Last night D and I went to see the beautiful movie, Hero. When we purchased our tickets, the young lady said to us, “You know it has subtitles, right?”

All I could do was stare at her in disbelief. Not because I wasn’t previously aware that it had subtitles, but because she said it in such a way that maybe the fact that it had subtitles would deter us from seeing the movie.

D was right on the ball and said, “That’s fine. We know how to read. If we didn’t then there would be problems.”

I have been through two hurricanes in my lifetime- Bob and Opal. And now I will get to add a notch to that count for Ivan. Of course, we aren’t that worried at this point. Sure, we will get some high winds and heavy rain, but I don’t suspect that we will get serious damage like the folks on the Alabama/ Florida shores.
I asked D last night if we needed to get any kind of supplies and he didn’t think that was totally necessary. (Of course I don’t think that he realizes he is down to only 6 Cokes in the fridge. What will we do if we run out of Coke? When will the madness end?)
Anyway, as I work here in my cubicle, I am listening to Claire Holley’s Sanctuary and the song that I keep hearing is “Higher Ground.” Given the state of the weather, I think it is appropriate.
Go Ivan, go! Be gone already. We have to get ready for Jeanne.

Pregnancy hormones are funny things. I was reading on Claire Holley’s site that during her first trimester she had a “wave of musical inspiration.” My first trimester was spent trying to stay awake. My second trimester was spent finding food and finding it fast. And now, my third trimester is being spent wondering where the time went, where is the nearest napping location, and how the hell do I stop all this crying?

Anyway, yesterday D had me helping him set up the painting tent in the back yard so we (I) could put a coat of paint on the storage soultion after D finished sanding them. The painting tent starts off with a cheap canopy (purchased from the dollar store for $15) that has all these poles to put together before you put the plastic canopy on it. I could not get some of the poles to stay together and it was getting increasingly frustrating. So frustrating that when D came to the backyard to see if I was going to have it done before sundown and I was just bawling my eyes out.

D, never having been given the gift of understanding female (pregnant) hormones, was absolutely confounded and couldn’t figure out why I was crying and if he should stop and comfort me. Because my actions were to keep crying but to also keep working, he also kept working on helping me finish putting the paint tent up.

It is just a crazy rollercoaster ride that I think I am ready to get off of.

Yes, I said it. I am ready to get this nine month journey done.

Today D called to tell me that his parents will not be coming here for the weekend to bring the baby stuff. Instead, they plan on riding out Hurricane Ivan at The Lake where they have water from a well, a power generator, and other things the cast of survivor wishes they also had. This news is ok, there is nothing to waiting another week to fill up the room with the baby stuff (it gives us a few more days to get a few more things done), but for some reason, I felt my chest tighten, my eyes fill up, and all I wanted to do was cry.

I’m at work and I quickly squashed that reaction.

Now, I understand that the whole crying thing may get worse after the baby is born, but at least I won’t also be having problems breathing, walking, or wondering how fast I can get to the bathroom.

I think those postpartum tears will be a mixture of both exhaustion and joy, with a little relief thrown in.

After almost 28 years, my mother is still cleaning up after me.
The state of my kitchen was just so unacceptable to her that she just had to come and help me reorganize it. And since I knew that some reorganizing had to be done before the baby arrived, I let her at it.
I now have shelf paper on the shelves, in the drawers, and in the cabinets. Apparently, a shelf without shelf paper is like going out without underwear.
Hey! She said it, not me.
And sitting on the new shelf paper are clean serving dishes, reorganized pots and pans, weeded out medicine, organized tupperware containers, and an entire deep drawer devoted to baby stuff (of which we have 2 bottles for right now).
The refrigerator is free of crumbs and whatever else she found under the crisper drawers. Expired food stuffs were tossed, and the freezer was wiped down.
I have been told that I deserve to buy myself new potholders and dish cloths, so many of those were sent to be the stuff of thrift stores.
It is amazing what such a deep clean can do to your perspective of your kitchen. Now, I am happy to open the spice cabinet, because I know my mother cares enough about me to combine the 4 containers of allspice I had into one.
We shall see how long this clean kitchen high lasts.

I spent most of yesterday in bed, sleeping off the muscle relaxers. The first one didn’t really work on the pain, but the second pill, taken at 9 pm, did.

It is very difficult for me to take a day off from work to be ill because I need all my paid time off stored up so I can be paid during my maternity leave. But, the one good thing about being in bed most of the day yesterday is this…

my feet are at a very normal size. I can put real shoes on! Hur-rah for bedrest!

I pulled a muscle on my right side yesterday and today it is really interferring with life. It doesn’t feel very good, in fact it is quite an excrusiating pain.

But the thing is, I didn’t pull the muscle doing any of the manual labor that I participated in this long weekend.

I pulled it when I was sitting down and bent over D to give him a little kiss on the nose.

D, sorry but no more kisses on the nose for you!

Now I am waiting for Dr. G’s office to call me back and tell me what muscle relaxer is safe to take and I will go home and take it.

Until then… ouch, that hurt.

P.S. This hurts more than the carpal tunnel, which has its moments when it flares up, but mostly is ok during the day.