Yay Jack!

I hope your in-law recovers quickly, Volans.

I hope your in law has a speedy recovery.

I'm at my nice dentist.I'm grinding my teeth and because of braces I have one tooth with shorter roots (or in my case normal sized since I have mutant tweth) and that is causing the sensitivity.

He wants me to get a bite guard for the front and I told him I could afford it and explained about how much I paid out of pocket for my fillings and my glasses and he's trying to find anew affordable solution.

Earlier in was crying from stress and now I'must trying not to cry because I'm not used to dentists offices being so nice.

I hope you have a peaceful holiday, Glam.

Glad your brother had your back, Glam.

Relatives ~ma for everyone. May all our holidays go smoothly.

askye, I'm glad you found a good dentist.

Suzi, hope Jack calms down and the doggie prozac helps him. That must be so stressful. Surely if no one called about it by now, it's not going anywhere bad.

My immediate family, the only ones I see, are liberal Trump haters, so I'm thankful I don't have to deal with that shit. I would probably leave and not look back, honestly.

Rant ahoy, things I can't say anywhere else:

Yesterday I was talking over T'day plans with my sister, and usually I just go along with whatever she wants because it's easier. But I'm so tired and so done this year, and all I want is to be at home alone in peace. She and K want to go shopping Friday, but K sleeps until noon or 1 every day. I told sis, I'm there for T'day but I'm leaving Friday, so if anyone wants to go shopping in the morning, great, but I'm not sitting around killing time waiting for K to drag her carcass out of bed. I get that she's nocturnal, but she expects everyone else's schedules to revolve around her, and I'm over it. I also told her I'm done with sticking around when K throws one of her screaming fits, or being involved when my sister tries to help K out with her finances, or anything else. They argue and yell at each other, it's awful, and they always work it out but the process is too stressful for me, and one of them always tries to drag me in to support them. I'm not doing it anymore. It's neither necessary nor fair. If my sister can't manage her relationship with her daughter, it's not on me to play therapist and peacemaker for them. I'm sick of it. This year has been absolute shit and I need to prioritize my mental health over everything else. The depression I went through this year, I barely held my life together, and I'm going to tell my sister that, and not let her deflect it and try to convince me I'm fine to keep herself from being scared.

My sister spent most of her life protecting our mother's fragile mental state, and I spent a good deal of mine protecting my sister's fragile mental state (while both of them convinced themselves they were totally in control), well who's protecting me? No one. I have never had anyone looking out for my mental well-being. I do love my family, they're good people and my sister's helped me out a lot when I needed her, I'm not abandoning them. But I'm done enabling the entrenched dysfunction, and I'm done sacrificing my own equilibrium to maintain someone else's. I need peace and stability, and since no one can provide it I'll make it for myself.

I hope everyone has a good and peaceful holiday, especially those spendng it with people from the other side of the election.

It's going to be hard to find things to give thanks for this year.

I need peace and stability, and since no one can provide it I'll make it for myself.

Power to you.

Thanks, Connie.

That sounds like an absolutely sensible plan of self-care, Zen. And to whatever degree it helps, I support you.

eta: a comma

I need peace and stability, and since no one can provide it I'll make it for myself.

Yes. This is a very good plan. Please take care of yourself.

I hope everyone has a good and peaceful holiday, especially those spendng it with people from the other side of the election.

Seconded.

Our holiday is going to be weird. None of the various people who have hosted the communal T'day meal were able to this year, so we're going to dinner with my Dad and his ladylove, to his ladylove's daughter's house, with their family. They're nice people, it's just that we haven't really spent a lot of time with them, and I don't have a lot of cope right now. I suspect I'll be taking anti-anxiety meds before we head over, just to be on the safe side.

Thanks, guys. I really wish I still had anti-anxiety meds.

My boss's boss just dropped several hours work on my desk the night before I'm supposed to be on vacation. He told me to let him know if I needed anything. I replied, "I need several more hours between now and tomorrow, or an army of robot editing minions. Whichever's easier..." We'll see if he still has a sense of humor.