That sucks, Julie. I'm sorry.

That idiotic "sex and alcohol make people happier than kids and religion" survey

I have no idea what you are talking about, but out of those alcohol and religion are the things I have, and they kinda go together.

I only have alcohol.

I, too, only have alcohol. And that only when I splurge.

I mean, I technically have religion, but it's the non-deity kind.

I have alcohol and too many cookies. Bleargh.

I had such plans for today. Took the dog for a long run in the hills, and then went into the city for a lunch meeting/interview with a VP at a big firm. That was nice, and then I wandered around Union Square and only bought a shirt on sale at Banana Republic.

And then completely collapsed when I got home. I'm just completely fried, not sure if it was the run or the sun or maybe I'm coming down with something. My sinuses are not happy.

Nilly, I just caught up and saw the news. I'm so sorry for your loss. Love and peace to you and yours.

I, too, only have alcohol. And that only when I splurge.

I mean, I technically have religion, but it's the non-deity kind.

Yeah, that. Yet I'm not much feeling a lack of anything.

I only have alcohol.

I'm not even supposed to have that. Though the current lack of sex is by happenstance rather than design.

Juliebird, I'm so sorry -- this is going to be a long slog, isn't it? My tip: always dress nice for interactions with courts and police. You totally want to project "nice upstanding lady who slipped up this once"... which you totally are.

See, I was going to say that, but then I looked at it and thought, "That looks so, so wrong."

I know! I kept going to edit to clarify, but decided I could just trust you people to know what I meant.

Don't you think the real issue is how much of your time every day is spent devoted to each item, and in what capacity? Like sex, even if you're having it every day, tends to be a low time commitment: high reward kind of activity. Whereas raising kids? Not actually a singular activity, hence significant time commitment: varying levels of reward. Religion I'm gonna say more like the kids things. And alcohol? Low time commitment: low reward.

My reaction on Facebook was to repost a link to Moxie's blog post about parenting-the-job vs parenting-the-relationship. Parenting jobs (changing diapers, wiping noses, scheduling extracurriculars) are way less fun than either sex or alcohol, but neither of those two things give you the parenting relationship that having kids does. Well, sex might, eventually. But it's a completely different metric of "happy"

It should probably also be considered that something that involves love can't really be compared to something that doesn't. People you love have the power to make you unhappy like nothing else on the planet, but the peaks are magnified just as much as the valleys.