In today's mail was an approval letter for me to consult with the bariatric surgeon at UC San Francisco! That puts me one baby step closer. But I had an interesting experience this afternoon which makes me a little scared. One of the employees at my school is very involved with the Cambodian Buddhist Temple near our town. My mother was very interested in visiting, so I arranged for us to get a tour. The huge compound is very peaceful, and the statues are quite amazing. At the end of the tour, we were taken into an inner sanctuary, where we gave a monetary donation and an ancient monk in a saffron robe came out to bless us. He asked us to take an old book all written in Cambodian, place the book over our head and pray for what we wanted. We had to take an incense stick to divide the pages and he read to us what the page said, and interpreted the meaning. My employee translated for us. We're Jewish, so this is way different from what we're used to. My mother was told that she will be very successful in the goal she has set for herself. She wants to move back to the US permanently. I was told that a major obstacle is in front of me and I am being pursued by a hunter--someone who wants to harm me. However, the blessing would make it all work out for the good. So the monk proceeded to chant and fling water on us. (that was our blessing) I started to wonder what the heck the obstacle would be!!! I hope no more problems trying to get my sleeve done! My entire life has been one obstacle after another, and to think there are more on the way is discouraging to say the least! However, as the monk pointed out--better to know there is an obstacle that I will overcome as a result of his blessing. I'll take all the blessings I can get, from where ever they come.