So, after fussing and worrying about the possibility of being forced to have my baby at the so sub-par Park Plaza Hospital, and all the additional phone calls and paper work I went through to ensure I would be allowed to give birth at the delightfully high quality Hermann Hospital,  it seems like it has all been moot.  Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Memorial Hermann  have come to an agreement and the hospital is now accepting my insurance again.  It's is very relieving to have just one less thing to worry about.  And this was quite a biggie.  Especially after hearing how wonderful Marcela's experience was with Hermann. 

Marisa from Dr. Cook's office called me this week to let me know I was scheduled for my last Big ultrasound.  Unlike the ones done by Brandi and Dr. Cook, these are done by a ultrasound tech, generally at the hospital that the patient is pre-registered at.  So when she told me she had me scheduled at Park Plaza, I told her that I was registered at Hermann, who was now accepting my insurance.  In contrast to the typical office staff, Marisa was quite helpful and nice, and told me she was told that Hermann was not accepting BC/BS until January first, and that I wouldn't be covered at Hermann until the Transition of Care form was processed and approved.  So I called my list of people again, BC/BC, M. D. Anderson benefits, and Hermann Hospital and all three confirmed that as long as I have the BC/BS PPO, my coverage at Hermann would NOT be interrupted and that I was listed with everyone as being registered at Hermann.  I called Marisa back and left a message for her telling her this.  She actually called me back, which is extremely rare for his staff, and said, "Yes, you are correct.  It's been fixed and I already scheduled you for your Ultrasound at Hermann for the 11th."  Wow! Efficiency from Dr. Cook's office staff?? I thanked her, probably a little too enthusiastically. 

On a side note, to illustrate another bad point about Park Plaza: they couldn't see me for an ultrasound until the 25th!  Not enough time to see any abnormalities that might have to be addressed before birth, if you ask me.  Hermann got me scheduled to come in in less than a week.

This weekend was a busy one.  Saturday in particular.  We went to the Grand Prix races downtown with Sherri and Jason, and met up with Danny.  It was interesting, and quite neato to see those cars zooming so quickly through Houston downtown, although to make it really exciting, they should have thrown in some random construction and a few tow trucks driving with their typical desperate insanity.  Then it would have been just like driving on the highways.  But we did get to see Michael Andretti race. And the sports car racing was pretty neato, too!  Of course my favorites part of the day was the yummy turkey leg.  But all day, people kept coming up to me and asking the obvious questions: "When are you due?" "Is it a boy or a girl?" "Are you sure it's a boy, because it looks like a girl since your carrying low/carrying high/look really round/look not so round/have good skin/have bad skin." "Are you absolutely sure it's a boy??"  We started keeping count.  One time this man walked up to me, looking really inquisitive.  I braced myself for whatever question he had about my obvious condition when he asked, "Hey, where are they selling turkey legs??"  It took me a while to answer, I was taken so off-guard.

Saturday night Sherri and Jason and I met up with Geoff to go to dinner and the Symphony concert.  Geoff was performing again, so he got us really amazing seats.  I had never sat on the orchestra floor before and the difference is astounding.  There was so much leg room that you didn't have to stand up and move if someone wanted past you.  The seats were comfortable and reclined delightfully.  And of course the view is nicer.  Atlantis and two of her friends, both pregnant, Tracey and Tammy, met us there.  The music, of course, was just frankly incredible.  They started off with La Forza del Destino, which I performed in high school, but have never heard performed by someone else.  Just wonderfully intense and dramatic, just like you would expect the Force of Destiny to be.  I really love Verdi.  Beautiful oboe solo, as well, and I was pleased to see that it was the second oboe soloing.  I already knew the principle oboist was talented; now it seems they have a whole crowd of good double reeds.  It was over too quickly. 

The second piece, Samuel Barber's Prayers of Kierkegaard, was odd, unique in a marvelously intriguing way.  It was very modern, with lots of strange, alluring tones and themes ("what we used to call dischords" as some people might say) but the choral parts were just striking! Particularly the loud, intense moments, where the men chanted in a very commanding, powerful manner.  Of course, as soon as I started to get used to Barber's weird sense of music, and I began to really appreciate and enjoy the piece, it ended.  It was over much too quickly.

After the seemingly too short first half, the symphony played Holst's Planets. All of them.  How often do you get to hear the piece in its entirety performed live?  The music was so much more spectacular and intoxicating than I've ever heard on a recording.  Particularly so was the last movement, Neptune, which was described at the pre-performance Concert Talk as being music "without humanity."  He must of meant beyond humanity, because the music was absolutely celestial, truly divine.  But the most goose-bumply moment of the entire evening was the very, very ending of Neptune, where the women sang the most haunting choral part from off-stage.  It was entirely bewitching in a way that could never be captured in a recording.  It was over way, way, way too soon.  I could have sat through that entire program again.

I suppose Thomas enjoyed the concert as well, since he was incredibly calm and quiet during the soft parts, when usually he is fidgety any time I'm not standing or walking around.  But he really kicked and tumbled during the loud bangy parts.  I'd like to think that he's developing an appreciation for classical music in utero.  Although he might just have been trying to get some sleep and didn't appreciate the frequent interruptions.