Reach Out and Touch Someone

For father's day, it was mostly business as usual here at the casa de queso. I bought SOB a few little things, and he got to sleep in, but otherwise it was pretty routine. We finally got Sam off for his nap (since he's discovered that his mattress has some bounce to it, getting him to sleep has become a battle of wills) and were settling in to relax and watch some of our Arrested Development dvd when the phone rang. Looking at the caller id, I saw 'Private name, private number' which immediately prompted me to cop an attitude. I'm certain that the tone I answered the phone with was not a friendly one. When the caller asked if this was the 'SOB residence', I put an even bigger does of attitude in my voice and I demanded to know who was calling. Well, I was almost knocked over with surprise to hear that it was an long lost friend who we hadn't heard from in four years! He found us via Google, and just thought he'd call and say hello!

About a year ago, just before we moved, we actually tried to track him down. Unfortunately he has a name that is slightly more common that SOB's, so we were not so lucky. I called several of the listing I had found, but none of them were the right guy. I would ask if so-and-so at this residence was a doctor who went to medical school at such-and-such university. At one number, a very territorial woman answered the phone and ended up asking me more questions than I asked her. Oh to be a fly on the wall when that guy got home!

Then just a few weeks ago we were looking at our wedding pictures. I know it's sappy, but we do this every year on our anniversary. Our long lost friend was an usher, and as soon as we saw his picture SOB started lamenting the time and distance between them.

It was such a lovely surprise to connect with someone you thought might have been lost to you forever. What made it even better was hearing about how happy his life is now. When we lost touch, he had just gone through a bitter divorce and was more than a little depressed. It was during intern year when we saw him last, and the stress was unbelievable. Casually during our conversation he mentioned his wife! And daughter! Knowing that he always wanted children, I was so overwhelmingly glad that he had found the person to make his dream a reality that tears came to my eyes. I had to hand the phone over to SOB after that, both because he was jumping around like a 4-year old on Christmas morning and because I didn't want to be crazy crying pregnant woman during our first chat in almost half a decade.

For the rest of the day, smiles came with ease, hugs and kisses were given at random and everything seemed a little brighter. Thanks, Dr. Mike, for giving Dr. SOB (and me) the best father's day gift imaginable.

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And just in case you've ever doubted that 'SOB' are indeed the good doctor's initials, here is some indisputable proof. At his graduation they gave the fellows monogrammed money clips.