Thursday, July 01, 2010

Two Things- No, Three!

*Today in the library I saw a woman with a t-shirt that said, "Yep, I Got An Epidural!" That's all. And I could not stop laughing. Um, inwardly, obv. Because as much as I am proud of and pleased with my two birth experiences and hoping for another even MORE "natural" birth, I totally DO NOT CARE how anyone else wants to give birth. I may personally find the numbness and lack of mobility and potential side effects kind of off putting, as re: Teh Epidural, but if someone else finds grueling pain and breathing exercises and potential screaming in public kind of off putting, well, I totally get that, too. I really really do. So if you want your birth to involve a needle in your spine, dude, more power to ya. And I do not automatically assume you must be misinformed/ignorant/selfish/wimpy, either. I personally happened to have relatively easy births, as births go, and if I had to, say, endure ten hours of back labor, AFTER my water had broken and maybe after two or three sleepless days, I'd probably be asking for drugs too. We're all our own unique birthing snowflakes! Just wanted to be clear on that, since my own labor is coming (frighteningly) soon and then you'll probably be inundated with lots of doula/waterbirth talk. :)

*My dishwasher is starting to really make me mad. Besides not sanitizing and not having a disposal feature and the fact that a bunch of the separating prongs are broken off, it basically just doesn't dry anything that's plastic anymore. (Yes, we eat off of plastic sometimes. And store our food in plastic. But I don't HEAT food in it anymore! Baby steps, guys!) Anyways, yeah, it takes me twice as long as it used to to unload dishes because I have to stand there with a towel and DRY THEM BY HAND. So in case, theoretically, we were to replace it, anyone have any recommendations of brands/models of dishwashers?

And yes, my middle class sob stories are enough to bring a tear to your eye, I know. But here! This is for you, Anonymous Commenter #19 from two posts ago! At least I HAVE a dishwasher! And also, some women have to go to work and be GONE from their appliances all day! At least I don't have to pay some STRANGER to unload my dishwasher while I'm slaving away in an unfulfilling job all day! And gosh, at least I HAVE dishes! I could be eating off plantain leaves in a jungle somewhere! And I have food to dirty those dishes! SOME people don't....

Oh wait! That's right; people don't READ blogs to hear others go on and on about how lucky they are and how grateful they are for every blessing in their lives! People blog/follow blogs because it is an outlet for emotions, a place to commiserate, to empathize and to know that other people really ARE going through the same craziness they are. If they wanted to feel guilty about their own emotions and impressed by the saintliness of others, they'd be reading Guideposts or Chicken Soup for the Martyr's Soul.

21 comments:

Swistle said...

Your final paragraph is SO COMPLETELY TRUE. I don't read blogs that are all "Dear God, I am so grateful for everything about my life including the sewage back-up in my basement You have blessed me with!!!" I read blogs I can identify with and/or blogs that are FUNNY about the bad stuff. Anonymous commenter #19 is a douche and he/she knows it or he/she wouldn't have gone anonymous. Or assumed that it reflected well on them to leave a comment so patently free of empathy or understanding. Seriously, are they going to claim such depthless ignorance of the human condition and be PROUD it it?

Anonymous said...

Sing it, sister!!!

Although personally every moment of my every waking hour is filled with rainbows, sunshine, fluffy bunnies and jelly beans. I don't know what kind of Mean World you live in.

HA!

Hillary said...

Anonymous #19 is an ass.

Looking forward to the doula/water-birthing chatter.

ttsc said...

Very true. Great post. I'm glad the pregnancy is going well and that is so annoying about the dishwasher.

Kelsey said...

I laughed so hard at Chicken Soup for the Martyr's Soul and then I thought, wait, they might actually have that. Snort!

Morgan S. said...

Tee hee. I love that last paragraph that Swistle is referring too. WE KNOW we are lucky! However, we still have to endure our life, hour by hour and if you have a ^%*^*^*^ing dishwasher, it better be making the dishes spot free and ready to put away as-is, otherwise, WHAT IS THE DAMN POINT!!!! That is my new acronym....WITDP!?!?!?!??!

LoriD said...

hahaha! YES! You said it so well.

On the dishwasher, maybe you need more rinse agent (Jet-Dry)? I just use vinegar for my rinse agent, but I saw an ad for Jet-Dry where the woman was complaining about this very thing.

Pickles and Dimes said...

But if I can't complain about things, what's the point of having my blog? ;)

I hope you get some good dishwasher recommendations, because mine is pretty much useless as well.

Tracy said...

that last paragraph is SO true! People started dropping like flies from reading my blog once I had my baby. Mainly because I was only talking about rainbows for a bit. :)

I'm totally with Swistle, though. I love when bad stuff is FUNNY, or at least written about with some sort of entertaining narative.

as for birth- I'm all about what every one else wants. ha! I do feel bad for people like me, who want to have a natural birth, but have the super duper long labors complete with no sleep, etc and end up getting the drugs. Its a hard needle to put in your back when you want to do it one way, but have to do it another. I think its easier when you walk in chosing the epi in the first place. Know what I mean?

Jessica said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Saly said...

We are in the market for a dishwasher too. Hmph.

I am with you on the last paragraph as well. Sad as it may sound, I kind of feel better about my own parenting miseries/fails when I see that other people are going through it too.

d e v a n said...

Love your first paragraph. Love your last paragraph. Love you.

(and now have to go find your douchey commenter as I must have missed something.)

Lisa @ Lisa Moves said...

My dishwasher does the same thing! Except I rent from my MIL and therefore I will not be getting a new one.

Sara said...

HA! Awesome post. And Chicken Soup for the Martyr's Soul is just about the best thing I have heard all week! :)

CAQuincy said...

I heart you!

(BTW: We just got a new Kenmore which works just fine....)

The Gori Wife said...

I know nothing about dishwashers, but a family member was just choosing between two really pricey brands, and told me that a repair man told her Kitchenaid is better than Bosch because it's innards can be accessed while it's still in place. If the Bosch has problems, the whole thing has to come out of the cabinet to have it serviced, and it would cost more. FWIW. Tangentially, when shopping for a new refrigerator, someone told me that Samsung is one of the best appliance manufacturers around these days.

Katy said...

Amen, sister. Like any of us are looking for perfection 24/7.

For the record, I TRY to be mostly positive because that's how I roll, but I BY FAR get more comments when I complain/kvetch about something. People like to commiserate, oh yes they do.

Irma said...

My name is Irma. I am the anonymous commenter from two posts ago. Sometimes life really does suck! I totally agree, i just wanted to remind you and your readers to look at the glass half full. It does help sometimes when you do feel like running out of the house! I am a mother of two boys, my oldest is diabetic, life is hard, I have been through a divorce, have to work a full time job and raise my two guys. So my life is by far no picnic but I am very blessed and very happy. At least it helps me. I am completely suprised but the sarcasm and anger (i.e. douche, ass!) that my comments raised from you and your readers. I honestly don't see how comments like, you are truly blessed and God has been good to you can raise such anger or negativity from you ladies. Wow, I guess I was reading the wrong blog. Sorry, my apologies if I insulted anyone, not my intentions at all. God Bless. Irma.

Jen @ Rolling Through Looneyville said...

Ours has a stainless steel interior which I LOVE. And it does not have a disposal, which I HATE, HATE, HAAAAAAAAAAAATE.

Um, and your last line cracked me right on up :)

Sarah said...

Irma- I get what you're saying, I do. And I get that you were probably jsut trying to help me cheer up, in your way. Your comment, esp. since there was no name or identity, just kind of... came off in a lecture-y tone. Which is one of the dangers of the internet, I guess. There's no way to read someone's facial expression or tone of voice and so you have to guage a writer's intent through the words alone.
It's just that I was having a really vulnerable moment and was looking for commiseration, and so being told, in a roundabout way, that I was being kind of whiny and ungrateful made me feel even more crabby and sarcastic.
I do agree with you though, for what it's worth. Overall I am very blessed. It's just one of those seasons of time, for various personal reasons that I'm not at complete liberty to write about, where it feels like every day there's some new weight. So, I get grouchy.

Duck Hunter said...

Your last statement got my attention the most. I've been evaluating the purpose of my blog in my head lately.