Deb Joanne Learns The Art of Deadpanning from the Master

It’s Fathers week at the Ball and as I sit here, thinking about what to say, I’m kind of at a loss. Not because there’s nothing to say, but because some people are more difficult to write about. Writing a post about my mom was pretty easy. If you’ve spent any time here, you know what my mom is like: gregarious, funny, eager to help, soft-spoken (ha! –that last one was a joke).  But my dad is more of a mellow, sit back and observe the world and then say something really smart kind of guy. He’s got about the driest sense of humor out there and sometimes recycles jokes (like the chicken egg one – oy, Dad!) but they always make me laugh, even though I might roll my eyes a little, too. Sometimes Dad and I are the only ones laughing at our jokes and I always liked that we share the same appreciation for dry humor. It’s like we always had our own clubhouse of private jokes.

And nobody, I mean nobody, can deadpan the way my dad can.

Anyway, it wasn’t always jokes growing up. There was learning and reading, too. I grew up in a house full of books; from my mom’s romances to Dad’s cases of real estate books and non-fiction titles, to the big World Book volumes that lined shelves in our basement rec room. Those were my dad’s doing. He’s all about research and reads like crazy, even now (maybe even more now that he’s semi-retired). I remember spending many a Saturday morning on the couch with a huge encyclopedia in my lap, opened to whatever. I wanted to learn everything. And that appreciation for the world and the quest to know as much about it as possible about it, comes from him.

And so is the belief that I could do anything. He told me I could be a heart surgeon if I wanted (my earliest  career goal, before I realized I couldn’t really handle gore all that well) or a secretary or a lawyer or whatever I put my mind to. Maybe he saw my propensity for bullheaded determination back then, but he was right; I could achieve whatever I put my mind to. He never said how much work or how long it might take, but he was absolutely right nonetheless, and I guess I must have believed him. Because I prove when my book comes out in just days, that this thing I put my mind to and worked so hard for these past several years, has finally become a reality.

Thanks Dad. Love you.

J