Happy 50th Birthday Dad

Dad,

Happy 50th Birthday! I'm so happy that you didn't have a clue that I was coming for your birthday. I thought for sure my not being sad about missing your birthday was going to give it away. A few weeks ago I was looking at the post I wrote about two years ago for father's day and figured I would take some of those and write 50 memories or things I love about you and our relationship, so here it goes (not in any order):

1. "hola"
2. Fishing (on the Reel Lucky, Fly Fishing, and of course the Cape)
3. Flying to Nantucket for Lunch
4. Our hand shake for scratch tickets
5. My anatomy books
6. Fly tying classes (especially when I won, haha)
7. Tux (sniff sniff)
8. Vermont...our spot, Hogback Mountain, The Spiral Shop, Brattleboro, our sandwich place (which we still don't know the name of, but continue to call it "ours"), the army navy store, the barn with all the license plates
9. My Camera's (All of them)
10. My photography books
11. La Gloria Cubana Wavells
12. Fishing in the rain down at the Cape and almost getting blown in the water, best fishing day we had
13. Learning to fly fish (and all the reminder casting lessons after)
14. Christmas mornings.
15. Wine tastings: Our tour of the vineyard in P-Town..."So can anyone tell me....anyone?"
16. Encouragement in photography and life in general.
17. Doing laundry with the blue haired ladies
18. Getting books from you with notes of encouragement on the inside of them
19. Thursday night dates
20. Taking Photography Class with Ed (and we can't forget Fernando, but his friends call him Fred)
21. When I broke my back and had to wear the back brace (such a dork).
22. Sara laughing so hard she cries...and all we can do is laugh at her
23. Purgatory
24. Hot Dog Annie's, Coney Island, Super China buffet
25. Lobsters and Muscles
26. When you came to visit me in Cali!!
27. Trips to B&N
28. My pocket protector, microscope and dissection kit (man I was an odd child).
29. MONEY....don't give me any of that do goody good bulls*!t
30. Catching my first fish at the club and then my fist one deep sea fishing on the fly rod.
31. Being rocked to sleep in the rocking chair (especially when I had ear infections).
32. Your humor...nuf said
33. Digging for night crawlers in the golf course
34. Ben (Benny, cockroach)
35. Hanging turtles from the swing set and me experimenting with the turtles heart (it was beating in my hand and I thought if it was frozen then defrosted it would beat again...it didn't).
36. When you played Jesus in the Godspell that the Joy Church put on
37. "the box"
38. Birthday calls at 5:00 am
39. The best chocolate pecan pie ever
40. The year you helped me make all of my Christmas presents
41. Our first game at Fenway
42. The voice mail you left me when I moved to Cali saying how proud you were of me for doing what I'm doing(that I had saved up until my phone busted)
43. The look on every one's face the night you said I was adopted and we laughed at it
44. The CHUCKY poster!!! (I still can't look at that thing)
45. Getting flowers from you at my office on my birthday
46. "Benny and Longbow" written for at least the next 30 years on the Cape Cod Boardwalk!
47. Our daily phone calls
48. Loaf of Italian Bread, kalamata olives, Vermont cheese and a glass of wine = one great meal.
49. When you busted out on how old Moses really was when he died and told me I should read my bible more
50. That you love me for me, you encourage me to be me.

This list could go on for a really long time but I figured 50 was appropriate. I love you dad. I'm extremely happy that I could be here with you for your birthday this year. I hope you have a wonderful birthday and you enjoy yourself. Sorry Sara couldn't be here too!

Thanks for all the good memories and even the hard times that have made us who we are and made our relationship what it is today. I wouldn't change anything.

Love,
Benny