Reveal and Counter-reveal Continued

These comments are a blast. Thanks for playing this game with me.

Kaycee confides that she swore she would find a job that allows jeans every day. "I succeeded with every single job I ever had, until my career. I am a teacher, but at least at my building I get jean Fridays." Teachers are awesome! I swore my whole life, right up until I was 31 years old, that I didn't want to have children. Then I had four in less than five years. I adore blue jeans. I buy really expensive ones; it's my only nod to fashion.

Erin (who delivered her own baby on her stairs) has pregnancy brain. "I was 16 weeks pregnant with Luke and my brain was so broken that I locked my keys in the car with the lights on. I didn't realize until someone was all, Hey, your lights are on, and I was all, Better go take care of it, hey, where are my keys?!" Ditto, Erin. When I was twenty weeks pregnant with Gee, I spent about an hour in World Market looking for my car keys. I thought I'd laid them down somewhere while browsing. When I finally returned to the car it was unlocked. And RUNNING.

Tracey called me a brat and she hates comments off. (xo, I get to tease, Tracey, we've met ;-) I've been called worse. In fact, just the other day a woman screamed "IDIOT" at me out the car window because my daughter stopped her bike at a street corner and refused to cross the street at this woman's prompting until I caught up with her (as I have instructed her repeatedly!!). One woman's good parenting is another woman's idiocy, I guess. This fine Saturday morning, I hate 11 minute on-demand children's programs. I have to get my coffee-drinking ass up every eleven minutes? Touche PBS Sprout, way to join the fight against obesity. And moms getting to sit down. And coffee drinkers. Marinka, it's possible that PBS is antisemitic. After all, I'm sort of Jewish and they are making me walk. It's practically a death march.

Erin writes, "I just started my blog last week and got giddy with excitement when I got my first comment. I even texted my husband! Lame, I know!" Oh, Erin. It's normal. When I got my first comment from a stranger I called my sister. I was so excited! Someone reads my blog! A stranger! She loves my writing! She thinks I'm funny and my kids are adorable! I must be the only person in the world who writes a blog that someone else found!! Because I'm awesome! My sister informed me that there were like one bazillion trillion blogs in the world and that blogging/commenting was a hobby for many, many people. Also, the stranger on my blog was her friend Anne. Maybe I do wish I had brothers.

TMC Photo wishes for an incredible movie star makeover. If I were ever to have a lot more money, my guilty pleasure would be to have my hair professionally blown straight every third day. I love my hair down...when a stylist does it. Otherwise, it looks like crap and I put it in a perpetual ponytail.

Hezra admits that she is "superstah" clumsy. She fell and broke her ankle at a funeral. Way to make it all about you, Hezra (kidding. xo.). She also has a ton of kids and gets my life. I'm not particularly clumsy, but I have severe hip spacial issues. I'm always ramming the counter corners with my hipbones. Ouch.

Raising Z reveals, "when I was in Greece as a college student, this older gentleman propositioned me for sexual relations in exchange for a fish dinner." Yikes! Not worth it. I've never been propositioned quite that blatantly, but when my friend and I were in Turkey, doing nothing in particular except randomly traveling, we wanted these shirts at a shop on a tiny back street of Istanbul. We bargained SO hard and thought we'd made a great deal for the shirts. Then the large, hairy shopkeeper with, um, unfortunate dental care went in for his payoff. He thought he'd bargained for KISSES. Not on the cheek either. I'd totally bargain a cheek kiss for a cute Turkish shirt. (A FACE cheek kiss. Gutter minds.)

Beck'sthree has the bizarre skill of picking up things with her feet. "Why bend down and pick up the matchbox cars when I can pick them up with my feet and not have to bend over? My laziness knows no bounds." My feet are not that talented, but my laziness is also boundless.

Anna See admits, "I threw up on my teacher's desk in 7th grade French class. Any good barf stories?" My best barf story appeared here a few months ago, when I puked repeatedly in front of the squadron of firemen in my house to deal with my husband's busted open head. I also carried a nasty pukey virus to Matt's family reunion two years ago, spreading it to his entire extended family, my six-week-old Cue and probably half the U.S. since we rode on four large airplanes.

Elaine A leaves the dishes for the morning most nights because she just doesn't want to do them and would rather look out the kitchen window in the a.m. while she does. I'm trying to think of something I leave until morning around the house and there is nothing. I think it's difficult to understand how insane I am about clutter. I straighten the entire house before I go to bed. Kitchen clean, everything picked up and put away. Meanwhile, my baby has had three baths in three months because I'm too tired to bathe him. I do know how crazy that is.

Debbi is "a living, walking, breathing circus" (her words, not mine). "I can turn my belly button inside out, I can swallow my tongue (for real!), I can blow bubbles with spit so they float in the air like soap bubbles, I can jiggle my eyes." I really want to go to a bar with Debbi. Except I really hope she doesn't have a seizure with that whole tongue thing. I can catch four quarters stacked on my elbow with that same hand. It's not that impressive. We'd need Debbi at the bar.

Claire intelligently comments that Matt is WRONG and I do have arm flu. She backs this up with science-like information. Claire is my new best friend.

Mommymae may or may not like to smoke pot. (She's keeping her options open to run for president in 2012.) I may or may not have spent a substantial chunk of the summer after my senior year in high school smoking pot. For some reason, it's hard to remember the details. If that were true, it would be the only time in my life I've engaged in that particular vice. I am actually too anal retentive. I can't smoke anything without picturing my lungs turning black with yellow snotty goop inside.

Heather's daughter mocks her because she can't tell the difference between a canter and a trot. I could totally mock Heather as well, as I'm pretty horsey, or I could give her a lesson in three beat gaits vs. two beat gaits, but I won't. My kids are still a tad young to mock me. It's coming, though. I know because I considered mockery and sarcasm acceptable parenting techniques and it's so going to bite me in the ass.

Inna was born and raised in Brasil and she'd love to have a big family like the Anyfamily. She worries about not working though and wonders about doing both. I was born in the Philippines and raised all over the USA (military family). It's hard to make these choices. There's pros and cons to everything. We love the dynamics of our large family, but worry about the lack of individual attention and stretched resources. I never, ever (in a million years) imagined I would adore being home full time the way I do and yet I feel wistful and out-of-date and a little envious of friends who have kept their careers going. There's no perfect answer, you have to go with what works for you.

Keely reveals, "I have 2 tattoos and 2 gold teeth. I'm about to end up with a new gold crown, so does that mean I need another tattoo?" Magic eight ball says, "yes, absolutely." I have two tattoos as well. One on my ankle and the other in the "sacred zone" according to Matt (the area just above your hips and butt). Both are small. No gold teeth here, but that's cool, especially in light of talk like a pirate day today.

Butwhymommy writes, "I wanted to dye my hair pink when I was 13 because I thought I was all cool and punk rock. But I waited until I was almost 40 to do it. Well bright red but its close enough to pink. So my question is was I cooler then or now? Or am I just not cool at all?" You are endlessly cool to me, Renee. I thought I was really cool last May because I splurged on these new Pra.da sunglasses. I felt all hot and classy in them. Turns out, they are kind of heavy and they're always flying off my head when I laugh or talk with my hands, or sliding down to my chin when I'm buckling carseats. So, I'm the same nerd I always was, but now I'm a nerd with soon-to-be-broken expensive sunglasses.

Michelle hates it when her husband laughs at himself when he says things. Rightly so, Michelle, he's probably not that funny. I am insanely livid when Matt leaves the back door unlocked at night or when he leaves in the morning. He walks in the door, tired and hungry after a long day, and I'm all "so, it means nothing to you if an insane murderer walks in the back door with a hatchet and hatchets us all to death?" And he's all, "I'm sorry, did the insane person walk in the back door and crawl up your ass and take over your brain?"

Keary lived on the island of Saipan from one year old to the age of four in 1959 to 1962. Her father was in the Navy and her brother was born there. Wow. That is amazing. It's pretty remote now, so it must have felt like another world then. Keary, if you have any memories of the island, you would be shocked by the changes. Gee was born there too and the health care was basic in 2005. I'd love to hear your brother's birth story.

Erin tells this funny story, "I never came closer to divorcing my husband than on our honeymoon, when we got back to London late and the Tube was closed, and he insisted that Paddington Station wasn't a long walk. When we were still walking at 2 a.m. with heavy backpacks, our 2-week-old marriage was in jeopardy. And possibly important parts of his anatomy." I feel your pain and I have a shockingly similar story, except I was the one in danger of being kicked and left. We flew into Paris on our honeymoon and, being the experienced backpacker that I felt I was, I had mapped the looooong trip to our boutique hotel on the underground. Except we had a suitcase the size of a supertanker instead of backpacks. I think several Parisians spat at us in disgust as Matt lifted that sucker over the turnstiles.

Mommygeekology confesses, "I check my email all the time. Like, in the bathroom. In the middle of the night while I'm waiting for the baby's formula to get warm. At stoplights. I think I might live on email. And technology in general. I will stay up all night working on new websites. It's a sickness." I have a fairly frequent email checking schedule myself, there's no judgment here. Fortunately, I have no mobile communication capabilities, so it's limited to stolen moments when I'm actually in the house.

From Bridget: "I love to sing. I know lots and lots of songs. And usually all I can do is hum or stumble along because I can't remember lyrics to save my life. That's why I love karaoke so much...it gives me the words! Also, even though I have 3 kids, 2 dogs, a husband and a mortgage I don't feel like an adult. Sometimes I look around and wonder how exactly *I* became the resident grown-up." Oh, Bridget, we are kindred souls. I am an in-the-car song belter. Also, my four kids, husband and mortgage company often give me a blank, horrified look, like, "wait, you're the grown up?!"

EatPlayLove says, "I can happily sit here commenting on blogs and reading posts while my sink is FULL of dinner dishes." Girl, I can happily sit here commenting on blogs while my precious newborn baby goes unbathed.

Keeper of the Cheerios has four kids under four as well...except hers include triplets. Gulp. She hates that she never gets comments. Honestly, the blog world is 95% participation. If you comment, have fun, interact, they will come. I hate spam phone calls. Hate them. I get all excited, the phone!, adult interaction!, and they just want my money or my vote or something.

Lisa L asks me if lawyers have to keep up with their licenses and renew them every couple of years like doctors and nurses? It depends on the jurisdiction, lawyers are regulated by State, but yes, in most jurisdictions there's a continuing legal education requirement to remain active in the bar and all jurisdictions have a yearly fee to remain licensed. I'm licensed in the District of Columbia and an inactive member of the Virginia State Bar. I took the bar in Virginia, where, at the time, women had to wear a skirt while taking the test. (Shakes head at Virginia.) Also, I will never forget the gamey smell of fear on that auditorium floor.

Tanya has an irrational fear of garborators. "Because you know I'm going to stuff my hand down the thing and turn it on and have my hand mangled or chopped off." First of all, garborator is a fantastic word, which I have now adopted as my own. I think this is what we call a garbage disposal. I agree 100% and I am always leery of sticking my hand down the damn thing to retrieve whatever plastic child's utensil has fallen in there and is making the catastrophic noise when I turn it on. Remember the guy in Firestarter that jammed his arm down there and turned it on? Shudder.

MommyTime finds one of my favorite subjects. "I have a hard time deciding whether my perfect dream vacation is (a) two weeks in spectacular country (think New Zealand or Hawaii) where I can hike, kayak, snorkel, and generally be crazy outdoorsy during the day, and then come back to plush digs and really good food at night; or (b) two weeks in an old European city plus the surrounding countryside, soaking up the culture (and wine). Which would you choose?" Yes, please! Traveling was my number one passion before I somehow became the mother of several small children. It's impossible to choose. Honestly, it would depend on current status of life and travel companion. Right now, I'd choose option (a) with my sisters for a dream "forget your current life" getaway and I'd want to hike to Machu Picchu. But, I'd choose (b) to spend time alone with my husband. That latter would be the priority in my life and I would absolutely, 100 percent go back to Prague.

That was really fun for me...hope I didn't miss anyone. If I did, you can yell at me in the comments. Okay, now for the reversal. Two things I've done in my life that I do not think I'd have the guts to do today are: 1) snorkel above sharks off the reefline in Palau; and 2) tandem skydive strapped to an ex-marine. Et tu? Tell me, tell me!