Max and Maggie

Years ago, when I was in college and hadn't yet formed a strong identity of my own, I often adopted sayings and positions that sounded good, but weren't necessarily mine.  A man I was interested in at the time said, "I'm romantic, not sentimental.  Sentimental is such a bore."

It sounded so worldly at the time, and he was, after all, a published poet in Atlantic Monthly and a grad student at UCLA.  I was impressed, as only a newly intellectual college student can be. Romantic grew to mean sophisticated and sensual, and sentimental felt too attached and emotional.

For the next 34 years, I espoused the romantic vs. sentimental line whenever I wanted to appear detached, unattainable, unemotional and ever so elusive.  Seven years ago, two furry and mysterious creatures entered my life and released the mushy, emotionally attached and sentimental person I've always been...