six cats in the yard

I have been talking, for months, about wanting a pedicure. I tried to get one in SF in April when we were there and just never was able to make the time. Or I just ran out of money and couldn’t justify the expense. Nonetheless, I kept talking about it. Unexpectedly, one of my friends at work handed me a gift certificate for one of the local salons that would cover the most extensive pedicure. Then I had to decide, oooh, did I want to get a manicure, too?? I made the appointment for both and the day before the appointment, another friend at work said she wanted to pay for the manicure! Very exciting. So then I decided, I might as well get my haircut too. And so goes my spa day.   It took 3 nice, long hours, and started with a manicure that included a paraffin treatment: basically putting your hands in hot vanilla-scented wax.   While she was working on my manicure, another woman came in with her young daughter. I heard them before I saw them, the woman asking what color her daughter wanted (this little thing was probably only about 6 years old or so). Then I looked over at the two to get a look. And all of my preconceived notions about what kind of women get mani/pedis went out the window. The mother was in her late 40s, with long, dark, nearly dredlocked hair and was dressed in modern hippie attire (camo pants & a batik shirt). The daughter was wearing a long knit tan/brown poncho and looked like she could have been one of my childhood friends (or even me), free-flowing towhead blond hair, saltwater sandals, and shorts. The little girl was very excited about getting her nails done and the mother was obviously a regular. Then the mom asked about which of the nail products was more environmentally friendly, and to my amazement, the manicurist pointed her to one particular brand because apparently it didn’t have any formaldeyhde in it! Apparently I have much to learn about all of the ways in which we can make a difference without completely sacrificing some of the small enjoyments in life.  I got my first pedicure 2 years ago at Leigh’s sister’s wedding in Miami. I had previously avoided doing it mostly because I thought it was kind of frivolous and girly, and thought it was just plain silly to spend money on such a thing. Then after the first one, I realized how nice it was to have someone massaging my feet.      I’ve been reading the Simple Living Guide in hopes of getting back to the time before vet school when I really did enjoy just a sunrise or sunset, sitting and laughing with friends, seeing a beautiful flower or enjoying the moment, whatever that moment happened to bring. I haven’t been able to to that in quite awhile. The book has reminded me that “simple living” doesn’t mean depriving yourself. And the mother and her daughter brought home that point. It’s all a matter of spending your hard-earned money (or in my case, someone else’s) on something that brings you joy, even as you realize that it is a transient joy. My nail polish lasted less than a week, but the moments enjoying the massage, the soft lotions, the smells and the overall experience has helped to bring me one step closer to my goal of slowing myself down and taking in the moment.

After bugging Leigh to go to a movie last weekend (we never made it because he was readying Zippy, his lone running Roadster, for the Canby Datsun show), he mentioned that the new Shyamalan movie opened on Fri and did I want to go. It wasn’t as good as Sixth Sense, but, while it didn’t exactly have a surprise ending, it was terrifying, suspenseful, and, surprisingly, thought-provoking. I won’t reveal much about it, in case anyone out there is hoping to see it, but I found myself wondering about the possibility of such a thing happening, how fragile human existence is when we find ourselves up against the force of nature, and what we might need to do to change the possibility of such an outcome. Regardless, I still find myself disturbed (in a good way) by some of the issues raised in the movie.I have been sleeping downstairs to give the incubating baby and myself more room to have restless sleep, though half the time I find myself feeling like a mummy due to the cat on my left, the cat on my right and the cat sleeping on top of me. But last night I decided since neither of us had to get up early for anything in particular, I’d sleep upstairs with Leigh.  I have to tell you that we have been dealing with a racoon who was nightly eating all of the cat food out of the food bowls in the kitchen for 2-3 nights in a row about 4-5 nights ago. We couldn’t close the cat doors since the cats go in and out at night as they please and there was no way to wrangle all 6 of them in the house by the time we went to bed, so we hid the food. We put all of the bowls in a cupboard and the 50# cat food bag in the dryer each night to dissuade the bugger from coming back. No food, no reason to visit, right?So whether it was the movie or the ice tea I had at the theater (caffeine?) or maybe the baby bulk or trying to sleep in a bed with Leigh and 20 pillows, I was having trouble sleeping last night. At midnight, I gave up and collected my pillows to move downstairs. Right about the same time, Leigh got up and turned on the bathroom light to go pee. What did I see in light of the hallway, but a *$(%^ racoon ambling toward the bedroom door. I screeched “Get out, get out” and, of course, it came right toward me. I don’t know how I was able to leap so fast up onto the bed, especially given that I was just starting to experience a muscle cramp in my calf and needed to walk that off. It went under the bed and out the bedroom window onto the roof, hot on Wilbur’s tail who was unfortunate enough to be sitting on the windowsill when the beast came into the room. Needless to say, I shut the window after watching the racoon climb down the Rhody bush and down onto the front porch.Now we know how the racoon has been getting into the house (not through the cat doors; we wondered how it was able to squeeze through the cat doors given that Wilbur, all 17 pounds of him, barely fits through). It makes me glad that I haven’t been sleeping upstairs the last week or so because of how often I have to get up (and I never turn on the light). And we thought living in town would spare us some of the wildlife troubles… 

It seems to me that in the last few months, maybe even since graduating from vet school, that I’ve been frequently bored and restless, slightly depressed sometimes from the pregnancy hormones and maybe from the fact that I’m not completely happy with work. Not to say that I’m always unhappy. I find that when I’m on vacation or taking a long weekend, I relax, and that gives me a good perspective on what I need to do to get my sanity back. I need to work less or find another aspect of vet medicine to practice rather than “private practice.” I love the medicine aspect and the spays and neuters; I also like doing the writing or editing when we’re sending out our newsletters. But the main things that I miss and haven’t been able to get back into effectively are my creative outlets: soap making, quilting (though I guess I have made 2 baby quilts in the last few months), mosaics and decoupage…whatever else seems artful. It gives my head some time to roam and gives my hands something to do as well as giving me a practical product to show for my time… So the last few days I have been looking forward to my “time off” both before and after the baby is born. I realize that the time after really won’t be “mine” and will be full of sleep deprivation, diapers and feeding (not to mention the miracle of getting to know this brand new being), but if I can actually find a reasonable paying job that allows me to work only 3 days a week with no emergency or weekends, I am hopeful that I will eventually have some time for bits of creative bursts. I have finally returned to working on my friend Emily’s (and her husband Chuck’s) wedding quilt (note: It took me 10 years to get my friend Sarah’s wedding quilt done, so maybe I can better my time with this one). I had already cut out all the squares in 2005 or 2006 and am now in the process of putting the blocks together. I have a total of 30 blocks or so and have successfully completed 2 in the last 48 hours! I don’t think I’d be ruining her surprise (she knows about the quilt) if I display my work in progress. Maybe I’ll have it done by the time she comes to Oregon in August?      Max not included in finished piece. Though I’m sure he’ll leave his hair all over it at some point. (Sorry for the wraps, the blog is acting up and the blogmaster is still sleeping).

Too long a hiatus from the blog. Mostly laziness and being completely exhausted after getting home from a long day at work. The winter was (is?) too long this year and too damn cold. We’ve had good ob/gyn visits throughout the pregnancy and, now that I’m halfway through my 8th month, I am eagerly awaiting the time when I will no longer be pregnant. It’s been a challenge, emotionally rewarding, awe-inspiring, wondrous, too, but mostly it’s been exhausting. It’s interesting to feel the changes, and I think they happen daily. I know that I feel as though I wake up some mornings to find that my midsection has visibly grown overnight. Now the baby is seen as well as felt with its motions, jabs, kicks, stretches, rolls, whatever the hell it’s doing in there. I keep telling Leigh we should enroll it immediately in a karate class.

I am very happy that Leigh has managed to put up, mostly, with my complaints and my requests. I think we’re both getting used to the idea of being parents. I had some low moments in the beginning of the pregnancy, wondering what the hell we were doing, even though I’d always wanted kids. But having to get through the day-to-day physical discomforts made me nervous. If I couldn’t handle those, how was I going to handle putting much of my life aside for a demanding, helpless little being. I still have anxieties (doesn’t everyone?) but I feel more excited and anticipation than anything else. And besides, I can’t wait to try out the new plastic baby tub and the car seat. I don’t know how Leigh will handle the diaper changing, but I know that he’ll step up to the task. If he can clean out the cat boxes and wipe away kitty vomit, I think he’ll do fine with baby poop.

I know that I will wish, once the baby’s here, that I’d read more about what to expect and how to optimize their brain and growth, but I find that I’ll never retain the info I read anyway and that I sometimes just want to sleep rather than pick up a book. Hopefully I can make use of friends and family as parenting resources once the little one is here.

While I want our child to be a genius, I don’t want to push so hard that they don’t have fun and enjoy learning. We joke about wanting him or her to be musical and creative and outgoing…this may mean that we’d better have a Leo/Cancer cusp baby rather just a Cancer baby I hope they enjoy music, dance, sports, science, literature….and I hope they will be well rounded and compassionate. I hope that I can find exciting, creative ways to spend the time with them, so that they always know how to entertain themselves and be happy to learn and experience new things. It will be a challenge to me as well to take myself out of my shell and be able to provide those things for a child. But then I think children bring that out in people sometimes and hope that will be the case for me and I will rise to the occasion.

We have, so far, decided on a home birth. Whether that will be the way it turns out, it’s anyone’s guess. I am excited and nervous about that, mostly because I’m curious about the way I will be able to handle the birth process. I love my doctor here and would go to the hospital if it were more “home-like” but I also love the midwife and trust in her skill.

The biggest news (besides the baby) since the last posting in December is that Leigh and I have decided that Hood River just isn’t economically viable for Leigh’s line of work and he has found a job in Portland with a web/interactive design agency and now commutes every day. This means, that while commuting is certainly an option and done by some here in town, moving to Portland is the best thing, especially since I’m not sure completely satisfied with my work right now and Portland has a wider range of options for me as well.

Besides, with all the friends we have in the Portland area, we just might get to have a social life again! And think of all the thai and sushi restaurants we’ll have to choose from…Too little time, too many food choices. Though we will definitely miss the Sushi Okalani in town, we won’t miss the lack of other choices. We’ll miss First Friday in the spring & summer. And Leigh will definitely miss his friend Mike and the many Datsun bonding moments that they have regularly. All that talk of carburators…sigh. And I will (sort of) miss seeing the same people downtown and recognizing clients when I go into the grocery store.

I’ve avoided pictures throughout the pregnancy mostly because I feel like I’m big as a house, but I had Leigh take a few so people can really see that I’m pregnant, in case they didn’t believe us :)