Absentee is the way to go! It’s so nice being able to fill out my ballot as I research the weirdly worded state or city ballot measures that were off my radar from the comfort of my own couch.

Happy birthday to you!

Dropped off my absentee ballot earlier today.

Update on Linus (our kitty who experienced kidney failure last week): Last I posted we were waiting to find out how much his numbers had gone up. It turns out his creatine went up quite a bit. It was over 3, when normally it should be 1.5 or lower. The vet said at this point it’s possible it could go back down (he didn’t seem optimistic about this), stay the same, or go up more. We’re taking him in again on Thursday to see what it is then. If it stays the same, we probably only have about two or three years left with him if we keep him on a renal diet.

He has a lot of his personality back and has his full appetite back (yesterday was the first time he ate his usual amount of food since he’s been hospitalized), but his energy level is definitely lower than it was before.

It’s looking like he might be okay. We were able to take him home last night. The emergency vet said they’ve never seen a cat bounce back like he has. They can’t find any underlying causes, so they think it must have been an acute episode. If only we knew what caused it.

We had friends staying with us a couple of weeks ago with their toddler, and they did cut up grapes for her to eat several times, which is one of the things on the list. So maybe she dropped one and it went under a piece of furniture and he just recently found it? It was even more unlikely that he’d been exposed to anything else on the list, so I don’t know.

They had us bring him back today for a checkup to see how he’s doing now that he’s been off fluids for a day, and his numbers did go back up a bit, hopefully not too much. My partner is there with him now waiting for the vet to give him more details.

Our 5 year old cat is experiencing kidney failure, and we have no idea why. We can’t think of a way he could have gotten access to any of the things on the list of substances that would cause that, and he’s so young. They have him on fluids right now, but we’re not sure if he’s going to make it. His numbers were really bad.

Nice, where did you go?

Had a long video chat tonight with a friend I hadn’t talked to in months. She’s been in a pretty complicated relationship with a guy. We talked about that for awhile and then we were listening to music together. It felt really good to hang out again and the feeling seemed to be mutual. Then suddenly he was going to come over soon and then a few minutes later he was there so she had to go. I don’t really feel justified being upset with her because we did chat for hours, but the suddenness caught me off guard, and now I’m just feeling really off.

It’s only Monday, but so far things are going really well on multiple fronts. The last couple of weeks have been pretty stressful, and I’m finally feeling like I can catch my breath and relax a bit. I have a four day weekend coming up, during which some friends will be in town staying at our place. And the big news is that my partner accepted a fully remote job offer, which means we’ll be moving after this school year ends. It will definitely be bittersweet, but I’m looking forward to being closer to family.

I don’t know anything about her; what is it that you don’t like?

Appalachia is flooded and tons of people can’t get clean water or evacuate due to roads collapsing. Opened Tumblr, saw a smug liberal practically orgasming over “you Trump voters” getting what we deserve.

That shit pisses me off so bad. Different part of Appalachia, but I lived in WV for a year and will go off when someone makes a comment about the people there. There are a lot of great folks fighting the good fight.

Week has been a fuckin mixed bag. At the moment, I’m at a specific combination of - drunk / high / angry at injustices / loving people for what they are trying to give - that makes me want to yell and cry and connect with people. But connections are also a mixed bag for me.

Happy belated!

Yep. I know a guy whose dad was an engineer for Boeing doing something space related. He’s now a flat earther because his particular flavor of Christianity says so.

Congratulations!!!

Good luck, you’ve got this!

Trying not to put unnecessary expectations on myself. Only somewhat succeeding at that, but at least I’m realizing that those expectations are unnecessary, so hey that’s progress.

I’m the same way! I think it’s because I’m friends with enough full on extroverts that my social battery fills up without me trying before I ever reach the point of thinking, “Hey, I’d like to chat / hang out with someone. I should reach out.”

I really liked the whole Southern Reach Trilogy, but it’s not for everyone. Each book is very different from the last, and you’re not going to get all your questions answered. If you don’t think that will bug you, give it a shot!

Right, I’d be down for a tofu sandwich but why like that???

I guess it depends on your definition of “good” and “sucks.” Salt and vinegar kettle chips definitely aren’t nutritious, but as far as my tastes go, they are fucking good and definitely don’t suck.