When I was away at college, my dad always used my bathroom to get ready in the morning.  I remember being home one weekend and while I was drying my hair I noticed The Cure CD case laying on the bathroom counter.  I remember putting the case in the bathroom drawer.  Oddly enough, every visit back home I would see that The Cure CD case sitting on the bathroom counter.

I remember thinking, “Does my dad like The Cure? What in the world do my parents do while I am away at school??”

Finally one day I asked my dad why the CD was always on the bathroom counter and he showed me.  He pulled the CD out and put the case on top of his coffee mug.  He said it kept his coffee hot while he was in the shower. 

I remember laughing at him… a lot.

Yeah, I looked down this morning and realized that I use that eye shadow to keep my coffee warm every morning… Like father, like daughter.

I have the most wonderful memories of my dad throughout my life and I am so thankful that he is still around to make new memories with both me and my children.   The funny thing to me is that most of my memories are about things that I have laughed at him about… and like covering my coffee mug in the bathroom, they are things that I now find myself doing on a constant basis.

I remember my father was the king of sneaking popcorn into movie theaters.  Mom would fill newspaper bags with popcorn and dad would wear his big army jacket and we would go to the movies – Star Wars movies, Indiana Jones, etc.  Now, as a mother I find myself buying $1 candy at the drugstore to carry in my purse to go to the movie.

We learned early on how to keep daddy happy.  And one of the most important things to him was respect.  If he called our names, we could not answer with, “Yeah,” or “Huh,” or “What.”  The only acceptable answer was “Yes sir.”  I mastered the art of saying, “Yeah…sir.”  And I could slur it just right so that it sounds like I had not misspoken.  Now I find myself saying to my children on a regular basis, “You just say yes ma’am and be quiet.”  Wow…. act like dad much????

                      My handsome daddy

And one thing I have always known with absolute certainty is that my dad has always had my back.  He has always supported me and validated me – some may even say to a fault because he taught me to have so much confidence.   He was the person I called when I knew I needed to get out of my marriage.  He said, “Be here tomorrow” and I knew everything was going to be okay.

And it HAS been okay.  And every day has gotten better since.

I joke about how I find myself being more like my dad every day, but the truth of the matter is that if I can turn out to be half the person that my dad is then I will have lived a successful life.  I pray that I have many more years of love and laughter with that amazing man.

Of course, I may have to practice my golf game so I can spend a little more time with him…