NEW BLOG July 13, 2009
I am migrating over to Blogger because WordPress only allows a couple dozen layouts, and you have to pay for an “upgrade” to customize a layout. This one is the girliest there is, and it’s still dark. Also embedding and other stuff isn’t allowed here. If you want the URL, comment and I’ll give it to you if I know you.
Differing thoughts July 10, 2009
First thing first. The second will get its own post.
If you don’t like what I have to say in my own blog, then don’t come here. Easy as that. Don’t bitch that I’m posting things you don’t agree with here. I’ve had I think four people today alone tell me I’m “mean” and such for posting that I don’t agree with something they all think is okay (gender selection for the hell of it, not even to try avoiding a disease that only passes to one gender, but just because one sounds more fun or something). I also believe that abortion is appalling, especially third trimester abortion. Furthermore I don’t believe i god and believe the bible is a load of bunk. Have problems with this? Well, it’s easy to not come to my blog. Simply…don’t come here.
This is the adult world, and in the adult world, people have different beliefs and opinions. It’s very childish to expect everyone to either agree with you or to not state anywhere their beliefs that aren’t the same as yours. No one person is the center of the world, and it’s selfish to expect others to shut up if they don’t agree with you. Is this the expected outcome of protecting the fragile lil’ egos of kids? They grow up to not know how to handle others not agreeing with them, so freak out and complain, “You’re mean for saying something I don’t agree with in your blog!” You know what? Grow up. This wouldn’t be an issue at all if you could respect my right to believe and think what I do and not expect me to keep to hush-hush the way I respect your right to believe and think what you do and to not keep quiet. It’s called being an adult.
I have three people I consider to be my closest friends, and between them, we have drastically different beliefs on things such as abortion, gay rights, the death penalty, the war in Iraq, who should have won the presidency, and religion. Not a single one of them shares more than half of the same beliefs as me. In fact, I think only one of them shares even three of the same stances as I do. We are each incredibly firm in our stances. But we’re such good friends anyway because we RESPECT each other’s rights to think and say what we believe, and we don’t bother discussing a topic we know we can’t change the other’s view on. This is the adult thing to do.
And anyway, if one person should shut up, why should it be me instead of you? Because you don’t want to? There’s nothing so special about you that gives you the right to talk instead of me. There’s nothing so special about me that gives me the right instead of you. We are in America, and we have the SAME right to say what we think and believe. So if you want me to give up my right, then you better be willing to give up yours. If you’re not willing to, then you’re selfish for demanding I do it. Part of being an adult is being able to handle dissenting thoughts and beliefs and to either be able to discuss them or decide it’s not worth it and to walk away from the conversation. That’s easy too. Simply don’t say anything. An argument can’t go on if only one person’s talking, you know.
July 9, 2009
Complain about what is quoted in my blog from publicly-viewable sources and I’ll just link directly to it instead of quoting and altering usernames for a little privacy and not quoting. See, I believe in the Constitution of this country, and that included the first amendment as well as others ensuring that the first amendment isn’t abused (slander/libel, yelling Fire in a crowded building, etc.), and if what I’m quoting from a public source is relevant to what I am saying, then what’s the problem? Don’t say something publicly that you wouldn’t want quoted. Oh well, I guess I’ll just link instead of quoting, and one’s words will be linked directly to them rather than to an altered username. (Also WordPress has NO problem with quoting from public sources – it’s not illegal activity.)
Something I’m seeing more and more, in even just the last couple weeks, people who with to stifle the rights of others for their personal convenience. Well, if our leaders decided withhold rights, citizens freak, such as happened wen Bush suspended habeas corpus. It’s sad to think of my child being raised to bend over backward and walk away from Constitution rights because one person says so. We have Constitutional rights so we have some freedom in this country. If you value people having no rights, move to China.
Now going into the 20th week! July 8, 2009
At the end of this week, I’ll be at the halfway point! Well, halfway for people who get to go through full term and are lucky enough to have a natural childbirth rather than having to have a c-section a couple weeks before that. C-section I do not want. Healthy baby and to live through delivery okay I do.
The baby thumps are both fun and nauseating. Night before last I felt a bump from the outside of my abdomen! It’s weird to look down at my still relatively-flat tummy and to think that there’s a baby that’s somewhere around 6″ crown to rump in their. It’s also a creepy thought in a way. There’s a human being inside of me! Creepy as well as cool. As long as it doesn’t start drawing shapes through my abdominal wall before bursting out like that one movie with the alien coming out of some lady.
Cody’s been reading the What To Expect e-mail newsletters (yes, he reads these things as just one of his ways to be involved and keep up with what’s going on, which I appreciate so much), and the development newsletter on Monday showed what a baby at this stage looks like, and he said to me, “It looks like a human now!” It’s so sweet what he does – he often has his hand on my tummy to be closer to the baby, and is reading Hitchhiker’s Guide to the baby (and me). Who knows how much, if anything, the baby can detect, but the love radiating from him to the baby sure matters. Possibly the baby can hear his voice when reading, so hopefully the baby will get the chance to learn his voice to pick him out later.
Baby’s digestive system is busy creating meconium (a tarry black substance made of swallowed amniotic fluid, digestive secretion and dead cells), which will fill the first diaper after birth. And, speaking of the diaper situation… baby’s genitals are now fully formed!
Stupidity on Craigslist July 3, 2009
I found this ad on Craigslist:
Hi I have a clearblue fertility monitor and a box of 19 test sticks and a brand new box that has 30 in it I am asking best offer for all of it I will not separate I no longer need it because well I am pregnant and due in December I have to say that this monitor does work but it did take me 3 months to become pregnant (if you read about the monitor others had the same problem ) . I bought this brand new off amazon it took me 3 months to become pregnant and I havent used it for 3 months so its about 6 months old there is nothing wrong with it at all .Please email ms_[impatient]@yahoo.com if you have any questions or want to offer me a price
OR I am willing to trade for anything to do with a baby ( maybe this is your second time trying for a baby and you want to plan it )(clothes ,toys etc. )
The highlighting it mine (and I changed part of the e-mail address). Since when is taking just three months to get pregnant a “problem”? Seriously, she thinks it is a problem? Though most people see a doctor after one year, taking up to TWO full years to conceive is completely normal.
Also, sewing curtains to put above a cradle from Ikea doesn’t make that cradle “one of a kind.” That anyone would think so is kind of clueless. Oh, but the “one of a kind” factor did result in the seller asking for more than the cradle would cost new.
Craigslist is funny to read sometimes.
18 weeks pregnant, and NEWS! July 1, 2009
136 pounds this morning. I haven’t weighed this much since spring of last year. I both feel fat but also am excited that it means baby, and I know I can get the weight off in no time afterward.
Also, the news! At 12:28 this afternoon, I felt what I think was the baby! About 4″ up from the bottom of my pubic bone and an inch to my right was where I felt a tickling feeling inside that didn’t feel like intestinal grumbling. It happened again this afternoon when I was driving and had Ozzy blaring on the radio.
Also, that’s Luthien to the left, and Emma to the right. Yeah, mama-dog is noticeably smaller than her baby.
Going into week 19!! July 1, 2009
Vernix caseosa, a greasy white substance made of lanugo, oil and dead skin cells (yum) now coats baby’s skin, shielding it from the amniotic fluid. (Picture yourself after a nine-month bath, and the need for protection makes sense.) You might actually get to see the vernix at birth, especially if baby is premature.
Moving! June 28, 2009
The papers are signed for us to move! We’re moving from a one-bedroom shoebox with one bathroom and a shared garage to a place with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a private garage, much more space. Both have certain amenities, such as in-unit washers and dryers, and dishwashers. So those can’t be compared. We’ll be giving up a fireplace, and it’ll be odd to me to not have one, but we can put a chiminea on the private patio and enjoy roasted marshmallows in winter that way.
And the difference in rent…both of these screen caps were taken a few minutes ago. Both are “luxury” units (if the place we’re in now can really qualify in more than just name…). This is just the cost of living difference between Silicon Valley and other areas. People in and around Santa Barbara think it’s so expensive living there? Nu-uh. Look:
Current unit:
New unit:
This means we’ll get to have a nursery and I’ll get to have a dedicated sewing room again! Right now all my sewing stuff is crammed into the “dining area” in the current unit. It was a trial training the dogs NOT to go there, and then a ton of vacuuming to keep fur away from everything. Now I’ll have a sewing room again! And we can get our nursery stuff set up. That makes me just so happy.
We’ll also be nearer to family, and NO MORE 100-DEGREE HEAT!!
Of course this will mean it’s tricky getting to my high school reunion. Well, I’m no good for moving anything anyway, so maybe I’ll go down on the 5th, sign the new lease on the 6th (only I have to sign), and while Cody & Co. get everything packed into the huge truck (how on earth was a 17-foot truck too small to move everything from our place prior to here to here?!) and driven down and unloaded, I can fly up to Portland. My best friend from high school has said I could stay with her, and there’s no way I want to miss getting to see her and actually go to the reunion unless I have to. Thanks to Facebook, I’ve been back in contact with old classmates, and it’s been wonderful seeing the people who were mean, teasing jerks who’ve turned into nice people, and even issues unsolicited apologies. High school may not have been happy times all around, but the positive changed in those less-than-nice classmates has been warming.
So I dodge the work for the weekend by going to Oregon? I think so. 
Michael Jackson :( June 25, 2009
I am beyond angry. For YEARS I’ve defended him. It’s so easy to get a child molestation charge to stick simply because people are so disgusted by it and want to blame someone. TWICE he was found NOT GUILTY. Yet the majority of people still declared him to be a molester. Know what? I was molested by a kid as a teenager, a male babysitter, and I still deal with issues from it. He was convicted/ So I understand wanting to blame someone! But there wasn’t enough, twice there wasn’t enough, to get convictions against Michael. This means something!!
And now that he’s dead, all of a sudden people are on his side and talking about how wonderful he was. WHERE THE HELL WAS THIS SUPPORT WHEN HE WAS ALIVE AND NEEDED THE SUPPORT?! This is what angers me. The lack of support he needed when alive, and it’s only coming out now that it won’t do him any good.
He and my mother has a very similar childhood, frighteningly similar. I’ve ha a soft spot in my heart for him for pretty much my entire life. He never got to have a childhood, and really, he never hurt anyone. He was the one who was hurt so much, but he didn’t pass that on. He stopped the cycle and tried to make life fun for kids the way his own childhood wasn’t. My mother did some similar things, trying to compensate for the childhood she didn’t get to have by trying to make sure my brother and I had the best childhoods possible with all the things she didn’t get to have. But this doesn’t mean Michael ever did anything to kids. He only tried to do good for people.
If I see any more pictures of Michael as a child, I’m going to cry. As it is, it’s hard not to my cry my eyes out. He really was a good guy. This is the first time ever that a celebrity’s passing has brought tears to my eyes.
