I've got my sample ballot and as usual, I see that I need to research candidates for the Water Commission and 3 pages of judges. Chicago folks, do you have thoughts on States Attorney?

I was having dinner with a coworker, and she used to work for a French organization, so every time she's talking about her boss there, she puts on a French accent. Now I can only think that she sounds like Daveed Diggs as Lafayette!

Ask her to rap!

I don't know what to make for dinner.

Dag, Chicago! I had to share that story with Bob and he was familiar with the accused. A "piece of work."

Dinner is triscuits and stinky cheese. Now off to chorus rehearsal. I've missed two weeks, shall be woefully behind...

Gud, everything everyone else has said, especially shrift and Tep with the wisdom about how hugely useful therapy could be. And especially especially everything everyone has said about how much more value you have than you see in yourself.

Your parenting, your obvious joy in both your very different but equally marvelous kids, your proud soccer photos and backyard-UFO-building, your history as a gleefully ridiculous couch-flipper, your kindness, your diligence, your conscience, your HAVING WRITTEN A WHOLE GODDAMN NOVEL (that someone else's kid, who wasn't even related to you, gobbled down in a day and loved). The world would be poorer without you, the rest of Cog's story would go untold, your children's lives and hearts would be blasted with grief, we your friends would be wrecked. You matter so, so much.

(As a purely practical mistake-mitigating matter, can you bring yourself to call the credit card company and ask for some kind of fee-waiving or amnesty or something? Or even designate one of us as your proxy and let us call for you, if it's too onerous? You've been managing all these bills for so long, and you have an excellent steady history with all these people. I promise you that everyone has bad days, bad weeks, even bad months, and that I personally have been a far shittier customer than you could ever hope/fear to be, and some phone rep for every single company gave me at least one grace period if I called and asked, and acknowledged that I'd screwed up but explained the steps I was taking to correct it. They're dealing with customers a thousand times shiftier and worse than the overwhelmed guy who mailed a check a day or so late. And, seriously, if you can't bear to do it, pick one of us, and tell us the number to call, and we'll call. Even when we can't bear our own burdens, we can bear each other's.)

My dinner was the half of my salad that I didn't eat for lunch. Might be sufficient.

Took the dog for a walk after work because it was not raining, and let him set the pace and the route and we were out for over an hour. I should've seen that coming, I guess. I need to figure out how to teach myself to unlatch the backdoor when we are going for a walk, though. The habit of coming into the backyard through the gate at the end of the walk is pretty well ingrained, and it's a perfectly good habit, right up until I go to come inside and remember I have to go back around to the front. Of course, Walter can come in through his door, so he's no help.

Ask her to rap!

Next time!

I had a spinach salad and some smoked salmon bruschetta things for dinner.

A tale of medical anecdata:

When I had my shoulder surgery many moons ago, the surgeon recommended glucosamine chondroitin, Osteo-Biflex by name. Later, his assistant scoffed and said it didn't do anything, but my joints, especially my knees, can tell the difference when I'm not taking it. The last time I ran out, I decided to try a somewhat cheaper brand, because Osteo is not cheap. Two weeks later, my knees are screaming at me, and it hurts to stand up. So I outraged my penny-pinching ancestors and bought Osteo tonight, even with over a hundred pills left over in the other bottle. If nothing else, maybe I can placebo my way to working knees again.