Erin, insent. And so much~ma to your friends.

Bywater is part of the Ninth Ward (it's technically the Upper Ninth). Seventh Ward is further back from the river than St. Claude.

It's like the fetal is there as your reset.

It suddenly occurred to me that if I didn't have to use my computer as a resource, that I would be very happy to do tech support from under my desk. Tucked up in the dark corner, no one could see me--damn, that sounds soothing.

Thank you all, so much.

T was devastated, of course, but she is keeping her shit together and working at her school till the 25th.

They don't know yet we are doing this, and they haven't asked for a single damn thing. They are very self-sufficient.

Ah. NO hoods, reminds me of NY giving everything a SoCoTri-whatever name.

Trudy, if I was making us up, we'd all be hotter. And probably use language that would make an Emanuel blush, but you can't have everything. I think they think I make up my publications, too, but if I did, I'd get into FakeNewYorker, and ICan'tBelieveIt'SNotTheNation...fake mystery magazines would be the tip of the iceberg.

I'm totally with java. Sometimes diving down the well is the quickest way to get out of it.

I know I've said it before but my go-to movie for full on wailing is Project X (animals misused and in peril).

Once, years ago when I was in supervision at Loyola for my counseling degree, I struggled mightily with trying to keep a client from falling apart. In a, God moves in mysterious ways, way the one woman in the room I had the least (as in no) respect for challenged me on my motives. In the midst of my choking indignation, she spoke the basic truth to me in a simple question: "In your hardest times, did YOU ever fall apart?"

I had to take a breath and think. In fact, even in the worst of it, I never really did. I might have wanted to, or feared that I had no other choice, but in each and every challenge, I lived. So, the answer had to be no.

We want to avoid the well because we fear we might not come out of it...and in truth, some people don't...but if you have lived through every experience of your life thus far, you can live through every other. That is the math as I know it.

Speaking of giving in to things. I have a wicked sore throat. It started in the middle of the night and I can feel it just mocking me. So, having neti-ed my nose and peroxided my ears, miso-ed my tummy and taken an herbal immune supplement, I'm giving over my body to the enemy.

Here. You can have it. I'm going to bed and will hopefully sleep through the worst of your cruelties. I laugh at your puny efforts and know that, in lulling you into a false sense of dominion, I will prevail.

I feel like I should quoting Paul Atreides: The cold is the bliss killer. I will not fear it. I will let it pass through me and, when it is gone, I will remain.

I'm going in people...wish me luck.

My reliable, I am going to fall apart now movie is, no surprise, Big Fish.

I have been wanting to watch it since Mom passed, but haven't let myself. Maybe I should.

My reliable, I am going to fall apart now movie is, no surprise, Big Fish.

I have been wanting to watch it since Mom passed, but haven't let myself. Maybe I should.

I think that is a beautiful idea, Jilli. I wish I could hold your hand...or you know...pass the tissues, while you do.

The thing is, Big Fish wrecks me during times when there ISN'T huge emotional stress going on. I'm a little afraid of what it would do to me now. But it's such a wonderful movie.

(Needless to say, Mirrormask, with it's plot point of a hospitalized mom, is RIGHT off my list of movies at the moment.)