dad.

Saturday is my dad's birthday. I might have gotten him a birthday present on Monday and failed to mail it out until today. Today is Friday. No. My dad will not be receiving his gift on time. I'm not sure he's gotten an on time gift for Father's Day or his birthday since... well. A long time.

My dad is a good man.

I remember him going out late to work on substations during thunderstorms and being scared in my room until he came home. Not that our town of 800 people wasn't safe. It just felt safer when he was home.

I remember the first time he showed me how to program the game "Mastermind" in C++ on our computer and how proud he was of me for basically just doing what he said to do. But I remember that I felt like a genius the first time we played it.

I remember my senior prom. I had a red dress that I found for $35 at DEB and I was SUPER excited about it. My dad looked at me and told me that I was just beautiful and I looked like a princess.

I remember when he was talking of his buddies who only has sons. My dad felt sorry for him because my dad's friend would never get the pride and privilege of walking a daughter down the aisle. My dad, who fought in the Vietnam War and is possibly one of the smartest people I know, said his proudest moment was getting to walk my sister down the aisle.

I remember how he called me, heart-broken, worried about how I was doing the day I left my house for good and the life as I formerly knew it was over. And how he told me anything I needed, he would do it.

I've seen the effects of having a bad father or no father on some of the girls that I've worked with over the years, but I forget a lot to tell my dad how much I love him and how much I appreciate that he was there. At every basketball game. At all of my figure skating tournaments, surrounded by crazy moms and a lot of hairspray.  He was there when my volleyball team won the championship and I made the all-star team. He was there when we got crushed by 30 in the final and I never wanted to play basketball again.

So happy birthday, Dad. I love you.
(and sorry your present is late. again.)