Dear Ferret Folks- This is not going to be one of my funny posts. I have my dead serious moments and this is one of them. As many of you know, I struggle with manic-depression. As if happens, for me, this is the most venerable time of the year. It is when I have to take the greatest amounts of anti-psychotic drugs to keep on an even keel. My illness is tightly tied to the photo period. As we move into fall, the days become markedly shorter and I won't be under so much psychic "pressure." (Nope. That's winter depression season and it's *much* easier to deal with than mania!) Right now, I really need *not* to be dealing with the FML controversy over how much blame I should accept for the loss of Switch and Ping. I have enough guilt all on my own, I don't need any ham-handed amateurs trying to add to it, because I assure you they are not nearly as cruel as the videos playing twentyfour\seven in the theater of my mind. This morning I had approximately two hundred messages in my in-box asking me to please not leave the FML. I like making people happy. I am, no kidding, astounded that so many people are upset at the thought of losing my stories. I don't know what to *do* with this. I don't know how it should make me feel. But right now, I need to focus on other things. I don't like saying "I'm going to quit" and then changing my mind as if I had just done it to get attention or sympathy. I strongly dislike that kind of dilettante behavior in others. I have more attention right now that I can handle. Can I make a comprise with my FML friends? (I was the least liked kid in grade school. Last to be picked for basketball and I have "fans?" I remember when I supposedly had cooties. Big ones.) Is it OK if I take a break from the FML long enough to get past this psychiatric season of discontent and then come back, say, around November? I am not reading the FML. I need not to be reading the FML. Please don't send me any more FML's you think I should see. Please don't send me any excerpts saying what a good ferret mommy I am. Thank you for your many kind words of support, those who have e-mailed me over the last few days.You have truly, completely, blown what little is left of my mind. (But in a nice way.) Alexandra in MA Page 449, always a good read. [Posted in FML 6089]