Scrappy, wow, what a roller-coaster. You definitely should celebrate.

I've never worn a corset, but it seems like asking to borrow someone's negligee, anyway...is it weird to ask?

A lot of people wear them over a blouse/sheer top/tank top/etc. Even a tank top with the shoulder straps cut off so that it's just like a liner underneath the corset -- that way the corset doesn't get all sweaty and manky. Since you can't just toss them in the washing machine, it's beneficial to try to prevent stanky corset.

Although now that you mention that, I wonder that it doesn't give *her* the heebie-jeebies to borrow something that *I* might have worn withOUT a shirt underneath.

Yay, mom of Scrappy!!

Steph, I think something like, "Sorry, I'm going to need it myself. You should check out Corset Story, they often have good deals (or whatever your favorite website is - Corset Story always has sales on, though)".

I think the "sorry, I'll need it but here's the website" is the best answer. Tempting as it might be to be super bitchy. :)

I know that 9/10 times when someone someone thinks a picture of them is ghastly, in my eyes it's usually somewhere on a range from okay to super cute.

Oh, totally. And I feel like I've gotten better at writing off bad pictures of me, thinking about how there are people I love and think are hot and still sometimes have pictures (I take a lot of pictures sometimes) that make me go "ooh, that's a terrible picture of you!" The video was startling though (and reminds me that I went back to hot yoga for a reason, and need to keep going back--it's good for me!)

Luckily I have a few weeks here (SHOCKINGLY) where I am barely traveling (this week just Wednesday, next week not at all for work, but then traveling the weekend, and the week after that not at all!) so I'm hoping to be good about my diet and working out, get myself in some better shape for the next 5k!

Yay, good news for mom-of-Scrappy!

Steph, I agree with the suggestions of, "I'm going to need it for events of my own throughout the month. Here's the website where I got it. Here are a couple of other corset sites. Hope your holiday season is fun."

But I absolutely would add the zinger, "How've you been?" and a thumbnail highlight of your last year. Three sentences, one paragraph, max. Just to be cordial and friendly and see, this is how you conduct a friendship or at least a friendly acquaintanceship, by exemplary, um, example.

Kill 'em with nice, I always say. Keeps one's halo shiny.

Scrappy, that is truly excellent news! So happy for you and your mom!

Tep, I'm blown away by people like that. Are they really that clueless or just plain assholey? I'm thinking it's the latter.

Once again I find I'm on a team of morons or lazy people and therefore get stuck with the majority of the work. My boss even told me that "E" is not detailed enough to do X, which is a weekly, beastly, fucking plain HORRIBLE task. So I get to do it every damned week. I thought I hated Mondays before...

Scrappy, SO GOOD, considering. SO GOOD.

Scrappy, so glad she got the best possible news. That sounds really hopeful. So glad.

Yay, mom of Scrappy! That really made my day to read that, Scrappy. I feel like we all punched cancer in the face with that one.

Scrappy, that's great news.

I went to the ENT. He says that he thinks my ear problem is a muscular problem, with the eustachian tubes not opening and closing properly because the muscles around them are too tight, so we're trying various things to relax those muscles. They did some kind of ear pressure test that printed out a graph, and the graph from my left ear was the perfect sort of peak that they want to see, while the one from my right ear was all squiggly. They also tested my hearing, and I can hear better than most people, which might be why noises annoy me so much -- I can just hear more of them than most people can.