The sound of silence

I talked to a friend of mine on the phone the other day about lunchtime, but her voice sounded scratchy and almost like she just woke up. She works at night, so it didn't surprise me that she would sound that way.

"I'm so sorry," I said. "Did I wake you up?"

"No, no." she said. "I've been up for a while. I just haven't spoken before now."

She lives by herself, so that's perfectly understandable. But at the same time, I can't remember the last time I had that long of a stretch of silence.

I got home from work about 20 minutes ago. Jeff picked up Biscuit and planned to stop by the grocery store.

That means I'm home all alone. All by myself. Nobody here but me. Do you get that being alone might be a bit of a rarity for me?

Anyway, I'm watching "Cash Cab" on Discovery Channel. I LOVE that show. Jeff teases me because I want to go to New York, not for the Empire State Building or a Yankees game, but rather to be on "Cash Cab."

The host asked a question the contestants didn't know the answer to. They talked to each other and tried to come up with something. So of course, I figured if I yelled out the answer, they would hear me and not get kicked out of the cab.

I got the answer right, but until I yelled it out, I had spent 20 minutes in absolute silence. Now first of all, those who know me know that unless I'm sleeping, I hardly EVER spend 20 minutes in silence.

But my own voice made me jump. It sounded so odd. It had been so quiet, with nothing but the TV, and then this voice out of nowhere.

It's not quiet in here now, though. Jeff and Biscuit came in a little while ago. Jeff went straight to the kitchen, and Biscuit started running around looking for me while yelling my name. He went straight to our bedroom, then our bathroom, then back to the kitchen, then into the living room where I was.

"Mom! Mom! Mom! Dad got surprise for you! Dad got flowers for you! Dad get you flowers!" Biscuit yelled.

"Surprise!" Jeff said, laughing, as he came around the corner. He was holding a bunch of beautiful peachy-orange roses. Today is our 8th anniversary.

As I think about the years Jeff and I have had together and then the years since we've had Biscuit, I realize it wasn't that long ago that I lived by myself and silence was the norm. But nowadays, the noise is a dull roar at best. And I'm okay with that.