Oh, lisah, that is heartbreaking. I am so sorry.

Oh no Lisa! I am so sorry.

Oh Lisa! I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry, lisah!

Pix, it is so very hard. I like how dcp linked pet care to his care. He needs to care for himself at least as well. It is hard to get the message across that eating, drinking, taking meds = not having to go to the hospital or assisted living and losing the dog. Also, it sucks to have that role reversal of having to treat your parent as a child. I can still see my parents' annoyed looks when we told them what they should do.

Oh, no, lisah! I'm so sorry.

Pix that's so hard for you and your Dad I'm sorry.

lisah I'm so sorry about your kitty.

David - my dad has had a cleaner service for decades and Mom just got a lady to come in and clean recently and it's been great for both of them.

I got lovely cards for Calli, Jesse and I'm blanking on who else, I'm sorry. I appreciate them and will send out cards...

Happy Belated Birthdays to everyone.

I hadn't realized how hard I've been hit by working full time but it's been almost 2 years since I have and it's not so much the physical stuff at this point as the emotional/mental drain and so I've withdrawn more (well more isolated than I normally am) and I realized I need to step up my self care. Part of the problem is my horrible sleep, it's always been bad but it go off post concussion and has never regulated.. I don't know if it's actually because of the concussion or it's hormonal or what. But due to some other issues (like joint pain) I'm going to be contacting my dr about HRT (thanks Jesse for the suggestion on FB). I also need to start taking some breaks in my car and get away from the people who don't use headphones and have the sound on their phone or have phone calls or eat loudly (and sometimes it's been all three going on in our very small breakroom).

Christmas was very low key. Mom has the flu and was told to quarantine for about 2 weeks so I don't know when I'll see her. So it was me and M and his mom on Xmas day and I had forgotten to actually order M's present so that was a fail on my part.

The only super bright spot is Mom let me know that my cousin J's son's guardianship finally came through and he is officially living with J's cousin and J's son called and told Mom Merry Christmas and that he wants to keep in touch. It's a Christmas miracle really. After all that kid has been through he's with family who cares about him and has the resources to help him and support him.

Working retail (or anything public facing) was always super exhausting for me, askye, on top of the drain that just working entails. I hope the coping methods you are developing help. I'm glad to hear the kid's situation is resolved, that was all very fraught.

-t it has been really fraught and Mom has been worried about what is going to happen. I'm just thrilled that he gets to start 2024 in a real home. He moved so he'll be in a new school and a new town which I know can be sad but it also will give him a chance to have a fresh start.

Usually I can spend quite a bit of time not having to deal with customers but in the lead up to Christmas we had more (although not as busy as previous years) and also the customers were really needy and often were asking where something was that they had walked past or were actually standing in front of and didn't realize it. I'm really lucky because I didn't have to deal with anyone rude (although the front end people did).

And the only real customer misbehaving I was around was on Christmas Eve we ran out of hams and right after the manager let a customer know she went and took a ham out of someone else's cart. No one saw it and the woman who had her ham stolen let me know that "some people are just don't know how to act".

Still with the Covid brain here, so I am late to announce that we celebrate the birthdays of Emily and quester today, as well as my DH, so excellent humans all! May all have the best of birthdays and may the year to come bring joy and laughter.

Happy birthday to Emily, Quester, and B!!

lisah, that really, really bites. More than once we have come back from a family vacation and had to go say goodbye to a pet. It is, apparently, A Thing. Which absolutely does not make it easier to experience. I’m so sorry.

I wish I had something helpful to say, Pix. All I have is my love and compassion.