I came home to the best surprise last night.

When I saw my dad's car parked in the drive, I assumed he and my mom had just switched for the night. But then I remembered my mom saying something about my dad having Jury Duty. Sure enough, the house was completely quiet and empty. I knocked on my dad's den door and checked the door knob. locked. As I was turned and walked down the hall to my room, I heard a 'click' and the door open. :)


You may not realize how great it is to 1., have my dad home on a weekday evening (he works second shift). and 2., to have him all to myself. I pretty much forsook my evening plans of cleaning my room, and I definitely wasn't in bed quite as early as I hoped, but I got an hour of den-time, something I RARELY get these days. We had soup, and made tea (kind of strange, my dad's not a huge tea fan typically, but the past year he's been buying his old favorite 'market spice' tea and now has started exploring Teavana. lol. Last night we tried "Samurai Chai Mate." I liked it. He didn't really). I dioscovered some new books, he swore he'd had 'forever' (yeah, the copyright of the new edition gave it away- I was right), we tried to name his new birds. We just were, in a way my dad is great at.

I love learning new things about my parents. Last night, I heard some new stories. My mom had mentioned my dad's 'transcendental stage' last week while we were out to dinner. I had to ask. I'm sure they've mentioned it before, but for some reason I never really registered it I guess. lol.

My dad told me his 'montra.' :)

A conversation with a friend yesterday got me thinking about all the wonderful roadtrips I've taken with my dad... some short day trips around the islands (thank you premier soccer!), some longer trips to Montana and California (with surprise shows in Ashland!) We always have a wonderful time. We are dangerously similar- which makes for some pretty stubborn disagreements on silly matters. It also makes us perfect companions on a long sunny drive, windows down, hands out, music lulling as we roll along, ready for an unexpected detour.

I love you dad, and I especially loved the little surprise of time with you last night.

(Kim, don't cry.)