Oh man. I've been reading a book about the Chinese Communist Party (fascinating read, by the way) and I just discaovered there's an individual in provincial government whose name is Wang Shouting (per Western convention, Shouting Wang). That's really quite excellent.

Since Hiro is pretty much (uh...what is the polite term for weeaboo?) invested in many aspects of Japanese culture-it didn't surprise me that Stephenson started off with events outside his control.

I finally get why the doctors have been fetching me blankets and crackers and stuff recently. New residents. Adorbs.

Unfortunately, my recent C3-C7 flare up has left me getting one more dose than normal, and it seems they may stop that. Now. Which is one day before my next pain management appointment that will hopefully Larry out plans to fix this, but I'm pretty ... never mind. My concern was unwarranted. They're adamant about not giving me four doses, but I'm pretty adamant about not getting four (don't tell anyone, but I think I'd rather be in pain...)

Please go, pain. I am also hydrating. And I swear honey graham crackers have documented analgesic properties. And restorative too.

I kept detailed notes last week, but forgot to this week. I was having too much fun with the nurse. She's really sweet and funny and claims to remember me drooling over Tom Hardy from a previous visit. I'm sceptical about that, and also blame the drugs. We've been talking movies and etiquette and crying and cute guys. And residents.

Man, I'm really heavy handed on the touch technology these days.

Can you believe nice nurse isn't attracted to RDJ? What is that, even? Neither is my sister, and all the boykissing in the world won't sway her.

But she is a Captain America fan, so cool cool cool. The nurse, that is. Must determine my sister's position on that one...

Ugh, Sophia. I hope things are looking brighter this morning. That is very upsetting.

Zen, that sucks. My FB is so heavily filtered now to get rid of so much that just raises my blood pressure.

and they nodded at each other or something,

I had a head nod experience with Coach Thompson in a restaurant in NoVa once. I still think of it as kind of weirdly awesome. I'm sure he has many such exchanges with random students. But this was my exchange.

claims to remember me drooling over Tom Hardy from a previous visit.

I'm not so skeptical. Well, actual drool, yes. Metaphorical drool I could imagine pretty easily.

They took down the Paterno statue.

Well good. The alternative was to add a statue of a crying child behind Paterno's back being ignored.

They're leaving his name on the library. The official statement says that this is because the library represents Paterno's positive contributions to the university and academics. I strongly suspect that it's also because the Paterno family donated a ton of money to build that library, and that's why his name is on it in the first place, so it would be kind of awkward to keep the building and take down the name.

Damn Typo Boy! I barked a sardonic laugh at that.

Folks, I am done. I am in packing Hell. And my estimation I am in Dante's Hell - I am not sure which circle features regret and recriminations (perhaps all of them?), but I am there in an endless loop.

I decided to tackle the garage now before it get too hot, and in the garage I have boxes that remained sealed from my move into the house from 8 years ago. Yes. YES.

Half of those boxes are boxes that I packed from my parents house because they moved into their retirement home the same year I moved into this one. So I never did unpack those boxes. I have stuff from my childhood and college in those boxes. As I peer into each box, I get a flash of my youth, and while most of my flashes are positive, I unexpectedly started crying when looking at a note from a staff member at my college who died years ago WAY before his time.

And I decided to take a break when I opened a box and it had my little teddy bear from when I was 3 years old. Oh I love that thing.

Yesterday, I found a Merlin. I was fucking overjoyed to find my Merlin. I loved that thing to death when I was a kid. Don't know what it is? [link]

I am hugging my teddy bear and waiting for Zenkitty's comfort food!

We had a Merlin!