Shir, thank you so much for sharing your perspective. It sounds like you have very valid issues, and I've wondered about many of them myself.

Will you need to resume communication? Not being snarky. And am very glad you have Vortex with you.

I am going to try and see how it goes. I do have genuine affection for him, and I'll miss him a lot, but we were never on an equal footing in the relationship and I am wary. I don't think he's going to like the conditions I will put on our interaction, such as I am not going to his place because a) that leads to cuddling and border-blurring and b) I'm fucking sick of soulless Morrisville after going there twice a week for the last year and a half.

Shared squee expands exponentially, right? Feels that way, anyway.

Yes, this! I love shared squee. I think I need to change my emo tag already. I love that song ("Gravity" by Sara Bareilles, also known as the "vampire routine" from SYTYCD) and it's very apropros to my relationship with KBD, but really I'm feeling better than that and I'm already tired of the tag. So poof! I banish it to my tag graveyard in my profile.

And if there was even a smidgen of doubt in anyone's mind, I am here to say that Vortex is mind-blowingly fabulous.

Beverly, the inside work will always be there, the excellent weather will not. SHOOO!

We have threatening-to-rain weather down south in Hayward, so shoo! Go enjoy the pretty day. Those boxes aren't going anywhere and the Pacific Northwest damp will be back soon.

Speaking of cleaning, I've hit on something that really works for me. When I am faced with a junk drawer or a box full of things I can't bear to sort out, I simply turn it over and empty it right onto the floor. Suddenly it becomes clear that this item is good only for the trash, while that is gotta go to Goodwill, and that over there is the doo-dad I didn't know I had to have to finish my project. It's so cool.

And now I've got a Drawer of Requirement in the kitchen! Too bad it isn't an entire spacious storage unit. That would be like super useful.

Beverly, the inside work will always be there, the excellent weather will not. SHOOO!

So true.

We've put up the roller shades in the living room, and one curtain rod ready for the valence when it shows up. The living room is very close not needing anything new done to it, just upkeep.

Ha ha ha ha ha.

I got an e-mail from my mom. But not really. I wondered whether her decision not to talk to me would include not sending me mass e-mail forwards.

This one is called "Being a Mother - a must read," and it's one of those sappy stories about a guy who goes and has a nice dinner with his mother after not seeing her very much over the past 20 years...and then she drops dead of a heart attack a few days later, and he appreciates her so much now!

You should invite her for dinner in 2030.

P-C, I think if we tried real hard we could all put together a heart-warming story of a mother that badgered her son so much that they were never able to share a true relationship. UNTIL one day when she witnesses a GOOD relationship between a friend and her friend's son. And only then does she learn how to treat her son with respect and allow him to find his own happiness, so that he will want to share that happiness with her.

And they all lived happily ever after. The End.

Katie, (KAAYYYTEEE!) that's kind of the method I used to pack some of these boxes, that's what's making unpacking them hard. Stuff that was in the drawers in the dining room, and on the shelves in my office, and on my dresser all wound up sharing several boxes. Sorting them out is finicky and stressful. Especially when I found an envelope full of cards StE had drawn in crayon and printed in careful letters.

Then I gave myself a pedicure and almost doubled my time and speed on the treadmill, so. Not going out turned out okay, and I did get a little done and will go back to it for a while later on.

P-C, wow. Bless your mom's artlessly cunning heart, that could not possibly be more transparent if she'd etched it on glass, sealed it in a glass envelope and had it delivered by a flock of glass passenger pigeons.

I don't think that sadness/regret would be the response. I am guessing the child might be angry at the parent for wasting all of the time by not understanding that kids grow up