I got this cool thing from Amy…
Click on this link and choose some words that describe me. After you do that, you can see what words I’ve chosen for myself to see if we’re in sync.
We did a lot of tests like this in psych class in college…it was pretty interesting how other people’s perceptions of you differed from your own…so let me know what you think!!!
Unfortunately, “cool” was not one of the options, or I know you all would have chosen that…
There are many women who will tell you that being pregnant is the best thing ever. There are others that will tell you that they would be OK with never having to go through the agony of pregnancy again.
I wondered how I would be.
So far, I’m pretty OK with the whole thing. I’m not loving it (that is, shouting from the rooftops and yelling “I want to be pregnant all the time!”) and I’m not hating it (that is, complaining all the time). Of course, I haven’t gone through labor yet, so that, I’m sure, will give me a good idea on which side of the fence I sit.
Right now I’m just amazed with the whole thing, it’s just really surreal to me, having my body create this entirely new being. It’s so weird to look at my stomach and see the baby move around, I wonder what the heck is going on in there. I so much want to communicate with him, ask him how he’s feeling, if he’s comfortable, etc.
Other than the amazement and anticipation, I don’t have the euphoric feeling that some women have experienced, nor do I have a lot of medical complaints that others have had.
However, there ARE a couple things that I need to let you know. Beware, I’m getting into the realms of “Ewww, Christine, I didn’t need to know that!” so stop reading now if you’re squeamish.
- When I was in college and years after, I’d play in a football tournament called Ricebowl. They were really physical football games and the day after I’d usually end up really sore and unable to move. Last week, that’s the way my groin felt - as if my vagina had just played a full day of football. Dave asked if it was contractions, but it only happened when I got up from a sitting position and walked. I talked to the doctor about it and he said that my ligaments were stretching and I’ll be having this football vagina fun for the rest of my pregnancy - some days better than others.
- With all the vitamins I’ve been taking, my hair has grown so fast and it’s super shiny. However, that means that my nails have been growing at an alarming rate, too. That’s no problem for my fingernails, but I can’t stand to walk around with talon toenails. Cutting my toenails has been a cirque du soliel test of my limberness and dexterity. In a couple weeks, I’m making Dave cut ‘em.
- I’ve got this weird, dry rash on my face. I had horrible acne as a teen, and had thanked god that he gave me a good skin complexion after that, I thought I wouldn’t have to worry anymore. However, I’ve got this dry red patch on my chin and it just won’t go away, even though I’ve been putting on gobs of moisturizer on it.
- Sometimes when I sneeze, I pee a little. I need to up my kegel exercises. Actually, I’m doing them right now, as I’m typing. Don’t you feel a little dirty right now?
- My belly button is pretty sensitive. I don’t think it’s going to pop, but it’s stretching out and parts that have never seen full light are now exposed. My sister stuck her finger in my belly button and I felt really violated, I don’t know why. It was just weird.
So that’s that. The pregnancy is going well, outside of the 38lbs and counting that I’ve gained. There’s still more than 2 months left of this, and I’m starting to get antsy…
This message is brought to you by Aquaman Sam, who thought my Chicago readers may want to beware!
Illinois will begin using photo radar in freeway work zones in July.
Second offense tickets are $1,000 with license suspension.Beginning in July the State of Illinois will use speed cameras in areas designated as “Work Zones” on major freeways. Anyone caught by these devices will be mailed a $375.00 ticket for the FIRST offense, but he SECOND offense will cost $1000.00 and comes with a 90-Day suspension. Drivers will also receive demerit points against their license, which allows insurance companies to raise their rates.
This represents the harshest penalty structure yet for a city or state using PHOTO enforcements. The State will begin with TWO camera vans issuing tickets in work zones with speed limits lowered to 45 MPH. Photographs of both the Driver’s face and License plate are taken.
As someone who doesn’t really pay attention to workzones, this is something that I’ll really be watching out for.
However, this will be much more effective to slowing people down than those signs that they used to have, written in kid scrawl that I had to actually READ as I was driving…”Please slow down, my daddy has died…etc” I’d think more people would get into accidents reading it!
One great thing about being bought out by this new company?
Getting Presidents’ day off!!!
The last time I had this holiday off was when I was in college. Hell, I don’t even think we got this day off in college. I don’t remember.
But now I have this extra day to sit around and do whatever I want for the 11 hours that I’m usually out of the house working (I’m counting the commute here). I could watch the Olympics, watch some OnDemand movies, rent a movie at blockbuster, work on my Thank You cards (which I started last night, thankyouverymuch), do some post-cleaning from the party, clean out my closet…
However, slave-driver “I love to clean” Dave will be home today since he was on-call yesterday, so it will probably be the last two things on that list. Hmph!
Oh well, at least I still have a day off!
Yesterday we had our first baby shower (we have another one scheduled in a couple weeks with Dave’s family).
It was great to see old friends and have them over at our house. I was a little stressed out that we wouldn’t be able to fit all the people who RSVP’d to the party, but everything worked out just fine and I think everyone had a good time. The ladies had a lot of fun playing the games - one was guessing the kind of baby food that was in unlabeled baby food jars, the other was memorizing the contents of a laundry basket full of baby products, and the last was trying to guess what the circumference of my waist was. Which, if you’re wondering, is 45 inches…much less than the 65 inches that Marian guessed but much more than everyone else guessed!
HUGE props go to my sisters for running the show and getting all the preparations together. It got a little crazy at my house right before the party, but in the end, it all seemed to run seamlessly and I had a great, stress-free time. My sisters are the best! I’m so lucky that they worked so hard on this.
It’s so exciting to open presents, especially when you have a registry and you can check on what’s being bought. But it’s also so cool to see what people buy that isn’t on the list. Some of the coolest gifts I got were things that I didn’t even think of. I think the most interesting gift was from Jen, who got us a little shield to protect us from getting peed one when changing the baby. Weird, but useful!
It’s always hard for me to be the center of attention at a party. I feel a need to talk to everyone, but in my condition its hard to stay mobile the whole time and I had been on my feet for most of the morning, so I was pretty exhausted the whole time. It was just nice to sit on the couch and talk to whoever was lucky enough to be next to me.
The party was a bit crazy yesterday…we’ve fallen into some sort of baby boom. Dave and I counted 7 babies under 13 months old at the party. There was Ayden, Emma, Kenzo, Sammy, Jayden, Jovino’s daughter (I forgot her name), and Aric. That’s a lot of babies! They were all different ages and had different moods…it was pretty wild. Not only did we have a ton of babies, but there were also 2 other pregnant women at the party. There must be something in the water!
As much fun as I had yesterday and as happy I was being surrounded by family and friends, there was one thing missing that was in the back of my mind yesterday…my mom. I know it’s been a couple years already, but as I’m coming down the home stretch of this pregnancy, I sometimes wish she was here to tell me what to do or what she went through. There’s only so much my father can answer about what they went through. When my sisters asked me for my ‘list’ of what family members to invited, it was hard to make the list…normally my mother would have just done the list and given it to me. She was great at things like that. But for as much as I miss her and wish that she was here to share her experiences with me, I know that her legacy lives on within me and all the ones she’s left behind. She’s up there, somewhere, watching me, yelling at me for eating too many sweets.
Thanks to everyone who came yesterday!
By the way, there was a favor that we had worked all morning to give away at the party, but somehow it was forgotten during the party and never came out. So the next time I see you all, I’ll have the favors to give to you.
To anyone that missed it, there will be another one in a couple weeks - just email me and I’ll let you know when it is!
For your entertainment, click on this picture link to get some pics from the party. I tried to take as many pictures as I could, but by the end of the party I just got lazy. I wish I took more!
Since Redpac’s driving out to Indiana and buying a lotto ticket for me…
Only a couple more weeks to participate in Redpac’s yearly “Guess the date and time the first Mardi Gras drunken vomit will happen” contest. Yes, he’s still going to Mardi Gras. I’m sure he’ll have many interesting photos and he’s more than happy to support the economy of NOLA.
Check out Redpac’s contest
More later…
I’ve always had pretty vivid dreams, but I had a REALLY interesting one the other day…I don’t even know if this one is open to interpretation, it’s so bizarre!
It starts out with me on the L train. I’m riding along, and then David Boreanaz (”Angel”) comes on the train. We talk and he invites me to this house. Of course, I agree to come along.
We get to this huge mansion, and walk in. It’s pretty dark when I get in, I can’t see much. As soon as we get in, David leaves me and I’m left to wander around on my own. It’s an older mansion, with many rooms. For some reason, I know that this place is a whorehouse/fetish dungeon. Not that I actually saw anything happening, but there were people walk around and the women were dressed in leather and some had masks on, so it was easy to figure out.
I end up in a room in the back, talking to this woman who works there, and she shows me her life size doll. The doll is lying on a bed and she showing me all the features. Suddenly the doll falls off the bed and I help the woman put the doll back on the bed. As we’re doing this, the owner of the mansion comes in. Of course, I just know this. It’s Dennis Hopper. He’s pissed that the doll fell off the bed, and drags the woman away. I know she’s going to get hurt, but he tells me to stay where I am and by the tone of his voice I know that I should listen.
I sit there in the dim light, and then Eddie Cibrian (”Invasion”,”Third Watch”) comes in. He has a mohawk that is colored pink, white and yellow, and has a black studded chocker on with a torn shirt and tight leather pants. He tells me to go with him. I follow him.
Then for some reason, I’m looking around the mansion again and there’s Ewok, my dad’s dog. He’s running around all happy. I pass by him, and then see him again right in front of me. I look behind me and he’s still behind me. I realize there are two of him. Far away, I see another dark shape in the dark and figure that there’s a third Ewok there.
I pick up the two Ewoks by me and I carry them over to Dennis Hopper. One of the Ewoks is fidgety, so I throw him in a pail that has about 2 inches of water in it. I’m showing Dennis the dogs and let him know that Ewok has replicated himself. I point out Ewok in the bucket, but before my eyes he submerges himself, drowns and disappears. I look at Ewok in my other hand and I’ve held him so hard that my hand has crushed him and all I have is a little ball of fur. I look down the hall at the other Ewok, and he’s still running around. I tell Dennis that that is the original Ewok and these two were just imposters.
END DREAM.
Am I twisted or what?
I’ve been in Milwaukee for the past two days. I was actually supposed to spend yesterday night there, but hey, it was Valentine’s day, so I decided to come home since the weather was nice.
When I lived out in Long Beach and commuted north to Thousand Oaks, it was a 60 mile drive but took between 2-3 hours to drive. I loved those drives because I could think and just have some time to myself. Time went by like nothing.
Driving from my place to Milwaukee is 80 miles and I can do it in about an hour and a half, but by the time I’m done with the drive, I’m exhausted! I don’t get as much time to clear my head since I’m paranoid the whole time because of the baby, especially when there was a car on fire on the highway yesterday. It was crazy! Not only that, but my butt would start cramping up and I’d start getting fidgety.
So yesterday I came home and surprised Dave, who was at home cleaning in preparation for my baby shower this weekend (if you weren’t invited, you’re free to come - it’s Saturday - email me for details). We decided to head out to this new sushi place by our house. I had on my work clothes, so I was pretty dressed up, but for some reason I put on my wacky sneakers. I looked like the biggest dork with my pretty blue top, cool black pants and white chunky sneakers with silver stripes. But dinner was great. We savored it since we really don’t know if we’ll have time to go to dinner once the baby comes.
Once we got home, we turned on the Olympics and promptly fell asleep on our couches. I woke up at midnight and realized that I forgot to do some work in preparation for today so I stayed up for another hour working, only to wake up at 6am to drive to Milwaukee again.
So I got home today, exhausted. I was worried that I’d miss Rusty racing short track today, but luckily his races were after “LOST”. Before I knew the schedule I was really sad that I’d have to choose between watching my friend compete or watching my favorite TV show. Such are the choices I’m faced with every day in life.
So what the hell am I doing up now?
I have no idea….
*yawn*
Goodnight!
Tomorrow: wacky dreams and my Olympic thoughts
Dave didn’t feel really hyped up for the Olympics, wanting to focus more on college basketball this week. He knows I’m an Olympic fanatic so he created a new rule for the house - Only one hour of Olympics for me….every other day. Yeah, right….WHATEVER!
SO I’ve been watching it for the last couple nights, and when he’s not studying, Dave will watch it with me. He especially loves snowboarding, and has been picking my brain about short track. He’s had some pretty hilarious comments as we’ve been watching the games, and I wanted to share a couple with you…
On figure skating pairs - “Man, why don’t the women wear thongs? This sport would totally be popular with the guys if they did!”
I’ve noticed that some of the pairs women are wearing pants/leggings instead of skirts, which for some weird reason I prefer. I commented to Dave about it:
Me: Aww, she’s wearing pants! I think its better when they wear skirts.
Dave: No, it’s ok, she’s got a nice ass.On Speedskating - When we were watching the speedskating 5000m race, it was taking FOREVER. Those are long races. I tried to explain to Dave that the races in short track don’t take as long:
Me: You know, in short track, it’s shorter than this.
Dave: Duh, that’s why they call it SHORT track.
Me: I meant the races are shorter!
Dave: Same thing!When I told Dave that Chad Hedrick would be taking Apolo Anton Ohno’s place as the new hearthrob for the Olympic Games, “Apolo was a heart throb? Are you serious?”
Commenting on the fact that Shani Davis was a young speedskater in Chicago when all the rest of the kids were trying to emulate Michael Jordan, “Man, I’m sure his friends gave him a hard time about wearing tights all the time.”
On snowboarders - When Shaun White and Danny Kass were looking on as the American Flag was raised and the national anthem was playing…”Man, I bet those guys don’t even KNOW the words to the national anthem!”
As the camera was focusing on Shaun White feeling emotion as the he reflected on his gold medal…”Wouldn’t it be funny if someone threw a tomato at him? Like, if that’s what people did to the Flying Tomato - throw tomatoes at him?”
His comments were hilarious. I told him he should do Olympic commentary for the Spike channel or something!
