But, the more exciting part, or more unexpected anyway, is that one of the accounts I did a big project for last year chipped in a good chunk more bonus money.

That's a vote of high confidence. The kind of validation you can't buy with money. Except, that's exactly what they did. Still - they showed you the money.

That's a vote of high confidence. The kind of validation you can't buy with money.

Yeah, it's huge. And I shed blood, sweat and tears on that project but getting some backend recognition (as opposed to obligatory "thank yous" at the close) makes it a lot easier to keep up the energy to do that.

I remember going through similar stuff with my mom, David. She'd do what was needed to help me dig my ass out of the hole, but I was doing the digging. And not like the lumps really stop there.

Perhaps I am not painting a good picture of this because the next several days will be very lump-inducing for Emmett. It's going to be an extremely unpleasant grind for him to finish this project.

Oh, I don't doubt that it'll be less than fun and you were clear about the progress he'd made so far. I know that these days, the way many school systems are structured, the 8th grade GPA has a lot to do with influencing the high school class selection, which in turn has a direct effect on colleges.

In a way, I'm grateful that we're not worrying about elite colleges for Nate-- his processing issues would be a major hindrance to him at a high-pressure university and right now, I'm not at all certain that uni right out of high school is in the cards for him. (Even if it is, I think it would definitely be a smaller school anyhow.) So I guess I'm lucky in that we really can let him take his lumps the way most of us did when we were in school and not have it adversely affect him.

Yes, Chace Crawford is on Gossip Girl.

That's awesome, brenda!

Yeah, it's huge. And I shed blood, sweat and tears on that project but getting some backend recognition (as opposed to obligatory "thank yous" at the close) makes it a lot easier to keep up the energy to do that.

That's awesome.

That's great, brenda! Wow. To actually see someone get the recognition and tangible reward for all that work is really cool.

I could've sworn I'd read about Queen Latifah and Ed Koch both coming out recently.

I only knew a couple of those people were gay. First I thought I must live under a rock, but I think it is more likely that I just never gave their sexuality a thought. The overwhelming majority of people I see or meet I don't think about their sexual preference unless they are making a point of it.

I thought ZQ was out. I knew Anderson Cooper was sort of a non-secret.