The one about being pregnant, week 22

Time is slowly ticking along, belly is really growing now and I'm enjoying it more than I could ever imagine. Knytet (the Bundle) is moving lots and I can both see and feel it. It looks really funny when you see something poking around under your skin. *alien* ;-)

I'm feeling fine, mostly, and sometimes get a little fed up with people constantly asking me how I'm doing. I do realise that it's out of concern (and a bit of curiosity I'm sure), but when you get the question every single day it's a little tiring and I don't really know what to say. I don't feel like talking about my health and the state of my body that much more just because I'm pregnant, but how do you tell people that without being rude?

Another thing I've noticed is that people keep telling me how I'm now eating for two and in that implying that it's ok to have an extra serving while pregnant. Seeing as I've never really had any problems with either food, my weight or body image I'm a little surprised that I react at all, but I get annoyed about this for some reason. My comeback to this comment is that I eat when I'm hungry and I don't care how many people it's for. Period.

At the moment we've started refurbishing part of the kitchen. We're getting a new freezer and fridge and building new cabinets to go on top of them and also a new broom cabinet. It's a lot of work, but I'm so happy we finally got it rolling. I'm really positive about it taking much less time than when we did the spare room. *grins* That shouldn't be too hard I think. That said, when we moved in almost three years ago we had visions for a lot more change than what we have now achieved. Now however we're most likely looking at moving within the next 18 months given that we think we'll need more space with a toddler and also because we want to be on the ground floor rather than three flights of stairs up. We like our flat, but our needs are clearly changing so we have to accommodate for that.

Interesting times... Life changing even.

:-)

keah

Vacation hysteria

It might be that I'm too fresh into the workforce to have actually entered the everlasting loop of working for the next vacation. For weeks now people at work have been more or less greeting each other with the question of when the vacation starts, how many weeks left to work until Freedom. It seems that they get surprised that I'm not counting down, even now with only two work weeks to go. ;-) It's not like I don't know when I get to not go to work for a couple of weeks, but I try not to make such a big deal about it. Those weeks will go by really quickly and then it's back to the grindstone again.
Not to mention the expectations for what you're supposed to accomplish and do with your time off. "Are you going abroad? Staying in Sweden, oh, might as well with the financial crisis and everything..." "We're moving to the summer house, lots to do there you know." "Going sailing this year."

Hold on. Now I sound really grumpy. My point is that I'm trying to take a more relaxed approach to life in general these days and since that is something that I have to constantly remind myself of it definitely rubs me the wrong way when people around me start to work up this vacation hysteria and expect me to play along. I can get really obstinate and I imagine that that ticks someone else off. Heh.

I do have plans. Going north to visit the families and enjoying the light of the nordic summer night. The birds are coming along of course and that will be an adventure all in itself, driving some 1000 km with two feathered friends in a small transport cage in the backseat.

Have a great summer!

keah

Overdosing on nice, and how to make new friends

Recently we had a full weekend of social gatherings. I got to meet my husband's maternal uncle with family for the first time, quite fascinating seeing as we've been together for almost ten years now, but better late than never I suppose. I was a tad nervous as to what kind of people they would be, but not really worried that they wouldn't like me or anything like that. It developed into quite a pleasant afternoon, but it still took a bit of work to be my most polite and nicest self and be chatty and open, it always does, at least for me.

Directly after that we went on to dinner at D's paternal aunt's place where, apart from the aunt's son and his family, one of D's uncles and his wife were visiting. Without making any judgement on classes or social segments of society I will admit that the unwritten rules on behaviour are a lot more apparent here than I am used to. So the "nice and polite" continued for the rest of the evening. I was quite tired once we got home, and not just because it got rather late. I think I may have exhausted my shallow well of openness at the first visit and then having to keep up the work for another five hours was maybe a little much. I wouldn't be surprised if they noticed...

I don't know if all this is brought on by age difference or if it has something to do with expectations about looking good for family. Feel free to philosophize with me on this.

The evening before visiting all these relatives we were invited to a housewarming party that some friends were having. All partygoers there were around our own age, but apart from the hosting couple had I only met one guy before. Even though I normally would have felt the urge to hide behind D and not reach out to perfect strangers one bit, I ended up having a marvellous time and to top it all off pulled a stunt that I hope will pay off.
At the end of the evening when this certain couple was about to leave I literally jumped them asking for their phone number. A bit flustered I hurried to say that we had really enjoyed talking to them during the course of the evening and would like to stay in touch, and "how on earth do people make new friends these days anyway!?". They looked a bit surprised but then handed over a mobile phone for me to insert my own number for them to save. Later when D and I were on our way home I looked at my phone to see a message from this couple, giving us their number along with a thanks for the evening's company. It felt really good that I had asked them, it's not like I have anything to lose.

*is a tad smug*

Take care all!

keah

The joy of people or The tricky task of being social

At first glance I'm shy and not very sociable and among strangers I sometimes have a hard time masking my wish to just go away. It is for me incredibly hard to just start chatting to people and I depend on those who are gifted with the talent of befriending anyone and everyone. They drag me into a conversation and thanks to them I actually meet new people.
Once you get to know me I am very open and friendly, I still might think twice before opening my mouth, but I enjoy conversation and feel that any subject is a good one. I love my friends, and I really miss having them around. At times I worry about having to make new ones yet again as soon as I (or my darling husband) get a job and move to a totally new place. I'm beginning to realise though, that life tends to work out eventually and I don't think I'll end up a hermit.
While on the subject of social skills; one thing I absolutely hate is smalltalk for the sake of smalltalk! Let's say you're invited to a work/dinner function and you are thrown together with people you rarely talk to at the office and aren't required to work with either. It is now expected of you to make conversation with these people to keep a good and hearty feel of the evening... *shudders* This is definitely something I need to work at and improve!
My sister and I are alike in many ways, but this is one of the areas where she clearly grabbed the good genes and didn't leave any for me. I envy her her social ability and hope that I have at least some shred of companionable skills and in time can be trained to a full-fledged people person!

*grins*

keah