Gainesville

Since 2004, when I made the first trip under my evil and manipulative plan for my Ds, I have visited Gainesville more than 50 times.

I should explain my evil and manipulative plan. It's not really evil --just manipulative. I very much want my Ds to live permanently in Miami, as I really dig them. I noticed that many of my friends sent kids to college in way cool cities like Boston, NY, Atlanta, and even LA and the SF Bay Area. Often these kids fell in love with their college cities and settled there. I wasn't having that.

So, I hatched a plan back when D1 was a high school sophomore that both girls would go to UF. It's the most pretigious college in Florida (outside of my beloved UM, which I knew my girls wouldn't consider, since they'd want to go away for school), and, I knew that there was NO WAY they'd settle in North Florida permanently.

The plan has worked to perfection with D1, who is now happily living back in the 305 in graduate school, and the early returns for D2 look promising, too.

I can't wait --before I know it, the Ds can push my wheelchair down Miracle Mile, as I hug and tickle my grandchildren. Ah , for a happy future...

So, anyway, I had been missing D2 and hopped a flight to spend some time with her.

I rented a car at the comically quaint Gainesville Airport, and drove to my hotel. By now, I've stayed in every hotel that's habitable for humans in the Gville area. This time, HotWire.com told me the best deal was at the 2 year old Spring Hill Suites. I checked in and found out that the HotWire price was $15 more than the AAA price. I'm now done with HotWire.

I drove to Broward Hall and jumped out of the car to a waiting D2. I think I can be completely objective about my girls, putting asided all paternal prejudices, so I can fairly say that she looked absolutely gorgeous --by far the most beautiful undergraduate at UF. Her eyes sparkled. She giggled that laugh that's one of my favorite sounds in the world. As I said --purely objective...

We drove to Downtown, and tried to eat at The Top, one of D1's favorite restaurants. Alas, it was closed until dinner, so we walked to a place called Emiliano's, where we had some fine sandwiches.

We sat outside at a table. The sun dappled her hair. We talked happily about classes, friends, life. It was heaven.

It reinforced something I've known for a very long time: when my Ds are happy --I'm happy.

We drove back to her dorm and met with her old friend Carly, Carly's roommate Chelsea, and dear friend Andrea, now Chelsea's sorority big sister. We shared some cookies and brownies we had bought at a coffee shop.

We then went off with some other girls to visit Rachel's family. Rachel is the 18 year old who was in the awful crash last weekend.

We found her parents, Elliot and Iris, and they were thrilled to see us. Iris chatted with the girls, and I spoke with Elliot. It looks like, thankfully, Rachel is going to pull through, though she has a long, tough recovery road ahead of her. The plan is to transfer her to Jackson Memorial in Miami for neuro rehab.

I told Elliot about the many young clients I've had who recover fully from awful head injuries. It's true --the younger tha patient, the better they do. I'm told the brain's plasticity in youth does the trick.

In the elevator after leaving, my eyes were misty. Elliot is handling this like I would. You can see his anguish, but he's staying in charge. As he told me "I'm so used to doing stuff for her, for making things better, but here I'm powerless."

I look forward to seeing a recovering young lady.

Another of the crash victims was also in Shands, awaiting complex arm surgery. The other kids were all back home recovering.

In a short moment --everything can change, as Don Henley sang.

We dropped the girls at their sorority houses, and picked up D2's old, dear friend Ben. We headed back Downtown, to the Top. Now the Top had a 40 minute wait, so we walked over to Harry's, a NEw Orleans style place, and had some wings, mussels, and chicken sandwiches.

D2 and Ben are like brother and sister. D2 says Ben is the reason she's succeeding at UF. He tutors her in Statistics, and Ben is sort of like Radar O'Reilly from Mash --he's the guy who knows EVERYTHING about wherever he is.

We went back to the dorm, and saw MORE coeds. D2's roommate Devon was there --we said hello, and I heard about her tough engineering classes.

Then D2, Ben and I walked around the quiet campus. It was exquisite --talking about life, and their educations, and the comical cast of friends from Palmetto High.

Ben left for his dorm, and D2 and I said goodbye behind Broward Hall, next to the volleyball courts.

I hugged her tightly. I told her I was the most blessed man there was, and at the top of my list of blessings were D2 and D1. I'm so crazy about them. I adore them.

D2 walked to her dorm. I walked to my rental car. My shoulder was wet with her tears.