Fingers crossed. Yikes. Red stripe is skeerey! Thank you Nora for taking Smonster to hospital!

Thank you for being with her, Nora!

And, a heartfelt congratulations to Omnis - may the escrow and closing be as smooth as possible!

Strix, I am sorry about whatever it is that's causing you to change your name. Are you able to share what "strix" means? (sorry if it's a reference I don't get)

Had some blood taken, tests being run. Definitely lymph involvement, could just be an infection, gave me some IV anti-inflammatories and waiting for test results. Thanks for the love!!

Soooo glad you're getting it checked out. And I hope it's absolutely nothing or a small something that goes away with meds. Or, candy and hugs.

Glad it is being checked out. Hope they have a diagnosis for you soon. And I join everyone else in thanking Nora.

Very glad for cobra and getting it checked out!!

Tempted to email you strix, just because I am nosy and curious.

Sleepy. .

Still sending positive vibes smonster-ward and hugging Nora for being such a good friend.

Hiya, (west coast US) night shift. I am WIDE a-friggin' awake despite knowing my alarm is going to go off in less than six hours. Hello, work stress brain! Blah. Middle management can be a bitch. At the moment I'm stressing about one of my department members who may or may not be leaving for a new job but has been half-assedly trying to hide it from me for no apparent reason. I mean, I get why he's looking, but why the secrecy? I thought at first he was trying to avoid admin knowing, but apparently he talked to my boss already--he just decided to skip me and leave me in the dark, which is especially galling considering I've gone out of my way for him--including writing him a rec for a summer program with less than 24 hours notice a couple of months ago. Oh, and he was one of my formal evals this year--I've literally spent hours upon hours working with him and am about to start, in theory, writing the massive summative report for his professional growth, and I'll be damned if I'm going to bother if the guy isn't coming back and hasn't bothered to tell me to my face.

There's more, but this is not helping me calm down in order to fall asleep.

Pix, I think you answered your own question, chica. He probably feels the weight of all that you've done (and are doing) for him and feels incredibly awkward about leaving you. Maybe?

That would be so nice if it were true, and maybe that's a piece of it. I hope so. We've also had some disagreemets this year, mostly due to how touchy he can be about minor events, so I think it may also be that he is very conflict avoidant and thought it would be easier to pretend or deny rather than just tell me.

Honestly, it bums me out. I like to think that I'm fair and approachable, and it makes me sad to think he doesn't feel safe enough to just tell me the truth. You know how it is, Java, as someone who's been a boss (though much higher up the food chain than I am).

I also just don't like unnecessary secrets, and he in the past has accused me/the school of being too secretive. Ah, irony.