Traveling
One of the best things about traveling is coming home. I really enjoyed visiting family and friends back in the mid-west, but I was so glad to sleep in my own bed when we returned from our trip.
We had a really nice visit, though I have to admit that flying is even less comfortable when you’ve got a belly the size of a kick ball, and suffer from motion sickness but can’t take anything for it. We caught up with a couple friends in St. Louis, went to Jefferson City to visit my Mom and Step-Dad, bopped up to Columbia to meet up with some of our grad school peeps, and then over to Illinois to do essentially the same with Matthew’s side of the family. Matthew’s mom and family threw us a surprise baby shower (well, it was a surprise to me, apparently Matthew was in on it). It was very nice, we got so many cute outfits (mostly pink) in addition to plethora of bibs and socks! My mom even came to Illinois for the shin-dig, the whole thing was very sweet and thoughtful.
We headed back on Wednesday and I was home a whole day before I had to head off to Asilomar for the annual retreat for my department. Though the location is beautiful, the beds are ridiculously hard and I didn’t get much sleep while I was there. The talks were quite good though; unfortunately sitting still and paying attention for hours at a time isn’t so easy these days with the circus going on in my abdomen. Spent a little time on the beach, it was high tide though, so I didn’t get to explore the tidal pools like I usually do.
Back in Berkeley now, last night I made my dark chocolate and coffee cake with coffee frosting, by popular request to celebrate a couple birthdays of people in my lab. Now I’m preparing for my lab meeting on Thursday. So much fun!
I am very jealous, I’ve been to Asilomar twice and loved it! I also had a conference (here in Saskatoon thankfully) when I was about 8 months preggo. Everybody was not sure how to react when they saw me enter a room or walking around (Preggos do go to conferences, ya freeks!) but at least I got to use a chair to have my legs up each session.
You look beautiful!
Sounds like a good trip. I wouldn’t mind a visit in Columbia, been a few years now.
Oh and by the way, Nebraska sucks.
Andrea: Asilomar is a beautiful place (they could do a bit better with the food according to most in my lab, but it’s better than the dorm food you get at a lot of meetings). I also stole the chair in front of me and used it to put my legs up, but if I could have found a way to move the comfy arm chairs they had in the posh area near the restroom, I would have done that instead! Last year there were a bunch of pregnant ladies at this meeting, and the meeting I went to in April had quite a few too. As far as I could tell, I was the only one at this meeting, and I think a lot of people just don’t even notice, which is fine by me!
A Free Man: Columbia is one of my favorite places. One of my most vivid memories is of a certain now-Australia residing, former-graduate student’s celebration after his dissertation defense. Too many martinis at Teller’s and an interesting gastrointestinal “incident” that required we leave quite a generous tip for our unfortunate waiter. Of whom could I be thinking?!? And by the way, Georgia’s for wussies!