Things change...

You ever have one of those moments when you realize that your life has completely changed in some way, but it happened so gradually that you didn't even notice it happening at the time? I keep finding new ways that being a husband and father has changed me. For example, one time when my nephew Andrew Monkey was a baby, he was asleep in my sister's arms while we all watched an A's game. Carlos Pena hit a walk-off home run and I exploded (not literally, that would have been gross) with a relatively deafening yell of joy. Now you need to understand something: My yells of joy at sporting events are somewhat legendary. I think my jubilant scream at Mark McGwire's walk-off grand slam in early 1995 is still echoing through deep space. Anyways, my yell of course woke up Andrew and made my sister quite mad.

Fast forward to January of 2007. I'm sitting on my couch, watching the Warriors play the New Jersey Nets. My wife is asleep (also on the couch), and all of the children were asleep in their various beds. The Warriors are down by two with about 5 seconds left in the game. Baron Davis rebounds a missed Net's shot, dribbles to half-court, and passes to Monta Ellis, who strokes a game-winning three-pointer as time expires. Now, the old me might have woken everybody else in the house up. (By the way, since I had Tivo'd the game, I was watching this at about 11:30 at night.) However, the new me (who had instictively leapt off of the couch and landed about three feet from the television) instead just silently pumped his fist in the air and mouthed, not yelled, "Whooooo! Hoooo! YES!!!!!" Totally full of adrenaline. Totally pumped up. Totally silent. Life is weird.