Wednesday, July 28, 2010

I Made a Boo-boo

I am not really a superstitious person. I am obviously not afraid of black cats ...


(Isn't my cat handsome??)


... I don't mind spilling salt, and if I have to walk under a ladder, I do so with impunity.  


However, there is one little suspicious thing my mom always said that I have found to be SO true.  She has always warned me that you should never start sentences with "It has been forever since ... " or "I have never ... " if you don't want the latter half of the sentence to happen, like, IMMEDIATELY.  


She has warned me against jinxing myself time and again, yet I still do stupid things like say, "Wow, it has been a year since I have been pulled over for speeding" (which is followed by a ticket within the week) or "I can't believe I don't have any stretch marks yet!" (which precipitated the map of New York city that now adorns my stomach).


Connected to the "saying things out loud" jinx is the preparation jinx: If you decide not to take an umbrella with you, it will rain; if you bring your jacket, it will be boiling hot. So yesterday I totally shot myself in the foot. You may or may not know that I still have 4-ish weeks of pregnancy and my doctors just broke the news that my daughter already weighs seven pounds. Yeah. Bloody fantastic. So she can come early and be a normal size or come on (or after) her due date and weigh like 28 pounds. I am hoping for the former.


(look at her -- just growing away in there, and LAUGHING at me.  LAUGHING!  I guarantee it.)


Too bad I just jinxed myself into having a large, late baby. Yeah, as of yesterday, this is what my desk at work looks like:



Those are detailed lesson plans, along with sing-in sheets, handouts (in the order they will be used) and more information than a sub would ever need, for both of my classes, for the next four weeks of class.  

I have four weeks of teaching left and four weeks of pregnancy left, and the possibility that I could go into labor early forced my anxious brain into preparing these packets. But now? The baby will OBVIOUSLY not come early if I am all prepared and covered at work. If there had been a possibility that I would have to take my laptop to type up lesson plans and e-mail them to a sub while in labor, I am sure the baby would come early. She would just LOVE that. I mean, she is my child.  


Damn my organizational skills! I never thought they would betray me! Perhaps there's still a chance ... the all-spicy-food diet starts in two weeks!


P.S.  But is this perhaps worse? A few hours ago, I actually said -- OUT LOUD -- "You know, every pregnant woman has warned me about ___________ (←something people generally don't like to read about). Isn't it awesome that I don't have them?" Oh, baby Jebus. 


P.P.S.  The first person to comment and correctly fill in the blank wins a gold star.


P.P.P.S.  Okay, so maybe not a literal gold star, but like when people say, "Gold star for you!"


P.P.P.P.S.  I changed my mind again. You want a gold star, you got it. Shoot me an e-mail with your address to veronicamarcetti {at} gmail {dot} com and I will mail you a gold star.


P.P.P.P.P.S.  If you earn it.

12 comments:

  1. YAY MOM!!!!!! Your gold star is on its way :)

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  2. Fear not! Branwen and Miriel were both 9 1/2 pounds, and I never had any of those things your mother mentioned. But the lesson plans do pretty well guarantee a long pregnancy -- Arwen was THREE WEEKS overdue.

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  3. That's not superstition, it's Murphy's Law.

    But it works the same way.

    Cause Murphy was an asshole.

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  4. Veronica was three weeks early, so we're hoping her genes prevail!

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  5. God, you are a stunning, stunning lady.

    I have stretch marks too. But I've never been pregnant. (Sulk)

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  6. I hope your baby doesn't wind up jolly green giant-sized before deciding to make an appearance! Also, yes, your cat is very handsome :)

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  7. You look beautiful in that photograph :) I hope baby comes early so you can say "well, at least I prepared so I don't have to worry about taking care of all those lesson plans."

    Murphy can totally suck it.

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  8. my husband was set to deploy a week after my son was due, and i cried for the whole last month, convinced the baby would come late and he would miss it. he ended up coming a week early.

    no matter what you say, do, take or believe, that baby will come whenever the hell it wants to. so just kick back and enjoy not having an episiotomy and a weeks worth of constipation.

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  9. Yes, your cat is handsome.

    And I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say your 28-pound baby is going to be the best 28-pound baby ever. Call it a hunch.

    (I hope I didn't just jinx you. Is it too late to take it all back? Your 28-pound baby is going to suck! Ha! Eat that, fate!)

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  10. my husband was set to deploy a week after my son was due, and i cried for the whole last month, convinced the baby would come late and he would miss it. he ended up coming a week early.

    no matter what you say, do, take or believe, that baby will come whenever the hell it wants to. so just kick back and enjoy not having an episiotomy and a weeks worth of constipation.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Fear not! Branwen and Miriel were both 9 1/2 pounds, and I never had any of those things your mother mentioned. But the lesson plans do pretty well guarantee a long pregnancy -- Arwen was THREE WEEKS overdue.

    ReplyDelete

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