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May 28, 2007
you don't have to tell me now
the highlight of today is the discovery of a new internet radio station - pandora radio. So far, for the past 4 hours hours it is has been awesome. no audio ads, all interesting music. i just put in the name of a band that i like and it creates this station of music like it. so interesting. all three i have tried have been pretty right on. well, Hem radio produced a couple of show tunes, but a couple thumbs down made those go away.
it is nice to have this day "off" from "work". I have worked on school work all day. Besides the requisite last week of quarter push of assignments, i am also trying to get a jump on my 2 final papers and final exam. due to the fact that i am going to new york on friday to see pete and jay play. yay for that. i am looking forward to the trip. i really enjoyed new york when we were out last june.
the day off is also good because it was quite the busy weekend. on sat i went to get the rattling checked out on my car and my suspicions were right, it was just a look exhaust. i hear that it is a quite common thing around here as the salt rusts that bolts on the strap that holds on the exhaust. yay for it not being something complicated. though still not cheap. well, maybe cheap in the car repair world. it was a $30 part, but $80 for the labor! crazy. for like 45 mins. i need to become a car mechanic. for reals.
then dinner with the sister and her friend. and then yesterday afternoon at a birthday party for ben's cousin's one-year old. there were a lot of people there with kids in the 1 year old range. and none of the screamed like the children in the apt downstairs. the experience reminded me that i am not a child fan. i am sure i'll be a fan of my child (heck, i think the dog hung the moon), but when other's come around i'm kind of like, hi, how's it going? and am perplexed when they don't answer. : ) though i did really love tera's baby at christmas, so maybe it just depends on the baby...or my mood. : )
the puppy sleeps a lot. even when i am here to bother and the balcony is open for people watch, she still spends much of the day laying on the couch sleeping. so cute.
both of the papers i have spent the weekend working on have really bad prompts. really bad. it is annoying. one is a critique, easy enough, but the prof tried to be nice and give us some guidance, but some of the "guidance" makes no sense in the context of the paper. Not to mention the paper we are critiquing is a lit review. it is really hard to critique a lit review as you have no idea what the author left out from the original studies. I have enjoyed thinking about "the water challenge" though. it makes me feel lucky to me living next to a giant body of freshwater.
this quarter has made me really think i would be awesome as a professor - mainly b/c i think could be doing a crazy better job than my current profs. Someday, i really do think i'll be there, just after i do the dc thing...
Posted by christina at 4:36 PM | Comments (1)
May 23, 2007
the house wins
my bag.
the puppy ruined her first shoe today. my fault for letting her be unsupervised with access to the shoe room (our second room). it was my wedding shoes, down since court's wedding. oh well. they only were like $30 and i had worn them twice and couldn't think of when i would wear them again. it is hard to stay mad at the puppy.
the sack of organ has gathered quite amount of strength since Monday. it is like he knew he hit the 24 wk (6 mo) mark on that day and he was ready to be heard. well, felt. i might have to rename him sack of organs and kicks. he is also residing on the right side of my body, giving me (what i think) is a lopsided tummy. of course, ben says he can't see it, but I CAN. i definitely look pregnant now. people are trying to give me their seats on the el. i don't take them, of course. i don't know why. mostly b/c i don't need to yet. i am sure some day i'll take them up on the offer. I've also had by FAR the most growth this month. i guess when you don't grow that much for the first 5 mos, at some pt it does catch up with you.
The crazy neighbor pissed me off again this week. We had rachel and her friend jenny stay here for a couple of nights last week. They were down with pepper one day and the neighbor was out and gave jenny a 5 min lecture on why she should close our front gate. First, if neighbor has a problem with one of my guests, she needs to say something to me, not to the guest. Second, NO ONE, not even her, closes the gate consistently. I do most of the time, ben sometimes. but it is always open. and it isn't a big deal as it is decoration anyways. neighbor's "reason" was that it keeps the dogs and kids in. Okay, if you have let your kids run out your front door and then the front door to the building and still don't have control over then when the reach the sidewalk, then you need to get control of your children. The irony of this is that last fall i was down talking with her one day and she let her kids run back and forth across the alleyway without paying attention to them or making them stop and make sure no one was coming down the alley. i was sure i was going to watch one of them get run over that day as people aren't that careful coming out of the alley and even if they were, they probably won't see a three foot high child. but i didn't say anything b/c it isn't my place. as she should be lecturing MY guests in general, much less about something stupid.
Posted by christina at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)
May 20, 2007
on and on and on / we'll stay together yeah
what weekends are like.
The school year is wrapping up. I am such a better student this time around. I read ahead. I work ahead. I plan. Partly because i am balancing "work" and school. Partly because life is just a lot more secure. I don't spend a lot time doing all those things that a college student/young 20-something does. I don't go out and stay up late. I don't spend time obsessing about boys. I don't spend enormous amount of time on the phone/iming/ICQing.
Typing ICQing makes me feel old. I loved ICQ b/c it automatically saved conversations. I can still hear the "uh-oh" of a new message. Many "deep" conversation took place via my ICQ (and then AIM) that would have never happened in real life. I still like to go back and read some of the AIMs i have saved, but do miss the ICQ. They are like old journals, except with the other person responding. The funny thing, to me at least, is that when ben and i got together we didn't do any of the AIM/e-mailing/phone dance that I was quite use to with other relationships. Even in college, when people lived down the hall, a lot of conversations took place via ICQ/AIM. Ben and I, living 20 mins apart, just would see each other.
The cat is my favorite. well...tied with the dog. I'm up in the middle of the night (can't sleep. oh sack o' organs), and she came out with me and is up on the back of the couch (like the pic) snoring away/purring in my ear. so cute.
As much as I love condo life - the location, the view - living in a building with one inconsiderate unit makes one want a house. They aren't bad enough to really even affect my daily life, but their inconsiderate behavior to the whole building makes me angry every time i think about it. i should just not think about it. i really don't, unless i am in the common area and see the gashing in the wall, or the dented heater....
Posted by christina at 4:20 AM | Comments (0)
May 16, 2007
how we spend our wednesdays
Posted by christina at 8:38 PM | Comments (0)
May 15, 2007
don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me
me. 23 wks.
Posted by christina at 7:28 PM | Comments (0)
May 12, 2007
elbo. so cute.
grey's anatomy is so annoying. i hate how all the strong women have gotten whiney and stupid. though all the men are whiney and stupid also. though it does make me ask ben all sorts of are you going to fall for someone else question. ha ha. shows like this are so stupid. but it keeps people watching. relationships are so much more about choices and so much less about falling for people in elevators.
anyways. i've grown like an amazing amount the past two weeks. of course i am sure this has to do with the never ending appetite. i didn't think i would miss small stomach syndrome, but i do a little. i know that it was inevitable that i was to grow. in fact, at this point, i did need to start growing (see: small stomach syndrome). but still. i have be enjoying being pregnant but not overly noticeably pregnant. i can still hide it,which is good when we went to a bar last night (non-smoking) to see the awesome leta since i was really self-conscience about going into a bar with a belly.
I'l have to post a new belly pic. so big.
Posted by christina at 5:05 PM | Comments (0)
May 9, 2007
today i only want the same as anyone
Courtney, my oldest friend, and me on her wedding day, April 21.
Yes, that is the dress that I had much worried about. Too bad i didn't get a full length shot.
wednesdays are good days as i don't have work or school. though i do have lots of schoolwork.
pepper and i had a good day of running errands (pepper loves the car) to get food and stuff. She napped (i worked) in the early afternoon, and then spent the late afternoon on the balcony - her watching the the world, me reading about bureaucracy. She had a much better deal. Then we came back inside and she laid in my lap until ben out home and got her all wound up. of course, he promptly left to go elliptical, and I'm left with crazy dog. I really should be doing cost-benefit problems, not throwing santa.
i love spring in Chicago. It got quite warm today and the apartment has enjoy the airing out.
The times has an interesting story on Downs kids and how due to prenatal genetic testing 90% of Downs kids are aborted! I was quite surprised at the high number, as Downs is not fatal or even, in a lot of cases, life threatening.
We have not done any prenatal genetic testing. We decided early on that the results wouldn't change our decision to have this particular sack of organs, so why do it?
Posted by christina at 2:01 PM | Comments (1)
May 6, 2007
the sky fell down and pulled us in
last weekend I made very yummy chicken pot pies. I loved how all the colors looked in the pan.
4 more weeks of class. funny how the quarters just fly buy, though this quarter i am thankful. i feel like i should be enjoying this time where i feel great, but i just like the weeks to pass. people like to tell me that i should enjoy this time b/c it passes too quickly. i am enjoying both the time and the passing quickly of the time.
i have definitely reached the hungry phase of the second trimester. the baby finally moved off my stomach and now i do longer have small stomach syndrome for the most part. of course, the baby moving off my stomach i believe occurred with a definitely growth in the belly. it seems like we are in the growing out stage and not in the crowding out your organs phase.
my exercise ball will be here tuesday. i'm quite excited. Once i reached the 20th week i am not suppose to do exercises on my back. i said goodbye to my awesome mtv pilates dvd. the prenatal pilates i got from netflix was lame. after a little research, i found that i can still do (and should do) the ab exercises, but just not on my back, hence the exercise ball. while i have been waiting, though, i have been sneaking in 20 roll-ups on my strength days. i have just been doing the on my side portion of the aforementioned pilates disc, but i really couldn't resist adding the roll-ups back in once i read it was just a cutting off blood flow to my legs problem rather than hurting the baby problem. but now, with the exercise ball and my pilates on the ball book, i should be back in business.
(side note, the major problem with most prenatal workouts is that they are made for people who didn't really do much before, or just did a regular amount of exercise before. they are not made for crazies like me who still elliptical ~ 5 miles 6 days a week and want to do some good strengthening on my day off.)
Posted by christina at 1:12 PM | Comments (0)
May 2, 2007
when every living breath was another new dawn
me again at 21 weeks.
i decided to take another pic yesterday as my outfit didn't hide my belly.
i am so excited that it is warm and i'm not in the lab so i can wear skirts and flip-flops.
Posted by christina at 7:54 PM | Comments (0)
May 1, 2007
i will stay
mopsy (my mom's puppy) and guy/dude/elbo (rachel's kitten) rolling around playing in my lap. NOTHING CUTER!!!!!
beside my loves pepper and izzy. and i guess ben, but he isn't very cute, more scruffy, so not on the cute list.
Posted by christina at 10:11 PM | Comments (0)