Father's Day

Today is Father's Day in the US and as a woman, I am guilty of not always understanding the male perspective. It may be that my husband and I have three girls and only one boy, so basically, girls rule in this house. But today I had a peek inside Daryl's mind that definately has me thinking a bit differently.

Our son is what you would call a typically 21 year old guy. Footloose and fancy free so to speak. He recently was offered a pretty good job in North Dakota and he starts on Monday. So, he packed up his truck with all the necessities: his tv, game cube, video games, ipod.... you know, the items that one just can't survive without. (Yes his Mom snuck in a box filled with toothpaste, toothbrushes, soaps, shampoos, towels..... thank you very much :) and he drove out of the driveway early Saturday morning.

It is a 1700 mile trip in which he had no plans for stopping along the way for resting. Ok, maybe I could have done that at 21 myself, but I just can't picture it now. We estimated it would take about 24 hours start to finish.

Now, for the two weeks prior to this drive, both Daryl and Jason have been telling me (the MOM) not to worry. "Stop asking questions', they said, when I asked if he had an appartment or other "unimportant" things like that. Daryl says, "He'll be fine. Just stop worrying! He's a big boy now". And so, I stopped appearing as if I was worried, because just saying that would make it go away, you know.

Anyway, early this morning (about 23 hours after Jason's departure) the first words out of Daryl was, "Did Jason call yet this morning?". No, no call yet. About two hours later I hear Daryl leaving a message on Jason's cell phone, " Just seeing if you made it alright... Give us a call when you get a chance..."

Later in the day, Daryl and I went out shopping. In the car Daryl says, "Gee, I hope he made it alright and he would call or something". Ok, so I am starting to see a pattern here. So, I get on my cell phone and call the kid. Of course, we get the answer service.

We pull into the drive way and the first thing that Daryl does is look up the number of the hotel that the company had secured for Jason for the first week till he gets settled. I can't believe he called the motel! He had quite a long conversation with the front desk.... "no, don't ring him. I'm sure he's tired and sleeping, I just wanted to make sure he made it alright....."

He hangs up the phone and with quite a smile on his face...'Well, he made it. " Then he sat down in his chair and starting eating a bowl of peanuts.