This working woman has got to work!

So, time is ticking down to the arrival of our little bundle of joy! At my last appointment with the midwife, she said that Baby K was in good position and even though my due date is still a few weeks off, just consider ourselves at "any day now" status. How exciting!

Well, now that I am clearly walking around with a stomach akin to a regulation size women's basketball under my shirt, I'm getting lots of questions from strangers about my worklife. People are amazed that I'm still able to get to work everyday (but not so amazed that I can manage to walk around a mall or up and down the streets). Then when I inform them that I am only going to be off for 6 weeks post-partum, they are completely flabbergasted? Six weeks?!

Apparently, around these parts (and maybe its a West Coast thing), women go on maternity leave 3-4 weeks before their due date. Why? What the hell am I going to do around the house all day other than watch Judge Judy and play don't-blink contests with Figaro? How boring! It would be nice to only be on a half-day schedule, because I start to get a little tired around 2:30, but nothing to run home about!

Also, women generally will take off 6 months to a year after the baby is born. I think that's nuts! Of the 13 moms in our childbirth classes, 1 was not returning to work at all (which is completely reasonable to me - though not my style), 1 is returning to work after a year, 8 are returning to work after 6 months, 1 after 3 months, 1 after 8 weeks and myself after 6 weeks. The rest of the class thought us two "short-timers" were completely nuts. How could we even imagine to manage that we would be able to return to work so quickly. Won't we miss the baby? Won't the baby still need us to be home with them?

After explaining (not that we needed to) that some of us need two paychecks to run a household, their scorn turned to pity that our poor husbands can't provide for us. Of course they didn't say as much, but you could see it on their faces.

I'm sick of these crazy people around here making me feel bad about my mothering before the baby even gets here! I don't think I'd take off more than 8 weeks even if I could! How boring (in my opinion) for me to be sitting around the house with no companionship other than a baby. I need the stimulation of adult conversation. I need work day lunch with my favorite coworkers. I actually love my job and will miss it while I'm on leave (though, I won't miss the actual working part of it). I am blessed in that Baby K's daycare is about 150 yards from my office, so I can go and see, cuddle, snuggle, spy on, breastfeed, kiss, and hug my little one whenever I please.

But sheesh! Give me a break! Sorry, just had to vent about that. Meanwhile, Purdue broke my heart (as expected) last night by losing. We always get sooooo close!

Starbucks vs. McDonald's

So, among other mega-conglomerates, the Seattle area is home to Starbuck's HQ. Well, in the last few months, McDonald's has started serving (pretty yummy) coffee shop-style products as well - lattes, cappucino, espresso, iced coffees. As soon as they rolled out this new section of the menu, they launched a full-on attack on Starbucks. There were commercials of people sitting in a Starbuck's-looking coffee shop finally realizing that they were paying too much for mediocre coffee. Snapping out of it, kicking off pretentious clothing and over-pronouncing words and running with glee to their nearest McDonald's. Those commercials were great too watch. The latest phase of advertising has been about billboards lining the highway very near Starbucks HQ (and elsewhere in the area that read

Four dollars for coffee is dumb.

.

There's also my favorite commercial where a woman comes up to the counter and rattles off a super long coffee shop style order (Come on, we've all done it - "I'll have a vente half-decaf skinny vanilla latte slightly foamy please"), then she realizes she's at McDonald's and rejoices in the fact that all she has to order is a medium coffee. Hilarious.

Now, since I think Starbucks coffee tastes burnt and is over-priced, I've really enjoyed this little media blitz. But, Starbuck's is beginning to get embarrased. Even though their media people keep saying that they will not join in the pettiness of McDonald's ad campaign, they've been releasing statements everyday saying that they think the campaign is juvenile and that Starbucks does not resort to tit-for-tat advertising.

Only in Seattle, would news of a Starbucks/McDonald's designer coffee war be a headline in the news even though we're in a massive global financial crisis, at least two wars and political corruption exposes.

Contender for Husband of the Year

I woke up yesterday morning to 2 tickets to the Seahawks/49ers game on my pillow.

Sure, they lost. But at least I was there to see it - live and in person.

Can your husband top that?

You Gotta Have Friends

Friends are invaluable.

I think this move to Seattle will probably be my last relocation for quite a while (I hope!) Prior to this, I darted around a lot. To Houston for college – with stays in OKC and Austin in between. To Indiana for grad school. To Smithville, then Bastrop during my post-doc. Then across the country to Washington State.

Because of this, I have friends all over the country (and a few scattered around the globe). That’s very cool. But, each time I move, I leave my “local” friends behind. I miss their company, for sure…but I also miss the little amenities that each friend brings to make my life better.

As we approach the end of May (this is traditionally “moving season” for me), I want to acknowledge some of the little details I took for granted about my friends that I am really missing now that I live near NOONE.

~Christy can unravel a snaggled mess of tangled necklaces in about 5 minutes.
~Angel can be dressed and ready to go from the time it takes me to drive the 3 blocks to her house.
~Jewel can tame my hair into styles I never thought were possible.
~Josey will rearrange her plans to go have some impromptu fun.
~DaVida will pimp the parking lot with me and have fun doing it.
~Damion will ignore his ringing phone to listen to my problems.
~Rachele is always down for happy hour. Always.

I miss you guys!

The Day of Three Posts

Seattle Asian Pacific Island Heritage Festival 2008

So, beignets and lattes are certainly not asian. But, Seattle Center has a New Orleans Beignet stand and I just wanted the world to know that they taste deliciously authentic, and the coffee wasn't half bad.