In an amazing tangle of fate, emotion, and good old fashioned irony, my father, yes, my very own dad, has managed to find himself tumbling happily along in a plotline it would seem was taken from a bad combination of SITCOM style and Reality TV. Not that the man has ever watched 10 hours of television in his life, in fact, even if he were a television enthusiast, I don't think he would have watched this one. Why? Because in reality, you're more likely to see a man in a black trenchcoat dodge bullets atop a skyscraper than you are to see the scenario my dad has found himself in.

Perhaps replace the word 'scenario' with 'hole' and 'found' with 'dug," depending on who you ask and where this goes. Me? I'm just laughing aloud. This is not life, this is drama. And as much life as my dad has lived (getting good use of that senior's discount dad?) this, I imagine will be his first real encounter with drama. And by drama I of course mean, something a junior high / high school girl would find absolutely serious. And thank God in heaven there are none of those involved. This certainly is the sort of thing that would wind up in a bad rumor... then again, this is the age of information and technology. It's more likely nowadays to end up on MySpace... or a blog. ^_^

And again, I must consider the fact that I have sisters... one of which who is a Junior High school girl. Then I must also couple that with the knowledge that my dad actually teaches at a Junior High so... suffice it to say he's absolutely marinating in dramatic potential. (If he is reading this, he is probably going to consider the positive connotation of the word 'marinating' to be rather out of place in this context. Just remember that anything being marinated is about to be either eaten- or set on fire, and then eaten. ^_^)

Ready to get to the meat of this story? (Ha! A pun!) Our story opens several years ago with my parents' divorce. We can talk about that all day long but as its not the point, we're going to skip the majority of it. My mother and my father go their separate ways as the kids, me and all of my siblings. Well of course life doesn't end there so eventurally people started seeing other people and my parents took up dating. (Not each other... Which is kinda obvious) There were a few interests on both sides but nothing solid until my mom met this guy named David Idleman. Key facts concerning him include that he is also divorced, was married to a woman named Amy, and has a daughter named Sarah. We could talk all day long about him and how that's working out and all but again it isn't the point so suffice it to say they were officially married on May 8th, 2004 while I was at a theme park and thats about all I wanted or needed to know.

As we're gracelessly skipping through recent history, my dad also became involved in a somewhat serious relationship with another named Alisa. Nothing like marriage mind you, it was good for a while but didn't work out and there was nearly some drama over it but nothing amazingly uncommon and my friends that isn't the point either so we're going to skip the majority of it as well.

Fast forward to the present day, or... several days ago. This is where we slow down, elaborate, and explain the reason why I'm still laughing. Oooo... DRAMA! (shivers in the stupidity of it all) So, I am at church on sunday morning and I think it had just ended and I am walking past, rather through, a crowd of people and I encounter my dad. Someone immediately attacks the other and that goes on for a while like it normally does and then we break and reinvestigate our surroundings. Standing between one of the pews near us and watching the minor fiasco (a common occurence) is this woman that I hadn't seen before. I didn't get the major details at the time, but as churchly fellowship goes I intoduced myself and we exchanged names and she's like- "Oh, you're Caleb? I know about you." Apparently she knew I was the son of my father (which is to say she knew my dad either before or better than she knew me). We talked a short (very short) while and she seemed a lovely person, filled with energy and pretty darn pleasant at that. Had I been paying my best of attention, I might have better noticed my dad beside me. His reactions and his mood were somewhat different in that moment. It was very subtle, but I caught the scent of it.

Fasting forward again. I arrive at my dad's house later in the evening one night and find him very much not at home. In fact- no one is home. But I am used to that so I merely wrote on my computer for a while. After a long while I called his cell phone, from the house phone. He answered with the words-

"Hi Bethany."

After assuring him that I was not my little sister and having a good laugh we discussed each other's wherabouts and quickly discovered that I was at his home and that he was certainly not and as I delved there was a moment of hesitation before he finally told me he as at a certain someone's house. My eyes went a little ide and I smiled, and there was some silence... and then I think I asked him if he was having fun and after another moment of hesitation, he replied that he was. That coversation dissolved into unspoke understanding shortly following that and after stepping in to explain that Nathan (my brother) and a friend were there, and that Sarah (my stepsister) was there as well, little more was said so we both said goodbye, see you soon, and hung up.

He returned just around midnight and I am still there, shmuck that I am, still typing on the computer. After showing him a small video clip I downloaded called Animusic (which he thought was very cool, the demo clip is linked here, if you want the whole thing just comment me and I'll send it to you. Right now I can't find the exact address, but I will). I soon asked him how his night was and he told me he had a great time and a lot of fun and I nodded and he nodded and we just kind of looked at each other for a while...

"You like her?"
"I really do."
There was a pause in which a nearly began laughing, but didn't. "It's weird isn't it?"
"Oh it is so strange... I mean, is this even possible?"
I shrugged. "Looks like it's happening, so I guess it is."

It is at this point that the actual details of what happened that night, and in those other nights, must blur. For one, I don't exactly know the details, and for two, it is such that it is such details are impossible to understand, even for those that experienced them. I asked my dad what had happened. We talked, he talked, I listened. He told me how very weird he felt again and again and again... It was all I could do to keep from laughing. I believe he keeps reservations about the situation, that is- about dating the woman I met at chruch. And the reasons for that are not hard to understand at face value. He wants to be careful, and is, and wonders about so many things that won't change anything at all. About himself and his own emotions, and about her and her emotions. All of this has been playing up a bit. And I know, generally, this kind of thing isn't that uncommon, generally a divorced man seeing another woman is common enough. So why the intrigue and the hint of panic resonating in my father?

Simple. The woman I met at church is Amy Idleman.

Dave's ex-wife.

(sigh) it's late folks. And I have to get up early in the morning and go to work a full day at Best Buy and Michaels. I'll chatter about this some more later. ^_^ I hate to leave you all hanging and all... but consider now that you know everything I know about the situation, for the most part. Except for perhaps the fact that she likes him in return and when I went to his house just tonight to get the stuff I left there over the past weekend, he was gone, and when I asked: I was told he was gone on a date. That's all I know. As you have the story now, all you really lack is my personal commentary and unspoken details, which, if anyone actually wants to read about, may appear here later.

Dad, if you're reading this, don't worry about people seeing this. Only two people ever really read this blog, me, and a particular Australian who wishes you no harm. ^_^ I'm not talking about it, for obvious reasons. See you around, maybe after work one night. Depends on where you are. ;)
Cheers-

-Monsterbox