Where's Waldo...or...I'm Back

I read a load of blogs. It's my reading equivalent of reality TV. When blogs that normally post quite often go dark, I worry about those people. Are they okay? Did they have a family tragedy? They just disappeared from my life with no warning, no time for me to prepare myself. I spend days, weeks even, wondering how they are, what they're doing, when they will come back to me. And then I went and did the same thing. Just disappeared. My family and friends know why, and while I know I have a few readers out there who are perfect strangers to me, I honestly didn't think there were that many of you. I'm not some blog saavy writer doing this for money, so while I do take a look at the number of page views, I don't often look at where that traffic is coming from or what search you put into google and ended up at In Search Of Gelato. Then my husband came home last night and told a little story. He ran into a guy a couple of days ago who recognized him, but neither of them could figure out from where. The following day, the guy showed up at my husband's office with the words, "Your wife writes a blog, doesn't she?" So...hello, stranger. I decided it was past time for an update. Plus, my aunt is NEVER going to leave me alone about it. I really don't know what she's going to do when we move away from Italy.

Here's the deal. I spent the time from my last update and most of February lying on the sofa. Yep, just lying on the sofa. No big trip (although we did go to Barcelona for a weekend - more on that later), no great explorations of Bella Napoli, not a darn thing. Just lying on the sofa thinking my misery would never end. No, not depression. I'm pregnant. While this is good, albeit incredibly surprising, news, I am not some happy, symptom free, pregnant lady who dances her way through pregnancy with an adorable, little baby bump, glowing skin, and feeling "the best I've ever felt in my life" (an exact quote from several women I've run into, once I got off the sofa, that is). You would think that spending so much time lying on the sofa would have been conducive to picking up the laptop and writing a blog every now and then. However, some days I didn't even feel like picking up the remote control to the TV or holding a book, so sitting up, holding a laptop, and using mental energy for something other than not getting sick was just not possible. But now I'm medicated, so life is good.

The meds came just in time for a trip back to the U.S. I made it through a 12 hour flight and got to eat and shop my little heart out for nine days. We spent a few days with family and a few days in our old hometown of Alexandria, VA while Nathan did some work and I ate my way up and down historic, King Street. Nights were spent catching up with old friends at great restaurants (food, a major theme of our trip "home"). We are home now, and our cold winter has turned into a gorgeous spring with sunny, warmish days. I like to sit outside on our front terrace and look at the little sliver of ocean view from this level (for some reason, I haven't been using the Glass House - probably because it's a bit far from the bathroom and the kitchen, my two favorite places in recent weeks). Sitting outside means I don't have to see the clutter and dirt that has accumulated in our house in two months of no cleaning or picking up of stuff. I used to be the type of housekeeper who could have any person drop by at any time on any day and find an immaculate house. We could invite friends to dinner with no notice whatsoever and not have to rush home and "clean" by throwing stuff into closets. No more, no more. While the meds keep the nausea down, at four months along, my energy levels are still pretty low. People kept telling me at my 10 weeks mark, "Only a couple of weeks before the nausea and tiredness end." Over and over, I heard, "Don't worry, it will be over soon." I now know that they were LIARS. Harsh, but true.

Anyway, I'm back now and hope to have the energy to stay updated more normally. We're planning a spring of heavy travel to maximize our time before I hit the point where I'm too big and tired to do anything else. We went to Barcelona just after my previous post in mid-January and my heavy sickness began the day of our return from Barcelona. But one day soon I may actually download those pictures from our digital camera and share a few here. Probably.