More Backstory

Spring is supposed to be a time of renewal. Last year, the arrival of warmer weather meant that I was liberated from the confines of my living room for the first time since the mercury headed south for the winter the day I brought Jack home from the hospital. This is the same room where Jack spent the first few months of his life, dozing his days away in a large bassinet, positioned on the sisal rug in the dining room in full view of my lazy ass which, at this point, was seemingly permanently affixed to the couch. I have always owned a television, but never spent much time in front of it. This changed in the winter of 2007. American Idol, local news, Jeaporday, Wheel of Fortune? All became staples of my new routine. Every night. Dancing with the Stars? You bet! Pass the popcorn and heat up some formula. On the positive side I finally had something to talk to my co-workers about around the water cooler. Slowly but inexorably, I started to feel my brain atrophying with every wisecrack that dropped from the lips of Simon, Paula and Randy. I developed a minor obsession with American Idol and became overwhelmed with emotion when someone got voted off before their time. Of course, this was clearly misplaced grief finding its way to the surface of my consciousness, but at the time I didn’t recognize it as such.

With the coming of warmer weather I started to take Jack for short walks. First around the block, then, when I got bolder, up to Silver Lake Park a ¼ mile away. I always made sure I had diapers and wipes (learned that the hard way), blankets, food and my cell phone in case I had to call 911. By the end of May I had him in a baby jogger and he was sleeping soundly while I banged out a five mile loop around the lake. Finally, we were starting to get comfortable with each other. Rather than thinking of him as an awesome responsibility that I was destined to fail in dramatic fashion at some point, I started seeing him more as a little friend who babbled nonsensically and just couldn’t control his bowels. Heck, I had a lot of friends like that in the '80s, and he was so much easier to handle because the police never got involved.

Tomorrow: Daddy takes too many nights off from parenting and skulks around Manhattan after work drinking a lot of beer.