Vive la Mexico?

I watched Marie Antoinette while in Mexico. That's it as far as the subject line goes.

Almost two weeks after our return, I thought I might finally put down a few words about our trip to Mexico. It was fantastic. As I've told my coworkers, I was honestly afraid I would get bored. My vacations tend to be more of the adventurous, get up early to beat the crowds, change hostels and cities (never hotels - too expensive) every day or two, sightsee till we drop kinds of affairs, and this was more of a relaxed beach vacation. As it turns out, John is more amusing than I remembered, and I honestly wasn't bored at all except for the day he spent 2 hours working on the stake directory and an hour finishing up something from work.

We stayed in a resort right on the beach, which was nice, and spent a lot of time shuffling between the beach, the pool, and our air conditioned room. In addition to Marie Antoinette, we watched Stranger than Fiction (which John liked despite protesting before the fact that it didn't sound interesting, that he definitely would NOT like it, and that he didn't want to watch it) and John got his fill of CNN and the other 24 hour news channels, since we don't pay for cable at home. I think that may have been his favorite part of the vacation, in fact.

It was an all inclusive, so we spent quite a bit of time eating, too, of course. The Italian restaurant was probably our favorite. We heard from some of the other guests who had booked all inclusives at other resorts before that the food better than in most packages of this sort. We purposely booked a hotel a little removed from the main Cancun action, and as a result, most of the other people at the resort were either couples (lots of honeymooners; we were old timers) or families. No spring break vibe at all, which was nice.

Because I can't go on vacation anywhere without seeing at least some ruins, we went to Chichen Itza one of the days we were there. It was neat to see the main building and learn a little more about Mayan culture. I had seen pictures before, of course, but understood virtually nothing about why the building was constructed the way it was or what it represented. Basically, it's a huge calendar with every step on every side representing a day. It gets more complicated than that, but going on might be a little much for a blog entry. If you're interested, I'm sure google and wikipedia have lots of fascinating information to offer.

As it turned out, that day was probably the low point of our vacation. John had worked until 5 a.m. the morning we left finishing a memo and some other materials for a deal at work (well, almost finishing; he also worked on the plane and for an hour or so once we got to the resort). As it turned out, they decided he should be on a conference call for an approval meeting being held while we were gone. 10 minutes after I booked our nonrefundable trip to Chichen Itza, we found out that his meeting was planned for an hour while we were scheduled to be in transit, on the road back from the ruins. At first, John was sure he would have cell coverage, but as we realized on the way there, that was not to be. So, we paid $80 to take a cab back to the hotel, where we found it was $5 a minute to call from a land line. He then called in from his cell phone only to find that the room was sort of an urban canyon with only one spot having a reliable signal. This spot was about 12 inches further from the outlet than the length of his charger cord, so when his battery ran dead, a not-so-fun game of call, get dropped, call back ensued. He got a little grumpy.

Thankfully, we recovered nicely and went on to have a fantastic finish to the vacation. The next day, we rode bikes to the ruins at Tulum, which were only 2 or 3 miles from the hotel. The day after that, we went snorkeling. Because ocean conditions were too rough, most of the ocean snorkeling had been cancelled. However, we did go snorkeling in a cenote (basically a cave where the roof of the cave has collapsed leaving a pool of fresh water), in a lagoon (although we couldn't swim out to sea), and in a cave. The fresh water snorkeling in the cenote and in the cave was what the guides like to call "refreshing" and what I call "cold," but it was worth it. The cave was the shortest but probably the most different from other snorkeling I've done. It was really amazing to see all the stalactites and stalagmites (pretty sure I just butchered the spelling there) along with all the water. And a few catfish. The next coolest part was the stingray we saw in the lagoon. John actually saw two, the second of which was apparently enormous, but I only saw the first one.

Since we got back, we've been busy as usual with work (John) and work plus everything else (such as cleaning, laundry, coordinating with contractors to get some stuff done on the apartment, etc - me). I hope I'm nearing the end of the contractor negotiation phase and moving into the actually getting the work done phase as I can't seem to rest easy until the room for the baby is ready. Seriously, can you start nesting at 4.5 months? This has been going on for quite a few weeks now, and I think I might drive both of us crazy before the baby comes . . .

Ahhhh!!!!

I think there's some kind of rule that every big deadline must always occur the day before you leave on a long-awaited vacation. After a slow six weeks or so, this week has been super busy. I had several memos due on one case plus part of a brief on another, and then at the last minute, a small production thrown in. Fun! To top it all off, I was unable to work from home in my usual lazy fashion since our internet went out Friday night, returned for a tantilizing few hours Sunday night, and then was out again the rest of the week until tonight. Of course, the cable guy is coming to "fix" it tomorrow. Sigh. They insisted when I called Monday night (after waiting on hold for 40 minutes, of course), that they couldn't do anything without sending a technician. Of course, the only time available was 12-4 on Friday afternoon. Forget the fact that some people have JOBS, you know, where you WORK, to get MONEY to pay things like CABLE BILLS FOR INTERNET THAT DOESN'T WORK!!!!

I was a little angry. Okay, a lot angry. I actually started sobbing tears of frustration the second I hung up the phone. I'd blame it on pregnancy hormones, but unfortunately, dealing with "customer service" people frequently puts me in a tizzy even when I don't have that excuse. Don't even get me started on the Dell people who, 4 months after Vista came out, still have failed to provide us with the appropriate upgrade. Sigh, again.

It's all okay, though, because the contractor says he's faxing the bid over for the wall and other work, we picked out fabric and ordered the glider, I finally made a preliminary choice on color for the carpet (check it out here, probably in sage grey), and in two days we'll be watching a movie on the beach (apparently, the resort sets a big screen up at night. Kinda cool, no?).

No work, no sleeping alone while John slaves away into the wee hours, and no cable guys. Oh, and I got $110 + tax worth of baby clothes at Macy's for $16.95 over the long weekend; so, you know, now at least she won't have to go totally naked. (Sound too good to be true? Virtually everything was on sale, but I also had a $10 coupon from the mail, a $10 credit from a coupon used earlier, and a $25 gift card they gave me as a partial rebate on something I bought in December.)

Ohio

After 10 days since my last blog, I am sure I have now lost any readers I may have once had. Oh well. Anyway, last weekend was superfun! (Every once in awhile I just can't tame that "Legally Blonde" streak). My dad actually ended up in New York for meetings Friday, in fact, in John's building for meetings, so I caught a car to the airport with him and two of his colleagues. This was particularly fantastic because I am definitely too cheap to pay for my own cab or car to the airport and would have otherwise been dragging my suitcase on the bus at rush hour. They even let me sit in the front. I felt a little bad about the 25-year-old guy crammed in the middle of the backseat, but let's be honest, not all that bad. To top off my good fortune, our flight only left about an hour late, a real accomplishment as anyone who's flown in and out of LaGuardia with any frequency can confirm, and by the time we got in, we were only 1/2 hour late. I count these things as victories.

Saturday, we got going pretty much when the stores opened. We ended up going to three main furniture shops plus a bunch of other little places (including Talbots, where they happily gave me a refund for a gorgeous silk shirt that started to rip after I wore it only twice). At first, I thought we would be limited to only really small changing tables, but after spending a couple hours making to scale drawings of the room, I figured out that we could fit the one I really wanted in there along with the crib as well as a twin bed or second toddler bed for somewhere down the line. So, Mom ordered the changing table with hutch and crib yesterday. (Crib below as well as piece of furniture on the left, but we're getting it in cherry with a really dark stain instead of white). Even though the furniture won't arrive until a week after Baby does, it feels like I'm actually getting somewhere with creating a space for her.



After being on the phone while Mom ordered the furtniture, I was too excited to wait and decided to go ahead and get bedding too. I figure if John hates it, I have the receipt, so in theory I could just return it. On the other hand, if I don't bring it up, I wonder if he'll even ever take the time to think about whether he likes it or not. The furniture won't be here until after Baby is born, so he'll definitely have other things on his mind. Hmm . . .



We are also going to order the glider below, but again, in cherry with a dark stain. The girls and I sat in many gliders this weekend, and this one got everyone's vote for most comfortable. I'm still trying to decide on upholstry, if anyone wants to give an opinion. www.peigerfabrics.com. I'm thinking either a dark green, a light green, or a pale yellow, something we won't have to recover if the next baby is a boy, that won't perfectly match the bedding but will look good enough. I'm also trying to convince John to do Flor tiles instead of buying a rug. I can't decide what color I think would be best there, either, although again, I want something that would work in a split boy/girl room just in case for the future. www.flor.com. Maybe I can persuade one of my friends with a better sense of these things to offer some advice . . .



Of course, my fun weekend in Ohio was about way more than just shopping. Laurel, if you're reading this, the flamingo picture is for you. We missed you! (All the siblings were home this weekend except Laurel, which was sort of a strange fluke since in theory only 3 of 7 still live at home). And as for why a flamingo picture would be particularly appropriate, well, that's a story for another time.



When we got home from shopping Saturday, Lucien had returned from his father-son campout (which he attended with someone other than Dad, since Dad was flying back from NYC that night). He apparently promptly fell asleep at the top of the stairs from the garage, where he happily stayed for several hours. I think his plan was to camp out there, so to speak, all night. When Dad woke him up, he asked if it was morning yet. Sorry bud, but a shower can't wait quite that long. He was filthy!



Seeing as how I was in town, I thought it was only fitting that I be taken to dinner. Dad happily obliged and took us to this really good Italian place. Don't we look cute? And hungry? All that shopping really took it out of me.



Must be Baby. She's definitely growing in there, as the 20-week+ picture below shows. On Sunday, Lucien actually felt her kick from the outside. On one hand I think it kind of weirded him out, but on the other hand, he seemed to feel pretty important, since even John hadn't felt her kick yet.

Wherefore art thou, Romeo?

The answer, at least through yesterday, was Lincoln Center. For the first time since I was an intern in the summer of 2001, I finally made it to the New York City ballet on Saturday. John has been somewhat unenthused about the idea of attending the ballet, and since I'm generally pretty lazy, I let his lack of excitement prevent us from going. A couple of weeks ago, I was looking on the website and saw that tickets in the fourth ring (highest up section) this season are only $15 each - and that Romeo and Juliet would be playing for the next couple weeks. We've been trying to get in better dating habits lately, as we prepare for the baby, so I seized the chance and bought the tickets.

Since I'm not at all knowledgeable about ballet, I can't really provide any particularly insightful comments about the performance. In my lay opinion, the dancing was lovely (the person behind me thought so as well - and was not at all hesitant about loudly expressing her thoughts on the matter during and after the performance). Juliet looked as if she were about 9 years old - even compared to the other ballerinas onstage. John's main reaction to the afternoon was to be disturbed by how small her arms were (course, from the level we were at, everything looked pretty small; we did have some binoculars, though, so we got a few up-close looks, too).

After two years of alternately ignoring and mocking my comments about Eve being called "the mother of all living" before she even "knew" Adam much less bore children, John decided that we really are parents this year and therefore, we should celebrate Mother's Day. Great for me. I got french toast for breakfast and pork tenderloin with mashed potatoes, asparagus, and Edy's slow-churned light version of cake batter ice cream (which I highly recommend; it's yellow, one of the limited time American Idol flavors) for dinner. And now, we forge ahead into another week of document review for me, late nights for John, and counting down the hours until next weekend (when I get to go baby furniture shopping in Ohio!).

It's a . . .

Girl! The ultrasound tech blurted it out right away and seemed very sure. I saw what seemed like the magic "three lines," so I believe the tech.

And I seriously need to stop referring to the baby as it.

Baby is also stubborn and little lazy, if the ultrasound experience is any indication. She was napping and absolutely refused to wake up. The tech had the worst time taking pictures of her, between the fact that we couldn't get baby to move around very much and the fact that her head is wedged down about as low as it can go. We put the bed on a downward angle, I drank juice, no dice. I then ate a king size candy bar, did a few handstands (really, in a discrete corner), and tried to relax for awhile. Still no luck. The ultrasound tech's supervisor eventually had to come in to get pics of the head, face, and hands. As far as they could tell, though, no Down's markers (which is good news after the 1/296 "increased risk" 12-week test results, even though we got normal results on the 16-week blood test). Final results will be sent to our doctor sometime tomorrow, but we feel pretty good about things.

So, here are a couple of pics, or pics of pics, since I'm too lazy to scan them in.

Ball game, stroller, and countdown till tomorrow

Last Saturday, John and I were first-hand witnesses to the end of the Yankees then seven or eight-game losing streak (I forget; of course, they went on to lose to Boston Sunday, but they've won 4 or 5 of 6 games since then).





As is our custom, we got there sometime in the fifth or sixth inning. We were sitting WAY out in right field. Being four months pregnant, I absolutely insisted on seats with backs. No bleachers. We could still see pretty well, though. Also, a ton of people were throwing around these little plastic soldiers with parachutes. John was desperate to catch one, sure he could launch it further than anyone else. Every time he caught one of the little parachuters, he meticulously untangled the threads, repacked the parachute, and threw with all his might. No luck. I think most of them landed in the lap of the person in front of us or the person two people down. Stupid wind!


At one point, John left to get me a hot dog. When he came back, he said there were a ton of free seats down behind home base, so we walked down approximately a million flights of stairs and had some of the best seats in the house for the last 1/2-inning (giving me an excellent opportunity to admire Mariano Rivera, on whom Laurel and I developed a crush during the 2003 world series; he's only cute with the ball cap on, though, so John has nothing to worry about).

On another note, for all those of you worried that we will be irresponsible parents after seeing our one and only baby gift so far, I'm happy to report that we actually have something useful now! I bought the stroller (which we probably won't use for at least 8 more months, but whatever; it makes me happy), and we set it up Wednesday night. John suggested we take turns pushing each other around, maybe break it in with a couple stroller races. Seeing as how we each weigh more than the recommended 40 pounds, I'm thinking that might not be a good idea. After all, it's not REALLY a toy . . .

Also, I just thought this was hilarious.

So, now we wait. Big ultrasound at 2:30 tomorrow!

Protest at a book signing

Yesterday, I walked home by way of Barnes and Noble, as I often do, mainly because walking into that place is enough to noticeably raise my mood. All the books! It makes me so happy. When I was there yesterday, however, a few people were vocally much less happy than I was.

They had an book signing, and I believe I came in somewhere around the beginning. The cafe was pretty packed, standing room only, and the author was reading a passage from the book. I wasn't really paying attention, just went straight to my little corner with the latest copy of People magazine (100 most beautiful people; personally I think Angelina looks a little worn, she's gotten so thin, but that's another topic).

A few minutes later, I heard yelling, chanting, etc. A group had come to protest the book signing! I didn't go over once all the commotion started, but from my vantage point in the back corner, I could hear a lot of the noise. One of the protesters went around the entire store trying to pass out flyers (I declined). They ended up pausing the program for 10 or 15 minutes while the police came to escort these people out. Of a book signing! I think the topic of the book was the Armenian Genocide (google Turkey, Armenian Genocide, and look for stuff around the same time as WWII - approx. 1915-1917, or check out this link), but I did not check to see what the book was or who the author was. I think she was on the side of recognizing it, which means the protesters were probably Turkish (the Turkish government maintains that no state-organized genocide occurred). The only thing I remember is that her voice sounded like Susan Sarandon. Seriously, she has a future in voiceovers if the whole author thing doesn't work out.

Afterwards, someone in the audience must have asked her whether she had this problem often. She said, no, that she had been on a national tour promoting her book in stores and on radio programs and had never faced this problem before. When I left, three or four protesters were still outside arguing with the police. Like so many other things . . . Only in New York.