We are meeting with Emeline's principal next Wednesday. The bus has been drama-free for the past couple of days, and - not that this is related - Emeline's playing softball with her best friend. I foresee some sort of coaching on my part.

She said, "Look at me," he did, and she took off her hair, as he put it. And she said, "Let's talk."

Ya know, sometimes I think, Guardian Angels walk amongst us, and reveal themselves in unusual ways at just the right time.

She refused to give her name, saying names weren't necessary.

I'm with omnis...that lady is an angel.

I'm so glad she was there for him.

and the worst-case scenario thing - I do it a lot. and I have as long as I can remember. For me it lets me feel like there is a plan or 6 in place, so I can deal with what is happening.

I wasn't bullied, but a number of my friends were. I know why - sort of. but it didn't make sense. They didn't fit in the average mode, but I just didn't really see why that mattered

Connie, insent.

erin,

But I was consistently excluded by the girls i considered my friends. To this day I will not throw a party.

You know, reading all of that is kind of a catharsis for me. I was excluded when I was a kid. I was much younger tho (age 7). I got invited to a couple of small get togethers and then when I'd arrive at the house, my "friends" already had left without me. My mother was convinced, living in a White neighborhood, that there was a racial exclusionary aspect to it. Which I suppose could have been true. Regardless, it made me feel like shit.

I also had bullshit happen to me when I was in jr high school. One friend of mine put me on hold when I called to talk to her to answer the door. It was a friend of hers who did not like me at all. I could hear her friend over the phone talking shit about me - and I know she did so because she knew I was on hold. She proceeded to keep me on hold for a longass time. I'm not sure if I hung up or if I was just curious how long she'd keep me on the phone, but I never spoke to her again. My "friend" didn't defend me and didn't care I was on hold. So I would rather have no friends that that piece of crap of a friend.

HS was better (generally) until senior year when my friends had a fucking freak out over affirmative action and then I wanted to burn the world down again.

I really have not had a lot of close friends ever since. I've been wary and expect that friends will let me down in some fundamental way. I had a really good time in college for the most part and good experiences in grad school, but when you've been let down like that, it is kind of hard to be as open as others might be.

Got it. Read it to Hubby, he nodded and said all you said had been covered.

The first chemo is RCHOP. All natural! Periwinkle extract, yew extract, and blowfish extract among others. Whee.

Ok, that's kinda cool. Blowfish extract? Will they show that episode of the SImpsons where Homer discovers sushi? "Delicious....delicious....poison!" (or something like that.)

And yes, LeN, i still frequently question the motivation of any new friendly-type person. I just assume they are setting me up for some kind of horrible cruel prank, even tho I'm far past that stage of life.

It's funny. I was the victim of so much social nastiness when I was in junior high (singled out, excluded, etc), but I met my best female friend at the end of my ninth grade year, and she changed everything. Finding one person who never betrayed me allowed me to overcome much of those horrible, torturous junior high experience.