Paper thin.

I spent a lot of time listening to John Hiatt's "Paper Thin" today. It seemed apropos.

I'm tired. Real life continues its inexorable pace, regardless of the guava's presence, and I have to keep up with it. I'm short on sleep today, and I can tell; my head hurts, and I just feel worn around the edges.

On the other hand, it was a great weekend. I took my daughter to a live show she REALLY wanted to see ("This Is Night Vale" Live) and she had a glorious time; I had fun as well. Then Sunday I spent with a friend, in his back yard, drinking too many beers and shooting the shit. Just an ordinary day that I desperately needed; it restored some semblance of normalcy that I really enjoyed, at least for a little while.

A lot of people have asked how they can help. While I expect nothing from anyone save their good wishes, if you wish to do something more concrete, B. and I worked out a list of things we will need over the next few months (or need sooner than that) and I've posted it in a Page (called, amazingly enough, "How you can help"; it's off to the right) on this website. If you feel moved to do so, take a look at it. Some of it does require some context; my surgery is tentatively in January, as y'all know. I will be in recovery through February.

We get a German exchange student in March.

There are a WHOLE lot of things I was supposed to help do to get ready for said exchange student (a young lady named Kat, from somewhere in the Schwarzwald; just what we need, another Kat) that I will be unable to do. So that's adding yet another level of panic to what is already a seven-layer cake of running in circles and hyperventilating. Thus, the rather This-Old-House-ish tone to some of the things we're asking for help with...

Blessings, my friends.