My kitchen floor is tile, which is almost as yucky and hard to clean as the carpeted kitchen floor I grew up with. Honestly, people.

Cindy, that sucks. I can't imagine being a one-car family with 3 kids in the States.

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I have an irrational dislike of having to ask anyone for help. (Yes, I have driven myself to the emergency room.)

Sister. It's stupid too, because I know if I heard any of their teammates was in our situation, I'd just offer to take their kid. I'd say it's a pride thing, but I'm not embarrassed about it money-wise, so that's not quite it. I think it's an I-don't-want-to-impose thing.

Maybe you can look for a good deal on a used car over the summer, Cindy.

I think that's what we'll do, it's just that buying the new car sort of ate up all the dough. We're sort of waiting on everything (even giving final word to the mechanic to pull the plug), because there are rumors that some people in Scott's office have gotten a temporary stipend for relocation/transportation assistance.

His immediate bosses are "looking into it." His firm subsidized his T Pass (the public transit system) when he worked in Boston, so hopefully they'll look at all the people they've just relocated out of town, and understand that when you take people out of the city where they can use public transit, it changes things.

If this happened a year from now, it wouldn't be an issue. My mother was going to buy a new car, after she got her condo, but she ended up spending about a car's worth more on the condo than she'd anticipated, so she's waiting another year. We would have gotten her old car (bought or gift, the discussions never went that far, but either way, we know the car's history, and know it's reliable, hasn't been mistreated, and she wouldn't screw us. She'd take what she needed for it, and no more).

Cindy, I think it's almost unpossible to function in a place without comprehensive public transportation, with kids, with one car.

If Scott's job were still in Boston, we'd hardly even feel it. The commuter rail is about a half mile away, and the T busline runs down Main St (but no place else really, which is why it's harder for us where the kids' stuff is concerned).

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{{Cindy}} I just hate stuff like that.

I have an irrational dislike of having to ask anyone for help. (Yes, I have driven myself to the emergency room.)

I think it's an I-don't-want-to-impose thing.

These. Totally and completely.

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I don't want to impose. I don't want to bother people. All of that. I drove myself to the doctor after being up all night with what turned out to be a ruptured ovarian cyst. A friend yelled at me afterwards, "You had internal organs exploding and you didn't call me!"

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{{{vw}}} I am glad everything went well with your mother.

{{{Cindy}}} I'm sorry.

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Pictures of the nephews from last night starting here.

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God, I fucking hate shots. -- I can watch people be cut, or sutured and it's ok...but drawing blood or injections -- make me woozy and naseauous

Erin, this may be too late, but from personal experience, let me say...be careful with the Valium related to needle phobia!

A few years ago, I had to have an IV for a test, despite describing in gothic detail, my irrational fear of needles. The docs gave me four Valium (if one doesn't work, maybe two will...no? Okay how about FOUR). Nothing helped.

Later, I went to my psychopharmacology professor about it. He nearly fainted and exclaimed..."What are they trying to do, KILL you?"

According to him, needle phobias respond very differently than other phobias and Valium actually exacerbates their effect.

At any rate, the horse-dose of Valium didn't work at all.

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Cindy, is zipcar or flexicar an option for a little while? It's not free, obviously, but for emergancies or days when you can plan all your errands together, it might help to fill in the blanks until your mom's car becomes available.

How tedious to have this stressor on top of living such a busy life. May it be eased soon!

[once again thanking my luckiest stars I live in a place where I can walk/metro to everything I need and haven't had a car expense-except for filling up my friend's cars-in 10 years!]

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Pictures of the Uke-y Stardust gig.

Hey! You performed with Tippy Canoe!! I know her.

also, I washed my bathroom rugs last night and it made me irrationally happy. Today, I know, I'll get home and they'll be all rumpled up from the dog's new habit of trying to make a nest in the bathroom and they won't nearly be as clean and fluffy. sigh. stupid impermanence...

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I love getting into a bed that has newly clean sheets, but I prefer that the sheets be put on by the sheet fairy.

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