Sunday, March 25, 2012

Southern Girls in the City

I know I'm a bit late on the updates. Our internet has been down and tethering from my phone is iffy and not very reliable. That being said...I do have a few updates and experiences to share!

First and foremost, I had my 16 week checkup last Thursday and while the doctor did do an ultrasound, he was not able to tell us the sex of the baby. Boooo. However, I really liked the new guy. He seemed very willing to sit and answer any questions...some of them before I even got a chance to ask them! He sat in the room with me while we waited on R to get there, which showed me that he values MY time as much as his own. He was totally for me having a natural birth and said that he avoids inductions, c-sections, and interventions unless, of course, it is necessary for the health of the baby. I can get down with that. I won't put my own comforts and wishes ahead of the safety and well being of my child. Whatever has to be done to get the baby out safely, we'll do it. I just want the opportunity to try it on my own first. He seemed like a good doctor, so I am feeling much better about having to switch OBs in the middle of my pregnancy. I did schedule my big ultrasound so we will definitely find out the sex on Friday, April 13th! Holy crap! I just realized that it will be on Friday the 13th! I'm glad that 13 is a lucky number for me and that I'm not THAT superstitious. I'm just really excited to finally find out what we're having so that we can move forward with names, nursery colors, shopping, etc.


I had a phone interview on Friday. With a legit insurance brokerage! yay! It's a Case Manager position, which I'm familiar with after my time at ASA. Everything went very well on the phone. Although, I hate phone interviews. You can never really tell how well or awful you're doing. And, of course, the New Jersey accent always makes me feel like I'm doing terribly. LOL. I know that it's just the way people speak up here...fast, to the point, no BS. But, to me, it sounds like I did something wrong. I know it's in my head. He did say that he wants me in for an in person interview this coming week, so I think I did alright. It IS through a temp agency, so I would be going on as a temp with a possibility of full time hire.


BBQ. Oh my...where do I start?? So, while I was out the other day running errands, I got the most intense craving for bbq. And Sweet Tea. Now, up here in the North, neither of those carry quite the cult following as they do in the south. However, I pulled out my cell phone and typed in "bbq" into mapquest. Lo and behold, 6 miles down the road in a town called Rockaway, there it was...Texas BBQ and Smokehouse. Whaaaa??? TEXAS style bbq?? Okay, so Texas BBQ isn't as good as Memphis bbq or St. Louis bbq, but it was SOME resemblance of southern all the way in New Jersey. Or so I thought... I drove into the boonies of Rockaway hunting for this place. I finally came upon the small, roadside building. Looked pretty legit to me. I ignored the sign out front that touted the "Empanada Thursday" special. Empanadas at a bbq place??? I go inside and peruse the menu. Pretty basic stuff. Pulled pork, chicken, etc. No option of chopped, but that's fine. I order the pulled pork and a side of potato salad and asked about iced tea. Nope. All they had was canned soft drinks. Crying silently inside, I ordered a coke. Coke and bbq? Yeap. AND, apparently they didn't get the memo about portion sizes down south. Anything claiming to be "Texan" should be pretty big, right? Not so much. My potato salad came served in a 3 ounce plastic portion cup. Sigh. As the food was delivered to me, I noticed two things. The sauce was self serve. Bonus points for that. I could douse to my little heart's desire. And, the sandwich came served on...wait for it...a kaiser roll. What.The.Heck?! Bbq does NOT come on a kaiser roll!!! It comes on a hamburger bun!!! Untoasted...just straight up white bread burger bun! But, up north, even Texas is fancy pants. I giggle to myself...and pour on the sauce. Molasses based. God, I miss proper bbq. Bbq sauce should be tangy...not sweet...a little on the thin side, not thick...vinegar based, not molasses. And, it should be served with sweet tea, not coke. In a can. (This is also a trend up here...every restaurant just about comes with a drink cooler instead of delicious fountain beverages. ) I can pretty much guarantee that nothing about this Texas BBQ and Smokehouse was ever Texan. Otherwise, someone might have known better. All I could say as I walked out of the place on the side of the country highway, was "Bless their sweet hearts."


I guess God's answer to the lack of decent southern food up here, was a proper liquor store. As I mentioned a few posts back, Shop Rite is the best thing to hit grocery stores since sliced bread. Well, in New Jersey, you can't buy booze at the grocery store or gas station. It has to be purchased at the liquor store. And, Shop Rite stepped right in with their version of a liquor store. I always called Colonial Spirits back home, "Six Flags over Booze." How naive of me. If Colonial is "Six Flags" then Shop Rite liquor is the "Disney World of Booze." They have nearly every single beer...wine...liquor...you name it. AND, their manager knows so much about beer, that we stood their talking to him for about 30 minutes going through his suggestions on what to buy. I know I can't partake just yet, but mark my words...I'm starting a beer fund. Once this kid is on the outside, we're going shoppin', baby. And, mama is gettin' herself a lil' drank.


That's it for now. More to come and hopefully our internet connection will be fixed soon. I'm successfully tethered right now, but who knows how long that will last. And, I'm a couple days late on my pregnancy update, but that's really due to A)the fact that the internet has been down. And, most importantly B) I look like crap and after last week, I refuse to take a picture with no makeup and hair looking a mess again. Let me look decent, take a pic and I'll post an update soon.

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