the allen family bermuda triangle: let the depressurization commence!

birthday girl!

the past 10 days have been crazy, worrisome, promising, unbearably stressful, and filled with family members that i adore. it has been overwhelming, to say the least. the lead up to rich giving his notice on friday was phenomenally stressful, mostly because rich has just totally dissociated himself from the process. that means it is now up to me to find and negotiate with what is, at last count, 4 attorneys that are helping us out. i'm not totally sure he knows what is going on in his life at all. i think we're in good hands, so i'm going to choose to trust them all. rich is gifted at the process of compartmentalizing unpleasant things (hence his job).

but in the middle of all this i turned 40 and had this wonderful party and had stellar houseguests--my sister lindsay and her new husband jake. friday, the day of the 40 and the day of the party, rich and i went to see two of our attorneys and left enlightened and hopeful yet fried and exhausted. so basically jake and lindsay totally carried the party prep from that moment on. they were fabulous, as always, and i was ecstatic to have them here. they made sure everything got out and stuff was picked up or decorated and kept the party moving and all that good stuff. they rock. and the party was fun, even with the rain. i have awesome friends. and relatives. and i have two tons of gifted alcohol to prove it.

the next day lindsay and i went to ten thousand waves, the most peaceful place on earth. and we were hot rocked and shiatsued and yasuragi hair massaged and just totally blissed out. and it was gooooood. i so love that place. and for a time i was relaxed and not worried about anything, and that was a gift in itself.

jake needed something cut out of his lower lid on sunday, so rich did that then he (jake) and lindsay had to return to houston. gus cried all afternoon. i'm trying so hard to convince them that this is a great place to live, but i think they remain unmoved. we miss them muchly.

after getting back to reality, i realized we had more legal stuff to attend to, there is a job i want/need to apply for, and then sophie decided to get sick. she and i spent yesterday in the pediatric urgent care, which was a total waste of time. we drew possibly the worst doctor i have ever had the misfortune of seeing, and thankfully she is doing better today (no thanks to dr. lethargic). he was a prick and i'm fairly sure i could have done a better job medically than he did. my ph.d. snobbiness came out in full force when i started thinking a monkey could do his job at least as well as he was doing it.

anyway, gus' best friend, george, moved back to england this past weekend so between that and jake and lindsay's leaving it was just a sucky time for him. it is so hard to leave, but even harder to be left. gus is really feeling everyone's absence acutely. gus' camp-o-rama forges on with a cool one this week--eco adventures at the museum of natural history--so he is happier.

so that's where we are. and hopefully we will all depressurize fully in the very near future.