Sinful Indulgence

With an October birthday, it's a rule - nay, almost a commandment - that I not buy anything for myself between my birthday and Christmas, if that item can be gifted to me. This has been an unspoken law in our family, since both my sister and I have October birthdays.

But come ON, you guys! I was already placing an order to my smack dealer preferred online board game vendor, and honestly, I have shown excellent restraint in not-yet-buying this game for months, if not an entire year.
Hello, it's pirate-themed.
Yarrr!
I'm also pretty sure that when I ordered it, it was as a present for myself for something important and deserving. I just can't recall what that thing was.

Anyway, I'm confident that fellow board game lovers will generally approve of my purchase, but I expect to receive a chastising from my family when (if) they find out.

Hey there, xiety*

My computer's been fiesty re: wireless connections and various drivers, so posting will be light 'til I figure this out. I do, however, want to share with you my total wussidom. Let me say right now that I have never been good with blood tests. It's not the pain (what pain?) - it's the anxiety.

JJ: I went for my blood test this morning, but when I saw that she was going to fill 8 test tubes, I started sobbing. The nice nurse told me maybe I should come back in the afternoon with someone else to drive me home. I cried the whole way to work - it was not normal crying, either; it was that awful hormonal I-know-I-shouldn't-be-crying-this-much-but-I-can't-stop crying.
You know that saying "you can't fail a blood test" oh, I found a way.

Sis: They shouldn't SHOW you those damn vials if they know you are easily upset by taking blood. Tell them next time to hide them or something.
Be strong! You'll show those blood tests who's boss!

JJ: Ok, I went back in the afternoon with D, who I might have traumatized with my sobbing phone call this morning. It went fine, and he was very impressed that I had 8 test-tubes taken. He swears he's never had more than four taken at once. I asked him to buy me flowers as a reward. Much better than the Dora stickers the nurse had.

*This counts as Blog Confession #2

Blog Confession #1

I have little to no fashion sense.

See, I feel I have to confess this, because I was just blog-browsing, and read some recent posts over at Mighty Girl, posts written by someone more successful, more popular, more pregnant, and much much more fashionable than I am. See, she has this site that highlights fashionable goods and she had this one blog entry about a hideously ugly necklace, and how she and her friend tried to imagine who would make such a thing. And here's where I have to say:
I have made ugly jewelry.
I haven't gone so far as to wear any of it, but I've created many monstrosities and tried to convince myself these items were good-looking, as though somehow anything I've put so much time into must be worth the effort.

My formative teen years were spent in the "grunge era" when jeans, a short- or long-sleeve shirt, and a flannel shirt were my wardrobe from 6th grade to around Junior year of college.
I've stepped it up since then*, but I now find it draining to "put together outfits" for work or for going out. To the point where a few months ago, I spent a few hours laying out different outfits on the bed and taking digital photos of them so I could just look up an outfit to wear instead of standing at the closet feeling tired and dumpy. This idea, for those of you considering it, should only be undertaken if you can establish a crackerjack cross-index, for easy look-up on outfits. I tried to create this in Picasa, using the colors and seasons for each outfit as labels, but f-ing Picasa is in beta, so its program is all overhauled and what used to be Labels is now something like Albums or Discontinued or something.

Also, photo-indexing outfits TOTALLY DOESN'T HELP when none of your pants fit and only half your tops fit. I'm back to square one on this. Also unhelpful is having 2/3s of your wardrobe in the laundry basket.

*It's important that I note that "stepping it up" is by comparison to before. I still have little fashion sense, but am discovering more and more that about half of my clothing is kind of boring and dumpy. Problem is, I've reached my caring threshold: I just don't care enough to fix the situation. I'll eventually weed out the offenders through a one-in-one-out policy, but otherwise, I can't be bothered.

Dill-icious

CC: How are you feeling?
JJ: I tend to feel "oogly" in the belly in the evening
JJ: for a few months I was kinda nauseated, but that's pretty much done
JJ: no pukers
CC: That's good
CC: Any weird cravings?
JJ: I'm SO TIRED most of the time
JJ: not really, except that I have a deep affection for pickles
JJ: but most women develop an affection for delicious, delicious pickles
JJ: I had a dream about drinking beer last night.
CC: That's funny
JJ: I miss feta cheese :(

The Bumpy Road of Gossip

JJ: hey hey
Mal: howdy. I hear congrats are in order???
JJ: who told?
Mal: well
Mal: there's really only one person i talk to frequently
JJ: I mean, I guess I did tell folks that they can start telling other people.
Mal: oh ok
JJ: But it's nicer to tell folks myself
Mal: sorry to spoil surprise though
Mal: I should have acted surprised
Mal: do you want to try again?
JJ: Like, I’d rather have people say "Oh, hey, tell Mal so I can talk to him about it"
JJ: instead of just going and doing it and taking out the rug.
Mal: so let's start over...
Mal: hey JJ, how's it going?
JJ: whatever no it's too late and now Max's on my SHIT LIST 4EVER

Today is a good day

Maybe it's the freakishly warm weather (60s in Boston? wtf,m8?), but it seems like events are conspiring to keep me in a good mood today. Here's a bullet list of some of the good things from the day:

• Due to the semi-holiday, my commute to work was awesomely easy.
• I decided to spend the extra $2 to treat myself to a caprese* sandwich for lunch from the local Italian market, and it was sooo worth it
• I told one of my co-workers about my pregnancy, and she was so excited and happy that it reminded me to be excited and happy, too (it's easy to forget when I'm obsessively concerned the baby's going to sneak out and not leave a note)
• I remembered to email a friend a happy birthday email, and I always feel like I'm having a conversation with someone when I write to them, even though I know it's one-sided
• I had a Pink Lady apple as my mid-morning snack, and it was fantastic.

*fresh mozz, basil, tomato, roasted red pepper on a baguette

A few things I should mention

This is a new blog because the old one was anonymous due to being somewhat work-related.
This blog will not be work-related. Also, it will not be very anonymous, as I suspect I will eventually work in my flickr site, which is very identity-transparent.
When I started my last blog, I was unemployed, temping, and in a not-long-to-last relationship.
I'm starting this blog with a full-time job, a cat, a husband, and a due date of May 23, 2007 on the little person developing inside me.

I figure I should mention all this so when I link to this blog in comments on other blogs, not everyone wonders who the f is she?

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

...is when I start telling non-family people about what D and I have been calling 'the little bean'. Our parents have been admonished to keep the secret until Saturday, but I'm starting early Friday night with my West Coast friends, mostly because I'll be spending Saturday with a bunch of local friends, and there won't be any good time to call West, and then after that, it'll be open season on the gossip.

I'm still worried that the little bean has escaped its nice home inside me, but only because I keep hearing stories about that happening to women - the womb keeps developing for weeks after Elvis has left the building. With no doctor appointment until Dec.1st, I'm just going to have to take it on faith that the little one is still in residence.

I'm telling folks at work on Monday, and I'm psyched about that, because it means I can start wearing the pregnancy work pants I bought. They're still pretty big on me, but oh - so comfortable in the waist. I'm down to two pairs of work-appropriate pants that still fit, so this is a huge improvement on my selection when I don't feel like wearing a skirt and tights.

In Which My Sister's Vote Counts More Than Mine

I am active in MoveOn.org's political action group, which had a field office in Missoula for this election. So I made get out the vote phone calls, etc.

You can count us as votes 2,846 and 2,847 that tipped
the balance to Tester. Fire Burns!

I don't so much get what the whole "Fire Burns" thing means, but hooray to my sister and her husband for tipping the balance!

UPDATE: Okay, I get it now, and I feel totally dumb.

Taking the law in my own hands

JJ: hey.
JJ: you're a lawyer
JJ: q for you
JJ: Isn't it the law that drivers have to turn on their headlights whenever they turn on their windshield wipers?
Max: yes
JJ: Can I go make some citizen's arrests?
Max: do it
JJ: well, it's too late now, but those people better watch out next time!!
Max: (actually you can't make citizens arrests for misdemeanors)
JJ: crap

I just couldn't face the real-life video game that is the residential drive from the off-ramp to my house at 6pm on Halloween, so last night, I avoided the whole thing by going to the mall. Of course, the mall is not stupid, and they have figured out the marketing savvy of having kids trick-or-treat in the mall. (Well-lit! No streets!) There weren't a ton of trick-or-treating kids, but there was a definite theme I noticed which, in retrospect, is a no-duh:

Mall trick-or-treaters all wear store-bought costumes.