Old Music Wednesday, and feeling like Santa Claus when I walk

Apparently neither my dad or my stepmom could hack Dr Oz's juice cleanse.  I'm all curious about it now.  It wasn't that they were hungry - it was that the shakes were so vile.  I really want to do it now, just to see what all the gross fuss is about.  I might just have to make the lunch shake myself sometime, just to see how awful it is.

Anyway, hopefully tonight is the last night of calling the baby "it" because tomorrow it will be "he" or "she."  I was 18 weeks yesterday - I lost Baby T at 20.6, so as I get closer to that it's definitely weighing on me.  But thanks to the sales at Old Navy, I have a kickass maternity wardrobe now, complete with skirts, dresses, jeans, pretty shirts, and even a bathing suit.  The bathing suit is because I joined the YMCA at the bottom of our mountain to use their pool.  Now that my belly is getting bigger, I find walking around the lake gets more difficult.  My belly shakes (like a bowl full of jelly) whenever I walk down hill, which happens quite a lot when you're going on a mountain path around a lake.  Then it's always sore for hours afterwards.  So I'm going to convert to swimming almost exclusively here soon.  I miss the lake a lot - those walks really do miracles for my spirit, plus I listen to lots of audiobooks - but I reckon that come the end of August or September, I can be back out there walking the baby around.  And still, just because I'm not using it as my primary exercise anymore doesn't mean I can't still go and meditate on the shore.  So anyway, I've got a cute suit on the way from Old Navy, and am excited to get back to exercising regularly and having my belly not be painful afterwards.

I've gained 12 pounds so far, which is really bumming me out.  I wanted to try to not gain more than 20 during the whole pregnancy, which I can see now probably isn't going to won't happen.  Ah well, I should still be able to stick to less than 30 though, which will take me back to where I was when I started losing all that weight two years ago.  All that work, just to be back to where I started.  At least having lost it once I know I can do it again.  And it's not like I'm gaining 30 pounds on top of that, which would have been really bad.

So, separate subject: Music.

I have discovered a new favorite recorder artist.  Maurice Steger is a (very good looking) Swiss recorder player who does a lot of work with baroque and early music ensembles.  I first discovered him on an album of music from Naples called Una Follia di Napoli which is lovely, but not really as much my thing as his English Collection, which I find just so Springtimey.  He also has an album of Telemann, whom I have adored since I was 18 years old and bought my first Naxos CD, which was the Telemann Recorder Suite in A minor.  I bought Naxos CD's because they were cheap, and I could afford them on my broke-student budget.  I obviously had no idea at less than eight years later I'd be heading up their online music library sales, reporting directly to the President, and getting skype calls from Klaus Heymann, the founder.  And I'd have all the Naxos music I could ever want available to me all the time.  Life sure is trippy like that.

Anyway, back to Telemann.  I'm a huge fan.  I think he's overlooked and underrated.  I once heard someone call his music bubble-gum, like it was Britney Spears or something.  That makes me mad, because his stuff is quite ornamental, and I can see where you might think it's fluffy, but there's a lot going on.  He bridges different styles and periods, and so it's hard to categorize him.  But I find his music makes my heart happy.  And Maurice Steger playing the recorder makes me happy, too.

In other news, Charlotte Church has a new album out, her first in quite a while.  It took me a few listens, but I've come to like it.  It sort of reminds me of a female version of Josh Groban.  She's moved away from that awful period where she tried to be a pop star, and actually uses her voice now in big bombastic huge melodies.  It's a little bit much for regular rotation on my spotify playlist, but I can see myself digging it out from time to time.

And less than a week until Dido's new album comes out.  Sweet!