Good Company

Husbinator and I had a very similar version of this conversation a few months ago, but with "writing" instead of "updating". It's nice to know we're not the only ones.

Nothing scary prompted the conversation; I've been meaning to write a will ever since BSM came along. It just seems like the responsible thing to do. We ended at me being responsible for finding a lawyer, but us having to decide on a legal guardian, first. We'll get to it. Really. Like I said, it's nice knowing we're not alone.

Then I read today's comic strip: 

I laughed and laughed and laughed. Unfortunately, BSM happened to be in the room at the time, and he always wants in on the joke, but it was so worth it. (For the record, I told him that I read a funny joke about a will and look over there it's the number 5 let's go touch it. Lo, BSM was properly mollified.)

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I edited this post the day after I published it, because images weren't showing up properly. Here, for the sake of completeness is the next strip in the series:

Cultural Differences

I've noticed something interesting about being pregnant in America versus being pregnant in Israel.

Many Americans tend to treat pregnant women veeery delicately, lest we faint dead away or burst into tears or suffer some drastic medical emergency or perhaps spontaneously combust. It's mostly silly, but the deferential treatment is also kind of nice.

Israelis, on the other hand, are used to pregnant ladies, so the only deferential treatment handed out is easier access to limited seating. While being treated as a fully competent human is appropriate and also kind of nice, I do somewhat miss the gratuitous over-the-top coddling.

Elections on My Mind

There's an interesting article on FiveThirtyEight (which I need to stop checking compulsively, but I know I won't) about how the Philadelphia transit strike could lower voter turnout.
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/a-transit-strike-in-philly-could-lower-turnout-among-black-and-poor-voters/?ex_cid=538email

Now I understand why Israel has a national holiday on Election Day: just because polls are open for 12 hours doesn't mean that people can actually vote without missing work.

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Also, after I posted about how bummed I was when I sealed my ballot, Sister sent me a link
to this letter from the President of Ner Israel Rabbinical College. It doesn't cheer me up a whole lot, but it really makes me feel validated.