What is "Normal"?

Thanks to everyone reading for all the great feedback here and on Facebook about the posts I made yesterday. I was worried that I would end up regretting writing that stuff, but everyone seems to be reacting positively, so, Yay! I should probably say though, that if you're expecting me to tackle big subjects like that on a daily basis in my blog, you're going to be disappointed! Like today, I have no deep philosophical ramblings to share.
Went for a PAP smear this morning. Oh the joy. :( Why do doctors always expect you to know things? When was your last period? I don't keep track. I have no idea. I just know if I feel like it's been a long time between periods, and then I start to get nervous. lol And they always tell me my blood pressure numbers, like I have any clue at all what those mean! If I have a pain, rate the pain on a scale of 1-10. I HATE this! What if my 10 is not the same as someone else's 10? Does this matter? Am I just way over-thinking this? If there's been basically nothing wrong with you your whole life you might think that the flu would rate as a 10. But if you've gone through childbirth with no painkillers, or, say, had a limb chopped off, maybe had your legs crushed... you'd see it differently, wouldn't you? What if there's a pain that you've had since you were born... is it possible that you might not even realize you are in pain, since you've never not had the pain? Maybe you'd just think "this is how everyone feels." The Dr's office had a show on in the waiting room, & they were talking about ringing in the ears, and they played a sound, saying this is what it sounds like. & I was like...dude.. I'm pretty sure I hear that now and then, but not as loud! Do I have ringing in my ears then? Do I need to tell someone about this? I find it very hard to tell what is normal and what is abnormal, because nobody tells you what other folks are like. How do you know if you have an anxiety disorder if nobody else tells you how much anxiety they feel on a daily basis? And most people won't tell you exactly, cuz we don't wanna sound like whiny cry-babies and make our friends listen to us complain, beyond the occasional sisterly bitch-fest that goodness knows we all need. How do you know if your sex life is normal when you only get the details of a handful of close friends for a reference? I'm personally not afraid to share intimate details about sex with pretty much anyone interested enough to ask, but there's only one friend I have who really knows what goes on with me and I think I know a fair bit about her details. And it's always a bit scary too, isn't it? You don't want to say "We do ____" and have your friend look at you like you're weird, or have them act like it's all cool and then go tell Susie, "Janet said she does ___ with her husband! How weird is that?!" And there are social stigmas attached to so many things. And some of it is stuff that we all do, we just don't talk about it. Nobody wants to talk about poo, nobody wants to admit if they pick their nose when they're home alone. Personally, I have no issues with nose picking, as long as you're not wiping it on something and as long as you wash your hands immediately. Obviously nobody wants to find your boogers on the arm of the couch or anything, and nobody wants you spreading germs around. Masturbation. There's a big one! Everyone's so scared to talk about it! Men less so than women, I think. Are there really people out there who have honestly and truly never done it, or do lots of people just claim they've never done it cuz it's generally considered a negative thing? I remember in high school it was a HUGE deal if you confided in the wrong person and it got out to the rest of the school. I remember one girl getting made fun of cuz she told a friend she played around with her curling iron. And so we all keep our mouths shut, carefully hide anything that we worry people might reject. I think that whatever you wanna do is fine as long as your not hurting anybody or doing something without the consent of whoever else is involved. I may not want to try it myself, I may not even understand the appeal, but if other people do, go for it!
Well, I don't feel like this is a neat, tied-up ending, but I can't think of anything else to say, so I guess I'm just gonna leave it at that. Hope I didn't gross anybody out! lol