What a wonderful couple of days.
First of all, I didn’t have to work yesterday (tutoring is over and marking hasn’t started yet) and I wasn’t too sick to enjoy it. Instead, we cleaned house while listening to KQED streaming online and slowly built up excitement. (Well, I did. Doug was tired and is a little more cautious; I’m *soppy* right now).
At one point, I was standing in the lounge room holding my pregnant belly and listening to the end of Obama’s victory speech ("Yes, we can!"), tears streaming down my face feeling immense hope for the future and my child-to-be. I felt like I was listening to one of our century’s great orators and that this must be a little like what it felt like to listen to Martin Luther King.
With beautiful timing, all Doug’s packages from the US arrived, sent by his sister, so he had an early birthday present: tons of photography equipment, and the foam mattress layer to stop my hip hurting and squee!! She slipped in a pile of organic cotton burp cloths and a washcloth and the cutest towel with a little hoodie for Harper and squeeeeeeee!!!
Then a few people came over for our Beltaine party. Doug and I built our altar for the season, reds and oranges for passion, male and female for the balance of the season, rose quartz for love, a citrine in the clove heart we were given for our handfasting (no negativity in our hearts), a small stone with a turtle in it and an acorn representing Harper and the protective Mama Bear fetish from the Zuni people that Jill gave us as a parting gift last year. And then we lit 700 or so candles and turned on the soft music and had a lovely, gentle night of friendship and massages and liqueur mead (I only had a sip!).
And then at midnight, it was Doug’s birthday, so I gave him his present (I bought him an iPod shuffle). And then we had snuggles and went to sleep…
My day was quite good: I had lunch with blithespirit and suddenly realised she’d be perfect for the panel on citizen journalism I’m running at Woodford; then I rang Chris Winter at the ABC and talked to him about it and got a great suggestion for the final panel member (and an introduction).
I went to the doctor and got reasonably good news about my plans for Woodford (more info on the maybe baby filter).
And then tonight, Doug made the most heavenly, amazing dinner: salmon steaks baked with olive oil and thyme, lightly grilled asparagus, and fresh mango, cucumber and coriander salsa served on a bed of mixed green. Oh my. Truly restaurant-worthy.
PS: Hi Daniel!