There’s this woman at work. I’ve been working w/ her for over 3 years now. In the last 2 years, she’s seemed to put on weight; just a little weight, mind you. Well, in the last few months, she’s put on a bit more weight, & had developed an ever-increasing belly. A lot of times, women who find themselves w/ a bit of a belly try to hide it. Esp b/c they’re not used to having it, & they don’t really care for it. They do it more for themselves than for other ppl.

So, this woman. She’s been walking around w/ this belly now for the last 2 months. I just ignored it.

Oh, total sidenote: In my fam, they are not shy about mentioning these kinds of things. Once, I went to see my uncle after not seeing him for a year, & the 1st words out of his mouth were “Wow, it looks like you’ve put on some weight there? You need to exercise more.” No, I’m not kidding, you can’t make this stuff up. Oh, & btw, I’d gained about 10 pounds (maybe 8). And I wasn’t fat to start off w/. Yeah, they don’t like weight gain. But it’s better than my other uncle, who’s come to visit us from overseas, & hasn’t seen a lot of us in 15 years. He went to see my cousins, & mentioned how two of them had become “fatties”. So nonchalantly too. He’ll just say, “oh yeah, & we saw ‘so & so’ today, he’s turned into a bit of a fattie, hasn’t he?”, then ask when we were going to make his tea for his ‘4 pm tea-time’. B/c he doesn’t know how to make TEA!!! TEA, ppl!?!

Ok, back to the subject at hand. Yesterday, I saw her & she was wearing (what looked to me like) a pink maternity top. Now, I realize maybe she hasn’t been slingin back the Pabst Blue Ribbons. Maybe she’s pregnant. I mean, she’s married, young-ish, has a dog, & they just bought a house 2 years ago. No, I don’t know what the dog has to do w/ anything. At the time, I thought they’d moved into the house from the apt so that the dog had space to run around in. Now, it’s occurring to me that maybe they bought the house in preparation for a baby.

So, I still haven’t asked if she is or not. I don’t want to say anything about it, b/c what if she’s not? She’s a decent person. That, & the fact that when I request changes be made, she’s the person who decides what priority to give my requests; which in turn affects whether my requisitions are fulfilled in the next 48 hours or 8 months. Ok, more the latter reason; but still, I don’t want to hurt her feelings or upset her.

This is my current “pink elephant in the room & you can’t talk about it” situation. Literally & figuratively.