A Griswold Father's Day

i've decided i want to repost some of my favorite longhornnation stories ... here goes!

this one is from a few years ago

CAUTION: Long Story Longer Ahead

This weekend I went home for Dad's day. The trip itself was rather treacherous. I was miserable tired from Friday night's festivities and the rain was TERRIBLE. I got there safely and had a lovely Saturday with my parents. I even found out I can still do the splits - that's another one of those silly clumsy robin stories.

Sunday, the real fun began with a trip. This story really begins about a couple months ago when my mom told me of wondrous store in the Dallas area by the name of Sam Moon. As a purse and accessory lover, this really did sound like quite a magical place for me. My mother had been to this store with my sister-in-law and found out there was one in The Woodlands. So the idea was that when I came home again, time allowing, we would travel out to The Woodlands and have a look around - being flat broke, I really did prefer to go here with my Mom, as she tends to pay.

So Sunday arrives, Mom and I begin our journey after stopping to fill up my car (this is where I determine I got 39 mpg on the drive Saturday - NICE!).

Sidebar: I am from a small town, Crosby. Everyone kind of knows everyone in this town - so at an intersection when I look over and see the people in the van next to me waving, it's no surprise. I do, my clueless, Look Mom, it's the SoandSos and we wave. Luckily Mom suggests I roll down the window as they seem to have a message. My gas cap is open. So in the middle of a very busy intersection, in a heavy downpour I exit my car and replace the cap and shut the little door. I thought about making a real show of it with an umbrella, but decided I would prefer to live.

As we near The Woodlands, I ask my Mom, where am I going exactly. Conversation goes:

Mom: Well Sam Moon is a large store, so probably not in the Mall, rather near the mall like a standalone in a strip center.

Robin: Are you saying you have no idea where it is?

Mom: No, not really, it just said The Woodlands. How hard can it be to find?

Robin: Well, The Woodlands has 5 exits and an extremely large mall area, MOM. You don't know an intersection or anything?

Mom: Nope, never looked it up.

Robin: UGH.

I spy the mall exit and just decide to take it. This is when we find out how large the mall really is. There are about 5 strip centers on the streets directly around the mall. We go through each of these. I even find that there is a section extremely similar to The Domain in this area. I am getting frustrated - we have been driving in and out of these few streets for about 20 minutes now. I decide to cross the freeway and check out the strip malls on the North feeders. We travel North, and then come back around South - this is another 15 minutes. I remind Mom to call Dad and find out where he is, as he is meeting us. Great, he's at the Mall. So we head BACK over there to retrieve him.

At this point, THEY decide we need to go ahead and drive around some more. My patience is now at an all time low, I need to pee and we are retracing steps we already took. 20 minutes later, Dad pulls up to the Macy's Furniture store, and I am instructed to go inside and find out where Sam Moon is. This is NOT what I want to hear, I ask Mom to do it. Nope, I need to apparently, because I am the youngest. I say something in a very nasty tone and head in.

Walk into Macy's, no one is to be found, walk around, mentally spend a lot of money I do not have and find the main desk where they are extremely busy. I ask to borrow a phone book, and a very nice woman hands me one. NO listing for Sam Moon!!! So, I turn and play the exasperated daughter card that I am very good at:

Robin: Here is your phone book back. Thank you. I'm completely lost; do you have any idea where Sam Moon is?? (the nice lady is wrapping a hideous jewelry box thing and looks up)

Nice Lady: Oh yes! It's very new, not in the phone book or anything.

Robin: Oh yay!! Can you point me in the right direction?? I live in Austin; know nothing of this area and my mom sent me to look for this Sam Moon place while I was in town?? (this is done in my best pouty worn out stance I can muster up)

Nice Lady: (giggling) Ohhh, I'm sorry dear. Go the direction of the restaurant right outside towards the freeway. Get on the feeder for 45 north. Stay on the feeder and watch for Exit 242 and it will be on the right. Stay on the feeder though; don't get on the freeway.

Robin: (walking away) Thank you sooo much!! Thank you thank you!

Nice Lady: No problem (repeats the directions again)

Get into car and repeat it exactly as was said above. We are REALLY on the way now!! I have visions of purses, sunglasses and necklaces in my head. NOW I am excited, we know exactly where to go!! We just hadn't stayed on the North feeder long enough. About 12 minutes later, there's the sign, there's the sign!! We turn in behind a White Land Rover. But there are only like 5 cars in the massive parking lot. We rationalize that it is so new, still not even in the phone book, so there aren't a lot of people. Still behind the white rover we arrive at the front and decide to pull next to the door - and what do we see??

"Closed Sundays"

As I state to Maw and Paw Griswold that this was basically our trip to Walley-World, I realize there is no moose for me to punch in the nose.

Mom Griswold asked if I was going to write about this - I said no. I lied.

Saying Goodbye

On March 16, 2009, I left MD Anderson Cancer Center for what I hoped would not be the last time. Sadly I was wrong. When I left that day I told my father goodbye, for what I hoped would not be the last time. Sadly I was wrong. I told him I loved him, and that for as long as he wanted to stick around, we would have him. I hoped that would be for awhile longer. Sadly I was wrong. I told him I would see him again in a couple days. Sadly I was wrong.

Less than 24 hours after I left my father's hospital room, he passed away. When I think about my father now - I try to remember the good times, the laughter, the jokes, the wisdom, the support, the love - but all I can think about is how he suffered with the cancer and how he looked when I left him on March 16.

On March 21, we memorialized my father. I made the decision that I would publicly say goodbye to my father by speaking. These are roughly the words I said:

"For those of you that do not know - I am Robin. Larry's 3rd daughter.

His first - Jacquelyn - he met for the first time Tuesday afternoon. His second, Shannon, is sitting right here in the first row, next to where I was sitting. And I am the 3rd, the one they so lovingly refer to as the baby, Robin Douda.

Douda. As you can tell - that's not quite the same as Dullack. That's something I have had to really come to terms with over the last 6 months. When I first started asking my friends to put dad on prayer lists, they would come to me a little later and ask "Robin, what's your father's name? We've just been saying Robin's Dad, but it would be nice to have a name." My response, of course, was Larry Dullack. They would get a bit of a quizzical look on their face and I would say, "Yes, he's my stepfather. Don't tell him though - I am not sure he knows."

And I really don't think he did know. I tried, as a child, to remind him - often. And he just let me. It didn't really take though - and I am glad. Because as I grew older, I realized I wanted and needed a father - and he was still there waiting for me to accept the fact that he was - a fact that he accepted the day he married my mother.

I am sorry I really can't look at all you right now - this is not the easiest thing I have ever done. I could actually, probably, really use a shot of tequila right now. Carrie???

Oh - Mom's gonna be mad now - I brought up alcohol. That's OK - she has every right to be mad. I'm mad. But one day, that will subside and we will relish in all of the things we have to be thankful for:

Right now I am thankful for all of you here. I look and see my friends from Austin, and my brother's friends from Dallas, Church and family friends. There are no words to express how much it means to me, and us, that all of you are here to celebrate the life of my father and support each of us.

I am thankful that Larry chose us to be his Second Family.

I am thankful that I have not passed out in the minutes I have been up here, that's huge.

I am thankful for my next meal - Dad always sure was.

I am thankful I was able to work a couple jokes into this thing - I don't think Dad would be too pleased if we weren't giggling, because he so loved to laugh. So if there is something that is funny today, please laugh, he would like that.

I am thankful for the friends and family I still have on this Earth. Especially my mother - I know she is not too thrilled with this fact right now - but she has so much life to live and love to give. And I can't imagine doing this without her - because I am, as you will recall, the baby.

Thank you all again."

Why I am doing this as a 2nd entry into this Blog I started? I think it is so that I can get back to being the person that I was, AM. I am hoping that this will provide me a certain level of therapy so that I can get past the man I saw in the hospital bed - and get back to remembering the man I knew as my father. I am hoping this to be my one and only Debbie Downer entry - and really do look forward to being funny/quirky/randomly mean/ whathaveyou again.

Thanks for listening :)

more to come

looking forward to becoming a "blogger" - with the pending loss of LonghornNation.com - i will need a place to be me.

for now - the title comes from:

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

~ Henry David Thoreau (1817-62)