Bryce Gruber’s Thoughts of the Day (a good day! edition)

The most effective way to do it, is to do it. -Amelia Earheart

1. Forks in the Road of Time. Time is passing… and too quickly. I feel like it was literally yesterday that I was grunting from labor pains and hunger (they don’t feed you when you’re in labor, FYI), and now Ben is two years old and eating plates of eggs with a full-size fork. I know that’s not a huge deal to most of you, but for anyone that’s ever made or raised a human, it’s a bizarre stamp of age and time that tastes so bittersweet. Every single happy, healthy, smiling day is an accomplishment, but somehow I don’t want more of them- I just want to freeze time and keep him little forever. I know in another few years he won’t want to cuddle in bed with me on a Sunday morning, make tents out of towels and bedsheets, or ask to carry him up the stairs for bedtime. Sigh. At least if time has to keep passing I’d like it to be as wrinkle-free as possible.

2. I Feel Stuff Boiling Over in a Good Way. I don’t know if it’s the weather, or the fact that I made freshly baked cinnamon buns this morning but I’m boiling over with happiness and excitement for life in general.

3. Gays… Who Gives the Ring? I found out today that one of my gay friends got engaged (thank you, facebook). Immediately I was excited for him, and then I thought “well who proposed?” Is there a methodology for gay proposals? Is it just the wealthier of the two that springs for the ring? Or, in a much healthier fashion, do both parties actually sit down and discuss a mutual plan for marriage and then forge ahead?

4. Recessionary Dating. I have a friend named Eric that I hardly get to see even though he lives and works in the same city, and geographically speaking just isn’t that far away. Somehow we never see each other, though, so this morning he spent some time catching me up on his life via instant messenger. After telling me of his elbow surgery he exclaimed that he’s been dating an awesome girl for three months. I was excited for him (he really needed a good woman), so I asked if his girlfriend lives close to his apartment. His answer? “Less than a $10 cab ride!” You know what this means? This means that the recession has actually changed the people we choose to date. I think I used to think that men were only affected by the idea of a high-maintenance woman, but if a successful guy like Eric is actually valuing his girlfriend’s close (read: cheap) proximity to his apartment I think it spells out a whole new dating reality. And so, Mr. President, I urge you to fix the breaks in our economy with haste so all the lonely people of the world that are less fortunate than Eric can get back to dating people well beyond their zip codes. My boyfriend, by the way, is about a $30 cab ride but that’s because he lives about as far as one can live within Manhattan. Eric would never date him, even if he was gay.