F.I.N.E., thanks.

I'm on my second cup of coffee and things are going swimmingly. It's sunny today and almost balmy, and I spent a long while contemplating the surf before heading down to work this morning. The day seems full of opportunity, and in my stomach is a pit of worry. I have a surgery scheduled today, and I am frightened of it. It's going to be uncomfortable, sure, but they make things to take care of that. It's more about what it means, not what it is, that is the rub. That, and I'd really like to go out in life with all the parts I came in with. At this point, I'm down by two tonsils and some scar tissue; I'd really meant to hold the line with those three things but have failed again. Is it because I am broken, or because I was never broken?

Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer, but wish we didn't.

Thought of the Day, Confidential to Newt: We don't have to become our parents, but we have to accept having made ourselves in their image before we can reject them and remake ourselves. They're good people, and happy in their own way; they had the best of intentions. We're not failing them by failing to become them. It is our job as children to surpass them, and that is the challenge.