Boo!

I have no earthly idea how it got to be the middle of December. But I'm going to go ahead and blame my personal time warp on Halloween. I know it doesn't sound like something that would demand much thought, but I really got stuck this year on the whole concept of: "Boo!"

OK, not that, strictly speaking, because "Boo!" is pretty darned clear cut. That's the kind of surprise that jumps out from behind a closet door, costumed or not, and scares the bejeezus out of you. But this year it was "Boo!" that got me thinking about all the other kinds of surprises there are. I mean, seriously, shouldn't somebody have delineated them by now? Forget the 300 Eskimo words for snow -- or whatever the number actually is -- and the befuddling array of synonyms for the words good, bad, and sad. The lexicon for surprise is woefully under-developed.

Think about it.

There should definitely be a specific word for the surprise of seeing someone whose name you know you should remember but absolutely do not. There should also be a specific word for the surprise of a strong feeling -- whether it's a feeling of outrage at an unjust parking ticket or one of unspeakable gratitude that sneaked up on you while you were riding warmly, safely in your car to work in the rain. Or the surprise of a stranger's kindness, or a friend's hostility.There are SO many kinds of surprise...pregnancy, cancer, care packages in the mail. The list goes on and on and on.

But, given the lack of vocabulary to adequately describe it, I'm not at all surprised I've fallen into a situation that's left me rather speechless, lo these many months. So, I'm just going to spit it out now, as unartfully as necessary...

A little over a year ago, I met a smart, sexy, athletic, melodic, witty, adventuresome, mature, communicative, hard-working, fun-loving, child-friendly, stable and caring man -- named Joel -- here in San Francisco, who was then 41, single, never been married and had no children of his own. That, in itself, was plenty surprising. Since then, all kinds of other surprising things have happened, including but not limited to the fact that he grew to deeply love both Django & me. As of Halloween, we began living all together in a surprisingly cozy but also surprisingly expensive place on Coleridge St. where we seem to be settling into a surprisingly cohesive little family. "Boo!" just doesn't capture the sensation, you know?



Now, as aforementioned, it's the middle of December. I have completely lost track of time. And, yet, I also haven't missed a moment of it...If any of you have ideas for better words to describe such a myriad of surprises, I'm all ears.