no boys allowed in the room!!!!

ATTN AMANDA: http://www.sockdreams.com/products/accessories/sock-garters/

THANK YOU! I not only "need" but geniunely need those. Droopin socks is nagl.

agh the irrationality of pms just kills me sometimes, like today. where even though i know its pms and i know my rage is going beyond the call of duty, all this awareness, it does nothing

i'm back home now and i don't plan to leave the house again today tbrr

Blergh I feel you.
I just had to cancel my annual OB-GYN exam due to period starting today. I have had to do this with every exam for the past four years. I am beginning to think it's one of my maladaptive superpowers like blowing out left speakers in all of my stereos and headphones.

hahaa
but you need to reschedule! i also need to go get one of those soon...

i drank some PMS tea and ate some stolen (mmm) and am listening to music (both speakers) and not reading the internet

i keep putting off making ob/gyn appointments (haven't been in 10 yrs, i think?) - i'm afraid they're gonna tell me i have cancer.

DUDE

SARAHEL

Have you ever had any irregular paps in the past that would make you think you're at-risk for cervical cancer (I assume that's what we're talking about here)?

GOOOOOO!!!!!!

no, it's one of those totally irrational beliefs/fears!

Think that's bad? My first pap smear was in 1991, and the next one I had was in 2010. (Lack of health care access, not fear of what I could find.)

Sarahel - I'm sure you're fine but you probably should go just to make sure. 10 years is a long time.

You should go just to make sure. Then eat your favorite thing for dinner or something similar so you associate going to the gyn with something positive!

Jenny did I make this up or were you talking about a golden speculum award recently??

that's a good idea, Jenny! when i finally went to the dentist after 15 yrs, i used trips to my fave bookstore and record store (which are both a few blocks from the dentist's office) as a motivator.

xp Why yes I was. My gyn received such a thing last Thursday at a gala fundraising event for a women's health org on whose board I am.

That sentence is tortured. Let me try again. I'm on the board of a women's health org. They had a fundraiser on Thursday. They gave my gyn a golden speculum award.

I wish you were in Chicago, sarahel, because this org gives the best annual exams in at least a tri-state area. I'm not even kidding! Also: sliding scale from $5 to whatever the high end is.

OB-GYN is usually my favorite/least stressful health appointment of the year. I just have to make sure I see a woman. I saw a guy OB-GYN in May and I realized I have a real problem with authority figures who are male saying basically anything to do with my reproductive organs. Totally my own problem but a real problem nonetheless. It was a meltdown. Anyway, I rescheduled.

one nice thing about Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley, btw, is that I didn't feel out of place walking down the street and book-shopping with a partially swollen face and a dazed expression.

I PCP does my annual and he's a guy and I'm fine with that. I've had women too - either one is OK with me but I understand that some ppl have a firm preference.

My PCP not "I"

Oh, btw I googled "Feminist Therapy Boston" today and found a place not too far from my home. I emailed and left messages for two of their therapists. Hope I hear back soon.

I was biased against the male OB-GYN from the start because his office had all these weird '90s dolls of Hillary Clinton as a doctor in boxes with all these messages like "public health care? wtf?" on them. (This guy was at a clinic primarily funded by state Medicaid patients like me btw.) And the first thing he said when he saw me chart was a comment on how I'd had an abortion. We had a fight over whether I could get an IUD or not. He agreed to try and then asked, "Do you still want an IUD?" in the middle of insertion when it was clear it wasn't working. Totally condescending. He wrote me an RX for pills and I had to fight with him to fill it at the pharmacy of my choice. So that visit was a clash of two stubborn asses who were both biased against one another from the start.

ENBB, I hope that works out! That is very cool.

Abbot that doc is a huge asshole.

HEY DID YOU KNOW? Glitter nail polish is like IMPOSSIBLE to remove! I have been sitting here with acetone soaked cotton balls and aluminum foil wrapped around my fingers, per this - http://hellobeautiful.com/style-beauty/hellobeautifulstaff2/how-to-remove-glitter-nail-polish/, and it still took an act of god to get this shit off my fingers.

haha yeah i stopped using any heavy glitter nail polish years ago because of just this! it is nail ruiner! i still use ones with "sparkle" or "sheen" or whatever they're calling it, but that's easier to remove.
ooh i need to paint my nails!

I really liked having painted nails (I hardly ever do) so I bought some pretty pink polish and planned to paint them tonight but I'm like exhausted from taking that shit off and now disgusted with the whole endeavor.

My nails are still shaped really nicely from the manicure, though.

Ooh, maybe that will be my post-GRE treat this weekend. I get pedicures sometimes but I've never had a manicure. What nail colour goes with v v dark purple almost-black toes wot like I have atm?

I'm trying to decide between black or raisin for my next nail painting.

I'm trying to decide between black or raisin for my next nail painting.

I've always thought that I didn't particularly like diamonds, and I choose a green sapphire for my engagement ring. But my MIL was here for the weekend and she gave me a family heirloom diamond ring and OMG IT IS SO PRETTY AND SPARKLY and now I feel like a silly girl :/

embrace it! what is life for if not to be occasionally giddy and silly??

Articles of interest in No Bad Self Talk 2012:

http://jezebel.com/5875219/cho-mad-twitter

http://longstreet.typepad.com/thesciencebookstore/2012/01/an-alphabet-of-fat-cures-strychnine-pills-vibrators-and-hope.html

I love Margaret Cho. I've seen her live a couple times - she's always amazing.

I saw her with my Grandpa once! :D

Fuuuuuuck. That is good.

I've found some great girly tips on this website, ladies!!

http://lifedeathtoptips.tumblr.com/post/12785741553/sanitarycurves

oh my god

That site is pretty hilarious anyway, but that is just... mind-boggling.

Okay, why are you posting that here? I couldn't get beyond 'person who does/teaches yoga likes shit song, think that validates everything', but why here rather than the dedicated thread?

did we forget to mookieproofproof the thread again?

i found that post p interesting but maybe it's better to discuss on a thread where boys are actually allowed in the room, eh.

I sometimes wish there were an all female secret board on ILX whose members were at least as actively controlled as 77 to stop this nonsense. I know I've talked about this with Ms Agatha offboard.

Are women here unhappy with this thread being women-only? For it to be strictly women was how I've always interpreted it, but just1ne and a few others have said things showing you disagree/don't want that.

I like having beauty tips AND romants ish AND feminist discourse AND James Franco in one place, but I also think a women-only space is valuable, and that would be my choice for tt. Y/N? Thoughts about starting a new thread to that end, if it isn't this one?

Sorry, Lech, I know this is torture for you! If we need a more defined thread, for chrissake let's agree on that and move on.

my take on it is that about half of us like the idea of a woman-only thread and about half of us aren't partic bothered one way or the other. i would be into a new thread + would post in it.

Yeah, I basically don't care one way or the other; where private thoughts are concerned, I am more protective of who's reading than who's posting. If everyone can read it anyway, I don't feel the need to formally exclude anyone. But that's me.

I habitually exclude everyone by not saying 85% of the things I am thinking (by choice, not because I am intimidated or w/e)

i have never been a huge participant in this thread (or any thread that isn't a cooking thread, for the past several months) so my opinion should probably not carry as much weight as those who are. there have been topics on this thread i am interested in. and others i am completely bored by or bothered by. i don't think i've ever been one to want any women-only thing though. i am not opposed to having men comment on and discuss women's issues, and i think it can be good a lot of the time. but i have a personal philosophy, increasingly as i get older, that is less gendery.

yeah i will fall into the habit of imagining this thread as a woman-only space and then remember, oh yeah, dudes can read it, so, it's true, it's hard to imagine creating a truly women's-only space on ilx (or the internet?) at all.

xp

faves thing about looking at this thread as a mod is seeing the dozens of cancelled out posts of men saying 'hey why come i no post here' – continuing that fine tradition
http://www.emilymagazine.com/?p=837 is the link in question

i think i would participate in a thread that discussed feminism and allowed men. or like a book thread. i am not that interested in feminist blogs for the past few years.