Life

On Friday night, my dad flew up and had some time to kill before he had to fly back home. He does this a lot, fly places and sits around waiting for his passengers to take care of their business so he can take them home. This time, he took the president of the university and some African price to a dinner cruise on Lake Michigan for an alumni event. My question is, Why couldn’t he go?? It’s not fair he just has to sit in some abandoned airport in ghetto town, risking his life by sitting next to Hillary’s plane. He should be allowed to eat dinner on a boat in the middle of a lake with 40 mph winds.



So I took him and his co-pilot to a nice Italian restaurant in a town near us that has lots of money and a landfill. (we were lucky enough to have a “mountain view” from our table) Dad’s co-pilot was a student from the same small town in Southern Indiana that one of my best friends is from. He was just amazed that he knew her sister. I guess he’s never heard of six degrees of separation, although this time it was more like four. Anyway, he had also never heard of Gary, IN, and how you shouldn’t drive there after dark, and how for years it was the Murder Capital of the World. He also had never heard of Cabela’s…fortunately Workaholic was able to expose him to that, and he really loved it. But the best was dinner. His eyes got bigger and bigger throughout the meal. First, it was the $9 pizza that had cheese hanging off of it like he’d “only seen in commercials.” Then it was the waiters that were so diligent about filling our water glasses and his Diet Coke, even though it was from a can, that the glass never got less than half full…and they weren’t large glasses by any means. (and yes, they charge $2 per can, no free refills…so you pay for that service of them putting the pop in the glass). The best was when he came back from the bathroom…”That was the shiniest bathroom I have ever seen!” This is a pretty small town that he comes from. It was so fun to expose him to the finer aspects of life. I also loved how he ordered the cheapest thing on the menu because he just had a feeling that this meal would eventually contribute to a tuition increase. Smart guy.


This kid was genuinely a really nice kid, I think that he really got a kick out of watching Dad greet The Fonz after dinner…Workaholic had gone home and gotten him and brought him to the restaurant, as I was headed north straight after dinner. This is Dad…”Oh, Fonz-dog, you are getting fat! Yes you are! Fat dog! One fat dog! Get over here, you fat dog!” And of course, I defended The Fonz, because he really is just fluffy. But the kid asked lot of questions about getting a job after college and the “real world”, and I told him all about my most successful friends. His girlfriend has the same major that I had…good luck to her!! He mentioned several times about “family time”, so it was obvious that it was important to him that a job be a job, and not affect his relationships too much, and not have to work 80 hours a week. It occurred to me only later that the 3 friends I talked about most were all divorced. Oops. Such is life.