Well, I had my second daughter five days ago, so I'm pretty much home bound for a while.  Which reminds me of something I forgot to put in the 'interests' section of my profile: after taking two anthropology courses, I've taken the liberty of referring to myself as an 'anthropologist' and observing the different mini- cultures in my immigrant friendly neighborhood in what I like to think of as a 'scientific' light.  Apparently, according to Victoria, the 'kind but rude' Vietnamese woman across the street, I am '...VERY STRONG'.  (The caps lock conveys her forceful way of speaking, I hope.)  Further, Vietnamese women 'STAY IN BEDROOM FOR ONE MONTH AFTER BABY, BECAUSE OF THE WIND'.
            Fascinating.  I'm beginning to think it's not a bad idea, although I don't know what the wind has to do with anything.  I will have to look up the correlations between cultural behavior and weather.
          Soooo, other than checking little five day old Piper every few minutes for SIDS and amusing my cheerful, cheerful little two and a half year old Myla, I was as ready as I would ever be for an invitation to read my sister's blog (sent via email the day after she'd insisted that in no way, shape or form were any of us- my brothers and sisters and I- going to be able access it, and that there was no use in begging).  So I took the bait.  And of course, as all of us anti- social recluses know that one outgoing gesture eventually leads to a complete invasion of our precariously sealed little worlds, upon reading her meanderings (which were, incidentally, pretty interesting) and commenting to her on them, she casually suggested that I become her 'follower'.
          Waaaait a minute here.  Rewind.  Back up.  Your FOLLOWER?  Red alert!  And what does this 'following' entail?  Some sort of power shift, obviously.  Unspoken, maybe never referred to aloud, but a definite shift in the likewise precarious balance of inter- personal relationship.  If I'm your 'follower', then what does that make you?  Ooooh no, very smooth, but I'm not that easy.  While everything else in my life and personality may have dissolved into chaos long enough ago that I've simply given up trying to remember non- compartmentalization, I have retained my independent frame of mind.  And I plan on keeping it.
          Needless to say, after a few seconds of outrage, I shrugged and clicked on the 'Become a Follower' button.  And decided to write my own blog, in which she could become my follower as well, and hopefully bring any sort of leverage lost in my decision back to me.  What's independent thinking anyway- so American.  And ultimately not necessarily as conducive to a healthy society as more of a 'collective' mindset.  Ask any anthropologist.