I’ve been getting a lot of e-mails lately from JHM readers. Notes from nice people who are wondering if I’d be able to meet with them on July 17th at the park and/or if I’ll be selling my unofficial Disneyland history CD at this year’s “Show & Sale” day at the N.F.F.C. convention and/or what seminars I plan on attending at next week’s Comic Con International.
Well, as much as I appreciate all the kind invitations and polite inquiries from JHM readers … I’m afraid that I won’t be heading west next week. I’ve got far more important stuff to do back here in New England over the next 12 days. You see, I’m on divorced daddy duty.
To explain: My ex — the lovely & talented Shelly Smith — and I have an 11-year-old daughter, Alice. And because I live in the woods of New Hampshire and Alice & her mom now live in Honolulu, I don’t get to spend as much time as I’d like with my daughter.
Sure, we talk on the phone every night. We play VMK together on the computer. And — every couple of months — I fly out to Hawaii so that Alice & I can spend some time together in person. But — as any divorced dad will tell you — no matter how great that time is that you spend together, it’s never really enough.
Which is why — when I found out (just a few weeks ago) that it might be possible for my daughter to fly out to New England to spend nearly two weeks with myself and my family — I quickly cancelled all of my plans to go out to Southern California next week.
Now, I know that this means that I’ll be missing out on this potentially huge once-in-a-lifetime event (for us Disney dweeb, anyway) of actually being inside the Anaheim park when Disneyland officially celebrates its 50th birthday. Not to mention all the sales of my CD that I’ll potentially be losing out on by not having a table at this year’s “Show & Sale” at the N.F.F.C. convention. And who knows what sort of interesting stories I won’t get to hear by not attending this year’s Comic Con.
So — yeah — I guess I’ll be missing out on quite a lot. But, you know, there’s always next year for the N.F.F.C. and/or Comic Con. And — if I’m lucky — maybe I’ll still be around for Disneyland’s 75th birthday.
But my daughter … She’s not going to be 11 forever. So Alice’s ability to be dazzled as a deer darts across our driveway (As it did last night, just as we were arriving at our house in the woods) or her interest in chasing (and catching) all of the fireflies that flicker around our backyard … That could be gone in the blink of an eye. Or — more likely — my daughter’s growing interest in Blink 182.
So my apologies for not being there in person, folks, to join you all in on the Disney-centric fun. (FYI: JHM will have reporters on the ground out in Southern California over the next two weeks. JHM columnists Jeff Lange, Angela Ragno and Roger Colton will be attending the N.F.F.C. convention, Disneyland’s birthday event on the 17th and/or Comic Con International in San Diego. So you can still look forward to reading all sorts of stories about those three events here at the site next week.)
But — for now — I feel that I’m really needed here. Today, I hope to teach my daughter (If she ever gets out of bed, that is. Traveling across six different time zones to spend time with her father has really played hell on her poor little body clock) the all-important skill of how to make potato salad. We’ve been tasked to create a huge mound of the stuff for tomorrow’s big Hill / Eisan family reunion.
Then … After that, I hope to cram in additional Daddy / Daughter fun around writing the next three installments of my revised “Star Tours” saga. Which will be posted on JHM over the next week.
And — as for Southern California — Nancy and I are still planning on going out there later this summer. Soon after Alice starts her long trek home on the 20th, we’ll be winging our way west to attend SIGGRAPH. So (hopefully) some of you folks who wanted to get together with me this week will still be available and/or will still be in town during the last week of July / first week of August.
But — again — I want to apologize for missing out on the chance to meet with a lot of you folks and/or take part in N.F.F.C., Disneyland’s birthday and Comic Con … But like I said earlier, Alice is only going to be 11 for a little while longer. And I just want to make sure that my daughter & I get to enjoy that time while we still can.
Have a great weekend, okay? We’ll talk again on Monday, alright?
jrh