Oh, the Great Barbecue Debate. I have to laugh at how upset people get about it. I’m from New England. We do not have any native smoked pork dish that we call “Barbecue”. The term is used to mean the outdoor charcoal or gas apparatus on which one can cook something - but as distinguished from a smoker (“cooked some…

Back in law school - late 90's, New Orleans - I was a witness for a friend’s moot court argument. I stayed for the critique just to hear how everything was received.

Eating less isn’t necessarily eating healthy. If I’m eating healthy (which I define as mostly vegetables, a little lean protein, and no sweets or processed foods), the amount of shopping and prep/cooking is enormous.

I can’t overstate how important having the time/energy to cook and exercise can be to success. When the stress levels in my life are low, I have more time on my hands because less of it is spent spinning in circles in service of the stress. When I have a job that allows me to work exercise in to my daily routine,…

(I’m going to stop capitalizing their band name now because it’s tiresome and because I find them tiresome).

As the only survivor of the accident, she received a sum from the insurance proceeds. It was all placed into a trust for her medical care, spending from the trust has to be approved by the trustee. Other than that, as a teenager she didn’t have any assets.

Yeah, ditto. I represented a mother for one of these proceedings once. Her daughter was the only survivor of a terrible car accident and had TBI. She was doing really well in an excellent inpatient brain injury rehab center, could walk and talk and dress and feed herself. But when she turned 18, she could check…

A hotel, duh. Neutral territory.

Those two slay me.

Yep. I only have one D and all I can think is...no way.

I generally agree that families should be off-limits - and the mental health shaming is beyond the pale.

I didn’t know a first date was a date once. He was a new-ish friend, used to hang out with me and some of my women friends. It didn’t occur to me that since it was just the two of us, maybe it was a date. I discussed all sorts of not-first-date topics like...marriage and children - I offhandedly mentioned that I don’t…

I kind of love you for this comment.

I hate that I love this, because I fucking hate the scourge of humanity that is reality TV. And, as a corollary - I really destest people who, like her, are “famous for being famous”.

Fuck his devlauing of people who have actual addictions. The biochemical process of addiction is very specific, and “watching porn” doesn’t do it.

May I throw another angle into the discussion regarding how difficult it is to find a doctor who will do a tubal ligation if you’re young and/or unpartnered and/or not yet a parent?

I do wish that we treated the decision to have a child as just that...a decision. Not a default, not “that’s just what you do”.

My current doc is of the opinion that since I’m “doing well” on the 24-day Pill, and that it control my PCOS symptoms (why I went on hormonal BC at 17 in the first place, not that we knew the root cause of the symptoms at that point), she does not think that I would benefit from changing it up. She’s not pushy about…

Do not get me fucking started on “what if you change your mind”. I’m one of those women who has a) never, ever wanted kids (I had the stuffed animals when all the other girls had the dolls); b) can live with the consequences of my decisions; and c) has an adopted sibling and takes great offense at the idea that not…

Soda + bitters is my jam.