Rick The Stick – The Webcomic

	Okay, I get the safehouse, but Milton managing it, my Aunt monitoring street activity and now my uncle is the tech guy? Where am I?

Good morning! Happy Friday!! Today is the official final weigh in on my Rick the Stick Diet…wish me luck and check back Monday for the final tally!!

Today is a bittersweet day for me. Prior to July 31st, 2008, it was absolutely the worst day of the year. It was the anniversary of the worst day of my life. Nine years ago today, my mother died suddenly from complications that arose from her battle with cancer. That’s as much as I’ll say about that because my mother was the most optimistic person I ever met. Most of my life, she had the weight of the world on her shoulders and I never knew it. She was the person in my life who knew me best and believed in me more than anything. So when July 31st came along every year, my heart sank and the sadness was at times unbearable.

In late 2007, my wife and I had learned she was pregnant. We went to the doctors office and got an ultrasound. The technician determined the baby’s age (they disclaim it’s approximate) and since I had my calendar on my iPhone I plotted out the remaining days to guess at the due date. I had to double check because I couldn’t believe it. July 31st.

I’ll be honest with you, I’m not a religious person. If there were a higher power, my mother would have had things planned this way. She was all about looking past the bad things in life and focusing on the good – and the good for her was always me and my brothers. I’d like to think that if she could give me one more gift – this would be it.

As the days continued to pass, through the spring and summer we carried on. Finally July rolled around, and at this point I already had 7 months of my stomach being both excited and in knots anticipating whether or not my son would be born on the now mythical date. The possibility of one date being magically flipped from worst to best day of the year for me increasingly turned into an uncontrollable yearning for destiny to converge on my behalf. My anxiety grew day by day.

A few days before the 31st, my wife mentioned that she was convinced our child would be a week or two late. I was certain that fate would not let me down.

On the night of the 30th, things had changed. My wife was feeling some pressure but since we had never had a child, we still weren’t sure about anything. As was typical late in the pregnancy, my wife was uncomfortable, but managing like the trooper she was. We went to sleep, and I still had strong feelings the baby would be born the next day.

At around 2am, I woke up. The room was almost completely black. I rolled over and saw the silhouette of my wife sitting up. She sat there silent. I asked her if she was okay. She paused for a second and replied “I don’t know”. I was nervous because of the pause and well, I certainly didn’t know what to do. I turned on the light and asked her a few more questions, then encouraged her to call the doctor’s office. They told her to come in immediately.

The delivery was not long (for me anyway) and my son was delivered shortly after 1pm. My wife was amazing.

My life has never been the same. I have a greater bond with my wife and I will always appreciate what she went through. For the last year, I have gotten to know another amazing person – my son. I cannot tell you how much he means to me. I’ve mentioned that he is the inspiration for me to lose over 50 pounds, to become healthier so I can watch him grow up, and to become a better person so I can teach him not make the same mistakes I have.

I hope his life is full of love, happiness and joy. I know that he’s brought that back to me and I can now celebrate it every year on July 31st.

Thanks for dropping by!
Ken

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