Half-day hooky

It's 70 degrees and sunny today, absolutely gorgeous. This morning I hung around to wait for the HVAC guy to come back. I opened the door to a smiling technician and a warm, perfect, wonderful spring day, the kind that makes you want to lie in the grass and smile at the sky like a moron, thinking about daffodils and butterflies and puffy clouds and bike-riding and lilacs.

After he was finished and took off, it was 9:45. I sat in my living room, stewing in pissy, petulant thoughts: "Stupid work clothes. Stupid long-sleeved shirt, stupid boots, stupid black pants, you all suck. Stupid low-pressure system coming in tomorrow. Stupid quarterly report due today; if not for you I could take the day off. Stupid work. Fuuuuuuck."

I couldn't go in, not then. I made a few calls to make sure things were in order, because you know it only takes you thinking about not being in the office to unleash a flood of urgent emails and frantic "WHERE ARE YOU?" voice mails. In fact, my coworker informed me that five minutes after I let her know I wasn't going to be in until later, our boss called for me. I don't know why--he's supposed to be driving to upstate NY to visit his son at college. That's just the kind of makes-no-sense shit you can count on happening when you have something better to do.

Not that I did. I was already dressed for work and not about to change, so something constructive like a walk or a bike ride weren't going to happen. I'm ashamed to admit I went to the mall. I know, I didn't even spend my time outside, unless driving on the highway with the sunroof open counts. I spent most of it in a dressing room at Motherhood Maternity, becoming exasperated by their inconsistent sizing. But it felt great to be out doing what I wanted to be doing, not sitting at my desk breathing recirculated office air and watching the whole day go by through the windows that don't open.

It's still too nice to be here.

Please buy our house

We're finally ready to put the condo on the market. It's been a pain in the butt getting it ready: learning how to install tile, getting high on mildew stain remover (not me, of course), hiring electricians and HVAC guys (thank you Craigslist), cleaning every nook and cranny, imposing on friends for their brawn (thank you Professor K). Not to mention the ongoing mindfuckery of trying to obtain four measly single-roller cabinet catches. Which was the first thing we tried to accomplish. And which we found out are not carried in any store, be it home improvement megamart or mom-and-pop hardware outlet. And which you can find online, but when you try to order them from an indie because you don't want to give your business to Home Despot, you get your order credited back to you with an apologetic note explaining that they are on 6-week backorder. And when you finally bite the bullet and order them from Home Despot's website even though they cost more but you never want to think about cabinet hardware ever again, you wait several days, quite patiently, for a shipping confirmation that NEVER COMES!

I hope it sells quickly once it is up. The next phase of having to vacate whenever there's a showing and make the bed every morning and put all our dishes in the dishwasher promptly and keep up on the vacuuming and dusting and sink scum might grow to suck.

We also went looking at a few houses. It may be premature, but we wanted to get a sense of what's out there. We saw five places: 3 splits, 1 cape and 1 colonial. They all had clear pros and cons. The one with the ugly rugs and the street noise had a great downstairs family room. The one with the gorgeous hardwood floors and updated kitchen had a tiny third bedroom. The one with a crapload of wallpaper and no garage had a fabulous backyard. The largest, newest and nicest one was in an awful location. The one with the heated pool was cramped and sketchy inside. But what we learned is that Finding Something We Like + Being Able to Afford It = Possible.

Beyond house things, not much is going on. The pregnancy is going well. I'm at 25 weeks today, and my weekly e-newsletter says there are 104 days left until my due date. The baby is more active now. I used to only feel movements when I was sitting quietly and paying attention, but now I can feel them when I'm distracted by other things: driving, working, in a restaurant, even walking around. I've started doing kick counts, which are counting how long it takes to feel 10 movements. And Joe finally felt two little thumps the other night. It was a challenge getting him to feel it, because whenever we put a hand on my belly, she freezes. I had to trick her by lying down and placing his hand on the side.

People have been asking me how it feels. I totally understand, because I was always really curious about it too, and it's such a mysterious thing, even while you're experiencing it. In the beginning it felt like bubbles popping, and they were few and far between and I always wanted to feel more of them. Now it feels like a few different things. Sometimes I feel a stirring, which just makes me aware of the fact that something is in there. Sometimes I feel a series of small bumps and thumps, punctuated by big ones that take me by surprise. Sometimes they come two at a time, or two in a row in different places. And sometimes I'll feel one big movement and then nothing, which is probably a somersault or flip. I can't really tell arms from legs yet, although I assume the bigger ones are kicks and the smaller ones are punches. Sometimes I can poke my belly and get a poke back, but it's probably coincidence because other times I get nothing.

So, today is the first day that we don't have a huge house-related to-do list for after work. All that's left, I believe, is the removal of one area rug, the installation of one battery-operated cabon monoxide detector, and some vacuuming. And then some sitting around telling each other how awesome we are.

Holy cannoli days

Last night we met with our realtor. I liked her immediately. We walked through the rooms, including the attic, basement, garage, and backyard, and then sat down to talk about the few little things we need to do to prepare to put it on the market. It could go on as early as next week if we get our butts in gear, so we will be busy this weekend taking care of as many things as we can.

So yeah, we have a lot of things going on at once. Joe is definitely feeling the heat more than me. I have to go to work, do light housework, go to my doctor's appointments, build our registries, find time to exercise, and gestate. He, on the other hand, has to go to work, interview for jobs, go to class, make time for schoolwork, manage the finances, and handle all the house stuff that involves lifting or chemicals.

We were saying last night that maybe it's good that all these things are happening at the same time, because it lessens the impact of any one thing. Hard to be miserable about work when you're fawning over tiny pink outfits. No time to worry about finding the right house when you've got a paper due. I'm trying to be a good support and stay focused on the future. Because when the dust settles, how great are things going to be? Joe will have gotten out of his wretched company, we will have sold the condo and gotten settled into a new house, and school will finally be over. By the time the baby is born, everything else will be out of the way and we'll be able to focus on her completely.

Bubble stuff

After careful consideration, I think we're going to sell our house and move to yonder suburbs before the baby is born. The plan was always to move afterwards, but it makes more sense to get it out of the way before, for the following reasons:

(a) We currently live an hour away from the hospital where I'm planning to deliver. There are a dozen hospitals that are closer, including two within 10 minutes of home, but I wanted to stay with the same group of doctors my mom and my grandmother both went to. Sentimentality is nice, but nightmare rush-hour labor scenarios abound.

(b) I don't want to clear out our middle bedroom—currently used as an office—and turn it into an adorable nursery only to tear it all apart again. Nor do I want to put the baby to sleep in a cardboard box because we're waiting until we're in the new house to buy her a crib.

(c) I don't want to waste my maternity leave packing and unpacking, and even thinking that I'm going to have the time is a gross underestimation of how complicated our lives are going to become after the big event.

We've never sold a property before. Last week we met with my uncle, who is going to be our buyer's agent, and we have an appointment next Wednesday for a home market evaluation with a woman who is going to be our seller's agent. It's nice knowing we'll have someone working for us on both sides. If we can price our place right, it should go fairly quickly. Then we can focus on the harder task: finding a move-in condition house under 50 years old in a town with a good school system that has 3 good-sized bedrooms, at least 1.5 baths, an updated kitchen, a nice yard, a deck, a garage (hardwoodandcentralACaplus)... that isn't overpriced. Ha. Should be fun.