Isabel Sofia Revueltas

So she's here! Beth and Julio's daughter, Isabel Sofia, was born Saturday, 6/20, at 4:25pm. She's a real beauty, tons of dark hair, soft skin, the works. We got to spend time with them for about 3.5 hours last night, and are looking forward to seeing them again today. It's 4:42am on Sunday morning and I know if Beth's not up with her now, she has been recently and will be again soon.

But what's keeping me up now is how real it all seems to me. For almost 9 months my impending labor has been insulated by the knowledge that Beth was going to deliver before I do- close, but before (our due dates are 11 days apart). Going in and seeing Beth yesterday, although we didn't get there until after Isabel was about an hour old, really brought it all home. And every little possible complication (and there are a lot with bringing a child into this world) is so stark and scary. But more superficially, I'd managed to block the memories of the pain involved in the process. Not that I'd forgotten it, but more that the concept of it was sort of soft and blurry around the edges. Not anymore. Watching just my sister's post-birth discomfort/pain was enough to dredge the still-not-yet-complete memory of how horrible and scary that pain was, and will be. And it's harder because it's a double-edged sword. I just want Dagan to be born, so we can meet him and complete the family, and also so I can stop being pregnant, which really sucks. But of course there's that minor stumbling block in the way, that of labor and delivery.

But I digress... Isabel did wonderfully (I was going to use terrific as an adverb, but what would that be? Terrifically? Terrificly?), Beth and Julio did great as well, and I'm so happy to be an aunt on my side of the family, to know my sister's child, and look forward to watching her grow up.

Boo to Facebook (and the like)

I have a Facebook account. (I thought I'd start with full disclosure) I acknowledge that there are definite pluses to Facebook and MySpace. For example, I started my account because a good friend of mine from my time living in England got me to get on to keep up with what our other friends were doing. Plus, we can all share photos from the good old days and get in touch with others around the world. 

But sadly, it seems that the majority of people on these networking sites are using them to (1) collect friends, and (2) use them to socialize with people they see on a regular basis. I have 48 friends. I see a ton more people online that Facebook is kind enough to suggest I "friend", but they are not people I would call my friends outside of Facebook, so why bother putting them up like trophies on my account? For example, a great many people from my boss' lab are online. I could probably add 10 more people that way. But I'd feel awfully weird reaching out to the grad students who I get along well with but don't have much regular contact with, and saying "Hey, let's be Facebook friends". Also, I'm not going to be friends with all the people I went to high school with, whose names I remember and who I haven't talked to in (now just over!!) 10 years. And finally, I see no need to be Facebook friends with my parents, my parents-in-law, my siblings, and everyone else related to me who lives in the same town, even the same subdivision. I don't live a wild life and don't do things that I think are shameful, but I still feel stifled and monitored having my father-in-law as a Facebook friend. No offense to Steve, but it's weird. When those friend requests popped up I didn't know what to do. I like Steve, but I don't want to be his Facebook friend. However, he lives about 5 minutes away and I can't really ignore the request. So I am now his friend. Boo Facebook.

The last segment of my tirade against Facebook is in comments/wall posts. If you and your best friend(s) see each other all the time, stop filling up my home page with writing cryptic and inappropriate jokes to each other. Keep that offline, you're not cooler because you have lots of new messages from your BFF. On the contrary, it's sad and I'm close to un-friending those people who do so. 

And don't get me started on Twitter... bring back personal communication. Pick up the phone and call someone. Drop them a personal email even. Stop wasting your day on these sites. 

Practice

So I've decided to join the 21st century, only a couple of years late. I now think I fully understand the definition of a blog, and have created this practice site so I can see how it looks. I don't really have much to say right now and am not telling anyone I started it, so let's hope nobody stumbles onto this by accident because I'll look pretty boring. Eventually I can use this to keep people updated about the pregnancy, the family, and other pseudo-exciting things going on chez Foreman.