Last Year.
In October of 2009, Chris and I went up to Bar Harbor to celebrate our move home, our new lives, and the growing secret in my belly.
While we were up in Maine, we visited a coffee shop in downtown Bar Harbor that had a full selection of fancy pants coffee drinks, and then offered a selection of board games (most from the early 90s) to play with while you got your caffeine on.
Chris and I ended up sitting at a modified desk, playing Trivial Pursuit. And then we noticed the desk had a drawer.
"What's in there?" I asked as he grabbed the drawer pull and carefully opened the drawer that was crammed with slips of paper.
"Looks like ... notes? Like people wrote notes and left them in here?"
Each of us took a fistful of white, crinkled paper and read what others had left behind. It was like PostSecret in a drawer. There were papers with drawings of people's homes, and their dogs with floppy hats, or their boyfriends wearing bikinis. (True. More than one of those, which cracked me up.) Notes stained with coffee and Scrabble tallies and the words "I WON!" in all caps. Notes with people's favorite quotes. Notes with secrets. Notes with the words "I'm leaving him tomorrow" written in tiny, hesitant print in the bottom left hand corner.
We had only told our close friends and family about the baby. We hadn't let a word whisper out otherwise. But we wanted to leave our secret in this drawer, because we knew it was only a few more days until we were going to tell the world.
So I scrawled a picture on a slip of paper and tucked it tight into the drawer. And left it, buried with all the other mysteries.
This past fall, Chris and I visited Bar Harbor again. BSparl was spending the weekend with my mother, and we were taking our first weekend away as "parents." We went back to that same coffee shop and - just for kicks - checked the same desk drawer to see if our secret was still there.
Now this paper is in her baby book.
When we wrote this, I was in the beginning of my diabetic pregnancy. And now, I'm a very happy and healthy mommy, despite all the challenges of diabetes and baby building. We did it, she and I.
I hope BSparl is tolerant of how goofy her parents are. And how much we loved her, even before we met her.
Comments
How cool!
Posted by: Cara | December 13, 2010 11:06 AM
BSparl has quite muscular legs in that picture! I'm impressed!
That's so great that you could find the note again!
Posted by: Sara | December 13, 2010 11:11 AM
Now that's fun, though it's a long way to drive! I do love Bar Harbor, but I don't think my wife and kids would endure the ride anytime soon.
Posted by: Bernard Farrell | December 13, 2010 11:34 AM
That is so great! What a neat story!
Posted by: Nancy | December 13, 2010 11:42 AM
This is so sweet, Kerri!!!! Such a precious memory :)
My hubby was born in Bar Harbor -- it must be full of the best kept secrets, because he's pretty amazing :)
Posted by: Wendy | December 13, 2010 11:49 AM
More proof that
coffee = goodness
Posted by: Bennet | December 13, 2010 12:18 PM
That's so cute
Posted by: Darsi | December 13, 2010 12:27 PM
I always tear up when you write entries like this. I just can't help myself! The situation is just too precious. Love love love.
Posted by: Lisa | December 13, 2010 12:29 PM
So. Very. Cool. Thx for sharing this story!
Posted by: sarah mart | December 13, 2010 01:51 PM
That is such a sweet tale - BSparl will appreciate it when she is older. Like older older, not in the pre-teens, cause then she will just DIE of embarrassment. Can you tell I live with a pre-teen????
Posted by: Penny | December 13, 2010 02:18 PM
Best story ever. It just got very dusty in this room :)
Posted by: SA Mac | December 13, 2010 03:30 PM
I am with Sara (Commenter #2). Looks like a Popeye offspring of sorts!
Love this story Kerri. Very cool to revisit that time in your life.
Posted by: Reyna Maher | December 13, 2010 04:02 PM
In Bakersfield, CA where I grew-up and live we had a coffee house called "Java Jazz" that had a room full of games as well. In that room was a collection of spiral notebooks and people would come in and place poetry, drawings, and notes (much like the place you describe) in these books. I would go spend nights there reading though and discussing peoples entries with my friends. It was sad when that placed closed. You post makes me wonder what happend to all those great notebooks? Did they reach the round file or did someone save them? They would make a great display for one of our underground art studios.
It is great that you found your little note when you returned.
Posted by: Monty | December 13, 2010 06:18 PM
What an awesome memory for BSparl.
Posted by: SuperG | December 13, 2010 06:35 PM
how amazing it was still there ..very cool!
Posted by: Misty | December 13, 2010 09:18 PM
Awww, that's adorable!! :) How cool that it was still there and you were able to snag it for her baby book!!
Posted by: Karen | December 14, 2010 03:55 PM