I'm gearing up for Father's Day and I've been planning on writing a blog post, but after yesterday I thought I'd take a few minutes to write a quick bit so I don't loose my train of thought. In the last few months, I've learned that five of my colleagues are going to be having children--three will be first time parents. When I talk about being a father, I like to tell some of the outrageous stories that I have--not because I want to frighten them away--but I love to share some of the quirky and amazing events that occur. So let's take yesterday as an example.
I had been invited to attend proclamation at city hall in Philadelphia. Mayor Michael Nutter was going to give a citation to the CEO of the organization that I work for her work on National Cancer Research month. As I am on morning duty with the kids, I got them up early, dressed them (with minimum fuss and crying), dropped them off at daycare and early care and then rushed via the El to city hall. To save time, I dropped my daughter off first and then backtracked to drop my son off so that I could park at a different train station than I normally park at. I arrived 10 minutes early for the event, met the major and all worked out well. I remember self-congratulating myself at how smoothly everything went--that I was able to pull it all off. Good going dad!
Toward the end of the day, my wife calls me and asks if I could pick the kids up as she's in an important meeting that's running over. No problem. I have a plan. I'll take the train home, grill hot dogs outside and my kids and I will have a blast enjoying the warm weather. Again, I'm super dad, right? No big deal!
I leave work, get on the train and pray that it doesn't break down as if it does (while I'm underground out of cell phone range) I'm in big trouble. This has happened in the past but, thankfully, all works out well. I get on my connecting train and look at the time. I'm doing great. I get off the train, head to the parking lot toward my car and start staring at it. It's the right make, model, color but the car seat in the back is different. And as I get closer I realize that there is only one car seat. What the heck is going on? For about two seconds, life, the universe and everything is zipping through my mind as I'm trying to connect the dots. Then I realize: Duh, it's not my car. I look to the left and head off and a sick feeling pops up into the pit of my stomach. I didn't park here. I'm at the station that I normally park at. My car is about 2 or more miles away. I look at the time and see that I need to pick both kids up in 45 mins. I need to run 2 miles to get to the car (in my suit with dress shoes, carrying my heavy bag), get my son and then rush to get my daughter.
I took my suit jacket off, folded it up into my bag, took the iPod off and started walking fast. Once I was off the main road, I started running. Then stopped when I couldn't breath going up hill so I stopped running and walked. Between walking fast and running, I made it to the car in 19 minutes. I jumped in the car, picked my son up and called my daughter's daycare saying that I was only minutes away.
By the time I arrived at my daughter's daycare, it was 5:54pm. I had 6 minutes to spare (for those of you who don't have kids--it's strongly requested that you pick your kids up by 6pm. You don't want to be late and, if you are consistently, you'll be charged a fee and can eventually be kicked out of daycare).
I came home, made dinner and the following happened the course of one hour: My son spilled his full glass of milk outside, he drew (had never done this before) with a crayon a wonderful picture onto the rug (thank you, Goop cleaner!) and when my wife came home I sat and was talking to her and the following happened.
My wife: "Don't hit the ball this way! Turn around and play elsewhere."
My son: "Sure, mom." (He turns around and starts playing in another part of the yard.)
About two minutes later I was talking to my wife and I had heard this crack of a ball against a bat and a stinging sensation in my face. My son had turned around and by accident his hitting the ball caused it to fly around my wife and hit me in the cheek. Ouch. I wasn't hurt but was damn surprised.
And, in a nutshell, wow, what a day. I'm cutting off here because I'm late for getting the kids up for school. I need to go take a shower and start the day. That, in a nutshell, is parenthood. It's not a typical day, but it's the type of day that can happen. It's not bad or good. It just is. And throughout the day there are thousands of tiny little moments that happen to test you, surprise you and cause you to laugh at the wonder of existence. It's all there. And getting hit in the face with a whiffle ball, too. Happy pre Father's Day!
Comments