Glad the swelling is reducing. I had a friend with a pretty severe burn scar on her cheek from childhood. She didn't hide it much, but when she did, holy shit. You couldn't tell she was hiding anything unless she smiled really wide (skin pulled oddly and even then, you kinda needed to know it was there to notice.) I'm trying to remember the cosmetic she used. I'm pretty sure it was designed especially for disguising bad facial scars.

I wish I had my camera at the vet's. Vet did too. When he walked into the room, I was hunched over uncomfortably in a chair with Devi wrapped across my shoulders, forcing my head forward and my sweater back, MK in my lap. Dr. Berry started laughing. What he didn't know was that I'd been in that position for 15 minutes and was cramping up.

I like Dr. Berry. Don't totally get him, but he handled Devi really well when she was freaking the fuck out and trying to climb on his head.

Pensacola has one of the oldest Jewish communities in the south

Really? I'm probably just not remembering that aspect of it right now. I've been away for a bit, though.

I've lived in Jacksonville, too. Most of the places I've lived in Florida have that definite armpit of the universe quality to them. If Hub's job didn't have us secured to this place, there is no way we'd still be here!

Have y'all read Heart of a Wife: Diary of a Southern Jewish Woman ?

It was quite interesting. First part of the 20th century in Georgia.

Have y'all read Heart of a Wife: Diary of a Southern Jewish Woman ?

No, but I'll add it to my list!

Have y'all read Heart of a Wife: Diary of a Southern Jewish Woman ?

Ditto. For me, that was always one of the most endearing things about Driving Miss Daisy-- that relationship between the poor, black chauffeur and the wealthy, old Atlanta Jewish lady-- polar opposites, but both outcasts in the south of that era.

Eep. This is a little stronger language than you usually see out of the National Weather Service:

-- People sheltering at ground level at Galveston Bay when Hurricane Ike hits face "certain death," the weather service warns.

But I have a cut on my lip that is still swollen and I'd like to think it's going to go away soon.

My unstitched but deepish cuts stayed swollen a couple weeks. Looks like this one which went right through the lip might be at least symmetrical in 10 days, if still big. It's so hard to say. I'm in that phase where I really hate TV injury makeup and injuries in narrative because they're so damned trivial and never swell.

Unfair.

I don't think I ever want to see the National Weather Service say "certain death." Even if they're not lying.

I'm still having the world's worst headache, in case you're keeping track. But it's only been since morning, so no ER for me.

Well, that isn't mincing...

Insiders who are also by some way outsiders have always fascinated me, probably because it is a feeling I'm familiar with. Whether by birth or psychological quirk (both,) I've felt it keenly. I was not part of the dominant culture I grew up in, but that culture was one that helped define me, even as I am not it. And I was a nerd in an even smaller circle that wasn't defined by that culture (well, not totally.) Yet another set of circles. And now? Well, the workplace finds me with similar weirdos as I sink into yet another living culture where I'm not like and never will be, but welcome me still. I'm their weirdo, I guess. I don't know that I'll ever be common in wherever I call home, for one reason or the other. Yet, on the surface, I'm ridiculously common. I've just never felt so. But you know what? It doesn't matter. I like 'em all, and I'm glad to be where I am. Everywhere. It's still a curiosity.

There was an interesting program around 1910 to try to move Jews out of the east coast cities. Some of it was incentives for Jews to move from the east coast to small towns in the midwest. Another big part of it was incentives for ship companies to change their routes so that they'd be bringing Eastern European (mostly Jewish) immigrants to Galveston rather than Ellis Island. [link] My great-grandfather was on one of those ships, and after landing in Galveston, he stayed there just long enough to earn enough money to get on a train to New York.

(There seems to be a history of "we don't like the Jews over here -- let's put them over there!" programs. One of my grandfather's cousin's was trying to get to the US from Vienna during WWII, and he stopped in England for a time, and was then classified as an "enemy" and deported to Australia. [link]

Wow, Hil -- I'd heard of that story, but didn't know you had a connection to it. Did he stay in Oz after they finally got residency?