A Dogwood By Any Other Name...

A few days ago, I listed some signs of spring... since then it's as though Spring has erupted willy-nilly all over town. The weather is alternately warm and sunny or gently raining. Birds singing in the morning. Flowers? Try daffodils all around, tulip stems up, pansies, violets, redbuds. And they have this tree here, this beautiful tree that comes out in beautiful scented pink-and-white flowers as big as my palm. I didn't know what they were... it turns out that they are the famous Dogwood trees native to this region. Well, how was I to know? I've only lived in Texas and Vermont, both of which are sadly, sadly deprived of these 'Dogwoods'. I haven't been taking my camera with me lately, so this photo is from the Web instead. What an awful name for such a beautiful tree-- sounds like something 'dog-ugly'. I think they deserve a prettier name, something more evocative of what they are. I feel as though my senses are exta-refined right now, partly from the pregnancy and partly because I'm trying to see and feel everything about my first spring in this city. I walk around with my eyes wide open, trying to catch everything...




There's a scene in the movie Half Baked in which the main characters discuss all the different kinds of weed-smokers there are: the rebellious teenager, his middle-aged dad who still trying to be cool, the little old lady using it as pain relief... you get the picture. One of their portraits is of the guy who thinks that every experience in life is enhanced by the stuff.

"Have you ever looked at the back of a five-dollar bill, man? Yeah? Well, have
you ever looked at the back of a five-dollar bill, ON WEED?"

That's kind of how I'm feeling right now about pregnancy; that every experience I was already looking forward to for the next year is going to somehow be magically enhanced by being pregnant. Like, I can't wait to go swimming... while pregnant! I can't wait to go hiking... pregnant! I can't wait to go camping, to go to the farm (the CSA we joined requires a few hours' labor), wait in line at midnight for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, go on vacation... etc. I know it doesn't make sense and is based completely in fantasy, because most likely being pregnant is going to be rather detrimental to those plans and will make a lot of things uncomfortable. But I keep picturing myself floating through the summer, through my second trimester, doing all the fun things that we've planned.