Oh, the weather outside is ...

Thursday's snow accumulation was about a foot, and it's snowing another 4-8 inches on top of that right now. Plus some sleet and rain expected later today, just to make things nice and slippery. The dogs love it. They're both adopted and previously abused/neglected, so they thoroughly enjoy the absence of people snow creates. Plus it's good times to jump in huge snow banks and lick the ground while they race. When the snow plow goes by, though, it's a different story. One of our dogs, Onnie, gets so scared that we have two leashes and a harness on her (the gentle leader kinds, not chains or chokers or anything), and she'll still manage to slip out of all of those when the plow goes by.

I have a friend that uses one of those shock collars for barking. I think that's so cruel. Barking is a completely natural reaction, and if it needs to be controlled, you can do that by voice command.

We're having grits and faux-sausage for breakfast. I have been craving grits, and the weekends mean more time so that equals grit-making! I need to think of a code name for my husband like BerryBird's SodaBoy. That's a good one. Constantly referring to him as hubby is not anything I would do in real life. I call him hubby here because I'm making fun of the word, but then I realize that might not be apparent.

I'm fairly new to blogs, so I'm slow to realize the etiquette and speak that goes along with it. I still don't know what a meme is.

Snowy footprints

After leaping out of one snowy foot imprint and into the next, I finally made it home in a 3-hour commute that usually takes 45 minutes. It started snowing around lunchtime, accumulating about 1 1/2 inches an hour, and it hasn't stopped yet. I can still hear the neighbors scraping away with their metal clunk-clunk spoons for snow. At least now they're clearing some of it up. I'm amazed at how far in advance the city knew about this weather storm and how little preparation was put into the clean-up effort. It's like the way the West practices medicine: all treatment and no prevention. Not that they can prevent snow, but hiring a few temp workers to drive the dozens of plows that are just sitting in the state's parking lot might be a start.

We had our staff holiday party last night and I ventured out for a non-work, non-medical reason for the first time in two months. I'm proud that I made it through the whole night, too. We were floored by the fancy-schmancy restaurant, and a little surprised that the server, who knew with our reservations that we were vegan, told us the chef had specially prepared fish for us. First of all, I don't expect everyone to know what vegan is, but I would think a famous chef and perhaps a few on his/her restaurant staff would have a clue. Secondly, if you don't know what I can eat, why don't you just ask? And finally, that disgusts me that you wasted food like that. I certainly hope the dishwasher got to eat "our" grub.

That makes it sound like a bad night, but really it was nice. I enjoy, for the first time in my life, all the people I work with. One of the bigwigs even made a toast over how much she is enjoying the high value we place on our families and that there is a work-life balance cultivated that puts family first. She pointed to me and one of my coworkers as an example. My coworker brought his 5-week-old baby girl to the dinner! She was soooo adorable ... and I got to hold her! She looked up at me from her sleep a few times and I thought I was melting. I've thought about her all day today. I guess I've got a bit of a baby bug. :)

I was happy to hear the bigwig's speech, especially since I've been looking into alternative work options like flextime. I don't know what I want yet, specifically, but I do know that I'm going to go for it. It never hurts to ask, right? I read this blog on Gen Y work predictions today and it made me feel like figuring out what I want and asking for it may help someone in my shoes later. Like I can pave the way for future mothers and their work environments. That's exciting!

Speaking of shoes, I need to get me some winter boots.

Fall down, go boom

Ice storm hit last night. The walking and road conditions were just terrible this morning, but by mid-day were manageable. Unfortunately -- or fortunately, as the ice were -- I got sick in the am so crawled into work around 10:30 am instead of the usual 9.

My supervisor left early today to pick her husband up from the hospital: as they were leaving the house for their morning commute, he says "Be careful, it's slippery," and proceeds to fall down the steps and break some bones in his hand. Yikes. Double poop since he's an artist owning his own business and it was his right (dominant) hand. It's scary walking up and down the hills in these parts with the ice the way it is. Especially after hearing stories like that.

There are salt stains on my dress pants now from walking downtown ... not too cool since this is one of the last pairs that fit my growing mid-section.

Homemade pasta fagioli's on the menu tonight. I can't wait!

Pondering, wandering thoughts

I'm sitting on our make-shift couch (three cushions atop a headboard) waiting for the predicted gallons of snow and listening to classical music. I'm not much of a classical music fan: I find it pretty but it just puts me to sleep. I'm also not, as you may assume, listening to the music for Fetus; it's all hubby's doing.

He's making black bean burritos and he's the one responsible for putting on this Modest Mussorgsky. What a name.

I may not totally buy into the classical-music-for-baby hype, but it is pretty neat to know his/her ears are developed now and it is beginning to hear things in the womb for the first time. I wonder if those first few noises are scary? Is it even capable of being scared or feeling emotion now?

It has been interesting telling everyone we're expecting. There were the normal reactions, of course, but then there were some surprising questions and tidbits of advice, too. Like, "was it an accident?" Well, we weren't abstaining, obviously ... Or, my favorite, "were you celebrating something?" As if you need a celebration to have sex, and furthermore how do you possibly feel you have the right to ask that question?? Privacy continues to go by the wayside.

The snow is still not here yet. The weatherperson predicts it will hit around 9 pm and continue through mid-Monday. I've found the Boston weatherpeople to be wholly unreliable, though, so I'm thinking ounces, not gallons, and Tuesday, not Monday. If it snows at all. Seriously, though, the weatherpeople out here have no idea what's going on and their forecasts seem to change from hour to hour. I don't know why I bother paying attention anyway. I kind of appreciate the fact that nature will do its thing, and it should be a surprise other than the oh-look-at-those-clouds-rain's-a-comin' type of common person's predictions.

I have so far been amazed at the number of pregnancy books willing to "tell you everything no one else will" (they all confide in me that I will fart more) ... and yet I have found only one book that deals with an expecting couple's emotions. All of the other books dismiss the whole thing into a sentence like "you may experience some 'baby blues,' but rest assured this is normal." Postpartum isn't the only time you experience fetus/baby-related emotions! And the wide range is astonishing.

Mhmm I smell food.