sirndipiti

..yes, virginia, children do grow into responsible adults--regardless of the self-centered little twit they may have seemed as a teeny-bopper, adulthood does, at some point, overtake them and presto-changeo a real person appears on your life's stage -- i mention this now because, jenn, the daughter who got as "far away from here as possible" to attend college and is now home for a visit of a few weeks before going back for her senior year, declared yesterday afternoon: "i think it's time i cleaned out my room and repainted it, wanna help?"

suffering from parental fear that such an idea might never occur to her, i had been casually mentioning that some reorganizing might be in order now that she was in college and home only for visits--i had in fact been mentioning this ever since freshman year (up until about a year ago) and some progress had been made but with the 'i'm only doing this to satisfy you' attitude--but the attitude has changed--now, "it's your house and you may want to have guests stay here and the big rainbow stripe and glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling and scars from countless poster tapings and holes from thumb tacks and drawings on the walls make it look a little messy--why did you ever let me do this stuff, anyway?" so yesterday, we went and bought supplies and this morning bright and early (8 am; pretty damn good considering she spent the night at her g/f house) jenn was here and ready to go--at this point, all prep work is done (packing/throwing away, moving furniture, plastering holes, sanding rough areas, painting over the rainbow) and jenn is now painting the trim as the ceiling (former site of the giant rainbow) prime coat dries--as i go about having a break and reflect on the possibility that the rewards of fatherhood do keep on coming and that maybe some of the values i hoped to instill did actually take root and are now blossoming--gives me good cause to smile...i love my kids...(even if they're not kids anymore :)