Today is Pastry Day.

I celebrated with a Twinkie.

sympathy for the devilish
One of my flaws (and there are many, you should know) is that I'm not too good with sympathy. I'm pretty good at giving it (when I feel like it...), but I suck at receiving sympathy.

Probably it's because I don't like to dwell on my problems. I prefer to solve them, dismiss them when I can't solve them, or put them away until I figure out how to solve them. So sympathy just tends to remind me of problems that I'm (a) busy trying to solve, or (b) resolutely not thinking about. Besides, somehow--maybe it's my personality, I don't know--it usually winds up with me comforting the person who's supposed to be doing the sympathizing. "Don't worry, it's okay," I end up saying. "I'm going to be just fine." That, or I get irritated by people offering me 'helpful' advice which I already considered and dismissed as unfeasible, like, eons ago.

Look, it's not like I'm some kind of coy person. If I want advice, I will bloody well ask for it. If I want a shoulder to lean on, I will plant my head thereon without preamble. Otherwise, all I want is for the person I'm addressing to say, "Shit, that sucks," and move on to a new topic of conversation.

Which I know is not very reasonable of me, but hey. Didn't I just say this sympathy thing isn't one of my strong points?

Anyway, the whole point of this rant is to tell you all that I haven't posted for a while because some schmuck nabbed my cell phone, and I didn't feel like talking about it. But I'm going to get paid for some projects soon, and Dean has generously offered to cover the rest of the cost for my new phone, so problem solved.

Which means I am now free to move on to new topics of conversation, and you are now officially permitted to say, "Shit, that sucks."