No, you're my schmoopie...

February 1 will mark the second anniversary of my husband Michael's death. I promised myself last year that I wouldn't continue the public memorial. Here I am again, breaking my promises. Partly because I've gotten such kind comments from people on my One World-One Heart post. I wanted to thank you for the support and assure people that I'm not wallowing in grief. Things are getting easier. That's primarily why I felt that I wanted to give away Ann Hood's book "Comfort" as well as Carly Simon's "Into White." I feel that they could provide some solace to another aching heart. They did that for me. I find Ann Hood to be inspirational in the fact that the sudden loss of her 5-year-old daughter could have crushed her forever. Her peace was hard won. Her daughter Grace will never be forgotten by her or her family. To me the most encouraging thing is that the bloom of hope returned to her life. It's that sense of camaraderie. If Ann could create a life after Grace, then there's hope for all of us who have experienced intense loss.

Michael and I discovered our term of endearment, while watching an umpteenth rerun of Seinfeld. It's the famous "Soup Nazi" episode. One of the subplots involves the cutesy, over-the-top way that Jerry and his (then) girlfriend Sheila shower each other with public declarations of affection. We thought it was hilarious and started calling each other "Schmoopie" as a joke. Eventually it became so ingrained in our daily interactions that it seemed odd when we addressed one another by our formal names.

I found this video that compresses those funny moments into a few minutes, so you don't have to watch the whole episode to get the joke. It still makes me laugh.

Scroll down and turn off the music if you want to view the video.