A hitch in my get-a-along

I have come to the realization that I can no longer wear heels.

This is distressing to me since most of my shoes have at least a 1in heel or higher.

Why can't I wear heels anymore?

Mostly because for the past four weeks it feels like my right leg is trying to detach itself at the hip and walk away on it's own. I now sleep with an abnormally long pillow between my knees and ankles and have only recently (this morning) realized that heels make it worse. Today is the first day in many that I can get up from my chair at work and not walk like an 80 year old woman. It still has a distinctive pain to it, but it's much less than it was, say yesterday.

You know, times like this cause me to think back to the not so distant past when my view of pregancy was less than flattering. I would look at these women and although I was generally sympathetic to their pains, I was thinking, "Your uterus is expanding will you get a grip? It's not like your leg is going to fall off or your stomach will eat itself".

At this time, I would like to say, I'm sorry. My thinking was so horribly wrong that it's almost laughable. I'm sorry for my unsympathetic thoughts, because now I realize; Pregnancy isn't just about your uterus, it's like a virus that takes over your whole body.
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Tagged by LZA

LZA,

I'm not completely sure that I'm the R that you tagged in your post, so since I'm in doubt, I'll do it anyway and give you all the benefit of my amazing answers! *heavy dose of sarcasm*

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? wrapping paper
2. Real tree or Artificial? artificial - it's the only way to go.
3. When do you put up the tree? this year? Last week :(
4. Do you like eggnog? Alcohol free please!
5. Favorite gift received as a child? wow...my memory is awful.
6. Hardest person to buy for? DH
7. Easiest person to buy for? My neice, MM
8. Do you have a nativity scene? I made one in highschool?
9. Mail or email Christmas cards? neither this year (I know, bah humbug)
10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Large & In Charge - a workout video from the 80s for the more plump aerobicist.
11. Favorite Christmas Movie? White Christmas -are there any others?
12. When do you start shopping? December 15
13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No
14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? cookies
15. Lights on the tree? white
16. Favorite Christmas song? All I want for Christmas is You - with the video that has that guy with the weird hair.
17. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home.
18. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Yes
19. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star
20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning
21. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Target commercials
22. Favorite ornament theme or color? My mom had purple berries and green pears one year. That was really great.
23. Favorite for Christmas dinner? turkey
24. What do you want for Christmas this year? China

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Candi, This is for You.

Tag 1: Six Random things about me.

1. I moved 6 times in college.

2. I broke my left arm at age 6.

3. I have 6 winter coats in my closet. (Sadly, it hardly seems like enough!)

4. I teach seminary which STARTS at 6am.

5. Dave and I take the same train home which get's us to our apartment at 6p most nights.

6. 6 of my coworkers were fired on my very first day at Tribune Co. (Boy that was weird)
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*Disclaimer*

Please read before opening the following two posts.

I am readily willing to admit that I am over using the italics, bold, and capitalization functions in the following two posts. I also overuse the !!!exclamation point!!!

Consider it part of my pregnancy. As I share my little adventures (Here I go AGAIN!!!) I will occasionally be more emotionally attached to certain memories, like cereal and ice scrapers.

There is no explanation for this, so, as a collective blogging community, let's work together and hope this doesn't continue for another 6 months until little Schlomo or Bertha Jo arrives.
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The BEST day EVER!!!

Be Prepared for the awesomeness to come...

Sunday was a really warm day. It was like 51 degrees. In December, in Chicago, you just can't beat that. There was a little rain, but nothing a good wiper blade couldn't handle.

Anyway, I should know better seeing that I'm from here, but it got cold Sunday night.

Really cold.

But don't worry. It kept raining. And then icing.

I wake up on Monday morning for seminary and remember that I'm driving. Oh man, I'll need to make sure I leave early so I can scrape my car. I bet it's going to be just covered!

So in my mind, I'm having this dialogue: "Self, you better hurry.", "I know, Self, I'm going to give myself 10 extra minutes to scrape my car.", "Good thing, Self, because you're probably going to need it", "Self, don't be such a pessimist, you'll be fine with 10 minutes. It's not like someone dipped your car in ice and then froze it like an ice cube".

I walk outside and practically fell on my face. The parking lot is covered in a certifiably skate-able sheet of ice. I get to my car and I look at the windows. "Self, I think you are totally screwed", "Self, that doesn't help right now. How 'bout we open the stupid door and turn on the defroster?"

It takes me the 1st 5 minutes of my extra 10 minutes to OPEN THE DOOR. I turn on my car and let the defrosters start working. Has anyone else noticed the futility of blowing barely warm air on a piece of glass that is covered in almost 3/16 of an inch of ice?

So I start scraping. I realize my lame-o scraper from Utah (where they get normal snow) isn't going to cut it, but I don't have any other options. I'm hardly making a dent and after another 15 minutes (5:40) I have 4 inches of visibility on the drivers side only. Awesome.

I call the other teacher that I carpool with. Her car is in a nice dry garage. Can she drive today? TJ says yes, because she's awesome. I turn off my car and go inside. I can't believe that this is happening. we are SO totally late. TJ calls me back at about 5:45-5:47. Her garage door won't open. It's frozen shut. She has a clean car, but she can't get into it.

I go and start scraping again. By 6:00 (BTW, we start seminary at 6) I have 12 inches of visibility on my side and 5 inches on the passenger side. Good enough. I go and pick up 2 students and TJ. We get to church at 6:20 and some students have already come and gone. It's a sad day.

Hilariously enough. That's not even the best of it. As we are driving to seminary. We're talking about how those dumb seminary teachers should have cancelled seminary, and that we are never going to get there when out of nowhere, my windshield cracks.

Yep. starboard to port in two swift pops. It's taken me till today to write this post because if I wrote it yesterday I would have used words that would STILL get me in trouble with my Mom. And NO ONE wants to make her mad. (j/k mom) :)

So, as a recap, the best day ever included a car shaped ice cube. three stooges like antics, and a broken windshield. And it's not even 6:30am.
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Lots of goings on.

Okay, so I'm probably going to have to post something like a million entries. I've been tagged 3 times, and I've had some very interesting happenings in the last few days.

Okay (this is no the most eventful happening, but it is certainly on the forefront of my mind).

So I eat cereal for breakfast. This is a fairly recent change from my normal breakfast intake of...air. So I have purchased a few options. I have an old box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch that I absolutely can NOT touch (more on that later), a box of honey nut cheerios, and a brand new box of flavorless bran flakes. All good choices.

I had bran flakes yesterday so I was feeling pretty fiberful, and thought I'd indulge in a big bowl of yummy honey covered oat rings. I got my milk, my bowl, my spoon and my cereal. I said my prayer, because I don't like soggy cereal, and what if my prayer is long!?

I then open that glorious box of cereal to find...Cinnamon Toast Crunch!!!!!! Oh, the horror!

Here's the problem. Due my particular condition, I have a rather strong aversion to things, like bean soup, and oatmeal, but most of all CINNAMON! I can't stand the smell or even thinking of it. *spine shudder*

Remember, I have seminary so it's like 5:15 and I yell DH's name in vain! HE must have done this!! The EVIL FIEND!! (OK, so maybe I'm a little hormonal) He comes running thinking that I've fallen to my death on the kitchen floor and then I feel bad. I tell him to go back to bed and that he wasn't supposed to hear that.

I then settle for bran flakes, day 2.
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teeth

So, remember this post?

Well, the filling just fell out. How's that for awesome? Now I have a giant hole on the side of my tooth and absolutely no contact between my two teeth. It sure makes food fun to eat. I invariably save some for later.

Luckily, my appointment isn't for like another week. *sarcasm*
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hmmm....

So I don't really know how to approach this topic. It requires some delicacy and forethought, neither of which are core competencies for me.

This happened,



Then this happened,



and then this happened,

and then finally, this happened...


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Bankruptcy...

Big news at the office...

Yep. Tribune Co., and almost all of it's subsidiaries, is filing for bankruptcy. Chapter 11 to be exact. That means we have a crapload of debt and a really poor way of managing it.

Thusly, we were given the option to file for bankruptcy or post our Q4 ad sales and have our debt to profit ration exceed the allowable limit set forth by our many creditors.

Needless to say, it has been a very busy afternoon. I'm very tired from all the conversations that I've had with vendors and contractors trying to calm them down. No one is losing their job and no one will be defaulting on payments (hopefully...), it's just a mell of a hess.
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Tagged

Okay, so I've mostly been putting this off, because I don't think that I have any fun pictures on any computer that I use. I finally found this one and thought is was pretty good, so here you go. BTW, no 4th folder anything, I'm lucky I have a "photos" folder let alone anything organized inside it.

This is DH and I at the Thanksgiving Point gardens back in May. Obviously the sun is in our eyes, hence the goofy expression on DH's face and the mildly annoyed expression on mine.

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Dear CTA...an open letter

Dear CTA,

I want to tell you how much I love you. For 2 dollars I can go practically anywhere and at practically any time.

You are so great. Your drivers almost always know where they're going and your suggested, but not quite accurate, schedule always keeps me guessing.

I have to say though, today was a bad day. I hopped on your 151 to Union Station thinking to myself, "what luck! I only had to wait a few minutes and I even got a seat!" Then you disappointed me CTA, your bus crapped out in the middle of Michigan Ave., only two blocks from where I was picked up.

I would have had a picture to show you, but it was so cold there was no way I was stopping. Besides, I needed to find a new bus to get me to the train station. You see, CTA, I have a head cold. A very nasty one, that required me to leave work early. It was so nice of you to accommodate my needs on the quick pick-up, but to then dash my hopes of a speedy trip two blocks down was abominable.

I would like to propose a solution. We are in this together and so we MUST work this out. How about you check your buses on a consistent basis for things like working batteries, and even alternators, and I'll not look for alternative transportation.

Deal?

All my love,

Rae
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