As Yet Untitled

Well, I am now nearing the end of my pregnancy, and there are several thoughts that I would like to share with the public at large. 1.  Although I said I never would, I broke down and took some maternity photos. And I am so glad I did. I am fortunate enough to have a professional photographer as one of my besties, and she agreed to come over for the day and snap all kinds of pictures of me and my bump. In between waiting for the light to be right, we watched Poltergeist II and ate brownies. This is the added benefit of being besties with your maternity photographer. So throughout this post I will be interspersing my favorites from the shoot. There are some really gorgeous shots here. 2. I would like to register my frustration with the attitude toward pregnancy in the world of academia. As some of you may know, I am currently seeking my master's degree in English. This semester, whenever I walk down the hallways I get odd looks, like, "What are you doing here? How can yo...

The Beginning I may not have mentioned it here yet, but in case you didn't know, I am pregnant. Let's get the preliminaries out of the way: I am about six months along, I am having a girl, and her name will be Evie. I plan on having a vaginal birth with as many pain-reducing drugs as they can possibly pump into my body. I have yet to do anything to the nursery. So, with that out of the way, let's get to the real point of this post. I wasn't sure that I ever wanted to have kids. I mean, I always thought I would someday, kind of the way you always assume you will die. It was just an inevitability. But I had no intention of having children a year after getting married. That is, until I was looking into my husband's grayish-blue eyes one day and imagined them nestled under a mop of curly, dark brown hair and complimenting little pink cheeks. Then I immediately thought, I should have a baby right now . Then I quickly told myself I was crazy. I have a full time job....

I don't like to think that I like technology. I often opine about the glory days gone by where people had landlines and answering machines, and VHS tapes were the only way to watch a movie. I could go on and on about how much I miss the 90s, but that is not what this is really about. For the last two weeks I have found myself confined to the couch and yet awash in a sea of technology, not unlike the Apple freaks on Portlandia . As I look around me I see the Olympics on the flat screen,  the laptop I am typing on, my smartphone, my Kindle, and my newest acquisition, the Google Nexus 7 tablet . (Also, wonder of wonders, an actual book! Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.) An extreme surplus of gadgets, I am sure you will agree, for a woman who professes to dislike technology. I am finding that as much as I miss the good old days, I can't deny my pleasure in having these venues of media available to me in so many different ways, and the Nexus 7 is just the cherry on top o...

Let's cut to the chase. Everyone, male and female, needs to read this book. In How to Be a Woman , Caitlin Moran takes an incredibly (seemingly) complicated issue (feminism and female identity) and makes it almost unbearably simple. She sums it up in two short questions: "Do you have a vagina? Do you want to be in charge of it?" It can, apparently, be that simple.  Through an  honest, emotional, and hilarious recounting of her own life, compared with strong, well-researched analyses of the female plight, Moran creates the image of a world in which women can just be women--and still be successful. Where it isn't a "man's world" or a "woman's world" but just "the world". She refers to humanity as a whole as "The Guys"; a group that everyone should be a part of, equally,without putting gender specifications on behavior, looks, and social niches. "...the purpose of feminism isn't to make a partic...

Remember the book Bunnicula ? Where the household rabbit was actually a vampire who sucked the life out of all the celery and carrots in the vegetable crisper? Well, I have come to an unsettling realization. After months of living with my cat, Tybalt, and after Googling some summaries of Twilight , I have come to one conclusion: my cat is a Stephanie Meyer vampire*. See below the evidence that my cat is, in fact, the feline version of Edward Cullen. Or, alternatively, maybe Edward was really just a housecat. You be the judge. Like Edward Cullen, he withholds his affection for as long as possible , usually allowing his need for food dictate how much cuddling I get from him on a daily basis. He often snuggles up to me, purring, and then avoids me for days at a time, simply staring at me with fathomless golden eyes. I am never quite sure where I stand with him. Like Edward Cullen, his eyes turn a different color when he is hunting . His pupils dilate until his eyes are almost all blac...

It's every person's secret dream: to be able to wake up in the morning at a reasonable hour, pour a cup of coffee, and sit down on the couch with their laptop in their pajamas--and work. The brass ring that is freelancing can seem unattainable to those just now entering the work force, but Michelle Goodman illuminates the potential in any career for the ultimate at-home workday--then she offers practical, friendly, useful advice on how to achieve the goal. In My So-Called Freelance Life , Goodman offers up a cohesive, user-friendly guide for grasping at the perfect job--the kind where the only supervisor is the cat sitting next to you on the couch. "If you want the world to take you seriously as a creative professional, you need to start bringing home the bacon." Firstly, the book was a genuine pleasure to read. Goodman's writing style is familiar and funny, incorporating useful tips and anecdotes that supplement her extensive experience and research. Ever...

This past weekend was very momentous for me. It was my first visit of the summer to the local farmer's market! I love the Edmond farmer's market. The squash! The peaches! The berries! My goodness. It is the latter which concerns me most today. Or rather, last weekend.  I got some gorgeous blueberries from the farmer's market. And for a bargain! And I thought there could be no better use for them than to use them to make breakfast. So I set out to make lemon blueberry pancakes. Much to my later chagrin, I did not elect to make them from scratch using the Pioneer Woman recipe. I took the easy way out, and started with the basic Bisquik pancake batter, making up the rest on a whim.  Sometimes I do weird things. You can see one here. When I crack open eggs, I put the shells back in the carton. I don't really know why I started doing this, but I can tell you that it came in handy when I planted my garden this spring. I put seeds in eggshells...