Deeeep ... Breaths ...

Man, this is a challenging day. Long week, long month -- I'm at the beginning of a fairly busy trade show season and have already mounted one large show, with at least 3 more of varying sizes barreling toward me at intimidating speed.

School is back is session, which has brought a welcome order back to our days but has added to usual laundry list of additional concerns, issues, and education-related tasks along with it. And Christine has lept with both feet back into the pre-work force, registering for primary school teacher certification and an additional collegiate math class that will expand her future employment opportunities. All good stuff, things that will lead to better days ahead.

But for now? It means the all-too-familiar not enough hours in the day feeling. That feeling that no matter what I accomplish in a day I've managed to leave something undone.

Very frustrating.

To top it off, my spectacular daughter Miranda has just had a birthday, crossing the threshold into double-digits. Ten years old.

Here she is at about 5:
Whoa. But let's get to that later.

For now, let's talk birthday parties. Almost TWO DOZEN kids at the pool party today, and now we've four 9-10 year old girls over for a sleepover party.

I've been through this before so I know the "sleep" portion of the description is entirely rhetorical. I'm not realistically expecting anything resembling a good night's sleep tonight, and that's fine. I'm used to being tired most days. The weirdest moment for me was when my daughter and one of her friends wanted to shower after the pool party and I realized -- very suddenly -- that I needed to stay on an entirely different floor until they -- particularly her friend -- finished and were dressed.

It was an odd, but crystal clear and startlingly self-evident realization. These kids are gently bumping up against the early stages of young womanhood, whether I'm ready or not, and I need to start setting down some fairly rigid boundaries, even if they aren't quite aware of why they're necessary.

So, odd fatherly moment. Not shocked, exactly, but a bit saddened. It feels a bit too soon. A sensation I am sure I share with thousands upon thousands of fathers before me. Hopefully with the good ones.

Here she is when she did her Locks of Love donation about a month ago:

Hard to believe what 5 years can do.

Anyway, we're two hours of Rock Band and about 1/3 of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix through the sleepover. I'm jotting this on my iPhone, trying to finish up before I need to make popcorn for the pre-pubescents. It's about 9:30, and I'm hoping to be asleep somewhere around 1:00-ish.

And what occurs to me is just how few of these evenings I might have left. How pretty soon a storm of hormones is going to change my relationship with my daughter irrevocably. It won't necessarily be better, or worse, but it will certainly make things entirely, completely, and irreversibly different.

And I'll just need to adjust.

Anyway, happiest of birthdays to my darling daughter Miranda. A remarkable child who will undoubtedly grow into an amazing young woman.

Soon. So soon.

Mood: A Tad Melancholy
Now Playing: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix