Friday, February 27, 2009

Daily Note: February 27, 2009

Um. I went to bed at 8:22pm last night. For serious.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Daily Note: February 26, 2009

1. Your suggestions for my mixed CD were truly great. Too bad I didn’t have this idea earlier…

2. The shower is still the highlight of my waking ritual. In fact, it’s really the only thing that gets me out of bed anymore. That and a desperate need to urinate, but perhaps that’s an overshare.

3. Imagine my horror when I stepped into my lovely shower this morning, turned my back on the shower fixture to let the water cascade down my back and looked out the window to see 2 inches of SNOW all over my neighborhood trees. What the eff Snow – no one invited you! Totally unacceptable. Of course it’s already melted, but seriously, what did it think it was doing showing up 3 days before March? Particularly when it already came for a visit and totally outstayed it’s welcome in December.

4. For the first time in this pregnancy, I caved and am wearing my fat pants today. Much to my surprise, I have not expanded much at all yet, but my jeans are tres uncomfortable when in a seated position (and sitting is pretty much what I do all day). I think my uncomfortable jeans may have more to do with the fact that they were a little on the tight side BEFORE I got pregnant, but I much prefer to blame the pregnancy. The other night Jeff and I were watching TV together and the following exchange occurred:

Me: (in a horizontal position on the couch with my shirt lifted, scrutinizing my stomach) Do you really think there’s a baby in there? I wish I’d start showing already.
Jeff: (snorts in a mocking manner)
Me: WHAT?!
eff: Next week you’ll be complaining about how fat you are.
Me: Hmm. Yeah, probably.

5. Here’s another convo, this one from last night. The background information necessary to find this entertaining is that I like things clean. Jeff is messy and in particular, rarely picks up after himself in the kitchen. He is also notorious for neglecting his duty of taking out the garbage.

Jeff: (pointing at the remnants of an orange peel all over the counter) Do you want to tell me what’s going on with all these orange peels? (Said in rather taunting manner b/c he knows damn well they’re my orange peels and this is exactly the tone in which I would ask him this question if roles were reversed).
Me: (calmly) Well, the garbage is overflowing, so I couldn’t throw them away.
Jeff: NUTS!!!!! How does it always end up being my fault?! (He grabs the garbage can to take it out and due to its overflowing state, many gross things topple out onto the floor) BAAAHHH!!
Me: (laughing uncontrollably)

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Daily Note: February 24, 2009

Lately, I’ve been told by many new and expecting mothers that the all consuming nausea that has been holding me captive for the last 2+ months will fade soon. One such tale has the woman in question waking up one morning around week 14 and miraculously feeling all better. As a result I wake up every day and spend the first 5 minutes of my morning assessing whether I’ve been “cured” yet. I’ve passed the week 13 marker, but very little progress is being made in the way of shaking my new companion, Barfy. I had a pretty good day and a half over the weekend and was hopeful that it signified a turning point. But yesterday was rough and had me wondering if this weekend had been a mind-over-matter type of thing after all. Did I trick myself into feeling better? And if so, how do I do it again?

As I sit here nursing my saltines and water, I had a great idea: A First Trimester Mixed Tape. This tape would serve as inspiration to keep me going and remind me that relief is (hopefully) just around the corner. Here are the songs I’ve decided could make the mix:

Hold on for One More Day – Wilson Phillips
Don’t Stop Believing – Journey
Don’t Give Up – Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel
I Will Survive – Gloria Gaynor

Any other suggestions?

Monday, February 23, 2009

Daily Note: February 23, 2009

Those of you who visit this site regularly may remember the saga of our upstairs shower. This saga has had many downs and a few (false) ups. But yesterday we experienced a big up. Jeff's Dad came down to Seattle for the day and together, he and Jeff fixed the current shower fixture! No holes in the wall were created. No new fixtures were needed. No studs were shifted. No tile was ripped out. This was truly amazing. I thought that if we were very lucky, the day would end in massive destruction and MAYBE a fixed shower. Instead, by the time we sat down to our bagel and chips lunch, the problem was solved, no muss no fuss. This morning I took what I believe will the first of many hot showers in our lovely bathroom. The tile work is so clean and not ugly ceramic with stencils (sorry downstairs shower - but everyone agrees that those stencils are really ugly), the shower pan is so mildew-free and shiny, the shaving step that I had custom installed in the corner is so adorable, the glass is so fancy and clear with the door that reminds me of a swanky hotel, and with the glass window on one side, I am just tall enough to see out to the tree tops of our backyard while the rain head shower fixture gently sprinkles my head with the perfect amount of water pressure.

I must say though, that after all the drama surrounding this issue, I post this love letter to my shower with some hesitancy. I feel that at any moment, it could betray me again. It's like I've fallen in love with a man much too beautiful for me and am plagued with the insecurity that it could leave me at any moment. Pictures of homely me (fully clothed) and my handsome shower to come very soon.

UPDATE: to give Jeff and his Dad the props that they really deserve, I must also mention their full list of accomplishments yesterday. They replaced the battery in our truck so that it runs again, they fixed the door to our bathroom so that it closes -and opens- with ease (in fact I accidentally slammed it really hard this morning because I'm used to having to throw my whole body against it to shut it), assessed our water heater and decided it needs replacing, and they fixed our electrical panel which had been shorting for no reason in the downstairs bathroom. All of this for the price of bagels and cream cheese.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Daily Note: February 19, 2009

Last night we celebrated Amy's birthday with dinner at Pair. For those of you unfamiliar with Pair, you must go. Immediately. It's a favorite in our circle and it truly is some of the best food in Seattle. It's sort of French/American small plates and it's located in the University Village area near Wedgewood. I personally wasn't up for eating much and played the role of the waif sipping her 7up, but as a table we shared -

Arugula Salad
Cambozola fondue with apples, pears and bread
Crab cakes
Roast chicken with the crispiest, tastiest skin ever
Beef brisket
Cassoulet with duck breast and sausage
Brussels sprouts with bacon
Gnocchi
Mac and cheese (seriously the best ever)
Banana bread pudding with caramel
Creme brulee
Coffee chocolate pot de creme

Be prepared to drop a pretty penny if you're there with a group, but it's WORTH IT.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Daily Note: February 18, 2009

Happy Birthday Amy! I can't wait for the big dinner party tonight.
xoxo
me

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Daily Note: February 17, 2009

I've been keeping a secret from you. Secret keeping is not my forte, so you can imagine how difficult this has been.

Here’s the thing. I’m pregnant. And nauseous. And tired. All of the time. Which is totally the wrong way to announce something as exciting as this! Because truly, I am thrilled. Jeff and I both are. But I severely underestimated the power of hormones and their ability to bring me to my knees (literally). When we decided to do this, I had these ridiculous visions of me wearing adorable cardigans unbuttoned over my adorable belly and feeling all calm and motherly while eating a healthy, well balanced meal. Instead, replace this vision with regular me, only bloated, zitty and wearing my ratty yoga pants and hoodie around the house moaning about how I think I'm going to barf and this will be closer to accurate.

We had our 12 week ultrasound today and everything seems to be running according to plan. The heart is beating crazy fast and it appears to be inheriting Jeff’s height, running almost a week ahead of schedule for its size. Thankfully, my misery seems in direct proportion to the baby's success so I can't complain too much. My due date is September 1, which still seems miles and miles away.

Want to see it? Here’s my favorite pic of the day. You're looking at it's right profile and that's its hand reaching up. My assumption probably should have been that the baby looks like it’s about to suck its thumb, or maybe waving at us. But instead I think it looks like it’s throwing back a brewsky.


Gaaaaah! We’re having a baby. Can you believe it? Every time I ask Jeff that question, his response is, “Um, yes. That was kind of the whole point, wasn’t it?”

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Daily Note: February 12, 2009

I wish I had a fast forward button that would take me to tomorrow at 5pm so we could just get this 3 day weekend started.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Daily Note: February 11, 2009

I’m going to cop to the fact that I’ve been watching entire seasons (sometimes in one sitting) of Sex and The City reruns lately. As a result, I’m sort of in a “girlfriend haze”. Last night I dreamed that Carrie Bradshaw and I were taking the Jitney to the Hamptons together when I accidentally barfed on her. So anyways. Before you read on, please note my recent influences and forgive the corniness. Consider it an early love letter to my girlfriends in honor of Valentine’s Day.

I realized last night that I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned something on this blog that is a major staple in my life. Skimming my blog, you’d probably think that Whitney Port and the characters from Lost are my best friends. The truth is, for the last 6 or 7 years, I have attended “Girl’s Night” at least once a week, pretty much every week. I’m not sure exactly how it got coined Girl’s Night, and I’m not sure I love the name, but it stuck, so there you have it.

Girl’s Night is a gathering that includes me, Heidi, Darrah, Amy and Kristin (with the occasional conference call to Katherine in LA). Sadly, since Kristin moved to Bellingham, we rarely get to see her at our weekly gatherings any more but we’ve soldiered on and the remaining four get together as often as we can. Over the years, girl’s night has had many iterations. In the early days, I think we rotated apartments on a pretty regular schedule with the host making an entrĂ©e and every one else bringing a side dish. We would all sit down to eat together and go around the table to talk through our week. Over time, our routine got a little lazier and we often found ourselves ordering Domino’s pizza and Dippin’ Dots for dinner. I still laugh (although I doubt Darrah does) when I remember the time Kristin brought Ezelles take-out for our dinner at Darrah’s apartment and accidentally put the Styrofoam and plastic container of baked beans in the oven to keep warm (um, melted plastic flavored baked beans scraped from the bottom of the stove anyone?) At some point, we started skipping dinner and pared down to just cupcakes from a mix. Lately, we’ve gotten really comfortable - food is rarely involved in our gatherings, wine plays a more coveted role than it used to, and recommended attire is yoga pants and a hoodie. But we still get together almost every week.

Last night, Amy made dinner and hosted at her house. While dinner was fantastic (props to Gran Gran for her chicken casserole recipe), my favorite parts of the night were not about the food. First of all, Kristin surprised us by driving all the way from Bellingham just to join us for dinner. We see her so rarely these days that it was really exciting. Then after dinner, we all curled up with our respective blankets on our respective couches to talk. We talked about our relationships, our families, Darrah’s impending wedding, touched on work, seriously discussed the question “children – to have or not to have?” and also had really gross and hilarious conversations about Amy’s dog and his shit-eating and genital grooming habits.

Girl’s night isn’t always this perfect; sometimes we’re cranky, or two of us are feuding over something petty and it comes out in the group. Yesterday I wasn’t feeling well, but last night for me was still Girl’s Night at its best. I drove home from Amy’s house shivering in my freezing ass car, but also reflecting on how lucky I am to have such good friends that will love me no matter what and that I love unconditionally (which is the same thing as “no matter what” but whatever…).

I’ve known Kristin all my life. When I was born, she was one year old and lived across the street. Strangely, Darrah also grew up on our street, but moved or lost touch or something. We reunited in high school when she transferred to my ballet studio. Heidi and I met when I was a freshman in high school and she was a senior. We bonded over our dorky love of drama club and that bond was solidified when we were cast (along with Darrah) in a one-act play by our matchmaker friend Katherine (who would later play a pivitol role in me meeting Jeff). I met Amy when she was randomly assigned to be Kristin’s dorm-mate in 1996 (and then later became one of Jeff’s roommates). My point is that I’ve known these people a long time. They know me as well as I know myself. They are my chosen family. They are the ones who will grocery shop for me when Jeff is out of town and I have the flu. They are the ones I would dig my car out of the snow to go pick up when they’re stuck at Northgate Mall and in tears. In many ways we are a weird, lopsided combo. Darrah practically plugs her ears in disgust the second poop is brought up in conversation, and Amy lets farts fly as frequently as a dude. Kristin’s idea of a light read is Fast Food Nation, where Heidi and I guiltily consumed the entire Twilight series. But for one reason or another it works.

And also? I still have Friday night to look forward to! Friday I’m meeting up with a different set of girlfriends for dinner. (One day soon, I’ll write an equally reminiscent post about the “Misty Mint” and our motley crew) Having couple friends when you’re in a couple is nice, but truly – is there anything better than your girlfriends?

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Daily Note: February 10, 2009

My little brother is buying a house! Man, we're getting old. It's hard to imagine that the same pissy kid that used to chase me around the house with steak knives and steal the dice when I was mid game is a bonafied grown up now, but it's true.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Daily Note: February 5, 2009

Yesterday I made a bet with a coworker regarding Lost. For those of you who aren't big dorks and don't watch Lost, this might not interest you. But I was convinced Jin wasn't dead (despite supposedly blowing up on the season finale last year) and would resurface at some point during this season. My coworker insisted that he was dead. We bet $5 on it, summoned a witness and shook on the deal. I assumed I'd have to wait weeks before this bet was resolved but Jin came back last night! I immediately did a victory lap and sent a smug text msg telling him that he could be late tomorrow if he needed to swing by the ATM on his way in (I'm also his boss).

Side note - another coworker is pregnant and yesterday had her 17 week ultrasound. Before she returned to work I declared that it was a girl. The same coworker who owes me $5 today insisted that it was a boy. I think we all know how this one ends. She's totally having a girl.

My only disappointment is that I didn't buy a lottery ticket yesterday.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Daily Note: February 2, 2009

Hey dudes, sorry for the silence. Truth is I have nothing to write about because I've been doing pretty much nothing lately. I suppose that's not entirely true: I went to a high school play that was entertaining (my friend Heidi is the drama teacher/director), I saw Benjamin Button yesterday and liked it (in a Forest Gump sort of way). I went to post some pictures from our Orcas weekend two weeks ago, but when I looked at all the photos last night I decided they weren't really worthy. We mostly just documented our cooking adventures, but the lighting isn't good for our weak little camera to photograph food so it looks like we just made slop piles when really we made very nice food. Unbeknownst to me, Jeff *did* take a few pictures of my emo moment in the sun (described in an earlier post) through the cabin windows, but these were a little embarrassing so I can't post them either. Oh and Jeff made me watch the last quarter of the Super Bowl last night. Seeing as I don’t know anything at all about football, I will repeat my stellar commentary:

Comment #1: “I don’t think that guy has any teeth!!”
Comment #2: “Why does that quarterback look so old? Is he 40?”
Comment #3: “What team is wearing the yellow?”
Comment #4 (which I didn’t voice, but thought): “Um, football uniforms are basically man-capris with knee socks.”

Jeff and I have refocused on our house. This tends to happen in cycles for us. We slave away on a room for a month or two and live in the chaos of plaster dust, holes in the wall and plastic wrapped furniture. Then we finish the room and without needing to discuss, we take an extended break from house work. After finishing the living room this fall and then being distracted with the holidays, I think we are finally getting ready to tackle the biggest project of all – the kitchen. For those of you who know Jeff, you know what this means – we have re-entered the prototype stage. I think I’ve mentioned before how much Jeff loves prototypes. Well, his love affair has resurfaced. Every time I go to the kitchen now the furniture has been rearranged. And last night I was made to assist with taping out a pretend doorway into the living room with painters tape. The big debate of the moment is how to open the space to the living room without totally destroying the historical integrity of the home (and taking away all of our cabinet space). Much sketching is in progress.

Also, my 30th birthday is lurking around the corner. I’ve told Jeff that all I want for my birthday is for the upstairs shower to work again. Most of you aren’t aware of the saga that is the upstairs shower, and this is intentional because the saga is annoying and long. Looking at the shower, you would assume it works. We had the shower installed when we enlarged the bathroom and it’s beautiful -marble subway tiles, seamless glass, and an antique looking shower fixture with exterior plumbing. Definitely the most expensive 10 square feet of our house. But all it does is spew freezing cold water. It’s a long, boring story with many ups and downs, but basically the beautiful shower fixture we ordered online is a piece of shit. So last weekend, Jeff and I visited the plumbing store and picked out a lovely replacement fixture that is not fancy, but still very nice. Most importantly, this fixture comes from a legitimate store and can be returned if it doesn’t work. Then we got a plumbing quote to install our new fixture that left us reeling. I think this means that Jeff’s Dad will be getting an official invite to our house for an upcoming weekend to hopefully assist us with doing the plumbing ourselves. Keep your fingers crossed he accepts.