Well, I Guess You Waited Long Enough, Eh?
Where have I been? What have I been doing?
Questions I'm sure that are all burning as we speak in your minds.
Actually, I doubt beyond the casual notice of "hey I haven't seen any yadyn posts in a while" that those questions have all but smoldered a bit.
I realize I am bad at keeping up with this sort of thing, but rarely do I find the time for anything these days...
My dear Crystal finally had the opportunity to come visit me this time. Off work and with the surprising "okay" from her more than controlling mother, she was actually going to see my home town and my friends and my house. I suppose there is a little (read: big) part of this that I found pleasing beyond the simple fact of just seeing her and having a week to show her the ropes of Mountain Home. In my dealings with the opposite sex I have always had to be the one that made the move. For my entire time in public school I never had a girlfriend because I never went after one. And, I suppose, not surprisingly, no one went after me. So I suppose you get out what you put in.
Well anyway, it was extra nice I suppose because for the first time I really felt like someone else was genuinely interested in my life. I know that sounds selfish, but before that it had always been up to me to go see people... no one else would (or, I realize, could) do it vice versa for me. And while I realize Crystal has school and her job which makes in nigh impossible to find time to do any sort of vacationing, a part of me still always felt like it was just the same... me being the only one who was doing the visiting. But now that has changed, and I had the chance to show her around.
I hope you enjoyed it Crystal. I tried to do as much as we could in that short time frame... I promise there will be more...
After that week-long sojourn, from the 18th till the 26th, I actually flew back on the same plane with her for an extended vacation at her place. There were several reasons for this, including the fact that we had waited 7 months for just that week and while it was wonderful we were gluttons for more, and that her birthday would be soon enough (on the 12th of July) and would I stay until then?
She still had work, and then there was the bit with her having to get a tooth pulled, and come to find out after the fact (as usual) that her mother wasn't too happy that I had stayed so long (19 days... she even counted!) and you would almost say it wasn't the best idea. But so what. Work or no work, tooth pullings or not, I'm glad I went still and got to see her more. Besides, there's just no pleasing her mom on anything anyway. But I digress...
She had mixed feelings on her birthday... not surprisingly. This was, after all, the "big twenty." I remember not feeling any different myself, not being a "teenager" anymore. She felt different though. Not physically, but... just that everything was no fun anymore. Birthdays and life... it was all so ho-hum and routine, not fun and exciting and extravagant and such like when she was younger...
I suppose I understand though, as I've noticed it too, but to me that's just life. I don't mind it, particularly because I was never that into birthdays or big extravagant parties anyway. But I know it's different for her. She loves the attention, the excitement, the friends, not to mention the memories. To her, they were and still are a big deal. I've noticed though, that the older people get, the more they look back on their younger years and wish to relive it, even if it was all the same (and by that I mean they wouldn't get to fix mistakes or anything). I am starting to see why...
And since I was MIA for most of my younger years being a wallflower and never doing squat, I'm probably really going to regret it when I don't have any exciting stories to tell to my kids later on.
"Well, I played a lot of Everquest. I was on the Beta!"
"We know, dad..."
Questions I'm sure that are all burning as we speak in your minds.
Actually, I doubt beyond the casual notice of "hey I haven't seen any yadyn posts in a while" that those questions have all but smoldered a bit.
I realize I am bad at keeping up with this sort of thing, but rarely do I find the time for anything these days...
My dear Crystal finally had the opportunity to come visit me this time. Off work and with the surprising "okay" from her more than controlling mother, she was actually going to see my home town and my friends and my house. I suppose there is a little (read: big) part of this that I found pleasing beyond the simple fact of just seeing her and having a week to show her the ropes of Mountain Home. In my dealings with the opposite sex I have always had to be the one that made the move. For my entire time in public school I never had a girlfriend because I never went after one. And, I suppose, not surprisingly, no one went after me. So I suppose you get out what you put in.
Well anyway, it was extra nice I suppose because for the first time I really felt like someone else was genuinely interested in my life. I know that sounds selfish, but before that it had always been up to me to go see people... no one else would (or, I realize, could) do it vice versa for me. And while I realize Crystal has school and her job which makes in nigh impossible to find time to do any sort of vacationing, a part of me still always felt like it was just the same... me being the only one who was doing the visiting. But now that has changed, and I had the chance to show her around.
I hope you enjoyed it Crystal. I tried to do as much as we could in that short time frame... I promise there will be more...
After that week-long sojourn, from the 18th till the 26th, I actually flew back on the same plane with her for an extended vacation at her place. There were several reasons for this, including the fact that we had waited 7 months for just that week and while it was wonderful we were gluttons for more, and that her birthday would be soon enough (on the 12th of July) and would I stay until then?
She still had work, and then there was the bit with her having to get a tooth pulled, and come to find out after the fact (as usual) that her mother wasn't too happy that I had stayed so long (19 days... she even counted!) and you would almost say it wasn't the best idea. But so what. Work or no work, tooth pullings or not, I'm glad I went still and got to see her more. Besides, there's just no pleasing her mom on anything anyway. But I digress...
She had mixed feelings on her birthday... not surprisingly. This was, after all, the "big twenty." I remember not feeling any different myself, not being a "teenager" anymore. She felt different though. Not physically, but... just that everything was no fun anymore. Birthdays and life... it was all so ho-hum and routine, not fun and exciting and extravagant and such like when she was younger...
I suppose I understand though, as I've noticed it too, but to me that's just life. I don't mind it, particularly because I was never that into birthdays or big extravagant parties anyway. But I know it's different for her. She loves the attention, the excitement, the friends, not to mention the memories. To her, they were and still are a big deal. I've noticed though, that the older people get, the more they look back on their younger years and wish to relive it, even if it was all the same (and by that I mean they wouldn't get to fix mistakes or anything). I am starting to see why...
And since I was MIA for most of my younger years being a wallflower and never doing squat, I'm probably really going to regret it when I don't have any exciting stories to tell to my kids later on.
"Well, I played a lot of Everquest. I was on the Beta!"
"We know, dad..."