Matilda is nestled in at EM's place and will come home tomorrow, where... I will be, because my mom's surgery is now on hold. A mostly-healed cyst on her lower back flamed up hot and furious in the dead of night last night, as if it could sense the approaching OR appointment and decided now would be a perfect time to mess around with her. She messaged the surgeon with a picture of the cyst first thing this morning and the surgeon said, "Nope, not until that thing goes away."

She called to let me know as my dad and I were walking in the door of the car rental place. I decided to rent for just one day anyway, since I'd also been planning a side trip to a friend who's in the process of adopting her toddler twin niecephews and could use some of the outgrown books and toys cluttering up our place.

I'm glad I did, because it was lovely to see her and a little comical to see her wry, dry, results-oriented military vet self in mommy mode with twins at the age of peak bananas irrationality. Also, they loved and were utterly absorbed by everything and she had her first ten solid minutes of peace in weeks. And, damn, she's horribly isolated, out at the ass-end of the state with no friends within an hour's drive and the only family members nearby the branch that was complicit in making the twins' mom unstable enough to warrant the custody challenge in the first place. I don't know how any of our mutual friends can get out there regularly, but someone's got to try, because she is managing a metric fuckton alone.

Anyhow, visit done and instead of on to Reno I went back to SF, which is a solid 50 degrees cooler than my friend's new hometown. Time to check in with Hec, fuss over the pigs, make sure Matilda's bed is snug and ready, see if she needs a FaceTime call before ed, and then hunker down with a stiff drink and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

I hope poor Matilda recovers quickly.

Okay, whew. I just checked and HFMD is not transmissible to animals so she will be able to cuddle the piggies all she wants as soon as she gets home, which will truly be the best restorative and curative since going back to camp is out of the question. I don't think any comfort would have been enough if she couldn't cuddle them.

Ooh, that sounds really hard, JZ. I also have a friend who just (for the second or third time now) had to call the cops on her son for hurting her (because she was telling him he had to give her the iPhone he mysteriously had, which he claimed a friend had given him but which turns out to have been....stolen? left behind? by some random local dude who last remembered having it in a restaurant). He's in juvie again, and she's at her wits end on what the hell to do (he's 14, and going into high school).

We did do quite a bit of sleuthing earlier to figure out sneaky ways to log into his accounts and so on, though we were foiled in trying to get his backup gmail account to send the gmail account we had the login for, a new password. Gmail said "security" and they'd get back to him at the email we know, in 3-5 days. Ugh.

Maria, all the power to your SO.

JZ, lots of ~ma. I am humbled by the way you are moving through this world.

ION, a depressing news day locally and I am a bit overwhelmed. So much that needs to be fixed. However, as the saying goes, despair is a luxury.

JZ, if ever a stiff drink and Crazy Ex was deserved! I hope Matilda isn't too disappointed in the whole mess.

Yikes, meara. Parenting is not for the faint hearted.

Shir, if the depressing news is the stuff we saw here, yeah, things keep getting worse when you would rationally think people would reject the powers that be.

I am still in Florida, but really have to leave today!! My nephew gets married Saturday in NY. Poor DH hasn't had more than 3-4 hours of sleep a day for weeks trying to finish the renovations on this boat for my sister. Every step that should take 15 minutes takes several hours, or requires a part being ordered. He got up again at 4AM and is working outside on it. I told him only the stuff that HAS to be done, like the trailer being sound, and the motor people finishing their stuff. Any interior or aesthetic stuff still on the list has to be done when we get there. Stressed Out! Grinding my teeth and listening to BP lowering sounds. I have been diligent about getting my sleep, but it has been the restless variety.

Wow, JZ, that is all a lot! My goodness, your friend is doing a good and hard thing.

Yikes, meara.

Laura, I hope things get more relaxed when you get to NY finally!

Chatty SiL and BiL are on an all-day excursion to See Things and Buy Souvenirs. The house is SO quiet!!!

I am really going to get in trouble on FB one of these days -- I add anyone I know who asks, but don't think much about it when I post myself. Current example, my aunt's mother-in-law.

Yeah, I think I should probably, like, group people or something but I haven't bothered. The thing that may get me to do it is I think I have friended some of my neighbors and I don't really want them to know when I'm out of town, necessarily (not because they will break in or anything, I don't know why, just, privacy?) ETA ok, kinda worried that friends of friends might actually be criminals. I don't know who their friends are