This is one of the reasons I don't force Emeline to give anyone hugs or kisses goodbye of she doesn't want to, no matter who it is.

My SiL always tries to force my niecephews to hug and kiss me when I come visit and I'm always, "It's totally fine. They'll warm up on their own. Don't make them." But she continues on and on. I hate it - and they always do warm up within like an hour. Ugh.

But I will say that it's SUPER hard explaining it to male family members, like my dad who is the sweetest guy in the world, why it's not cool to make her give kisses and hugs and what forcing her to do it teaches her because it's hard for him not to personalize it. Which totally sucks.

Shit I didn't say to a friend today: "Why the hell are you marrying him!?! "

Sorry, just needed to let that out somewhere.

I do like that in LA I get much less hassles from strange men than I did in Detroit. Or maybe it's a function of age.

I'm not as cautious as the average woman, and I should be. My idea of taking care on an Internet date is making sure I have a knife close to hand.

For those keeping count, she is the THIRD PERSON to buy me this shirt - all of whom shattered my delusions that I am Elphaba through and through by telling me, "Oh honey, no. You're Glinda."

Whereas I've received two Defying Gravity/Elphaba shirts as gifts.

So that leaves us at you're Florence, I'm Svetlana; you're Glinda, I'm Elphaba.

You get the showstopper song in Chess, I get it in Wicked.

Maybe I'm nobody's side.

I honestly think I'd trade you, given the opportunity, except I'm SO not a Glinda in any way, shape, or form.

Ooooh!!!! OOOH! Defying Gravity/Nobody's Side mash-up!!!

I'm not as cautious as the average woman, and I should be.

I sometimes worry that I'm not cautious enough when out and about after dark. You only have to be under-vigiliant once too many times.

On the other hand, right now I have my head quite full enough worrying about disability hate crime, for which the stats in this country are getting high enough that there are a number of places I will no longer go to, ever, and a lot of situations that I dread enough to avoid.

In short, leaving the house: it's not as fun as it used to be.

This conversation is making me wonder if Im oblivious to danger around me. I do get my keys out but that's about it. Actually it occurs to me now that Joe is very careful when he is out. It's a by-product of his intel/counter-intel training. So maybe Im more conscious of safety than I thought but I rarely think of it in gender terms.