Seems I got little done today (Friday). My allergies went bonkers earlier on Friday AM, and then rain began falling … and I just dragged myself through the morning. Hubby wanted me to go get my Prenatal blood work done that morning, since we’d forgotten it before, and had been paid the day before, so could get it done. I pled for going in the afternoon and was granted that.

Well, when we found the Lab (the sort that does blood work un-connected to a doctor) we all went inside and it was so hot in the building. I realized that my allergies were not quite as bad then, but had the misfortune to note that the heat of the room was stifling and made the whole affair just a cloggy dried out mess. Great.

The attendant finally called me back for the blood drawing, I had just about finished my water bottle and still felt parched.

I sat down and the attendant asked me which arm is best to draw blood from. I told her “whichever one you want to try first …” and she immediately seemed too mellow out and come alive personally, saying “Oh, you’re one of THOSE people!”

Yeah, I am. I knew it when I sat down, from past experiences which were flooding back to me I recalled a myriad of times dealing with blood being drawn, IV’s being inserted … trouble, trouble, trouble.

She started with my left arm and confidently tried, but failed, twice and decided to abandon the left for the right. She took more time then and did get into a vein easier on the right, after the steep learning curve of my left arm, she said something like “I can see it, but then I can’t feel it with the needle … “  speaking of my veins.

I know that many people are so icked out to watch such events occuring to their own bodies, I was, as usual, interested and facinated to see the blood start to flow and fill the vile, and then another, and so on. Yes, I watched her searching for a good spot to stick me, and watched her failed attempts and her final success.

The children wondered afterwards “if it had hurt” and I said something like, “not really, just a little prick when the needle went in, and the band around my arm above the elbow joint was worse, tight and uncomfortable.” Pain for me is not the same as pain for others. I’ve a high-threshold, and it’s more like things are “miserable” on a scale, rather than “painful” if that makes any sense. (Even migraines are often more miserable than “pain” and the pain involved in some can be great, and maybe I just don’t see/feel pain the way some others do, and that’s why I haven’t ever sought out help from any professionals about migraines, but deal with thing my own way.)

So I got my Prenatal blood work started, and the results will be ready maybe by Noon on Saturday, or by Tuesday. In any case, it’s fine, since it’s started and I was still pregnant, and most likely will be into next week, but in the event that labor starts sooner, the proof exists.

My household plans suffered today, abandoned. We went to Whole Foods after the Lab, and then went to find some food. It was later than expected, traffic was a bear around there … and we went to a Taco Mac closer to home, since it was evident that we’d miss the baseball games on TV that were about to start if we went elsewhere, and needed to eat (me especially) and not go home and have to cook something.  Usually we’ll set the DirecTivo to record such an event, baseball game in this instance, so that if we are not home in time, we’ll be able to start the stream that was recorded and then “catch up” to the live game eventually.

For me it didn’t go well, the Yanks were held back from scoring, though R.C. pitched a decent enough game, and the Y. batters were getting on base. We lingered over our food and finally left (the food was alright, it was the game that wasn’t.) When we got home the game was in the top of the 9th, so I tried to follow it, but had layed down on the couch and kept drifting off. I was able to note that the game ended with no score for the Yankees. All good things come to an end eventually. So they Lost. Winning streak ends at 9 games. I can’t really predict, but hope for a good result from the Saturday afternoon Subway game.

The last time the Yankees played the Mets (not that long ago) it was an “away game” and the games seemed strange to me, but not blow outs, per se. Friday’s game wasn’t a blow out either. It was just a low scoring, no scoring match-up … the first being an L and the next 2 having great possibilities for the pinstriped home team. It’s something that I won’t be able to watch though, since Fox controls rights to MLB games on Saturdays. I can listen over the internet, and follow MLB.com‘s “Game Day” interface, which is nice, but just not the same as watching the Real Game. I find it like as being “tedious vs. intuitive” (Game Day and Audio vs. watching the whole game on TV.)

I woke up after awhile, on the couch, and hubby awakened hubby and struggled to get up and go to bed, it was after midnight, and I despise falling asleep there (or more precisely, sleeping there then waking up and feeling as I do at that point.) I can’t stay asleep all night anymore, and usually, when not pregnant, I don’t either, but have a better chance of a real night of sleep every so often. Being this pregnant on the couch is just plain miserable. So why do I lay down there in the first place? I don’t know.

Coming upstairs to the master bedroom, hubby goes right back to sleep, and I sit here realizing how allergic I’m feeling again, that it wasn’t THIS bad when we were out and about earlier. Seems it’s something locally then, which is bothering me. I’m still awake, it’s been over an hour since coming up here, and I’ve taken a long time writing this post too.

What I didn’t get done on Friday, anything much in the house, I have to get done on Saturday, and this awake session isn’t boding well for the future of those plans. I’ve a small amount of liquid Benadryl left, I did take a small bit when I first came up, and should soonly try to close this and settle down and take a bit more Benadryl and hope it does the trick to calm the itchy, drippies down and let me sleep some.

Thanks be to God for headphones and MP3 players. It’s what gives me my rest, listening to something as I lay there, sleeping or just resting, it brings about a similar effect to actual sleep for me, but I tend to not do that entirely, but sit here typing or reading other things online, instead of lying down. I inevitably do stop and lay down and when it’s later, as it is tonight, the MP3 player is my best friend.

Mine is a SanDiskSansa e260 which was purchased over a year ago already. It’s a great little device and I haven’t always put it to good use, but have been of late. I also have a little SanDisk player, a 512mb device, that will do Audio Books, Audible.com in particular, which I’ve had a subscription to for a decent while now. My e260 won’t do Audible books. A sore point for me, as well as many other e200 series device owners.

I don’t listen to books often, I get so distracted and am lulled to sleep easily with them, which is not very useful to me, so I don’t “listen to books” in bed. Music is totally different. Osmosis doesn’t work for Audible books, but does semi-work for Music.

I love Bruckner and only have one Symphony on my e260 of his, the 4th “Romantic” … it’s in 4 parts, and I often will hear at least half of the 1st movement without drifting off, and sometimes get to notice something of the 2nd or 3rd, but mainly it’s interesting that I will noticeably awaken to hear the 4th movement, and sometimes then drift off as it goes along, but near the end I snap to attention … the last 7 or less minutes, with the last 2 minutes (+ some odd seconds) being my ultimate favorite part of the piece … often coming to right about with 2:30m left to hear. It’s just that great and worth it.

Anyhow, my e260′s battery power is getting low, so I made a point to be sure and bring the (proprietary) cable up to the bedroom tonight, and I can get it charged up since my laptop is hanging out by the side of my bed lately. Inserting the USB plug into the USB port of the laptop slowly, not all the way, allows the player to charge without “connecting” so one can then still listen to music via it, and charge up at the same time. It’s a nifty tip, not exciting, just nifty and useful. Not that I can’t listen to music via my laptop, I sure can and THAT then will go up to my last.fm profile … but I love my shiny black e260 instead lately, and suffer no data aggregating on last.fm for my listening habits most of the time.

Well, Saturday is upon me, has been since I awoke on the couch, in fact. I need to get some rest, then try and motivate everyone to “get this stuff done” and really get it done.