Fetus' Night Out

It was an exciting weekend for the fetus.

Well, really, it was an exciting weekend for me because the fetus is not capable of emotions like excitement. It's too busy making skin.

But my mother was a nurse at the auditorium at Indiana University while she was pregnant with me, so I was fetally present at some pretty good shows, and I find that interesting. This fetus is also going to be present at some pretty good shows, and they started this weekend. I figure I should keep track.

I have not been out in public at night in months. We went to dinner with my brother and family a couple of weeks ago, but we had to do it at 5:00, and on the way home at 8:00, I was practically falling asleep in the car. I seem to have a bit more energy now, but I made a point of staying up until 10:00 (gasp!) Thursday and Friday so I would be more acclimated to nocturnal hours. I planned to go and hear Pete's Irish group Saturday night at The Dubliner, and Sunday night, we had tickets to hear Steve Earle at the Pantages Theatre in downtown Minneapolis.

Saturday was a bit of a long day. Pete did not get home from The Dubliner until almost 4:00 in the morning, which... well, it irked me just a bit, and I had to go to the DFL Senate District Convention at 11:00 in the morning. Brilliantly, I left the house without food for myself and wound up not eating until 5:30 in the afternoon, but I survived without a medical emergency, did my civic duty, and then had Chinese food.

I made my way over the The Dubliner at 9:00 and met Christine, Jenny, and Doug. It was fascinating to be back in the bar. It's our favorite bar, our local bar, the bar where we met in person and had our first date, and it's a familiar and comfortable place. I have not been there in months, and I found myself just looking at all the people, scanning for any familiar faces, and just marveling at all the strangers in the world, socializing and having fun. I've been rather isolated, methinks.

I had two club-soda-cranberry-juices and felt sober enough to drive home at around 11:30. I figured that once I started yawning every five minutes, I should probably get to bed.

Sunday morning was Spring Ahead and breakfast at Trotter's. Pete and I needed to catch up after all the busy-ness of the past few days, and I have been feeling hormonal. I think I had a new surge in the past week because I am edgy and irritable; quick to jump from rational to unreasonably annoyed.

At the concert, a confused usher tried to sit us in the wrong seats, then had to move the people she had mistakenly placed in our seats, and we bothered people who were listening to the warm-up act. That made me tense and nervous; I don't like getting in people's way and really don't like to be late for things, so I was scolding myself. We should either have arrived and been seated in time for her set to start or we should have waited until the break. I don't know what I was thinking.

Most of the concert was Steve Earle acoustic, but he had a DJ guy come in at one point and spin backing tracks. It was rather amusing to see this big, bald, white guy with headphones jamming behind the decks, but after I got over the novelty, I found myself wishing that it were just Steve and his guitar/banjo/mandolin/mandola. It seemed that McFetus might have wished the same thing. Or maybe it was enjoying it. Or perhaps I was sitting too crunched up. Or maybe I had gas. Who knows? There is a lot going on down there. But the book tells me that it can move now, and that it's possible to start feeling things during the fourth month, and it didn't feel like gas or anything otherwise intestinal. It felt like an irregular heartbeat , like muffled rutsching.

Could be, and maybe not. Like I said, there's just a lot happening down there, and it's hard to distinguish. This just felt different from the other sensations so far.

I'll be monitoring the situation closely. It won't be able to hear until week 18, but I'll be interested to see if I have those same feelings during the week. I will be especially interested to see how Bruce Springsteen goes over on Sunday.