Memorial Day Ohio Vacation

As if I haven't been taking enough (unscheduled) blogging breaks already, next week will also be a blank. We're driving to Ohio on Saturday and splitting the holiday week between Paul's family and my own.

I'm nervous because my morning sickness hasn't completely disappeared, though it does seem to have settled into a routine. Ironically, I'm at my best in the morning. I've been getting up early and getting my chores done before work, because that's the only time I can consistently count on feeling good. The morning commute through the afternoon is mostly good, but then I start feeling like crap about an hour before I leave work, and the subway ride home is awful.

I'm starting to think I don't really have motion sickness anymore -- maybe it's just the time of day I ride the subway. Paul and I were in the car for a couple of hours last weekend, and I was A-OK, so I'm hoping the drive to Ohio will be fine, too. I'll be bringing plastic bags along just in case.

I still have serious food aversions -- again, mostly at night -- and both my mom and mother-in-law have been kind enough to ask what they should stock the kitchen with. Unfortunately I can't guide them too much -- I consistently eat baked potatoes and peaches, but everything else is day-by-day.

I'm now firmly into the second trimester, so I'm hoping this all will end soon. I'm significantly better than I was four or five weeks ago, but I'm ready to replace the nausea with hunger. I'm hoping this week's vacation will be just the rest I need.

Candy Art in Bay Ridge

Participating businesses on Fifth Avenue in Bay Ridge were paired with an artist to create a unique piece for local storefront windows. My favorite by far is at the entrance of a nearby baking supply store: a candy representation of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Delicious!

Live Music ... at McDonald's

McDonald's second floor piano player

McDonald's in New York City is like Starbucks: there's one on every corner. But the one nearest my work is a little different. It has a live piano player during lunch.

The McDonald's is on Broadway in Lower Manhattan, and an easy walk from the 9/11 Memorial and the Century 21 shopping mecca. Therefore it attracts a lot of tourists. But, of course, it counts many nearby workers as customers, and the live music certainly makes it stand out from the other nearby dime-a-dozen restaurants.

The pianist isn't playing Mozart are Beethoven -- but instead she often plays songs I recognize, like "Moon River" or some tune from West Side Story. But just as often it's something nice and pleasant that I don't know. Whatever it is, it's better than Lady Gaga or whatever radio station Wendy's has on.

Finally, a New Car

Our new car

Our first big purchase together -- even before Paul and I were married -- was a car.

After we were engaged but, I'm almost certain, before I had graduated from college, we picked out a five-year-old navy blue Saturn. I made the down payment and Paul made the monthly payments before our accounts were merged with our marriage.

A few years later we bought a Camry, which we then proceeded to sell a few days before we moved from Columbus to New York in 2007. The Camry was a much nicer car, but the Saturn's drawbacks made it the perfect vehicle for Brooklyn. It was comparatively small (that is, easy to parallel park) and already nine years old. We didn't much care if it got a few bumps and scratches, and indeed I barely flinched when one day I saw a baseball-like crater on the roof, probably caused by something falling from a tree.

Paul had talked about replacing the '98 Saturn for several years, and my negative feelings toward the project turned into indifference several months ago. But not only do I barely ride in the car, I also don't really care about cars in general. If Paul wanted a new one, he was going to have to do the legwork.

He did.

On April Fool's Day we drove our 2009 Volkswagen Jetta home from a dealership in Queens. Paul was certainly spurred by March's positive pregnancy test to get a newer, safer, more reliable vehicle, but he was also tired of his coworkers' jibes. One, hearing about the new car, said it was about time -- the Saturn was decreasing the property values of whatever neighborhood Paul happened to be driving through at the time!

In any case, Paul's happy with the purchase. And even though I've had only a handful of rides, I am, too. Sunroof, heated seats, CD player -- very luxurious compared to a car whose main feature was a cassette tape deck.

The old Saturn

My Morning Sickness: More Than You Wanted to Know

I was completely unprepared for morning sickness.

Obviously I knew about it and expected it. But I had no idea that it would make me feel like I was about to die for a good three weeks and would make me feel miserable for a good three weeks (and counting) after that.

I missed three days of work but should've missed more. During the worst days I couldn't eat a thing, and whatever I did manage to force into my stomach came right back up. There was a day or two I spent more time at work in the bathroom than at my desk.

Unfortunately, the morning sickness was unpredictable. Sometimes I'd be sick right away in the morning or as soon as I got to work and then be fine for the rest of the day. I eventually had a gauge: If I had to run to the bathroom three times before noon, it was going to be a bad day. The record: Six times before noon. That was a really bad day.

Also bad -- anytime you're puking into a plastic grocery bag on a subway platform.

When the morning sickness began, I couldn't help but have two questions. One, why does anyone have a second child? And two, how does anyone have anorexia? As the vomiting has decreased, I guess I can answer the first question. I'm still not sure about the second.

I lost seven pounds in about two weeks, and I tried to keep my spirits up by telling myself jokes. What's the best way to lose those last few pounds before swimsuit season? Get pregnant. How can you wiggle into a pair of skinny jeans? Get pregnant. But really, I wasn't laughing. The morning sickness -- all-day sickness, really -- was all-consuming. In that it felt like it was consuming me from the inside out.

My nausea continues all day, although I act on it only a few times a week. I think the end is in sight. I know other women have had it worse, and all I can say is I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't know or have nearly enough sympathy for you!

(On a side note, sometimes the absence of a blog post on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday isn't because I'm sick. In the case of this post, I pressed the "save" button instead of "publish" -- you really should have seen this post last Friday!)

Baby FAQs

As Paul and I spread the news about my pregnancy, we were quick to receive the congratulations of family and friends. And then came the questions.

I'm happy to answer them. I like talking about the baby, since that's pretty much all I'm thinking about right now anyway. In any case, here's a few of the questions we've received, and feel free to ask your own in the comments if I've forgotten anything!

When's the baby due?
November 22 -- Thanksgiving Day

Is it a boy or girl?
Too early to tell. 

Do you want to know if it's a boy or girl?
Paul and I are agreed: We both want to know.

Do you want a boy or a girl?
I slightly want a girl, and Paul slightly wants a boy. But really, both of us will be thrilled with a happy, healthy baby of either gender.

Were you trying?
I've been surprised by how often this question has come up. Maybe it's because we've been married for almost nine years and some people figure we would've had a kid by now if we wanted one. But in fact, we had been trying for several months. Just because we didn't tell you (and by "you" I mean everyone -- we didn't tell a single soul) doesn't mean it wasn't on our minds or in our plans!

Was there any specific moment in which you knew you wanted a child?
I can honestly say no. Right now I see it as a decision Paul and I made after many years of discussion and serious consideration. In a few years maybe I'll look back on myself as the stereotypical 30-year-old who heard the tick-tock of her biological clock. But Paul and I began seriously discussing the possibility of a child (and not just theoretically) a year or more ago.

Any strange cravings?
A few so far. At first about the only thing I could stand was hard-boiled eggs. Then a daily craving for cantaloupe. I still eat both of those, but my true loves right now are watermelon, which I'd always been indifferent to, and baked potatoes. The worst thing, however, have been my food aversions. After 15+ years of an almost daily peanut butter sandwich and banana, I only recently started eating peanut butter (on toast only) after a hiatus of a month or so, and I haven't been able to eat bananas since about the beginning of April.

How are you?
Excited, nervous and nauseous, not always in that order.

How's Paul?
The same, minus the nausea. He's also gotten very adept at catering to my every whim. That includes making midnight watermelon runs and 7 a.m. vanilla milkshakes.

A New Addition

I'll keep the news short and sweet: I'm pregnant, and the baby's due in November!

So there you are. Now you know my unscheduled blogging breaks weren't just because I was sick, but because I had some pretty awful morning sickness -- and I still haven't fully recovered. And nowadays I'd much rather sleep than type when I get home from work each night, and the weekends aren't much better.

I'm not expecting this to morph into a baby blog, although I am going to indulge in three posts this week on the topic. After that, you'll certainly see the occasional -- dare I say, regular -- post about this pregnancy, if only because almost everything is revolving around it at this point.

And while this is my first pregnancy and I have nothing to compare it to, I suspect that a New York City pregnancy is different than an Ohio one, in both good ways and bad. I plan to explore the pros and cons, and I've already found plenty of both.

So: On Wednesday, answers to frequently asked questions. Friday: more about my morning sickness. And on Monday: Back to regularly scheduled programming.

Evita on Broadway

When I heard last autumn that Evita was returning to Broadway, I knew without a doubt that I'd be seeing it this spring. My dad and I have a longstanding affection for the mid-'90s movie starring Madonna and Antonio Banderas, and there's rarely a year that goes by that we don't manage to watch the movie on one of my trips home to Defiance.

So needless to say, we didn't hesitate to get tickets to the show, which opened just a few weeks before my mom and dad's visit. Ricky Martin was the headliner, but I was most interested in Elena Roger, the Argentinian lead. After years of listening to Madonna begging Argentina not to cry for her, it was a nice twist to hear it with a real Spanish accent.

And as a giant fan of the TV show "Fringe," I loved seeing Juan Peron being played by Michael Cerveris, the first Observer introduced on the show. Every time he uttered the word "observer," I giggled. He did it on purpose, right?

Anyway, we all loved the show -- it's in my top two or three of the 10 or so Broadway shows I've seen. I had the songs in my head the entire week before the show and ever since.