Flu

In terms of hair color, eye color, and name, my wife and mother could not be more similar.

Oh God. I put the pal back in Oedipal.

Luckily the devil's in the details. Shots, for instance. My mom gives them and my wife hates them. So they're opposites.

My mom says everyone who spends a lot of time with the baby should get a flu shot. She's also in love with flu shots. If she were a shot, say a tetanus shot, she totally would've married a flu shot. It does kind of make sense to get one, though, because we're having a flu season baby, and she'll be too young for her own shot. And if you hang out with the baby and then two days later discover you have the flu, then that's bad. When babies catch the flu, they turn into vampire bats.

Julie went to the doctor yesterday. I forgot to remind her to get a flu shot, and I was kicking myself all the way home from school. But as soon as I saw her and mentioned it, she lifted her shirt sleeve with mild hatred in her eyes and showed me the bandage. I was so proud of her. Of course today she feels like crap, which the internet says is okay if you're preggers and get a flu shot. I think it's because all of your immunities and whatever are attacking those miniscule flu cells and forget to make you feel generally decent otherwise. She'll be better tomorrow after sleeping most of the day today.

But anyway, I also called Julie's mom today and mentioned flu shots. Imagine calling your mother-in-law and being like "Hey yeah, my mom thinks everyone needs a flu shot. So...thoughts?" Pretty dictatorial, really, to impose flu shots on your in-laws. She humored me, so that's cool. If you ever want to test whether your mother-in-law likes you, ask her to get a shot.

I talked to Julie's sisters, too. I encouraged both to tease me behind my back about calling to relay my mom's two cents on flu shots, which really are my two cents on flu shots. Hopefully they will all either get flu shots or lie to me and say they did. Maybe I'm turning into Dadzilla.

Which reminds me: I have to get my own flu shot. Hey, maybe I'm the one who's like my mom.