It's a Girl! - Chapter 15

My daughter, Mia, was conceived on Friday, April 13th.  This is Good Friday and Friday the 13th of 2001.  That should have been enough to tell me that I was in trouble!  I like to tell her that this was the day that good and evil came together to make her!  LOL!  (Prepare yourself… I am THAT kind of mother)

But I digress… I took the pregnancy test, called my sister, cussed HER out while also cussing out Baby Daddy to her.  Once I calmed down I called him, and we broke up.  What?  Not the story you were expecting?  Welcome to my world.

But I had made a choice and I was fully committed to have this child on my own.  My sister was extremely supportive, and all of my radio family decided that they were now in charge of my life.

My body, however, decided to punish me.  I have not told you this story before, but when I was 19 I had been pregnant, and that pregnancy had really screwed up my body.  I will tell that story another day, but the point was that I knew what a pregnancy would do to me.

So, I immediately prepared myself for nine months of ALL DAY morning sickness – and that is exactly what happened.  I woke up at 5am so that I could eat slow enough to finish three-four crackers over a 30 minute period.

After this I had enough strength to get up and make myself two plain scrambled eggs, which would then take me about 30 minutes to eat in order to keep down.  After that I had to stay extremely still for 30 minutes.  Then I could get up and take a shower.  Eating tiny bights of cheese and crackers all the while.  If I did not get enough protein throughout the whole day.  Or if I just threw up once – I was down for two days.

I did not have time for this!  It was just me, and now I was in a rush to make as much money as possible in anticipation of taking care of this baby myself.  I was at work by 8:30, right on time every day.  I took only a few days off throughout my whole pregnancy, and I made it through because of the strength of my friends, sister, and Grandparents.

My little Japanese Grandma, Obaba, decided that the baby needed Steak, spinach, and tofu with fresh ginger EVERY SINGLE DAY!  Everything soaked in soy sauce, of course, because she used it like it was salt!

Right at five months I wanted to know the sex of the baby.  But, again, Baby was being DIFFICULT and hid from us!  So a week later my sister took me again and we found out Baby is a Girl Baby!  I was so happy!  I never thought of myself as a mother of a little girl, I had always pictured myself with a boy.  But what was weird was that I had a little girl’s name picked out since I was 12 years old.  Her name would be Mia.  And her middle name would be Heather, after my sister.

But what about a last name? Do I name her after her Father?  Probably not since we had broken up and I had not spoken to him since the day I told him I was pregnant.  So… who knows…  I would decide later.

In the meantime, I was working days at the radio station, and nights running my club nights.  Slightly inappropriate? Yes – but the good news was that until the very end, because I am so tall, you could not really tell I was pregnant. My friends used to joke that Mia was standing up in my stomach!

Six months in I woke up one morning and turned on the news.  It was September 11th and I was watching the first tower in New York on fire. At that moment we were all trying to figure out what happened.  Until I watched as the second plane flew right into the other tower.  I immediately ran to the phone and called my radio family.  We were all on high alert and scrambling to get in to work to see what needed to be done.

In media, whether it is radio, TV, newspaper – or now online – you have a certain responsibility to your audience.  We knew this so we all gathered together to see how we could help.  We were on high alert and locked down the building.  You never know what crazies are going to show up and feel like it is their duty to get on air and save the world!

There was so much news coming in at once, and so many people calling all of the radio stations asking questions that we finally hooked the stations up to CNN and let them simulcast on all stations 24 hours a day.  Then the rest of us started planning benefit concerts and Red Cross Blood Drives.

Finally, I went to Obaba and Bumpa’s house to check on them and the boys.  Of course, they were watching the news non-stop. I just remember that I was so stressed out, and Mia knew it.  She would NOT stop kicking me – so I finally had to go home and keep the TV off.

What was crazy was that I was supposed to be in NY that morning….

Back in February one of my dear friends, who ran the hotel, and was originally from Greece,  had transferred back to Athens to run Sofitel Hotels.  We had made a plan for me to go and visit.  I would fly from NY to Greece at 6:30am on September 11, 2001.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, I got pregnant and knew I would not be able to make it.  So I cancelled the ticket.

I would have already been on my way to Greece when the first plane crashed into the first tower, however, I would have not been able to get back.  If you remember, no one was allowed to come back into the Country for almost two months.

Later I asked Greg – what would I have done for two months in Greece?

I would have put you in charge of all these Fucking Americans that I was stuck with for two months – that’s what you would have done!

Well ok then – LOL!

But alas, I was pregnant, so there was no Greece for me!

The next few months were exhausting!  As every pregnant woman will tell you.

David, aka Dada, who is one of my dearest friends and more like a brother to me, was the brunt of all of my uncomfortableness.

Two of my radio station girlfriends who decided it was their job to take care of me since there was no father, and my parents were still not talking to me.  I was in trouble with these two!  They were the best!

At the very end I had pretty much lost my mind and took matters into my own hands….