I. Am. Bored!

I'm soooo bored. It feels like I've been bored forever, which probably means only three days.

Why am I bored? I don't know. I still have computer games that still have things to do, but I'm not interested. I could catch up on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, but not really feeling it.

Are you judging? Stop. Don't judge.

I could finish the Harry Potter series for the second time, or I could borrow the second book to Starcrossed that I've been meaning to read. I could read helpful books like Sacred Marriage, Mingling of Souls, or A Writer's Journey, but I'm having a hard time getting into them.

I could write more blog posts... but honestly, this is because I'm trying to be consistent, not because I actually wanted to write it.

Yes, you're all welcome. How I slave for you, my three readers.

I think it's a combination of a few things going on.

One. The weather. I never realize how much I miss nice weather until it makes brief appearances, taunting me. It got to 50 degrees the other day.

Spring! Come to me, spring! And then swiftly bring me summer! And sunshine and swimming and jogging and biking and wine and music and heat!

Maybe you're recalling what I don't want to remember, which is the date. It's only February. Ugh. I hate winter. David doesn't even notice, I think, unless he has to shovel the driveway. He goes from climate controlled house to climate controlled car to climate controlled office and back again. I plan pretty much every day around the temperature. Is it going to be above 32? I can bike. Below 32? I can walk if I bundle. Below 10? Maybe I can still walk... 40 or above? Jogging! 50 or above? Biking for recreation! My life basically grinds to a standstill if it is below freezing. And it's almost sort of nice out, making me really yearn for the days when it is actually nice out.

And Two. Also with summer comes Genevieve. And while I understand I should enjoy these last peaceful days I'll have for the next twenty years, I'm really bad at waiting. I rather want to meet her. Although I don't want her to come early. I just want time to shift forward.

I'm doing Ginny-waiting things while I wait, like collecting children's books, finding things for my registry,  planning the nursery, prenatal yoga, signing up for a Bradley method class, and getting kicked. But some of those things have stalled, some of those things I have to wait for, and some, like picking a brand of diapers, I really don't want to have to deal with. I have a hard enough time in the chip aisle.

I'm still bored. I'm going to go, I dunno, add all the Jan Brett books to my registry or something.

Jogging today

I finally got to go jogging again, and my pace was an abysmal 7:11 per kilometer. Previously, I averaged around 5:45 per kilometer, shorter in 5ks (competition yah know). I feel kind of pathetic.

Of course, I've barely jogged for the past three months, I'm fighting a cold, and I'm six months pregnant.

Excuses.

I am woman, hear me roar.

Heartburn

Pregnancy comes with a host of symptoms. I actually made someone in small group squeamish by describing the sensation after I use the restroom. Basically, it feels that my bladder is supporting all my internal organs, complete with the one holding the one-pound baby, and when my bladder goes down, all the organs sink back into my pelvis, which is a bit smaller than their previous location, and they have to squish and it uncomfortable.

She did not seem to appreciate my attention to detail.

As the prenatal yoga person on the Daily Burn website said, we will be giving birth and pregnancy is no time to be recalcitrant about words for things!

But it seems like everything is a symptom of pregnancy. There are nice charts in my various books that tell you what symptoms you should watch for, what symptoms you should call the doctor during office hours, and what symptoms you should call right away for. All good to remember.

Heartburn, however, is a standard one. If I called the office, they would tell me something like, "That's perfectly normal, totally to be expected. Hormones make the barrier between your esophagus and stomach relax, which allows some of the contents of your stomach to leak through. You could try and avoid it by managing your weight gain, avoiding foods more likely to give you heartburn, and drinking milk. You could also use Tums or Rolaids, calcium-based antacids, just no sodium-based antacids."

When you have the Internet, who needs a doctor? Of course the Internet is notorious for telling you that your symptoms could mean you're dying, and doctors seem to lean the other direction in that "it was probably nothing. Let me know if it happens again."

So yeah, heartburn. Part and parcel, who cares as long as I manage it and don't let it bother me?

Well, I only care because of something I read in What to Expect When You're Expecting: Heartburn Today, Hair Tomorrow? Feeling the burn bad? You may want to stock up on baby shampoo. New research has actually backed up what old wives have maintained for generations: The more heartburn you have during pregnancy, the more likely your baby will be born with a full head of hair. Implausible as it sounds, seems the hormones responsible for heartburn are the same ones that cause fetal hair to sprout. So pass the Tums, and the detangler.

Still don't understand why I care? Have you never seen a baby born with a full head of hair? Squeeee!

That slight elation

I have had a brief brush with fame.

Oh, I don't mean this one.

If you watch, you can see the back of my head. Apparently it is recognizable enough that I've had several people be like, "I saw you in that Chamber of Commerce video! At least, I think it was you..."

Yes, it was me. Yes, I knew they were filming. I gave them permission to film the back of my head while I ordered a salad from Cafe Diem. They had some cool-looking gear and I asked them about it.

Anyway, that's not what I was talking about.

I follow some libertarian bloggers, one of whom I really enjoy reading who calls himself (or herself?) Bionic Mosquito. I like his stuff because he is a thin-libertarian who very much enjoys debating, analyzing, reading about, and applying libertarian principles.

Libertarian principles, at their very least (thinnest), involve three rights and one principle. Most people just list the principle, but I believe the rights are implied if not usually directly included in said principle.

You have the right to your life, to your freedom, to your property. The principle is called the Non-Aggression Principle (NAP), which is that you (and everyone else) must not aggress against anyone else's aforementioned rights. And thus we obtain peaceful anarchy where every man rules his own frontier and respects his neighbor.

Except that we are human. And we are aggressive. And therefore a lot of libertarian theorists talk a lot about how our peaceful anarchy would be maintained. I tend to find this stuff fascinating, but I'm always secretly scared that I'll encounter something that makes me believe that I just can't be all on board for libertarianism. So far, I've stuck to the our-system-sucks-currently-so-freedom-would-be-better-even-with-problems position.

Anyway, Bionic was talking about his theories around governance, the social glue that would help maintain our society. It isn't part of libertarianism exactly, as libertarianism is ONLY a political philosophy. It isn't meant to be religion or charity or family. Freedom means you provide your own rules for your own way of living. And so, governance. Someone in his comment section of a post asked what he meant by governance, and Bionic responded with several examples, but I didn't feel really a definition, which could have been what the commenter was asking for. I understand Bionic's arguments decently well by then, so I attempted to distill it in the comment section in form of a definition.

And then I was reading through another post one day.

Look at the conclusion. Bionic quoted me. He's been thinking about, reading, and discussing things with people like Walter Block, big name libertarian theorists, and he quoted me.

I am ashamed of my grammatical errors. Aside from the "e" he added to "wherein," I noticed I didn't put a period after "etc."

But he said "something exactly like that" to my summary of his idea.

I admit it. I got little thrills. Showed David. Sent it to my dad.

I'm such a nerd.

My reclamation

I'm sure it's all very well and good to have relatives interested in your well-being. Relatives who continually speak the truth to you, on a daily basis, calling to mind scripture to send you through the day, reminding you of God's word.

However, I wish these relatives wouldn't get up so early.

David's father and sister both send out Bible verses via text. I'm not sure of the frequency because his phone buzzing doesn't always wake me up, but there have been times, one recently, where I was almost able to get back to sleep... and then another buzz.

From A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens:

[Scrooge] then made bold to inquire what business brought [the Spirit] there.

``Your welfare!'' said the Ghost.

Scrooge expressed himself much obliged, but could not help thinking that a night of unbroken rest would have been more conducive to that end. The Spirit must have heard him thinking, for it said immediately:

``Your reclamation, then. Take heed!''

That's how the argument goes in my head anyway. "But I want to sleep. But it's Bible verses. CAN I REALLY BE MAD AT BIBLE VERSES?" At five-something in the morning, apparently I can.

"Can't you put your phone on silent?" I ask. No, he needs to hear in case of emergency. "How about just your Dad and Emily?" I respond, grumpy. No, they're included in said emergency communication.

"Why on earth do they get up so EARLY?"

I think David usually stops listening to me by then.

Anyway, if there was an emergency and someone was calling him, there'd be a good chance he wouldn't hear it and I'd be the one kicking him so he'd make it stop.