Equal work for Equal pay! GO OBAMA!!

Obama just signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act!! I'm SOO happy. I posted about the 2007 supreme court ruling a few months ago which made my blood boil.

The short recap: Lilly Ledbetter had worked for goodyear tires for 19 years when she found out she had been paid significantly less (more than 360,000 less) than male co-workers. She sued but the supreme court decided that employees needed to bring suit within the first 180 days of the discriminatory practice. Since the company was able to conceal their discriminatory practices for more than six months, Ledbetter was out of luck.

The court argued that their ruling was protecting these poor companies from a wealth of law suits. Just a thought, BUT maybe American companies could protect themselves by paying their female workers the same as their male workers instead of the 78 cents to the dollar that they currently do. Would that be so hard? Well, now they're going to have to try that route since that their Republican friends are out of power. Hurray!

Stress Dreams

I'm a dreamer. But in the bad way. I have incredibly vivid dreams almost every night. Usually it's not a problem because I'm used to them. But my mind is just creative enough to keep me on my toes. I'll get a real doozie probably every other week. You know, the kind of dream you wake up screaming to.

Luckily I also have a sleep disorder that causes night paralysis so my screams are rarely heard. After a bad dream or when I'm stressed, I'll wake up but my brain doesn't switch my body on. If you don't know what's happening it feels like someone or something is pinning you down. It's easy to think you're possessed. But you're not. It's actually pretty common. It runs in the family.

I've been a tad stressed lately and I have to say stress dreams are the worst. Does anyone else have stress dreams? Here are my top five most common stress dreams.

1. My teeth start to ache, become loose, then fall out. - I consequently brush and floss vigilantly in the real world.

2. I'm back in high school. When I was pregnant these dreams took an interesting twist. I was back in high school and trying to hide that I was pregnant.

3. I'm back in college and have a test or project that I just found out about.

4. This is probably my least favorite. I rot alive. I look down and huge patches of my body are rotting and gangrene. Very gruesome. When I wake up from these dreams I always feel my leg, arm, whatever piece of my body I'm sure is diseased, and make sure it's whole.

5. I'm in the water with sharks. I had this dream last night. I was stranded in the Pacific ocean, floating on a thin slightly submerged raft. Any movement sunk it deeper. And there were big tiger sharks patrolling around bumping into it.

Going Medieval

I'm not having a great week. But I'm trying to stay on top of three things: taking care of Reuben, working, and my own personal well-being, hygiene being an essential part of that. This morning I ran into a major road block. In the recent frigid cold and snow storms, our water heater has been on the fritz. So after I got up, checked in with work, made breakfast, fed Reuben, I approached the icey cold shower. Other mornings I've made myself get in. If you've never done it, an ice cold shower can make you feel amazing. The life threatening chill makes everything afterwords feels so warm and comfy. But today I couldn't make myself get in.

I stood in front of the shower for like five minutes and tried but my will power failed me. I kept thinking about how Europeans thought bathing was evil and bad for your health. I've scoffed at that view before but I decided if they lived in the frigid Northern Latitudes they were probably right. I can't think of a quicker way to die than immersing yourself in 40 degree water. No wonder the church decided that baptism by immersion was a bad idea. So I've gone medieval. I'm not showering til things warm up.

Westward No

We will not be moving to Texas. I hope nobody got too excited about that idea.

How Stuff Works

I often enjoy listening to podcasts while I work. Lately I've been enjoying the podcast "Stuff You Should Know" and "Stuff You Missed in History Class" both produced by the website How Stuff Works. It's a great way to learn something new everyday. I think if I keep listening to it I may one day be able to win a game of Trivial Pursuit. Here are a few of the recent topics:
How Redheads Work (according to the podcast redheads need more anaesthesia than non redheads)
What Are Urban Explorers
How Does Body Armor Work
How to Survive a Plane Crash - Your chances of surviving are better than you might think. I was pleasantly surprised.
How Midnight Regulations Work
How Contagious Yawning Works
and much much more

Happy Sad

Growing up my family had a tradition. At the dinner table we would go around and each of us would say one thing that made us happy during the day and one thing that made us sad. I often cheated and my happy sad was often a happy, sad, sad sad because I was a glass half empty sort of teenager.
Anyway, a fair amount has happened in the last week so I thought I'd post a few of the happy sads.



Happy: Aaron and I went to the American Art Museum last Saturday and we got to enjoy a lot of great work, including an Andrew Wyeth painting. Aaron asked if Wyeth was still alive and I said yes and it warmed my heart that crazy, incredibly skilled Andy Wyeth, heir to the great illustrator NC Wyeth, was still living and breathing in this world.

And we saw this Walton Ford which is like 15 feet tall and incredibly awesome. That made my week.


Sad: Six days later Andrew Wyeth died. In memory Aaron and I dragged ourselves through a lonely winter field. Not really. Instead we read the NY Times article remembering his life here.

Sad: Reuben has started teething at two months which is really sad. He's so little he doesn't know how to chew. We try to give him a chew toy to ease his pain and he sucks on it pitifully.

Happy and Sad: Aaron's job ended. Woo-hoo!!! He turned in the black berry and has spent three whole days with me and Reuben. It's amazing. I love having Aaron around. On the sad side, Aaron isn't so excited about unemployment.

Sad: And we still can't find the camera.

The Sidebar

I haven't updated my sidebars in Forever and since I have some very important things I should be doing I thought I'd do a little work on it now. I've added a few links and since not everyone knows everyone I added a short description to give you an idea of the person/blog. If anyone hates their description or has a better idea let me know.

No News is No News

The Levels of Hell


So a few of you have been asking if we are Really moving to Texas. Sadly, we are still unsure. Aaron was offered a position in Dallas with the transition team about a week ago. He still hasn't heard back on specifics so we are in limbo. If everything firms up, he'll probably be expected in Texas in less than a month, possibly just a week or two. But until we hear I don't want to start the onerous task of moving. As Tom Petty says "the waiting is the hardest part." But I may amend that when/if I start packing boxes.

And then I punched her in the face. Or I sat numbly by and wished I had.

I've decided I don't like the "Mother's Room" at church. This is because, in my mind, the place it most closely resembles is a middle school's girl's locker room and consequently bears a striking resemblance to hell. There are so many similarities: awkward nudity, gossiping, vicious cheerleaders/trophy wives. Yesterday I sat down to feed Reuben and found myself in the company of two other woman. One was feeding her daughter rice cereal and the other was changing her sons diaper. Some pleasantries were exchanged and introductions made. Woman A observed that Reuben had been blessed recently. I said yes and something about Reuben being my first kid.
Woman B then exclaimed Oh! He's your first?
Me- Yes.
Woman B- Realllly?
Me- Yes.
Woman B- "I don't know why (ha) but I thought you had like three other kids!"
Me- No. Just Reuben.
Woman B- "Wow. I was sure you had more! I don't know why I thought that. Ha."
Me- No. (PERIOD) Awkward silence. While I try to digest my shock.
And in my head I'm thinking is this woman insane? Does she honestly think I'm refusing to claim offspring? How old does she think I am? Why does she keep insisting I have more kids? Then I looked at her, in heels, lots of make up, jewelry, dressed to impress and I began to suspect why she thought I had more kids. My incredible mothering skills! Right? right? Okay, maybe not. Then I wanted to punch her in the face. Sadly she and the other woman had already resumed a conversation about how lovely touring Europe was. So my moment was lost and all I could do was replay the 30 Rock clip below in my head and think of alllll the things I really wish I would have said.

30 Rock - What did you dress like before you got married?

Life with Reuben

I've started doing some little drawing on what life is like with a new baby = Funny and terrifying at the same time.

The Curse of SIDs (staring Aaron Reuben Battle and me) :


By the way, if you are wondering why there are no recent pictures on the blog, it's because someone misplaced our camera. Any clues leading to its recovery (like if it was left at your house) would be much appreciated.

Star Trek (2009)

I know I shouldn't be so excited about his, let alone admit it BUT I am. I can't wait to see this. And I can't wait to watch Galaxy Quest right after.
Anyway, JJ Abrams does good work so I think this should be pretty awesome. I hope the humpback whales can make a cameo.

Mama Said

Here's a snapshot of my day:

4:45
I get an email from work asking for some images to be prepared and uploaded by five.
The phone rings. Reuben starts to fuss.
On the way to the phone, I pick up Reuben from his play mat.
Aaron is on the phone and says he can't be home til midnight. As he's telling me this Reuben spits up so much I'm going to need to change my shirt.
I change my shirt. I clean Reuben up. I prepare the files and send them in using my left hand while I hold Reuben with my right.
Now I will go eat dinner alone.
Not a bad day.

Ethiopians are Brilliant!

Last night I asked Aaron to pick up some food on the way home. I had worked on work, and another project, Reuben had been very busy, I hadn't worked out, it was dark and wet and cold, I had hours of more work to do, AND we might move to Texas in a few days so I didn't feel like making dinner. Aaron asked what I wanted. I said I didn't care. It could be gruel. I just didn't want to make it.

Aaron came home with two take out boxes filled with some of the most wonderful food I have ever eaten. I've had Ethiopian before, but the food we got last night was amazing. Sweet and rich with lots of fresh vegetables, spices and vegetarian protein. I was in heaven. As a MAJOR bonus Ethiopian food is meant to be eaten one handed using the injera (crepe like bread) to scoop up the food. Genius! The food is perfect for new parents. I was happy. Reuben way happy. Aaron was happy. To find something so wonderful on such a dark day restored a bit of my faith in the world.

Shaping Up

You know you're in trouble when you play a game and the person you're playing against starts making excuses FOR you. That's what happened my first day back to exercising life. The instructions after I had Reuben were to not start working out for six weeks. So the 43rd day after I had Reuben I challenged Abby to a game of HORSE. After she finished beating me H to HORSE she consoled me by saying, Don't worry. I know you can shoot better. It's probably just the pressure you can't handle. Ouch. We shot around some more and went on a half mile walk.
From then on, I've tried to do something every day to get back the freedom of good health. It's mainly been walks, some yoga, push ups and I've just gotten back on my bike. I really love working out so the actual exercise is no problem. The challenge is finding the time between Reuben's needs and my work demands and my exhaustion. I'd love to hear tips from the wider world. I think I might start doing some reporting on the blog of how it goes. I've lately been enjoying the blog Baby Steps written by Lisa Jhung who had her baby a few months back and is reporting for Runner's Magazine about the experience of getting back on the road. Anybody know of any similar blogs? I'd be really interested in reading them.