Milestones

I reached another milestone in every pregnant woman's life: the Total Stranger Recognition Moment.

I shouldn't say total stranger; I see this woman two or three times a week when I come by to pick up my lunch. But still she's outside of the realm of corporate informants, and therefore I feel I can count this as the first such encounter, especially since she started it out with, "Congratulations, I didn't realize you were pregnant!"

I took this as a compliment, not because I particularly want strangers to notice the pregnant woman, but because I've apparently been hiding it well, until now, anyway.

I also reached another very important milestone today, the Pregnant Women Should Not Carry Items Perceived To Be Heavy Milestone, items such as, say, computers. In my myriad roles at work I sometimes have need to remove or replace equipment, and, unless I am doing more than one at a time I usually prefer to carry the single item down the stairs. It's mild exercise, to be sure, but it beats sitting at a desk all day. So today I had in my arms a small CPU topped with mouse and keyboard, barely 10 pounds at most, but was stopped by a co-worker who threatened to take it from me. "No, I'm fine," I said, and continued by him, at which point he said, "Well, you're pregnant, you know..."

I stopped and stared at him. "I am???" I said. And then continued on my way.