In the Navy

Today my little brother is joining the Navy. He is on his way to boot camp in Michigan this very second. I’m having a hard time believing this is real.

Toby wants to be a Navy seal, so he had to commit to eight years, whether he actually becomes a seal or not. He has no idea whether he’ll even enjoy being in the Navy, but he committed to staying in it until he’s 30 years old. I can’t even commit to next weekend’s plans. I have no idea what I’ll be doing in eight years, and I have no desire to commit to anything that far in the future. I would be scared out of my mind just from the commitment.

Then there is the whole Navy seal business. Once I watched a documentary on Navy seal training. I think I blocked out the specifics (or I have a really bad memory), but it was seriously disturbing. I just remember that there were ridiculous activities that would have killed me in about two minutes, and I remember thinking that no one in his/her right mind would voluntarily sign up for something like that. Really well-built men were dropping out left and right. It was totally ludicrous.

So Toby has been working out for the last year and a half, trying to get ready. He does 500 sit-ups and 500 push-ups every day, and then straps on his army boots and runs for miles—sometimes on the beach. He also goes to the gym and swims a lot, and he's still going to get his trash kicked. What is he thinking?

I can’t believe that two people who were raised in the same house with the same rules and same parents and siblings can think so differently. Why did I grow up thinking that my only option was to graduate from college, get married, and have children, while my little brother was discovering all kinds of crazy things to do with his life? It totally blows my mind.

The Baby Center

Do you want to know something cool about being pregnant and clueless? There’s a website called babycenter.com that fills me in on everything I need to know. I get this weekly e-mail message that tells me how big my fetus is in relation to different foods. Last week it was a lemon; the week before it was a jumbo shrimp; before that it was a fig, etc. I can’t imagine what these e-mails are like for people who have morning sickness. I’m sickness-free and I still get totally grossed out thinking about a jumbo shrimp growing inside of me.

My weekly e-mail messages also tell me about how much weight I’ve probably gained, what symptoms I’m likely to be feeling, and what I should or should not do while I’m pregnant. I’ve learned all kinds of amazing tidbits that I never would have known on my own. Did you know that it’s not good to eat soft cheese when you’re pregnant? It’s also not good to take a bath in water that’s hotter than 101 degrees.

Luckily, the weekly e-mails haven’t said anything specifically about snowboarding, so I’m pretty sure that means I can still go. I’ve been really careful about not falling down, just so you know. And I feel okay about it because my mom said she skied when she was pregnant. She said I shouldn’t even ask the doctor if it’s okay because he might say I shouldn’t go, just so he won’t be held liable.

The best part of my weekly learn-how-to-be-pregnant e-mail is when it tells me the symptoms I might be experiencing. It seems like every week I discover something weird that is happening to my body, and of course it never crosses my mind that this new weird thing might have to do with being pregnant. Then, a day or two later, I always get my new e-mail telling me that I’m normal. Last week I told Ben that the second I stop eating I’m hungry again. It just started, all of a sudden. I couldn’t stop eating. Then, the next day I got my friendly reminder that when you’re 15 weeks pregnant, you might be ravenously hungry all the time. Those babycenter.com people are amazing! How did they know?