Ramble Ramble

Things have been rather morose around here lately, what with the lost cat, the sleep deprivation, the stress, etc. So I’m making today’s list a list of things that are making me happy.

1. I’m wearing my wedding rings again.I had to take them off pretty early in my pregnancy, and even though I lost all the “baby weight” I haven’t been able to wear them since. I think what happened was this: I gained about 30 pounds between getting married and having the kid. The rings still “fit” because I never took them off and so I had that ring indentation that ends up happening, but when I had to take them off during my pregnancy, I lost that indentation. Hence, losing the baby weight wasn’t going to do much of anything for my ability to wear the rings. SO–I finally broke down and had them resized. Do I want to lose that 30 pounds I put on post wedding/pre-baby? Of course. But I want to wear my wedding ring whether I do that or not. So now I’m happily sporting a 1/2 size larger.
2. I’ve read 5 books in the last week. Remember when I said I missed reading? Apparently, I’m back on the wagon! Granted, 8 hours of travelling helped my book count (I read two on the flight to New York), but still, it’s awesome.
3. Room service. Is spendy, but so awesome.
4. My iPhone, when it’s working. Such a total toy, but I love that thing. It was super handy while I was driving around to various shelters looking for Bailey (yay maps!), I love being able to carry my blog with me to start posts, I love that I can carry a million photos of the kid with me at any given time. Just all around yay! (iPhone users, got any apps you just can’t live without? I’m always a little overwhelmed with the app store, but love new apps.)
5. Our neighborhood. Our neighbors have been great since the cat went missing. We’ve gotten a few calls, not that they found him, but of condolences. We’ve had people stop us while we wandered the neighborhood calling for Bailey so they could get a description and our phone number in case they saw him. One little girl in the neighborhood even made me a card saying “I’m sorry your kitty left.” It’s been a sad reason to get to know our neighbors, but it makes me feel good that we live in a community like that.
6. A late addition to this post: Bailey has been spotted near the house! Oh my God, you guys, I had just about given up hope. Serious despair and wailing and rending of garments. It’s been raining the past few days in San Diego, and I thought for sure if he didn’t come home in the rain he was long gone. But N.C. got a call from one of our neighbors who had seen the cat, and now my husband has seen him with his own two eyes. He appears to be hiding out about 1/2 a block from the house (hanging out under a car to stay out of the rain). Now it’s just down to catching him before he spooks and runs further away. I’m still a little nervous since he’s not actually HOME, but at least I know he’s not dead via coyote, or drowned in the storm drain. I can’t even begin to tell you how happy this makes my heart. Happy, happy, happy!!

As always, more lists can be found over at Anna’s at abdpbt!

Well, we finally caved to the siren call of the iPhone. After lusting after the damn thing for a while, we finally gave in. Since we’re already AT&T customers the decision came down to: do we change carriers or stay with AT&T so we can get the iPhone? Spoiler alert: the phone won out.

Of course, due to poor planning on our part, getting the phones meant we had to deal with the Apple store, the Genius bar, and the specialists there. I’m not sure, but they might include advanced douchebaggery in the training for the specialists. The hour we spent at the Apple store is one I don’t wish to repeat anytime soon–I swear, they feel the need to treat customers like they’ve never even heard of a computer or phone, much less that they may know a little about Mac products.

Anyway, after the fun hour we spent there, we walked away with new toys…errr, I mean phones. I’m pretty stoked myself–I’ve already fallen in love with the thing. First, since N.C. works at home, it can be hard to find time for me to be on the computer, so it’s kind of cool to have internet access while he’s on the computer. Secondly, given the amount of time I’m attached to the kid, it’s a great to be able to check email, write blog posts, catch up on my reader, etc., while I’m nursing him. It’s a great thing at three in the morning in particular!

But I have to ask…is it sad that we’re both sitting here playing with our phones rather than interacting with each other?

It’s Monday morning, I’m at work, traffic was horrible on the way in, and the Southern California June gloom is in full effect outside. And yet, I am in a glorious, wonderful, singing from the hilltops mood. Why? 3 reasons:

1. Sleep
2. Sleep
3. Sleep

See, throughout the last, say 3-4 months of my pregnancy, the physical issue that has plagued me most has been lack of sleep. Not for lack of trying, oh no, and not due to insomnia or freaky dreams like many pregnant folks. For me, it’s been the lovely combination of a pregnant bladder and even worse, hip pain that wakes me in agony throughout the night.

You’re told that it’s best to sleep on your side after a certain point in your pregnancy–and the left side so much the better. And for a stomach and back sleeper like me, I’ve had problems with that even without the pain issue. Add in excruciating pain every night, and sleeping on my side has been a real challenge. I’ve tried every position, every pillow combination, every bath before bedtime, hip stretches remedy I’ve been told of to no avail. Invariably, hip pain wakes me up about every two hours, forcing me to shift to another position where I will be awakened a few short hours later with hip pain on that side. I would say that in the past 3 months I’ve probably had a good nights sleep…twice? Maybe three times? And while yes, it’s probably good training for having a newborn around waking me up every two hours or so in a few months, I’d kind of like to go into that world as rested as possible.

But this weekend, oh this weekend, I SLEPT people. I slept and I haven’t felt this rested in months!! Months I tell you. So what glorious magic allowed this miracle of miracles?

La-z-Boy

See over Memorial Day weekend, N.C. and I bought the one big splurge item I craved for the nursery…a beautiful squishy La-Z-Boy rocker/recliner. I’m not a fan of the gliders that are oh so popular for nurseries, and I figured if we were going to spend good money on a chair for the nursery we should at least get something that would have a life in our home after babyhood. And while fashionable La-Z-Boy’s are not, that chair has already proved to be a godsend. Until the baby comes, the chair is living its life in the living room, allowing me to elevate my swollen feet, relax in a comfortable position, and, as we found this weekend, sleep with no hip pain.

This weekend I napped in the chair during the day. Then at night, while my husband played video games into the wee hours, I SLEPT in the chair. With no pain. With no discomfort. With no flipping and flopping and tossing and turning. With my feet elevated and my hips in alignment, and oh god it’s so wonderful I could almost cry with the joy of it.

And then, last night as I prepared for bed, I gave up on trying to sleep on my side, since that obviously hasn’t been working for me, with the whole not sleeping thing. Instead, I set my pillows up so that I was propped up in an almost completely upright sitting position (as close as I could approximate the chair position), and hoped for the best.

Folks, I didn’t wake up until my alarm went off this morning. For the first time in months, I slept so soundly that even my pregnant bladder didn’t wake me! I can’t begin to tell you how amazing that feels, a full night of uninterrupted sleep. I literally almost feel like crying about it I’m so happy. I don’t hold out hope that this will continue every night through the end of my pregnancy, but honestly, if I can get even one or two restful nights of sleep a week, I will be thrilled beyond measure.

Who knew that one weekend filled with sleep could make a person so happy?

P.S. This post doesn’t really count as a list for Monday, but Anna’s got a great list that cracked me up so you should still go check it out:

We’re at that time of year that always makes me a little sad. A time when I revel in the good memories, and wait anxiously for a time when new memories can be made.

That’s right, it’s season finale time on TV.

Ok, yeah, so maybe I watch too much tv. But seriously, the months of June-early September are dismal in TV land. DISMAL I say. Though there are a few exceptions (hello, Burn Notice!), the summer months are mostly a wasteland for television.

N.C. and I tend to use the summer months as a good time to catch up on series or shows we may have skipped before (the joys of Netflix!), which is all well and good, but I miss the characters I spend so much time with over the year. I’ve always gotten attached to characters (the end of a good book has long saddened me–I hate not getting to know more about the characters I’ve been reading about), and my current TV landscape is no different.

Look, I know I watch too much TV. I know that it’s ridiculous that I’m writing a blog post mourning the season finales of fictional people in a little box. I should read more, exercise more, go out and play more, etc. I know this. But honestly, I like my tv. I like good storytelling. I like relaxing after work with everything from mindless drivel to insanely mind-bending philosophical writing (um, Lost anyone?) that is presented to me in one hour increments.

And let’s be honest–I’m probably going to have to forgo some of my tv obsession this coming fall (or at least postpone it until such a time when I’m not sleep deprived). So join me in mourning the end of the TV season, as I say farewell to my favorites and hope beyond hope that I get to see them again come fall. Or whenever (damn you Lost and your “we’re not coming back until 2010″).

And let’s hope the upcoming episodes of Burn Notice are enough to tide me over.

Thank you so much to everyone who has sent congratulations and well wishes about my little announcement the other day! I was originally planning on thanking you all personally (via email), but until this mythical energy burst that’s supposed to occur in the 2nd trimester, I’m finding it hard to commit to much more than I’m already doing. But, honestly, your well wishes and congratulations give me a giant smile and mean a ton!

So what have I been doing? Well, there’s the requisite tax preparation (blech), which I hope to wrap up this week. Taxes with a freelancer in the family? Not so much fun for the unorganized like us.

But beyond that, the main thing we’ve been doing has been–getting ready to move! That’s right we finally found, and secured, a new place. One that makes me very happy just thinking about. One that I can’t wait to move into (3 weeks!) because I’m so thrilled!

So today’s list will be a list of some of the best things about our new place:

1. Obviously, one of the reasons we’re looking to move is because we want more space for the new addition coming our way. We currently live in a 2 bedroom apartment, and with N.C. being a freelancer, we really can’t stand to lose the office that currently takes up that second bedroom. The new place? 3 bedrooms and an extra 500 square feet.
2. The new place has a kitchen where we will both be able to work and move around without bumping into each other every other second. N.C. and I generally work together in the kitchen, so there’s lots of “watch out” and “behind you” and “aaaahhhhhh, careful!”’s going on. Now, we’ll be able to share without worrying about turning around into a burning pan quite so often.
3. The new place has both a deck and a patio, for ample outdoor area. We’ll be able to move the grill back outside and actually (gasp!) use it!
4. The new place is a townhome. Which means we’re not sharing a floor, a ceiling, and will only be sharing one wall with neighbors. It also means that most of the community is populated by folks who own their townhomes, which can help with things like community and respect for others.
5. The one key downside to the new place is that N.C. will be giving up his studio space in the gallery. We’ll be sad to let that go, but the townhouse has a 3rd bedroom that will be used as an office and drawing studio, along with a one car garage that will be used for a painting studio. It’s not exactly an even exchange, but at least we found a place that will give N.C. enough room to continue his work.
6. So our new place? 10 minutes to the beach. That’s right. Somehow we found a beautiful, homey place to RENT within our budget that is within minutes to the beach. Clearly, we have lucked out.

Obviously, I’m over the moon about this new place. I realize fully that it will have its own issues, quirks, and problems. But the move out of an apartment and into something a little more homey has me so excited that I think I’ll be able to deal with those things as they come up. Maybe with some lemonade out on the patio. Or after a quick jaunt down to the beach for a walk. Or even, even just in the new living room with sunlight pouring in the windows with a kitty in my lap while I watch tv. That sounds good too.

As always, if you want more listy goodness, go check out Anna’s place: