I am down to one deal to finalize and get across the finish line before I go on maternity leave, the baby is kicking and butting up a storm (except for one morning scare this past week when the baby was being really lethargic - more on that below), I have been on a shopping, reading, and podcasting rampage, and that's about it.
I am definitely slowing down at 36 weeks, or at least realizing that I have to. I must have overdone it on Monday this week after going to a doctor's appointment and then running a bunch of errands around town, followed by a pretty good but intense yoga class, because Tuesday morning the baby wasn't really kicking and had a much later and more sluggish start than usual. I rushed in to the clinic for a non stress test at the urging of the midwife, and was hooked up to a CTG for nearly 40 minutes. During that time, the baby finally started moving and the doctor said the CTG was fine, "beautiful," which really relieved us. I got a lecture about slowing down and taking things more easily (oops), then was dispatched with reassurances that all was normal.
I have been preparing my office for my upcoming leave - all of my stray papers and precedents have been ruthlessly organized and put into binders and hanging files, old documents have been shredded, and all my binders are in neat color coded order grouped by type. This will be the first time I have been away from the firm/work for more than 3 weeks at a time in a little over 9 years (basically, for the first time since I entered the work force full-time). It sounds a bit crazy when I think of it like that and, along with all of the other transitions that are occurring at this point in my life, seems pretty momentous. I find myself wondering how I am going to handle it. I am guessing that I will have so much going on with the arrival of the baby that there isn't much to think about with the commencement of leave - but I am already wondering how it will go/how I will feel when it's time to return.
I spent one entire evening looking up Christmas ornaments and fell down an intense DIY crafting tunnel, suddenly bookmarking about twenty DIY ornament projects that I likely won't have the time to do (mainly because it takes a bit of time and patience to source crafting supplies here), but I'm really on a Christmas kick this year. Usually I am scrambling last minute for presents but this year I am almost all set on what I want to get everyone. And except for a few head scratchers (as usual), I am mostly satisfied that the presents are really fitting.
On the shopping front, in addition to buying stuff for Christmas, I went to Ikea to buy a few items and came back with way more than I expected to (why does that always happen?). I also have plans to check out H&M Home and Zara Hometo pick up some cushions and picture frames.
Being single is not a bad thing, and any event that celebrates numbers or patterns is a dorky one I can get behind. To show my support, I partook in the huge Singles' Day sales event on Taobao (11/11), snapping up a bunch more homewares and a rocking glider for the nursery. We are also still anxiously awaiting our bookshelves, dining room chairs and custom-drawers (one of which we will use as a changing table base for the baby).
I bought some basil and mint plants, and I plan to plant another planter of cilantro and another planter of lavender to round out the herb collection. If those all go well, I may be willing to give cherry tomatoes or peppers another try.
This nesting phenomenon must be a real thing, if all of this is any indication!
On the reading front, I am on a non-fiction kick.
I really enjoyed the book "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City," by Matthew Desmond, which traces a few characters through the worst neighborhoods in Milwaukee as they struggle to pay their rent on time with all of the attendant emergencies and issues that come up in any given month while trying to make ends meet.
I started the book "Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets," by Svetlana Alexievich, but haven't been able to get into it as much so far. I find anything to do with the Soviet and modern day Russia experience fascinating, but this one might take a little more patience on my part.
This is probably also because I've been sucked in by the gripping "Killers of the Flower Moon," by David Grann, which unravels the mystery of a whole series of killings of the wealthy Osage Native American tribe in Oklahoma in the mid-late 1920s. It also traces the growth and development of private investigations and the FBI in the US. Very intriguing.
The next non-fiction book I have lined up is "Weapons of Math Destruction," by Cathy O'Neill, which is focused on how big data and algorithms increases inequality and threatens democracy. The podcasts I've been listening to have recently all been highlighting the scary amount of information that social media and search engines (Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, Google) have access to in our not-so-private lives. I thought this might be a good extension/complement to those themes.
Speaking of podcasts, I am on a current events and politcal kick. I'm still listening to This American Life, Death Sex and Money, Criminal, Radiolab, Reply All, and a few others that I've always had on daily rotation, but The Daily, The New Washington, Sam Sanders' In a Minute, and NPR's Up First have become constant on my rotation.
Weirdly, for someone who really loves fiction, I find I cannot stand fictionalized podcasts. I've tried The Message, The Lore, Homecoming, Deadly Manners... and have never been able to make it past one or two episodes. Go figure, maybe the medium really affects my reception of the product? Similarly, I've also still not been able to get into audiobooks despite how efficient it seems they could be...
I am definitely slowing down at 36 weeks, or at least realizing that I have to. I must have overdone it on Monday this week after going to a doctor's appointment and then running a bunch of errands around town, followed by a pretty good but intense yoga class, because Tuesday morning the baby wasn't really kicking and had a much later and more sluggish start than usual. I rushed in to the clinic for a non stress test at the urging of the midwife, and was hooked up to a CTG for nearly 40 minutes. During that time, the baby finally started moving and the doctor said the CTG was fine, "beautiful," which really relieved us. I got a lecture about slowing down and taking things more easily (oops), then was dispatched with reassurances that all was normal.
I have been preparing my office for my upcoming leave - all of my stray papers and precedents have been ruthlessly organized and put into binders and hanging files, old documents have been shredded, and all my binders are in neat color coded order grouped by type. This will be the first time I have been away from the firm/work for more than 3 weeks at a time in a little over 9 years (basically, for the first time since I entered the work force full-time). It sounds a bit crazy when I think of it like that and, along with all of the other transitions that are occurring at this point in my life, seems pretty momentous. I find myself wondering how I am going to handle it. I am guessing that I will have so much going on with the arrival of the baby that there isn't much to think about with the commencement of leave - but I am already wondering how it will go/how I will feel when it's time to return.
I spent one entire evening looking up Christmas ornaments and fell down an intense DIY crafting tunnel, suddenly bookmarking about twenty DIY ornament projects that I likely won't have the time to do (mainly because it takes a bit of time and patience to source crafting supplies here), but I'm really on a Christmas kick this year. Usually I am scrambling last minute for presents but this year I am almost all set on what I want to get everyone. And except for a few head scratchers (as usual), I am mostly satisfied that the presents are really fitting.
On the shopping front, in addition to buying stuff for Christmas, I went to Ikea to buy a few items and came back with way more than I expected to (why does that always happen?). I also have plans to check out H&M Home and Zara Hometo pick up some cushions and picture frames.
Being single is not a bad thing, and any event that celebrates numbers or patterns is a dorky one I can get behind. To show my support, I partook in the huge Singles' Day sales event on Taobao (11/11), snapping up a bunch more homewares and a rocking glider for the nursery. We are also still anxiously awaiting our bookshelves, dining room chairs and custom-drawers (one of which we will use as a changing table base for the baby).
I bought some basil and mint plants, and I plan to plant another planter of cilantro and another planter of lavender to round out the herb collection. If those all go well, I may be willing to give cherry tomatoes or peppers another try.
This nesting phenomenon must be a real thing, if all of this is any indication!
On the reading front, I am on a non-fiction kick.
I really enjoyed the book "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City," by Matthew Desmond, which traces a few characters through the worst neighborhoods in Milwaukee as they struggle to pay their rent on time with all of the attendant emergencies and issues that come up in any given month while trying to make ends meet.
I started the book "Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets," by Svetlana Alexievich, but haven't been able to get into it as much so far. I find anything to do with the Soviet and modern day Russia experience fascinating, but this one might take a little more patience on my part.
This is probably also because I've been sucked in by the gripping "Killers of the Flower Moon," by David Grann, which unravels the mystery of a whole series of killings of the wealthy Osage Native American tribe in Oklahoma in the mid-late 1920s. It also traces the growth and development of private investigations and the FBI in the US. Very intriguing.
The next non-fiction book I have lined up is "Weapons of Math Destruction," by Cathy O'Neill, which is focused on how big data and algorithms increases inequality and threatens democracy. The podcasts I've been listening to have recently all been highlighting the scary amount of information that social media and search engines (Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, Google) have access to in our not-so-private lives. I thought this might be a good extension/complement to those themes.
Speaking of podcasts, I am on a current events and politcal kick. I'm still listening to This American Life, Death Sex and Money, Criminal, Radiolab, Reply All, and a few others that I've always had on daily rotation, but The Daily, The New Washington, Sam Sanders' In a Minute, and NPR's Up First have become constant on my rotation.
Weirdly, for someone who really loves fiction, I find I cannot stand fictionalized podcasts. I've tried The Message, The Lore, Homecoming, Deadly Manners... and have never been able to make it past one or two episodes. Go figure, maybe the medium really affects my reception of the product? Similarly, I've also still not been able to get into audiobooks despite how efficient it seems they could be...
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