One year ago today

I spent the whole day miserable on the couch. I'd blown up over the past week at an alarming rate. It was alarming enough that the doctors had me pee in a jug for 24 hours to test for proteins in suspicion of pre-eclampsia. It was a Monday and I'd only gone to the hospital to turn in my jug and of course to the pool but otherwise just sat. I can't remember what I watched on TV or what I was thinking during the day, May 19. Justin was off from work and golfing, so I am guessing that I was annoyed that he was out golfing and enjoying a life without baby while I was an island in the living room. Or maybe I was happy that he was getting out to enjoy himself before the baby arrived. . . but I doubt it.

I know that he got home later than I thought he would and that was an issue. We'd been talking about hitting the Elks Lodge for Bingo all semester. I'd seen the sign on my way to class each day "BINGO Monday nights 6:45, Public Welcome" and had mentioned it several times. Sounded like a kick in the pants and we'd talked about going several times. That night though, we'd planned on going--but when he arrived home late, I was over it. He said we should try to go anyway, but I insisted that it was too late.

"I feel lucky Babe. I think we should go. I FEEL LUCKY!" He repeated this several more times until I finally gave in. "I feel LUCKY!!" Justin doesn't throw words like that out there often. Or ever. They play a million games in one night, so what if we missed the first few? I quickly changed, squeezed my sausage feet into some flip flops and off we went. To the Elks Lodge. To play Bingo.

Bingo was a riot. We were the youngest in the room by ooooh, about 50 years or so. There were many a wet cough around us in that rec hall, I can tell you that. We were rookies so the MC came and sat by us and explained all the games to us as they began. I had no idea that Bingo is so much more complicated than simply finding 5 in a row. Seriously, check it out sometime. We bought the dobbers (mine was purple and Justin's green) and two game books. As luck would have it, I got my whole book for free since it was my birth month. Woot!

We laughed a lot that night. Bingo is incredibly competitive and we found that the Elks Club members live for this kind of thing. At the intermission, I called my mom and told her where we were so she could laugh at us. I also bought a piece of cake. Homemade cake and lemonade. That was my dinner. I also remember that I had to use that plate of cake to guard my belly from all the withered, old hands in the Bingo hall. As soon as I stood up from the table and everyone could see my pregnant rotunda, they swarmed, wet coughs and all. I know it was sweet, but I'm really not into strangers touching me. Call me crazy.

Justin WAS lucky that night too. He won a game! I think it was $25! And as the games wore on, we wondered how many more Mondays we'd make it to Bingo before the baby came.

And in a very prophetic moment, I turned to Justin with my best baby voice and said, "Mommy and Daddy, what were you doing the night I was born?" and responded to myself in my best parents voice, "We were playing Bingo at the Elks Lodge, honey." We snorted. How embarrassing would it be if we had to tell our kid that we were playing bingo . . . at the Elks Lodge no less . . . the night they were born. Good thing we had 4 more weeks before we had to worry about that.

When we walked to the car that night, we made a comment about how late the Bingo crowd stays out. It was past 10 and well past my bed time. We laughed at that too and held hands to the car glad we'd finally gone to Monday night Bingo.

My water broke 4 hours later.