An Identity Crisis?!! Oh no! I knew this pregnancy was wearing me out!

But seriously, looking at my blog, I see that it is strange to have my name appear as "Irina Sergeyevna." It'll be changed back to my normal name before most of you read this, but for about two hours I appeared here under a different name. As Catherine asked me who Irina is, however, I thought I'd explain and, let's be honest, reminisce a little.



Irina Sergeyevna is a role I played at BYU in 1994 in Chekhov's The Three Sisters. The youngest of the three sisters, she was inadvertently responsible for the death of the plays most beloved character, Tuzenbakh. (Though should she really blame herself when someone lets himself get killed in a pointless duel over her? I mean, really?) It wasn't my greatest work ever, but Emmie played my eldest sister, and I still call her Olga much of the time. I know, it's pretty random to call myself that when it really means something to just a few other people, but posting comments as "dianna g." has felt boring. I'll have to find some kind of middle ground, because I have the cutest picture of Sophie on my profile, and if I don't comment as a blogger, the world will miss it. Anyway, I very much see myself as Irina. She was passionate, emotional, often a bit confused, very childlike, and she had a bad habit of not getting things done (like that coveted trip to Moscow!). That pretty much sums me up most of the time!

Now my favorite role ever has a very boring name: Kate Mundy. Another good friend, Jannah, played my little sister, Christina, that time. As I already have a sister named Christina, I choose to call her Jannah. I must share, however, that my favorite cast-mate memory of Jannah is when she played Poseidon in The Odyssey. She was so brilliant that I feel really sorry for everyone in the world who missed her performance. My hand has only recently healed from the day she slammed a 5 pound trident onto my fingers when I, as Zeus, wasn't paying enough attention to her godly demands. Those were very special days!

(Incidentally, if you feel up to something like The Odyssey, you must try the Robert Fagles translation. It's hysterical genius!)

Of course, in that play, we each played multiple roles, most of which were men. Identity crisis indeed!

To Do Lists While You Have a Big Belly

I have one response to them. Phooey!!

Okay, I'll elaborate. I am a Palm girl. I live in my Palm. Well, sort of. I'd live in it a little more if the touchscreen were more reliable than a Palm and didn't need reconfiguring every 20 minutes. But, I digress. Like a great old Go-Go's song once said, "I am a girl of a hundred lists..." Isn't that a nifty tune, by the way? I loved the Go-Go's!

So, each day I make an effort to review and revise my To-Do List, but during these last few days I've made very little progress shrinking it down. It has been growing and growing, and it doesn't contain a whole lot of things that make me excited. Allow me to share it with you.

I will now proceed to list my "Last 7 Days list" with due dates and explanations, because you need to know these things. This does not include anything planned for tomorrow or later. It also does not include my list of library books checked out (unless they were due in the last 7 days), life goals (one of which is to learn at least two more languages - doesn't that make me cool?), church responsibilities due in the future, shopping needs, thank yous I should be writing, and other "personal" items (a.k.a. everything else). So, back to this last weeks due dates:

- Due 3/11! - List people to pray for - I heard of this lovely idea when you have a lot of people you care about and want to pray for, but you tend to forget about by the time you kneel down exhausted by your bed (or lay on your side clutching a pillow to your expanding belly). Anyway, I've got a lot of people I should be praying for, so I'm wanting to do the list. This item, I must point out, will be like some others that do not get checked off for the day, but get a new due date assigned to them. You will see a few others like it. So, did I make the list for prayer yesterday (!)? Not yet.

-Due 3/11! - Pray for miracles in our lives - Why have I kept this one? No, really, why? I'm not sure, and I want someone else to answer it for me. I just get so moved when I'm in church and someone teaching a beautiful Relief Society lesson challenges me to pray for miracles in my life. I just have to write it down. I haven't prayed for any very specific miracles yet, but I've recently learned of some great miracles I should be praying for in some other peoples' lives. So, I'll get to work there.

-Due 3/11 (surprise!) - Easter music. Oh wait, I can check this off. I have accomplished something. I won't explain it. I just needed to send an email, and I actually did it for a change. Woo!

-Due 3/11! - Temple - I volunteered to help coordinate temple trips with other Moms of wee ones. I've shirked this so far. I'm too tired right now. I should change the due date to something more reasonable.

-Due 3/11! - Update Palm and calendar - No explanation needed, except that I must comment at what a ridiculous obsessive compulsive I am that I actually gave myself an assignment in my Palm to update my Palm. What a weirdo!

-Due 3/11! - Organists, pianists - One of the joyous responsibilities of overseeing music in the ward. You are supposed to know who has the ability to fulfill these responsibilities. I'm overdue on this one, so that's why I keep torturing myself to finish doing the updated research and send the info along to the Music Advisor. But, really, I'm pregnant and being kicked all of the time. My poor children (the ones already born) are sorely neglected. I'm exhausted. I need more time. So, this needs a better due date.

-Due 3/11! - David fix computer - It's broken. I want it fixed. Not this one I'm typing on. It's fine. Just the one that Aidan used to play on while I was on the elliptical. Oh, I had such a great system down. But the computer is broken, so you can guess what other To Do item will go undone for yet another day.

-Due 3/12 - Exercise - see last item

Okay this is getting old for you, so I'll stop. Suffice it to say that this pregnancy has just taken me by surprise, and I feel so dragged out that it's hard to get things done. (Plus, what's my problem with a million church responsibilities? I'm really overdoing this stuff). You see, I had such awful doctors and took horrible care of myself when pregnant with Sophie that I felt terrible for much of it (and I gained a ton of weight). Then, when I got some education, got better care, and took better care of myself with Aidan, I felt great. I guess it's just been a surprise that my sickness went longer on this, my 2nd trimester flew away with the holidays and other major events, and I'm now just feeling like Ripley does in Aliens when she dreams that the alien's hand is rising out of her. (It's a pretty cool scene.) Not comfy! I guess it's the 3rd time Mom or the "I'm 33 now" thing. I've really been trying to take care of myself this time around, and yet my body seems to be saying, "Okay, this has been nice, but how many more times do you think you're going to do this to me, because I'm not sure if I'll be up to it again."

So, I think the newest item on my list should be "try not to complain and keep your chin up," due daily. One thing I know I'll be adding around May 24th - "Give birth."