Reaction

It’s important to know your own foibles and faults. It helps to be aware of them to try to minimize them and their negative impact or impression on others. It also helps to exploit them for their humor value, especially if you’re looking for a way to introduce a short piece of non-fiction writing.

Here’s one of mine: I like attention. Well, I like the good kind of attention. I definitely dread public embarrassment, but public successes are the fuel that powers my engine. (Apparently, I also like clunky metaphors. And I’d rather undermine my own writing with disclaimers than edit.)

Anyway, there are very few opportunities for an attention-lover that are as gratifying as announcing that you’re having a baby. I admit it: I love watching people’s eyes widen and their mouths start to form expectant Os when I say, “Actually, I have some exciting news…” So far the reactions have been entirely gratifying.

It sucks, a little, to think about telling people my wife is pregnant as a performance (see above re: foibles and faults) but from a performance point of view, there are few pauses as delicious as the pause between, “Rachel’s pregnant…” and, “… with twins.” Can you think of anything that could be better? Even, “I bought a lottery ticket…” and, “… I won,” can’t compete, because even the greenest rube has to see it coming. (No one tells a story about losing the lottery.) Seriously try it out now on your own:

Rachel’s pregnant.

…

With twins!

Feel that? You’ve got one of the best one-two punches ever. The first one is pretty amazing. Everyone loves to hear that a friend is pregnant. They’re so excited! They’re surprised! They’re so happy for you! They have so many questions! And then, just as it’s sinking in, just as the waveform starts to curve over the top and start to fall off—BAM. Twins, sucka.

With at most one or two exceptions, nearly everyone has said something on the order of, “No.  You’re kidding.” (Which kind of makes me wish I were. That would be hilarious.) Our friends seem as knocked on their asses by the news as we were. We almost always get a big hug after “pregnant” and slack-jawed shock after “twins.”

I think I’ll be a little sad when we run out of people to tell.

Filed under Pregnancy | Tags: friends, Pregnancy, twins! | Comment (0)