A Brooklyn Baby Shower

On Sunday afternoon, I was lucky enough to be thrown a second baby shower by my New York girlfriends!

My friend and yoga instructor, Alana, was lovely enough to offer up her yoga studio to host the party. The space transformed into my baby shower so perfectly! I loved the whale decorations Kate found :)

The company was great, the food (especially the cupcakes) was awesome, and I was definitely spoiled with gifts and plastic bling. Henry has so much great stuff waiting for him now!

I was surprised with email messages read aloud from Nick, who was away in Stockholm, and my sister Jenn. I held it together up until Kate passed me her phone that had a video of Ben and Jillian with a “happy baby shower” wish on it.

Are you kidding me? “Princess Preggers” definitely lost it after that.

It really was so great to get together with everyone though, even some of my friends’ little ones. I’ll have something this cute soon!

The group shot was missing a few, but you know who you are.

Thanks again to everyone who came for a great shower!

Happy 80th Birthday

Happy 80th birthday to my Grandpa, my Mom’s Dad, Ed Wolfe!

Grandpa has always been a strong, but loving man who values family above everything else. I was sad to miss his birthday celebration at my parents’ cottage a few weeks ago, but I know he had a great time, surrounded by  generations of people that wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for him.

How handsome is he with my beautiful Grandma?

And here he is with a tiny me!

Little Jennifer knew that getting into his rocking chair with him didn’t always just mean tickles, it also meant cuddles.

Have a great birthday, Grandpa! I’m sending love all the way from Brooklyn.

The Blackout of 2003

If you lived in Southern Ontario or the American Northeast in the summer of 2003, chances are, you have a good story about the blackout of 2003. This blackout wasn’t your typical hot summer day, the grids are overheated sort of blackout. It affected more than 50 million people and for some, the power wasn’t restored for two days. Of course, it was the middle of August and also sweltering hot.

I will never forget where I was when the power went out. I had been working at The Agency Group for just two months and was on reception when I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me as the lighting was getting dimmer. When it finally went out, we all groaned and sat there, waiting for it to come back in a few minutes. When it didn’t, the guys went outside to play basketball while the ladies chatted. Soon, we could see out the window that people were just deciding work was finished for the day. Rather than join the traffic, most of the office just stayed put. We had actually been planning a company party bus trip to London for that weekend and already had a stash of alcohol and snacks waiting. Well, special circumstances dictated we needed to dip into our rations early!

Hours later and still no power, we realized we had probably start to figure out how to get home. Obviously the subways and streetcars weren’t viable options. I was going to walk, but Ralph, a SVP, offered me and Omar, an agent, a ride home. He was parked in the underground parking garage. As we entered, we could see it was dark down there, but there seemed to be some lighting once you got further in. Unfortunately, we were quite far in when we realized the lighting was headlights of a car and once it passed us, we were left in complete darkness.

The office had a huge box of Three Days Grace promo matches that we all kept handy. I had some in my purse and lit one, expecting it to be like a movie and give us some light. It did NOTHING. Ralph was carrying a NOW Magazine and dipped it into the match to use it as a torch. The thing burnt so quickly, he immediately dropped it on the floor. Omar lit his magazine and we got a bit farther before he dropped his too. Now the fire alarm is going off and we are just a bit closer to Ralph’s car. Ralph is growling about how he pays for this parking spot and there should be some goddamn emergency lighting. I don’t know how we got out of there alive, but by the time I got home, I faced another challenge: getting to my apartment on the 17th floor with no elevators.

Long story short, my boyfriend at the time and I had a dinner of peanut butter and crackers and went to bed hot and sweaty. The next morning, we had no running water for showers because the electricity couldn’t pump it that high up. I went to work the next day just to have somewhere to go that wasn’t a hot cement box in the sky. That day ended with the best idea we could think of though: going to see Freddy VS Jason in an air conditioned movie theatre while drinking smoothies.

Bonus photo: Adam Countryman, king of the party bus, (with Greg Henderson and Glenn Vogelsang) on our way to London to see Nickelback, August 16, 2003.

What’s your blackout story?

(Top photo: The CN Tower is silhouetted against the setting sun, as Toronto was faced with a massive power outage, Aug. 14, 2003. Reuters/David Lucas)

Seven Months

We have officially entered the third trimester! Wednesday marked 28 weeks AKA 7 months of pregnancy. Here comes the final stretch!

What’s happening:

• I am a very fast walker, but my body is forcing me to slow down! If I walk too fast, I get round ligament pain, especially on my right side. I am not enjoying this. Bike riding seems to be a better option for getting around quickly these days.
• Henry is so active – especially at night, when I’m in a reclining position, and if I’m listening to music that has a beat. I think he’s been dancing along to music like Nine Inch Nails and the Chemical Brothers. I’ve got a little raver goth in there.
• I can actually feel Henry’s little bum, feet, and hands through my stomach – I can even see my stomach move under my shirt sometimes!
• Nick is in serious nesting mode and he didn’t even know what nesting was until I told him this morning.
• We are making some great progress in turning our office into Henry’s room. On Friday night, I figured out we could fit one of our bookshelves inside a hall closet, and yesterday Nick packed up the remainder of his CDs, got rid of the CD shelf, and assembled our rocking chair.
• We finally chose a crib and I am in love with it. (Also incredibly relieved to not have to look at cribs anymore.)

Side note: this guy is going to make such an amazing dad.

Lollapalooza 2013

Nick and I went to Chicago’s Lollapalooza three years ago and had a blast, but this year, being nearly 7 months pregnant, I sat it out. It’s hard to help but feel a little sad you’re missing out on bands and fun, but my legs, stomach, and well, my entire body, thanked me for staying home while Nick went without me.

Also, now that I’ve found the entire sets in HD from The Cure and Nine Inch Nails, I’m spending the morning watching some of the few bands I’d have been most excited to see there. Now if only I could find Cat Power’s…

The Cure’s 2 hour set

Nine Inch Nails’ 1.5 hour set