21

The placenta is still doing the majority of the work in there to feed McFetus, but this past week, it began to get a little bit of sugar from gulping down that yummy amniotic fluid. The bone marrow is also starting to make blood cells, something that the liver and spleen have been doing until now.

It's all very odd because it's happening inside of me, so I am making this thing that is making these other things, even as I make dinner, tiaras, sweaters, and blankets here in the outside world. I guess I am still multi-tasking, no matter how dumb I feel.

Last night, the factory that is me made its way to a birthday bash that was quite extraordinary. A marvelous queen named Bitch Flowers was celebrating in a mad public way by hosting a party at the Varsity Theatre here in Dinkytown, Minneapolis. To make everything wonderful, my friend Krystal Kleer was giving her first performance on the stage in eight years, which was about the only thing that would drag my pregnant ass out on a Friday night in late April when it cruelly decided to Snow On Us. It was seriously miserable, weather-wise.

The party was, if I may say so, balls-up-and-in fabulous, though. Even if I could only have pregnancy beer. Kira, Greta, and Tiki were there (so this time, all that was missing was Liza, who is still recuperating from spine surgery, of course). I had been wishing I had nothing to do because *whine* I'm tired and *whine* It's cold and *whine* Woe is Me. Whatever. Sometimes, you gotta just suck it up, get pretty, and go out. I figured if Krystal could do it, so could I. And the last thing I would ever want is a six-foot-eight drag queen miffed at me.

Not to put too fine a point on it, Ms. Kleer was outstanding.

The place was packed, and interestingly, I found myself wishing that I looked more pregnant so I could use that belly to part the seas, but in the light, it was pretty hard to tell that I am in the family way.

The belly that is there is hard and shifting. I saw it move for the first time in the bath last Thursday night, which was an alien experience--watching a lump push out next to your navel, slowly and repeatedly. I called Pete in, and he got to see a little of it, too. Kira remarked last night about how you do feel like you have an alien in there, especially when it gets a little bigger. It's like it rolls over in bed and takes the covers with it, but the covers are your uterus, and the bed is you.

After the show, I stopped off at Pete's gig at The Dubliner pub, which was much less crowded, though Pete's mom had stuck it out until the bitter end. It was a good night; I was out and awake, entertained and sober.

And McFetus had its first drag show.

Now if I can just get the placenta to take over some of the housework as it has been given a break from some of its glucose responsibilities...

(one more portrait to end the post)