Erin, I know it's an awful and stressful situation for you. I'm glad you can vent here. It's impotant to have a place for that.

And, yeah, for M, it's just being there and making the best of a bad situation his mother really forced upon everyone. Being supportive of him and as civil and even nice as possible to her. Divorce sucks and it's tough but you are awesome for being a good and caring stepmom.

I've said it before in here but I am so grateful for how my parents PARENTED after their divorce and how my stepmom never made me feel like I had to choose or asign blame. I very much lucked out getting three parents who love me and now can be very much friendly. And who were always more than civil even when it probably sucked a lot for them.

Seeing Bev and her DH today was so lovely.

~ma for your sister, Zen.

Thanks for listening, guys. Really, it's only the weest part of me that hopes karma bites her one day in the ass and hols her accountable for her actions.

But mostly I just want to figure out a good solution.

Ugh, I can't talk about this first thing in the morning. Moving on.

How soft is your ass, Erin? That's always a pleasant topic.

{{{Erin}}} I hope D can work something out that makes him feel better without feeling he needs to move.

Zenkitty, tons of ~ma for your sister.

We have no heat or hot water this morning. Our landlord isn't answering his phone and it is really freaking cold today.

sj, that's really frustrating. I hope you can go somewhere where you can stay warm temporarily, at least. Here's hoping the landlord gets his act together soon.

Well, my application for support during teaching is now being considered formally by the ever-irritating government agency. I'm going to be employing and paying a support worker myself in the meantime, as teaching starts on Monday. I'm hoping they rush through the decision, but I somehow doubt it, given the incompetence so far! At least they've agreed to put through the application. Small mercies and all that.

Landlord just called back so it looks like I will be here waiting for the repairman. It's really bad on the roads right now so I won't leave until I have to.

My ass IS soft! I made a bunch of brown sugar and cinnamon scrub as my hostess gifts for my Girly Craftsmas party this weekend, so it also smells like dessert!

I just spent 2 hours looking for sub line info and almost crying because I couldn't find it. I felt sick yesterday and has off and on stomach trouble, and it's not going away. I got about 4 hours of sleep, and I have to keep running to the bathroom. I finally found some info and had to call an admin at home, which makes me feel awful, and she was all "Oh, you could have just emailed!"

But who knows when email gets picked up! I was up at 5, because I wanted to give as much notice as possible. TEACHER FAIL.

sj, that sounds awful. Stay in, stay safe, and I hope everything works out ASAP for you.

I am going back to bed, hoping that the Imodium actually works for a bit, because it didn't much last night. UGH.

Speaking of bad roads. Yesterday on I-35 I saw two cars spin out on the other side of the median and hit the new-style wire guardrail. This was about five seconds apart, and about 300 ft apart. There was another car between then having hit it already. Nasty. I called 911.

sj, I hope the repairman gets there soon.

Erin, I have nothing useful to say about your situation. It's a really rough one.