Thanks for the kind words for sick GF. She is worse today, poor thing. I have cleaned up the dust from today's work, gone grocery shopping, and started a big pot of veggie beef soup. What I haven't done? Schoolwork! Argh..

what was that cheesey movie in the 80's? Driving School? Or some such.

Moving Violations?

FTR: endive, walnut, pear, roquefort salad tastes great the next day.

Its a little brown, but the endive and walnuts are still crispy.

This is almost unique in my lifetime salad experience.

Blah. I don't know if I'm getting sick or what, but I've had a nasty headache and a whole lot of fatigue all day. I feel back asleep around 2 and just woke up.

Pumpkin Pie:

Stop beating yourself up about it, ND. You don't suck. It sucks that spending time with your family is crazy making and painful. But that suck isn't your fault. Those that care about you, and that would include me, would much rather see you having a fun Thanksgiving with loved ones in the few moments you have free.

ND, I don't know what to tell you about your family. The fact that they keep "forgetting" why you haven't made it down for the past five years and the subsequent guilt speaks far worse of them than it does of you, IMO, especially since you'll see them all for Christmas in a month. I think if this was happening to someone else you would see that, but it's just too personal to see clearly right now.

As far as the whole guilt about not wanting to see them goes, I think a lot of people here in thread will tell you that that's a very common sentiment.

In either case, I think we had a really wonderful day yesterday, and I would hope that your family would understand that you have your own family traditions with me now. I suppose that's a lot to ask, but I'm selfish about the fact that I get one special holiday with you. I'm also a little bummed that what was a great day is now tainted by guilt.

Another piece of pumpkin pie:

Am I the only one around right now?

The kitten Will. Not. Shut. Up. He has escaped a few times and has decided that he must go outside to achieve true happiness. Argh.

I'm around. I am trying to decide what to wear tonight. I want to dress up for the leather meet and greet (which is hapening at the same time as the gay country dancing, for which I would wear cowboy boots and jeans), but don't really want to walk there in that getup, and can't dance in it (but...new leather corset!). These outfits are really not the same.

meara, I love you and your life.

Can you bring the corset outfit and do a quick change?

DIY Mocha, cereal, yogurt. (Cat chowing down on a flossy-pork-stuffed brioche n the belief I have not noticed.)

(((Cash)))

Aw, poor Emmett and his Too Much Pie. That's a learning curve and a half.

If she's not (and I dont' think she is...any of us in NYC and that age and height?), you should date her and make her one, Gris!

So VERY much this. Gris, you're in the same neck of the woods, right? You should definitely get in touch with her. She sounds cracking. (Hell, I nearly got in touch with her, and she's straight AND on the wrong continent.)

ND, what everyone else said. Life is just Too Damn Short. And, having had Parents' Meetings this week, I can say with depressed certainty that some people do not deserve their kids.

(I have this one wee girl, Cindy, whom I fucking love, a real character, rather prickly, gallons of imagination, not terribly good at sitting still or listening, would make a FANTASTIC silent movie actress, good comic timing and physical comedy - Love. Her. We've been rehearsing for the Infants' Christmas Production and she's one of the choir (with a brief turn on the stage in a non-speaking role, which she does very well) and it's decidedly tricky for her to remember to sit still and face the audience, rather than turn round and watch what's going on onstage. She's been yelled at a couple of times by the head of KS1 (who was her teacher last year) for this. Anyway, she's trying, and the other day she just bloody KILLED me - I could glimpse her on the back row, and clearly she was rather bored, but was managing to look in the right direction, and then this !!!! look came over her face, and she dug into her pocket and produced an invisible sandwich, which she proceeded to eat with great evidence of enjoyment and lip-smacking. All for her own private entertainment. Nobody but me noticed, and it totally Cracked. Me. Up. Anyway, yesterday we had Loy Khatong Assembly - it's Loy Khatong on Sunday, which is a Thai festival where you make a little lotus-shaped floating lantern from a slice of banana tree trunk, some leaves, a load of flowers, some incense and a candle and you float it on the waters as a gift to the water spirits and make a wish. At school we were all dressed in Thai traditional clothes and after the assembly (complete with informative presentations and song'n'dance numbers) we had a parade before we made khatongs and floated them on the pool. And during the parade all the mums and dads are eagerly taking pictures of their little darlings, and everyone's beaming. And Cindy's round little full-moon face became crestfallen and then wretched, despite her pretty outfit and hairdo. And I'm all 'what's up? are you okay?' and she said sadly "My mummy didn't want to come." Which is fucking TYPICAL of her lazy-ass mother, who can't be bothered getting the fuck out of bed some mornings, so her kid's half an hour or an hour late to school, and she can't be bothered to come to parents' meetings either.

And then there's the mum who was furious with her kid's 'failure' after receiving his report, and told me that she beat him, and said "what do you go to school for, if you aren't working at the level for your year group?" And beat him for spelling 'also' 'oso' (He's six. He's using his phonic skills, just like we taught him to do. He's sounded the damn word out and had a crack at it.) And then complains that he doesn't think creatively, he doesn't think outside the box. Of course he doesn't, lady. You're beating him when he takes risks.

bangs head on desk. Her head. Stupid cow.

Argh! Better dash - got to get to theatre for matinee. Yesterday's opening night went v. well!