billy bob, dancing king on the tellureen

in the spirit of birthdays, i devote this post to my dad, bill. yesterday was his birthday ( i am behind on my blogging). he is starting to put on the years, as this was the big 5-5. obviously he is too young to have a daughter as old as me. my dad is a life long illinoisan. with the exception of a couple of years in college he has lived his entire life in the chicago suburbs. he actually grew up in oak park, just up the street from one of the frank lloyd wright homes.

i am very proud of my dad. for financial reasons he was unable to complete college. when i look at how far he has come in life and everything he has accomplished despite this setback, it amazes me. how far he has progressed in life has always been an example of what you can get if you are willing to work for it. now-a-days dad works for a bank in downtown chicago. i think it is chase manhattan, although i might be wrong. the way these banks are constantly buying one another out, i never really know who he works for. likewise, i never really know what he does. what i can tell you is that they ahve been filming the new batman movie accross the street from his offfice. as a result, he brought in a big blowup batman to put in their window. and people wonder how i turned out to be such a dork????

you ask, why is your dad a dancing king? he LOVES to dance. he is the best wedding date ever. he is out there dancing every dance that a middle aged man should be dancing (he avoids the hip hop for some reason). But, he is can get out there and swing with the divorcees or he can polka away the night with his daughters. In fact, in his slightly younger years i even remember seeing him go do the russian dance wehre you jump up in the air and do the splits.
despite being a hard worker, and a crazy dancer, my dad knows how to have fun. or, at least he knows how to be a smart-ass (once again, we wonder where i get that from?). one time we were eating dinner as a family. i must have been somewhere around 5th grade. my mom was lecturing one, or all, of us kids on table manners. as usual, someone had been playing with their food. about the same time that she finished her verbal whipping with the wet noodle dad decided to get some seconds. he took two slices of cucumbers. he then proceded to eat the middle, seeded parts and put the outsides over his eyes like a set of glasses. what a dork! how my mom didn't kill him that night, i'm not sure. :-)

on that note, i say happy belated birthday billy boy.