Arif Mardin

...passed away. one of the nicest people in the industry that i've ever met. his son is just as nice. powerful, intelligent and nice human beings in the music industry - not a combination you'll find very often. i couldn't start today without touching on that. it was kind of a shock when i read that today. i hope it gets the coverage it deserves.

okay then...back to friday.

i get to work, and things are crazy. it's nearly 2pm already and i have a shitload of work to do. my boss is travelling the following monday and we're having a showcase in about 30 minutes. we have to go through a ton of things before he goes. he's clearly stressed. i tell him "let's go through everything that's going to happen next week" and he says "yes, we have to". but then he gets stuck on the phone with a mega producer. the head of human resources calls me, tells me she needs me to sign some paperwork for the maternity leave (which, by the way, is not going to be my due date, but a week before, per my doctor on friday. doesn't want me going into labor on the train. how do you argue with that kind of logic?) so i tell her, can we do this on monday? i have all this to get done and very little time to do it. she says sure, call me when you're done. so i'm getting everything together and he's still on the phone... then i hear his cell go off, and he's whispering something. then he comes out of his office, comes into mine and says 'the showcase is starting'. i'm like, "what? nobody told me." he says "yes, yes. the showcase is starting. i have to go. we can go through this stuff after it's over."

hmmm. i'm thinking...okay. there's no way in hell anyone would call his cell to say the showcase is starting. he's the head of the department. it's up to him when these things begin.

so i figure they're doing something for me. i don't know if it's a baby shower, or what it is, but i'm noticing people shutting up as i walk past them (to go to the bathroom 12 times). then clarence, who probably smoked way too much weed in his home country of jamaica prior to becoming one of our security guards, calls me and tells me that there's some guy downstairs with balloons. i have NO IDEA why he's calling me. i have no idea who's balloons these are. he mentions evelyn. i call her up, and i say "what's wrong with clarence? why is he calling me about balloons?" and her answer is "what? what the hell are you talking about?" so i tell her, and she's all "clarence is out of his mind, you know that. he calls you because you're ALWAYS in your office. it's probably for the place next door."

i'm very suspicious.

but about 2 minutes later the head of h/r calls me again and says "i really need you to come down because the head of finance said they have to talk to me, so i need this paperwork signed now." and she sounded pissed, so i went right down. kind of nervous actually. i get to the floor and walk in. she's standing there discussing something with one of the directors. she says "oh good, you're here. there's someone in my office, so let's just sign these in here" and she opens the conference room door....AND EVERYONE IS IN THERE. INCLUDING THE BALLOONS. AND MY HUSBAND!!!

oh these sneaky fuckers!! they really did get me afterall. apparently they beat up clarence, because he's such a doofus. he did this to me once before. it was my birthday and they ordered a cake, and because my name was on the cake, he called me. :)

anyway, it was an amazing baby shower. i cannot believe the gifts we were given, the cakes that were made for us from a special bakery in harlem. one was a gorgeous sheetcake, and the other was a three piece cake - 2 booties and 1 hat - all with pink ribbons!! we had to take a car home to get the gifts here. it was insane. my boss paid for everything, got me a travel swing, and then footed the bill for the car home! they invited my sister too, but she couldn't get out of work. it would have blown my mind if my sister was there too, but she had a GREAT time while i was calling her saying things like "either i'm getting fired, or they're planning some kind of party for me, and marcellino is in on it!" she's like "huh! really? yeah? huh!" idiot!!! but the italian had dropped me off at one train station, raced home, changed and went to another train station. he got into the city about 20 minutes after i did!

sadly, evelyn had organized the whole thing, and of course, i didn't know so i yelled at her last week for vanishing for 3 hours. (well, she did vanish! and it WAS a drag!! and how could i know??) so i'll be hearing about that for the next 12 years. :)

well, i had so much fun. there had to be 45 people there, coming in and out. the italian was taking pictures of the whole thing. i will never ever forget it. i loved it so much. i love the people i work with and i'm extremely lucky to have them around me on a daily basis. it was mind blowing. then i had to go back upstairs to finish up everything and then we came back home.

i got to bring the booties/hat cake home so my sister got to have some with us.

saturday we had scheduled some special stuff. i finally arranged a haircut and pedicure (don't want nasty feet in the delivery room!) and i had given the italian a gift certificate for a massage at the same place for christmas. so we went together. it was nice. we had a graduation party later that night for my sister's friend's daughter (kelly, who i love). sadly, it was very rainy and gross out. the party was to be in their backyard. i was getting a bad feeling. so was the italian. and my sister's dog freaks out when it rains. she's a tough little bugger, but rain and thunder truly freak her out. but she didn't want to cancel, so we didn't either.

nightmare.

there were so many people crammed into the house. it was about 97 degrees in there, and i couldn't get out of people's way. the only seat i could sit in was right in front of the ac, so i was either getting such a cold blast, or it was boiling hot. i can't tell you how many times i put on and took off my jacket. finally, i went out into the rain. the italian walked right into my belly. heh heh. poor maggie. then i went a little further down the driveway, and my sister was smoking a cigarette. i heard a weird noise, and i walked up to see what it was. at the same time, she walked right into me because she couldn't see me (it was super dark) and nearly set me on fire!! there were sparks everywhere! she's like 'oh my god! are you okay" i said 'yes, i'm fine. i'm also ready to leave!' so we went back in to say goodbye, and of course it was just when they were bringing the cake out. it was insanely crowded because now all of the high school grads were there too (oh my god, such nice kids, it just makes me so happy to see such cool kids!) but i felt like i was passing out. i decided to just go out the door and wait, and it didn't take long at all for my sister and the italian to work their way out to me.

whew. what a relief. i was so happy to just be moving in a car with ac on! we didn't want to go home yet, but my sister did. so we just drove around for a bit after leaving her. it was so nice just to be with him!

i think we both really realized what our new reality is at the shower. all these beautiful gifts for our maggie. the reality that we do have to get a crib and changing table/dresser for her soon. i could have her at any time now. i'm 36 weeks pregnant. and we're both so happy.

but we do have some movies to see! i think i want to see superman, but it's 2 hours and 45 minutes. i wonder how many times i'll have to pee during it! i also want to see The Lake House, which kind of surprises me. i'm such a girl!

okay. that's enough for today. i'll talk to you tomorrow!