One of the oddest benefits of being pregnant has been that I really enjoy wearing stretchy pants.  At first I was incredibly hesitant to wear maternity pants, like there was some strange stigma attached to them that I just couldn’t get past.  Plus, (I guess since this is my first pregnancy) it took a really long time for the belly to show.  Even when I first started wearing maternity pants in public, when I was at 18 weeks, I was still amazing small compared to how I am now – at 31 weeks.  Of course, the reason I started wearing the maternity clothing was because my non-maternity pants were uncomfortably tight, so whether the belly was obvious or not, if was definitely there.

I found the rubber-band-around-the-button method of extending the wear of my regular pants to be annoying, even though it did extend the life of my regular wardrobe a little.  But since I was planning on having at least two kids, I figured investing in a few pairs of wearable pants would be a good idea.  Of course, I’m nothing if not frugal, so I did check out local thrift stores first.  That was a complete dead end.  The maternity pants I found were all very, very used.  The elastic was overstretched and twisted, the fabric panels were faded and pilling, and the styles appeared to be as old as me.  I barely wanted to touch them, let alone purchase and wear them.

In the end I wound up purchasing five pairs of maternity pants from four different stores.  First I went to a Motherhood Maternity store and bought a pair of Secret Fit Belly Boot Cut Jeans that were regularly $25 but on sale for $22.  I also got a similar pair of Crop Jeans (capris) that were, I think, the same price.  I bought a size small for the regular jeans and medium for the crops, but for some reason the latter always fit better and the former were a little loose for many weeks.  I find the adjustable belly panel to be frustrating.  When it’s pulled all the way up, I tend to get warm, or itchy, and after a few washes the fabric of my shirts was getting stuck on the full panel.  Plus it’s a dark color and visible though many shirts.  I prefer to wear the pants with the panel folded over, but I find myself often pulling up the pants every time I stand up from a sitting position and constantly adjusting the folded-over panel.  Overall, they’re both comfortable, but I don’t wear them unless my favorite jeans are dirty.  Oh, and because it’s winter, otherwise I’d wear the crop jeans more often – even with adjusting the band, they’re still comfy.

I also purchased a pair of khaki pants, probably boot cut, with an under-the-belly elastic band that are Motherhood Maternity brand retailing for $30, but I got them at Burlington Coat Factory for $12.99.  I’m short and they’re a little long, so when I started wearing them I folded up the bottom cuff, but as my belly’s grown, I can just barely get by without folding them up.  They’re comfortable, but the elastic band usually twists a little when I sit, and so I adjust them every time I stand.  It’s an easy adjustment, though, easier than the aforementioned jeans, and quick.  And they look very nice.  I’ve worn them for just about every formal occasion lately, from Christmas dinner to church services, but they’re still casual and comfortable enough for everyday use or office attire.

I bought a pair of black slacks with under-belly elastic and a matching shirt from the New Recruit brand, which is sold at the Army and Air Force Exchange.  It cost $30 for both, but I haven’t worn the shirt yet as it’s polyester and a little warm.  The pants, though, I’ve been wearing.  I haven’t been wearing them in public much, even though I bought them to have something dressy, but they’re so incredibly comfortable that I often wear them around the house.  They’re mostly polyester with just a touch of spandex and they’re loose and flowing and light and I almost never have to adjust them.  And they look much nicer than sweatpants, so I don’t feel like a bum even if I’m just hanging around the house in them.  I really like wearing them.

Surprisingly, my favorite maternity jeans are the Old Navy Low-Rise Boot-Cut Jeans that cost $36.50 but that I bought for sale on their website for $25.  Actually, I was pretty mad at Old Navy because I had to order these pants online instead of buying them in the store.  I know that Old Navy used to have maternity clothes in their stores, but once I got pregnant, I could no longer find a store that still had a maternity section.  I hate buying normal clothes online since they often don’t fit as well as I’d hoped, and so I was extra wary about ordering pregnancy pants.  I measured myself twice and checked it against the online size chart three times and read all the reviews before placing the order.  When the pants arrived I was happy with how they looked, except that they sent me the wrong size.  I ordered the size I wanted, but they sent the wrong one.  This was days before we moved and now I had to go out of my way to FedEx the pants back to them after hours of struggling with the utterly uncooperative return label I had to print off the internet, which only successfully happened after some inventive finagling – and then they shipped the new pants to the wrong address!  I was in hysterical tears twice (Thank you, pregnancy hormones) before the whole mess was worked out.

So, many weeks after ordering them, I finally had the correct pants and was able to start wearing them.  Because they’re low-rise, they have an under-belly elastic band sown into the jeans instead of a full belly panel and this had made them much more comfortable then the first pairs of jeans I had purchased.  I wear these Old Navy jeans all the time.  They’re a little tight just after they’re washed, but they’re still as comfortable at 31 weeks as they were at 25 weeks.  I do have to pull them up sometimes when I stand, but that’s about all the adjusting required.  So even though I swore up and down that I wouldn’t order clothes again from Old Navy after all the frustration they caused me, and because I’m still upset that I can’t buy maternity clothes in their stores, I know it’s not true.  I have some shirts from them, too, and their maternity line is comfortable and more than stylish enough for a jeans-and-t-shirt kind of gal like me.  I’m a casual person; their clothes are casual.  We work well together, whether I like it or not.

Incidentally, I would also like to mention that for around-the-house attire, I really, really like wearing Target pajama pants.  In a size larger than I would normally wear, there’s more than enough stretch to the elastic to fit comfortably, and they’re lighter than sweatpants, which is good for Florida weather.  I wouldn’t wear them out in public (I’m not that casual) but I love wearing them all day.

I’m not sure how I’m going to feel about going back to regular pants.  I’ve gotten incredibly accustomed to wearing sweatpants-like attire and I’m not sure I’m going to like going back to normal jeans and pants and letting go of all my stretchy, elastic bands.  I know I’ll need the maternity pants for a little while after the baby arrives (during the infamous “fourth trimester”) and I’m certainly looking forward to losing the baby weight and getting back into my old wardrobe, but – and I can’t believe I’m saying this – I think I’m going to actually miss the maternity pants.  Well, maybe that’s not true, but I’m certainly going to miss having an excuse to walk around in pajama pants all day and jeans that expand with me.

On a not-too-chilly Florida evening, my husband and I find our seats in a darkened stadium that slowly fills to capacity.  After an announcer welcomes us and tries not to burst with excitement, promising us a special surprise and insisting over and over that we “not leave early,” everything goes black.

There’s a misty blue light clouding onto to the stage and as deep bells ring out and a rumble slowly crescendos, silhouetted figures become visible and then with a burst of quick, colorful lights and a heavy bass of drums and electric guitars a chorus of voices explodes into the stadium.  There’s music, loud and passionate, and lights, swift and pulsating, and at one point I see a guitarist, his long, blond hair whipping about because he’s headbanging as he jams out to “Joy to the World,” and I find myself thinking, hey, these are my kind of people.

Somewhere between the keyboard and electric guitars, the long, feathered hair, the ballad-like lyrics and the vibrant laser light show, I feel like I’m in the middle of an ‘80s metal music video.  It’s pretty cool.   Of course, I’m a child of the ‘80s, so I can’t help it:  metal’s in my blood.

But this isn’t your normal rock concert.  It’s the Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s Winter Tour 2009 performance at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Florida.  We attended on 06 December, buying the tickets kind of in celebration of my birthday, which was the day before, and our wedding anniversary, which is next week.  We though it would be nice to do something a little different, which is what the Trans-Siberian Orchestra is:  a little different.  It’s a mini-orchestra but it’s a rock band, too.  They play Christmas music and pieces from traditional operas, as well as their own works.

The Trans-Siberian Orchestra has been around since the release of their first single, “Christmas Eve in Sarajevo 12/24,” fourteen years ago.  They’ve sold over seven million copies of their first four albums, but they are best known for their concerts, playing to over 5 million people in over 80 cities by 2008.  Their concerts are presumably memorable because creator Paul O’Neill was not only trying to build a progressive rock band that would push existing boundaries, but, according to their website, he was determined to have “people to walk out of our shows speechless and…still not believing what they have seen was possible.”

It was certainly impressive, but I also can’t say that it was the best concert I’ve ever seen – especially since the last concert I saw was Paul McCartney, and I don’t think anyone will ever top that.  The band was certainly talented, most of the vocals were well executed, and the light show was well arranged, but there was something a little off.  I think that perhaps it was a bit unbalanced.  I thought the narration was nice and provided a fairly appropriate break between some of the songs, but some segments were a little overly-lengthy.

Also overly-lengthy was the slow song sang by a singer portraying a drunken homeless man to only the background on a single acoustic guitar.  It’s not that I can’t appreciate a good message or a temporary slow pace while attending a rock show, it’s just that it’s so darned hard to me to make out what people are saying through a microphone when I’m not familiar with the material, and it’s just as hard for me to be entertained by what I’m only able to interpret as gibberish.  It’s not their fault – I’m a bit hard of hearing these days, but I can honestly say I mostly enjoyed the loud music and psychedelic lights and the energy of the passionate band members, like the crazy, headbanging violinist who kept swinging around her bow.

After what I’ve just said, however, I still feel it’s important to mention that one of my absolute favorite parts of the show was a single man soulfully singing “O Holy Night.”  I took over 30 minutes worth of video of the concert, but didn’t tape this – and wish that I had.  It was a very powerful performance.

I also have to mention that we did not have good seats.  I can’t complain too much since we didn’t even buy the tickets until a week before the performance, so we already knew our choices would be limited.  And maybe it was just the venue, since there were these gigantic posters hanging from the ceiling of the stadium to brag about the Tampa Bay Lightning’s past accomplishments just to the left of where we were sitting and there was this massive structure, presumably to hold lights, that was hanging very low and just above the stage, and thus obstructing our view.  I would see this concert again in the future, but only if I had the money to spring for the best seats:  either on the floor in front of the stage or at least in the first level.  We just really felt that the show would have been much, much better if you could look directly at the stage and not down on it from the nosebleed section.

As a special treat, instead of a traditional encore, the surprise the announcer had promised turned out to be a guest appearance by Joe Walsh (a former Eagle), who sang the last two songs of the evening.  It was a completely different atmosphere, and one that was purely fun – even the TSO band members were having a blast onstage.  He did an eight-minute performance of “Life’s Been Good” and then “Rocky Mountain Way,” complete with talk-box sound effects.

Incidentally, this completely unexpected turn of events – Joe Walsh’s appearance – means that in this year of 2009, my husband and I saw live performances from one of the Beatles and one of the Eagles.  Just one of each, but that makes it a memorable year nonetheless.

And now to leave you with a quote from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra:

In the moments of our lives / Both the joyous and the tragic / If the truth is to be told / We are all pursuing magic. / And the magic that we seek / As we’re sure you have discovered / Can be found in certain places / Far more easily than others.

In the sand beneath the Sphinx / In the dreams of candlelight / But the surest place of all / Is the forgiving world of night. / And of all the nights throughout the year / That come and gently leave / None hold the dream of magic / Like the evening, Christmas Eve.

Saturday was my 28th birthday and my husband and I spent the day out.  We saw a movie, though that choice was mostly made because we had been meaning to visit the Big Cat Rescue but the weather was terrible and we needed to find an indoor activity.  So:  movie.  Simple enough solution.

Then we had a nice dinner at Maggiano’s Little Italy at the Westshore Plaza in Tampa.  I wasn’t sure where I wanted to have my birthday dinner, but his parents and sister gave me a gift certificate which was good at a few places, including Maggiano’s, and I’d been in the mood for Italian, so again:  easy solution.

The food was quite good and the décor upscale, but we’ll probably stick with Carrabba’s Italian Grill in the future since its still Seth’s favorite restaurant – and it’s cheaper.  I’m just not that much of a “high class” person, but when I do go somewhere that’s supposed to be classy, I don’t expect the servers to shout to eat other from twenty feet away or to touch every single water glass in the restaurant with the rim of the water pitcher or to ask me if we’d like them to box up our food when I’ve still got my fork in my hand.

If I’m going to chance putting up with all that, I’m going to eat somewhere cheaper.

The food, though, was very good, and because it was Seth’s first time eating there, we were offered (just like we saw them offering other tables) a complimentary sample of their fried zucchini, or Crispy Zucchini Fritte, appetizer.  That’s something I wouldn’t have ordered on my own, but it was incredibly tasty!  The crunchy, breaded zucchini with a warm, soft center then dipped into the lemon aioli cream sauce was more like a savory dessert then a vegetable.  Also, we had ordered the Bruschetta, which we both loved.  Fresh, juicy tomato chunks topped crouton-like, crispy bread, and I thought it could have used a little onion, but Seth thought it was perfect the way it was.  Those two appetizers were our favorite part of dinner, really, and we could easily go back for just wine and appetizers and be plenty satisfied.

For an entrée, Seth got the Chicken Marsala, which he said was very good, but he still preferred Carrabba’s – no surprise there.  (I think he could eat Carrabba’s Chicken Marsala every night and never get tired of it!)  He wished there was pasta on the plate, too, but since pasta is traditionally a first course, I believe that’s why it was excluded.  I ordered pasta as my main course:  a plate of Gnocchi with Tomato Vodka Sauce.  The gnocchi were tender and the tomato-cream gravy smooth and flavorful.  I do prefer more sauce on my food, which I know is merely a personal preference, but the top pieces seemed a little dry to me since the sauce had pooled in the bottom of the bowl.

No dessert was ordered because we were both quite stuffed, and there was cake waiting for me at home anyway.  In fact, I barely made a dent in my full-size (as opposed to half-sized) plate, which I believe could have really fed three or four people, and even Seth took home some chicken.  But that’s okay; we’ll just have leftovers for a little while.