[scareme]

Mr. Awful, I can't say I know you from the few paragraphs you've shared with us, but if you don't mind, can I take a stab at this. There was a lot of turmoil, so your Halloween got off to a rocky start. But then you had a really good time. If you think about it, the time you enjoyed the most is when is when you were making other people happy. I know it sounds corny, but the more you thought about yourself, the more unhappy you became. You wanted to feel special on your birthday. But didn't you feel even more special when you were making Halloween night exciting for others. You really do enjoy yourself more when you are thinking about others, and not yourself. And I understand it's hard because your circle of people is a small one. But when you are at the restaurant, in stead of thinking how lousy it is, and it's easy to feel that way, try making someone else in the place smile. It will make you smile. Make a kid laugh, it's takes your mind off focusing on how bad you feel. I know I come off like a Pollyanna, but a couple of years ago I was in the hospital for my February birthday. People kept saying . that's to bad. I said "What's bad?" I got breakfast in bed. Someone else did the dishes. I got to lay around watching TV instead of going to work. I had fresh strawberries with my dinner tray. Growing up in Iowa in the 60's, I never had fresh strawberries on my birthday. Screw the IV's and the breathing treatments, I had fresh strawberries! I don't know if this helped you or not, but I'd really like to see a picture of that costume. It must have been a pretty good one to get so much attention.

PS I'm writing this from my hospital bed, again. But the good news is I didn't get sick until after Halloween. Yeah! I got to make 700 tots happy this year.