Hooray for Purgatory!

The Dante's Inferno Test has sent you to Purgatory!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	High
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	High
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Low
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Very Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Low
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Moderate
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Very Low

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

Denial!

Today at work someone reminded me that we're halfway through the fourth quarter. I thought about how much paperwork I have to do, how many meetings I have to attend, and how long my list of errands is that must be completed before the end of the year. I tapped my chin and uttered these insightful, thoughtful words.

"Yeah...I'm gonna go home and not think about that."

I also ate a cream puff later.

I'm the best speech pathologist ever!

Irritation

I think Liz is settling into this pattern of contacting me about every two weeks. She did it again around 1:30 this morning.

1 grandpa froze to death, other burned to death, i got abused as a child, had abusive boyfriend...You few months after 2nd round w- mark

Are on major dating spree, within shortly after engaged. Bryan hurt me but i'm getting help! i feel sorry for you! i hope you get help!!!

I just feel sorry for you! now that i'm on meds & me again, i see how bitter, angry & insecure you truely are! you really need help!

These were messages sent from her phone to my email. Her text messages are always kinda incomprehensible to me so it took me awhile to figure out what exactly she meant. What she's referring to are all the guys I dated after dating Marc.

Yeah. Tons.

Let's see...I dated Eric last April, but that lasted barely a month. Then from June until late August I didn't date anyone. In the fall I went on two dates with a guy named Chris, three or four dates with my friend Dave, and three dates with a guy named Charlie. In late October I went on my first date with Mike, and from then on it was only him. When he proposed it had been almost a year since I'd broken up with Marc. Six guys in a year isn't really a "spree."

It's so frustrating. I've been sitting and wondering who she's telling about me. Her therapist? Her friends? Who is she telling about this poor misguided soul that used to be her friend? The more disturbing question is, who's helping her spin reality into this scenario she's created where she's the brave survivor and I'm the tramp? I know I shouldn't care, but...I do. It hurts. It distracts me at work. I mean, who wouldn't be hurt from hearing, "You need help!" over and over. And that I'm bitter, angry, and insecure. I guess that hits home because yesterday I was thinking about how desensitized I'd become working at the high school. And Lord knows I sometimes get angry about what my kids face. But that's not quite the same thing...is it?

And the thing about her two grandfathers...jeez. Not only is it irrelevent from the rest of the message, I think that both her grandfathers died either while she was very young or before she was born, or that she knew them only slightly. She's always been drawn to the drama of having two opposite, violent deaths in her family.

It's not quite restraining-order material yet, I think.

Damn.

Bicycling

Yesterday I bought a bike. I actually have a bike already, an ancient Schwinn that's from the 1960s that I got at a thrift store. Unfortunately when Mike and I dragged it out of my parents' shed a few weeks ago we found that it was in rough shape...rougher shape than it was when I had it in grad school. After a cursory look-over Mike estimated that a tune-up and new wheels would cost around $100, so when I saw this new bike on sale for that same price I decided to get it. I'm going to bike this summer, and if I get really into it I'll rehab the Schwinn. If I don't, well, it's still nice to have a usable bike around. Biking is something that Mike loves, so it'll be nice to have an activity to do with him.

I brought the bike home with me because there's a bike path not too far from my apartment building, and I envisioned myself coming home from work and shedding my stress (and a few pounds) with a long, leisurely bike ride down that shady path.

Now, we have a bike path in the city where I work. It's actually the same path, which is very long and runs from Wisconsin to Chicago. And where I work, it's not a nice path. People get shot on that path. Of course, the entire city where I work is not nice, so today at Easter dinner I asked around to see if this bike-path-danger is an exception or a rule.

Um. Looking like a rule. My aunt looked slightly uncomfortable and said there had been a few "incidents" on the stretch of path that I'd be riding on, and recommended that I find somewhere else to ride.

So, as much as I'd love to ride on that path, I think it's better to skip it. A kevlar vest would only weigh me down.