Father's Day

A day like no other, where men get to be men and do all the things they enjoy: eating their favorite meals, getting control of the remote control, choosing the music in the car, and doing whatever they please.  Of course, this is NOT the case in my family, because I'm Princess Val and I make the rules. Duh.

Since I was taking charge, I decided that we were going to do Father's Day on Saturday, aka yesterday, because I had to work Sunday morning and wasn't sure if I was going to be able to see him.  I made plans to meet up with him at noon, knowing that he was going to hate it no matter what time I showed up.  This is important to note: my father is HORRIBLE with gifts, and really, celebrations of any kind.  His birthday is in the summer and it takes him about six months to open birthday gifts, right in time for x-mas, which is practically the same deal... So, I knew that it was going to be rough, like it is every year... I was NOT expecting this, though...

I was on my way to his house, going to show up for 12:30pm, since I knew he wasn't going to be ready for me at twelve... but he called me while I was on the way and told me that he was going to the store to pick up fly-catching strips... because the carport* is filled with disgusting, buzzing flies**.  I meet him at the house, presents and (unsigned) card in hand, and he looks at me like he has no idea what day is it, or what these are for.  I went in, put the gifts*** on his desk and went out to the dining room to sign the card.  He came out and I made a big deal of putting my hand over the card, like, don't read it while I'm still writing!! He said I'm not looking at it to which I replied good, because I'm not done writing it yet and which he said if you didn't want me to see it, you could have mailed it to me. 

I said to him, why the hell would I mail it if I was going to see you?  He said it'd have been nice to get something in the mail.  Oh, okay. Fine. Next year, no gifts, just a letter in the mail.

Anyway, the rest of a long story short, Dad made me wait about an hour and a half for him to open presents, because he avoids them like the plague, and instead made me sit and watch him clean out my deceased grandfather's clothes from the closets, while he decided which were garbage, and which were goodwill... Poppy's been gone since 2006.  I guess it was really imperative that it got done this weekend... Go Figure.

We had a really great day after all that nonsense, in all honesty.  We went bowling and had a lot of laughs.  (I won the first game, which we all know is the only one that really counts.)  Then we went to dinner at Friday's and stuffed ourselves on Jack Daniels' Chicken.  Yum.

I love my dad... he's hilarious, and I am grateful for all the things he's given me... especially his sense of humor, his height, and his charm.  I love him for the fact that when I took pictures of him bowling, he told me not to post these on facebook, or put them on my blog, whatever that is... but that's not the Princess Val way, is it? Nope.

*Carport is a term for an enclosed area off the house, which could otherwise be called a porch but it is not raised, it is the same level as the house.
** I am ridiculously afraid of things that fly.
*** Two books on the NY Mets, his favorite baseball team.