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04/09/2004 Entry: "Unqualified Advice" Actually, I have delayed seeing Hellboy until tomorrow because I was invited to dinner tonight with Nate. Last night I went out to dinner with another friend who knew what I was going through, and asked for advice, because he's going through similar issues (remote relatives in poor hospital conditions). I was taken aback. He had "snapped" at work, and was freaking out about it, and I sympathized. Nothing really bad happened at my work to cause me to snap, but if I had to go through the same things he did... I might have snapped, too. But advice? I was taken aback because I felt totally unqualified. I don't think I came through this last month winning anything. I think I did a lot of ducking and curling up into a ball, wrote about it my blog, and that's about it. Oh, well, I also ran around with my arms outstretched, screaming "AAAIIIEEEEEE!!!!" I think. I felt humbly unqualified to give anyone any advice on coping skills at the moment. It reminds me of a quote from a series of humorous advice on how to prepare to be a parent of a new child: #2: Before you finally go ahead and have children of your own, find a couple who are already parents. Berate them about their methods of discipline, lack of patience, appalling low tolerance levels, and how they have allowed their children to run amok. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's sleeping habits, toilet training, table manners and overall behaviour. Enjoy it. It will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.