I survived my trip to…

I survived my trip to UPS and the grocery store! (And only got honked at once, when I was slow crossing an intersection (the other street was much broader, and I just couldn't quite see whether there were any cars coming)). I also managed to park my car in Kev's parking spot (inside the building), which was quite a feat. Lots of tight turns. I brought it in mostly so I could easily transport the mass of groceries (tons of fruit and veggies and juice) up to the apartment -- there wasn't any parking close to nearby. There usually isn't around lunch and dinnertime. I was just lucky that Kevin was out today, *with* his car -- he mostly only takes it when he's going down to Hyde Park, not when he's just going in to the U of I campus. I'm not quite done with driving yet for the day; I''ll go out in half an hour or so and move the car to a street spot, probably a few blocks away. But that's all back streets with little traffic, so I'm not too worried about that.

I suspect there will be many small driving triumphs in the days to come. Hopefully no driving catastrophes. The goal for the next six months -- stop being scared of driving my car. We'll see how I do.

Before I go back to work, I wanted to pass along some info from Greg von Eekhout, a fine sf writer and apparently a font of knowledge as well:

"You may be interested to know that oxytocin, a hormone thought to be associated with maternal, social, sexual, learning and stress behaviors, is sometimes referred to as the 'cuddle hormone.' Laboratory animals who have their oxytocin receptors blocked have been shown to neglect their own offspring. And some studies have also linked oxytocin to the relief of nausea. So there may be a scientifically sound explanation for why being held alleviates your queasiness."

Aha! Thanks, Greg! That's much more reassuring than auras, I assure you.

Downing a big glass of OJ and going back to the e-Book reading. Hope you're having good days, munchkins.