Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Today marks a great day in history - dad's birthday. I tried to call him a few times - the first time he was still in bed (! - at 9am! that's the life) and the second time he was taking his daily trip to Dunkin Donuts. This the man who was once diagnosed as a diabetic and had to lose 20 or 30 pounds. Now he seems to eat what he wants and stays thin. And did I get his metabolism and his genes??!! NOoooooo. Darn sisters took it all.



I'm blessed to have a dad in such good health, with his quick wit, sharp mind and unwavering devotion and love. Although he sleeps late and takes a daily dunkin' donuts trip, he still has a lot of responsibilities on his plate for a quasi-retired gentleman. In fact, some of us think he works too hard and needs to play more! Dad has always been a worker, but not, somehow, to the detriment of spending time with his family. He managed to raise and support 5 kids (with a ton of help from mom - ok so maybe he helped mom?! but it's his birthday, so we'll give him props on this one) and still attend banquets, award nights, ball games, recitals, etc. Maybe because I'm the baby and, of course, am the best loved (family joke here), my memories are that he was always there - always. Whether I was riding the bench on the basketball team or getting my nose broken on the field hockey field, he was there. Always there for home games, often there for "away" games, he cheered me on, and and we compared track times. He was, apparently, quite the athelete in his day!



But it wasn't just the games, the banquets, the rides to school on cold mornings and his general presence - he has always been there with advice (solicited or no), love, support, and sometimes, the hard facts. Like the day I came home from college in the middle of the semester after a bad run and declared that I was "finished." He declared my butt would be making its way back to finish the semester that had already been paid for and that we would discuss it again at a later date. So I went back - and promptly forgot why I wanted to leave in the first place. Smart Dad.



And in the recent tumultuous events in my life, Dad has been strong and supportive and has declared his unwavering love, despite his disappointment in it all. And I never doubted for one minute that he would love me, support me, and try to understand me. I have never feared talking to him about something because I have never doubted his love even if I wasn't sure of his understanding. That's a gift he's given all of us always. A gift I didn't truly comprehend until adulthood and the stories I've seen and heard of other families and - gasp - the reality that not all dads are as totally wonderful as mine.



So Happy birthday Dad. You Rock. Hard. (that's a good thing) I love you, always!