You know the wonderful American movie genre based on the the road trip? That classic coming of age ritual where you and a friend jump in your car and drive crazy distances, have adventures and meet people that can take you a little bit above and beyond your comfort zone. Remember Easy Rider, Thelma & Louise, The Sure Thing, Little Miss Sunshine?
In Europe, we have a similar ritual, we call it Inter-railing. When I was 18, my best friend, (we’ll call her Bowdie) and I set off across Europe, by ferry & rail. It was less than a week, but it was the greatest adventure of our lives up to that point, and in some ways, still is. In fact I’m shocked nobody has made a movie out of this yet.
Millions of people made similar journeys, but nobody did it quite like us. To this day, one of us just has to say a certain phrase and we both crease up laughing. I remember parts of it like it was yesterday, other parts, thankfully, not at all.
There was the crazy Scouse who left his passport, wallet and broken fiddle on the floor unguarded while he danced manically to Fiesta throughout the ferry crossing from England to France.
Then there was the confused discovery that the French drink their morning coffee out of soup bowls (I still don’t get that one). The Detained by Immigration Authorities incident I think is best glossed over. Our brave attempts to speak French (only to be answered in English)… figuring out the signs in Switzerland (where everything is written in three languages)… Our embarrassment at being constantly whistled at by continental men… and disappointment when no one fell in love with us.
My favourite memory is of Bowdie & I deciding to visit the Eiffel Tower and instead of taking the Metro, like normal tourists, we decided to walk there. We didn’t have such a thing as a map and were constantly shot down in our efforts to speak French. We just looked up in the sky and headed in that general direction. We basically followed our instincts. It was a loooong way. We would get so far, look up and have to re-adjust. “Lets head more left this time”. An hour later… “Its much bigger now, straight ahead.” We had so much fun that day. Tired and with sore necks and feet, we eventually got to La Tour (as she ees known in Paree). It’s pretty imposing, you should go some day, if you haven’t already. And Paris is like one big film set.
As far as I can remember, we didn’t get sick of each other, fall out or fight over anything during that trip, which is pretty impressive, and we are still friends, over 20 years later, which is even more remarkable. Are you bored yet? They all lived happily ever after. My point here is: you don’t have to be really and truly gripped by our particular adventure. I wont be offended. If you looked at the photos, you would just see fresh faced laughing girls with bad perms. But to us it was… golden.
Are you mildly amused, diverted? Comparing it to your own first road trip where you got pulled for speeding by that cop that looked like Colin Farrell & had a beer with him afterwards? Nothing truly exciting happened to us,thank goodness, nothing earth-shattering. We didn’t fall off the Eiffel Tower – its all pretty run-of the mill, but I treasure the memory. I TREASURE IT. I have a falling apart notebook in my attic that I’ll look at when I’m 88, not 18. And so will my daughters.
So your precious pregnancy can be a bit like our trip. So many people have been on this gestational journey before you… its nothing new… yet it’s all new to you. For the first time you are feeling all these new feelings, thinking all these fresh thoughts and wondering if they are normal /PC/ typical. Yet no-one else can see things quite like you. You are creating your own storehouse of memories & you need them to mean so much more than just your current status on Facebook.
You need them to be you.
So go, scoot, make some memories, burst out of your favourite jeans, throw up on your boss, freak out your husband. Its your frigging adventure. Treasure it, my girl, TREASURE ALL OF IT!
So now, ma petite, let me know in the comments, what quirky thing about your pregnancy will you treasure, like no-one else? Au revoir!
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I love that story, thanks for sharing it!
The quirky thing about my first pregnancy was that I threw up in the same bush on the way to work from the bus stop every day, straightened myself up and kept walking like nothing happened. I’ve always wondered if anyone noticed.
Love that LaVonne! I used to wonder if I was bulimic in another life, throwing up became like second nature to me.
I am VERY newly pregnant, so there has been only so much time to make memories, but it has already begun! My favorite part of my own story so far is that now my husband is constantly reaching over to and rubbing my lower belly, even in the middle of the night in his sleep, and always at dawn- the first thing I am conscious of each day. I also find myself intensely wanting to have a hand on my belly at most times, to connect with and encourage my little one, and that whole relationship feels thrilling and moving. My only funny, unexpected thing so far is that due to an urgent mole-removal situation two days after I found out I was pregnant, my male dermatoligist was the first person I know who I got to tell (besides my husband of course)- I hadn’t even had a chance to tell my OBGYN yet! Standing in the middle of a dermatology center and telling my chic, gay, male dermatologist this huge piece of news before literally anyone else in my or my husband’s life knew about it and getting his response of an approving up-and-down look and a celebratory “Mazel!!!” seemed very funny and fitting to me
Gorgeous story Opal, Congratulations! Your husband sounds like a keeper! (So does your dermatologist)
Ann – I’d just done the blood sugar test, where you don’t eat all morning and then get blood drawn. I was starving. Down the street from the doctors was a little Italian place. I went in and ordered a big plate of pasta and salad and started eating the bread. A couple next to me kept looking my way. When my order came it was this huge platter of noodles and cheese sauce. I finished all that off very quickly and ordered cheesecake.
The couple next to me continued to stare. As I took the first bite of cheesecake the man looked at me and said “Gosh I wish I could eat like that!” he simply could not believe how much food I’d just put down.
I just pointed to my belly and said “twins”!
Nice one Christie, I really appreciate that otherworldly hunger sensation and I never even had to fast, or had twins.
I’m glad you enjoyed my story Ann
Since I’m still so early on, we really haven’t told people yet- the only people who know outside of my husband and I are my dermatologist (ha), my OBGYN, my hairdresser (he just plain asked me outright and I was caught off guard and didn’t feel comfortable lying!), and my holistic counselor. So no friends or family yet. That means there have been very few people to bounce stories/feelings/sensations off of, so it’s lovely to be able to talk about it here!
On that hunger topic, I must have been feeling some of those early days sensations of sudden increased hunger last night, when, as someone who normally follows an almost entirely plant based diet of beans, whole grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and some seafood and eggs, I sat down to “dinner” and consumed:
- some brown rice
-homemade bolognese sauce right out of a bowl, no pasta or anything (!!!!! I haven’t eaten beef since I was 12 years old!!!)
-a large bowl of wholegrain cereal with cow’s milk (I normally don’t eat dairy)
- a goat’s milk yogurt with black currant jam
Then follwed that haul with a late night snack of 2 Jaffa Cakes (totally my Irish husband’s doing) and another large bowl of cereal with cow’s milk?!
I woke up today feeling hungover and a bit crabby, and then promptly had diarrhea all morning. Sorry, I know that’s gross, but it was interesting to me to experience how part of that dietary splurge was probably my hungry pregnant body asking for what it wanted, and definitely a part of it was just my own curiosity and testing (will I want to eat red meat now that I’m pregnant? Can I digest dairy better now that I’m pregnant? Do I feel ok with eating multiple bowls of cereal at night now that I’m pregnant?) the answer to those questions is….probably no, as referenced by this morning’s reaction
A learning experience all the same! Thanks for listening…it’s nice to have some girls to talk to before I’m ready to let my friends and family in on what’s going on!
Oooh I love that you said “go make some memories”! That really hits home and you know I spend a lot of time at the computer… but those aren’t necessarily the types of memories I’m going to look back on fondly you know?