kcobweb

Today is a lovely day, tinged with an edge of bittersweet - it's my wedding anniversary! (4 years! Love you, hon!) It's also the summer solstice! I told my father we were going to celebrate our anniversary by building a bonfire and dancing around it naked, because really, wasn't that the *point* of getting married on the solstice? I think I rendered him speechless for a second - he never knows what to say when I come up with stuff like that.

Anyway, the bittersweet part is that it's also the birthday of our friend who was killed by lightning strike, and well, she's not here. I didn't realize till my wedding day that it was also her birthday, but now the two are inextricably linked in my mind.

Anyway. That's longer than I meant to linger on that small moment.

We went to the playground today, and that was fun - but before we got out the door and after we came back, Elena was an absolute hell-beast, and I've never been so *happy* to put her down for a nap. I hope she's feeling better when she wakes up, because earlier, *nothing* was good.

In other news, I made some phone calls that I have been putting off for two months. I left voice mail for every single one. I put things off until they loom huge and feel like a big fucking deal - and then when I actually DO it, I feel so victorious. And like an idiot, because why did I procrastinate so long? So anyway, I rode on that wave of victory by taking care of a few other things (involving phone calls, partly), and now I *could* clean out the veggie drawer in the refrigerator that's gotten nasty. Or I could read a bit. Hmmmm.

I feel a little..... inexplicably giddy right now (it's the successful phone calls and leaving-of-voice-mail - I told you I'm an idiot). Sorry that the resulting stream of babble makes such little sense. :)

So - things are progressing. We will make it through this!! It will get better!! (These are my mantras.)

She now weighs 6 pounds 9 ounces (as of this afternoon), and is almost back to her birthweight (which is right on schedule - babies typically lose a little weight postpartum, just not as drastically as the EB). ( feeding and other issues )

So, I have to relate a bit of back story for this next item to make sense: My all-time favorite headline from the Weekly World News is "Pregnant woman struck by lightning; now electric baby lights bulbs by touch." Seriously - this was years ago, and I've always remembered it. So when that actually happened to me, we joked about it a bit (in the hospital afterwards, and whatnot). It is, of course, the source for the very nickname of Electric Baby. Well, my sister, in her infinite brilliance, spent the last 7 months since that accident designing and making a cross-stitch with that legend on it - plus a little baby with a light bulb in the corner. And a zig-zag-y lightning-ish border. She presented it to me before she left. It's brilliant. She rocks. It might almost be better than the blue girl power onesies.

The EB is dressed in pink today - she is starting to get gifts, and yes, some of them are pink. I must admit, she is darned darned adorable in pink.

I have been emailing and calling back and forth with a Senior Meterologist who works for NOAA, and helping him put together a case study of our lightning strike - he's writing a paper which will be presented in San Diego in January. Woo woo, very exciting. But it's cool, because he sent a draft of the paper to me, and so I have topo images with our location marked, and Doppler radar images showing where the strikes were, and GPS coordinates, and the timeline worked out, and all that. Very very interesting.

My step-grandmother died last night of pancreatic cancer - she was *98* and only diagnosed about a month ago (I didn't know her very well, but my father is rather broken up, actually). In fact, I hope I'm in as good shape when I reach my 90s as she was!!! Until a month ago, she was in pretty decent health, and still in command of her faculties and senses. We should all be so lucky. She was a cool woman, and used to tell stories of the (local) Great Flood of 1928, or whatever year it was....

Not too much else. It got cold here, but it never snowed. The baby is definitely moving more and more. I left work early and came home and spent a good chunk of the late afternoon watching Seinfeld on TV and crocheting, which was very satisfying and worthy. I am planning on leaving work early tomorrow too - maybe I'll crochet more, or get involved in a cooking project. Or just read. Ah, the blissful potential options of a Friday afternoon playing hooky!

I have the best ever husband/sweetie. This morning, we woke up and cuddled in the warm bed listening to the rain, and he sang songs to my stomach - made-up words to the tune of Frere Jacques. This afternoon, I got home to discover that he closed all the storm windows, and our enormously heavy air conditioner is sitting on the floor (and therefore, out of the window). It is, in fact, about 45 degrees here today, so this is necessary - but I haven't been able to help him with this task, as I can't lift anything (for reasons of both pregnancy and arm-weakness). So I actually turned on the heat, and this is a glorious thing. I love our little old charming rickety house, but it does get damn cold in here.

So anyway, galagan rocks. Just saying.

I have pictures sitting here that I finally got developed. The first on the roll are from the end of the day of the March for Women's Lives in DC in April (when I don't have a Big Event to attend, it takes me forever to work through a roll of film). They had trouble developing this roll, and had to send it in to headquarters, or something - someone wrote on the envelope "This roll is old or heat damaged." So I'm trying to think - what might I have done to it? It's not really old, so it must have been heat damage. Let's see, I traveled with my camera a bit, so it could have gotten cooked by a security X-ray scan. And then I suddenly remembered - even though I didn't take any pictures that day, I had my camera - with this roll of film - on me the day I was struck by lightning. Yeah, lightning and X-million (?) volts of electricity coulda caused heat damage, dontcha think? I'm lucky the pictures survived at all - some turned out better than others, but they're all a little blurry. I wonder if it was just that roll of film, or if my camera was also damaged? I guess we'll see. Hmmm, maybe this is a good excuse to get a new camera, as I've had this one since about 1989 or so.

One of the highlights of my year is this weekend! The beloved library book sale - tons and tons o' books for practically nothing. I went this afternoon after work and spent only $5, which I thought was very restrained. The extra-cheap day is Sunday, and I will most likely find my way back. I'm such a slut for cheap books.

And heck - the weekend is here! Glory glory. Helluva week.

There is a conference on love, sexuality and same-sex marriage at the university this weekend. I'm going to try to go to some of the sessions, assuming I can drag myself out of bed tomorrow. Okay, the morning talks sound great, but let's be honest - it ain't gonna happen, as my grand plan is to snuggle further and further under the covers in the morning until the numbers on the clock show as embarrassingly late. Hopefully I'll get over there in the afternoon for some sex talk. That would be good.

I just have to take a moment to crow, because I got good news today. Better than good. The best I've gotten since... let's see - my positive pregnancy test? Certainly the best out of this whole wretched accident.

My insurance paid my out-of-network $19,000 hospital bill.

Of course, they were supposed to, right? This is theoretically how insurance works. I have 200 bucks to cover (at which point I cover my out-of-pocket maximum), and otherwise, nada.

I opened the envelope, and burst into tears.

I basically believe that insurance is inherently a scam and never ever thought they would actually come through like they said they would.

Yes, there are other bills out there still pending. They will probably cover those (since they covered this one). But nothing else compared to this one for sheer scope and size. If they don't for some weird reason, they are all of a manageable size, if it comes to that. I'm just... delighted and thrilled.

Note: my grand total for L'Accident (including follow-up) is $24,999.10. So far.

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Had my OB appointment this morning. The heartbeat was 142 beats per minute. I love the look on galagan's face when we hear the heartbeat - a little bemused and bewildered and kind of "What-the-hell?" Everyone in my office is now trying to predict its gender: based on the heartbeat, how I'm carrying (um, barely visible yet!), or whether I was sick a lot.... We'll get a more scientific view on Friday, with my ultrasound. Can't wait!

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I worked my butt off today - like a madwoman. And got so much done (which was much needed). Wow - think of how productive I could actually be on a regular basis, if I only applied myself regularly. Nah....

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I "get" to go to the state capital tomorrow and present to the subcommittee that gives me grant money for my Big Project of the Year. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to say, but in typical fashion, I have seriously overprepared and printed out tons and tons of stuff. I'm better at speaking off the cuff anyway - and far more used to extemporaneous speaking than working from a prepared script.

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I think LJ needs to add "boingy" to their list of moods. Some days, "bouncy" just isn't enough.

I've been at work for 2 full workdays, and have finally finished reading all the accumulated emails (about 100). It hasn't been so bad. I have a potential new recurring gig, and a free trip to Chicago in the offing! (We were offered the trip to the conference. It's the same day classes start at the university. My boss teaches a couple of classes, and figures as the professor, she really should be there; my co-worker who should be going in my stead is starting grad school that day, and kinda wants to be there for that. So, for my department, from my city, that leaves.... me. To go talk about a project I didn't really work on. Lovely.)

I just emailed the woman who investigates lightning strikes for the state of Colorado. Should be interesting.

I go to the orthopedic surgeon on Thursday!! I cannot wait. I'm hoping to "graduate" to a smaller lighter cast, as this one looks like it swallowed Pittsburgh, and weighs roughly a metric ton. I've known this doc for nearly 20 years - he lives across the street from my mom, and I was his kids' main babysitter. He rocks and I can be a smart-ass with him. Very very key. :)

All my co-workers are coming up with lightning-related names for the Electric Baby. So far, the stand-outs are Thor, Electra, Flash, and of course, Harry.

galagan is back!!! Huzzah indeed. We're lazing around - hey, this is a sick day for me.

A carload of friends just departed for North Dakota and the funeral tomorrow. It's such a long way.... Tomorrow will be a hard day.

I talked to my OB's assistant, and she was suitably shocked by the story - well, everybody is. I just didn't want to waltz in for my next appointment and say "oh, by the way - this happened." I was struck by lightning, I had surgery with anesthesia, I was on morphine for a day, etc. etc. All have implications, of course.

Hmmm, my typing is definitely improving - though it's slow. My handwriting (lefthanded!) is.... amusing.