Only 2 Hours Left . . .
 

It closed at over $50K.

Some bastard just paid 50 big ones to be tormented by someone's lingering bad karma. That just rocks!

not7y(go Ducks)S

Banning babies
 

Hey, no offense meant, but you remind me of this woman who works at my firm: senior associate, will probably make partner first try, really well respected, really attractive, great body, but very concerned about finding Superman. If she got a little less intense for a second, she would find a great guy and be happy; she can't.

If something means something to you, do it. Get pregnant, if you can and you want to. Single mother homes are normal now. If you can't get pregnant, adopt a kid. There are plenty. Sure, some might be of a different race or creed than you, or a toddler instead of an infant, but it's a melting pot, remember? If you are so worried about the child being of your own womb, there are a lot of dorks out there. Find one, and have kids with him. Don't want to marry out of neccessity? Then childbearing must not be as important to you as you think it is.

Anyway, I am not trying to be critiical. I am just amazed by this phenomenon of strong, great, yet needy women unable overcome some sort of base reproductive instinct even as they excel at their careers. In my co-worker's case, and in your case, it doesn't seem like you even want kids. You just need to want a kid.

mm(glad that the instincts of the human male still exhibited today are far more stupid and banal than evolutionariliy necessary)m

curious restaurant practice
 

Went out to dinner a couple of nights ago with some friends. Decent place -- not really expensive, but not TGI Friday's cheap. One friend asked to have the remainder of her meal packaged to go (the old doggie bag). Rather than take her plate, they brought out a styrofoam carton for her to place the rest of her meal in. Struck me as odd, as I'd never seen that before. She said that restaurants do this so people don't worry about tainted food. Of course, if they're going to do something nasty to your food, they could just as easily do it in serving it in the first place.

Anyway, do I not get out enough, and has this become standard practice? Or is this simply a restaurant that should quickly drop off my list of places to go?

Banning babies
 

I would have to respectfully disagree but YMMV depending on the child. I went back to work full-time when my rugrat was 8 weeks old*. He went to daycare and I pumped. Every morning I provided bottles of breastmilk to the daycare staff. He is 5 now and it doesn't seem to have damaged him to be away from me at 2 months old (of course, it was a kick-ass and uber expensive daycare so he probably got better care there than my weary ass was capable of). That being said, he has never had a sitter outside of working hours -- we use our discretion and simply don't attend adult-only events.



*It is Friday and I am looking forward to a good weekend so let's hope that this does not invite a daylong tirade from everyone about what a rotten mom I am for going back to work after 8 weeks. I am the family's main breadwinner and didn't have the luxury of taking any more time off. Rest assured that I carry around enough working-mom guilt so your comments can't make me feel any worse but the thread would probably bore everyone else to tears.

Banning babies
 

I'm not sure how excelling at one's career causes one to "overcome" a natural instinct. That's like saying "I'm amazed at Joe - he's such a great race car driver/actor/fisherman/CEO and yet he still can't seem to overcome the urge to have sex".

No one needs to "overcome" anything. If you want kids and life circumstances or your other choices dictate otherwise, then you deal with the fact that you're not having kids, preferably quietly. Nothing needs to be "overcome", unless it is an obsession.

MTV Movie Awards
 

Just my first brief thoughts

1. Demi Moore - Looked hot, but was I the only person who expected the ghost of Sonny Bono to appear so they could sing "I Got You Babe"?

2. Tatu - :wtf??:

3. 50 Cent - Was real good but he is used to wrking with a much more pumped-up crowd.

4. Eminem - Got both the Breakthrough Male and Best Male awards (and what was with the second acceptance speech?). I didn't see the hobbit film but I loved 8 Mile and had hoped it would win best flick. And how did that hobbit flick win Best Team over Jackass? What a travesty.

5. SWS and JT - Pretty good hosts. I thought the superhero thing was a bit hokey. JT is a fucking weirdo, and not necessarily in a good way.

6. Ashton and P. Diddy - Dressed nice (as the Hilton sisters said afterward, that's Puffy). Ashton is one lucky fucking used to be a nobody from nowhere guy who I only love because he is riding this bitch for all she's got (apparently, he is now riding Demi Moore as well).

7. Pink - Sometimes she seems real and then other times it looks like she is forcing the 'tude (but I saw her on Punk'd and if that is any indication she is pretty cool with a hard edge). Is she bi? NTTAWWT

8. Beyonce - Looked great but I bet her feet hurt. Didn't the Hilton sisters say something about her shoes and toes being scrunched up?

9. Osbornes - Sharon looked fab, not only for her age but for the cancer thing. Kelly looks like she lost weight although the dress (cut and color) made her look frumpy. I thought Kelly's weave looked pretty good.

10. Harrison Ford - Did Calista suck his brains and personality out one night when she was binging and purging? And in the after-show Calista announces that he has spinach in his teeth and picks it out -- I would have slapped that bitch to the ground.

More later....

Banning babies
 

Why the fuck should you have to apologize for supporting your family? If you wanted to go back to work the next day just because you enjoyed it and the thought of staying home with the kid made you want to throw yourself off a cliff people shouldn't be giving you crap.

Don't plan to be a mom but the idiot guilt trip people throw on 'em no matter what they do ticks me off.

curious restaurant practice
 

Seems weird and/or lazy to me.

And no, have never seen that before.

not7yS

Banning babies
 

Note that I said "the regular caregiver", not "the one true earth mother". Of course babies can go into daycare at 8 weeks old, and there's no reason not to go back to work whenever you want. (Personally, I think it's a lot healthier than keeping a kid cooped up with no one but an exhausted, postpartum depression-laden mother.) Any good daycare center will make sure that infants get large doses of calm and consistent routine. My point was that a crowded room full of over-stimulated cousins and an unfamiliar babysitter whose main function will be to ensure that they're all still alive at the end of the wedding reception is not a very realistic care option for a two-month old. Sticking the mother in the church's "crying room" is just a lot more practical.

Only 2 Hours Left . . .
 

MTV Movie Awards
 

Unapologetic prepubescent T&A.

Did they think anyone actually believed they were singing?

That was the only part of the awards I actually saw. It was enough. It reminded me of the Eminem thing from a few years back.

Banning babies
 

"Overcome" in that the person I know (and it sounds like Lexus T. here might be the same) doesn't really want to have kids, given the comment about not interacting with them from age 1 or so to age 30. She just laments that her biological clock is ticking and holding coworkers' babies might be as close as she gets. If you really want to have kids/get married/whatever, do it. You can't have complete control over how it will turn out, but you can still be happier.

For the record, I love kids, but work isn't the place for them. Maybe it's just the kind of firm I work for, but I have seen only the occasional infant (maybe one a year, and only for an hour or so) and I've only seen kids on days like Christmas Eve, and that's rare too.

Banning babies
 

You can't blame even someone who really doesn't want kids from being ambivalent--there is *so* much pressure on women to have them (with the caveat that you can expect your career to be screwed, unlike guys who have 'em) and *such* a strong message that you're an abnormal, evil, unnatural, selfish shrew if you don't. Guys who don't want kids simply don't get the same type of mean-spirited sexist crap over it.

Have never heard a single tick from my own biological clock, but can see why some women flip out.

Banning babies
 

My bad, I jumped. Bad morning. Motherfucking gov't took 49% of my bonus check. Fuckers.

Banning babies
 

Yeah, that's kind of what I'm saying, that it's too bad that women seem so jerked around by society and their bodies on this issue.