"Here I am just coming off a big record and I go and get pregnant. This is really gonna tie me down."

(This picture is totally unrelated to this post)

...Patsy Cline said this. And I know exactly how she feels.

The past four days have been the worst. Perhaps not the worst four days of my life ever, but pretty bad nonetheless. I'm talking about feeling like I need to barf, but not actually being able to. Is there anything worse? No. I'm also fighting off the fatigue like a banshee, but I'm losing that battle too. When I think about the energy I'm going to need to muster up in oh...like...4 days, I freak out. I'm hoping for some sort of miracle.

I act like I'm the only one who has ever had to do anything hard while being pregnant at the same time. But, right now, it feels like I'm the only one who has ever had to this. I'm totally alone in this. No one knows what I'm going through.

I'm kidding. I know people know what I'm going through. At least they can relate to part of it. However, I am a bit nervous about how the next few months will go. I'm looking forward to January when I'm back on permanent vaca and all I have to do is sit around and wait to be a mother? That sounds so weird. This whole thing is very strange. I hope I'm cut out for it.

Did I mention that at only 9 weeks pregnant, I can no longer take the buttons and zippers on most of pants/skirts. It's gotten pretty bad. A few days ago my sister and I were at a local deli having a turkey sandwich (of course) and I had to unbutton and unzip my shorts all the way. It seems too soon for this, doesn't it?

Our vacation week was a great time. We had lots of family time, beach time, and I saw Wicked with my mom, which was the highlight of the trip. What a great show. I really loved it and I thought it was so witty and smart.

In between bouts of nausea, I read and reread a few of the books I'm teaching this semester. One of these books is Of Mice and Men. I can't believe kids still have to read this book--I had to read this book when I was a sophomore. It's not that I don't think it's important, it's just that I can't believe we can't update the high school literary canon with something that is just as good or maybe even better than Steinbeck. Blasphemy, I know. I'm not saying we should shun Steinbeck, he is afterall, California's author. I'm just saying that today's kids don't read, but yet we still expect them to read the same things students were reading years and years ago.

Ryan read the title of my post and started talking about Loretta Lynn, which reminded both of us of one of our favorite movies--Coal Miner's Daughter. It stars Sissy Spacek and was made in 1980 and it is GOOD! Ryan and I watched it on t.v. one rainy Saturday last year. It's right up there on my list with Pretty Woman and The Way We Were. It sounds corny, but the story of Loretta Lynn is no joke. She was married at 13, had four kids by the time she was 20, and how she became a star is nothing short of desperation. It's worth the space on your Netflix queue.

I've tivo'd In the Womb on the Discovery Channel. I've never seen the video of a baby being born, so I thought I'd study up. I'll let you know how it goes.