I'm two for two. Someone else asked me if I was pregnant today. However, I'm feeling a bit better about it after the revelation I had on the way home. You see, "Are you pregnant?" is the question I get asked every time I'm at even slightly less than full, outgoing vigor. I must look like the maternal type. Or the unsickly type. Or both.

I first got the question when I was sixteen years old. Things escalated during university, and after I got married I found I couldn't so much as yawn from having stayed up late watching a movie without someone pulling me aside to ask me about my fertility status in a hoarse and dramatic whisper. Seriously, last year the question was prompted by my coming to work with the sniffles. The sniffles! Because, naturally, the most logical explanation is not a minor head cold. So all this asking is just par for the course, and signifies nothing*. It does, however, bug me when people assume pregnancy is the only condition that can affect a woman when there are, after all, such a rich variety of conditions to choose from.

Which is why, in a few weeks' time, in celebration of deed number 50, I am going to ask you to join me in a Girl-Blogger's Night In, in aid of the Cancer Council. We all know bloggers affected by breast cancer - KarenO is going through a terrible patch with her mother, and Karaoke Diva walked for members of her family not so long back (but Bea is too lazy to search for the exact post). Then there are those of our ranks who have been personally affected by ovarian cancer, and those who are at increased risk of female cancers due to the same conditions causing their infertility, or due to their childlessness itself. After that, there are the countless women who have been diagnosed without any risk factors whatsoever - I'm sure you can name two or three from your own life without thinking too hard at all.

So on Thursday November 1st, we're having a Girl-Blogger's Night In. Pour a relaxing bath, open a bottle of wine, get your favourite snacks and DVD together, bring a friend and do a facial, or just take the night off to read in bed. Blog about your evening and send me a link to the post. Then donate**, at the cancer council's website, the amount of money you would have spent on a night out. Let's make the fiftieth good deed one for the girls!


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*I think the assuming that happened yesterday signifies a little more. That was still freaky.

**Those within Australia can donate to the cancer council in your state. Those outside Australia - pick your favourite state or donate to mine, which is Queensland. If you would prefer to donate to your local women's cancer charity, do so and provide a link in your blog post.

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Oh, right, about this week. P.S. you can also sign this online, world-wide petition against the death penalty.