It's the end of the semester, so I'm getting the usual bunch of emails from students begging for higher grades. I supposed that, from their perspective, it doesn't hurt to try, but it just annoys me to have to answer all of these. (There's one person who I kind of think does deserve a higher grade, but there are department rules about the situation she's in, and I have to follow them. The rest of them, I've really got nothing but "This is your semester average. This is the grade you earned," but I've got to reply to all of them.

Thank you so much, everyone, for all your kind words this week. Losing Byron was incredibly difficult, and I know it’s going to take time to recover. I feel very lucky to have ND, my friends, and my other three furballs close right now. I donated to the Humane Society in his honor today and posted a thank you to the specific branch where I adopted him in 1994. I’m going to miss him a lot.

Thanks, y'all. I don't know if I mentioned this here, but when I talked to the psychiatrist last week and was talking about my issues, it felt like talking about another person. I have trouble remembering what it was like to be that depressed. Don't know how much is DBT, how much Zoloft, and how much job and city change, but I'm just thankful.

Nora, thanks. I am simmering in my *own* consequences. Neither me nor the animals will starve so we're good. I get paid tomorrow. Sorry you're not feeling well! I hope you feel better soon.

Pix, not sure if I've said it here yet or not, but you did good by your beautiful boycat. And it sucks. I would advise against doing an unintentional wake by sorting all your photos of him for an afternoon. That way leads to a painful-face the next day, trust me.

smonster,

I am so glad you are on the upswing. That must feel really good. Did your psychiatrist pick up on it as well?

Well, this was my first session with a psychiatrist here, so it was really weird giving him the whole backstory and trying to represent it accurately. My psychiatrist at home definitely saw a difference - I switched to Zoloft and changed jobs at about the same time (Oct. 2010), so I really don't know what's what.

I’m going to miss him a lot.

Byron was a wonderful cat and you gave him the best life. And he returned that love. I am sorry for your loss and thinking about you all tonight.

So there's this girl I've had a general crush on for approximately 20 months, but I haven't really done anything about it because what's the point. But I figured that if there was one girl I knew that I would ask out, it would be her (well, there are others, but I thought she had the highest probability of dating yes).

Since I am the dateless wonder, I take female friends to my company holiday party so I'm not so alone. This year, I asked her, and she said it sounded like fun.

When I messaged her to confirm her availability, she did. And also spelled out in no uncertain terms that it should be clear to everyone we were just friends, we're friends, she wants to hang out with her friend, she's not interested in a date.

Why do I even ever entertain the slightest notion, the tiniest inclination to actually ask a girl out? Now I'm getting rejected even without asking! (This is actually the second time I've been preemptively rejected, but I wasn't interested the first time.)

So sorry for your loss, Pix.

Ugh P-C, I've been in that situation too many times. It's hard, no lie, but in a week or so you'll be happier to let her go her way.

Pix, I'm so sorry for your loss.