A Date That Will Live In Infamy

That's today --December 7th. My father told me he knew, in 1941, he'd be drafted in the ohe US Army, and so he was. And the past 2 days, some of the fruits of his life, whom he sadly never met, brought light and joy to my father's only son. So I fired up the girlie Lexus, and headed to Brickell to fetch D1. I already had the spoiled Spaniel, and the 3 of us headed up the Turnpike towards Gainesville. At the worst part of the route, just South of Orlando, we came to a dead stop -- a fatal wreck shut down the Pike. I made an illegal U Turn, and drove 5 miles to a St. Cloud exit, and we made our way though one of the boring Central Florida suburbs, which has, as D1 noted, every chain store you'd ever want. And then we made our way back to the Pike, and entered, and came to ANOTHER halt! I'm such a dummy sometimes --I failed to go far enough North, and just detoured to the same place. After an hour delay, we continued the journey. We arrived at D2's Yellow House (so named because it's painted Yellow -I love accurate nicknames) and had a lovely reunion. Wifey had sent a congradulatory pair of cookie pizzas, and D2, roommated Ashley and Catherine, and friends Carly and Hannah were sampling them. Everyone was delighted to see...MADELEINE -- the Spaniel who lived in Gainesville during D1's senior year. The dog has quite a following -- and the girls all enjoyed walking and snuggling with her. I went to the hotel, checked in, and returned to fetch the Ds. We went to a cafe at the Student Union for D2's induction into Phi Beta Kappa. Only about 12 other students were there, and some professors, and families. And then, as proud as I was of my Ds, something happened that made me absolutely burst: A young lady came in, nicely dressed, and clearly one of the inductees, but D1 noticed she was the only one without her family. So she went over to the girl and asked us to sit with us. She smiled the smile of an outsider asked in. It turned out Ds and she had mutual friends, and she was deligtful. She's from Melbourne, and her father is a pilot for Southwest. Ah, my Ds...while one was being inducted into the hightest honor society in America, the other was showing such heart and grace. They didn't see it, as I listened to the speakers, but I got misty eyed. And the "Charge" speaker was wonderful! He's a social psychologist, and truly inspired all of us, with advice about the importance of failing, and failing often, and the need to seek out random encounters with people. D2 was so imporessed, she asked after his talk what classes he taught, and will try to take one next year. From there we went to dinner at Dragonfly, the sushi place, and sat next to one of D2's acquaintances and her mother. The Mom, who turned out to be a lawyer one year behind me from UM Law, was in town to lecture to med students about the legalities of Public Health -- she's staff counsel for Palm Beach County's Health Department. The local Olympian Ryan Lochte was dining at Dragonfly, and the Mom, in a cool, cougar move, followed him outside for a picture, while her daughter rolled her eyes and I toasted her. She returned with the picture in her phone, and sad to me, while the girls were talking "I just may find him out later on..." Ah, Cougar-ness in Gainesville. I dropped the Ds off at Yellow House and went to sleep at the hotel, still smiling from the night's events. The next am we headed to the Flying Biscuit for breakfast, Spaniel in tow. The Ds were beaming. I was kvelling. The two of them, my gems, are best friends and will always be. Mission accomplished for me as a Dad. D1 slept from Orlando to Gainesville. She was working at her cognac booth last night during Art Basel -- some VIP gig in the Design District. Folks come from all over the world to buy precious art, and be seen among the high level of celebrities. I have the most precious works of art ever created, in this happy, proud Daddy's not so humble opinion: my beautiful, delightful, and wonderful Ds...