My friend Christie, who I have mentioned before, is going to have a baby.

How 'bout that?

I feel so grown up!

Christie and I basically grew up together. We didn't grow up down the street from each other or anything, but we made the tricky transition from kids to adults with each other nearby, offering advice and support all along the way. Junior high to the present day - pretty impressive, huh? We lost our virginity on the same weekend - not with each other, though. But we had lots of notes to compare on that Monday morning, I promise you. I got her drunk for the first time. We kept each other sane during our first semester of college. She was at my wedding; I was at hers. We commisserated with each other about the lack of good jobs after we graduated. We had huge long conversations on Sunday nights where we'd chain-smoke and talk about any- and everything under the sun - politics, sex, relationships, family, religion...we covered it all. In the landscape of my life, Christie is a vast and impressive red-headed plateau.

And now she's pregnant.

I'm totally blown away.

Hell, we used to sit at the back of class in trigonometry, heads close together, exchanging notes, tips and secrets. It doesn't seem that long ago...

It was 1988. Ten fuckin' years! Unbelievable.

And I know for a fact college wasn't that long ago. Hell, this time of year my first semester in college seems so close I could touch it. And after we graduated we all went up to Christie's Aunt Debbie's house in Heber Springs and that was just...

Four years ago. Damn - I've been out of college as long as I was in college! It simply does not seem possible. Time didn't pass so fast when I was younger. I think the universe has been tampered with somehow since 1994.

So maybe I'm feeling a bit of my mortality this evening. Christie's one of my all-time best friends ever, and she's grown up enough to have a kid. That means, by default, that I'm old enough to have a kid. Does this mean I'm grown? I've got no clue.

What I do know is that I'm deliriously happy about this. Christie as a mama - how wonderful! That kid is going to get a good raisin'.

Anyway, if you're out there - congratulations, Christie. I couldn't be prouder. It's wonderful to be an uncle.

Daytona Update: Yes, Sonya and I are hitting the road again Friday night. Our objective - the spring break mecca of Daytona Beach, which will hopefully be mostly free of college students and other assorted tourists during the last week of summer before Labor Day. My boss, who is knowledgeable about the town, thinks that we're gonna have a great time. It's gonna be nice - get away, sit on the beach, and drink rum. Eat a conch fritter or two. We won't be renting a convertible (too expensive) but it's still going to be an adventure.

Of course, I have an amazingly large list of "must-do's" at work and Hurricane Bonnie is lurking in the Atlantic, but these are minor details. I'm going to the beach!

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