Well, we survived the quick storm yesterday with minimal damage.  I should know better than to watch regional news when a storm is about to happen.  STORM WATCH 2003:  It's Going To Rain.  Last year, we had a snow storm which was big for us--over 8 inches of snow.  I distinctly remember mocking one newscast which had its reporters trudging across a bridge with rulers to show the snow depth in different locations around the bridge.  Wow!  Look!  Sometimes snow drifts and gets deeper!

So, I thought I'd update you on the joys of early pregnancy. 

Nausea:  Blech.  Yesterday was fine.  This morning is disgusting.  Usually, it hits me in the later afternoon and early evening.  But I am full green swing at this moment.  I'm trying to "relax" my way out of it.  But it's not really working all that well.

Breathlessness/Heartrate:  I have to admit that there's been a joke around our office that I, despite being a marathon runnner, have always had problems walking up the three flights of stairs to our department.  The stairs open into the main office and my colleagues often chortle at my heavy breathing.  On Monday, I arrived at the top only after taking a break at the second story landing.  I was nearly wheezing, and the chair of the department came walking by.  I told him last week about the bun because we're deciding schedules for next fall already, and if all goes well, I will be taking that semester off.  He knows not to say anything to the rest of the department yet.  So he discretely came up to me and said "You need to start taking the elevator." Grrrrrreat.

Sensitivity.  This time, I'm not talking about the boobage.  This time, I'm just talking about my attitude in general.  And let me start this off by saying:  my poor, darling husband.  Saturday morning, I had to grade my graduate students' papers, and I wanted to use a pencil so I could erase and modify my comments.  I like giving a great deal of feedback on my students' papers and often I change what I want to say. I found some of our stubby old pencils and tried to sharpen them with a regular pencil sharpener.  The sharpener and the pencils were both pretty crappy and  the leads kept breaking; I couldn't write anything with them.  At that point, my frustration level was increasing dramatically. (key word:  dramatically).  I stomp over to where Dave is eating breakfast:  Do we have another pencil sharpener?  Dave:  There's a battery operated on in the garage, but it's not much better than that one.  I shrilly respond:  I have GOT to grade these papers today.  Dave:  Do you want to go to Office Depot and get a pencil sharpener?  I knew immediately that was a good idea, but it bugged me immensely:  NO!  I'm going to go to CVS.  And with that, I stormed out of the house and drove to CVS.  Now, on the way to CVS which is about a 2 minute drive, I thought to myself:  Well, that was  bit of an over-reaction.  I was still very upset almost to the point of crying, but I was cognizant enough to know that the whole pencil issue was not typical of how I handle minor set backs of the day.  They did not have a pencil sharpener at CVS, but they did have some nifty mechanical pencils which solved the problem.  When I came back home, Dave was sitting in the same spot and calmly and sweetly asked if I found what I needed.  I found out later that he thought "OH CRAP!" when I left because he knew there was no way CVS would have a good pencil sharpener, and lord knows if a) the extra-freaky woman would come back from CVS or b) his normal and mostly less freaky wife would return in a better mood. 

I'm also noticing that I have to try very hard not to snap at my classes when they start getting what I know consider to be a little to rowdy.  I always know I'm over the line when the big guys in the class look afraid. 

OK.  So that's the current state of affairs.  Tomorrow the bun will be starting his fifth or seventh week depending on when you start counting.  S/He's supposed to be the size of a kidney bean about now. 

Off to work.  And to try not to be mean to my classes.

8:43:27 AM