Apparently, on your 100th post you’re supposed to do a list of 100 things about you. So here’s my list. Please try to stay awake.

Favorite Movies:
1. Arthur
2. Breakfast at Tiffany’s
3. Ed Wood
4. Harold & Maude
5. Annie Hall
6. Desk Set
7. Wizard of Oz
8. Midnight Cowboy

Electronic devices usually found in my purse:
9. Cell phone
10. Palm Pilot
11. Digital camera
12. iPod

Reasons for trips I’ve had to the ER:
13. Broken right wrist
14. Dog bite to left wrist
15. Stitches in left thumb

Surgeries I’ve had:
16. Plate drilled to right, broken wrist bone

Cities I’ve vacationed in:
17. New York, NY
18. San Francisco, CA
19. Denver, CO
20. Taos, NM
21. Breckenridge, CO
22. Orlando, FL
23. Washington Court House, OH
24. San Diego, CA
25. Daytona Beach, FL
26. Little Rock, AK (well, this was a hurri-cation)
27. Gulf Shores, AL
28. Hopedale, LA
29. Dallas, TX
30. Chicago, IL
31. Atlanta, GA
32. Washington, DC
33. Golden Springs, CO
34. Tijuana, Mexico
35. Boulder, CO
36. New Orleans, LA
37. St. Augustine, FL
38. Baton Rouge, LA

Cities I’ve lived in:
39. New Orleans, LA
40. Baton Rouge, LA
41. Metairie, LA
42. Jefferson, LA
43. Gainesville, FL

Number of years I spent in school:
44. Twenty-two

Degrees I’ve earned:
45. Kindergarten
46. Grammar School
47. High School
48. College (B.S. in Business Management)
49. Law
50. Masters in Law (Taxation)

Number of years it took me to pay off law school and masters degree:
51. Ten

Number of marriages I’ve had:
52. One

Number of children I expect to have:
53. One

Pets I’ve had:
54. Cocoa (cat)
55. Pooch (dog)
56. Tweetie (love bird)
57. Dixie (cockatiel)
58. Trixie (cockatiel)
59. Skooter (cat)
60. Misc. no-named fish
61. Lucy (dog)
62. Zella (dog)
63. Peanut (cat)

Siblings I have:
64. Older brother
65. Older brother
66. Older brother
67. Older sister

Favorite smells:
68. Fresh cut grass
69. Tops of cats’ heads
70. Clean babies
71. Lavender
72. Garlic cooking in hot oil

Favorite books:
73. Castle Richmond (Anthony Trollope)
74. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
75. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Hunter Thompson)
76. Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Truman Capote)
77. Unbearable Lightness of Being (Milan Kundera)

Books I’ve not been able to finish:
78. The Firm (John Grisham)
79. The Brothers Karamazov (Fyodor Dostoevsky)

Favorite Cookbooks:
80. Joy of Cooking (Rombauer, Becker and Becker)
81. Who’s Your Mama, Are You Catholic and Can You Make a Roux? (Marcelle Bienvenu)
82. The Classic Pasta Cookbook (Giuliano Hazan)
83. The Classic Italian Cookbook (Marcella Hazan)
84. The New Orleans Cookbook (Rima and Richard Collins)

The hardest dishes I’ve ever cooked from scratch:
85. Crawfish bisque
86. Pecan pie (you elusive dessert, you)

Number of inedible pecan pies I’ve baked that were nonetheless eaten:
87. Twelve, if memory serves

Number of pecan pies that I’ve baked that were perfect:
88. One. That’s the problem. I reached nirvana once and feel it is attainable again. Damn you, pecan pie!

Number of fellow attorney’s I’ve dated:
89. One. We tend to eat our own kind, so I was lucky to get out unscathed.

Number of times my heart’s been broken:
90. Four (once by the same person).

Saddest things I’ve seen or heard at a funeral:
91. Small, white velvet-crusted coffin for a child
92. Jazz band playing “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”
93. Twenty-one gun salute

Careers I entertained before settling on law:
94. Professional clown
95. Orthodontist
96. Writer
97. Research librarian (ala Desk Set–see number 6 above)
98. Hotel manager

When I was seventeen, the age I thought I’d want to reach and freeze:
99. Thirty-two

Time it took me to compile this list:
100. One hour, three minutes.

Three weeks, two days. Then I wake up early (as if I’ll have gotten any sleep the night before) to go to the hospital to deliver Sun. I will finally get to see her face, her arms and legs, her fingers and toes. I’ll get to hear her voice–her first cry.

Peanut will have to adjust to not being the cutest creature in the house anymore nor the one who gets the most attention. I already feel bad for her. Sweet, loyal kitty. She’s been all about me this past week–very out of character for her; she’s usually all over CS. I swear I think she knows about the baby and that she’s trying to get in good with me while she can. I am okay with that. But it won’t change the demotion she will suffer in three weeks, two days.

I know I will need all the help I can get and will be grateful to have it–that I’ll want to see family and friends and to have them meet Sun, too. But looking forward, all I want right now is to get Sun home and have CS and I spend all those sleepless hours alone getting to know her and her getting to know us. I don’t feel I’ll want to share her, even to show her off. I just want to hole up and keep her to myself. I’ve gotten used to having her all to myself. Hell, sharing her with CS will be enough sharing for me! I don’t even like the idea of having visitors at the hospital. I feel I need a headstart on being a mother before the world actually sees me as one for real.

Oh, how my world is about to change. Will I actually feel the earth shake under my feet? I’ll know in three weeks, two days.

My time has been a bit consumed by following the coverage of the indictment of Congressman William Jefferson (”Dollar Bill”). Some idiot they interviewed on the news today said, “They still don’t have anything on him.” Really? Does this guy not watch the news? Can he really not remember the $90,000 they found in frozen food containers in Jefferson’s freezer before Hurricane Katrina? How ’bout the two cohorts of his who pleaded guilty and are serving time? To me, that’s not nothing. I am all for “innocent until proven guilty,” but I am even more for a Congressman doing what is best for his district and his constituents, especially when New Orleans is in the crisis it is in.

And there is little hope that Jefferson will step down of his own accord. And it just burns me up that to the rest of the country it just appears to be another example of how we here in Louisiana just seem to gravitate and support the crooks and liars in politics. There is no way this can bode well for the support New Orleans needs from Washington.

Please just know that not all Louisianians support Jefferson; that many of us are humiliated by and ashamed of the whole story and of Jefferson’s actions of late in his handling of the situation. If only he would resign on his own. Alas!

I find it very interesting to see the House doing an ethics investigation into his indictment with the possible outcome being to eject him from Congress. I may soon get to use one of my big words: defenestration. I’ve waited almost ten years to get an opportunity to use that word. Well, hot damn. Something good may come out of all this after all!

My visit to the OB went very well today. Sun’s heart rate measured well on the non-stress test and the OB settled some concerns we have regarding Sun’s hyper-extended neck. We are still on track for the June 29 delivery.

And I dropped my busted car off at the shop to get it fixed and picked up the rental car. I am pleased to report that the guy who hit me did not change his story and admitted his liability to his insurer. So the really good news is that the repairs will be paid directly by his insurance company and they are also paying for my rental car. It’s so nice when people are honest and things go as they should. Aahhh.

I rested up the rest of the day and am feeling pretty good. No cramping today at all. And the work on the back porch is coming along really nicely. Let’s hope the rain goes away so they can continue to work on it! I am looking forward to a full day at work tomorrow. Things almost seem normal over here!

Last night, CS and I attended my 20 year high school reunion. I had two close friends in high school, and I still keep in touch with them. For our 15 year reunion, they both went and I passed. This time, they were both going again and I felt I owed it to them to go.

To be honest, I have a hard time recollecting memories from high school. One of my girlfriends brought all of our old dance pictures. I barely remember my dates for most of those dances and could not remember the actual evenings. As a matter of fact, my girlfriends were the ones that remembered the names of my dates (as most of them were friends of theirs). It was weird–like I sleepwalked through those four years.
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As I move forward with my pregnancy, and the monitoring of Sun gets more in depth, my battle with anxiety has been ongoing. I know I suffer with anxiety and have to rally to rise above it. And ultimately I always do, but sometimes it gets the better of me first.

One thing that has always helped with my anxiety is yoga. A good yoga session can free my mind of all worries and anxieties–like plunging into cold water that makes you gasp for breath. You simply are brought to another mental space that is free of all that was previously on your mind.

These days, the physical aspects of my yoga practice are limited. But the lessons of yoga go well beyond standing up straight and being flexible.

It was Becky at the Audubon Yoga Studio who put me solidly on my yogic path. Becky once told our class of an incident that happened while she was in Pune, India studying under B.K.S. Iyengar. One day, some of the students got bummed out over something or other. Without realizing it, they began moping around–walking with their shoulders sunk in and their heads down. Mr. Iyengar saw this and bellowed, “Look up! Look up!”

It is Mr. Iyengar’s opinion that the mere act of looking up toward the sky can in and of itself improve your mood. Something so simple seemed so silly. But by looking up, one automatically throws one’s shoulders back and “opens one’s chest.” This creates space, and, according to Mr. Iyengar, this space leads to positive energy.

And damned if this simple rule hasn’t worked for me time and again. Positive energy? An open chest? Creating space? I don’t know what is going on physically, mentally or physiologically, but I do know that the simple act of looking up helps, even if just a little bit, with my depression and anxiety.

As I lay on the exam table getting the ultrasound Thursday and was told that Sun’s neck is hyper-extended, that she is perpetually looking up, I couldn’t help but hear Mr. Iyengar in the back of my mind admonishing his students to do the same. As worrisome as Sun’s neck situation is to me, I hold on to a deep hope I have for Sun–that she not suffer with anxiety the way her mother does and that she knows the positive results that come from looking up. And maybe all this time she is spending looking up is putting her on a path she will instinctively follow for her life–one of seeing that glass as half full.

So here’s how things progressed (or should I say regressed?) yesterday afternoon:

Number 1. Some yahoo in a SUV failed to look in his rear view mirror before putting his tank in reverse to get a spot in the parking lot at the hospital. So he backed into my car. CS waylaying on the horn had no effect on him at all. Errrr. We were both driving relatively slowly and we are fine, but my car is crunched. I am pissed.

Number 2. I get past dealing with the car insurance idiots (by having to talk to an obtuse, English-is-not-my-first-language chick) and am waiting to see the doctor only to suffer the LOUDEST EATER OF CANDY I have ever had to endure. So then my nerves were good and frazzled.

Number 3. After waiting for over an hour to get in with the doctor, I am AGAIN told to drink more water than I currently am. That is not humanly possible, but whatever.

Number 4. Sun is still breech. I don’t see this changing as she’s only growing larger and the gaps of amniotic fluid (again with the water thing) are just going to get less and less as she grows. And with less room, less chance of her turning.

Number 5. The doctor tells us that Sun’s head is extended backwards to such a degree that the back of her head is touching her back. Not sure how long her head has been in this position–at least a week. So they are wanting to keep an eye on that, too. Apparently it isn’t a concern relating to Sun in utero or to the pregnancy. Just something that may require her to need physical therapy once she’s born. Yeah, yeah, the water thing AGAIN–she may not have the room she needs to bring her head down. Her neck looks normal. No goiters (whatever those are–I thought you had to be 80 years old and mean to have those) or other apparent cause.

Errr.