I used to really want crow's feet/smile lines/laugh lines when I was a teenager. I thought they were the most beautiful, sexy things ever (I still do). I used to squint surreptitiously to try to get them. I was shocked when I found out that the world didn't necessarily agree.

It's not fair of me, but I have a sort of Pavlovian irritated/sneering response to any mention of Locks of Love because of people chastising me about having long hair and not donating it to them over the years. I also found the perfect hairstylist for me—right around the corner, in a cheap chain hair cuttery, a very…

Yes! They do this in Finland. I think the school lunches are more or less the same as at the university level, which I experienced, and they're awesome.

I agree—fuck milk! Being lactose intolerant and having that be the only option to drink at lunch sucked. It seems that that's still the case in many parts of the U.S.—(often but not always nonwhite) students can't drink the milk, their parents try to work with the school to get them alternatives, and the response is…

This was more or less me. Also, the only lunch I was allowed to take from home for years and years was PB&J with milk, and I'm lactose- and gluten-intolerant (my mother knew about the lactose part, and she wouldn't have accommodated the gluten part even if she had known). I used to hover like an eager dog to see if…

I hear you....even when I was gaunt enough to fit my reduced hourglass shape into almost my actual usual size in H&M, the cute cheap cotton A-line dresses would STILL have waists that hit at my my underboobs and STILL be short enough that I would worry about the effects of a mild breeze. I've always wished for those…

Oh hell yes! I used to think it was because I was tall/long-legged, but now I see that the dresses are SUPPOSED to be short. Even in stores like Ann Taylor Loft, which was the place I got most of my work clothes when I was working (the rare store that hit that sweet spot between too youthful and matronly), most of the…

I love when her character says earnestly, "I don't bloat. It's a gift." And does not notice Rose Byrne's character's disbelieving look. Because what the heck does bloating have to do with weight or size anyway?

This was my first thought too. I had absolutely batsh!t abusive parents, and starting very early (like, when I was four and my sister was two), I was expected to be my sister's selfless caretaker. I had to make her feel better. I had to consider her feelings at the expense of my own in every way, and it was not and…

You're not alone! I have 32.5 Fs (G-H immediately postpartum in JULY, ugh), and the smell is...special. I pretty much spray myself with rosewater all day in the summer. If/when I get that reduction, this will be the reason after the deep grooves in my shoulders and the back pain.

That sucks! What is it about the endocrinologists? Mine, whom I'm about to fire as soon as I get this one nodule taken care of, first saw me for subclinical hypothyroidism that got diagnosed in pregnancy. I used to be fairly skinny (though muscular/dense-boned so I looked almost emaciated but was still a "normal"…

I've even adopted my jerky dentist's (see upthread) intensive tooth-caring regime with good results, and I'm lucky enough to have pretty good teeth despite a long period of neglect, and they STILL go on and on about how my teeth are the grossest, nastiest, crustiest teeth to ever darken their doors and how I need to…

How annoying! I'm lucky that I have a nice pediatrician for my baby, who is in the 85th percentile in weight and off the charts in height. But when I went to my now-former endocrinologist about this (I have subclinical hypothyroidism that was finally caught in pregnancy), the fact that I have subclinical…

My dentist is pretty horrible. I'm past due for an appointment, but I need to get my a$$ in gear and find a new one instead. I didn't have dental coverage for a long time (in the U.S.) and ended up not getting checkups for six years. In addition to that, my parents were neglectful about health things and I never…

I'm an American transplant living in Canada. I would probably not have reproduced if we were living in the U.S., because I (personally) wouldn't be able to handle the physical and emotional stress of going back to work too soon after giving birth (and having given birth here, I think my instincts were correct). I was…

No, he's actually from Central Asia (Kazakhstan). He looks fairly Asian with some European roots, which is about right, but not at all East Asian. East Asian people don't always see him as Asian, but most White people in the United States do.

Thank you for your eloquence! In a way—though it's not the same, of course—I've experienced a similar phenomenon as a Jewish woman. It seems that (American) Jewish men tend to see Jewish women as sexually unattractive, smothering, whiny, unfeminine, too sibling-like somehow, and just all-around unappealing—a sort of…

My friend's mother has trigeminal neuralgia, and it sounds horrifically painful. I'm so sorry that you have to deal with other peoples' ignorance and nosiness on top of all that! Plus, everybody is used to different temperatures and handles different kinds of weather differently, so they should just STFU.

Where do you live? I'm American (former giant wimpy baby) and live in Toronto, and even though I used to live in a Nordic country (and the last winter I was there the snow was waist-deep), and I STILL haven't seen or felt anything like this.

I don't know...the only for-tall-women store I've ever seen is Long Tall Sally in Ottawa, and that shit was hella expensive and rather ugly/polyester to boot. Most of the time as a borderline Tall I can't find clothing anywhere for someone of my height and just get used to stupid shirts that are supposed to hit at hip…