“Would you want me when I’m not myself?
Wait it out while I am someone else?”
– John Mayer, “Not Myself”
Today I was the epitome of that lyric. From waking up late for our Saturday bible class, misplacing my keys and missing said class, to kind of lagging through the day, I just didn’t feel like myself. Perhaps I wasn’t out of sorts – maybe I’m actually normally lazy, and habitually overachieving, or something like that. Whatever explanation fits, I’ll accept it. Not that it wasn’t a good day – after the trauma of the missing keys that is. My wife and I woke up at 5:30 for our class, and she being the studious lady she is, beat me out the door to print out some work at church on her printer – said it looks better on hers. I prepared myself to follow her in my car, only to almost lock myself out the house, finding my keys were not in the place. I also saw that the car window had been left open by my son after the car wash – and after such a blatant show of irresponsibility, it was easy to assume he had misplaced my keys after parking the car last night. He claimed he never had them, but he and I rustled through the house for 2 hours, turning over sofa cushions and checking pants pockets. By 8 am I knew I had missed class, and discovering no milk or eggs in the fridge, I made up my mind to make something of the morning. So I plugged up the iPod and walked a few blocks to Publix to clear my mind and purchase said items. The walk did me good, and it did me better when my wife returned, having found my keys in her car.
We napped til 12 PM, at which time we headed off to the Univeristy of Miami campus to use our free passes to the basketball game – meeting up with our good friend Ray, and a couple of younger kids Ray brought along. Our youth pastor pulled a few of our church youth group members out as well. However, when we arrived, the kids bolted ahead, leaving Ray, my wife and I to find seats for ourselves. There were plenty of seats available (as is the case when you’re playing a team that’s 0-15 – why else would they give out free passes?) so we adults moved up as close as possible without trying to do like Spike Lee or Jack Nicholson in the first class row. No problem for our kids, who relished the opportunity to be parent free- that is, until halftime, at which time they found us quite easily. If you ever lose your kid in a public place, try rustling your wallet – I bet they’ll appear like magic. Especially if they’re hungry.
As for my daddy take, it was nice to have a mix of a family outing, while not having to be with the family the entire time. The kids are getting old enough that they don’t need me to be in constant supervision, but aren’t yet to the point that they’re trying to ditch daddy entirely. I’m sure by the time my daughter is 14 she will die if I show up at a party or try to hold her hand as we cross the street. But for now, it makes a difference that I’m there. And they (hopefully) don’t know that I was feeling weird or slow, they just know I was part of a fun day of hanging out. At this point though, I can’t count on another day of grace from spouse or kids without getting some rest – the lack of which being what I probably was suffering from all along today. Sounds like a good goal to work on this month as well.
Looking unto the hills,
HsD
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