Trash talkin' comes back to bite my ass

So for the last few years I've been trash talking one of my professors. There has been plenty to complain about - she hides from her students (literally, leaves the scene if she sees them coming), never returns phone calls or messages even from her thesis students, doesn't seem to actually teach any classes, and most recently kept a bunch of exams for over a year - they were marked, she just "forgot" to give them back. I pretty much stand by my trash talking - I mean if you don't want to teach, talk to students, or attend to school administrative tasks, don't be a professor. If you're going to take the salary, then do your job.

Alas, my thesis supervisor has recently suggested this person should maybe be on my thesis committee. Ack! Now, I can only assume that the fact that my supervisor thinks this means that my trash talking is not general knowledge among the faculty. However, since some of my trash talking involved actually complaining to the department chair about this person, I can't really be sure.

You may think that the moral here is don't trash talk people but the real moral is don't get involved with departmental politics. I only complained about this woman because I was embroiled in some drama about inappropriate faculty behaviour and frankly, the whole thing was so disheartening, I just gave up and promised myself to never again try to create change within my department. Better just to graduate and get out and get on with my life. I'll tell you, my school really does wonders in terms of tempering my cynical streak. lol

We are the Falcons - super cool

So in a couple of weeks, my sisters and I are going to undertake our yearly charity walk, raising money for Kids Help Phone. I got into a few years ago because I could see the adolescent girls in my research studies using the service and really believe it is important. The downside, of course, is that Bell has umbrella'd this service and I hate Bell and there's no way to support Kids Help Phone without Bell being involved. Hence, the walk is called the Bell Walk for Kids. But I'm not going to let Bell's corporate bullshit keep me from feeling good about the cause and my efforts.

Here is a picture of me and my sisters at last year's walk with our team tees.




Notice our awesome mascot - a ferocious tiger. It's a sister thing. Anyway, the really exciting news is that my mom may join team Falcon this year as she is in town on the day of the walk! Yeah MOM!!!!

Anyway, copying my sister's idea, feel free to click the link below to sponsor me on my walk. Remember, I'll be pregnant and dragging my tired ass along the 5km trail. I know, it's not that long, but considering I have been unable to walk Buddy for more than 45 minutes without resting, it could be trouble. Plus last year we missed out on all the treats so I may not even have sugary sustenance to help me through!! See how I suffer?? Don't you want to donate???

https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/StartUp.aspx?SID=878168


Plus I have to thank my friend Theresa for her pledge and my aunt Mae and cousin Corinne who not only pledged me but I hit them up first so I get the score over my sisters - awesome!

If you're still seeing double, it's only cause you're drunk

Oh, one more thing about the ultrasound. Some of you may have heard that at the first ultrasound the technician found a second, but empty, sac. This means that a fraternal twin had been conceived but had never been developed. In addition to first trimester screening, my doctor wanted the latest ultrasound to make EXTRA sure that there was nothing in that second sac and that my body was reabsorbing it. Anyway, the tech found no sign of it, said it had completely reabsorbed. So sorry for you hopeful ones but there are NO TWINS. Maybe next time though! :)

Our jumping baby!

Behold our ultrasound photos! Not really much to look at - it was much cooler on the screen where she could show us all the parts. Overall it was an awesome experience. I thought the baby would have little t-rex arms but it had real, long arms with elbows and fingers and the whole shebang. The baby also moved around a lot, arching its back and even mooning us! So far so good - all the parts are where they should be. The test was to detect down syndrome and of course the tech won't tell you that kind of stuff so we'll find out at my doc's on Tuesday but frankly, all I cared about was seeing that it was still in there and moving. The tech had me cough and jiggled her sensor against my belly to make it move - it's pretty crazy that the baby can be stimulated to respond, like a real person already! Anyway, very cool.

The blog that returned from the dead

Sooooooooo, it's been a while since I've been blogging. But I have good reasons: 1) I had a conference that required every scrap of my mental energy for the past few weeks 2) I have much less mental energy than usual because of being pregnant. But I am hoping that as the first trimester draws to a close my energy will return and in the spirit of optimism I am putting out this first post and boldly stating that it is the first of many.

Now as part of this new plan, I am cancelling my baby blog, Our Sticky Baby and moving all baby news to this blog, Luminous Multitudes. Maintaining multiple blogs is just too much for me. This is a move that contains some risk however. It means that those of you who read my blog for baby news will be exposed to my feminist ranting. And those who read my feminist ranting will be exposed to my sappy baby news which include non-feminist issues like desperately wanting $1000 stroller and having angst about not being able to dress my baby in brand-name labels. For those of you upset by this contradiction, I invite you to read my byline - I contain multitudes. I also advise you to only read those posts which interest you and skip the others. Though the Buddy posts are generally safe for everyone! lol

Anyway, we have our next ultrasound in a week and I will post the pics so check back!