What Robin said, Hil, has worked for me.

I get "are you Irish?" more often than, "what's your ethnicity?" and I will claim to be 1/2 Irish to end the conversation quickly. Otherwise I'll admit I'm a mutt, less than half Irish, plus German, Hungarian and Romanian. On March 17th I feel Irish. At Oktoberfest I feel German. On Halloween I try to mention casually that my Romanian forebears were from Transylvania. So yeah. American. Very American.

Adorable costume pics, Aimee.

My alarm clock is a clock radio, volume turned all the way up, set slightly off a Christian station. So the alarm is a staticky Brother Somethingorother talking about how we should thank Jesus for this wonderful day. And it's on the other side of my room. (What I really should have done for today was also set the alarm on my cell phone and left it next to my pillow, so that there would be something closer to my ear that might have a chance of actually waking me up.)

{{{{Hil}}}}

A lot of this is medical, though, and beyond your control. Try not to beat yourself up, okay?

I do just have to say that I think your alarm clock may be the most effective one ever.

I've been known to use two alarm clocks set 15 minutes apart.

I always set a minimum of two alarms 5-15 minutes apart, having slept through my alarm and ended up late to school more than once.

(Though I've managed to sleep through both of them, too.)

Hil, I'm dealing with some semi-similar health stuff right now (and have in the past too). Do you have a prof that you trust that you could talk to about all this? I find that being upfront and honest about what's going on goes a long way...especially if they've seen you continuing to plug away.

{{{Gris, Hil, vw, Cass, niecelet, and any others I may have forgotten}}}

You guys! I am wearing a DRESS today! I can't remember the last time I did that. I feel cute and sassy and like I need more dresses. Also more tights (patterned and colors) and boots (maybe a red pair and a brown pair).

I'm at a point in my life where I like wearing dresses, though I own bloody few of them. I need a style advisor and some expendible cash.

We need a photo of GC in the dress.

Doggie~ma to Darcy and her people! Girl~ma to Gris and Tom!

I am too busy to post right now.

Oh! The convo about Southern/Yankee/etc has enlightened me! I grew up in Tennessee and Virginia and have lived in New Jersey for ten years. People react to me differently here, and now I know why. I look people in the eye when I talk to them, rather intently I've been told, and I talk about myself, tell stories about my life really, and no one else here does that. I thought I had bad boundaries and there was something wrong with me, but now I realize I'm just Southern.