I do remember that there was a point, during that lunch at that place with the high-high-piles of food,

Oh! Cheesecake Factory! I was at that lunch!

But I also remember that on the walk back (around the time y'all were trying to find the most ridiculous shoes for me to buy, my size or not),

Heh. I remember that I kept suggesting you buy a pair of shoes that were covered in sequins in all the colors of the rainbow.

I think it was just that first bit that startled her. Three years ago, eh? Well, she was 14, dragged out by her mom to meet her mom's invisible friends, friends her mom hadn't met face to face either,

I remember that! When the two of you came to the hotel where Lee and I were staying, and I wasn't quite ready yet, but you just plunked down and chatted away like we did that every day! And then we went shopping, where I bought the monkey-face watch (Buffista-appropriate), which I am wearing even now.

That article is fascinating and makes me wonder about whether my nephew's ADD diagnosis is related to the fact that he never had a bedtime, would watch TV at all hours, etc. Now that he's a teenager, he has horrible sleep habits.

To me, seeing the lifelong contrast in the sleep patterns of my nephew and niece has been fascinating. My (oldest) nephew has always, since he was a toddler, been an early-to-bed, early-to-rise type, always asleep by 9:00, up by 6:00, even now that he's a senior in high school. My niece, OTOH, has been one to stay up reading until 10:00 and (very!) reluctantly getting up just in time for breakfast and the morning bus to school. She'll be a coffee drinker once she goes to college, I'm sure of it.

I went through a period in grade school where my mother would wake me up, I'd get dressed, and go back to sleep until it was time to leave.

My niece, OTOH, has been one to stay up reading until 10:00 and (very!) reluctantly getting up just in time for breakfast and the morning bus to school. She'll be a coffee drinker once she goes to college, I'm sure of it.

This is me, definitely. I do wonder what research is out there on people with just screwy circadian rhythms. Probably lots, but I'm lazy.

My niece, OTOH, has been one to stay up reading until 10:00 and (very!) reluctantly getting up just in time for breakfast and the morning bus to school. She'll be a coffee drinker once she goes to college, I'm sure of it.

This was me. I started drinking coffee in 8th grade.

ETA: Hah! Emily and I are as one!

I was always an early to bed, early to rise person as a child -- I don't think my parents ever had to give me a bedtime! But I also never started school before 8:25 -- 8:15 for homeroom. I think this 7am bullshit is crazy.

I think this 7am bullshit is crazy.

That was the scariest part of the article to me.

I guess it was all a bit much.

Oh, of course, I can totally understand that ("this person came from all the way across the ocean and she knows what sports I play?" Had I not known that it was *me*, whom I already know, it would have been strange to me, as well). I just didn't think that at the time. I guess it shows how comfortable I felt with all of you guys, even though it was my first time of meeting some of you in face-space, but still, I already *knew* you.

All's well that ends well, though, right? And good luck to K-Bug in her new job.

But all in all - she is doing well.

It's very good to read.

kermit waving

Kathy!

Special points to the "kermit wave" because they're showing re-runs of the muppets now, and I'm totally head-over-heels completely smiling-stupidly-in-front-of-the-screen-for-25-minutes-straight in love with that show. It's as if I'm a toddler again, only I understand English (um, some of the cultural references still go so high over my head, as if I didn't gain an inch since those toddlerism days, but still). Kermit and Piggy were always, well, Kermit the-one-and-only and Piggy who can chop you with only a little more than her pinky if you only insinuates that she's not the-one-and-only, and I loved all the others, of course, and I still do. But now I'm old enough (I haven't seen the show in at least two decades) to appreciate Rowlf.

Cheesecake Factory!

Yes! Thank you! That's its name. I new there was a "factory" there somewhere, but couldn't place it.

I remember that I kept suggesting you buy a pair of shoes that were covered in sequins in all the colors of the rainbow.

Thank you! I've been looking for the English word "sequin" for months now, and couldn't find it.

When I was looking for shoes for my sister's wedding, something like two thirds of the shoes that looked perfectly nice were all covered with sequins. Not in all the colors at once, of course, but still. And sometimes in way more than just the one color (and even then, what's the point?). Those SF shoes suddenly didn't seem so far away, then.

Name all 50 states - it's timed and the timer starts as soon as you click over. I did it in 2 minutes and 35 seconds.