Back to Life, Back to Reality, Back to the Here and Now

Besides my pregnancy posts, I have been postless for almost a month. Its been a long month for work, filled with lots of 12 hour days. But our last huge conference ended yesterday and... I'M FREEEEE!

I feel like I'm on vacation. It's 6:30 pm and I'm not working. I have been busy with other things besides work and now I have to update you. This will be a long, rambling post, so you should probably get something to drink and get comfortable. We are gonna be here awhile.

So....the day after Larry and I found out I was pregnant, we had plans to go to dinner at Fogo de Chão in Baltimore, a Brazilian style steakhouse where gauchos come around with spits of various delicious meats and carve unlimited meat for you right at your table. You have a coaster with red on one side and green on the other, and they will only visit you if you have your green light on. They also have a salad bar and sides that they serve, but mostly, it's about the meat. Mostly. And so, we ate A LOT of meat. I kept forgetting to turn my green light off, so they just kept coming by, and if I did have my red side showing, they would stop by someone else's green light at our twenty person party and, "Ohh, you have filet mignon wrapped in bacon", and just like that, my green light was on again. It was tasty, and I think it was worth the price ($48), if for nothing other than the experience, but I don't think that I would do it again, at least not for a while. Kind of like Medieval Times, if you've been there once, you get the point.

Random aside - while entering names for one of our conferences, I found the best porn name ever. Electra Cummings. But instead of being a porn star, she is a first grade teacher.

Andy and Amanda came by so that Amanda could encase me in tape as I have done to her, and immortalize my pre-baby form. Here are the "during" photos:

You may be wondering why I am laying down in three out of four of them. That would be because I almost passed out. Four times. The first time I realized I needed to lie down, Amanda thought I was kidding, apparently until she saw my face and I was ghost white. I proceeded to lay down three more times throughout the process, and ended up pushing our delicious homemade chicken carbonara dinner until 9 PM. But now it's done. Well almost done. I still need to stuff it and close off the bottom of it. I will post a picture once it's finished.

Another aside- ever since we found out that I am pregnant, Larry has been nesting. He has been cooking amazing meals for me most nights, and taking great care of me, mostly while I sat for hours on the couch working. He is just proving to me what I already knew, that he is going to make a great Dad.

Larry and I had a night out in Annapolis to celebrate Chrissy's 30th birthday with a surprise dinner party. About one minute in, Barbie, Chrissy's sister, accidentally let out the news that Chrissy is pregnant again. It was also David and Nicole's one year anniversary of their first date. Everyone was in a great mood, only half of us could actually drink, and we sat and talked for 4 hours. There was a whole-ma-lotta baby talk, and while it was interesting for awhile, I definitely got tired of it.
It's only three weeks into to pregnancy, so this worries me a little. It's not like I can hide it as I get farther along, and I have already been warned that complete strangers will want to talk to me about being pregnant and will touch my stomach without prompting, and that is not OK. Touching people that you do not know is not acceptable, and especially not on the stomach, and extra especially not when they are their most vulnerable. Its like touching some random person's sling when they have a broken arm. Or poking someone in the eye patch. You just don't do it.

This past weekend, I had my big conference in Arlington. It actually went very smoothly. Nothing went wrong with registration and the only drama had nothing to do with me. Sure, one of the employee's of the organization that put on the conference quit in the middle of the conference in a drunken, frustrated rage, but it made for good gossip. I hate office gossip, unless it's about someone else's office. Then I eat it up. And when I've had enough, I head home to my office, where I never have to worry about Jezebel and Putty talking about me behind my back.

Today, I went to a Fight the Tech Tax rally in Annapolis to urge Maryland state legislators to repeal the tech tax that was passed with very little research or thought as to its effects. It is a 6% tax on technology businesses, the highest in the country, and while it has been passed, it will not go into effect until July 1st. This tax will cause many technology businesses to move into one of the many neighboring states and will force those that currently employ Maryland-based technology companies to look out-of-state for their tech services. There were a couple hundred people there, carrying signs and chanting "Axe the tax!".

Many of the legislators are against it, but others want to know "If we don't tax you, who should we tax?". As one of the speakers today said, "We need to come up with a new solution, instead of making our deal at the expense of another group. Just remember, we were the last group's deal". It was exciting to see all of these business people out en mass, in their suits, carrying signs and chanting to get their point across. There are many more rallies to come. If you want to help repeal the tax, come to the next one.