No... I'm not 4-5 months prego...

So went to Chipotle in downtown Culver City today for lunch… (The boys and I are visiting my parents which has become an annual August trip… partly to escape the oppressive Arkansas August heat; partly to give the boys a change of scenery for their last few weeks of summer vacation; and mostly so we can all spend time with my parents.) Chipotle satisfies my cravings for real Mexican food, namely giant veggie burritos. It’s not Tacos Acapulco which was my favorite giant burrito Mexican place located in San Luis Obispo, CA where I attended university for a few years ages ago. It was the kind of place you’d visit at 2am after a night of massive alcohol consumption to try and stave off the inevitable hangover. I’d eat half of the giant burrito that night and the rest in the morning along with a gallon or so of water and that usually killed the hangover. San Luis Obispo is about a 4 hour drive from Culver City so Chipotle will have to do. I do miss California Mexican food… California does Mexican food right… fish tacos, pico de gallo, fresh made guacamole, tortillas, etc... It’s Baja ‘fresh’ Californian Mexican which is extremely hard to come by in Arkansas. (Moe’s Southwest Grill is the closest…) The dirty South’s version of Mexican food is always smothered in some kind of gravy or queso and anything but ‘fresh’. The gravy is listed on the menu as mole. I’ve had mole prior to moving to Arkansas and this ain’t it. It’s more like a southern version of Mexican gravy… and living in the South where gravy is a staple for most meals including breakfast it’s not surprising… but it’s on everything: burritos, enchiladas, tamales… yuck. And the queso obsession in the South is also very strange. Queso is just nacho cheese, but in the South it’s a blanca queso – white queso or cheese dip as it’s aptly referred to in the South. (Those of us who frequent the Food Network channel all know that nachos and nacho cheese aren’t a traditional Mexican fare. Some poor restaurant owner in Tijuana was about to close his restaurant for his afternoon siesta and was put upon by some military wives who had just finished shopping. They wanted a snack to go with their margaritas so the poor guy went back into the kitchen to figure out what to make for these women… stale chips, cheese and jalapenos… nachos, there you go.) Some outfit in Little Rock publishes a monthly magazine about Little Rock, (creatively named “Little Rock Magazine”), which publishes a “Cheese Dip Report”. When I first moved to Little Rock, I thought it was a joke, but upon picking up my second issue of Little Rock magazine at the local Kroger, I realized they were serious. Some chump takes the time each month to visit a restaurant that serves cheese dip and ‘report’ on it… After writing the first review, what possibly could anyone have to say further on the topic of cheese dip??

So back to lunch at Chipotle… I’m standing in line ordering my gi-normous veggie burrito and there’s another very prego lady in line in front of me. I notice she’s wearing very cute jean capris so I ask where she bought them (Motherhood). I make a comment that I’m pregnant also and she asks me how far along I am and before I can answer her, she takes it upon herself to estimate…she guesses that I’m 4-5 months prego and we all know that I’m just finishing up the end of the first trimester (3 months for those non-prego lingo literate…). Ten years ago, I would’ve prayed for the ground to open and swallow me whole… or the ability to reverse time and never ask about her cute capris to begin with… But yesterday, I just chuckled and confirmed her estimate. Why make her feel bad and cause me additional embarrassment… What am I saying… I’m in LA, she wouldn’t feel bad… I’d just be embarrassed! I do look further along than 12 weeks already which is unfortunate so I can’t blame her really… mainly due to a 20 lb weight gain over the last year and general lack of exercise the past few years. Having two children already doesn’t help either. Your belly has been expanded and detracted twice and leaves your tummy in a deflated balloon state. My kids are 15 months apart in age which boils down to 9 months of pregnancy, 6 months of breast feeding, another 9 months of pregnancy and a final 6 months of breastfeeding… after which I lost of a ton of weight, but didn’t really make an effort to tighten up those tummy muscles again. (Reminder to self - blog entry topic - bizarre fear a) during pregnancy number two that my c-section incision was going to split open and Aaron would be dropped on the ground somewhere out in public and b) of sit-ups post back-to-back c-sections). Not to mention what it’s done to my boobs (yet another blog entry topic). My husband doesn’t seem to mind so why should I. I have taken it upon myself to get some low impact cardio going every day…just a simple walk… and I checked with the various prego web sites out there and talked with my doctor about exercising your core while prego… and both give the thumbs up to very mild workouts. I ordered Denise Austin’s core prego workout DVD which secretly I’m dreading the arrival of…You know Denise Austin has made some deal with the devil and she passes on the downside of that deal via these barbaric exercise DVDs and her way too peppy attitude. I suppose if you want to kill the trainer on the exercise DVD, that’s better than wanting to kill the live version at the gym… he or she is accessible and you may just act on that feeling one day. I’ll keep you posted on how Denise and I get on with this exercise video…. Urghhhh.