I hope so, because that describes my two usual states! It's hard for me to get sunburned. My skin is usually very pale (maybe with a very slight golden undertone, but it's hard to see) until summer and then it takes a while because I don't tan (or burn) easily, but I get tan no matter how much sunscreen I put on.…

Toronto, oddly. I think you can get a midwife immediately after peeing on the stick without a referral in Toronto, but being a recent immigrant and not knowing how the system works, I relied on my official pregnancy-in-Canada book (only a couple of years old too!) to tell me that I could start hunting for a midwife at…

Well, it can be hell if you don't have access to a family doctor, even in a major metropolitan area, as many immigrants and/or poorer people don't. I had a truly horrific prenatal and postpartum experience, complete with multiple cancer scares and long waits, because of that. Having been both an American without…

Sadly, I suspect that what happens is that people still favor boys but want at least one daughter in the absence of a decent social safety net, which is kind of revolting to me. I wonder if this would still happen if there were one.

I have one of those! (But add "pedophiliac tendencies" to the already super-fun mix.) I moved to Canada partly to get away from him and this possibility. I'm the oldest daughter and the scapegoat, so he fully expects that I'll do it anyway, even though I told him about six years ago that I wouldn't be doing anything…

I love this idea. Especially because in Canada we're not allowed to carry pepper spray. But they didn't say anything about extra-hot chili sauce!

Oh, this brings back memories! For me it was middle school in 1990 and my asshole parents' decade+-older-than-me friends' kids' castoff hippie jeans (and also my mother's 1960's and 1970's castoff jeans), but same jeans, same problem. Everyone was wearing high-waisted, preppy, peg-legged jeans, I was a social pariah…

Some may call me shallow too, but I was terrified of my ribcage widening. I have a relatively narrow torso and big boobs, and I was afraid of any added volume making it even more impossible to buy off-the-rack shirts. (What actually happened was that my ribcage expanded one inch and shrank a little less than two, so…

I love this story so much! I will show it to Mr. Chortcake once he finishes putting Baby Chortcake to bed (I'm going to lie down with sleeping Baby Chortcake but right now I'm drinking Swedish elderflower-flavored pear cider and eating vanilla bourbon ice cream and for the first time in forever I don't have a…

Yes! I think even that makes it kind of offensive. I mean, except for Mr. Chortcake, who would dress in all Land's End all the time if he could (and come to think of it, he pretty much does), the main demographic of the catalog is really the person buying the stuff for the whole family, which is most often a woman. So…

If we'd gotten this in the mail when I was a teenager, I would have been uncomfortable for exactly the reason you describe. I wouldn't have been bothered by the nudity (I already took life drawing lessons, we went to art museums since I was a baby, etc.), but I would have compared myself to the model and concluded…

It's never too late! And (as someone who is usually frozen in the moment when something unpleasant happens) I tell myself that responses are probably even more effective once one has time to think and prepare. I totally agree about the cheap housing—we live in what's probably the cheapest housing around and it's NOT…

I mean seriously, one of the reasons I moved to this country was to get AWAY from that shite.

Whaat? That's close to where I live. I'm tempted to go and heckle the protesters.

Thanks! That sounds amazing. I hope we have it here in Canada....

Which one is it? I'm on an eternal quest to find shampoo and conditioner that I actually like. All the better if it's buyable at a grocery store.

Thank you! :) I'm actually in my mid-thirties, but catcalls are kind of triggering in that they remind me of that time even now. Wish I'd known someone like you then!

This is a perfect way to put it. Thank you! Yeah, it just brings me back to that place where the whole world is being creepy and forbiddingly strange because I have breasts that I barely noticed, and I'm eleven but look sixteen to everyone, and I just want to read about ancient Egypt and dinosaurs and play chess with…

Yeah, but is there a significant amount of paid mat leave? If so, then we'll talk.

I've had long hair for much of my almost-36 years and can't French braid for shit either! So I've actually been trying to master the topknot, only I also can't really topknot for shit, possibly because my forehead is too low and my hair is too stubborn. That makes sense re: the massive neck scarves, which were also…