Mega meara'd:

Happy birthday, ‘Suela. It’s been a hard year. Enjoy the day as much as you can.

I love the diversity of human beings because there is no way in Hades I would get up at 5:45 am on my birthday voluntarily unless it involved Idris Elba showing up at my door.

Even still. I’d invite him into bed but hope he had a key ahead of time so I wouldn’t have to get up for the door. Mornings are hard.

In my mind, a bagel coat has a large hole in the middle....

And it has blueberries?

he felt very strongly that at some point when they're ready people can "let go." He'd tracked down a missing relative, listened to various concerns...

I told my Dad that we’d take care of (step)Mom and he could trust us with her. I mean, I told him a lot over the final months but that was the last thing I told him.

My day totally just turned around: I asked the CSR at the bank for an email of someone higher up I could complain to, and by the time she came back, she was waiving the fees! And emailing them to me instead of paper mailing them! Complaining works!!

Sadly, it really does. Complaining but being polite is fucking magic.

Did you know you have a sinus cavity that runs from the soft palate of the roof of your mouth, up the backside of your nose and hooks around behind your eye?

Yes, but only because it sometimes (often) acts up and pain ensues. Sinuses are fucking overrated. They are the head’s appendix until someone explains how they are useful.

I can't figure out how to heat it to drain it. It doesn't hurt NOW, but clearly is messed up. And I'm not really congested.

I can't figure out how to heat it to drain it.

There's a weird thing you can try. The sinuses are bone, right? Which doesn't really move when you press on it (despite how much pressure I put on my cheekbones when my sinuses are killing me).

Except the sinus cavity that starts at your soft palate, *because* it's the soft palate and not regular hard bone, can be moved a little. So. You use your tongue to press on the soft palate, more or less right behind the front teeth. Alternate that with using a thumb or finger to press between your eyebrows, above your nose (there's sort of a small divot you can feel there; that's where to press). You alternate, soft palate and brow bone, back and forth several times, and it can seriously get some of the nastiness to drain.

It's worked for me. I am not lying.

t edit Okay, Lifehacker says put pressure on both together and hold for 20 seconds: [link] Alternating pressure spots worked for me, but try both ways if one doesn't work.

t edit again But Men's Health says to alternate: [link] Dueling sinus draining techniques!

Oh, I believe you. I've been trying since the first sub-2-foot dunk whimper-plant-feet-stand-up-gasp without much luck. I think I'm doing it wrong or something. This one is definitely way interior. Normally, it is my cheekbones/forehead and those are just fine. I've honestly never felt this rat bastard singularly before (I've had whole head sinus issues, but then, whole head hurts, not this narrow path that in way behind my face.)

I've got a hot pack. It feels nice but then, my hair is still damp. Warm of course feels good.

I mean, my teeth don't even hurt! They never not hurt with sinus crap!

Sorry, I am weird with pain and this was a new one. It goes one of two ways: stoically bully through or collapse in a whining heap as I dissect it all (because maybe if I know how it works, I can fix it? Or at least fantasize about how I could?)

There's a yoga pose that helps. I can't explain it without sounding dumb so I am going to e you and limit my audience.

Tried it. Proof will be in the swim tomorrow, I suspect.

Try it a bit (20 minutes to a few hours) before the swim maybe. Good luck!

Took me an hour and a half to do my half-hour commute this morning. Offices were closed, but I've got snow-duty (especially since boss lady was incommunicado). Saw that it would stop around 3pm, so decided to stick around and get holiday work stuff done before I tackled shoveling the walks. Boss lady swings by at 1pm and says she's done and is going home. I'm all surprised and WTF and "Okay" but she reads the first two reactions, and I have to explain that we need to clear access for fire egress, visitors, and tenants. So she stays to "help" shovel which involved me doing 75% of it while she then waited for me to clear a square foot of walkway and throwing down salt behind me, which equated to her watching me work. And then whined that we should close the grounds because this was all just a giant pain in the ass. I told her it was the job, OUR job, and since we were closed it shouldn't matter. I asked her if she wanted to be chipping ice tomorrow after everything froze overnight, on a day that we would be open.

After everything was done, she wouldn't leave, trying to be helpful and make up for being a fucking schmuck. She lingered, and lingered, not working, just watching me work, not getting any of the cues to take her leave (I was staying to do an evening workshop that she wanted to cancel, even though she wouldn't be the one running it, and would bring in several hundred dollars income to our sad budget). I've never worked with a "professional" so thoroughly disengaged from the welfare of an organisation. /tl:dr

Yuck, Juliebird. ust...yuck.

Wild rumpus just traversed my body. I should look for blood. What I get for acquiescing to their demands to go on the snowy deck. It is now cold enough that the snow crust can support Loki. That's scary icy, folks.