Pregnancy 2.0

I thought a change from my usual music and ranting posts might be in order for once.

In a few days I will begin in my third trimester of pregnancy.  Week 28 of 40 (ish) (or 7 months, if you prefer months over weeks, and I do).  I can't believe how quickly time has gone by this time around.  It didn't drag on the first time or anything but it is flying by this time.

We know we are having a boy.  Or a girl.

Like last time, I haven't had any food cravings or aversions but my nose is a little more sensitive to car exhaust.  The one weird craving that I had was to listen to 80s bands such as The Cure and The Clash.  Best craving ever....I never knew what I was missing!  I never had the slightest interest in listening to pretty much any music from the 80s and, in fact, would just change the channel when it came on.  Besides the baby itself, the other best gift this pregnancy has given me is a respect and appreciation for some truly awesome music.  And it was most definitely a craving.  I absolutely HAD to hear the song "Don't You (Forget About Me)" by Simple Minds, and it all went from there.  What the hell kind of music lover was I before this?

Unlike last time, I had a few weeks of nausea but thankfully never actually threw up.  I just had a general feeling of barfyness all day a few days a week for about 4-6 weeks.

Leg cramps - check, but so far not quite as frequently as round one.

Heartburn - nothing like last time.  So far maybe just once or twice.

I began show much quicker this time around, which I have heard is very common after your first pregnancy.  Jacob and I are both amazed every day at how ginormous my tummy is.

Praise the Lord, not a stretch mark in sight and no more spider veins in my legs than I had last time (which, happily, went away after Roman was born and I am hopeful they will go away this time as well. however, if genetics are any indicator, I might be in for it.  Sorry about your legs, mom).

TMI alert - I'm not nearly as, shall we say, frisky this time.  Sorry for all your wasted efforts, Jacob.  I bet he was so excited for my second trimester to roll around, thinking it would be like last time.  He swears that we are having a girl because of this difference (but a friend of mine who has a son recently told me she was the same way, so there goes that theory).

I am thankful that just like last time, it has been an easygoing process.  It's just getting harder to do things like get out of bed and bend over to tie my shoes or put on my socks.  To get out of bed, sometimes I have to rock a little from side to side to gain some momentum.  :)

I love feeling all of the kicking and movement and it is fun to see my belly move around.

Nesting started really early this time and I've really enjoyed all of the amped-up domesticness (that must be a sign that it's a girl too because girls are more into cooking and cleaning.  Right?).  I'm usually pretty domestic, but like I said, this is domestic skills on steroids!

We're getting very excited for Baby Wright II's arrival.  We might finally have our names picked out (don't ask. I won't tell you what the are).   I'm not sure how we are going to manage two young kids, and it is going to be extra tough over the next year because Jacob is also working on his masters degree and we both work full time, but we are ready to take it on!!!

We keep telling Roman there is a baby in mommy's tummy and I think he is starting to understand.  He's going to be an awesome older brother....after the initial loathing and jealousy wears off, of course.

                                                      Roman wants to be in the picture too.

                                   
                                                  Must be a boy! (ignore the glowing boobs)

                                                 
                                           This one will have to do.  Almost 28 weeks/7 months.

Road Rage Monday!

Dear Lady in front of me on Mill Plain:

You don't need to slow down so early.  You don't need to accelerate so slowly.  You don't need to be going slower than the drivers in the right lane if you are in the left lane.  You DEFINITELY DO need to get over when the person behind you has to resort to honking and flashing their lights at you.  People like you give me a spike in blood pressure.  I am sure it is my own issue and not yours, but still, be courteous and GET THE FRICK OVER!  You don't belong in the left lane.  You had plenty of room to get over but I did not, otherwise I would have passed you a lot earlier than I did.

Go back home to your four cats.

Hate,

Sally

Watch Out, World!

Sally is in total bitch-mode. So while I’m here, I may as well revel in it for awhile. Ready? Here goes!




Eff you, politics. I hate you. I hate the slander and lies, I hate the littering of signs all over the road side and people’s yards, I hate that millions and millions of dollars are spent on campaigning. I hate that our government is so divided and broken. I hate that there are so many people who go only by party lines. I hate how much time is wasted by a politician telling me what their opponent hasn’t done/isn’t doing. I don’t care. Instead, tell me what you are going to do to fix the problems. Tell me more about your plans than your opinion of your opponent. Roseanne Barr for President!!! Man, I seriously love her.



I hate that there are still people out there who spend any iota of time or resources to see that certain rights be reserved only for certain people. Really? There are still people who don’t think that all human beings deserve the same rights? I can’t wait until the judgmental are judged.



Speaking of judgmental – am I the only person in the WORLD who doesn’t think Jessica Biel is good looking? I wouldn’t even consider her cute. Why does no one else see this? (Confidential to Justin Timberlake - you could do SO much better.  Have you met my friend Wendy?  You two would make a good match)



I hate all other drivers on the road. Especially the ones who are texting or talking on the phone while they drive. I can’t believe there are people who still do this even though we hear all the time about the horrible (and SO preventable) accidents this causes.



Speaking of preventable causes of death – really, smokers?



I can’t believe the shelf life that Reality TV has had. I hate reality TV and find it ludicrous that is it even called Reality TV because of all of the people I know none of them have lives that are, IN REALITY, that fucked up. Maybe watching that stuff just makes people feel better about their own lives. But really, there are better ways to go about feeling good about oneself. (That said, I am guilty as charged for watching One Tree Hill and really enjoying it. I know it isn’t reality TV, but shows like that are just as bad).

Aah - I feel better. In the words of Calvin "nothing helps a bad mood like spreading it around."

Electric Feel

Man, I can't get enough of this song!  Definitely my song of the day, month, year, whatever (even if it is a few years old).  These guys...this song....yowza!!  The video might not be to your liking, but it's totally dorky/rugged/sexy/awesome and I love it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmZexg8sxyk

By the way, it's "Electric Feel" by MGMT

My iPod is happy it is Friday too!

I think my iPod knows when it is Friday and knows just how glorious of a thing Friday is.  It always plays the best, most chipper music on Fridays and I smile and sing all the way to work.  That's a great way to start preparing for the weekend.

"My Name is Sue. How Do You Do? Now You're Gonna DIE!"

I just made my own day! (With the help of the interweb, I guess)


I have to admit that I had never heard anything about “A Boy Named Sue” until spring of 2000. I was in college and was sitting on a couch in a common area reading a book when a friend of mine (who I also had a teensy crush on) came up and randomly just started reading to me the words to “A Boy Named Sue” off of a piece of paper. When he finished I said “What was that? A Shel Silverstein poem?” and he said “No, it’s Johnny Cash!”
Well, it sounds like it could have been a Shel Silverstein poem.
Guess what I just now found out, more than 12 years later? IT WAS WRITTEN BY SHEL SILVERSTEIN! I KNEW it!

I’ve told that story to a couple of people, and none of them ever said to me “well, it was written by Shel Silverstein.” Everyone just assumes it was Johnny Cash.

I am a huge fan of Mr. Silverstein. I love reading his books to Roman and I’ve read them all so many times myself. When you hear him sing, you can tell that he is a Johnny Cash fan, so I love that they seemed to have a mutual admiration for one another.

I’m so happy right now :)

What the hell kind of music lover am I?

One thing in my life I have always prided myself on is my taste in and appreciation for music.  I can differientate good music versus run-of-the-mill junk from a mile away.  I think it comes off as snobbery to some people, and it's a fine line between ignorance and pretentiousness when I say I don't listen to Top 40 or know who certain A-Listers are.  I'm sorry I didn't know who Justin Bieber was for a long time.  I'm sorry I thought Lady Gaga was just Christina Aguilera going by a different name. 

So anyway, I love music. LOVE it.  I have it on all the time. I love going to concerts and buying records and CDs as opposed to downloading music.  I'd spend hours in a record store if I could.  A big thrill for me is getting these artifacts signed by the musicians at concerts, and since the music I like is generally under the radar, it is pretty easy to meet the bands becuase the venues are small.  I always want to raise awareness to everyone that there is WAY better stuff out there than what you are hearing on the radio.  One thing I really long for is more friends who love music like I do and want to go to concerts and talk about awesome bands.  But I don't think most people care about it as much as I do.

So on to the point.  As much as I love music, I have always been a big hater of the 80s culture and most 80s music.  However, one CRAZY pregnancy craving (not really, but maybe!) I had a week or two ago was to hear "Don't You (Forget About Me)" by Simple Minds - 80s to the core.  I wanted to listen to it so bad I thought I'd burst.  So I went on Pandora and typed in The Clash (why didn't I just type in Simple Minds?  Who knows, but it's good I didn't). 

OH HOLY SHA-MOLY!  Have my ears been up my ass all this time?!?!  I knew The Ramones and the Clash and The Cure and The Pixie were good bands and I've always appreciated them more or less from afar, I just never gave them the time of day to really listen to them because I didn't want to hear 80s music.  Boy have I been missing out all this time!  And I have been listening to it almost non-stop lately, like I am trying to make up for lost time.  I'm kind of embarrassed that I wasn't into this stuff all along.  I feel like the people who "discover" bands years after people like me had already been listening to them (basically, the whole world) (and that's usually about the time I stop listening to those bands, sadly. I don't know why. It's stupid.)

I feel that my loverage of music is now completely legitimized.  It has even renewed my vigor for some of the music that has kind of become dusty in my collection, like Modest Mouse and T-Rex and the Doves.

Dear 80s music, I love you*

 *restrictions apply