I don't have Gas-X (but I will be buying some after today) or a massager. I am alternating between walking, sitting, and curling up in the fetal position.

sj, if it doesn't get better, please go to the ER. My mom had pain like that last year, and it ended up being a twist in her bowels. It resolved itself, but it took two days on an IV in the hospital.

I'm not saying that's what you have, but if it is, no walking or Gas-X will help. So please take care of you, okay?

{{{{sj}}}}

I'm so sorry sweetie. My cousin finds a heating pad helps, but that just makes things worse for me, so I'm out of suggestions that don't include a store or what you're doing already. Much tummy ~ma.

Thanks, Kristin. I know my body well enough, thanks to too many years of nights like this, to know when it is time to call a doctor. Plus, if I still feel sick tomorrow, my mother will torture me until I agree to go see one. I found out tonight that at nearly twenty-nine years old, when I feel that sick, I still want my mother to come take care of me. I didn't call her, of course, but I wanted to. Pathetic much?

Completely unrelated, but going through papers I just found a Christmas card from when I was in grad school. It's completely lovely, from a neighbor I had, that I apparently gave chocolates to. I have absolutely no memory of this person whatsoever. Apparently he and his wife were moving to Venezuala, but the only neighbors I really remember from my building were either single or Asian, and this name is definitely not Asian. Dang. He included his address in the card, and clearly I never wrote. Bad me.

Dollars to donuts your thought would be "Huh. Short."

Actually, when I ran into Chevy Chase at Mann's Chinese (literally, I turned around and wham!) my thought was "Damn! Tall!"

Vin Diesel, however, short like a short thing.

Um, and Patrick Stewart and Pat Sajak round out my list of celebrity sightings. Oh, and Judd Hirsch, also tall (although he came over to chat with the woman I was with, as they were friends - does that count as a "sighting?"). OK, and the woman from Cheers, Rhea Perlman, is that right? Also short, but we knew that.

ND, you are just saying that to set up the plot for A/C Wars: Attack on the Cats. I mean, as long as it keeps blowing cold air while on its rampage, it's all good, right?

My goodness, Raq, what a list you have. Most of my celebrity connections are second hand. We do get some on yachts here, but they tend not to come into town much. Plus, I am an oblivious sort and could wander around celebrities and wildlife alike, and miss them completely. Although, I've seen a few bears and, when I lived in CA, George Lucas. The bears usually seem smaller than I would have expected, but George Lucas was seated, so I don't really know.

I keep picturing chilly kitties running around the apartment. I imagine them thinking that at least it's cool enough for exercise.

I have met Anthony Stewart Head, backstage in London, as I am sure most people here know, because I gushed enough at the time. I have met a few people from soap operas I watched when I was younger. I saw Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft having lunch at the River Cafe in London at the same time I was, but I didn't approach them because they seemed to be having lunch with what I assumed was their grandchildren. I met Majel Barrett at the one and only con I have ever been to. I think that is it.

Plain old tylenol seems to have taken the edge off the pain. It's been so long since I have felt like this, I had almost forgotten that. I think I am going to try to get a little bit of sleep now.

Er. I met Michael Palin once. Which I've mentioned before, I think. I was rendered utterly tongue-tied and wide-eyed and fannishly adoring. It was ghastly embarrassing, but he was every bit as nice about it as one might expect.

I bumped into Simon Callow once.

...er, that's it, pretty much.

However, ion, I have the Buffista Cookbook!!!!

Woohoo! Just discovered it! AIFG!!!

BUT, I never paid for it. I did the whole getting-to-the-F2F thing, and there were several people I had stuff and/or money for, and I know I owe somebody money for the cookbook and I am so crap that I don't even know who paid for it.

t deeply ashamed

All my recipes are going to be seasoned with guilt.