How does the computer keep eating your responses?!

I have no idea about my mom's husband, as far as *why* he's so creepy. I don't think he's actually super creepy all the time, it's just this boundary thing - I can't deal with it at all. I don't know. It's really frustrating, and kind of points to part of the problem with me and my mom - first, that THIS is the type of person she is attracted to and second, she has no inclination to help/protect me. The thing with the purse was just surreal, and she really just did not care at all. It was unbelievable.

Ooh! Thanks for the tip on being loud, that makes sense. I'm going to have to figure out how I can do that... since when I'm freaking out, I generally get quiet and don't have a lot of mental processing going on. I just shut down. In some situations (i.e. getting through random pawing by the TSA - ick) it works, since not making a scene gets the whole thing over faster, but it would be nice to be able to have some agency and make noise when needed...

Oh, YAY! I'm glad that so far your mom hasn't mentioned the event! How much longer do you have to wait? Maybe it's near enough that if it comes up, and she asks about going with you, you could say that you'd already made other plans?

High strung... I'm honestly not sure if it's gotten better or worse as I've gotten older. Some things have certainly gotten better, I think? But, I don't know how much of that is a result of being more and more isolated as I get older (i.e. avoiding things that would have bugged me before). I like your point that reality isn't going to change. Maybe some if it is just starting to anticipate that people are going to screw up, so at least I'm not surprised by it!

re: Experience. I don't know. I think if I could find a job on the research side, I'd feel more confident about that. I've done a ton of research, and feel like I could jump in and be useful and confident pretty early on (though I do worry about not having a strong background in statistics!). But the design side is harder, because I really, truly haven't had enough design projects to start to feel like I know what I'm doing. And, all the tech stuff changes so quickly. I'm very comfortable designing for the web - because I grew up with the web and have lived/breathed it forever, plus I used to do design/dev for the web. But all the mobile stuff - is like a foreign language. It's a whole new set of design paradigms that I haven't really figured out yet. And then people start talking about whether it's going to be native or responsive, Apple or Android, and ugh... so not fun!

re: Pictures... ahhh! Yeah, I kind of know what you mean about forgetting what people look like, in the sense of actually being able to create a picture in your head. But, it's not like you've lost all sense of the person, or lost the ability to recognize them. And, she's my *mother*. She's known me for decades. She's not going to forget me , I'm pretty confident of that!

Nope! My boss didn't say anything about my email. So depressing. I had another meeting today, in person for a project. It was a good meeting overall, but I got talked over a lot. I find it really hard to get a word in at all. Everyone is talking over each other, interrupting, and basically being very loud. I feel totally irrelevant. At one point, I asked a question to verify that I understood something someone had said - and the person who answered me kept talking, and talking, and talking for way too long. Do you know people like that? Like... she answered the question, and I understood the answer and was happy, but then she wouldn't stop talking - she kept rephrasing the answer, like 4 or 5 different ways!!! I nodded vigorously, told her "I understand", "I got it.", "Yup, yup, yup - that makes sense" - but she just wouldn't stop rephrasing the answer! I was totally stumped, and bored! I wanted to say, "OMG PLEASE STOP! I understood the first time! You don't have to explain it 5 different ways!!!!"

This was the same person who started telling a story at the end of the meeting, and just went on and on and on... I was waiting for the end so I could politely leave, but I ended up just getting up and leaving (!!!). Even then, I tried to interrupt and say goodbye, and she was still going! When I was half out the door, everyone finally said goodbye to me!

Maybe she's just a talker! But, I wish I knew a better way to manage these interactions.

Video Port guy... you know, I can almost see him as a character in a comic strip! Or maybe, specifically, a character in Dilbert . "Quick, duck! Video port guy is on the loose, and he's bored!"

OH! And, I was looking for another internal group that does ux research... and found one. They look lovely, very research-oriented and they're working on some very cool futuristic things. And... they're in a city near my mom (different state from me.) I am heartbroken! I can't move there, I don't really like the state, and don't want to be that close to my mom. So frustrating!