Juxtaposition

Broken Promises...

2008-01-02T16:27:00.001-05:00

Wow, I really didn't think that I'd be this tardy on updating my blog. Sad. Oh well, what's three months among friends?

So, I finished my first quarter of grad school at the University of Chicago, and may I say my brain hurt at the end. I'm very glad I am going there, though--the professors are awesome and I am enjoying my classmates. I'm taking next quarter off, however, as I am going to be having a child in the middle of it. Right now my hope is to take one class in the spring so that I won't have to be away from the baby for too long.

Speaking of the baby (as I seem to always be doing lately!), this kid is really running out of room. I am much more frequently uncomfortable in the past few weeks, and although I still feel lots of movements, it's clear that the baby simply doesn't have very many places to go. I have had increasing waking worries and nightly dreams about the baby being born, and I am NOT ready yet. Luckily I have a supportive husband, mom and best friend who are doing their best to calm me down, but I'm obsessed with trying to get everything ready for the baby. I wish I had more energy to go with it though...I'm back to feeling really tired a lot of the time, or if I'm not, my back doesn't tolerate me being on my feet for more than an hour or so. Sigh. But I have washed all my littlest baby clothes and the crib sheets and changing pad covers. Plus I ordered the last few pieces of nursery furniture and got some diapers and associated supplies yesterday. Now I just need the crib mattress and my breast pump and I should be mostly set. Deep breaths.

I guess I should know better than to promise an update in the next few weeks, but I will try my best.

Until then...

Semi-addendum

2007-09-25T00:44:00.000-04:00

So, we had our "big" ultrasound today, where they take all the baby's measurements, and where they could, if you chose, tell you if you're having a boy or a girl. I believe there are not enough good surprises left in the world, though, so we're keeping that one a surprise. Either way, it's a new human being we put on the planet, so that's pretty neat.
The baby was moving like crazy, except when the tech wanted him or her to scoot over so she could see something in particular. That was pretty funny. The baby yawned and pointed a little finger in the air, that the tech called "the E.T. pose." Bill prefers to call it the "We're Number One". Either way, it was pretty darned cute. I wish you could see faces better on 2d ultrasound, but you really can't. Plus, our child was being a bit camera shy. I saw at least twice a hand in front of the face, and the tech was having problems finding it at all sometimes, I guess he or she was turning their head away from the ultrasound. Stubborn little thing, for all of 15 ounces.
Just thought I'd update, as that was a momentous occasion. I need to go to bed now--school tomorrow. Ta ta.

Whew!

2007-09-23T01:17:00.000-04:00

Okay,

So I know I have pretty much dropped off the face of the earth in the last 5 months, but I can give a nutshell-version of the events that kept me off the blogosphere.

1. I was finishing my last-ever (I hope!) year of teaching middle school.
2. My husband was graduating from law school and moving to Chicago weeks ahead of me to start bar review classes.
3. I was trying to keep the house clean for the people who came to look at (but not buy) it.
4. I was in Chicago but had to keep a VERY big secret for awhile.
5. Pretty much as soon as the secret was allowed out, Bill had finished the Bar Exam and we went to Europe for 2 1/2 weeks. Aside from my bag being missing the entire 2 1/2 weeks, it was a terrific trip! I am rather amazed at my trip-planning savvy.
6. As soon as we got home, we closed on a new house, and while we were moving the last of our stuff out of the old place somebody finally offered on it.
7. Two words: pregnant brain.

Yes, unless you are a random reader, you have probably already known for a few months now that I am pregnant. I'll be 21 weeks on Monday, the day of the so-called "big ultrasound." This is when most people will find out the sex of their child if they choose to, but we decided that there are very few nice surprises left in the world, so we're keeping this one. We're also going with the "short list" method of names, in which we will bring said list to the hospital and see which one the baby looks like (hopefully one of them!).

I have had a rather blissfully uneventful pregnancy so far. The worst symptoms I have had have been occasional heartburn and back pain, extreme fatigue, and strange mood swings. I was never sick, thank goodness.

I just started showing about 3 weeks ago, and now it seems that I am getting a little bigger daily. I hope I can stay in the same set of maternity clothes for most of it, anyway...I am really hoping not to gain too much weight. Of course, the recommended amount is fine, but I want to be able to get back in shape relatively quickly after the baby is born, so the minimum requirement would be ideal. :)

Oh, yes, and I went back to grad school to get my master's in Humanities from the University of Chicago. I was a little bit worried about how they would take my being pregnant, but they were very congratulatory and welcoming and I am much more at ease. Most of the students who have noticed (not all have, somehow!) have been very accepting as well. Of course, I'm married and plenty old enough, but there is a significant portion of our class that is younger than me and single, and I wasn't sure how they would respond. The only weird situation was with one of the guys in my small group, who looked at me and asked how far along I was. I told him 5 months, and he said I looked pretty big for how far along I was. Thanks, idiot. But otherwise everyone has been great, even random strangers who greet the two of us. :)

Lately I've felt a lot more movement even though most of it is still pretty subtle, and the majority of it seems to happen when I'm reclining in a chair or lying down. My first indisputable "kick" occurred at the Minnesota State Fair the day before Labor Day. Bill decided to go into this bar to get a beer, and the bar had a blues band playing loudly inside. I walked in behind him and could feel the vibrations in my breastbone. I hadn't been in there 30 seconds before I felt 5 little kicks very close together. We figure, either this baby doesn't like that much noise, or wanted to add some drumming of his/her own. I like the latter theory since we're so musical.

Anyway, it's far too late for me to be on any longer, so I'll wrap this up for now.

I promise to at least blog once a month from now on. I think I can handle that. :)

A word nerd's complaint...

2007-04-23T21:32:00.000-04:00

For anyone who watches the Discovery Channel as much as I do (I love me some MythBusters), you may have noticed their promos for their "Manday night lineup" on "Manday night." As much as I realize the phonic similarity between their made-up word and Monday, I can't help but think that it's etymologically wrong. So, as a true word nerd, I looked up the etymology of the word Monday:

Monday
O.E. monandæg "day of the moon," from mona (gen. monan) + dæg (see day).

Then, I wanted to make sure I understood the association societies have made to the moon, so I called up my good friend Wikipedia:

The Moon has figured in many mythologies, often paired or contrasted with the Sun (see also Solar deity).
The monthly cycle of the moon, in contrast to the annual cycle of the sun's path, has been implicitly linked to women's menstrual cycles by many cultures, although rarely explicitly stated. Many of the most well-known mythologies feature female lunar deities, such as the Greek goddesses Selene and Phoebe and their Olympian successor Artemis, their Roman equivalents Luna and Diana, or the Thracian Bendis. These cultures almost invariably featured a male sun god.

I'll finish this later. My husband wants his computer back.

When normal words fail...

2007-04-17T19:24:00.000-04:00

...I turn to writing poetry. I may tinker with this later, but I needed to get it out.

Blacksburg Requiem

Sing praise to Alma Mater dear, For V.P.I. we'll ever cheer;

At first, a blankness, a void,
as if all air has been sucked out of the room.

Come lift your voices, swell the song, Our loyalties to her belong.

As news trickles in, the too-familiar numbness
grows, heart contracting.

So stand and sing, all hail to thee. V.P., all hail to thee.

Thoughts of why, how, who
start to seem too small to suit
the gravity of the situation at hand.

The Orange and Maroon you see, That's fighting on to victory;

The beauty of the souls departed,
striking in their selflessness and heroism.

Our strife will not be long this day, For glory lies within this fray.

Even so close to such utter hatred,
love prevails as campus, community, state and nation
unite as one human family.

All loyal sons and daughters, one, We raise our banner to the sun;

Forgotten are thoughts of old rivalries;
school boundaries melt away as
America's scholars join together in care and concern.

Our motto brings a spirit true, That we may ever serve you.

Countless numbers bear you up as you mourn;
we look for the day when
the Hokies' deafening roar
is resurrected,
reborn,
stronger than ever,
defying all who would silence.

Requiescat in pace.

(c) 2007 Kristine Parker.

Quick apology and blog-plug

2007-04-12T20:19:00.000-04:00

When drafting my list of links to the right of this blog, I meant to draw any readers I had who were not already aware of my brilliant husband's blog (which certainly puts mine to shame--he's always been able to write circles around me), but I managed to remember the address wrong. Duh. So, Bill, I'm very sorry, and I hope if I manage to draw any readers I am not aware of, they will also look at yours, since it's more thoughtful, funny and interesting anyway. :)

In other news, our dog is groomed, my car is clean with new oil, and I found a $70 sweater at Ann Taylor on sale for $10. Woot.

K

Vacation planning is for the birds.

2007-04-11T23:48:00.000-04:00

So, I have spent a ton of time online the past few days attempting to nail down our flights and hotel rooms for the bar trip Bill and I decided to go on to Europe. Now, considering I've never undertaken such a huge amount of planning for anything like this before, I think I'm doing rather well, but some things are just hard to figure out.
For instance, it is very difficult to figure out train travel. It took me two days of looking at various sites to decide that I should get an Italy train pass and then just buy our other tickets point-to-point.
And for countries that are supposed to be so close together, why does the train between Innsbruck and Paris take 11 hours? I don't want to have to give up my hotel in Innsbruck to take an overnight train, because it's awesome (Mozart slept there!), but I also don't want to only have one day in Paris because it takes all day to get there. This stinks. Any ideas?
Other than that, I'm pretty pleased. I have officially nailed down accommodations for Rome, Innsbruck, Paris, and London, and am very close for Florence and Venice. The only place I haven't gotten at least a positive reply for is Cinque Terre. Hopefully the other hotelier there will reply to me tomorrow.
I swear, this is stressful and I will need another vacation just to recover from vacation planning. At least once I'm done with this, hopefully our actual trip in August will go off without a hitch. I know the places I'm booking will be good (they're endorsed by reputable guidebooks). I have been to most of the cities we're visiting before and I know Bill will be pleased with the sightseeing part. I'm really looking forward to seeing them again.
So, anyway, just thought I'd let the folks know what I've been up to. Please reply with any ideas you may have about my Innsbruck to Paris dilemma. I already looked at flights--most of them are too expensive, and the cheap one leaves early from Munich. How would I get there from Innsbruck in time? Ugh. Anyway, post away please!

K

UPDATE--4/13
I have now confirmed our hotel in Venice, and I grabbed some cheapie plane tickets from Munich to Paris so we get there in the morning instead of at night. Now we just have to finagle our way to Munich from Innsbruck. Easy, no? ;-)

Here goes...

2007-04-10T21:39:00.000-04:00

On the urging of my dear mother, and out of the irrepressible spirit of having a week with no scheduled work to do, I have decided to launch my own blog. I am sure several of you are saying, "But you have a blog on Myspace." This is true. But really, can one have too many blogs?

Just to warn anyone who doesn't realize what's going on with me just now, I am not entirely sure that I will have a lot of time to update this over the next few months while I finish out my teaching job, but once we hit summer, I should be able to with more regularity. Perhaps this will be a good outlet for me to post poems and other creative ventures once I have time to try that again.

Now, to explain the choice of my blog's title and web address.
Juxtaposition:

1.	an act or instance of placing close together or side by side, esp. for comparison or contrast.

2.	the state of being close together or side by side.

I have always loved this word, and I very much enjoy both its definitions as ways to spend my time, whether it is comparing and contrasting different things or ideas, or being close to a friend or family member.
The title of my blog was already the web address of someone else's, so I chose the word "consanguinities" as a synonym to juxtaposition. Here is the definition courtesy of dictionary.com:
1. Relationship by blood or by a common ancestor.
2. A close affinity or connection.

I am hoping to share my thoughts with friends and family here, so again, that seems an appropriate address.

If anyone feels like leaving a comment, however short, I'd appreciate knowing anyone reads this.

I'll post again when I have something to say. :)
K