Oh, yeah, what a day.

Woke up after only 5 hours of sleep, hung over, and sore from the two hours on the stripper pole. And that ain't even the good part of the story.

My wife stopped by to sort out and seperate. Had some coffee, and talked. It seemed like it would be a friendly day.

Started with the CD's. Thank God you can burn CD's these days. I don't know how people did it when they physically had to give up their music. We just went through and picked out the one's that were singularly ours, and said we would burn the rest.

Then the books.

You can burn books, but it doesn't help in this case.

Got down to the final 20 that both of us wanted, and then we just grabbed one at a time. I got the Hemingway's (except one) and the Salinger's (Franny and Zooey was a duplicate, otherwise their would have been bloodshed). Then I grabbed Miller's Tropic of Cancer.

That's when I broke down crying.

10 years, 9 months ago, I was reading that book. That is when I met my wife, and we sat up all night in a crappy diner eating omelettes and talking Miller. It was so comfortable, the first time in my life, when I asked her out on a date. She actually said no, she was busy, and instead of being rejected, I tried for a different day. I got that one, and the rest is history.

Wham! That hit me hard.

I excused myself, went into the bathroom, turned on the faucet, and cried so hard I couldn't breathe.

When I came out, my wife had partially opened the cursed champagne bottle.

You see, when I moved to LA back in '98, some friends gave me a bottle of champagne and told me to open it when I got my first gig. I took that to mean a paying, speaking role, and subsequently never was able to legitimately open that bottle until now. I came to believe that the bottle was the source of my curse, and hated it. Well, she knew that, and to lighten the mood was having a finally we can open this moment for me.

When the cork popped, we both started to cry. I tell you, sentimentality is for the birds. Or retards.

Anyway, we took one sip, but 7 year old cheap champagne doesn't taste good warm, and I have no ice, so we dumped it, and turned to some chardonnay I have. After one glass, we were a bit lit.

Later, during another emotional "you take that" moment, she started to cry, and I hugged her. Not the first time today, but we were now very emotional, and very much disecting our love, and a glass in. Well, as we hugged, we pulled closer, giving this hug some seriousness. Arms reach around the other tighter. Hips close in on each other. Chins rest into crooks in the others shoulder, or chest. That's when I realized we had stopped breathing. Both of stood there holding the other tight, thinking the same thing. It would be wrong, but damn it, it would feel so right.

Then her phone rang. I hobbled over to a chair, my shorts making sure everyone knew what was on my mind at that moment. A friend was inviting us to lunch. Yeah, we would go. Give us a few minutes.

She hung up, and looked at me. I tried to play it off, but she didn't. She said, I think we should go to lunch before something bad happens.

I agreed.

She then looked at me and said, Do you want something bad to happen?

I looked at her. I said, No, but you sure could talk me into it.

We sparred like that for a bit. Neither wanting to really do this, but both hoping the other would talk them into it.

We managed to keep our heads, and finally left the house. On the walk over to our friend's house, we both agreed that we had done the right thing. That, in the short term, it would have been great, but, in the long term, it would have been damaging.

Adults. That's what we were.

I remember as a kid watching movies, and the adults would tell each other horrible things, and take it calm and cool, and continue talking. I thought to myself, I will never be able to do that! How can they not feel?

Well, I was wrong. Twice.

First, I can do that, and am doing that.

Second, even when it is happening, you do still feel. That is what makes it even more adult. Feeling the pain, or whatever emotion, and still doing the calm, correct thing at the time. Ugh.