>Or does anyone else find it odd that the voice-over on the Mervyn’s going out of business sale commercial is so upbeat? I’m a little sad about it. When I was a kid, I loved shopping at Mervyn’s with my mom. Who doesn’t remember those “Open, open, open!” commercials? Clearly, the management of the stores and corporation fell off over the years.

>A couple weeks ago I was watching that “Last Lecture” on PBS and realized that I can’t even remember having any childhood dreams. Is that normal?

I think my childhood dream was to get the hell out of school. Seriously, I don’t remember wanting to do anything but not go to school. I know I couldn’t wait to grow up and be able to do whatever I wanted. Maybe that was my childhood dream, to be a grown up.

>Or do you think it’s odd that my coworker has really told no one that she is pregnant? Based on just looking at her, I’d guess that she’s about 6-7 months along. As far as I know, it’s her first kid. Granted, now I know why she’s been angry/moody the entire time I’ve known her.

It’s one thing to be low key about it, but she has not acted like she’s pregnant other than changing her wardrobe to accommodate her ever expanding waistline. She never talks about it. Which, for me is a breath of fresh air, but also highly unusual.

If fact, I didn’t even know she was pregnant until one of the guys in my department asked me if she was pregnant. Over the past few weeks, I had noticed that her clothes were making her look pregnant, but I just chalked it up to a poor fashion sense or low self-esteem. I mean you can’t go up to a woman and go, “Are you pregnant? Because you look like you might be.” He asked around and confirmed his curiosity that she is indeed with child.

There have been three other gals in the office who just recently gave birth. So, it’s not like the office is only full of men who would rather gouge their eyes out with a dull knife than hear about pregnancy. There’s a decent ratio of women who would enjoy a pregnancy small talk moment now and then.

I’ve just never met anyone who was so indifferent about pregnancy. Sometime in October she will probably mysteriously take some time off for “personal reasons”. One good thing, we probably won’t have a baby shower for her. I just can’t stand baby showers.

>Or are parents not as parental as they used to be? I was listening to Sammy Hagar sing about Fast Times at Ridgemont High on my way to work today, when I realized that kids really don’t have real shit to complain about these days. They pretty much get whatever the hell they want.

What are they going to rebel against? “Dammit, my parents didn’t get me the cell phone that plays mp3s. I just have this old one that takes pictures.” Parents used to say, “Sorry we can’t afford to buy you that.”

It’s not like these are 16 year olds who have jobs and are paying for their own stuff. These are 13 year olds who don’t even have a paper route. They just get handed shit whenever they whine for it long enough.

Ah ha! Now we know the source of emo music.