I believe I may have forfeited the "Father of the Year" award.
And I was doing so well up until yesterday...culminating, last week, in having the family all together at my youngest daughters wedding where no feelings were hurt, no one was injured, there were no fights, AND I officiated the ceremony without a hitch.
Then, last night, I was dosing on the couch at 10:00 pm--that's late for me since I tend to wake early and I'm of a certain age--when my cellphone rings. Startled, I look at the caller id and see it's my eldest son. He lives out of state and rarely calls unless something is either terribly wrong or he's excited about something. Sometimes both at the same time.
A little background: He's currently 32 years old. He has a wife and a four-year-old son. He's also a guitar player and the front man for a power trio rock band that plays in the small town local bars where he lives. From the time he was a teenager Mrs. P and I supported his dream of being a rock star (often times with a lot of cash) up until it was obvious that it was going nowhere. By the time he was 26, he was basically a homeless, angry drunk scratching out a living on the beaches of San Diego. He got his shit together, met a nice woman, moved to Idaho, had a son, and got married. He's struggled with adult life some because of his natural impatience and an attitude of needing to succeed immediately. The last few years have been pretty good though and he's been steadily employed.
However, the old pipe dream of being a rock star has been creeping in again, or so it seems to me. I get that it's difficult. He's up on stage pouring his soul out to the crowd and they are responding with a lot of enthusiasm. He
is quite a dynamic stage performer if not a particularly good musician...and he's handsome as hell. He's assured me several times in the past year that they just do it for kicks but then...
I answered the phone on the third ring and could hear him talking to someone in the background. Then he hung up. I hit the button to call him back when I suddenly heard the house phone ringing upstairs--no one calls on the house phone anymore. Of course his phone goes directly to voice mail where the automated voice tells me his voice mail box is full. I heard the answering machine upstairs hang up without recording a message so I redialed his number. Again, it goes directly to voice mail.
At this point I'm sleepy, irritated and quite a bit worried. I'm starting to worry about something being wrong with my grandson or daughter-in-law. I sit up and take a few deep breaths and my phone rings again. It's him.
In a hyperventilating voice he says, "Dad, my band is going to be opening for Three Days Grace!" His tone instantly brings back all the years of smashed pipe-dreams and pawned amplifiers. Coupled with the relief that everyone's okay, I snidely responded with, "...and I'm supposed to know who that is because..."
The conversation went south from there and ended with him basically hanging up on me.
Topic: True (yet somewhat mundane) stories (Read 2115 times)
