I went to the doctor again today and I'm having a girl! I've also started to gain some of the weight I lost back, but it's pretty slow. I'm starting to feel flutterings in my lower abdomen which I think might be the baby, but I can't be sure. They're not big enough to feel externally, which makes Bobby sad, but I'm sure he'll be able to feel kicks soon enough. I've been craving milkshakes. Yumm.
Names: Evelyn Elizabeth, Evangeline Inara, Charlotte, Vittoria, Constantine, Zephyr
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
I'm going on vacation!
I'm going to San Antonio for the weekend! We're going to go on a cave tour, visit sea world, explore the river walk thingie, and get kolaches in West. Oh, how I love kolaches. It will be a lot of fun, even stopping to pee every half hour. Especially since I never get any warning, it's all OMG MUST URINATE RIGHT NOW. But that's pretty minor, all thing's considered. At least I'm down to puking a minimum of maybe once a week or so. Progress!
Sonogram next Wednesday. I'll be, like, a week and a half short of 5 months, so I really hope we'll be able to tell the sex. My belly has exploded outward. Bobby likes poking at me asking things like, "Stomach or uterus? Is that your spleen?"
I had to go shopping to get some maternity wear. I got some things that aren't too awful. Mostly non-tent items. And, wearing them, I'm definitely past the pregnant: not just fat threshold. I fear I'm not going to be able to wear my preferred pants much longer though, and I just couldn't convince myself to purchase any with scary, distended elastic tops. My freedom will soon be at an end, I know.
Since my friends all seem to be posting things like, "American Idol, barf!" I'm feeling the need to talk about it. The American Idol finale was pretty awesome. Kiss AND Queen? Duuuude. Didn't really care about the results, since I liked everyone in the top 3. And now I can return to not watching television for a few weeks. Would have been the rest of the year, but I got Bobby addicted to True Blood. (I like it too, but I'd probably just read the books and forget about the show if he didn't.) Curious to see what they do, since I think they killed the guy central to the Dallas plotline and seem to have given the maenad a much larger role.
I could really use a nap. I blame Jane Eyre.
Sonogram next Wednesday. I'll be, like, a week and a half short of 5 months, so I really hope we'll be able to tell the sex. My belly has exploded outward. Bobby likes poking at me asking things like, "Stomach or uterus? Is that your spleen?"
I had to go shopping to get some maternity wear. I got some things that aren't too awful. Mostly non-tent items. And, wearing them, I'm definitely past the pregnant: not just fat threshold. I fear I'm not going to be able to wear my preferred pants much longer though, and I just couldn't convince myself to purchase any with scary, distended elastic tops. My freedom will soon be at an end, I know.
Since my friends all seem to be posting things like, "American Idol, barf!" I'm feeling the need to talk about it. The American Idol finale was pretty awesome. Kiss AND Queen? Duuuude. Didn't really care about the results, since I liked everyone in the top 3. And now I can return to not watching television for a few weeks. Would have been the rest of the year, but I got Bobby addicted to True Blood. (I like it too, but I'd probably just read the books and forget about the show if he didn't.) Curious to see what they do, since I think they killed the guy central to the Dallas plotline and seem to have given the maenad a much larger role.
I could really use a nap. I blame Jane Eyre.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Happy Mother's Day
It's been a surreal day for me, receiving well wishes on this holiday to celebrate motherhood. I don't feel particularly momlike, so it is weird that so many are commenting on it. Not that weird I suppose, since I am going to be a mother, but it just seems very far away still. I'm ambivalent about it, I suppose. My pregnancy guidebook says my breasts might be producing and expressing colostrum, so of course I had to feel myself up to see if they were. And they are. Weird! (Bobby agreed that it was weird.) Also, I'm starting to show. Mostly, I just look fat, but it's different than before and I know. So.. uh, I'm really pregnant, huh?
Friday, May 8, 2009
Hello Conservative Left..?
I hardly ever so much as acknowledge politics, but lately.. just, gah! A democratic representative from Chicago recently told an Atheist "It's dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists." According to the Chicago Tribune, Davis launched into a diatribe against atheists, asserting that atheists did not have a right to present testimony to the legislature.
atheists did not have a right to present testimony WHAT? That's not okay. I can't even go into how absolutely furious that statement made me.
That's the most major of things, but now I'm reading that people want ED treatment ads banned between the hours of 6am and 10pm. Reasoning: "...sometimes, when you're watching TV with young kids, you really don't want to answer questions about erectile dysfunction." Okay, so in order to avoid awkward-to-answer questions from our children, we're now going to shelter them from topics we view as sensitive? What's so bad about sex anyway? Necessary to create those children you're shielding, and they'll be having it themselves at some point, probably more recreationally than these parents want. And they'll be doing it uneducated, because we can't answer questions about what it means when a man's penis doesn't work right. Normally, article like this, big deal. But on the accompanying poll, 79% said they agreed. Fuck. And the bill to ban them? Introduced by Democrat Jim Moran.
Lastly, I read an article about Hugh Hefner selecting an African playmate of the year. She's pretty, but the blurb is pretty dull. And then, down at the bottom, another poll:
Do you read Playboy magazine?
Yes, are you kidding me?
No, it's very degrading.
These are my only options? I don't read Playboy magazine because the models look plastic, the poses seem contrived and awkward, and the articles read like they're written by some good ole boy prick still living in the '70s. And yes, I read more than 3 pages before I made this determination. I didn't glance at the pictures and make a snap judgement. I subscribed for a whole (underwhelming) year. Fucking degrading. You know why beautiful women are objectified? Because sex is wrong and being sexy is unacceptable. Men (and some women) aren't about to give it up though, so it'll come from somewhere. I truly think better sex education (and I don't mean the fucking video they showed me in fourth grade) would result in better (and, dare I say, woman-friendly?) porn.
What the fuck happened?
atheists did not have a right to present testimony WHAT? That's not okay. I can't even go into how absolutely furious that statement made me.
That's the most major of things, but now I'm reading that people want ED treatment ads banned between the hours of 6am and 10pm. Reasoning: "...sometimes, when you're watching TV with young kids, you really don't want to answer questions about erectile dysfunction." Okay, so in order to avoid awkward-to-answer questions from our children, we're now going to shelter them from topics we view as sensitive? What's so bad about sex anyway? Necessary to create those children you're shielding, and they'll be having it themselves at some point, probably more recreationally than these parents want. And they'll be doing it uneducated, because we can't answer questions about what it means when a man's penis doesn't work right. Normally, article like this, big deal. But on the accompanying poll, 79% said they agreed. Fuck. And the bill to ban them? Introduced by Democrat Jim Moran.
Lastly, I read an article about Hugh Hefner selecting an African playmate of the year. She's pretty, but the blurb is pretty dull. And then, down at the bottom, another poll:
Do you read Playboy magazine?
Yes, are you kidding me?
No, it's very degrading.
These are my only options? I don't read Playboy magazine because the models look plastic, the poses seem contrived and awkward, and the articles read like they're written by some good ole boy prick still living in the '70s. And yes, I read more than 3 pages before I made this determination. I didn't glance at the pictures and make a snap judgement. I subscribed for a whole (underwhelming) year. Fucking degrading. You know why beautiful women are objectified? Because sex is wrong and being sexy is unacceptable. Men (and some women) aren't about to give it up though, so it'll come from somewhere. I truly think better sex education (and I don't mean the fucking video they showed me in fourth grade) would result in better (and, dare I say, woman-friendly?) porn.
What the fuck happened?
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Sometimes literature sneaks up on you.
I read a lot, and of wide variety. Much of it is because I enjoy getting lost in other worlds or times or lives. I read romance because it is cheap. Not just because I get them for a dollar at the used bookstore, but also because there is a minimum of commitment required in order to read them. Most can be picked up and chosen or discarded as suitable based on their cover and a glance at the back flap. They do not take horribly long to read; they are not weighty or complicated. So, by cheap, I also mean they don't require much time, focus, or thought, and are thus ideal to use as a way to relax with a couple of casual hours.
Sometimes, however, one will surprise you. I am just over 200 pages into a book called "Black Silk," written by Judith Ivory, and I am finding it to be not at all the usual sort of romance. In 200 pages, the hero and heroine have not kissed; they've scarcely had more than 3 or 4 conversations. Rather, they have had separate portraits painted, both intriguing in unique ways for this particular brand of fiction. While it seems completely typical: a jaded older male paired with a young, troubled widow, I am beginning to think that the impression is completely wrong.
Rather than a rake simultaneously lauded and ostracized by his peers, the male lead has instead been legally punished for his actions, both committed and falsely accused. He has not had a put upon "awakening" at falling in love with a fresh young miss, now needing to protect and shield her from his darker past. (This may be forthcoming, of course, but I would be surprised.) Rather, his motivations and morals (good and bad) have been quite clearly demonstrated and made entirely believable.
As for the female, she is not innocently and naively curious, easily falling into the arms of an attractive man. She, too, has been fleshed out and given life in a way that is not stereotypical of romance. She is realistically aloof, not said to be, but not. She is wary (justifiably so) and does not see the hero as such. She sees him (clearly, imo) as absurd and wasteful. Jaded and stupid, despite his clever intelligence.
It's refreshing, on the one hand. On the other, I picked up a romance to break myself out of a melancholic mood and have instead spiraled rather deeper into it as I sink further into their tale. I kind of feel I've been deceived, not received the advertised product. However, if this had been marketed as literature, how likely is it I would have picked it up? And I am certainly enjoying it as a very well-written story, which I sincerely hope has a happy ending.
Hopefully I can recapture my good mood tomorrow.
Sometimes, however, one will surprise you. I am just over 200 pages into a book called "Black Silk," written by Judith Ivory, and I am finding it to be not at all the usual sort of romance. In 200 pages, the hero and heroine have not kissed; they've scarcely had more than 3 or 4 conversations. Rather, they have had separate portraits painted, both intriguing in unique ways for this particular brand of fiction. While it seems completely typical: a jaded older male paired with a young, troubled widow, I am beginning to think that the impression is completely wrong.
Rather than a rake simultaneously lauded and ostracized by his peers, the male lead has instead been legally punished for his actions, both committed and falsely accused. He has not had a put upon "awakening" at falling in love with a fresh young miss, now needing to protect and shield her from his darker past. (This may be forthcoming, of course, but I would be surprised.) Rather, his motivations and morals (good and bad) have been quite clearly demonstrated and made entirely believable.
As for the female, she is not innocently and naively curious, easily falling into the arms of an attractive man. She, too, has been fleshed out and given life in a way that is not stereotypical of romance. She is realistically aloof, not said to be, but not. She is wary (justifiably so) and does not see the hero as such. She sees him (clearly, imo) as absurd and wasteful. Jaded and stupid, despite his clever intelligence.
It's refreshing, on the one hand. On the other, I picked up a romance to break myself out of a melancholic mood and have instead spiraled rather deeper into it as I sink further into their tale. I kind of feel I've been deceived, not received the advertised product. However, if this had been marketed as literature, how likely is it I would have picked it up? And I am certainly enjoying it as a very well-written story, which I sincerely hope has a happy ending.
Hopefully I can recapture my good mood tomorrow.
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