dancerjodi

As our friends are off playing in the geeky sandbox that is Star Wars Celebration, I feel like I'm in an odd place.  It is kind of like those first few years that we didn't go to Dragoncon.  There are folks we've met that we only see at these big conventions, and so I'm missing them.  If the bash does end up being a big huge, fun, nerdy dance party, I'll miss that (not sure if it will this year, though).  There is always fun merch to be had, but years after prior Celebrations there are few mementos I look back on and smile about.  I'm kind of sad that we aren't introducing Mina to Disneyland, but I know that she's young and there is a lot there she can't really appreciate (plus the FL park is better).  It is hard to say how the experience would go with a Mina in tow, anyway.  Long-term overnight babysitting isn't an option for us, and so a lot of the things we love the best about the SWC experience wouldn't happen (together) or be so easy, anyway.

The Dragoncon sadness got better each year, and now I don't think much about it at all.  I like seeing costume photos and hearing stories when my friends come back home, but I don't miss it anymore.  Kind of like Manray.  I'm not the person anymore that I was in those days.  I miss those experiences and sometimes that person, but love where I'm at today.  It is a fond sentimentality, not a sad one.

Most of all, I'm excited to check out the new Spring Megafest convention this weekend (thank you for giving us a non-Celebration alternative!) and even moreso, I'm excited about our White Mountains vacation, next weekend.

I tend not to make a big deal about birthdays, but I resolved to do 'all the things I like to do' this year to celebrate my 40th year.  I'm proud of myself for sticking to it, and thankful to Brian for humoring me with my arrangements. :)

The thing that I think that has been the hardest for me as a parent, is dealing with trial and error when it comes to issues of Mina's health or comfort.

I know that the body isn't always so much of a predictable science.  I know from my own experience, that it takes paying attention, trying things out, observation and time sometimes to get an answer.  I still don't have answers to some of the strange ailments I've had in life.  You heal and move on.

But doing this with my child while she is crying in pain (or sleep deprived, or starving) - it is something I hate more than anything I've ever hated before.  Her current issue is a common one, rashy bum.  Why it happened, we can only guess (or try and remove the possible irritants and wait and see).  How to heal it, we can only try different methods and ointments and wait and see.  In the meantime, our muffin is a sad baby.  It kills me.  I work with doctors, and I know that a diaper rash is a common ailment that most often just needs time and at-home remedies.  I don't want to be that guy, calling the doctor every hour, asking them to fix my kid for something that is so common (and relatively, simple). At the same time I just want to scream at the world to fix it for her, and make it better already!

I cannot fathom how parents deal with these feelings in their children that have much more serious battles to face.  My heart goes out to them.  I know that we gotta keep our cool for the kid's sake.  As Brian and I tried to change and console a rashy, oozing, screaming child last night I could hear the tears in his voice.  It is so hard to try and be tough when you are just dying inside, seeing them in so much discomfort.  And this was just for a stupid diaper rash.

In this holiday season I am thankful for our health and comfort, for our friends and family, for a good job and the means to help provide for all of this.  I am excited to be a part of this club - the doing the best you can, figuring it out as you go along, so much in love it hurts parenting club.  It is so overwhelming sometimes.

Much love to you and yours this season, and wishing you peace from whatever ails you.

I'm taking Mina to my Mom's company holiday party. Where there is a FREAKING HURDY GURDY MAN! I can't wait. I can't wait to see Mina's reaction to a monkey dancing like Elvis, but I think I'm more excited to see it myself.

Was there ever a better reason to leave work early on a Friday? I don't think so.

Tomorrow we're going to an in-home holiday pottery sale at a friend's Mom's house. We've been going for years, and it would be neat to introduce her to Mina, get some cider and cookies and maybe buy something to put away for Mina. After that we're heading to a friend's son's first birthday party. It's in Peabody, so why the hell shouldn't we stop by Putnam Pantry for some homemade candy canes or ice cream sundaes?! And then we're having dinner with DW and A and just general hanging out.

On Sunday I'm hoping we can hook up with some close friends for brunch and we'll stick around the house before going to L and S's annual holiday shindig, this year in their new place. What a fun, packed weekend. It is a good thing that Miss Thing likes to sleep in the car; strategically timing things for napping.

Friday! Finally!

Thank you Veterans for your service! There was the most touching story about the last living WWI Veteran on WBUR this morning - a guy who lived in Swampscott, was born in Italy, was a ladies' man and died in 2007.

I love the Amazon Universal function. Download something that adds a button to your browser toolbar, and you can add anything to your Amazon wishlist. It basically provides a link to another site. It has come in handy for our baby registry (and generally a good way to keep track of things we will want to get later that aren't gifted to us). We also registered at Target for those brick-and-mortar fans.

Our plan was to go out to Ikea this weekend and get a crib, but a friend send me an e-mail from someone on the Arlington parents group, selling their Gulliver. It is a non-drop sided crib, not recalled, and one side comes off to convert to a toddler bed. They are selling with a Sealy mattress and nobody had claimed it yet. We should go pick it up this weekend at some point tbd. This means perhaps we won't have to assemble the thing? Score! It is exactly what we were planning on buying new on Sunday. Though, I still think I may want to go out to Ikea anyway. Love me some Ikea. ;)

Tomorrow we're going so that Brian can do a photoshoot with his Zombie Trooper with a friend in Melrose in the morning, and then we are attending/trooping a friend's wedding out in Boxborough at night. The free time in the middle will be very nice, as will seeing people. This is a very quick photo shoot, but we're hoping to take a fast 'pre-baby' shot of us together. Maybe zombie trooper eating my belly or something. I'm going to wear my skeleton halloween shirt for the occasion. I've gotten a lot of use out of that thing; I love it!

Despite the snow, the Woburn Halloween parade stepped off yesterday. Our group (and the number of floats in general) was cut in half, but we did it and had fun. I wrangled for the group, which meant that I wore normal clothes and walked the 2+ mile route to make sure that the troopers with limited visibility and mobility were OK for the event. My feet were KILLING me by the time that we were done, but I'm so glad I pushed myself to do it. Other than that, I felt fine. I'm sure my feet would have been just dandy if we just walked, and didn't stop and start and stop and start and stand around for hours before we stepped off. There were some snafus with setup (less troopers, leaving Jabba at home so that he wouldn't get damaged in the water, not having enough money for our bus rental on hand), but all in all it was a great time. I love catching up with people at the annual 'crowd into the food court at the Burlington Mall' dinner, post-parade. Thank you to all of the organizers, and we'll see you folks at Megafest next month!

Usually after a long troop Brian and I each soak in the hot tub we installed when we re-did the upstairs bathroom. I put my feet in. Preggo ladies aren't supposed to go in water that's higher than 100 degrees. It can raise your blood pressure which isn't good (as it is the rate is raised higher than normal given the extra blood in your body and all the work it is doing growing and supporting a babe). Before I know it, I'll be able to go in there again!

We're going to hand out candy tonight and some folks are coming over to use Brian's vac table to do a run of X-wing helmets, so we'll be chilling with nerds and probably watching some spooky movies. I haven't yet broken out The Nightmare Before Christmas, for shame!

Have a great 10/31 folks! I can't believe November is tomorrow. Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and we'll have to prep for our own dinner. We weren't planning on hosting originally, so we didn't order a turkey from our CSA. Where can we easily get a good, non-hormone and non-corn-fed bird around these parts? I know there is a farm in Andover but we won't be making it up there most likely. A friend worked at a place in Framingham that had them, but not sure about getting out there either. Whole foods? Where do you get your bird?

We got home from our NYC trip yesterday around 5:00. We had a great time, despite having to deal with me moving a bit slower. I'm still fighting this cold (that I am thinking now may actually be something like bronchitis - I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon coincidentally to "check in" on my asthma, since I went to refill inhalers last week and one of them had an expires prescription). We were able to do less walking and stay out less late than usual, but that seemed to be OK with my travel partners who were also tired. I guess I feel better in that they were having a tough time, and not pregnant, with swollen feet and suffering some kind of plague.

We parked at Alewife and took the red line to South Station, where we had time enough to kill and grabbed breakfast in the financial district http://www.yelp.com/biz/scali-cafe-boston before waiting for our Acela. It was about 4:00 when we got into the city. We parted ways to check into our respective hotels, and then once settled Brian and I walked uptown to Carlos' hotel to meet him for dinner. His friend had suggested The Eatery in Hell's Kitchen http://www.yelp.com/biz/eatery-new-york which was just heavenly! I had the best salmon I've had in a long time. We walked back toward Carlos' hotel via http://donnabellsbakeshop.com/ (thanks for the suggestion Gala) and picked up desserts to have in the hotel while watching the Clone Wars Premiere. Our hotel didn't have Cartoon Network available but The Carlos' did! We had an early morning planned for Makerfaire so Brian and I decided to head back to our hotel after the show.

We were up at 7:00 AM (oof), showered and had breakfast in the Tic Toc. I know that the locals aren't nuts about this place, but it is super convenient being attached to our hotel. We've never had to wait for a table and the food is good. I had some gingerbread apple pancakes and Brian had johnny cakes w/ cheddar and bacon (not your average diner fare). We walked up to 42nd street to get the train out to Queens for the faire. Along the way a couple of mariachis got on the train, rode one stop, played one song and got off. Why don't folks do this kind of thing in Boston?

http://makerfaire.com/newyork/2011/ was a lot of fun. It was perfect weather for it, and we were there from open to close. We got to see all of the things we wanted to (minus one conflict between a musical group and a panel). http://www.arcattack.com/ was very neat, and I was so happy that they did the Dr. Who theme song! Carlos had mentioned that this guy http://www.whatiswhat.com/ was going to be there, and I'm so glad we were able to see his short performance. So inspiring! We caught the mentos + coke "fireworks" show, rode on the solar-powered carousel, got to see Bethany http://cyberoptix.com/ for what we think was the first time in 13 years (we are old), caught the life-size mousetrap http://www.lifesizemousetrap.org/ (tap dancing mice!) and checked out all of the vendors and booths along the way. I was actually not so impressed by the size and scope of the Bust Craftacular, which was what I was most excited about initially. I had been reading about the http://www.bust.com/craftacular/craftacular-home.html in Bust magazine for years and always wanted to go to one. It has nothing on SOWA! I thought I would do a lot of shopping for family birthdays and Christmas, but I ended up only getting a couple of gifts, and they were not from the Craftacular portion of the faire. By the end of the day we were both beat, and sat waiting for Carlos to get out of his last panel in the GE solar cell phone charging area. While there we met a guy from NY who is coming to Boston soon and then moving to Cairo for 2 months (he asked us if we'd want to use his car while he was in Egypt). I also chatted with a Mom who had her son in a baby carrier, and was flipping him around from front to back and asked for our assistance in re-strapping. She gave us some advice on the carriers she liked the most with each kid at different stages. It was quite a congenial/we're all nerds here kind of vibe that reminded me of my feelings at Star Wars Celebration last summer, but I digress.

We were starving, and decided to try our luck in Times Square with dinner (I know, I know) since that is where our train from Queens let us off. Yelp gave us some suggestions, and we decided to give http://www.johnspizzerianyc.com/index2.htm a try. I had remembered reading in Frommer's guide years ago that they were one of the supposed best pizza places in NYC, and despite this location being in Times Square it was good. On a Saturday night with no reservations we walked in and were seated within 5 minutes. Though it wasn't fast-food cheap, the 3 of us split an appetizer and pizza and had drinks and it came out to about $15 each for some of the BEST pizza I have ever had. This location (they have a few) is inside of an old church, and so we were surrounded by stained glass, old wrought iron chandeliers and were up high to watch the brick ovens. At first our server was the perfect level of attentive, but then when he came by to ask if we'd want dessert when we were still all eating our pizza we got annoyed. We finished up and headed out of there, all in all the best food experience I've had in the Times Square area. I'm so glad we went. We wandered a bit (Brian and Carlos wanted to get pictures with bad, fat costumed characters) but all we could find was an OK spiderman and of course the naked cowboy. I guess they had regretted not getting a picture with the fat superman the last time they were in the city for Makerfaire.

Though it was only about 10, we decided to call it a night. With being on my feet for most of the day and fighting a cold, not having gotten a lot of sleep the night before (I was coughing all night), having woken up at 7:00 AM *and* having chills (I wasn't sure if I had a slight fever or if it was due to a bit of a sunburn I got while waking around on the faire) I was miserable. Brian called it a night and told me I had to go back to the hotel. We grabbed some drinks and a black&white cookie and headed back (mmm, herbal tea). I wasn't quite ready for sleep but was just content to lay on our bed for a while and we got a pay-per-view movie, finally seeing Super 8. So good! I can see why people had suggested that it felt like Goonies and ET, I'm bummed I didn't see it at a drive-in theater. I slept OK that night - highly medicated with all things that were safe for me to take.

We got up yesterday earlier than I would have liked, but I just couldn't sleep anymore. Showered and packed but we had until noon to check out of the hotel and catch our train home, so we went wandering for breakfast. Brian wanted a bagel and we used Yelp again to find a place nearby. Again, midtown isn't the best place for food in the city but we found a decent place over between Herald Square and Chelsea http://www.yelp.com/biz/bagel-maven-new-york. The bagels were good (not as good as Cafe Bagel back home) and the cream cheese was awesome. They had some amazing looking cupcakes that we considered taking to go, but decided it was too early and we didn't need anything like that. We still had some time to kill, the weather was gorgeous and my feet were feeling good so we started walking downtown a bit. We wandered by a http://www.buybuybaby.com and headed in, our first time in one of these stores. It was good to see in person the baby bags I had put on our registry online (I haven't seen a great selection of bags anywhere else as they had in this store). We picked up some baby monster slippers as a 'babymoon' memento (from Carters). Brian found that there was a Best Buy nearby, so we were able to grab the new Star Wars complete DVD Blu-Ray set, and got some smoothies at Jamba Juice before heading back to our hotel. It was neat that we were able to make our way through a bit of Chelsea, since this is one of the areas we tend to walk a lot when we're in NYC. I knew the Chelsea Hotel had closed for now and it was just sad and strange to walk by it in this state. We chatted a bit about our weekend: how we had a good time and were ready to come home, how it was odd how little we did relative to a normal crazy NYC trip for us, how we still hadn't made it down to the East Village (we haven't managed over our last few trips). We had time to get to our room, use the bathroom, get our stuff and get over to Penn Station to grab the Acela home.

I was so glad to be in my own house yesterday! I had another night of coughing, so at least Brian could sleep on one floor and me on another. We got in and watched the Star Warriors documentary http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Warriors_%28documentary%29. It was so well done and I'm glad to have finally seen it! So many familiar faces. We don't have a lot of food in the house so we went out for dinner at Peking Garden in Lexington (Waltham is lacking in good dine-in Chinese), put our trash out for the night, and watched a bit more of the SW Blu-ray extras before bed. I coughed all night and didn't sleep much, so glad I have that appointment today! I set the alarm for 7:00 so I could shower and drop the car around the corner at my mechanic to go through and check some things out and do some routine maintenance. I'm SO GLAD I took today off, because had I not, I would have been calling in sick anyway. Brian is in the shower and we'll run some errands before my 1:30 appointment. I'm looking forward to a slow, albeit productive day at home.

On Friday we cooked at home and then went to a co-worker's 45th wedding anniversary party. It has been a trying time for she and her family, so it was lovely to celebrate with them. They are members of their local VFW which had recently been torn down and rebuilt - amazing, gorgeous space! The cupcakes from some baker in Brighton were amazing.

I have learned the hard way that doing too much on the weekends plus humid weather equals super swollen feet! On Saturday we did a lot of puttering around the house (some hurricane prep) until we went to a wedding on the other side of the city. I didn't get a lot of pictures, but the few I took are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/dancerjodi/sets/72157627541017220/with/6090838810/ . It was a Star Wars/Star Trek theme and guests were encouraged to dress in costume. I had bought this Dana Zhul dress early in the year to wear to a Ghostbuster's themed party that never happened. A woman on Etsy made them and her prices were so good that I would probably pay not much less than that for the fabric. I didn't know how big I'd be by this point with my pregnancy, and since the dress is basically a mumu with a belt to hold it in, it worked out well. I am amazed that my shoes fit! Brian was my keymaster (quick clothes from Savers and a colander from Etsy - wires from our friends barn trash). It was a fun time and a very special event, perfect for the married couple. Yay for more geeky weddings! Yay for bridesmaids with go-go dancer 60s spandex and thigh high boots!

Since Sunday was hurricane Irene day, we stayed in the house canceling our family visits. We got rain and wind but no flooding in our basement and no damage to our property. It was a great time to stay in and get a lot of things done: laundry, cleaning, helmet making. In addition we watched the last 2 Twilight movies that I had borrowed from a friend (so bad they are so good) and caught up on some recorded Dr. Who episodes.

I made a lot of progress cleaning out stuff in the attic and craft room this weekend in prep for baby. A lot of my free fabric is gone (though I still have some) and I moved everything up into the attic that needed to go there. I took down a bin of old baby stuff that I've been meaning to go through - some pics here http://www.flickr.com/photos/dancerjodi/sets/72157627540977936/with/6090843028/. When my parents were moving out of our old house to NH they found a box in the attic that they had taken with us from Wellesley circa 1984 that had sat there untouched the whole time. Mom gave it to me, all girl's baby stuff from my sister and I. Back then I went through and tossed the trash and kept the things that maybe useful someday, and they went up to the attic. It was fun to go through them again and bring them down to the babe's room. There are a few handmade sweaters in there, some babydoll sets, a few hats and a pair of shoes. The blankets are most amusing to me. A couple were mine from my childhood and a couple were ones my grandmother made me. I've commented on each photo in the flickr gallery.

I have only bought 2 things for this baby so far: a $20 changing table and an overpriced (but perfect) $25 onesie from Destination Maternity that reads "My Dad is a Geek" or something like that. It is amazing to see the outpouring of love, support and free (or cheap) stuff from friends along this journey.

Once the fabric is out of the craft room we can start making a mess in there: sanding the peeling paint on the ceiling and refinishing it, repairing our closet. And then, then I feel like we can bring in a crib, rug and curtains (the rest of the stuff we seem to be set with for now).

I'm sorry this journal has been mostly all baby - all the time. I've been trying to keep busy doing the practical things so that they get done in a reasonable and spread-out time frame. I do not like last minute cramming! :)

I am so glad that the fall is almost here. We'll have mild weather this week, some fun September events (the 10th anniversary bash of our 501st garrison) and then I'll be back to regular dance classes for the fall. We have an Organ Beats show coming up, a performance of The King and I at Northshore Music Circus, and lots of fun things to look forward to. It is truly, my most favorite time of the year.

The NEG lost one of its members this year to breast cancer. Our group's fundraising efforts over the next few months will be dedicated to Jennifer's memory, in the hope that our costuming activities can help bring some more support to the efforts to cure this terrible disease.

We will be at Granite State Comicon in Manchester, NH http://www.granitecon.com/ this Sunday. Come visit our table and shoot us with NERF darts, in exchange for a donation to our Team.

You can also donate directly to Team Panda Bear at our team's fundraising website: http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?pg=team&fr_id=31286&team_id=950268

We will be at this walk in June in Salem, NH http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?pg=entry&fr_id=31286 if you would like to join us there.

Thank you for your support.

James' wedding http://www.flickr.com/photos/dancerjodi/sets/72157622350920215/
Tea for a scratchy throat
Time with the hubby
Mild weather
Silly Halloween plans
Cider Donuts