Another birthday is looming for me, threatening (as it does) to ratchet the years up one more notch and bring me that much closer to an assisted living facility. Frankly, I can’t wait. It is simply too noisy in this house — all the time — and if a retirement home is what it’ll take to get a moment’s peace, then give me an AARP membership and send me packing.
Jaclyn is, thankfully, aware of my almost complete lack of respite from…well…normal life, and her birthday present for me this year (which, honestly, was as much for her) was focused on not just giving me a break, but also delivering some stellar food into my stomach.
Some time back, Jaclyn talked my friend, fellow podcaster, and culinary whiz Jermone into preparing a dinner for us. By the time he arrived tonight, fresh off Dipsgiving, Jaclyn had disposed of both Miles (sent to a friend’s house) and Brie (sent to a neighbor’s), leaving us a nice, quiet house in which to enjoy an awesome meal.
As parenthood sweeps us up and alters life to the point we can barely remember existence before it, having a moment like this, at home, feels almost like visiting an alien world. Was life ever like this? And no, I don’t mean the private chef (I remember enough to know that life was never like that). The calmness. Not silence, but the ability to actually sustain a conversation, spoken in a normal tone of voice, without even the fear of interruption. I didn’t expect dinner tonight, but I was even less prepared for the setting, which might have been the secret ingredient of it all.
The Perils (& Pride) of Paternity 