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Jun. 4th, 2009 10:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
norsegirlThis has to be up there among the worst birthdays ever, which is funny since the year it marks has been one of the best. And no, it wasn't because of anything anyone did or did not do exactly, it's just hard for a day not to suck when you're very pregnant and your husband gives you the flu. Seriously Jason, worst gift ever!
Friday Jason stayed home from work because he felt so awful. Saturday Jason stayed home from the event because he still felt awful. Sunday he helped with unloading the car, despite my objections that it could all stay there for days as far as I was concerned (unlike Edmonton it's in a locked garage here, so it makes no difference to me whether it's locked in the car in the garage, or on a shelf in the garage). Sunday night he paid for his efforts by spending the entire night in the bathroom. Monday, having had maybe 2 hours of sleep, he stayed home from work again. Tuesday he went to the doctor's in the morning and worked in the afternoon. With all that sick in the house, it was not hard to guess that I'd be getting it soon.
I had originally hoped to get the house all cleaned and straightened up as a birthday gift to myself, but I overdid it at the event on Saturday (the muscle ache felt sooooo good though, nice to know my body still remembers work) so I was unable to do much of anything on Sunday. Then Jason stayed home on Monday and I felt compelled to keep him company. And finally, things started to go downhill on Tuesday, and I'd kind of missed my deadline anyway, so I spent the day outside cleaning used baby stuff I picked up on Craigslist, which of course just made me even more nauseous. I really can't abide other people's filth, and I was VERY glad I never brought any of this stuff in past the garage when I brought it home. Heck, if we want to be honest, I'm not real keen that I let it into my garage either, and this about a place I have stored an entire wheelbarrow of dirt, where I regularly store the garbage/recycling and have found a snake! I'll admit that my place isn't tidy, but it's fairly clean (except for the kitchen right now and I'm getting to that). I don't get how people can live with stuff covered in pee and formula and encrusted with food. I get not cleaning something just to sell it to someone else, but this stuff had been sitting unused in her home for some time (the kid was able to walk and talk). Uuuugh. It also smelled very strongly of "baby"; you know that horrible sickeningly sweet and artificial baby powdery scented smell. I hate that scent at the best of times, and apparently when pregnant and ill it nearly makes me lose my cookies. I can tell I'm going to have my work cut out for me in finding products that don't make my home or child smell like that.
As of now the dishwasher is running, but all the hand washable stuff is still all over the kitchen, there's power tools and accessories everywhere, the storm door still isn't completed, I'm not any further with my many curtain projects, there's piles of used almost-clean baby stuff all over (I need to bleach soak it all, scrubbing in hot soap and sun drying just wasn't enough to sit right with me), the SCA stuff still isn't completely put away and the place is a complete disaster. So much for the clean and restful abode I was hoping for as a happy birthday to me.
Anyway, the actual birthday was a funny thing. I spent most of the day fighting nausea in the garage scrubbing nasty stuff, then killed time for most of the afternoon. Rhonda came over after work and gifted me with a lovely birthday present that I'd been admiring on one of our shopping trips but that she knew I wouldn't buy for myself. It's a big white bowl with a green bamboo pattern painted on it (me and that thing for green and white again). Jason was supposed to come home in time to do a hospital delivery area tour, but when I called him at work to ask where he was and why he hadn't come home yet, he responded that he was waiting for me to tell him I was on the way out the door. Uh, yeah, I'll just head out in the driveway and start flapping my arms now then. Dork-boy forgot that he had the car that day (which is odd since I very rarely have it). We've rescheduled the tour for today. By the time he got home, I still felt yucky, and I assumed he didn't feel much better, so I decided that dinner out would be a waste and instead suggested that we go to a movie. We're standing in line at the concession stand trying to figure out which overpriced confection to purchase (our usual Glossettes are not available in this country of course) and this is how the conversation goes:
Jason: I could just skip the candy.
Me: I'd like Sour Patch Kids.
Jason: I don't like those.
Me: You don't have to eat them. And when it's your birthday you can pick.
Jason: Well, I guess it is almost your birthday.
Me: Almost?????
Jason: Oh shit, it's Tuesday, I thought it was Monday, uh, happy birthday.
This after, when seeing a line-up on the way into the theater I remarked "oh, are the tickets less expensive on Tuesdays?", and I'm pretty sure I'd mentioned the birthday thing once or twice already (at the very least in the context of showing him the gift from Rhonda). I think this goes beyond epic fails and into legendary fails. I just had to laugh. He is soooo lucky he married me and not some woman who actually pays attention to the calendar.
The movie we selected was Star Trek, and I just want to get this out of the way... to everyone who has already seen it and DID NOT caution me to fill my purse with kleenex, shame on you all!!!! The first five minutes were really unfair on a hormonal woman who is huge with her first pregnancy. I had to spend the rest of the movie all damp and with a runny nose. Thanks a lot for the warning y'all.
As for the movie itself... it was kinda fun, but I didn't like the re-writing the history aspect of it. I felt like there was enough stories left to tell, even using the existing characters, without throwing out all that had already been done. Unless time travel is the central premise of the movie (Back to the Future) it usually annoys me. Other than that, good movie, but I am totally compartmentalizing it and treating it like "alternate reality" Star Trek. It was very interesting to me how not-Star-Trek it looked. Cribbed a lot from Firefly mostly (lens-flares, shaky camera, silence in space) and certainly had a Star Wars/BSG influence in any of the hangar scenes (I don't think I'd ever seen a hangar in Star Trek before). The bridge looked entirely too white and uncomfortably bright, and what was up with the hamster-tube water system in engineering?
This has undeniably been one of the biggest life-changing years of my life. What's interesting to me is that I kinda saw this coming, but at the same time was blindsided by it.
To celebrate our 30th birthdays (a bit early) we took a trip to Maui last February. I'd just gotten away from working under the harpy, and we'd decided that would be a good time to try to have a family, secure in the notion that I was doing it for the right reasons, not just to get some maternity leave and get away from my awful boss, since I was now working for the best boss ever. The trip was all about opening a new page in our lives, celebrating one last hurrah (spent more on that trip doing absolutely anything our hearts desired than we ever have or will again I'm sure) and finally transitioning to adulthood and accepting some real responsibility. I was looking forward to enjoying the Canadian benefit of a long, paid maternity leave, but I was also looking forward to returning to a job at the City at the end of it. I also expected I'd get pregnant quickly and easily and be a mother by my 31st, especially since we'd started trying months ahead of my 30th.
We didn't tell anyone about our decision to try and start a family because in case it didn't go well or quickly (and it didn't) I didn't want to be fielding regular, prying questions that might just serve to remind me of my failure thusfar. The few people we did tell did ask too often in my opinion. As a note to anyone whose friends or family have mentioned that they are trying... just say "that's nice, and best of luck", don't bring it up again. When they're pregnant I'm sure they'll let you know. If you have to ask, the answer is "not yet" and you have no idea how painful that reminder might be.
In retrospect, it's a very good thing that my body held off on getting pregnant so I could make money up until the end, and didn't have to move while pregnant, and didn't let the fact that I was pregnant or a mum of a very young child have any effect on the decision to move here. Of course that's not something I knew at the time.
I'd wanted to get out of Edmonton and to buy a house, but I really didn't think that would be something my 30th year would bring. I'd always wanted to live in the states (don't ask why, in retrospect I'm not sure either, and it was the dream of a 7-year-old taking trips to Disney World who had no idea about politics or health care, and was something I was hesitant about as an adult armed with that knowledge) but at this point in my life I figured it was more likely that I'd relocate to either Australia or the UK, and those were long shots at best.
Imagine my surprise finding myself celebrating my 31st year living in Texas of all places (never even thought I'd visit here), owning my first house, not yet being a mother but expecting my first child and being legally prevented from holding a job. Nothing at all like what I'd planned or expected, but good in every way (except maybe the job thing, I would like to be productive again).
I have to say, it's been a good year.
Friday Jason stayed home from work because he felt so awful. Saturday Jason stayed home from the event because he still felt awful. Sunday he helped with unloading the car, despite my objections that it could all stay there for days as far as I was concerned (unlike Edmonton it's in a locked garage here, so it makes no difference to me whether it's locked in the car in the garage, or on a shelf in the garage). Sunday night he paid for his efforts by spending the entire night in the bathroom. Monday, having had maybe 2 hours of sleep, he stayed home from work again. Tuesday he went to the doctor's in the morning and worked in the afternoon. With all that sick in the house, it was not hard to guess that I'd be getting it soon.
I had originally hoped to get the house all cleaned and straightened up as a birthday gift to myself, but I overdid it at the event on Saturday (the muscle ache felt sooooo good though, nice to know my body still remembers work) so I was unable to do much of anything on Sunday. Then Jason stayed home on Monday and I felt compelled to keep him company. And finally, things started to go downhill on Tuesday, and I'd kind of missed my deadline anyway, so I spent the day outside cleaning used baby stuff I picked up on Craigslist, which of course just made me even more nauseous. I really can't abide other people's filth, and I was VERY glad I never brought any of this stuff in past the garage when I brought it home. Heck, if we want to be honest, I'm not real keen that I let it into my garage either, and this about a place I have stored an entire wheelbarrow of dirt, where I regularly store the garbage/recycling and have found a snake! I'll admit that my place isn't tidy, but it's fairly clean (except for the kitchen right now and I'm getting to that). I don't get how people can live with stuff covered in pee and formula and encrusted with food. I get not cleaning something just to sell it to someone else, but this stuff had been sitting unused in her home for some time (the kid was able to walk and talk). Uuuugh. It also smelled very strongly of "baby"; you know that horrible sickeningly sweet and artificial baby powdery scented smell. I hate that scent at the best of times, and apparently when pregnant and ill it nearly makes me lose my cookies. I can tell I'm going to have my work cut out for me in finding products that don't make my home or child smell like that.
As of now the dishwasher is running, but all the hand washable stuff is still all over the kitchen, there's power tools and accessories everywhere, the storm door still isn't completed, I'm not any further with my many curtain projects, there's piles of used almost-clean baby stuff all over (I need to bleach soak it all, scrubbing in hot soap and sun drying just wasn't enough to sit right with me), the SCA stuff still isn't completely put away and the place is a complete disaster. So much for the clean and restful abode I was hoping for as a happy birthday to me.
Anyway, the actual birthday was a funny thing. I spent most of the day fighting nausea in the garage scrubbing nasty stuff, then killed time for most of the afternoon. Rhonda came over after work and gifted me with a lovely birthday present that I'd been admiring on one of our shopping trips but that she knew I wouldn't buy for myself. It's a big white bowl with a green bamboo pattern painted on it (me and that thing for green and white again). Jason was supposed to come home in time to do a hospital delivery area tour, but when I called him at work to ask where he was and why he hadn't come home yet, he responded that he was waiting for me to tell him I was on the way out the door. Uh, yeah, I'll just head out in the driveway and start flapping my arms now then. Dork-boy forgot that he had the car that day (which is odd since I very rarely have it). We've rescheduled the tour for today. By the time he got home, I still felt yucky, and I assumed he didn't feel much better, so I decided that dinner out would be a waste and instead suggested that we go to a movie. We're standing in line at the concession stand trying to figure out which overpriced confection to purchase (our usual Glossettes are not available in this country of course) and this is how the conversation goes:
Jason: I could just skip the candy.
Me: I'd like Sour Patch Kids.
Jason: I don't like those.
Me: You don't have to eat them. And when it's your birthday you can pick.
Jason: Well, I guess it is almost your birthday.
Me: Almost?????
Jason: Oh shit, it's Tuesday, I thought it was Monday, uh, happy birthday.
This after, when seeing a line-up on the way into the theater I remarked "oh, are the tickets less expensive on Tuesdays?", and I'm pretty sure I'd mentioned the birthday thing once or twice already (at the very least in the context of showing him the gift from Rhonda). I think this goes beyond epic fails and into legendary fails. I just had to laugh. He is soooo lucky he married me and not some woman who actually pays attention to the calendar.
The movie we selected was Star Trek, and I just want to get this out of the way... to everyone who has already seen it and DID NOT caution me to fill my purse with kleenex, shame on you all!!!! The first five minutes were really unfair on a hormonal woman who is huge with her first pregnancy. I had to spend the rest of the movie all damp and with a runny nose. Thanks a lot for the warning y'all.
As for the movie itself... it was kinda fun, but I didn't like the re-writing the history aspect of it. I felt like there was enough stories left to tell, even using the existing characters, without throwing out all that had already been done. Unless time travel is the central premise of the movie (Back to the Future) it usually annoys me. Other than that, good movie, but I am totally compartmentalizing it and treating it like "alternate reality" Star Trek. It was very interesting to me how not-Star-Trek it looked. Cribbed a lot from Firefly mostly (lens-flares, shaky camera, silence in space) and certainly had a Star Wars/BSG influence in any of the hangar scenes (I don't think I'd ever seen a hangar in Star Trek before). The bridge looked entirely too white and uncomfortably bright, and what was up with the hamster-tube water system in engineering?
This has undeniably been one of the biggest life-changing years of my life. What's interesting to me is that I kinda saw this coming, but at the same time was blindsided by it.
To celebrate our 30th birthdays (a bit early) we took a trip to Maui last February. I'd just gotten away from working under the harpy, and we'd decided that would be a good time to try to have a family, secure in the notion that I was doing it for the right reasons, not just to get some maternity leave and get away from my awful boss, since I was now working for the best boss ever. The trip was all about opening a new page in our lives, celebrating one last hurrah (spent more on that trip doing absolutely anything our hearts desired than we ever have or will again I'm sure) and finally transitioning to adulthood and accepting some real responsibility. I was looking forward to enjoying the Canadian benefit of a long, paid maternity leave, but I was also looking forward to returning to a job at the City at the end of it. I also expected I'd get pregnant quickly and easily and be a mother by my 31st, especially since we'd started trying months ahead of my 30th.
We didn't tell anyone about our decision to try and start a family because in case it didn't go well or quickly (and it didn't) I didn't want to be fielding regular, prying questions that might just serve to remind me of my failure thusfar. The few people we did tell did ask too often in my opinion. As a note to anyone whose friends or family have mentioned that they are trying... just say "that's nice, and best of luck", don't bring it up again. When they're pregnant I'm sure they'll let you know. If you have to ask, the answer is "not yet" and you have no idea how painful that reminder might be.
In retrospect, it's a very good thing that my body held off on getting pregnant so I could make money up until the end, and didn't have to move while pregnant, and didn't let the fact that I was pregnant or a mum of a very young child have any effect on the decision to move here. Of course that's not something I knew at the time.
I'd wanted to get out of Edmonton and to buy a house, but I really didn't think that would be something my 30th year would bring. I'd always wanted to live in the states (don't ask why, in retrospect I'm not sure either, and it was the dream of a 7-year-old taking trips to Disney World who had no idea about politics or health care, and was something I was hesitant about as an adult armed with that knowledge) but at this point in my life I figured it was more likely that I'd relocate to either Australia or the UK, and those were long shots at best.
Imagine my surprise finding myself celebrating my 31st year living in Texas of all places (never even thought I'd visit here), owning my first house, not yet being a mother but expecting my first child and being legally prevented from holding a job. Nothing at all like what I'd planned or expected, but good in every way (except maybe the job thing, I would like to be productive again).
I have to say, it's been a good year.
