I've been handed another month of May gut-punch. My cousin who's been battling cancer for the last year has just gone into hospice, and we're scrambling to figure out what to do and when/if we should drive down for last visits and to comfort the immediate family. It just can't be said enough: fuck cancer.

Any ~ma folks can spare for his wife, kids, and sister would be appreciated. I think for my cousin himself there's not much left but making him comfortable, which the hospice staff should be excellent at.

I'm so sorry, Matt. Best thoughts to all of them.

In other news, there are so many scandals (and "scandals") around my job right now, it's kind of exhausting.

And seriously, Tom, you could use that sentence as-is as an artist's statement or whatever. I say, not knowing anything about art or artist's statements!

I'm so sorry, Matt.

That's exciting, Tom! That seems like a perfectly cromulent biographical detail.

Lol, scandals are bad, but the "it's not a scandal it's a "scandal"" entertains me.

Just talked to my boss. She is checking whether I could take a leave of absence rather than quit, but if not, then to quit. I figure a leave of absence would only be good if I could take several months. And then I'd still probably be looking for jobs but it would be reassuring to know I could go back. On the other hand...freeeedom.

Why do you do photography?

While nothing can shut off the hypervigilance, instead of scanning the vicinity for nonexistent threats, composing photographs gives my brain something useful to do with the information it is bombarded with, and can be quite soothing.

If you don't want to include the detail about the hypervigilance, I think you could still use the last half of the sentence.

That sounds good, meara. So are you not working as of today?

Lol, scandals are bad, but the "it's not a scandal it's a "scandal"" entertains me.

Everything here becomes a scandal.

Just talked to my boss. She is checking whether I could take a leave of absence rather than quit, but if not, then to quit. I figure a leave of absence would only be good if I could take several months. And then I'd still probably be looking for jobs but it would be reassuring to know I could go back. On the other hand...freeeedom.

Woo! And yeah, if you could get like a four- or six-month leave, you could always quit during it.

Progress, meara!

Tom, I agree that the biographical wording works.

No scandals around here. Just too much work to do. Ran car to the dealership to get a new back window finally because when it was delivered it had a small crack in it. It was no hurry so I put it off until now. The loaner car makes me miss my car more.

DH has some kind of basketball banquet tonight so he is putting together 40 second clips of each of his players doing their thing. It would have been really nice if he had done this all season rather than going through a year's worth of video now.

I do not understand those who thrive on last minute stress.