This bodys only rental

Baby Mama is going to make her nickname a whole other human truer. I asked her about some of my fancy pants reading on attachment: that there may be a decrease in a woman's sex drive post-delivery because touch is touch and the erotic needs of plugged-in humans are met by the constant feel and affection of your baby person. I thought of this as I watched her daughter crawl on her and cuddle her like she wasn't a separate body, and Baby Mama added another dimension: "I didn't want to have sex because I didn't feel like it was my body, it was hers." We were on the beach, I was getting a sunburn and multiple, inexplicable exotic bug bites. Different bodies, different upkeep, rosy skin with no melanoma requires lotions and protection that I haven't mastered in 30 years. Bodies in rest and motion, humans made in tummies and emerging like Borscht Belt comics from behind the curtain: "Ta Dah!"

It was a toddler week, and oh, I love toddlers. Difficult and brilliant, like everyone I really value. I finally met the daughters of a close friend from way back, and the littlest one, the love bug, fell asleep clutching my hand after laughing all night at my jokes...it was heavenly. I had some good times baby-sitting a nearly 2 year old, navigating "yes" and "no" while trying not to manipulate or lie to her just because my brain is 10x bigger. It's an ethical conundrum, interacting with a toddler.

And so. I was thinking of bodies, and babies, and walking on the beach in front of strangers in borrowed short-shorts; I was humming This Bodys Only Rental, concentrating on the line "Pick your risk and take it"; I'm using pop music to validate my life choices, as always. God Bless the swimmers and eggs and life's longing for itself; the more babies you make, the more people I meet, and even if I don't treat you well enough, we had a good time, right?

Chicago note: What kind of beach creature leaves a bruise that is swollen hard and vicious pink, eventually subsiding and leaving three little bumps? I think I got bit by a lamprey on Dempster Beach. Be warned! There was also poop in the water, and a 16year old life guarded walked on the sandbar with a shovel and had to make an announcement that "poop has been spotted in the water! The effects of which should subside in 30 minutes" at which point every got out of the Lake. The Lake, as we all know, is composed mostly of Milwaukee's human excrement, so I think that the mass exodis was a social interaction: no one wants to be the person that is okay swimming with a poop on the loose.

I'm okay with it, but now I'm going to lose my arm to a lamprey bite. The Life of the Body of a Saint is not an easy one, friends.