I sent Epic an email too.

Came here to wish Trudy a Super Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Trudy!

Hello Buffistas! I've been away from this space but y'all are generally in my thoughts (esp the ones I see on Bluesky, which is easier to keep up with on my phone).

I never go through 9/11 without thinking about how much I appreciate this community and how y'all helped get through that day together.

In other news, work is a lot. I'm hiring and it's difficult because (surprise!) the DogeBoys didn't make it better. It's a lot more work for the candidates without making it easier for the hiring officials. HR keeps cutting qualified candidates for nonsense reasons or no reason at all. The shocking thing is that people DO still want to work for the fed, despite everything.

Today's my day off and I'm spending 3 hours in interviews anyway.

And now I must away because the dog is DESPERATE to go for a walk. Congratulations to Hec and Emmett, and I'm sorry to hear about Bridget.

{{hugs to all]]

Skipped messsges.

Echoing Consuela.

Thinking of you all and those no longer here.

I found this place shortly after 9/11 when searching for distraction. Thank you for being there then and now.

Happy birthday, Trudy. Mom said the thing about hanging in another week again. I didn't say "Yeah, Mom, *that* would have been the part that made this a disaster. Lucky we dodged that bullet." I didn't expect, after this many times, that this would still be the week where I'd still wonder what hanging on till November might have felt like. I thought maybe I could make this so great that that would stop--I guess I think about it less, but I'm not really like "How can I take this back? Look at all I have," either.(Which the CIL people kind of prepared me for, frankly because some people get paralyzed while being self-destructive, so it's easy, if you're inclined, to write that guy an arc about...getting pulled back at the last second that I never had) But I am more aware than ever that being abled is not really magic.

Budget Sugar Smacks: DIdn't know a lot of you for Big 9/11, except what I'd learned from my MWT lurker days--I hadn't really watched Buffy yet then.

Man, just reread Sars (tomato nation) 9/11 post. Wild times. Hard to believe there are full adults to whom it’s not even a faint memory.

Looks like mom’s coming home today!

My sister is coming down on Tuesday, and I can stay until then without taking any additional time off from work. She’s staying until the following Monday, and my brother and sil were already coming on vacation Monday noon or afternoon, something like that. I had already taken it off for Yom Kippur, so I can fill the gap if necessary (my dad will be around but he is not super stable on his feet either, don’t want them both falling over…). I think they stay until that Thursday and I’ve been visiting on Thursdays regularly, so we’ve got them well covered for two weeks. We’ll see how it’s going then, but the PT and OT thought she’d probably be needing less help after one week

Whew!