This attempt at maturity brought to you by many years of therapy, chiefly DBT. Had a session this morning, thank god. She recommended listening to the Hamilton Mixtape to cope with today. She gets me.

In happy moments, I just finished a delicious hot sandwich, saw my beloved former roommate, and have decaf coffee to get me through this (relatively) cold and rainy afternoon. It's supposed to freeze here tonight and not warm up much tomorrow, which means I'll be working the job I suck at instead of the one I love. But I needs the moneys, and we are behind schedule.

Thank god I can afford to live alone.

So, Slinky is very old, and she's messy when she eats, which results in her walking away from her food/water with food all over her mouth, or water dripping, or whatever. And we try to remember to keep paper towels around so that if she hops up on us we can wipe her little face off. But sometimes we don't have a paper towel, and that results in us (or me, at least), shooing her away. Which led to me telling the kitty, when she walked in the room just now, "If you're all nasty, don't come over here!"

And then I thought, damn, when did my pickup lines change? t /rimshot

(But really, I *did* think that about my pickup lines. Because I am a dork. An old married dork.)

You could go the "Miss Jackson, if you're nasty" route.

Totally unrelated to the kitty, I am having a totally inexplicable anxiety spike today. I mean, I'm fine, I don't need hairpats or reassurance; I'm mostly annoyed because I don't know what kicked it off. (When my anxiety is mild enough for me to be annoyed by it, I know it's not too bad.)

Still. What the shit, though. When it has a reason, at least it makes sense.

I hate the random attacks, I end up cycling through ever more ridiculous reasons for why I'm anxious. The anxiety gremlins never believe me when I say "Look, idiots, it's misfiring brain chemicals, knock it off!" "No, no, I'm sure that weird creak the car made two days ago means a tire's about to fall off!" Stupid brain weasels.

Steph, is there any chance it could be hormones, relating to the failed IUD placement? For me I can frequently trace those attacks back to hormones, forgetting meds, low blood sugar, dehydration, or too much caffeine. Because I am a delicate fucking flower.

Steph, is there any chance it could be hormones, relating to the failed IUD placement?

Maybe. I had the last Mirena removed at the beginning of December, and since it releases a low level of a progestin hormone, but now that's gone, I could be adjusting to the lack of that hormone.

I too am a goddamn delicate flower. But a little bit of Ativan filed the edges off the anxiety. For now.

smonster, I applaud your maturity. Here's hoping for your roommate acting like a grown-up.

Zen, is it wrong that I'm enjoying this new saga of you and Mailman, given how you got to partake of my Comic Book Store Guy ramblings when you were here?

Not at all! I may chicken out but it's fun anyway.

Thank god I can afford to live alone.

Every day I'm grateful. There have been times when I'd have done better financially if I'd shared living expenses, but it was the very last option on the list, behind "live in my sister's attic."

I have a Slinky kitty now too. I named her that because she slinks under the bushes and disappears. She's a black slinky cat too.

I too am a goddamn delicate flower. But Effexor seems to be doing the trick for my jittery little brain.

I just got a text - the people who were scheduled for 4 am are now scheduled for 7 am. I said I'd try to make it but anything that kind of melted is covered over with snow and it's still coming down.