My Blind Date

Right now my wife is so busy, she doesn’t have time to read my blog.

Sometimes that's probably a good thing.

She’s taking care of three kids.

And a dog.

And working full-time.

All with her husband living the bachelor/lonely life on the other side of the country.

We still talk quite a bit and she pretty much gets the phone version of everything I’ve been writing here.

But I’m about to share something with you that I haven’t even told her.

Tonight, I have a date.

At 9:30.

And it’s not just any date.

I’ve been thinking about this person night and day for quite a while.

And I’m really looking forward to getting some quality 1-to-1 time.

Now before you erase me from your bookmarks and curse me out, lets cut the to chase.

The person is my 11-year old son.

And we have a Skype date.

Its not the first time my son and I will be Skyping, but this one is pretty special.

You see a few weeks ago I had to have a man-to-son talk with the little, well not so little anymore, fella about life.

No, not THAT talk.

We let the Assistant Principal take care of that one.

This talk was about staying out of trouble.

Now when I say trouble, I am thrilled to say it’s not REAL trouble.

But for whatever reason, I noticed him heading down a path where the cobblestone was getting a little bumpy.


Maybe it was being an 11-year old boy in a home full of girls, including the dog.


Maybe it was just being an 11-year old boy.

So a few weeks ago, he and I spoke, monitor-to-monitor, and I laid down the law.

It wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t easy, but it sure was necessary.

Thanks to the Skype line, I could see perfectly when his chin fell down to his chest as I delivered a stern message.

I’m not a big believer in idle threats, so when I issued the penalty if things didn’t improve, he knew I meant it.

I made it VERY clear that I was not expecting 100% perfection, 100% of the time.

But what I was expecting was recognizing when you made a mistake and correcting it immediately before it got worse.

If you tease your sister, actually WHEN you tease your sister, you need to find that voice in your head to say -- STOP!!!!

If you get a bad grade on your homework or bomb a test, you’d better figure out why it happened and make sure the next one is better.

My wife has been keeping a close eye on the situation and I’ve been monitoring his progress from afar.

And last night I learned just how far we’ve come.

Last night, for the first time in about a week, I got a chance to Skype with the family.

97 minutes worth.

Right about in the middle, my son told me -- without being asked --- that about a week ago, he took a test in school on a book that he had just read.

His score was 5 out of 10.

Before I said anything, he told me that he had indeed read the book, but he must’ve just “lost his focus.”

I wish I had no idea what he was talking about, but that’s definitely not the case.

So when he got the results back, obviously he was very disappointed -- and I’m sure my upcoming deadline for turning things around was ringing through his head.

So he decided to spend last weekend reading two new books.

When he returned to school on Monday, he took the tests on those.

The results were a 9 out of 10 and a 10 out of 10.

I could see the smile on his face as he delivered that news.

But I think he was just as happy to share with me the part about failing the first exam and figuring out, on his own, how to make it better.

I don’t know if he could see it through the monitor, but his story and his honesty warmed my heart.

Now as for that date.

He just picked up a copy of the Michael Lewis book, The Blind Side.

You know The Blind Side.

Its the story of Sandra Bullock winning an Oscar, tearfully thanking her wonderful husband, who is also crying, only to find out a few days later that he’s been sleeping with more people than a teddy bear.

Oh............. that’s HER real story.

The real Blind Side is the true story of football player Michael Oher.   The story that helped Bullock win that Oscar.

Well, anyhoo....

I just got a copy of that book here with me and tonight my son and I are going to read it out loud to each other, via Skype.

Pretending, for at least one night, that we are not thousands of miles apart.

It is a perfect way to celebrate his progress.

And a perfect date.