Part 20: Parents

It used to be different. If you woke up and your throat hurt, if your muscles were heavy and the thermometer showed something you didn’t like, you probably had pulled the covers back over your head and thought, hey, one day without feeling guilty about not going to work. Now you thought rather, all right,…

Contractions are no fun. No matter how big the child is. Not even in rosy hindsight. The experience of birth, however, is one of the most impressive in my life. Two eyes, a forehead, the hairline, behind it black sticky wet hair, an open mouth, toothless and again and again this forehead, somewhat flat and…

Sometimes it’s hard to convey that this is exactly what was wanted and a free decision that I don’t regret and is one of the most wonderful things in my life that I’ve ever done, that I’m insanely happy and this child is not the stopgap for a failed partnership and that there is certainly…

One of Gianni’s good friends, Paul White, once said: everyone should have a friend like Gianni. I don’t think there’s anything to add to that. Everyone should have a friend like Gianni! I thank Gianni Bettucci. And to my parents of course! What would I be without them? And to my friends who always have…

At some point, the data became dull and if it hadn’t gone further, it would probably have stayed at a hey, and what do you do. So we set about getting to know each other (man 3). Dinners with friends and alone, at home and in restaurants, parties, short vacations, walks, movies, theater, museums, reading…

Outside the window, the first day had begun with continuous rain and a wind that still pulled through the autumn jacket. I started sneezing and felt the need for cinnamon stars and ginger tea. It was clear, it’s autumn.A strange feeling came over me, because autumn meant that Christmas was not too far away and…