My honorary aunt and uncle both have Covid. My Aunt J is my mother’s oldest friend in the world who she has known since kindergarten. She’s known my Uncle P since high school. Aunt J seems to be doing okay, but Uncle P was already in the hospital about a month ago with heart problems and he is back in the hospital now because his oxygen got so low that he had a heart attack. They are truly two of the kindest people I know. Any ~ma you can spare.

Oh no -- best wishes to them.

{{JZ}} {{sj}} {{Buffistas in general because fuck it everyone gets safe hugs right now}}

Which gives me the opportunity, after a five minute introduction to suss the direction of my initial visit, to fix the doctor with a pleasant but firm and direct gaze, and intone, "Let's pretend for the moment that I am a woman of this specific age, with these accrued conditions, and that I AM NOT FAT. Now, how would you advise me?" Hopefully if they are impelled by patient minute limits to adhere to 'arm fell off because FAT' diagnoses, a frank moment of arrest might buy me more realistic assessment.

I just went to a new doctor - the first time since moving to Austin - and we were chatting generally about my health background and at one point she started mentioning that it would probably be good if I could get my BMI to under 30 and I literally started laughing, and was like, yeah, no. That's absolutely not happening. She looked a little confused for a minute but then just went with it.

Hugs to JZ, sj, and Shir.

Christmas stuff- we have a tree, which is nice. I think I'll be cooking Beef Wellington for Tom and me, should be a fun 3-day project (according the the Cooks Illustrated recipe I'll be using.)

I'm always down around the holidays, but this year it's weird/sucky to see, like, everyone down here with me. It almost makes me feel less sad by comparison.

Hugs to you, JZ. I totally get it, and grief is such a sucker puncher.

sj, so much health ~ma your aunt and uncle's way.

blargh I have a callback on Monday for more tests. ~ma would be welcome. I hate this.

Health~ma, hippocampus.

{{JZ}}

SJ, I hope your uncle pulls through.

Fingers crossed for your uncle and aunt, sj.

{{{JZ}}} It's completely unpredictable. Last week I got misty-eyed over the memory of sitting in the vestibule of an Olive Garden with my dad while waiting for a relative to bring the spare key. Nevermind that I've probably eaten in that Olive Garden a dozen times since his funeral and not had that reaction.

We haven't made Christmas Eve or Christmas dinner plans yet, but I think I'm going to suggest having Mom come over to my place for the former so I can take care of all the meal details and she won't have to worry.

Much health to you, hippocampus, and sj, to your auntie and uncle.

JZ, I'm sorry you're going through this.

Matt, you're such a good son.

SCOTUS told Texas (and 106 seditious House Republicans) to ass themselves in the ear. Even Thomas and Alito were like, "Well, we should have let you file, but only so we could tell you no to your face." [link]

Thank god for that at least. I thought it was just this Texas dude that was crazy but apparently it’s half the republicans in congress, 17 states, and Texas??? Good god.

Got a new iPhone mini because basically it was free with sending my old one back. It’s so tiny! Going to take some getting used to but I think it’ll be good eventually