Dude, if eldritch runes appear on any of my pain killers, expired or no, I am taking that as a sign that I absolutely should take them.

Ditto, for any medication or comestible, really.

Zen, I never know what to say about your Viking war wound. I've been making all the empathy and sympathy faces at the screen, but I don't know how to type them at you. I hope the painkillers give you relief and that the surgeon can fix you good, fast, and right.

As for menopause, I haven't hit it yet.(I don't think I'm even in perimenopause yet, and I'm 50. Huh?)

Sheryl, my mom was in her mid-50s before entering menopause, and I want to say she had her last period at 58. It's neither great nor the hell-quest I thought it would be. On balance, the hot flashes aren't the worst trade for no more periods (and cramps and all the gifts with purchase).

Right now, I seem to be entering the mood-swing phase, OR I have some situational depression which I want (but am trying not to) take out on everyone around me.

Had a BAAAD day at school today. I have five 7th grade English classes and three are perfect, one is a little too rowdy and one is HELL. Usually, you have two or three talkers and attitude kiddos per class, and those are easy to deal with. This class has about 8 (out of 30). I literally could not get them to all be quiet at once. I simply cannot control this group of 12-year-olds. I can get them to do work, but I cannot get them to be silent. The head of the department (who works down the hall) came down to tell us the room was too noisy, and came in as they were all making noise. She's the one i want to hire me on as soon as I pass my tests, so now I'm convinced I've blown my chance. The behavior consultant is coming by tomorrow and I hope he has some help for me. I am exhausted and sad.

Scrappy, I have a theory that parents dreamt up school (and child-marriage, and coming-of-age-quests) to get their 7th and 8th grade-aged spawn out of the house, but expanded it to the other kids, so as not to reveal their true motives to the demons. It certainly must be what inspired boarding school.

And I wasn't even taking my eldritch runestone pills when I came up with it. I was just living my life.

I hope it gets better with this class. I hope these kids are known to the admin and your department head walked in the room, then saw the usual suspects, and said a silent prayer for you.

Are there school rules against food in classrooms? Can you bribe them? Just spit-balling.

My blood pressure was good on the first check. That never happens! The exam room was all darkened with soft music and aromatherapy of some sort and the nurse or BP specialist had me do some deep breathing before she started the cuff. I guess that all worked?

-t, I keep waiting for the second episode of this arc. Like, then they tried to get you to leave. You refused, and have now commandeered the room, and you're holding it for Scrappy.

I wonder where my old copy of Real Magic is.

My copy is between The Heliand, a Norse version of the Gospels which has Jesus as a noble chieftain and the Apostles as his loyal thanes (the writer didn't think the pagan Norsemen would be impressed by a guy who just wandered the country with his pack of hangers-on) and my collection of Bruce Edelman books on how the current New Testament is different from the oldest actual manuscripts.

Hey, Cincy-istas, check in please.

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Flea, Steph, and Hil all posted on FB.

Thanks so much, Tom.

Today is stressful. Still sick, got called for jury duty in a couple of weeks, the Supreme Court is a giant clusterfuck, and my brother's girlfriend got diagnosed with breast cancer a week ago.

And the juror questionnaire asks what your religion is.

I'm sorry, Dana. That is a lot of stress.

That's way too much stress, Dana.

Flea, Steph, and Hil all posted on FB.

I was in the waiting room at my therapist's office when I first read flea's post on FB (I seem to get most of my news from social media first), so I switched over to a news app. Just awful. Fucking guns, man.

And the juror questionnaire asks what your religion is.

TBD?

Speaking of painkillers, if one had happened to hang on to a couple of bottles of hardcore useful preparations, how long do they remain useful? Even a half-strength hardcore useful preparation would still be useful, unless it's going to give me unpleasantness.

My guess is that the official expiration date is probably a year after they were dispensed. That said -- with the caveat that I don't have a pharmacy or medical degree (yeah, I know that everyone knows that, but we're talking about hardcore painkillers, so I just want to emphasize that this is not backed up by a PharmD or an MD) -- with old/expired meds, generally the worst that would happen is that they lose their effectiveness. They won't turn into something that harms you.

If it were me, with the old meds, the first thing I would do is make sure they don't smell bad/look funky (like the tablet shouldn't be crumbling to powder or changed color or have mold spots or suddenly have eldritch runes appear on it). And then, honestly, I would probably take it. But I'm pretty fucking cavalier about meds.

And if you had never taken this particular preparation before, how small would you try to get the dose do you imagine? Or would you not risk it and just dispose of them? Asking for a friend.