Dear Abby, That Bitch, Tells me to "Loosen Up"

Recently Dear Abby had a letter from a writer that could have been me.

Dear Abby Letter

DEAR ABBY: Do you know why people nowadays feel the need to announce their pregnancies via ultrasound pictures? I'm sorry, but I really don't want to see all that. I guess some folks think the image of a blurry, black-and-white fetus is "darling." But to me, all I see is an up-close-and-personal snapshot of a stranger's uterus. Even if we're best friends, I don't need all that detail. TMI, right?

I really wish people would deliver this kind of news face-to-face. Or call me, text me, whatever. It serves the same purpose and isn't nearly as graphic. -- NOT READY FOR A CLOSE-UP

Here is where this started : (aside from my earlier irritation with Facebook ultrasound photos...) : I have a sister in law on my husband's side of the family. (One of the reasons i will never publish my blog on Facebook.) A week ago she sent me four photos of her daughter's ultrasound photos where you can see a close up of the baby's face. Then she added that the baby looks just like his father.  (WTF?)...

As a Non-Mom i never get caught up in pregnancy stuff. I love kids, especially AFTER they are born.

I already got in trouble from this sister in law when i told her we were going to be 1- 1/2 hours late for their "Find out the Baby's Gender " party because i was not going to miss this year's Seahawk playoff game.

I don't understand this early celebration about the gender. While I am happy that her daughter is having a baby and think she will be a great mom - who won that playoff game was more important to me than if her baby is a boy or girl, since i don't really care about any baby's gender. I just hope it's healthy and happy and sweet when the baby gets older.

And to me baby ultrasound photos to me are like photos of cats. They all look the same. And they kind of creep me out.

I will add though i don't mind them (as much) if they are produced to me in person as a way of making the original surprise announcement. But if i already know they are pregnant and i am presented with an ultrasound photo, I feel as if i am expected to ooh and ahh when i'm just looking at a dark blob.  It's hard to know what to say. In fact louie here had to help me craft a response to the four photos i received. Her suggestion was perfect: "You must be very excited!" (Can't remember if i really used an exclamation point.)

Then it dawned on me why i might be having issues:  I am pro-choice. And while i am not saying that  to enter into a pro-life vs pro-choice debate here, because i do respect those who are pro-life, i am just saying it might be why I am uncomfortable. (Though i suppose pro-lifers may also share my issue with this oversharing of ultrasound photos. )

I never like it when i feel i have to come up with the right words because I don't want to encourage more of the same, I don't want to sound phony when i reply, and i also need to preserve the feelings of a sensitive person sending the message. Eggshells are the worst surface for me to walk on. And i usually fail at it. I would rather run barefoot over gravel.

Notes to Self: 
Word Count: 495(if you don't count the Dear Abby letter and notes)
Longest Run: 38 minutes
Highest bowling score/lowest: 159 / 91 (oddly enough my best game was the third game)
Book: Back to Fall of the Giants
Hi/low temps: 56 / 30
Sunrise/sunset: 7:10 am / 5:41 pm (19 extra minutes of daylight since last post.)
Good News: Things are underway and on schedule for our floor remodel!
Bad News: We won't have DVR capabilities when we are housesitting during the remodel.
New Favorite program: Better Call Saul

Jojo's Self Help Book Chapter Titles

This is the Valentine's card that louie bought for her husband. She took a photo and sent it to me by email. I put it in Photoshop, enhanced it and now I'm recycling it to my husband and that is going to be MY Valentine's Day card. I think it's so funny: "Thinking of You".....Brian will think so too since we don't celebrate V-Day. 

I often go back to a long ago post about a self help book that louie/Sarah and i were going to write and when i am running or can't sleep i think of titles of chapters that book. Just that. Only the titles. It's  more fun than actually trying to come up with the actual advice - i believe it was the actual advice that derailed our idea of the book. (This might seem weird to some folks who know me because i have an irritating propensity to offer unwanted advice to everyone. )

Anyway i came up with many of these chapter ideas a couple of nights ago at 3 in the morning and wrote them down in NOTES on my iPad. Then i got to thinking what we all came up with ideas for a self help book and then actually tackled them one by one, all of us offering our own advice? What do you think?

Anyway, here is what i came up with for starters: (Disclaimer: I mostly have no ideas for the advice just yet,  just the titles. So just make them up. Ask yourself: What do people need advice on most?)

1. What not to say at funerals.

2. Always use this alibi when caught doing something bad.

3. How to talk yourself out of a speeding ticket when you're not so cute anymore.

4. A better way to piss off an asshole without having to kill them.

5. Three easy ways to make your house look clean when it isn't.

6. How to write a sympathy card for someone you don't really know that well.

7. How to get over Writer's Block. (My idea on how to get over this i will list right now in case i forget later: Pull two cards from the Cards Against Humanity box and then start writing).

8. Extracting yourself from a boring person at a party without coming across as a douchebag.

9. The best appetizer to bring to a party when you're uncertain of the kind of party it is.

10. Respond this way when someone tells you a racist/sexist joke.

11.  Things you need to quit doing on Facebook.

12. Don't ever say this when talking about your child's accomplishments/mistakes.

13. How to compliment someone when you don't want to sound phony but also don't want to be mean.

Notes to Self: 
Word Count: 395
Weather yesterday: high: 61 degrees; low: 45 (broke record highs this week!)
Sunrise/sunset: 7:19 am; 5:31 pm (24 more minutes of daylight since last week's post!)
Book: My 3rd Kristina Riggle book this week: The Things We Didn't Say. After this it's back to Fall of the Giants
Longest Run: 43 minutes. My plantar fasciitis in my right foot is recovered. Left knee is still bothersome.
Number of cat photos hidden on Facebook: 3
Number of cat photos i shared myself: 2
Bad News: Jon Stewart leaving The Daily Show
Good News: Mitt Romney is not going to run for President in 2016.

I'm just here so i don't get fined.

This is Frank Lloyd Wright's quote. Comes from a book "In My Humble Opinion"
that my friend Julie gave me a couple of years ago. 

Coming soon ....a new post.

I'm thinking about talking about what's trending in the news. I'll be back to add to it soon.


Next day: February 5th. In the News:

1. The only reason i remembered the date today was because my favorite Seahawk Richard Sherman had his baby boy today. Born on 2/5, (Richard Sherman is #25 in Hawk uniform). It makes sense that Sherman is my favorite player. Back in the day (the 1970s) i LOVED football and everything Joe Namath and even read his book "I Can't Wait Until Tomorrow Because I Get Better Looking Every Day". Recently i watched the NFL two part series on Namath and loved it. I also couldn't get enough of Muhammed Ali. Very similar styles. I have never gone much for false humility and love brash personalities who can back up what they brag about.

2. Speaking of the football and the Super Bowl, i am tired of the media (and various folks on FB) who are pissed off at Coach Carroll's call to pass at the one yard line. The Seahawks got to the Super Bowl because of gutsy calls like that. Plus the pass was good, that Butler dude looked like Richard Sherman on that play. It was amazing what he did. Had the play worked everyone would have called it a brilliant move.

3. Harper Lee's new book - I'm excited to hear this news of her long lost sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird  being published, but i'm not getting my hopes up. When i Googled to find out more, i read that her attorney sister, who protected Harper Lee who was blind and deaf and losing her memory, died a year ago. There was an article a couple of years ago in Vanity Fair  about some scumbag trying to take advantage of her failing health by getting the copyright to her Mockingbird book. So i have some trepidation about the sequel and that it may not live up to the expectation. There must have been a reason that book was shelved. Her mystery was that she never published another book. And I doubt she would have agreed to what is happening now.

4. Speaking of books. American Sniper is also in the news for not being all that it is cracked up to be. Immediately i thought of Million Little Pieces and the Jessica Lynch, the soldier's story. I do want to go see the movie anyway. And yes, i believe Jesse Ventura. It's not difficult for me to believe that Chris Kyle would make himself sound like more of a bad ass than he was.

5. And more on the subject of embellishment or untruths: I am dismayed to find out that Brian Williams 'misremembers' the story of being in Iraq and his helicopter was an hour behind the one that got hit with a rocket, only it was reported that he was in the one hit. I LOVE Brian Williams!  How could he do this?

Notes to Self:
Word count: exactly 500, unless i edit! (not counting notes)
Sunrise/sunset: 7:31 am / 5:19 pm (We have gained one hour 13 minutes since my last post, which was over a month ago).
Book: Fall of the Giants (just getting started!)
Project: In anticipation of our remodel and dumping stuff i just burned every cd we own into iTunes (i had missed many), donated probably about 150 of them and alphabetized them in two boxes.
Lastest iTunes purchase: Andrew Duhon. (He reminds me of Amos Lee.)
Looking forward to: BOWLING starts Feb. 17th!
Not looking forward to: Moving everything out of our house so we can redo our floors.