This past weekend Matt and I had quite the adventure. For Hanukkah I got Matt a "NASCAR Experience" which meant that he could go to Texas Motor Speedway and drive a real, live NASCAR car. We have had this scheduled since December and of course this week Matt got sick. Fever, chills, sore throat you name it. Saturday night rolls around and he is still not feeling well. Unfortunately, you can not reschedule. So on Sunday morning he takes some dayquil and decides he will just suck it up. Thus follows a series of bizarre events. First, Matt decided that he would pick up Taco Bell on the way to eat. I thought this must be a good sign because no one wants to eat TB when you are really sick. We go through the drive thru and pick up a $5 box. Now, I must point out that TB is one of my favorite restaurants (I know some people do not consider it a restaurant but it is the only fast food restaurant I like). Unfortunately, they do not have any gluten free options beyond their rice and beans. Now, for anyone who has been pregnant you may have experienced a symptom I like to call "I must eat it now or I will die." This basically means that when I crave something specific to eat I have to get it and it usually involves some sort of outing for Matt. Well when that $5 box passed from the window in to my car I had a visceral reaction. I don't think I have ever wanted a food item more in my entire life. I obviously couldn't eat it and would have to content myself with the smell :(
As we are driving along Matt says he is feeling nauseous and we might need to pull over. I am certainly not letting him vomit in my new car. So we debated back and forth as to whether or not we should just turn around (the whole time my eyes were really on the crunch wrap supreme and wondering if he was just going to let it go to waste). In the end we kept on driving.
Now, since Matt opened this present we joked around that wouldn't it be funny if you had to know how to drive stick in order to participate in this experience. It was never a serious conversation and we never actually looked in to it. As we drove closer to the track (I'm not sure that's what it is called), we realized that this was in fact probably the case. Matt does not know how to drive stick, he has attempted to learn in the past but to no avail. So as we drove I tried to explain it to him. It is really hard to explain this to someone who looks like they are going to be sick in your car, while you drive, and there is a fully intact crunch wrap on the dashboard. I digress, we went over it a couple of times, but the conversation ended in Matt declaring that I would just have to do the experience because he was sick and he wouldn't be able to learn stick. As enticing as the idea sounded, I noted that they most likely to do not allow pregnant women to drive NASCAR cars. It may be somewhat of a liability for them. I assured him that he either wouldn't need to know or the instructions would be thorough enough before they even let people in the car that he could do it. They would also never let him get in the car by himself without an instructor.
We finally make it to the speedway and Matt checks in. They give him an awesome racing suit and tell him to wait for his driving class to start. Now, when we arrived there were A LOT more people there then I expected. Probably around 100 plus family members. I expected the "driving class" to be a one on one sort of deal (these experiences cost upwards of $300- don't worry I had a groupon). Well it turns out "driving class" is about 50 people in a room watching a DVD. At the end of the class the "instructor" Bob asks anyone if they don't know how to drive stick. One guy raises his hand, and it's not Matt. I panic because Bob then goes on to say that if you stall out twice you are off the track. He asks one more time and two more people raise their hands (Matt included). So Bob says he will meet them after the class to teach them. Well Bob's teaching was about as thorough as mine. I can tell Matt is nervous but he sucks it up and waits his turn. All he has to do is get it in to 4th gear and he's fine. I should note that there will be no one else in the car with him. If you have a driver's license and pay the exorbitant price they will let anyone drive a NASCAR car. Dear lord help us all.
Matt's turn is finally up and he climbs in to the car. They start the engine and he stalls. My heart sinks because I want him to be able to experience this so badly! On the second try a guy standing on the track talks him through it. He gets off to a slow start but finally gets it going. He makes it on to the track and starts zooming around. He has 8 minutes in the car and managed to get up to 152 MPH. Afterwards, he said it was quite the adrenaline rush and his legs were shaking but he did it! He had the biggest smile on his face.
On to Baby Sheldon, who is growing by leaps and bounds this week. He or she is about the size of an orange this week, her ears have migrated to the sides of her head, and her eyes are moving to the front of her face. Plus, Baby Sheldon can now wiggle her fingers and toes and make breathing movements in preparation for life outside the womb. My baby bump is getting much more pronounced and I'm starting to feel better. I also told work this week and am happy that I don't have to wear so many baggy clothes. I happily wore a much more fitted dress to show off the bump today. Here is this week's picture:
Pregnancy Highlights
How far along: 15 Weeks
Size of baby: Orange
Total weight gain/loss: 4 lbs
Symptoms: A little bit of nausea and a raging appetite!
What I miss: Taco Bell
Cravings: Taco Bell
