Are You Happy To Be Here?

This is my sweet little boy. I can't imagine what life would be like without him. I am only sorry I didn't have him here earlier. Today I found out that my estranged (and very strange) brother implied to an old friend of mine that he was somehow a mistake, or "trouble" as he put it. Not only was he planned, he is the center of his mother's and my world. I played hockey 3 nights a week. Gabi designed and decorated our home as well as our friends homes. We went out all of the time, met with friends, went to concerts, drove the fancy German sports cars... (OK, I didn't give EVERYTHING up!), but all of that has changed and truth be told, I don't miss it all that much. Playing in his playroom with Alex, or chasing him down the hall playing "monster" is everything I need. He is a good, sweet boy and I am thankful everyday he is here.

Now that I finished that, let's move onto Paul Ward. Back when I was a youngster we were in one school district, but had three different elementary schools. Ours, called Middlehope and another called Milton were tiny satellites of the much larger Marlboro Elementary school. When we all converged for junior high in Marlboro, us and Milton were kind of on the outside and the bulk of our class were all kids that grew up together in Marlboro. Very seldom did we "outsiders" become part of the Marlboro group. Later on, as we got older, with sports and various classes together were some of those boundaries blurred, but in reality we went through the last 6 years of our public educations as "us" and "them". Fortunately for me, I met a kid who was part of the Marlboro group who accepted me in. His family, including cousins were all intertwined in the system and we all got to be pretty good friends. His name was Paul Ward. He and I have been friends since 1976. As I stated in another post, we eventually drifted apart when I moved from NY to CA. We spoke occasionally like when the Devils won the cup in 1995, but the good old days of coaching baseball, going to Devils games and going through divorces together were all but gone, and we drifted apart. Well, lo and behold, who calls out of the blue tonight, yes you guessed it...Paul Ward. He is doing great and is putting his youngest through college now! Yikes, I am old! It is nice to be surprised by an old friend once in a while. I will see him in October when I go back east.