I'm with you Cass...my view is a much more global kind of thing, at the same time it is very personal to me.

I feel compelled to add that none of the choices my, admittedly extreme, family made ended up being the end of the world. In fact, quite the opposite. Nothing I would wish on anyone, but proof that one can be much better than okay, regardless of the unfortunate choices of those around them.

Honestly, I don't know that I would have been better off if my mother had stayed in my life. Which, under the circumstances, I know seems weird to think, but there you have it.

bonny, you are definitely better than just ok. You are a beautiful, amazing woman that I feel privileged to know.

But yeah, just walking when there are kids involved is. Not. Cool.

Teppy, I hope your finger heals quickly. I also hope you find the behavioral solution to the over-excitement.

I support getting cats stoned. Both of my cats are currently strung out on muscle relaxers (only Mal was supposed to get one...but Nico got greedy and stole the first pill-pocket enclosed dose.) I am witholding nip as that seems.....excessive. Nico is snoring next to me and allowed me to pet him, so that's a good night here.

BWAH! Nico is totally the cat to steal a pill pocket! "Is maybe foods? I EATS IT!"

I realized after the nip took effect that it was time to dose Kittenish with her meds and the heart med in her cocktail makes her kinda relaxed too.

Not the cat I needed flopped, but she's sweet.

Erin, sorry about craxy-ex. She sounds like a nightmare to deal with.

Erin-o, you just make me chortle. I could totally see Nico stealing food and getting accidentally stoned.

D and took the night off. We went to Disneyland and played and feel a bit better. I may regret it when the alarm goes off, but not too much.

I know it's a generic, people, but there ARE differences.

Ugh - very true. The NHS has a new policy of prescribing generics wherever they're available. I have to remind my doctor *every time* that EDS means I have funny reactions to medication, and that the non-generic is the one that doesn't make me sleep all day, every day. There've been a few arguments about it, because there shouldn't be a difference. But there is.

Good mediation~ma, Erin.

I think the lesson here is that divorce makes you do the wacky.

Completely. My lovely, loving parents became total monsters for quite a while during theirs. My sister and I still aren't happy about this, despite their having returned to being lovely people again in the last couple of years. (They both now have new partners, which seems to be helping with that.)

Off to the British Library to read books that no one else has in stock. I love living near that place!

Oh, absolutely. Part of the reason I felt fine with the hysterectomy was that I didn't feel compelled to have children, because I knew what a hard job it was, and didn't know if I could be a good parent.

But now that I have a child in my life, regardless of what my role is, I feel that his well-being really needs to be the prime consideration. Where I will come here and bitch, or gripe to my husband about OMG craxycakes, I will never, never bad-mouth her in front of him, or do anything that would cause him to feel badly about her. That's just not fair to him, and he has enough to deal with. It's the grown-up's jobs to keep as much of that kind of stuff away from the kids as possible.

I LOOOVE to get my kitties stoned. Even my ultra-dignified Gimlet will roll in the nip, and play pounce, and be goofified.

I planted some fresh nip outside (mostly in a last-ditch attempt to distract the neighbors cats from my blueberry bushes after rue, marigolds, fencing, small posts, lots of string, and a generous dusting of coffee grounds did not succeed) and i am now the BEST FRIEND EVAH of every cat in the 'hood. I'm frankly astonished that it survived the first hour after planting. I didn't even have a chance to water the poor thing before the neighbor's creepy one-eyed cat was rolling in the stuff. Then it followed me around for the rest of the day, perhaps hoping i had more nip to plant elsewhere. Brilliant plan: backfired!

A friend of mine said that before vet appointments, he gives his cat a sip of vodka, and it works like a charm.

Then again, said friend just fed me with what turned out to be the hideousness of dark Lindt chocolate with sea salt, and I said that I won't speak with him ever again.

ION, turns out there's a kitten in Welsh mythology who killed 180,000 knights. Welsh kittens are on to something!

And now, meara'ing of the past 48 hours:

Hang in there, Shir. That sounds VERY irritating - but you really will get to the point where the rest of your classmates catch up with you. If only at post-grad level (but I hope it happens for you before that).

If only it was them leveling up to me. The lecturers are sometimes speechless too. People who aren't coming to classes (and I'm doubt if they ever read the articles) complain now that they don't understand anything. I try to see them as a (quite large) talkative minority. But just as subtext rapidly becoming text, so does this minority becoming more dominate. And it's gone worse, worse, worse, in the past 48 hours, but I don't even have the strength to talk about it anymore. I'm considering how wise will it be to get active and shed a light on the stupidness both to lecturers and dumb students, for I think I can, but I'm not sure how what will be the price of that. I've already got accused in being arrogant bitch for suggesting to help people who don't understand the method by one of the students in this group.

I really do think that what bugs me most about it is that I'm trying to see my classmates as intellectual people, and it seems like they're constantly trying to prove me wrong.

Someone on other forum just accused me of lying, because I described something that once happened to me, and he doesn't believe it because it's never happened to him. Must stay calm and step away. I do not need to get stressed about stupid things.

Words of sense. It also reminds me the times lecturers first trying to teach the concept of hegemony. To undergrads, it's all in the lecturers' heads.

...That is pretty much my solution to everything. (Ice-cream)

P-C, my sister!

But yeah, just walking when there are kids involved is. Not. Cool.

Seriously. Tom's half brother did this and he better hope I never run into him, ever. (Tom is still in touch with his ex-SIL and his niece and nephew. We've never been to visit them in Ireland, I wonder if that's because Tom feels so guilty on his brothers behalf... we do send awesome presents for birthdays and christmas though)

It's so heartbreaking. I guess M. is now on Facebook, so I was able to see his douchebaggery right there in in my cyberface. The ex SIL was horribly upset though, that the kids might find him. (she emailed Tom about it.)