Today is such a special day! June 1st is the day I welcomed my adorable, gigantic son into the world at an ounce under ten pounds. And, of course, the doctor did NOT get there in time to administer anesthetic, so I delivered this giant infant virtually “natural.” He was a delightful, super-bouncy boy who never got sick in his life. I attribute this to the fact that I ate like a pig during the entire pregnancy and gained 50 lbs. Oddly, I was only down to 145 lbs a week later. Go figure!
Ben was a chaotic joy as a child, forever with that thousand-watt grin, charging through the house at top speed, scooping thing off shelves and tables on his way past them in order to hear the delightful reverberations of things crashing, breaking, and screaming (I was the one breaking and screaming). We called him “Ben the Wrecker.”
Ben was often tender and kind, too, trying to pick up the emotional and household-job ends that Jim sometimes dropped, feeling the self-imposed obligation to make me happy. That is too big a burden for a kid, so I officially announced to him his release from that job at age 16. Just to see if I meant it, he acted like a bratty, irresponsible teenager for a few years until I was glad, GLAD to see him off on his mission with not one tear for his departure.
In years since, we have become the BEST adult friends, and Ben is my delight. Whenever we visit, he always takes me on an adventure date: once canoeing down a river -- eating tons of ripe blackberries from wild bushes along the shores. Another time we took a long walk through a deep woods, stopping midway to discuss philosophy. Last year we went gold panning in what passes for mountains in Oregon, and found a couple of molecules of the precious metal. (He was also rehearsing the for a boy scout camp-out later on.)
Nobody could be a better son than my Ben. Not only is he handsome, polite, considerate, (helpful, friendly, clean, courteous, reverent, etc) (he is the personification of scoutmaster in his ward). Plus he is a loving husband and father to his wife and children. I envy them! He competes in triathelons, can do anything from cabinet making to car repair, designs anything on a computer, and is still as cheerful as he was as a little kid.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY WONDER-BEN!
June 1st is secondarily a special day because it used to be my wedding anniversary with Jim (and might have been our 39th one under different circumstances). HAPPY ANNIVERSARY JIM (up there in that great Pit Crew in the Sky)!
(And wait until you see Ben’s son, James, grown up!! We Xerox them in the basement!)
June First was ALWAYS goofed up by double celebrations. (But the same went for Halloween: my poor self worked to a frazzle to dress up all the kids and make a Birthday cake or pumpkin pie and Wiennerschnitzle for Jim’s Birthday dinner simultaneously, both events truncated by Trick-or-Treating.) But as I was saying about June 1… Would Ben accept his party before or after June 1 so Jim and I could have a romantic night out? Or would I spend all day making birthday cakes and planning games for Ben’s party, and be too pooped for a proper anniversary and romantic night out? OR fatigued night IN, for that matter! I could usually bribe Ben into taking the nearest Saturday.
Now that Jim is dead and Ben is in Portland, June 1 is the most relaxing of days. I just phone one, and send an angel message to the other, and then do what I feel like doing all day and night.
Today that happens to be cleaning my house in preparation for a 10 day trip to Portland for a late Ben's Birthday Celebration. Not fun at all (the cleaning), but better than coming home to a trashed house and longing for extinction.
SO, HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEN! AND HAPPY ANNIVERSARY (sort-of), JIM!
(You will notice I procrastinated the cleaning by spending 3 hours finding pictures, PhotoShopping, and writing a blog entry. I suppose that now I HAVE to go clean. But WAIT! Supper first! And I AM in the middle of a great novel!)
