I remember going to meet my – meet my dad at a high school basketball game. I picked up my younger brother, who was probably a freshman in high school, and we were gonna go meet my dad and, you know, watch my other younger brother’s basketball game. And when we got there, this was the sort of high school gym that has a track, like a running track around the outside, so the court’s kind of down a little bit. And my Dad loved to stand along the track. There was a railing. And he loved watching the games leaning on that railing, looking down at the court. And so when we got there, paid for my ticket, paid for my brother’s ticket, and spotted my dad. And for some reason – again, I think I was probably, like, 24. This was probably right around the same time as the Subway situation. Spotted my dad and for whatever reason, you know, there’s two ways you can approach this. He’s watching the game so you can be like, “Hey Dad!” You know distract him. But I decided this time, I would just go stand as close as I can to him without introducing myself and let him notice me, and then I’ll be like, you know, my stupid way of saying “Hello!” So that’s what I did.
I walked right up to him. And got uncomfortably close to my dad. And then he didn’t respond, and so I wanted to pretend I was just watching the game too. So I nudged a little bit closer without breaking, you know, my eye line with the court. And finally, he looked toward me, and I looked back toward him. And that’s when I realized, it was not my dad. It was a stranger. And so then we’re faced with this. The reality which is a 24 year old man just nuzzling up to a random stranger at a high school basketball game. And I looked down about 20, 25 feet and I could see my younger brother standing next to my real dad. And they’re both looking at me just like, “What are you doing?” And then the other guy’s looking at me like, “What’s going on here pal?” And I couldn’t come up with an explanation on the spot because I was so embarrassed and I remember just kind of like, murmuring. And I remember motioning to this man’s outfit. He was wearing a pair of Nike Air Monarchs, dad jeans, and a very similar jacket – almost like a bomber jacket type of deal – that my dad has owned for, like, 25 years. And I made that motion to him, and then like motioned down to my dad in this very weird way, and the stranger looked at my dad and seemed to acknowledge what had just happened. Thankfully. Like, he understood and he’s like, “Ah, yes,” and he smiled and, like, had a good chuckle. And I’m sure it was more embarrassing for me than it was a situation for him. But man, I would like to have that one back. But in my defense, once again, he was wearing, like, the quintessential dad uniform so I can’t totally blame myself.