I'm really quite surprised the difference it has made that I decided not to worry about what all went on at the end of college. Every once in a while, I find myself thinking about it, and I'll probe it, like you'd probe a missing tooth after having it pulled, to see if it still hurts. I'm amazed by the fact that it doesn't hurt! The more I probe, the more I'm amazed.

If I had known it was this easy, I would have made this decision a LONG time ago. How long I have wasted!

Yesterday J and I went shopping in the morning because I had a gift certificate (courtesy of my in-laws) to spend at Penney's, and she needed to get her son's photos taken. The plan was to go there and also to Costco to get items for my New Year's Eve party, but then she got a call from a friend who said she was in town, and did she want to get together?

But then J had to go back to town later that night to take her son to a Marine Corps thing (he's in the program for high schoolers who want to go into the Corps straight after graduation), and since it's a three-hour thing, she decided to stay in town the whole time. She had her daughter come over to watch Grace, and J and I went on the town!!!!!

We had Mexican for dinner, and I had a jumbo margarita. Mmmmm YUM!! So I was pretty toasted. It used to be that in college, I could keep up with the best of them. Not any longer. I've lost my ability to drink. Oh well. We also got in our Costco run, and we even went back to Penney's to look for some things for her husband before we had to retrieve her son from the recruiting office. Then we came home, and it was back to reality.

The only problem is, the night before J's daughter S had spent the night at a friend's house but had come home early because one of the girls had thrown up. Last night S watched Grace for four hours. This morning S woke up throwing up as well.

I'm nervous as all hell that we're going to get sick too, although I'm trying not to stress about it. I have a throwing-up phobia. I can't do it. I just can't. I can't see it either. Folks say, "Oh, when it's your own kid, it's fine. You'll handle it." Ummm, no. Grace had the stomach bug in the spring, I think it was, and I didn't handle it well. Once it's there, I can clean it up, but mostly I can't handle it. Thankfully Kurt was home, but now he's gone, so if she's sick I have to deal with it.

I have all my fingers AND toes crossed that since our immune systems are pretty strong (S is almost always sick) and since S was exposed to the actual vomit and Grace wasn't, that maybe we'll escape being sick.

Besides, I have a party to throw!! I can't be sick!

Wish us luck.