Saturday, February 19

5:50 pm
Venue

My Boy's 16 today.  Seems like just yesterday I was giving him piggyback rides and bouncing him on my knee.  Now he's almost a Man.

Well, in some ways I guess he already is, ha ha.

I've missed a lot of birthdays over the years, but for some reason I really didn't want to miss this one.  I gave Steph a Sweet 16 party, but you can't exactly do that for boys.  But I really didn't want to be away from Jess today, just felt like this was one of those days he would look back on someday and say "Man, I wish Dad was there."

So I decided to do something about it.  I bought him a first-class plane ticket to Montreal so he could spend the weekend with us.  When I told him yesterday he was coming to hang with the band for the weekend, I don't know who was more excited, me or Jess.  Think it might have been me.

Picked him up at the airport this morning.  There's a big festival going on at the Old Port, so we went down to check it out.  It was cold as hell and kinda cloudy so we didn't spend much time outdoors.  Thought about ice skating but I figured I'd bust my ass or break a hip or something, which wouldn't be good before the show, ha ha.

So we found a coffee shop and sat and had hot chocolate and eclairs and just talked.  I told Jess I was glad he came up to spend the weekend with us and that I just can't believe he's almost grown up.  I also apologized for all the birthdays I've missed over the years.  He was his typical laid-back self, just said "it's okay, Dad.  I know you wanted to be there."

That made me feel even more guilty, even though I know he didn't mean it that way.

Anyway, he was in a chatty mood so we talked about all kinds of stuff.  School, sports, cars, TV... and of course girls.  He was a little shy on that subject but he warmed up a little once we got rolling.  I tried not to ask too many questions, 'cause I didn't want Jess to think I was interrogating him.  But we did get back onto the topic of sex a little bit.

He's still seeing Steph's friend, and from the way it sounds they've had at least one booty call since I busted them a couple weeks ago.  Not exactly a big shock to me, but I didn't say so.  What surprised me was that Jess said Steph doesn't know he's sneaking around with her friend.  I had to kinda bite back a laugh at that, and I told him he better hope his sister doesn't find out.  She'd have him by the balls, especially if he doesn't want his mother to know what's going on.  He completely agreed.

It was a true father-son bonding moment, ha ha.

Anyway, after coffee we decided to hike over to the Science Center.  Jess loves museums; when we go down to DC the first place he wants to go is the Smithsonian.  We walked in the front door and stepped up to the kiosk to buy our tickets, and I about choked.  The Temporary Special Exhibition:  "Sex: A Special Exhibition."  I turned around and looked at Jess and his eyes were big as saucers.  Then he turned beet red.

Holy Christ, that couldn't have been funnier if I had planned it.

So we went in and wandered around, looking at all the displays on technology and computers and space and stuff.  Then we found ourselves at the entrance to the sex exhibit.  I tried not to smirk and asked Jess if he wanted to check it out.  Well, by then the kid had recovered.  He just looked at me and said "Sure Dad... if you need to learn something we can go in."

Damned SmartAss Kid.  Just like his old man.

So I had to make him go in, ha ha.  It actually was a really well-done exhibit, geared toward teenagers.  It wasn't all that graphic, other than photos of boobs and penises and stuff.  Lots of  diagrams and 3D displays, and a bunch of interactive touch-screen stuff.  Gotta admit, I learned a few things, especially about girls.  Makes me really glad I'm not one, ha ha.

So after our little excursion through Sex-Land Jess and I checked out a little more of the museum then headed back out into the cold. There was a snowboarding exhibition going on in the park so we stood and watched that for awhile. Jess really dug the snowboarders, especially the girls, ha ha.  Man, those kids are amazing, the way they ride that half-pipe and do all those flips and twists and shit.  I never could do stuff like that, even if I wasn't old and decrepit.  I'm not coordinated enough.  I can't even dance, for fuck's sake.

After we froze our asses of for awhile we caught a cab back to the hotel and dumped Jesse's stuff in my room, then met up with Richie to go to lunch.  Found a great sports bar a couple blocks from the hotel and watched some basketball while we ate hot wings.  Of course I'm paying for that now, ha ha.  But it was damned good.

After lunch we headed over here to the Centre a little early so I could get Jess the nickel tour of the Canadiens facilities.  We went to the locker room, press room, suites, and to the Hall of Fame where they have all the Stanley Cup stuff.  It was really cool.

By the time we were done the rest of the guys had arrived for sound check, so I had to go to work.  We played Birthday for Jess during soundcheck, and Davey asked him if he had any requests.  SmartAss said he wanted to hear some Flo Rida.  Yeah, that didn't happen.  But we played some Stones for him -- Honky Tonk Women seemed pretty fitting, ha ha.

Now Jess is hanging with Uncle Mookie and the gang, chowing down at the catering table, while I'm trying to get my head in the game for the show.  It's hard tonight to make the transition from Dad to Frontman.  I'm enjoying Dad too much.