Tonight's happening is just another reminder of why my wife deems me as samok (just to refresh your memories dear readers...the rough definition of samok is "pain in the butt). I'm laughing now, but about an hour ago I was a frantic daddy with fearful visions in my head.
Every Tuesday evening I meet with friends for a couple of hours. It's one of those fun, nurturing things that I take part in that with friends that I truly enjoy. I am home promptly at 9:30 every Tuesday afterward because it is daddy's job to get the garbage ready to take out before we leave on Wednesday. Garbage day is on Wednesday and it's been my chore for the past three years we've been in this home. It's gotten to be a routine that has become automatic. Get home...collect the trash from various recepticles around the house, talk to J and settle in for bed.
Our get together starts at about 7:00 and it usually takes me about a half an hour to get from the park and ride to where we meet. I don't usually check my cell phone before the guys and I settle down to our weekly chat, but for some reason I did this evening. I saw a missed call on my phone from home with a time of 6:39 on it. I thought that was strange because I didn't hear the phone during my drive. So, I did what every dutiful husband does when he has a missed call from home...he calls back. No answer..., and so I tried J's cell ph0ne...no answer there too. I decided to call back fifteen minutes later after the guys and I had talked a little longer. Again...no answer on both phones. Now, my heart started beating a little faster. Okay, I thought...I'll call again in a little while. Maybe J and the kids are outside with all of our neighbors-we've got a whole crew of parents and kids the same age. I called again with the same results. It was now a little after 8:00 and my brain was filled with images of J trucking one of the kids off to the ER with an awful injury from an accident in the home. I tried once more...and again no answer. I then shared my fears with my friends. Okay folks, at this point I was scared shitless. These are really supportive guys who told me to get my backside home. I hopped in the car and came close to running a couple of red lights as I was getting on the freeway.
Yes my friends, Samok Daddy was in full panic mode. I'm probably doing between 70 and 80 on the way home. I decided to try one more time on the cell phone as I was careening toward home-luckily coffee is the drink of choice amongst my friends, so I think caffiene heightened my senses on the way back. J answered the call on the second ring. I blurted out that I was worried and asked her where she and the kids were. She replied in an exasperated tone that they were fine and then asked me why I had left so many messages on the answering machine. I told her quickly, she gave me a minor chewing out and told me to just get home.
I had forgotten that it was Tuesday night and there are community concerts especially for kids in our suburb. While I was frantic about dialing home, she and the kids were dancing and doing the hokey pokey down at the community bandstand. That's why they weren't home. Yup, daddy's the dork again.
Okay...so here's the deal. I told her that I had a missed call at 6:39 from home. Well, I had made that call in the morning to find my phone in the house. I'm one of those morons who can't find his cell phone and has to use his home phone to call the cell phone to hear the ring tone to find it. The missed call read 6:39 am. So I got laughed at and called samok again by my wife. I know that she appreciates that I am worried, but I kind of think she wants me to pull my head out of my rear end and not get samok like I did tonight.
So, you see that I have earned the mantle of Samok Daddy. I wear it proudly and far too often than I should.
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