charlie brown

i meant to post this last Friday, november 25th. but many circumstances got in my way, most of which are too boring to mention. there was that bit with the giant orangutans on the subway, but i'm not sure that one was true, so i don't think it counts.

i spent a long time being a die-hard feminist. i'm sure this is big news to most people... as i'm so demure, and all. i swore i would never have a family before a career. and here i am. i've actually become a sap, too, which adds insult to disillusionment... only because i'm now eating crow for all the years of insulting sappy people.

i first saw my husband in a stinky rehearsal room in Tulsa, OK. he was 19. i think his forehead was the first thing i noticed. the second thing was his overly arrogant attitude, and the third was his smile.

not exactly love at first sight, but i've never been a traditionalist.

there were several nights when we drove down to the park with our friend chris crews (also a daddy now) and justin would play his guitar while crews beat his drum, and i swung on swings or danced in the sand. sometimes crews would stare into space or rant about the doors or draw instead, and i would take my insignificant talent for percussion out on his poor drum. justin would sometimes sing, and always eventually put his guitar down and take out a pack of Cherry certs. i think the smell of cherry certs would always be connected to Tulsa, OK and small parks and mishmatched music and long conversations about nothingness and long drives home in a car that scared the shit out of me every time i got in it, had the certs company not stopped making the cherry flavor.

after that, we got married. Which was, obviously, many steps removed from the previous story. these steps involved such things as neo, ghetto-rigging, gaff tape, star crunches, many jackie chan movies, huge palmetto bugs, great pizza, too much coffee, many truly inspiring moments, fun foam, wrestling shoes, road trips, power naps, and a couple of romances and quasi-sorta-not-quite-romance-so-what-do-you-call-it things. But after all of that, we got married. As you might have guessed... it wasn't traditional.

After that, we had a baby. And started a couple of companies, and i still drank too much coffee, and justin quit smoking a lot. now we have this great kid.

i tell you all of this, because as random and unconnected as the above story might sound, there's one constant in all of it: the man i call charlie brown. well, if he doesn't listen when i call the first time.

i don't think i've ever met a person of so many contradictions. but i can tell you that he got a man-hating bitter chick to marry him and have a kid... and realize that there was really nothing more that she wanted in the world than to be married to this man and have a small to moderate amount of his children.

this is less sweet and sappy than i intended... if you get one day of the year when your wife can't be sarcastic to you it should be your birthday. but i forgot to post this on your birthday, poopsky, and if i wasn't sarcastic i doubt you'd recognize me. unless i was losing my temper or lost in thought.

so here's to you, charles justin harvey. you're marginally older, quite a bit younger, much wiser, and a great amount more fun than i am. thanks for keeping me from growing up to be a too old and stodgy, immature, selfish woman. i think i might follow you anywhere, even if i might bitch the whole way that i have no idea where i'm going.

charlie brown, you're my hero. truly.

it definitly works for you that you're hot, too.