This Five Star Friday roundup is brought to you by vignettes, parental hypocrisy, a turtle, old friends, bag lady chic, kindergarteners, depression, a daughter by blood, a customer service job, cancer, obstetrics, Britney Spears, anti-homosexual prejudice, art, putting some colour into your wardrobe, and Quentin Crisp:
There are three reasons for becoming a writer: the first is that you need the money; the second that you have something to say that you think the world should know; the third is that you can't think what to do with the long winter evenings.
— Quentin Crisp
Feel free to share urls to your own good weblog writing in the comments, because you're special. It's true.
Happy Friday!
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I've experienced normal. I know what it’s like to work when the sun is up and sleep when everyone else sleeps. I've made it to dinner without needing a nap. I've lived normal, and it is wonderful. Few things in life have left me quite as euphoric as normal.
And then the weariness begins to seep back in.
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I look at my feet, trying to figure out a reasonable way of teaching the lesson all parents must eventually teach: Do as I say, not as I do. I have bright purple toenails and a toe ring with blue beads and suddenly I realize that all that’s missing is the tattoo on the small of my back and the cigarette dangling from the corner of my mouth and I’ll be one of Those Mothers.
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The Moon, She Lies In Wind You Know
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I want you to realize that despite the fact that you look down your nose at me, at my job and lack of education, you need me. You need the chick in tech support who will patiently explain that if the power is out, nothing works, least of all your internet. You need me to add that channel so you can watch the fucking Bachelor or whatever piece of crap you’re destroying brain cells with this year.
I want you to realize that someday, you could be me too. And you won’t like any of this either.
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I look back on my years of working obstetrics as countless missed opportunities to improve the care we provide patients and I am shamed that I occasionally assumed the persona of the controlling OB nurse. I see now that I subscribed to the values the hospital had instilled and I regret that I didn't realize it at the time. In the climate of what some describe as birth rape, women everywhere must stand up for themselves and health care providers must take assertive action for change. When I return to the birthing environment, I don't know what my environment will be, but I do know- I cannot return to hospital birth. I know better now and therefore I must do better.
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...what Pop did is Kinderwhore-like commentary on that image more than it is playing into it. She's grown up. These covers shock us because, even though this is how we've been used to seeing Britney Spears throughout her entire career, she's finally the one to comment on our culture's disturbing obsession with her.
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Flashback Monday: Women’s Fashion Part II, Color
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