St. Petersburg Garden

St. Petersburg Garden

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Just Another Day

Ah, Father's day. A time when we can all spend that one day basking in the awesomeness of Dads everywhere. A time when we look all around us at commercials and ads touting what we should do for that special guy. Gifts for that great Pop in your life. Dinners for the big man.

Except what if you don't have a dad anymore? Your first thought is, damn, this sucks. Really sucks. You start to ignore it all. Then you think you should plan a day of craptastic un-dad like events. If everyone is celebrating their dad and you can't participate, maybe un-Father's day is the way to go.

Then you realize, why un-celebrate who your dad is just because he's not physically here anymore when you can celebrate the total awesomeness of who he was. And really, everyone knows that my dad was fab-u-lous.

Everyone thinks they have the best father. Well, mostly everyone. Except I really did have the best one. No, seriously. He was so awesome they named a street after him. True story. 

Okay, so maybe he wasn't always awesome all the time. Sure, he could be a pain in the ass. Hey, aren't most parents like that? I'll admit, there were times that he drove me crazy. A lot. Like when he stole my bread. My special dairy free, $3.99-a-loaf, I walked 10 blocks from work to get that, kind of bread. I always yelled at him to leave it alone. He never did. So I started to buy two loaves. 

Then there was the worst offense - he stole my champagne at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Nobody steals my champagne. Nobody. I'm not ashamed to admit that I was not happy at that moment.

Champagne steal at Eiffel Tower
BUT through theft of my food and drink, he was entertaining. And we did share a love of a good cocktail (hence my stolen bubbly). After all, in the words of my dad, "it's always 5 o'clock somewhere".

What I loved most about my father was that he wasn't a rule follower. By this, I mean that he had his own set of rules, he did his own thing. If he wanted to do something, he did it. (See paragraph above). If he didn't feel like doing something, he didn't. Sounds like someone else I know....

He also loved hanging out with my friends and he loved their nicknames too. If they didn't already have nicknames then he made them up. There was the friend he dubbed "The Bod". There was "Funk" and ah yes, there was the Doofy Award recipient (she knows who she is). We even had a fan club newsletter dedicated just to him, aptly named "The Robert C. Lohnes Fan Club". I know, catchy.

My dad always told me stories of growing up in Astoria. Always mischievous of course. A favorite one of mine was the Coyote Club. He was so amused by his old Coyote Club stories that he would call me up and leave howling messages on my voice mail. No hellos, just howling. 

There were so many adventures and not just with me, but with my friends as well. That is what I loved best. He came out to play with all of us.

I remember us strawberry picking with Sarah and Nicole, followed by wine tasting on Long Island, NY. Hot Air Ballooning over the Temecula Valley. Blackberry picking in Ramona, CA. Road trips across the United States and up the California coast. Wine Tasting in Sonoma County. A Can Can Show in Paris. A road trip to Nova Scotia with Mike. Kayaking, whitewater rafting, Broadway shows, Fraunces Tavern - we had so many adventures. 

So many adventures but not nearly enough. It's never enough though, is it? But we can look back on all the amazing times we did have, all the fun things we shared together, and raise our glasses in celebration to my dad, to your dad, to all of our amazing dads - because no matter what the time - never forget that it's always 5 o'clock somewhere.

Dad holding my beloved Lambie

Working hard - my rare topless moment