Just got back from mom and dads. For those of you who have not heard, SNOW IN TEXAS. like on the ground, and staying. of course my car was outside so was covered in ice and snow and doors were semi-frozen shut.

Mac stayed over with the grandparents, unexpected, but nice. I just hope that Bailey will do ok sleeping in his room alone.

I have been kinda strenuously arguing tonight, but I actually applied a lesson learnt from the internet--just walk away (after summing up how absurd you think the whole thing is).

I have been having fun saying "But that's not the truth --you can't alter truth. That's just how it works." People here trust me a lot, but I was also right, so it works out.

sarameg, was she always this way, from the birth of the kids, or maybe the marriage? What set her off?

Very headachey right now *and* I just discovered a dent in my head. How do you just get a dent: [link] ? My mother mentioned a "bald spot" when first she saw me, but that's the first I'd heard of it. I could have been walking around for ages with that...

Weird, ita.

Ooh, that's exciting, msbelle! We had a dusting, but that's it.

She doesn't bad mouth her parents and brother to the kids, but Dominic is catching on.

That's the best way to do it, of course.

that's odd ita, think you would have noticed that before.

that's odd ita, think you would have noticed that before.

Especially since you go to the barber fairly often.

The real weirdness became apparent when Tyler was born, and ramped up to a poison pen letter out of the blue about 3 or 4 years ago ( from her mom, to be clear.) There is really no logic driving that train, except selfishness and Crazy.

Thunderstorms have finally moved out of the area.

I feel like I'm being that bitter mom. I have really tried letting go of my feelings over the bf and go with the "I'm happy if she is happy" but it isn't working well. He left an hour ago and I don't think he will be back til Thurs. not that he talked to me about it, that is just my inferance. See...bitter.

So that was a nice Christmas. I got an immersion blender with a whole bunch of cool attachments, and an original cover of a Saturday Evening Post from 1953 with a Norman Rockwell on it, and some ugly earrings from my mother which I may try to return to Macys. And I got to meet my new bicycle!

We had turkey and skipped the mashed potatoes in favor of a roasted root vegetable medley, which was rather healthier and far more flavorful (yam, sweet potato, turnip, rutabaga, purple potato, white potato, parsnip, beet, celery root). So tasty. And the pies went over well.

Stay safe, Buffistas! The weather here is crazy wet, but at least it's not freezing.

And now it's time for Yuletide, and the Doctor Who Christmas Special, woot.

My mother decided it would be simpler for her if we stayed in and she cooked (someone's in remission!), and the cousin who was supposed to be contributing food flaked, so dinner was "only" ham, curry goat, fish, rice and gungo peas, and roast breadfruit, with home made mince pies and Christmas cake as dessert. Sorrel (alkie and non), white wine, and Blue Mountain coffee were served to drink.

The dent in my head is really bothering me. Was it there when I had my hair cut? Did Colin notice the back of my head? Did my co-workers? Any nurses? It is also tender, and of course I ended up palpating in order to better determine its nature, so ow.

Big argument of the night was: could the medical system have caught and held Lanza if rules were less skewed towards personal liberty? I think no, not without enough false positives to render it effectively useless. Also, we don't have enough information (we the public--doctors on his case may or may not) to tell if he has something diagnosable that indicated he was headed in this direction.

I *knew* when the story broke that mentions of him being depressed were going to be a black mark against something perfectly run of the mill, and lo and behold, my cousin (still sore about the Gazebo Conspiracy) said she heard he had Asperger's and therefore depression, and that's why he did it. That took a bit of patience to unravel.

We have a rock bottom family member--I saw one picture from the wedding and I wanted to cry. I knew she had been spiralling downhill (the only reason she was allowed to go strapless to her wedding was that she wore opera gloves which covered her numerous suicide attempt scars), but it was shocking to see the delta. Apparently this has happened in the last few months--she was shockingly drawn and gaunt, down from a vivacious (sometimes terrifyingly so) woman who made it clear that Manic Pixie Dream Girls will steal your soul and your car when you sleep. Always brilliant, never able to regulate her behaviour--she has two children no one will let her parent, so she's trying to get pregnant again. She (36) wore dentures to her sister's wedding because she lost her four front teeth to bulimia (which pipped meth at the post) a while back. About a year ago, she jumped out of a two or three story window because "the voices told [her] to".

It's just really awful, but she seems to exhausted to be a danger to anyone but herself (which is a radical change from 15 years ago, when you risked being pulled into her madness and finding yourself stranded with a drugged (against her will, so cousin could nab her boyfriend) teenager across your lap, and your car is nowhere in sight).

Her family can't force her to take any of her meds or do anything a medical professional recommends, and she won't on her own, so they just remove the kids and keep her fed and clothed while she goes on her wild tears.

ita, that is indeed a disturbing looking dent. Have you passed out recently?!?

I have had a lovely evening with people who are basically family to me (my moms BFF from high school, who we grew up with like an aunt, and her daughters who are like cousins). Yay, catching up with them. And so far all looks good for catching my flight to Seattle tomorrow. Oy.