Did you get a copy? Did you read my essay? Did you tell all your Doctor Who nerd friends?
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Cool! Just let me know if you like it or hate it! 
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We didn’t know until the birth, but our daughter was pretty lively and my wife predicted that she would be a boy just before she came out. I must confess to being slightly disappointed once I found out (I helped deliver our daughter so I was the first to know), if only because it meant fewer hand-me-down clothes and the need for single rooms when they get older.
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The odds are in your favor on this one. Proof from my summary page:
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This is more of a Victory for the people here.
I go to therapy (the peanut gallery: Up your sessions!! 
), and I brought up-- anonymously of course-- the content of some conversations here. His reaction was, “well, that is a series of astute and insightful observations.”
My therapist likes you crazy diamonds, so go you!!
Eta
I don’t know if he is any good though, cause he called me “normal”.
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I finally got my car fixed. I feel a little foolish because I could have done it myself and paid for an unnecessary tow, but wevs. It works fine now. I’ve been having an ongoing problem with the driver side door because it won’t open except from the outside, the mechanic said that labor would be a hundred bucks to fix that particular problem, and it’s a fair price because of the way the door is built (I’m never buying another Hyundai, fixing anything requires that you take apart half the car). I don’t when I’m going to get that fixed, but I’m slightly frustrated that the cost of the tow and repairs I could have done myself meet the cost of fixing the door rather nicely.
In any case, I’m finally mobile and capable of going and actually accomplishing things without a one hour bus commute (both ways, waiting, etc.)
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Don’t take that kind of insult.
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“Come on! At least call me eccentric!! What’s a person gotta do around here!?”
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Seriously, I wonder what words like “normal” actually mean now. What is a normal human being, and a normal reaction to the modern world, and how atomized we all are…? Because I honestly don’t know anymore, if I ever did.
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Neither do I. But according to 1) one PhD psychiatrist, and 2) masters therapist, I am receiving good guidance here.
Are we in that twilight zone episode where we are normal, and everyone else is weird?
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What have words like “normal” ever meant? Isn’t it just a simple way for people to box those around them into a general category so that they can make themselves feel like they ‘belong’ while simultaneously alienating others, because you can’t have a normal unless there is also a not normal. The same thing applies to most words in that descriptive area. Isn’t that what those kind of words have always been used for?
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Probably. I’ve often thought that it’s society that’s sick, not me. [quote=“TailOfTruth, post:257, topic:71196”]
because you can’t have a normal unless there is also a not normal.
[/quote]
Yep. Yep. Yeppers.
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I finally ran out of likes for the first time, for a brief, shining moment. I’ve just been handing them out today.
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I took my son to the hospital to get his lungs checked out yesterday. This was the main worry we’ve had about his health for the past few years (we had to quit our jobs and get out of China quickly three years ago as it was life threatening). He’s been taking a steroid inhaler twice a day and antibiotics almost every time he gets sick (five times last year). We really want to reduce this and build up his natural immunity, particularly as it’s not good for his health to be taking so much strong medicine. We have brought the dosage down to 2/5 of what it was 6 months ago, and the doctors were very happy with his progress and said we could continue reducing it. He’s also gained 2.5kg since Christmas and can chew much better now his adult teeth are coming through (the steroid inhaler may be one of the reasons his baby teeth rotted away, and it’s not easy to clean a child’s teeth properly when half of them have exposed nerves). We’re coming to the end of a course of occupational therapy for him too, so we’re basically coming to the point where he needs minimal treatment and should be able to attend school as normal.
Also, a friend I mentioned in November whose boyfriend was diagnosed with late stage cancer last year is getting married next week. I don’t think the long term prognosis has changed at all, but they’ve had more time with him than they were expecting, and were able to go on holiday together earlier this year. Our neighbour who lost her husband and mother in February is doing OK so far - the neighbours are helping to fix up her house and garden (which had become quite overgrown while her husband was sick) and spending time with her. She gets on really well with our kids, so sometimes I’ll do some work in the garden while she invites them in to watch cartoons or play games with her.
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Oh, dear…do we give you the bad news now, or when you buy a different car?
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I called one of mine “Jackie” while inside. Gender neutral name, and Jackie Chan was big at the time. She definitely kicked like she’d trained with him!
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BB isn’t just a place of wonderful things, but also wonderful people. 
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Apparently I was really quiet, and my mum was convinced I’d be a girl. I’ve always thought using signs like belly shape or activity in the womb to guess the gender of a foetus was a classic example of confirmation bias - especially as it’s almost equal probability, slightly mystical and open to correction later based on other factors.
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Right back atcha
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