By design, I live a very full life. It’s not overly insane. It’s not overly stressful. It’s just very full (and fulfilling). That’s the whole point. I have places I want to experience, people I want to interact with, teams I want to see play, and foods I want to eat. In the past, my desire to experience all of these things may have caused me to overlook an opportunity so brilliant in its simplicity. So obvious. So normal.
But if abk promotes on thing, when it’s time to adjust, I better make the adjustment. Or else I miss my own message.
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I love being a dad. It’s my favorite thing in the entire world. In some senses, I’m a very normal dad. I take my daughter to day care every day, I take my son to soccer practice twice a week, and I wear dad shoes (shoutout to arthritis). In other respects, I am a very abnormal dad. I work every Saturday and Sunday, I still possess and act on a myriad of personal interests, and I would rather take my son on a sports trip to Detroit or Los Angeles than down the street to the park to play. For better or worse, it’s who I am.
So when a multitude of interesting and exciting opportunities sprouted up in the general timeframe of my daughter’s second birthday last week, I was pleased as punch that my immediate internal reaction was, I just want to be completely present for her birthday.
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Still nursing a happy hangover from my recent father/son trip to Los Angeles, it came to my attention that the incredible Dave Chappelle was going to be performing a show in New Orleans last Friday. Better yet, tickets were actually affordable. Even better, they were actually available. I love Dave Chappelle, but not as much as I love my daughter. As I did the time math in my head (get home at midnight Friday night + get up at 4:45am Saturday morning to open the golf course + drive 1.5 hours Saturday afternoon to birthday party + actually be present and engaged at said party), I didn’t like the odds.
As I mulled Dave Chappelle over, I also had an interesting conversation with my parents who live just outside of Charlotte, NC, where I previously lived my entire life. During the conversation, my mom (I think abk has rubbed off on her) told me I should jump on a plane Sunday night, fly home to Charlotte, and go to the Panthers-Saints Monday Night Football Game with my dad. I jokingly told my mom she was becoming a bad influence, told them that idea hadn’t even crossed my mind, then briefly considered it before politely declining the offer.
All I want to do is be fully present for my two year old daughter’s birthday.
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I did not go see Dave Chappelle. Instead, I had plenty of energy available to spend with my little Cutie Toot on the eve of her second birthday.
I did not fly to Charlotte to watch the Panthers-Saints play Monday Night Football. Instead, I took my son to soccer practice. And then we all watched both my Panthers AND my Cleveland Browns lose on Monday Night’s Double Feature.
If I had flown home to watch that nonsense…
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Life is good right now. It really is. My biggest problem remains that I have so many things I want to do and not enough time to do all of them. My second biggest problem is that, as I mentioned earlier, I work every Saturday. It comes with the territory of being a golf professional at a beautiful, very popular golf course. However, my son’s soccer season has just started, and most of the games are on Saturday.
During their opening tournament two weekends ago, his team played six games across Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and I miraculously got to go to three of them. I felt like a kid on Christmas morning. This coming weekend is their first regular game, and I just found out they play Saturday at 3pm, which I can totally make.
I feel like I just won the lottery.
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Have a great week.-Benj
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