48 days to go

With 48 days to go, I swing back into the "I'm not surprised by anything" mind-set.

Day three of my cold, and it's worse. So much worse, that my nose and lips are swollen and chapped from all of the sneezing, blowing, wiping, and open-mouth breathing. I have never understood the cold cycle that includes days of feeling better followed by a worse down-turn. Yesterday I was able to get myself showered and out of the house to run to the pharmacy and grocery store. I wanted to hit one more shop, but told myself why push it? tomorrow I'll be all better! That did not happen. Nope, I woke up swollen and stumbling and incapable of properly reading a calendar of all things. I misread the reminders left in TWO places for an appointment, forced myself to throw on some clothes, and was on my way to the door when Eric pointed out that the message on our answering machine said the appointment was for tomorrow. Instantly, my mind re-deciphered my interpretation of the calendar reminders, confirming he was right without any need to listen to the phone message. That's a new one! Then again, yesterday I swear I got high off of a regular dose of Tylenol, so... like I said, nothing is really surprising me too much right now.

Getting yet another cold during the pregnancy reminded me of the six months I spent working and/or volunteering at a day care center about ten years ago. I was taking classes at the community college in hopes of becoming a preschool teacher. The idea just felt so right at the time. Until I got sick, and then stayed sick the entire rest of my time there. I actually abandoned the whole thing because of my health. I was told that it was common to get sick a lot in the first year, but six months straight of cold after cold was my limit.

So now what am I doing? Having my own child, so I can live with my very own germ-factory 24/7. Yet another sign that I am a crazy person. The show House M.D. could easily devote an entire season to my health history and still not diagnose/cure me 100%, and yet I chose to get pregnant. Pregnancy and motherhood are incredibly taxing on the human body. What was I thinking?!

At least I don't have to go through the trouble of getting a Whooping Cough vaccination. We're having a mini-epidemic in the area, with story after story on the news begging people to get vaccinated. The latest one last week claimed that 90% of adults aren't vaccinated. Considering this is something currently being bundled with Tetanus boosters, I can't quite wrap my head around that. But it did get me on the phone to ask about my last Tetanus shot and get confirmation that not only did I get the proper bundle, but I wouldn't be due for another booster for another year. Whew.

49 Days: What's on my mind

49 days to go. Holy crap! Yes, somehow curbing my swearing is on my To-Do List. In fact, in the next seven weeks (seven?!?!), I hope to:

• stop swearing
• baby-proof the house
• cat-proof the nursery
• clean out nursery of painting paraphernalia
• set-up nursery (baby furniture assembly, clothing & toys & book organization, decorating, etc)
• finish organizing, cleaning upstairs office, bathroom, bedroom
• celebrate anniversary
• shop for/make presents
• hit every Seattle used book store for out-of-print Stephen Cosgrove's Serendipity series
• pick pediatrician
• attend birthing classes
• attend baby shower
• attend Heidi's birthday party
• pack hospital bag
• agree on Kailea's middle name
• recover from cold
• stop getting sick
• stop cheating on diabetic diet
• gain more weight
• remember to eat veggies
• remember to take vitamins
• make decisions on medications
• episiotomy avoidance training
• cats to vet
• start clipping cats' claws regularly
• kick cats out of bedroom at night, leading up to permanent 24/7 ban
• deal with whiney cats
• finish downstairs "cat haven"
• stop contemplating chopping off my hair
• enjoy regular showers
• stop paying so much attention to politics
• stop having such high expectations of blog and just WRITE
• CALL MY MOTHER
• stop singing the "I'm having an alien baby" song, no matter how freaky it is when she re-enacts scenes from the Alien movies
• somehow eliminate the wound-care scene of the movie "50/50" from my memory
• remember the 500 other things I have to do before baby arrives that I can't seem to recall right now

Stuff on my mind that I can't stop thinking about, but will probably never find the time to actually write about:

Rick Santorum is stupid.
Rick Santorum Pledges To Defund Contraception: ‘It’s Not Okay, It’s A License To Do Things’
Santorum: no apology needed for Quran burning
Santorum: Separation Of Church And State 'Makes Me Want To Throw Up'
Santorum's stone-age view of women

Rick Santorum is dangerous.
Santorum's policies would have killed my daughter

Rick Santorum is offensive to non-Christians, believing that theology not based on the Bible is phony.
Santorum: Obama's worldview upside-down

Non-Christian values and religious views that include environmentalism and helping each other are not phony, nor are they non-Christian.
Kwanzaa (see: Collective Work and Responsibility, Cooperative Economics)
(Christian) Stewardship

Marriage Equality was declared a right by the Supreme Court back in the 60s.
Constitution Day: Marriage Equality Is A Right The Constitution Demands

The Defense of Marriage Act ignores the Constitution's Full Faith and Credit Clause.
Defense of Marriage Act
Full Faith and Credit Clause

Correlation and Causation are not the same fucking thing.
or
Gestational Diabetes is has nothing to do with being fat, and implying it does is offensive, cruel, and dangerous.
Exaggerating the Risks Again
Gestational Diabetes, Weight Loss, & More!
I Am Sure You Have Gestational Diabetes Because You Are Overweight
You Did NOT Eat Your Way to Diabetes!

Hallelujah I have not yet run into any offensive breast-feeding nazis, pregnancy worshippers, parenting saints, or tummy-rubbing personal-space invaders!
Don't Carpe Diem

My mother-in-law is awesome.

Gay Marriage

Gay marriage is in the spotlight here in Washington state, thanks to a surprise move from our Governor, followed by an historic vote in Olympia. I'm still kind of blinking the sleep from my eyes, wondering how this has all moved along so quickly. Gay marriage being a subject I'm personally very passionate about, I wanted to organize my thoughts a little, because they're kind of scattered right now.

Someone close to me recently pronounced that gay marriage was a "right". Me being the flaming liberal that I am, I cheered, but also... I wondered if it was worth pointing out that I disagree.

Am I crazy??? No. Americans have "certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Some people like to ignore that word "among", creating a very literal translation of what "rights" an American citizen enjoys. Usually, I'm not one of those people. Mostly, because I think a whole bunch of things fall under the definitions of "Life" - stuff like food and clothing and shelter and health care.

But where would you put "marriage" into that trifecta? Under the pursuit of "happiness"? Really? Have you seen our divorce rate?

That's my problem with gay marriage in a nutshell: I think marriage itself is kind of... how to say this gently... Um, a con? Rip-off? How about just plain unnecessary? Yes, unnecessary is the best description I think. It's necessary to nothing, let alone to Life, Liberty, and Happiness. So how can it be a right?

In the strictest terms, it's not. It's an agreement, a contract, a religious rite/observance, a piece of paper, a piece of insurance for your own peace of mind. It's a lot of things, but a right? Not really.

So... why all the fuss?

Because someone decided to make it a right the moment our government said "you guys can do it, but you guys can't." They made it an extra bonus, a privilege, an honor bestowed on a class of people but denied to another class. WHAM! Our government created a second class of citizens that were not allowed to do something that people in the first class could. And not only that, but once those people were married, they were given benefits that could not be achieved in any other way. Now there are two classes where not only does one get to do something the other can't, but then they are rewarded and favored for going through with it.

Someone speaking before the legislature today expounded how this is very much not about civil rights. Hello?! Could this be any more about civil rights? Our government has created a second class of citizens for the sole purpose of denying something to them. That sounds pretty much exactly like a civil rights issue to me.

Marriage is silly. It's frivolous. But in America, there are financial and civil considerations involved. People get married for the "wrong" reasons all the time. There is a small minority who would actually like to get married for the only right one: love. It's time to keep your religion in your churches, your laws out of my love life, and let us all enjoy a little equality for a change. That's what America's supposed to be founded on, right?