You are so smart and generous and witty and amazing.

Ginger, you have so many amazing skills and you share them so generously.

When I went through my email archive to find your address, I found the many occasions when you've seen me ask a question about how to do something graphical in nature and just DID it for me, without question.

Not to mention the numbers of times you have made me laugh or nod appreciatively at some wisdom you shared.

That energy is needed in this world. So, again, I'm down with the 17+ plan. Like Nora said, you are an AMAZON. Fact.

Ginger, I approve of this 17 year plan. I disapprove of cancer.

Oh Ginger. I'm just so sorry. Beaming all good vibes your way. And? FUCK CANCER!!!!!

I _need_ to love and to have a focus for that energy in my life. Though my heart is not truly open to him right now, he definitely has provided that focus and caused me to climb out of myself in a great way.

Harvey patiently loved me through four years of grieving Pachisi, my soul-cat, who died a week and a half before he was born. He loved me and did his feline best to make me feel better. He let me get away with merely taking care of him as best I could, with thinking of him and loving him as "just a cat", rather than loving him wholeheartedly. Because I did not have a whole heart. I knew I would never love another cat the way I loved Pachisi. And that is true. I don't love Harvey the way I loved that other cat. I love Harvey the way I love Harvey. And I love Sammie the way I love Sammie.

I hope that you are able to come to that kind of healing sooner than I did. But this is no race. It will happen when it happens for you. Whether it is Cagney or another creature who loves you and receives your brokenhearted love in return between now and then, I believe in it.

Like I believe in the Raylan immune cells. Fuck cancer up but good, Raylan.

bonny, I'm struggling with Penny. She's a great cat, very affectionate and cuddly. Much more than Maddie was, and way more than Anna (the cat I had for 20 years) but occasionally I find myself resenting her or think she's annoying.

But those feelings pass and I love her and grow more attached to her.

I hope that you are able to come to that kind of healing sooner than I did. But this is no race. It will happen when it happens for you.

Mwah. I hope so too.

Thanks, also, askye.

I am fond of Cagney. He's as sweet as can be. People say I should not compare. I'd be _lying_ like a bastard if I said I was not. My love of authenticity requires me to be honest. But, I don't think I'm being unfair. He's doing the best with what he has. None of that is actively bad.

(...except of course for the chewing of vintage...cannot be replaced...molding where everyone who enters my house can see it. argh.)

(Somewhere in Ginger's lymph system, sometime shortly. "Well, it's done...they're gone. Darnedest thing."
"Do I want to hear this?

"No, I expect that you do not."

"I so *value* these little chats."

Joining in on loving the 17 year plan.

I have no idea if this will help, but as someone with Mom issues and at least a partial idea of what you are going through, if you ever need someone to dump all the shit you didn't say to your mother (or anyone else) on, you know my email address.

OK Ginger, you are fucking awesome! That is the best dang response to a crap diagnosis I've ever seen. And you know, there are plenty of stories out there of people beating stage IV. There's no reason you can't be one of them.

my mom's principal had it in her uterus and somewhere else a couple years ago...she is very much alive now. A lousy boss, from what I can tell, but alive after a fairly crummy prognosis.