stories!  that's what I was originally going to write about today, before writing an unrelated post that got lost in cyberland.

First one:  This took place around freshman year of college.  I was 'up north,' camping w/ my then-boyfriend's extended family.  That was a big draw for me- being accepting like one of their own.  One night, they were playing this board game that they'd created, and right in the middle of it, I started crying, but wouldn't talk about it, so just left.  It was a combination of my pride and the overwhelming feeling from the family being so close and having so deep of connections- it was too much.  So there's not much more to that story.  I just think it illustrates one of the classic ways I've 'dealt.'  You could call it 'turtle mode.'

Maybe I'm trying too hard, but I can't think of any funny stories.  I have fun all the time, and that includes w/ other people (as opposed to solely in my imagination).
There is a group moving into the office across the hall (we're the only two offices on this floor), and they've been tearing it apart and pulling it together for a few months now.  Today, they were especially productive, or at least moved several large pieces.  I just returned to my desk a short while ago, and someone placed a conference-room chair near our entrance, and left.  It looked like a peace-offering, and it made me smile.  Now there are two other chairs with it.  They look the chairs here, so I wonder if they borrowed them?  I would hope that if they had, and are returning them, that someone would come in and say something, instead of leaving it on the 'front porch.'  Seems like the polite thing to do!

I want to write a formula.  Boundaries and calculations and numbers are comforting.  I've been thinking about habits and how things tend to naturally progress, but in some ways don't.  Sometimes I feel so old and like a dog who's forgotten its old tricks.  Except that I'm not old, and it's hard to believe what (auto-pilot) zones I get into.  That, and I'm not a dog, and it's more like riding a bike than doing something in response to a command.  It's probably the shy/scared part of me that's freaking out and closing up and being more tense than I want to be.  With walls up, I may be protected from the cold and hail, but I also can't feel the sunshine or wind...