Ali’s Life

This blog is always the last to hear bg news…

Anyway! I got a new job! Starting August 6th, I will be working at Macalester College in St. Paul as the Academic Information Associate for Languages and Fine Arts! I am really excited. This job should be similar to my job at Gustavus, but with a whole bunch of bonuses, including a great location, diverse student body, more vacation, and the chance to work with other Carleton grads. I am super excited, but also nervous. I have a million things I want to do when I get there, and I only will have about 3 months before I have to take off for maternity leave. What timing.

Due to the job change, Ethan and I are selling out house (if you are interested in a 3br 2ba house in St. Peter, let me know!) and moving into a rental townhouse in Apple Valley. We sign the lease tonight! The townhouse is really cute, and actually quite big for the cost of rent. I can’t wait to get moved in so I can FINALLY start to set up the baby’s room for real. I can’t wait to get curtains ordered and furniture set up and all that jazz.

So this friday is my last day at Gustavus. There are definitely things I am going to miss about this job.  Mostly I’m going to miss my student workers. They were so awesome. I only hope that the students I have working for me at Macalster are awesome too. Otherwise I might have to force a couple transfers. ^_~

Anyway, that’s the big news. I can’t wait to get all settled in the new place and new job. It is really helping keep my mind off how slowly this pregnancy seems to be going (I am 24 weeks now).

I have not been good about updating. Hmm. Well, it is summer now, which means the campus is quiet and big projects can be done. For my center, this means tearing down a wall and expanding the international tv and movie viewing room. It will be pretty awesome once it’s done, and I hope it will encourage students to hang out and watch foreign language tv more. I know that the comfy couches and relaxing space in the Asian Languages Lounge at Carleton got lots of students to sit and watch Japanese and Chinese TV and discuss language, so I guess I’m trying to duplicate that here at Gustavus.

In non-work-land life is going well. We found out a few weeks ago that we are having a GIRL!! There are some more ultra-sound pictures up in the baby part of the page, and the 16 week ultra-sound video is available on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d25WWUneoY

We are thrilled to be having a little girl. We are still doing the room in blues and greens with a dinosaur theme. It will be so cute. We have a name picked out, but you’ll have to ask me in person, because I’m not sharing it with teh internets yet.

At the end of May Ethan and I took a nice, long, and action-packed vacation. First we flew out to L.A. for the Star Wars Celebration IV convention, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the original Star Wars film. It was pretty awesome. There were something like 40,000 - 60,000 people there each day,  but the center was big and there were lots of things to do, so the lines weren’t as bad as at Celebration III. I got to see and meet Carrie Fischer (Princess Leia) and Anthony Daniels (C-3PO). And we bought a 2+ foot tall Yoda doll for Baby.

After 4 days of the convention, we took the 5th day in L.A. to visit with my friend Amy, who had been my roommate first term senior year. We went to Rodeo Drive (spelling??) and then to the beach. It was really fun, despite the sunburn and 3 blisters I got. Her family had us over for dinner and then took us to the airport for our red-eye to Boston.

In Boston we spent 3 days hanging out with another good college friend of mine, Josh (http://www.joshourisman.com) and his girlfriend Jessi. That was fun too. We got lots of good food, although it’s hard to be in a good Irish pub in Boston when you can’t have a beer. We left Boston on Friday to head up to New Hampshire for my cousin’s wedding. (I told you it was a long trip.) The wedding was nice, although my favorite part was going swimming at Connie and Nick’s lake home.

Anyway, that’s the vacation. I’ve been back at work for about a week now. We’re actually leaving again soon for a conference, but I’ll tell you about that once I’ve gone. In the mean time, take a look around the baby part of the page, as it is the most up-dated at the moment. Bye.

I haven’t mentioned it here yet, so here’s the official announcement post. I am pregnant! I am due November 5th, that means I am currently 12 weeks pregnant. The morning sickness is finally dropping off and my clothes are getting uncomfortable. The whole thing is very exciting. I already had my first ultra-sound, but it was too early to tell the gender. Hopefully we’ll find that out at my 16 week appointment in 4 weeks.

Ethan and I are very happy. We already have lots of plans for the bedroom that will become the baby’s nursery. My family is also excited, which is really fun to see. I can’t wait for my little baby to grow up and pop out. Right now baby is only about 2 1/2 inches long, but is growing rapidly. November feels like forever away, I can’t wait to meet my little baby!

Once the baby does get here I am planning on taking the full 6 weeks of paid maternity leave offered by Gustavus. That will basically take me from the middle of fall term through to the end. I will start work again in January. And I am still planning on accompanying the Gustavus orchestra to China in January. There are lots of other plans that need to be made between now and November, but we’ve got time. ^_^

I will definitely be updating this blog as the pregnancy progresses! So keep coming back! In the mean time here’s the first ultra sound pic!

This past weekend was MiniCon, the longest running sci-fi convention in Minnesota. Ethan and I attended, and shared a room with our friends and fellow Carleton alums Matt and Kelly. Part of sharing the room was co-hosting a room party on Friday and Saturday night. We did a Firefly/Chinese theme, and served tea and Chinese snacks. It was fun, although tiring. I’m not used to staying up that late. I was also involved in two panels, one I was really on (Star Wars at 30), and one I just moderated (Raising Kids in Fandom). They both went well. The con overall was good, although I was really burned out by Sunday.

On Sunday Ethan and I left the con earlier than planned and met up with my parents and brother at the zoo. Then we went back to their house for dinner. Dinner was really good, so I ended up eating a bit too much, and regretted that on the drive home. hah. My own silly fault.

I think the stress of the con (mostly eating badly and getting not enough sleep) has taken its toll, and I think I’ve come down with a cold. Whee. Today is going to be a long work day, I think. I need a nap.