Friday, May 23, 2008

tae kwon do in the uterus; new apartment

Woohoo, the baby finally kicked me so I could feel it! He was kicking a lot. Alexander says he must be a little ninja or something. My mom said maybe he should play for the 49ers. Which could be a good idea because when it used to matter (when you lose every game by like 30 pts, people don't talk about special teams as much it seems), they have sometimes lacked in the kicking department.

And we got news today that we got into the apartment we wanted -- and it has a dishwasher AND a washer/dryer inside the unit.. And two bedrooms. And two bathrooms. It's funny how you go back and forth with these things. I've had so many different stages of my life, some where I had those things and some where I did not, for various reasons. I'm hoping to stay in the "have them" stage for awhile now. But for instance my parents don't have either one right now either, for another few weeks or so. So there! It's in the neighborhood we wanted --cute cafes and stuff. So that is my exciting update for the week.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

in case you feel like you did something dumb lately...read this and you will feel better

Sooo.....we go to the storage place on Saturday to store some nice baby stuff (crib, toys, potty training chair, diaper pail, etc.) given to us by Alexander's bro and sister-in-law. Except (this part wasn't my fault) Alexander sort of misplaced the keys to the lock, so we went planning to break the lock with a hammer and a screwdriver (great plan, I know, but it was a cheap lock. Stuff like that always works in the movies...or so I've heard...) So after a couple of blows we decide to go buy a bolt-cutter. Here is where I become a complete idiot: it is hot, I am pregnant, and I don't feel like being left alone to watch the stuff. I also don't feel like going by myself to get the bolt cutters. Alexander would have let me do either one. So I convince him that we will leave the stuff in the indoor hallway and come right back and no one will take it. We don't tell the Storage Lady (of whom I'm sort of scared because she's...I don't know, abrupt and stuff ) I reasoned that the stuff itself except the crib is not THAT valuable, and who would take it?

Well, it took longer than we thought (no bolt cutters at the first place; I had forgotten to send a doc to my employer the night before, and I had to go home and send it) and when we got back....this part is a shocker, sit down: no stuff. I went to the rental office and asked the Storage Lady if she knew anything about some stuff left in one of the interior hallways. "What stuff?" she says sternly. "Baby stuff," I say. Her daughter, who is in the office with her, looks immediately horrified and clamps her hand on her mouth. Storage Lady says, "Why didn't you tell me???!!!?!" I say, "Well, did someone take the stuff?" She says, "Yeah, I think someone took it." I say, "Well can you call them and ask them to bring it back?" She says, "They weren't customers." I say, "They weren't customers....just random people walking around the storage place?" She admits that someone who was with a customer asked about it and she figured it was abandoned goods and told them they could have it. I burst into tears. She became more helpful. She took my number and said she would try to get in touch with the people., and to come back at 1 pm Sunday. I couldn't believe I had been so dumb. So avoidable. All I had to do was just sit there and wait. Or go the store (gasp!) by myself. It's not like I'm usually so helpless. I like doing stuff by myself. It's just that I didn't....FEEL like it.

Anyway, around this time I remembered that we are supposed to give the stuff back after we are done with it so they can donate it. So. It was, um, not really our stuff to do as we wished with anyway. I don't know if I would have been so cavalier about the stuff if I had remembered that pesky little detail...sigh. Anyway, due to the avoidableness and extreme stupidity of it, and the very real possibility that we might never see the stuff again, and the thought of having to explain this to bro and sis-in-law...I couldn't really stop crying when we were at the place, even though Storage Lady told me to.

Update: Storage Lady called me back later Saturday and the lady said she would bring it all back. Today, Sunday, we went and lo and behold, there it all was. I have never been so happy to see a dusty potty training chair in all my life.

So, do you feel better now?

PS: Sister-in-law, I don't think you read or know of this blog. If you somehow stumble upon it, um, wasn't this a great happy ending? Heh heh...

Monday, May 5, 2008

Random things that serve the purpose of putting a new post up...

Overheard at the café while I work:

--Impediment – what does it mean?
--Impediment, like impending?
--Impediment.
--It’s like something that’s about to happen to you.

Asked to me in café by person of dubious health and hygiene and apparent history (and present?) of substance abuse:

Do you have a cell phone I can borrow?

I couldn’t figure out how to answer because I didn’t want to lend her my cell phone, because (this part makes me feel really guilty) I didn’t want her hands on it, which looked really germy, and I didn’t know if she would like steal it or call somewhere that would cost money and because I didn’t really want her to make drug dealing calls on it…in short I didn’t want to lend it to her. But I DID have a cell phone, and it WOULD be possible for her to borrow it, so I didn’t know what to say. It seemed like “no” would be a lie….but then I was rescued by the café worker who told her not to ask people because it makes them uncomfortable…and then I realized that if that happens again and I don’t want to lend it, I can just say, “No,” which means “No you may not borrow it,” not “No I don’t have a cell phone that is possible to borrow.” Whew.

baby boy profile and foot :)

Isn't he cute?