Marina and I have been together for many years and had recently decided to let nature take its course. If that meant a child, great! If not, we were happy with our current lifestyle.

While cooking that day, Marina told me that, over the past few days, she had been feeling a bit off. I suggested she take a pregnancy test. “No.” she said: “I can’t possibly be pregnant.” “Let’s just check to be sure” I said. She took the test and… it was positive. I got in the car, (don’t worry, I hadn’t finished my first glass of wine) and drove over to Walgreens. I bought a pregnancy test 3-pack and asked Marina to take all three tests. Yep. Sure enough, she was pregnant. We were floored, in a very good way. The cork went back into the barely touched bottle and we sat, with our minds peacefully flying a million miles a second, if that makes sense. Given this news, I knew I couldn’t go to a metal concert and leave her at home. Being the awesome person she is, Marina jumped online and bought a ticket to see a band she barely knew, just so I wouldn’t miss my one chance to see them play live and so we could be together that night.

When we got to the venue, an employee of Live Nation, who didn’t know us and knew nothing about us, approached us to ask if we would like to be upgraded to VIP seating, as opposed to the general admission, standing room only tickets we had. She unlatched the velvet rope and there we were, sitting at the side of the stage. For the next three hours, we sat, in an emotion-fueled mental fog of excitement, fear and wonder, as we watched Helloween power through their fierce and totally kick-ass catalogue.

I bought a Helloween hoodie that night and, strange as it sounds, it became a sort of good luck charm. I wore it to all of Marina’s doctor appointments and, yes, I wore it during our sweet little Violetta’s birth. I was wearing the Helloween hoodie as I held Marina’s hand and watched our little girl enter the world. I wore it as I tried to sleep while looking at our little girl the first night she slept in her hospital bassinet.

It’s funny how quickly things can change and how a night of fun nostalgic rock can become so intertwined with the most beautiful event of my life.
So, the next time you see a guy wearing a rock t-shirt or hoodie, who knows?