(from an email to a friend)
…The girls are ok. Yesterday they practiced being *itchy, making up and elaborating on imaginary scenarios in which they would be extremely rude to others. I don’t encourage it, but actually, sometimes I still do that too: sitting at a red light, imagining what I could say to someone if they said this-or-that to me.
They each ate exactly 1 vegetable (ie, 1 mini carrot) and finished their homework, and then Emily found something to cry about and cried. Meanwhile, Shawn (who is taking high school Psych) was supposed to interview adults about Maslov’s hierarchy of needs and the process of self-actualization. Evidently, and this might actually be the nicest thing anybody ever said to me, I am the “most self-actualized person” he knows. (Except for himself. Because at 17, he is entirely and completely whole as a person. Which is fine.)

Meanwhile, I’m practically choking on my tea at the thought that somebody thinks of me as “self-actualized.” Awwwww.

In the interview, he asked me how I became “self-actualized.” How, indeed….!
I told him how I got to be that way was “through blood and tears,” and I didn’t tell him that the key to being grounded, emotionally whole, and satisfied with your life is to take antidepressants.

Work is busy but tedious. I am making you mittens for Christmas. My cats are feeling fine and letting me know it by romping, constantly. Romp romp romp. It’s been raining for days now.

-R