Junia

Today, my best female friend and one of my best male friends (and my high school best friend) are having a baby. She surprised them by coming at 351/2 weeks. They don't have a name yet and for a while were calling her Junior. Then they found out there is an old-fashioned name, Junia - like Julia, but with an "n." I like it. So I'll call her that here.

My friend is having very painful contractions. She's on a Pitocin drip because her water broke, but she didn't go into labor. She hadn't wanted an epidural (theoretically), and now it turns out she can't have one anyway because of a neurological condition she has. Her mother just died two weeks ago of a protracted illness. It's sad - her mother had wanted to live to see her granddaughter born, but couldn't hold on any longer. My friend, who is 44, has Moon in Scorpio. I think that may bring birth and death into one's life very close together, especially relating to motherhood. If you believe in that sort of thing.

Hard as it is for my friend, I'm excited - my girls will not only have a built-in friend with each other, but a friend in Junia. I'm imagining sleep-overs and Halloween costumes and such in the future for Ada, Lydia, and Junia.

I moved out here in 1986 with two friends, Dave (who is becoming a father tonight) and Joel. We were in a band together. I was 20 at the time. Actually, Joel came out a year later. Now we've all had our first babies within a few months of each other, late in life, as it were. Joel's came only two days after Lydia and Ada. At the same hospital, while we were there. No, we didn't plan it that way, any of it. Now the first generation of this Oberlinian migration in Western Mass has arrived. (Townies, not students - although Dave and I went to college there and dropped out, ostensibly to devote more time to the band. We did not factor in jobs.) Joel, who had been out of touch with me and Dave, has gotten in touch since his daughter was born. Oh, yeah, and we all had girls. My plan is for them to all be in a band together. Playing music is also how I met Lynn - though we never had a full-fledged band. I introduced Dave and Lynn - with the contrivance of his giving her bass lessons. I knew what would happen. And sixteen years later... here we all are.