when you're pregnant there are different rules around clothes.

I have reached a point where I just don't have the energy to seek out, wait in line for, and utilize a changing room. Not only does it suck my energy, but if there is a situation where I am removing my pants, my body has decided that it must be time to pee. It's important to be aware of this, especially when my freak out for the week was "I NEED a nightgown for the hospital - something that I can nurse with! Oh my god!"

While out shopping (at a crowded outlet mall, no less), I found it. My dream nightgown - soft, adjustable spaghetti straps, low cut, stretchy, and ugly as sin. I tried on the extra large right there at the rack - over my shirt and pants. It was perfect.

I showed my mom, my sister-in-law, and my husband just how perfect it was. "Look!" I exclaimed as I tugged in turn at each spaghetti strap exposing each covered breast, one at a time. My family members oohed and aahed and joined me in expressing how perfect the nightgown would be as I looked toward the days of expressing milk for our beautiful little girl. I haven't felt this good about shopping or trying on clothes in months.

And for those of you who were in the store, judging my choice NOT to use the changing room, I would refer you to the growing baby bump, and the sweet little girl inside who is shaking her fist (against my uterus) saying, "suck it."

you're a hard woman to find

I'm having a hard time believing that a person was unable to find my mom. I'm not expecting any results from a "GrammaNora" Google search, but in general, she's got a lot of identifiers working for her.

First, she's a high level administrator at an institute of higher learning.
Second, her last name is pretty distinct -- there aren't many of us running around. And even if you put in the first and last names of someone ELSE in the family, her name usually shows up on the first page.

So when GrammaNora said a representative from a state agency had to contact her via a board she was on, I was pretty surprised.
Rep: You're a hard woman to find.
GrammaNora: What?
Rep: I had a really hard time locating your phone number. I couldn't find it anywhere.
GrammaNora: Uh...did you Google me?

I think this state worker takes the agency's "No internet use at work" policy a little too seriously.

real pants have buttons

30 weeks and 2 days pregnant is not a good time to realize that real pants have buttons. It's also not a good time to wear real pants (altered with a hair-tie or not). I took for granted the ease of using the bathroom when there's a giant elastic waist band! Real pants are also not good into 30 weeks when you have back-to-back-to-back-to-back meetings, and then you get pulled into two or three more meetings. I never realized how much time unbuttoning and unzipping and then buttoning and zipping takes. Those seconds add up, especially when you're late for a meeting.

I don't think I'm going back to real pants ever.