Archive for September, 2006
Alright, since so many of you opened up about your opinions of when I will give birth, let’s make it interesting and make this my first ever Run, Lucy, Run Contest! Here is the pertinent info:
My official, doctor-approved due date is October 3rd.
Leave a comment on this post with the exact date you think my child will be born (a son, by the way, if you didn’t know that already). No “a little early”, “a couple of days late” wishy-washiness. Give me a concrete date!
Please look through the comments to make sure someone hasn’t already picked your date. It will make my life easier if there are no duplicates (and as you may have guessed, my life being easy is of the utmost importance right now). If you don;t catch it, I’ll send you an email to let you know to re-cvote, just because I have that kind of time on my hands right now.
I will reward the winner (or whoever is closest) with a fabulous, as of yet undetermined prize that will most likely come from the 99 cent store, Target, or an equally quality establishment. The winner’s prize will be sent out as soon as I can get myself out of the house after giving birth, or when my child turns 18, whichever comes first.
Yes, I am bored.
So, get your entries in! You only get one shot so choose carefully!
P.S. Brian, I love you but you’re not eligible. Too much insider information to make it fair.
September 20th, 2006
As of tomorrow, I will have exactly two weeks until my due date. And as of right now, I officially have a good, strong case of the blahs. I can’t really seem to get excited about much of anything these days, other than the 1 pound box of Van Duyn chocolates I got for my birthday that I have been tearing through at breakneck speed (I expect them to be gone within the hour). Actually, food in general is still pretty exciting, I suppose. Trips to Target seem to be another highlight for me-I have managed to figure out a reason to go at least once a week for the past month and no doubt there will be another one soon. Yesterday I fell prey to the bizarre laundry/America’s Next Top Model phenomenon. As my friend Charlie documented here, ther is a strange cosmic connection between the act of washing clothes and watching Tyra Banks encourage young, vapid girls to “work it”. I must have done 6 loads of laundry yesterday and watched almost the entire marathon of Top Model, season 6. Is it the number six? Is that the connection? Very strange, indeed.
I think I’m finally getting to my saturation point with pregnancy. The last two nights have been horrible as far as sleeping, and this morning I woke up with a seriously tweaked back. I couldn’t take Lucy for her walk this morning and she has spent most of the day ignoring me or shooting me dirty looks-if a dog is capable of that sort of complex emotion. I did manage to go to my favorite pre-natal yoga class this afternoon and after explaining to the teacher what I have been experiencing back-wise, she tailored the class to my area of aggravation. It was awesome! I feel much better already.
I’m pretty much convinced that the baby is going to be late, just a feeling I have, so I’ll likely have a couple more blah weeks ahead of me. Brian and his whole family are betting on an early arrival. Anybody else want to place a bet?
September 18th, 2006
We had a not so minor tree disaster in our backyard a couple of days ago. The gigantic carob tree that is very much the focal point of our yard dropped a rather large limb onto some power lines causing much stress and worry for Brian and I. This tree is pretty close to our house, specifically, it is right next to my little office where I usually practice and hang out on the computer, and we were pretty lucky that this break didn’t harm our house in any way. The stupid thing is, we’ve know for quite some time now that this tree is diseased-a huge, bizarre, orange, straight-out-of-Alice-in-Wonderland mushroom appeared at the base of the tree last year and several knowledgeable tree peeps came out and said, “If this was my house, I would get that tree out of here right away.” So what did we do? Nothing. In our defense, here are our excuses:
- This tree is MASSIVE (the pictures really don’t do it justice) and therefore very expensive to remove.
- The tree is really beautiful and probably a couple of hundred years old, therefore tugging at the heartstrings of tree-lovin’ folk like us.
- The tree is the only thing blocking the light for that side of the house, not to mention protecting us from the atrocious view of our neighbor’s butt-ugly yard and house.
We were conflicted. And lazy. Now however, with the bambino on the way, the threat of house-crushing seems somehow much more scary. So, tomorrow morning, the carob tree, she is getting cut down. Sorry, tree. I promise to plant another one in your place and keep the tree to people ratio where it was.
My pregnancy reading list is faring better these days. I finished My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult. I definitely enjoyed it and it was a quick read, but I wouldn’t say it rocked my world. Interesting subject matter though so I will give it an E for Engaging. Next up is either Blink or Cloud Atlas.
Today marks week 37 of pregnancy for me. So far no signs of this kid popping out anytime soon which right now, is fine by me. After this week the house should be a little more ready for the arrvial of the Heir to my vast estate-crib and changing table are being delivered today-and then I can start the full-on nesting process. Before I forget, congratulations to Yvonne who had a baby girl last week-I’m thinking of you guys!
September 12th, 2006
oof. This was a rough weekend. My hormones have kicked into high gear and I am experiencing some serious pregnancy mood swings. I guess since I am in the home stretch now my body is punishing me for coasting through my second trimester with such ease. I pretty much hit rock bottom on Sunday and luckily things have been slowly looking up since then. I think I really need to voice some of my fears about having a baby and all the change it will bring to my life. Between Brian and a few really incredible friends, I was able to purge some of that from my system-thanks, guys! Last night, Brian and I gorged ourselves on burgers and milkshakes, which always helps, and finally went to see Little Miss Sunshine which I really liked. All of that combined helped to get me back into a better state of mind for the beginning of this week.
It’s looking like this will be my last week of work before the baby comes-so far, I haven’t been called for anything past Friday and I won’t complain if nothing comes in. I am really tired these days and lugging this big round body of mine around is getting a little harder each day. Unfortunately, that leaves me with the task of finding some way to keep myself occupied when I’m hanging out at home. It has been crazy hot again down here in L.A. so going for a walk between the hours of 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. is out of the question. I started in on my reading list but my first attempt, The Plot Against America, didn’t go so well. I just couldn’t get hooked, no matter how many times my sister tells me it’s a great book. The concept is definitely interesting, but the style is a little dry and just isn’t doing it for me right now. So, I started My Sister’s Keeper last night, that seems to be going better.
But I need projects. Projects that don’t involve heavy lifting or really any kind of major physical movement. A friend suggested working on a baby book, but I’m not really the scrabook-y type. Another suggestion was crocheting (knitting hurts my hands) but I’m not so turned on by that either. One thing I do know is that I can’t spend endless hours lying on the couch watching bad TV because that’s when I start to get the funkiness. Not stinky funk, but mental funk. Yet another sleepless night last night doesn’t help that condition either-lack of sleep seems to be a funk inducer. I’m going to do my best to fight it though, so send me any suggestions you have for fighting the funk!
September 5th, 2006
There has been a decidely funky smell in our kitchen for the past couple of days. Sort of a combination between ant spray and cat pee. Doesn’t that sound lovely? As far as we can tell, no cats have pissed in the house and although there is a bottle of Raid sitting on the counter, no one has used it any time recently. However, those cats are sneaky. This one in particular:
Yes, Chewie enjoys a good indoor pee every once in a while. Most often, when the litter box has not been cleaned to his liking, he will choose to relieve himself on the dog’s bed. I used to think this was out of hatred for the dog, but then I realized that we keep our bedroom door closed and that if he could get in there, he would most likely just pee on OUR bed. He is a charming fellow.
Of course, I take no responsibility in any of this. Being pregnant, I cannot clean the litter box and that wonderful task falls into Brian’s hands. After my constant complaining about the funky smell this morning, he cleaned it and now we are left with only the Raid smell. So, we’ve gone from cat funky to chemical funky. Great.
September 1st, 2006
