Oh! My route home took me past your house yesterday. I waved. Did you feel it?

Yes! Next time, if you are feeling up to it you should stop by and come in.

Thanks for the good vibes and well wishes, everybody. It's a type of cancer that doesn't metastasize, so as long as we caught it before it got too invasive, surgery should be simple. It'll be in a couple weeks, right after the semester ends. As for anesthesia, turns out I'm very sensitive to it, so it can make me pass out. Luckily it takes a much smaller dose to medicate the area too. But still, makes me nervous when I know they need to use it.

Good luck, Burrell, I hope it goes smoothly.

I ran away from zombies up in the woods this morning: the dog and I both got soaked and muddy since it's raining. But it was still fun.

... and now my fingers have gone numb and yellow, damn it. No more Claritin.

Travel safe, Jesse!

What Consuela said, Burrell. Fingers crossed for an easy procedure.

Get home safe, Jesse!

I am having an oatmeal dilemma. I've made two batches of cookies this weekend, and not shared. I brought two cookies to work today, one for second breakfast, and one for tea. But the remaining one really really wants to be eaten for elevenses.

I had oatmeal for breakfast.

I'm assuming the weather in NY next weekend will be leather jacket and thick tights weather. Seem fair? My outfit for the funeral will depend on which coat I have to not clash with.

How strictly do you guys follow the etiquette of black at funerals?

How strictly do you guys follow the etiquette of black at funerals?

I go for a primarily dark palette (black, brown, grey, dark green, etc.). Although I think a white shirt with dark skirt/pants is fine.

Ugh. One of my jobs at work is to find issues and write them up. We are then supposed to follow up and try to close them within a certain number of days. Sometimes that happens, often it takes much longer. I'm basically being told "close that issue and write a new one with the same info so our statistics are better" which I am philosophically opposed to. Ugh.

How strictly do you guys follow the etiquette of black at funerals?

Hardly at all. I think as long as no one's first thought is "festive" when they see your outfit, you're fine.

I'm basically being told "close that issue and write a new one with the same info so our statistics are better" which I am philosophically opposed to. Ugh.

Uh, yeah. Are your record-keeping requirements under any kind of regulatory authority?

Teppy, your Tim is incredibly wise. What I didn't understand about myself, because I was never formally diagnosed, was that I had developed a lot of coping mechanisms on my own, though I wasn't aware of it. I thought everybody was like me, they just handled it better, or they had some magic key that somehow eluded me, or something. I was very familiar with the terms "lazy and stupid," but what I got most often was, "Those tests prove you're so smart. You just don't try!" When I badly dislocated my knee, tore ligaments and did all sorts of damage, the orthopedist sat me on the edge of the exam table, both legs hanging unsupported from the knee. I could wiggle the toes on both feet, and raise the left leg out straight. But though I tried hard enough I almost passed out, I couldn't raise the right leg at all. I thought it was because I wasn't trying hard enough, but he explained I'd screwed the mechanics, it had nothing to do with my will or my effort. Later, I was able to make the correlation to how hard I tried in school, without results.

But when I had an ADHD child, helping him develop his own coping mechanisms was a priority. Fortunately or unfortunately, he's so gifted in IQ and intuitiveness he was/is able to pass most classes on in-class discussion and participation, and otherwise con, bluff, or charm his way out of conforming to standards. His methods set him up for a lot of failure, because he refused to admit he needed a different method of approach for things he couldn't bluff or charm his way through. He's a mediocre success at life, but he's a wonderful, supportive friend, and a good person at heart.

One of my coping mechanisms is a concentration fierce enough to shut out stimuli which have nothing to do with the task at hand. Developing that ability got me blasted on evaluations as "rigid" and "unable to multitask", and even nudged me toward a diagnosis of somewhat autistic. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

But, for someone CJ's age and younger, Tim's advice is sterling. Thank him on my behalf, for helping make things clearer for people who don't have any perspective on what ADD is like.

As for announcing one's arrival and departures, it's something that makes my life less fraught. I am so apt to lose things I'm rigid about returning them to their proper storage place. And while I don't demand an itinerary, I do expect a rough return ETA, or a call notifying of any delay, and for members of the household to announce departures. It's mortifying to be talking to somebody who left the house twenty minutes ago. A quick kiss on the cheek is a good thing too. What if it's the last time we ever see each other? Go on, mock.

I say goodbye to my cat when I'm leaving if she's nearby.

This too. Our former feral is scared of *everything*, and it reduces his anxiety if we formally say goodbye before we go, and announce our return, so he knows it's not Cat-eating monsters coming in the house.

Scrappy's DH is heartmeltingly sweet.

All best thoughts and wishes, Burrell.

I think as long as no one's first thought is "festive" when they see your outfit, you're fine.

My family does the purple and the red, so I can see how other people would think festive.