32 Weeks

32 weeks! The 30's seemed to sneak up on me - I always thought whenever I heard people say how many weeks pregnant they were that it was in the 30s when things seemed really legit.  Due date around the corner kind of pregnant. And then, bam, here I am.

I've tried to write an update every 4 weeks for my own sake - I know one day the experience of being pregnant for the first time will be hidden in the dusty recesses of my brain and it will be easier for me to conjure up the lyrics to a top 10 song or the recipe for artichoke dip than it will be to remember this whole experience. It's why I blog, after all - I have a bizarre fear of forgetting and a need to commit words to paper or screen about anything meaningful in my life. And yet for some reason, I've had a tough time calling up the words to describe how I’ve been feeling around week 32.  Neutral? Mixed emotions? Both don’t quite seem to do it just and sound like odd, almost cold, sentiments to describe what it's like to be 2 months away from meeting your first born.

And yet...

I am excited to meet him. I can feel him kick and squirm now, and sometimes when I put my hand on my belly and feel what must be a butt or a head or a heel (who can actually tell?) an image of a baby's butt or head or heel will flash in my mind and I realize I'll get to see these body parts out here in the real world in just a few weeks. I fold the tiny laundry and think about squirming limbs and baby smells and how quickly this adorable little "Auntie Loves Me" onesie is going to get totally ruined by something coming out one end or the other.  Well-meaning advice givers (them again) warn you that the newborn stage goes by in the blink of an eye, and I wonder as I match up teensy socks - will I appreciate that eye blink moment for what it is or will I be so sleep-deprived, overwhelmed, brain dead that I'll be wishing the days past - to him sleeping through the night, or being out of diapers, or whatever the next assumed stage is that's going to be easier than the one I'll be in?

Probably, I am guessing, both.

There's excitement and anticipation and reality of meeting this little person and a bit of amazement that he is a stranger to me now but in an instant will be so utterly familiar we'll wonder if we really ever knew a time before he existed.

But in the same vein, there's part of me that's basking in the last few weeks that we have of being Matt-and-Meghan, just the two of us (with a highly dependent dog often tagging along, of course). My due date is just two days after our fifth wedding anniversary. I have really, really loved our last 5 years together. It sounds cliché, but I can't remember ever being more happy and content in my life than I have been being half of this partnership. Writing about the blessings of my marriage would take up pages and pages of this blog, and I've probably already written that post a half dozen times. Suffice it to say, we have had a happy and fun five years and it's strange to know we stand on the brink of a huge change in our family dynamic, but not really know what exactly that means. In any case, I am not wishing these 8 weeks to get here any faster than I know they already will and just trying to soak up the last 2 months as a couple before we become a family.

To be honest, this isn't the post I expected to write about 32 weeks.  I thought I was going to write about how dreadfully uncomfortable my office chair is to park my expanding self into for 10 hours at a time.  Or how at 32 weeks, my walk has definitely committed itself to being more of a waddle.  Or how ridiculous I look anytime I catch sight of my round belly hindering anything that could remotely be could described as graceful at my Dance Trance class, but I keep stubbornly going. Or how the constant kicks and jabs I am privileged to every night when I lay down to go to bed make my stomach looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. Or how we finally have a crib! But no mattress or change table or anything remotely indicative of a finished baby nursery. All of these things are true, but those aren't the words that came out when I started writing about 32 weeks.  So this is what I'll stick with it, and what I will come back to when I need refreshing from the dusty recesses of my mind about what it was like to be 2 months away from meeting baby.  2 months away from being a family.

Shrimp Boil

I saw a photo spread of a shrimp boil (or “low country boil” as they are often called) in a Martha Stewart Living magazine years ago and, since this was before the days of Pinterest, had carefully torn it out and saved it and sworn one day I was going to do it.

So when we were meal planning for the beach trip and Anne said “Let’s do a shrimp boil!” I said “IN!!!” What better place to do it then where fresh shrimp is abundant!

Fortunately for us, Locke’s family had done them before so we decided he was going to be the head chef and then we loosely consulted another expert on all-things-Southern-cooking to refresh ourselves on the timing and order of ingredients into the pot. (I’ve always sworn I’d never use a Paula Deen recipe, but there’s an exception to every rule!)

It ended up being the yummiest, easiest, crowd-pleasing meal ever. The crab boil, listed in the Paula Deen recipe, was easy enough to find at the grocery store – it was a pack of herbs & spices basically in kind of little mesh bag like a tea bag that floated in the boiling water to flavor everything and then was easily scooped out. And then of course, we had Old Bay to put on the table to liberally shake on to everything. Using Old Bay always takes me back to Baltimore and makes me feel a teensy bit nostalgic!

Technically, if you’re going to do this authentically, you’re supposed to dump everything out on to newspapers on a table and just dig in – but since the table at our rental house looked like maybe it wouldn’t appreciate a couple pounds of steaming shrimp, corn and sausage poured on to it, we opted for bowls.  And then we indeed dug in!

Easiest recipe ever. Make it, eat it, share with happy guests.

Emerald Isle

The culmination of the back-to-back-to-back-to-back weekends of travel was a much, much anticipated 5-day beach trip to Emerald Isle. It was one of those trips we've talked about nearly all of residency - "we should rent a house at the beach for the end of residency!" and I'm equal parts thrilled we followed through and amazed that we're at the end of residency point already.

I've grown up going to South Carolina beaches - specifically Garden City & Surfside - but I have always wanted to explore the varying and interesting coast of NC so I was excited that we picked the new-to-me spot of Emerald Isle. Locke found us a great house that was 2nd row to the beach with a pool in the backyard and we quickly made it a home by dumping sunglasses on every counter, beach towels over stairways, sun-tanned lotion magazines on side tables and stocking the fridge full of beer, snacks and fishing bait.

It was a wonderful get-away with good friends, Zac & Jamie, Anne & Locke and Mike. After looking at a weather forecast with potential rain all week, we lucked out with never a drop and sunny warm days in the high 70s. There were some threatening clouds that cropped up from time to time, but they moved on and the sun shone all week. We fell into an easy routine of breakfast and coffee on the porch, wandering down to the pool for basking, reading or hanging out in the water, a quick bite to eat for lunch and then wandering over to the beach for the afternoon. The boys amused themselves with bocce ball or guarding fishing lines. It goes without saying that most girls don't need amusement at a beach - there's total satisfaction from toes in the sand, a few magazines and maybe even a nap. Or even better, watching cute Zoey experience the surf lapping up on her sandy legs or trying to figure out how to distract her Momma so she could find out if sand was as tasty as it looked like it could be.

We had two delicious meals out at local restaurants that were picked out by Mike who frequents this beach every other weekend (insert snide jealous comment) and then we cooked two meals in.  Our final night, we had a shrimp boil - something I have always wanted to do and which turned out to be very easy and a huge crowd pleaser. Adding to the "keep" list for future recipes and potential tailgate or other large crowd meals.

Between the surprisingly great weather, the excellent company and the adorable and entertaining Miss Z I don't think we could have had a better week. The only improvement on the vacation would have been to double the time we were there. Sunday morning arrived way, way too quickly and soon we were saying goodbye to our little island house and headed back to reality.

Wino Weekend: Meeting JB

We've been the best of friends since our senior year in college when we would meet every Wednesday for half-priced wine bottle night at Filling Station (thus earning us our still used moniker, "the winos.")   Since graduating, we've kept a daily email exchange going to stay in touch with each other's day to day life.  (My "wino" email folder has 21,834 emails in it to date.)  But emails are no substitutes for exchanging stories in person, and so we've made it a point to fly all over the country to see each other - for homecoming, for spring breaks, for engagements, bachelorettes, birthdays, weddings, tailgates, housewarmings, wine trips and sometimes for no other reason that that we miss each other.  But now we've progressed to a new reason for get together: meeting each other's babies.

John was born in December to Shelby & Brad, and we've been itching to meet him for the last 6 months - seeing his cute smiley face over instagrams and emails has merely been a tease.  Despite hectic schedules - Jess moving, Jenny wrapping up her school year, me getting closer and closer to a no-travel date - we were able to land ourselves a weekend in June for a much overdue wino weekend.

And it was, as always, perfection.  There are some people who you can literally just spend time with and be perfectly content and happy.  These are my winos.  It wasn't a particularly eventful weekend - we spent some time at the pool, and the girls had planned a surprise baby shower/celebration for both Shelby & I in the afternoon, and we had a few meals together. And of course, we got to meet little John and see Emily's baby, Claire - who is almost not a baby anymore!  It was blissful just to be in the company of my long-time friends and hear their voices catching me up on their lives.

I was a little teary headed back west on I-40 after dropping Pam off at the airport and hugging the rest of the girls good-bye... until I got an email from one of them the following Monday morning that simply said:

"So, when's our next wino weekend?"

Life After College Doesn’t Have to Suck: A Book Review

I am the wrong person to write this review.  For starters, this book is written for college graduates (the soon-to-be, the just-last-week, and the-few-years-ago.)  Considering I recently felt morally obligated to stop using my student ID at Harris Teeter about 2 years ago, I think I am (sadly) out of the context of college graduate.

Secondly, I picked up Life After College Doesn’t Have the Suck mainly because I know the author and I was impressed one of my peers had done something I've always wanted to do (written and PUBLISHED a book), and wanted to see what it was all about.  This, of course, makes me moderately biased which I think is fair to state up front.  Nonetheless, my friend Jess asked me the other day if I wouldn’t get on Goodreads (because I fear getting sucked into another social media outlet), if I would at least blog from time to time when I read something I liked.  So here we are.

I downloaded it on a slow Saturday evening (see: definitely not a recent college graduate) and dove in, figuring I’d read a few chapters to get the gist of it.

I didn't go to bed until I had finished it that night.  I was sucked in immediately, drawn in by the outrageous chapter titles and the fast-clipped, in your face writing style.  I may not be the target audience for this book, but I was highlighting lines, nodding my head and literally stopped twice to text the author to tell him I was laughing out loud at certain points. 

Let's get down to it.  I want you to buy the book (and John Murdock, the author, does too) so I'll be sparse in my details about content.  The basic premise is that while it used to be a pretty safe bet that a 4-year degree was the all-express pass to The Perfect Job post college, the times they are a changing.  And yet… no one really seems to be passing that memo along to college students (and recent grads) until they get out in the "real world."  And when they get there, they are flailing and have no idea what to do.

I think this topic is incredibly relevant.  We're hearing more and more about the burgeoning student debt problem as it's taking college grads longer and longer to find employment, along with the rest of the country.  We’re still churning high school students out on to the conveyer belt to the 4 year liberal arts school with little to no warning that the next stop of the fulfilling, quickly obtained, lucrative career is becoming more and more elusive.

I love that this book is addressing this issue, but more importantly, I love the way Murdock addresses the issue.  He's pretty blunt.  I have to admit, I was taken aback at first.  I'm a long time reader of personal development blogs like White Hot Truth and The Happiness Project, and I'm much more accustomed to ingesting information in quirky, happy sound bites.  My initial gut reaction was to be put off by the shock-value tone. But there is enough humor after the initial blows to balm the wounds and keep the reader going. The more I got into the book, I realized that the HEY YOU! WAKE UP! tone is exactly what’s needed. It's a fine art to know when to wield tough love and I think he gets it right here.

I was also initially struck by the brevity of the book. The chapters are short, the points are made quickly and then it’s on to the next thing. But, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this delivery was actually perfected suited to the intended readership too. John's writing to the audience that is 100% accustomed to getting information in feeds, tweets and texts. Information is ingested quickly before moving on to the next salient point. If his goal was to capture the attention of the recent college grad, shake them by the shoulders, scare them a little bit, then reassure them it was going to be okay – if they were willing to make the effort to make it that way - he hit the nail on the head.

The book is timely and arrives on the cusp of a conversation about the unique problems the next generation of worker bees is facing. They're at the intersection of Steve Job's admonishment to "keep looking" and the economy's advice to "take whatever you can get."

My sense was the book is meant to be a catalyst. It's not a how to guide to find the perfect job after college, but he succinctly addresses the common pitfalls college grads are falling in to and outlines some basic ways to change course. It’s a must-read for any soon-to-be or recent college grads, but it’s also an interesting read for anyone who is participating in the conversation of what’s next for Gen Y in the workforce. If the reader finishes the book and feels like there IS a 3rd option between a soul-sucking corporate existence that pays the bills and bunking in Mom & Dad's basement until inheritance kicks in, then John has succeeded.

******

You can pick up the e-book here, read more on John’s blog here or follow The Young Professional on Twitter. 

And the necessary disclaimer: I was not paid to read or review the book.  All opinions are mine and all moola spent was mine.

Dining in the Dash: Mooney’s

Anne & I checked another restaurant off our list of must-try places in our Dining in the Dash project!  I know a lot of people are regulars at Mooney's, but somehow neither of us had ventured down 4th Street to try it yet.  In fact, when I tweeted that I was going at least 3 different people mentioned it was one of their W-S faves (and I even got a recommendation for a dish to try from Miriam.)

I was really happy to see Anne had snagged an outdoor table when I walked up - I love al fresco dining in the summer!  I decided to take Miriam's advice and go with a sampler plate because it seemed like a good way to try out a couple new dishes.  I've eaten a good bit of Mediterranean food but I haven't varied much from a few basic standards that I know I like.  So I decided the falafel as something completely new to me, along with some stand-by favorites like hummus and couscous.  And then I got the cauliflower just because it sounded good.  Anne ordered a moussaka that was a special recommended by the waiter. My biggest problem was narrowing down what to try on my sampler platter - I also really wanted to try the tabouli and baba ghanouj!  Just means I have to go back, right?

General food review: the hummus was excellent - very creamy and tangy.  I loved the couscous - I forget how much I like couscous because I don't cook it at home very much since Matt doesn't really like it.  I loved the addition of raisins in it for a hint of sweetness.  The fried cauliflower were great too - very light, not breaded or battered and they came with a sesame dressing for dipping.  The only thing I didn't love was my new dish, the falafel.  I didn't dislike it - but I was glad there were only two because I didn't find myself scarfing them down.  I also tried Anne's moussaka (and I'll let her review for herself) but I wasn't a fan - there was a spice in it I couldn't identify but I just didn't love.  Something that made it almost sweet... maybe nutmeg?  (Let the record show that I have no idea what moussaka is supposed to taste like though.)

I also thought it was fairly priced for the amount of food we had.  Our bill was $19 with tip for our 2 dinners (no drinks) and we both had leftovers to take home. One of my favorite things about our meal is that unlike a lot of dining out experiences, I didn't feel like the food was super heavy and I left full but not overstuffed.  While we were eating, Zac came by to pick up dinner there which gave me a lightbulb moment... I have a very small list of places that I like to pick dinner up from on nights I don’t feel like cooking because most take-out options end up being so heavy – I’d rather just eat a bowl of cereal!  So I might not race back here in lieu of some other favorites in restaurant (especially with my long list of places to try still), but there were so many other things on the menu I wanted to try I'm going to keep it in mind as a pick-up option for busy nights too.  I'll just have to remember to leave the couscous off Matt's plate!

A review of our “Dining in the Dash” Project*

• Kitchen Roselli
• The Screaming Rooster
• Goat Lady Dairy
• the Taco Truck
• Sweet Potatoes
• Breakfast Of Course
• Bernadin’s
• Meridian
• Old Salem Tavern
• King’s Crab Shack
• New Town Bistro
• Muddy Creek Café
• Winston-Salem Prime
• Spring House Restaurant (My Review - 5/11/12)
• Lexington BBQ
• Hillbilly Hideaway
• Mooney’s (6/11/12)
• Vin205
• MamaZoe Michael’s
• El Maguey
• Chef Dion Sprenkle 

*Yes, we added a few to the original list.  And it’s taking us awhile to get to them.  I anticipate this being a long (although enjoyable!) project.

West Coast Wedding Weekend

This weekend I flew out to Santa Barbara, CA for the wedding of one of my best friends from college, Anna, and her now-husband Pablo.  While I wouldn't normally condone a cross-country weekend getaway (especially 30 weeks pregnant), I am so, so happy I was able to be present for Anna's big day.  We've been friends since we first met in our freshmen year dorm and have stayed close after more than 12 years, despite living on 2 different coasts now instead of 2 different dorm floors!

It was a quick trip out to Cali, but a wonderful weekend.  I arrived in LA Friday morning - a little sleepy after a SERIOUSLY early departure from Charlotte - where I met my friend Britta at the rental car place.  We made the beautiful 2 hour drive up the coast together to Santa Barbara, and met our other friend Sarah at the hotel.  The four of us - Anna, Britta, Sarah and I - all met freshmen year in our dorm, pledged the same sorority, lived together at various points throughout college, and have now have each taken turns being one another’s bridesmaids!

The wedding was so perfectly suited to Anna & Pablo - honestly, I don't think I have ever been to a wedding that was more personal than this one.  The ceremony site was a shaded little corner of a park with huge rock boulders for privacy.  While waiting for the ceremony to start, guests stood and mingled around a lemonade table and looked at pictures of the couple hanging from ribbons from the trees, while we bridesmaids huddled behind a huge boulder to stay hidden.  The ceremony was conducted underneath a huge tree by Anna's brother, Martin, while guests stood in a close circle around us.  They had written their own vows, and they were so sweet and meaningful - I don't think there was a single dry eye among us. (I wish I had some pictures of the actual ceremony, but I didn’t think snapping some pics while standing in the bridal line was considered good wedding party etiquette!)

Afterwards, we traipsed back through the woods to our cars (my first time driving a bride to her own wedding!) and to a nearby restaurant called the Wine Cask, for an absolutely fabulous meal, wonderful toasts, lots of congratulatory hugs and of course, dancing.  (And for the record, being pregnant in a place called "the Wine Cask" is indeed absolute purgatory.)  But, in lieu of wine, I found my vice of the night - chocolate chevre donuts.  Just let that sink in for a minute.

I kind of want to devote a whole paragraph to this donut.  Anna had a mini-dessert bar (which, AMAZING) with oversized spoon filled with lemon curd, mini peanut butter cupcakes, slices of wedding cake and mini chocolate chevre donuts.  I took a spoonful of lemon curd - nice, but I wasn't over the moon.  I bit into the peanut butter cupcake - and gave the rest to Sarah because it was too rich.  Then I reached for the donuts (shut up, I'm pregnant) and as soon as I took a bite told Sarah "stop eating that peanut butter thing right now and put this in your mouth immediately!" Possibly one of the best things I have ever eaten. Ok, I did just devote a whole paragraph to it, didn't I?

Anyways, it was a fantastic weekend although way, way too short.  We had dinner together Friday night at the rehearsal dinner and a relaxing albeit breezy day on the beach together on Saturday, but I felt like I was saying good-bye to my friends almost as soon as I had said hello.  Before I knew it, I was wishing Anna and Pablo congratulations and goodnight and slinking back to the hotel room due to my 5 am (eek!) departure to drive back to LAX the next morning.  The travel home was long, but fortunately and blissfully uneventful - and even made a tiny bit easier by a sweet TSA lady who waved me through the long security line to get in priority security so I didn't have to wait so long.  (Preggo perks!)  I was happy to pull in to my garage and climb into bed Sunday night, but I'm even more happy I made the long journey out to the other side of the country to witness one of my best friends and the start of her happy, happy marriage. 

Breezy Beach Day

Working on her vows…

Getting in her dress w/ her sister Rebecca’s help

Beautiful bride!

Congratulations, Anna & Pabs!