(TMI here) I'm used to GYN exams, but when I'm bleeding I just go all "Unclean! Unclean!" and am uncomfortable being exposed. It just feels like being rude to the gyno. Which is ridiculous, but there it is.

If people are poking foreign objects into my hoo-hah, I prefer it to be recreational, y'know?

I once used the term "dildo cam" with my youngish but sorta uptight gyno and he turned SCARLET and started stammering all "Um... I didn't know people called it that..." Really livened up THAT appointment I'll tell ya. I'm laughing at the memory. making your doctor blush? HIGHLY recommended.

I hate when people say things that are so dumb they make me defend people I wouldn't. Because I don't really believe that every Cosby victim is telling the unvarnished truth, you know? At this point, he would barely have time to be America's Judgemental Father. But at the same time, even an armchair crime geek like myself knows that rapists like certain drugs because they don't stay in folks'systems for long, so it's not a matter of "just have the test done," unless you stagger up that day and do it, which you wouldn't, probably, cause drugs and the freaky and surreal experience of being manhandled by "Coke and a Smile" guy or Dr Huxtable or whatever. And for all I know, he bought Mexican muscle relaxers from Acapulco or something American cops would not know to test for yet... And, at the risk of sounding like I'm blaming them, some of those women, especially if I'm trying to think like a cop, well, they seem a little..sketchy.(please don't think I'm trying to say it's okay to grope(or worse) a woman if she doesn't seem like Citizen of the Year or anything...even though I think some are lying, any value of raped or molested women that isn't zero isn't fine with me. Sorry you got my soapbox from Twitter!

Echoing other conversations around here lately, I'm utterly unsurprised that Betsy was such a cool mom to come out to, but I'm shocked -- SHOCKED -- at this "college" thing of which you speak.

The "college" part was clearly some sort of hyperbole or flat-out-fucking-lie.

Just checking in from the middle of my roommates bday party to inform those in the world who may not know that dark chocolate speckeloos cups exist. Dude.

dark chocolate speckeloos cups exist. Dude.

Godiva has speculoos truffles. Or they may have been a seasonal thing, but they were definitely a thing.

So, here is a thing that may be entertaining: we went out to dinner in my neighborhood with some friends tonight. There was a damn 90-minute wait at the fancy taco place (as opposed to the taco place with the narwhal paintings). So while we waited for a table to open up, Tim decided to walk 3 doors down and get his nipples pierced.* Like you do.

One of our friends said, "This is the most quintessential Northside experience I can think of: we have to wait for tacos, so you get something pierced."

*(He's actually been thinking about it for about a year, so it wasn't a total ADD impulse thing. I mean, I think that doing it *tonight* was impulsive, but the whole idea of it wasn't. He was planning to do it and had just never pulled the trigger.)

So that was my night. Tacos and half a pitcher of margaritas and, you know, watching my husband get things pierced. Barbells, not rings. He's thrilled.

Steph, that is flat out fucking fantastic. I love it.

My darling eldest is currently applying to graduate school, for her master's in social work. And she is recommending comics to me and scolding me when I don't live up to her expectations about justice. (But with love.)

One of our friends said, "This is the most quintessential Northside experience I can think of: we have to wait for tacos, so you get something pierced."

This makes me miss the PNW. I mean, so does breathing some days but this especially does.

My understanding is that Northside is very PNW. Also very Austin. So many hipsters cheek by jowl with hippies, all sharing their locally sourced, free-range, ethically raised, farm-to-table, gluten-/soy-/dairy-/grain-/sugar-free [whatever], which probably came from the bike co-op.