Why is it that my daughter Polly finds slugs disgusting, yet she will hold a snail and declare how cute he is and can she keep him? I mean, does the shell make one cute? Would a cute little turtle be ugly without his shell? Never mind, I just answered my own questions. Turtles aren’t cute, and I think I remember seeing Franklin without a shell during the days when I had to read the same books over and over to my kids until I thought I’d scream and he wasn’t cute either. Of course I could have said no, but back then I was very worried about being a wonderful mom. Now I am just hoping In Treatment comes back on soon because I want Gabriel Burne , sexually. I am like one of his patients, except I am not a doctor.

Speaking of doctors, a coworker of mine had an asthma attack the other night at work and then he started having a panic attack because he couldn’t breathe. I snapped at him, asking where his inhaler was. He replied that he kept it at home because he didn’t want to rely on it. If I had asthma I’d have an inhaler around my neck on a dog chain. I’d probably carry another one in my purse in case of malfunction.

I told him my CPR was rather rusty and he laughed and I offered him a Klonopin. I probably made the right decision when I decided not to go to Nursing School.

Speaking of shells, this would be a great time for a “to circumcise or not to circumcise?” fight in my comments. I personally agree with the idea of letting your son make the choice himself. As for looking at penises, I am indifferent. I don’t really have much interest in looking at penises. When I was in second grade my eldest sister took me to Plaid Pantry and led me to the Kool-Aid section. I thought she was going to buy Kool-Aid and I was all excited because my Mom only gave us juice, water or milk. Or tea, or beer. Pop on special occasions.Forget it, I was writing about penises. My sister reached way back and pulled out some magazine and opened it up to a naked man. He was sitting there looking off to the side with that expression on his face, who me? I am not sitting on this chair naked. I screamed when I realized what I was seeing and pointed at the picture and yelled out, “Oh my god! It’s a slug!” My sister shoved the magazine back as she clapped her hand over her mouth to cover the laughter.

The remains of the former brewery, Henry Weinhards, that they tore down to “revitalize the Pearl District”, here in downtown Portland. Certain parts of that brewery are on the historic registrair, so they were required to leave them.

My cousin has moved from Australia to LA. He flew up last weekend for a visit and took my son Nathan back down with him Tuesday. Nathan will be spending a week there and from what I’ve heard from him he is loving California and wishing we would move down there. Even though I spent a great deal of time preparing for Nathan to leave I was still in a panicked rush the morning of his departure. I realized that I hadn’t really been properly preparing; I had just been worrying. I have never been able to turn off that part of me, the part that can never seem to calm down enough to enjoy the now and to stop spending so much time fretting. I had several moments of sadness over my son leaving, although I knew he would have a lot of fun and would be well taken care of. There’s just something about him being 16 and knowing that his life plans don’t include living here with us forever.

Polly is fine. She has started the full fledged whining about boredom now that August has arrived. I found some sites online where she could practice Algebra as that is the subject she struggles with and she actually did homework, in the summer. I have tried hard to organize activities for her to keep her busy but it’s never enough. I don’t remember my mom entertaining us as children; that was our job.

Tina asked about how I deal with the fact that I don’t drive and the subsequent questions. I will write more about that later, but those of you who suffer from anxiety issues and/or depression please remember what it took me too many years to learn: Your accomplishments may be different from other peoples, but they are accomplishments nonetheless. I went from having a case of agoraphobia so severe that I couldn’t check the mail because it seemed impossible to be able to open the front door to slip my hand in the mailbox. Now I am holding down a full time job and traveling around Portland by bus no problem. Never give up hope and keep trying.

I need to catch some sleep before I work tonight so I’ll head bed ways and try not to feel bad about the fact that I can’t spend as much time here writing as I want to, and the fact that I am behind on my email . Please know I am reading your comments and emails and they all mean a lot to me.