A Momentous Event

Today is my birthday, an event celebrated with fireworks all over the world (though for some reason the Chinese celebrate it a few weeks later, something I should ask them about sometime). Even more exciting, in a few hours I'll find out whether Boomer is a boy or a girl. Boomer, for those of you just coming into the loop, is the nickname The Wife and I have given to the heir to throne of House Patrick; i.e., our first child. Today, ultrasound willing, we'll know whether to buy the child a blue "Daddy's Little Linebacker" jumper or a pink "Daddy's Little Linebacker" jumper. (Wife's Sister & Wife's Sister's Husband have already ordered tiny Cleveland Browns socks, which are going to be awesome!). And come May, little Boomer will have preferred access to the treasures of a lifetime's hard work: a pretty impressive collection of Buffy the Vampire Slayer memorabelia, an eclectic assortment of post-1987 comic books, and the movie Barb Wire on DVD.

In all seriousness, I've found impending fatherhood an exciting if occasionally frightful experience. I think of the last three years following our return to Toronto from Windsor as my "dissertation years". I've accomplished a lot over that period, including finishing the aforementioned dissertation, getting married, putting together a pretty nice gift for a perfect stranger, learning to read French, directing a long role-playing campaign (admittedly an "accomplishment" only to the eyes of a particular segment of the public), etc. My only real anxiety is that the gamble of leaving a secure position as a professor at Detroit Mercy in the hopes that a Ph.D. would lead to a better spot elsewhere hasn't yet paid off, which sometimes makes me think I should have stayed (though on the other hand, as much as I feel sorry for it, Windsor is Windsor, and I can't really blame myself for taking the chance to get back to Toronto!). Unless the job-gods are especially kind, this means we'll be moving to Kingston for the duration of The Wife's mat-leave, which will be quite a transition in itself. Between grading papers for the class I'm T.A.ing, putting the finishing touches on the dissertation and getting ready for the defense, leading Harbingers to the decayed village of Dunwich, packing and moving, and getting ready for Boomer, the next few months are likely to be kinda crazy!

But no matter how busy life gets, there's consolation in the fact that I'll always have Barb Wire on DVD.