Slowing Down

For the past few years, I’ve had a busy schedule, and I’ve liked it. It’s not uncommon for me to be out of town, either for work or visiting friends, for 3-4 weekends in a row, and I’ll have weeks where I don’t get home before 10pm every night. All I’d need was a quiet weekend day at home every now and then, and I’d be happy.

That doesn’t work so well these days – since the week of Thanksgiving, I’ve been going nonstop, and I am exhausted. On top of that, my blood pressure has been a little high – not terribly, but unusual for me in the 130s/80s. And then I got a nasty cold. Which led to me getting a lecture from LB on how I’m not taking care of myself, and the high blood pressure is my body telling me I need to slow down. The worst part is, I know she’s right.

So this weekend was my last weekend of travel (I hope) until after Chiquitito comes. And it was a great weekend – I went to Dallas for a conference on Thursday and got home late last night. I saw lots of old friends, most of whom had no idea I was even considering trying to conceive, and so weren’t expecting to see me almost 24 weeks pregnant. That was a lot of fun! The hotel was crappy (I found a couple of dead roaches in my hotel room, and yet the front desk staff acted like I was inconveniencing them when I asked if someone would go to my room and get rid of them for me), but the conference was good. If only I hadn’t been coughing and sniffling my way through the entire thing, it would have been perfect.

The flight home was crowded, and everyone was grumpy and anxious to get in the air before the bad weather started to delay flights. I was in an aisle seat, but squished next to a huge guy in the middle seat, starting to get overheated and nauseated, and was really dreading the two and a half hour flight home. And then I heard my name called overhead with the instructions to bring my bags to the front with me – I got a first class upgrade! It’ll be my last, since I didn’t fly enough last year to get preferred status on USAir (for the first time in 4 years), but for a final upgrade, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. I was able to stretch out and relax for the flight home.

I’ve spent today lazing around, watching bad TV and doing a little furniture rearranging in the nursery. I still have no idea how it’s all going to come together, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out. My place overall is really looking great. I should be at the point where I can post a few pictures, at least of downstairs, by next weekend. Maybe earlier, if the promised snow and ice really hits and I get tomorrow off work!