A Personal Update

I have been a bit distracted lately and haven’t been focusing on books, blogs, or anything online really.

Why? Well, there is no subtle way of letting out this news. We are expecting a new addition to our family in December. It’s been very difficult keeping very quiet with this news all this time, but there were plenty of ups and downs in my pregnancy journey that it just seemed wiser to keep it quiet until things settle down.

I first found out the good news when I got my blood tested for a nasty bout of flu sometime in March, and my life has simply been a roller-coaster ride since then. Where did the time go?

First thing I did when I found out was immediately go online and look up the Chinese Birth Calendar, which is supposed to provide accurate gender predictions. It’s a boy!! and chances are the calendar is at least 50% correct ;).

Also, 2011 is the year of the metal rabbit (Chinese astrology), and this is what metal rabbits are made of:

RABBIT INFANT AND CHILD
Young Rabbits are very sensitive children. They tend to let their emotions get the best of them and will cry with no remorse. At school, these children often get teased for being so sensitive and become branded crybabies by other boys and girls. Rabbit children are especially close to their mothers and maintain a wonderfully close relationship with them throughout their lives. They depend on their mothers for advice and support and will reciprocate when necessary. Rabbit children are desperate for stability and routine and require a sort of scheduling to do their best work. Like the adult Rabbit, Rabbit children are likely to be quite interested in the arts, particularly in music, a subject in which most Rabbit children thrive.

Very nice! I am not too sure about the cry baby part though :(. The snubnose was a colicky baby and really ran roughshod all over me through the early months, so I am really hoping that we get a break with the next one. Also, I was an inexperienced, panicky mom, and I hope I am more experienced this time around.

As per Western astrology, the baby could turn out to be a Sagittarius or a Capricorn . Chances are 50-50 either way.

So, here I am now, about 35 weeks along as huge as a whale, desperately trying to complete all pending office work before I go on leave two weeks from now.

As for reading, I am seeing some increased strain on my eyes, so I have pretty much switched over to audio books and e-books. E-books are great because I can read them in low light (very nice for uncomfortable sleepless nights), and I can modify the font size to suit my comfort. I love this feature so much, and I highly recommend e-books for elderly people, or people with vision problems.

Audio books are a slightly different story. Maybe it’s the book I am currently listening to, but I have a tendency to drift off, and then having to rewind to listen to it again. I don’t think this will ever be my favorite way of consuming any reading matter.

Anyway, for now I am giving a hard stop to my personal updates. It’s really difficult to know where to draw the line. I could keep on rambling like this for ages.

In terms of my blog, I hope to keep updating it for as long as is feasible, but I am not going to kill myself over it. If I read a book, but don’t find the time to blog about it, well it will not be the end of the world.

All depends on how smoothly things pan out in my real life over the next few months. I do plan to ghost in and out of the blog world, commenting on my favorite blogs, and keeping in touch with close virtual friends.

That’s the plan. Let’s see if I have the time and energy to implement it :).