After an absolutely drenching, cold weekend that led to a 2 hour nap (UNDER THE COVERS, the peak of napping) wherein I dreamed I was ordering a Happy Meal in Omaha’s "train & plane station," and wherein I also dreamed that I was napping (napping in a nap dream means total exhaustion for me), today was a much better day. I slept in, with the cat snuggled up as close as she could get. I had cream of wheat for breakfast, talked to Amy and my mom, took a shower, and headed out to the movie theater to see "In Her Shoes." It was exactly what I wanted from the movie (although — spoiler alert — I was kind of bummed they cut out the part where she lived in the library at Princeton) and on my way in, I saw one of my old students, which was a total highlight. A kid from the other program saw me first and tugged on Sam’s sleeve, who turned around and jumped the velvet rope and gave me a hig and told me that "school is totally boring since you left! WE MISS YOU!" So that was way, way cool. She was (is) a good kid, and it was cool to know that I was missed.
After the movie, I picked up Andy and went to Governor’s for a late lunch, and then we tooled around TJMaxx for a bit. One of the baby dreams I’ve had is that nothing is ready when the baby comes, and one of the things I dreamed of was a red gingham crib bumper*, which I really liked the idea of when I woke up. At TJ’s, they had one, but it was 30 bucks, and I couldn’t justify it. They also had a whole crib set with a red gingham theme for 36, that was more tempting, but it also seemed a bit early to even spend 36 bucks.
I dropped Andy off, and went to the mall to get a new pair of pants. I had been so bloated from not pooping in 6 weeks, that I’d worn my maternity pants for a few days, but when sweet relief finally arrived, they were too big. (Seriously. My belly was hard and distended from. . .The Situation.) My regular pants are fitting weirdly (maybe 1 lb of weight gain so far) and I had a coupon, so I picked up a pair of stretchy fat pants jeans at Lane Bryant. Oddly enough, while I was looking around, a woman came out of the dressing room and was all "Hi, Gretchen!"
It’s odd, because this is a girl I sort of grew up with. She is the niece of my dad’s former business partner, which is closer than it sounds. His partner is more like a grandfatherly type to my sister and I, and she was always at cookouts and such. Anyway, the last time I saw her was about 3 days before I found out I was pregnant the last time. I ran into her at Target, and we talked for an hour or so, and she commented that the last time we’d run into each other she’d been pregnant with her youngest. Today when she popped into view, I said "okay, this is too weird." I told her that any time that we’ve run into each other in five years, one of us had been pregnant, and I told her about the m/c (and she shared her own m/c experience, I swear, I think the 25% is a really low figure on that topic) and that I was pregnant again, and we discussed that. She asked who my doc was, and when I told her, she said that that was hers as well, and that she LOVED her. (I really hit the goldmine with my OB, I’m sure of it.) I bought the pants (and she said "you’re buying PANTS? You know that you don’t have much longer to fit into them, right?" heh) and decided to go for a lap around the mall, just to do it.
Whenever I walk through the food court, I always look to see if I see any kids there. I rarely do, but I always look. On my way back through, as I was headed out, I scanned again, and had the thought of "I wish I could run into Kaitlin and Ashley one of these days, I wonder how they’re doing. . . ." I literally had the thought, got sad that I hadn’t seen them in so long, and heard "S*******! Is that you?!" I turn around, and there were K&A. They ran up to me and hugged me and were so excited to see me. These are two of my favorite kids, ever. I told them about the miscarriage on the 8th grade trip, because they had become so concerned about me, it was easier to tell them than not. They never told anyone (that I’m sure of) and were sad, but relieved to know I didn’t have cancer. They are just good kids. I’ve told Dave that they are my first choice in babysitters for the future (and I told them that, when I told them about the m/c) so I said "Hey, girls, I might have a job for you this summer!" They looked at me for a minute, and K figured it out and said "Oh! Are you pregnant!" and when I said I was, they both squealed. I told them that it was still early, and that I was still nervous because of last time, but that I was feeling pretty confident that I would need their services when I finished up my classes this summer. They were totally thrilled.
K’s email addy had changed (and A’s doesn’t allow non-AOL senders or whatever, parental controls, which is cool) so when I left, they were running off to one of those "enter to win this stupid contest" kiosks to write down my email address that they were repeating out loud to remember it.
It was so cool. They told me about how school was going, that K had a boyfriend, that they totally missed me. K’s science teacher had asked them to write about what their favorite teachers had been like, and K said she wrote that I was "the only teacher I’d ever liked, and no one could ever be like [me]." Awwww.
It was just a good day. I made dinner (meh), and took a catnap, and am ready to tuck in for the night under the down comforters. It’s chilly here (but still a good 10 degrees warmer than our apt. in Levant was in it’s cold days — I cannot BELIEVE we spent 3 winters in a 50 degree house), and we’re trying to hold off on firing up the furnace until November, on account of the oil prices (but hey, we have a super efficient house and furnace, so I won’t complain too loudly) so for now, it’s feathers and furrry FatKitty keeping us warm at night. Life could be so much worse.
*There’s lots of pro/con stuff about bumpers, but in our case, it would pretty much be totally decoration for the first few months anyway, as we’ll have the babe in our room for a while, anyway.