Big Night Out

Last night, Biff and I went out on our first solo date since Riley bounded into our lives. The grandparents took charge of baby duties and we went and had us dinner and beers. We talked about the same stuff that we used to, I at one point started singing Janie Jones by The Clash because I couldn't stop singing Most Wonderful Time of the Year the way Will Ferrell did in a SNL sketch, and we discussed short distance plans.

At one point, Bif mentioned, sort of dismayed, that she kept waiting to feel like this major shift would happen to her, that one day she would suddenly feel like a mom. I knew what she meant, while the evidence is right in front of me a lot of the time, I don't yet really feel like a dad. In fact, it feels a little weird to type the words 'I'm a dad'. I told her that I think a lot of people go into parenthood with this certain image of what a parent is and try to fit themselves into that mold. I felt like we were taking this on in much the same way as our marriage, in that we were not different people on the other side of a particularly amazing day. I'm still a dopey dreamer, she's still this beautiful woman who makes me smile when she laughs at the stupid things I say, only now we have this amazing little boy to be with us in all of it.

Coincidentally, we ran into kay-see at dinner and met her parents. It was coincidental enough, being one of many restaurants in a major city, but what's really eerie is that earlier in the day I had asked kay-see that if I were the one who had to break the news of her dad's death to her, would she want me to do it in knock-knock joke form.

I also worried for a second about keeping up the potency of kay-see ‘your mom’ jokes after actually meeting the woman, but I feel there is nothing to worry about.

We jokingly told her parents that we had put the baby in a box and the cats were watching him, which made me think of the great proliferation of abandoned child movies.

Do you realize that both Home Alone and Baby's Day Out are the 'children' of John "The Breakfast Club" Hughes? What is it with this guy? What about a child left to their own devices when criminally negligent parents leave them seems like a good idea for a movie to this guy? C'mon, he wrote the immortal line, "you look good wearing my future".

And while I haven't seen it, I have to imagine that Unaccompanied Minors, a delightful romp with a pre-pubescent mob left to their own devices in an airport, is some kind of crappy.

And while I have no idea how anyone can help me with this, but: There's a movie coming out called Bridge to Terabithia, and man I KNOW this title but I cannot place it. It's based on a book, but I'm pretty sure I haven't read it. Why are there alarm bells ringing from the memory halls of my childhood in regards to this title? WHY?

Okay, snap out of it Badgley. I love you all, make it a great one out there.