I know it's easy to miss things. I wasn't so much asking for hairpats as pointing out how invisible one can sometimes feel.

I know. But I did feel bad for missing it. It does happen to all of us, on occasion.

It's my own fault for saying to the dog, "You're trying to break my ankle with these holes you're digging, aren't you?" Then I stepped in one and there was an ominous pop.

Oh Ginger. I have to smile at that.

I'll be digging out for some time. I'm trying to figure out where the foot of dirt washed up on the patio should go

Put it in the holes!

Part of adulthood is renegotiating boundaries and expectations with your parents, and even the most reasonable ones can be a pain when it comes to that. Believe me, I know.

Man, is that ever true.

Oh, ditto. I'm dealing with it right now in the form of disappointed parents who can't understand why on earth we want to move so far away from themmmmmm.

And they genuinely don't get that it has nothing to do with them, but they can't help but measure our choices by their parameters. They like Florida, they like living here (even if they're not here for more than six months out of the year) ergo, they don't understand the depth of our dislike. That surely we're exaggerating.

It's like, dudes-- we're in our forties already. We not only want to do this, we feel as if we need to do this for ourselves and for the benefit of our children. You can either choose to respect and accept that or not, but it's not going to change the fact that it's happening.

It's hard. Sometimes harder when they've been reasonable for the most part, so the dissatisfaction/disappointment comes as a bit of a shock. But it's not enough to make me change my mind.

I give my cancer pharmacology workshop in two hours. I discovered last night that I actually only have one fifteen-minute break, not two, which means even more time to fill. Hi, let's all talk about ourselves and have live-action demonstrations of DNA alkylation! This will be interesting.

How long is your presentation supposed to run, P-C? No reason why you can't cut them loose a little early if it happens. Trust me, they won't be complaining.

Of course I lie occasionally, but I really do not like telling blatant lies. To my parents or anyone else.

I admire this approach, as much as it clearly comes with some major problems for you. My Girl was the opposite extreme. Took her months of going out with me to tell her parents I even existed. They still don't know we're planning a wedding. And to be fair, it seems to work with her family. But at the same time, she would happily have kept me a secret for the past four years. That wouldn't have worked for everyone involved. In the same way, maybe your family needs a change of approach occasionally, so that you can be happy. In your case, that would presumably be not telling them absolutely everything. Doesn't always mean lying. Can equally mean not bothering them with details that they don't need. Anyway, good luck with the whole situation.

I stayed awake and worked all day today. The ~ma is strong with you Bitches. Thanks!

Put it in the holes!

Ahahaha. I admit, I had the same thought as brenda.

Ginger, I'm sorry I didn't post when I read about your ankle. But I did read it because I remember wondering what Mr. Peabody was going to do since you couldn't take him outside and how poor you should not be cleaning up any interior accidents on top of everything else!

Sunil, I totally understand not wanting to lie, but being honest with your parents about how you feel about things such as getting married or wanting to do something else when you are in town, is also part of not lying to them.

Man, I came out to my parents nearly ten years ago, and it's had negative effects on our relationship that last to this day. But I don't regret telling them for one minute.

On a smaller scale, I had a meltdown two years ago at Christmas about the amount of time I felt I was expected to spend at my parents' house at the holidays; I felt trapped and bored. It was a fascinating exercise in family dynamics, but resulted in a clarification of expectations and needs on both sides, so that's good.

How long is your presentation supposed to run, P-C? No reason why you can't cut them loose a little early if it happens. Trust me, they won't be complaining.

Heh. It runs three hours, but they'll need time to fill out evaluations and such. I just don't want to cut them loose RIDICULOUSLY early. This course is being evaluated to be part of the curriculum, after all, so I need to make a good impression.

Packing up the laptop now. Wish me slow talking, questions I can answer, and supreme teaching success!