Happy Father's Day

If you haven't seen it, definitely check out the very touching Nike commercial compiled as Tiger Wood's tribute to his dad who passed away last month.
My talents (and sometimes "talents") as a kid were not so singularly focused as Tiger. My dad was the one behind the video camera capturing plays (including a great one called Return to Oz when I was about 9, where we walked around in a circle for about 45 minutes), dance recitals (and boy, was I an uncoordinated little tap dancer), soccer games, and concerts (I played classical guitar, violin, viola, and piano so there were A LOT of these). In Tiger's childhood videos, his dad is beaming from the sidelines, which is something that you can't see in mine...but you can definitely hear it in Dad's voice. Well, you kind of have to do the aural equivalent of squint for the soccer footage, Dad was an enthusiastic parent on the sidelines. As a preteen girl I'll admit I secretly hoped Dad would be stricken with laryngitis on game day, but since he had significant vocal training as a radio announcer, I was SOL on that one.

It's all right, Dad. My therapist's bill is in the mail...

Dad owned his own business for most of my childhood. As an adult, I have a pretty good idea how much work running 9 retail store business must've been, and yet he was home for dinner every evening. Despite having a bad back (his first surgery was at age 35, and I'm not sure even he's kept track of how many surgeries he's had since), he played nerf basketball on his knees nearly every night with Ben and I before bed. During our family vacations, he was always up for all of the rides at the amusement parks and endless rounds of mini golf.

Most of my childhood friends had split families and dads who couldn't be or chose not to be involved in their lives, so I knew even at the time that I was lucky. My friends even thought Dad was cool. No one else's Dad made Name That Tune tapes for their middle school parties.

I love you, Dad. Happy Father's Day!