My firsts

2.5 days. That's all I've been back for. Yet, in that time I've experienced 3 firsts. The first first was my house selling. Never before has that happened, ok sure, this is the first house I've owned but still… My second first is a daughter hitting double digits. No, I’m not talking about that gay roll the little ball up the ramp hoop game. My daughter turned 10. The third first is my beard. I think I'm growing one. I thought about shaving it off the other day but Angie piped up and said "I'm not a big fan of smooth baby faces; I like hair on my man." Thanks for waiting a decade to let me know babes. Kisses. It would be lame of me to drop 3 firsts without further explanation so here's a bit more. I'll go in reverse firsts order. The name’s Mr. Fun. Please to meet ya.

Now that I have a beard I feel a bit like the artsy thoughtful kid after receiving a ball glove from his clueless father. I don't grow cheek hair. I’m not that guy. I'm Mr. baby face. It's weird though, I feel like I need some sort of training or certification- at the very least a dependable grooming kit. Even if I get one, will I know how to use it? Or more importantly, when to use it? I fear I won't and I'll either wait too long becoming the dirty gross dude or I'll trim too soon and just confuse people – making them wonder if I'm just lazy. It's important I figure this out because the line separating white trash from sexy bad boy to distinguished mature beard man is only a shadow away. And as of right now, I'm not sure which image is worse.

I mentioned my daughter turned 10. She did indeed, July 31. It's weird having a daughter so old. I feel a bit like the artsy thoughtful kid after recieving a bat from his clueless father. I don't have kids in double digits. That's for old guys with beards. Oh I see now. I remember when Maddison was born. I was 22 and felt like a kid myself so seeing my own was amazing. I had wanted the name Maddison for a girl but Angie wasn't convinced until she saw her. I remember we chose the name Maddison because we wanted something unique. I know but seriously, in 1998 Maddison wasn't the household name it became in 1999. That was annoying.

I was still in school when Maddie was born and Angie worked half days doing home care so I was able to spend lots of time with her. We snuggled, read books, played games, went for walks and watched Pooh and Friends. She was a fantastic baby, the kind you could take out in the world. I remember one time, when she was like 6 weeks old, we took her to the theatre because we wanted to see the summer blockbuster Armageddon. To this day, it’s still the loudest movie I've seen yet Maddie slept through the entire thing. It was then I knew God had smiled on me. Or something. The truth is, Maddie is quite something. She is not the typical girl or even 10 yr old girl. She prefers reading and learning to most everything else and when all the other girls were dreaming of becoming a princess she dreamt of Archaeology. Truth be told she reminds me a lot of Rory from the Gilmore Girls. Maddie still maintains she’s gonna be an Archaeologist, which makes sense because both her parents had similar dreams. Europe is gonna rock her little world. All our worlds.

My last first was our house selling. I'd be a liar if I said it was a stress free process. Calgary has the reputation of being boom town which is fine if it was still 2005 but it's 2008 and the boom is over which only means KABOOM "nobody wants to pay good money for your house John and Angie." We listed our house after May long and in the end had to come down 25g's to get it done. BTW - if you have ever considered moving to Calgary, now's the time. You'll find hundreds of "motivated" sellers.

The good news though is we did sell which means our plans to travel are no longer just plans but reality. That being said, we did take a hit so we'll be cutting our trip in half, putting off Asia for another day. As disappointing as that is, we still get to travel Europe for 4 months so please save your empathy for Africa. We fly out September 19 and we should arrive back in Calgary mid January. From there nothing is for sure but I could see us ending up on the West Coast.

A lot of firsts this week. It’s been good.

John