This is a lovely tribute to a wonderful cat. She knows you love her. Be kind to yourself.

Pfff, gem from the Muses--fussy (and greedy) nitpicker, more like. Still, extremely excited for you. And still praying for the exam. :)

I always wondered about the people who work on a cathedral in service to God--they do the carving high up on top of a buttress, maybe, where no one will ever see it until the restoration work happens (if ever). And yet they do their very best, because it's an act of devotion. Cathedrals pretty much always make me get overwhelmed.

Sigh. Love it. Just...love it. :)

I tried to comment on this earlier, but thanks! :) I will take "exponential improvement" any day. And I'm glad that some of the stories hold up.

Bravo. And also: of course they didn't leave their patients. Warms the heart to hear that nurses around the world have the same values. :)

I like getting those emergency emails. It's about time for another one, I'd think. :)

Lovely. And ten points for the use of "senescence", which Vocabulary Jane over here had to go look up. ;)

Excellent piece. Two thoughts: 1) Did you know that some places in the U.S. it's illegal for a doctor to work more than 18 hours straight? And yet, we still do that to our interns? It's an antique part of the medical profession, something that happened back at the beginning of the 20th century when there was a genuine shortage of doctors. There ISN'T now, at least not here, and it's just stupid to ask people to break the rules of physiology when a mistake could cost a life--theirs or their patient's. 2. A MANUAL saw?!!?!?!? I think our generation might be the one that manages to break out of the harmful cultural notions in medicine--at least, we've been trained in other areas of life to realize that "we've always done it this way" isn't a good reason to KEEP doing it that way. I hold out hope, anyway.

At least you weren't embarrassed by a very tall white chick running up after the reading, grabbing your arm, and yelling "I know him! Really! I do! Known him for years!" ;) Kidding. I wouldn't run, I might trip. I would insist on a picture, though. So glad it was awesome, and I have this feeling that you'll have many more of these, because both you and your stories deserve them.

Not a snob, no. A perfectionist, sort of. If stories were sock drawers, yours would be alphabetized by fiber type and color-coded. But I'm the one who greedily gets to read the perfect, agonized-over stories, so I don't complain. ;) As for promises, I agree. You can't lie to your reader. It isn't clever. They resent you for it.

A perk of being single is that no one can judge you for your toys. It's not like you're buying a phone instead of baby shoes--rock that phone, man! As for the customer "service" you experienced--blech. And also, how dumb do they think people are?

Kept trying to comment on Facebook, and it wouldn't let me...so I'll say here: You know I'm with you in spirit. Knock it out of the park!

Not a lot of profound things I can write, just wanted you to know I read it--and I get it--and it never does get easier, does it?

I think if my kids didn't get rashes from disposables, I would use them too--it is nice to not have to stare down a bucket of diapers and...yeah. Disposables are cool. ;)

I think sometimes there's an equating of faith with prejudice, which is unfortunate. Hopefully Cameron wasn't implying that the other contestants were wrong for kissing. Personally as another conservative Christian, I expect Christian values to apply to those who identify as Christians--I don't expect those who don't share my faith to share my practice. (That would just be silly.) But I'm guessing that Cameron wasn't, in fact, implying anything about the others; I'm guessing he made the judges feel uncomfortable. Most people can't observe a different choice without insisting on defending their own--on a non-religious note, I use cloth diapers. Every mom who finds this out about me has to explain why she CANNOT use cloth diapers, even though I don't think it's any of my business what kind of diapers anyone uses. It's a human trait, I think, to take other people's choices as a judgment of your own, but one that I hope we can learn to get over.

Lovely, lovely pictures--I like the whipped-cream and cinnamon one, I think--and all the different views of the towers. So, heartbeat of the city--what would you think of standing on your back porch and it's so quiet you can hear the traffic on the highway 5 miles away? And the owls hunting? And the wind in the sage? Yeah, creepy, I know. ;) I love it, though.