Confessions of A Tired Audiologist

Bryan had a rare Saturday/Sunday off last weekend, so on Saturday we headed up to Disneyland. Strangely enough, we hadn't been up there since his family was in town, back in March. I say it's strange because typically we're up there about every four to six weeks, but he's been working a lot and we've had an unusual number of weekend commitments lately.

Anyway, they've been hyping the new "Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage" down here for the past month or so, and we figured we'd check it out. The park was fairly crowded (it's tourist season after all), and we did manage to make it on quite a few rides (limited though we are with me being pregnant and all), but didn't do Nemo. At one point when we checked, the line was three plus hours. When we checked back later that night, it was down to two plus hours. We have annual passes, we can go whenever we want and we decided the ride couldn't possibly live up to that long a wait. (Plus the fact that the baby likes to make a sport out of kicking my bladder periodically, which makes two to three hours without bathroom access purely impractical.)

When they did the Pirates rehab a while back, the lines were insane for the first couple of weeks, and then quickly died down. Same thing with the Monsters Inc. ride at DCA. We'll hit it again in a few weeks (between childbirth prep class, Bryan's duty and underway schedule and my baby shower) and see if it's a more realistic wait.

We did have a good time checking out the redone Tom Sawyer's Island/Pirates Lair, and managed to hit up Buzz Lightyear several times, plus Pirates, the Haunted Mansion, Soarin', etc. The baby either loved or hated the drops on Pirates (no "Expectant Mothers Should Not Ride" signs, so you can't yell at me about it) because he was moving around like crazy during the ride. He didn't seem as impressed by Soarin'. It wasn't a high impact day because Bryan and I were both tired. At one point, we were joking that the best ride in the park sounded like the couches in the lobby at the Grand Californian.

We also made time for dinner at the Storyteller Cafe in the Grand Californian Hotel, which is pretty much the only place in the parks that offers real (as opposed to crap) food, casual dining without a million screaming kids (a la Goofy's Kitchen) or hoity-toityness (a la Napa Rose or Granville's, although Granville's does make a mean steak). We've never been disappointed with anything we've had at Storyteller's, and this time we had such exceptional service that I made a point to speak to the manager about our wonderful server (ask for Vicente's section!).

My grandfather passed away suddenly over the weekend. Although he was 94, it wasn't expected, and as you might imagine, we're all very sad. At the risk of sounding overly melodramatic, there's a hole in my heart from his passing, and although I know in time it will slowly fill in with the wonderful memories we shared, right now it really kind of sucks.

My grandfather and I had a somewhat unique relationship. The family folklore is rife with stories about the two of us, from the time I told the kids at nursery school he was a vampire (trying to scare some kid into letting me play with a toy - hey, it worked!), to my charming technique to get him to take me to lunch at McDonald's and the duck pond to feed the ducks ("Hey Grandpa, whatcha doing today...?") to the way he used to give up his Mets games so I could watch cartoons on TV. Despite the fact that I spent most of my life on the west coast, we remained close through the years, down to the weekly phone calls that continued until last week.

Like anyone, there are a few things I wish I'd done differently. I wish I'd been able to make it in to New Jersey more often to visit. I wish I'd somehow known that he'd be gone Saturday morning and called on friday night, instead of waiting until Father's Day, to say "I love you" one extra time. But in reality, these are wishful thoughts more than regrets. My grandfather knew I loved him, and he knew what he meant to me because I wasn't bashful about telling him. Every phone call ended with an "I love you" and he knew it was meant wholeheartedly.

If I have any regrets, it's this one: that my son who's due to arrive in September will never get to meet his great-grandfather, never have the opportunity to make him laugh so hard he has to wipe his eyes or never see him smile with love and pride like I have so many times. He won't get to have a relationship with the man who was the inspiration for his middle name.

In our family, the plan is that when we get to heaven or the afterlife or whatever, we'll meet at the bar. I have no doubt my grandmother was waiting for my grandfather, with a nice glass of scotch. I like to think of them the way they were in the photo above - young, healthy and happy, together. Cheers, Grandpa.

In other news, I'm puppy sitting for the next couple of weeks. The next door neighbor's black lab had 7 puppies two months ago - three yellow labs and four black ones. It's sad for me, but six of them have found new homes, so I'm only watching one (and his mom) while the neighbors are out of town. I, of course, have already fallen in love with him, named him and started teaching him how to sit. Did I mention the neighbors just left this morning?

Anyway, they called this evening to tell me they had a buyer for the remaining puppy ("Shadow") who would be picking him up in about a week and a half. At least I get to have a little time for puppy fun! I'm sure Bryan will be relieved - he already told me "Don't get attached!!!"

The baby's been kicking up a storm. He's most active (or it's most noticeable) in the evenings. I swear it feels like he's practicing hockey stops in there. Not that I'm projecting my love of hockey or anything. You can feel him through my stomach, on the outside, and I have to admit it's a little unnerving to see your belly lurch at random.

...And in hockey news, I was really pleased to see Ottawa win tonight's game. Go Sens! I'd like to point out that at one point, my least fave players all managed to get into the box together - Getzlaf (who seems to be thinning in the hair department), Perry and Penner were all in the clink. May joined in shortly thereafter. The only one who was missing was Pronger, but I didn't exactly mind when he got booed earlier in the evening. It's unexplainable, but man, I hate that guy! I used to say that when he was in Edmonton (ask Bryan, who used to goad me into it by pointing out when Pronger was on the ice), so it's not just a Ducks thing.

Bryan and I have registered for baby stuff at Target and Babies R Us. It's been a markedly different experience at each store.

We registered first at Babies R Us. I know they're a little pricier for some stuff, but wow, what a difference. Their customer service is very good. The folks who helped us set up our registry were very thorough. They have a wide selection of items in store, and knowlegeable customer service people. That you can actually find when you have a question. On a previous visit, one of the staff walked Bryan through the LATCH system for car seats, and even showed him how to install the car seat we chose on their in-store car bench seat. For our registry efforts, we were given a "thanks for registering" box with goodies like an Avent bottle, Huggies diaper, Pampers wipes and a $5 coupon for any Babies R Us purchase, which we promptly applied to the crib bedding set we had picked out. They printed out a copy of our registry, and when we got home, everything was posted online.

Target was a little different.

I worked at Target one summer while I was in college, and it was probably one of the worst jobs I've had. (Only my experience in industrial audiology where I had to drive a ginormous mobile testing truck could rival it.) I know from experience that you really shouldn't ask the folks at Target much of anything about any particular products because they don't know. They're not your best resource for how to install a car seat, which bottles are best or even whether they have more of a particular item in the back.

Needless to say, the Guest Services guy who got us started with the registry process wasn't exactly enthused (although, to be fair, the guy who gave us the scanner and sent us off was much nicer). A lot of the stuff we were looking for was out of stock, or hanging in the wrong spot, so we had to be a lot more careful about what we were scanning - don't trust the tags on the shelf! Try as we might, "The Poky Little Puppy" wouldn't scan, no matter what we did.

After about two hours and 90 items, we turned in our scanner and they said, "It'll be available in about 5 minutes." We headed home, congratulating ourselves on a job well done. No fun freebies from Target, BTW.

When we got home, we hopped online to look up our registry because I wanted to point out one particular item (the penguin humidifier) to my parents. And discovered that the only thing on our registry was Target gift cards. Ooookay, maybe it just needs more time. I figured I'd log in to our registry to add two or three things that they didn't have in store that I'd seen on their website. Can't log in to our registry.

Couple hours later, we tried again. Same issues.

Tried again before bed. Same issues.

Tried again this morning. Same issues.

Bryan spent the better part of the morning on the phone with Target, trying to get this sorted out. Late morning/early afternoon, we got a message from Cathy saying our stuff was loaded and apologizing for the inconvenience. Woohoo, we have a list of stuff online! I went to log in to add the couple of things we were missing and...still can't log in.

Bryan contacted them again. Their response was to try again, with another password (since I already had an Amazon account that uses the same email address). I can log into the Amazon one, but not the one we set up in the store for the registry. I contacted them and explained that things still weren't fixed, only the Amazon account info works, and that I had changed the email address on the Amazon account to try to simplify things.

Still waiting for a solution. But Babies R Us definitely gets my vote for best registry experience!

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