A Special Father’s Day

I am writing this while I wait to see my Besty. When I come to see him I always have to wait. I am a bit worried this time as the receptionist actually said there would be a wait. Normally I do not get this warning and refer to the “delay” board that posts each doctor’s delay time. My appointment is for 12:15 and there is already a 1h delay. Last time I was here there was only a 45 min delay posted which turned into almost 3h. Hopefully, I will be home before 5:00 today.

The week that has past has been interesting. I missed band practice since it was moved to Thursday last week and I had hockey already. Hockey was good and I played well but did not score again even though I had many chances. Friday night was spent with the family.  We went for a walk in the Mer Bleue bog near our place and then watched a movie at home. Saturday was spent conserving my energy for later that evening. The kids made their own dinner (Greek salad for I&C and chicken ceasar salad for G) while MA and I went to the wedding. It was a very nice wedding filled with love and emotion and humour. I doubt there was a dry eye in the place. The evening started out with a small ceremony, followed by a cocktail hour where light appetizers were served. During this time, some of the speeches were done giving a few more people a chance to cry some more. Later on, there was a dinnerish buffet that was served (it was not a big buffet but complimented well with the vast number of appies we had prior) with more speeches and crying that followed. There was a bit of a break and then the first dances started and, you guessed it, more crying. Luckily all this crying were tears of joy but had I known in advance it was going to be like this, I would have brought Kleenex and sold the boxes all night. I would have made a killing! Now it was our turn to dance and we did so with a bang. I was able to get down for longer than I expected but still nowhere near was I used to be capable of. It was weird dancing and not having a buzz. It was like high school all over again. I was good and avoided the sleepy bar, I mean the poutine buffet station. Once this came out, it seemed to put everyone to sleep for a little while. I was able to last until about 11:30 before heading home for the evening.

The scariest part came when we got to the car. I had thought I was lucky with the parking I had found earlier. It was on the end of a row of parking spots and I made sure to leave enough room in front of the car so that I could pull out with ease without hitting the curb. When we got to the car it was surrounded by motorcycles. They were literally inches from my bumpers, both front and back. As I got closer to the car, I started planning how I was going to get out. Scenes from Sons of Anarchy started playing in my head as I tried to figure out what might happen if I hit one of the bikes as I tried to squeeze out of the parking spot. If I hit one, do I have time to escape down the street and get to safety. Do I hit them hard enough to  knock them all down to slow them even more? Before I could finalize my plan, one of the bikers piped up and got on his bike to move it. It was the one at the front of the car so it made it much easier for me to get out. With that crisis averted, it was just a matter of avoiding the drunk people crossing the street without any cares or awareness of the traffic on the road. We got home safe and spent some time in the hot tub to calm and soothe our aches from the evening.

Father’s Day was extra special though it did not start out that way. I did not sleep well the night before and was awake early that morning. Though I tried, I could not sleep and was up around 6:00am. My body was exhausted but I could not get my brain to relax so I got up and had my coffee. I puttered around a bit and had breafast then tried to sleep again but could not. By that time, I was tired and cranky. I tried to nap again in the afternoon and finally got some sleep. I slept for about 3h and then was treated to dinner made by MA. From then on, the day got better. Before dinner, G showed me a Father’s day video she made online for me. C made little tiny notes that were in an oval shaped box, each one having a word or phrase with a quality she says I have that makes me special. Finally, Isabelle presented me with the letter/story she wrote earlier in the week. She handed me a copy for me to read while she read it out loud to everyone. I was not allowed to skip ahead and had to follow her as she read. Near the end she stopped and told me that I needed to read the rest out loud but not before she left the room. I did not make it through the short paragraph before I started to cry. By the end, the rest of the family was crying too. It was a very nice story about what had happened earlier in the week and what it made her think about afterwards. I have shared her story below. Before doing that, I will finish with the rest of the week.

Sunday night was spent with my old poker buddies. Though I was doing well for most of the night, I ended up losing in the last hour so I was down a few bucks. Not much happened on Monday. Tuesday started with hockey and me scoring a goal finnally. Later on, MA worked on the deck, getting it ready to be sanded and painted. Baseball was the plan for the evening with a last inning comeback for the win. All in all, it was a better week than the previous one.

Tomorrow is the kids last day of school for the year and their last day at this school. Next year they are going to a new high school that is closer to home. The school is so new it still does not have a name yet. It will be their fifth school in their lives and only once was it because we moved. It will be nice and weird having them around. I have gotten used to being somewhat alone during the day. It will be the most time that I have spent with them, ever!

Here is Isabelle’s story. Just a bit of context prior to reading it. It was late Wednesday when it happened. I was watching a movie with MA when I saw a fly on the floor. I rolled up a magazine and whacked it really hard 2-3 times. Just so happens it was at the same time that MA was editing my last blog post.

Fathers Day

This gift my daughter gave me was just what I needed to lift my spirits and remind me why I am fighting so hard. Ironic that while she was writing it, I was writing about how hard it has been for me. I guess God does work in mysterious ways.