Hi Deena!

Oh, bonny. What Ginger said. Do only what you absolutely must. Wish I could help in some way.

Shir, I'm so sorry. I hope your mother adjusts to this transition and that the vertigo goes away soon.

So, the pub crawl was lots and lots of fun. We all made posterboard crowns (as you can see on fb), and there was trivia (right answer got a shot of whisky), and I got to check out some new bars, and people honked at us and hollered encouragingly from their porches, and there was arm-wrestling at one bar, and I drunk-texted StW and got him to quit working and come meet us out. And then he gave me a ride home (too drunk to drive) and stayed over. It may set me back a bit in terms of getting over him, but it was nice and fun and good to catch up. His work is so freaking insanely busy, I don't even know how he deals. He teaches and manages residents, sees patients, helps recruit new residents, and has to start looking for a new job very very soon.

erin, I'm on Pinterest by my real name, I log in with fb.

Oww. I think I pulled a muscle over my rib cage, or something. It hurts whenever I move. It's been like this for a few days, but it seems like it's getting worse.

From the coughing, Hil? (Are you still coughing?) That sucks, because there's not a lot you can do to physically keep your ribs from moving.

ION, one of the first things I saw when I checked FB this morning was a post from an acquaintance, announcing that her girlfriend has been cheating on her with 2 people. I get that that's a huge betrayal, but I just don't think I would post about it on FB. I'm sure she was just trying to hit back however she could, and so posting about it in public was what she chose, but...I just wouldn't do that. The whole thing makes me cringe.

ITA, Steph.

That seems like a very high-school way to deal with it.

I need More Coffee, so I can go get ready to watch amych fence. But there's 8 lbs. of purring cat on my lap.

Coffee, kitty. Kitty, coffee.

Cat just lost.

Shir, I'm so sorry. My mom has been congenitally nearly deaf in one ear and hard of hearing in the other all her life--surgery a few years ago upgraded the deaf ear to merely hard of hearing, and she now has fancy hearing aids that bring her to near normal (hearing aids that cost an arm and a leg because her insurance deemed near normal ability to hear a cosmetic issue, so she paid for them entirely out of pocket). It was rough for her and for everyone who cared for her, but, as Calli said, there are definite coping strategies.

One simple thing you can do to help her is just to be aware of making an effort to talk to her face-to-face so she can see as well as hear, and, if she's got a better ear, to train yourself to just always be on that side. (My mom once fell in love with a man in large part because midway through their second date she realized that he'd not only remembered the first time she pointed at her bad ear, he'd been unfussily and unfailingly manuevering himself to her good side every minute since.)

So many hugs and good thoughts to your mom and you. There are a lot of coping strategies and a lot of things families can do to ease things, but it's still a harsh blow to deal with and it just plain sucks.

Deena, that umbrella is awesometastic genius. (Other than the general gagginess of the fact that we've got rampant underemployment and homelessness and desperation, and somebody's making long-handled umbrellas so golfers can continue their games uninterrupted by the inconvenience of rain damaging their mashie niblicks or whatever--but that really makes the umbrella even more ripe for co-option by a spooky golf-antithetical subculture.)

Many, many vibes to Bartleby and all his caretakers.

And vibes to Hil. That sounds not just painful, but perfectly placed to make every imaginable movement more difficult. I hope it eases off or sorts itself out right quick.

I'm off shortly for church, followed by a visit to my dad's (possibly for Chicken & Waffles, possibly just to his house for mac'n'cheese and gardening), followed by a trip to Rasputin Records for the first installment of the Great Perkins Culling.

From the coughing, Hil? (Are you still coughing?) That sucks, because there's not a lot you can do to physically keep your ribs from moving.

I think it's from the coughing. The coughing has calmed down a lot, but isn't totally gone. When I was coughing a lot, pretty much everything around my lungs hurt. Now that the coughing has calmed down, most of that pain has subsided, but this one spot is still hurting a lot.

That seems like a very high-school way to deal with it.

I'm not overly fond of this woman anyway, although I do feel bad for her because it sucks to discover one's partner has been unfaithful. But mostly my response is to cringe. These are 2 people who really should have broken up about 3 months into the relationship, but instead moved in together after 2 months. It's been an ugly, messy road, so I can't say I'm surprised that the relationship has hit this point, but I still think posting about it on FB is cringeworthy.

(This is the woman who, at a pool party, when she saw Tim alone in the pool, took off her bathing suit and jumped in and swam over to him. I am not inclined to be overly generous in my feelings toward her.)

Oh, that one. Sounds like her sense of judgement is...not.

Sounds like her sense of judgement is...not.

Their relationship has been train-wrecky since the beginning, with the biggest obstacle being that the cheated-upon woman is a cisgender woman, and the cheater is a MtF trans woman who was still living as a man when they met, but who started to transition shortly afterward. Cheated-upon has always said she isn't a lesbian and loves cock and needs a "real man" in her bed (and, AFAIK, has men who she sexes up, with her partner's approval).

There's long been a lot of weird shit going on there, so I can't say the demise of the relationship is totally surprising.

(Note: there's nothing wrong with wanting sex with a dude, but it just seems like being in a relationship with someone who is actively moving AWAY from being a dude might indicate that there will be problems down the road.)

(I'm also expecting her to start calling Tim for consolation.)