I think I'm bagging the swim today. I clearly need a reset, because yesterday's swim was spectacularly bad and my shoulder is still pissed about that+vacuuming. I don't want to, but it seems wise. Besides, it also means I won't have a crazy rush to get to the going-away party later today. So.

I'm unhappy with how many interrupts in the past month, but really, there were only 2 in the last 2 months. It's bigger in my head.

I think I was saved from any alcohol related vomiting in my life because I cannot drink things that taste bad to me.

There's an entire segment of the industry devoted to not tasting bad. My first binge drink was age 15 or so (we were allowed to get tipsy at Christmas and New Years, but drinking wasn't the main event) and we just started at the top of the cocktail menu (this is a bar in one of Jamaica's tourist areas, so no drinking age being enforced, and everything is rum-based so we're on familiar ground--we only know rum, wine, and champagne at this point). I seem to remember saying I'd made it halfway through the menu before I had to stop, but the only clear memories were hugging the toilet and the interminable bedspins (for me the worst part bar none).

But everything tasted great! There wasn't even a slight chance of developing an aversion to anything but sugar.

A later exercise that involved half a bottle of Bailey's--that's something I'm good with never tasting again. Good god, poor judgement.

I hope the rest will help your next swim be more like you want them to be, sara.

Blackberries were not as bad as I had feared. Still bad, but they had only superficially overgrown the path to the orange trees I hacked a couple months ago. I filled my yard waste bin (which will be picked u tomorrow, so I can start again pretty soon) and was able to actually reach a couple of oranges that seem to still not be ripe - roack hard and don't want to come off the branch. The other tree, which ripened in January, appears to have a second harvest fruiting, which is a nice surprise.

And I haven't had breakfast yet. Oops.

That's probably just something I should do when I wake up at 4am and don't have to leave for work until after 8: prune the blackberries.

Consuela,

Oh I am so sorry. For your loss and the not inconsiderable stress involved with out of contact staff. I just can't even imagine.

Emmett is up and remorseful. He cried a little when he thought about what he put his friends through. I emphasized that they risked getting in trouble themselves by putting his welfare first. Laura will undoubtedly suffer some consequences for his drinking. That made him feel bad.

I talked to him about making this kind of mistake. That he needs to make amends, particularly with Laura's parents.

He's a little shaken up but okay. Drinking Gatorade.

I feel like heaving violently after reading that combo. Much less consuming it myself.

Consuela, I am so sorry.

Suela, peace to you and your family. I am so sorry.

I feel like heaving violently after reading that combo. Much less consuming it myself.

Apparently he only had half a shot of Absinthe. So it was mostly just the horror of peach flavored vodka.

We also talked about the exciting notion that when you drink it impairs your judgment and how it gets harder to know when to stop or slow down your drinking.

He really feels genuinely contrite and remorseful about it. And not because he physically feels bad now, but because he let down his friends and parents.

I am from Hicksville, and the things available to me as a teenager were beer, and possibly MadDog 20/20. And both of those were disgusting. I didn't drink much until I could buy my own, and I really only like gimlets and red wine.