I felt personally vested in this election like none before. When Senator Barack Obama's campaign asked me to donate, I did. When his campaign staff asked me to call voters in swing states and encourage them to vote early, I did.

  So a funny thing happened on the way to remodeling our house. We knew it would be expensive, aggravate our neighbors, test our marriage, and bring a whole new meaning to the word inconvenient -- bathrooms and the kitchen (running water, etc.) are hard to live without. We also knew that the process would contain all sorts of fees but one of them stopped me in my tracks. It was called the "School Impact Fee." To the tune of $2,500.

The grocery store is an infertile woman's special hell. I was reminded of that Sunday afternoon. There I was checking out the asparagus feeling all evolved and ready to start a new chapter in my life -- one that would not dwell on my infertility. And then BAM. Around the corner hidden behind a mountain of freshly picked peaches stood a very pregnant woman caressing her full belly.

Enough! Give me back the gossip magazines of old. Where's Bjork? I want Thelma and Louise! I long for days when fashion snafus on the red carpet and stars on their exotic vacations filled the covers. Give me Barbra Streisand as a political commentator. Where are the gossip mags that offer the pure, unadulterated joy of escaping the more predictable work-a-day world that doesn't involve parenting tips? What do we get today? Bumb watch. Pregnancy announcements. Baby shower gift guides. Baby name speculation. Blow-by-blow delivery stories. What the ??

... it's not as if you can just say you're busy washing your hair. Taming biology is not quite as simple as many opining recently on the New York Times Well blog seem to think.