Who's Your Daddy?

Happy Valentine's day! I'm indulging in a tyrrany of pink and red later on for my Valentines Dayte (my choices are a terribly cute pink dress, or a shortly in-charge red pantsuit... my 'dayte,' Erin, will help me decide) but for now I settle for a more demure lavender.

Recently, I went out to dinner with Erin and her roommate Brit. I left the pot of slow-cook chicken taco soup (of which I was so proud!) simmering for my roommate to enjoy and met them downtown, prepared to pry some cash out of my wallet because I just had to meet Brit's dad.

Quite happily, he ended up treating us to the wonderful array of "Asian Fusion" cuisine that is available at our local downtown ZenZero restaurant. It reminded me of college times... those great evenings when someone's parent would come into town, and so in order to meet 'the friends' they would sort of sponsor a dinner outing, doling out this kindness to college students who were, understandably, eternally grateful [there is often free food on campuses, but it is often not very good.. thus, food that is simultaneously delicious, healthy, and at no cost is a day-maker]. Apparently this process can continue to be practiced upon graduate students (and hangers-on, like me).

Before arriving, I wasn't sure whether I was meeting Brit's "bio-dad" or "other dad." (One look at him assured me he was in fact bio-dad) He was witty, kind, and Boston-accented, even more than she.

She refers to them both with father titles, but of course, only one has contributed DNA; the other married in. The fun thing is, instead of a lack of father figure, Brit might be considered to have an extra abundance.

Some people with stepfathers never really consider those men to be their true father figure. And, in some divorce situations, daughters end up paying the daddy-figure price as their male role models evaporate into new lives. There's empirical evidence on this, but even just anecdotally, I've seen it do some damage on growing girls. But not Brit, she (and her sister as well) hit the father jackpot, because both her dads were around, and supportive and loving toward her.

The most fun thing for me is that her step-father isn't married to her mom. He's hitched to her dad. She told me that, growing up, she always thought everyone had two (gay) dads, and it almost didn't make sense to find that most did not.

Well, whatever works; she is certainly a most self-assured and outspoken young woman, and does not need any man to make her valuable!

Today, her other dad is going to be in town while dad 1 is at a conference. I look forward to meeting him as well!