I am Sarah M. on fb, just friended a bunch of folks.

I am (no surprise) Kate P. on FB and have friended a few more people recently. I think I have most of you already, but will happily accept friend requests from any Buffista.

Allyson, your hair is gorgeous.

Allyson, a little throw back just for you.

And Owen is never wrong.

I'm 'Connie Hirsch' on FB.

As long as I keep moving, I'm OK, so work is therapeutic. And I've got Arisia this weekend, so I've got friends and fun to keep me going.

Hey, all.

I'm glad to know about the PayPal -- Allyson's hair blows in the window like a silken waterfall. I don't have much, but I'd like to contribute what I can.

I'd also love to write a physical card, if and whn that is appropriate.

On the flip suck, I am in Iowa. My MIL, BIL and Dan are at the funeral home making arangements -- and yesterday, I woke with what I thought was a tiny allergy sniffle, and morphed through the car ride and the course of the evening into a full-blow, miserable cold with snot, congestion, headache, needles in my sinuses and a sore throat. I cannot even.

But sitting on the guest room bed, feeling shitty, I thought, "Fuck it -- ita powered through way worse than this. I'm going to take some meds and drink water and just fucking DEAL."

And so I am.

I gotta say, it's kind surreal grieving and dealing with ita's death, in my own mind, and on-line AND being surrounded with all the meatspace grieving and the mechanics of death and visits and such for my FIL.

Y'all are keeping me sane(ish).

Re: meds. I spent 7 years looking for an OB/GYN who would treat my symptoms like they were as dehabilitating as they were. And when I finall dound one, it was because she had had the same exact problems as I had, and on our first visit, she was all, "What are you taking for the pain?" "Aleve. A lot of Aleve."

She snorted and wrote me out a script for Vicodin on the spot.

But trying to get suitable meds for my insomnia and anxiety -- "invisible" maladies -- ALWAYS makes me feel like a drug-seeker. Feel like it at the doctor, at a few former therapists, at the pharmacy -- my tolerance is so high after all these years, and I've taken almost EVERYTHING to try to figure out what would work. And now I finally have a psych who treats me like an intelligent person, and actually trusts me. He gave me scripts for dosages that I actually wouldn't run out of within 2 weeks, leaving me miserable for the rest of the month.

I always wished I had loads of money, so I could fly to LA and spend a week or two go to appts with ita and going absolutely intelligently, bitingly ballistic on docs and ER nurses.

Hello, friends. I was sequestered away from the internet yesterday, but I have returned and skimmed. I'm trying not to think too much about the pain meds talk.

I do appreciate everyone who has reached out to me about the surgery, here or in email. I'll get back to those of you who did later today.

Allyson has the prettiest hair.

My ER nurse mother has always been appalled at pain care down here, not having trained in the States. Sad that our ook spreads elsewhere.

Only funny to me, maybe, but as I was looking through my stuff for ita pics, found some Allyson ones that caused sudden hair envy. Because her hair is totally Mary Sue hair.

Kat, What is the best email to use for you these days? I got a bounce back from your profile address

Oh! msgullo at gmail dot com is best. Or you can text too. My work has this great "learning management system" which is like facebook without any of the fun. And it sends me an email notification whenever a kid does anything. Like submit an assignment. Suffice it to say I lose a lot of emails.

Allyson's hair is the shiniest.

I'm Anne Weber over on FB.