Saturday, January 12, 2008

Catching Up

Goodness. Looks like I left the Christmas tree up a little late this year. How embarrassing.

I hope you all had a great holiday, however you chose to celebrate -- or not celebrate -- it, and that your new year has proved satisfactory, at the very least, so far. Mine was pretty good, and the new year seems A-OK so far. I don't have any resolutions or anything, other than, you know, popping out another baby and trying not to go batshit crazy. Those seem attainable, I think.

Since I feel like some catch-up is in order, a few life events of note:
  • Our cat Lulu had to be put down a couple of days after Christmas. She was sixteen years old, blind, mostly deaf, incontinent, and suffered from high blood pressure and lymphoma. She started to fail noticeably before Christmas and things went downhill quickly one day. We were sad, and yeah, the timing sure sucked, but we were glad that at least we were all at home for the holidays so that we could monitor her closely and then say goodbye properly. She was the sweetest cat you could imagine, and she was sweet all the way up to the end. I was worried that she'd be afraid, but she went peacefully. Rusty gave her a proper Dickensian burial in the backyard in the cold, sleeting, dark-grey late afternoon.

  • On a more upbeat note, gestation continues apace. We're counting down the final ten weeks, which is kind of shocking, all the more so because we haven't done anything to get ready. We figure we'll pick up some diapers in early March.

  • Oh, but get this: my doctor, whom I've been seeing for ten years and I really like, forgot to tell me that she's no longer doing deliveries. I just found this out two weeks ago. Argh, right? Fortunately, I've always been interested in the idea of midwifery, and even more fortunately, my good friend Anne-Marie happens to work for an excellent midwifery clinic and got me in the door quickly, and now I'm all set to go. Nonplussed? Moi? Bah! My midwife also permanently endeared herself to me, via my sense of medical vanity, by looking at my records and exclaiming about my unbelievably awesome hemaglobin. Everyone has to be good at something, right? In my case it would seem to be absorbing iron. You can't tell it to look at me, but I'm socking away minerals like a mofo over here.

  • I've been freelancing since September, when I landed a big contract for a website for the Discovery Channel, which launched a month ago. I'm the solo site editor, which has been awesome and challenging and again awesome (because dude, it's the DISCOVERY CHANNEL, yo). It's probably the perfect project for me to cut my freelance teeth on, and the timing couldn't have been better, as it wraps up about three weeks before my due date. (If you're wondering, yes, I do occasionally find it uncomfortable to sit with this horseshoe up my ass.)

  • Despite the fact that both Rusty and I have been gunned, work-wise, we've been doing a LOT of work around the house for the past month... cleaning, purging, organizing, painting, and getting really familiar with the floorplan of the nearest IKEA. One of the highlights of all our work is that we finally -- FINALLY! -- got new bookshelves in the kitchen, replacing our crappy old utility shelves with a much nicer set of Billy shelves (with the height extender, which I highly recommend for that authentic library look). To jog your memory, here are the old shelves. And here are the new ones:
  • Despite all this other stuff, I don't know how but I've actually managed to read a lot of books. I'll get around to recapping my remaining books from 2007 one of these days. Who knows, I may even throw in a top ten list or something like that. And then, man, I've got to nail the ones I've read so far in 2008, or else they're going to totally get on top of me.
Am I the only person who's ever looked forward to her maternity leave so that she'll finally get a chance to friggin' relax?

14 comments:

Melissa said...

Sorry about your kitty, wow about your shelves, cool about your job, and EEEEE!!! about being 10 weeks away from a new baby. You have just a couple of things on your plate, yes? I'd be looking forward to relaxing too.

Bybee said...

Sympathy about your cat. The funeral and the weather seemed appropriately solemn.

I'm salivating over that gorgeous picture of your shelves.

BabelBabe said...

wahahahaaaa! I am looking forward to my hospital stay upon delivery for a vacation. we're SICK. altho this doctor-absconding thing seems to be going round - two of my group physicians ditched at the end of december.

I am sorry about your cat but it sounds like her final days were peaceful and loving, which is important.

and i too have bookcase envy.

tuckova said...

Every single one of those bullets was just so full of goodness. Even the cat, while very sad-- she wasn't afraid, you got to spend time with her, etc. And the midwife sounds fantastic (though I wouldn't brag too much about my magically delicious blood, because you never know when Vlad is listening). But the Discovery Channel work is the bullet I envy the most. WOW.

Anonymous said...

I'm thinking we're going to have to weird those up a little.

Rusty

P.S. And no, they're not plenty weird.

landismom said...

Welcome back!

Sorry to hear about your cat, it's hard to go through losing a long-time pet like that.

How is the boy doing?

Anonymous said...

No link to Discovery Channel site? WTF, you need pimping lessons!

EM said...

I loooooved my second maternity leave for the same reason: relaxation! Of course, it helped that we kept the first in daycare (oh, wait, was I not supposed to admit that?)

All best for a smooth and healthy delivery!

Anonymous said...

Are there less books on those new bookshelves or am I imagining things? Did you do another unbookening?
Sorry to hear about your kitty. I just went through the exact same thing with my 16-year old cat. I still miss her presence in the apartment.
Congrats about the job.

jagosaurus said...

I am so very sorry about Lulu but stoked about the rest. Is there anything better than new shelves? Oh yes. I forgot. A new baby!

Good luck with everything.

Toni Lea Andrews said...

Discovery Channel?!! Wow! I am seriously impressed.

Anonymous said...

Glad I could help and that you're storing some kick ass iron! And your show ROCKS, by the way!

Anne-Marie

STT said...

Glad you're back, I've missed you

Steph said...

Sorry to hear about your cat.
The new shelves are terrific and now I know what MY kitchen is missing!

relaxing on maternity leave - hahahahahaha!