Who am I today?

During our last Second City improv class, we were asked to find a picture in a magazine and make up a character based on the photograph. Meet Torka.

We also had to mimic another classmate and I got to be Tim. Lucky for me, his shoulder hurts, (much easier to act) and he WAS expecting his first kid at the time. Now he's a full-fledged Daddy, Beautiful-Baby Nathaniel having arrived June 1.

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Don't take that "Beautiful-Baby" adjective too lightly. I don't DO babies, generally. I really enjoy them as children and teenagers, long past the cooing and coddling stages - when they're NOT so cute, NOT so helpless, and NOT so fragile, but still fresh, uncluttered human beings.

I'm not part of the crowd that hungers to hold the baby - when (and if) it gets to me, it usually needs a diaper changed and is generally pissed off and starts howling. Besides, there's at least 20 more years to get to know them before they run off to make their own lives.

This was also my first visit to a hospital since Mom died, so when I saw this little fellow sleeping - so still - my heart stopped for a microsecond. Then that gorgeous little face was dreaming, and I could breathe again, and marvel at new life.

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Mom and Dad are both exhausted, and happy. I hear an evil cackle in the back of my mind....you think you're tired NOW?

The voice softens. And all too quickly, this tiredness will be but a memory. Promise.