Still waiting

[David]: Pregnancy actually lasts 10 months, not 9. Nobody tells you that until you are already pregnant. What I'm learning now is that the last days and weeks of pregnancy might just be the hardest because of the intense waiting – not knowing when or where or how. Everyone asking, "No baby yet?" People calling to make sure we didn't have the baby and forget to tell them. People saying, "the baby just isn't ready yet."

Maybe we're just impatient people. Or maybe this is the first lesson of parenthood, to learn that things don't happen when you want them to, that you can't plan for them, can't do anything to make the kid do what you want without at least a little negotiation. (Even with some negotiation there are no promises. I've already talked to the kid in Lori's belly offering all kinds of bribes to make him or her come out. It's silly that I even do this, but somehow I think it will do some good.)

So we wait along with everyone else. It's not quite ready, the time is not right, it will come with it comes. No baby yet.

Now

I currently sit in our neighborhood coffee shop, enjoying my allotted intake of caffeine for the day. It is good. I walked down here in the first measurable snowfall of the year...it is beautiful and calming, and about time that we got some snow. November has been rather un-November-like this year, so I am glad to see the snow. I think it means Hermie should come now...no, nothing yet. Anyhow, I am happy with the snow. I am also happy to be sitting here in this coffee shop...very St. Paul. Half of the people in here know each other, and the other half soon will...strangers chatting each other up, I love it. Do all coffee shops have this effect on people?

Epi -

A lovely night was had this evening. It felt like a Friday, but is of course actually Wednesday...thank you Thanksgiving!
David, Heidi, Craig, Alan and I went out to Punch for dinner...wonderful and delicious traditional Neopolitan pizza, yum. Good food, good conversation...we then retired to Craig's for a post-dinner beer, which was fun too. There we discussed epigrams, epitaphs, and epithets. Conclusion: everyone should have a dictionary in the living room like Craig and Pete do. So the point of this post is that a good evening was had, but NO HERMIE YET! Argh...we are excited and anxious and ready to get this show on the road!

Tonight

I type this as we watch Smokey and the Bandit in the comfort of our living room. The exciting chase scene just ensued, featuring David's Aunt and Uncle's old house as well as David's grade school and childhood football field. Fun. I am also having mild contractions...we will see how all this goes. At least we know how the movie ends.