I'm sorry you had to do that, Burrell. You hear other people going through it and hope your family won't be that way. I feel like I should have bullied mom more about the will.

That sounds like a good solution, Laura. I hope everyone else can see that.

Suzi, will this be homework you can do sitting by the pool or lounging in a bar or suchlike? Speaking of, Ineed to start looking at nearby amenities and deciding which I absolutely must experience...

I hope so, -t. The hardest part for me is the research. Once I have some good sources, I'm a pretty decent writing and bs'ing. The main issue is that paper is my final, so it HAS to be done by midnight on the 11th.

Official homework or bust progress - 4 items out of 8 complete. Two of the remaining items are less important. I'll lose points, but they would be minimal compared to the remaining 2 papers. Now that we are past the wedding, I can concentrate on those two tomorrow and after work during the week.

To demonstrate how all consuming work/school/wedding/pain has been, I still have 5 mini Christmas trees up. I refuse to delegate that to CJ because he would just throw all the ornaments in a box, not caring about anything fragile. Kelly has been otherwise occupied and I'm going to be leaning on her so much post-surgery that I don't want to ask her. SO, my goal is to do that after vacation but before surgery.

On a similar but different front, I'm getting a knee scooter tomorrow. From my ex. Well, actually his wife. Now that Kelly and her dad have been working to rebuild their relationship, both he and his wife were at the wedding and reception. I ended up chatting with B, who had cared for me day 1 post surgery on my left foot. I guess one of the kids had mentioned my upcoming fun, so that became a topic and she offered his old scooter (he had a toe amputated and then had complications). It has a basket!!! Yes, this is excitement in Suzi world right now.

It's hard to bully people about wills, Laura. I've had to do that too.

Knee scooter sounds useful, Suzi

Today was sort of a loss on my part, apart from exercise and a few errands. Whoops?

Go Burrell exercising! That's more than I did yesterday which was...um...oh wait, did my taxes. And made cookie dough. But did not exercise.

Yay knee scooter! I used an office chair that the back had broken off of when I had foot surgery. I was a terror on wheels.

Phew, called my brother for his birthday, and as anticipated he didn't pick up. I left a cheery message about his agedness (same as me for the next 18 days) and about spring training and stuff.

Well, I emailed my doctor about whether there was anything that could be done for the pain in my hand in the month and a half until the surgery is done, and it turns out that pretty much everything that would help is something that can't be done this close to having the surgery, so I should "hang in there" and take Advil and ice it and wear a brace to sleep, which is all stuff that I've already been doing.

I got the same regarding my foot. I'm still planning on some alcohol therapy the weekend before.

Burrell & Laura, I'm sorry you had to go through (or are still going through) that, but you have helped me stiffen my resolve on something. I got a PM on FB about a week and a half ago from my cousin's son, saying that he was moving to CA (from Michigan) and looking for a place to stay while he gets settled. This is a cousin I haven't seen in over twenty years and her early-twenties son who I've never met. I'm currently going through Mom's stuff to see what goes and what stays, and I happen to be at an in-between stage where both the bed in the master bedroom and futon in the spare room are absolutely covered in STUFF. I could make space for someone in an emergency, but frankly I'm not okay with sharing my home, giving keys and alarm codes, to a young man I don't know and whose FB feed made me delete his friend request. Especially to an open-ended request that I was afraid would be weeks rather than days. So I said sorry, but I don't have room and he seemed okay. But then he messaged again last night, to ask again and clarify it would "only" be for a couple of MONTHS, while he gets settled in. I replied this morning, saying again that I don't have the space and that I'm still dealing with the loss of my mom (another [close] cousin's suggestion). I feel (slightly) bad, because I'm actually pretty close with his grandmother (my aunt), but I don't know him. And my (close) cousin and I feel like this doesn't sound like Aunt, just like (MI) Cousin. The idea just makes me really uncomfortable. So, anyway, standing my ground, though risking bad feelings with the MI branch of the family. I have to believe my own peace of mind is worth more than potential animosity with cousins I wouldn't even speak to if not for FB.

Hil & Suzi, sorry you guys are hurting. I hope it lets up on you before your procedures.

I accomplished pretty much nothing over the weekend, except clearing some space on the DVR. I feel like I'm supposed to feel bad for being such a lazy lump, but it was so great to veg, I just don't.

I have to believe my own peace of mind is worth more than potential animosity with cousins I wouldn't even speak to if not for FB.

Hell, yes.