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.)

Erin, so much ~ma for your friends. That is beyond imagining.

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

I'm right behind you, bonny. This thing that I have been saying for several days is just allergies has become a cough. No matter whether the cause of the cough is viral or allergenic, it's a sit up and take notice symptom that I have to keep a close eye on, so it doesn't develop a secondary bacterial infection in the old airways.

Okay, going in for deep periodontal cleaning in 75% of my mouth. LOTS of novocaine.

I'm being a big baby and whining.

Much, much ~ma for your friends, Erin.

I hope her dad is able to come to the wedding. It's coming up soon, right?

Thanks. Yes, just a couple of months! (We were silly enough to choose a wedding blog site with a countdown on it. The Girl regularly shouts a random number of days at me. "57 days!" She needs external motivators, or there won't be any catering and we'll be standing in the middle of a field going "Wasn't there supposed to be a marquee here?")

Thanks for the ~ma, all. The Girl says her dad is doing a bit better today. Hopefully she'll be able to come home by the weekend.

{{{Barb}}} Minimal pain~ma.

I am asking this as a serious question and not trying to be snarky or whiny, but when does working out start to give you energy rather than just making you want to go to bed?

I've noticed that I feel slightly more energized after the gym than when I go in. It's not made any huge difference in day to day life, but there is a difference.

Also, my butt has bits that curve in, now, instead of everything curving out.