I had a disturbing dream last night. The fragment that I remember: I was zipping along in my car down a mountain peak on this narrow, winding road, when I went crashing through the guardrail and fell straight to the bottom. I got out of the wreckage of the car. My rational brain kicked in for a second: “You’re OK,” it said. “You’re not dead… this is just a dream.” But then another, stronger voice spoke up. “No,” it said, “you really are dead.” That was the part that really freaked me out. I was utterly convinced that I had died — not in a car crash, but in my sleep.

Fortunately, I’m happy to report that I am fully awake and definitely not-dead. (Although the weird thing is, all day I’ve been having cravings for strange foods… like… BRRAAAINNNSSS!!!) Ooops, ummm… where was I?

Right, not-dead. So, in celebration of being not-dead, I finally finished redesigning Mom’s website, hencigoer.com. Be sure to take a look at her book, The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth. The amusing thing about reading reviews of her book on places like Amazon.com is that she gets stellar review after stellar review, except for the occasional one that says something like this: “Gosh, she sure has lots of facts and research and stuff. But on the other hand, she sure says lots of mean things about obstetricians. So two stars for you, and phooey on your negativity!”

Sigh. The thing is, there’s a reason why she’s a bit negative about obstetricians. The whole point is that the medical research does not jibe with the way obstetric medicine is practiced in this country — and as a result, hundreds of thousands of American women undergo unnecessary major surgery every year, and we have the highest infant mortality rates in the industrialized world. Not to mention the billions of dollars a year we waste each year in health care costs. But none of that matters to obstetricians. Impervious to reason, immune to fear and self-doubt, the shambling hordes of ACOG lurch along on the same path, and we are all helpless to resist them…

Anyway, like I said, Mom’s site is up and running with an all-new design. For the geekly among you, it’s an all-CSS layout that degrades reasonably well in older browsers. It also validates as HTML 4.01 Strict. That’s how much I love Mom. I mean, my site only validates HTML 4.01 Transitional… and that’s on a good day. So see? Nothing’s too good for the marvelous lady without whom, I would not exist. (Nothing’s too good for the corresponding marvelous gentleman either, but he hasn’t asked me for any website help yet.)

Anyway, it’s late, and I’m kind of hungry. Unfortunately there’s nothing much in the fridge… but I think I hear the next-door neighbors coming home… BRAAAAIIIINNNNSSS!

I gotta go.