Halfway through the TWW (super long post! Huzzah!)

I don't know how people do this over and over.  The wait is killing me.

My husband leaves tomorrow morning to work at a camp for disabled kids for 5 days.  He's super excited to be doing something different for a few days, I'm kind of excited to have some time to myself. 

Last night, I went out with some friends.  It was really hard.  They're not people I know super well, but I like them a lot, since they're all close to my age and live in the same area as I do, plus most of them are super nice and really funny and I always have a good time when I hang out with them.  But, last night.  Ugh.

So I'll back up a bit.  When I was in high school, I had neighbors who lived down the street with one boy a year older than my sister and I, and another a year younger.  Since we didn't have a high school in our small town yet (they finally built one that opened the year after I graduated), we had to drive to the closest city for school.  There was a bus that came out there, but it had a LOT of area to cover so it took forever, and we were all in band, which started an hour earlier, which meant we couldn't take the bus anyway.  Because there were so many people who drove in from all over the area, this meant a few things: none of our parents wanted to get up that early to drive us that far, and there were so many people driving in that there wasn't enough parking for all the students.  So there was sort of an informal system of carpooling, and older kids usually drove their younger neighbors, with the younger neighbors taking over driving duties once they became old enough.  So we carpooled to school every day, and the older boy taught me how to drive a stick, and we were all like a family.  You know, like most people in band (you do know that right?  I can't be the only band nerd around)

ANYWAY!  The older of the neighbor's kids was a really good friend of mine, and we've kept in touch over the years, despite all of us moving all over the place for college, grad school, jobs, etc.  Well, a few years ago (probably more than a few actually), the older kid finally moved back to the area (with his fiance!) and settled down and we started hanging out and I became good friends with his fiance (now wife).  They started a family pretty quickly, she got super involved in the community and made a ton of friends with other mothers, and she ended up starting a book club and inviting me to join, even though I didn't have kids and everyone else did.

So I'm still in the book club and I'm still the only childless one, but seriously, everyone in the book club is so awesome I just love hanging out with them.  My sister and I have both invited a few friends to join over the years, and it has expanded to include some amazing women.

But last year, my friend and his wife moved away for a post-doctoral position on the east coast.  They actually left early in the morning after my wedding, so at least they made it to that, and then they were gone.  We've continued the book club without her, although she still joins in on our online discussions and we've Skyped with her a few times at meetings. 

And now she's visiting again!  Yay!  And she organized a dinner out last night!  Yay!  But some of the conversations really got to me, especially the two women who were complaining about how they got pregnant with their second children despite only having sex once during the prior month.  And there was SO MUCH COMPLAINING about children.  I think most of them are stay-at-home moms or have part-time jobs or seasonal jobs (like teaching), so they spend more time at home with the kids than most of the people I know in the rest of my life (who I know through work, so obviously, they don't stay at home with their kids).  It was hard to sit there and listen to that. 

OK, got that off my chest.  I'm now 8 days into the TWW, with 6 days to go.  I'm also on CD 19.5 (I started at night, I'm never sure how to count it when that happens).  My last few cycles have been around 22 days, with quite a bit of cramping and spotting in the 5 days or so before the cycle starts.  I know I took drugs this time that ensured a good uterine lining and actual ovulation, so things could be different, but the fact that I have no signs of an impending period are really encouraging.  My boobs have also been quite sore, especially at night.  I'm trying not to be too hopeful, but I so want this to be the month.  If this isn't the month...  Well, I'm planning some camping trips for August, and I should at least be able to go on the first one without injections causing problems.