Bullet points

• I AM GOING TO GAME 2 OF THE WORLD SERIES TOMORROW NIGHT!!
• I would really like it if the Giants would win tonight and tomorrow night.
• I am a sore loser.
• My shower on Sunday was perfect. Despite two inches of rain and terrible wind, my family and friends came and celebrated my little girls. I am so thankful for my friends and family who helped put it together!
• I am sick of being sick. I actually used the humidifier someone gave me as a gift for my girls in hopes that it would help me get better. So far, no such luck.
• Oh fall, I have been waiting for you! I love the cool temperatures and the leaves changing colors!
• I love, love, love Halloween but I despise getting dressed up.
• I can't wait to carve pumpkins this weekend.
• We made the offer on our house in late October last year. Ever since then we have been looking forward to little kids trick-or-treating at our house. We never had any kids come to the condo, so Brandon and I are excited to see all the cute kids in costumes and hand out candy.
• We believe in handing out Reese's Peanut Butter cups. There is some other candy thrown in for variety.
• DID I MENTION THAT I AM GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES?!

i just spewed out a lot of info and called it a blog

I am sick.

At first I thought I had allergies so I called the advice nurse and got a very complicated (and difficult to spell) list of things I could take and not take. After staring at the allergy medication and my list for nearly 10 minutes, I left with nothing.

Now that my symptoms have worsened I am convinced that I have a cold. I feel miserable. I am usually quick to turn to the drugs for relief. But during my pregnancy I have been careful to avoid any sort of medication, and even though I know I am at a point where there is very little harm that I can do to my babies, I feel better about my girls as I sit and suffer here with no drugs. Some of you may think I am stupid, others may think I am making a smart choice. Mostly I just feel sick.

My sister named my girls Tia and Tamara. I know that is not very original but I have taken a liking to it and so until they make their appearance, I will call them that. Tamara is Baby A (closest to the exit) and Tia is Baby B (second to the escape route). On Wednesday I had a twin interval ultrasound to make sure they continue to grow at the same rate. Twins who share a placenta are at risk for growing at different rates if one is not a good sharer and steals all the nutrients. The good news is that Tia and Tamara continue to grow at the same rate. They are measuring 4lbs and 4.25lbs, which is exactly what singleton babies measure at this same point in pregnancy.

There was a little "bad" news too. After 8 weeks of perfect positioning, Tamara turned breech. So now we are hoping she will turn one more time and get in the right position. If she doesn't turn, I have no choice but to have a c-section. So please think happy thoughts that Tamara will decide she likes it better with her head down.

We are not actually naming them Tia and Tamara.

Speaking of names, would you name your daughter something that resulted in the initials GAG? Although this may become a moot point because I jokingly mentioned to Brandon that we use the name Posey after the amazing Buster Posey of the SF Giants and he liked the idea for a middle name. Thinking it was a silly idea I posted it on Facebook and next thing you know, I have everyone telling me they like it. So now I am all confused. Your thoughts?

Cheers to a great weekend for you all! Several big things ahead for my weekend--my sister and dear friend are throwing me a shower on Sunday and I am so excited to see all my friends and family! Many people haven't seen me since early in my pregnancy so they are in for quite a surprise when they see how big I am... And second I will be watching (nervously) as the Giants try and win the NLCS against the Phillies. GO GIANTS!!

Things I am weird about (subtitle: things that are weird about me?)

It all started with my obsession with flip flops. I wear them as often as possible. My feet are always hot so I love that my toes are free in my sandals. I love how easily they slip on and off. I love that they are always comfortable and that I feel like “me” when I am wearing them.

At some point in the last five years I decided that the only think I disliked about flip flops is that at the end of the day my feet feel dirty. So logically, I began rinsing them off before getting into bed. Why? Because I have an obsession with clean sheets, which basically means that I have to be clean in order to get into the bed.

More about my issues with the bed: I am very particular about the bed. The bed is a sacred place, not to be tainted by the dirt of day. That means no day time clothes in the night time bed. Clean pajamas only. If I am going to nap in the bed, it means a change of clothes. There is certainly no eating in the bed. So it is only logical that my feet should need to be clean in the bed.

For several years rinsing my feet off before bed was sufficient. But then I evolved. In the last several months it hasn’t been good enough. If I only wash my feet the rest of my body feels dirty. So now I am a full fledged two-shower-a-day girl. Don’t even try to suggest that I only shower in the evening. That will just not do. I have taken a shower every morning of my adult life and I am not about to change that now.

Since we are things that I am weird about, I will continue with issues related to the bedding. When I travel with my pillow I take the pillow and the pillowcase separately. The pillow travels in the car, which we use and sit in with our daytime clothes on. Therefore the pillowcase travels with the clean pajamas for use when we arrive at the destination to abide by the aforementioned rule of no day time clothes (or pillowcases) in the nighttime bed.

In case you are wondering, I don’t care if there is a pillowcase or not on the way home. I will be putting on a clean pillowcase when I get home to prevent bed-to-bed contamination.

Don’t look at me like I am a freak. You know you have your special quirks too. Plus you know this means that when you come to spend the night at my house, your sheets will be clean.

Saying goodbye to Oak Tree Lawn

Loretto had two trees that defined the all-girls campus: a redwood on Senior Lawn and a beautiful oak which lent its name to Oak Tree Lawn. This picture of the oak tree is from the back of the Loretto yearbook from 1971.

Last week the tree on Oak Tree Lawn was cut down.

I have memories of both those trees, both as a student and teacher. The redwood at the center of Senior Lawn was a symbol for the upper classman, a gathering place for seniors to enjoy lunch, leave backpacks unattended, and a tree to decorate for a friend's birthday. Seniors surrounded the tree with diapers they collected for local women & children's centers and started all of their homecoming rallies around that tree. I spent an entire night awake and freezing next to that tree, chaperoning our first freshman overnight retreat. In my last years at Loretto we watched a family of squirrels take up residence in that redwood and during class they would peek inside backpacks and steal entire lunches from the students.

Although getting to Senior Lawn was a tradition that all Loretto girls looked up to, I really believe that it was the old oak that was the true symbol for Loretto. I ate lunch under or near the oak tree as a young student and ran around it with a red blanket on my shoulders. I participated in a sunset liturgy with the altar at the base of the tree. It was a gathering place for Shakespeare festivals, study groups and friends. Some years back the base of the tree was wrapped in Christmas lights, and at night the tree was beautifully illuminated. I loved that tree. Since leaving Loretto it has been the backdrop on my laptop with an additional picture of the tree on my desk.

Even several years ago we knew the tree was not totally healthy. Recently it was discovered that the base was hollow and full of water. Animals had taken up residence in the hollow branches. With young children now occupying the campus, it had become a safety hazard and was cut down.

I know that nothing lasts forever. I know that a tree is not the same as losing a person. But the gentle oak tree was my friend. It had a spirit and a story to tell. The last moments that I spent on the Loretto campus before leaving for the last time were spent with the oak tree, as if somehow the tree would remember my story, the Loretto story.

When the oak tree was cut down it didn't look anything like the scrawnier version of itself from nearly 30 years ago. It was grand. It was majestic. It had personality and spirit. Like friends that have come and gone from my life, like Loretto that has closed its doors, so too does the old oak tree remain a part of me.

Shalom.

Why, hello there

It has been 25 weeks since I confirmed I was pregnant.
23 weeks ago I found out I was having twins.
For more than 3 months I have known they were both girls.
I am between 5-8 weeks away from meeting my children.
Sometime in the last 3 weeks it has come to my attention that I have to go through labor. I am slightly more nervous about that now than I have been at any other point in this pregnancy.

I am happy. Life is happening and the people in my life are good.

On Saturday night we went to Brandon's 10 year high school reunion. Although I met my husband while we were both in high school, I never really knew him until we had moved on to college. Seeing him with people from his past was like meeting my husband all over again. I loved watching him reminisce. I felt blessed to witness a small part of what it meant to be a Marauder. I have always known his all-boys high school community to have a special spirit, but it was entirely different to step into their circle for a couple of hours and experience the love and brotherhood that those men share.

Finally, the biggest event in our quiet life right now is that the San Francisco Giants won the NLDS. Now we get to take on the Phillies. Trust me, if I wasn't pregnant, there would be a lot of beer drinking.

Orange October

When I was a girl I somehow ended up with a Mark McGuire baseball card. I thought for sure it must be valuable because they mentioned his name on TV. He was pretty much the only MLB player I knew. And that was fine, because baseball was boring and all that mattered was that I had his baseball card.

When I started dating Brandon 10 years ago, I still cared nothing about baseball. Brandon was honest with me. He told me that there were a few things he had loved longer than he had loved me: The Simpsons, pugs and the San Francisco Giants. Although I didn't particularly care for any of them, I was willing to accept that these were all a part of who he was. It was easy to "let" him have his love of baseball; we mostly had a long distance relationship so I didn't have to spend a lot of time with baseball. When the Giants went to the World Series in 2002, I was happily living in Spain, oblivious to the great American past time.

Then we got married.

Did you know that each team plays 162 baseball games during the regular season? From April to October there is rarely a night where the Giants aren't playing. I was tortured. I thought watching baseball on TV was about the most boring way to spend my time.

A couple of years ago Brandon took me to a Giants game. Most baseball parks are beautiful and AT&T Park is no exception. I love being there on sunny afternoons or cold San Francisco nights. I love watching homeruns splash into McCovey cove or into the bleachers. I saw Barry Bonds tie the record for most homeruns in a season. I love garlic fries, hot dogs and beer. I loved my first Giants/Dodgers game where I learned what the "rivalry" was all about.

Mostly I love that my husband never got frustrated with me for not understanding the game or when I would get bored. Instead Brandon took the time to help me understand the game, explaining the rules, the strategy and the passion that makes baseball exciting. He let me buy Giants gear in pink, which I have slowly replaced with the true colors of orange and black. And now here I am, years later, and I find myself watching baseball when I am by myself. I listen to Giants radio in the morning and the in afternoon. I know the names of the TV broadcasters, the radio broadcasters and the pre and post games hosts. I can name the players, their positions and some sort of personal note about them.

In short, I am a San Francisco Giants fan.

And tonight the Giants have a chance to clench the playoffs by defeating the San Diego Padres. My heart is all atwitter as I suddenly know what it feels like to be a real fan. I have been listening to Giants radio for weeks. I am asking Brandon a hundred questions about playoff scenarios and team records and things that just a couple of years ago I cared nothing about.

So my friends, put on your brightest orange shirt for Orange Friday. Because tonight birthday boy Matt Cain is going to put away the San Diego Padres and I am going to know what it feels like for the first time to see "my" team go to the playoffs.