Capp,

Thank God for the ability to laugh at oneself. If nothing else I still have that, and it's saved me on more than one occassion.

When I was in university I shared an office with a guy who had a great sense of humour, but was a real down to earth realist. I've always been a bit of drama queen with a hot temper, so every time I'd fly off the handle, he'd put his hands together to form a small box shape and yell "perspective" How big a deal is it really? That brought me back down to earth pretty quickly - I still try to remember the box and perspective when I feel myself getting worked up over something now.

The other thing that keeps me going, is reminding myself that it could be worse. So whenever I start feeling sorry for myself, I try to remember when it was worse, and be grateful that at least it's not that bad. I may wind up being home a lone this Christmas, but at least I won't be in the ER hooked up to a bunch of machines going through a really bad detox, which is how I spent Christmas 06.

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