I visit the states occasionally, and I am always bowled over by how genuinely friendly the people I meet are. It’s a total misconception that Americans are cranky or brash.

YMMV: I’m a white, straight, Canadian lady and thus the max level of non-threatening that is possible.

I would say that we might have been, but it’s a whole different flavour of fucked up. In some areas (climate change! treatment of indigenous peoples! electoral system...although that one is close) we were WAY MORE fucked up and in others, way less. We just happen to blast the ‘way less’ ones out over social media.

I have American family, and the biggest difference that I can see between us is the whole gun culture. Canada has lots of gun lovers, but the culture around it is pretty different. Also, from visiting the US I think protestant christianity is more on display there.

West Wing beat John Green to it.

Oh man. My mom was an L&D nurse and I saw her at work one day and she was using this gentle, soothing voice that I had LITERALLY NEVER HEARD COME OUT OF HER MOUTH.

I was like wtf mom. I want the nurse-voice.

P.S. she is a lovely lady, just uses a normal voice at home, that’s all.

Yes, and he nailed it with his takedown of people who compare this nut to MLK. Absolutely nailed it.

YES TO GJETOST. omg.

Bring it On 3: Eulogies

Make it happen.

I suspect they are.

Christopher Meloni in any kind of non-sunglasses glasses = my dad. Only my dad has a tiny bit more hair.

He’s aging well.

I think it might even be generational and cultural in a way...the lady was an italian immigrant, and the women in her family were supposed to care for their kids, the grandkids produced by their sons (if needed), and their husband’s parents. But the idea of getting a stranger to do that probably would have been a…

DYING about the angelfire pages comments. It must be fully universal because that was the case up here in Canada, too. I was like, “okay, this one must not make any money. NEXT”

By number 15, I changed to, “hmm. industry standard, I guess.”

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/eng…

I believe the ‘brag’ in this case is being enlightened enough to not need to show off with objects, and having the good sense, that everyone else lacks, to focus on their wedding.

Yes! You also don’t know what’s up with people’s finances. My guy and I decided to get married, set a tiny budget that our broke asses could afford and got to work. Then, without any prompting and just because they’re into weddings feat. their kids, our parents collectively quadrupled the budget. And while we did up…

The lady was awful on a regular basis, so maybe I would have been happier to do it for someone I liked better. At any rate, we were legally not allowed to take liability for the kids at all...our bosses were super strict on that one. I actually just turfed the request to my boss after she argued about the guy’s…

When I worked at a play center for kids (generally 4 and under) where we were there to make sure things ran smoothly, but were clear about every child needing a person over 18 responsible for their care, I once was told that a 70 year old lady’s FATHER would be watching her grandchildren while she ran some errands.…

My guy is basically the Good Luck Chuck of having babies. So, depending on how you feel about kids....but I want them and we don’t have any. Then I look at every. single. woman. he’s dated and I’m like “booooo to all of you and your various kids!”

Tonight my boyfriend was like “sometimes I take the 504 home from work and sometimes there are a bunch of athletes taking it back to the village at the same time.”

That’s the extent of my life rubbing up against Pan Am. I live in the city and I don’t notice it happening at all.

ETA: In fact, it’s ramping up to Eid…

That’s cool! In unrelated news, I found this one weird trick for making $40/hour from home!

amazing. so amazing.