He loves me...

The Daddler does. Crazy, huh? I had a blissful, long weekend away from every single responsibility I have. As you might know, I went to see FF in Florida. Lots to tell about my time with him, but for now, I want to focus on The D.

My girl JoJo picked me up at the airport. We stopped by Half Shell on the way home. We bellied up to the bar and I ordered a beer and she ordered a glass of wine. We talked about appetizers. Choices were: seafood nachos (I had them there once and they were hideous), "Maryland (right) Crabcakes", and oysters on the half shell. Not sure about eating raw oysters in a month with no R, in this landlocked town, but it seemed like the least of three evils, so I plunged in. I told J about my magical night at the oyster bar with Mr. Man. How he showed me the way to eat oysters. It wasn't much different from the way I did it back in the day, but like everything with Dude, it had a little twist.

So J and I had a little debriefing over our oysters and drinks, and then headed home. It was time to transition from Fantasy Land to Reality. We pulled in the driveway, and there was The D. Standing there in his blue shirt with his white hair, waiting for me. Big smile on his face. Wow.

Told me he'd watered the plants and flowers. He counted on his fingers to show me he'd pooped five times today. I asked him if it was diarrhea, soft stools, hard, or what. He was happy to tell me about it. And the strange thing is that I wanted to know. Just like I did when Kiddo was little. When I picked him up at daycare, I'd carefully review the daily report of what and how much he'd eaten, slept and pooped.

Now that I think about it, those are pretty good barometers of a person's health. So even though it might seem weird that I devote so much attention to The Daddler's poop habits, I guess it's actually a good thing.

Coming home was nothing like I'd expected. See, after about 12 hours in Florida, I forgot all my worries. For the first time in a very long time, I was able to live in the moment. That seems to be Dude's mantra. And it's a great one. Not hard to do when you're suspended in a state of bliss. The only tricky part was not letting myself get sad about the idea of leaving.

So here I am. I learned a lot about myself this weekend. And of course, so much more about FF than I knew before. What I didn't expect, though, was to discover that Daddy loves me. Before today, I'd have said I knew he loved me even though he couldn't show it. But today, I saw the love in his eyes when he looked at me. And for that, I'm so grateful.