string lanterns, pests, time, and the retreat.

here's your (somewhat) regular installment of random items i decide to talk about on here instead of putting together a full narrative.

• i threw out my string lanterns. because i'm trying to pre-pack our home and clear out the clutter, i just decided that it wasn't likely that i would get them hung any time soon, and it just wasn't worth carefully packing them away. also, the biggest and best one (the one meant for the light bulb kit to make it into an actual lamp) had gotten a little spot of mouse blood on it. [yes, you read that right. mouse blood. if you don't follow me on twitter or facebook, you may not know about the unfortunate night my husband had the bludgeon a mouse to death for mercy-killing reasons. see what you're missing out on??]
  
  also?? i was having difficulty getting them to hang nicely together in a grouping. this is partially because i'm way too annal about these things. so in an effort to eliminate clutter, i 86'ed them. sorry if you're utterly crushed by the lack of a final reveal. i'll make it up to you. [what am i saying?? i probably won't. don't hold me to that.]
  
   
• we've gone something crazy like 5 or 6 weeks without any mice sightings or evidence. and then we caught one a couple of nights ago. also this week, the ants have been marching two by two into my home. so i'm fighting a pest war on two fronts. this house is my freaking waterloo, i swear it. any romantic notions i formerly had about living in an urban setting in a 100+ yr old rowhouse have been replaced with pining for new construction, complete with a poured foundation (over brick), contemporary plumbing, and lots of glorious three-pronged outlets. i'm probably a sell-out, but i'm tired of fighting the good fight for some youthful whim that i no longer find motivation in. mcmansions are my new dream homes.
  
   
• i guess at 8+ months preg, most women start to feel like time is crawling by and they just want the baby to hurry up and get here already. not me. not in the least. not even a little bit. instead, i'm going into "holy crap, i only have 6 more weeks to get work done, maybe less!!!" mode. there's WAY more i need to do for work, and for our home (see above re: pests) before i feel ready for a third person to enter our family, and for me to be exhausted and out of commission. it doesn't help that steve's in the final stretch of the semester, with two weeks left to write two big philosophical papers, and so i'm trying to give him space to do that and not expect much from him (housework and moving wise) until that enormous burden is off his shoulders.
  
  can life just slow down a wee bit, so that we both can get everything done that needs to  get done.
  
   
• this past week was childbirth class #3. we covered the transition phase of labor and c-sections. can i just ask a question ... why would they put those two things in the same week?? i went from the past two classes, walking out feeling empowered to birth a child, to this week, where i got in the car and cried, replaying for myself the animation of a surgeon's hands slicing into an abdomen and separating abdominal muscles. gross.
  
  so i'm retreating back to denial for just a little bit. because it's safe and warm and nobody here is having a baby, mmmkay?
  

creating space.

three dimensional space has been a challenge lately. it first started being a problem when a few family members kindly bought and gave us a car seat. we put it in the car, behind the passenger seat, and suddenly, i was claustrophobic in my own car. i couldn't slide my seat backwards to create more leg room, or tilt the seat back at all. i seriously felt like i couldn't get a deep breath.

at the same time, steve and i macguyver / ninja packed all the awesome and kind gifts that were given us into our car. they pretty much filled the trunk and backseat. that was four weeks ago and i still haven't brought the stuff in from the trunk. it's not because i'm not grateful. and it's actually not a ploy of denial (not this time, anyway) ... it's because i just don't have anywhere to put it all yet.

and so two weeks ago, i did the most american and bourgeois thing i've ever done in my life ... i began renting a self-storage unit. i could go on and on about how this is so not me to have to PAY people to keep my junk for me!! i mean, the whole idea just exemplifies how much consumerism there is in our culture, and how we don't know how to live simply, and how much we worship our material possessions that even things we don't need or use on a regular basis, and don't have the space for, need to be kept. it's just an organized form of hoarding. [can you tell i have a small soapbox i like to stand on when it comes to this issue??] and yet i signed on the dotted line to join the ranks of people who pay to store their junk. because i needed to create a little more room in our current home.

last week, i went through all the clothes that we've been given for the baby, and i separated it all into three plastic bins ... one for the 6 months and up stuff that we likely won't need for awhile ... one for the newborn and 0-3 months stuff that we'll likely need asap (i have a feeling we won't use the newborn stuff at all) ... and one for everything in between. two of the bins went up in the closet in space i freed up by bringing our down comforter and air mattress over to our storage unit.

and now i'm slowly going through our home and re-organizing things because i need to feel like we have more space in this home. i need to feel less cluttered, and like i don't need to rearrange a room just to vacuum or mop. this is not nesting ... it's re-organizing everything so that when i am nesting, i can just deal with the cleaning and such, instead of also having to do things like pack and cart over to the storage unit.

the last time i did a major reorganization and purging of our material possessions was in the months before we moved to arizona ... which was almost 3 years ago. i knew that we would be going from a spacious two bedroom apartment with ample closet space and a huge storage room ... to a one bedroom apartment (450 sq ft), minimal closet space, and no storage space. then, i was doing it because our life needed to shrink down to the size of a moving truck and economy apartment. this time, i need to shrink our life to create more space for things like baby furniture and diapers and lots of small clothes that somehow take up a lot of space.

and every day, this person inside of me pushes and kicks, trying to somehow find more space to grow in the span between my pelvis and my ribs. [spoiler: i think we may be reaching maximum capacity. maximum occupancy. no vacancy here. no room at the inn. if-you-know-what-i-mean.]

it's incredible to think about how much three dimensional space a person needs, even when you strive to live simply and don't buy half the gadgets and gear that are marketed to new mothers ... there still needs to be a space created for this new person to occupy in our home and in our life.

gender roles, family, & work: we still forget about the men.

this past week there was a whole big to do in the media between hillary rosen and ann romney. honestly, what i think was a perfectly acceptable comment from hillary rosen somehow was interpreted that being a stay at home mom is not real work.

[the comment was that ann romney doesn't know the value of a hard day's work and therefore cannot be a spokesperson for women's views on the economic situation ... and let's be honest, whether you're a dem, rep, whatever, you and i know that ann, as nice as she may be, doesn't live where we live ... no matter what choices we've made ... her choice to stay at home and raise children is not the same choice many of my friends have made, who have families of 4 - 6 people on $50K or less a year, and clip coupons and swap clothes with other families to make ends meet every month.]

for the love of all that is good and holy and decent. are we really going there?? again?? 

and so the media circus went for round 8 million to rile up the natives on whether staying at home constitutes work (**ahem**, if you're ann romney, it probably still doesn't--but i won't go there) and what is the laziest lifestyle, and who can be more self-rigteous and emotionally indignant about their life choices.

and all week i heard this clamor ... but not once did anyone talk about the men who choose to stay home. and after all, THAT is what this whole discussion began with ... right?? with scott walker in WI declaring that equal pay is not needed, that men need to work more than women do?? and somehow, the media allowed us to get side-tracked and forget about all the amazing husbands who put their career aside or on hold, because they too see the value of being involved with their kids, and want to also give their wives the chance to be successful in the workplace.

how the hell did we not notice this?? we all talk about everyone's choices being legitimate, but when the national conversation arises, we completely ignore the fact that the real issue here being debated is that it's freaking hard to raise a family on one income, and people like scott walker who still think this is 1952 are screwing over the amazing renaissance men who have stepped up to the plate to be managers of their homes and primary care-givers to their children.

once again, we allow the 24 hr "news" cycle to hand us a pitchfork, so that we can get whipped into an emotional frenzy and have the same. exact. argument. once again, instead of recognizing that there is a larger context, and maybe it's not worth getting all bent out of shape about.

honestly, i wish that the conversation over the repeal of equal pay in WI had half the media attention, and half the emotional fervor that the revisiting of SAHM vs WM did this week.


---------------------------
UPDATE: wondering where the heck this is coming from, or why i have this little icon i haven't used in almost two months?? read the introductory post here, or click on this nifty little button that i created for us to use, so that you can get to the original post, where all the following posts will be cataloged.

all too true...

steve showed me this family guy clip ... and this is just a little too true ... having done it twice, it's a little nerve wracking, knowing what qualifications you *don't* need to drive a moving truck.

for your saturday morning viewing pleasure...

the union jack changing table.

so if you follow me on twitter, you know that in january, steve and i got a not-really-used-at-all changing table and crib off craigslist for super duper cheap. you also know that i started painting the changing table white (it was black), and then didn't do anything with it for two months. [have you met me?? i'm a classic project-starter-but-not-necessarily-finisher.]

and then, last week, i finally got around to getting it almost done ... and decided that even though i'm in the third trimester and we're running out of time (but certainly not running out of things to do to prepare), i was going to do something more exciting than just leave it white.

here's what i did with it instead...

i decided to paint a union jack on the front, with colors ... **excuse me** ... colours that coordinate with the bedding fabrics that will go in the baby's room.

it was a beast to tape, and i was ridiculous about wanting to do it accurately (believe me, there are a lot of wanna-be union jacks out there that are not drawn accurately ... i never realized it before!!), and while it's not 100% perfect, every time i walk by it (that's out kitchen, by the way), i fall in love all over again.

it's not done ... it needs a protective poly coat and some hardware, but i couldn't resist sharing it with you all.

i'll put together a longer post that details more of the how-to in case you want to paint a fun union jack on your own furniture with an alternate color scheme :)

childbirth class, union jack, thank yous, and real estate.

you may have thought that with my recent increase in posts, i've abandoned the bullet-point-style of blogging i recently adopted. little did you know ... i wrote about 2 weeks worth of posts in one night, when i had a flurry of inspiration and didn't want to get off the couch. [what?? it happens.] since the deep well has since run dry again, i'm back to summarizing things and shooting you the highlights.

ready. aim. fire.

• last saturday was our first childbirth class. this probably deserves its own post, but likely won't get one. [see above.] i went into it a little freaked out, just because i am fully aware of how much denial i am living in, and sitting for 2.5 hours in a room full of other pregnant people, talking about the ins and outs of labor and delivery ... not so helpful when you've got your eyes clamped shut, your hands over your ears, and you're loudly singing "LA LA LA." [i mean this figuratively, of course. i may be certifiably insane, but i'm not weird. at least not that weird.]
  
  the good news is that while i was forced to confront some of the emotions and thoughts i'd been ignoring, i don't know that any of it was obvious to anyone in the room, other than steve [who can read my mind]. they also gave us a book that goes through the deets in a pretty non-agenda'ed way, which makes me really happy, because i'd been avoiding anything labor and delivery related, because i just didn't want to get manipulated into a decision or position that i may not have held otherwise. [can i just pause and say, what the hell, american labor and delivery culture?? if first time pregnant women like me have to be afraid of information, then i think we're doing it wrong. especially when we're talking about info/data junkies like me.] i'm just really grateful for a safe, informative space, where i can ask questions and learn about this process that i can't really opt out of.
  
   
• so because i'm brilliant and not crazy at all, i decided that instead of just painting the changing table for the nursery (it was a craigslist find--along with a crib--that were black and i wanted to be white), i was going to paint a union jack on the front of it. it's an idea i'd had months ago ... you know, when i had lots of time to do it, and work wasn't nearly as crazy. and suddenly last week, as the white was coming together, i decided to just go for it.
  
  
  
  
  the real reason [and this will show you how truly crazy i am] was that work is getting hectic. there's a lot of planning and ramping up that happens in the spring, as i head into my busy season of the summer. add in planning to be out for a large portion of the summer, and a few high-level decisions that need to be made (and relatively stressful meetings surrounding those decisions), and i suddenly found myself doing what i tend to do when work kicks into high gear ... never giving myself mental time off.
  
  what i do is obsess in the evenings and on weekends about what i said in such-and-such meeting, and how it was perceived, and whether i should have said it differently, etc. i basically drive myself crazy with what-ifs and re-anaylzing things that i can't change. so much like the beginning of this blog, i needed a creative outlet that would take mental and creative energy, so that in my "down time" i didn't have any room to think about work. i seriously do this subconsciously, and it was kinda funny to catch myself doing it this time around, when i'm 8 months pregnant and really don't need to be taking on large projects.
  
  but apparently, this is how i roll. check in with me in 4 months, when i have a newborn and have decided to buy a fixer-upper house. because you know that's what i'm going to do...
  
   
• it's been 3.5 weeks since my baby shower(s) and i have only just begun my thank you notes. i had high hopes of getting them done while we were on vacay in ny, but let's be honest, i was more interested in spending time with my husband, whose brain was free to think about things other than ethics and the stoics and whether the stoics were pantheists or panenthiests [don't ask me about the distinction ... he explained it to me yesterday and i already forgot].
  
  is it just me, or does it feel like a serious culture war over the mutha effin thank yous?? like this generational clash is right up there with feminism and free love in the 60s. like i feel like this is an episode of the wonder years that i somehow missed, when karen doesn't send the thank you notes out soon enough and the parents are all ashamed that she wasn't raised right. i know i'm not the only one who has this issue when it comes to showers, etc. but i feel like much like business attire, within a generation this whole thing will be much more relaxed and your value as a person won't be determined by your ability to hand write 40 thank you cards that all say essentially the same thing. [ooooh!! is there some kind of service i can sign up for, where you send them the list and they hand-write the thank yous and send them out for you?? guys, this is a serious money-making opportunity. who wants in on the ground floor, and actually likes writing these things?? i'll go 40/60 with you. for reals.]
  
  can i just point out that emily post's own website says that i have until the baby comes, and if that doesn't happen, i get another two months' grace period??
  
   
• i have a serious case of house-envy. or rather, home-ownership envy. i don't know if it's all the annoyances we've had with this current rental (hot water tank breaking twice, threats of having our water shut off, ant problems, mice problems, loud neighbor problems, neighbor with a scary pitbull, frequent parking tickets ... just to name a few from the past 8 months), or the fact that i still have boxes that i haven't unpacked since we left new york ... but i'm ready to give up my nomadic lifestyle. i'm ready to settle in and stop having to fit our life into a new floorplan every one or two years.
  
  but have you seen what we have going on this summer?? even with house prices at rock bottom, and historically low interest rates, i just can't fathom trying to put this major life decision on top of our already over-flowing plate. so instead i surf zillow and dream of a time when if there's a mouse, i can call an exterminator and not worry that i'm investing in a home that isn't mine to keep.
  

where i was: the metropolitan museum of art.

i mentioned a few days ago that steve and i stopped in to walk around the met in new york. [and i say "stopped in" because even though we spent about 5 hours there, we only focused on 2 main collections when there are like 14.]

they give you a little tag that is your pass in the museum. it's a different color each day. it was my favorite accessory that day :)

our first stop was the ancient roman/greek collections. steve's been studying philosophers from that era, so he was enamored with the fact that the sculptures we were seeing were contemporaries of the writers and philosophers from a couple thousand years ago.

of course, i'm less mature and was immediately enamored with this statue of a young greek who also was wearing a headband, and could seriously be my hair twin for the day.

twinsies!

also enamoring for me ... the bust of homer. dude wrote the illiad and the odyssey. i want to be him when i grow up.

my homie homer.

i found my husband staring at the bust of marcus aurelius. idk if it's the arched eyebrow or what, but this dude looks like he just doesn't give a damn. i submit for discussion whether or not marcul aurelius was the original honey badger.

and of course, i made steve line up next to all his little friends for a picture (because i'm ridiculous and demeaning to my husband like that). below, from left to right and in order of importance, are the following philosophers: stephanos ("steve" in gk), desmosthenes, epicurous, aristotle (possibly, they're not sure), and socrates.

then we turned to a little modern art. this seven-months-pregnant woman was already a little beat, but how often do you get to see original picassos and warhols and pollacks?? (oh my!!) and how often do you get to live tweet them, annoying the crap out of your followers?? [follow me on twitter here. i know i've made it so enticing.]

here's a quick run down of a few i thought i'd share. they're mainly the well-known artists, or works that i really love. and unfortunately, crappy photographs don't even begin to do them justice, especially the more abstract art. [if you have never seen a pollack in person, it's honestly breath-taking. what looks so flat and boring in a photograph suddenly has depth in person. his paint application looks less like a splatter and more like a tangle of yarn, playing with your mind and confusing you about what's the fore, middle, and back ground. i'm not an art expert by any means, but seeing his work in person is really cool and powerful.]

picasso's "dora maar in an armchair."

picasso's "girl asleep at a table."

close's "lucas."

dali's "madonna."

pollock's "number 28."

lethbridge's "untitled."

warhol's "still life."

kasner's "untitled."

keifer's "bohemia lies by the sea."

we also stopped in the met store and bought a poster for our home. it's a sketch of the gates. i got to see the gates in person back when they were in central park, and my brother and i trekked down to the city before dawn on a saturday to see them, because we both had to work later that day, but didn't want to miss the historical event. i have no idea where we'll put the poster, and it will likely go into storage for now, since i'm more in the process of purging and preparing to pack up than i am in making this current space homier.

another thing i really wanted to purchase is pictured below...

...but it had a price tag of something like $120, and while i think having a lego version of frank lloyd wright's work would be awesome, i'm not ready to shell out the dough. maybe once we've given up the gypsy life and have an actual house, i'll feel more comfortable investing in lego imitation ones. :)

have any of you ever been to the met before?? what collections do you focus on??

a quote.

here is an actual quote from an email to my boss, where i'm requesting a meeting:

"These are just a few quick thoughts. This meeting doesn't need to be soon, but I know that with the Advisory Board meeting and the end of the semester, you're likely to have time now, or in mid-May. As a time-marker, May 22nd is when I am 38 weeks pregnant, and it begins to be more statistically likely that I could have the baby (it would be two weeks early, but this is when the bell curve begins to grow more rapidly as time progresses--and yes, I know this makes me a little crazy for thinking of it all in these terms, but it also gives me a little comfort). So I think we could put it on the calendar any time before then."

i don't know what's more shocking to you all ... the fact that my neurosis (and need for quantitative data) runs so deep that i know the statistical likelihood of giving birth by each week of pregnancy ... or the fact that in real life, i actually capitalize the appropriate letters and don't use ellipses and can be professional and all (rules i clearly abandon here).

PS... for those who care, here's the rough percentage of women who give birth by week according to some internet research i did:
--before 37 weeks: 4%
--at 37 weeks: 5%
--at 38 weeks: 10%
--at 39 weeks: 20%
--at 40 weeks: 35%

chopping my hair.

so about 2 weeks ago, i went and got my hair chopped off so that i could donate it. i'd decided to grow it out because i've had essentially the same haircut since i was a teenager. i know that people who don't have curly hair get jealous, but the reality is that i can't play around with bangs or layers like you all can. my hair kinda has a mind of its own and i have to do what manages it best, otherwise it can get really ugly, really fast. length is one of the only variables i have more leeway with, but with curly hair, it takes much longer to grow out, because for every inch of actual growth i have, the length just spirals around and might be only a half inch of length when dry.

as a result, i decided back in august to try to grow it out long, and then cut it really short to donate it to charity to make wigs for people with cancer. i knew that if i had a good, solid goal in mind, i would have to let it get to a certain length, no matter how annoying it might be. [usually my hair can get very straggled looking once it gets to a certain length.] and then i'd have to cut it shorter than i ever have before, and it would get me to try it really short. so all in all, it would get me out of my hair comfort zone, and also serve a great cause.

well, i lucked out and got pregnant, which meant that a) my hair grew faster than it normally did (yippee!!) and b) my hair was healthier and thicker than it normally would be (i couldn't believe how much of it didn't fall out when it started to get longer ... one of the bigger advantages of the hormones!!)

here are a few blurry before shots when my hair was nice and wet, and i could pull it straight to show its actual length.

 
this is what that length looks like when it starts to curl up (this is still pretty wet ... it will shrink up another inch or two)...

i was debating whether i really wanted to cut it or not, because it was kinda fun to have long hair that i could make a serious top knot with. but on our trip up to new york, i knew that this was the last time before the kid came that i would see my beloved stylist, karen. and i knew two things ... a) the pregnancy hormones would not keep my hair thick and healthy past delivery, and b) i didn't want to go to anyone other than karen for this life-altering hair cut. so i went ahead and made the appointment for while we were there.

here's a shot after the initial pony-tail cutting. with the part down the middle and the chin-length curls, i felt like i should change my name to hans and grab some lederhosen. if i knew how to type out a german accent, i would.

it was a crazy experience!! karen got to use all kind of techniques on my hair that i'd never had before, because i'd always had longer hair. she used a razor on my hair, and a two-comb approach, and all kinds of neat things. it was terribly exciting for me :)

and here it is ... the hair off my head and in my hands (and already starting to dry and curl and look less impressive. i promise--there was definitely more than 9 inches there!!)

also worth noting--don't crop a photo at the belly when preg.

so like i do whenever i get a new haircut, i let it dry, looked at it, went home, wet it down, and started over with product that i'm familiar with. this was my first styling attempt.

because i often work with people who wear suits every day, i had hoped to avoid doing too much hair accessorizing (headbands and clips tend to make me feel like i look younger, and more casual). but the above hair style was just too blah. it didn't really feel like me yet.

so i bought a thin head band, hoping that it would blend in a bit, but tame my new white girl fro.

please excuse the blue steel above.

this was a little better, but i felt a bit like something out of the 70s. i tried on a number of fun thin headbands at target, and either the accessory got lost in my curls (aka the flower, feather, etc), or it squeezed the bejesus out of my head. so i went out a bought a few medium width fabric headbands and tried my luck with them.

finally, i felt like i looked like me, just with shorter hair. i've worn this style of headband every day since.

i'm really starting to like it, and i especially like that it takes me all of 20 seconds in the shower to wash, and that it doesn't take an hour (or more) to dry and look somewhat presentable. i don't know whether i'll keep it this short for ever, but i'm definitely enjoying a change, which is exactly what i'd hoped for :)

i thought the womb was a comfort??

in the past 2 weeks or so, i've begun to feel like my abdomen stopped growing, while the child within continued to gain bulk and force. it used to be that his movements felt soft and gentle, and people describe them as "popcorn popping" or "bubbles."

lately, it feels more like this kid is army-crawling around my uterus. or break-dancing. i swear that he must get tangled up in the cord [and for a brief second i worried that this might be a problem, until i remembered that he gets his oxygen from me, not from breathing, so unless he gets the thing tight enough around his neck to stop circulation, we're ok], because every once in awhile, it's not just a single kick, it's more like a one-two punch/roll/duck move. it's like street fighter all up in my biz-naz.

with this recent knowledge of how physically assertive our kid is going to be, i'm wondering whether the whole swaddling thing is going to be moot. it seems more like this child sees the womb as a challenge ... a gauntlet i've thrown down that he must [and will] conquer ... rather than as a comfort.

i'm thinking that better than investing in those velcroed swaddler-blankets-for-dummies that everyone and their brother tells me is the bees knees, i might better begin by stocking up on coffee. and wine. [both for me. both in large doses ... postpartum, of course.] or maybe a padded room?? he and i can take turns with it.

forget me not.

i think that one of the hardest things about moving away from a place you love is that after awhile, you begin to wonder if you've been forgotten. it's a reality, and it's human ... we all go on with our lives, and it's easy to have someone who is out of sight transition to being out of mind as well. it's like anything in life ... after awhile, you move on and there are more pressing issues to deal with ... or in this case, other people to fill that vacant spot in the community you left. there's a sadness, but there's also an organic, natural flow to it. this is how life happens.

so when a few friends in new york told us over christmas that they would like to throw us a little get together, like a baby shower, i was really humbled and grateful. and when we were in new york a couple of weeks ago, and it was more than just a few people who came to the party, and kindly brought gifts, and celebrated with me the fact that we're having a kid?? well, i have to be honest, i was a little in shock. so much kindness and love ... i was a bit dumbfounded.

that's why it's been so hard for me to just make these new places that we've moved to into my home ... because when you have friends who have known you most of your life, and who won't let you be forgotten ... who go out of their way to show you kindness and love?? i can tell you that that kind of love is not something that happens in a few weeks in a new place. and if you're very lucky, after a couple of years, you may have the seeds of it, and they may be germinating (but again, only if you're very lucky.)

see what i mean?? even the little details like cute cupcake wrappers with flags. so many little details and evidences of thoughtfulness. and the post-party talking and laughter with close friends?? one of my favorite gifts that day ... because even though i've got pretty much every thing i could possibly need for us to be ready to have a baby, all stacked neatly in our car and in our apartment here in baltimore, it's not as easy to access those moments, giggling like teenage girls, and having the chance to talk to someone who shares your convictions and preferences (and even political views!!). i mean seriously!! when does that happen for any of us, much less someone who has up-rooted their life twice in two years?? [spoiler alert: it doesn't.]

i didn't get a chance to take more than a couple of photos, because i was busy eating delicious food and opening generous gifts, but i am so grateful ... beyond words ... for that afternoon of fun and generosity from my friends. and i'm even more thankful for what that day was a manifestation of ... those who have actively chosen to remember me and continually extend kindness and love, even when i wasn't immediately in view, and it took extra effort and thoughtfulness.

the met, the mice, housing, me as an ostrich.

welcome back again to my blog, where i've given up on writing actual sentences (as the title would suggest) and just send you the highlight reel ... but without anything exciting like actual video footage.

on to the bullet points...

• steve and i went to the met. [for you non ny'ers, that's the metropolitan museum of art, located in nyc, on central park. it's gigantic, and more than you could really see in a whole week. a must-see for anyone visiting the city.] it's one of our favorite places to visit, and while he prefers exhibits that cause him wonder over time and space and history, i prefer the modern art exhibits.
  
  

  

  me and the chairman (as depicted by andy warhol).

  
  since we likely won't get a chance to go there again for ... oh, like 15 years (and even then, we'll be dragging teenagers and tweens, because you know i'm going to be that annoying mother who requires her kids to be exposed to culture), we figured we'd take the time on our return trip from NY to MD to stop in and say hi to pollock, socrates, and warhol.
  
   
• magically, we have not seen a single mouse since we came back from new york. this is shocking, since steve literally caught and killed like 10 of them in the previous 2 weeks. our house is still full of sticky mouse traps (as it there are lines of them across doorways, and on the stairs, and i think the total is somewhere between 20 and 30 of them). i think we're finally feeling like this armistice may be an actual end to the war ... for now at least.
  
   
• just when you thought i was done complaining about pests, the ants started coming back. and the sticky traps? they've caught a few of those nasty centipedes. also, a friendly little SHUT OFF NOTICE from the city of baltimore water authority kindly let us know that our landlords/management company hadn't been keeping up on that, and we might be suffering the consequences. [hashtag get me out of this place.]
  
   
• given the past two bullet points, and the fact that our family is about to increase in size by 50%, i'm looking for a new place for us. i wish we were ready to buy ... but that whole move-across-the-country-oh-and-then-do-it-again thing was rough on our long-term savings. i have serious house-envy after recently staying with and visiting friends who are our age and have bought homes. meanwhile, i'm trying to find an apt complex that's still in the city (for convenience sake and to save on transportation), and also talk myself into the smallest apartment three people could possibly occupy, so that our savings has more of a chance of reaching down-payment status sooner. check back with me in 4 months, when i have a newborn in a two bedroom and am crazily asking myself why??? why?????
  
  
   
•  baby? what baby? we're having a baby?? i've been wrapping myself in a thick blanket of denial lately, and the junk is probably going to hit the fan, right about the time i go into labor. oh, and within a few hours of it hitting the fan, my whole identity and world will be changing, and both sides of the family want to visit ... right after i do the most strenuous thing i've even done in my life, and my body and hormones are freaking! the! heck! out! so even though we're getting to that point where it kinda makes more sense to count down in weeks instead of months, i'm willfully shoving my head back in the sand and pretending that ignoring it all will make it all go away.