On Working with Morning (All-Day) Sickness

Anyone who tells you that "morning" sickness is only relegated to the morning is full of shit. That might be the case for some people, but for a lot of other ladies, myself included, that shit lasts ALL DAY!

I was lucky enough to feel sick pretty much all day every day for the first 3 months or so. I cursed J and I cursed my unborn son, and I cursed my surging hormones. I spent a lot of time on the couch when I could. I went to bed at 8:00pm and slept for 14 hours. I rested my head on my desk a lot. It sucked.

However, that finally seemed to pass. I felt human again and less like a zombie. It really was true, you do start to feel better and get a little more energy in your second trimester. I only felt sick occasionally, which I could deal with. I stopped plotting to suffocate J in his sleep with a pillow.

Yesterday though, was a real humdinger. I seriously thought I was going to die. I was thinking, great, I'm going to die curled up on my bathroom floor with my cat and dog staring at me. All I wanted was some fresh air and I couldn't even drag myself to a window or a door to stick my head out, but oh shit, I had to go to work.

Normally, if I feel this bad, I might shoot my boss a text asking to come in after my crappiness has passed, and he'd oblige because he's a pretty nice guy. But, he's on a much needed vacation, so I absolutely HAD to work no matter what. I dragged my sorry ass in and plopped down at my desk and hoped for the best. It was a busy day, people stopped in which I had to pretend to be happy to see and not look like death warmed over. My favorite part of the day came when a previous client came in looking for a house for her son just as I was preparing the leave to get a little bit of food to stick in my gob. For some reason, I decided to take her our to few local places, thinking, this will only take half an hour, tops! Boy was I wrong.

Needless to say, I had to suck it up and make like I felt great even though all I truly wanted to do was go home and fall down on my couch with my fur babies and wait for the sickness to pass. And that my friends, is why certain knocked up chicks are bad ass.

Happy Friday.

On Michigan Driving

I'm sure it's no different anywhere else, but when I go out to do some driving, be it to or from work, or running an errand, I'm always coming across asshats who have no idea what they're doing behind the wheel.

Mostly it's fools diddling with their cell phones either at a red light or while driving with their children in the car, and flying down the freeway, not paying attention. This makes me long for the days when I first started driving and cell phones were new, and people drove instead of chattering away on their damn phones.

Now, I understand, some people need to be talking on their phone while driving, for work reasons maybe, and I suppose that's excusable. But driving is a pretty big deal, if you're not paying attention because you're too busy playing Angry Birds on your phone, you're going to kill someone.

Another thing that consistently pisses me off is inconsiderate drivers. I love the ones that just have to cut you off even though there is no one behind you for miles! And then, they don't even turn right away, they simply cut you off for the sake of doing so.

Here in the Mitten, we have the "Michigan Left" which typically needs to be executed with northbound and southbound or eastbound and westbound traffic. Everyone knows that when you're in the turn around, in the far (outer) lane, you're either going straight, say into a parking lot or something or you're headed into the far right lane of traffic. Well, some dipshits either don't know, or don't care to follow proper protocol and I recently came across someone who was in the inner lane (meant to go to the far left lane of traffic) and decided it was prudent to drive straight across the highway, cutting me off to pull into a shopping center. I nearly lost my mind.

Dealing with these people who probably got their license from a cereal box makes me not want to drive. But then, what are my options? I could try public transportation, which around here no one really wants to do unless they have to. Or I can start riding my bicycle everywhere. Sure, it'd take me longer to get to my destination, but I'd be in great shape. Of course, I'd have to worry about aforementioned asshats running me over while not paying attention. It's a no-win situation.

On the Great Debate: Smart Phones vs. Regular Phones

I've long since been an advocate of a regular cell phone. You know, one that makes and receives phone calls, and maybe has texting ability. Because you really can't get by in today's world without texting, am I right.

I got my first cell phone when I was 16. Not because I begged my parents for one, or even wanted one for that matter. I had a pager, bitches, it was legit. Cell phones were just starting to come out, they were giant, like Zach Morris' phone. My mom insisted I have one when I started driving, "for emergencies." If I ever got stranded somewhere or thrown into someone's trunk, I'd have my giant Nokia to make a life saving call.

This wasn't your standard cell phone, you couldn't leave it on all day. It had about 5-10 minutes a charge in it before it powered off. You had just enough time to make one quick phone call and it decided you were done. So it sat in my glove box, waiting for the day to be used. It didn't happen often.

Since then, nearly 15 years later, I've had pretty basic phones. I've loved the flip phones I had aside from their obvious texting disadvantages. When texting started becoming more popular, I switched to a phone with a slide down keyboard.

Now, in 2013 while browsing for a new cell phone, I feel like I'm being steered in the direction of a smart phone. There are like three regular phones available, they all suck and they're all $150.00. You'd think they'd drop in price since only seven people might be interested in them. I guess that's just the phone company's way of phasing out old technology.

Smart phones today are expensive, between $200-$400. I mean, really? That much cabbage for a damn phone? I don't even want to spend that much on tires for my car! Not to mention, on top of what you're spending to buy said phone, you'll be dropping at least $100 a month for your "plan." That's right, at least $50 for a minutes and text plan, plus at least another $50 for a data plan.

I haven't been able to justify switching over to a smart phone simply because of the pricing. Not to mention, a few years ago, I bought an iPod touch, which basically does the same thing as a cell phone without making calls, and I don't have to pay for it monthly. I can access the Internet and other apps with wi-fi, check my email, listen to music, and so forth. I spent $200 one time, and I love the thing.

Honestly, there's only one thing pushing me toward a smart phone. The maps! I've got an old GPS which constantly leads me astray. It costs nearly $100 to update the software, come on! With a smart phone, I'd have a constantly current GPS system, not too shabby, since I do a lot of driving for work.

Still, the cheap ass side of me is holding out for as long as possible. Damn, I don't want to spend $100 for a phone every month.

On Snow... and More Snow

Through the weekend, and into the beginning of this week, us folks here in the Mitten have experienced a few "clipper systems" from our neighbors to the north... thanks a lot Canada! In any case, this has produced some bouts of snow.

I'm not one for complaining about snow, or the cold... in February, in Michigan, because well, it's EXPECTED. Ordinarily, I'd be lavishing in this snow. After all, it is rather pretty to look at, and staring at it for hours on end can be a bit serene.

However, since I'm knocked up this winter, I can't do anything fun in the snow. This includes, no snowboarding, which I'm terrible at anyway, but it's still fun to slide down a hill on my face with a board strapped to my feet. No extreme sledding. I know, you picture sledding as just going down a boring hill over and over again, well, extreme sledding includes sledding through the woods, dodging trees, maybe finding a nice snow covered staircase to fly down, building jumps and seeing how far we can fling ourselves. This sort of practice definitely not recommended with a BOB.

Typically, J has been great about shoveling the snow that we've gotten thus far this season since I am in fact carrying his son around in my gut, but this week he happens to be on vacation, headed to the Caribbean of all places. This in turn leaves little ol' me to take care of the falling snow. I have no problem with this mind you. Last night I got out there and pushed around the fluffy remnants so the city wouldn't ticket me. It was truly no big deal, I didn't exert myself or anything, but I could definitely feel the kid moving around in there, probably thinking, ma, what are you doing? Get your ass in the house and feed me some hot cocoa. Even the dog was judging me. Sitting up on the cat tower, watching me through the window, with his judgmental stare.

It's snowing again today, which again, is cool, honestly. But now, I have to get back out there after work and push some more snow around. I'll be honest, the only thing I really don't like about it is that we have a stupid driveway. It's extra long and there's a space between our house and the neighbor's fence where there's literally nowhere for me to put the snow. So I have to get a big scoop of it and either walk it to my backyard or out to the front, and it's just a big pain in the ass. That's my main beef.

And how do you feel about snow?