Hey Fred! Happy Birthday. Any plans, or waiting for next year due to 2020 denial of celebration?

As you might have seen on Facebook, an old, old friend of mine from high school died. I am unbelievably wrecked over the death of someone I haven't seen since the 1990s, although we did Facebook chat sometimes. But I don't know who I would be if he had not asked a super shy little ninth grader to be in charge of advertising for our school paper, where I then became Business Manager and then Copy Editor. His dad helped me with my first three cars (he owned a dealership). He got a show choir a gig with the Rotary conference in Canada, all expenses paid for a trip to Hamilton, which was some of the most fun I ever had. And I learned to deal with hard "work" stuff- like our printer getting mad at the town and inserting his own incendiary copy into our papers and getting Letters to the Editor (from adults, weirdly, writing to the High School paper) who were holocaust deniers. I honestly think if it wasn't for him, I might still be in my little town living with my mother like we were in a poor version of Gray Gardens. And he was so happy with his husband, who he met in Japan in his second year of college!

{{{Sophia}}} He sounds like he was important to a lot of people. What a lovely person.

I read that obituary this morning and loved it. What a wonderful guy, and what a loss to the world and community. It sounds like Brandeis really appreciated him.

Happy Birthday Fred Pete!

Happy nephew, Laura! Judah Emanuel is a great name.

Cindy, I know Laura's DiL only went public with the baby news in June, so I don't think she's due for a while yet

I didn't think it was too long ago, but I'm with Pix and Gud in being unsure of time anymore.

Glory is roommates with Ben?

Wait, wait, wait. Ben? At Glory's? You're saying all this time he's been subletting from her?

Sophia, I am so sorry for the loss of your friend. He sounds like a wonderful person.

Sophia, I am so sorry for your loss. What a marvelous and positive influence to have in your life for so long. Good to be reminded that there are such people when we see so many reports of rotten people.

Yay baby! Boo everything else. Bad dreams are definitely on the wind (or in the water). I've been having super bizarre body-related dreams that I know are 100% related to Mom's surgery and pt but, still...not great.

Ya know what was great? Rolling into the pool exactly one hour after a roll of thunder cleared it. Had an entire lap lane to myself for 40 laps, at which point I was thinking only of food which always means it's time to get out of the pool.

Also good news (maybe): Mom talked her Dr into taking her off Eliquis (blood thinner to prevent post-op dvt) and onto baby aspirin instead. That made her very happy. She's still reluctant to take tylenol (because it's bad for your liver) and is hesitant about taking celebrex (because her oncologist once said "i'm not prescribing that for you" which mom interprets as "you shouldn't ever take this drug" rather than "some oncologist prescribe this drug for long term usage to prevent reccurance of breast cancer but since you don't need it for any other reason, that seems like not the best plan of treatment for you unless your rheumatologist also thinks you should take it for arthritis-related pain which he doesn't" which is clearly what her post-visit notes says. But whatever. Today she decided she would try taking the Tramadol she was sent home with. I personally would go for tylenol and celebrex before using tramadol because it makes me dizzy and nauseous and itchy but that's just me. I'm so thrilled that she's willing to take SOMETHING for pain management that i'm all up on team tramadol. Go narcotics! (She's only taking half of a 50mg tablet twice a day which is barely a therapeutic dose but she is in much better spirits an hour after taking it so that's a win in my book. For now, at least. I have a big metal bowl at the ready as well as some anti-nausea syrup just in case.

Also, I set up Netflix on both of her TVs. I think that will be a big help for me (in giving her something to watch other than CNN and MSNBC which is what she usually watches 24/7 and is not the best for mental health or physical healing.)

Hey y'all, it's Wednesday now.

Sounds like things are going in a positive direction there, Erin! Woo!

I agree with reducing the news consumption. I do a bit in the morning, noon, and night, but just a bit since I usually find it is all same old same old. I did watch the entire Rachel Maddow last night because I had missed her the past week. Mostly I read my news lately because the televised versions are too repetitive, and single focused.

So, yay Netflix!

Glad your mom is being slightly more reasonable, erin. My dad recently got taken off one of his blood thinners and he is so thrilled about it

I just asked if we could postpone my 11am conference call since I don't have the analysis done (of the forecasts they gave me yesterday, that I was supposed to get last week) - no response yet but I feel like by asking I've done something vaguely responsible...