pregnancy round-up...

pros of being pregnant:

1. people are a LOT nicer to you. i had to deal with some angry parents at work - not my students, of course - and they turned into different people when they found out i was pregnant. one man who was the angriest out of all the parents, was almost giddy with excitement.
   
2. people give you more compliments. for instance - before i was showing, i would have normal conversations with people where they wouldn't comment on my appearance. then later in the same conversation, once they found out i was pregnant, they would tell me i look great. i didn't change anything in the 20 minutes that we were speaking, but i suppose i look just normal for not being pregnant, and "great" for being pregnant. i'll take that as a compliment.
   
3. four words: expectant mother parking spots. i am looking forward to taking full advantage of these come the busy holiday shopping season. although one of my good friends who is ready to pop any day now parked in an expectant mother spot and was berated by a woman who told her that spot was for parents with small kids, and that she should park farther away AS SHE COULD USE THE EXERCISE. THE NERVE!!!!
4. my nails grow quickly and almost always look fabulous.
5. i can go 5 days without washing my hair. i actually pushed the limit to 6 days once just to see if i could, but i will admit, it was kind of nasty and probably won't do that again.
6. i really like my OB so it's nice i get to see her once a month (soon to be once every two weeks!). we talk about clothes. i wonder why it is that i always end up talking about clothes with people??
   

cons of being pregnant:

1. sometimes people give me double-takes because they see my belly and are taken aback. it makes me feel a bit like a mutant.
2. whenever i make a mistake or forget something, it's chalked up to being pregnant. i am convinced that "baby brain" does NOT exist and i'm trying really hard to not abide by this stereotype. whenever i eat something sweet, it's chalked up to being pregnant. i had sweet teeth (definitely not just one tooth) before i became pregnant, you know! i actually enjoyed the sugary drink they make you have when they're testing your glucose levels. and lastly in this vein, whenever i have to go to the bathroom, it's chalked up to being pregnant. people point out that the baby is pushing on my bladder. yes, maybe so but it could also be that i haven't peed in 3 hours and i've had 4 glasses of water!
3. sometimes people are really mean (see #3 in my pro list).
4. whenever i go shopping, and it's not a maternity store, i feel like some of the salespeople are judging me...as if they're thinking, "why are you here, there is nothing that will fit you". especially when they see me from behind, and say "hi, can i help..." and kind of trail off when i turn around and they see i'm pregnant. what is wrong with people?

in summary: people are stupid and being pregnant is kinda fun. i realize i am very lucky as some people have a hard time - i've been feeling great and hope this is a sign of things (you know, like labour and child-rearing, etc.) to come...

re: with you i'm born again

i'm baaaack! okay...so i don't know if i will end up blogging about every episode this season, but i do have to say a few things, in order of importance, of course:

i give derek's hair a 6.5 out of 10. it's a little too long and straight for my liking (it looks like the stylist spent more time on dr. perkins' hair instead - hair wars on the set, perhaps?). plus, derek's five o'clock shadow was more like a three-day old shadow, particularly on his upper lip. it looked like he had a milk mustache, but he had motor oil in his glass instead. his blue button-down shirt, however gets a resounding 138743 out of 10. he always has, and continues to make this the best, most wonderful article of clothing i have ever seen. *swoon*

cristina's "thank you" response to owen's proposal - thank you for choosing her and not teddy? thank for for promising to never leave her again? thank you for rescuing her from her dark and twisty place? whatever it was, once i saw that, it was clear the marriage was for real. for a while there i was worried she would get stuck in a revolving door of marriage and the show would become one big ad for wedding magazines. having the ceremony in mer's house, in a dress that's not white - that's more like it. and for the record, i would have chosen peonies.

re: the scene with cristina and mer on the bed before cristina walks down the aisle. poignant and touching, but really? more shoes on the bed? why!!!

meredith looked like medusa in the scene where she told owen that derek wasn't coming, and gave him the ring. in all the other wedding shots, her make-up was normal, hair less wild. weird.

why would someone mistake april for reid, and say"i thought you were dead"? is that some kind of cruel joke?! even if i saw reid herself walk into a room, i would never say "i thought you were dead" - can we please come up with something a bit more tactful? like..."fancy meeting you here, on earth, where the living people hang out" or "did you see my dog sparky in heaven? how does he look?"...anything but "i thought you were dead"! yeesh.

i've said it before, and i'll say it again: i prefer season finales to season premieres. and this is no different. but overall, i liked the general aftermath. i love how the flashbacks from the finale ran chills down my spine; a sign of an excellent finale - i didn't blog about it last year, but now you know how i feel about it. so. good. i'm happy to see it wasn't just a new plot line, glossing over the chaos and craziness that happened...as usual, everyone is broken and in need of fixing. cue new season! i'm ready!

junk in my trunk?

we got a new car. our civic was kind of getting old, making some disconcerting noises and overall a bit banged up.

our new car, stella is wonderful. she is pretty and she has lots of gadgets that make me happy - rearview camera, push button start, proximity sensor on the key fob so all i have to do is push a button to unlock, xm radio...and she drives like a dream.

cue kris' business trip to montreal. i am always more paranoid and hypersensitive when he's not here, even in situations where he wouldn't be with me anyway...but i was walking to my car after work, past 9:30pm in a dark, deserted parking lot and i noticed that the interior lights were on. strange. i checked the backseat, saw it was empty, so i got in and drove away.

as i was driving, i started worrying more about why the lights were on since i hadn't unlocked the car yet. i wondered if perhaps i didn't lock it that afternoon. i tried to reassure myself that it was fine since i checked the backseat, but then i remembered that stella has a bigger, more accessible trunk space where someone could easily hide. by this time, i was already on the highway, so instead of pulling off and parking somewhere so i could check the trunk, i just checked my rearview mirror every 5 seconds to see if there was a head popping out from behind the seat. why am i so crazy? i can now rationalize that if there was a dangerous predator man in the trunk, he likely wouldn't waste time waiting for me to drive for several minutes before revealing himself. if he was going to kill me, surely he would have already done it?

so onward i drove. checking the mirror constantly. i got home, drove in the garage, purposely left the garage door open in the event someone was in the trunk so i could scream a warning, and opened it with a racing heart. it was empty.

this is why i need to go with kris on all of his business trips!!!! because apparently i drive myself crazy when i'm left to my own devices (namely, my overactive imagination).

it turns out that the perimeter/approach lights are one of stella's safety features. who knew?
she senses when the key is approaching the car, and lights up in welcome at night so you can make sure there aren't any serial killers in your backseat. smart, huh? i wish i could say the same for myself...

parking paradox

i accompanied some students at a music festival in milton. i did a search online to see where the church was located, saw it was on a busy street with parallel parking (i love google streetview). i sighed to myself, and made a mental note to leave 15 minutes earlier to ensure i could find a place to park and brought extra coins with me.

when i arrived, i was confused...there were what appeared to be parking spaces, but they were empty. almost all of them! there was a row that was right across the street from the church where i had to go, but i was convinced it must have been an area that only special people could park in, because why else would all the spots be available? it was even beside a ministry of transportation office, and even though it was before 9am, i figured most people would get there early to avoid line-ups. i dubiously parked there, and then looked for a parking meter to pay. i couldn't find one. i looked for signs telling me i could only park there for a certain period of time, or maybe a sign telling me i can't park there until 10am. i couldn't find any.

i went into the church and asked the woman working the front desk whether i could park on the street. she looked at me like i was crazy and said something like "of course you can, why wouldn't you be able to?" and i explained to her that there were plenty of available spaces, there was no parking meter, and no sign telling me i had to move after a certain period of time. she still looked at me like i was crazy. no, toto...clearly we aren't in toronto anymore!

the definition of excessive...and unnecessary...

...is seeing 6 OPP vehicles lurking on the side of the highway, waiting to catch speeding cars as i drive to work, which is less than 20 km away. that's a police officer every 3.3 km!

where are you guys when there is a maniac weaving in and out of traffic at 150km/h?

CONGRATS!

congratulations to my friend carson for winning the prestigious title of wind instrumentalist of the year at the canadian smooth jazz awards.

you may remember, i reached out to you, dear reader, and asked you to vote for him - i'm not sure if you did, but if so, thank you!

and congratulations, carson. i've said it before, and i'll say it again: you always have been full of hot air. :) haha, that joke never gets old (for me, anyway)...but seriously, you deserve all the accolades you're getting and more!

when it rains, it pours...on weekends

did anyone else notice that the weather is rainy/cold/irritable on weekends only? and during the week it's beautiful/sunny/making me irritable because i am cooped up indoors working?

well, this past weekend, i beat the system - at least, i thought i did. i had to work on saturday, so i planned to take friday off. it was promising to be the best day of the week yet, with sunny skies and a high of 23 degrees. beautiful. i planned to see my friend in the morning, have lunch with her, come home and enjoy our patio and maybe go for a bike ride.

cue thursday and cue the only cold i've had all year. i slept in on friday until 1pm and pretty much spent the entire day indoors, doing sinus rinses and trying futilely to breathe through my nose. it rained on saturday as promised, and the weather was unsettled and undecided today (although i will admit, it was semi-nice out).

but the long-term forecast promises rain and cool temperatures for next weekend. sigh.

i'll find you, nice-weather-weekend...one day. i hope.

dana, this one's for you

kris has always enjoyed biking. i, on the other hand, have not. i didn't bike too much growing up - maybe it was the thought of sharing the two-lane 80km road with vehicles or being subjected to gravel roads that made me shy away from it. anyway, since we moved to the townhome in june 2008, i've been determined to be a better biker.

we started by fixing up the bike that i had. we got a super nice seat so my bum wouldn't hurt, got it tweaked and fixed, bought a helmet and i was ready.

we practiced on one of the out-of-the-way streets by our house. we would ride up and down it, and i would practice stopping, starting, turning and standing (again, to preserve le bum while going over bumps), but never pedalling and standing at the same time, noooh, that was just too much.

things since then have progressed pretty well. i've learned how to stand and pedal at the same time so hills are so much easier...i know what the gears do and how they help when biking up said hills...i am more confident sharing the road with cars and my legs don't start burning three seconds into our excursions.

we usually ride to the lake, because it's close, easy to get to, and once we get there, there's a bike path that we can follow. today, though, i got overconfident. i hate when that happens.

we ventured off the bike path, onto this dirt path that consisted of mostly pedestrians. i chose to get off and go around some of the pedestrians that didn't want to get out of my way. after sitting on a bench and enjoying the peacefulness and beautiful scenery, we continued on our way. this path was hilly and bumpy at times, but i was negotiating fantastically well...until i tried to scale a hill that was bigger than it looked, while trying to go around two ladies who wouldn't get out of my way. i ended up going slower and slower and slower up the hill until i was no longer moving at all...i worried about actually going backwards down the hill, but ended up just falling over instead. i wasn't hurt, although i got a nasty bruise on my leg pit (how come we all talk about arm pits, but no one references their leg pits? i hereby resolve to raise leg pit awareness) and a slight bruise to my ego. luckily, the ladies were inconsiderate and heard me fall but didn't bother to turn around.

gotta love toronto...the only place where you can hurt yourself and no one will bother to make sure you're okay, ensuring that you don't cry in front of strangers. home sweet home.

dental diatribe

i went to the dentist recently. before she even saw my teeth, the hygenist asked me if i floss everyday - i replied yes, because i do, and religiously, and she was all like "mmm-hmm" (translation: i don't believe you). why bother asking if you're not going to believe what i say anyway?

then she lectured me for the entire length of my cleaning about flossing and brushing everyday, WHICH I DO, even though she grudgingly admitted that my teeth looked good, despite the 3 year hiatus i had taken from the dentist. i know it's terrible i waited so long, but i think i was subconsciously avoiding the lectures. it's one thing to chastise me when i've actually not brushed my teeth, i would be fine with that. i am NOT fine with being lectured for no good reason. and then the hygenist told me i should come for a cleaning every 3 months, even though she said i was a good brusher, and didn't have any cavities after not seeing a dentist for 3 years. 3 months?! i would have rather she just said that she wants to make as much money as possible, so can i please come as often as possible? at least that would be honest.

it took all of my will power to not say something in retaliation, so instead i looked for split ends in her hair while she cleaned my teeth. i found plenty, and so i mentally told her she should get her hair cut more often. it made me feel a bit better. and now it's time to look for a new dentist.

hello kitty mania!

when we were in england last summer, i found a hello kitty eraser that had a little roller on top that sweeps up all the eraser bits! it was so cute! it was also $20 with the exchange. no matter how cute i thought it was, i refused to pay $20 for an eraser, unless it cooked dinner for me too. months later, i still thought about my eraser wistfully and kept trying to convince myself it wasn't meant to be.

then, in seattle, we stumbled upon a hello kitty store (which is how my photo opp with miss kitty below came to be). THEY HAD MY ERASER! FOR $2.95 US!!! the one had blacks and dark pinks, and was more of a "badass" kitty image, which i appreciate. she lives at work so i'll try to remember to take a picture of her to post here.

i wanted to buy more than one, but kris wouldn't let me. so i bought only one, but i'm very happy with it...the roller part actually makes erasing about 7 times longer then just brushing away the bits with your hand, but it's sooo worth it. and now i know it was meant to be.