Nate the Great! That's wonderful.

I know that Suzi's move has also been really good for CJ.

Sometimes you gotta pull out the geographical solution.

Erin, you're doing the lord's work. A freaky, nerdy lord who loves all his Lego lovin' fantasy fans.

How much do I love the idea of Fairy Gothmothers and Summer Camp for Weirdos? (I'll be the off season caretaker! Can we have goats?)

Secondly, you always sounded so miserable in Florida; I love reading the happy in all of your posts. It's always there even when you don't mention it.

You know, Lewis and I, we own our choices. We loved Ohio and made the choice to move to Florida primarily for the kids-- while the last couple of years there wound up really miserable, it was still a valuable time for the kids to be closer to their grandparents. In hindsight, I might not make the same choice, but we did and I do try to see what positives came out of it and one of those things was the fact that the kids are close to their grandparents.

However, that said, the move to Florida was valuable on another level-- we were comfortable in Ohio. We loved it there. And I'm not certain that if we'd remained there, we would have ultimately made the move to Seattle, even though it was something we'd dreamt about doing for so many years. Well, I might have, but I'm a bit more adventurous than Lewis-- you generally have to give him a good reason to entertain such drastic change. It was the utter misery in Florida that prompted the change, so from that standpoint, I can't be sorry about it. It was what we needed to do at that time and it ultimately led us here. It's all good.

Barb, that's so exciting for Nate! Excellent news!

I'm glad you moved too; things seem to be going much, much better for you there.

I cannot, cannot articulate enough how much letting me vent is allowing me to not fall (much) to her level, and is letting me blow off steam so I can be rational and keep M in the forefront, and not let my dislike of her and her methods affect that focus.

A freaky, nerdy lord who loves all his Lego lovin' fantasy fans.

I try to live ma life in the Lawd's light...

Pix, that absolutely cracks my shit up. We need t-shirts: "Charter Member of the Ass-kicking Smart Bitches Brigade."

Yay for Nate! Glad to hear he had such a good year.

It's been a good year for buffista sprog, hasn't it? I'm thinking of Nate and mac turning in stellar performances at school.

Yay, Nate! Barb, I'm glad your move has been so good for him.

It HAS.

And both my kids had good years, Isaac had an amazing kinder year. I feel like we've been incredibly lucky with our kids' teachers so far.

Erin, I don't think M's mother is very smart if she doesn't realize that you living in PA would lead to a world of hurt for her. (Obviously you aren't moving, but I'm just bemused that she's not thinking this through very well.)

ION, some people, I swear to god. I've been dealing (er, dealing in my brain, I mean; trying to process stuff she said) for 2 days with this woman on another site (the kinky social networking site) who took something I wrote and decided to turn it into this whole Thing about "fat chicks." Only she means it as "a heartfelt response" and then goes on about the societal pain she feels as a size 2.

I'm cool with that -- I don't think women of any size get off easy when it comes to society being shitty. But, really? You know me -- you know *me,* in person, and know I'm enormous -- and you write about "fat chicks" and call it a "heartfelt response"?

Yup, I put my writing out there and people can respond to it. But, for the record, what I was writing about was that I don't think it's okay to compliment curvy/fat/BBW women by saying "they're *real* women," because that's insulting by exclusion to women who are average size or thin.

So her response is "fat chicks"? But it's "heartfelt"?

I'm kind of feeling moved to reply -- "heartfelt," of course -- about "skinny thoughtless bitches." But I won't.

But, wow. Way to make me hate myself with your "heartfelt" response. Classy. (I would reply to her privately, but I still can't think of any way I could do it that would NOT be ragey and nasty as hell. So until I can regain some equanimity and dial down the self-loathing, no way am I responding.)

So her response is "fat chicks"? But it's "heartfelt"?

Some people's hearts suck.