01/28/2005 Entry: "Dear Old Dad"

So I finally managed to contact my dad on Wednesday. We've been playing phone tag since just before Christmas. Calling a cell phone in South Africa is not an easy task, I'll tell you. Half the time the call just wouldn't go through at all, and I'd have to try several times to even get some kind of dial tone, or it would get his voice mail.

Eventually I just gave up trying to randomly call, and emailed him to find out what would be the best day and time to call him, which was Wednesday afternoon (my time). As it happened he was at a restaurant with some sales rep, but he went outside and we spoke for a while.

I finally got to tell him that I'm pregnant. I've been wanting to do that since before Christmas. I knew he'd be gone during that weekend, and I wanted him to know before my mother, though it never worked out that way. He mentioned he'd actually spoken to my mother on the phone last week, but that she hadn't mentioned anything about me being pregnant. He was a bit pissed that she hadn't said anything, though I pointed out that I was actually really glad she hadn't, because it was something I wanted to tell him myself. It's the kind of news that should come straight from the source really, and I would have felt really deflated if someone else had beaten me to the punch in that particular case.

He's happy :) though I think it was still a bit of a bombshell for him. Or a surprise at least. It's nice to be able to make him happy, seeing as so many nasty things have been going on over the last few years with all that crap with my mother (for the unaware, I'm more than happy to explain further, just ask). The whole granddad thing will take some getting used to ;) Nothing like being made to feel old when your kids start having kids.

He said that he was definitely planning on a trip to the US this year, and then he mentioned that he would be in Vegas in May for some conference or convention or something. And of course PreZ and I will be in Vegas for a week in May too. My dad didn't know any dates yet, but he asked me to send info on when we'll be there. It would be so much fun to meet up with him there, though even if that doesn't happen he'd either schedule a stay in NY at the beginning or end of his trip, depending on when he's there and we are.

Hopefully he'll make it out here sometime after July as well, it'd be nice for him to see more than just a pregnant belly too.