{"id":1134,"date":"2010-03-06T09:50:38","date_gmt":"2010-03-06T17:50:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.puckandmary.com\/blog_mary\/?p=1134"},"modified":"2010-03-06T11:31:19","modified_gmt":"2010-03-06T19:31:19","slug":"into-the-second-trimester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.puckandmary.com\/blog_mary\/2010\/03\/into-the-second-trimester\/","title":{"rendered":"Into the Second Trimester"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the Twin-Daddy:<\/h2>\n

Last Thursday our kids hit 13 weeks. \u00a0Hello Second Trimester here we are!<\/p>\n

I learned some new things while Linda, Kate, and Eric were visiting.<\/p>\n

Unbreakable Dishes Are Your Friend<\/h4>\n

First, Linda asked if we had plastic dishes for the kids. \u00a0We didn’t have any, and we carefully served the kids with glass and ceramics without any drama or shenanigans.<\/p>\n

I personally hate plastic because I feel like it is cheap and kind of gross for dishes. \u00a0Of course, my attitudes are going to have to adjust because when you have got two kids with almost no precise muscle control, you are going to be throwing a good number of your dishes on your floor. \u00a0Accept this as fact. \u00a0Consider how foolish you once were in your fragile dish lifestyle and move on.<\/p>\n

Know Where Your Next Pit-stop Is<\/h4>\n
\"San<\/a>

San Francisco - A city without public bathrooms.<\/p><\/div>\n

Next, San Francisco hates pregnant women. \u00a0Seriously. \u00a0Ladies of a certain ‘pregnantial’ state have a pressing need to pee every 17.5 minutes. \u00a0Visit San Francisco and you will find a swarm of establishments that happily tell you they do not have a public restroom.<\/p>\n

It’s like an alternate universe in which a man sitting behind a counter somehow ignores a pregnant woman with a desperate look and her legs crossed and goes back to reading his paper. \u00a0That might be fine for me, but when it comes to my pregnant wife I’m less forgiving. \u00a0After 6 different stops looking for a public bathroom, I was ready to run interference while she discretely peed on the floor of a local merchant. \u00a0It would serve them right.<\/p>\n

Some Serious Discussion about the Potty Issue:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The actual reason for no public bathrooms in big cities is\u00a0because\u00a0of the homeless problem, and San Francisco is no exception. \u00a0There is a discussion to be had there, but it gets into some pretty tense politics.\u00a0If you want to skip this, I have marked the pick up of the article in red<\/span><\/strong> below.\u00a0 (Read along at your own peril.) <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In the 1960s California’s LPS Act was meant to provide mental patients with rights but the effect was that it became harder to commit a mentally ill patient to a state hospital for longer than a couple of weeks. \u00a0(That’s 3 days of observation and 14 days of commitment.)<\/p>\n

These people were then supposed to be passed down to local communities. \u00a0The same year governor Reagan signed the LPS Act, he simultaneously cut 1700 mental hospital staff positions and closed some state hospitals. \u00a0The funding for local community mental health care never materialized and the mentally ill often became homeless.<\/p>\n

They\u00a0would\u00a0occasionally be committed to either a medical facility, a short term mental facility, or a prison in a sort of\u00a0perpetual\u00a0revolving door. \u00a0A new class of chronic mental patient developed who was repeatedly committed and released. \u00a0Without insurance or any preventative medicine services they often become physically ill requiring regular emergency room visits. \u00a0In rural communities, the issue isn’t as obvious but when you concentrate populations into an urban center it becomes more serious.<\/p>\n