[turbojenn]

So, I was at my fave thai spot for lunch today, its always packed with business people at lunch hour, and this mother comes in with her 5 year old son, and she's already yelling at him...the whole place goes silent and stares. She then launches into what she'd like to order, whilst her son is hopping around yelling how he needs to take a pisssssss, all the while grabbing his penis through his shorts. Charming little asshole in training, I'd say. Mom paid no attention until she was quite done with her order, and then yelled at him again....no wonder the kid couldn't behave, mom couldn't either.

Yeah, I don't think the double-wide strollers should be allowed in crowded places - its bad enough on sidewalks, but at city festivals and farmers markets....ugh. At the very least, parents should pay attention to their surroundings...the moms at the market pushing their strollers and talking on their cell phones....they're the worst. They're probably SUV drivers too.

[pollystyrene]

My dad and I came up with some acronym a few years ago at Irish Fest in Milwaukee for all of the stroller-pushers there...I can't remember what it was exactly- Stupid Oblivious Stroller Pushing Yuppies or something like that because the place is PACKED with people and they just walk along, talking, looking at things, meanwhile cutting people off in the flow of traffic and bumping into people. Grr.

[treehugger]

misspissed, you haven't lived until you go to the farmers market in my city...between the strollers and the dogs, I end up with bruised calves every time!

They shouldn't allow the &*(&(%^&% things there. Seriously, the farmers market is so crowded, would it kill them to put the kid in one of those backpack or frontpack thingies?

And my immortality is in the buildings I had a part in building.

[faerietails]

I am so glad I didn't have to take my GRE. I'm totally screwed when I have to apply to doctoral programs, though. By then I'll have forgotten everything...and then I will have the lowest score ever! ;)

[misspissed]

i want an ugly statue of me somewhere
and cloverbee, i might be your competition on that GRE score.

i guess my point is there are so many other ways to attain some kind of immortality (if you so desire) without necessarily having children.

i am undecided if i have any real drive to be immortalized somehow. this whole conversation sounds a little too "interview with the vampire" for me now. i am getting creeped out.

anyway.
my latest pet peeve is getting almost run over by strollers on a daily basis. have you guys ever seen the double and triple strollers??? these are the equivelant of SUVs in the stroller world...hot damn.

[obelix]

Same here, venetia. I have no desire whatsoever to attain immortality, through children or otherwise. There are so damned many of us on this planet.

[venetia]

I am mortal. Which is fine by me.

[cloverbee]

I still don't get it. Why oh WHY do people want kids????
I will remain immortal as having the lowest score ever recorded for the GRE exam.

[doodlebug]

"so, what is gonna make YOU immortal?"

I went to jail for a cause. Does that count? I'm not sure I'm going to consider it immortality until there's an ugly statue of me on the Legislature lawn.

LOL @ lucizoe!

[lucizoe]

"so, what is gonna make YOU immortal?"

Meh, I plan on being the first person on record to spontaneously combust during a panic attack.

[misspissed]

woo-hoo, treehugger! please keep us filled in on your tubal details.

one of my favorite quotes of all time is:

"what is stopping you from doing something so cool that it renders you immortal?"

i take that quote to mean it is within our actions and creations (not necessarily producing children) that immortality lies. whether it be art we create, words we write, songs we compose, i believe in these things lie the seeds of our immortality.

so, what is gonna make YOU immortal?

corny, yes. but that's my 2 cents on living forever

i keep telling my mom that i don't think i want kids, and she keeps acting like i am nuts.

eh. when will the woman get the point? when i go through menopause?

[treehugger]

Aww, I don't mind the doctor asking me if I was *sure*. It's something a lot of women are ambivalent about. I know I spelled that wrong. I think, anyway.

You had to be there, I guess. He didn't ask it in a way that seemed disapproving, but more in a way that he knew it was a big decision. It just *felt* that way to me, anyway.

But, yes, it does strike me as being overcautious on his part to make absolutely sure I'm sure. Perhaps because it *is* being covered by insurance?

It totally amazes me but my insurance is covering it 100%! No co-pay, no nothing. Absolutely free. Yay! I was a little surprised they'd cover it totally. I could have sworn it would be like pulling teeth...although I do have some medically valid reasons for avoiding reproducing, they mean NOTHING compared to my mind-set.

So, next Thursday is D-day. I'll be blogging and will keep you posted regarding pain, etc. Maybe it will help those of you trying to decide whether or not to do it.

As of now my doctor told me there will be only one incision, through the belly button. Unless there are complications which could happen because I have scar tissue from an old hernia surgery.

He says he always schedules them (tubals) on Thursdays on a day-surgery basis; and that most women are okay to go back to work on Monday. I told him that I work a physical job and that I would probably need light duty for a week or so. I figure if I can't have sex, I probably shouldn't be lifting a hundred pounds. He said he'd write me a note.

*I guess most women he's used to seeing, don't work as physical of jobs*

And another thing I thought was creepy/oppressive about the whole thing...my HMO works also with a hospital that happens to be catholic, and this hospital does most of their surgeries...although for my tubal I have to go to a different hospital that they only use for tubals and vasectomys, because "Saint Mary's is Catholic and won't do any kind of sterilization procedures..."

Ick. But this other hospital does ALL the tubals for my HMO so I guess they must know what they're doing. I hope. Heh...

[turbojenn]

count me in among those excited for treehugger's tubal!! Is your insurance paying for it? I just have no idea if they'd cover it, since it is "elective." I'd say it saves insurance companies a helluva lot of money in the long run, but what do I know.

A tubal is becoming more and more attractive...I'm listening to the audio book of "Eat, Pray, Love" - its a travel memoir, but the woman writing it talks about turning 30 and the premise of her life with her husband - get married, buy a house, have a baby after they turn 30 - just no longer applied. She even tries to get pregnant and is so happy each month when she is not pregnant, as if she gets to keep her life for one more month....and finally realizing that it was OK not to want kids and in the end leaving her marriage....but it was just re-affirming in the sense of that small voice inside that still says "well, maybe I *will* want kids one day."

Its so helpful to have this suportive space here.

All I know is, I've got 3 beautiful greyhounds draped all over my floors for the weekend, and I couldn't think of anything much better....

[lucizoe]

oh, doodlebug, if our stolen elections didn't make us take up arms against an illegal government, why would threats to our lives make us? tsk tsk, remember, you're talking about Americans here.

*sigh*

[doodlebug]

I guess these doctors feel they have to always keep making sure that we don't want to fulfill our biological destiny as breeders for the state women. Too bad they don't keep asking women whether they're ok with the other medical treatments and procecures that they practically push onto women, like hysterectomies, mastectomies, anti-depressants, etc. /end personal rant

The whole situation for women and reproductive choice in the U.S. frightens me, from the perspective of a Canadian. Maybe it's just that I've read too much Margaret Atwood, but it really creeps me out. I can't believe women aren't pouring into the street in protest.

[ginger_kitty]

treehugger, how funny that your doctor thought maybe you had changed your mind.

Lucizoe, I have been living in ignorant bliss, knowing sometime in the near future(Crossing my fingers) that my husband is going to get the snip and I would be ridded of baby worries for life. I never considered the posibility of getting raped and becoming knocked up.

Damn!!! @*&?!!!!!

[treehugger]

yeah, lucizoe, that was my big clincher...when SD illegalized abortions EVEN IN THE CASE OF RAPE, my red flag went up and I said, "screw this".

My b/f is excited about my tubal too...he keeps telling me I'm gonna be in trouble as well!

Doc said kind of a funny today. He was telling me what to do after, he said, "avoid intercourse for two weeks"...and a couple other things and then he said, "you have to still use birth control for two weeks".. heh. like, um....isn't abstinance birth control? He laughed at that and said, yeah he supposed I didn't have to worry about birth control.

So anyway, I posted earlier that I'd keep this thread filled in about my tubal experiences and this was the first one!

[lucizoe]

oooh, treehugger. I'm jealous of your tubal. I am so terrified of surgery of any sort. I know I should do it eventually, just for the extra assurance and in case I wind-up assaulted and pregnant and living in America *rolls eyes*

I'm lucky though; Mr.Luci has his first pre-snippage appointment next week. And he's so excited about it that he's practically floating. He's walking around the apartment singing "I'm going to the dick doctor soon! I'm going to get snipped! You're going to be in so much trouble!!"

Hee. He's cute.

[treehugger]

Egads.

I went today for my preop exam (tubal is one week from today).

I don't know if anybody has ever sat in an overcrowded OBGYN office in the middle of the day....geesh.

I finally got in to see the surgeon and he said, "so you haven't changed your mind, eh?"

And I said, "Um, the wait in the waiting room area clinched it". LOL

He laughed.

Ten minutes around all those pregnant women and all the children!! and I was ready to run out of there. The hair was standing up on the back of my neck. I wanted to vomit at the diagrams of a fetus in the womb.

I never realized until today just how MUCH I don't want kids.

[lucizoe]

Oh, man, turbojenn...the one CF board I frequent is loaded with some really really unkind terms. Crotch-droplet or dropping, crotch-loaf, sprog (which, actually, I like and use under my breath to Mr.Luci), etc. I tend not to use the more, how shall we say, lewd-sounding phrases, as I am a lady! (Excuse me whilst I snort coffee out my nose, wipe it on my shirt and belch loudly and often), but they still crack me up when I read them.