Adam Oster, Novelist

For the past few months, my wife and I have been holding on to this big secret. Something huge. Something exciting. Something which will ultimately send our lives into an entirely new level of chaos that we can’t possibly comprehend at this point.

And, I’ve been using this secret as a way to troll my friends and family on Facebook.

You see, it’s incredibly easy to mislead people, even when you’re telling them that you’re being dishonest. And so, starting with an image of a bun in an oven, I told people I had a big secret that I’m not allowed to reveal yet.

And the crowd went wild. This post is my second-most-reacted-to post on Facebook for all time. And for all the wrong reasons.

But I continued. So, the next day, I shared another image, one of a photoshoot that we held for us to get some pictures for the actual big reveal, and the one hiding up there near the top of this post. While we were doing this photoshoot, knowing my plans for trolling my friends and family, the people I love most in this world, I turned my wife to face away from me, and placed my hands around her belly. This was the second post I shared. With a whole lot of commentary about how I still couldn’t reveal the truth yet, but how excited and terrified we are for it, and, well, a whole bunch of additionally misleading (but entirely true) statements.

This, my friends, is my first-most-reacted-to post on Facebook as of this writing.

And again, all because of people being absolutely certain of what the reveal is.

No, we’re not having a baby. We’ve got too many kids already. We’re buying a bakery.

And as of yesterday, my wife made the official announcement to the world on her Facebook, and the reaction to her announcement completely dwarfs either of the posts I had on the event. I like to think I can take a little bit of credit about that.

And while I may have had a little bit of fun playing around with my friends and family, the truth of the matter here is that I really couldn’t contain myself to want to let the world know about this new addition to our lives. We’ve been working on this for years, and this specific sale for months. Well…my wife has. I’ve been supportive and all, but this has really all been an act of hard work on my wife’s part while I try to cheerlead as loudly as possible. Because I honestly believe this is what my wife is meant to be doing. She is not only an amazing baker, but also a shrewd woman who knows how to make things happen. And now she finally has her own place to showcase her skills and share them with the community. And I couldn’t be more excited for her to be able to do so.

So, while a baby might be cute and all that, this is the culmination of a lifetime of desire. And I’ve been force to hold back from telling everyone about it for months now.

But now that it’s all official and everything, if you find yourself in the Chippewa Valley, you should definitely make your way out to The Nostalgic Bean. Especially after March 10th, when this place will be ours, and we’ll need all the money to pay back the loan sharks we had to convince to give us enough money to make this happen. I’m not ready to have my legs broken quite yet.