Of course, nothing can prepare me for the humidity. I know I will be very susceptible to it, having lived in a humidity-free zone for over a year and a half. But fortunately, my parents have this convenient thing called air conditioning.
As we all know, it never gets warm enough here in the Northwest to need air conditioning. Unless, of course, it's been the past two summers, when it's been unseasonably warm. The high for Sunday, the 20th, was 90o here, according to the Weather Channel. No, not hot enough for air conditioning.
Surprisingly enough, I seem to be the only one complaining about the heat here. Perhaps it's because I was spoiled my entire life and had air conditioning in the homes I lived in, whereas most folks here seem to take it all in stride. The djs on the radio stations always praise the gorgeous weather we're having, but they are comfortable in their air conditioned studios, where I am worrying about my dog who pants continuously throughout the day. He's not bright enough to keep visiting the water bowl, no matter how much ice I put into it or how often I encourage him to take a drink.
Also, I really noticed today how lucky the others around me are in this neighborhood. I spent a good chunk of time in the afternoon over at J's home, and after about 2 or 3pm, her back deck was completely in shade -- even though it is on the west side of her house. She's got huge, 100 foot cedar trees that block the sun from blasting into her backyard. So from about mid-afternoon on, she can open her windows in the front and back of her home, get an awesome cross-breeze going, and have the equivalent of air conditioning. I keep threatening that I am going to set up residence on her back porch throughout the summer.
My house, on the other hand, gets sun from sunup to sundown, and living as far north as we do, sunup is 5:15am and sundown isn't until 9:15pm. I can open my back door around 6pm or so in order to pull some cool air into the house, but there is no way I can open the front windows to create a cross-breeze until at least 8pm so the sun has time to drop behind the trees. Plus the way my house is set up, there is just no way to get cross-ventilation.
But it's all good practice for when I go to see Dad. We are also going up to central Pennsylvania to see the whole fam damily, and apparently my uncle has a pool at his new house, so I will probably spend most of my time there. The one good part about his selling my grandparents' old home (which was just the coolest home ever, and one I was very sad to see leave the family) is that when we go to visit, I won't be expected to sleep in the bedrooms converted from the original attic, and therefore hot as sin all night. Of course, at this junction I don't even know where we will sleep, and being pregnant, I am hoping I get a bed and not a couch, but we'll see how it all works out.
I am super stoked about going to see Dad next week. I can't believe it's almost here already. My stepmom has already promised to make me her yummy lasagne, which, if she doesn't burn it too badly, is just scrumptious. I am really excited to see my baby brother, who is no longer so much of a baby, being 15 now and taller than our parents, but he and I are really close and I love him to death. I have already informed him to expect me to sit on him and tickle him, since I have not forgotten all his tickle spots. It helps, of course, that everywhere on that poor boy's body is a tickle spot. I haven't seen my family in over a year and a half, and as for the Pennsylvania relatives, it may have been seven years since I've seen most of them. I can't really remember, and all I know is all of us got together the summer I graduated high school for my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary. Whether I've seen anyone since then has slipped my mind. So it ought to be quite interesting, since so much has changed in my life. I have graduated college, gotten married, and am now a couple weeks shy of being seven months pregnant.
Which brings up the other news that I received a few days ago -- I am anemic. My bloodwork came back with an insanely low iron count, so my OB has placed me on iron pills. Fun stuff. Iron tends to constipate people, so I have to be extra vigilant about the water I drink and make sure I drink so much my eyeballs float just so I don't get constipated. From what I've heard, it's not a fun condition. Even before I was pregnant, I was slightly anemic, a condition I found out about from donating platelets. I have a high platelet count, which makes the nurses love me since I can give a double donation, but my low iron count has on occasion prevented me from donating. Plus I usually get sick from the anti-coagulant they pump into my veins with my returned blood, and sometimes they have to really slow down the donation process to prevent me from passing out. I was hoping that being pregnant and not having periods anymore would allow my iron to build, which seemed apparent with my first set of bloodwork. But I had blood drawn again last week to check for gestational diabetes, which I do not have, thank goodness, and my iron count was lower than it was when I was still menstruating every month.
I have never taken so many pills in my life! Not only do I take my prenatal vitamins and a calcium supplement, but I am also on amoxicillin, an antibiotic, to alleviate the bad case of acne I've acquired during this pregnancy that I take twice a day, as well as twice-daily pills of iron. The amoxicillin seems to be working -- my acne has nearly cleared up, which I am hoping is due to the medicine and not to the cyclical nature of my acne. There were times when I thought the acne was going away, and then it would return with a vengeance. This is no normal acne -- this is a case of large, painful pimples that take weeks to heal and cause some major scabbing. They were pretty much confined to my chin area, making it even worse. Also, my face seems a lot less oily now, and I feel a lot better about life. I can go back to wearing makeup now and feeling attractive. When I was suffering from the acne, I had to go out without even foundation on my face because the oil would cause it to slide off my face after only a couple of hours. I know I am not an ugly woman, but I still like to look my best and to be able to wear makeup when I do go out since I stay home most of the time. I just hope the medicine just keeps working.
Hopefully the medicine will cause all the acne to go away in time for my visit to Dad's house so everyone can tell me what a radiant and happy pregnant woman I am, and how beautiful I look while carrying a baby. That's how I feel, at any rate -- it'd be nice to have it show in my face as well.