Spending a Day Killing Time

I recently got back from a trip to Chareleston, SC. It was a blast, but I mainly wanted to write about a couple things that I realized about life while I was there. First of all, thanks to God for making sure that I have a home. Hopefully, the closest I'll ever be to homeless is having to check out of a hotel, but not having a flight for 8 hours. Basically, you have nowhere to go, you have to rely on public restrooms, and you have to find something to do to take up time.

Honestly, I take my home for granted often and those of us with dry, warm, and safe homes really shouldn't. It's harder than you would think to have nothing to do and nowhere to go. It was difficult for me to kill 6 hours, let alone with figuring out where I could go to the bathroom. I can't imagine having to spend my day moving around, trying to find somewhere safe to sleep, go to the bathroom, shower, or even just sit down. I'm going to be sure to appreciate how blessed I am more often.

Here's a quick description of my adventures killing time. After I checked out of my hotel, I headed out to Summerville, SC and I found a farmer's market! I love Farmer's Markets! Nothing warms my heart like tents, fresh produce, and old people. I bought some delicious Strawberries and I wish I would have taken a picture of them.

Unfortunately, I really couldn't buy more than I could eat in a couple hours since I had to get on a plane later that day. I missed out on some really pretty tomatoes, but I think that was God's way of reminding me that I had 2 tomato plants at home wanting to find their happy homes in my garden, so I needed to get home and get out my shovel! I came home more resolved to find a farmer's market in KC. I think it's been 3 years since I been to one and I can't believe it. I went every week when I lived in Iowa-but it's pretty darn easy in Iowa:)

After I wandered through the market, I walked across the street to eat lunch at Carolina Jo's, where the special is Quiche. Although, I didn't try the quiche, it was an interesting experience. It was a tiny diner and the owner was sitting at a table gabbing with a customer the whole time I was there, minus the 7 or so minutes it took to make my lunch. I didn't like the salad dressing, but I'm hard to please when it comes to salad dressing...

I headed to the Dorchester County museum and the 85-yr-old sweet lady who worked there told me to head down the street to the 100 year old pharmacy to buy an ice cream cone at the soda fountain. I had never been to an old-fashioned drug store before and it seemed to be pretty much the same, except with newer drugs. After the ice cream, I still had 4 hours to kill...so i thought, where can I hang out?

I went the park, laid out my jacket and read Harry Potter #6 for the second time. I read in the park for 2 hours, but I got too hot. So, I went to Target and bought a shirt and flip flops for my trip home. Then, I went to the airport and finished Harry Potter. It was a really exciting day!

Hair

In 1986, I could have had the coolest hair around. Unfortunately, I was only 5 years old and I had a she-mullet at the time, so I was unaware of my hair's natural talent for feathering and flipping. Too bad, when hair became important, it was the early 1990's and the age of the huge bangs. Too bad I still had a she-mullet. That, along with my awesome cowlick (however you spell that) ruined all chance of having cool hair.

Sometimes, I wish the hairstyles of the 1980's would come back. I would have to do a lot less work to make my hair look good. In fact, I would let it airdry, my bangs would flip out several inches, I'd give it a nice feather with my comb, and hairspray. Man, that would be nice...

Until then, I'll just keep blow drying and straightening.

Travels with Angie

Here are some photos of my recent trip to LA.

Can you see the Hollywood sign in the background??

In case you can't tell, this is Harry, Ron, and Hermione's footprints! This was probably almost as exciting as finding out that Laura and Jon have a Snuggie!

Here's a picture of my brother wearing the imitation Snuggie that I got for Christmas, clearly the original is much better.

Adventures with Bathrooms

Warning: don't read this if you are uncomfortable with bathrooms or stories about number 1.

I just got back from a great trip from Charleston, SC. I've been really excited to blog about my trip, mostly because I have some of the best bathroom stories of my life. I'm not sure why I didn't realize that going to the bathroom would become a new adventure when you get pregnant. I also failed to grasp the fact that I'd have to alter my life as a result of when/where/how the urge strikes me. Usually, it's not a big deal, I work in an office and we have 3 bathrooms in our house, so I've got options at either place. I've also gotten used to thinking ahead about when I might need to use the bathroom. However, my bathroom-sensitive lifestyle recently revealed what a pain in a butt it can be. I've been traveling a lot for work lately and nothing brings bathroom problems for me like being in unfamiliar places.

The first issue is that I have to pee a lot! I didn't realize exactly how serious What to Expect When You're Expecting authors were when they said frequent urination. The number of times and the lack of predictability of my urges to go to the bathroom have forced me to use the bathroom in places that I normally avoid. First, I hate airplane bathrooms, airport bathrooms are bad enough, so I normally try not to drink anything before a long flight, so I can avoid the 1 x 1 cell inside the plane. Unfortunately, I don't really have to drink a whole lot to have to go, so I had to use the facilities on the plane on 2/4 flights (2 of the flights were about 40 minutes).

When I got to Charleston, I went downtown and immediately decided that I had to do some touristy stuff, because I needed a public restroom. I went to the Visitors Center, found a bathroom, and bought a ticket for a historic homes tour. I was really stoked about this tour, because the homes in Chareleston are unique and gorgeous and OLD! Now, the only thing that I really didn't think through very well was the fact privately owned homes don't have public restrooms. Only two homes into the tour, I thought I was going to pee in my pants. So, I had to beg at the office (pictured above) to let me use the restroom. To be honest, I didn't have to beg too much, I just told them that I was pregnant and I REALLY had to go to the bathroo and they let me in.

Surprisingly, it was harder to find free, public restrooms in Charleston than I thought. I didn't have enough money or room in my stomach to buy food at a restaurant everytime I had to go, so I had to wing it a little. The best bathroom story I have, by far, is on Friday when I took the Charleston harbor tour. I walked to the dock where the harbor tour leaves and found a bathroom since obviously the 1/2 mile walk and 30 minutes since my last stop meant that I definitely needed to go. Should I need it, I was pretty confident that the boat would have a restroom since the trip takes 1.5 hours. There's nothing like constant motion to get your bladder in gear. Anyway, it turns out that I never had to use the bathroom on the boat and when I got off I debated whether or not I should use bathroom before I headed off. I decided against it, because I planned to go get something to eat and surely I'd make it to a restaurant before I needed the bathroom again. Here's where the story gets good...remember when I said I recently started using bathrooms that I previously wouldn't have considered...well, while walking in a pretty deserted part of town, I realized there was no way that I'd make it all the way back and I remembered seeing a johnny-on-the spot in a park on my way there. I basically had no choice, I had to use it! Well, I made it to the johnny, took a big gulp of fresh air, opened the door and SAW A MAN ASLEEP IN THE JOHNNY! WTF? Why would anyone choose to sleep there? I mean, I guess you don't get hassled to wake up and get off the park bench, but if you're going to nap, why don't you lock the dang door?

Needless to say, I didn't use that bathroom, I walked away as quickly as possible and headed off toward the restaurant where I really wanted to eat dinner, Juanita's Nacho Royale, p.s. I love nachos more than almost anything else. The futher I walked, the more my bladder screamed, "please get me to a bathroom!" and "That stupid guy, why didn't you just wake him up?" I just kept telling it, "only a few more blocks." But, my bladder revolted when it saw a Moe's Southwest Grill and it couldn't see Juanita's Nacho Royale down the next two blocks. So, I had to give in...I decided that Moe's was almost as good as Juanita's. We don't have one in KC anymore and I really did enjoy their melted cheese and their tacos weren't too bad either. I guess I could have just used the bathroom, but I would have felt bad since all the people who work there yell, "welcome to Moe's" when you walk in the door. So, I satisfied my stomach and my bladder with Moe's. Sadly, I never got to eat at Juanita's...maybe it as gross:)

The second best part of this story, is that I actually did end up using a johnny-on-the-spot the next day in a different park in Summerville, SC. However, there wasn't a sleeping/possibly dead person in the one I used.

More than a mom

I'm three months pregnant and I recently made an interesting observation about pregnancy-people treat you differently. Well, I know that is a revelation! Of course, people treat you differently when you are pregnant. However, it's just starting to happen to me and I guess I wasn't ready yet.

My new interactions are mostly limited to my friends and family at this point, since no one can tell that I am pregnant by just looking at me. Certainly, once strangers can see it, I'm sure that I'm in for unsolicited advice out the wazoo:) Boy, I can't wait.

I have gotten used to hearing the standard questions, "how are you feeling? or "have you had any morning sickness?", but this past weekend I heard some new questions. It was Easter and this was the first time that we have seen extended family since we found out that I was pregnant. I think that I handled my family just fine, but they acted exactly how I expected. But, my husband's family was different. Instead of asking, "how are you?", it was, "how's my grandbaby? or "are you taking care of my great-grandbaby?" Unfortunately, I can't speak with the baby, I can't feel him/her yet, and I don't have a window into my uterus. So honestly, I am not really sure how the baby is, I am only sure how I am.

I know I shouldn't be upset by this, because it's not like these were anything other than well-intentioned. My husband's family is probably naturally more concerned about the baby than me, because I'm not their "real" family, but the baby will be. I'm not angry or anything, but it was my first confrontation with a pressure of motherhood that I knew existed, but I don't think that I will fully realize until after the baby arrives.

It might only be a perception I have (probably a fear too), but it has always seemed that Moms (or some moms) begin to think that their life doesn't matter anymore and they give up their hopes and dreams for their own life. Honestly, I just don't believe that is a healthy strategy, even if others expect it. Women can be excellent Moms and still have priorities that are just for them.

I certainly expect our baby will bring a lot of changes to my life, my perspective , my goals and my expectations, but I know that I need to leave a little of my energy for me. I truly value and cherish the role that I'll soon have, and believe it will be my most important task in life. However, I won't be taking care of my child for the rest of my life and I've got to do something when the child-rearing years are over. I want to be an excellent Mom, but I've also got a lot more to do in life to make the world better. That is important to me and I hope it is important to other people too. I know that it's ok to want to more than a mom.

Can anyone Twitter?

I know this is a silly question, because anyone can Twitter, but should anyone Twitter? I've been thinking about that a lot lately because I recently noticed that I've started to think about my life in one sentence announcements that I want to shout out to the world. If that sounds crazy, well, I blame it on Facebook and the thousands of status updates that I can read at any moment of the day. I can see what my long lost friend from high school was thinking about 37 minutes ago and for some reason, I got addicted. So, I started to think about Twittering, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that I don't need to update everyone on my life. My life really isn't that interesting.
Let me give you an example of what a day of my Twitters would look like:
Angie wants to sleep in until 8.
Angie wantes to sleep in until 9.
Angie is at work, but wants to be in bed.
Angie is hungry and getting cranky.
Angie doesn't understand why jobs can be so annoying, why can't people follow instructions.
Angie is tired of writing emails.
Angie just went pee for the 10th time this morning (thanks pregnancy).
Angie can't believe how some people can get a license.
Would you drive your damn car?! please!
Angie really doesn't want to play volleyball tonight, it's too cold outside.
Angie says MMMM, McDonalds has good french fries.
Angie's feet feel like blocks of ice, sand volleyball is for warm weather.
Angie says, "ball please don't come my way!"
Angie is glad that game is over. Hopefully, my feet will thaw out.
Angie is TIRED and going to sleep.

I'm not sure about you, but I just wouldn't find my 15 posts that fascinating. Maybe because they just happened to me, but I don't think that is the only reason. My life is "normal" and who cares about "normal"? So, I've decided not to pollute cyberspace too much and keep my thoughts and stupid updates to blogs and Facebook.

Let me take a second to explain why I blame Facebook for my recently abandoned obsession with updates. In my opinion, the real culprit is the status update. I think it took me about 2 years to even post a status update because I really thought that I should have something exciting or ingenious to say. Since I didn't, I kept quiet. But then everybody started to update their status, all the time. So I started to do it too. All of a sudden, I was driving to work thinking about interesting sentences that I could post on my profile to let my 436 friends, to whom I seldom speak, know what cool thing I'm doing/thinking/feeling. Here's a sad example, when I found out I was pregnant, one of the first (but definitely not the first) things I thought about was how I would craft the perfect sentence to announce my bundle of joy. I spent hours thinking about what to write and had a legitimate conversation with my husband about how we would put it up on Facebook. Then, I realized, I have crossed a line and I must go back.

My status update last night was "Does anyone else think about their life in one sentence announcements?" I got one thumbs up, so and so likes this. I was proud!

Getting Healthy!

My brother and I have been on a secret mission to get our family healthy. It's hard to convince people to exercise, especially when they're your parents, they're over 50, and they haven't exercised in years. We decided the best way to do that was to run in a 44 mile relay race!

When you're in your 20's, it's hard not to worry about your parents' health. My uncle died of a heart attack 2 years ago. He's five years older than my dad and he was only 63 years old. Once you start working in a cubicle and sitting on your butt all day, you realize how years of sitting at your desk could really become your undoing. In addition, you realize how years of job-related stress will help coat your arteries in plaque. You worry about what's going on inside your parents' blood vessels.

So, my brother and I started a quest to get my parents to exercise. We decided to try to run in the Brew to Brew race from Kansas City to Lawrence, KS. It took a lot of convincing to get my mom to do it. My brother and I had probably 10 phone calls each to get her to agree and we weren't even sure she'd do it on the day of the race, because it was COLD and raining/snowing.

But, Team Yay Mom and Dad did it! It turned into a family affair, my 2 brothers, their girlfriends, my 2 cousins, my husband, my parents and I all "ran" in under 8.5 hours. It was cold,windy, and wet, but it was fun. I think that even my mom had a good time. This picture is my parents running the end of their 3.3 mile leg in the snow/sleet. They finished in under an hour and they still look pretty happy!