Strange but not a Stranger

Today is my Dad's 60th birthday.

I got him a trip to London and Paris and 23 dollars in cash.

All he really wanted was socks.

This is a list of 60 things I feel, think, believe, and know about my dad. Some good, some bad, most just somewhere in the middle.

These are the things I want to remember.

1. We never called my dad "daddy", even as small children. It doesn't suit him at all.

2. My dad was a youngest child until he was 8, when his only sister was born.

3. My dad wanted my brother to be named Matthew, but my mom insisted on David Jr.

4. My dad has very particular taste in cheese. You'll never find cheap cheese at his house.

5. I've never met a man who I felt like stacked up in toughness next to my dad. I still feel like he could beat up any man on earth.

6. I don't lock my doors because of my dad. If we locked it, he would make us get up at 4 am (when he went to work) to unlock it and then give us a lecture on how poor people don't get robbed.

7. My dad knows all the backstreets in every town I have ever been in with him. Even in the town I live in.

8. My dad does a great Bill Murray in Caddyshack impression.

9. My dad was always late to pick us up for everything. Sometimes hours late.

10. I've very rarely (maybe 5-6 times in my whole life) heard my dad talk about an uncomfortable subject (i.e. sex, romance, race relations, etc)

11. My dad rarely talks about his own father, except to say that he was very cheap and that he didn't talk about his service in World War 2

12. My dad likes music traditionally favored by lesbians. I have often accused him of being a lesbian trapped in a man's body. *he hasn't denied it- for the record*

13. We used to watch the whole Ken Burns Civil War series during the holidays. That's like 16 hours of Civil War documentary, people.

14. I've never seen him wear a pastel.

15. I am kind of ambivalent about steak. Unless my dad makes it..then I LOVE it.

16. He doesn't like people to put constraints on his free time.

17. I don't look like my dad at all. In my opinion.

18. My dad had an asthma attack when my mom told him that she was pregnant with me. Maybe because my sister Erin was just 6 weeks old.

19. My dad used to play catch with us three girls, while my brother played star wars by himself in another part of the yard.

20. I think it would have been good for my dad to have more sons.

21. My dad used to watch the news line up every Friday night. I wish I could go back to that time and watch it with him.

22. My dad is fearless. The only one of his children who inherited this was my sister, Erin. The rest of us are actually somewhat timid people.

23. Any sympathy I get from my dad brings tears to my eyes. He is not one for doling out a lot of sympathy.

24. My dad is big into practical gifts. I think I got a magic bullet and crock pot from him for my last two birthdays.

25. When I didn't get accepted into the only college I applied to, he called and yelled at some poor guy at the admissions office.

26. It hasn't been until this past year..these past months even, that I stop trying to get his approval and attention through gifts, accomplishments, etc.

27. When I was staring up at the Sistine Chapel, I wished he had been there. I think it would have rendered him speechless, just as it did me.

28. I have known my dad for 30 years and yet, most of the time, I feel like I don't know who he really is.

29. I think I get my ability to survive from my mom, but I get any bravery that I have from my dad.

30. One day my dad told me he was tired of me reading trashy romance novels. He made me read "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck, in one day.

31. He may not have understood him that well, but my dad always was a strong advocate for and defender of my brother.

32. He and my mom's song is "Nights in White Satin". I have always thought it should be "When Doves Cry" by Prince. :)

33. My dad, when he works, works hard. He taught me that quality is more important than quantity or the bottom line.

34. I wish that he had taught me to play the guitar.

35. There is only one picture of me and my dad when I am young. It was taken the day I was born.

36. I love being driven somewhere by my dad. I feel completely safe.

37. My sister Erin always says that my dad is a 'wild stallion who was never meant to be tamed"

38. I call my dad when I am angry about my job. He is a great advice giver.

39. Whenever I watch those wedding shows, where the dad is saying "nothing is too good for my little girl" and spending buckets of money, I feel like I missed something. Then, my dad makes me his famous hamburger casserole for me to take home and I realize that I didn't.

40. My dad likes bands before they are famous. Like Nirvana. He was listening to them long before they became famous. "smells like teen spirit" is part of the soundtrack to my childhood.

41. My dad comes from Michigan. He does not, thankfully, have a Michigander accent.

42. Whenever I have lived at home during the winter, my dad has always shoveled my car out of the snow. He always does little things like that.

43. My dad is the lightest sleeper I know. This probably kept me safe in high school. I knew it was impossible to sneak out.

44. I wish I knew what my dad thought about my being born. Having another daughter. Or what he was thinking the day I went to kindergarten. Or the day I graduated high school.

45. I love the story my mom tells about my dad. About him making the ginger bread houses and how seeing him sprinkle powered sugar over them was like magic.

46. I would love to marry someone who would stay up all night making ginger bread houses for me.

47. I don't think that my dad finds me to be very interesting.

47. He is definitely, in his own way, one of the most spiritual people I know.

48. My dad has fought the law. And the law won.

49. I can see weird Dad qualities come through in my brother. Like that he is a meticulous painter.

50. I've begged and tried to bribe him to read Harry Potter, but he won't do it. Apparently he is reading his way through Shakespeare. Come on..that's an easy choice..Rowling over Shakespeare!

51. I have always been secretly glad to have bad eyesight, because it gave me glasses, just like my dad. It was something that I had, that none of my sisters or brother had. A bond.

52. When I talk about my dad, I tend to talk in circles.

53. No matter how the other characters shift around, in my brothers Star Wars games, my dad is always the Emperor.

54. He always made me think that I could do almost anything.

55. I've become more and more grateful for him as I have worked with my clients. I can't tell you how many times I have heard "I don't even know what my dad's name is".

56. I want to spend some time figuring out how I am like him, or something. Figuring out how to pass his legacy down to future generations.

57. He was named after an uncle. Which gives me hope that someone will name one of my nieces after me! (it's not too late, Grandmom May won't mind the change!)

58. I bet he's mentally checked out of this list long before here!

59. I would love to be able to send him to a ski chalet for a month, with only the occupation of skiing and laying by the fire at night:)

60. I hope he's got another 60 years. I can't imagine my life without my Dad.

 Happy Birthday, old man!!

Oreo