I have nothing profound to say, you guys. It’s Friday, it’s Summer, life continues to be good.
I’m working from home today because my cleaning lady is here. I know I’m suppose to cower under the shame of my privilege and all that, but honestly, it’s been like three months since she’s been here and things were getting DIRE. Between first trimester death coma, travel every weekend, and Mike down on base in CO Springs every day, it’s been…well. Let’s just say it’s gotten bad enough to annoy BOTH of us, which is a special kind of dire.
(Does this happen in your house? Each spouse has their trigger of “THIS IS JUST TOO MUCH I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE” but the triggers are extremely distinct and specific to the spouse that until BOTH at are their tipping point things don’t really seem that bad? Like, for me, it’s dust, clean (or lack thereof) sheets, and dirty dishes. Mike is more floors, counters and clutter. And while we’ve done a decent job not living in squalor (we wash the sheets, we use the dishwasher, etc.) we’ve definitely hit our critical mass of both spouses being annoyed at the state of the house, ergo: Adriana, our lovely, lovely cleaning woman.)
But! The InnerTeub house has a special feature, in that we have a 100lb dog that is Very Concerned with Security. So on the one hand, you have this German Shepherd who knows, to the very fiber of his being, that outsiders are Bad And Not To Be Allowed In, but also, he’s German in the way my husband is German, and therefore likes order and cleanliness, so what is a neurotic dog to do when the person doing the cleaning is also an outsider? Which is my way of saying this is why I am working from home today: not because I don’t trust my cleaning woman in the house without me, but because I need to referee between my dog’s dueling natures.
(Moose, for his part, is fine that she is in the house NOW, although he does stick to her side All Day Long supervising, which seems… rude, but there’s no arguing with that dog, sometimes.)
Let’s see. I cannot post something that is literally about my dog and having my house cleaned. It’s Friday, but we haven’t given up completely (….have we?) What else. Oh! Somewhere along the way I remembered that I’m a triathlete and know how to swim, and, not only that, have a lap pool that is literally 800m from my house, is outside, and is rarely used, and have properly shamed myself into swimming again (literally had not swam laps with purpose since I was training for IMCdA, which, shall we recall, was in the summer of 2010. Ahem.) I mean, seriously. Swimming is annoying in that it generally requires one to find a pool, pack stuff for the pool (swimsuit goggles swimcap towel flipflops clothes for post swim etc) and then GO to the pool, which can add a significant amount of time onto the allotted time for workout, and THEN figure out the lay of the land (do you need a lock for locker room? did you BRING a lock for the locker room? is it ok to share lanes? What’s the ask to join a lane etiquette at this pool?) Ugh, it’s all enough to convince oneself to say fuck it and just put on running shoes and head out the front door. But! Even I am not lazy enough to ignore the presence of a pool literally down the street that never requires me to share a lane or deal with a locker room or do anything besides sack up and put on my swimsuit (although, to be fair, with every passing week of pregnancy that is becoming more and more of a thing. I assume it will become breathtakingly obvious when my prepregancy suit has become completely inappropriate, yes, and I will not be That Guy at the pool that everyone is carefully averting their eyes from? We can hope.)
Anyway: I’ve been enjoying swimming so much that I’ve basically replaced running with laps, and it’s fantastic. Great cardio workout without the stress and soreness I’d been feeling from the impact of running, and removes many of the heat-related concerns I’d had about running in the summer while In A Delicate Condition. Also, and this is a big part of why I keep swimming: it’s one of the only times I feel the baby move, and dude, it’s really cool. I find myself doing lap after lap just to keep that cool fluttery bubbly jabby sensation going; either this baby loves swimming or feels like it’s drowning and is frantically scrambling for a way out. Too soon to tell but let’s hope it’s the former so I can keep swimming away.
So far it seems to be a 1:1 as far as actual workout quality goes – my lap times are within range of what I swam back when I was An Athlete of (my own) Importance (less a few seconds for general out of swimming shapeness), so I’m feeling like i’m both getting athletic benefit AND doing something pregnantly appropriate, which is a rare combination of feelings and I am enjoying it greatly.
Ok. I could probably think of a for more banal topics for discussion, but as we started with: it’s Friday, and I’ll not abuse (any more of) your goodwill. Happy Friday, all. May your weekend be filled with relaxation and summer zen.