Also, thanks, Shir, for helping to make the world a better place and stuff....

This American Life/X-Men poster

Awww. You people. You're the best people. You're my people.

Hey all. I'm not at all caught up, and probably won't be able to, but that's AWESOME, Shir! GO YOU!

book ~ ma to you, Barb, and much ~ ma to everyone, sprinkled liberally, with love.

I hesitate to update, because anything I say will be really depressing, but several of you have asked after me and my brother over email, which I so appreciate, and I don't have the energy to update folks individually right now.

Spent the week in NY last week, and I'm glad I went, but things are grim. Bro is coming up on his third week in a coma, and it doesn't look like he's going to wake up. His neurosurgeon said that the tumor is growing far more aggressively than they ever anticipated. They found evidence of the tumor deep in his brain where the brain bleed occurred, which they never expected to find.

It's hard to describe how much pain my SiL is going through right now. She just lost her father a little over a month ago, she's essentially lost my brother, but not really, not yet. Plus, my nephew is developmentally delayed, so he can't really share in the gravity of the situation with her. He doesn't process emotions very well, which is kind of isolating for her. In some ways, he's more dependent on her, and in some ways, he's more emotionally distant. All this, with the holidays coming up. My heart just aches for her.

And then there's my middle brother, argh. WTF. I called him from NY and he said, "If S. isn't going to wake up, I have no interest in coming to visit." Sometimes he just leaves me speechless. I could unpack the many ways in which that statement disappoints me, but I'm too tired. I didn't tell my SiL he said that. Oh, and classic: he said that he can't talk to my SiL on the phone because, "All she does is get upset." STAB.

In more trivial news, I tore some cartilage in my knee while I was in NY last week, and it looks like I'm going to have outpatient surgery on it next week. I was JUST complaining that I had extra money in my healthcare flex spending account that I was going to lose by the end of the year. GOOD ONE, UNIVERSE!

Dear God, amyth. So much ~ma for you and your family, and especially to your SiL. {{{}}}

You're in my thoughts.

Oh, man. {{{{{amyth}}}}} I'm glad to see an update from you, but I'm so sorry the news is so bleak. God, your poor SiL. Does she have a good local support network? Friends, coworkers, other family members?

Oh, and good timing with the knee thing, too! WHAT.

Oh, amyth. A million billion hugs and vibes to you, your brother, your sister-in-law and nephew. And a thunderous cluesticking to your middle brother. I'm so, so sorry for all this pain and loss, and that middle brother is being so thoughtless and clueless and severely making nothing better.

Many, many vibes, and all the strength and coping~ma I've got to spare, to all of you.

amyth, my heart breaks for you and your family. Much strength and peace to you all.

{{{{{{{{{{{{amyth}}}}}}}}}}}}

Actually, one good thing is that my SiL has a MASSIVE Irish Catholic family up there. They all call each other multiple times a day.

When my knee was so bad last week that I had to call her and say that there was no way I could make it via subway and train from Queens to Smithtown, she called me back and said that she had a cousin in Queens who just happened to be a retired NYC bus driver, who knew exactly where my friends' apt. was, and that he's be by to pick me up in a couple of hours to drive me out to her house, which is not a short drive. She has family EVERYWHERE.