My Daddy

Yup! It's my Dad's birthday! Time to get out the old pictures and brag on him a bit. Truly, he is an international man of mystery. I don't know really what he does for a living, I never have. He always said, "I could tell you, but then I'd have to shoot you." Did I mention he was the one who taught me the Willie poems? He's got a very dry sense of humor, living in England for 16 years only encouraged this.

Here he is with my mom in 1974.

They got married a year later and celebrated 35 years this year.

We went on lots of adventures together. Here we are on a hike. He would later take mom and me to 27 countries and just as many states (not by piggyback). We loved to travel as a family, although he's been to countless countries without us now, how many passports have you filled, Dad?

All our earthly possessions were packed and we were on our way to California from Tennessee for Dad's linguistics school, it took a week to get there, and we broke down in the desert. That was the first of many moves for me. My Dad would forevermore write out his Christmas list in Persian, Farsi.

My Dad is an artist. He's one of those very complex people that can program a computer and paint a masterpiece too. He can also sing. Our special song we always sing together is, "Get a Job" by the Sha Na Nas. I loved when he sang in a barbershop quartet while we lived in Maryland. He can sing the really really low notes.

My family in 1983

I may have won a mother-daughter look-alike contest with my mom when I was sixteen...

...but there's no room for milkman jokes, he is clearly my Dad.

In 1997 he gave me away. Can you tell we love each other? We do, to pieces actually. He also shared with me a love for God. Growing up I'd jump onto Mom and Dad's bed for family Bible time and I recall great discussions on theology as a teenager. Remember the lemmings, Dad? He always has great analogies and maybe should have been a preacher.

Nine long years later, he became a Grandpa, and then I learned something about my Dad.

He loves our kids as much as he loves me and Ben. It's so fun to watch him with Z and Juju as he just comes alive. He can hardly say no to them and Z has caused serious (and irreversible) damage to my Dad's ipad in the past...twice. His interest in photography was reborn with the birth of our children and can be thanked for the wonderful catalog of pictures we have of them. He loves being a Grandpa, which is a very good thing indeed.

I hope you have a very happy birthday on Friday, the 13th, Dad! Such a fitting day for you, my funny, creative Dad, who loves Alfred Hitchcock (and shares a birthday with him) and who always has a Groucho Marx quote at the ready. I wish Germany wasn't so far away. I'm giving you hugs in my heart right now, wishing they were big bear hugs in person. I love you to pieces and always will.