Good lord, I'd forgotten about my blog. Really. I'm not kidding. But I got a couple of posts from "anonymous" who, I'm sure "anonymous" knows, is not really all that "anonymous" to me. Good thing though, because I was trying to take a nap, and I'm suffering from allergies and my meds are either hitting my bloodstream or flowing out (depends if you're sudafed (upper), benadryl (downer) or the newly OB approved Claritin) causing tears to flow out of my eyes when I lay down. Not crying, just uncontrollable-annoying-as-hell eyewatering. And as the sudafed/benadryl cocktail dissipates and the Claritin 24 hour takes hold, I am a restless, sleepless, weepy robot. This writing thing is good for something to occupy my mind.
Went to my 32 week OB appt today. Hence, the newly acquired Claritin. Because of gentle requests from mother and in-laws, I was required to ask my doc when I could expect to have my C-section. I am due August 6, and when I asked, Dr. Bridges casually replied, "Oh, about ten days before the due date is when I usually schedule these things."
TEN DAYS?! BEFORE DUE DATE???!! HOLY BUCKETS!This is huge. With Kaj, I was a miserable freak of nature who had to go EIGHT DAYS past her due date. Getting those days back is like Christmas. But you know what? It's also a little scary. First my husband kind of freaked out....not in a Oh-my-God-why-did-I-marry-her-and-have-rugrats kind of freak out. He was merely reacting to the fact that very soon, we will have a birth date. And before the kid is born even, which if you're superstitious, is about the biggest fate-tempter imaginable. Then my mom kind of freaked out, her reason was that she thought the kid would arrive in August. Having it be the 24 or 25th of July seemed like too much to wrap one's head around. Is around a preposition? Well I don't care. I just ended a sentence with it.
It seems like we probably have to do a lot in six weeks. We thought we had 8 weeks. My typical response to having a lot to do in a finite amount of time is first, to want to lay down and take a nap, second, I get bursts of energy every three days or so that allow me to complete several annoying tasks. Alas, I am not an every day tornado of efficiency and achievement. On my lay-off days I am capable of thorough list-making, which makes the productive days that much more productive.
I did just read two books this past two weeks: A Changed Man by Francine Prose. I give it three stars out of five. Interesting characters and plot. Also just finished Thank You for Smoking by Christopher Buckley, which I give five stars. Hilarious and super-intelligent. I'm so jealous that a person can be that smart and funny at the same time! Also, the New Yorker this week has some incredible essays written by troops in Iraq, as well as other war memoirs written by various people about different conflicts. Reading these may have contributed to the constant eye-watering. I suddenly realized that I'm going to have TWO sons and if they start drafting men again you can look us up in Vancouver, because that's where we'll have to move. It really is a beautiful city.
Second pic: our house, newly painted. And I could only be happier if we had a better "before" picture to show off. Kaj's first birthday group picture will have to do. At least you can see the yucky putty yellow the house used to be compared to the gray on gray-green action we've got going now. And the RED door. Love it. Everyone on our block was outside the last two days while it was being finished all complimenting us on how good it looks. It was very nice of them, but it really points up how really decrepit it must have looked. Jennifer Coolidge has a perfect phrase in the movie "Best in Show"--she says something like "Before I got here, this place was a real shitbox". 
