so i am back home. after non stop prep for my upcoming 216 holiday shoppe and holidays at RS, I took the afternoon/evening off to join my family and my dad’s coworkers to celebrate his retirement with a surprise party planned by his amazing staff.

i think there is a bit of irony in the fact that my father, a life-long law man: marine, detective, graduate of the FBI academy, fraud investigator, father of teenagers at one point…could manage to even be surprised! I mean, perhaps, since this was a total success in that he truly had no idea about it…this law man really was ready to retire!

In any event…

my father grew up with nothing. he and his 3 siblings shared a two-bedroom duplex in euclid until he left for the Vietnam war (where he earned two purple hearts). He returned, marrying my mother (she 19, he 21 - still married and in love) and he immediately dove into the responsibility of adulthood and becoming a provider for his family. A resourceful man, my mother always relayed stories of his desire or attempts at turning every idea he had (which were many) into a business ; he always worked hard, earning every promotion and accolade he ever received (which, too, were many).

i have always been very proud of my father. he spoke to my brownie troupe when i was a little girl and to my 5th grade class about the dangers of drugs (i remember a classmate telling me my dad was cute and being totally confused by that, (dads are just dads i thought, not humans in which to have casual opinions about?!). I remember my dad being away at FBI academy when i was in 9th grade, right when Silence of the Lambs came out, I bought the book so as to share in the experience, or more accurately, to glamorize it. I thought it was so cool to go down to Quantico, VA for his graduation and run the same obstacle course as Jody Foster did in the movie and to see the fake town they have set up for training-ops.

it was all really cool until my dad retired for the first time, due to a back injury, during the summer going into my Junior year of high school…no, that was not so cool…here is this man, freshly trained from the FBI, forced to retire while at his prime, sitting idle for the first time in his entire life…oh this does not bode well for a teenager looking to get the teen out of her…no. all those detective skills were used on me, the youngest, the one still in high school, the one that slipped under the radar all those years her older brothers were occupying the entire radar screen…yeah, not so good for me

…or maybe it was. As an adult, far too many years out of high school, I often think how glad i am to have gotten all those shenanigans out of my system while i was still so young…i mean, while so many people my age were just getting around to experimenting with this or that, i was already sure what my likes and dislikes were and setting out on the path that I am still on today. so, in retrospect maybe his brief bout of retirement all those years ago, was well-timed afterall.

i don’t know…this man is just a good man. i knew this to be true. of course. but i always knew that it was more than just the perspective of his daughter, or his sons and wife for that matter, that share my adoration and respect for him, but you see it in every decision he makes, big or small. this man has no limit, he never stops, he will ALWAYS do what he can for others. ALWAYS.

Tonight I heard speeches from 5 people from his staff. People that I have come to know over the years, because, he doesn’t see a distinction between the people in his life, just that they are people in his life, and thus he treats them all with love and respect and this was never more evident than tonight.

He was not a boss to them. He was a mentor. This is a very important distinction to make. These great people have started their careers,( all of them under 35 i would guess) with my father, and having the right role model at a pivotal point in your life can be life changing…and from listening to these speeches I have learned that for some of them, that is exactly what it was.

I have certainly not gotten it all figured out. i have absolutely NO balance in my life. But what i do have, i am proud of, and i am more proud tonight knowing where to credit it to. (of course this is split with my lovely mother!)

I know from my dad, that you don’t have to have anything to make anything. It’s already all yours you just have to realize it.

xoxo

dd

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my brother came to hang out at the store with me today.  and we had some fun with Pierre and fifi

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Well, it has been quite a year and I have much to be thankful for.  I would like to spend a moment to outline just a few of those things now.  It will be by no means comprehensive, but rather a few that are particularly timely.

* I am thankful for both of my parents, who are still together and serving as outstanding role models to me.  I keep getting older, but I swear my parents keep getting younger!  They seem to just grow more attractive and fun each time i see them!  I could only dream of looking half as young as my mother does when i get to her age, (i mean, I had a few bad habits in my youth that she never had so i am sure i will be so lucky!.)  And my dad, while hyper concerned with caring for his family (a sweet thing), is equally concerned with creating a fun atmosphere for his staff and I respect that about him.  I guess when it comes to my parents, it would be hard to limit what I am thankful for, but I want to be sure to mention the fact that I feel like, my parents worked hard when we were young, to morally guide my brothers and I and kept us in line. But when we became independent-thinking, decision-making adults, my parents ALWAYS deferred to trusting us. They did not freak out when I repeatedly took different paths as all of their friend’s children (as i continue to do in my 30’s) but rather, embraced the sometimes willy-nilly, hasty choices I made, knowing full well, that these choices would either be right for me, OR they could rest assured that I would extract a lesson from it if it proved ill-chosen.

* I am thankful for my BFF beth, who always makes me laugh and is the most patient listener I have ever encountered. And who more or less forced me to be her BFF, when my natural tendency is to be non-committal with friendships…and I am eternally grateful that she did.

* I am thankful for my store and all of the new friends, opportunities, and activities it has brought into my life…I have met some really wonderful friends this year that inspire and motivated me.

* I am thankful for my blog, as an avenue for expressing myself, a forum for inspirations, and perhaps most wonderful to me, is it’s power in making the world smaller!  I have connected with people all over the globe and formulated friendships that would otherwise never have happened and to me, that is magic!

SOOOO, with that, I would also like to thank my friend, Shelley over at  OISEAUX for awarding me the:

It’s my FIRST ever!!!  thank you so much!

In order to accept, I have to post six random things about me, and then nominate six bloggers for an award, too.

6 random things about me:

1. I cannot properly say two english words, even though i have been speaking the language for over 30 years…they are:  ”bagel” (pronounced by me: bagle) and “cereal” (pronounced by me: ceryull) it is not that i say them with an accent or drawl but rather, like, when i was learning words as a wee child, those two just stuck…i never grew into the syllables.

2. I am just now, for the first time ever, realizing that I may have a VERY warped self-perception… case in point: i have ALWAYS been under the illusion that I am a TALENTED multi-tasker, and am only now, since opening my store realizing that in fact, I actually LACK multi-tasking abilities….

3. I have a tendency to do the ‘fade away’ when i go somewhere that requires saying goodbye to more than 2-3 people….i kind of just sneak out.

4. I have a terrible memory.  MONUMENTALLY bad.  So bad, in fact, that i wonder if it is a result of a head injury from a bike accident i had a year and a half ago, because i don’t think my memory was quite as bad before that….but then again…i can’t remember.

5. i love shoes so much but hate shoe shopping more than anything.  i put it off, i make do with what i have and resist it as much as possible….probably because the only shoes i actually like are always at minimum, hundreds of dollars…i.e, more than i can typically afford.

6. I am going to paris very soon and dream about it every single night…no exaggeration…except for one REALLY weird dream i had the night before last that had nothing to do with paris, but rather, laundry, malls, and gift shows….weird.

The 6 bloggers that I would like to send this award to are a diverse group, some i have read for ages, others i only recently discovered but adore…

1. even cleveland

2. the scoop

3. your destiny is stone golden

4. la porte rouge

5. back woods wife

6. simple lovely

Thank you for stopping by and visiting my blog.  I hope you are having a wonderful Thanksgiving day today!

xoxo

danielle

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