::kicks vw::

Why don't I have coffee? I need to have a talk with my coffee fetchers. They're obviously slacking off.

I needed to be here for the religion discussion. Instead, I went to a "Morning for Mothers" group thing that someone at the embassy hosts, and it turned out to be Jesus-focused Bible study. It was very uncomfortable...I'd been led to believe it was a place to network with other expat mothers about child-raising things. And I guess it was, if by "child-raising things" you mean "obey your spouse and pray."

My boundary issues with religion are just a big too touchy to deal with this - I'm cool with anyone believing what they want, but I really get uncomfortable when people start assuming that everyone around them believes as they do. And don't even get me started on proselytizing, which is where it looked like this was going.

So, avoidance and if necessary, a "Thank you but I'm really not interested" and hope like heck they don't press me to attend, so I can avoid saying something smart-ass and unhelpful.

Ah...see, I always know I can count on Nicole for a good kick in the pants!

Oh, Raquel, ick. That sucks even more because it would be nice to have a group of moms that you could relate to where you're at. Isolation as a new mom can take a toll.

Although my friend here had to bow out of her moms group because it just wasn't a good fit for her, either--so it happens. And not just because of religion.

Owen and I haven't really had any group type things but I'm enjoying the interaction with other moms at our sign language class and I'm hoping to network with some other local moms when we start a romper room thing offered by our parks & rec dept. next week.

How's the sign language going? I've meant to ask. Did you know sign before, or are you learning also? Are you doing ASL or baby-specific signs?

It's going very well. Owen pays close attention (and usually laughs when I sign to him). But it could take a long time before he signs back. We're using Baby signs--which is based on ASL but modified for babies dexterity. I've never used signs before so I'm trying to learn all the signs I think we'll use.

Cool - we're planning on trying it, and I was wondering if it was something that babies would pay attention to. Sounds like Owen's into it!

I have found the coolest, most unexpected book at my local library. Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe, by John Boswell. Not necessarily romantic unions, but true unions. Apparently the idea of romance and marriage being inseperable is fairly modern.

I'm wondering who in ultra-conservative Provo actually had the cojones to order it and then approved it. I may need a copy of my very own.

I am glad for C&C in Fay's vague "Good on Ya" way.

The tampon thing certainly isn't MY idea of romantic banter, but it was a private conversation. I can think of many goofy things I have said to my BF which would look horrible in a transcript in a newspaper, so I just feel bad for the two of them that it became public.

I'm sad I didn't have Lethe's bramble for it.