Thursday, January 3rd, 2013
Today was an exciting but exhausting day. So I dropped
Ben off at school and then rushed to eat breakfast. That is the one thing about
this pregnancy that I REALLY don’t like. It’s that my life completely revolves
around FOOD. It goes like this, “Oh my gosh I need to eat or I’m going to
puke.” So I grab something to eat and it makes me think this, “I’m so not
hungry but I must eat or else I feel like I’m going to die!!!” Then I eat and
struggle to gulp bits of food down. Ever tried to eat cereal when extremely
nauseated?! It is terrible. Then, suddenly…its like the sun appears and I feel
AMAZING! The dizzy is gone, the nausea abated, and I feel like I can continue
with a normal life.
15 minutes later the glorious food I struggled so hard
down my throat is in the toilet. As I flush I grimace as I realize how similar
it looks in that porcelain white toilet bowl as it did in its original
porcelain white cereal bowl. I must’nt have digested at all! There the food is,
in all its glory, a little soggy, but still food. It is so GROSS I vow I can
never eat that food again. (By the way this occurs so often my list has become
invariably long: panda express, nachos, caesar salad, chicken salad, bannanas,
my favorite Thai restaurant, barbeque chicken, ham sandwiches, chili, costa
vida, and etc. –all these foods forever banned, at least until scarred brain
undo the gluing of these food images to the smell of vomit, and I feel those
images are permanently there).
But hey, surprisingly, after I throw up whatever I so
painfully ate, I kinda feel like eating again. That feeling of really shaky,
dizzy, and I just might pass out comes again and I’m like, “Food! Now!” so some
dutiful friend (most usually this falls on my Ben or mom) searches through the
fridge like it’s the depths of despair trying agonizingly to find something
that I’ll eat.
And then, like magic, I eat their precious gift and all
pain goes away. This miracle food has stopped me from dying! Praise it! Save
it! No one is allowed to eat it but me! And I will eat this food breakfast,
lunch, and dinner until I throw it up and a new golden goose must be found. My
longest streak? A baked potato for lunch and dinner for four consecutive days.
Glorious. Until, you know, the inevitable happened. I haven’t found my winning
ticket like that potato since then. Ah.
But life is great, you know? Honestly, I have never had
better incentive to exercise. I go on long walks outside and the cold air
literally freezes the nausea. I imagine a cartoon of a big, handsome Knight
riding upon billowing clouds and wind, coming towards me. He has his sword
pointed at a Green Monster that has me chained by the neck, dragging me along
as his slave. ‘I’m warning you, Nausea” says my Knight in shining armor, ‘you
are not welcome on these wintry walks” And amazingly, out of desperate fear I’m
sure, my nausea slave master, who is green and slimy and drags me all day, is
now small. So small I have to pick up the poor guy and tuck him in my pocket
and now carry him along…so light and small its like he is napping quietly in
the back of my mind (or tummy). For those
few moments when its is SO cold no sane Houston is out and about, I, the true
Utahn, strap on my shoes, wear a light jacket and T-shirt and walk out to
freedom. It is pure bliss.
Speaking of long walks in the cold, today I actually was
able to jog a little. And though I’m only 13 weeks pregnant I swear this tyke
likes to play trampoline on my bladder whenever I jog. You see, I have this
intense urge to pee as my feet hit the pavement in a steady beat. It is so
intense, I have to stop and walk a little, and then…no urge to pee. So I start
jogging again and then I have to pee so bad!! Eventually I let go of all
decency and decide to just let it go, just pee while running (the best runners
do it, I’ve read in Runner’s World magazine, ok?) So just in the moment when I
expect all relief to come flooding in, I realize I really don’t have to pee. So
I just press on. The discomfort in all reality is worth it for my escape from
my Green Nausea Monster--I think I just saw my Cloud Knight wink at me…he’s
definitely keeping him in check.
Pregnant and Crazy:
So today on my running adventure, I experienced quite a
few things. First , when I put on one of my favorite shirts to go out in, I
suddenly felt like a giant cotton creature had swarmed its massive arms around
my neck, choking the life out of me. Needless to say, I had a crazy moment and
cut that shirt in half. NOW, you pesky creature, you don’t have a T-shirt
collar (or really sleeves, for that matter) to choke me with!! But, honestly,
most comfortable shirt ever. I love it, really. All you pregnant people out
there, if you ever get attacked by the Cotton Choking Creature, just smite off
its head!! (Acutally, by removing that scrunchy neck part of a T-shirt, you can
make the shirt have a more feminine shape and it looks pretty cute!)
Well, then, after I had conquered that Creature, I set
off to put my nausea at bay. On my run I witnessed some extraordinary things.
First, the cutest Asian couple, walking quickly with matching Barney purple
sweatsuits caught my eye! They waved to me and pumped their fists in the air.
“Yeah!” I thought, “Go me! I’m pregnant but I can do this!” Then I turned the
corner and ran through this amazing trail that is lined with Trees that are so
feral and winding that they seem to reach for each other across the path. It is
beautiful. In my mind I actually thought for the very first time, how much I
love Houston and how LUCKY I am to live in a place with all these beautiful
parks and paths to run along. And the ducks! There are ducks everywhere and
squirrels and you can run almost right through the zoo on the path. I love it.
There are ponds and trees everywhere. Every once in a while the little kids’
train toots its horn as it winds on by. I really am so in love with this run. I
reached the part of the park where there are huge monuments to Sam Houston and
a large fountain that sends a refreshing splash into the air. Just then, while
all these positive thoughts fill my mind, I see ahead of me a black
gangster-dressed man pull down his pants. Ugh. I turn my head just before
seeing too much, and he pees in the fountain!!
Well, it’s not Provo, and its definitely not like running
around BYU campus, but hey, its home for now.
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