Daddy Dearest

Today is the birthday of my favorite guy: MY DAD!

In honor of this special guy and his special day, here are some of my favorite memories of and the things I love about my dad:

My dad always worked graveyard shift when I was younger, so he went to bed long before my brother and me. Before my dad would retire for the night he would say, "Goodnight, Gracie." I didn't know what it meant or where it was from until I was much older. It makes me smile.

Like any child, I was full of questions. Now that I'm an adult, I realize how annoying this can be when the questions won't stop. When I was being overly curious my dad would say "What, you writing a book?" I find myself saying this to my students sometimes.

He took us to baseball games, and the movies, and to get really good cheeseburgers for dinner.

Two really long road trips from Las Vegas, NV, to Salem, OR, to visit family. We ate a lot of beef jerky and fortune cookies. Don't ask.

The way he says my name, or nickname rather, when he wants to give me advice.

The way he laughs.

He always checked on me before he left for work in the wee hours of the morning (graveyard shift, remember?) even when I was in high school and living at home during college.

When he got me a bike for my 10th birthday. We went to the store and I picked out this awesome pink 10-speed, but when my birthday came he pretended like he didn't get it for me. I cried, then he brought it out.

All the times he would ask me for help in writing something. He thought I was a good writer.

His beautiful penmanship. And the times I tried to copy it when attempting to forge a signature for school. Oops.

How he taught me how to swing a golf club, hit a softball, and field a grounder.

The time I got into a fight in junior high school and when he picked me up he wasn't mad, he just said, "So, did you kick her a$$?"

When I drank too much on the night of my high school graduation and he had to drive me to get my car the next morning. The only thing he said during the entire car ride was, "A little too much hair of the dog, huh? Glad you didn't drive home."

His jar of change that my brother and I would dip into to get quarters for candy and ice cream.

How much he loves my husband and my son.

How much he loves me.

Happy birthday, dad! You'll never know how much I love you.