Once there was a Duck

And this Duck lived in the duck pond with his Duckling and MBFJC.

But perhaps I should back up a bit.

MBFJC is my best friend Jenny C.  I got in the habit of referring to her by both names because in high school, we had 2 Jennys and a Ginny... and an Alex & Adam duo... names were confusing.  And though we came up with various and sundry ridiculous code names, few nicknames ever really stuck... so there was always a clarifier...

But, as per usual, I digress.

So, MBFJC once upon a time met a very nice man.  And while she & I were at my other best-friend Andrew's house in SLC, UT with balie (whose name I still don't capitalize, because that's how I'm used to seeing it, just like in my head, she still has a pixie hair cut with cute barrettes and beautifully elegant hands), which was a weird collision of my worlds, but whatever... oh, so MBFJC and I were talking about this very nice man. 

I asked if she was dating him... because they certainly did a lot of date-like & couple-type things.

MBFJC, in typical Aquarian wishy-washy fashion says that typical answer of sit-coms & soap operas: I don't want to label it.  I don't want to call it dating.  I don't want to call him my boyfriend.  We just spend time together & enjoy one another's company.  We don't need to complicate it with labels and put it in a box.  It's just this free thing, you know?  It's beautiful, and I want to let it be beautiful and have that be enough, without having to call it something.  It just is, man.  I mean, it's just love, right?  But even that's a label, and I don't want to be pinned down by the labels of this crazy society man...

Ok, she didn't really say all that, because she's not a hippie, not that being a hippie is a bad thing, she's just too into Starbucks and scrapbooking for me to think of her as a mellow-flower-child type, though she is a free spirit and likes the thinking of ideas and the way that thoughts can change the world... she's never called me "man" in that way before, so you can chalk that version of the conversation up to a heavy hit with the ExaggerRay!  But she was reluctant to use words like "dating" and "boyfriend."  That much is true.

So, me, in typical blunt 6' redhead fashion said the following:
Jenny, if it looks like a duck, and walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's a DUCK!

Thus, this very nice man became The Duck... and I refer to him as such.  At first  it was to disguise the fact that I couldn't remember his real name... that's the problem with nicknames, eh?

Anyway, the Duck proved to be not only a very nice man, but a good match for MBFJC.  They have complementary instead of matching crazy.  This is very important if you plan on spending the rest of your life with someone.  You shouldn't be crazy in the same way in the same places... it just compounds the crazy and leads to messes.  Complementary crazy is better because you can help each other smooth out the rough spots and deal with the world better.  Then you grow and learn and become stronger together.  There--life lessons from The Bean.

Oh... I should probably explain why I'm the Bean at some point... but that would combine 2 posts in one, and really, I have to stretch these things for all they're worth!

Now, once MBFJC became Mrs. Duck and moved into the Duck Pond, all was good & in the land of "happily ever after."  There are tomatoes growing in the back yard & lots of sunflowers and birds come visit, and it is all-around a pretty keen place to visit.  And then... on July 26th, MBFJC & The Duck welcomed The Duckling into the world!  He's a sweet boy, with lots of dark hair, his mama's nose and maybe someday his daddy's chin.  His real name is Edward, which is lovely, but he's my duckling.  I now have a quest to keep him in duck-themed clothing for as long as possible.  Right now it's super easy, because I'm bigger than he is & still get to dress him.  Someday that will change, but he'll still be my duckling, even when he turns into a moody teenager.  Seriously, what are crazy aunt-type-people for if not for embarrassing you & buying you strange but endearing crap? 

Oh!  And wanna know what's super cool?  (If you don't, stop reading, because I'm telling the rest of the people anyway.)

At the Duck Pond, the guest bathroom is full of ducks!  Duck towels, little rubber duckies on the sink, a rubber duckie soap dish, rubber duckie shower curtain!  Yep, the Duck has embraced his duck-ness and the Duck Pond is firmly established.  The fact that the walls are a beautiful sunshiney-butter yellow has less to do with the duck-ness and more to do with the fact that it is the color of MBFJC.  Just like Hephalump Purple is my color--only don't trust the Internet... which is pretty much good advice for life anyway. In this case, colors never show up right on a monitor anyway.  My purple is more purple than it looks here... and that only makes sense because it looks blue, like periwinkle, at least on my monitor...which isn't my color... maybe it looks right on yours, but how would you know?  Well, if it looks more purple, but not quite lavender, and certainly not lilac... but like the purple cousin of periwinkle, then it's the right color.  It's just the way it is. 


And so the Duck & Duckling & MBFJC lived happily ever after in the Duck Pond.