Yesterday, my next door neighbor (whose child is “one of Becka’s best friends”) (we can discuss the concept of many ‘best friends’ on another day) called to ask if Becka could go to a Potomac Nationals (Carolina Minor League) baseball game. Not having paid much attention to the league lately (we attended 2 games this season both of which had rain delays in which I got soaked due to lack of preparation), I sent my daughter along to enjoy a night of hot dogs and sodas without a second thought.  While she was out, I picked up my son, whose soccer team had just tied a team from Fredericksburg 4-4 and was very proud of his and his teams performance.  We decided to celebrate the game (they were not expecting such a good result) by going to Cheeseburger In Paradise (CIP).  For the uninitiated, CIP is a Jimmy Buffett themed restaurant with awesome food including but not limited to Sweet Potato Chips as an appetizer and Chocolate Nachos for dessert.  As a side note, I am the only male I know who will admit that there are things in life that chocolate can fix and CIP Chocolate Nachos fix all but the most stubborn of those things.  Anyway, while at CIP listening to Jeremy wax rhapsodically about his new girlfriend, the game, his new girlfriend, the game, his new girlfriend, and a little more new girlfriend, Becka is constantly texting me to let me know the status of the game. Once, the phone rang and it was her calling to let me know she had actually caught a baseball (she was ecstatic). After a few more verses on the soccer game (and the new girlfriend) Jeremy and I went home for a little Father/Book, Jeremy/Video Game time (it’s our favorite part of the day); except Jeremy’s video game was interrupted by a phone call from the aforementioned new girlfriend AND HE ACTUALLY STOPPED PLAYING THE GAME TO TALK TO THE GIRL (he must really like her this is not normal behavior for him).

Anyway, this post is supposed to be about Becka, not Jeremy, so…Becka calls later to let me know that the P-Nats won the ball game (the championship game of the season) and that they were going to stay behind for the celebration and to try to get hers’ and Camerons’ (best friend) baseballs autographed. “Oh yeah, I caught a second baseball so I gave one to Cameron” she says right before hanging up. So, “Cool” says I.  My daughter gets invited to a baseball game by one of her best friends that turns out to be the championship game of the season which our team wins and my daughter catches two baseballs and is sweet enough to hand one over to the best friend who invited her to the game in the first place and I’m thinking how lucky she is to have caught those two balls in the first place because she usually doesn’t even pay attention to the game when she goes and how she must have good parents who taught her to be selfless enough to part with a prized possession such as a caught baseball when I realize that 20 minutes have gone by and my phone is ringing again.  Of course it’s Becka and now she’s calling (totally excited) to tell me that while trying to get her baseball autographed this guy behind them yells to one of the players “Hey, bring out some bats” and he does! He apparently stepped into the dugout, grabbed a few bats and brought them out and handed one directly to…yep, you guessed it, my daughter! I didn’t ask her but I bet she peed her pants! She was SOOOOO excited and her daddy is SOOOOO blessed to be the one she wanted to call with all of this joy and excitement and tell him how much she loved him and how he’s the greatest daddy in the world and how God could not have made two people more suited to be daddy and daughter.  (Well, that’s what I heard, I couldn’t tell you what she actually said; it was going to fast and my heart was listening much better than my ears anyway.)

I fell asleep reading my book, waiting for her to return but she came in and showed me the bat when she got home and it’s laying on the floor next to where she’s sleeping and I’m thinking that all the other dads out there should get to experience the joyful evening I had with my two children last night and that the only way this evening could have been better would have been if I could be in two places at once and I could have picked up my son from soccer AND gone to the game with my daughter but that’s probably what heaven will be like so I’ll wait…

God bless you all.