A Princess Finds a Prince

Hi all!

A child known to me is about to turn 15 and is a rabid fan of a crusty old fossil of a locally born and bred pop star who is damned near as old as me. I have been a rabid fan as well -- since 7 years before she was born.

I keep deceiving myself with the old saw, "You're only as young as you feel."

Well, she got an envelope with a touching fatherly letter and a gift certificate to Davannis Pizza and Hoagies.

Oh, and a couple of ducats for her and me to see.... PRINCE!

I kept the secret for a month -- got the tickets pre-sale via a little known(?) internet site that charges 4.95 for a password that you can use with Ticket Bastard to access a certain section of seats. The password cracked me up. Get this. "PURPLE". Gosh how imaginative!

About 2 honey bees later the precious Target Center Nosebleed Section tickets arrived and since I was a fool and told my wife, we started having conversations about when to present them and how.

We are both the worst secret keepers in the world.

She really wanted to do it a couple of days ago, but I held off until this morning after I had spent an hour on the tennis court coaching her (I used to be quite good at the sport a long long time ago when there was still plenty of tread on the tire).

Venus and Serena have nothing to fear, but my little Chrissie Evert has a decent serve and a respectable two-hand backhand. The forehand is best left unmentioned. Two out of three ain't bad.

The timing was great. Now she has almost three full days to tell all of her friends and to perhaps lose some sleep.

There is no greater joy for a parent than getting that perfectly honest and emotional reaction to a gift given to a deserving child.

My youngest is a Princess, Prince Rogers Nelson is Prince, Wog is King!

At least until Sunday morning with the music still ringing in our ears and dirty dishes in the sink.

Cheers!