Homecoming

I get my husband back today! Yay! Yay! Yay!

Right now Greg is almost over Maine! And I've been refreshing this site like mad since I woke up this morning.


***Update at about 2:10 p.m.***

Just got a call from Greg as soon as his plane landed & was taxing down the runway in Houston. Yay! One more short flight & he'll be here! Before that though, immigration... He's a bit worried because his temporary green card technically expires in about 3 weeks. But he has some official paper thing that says it's being extended, which we were told should give him the all-clear. Being a foreigner and all, he also gets the added bonus of being photographed and fingerprinted. Good times!

::counting down the minutes::

Co-dependency Backlash: Day 12

My last day of co-dependency backlash! Hurray!

Greg gets home soon after 5 p.m. tomorrow. I will be, of course, that dancing girl with the huge belly at the airport. In the meantime, it's time to get rid of the evidence...

I have a little secret. I am not as tidy as my husband. (Yes, Greg. I'm admitting it. In writing, no less.) I don't think I'm 'dirty' by any means. Everything's hygienic. Everything's clean. It's just kinda... ...spread out. Everywhere... It stresses my "task-oriented" husband out to no end so I thought I'd throw him a bone & give him a more serene homecoming by cleaning up my act.

I've sorted the mail.
Taken out the recycling.
Emptied the garbage.
Folded the laundry.
Run the dishwasher.
Gone shopping for some of Greg's faves.
Thrown out some magazines.
Vacuumed.
Compiled my endless clutter of research papers into fewer, perfectly square piles. (They're not going away so that's the best I can do, babe.)
Watered plants.
Filled up the car with gas.
And some other stuff, most of which would make my multiples nurse cringe. She'd prefer me to go about my days as a complete invalid, but that's just not realistic. Sorry, Margaret.

Anyway, I'm ready. And waiting.

Co-dependency Backlash: Day 11

So I've finally registered. Thanks to my friends Shawn & Katie, who were willing to take the time to go through the entire baby store while holding my hand. I needed that emotional support. That place is SCARY!

Also got to talk to Greg & Gunther again. (Maria already headed back to Spain.) Apparently during Dan's speech at the wedding, he actually thanked us!

Six years ago when Greg and I moved in together, we practically forced Dan & Tricia into being roommates. She & I were living in a duplex and Dan & Greg were also roommates. So it just made the most sense for us do a little swapsy, and therefore Greg & I take total credit for that relationship. :) In reality, there was actually already a spark between those two, but hey, we at least had a hand in accelerating the process. That's what we'd tease them with anyway so it was just funny to hear that story made it into the wedding speeches. Dan & Tricia, you know I wish I could have been there to help you celebrate, but I heard it was awesome. Congratulations again!

Tonight I also had dinner with two lovely ladies. (Greg, you'll be happy to hear that I got a good dose of salad & beef into my diet in your absence.) Thanks for distracting me from my abandonment, Cristina & Tabatha! I had a great time. And I'm still stuffed!


Only two more days before my shumma returns to me! I can't wait!

We're Into DOUBLE Digits, Kids!

Look over at my pregnancy ticker!!


Only 99 days left!

OMG. I have soooooo much to get done before these babies arrive...

Co-dependency Backlash: Day 10

Today is the only day of his vacation when Greg & I can't chat. They're all in Cambridge for Dan & Tricia's wedding. And Greg is under strict instructions to take lots of pictures so I can live vicariously. Wish I could be there. :(

Missing everyone!


Oh, by the way, I got a call tonight from one of my favorite people in the whole world. And she knew I was on Day 10 of the backlash - didn't realize she was reading my blog. Hi, Shelley! See you in ONE WEEK. Yayyyyyyyy!

Co-dependency Backlash: Day 9

So today (Day 9), Greg has been (and probably still is) at the hospital with his mum and aunt. Ewa is receiving her first dose of chemo for round 4 in the treatment of lung cancer she was diagnosed with back in November. Today is her long day. Next Friday is the short day - more chemo but not an all-day affair. Then she'll have two weeks of letting the drugs do their thing. And after that is the exciting part. The doctors will re-run all of their tests. She'll get another scan to gauge how well the treatments have been. Have the tumors shrunk or stayed the same or, heaven forbid, grown? We had some cautiously optimistic news after round 2. An x-ray showed that the big tumor in her right lung maaaaay have shrunk a bit. However, it's really hard to get a "real" picture from x-rays so the doc was careful to stress that we shouldn't get our hopes too high.

I'm hoping that at the very least, the tumors have not grown. That they've stayed the same size they were before the treatments, which would suggest that the chemo is suppressing the growth. That would be fantastic news because Ewa was asymptomatic when the tumors were found, meaning they were so small that they weren't impacting her life in any negative way. In fact, they were found completely on accident. A very lucky accident, which means it was caught early while Ewa was still very healthy.

**This just in**

Just talked to Greg on skype. They're back from chemo. Ewa looks great. They've scheduled a new CT scan for early April. There's a possibility that IF the chemo is working well, they may go ahead and do two more rounds of it because it's obviously getting the job done. Don't know yet, but that's something they might consider.

Hoping for the best!


So Gunther & Maria are in London now. I got to talk to them briefly. I was asked to model my huge belly for them, and when I did, a look of pure terror/disgust/shock came across Gunther's face. Poor Maria. The guy, love him to death, but he has no compunction for politeness or decorum whatsoever. He is grossed out by this whole pregnancy thing, and there's just no disguising that fact. Oy! I think Maria may have to beat him every once in a while. :)

Wishing I was there to join in on the fun. And grossing out Gunther live & in person.

Co-dependency Backlash: Day 8

Yesterday was a bit of a zen-like day. All was calm & happy & even-keeled. Thank goodness. I need a break from the crazies every once in a while.

I actually got out on the patio outside my office for about an hour and a half while I graded lab notebooks. Maybe the sunshine & this spring weather were a factor in my mood. Must remember to get outside more often before the heat kicks in and becomes unbearably oppressive.

As for films, I finally saw some good ones! Two documentaries. The first was The Way We Get By, about 3 elderly folks who give real meaning and purpose to their lives by greeting or sending off the troops that travel through their Bangor, Maine airport. For most soldiers this airport is their last stop before heading off to or coming home from Iraq. The greeters don't necessarily support this war, but they do support our troops, which I think many, many people can relate. Tear-jerker.

The second was The Yes Men Fix the World, a doc about a group of activists who draw attention to important issues (and sometimes the absurdity with which they are being dealt) by pulling off elaborate and ballsy pranks. They basically set up fake company websites and wait for someone to contact them. More often than not, they're invited to be speakers and representatives of that company at various conferences and show up with some remarkable presentations, props, and grandiose statements about the company's intentions to right their own wrongs. The most elaborate - or perhaps most far-reaching/attention-grabbing - stunt was when the BBC actually broadcast their live interview with a man who they thought was a representative of Dow Chemical on the 20th anniversary of the horrible Union Carbide plant explosion in Bhopal, India that killed thousands and continues to affect over 120,000. This clip is a long one, but it sums up this particular episode quite well.



Toward the end of the interview, the BBC reporter goes after Andy for raising false hopes for the people of Bhopal. In the documentary, Andy & Mike actually travel to the region and talk to the survivors. It may be edited in their favor, of course, but they spoke with several people who are in the trenches in Bhopal, dealing with the aftermath. If anything, they seemed grateful that someone still cared and was willing to shine a light on this tragedy.

After the film, Andy & Mike were up on stage to answer questions and said that they've never been sued or been the target of any kind of legal action as a result of their pranks. I suspect they're banking on the fact most of these companies wish they and the controversy they stir would just go away. Anyway, excellent film. Highly recommended.

Since I didn't see anything on Wednesday night, I had missed the frenzy that is the start of the SXSW music festival. Not so last night! My films were at the Austin Convention Center and the Alamo Ritz so I was walking around right in the thick of it. I have to say, one of my favorite things about Austin is the people and consequently the people-watching. And what better opportunity than a ginormous music festival. Love it! Love the vibe, love the music you can hear at every turn, love the skinny hipsters, love it all! But I was also painfully aware of how I must look to all these guys. Here they are, half of them drunk or stoned or both, and up plods this pony-tailed, flip-flop wearing, woman sporting an enormous pregnant belly. Tragically un-hip. Oh well. Still fun even if I did get more than a few sideways glances.

Alien Baby

You know that scene in Alien where the dude that had the big claw thing stuck on his face is seemingly back to his old self. He's sitting around with his buddies, minding his own business, eating his breakfast. When all of a sudden, BAM! A major case of indigestion!


As they lay him across the table, you see this bump moving around in his stomach just under the surface of his skin. Next thing you know a gross, little baby alien busts through, takes a good look at all these pesky humans standing around him before he bolts across the table and disappears to God knows where. ::sigh:: Love that movie...

Well, I just experienced a close approximation of that. Minus all the screaming, convulsing, and blood and stuff, of course.

The babies were kicking, and they've gotten strong enough where they can easily be felt from the outside of my belly now - even through layers of clothes. I happened to lay my hand across the top of my bump and a second later I felt it! Some limb or a head or a butt or something pushed out so I could feel it under my fingertips. The bump then proceeded to stay pushed out while it traveled across the top of my belly! I could feel it moving from my fingertips, across the palm of my hand, and down past my wrist. One of these little guys was having a nice, long stretch in there. And I could feel the whole thing.

It. Was. Freaky! But in the most exciting way possible.

I can't wait for it to happen again. And I can't wait until Greg can catch it too. These babies are getting so big & strong! Grow, babies, grow!

Co-dependency Backlash: Day 6 & 7

I won't say much about Monday (Day 5) except that it was a very bad day, involving lots of tears and a gushing bloody nose. Don't worry. No one was hurt. This is just one of the many weird side-effects of crazy pregnancy hormones that no one ever tells you about. Normally, I just have a little blood in my Kleenex when I blow my nose, but this one was a 5-tissue doozie. The good news is that after my tears & the bleeding stopped, I was so emotionally drained that I collapsed into bed and don't think I moved almost the entire night.

Yesterday (Day 6), while not fantastic by any means, was much better. Or perhaps I should say it was much more stable. No crying jag. Not even a bloody tissue. I got to see & talk to my shumma for about an hour (between all the dropped skype calls and computer crashes) before he headed out to meet up with some mutual friends, both professors in England. All I can say is, live it up while you can, babe! Because when you get back, we've got to get to work. On the nursery. On finding a new car. On cooking my dinners! I'm sure you can't wait, right. :)

Yesterday was also St. Patty's day, and how did I celebrate? By getting home a little after 8 p.m. for the first time in days, loving on the kitties for a bit, and passing out on the couch by 10 p.m. I was exhausted! But I'm nearing the 3rd trimester now. In fact, my 25-week belly is the equivalent of a singleton mom's 31- to 33-week belly so I suppose exhaustion is to be expected.


Today is day 7. I'm working from home so that when I need breaks from writing (and I'm not updating the blog), I can vacuum, do laundry, love the on the neglected kitties for a while, and also lie down to relieve some of the pressure on my back - it's caving under the weight of my ginormous belly! (Which reminds me, I really need to take another picture so you can marvel at the size... It's pretty impressive if I do say so myself.)

For dinner tonight I'm meeting up with my friend Shawn who has a two-year-old and has been absolutely awesome to Greg and I. She and her hubby Jim know they only want one kiddo so we're making out like bandits! We've inherited tons of hand-me-downs, including a full box of toys, a pack-n-play, a crib tent, a noise machine, a humidifier and several expensive bottles. After dinner, we're hitting Babies R Us so she can show me what items saved her life & sanity and what were complete wastes of money. It's about time I registered since I have two baby showers coming up in the next month! Plus, it'll be good just to have a little girl time.

Worst. Movie. Ever.

On the movie front, I've seen three more. One decent, one just okay and one HORRIBLE! And this time I have no problem calling out the horrible film. It was the new Seth Rogen flick Observe and Report. A-W-F-U-L!

I cannot say enough about how much I hated this movie, and I don't hate a lot of movies. Usually I'm just indifferent about bad flicks, but this one pissed. me. off. I'm mad at Seth Rogen for playing in it, which will probably mean it grosses a decent amount of cash at the box office. I'm mad at the director, Jody Hill, for being such a douche and obviously finding this kind of humor hilarious. (He also directed Foot Fist Way. Roger Ebert wrote a review about this film that I think could fit Observe & Report perfectly with a few small detail changes. If I had known this information beforehand, I could have saved two hours of my life that I will never get back.) I'm mad at the vast majority of the audience, especially the guys sitting behind us who were hyena-laughing through the whole movie - even the most disturbing and disgusting scenes. How they find that funny, I will never understand. I'm mad at Warner Brothers for funding this abomination. And I'm mad at SXSW for bringing such steaming piles of crap to this festival. What were they thinking?

The only thing that restored my faith in humanity was seeing the many people who got up and walked out of the theater during the middle of it. Thank you for showing me the entire world has not gone mad. I wish I could have been right there with them, but Dilek was my ride so I had to wait for her. What I should have done was just get up and go sit & wait in the lobby. Because what has been seen cannot be unseen. Turns out she found the movie just as disgusting, but we didn't realize that the other wanted to get the hell out of there until the movie was almost over.

It's hard to narrow down what I found so revolting about this movie, but I'll try to limit it to just a few scenes. In the first, Seth's character is having sex with a barely conscious Anna Farris, who had been throwing back shots and popping pills all night long. The only way they depicted this scene as "consensual" was by making Farris's character briefly reach consciousness to slur something like, "Why you stoppin', mother f#$%r?" In my opinion, this sends a horrible message to the target audience of this kind of movie - pubescent boys and the emotionally stunted.

Another scene is when Rogen's character, a mall cop, has been fired from his job, and the police have to be called in to remove him. He refuses to leave so when about 20 cops rush him, he pulls out a huge flashlight and proceeds to use it by smashing them about the face and head. Idiotic and completely gratuitous violence. The final scene involves a flasher running through the mall. This is full frontal nudity of a fat, middle-aged white man. Running. It's gross. But that didn't even offend me. What offended me was how he was caught. Just as the flasher is about to tackle Farris's character, Rogen shows up, pulls out a huge gun and shoots the guy in the chest, followed by graphic blood splatters and the guy going down like a ton of bricks. The crowd went wild as if this was funny/heroic/the most awesome thing ever. My faith in my fellow man plummeted. I think that's when I turned to Dilek and finally said I need to get out of here.

Ugh. I've spent way too much space on this movie. Just trust me, unless the above sounds like something you'd enjoy, save your money, your time, and a few bits of your soul and skip this movie!