Visitors

Happy Thursday everyone...I have once again been a terrible blogger this week, which I apologize profusely for. I have been super busy with school stuff, and have been doing a little bit of work on the side (including most all day yesterday) for my dear former (and likely future) employer. Actually, kind of a nice way to pick up some extra dough;-) Should be pretty calm for the next few days, though, which is good.

I got an invite to a dinner thing tonight with a Big Name Investment Bank where they are recruiting interns for next summer, and then presumable employees for a year and a half from now. They went through the resume book, picked out people who's background matches what they want, and then invited us to dinner and then to interview formally tomorrow. Dinner is at a notoriously swanky place in Cambridge (overrated, but that is neither here nor there) and they seemed totally shocked that I declined. But seriously...I doubt I would ever work for them, and I would way rather have chicken fingers!!!

I am going to interview, though, even if I don't want the job (since this is technically only for summer internships, it is for a job in New York next summer...you can probably guess what the odds are of me taking that;-)). You never know what may come up later on in life, so I would like to at least meet them and get the chance to talk to them. It never hurts to work on the personal network:-)...and I wouldn't completely rule out the chances of working for them after school. OK...those chances are like 1%, maybe...but there is a chance...

Moving on...we are getting two very important visitors for Christmas. Well, one before and one after, to be specific. Frenchie is going to come for about a week before Christmas (December 17-23, or something thereabouts). Actually, his last day of school is supposed to be the 18th, and he and Munchkin originally proposed that he come from the 19th until the 26th, but his Mom nixed the idea of him actually being here for Christmas...their compromise was that he would skip the last two days of school before the break and therefore get about a whole week in before the holiday.

This is a big deal, since it is the first time that one of them has travelled by his or herself to see the other. The last two times they have seen each other were when his father brought him here and when I brought her there. I'll have to have a talk with her about some ground rules before then, but that shouldn't be a huge issue.

Then, I am doing my annual child-swap right after Christmas...Munchkin is going away with her friend's family again (Let's recap...2006 - sailing in the Caribbean, 2007 - Aruba, 2008, St. Maarten, and now in 2009 - St. John. I really kinda hate her sometimes:-P). But I will survive because Tinkerbelle is coming to visit again:-). That should be all kinds of fun, and I am really excited about it...this is a couple years now where she has come at Christmas, and come for a while in the summer and I get back there to see her a couple times a year, too. Obviously, I would love to see her more, but we have been pretty good about seeing each other a pretty good amount.

So, that is about it for now...I haven't forgotten that I owe you ultrasound pictures, and will get those up soon. You know...like just in time to have my next one on December 1:-P.

Waiting, Family and Girl Power

Back to my story from Friday...

I showed up for my 8:30 doctor's appointment, and was surprised that they were ready for me right away. Generally, I find that all doctor's appointments require a mandatory 25 minute wait. So, good start.

Let's flash back to my last doctor's appointment for a second...I finished, did some kind of a blood test at the lab downstairs and went on my merry way. A couple days later, a nurse left me a message about scheduling some kind of a test or another that I still needed. So, I called back, and since they don't answer the phone and this whole process requires leaving messages back and forth (since they always call during class), I ended up in a messaging conversation where the nurse asked me what test I needed to schedule..."Um, I dunno...you called me." In the end, I figured that, if it was important, they would call me back. Which they never did.

So, the doctor was looking at my records and noticed that they never did the Down's syndrome screening, which we had told her we would probably do. And, it is now too late for the initial screening (has to be done by like Week 13, and I was 14 weeks 3 days on this visit). Ahh well, they still have a few days where they can do the ultrasound, so if I could schedule an ultrasound right away, they could do it Friday.

I didn't really want to miss a whole morning of class, but who can resist the chance to get more pictures of the babies:-)? So, the radiologist said they could fit me in that morning, so once we finished up with the doctor, we headed a block away to the radiologist. Where we waited for about an hour (I did catch up on US Weekly, and discovered that Taylor Swift has managed to find herself a younger boy...how is that even possible?)

And what did we find out when we finally saw the radiologist? Oh no...it is too late to do the Down's screening by ultrasound. That has to be done before Week 14, too. So, medically speaking, that was about two hours that were totally wasted (but I did get to see the little nuggets some more:-)...I will scan the pictures when I get home today). Not a huge deal, since they can do a different blood test later on, and it is really just an informational test anyway, but super frustrating.

And for real...does anyone in a doctor's office know how to use a computer? Every freaking visit, they take an entire medical history, enter it into "the computer" and then miraculously lose it. How hard is it to operate a patient database? And, to keep a schedule, while we are at it...

Anyway, enough ranting. Had a great visit with friends and family this weekend. As expected, my surprise was not much of a surprise at all:-). They all pretended to be shocked, but it was painfully obvious that they all already knew...it's hard to keep secrets in big families;-) I managed to take it pretty easy but still see everyone I wanted to. The Boy went out with BFFb and a couple other guys on Saturday night, so he didn't survive in nearly as good a shape as I did...hee hee...they were pretty banged up yesterday.

Mostly, I was happy that I managed to make the trip and not get sick. I was a little bit worried that the change in routine, excitement and activity would get to me...but it wasn't too bad. I didn't take any Zofran, and only took a couple of Tylenol for a headache that won't go away. All in all, not too bad. Hopefully the worst of the sickness is passed for now...fingers crossed.

And finally...a little girl power from Saturday:-) I love when the girls beat the boys!!!

Doctors, Chicken Fingers, TV and more

Spent the whole morning at the doctor's, and then the radiologists. My normal appointment turned into like a three hour extravanagnza, all because, as far as I can tell, the medical profession is incapable of using a computer or making a reasonable schedule. I will go into more of this on Monday, promise:-). Also, I have some new ultrasound pictures that I will post, too...and maybe even a wedding picture or two while I am at it:-)

But on to other things...

I stayed up for an entire slate of Thursday night TV last night, which is the first time in...um...a long time? Started with chicken fingers, and despite Lisa's suggestion, I did not withhold honey mustard because Munchkin got one A minus :-). One of the guys from my study group and his wife joined us, which was a nice treat. As you all know, I consider Thursday night chicken fingers to be a sacred ritual of the highest order, and an invitation to come with us is just about the highest honor that I can bestow on someone.

And I still find myself kinda guarded about my non-school life to people at school. The Boy has met a bunch of them by now, but I don't really talk to most of my classmates about non-school stuff. I can't really explain my rationale for that. There are a couple of girls that I would call good friends already, but the huge majority of my classmates know very little about me (I'd say that 10 people know I am pregnant). But the guys in my study group are awesome, and I spend a ton of time with them, so they seemed worthy of an invite and the right to meet the divine Ms. Munchkin. So it was nice to give him a little view into my world, and to get a chance to hang out with his wife a bit, too. Hopefully, the rest of them can join us sometime in the future:-)

OK...back to TV:-). I watched Community and then Parks and Recreation...eh. I love Joel McHale, but that show wasn't impressive. Bad episode maybe? Kinda the same on Parks and Recreation...love Amy Poehler, but the show is a little bit forced. I did laugh a little bit, though.

The Office is still awesome...it got kinda weird for a bit last year, but it is back to its hilarious roots. I think that Andy may be my favorite character on that show now...he just completely cracks me up. And just the whole idea of Pam and Michael scheduling a time for her to punch him in the face is brilliant.

And 30 Rock is still awesome, too. Just really, really well-written, clever and all over funny. And, I even caught a full first-run episode of Project Runway. Love the three finalists, they were clearly the best of this group from Day 1 through last night, so I was glad that they picked them. I think Irina will win, giant-teethed bitchiness and all...but Carol Hannah is my favorite. She makes the prettiest, most wearable stuff, and Althea makes consistently neat things, too...but Irina is the most visionary talent of the bunch, and I think she will be the winner.

We are off to Chicago for the weekend for the first time in a LONG time. Munchkin wants to see her niece and her brother, and I have a lot of family and friends to catch up with. Technically, I am going to announce to them all that I am pregnant, but I don't know how much of a secret it is. Tinkerbelle and her Mom know, which means that the rest of my father's family probably knows, too. And I have told one of my Mom's sisters, and I have a feeling she told the rest of them...so I expect a lot of pretend surprised looks;-)

I am going to try and take it easy and not wear myself out too much...but we will see how that goes. Definitely going out with the BFFs and their significant others (new girlfriend for BFFb, the same boyfriend that I found her for BFFg) Saturday, but likely not real late. Beyond that, just some general visiting.

So, until Monday...

Still perfect:-)

Munchkin brought home her first term report card, which read:

8th Grade English and Literature: A
8th Grade World History: A
9th Grade Biology: A-
9th Grade Algebra: A
Spanish II: A
French I: A

Also, all A's in her non-academic courses: music, art, drama and phys ed. Since she is in two 9th grade classes, her GPA is actually 4.23 out of 4.0, which is good for #1 in her class. And she is taking an extra course because she picked up the second language (hmm...wonder why:-)?).

All this on the day that she scored her first varsity goal in soccer, too.

And that, in a nutshell, is why I let her do whatever she wants;-)

You Asp Hole!

It turned out to be incredibly warm on Halloween...and I was just a little bit sad that I am past the days of getting dolled up and going out in a super-slutty Halloween costume. It reminded me of the year that I tried (unsuccessfully) to get Smoking Hot Roommate to go out with me in body paint. Ahh well...maybe if I lose all the pregnancy weight, we can slut it up next year...lol.

Munchkin did end up going out with the girls on Friday night...they really wanted her to come, so a couple of the girls promised to pick her up and then bring her home before the rest of them went out for the night. She was cool with that, and they had her home by 9:30, which was fine by me. Much of this was actually related to a sophomore boy with a crush (figures)...and typically, she is not all that interested. That actually explains why she was not totally bonkers about going all week long. She is a funny kid sometimes;-)

Busted out some sweet togas and went to the party as Anthony and Cleopatra...easily the most comfortable Halloween costume I could have come up with! And it was actually a pretty fun party...people definitely let loose a little bit away from school. It is very much the same kind of feel as people in an office being different away from work.

Let's see what else...um...kind of a nice weekend. Soccer on Saturday morning, and it was absolutely gorgeous. Warm, sunny, all kinds of spectacular color...I could have sat out there all day long. SHR stopped by at the end of her morning run to watch the second half, which gave us a chance for a nice visit:-)

Semi-annual drinks with the school Mom's tonight, which I am hoping to have enough energy to go to. I haven't officially told them all that I am pregnant, but I think they probably all know already...and if not, I get to tell them. At least two of them have twins of their own, which will be nice.

And...um...class is over, so that is all you get for today;-)