Honoring Fathers, Flowers, Friendship, and Fun

This past week has been a rollercoaster ride of frustration and overtime and, given the pimples popping out on my face, an overdose of hormones.

When I haven’t been racing from work to appointments to home, I’ve pretty much felt like dropping from exhaustion.

Knowing that these happy moments would escape me when I sat down to write days later, I opened this document and typed the following highlights of moments that made me smile.

Hummingbirds are back!

Shannon has a smiley face by my contact name in her phone.

Fave sitting on the john…

With the warm weather finally here, I thought last weekend that I needed to make my first batch of hummingbird food and put out the feeders.

But I never got around to doing it, until Monday.

I was sitting at my desk when a movement outside of the window caught my eye.

I looked up to find the first little guy of the season hovering right in front of me, as if to say, We’re back and we’re hungry!

I immediately stopped what I was doing and prepared a pot of homemade nectar.

The second note pertains to a friend whose mother died last week.

I phoned her mid-week to say hi and to see how she was doing.

We’re relatively new friends, so I was a little surprised she called me by name when she answered the phone and then began laughing.

“I have a smiley face beside your name,” she said, “and it just makes me happy.”

We shared many laughs and laments and woes and ended with her joking that if I see thirty missed calls from her in the middle of the night, I’ll just know that she needed a smile and was just pulling up my contact.

I think I needed the humor as much as she did.

And the last entry?

Well…I’ve said many, many times how happy I am that my children inherited Warren’s sense of funniness and quick wit.

Honestly, I never know what comic quirk is around the next second.

Fave’s girlfriend, forever and here forth to be known as Squirrel, sent me this photo of Fave sitting on the toilet. I'll spare you all the details!

 

Ahh, the things we do in our younger years!

Wow, Journeyer, just by revisiting these simple moments of joy I can feel warmth and happiness pushing away the remaining tension from my body…

BUT WAIT! Just like those As Seen on TV infomercials, THERE’S MORE!

Forgetting that I opened a document to track the week’s happy moments, I created this note in my phone.



That fourth note? As I write this post I can’t help but smile at the irony of those two toilet-related events and my feelings that the week was so shitty.

SERIOUSLY! Was the universe trying to rub my face in it or was she simply pointing out that old cliché “sometimes it’s better to laugh than cry.”

*chuckles*

And right now I find it quite interesting that my list just keeps growing and growing…

I popped in to a local grocery deli to grab lunch one day last week and arrived just in time to see an employee receive the phone call that she and her department had one a regional, top sales fish fry contest back in May.

Winner! Winner! Fish fry dinner!!

 

Her excitement and joy was so infectious I almost started doing a little jig with her!

And I couldn’t help but smile with appreciation at the commitment this other chain has to make its customers’ visits as comfortable and welcoming as possible.

These are just a few of the reasons Wegmans consistently lands in the Top 10 of best supermarkets.

I always smile when I spot these special and considerate parking spots.

 

And how can we not feel some kind of joy when entering the building to a constant, splendid display of color and scent?

 

...or savoring every mouthwatering morsel of this decadence?

We're talking the perfect blend of peanut butter and chocolate and whipped topping...



 

And as I left the store, I spotted one of their Helping Hands wiping down the FEDEX receptacle and other outside containers.

See the orange shirt? That's the guy! Sprucing up the storefront!

 

I’m guessing this company pays attention to more details than we can possibly imagine and they undeniably care about you and me and every single person who walks onto their premises.

That kind of personal attention makes me happy no matter where it’s coming from.

As we know, Happiness is as random as the proverbial shit, so continuing through my notes and pictures, let’s switch gears.

Fave, who’s often complained that he can’t grow a full beard like his father and been even more disgruntled that you can barely see the facial hair he does have, was showing off his thickening fuzz.

Standing in the driveway, looking at my son, I couldn’t help but think how much he looks like the young Kris Kringle in the holiday movie Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

That’s one of my all-time favorites, Journeyer.

Do you see the resemblance to that young Father-Christmas-to-be?

What? You think I look like Santa Claus?!

Speaking of this son of mine, I came home to find this little grouping of hand-picked field flowers on the kitchen counter.

 

Though he’d picked them for Squirrel, it warmed my heart to see his simple gesture of appreciation and affection for someone special to him.

Between the sentiment and the splendid colors, I gained great joy every time I spotted them.

Rounding out the week was the little cluster of posies, given to me by one of my seven-year-old students who, in the last days of this educational year, still bounces up and down when the bus arrives, just like she did on the very first day.

 

Always fun, a card game with Big Guy, Fave, and Squirrel.

 

If you’ve never played Hand and Foot, the game is played with six decks of cards! SIX!

We seem to have the most fun in the fact that every time we play we have to create a new set of rules because we can’t remember all the pesky little details.

And then there was this picture text from my nephew with one word: Haha

 

At first I was mortified that this fleeting moment was not only actually caught on camera, but that it was shared.

And then I started noticing my children’s reactions.

I can imagine twenty-two-year-old-macho-man-loves-to-clown-around Fave’s thoughts: Yeah, Man, do it. DO IT!

And nineteen-year-old Beauty? Oh dear God, no, no, I can’t believe my dad is doing this. I don’t know these people.

And seventeen-year-old Big Guy: Is he really putting his hand on Mom’s boob?

And moi, through gritted teeth: Stop goofing around…Don’t you dar—Warren, we are in a public place. At a wedding!

Which brings me around to Warren, the fun-loving hubby and father to my children.

The man who was first my friend, someone who would drive two-plus hours home on a school day, stay up til the wee hours of the morning getting to know me, and then hop in his car and head back for another college class.

 Year 22, sharing a kiss in front of the Eiffel Tower 

 

He’s a guy who could always be found watching cartoons with the kids (still), coaching teams, or being a scouting dad.

The friend at the beginning of this post lamented that her husband is “being the fun Daddy, while I’m doing the homework and chores.”

“Honey, I’ll be married twenty-five years next week and I was just having that same discussion with my spouse.”

Every time I see the billboard for Despicable Me II, the one that says, “Take time out to be a dad,” I think of Warren.

Three of the lucky four who have always known their father's love and dedication to them.

Though we may fight and argue that he doesn’t handle the flipside serious so well, that is one thing he has done perfectly: Take time out to be a dad.

And for that, I am eternally grateful.

And speaking of Dads, for my own father, the man who started it all, the man who gave me life, led me through childhood and on into adulthood...a steady presence through good and bad, thick and thin, sadness and joy... Thank you, Dad. I love you.

This has to be my all-time favorite photo of my dad and my boys, also joined by my nephew

 

Happy (now belated) Father's Day to every person who has ever filled a pair of Daddy's shoes.

Until next we meet again, yours in healing and hope and happiness…

     ~AE

Soon…

p.s Phew! It appears that my Happy overflowed last week! Epic, even.  So glad I made a conscious effort to capture these moments!