Role Model

My father Robert would have turned 79 years old today.  Life has been completely different for me these last 13 months.

This photo is probably my all-time favorite of my dad and I.  On this particular day in March of 2005, me, my brother-in-law Ira and my dad made a journey to Dodgertown in Vero Beach to watch a spring training game.  The tree over my left shoulder gave us shade the entire game, and we liked it so much, my dad had no problem joining us for trips in 2006, 2007 and 2008 (the final year Dodgertown was open before the team abandoned Florida for Arizona).

That's the kind of person my dad was.  If I was interested in something, he became interested in it, too.

He was always a Dunkin' Donuts fan even before I started working with them from a PR standpoint - once I did that, he always made it a point to call me and tell me when he was visiting one for a cup of coffee.

He sat through two heartbreaking FSU losses to Miami in 2000 and 2002 in the upper deck despite being afraid of heights. 

He originally began listening to Meat Loaf and Queen because I liked both groups.

He began using the internet in 2000 while I was still in Tallahassee so he could email me, watch music videos on YouTube and get sports news from ESPN, long past the average age of people who use computers.

He even let me explain Twitter to him, and understood it enough that when I showed him I was quoted in a Sarah Talalay article eight days before he died, he laughed (because the quote was about his short height) and told me he was proud of me.

I miss him the most in the mornings on the way to work - I used to call him religious at 8am to talk about sports, life and whatever else was on his mind or mine.

In short, my dad was my role model and I always try to do everything for my children that he did for me.  I'm happy that my son had a great relationship with him and that he got to spend one year getting to play with my daughter.

Happy Birthday, Daddy. Enjoy the donut!

Boundless Energy

As I get older, I am finding that while I still keep the same crazy hours I always have (i.e. 4-5 hours of sleep per day), I may be slowing down just a bit. In this picture of my daughter Riley and me, I think I'm ready for a nap. Riley, on the other hand, seems to be picking up my mantra at an early age.

Riley is 8 1/2 months old now (once again, evidence that TIME FLIES), and she is so different than Bailey ever was. As evidence of this:

1) She refuses to let me feed her without her grabbing her jar of food and getting her hands all filled with peas and stuff. Bailey was never a Grabby McGee!

2) She fights sleep at all costs. While this is similar to my schedule, I don't fight sleep - I just don't sleep. She will close her eyes and then force herself awake - we caught her doing this at Disney the other night, and it was really funny.

3) She is a lot more vocal than Bailey ever was at this age. While Bailey will not stop talking NOW, I don't recall Bailey making so many "ma ma ma ma ma" "ba ba ba ba ba" sounds at this age.

4) She tricked us in the van today on the way home - we thought she was hungry because she wouldn't stop crying, and when I stopped the car in Boynton Beach so Sara could feed her, she instead decided she wanted to play with Sara instead of eat and she kept cracking herself up about it. Sneaky little thing, my daughter.

5) Last but not least, she always cracks up around Bailey. Of course, I do too, but that's a totally different story.

Oh, to be that young again and be able to have that kind of energy. I miss those days!