The sad thing is, I doubt it was even planned by my sister. Much of her abuse is just due to being completely blind to things that aren't her.

Without malice doesn't make her a bad person, just clueless, eh?

Zeus. I just woke up screaming, throwing the sheets off the bed, because of a dream. That hasn't happened in years. It took ten minutes to calm down enough to go back to bed. After shaking out the sheets just in case. Man, I knew I was anxious, but not that bad! Wish I didn't live alone sometimes.

ND, good grief, your sis seems unbelievably clueless.

Erin, sorry, didn't mean to mess with your head!

Now I feel like there are bugs on me. Argh.

OK, gonna try to sleep again. Better this time.

Zenkitty, I hope you were able to get some sleep that was free of nasty critters or anything else fretful, worrisome, or freak-the-fuck-out-ish. I hope there were cute, happy baby animals of whatever species is your favorite cute, happy thing.

ND,

wow.

ND, I'm sorry that your sister continues to be completely clueless. Happy Belated Birthday!

ND, sorry about the family ... whatver it is. Hope you have a happy birthday. If possible, I'd send you some sleep for your birthday.

In high school, my mother insisted I take typing so I'd have "something to fall back on". My father insisted I take home ec in the hopes I'd learn how to cook. I learned to sew - made a fair amount of my own clothes in high school, although I was always really slow; I'd get tired of looking at something by the time it was finished.

But I still have my Betty Crocker Homemaker of the Future charm.

If it makes you feel any better, Tom's dad did a very similar thing over email regarding 1) death of a relative and b) his own issues with cancer. Hm, I don't think that makes anyone feel better.

Without malice doesn't make her a bad person, just clueless, eh?

Not speaking re: ND's sister specifically, but in general, I don't know if that's true. Often there's a willful selfishness involved that while I don't know if good/bad is the proper dichotomy, cluelessness does not often mean the absence of malice.

My mother going on and on and on about Weight Watchers points. I mean, hey, glad it's working for her (she's lost 10 lbs), but either follow it silently or abandon it for the week with... abandon. I don't want to know the number of points in her wine, and beer, and gumbo, and coffee, and Hubig's... FFS.

I have many feels on this subject (in general), but I will only say, yeah. New Orleans is not a town for that kind of thing, it will just drive you nuts, especially if you are visiting/on vacation. Just walk a lot and try not to eat to the point of discomfort (either from quantity or types of food) and one should be fine.

Tom and I have actually both lost weight since moving here (not anything significant in my case, but he's dropped about 10 pounds or so) although both our BPs have risen. Which is actually a health indicator I care about, rather than weight. I think Tom's has settled back doen, and the mild medication I'm on seems to have worked - I swear it was 90% stress related (tenant drama, etc.) and only like 10% fried food/muffaletta (damn you sodium high cured meats and olive salad!) related.

Well ... just watched the space shuttle on its last flight.