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September 4, 2006

So, is this the beginning of labor pains??

I remember when Cathy was in labor with Luke the nurses kept bringing her banana Popsicles.  As stupid as it was, I remember thinking “no wonder she can be so pleasant through this.  Really – who can be grouchy when they’ve got an unlimited supply of banana Popsicles?”  I think she was ready to hurt me before she finally gave birth!  Over the past two weeks I’ve gone through two whole boxes of banana Popsicles.  Of course, that could have more to do with stress eating and the fact that I just really like banana Popsicles, but I prefer to pretend I have a better reason than that.  Sure… let’s call it early labor signs.  How can I possibly be stressed and grouchy as long as we keep those banana Popsicles coming?

I’ve been working on packing for this trip steadily for the past couple of weeks – not to mention the months before of just collecting “stuff.”  I don’t think Dave has even started packing yet.  Oh my.  My friend Colene told me about a friend of hers who had a nicely organized packing room when she was getting ready to travel to adopt.  That sounds nice.  Me?  I have a hugely disorganized packing house.  I don’t think there’s a room in my house that isn’t covered in stacks of clothes, toys, documents, more clothes, medicines, gifts, more toys, more clothes… you get the idea.  It’s a wreck!!  And there’s absolutely nothing organized about it.  My poor little dog Sophie doesn’t know what to think.  The only place she’s found that she can be completely out of my way and not worried about getting stepped on or having something dropped on her head is under the piano.  She’s spending a whole lot of time there lately.  Does this qualify as “nesting”?  I thought that was about cleaning and preparing your house – not wrecking it.  I think I’ve got this all-wrong!

Here’s my next sign of early labor pains.  You know how all women on TV who are in labor are obnoxious and demanding and just downright nasty?  I had a full-blown episode of obnoxious, demanding and downright nasty last Friday.  Who knew I had it in me?  (Not a word from you Cathy!)  Through a freak accident involving a Burger King cup (I had no idea how unreliable they were) and shared cup holders in my car, I killed my digital camera a little over a week ago.  How’s that for nasty timing?  Just a week and a half before I’m leaving to meet my children and I have no camera!  Before I totally panicked though, I decided to see if I could replace it quickly.  I went online and bought another camera and requested a rush delivery to make sure we’d have it before we left.  Apparently my perception of 2-day delivery is TOTALLY different than Kodak’s.  When they say two days, what they really mean is two days from whenever they get around to processing your order (not including weekends and holidays of course).  My camera was scheduled to be delivered the afternoon of September 5th – two hours AFTER we leave for the airport (and nearly two weeks after I bought it.)  I hate Kodak.  Forget that I could’ve been more careful with a certain Burger King cup or that I could’ve just gone to a store to make a purchase rather than trusting online shopping.  Oh no…this is all Kodak’s fault.  I had my version of a temper tantrum.

Unfortunately, my little temper tantrum didn’t change anything.  They weren’t prepared to do anything to get the camera to me any quicker, and I was running out of time to try to get another one.  But have no fear; Ms. Sally is here!  She loaned us her camera to take with us on the trip.  I wonder if I could adopt another child while I’m there that I could name after her?  She’s my hero!  Thanks Sally.  You get one of our very first 5 x 7s!