VICTORY LAP

I’m told by people smarter than me that women go through a crisis in the weeks and months before they get married. Something about mourning the loss of their own identity, I think. I wasn’t paying very close attention, but I really should have because those same people talk about men having the same identity crisis before the birth if their first child.

I must admit that I’ve been looking at life like a man who has been given short time to live, trying to get the last of everything he loves in before it all ends. And that’s what this week is all about.

Now, if I was really dying, I would buy a round-the-world plane ticket and see as much of the planet earth as possible before checking out. But I’m not dying, so I can’t blow the whole family fortune this week. There are two pretend babies and one very real wife who would be very displeased with me if I did such a thing. Instead, I’m heading to LA to visit some friends, listen to some live music, and attend the LA Film Festival.

So it’s a week to soak in as much fun before life as I know it ends… and adulthood begins.

I’ll start off bright and early tomorrow morning, watch 2-4 movies a day, then catch Radiohead before returning. It should be really fun. I’m trying not to look at this week as a dying wish, but as a victory lap. This is one last round of the things I loved as Single Matt and Childless Matt.

A friend more articulate than me said that a new life and new happiness would arise like a Phoenix from the ashes of the old life these babies destroy. I have no reason to disbelieve him. But this week, it’s time to celebrate the outgoing, carefree, childless (and somewhat childlike) Matt.

I’m taking my laptop with me, and I’ll be checking in from the road. Until then…