No, no, no, this is not about Don Henley and his worthless evening…

But it is about our last adult vacation. Tomorrow, Jamie and I head to our favorite stretch of beach–Seaside, Florida–for quiet and sunsets and… ease. I have a feeling that life’s about to get fast and we need a moment.

We need this place where pines grow out of sugar white sand and the lagoons and bayous press right up against the emerald green Gulf waters. Oysters are served from sun up to sundown (usually running 25 cents a dozen during happy hour) and the most exotic beer you can order is an Amstel Light. If a blood orange sunset isn’t blazing over the horizon tomorrow night, then a silver haze will tempt us to come back tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow for the real show…

Those little tables next to our beds say a lot about us…

Taking Stock:

1. Fresh hydrangea/rose arrangement is a gorgeous remnant of Saturday’s 8-hour baby shower. I christened the party “Parker Lee’s First Rager.” For the goo goo ga ga baby-in-utero party averse out there, I’ll say this: baby showers are nothing more than an excuse for women to get together, drink champagne and Chambord cocktails and eat tiny food. Who wouldn’t love that?

2. Six books because I grow bored with just one narrative thread. Right now I’m hopping between Wally Lamb’s very somber, “The Hour I First Believed,” Adriana Trigiani’s “Very Valentine” and another one of Marlena de Blasi’s succulent Italian adventures.

3. Picture of my handsome husband. He might be lying right next to me but, still…

4. Picture of Uncle Kirk, Mom and Pappy. It’s my uncle’s 2nd birthday and boy is Mom diggin’ the look of that icing… Mom’s tastes haven’t changed much and looking at my grandfather in the morning and at night makes me happy. Parker knows all about him… It’s the sweetest little snapshot. 

5. Bowl of dried lavender. It calms me like that big glass of Zinfandel used to.

So many life changes and I should be documenting them all, RIGHT-HERE-ON-THIS-VERY-WEBSITE. Why can’t I breathlessly report things as they’re happening?? Unfortunately, I seem to need 3 months, 6 months–sometimes years–before I can process and then write.

“Even for a simple blog post?!”

Yes, even for a little blog post.

And a book? Forget about it. I had to marinate (practically pickle) in my own thoughts for three years before I could fully process my first New York Days (the latter also being a fabulous book by Willie Morris). Even then I couldn’t get out half of what I wanted to say.

So imagine my little mind trying to wrap itself around the coming of a baby… My body and mind are tired come 5 o’clock– blogging is the last thing on my “To-Do” list. But I guess I have a somewhat viable excuse.

They tell me that now my body is busy helping her body create a brain, bone marrow. 30 ½ weeks along (but who’s counting?) and I’m growing a little human being who is in charge of her own red blood cell production, who is fattening up for her big debut at NYU hospital, who is now blinking and napping and listening to her Daddy’s voice at night when he gets up real close to my belly and talks to her when we’re in bed.

God-willing, I’m forming a child who will be much more intelligent, kind and patient than I… Can I eat something to encourage a forgiving, gentle nature?

When I’m relaxing with this little-human-to-be, guess what I do? I read about the Umbrian countryside (The Lady in the Palazzo; Marlena de Blasi), I eat Jamie’s homemade Gruyere and Pecorino Popovers and I indulge in an even guiltier pleasure… Some women play Bach and Mozart for their unborn children–I tune into the Real Housewives of New York.

Baby’s in for quite a ride, isn’t she? I’ll do my best to document… and get back to you in 3 years.

Our second must-read column over at MyScoop is all about cooking up winter veggies with style. Jamie and I took our kitchen cues from those uber-chic froggies accross the pond…

Paris Inspires Cooking With Balance

(Left: Okay, this photo has nothing to do with winter vegetables–and everything to do with champagne and chocolate and my 28th birthday– but it *was* taken during our culinary pilgrimage to the City of Light. Veggies made an appearance later in the trip.)

A typical day in our newlywed lives: We paint the nursery walls pink… and hubby makes homemade sausage in the new kitchen??

A word to expectant brides: Never let your husband loose with the registry scanner! He’ll come home with meat grinders and myriad other products sure to destroy the new countertops and your sanity.