Daddy,

Today is your day. I am sure you think you need a "Father's Week" instead of just a day, which just seems unfair considering there's no "Daughter's Day." I am the one who folds most of your laundry and grabs your coke and Peanut M&Ms for you every time you don't want to get up (which we all know, you never want to get up). I don't mind most of the time, except for that one time when you were at home and I was at the dorm and you wanted me to go get you a coke from Sonic...and I did.

The most important thing about today is that you are appreciated. So, thank you for being my dad. Even though you have told us repeatedly that you didn't want kids, I know you wouldn't trade us for anything. (Plus, if we weren't here who would get your M&Ms?)

Thank you for coaching me in softball for years and years. Thank you for playing catch with me, and even for throwing the ball at me as hard as you could so I would learn not to be afraid of it. There were so many times I wanted to cry because it seemed so mean but I never did because "there's no crying on the softball field" and I knew you were always just trying to make me better.

Thank you for raising me on the baseball field and teaching me everything and anything there was to know about the game. Everyone should have known that I was going to be a baseball girl when my first movie was Field of Dreams and to this day, it is still my favorite. I swear I know more about baseball than probably any other girl on this planet and that is because of you. Thanks to you, I know to NEVER call a no-hitter before the game is over and I also know who can't hit a curve ball. I know all the lingo, plays, and strategies. Somewhere in the middle of all that you made me fall in love with the game (and the Yankees, of course).

Thank you for taking me to the golf course when I was little. Thanks for teaching me to read greens before I could even swing a club. I remember when you came home with my first set of clubs. They were yellow and black. We spent the rest of the night hitting foam golf balls in the living room over the "Green Monster," aka our blue couch. Thanks for coaching me in golf. Even though it was absolutely miserable those first couple of years because we are too much alike, it was all worth it in the end. You taught me work ethic, to have a passion and to go after it. We fought and fought but eventually we learned how to communicate with each other and by the end of it all, we were quite the dynamic duo. If it weren't for your persistence, I wouldn't have came in 2nd in State, gone to All-State or gone to college to play. To this day, one of my favorite things is to go out and play Match Play against you for Sonic sodas. Thank you for endless memories on the course.

Thank you for somehow getting me into guitar, something that is such a huge part of who I am yet I am not even sure how I started playing. I remember going to get my first acoustic guitar. You taught me how to play Yankee Doodle Dandy, literally one of two songs you knew, But hey, I still know how to play Yankee Doodle Dandy in addition to the many, many other songs. One of the things I am most thankful for in relation to you and music is the love you gave me for Classic Rock. How can a 14-year-old girl's favorite bands be Boston, Steve Miller Band, Led Zeppelin, and Bad Company? I am not sure, but that was me. I mean, you did have me throwing up the rock fist in church when I was little. I am sure Jesus appreciated that. To this day, a song can come on the radio and I will know who sings it even though I wasn't alive when the song came out. Thanks for showing me real music and making me love it!

Thank you for having my interests, or I guess for sharing your interests with me. Thanks for playing Crash Bandicoot, Rock Band and Othello with me forever. Thank you for understanding my immense love for movies like Joe Dirt and Raising Arizona, for watching them with me more times than I can even count and quoting them along the way. Thanks for giving me your weird sense of humor. It is because of you I can laugh hysterically at stupid jokes. ("These balloons blow up into funny shapes and all?" "Well, no...unless you think round is funny.")

I could tell you thank you for my car, my dog, my room, and so on. I am thankful for those things but I am most thankful for memories and for lessons learned. You have always told me to listen to what you are saying, not how you are saying it, and the same applied to your actions. You always told me to take you as an example of what not to do, even though now you are an example of what to do more than anything.

Sometimes I don't know how I turned out like I did, but now I realize it was really just good coaching...

Happy Father's Day!

Yo' baby loves you