Skip to main content

travel travails

Wednesday was a horrible day for commuting.  I felt like the fates had to make up for the fact that I stayed home on Tuesday and made it especially bad.  The bus was packed that morning so I stood by an ELDERLY woman by the back door (DC isn't the 5th rudest city for nothing).  I started to get really hot and took off my hat and gloves, loosened my scarf, and unbuttoned my coat.  It really didn't help that I had to lug my heavy work laptop I brought for my telecommuting day back with me and I felt like I was carrying about 100 lbs of extra weight, which isn't too far from the truth. 

The lady next to me asked me if I was ok and if I needed to sit down.  I said that I was just hot and besides we were almost there.  She then told a girl sitting not far that she needed to let me sit down because I wasn't feeling well.  Luckily she was a really nice girl and gladly stood and even offered me an unused bottle of water.  I did feel much better sitting.

I got to the metro and all the trains were packed as well.  I watched two full trains leave before I decided that eventually I would need to get to work and stood for a couple stops before a woman offered me her seat.  Before I could sit down, another woman hurried and grabbed the seat.  She was clearly not from this country and I doubted that she spoke English.  Noticing what was going on the woman sitting behind her gave me her seat.

The trek from the metro to work was long with the heavy laptop and the rain, but I finally made it.  In the early afternoon my husband called to say that the government was closing two hours early due to the impending snow storm.  The general rule is that our company follows government closings so I was hopeful we would get to leave too, but at around 3:30 I got an email saying that we weren't closing early and we would need to take annual leave if we did leave.  I was really surprised that they stood by their guns even when it started snowing heavily a half hour later.  Very few people left early and there were still many there when I left at 5:20.

In retrospect, it would have been better for me to just take the metro, but we had no idea that the traffic would be so bad.  My husband was more than frustrated and kept saying that he wanted to email the president of my company and tell him how stupid it was not to let us go home early. 

It took us two hours to drive home when usually it takes about 15 minutes and then we got stuck entering the parking lot at our apartment complex.  The snow here is very wet and makes it much harder to drive in than the snow I'm used to.  Luckily two men with a shovel helped us get unstuck and we were able to park without a problem.

We felt pretty bad for ourselves until we watched news reports about people being stuck in traffic for 11 hours!!  Hundreds of people left their cars on the side of the road (sometimes in the middle of the road) only to have go around trying to find out where their car had been towed the next day.  They had to pay $200-$300 to get their car out, which is ridiculous.  Usually it's around $100.  On the news they kept talking about how there were pregnant women out there and someone needed to do something.

To make up for Wednesday, I didn't even leave the house on Thursday.  This telecommuting thing is great.  I feel so much better and the naps have really been helpful.  I get so tired in the late afternoon, but by the time I get home it seems weird to have a nap.  I have also been able to help out around the house more and have been in charge of doing the dishes.

I have TLC on pretty much all day when I'm home because daytime TV is disappointing to say the least and we don't have HGTV or the Food Network, which generally have interesting things on during non-prime time hours. I've watched a few episodes of A Baby Story and I bawl every single time after the baby's born.  I can't wait to hold Little Mister for the first time.  I can't believe this totally awesome, life changing event is only a few weeks away!

My weird pregnancy symptom of the week is that my middle and ring fingers on my left hand have been hurting.  I'm not sure if I'm sleeping on them wrong or what that is all about, very strange.  I'm getting to the point where I just want to get this whole labor and delivery thing over with so I can start healing.  My body is falling apart and I hate knowing that it's just going to get worse before it can get any better. 

Comments

G-ma Wendy said…
These last few weeks will be rough, but they will go by fast. See you and Albert, and mister Quin soon! Keep your chin up, you will get through it! Be careful in the snow and ice.

Love, Mom

Popular posts from this blog

labor & delivery

I'm finally getting around to posting my labor and delivery story.  After I got an epidural I wrote down what had happened so far and after the baby was born I wrote down the rest to make sure I remembered everything.  Since it's been two weeks of not a lot sleep and my memory of the event is somewhat drowned out with all the new mommy stuff, I'm just going to type what I wrote. February 21, 2011 - Monday We got up at abut 6 AM after a short night of lots of cramping.  I was hoping to go into labor or at least make some progress, but no luck.  I was still at 1 cm when the doctor measured me at about 8:30 am.  I got the oxytocin and a bulb to open up my cervix at about 8:45 am.   pre-pain, Nurse Lynn At first the contractions were so bad I wanted to cry and then they slowed down and it was more tolerable, but not to the point where I could walk around and I still threw up from the pain.  It got really bad at 1:10 when they gave me the Pitocin. ...

top 10 reasons I love breastfeeding

I have to preface this list with that it is MY list. Not all these things will apply to everyone.  I am aware that some women have a really hard time breastfeeding, some stick with it and some don't and they would have their own lists of why they like it or not.   Quentin and I have had a really easy time with it for whatever reason.  It's not because of anything I've done.  I do believe it is something all new moms should try.  Not like you tried it once and it didn't work out, but really truly try and get help from a lactation consultant if you need to.  It's totally worth it if you can get it to work for you.  If you decide not to for whatever reason I won't judge you.  I was bottle fed myself and I turned out just fine. 10. Bigger boobs.  I've always had really small breasts and have worn padded bras pretty much since puberty and kids made fun of small cup size.  I like how breastfeeding has made me more proportional a...

breastfeeding & weaning

Quentin has started walking!  Everyday he becomes more and more confident and walks more and more.  He's at about 50% crawling, 50% walking now.  My parents are in town and my mom commented how stable he is for just starting out. I can't really compare him to other kids since I only have the one.  I think he was just waiting until he felt completely confident. He has been eating a lot better lately.  He even ate some tilapia a couple times, but it had to be off of other people's plates for some reason.  I also started feeding him baby food again, which he gladly eats.  He likes it and it's healthy for him so I see no reason to force him to eat other food.  If he's 14 and still wants to eat baby food I guess that will be ok (he definitely wouldn't be overweight), but my guess is that he probably will give in to peer pressure before that happens. Last week he didn't want to take any morning naps, but this week he's been much more interested...