I live in Virginia dang it. I am not sanguine about earthquakes!

It's not on the map?

I can only hope, Matt. Things were better this evening. Or maybe I just need to drink every time h I spend time around him.

Dinner was so delicious. I've never made this rice before and I'm in awe of myself. Thanks for putting up with my cooking posts (never mind the post about the bf). It is snowing now so they left early to get home before the bulk of the storm hits.

Back on the sleeping, I'm with Brenda and the others in needing some minimal cover even on the hottest of nights.

Nope, not on the map. However, Twitter is giving me reports of a bright meteor over Delaware/Maryland. If that's what I felt shaking things, that was one big damn End Times meteor.

They are scary, but most likely it's all over now, Zen. I know that doesn't help much with the adrenaline dump, but it's something.

And it looks like I gave you a bad link, here's the better map [link] I don't see anything in Virginia.

He can't be Mom's full-time caregiver; for one thing, she really can't walk at all, and must be muscled into the bathroom and to bed by two strong staff-members.

This is so hard. My dad was stuck as the primary caregiver for my pretty much immobile mom for the last couple of years of his life. They did have help that would come to the house to help move her around, but his whole life was about getting her to appointments and worrying about her falling, or calling the fire department when she did fall.

Part of me is convinced that when he got the original diagnosis of his cancer he kept it hidden from all of us because he just wanted to let go. When going through paperwork after his death I found a diagnosis from April that showed the cancer. It didn't get bad enough to bring it all to our attention until June, and then he was gone a month later.

I think if your dad is say he can't do it now that's actually a good thing. It's hard, but it will hopefully help keep his quality of life at a reasonable level.

Dealing with aging and ill parents is not easy, and I know that I feel like I've not done the best job of it.

Jumped off a boat in the pacific ocean to chase after dolphins. (Ended up mostly chasing after jellyfish.)

And it was awesome, and I was...really glad I didn't do it. :) Snorkeling was pretty atypical for me. Today I organized an alumni gamewatch...and then Georgetown LOST in an awful way to a school that was founded in 1997! 1997!?!?!. Seriously. The game was just painful to watch.

And I finally found the mini-moo creamers--they had them at Safeway (where I don't usually go). Yay. (A pack of 24, which I will be much more likely to use by the deadline than the pack of 192 on amazon)

The Worldwide Meteor Map shows a humonguous meteor went over the Eastern Seaboard, right about the time I felt the shaking. Curious.

Dealing with aging and ill parents is not easy, and I know that I feel like I've not done the best job of it.

I can only imagine how it's easy to beat oneself up over this.

My truth seems to be that no one imagines themselves as a caretaker for others in this intense and intimate way. Sure, when I had kids I assumed I'd be doing that sort of stuff for little people for a bit. But now I have a daughter for whom I may need to do this sort of stuff for the rest of my life. It's daunting.

Random: has anyone seen the play Good People ?

I read it today and it was fantastic. I'd love to teach it and see it performed. Alas, it was performed at the Geffen last year so I missed my chance.

I was shocked in college when I met a guy who didn't use a top sheet. It seemed like such a lazy boy thing to not want to launder that extra piece of cloth but then of course he NEVER washed his blanket so I was grossed out by the idea of having unlaundered blankets pressed up against one's flesh all night. *shudder* Now if instead of blankets the bed was topped with a duvet whose covered could be easily laundered, i'd be ok with that. But I like nice sheets and my duvet covers are rarely more than 200 thread count so I'll stick with top sheets, TYVM.

As soon as I get home I usually take off my bra and change to indoor pants. Then I go to bed in that (whatever shirt i was wearing all day plus comfy pants.) Not really a fan of clothing specifically for sleeping. Except for socks in hot weather, because I can't fall asleep without socks on my feet and sometimes it's just too hot to sleep in socks...so then I have pairs of really old stretched out socks that slide off super easy, so I fall asleep with them on then fish them out of the sheets in the morning for the next night.

before bed there is the taking of the pills (including melatonin), the brushing of the teeth, the flossing of the teeth while watching TV, then the full evening ablutions. Few months ago I got one of those super fancy Therapeutica pillows in an attempt to improve my chronic neck pain, so far it's just making me toss and turn even more than usual (which is usually enough to make sleeping alone something of a necessity.) Before that I had two of the super dense contoured neck pillows of different make/model which made the pillow dance (I require a fresh pillowcase after every hair washing, so with 2 pillows I had a system, now I have to switch out pillowcases more often) less irritating but also took up more space. Then I have two body pillows for btwn knees and snuggling surrogacy. Two so that every time i roll over there's a pillow waiting for me. I'm super high-maintenence when it comes to bed setup.