Ordinary Days

It’s amazing how one day can change your entire life.

September 13, 2008 was a regular day. I don’t even remember what I was doing or where I was. It’s not that particular day that is interesting; it’s that in the months to come, my whole life was going to change and on that day, on September 13 2008, I had no clue that any of it was going to happen. I had no idea that in two months I would come across my future husband after coming to work for what I thought would be just a regular Wednesday shift. I had no idea that in four months I would be in my best friends' bathroom peeing on four different pregnancy sticks in order to fully believe that I was pregnant. I had no idea that in exactly one year, I would be in the hospital giving birth to a baby who would grow into an adorable, hilarious and rambunctious little girl. I had no idea that those three days, those three ordinary days, would turn out to be three of the most important days of my life.

Now it’s September 13, 2011 and that itty bitty screeching baby I gave birth to has become a walking, talking, jumping little blonde two year old. She is a girl, people, not a baby. This is insane. She pees in the potty (sometimes), she climbs the ladders at the park without falling (most of the time) and she knows the lyrics to five different pop songs (at least). This time last year, she was just figuring out how to say her first word. Now her sentences have a four-word minimum. 

Besides wishing my daughter a happy birthday (Happy birthday, Thumper!), what I’m trying to say is that life is fucking crazy. Sometimes it’s crazy-good, sometimes it’s crazy-bad, sometimes it’s crazy-awkward, like the time this regular came into the restaurant when I was six months pregnant, and being that this was the first time he’d seen me since I got pregnant, said “Holy sh*t! What happened? Did you fall on a penis?”* The point is, today might be a day that you’ll never really remember. But maybe in a few months or years something will happen that will turn everything upside down and you’ll think about today, about how you watched seventeen back-to-back episodes of 30 Rock, or went to work like you always do, or treated yourself to an extra-large Starbucks on the way home, about how you did whatever it is you do without knowing all the things the universe was planning for you. Hopefully when that day comes, you can pour yourself a drink and think about what used to be and what it all became, and know that whatever it was that happened ended up just the way it should have.

So here’s to cute strangers who leave their numbers on napkins, and here’s to best friends who will gently but firmly tell you that four pee sticks is enough proof that you’re preggers. And here’s to all the future September 13’s, where I’ll sit around thinking about how it all began.

Happy birthday, Thumper.

-Alice

*If you’re wondering how I reacted to this ridiculously awkward question, I think I tried to laugh but was so horrified and embarrassed (because he said it in front of three other regulars who weren’t in his party and were just as mortified as I was, which meant I couldn’t even pretend it never happened) that it sounded more like a hyena crying while being beaten to death. And then I went to sit in a corner to rock in the fetal position.