Stitches, sleep, "synthetic babies," religious freedom, and an impromptu girls night out

I got a random text from a friend/former colleague on Saturday asking if I wanted to go to a basketball game (my city was one of the host sites for the NCAA men's college basketball tournament).  Apparently their sitter cancelled so her husband volunteered to stay home with the baby so she could go.  She asked me to go because I love pretty much all sports like she does.  She also told me that she wanted to go with someone who didn't talk about kids/babies all the time.  She confided that since she had the baby she feels like it's hard to have a conversation with another woman that doesn't revolve around babies.  I actually know that feeling quite well.

It seemed like she really wanted to confide in someone about how much her life has changed since baby.  It seemed to me that she is having a difficult time transitioning from only being responsible for herself (and to a lesser extent her husband) to being responsible for a living, breathing tiny human.  She wasn't complaining at all, she was just being real, she definitely didn't make me feel like like I was less than, but it was still hard for me.  Because even though she's struggling to adjust to this new phase of her life she still gets the chance to do it.  I never will.

Thankfully I was feeling strong that day so was able to handle the conversation without a meltdown, but on a different day I may not have fared as well.

But it was sort of nice to be sought out because I don't have kids.

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Yesterday morning I got to make a trip to my friendly local urgent care facility  The reason?  I had a gash in my hand that wouldn't stop bleeding (for like seven hours).  How did I get this gash?  Well, I took my dog out for his last potty of the night and stood in the doorway while he did his business.  Well the idiot neighborhood stray cat decided to run out from under a parked car, my dog saw it and decided to give chase, the leash was jerked so hard that it smashed my hand into the wood frame of the door.  The result was a a good chunk of my right middle finger knuckle peeled back and exposed some of the tendon.  Luckily they were able to use durabond (super glue like stuff) to seal the wound since the skin was too fragile to do traditional stitches.  Even more lucky, I didn't need a tetanus shot! And it doesn't hurt at all!

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Dolce and Gabana recently made some (disheartening) comments about children conceived via IVF, calling these children "synthetic babies."  This led to swift criticism and boycotts of the D&G brand from people like Elton John, Ellen DeGeneres, Madonna, Ricky Martin, etc.  My take is that the comments were terrible and at their core devalue human life.  Of course people have the right to believe and say whatever they want, but with that freedom comes responsibility for any unintended consequences (I believe that some variation of this can be attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt but I'm too lazy to look it up).  I can't say that I'll boycott D&G because you can't boycott a brand that you have no interest in anyway, but I will stand with anyone who chooses to do so.  These kinds of comments are not ok!

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Completely unrelated to infertility:  The Indiana House of Representatives passed the "Religious Freedom Restoration Act" today.  A while back their Senate passed a similar bill.  The governor is expected to sign the bill and it will become law.  If it becomes law it will make it legal for business owners to discriminate against customers solely based on their sexual orientation.   I support any person subscribing to whatever religious beliefs that they want to, but I do not support anyone using their beliefs (religious or otherwise) as an excuse to discriminate against other human beings.  Plus, the last time I checked, a dollar spent by a gay citizen is worth the same amount as a dollar spent by a straight citizen.  This has potential to set a very disastrous precedent, in my opinion.

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I have been sleeping really, really well lately.  I rarely get one good night of sleep.  I almost never get two good nights in a row.  But five days?  I don't know if I've ever slept that well for that many consecutive days in my life.  I really hope this doesn't end anytime soon!