This is one of my ridiculous fears: I’ll be pregnant, about to have a baby, and suddenly the name I’ve wanted for ages vaults to the top of the popularity lists because of a book or movie or something like this. Of course I could stick with the name, but I don’t particularly want my hypothetical children to have the…

Central Appalachia. I have no idea if it’s a regional thing or just a weird WV thing, but everyone I knew as a child called it that.

When I was four or five, my two older sisters convinced me that having chicken pox meant I was going to turn into a chicken. I suppose I wasn’t sufficiently terrified, so they upped the ante. They said that if I couldn’t be a convincing chicken and fit in with the neighbor’s hens, they would have to have me for…

Lemonade and tea was always an Arnold Palmer for me. A mix of sodas was called an “around the world.”

Our local animal shelter does photos with Santa for pets every year. I’m so tempted to use my dog’s photo with Santa for cards, but I have seven pets and don’t want to play favorites. Maybe I could do cards of each animal, like collectibles!

It’s misleading. It’s an issue of perception/interpretation, and even at that the study only covered one-word, affirmative responses (like “Yes” or “Sure”). This can’t even be extrapolated to a more complicated thought or a longer text.

I only think a period means something more when it’s part of an ellipsis. I can’t stand that!

I’d say it depends on your son’s age. I assume your son is in K12 because a college professor couldn’t do that. I’m guessing you aren’t talking about an elementary school child because I would definitely say that parents need to stay on their kids at that age.

Ugh yes. This is the attitude that really upsets me. It probably would come as a shock to this woman, but there are also poor American children. Poor American children who could benefit from peers who are learning empathy rather than disdain for those who have less. My local Unitarian Universalist church presented a…

I work for a university, and I’ve had a few occasions where parents try to navigate the college waters for their children. Because of FERPA (which is like HIPAA Privacy for adult students), we can’t share any information with parents unless the student has signed a waiver (again, like HIPAA). A number of parents have…

I wear a tiara every year on my birthday. It is my birthday tiara, and it is tradition. Last year, I didn’t wear it to work (because it was already at my desk), and my coworkers asked where it was.

Yes! Oh my gosh. My boss encouraged me to go to our corporate holiday party (out of state, seeing people I’ve never met before), and I wanted a classic black pencil skirt. LB didn’t carry a single one! I did not want a skirt with asymmetrical ruching or sequins or leather stripes. I did not want “stretch” which I know…

Oh the jersey! I’m so sick of cheap, thin jersey material. Most plus size women need fabric with more structure. I once bought a pair of houndstooth pants for work from LB online, and they turned out to be jersey material. Not only would they not pass for work, but they looked absolutely awful.

I felt that way when I worked there. Four or five of us started together, and we were all shocked to see that the models they drew for designs were straight sized. If you can’t even draw plus size models, how can you expect to dress plus size women?

Isn’t it sad? Staying at home seems relegated to the lower and upper percentiles of Americans. People who are solidly middle class can’t afford it without a significant lifestyle change (like moving, selling a vehicle, etc.). My friend is the primary income earner for her home, and about 3/4 of her husband’s paycheck…

Yes! I have two checking accounts: one with an online bank that I use for bills and another with a local bank that I use for groceries and daily expenditures. My paycheck autodirects into these accounts, and all my bills autodraft from the online one. I made sure that the direct deposit would be enough to cover the…

The Christmas gift manipulation reminds me of something I learned about a coworker last week. One Christmas, one of her children was apparently such a troublemaker that she didn’t give him any gifts and she wrote a letter from Santa to him about how he was too naughty to get any gifts. Yes, this child was so young…

Same here. It reminds me of my first couple years of college. I moved out of my parents’ house as soon as I could because my mom was smothering me, and she immediately starting using money to manipulate our relationship. At one point, she threatened to take away a car that my grandfather had given me (older car that…

This image is perfect!

When I was in grad school, I was absolutely astounded by my peers who vacationed in Europe. They would up and go to Italy for spring break. One day, they had talked so much about it that I was almost convinced it was completely doable...then I remembered that my life doesn’t work like that.