away we go, indeed

I just spent a wonderful week in Michigan with my family and friends. I spent my time there hopping around from one wonderful person to another. It all started with an extremely fun baby shower thrown by my mom and sister. I can't describe how perfect it was seeing so many people I love in one place. Not to say I don't love people in SF, it's just different. We got such adorable and fitting things for our little guy. Every day it gets more real that there is a little person growing inside me, and we're getting more and more excited to meet him.

Michigan is so green right now. I loved being so close to nature and experiencing thunderstorms. I love being able to simply be around my family. It was amazing being in the same part of the world with Dianne and Michelle. We had a good time rehashing classic college stories and catching up on each other's lives. Dianne got married in Spain and is having a second wedding celebration at her mom's in Ortonville. I have to miss it, which is so very completely sad even though I have a good reason that's kicking around in my stomach as I type. On that note, it was a bit of a bummer realizing that this visit was the only glimpse into my pregnancy for so many important people in my life. I left Michigan with such a melancholy, bittersweet feeling. I was so excited to get back to SF to see Dan and the dogs, and my nearest and dearest friends in SF, but it was so hard saying goodbye to people in Michigan this time around. I couldn't decide if I was leaving home, or heading home. I guess I've always subconciously defined "home" as the place where the people I love are, but now home is this ambiguous and confusing word to me seeing how the people who I love the most are spread all over the world these days.

Sunday Dan and I decided to hit up a matinee of Sam Mendes' new movie, "Away We Go". Dave Eggers co-wrote it, and it stars John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph - two of my faves. Alexi Murdoch does the soundtrack, which is beautiful and amazing. This couple is expecting their first baby and trying to figure out where home is and how they're going to figure out how to be parents. All around, that movie really hit it on the nose for us. It was so funny seeing our lives mirrored in this movie, to some extent. They have a cardboard window in their home (p.s. ours is fixed as of yesterday!), all the exchanges between the two characters are such familiar conversations, fears, and excitement we're going through, and they're trying to figure out just where they want to live, and meanwhile they are so very much in love.

Watch the trailer, and see this movie! (You don't have to be pregnant to enjoy it, of course.)


People's reactions to her pregnant belly in the movie are all too familiar. Here's my list of crazy things people have said to me lately:

-So, what are you, like 20 months?

-Wow, you've really dropped! (A waitress at Chili's at the airport who I've never seen before)

-Are you sure there aren't two in there?

-LADY: How far along are you?
Me: Starting my 8th month.
LADY: The worst is yet to come.
ME: (turn my head away in shock taht someone would actually say that.)
(Random lady while I was getting a manicure)

-Are you sure that's your due date?

-You're not having that baby today, right? (Old woman on the plane as I boarded)

-(an encounter with a woman in an airport restuarant. She says all this very quickly as she jumps from her table and starts touching my belly) Oh, 8 months, really? I bet you'll be early. Are you going to have a vaginal birth? I mean that's really what you need to go through. Are you having an epidural? I did. Trust me, you'll want to. You can handle it, I know you can, but just get the epidural. Okay, good luck. Have fun!

I'm sure there are more. I'll add to the list once I remember them.

So for now, it's summer and I am making a list of things to do. Naps will be frequent, I'm sure of that.