A rosary is no excuse for bad driving habits.

I nearly got into an accident a few days ago. I was driving home, and there's this point where the road has no visibility whatsoever -- it curves pretty sharply at the same time that it goes downhill steeply, and the curve is going around this rock this, so that for a while there, you really can't see more than about ten feet in front of you. The speed limit is 45. I was leaving a pretty good distance between me and the car in front of me, but then I got around that corner and realized that that car had stopped. I had to slam on my brakes to avoid hitting it. The next car around the bend had to swerve into the turning lane to avoid hitting me. There's a stop light about 3/4 of a mile up the road, and there were enough cars on the road that day that it got backed up to there.

bad driving habits

I see what you did there.

I have to qualify this by saying I only read the first page, but to me it simply came off as setup.

The stuff that makes me roll my eyes is near the end:

Indeed, my single friends housed me as I flew around the world to research this article; by the end, I had my own little (unwritten) monograph on the very rich lives of the modern-day single woman. Deb gave me the use of her handsome mid-century apartment in Chelsea when she vacated town for a meditation retreat; Courtney bequeathed her charming Brooklyn aerie while she traveled alone through Italy; Catherine put me up at her rambling Cape Cod summer house [...it goes on like that]

Perhaps she should swap "modern-day" and "very rich" in that first sentence. Also, this is how she illustrates how fulfilled her friends are: they have lovely homes and go on exotic trips. There is no other information about them in the entire piece.

I see what you did there.

Damn, I wish I had. I'm rarely so intentionally clever.

That part was over the top, but it was kinda making her point for her too: she has a damned privileged life (as do her privileged friends) and yet still there are stigmas, internalized and externalized, despite the very visible traditional indicators of success.

I really was more interested about the challenging of norms and changing communities.

Speaking of stigmas, I get to bring the fourth cat (!) home tomorrow. Last night J, S's boyfriend, jokingly told me he wouldn't consider me crazy until 5. And then all of us pointed out that, knowing him, if it was the 15th, he'd tell me 16th. Cause he just cannot bring himself to be negative about anyone.

Timelies all!

~ma to all who need it.

Tomorrow night we're going to Cinematic Titanic. Yay!

she has a damned privileged life (as do her privileged friends) and yet still there are stigmas, internalized and externalized, despite the very visible traditional indicators of success.

I like sara's take on it, although the excerpt Strega posted did make me want to choke the writer: "vacated town" for a "meditation retreat" and "bequeathed her charming Brooklyn aerie"?

It sounds like Beatrix Potter fanfic crossed with Early-Adopting Hipster.

I wanted to nose-to-nose him and demand his papers.

Heh.

bad driving habits

Heh, heh.

no Southwest flights showed up

I think Southwest doesn't show up travel sites, btw. I think you have to go to the SW site directly. Think, as in heard someone say it once or something.

Oh, that's what I meant to add: SW does not do the airline aggregation sites at all.