Alright, I know when enough prodding has taken place. SO MANY of you have been asking for an update on our pregnancy and while I’m eager to please I also have my narcissistic tendencies about blogging. I can’t bring myself to create a new post when the previous post hangs lonely without any comments. Yes, I’m so sad and lonely that I wait upon my internet friends to feed me with the tender love of comments. They’re like a sweet cupcake at the end of the day. Many of you demanded a post about my China trip and I graciously complied. Yet there it sits below, commentless, incrementally getting swept towards the blogosphere dustpan. But since the tabloid hoards we call family want nothing more than to feed off the juicy information of our lives with no ambition to return the attention, here you go. (For those of you who have never endured my sense of humor – namely Megan’s friends – I apologize, this is it).
Megan was due to deliver on Labor Day – hah, Labor Day – but the day came and went with nary a contraction. The most she ever felt was a slight twinge in her hip when she tried hefting a 40lb. lawn chair at Lowe’s. A friend called that day and asked if we were in the hospital parking lot driving doughnuts. “Are you kidding?” I replied. “We’re not going to let the looming possibility of a baby delivery in the hardware store run our lives. We’re shopping patio furniture and eatin’ Chevy’s near-Mex tacos. It’s Labor Day!”
Being overdue has made us both anxious but I keep telling her any day she delivers is Labor Day (double hah!). We’ve got an appt. to induce on Friday should she not pop out by then. Every day before I leave work I place sub plans on my desk should the little one decide tonight is her time. BTW – we still don’t have a name but we do have a list. I would say it’s top secret, but it’s already been cracked more than once. Based on the negative reactions of others, we’ve been forced to cross some names off. My hope for Lafawnda is dashed.
Being overdue has also allowed us to experiment upon the wealth of labor triggers people have offered up this past week. Yesterday I put my hand on the belly and gave her a good talking to as her father to quit hiding and face the world. Megan just hiked the steepest street in La Crescenta from bottom to top – a good 3/4 mile with about 720ft.of climbing. The woman’s a trooper. We have yet to try the most bizarre labor trigger: supposedly some restaurant in Hollywood guarantees their eggplant parmesan will send a woman into labor within 24hrs or you can return and get refund of your bill. I’m thinking I’ll get the most expensive item on the menu, then even if it does work I’ll fix the hospital records to show it took 36hrs. If you have any other labor-inducing magic tricks, let us know. We’re willing.
Despite our efforts, no signs of labor yet. As I write this, Megan is upstairs bolting together the frame of a guest bed we just bought off Craigslist. We may not have pioneer blood but we’ve certainly got their mentality – we’re gonna work this baby out.
We will, of course, update all of our faithful bmharvey.com readers when in fact we metamorphose into parents. In the meantime, please feed my egotistical need for an internet audience and leave a comment. Under Obama’s new plan, every word you leave is tax-deductible.
OK, here it is: my trip to China. Where do I begin? How about a list of our activities:
Tai Chi with two masters at the Temple of Heaven
Forbidden City/ Tiananmen square
Ping Pong lesson with the coach of several Olympians
Hutongs (the old small alleys of Beijing)– riding rickshaws, cooking our own lunch in Mongolian hotpots (yummmmmm), learning calligraphy & Feng Shui with local families in their houses
cooking class with a top chef at Du Wong restaurant
Bird’s Nest & Water Cube Olympic venues
toured an old factory town turned into a collection of art galleries
camped at Gubekoi village (fan dancing, serious karaoke, dinner in a ‘Mongolian yert’)
hiked about 10K of the Great Wall
explored emperor’s Summer palace, little Buddah temple
Longmen’s Grotto
Shaolin Tagou Martial Art School & Temple – taught history of kung fu by the head monk
Little Dragon Kung Fu school
Morning prayer/silent breakfast/sweeping courtyard with straw brooms/ tour Pagoda forest
Grand Musical Zen Performance – a nighttime show in an outdoor theater at the base of a canyon – dance, Kung Fu, music, drums
Kung Fu routine
This seriously was two weeks packed with activities. What was my favorite part? I would have to say hiking the Great Wall was truly spectacular. It was surreal being able to touch history with our hands. We hiked (and I mean a real hike) about 10K of a section of the Wall that fewer than 5,000 people (including Chinese) have ever been on. We needed permits, and Communist hats which our guides provided so we appear friendly to the soldiers who patrol the restricted military zone we passed through. The landscape was beautiful and shrouded in a fog that set the mystique of the wall’s ancient past. It was exhilarating.
This trip was also full of unique experiences. Like attending morning prayer with the Buddhist monks at the Shaolin temple and joining them after in silent breakfast (they eat this way everyday). In Beijing, we got to visit the houses of local families in the Hutongs: old, small alleys that remain from the ancient city. I think if I lived in Beijing, this is where I would want to live – kind of a cool, courtyard design and you’re right in the city, yet it was quiet in the alleys – no cars can go through. One woman showed us how her house was designed around principles of Feng Shui. It’s basically a courtyard with several rooms around it and about 10 of their relatives live in various rooms. As many as 4 families may share one property. In another house, a gentleman who practices calligraphy spent about an hour teaching us how to write on rice paper with traditional ink brushes (which he gave to us as gifts). You couldn’t get this kind of experience on a regular vacation.
Kung Fu school was also incredible. I thought I was in shape before got a serious workout from these hardcore 17yr-olds who taught us a routine. It was the kind of thing where we felt completely like foreigners trying out this exercise we weren’t built for. The routine we learned was basic hand & arm moves and kicks; they told us it was you first learn if you know nothing about kung fu – yeah, that was us. One day they let us try learning a weapon routine. I was excited to be divided up into the sword group. They make it look so much easier than it is. I wish we had more time with it but it was fun even for just a half hour. Maybe Megan will get me a sword for Christmas.
Videos: in Facebook, search Discovery Student Adventures
Our experience truly was an amazing adventure. The students totally engaged in every activity and were curious to learn and experience everything. I loved traveling with them and was really proud of the way they represented our school. Here they are talking about their experiences:
Details (why I did this):
Discovery Student Adventures is a new partnership between Discovery and Ambassadors Group student travel. They are launching trips right now where teachers gather a group of interested students to explore other countries. Typically, about 5-6 students pay for a trip and a teacher chaperons for free.
As DSA is new, they wanted to host some pilot trips – where both teachers & students traveled free. I was fortunate enough to be one of nine teachers they selected from 170 members of the Discovery Educator Network who applied. Of the eight destinations they offer, the pilot trips included Australia, South Africa and China. On each pilot trip, three teachers brought four students each (3 teachers, 12 student). On our trip, I, along with my four students, met up with a group from Wisconsin and one from New Jersey. We also had 4 other adults from DSA and a photographer and videographer.
Hey everyone. I was planning on updating our neglected blog with a report on my China trip (got back a couple weeks ago). However, jet-lag hoarded my body and mind for several days and I’m just getting around to it. Unfortunately, more pressing topics need attention, so I’ll postpone a China post (but stay tuned).
For those of you who don’t know or weren’t sure, we live in La Crescenta. We just bought a house here this summer. La Crescenta is in the middle of the biggest wildfire in California right now. It started out as a ranger station fire in La Canada (our neighbors but no real physical boundary). It has spread to Tujunga to the west and now caught us in the middle.
We are OK. We bought next to the freeway, which didn’t seem like a perfect place as it has noise, but luckily the freeway is at the bottom of the small valley, so we’re far down from the fires up the hill. My dad’s house however, where I grew up and where my brother lives with his wife and four kids, is in serious danger. Yesterday my sister-in-law Becki brought carloads of valuables over to store in our garage (which was surprisingly close to being emptied out) and later brought the four kids down. My brother and father stayed to weather it out. At about 3:30am, Ryan called to tell me he was in my driveway – the police had just evacuated them. They used the loudspeaker from the patrol car as well as the reverse 911 phone system. My dad, decided to camp it out somewhere in in his shag-carpeted pickup truck – don’t worry, he loves that kind of stuff. We were just fortunate with the timing of our house (& size) to be able to fit everyone in.
So far the fire has not been contained much and tonight is creeping closer to the top of the house-line where my dad’s house is. We’re holding all the kids pets as well. School was supposed to start tomorrow but the whole district has cancelled school tomorrow. Yeah – another day to get ready. Actually we’re heading to my mom’s at the beach in Oxnard where Ryan and family went for the night. Here’s a few photos I took last night of what’s going on:
Megan is doing fine and we are looking forward to the birth of our daughter in another week. No signs of labor yet. She’s been a trooper.We’ve got our hospital plan in place and ready for it whenever it happens.
We’ll keep you updated. In the meantime I’ve posted a few of the photos I took last night and today. You can see more in my Facebook album at:
