I'm really glad it's Friday.

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There's apparently some stomach bug going around down here. And I kind of suspect that's what's making my stomach oogy (though it could just as easily be "female stuff"). Yeah, my stomach's still not happy...kind of queasy, and I really don't want to eat, and I ESPECIALLY don't want to eat anything spicy or fatty. I've kind of been managing with stuff like applesauce and crackers and breakfast cereal.

I guess I should be glad it isn't worse; I haven't thrown up or anything. But then again, the fact that I eat a ton of plain yogurt "with live active cultures" probably helps protect me against some of the stomach baddies. (Ecological competition in action.)

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AAUW meeting was last night. It was hard, because this was a group Dorothy was a big part of. I actually caught myself once yesterday morning thinking, "I should call her and see if she wants a ride." Oh, wait. No. Sigh.

It's been just over a month since she died. I think I'm taking this harder than I expected for two reasons:

1. She was the first person I really knew well here, the first person who made me feel welcome.

2. I had kind of cast her in the role of "replacement grandmother" (even though, I suppose, technically, she was maybe a bit young). Both my grandmothers died a long time ago (one has been gone 25 years, the other nearly 20). And Dorothy reminded me a bit of my maternal grandmother, with the feistiness and the independence and the tendency to speak her mind even if it was a little blunt.

This has been a brutal year for losses. One of my colleagues is gone right now because his mother died. And my Aunt Deb lost her mother a couple weeks ago.

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I need to go home this afternoon and cut quilt pieces. Not "need" in the sense of it being a deadline-thing or an "I am doing this for someone else and they expect it" thing, but a "need" in the sense of "my world will feel more right while I am taking time to do this" or "this is the one thing I can think of that will make me happy right now."