That's right.
I am going to talk about those lovely things that we as women like to pretend that we don't have, or that we are somehow "above." We'd all like to pretend that we will be the perfect pregnant woman. We will still exercise regularly, we won't get sick, and heaven forbid we let pesky little hormones dictate our mood.
But no matter how hard we try,
I think we all fall short of this
perfect,
pregnant
harmony.
Let's talk about reality here for a moment. According to HealthLine.com, "a woman will produce more estrogen during one pregnancy than throughout her entire life when not pregnant." What?!? That's insane!! (But it does explain a lot...) Women experience a sudden and dramatic increase in both estrogen and progesterone and a bunch of other hormones. These changes can cause morning sickness, affect our exercise and our mood. Incidentally, they are also responsible for the famous pregnancy "glow". At least we get one good thing from them.
Last night I had a run-in with these pesky hormones that was just too funny not to document. You see, I am finally coming to terms with the fact that my new little apartment is probably not going to look like everything that I pin from designer blogs. I have kept my decorations hidden away in boxes for months as I've tried to find ways to update and beautify my home with no money. This past week I have decided that I just need to work with what I've got. So I unloaded all my decorations/pictures/knick knacks onto the floor and went for it. I hung a few shelves on my walls and decided to make a few fall crafts for the season. I went on a walk with Liv and collected sticks and leaves. (Side note: I felt a lot like the elf in this Sifl & Olly song. "So much more for free!")
I made a little bouquet of sticks with the intent of adorning it with acorns.
Something like this:
This is how far I got:
(Well, okay, when you put them side by side...)
But anyway, back to the point. Chris was helping me hang my shelves above our dining room table. For some reason, hanging decorations is something that we can never do peaceably. (It may have something to do with the fact that I am incredibly indecisive and make him hold five different things up against the wall in impossible positions.) After we hung the shelves I asked him to see if my little "stick bouquet" would fit on the higher shelf.
It didn't.
I'm still not sure if what Chris did next was out of frustration or a sincere desire to help. But, you see my tallest stick there in the photo? Well he just upped and snapped the top right off! Without even asking me! I was so appalled I couldn't say anything for a second. And then...it happened. The infamous "cry-laugh". I felt the tears beginning to flow and immediately turned away. Seriously?! Was I crying over a broken stick I found in my backyard??
Yes. Yes, I was.
"Doesn't Chris know that when composing an artful stick bouquet there needs to be variation?! Not least of which, variation in height? Now all my sticks were the same size! Didn't he know that there was a lower shelf that I could put the sticks on and they would fit? Why would he do such a rash thing without asking me??"
All these thoughts were running through my head.
Along with, "Kara, you are so ridiculous! Just find yourself another stick! Why are you crying over something like this?!"
And so there I sat, blubbering and laughing at the same time. Poor Chris didn't know what to do. Should he laugh with me, taking the risk of upsetting me more? Should he apologize? Should he say anything at all? Eventually he could see that, despite being genuinely upset, I could see the humor in the situation. He promised to fix my broken stick, which he did nicely with some wood glue. You can't even tell it was broken!
After five minutes of me looking like this, we had a good laugh about it.
So, in conclusion, I would like to thank the lifetime supply of estrogen pumping through my body for the wonderful breakdown I had last night. It will be one that will bring a good laugh to Chris and me for years to come.
