Ladies' short program is on NBCSN, Dana, if that helps.

We had thunder and lightning here a little while ago. Winter is totally drunk.

I don't have cable. *sniffle*

Everything is exhausting! I mean, I usually sit around a LOT. But my friend's seventh-floor walkup has meant I'm trying to just stay out all day. It is great, though.

We had thunder and lightning here a little while ago. Winter is totally drunk.

Oh, yeah. Around midnight or 1 a.m. last night, we had thunder so loud it rattled the windows hard enough that, for a moment, I actually worried they would break. The cat beds are in front of a window, and Slinky jumped up in her bed and glared at the window. Kato was freaked out and would not settle down; when I went to bed, he kept walking in the hall and whining outside the bedroom door, so we relented and let him sleep on the bedroom floor (which is not the M.O. around here).

Oh! Sorry.

S. bought Dubliner white cheddar on sale the other day, so I think I'm having a baked potato with cheese for lunch.

my friend's seventh-floor walkup

Seventh! Good god. Six is as high as I was ever willing to go, but that was for living, not visiting.

Yeah, it's a lot. And then I keep climbing things! Today, the Arc de Triomphe. Also up to Sacre Coeur. Stairs and stairs. Ok, I guess I should motivate back up and out...

You'll be in great shape when you come home!

I've got to do something to counter all the bread and pastries!

So, I observed a weird interaction at the mailbox place yesterday and it has bothered me ever since.

I went in there to get a package and at the front desk was an elderly woman and her daughter and they were doing the paperwork to establish a mailbox there. For those of you who don't know, when you get a mailbox (like at a UPS store), you have to sign all kinds of paperwork (e.g. to make them your legal recipient for receiving mail) and they need id, etc.

The elderly woman was a bit confused. She was irritated and filling out all the paperwork and said out loud: "why do I need to fill all of this out?" "I don't want to do all of this."

Her daughter told her: "it is your choice if you don't want to fill all of it out, but I can't help you if we don't get a box. We need to open this box so I can help with arrangements for your care."

So I interpreted the situation as a woman who was irritated at the bureaucracy, a little confused, but the daughter was patient and she seemed to be doing what her daughter wanted her to. They were both talking to the attendant and with each other and the attendant was similarly patient.

I watched this for 10 minutes or so and another woman was in line before me. This other woman, before she went up to the 2nd counter, went over to the daughter, touched her on the arm and said something like: "you are a hero for doing this. I really understand what it is like to be dealing with this situation."

The daughter seemed uncomfortable with the woman's comment (and perhaps the touching?). But what got me is that her mother became really quiet. Before there was talking (and a lot of complaining, sure) but the mother didn't say anything after that.

I thought the stranger's interaction with the daughter was really dehumanizing for the mother. The mother was standing RIGHT THERE. And despite the fact that she was complaining and was a bit confused, she wasn't in la-la land. And the mother clearly understood she was being talked about when the stranger made the comment.

Before that moment, I was pretty empathetic for the daughter and thought she was doing a great job managing the situation. I had no thought to communicate that to her. After the stranger's interaction with her, I became much more sympathetic toward the mother. I wonder how often people treat her like she isn't there.