Fifteen years ago today Jean and I started dating again. We were both juniors here at Richmond, and had broken up about a year before. The year Jean and I didn't date was a nasty one, and the nastiness was all on my side. I'm not going to review the bad times, though. What's important is that on February 25, 1984 Jean and I got back together (at a restaurant called Milton's Pizza no less), and we've never looked back.

In fact, Jean and I have talked about how our time apart changed our relationship, and both of us feel that our year off strengthened our relationship for the long term. Since we got back together, we haven't had big arguments. And even with the smaller problems, we've never gone to bed angry.

Even now, in the middle of the night when Colette makes her demands, Jean and I (she half asleep, me completely asleep) are courteous to one another. I get the feeling other people would probably hate us if they knew how well we get along. Luckily we tend to be homebodies so most of the outside world doesn't really know.

Tonight we had a candlelit dinner together. Colette was bawling away in the other room, but we figured we could take twenty minutes to be with each other. By the time we finished, Colette had dozed off. We're going to finish the night in just a little bit by watching a little TV. This time, Colette will join us. Television is a good thing when you have a baby around: you can pay attention to the baby and still feel like you did something at night.