Speed Trials

One night this week, Angelo came home and carried his bike in to the kitchen. You know he’s had a bad day when he comes home and brings her inside. It means she’s been acting up, and he’s going to have to spend the whole evening setting her right.

As I was doing the dishes and listening to the faint cling-clanging of tools to bike, I started to think about my current disaster in the sewing room. I asked him, “What do you do when you don’t know how to fix your bike?” There was a pause. He didn’t understand the question.

I rephrased: “What DID you do when you first started riding, and didn’t know how to fix your bike?” He said that he just worked it out, tried to get it fixed to the best of his abilities. Usually, things worked out.

I nodded. It made me feel bad about my shirt. I had not made any progress in a long time, mostly because I would get frustrated after five minutes and walk away.

Then I remembered why I was making this shirt. I was using it for practice. I had picked a second hand curtain material because I didn’t care about the “finished product”.

So I finished tidying up, and walked up to my sewing machine. There it was, draped all haphazardly on the table. The shell of a shirt. I read my instructions, reread them, read them aloud, using hand gestures to further explain the steps to take.

I pinned my collar stand to the shirt. I ironed everything all the time. I triple checked right sides together and seam allowances. I just banged it out to the best of my abilities.

And after a little while, My shirt had a finished collar:

And I smiled. Ear to mother-effin’ ear!

I dragged the dress form into the kitchen to show Angelo. Look what I did!!

Now all I have to do is add some cuffs to sleeves, sleeves to shirt, buttons and buttonholes… all for a garment I’m never going to wear. Great.

As stated in my previous post, my cousins have sprouted quite a crop of Baby-Barrés, and I think it’s absolutely terrific. But ours isn’t the only clan that’s making babies. Angelo’s cousins are hard at work, too:

Cousins Melina and Cassandra entertained us at our Epiphany brunch a couple of weeks ago. These girls are way cute, and check out the baby skinny jeans!! (I don’t know, somehow I think the effect is lost when pulled over a huge diaper… Just sayin’). There’s also baby diego, who spent the whole brunch sleeping (blessed child) and even Richard (Angelo’s brother) and Mel (Derby lady extraordinaire) are expecting their first in April.

My friends are even in on the fun. Kimberley is 8 1/2 months pregnant and has been one of those radiant, beautiful, peaceful preggos that everyone aspires to be. Really, she looks terrific, and has just impressed the hell out of me throughout the last 8 1/2 months.

We went down to her hometown for the shower yesterday, and she really did get showered with gifts!!

Wow. We felt like total city slickers – ours was the only gift that was BLACK! (everything else was pastel coloured and/or blue)

Lululemon diaper bag. Yeah, that’s right, brand whore!!

So what does all of these baby fever looming around us mean? Well, to tell you the truth, I did have a pregnancy scare a couple of weeks ago. My period was way late, and I was all, “uh… uh oh.” I waited and waited, and after about 1 1/2 weeks, I headed to the pharmacy, convinced I had a bun in the oven.

It was a strange feeling for sure. Emotions seem to come over me in waves.

1. The first thing I felt was straight up joy. I’m going to have a BABY!!! Weeeeeee! (good sign, I think, that that was my first reaction…)

2. The next thing I felt was a strange disappointment about the things I hadn’t done yet. What would this mean for next year’s trip to Zipolite? What would this mean for my career, for our next flip, for roller derby, for all those selfish things that make up my life?

3. The final thing I felt was a sobering feeling that money was going to get suddenly tight. This was a strange one for sure, because Angelo and I have lived in such hard times over the course of our relationship, and since moving out on my own, I’ve been poor more than I’ve been affluent. But lately, we’ve been quite solvent, and I’m pretty happy with it. I was a little bummed that we only got a year of that comfort before going back to the financial struggle.

Now, of course, once I took the pregnancy test, it came out negatory:

And despite the very real delight I felt at the prospect of finally becoming a mother, I must say I was very relieved. Angelo and I high-fived. He read the packaging three or four times to make sure I’d done the test right. He wanted to be SURE.

And so, the baby mania continues to whir around us, and somehow, we manage to evade its wrath, and remain baby-free.

Even though these ladies don’t approve: