Epic: insent.

Sophia, I'm thrilled about all your news!

sj, so sorry about ltc. Hope she heals soon.

Glad to see your pixels, Gud, and yours too, bt.

Thanks, as always, for the kind words, everyone. It means so much. Had a great FaceTime session with my therapist today, which helped so much. If all goes well with my response to both this cycle and the next of chemo, there's a possibility I may be able to go home and be outpatient for two weeks between Dec. 5 and 20. Which depends on lots of factors and is approximate, but gives us all something to focus on.

My friends are postponing this year's Friends' Thanksgiving until I'm well. There's so much love and kindness and generosity in my life right now to help me through this, I'm overwhelmed.

I hate that it seems to usually occur around loss and trials and tribulations but I have to say I'm so heartened to see so many folks I haven't seen in these parts for far too long.

We need each other. Lettuce not forget this.

(skipped and skimmed, with apologies to anyone I might have missed)

Sophia, big yayyyyyyy! You're amazing.

Gud, lovely seeing your pixels. Please, please, please get help.

amyth, love, so much health~ma to you. Same goes to ltc, sj.

Middle English Wikipedia looks lovely. Sadly, can't read it. (I'm practicing a bit German and French for work related reasons, might have to re-practice Arabic soon for more work-related reasons, so I realistically can't add another language to the pile, but ohhh, I love languages!)

Sj she did have a really big symptom, and then you acted! Even though she said she was fine. When I was in fourth grade I hid Salmonella poisoning from my mom for a while because I wanted to go to swimming lessons! Kids are tricksy.

So now comes the hard part-maintenance. My therapist said I should not keep up my clean all the things every morning routine after the inspection, but instead make sure I invite people over regularly and do the untuck your habitat lists. She liked them. I have Aidan still coming over on Sundays, and my friend Katie from the theatre is visiting after Thanksgiving to drink wine and chat (and help me hoe out the attic, which passed, but I don't need anything that is up there. I have THREE second generation iMacs, two blue and one ruby!

Yay, Sophia! Yes, upkeep can be a thing. You don't get to see big changes and it has to happen on the regular. But it's a lot less work and you get a pleasant living environment out of it.

I'm sorry about the fires, billytea.

Jobhunt~ma, msbelle!

I am hoping that since I had to upkeep for about 2 weeks,it might stick? It just,in 46 years, never became a thing I did. I am better at the big things.

I'm not great at upkeep myself. Inviting people over is one of the few things that motivates me. Luckily we have a social season coming up, and I'll have to clean at least a few times more in 2019.

Every time we clean the whole house for a gathering we say we'll maintain it to that level, and it just never seems to happen.

The other option is a cleaning service, but I think I will wait until Aidan goes to college for that option. I can get an estimate now, because the sign is GONE! But I think the important thing is to maintain accountability. The therapist pointed out that I am not really a hoarder, I am just messy and do not care, and it gets out of hand. And I never learned the skills and live by myself— I would never do this to another person.

Also, amyth if you see this and are up to it, do you know your head circumference, or at least whether you think your head is average? I have read up and several people have accidentally made the hats too big. No stress, I have measured lots of heads, and they are almost all 20 inches, but if you think your head is particularly small or large, let me know!