That's an excellent change of venue, Trudy. Good job! Wishing you the -ma.

so we’re just killing time.

I wonder if that Lou Reed's line about buying drugs ran through his head at the end of his life as he received cancer care: "First thing you learn is you always gotta wait."

Congratulations, Grantie!

That reminds me, I'm about to be a great-great aunt. I was a great-aunt before I was a mom, since my oldest niece, who's only six years younger than me, had her firstborn about 8 months ahead of Alex. And so my oldest grand-niece, who just turned 20, has hastily married her high school sweetheart and just had a baby shower. I'm currently viewing all this through Facebook, though I'm visiting that part of the family in October, so I'll get to meet my great-great-grandniece then. (I should bring a cane for the trip--unfortunately it's too late to grow out my gray hair for the occasion.)

Sorry Lisah-- I didn't mean to mis read it, I was kind of ...feeling grumbly and worried maybe I'm being too picky and I should just find something , anything, to get back to work.

I am definitely looking at jobs that pay more...which is why the field is so limited. Even branching into administrative aide /reception type jobs the pay is often on the low side.

I've been trying to focus on places that have $15 and up as a salary range because with my experience I know I could get at least what I was making previously if not more. Surprisingly to me grocery stores seem to have the better pay range when it comes to associate jobs. I've seen some retail jobs advertising assistant manager positions for less than $14/hr. I saw one that was $10.50/hr.

And then I was just randomly looking around and saw a position for a FedEx driver for $14-$19/hr and have the whole UPS almost strike I was curious about the difference--which is UPS is union.

Hourly wages of that level make it really next to impossible to be independent. Sad state of affairs. This is much of the reason that my son is doing delivery for Walmart, even though wages are higher in NY.

Also sad, Paul Reubens has died. He brought smiles to many.

So glad to hear this news Trudy! We’ll be pulling with you all the way.

Trudy, my aunt’s husband was diagnosed with bile duct cancer last year. He’s doing pretty well considering. What’s made all the difference is being able to be treated at Hopkins. Thank goodness they are only an hour away. So glad your Mom now has access to that kind of facility as well!

Yeah, I know! Wild story. I know sometimes...well, doctors don't know...I would hope they wouldn't want to throw away Trudy's mom, so why didn't *they* send her someplace else?! (although I appreciate the need to be one's own advocate and all that happy self-determination bullshit...I could teach a course, except it would be another thing nobody would pay me for.) But as a patient, I would rather hear "This is complicated...we're confused." than a premature "Don't make any plans." My mom just, like, lucked into the best breast surgeon in town last time..he's retired, now, though. The fricking state just sent me four e-mails about an unsigned meeting document(because, obviously, if I don't know what to do, sending it a billion times helps.) They can sit on their dead butts forever, but for me it's "tick-tock" especially on a day when I have, like, one neuron of positive energy left, not that they know that, but they wouldn't give any more of a damn. I hate those people and their system so, so much that they shouldn't smile when they see me. They should hear "Farmer In The Dell" instead. It's been hard acting like her appointment today is no big deal, but that's how she wants to play it(and it might not be, either, but it could.)

Sometimes her stoicism is tiring to me, as much as it is to her when I fly off the handle and stuff.

Also sad, Paul Reubens has died. He brought smiles to many.

I'm FB friends with Lynne Stewart (Miss Yvonne) and Wayne White (designed the sets with Gary Panter) and Mimi Pond (cowrote an episode of Pee Wee's Playhouse), so it's hard to see it hit them.

Aside from my own sense of loss, as I've loved his work for decades.

The loss of Pee-Wee is more my brother's loss than mine, but I'm sorry to read that, anyway. The state thing was rather like they've contracted with Ominous!Docusign, but they don't send anything out without threats and warnings and incomprehensible BS on it...it's like corresponding with Dr. No. And, okay, I appreciate that my social worker(let's call her Tamika Frond) is not trying to save me or nag me to death, but she's at the point of "What is your part?"--she could have told me. Anyway, we put our squiggles in, like the Commander likes, so I guess I got away with the most boring, low-paying scam ever, if I'm a fake. Argh.