Ooh, good to hear that they do sell smaller bags of dirt, thanks for the tip. I should have gone out and looked this weekend, but I also need a pot, and the ginger, and to read up online and make sure ginger doesn't need anything special from me. And... you know... I have no energy these days, so that sounds like a whole lot of work to me, sadly!

But it is super cool to watch things grow, and having a little ginger plant in my office might bring some cheerfulness (and cleaner air!). So I should really do it.

The way your mom personalizes things sounds almost a bit narcissistic, maybe? Maybe it's the idea that people are making decisions specifically to hurt her, as opposed to not really basing their lives around her, which is more likely

That's funny (and good) that the CEO stepped in and took care of the issue with the secretary. Good for him/her! And, good for you, for dumping some of the more stressful and un-fun boards! I kind of think that life's just too short for stuff like that, where you aren't enjoying it and aren't feeling appreciated at all. Not worth it.

Hmmm interesting thought that they would have just told me. Do you really think that? I thought they might be reluctant to say anything, since I was being referred by a friend, and maybe they didn't want to offend her, or me? But maybe you're right, it would have been pretty easy to say, "Oh, we looked at her work... it wasn't really what we were expecting. It seems like her skills aren't going to be a good match for us." Maybe it is just disorganization.

Yeah, the stuff I'm doing now is pretty tedious. It's really frustrating to get praised for doing a great PowerPoint presentation when I know I can actually do real work.

You're absolutely right about therapy, the costs, and doing something fun. But, after I told him I wanted to take a break - I spent days crying and ended up emailing him to go back next week. Ugh. It makes me feel more crazy.

Speaking of boards... we're actually having our once a year condo meeting this week on Tuesday! I didn't think I was going to be able to make it, but a bunch of stuff has shifted in my schedule, so I will make it. They're raising our fees *again* this year. I really want to push them on this, it feels like the board doesn't care at all about the HOA fee. It just goes up and up and up. It's now over $300/m (!!!) - (I don't remember exactly, but when I moved in 7 years ago it was ~$240 or so, I think.)

It just seems ridiculous, and like it's going to bring down the values of our properties even more (harder to sell when there's a high monthly fee attached forever.) I'm really disappointed in them but I'm not sure how to bring it up in a way that will be *effective*?

Hope you enjoyed the weekend! I tried to use spray foam for the first time! I hope that some of it actually stuck to the wall/pipe... because a lot of it just fell right down to the floor. Ick! It was strangely harder than I expected!