Or what -t said.

The dumber of my two pets apparently scared herself somehow while using the litterbox. She came out of the bathroom with her tail bushed up, panting, and jumpily glaring around the room.

JZ, I agree with -t and Ginger. Dying doesn't by itself make someone a better person or deserve to forgiven. Your forgiveness or lack of it doesn't make any difference to her at this point, and if you're not ready to forgive her, then you aren't; you can't make that happen with moral guilt. (And in my humble opinion, feeling guilty because you can't forgive someone is just a way for them to keep abusing you long after they've gone.)

I'm watching Mothra. Why is there so much Christian symbology in this movie? It seems quite out of place. Also, Mothra appears about the same size as the giant moth that landed on my door the other night, so if anyone wonders where he went...

Loki does that when he barfs. Or farts.

Ion, I've just figured out I bruised the ball of my right foot. From thumping it in frustration against my chair today. Sigh.

Cheerios: my milk is spoiled so I can't have Cheerios. The cheese on my default nachos didn't melt properly. I checked the bag and indeed, I accidentally bought 2% milk shredded cheese. Which isn't cheese, it's some rubbery Frankenstein cheese-like product. I had to shred a stick of colby-jack over the nachos to make them edible. Freaking waste of money.

I am drinking hard cider on top of that Valium, so I'll be quite relaxed in a moment. Gimme a minute, I have more to say.

Oh! My sister brought me my birthday present early. It's a wonderful maple-veneer coffee table that the top lifts up to the perfect height for typing or eating from the couch, and it has storage in it too! I love it. She bought it at a yard sale in Rhode Island and brought it to me in the back of her SUV. She knows what I like, furniture-wise.

Oh, wow, that sounds amazing!

ETA The table, not the uncooperative dairy products.

All of that has me seriously looking at money saving options for the next 4-5 years. How much can I sock away? How much would I need for various options?

msbelle, may I suggest talking to a financial planner for answers to those questions? Mine is associated with my insurance company, and I don't pay him anything for his (very good) advice. If I buy a product, which he has not pressured me to do, he gets paid on commission. So, it won't cost you anything, and you might get some very helpful advice and further knowledge about what to do about money.

I'm essentially a single 50-something empty-nester, although I didn't have kids that fled the nest; it's just empty. No, it isn't empty; it's full of my stuff and a bunch of cats. I honestly don't see myself ever getting married. My BFF and I talk about buying a place together after her youngest graduates high school, but I honestly don't know if it's more than a fantasy.

I am babbling. Sorry.

I have a financial guy. I have talked with him, just not yet this specific.

It's funny how many of my friends, not all in the same age bracket, are in this place of "what do I do with my life NOW?" We all had our goals - raise our kids, buy a house, move to NYC, get our degree, travel the world, whatever - and now we've done that, or we will soon finish doing it, and we're finding that we didn't have a plan for life after the accomplishing of our goals.

I feel strangely at a loss lately. I'm coming out of what was a decades-long depression (seen clearly only from the backside, alas) in which I focused solely on work and did nothing else of note. Now, I'm feeling like I've misplaced part of myself and I don't know where to look for it.

we didn't have a plan for life after the accomplishing of our goals.

We were studying the hierarchy of needs in a psych class in college, and I asked the prof what you do once you get to the top of the pyramid, and he acted like no one had ever asked that before. Of course, his answer was "start over", which is kind of depressing.