Not so "Sunny California"...

So here I am in Napa Valley on business. It's been cloudy and rainy the past 3 days. The sun is trying to come out, but quickly gets covered. I'm just finishing my lunch...and it's 3:30 pm EST. (12:30 GMT - Pacific) I'm not getting used to this time at all. I'm really tired and don't feel like I have enough energy to get me through the days.

I will not even go into how bad my travel day was...just know that it was probably the worst travel experience I've ever had. (Aside from the ride back to Ohio from visiting my sister in FL on a Greyhound....)

The landscaping of this area is really nice. I'm sure it's a BEAUTIFUL place when the sun is shining etc. My department is pretty much everything I expected. The people are really nice and driven... (Mainly driven crazy by the SVP, but otherwise...they're pretty much on task.)

I am staying in the River Terrace Inn in Napa. It's a REALLY nice hotel. My room is very comfortable and the bed is a very good substitute for my "sanctuary" at home. I have a cool view of the Napa River from my baclony (pictured above) and they have a complimentary breakfast buffet every morning. The bar looks pretty cool, too... Very unfortunate that I cannot partake................

So some things I've noticed:

1. On my flight from Columbus to Vegas, I was the only black person on board.
2. On my flight from Vegas to Sacamento, I was the only black passenger on board...one of the flight attendants was black... lol
3. Out of 212 employees of my company's Napa office, there are probably a total of 10 black people.
4. When I went to Target last night, I saw no black people... LOL

There are a lot of hispanics and asians, but hardly any African-Americans. It's actually pretty interesting how drastically the demographic can change from one part of the country to the next. Being the person I am, I notice these things... I can't help it.

The SVP's assistant it taking me out to downtown Napa so I can check it out and do a little shopping. I'm actually looking forward to that. 3 hours to go...

Well, I have another meeting to attend in 10 mintues...so I best get prepared.

I plan on writing in my pregnancy journal later tonight.

T.G.I.F.!

T hank G od I t's F riday! There are some days when that phrase takes on more meaning than it does on others... Today is one such day! This week has been long and trying for me... There has been much to get done at work and my Accounting class continues to be a headache...not to mention it was the last week I had to teach for the show. I ended up holding a pure dance rehearsal on Sunday for 2 hours to teach 2 dances and review the others. Last night was more review and I taught 1 more...and we cut 1, so that helped! 2 nights ago I left my portfolio with my W-2s and other important documents at class and so I was stressing about that. In addition, the test that was scheduled for that night was moved to Monday...when I am out of town on business. My only option is to take it in the testing center, which I assumed would be prior to Monday. Well, my professor wrote me yesterday and told me that I can take it tomoBy the grace of God, it turns out that one of my classmates picked it up for me...so I will pick that up on my lunch. And now, it's FRIDAY!

I am so in need of some rest... I still have a test for my "workstation configuration" class tomorrow, but plan to go to bed as earlier as I can tonight. I fly out to Napa on Sunday and totally plan on sleeping on the plane to Vegas...and getting some early rest on Sunday evening.

Too bad I can't have that well deserved Jack and Coke.......................... C'est la vie!

Early Valentine's

So the night that I made my last post, Leonard came home with a ring! It is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen! He was really smart and took Kim and Julie with him. I had such a bad day and it was the best surprise ever! Obviously, with the pregnancy, I expected it at some point, but not this soon. And Kim reassured me that he had come to her at the beginning of January (before we even ever found out) to ask her advice. But, I knew we were going to get engaged EVENTUALLY, regardless of the baby...

Our friends had probed me for information about what kind of gold and size and stuff the Friday before, and I truly thought nothing of it. In light of everything else that is going on. They had me trying on their rings and all kinds of stuff. I was truly oblivious.

So, his proposal was really cute. As I said, I had been home sleeping before I had rehearsal while Leonard went to the gym (and apparently to pick up the ring, too.) When he got home, he acted like he was going to get into bed with me and picked up this pillow his sister made for me for Christmas... (The pillow has a digital cloth photo of us sewn onto it.) [Well just the past weekend I was joking around with him about how I didn't have a ring... And the pillow represents are love... So, I picked up the pillow and said, "Do you know what this is? It's love without a ring!" And I threw it across the room. We totally laughed about it and that was the end of that.] So as he picked up the pillow he says, "You know, baby, I think something fell out of this pillow when you threw it the other day." And, as a total sucker, I say, "You think so?" as I start to shake it and said, "Yeah, it does seem a little flat...maybe some stuffing or something fell out." Then he says, "I think it was this..." as he hands me the box with the ring. All I could say was "Are you serious??" And then he had me turn on the light and open it up! It was so cool... And he looks at me and says, "SO, what do you say??" To which I said, "Of course I'll marry you!" Needless to say, I'm a very happy lady!!!

The ring is unbelievably unique. I can't find it anywhere online to get a good picture of it...and taking one has not done it justice. But, it's designer is Christopher Slowinski...with his patented "crisscut" diamond. It looks very antique and I doubt anyone will ever have a ring like mine! It's so very cool...and it's white gold! To describe the setting I will give you the actual description from the appraisal: "One crisscut center with pave' set diamond trim, pave' set diamonds down shank."I've always wanted a white gold ring! So here are the pictures I took of the actual ring. And here are also pictures of what the crisscut diamond looks like...and I actually found the same detail on my band on another ring from the Christopher Designs site.

Just not "right"... It's COLD. And I'm tired.

So today was a bad day for me on the pregnancy side... I posted that in my pregnancy journal. Long story short, I'm just not right. Other than that, it's cold... The picture is from my weather bug, I snagged this morning from my PC. Can you believe that? -3 degrees. Insane. I do NOT like the cold. Needless to say, I'm going to take a nap before my rehearsal tonight. I have been so exhausted lately...which is totally expected. I just wish I could magically find some energy somewhere. Doing a little too much right now. After the middle of March, things will slow down.

BIG NEWS!

So now that we have told our nearest and dearest friends, I can post my news here in my blog! This past Saturday Leonard and I found out that we are expecting a baby... I'm so unbelieveably excited. It's all that I can think about... It's literally consuming everything I do. It was so hard to work this week and I fear it's only going to get worse. Although I am really early in the pregnancy and it's a big faux-pas to tell folks this soon, we just can't keep the excitement in...and keeping it from our friends was killing us. We have decided, however, to wait to tell our parents until we have the first prenatal appointment on Monday, February 12th. We just want to make sure everything is okay and going well before we get their hopes up. I'm cool with that, and telling our friends was probably the best thing we could do for support right now.


I have started a pregnancy journal on pregnancy.org and I plan on maintaining it. Here is the link to my journal: http://www.pregnancy.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=664464 It is also located in my "LINKS" section to the right.


I will continue to post here in my blog about everything unrelated to my pregnancy and some things related, but the for the most part, the plan is to keep them separated.


I wake up every morning and thank God every day for this blessing...

I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M GOING TO HAVE A BABY!