Duxford Girl

When I got out of the shower this morning (sorry about that mental image) I heard thumping. I assumed cat shenanigans and continued to dry off but then I noticed that the thumping seemed to be coming from the roof.

On Sunday, I read Jon Krakauer's memoir of the 1996 Everest disaster, 'Into Thin Air'. It likely won't be the last Everest book I read but it's odd that it wasn't the first. I actually started with Michael Kodas' 'High Crimes' after reading a review of it in the Rocky Mountain Outlook while skiing in Banff. Previous to this winter, I didn't have the foggiest clue about any of the controversy and mystique that surrounded Everest.

I'm glad that 'Into Thin Air' was not the first book I read on the subject. I think that I was able to read Krakauer's tale with much more sympathy than I would have had it been my first foray into the literature on the subject. I found his writing honest yet beautiful in some ways. His distress at the situation was very genuine to me and I felt for his inability to put what had happened out of his mind.

Evil Scientist and I managed to avoid the “So, when are you guys going to tie the knot?” question because of our rather whirlwind courtship. In fact, we are well aware of the fact that some people assumed that it was a shot-gun wedding. This confused me, I naively believed that people didn't do such things anymore but apparently, I was wrong. In any case, I think the people who assumed the above were somewhat disappointed when no baby appeared in that first year of marriage.

That lead to years of “so, when are you guys going to have kids?” At first I just lied and said that I couldn't have children but then I realized that I was doing a huge disservice to the women who choose not to have children. I started to tell the truth by pointing out that we didn't want children. At the time, it was the truth. For the record, there was no so-called 'biological clock' for me just the realization that I might regret it if I didn't at least try. For Evil Scientist, it was more of a “whatever happens” strategy.

Ah the weekend get-away. This was the logic Evil Scientist used to pursuade me that we needed a trailer. He had to have something to convince me because when he said “let's get a trailer,” I heard “let's never, ever travel anywhere except Alberta and BC ever again.” The discussion went something like this:

ES: “But we can get away on weekends.”

ME: “These would be the weekends I'm always working on?”

ES: “Not always, sometimes you have ILO and in the summer you get time off during the week when we can go.”

ME: “Fine.” Resolving in my head that if there wasn't a plane trip to someplace I'd never been in the near future I'd go by myself and never come back.

I recently read this article on the Bust Magazine site, http://www.bust.com/blog/2009/08/05/kid-tested-mother-approved.html. I commented about my feelings about breast feeding and I wanted to expand on those feelings here.

Truth be told, I don't want to breast feed. I think that it's really gross. I'm going to do it because I don't want to be labelled as the worst mother ever within the first weeks of giving birth (I have years to earn that title). I don't intend to do it for longer than 6 months and I will supplement with bottles.

I'm officially at 37 weeks and I've been told that baby can arrive at any time. My OB-GYN told me today to keep doing whatever it is I'm doing as I am healthy and all signs point to a healthy baby and a healthy mum.

Check that: keep eating like a trucker and watching bad reality television.

Baby has turned and his little bottom is the bit that sticks up just under my boobs. I've suspected for a while that when my belly is moving it was because he was doing a little butt-shaking dance. Between that, the little feet jammed in my ribs and the little fists digging into my pelvis there is really no need to count movements. I think that he even walks in his sleep.

Some people are drawn to what could be; some to the optimism of a better future and some to an advanced technology not yet seen. Then there are the people like me; the history people who are much more comfortable dressed in a different time. The classic example of this is the SCA but as much as I like a good Elizabethan dress I'm much more comfortable in a May West and battered forage cap.

But aside from re-enacting the past, I also spend a lot of time recording my own personal history. I've mentioned in posts before that I have a journalling fetish. I think that the journalling all ties in to my love of history.

I just added some more photos to "Not Pretty but ReaL". All of these are credited to Evil Scientist. I've got a couple of pregnancy memory books that I've been putting pictures into so I thought that I would also share them on my blog.

I've been uploading some photos from the summer. There should be a few more every day:

http://www.duxfordgirl.ca/inmemoriam/browse.php?id=11

Yesterday was my baby shower. It was lovely and I really thank my family and friends for making it so special. I loved everything about it and can't wait to use all the wonderful things that I was given.