The John Lewis 2023 holiday ad is out. It's ... different.

I forget the Brits have a retailer named that and think about "good trouble" every time.

I remember at one ComicCon, our John Lewis turned up cosplaying a younger himself, with the coat and backpack, and led a march through the Con.

That is amazing and wonderful!

Eta John Lewis at ComicCon although the ad is quite something

I've been struggling a bit. I also stopped taking my anti depressant again so maybe that has to do with it. I also screwed up when I was calculating benefit differences between new and old job and so yeah I'm making less hourly and my take home is less. Not a huge about considering but enough that it's disheartening . I didn't calculate taxes and 401k enough.

I've been feeling like I really messed up hiring lawyers for the workers comp and I should have just given up dropped everything when they weren't paying me and gone back to work full time even though I was struggling. Because I would have had 6 yrs at the job and paid holidays and a huge amount of PTO and all of that.

Except I kind of like what I'm doing stocking groceries. It's a nice balance between routine and something different and not too much customer contact. I've been looking at jobs again and I did apply. I'll see what happens.

"What is going on with the universe?"(/Phoebe) I got yet another in my yearly cavalcade of rejection this morning(Though trying to combine procedural and flash fiction might be a failed experiment) But then, David Simon liked what I wrote about Norman Lear...so, like, am I good at this or not? And I'm totally surfing the crimson wave, and can't decide which of my million heartstrings is being pulled right now. It's crazy, so I thought I should share. The more doors that shut in my face(at least for the moment) The more love my fanfiction gets, too. How weird is that? I am probably going to cry today, but good luck to anyone who tries to ask why!

I haven't checked the board in weeks but I wanted you to know I see ya, erikaj.

Thanks. Sometimes, strangely, the more convinced I am that I could get worked up about something, the less I do it, though.

I can't let it out anywhere else, so this must be the place. Yesterday was my grandson's 3rd birthday. I haven't seen him since he was 4 months old. My younger grandson will be 1 sometime next month, and I don't even know the exact date. I saw their pictures on a friend's FB page at the birthday party. The punches just keep coming.

One of Brendon's close friends died recently and he had to find and notify his family because he had been estranged for decades. He is now haunted by the thought that our son won't return before we leave this mortal coil.

It's so awful, Laura. It already is wound enough, but with the reason never being explained, it must be the saddest most heart-wrenching thing to go through. I'm so sorry.