Wilson

 

This is Wilson.

Wilson might be a boy...like Mr. Wilson, my high school history teacher who did cheerleader toe touches at assemblies. Wilson might also be a girl...like Wilson Phillips (hold on for one more day). I've generally been referring to Wilson as a male when I talk to him.

Wilson is from babyGAP's new Peter Rabbit line. I cannot resist Peter Rabbit anything. I have the entire collection of Beatrix Potter's 23 books in hardcover. Most of the animals are stinkers in those books. Squirrel Nutkin? That troublemaker deserved juvenile lockdown but got what was coming to him in the end. When I saw the new GAP line I mentioned to one of my friends how it was killing me with its cuteness. Days later a poor FedEx driver tromped through 18" of snow to deliver Wilson. I was so surprised! The card read:

Because SOONER or later you're going to need this.

Wilson (named after Tom Hanks' volleyball in Castaway) sits atop our game cabinet and stares at me as I move throughout the house. Sometimes I take him up to my nightstand while I fold laundry on my bed. Sometimes I hold him while I watch TV at night. I pet his ears and put him on my tummy to imagine how big a baby will be. Wilson reminds me that I will eventually have a real live baby head that can wear him. I really love Wilson. I'm glad someone gave me a baby gift...even though it's ironic to give a baby gift to someone who is not pregnant. Wilson is helping me hold on. Yes, there will come a time to use Wilson as GAP intended, but for now I'm just happy he stares at me.

*Last year, at the Durkovich Sister Reunion in Denver, Nurse Rat gave us all Tylenol PM to encourage sleep the first night. At the time I didn't know that Tylenol PM made me twitchy. It made all of us twitchy. Twitchy like we had Restless Leg Syndrome and needed to kick a hole in the wall all night. None of us slept, so naps were ordered the following afternoon. Suz and I were on the guest bed next to an open window trying to zonk out when all of a sudden a man started belting out a song about holding on.

Rat's neighbor's bathroom window was less than 10 feet from us. He took a very long shower and his song lasted even longer. We hunched under our window and laughed as quietly as we could as this dejected man created verse after verse about how he was going to keep holding on through the rain, the snow, the climb, the tears, the heartache, the pain. You name it, he was holding on through it.

It's still a huge joke. Suz left me a super funny voicemail after our trip and then sang a song about how she missed me but would hooooold awwwwn until our next trip. So join the ranks of KT Tunstall, David Gray, Wilson Phillips, Rat's mysterious man neighbor, and crazy old me who talks to an inanimate knitted rabbit hat and HOLD ON.