Things are tough all over
This has been a rough week.
Thing the first: we had to have my beloved Yama put to sleep on Monday morning.
As I wrote about here, he'd been diagnosed with kidney failure on Tuesday of last week. I could tell you the facts and figures of his illness, but I am sick of talking about how he suffered. Suffice it to say, on Sunday night it became clear to us what the most humane choice was. Matt, because he is a dear, is the one who brought him in while I was at work on Monday. I'm a little sad I couldn't be with him to the end, but also sort of relieved. I think it would have been too much for me to bear.
I get some comfort in knowing that we gave him nearly a decade that he might not have otherwise had. We adopted him from the adoption center at the Petsmart in Salem, NH in 2004, where the staff had named him "Sunshine." He had been bounced back to the shelter once already, and all signs (broken teeth, scarred ears) point to him having a rough life before he came to us. He had many health and behavioral problems, and was in many ways the most challenging of my cats.
But it still breaks my heart to think of his sweet little face, with its perpetually confused expression on it.
Good night, my dim but affable prince.
--
Thing the second: On the same day, I got a call from my doctor's office. My cholesterol was high (no surprise there), and they wanted to put me on statins.
I... just couldn't deal with it at the moment. It was another reminder of my corporeality, and as we all know, my life is lived largely in my head. I had plenty of logical reasons why I thought this wasn't a good idea, but most of them just hid denial and more denial.
In the end, I think it's probably the right thing for me to do. It's not a perfect solution, but then, nothing is in medicine. But it doesn't make me happy to be on yet another medication.
--
Thing the third: casting the run of Cracks at Intercon M. On top of at least one dingo*, I had another of my favorite types of players: the person who expressed almost no preferences, and said they would enjoy almost anything--but then was unhappy with their role when they got a character hint.
What should we call this type of person? I'm leaning towards another Australian animal. Kookaburra?
I mean, I'm somewhat sympathetic to this person; the character they ended up with is still one of the weaker characters in Cracks, and I'll be doing more to shore up their plot before character sheets go out. But if you feel strongly about character trope X, you should mention it in your app, even if I haven't asked about it. There are plenty of people who do want to play this trope, and had I known, I could have cast this person elsewhere, instead of feeling obliged to rewrite the character to suit this person's needs.
* dingo (n; plural: dingos) someone who has signed up for your game but clearly wants none of the elements that are in your game. In this case it was the person who didn't want romance or the wargame and wanted to be a "non-central" character. Coined by acousticshadow2 and myself a couple of years ago.
... Oh, and I had a migraine for most of yesterday.
In general, my predominant feeling these days is an urge to crawl into bed, pull the covers over my head, and never come up--with just a pinch of "Why am I so afraid that everyone's going to hate me?" for added piquancy.
Thing the first: we had to have my beloved Yama put to sleep on Monday morning.
As I wrote about here, he'd been diagnosed with kidney failure on Tuesday of last week. I could tell you the facts and figures of his illness, but I am sick of talking about how he suffered. Suffice it to say, on Sunday night it became clear to us what the most humane choice was. Matt, because he is a dear, is the one who brought him in while I was at work on Monday. I'm a little sad I couldn't be with him to the end, but also sort of relieved. I think it would have been too much for me to bear.
I get some comfort in knowing that we gave him nearly a decade that he might not have otherwise had. We adopted him from the adoption center at the Petsmart in Salem, NH in 2004, where the staff had named him "Sunshine." He had been bounced back to the shelter once already, and all signs (broken teeth, scarred ears) point to him having a rough life before he came to us. He had many health and behavioral problems, and was in many ways the most challenging of my cats.
But it still breaks my heart to think of his sweet little face, with its perpetually confused expression on it.
Good night, my dim but affable prince.
--
Thing the second: On the same day, I got a call from my doctor's office. My cholesterol was high (no surprise there), and they wanted to put me on statins.
I... just couldn't deal with it at the moment. It was another reminder of my corporeality, and as we all know, my life is lived largely in my head. I had plenty of logical reasons why I thought this wasn't a good idea, but most of them just hid denial and more denial.
In the end, I think it's probably the right thing for me to do. It's not a perfect solution, but then, nothing is in medicine. But it doesn't make me happy to be on yet another medication.
--
Thing the third: casting the run of Cracks at Intercon M. On top of at least one dingo*, I had another of my favorite types of players: the person who expressed almost no preferences, and said they would enjoy almost anything--but then was unhappy with their role when they got a character hint.
What should we call this type of person? I'm leaning towards another Australian animal. Kookaburra?
I mean, I'm somewhat sympathetic to this person; the character they ended up with is still one of the weaker characters in Cracks, and I'll be doing more to shore up their plot before character sheets go out. But if you feel strongly about character trope X, you should mention it in your app, even if I haven't asked about it. There are plenty of people who do want to play this trope, and had I known, I could have cast this person elsewhere, instead of feeling obliged to rewrite the character to suit this person's needs.
* dingo (n; plural: dingos) someone who has signed up for your game but clearly wants none of the elements that are in your game. In this case it was the person who didn't want romance or the wargame and wanted to be a "non-central" character. Coined by acousticshadow2 and myself a couple of years ago.
... Oh, and I had a migraine for most of yesterday.
In general, my predominant feeling these days is an urge to crawl into bed, pull the covers over my head, and never come up--with just a pinch of "Why am I so afraid that everyone's going to hate me?" for added piquancy.