Christmas

Oh dear, is it really only 9 weeks away?  Two months until I see my family again?  (Of course, putting it in those terms, it feels like a long time.  I'm so homesick, it's not even funny.)

Now that Halloween is (almost) passed, I'm starting to look towards the December holidays with a mix of giddiness and trepidation.  Seeing family!  Going to see their new home in Georgia for the first time!  Christmas cookies!  Dad's cooking!  The first time in three years that Alpha and I are going to spend Christmas together!  But then... I have to find the space in the budget for gifts, and cookies.  I have to find and buy gifts.  I'm facing the annual Christmas cookie marathon alone, seeing as how my partner for the last two years hasn't contacted me in months, and I have no family nearby to recruit.  I have to board the girls in a kennel for the first time ever.  Heck, we don't even have anyone to drive us to the airport, so we'll have to pay for parking...

Failure

Got an email from ABGC yesterday while I was at the mall.  "We regret to inform you..."

The worst possible news, aside from death and/or dismemberment of a family member.

On Children...

Okay, do you know what will happen to Christina if she has a kid that she doesn't want? It will almost kill her. Trying to pretend that she loves a kid as much as she loves surgery will almost kill her, and it'll almost kill your kid. Do you know what it's like to be raised by someone who didn't want you? I do. To know you stood in the way of your mother's career? I do. I was raised by a Christina. My mother was a Christina. And as the child she didn't want, I am telling you, don't do this to her, because she's kind and she cares and she won't make it. The guilt of resenting her own kid will eat her alive.  -Meredith to Owen, Grey's Anatomy, Season 8, Episode 2: "She's Gone"

The question comes up occasionally - "When are you two going to have children?"  Usually from relatives or acquaintances who we don't see very often, or who don't know me very well.  People who know me better know the answer to that question.  And its an answer that hasn't changed in the past 10 years.