The first day of the rest of your life

Today was the first Monday in a long time (save vacations) that I didn't have to get up for work. It was a beautiful morning. I did get up, a little earlier than usual actually, but I didn't have to, and that was glorious.

Last Friday was my last day of work. For the next four months I'm a free spirit. Sure, I have to work remotely, but that's only for 2 hours a day and can be done from Starbucks (which I'm doing right now). But besides that, I'm a bum.

Of course, come November it will all come to an end. My life will be plunged into a world of diapers, vomit, bodily excretions, screaming, crying, swaddling and sleep deprivation.

In short, I have four months of freedom before 18 years of servitude.

For those of you just tuning in, we are having a child. A boy. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around this one. My wife, aka "the Boss," is hosting an organism that started as a single cell and is rapidly growing into millions, nay billions, trillions? A defenseless little being that will grow up -- at times too quickly and at others not fast enough -- and one day think he's invincible and then later realize how mortal he is.

I alternate between freaking out and disbelief. I mean, my body isn't coursing with hormones and I don't have a swollen belly (fat yes, but not swollen) to remind me constantly of the impending arrival so it's easy for me to forget (or deny) my impending fatherhood. But at night as we lie in bed and watch Season 2 of LOST, I am acutely aware of the presence of the third being in the bed; the 12 ounce gorilla in the room.

-tmo

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