Saturday, September 22, 2007

Turn That Frown Upside Down


Yesterday was a hard day for me. The hardest yet. There is hopefully less than 3 weeks until this baby finally comes out and I was having a clothing crisis. As each day goes by I feel bigger and grosser and I truly have very few clothes that I can wear out in public -- and even the ones I can wear are pretty sad. Add that to my recent moodiness and emotional instability and you get kind of a mess.

I have (had) about 4 things coming up that I had to look somewhat decent for and I had nothing I could feel like I could wear that would both be comfortable and not make me look either inappropriate or just ugly. So, out I went to find something to carry me through the next few weeks.

I tried three different maternity stores -- with no luck. I ended up crying in the middle of Old Navy and went back to my car and cried some more. By the third store I was just pissed off. I was rude to the lady who worked there (I'm hoping she's used to moody pregnant girls. Sorry Mimi Maternity lady!) and left. I got a milk tea from Boba Loca and went home and got into bed, resigned to the fact that I was fat and ugly and wasn't going to leave the house for the next 6-9 months.

I get mine without the Boba

But hold on, here's where it gets better! After a couple of hours wallowing in my misery and watching several episodes of The Baby Story on tivo, my mom called. We talked for about 30 minutes and she commiserated with me about how hard being pregnant is at the end, etc. By the time we got off the phone, I started feeling good enough to take one more look in my closet to see if there was something I over-looked. And, hallelujah, there was. One sad pair of black pants that I had worn to work for a couple of months. They actually fit okay without being too tight on my belly and looked better than any of my other options. Phew!

Then, the next great thing that happened is...are you sitting down for this?...it was RAINING. RAINING yo! And this wasn't just some misty, 5 minute sorry excuse for a storm. It was actually pouring. I sat on the patio and watched and smelled the rain for about 20 minutes and it made everything better. My whole world was suddenly peaceful and happy and balanced. I love you rain.

That's rain! On my lemon tree! It's never been rained on before!


My belly is so happy to be out in the rain!


So, last night John's brother took us out for our anniversary (which is on Sunday). After miraculously avoiding traffic on the 101 and 405 by taking the coast and side streets, we got to dinner at Chan Dara (thai place in West LA) only 15 minutes late. The chicken curry also helped boost my mood, as did the amazing brownie/fresh fruit/ice cream dessert with a candle that Tim surprised us with. Yum yum.

Then we went to a movie where we ended up being a few minutes late (we parked on the wrong side of the mall and I had to waddle about a mile to get to the other side). One good thing about being pregnant though is that people are way nicer than usual. We had to crawl over like 20 people to get to our seats smack dab in the center of the aisle (assigned seats) and as I apologized for our climbing over everyone (as the movie was starting, mind you) people just smiled and said "it's okay!". Highly unusual for Los Angeles.

The movie we saw is called Into the Wild. It was really well made but the story is super sad of course and I ended up bawling at the end. If you can find it playing near you (it's limited release), I recommend it (warning: non-sexual nudity and some language).

It was still pouring as we drove home and luckily we made it back safe (I think being pregnant or just having kids makes you ponder your own mortality a lot more. I'm always paranoid of dying lately. Or maybe it's just because I'm old now. :) ). And, one more thing that made my day so happy after all, was coming home to find a beautiful bouquet of roses from John. He also gave me a great foot massage. He really is the best guy ever, and not for the roses or the massage, but just because he's my best friend and soul mate and I feel so lucky that he chose me.

I love you chicken tender.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's raining here right now. I'm sitting at the computer with my living room window open, listening to the sounds and letting all the rainy earthy scents fly in.

It's amazing how healing, and stress-relieving this sort of weather can be. It's supposed to snow in the mountains tomorrow (Sunday).

kelly said...

what a roller-coaster-of-emotions kind of day. I have those frequently and I'm NOT pregnant! I'm happy it all turned out well in the end.

I'm sure you got an ear full of me complaining toward the end of my pregnancy with Ezra...I know the feeling of those last weeks of pregnancy...they are not fun. I'm sorry you are in those right now, the good news is, it's raining and not 100 degrees :)
I know you feel gross, but you are one of the cutest pregnant girls I've seen! Your belly is adorable.

Ruth said...

Oh, Cara I am so glad your bad day ended up so good. Even though you are scraping the bottom of the closet now you never look like you are - you always look so cute.

At the end I gave up buying anything else even though my stomach was hanging out of everything I owned and instead spent some money on some new pajamas and comfy stuff I could wear when people came to visit after the baby was born. It was so nice to have something new to wear after a month of trying to get by on one last pair of ugly maternity jeans and a couple too-small shirts.

The rain helped my day too. How in the world does a little water falling from the sky make things so much better?

Hang in there, beautiful lady! And happy anniversary!!

cara lou said...

Thanks girls! :) It's nice to know that someone understands!

Lisa said...

For someone who doesn't think they are a good writer, you sure had me there with you for all the details. I was crying with you in the store and in your car! I was so relieved when your day turned out a little better. And I must agree with these girls that every time I have seen you, you look fantastic and so adorable.