What’s up with you?

It’s been a while since I last posted personal stories on this blog, which nevertheless bears my name. That’s got a lot to do with the fact that things are happening in the world around us way more so than in my little, sometimes confined, Parisian life. But, sometimes, big news come for everyone…

So, today is my birthday. I’m turning 39. Not 40, 39. Meaning, I’m still not in middle-age — officially. Unofficially, I started my mid-life crisis in my late 20’s because I like doing things before anybody else does (especially the messy ones, like quitting your day job with no clear plan in sight). Judging by the last decade, I should turn senile by age 50 — or at least look the part. In any event, I don’t think I look senile now: if anything, I still look — perhaps too much — like a kid, and the fact that I only wear T-shirts doesn’t help. Then again, I hate going to the dry cleaner’s, it’s all the way on the other side of the square we live by. And that’s as good a reason as any.

The other piece of news is that we should be moving soon. And by soon, I mean December: we still have to sell 2 flats before that — the flats each of us bought before we met, because we couldn’t yet foresee that there would be someone so utterly perfect for us waiting right down the corner, so we each got ourselves a little place of our own. Which is a smart idea, since it would have been a hell of a lot harder to get a (bigger) place now had we not already owned real estate in this town. Grown up life is tough, y’all…

Now, for the pièce de résistance: kind of the main reason why we need a bigger flat — and why we’re really celebrating — is that my wife is pregnant. And yes, I’m the father (as far as I know, but confinement would have made it very hard otherwise). And it’s been (nearly) 3 months, so we can officially start telling people. The silence has been killing me for months: given my natural propensity to discuss my personal life on here (and everywhere, really), you can imagine how hard it was not to spill the beans by week #2. I managed, though, except for last week, when I inadvertently told one of my associates, answering my other associate, who happens to be my brother and was the first — and for a long time only — person who knew about all of this.

We don’t yet know for sure if it’s a boy or a girl. So, in the mean time, we’ll paint the (new) room grey. All hail black and white.