My newest obsession

K. everyone go here and sign up and start reading about stuff and commenting on stuff. Go ahead, i'll wait... Hmmm hmmm hmmm {twiddles thumbs, checks bottom of shoe for possible rock inclusion...} You back? Great! How was it? Did you run across an article containing this series of sentences:

"Besides, what if being a housewife did mean your worries revolved around cooking and keeping the house in order? Is that any less noble than your worries revolving around total quality initiatives and process optimization so that the company you work for can make a little bit more money?"

If not, here's a link: http://www.buttafly.com/originals/havingitall.php

You'll notice I actually took the trouble to write out the entire thing just on the off chance that someone out there for whatever reason isn't quite clear what the random occassionally underlined word means and thinks that perhaps it may just be a device for showing additional emphasis. I went to this trouble for one simple reason. This is, in my opinion a good article written from a viewpoint that is rarely championed.

I mean I've heard lots of people attempting to justify stay-at-home-parenthood because it's better for the babies, the parent gets to be a part of those all important "milestones", it's more cost efficient since childcare in this country is feaking outrageous in terms of cost/month (not that I'm saying decent kid-care providers are not worth it -- I absolutely think that the wonderful woman who raised my child was woefully underpaid... I'm just thinking more in terms of more state subsidies or corporation grants to assist in offsetting child-related expenses) all of which are absolutely valid but how often is it that we hear the plain unvarnished truth that having "a career" in this day and age quite often sucks and that we in the working-for-pay world might just want to re-think our decisions to spend eight hours every day ensuring that by the time we reach retirement we will be unable to see (what with the daily exposure to flickering monitors, flourescent lighting and various chemicals wafting merrily around those vacuum sealed buildings), feed or bathe ourselves (Once the carpal tunnel syndrome really sets in we'll be lucky if we can even tug the elastic waist back up over our expanded, saggy bellies after a trip to the little programmer's room), or sit up straight (Mark my words, we will be a society of hunchbacks before the century ends). Now, I'm not saying I personally feel like joining the ranks of those who find their primary conversations tend to revolve around diaper wipes, bizarre rashes and the refusal to ingest anything green but seriously, considering the fact that the last lengthy conversation I had in this place was about how very wasted my buddy was this week-end combined with a blow-by-blow description of the projectile vomitting that accompanied this bender... well, it's just not like there's a clear distinction as to which is the loftier pursuit....