August 8, 2006
Morning
I had to sleep part of the night on Rick’s bed, and so I woke up this morning with a stiff neck. I’m sure you will cause your Mom and Dad many nights like that. I’m pretty sure they don’t understand that yet. I was a little younger than they are now when Rick was born, and I sure didn’t understand it. Being a parent means a lot of sleepless nights, and, frankly, sleepless days. But they’ll get through it. We’ll help, if they want us to. That’s one of the hardest things-not being able to sleep. I will come over as much as I can to help your Mom and Dad get some sleep. And so will Aunt Debbie.
Its hard to know what to tell you. There’s so much to say, but then again, you won’t listen to a lot of it. I didn’t. Some things you just have to discover by yourself.


I sure hope you don’t have to discover a lot of painful things. I think you probably will, though. We all do. One of the things your Mom and Dad will discover, and you may discover, too, on some distant day 25 or 30 years from today-is that there is nothing more painful to a person than their child hurting in some way. There’s a writer named Dave Barry who writes for the Miami Herald who usually writes all funny stuff, but one time he wrote a very serious column about his son being sick. He said that he remembered
carrying his son into the hospital, praying that God could take the fever out of his son’s body and put it into his own.
That’s exactly what its like. It makes a parent crazy when their child is sick or injured, and you don’t want anything else in the world except to make it stop. But you can’t.



Evening
Funny how some days just fly by. You probably won’t notice this until you get into school, but some days as a human just shoot right by. Others can take forever to get through.
I bought some new shoes today, and got a haircut. I took Rick to karate. He did well-his teacher said his forms were very much improved, even though he didn’t want to go. But I didn’t do anything fun, really. I’m listening to the Red Sox game on a satellite radio. Those may be common by the time you read this, but at this point they are still pretty new. I grew up in Boston, so I stayed a Red Sox fan when I moved down here.
I met Aunt Debbie when I answered an ad in the Letter Exchange, a magazine for people who liked to write letters. Aunt Debbie and I were simply mad about letter writing, so we started corresponding. The funny part about that is that your Aunt Debbie’s best friend, Jill Cyrus, who I am sure you will meet someday, shared a post office box with Aunt Debbie back then. They would take turns answering the letters that came to the box-Aunt Debbie would take one, and then Jill would take the next one. It turns out that, when my letter came, it was Jill’s turn to answer. Jill didn’t want to take the letter, so Aunt Debbie did instead. I still like to tease Jill that she could have married me instead of Debbie. But I’m glad she didn’t, because I might not have met Debbie, and I wouldn’t have had Rick.
That’s another thing that’s funny. Your Mom might tell you someday that she had other boyfriends before she met your Dad, and your Dad I’m sure had girlfriends before he met your Mom. But your Mom and Dad had to meet in order to make you-no other combination of people would work. Same with Rick-if I never met your Aunt Debbie, Rick would have never been born. Its a funny thing, life.
The Red Sox are losing, so far. You won’t be born until this whole baseball season has ended and the next one has begun. Football season hasn’t even begun yet, and you won’t be born until it is completely over, too. Maybe the Eagles will win the Super Bowl this year. I think that would make your Mom and Dad happy. They have gone to Eagles games before, but I don’t know if they still do that.
I don’t know a lot of things about your Mom and Dad. I love them, because they are in my family, and because they are good people. But I have never been very good at making friends or keeping friends-I tend to keep to myself a lot. That’s part of the reason why I don’t know them too well-sometimes when they come over I’m too busy to talk with them, or I’m at work while they are here. Stuff like that. I wish I knew how to get to know them better. I am hoping that when you are born, that will give us a reason to get together more so I can help take care of you.
I will write more tomorrow. I hope I will, anyway.
“I once believed in causes, too-
Had my pointless point of view-
But life went on no matter who was wrong or right.”
Billy Joel, “Angry Young Man”
August 9, 2006
Morning
Another day at Panera. I really can’t afford to keep eating here every morning, but the internet is free, and the food is good. And the quiet lets me write to you in peace.
I’m not sure why it is, but I suddenly see pregnant women everywhere. They say you just notice it more when someone you know is pregnant, but I don’t know about that. It sure seems like there are more lately. Of course, your Mom is one of them now. Although she’s not at the point where it is obvious to onlookers yet.
I’ve written five pages so far. My goal is to make this large enough so that I can have it printed in book form and give it to you when you’re born.
The Red Sox lost to the Royals last night, 6-4. I don’t know if you’re even going to like sports, but you might. It’s hard to really, really care about a sports team, because there is nothing you can do to change it. You just have to watch, and hope. That’s kind of like being a parent, in a small way. Watch, and hope.
I definitely plan to buy you some Red Sox stuff-baby clothes, and bottles, and all that stuff. You don’t have to like them, though, if you don’t want. I’ll even love you if you like the Yankees.
I just won’t understand you.
Your family is odd, make no mistake. I only really know about the Schuster side, and then again not even them very much-but we are an odd bunch. All families are, really. Your grandfather Adolph worked for a very long time at a very, very hard job, but he loves Rick very, very much. And I know he’ll love you just as much.
It’s so funny to be writing to you, when I don’t know if you’ll ever read it. Hopefully someday you will, and maybe it will make you feel good that, while you were busy growing fingers and toes and a liver and spleen, we adults were thinking about you and getting ready for your arrival.
I don’t want to forget about your Mom and Dad, though. One thing that people do when a baby is coming or has been born is they tend to focus so much on the baby they forget about the parents. Being a parent is really, really hard work, and I hope I can help your Mom and Dad remember that we care about them, too. Moms are more than just containers for babies. I think your Mom understands that.
It’s been a beautiful week, weather wise. A couple of weeks ago, (you were around, but I didn’t know about you yet. In fact, your Mom might not have known yet either.) it was really, really hot. It was 100 degrees for several days, and very, very humid. Not fun. But its much nicer now.
Weather is something you’re going to have to learn about, too. Weather, and avocados, and kangaroos, and taco shells, and curveballs, and bottled water, and sidewalks, and music and art and literature.
Your Aunt and your Grandmother make a big deal about the weather when it snows. It doesn’t bother me that much, possibly because I grew up in Massachusetts. It snows a lot more up there, and they do a better job plowing the roads. Down here, if we get 2 inches of snow, its a major crisis.
Someday, we’re going to teach you about snow, too.
This is going to be fun, I think.