Wow! Congrats on an excellent find!

My imagination is failing me. Under what circumstances would standing naked, stoned and sad help one win someone?

Depending upon how you look, maybe the naked makes up for the other two?

I'm watching that Daily Show interview now. It's astounding.

Gratifying he got fired.

Depending upon how you look, maybe the naked makes up for the other two?

Hm. I'll have to give that some thought.

Burrell, I am keeping you and your sister in my thoughts. It's good that she's made some peace with dying, but terrible that it's happening at all. I'm so sorry. Please do keep us updated when you can.

Strength to you and your family, Burrell. I so don't want to put my family through this.

And because it deserves a separate post:

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! Man, this has been a weird week, though, what with the birthday, the new job, the kid being sick, my MIL visiting. One of those weeks where everything happens at once.

The new job is going pretty well, and today was a significant improvement over the previous days. I've been putting a lot of pressure on myself to get up to speed really quickly, mostly because I don't want my coworkers to think that hiring somebody who'd been out of the field for four years was a mistake. I'm also in a somewhat odd position because it's entirely possible that this job will just end up being a one-year contract, so some people are treating me like I'll probably be gone in a few months, and some people are talking about me watching the current second-graders walk across the stage at graduation in ten years. So I also feel like I need to be really super awesome at this job in order to have any chance of keeping it. Which is probably somewhat true, but doesn't necessarily mean I have to get up to 100% capacity in my first week on the job.

Anyway, I've had a couple of rough days, but today was a big improvement, and I'm feeling much better about the job than I was yesterday. I get to teach a couple of classes on Monday, which I'm nervous about (of course) but also genuinely excited about, and once I've done that, it will help me feel more confident, too. So I'm looking forward to next week, but also super happy that it's Friday night!

Oh, Ginger.

Burrell, wishes of peace and strength to you and yours. It is good that your sister has you to comfort and support her when she needs your love the most. I'm so sorry that you both have to go through this.

Statistics suggest that my husband and sons will survive me. This would bother me more if I hadn't been on the other side of the event so many times. Both the person at the end of their time and the person on the loving support side have monumentally complex and difficult paths. We don't get to pick which side of the equation we end up on at any point in time. Both sides suck mightily.

Hugs to all (who like them, other kinds of warm, comforting thoughts to those who don't).