Father-Daughter Dance

Lauren and I went to the sock hop this weekend and it was pretty cool. I'll post some pictures when I get them off the camera (I was able to pull together a halfway decent look from stuff I had at home). It was kind of funny that when I saw myself dressed like a greaser, I looked the spitting image of my dad ... who knew he was a greaser? I thought he was just dressed as a construction worker.

Before we hit the dance, we joined two other dads and their daughters at Islands restaurant and Lauren and I got there early with time to talk before the others arrived. She is fun to just hang out with now that she has her own defined personality and sense of humor.

We made it to the dance, took pictures, and went out to the basketball court/dance floor. She found many of her classmates there and we made rounds saying hello. I really expected that she would ditch me to run around and dance with her girlfriends, but it turned out she really wanted to spend the time with me. Each time a friend would come to us on the dance floor to break her away, she would turn them down and want to dance with me. I guess you could say I was pleasantly suprised by this. I would have been totally fine if she wanted to play with her friends, but the fact that she valued the father-daughter time really made me feel good about my relationship with her. I really love being a father :)

Going to a Sock Hop

This weekend I’m taking my daughter to a father-daughter dance and it’s a sock hop, ala ‘50s, and I’m trying to peg myself for the attire. Am I the greaser, the athlete/letterman, the dork … yes, I’m all of them. So, what to wear … what to wear? I’m sure it will come down to waiting for the last minute and being stuck with whatever is in my closet, or I could justify going out to buy something since I rarely have the chance to take my daughter to a dance like this … hmm. If I was to get a leather jacket, that would expensive and I probably wouldn’t wear it enough to justify it (I used to wear one, but that is SOOOO 80s/90s). I have one now, but it is all long and gothic-like and I’d scare all the other daughters and dads (my daughter doesn’t even flinch at that stuff – she just wanted her own pink-spiked bracelet) and, oh yeah, NOT ‘50s at ALL … why did I even digress like that? This is the same daughter that chose the cheerless cheerleader Halloween costume for herself – she is totally a gothic girl!

So, I need to put something together and I don’t have a letterman’s jacket – I lettered, but it was in Varsity Badminton and I didn’t want to be the first varsity jock in high school history to get a wedgie. You see what I mean by being the athlete AND the dork? I don’t want to NOW get a wedgie by the other dads so I still don’t want to show up as a dork … so I guess it is the greaser sans jacket. Imma gonna have to grease out the hair and maybe roll some cigarettes up in my sleeve … oh wait, this is with my daughter who I don’t want to smoke … ARGH! OK, can we just pick a new theme? No, not gonna happen? Well frick!

My Daughter

My daughter just recently turned nine years old and it got me thinking about how the time has inexplicably flown by and yet also left me with the feeling that I have always been a parent. I sometimes do double-takes when seeing how tall my daughter is now or how much her conversations have changed to mimic young adults. And yet, when I really think about it, it did take awhile to get to this point and her development didn’t just happen overnight.

I couldn’t be prouder of her for the person she is becoming. She is a leader, but is understanding that great leadership comes from the trust and supportive efforts of others. She is intelligent, but understands that making an emotional connection with someone is more important than proving you are right all the time (something that I didn’t realize until my late 20s and I still struggle with). She is funny as all get-out and never misses a beat; I think she is going to be a pistol in her teenage years, but I welcome the ensuing repartee. And finally, she has always had a giving and empathetic soul. I guess what I’m saying is that she is person I always wanted to be and still struggle to become.