I took my daughter to lunch today. Went out to the valley and picked her up from her old elementary school in Encino where her mom works and we went and had tacos and lemonade at Islands, then before taking her home we went and played a round of miniature golf and a little skeeball at Castle Park in Sherman Oaks . Here she is launching the ball off the sixth hole tee at the psycho house:
It was our first time hanging together in close to a year. Last time I saw her was at her birthday party with her family at the Northridge Chili’s in September, and I had a prior engagement so I only was there for about an hour.
Not sure if any are still hanging around, but I know there were some people who found this blog after Shane Nickerson spotlighted my August 13, 2005 post about taking the big leap and reconnecting with my daughter after more than five years apart. Now it’s almost two years since then and I dunno… I expected something different than what we have now.
Not that I’m complaining. Given the five years of hurt we both suffered through, the fact that for the last two I can say “let’s get together” and she answers with “OK” is heaven. I just haven’t been too adamant or often in asking. I never crowded her as a child and I certainly won’t now.
I’m not sure what prompted me to ask to see her this time around. She doesn’t turn 18 for three months and there are no holidays to observe. The truth? I’ve been feeling down a bit these past couple weeks. Stuck in a semi-depressed rut and I jumped at the chance to bust out of it by seeing her and telling her about a billion things, of which not a single one came out of my mouth except at when we hugged at her house and I awkwardly told her I hoped she knew that I was there for her and that if she needed my help or someone to talk to all she had to was call.
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