Best and worst of the week. How was your week?
Here at Mamamia headquarters, we didn’t have to think too hard before deciding on our BEST of the week.
The Editorial Team were absolutely rapt by the victory of Barack Obama in the United States. Our eyes did not shift from the television for most of Wednesday, as we watched the votes being tallied and the pundits weighing in. We were pretty excited to see THIS bloke (affectionately known as the ‘legitimate rape guy’) lose (“Suck it” were the exact words used as we watched the results come in) and we were absolutely taken with the photo the President tweeted of him embracing his wife after victory.
Managing Editor Jamila totally nerded out – giving us ‘Electoral Fun Facts’ every 5 -10 minutes (very few of which were actually fun. We’re looking into a misleading and deceptive conduct claim). Nat tried to get into the spirit by wearing blue but was completely outdone by Bec who pulled out Ava’s old ‘Mama loves Obama’ onesie (just to show us via Skype, not to wear). The day culminated with Lucy forcing Jam to go home after Jam became so overcome with Republican-related anxiety that she started vomiting.
And our worst? Well, Mia tweeted this last night and that pretty much sums it up:
Where is the kind of gravitas, inspiration and charisma that we saw from Barack Obama last night, in Australian politics? Is it hiding under those green seats in the House of Representatives? Has it rolled down the grassy green hill of Parliament House and is now drowned somewhere at the bottom of Canberra’s Lake Burley Griffin? Come on MPs and Senators: give us a little magic. Hope, even.
How has your week been? What were your bests? Your worsts?
Comments
198 Comments so far
Best this week was my little girl turned 3 and loved her presents.
Worst i am 15 weeks pregnant and i still have really bad morning sickness and now my blood pressure is up and i think i am once again heading for a complicated horrible pregnancy i don’t do pregnancy well. i hope o have a healthy baby.
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Can I ask what you gave her? My daughter turns 3 a week after Christmas and I’m having trouble picking presents. She generally plays with her older brother’s toys when he does. I don’t know what 3yr old girls like!
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Ideas for 3 yo girl presents- baby born doll, doll bath or pram, bike, trike, scooter, card games like memory or snap, duplo, leapster/leap pad/toy computer, tea set, gardening stuff, a sand pit, swings, cubby, trampoline, books.
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I have two bests, both related to writing/blogging.
BEST 1: When the news of Disney buying Lucasfilm came out, I hopped on my blog and blogged about it. You can read that here: http://wp.me/p2wF6l-4f Anyway, The Guardian Newspaper in the UK linked my blog post to their article on the news! I couldn’t believe it! I had 258 hits that day. Most ever.
BEST 2: Yesterday I had an article on Kiki & Tea that I wrote about Nerds which you can read here: http://kikiandtea.com/2012/11/the-rise-of-the-nerd/ A friend of mine in the US sent the link to Wil Wheaton, his wife Anne, and Bonnie Burton, who is like a Nerd Queen, she’s awesome. Bonnie retweeted the link! I seriously can not believe it. I’m so grateful to my friend Wyatt for sending out the link. And thanks to Miss T for letting me write it and publishing it.
It’s just reaffirmed to me how much I want to write. How much I love it. And it’s the posts that are really me, like talking about SciFi and Star Wars that are getting the most attention.
I am totally, blissfully happy right now
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Hey Evil Cupcake, wonderful news and great to *hear* that you are blissfully happy. Seems as though it is so well deserving for you. Enjoy your weekend and keep writing!
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Best: hubby came home yesterday for his week off ( he works fifo) so life as a single mum has ended for another week
Worst: hearing from my SIL yesterday that the baby she was expecting any minute now was stillborn last night. Life is so unfair and we can’t even imagine how her and her OH are feeling. We’re all in shock and we don’t know what to do for them. So horrible
So yes the worst of the week far outweighs the best this week unfortunately
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So sorry to hear that. Awful.
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So sad to hear about your SIL and her husband’s loss. Be supportive and think of what you would do if you had known the child. Maybe do things like making them meals, seems a really small thing, but can be a life saver when you’re struggling emotionally.
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Best: five year anniversary and beautiful picnic with hubby.
Worst: baby won’t feed so am on new feeding and pumping schedule which is torturous. Each feeding time is two hours of screaming.
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I’m feeling pretty bleh this week. No particular reason, just am a little out of sorts. I was saying to the boy last night that I just feel like I’m continually wading through mud with no discernible destination at this point. I guess it is just the result of a year of working really hard with very little to show for it.
So no real worst, but no real best either. Just a meh week.
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Ditto for me – I could not have put my feelings this week (about my life and direction / lack of) any better than you just did! Thanks for that
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Best: My BFF has flown in for a visit. Only a short one but Yay!! After months of no exercise (thanks to the arthritis) I am finally going to give the gym a bash today. Also – the city put up the Christmas decorations this week – walked out of the train station one morning and there they were. I am one of those super sickeningly happy Christmas people.
Worst: $1500 at the optometrist. Suppose it’s logical that the half a dozen drugs I take each day to kill my immune system etc. would damage bits of my body along with the arthritis but still ouch!! (On the plus side though the frames on my new specs are super cute)
OMM: My binge eating. Had a discussion with my shrink the other day about it all and am finding some of the facts and figures and reasoning to be an odd mix of comforting and confronting. But – how lucky am I to live in a place where treatment is available to me and I can work to overcome these things.
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Best: Obama winning. I didn’t realize quite how nervous I was until he’d won!
Worst: having to complete an assignment, when I’d rather be….doing anything else.
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Best – Last night I did a pregnancy test and it was positive! My period isn’t even due until next Tuesday but I did an early response one, and the result was a resounding yes!
Boy is ecstatic, but I am not sure that a few other people will be…Today is only our six month anniversary and my mum will be pissed. I know he is the man for me, and he gets along with my family and friends, but my mum has already warned me to take my time, don’t rush into things etc. I am 29 and he is 31, we know what we want, but she doesn’t want me to “make the same mistakes” she did…i.e. marrying my dad after knowing him six months which ended in divorce three years later.
Not sure how to break it to her. I won’t be telling anyone until I am at least 5 or 6 weeks, just to be sure. We were trying to get pregnant – but I know she will be angry that I seemingly went right against what she said. If I make out like it was an accident, she will be equally as disappointed because I am the “sensible” one… My only saving grace is that my sister is due to have her baby in two weeks and hers was an accident…she was 17 when she fell…so at least my circumstances are a fair bit better than hers..
I know I should harden up but I have always had this deep fear of “disappointing” people…
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stop worrying about what anyone thinks and enjoy your little miracle!
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Agreed! Congratulations!
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Congratulations, Sam! That’s wonderful news! I hope that your mum will take the news more happily and peacefully than you expect
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I had the same scenario when I got pregnant with our first. We had been together just shy or 2 years and my mum absolutely flipped when she found out! She came around though and now he’s 2 1/2 she thinks it’s the best thing that’s ever happened!
Good luck and try not to worry what anyone else thinks it will be fine!
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Anyone who isnt happy for you doesnt deserve your time and thoughts.
Congratulations on the little miracle. I personally tried to wait for 12 weeks as those first weeks are still danger zone but you know what its just TOO exciting not to blab!
Enjoy it
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Massive congratulations to you!! its such an amazing and special time!
try not to worry too much about your mum, i know it can be hard because im the same, always worry about dissapointing others… especially my mum…. but even if she is not initially thrilled with your news she will come round, just focus on yourself, your partner and your little miracle!!
this happened to my bro and sister in law..although they had been together for 2 or 3 years they were only very young, only just turning 19, my mum flipped out….”they have RUINED their lives” was a direct quote from her… however as the due date grew nearer she turned around and became very excited and is now the proud grandmother of one very gorgeous little girl…. and my bro and sis in law have proved all the nay sayers wrong…. now married for 3 years, together for 10, and going strong.
she also freaked when i got engaged after only dating my boyfriend for 7 months…called me a fool..didnt like my boyfriend purely cos he wanted to marry me and she deemed us too young… now we have been married for 4 years and have a son and she loves my hubby and my son to death.
In the end you have to live for what is right for you and nobody else can tell you what that path should be xx
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Aw shucks everyone, thank you for your thoughts! Feeling much more confident about it all now
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Same scenario here – met a great (and infertile) man, stopped using contraception after 3 months, got pregnant straightaway.
I was 25, he was 35, both in great jobs and deliriously happy about the baby. Mum went pretty mental though (what will the neighbours think?). She got over it when she saw the baby and everyone started calling her Nanna,. Oh and Christmas – she was very happy by the first Christmas. And, we’re still together 16 years on.
Don’t sweat it – take your mum out to lunch somewhere nice and tell her – hard to make a scene in a fancy restaurant.
And life’s to be lived, after all so if you’re both happy, that’s what really matters.
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You mum only gets to hear this news once in her and your lives – i.e. that her ‘little girl’ will become a mother. She can choose her reaction in whether she’ll share your joy or crumple in that moment and make you feel anything but ecstatic. I hope she chooses the former, even for her own sake: once the moment has happened, you can’t re-do it.
I am sorry there is any kind of fear, hesitation or nerves on your part in sharing such a beautiful and exciting piece of news with someone close to you. Wishing you well.
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Congratulations! As long as your happy.
Really, having a strong relationship has as much to do with the time you spend growing together throughout the years as it does with your compatibility right at the beginning. I wish you all the love and happiness in the world
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My partner and I were only together 7 months before I fell pregnant – 2 kids and 5 years later we’re fine
Best of luck and congratulations!
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Being in the US right now, I am soooooo glad to see the back of the election! It’s been the only couple of weeks I’ve regretted having American friends on my FB. Luckily, most of them were Obama fans. I’m so glad most Australians keep their politics largely to themselves in public.
Good: Playing in the pit for the musical Drowsy Chaperone, which is hugely funny and largely un-PC. I’m exhausted, but it is good for me to be playing.
Bad: Where do I start? Some of you may remember my tribulations over husband wanting to continue his doctorate over here, which would require enormous sacrifice (more than we/I have made already), financially, mentally and I would lose my dream of having children. I told him of our financial situation (bad) and he conceded awhile ago that it wouldn’t work.
Well, it’s come up to application time, and he has started talking to people regarding applications and grants, etc. I really don’t want to stay, and it is so not viable on so many levels its not funny. I did a budget in order to shock him (and it was a shock to me as well, of how much money I would need to earn to support him). I told him it was impossible, which it is. Mostly because it is expensive to keep a dependent spouse on a visa. So he has decided to go it alone. Yes, that’s right, after dragging me across the world so he could have this dream, he is not willing to turn the tables of sacrifice at all. I am going home regardless.
Even if he winds up coming home (which is still a 90% chance that he will: you have to prove that you have the money for the entire degree upfront in order to get a visa, and where he is going to find that amount of money is beyond me), there is this element of trust that I have an issue with, that he will not give back even close to what he has taken, that he would put his career ahead of me despite all we have already sacrificed for it.
So if I go home alone, I have decided to undertake a Masters of Music Practitioner Studies. If I can’t have a family because someone has decided to take that away from me, at least I can have an awesome career. If we go home together, I guess we will start a family, but we definitely have issues to work out after this.
OMM: All of the above! And to finish off with:
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Hey Rach, I’m probably not the best person to be giving advice on something like this right given I’m 5 weeks post break up and Ex Mr W and I weren’t married (no, after 4.5 years he didn’t like it enough to put a ring on it)….
But, I can tell you that your situation sounds reminiscent of major factors contributing to my break up. Ex Mr W LOVES his job and loves being in Brisbane as his family is only a 2 hour drive away. He emphatically does not want to leave his job and wants to start his own law firm eventually. He does not want to live anywhere else and wants to buy a house here (all signs he wants to settle down he just didn’t want to settle down with ME).
However…….I am a bit of a lost little lamb and want to see the world and see and experience different things.. I was willing to sacrifice those things because I loved him so much and wanted to be with him, but he wouldn’t move one iota for me (and thought that he was making a huge sacrifice by not buying a house yet because he wanted to, the reason we didn’t was because I rightfully, would not buy a house until we were engaged).
He would have been MISERABLE doing what I want to do and I WAS MISERABLE as I felt my whole life was being dictated by his career and there was no sacrifice by him for what I wanted.
In the end, we wanted different things and had fought for the relationship for so long, it just wasn’t working anymore. I feel so free now, that I can do whatever I want and I’m not tied to anyone. I think he might have his moment and realise that he is only 28 and he grew up too soon, but oh well, that’s his problem!
Obviously, you made that extra commitment in getting married that I didn’t have and I don’t know either of you personally. I hope you guys can work it out and get through it!
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Thanks, Whippersnapper. I’ve been watching your posts closely. I hope you are doing okay! It sounds like you have some good support in your new housemates.
The thing is, we have known each other for 13 years. We were on and off for the first couple (I was 17, and a pretty young 17 at that). But then we were on and I know most people think this way about their partners, but we were (and still are) different. We are like a perfect jigsaw puzzle, so different to each other, yet what one perhaps lacked, the other one filled that void perfectly. We were definitely best friends for many years before we actually got together for the last time, and I think it’s easy to see.
I feel like it’s not him talking. He’s being abnormally stubborn. That’s usually my domain. Does mid life crisis ever hit at 35? It seems so much like it to me. We’ve always been about taking the journey together, and even until a few months ago, he said he would be happy doing whatever it is as long as we do it together.
I don’t think I’m in denial. I’m already starting to make plans and peace. Not having children will devastate me. But at least I can be happy knowing I’m not living someone else’s life, that I took charge of my own.
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Aw, that makes me proud to be Australian, although we still have lots further to go…Rach, you seem like a really lovely person…I think you are speaking too soon by saying that now you are not having children. That’s still definitely on the cards!!
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Thanks for the sentiments anon…but I am a realist, I will be 31 by the time I get home, I have a condition which will make conception harder and I don’t meet people easily. Even if I met someone straight away, it would take me awhile to get over what’s happened here, and you certainly can’t go straight into making babies!
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Best: can’t stop thinking about a boy. Saw him last week. I went for a dink on his bike! But I don’t think we are more than friends. It’s a weird feeling. We have been texting most days but haven’t spoken on phone or organised another catch up. We are both busy though. I wonder who makes calls anymore?!
Worst: feeling really sore right now. In bed, off work. I’ll be ok soon.
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I adore that you had a dink on his bike!
Too cute.
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I know! It didn’t work very well though. I couldnt sit facing forward and we almost fell off when I sad side saddle. He said to put my arms around him. Oh if I must!
We ended up walking.
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I read that as you had a drink on his bike and I was thinking….really! How did you not spill it if you were riding?!
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Carly, you are so adorable! I love the way you talk about boys…I’ve forgotten what it’s all like!
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