Exciting that you are having this Montana trip. It is a very good thing, which is needed to balance the bad things we have to deal with in this life. I'm also glad you will be joining Pix. It will be enormously helpful to her emotional well being to have you there.

As always, if there is anything Brendon or I can do to help you in any way on the local level please don't hesitate.

So much love to you, Pix, and to ND too.

Y'all are pretty great. I'm happy to report that today was a better day.

Dad has been really improving today mentally and physically, and we had some great, honest conversations. Without getting into too many details, I feel like I'm FINALLY making real progress, and we are working together as a team to figure out the best way forward.

For now, we've hired a great local care company to work with him four days a week for six hours a day (we can go up if needed), and he's starting physical therapy at home tomorrow. We are also looking at selling this condo with its two floors and getting into a more manageable single-floor situation. We are avoiding actual assisted living as long as possible because it's always depressing and STUPID expensive.

It's going to be a busy summer, but I feel like I'm getting my dad back to some extent, which is pretty great. (And, yes, I know, this is far from the end of what is always going to be a difficult process that will get harder, but I'll take any win I can get.)

With the progress I've made here and the care I'm getting into place, I'm going to be able to slip away to meet Drew and his birth family in Montana from Thursday to Sunday; I'll then be coming back here to continue working with Dad and see how the caregivers are working out.

I honestly don't know yet how much longer I'll be in Florida after that. A lot will depend on how the caregivers work out (I plan to overlap for a bit) and what happens with possibly selling this condo and moving him to a new one.

But yay. Yay for a better day. Yay for better news.

That is really excellent news, Pix. And I'm so glad you'll get to meet Drew's family in Montana!

That sounds great Pix! And I’m so glad you’ll get to meet up with drew too!

I have gone straight from “boring COVID lonesome” to “I have something every night of the week, three house guests for the weekend, am going to a wedding Friday, hosting brunch Saturday, an evening part Saturday, and have FOUR invites between 11am and 3pm on Sunday”. It’s a bit much even for me, mostly because work is continuing to stress me out and kick my ass, and I don’t know how I’m going to do all of it! But I don’t want to cancel anything and know once it’s happening I’ll enjoy it. Meanwhile I am up past my bedtime, unable to sleep even though I was exhausted all day, and Wishing I had AC because it is going to be hot all week here. It wasn’t so bad today in my house but it’s still about 78 in my room and that’s too warm.

I’m glad things are looking up, Pix.

Work is challenging and frequently annoying. But I have an application in with my sister’s alma mater up in MI, so at least I feel like I’m trying to change things. We’ll see how that goes.

That is such an encouraging update, Pix. So happy that meeting up with Drew is happening.

Oh, social meara! Exhausting but a super change.

~ma on the application, Calli.

Trying to make shift to NY plans for summer and it's complicated. Most likely it will happen quickly when the ducks get lined up.

That's good to hear, Pix.

Good to hear some some things are breaking in the right direction, Pix - glad you can get to Montana for a bit.

Good luck, Calli! Would that be moving to a whole new place, or have you ever lived there before?

Meara, I have two dinners downtown this week and I feel like a freaking social butterfly. I bow to your social calendaring!

Wow, Drew and Kristin, you're doing a lot of big, emotional things all at once (and traveling great distances to do them). Take good care of yourselves. Drew, I hope your time with your bio family is lovely. Kristin, I'm glad you've made some progress with your dad.