Way to go, Zenkitty!

Happy birthday, Laga! Never hurts to say twice.

Thanks for the brackets. Kevin greeted me by name, and a regular bought me a beer, and a neighbor/friend came and hung out. It was good and I was in bed by 9 pm.

And today, though not totally over, has been AWESOME. My crew is finally a crew. I'm so proud of them.

Nora, can't wait until I'm home and can watch that video!!!

Yay for a crew being an awesome crew! Good luck with the house looking today, sj! Yay for good review, Zen! I can't wait for you to see the video either, smonster!

I am ridonkulously peppy now thanks to that video going up on the tv channel's website. I don't even know why!

Very cute, Nora. Taz was very well behaved. You should post that in Natter too so tommyrot can see that Sphinx cat.

Nora, have you guys been to Redemption on Iberville? We're trying to decide where to do dinner tomorrow.

So this is what I did this morning: [link]

That is excellent. And both kitties were SO well-behaved! As befits royalty.

I haven't been there, but I am intrigued about it. I go to Katie's a couple blocks heading downtown on Iberville, which is pretty good. There's also Liuzza's on Bienville just a block away from Katie's (on Bienville, obvs.)

If you go to Redemption, let me know how it is!

That is excellent. And both kitties were SO well-behaved! As befits royalty.

Aw, thanks!

Wow, I haven't been to Liuzza's in years, with those frozen mugs full of root beer.

We are good to go for Redemption. I will report back!

So, I can't post this to Facebook, because I don't know that my parents have managed to get a hold of my brother. I thought I'd post it here. I'm not really looking for hugs.

My mother called on Wednesday night, and I missed the call (we’re not a phone call family). I texted her on Thursday: “Sorry I missed your call. What’s up?” She said that she was in the middle of things and would call me after class (not a good sign. She usually emails me, so something that she wanted to actually talk about, and wanted to talk about after class, even worse). So, after class, she calls and tells me that she’s been diagnosed with (early, and the least-bad of all possible types of) breast cancer. She’ll be having a lumpectomy on Tuesday and may only be off work for a couple of weeks for treatment. Assuming that the lymph node biopsy comes back clean, everything should be fine. I made a joke about doing anything I could to help but being unwilling to buy pink things (Dad is with me on that one). It sucks, but it’s fine. There’s nothing to be done at the moment.

Now for the selfish bit.

1) My paternal grandmother (who died when I was in 4th grade of heart issues) had a mastectomy due to breast cancer 2) I, myself, went in for a biopsy of a lump maybe 4 years ago. It was nothing (as the doctor was pretty sure it would be). So, the first (completely selfish) mental loop I've got going on is that my risk, statistically, is now at least 25% (this, by the way, is greater than the risk of lung cancer for smokers. Let me tell you, the Google rabbit hole I’ve been down over the past day has not been healthy. Is it not relevant, Mr. Risk-Calculator, that I only have 1 female first-degree relative at all? What about my having family history on both sides? No, it is not sensible to try to have a baby before I turn 30, even if that does improve my odds. Besides, there aren't enough months before my birthday.).

Anyway, I have an appointment at the campus clinic on Wednesday, as Sense Of My Own Mortality has decided to invite itself over for tea. I am skeptical that they will be very helpful at all, though I am kind of hoping for a referral to someone whose practice isn't mostly pap smears for college students. (I recognize that this is a bitchy statement. I'm leaving it anyway.)