Hil, I love you on painkillers, but I wish so hard you wouldn't need them in the first place. Remind me, how did it all start, the pains and all? What caused them?

Aims, I'm glad you're back home, and drugged.

I haz package from Israel! Excellent timing Shir! In the middle of week from hell, I get an awesome pick me up! You rock!!

Yay!

{{{{Fay&family}}}}

Yay for Aims' being home from hospital.

By the way, your experiences in quitting smoking from earlier in this thread made it possible for me to help someone else who is quitting. Her doc did not really explain to her how Chantix was supposed to work, so she was miserable, going cold turkey off the smokes, before the meds had a chance to build up in her system. And since I was able to re-read what you had said about, and then go look it up, I could explain that she should take it for a week before saying goodbye to cigarettes. Today was a much happier day for her (and for the rest of us at work).

Nora, I'm glad you are finding acceptance about your graduation.

Hil, I love you on painkillers, but I wish so hard you wouldn't need them in the first place. Remind me, how did it all start, the pains and all? What caused them?

Ehlers Danlos Syndrome leading to frequent subluxations of my shoulder. (Sorry, a little too out of it to explain medical stuff right now. [link] )

I'm avoiding Elsie, because I read her on my iPod, and the battery is dead now. But in the next book she goes to the Worlds Fair!

And, separate:

Oh, {{Fay}}. I'm sorry. These things can be hard.

My parents come from a long line of emotionally and physically (on one side) abusive lineage, with inside politics that made me stay away from all this madness so I won't accidentally dig out any new skeletons out. We're more in touch with few selected, and minimized any connection to past screwed up generations. We stopped any communication with my grandmother more than few years ago.

But all of this doesn't mean we don't go to weddings, funerals, etc. There's basic respect and basic manners one should pay. I can only feel sorry for them for making their and their families lives hell to live in, but until the last psycho with the fundamental belief that your place in the family is determined by your position in the lineage will die, that's all. And by "your place", I mean the attention you'll get. My grandfather pays a hell lot of more attention to me than my sister because I'm the eldest, as a mild example. He rarely asks about her. My late grandmother's side stopped all communication with my dad about two weeks after she died, and I never met those people. My dad got (and in a way, still is) hell for choosing who he wants to marry and not marrying a distant niece of his (3rd niece, I think).

And just because of this, my parents know to appreciate these virtual families of choice I'm making myself. The web is thicker than blood.

So good luck, hon. I think I can relate with what you're going through. You're right: you're there for your mom and for your grandmom, and fuck the world if it's not "according to family patriarchy rules".

Ehlers Danlos Syndrome leading to frequent subluxations of my shoulder

I learned something new.

Nora - it's really good reading the last posts from you.

With the different types of EDS listed there, what I have is classical type. (Well, probably. It's either classical type of hypermobility type, the doctor isn't quite sure which, but treatment is the same, and there isn't a totally reliable genetic test to tell which it is anyway.)

Speaking of smoking. Has anyone heard or tried the Blu ciggies? [link] I haven't smoked in nearly 20 years. But it has me curious. Especially since they have a 0 nicotine cartridge.

This ~ma thing you've got going on here seems to work rather well...

1. We're moving house at the weekend and are having issues with references arriving in time for us to sign the contract on the apartment (and we don't know how we're going to fit the packing in - see following points).

2. I'm not sure I'm going to finish my essays in time for the deadline, what with the moving and the packing. I'm usually very responsible and organized with work, but a bout of illness has had me in bed for most of the last three weeks, which has set the work back a fair bit.

3a. My girlfriend has just been accused of copyright infringement and has people threatening to shut down her show.

3b. One of her directors (she's an artistic director with two other directors working under her) has just pulled out of his show, as has one of his actors.

4. I have a migraine.

As you can see, the Watcher-in-Training family is somewhat losing the plot. Oh and I can't tell anyone who knows me, which precludes posting on livejournal etc, as the legal situation is dodgy until The Girl gets legal advice. Um. 'Raining fire' is the phrase The Girl used. Yup.

there isn't a totally reliable genetic test to tell which it is anyway

Isn't this annoying? There are some doctors who don't quite believe in it who I'd *really* like to present with some genetic evidence. (My type is almost defintely type III/hypermobility, but there does seem to be some overlap between the types.)

heh. You've seen movies and TV with people driving across Memorial Bridge with the Lincoln Memorial in the background, and then suddenly turning left onto Pennsylvania Ave, and we think "hey, you're in Virginia".

Watching CSI: Miami you'd think the only way to get anywhere in Miami is to cross the Julia Tuttle or MacArthur Causeways. Because, you know, everything happens on the beach in Miami.

Seska, much moving/sanity/getting-everything-done~ma to you and your GF. She must be so stressed.