Really really really good news!

Ever since watching the amazing movie The Business of Being Born (highly recommended!) and reading Ina May's Guide to Childbirth on the recommendation of a friend who is a birthing doula, I've been really interested in and curious about natural childbirth - maybe even home birth (although don't tell my dad that; he's a doctor and very suspicious of home births, as most doctors are). A birthing center is the best of both worlds: the freedom and flexibility of home birth with access to all the medical technology of a hospital birth in case something goes wrong. Now that I know we are moving to Illinois, I couldn't be more thrilled that the first birth center in Illinois is opening up... maybe it will even be ready by the time Frank and I start having kids! Seriously, guys, I know I haven't talked about my interest in birth on this blog before and this all probably sounds super random, but you can't even imagine how happy and excited I am right now!

In other news, I spent the weekend watching Downton Abbey and finished the entire first season. Even though I'm a year behind the rest of America, I'm really excited about that too, because it's only the second time in my entire life that I've finished a whole season of a TV show! My short attention span (think goldfish levels) won't allow for it. So this is also a major accomplishment!

Lately I'm hibernating more than usual because I've taken on some freelance editing projects for evenings and weekends. I'm saving up money to buy a laptop (mine is 6 years old and moves at a glacial pace), and with how much I've been spending on wedding-related expenses and travel, saving from my paycheck has been hard. These extra projects are a real godsend at this time, but they are keeping me pretty busy! Happily I got a lot of work on those done over the weekend too.

I also made homemade brownies for the first time.

On Monday night, I took a rare break from my newly hermit-like existence to go to Theology on Tap with a bunch of friends. My main goal was to introduce my single guy friends to my single girl friends. What I didn't expect was that my single friends wouldn't be the only ones getting hit on.

I was talking to a girl friend when a blind man came over to befriend us. He shook our hands and asked for our names. After chatting with her for a minute, he turned to me, took my hand and began asking a bunch of questions. "What's your name?" "Have I met you before? "Where do you live?" "What's your last name?" "What nationality is that?" I felt really uncomfortable being grilled like that, and I didn't like that he kept holding my hand, but I didn't want to be rude or hurt his feelings. The conversation continued, and when he found out I was Spanish, he asked if I could speak Spanish. When I said, "Yes," he said in Spanish, "I'm so glad we met. Can I please have your number? I'd like to take you to a concert this weekend."

You guys. I DIED. Not only was this overly-friendly man holding my hand and asking me on a date, but he was doing it in Spanish, so my friends couldn't understand what was going on or why I had turned bright red.

I very politely told him in Spanish, "Thank you for the invitation but I am getting married in three months."

GAHHHH.

He congratulated me very nicely and said he wished me and my fiance the best, and then went on his merry way. I collapsed on the table, bright red and feeling extremely awkward and embarrassed. Why couldn't he have grabbed my left hand instead of my right??! When I explained what had happened, my friends, of course, thought it was the funniest thing ever. Thanks, guys. Not helpful.

Anyway, after that Conor and I talked for a long time because we were the only non-single people in the group and we wanted our single friends to mingle with each other. His girlfriend is moving here very soon and he is pretty ecstatic about that little fact. I'm really excited to spend more time with her and I'm so so happy for Conor that they won't have to date long-distance anymore. It's only been two weeks since Frank moved away, but I'm already very ready for this long-distance gig to be over.

And now for the very best news of all... one of my articles has been accepted for publication at an amazing place! I can't say more yet, but I will definitely keep you posted. I can't tell you how joyful this news makes me. I have sorely missed journalism since college. I used to write an article every week for the campus newspaper, which was an amazing discipline, and I so enjoyed that thrill of seeing my writing in print. I'm ready to bring my ten-month hiatus from journalism to an end, so this news came at a very welcome time.

That's my February so far!