Friday, December 2, 2011

Life after marriage

Our married life has been going pretty well, just working and trying to save money for a house, a honeymoon, another car.
I've been working on various crafts, from some things people have commissioned to a crocheted scarf for Special Olympics athletes competing in the Winter Games. Right now, I'm mostly working on Christmas presents, which of course I can't post details about until after Christmas. I will say, the nieces and nephews are getting an animal theme this year.
Dan has been busy with a number of new video games, including Battlefield 3 and Skyrim. I prefer watching him play Skyrim, because he gets to fight dragons and I can side-seat drive when he makes his dialog choices.
I'm looking forward to seeing our family at Christmas. I was able to get the day in question off, so we are planning to take that lovely trip back to Indiana once again.
The logical step that everyone makes once a couple gets married is, of course, now it's baby time. While we are interested in children eventually, I would like Dan to get his associate's degree before there's an infant in the house, and I would like to establish just a bit more job security before I'm off for maternity leave. I am studying up on pregnancy and babies, just because I have no idea in general what to expect. I didn't do much babysitting growing up.
Both of us are interested in getting in shape. Dan is more interested in getting "buff," while I would like to be able to run a 5K again and shed a few pounds.
I am generally a pretty confident lady, but in the past few months I have had several people asking me if I'm pregnant. I don't know if my clothes just don't fit, or if my body is just shaped like a preggo lady's. Either way, I am not really offended and I try to take it as a compliment - I must be glowing. Of course, it means people think I'm fat, too.
I'm not hurt to be thought of as fat, because I have come to accept that with my job and my genes, I'm going to be built for comfort and not for speed basically no matter what I do. The thing that bothers me about strangers asking me if I'm pregnant is that it's rude and reductive to me as a human being.
Once a woman becomes pregnant, it's like her body even more than usual becomes the public domain upon which to comment. She can't hold a coffee cup without people gasping in shock, and I've heard people say that strangers will take the liberty of touching their stomachs. None of that is all right, and furthermore, I don't think it's all right for people to ask about what's going on in your reproductive system. What it comes down to is it's not any stranger's business, and it's not an appropriate or polite way for people to start a conversation.
Of course, for family, all those rules go right out the window. But family members should know if we have any announcements, they'll be clued in as soon as possible.

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