Letters to Marge & Maddie: Chapter 39 (A Day in the Life...)

Hello, girls.

First off, i obviously write this blog in forward order, which means that should you guys log on and start reading from the very first post you guys end up finding and keep going, then you will be reading everything in reverse chronology. Make sense?

Anyway... In my last post, i mentioned being awfully lonely up here, where i still am as i write this. So i have decided to give you ladies a little tour of my evenings when i'm up here. Except for Monday nights, when i grab a horn or two and head for the Manor at Camp John Hay to remind myself (and anyone else unfortunate enough to be at the Piano Bar) why i dont have a professional music career despite how much i claim to love making music.

So here we go...

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So i start my day at the store between 9-930 in the morning, and let's assume i leave the store at around 8 to 815 in the evening, drive on home, and park the car in the garage ten to fifteen minutes later.

I open the front door and find this...

This is the foyer (or "fau-yay," as the French supposedly pronounce it).

I plop my backpack down on the couch.. This here couch set:

I turn to the other side here...

I grab a couple or so horns from that center table over there, and the maids proceed to inform me that the left-over lunch that i've brought home has been prepared on the table to be re-labeled as dinner at the dining room in the lower level. In this here table where only i sit at:

Sorry, forgot to take a photo with the food on it.

After a quick dinner, i go back upstairs and proceed to mess up the couch and it usually looks like this:

This set-up usually commences right after dinner anytime between 830-9pm. This period involves me catching up with some work and some music practice. Then i take a shower and finally decide i'll call it a day sometime between 12 midnight to perhaps 1-130am.

Then i head inside to find this:

And i either find something to read online, or bring myself a book to read 'til my eyelids feel like 50 pounds each, and that's usually at around 2am.

Zzzzzzzzzz...

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One merciful detail i didnt mention is that i usually have your mother's chatty mug on my iPad via Facetime. So that helps make things a lot lot less empty.

But the house still feels like an echoing hall.

So there. That's an evening in Daddy's life up here.

Until the next post.

Bye, girls. See you in a couple of days.

Love,

Dad

Letters to Maddie: Chapter 38 (Sorry i'm not there right now...)

Dear Maddie,

Hello there, Baby Girl.

It's a late Saturday night/early Sunday morning, and i'm up in our other house. The cold, lonely and empty one (most of the time, but not all the time since you guys come over sometimes).

And I'm alone. And you, Marge and mommy are down there in our "other" other house. The warm, happy one where you're gently growing up and learning how to crawl, stand and maybe walk, where your mother and your sister are fighting about homework, where dogs bark incessantly just because. And i wish i was there right now.

I apologize for not being there while you work on doing a lot of your firsts (first step, first words, and so on). I apologize for mostly being little more than this disembodied smiling face on an iPad screen most of the time. I apologize for not changing your diapers like i wish i could. I apologize for not humming you lullabies to sleep for many nights.

I apologize because i know i might miss a lot of good times with you.

When your sister was your age, and all the way until she had to start school, your mother and i dragged her infant ass around and across the northern highways back and forth while i juggled keeping Maverick running, and finding my place up here. But when she started school, she had to stay put. So when you were born, for better or worse, i could no longer drag you, Marge and your mother up and down with me like i used to. There were lots of good times there, too.

But our life is what it is. It's got its good and bad stuff. In equal parts, just like everyone else's lives do, too.

But physically there or not, i want you to know that i'm always thinking about you. You, your mom and your sister. And i want you to know that if me being up here enables me to send you guys to better schools, afford to let you learn more stuff, take you to nice places and feed you guys better food, and just plain make your life more comfortable, then being alone up here writing this is totally worth it.

That's how much i love you.

And besides, this is hardly permanent. I'll be home for another week at least in just three more days. That's three more days of missing you guys. I'll make it up to you when i get home.

See you then, Baby Girl.

'Til then, i'll be okay with this...

Love,

Dad