I have a lot of nearby family-life drama and I am working really hard to not let it become my anxiety as none of it is my family.

- friend has separated from spouse of 6 years and moved out.
- friend has a daughter in hospital for 4 days for brain testing wrt epilepsy with no good way of paying what the insurance won't which is most of it (she is fighting them)
- online friend is going through divorce after 14 years and has never been in the workforce, 2 kids
- friend and husband just had a call from their youngest child (14) that he wants to now live with his birthmom (he visits every summer) because she is fun. Birthmom left him, dad and older brother on Christmas Day 11 years ago.

So much stress on these people and pain.

Oh, man, msbelle. That is a lot.

That is a lot for all of those friends.

Wishing you peace, ms belle, and healing for your friends.

Oh, msbelle, that's all so sad.

I can only complain about this here. My job is usually not very exciting, although I generally get a nice mix of projects to work on. Today, however, I had to drop everything because Christopher frelling Nolan wants to film on one of our properties and when we said "No," the studio called Senator Boxer. Who then called us.

So now I'm trying to figure out if 3 weeks of shooting on this one property will have any significant adverse environmental effects. And do it immediately, because they want to start working this week! WTH.

And no, I don't know what movie it is. But it's all kind of ridiculous, and can't he just use CGI?

That's amazing.

I am back at work today, and it turns out -- and I know this is going to shock some people -- that I prefer vacation.

I've been home just over 24 hours and have taken both cats to the vet. Today is Rosie's oral surgery and Gilda had a follow up on her ear treatments. Gilda was so very put out with me. I hope Rosie's work doesn't end up being too extensive.

I'm not sure my subconscious is back from vacation yet. I woke several times with images of twisty coastal roads in my head. I did discover on this trip that I'm allergic to Portland. I wonder how likely that is to extend to Seattle or Vancouver.

How are you allergic to Portland?

I prefer vacation. I need one.

Not sure if I mentioned it here, but I finally made an appointment for an ADD assessment for myself. The appointment is a week from Friday and I'm already stressing. I've always suspected I had a low level of ADD. School has been a struggle in concentration. The only reason I don't think it hits me as much with work is because I've learned various coping mechanisms (such as I can pop in here for a few minutes and then get back to work) without it being disruptive.

Wow, Consuela!

Aw, cats of aurelia. I'm with your subconscious on staying on vacation (without the allergies if possible)

Why is the assessment stressing you out, Suzi? it was an enormous relief to me to get a diagnosis, fwiw, and getting prescriptions that help has been amazing. Not in a dramatic fashion that is easy to point out to other people, but living inside my head has gotten a lot less fraught.