What things set you off? This is not a question just for the women as I know that men get PMS right around the same time women do.

-- Anonymous, April 20, 1999

Answers

Babies set me off, you bet they do.

Have you ever seen "A Baby's Story", or whatever the hell it's called, on Lifetime? DON'T WATCH IT TODAY, PAMIE! Each show follows a couple through the last few months of pregnancy, and then through delivery. I sob everytime I watch this damn series!

Of course, "A Wedding Story" precedes "A Baby's Story" on the Lifetime "Television for the 1950's Ideal Woman" channel. The weddings don't make me cry, they just make me crabby. Ugly people in ugly garb, with obnoxious friends and creepy family, are getting married and I'm not. I hate that show.

I guess a lot of things set me off.

Muffet members.xoom.com/muffet/WrongNumber/

-- Anonymous, April 20, 1999

I don't get bitchy at all when I have PMS, just uncontrollably weepy. A classic example:

I was watching country music videos once while in the full-blown PMS mode. Big mistake. Video after video had me just SOBBING.

There was the one with the girl who's dad is a fireman, and she wants to join the fire department. So she goes through the training, and of course her dad is the captain, training all the rookies, and he has to be harder on her than everyone else, because it wouldn't be fair otherwise. And she makes it, and then there's a big fire, and it's her first big oppurtunity, but, oh, no, one of the other firemen goes in, and gets hurt, and she's all tough, 'cause she knows she can do this, after all, her father trained her, so she goes in and rescues the fallen firefighter, and brings him out, and he's got his mask on, so you don't know who it is, but he's unconscious, and they get him out of all the smoke and take his mask off, and it's her dad, and you don't know if he's dead or what happens. I couldn't stop crying, and it wasn't just regular sniffly crying, but huge wet crocodile tears, that just pour down your face.

Then they have to show the one with the son and his dad, and he's singing about how he regrets not spending more time with his dad, and how when he was a teenager all he wanted was this car, and his dad was always working, and never home with the family, and he buys the car (a really cool mustang or something), and the son realizes that he would have rather had the time with his father more than any dumb car, but now that he's a dad, he and his son work on the car together.

I swear it was video after video like this for hours.

I don't even like country music.

Excuse me, I have to go get a tissue

-- Anonymous, April 20, 1999

The Wonder Years.

Man, there's a two week stint every month that I can't go anywhere near Nik at Nite.

Kevin's monologue at the end... Winnie doing "Our Town" for the school play... and if Karen gets married, forget it. I'm a big puddle of saline for the rest of the night.

They really need a disclaimer at the beginning of this show.

-- Anonymous, April 21, 1999

okay, i just wanted to be a crank and correct, "a baby story" aka the baby show, and "a wedding story" aka lucky people who have someone who loves them enough to agree to spend the rest of thier life with them, are both on tlc, not lifetime, lifetime's full of crappy made for tv movies, okay, so yeah, i have too much free time, im still cute!

-- Anonymous, April 21, 1999

Abandoned puppies destroy me. I'll wander around for hours knocking on doors trying to find this little guys home. There is no way I can keep these little innocent balls of trust-I just can't! So the animal control people get to see 6'3" 300# bad biker boy lookin' me blubbering my brains out. Not a pretty site.

-- Anonymous, April 21, 1999

Country videos are an excuse to cry at any time. Come to think of it, country MUSIC is an excuse to cry, or at least shake your head very sadly.

-- Anonymous, April 21, 1999

the one that really gets me is a credit card comercial. It starts with the daughter as a little girl(singing) "I met a boy his name is so and so he wants me to play with him Can I Daddy Can I daddy" then it goes on to a school dance and on to she met a boy who asked her to "marry him can I daddy can I daddy" and it goes to the shot of her trying on her wedding dress and he still see the little girl and the music "can I daddy Can I daddy--- Daddy" and he sees her carring the the dress and he pulls out his trusy VISA or whatever. That one gets me every time, all blubbering on the couch like a big baby. I think I have daddy issues

-- Anonymous, April 21, 1999

Reading my son this book called "I Love You Forever"-- EVERY single time I read this book I am just bawling by the end of it. It's all about the love a parent has for her child, and how that love continues to grow on into the next generation. It's such a simple book, but it is one of those 10-hanky stories. It's actually kind of a cleansing cry...

-- Anonymous, April 21, 1999

Okay, it reached new heights of stupid sadness yesterday when I actually got a little choked up at Volcano. Volcano! I'm all, "Oh here's the part where the dog is getting attacked by lava. Just like ID4 when the dog somehow gains the power of flight and narrowly escapes death in a tunnel by flying into an alcove-- oh! The dog went through the doggy door! What a smart dog! What a great dog!"

and then my eyes were welling.

and then i cried because i was pathetic.

-- Anonymous, April 21, 1999

Well, I watch too much VH1, but if any of you have seen Bette Midler Behind the Music, you know what I am talking about. I absolutely cannot sit through the Johny Carson Farewell clips in that show without BAWLING! What's so pathetic about that, is that I am too young to remember Johny Carson on The Late Show. Not that I'm like, 5 years old or something, I'm 18. But when Johny was on, I wasn't aloud to stay up. Anyway, it always chokes me up.

There's also that Cell phone add where the mom takes her daughter to college and is all sad, and then the girl calls her mom's cell phone just after she leaves....kills me!

sniff sniff

love Katy

-- Anonymous, April 21, 1999

Yesterday we gave a baby shower for a woman in my office. I bought her gift at Baby Gap. I got so hormonal in there wishing I was someone's mother...I bought my dog a Hawaian shirt. He looks great in it - but that's sad.

-- Anonymous, April 22, 1999

Lately, it's watching moms jogging with babies in the park. You know, where they push the little stroller things on the bicycle wheels? I get all sniffly ... "doesn't that look like fun? aren't they having a good time?" ... but Jeremy always growls back, "Oh, sure, if you really like pushing a shopping cart everywhere you go..."

And parents hiking with their kids in backpacks. Gets me every time.

-- Anonymous, April 22, 1999

Not much of a crier, and heavens to betsy I am so glad I don't deal with PMS. I witness a friend cry a few nights ago when she was watching the end of Crooklyn with me and the little girl, Troy, becomes the woman of the house when the mother dies of cancer. That was interesting.

But I'll tell what ALWAYS gets me close to bawling, which has yet to happen, but it gets me damned close.

Sports retirements!

Gretsky -- man I was getting misty. I can't watch Bobby Clarke night, when my hometown Flyers honored him after he retired, without sniffling. And they always show everything in slow-mo with sappy music playing. But man, that music could be backing a video of a little baby and it's mother, and all my female friends would cry and I would laugh at them, but put that same music on top of Hank Aaron's 715th home run, and pass the Kleenex!

Anyway, if you ever want your man to get all sappy and in the mood to cuddle and open up to you, I highly recommend getting a video of sports-retirement highlights.

-- Anonymous, April 22, 1999

Sniff

I can't even read this stupid thread without getting all teary. God help me if I see that country music fireman video, I don't know if I could get over it.

It's the two week countdown until my period -- you should all send my husband sympathy cards.

-- Anonymous, April 23, 1999

I almost forgot -- the one thing that chokes me up no matter what time of the month it happens to be are those black and white, shadow people, classical music playing DeBeers' "A Diamond is Forever" commericals. I literally stop what I am doing to watch them and then I wind up having to choke back the tears.

-- Anonymous, April 23, 1999

Okay...I'm going to hate myself for admitting it, but what to hell.

Mr. Holland's Opus. At the end of the movie when Richard Dreyfuss realizes that what everyone is about to do, I just died. Man, it was too much. Part of it might be that I'm the son of a high school teacher turned college professor, and so I have a pretty good understanding of what that movie was all about. Dedicating your life to something that really kind of got in the way of your dream, and then having your dream realized...

Shucks, I gotta stop thinkin' about it.

-- Anonymous, April 23, 1999

Ok ready? - LONG DISTANCE COMMERCIALS. Why does nearly every single one have to be a weeper??? Maybe they want to make you feel quilty so that you will call your mom or something..

Also, there is a new one. Last night my hubbie and I *BOTH* got weepy at a Disneyworld commercial, of all things. It opens with a shot of this beautiful little boy with this amazing dreamy look in his big blue eyes, accompanied by Danny Elfman-like music (like Edward Scissorhands not The Simpsons). Then the camera pulls back and the parents are like, "Tommy, this is just the entrance. Let's go in." And they are standing at the entrance to Disneyworld and he is looking at Cinderella's castle and now I am getting all teary!!!

There is also one about a little girl who wants an elephant that is really cute. Oh, and how about the headache commercial where the little girl is in the tutu and the daddy is all mean until he takes the aspirin or whatever.

Geez. This is embarassing!

-- Anonymous, April 23, 1999

I've been known to cry over ER. Well, I had a little PMS Event this evening myself. We were just finishing a wholesome dinner of Subway & Doritos, when suddenly Steve grabs the bag o' chips, closes it up, and says "that's enough for now". I promptly burst into tears, hearing instead "ugh. you're so fat. oh is there no end to your consumption of food, you fat-thing-you." Thing is, I've asked Steve to sort of help me out a bit, re: the eating thing, as I'm trying to lose weight. Yet, when he does something "helpful", I take it as a personal criticism. Poor guy. Ah well, by next week Sunshine 'N Rainbows Raf will be back. Midol, take me away...

-- Anonymous, April 24, 1999

amen to debeers commercials, that can i daddy thing and all long distance calling commercails.

until 1-800-callatt comes on. that david arquette is so so funny.

this month, instead of being all weepy right before my period, my sense of humor has been jacked up considerably. my boyfriend is wondering how i got so much funnier all of a sudden. we laugh all the time. it's either hormonal or the fact that finals are almost over and i have 2 weeks vacation.

i want a baby really badly all of a sudden. ack. it's bad. thank god i'm moving in with my friend this week...she has a cat, that's good enough for me!

it doesn't happen anymore, but the first couple times i saw "the power of one"...oh shit, watch out. cried for like a day and a half. same with armaggedon. and tess of the d'urbervilles. pretty much everything.

i am a dork. dork.

-- Anonymous, April 27, 1999

Okay, Okay, talk about CORNBALL....what gets me is *looking down* animals....

awwwwwwwwwww warm fuzzy puppies, cute wittle kitty witties, god forbid I see roadkill...it's all over and there's no stopping me!

One time my boyfriend had to literally pull the car over on the shoulder to console me after I witnessed the cruel killing of a squirrel by another driver. I was a mess and *sin sin sin this is* the most horrible part..I think I cried more THEN than I did when my grandfather passed away. I mean, sure I met the man once, but I never met the squirrel (?????) I think I may have been roadkill in a previous life or something *shrug* who knows...

-- Anonymous, May 13, 1999

There are some inanimate objects that get to me.

My co-worker gave me these little paper mache chicks for Easter. (They quickly were cast in a Too-Bored-For-Prime-Time couch play called "Chick and Bunny Theatre" which is boring the shit out of my friends every Friday night at my apartment. Reserve your tickets soon, as the futon fills up fast). Anyway, they are so cute I end up cooing.

And my sister used to have this tiny blue dinosaur eraser. She'd hold it up to your face and yell, "Look at it's little beady eyes!" For some reason this little blue thing with these tiny black-dot eyes was so cute it was funny.

There's a very strange sense of humor in my house.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 1999

I know it was a manipulative cornball movie but I was weeping like a baby half an hour into "What Dreams May Come"

And yes, that credit card commercial with the little girl - teen - young woman getting married...

The summer before last I was at my niece's wedding and had tears running down as I watched my brother dancing with his daughter as they played "Daddy's Little Girl"... Last weekend I attended a co-worker's wedding and was all choked up as I watched her dancing with her father... children grow up so quickly...

It seems to me that this is a fairly young crowd in here -- well, you may not think so, but from my point of view -- It seems just a few months ago that my youngest was born and he has turned into a huge 14 yr old who needs to shave every other day... and can remember my daughter being born seems like yesterday and now she has her driver's license, a part time job, and just one year left in high school... taking my eldest for walks every day when he was a toddler and he will be 31 this fall... and I can get choked up thinking about the wonders and joys of parenting and how fast children grow. (Those of you with little ones, even though it may seem as if you are surrounded by mountains of Pampers, try to savor every moment, time passes so switfly...)

-- Anonymous, May 30, 1999

Memorial Day reminded me.

It doesn't matter if it's in a movie, at an airshow, on tv or if it just happens to flash through my mind for a moment.

The Missing Man Formation always makes me sob.

-- Anonymous, June 01, 1999

I'm a big crier during films. I once saw Philadelphia, Schindler's List and In The Name of the Father in the same week. They were practically handing me tissues at the door.

I saw Forrest Gump on TV the other day, after seeing it 1000 times before, and for some reason this time Jenny dying just completely reduced me to a sobbing heap.

That Bruce Springsteen from Philadelphia still makes me get a bit of a lump going in the old throat.

My crying at films history goes way back. I remember when I was six, getting sent to bed half way through Watership Down because it was upsetting me too much. A couple of days later I was off school sick, and they played the song and video as a filler between TV programmes. My mother found me weeping uncontrollably in the living room ... I never have seen the end of the film, come to think of it.

Luckily, I've married somebody who is at least as emotional as me. Tristan hadn't seen Forrest Gump before (I tell you, sometimes it's like he was raised by wolves or something), and he left the room when it became obvious that Bubba was about to get beaned, and wouldn't return to the sofa until I told him it was over. He also wept buckets during Cinema Paradiso, when the guy realises what he missed out on by staying away from the village.

If you'll excuse me, I need to be alone with my teddy bear for a while.

-- Anonymous, June 01, 1999

Cinema Paradiso always, ALWAYS makes me cry. That little kid... oh, man.

Just like that scene in The Piano. You know the scene.

And... I'm ashamed to admit: I always cry at "My Girl," when she's all screaming, "He needs his glasses!"

I have to go or I'll start crying...

-- Anonymous, June 01, 1999

God, that "Can I Daddy" credit card commercial... I was in a *meeting* at work the other day in which it was shown and I actually had to pretend to be looking for something in my bag so that no one would notice the big soppy tears welling unprofessionally in my eyes.

But what really gets me bawling every damn time is "My So-Called Life", the Christmas episode. I've seen it a couple of times, and I always try to be tough, but when Angela's mom asks the angel-chick how she died and then goes into the church and finds Rickie and hugs him, I just lose it.

Oh, and the "Wonder Years" episode where Kevin cuts school and hangs out with his sister, and then she runs away. I'm a blubbery mess by the time that one's done, too.

Just a sucker for cheeseball TV, I gue

-- Anonymous, June 01, 1999

Personally, I hate that Can-I-Daddy credit card commercial--but *both* my boyfriend and I caught ourselves sniveling over a recent segment of Dateline about companion dogs for people in wheelchairs and whatnot. I mean, those cute, earnest golden retrievers...with big helpful eyes...they actually were *taking socks out the dryer* and *getting the cordless phone for them*... and stuff...god.

Oh, and I just read this terrible thing in a book about wildlife conservation in America that totally choked me up. Are you ready?

So, wouldn't you think that when the *very last* passenger pigeon in America was sitting pathetically in its cage in the zoo, all old and alone, its entire species eradicated, people would be nice to it?

(It was a female, by the way. Her name was Martha.)

But nooo. They had to *build a fence* around her cage to *keep people from throwing sand at her to make her move.*

(That one got my boyfriend, too, I think.)

(Hmm. Thse are both about animals. Not that I'm a misanthrope or anything.)

-- Anonymous, June 10, 1999

Oh, speaking of animals. Roadkill always depresses me.

One day I was driving along the highway and all of the cars were suddenly stopping ahead. I slowed down and saw all of the cars getting out of the far left lane. When I got far enough ahead in line I saw what everyone was swerving around:

A dog had somehow crossed all of the lanes of traffic and was now stuck on the far left side with the median blocking him on one side and a steady stream of traffic on the other. The dog, however, was in his glory. He was chasing the biggest line of cars he'd ever seen.

He just kept running full speed, chasing all of the cars and yipping and yapping away, his tongue hanging out and his head whipping up towards the cars.

I started crying, because I realized that the dog was probably going to be hit eventually, because there was no place for anyone to pull over and get the dog, and the dog was too crazed out to get in a car anyway. But I knew that dog was going to be happy for it's final moments.

Unlike the time I was driving behind a truck on the highway and I saw a guy throw KITTENS out the window of the truck. They whipped right under the car and popped out right in front of mine. I slammed on the breaks in time to see the kittens whip around from under the car, shake their heads and bolt over to the grass next to the lane. I saw them run into the shelter of a few bushes.

I'm honking my horn and I'm so pissed off that I realize that now I have no idea where those kittens would be, so I didn't know how to go back and see if they were okay.

I hate seeing animals on the side of the road. In both of those cases I cried all the way home.

One time I saw a Bassett Hound (my dad's favorite kind of dog) all muddied and walking in the middle of a four-way intersection. All the cars had stopped, and I called the dog over until he got out of the road and into the 7-11 parking lot. "Is this your dog?" I asked someone. "No." "Is this your dog?"

No one claimed the dog, who was just so happy to be muddy and free. He flopped around the 7-11 some more and someone called him over. I was late for a meeting and decided that the person looking him over would make sure he got a shelter. But to this day I'm kicking myself for not taking that dog home and making sure he was okay myself.

Oh, god. I'm so depressed now.

-- Anonymous, June 10, 1999

Well, here's a happy story:

My brother once found this cat. As my mother already had 3 cats, she totally refused to let him bring the stray cat inside the apartment. My brother refused to leave the cat alone though - so he spent the entire night outside in the cold, laying on a parked car, with the cat all curled up inside his jacket. When I looked out the window and saw that, I bawled like a baby. It was so touching. I think he did find that cat a home the next day.

-- Anonymous, June 10, 1999

There's this one commercial for mini-vans. It's SO sad. Well it starts off with this homeless man sitting near a bus stop all huddled up in dirty rags and all these people just walk and drive by him. Then they have a little baby sitting in the exact same spot with the same rags on, and a lady comes over and picks the baby up. Then they put up these words that say "How old do they have to be before we give a damn?" That one really gets to me.

-- Anonymous, February 26, 2000

ok, its losertime.... that one mac commercial, where they show the movie being played on the moniter, and its of 2 small kids jumping on the bed and doing various other kidstuff and the music in the background is something about "and may you stay forever young" and then its like "movie directed by dad" or something like that, waterworks every time... and maybe its cuz i just had a baby, but i cant even get through the first 10 minutes of "a baby story". its like, these women are not even close to having their babies, and im sobbing, like " i know whats going to happen!!"..

~*jenn*~

-- Anonymous, June 17, 2000