The Terrible Catsafterme

As the minutes ticked away to New Years Day, 1990, I was at home alone with one glass of champagne and a cigarette. I toasted Christi and myself, and little “Bradley Jonathan” or “Ashleigh Nicole.” We had decided early on that we did not want to know the sex of the baby beforehand - something almost unheard of these days.

Christi was in Arkansas with her family for the holidays and I was missing her terribly at this point, excited for her to get back and open her Christmas presents…and to rub her belly. I opted for the first time to sit out any New Years parties.

My Mom, however, went out to one of the local taverns to celebrate the New Year and ended up meeting Bob, a guy that I’ll talk about more later. I didn’t do much on this New Years Day: worked for six hours, ate ramen, watched “It’s Your Move,” and then The Fugitive with my Dad. I know all this because this is the very last entry in my journals that I had kept off and on for the two prior years. After this day, it was back to school (I was a senior) and then Christi would return and we would begin to count down the days until we had our baby, keeping busy with a number of activities. Since my journal ended on the first day of the new decade, Christi supplied the additional information through the impeccible journals that she kept.

Christi came home on January 2 and we exchanged our Christmas gifts. She gave me some cologne and underwear and I gave her some tapes that I made (the entire Beatles catalog and a tape of “Our Songs”), a Mickey Mouse watch, a photo album, and some other knick-knacks including a batch of teddy bears. I was back to school for two days following the holidays before I came down with a severe cold and didn’t return until January 8. The cold lingered on for quite a while and I suspect it was my lungs reacting to my attempt to quit smoking that were the culprit.

On January 5, I talked Christi into watching all the Laurel and Hardy films with me - in order. We continued to watch them (and she says that we finished them at some point), and I know that we were up to the films of 1934 by the time that Ashleigh was born.

We began our Lamaze classes held at a church across the street from Kettering Hospital on January 9. These would be held every Tuesday. We also attending the Beavercreek Church of the Brethren regularly, going to both Sunday school and church every week for the most part. Our dates usually consisted of going out to movies and then hanging out at our homes. Movies that we saw at the theater during this time period were When Harry Met Sally (1/6), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1/13), sex, lies, and videotape (1/27), and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (2/18).

On January 14, Mom and Denise left for a short trip to Florida. Denise had been going through some minor teen depression following my parents’ separation and they thought that a nice trip together might hit the spot. They returned on Jan. 17. While they were gone, I had my first assignment at work to deliver groceries to an invalid old lady in Beavercreek. I became friends with Mrs. Boster and would ususally spend an hour or so chatting with her whenever I delivered her groceries. This, of course, was frowned upon by the office ladies back at work who were always wondering what was keeping me.

I had my wisdom teeth removed on January 19. This was the first time I was put under and of course, I got to attempt to count backward as the drug juice coursed into my veins. I made it from 10 to about 8, I think, before drifting off into never-neverland. When I awoke, though, I made sure that no one helped me to the car, trying to prove my strength and ability to overcome the anesthesia. I recovered rather quickly, but took advantage by taking another day of school off on January 22. Mostly, the holes in my gums annoyed me. When food would get inside them, I had to fill a syringe with water and spray the food pieces out of there. Disgusting.

One of our church youth activities was a bowling expedition, which Christi and I attended, but understandably, only I bowled. Regina, the youth leader, discussed the possibility of having a baby shower for us, which you can read about here.

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