It's not a cry you can hear at night, it's not somebody who's seen the light...

Oh, Donna Noble. <3 I can't wait to watch it all again with Alison!

/Doctor Who

I have to do Christmas shopping for my niece and nephews. I should figure out what to get them! On Friday I am going to Missoula to spend a few days there with my Pants. It's a very timely visit. Her cat, Cassie just died of kidney failure. I am so crushed. When I was roommates with Jayann, Cassie lived there too. She was the cutest little Burmese. Once I was eating buffalo wings and she jumped up, stole one of the bones, and ran away from me. I ran after her and Jayann laughed so hard as we both charged into the room, her scrambling away and me yelling. Cassie was awesome. So tiny and ballsy. I was so looking forward to seeing her again. Such a lovely little girl <3

Today was actually lovely, despite my sincere hate for the day. I have always hated Thanksgiving. I used to get sick on it every year and my mother used to say my body was objecting to the holiday as much as my mind was. But it was nice to be with family I haven't seen in years, including my nephew Sean who is like 12 feet tall now, I swear. Even my step-sister who can be a Sourface McFussypants was in pleasant spirits. She actually seemed interested in my life. SHOCKER. And my nieces were good, amusing fun as always.

Then I came back online and found out my former boss, Doreen, passed away today. I worked under her in Australia and we had our ups and downs, but that was because she knew I was capable of awesomeness. So when I wasn't being awesome, she informed me. And bless her for it. When I said I might want to move, she supported me every single step of the way. She helped me apply, she sent a glowing letter of recommendation along, she checked in with me every day to see how I was doing with the decision since it was a pretty big one... She let Lewi and me housesit while she was on vacation once so we could get out of his parents house for a week. She treated me like I mattered and frankly, sometimes in Australia I needed to know that since Lewi and only a few others ever did. And she had no reason to go out of her way for me. She just did. She was a damn classy lady. I am so sad to know I'll never see her again. Not only was she classy, she was hilarious and fun.

When I got accepted to University of Canterbury, she cried and hugged me. She made everyone applaud me when I left. She made work feel like a second home. She was amazing and she will be so missed.