Well, I seem to be better. I slathered some hydrocortisone on it and my color returned to normal by the next day. Thanks to everyone who wrote in with advice! Much appreciated.

So I finished my Christmas Shopping today, so that's out of the way. It will all be shipped to Florida ahead of my arrival, wrapped n' ready to go. Ahh, the Wonder of Amazon.com.

I'm looking forward to the trip home, and two whole weeks off from work.

I'm also feeling reflective, as usual, and I've found that I don't feel 'stagnant' anymore. For awhile there it was just a blur of the same old routine. Now that I've scheduled this surgery though, I feel like I'm going somewhere- it's not just a star on the horizon that I never seem to get any closer to.

It's only five months! And then it's only a short hop and skip to SRS, and then... Hmm, haven't thought that far ahead yet. I'm guessing it won't be dramatically different, but maybe I'll finally be a bit closer to finding peace.