Thank you thank you, clevermanka, for doing this! I was so sad not to have my usual procrastination device of spending a while on Link Roundups this morning at The Toast, and your gifs warmed my soul.
Seconding the "meet the right person" thing while acknowledging how this is definitely not true for everyone. I was pretty staunchly in the no-kids-no-marriage camp through my 20s and early 30s, but when my long term relationship person (who also didn't want kids or marriage) quite suddenly broke up with me, and I was figuring out what I wanted the rest of my life to look like, it started to occur to me that maybe I wanted kids (or a kid). Then I met a super steady, supportive, awesome person and decided that I needed to marry them and have at least one kid. 34 weeks preggo so I guess we're really doing this...
My husband is from Long Beach and his family still has a house there. Long Beach is wild and weird and excellent. Many muscly, gelled-hair 20 year olds and gruff bagel salesmen. And a lovely beach. You will have a wondrous time.
Also, I saw Fun Home in April and thoroughly enjoyed it. The songs are just incredible.
I had no idea that GQ is a nipple-friendly publication. I skimmed through the Kim Kardashian article and was plummeted by nipples. Really woke me up.
Thank you for the link to Ask A Former Drunk! I feel like this is a particularly tough subject for younger women, as they transition out of the bar scene, where everyone is drinking to excess, into the two-bottles-of-white-wine-with-the-girls thing. You look around and realize that you need this way more than any one else at the table, and that is scary.
Huzzah 32 weeks! This is the fun part where people tell me I look like I'm about to "pop" even though I've got another month and a half, thanks. Have you found out the sex of your baby? I'm having a girl and I totally hear you on the Stanford rape case stuff, though the pressure would surely be on no matter what, to both raise decent human beings and to help them navigate a world filled with indecent ones.
Seconding all the comments about just feeling tired and sad to the core. I'm 32 weeks pregnant and truly fear bringing a child into this insane world. I am disgusted by the rhetoric from some circles that this isn't about gun control, it's about "radicalism." If we actually had some gun control, then "radicals" would not be able to purchase assault rifles and kill 49 people. Basic cause and effect.
Ugh, just recently had this experience... but it is comforting to know that they might have had some specific experience, etc. in mind (my interview went really well but they kept circling back to find out what I knew about Medicaid - it was a health policy job - and since I know not very much at all, I'm pretty sure this was why I didn't get the job).
You will find the right thing and it will be spectacular!!
I just guffawed at this, in part because it reminds me of watching old movies with my mom and her charming habit of saying, of any dog featured in the movie, "he's definitely dead now."
Your jumper is just adorable, BTW.