He Blogs, She Blogs: 2 a.m. Ramblings

First of all, I want to apologize for this post beforehand, just in case it doesn't make as much sense as I normally do (not that I normally make much sense anyway, but there is a sort of logic to most of my madness and it can usually be deciphered, especially if you consult Jim, cause he can usually translate). It is 2 a.m. as I write this, and not being able to sleep because of a combination of sore shoulders from shoveling and a brain that won't stop writing this post in my head has made it impossible for me to sleep, so I have decided to bang out this post and see if then I can fall into dreamland (preferably involving some combination of Ryan Gosling, Cat from Zipbag of Bones and a lot of lube).

Our lucky participants this week are Natasha from Exile on Mom Street, Jen from Sprite's Keeper, Mama Trish from Pandora's Ethernet Connection, and i am feathermaye. We have in-laws, we have exes, shaving your, and a deserted island (preferably not all at the same time). So let's see how this goes and if I can make some sense out of this mess in my head so I can get on with my dreamin' Hmmmm...oh, sorry, got a little distracted there for a sec. Take two:

Natasha wrote: I also have a question, having just returned from a family-filled vacation: In-laws and the problems they always seem to cause...how do you handle them? Confront them yourself or have your spouse (who is actually related to them) handle it? Or just grin and bear it? Thanks!

I live with my in-laws (insert groan and sympathy here) while we renovate our house. We have been here for *cough* FOUR years. Yeah. That's what I said. FOUR YEARS. So I have a little, teensy weensy bit of experience with this. Luckily, my in-laws are great but after living in anyone else's home without much of your own space and two children, there is going to be some, well let's just say, "friction." I won't even go into the gripes I have here, but I will say that my motto has been grin and bear it (and bitch and moan to my husband about it every chance I get). In other words, I don't take it up with them, because we communicate totally differently and I would never want to start a fight or have them think I am disrespecting them in their home. So I try to bring my issues up with my husband and ask him to delicately bring it up to them (if it is a problem that is even worth addressing), but most of the time I just vent about it and try to forget it. It's not worth it to me to start a fight about it most of the time, and I realize they are old and set in their ways. Someday (hopefully in the near future), our house will be done and we can move out. I never had any problems with them before I moved in with them, so I hope we can pick up where we left off there. Well, after a very necessary separation period of at least a month or so...

The Spin Cycle Queen, Jen wrote: Question: You're on a deserted island. What three things would you need for survival? Man vs. woman. And......go!

1. My husband

2. A good book (for when my husband gets tired)

3. A dildo (for when my husband gets really tired ;)

I mean, come on people, what else is there to do on a deserted island?

OK, OK, I will answer this one seriously, since we are trying to get an honest look at the male/female perspective. For real this time...

1. A spear

2. A flint

3. A bucket

I am assuming there are plenty of boar and other such game on the island, and since it is an island there is no shortage of water, so I can hunt for my food, cook it over the fire and boil water to drink. That should hold me for a while, right? Hopefully I will have been practicing my spear hunting skills, cause at the moment I am a little rusty...

Mama Trish wrote: Friendships with your exes. Are they okay?

The answer to this question is: it depends. Depends on how you left things with the ex, how long ago the relationship was, and what kind of friendship we are talking about. If the ex is from a long time ago and there was no big drama, I don't think there is anything wrong with shooting an e-mail on occasion, being a friend on Facebook or hanging out amongst other friends. But let's just say, I don't think it would be appropriate for daily lunches or drinks with your ex-fiance who has never gotten over you. My husband is friends with his last girlfriend (because it's his son's mother), but it is purely for the sake of their offspring. They don't hang out unless I am there, and they usually limit their phone conversations and texts to mostly stuff about him. My husband and I have also hung out with another one of his exes on several occasions because she married his friend. But if he was all of a sudden going to dinner with her or talking on the phone with her daily, I wouldn't be too happy. So the answer stands: it depends. As long as both parties are aware of the boundaries of the friendship and they respect their partner by keeping it appropriate, I don't see the problem. Wow, that was surprisingly mature and level headed. Maybe I should do all my decision making at 2:51 in the morning.

And finally, we have i am feathermaye, who wrote: Why do women shave their legs? :)

I am pretty sure the answer to this question is that some man said it was what we were supposed to do. So now we are all brainwashed (as are all men in this country) into thinking that is what is natural and right and when we come across a hairy lady, we all wrinkle our noses and think it is gross or unclean. Which it is not. But, even I will admit, that I get grossed out when I have gone a couple of weeks without shaving my legs in the winter and will be shamed into shaving them. I did have that time in high school when I had decided I wasn't going to shave my legs anymore, but then I decided that I did want to get laid again, so I started back up. But those silky smooth shaven legs do feel nice...mmmm.

I am now going to bed. You can head over to Jim's blog (if you haven't been there already, but you better not have because you should be reading me first, but whatever) and read what he has to say on these issues.

Wow, I feel so good knowing that I am bridging the gap between the sexes and possibly saving thousands of (OK, hundreds...well, like 50 or so) relationships in the process. I can sleep soundly now knowing that I am paying back to humanity. Or something like that.