Friday, June 13, 2008

Public Service Announcement(s)

Lately, I've been spending a chunk of time each day doing some sort of work-out type activity. Don't kid yourself ladies, once you hit 30, getting rid of baby weight is nothing to joke around about. I had babies at 17, 22, 31 and 35. Let us just say, "it ain't what it used to be." If you're going to do it, it is going to hurt.
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My best friend since the 5th grade is currently pregnant with her first child and she sent me this last week ... which proves my point. They call someone 35 "elderly" and therefore this "snapping back" thing is neither simple or easy.

A report came from our genetic counseling appt-very run of the mill, didn’t say much that was interesting-but it did refer to me as a “primigravida”.
Since I didn’t know what that was I looked up the term and found it on Wikipedia.
Here’s the first paragraph.
In medicine, gravidity refers to the number of times a woman has been pregnant
  • A gravida is a pregnant woman.
  • A nulligravida or gravida 0 is a woman who has never been pregnant.
  • A primigravida or gravida 1 is a woman who is pregnant for the first time or has been pregnant one time.
  • A multigravida or more specifically a gravida 2 (also secundigravida), gravida 3, and so on, is a woman who has been pregnant more than one time.
  • An elderly primigravida is a woman in her first pregnancy, who is at least 35 years old.
But - that is NOT the point of this post. I have a different, yet still very unimportant- point. WHILE doing all of this extra physical activity, many random things flow through my brain. These thoughts help me cope with and escape from the reality that I am working very hard in 175 degree heat, with little promise of any result.
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Yesterday it was really bugging me that in 1990 I spent like $4,000 to go to "The McConnell School of Travel". It was a nine month course that prepared me to ... it prepared me to ... uh ... lets see... it prepared me to --- work in a hotel and --- be quick to recognize airport codes.
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I mean ... really, in a world where people don't have enough to eat, I think it is just wonderful that I spent a bunch of money to be able to tell you that BNA is Nashville, TN and BDL is Hartford, Connecticut and ORD is Chicago O'Hare. If you were curious, I could also tell you that Houston has two airports, using the letters HAS and IAH. Because, without me telling you that, there is no way you would have access to that sort of information. It is a secret club and you only get in if you're lucky stupid enough to spend $4,000 at a place with a name as lame as "McConnell School of Travel."
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Somewhere along the line we missed doing some research that would have informed us that within just ten years the entire world would be booking their own travel; airport codes would not be top secret information any longer.
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My pregnant friend also attended the "school of travel". Together we have the power to name every airport in the continental United States of America. And it only cost us eight grand. We might both be elderly now; but we know some airport codes.

Let us know if we can be of service to you in the future.