Phone call, cont.

I called again tonight at around 7:30pm. My mom hasn't been feeling well so I've been checking in. At the end of the conversation, about half an hour later, she said, "you're going to bed now?" I told her not quite, amused that it was all or nothing-- true, I recently told her not to be surprised if I don't pick up the phone after 10pm, but how quickly that morphs into an 8pm bedtime!

In the course of the conversation she told me she strongly disagreed with a Times article I sent her (about how a theory she loves has been discredited, i.e. no, getting sick a lot doesn't make you a healthier person in the long run). In her experience, she said, she got sick a lot, and therefore gets sick less as an adult. She added that I was constantly sick as a child, always coughing. I reminded her that even now, when I get a respiratory infection, the coughs are very deep, painful and persistent. She sort of verbally shrugged.

Anyway, not a prisoner of my DNA, I wasn't going to convince her: mine is to send the data, not insist or convince. I just want something empirical out there the next time she tells me not to floss because I should let the germs do their thing.

Did I mention that my parents have really bad teeth? They blame St. Petersburg water.