I was willing to write off the vivid dream I had of one of our old cats coming to visit, but then Hubby said he'd had the same dream, and it was years after that cat had died. We would tell each other that a cat had come to visit. Brains are weird.

My shoulder has been hurting all day. I managed to get through teaching, but it was a lot of pushing through the pain. I really wish I had a job where I could work from home sometimes, or call in sick without it being a huge hassle.

Then she said she had occassionally felt the presence of deceased loved ones.

I have felt the presence of people who weren't there, none of whom were my own deceased people. One person has visited me in dreams, but I've never been certain those weren't just dreams. The only encounter I've had that I've been certain was the spirit of someone I loved, was a dog. A terrier I had when I was a teenager, wonderful dog, died in a car accident, and I was heartbroken. Inconsolable. He came to me and curled up beside me to let me know he was all right and didn't want me to be sad, and then I was okay. Still sad, but okay. I said goodbye, and he was able to go. Nothing will ever convince me it wasn't real. It was him, as solid and real as an incorporeal creature can be.

Anybody who'd try to convince you that isn't true is sort of the kind of asshole I wouldn't want to know.Which is why, even though I found myself going along with a lot in "The God Delusion", I'm not all that pleased about it.

I've had very similar experiences to Zen's, both with people and pets. They were real to me, regardless of the 'reality.'

The guy I've been seeing wants to get together sometime this week, but I'm not sure I'll really be up for doing much of anything after work, with my shoulder hurting this bad. I told him that, but I'm not sure he really gets it. And "You can come over and watch TV with me if you want, but I'll probably be kind of out of it, and I'll most likely scream in pain if you touch me, because you don't really know yet which are the places that really hurt, since they're often half an inch away from places that are fine" isn't really that great of an invitation, but it's kind of the best I can offer this week.

I really hate when people try to push past my "No." Like, I have reasons. Maybe they think I'm being cute and girlish? Like I ever do that, but you know. But maybe that why I'm the mayor of NGA Estates.

He hasn't been trying to push past it, but it just seems like he doesn't get it. Which is understandable -- chronic pain isn't something that most people really understand. But I've canceled a couple of things with him lately, or answered "maybe later" when he wanted to plan something, because I was hurting too much to really do anything other than stuff that was absolutely necessary, and right now, work is absolutely necessary, and after teaching all day, I have no spoons left for much of anything, and I'm not really sure that he gets that this is real, and not me avoiding him.

go ahead and offer the casual evening in front of the TV without cuddling. If he likes you, just spending time with you should be good. Tell him you've got a pain issue that isn't amenable to touching and see how he acts.

Well, I'm calling it a win that I went after it.

As you should!

Regarding the Afterlife: I have taken some comfort of late in the notion of the Fourth Dimension. That our perception of Time is very limited and what has happened always exists. And so the people that we have loved are as present as they ever were on the timeline - we just can't see them as we did because we're stuck in our forward perception of linear time. When I have loved somebody that has existed in the space-time continuum and - as Einstein assures us - nothing is lost.