One in a Million Odds

Twenty-eight years ago, I was just a hair over four years old, and somewhere out there a boy was born. This was certainly not an Earth-shattering event at the time, because little boys are born on a daily basis. And, since if anything I am null-psychic, I'm fairly certain that no one in my immediate area had any idea how important that day would end up being to me. Fortunately this lack of awareness did not change the outcome.

callicrates may have been one of many children born on September 2nd, 1975, but he has also since proved to be one in a million. A running notion in Pterry's _Discworld_ novels is that a one in a million chance of something happening always happens, and on that day, Andy was it. He was born in Indiana; I was born in upstate NY. He went to school in Indiana and I went to school and college in upstate NY. The chances of us meeting were quite probably one in a million, and we all know what that means.

I should digress here for a moment. There were some factors in my meeting of Andy which I should note. If it wasn't for blackgryphon I probably would never have read Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels, and I certainly would not have read them in the summer of 1992. If I hadn't been dragged onto PernMUSH kicking and screaming by Todd (I wish I knew where he was nowadays) in the fall of 1992, I wouldn't have met Andy's character, and without the folks at Ista both impressing us to the best blues in the world, we almost certainly would never have become as close as we did. As much as I might cringe at some of the things Anne McCaffrey has done/said, I have to thank her for inventing the dragon/rider bond which captured enough imaginations for MUDs to be themed after them.

Andy's parents also deserve a note of thanks, for giving him life and for getting him into Sycamore before public schools killed or crushed him. A lot of friends, many who are reading this by default and some who may be reading it without my knowing (if so, create a journal already so I can friend you ;), helped out more than I could ever state. For that I am more than grateful; and anyone who has Andy's friendship is genuinely fortunate, because he is the best friend anyone could have: compassionate, loyal, and with a devastatingly funny sense of humor.

In a lot of ways I don't deserve someone as wonderful as he is. I'm a slob; I procrastinate; I hurt his feelings without meaning to but with the same results. I find it continually incredible that someone like him would even deign to spend time with me, let alone spend his life with me. And I am elated that twenty-eight years ago the one in a million occurred, making one of many into the (future) best husband in the world.

If you think there were a lot of superlatives in this, you are absolutely correct.

Notes

I forgot to mention yesterday that, while eating lunch outside, we saw a very pretty bird. My first thought was "roadrunner", so I asked Andy. It took some doing for him to see it, but when he did his immediate answer was "It's missing the dust cloud". I went in to get the take-home box and mentioned it to the employee, and she said that while they're usually not that bold, it's not unheard of to see them around here.

Lovie is back, and not limping! I rang the person interested in adopting him so she can come meet him if she wants. There are a lot of new cats now. I'll talk more about them tomorrow.

The buttermilk chicken was, as usual, yummy.

Due to circumstances we couldn't get an ice cream cake from Cold Stone today, and Andy said he didn't want one today anyway, since buttermilk chicken usually over-fills him. I decided to try some GF brownie mix I'd gotten a while back anyway. The end product is a bit grainy, but tastes very good. I'll have to get some of what Dave made Mom for Pamela's birthday and compare them.

Andy liked all of his loot. My favorite was a paperweight which looks like it has a bunch of hot-air balloons on it and is an optical illusion. I think his favorite is a tie between the Gaiman audio book and the computer games and the Douglas Adams CDs.

Heidi is getting bigger, but she's still smaller than Lovie.

Both kitties love the un-removable ball in a ring thingy I got them today.

I think I've seen more rainbows in the month-and-change I've been here than I did in the past dozen years combined. And they're much more vibrant, too.

Andy got a great card from Mom -- the front is to "my person" from the cat, and says a small part of her will always be with you. On the inside it says "On your clothes".