My brother Michael's birthday was yesterday. He's four years older than me. I hope it was happy for him.

Time seems to be speeding up. I hope this is a good thing, but things in my life seem to be piling up. I know the best way to get everything done is to focus on only a few things at a time. Eventually it all gets done, but stress is the biggest deterrent. I can usually tell when I'm stressed because I have a bad habit of pulling hangnails instead of clipping them which leads to minor but consistent discomfort. I think it is a subconscious way that I remind myself to slow down and take care of myself. I find this "syndrome" will only last about a week if I pay attention to the pain and take better care of my nails.