It all happens at once…

Been awhile since my last real posting, but quite a bit has happened recently. This is going to be long, so it will be broken into a series of cuts. Pick the ones that interest you most.

I was preparing for a nice, quiet birthday this year; of course, I was not meant to have one.

The events leading up to my birthday

First, sometime in July my father wrote me a letter and told me he was coming for a visit. In the first week of August… Yes, that’s right; only a few short weeks to prepare for his visit. Cannot fault him too much though; he has Crohn’s Disease which can put him down for months without much warning. Apparently, he was planning on coming up last year for my birthday. Bought his tickets and everything but had an attack that put him down for three months.

Not that he told me any of this until this year; so, this year he decided to just show up when he felt well enough to travel. Much scrambling was done by myself and Jm to provide him with information about hotels, attractions, etc. even though we did not exactly when he was coming. We finally found out he was planning on being here from 5 Aug to 10 Aug.

He told Jm and I to not worry about taking time off, as he would just walk around Boston and do the tourist thing. We could catch up for dinner and the weekend. Of course, Jm and I were worried that he would not get a hotel or flight on such short notice. We were right to be worried, when he called the Mon. before he was to arrive and still did not have a hotel.

Everything managed to turn out alright though; he got a nice room at the Onyx Hotel near North Station. Turned out to be a great location for him; he could pick up the various tourist trolleys near the hotel and the T quite easily. We caught up with him on Thurs. night after he got in and showed him our apartment. Went to dinner at a local seafood place near us.

Dad kept himself busy during Fri. He walked the entire Freedom Trail (quite impressive; a three to four hour walk); took him to dinner in the North End and then for dessert at Mike’s Pastry. Needless to say, the cannolis were a big hit with him.

Saturday, we took him to Salem to see the House of the Seven Gables. He seemed to enjoy it quite a bit; after seeing him do the tourist thing, I have learned that he seems to enjoy looking at old houses. Go figure. We also took him to the Witch Museum; don’t think he enjoyed that much.

We then stopped at Best Buy on the way home; I learned later from Jm that my Dad told her that he wanted to buy me a present while he was here. That way, he could get Jm’s help to pick something out for me. What happened though was that he picked way to much out for me. I ended up with the first DVD set of Futurama, DVD sets three and four of The Simpsons, DVD set two of Speed Racer, and a PS2.

I tried to refuse all of this, but my dad said it was to make up for birthdays past. My mom and dad were divorced when I was a wee child of two or three; I grew up not seeing him much because he lived in Puerto Rico while I was living in Florida. Plus, he remarried and had new kids of his own to take care of.

He did take care of me growing up in terms of providing child support. And he has always sent me some money for my birthday. It boils down to the fact that there is a large gulf between us; we are essentially strangers to each other despite being father and son. I am not sure if he thought buying me all that stuff would bridge the gulf a bit; part of me does not think so, but I do not know why he thought he had to make up for other birthdays.

Finally, my birthday arrived on Sunday.

As I mentioned, my mother and father have been divorced for quite some time. When I called my dad after getting his letter, he said that maybe we could get the whole family together for my birthday. Okay… I asked my mom about it and told her that I could make an excuse if she did not want to feel awkward on her birthday. That’s right, my mom and I share the same birthday. She said it was fine, and that it would not be a problem.

And it did not turn out to be a problem. We all had a great Sun. dinner at my folks. Got some cash from my folks which I blew on a new video card for my computer. Had to though as Jm got me Thief 3 for my birthday, and it would not run on my current video card.

Had dinner one last night with my dad on Mon. Hopefully, we will both be a bit better about keeping in touch; the gulf is still there, and it is on both of us to decide how far we want to narrow it.

Other than that, my back is killing me today; don’t blame me too much if the above is not very coherent.