When I was 17, we went to Europe to visit my aunt and uncle, who lived in Switzerland. We went to a "clothing optional" beach, not knowing it was actually "clothing optional" until we got ON the beach. Then my dad (*****ally likes boobs) was like, "Hey, there are all these topless people everywhere! Let me take photos!"  It was awful. I was like, "Stop acting like a hick, maaaan! Come ON!"  It was NOT The Tits. 

Husband and I went to Aruba a couple of years ago to celebrate our anniversary. I got out to the beach and saw a lady with the weirdest swimsuit on. It looked like she had pom poms where her nipples should be. Then I realized I was looking at tan lines and nipples. I was slightly embarrassed when I also realized how long I had been staring at her "pom pom bathing suit top."  Oops. At least I didn't pull out my camera like my dad would have. 

While in Aruba, I did go topless and within a day, it felt completely natural. Sunburned nipples do hurt worse than I had imagined, however. 

I didn't have to speak ill of my ex husband in front of my son, his father proved what he was on a daily basis.  Sadly my ex husband is a compulsive gambler and my son is started down the same path of destruction and I refuse to be a party to it.  He knows how I feel, he knows why his father is alone and miserable and he also knows the only way to have a different life is to not repeat the mistakes made by his father.  I do remind him that he is selfish and self centered especially after I helped him move his girlfriend here from New Jersey only to basically keep her as a hostage with no way to do anything other then be with him.  He is very good at getting the girl and terrible at being a boyfriend.  I lived this once.  I want to break my son of the jerk gene.  No I didn't tell my son I thought he would grow up and be a selfish compulsive gambler who didn't care about anything but himself, I was hoping that would never happen.

The husbeast and I are looking at options for new phones. He hates his IPhone, and my Droid RAZR is about three years old at this point, so it's time. We'll probably stay with our current carrier (Verizon) and are looking seriously at the new Samsung Galaxy S5. Any thoughts you'd care to toss out there?

With new grandkids on the way I've been looking at the newest baby equipment.

Ha! That's an awesome graphic. It's almost a shame it's amusing, the sentiment we really should be feeling is horror.

Edited to add: I don't mean to trivialize the subject by just commenting on the graphic. To be honest, I've followed all these developments for some time now, and what I feel mostly about them is sad resignation. I don't see any way to change it; politicians are in the pocket of big business and moneyed donors, so they have no interest in challenging the systems. I know, that makes me part of the problem...they're counting on people like me just shrugging and saying "What can you do?" but really, what can you do? We live in a police state, that much is evident. I have no clue how that could be fixed, though.