Happenings

Last week, (or was it longer?) I met Busca and Heatherlady in Utah for a little collaborator meeting. It was the first time I met Heather in person. That's wild to me--that I can collaborate for months so intimately through the internet and not actually meet a person. It was a bit like an awkward date at first, then slipped into normalcy--except that it was not normal at all because I hadn't been to Utah in 8 years and felt a little like I was checking out a long forgotten planet.

I also met Rebecca Overson. She's cool. If you are in Salt Lake and pregnant, you must go get prenatal massage from her. I remember my first and last pregnancy massage--I left so annoyed. I can rub lotion on myself, lady. But many massage therapists are afraid to touch pregnant women. Not Rebecca. Go see for yourself. You and your baby will be happy you did.


Here are the highs and lows of the trip:

Highs:
We met with Lynn Callister, and had a fabulous 2 hour lunch and chatted about all things birth. We asked her if she'd write the intro to our book and she said she'd be honored. That was fantastic. Lynn is an amazing woman. She's an RN and Professor of Nursing at BYU. She recently published a study on Spirituality and Birth in the Journal of Perinatal Education, which has been getting attention in the news. She has also published hundreds of other articles and studies. In fact, her CV of publication in just the last 5 years is over 35 pages long! She also wrote this article in the August 2009 Ensign about Postpartum Depression. Go Lynn. No wonder they have a scholarship named after her.

Clockwise: Lynn, Busca, Heather, Me

Creamery Ice Cream - My baby girl was such a trooper on this trip, (she is going to get honorary collaborator) so I promised her ice cream.

Busca and Phoebe at the Creamery.

Met with Josh (a cool director/writer/producer) and talked about movies. We've been talking about making a documentary about spirituality and birth--once the book is done. But I haven't really narrowed in on what exactly aspects of spirituality and birth and so we threw out some ideas and I'm going to be writing a longer blog post on this later.

Low: After eating at one of my favorite Indian food places, my daughter, Busca, and I all got food poisoning (we all ate the same thing--Heather was smart enough to order something else.) It was really sad. For about two days I wanted to die. I was miserable. But I was watched over, and here I am, alive and blogging.

Coming up: I may be going back to Utah to meet Rixa in August. She is now the only collaborator I have not yet met. (Maybe someday I will meet all the women who have sent me their stories. That would be awesome.)

And get this--we might meet with Sister Beck in August. Sister Julie Beck is the General Relief Society President and a champion for women, motherhood, and families, and we thought that she should know about our project. So, we called the church office building and talked to her secretary and when she gets back in town, she might be able to squeeze us in. I guess it's that simple. Who knew? I'm still not sure what to say to her, but I guess I'll follow Nephi's example: "I was led by the spirit, not knowing beforehand, the things which I should do."