Milestones

When you have children in your life you are constantly preparing them for that day when they are independent and on their own. You feed them the best food you can, the safest home you can afford, the best medical care available, the safest neigborhood, .. the list goes on and on. You want them to be safe and happy. You never want their hearts broken, their toes stubbed or their dreams shattered. Santa Claus knows what they want, the Tooth Fairy always comes and their parents really do know everything.

Then they become teenagers.

You still want the best for them but you can't wait for them to take their whiny, hormonal selves out of your home and into their own homes. You still love them and cherish them and want nothing bad to ever happen to them but, one more slammed door or temper tantrum and you will be changing the locks on the doors or moving without a forwarding address.

Finally comes that big day when they step out on their own. They get that job they have always wanted, rented or bought their own place and they are finally out of your hair... and you want them back... just for a little while.

But you have prepared them well and can be a little smug that they are settled.

Then they turn your smugness upside down.

All that security you though they were looking for is out the window and they come to you with what they really want to do and its a shocker.

While you were thinking they were settling into a nice middle class life, they were thinking about OPENING A RESTAURANT!

Yup - Paul, my sweet, gentle boy is opening a restaurant in a few days. This has been in the works for so long that I really thought it would be another few months before it would happen.

I know it will be a great success, that he knows what he is doing, that the food will be great and that he and his partners will make a ton of money. I can provide book keepng services and lots of moral support but I really don't know how restaurants work except that I like to eat.

If you are around Spears Road and T.C. Jester on and after September 2, stop into Sweet Sadie's for some barbeque and wings. I know you will not be disappointed.

I will be the nervous wreck in the corner... like I was when he first stepped off the plane in America, when he went to his first day at school, when he played his first baseball game, had his first wrestling match, got his driver's license and all the other milestones we have shared together.

There will be many more milestones, I'm just lucky that they have been spaced out a bit.

Wish him luck!