Month: August 2012

Super late post & photobooth pics again- Taylor just got back from SF this evening and the last thing he wanted to do was break out his camera.

Today I am 30 weeks pregnant, which just seems UNBELIEVABLE to me. How did this pregnancy go so quickly???? (Watch: not the last ten weeks are gonna drrrraaaaaaaaaaggggggggggggg). I had hoped by this point to be much further along on my nesting-slash-nursery preparations, but unfortunately there’s a mold situation going on it what’s going to be the baby’s room, so I have to wait for the property management to crack open the offending wall to see what’s inside, fix whatever mess they find and then replace the wall, baseboard and the carpet before I can even start! Originally I’d planned to paint the room in early August and W O W am I glad I never got around to it yet!

In happier, less gross-smelling news, today was my LAST DAY OF WORK. I know, I’m super excited too! I was actually hoping it would be a calm, relaxing day, especially since I only had one daycare kid and she was picked up early, but that’s not how it went. I don’t want to ruin anyone’s life with too much detail, so I’ll just say that the entire day was just a disaster of things that come out of human and animal orifices and I basically wished I was dead from 7:20am onward. But it’s all over now, I don’t have to go back to work for a year and I can just focus on baby stuff (and etsy stuff, SO MANY ETSY STUFF omg) for the next two-ish months.

As mentioned in my last post, here are our tintype portraits from Photobooth. These are digital copies they emailed to us; Taylor still has the actual tintypes with him.

These pictures are so amazingly cool & everyone at Photobooth is a delight, so if you ever find yourself in SF I HIGHLY recommend you check them out at 1193 Valencia Street!

… because my husband is still there and I miss him. This week is SO WEIRD with Taylor and Sym away, but thankfully they’re both getting home tomorrow and everything will be back to normal.

Anyway. San Francisco…

Friday
Our trip got off to a crummy start (for me, at least) when I inexplicably got a huge blister on my heel from my old, broken-in Uggs while walking to the train to the airport. Yes that’s right; I hurt myself BEFORE I even got to the airport! Luckily I had some sandals in my suitcase I was able to change into once we arrived at SFO.

After checking into our hotel (a Hilton which I did not like AT ALL) I dragged Taylor our shopping with me. I’ve complained on here before about how the Gap & Old Navy don’t carry maternity clothes in Canada (although as it turns out there ARE two Old Navies with maternity in the Lower Mainland, just wayyyyy out in the suburbs where I never go) so I wasn’t about to let the opportunity to find some clothes that actually fit me go to waste. I basically DECIMATED both maternity sale sections, as well as getting a few regular-priced items. I also got a non-maternity dress & sweater at Old Navy, since they actually fit me better than the maternity stuff?

After shopping and having weird experiences in a few different Walgreens while trying to buy bodywash (they keep it locked up!) we were unbelievably hungry. I had no interest in searching for a place to eat so I decided on the first place I saw: Super Duper Burger on Market Street. I WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED. The burgers were DELICIOUS and they make their lemonade with brown sugar, which tastes AMAZING. I definitely want to try and recreate it at home!

please note my airport mini-spa manicure; if your airport doesn’t have a mini-spa where you can get massages & your nails done I DON’T WANT TO GO TO THERE

After dinner we lazed around the hotel and I videochatted Sym goodnight. Before I left she asked me to make a video of me doing the “bedtime stuff” (our elaborate pre-bed ritual) but I didn’t have time, so I’m glad I was able to see her to wish her goodnight.

Saturday
Saturday was Taylor’s birthday! We had plans to meet a bunch of my internet ladies for brunch at Morning Due Cafe, something I was worried would be awkward but it wasn’t at all. After eating we walked up to the top of Dolores Park (which was fun in my pregnant state…) and hung out for a while before walking back down the hill to Bi-Rite Creamery for ice cream. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t amazing (cloudy, kept spitting like, five drops of rain on us) but it was still a good time.

After ice Cream Taylor and I walked down to Valencia Street to go do the one activity he wanted to do while we were there: visit Photobooth. It’s a retail store/photography studio where they do tintype portraits. I was not at all into going, but I figured I had to indulge him since it was his birthday, and you know what? IT WAS SO COOL OMG. I think we spent the bulk of our afternoon there- we each got a portrait done and then acted as stand-ins for a picture of the two owners, so we got to have that picture too! We also got to go into the darkroom and see how the whole development process works, which was super fascinating. Taylor loves photography and talking about lenses and processes and shit, and the photographer Michael chatted with him for a billion years about it all so he was basically in heaven! BASICALLY if you are ever in SF you HAVE to go there and get your picture taken! Unfortunately Taylor still has our portraits and they haven’t sent him the digital copies yet (as far as I know) so you’ll have to wait to see them but rest assured they are AWESOME.

After all the walking around we’d done I was super tired, but I still had to take Taylor out for his birthday dinner. We went to Absinthe, which was really good but REALLY LOUD OH MY GOD. I think I would have enjoyed myself more if I hadn’t been so exhausted, but I was still happy to share a birthday meal with my handsome husband. I did pass out approximately one second after we got back to the hotel though.

Sunday
Sunday was the day we decided to stop taking cabs everywhere and brave the public transit system to make our way out to Haight-Ashbury. In spite of Taylor trying his hardest to get us lost we successfully bought two Muni round-trip tickets and took our one train, although on the way back we didn’t scan them or whatever so like…. sorry for scamming you, San Francisco (although we didn’t use them again so technically it wasn’t scamming).

After wandering the streets & window shopping & getting shot with a nerf dart by some idiots in a second floor apartment while I was crossing the street (…) we had a snack at a random little cafe, and then found ourselves at Golden Gate Park. This is going to sound idiotic, but I was ITCHING for some nature and wide open spaces (I might live in downtown Vancouver, but please remember I grew up in the country) so spending an hour or so wandering the park was exactly what I needed to recharge (as well as exhaust myself, I hope you are sensing the theme of my trip).

After getting back to the hotel, Taylor went to Moscone Center to register for the convention and I stayed behind and read in bed. I actually felt really terrible that night- I think the combination of being tired all the time + being in the sun all day (it was SUPER SUNNY on Sunday) + eating too much salt did a number on me. Taylor got room service for dinner and I had like, ONE BITE of his apple crisp and that’s it. I did manage to drag myself out of bed for long enough to pack though, since I was leaving the following morning. Packing was quite a production- I had overpacked in the first place, plus I bought a ton of clothes, plus the souvenirs I bought for myself and Sym were both pillows- but somehow I managed to cram 33 pounds worth of stuff into my little carryon-sized suitcase.

Monday
Monday was weirdly sad… I was happy to be going home to see Sym and the pets, but I didn’t like leaving Taylor there by himself! Monday was also annoying because SORRY I’M NOT SORRY TO BE SAYING THIS but SFO is a disaster of an airport. Maybe YVR has spoiled me but like… why do you have to line up to use the self check-in kiosks that are located at the check-in counter with a customer service agent right there anyway? Why is there no sign telling you where security is? WHY WAS MY INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT LEAVING FORM THE DOMESTIC TERMINAL SO I HAD TO WALK ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE WHOLE FRIGGING AIRPORT???? Seeing as how I couldn’t fit my blister-causing Uggs in my suitcase and had to wear them it was really a case of adding injury to insult.

The other thing about SFO is I have literally never seen so many people just straight up miss their flights. Like sure, there were a lot of gate-changes going on, my own flight changed from gate 87 to gate 90. But here’s the thing: they ANNOUNCE the changes, and they have info screens at EVERY GATE that tell you which flight is at the gate AND which flight is going to be at that gate next. I saw one guy miss his flight to Denver because he was sitting at gate 88 instead of gate 89, like I think you can guess how far apart those gates are. I mean REALLY. I’ve also never seen so many gate agents lose their temper and straight up YELL at people! It was crazy. Lucky for me my flight was almost an hour late so I had plenty of time to sit and watch all the nonsense unfold.

After all that it was nice to get back to Vancouver, where airports make sense (they have automated customs kiosks now, you don’t even have to talk to anyone, just scan your passport & insert your declaration card and you’re free!) and I keep all my kids and dogs, although I do really wish my husband was here as well.

idk why I look so crabby in that picture, because I actually had an AMAZING time in SF! I got to spend lots of quality time with Taylor, met some wonderful ladies from the internet, and tried several exciting new lemonades (what is with me and lemonade???). One thing though; walking around for hours and hours being a tourist is actually pretty exhausting when you are seven months pregnant (WHO KNEW??) and I’m still not fully recovered. I was NOT happy when my alarm went off for work today!

I’ll have a real post about my trip later this week. I think I’ll have plenty of time to blog, since Sym is leaving this morning to spend three days with her grandparents and Taylor is at VMWorld until Thursday, so it’ll just be me and the dogs here this week.

All I have for this week is a wet hair, no makeup photobooth picture. I spent literally the whole day finishing up etsy orders and tidying things before my trip tomorrow, although I still haven’t packed (OOPS). I did finally get around to taking care of my terrible roots.

Hopefully Taylor will take some decent pictures of me in SF that I’ll be able to share with you next week when he gets back from VMWorld!

In baby news, this baby is KICKING UP A STORM this week. Today it feels like someone gave her a tiny shiv and she’s stabbing me from within, or maybe she just has her dad’s toenails (gross, tmi, etc etc). I just hope she likes air travel.

I’m leaving for vacation on Friday morning!!! I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned it here, but Taylor’s work is sending him to the super-fun VMWorld Conference in San Francisco next week, and were kind enough to let him fly down a couple days early so I could tag along for the weekend. I’ve never been there before and it’s the last time I’ll be able to travel before the baby arrives, so I’m pretty excited. It’s also a pretty cost-effective way to travel, since his flight was covered by his company.

Of course, I have a TON of stuff I need to get done first. Even though I’ve been planning this trip for six or seven weeks now, it kind of crept up on me; the summer just went so quickly! Here’s what I need to do in the next three days:

1. Finish my outstanding etsy orders. I feel SO BAD, a couple of these have been taking me FOR. EVER. to do, but I’m just about done the most complicated orders so I should be able to ship all of them before I leave.

2. Clean my house, ESPECIALLY the bathroom & my bedroom. My house won’t be empty while I’m away and the idea of forcing my unsuspecting house/petsitter to suffer the indignity of my dirty bathtub is unacceptable to me.

3. Finish my painting projects. I’ve been painting a couple of office organizing things yellow for like… two weeks now. I really need to get it done so I can clear away all the painting stuff on my kitchen island AND clean up the mess on my desk(s).

4. Catch up on laundry. Literally every item of clothing that fits me right now is dirty. I’m not even kidding; as I type this I’m wearing a dress that is inappropriately short with a pair of my husband’s boxers. It’s not cool.

5. Pack! Oh how I need to pack and sort out travel bottles and what things I need to bring with me. Seriously though, I hate packing. The only thing worse than packing is UNPACKING, ugh.

… and if I can squeeze it in:

6. Colour my hair! If last week’s pregnancy pics have shown me anything, it’s that WOW MY ROOTS ARE SO BAD. I’ll be meeting some internet friends for the first time on this trip and I don’t want to show up looking like a bag of rags.

YIKES.

… and I’m going to do it all, just as soon as I get off the computer!

I’m now accepting blog sponsors for September!

I’m offering ads in three different sizes at prices anyone can afford, for all the information please check out my sponsor info page.

I’m also putting out an early call for guest posters for November- once the baby is born I won’t be able to blog as much (although when Sym was a newborn I was still updating my livejournal three times a day so…) but I don’t want to leave this blog to wither and die! If you’re interested just email me with your name, the url of your blog/tumblr/twitter/etsy (although it’s not required that you have one to be a guest poster!) and an idea for a post. Posts can be about basically anything, I mean you’ve seen the stuff I like to post about: coffee, daughters, dogs, no big whoop.

I won’t need the posts until mid-October so you still have plenty of time to come up with an idea!

I kind of feel like I did a lot this weekend, but on the other hand I feel like I did nothing, which is weird because it was a long weekend (which is still going on, hooray for three-day work weeks!).

On Friday I had my last appointment with my family doctor, since I’ll be seeing an obstetrician for the rest of my prenatal care. I was kind of worried that I wouldn’t get a referral to someone I’d like, but I’ve been reading the new doctor’s reviews and literally every one is like “✭✭✭✭✭ She is amazing and the best doctor in the world!” so even though my first appointment with her isn’t until September 4th, I’m feeling pretty good about it!

Also on Friday, Taylor and I toured the maternity ward at the hospital, and although it’s basically the same as when I was last there in 2001, I thought it would be good for Taylor. BOY WAS IT EVER BECAUSE AFTERWARD SHE WAS FREAKED OUT. I guess actually being in the LDRP* room really hammered home the fact that in less than three months we’ll have a real live tiny baby! Of course, he’s a ridiculous man and his main concern seems to be how much stuff we have to bring with us, and whether or not he should buy a new bag to transport it all.

Later on I started to feel really crappy, I think from a combination of the heat and possibly some side effects of an injection I had earlier. I’m one of the lucky 15% of people with Rh-negative blood, which means I have to have a shot at 28 weeks of pregnancy to make sure my immune system doesn’t start attacking the baby’s blood, which is probably Rh-positive because most people are. Anyway. First I got super uncomfortably hot to the point where I had to take a FREEZING COLD BATH to cool off, then I got a crummy headache, and then I got SUPER tired and fell asleep almost immediately after we finished watching the second X-Files movie (I just really needed to put that whole franchise to bed once and for all).

Saturday was, I think, probably the worst day I’ve had so far this pregnancy. I haven’t been sleeping well recently, and after falling asleep around 9:30 the night before, I woke up at 4:30 in the morning and couldn’t get back to sleep. I took Georgie for a walk and then dozed for a little while on the couch before moving back to the bed around 7:30 or so. At 8:30 my cat’s insulin alarm went of, so I got up to give her a shot and to brush my teeth. While I was standing at the sink I started to feel a little dizzy, and by the time I made it make to the bedroom it was full-on vertigo. I fell into bed but even with my eyes clenched shut I could still feel it and I was afraid I was going to throw up, so I had to wake up poor Taylor (he’d worked all night) to help me back to the bathroom.

I managed not to get sick and the vertigo subsided, but I still felt pretty terrible. Since Taylor was exhausted we both ended up sleeping until noon. We actually only got up because Taylor’s favourite food truck was at the farmer’s market by our house, but other than that, a couple dog walks for Georgie and a trip to the store for as as much snack food as I could carry, I spent the entire day on the couch with all the lights off and the blinds closed watching movies (God bless Netflix, seriously). Sometimes it’s nice to have a lazy day like that but I would have preferred it to not also involved a crummy lingering headache, physically and mental exhaustion, and just a general malaise.

When I woke up on Sunday morning I was worried it would be more of the crummy same as Saturday. I rolled over in bed and immediately the vertigo started again! Luckily it passed quickly (and I haven’t had it since, phew) and instead of sitting around feeling sorry for myself I actually spent the day doing things: some housework, some etsy work, some shopping and some going out for pancakes. All the important things, really.

Now it’s Monday, the last day of my weekend, and I’m hoping for kind of a cross between all the other days, minus the bad/sick parts. Sym got home last night from her week with her dad, very tired and very grubby. They spent four days at her stepmom’s parents’ farm in Kelowna, staying up late every night and not washing her hair, so by the time she’d showered (it seriously took four washes to get her hair clean) and gotten into bed at 10pm she’d had a very long day, and this morning she actually slept in until almost nine! We’re planning on doing nothing that involves real effort or getting dressed in clothes we didn’t sleep in last night: more movie watching, lazy dog walks, crafting and just general slovenliness. It’s gonna be nice 🙂

Some other random bits from this weekend…

• Georgie was definitely depressed about the other dogs being away, it was so sad! Dougal is back now so her mood is starting to improve, although I am a little worried about how she’s going to be when Taylor and I go away this weekend- she’s started to become super obsessed with me.

• Speaking of going away, I got the okay from my doctor to fly, so everything is looking good for our trip! I’m excited but also kind of nerve-wracked; we leave this Friday and it really snuck up on me.

• At one point I was walking home past the hospital and found myself daydreaming about the moment when the doctor will deliver the baby into my arms and I became so overwhelmed with emotion that I started crying, right in the street like an idiot. I’m just so happy and excited about this pregnancy, and I can’t wait to meet this tiny baby I’m growing. Only 11 1/2 more weeks!

• In sad news, this weekend I had to say goodbye to wearing my wedding ring. Since I took it off I’ve realized how many times a day I subconsciously play with it, because about a billion times I’ve rubbed my bare finger and then FREAKED OUT thinking I’ve lost it!

I hung it on the chain with my star charm that I wear every day and I can already see myself developing a new weird habit of playing with it there.

*Labour Delivery Recovery Postpartum. At our hospital you stay in one private room the entire time you are there, unless you have a C-section, which isn’t my plan (KNOCK ON WOOD).

I am literally this rabbit. Sometimes I’ll be out running errands with Taylor, buying stuff like underbed storage bins for blankets and a paper towel roll holder, and I’ll stumble across something cute and say “WHAT IF I BOUGHT DRYER BALLS SHAPED LIKE LITTLE HEDGEHOGS? DOING LAUNDRY WOULD BE SO CUTE!” or “WHAT IF I BOUGHT A LITTLE FLOCK OF BIRD-SHAPED MAGNETS TO USE ON MY BIRD SHAPED MAGNET BOARD? PUTTING UP REMINDERS WOULD BE SO CUTE!”

… and then I buy them and GUESS WHAT??? Doing laundry and putting up reminders IS so cute. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Remember Ugly Dolls? Sym just rediscovered hers. She’s away all this week with her dad, so there’s nothing much going on in the picture-taking department. She’ll be back next week though!