Drinking Great Lakes Brewery's Edmund Fitzgerald porter and trying really hard to read about late prehistoric villages in the Upper Midwest. Trying really hard. It's not going so well. It hasn't gone so well all week. Come on, potsherds, don't fail me now.

I'd like to add an additional side effect of the "pregnancy is bad and evil and shameful and has all of these terrible side effects and you will DIE":

I'd imagine that advice is for people who deny themselves food when they're stressed/busy. I know I have friends who won't eat due to stress when they've got a big project for a few days, when just having lunch would actually make them feel better.

I have tons of debt too (like, a LOT) and I know how crushing it can be. But it sounds like maybe your partner is not as supportive of a person as you need. I mean, I'd like to think that I'm marriageable even with debt. That's what prenups are for, worst-case scenario.

Me too. I would have tea parties with stuffed animals and plastic dinosaurs. Which probably explains why I'm almost thirty, have a dog a cat and three hens and a shriveling uterus!

So... people without children are expected to be robots? Isn't the point of work to support a LIFE? If you choose that life to involve children fine, and YES children are a lifestyle choice - I am almost 30 and KNOW there is no way children can fit into my life so I CHOOSE not to have them. But humans are social…

I too often let the "I want everyone to like me" trap hold me back. I feel guilty when I'm at work for not being at school and vice versa. I feel guilty at those two places for not being at home and vice versa. I am doing the wrong thing no matter what I am doing, so I turn to problematic practices such as sabotage by…

My mom's the same way about tattoos but totally fine with weird piercings. She even paid for my eyebrow piercing. Maybe she sees piercings as less permanent.

I was thinking of dressing my dog as Purple Rain Prince next Halloween. Now I know that no one will get it.

It's just not right.

How is the Cosby Show beating the embodiment of sex itself? How?

To me, talking about movies with someone would be significantly less interesting or meaningful than hearing about their pets. That's why I think that the "topics of acceptable polite conversation" vary widely among individuals.

Oh, I LOVE cooking but I don't usually take the time to do it. An ideal Friday night for me involves setting aside time to make soup.

In my experience, the more you know a person, the more likely you are to exchange anecdotes about personal things. Or do you only ever talk about impersonal subjects like movies, news, etcetera?

Do you do the same with children? Vacation pictures? Or is it something personally against pets?

Indeed. Well, as a pear-shape, my major pet peeve is that "real women" may be plus-sized but always hourglass. No gals with junk in the trunk but tiny headlights, if you will.

Didn't know that about Burner accounts. I used to be a starred commenter back in the day, but kind of freaked out about linking to my Facebook/real identity. Hmm.

I found that giving my cat fish oil on her food (or occasional actual fish as a treat) really helped with both dander and excessive shedding. Lint rollers and vacuums otherwise. ;-)

I aim for every week but really it's more like 2-3 times a month. When I lived in a dorm I only did it a couple of times a semester, and I noticed some skin issues from it. Now I can really tell when it's time to wash them.

Suppose everyone's different. I often go to parties and end up obsessing over someone's pet. My guess is that pets are like any topic - some people are into hearing about it, others are not.