All Over The Map

I found a few more maternity clothes today. A nice shirt, an ugly (but will be cool in summer) shirt, and shorts. Not looking forward to the heat this summer. Just driving around in the temperate early spring has me breathing hard from the exertion sometimes--imagining doing it when it's 100 out is daunting. Sometimes I imagine what it would be like if I had a toddler with me, too. I'm thankful I don't have to do that right now. Hauling myself around is challenge enough at the moment.

William and I went to a Pampered Chef party tonight. I've been to one before and really liked it. That time I bought William a spatula and it's been indestructible. It doesn't melt, it doesn't discolor. It's awesome. So this time we got an apple corer and a big thing you can bake or microwave meals in. You can cook a whole chicken in it in the microwave in a half hour. We're going to host our own party on April 4th. The Pampered Chef person comes and fixes a couple of dishes for everyone to eat and you can check out their products.

Birthing classes start soon! Lisa just had her baby and was like, "Epidural is the way to go!" so I need some positive natural birth ideas. Plus I've seen three women giving birth in movies recently and they all screamed a lot which doesn't help. There is truly very little variation in the TV and movie portrayals of women giving birth. They seem to fall in with the cliches every time.

A friend on Facebook posted an article in Time about how some people are proposing we divorce marriage from the government and have everyone get civil unions in whatever tradition they choose. In other words, like baptism and confirmation and bar mitzvahs, they would not be managed by the government. In that way everyone who wanted to get married, could. I understand gay people wanting to have the rights and privileges of marriage. I don't think they would want to have a watered-down version of marriage in its place. It's because marriage is marriage, with all its associations and complications and rights, that they want it in the first place. So I don't think that's a solution to the problem. I personally don't understand why people feel giving gays all legal rights of marriage somehow undermines their own concept of it or would "hurt families." I can't see a connection there at all. I think the change is inevitable and it's a matter of time until it happens everywhere. Withholding the rights of others has been a heritage of the human race. The more enlightened we become, the less we restrict rights to the majority. And so far, that adjustment has always been a positive thing.

Today I felt a jolt when I read that in 1960 a single woman of any age would have had to have a male co-signer to get a mortgage.

I also read that Portugal decriminalized all drugs, going back to 2001. I didn't know that and am surprised it hasn't been more discussed in the media. They had a serious problem with international drug traffic and decided to take drastic action. I haven't read yet what kind of results they've had, but apparently it's worked so far for them or they wouldn't have kept the law. My grandfather, who is quite conservative, has long believed in decriminalization. It's fascinating to think what would happen to the billion-dollar illegal drug industry if drugs were legalized. Would all the drug murders in Mexico stop?

I'll have to read up on Portugal and report back.