Accepting the Inevitable

Signs that led me to believe that we might actually have a nice, cold, snowy winter this year:

• The past summer and fall were very hot, but also very humid, which was in stark contrast to the very hot and dry pattern of the last few years. I took that to mean that this winter would be cold and humid (and therefore, snowy), rather than cold and dry.
• McMoose and others who have experienced more than two Raleigh winters claim that every 4th winter brings a lot of snow. And by "a lot," they mean "one snowstorm that leads to 3-4 inches of actual accumulation." And at this point? I'd settle for that. I have come down off my high horse and would now be happy for ANY ACCUMULATION WHATSOEVER.
• We had some extremely cold weeks in November. I mean, there were highs in the 30's, for crying out loud. And there was frost on the car when I went out in the morning. Frost! If that doesn't signal coming coldness, I don't know what does.

Signs that are now leading me to believe that my initial expectations were mistaken:

• It was 70 degrees out on Tuesday.
• It was in the high 60's yesterday.
• It's in the slightly lower 60's today. With lots of rain.
• The rest of the week is supposed to be in the high 50's. It might dip into the high 40's at some point. But probably not.

So apparently, we've decided YET AGAIN to skip the winter portion of the year and just go straight ahead to spring. And actually? I'm starting to be okay with this because I've discovered that shivering while pregnant is not so much fun. Things rattle around inside and make me worry that maybe my liver has come loose. So...okay. I can make my peace with the balmy winter. And now that I've said that, I'm sure we'll be covered under 2 feet of snow by this time next week.

The Boy-Bug

Yesterday, The Bug and I had our 18 week ultrasound, where it was summarily determined that The Bug is a Boy Bug who displays an odd combination of being stubborn, yet laid back. Of course, when you combine me with McMoose, what you get is precisely an odd combination of stubborn (me) and laid back (not so much me). Based on what I knew about The Bug's seemingly nocturnal patterns of activity, I decided that it would be a good idea if, in addition to my usual Very Tall glass of water, I were also to drink a Very Tall glass of orange juice before the appointment because I had read that orange juice makes fetuses wake up and move around. I had also read that being exposed to the ultrasound waves themselves makes fetuses wake up and move around.

The Bug, apparently, had not read any of these things, so he sat there like a bump on a log the whole time. In fact, the only effect that the orange juice had was in making my bladder so uncomfortably full that I was worried I'd pee on the ultrasound tech. At one point, the tech and McMoose both swore that The Bug flexed his foot, but I missed that moment of alertness. And then, when the tech needed to take a measurement of his head, he turned the other way and steadfastly refused to turn back, even though she jiggled and jostled my belly relentlessly...the belly which housed the aforementioned Very Full Bladder. I'm assuming she did eventually get the measurements she needed because she quit torturing me and printed out some pictures, two of which I will be happy to share.

The Bug's profile (of head and belly) with his mouth open:

The Bug (head, belly, and arms) looking like he's ready to punch anyone who questions his odd, alien-like appearance:

Of course, I also have some pictures that, um, prove that he's a boy, but I don't think the Internet needs to be privy to those...

Getting Lost and Gloating

You'd think that after two and a half years of living in a city, I'd at least be able to find my way from a restaurant back to campus. You'd be sorely, sorely wrong. Somehow, I ended up going in the opposite direction, merging onto strange highways that I didn't even know EXISTED and almost hit a UPS truck because I was fiddling with the oh-so-uncooperative GPS thing. And this is what happens when you have no directional sense whatsoever. I blame genetics for this. And also? I hope The Bug gets McMoose's annoyingly unerring sense of direction.

And as an aside to McMoose: I might not have the best sense of direction, but I do have pretty awesome senses about other things, as evidenced by the fact that I was right, I was right, I was RIGHT, RIGHT, RIGHT! Ha.

Suggestions For The Road

1. Do not stop in the middle of a busy road to drop off or pick up a passenger. I know it's cold, but this is why parking lots exist. The gratitude that your friend feels will in no way offset all the negative feelings (and words and possibly rocks) being hurled at you by the 15 cars waiting behind you.

2. If you're a driving a Very Large Truck, maybe it's not the best idea to park on a Very Small Street. Because again, the 15 cars who are stuck behind you while you go buy a soda? ARE NOT PLEASED.

3. If it's not snowing and it's not expected to snow any time in the next two centuries or so, maybe it's not necessary for gas stations to salt their parking lots. Because then, when for some inexplicable reason, they decide to flood their parking lot with 3 inches of water, it all turns into a nasty, slushy mess which cakes itself onto (a) cars, and (b) people's shoes. Or maybe the real suggestion here is: Don't flood your parking lot.

4. The zebra stripes on the street indicate a crosswalk. Aka: a place where pedestrians can cross the street WITHOUT THE FEAR OF IMPENDING DEATH. Apparently, they don't cover this little tidbit of information in driver's education courses anymore because how else would you explain the fact that EVERY SINGLE TIME I've crossed a particular street on campus, cars zoom up, hit their brakes at the last minute, and then have the nerve to sit there glaring at me?

Intricacies of Today

• I tried something new at Bruegger's today and for once, it actually involved a bagel. I didn't actually mean to try it--I just got up to the counter and my brain said "A bowl of chili, please," and my mouth decided it would be funnier to say "Could I have bacon, egg, and cheese on a plain bagel?" And then, I spent the next hour completely confused because I think that's the first time my mouth has ever tried to revolt against my brain. Maybe The Bug was in control of my mouth at that exact instant?
• Today is the last day of class for the semester. It would be very exciting, except that before it's over, I have to give a presentation. More to the point, I have to listen to 4 other people give presentations. And even MORE to the point, I know from previous (dreadful)experience that at least two of these people interpret "10 minute presentation" to mean "45 minute lecture."
• I woke up this morning to find that the bread was not on top of the refrigerator, where it's supposed to be, but instead sitting under our coffee table. I think maybe Black Cat has the feline version of cabin fever, because she definitely dials up her level of CRAZY in the winter.
• We have exactly THREE WEEKS until Christmas. Dude, I need to go buy some presents!

Running Hot And Cold

There are some people who are really, really skilled at getting dressed. They check the weather. They make sure everything matches. They even pick out complementary accessories. And often, they lay out their clothes the night (or the week) before so they don't have to fumble around in their closet each morning. If this is you, I'm deeply envious of you because needless to say, I am not one of these people. I am a person who blindly picks out things to wear each morning and then spends the rest of the day being grouchy about the fact that I'm wearing a sweater during a heat wave.

So many years ago, I decided that they way to compensate for this clothing-related learning disability was to arrange the clothes in my closet according to their appropriate season. And now, my tank tops sit on one end of my closet and my sweaters sit on the other, and never the two shall meet. And for the better part of a decade, this system has worked wonderfully for me. Granted, I might still show up in green corduroy pants and a striped orange and purple sweater, but at least I'm not trying to brave a blizzard in a tank top and shorts.

And then, we moved to Raleigh. Where not only is the weather inconsistent from one day to the next, but it doesn't even stay stable during the course of a single day. This morning, for example, it was 31 degrees when I left the house. So I decided that it would be a coat, gloves, and hat kind of day. And now, 5 hours later? It's 58 degrees. THE ONLY WAY to prepare for this kind of temperature change is if you wear edible clothing and then snack on it over the course of the day. Which I might consider doing tomorrow, when the low is 32 and the high is 61.

This Is Why Good Street Signs Are a Must

Back at the end of August, McMoose and I went to a football game a few hours away from home and since we were planning to be out of the house for about 12 hours and The Dog can only last for about 8 before his bladder explodes, we had asked one of my friends to take him out in the middle of the day. After the game, I checked my cell phone, only to find that this friend had left me 5 messages in a 20 minute window of time.

Message 1 went something like this: "Anisha, we can't find your apartment!" Then, there was message 2: "Well, we found your apartment, but the key doesn't work. We're going to talk to the managers." Message 3: "We talked to the managers and apparently, we were in the wrong building. We're going to the right building now." Message 4: "THE KEY STILL DOESN'T WORK." And finally, message 5: "We were at the wrong building again. But we finally found the right one and we took The Dog out and he marked every bush within a 1 mile radius and then collapsed from the sheer exhaustion of walking for a mile."

Because apparently, there are three apartments in our complex that all have the same number. And although the street names (and therefore, the addresses) for these apartments are different, the street signs are confusing, to say the least. Which explains why it can sometimes be confusing for new people who are trying to navigate around the complex.

Fast-forward to this morning, when I was merrily enjoying my cereal when some people with very heavy boots came clomping up the stairs and began pounding on my door. Assuming it was the maintenance people coming to check the air filter or some similarly mundane thing, I took my time getting to the door. So you can imagine my SHEER PANIC when I opened it and it was not the maintenance people, but rather four very menacing looking police officers.

After some initial confusion about the fact that I was not the person they were looking for, I meekly suggested that perhaps they were looking for one of the other apartments of the same number. And as it turns out, real life cops are much nicer than the sarcastic, quippy ones they show on TV, so after a quick peek at my driver's license, they all clomped back down the stairs, got into their cruisers and drove off, with a news van following close behind. So for the rest of the day, I've been obsessively checking the news websites in vain to see what exactly was going on in my (seemingly very safe) neighborhood this morning. Because come on. FOUR police officers? AND a news van sitting in the parking lot? That seems like pretty big stuff to me. And yet, there hasn't been a single article about what was going on? Maybe I should ask for a police scanner for Christmas.