Bed Rest - Week 4

Top Photo: Blue Suede Shoes purchased by Brad to wear on Aug. 7th

Middle Photo: Intern Erin makes her delivery

Bottom Photo: The countdown continues

Bed Rest - Week 4 - July 20 - July 27

# of Days on Bed Rest - 31

C-section Scheduled for August 7th

# of Days to Go - 11

I still can't believe I've been in this damn bed for 31 days. Only 11 more days to go! Whooo whooo! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I can hear the Beatles sing, "Here Comes the Sun" as unicorns graze in a field with a beautiful rainbow beaming. But then a crying baby enters the scene, the music stops and the unicorns run away. What does that mean?

Good Bye to Intern Erin

I look forward to 11 AM every morning, when Erin's smiling face comes through my door holding an ice cold Starbucks decaf coffee and the NY Post. Sadly, her employment will end at the end of this week as she heads to back to sunny California. Good luck on your studies in clinical psychology!

Happy Birthday Shout Outs

• Colin Gorman - July 25th
• My niece Bailey Summers - July 30th
• Maggie Parker - July 31st
• Josh Lipschutz - July 31st

What I'm reading/watching/doing this week:

• Weeds, Season 4 - Thanks to Annie for telling me about the free episodes on youtube
• Beware of God, Stories by Shalom Auslander - Thanks to Heather for sending the book
• Addicted to Facebook- I've reconnected with so many people from my different lives, I love it! This week I emailed/spoke to OLD SCHOOL friends Beth Villareal, Annie Garcia and Angie Castano that I've known FOREVER AND EVER growing up in that crazy border town, Laredo. I've also been able to commiserate with fellow ex-Laredoan Allison Zapata who has been on bed rest at her home in Houston for over 10 weeks.
• Watched a whole season of Intervention - thanks to Heather for giving me an itunes gift card for my bday last month, it came in handy. After watching 10 episodes back to back, I think I'm over it.

What's In a Name?

Many people have been asking why we are choosing to use the name Elvis. We don't have one particular reason and to be quite honest, neither of us are DIE HARD Elvis fans but here's the scoop:

• Brad is an Elvis fan. His love for Elvis began when he lived in Hawaii on the North Shore while in the Army. Brad's house was across the street from Elvis Presley's Hawaiian house. Also, Brad roamed the streets of the North Shore with some outlaw bikers (I don't ask) and for fun, the bikers would karaoke on Saturday nights and their "leader" would always sing Elvis tunes. I always think of outlaw bikers as beating people up and drinking/drugging heavily but I guess these were the fun-loving karaoke singing kind.
• When Brad and I first started dating, the first gift I gave him was a Velvet Elvis, a velvet Elvis portrait that hangs in our kitchen to this day. A few years later, I gave him an awesome kitschy gold Elvis head that I found at a flea market in Cape Cod that sits in our living room. Now you are thinking our apartment is tacky, but aside from these two objects, our apartment is decorated very nicely, I promise!
• When I was about 16 weeks pregnant, we went to dinner at a restaurant on the Lower East Side in NYC with our NYC crew, who mostly are from the great state of Tennessee. We started talking about Southern type names and one of them mentioned that we should name the baby Elvis. We laughed at first but then thought about it for a minute and I said, "You know, that is actually a cool name." Then, we looked up and there was a huge Velvet Elvis hanging on the wall looking over us! It was fate and I don't mess with fate - Elvis it was (even if it was a girl so thank goodness it's a boy).

Interesting Facts About the Name Elvis

• Elvis is a name that has its origin or roots in Scandinavia
• The name Elvis means "all wise"
• There are 15,179 people in the US with the first name Elvis out of the 303,572,544 people in the US. Of those people, 99% are males
• Statistics show that Elvis is the 1,495th most popular first name

Shabbat Shalom!

As many of you know, I converted to Judaism over 5 years ago. We were lucky to find a wonderful synagogue, Congregation Rodeph Sholom, that has welcomed us with open arms. I love being part of a congregation that values social activism, diversity, and most importantly - questioning and discussion. Since conversion I have joined various committees (Young Professionals, Environment, Community Concerns), participated in many social action projects (Mitzvah Day, Donation Drives, Darfur Solar Cooker Campaign) and completed my Bat Mitzvah. I didn't quite realize until being on bed rest, just how many important/meaningful relationships and friendships I have forged with the clergy and fellow congregation members. I've been blessed with numerous visits, calls, gifts and goodies from the clergy and members, and I am so happy to have these people in our lives. On Friday night, I was wishing I could get out of bed and join Shabbat services and I decided to have my own little Shabbat. I found a podcast of a Friday night Reform service (from Temple B'Nei Shalom in Fairfax, VA) and listened to it. As luck would have it, their service was very similar to the Rodeph Shalom's and used many of the same songs/formats that we do. It felt good to recite the Kaddish knowing that I was joining my congregants from afar. On Saturday morning, I looked up the Torah portion and did my own Torah study, although it wasn't nearly as insightful as it would have been with Rabbi Grushcow leading the discussion!

www.rodephsholom.org

Special Thanks to This Week's Visitors and/or Gifts:

• Sherry DiNapoli - thanks for the ALL of the nursery bedding - so generous of you!
  
• Abby Grozenski - thanks for the much needed disposable razors and the flowers
• Patsy Godines - thanks for the flowers and good wishes from Laredo
• Aaron Cain - thanks for the flowers - all the way from Iraq!
• John and So Young - thanks for the flowers
• Beth Frey -thanks for the visit and the cute stuffed animals for the nursery
• Amanda Pressner (my first roommate in NYC!) - thanks for the 2 visits and Tasti DLite
• Trevor Sumner - thanks for the visit and yummy dinner
• Rabbi Sari Laufer and Rabbi Leora Kaye - thanks for the visit and challah
• Heather Stiteler - thanks for the books
• Colin Gorman - thanks for the visit and the Tasti DLite
• Christoph - thanks for the visit and rubbing it in that you got to meet George Michael and hang with Chuck Bass from GG and Neil Patrick Harrison all night at the show - you ahole you are not supposed to have fun without me!!!!!
• Annie Garcia and Angie Castano - thanks for the calls
• Phyliss Wender - thanks for the AWESOME contoured sleeping face mask. It is pitch black with those things on.
• Reno and Julie Barrera - thanks for not forgetting about Brad and sending him his own gift, the pee catcher (to be used when changing Elvis' diaper, it guards against him peeing in your face - genius)

Special Group of Visitors - AHA YP Leadership

As part of my job at the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, I am lucky enough to be the staff liaison that works the the American Heart Association Young Professionals (YPs). It's a grassroots effort to raise awareness about Heart Disease and Stroke in the NYC Young Professionals Community. The group started about 5 years ago with about 10 members and has grown to over 50 members, raising $50,000 a year to support the AHA's mission of fighting heart disease and stroke. One of the best parts of the job is that I get to work closely with AMAZING and DEDICATED volunteers. The success of the YP group is due in large part to the YP Leadership that have led the committee to success over the past 2 years:

• Kate Coyne, President
• Faye Rogaski, Mission Chair
• Dina Pagnotta, Fundraising Chair
• Jennifer Butler, Membership Chair
• Cari Bederow, Treasurer
• Dr. Johnny Lee, Board Liaison

Faye, Dina and Jennifer are all stroke survivors (they are all in their 30s!), Cari lost her father to a heart attack, Kate works with the pharma industry and Dr. Lee is a cardiologist. They are all so special and they dedicate so much time and effort to the AHA/ASA, I can't begin to thank them enough.

I was SO happy when Kate, Faye, Dina and Cari showed up at the hospital with flowers and their smiling faces. We visited for over an hour and it made me think of how lucky I am to have a job that allows me to work with people like them for such a good cause.

www.americanheart.org/nycyp

Happy Travels to the Following:

• Sister Tami - have fun in Vegas
• Bianca - have fun in Tokyo with Liv and the Hulk
• Jeremy - hope you're not working too hard in Mongolia

xoxoxox

Angie