‘Twas the night before today

The house is getting its first showing this morning, and I feel like a thirty-nine year old man going out on his first date.

We got an email from our realtor yesterday evening saying he’d received a query from another realtor, asking to show the house this morning at 9 a.m.

No problem, right? A nibble from someone this soon, in this market, is something.

Oh, did I mention it’s the middle of the night? Did I mention I’ve had a sinus headache for the better part of the last twenty-four hours? Did I mention Beth just got sick… all over her bed, the floor between her room and the bathroom….

I’m the third load into the all night laundrypallooza, and somehow I’m at peace. It might be the fatigue talking. I might not have any energy left to be anything but at peace.

I’m also a little proud of myself. I figured I was already a lost cause today, so I handled this one solo. The wife stayed in bed, asleep I hope. Three cheers for citizen John, hero of the household!

Hip-hip… oh forget it.

There’s an instinctual calm that comes over me when I’m faced with a sick child in the middle of the night. I don’t know why. Take the same circumstances, but with the Sun somewhere above, and any range of emotions is possible. But there’s something about the night that’s soothing, even when I know I’ll pay dearly later. It seems to have the opposite effect on the kids… and maybe that’s why I’m calmer… something in the DNA – an adaptive trait that made our branch of the evolutionary tree blossom. Calm. It’s what brings the kids down from the edge. Here’s another adaptive trait for the disciples of Darwin out there keeping score: the ability to breathe through your mouth, or more specifically: NOT breathing through your nose.

That may be the most important evolutionary hurdle of all for the strange creature known as: the new parent.

Well it’s late. I hope you won’t hold it against me if I skip the proof reading – or if this is unreadable.

Give the gift of words.