I found the bit at the end, about how she encouraged a fellow single friend to move into her apartment building and the way she and her peers have built a support community, to really resonate with my current arrangement. As I was reading it, was also making to market plans with my neighbors, agreeing to let a married couple's dog out during the day and tying down my neighbor's plants, as it is really windy.

I have been making progress! I only have a couple of hours of stuff left to do.

Goal is to be done by SPN time, other than the shower and shaving my legs. I am also imbibing though, so it may take or may not happen.

My poor brother and SIL. She has to put her cat down tomorrow, her truck needs a new transmission, and D's doctor wants him to have an mri on account of his migraines presenting a new symptom. She's pretty much Done. And my brother is sick and trying to cope with a distraught wife with pretty much no reserves left. And dig a cat grave.

Burrell! I ran into Gillian! She saw me, squeaked, and asked if I would sign her copy of my book. I asked her if her name was Gillian, and her eyes got HUGE. She was very sweet.

Ugh, that's a lot, sara. Poor them!

Jilli, that's awesome.

Please enjoy the comments here: [link]

Please enjoy the comments here: [link]

Ahahaha! Love it.

That was the perfect antidote to the coverage I just watched of the new Batman.

Please enjoy the comments here: [link]

Excellent.

That was SUCH an interesting article!

The fact that I married remains a source of constant surprise. According to the precepts of the article, I have both married down and up -- Dan is 5 years younger than me, makes more money, and only (only, heh) has a BA.

None of my girlfriends are single anymore, but most of my friends live in the same city, and many within a mile or two of each other, and 75% of my close girlfriends are women I have known for over 20 years. What's more, many of the men they have married are also people I have known for years, and the women (I've talked about our 18 year (Jesus, 18 years!) tradition of "girly parties") regularly keep in contact -- we have women only gatherings, men only gatherings and then mixed gatherings. But the women-only gatherings are more frequent, deliberate (and, um, more awesome, since we plan better) and often focus on skills and deliberately nurturing bonds -- crafting parties, girl's nights out, which used to be focused on hooking up, but now focus on talking about a wide assortment of things, from the mundane (Fran turned me on to the Swiffer vaccuum) to the political.

About half of us kept our names after marriage; half took their partners.

I'm rambling, but the article made me really thoughtful, thinking about community standards, and community support.

When my husband's ex made lots of noise about us needing to move to be closer to M, my step-son, I told D frankly that I would stay married to him, if he felt the need to move, but that I wouldn't be moving. My community is a bastion to me.

I never felt the need to be married -- I like being married to D, but the state of being coupled for coupling's sake was never vital.

My friendships were far more important and relevant to me than finding ONE romantic partner. I am nurtured in different ways by different people, and I do the same.

There are just so many ways for people to live -- alone and solitary, alone and social, paired or connected in romantic or sexual relationships in monogamous or polyamorous committed or casual relationships. The author nailed it -- with people being such diverse individuals with differing emotional needs and make-ups, it's ridiculous for one social institution to have such rigid defined borders from society. People have been quietly defining their own ideas of partnership and community for thousands of years -- it's time to talk more openly about how vastly different it can and should be.

Sorry I rambled, but I just REALLY loved this article!