I missed an important date a couple of weeks ago. Not really surprising as it’s not an official anniversary of anything. But in the scope of what I want to talk about today, it’s an important one. Eight years ago this month, on a frigid mid-Missouri winter night, I met Dr. O’C for the first time. It will sound cliché, but from the instant I saw her walk into a party I was hosting at my ramshackle house on the Missouri River I knew that was going to do everything in my power to ensure that I would spend the rest of my life with this woman. And I did. No obstacle mattered – not the fact that I was in the midst of a (failing) relationship, not the fact that at the time she lived 2,000 miles away. I was a man immediately and irretrievably in love and fully victim of the madness that accompanies that emotion. It took about six months, but by that summer we were together. And we have been since.

We’ve been together now for over a fifth of my life and I can say without a doubt that these have been the best years of my life. Every morning that I wake up next to Dr. O’C is the start of a good day and every night that I go to sleep next to her puts the cap on a good day. Not every day is perfect. I can be unreasonable, she can be stubborn. We have our fights. But eight years on, I can’t imagine my life without her.

This is probably a good thing because all of this is a flowery prelude to a bit of news that we’ve decided we’re ready to share.  This is really a post that could just as easily have been a couple of sentences long. If I can put it eloquently, Dr. O’C is up the duff. In the family way. She’s got a bun in the oven. She is knocked up.

Yes, it was planned. Yes, we are happy. Boy Z’s brother or sister is due in late August. And yes, I’m hoping for a girl.* One who looks just like her mother.

If there could be another.

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There’s very little good music from the 80’s, but this Squeeze track is a wonderful exception. I think it strikes a chord for me because it paints a picture of what might have been had I made different decisions. “Squeeze – Greatest Hits” is available for download or on CD from Amazon.

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* I should state, in the interest of saving on future therapist bills, that I would be delighted if we have a boy as well.

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But I’d rather a girl…

 
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