A Mish-Mash of Nearly Pointless Information

Boy! With a title like that, who wouldn't want to read this?

In brief, our visit with Anthony this past weekend went very well--better than expected, even. He and Stevie got along great (and didn't seem forced at all), he was very affectionate, and he is already calling us "mom" and "dad". I'll write more later, including Kevin's amazing statement that sent me over the cliff of bonding--in the good sense!

My boss and I are taking off for New Orleans today, and we'll be there for the next 3 days and 2 nights. I've only been to N.O. once, but I had a GREAT time. I'm looking forward to some very good food and perhaps even some music. (?) Of course, we're there to work, so it's not all fun and games. And at least one of our work/dinner companions is not very likeable. Still, it's amazing what a couple of beignets and cafe au laits can do to ease the pain of a bitchy companion.

Plus, I'm still reading that book about the Mississippi River flood of 1927, and right now it's going into detail about how the powers-that-were in N.O. convinced the feds to blast the levees below N.O., flooding out their less glamourous neighbors (without compensation), and "saving" N.O. This despite the fact that "natural" levee failures upriver were already easing the threat to N.O. What a bunch of wankers those guys were. And, you know, you get what you get when you build a city on low, low land surrounded by a really big river on one side, a really big lake on the other, and an ocean on the third.

That's it for now! Check in again soon, dear readers, and have a great weekend.

What a zygote wants, what a zygote needs . . .

Is the alien in my womb a zygote, or a fetus? Merriam-Webster's says that a developing human is a fetus after three months. In that case, little zyggie isn't quite there yet.

But that's not why I'm writing. I'm writing today about food cravings. Oh, we've all heard some whacky ones, haven't we, hungry reader? There's the classic pickles and ice cream--both foods I have craved, but never at the same time. Here's a few more from a Web site called BabyCenter:

What do pregnant women crave? We took a survey of BabyCenter users and discovered that most (almost 40 percent) said "Give me something sweet." Slightly fewer (33 percent) opt for salty snacks. Fans of Mexican food and other spicy cuisine came in third (17 percent). Trailing behind (at 10 percent) are those who crave citrus fruit, green apples, and other lip-puckering tart or sour foods. . . . Some women confessed to wanting pickles wrapped in cheese, salsa spooned straight out of the jar, and yes, even steak fat. And where in the spectrum of sweet, salty, spicy, and sour does one woman's passion for black olives on Sara Lee cheesecake lie? Another reader told us she ate a steady diet of Cheese Whiz sandwiches, which she now (postpartum) can't bear the sight of. Eggplant, particularly on pizza, was another reader's obsession.

This pregnancy is a little less intense than my last one. Last time I had strong, strong cravings, and very strong aversions. Kev and I had a lot of food leftover from our wedding, including a huge tub of guacamole and seemingly hundreds of frozen egg rolls. Now, I LOVED this guacamole . . . usually. But seeing it in that plastic tub, a couple days old, just about did me in. Even now, just writing about it, my nose is a little wrinkled, and I can smell the horrible chemical smell of the manufactured home we lived in. I couldn't touch the egg rolls, either, but Kevin milked those things for weeks, much to my belly's dismay.

What did I want to eat then? Sugarfree popsicles, and ONLY sugarfree. Poor Kevin. I sent him to the store for some one day and he came home with REGULAR popsicles and I swear I almost cried. The other foods at the top of my list were Saltines and plain--but salty, very salty--hamburger patties.

This time around, I think about what I'm going to eat pretty much all day. Nothing has seemed totally revolting, thankfully, and my nausea decreases a bit each day. However, if I'm having a bad day, I feel it in the afternoon, not in the morning. And if I eat a little too much or go a little too long between meals . . . not good.

I'm definitely having cravings, though, and they're very specific and kinda funny. Today it's corn. Just regular canned corn, with butter, salt, and pepper. Of course, homegrown corn taken off the cob (just like grandma used to make it) would be ideal. I don't know why it came into my head, but it's there, and I can't shake it. The other day I wanted rice with milk and sugar for dinner, and actually stopped at the Giganto store to get the long-cooking rice--the instant just isn't as good. I hate going to the store, so going for just one thing is pretty much unheard of.

Unless I'm craving raspberries and fresh mozzarella, which required another expedition.

Or rice krispie treats. Yet another trip.

Or cheap frozen cheese pizza.

Or mashed potatoes and green beans.

Or watermelon.

Or Smarties.

Luckily, most of the cravings have been fairly healthy, and there are many grocery stores in the immediate area. Except for when I wanted the mashed potatoes and green beans. That evening, my sweet husband actually went to the relatively far away grocery store, bought the ingredients (potatoes, canned green beans) and even prepared the "meal". I believe I spent that time on the couch, curled up under a fuzzy blanket with cheesy wolves on it (it was a Christmas present, yo), practically paralyzed with fatigue, nausea, . . . and cravings.

Meet my other new kid

There it is! My cute little alien! 10 weeks and 2 days old. Awwwwww . . . .

According to the doc, all systems are go.

[Many thanks to Burb for scanning and posting the picture. And for the chocolate. Thank you.)

Still Nuthin'

I have my first OB appointment today, and he'll be doing an ultrasound. What that means for you, dear reader, is that I'll probably have something to say later on today or early tomorrow. For now, here's some old crap I'm rehashing for those of you who are bored at work and desperate for diversions, no matter how lame.

Let us proceed with . . . Top Ten Movies!

1. Lord of the Rings (Trilogy--it's one story so it counts as ONE. No arguments.)
2. Dr. Strangelove
3. This is Spinal Tap
4. Waiting for Guffman
5. Election
6. Raising Arizona
7. Star Wars (Trilogy--the first trilogy--episodes 4, 5, and 6, but my favorite of those is Empire Strikes Back)
8. Almost Famous
9. Babette's Feast
10.Either Dazed and Confused OR Coal Miner's Daughter. I definitely enjoy watching D&C more than CMD, so probably D&C.

What does this list say about me? What does YOUR list say about YOU? Hmmm?

I have nothing to say today

However, in a desperate attempt to not alienate my dear readers, I'm going to rehash a bunch of crap that is ages old. Namely, top ten lists generated at work. This books list is nearly 2 years old, but I'm trusting that it's pretty much the same. Next up? Will it be CDs? Movies? Song bits? The tension is thick.

Top Ten Books

It will be shorter if I tell you now that I do not adhere to any religion and do not care to. My church is nature, plain and simple. Outside of my relationship with my husband, son, and others few in number, my truest happiness is found in the forests and deserts. Having said this, my book list will be much easier to understand.

1. Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac
If I HAD to pick a religion, it would be Buddhism, and this is the first book that introduced me to the real-life implications of its concepts. It also set the course of my life. After reading it, I moved out of the cities forever and went (almost) right into the forest. It is far and away my favorite book, and the most important to me. My favorite line? “…it’s impossible to fall off mountains, you fool…” The many pencil marks in this book highlight passages that remind me of the life I really want to lead, the one I feel a little further from all the time. There’s so much more I could say.

2. Call of the Wild by Jack London
I reread this during a 3-week stint on the Appalachian Trail and it was just perfect! The premise, of course, is living in Man’s world, or heeding the call of Nature. Allow me to share a bit:

And closely akin to the visions of the hairy man was the call still sounding in the depths of the forest. It filled him with a great unrest and strange desires. It caused him to feel a vague, sweet gladness, and he was aware of wild yearnings and stirrings for he knew not what. Sometimes he pursued the call into the forest, looking for it as though it were a tangible thing, barking softly or defiantly, as the mood might dictate. He would thrust his nose into the cool wood moss, or into the black soil where long grasses grew, and snort with joy at the fat earth smells….But he did not know why he did these various things. He was impelled to do them, and did not reason about them at all.

3. High Tide in Tucson by Barbara Kingsolver
Barbara K. is my favorite author. I’ve loved all of her books, and this varied collection of non-fiction essays is my favorite. I wish I could remember who I loaned it to….

4. Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
The story of three women trying to make the world a better place in their own way. I saw portions of myself in all three – a wildlife biologist living in a cabin in Appalachia, documenting the reintroduction of a predator; the young widow left with a farm and doubting in-laws, and the old woman who grows organic apples, much to the chagrin of her patriarchal neighbor. BK weaves their stories together in a book that is positive without resorting to sap. Underneath it all is the rich and erotic (but never raunchy) presence of nature.

5. Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey
Ed Abbey is not just an author, but the fabled leader of radical environmental groups everywhere. He is most famous for “The Monkey Wrench Gang,” about “eco-terrorists” who try to stop development in the west by destroying the machinery of “progress.” Desert Solitaire is his love letter to the desert, written while working in Arches National Monument outside of Moab, Utah, “the most beautiful place on earth.” I read most of this book on top of a mountain overlooking Moab, where Abbey lived most of his adult life.

6. A Book of Bees by Sue Hubbell
Kirkus Reviews called it “A melodious mix of memoir, nature journal, and beekeeping manual.” It is yet another ode to nature, with bees as the stars.

7. The Twilight of American Culture by Edwin Morris
My guess is that the books on all of our lists had luck on their side – they managed to be there right when we needed to read them. This is the last book that I read, and it’s all about timing. Morris makes the argument that our culture, while seemingly “vibrant,” is actually rotting thanks mostly to the enormously negative influence of corporate-led consumerism. He offers no quick and false fixes for the mess we’re in; rather, he encourages the readers to preserve what is beautiful and meaningful in our culture in a time-capsule sort of way so that the next group of renaissance thinkers can pull us out of the dark age that we are on the cusp of now.

8. Woodswoman by Anne LaBastille
A modern day Thoreau without the weekly trips to town to eat at his mom’s place! This woman built her own log cabin in the Adirondacks in the 1970s, and tells many interesting stories about the beauty and danger inherent in such a life. It’s great.

9. Great Ocean: An Authorized Biography of the Dalai Lama by Roger Hicks and Ngakpa Chogyam
One of my personal heroes, the Dalai Lama is a remarkable person with a remarkable story, and this book covers it all, including the Chinese takeover of Tibet and the resulting struggle for independence.

10. The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram
“Long awaited, revolutionary…. This book ponders the violent disconnection of the body from the natural world and what this means about how we live and die in it.” –Los Angeles Times It’s been awhile since I read this book, and after flipping through it I can tell that it’s time to read it again. It’s hard to describe, but the opening quote by Gary Snyder sets the tone:
As the crickets’ soft autumn hum
is to us
so are we to the trees
as are they
to the rocks and the hills

Update for 2005: "The Contrary Farmer" by Gene Logsdon

No, not the pic of J Lo and Fonda . . . the other one!

My mother and aunt are on the front page of the Life section of the Columbus Dispatch today! I couldn't post the picture--which is adorable, and unfortunately right beside an oversized picture of J. Lo and Jane Fonda, which is not adorable in any way--but here's the article, with minor revisions to protect identities.

(For further information on this topic and a cringe-inducing account of my first mammogram, check out the rural fetish archives from December 2004.)

RACE FOR THE CURE
Sisters share a diagnosis, a struggle and a walk for hope
Friday, May 13, 2005
Eileen Dempsey
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Her older sister’s battle with breast cancer saved Becky J.

If not for Carole S’s diagnosis, J doubts that her own breast cancer would have been detected at such an early stage.

In late 2003, during an annual mammogram, J was told that she probably had a cyst in her left breast.

She returned the next day for an ultrasound and was reassured that the shadowy mass looked like a cyst.

Come back in six months for a followup mammogram, she heard.

‘‘I told them that my older sister had just been diagnosed with breast cancer two weeks earlier, and they suggested having a biopsy," said J, 55, of Suburb. ‘‘I would have waited if not for Carole’s diagnosis."

Sixteen months ago, J learned that she, too, has breast cancer.

Surgeons removed the tumor on Jan. 28, 2004, although, because her cancer differed from her sister’s, she didn’t require chemotherapy.

The siblings endured seven weeks of radiation treatments — three of them overlapping — at Major Hospital's Cancer Center.

Still fatigued, they walked together last May in the Komen Columbus Race for the Cure.

They plan to walk again this year — on Saturday — with two friends, including a nine-year survivor of breast cancer.

After three years on the Ohio State University campus, the race is returning Downtown.

The event, typically among the largest single-day gatherings Downtown, could draw 25,000 participants combined in the 5-kilometer race and 1-mile family run/walk, according to organizers.

Since its inception in 1993, it has raised more than $6 million for cancer research and education.

Last year, in a journal, J wrote about her race experience:

"The minute we started walking, neither Carole nor I thought about any aches or pains. The sight of 23,000-plus people united for one cause, now my cause, brought tears to my eyes. I looked over at my sister, and the tears were rolling down her cheeks as well."

The sisters couldn’t help noticing the names written on paper and pinned to the backs of some participants.

"There were way too many ‘in memory of’ on people’s backs," said S, 59, of Exurb. "Too many women are dying from this disease. Nobody’s family is untouched. Everybody knows somebody who has breast cancer."

One in eight women develops breast cancer.

Last year, about 40,000 women and 470 men died of the disease, according to the American Cancer Society.

And breast cancer represents the leading cause of cancer deaths among women 40 to 59.

Sisters battling breast cancer at the same time is unusual but not unique, said breast-health specialist Susan B.

In her seven years of helping women with breast cancer, she has met one other such pair.

Sisters or best friends with cancer diagnosed about the same time have support to offer each other, said B, a registered nurse at Grant Medical Center.

J and S attest to the idea.

"A lot of women are so alone," said S, a secretary at Huge Insurance Corp. and an aerobics instructor. "They don’t have anyone to support them through it."

J, a professional photographer and personal trainer who works from her home, wrote in her journal:

"We’ve never felt sorry for ourselves, although we certainly didn’t understand why or how this happened to us.

"We’ve been on this journey side by side and hand in hand. There’s no one I would rather have by my side through this."

Baby Name Madness!

Of course, it has begun. Boy names are pretty much done. Woody Guthrie is my #1 pick; Kev's is Keith Richard. Twin boys are Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Easy!

Girls, on the other hand, not so easy. If we stick with the musician theme, Lucinda is the front runner. Ella is out--too popular now. Mavis was shot down today, rightly so. Aretha is a fave musician, but a tortuous name. I like many other female musicians, but can't name a child Chrissie or Tina or Bonnie. Rory Block is cool, but Kevin hates a guy named Rory, and Rory Mc-- is too tough to say.

I don't know of classic literary characters whose names I would choose. One of my cousins just took Scarlett, so that's out. Plus, there's no suitable shortened version of that name.

I like Finn. It was Winona Ryder's character's name in How to Make an American Quilt, a topic near and dear to me, and it's half of my favorite boy name, Huck Finn. Its popularity has grown, but it's certainly not threatening the Emilys and Katelyns and Madisons and Sydneys and Hannahs and Haileys and Emmas and Ellas (grrrr.). Check out the link below:
http://babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html

What do YOU think, dear reader? What are some of your faves? It's preferable if they have some sort of link to the arts. If you're not having your own kid, have some fun trying to name mine!

This Morning's Revelation; A Great Book

"Save America
Defeat Liberals"

On a big white American car, with a Bush '04 sticker underneath.

I maintain that this is still a courteous nation. We've all had our run-ins with rude salespeople and such, but their rudeness is always an affront--something to remark upon--which makes me think it's still abnormal. However, in the world of car commuting, rudeness is everywhere. Shocking, I know.

On another note, I'm reading a great book! It's called "Rising Tide" and is about the 1927 Mississippi River flood and the huge (according to the author) consequences it had on America. It was an even bigger flood than the mammoth 1993 disaster. For instance, at the peak of the 1993 flood, where the Missouri empties into the Mississippi at St. Louis, the river was roiling at 1 million cubic feet per second. In 1927, a little further south in northern Mississippi, it was pushing 3 million cubic feet per second. That's a lot of water. Shocking, I know.

I have always been fascinated by rivers, even more so than by the sea, which is quite fascinating. So you can imagine the heights of fascination here. And this book starts by telling the story of the men who fought to 'tame' the river--levees? or outlets? etc. And it tells the story of the river itself. How it doesn't have just one current that goes faster or slower depending on the amount of water it's carrying. It has many currents--it's like a writhing river of snakes, all with their own mind, yet all prisoners of their mass. Closer to the Gulf, the bottom of the river--over 200' deep in the 1800s, was below sea level. The water on the bottom was essentially static, with no particular place to go, yet the mile-wide mass of water on top, still above sea level, pushed to the sea with the weight of the continent's rainfall behind it. And the massive S-curves in the river push and pull on the land and on itself in such chaotic ways that sometimes the current dives straight down to the riverbed, pulling anything on the surface down with it. Many people in the 19th century felt that traveling on the Western rivers was far more dangerous than crossing the ocean.

For a gal who could sit beside a river all day, daydreaming about a time before levees and the Army Corps of Engineers, who would name twin boys Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, it's an engaging read.

My New Kid

Many of you already know this, but somehow blogging it makes it more official. Kevin and I have a new kid, Anthony, and Stevie has a new big brother, and both of them have a little sister or brother on the way. Whew!

I'd put his picture on here, but, you know, creeps and all.

We get to meet him (again) very soon--the visits will start this month. That is if we sign the "commitment" form after reading his history on Monday. I don't think it will be an issue.