Last Leap Year went unoticed. I probably thought February 29th sounded a bit odd but then assumed there's always a February 29th and this was just another thing I didn't know. I don't say that to sound self-depricating or pathetic, I say it because four years ago Wes and I were engaged in a life of not knowing, trying to learn and wandering blind.
In 2008 Wes and I were fresh out of college (I have a degree in English and Secondary Education, Wes in Business Finance) with plans and some money. We'd moved to Seattle when Wes got a job at Microsoft. To say he was stressed out during this first year at Microsoft was an understatement. He felt guilty about not working enough when he sometimes worked 12 hour days. He developed ulcers. Had it been me (luckily it was not) I would have hid under the covers and admitted defeat. But Wes has a superhuman work ethic. I worked as well at a baby boutique. I found the job while looking for jobs. I was walking down the street and saw a "help wanted" sign and went in. The owner and manager were so impressed that my resume wasn't written on crumpled notebook paper and I wasn't in sweatpants that I got the job then and there. It felt so old school. No computers, no automated interviews, just handshakes and conversation. The pay was also old school; about $7.00 an hour. I threw my loan repayment schedule away unopened.
My days were spent talking about things I had no knowledge of. Why women thought that I would know how to help them develop a breast pumping schedule was beyond me. "I just work the registar, lady" I wanted to say. A big part of my job was learning how to use all the baby carriers the store had. Words do not describe the terror felt when when mothers would give me their newborn to strap to their body. My manager wanted me to take one of the carriers home along with a very lifelike doll to practice putting it together. This wasn't a big deal until a frantic lady pulled her car over and demanded that I stop carrying my "baby" in such an unsafe way. I walked the rest of the way home with the doll securely against my chest like a crazy person and resolved to quit the second I got home. I thought, "when I'm I ever going to need any of this information?"
Two moves, a wedding and one baby later, February 29th appears again. I suppose I could have imagined myself here; a stay-at-home mother, married. Wes has gone from Microsoft to Nike with his work ethic intact and he recently moved to a permenant postion (no more contracting!) with benefits and a significant bump in pay. I noticed Leap Year this time around because I've slowed down and the days have more meaning. I could be a customer to the 23-year-old me; another woman with a baby absorbed in all the gizmos and gadgets of my new life.
On the next Leap Year Seeley will be four and Wes and I will be in our thrities. I feel too superstitious to make any projections about the future, I only hope I stop to recognize the ordinary on that not-so ordinary day.
I remember that job. You called me freaking out about women who wanted to talk about their cracking and sore nipples. I loved you then and I love you now.
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