Day 103

So last night I had dinner and a drink with Cousin Steve, and girlfriend Julia, and Ags. Early reports give Julia the big thumbs up. She is a sweetheart. We went over to Riverview Tavern over by me. It was classic Dery conversation in that there were 4 people at the table and we would start one conversation, the other three people who cut that person off and go into another story and the cycle would repeat. Ags knows what it is because essentially he is a Dery in everyone in our families eyes. So the conversations covered everything from Steve's health to my father's rug. Speaking of which, we were watching the Cavs/Heat game on TNT and they showed Marv Albert and I said "look at Marv's rug. Who's rug is worse, Marv's or my dad's?" Ags said "definitely your dad's." Now it was one of the worst kept secrets ever that my pops wore a toupee. I never thought it looked that bad. To me, it looked kind of normal. Yes, his hair was always perfect, I saw him use a truckload of hair spray in his life, and the front of it stuck out a little where you could see the hair wasn't coming directly out of his head. But the bottom line is that it made him feel better about himself. My mom liked him better this way as well.

Some funny stories about dad and his rug: Once when I'd say I was in 10th grade, my friend Pav stopped by my house late night on a Friday and he wanted to see if I was home, so he came around the back. In my house going around the back means you can see into the family room and the chairs facing the TV where my dad always sat in his robe. So Pav came around, saw my dad's bald head, freaked out and left. The next day he called me and said the worst kept secret in the Dery household had now been confirmed, my dad wore a rug. The cutest was for i'd say 4-5 years, dad never took his rug off in front of Leah. I kept teasing her about it and she said she was borderline scared to see him that way. So once we were sitting in the family room late night and dad turned to her and said "you know what Leah, I think its time" and she said "no!" as dad started to take the rug off. She then thought he looked so cute this way and has always maintained he should have gone sans rug all of the time. Very funny. The best is that he had two different ones, one for when he was playing golf or going to a baseball game where he would be wearing a hat over it, and his everyday piece. Just another classic piece of info on the legend himself, my father. Makes me smile. I miss him every single day.

Song of the Day: "Cher Chez La Ghost" by Ghostface Killah