On the day I spent the lunch hour shopping for HDTVs
It started innocently enough, with my wife searching the kitchen for a missing bag of chips over successive days (I later found them in a high cabinet she could not reach were she standing on the shoulders of a swede).Then two new bags of chips appeared in the kitchen one afternoon, one of them "Dill Pickle" flavor, I kid you not. Why on earth they make such an abomination, I have no idea. Then, a day later, she broke out into ravenous drooling during an Outback steakhouse commercial featuring a Blooming Onion. That onion was her #1 topic of conversation that evening, ...even in conversations she was apparantly having with herself.
Now I’m not exactly Columbo, but these events were duly gathered and sorted in mi craneo for future reference.
Then, on the last warm, sunny evening of 2006 she tiredly rolled herself out on the couch in expectant silence.
"So, how was your day?"
"Had a doctor’s appointment," Ok, I had forgotten about her appointment. Recently she’d worried that she was experiencing symptoms of premature menopause and this had generated a few doctor visits. The doctors had told her she had nothing to worry about (as had I), but they ran a test anyway. Results were to be forthcoming, ...so perhaps these were the results.
"What did the doctor say?"
"I’m pregnant," She deadpanned. I glossed over this comment at first, assuming it to be a joke. I said I thought she was going to the doctor for test results, which led her to talk about the test itself, and then to recall our daughter’s cute antics in the examination room.
But of course, her statement was hanging over everything that was spoken in those few minutes (not that I really heard any of it). I tumbled the veracity of her statement around like a lozenge, but I couldn’t decide if it was true or not. Worse yet, I didn’t know how to ask. You see, since our first born, she has wanted/insisted that we have another child, while I’ve always been content and truly happy with our current head count. So, I knew if I asked in a negative fashion there would be no consoling her and no amount of clarification would suffice.
"So, are you really pregnant?"
And she nodded, yes.
While my first conscious thoughts were dominated by the uncertainty this news created, deep in my gut there was a bright, humming ball of restrained happiness that grew as we talked (kind of like the Grinch’s heart, ...in fact, exactly like that).
Even as I wondered how we would afford it, how we could afford it, and how in the hell I ever will afford this, ...the happiness grew. And inside my own head of worry, I was unable to fight off the notion that I was happy about it. I was happy about it, ...and that surprised me more than the news itself.
Even as I began to realize that the situation caused by this news was bringing me nothing but worry, nothing could stop the Grinch-like smile from being drawn across my face.
But my feelings would evolve (and continue to) in the following days, ...but more on that later.
Oh, ...and the HDTV plan scheduled for execution in summer '07 went up in smoke as if by the touch of the "Reality Fairy's" wand.
I hate that fairy.
<< Home