Post-exam.

I maybe, just maybe passed it. I hope so.

Yay, Shir! And here I was about to offer you some ~ma.

Hey, the "please let me pass it!"~ma is still necessary!

Will yay or get desperate after I'll know the grade.

Anything above 60 (or 56 - I'm not sure what the pass grade is) goes.

All yours, darling!

Sometimes I have ruled people out because the dog didn't like them, Seska. Gavin de Becker says she is just picking up my vibes, but either way, it has worked.

Exam results~ma for you, Shir.

And finding the right person ~ma to you, Seska.

Results~ma, Shir! (The waiting is definitely worse than the exams. For me, anyway.)

erika, I know what you mean. I always interview with The Girl, or I end up picking the wrong person or turning people down who might actually be good. I do not have a dog to help choose, and the hamster is about 120 in human years so he doesn't do anything except sleep anymore. Not that he was ever that much help.

results~ma for ya Shir. I'm positive you did awesome. So I guess it's more comfort~ma and confidence~ma for you. Either way, tons-o~ma your way.

Seska, good luck with choosing the right person.

ION, and this might come as a surprise, I haz the gronk. Blaaaahhhh.

(Although it did take them a while to acknowledge her publicly. After she was institutionalized, they explained her disappearance by saying that she'd gone to be a teacher, or joined a convent, or a few other stories, until 1962, after a few reporters had found out the truth.)

I think Eunice means acknowedging her before she was so seriously disabled. They didn't stick her in a home when she was a child, she went everywhere her family went. There was general knowledge, I believe, that the one daughter was a bit "slow" or "different".

The "they were all overachievers except her" comment seems to be the same quote re-quoted everywhere, I don't know if we can assume its the best assessment.

My own surely not best assessment is that she looks, in comparison to her siblings, like mildly retarted kids I grew up with looked in comparison to their siblings -- a little softer, a little less-focused.

[link]

It's funny, this page has the heading "Does This Young Woman Look Retarded To You?" [link] and I think, "Yeah, she looks like Billy D."

And if being with Billy in marching band is any sort of indicator, you don't need Papa Joe screaming at you to get pretty darn frustrated and frustrating if you're even only 'mildly' retarded.

So, last night, Date Girl and I drove out to Angeles Crest, found a dark spot (filled with many other people), laid out on the hood of my car, and watched the Perseids while holding hands.

I have no words to describe how wondrous and special this is turning out to be. I'm terribly afraid everything is going to go all kerflooey soon, just because it always seems like that's how my luck goes. I have to keep reminding myself that the past is not a reliable predictor of the future, especially in matters like this.