Minor Investments

As noted briefly last night, I was unable to pick Tuffy up from the vet at lunchtime today. I was in a seminar all day called "Investments in Excellence," a business-oriented self-actualization seminar full of cognitive psychology concepts about affirmations and changing your tapes and such. I'm not ready to write about this in any depth, partly because I haven't yet decided what I think of it. I've got tomorrow's continuation to get through yet, and two more days in December. As a psychologist's daughter, I'm already somewhat familiar with this stuff. It was my mom's preferred form of therapy, and I've done my best to coach at least one friend to apply such concepts in the past, specifically trying to get her to replace her defeatist self-pity and self-abasement with more positive thoughts about herself, and what she can do to make things better. On the other hand, there's a certain amount of silly jargon involved (e.g. "efficaciousness" instead of "effectiveness"), and a definite element of magical thinking. I'll have more to say once I've had more time to take in what they have to say and mull it over.

Pressed to participate in discussions about goals and attitudes and such, I naturally mentioned the novels several times today. The truth is that there's a lot more I can and should be doing, and I've let fear, discouragement, depression, distractions and Doctor Who get in the way. (Anyone know a word for "fear" that starts with a D?) Rather than let this neglect of my novels continue, I did put in some time and effort tonight on Heirs Chapter One, with some success. There are still some bits that bother me, but I'm not sure how much is really in need of fixing, and how much is just my inner weasel. Perhaps my beta readers will be able to help me out on that one. But at least I did something, instead of making the usual excuses for not doing it.


Tuffy really didn't want to be at the vet at all today, let alone for nine hours, but it was her fourth and last radiation treatment, and we're hoping it will all have been worth our time and money, Tuffy's fear and discomfort, and the vets' and technicians' efforts. The vet and her assistants were gone for the evening when I got there, but the paperwork says that her tongue "is showing some mile ulceration secondary to the radiation therapy." It also says to bring her in two weeks from now to see whether that has cleared up. I don't know whether that's part of the initial $2000 cost that was estimated for all this, but I do know the radiation hasn't come to nearly that much money so far.

Back at home, Tuffy was as hungry as I've seen her. She's eaten two of those Cesar dog food portions since getting home tonight, plus some Lunchables ham and cheese, pepperoni and (unless she buried them) dog biscuits! Hooray!

That's all I have to say tonight, because of the whole need-to-sleep-now thing. Except: there was some good news today from the BBC. Rose Tyler, the "companion" character who was a huge part of the success of the revived Doctor Who in 2005 and 2006, will be appearing in three episodes next year, despite having been trapped "forever" on a parallel Earth in the 2006 series finale. Apparently fans saw her filming in Cardiff, and posted pictures to Outpost Gallifrey. From there it was picked up by a British newspaper or two, and the BBC felt compelled to make an announcement. I'm not sure how I feel about that. It's great that the character's coming back (and not displacing her successors), and kind of neat that fans broke the story. But I think I would have preferred to be shocked and stunned when she turned up in an episode, with no advance warning. Ah, well!

Karen