And now we have a fire of our own, I can see it at the far end of the lake.

Am psyching myself up to go home to see my parents, and stupid shit like "where will I sleep?" and "should I get a hotel room" and "can I sleep in my bed knowing it had been Chris' bed for the past year and a half" and "will it be torture for my mom to wash the bedding" and "how awful is it to have her erase his presence from my room to make room for me" is running through my head? Will my going up be more of a strain? Are they super pissed that I didn't go up straight away (because I got stinking drunk and have only just gotten over my hangover)?

Oh Juliebird, may the trip be healing. I really hope things go better than expected.

Zoe update. I have her home and in a t-shirt to keep her off her sutures. She has 4 prescriptions with pain and antibiotic stuff. She has been snoozing since she got home, with occasional moans.

Aww man, Zoe.

Julie, if it wouldn't cause a shitstorm, I can see a hotel room being a great call for you.

tommy, glad the job stress has eased up. That's gotta be a great relief.

I set pots and pans to dry in the dish rack if there's room, or just dry them. I think we're "supposed" to dry pots and pans as we go because they'd rust or something, as if they were all still cast iron. Drying rack technology needs to catch up with the modern world!

Julie, trying to second-guess what your mom needs from you right now is just going to put more stress on you, without necessarily helping her. If she can tell you what she needs, that's great, but if she can't, then I say, do what you need to do for yourself, and factor in what other people need as you discover it. Me, I'd go on and get a hotel room, and take myself out of the dynamics of the house arrangements this time. (I, of course, am most concerned about you, so any suggestions are biased in your favor.) I hope this all goes as well as it possibly can, and you and your family can get through it together.

Humpfh. I got all enthusiastic yesterday about an open call mural project my hometown is conducting, came up with a concept and did preliminary photo reference research, and then looked up a more detailed rules paper and realized what I had in mind is completely wrong for the project and I don't have the examples of previous mural/large format art experience they're asking for.

Oh well, maybe I'll see if my landlord would be OK with me painting an apartment-long mural of Atrani on the Amalfi Coast.

Timelies all!

Today was the little guy's first day at daycare, and it went well.

That's wonderful, Sheryl. Always a stressful first.

Pretty much, no writer ever just gets what they submitted published(Which is sometimes really great, like the last time Victor edited my work and made my transitions smoother) Sometimes really annoying, when they let their pet bonobo handle their spacing and copy edits(probably should have kicked up a fuss about that one, but at the time I felt like "I know them and I took the money. Eh.")