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!

Good luck on the presentation, P-C. I'm sure you know this stuff backwards and forwards and you'll slow down when you have people in front of you. Also, there's no reason why you can't declare an unscheduled break. Take charge!

My mom's relationship with her own mother is so fraught that she's really good about boundaries. Except when she's not.

ION, my neighbor who went into labor last night had her baby! Welcome to the world, wee Beatrice! (Their first kid is named Benedict, so I fully expect the next two to be Viola and Sebastian.)

Presentation-ma, P-C!