Alcohol

I was looking over our pictures (http://hooppics.shutterfly.com/) to see what events I haven’t written about since getting pregnant. And at first it seemed like quite a few of them would have involved alcohol. I sat here thinking, “Crap. Did I drink?” Luckily the answer was always “No.” I was very careful when we started trying. In fact I’m pretty sure I wasn’t pregnant yet when we went to Atlantic City, but I made Aaron use my free drink coupons, just in case. 

We went over to a friend’s house for dinner near the end of June, and of course they opened a bottle of wine.  None for me, we’re trying.  I *might* have been pregnant by then, but it is hard to say for sure.

The next day we went to Fado Irish Pub to meet some friends from Pennsylvania. Now Fado is the one place in DC that I know I can get a good cider. I have always had a drink here, even when we took my mom and grandma. Luckily Aaron can now stomach cider, so I cheated and had a tiny sip of his.

Fourth of July rolled around, but I wouldn’t be “late” for another 2 days. We invited all of our friends over, so I stocked up on beer and cider. I drank Izzy sparkling juice instead.  That was actually a weird day. I felt so “out of it,” like my head was fuzzy all day. At the party, one couple brought their own turquoise plastic cups. I’ve never purchased turquoise plastic cups. But several of us were talking in the kitchen and our drinks were sitting on the counter. Instead of my bottle of Izzy, I picked up a turquoise cup. Luckily I was still talking, so the owner of the cup quickly pointed out my mistake before I had a chance to drink from it.  It was so bizarre. I read later about “pregnancy brain” so I guess maybe that’s what was wrong with me.  

I took the first pregnancy test on July 10 that came out faintly positive. I took another after work on July 12, and we told our parents that night.  Since then, there haven’t been too many occasions to drink. Normally I only drink when we have an occasion to do so, whether it is a party, or going out to dinner somewhere that serves cider. We don’t usually drink at home or on a regular basis. But of course the first few weeks that I knew I was pregnant, I start dreaming about drinking! We always want what we can’t have, I guess.

I almost forgot; we were invited over to our friends’ for dinner and a wine tasting in the first week of August. We had already announced that I was pregnant, so they got me a bottle of sparkling juice that was actually really good. Jennifer said that’s what she drank when she was pregnant. So I held their nearly 5 month old while the rest of them tasted fancy bottles of wine.  I may have sneaked the tiniest taste (not even a full sip) of Aaron’s wine when they came across a particularly good one.

Intervention convention was in mid-September, and that was hard. I have to admit, I do enjoy drinking at conventions, because 1) it is other people’s booze, 2) drinking makes me a lot more social, and 3) I always have a ton of fun. Intervention is a new convention so I didn’t know what to expect. Well, I just had to attend the panel, “Ultimate Room Party: How to seem completely badass with booze.” After the panel was finished, we were invited up to the panelist’s room to try some out. I made Aaron try some drinks and I just stuck my tongue in his cup to taste it. Sadly I didn’t see many room parties. The room next to ours decorated around their window and door, opened the window curtain so everyone could see their awesome spread of food and the room full of people, and they had their door ajar.  I don’t think you could make a party any more obvious. But when opened the door, everyone just stared at me. I’m glad I had enough sense to ask if it was an open party. “No. Invitation only to keep costs down.” WTF? That ruined my night. The one party I could enjoy because they had food instead of booze, and I wasn’t invited. I’m getting really fed up with people at conventions flaunting their private parties. That is just not in the spirit of convention.  After that, I really didn’t feel like doing much else. We didn’t even get dressed up for the steampunk dance, which actually turned out to be a good thing, because the dance started over an hour late. So we skipped the dance, and for the first time since I’ve been of legal drinking age, I went to bed at a decent hour at convention.

I’ve already told you about the Renaissance Festival. I missed my cider, but I drank herbal tea and “limey on ice” instead and managed to stay well hydrated.

I guess I will be making a non-alcoholic jell-o brain for Halloween. If people would eat it, I could make two brains, one alcoholic and one not. I did manage to find the perfect liquor to make the brain creamy but not weird looking. Most liquor doesn’t mix right with the other ingredients.  The stuff I use is from Africa and it’s not always easy to find. But making an alcoholic brain would be a waste, because most people won’t eat it. I’ll just have to save it for next year (or later) when I can eat the leftovers myself.