By: Ann
I just wanted to give everyone an update on the latest action here in Mountain View. Although, nothing has happened besides Patrick (my best friend from college) coming to visit last weekend. I’m feeling fine and the baby is nice and unruly in my belly. Jason’s doing well and being very supportive of how much I’ve slowed down throughout the past few weeks, but more on that later.
It was great seeing Patrick again. I feel I haven’t had any social interaction for weeks now. We don’t have as many social/”team building” events at my place of employment as Jason has.
For those of you who know Patrick, he currently lives up in Seattle (for the past 2 years) with Clint. Patrick arrived last Friday night from a work conference in Dallas. Upon his arrival, we went to Falafel’s Drive-In for some yummy Greek food. I guess this place is voted best place to get falafels in San Jose. It is definitely a tasty place.
We started the next day early with a trip up to San Francisco to go to the California Academy of Sciences. This museum has been revamped to be more improved and very environmentally friendly with some of the highlights being its living roof, 4-story rainforest, natural history museum, planetarium, and aquarium all under one roof. Jason unsuccessfully tried going there a month ago on the day of their grand opening, but the line was backed up for 9 blocks…just to receive a ticket to come back later, not to actually go in the museum. Here are some pictures. You can find more on Jason’s Flickr Page.
Patrick and I on top of the Living Roof
Albino Alligator
Looking in at the aquarium
After the museum we strolled around outside looking at the different little vendors/kiosks all set up outside of the museum urging us to register to vote, buy t-shirts with catchy, yet edgy phrases, and, of course, eat lots of food.
We then took a leisurely stroll down Castro Street. I stocked up on more onesies, another Buffy comic book, and (free!) Human Rights Campaign stickers. I was pretty mad that I’ve been paying for them all of these years. Now I know where to go to stock up for work and such.
Castro Street
We then drove up to the Golden Gate Bridge at a good view point so Patrick had some kind of proof that he went to San Francisco. It was pretty windy and cold up there. Patrick then felt like he was home again.
At the Golden Gate Bridge
We wrapped up the day by going to Herbivore, a vegetarian restaurant that has chains in San Francisco and Berkeley. This place is very yummy. Julie, my sister-in-law, took us here once and we found it to be the closest thing to my favorite restaurant Tommy’s back in Cleveland Heights. Even my carnivore brother Ahan was impressed with how good the food tastes from this place.
Patrick and I at Herbivore
The next day was a pretty leisurely day. Patrick and I took a stroll down Castro Street (in Mountain View) while Jason stayed home to put together our toolshed so that we could store all of Jason’s tools and miscellaneous items in there instead of having it out in the open for the baby to play with. Sorry, baby, no circular saws until you’re a little more mature. After Jason was done with the shed, we went to Casa Lupe, our current favorite Mexican restaurant here in Mountain View.
Monday came and it was back to the grindstone for Jason at Google. However, we did manage to meet up with Jason for a quick Google lunch and tour. I had a little taste of fame at Google. Someone asked me if Jason was my husband. I confirmed that he was. He proceeded to congratulate me. I was a little confused at his boldness in coming up to random pregnant woman little me and doing all of this until I realized that he recognized me from Google’s internal website with the whole baby naming business and all.
After Google, we headed over to 1 Infinite Loop, otherwise known as the Apple headquarters. We thought it was only appropriate since Patrick and I are both big Apple fans (or, as the commercials say, “We’re Macs”). The store was a little anticlimatic for me. I guess I was expecting something similar to the Apple store in New York City with it being the headquarters and all. It did have some cool stuff that normal apple stores don’t have, like clothing, pens, and mugs and such. They don’t do tours for the general public, which was a little disappointing. But at least I can say that I visited the mothership.
Needing to kill some time, we took a stroll through Santana Row (the fancy outdoor mall in San Jose) until I had to take Patrick back to the the airport.
So that was our big weekend last week. Our major point of business right now is getting the baby’s/guest bedroom all squared away. If people have been visiting us, they’ve been staying in our bedroom because the other room is just a big baby explosion right now. We’ve managed to clear most of the stuff out of there. We’re not going to decorate the room too much, because we’re renting. We’d also like to keep it as simple as possible for a guest to possibly stay in there in the future without having to trip over a whole bunch of baby gear. I think the room is coming along smoothly. The baby is no longer at risk for getting tetanus anymore with all of the sharp tools/items that were in there.
As mentioned before, I have slowed down considerably. I’ve decided to go down to half days at work starting in November. When I come home from work, I’m exhausted. It’s such a chore to even make dinner now. I’m usually asleep by 7:30-8:00 on most days. I’m also pretty uncomfortable lately. So much so that for the past 2 weeks, I’ve been sleeping upright in the recliner chair that we have. Laying down on my side is longer comfortable. I have had a few real contractions here and there that go away on there own (or when I stop walking). I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m a little dilated just because I have been feeling different aches and pains lately besides the usual Braxton Hicks. We’ll see during my doctor’s appointment tomorrow. Today the baby is officially full term or 37 weeks. Anything that happens from now on, I’m officially okay with. Here’s a picture of me at week 37.
37 Weeks