father's day

I am my father's daughter, there is no doubt about that.

We think alike, we function alike.
My dad and I both function solely with our left brains. Neither of us leave much room for emotion (although, being female, I do have occasional breakdowns), and are hopeless control freaks. We are both addicted to the Simpsons. We laugh at each other's jokes. I got him addicted to Arrested Development. He got me addicted to U2.

Despite all these similarities, my dad and I have some communication barriers. Just the usual father-daughter awkwardities: boys, love, dating, etc. I don't know how to talk to him about such things and he doesn't know how to hear about them. So we just leave them unsaid. If it wasn't for my mother (who tells my dad everything), my dad wouldn't know the sordid details of my dating exploits. So it seems that we have an arrangement. I tell my mom everything about my life and she relays it to my dad (I think she summarizes). And this seems to work well for us. Occasionally, my dad will ask me a random question about my love life, as if to prove his knowledge of current events:

"So, are you going to see Nathan when you're in Seattle?"

I didn't even know he knew Nathan existed, let alone existed in Seattle. He does always seem to know who I'm currently "in love with" (even I can hardly keep up with that).

And here's the kicker: the way my dad knows how to show me that he loves me is by providing for me. This manifests itself in many forms, but mostly in the form of car repairs. If the oil needs changing, or the Passat needs new tires - he takes me to the nearest Les Schwab and gets my car road-ready. It's the same with both of my sisters -- our car needs are always taken care of.

It's funny, I don't usually get all sentimental on Father's day. My dad isn't even home (he's in Alaska on a fishing boat somewhere). But, last night, while going through some of my old boxes in the garage - I came across a note my dad wrote me in high school. and it killed me.

It reads:
Lindsay,
Miss Jabberwocky, I am so proud of you. Smart, beautiful - I would love you even if you didn't overachieve.
Your dad



I cannot tell you how grateful I am for the life that I've had.