Lots of friends and relative strangers have been asking after me in the past month. It's nice to feel supported, but it's pretty tough to answer the question "How are you?" since I don't really know myself. My best answer is "cautiously optimistic." I think the question people are really asking is "Are you taking care of yourself?" but without seeing someone face to face, it's hard to gauge that sort of thing, and people often misreport. With my friends who have cats, it's simple: if the litterbox is clean, they are probably doing okay. Scary litterbox = worried mind. So, this is the post where I tell you how I'm doing, in an oblique way by... um... showing you my litterbox?

I got my car fixed. My mechanic thinks that the guys in Brooklyn didn't see the brake line problems because they didn't want to see them. It's a nasty job, apparently and I can attest to this because I hung out with my mechanic as he banged and clanged underneath my car replacing brake lines only to find that he had created a fuel leak. Without all this extra work/time, I never would have known that his wife used to work in the law school library, or that he was something of a GIS specialist before deciding to open his own business.

I went to the dentist. My big tooth problems are mostly a thing of the past. Once you know that it's stress that is causing you to grind your teeth, it's a manageable proposition to deal with it. I was just in for a cleaning, which went fine. I was told to come back in six months which I see as some sort of a victory.

I'm back in the pool. Not that I was out for any reason of my own, but there have been personnel shake-ups at the pool leading to hit-or-miss staffing, meaning you'd get up there and at least sometimes no one would be there and there would be a note flapping in the breeze "pool closed, no lifeguard." Irritating after a 25 minute drive. Mostly now resolved. I've swum over a mile since Sunday.

I'm going to Hawai'i. Close readers may know that this is the last state in the U.S. that I have yet to visit. I was invited there for a library conference in November. I'm also going to Australia in March. I was going to go with Greg, but now I'm going with Kate, my sister and travelling companion extrordinaire. Now that she's quit smoking, a 12 hour plane ride is no big deal! I've got enough going on here that I'm not threatening to stay there, but it will be really nice to be there again.

Otherwise, it's the same old keeping busy, trying not to spend too much time just sitting and typing, and scheming with Ola about what the next few years in this house are going to be like. Not bad. Clean litter.