I want to update on the various frets—and if you have updates on YOUR frets, I would like to hear them.

HENRY SUCCESSFULLY VOTED. He said he was ferried from one elderly volunteer to the next, and he credits the “limitless patience” of a volunteer delightfully named Pearl, who was, in her youth, a student at the same college Henry currently attends, and in fact lived in the same dorm where he currently lives. She got him all set up, and Henry sent a photo of himself with the I Voted sticker. (Wouldn’t it have been great if he’d taken a selfie with Pearl?? That might not be allowed. But WOULDN’T IT HAVE BEEN GREAT??) I feel a little odd about him being registered where he goes to school instead of here at home, but it won’t come up very often, and it sure will make voting easier for him. And if he were to transfer to a different college or something, he could just change his registration, so it’s okay, it’s okay, it doesn’t need to take root as a new fret.

The midterms are over and I am just dazed. I’d thought this was going to be another Lucy-yanking-away-the-football: I’d thought this was going to be yet another situation where the news seizes on any tiny bit of drama in order to Generate Content, and that all the hope for a Blue Wave was going to be, after the fact, discussed as if it never had a chance and we were all fools to think it did. But instead!! …Well, instead, now I have to fret that the Democrats will not DO ANYTHING with this win, that they have become the party of Vigorous Objections and will not know what to do with their newfound ability to Take Actual Action.

A new fret: I mailed the twins’ Halloween care packages on October 21st, using USPS Priority Mail. They were expected to arrive October 24th; they arrived November 4th. They spent TWELVE DAYS sitting in a “distribution center” in the same city where the twins go to school. I know the estimated delivery dates are “not guaranteed,” but I feel like this is a MEANINGFUL DIFFERENCE. I don’t know what we’re supposed to do about Christmas mailing. I guess I have to finally figure out how to switch to UPS. I used UPS once, and they added like forty dollars of fees ON TOP OF the shipping costs of two Christmas boxes (something about me using the UPS mailing facility and not having a UPS account?), so I was kind of Never Again, but it looks like I need to reconsider.

I ended up feeling VERY HAPPY that I’d placed that Nuts.com order for Paul’s sister’s birthday. PRE- and MID-ordering, I’d felt some resentment and some stubbornness; AFTER ordering, I was so relieved I hadn’t let that cloud my judgment about What Ought To Be Done. Like: it’s 100% true that Paul should have been the one doing it. But that doesn’t mean Paul’s sister should have her 50th birthday go unmarked—and Paul’s sister is my family too. I do think Paul feels benevolently toward his sister, and also that Paul is Not Good at gift-thinking or gift-ordering or occasion-remembering. Should Paul be better at all those things? Yes. IS he? No. Are those strengths of mine, and do I in fact LIKE TO DO THEM?? Yes. Would I be DISAPPOINTED on some level if Paul took on some of those tasks? YES. So. I am going to save my resentment and stubbornness for the tasks I DON’T like to do.

Also: Paul’s sister direct-messaged ME to thank me for the box and the card, even though both were marked as being from Paul and me, and she did not message Paul. Paul’s sister knows what’s what.

And if I can tease the next post: I FINALLY SAW A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL WHO IS GOING TO HELP WITH HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY, and I am basically in love with her, and I will tell you more next time. Right now I have to go PICK UP MY NEW PRESCRIPTIONS.