.

Plus, WTF is up with their parenting? Gyms have treadmills, stairmasters designed for persons considerably over four feet tall, complicated weight training machines with pins and chains and counterbalance weights. Unfortunately, I'm quite sure one of these days all the kids will be gone because one of their number lost a finger or something. Stoopid parents.

Did you know tomorrow is bathrobe day? I'm betting they don't either!

This is so unspeakably marvelous.

Ugh. The hospital just paged the wrong doctor for me. She sounded so confused. How annoying.

Morning. I am feeling almost human this morning, and the fever seems to have broken, so hopefully this will be my last trip to the emergency room for a long while.