Lucky town

Jeff is naturally excitable. This is charming in its own way, though it's not a trait I share. I do tend to remember his most enthusiastic moments, though, the way most women remember a first date or the date of the marriage proposal.

I also mentally rank these moments, and we recently had a biggie. In fact, it's second only to the night he unwrapped a box I presented to him for our anniversary in October 2002 and discovered its contents: A positive pregnancy test strip. (Cliche, I know).

Our current Big Thing occurred last night, when my phone rang at work and I picked it up to hear one of the most high-pitched squeals of joy imaginable. At first, I honestly thought Elijah had grabbed Jeff's phone and managed to push a button that dialed Mommy's office number. But as all the grandparents know, Elijah isn't one to talk on the phone, and this little voice was talking a mile a minute. Several rapid-fire phrases had passed by before I was able to decipher the words "Springsteen" and "tickets."

Finally, Jeff's penchant for entering radio station contests has paid off. (We won't count the free-weekend-houseboat-on-the-lake contest in the summer of 1995, which ended up with us paying a couple of hundred dollars for repair of said houseboat after we hit a submerged tree trunk).

So, come Aug. 24, look for us in the rafters, Bruce. The arena seats 16,000, but I guarantee none of them will be more excited than the one with me.