And then just like that, I remembered...

We were standing in the kitchen on the weekend, doing dishes, cleaning up after dinner. The LGBB was tucked up in bed reading to herself. I was feeling somewhat "normal" again after the cloud of sadness had lifted. There hadn't felt like much to laugh about in the past week.

Music was playing - an iTunes genius mix, the starting song had been a Carol King number - and we were getting about our respective chores.

Then a Carpenters song came on. One I have heard probably literally a million times in my life. My mother was an enormous Carpenters fan. She passed on the passion to me and they are always a band I have respected and admired.

But in a single statement, that song changed forever for me last Saturday night.

"Why do birds.... sudd-en-ly app-eeeear
Every time....
You are neeeeeear"

...Karen sang questioningly. She's been baffled by that riddle for nigh on forty years now, poor love.

I never heard the rest, for I had overheard Steve say next to me, playing the role of some misunderstood misfit (who I immediately pictured in my mind wandering in a wooded park somewhere) as he said, "Oh, that'd be because of my birdseed hat."

The image changed to a lone figure.... walking around with not a nacho hat but a similarly ridiculous giant  sculpted birdseed bell on his noggin. Not unlike the bells you see in bird cages, slightly more Mexican sombrero looking.

I didn't come up for air for about ten minutes. In fact, I laughed so damn hard that I began to cry from the pain of the laughs in my throat.

And then just like that, I remembered...


This is why I love him.

This is why I saw him even all the way back in 1993 as "good people", the right stuff for me, and held on.

This is why he heals me.

This is why I married him.....

He is one funny, funny understated bugger.

The Wedding Bell
(sorry, I had to... that one was for Dad)